The Trump administration is apparently adopting a foreign policy that is much more aggressive than advertised when campaigning. Candidate Trump reminded voters that he had not started any new wars in his first term and suggested that he would cut the Pentagon Budget in half.
The reality is that Trump has just proposed the first trillion-dollar DOD budget and in March started a bombing campaign in Yemen. Trump even bragged about bombing a hundred or so people in Yemen posting the video on social media. Somewhat ghoulish….
The Trump administration is threatening bombing Iran. This could have devastating effects on the world economy and geopolitics. Fortunately, Trump did not sanction recent Israeli plans to attack Iran. In the case of Russia and Ukraine, Trump has worked to deescalate the conflict. This effort could be negated if war with Iran breaks out.
The Trump administration has continued the Biden era war on free speech and has redirected it from speech about COVID toward speech critical of Israel. The administration has branded speech critical of Israel as antisemitic speech. This is an extraordinary assault on the First Amendment.
It goes without saying that the First Amendment protects antisemitic speech as it does anti Catholic speech, or any other kind of unapproved speech. Americans have a right to hate Jews, Catholics, white people, black people, and everyone in between. They also have a right to express such hatred in nonviolent ways. The reality is that what is considered racist, sexist, bigoted speech, is much more subjective than is advertised.
What makes the Trump administration actions so extraordinary is that the administration and many Republicans are conflating criticism of Israel and Zionism with hatred of Jews. In the eyes of the Trump administration, to criticize the foreign nation state of Israel is antisemitic speech.
A foreign nation state is so privileged that the basic rights of Americans must be ignored to placate this foreign power?
This means that Christians that practice the teachings of Christ and speak out against the genocide in Gaza are antisemites?
A two-tier society must then be created where Jews are above criticism, and all other races and religions are fair game?
A disturbing video of a Tufts University graduate student being arrested by government agents in street clothes, some of whom are masked, has gone viral. The student is a foreign national from Turkey and had written op eds critical of the genocide in Gaza.
This appears to be a thought crime, although, there appears to be no crime other than criticizing Israel. Contrary to what some believe, free speech is a Natural Right that the American founding fathers believed was gifted by God and preexisted and transcended the existence of government. Deporting college students that are legally in the United States for criticizing Israel or the Israeli genocide in Gaza is a despicable assault on the First Amendment. If they are legally here, they have the same basic civil rights as Americans.
If it can be done to them it can be done to us. This is exactly what some Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been trying to do. According to the Jewish Insider:
The legislation codifies a Trump-era executive order declaring that antisemitism is a prohibited form of discrimination in schools and universities, and that the Department of Education should use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in assessing cases of antisemitic discrimination.
The Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism gives examples. Here are a few of them:
Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
With arguably the exception of calling for violence, these are mainly pure thought crimes. Critical thinking requires individuals to question narratives they’ve been fed. After all, in an abstract sense, the story is never actually true. It is what it is, everything else is basically a psychological projection.
So, if a researcher determined that the actual number of Jews killed in NAZI Germany was less than the number of 6 million that would mean they are antisemitic?
Pointing out that Netanyahu behaved like a NAZI when he said that Israel would be a laboratory for the ‘COVID vaccines’ and then injected 90% of Israelis with mRNA bioweapon injections, would define one as an antisemite?
Questioning pedophile blackmailer CIA/Mossad agent, Jeffrey Epstein’s loyalties, would make one antisemitic?
Criticizing the genocide in Gaza and comparing Israeli policy in this regard to NAZIS would make one an antisemite?
So, it is okay for the left to talk about the White Power Structure, but examining potential Jewish influence in the media, economy, government, or other societal institutions, is antisemitic?
We here about the Italian Mafia, Russian mob, Chinese, mob and so on. What about the Jewish mob? Are Jews angels and above criticism?
Will such restrictions be placed on all criticism of all religions? What about races?
Does this apply to the entertainment industry?
Every other word in many movies is the use of the name ‘Jesus Christ’ in a blasphemous manner. These screen plays are often written, directed, produced, and acted, by non Christians.
