"In what seems a long time ago, in 2024, the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, released a blueprint for what it called "a national strategy to combat antisemitism" by addressing what it described as "America's virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American 'pro-Palestinian movement.' In essence, and in what's amounted to an extraordinarily effective work of political theater that has been sold to my own state, Massachusetts, among other places, that foundation dubbed its political opponents "supporters of terrorism.""
"It also labeled organizations working in opposition to its agenda a "terrorist support network," and claimed for itself the noble mantle of "combating antisemitism" - even as it deftly redefined antisemitism from hatred of Jewish people to criticism of the U.S.-Israel alliance. President Trump has put the Heritage Foundation strategy into action and gone even further. It may be his most original idea."
Plainclothed ICE agents arrested doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk in Somerville after she coauthored an op-ed urging Tufts University to divest from companies tied to Israel because of the killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians. An international boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement targets Israel, but U.S. policies and rhetoric are constraining public discussion of those positions. The Heritage Foundation produced a blueprint portraying pro-Palestinian activism as a terrorist-supporting movement and reframed antisemitism to include criticism of the U.S.-Israel alliance. President Trump has adopted and expanded that strategy, using law enforcement and political power to curb dissent and test limits on free speech.
Read at Truthout
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