By Paul Vallas

August 21^st, 2026

There is an alliance between the far left and Islamist fundamentalists that is based not on shared ideals, but on a shared hatred for Western civilization. For radicals on the far left, the West represents systemic oppression. For Islamic fundamentalists, the West is a system of moral decay and an obstacle to religious domination. In the mortar of this unholy alliance is the demonization of Israel and anti-Semitism—history’s bogeyman—which offers common ground for two seemingly incompatible movements.

While the contemporary left still revolves around material realities—who owns capital, who earns wages, and how legal and economic systems shape opportunity—it has resuscitated its discredited socialism and communism by submerging its class-based politics in a rigid moral framework that divides society into permanent oppressors vs. the oppressed, with “white supremacy” cast as the villain and the root of nearly every injustice.

The ideology is built around identity politics, replacing individualism with collectivism and moral pluralism with ideological conformity.

What presents itself as a struggle for equity and inclusion is, in fact, a modern-day Trojan Horse—an inviting vessel through which radical ideologies infiltrate Western discourse, weaken democratic institutions, and revive authoritarian ambitions.

The most striking act of moral inversion—and the ultimate expression of political hypocrisy—is the left’s inclusion of Islamists in its so-called “oppressed” coalition, despite Islamic extremism and its treatment of non-Muslims as well as its own women, and the destructive consequences in countries where Islam dominates.

By framing violent fundamentalists as mere “victims of Western imperialism,” the far-left transforms aggressors into martyrs. Illegal acts and extremist violence are increasingly sanitized as expressions of systemic grievance, while democratic governance, law enforcement, and sovereign allies are cast as the oppressors.

The atrocities of jihadist groups—including Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians—are sanitized as “responses” to colonialism, while the Iranian regime’s medieval brutality toward women and protesters is met with resounding silence.

The Assad regime slaughtered over 200,000 of its own citizens and abducted nearly 100,000 more, who vanished into detention. In Nigeria, tens of thousands of Christians have been murdered and thousands of churches destroyed by fundamentalist Muslim militants across the region. Hamas uses its own citizens as human shields and executes thousands of Gazan Palestinians and political rivals following cease-fires.

The Iranian regime has crushed six major uprisings since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including the most recent uprising, which has cost as many as 40,000 lives, with tens of thousands imprisoned.

The left remains conspicuously silent. This selective outrage is deliberate. Maintaining the illusion that opposition to the West is virtuous, requires guarding barbarism behind the shield of moral relativism.

This accommodation is pervasive among American youth and growing within the political establishment, particularly within the Democratic Party, as support for Israel dramatically shrinks—even among some of its most prominent Jewish political leaders, many of whom conveniently use Netanyahu as the reason to rationalize playing to the emerging Democratic left.

In Illinois, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel—a possible presidential candidate—calls for ending unconditional military aid to Israel and demanding Israel pay for the military support the U.S. provides, blaming Netanyahu as he actually draws a moral equivalence between Israel’s and Hamas’s behavior.

Meanwhile, political consultant David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political strategist, praises New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s political skills and populist appeal and refers to Abdul El-Sayed as a “serious person,” while disparaging AIPAC as an instrument of Israeli political interference.

Most outrageous is Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest fundraisers, effectively comparing Trump and his domestic political supporters to Nazi Germany. Calling political opponents Nazis compares modern political arguments to one of history’s worst mass murders, hurting our understanding of real history and downplaying actual suffering.

The Nazi regime murdered six million Jews and millions of others. Using the label for routine policy disagreements makes the unique horror of the Holocaust seem common.

Adversaries exploit the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to sow discord and undermine Western institutions.

The so-called “Red-Green Alliance”—a convergence of anti-capitalist and Islamist movements—uses anti-Zionism to mask anti-Semitism, portraying Israel as an illegitimate colonial outpost. Demonizing Israel, a key symbol and ally of liberal democracy, becomes a proxy for attacking the West itself and a vehicle for mobilizing support, especially among the youth.

Anti-Semitism is unique in human history for its persistence, adaptability, and ability to reinvent itself over the millennia. In ancient times, its roots were theological; during the Middle Ages, economic restrictions fueled false narratives of “Jewish greed.” For centuries, it has been used by political actors to distract populations, rally support, and gain power—culminating in the Holocaust.

In the modern era, the far right condemns Jews as “globalist agitators” seeking to dilute national identity, while the radical left vilifies them as “capitalist oppressors.”

Anti-Semitism fits whatever fear dominates society, finding justification whether cloaked in the rhetoric of nationalism or anti-imperialism. Extremists from both the “accelerationist” far right and “deconstructionist” far left use growing hatred for Israel and the Jewish people as a proxy in their assault on liberal Western democracy.

The real-world consequences are stark, as anti-Semitism has surged globally. According to Anti-Defamation League (ADL) data, approximately 46% of the world’s adult population holds elevated anti-Semitic beliefs, a staggering jump from 26% in 2014.

Globally, this represents roughly 2.2 billion people who agree with harmful tropes. In the United States, the ADL recorded 9,354 incidents of harassment, vandalism, and assault in 2024—the highest number in its 46-year history, marking an 893% increase over the past decade. College campuses have seen an 84% rise in incidents in a single year, accounting for nearly one in five reported anti-Semitic acts. Surveys indicate 42% of Jewish college students have personally experienced anti-Semitism, leading 34% to hide their identity for safety.

Anti-Semitism is more than hatred directed at one group; it is a bellwether tool used by radical actors across the political spectrum to destabilize Western institutions. When it is excused, repackaged, or politicized, the damage extends far beyond the Jewish community. If we fail to confront it plainly—and without double standards that ignore atrocities committed by Islamists, left-wing revolutionaries, or right-wing extremists—we risk weakening the foundational freedoms that protect us all.

The public must recognize that the radical left and its Islamist allies are not movements of liberation, but of domination—one secular, one religious—whose respective long-term goals are fundamentally incompatible.

For now, both will use moral rhetoric and a distorted view of history to delegitimize Western liberal democracy while silencing critics regarding the atrocities committed in their names. Western institutions are imperfect, but they remain the walls protecting individual liberty from every new Trojan Horse disguised as compassion.

-30-

Paul Vallas formerly ran the public school systems in Chicago, Philadelphia and the Louisiana Recovery School District. He was a candidate for Mayor of Chicago.