Robert Wilkie Issues Urgent Warning on Anti-Semitism, National Decline in Powerful Keynote Address

As war rages in the Middle East and anti-Semitism spreads across American cities and college campuses, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie delivered a sobering keynote address, warning of the moral, cultural, and strategic decline threatening the United States.

Wilkie’s speech painted a vivid picture of an America adrift—torn from its founding principles, weakened on the world stage, and increasingly hostile to the Jewish people.

“The world’s oldest hatred” returns

Wilkie opened by acknowledging the resurgence of global and domestic anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.

“As thousands of rockets rained down on Israel, the world’s oldest hatred—anti-Semitism—reared its head in places once thought unimaginable.”

He condemned the wave of violence and intimidation across the United States, describing a breakdown of public order and moral clarity:

“Mobs searched for Jews to attack across America. Neighborhoods were terrorized, diners assaulted, Americans wearing yarmulkes bloodied, and Gaza-obsessed Marxists rampaged through campuses.”

A nation built on “revolutionary acceptance”

Wilkie invoked the words of President George Washington in a powerful historical reminder of America’s founding commitment to religious liberty:

“The United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance… while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

He argued that Washington’s vision went beyond tolerance:

“Washington was not preaching mere tolerance; he was calling for revolutionary acceptance.”

The Left’s ideology and the collapse of unity

Wilkie issued a sharp critique of the modern Left, charging it with undermining America’s cohesion through race-based ideologies:

“The Left’s embrace of identity politics exerts a pernicious influence on college campuses, public schools, the leadership of our armed forces, and the mainstream media.”

He warned that this worldview had reduced complex global conflicts to simplistic narratives:

“An all-encompassing woke mindset… collapses individuals and events into a reductive binary of oppressor and oppressed. When the Squad looks at Israel and Hamas, it cannot see anything other than Critical Race Theory.”

Appeasement abroad, decline at home

Turning to international affairs, Wilkie drew historical parallels to the 1930s and warned that Western passivity is inviting aggression:

“Who is in charge of the clattering train?… Death is in charge of the clattering train!”

He accused the Biden administration of failing to respond to global threats with seriousness:

“Obama’s ‘third term’ is worse because his successor, Joe Biden, is presiding over the most precipitous decline in American power and prestige in our history.”

Wilkie condemned defense budget cuts and what he called the politicization of the military:

“Defense spending is the lowest percentage of GDP since 1924 and military recruiting has dried up as the Administration uses the Pentagon as a social justice experiment.”

America must return to “grand strategy”

Throughout his remarks, Wilkie emphasized the urgent need for a national grand strategy to replace what he characterized as reactionary drift:

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

He laid out a vision rooted in history and realism:

“The concept of ‘grand strategy’ is a reference from which a nation’s historical, cultural, economic, diplomatic, and military thought is brought to bear to create a strategic synthesis.”

Wilkie called for confronting China, Russia, and Iran through strength and alliances, not appeasement:

“We are in a ‘pre-war’ phase and as Golda Meir once warned, ‘When someone tells you over and over he wants to kill you, believe him.’”

Warning against “performative diplomacy”

Wilkie took particular issue with the Biden Administration’s National Defense Strategy, which he said prioritized climate change over national defense:

“The NSS tells us what we presumed—this Administration considers climate change to be the greatest threat facing the West. It mentions climate change 63 times, far more space than is allocated for the PRC, PLA and Russia combined.”

He criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s response to global threats as disconnected from reality:

“The Administration is ‘clear eyed about serious threats.’ He then contradicted himself saying that Pentagon is focused on a military renaissance by 2030 although the threat is here and now.”

A call for principled leadership

Wilkie ended his keynote with a call to restore faith in America’s role as a global leader:

“With respect to an American grand strategy, there must be an acceptance of America’s unique position as the indispensable nation. To lead well, you must believe in the country you serve.”

Warning that America is currently being led by those who have resigned themselves to decline, he concluded:

“This is the hour of America’s maximum danger. When we should prepare for great power conflict, no one ‘is in charge of the clattering train’—the malice of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the West.”