The spectacle of a foreign official discussing how to “change textbooks” in a sovereign country should be recognised for what it is: an assertion of ideological dominance. Recent remarks attributed to Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun— a Miami businessman, Chabad Hasid adherent, Trump campaign donor, and now the US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism—represent a naked attempt to police historical memory beyond US borders. Confirmed by a narrow, partisan Senate vote of 53–43, Kaploun now wields ambassadorial authority at the State Department. He has made clear how he intends to use it.

Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Washington Conference, Kaploun identified Indonesia as a priority target. “Indonesia has 350 million Muslims living in their country. How are we going to change their educational books?” he asked, before insisting that curricula must be reshaped to determine “who should be responsible” for Gaza. This was not careless language. It was a declaration of intent: to reengineer how millions of Indonesian children understand colonialism, violence, and Palestinian suffering—using US power as leverage.

This has nothing to do with combating antisemitism. It has everything to do with narrative control.

Indonesia’s solidarity with Palestine is not driven by religious animus, and even pro-Israel watchdogs concede this. It is a direct extension of Indonesia’s own anti-colonial identity. The 1945 Constitution commits the nation to opposing colonialism “in all its forms,” a principle forged through centuries of Dutch exploitation and Japanese........

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