A Boy, Busts and Bulls

Surprises everywhere, and yet no real surprise—just wishful thinking, benign neglect, repeat performances, and business as usual.

Late Saturday, President Trump called for yet another halt to America’s attacks against Iran. We are being told that he is once again close to getting the ayatollahs and mullahs to agree to a peace resolution that will permanently open the Strait of Hormuz for commercial traffic, dismantle their nuclear weapons program, and end their theocratic tyranny over the Iranian people.

Meanwhile, and similarly, Trump announced that we may finally see an end to the fighting in Gaza. Yet another peace agreement is in the works that would effectively lead to Hamas and Islamic Jihad surrendering their weapons, destroying still-operational tunnels, have Israel’s military withdraw from Gaza, install a new governance in Gaza that would not include Hamas, international participation in securing the borders between Israel and Gaza, and committing to the reconstruction of Gaza.

Elsewhere, as many as 60,000 Moroccans, many of them young men with doubtless Islamist sensibilities, stormed the border of Spain. Although Spanish authorities claim that most of these migrants have since left, voluntarily or not, unknown numbers are still running amok. Spain’s annual Running of the Bulls, which took place a mere two weeks before and never involves more than 2,500 thrill-seekers, will no doubt be overshadowed this year by a far better attended and more treacherous trot. Never in the absence of a war have this many people invaded Europe on a single day.

Elsewhere in Europe, the British pop singer Boy George released a new record titled “We Will Dance Again,” which refers specifically to the massacre of young Israelis who gathered to dance at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, on Simchat Torah — a joyful Jewish holiday devoted to dancing.

The lyrics to the song make clear where Boy George’s heart is and his sympathies lie. He is no mere “boy,” but a fearless man of moral clarity. He expresses solidarity with Israeli victims, defends Israel’s military response (“You say genocide, I say war”), avowedly states that “I stand with the Jews,” and perhaps most pointedly of all, lambasts fellow musicians who claim to be human rights activists and yet stand with the terrorists of Gaza.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his list of an 18-member Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, and there was not a single Jewish lawyer on it. In case you are unaware, there is no shortage of Jewish lawyers in New York City. No one can recall there ever being any committee on the courts or legal system that denied even a single Jewish attorney, judge or legal scholar a seat at the table. This from a mayor devoted to “inclusion” and a promise to have his administration reflect the people who live in it?

Finally, in Michigan, the state’s Attorney General, Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced that she will skip the Michigan Democratic Party’s nominating convention this summer. How is this possible in the United States, in 2026, in a swing purple state?! Michigan’s chief legal officer is afraid to attend the Democratic Party’s convention because, as a Jew, “I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage …” This is how a vulnerable Jew in Michigan feels even with a security detail!.

All very surprising? Not really.

President Trump is seriously trusting Iran and Hamas to negotiate in good faith and abide by their agreements? Didn’t we already have an agreement in principle with the Ayatollah back on April 7 that involved the same basic framework for a peaceful resolution—with the exact same terms as Trump is announcing now? The linchpin of those negotiations also required unclogging Iran’s chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz, and an end to its nuclear aspirations.

Back on September 29, 2025, didn’t Trump triumphantly announce the signing of a 20-point Plan to End the Gaza Conflict? It, too, contemplated an immediate ceasefire, a freezing of battle lines and the staged withdrawal of Israeli troops, Hamas agreed to disarm and surrender control of Gaza. All terror tunnels were to be dismantled. A new technocratic Palestinian administration would become the governing authority. And a Board of Peace would supervise this transition and ensure Israel’s security with an International Stabilization Force.

When will we finally cease having hopes that Islamists will honor their commitments to ceasefires? Hasn’t the time finally arrived when we can give up any illusion that terrorists will magically be transformed into diplomats, forsaking their keffiyeh scarves for a Calvin Klein makeover?

Surrendering to the most despised infidels of all—Americans and Jews—is not in the nature of Iran’s Shi’ites and Gaza’s Muslim Brotherhood. Nearly a year after the purported negotiated settlement, Hamas is still in full control of the enclave, is actively recruiting new terrorists, has not surrendered a single weapon, and is busy lining up thousands more women and children to serve as human-shield cannon fodder.

Yes, for Spain, the influx of 60,000 Moroccans sounds more like a D-Day invasion than a mere border control snafu, but the United States used to host track meets for illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande during the Biden administration—resulting in 8.7 million border encounters, and as many as 6 million who remained.

But this is old hat for the European haberdashers of Islamic terrorism. Two weeks ago, an Islamist plowed his van into pedestrians attending Berlin’s Pride celebrations—one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ events. He then proceeded to attack parade watchers with a machete—killing one woman and injuring 29.

Germany is already on notice that it may have to cancel one of its oldest and most beloved cultural traditions: the mounting of Christmas markets in cities across the country. For over ten years these festivals have been ruined, and lives have been lost on account of car-rammings and machete rampages from angry Muslims.

Boy George shall forever be known as a patron saint of the Jewish people, but surely there is no surprise what actions were immediately taken against him in retaliation for the audacity of cutting a record that called attention to the victims of 10/7, and schooled listeners that collateral damage is a feature of war, and not evidence of a genocide.

Boy George shall forever be known as a patron saint of the Jewish people, but surely there is no surprise what actions were immediately taken against him in retaliation for the audacity of cutting a record that called attention to the victims of 10/7, and schooled listeners that collateral damage is a feature of war, and not evidence of a genocide.

That was too much for his entourage and fellow musicians to abide. The manager of his music label quit in protest, and he was forced to withdraw from a London production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” He is, naturally, taking a beating online, too.

The attorney general of Michigan is discovering what many more Jews will soon come to learn: the Democratic Party is seemingly determined to be Jew-free. DSA bigots and bullies are in charge now.

Yes, the attorney general of Michigan is discovering what many more Jews will soon come to learn: the Democratic Party is seemingly determined to be Jew-free. DSA bigots and bullies are in charge now (surely Senator Schumer is not), and their poster boy, Zohran Mamdani, knows that without a single Jew serving on his judicial appointments committee, it is less likely that pro-Hamas “Globalize the Intifada!” chanters will ever be prosecuted for hate crimes.

No surprise there.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is a contributing writer for White Rose magazine. His most recent book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza.”