By Seth Mandel
Monday, July 13, 2026
After Ro Khanna’s failed attempt to spark a potentially
dangerous confrontation in the Hebron Hills, the Democratic congressman issued
a threat to Israel: “Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to
detain long-shot presidential candidates.”
Khanna is referring to his failed confrontation. Settlers
reportedly stopped him at a closed military zone, and the police and the IDF
showed up and cleared the way for him. The IDF would have preferred to have
already been escorting the congressman, but Khanna apparently rejected Israel’s
offer of coordination. And then once Khanna was safely on his way thanks to the
government, he told the government to watch its back. This is a ridiculous man.
But Khanna’s faceplant should not tempt Israel into
complacency. Had a group with an ounce of savvy showed up instead of Ro Khanna
and his juvenile keyboard warriors—he reportedly let a couple of inexperienced
anti-Israel activists plan this trip—it could have been easier for them to get
the confrontation they were after.
Judea and Samaria is a tinderbox. Some recent reports:
teenaged settlers arrested
for an arson attack on a mosque and other settlers detained
for allegedly attacking a CNN crew; Palestinian attacks on Jewish farmers
in Karmei Zur and Jewish shepherds in Gush
Etzion, and the deliberate poisoning of farm animals
belonging to Jews.
Is Ro Khanna a dangerous fool for trying to throw sparks
into this atmosphere? Of course. But it’s not like settler violence or violence
toward settlers—though Khanna is unbothered by the latter—is a figment of
anyone’s imagination.
Khanna’s stunt was a warning. The congressman was
soft-launching his presidential campaign, using scary-looking Jews as his
background, and he is unlikely to be the only such member of his party to try
it.
Khanna’s trip comes after the implosion of Graham
Platner’s campaign for Senate in Maine. Khanna was Platner’s most devoted
high-profile supporter, making excuses for Platner’s Nazi tattoo, credible
claims of his violence against women, his celebrating the deaths of American
troops, and about a thousand other indicators of Platner’s unfitness. He only
encouraged Platner to withdraw from the race once Platner was credibly accused
of sexually assaulting a Democrat, his previous credible accusation of violence
having come from a Republican.
How quickly the Democratic Party has changed. In 2020,
Joe Biden claimed his decision to run for president was influenced by the
horrible scene of white nationalists marching in Charlottesville, one of whom
killed a woman. Six years later, Khanna made himself a national figure by
defending a Nazi-inked mercenary accused of repeated violence against women.
Israel should not assume Khanna will be the last Democrat
to launch a political campaign in Judea and Samaria, nor will Khanna be the
last to make his campaign explicitly about punishing the Jewish state. But the
next one to do so might be less blockheaded, less ignorant of the environment
and its history. That would make them more, not less, capable of igniting the
type of international incident that Khanna tried and failed to provoke.
And they might have credibility that Khanna doesn’t.
Khanna popularized the phrase “Epstein Class,” the Internet’s new favorite way
to imply that all Jews are degenerate child molesters. Khanna also, as noted
above, devoted himself to the Nazi-tattooed campaign in Maine. Just before he
left for his trip, he claimed that the U.S. defense bill making its way through
Congress gives Israel “sovereignty” over America. Khanna will never be mistaken
for a truth-seeker.
Khanna is what we might call a thirsty demagogue. He is
desperate to be seen as a leader in the pitchforks-and-torches campaign against
American Jews, but he doesn’t have the bona fides of Democratic candidates with
Nazi tattoos. Khanna is a super-wealthy but boring power-luster. And it shows
in everything he does.
That means it’s wholly possible that a Democrat who has
charisma and who hasn’t been bleating about Epstein and Zionist power will try
the same stunt. Israel needs a plan for when that happens—an understanding that
a bad-faith actor masquerading as a concerned congressman shouldn’t be given
the option of waving away Israeli security and coordination in a
conflict-ridden disputed territory. The government must plainly insist on it,
period.
Israel needs to remember that folks like Khanna want
something bad to happen, and it will be blamed if a progressive agitator
gets what he wants.
That is, from both an information standpoint and a
security standpoint, the Israelis should be prepared for malicious intent from
their haters abroad. Someone coming to Israel solely for a publicity stunt is
easy to prepare for, but only if you’re not naïve about what they’re really
after. In this case, what they were really after was propaganda that makes
people angry at Jews.
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