Donald Trump’s re-election as president of the USA marks a shift in US coverage – from the Joe Biden administration’s hypocritical denial of American complicity in Zionist genocide, struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity to an unapologetic endorsement of all these actions.
Apart from bringing Washington’s assist for all of Israel’s excesses, crimes and violations out into the open, Trump’s return to the White Home may even intensify and make much more overt the persecution of those that dare resist white supremacy and its Zionist incarnation.
Underneath Biden, those that opposed American-funded and -facilitated Zionist genocide, from college college students and civil servants to racial justice activists and authors, already confronted threats from politicians, police harassment, baseless accusations of anti-Semitism within the media and relentless intimidation from employers, college directors and far-right-linked Zionist “self-defence” teams.
And but, Trump says Biden has been “weak” in countering “Hamas radicals” and he would do much more to close down anticolonial resistance as president. On the marketing campaign path, he referred to as for the deportation of overseas nationals who assist Palestinian resistance and, since being elected, has nominated pro-Israel hawks to key intelligence and safety posts in his authorities, signalling he intends to maintain his guarantees on cracking down on anti-Zionist activists. For instance, Trump named Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor who as soon as launched a invoice cracking down on criticism of Israel on the grounds of “guaranteeing the safety of God’s chosen individuals”, as his secretary of homeland safety.
One other indication that Trump’s second time period will probably be marked by a brand new crackdown on anticolonial and antiracist resistance got here within the type of a technique to “fight anti-Semitism” titled “Challenge Esther”, drafted by the distinguished Trump-aligned conservative assume tank, the Heritage Basis.
The Heritage Basis has been open about its intention to rework “Challenge Esther” into authorities coverage below a second Trump administration. It states inside the technique doc itself – which was revealed on October 7 to mark the primary anniversary of the Hamas assaults on Israel – that it hopes “Challenge Esther” would current “a chance for public-private partnership when a prepared administration occupies the White Home”.
Created by the identical minds that introduced us the authoritarian, Christian nationalist “Challenge 2025”, “Challenge Esther” syncretises the story of Queen Esther, the Jewish heroine celebrated throughout Purim for saving Jews of historical Persia from extermination by the hands of Vizier Haman, with modern-day Zionist narratives of defence and victimhood to depict her as a defender of Jews towards activists, lecturers and progressive members of Congress within the US who oppose racism, apartheid and genocide. The technique paper, supposedly designed to be “a blueprint to counter anti-Semitism in the USA”, contains a number of elementary features of fascistic thought and follow as outlined by Umberto Eco, comparable to syncretic tradition, xenophobia, a cult of heroism and anti-intellectualism.
Focused people – together with quite a few Black, Brown and Jewish elected representatives who voiced any criticism of Israel, together with Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer – are collectively mischaracterised as members of “Hamas Help Organisations (HSO)”, a part of a “Hamas Help Community” and equated with Purim’s villain, Haman. Via this framing, the marketing campaign targets distinguished social justice advocates and progressive Democratic Celebration representatives as enemies of the Jewish individuals, utilizing the mythology of Queen Esther to justify their persecution and repression.
“Challenge Esther” shamelessly states its goals to get rid of anticolonial views from the US schooling system, restrict the dissemination of associated data and limit advocates’ entry to American society, the economic system and Congress. It seeks to prosecute alleged authorized and felony violations by “HSO” members, disrupt their communications, limit demonstrations and rally the Jewish neighborhood, allies and the American public towards anticolonial resistance actions.
With fearmongering rhetoric draped in patriotism and “American values” and the newest Zionist spin on rebranding offensive aggression as “defence”, “Challenge Esther” institutionalises repression of dissent inside a fallacious, fascistic theoretical framework, casting itself as the ultimate bulwark towards an imaginary menace of “overseas affect” and valiant protector of residents from brown-skinned heathen hordes who’ve supposedly promised to contaminate white American open society with an anticapitalist agenda. Sometimes, “Challenge Esther” ideologues see themselves as heroes, courageously waging a holy struggle, a lot to the tune of the Ku Klux Klan’s notorious portrayal in Delivery of a Nation.
Calling on “the silent majority” to “break its silence and communicate” to “recuperate its voice and convert its phrases into actions to render impotent an illegitimate, hateful minority that threatens America’s soul” by, amongst different accusations, “corrupting our schooling system”, “Challenge Esther” weaponises xenophobic tendencies bolstered by the incoming Trump administration to threaten and fracture anticolonial actions that carefully oppose Zionism and white supremacy alike.
Underneath the guise of combating hate and interesting to a supposedly terrorised and humiliated underclass, “Challenge Esther” seeks to border antiracist opposition to Zionist apartheid and genocide as inherently anti-Semitic. Nonetheless, this exposes Zionism itself as white supremacy and a contemporary embodiment of anti-Semitic ideology, very similar to Haman within the fable of Queen Esther, actively concentrating on Jewish organisations comparable to Jewish Voice for Peace and the Reformed Jewish motion.
“Challenge Esther” criticises what it sees as “complacency” inside the American Jewish neighborhood, invoking the Zionist-manufactured anti-Semitic superb of a “new Jew” who rejects conventional beliefs that interpret oppression and hardship as divine punishment for sins. This imaginative and prescient disparages conventional reliance on defence as passive and weak, selling as a substitute an assertive, offensive strategy to resistance. Consistent with this view, Zionists undertake the anti-Semitic notion that Jews have been answerable for their very own struggling, advocating for segregation and land acquisition in a brand new homeland as the last word answer.
Notably, fearmongering has lengthy been utilized by Zionists to encourage Jewish, ideally white, immigration to Israel as a method to restock the Israeli army and fight the Palestinian “demographic menace”. By amplifying the partnership between US white supremacy and Zionist expansionism, “Challenge Esther” presents a severe menace to anticolonial and justice-oriented intersectional actions throughout the nation, on the one hand, and minorities, together with Jews, on the opposite.
“Challenge Esther” guarantees to proceed to hurry up the mobilisation of Zionists and right-wing anti-Semites, now emboldened by Trump’s victory, to dismantle resistance to their racist insurance policies by way of monetary and educational audits, “title and disgrace” campaigns and “lawfare”. Whereas shielding Zionist insurance policies and aligning with US white supremacy, the doc – riddled with misinformation about “anti-Israel and anti-Zionist Jew-haters making an attempt to put siege to our schooling system, political processes, and authorities” – reinforces the incoming Trump administration in addition to Zionist vigilante teams just like the “Jewish Defence League” and their pure allies, American neo-Nazis, to stifle free speech and dissent.
Finally, campaigns like “Challenge Esther” manipulate Jewish historic trauma to advertise white supremacy and suppress anticolonial, antiracist actions whereas gaslighting the general public to simply accept Palestinian solidarity, even when expressed by Jews, as anti-Semitic. This alignment not solely stifles dissent to right-wing agendas, it additionally perpetuates a fascist narrative that promotes violence towards those that resist oppression, casting them as an existential menace. This Zionist-white supremacist partnership poses a direct problem to justice actions, and humanity as an entire, utilizing worry, propaganda and violence to undermine efforts for real solidarity and liberation.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
