Randy Yisroel Settenbrino is a writer and artist. He is a passionate advocate for Israel and Jewish-Christian solidarity, founder of the Historic Blue Moon Hotel, and founder of Ohr Chodosh L’Zion, a cultural and spiritual initiative dedicated to restoring Jewish identity, courage and creativity through art, history and living faith. His newest book, Between the Altar and the Sanctuary: The Life, Faith, and Fire of Rabbi Meir Kahane, is available on Amazon.
“Better red than dead" meant it was better to live under communist rule (“red") than to die in a nuclear war. Used during the Cold War, the phrase expressed a preference for survival over resistance - at any cost.
Every generation produces its Quislings, people who mistake collaboration for enlightenment and open the gates to those who would destroy their freedom. Today, the red-green coalition of Communists and Islamists demands that we call this surrender progress.
Doesn’t anyone think anymore? It’s often said we live in a generation with the attention span of a lit match. The astute, the well-read, the discerning, people with traditional values and a Judeo-Christian outlook, are waning. The excess of American comfort has produced generations of soft men. And women.
I just saw a hysterical post asking, “Who will save us from Donald Trump?" There is a far greater question:
Who will save the Americann Republic from the Islamists and the Communists?
Look at the Russian Revolution, Mao’s China, and, most tellingly, the Iranian Revolution. In 1979, Iran’s leftists marched beside Khomeini; within a few years, those who survived were in prison or in exile. And how do we overcome low-EQ voting?
Did you vote for the Qatari candidate? Did you approve of Obama’s open door to CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood? He told Mubarak to step down and paved the way for Morsi, knowing it would bring terror to the Sinai and bind the Brotherhood to Gaza, which could have been a death knell for Israel. In Morsi’s Egypt, pre-adolescent Coptic girls were raped in the streets to chants of “Allahu Akbar," churches were burned, and priests were decapitated. When Sisi’s military took over to protect minorities and stem the terrorists, Obama called for Morsi’s return.
This is the man who called ISIS the JV team. This is the man who handed Iran $150 billion and a path to the bomb. Cairo, Gaza, Tehran: the pattern is the policy. Now he stumps for El-Sayed and covers for Ilhan, which amounts to an endorsement of enemy combatants masquerading as concerned Americans.
Paris is Burning and so few see through the Smoke Screen.
Look across the Atlantic at Paris, Rome, Milan, Turin and Florence. Consider what their leaders risk with liberal immigration policies, indulgence toward Islamists, and the rejection of G-d and their own cultural inheritance. Do they imagine themselves immune to the history they refuse to study? They are consigning themselves to the abyss.
Jew Aside
Now look at New York. Hochul goes around with Mamdani as though she can charm the snake and rescue her failing popularity. Snake charmers learn the hard way: when the music stops, the snake still slithers away to eat its prey. Meanwhile, visibly Jewish New Yorkers feel under siege, and rather than confront his rhetoric, she lends him legitimacy.
A new Cato Institute study ranks Hochul last in the nation for protecting her constituents’ freedoms. In its 2026 “Freedom in the 50 States" report, New York placed No. 50 with an F, trailing even Hawaii, California, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The study scores each state out of 100 on how well its laws protect economic and personal freedom, from taxes, housing, occupational licensing and education to firearms, speech and medical choice.
Hochul's administration’s migrant policies have failed the migrants themselves while burdening taxpayers and straining our police. She offers neither fiscal discipline nor credible leadership on law and order. Spending rises, New Yorkers shoulder the burden, and the taxpayers who sustain the benefits have more reason to leave. Picking fights with Washington only compounds the damage. New York needs responsible government, not another photo opportunity.
Interestingly enough, there are unions that will not let their will be undone: the NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, over prison safety; the NYS Supreme Court Officers, over courthouse security and public safety; the NYS Court Officers Association, over staffing and security; and the Transport Workers Union of America.
In her debate with Blakeman, her only defense was offense. The best she could muster was the party line: “Trump, Trump, Trump," as evil incarnate. As you can see, there’s no there there.
Blakeman, as a pro-Israel governor, could serve as a bulwark against a city government with an increasingly hostile posture toward Israel. When he likened Brad Lander to a concentration camp guard, he sent the right message: these policies are a direct threat to identifiable Jews, and they will inevitably affect estranged Jews and the rest of the country.
Lander, supporting Mamdani, wrapped himself in a tallit at a Yom Kippur vigil in Brooklyn and recited the vidui to confess Jewish “complicity in genocide" in Gaza. He buttresses this rhetoric. The repeated misuse of “genocide" is a dog whistle to rouse the masses against Jews, and we see the consequences in the daily lives of New York City’s Jewish community.
A personal note: NYC, Where Are You?
Our award-winning Historic Blue Moon Hotel, a family-run business, has been repeatedly targeted because we have two sons in the IDF. No response -- neither outrage, nor protection.
Mamdani co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Bowdoin College. That same movement came to my door. FIT’s SJP chapter brought its protest to our hotel, a boycott campaign followed, vandalism and the death threats came at three and four in the morning. One man sent our family more than a thousand of them, with pictures of a loaded gun and a machete. The FBI arrested him, and when agents searched his home, they found the weapons from the photos and another loaded handgun.
Donovan Hall was arrested by the FBI for personal and direct antisemitic threats.
My Jewish family came here fleeing pogroms. I restored the Historic Blue Moon Hotel on Orchard Street to preserve that heritage. Must our children now flee the city where their ancestors found refuge? I refuse to watch Jewish life become something we must hide.
A vote for the left is supporting our own demise.
A vote for the left is Jewicide. Let’s stop supporting our own demise.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, once a Democrat himself, told listeners it is no longer the Democratic Party but a socialist one. If you want Mamdanis all across America, he said, stay home. Anyone who wants to protect America should get out and vote Republican.
In the first quarter of 2026, Jews were targeted in 55 percent of NYC’s confirmed hate crimes. Albany does not control aid to Israel, but it can confront intimidation, protect campuses, and resist discriminatory boycotts. Blakeman’s call to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism is a starting point. I want enforcement, scrutiny of foreign funding, and a New York where our children can live openly as Jews.
I cannot stress enough the importance of this election, and above all, of who governs New York. I’m hearing that Roy Singham’s People’s Forum and its sister act Code Pink are planning actions here like those of Antifa and the pro-Palestinian Arab mobs that have rioted across this country. Look at the riots throughout Europe: again and again, the Palestinian flag flies over them. It has become the skull and crossbones of anarchy. With Hochul in power, New Yorkers will pay the price.
Races like Lander’s are among many small battlegrounds that could flip the country upside down. Lose enough of them, and the next four years will bring impeachment after impeachment and riots in the streets. That is why the Senate races, and the gubernatorial races, matter so much.
Eligible New York voters living in Israel, including students in yeshivas and seminaries: could vote with absentee ballots, and I hope they have done so.
It would be prudent for Jews to finally come together and vote for the preservation of their communities, and to understand the Aurelian truth: what is not good for the hive is not good for the bee. Do not put a sword in the hands of our enemies to slay us. Staying home on election day guarantees your voice will not count.