As Jews around the world light Hanukkah menorahs this week, they commemorate what may be the most explicitly Zionist holiday in the Jewish calendar. The story of Hanukkah recounts the Maccabean Revolt of the second century C.E. After the Seleucid Greeks sought to suppress Jewish religious practice and identity, Jews fought to reclaim sovereignty in their homeland. The Maccabees’ wanted the Jews to have independence in the land of Judea so that they could worship God according to the dictates of their conscience. In other words, Hanukkah is a celebration of religious liberty and Jewish national liberation. The Jewish people survived two millennia of statelessness, persecution, pogroms, expulsions and a holocaust by maintaining a deep connection to these biblical roots—a lesson America must heed in its time of political turmoil. Even in times of darkness—including in defiance of the Nazi regime—the menorah’s light served as a beacon of hope and resilience, a reminder of the miracle of Jewish endurance against all odds. During Hanukkah in 1931, Rabbi Akiva Posner’s family placed a menorah in the window—an outward sign of their faith. Through the panes, a swastika flag is seen on a Nazi Party office. The family fled Nazi Germany in 1933 with the candleholder. Their descendants still light it. pic.twitter.com/VmEJ8RiNkQ— US Holocaust Museum (@HolocaustMuseum) December 25, 2024 Today, just as the Jewish state draws strength from its ancient connections to the Land and God of Israel, America will flourish only if we remain committed to the Judeo-Christian heritage that forms our nation’s foundation. At its core, Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in the ancient Jewish homeland of Israel, where Jews have maintained a continuous presence for more than 3,300 years. While Theodor Herzl established a formal Zionist political movement in the 1890s, the Zionist aspiration is as old as the Jewish people itself and foundational to Judaism. Heritage Senior Research Fellow @EVKontorovich testified before the House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee and explained why Judea and Samaria fall within Israel’s borders and why arguments that they are the legally mandated borders of any other state have no merit. pic.twitter.com/ndyOEuBFpe— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) December 10, 2025 It begins with God promising the Land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which was fulfilled in the wake of the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. Following the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., the yearning to return to home and rebuild the Temple has been woven into the fabric of Jewish ritual and liturgy. Every Passover seder and Yom Kippur service conclude with “Next year in Jerusalem.” Jews also pray facing Jerusalem. Despite nearly 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people’s enduring commitment to their foundational story and principles provides the foundation for Israel’s resilience today. This same story of Jewish perseverance inspired the men and women who built America. As our Heritage Foundation colleague Katie Pavlich recently observed, the “history of America and Israel didn’t start in 1948. It goes back to 1776, when American rebels looked to the Promised Land, its foundational story, and were inspired to reject the British Empire in pursuit of their own nation.” Benjamin Franklin’s proposal for America’s Great Seal would have depicted Moses extending his hand over the Red Sea causing it to overwhelm Pharoah, encircled by the motto: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.” Rendering of Franklin’s proposed Great Seal by Benson J. Lossing for Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in July 1856. Likewise, in a letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah in 1790, newly elected President George Washington drew parallels between America’s founding and the Israelites’ exodus, invoking “the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation.” John Adams went even further. In a remarkable letter to the Jewish American patriot Mordecai Manuel Noah, Adams expressed explicit support for Jewish restoration to their homeland. “I could find it in my heart to wish that you had been at the head of a hundred thousand Israelites indeed as well disciplin’d as a French army—& marching with them into Judea & making a conquest of that country & restoring your nation to the dominion of it—For I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.” Adams’ sympathy for Jewish sovereignty reflected his profound respect for the Jews. He maintained they “have done more to civilize Men than any other Nation,” as the Jews had preserved and propagated “to all Mankind the Doctrine of a Supreme intelligent wise, almighty Sovereign of the Universe,” which he held to be “the great essential Principle of all Morality and consequently of all Civilization.” Indeed, the concepts of covenant, rule of law, limited government, human dignity and justice that shape the American constitutional order stem from the biblical tradition. They are not arbitrary human constructs, but principles derived from the understanding that human beings are endowed by our Creator with inherent dignity and purpose. Our country’s founders saw themselves as building on a foundation laid in ancient Israel, and drew from Hebrew scripture for models of governance and moral law. At the unveiling of the Pilgrimage Road at the City of David in Jerusalem earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio observed, “It was here that God fulfilled His promise to His people.. that the lessons that formed the base rock and the foundations of our laws, of the principles upon which we decide what is right and what is wrong, was built upon. If you think about the things that today we, in civilized societies, use as rules to govern us, these things did not come because good people wrote them. They came because they were rooted in ancient teachings.” The parallel between Israel and America is instructive. The Jewish state flourishes because of its people’s connection to their ancient heritage and founding principles. Similarly, America’s strength depends on our faithfulness to the principles that shaped our founding. Those who seek to cut America off from its Judeo-Christian roots would destroy the tree of liberty itself. Just as a tree severed from its roots cannot long survive, nor, too, can a nation that abandons its founding principles. The light of the Hanukkah menorah reminds us of a timeless truth. It reminds us thata people who maintain their connection to their roots will endure and flourish. The story of Israel and the Jewish people demonstrate this truth. America must learn—or relearn—the same lesson. Our strength and our future depend on remaining faithful to the Judeo-Christian heritage that made us a beacon of freedom and human dignity to the world. The post A Hanukkah Lesson for America: Without Our Roots, the Tree of Liberty Dies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Recently in The Wall Street Journal, Neera Tanden, CEO of the Center for American Progress, a major foghorn in our nation’s capital for America’s Left, explained “Why Democrats Won the Shutdown.” The most accurate declaration in the article is “fights tell the country a lot about what—and who—the fighters care about.” And, indeed, there should be no question what the Democratic Party is about. That is—to miss no opportunity to accumulate political power by fostering, as widely and as deeply as possible, a culture of government dependence in America. And to pay the bill for this by bankrupting our country. “Affordability” is the political buzzword du jour now. And, indeed, no one wants higher prices. But the way to lower prices is greater efficiency in businesses delivering the products and services we care about. The government’s role in this is removing, to the greatest extent possible, unnecessary regulations and taxes. However, for those that love political power, the way to lower prices—to “affordability”—is subsidies. Shield those who you want to depend on you from the true costs of what they are consuming. And, indeed, this is the way of Obamacare. Shield the true cost of health care by sending the subsidy funds to the insurance companies to keep premiums to the consumer artificially low. Per the Paragon Health Institute, “in 2023, federal subsidies through the ACA Medicaid expansion and the exchanges, which almost all flowed to insurers, totaled $218 billion.” Not surprisingly, as Paragon reports, since 2010 when Obamacare was enacted, a weighted average of stocks of health insurance companies is up 1,032% (though the end of 2023) compared to 251% in the overall market, measured by the S&P 500. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the federal government went to your local grocer and said they will pay for all his stock if he gives it all away free to all his customers? How can things get more affordable than this? The next question is: How can we pay for this plan Democrats have for making things more affordable? Unfortunately, here we have even more subterfuge to shield Americans from reality. Or, in the words of former United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, “the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money.” There are two ways the federal government can get its hands on more money. Tax us. Or, not tax us now and borrow the money on global credit markets, basically putting us all on the hook without us knowing about it. That is, commit to higher taxes in the future. Our federal government has been running a fiscal deficit every year since 2001. Expenditures are greater than income. The only way to get more tax revenue without raising taxes is adequate growth in the economy so that with the same tax structure, people have higher incomes and pay more taxes. The other way is to raise taxes. We’re not growing fast enough to generate enough new tax revenue without raising taxes. And this stunted growth is just another symptom of the same problem: more government larding down our country and slowing things down. And raising taxes is not popular. Raising taxes means that taxpayers become aware that they are paying for political ruses such as Obamacare subsidies. And of course, Democrats have no interest in cutting spending. The result is that in 2001, the last year we had a fiscal surplus, federal debt as percent of gross domestic product was 30%. Now, per the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, it’s 95%. Projections from the Congressional Budget Office show our debt burden will continue to grow to unimaginable levels. Step one to solving the problem is getting honest and realistic that we have a problem. And this is the last thing that Democrats want. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Last Thing on Democrats’ Agenda—Telling the Truth to Americans appeared first on The Daily Signal.

This year, Catholics in Massachusetts are protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies by swapping “Away in a Manger” for “Away With the Manger.” This marks yet another instance of Trump opponents weaponizing the Christmas story to demonize immigration enforcement by claiming Jesus was a refugee and suggesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement would have arrested and deported the Christ child in the manger. The Catholic priest at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, set up a classic nativity scene with shepherds, sheep, wise men, and … a sign reading “ICE was here” in the place where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus would normally be. While the Catholic leadership opposed this “divisive political messaging,” the Rev. Stephen Josoma blamed the Trump administration for any division. Meanwhile, Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, put baby Jesus in zip ties and an emergency blanket, and placed gas masks on the faces of Mary and Joseph. The church said this symbolizes the conditions of ICE detention facilities and the use of tear gas on “peaceful protesters, journalists, and community members advocating for immigration reform.” “The Holy Family were refugees,” the church posted on Facebook. “By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in that child’s footsteps.” Was Jesus a Refugee? These strained analogies rest on a kernel of truth. According to Matthew 2:13-23, an angel appeared to Joseph, warning him to flee to Egypt because King Herod the Great aimed to kill Jesus. Herod ordered the slaughter of male children in Bethlehem, but Jesus survived in Egypt. God sent another angel to Joseph later, advising him to return to Israel because “those who sought the child’s life are dead.” Jesus arguably fit the definition of a refugee: someone forced to leave his or her country to escape war or persecution. However, anyone seeking to tie Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt to the plight of refugees or illegal aliens in America today will at once encounter a plethora of problems. Herod, the king who sought to kill Jesus, owed his position to the Roman Senate. Jesus fled Roman-ruled Judea to reside in Roman-ruled Egypt, and then returned to Roman-ruled Judea. Politically, Jesus’ flight to Egypt resembles a conservative family fleeing New York for Florida, or a liberal family moving from Texas to Illinois, more than it does a Somali refugee seeking asylum in the U.S. Jesus did not immigrate to Egypt and did not seek to become a citizen there. Furthermore, the Roman Empire at the time did not grant most of the population the right to vote, and it did not award government benefits to Jewish refugees in Egypt. Modern Western democratic welfare states need to regulate immigration more heavily than ancient empires did, partly because immigrants and refugees often claim benefits from the public purse, and these aliens may also seek to influence politics by voting or other means. Merely shouting, “Jesus was a refugee!” does nothing to address the serious concerns that illegal immigration poses. Caring for ‘The Least of These’ Christians should, of course, heed the Matthew 25 parable in which Jesus says God will reward us for helping “the least of these.” We should care for the sick, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, to the best of our ability. These commands to love our neighbor do not extend to using the force of the state to redistribute funds, however. Jesus calls on us to love our neighbors, not to bully our neighbors into forking over cash so the government can then serve other neighbors. Contrary to the suggestion of the Evanston church, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were not political activists. Yes, Jesus came to usher in a new kingdom—but when the Jews sought to make him a king, he refused. Jesus did not set himself up as a political leader. Rather, he and his followers urged Jews and Christians to pay their taxes and to submit to the ruling authorities, knowing that the spiritual freedom of the gospel matters far more than any political cause. Jesus knew of political movements against Roman oppression, and he did not endorse them. Jesus’ decision not to lead a political rebellion against Rome likely contributed to the Jewish leaders’ scheme to have him executed. None of this is to say that Christians cannot support political causes, but it does mean that Mary and Joseph likely would not have joined the agitators who seek to block ICE from enforcing immigration law. Perhaps more importantly, ICE would not have removed Jesus from the manger—any more than it would remove conservative New Yorkers from Florida or liberal Texans from Illinois. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, not an excuse to demonize law enforcement. It’s high time for St. Susanna Parish to put the Christ child back in the center of the nativity scene where he belongs. The post Would ICE Have Deported Jesus at Christmas? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

As Americans prepare to celebrate Christmas and begin the new year, it’s worth reflecting on what the country lost and gained in 2025. Here is a book, a movie, and a song to enjoy before the year’s end. A Book to Read: Alasdair MacIntyre’s ‘After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory’ Alasdair MacIntyre died on May 21, 2025, but his 1981 book “After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory” may live forever. Published by the University of Notre Dame Press, it is likely MacIntyre’s most well-known work among the public, and rightfully so. In it, the Scottish-American philosopher provides his assessment of where modern morality goes wrong and what ethical system can hope to save it. MacIntyre’s critical assessment of the West comes as one who was a consummate insider. For decades he graced the halls of America’s revered educational institutions, including Vanderbilt, Duke, and the Catholic bastion that is Notre Dame. This work shows that philosophy can provide a path toward the restoration of American prosperity. A Movie to Watch: ‘Frankenstein’ (2025) I was not expecting to enjoy Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” as much as I did. This director is known for his unsettling subject material, including the disturbing “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the monster flick “The Shape of Water,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2018 but has since been mostly forgotten. What surprised me most about the film was its unapologetic Christian themes. For one thing, there were the visuals. Days after viewing the film on Netflix, I still can’t shake the eponymous Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s mother bedecked in crimson red with a cross necklace before she dies in childbirth. And then there were the overt biblical references like Frankenstein’s creature reading Genesis and subsequently asking his creator for a companion like Adam’s Eve. The movie also refreshingly concludes on a note of forgiveness and hope. Time will tell if this surprisingly sober diagnosis of man’s spiritual state is just a Hollywood one-off or part of a longer-term trend that revives America’s love affair with the Christian faith. A Song to Listen to: ‘Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue’ by Toby Keith While the legendary singer and songwriter has an enviable dozen tunes worth listening to, it is this patriotic anthem that he may be most remembered for decades from now. And listening to the song keeps Keith’s legacy alive, as next February will mark the two-year anniversary of the singer’s death. Originally composed for the service men and women on USO tours after 9/11, Keith had initially thought against recording the song in studio. But when he sang a rendition of it before top Pentagon leaders, the Marine Corps. commandant told the songwriter to record the song to boost public morale in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. This year saw the U.S. military boost recruitment, conduct successful strikes against Iran, and begin to revolutionize how it procures advanced military technologies. I can think of no better way to celebrate those accomplishments. The post A Book, a Movie, and a Song to Finish 2025 Strong appeared first on The Daily Signal.

As the sun rises on a new Trump-era geopolitical chapter, Washington confronts a defining choice: Will America view the People’s Republic of China and its regnant Communist Party through the rose-colored lens of transaction and diplomacy, or will it soberly recognize Beijing as America’s foremost geopolitical adversary in a multigenerational cold war? The stakes could not be higher, and the answer ought to be simple. We should stop treating China with kid gloves—as a spirited economic or diplomatic competitor—and start treating it as the existential challenge to the American republic and the American way of life that it demonstrably is. In June, federal prosecutors in Michigan charged multiple Chinese nationals with conspiring to smuggle dangerous biological pathogens into the United States for use in American university research laboratories. The case centered on Fusarium graminearum, a fungus widely classified as a “potential agroterrorism weapon” because of its ability to ravage crops and cause serious harm to humans and livestock. Prosecutors alleged that the defendants received funding from the Chinese government and brought the pathogen into the U.S. for ostensible “lab work” at the University of Michigan. As if the University of Michigan needed to use smugglers to acquire research materials. This should have triggered alarm bells for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear: Chinese researchers allegedly attempted to slip biological threats past U.S. borders under the guise of legitimate scholarship. The implications are chilling. In a world still scarred by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic—which, lest we forget, originated in Wuhan, China—we cannot afford to dismiss biohazard incidents like this as anomalous. What’s more, in November, additional charges were brought in Michigan against a third Chinese national in connection with similar smuggling allegations. This is part of a pattern of deep, yearslong subversion on American soil. How quickly many have forgotten that in 2023, federal agents discovered a Chinese biolab in California. As confirmed by testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins, the biolab contained at least 20 potentially infectious agents—including HIV, malaria, and COVID-19. And when the issue isn’t biological warfare, it’s information warfare—including the abundance of Chinese Communist Party-supported Confucius Institutes that have long proliferated as hubs of Chinese agitprop on American university campuses, as well as chronic attempts at corporate espionage and potentially vast surveillance and manipulation of Americans through TikTok and other means. Does anyone think any of this is acceptable behavior? Amid these concerns, the Trump administration has just signaled a troubling shift in its export control posture by permitting NVIDIA to sell certain high-performance artificial intelligence chips—including the company’s advanced H200 series processors—to China. This decision severely reduces the United States’ comparative computing and semiconductor advantage over China, thereby abetting the boosting of China’s military and surveillance capabilities at a time of heightened and harrowing great power competition. There is no economic justification for such a strategic empowerment of our preeminent adversary. These chips are the engines that drive modern AI. Allowing their sale to China, no matter the regulatory strings attached, is senseless. Concurrently, tensions in the Indo-Pacific are rapidly escalating. Just days ago, Japanese authorities protested after a Chinese military aircraft locked its fire-control radar onto Japanese fighter jets near Okinawa—an extraordinary action Tokyo rightly described as unjustified and threatening. The incident, in which a Chinese J-15 fighter intermittently targeted Japanese F-15s for minutes at a time, was denounced by U.S. officials as a destabilizing provocation. China’s aggressive posture toward Japan—a treaty-bound American ally under the U.S. security umbrella—reflects Beijing’s broader strategy to reshape the regional status quo. China is testing not only Japan’s resolve, but America’s commitment to its formal allies. China wishes that the region—and eventually, the entire world—be refashioned in its image. If Tokyo falters under Beijing’s pressure, it will embolden China’s ambitions and only further incentivize a People’s Liberation Army invasion of Taiwan. The rest, as they say, could be history. Could be. It’s not too late for history to take a different course. And President Donald Trump, who deserves tremendous credit as the first president since Richard Nixon visited Chairman Mao to fundamentally reset U.S.-China relations, must not now go wobbly. The U.S. must pursue an Indo-Pacific strategy that prioritizes Chinese containment—not mollycoddling or empowering. This means an all-of-the-above diplomatic, economic, and military strategy rooted in the cultivation and maintenance of robust, durable alliances—above all, those with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and Taiwan. Washington should accelerate intelligence sharing, expand joint military exercises, and deepen economic integration with these nations. The goal isn’t provocation with China, but time-tested “peace through strength”-style deterrence. Lecturing allies and telling them to settle down, as Trump allegedly recently did on a phone call with Japan’s precocious new prime minister, is not helpful. The Chinese Communist Party views the West—particularly the United States—not as a partner but as a rival to be surpassed and supplanted. Beijing’s posture and actions are consistent with those aimed at an adversary in a long, grinding cold war. Washington needs to view Beijing in the same way. American leaders must not confuse transactional engagement with strategic trust. They must not treat menacing geopolitical rivals as anodyne export customers. Nor can they treat valuable geopolitical allies as pawns whose legitimate concerns can be easily discarded for the short-term thrill of appeasement. The long, cold dawn of this century’s defining geopolitical struggle is well upon us, and America must stand firm. Communist China is certainly doing so. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Don’t Go Wobbly on China appeared first on The Daily Signal.