Prominent New York synagogue hosts presentation on why U.S. Jews should support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza

The American press does its best not to cover savage Israeli views of Palestinians, but a leading New York synagogue gave an honored platform to those views ten days ago. It hosted an Israeli advocate with connections in its government who argued for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and said American Jews need to support that operation.  

Benjamin Anthony said that all “Palestinian Arabs” in Gaza pose such a threat to Israel that the international community should use “muscular diplomacy” with Egypt so as force the population out of Gaza into an “enclave” in the Sinai peninsula. 

“I believe the international community would very handily be able to create some sort of enclave for the…Gazans in the Sinai peninsula. And then we might have the breathing room to think about long-term solutions.” 

Though those two million Gazans would likely be displaced again, into African countries, said Anthony, the leader of an Israeli think tank called the MirYam Institute. 

“I think someone like [Egyptian president] Sisi would likely move the Gazans along from the Sinai peninsula in the event that he didn’t want to build a place for them there, and you would probably see them dispersed through the continent of Africa quite quickly.”

Anthony’s argument is widely shared by Israelis (according to a 2025 poll), and it only received mild push back from Eliot Cosgrove, a leading conservative rabbi in the U.S., who had brought Anthony, his first cousin, onto the synagogue dais.  

Cosgrove called the scheme “very intriguing,” but protested that Anthony was conflating “Hamas with the entire Gaza population.” And that by creating a refugee population with a “narrative”, Israel was practically and morally kicking the can down the road. Speaking “as a proud Zionist,” Cosgrove said the scheme is not in Israel’s interest.

Anthony insisted that no Gazans could be trusted because Gazan civilians cheered the atrocities against Israelis on October 7. Cosgrove folded his hand: “Well, I love you, and I disagree with you, but let’s move on.” 

Cosgrove ended the hour-long dialogue by thanking Anthony “for fighting the good fight” and “for representing our people.”

I must point out that if a speaker called for Israeli Jews to be displaced because Palestinians are unsafe with Jews living there, that person would instantly face serious, perhaps career-ending, repercussions. Recall what happened to Helen Thomas, an accomplished reporter of Lebanese ancestry, when she said that Israeli Jews need to “go home,” back to Europe. She was forced to retire in 2010. 

Anthony’s toughness had a goal. He’d come to “implore” American Jews to support Israel and America’s war with Iran as a war for the Jewish future in America. Trump is a unique leader who has taken action, he said. The next president could be anti-Israel.

“My feeling is that the entire Zionist project, and dare I say the fate of world Jewry not just Israeli Jewry, but diaspora Jewry as well, rests on the outcome of this war against Iran,” Anthony said. “You don’t need to be a pollster to know where the [Israeli] people are. On the fight against Iran, there is near unanimity behind the idea that this regime needs to come to an end.”

In fact, Anthony’s militaristic view is echoed in the American Jewish community. The leading Jewish organizations have commended the U.S. and Israel for going to war.

But non-Zionist and anti-Zionist Jewish groups have opposed the war. The liberal Zionist group J Street has also done so and called on American Jews to speak out against the war so as to show Americans that Jews are not pushing the war. J Street’s leader acknowledged that pro-Israel groups played “a role in setting the table for Trump’s decision,” but warned that those lobbying actions could make Jews the “scapegoat for failure.” 

American Jews must oppose “the overwhelming majority of [the Israeli] people” and declare that this war “was not in our interest, and that it was not pursued in our name,” Jeremy Ben-Ami said. 

No such concern was evident at the Park Avenue Synagogue on March 20. Benjamin Anthony called on American Jews to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Israeli Jews in an “absolute” war that will end all the other wars, so as to ensure “the long-term survival of the state of Israel.”

“I would implore everyone to step away from this terrible fear about forever wars,” he advised.  

Every war that Israel has conducted in Gaza and Lebanon over the last 20 years has failed, Anthony said. Now there is an opportunity to eliminate the threats posed by Iran’s nuclear capability, its missile capabilities, and its support for Hamas and Hezbollah. 

“My view has always been that all those partial operations have brought about a totally disastrous security situation, and what we need now is an absolute total clearing out of these three threats,” he said. “We are seeing incredible results militarily by means of this alliance. …And incidentally no other two countries in my estimation could possibly have done this, besides the United States and Israel.”

Palestinian Arabs are not fit to have a state, and Gazans are a threat to Israelis, he went on. 

“To me, it is not realistic to suggest that the Palestinian Arabs, who we claim are ready for statehood, are sophisticated enough to administer a state independently, that they know not what it is they voted for in 2006… They know exactly what it is they voted for… At the center is the [Hamas] constitution… it calls for the genocide of Jews everywhere, including Jews here in Park Avenue Synagogue. 

“As one who lives very proximate to where these Gazans are, I thoroughly reject the idea that there can be quiet and security while the Gazans are on our border. It is not safe. Morally, the highest priority for any leader is to keep Israelis safe. I do not believe that we can do that with the Gazans on our border…. And you should not want them there either.”

Anthony acknowledged that Palestinians are living under “miserable” conditions in Gaza, but that is Hamas’s fault, and is another reason for forcibly displacing Palestinians.   

Anthony, who grew up in England before moving to Israel, went on to criticize American Jews who support a two-state solution. It is clear that Israelis don’t favor a Palestinian state, he said, and if American Jews are genuine about that goal, then they need to commit to move to Israel, and their children too, so as to experience the Palestinian threat. 

“You must be very wary of demanding upon the people of Israel that we accept upon ourselves a standard that you yourselves probably would not accept.”

Anthony’s air was that of a tough realist explaining to entitled Americans why they are deluded. But he said that the discussion was “very necessary” because American Jews must be at Israeli Jews’ sides through all the “very difficult” wars Israel is carrying out against its neighbors. 

Anthony lamented that the discourse in U.S. universities that prepares future American leaders has been captured by Palestinian-sympathizers who also hate America. And this brainwashing threatens the future of the West, he warned. 

American Jews have “an urgent duty” to abandon the elite schools and build their own schools, or send their children to southern universities where anti-Israel speech is not tolerated. 

The marvel of Anthony’s appearance is that our press routinely gives Israelis and American Zionists a pass when they express extreme ideas. Anthony says he has consulted White House officials (he does not say which administration) and Israelis with similar views, such as Ron Dermer, who come and go at the Trump White House, according to Trump’s former counter-terrorism chief who lately resigned over the misguided U.S. policy. 

The tragedy for me of this Passover is that the American Jewish community rolls out the red carpet for racist talk, because they are “proud Zionists.” So a thuggish Israeli endorses brutal policies against Palestinians in a leading New York synagogue, and the response is We love you.