By Richard Laub and Yossi Lempkowicz
Since January 20, 2025, a significant date marking Donald Trump’s return to the presidency of the United States, a wave of changes has swept through American government initiatives, particularly regarding the fight against anti-Semitism, both internationally and in terms of domestic policy. Trump quickly fulfilled his campaign promises by taking significant actions that deserve our attention and possibly adoption by other nations, including Belgium.
On the international level, Trump acted with remarkable determination. One of his most notable decisions was to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had issued, at the request of its prosecutor Karim Khan, an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. This approach is unprecedented, as it instrumentalizes a court that has no jurisdiction over the State of Israel, a democratic non-signatory state of the Rome Statute, while flouting the founding principles of the ICC, which was supposed to only hear cases in countries where the rule of law is not respected.
Trump also suspended funding for UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), an organization that perpetuates the status of Palestinian refugees from generation to generation, many of whose members participated in the pogrom on October 7, and which promotes anti-Semitic education from a young age, through textbooks filled with Judeophobic propaganda.
Trump also appointed Elise Stefanik to head the American representation at the United Nations. She has raised her voice against radical anti-Zionism, which she claims feeds the international organization, labeling it a modern form of anti-Semitism. Her determination is reflected in her speeches where she describes the United Nations as a “hotbed of creeping anti-Semitism,” while promising to dismantle UNRWA for the reasons mentioned above and discussing the possibility of withdrawing the United States from the International Court of Justice. The latter is indeed investigating, at the request of South Africa, the absurd case accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people.
Domestically, President Trump’s response to the surge of anti-Semitic acts since October 7, 2023, has been equally powerful. On January 29, he issued a decree that requires all government agencies to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that aligns with the standards of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Convention and urges them to submit a report within 60 days identifying all civil and criminal actions that could be taken to curb or combat anti-Semitism.
It should be noted that this initiative would have been partly superfluous if the Senate, controlled by the Democrats until the end of 2024, had approved the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bipartisan bill that had already been voted on by the House of Representatives, but which Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, refused to bring to a Senate vote to avoid exposing the internal divisions of his party on this issue.
Following this decree, the Department of Justice established a multi-agency task force dedicated to combating anti-Semitism, aiming to investigate and punish Judeophobic acts, particularly focusing on university campuses. Through this decision, Trump is responding to the distress of many Jewish students who face intimidation, discrimination, and sometimes physical assaults in environments that should, in contrast, be sanctuaries of knowledge and tolerance.
The investigations launched by the Departments of Justice, Education, and Health into several prestigious universities and medical schools (Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Johns Hopkins) highlight a paradigm shift. It is no longer the necessity to prove abuses that triggers investigations, but the proactive willingness to examine unacceptable behaviors on college campuses.
The first measures taken by the Trump administration following this decree, such as the threat to cut federal funds and/or revoke the visas of foreign students participating in pro-Hamas demonstrations, send a clear message: timid responses to acts of intimidation and harassment will no longer be tolerated.
The first concrete decision came quickly. On March 7, a shocking announcement rattled the academic world: the immediate withdrawal of $400 million in federal funds allocated to Columbia University, one of the Ivy League’s flagship institutions. The reason? The passivity of academic authorities in the face of anti-Semitic acts perpetrated on the university’s campus, which had become a symbol of tension related to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations of 2024. Columbia’s interim president, Katherine Armstrong, immediately acknowledged the disciplinary shortcomings of her institution and expressed her readiness to work closely with the Trump administration to remedy the situation. This decision was followed on March 9 by the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia, for engaging in activities related to Hamas.
These efforts express the importance of a resolute and direct approach to such a widespread problem. The measures put in place in the United States raise a crucial question that Belgium must also consider: what can we learn from this proactive approach? This question is all the more relevant as our country, alongside Ireland and Spain, unfortunately finds itself among the top three countries most affected by the scourge of anti-Semitism.
To address this urgency, our country must meet three challenges:
It is urgent that our political, media, academic, and cultural elites, often infested by radical anti-Zionism, fully recognize that this represents the new face of anti-Semitism. Without acknowledging the evil, healing is impossible.
The second urgency lies in understanding that political patronage towards the Muslim population in Belgium, which often motivates our elites’ adoption of radical anti-Zionism, will ultimately backfire against the vital interests of our country. According to the established formula: it almost always begins with the Jews, but it rarely ends with them.
Finally, it is imperative not to succumb to a primary anti-Trumpism, which frequently animates a large part of our elites. This cognitive bias hinders critical thinking and leads to the systematic rejection of any solution, simply because it comes from Donald Trump, even when his proposals are sensible, relevant, and necessary.
Without critical attention to these issues and an essential awakening, we risk seeing Belgium, in fifty years, become one of the first European countries declared “Judenrein.”
Richard Laub is a Belgian entrepreneur
Yossi Lempkowicz is Editor-in-chief of European Jewish Press