Gaza First Amendment Alert

On November 5, 2024, Donald Trump was again elected president of the United States. Unlike in 2016, Trump not only won a majority of the electoral college, but a plurality of the popular vote. Trump’s first term in office was marked by his demonization of leftwing protesters and elevation of neocons like John Bolton and Elliott Abrams to key policy making positions. In violation of international law and longstanding US policy, Trump recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. He authored an executive order on antisemitism instructing the Department of Education to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of Israeli with antisemitism, when adjudicating civil rights complaints.

In spite of his track record, Trump has repeatedly been portrayed in some quarters as an anti-interventionist or “isolationist.” Trump and his surrogates clearly leaned into this image to court libertarian voters. And as Biden and then Harris alienated parts of their base over Biden’s unprecedented degree of support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and spiraling regional war, the author of the Muslim Ban actively targeted Muslim-American voters with ads abouts Harris’s ties to the Cheneys and support for the war. At the same time, Trump attacked Biden and the Democrats for being insufficiently supportive of the brutal war. And he was elected on a Republican platform that called for the deportation of student ceasefire protesters.

It is the latter Trump who appears to be poised to govern. Those hoping for a break with the disastrous Middle East policies of the Biden Administration or the bipartisan McCarthyite furor are likely in for a disappointment. When it comes to the war in Gaza and crackdown on dissent, Trump appears poised to continue business as usual, if not escalate.

Middle East Eye’s Editor-in-Chief, David Hearst, called Trump’s cabinet picks “a recipe for all-out Middle East war.” When it comes to the free speech rights of the war’s opponents, the situation is equally dire, with reports that the incoming Trump administration is plotting a crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests.

One of Trump’s most disturbing picks is Pam Bondi for Attorney General. Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General and registered Qatari lobbyist, has repeatedly has called for an even more aggressive crackdown on Pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. She told Newsmax of the protesters, “Frankly, they need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be interviewing them right away.” In addition to wanting to take away the visas of international student protesters, she has called for a return of Trump’s travel ban.

Trump’s Secretary of Defense nominee, Peter Hegseth, has been described by critics as a “Christian nationalist.” He began his public career with “Vets for Freedom,” a group that lobbied to continue the Iraq War. Hegseth has also described the US left as a “domestic enemy” guilty of “sedition” and encouraged his fellow conservatives to wage an “American crusade” against them. His decried the democratic election of Muslim public officials as a “cultural invasion.” Unsurprisingly, Hegseth has been supportive of Israel’s war in Gaza, which according to Al Jazeera English, he views through “a Biblical lens.” A Fox News commentor, Hegseth hosted “Poison Ivy: Protest Rage on Campus” which focused on “antisemitism and pro-Palestinian protests plaguing Ivy League campuses across the country.” Hegseth’s nomination is currently in limbo due to rape allegations against the Fox News commentator. Hegseth denies them.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) has been selected as Trump’s National Security Advisor, a role that does not require Senate confirmation. Waltz is a hardline militarist who was described by the Jewish Insider as an “Iran critic, Israel hawk.” Waltz visited Columbia University during the encampment Waltz falsely accused the protests of endangering the safety of Jewish students and called on the White House to condemn them. Waltz claimed Hamas was watching the protests and taking away the message that “time is on their side.”

Trump has chosen Sebastian Gorka for the role of senior National Security Council Director for Counterterrorism. Gorka served in the previous Trump administration. The far-right Gorka has long been dogged by allegations he is a member of Vitezi Rend. According to the State Department, Vitezi Rend operated under the direction of the Nazis and thus members are presumed inadmissible to the US. During Trump’s inaugural ball, Gorka wore a medal of the organization. According to The Forward, leaders of the organization told them Gorka was a member.Gorka supports an interventionist US foreign policy. When asked by RT host, Afshin Rattansi, why he didn’t talk about the genocide in Gaza, Gorka answered “Because there isn’t any genocide in Gaza. There is no such thing as Palestine.” He went on to say the word Palestinian is a name “invented by the Roman empire” to “insult the Jews.” In another comment, Gorka advised Israel in its war to “Kill every single one of them” before adding “God bless Israel. God bless Judeo-Christian civilization.” It is unclear if Gorka’s comments were limited to Hamas members or the Palestinians in Gaza broadly whose existence he doesn’t recognize. Gorka does not require Senate confirmation.

As Secretary of State, Trump has nominated Marco Rubio (R-FL). Rubio has long been an advocate of aggressive US military interventions, including sanctions, to enact regime change against disfavored governments. Rubio’s callous disregard for civilian life has extended to full throated support for Israel and its war on Gaza. As Senator, Rubio has lobbied for visas to be revoked from international students protesting for a ceasefire and called for the IRS to investigate the nonprofit status of pro-Palestinian groups.

One of Congress’s leading McCarthyites, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), has been nominated for Trump’s United Nations Ambassador. As a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Stefanik made a name for herself attacking pro-Palestinie students and academics.

Trump’s nominee to ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, does not believe the occupied West Bank exists, instead adopting extremist territorial claims that it is “Judea and Samaria.” Huckabee’s refusal to recognize the existence of the occupied West Bank heightens concerns that Israel could illegally annex the West Bank during a second Trump administration.

One of the few exceptions to Trump’s selection of neocon surveillance hawks has been Trump’s nomination of former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Gabbard’s career has been marked by political whiplash. Formerly a progressive Democrat noted for resigning from the Democratic National Committee for their treatment of Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, whom she endorsed in 2016, since leaving Congress in 2020 Gabbard has frequently appeared in conservative media staking out conservative positions on social and cultural issues. She recently announced she had formally become a Republican.

Throughout Gabbard’s career she has repeatedly staked out a consistent civil libertarian position on national security surveillance, and also called for pardons for Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. (Gabbard also introduced legislation to reform the Espionage Act, authored by Defending Rights & Dissent). Gabbard has also frequently touted her antiwar credentials, but here Gabbard’s views can become murky. Gabbard stated she is a “dove” on “regime change wars,” but a “hawk” on the “war on terror.” The practical implications of this dichotomy on Gabbard’s policies are unclear, but as a member of Congress, Gabbard consistently took anti-war positions and criticized the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Gabbard has a glaring blindspot when it comes to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Gabbard has described Hamas as an organization not motivated by the situation of the Palestinians, but bent on world domination. She has praised Israel’s war and spoken at pro-war rallies. She has criticized Biden, arguably the most materially supportive President of Israel in US history, as not doing enough to support the war out of a fear of offending politically correct sensibilities. She has also attacked the student protesters.

Nonetheless, Gabbard is the most anti-surveillance and intervention skeptical figure nominated to a high ranking intelligence position in recent memory. As a result, her nomination is fueling a predicted panic inside the beltway. For a more thorough exploration of the contradictory career of Gabbard, we recommended Jeremey Scahill’s lengthy review of her positions for DropSite News.



ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant. Congress Pledges Sanctions, Threatens War

On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri, who is presumed dead.

The arrest warrants sparked off a round of outrage in the United States Congress. In June of this year, a bipartisan majority in the Republican controlled House passed a bill sanctioning the ICC. The bill remains stalled in the Senate, where incoming Republican Senate leader John Thune (R-ND) made clear before the arrest warrants that such sanctions were a top priority of the new Republican Senate.

Multiple members of Congress have publicly condemned the warrants, with the most inflammatory comments coming from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK). Most US allies are members of the ICC and governments such as Canada, France, and the UK have stated they honor their obligations to enforce the warrant. Graham has taken to the airwaves of Fox News to threaten US allies, stating the US will sanction them, warning US allies “we will crush you.” Graham has stated he is working on legislation with Cotton to sanction any nation that assists in the arrest of Israeli politicians.

Whereas Graham wants to sanction and crush US allies who uphold their international legal obligations, Cotton appears ready for a war with the Netherlands. In 2002, the US Congress passed the controversial “Hague Invasion Act,” which authorizes a US president to use military force if the ICC imprisons a US citizen accused of war crimes or the citizens of a select number of allies, including Israel. On the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Cotton stated, “The ICC is a kangaroo court and [ICC prosecutor] Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic. Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it.”

A US-Dutch war is unlikely, but it seems highly likely that the ICC will be sanctioned by the US, further isolating the US from the rest of the world.



Updates

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Joint Resolutions of Disapproval blocking the sale of offensive weapons to Israel were defeated in the Senate. Nineteen senators voted for at least one of the three resolutions. H.R. 9495, the charity killer bill, passed the House with 204 Republicans and 15 Democrats voting in favor of the widely condemned bill.