There’s a pattern emerging in how pro-Israel advocates are responding to dissent in America, and it doesn’t involve winning hearts and minds. University presidents were sacked. Students were expelled. Professors were fired. Deportations for speech. Local governments are passing increasingly draconian anti-BDS resolutions. And the people behind these efforts aren’t exactly being subtle about it.

What’s striking isn’t just the heavy-handedness—it’s the openness. Major donors discuss their leverage over universities in newspaper interviews. Lobby groups openly strategize about buying media companies and increasing “control” over government policy. They’re not hiding the ball. In fact, they’re so brazen about deploying wealth and political muscle that they’re inadvertently reinforcing some of the oldest and ugliest stereotypes about Jewish power—leading to the darkly funny speculation that maybe, just maybe, this is intentional. Create enough anxiety about antisemitism, the theory goes, and you’ve got your pretext for an even bigger crackdown.

The question is whether this strategy can actually work. Can you suppress a political movement through sheer force—financial pressure, institutional capture, legal intimidation—without ever bothering to change anyone’s mind?

For an answer, look east.

The Middle East Laboratory

Across the Arab world, roughly 300 million people live under regimes that are, to varying degrees, in the business of protecting Israel from their own populations. This isn’t conspiracy theory; it’s barely even subtext. These governments were installed with Western backing, maintained with Western support, and in many cases rely on Israeli surveillance technology and intelligence sharing to keep the lid on.

The dissidents these regimes crush—whether they’re Islamists, leftists, or just people asking for basic rights—aren’t usually being imprisoned because they’re decrying corruption. They’re being imprisoned because they see their governments for what they are: subordinate to Western interests, including the protection of Israel. And the scale of repression required to maintain this arrangement is staggering. Hundreds of thousands killed, disappeared, imprisoned, exiled. Families destroyed. Entire generations of opposition ground into dust.

These movements didn’t go quietly. In fact, many fought hard—which only gave their autocrats the excuse to crack down harder. Eventually, after enough bullets and prison cells, they learned: you go silent, or you disappear.

The result? Walk through Cairo, Amman, Riyadh. Notice something missing? Street protests for Gaza are nearly nonexistent. Not because Arabs don’t care—they’re overwhelmingly anti-Zionist—but because they’d be shot for it. Meanwhile, their governments are quietly helping Israel, financially and militarily, and there’s nothing their populations can do about it.

This doesn’t work forever. Oppression breeds resentment, and eventually, revolt. But here’s the thing: that’s actually fine with the people running this system. The West has gotten very good at subverting revolts. See: Arab Spring, results of.

The Lesson: Repression Works (For a While)

What we might not fully appreciate, sitting in our relatively comfortable American context, is that while brutal repression doesn’t change minds, it absolutely stops open dissent. We’re already seeing it on college campuses. A few expulsions, some disciplinary actions, and suddenly the encampments are gone. The protests have quieted. Students have learned what happens when you stick your neck out.

So imagine if the government went further. Not just expulsions—actual criminal penalties. Not just penalties—actual violence. History suggests that killing a few dissidents sends a very effective chill through a movement.

And here’s where the Middle East comparison gets uncomfortable: if we don’t stop this trajectory now, there’s no natural endpoint. Learning from Muslim-majority countries, Zionist-driven authoritarianism doesn’t stop at “a little bit of censorship.” It stops nowhere.

Presidents for life? Sure. Constitutional rewrites to consolidate power? Ask Egypt how that goes. Thousands disappeared into political prisons? Standard operating procedure in the region. And lest you think this is hyperbole, consider that Jonathan Pollard—the convicted Israeli spy—recently mused about using nuclear weapons if necessary. These people are not shy about their willingness to step on your neck and make you comply, whether you like it or not.

“But We Have Guns”

Some will say this can’t happen here because Americans are armed. The Second Amendment, the militias, the culture of resistance—surely that’s a firewall against tyranny.

I don’t buy it. Individual firearms and loosely organized militias don’t stop a determined government with modern surveillance, legal machinery, and overwhelming force. They just don’t. The fantasy of armed resistance collapses the moment you’re up against a state apparatus that’s willing to use its full weight.

The Long Game

So where does this leave us?

First, don’t assume it can’t get worse. It can get much, much worse. The people driving this have shown us, through their actions across the Middle East, exactly how far they’re willing to go.

Second, if you want to stop it, you need to start now. And you need to plan for a long, grinding fight. This isn’t going away because you posted the right thread or attended the right protest. It’s going away because enough people commit to tireless, persistent resistance over years and decades.

The alternative is learning the lesson that 300 million Arabs have already learned: when you’re up against people with enough money, enough political influence, and enough shamelessness to say the quiet part loud, silence becomes survival.

And they’re counting on you choosing silence.