Project Esther's McCarthyite Campaign

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/31/what-is-project-esther-the-playbook-against-pro-palestine-movement-in-us

Likud has long collaborated with the GOP, not only on issues such as Project Esther, but in partisan politics as well. Time and again, Israel has helped Republicans undermine not only presidents' Clinton, Obama, and Biden, but other figures connected to the Democratic Party. They work in tandem, with common interests.

There have been numerous instances of lobbying and propaganda, but Project Esther in the name of combatting Anti-Semitism attempts to shape US domestic policy and law enforcement - in keeping with GOP domestic goals aimed at suppressing any opposition to their policies. The Heritage Foundation is the perfect fit. The Al Jazeera piece neglected to mention its historical and nefarious role in foreign policy, encouraging and supporting countless wars and proxy wars going back to the Reagan administration. And it must said once again, when covert wars or operations are undertaken, they necessitate a campaign of lying and manipulation. The Heritage Foundation excels at putting a scholarly gloss on what are otherwise hack-studies and policy papers. Israel seems to all but glow for many in the GOP - especially those in the Christian Right who are deeply affected by Dispensationalism.

The American Jewish community has not always been happy with Likud and its racialist and fascistic tendencies, but they'll stand by it when they perceive Israel is under threat. I thought of this recently when I was walking through the Squirrel Hill neighbourhood of Pittsburgh - the location of the Tree of Life Synagogue where a mass shooting took place in 2018, leaving eleven dead and many wounded. The area is affluent and while known for its large Jewish community, it's mostly liberal in terms of politics. And yet as I walked around I kept seeing 'We Stand With Israel' signs in the front yards of well-to-do homes. On these critical points, a sizeable portion of the Jewish community will stand with both the GOP and Likud.

And yet clearly a large element of the anti-war protests are comprised of Jewish people and so to label the protesters as Anti-Semitic is dishonest.

If you've been following the coverage of the war by means of media outside the United States, the antagonism between European and British reporters and Israel has been noteworthy. Just yesterday, a BBC reporter called out the Israeli ambassador for their sudden reversal and refusal to accept Hamas' willingness to accept the terms of a ceasefire. The Israeli spokesman lashed out and tried to sidetrack the discussion over whether or not to call the other Palestinian area the West Bank (let alone 'Occupied') or Judaea and Samaria.

Everything that questions Israel is framed as support for Hamas. According to Likud, the protesters in both the UK and the United States are shills for Hamas. The GOP is quite eager to sign up for and implement this project as they loathe campus protesters - feelings that have simmered for decades going back to the Vietnam era. They want to take out their rage and revenge on contemporary students that oppose their agenda. For some of them it's literally a sadistic desire to see these people beat up by police and for their lives to be ruined.

Any resistance is met with a harsh response - something we're also seeing with the resistance to the militarization of police in American cities. If you attacked Capitol police in January 2021 and were imprisoned, you were a hero and martyr. Today, if you throw a sandwich at a Border Patrol agent operating on American streets, you get fired from your job and charged with a felony.

Part of the play-book is to argue that since Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and opposition to Israel's war policies is to support Hamas - therefore criticism of Israel and protesting the war and the Gaza genocide is to engage in terrorism. It's ridiculous, disingenuous, and flawed reasoning, but that's how it's being argued all across Right-wing airwaves - and fully supported by large sections of the Evangelical community - and supported by the pernicious mendacity of figures like US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

Foreign students on visas are easy targets and its clear the administration is already going after them. For those who are American citizens, if they're college students, the administration wants to kick them out of school - leaving them with huge government debts and no degree. And obviously part of the plan is to be merciless in the collection of that debt.

Doxxing is also popular and we've seen that Israeli agents are actually operating within the United States - and certainly as provocateurs at some of the protests. It's nothing new. This sort of thing was going on during the Vietnam-era protests as well with the FBI having infiltrated these groups, urging them into violence and into government nets. Of course as we've already seen, since American universities are so closely tied to the government - it's easy for a administration that has no shame, restraint, or regard for the law to threaten them. And clearly they're backing down and capitulating. Netanyahu, the Butcher of Gaza couldn't be more pleased.