IDF Reservists Fight Anti-Semitism on College Campuses

On today’s show, Glenn was joined by Amit Deri, the executive director of Reservists on Duty (RoD), an organization of former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers dedicated to fighting  and anti-Israel propaganda on college campuses across North America. Founded in 2015, the volunteer group is comprised of army reservists from every religion and background, including Christians, Muslims, and Atheists.

“Our goal is to fight hate groups,” said Deri. “I can tell you those groups are anti-American. They are anti everything, anti the western world. Our group is coming first to expose those groups on campus. To educate and give tools to Jew students and non-Jew students for how to speak about Israel, to refute the lies and bad labels they are spreading all over the place.”

Listen to the podcast above to hear the whole interview.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: I found out about a group called Reservists on Duty. It's an organization created because of the military experience and the encounters with the far left that are -- that anti-Semitic organizations are -- are using to attack Israel and the -- the members of the IDF. And these are -- these are becoming very, very powerful groups. And you just can't -- you just can't stand up and tell the truth of what you know about Israel. So these reservists have come together. And they have served on active duty in various combat positions. These are not Jews.

These are Christians and Muslims. And I believe atheists. That are standing up and saying, "Wait a minute. None of that is true."

We have Amit Deri. He's the executive director of Reservists on Duty. Amit, how are you?

AMIT: Good morning, Glenn. Thank you for having me.

GLENN: You bet. Okay. So tell me exactly what you guys are doing.

AMIT: So, yeah, Reservists on Duty is a group of former Israeli soldiers. The reason the Jews are also there, but there are a lot of them that are Americans who today lives in Israel. But also a lot of minorities that lives in Israel. You probably know that in Israel, we have Muslims, we have Jews, we have Bedouins, we have Christians. We even have Palestinians. And a lot of them are willing to come and speak in favor of Israel on college campuses. And our goal is to fight BBC, anti-Semitic groups -- hate groups actually that works on campus. And you mentioned, by the way, that those groups are anti-Israel. But I can tell you that they are actually anti-American. They're anti-everything. They're anti the Western world.

GLENN: Yes.

AMIT: And our group actually has come in first to expose those groups on campus, to educate and to give tools for Jewish students and non-Jewish students, how to speak about Israel, to refute the lies and the blood labels that those guys are spreading all over the place. And -- and that's Reservists on Duty. We are -- we are usually coming when they are producing -- you probably know, Glenn, that they're producing a week -- a whole week against Israel called the Israeli apartheid group. You can find that in -- I think in every college campus in America. You have a week against Israel. They build the big wall. They call it the apartheid wall, which means the separation wall that we have here in Israel. Building the wall with a lot of quotes and a lot of lies. And they're actually, for the whole week, spreading lies, misinformation, and disinformation. Pure anti-Semitism against Israel and against the Jewish people.

GLENN: Okay. So a couple -- so a couple of things. So you can contact you, I would imagine. And ask for you guys to come and speak at the college.

I think having a Palestinian speak is really powerful. You know, speaking in defense of Israel.

What is the reception that you're getting at these campuses?

GLENN: Actually, this is our main challenge. We have a lot of people -- all of them are volunteers. And our main challenge is to -- we need more people to invite us. We're not just coming and showing up in the middle of campus.

So we need groups, more groups, Jewish groups, Christian groups, conservative groups, that will invite to us speak on campus. So I invite your audience and the people who are listening to us now to invite us to their college campus. We will come. We have the best speakers. And you said -- you mentioned the Palestinian guy. I can tell you, it's not easy for those speakers.

GLENN: I know.

AMIT: We just came back from two weeks to the United States, with a minority group. One Christian, one Arab, one Muslim girl, one Bedouin, and one Palestinian. And they experienced a physical attack. Freedom of speech today in America, I think, is under fire. I think you know that better than me.

And those guys two weeks ago, they gave a speech on a synagogue, not in a college campus. In a synagogue in New York. Lincoln Square Synagogue. And in the middle of the speech, temple of Palestinians probably -- Palestinians or Muslims sneak into the building or synagogue and started to shout and yell and scream and curse in every possible language inside a synagogue, and tried to physically attack the Palestinian speaker. Just drive them crazy when Arabs, when Muslims, Christians, Bedouins, speak in favor of Israel.

So I think if this drives them crazy, we're doing the right thing. And we want to bring those guys more and more to the stage, and I invite people to invite us to come and speak.

STU: As sick as our universities are right now and all of the things that they're doing that are, you know, not up to what we kind of thought of as real American foundational principles over the years. There's really, I don't think anything, that seems to get our universities more angry than people saying positive things about Israel. Is that just the sort of dark themes that have gone throughout history when it comes to the Jewish people?

Is that an American military argument? Why do you think that is?

AMIT: I think, you know, the -- the essence is anti-Semitism. If you look from the leader of those groups, most of them are -- are Muslims, that immigrated to the states. And, you know, it's not about '67 borders, it's not about a peace agreement with the Palestinians. They want us out. They want the Jews, the Jewish people out from the state of Israel.

And when -- when we're coming on college campuses, you can always see that this is not only about Israel. It's also against conservative speakers who are coming to college campuses.

GLENN: Yeah.

AMIT: It's all the speakers who are not going with -- you know, with the mainstream, with what the -- by the way, most of the administrations on college campuses want to hear -- you are not welcome. Nobody will give pro-Israeli groups to do a hate week, literally hate week, like the Israeli apartheid group that those guys were producing.

Nobody in the administration would let us to do a week even in anti, even in favor of Israel, nobody would let us do that. And the administration, all college campuses are backing those students. I can tell you that we're experiencing the same, like we experienced in the synagogue, we experienced the same in Minnesota, on the campus. At a state university.

GLENN: When you guys speak or are asked to speak, does it cost -- does it cost the organization inviting you anything to bring you over?

AMIT: No money. No. We don't charge a penny. We want to do that because we believe in what we're doing. And all of our -- our activists are volunteers. There's a lot of people who are passionate for Israel here. And we want to do that.

Because we understand now -- and I think, by the way, Glenn, I think we understand too late unfortunately.

GLENN: Yeah, yes.

AMIT: Those guys started back in the '80s. '90s.

GLENN: All right. So how does somebody get in touch with you?

AMIT: Yeah. So we have our website. Onduty, in one word. Onduty.org.il. And all the details and all of our information, contact information and our activities and videos, on the website.

GLENN: Okay. It's onduty.org.il. Don't forget the .il. Onduty.org.il.

Amit, we'll talk to you again, and we hope to see you next time you're in the United States. Thank you for what you're doing.

AMIT: Thank you again. I want to -- I want to thank you and your audience for all of your support for the state of Israel, for the idea of -- I can tell you that a lot of people here in Israel listen to your radio shows and podcast, and we don't take it for granted. Thank you very much.

GLENN: Thank you, Amit. I appreciate it. God bless you.

Trump's education secretary has BIG plans for the DoE

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Our education system is broken, and the Department of Education is a massive failure. But that all ends now.

It's no secret that America's school system is seriously lacking in many ways. President Trump pointed out that despite our massive spending per pupil, we are behind most of the developed world in most metrics. Our scores continue to plummet while our student debt and spending skyrocket—it's utterly unacceptable performance and America's students deserve better.

That's where Linda McMahon, Trump's pick for Secretary of Education comes in.

The former WWE CEO and leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration during Trump's first term, McMahon laid out her harsh criticisms of the DoE during a confirmation hearing on the 13th and revealed her promising plans to turn things around. McMahon described the public education system as "in decline" and promised that under her authority, the DoE would be reoriented towards student success.

Here are the top three changes to the Department of Education:

1. Dismantling the Department of Education

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From the beginning Trump's orders for McMahon were clear: oversee the end of the Department of Education.

During her Thursday hearing, McMahon clarified what dismantling the DoE would entail. As Democrats have repeatedly pointed out, Trump does not have the authority to destroy the DoE without Congressional consent, as an act of Congress created it. That is why Trump and McMahon's plan is to start by shutting down programs that can be stopped by executive action, then approach Congress with a plan to dismantle the Department for good. The executive orders have already begun to take effect, and once McMahon is confirmed she will author a plan for Congress to close the Department.

McMahon also promised that the end of the Department of Education does not mean an end to all the programs currently undertaken by the doomed department. Programs that are deemed beneficial will be transferred (along with their funding) to departments that are more suited to the task. The example given by McMahon was IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding, which instead of being cut would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services.

2. School Choice

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In a huge win for parents across the country, McMahon pledged her support for School Choice. School Choice is the idea of allowing parents to enroll their student in any school of their choice, including religious schools and private schools. It would also mean that part or all of the funding that would have gone to a relocated child would follow them and continue to pay for their education.

This gives parents the ability to remove their children from failing schools and seek a better education for them elsewhere. A growing body of evidence suggests that the way we run our schools isn't working, and it is time to try something new. School Choice opens up education to the free market and will allow for competition.

Our children deserve better than what we can currently offer them.

3. COVID and DEI

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Trump's government-wide crackdown on DEI will ironically serve to increase inclusion in many American schools.

McMahon said as much during her Senate hearing: “It was put in place ostensibly for more diversity, for equity and inclusion. And I think what we’re seeing is, it is having an opposite effect. We are getting back to more segregating of our schools instead of having more inclusion in our schools.” She also spoke in support of Title IX, and the push to remove biological males from women's and girl's sports. In the same vein, McMahon pledged to push back against the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, which many Universities have failed to adequately address.

On Friday, February 14th, President Trump signed an executive order barring any school or university with COVID-19 vaccine mandates from receiving federal money. This only applies to the COVID-19 vaccine, and other vaccine mandates are still standing.

POLL: What DARK government secrets will Trump uncover?

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Will the dark secrets of the Deep State finally see the light of day? Or will they slip back into darkness, as they have many times before?

The Trump administration is gearing up to fulfill one of Trump's most anticipated campaign promises: to make the contents of the JFK files, along with other Deep State secrets, available to the public. Kash Patel, who has promised to publicize the highly anticipated files, is expected to be confirmed next week as Trump's director of the FBI. Moreover, the House Oversight Committee created a new task force headed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called "Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets," which is tasked with investigating and declassifying information on the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, UFOs, the Epstein list, COVID's origins, and 9/11. This all comes after the FBI found 2,400 "new" records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy following Trump's executive order to release the files.

Glenn discussed this topic with the cast of the Patrick Bet David podcast. Glenn expressed his confidence in Trump's radical transparency—on the condition that Kash Patel is confirmed. The cast was not as optimistic, expressing some doubt about whether Trump will actually unveil all that he has promised. But what do you think? What files are likely to see the light of day? And what files will continue to linger in the dark? Let us know in the poll below

Do you think the JFK, RFK, and MLK files will be unveiled?

Do you think the 9/11 files will be unveiled?

Do you think the COVID files will be unveiled?

Do you think the UFO files will be unveiled?

Do you think the Epstein list will be unveiled?

Transgender opera in Colombia? 10 SHOCKING ways USAID spent your tax dollars.

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The government has been doing what with our tax money!?

Under the determined eye of Elon Musk, DOGE has rooted out the corruption that permeates USAID, and it turns out that it's worse than we thought. Glenn recently read a list of atrocious causes that were funded by USAID, and the list was as long as it was shocking.

Since the January consumer index report was published today, one thing is clear: eggs are bearing the brunt of inflation. That's why we illustrated the extent of USAID's wasteful spending of YOUR taxpayer dollars by comparing it to the price of eggs. How many eggs could the American people have bought with their tax dollars that were given to a "transgender opera" in Colombia or indoctrinating Sri Lankans with woke gender ideology? The truth will shock you:

1. A “transgender opera” in Colombia

USAID spent $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia. That's over 135,000 eggs.

2. Sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala

$2 million was spent funding sex changes along with whatever "LGBT activism" means. That equates to over 5.7 million eggs!

3. Teaching Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid binary-gendered language

USAID forked over $7.9 million to combat the "gender binary" in Sri Lankan journalism. That could have bought nearly 23 million eggs.

4. Tourism in Egypt

$6 million (or just over 17 million eggs) was spent to fund tourism in Egypt. If only someone had thought to build some impressive landmarks...

5. A new "Sesame Street" show in Iraq

USAID spent $20 million to create a new Sesame Street show in Iraq. That's just short of 58 million eggs...

6. Helping the BBC value the diversity of Libyan society

$2.1 million was sent to the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) to help them value the diversity of Libyan society (whatever that means). That could have bought over 6 million eggs.

7. Meals for a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda

$10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group. That comes up to be just shy of 29 million eggs.

8. Promoting inclusion in Vietnam 

A combined $19.3 million was sent to two separate inclusion groups in Vietnam inclusion groups in Vietnam (why where they separated? Not very inclusive of them). That's over 55 million eggs.

9. Promoting DEI in Serbia's workplaces

USAID sent $1.5 million (4.3 million eggs) to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”

10. Funding EcoHealth Alliance, tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology's "bat research"

EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs that funded the Wuhan lab's bat virus research, received $5 million from USAID, which is equivalent to 14.5 million eggs.

The bottom line...

So, how much damage was done?

In total, approximately $73.8 million was wasted on the items on this list. That comes out to be 213 million eggs. Keep in mind that these are just the items on this list, there are many, many more that DOGE has uncovered and will uncover in the coming days. Case in point: that's a lot of eggs.

POLL: Should Trump stop producing pennies?

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On Sunday, February 9th, President Trump ordered the U.S. Mint to halt the production of pennies. It costs the mint three cents to produce every penny, which Trump deemed wasteful. However, critics argue that axing the pennies will be compensated by ramping up nickel production, which costs 13 cents per coin.

In other news, President Trump promised on Truth Social that he would be reversing a Biden-era policy that mandated the use of paper straws throughout the federal government. From potentially slashing entire agencies to saying farewell to pennies and paper straws, Trump is hounding after wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.

But what do you think? Was Trump right to put an end to pennies? And should plastic straws make a comeback? Let us know in the poll below:

Should Trump stop the production of pennies? 

Do you agree with Trump's reversal of the plastic straw ban?