Latest news with #McCarthyite
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Mister Netanyahu, Have You No Sense Of Decency?
Opinion – Jeremy Rose Well be waiting a long time for the wanted war criminal Netanyahu to show any decency, but could we be approaching a tipping point where the establishment finally calls off a witch hunt after realising no one is safe from false accusations? The word antisemitism has become so debased that depending on who is using it I might well take it as a sign that the accused is worth listening to. When the World Criminal Court issued a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest, he responded by saying the court was being antisemitic. One of the court's legal advisers was Theodor Meron a former Israeli ambassador and legal adviser who spent a chunk of his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp. Last week, Netanyahu declared the leaders of France, the UK and Canada of fuelling antisemitism. Their crime? Threatening 'concrete action' against Israel if it continues its 'egregious' blockade of aid entering Gaza. Egregious not genocidal. And the concrete action referred to wasn't sanctions or a full arms embargo but stalling free trade talks. The bitter irony is that with none of those countries having yet imposed a complete ban on arms exports to Israel; they are all in a sense fuelling a genocide. The Army-McCarthy hearings We're coming up to the 71st anniversary of the Army-McCarthy hearings where an army lawyer, Joseph Welch, rebuked senator Joseph McCarthy with the famous line: 'Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?' We'll be waiting a long time for the wanted war criminal Netanyahu to show any decency, but could we be approaching a tipping point where the establishment finally calls off a witch hunt after realising no one is safe from false accusations? The McCarthyite red scare, which began in the late 1940s, saw more than 2000 federal workers sacked, thousands of academics, teachers, and union members pressured or forced to resign due to anti-communist policies, and up to 500 Hollywood directors and actors blacklisted for being leftwing or refusing to name names. Welch's rebuke was triggered by none of that. It was McCarthy turning his metaphorical guns onto the military implying he would expose high ranking army personnel that saw the army lawyer return fire. The conflating of criticism of Israel with antisemitism has been spectacularly successful in making any criticism of Israel a potentially career ending move. Three Ivy League presidents have been pushed out of their jobs for failing to crack down hard enough on students protesting the brutality of Israel's ongoing genocide. UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose popularity had seen the party become the biggest political movement in Europe, was toppled in 2016 after bogus accusations of antisemitism. In the purge of the Labour Party that followed Jews were five times more likely to be investigated for antisemitism than goys. It's the same story in Germany where Jews feature prominently among those cancelled for alleged antisemitism. Renowned professor of Jewish studies Peter Schäfe was forced to resign as the director of Berlin's Jewish Museum after he retweeted a post critical of Germany's anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions. Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis – not a Jew – has been banned from Germany or even appearing via Zoom for this response, on the 8th of October 2023, to being asked if he condemned Hamas: 'I condemn every single atrocity, whomever is the perpetrator or the victim. What I do not condemn is armed resistance to an apartheid system designed as part of a slow-burning, but inexorable, ethnic cleansing programme. As a European, it is important to refrain from condemning either the Israelis or the Palestinians when it is us, Europeans, who have caused this never-ending tragedy: after practising rabid anti-Semitism for centuries, leading up to the uniquely vile Holocaust, we have been complicit for decades with the slow genocide of Palestinians, as if two wrongs make one right.' That nuanced response, with its acknowledgement of the dreadful legacy of real antisemitism, has not only seen him banned from speaking – in person or virtually – but dropped by his German publisher. Antisemitism is often referred to as the oldest hatred – with good reason – but the word itself is relatively recent. A 'scientific' word for an old hatred 19th Century German journalist Wilhelm Marr popularised the term in a pamphlet the title of which translates as: The way to victory of Germanism over Judaism. What distinguished antisemitism from the commonly used Judenhass – or Jewish hate – was the idea that it was a Jew's race not their religion that was deserving of hate. Antisemitism was a prejudice proud to speak its name. It was respectable in a way that religious intolerance wasn't. Prominent professors and politicians happily declared themselves antisemites and adherents of 'scientific racism.' It was an old idea dressed up in new clothing. 15th Century Spain passed Limpieza de Sangre (cleanliness of blood) statutes to allow discrimination against Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity. The Judeo-Christian civilisational conflict with Islam, often referred to by right-wing supporters of Israel, is a relatively new construct. When the Jews were expelled from Spain the Ottomans sent ships to take them to new homes in Istanbul, Thessaloniki and Izmer. Times change and while it was once possible – even common – to be a respectable antisemite and scientific racist but frowned upon to discriminate based on religious belief, now the reverse is true. So-called new atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins declare all religions bad but Islam worse. 'Listening to the lovely bells of Winchester, one of our great mediaeval cathedrals. So much nicer than the aggressive sounding 'Allahu Akhbar.' Or is that just my cultural upbringing?' Dawkins once tweeted. The cultures of Europe have indeed cultivated racist ideas for centuries. And just as half a millennia ago conversion offered you no protection from the racism of the Spanish court, embracing Buddhism didn't protect Columbia university student Moshen Mahdawi from being snatched from a naturalisation interview by balaclava-clad ICE agents. His crime? Being Palestinian and telling his story. It's a topsy-turvy world where life-long anti-fascists like Jeremy Corbyn and Yanis Varoufakis are sanctioned on bogus claims of antisemitism while the likes of Elon Musk and Hungarian PM Victor Orban – both peddlers of old-style antisemitic conspiracies – are welcomed to Israel as friends and allies in a contrived battle of civilisations. One thing that differentiates antisemitism from the Judeophobia, which has been a European disease since the early days of Christianity, is that it places Jews among the victims of the continent's white supremacist legacy. It's perhaps no coincidence the Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas in the same year, 1492, that Spain expelled its Jews and Muslims. The settler colonisation of the Americas has been estimated by historian David Stannard to have resulted in the death of 100 million indigenous people – many from introduced diseases but tens of millions also died in genocides only recently making their way into history books. Last week when Netanyahu declared Israel's attacks on Gaza 'a war against human beasts' he was echoing the words of settler colonialists from Alaska to Aotearoa and the dehumanising language of the Nazis against the Jews. So, back to that question about whether we've reached a tipping point where unfair accusations of antisemitism will be seen in a similar light to McCarthy's red scare. With Netanyahu accusing the leader of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, an IDF reserve major general, of promoting a blood libel for speaking out against the starving of babies in Gaza, it's hard not to draw parallels with the Army-McCarthy hearings. It's worth quoting the words that saw Israel's PM accuse Golan of a blood libel – a reference to the lie that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish children in the baking of matzos, and a trigger for centuries of pogroms. 'A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population.' The idea that an IDF general speaking out against the killing of babies is propagating racist hatred of Jews is surely a leap too far even for many fervent Zionists. Another sign that the tide might be turning is Kenneth Stern, the lead drafter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, saying the US administration's weaponisation of the IHRA definition is making academics and students (including Jews) less safe. The self-described Zionist said the definition was being distorted and used to silence anti-Israel critics. The IHRA working definition has been widely adopted internationally – including by institutions in New Zealand and Australia. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both criticised the definition claiming it has seen those documenting Israel's human rights abuses being falsely accused of antisemitism. It's a tragedy that weaponised accusations of antisemitism aimed at protecting Israel from criticism are obscuring a rise in Judeophobic conspiracy theories and attacks on Jewish community centres and synagogues around the world. And even more tragically that those accusations are blunting criticisms of Israel that could help bring the ongoing genocide in Gaza to an end.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Mister Netanyahu, Have You No Sense Of Decency?
The word antisemitism has become so debased that depending on who is using it I might well take it as a sign that the accused is worth listening to. When the World Criminal Court issued a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest, he responded by saying the court was being antisemitic. One of the court's legal advisers was Theodor Meron a former Israeli ambassador and legal adviser who spent a chunk of his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp. Last week, Netanyahu declared the leaders of France, the UK and Canada of fuelling antisemitism. Their crime? Threatening 'concrete action' against Israel if it continues its 'egregious' blockade of aid entering Gaza. Egregious not genocidal. And the concrete action referred to wasn't sanctions or a full arms embargo but stalling free trade talks. The bitter irony is that with none of those countries having yet imposed a complete ban on arms exports to Israel; they are all in a sense fuelling a genocide. The Army-McCarthy hearings We're coming up to the 71st anniversary of the Army-McCarthy hearings where an army lawyer, Joseph Welch, rebuked senator Joseph McCarthy with the famous line: 'Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?' We'll be waiting a long time for the wanted war criminal Netanyahu to show any decency, but could we be approaching a tipping point where the establishment finally calls off a witch hunt after realising no one is safe from false accusations? The McCarthyite red scare, which began in the late 1940s, saw more than 2000 federal workers sacked, thousands of academics, teachers, and union members pressured or forced to resign due to anti-communist policies, and up to 500 Hollywood directors and actors blacklisted for being leftwing or refusing to name names. Welch's rebuke was triggered by none of that. It was McCarthy turning his metaphorical guns onto the military implying he would expose high ranking army personnel that saw the army lawyer return fire. The conflating of criticism of Israel with antisemitism has been spectacularly successful in making any criticism of Israel a potentially career ending move. Three Ivy League presidents have been pushed out of their jobs for failing to crack down hard enough on students protesting the brutality of Israel's ongoing genocide. UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose popularity had seen the party become the biggest political movement in Europe, was toppled in 2016 after bogus accusations of antisemitism. In the purge of the Labour Party that followed Jews were five times more likely to be investigated for antisemitism than goys. It's the same story in Germany where Jews feature prominently among those cancelled for alleged antisemitism. Renowned professor of Jewish studies Peter Schäfe was forced to resign as the director of Berlin's Jewish Museum after he retweeted a post critical of Germany's anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions. Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis – not a Jew – has been banned from Germany or even appearing via Zoom for this response, on the 8th of October 2023, to being asked if he condemned Hamas: 'I condemn every single atrocity, whomever is the perpetrator or the victim. What I do not condemn is armed resistance to an apartheid system designed as part of a slow-burning, but inexorable, ethnic cleansing programme. As a European, it is important to refrain from condemning either the Israelis or the Palestinians when it is us, Europeans, who have caused this never-ending tragedy: after practising rabid anti-Semitism for centuries, leading up to the uniquely vile Holocaust, we have been complicit for decades with the slow genocide of Palestinians, as if two wrongs make one right.' That nuanced response, with its acknowledgement of the dreadful legacy of real antisemitism, has not only seen him banned from speaking - in person or virtually – but dropped by his German publisher. Antisemitism is often referred to as the oldest hatred – with good reason – but the word itself is relatively recent. A 'scientific' word for an old hatred 19th Century German journalist Wilhelm Marr popularised the term in a pamphlet the title of which translates as: The way to victory of Germanism over Judaism. What distinguished antisemitism from the commonly used Judenhass – or Jewish hate – was the idea that it was a Jew's race not their religion that was deserving of hate. Antisemitism was a prejudice proud to speak its name. It was respectable in a way that religious intolerance wasn't. Prominent professors and politicians happily declared themselves antisemites and adherents of 'scientific racism.' It was an old idea dressed up in new clothing. 15th Century Spain passed Limpieza de Sangre (cleanliness of blood) statutes to allow discrimination against Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity. The Judeo-Christian civilisational conflict with Islam, often referred to by right-wing supporters of Israel, is a relatively new construct. When the Jews were expelled from Spain the Ottomans sent ships to take them to new homes in Istanbul, Thessaloniki and Izmer. Times change and while it was once possible – even common – to be a respectable antisemite and scientific racist but frowned upon to discriminate based on religious belief, now the reverse is true. So-called new atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins declare all religions bad but Islam worse. 'Listening to the lovely bells of Winchester, one of our great mediaeval cathedrals. So much nicer than the aggressive sounding 'Allahu Akhbar.' Or is that just my cultural upbringing?' Dawkins once tweeted. The cultures of Europe have indeed cultivated racist ideas for centuries. And just as half a millennia ago conversion offered you no protection from the racism of the Spanish court, embracing Buddhism didn't protect Columbia university student Moshen Mahdawi from being snatched from a naturalisation interview by balaclava-clad ICE agents. His crime? Being Palestinian and telling his story. It's a topsy-turvy world where life-long anti-fascists like Jeremy Corbyn and Yanis Varoufakis are sanctioned on bogus claims of antisemitism while the likes of Elon Musk and Hungarian PM Victor Orban – both peddlers of old-style antisemitic conspiracies – are welcomed to Israel as friends and allies in a contrived battle of civilisations. One thing that differentiates antisemitism from the Judeophobia, which has been a European disease since the early days of Christianity, is that it places Jews among the victims of the continent's white supremacist legacy. It's perhaps no coincidence the Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas in the same year, 1492, that Spain expelled its Jews and Muslims. The settler colonisation of the Americas has been estimated by historian David Stannard to have resulted in the death of 100 million indigenous people – many from introduced diseases but tens of millions also died in genocides only recently making their way into history books. Last week when Netanyahu declared Israel's attacks on Gaza 'a war against human beasts' he was echoing the words of settler colonialists from Alaska to Aotearoa and the dehumanising language of the Nazis against the Jews. So, back to that question about whether we've reached a tipping point where unfair accusations of antisemitism will be seen in a similar light to McCarthy's red scare. With Netanyahu accusing the leader of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, an IDF reserve major general, of promoting a blood libel for speaking out against the starving of babies in Gaza, it's hard not to draw parallels with the Army-McCarthy hearings. It's worth quoting the words that saw Israel's PM accuse Golan of a blood libel – a reference to the lie that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish children in the baking of matzos, and a trigger for centuries of pogroms. "A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population." The idea that an IDF general speaking out against the killing of babies is propagating racist hatred of Jews is surely a leap too far even for many fervent Zionists. Another sign that the tide might be turning is Kenneth Stern, the lead drafter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, saying the US administration's weaponisation of the IHRA definition is making academics and students (including Jews) less safe. The self-described Zionist said the definition was being distorted and used to silence anti-Israel critics. The IHRA working definition has been widely adopted internationally – including by institutions in New Zealand and Australia. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both criticised the definition claiming it has seen those documenting Israel's human rights abuses being falsely accused of antisemitism. It's a tragedy that weaponised accusations of antisemitism aimed at protecting Israel from criticism are obscuring a rise in Judeophobic conspiracy theories and attacks on Jewish community centres and synagogues around the world. And even more tragically that those accusations are blunting criticisms of Israel that could help bring the ongoing genocide in Gaza to an end.
The Guardian
24-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
US writers at growing risk of crackdown on free speech, says PEN America
Writers in the US are at growing risk amid a worldwide crackdown on free speech that has begun to spread to countries previously renowned for unfettered expression and openness, according to a leading writers' advocacy group. PEN America said it was concerned about an emerging threat from the Trump administration as it published its annual Freedom to Write index report, which showed that the number of writers jailed worldwide had jumped for the sixth year running to 375 in 2024, compared with 339 the year before. Covering a period ending before Donald Trump took office on 20 January, the 35-page report records China as once again the biggest jailer of writers, with 118 behind bars, up from 107. Iran is the second highest incarcerator, with 43, down from 49 a year earlier, although those released had been freed with conditions that forced them into silence. Israel is in fifth place, with 21 writers behind bars, including eight in administrative detention – statistics at odds with the country's self-proclaimed status as a democracy that tolerates dissent. Other prominent incarcerators are Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, a Nato ally and ostensibly still a democracy under the leadership of its strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The index has been published for the past six years and has hitherto generally highlighted the dangers faced by writers living under repressive regimes, although Israel also appeared in the previous year's report. While making no explicit mention of threats to free speech under the US president following a spate of arrests of foreign students who have campaigned for Palestinian rights and accusations of trying to curtail academic freedom, its text clearly hints at the potential for a future clampdown. 'As geopolitics continue to shift and authoritarian tendencies spread to countries that were once considered safely anchored in openness, we are seeing that free expression, and therefore writers, are increasingly in the crosshairs of repression in a much wider range of countries,' says the index. '[Governments] recognize the power of words to affirm historical truths, give voice to those whose narratives have been excised from the historical ledger, develop or maintain culture, and hold institutions to account … Democracies have been slow to understand that attacks on writers are both the precursor to and a consequence of broader attacks on human rights, democracy, and free expression.' In an interview, Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN America's director of writers, said the comments reflected a fear for writers on the domestic front, saying that the US had not witnessed such a 'broad and deep attack on ideas' since the McCarthyite anticommunist witch-hunts of the 1950s. She cited the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University in the US on a Fulbright scholarship, who was detained and earmarked for deportation after co-authoring an opinion article criticizing Israel's military offensive in Gaza. 'People are being detained for their ideas and their writing in the US. This is definitely worrying,' she said. 'I would say it's only probably a matter of time when writers that we would include in our database and index in the US being detained as well. I fully expect that next year, we may well have cases in the United States in our index.' Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion PEN's index generally includes fiction authors, poets, singer-songwriters, online writers and opinion writers, while excluding journalists who write news reports. Karlekar said the threatening atmosphere – which has seen university authorities pressured to crack down on views perceived as antisemitic – had already led to self-censorship. 'I think, particularly on issues concerning Israel and Palestine over the past year and a half, there has been already a chilling effect,' she said. 'Given what's happening with the Trump administration, there may well be more issues that people are afraid to take on. 'If someone is interested in looking at climate issues or transgender issues or women's rights, those are in the crosshairs of the administration [and] there may well be more self-censorship on some of these issues as well.' Restrictions on free speech in the US were likely to worsen the situation for writers elsewhere, especially if Washington were to retreat from its traditional status as champion of human rights. 'The US has traditionally been a strong supporter of free expression around the world' Karlekar said. 'It really helps when governments like the US or Britain speak out about these cases. If the US is really stepping back in terms of its role of defending free expression and being a standard bearer for this issue, that's big blow in terms of global trends and getting writers out of jail in other countries.'
New European
19-03-2025
- Politics
- New European
Another Tory ex-minister joins the consultancy bandwagon
A common career move for MPs after losing their seats is to turn to consultancy. Their expertise in government and parliamentary procedures, so the spiel goes, makes their minds valuable to tap for companies eager for an insight into thinking at the top (and, they don't say quite so loudly, their parliamentary passes-for-life give them ready access to what remains of their former colleagues). A lot of Conservative MPs found themselves without a job after last year's general election. Last October we reported how self-styled 'Brexit hardman' Steve Baker had, alongside Paul Dolan – an academic with a penchant for dressing as a member of a 1990s techno outfit – launched 'The Provocation People', a body which 'can help you transform your decision-making by systematically dismantling groupthink'. Baker and Dolan are listed on the site as its 'Chief Provocation Officers'. Now one of Baker's fellow hardline Brexiteers has followed suit. Chris Heaton-Harris was a short-lived chief whip under Boris Johnson and Northern Ireland secretary under both the Liz Truss interregnum and Rishi Sunak. New European readers may remember how, in 2017 Heaton-Harris, a then lowly Tory whip, wrote to university vice-chancellors across the UK asking for the names of any professors involved in teaching European affairs 'with particular reference to Brexit'. In his letter, he asked for 'a copy of the syllabus' and any online lectures on Brexit. After being accused of 'McCarthyite' tactics by academics who said it was an assault on free speech Heaton-Harris was defended by colleagues who said it was, in fact, research for a book he was writing (eight years on, the work has yet to see the light of day). Now there's even less time for wordsmithery as Heaton-Harris has launched Oak Communications, a consultancy offering 'straightforward insight in a changing world'. It is, it says, 'dedicated to providing comprehensive insight to companies looking to navigate and surf the oncoming waves of change breaking over the UK and EU economic and political landscapes'. Heaton-Harris's partner in this exciting new endeavour is Gawain Towler, the long-time Nigel Farage spinner given the heave-ho by Reform last September as Farage sought to professionalise the party's communications. Towler is, though, still listed as the media contact on the website of the long-dormant Museum of Brexit, a planned tourist attraction in hibernation so long one of the trustees highlighted on its homepage is Nigel Lawson, who died almost exactly two years ago. Don't all rush at once for the insights of this dynamic duo!
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The far-right's pretend fight against antisemitism is a perfect political strategy
The detention of Columbia university student, Mahmoud Khalil, is unequivocally chilling. Khalil, who helped lead the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia university last year, was targeted for his politics. His unlawful arrest by the US immigration enforcement agency comes amidst relentless smears lobbed at protesters of Israel's war on Gaza. This McCarthyite abduction of a Palestinian Green Card holder is a trial balloon, a test of what society might tolerate and a threat of more to come. And the added horror-show twist to this assault on free speech is that it is being done in the name of Jewish people under the pretence of tackling antisemitism. Such egregious claims are easily refuted. Most American Jews didn't vote for Trump and don't back his crackdowns. As Amy Spitalnik of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, one of multiple Jewish groups opposing Khalili's detention, said: 'The Trump administration is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy.' Meanwhile, it is grotesque to pretend that Team Trump, home to antisemitic conspiracy theories, Nazi salutes and Holocaust denialism, is fighting antisemitism, rather than actively reproducing it. But while Khalil's arrest fits into longstanding attempts to silence pro-Palestine protesters, it is also part of a wider global authoritarianism. US students protesting Israel's decimation of Gaza have faced relentless bi-partisan furore over antisemitism claimed to be rife within such movements. And pro-Israel groups have lobbied hard to provoke these accusations. But to locate Trump's crackdown purely within this political arena is to misunderstand the full force of far-right ideology in all its mechanisms. That pro-Israel Jewish groups, or the Israel government are cheering this assault on free speech does not substantively change the dynamics of power at play here. This is not about the impact of pro-Israel Jewish university funders, or aggressively anti-Palestinian alumni groups, or even the prominent Anti-Defamation League. We can – and should – criticise their actions and their abject moral failure in lining up with Trump. But we can do so without inflating their influence to suggest that authoritarianism in supposed defence of Jewish people is actually being led by Jewish people. For that would be to fall into a divisive trap set by Trump and the global far-right. A key element here is that the far-right has found in its pretend fight against antisemitism the perfect political strategy, a way to divide progressives while at the same time clobbering them. The far-right is using this wedge not just to shut down voices critical of Israel's serial violence against Palestinians and a war on Gaza described by experts as genocidal, but also to attack so-called wokeism, critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, 'liberal elites' at universities – in short, all the political enemies in its constructed culture wars. This has long been clear across Europe, where far-right figures from Hungary's Victor Orban to France's Marine Le Pen have rehabilitated their political fortunes in part by performatively proclaiming to care about Jews. This has been achieved by best-friending Israel, bear-hugging its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a shield against accusations of antisemitism. Wrapped in the Israeli flag, far-right parties with fascist roots and current displays of antisemitism cast themselves as defenders of Jews against an antisemitism claimed to be coming from Muslims and migrants. It's a terrifically self-serving formulation, since hating Muslims and migrants is the main ideological obsession and rallying cry for the resurgent far-right. We see the same brush strokes in the Heritage Foundation's Project Esther, a blueprint for Trump's repressive crackdowns starting with pro-Palestine protesters, penned by Christian Evangelists and in a claimed defence of Jewish communities. Rolling out this McCarthyist crusade carries an additional and dangerous undercurrent. By stating that authoritarian measures are deployed to fight antisemitism, Trump is scapegoating Jewish people. Creepily, the White House announced its detention of Khalil on X using the Hebrew for goodbye in the all-caps message: 'Shalom, Mahmoud.' This narrative, with those in power deflecting blame onto Jewish people, is itself characteristic of antisemitism. And if repressive measures are supposedly about protecting Jews, it inevitably risks generating resentment of Jewish people. All of which is more reason for progressives to not lose sight of who is both instigator and executor of this current crackdown. Jelena Subotić, a professor of political science at Georgia State university who has written about far-right pro-Israel antisemitism, told me that Khali's detention is 'incredibly pernicious because it is pitching Jewish students, or faculty, or anyone identified as Jewish, as the cover for totalitarianism. It is splitting groups along identity lines and dividing people who should be allies.' In the midst of a multi-spectrum assault on democracy, this tests the cohesion of progressive movements. It calls for a firm stand in solidarity with Palestinians while resisting attacks on all minorities, even while one racialised community is set up as the 'good' minority in need of protection from the others. As Subotić puts it: 'Nobody wants to be the model minority for a fascist regime.' Progressives must now grapple with the way both antisemitism itself and the fight against various political movements labelled as 'antisemitism' is being used by the far-right, thereby countering anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-migrant hatred, while also combatting antisemitism. It's a lot. But every part of it is essential to building an inclusive progressive tent. And keeping everyone together, inside the tent, a mosaic of forces pushing in one direction, is the only rational way to combat fascism. Rachel Shabi is the author of Not the Enemy – Israel's Jews from Arab Lands and Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism
