In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.If you listen to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) relive the details of his brief “detainment” by a Jewish security team near Hebron, you might be under the impression it was akin to being in the first wave landing on Omaha Beach in 1944.The incident was provoked by Khanna, whose convoy drove into a military zone for just such a moment. A Jewish security team, with an off-duty Israel Defense Forces soldier, almost surely didn’t know who was in the car when they stopped it. When police and the IDF showed up, they cleared the way and asked Khanna to take another road.
The congressman was “detained” in the same way a person is “detained” at a traffic stop. The IDF, incidentally, had offered to accompany Khanna anywhere he wanted to go. He rejected its help. Obviously, it wouldn’t have been conducive to his stunt.Jewish residents of Judea have their own security teams because they’re susceptible to Palestinian violence. Do some act poorly on occasion? Yes, they do. This is the real world. But “West Bank” Palestinians have been targeting Jews for 70 years as a matter of policy. If the IDF weren’t there, Jews would be massacred. Because they, like Khanna, demand a Judenfrei Middle East.“This is the first time that I have been acutely aware of being brown,” Khanna said, adding a little racial politics for his progressive domestic audience.Those who haven’t been to Israel might not be aware how utterly preposterous it is to claim anyone is able to detect any racial distinction between the progeny of the 850,000 or so Jews, who were expelled from their ancient homes across the Middle East after 1948, and an Arab. Around 60% of Israeli Jews trace their ancestry back to the Middle East or North Africa. “Free advice to the Israelis,” Khanna told the New York Times, “it’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates.” The congressman then told Reuters that his brief stop made him “more resolved” to run for the White House in 2028.Most presidential hopefuls claim they are spurred to public service to improve the lot of Americans. Khanna’s political aspiration is to give Fatah and Hamas their own terror states. Or, at least, this is what he believes the modern progressive wants to hear. And he may be right. Khanna desperately wants to be president. Though there are a few obstacles. First, no one else wants him to be president. Second, judging from his hamfisted Hebron stunt and the string of recent embarrassments at home, his political instincts are awful.Not long ago, Khanna joined fellow Jew-baiting congressman Thomas Massie as the face of the “Epstein files” release, which, as a lawyer, he surely knew would amount to nothing more than uncorroborated accusations and third-hand accounts.In the end, not only was there no secret cabal of rich pedophiles running the world, there weren’t even any names for Khanna to smear. Not that it stopped him from endlessly decrying the sins of the “Epstein class,” emphasis on the Epstein.Khanna’s “Epstein class” rhetoric and obsessive focus on AIPAC is just an oily way to tap into ugly conspiracies about Jewish money and its alleged control over politics. Khanna doesn’t merely argue that AIPAC is sitting on the wrong side of a foreign policy debate — he accuses the group of stealing his constituents’ healthcare and childcare to perpetuate a “genocide.” Though Israel’s aid amounts to something around 0.05% of the federal budget, and is spent here in the United States, the Third World Marxists whom Khanna desperately wants to impress blame virtually every problem on Israel.Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speaks to reporters on the steps of the U.S. Capitol after voting in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
