Opinion

New Jersey’s two senators made history in Washington last week by standing out in their defiance of President Donald Trump’s policies. Freshman Andy Kim joined 14 of his Democratic colleagues in an unsuccessful resolution calling to cancel $8.8 billion in bombs and munitions sales to Israel. He argued that while supportive of Israel, the damage that the bombs could create outweighs their contribution to the war effort.

In making the broad claim that it is always a denial of academic freedom for governments to pressure universities with a cut-off of funding, left-wing critics ignore the lessons of history and the single standard of morality.

 (April 1, 2025 / Gatestone Institute) Many left-wing university faculty members (a redundancy if there ever was one) are rebelling against the Trump administration’s threat to cut federal funding to universities that tolerate antisemitic actions against their Jewish students. They condemned the acting president of Columbia for accepting some of the administration’s conditions for restoring the $400 million that it threatened to cut, and she was forced to resign.

When New York City Mayor Eric Adams looked at the political realities and realized that his bid for re-election would not survive past the June Democratic primary, he threw a Hail Mary pass to stay in power going forward. Instead of trying to compete against former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Democratic Socialist upstart Zohran Mamdani, he’s skipping the primary and will run for reelection as an independent. This move not only extends his campaign past June, but it also opens the field up to a potential Republican candidate.

Last week, thousands of Gazans took to the streets in what may be the boldest display of dissent against Hamas since the October 7 attack that plunged the region into its latest war. In Beit Lahia and other parts of Gaza, chants of “Hamas out” echoed through funeral processions and protest gatherings, a visceral cry from a people battered by war because of the iron grip of a terrorist regime. If a pro-Palestinian cause existed in the West, this would have been a rallying point from Columbia to Washington, DC. The lack of such a reaction only continues to prove the obvious: There is no pro-Palestinian movement, only an anti-Israel one.

The Torah’s wording in describing the sin offering to be brought by a leader indicates that it is inevitable that leaders will make mistakes, and we are fortunate when we have leaders who take accountability for them.

The Democratic Party is on the ropes in a way unseen in decades. President Trump’s approval numbers are higher than they’ve ever been since he entered the political arena. Since he won a resounding victory last November, the Democrats have been grappling with an identity crisis that has left it fractured, directionless, and, according to a recent CNN poll, less popular than ever. With favorability ratings plummeting to a historic low of 29% – a figure not seen in CNN’s polling since 1992 – the Democrats are facing a reckoning. They need to decide if they are going to retreat to a populous middle or double down on the extreme socialist Left.