Friends,
I sent this article out to my Elist on December 27. I then
tried to post it on my Facebook page with the tag line We must stop the
fascists. Facebook would not allow it to be posted on my page as it was
labeled SPAM. Has anyone else experienced getting a SPAM notice from
Facebook?
Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)
How Trump and the
GOP Plan To Dismantle the U.S. Pro-Palestinian Movement
https://portside.org/2024-12-26/how-trump-and-gop-plan-dismantle-us-pro-palestinian-movement
Ben
Samuels
December
23, 2024
Haaretz
Kagiso,
Max
Four weeks before
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes power, all his rhetoric and
appointments are indicating that his campaign's vow to crack down on
pro-Palestinian sentiment in America will be a defining factor of his
administration's early days.
Throughout the
campaign, both Trump and the Republican Party insisted
that such a clampdown would be quick and complete. After Trump's speedy cabinet
appointments and ahead of a Congress ruled by a GOP majority, the fight against
the pro-Palestinian movement might be one of the only things that has a clear
path across the government.
Once Trump's picks
for the top diplomatic positions are in place, such as Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador, the
harshest step – the deporting of pro-Palestinian protesters who have student
visas – could be the first move. Both Rubio and Stefanik are well-known
proponents of such a step, one of Trump and the GOP's few solid policy
commitments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the campaign.
In October, Rubio
wrote to the current secretary of state, Antony Blinken, urging him to
"immediately perform a full review and coordination effort to revoke the
visas of those who have endorsed or espoused Hamas' terrorist activity."
Stefanik,
meanwhile, has doubled down on her star-making turn as university-president interrogator by
calling for students' deportation. She told Fox News in May that these students
"are pro-Hamas members of a mob who are calling for the eradication of
Israel. They are calling for genocide against Jews around the world and in
America. It is unthinkable that we are allowing this to happen at U.S.
universities."
The blueprint is
there
Other nominees
more focused on domestic matters have also suggested that the pro-Palestinian
protest movement will be a key issue. Among them is Pam Bondi, Trump's second attempt at a nominee for
attorney general. The former Florida attorney general has called for a
revocation of visas and condemned the campus protests.
Pro-Palestinian
protesters at Columbia University in New York in April. (Credit: Emily
Byrski/Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University in New York in
April.Credit: Emily Byrski/Agence France-Presse(AFP) // Haaretz)
"The thing
that's really the most troubling to me [are] these students in universities in
our country, whether they're here as Americans or if they're here on student
visas, and they're out there saying 'I support Hamas,'" she told Newsmax
last year.
Bondi added:
"Frankly they need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be
interviewing them right away."
Trump's choice to
lead the FBI is controversial loyalist Kash Patel. While the former federal
prosecutor doesn't have much of a record on campus protests, he is most
notorious for his desire to remove any of Trump's critics and doubters from the
national security apparatus.
Further, Patel's
experience as the National Security Council's senior director of
counterterrorism during Trump's first term positions him to crack down on
pro-Palestinian sympathizers. A blueprint for this is detailed in Project
Esther, a plan to combat antisemitism unveiled by the Heritage Foundation,
which is behind Project 2025, the 922-page paper outlining conservatives' plans
to fundamentally alter the government.
The underlying
thesis of Project Esther – a more tractable 33 pages – is that "America's
virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American 'pro-Palestinian
movement' is part of a global Hamas Support Network (HSN)."
"The thing
that's really the most troubling to me [are] these students in universities in
our country, whether they're here as Americans or if they're here on student visas,
and they're out there saying 'I support Hamas,'" she told Newsmax last
year.
Bondi added:
"Frankly they need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be
interviewing them right away."
Trump's choice to
lead the FBI is controversial loyalist Kash Patel. While the former federal
prosecutor doesn't have much of a record on campus protests, he is most
notorious for his desire to remove any of Trump's critics and doubters from the
national security apparatus.
Further, Patel's
experience as the National Security Council's senior director of
counterterrorism during Trump's first term positions him to crack down on
pro-Palestinian sympathizers. A blueprint for this is detailed in Project Esther, a plan to combat antisemitism unveiled
by the Heritage Foundation, which is behind Project 2025, the 922-page paper outlining
conservatives' plans to fundamentally alter the government.
The underlying
thesis of Project Esther – a more tractable 33 pages – is that "America's
virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American 'pro-Palestinian
movement' is part of a global Hamas Support Network (HSN)."
President-elect Donald Trump and U.S.
Representative Elise Stefanik at a rally in New Hampshire in January.
Credit: Elizabeth Frantz / Reuters // Haaretz)
The task force's
mission statement calls for a coalition to "dismantle the
infrastructure" that purportedly sustains the alleged network. This would
take one to two years. "Supported by activists and funders dedicated to
destroying capitalism and democracy, the HSN benefits from the support and
training of America's overseas enemies," the document states.
It adds that this
network "seeks to achieve its goals by taking advantage of our open
society, corrupting our education system, leveraging the American media,
coopting the federal government, and relying on the American Jewish community's
complacency."
The document
suggests how a potential Trump administration would crack down on protesters,
something he has promised. It also calls for the deporting of protesters in the
United States on student visas and the targeting of universities' tax-exempt
status. It notes laws that might "exploit [the network's]
vulnerabilities," require representatives of foreign entities to disclose
their connections, and target organized crime and racketeering.
Hardliner Harmeet
Dhillon
One bill that will
not be in the law books anytime soon is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which
is aimed at combating campus antisemitism. It also requires the Education
Department to take the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism into account
when determining if an action or practice that violates Title VI of the 1964
Civil Rights Act was motivated by antisemitism.
The House of
Representatives overwhelmingly passed the act earlier this year, despite
concerns on the left that criticism of Israel would be conflated with antisemitism
and on the right that the bill had dramatic implications on freedom of speech.
There were also tropes from far-right Republicans that the bill would state
that Jews killed Jesus.
Outgoing Senate
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has kept the bill off the Senate floor for a vote
by attaching it to various other packages that he hopes to push through.
Amid this
stalemate, another notable opponent has emerged: Harmeet Dhillon, Trump's
choice to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which will play
a major role in enforcing federal action combating antisemitism.
Trump's
nominee for assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon,
speaking in Phoenix on Friday. (Credit: Cheney Orr/Reuters //
Haaretz)
Dhillon, one of
Trump's top legal minds behind his efforts to challenge the 2020 election
results, slammed the Antisemitism Awareness Act upon its House passage. "I
have been a First Amendment and religious liberties lawyer for minority and
majority faith communities for decades and this bill is knee-jerk
anti-constitutional dreck," she wrote on X.
She added:
"Do better, think harder, and be smarter, Congress. 'Hate speech' laws are
a liberal concept." But Dhillon has joined her new colleagues in being a
vocal advocate for cracking down on the campus protest movement.
"Sue
Yale," she wrote on X in April. "Sue every university that refuses to
keep students safe based on their religion. Make them regret their choices.
Deplete their endowments. Sue each and every violent protester and organizers.
Drain their bank accounts. Sow salt in their career plans."
Dhillon followed
that post by laying into a protest at UCLA: "I defend the right of these
jackass terrorist apologists to protest, but they do NOT have the right to
block access to other students or prevent them from going to class. My tax
dollars are subsidizing UCLA and the Regents need to get their act together
ASAP or be sued!"
Linda McMahon,
Trump's education secretary nominee, has also publicly committed to
prioritizing the issue, even if the incoming president has vowed to dismantle
her department.
"Certainly. I
don't think we should have any kind of discrimination anywhere, and I
absolutely abhor any kind of violence that we have seen on campus. It should
not be allowed," she told Jewish Insider without specifying what plan she
supports. "We have lots of priorities that I'm going to be dealing with,
and certainly anything that is against the safety and welfare of any of our
students will be a priority."
The proposed
defunding of the Education Department is perhaps the plank in Project 2025 that
most concerns the American-Jewish community. The Office of Civil Rights, which
is responsible for investigating and adjudicating allegations of antisemitism, is
part of this department and has opened at least 145 investigations into such
complaints.
U.S.
Rep. Brian Mast arrives for a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing this
month. (Credit: Kevin Dietsch/ Agence France-Presse(AFP) //
Haaretz)
Hardliner Brian
Mast
This past summer,
a rare coalition of nearly two dozen Jewish organizations across the political
and denominational spectrum urged Congress to "provide the highest
possible funding" for the Office of Civil Rights, despite the deep
disagreements regarding antisemitism on Capitol Hill and in the Jewish world.
House Republicans,
though they deemed the office's funding insufficient, voted to cut $10 million
more after accusing it of failing to prioritize antisemitism. Several
Trump-allied Republicans have also highlighted the office's role in culture war
issues like Title IX and what they call "forcing women to compete against
males in sports."
Holding a
razor-thin majority and already plagued by infighting, the House GOP might find
that advancing legislation relating to the Palestinians is the only influential
work it can get done in the next session of Congress.
In a surprise
development, Rep. Brian Mast has been slated to chair the House Foreign Affairs
Committee after Trump advocated on his behalf. The Florida congressman has long
been considered the U.S. lawmaker most hostile to the Palestinians. He has
decried efforts to bolster humanitarian aid for Gaza and dismissed the notion
of innocent Palestinian civilians.
"I don't
think we would so lightly throw around the term 'innocent Nazi civilians'
during World War II. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent
Palestinian civilians," he said in remarks that led to an unsuccessful
effort in the House to formally rebuke him.
Mast, an
evangelical Christian, once volunteered with the Israeli military, and he wore
his uniform in Congress in the days after the October 7 attack. That was a way
to protest Rep. Rashida Tlaib's placing of a Palestinian flag outside her
office.
Mast has also
condemned the concept of a two-state solution while spearheading legislation to
permanently cut U.S. funding for the UNRWA refugee agency,
among other hostile bills. He has also slammed U.S. efforts to secure a cease-fire
in Gaza and advocated for expedited and expanded weapons sales to Israel.
Source URL: https://portside.org/2024-12-26/how-trump-and-gop-plan-dismantle-us-pro-palestinian-movement
Donations can be sent
to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206,
Baltimore, MD 21212. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at]
comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
