By Morton A. Klein
(Dec. 22, 2025 / JNS) Jews worldwide and their supporters on the last day of the Chanukah holiday are still reeling with pain and horror from the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach during the first night of Chanukah.
In Australia on Dec. 14, two Muslim father-and-son terrorists shouting Allahu Akbar! shot dead 15 people, including two rabbis, a couple soon to celebrate their 35th anniversary, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl. The Muslim terrorists wounded another 42 innocent Jews, many seriously, including human-rights attorney Arsen Ostrovsky, who is a friend of mine. Twenty-five injured people remain in the hospital a week later, as my heart breaks for all the victims of this latest Islamist horror.
This is the Islamist global intifada in action—the Nazi-like call to murder Jews everywhere—that New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani refuses to condemn and that supporters of Hamas on campuses and in the streets around the world keep calling for.
This horrific massacre is on top of so many others. World leaders and Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders need to make major speeches and condemn vile calls and language like “Globalize the intifada,” “From the river to the sea” and ”Death to America and Israel.” These phrases have become a clear and present danger to every Jewish community—indeed, to every community around the world.
As Egyptian President Fattah Abdul el-Sisi said at a lecture urging reforming Islam at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Islam’s premier university: “Is it possible that 2 billion Muslims should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants? We need a religious revolution. You imams are responsible before Allah. The world is waiting.” Imams in every mosque must call for an end to jihad and violence against Jews and other non-Muslims.”
In the great show “South Pacific,” there is a song on the danger of prejudice that won the Pulitzer Prize titled “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.” There needs to be international pressure to transform the education in Arab/Muslim schools in Arab/Muslim countries, and to change the textbooks and the teachings and sermons at too many mosques that promote hatred and violence against Israel, Jews and other non-Muslims. This is absolutely critical. A revolution in these areas is needed. We should also begin the process of stopping and not allowing terror-promoting countries from providing major funding to our most important universities, which then skew the beliefs they teach.
This is not Islamophobia. This is a rational fear stemming from the disproportionate number of terrorist attacks perpetrated by radical Islamists.
Sadly, we need to support proposals for extreme vetting and for restrictions on immigration and student visas from various countries, especially Muslim countries, where Jew-hatred is endemic. Hungary and Poland have had virtually no terrorism due to restrictions on Muslim immigration, while European countries with large influxes of Muslim immigrants have experienced major jihadist terror attacks, including at recent Christmas celebrations.
The world can no longer afford to have leaders who fan the flames of Jew-hatred or ignore its horrors. In the United States, it is high time for leaders of the left, such as the incoming mayor, along with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and other leaders with political power to embrace humanity, as well as condemn the use of the hateful phrases and blood libels that too often incite murder.
We also need to demand that Muslim Brotherhood branches, including its branches in Turkey and Qatar, be designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and oppose recent efforts to soften relevant legislation.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose executive director proclaimed that he was happy that the events of Oct. 7 occurred, also need to be placed on a foreign terrorist organization list, as Texas Gov Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have done.
Furthermore, we urge U.S. President Donald Trump to urge Qatar, Turkey and the leader of Syria to publicly condemn these dangerous phrases and rallies and the resultant catastrophic murders. And let’s finally fight to end Iran, Qatar and other rogue states from funding terrorist groups that endanger us all.
Morton A. Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
This op-ed was originally published in JNS and can be viewed here.