Clowns to the left, jokers on the right.

Bidding for beachfront property in Gaza is on hold, at least until Russia stops blocking Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, but Israel remains at the center of America’s culture wars. The Trump administration is making important progress on defending American Jews, but enemies of the Jewish state and the Jewish people are still on the loose.

Zionism has attracted plenty of critics throughout U.S. history. Some were motivated by anti-Semitism; many American Jews feared that Zionism would strengthen anti-Semitic arguments that Jews didn’t belong in the United States. After Israeli independence, so-called realists did not see the benefit in allying with a friendly, militarily powerful, nuclear armed, and politically stable democracy in a turbulent region that was vital for the global economy.

The darkest elements of this group burst into view after Hamas and its allies attacked Israel. Since October 7, some of our most prestigious universities effectively ceded control of their campuses to anti-Semitic goons who harassed and intimidated Jewish students. In some cases, university employees acted shamefully too.

This is far outside the American mainstream, which has been pro-Zionist for centuries. Many of the early Puritans and their descendants, like John Adams, wanted a Jewish state in ancient Israel. In 1891, prominent businessmen like John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and the speaker of the House of Representatives all signed the pro-Zionist Blackstone Memorial. In the 20th century, prominent Americans from “Mr. Republican” Robert Taft to Eleanor Roosevelt to Martin Luther King Jr. supported Israel.

The Trump administration is doing its part, restoring sanity to our campuses. It cut $400 million from Columbia University for failing to protect its Jewish students. The Department of Education is investigating similar violations of the Civil Right Acts in 60 universities. And the Department of Homeland Security recently detained former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil for leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Trump said Khalil’s was “the first arrest of many to come. … We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country.”

The universities are starting to take notice. Harvard fired an employee who tore down a poster of Israeli hostages, and Yale Law put on leave one of its scholars. Yesterday, Columbia announced punishments for some of the students who occupied a campus building last year.

At the same time, the administration narrowly missed giving a prized job to one of the loudest critics of this campaign. Daniel Davis, who works for one of libertarian billionaire Charles Koch’s think tanks, blasted Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) in December for saying, “Universities that tolerate antisemitism will have their federal funds cut off.” Davis rejoined, “We all know the truth, that you want to suppress any demonstrations directed against the policies of the Netanyahu gov [sic].”

Normally, administrations do not allow people who oppose the president’s agenda to assemble the president’s daily intelligence briefing—especially if they believe, as Davis does, that administration policies like relocating Gaza’s population are “ethnic cleansing.” He nevertheless was in line for that role until the news leaked.

Other administration appointees have troubling views. Some claim that Leo Frank, the victim of one of the most hideous anti-Semitic attacks in American history, was a rapist and a murderer. Others said after October 7 that “Palestine is fighting for a just cause.”

Trump disagrees. As he said on Wednesday, “Israel has been under siege, as you can see, and they had to fight back. October 7th was a terrible thing. … we’re working hard with Israel.”

Not for the first time, people who claim to support Trump or even speak for him have turned out to oppose his actual views. This happened last year when the Heritage Foundation’s news and commentary outlet released a poll ostensibly showing that Republican voters wanted to cut off Ukraine. The same day, Trump wrote, “As everyone agrees, Ukrainian Survival and Strength should be much more important to Europe than to us, but it is also important to us!”

Heritage also claimed that Republicans opposed aiding Israel and spending to counter Chinese belligerence. That makes sense in some respects, since opponents of Israel tend to also yawn at the prospect of a China-dominated world. Many of them see that the link between the United States and Israel is one of the greatest barriers between them and their dreams of global retreat, and they want to break it.

This history makes Heritage’s report this week, which calls for gradually ceasing American aid for Israel, curious. Heritage is casting this as a pro-Israel move, but Israel’s ambassador reportedly dropped out of the launch event when he found out what was in the report. Some of Israel’s friends think the aid should be phased out, but that is largely to protect the relationship from the Democrats. Gallup recently found that Democratic sympathy for Israel dropped precipitously since October 7, but contra Heritage, 75 percent of Republicans sympathize with the Jewish state.

Philosemites and friends of Israel bring out the best in America, and their enemies hate the things that make America lovely. What better way to Make America Great Again than to embrace one of its best traditions.