Along with the Jewish community, the United States is facing a challenge from the jihadis and those devoted to destroying the American way of life. Jews and non-Jews must rise up and fight back.

Among the many new elected officials coming to Washington, D.C. is a cadre of exciting new pro-Israel representatives. Abe Hamadeh is a 33-year-old incoming Arizona Arab American Republican congressman known for his advocacy of conservative values and his strong stance on issues, including law enforcement and border security. Hamadeh won Donald Trump’s endorsement and calls himself a common-sense politician. 

He is the youngest son of Syrian immigrants, and he grew up in a mixed-faith Arab-Druze household. As he has grown up, he started to “understand how the world actually works.” The first “inflection point” on Israel was the “Arab Spring” that began in 2010. Syria, where both his parents immigrated from, erupted in civil war, and Israel emerged as the “good neighbor.”

As he said, “My family is Syrian, and I remember that during the Syrian civil war, that Israel was actually having people who were injured come into the hospitals in Israel. So all this humanitarian aid was actually being done by the Israelis, and not the others in the Arab World… That was the first instance of me looking at the truth, and having my eyes opened. It just dismantles that whole narrative of Israel being this problem in the Middle East, when they’re actually being good neighbors.” Hamadeh says that Israel has “no bigger ally” than himself, and calls for the annihilation of terrorist groups that aim to harm it.

Not unlike Democrat Ritchie Torres, another young outspoken pro-Israel congressman, Hamadeh took a trip to Israel that changed his life.

He notes he visited Israel, saw the truth of the situation, realized who are the good guys and went on a tour by an Israeli military commander of the Golan Heights in northern Israel. After visiting Israel, he was barred from entering Lebanon by Lebanese customs officers because he had the stamp showing his travel to Israel on his passport.

As he said, “I get to the customs in Lebanon, and the lady looks at the back of the passport, and says, ‘Come with me. I’m like, ‘oh, f**k,’ and then I go into this area and these military customs officials are saying, you know, you’ve been to Israel.” “My family is Syrian blood, my brother’s getting married this week, and Israel let me into their country,” he remembers thinking. “How are you not letting me into this country?”

This, of course, is the true apartheid. They are the haters and discriminators we are not, and it’s great that a young Arab-American congressman knows this and says it loud and clear.

His X/Twitter is already clear before he even takes office, noting “The Golan Heights has strategic military value with a direct line of sight to Damascus, and it belongs to our ally Israel,” and “Those who criticize Israel most likely have never even been to Israel. Israel is a multi-ethnic & pluralistic Jewish state. Their resilience & strength is remarkable.”

He is also clear on Pro-Hamas rallies in the U.S., noting “You see these protests where they have a rainbow flag, they have a Palestinian flag, some of them had a Taliban flag. It’s scary, but this is kind of the march of Marxism. What’s going on domestically is really a cause for concern. [Marxists] have taken over the universities. They have set up these victim pipelines. And the Marxists, I think, they have the media, no offense. They captured the media and I think the media is surprised too.”

We need more people like Hamadeh who are clear on the danger of the jihadi movement, noting “It’s a huge wake-up call for the Jewish community, it’s a wake-up call for all Americans, about the real risks that radicalized ideology poses here. Jews are under attack here in America, by homegrown extremists.”

As this young Arab-American congressman says of October 7, “Let’s be clear -- this wasn’t just an attack on Israel, it was an attack on humanity.” The Jewish people in America and worldwide need government representatives who realize that the alliance between America and Israel strengthens both nations.

Ronn Torossian is an American-Israeli entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Image: Gage Skidmore