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• Pres. Trump Begins Process to Officially Designate Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization
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Pres. Trump Begins Process to Officially Designate Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

The Jewish Insider reports:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday pledging to designate certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, identifying the organization’s branches in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt as particularly problematic.

The new policy gives the secretary of state and the secretary of the Treasury 30 days to identify which branches should be designated "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" and which should be deemed "Specially Designated Global Terrorists," [SDGT] another formal designation by the US government that comes with less severe consequences than the FTO designation.

According to the executive order, it is now official US policy "to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters designated as foreign terrorist organizations" and to "deprive those chapters of resources, and thereby end any threat such chapters pose to United States nationals or the national security of the United States."

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies adds details:

The new EO establishes a permanent interagency process to extend this framework to additional Brotherhood branches that independently meet the criteria for FTO or SDGT status.

This framework offers several advantages. First, it enables immediate action against the most dangerous Brotherhood branches, including those directly engaged in terrorism or armed conflict and the media and financial ecosystems that enable them. Second, it allows for disciplined sequencing. Designations would build outward from the clearest cases, insulating the process from the evidentiary vulnerabilities that have undermined past attempts. Third, it preserves the integrity of US counterterrorism authorities by ensuring that FTO and SDGT tools are applied to organizations that genuinely meet the legal standard rather than to an amorphous ideological movement. Fourth, it avoids sweeping in political actors whose activities, while objectionable or illiberal, do not rise to the level of terrorism and the designation of which would not withstand judicial review. Finally, it facilitates coordination with allies, many of whom have already designated specific Brotherhood-linked groups but have avoided movement-wide bans for the same legal reasons that constrain the United States.

The editors of National Review offer some background:

The Muslim Brotherhood (Jama’at al-Ikhwan al Muslimun) is the most consequential Islamist movement in modern history. Since its founding in Cairo by Hassan al-Banna in the late 1920s, it has spawned a global network of organizations, including jihadist organizations — Hamas, most notoriously — that are united in their sharia-supremacist ideology, which is virulent in its hostility to Western liberalism and its Jew hatred.

The Brotherhood has a violent history. Its "special apparatus" in Egypt murdered Prime Minister Nukrashi Pasha in 1948 and thereafter attempted to murder Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser. In 1981, splinter groups inspired by Brotherhood ideology murdered President Anwar Sadat. By 1987, abetted by Brotherhood tentacles in the United States, Hamas was established as the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch. From the first intifada through the still-ongoing war in Gaza, support for the jihad against Israel — material and financial, through recruitment, rhetoric, and indoctrination — has been a top priority of Brotherhood-linked organizations throughout the world.

Many major Islamist organizations in the United States have Brotherhood roots... Many US-based Islamist organizations were shown to have collaborative ties, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (developed out of the Muslim Students Association, which has hundreds of chapters across our country), and the North American Islamic Trust (a pivotal player in the acquisition of mosques).

... If we could turn back time, it would have been better to act against the Brotherhood before it established a foothold in our country 60 years ago. Eradicating it will take work. That begins with recognizing the threat. The administration has taken a good first step.

RJC in the News

NYT: Why Republicans Are Fighting About the Nazis

While polls show that Republicans are more supportive of Israel than Democrats are, support for Israel drops sharply among younger Republicans. A Times poll this fall found that while 79 percent of Republicans over 65 sympathized with Israelis more than Palestinians, just 40 percent of Republicans under 44 agreed.

This issue has torn apart Democrats in primary races, and similar tensions could play out on the right.

One test comes next year in Kentucky. Representative Thomas Massie, a defender of Mr. [Tucker] Carlson who is one of the sharpest Republican critics of Israel in Congress and has broken with [Pres. Donald] Trump on key issues, has attracted a Trump-backed primary challenger named Ed Gallrein.

Matt Brooks, who leads the Republican Jewish Coalition, said that defeating Mr. Massie was a "top priority" for the group, and that Mr. Gallrein had addressed a private dinner with RJC leaders and received a warm welcome.

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Short Takes

Rosen: The Silence on Tucker Carlson’s Rhetoric Is Dangerous

RJC Board member J. Philip Rosen, who serves as Chairman of the World Jewish Congress, has been heartened by the Trump administration’s intensity and clarity in dealing with antisemitism in America. He is concerned that some political leaders, even some who are friends of the Jewish community, have not spoken out strongly enough against Tucker Carlson and the rise of antisemitism on the right.

Rosen writes: "The fight against antisemitism cannot be selective. It cannot stop at the water’s edge of partisan convenience. If government officials are prepared to confront antisemitism within international institutions, academia, or foreign governments, they must also be willing to address it when it emerges from figures with large domestic audiences."

Johnston: Why Christians must stand with Israel and the Jewish people amid surging antisemitism

At Thanksgiving, my heart is full of gratitude for family, freedom and the blessings of living in this great country. And like millions of other Bible-believing Christians, I am also thankful for the eternal promises of God, the miracle of the modern State of Israel and the sacred bond that unites us with the Jewish people.

With antisemitism on the rise, it is important for Christians to stand up, speak out and resist any effort to divide us from our support of Israel. We cannot write off influencers like Nick Fuentes. The horrors of the Holocaust began with a small group of fiery malcontents viewed as too extreme to be taken seriously. The passive inaction by many, including mainstream Christians, unleashed a wave of human suffering on mankind unmatched in history. We must never repeat those mistakes.

We are one family, united by faith and bound together by God’s unbreakable promises.

YU: Students Represent Yeshiva University at Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit

Six student scholars from Yeshiva University’s Lieberman-Mitzner Center for Public Service and Advocacy — Daniella Landau, Rachel Hirt, Keira Kahn, Jared Kinches, Talya Naggar and Maytal Nelson — attended the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas from October 31 to November 2, 2025. The annual gathering brought together leading voices from government, media, and public policy to discuss issues impacting the American Jewish community, US–Israel relations, and the future of national politics.

JNS: Hamas followed 100,000 IDF soldiers online before Oct. 7 attacks
Hamas had closely followed 100,000 Israeli troops on social media and other networks for years before executing the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, meticulously collecting information about Israel Defense Forces posts along the border, including how to operate Israeli tanks, Israel’s Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh reported on Sunday.

The terrorist organization established an array of some 2,500 members who took part in gathering data online, piece by piece, for five years before the attacks on the northwestern Negev, according to Kadosh.

…"By cross-referencing photos and videos taken inside bases—from soldiers’ TikToks to images from beret ceremonies or discharge events—Hamas built precise models of IDF positions: where the rear gate was, where security cameras were placed, where the rapid response team was stationed, and where the armory was located," tweeted Kadosh.

"Using this information," the correspondent continued, "Hamas built maps, simulations, and even simulators. It purchased a 3D simulation software at full 1:1 scale, and constructed simulators of bases and outposts. Nukhba terrorists could put on virtual-reality headsets in Gaza and rehearse their infiltration of each outpost."

JTA: Bipartisan bill in Congress would create ‘Jewish Refugee Day’

The United States would recognize Nov. 30 as "Jewish Refugee Day" under a bipartisan resolution sponsored by two Jewish members of Congress.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida Democrat, and Texas Republican Craig Goldman submitted the resolution on Friday, saying that the day would be known by both its English name and the Hebrew translation, Yom HaPlitim.

… The holiday, which was first adopted by Israel in 2014, commemorates the departure and expulsion of roughly 900,000 Jews from Arab countries following the founding of the state of Israel.

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