WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Kennedy highlighted the collapse of historic Jewish communities across the region.
  • He said Christian populations have also fallen dramatically.
  • Kennedy linked the decline to religious and institutional doctrines.
  • He criticized Western supporters who ignore those demographic changes.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is drawing attention to the historic decline of Jewish and Christian communities across the Middle East, arguing that dramatic demographic changes in countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and others are too often ignored in Western discussions about the region.

Kennedy pointed first to Jewish populations that once existed throughout several Middle Eastern and North African countries.

"In 1948, there were 950,000 Jews. How many of them are there today? Maybe a couple 100. There are no Jews in Egypt. There were 250,000 in 1948. There are no Jews in Iraq. It was 100,000. There are no Jews in Syria. There's four Jews in Syria. There are no Jews in Jordan. There are no Jews in Saudi Arabia. There are no Jews in Tunisia, Libya, or Algeria."

Kennedy characterized the disappearance of those communities in stark terms.

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"They've all been exterminated. That is the real genocide in the Middle East."

He then shifted his attention to Christians, arguing that many countries now associated primarily with Muslim populations once contained far larger Christian communities.

"And what happened to the Christians? Where millions and millions of Christians. Those were all Christian countries. Egypt was a Christian country. Libya was a Christian country. Algeria was a Christian country. Iraq was a Christian country. Syria, Lebanon was a Christian country in 1948."

Kennedy said Christian populations across the region have also experienced a steep decline through displacement and other pressures.

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"The Christians have been expelled. They've gone from 20% of the population to 4% of the population."

He described those demographic shifts as genocides and argued that the ideology behind them can be found in religious and institutional teachings.

"These are genocides, and they are the genocide that is envisioned. It is in the charter documents. It's in the lectures of the imams. It's in the sermons. It's in the teaching at Al Aqsa University, which is their epicenter."

Kennedy's remarks centered on what he sees as a long-running pattern of religious minorities disappearing from parts of the Middle East while Western political debates focus on other conflicts and allegations.

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His argument was that the decline of these Jewish and Christian populations should be treated as a central part of understanding the region's modern history rather than as a secondary issue.

Kennedy's comments also targeted Western activists and supporters who, in his view, fail to acknowledge the demographic transformation he described.

"They are the only people they say they tell that our objective is not genocide are Western dupes and useful idiots who love to even support them."

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