Roger L. Simon’s latest commentary is a characteristic exercise in political provocation from the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter turned conservative pundit, formerly Editor-at-Large at 'The Epoch Times'. The piece channels arguments he continues to refine across media platforms, including a recent guest appearance on the Heartland Journal Podcast (Episode 444, aired May 5, 2026), where host Steve joined Simon to discuss his book 'American Refugees' and the broader cultural fragmentation of the West.
In this essay, Simon deploys demographic arithmetic and religious persecution data to invert prevailing narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Citing RFK Jr.’s claim that the “only genocide in the Middle East” is against Jews and Christians, Simon points to the collapse of Jewish populations in Arab states—from roughly one million in 1948 to under 15,000 today—while contrasting this with the growth of Muslim Arab populations in Israel and Gaza. The argument is designed to dismantle accusations of Israeli genocide by suggesting that Israel’s military caution, including “roof knocking” warnings, and Gaza’s population growth are incompatible with such charges.
The piece expands beyond Israel into a broader brief for Judeo-Christian solidarity. Simon highlights the reported Iranian threat to seize Tehran’s St. Peter Evangelical Church and the absence of public churches in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, juxtaposing these with the hundreds of mosques in Texas and nearly two thousand in the United Kingdom. For Simon, this disparity is not merely hypocrisy but evidence of “religious imperialism” and an existential threat to Western civilization. He frames rising antisemitism as a precursor to broader Christian persecution—the old “canary in the coal mine” logic—and urges Christian readers to join what he presents as a shared civilizational battle.
Stylistically, the essay is direct, urgent, and unencumbered by diplomatic restraint. It blends historical invocation (George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Touro Synagogue) with self-promotion (references to his book *EMET* and an upcoming sequel). The prose is conversational but charged, intended more as a rallying cry than a nuanced policy analysis. Nuance, indeed, is not the objective; Simon is writing manifesto, not journalism.
Critically, the piece flattens complex geopolitical realities into a binary civilizational struggle. It does not engage with Palestinian civilian casualties, occupation, or the political distinctions between Iranian, Saudi, and Palestinian contexts. Instead, it treats the Middle East and the West as opposing blocs in a religious zero-sum contest.
Whether read as urgent truth-telling or inflammatory simplification, the essay is quintessentially Simon: culturally pessimistic, unapologetically philosemitic, and convinced that Jewish-Christian unity is the last bulwark against civilizational decline. For readers encountering his work for the first time, the Heartland Journal interview offers a useful companion audio primer on the ideological worldview driving these columns.
