Goldberg: Meet the Trump-supporting Christians accusing Jews of antisemitism

In The New York Times this weekend Katie J M Baker described a fundraising pitch that the Heritage Foundation the right-wing think tank that gave us Project made for a campaign to crush a subversive movement that threatens America itself The pitch she wrote presented an illustration of a pyramid topped by progressive elites leading the way which included Jewish billionaires such as philanthropist George Soros and Gov JB Pritzker of Illinois Whether intentionally or not Heritage was deploying a classic antisemitic trope the notion of the wealthy Jewish puppet master In the contemporary version of this conspiracy theory Soros looms especially large the Anti-Defamation League has multiple pages on its website about the antisemitic underpinnings of right-wing indicates that Soros is working to destabilize society I emailed the Anti-Defamation League for its thoughts on the Heritage Foundation s pyramid illustration but haven t heard back I won t be surprised however if the organization stays silent because the Heritage Foundation was demonizing Soros in the name of defending Israel The campaign Baker wrote about is called Project Esther and it aims to destroy the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States Heritage defines this movement broadly in a way that includes virtually all attempts to shift American foreign guidelines in a less pro-Israel direction including those by progressive Jews Twisted logic Here we see the perversity that can come from conflating antisemitism with opposition to an increasingly brutal and authoritarian Israeli state Those supporters of Palestine and Hamas who have claimed for decades that criticizing Israel s policies does not equate to antisemitism are at best insincere stated a strategic plan for Project Esther published online In the twisted logic of Project Esther which is also the logic of Donald Trump s war on academia ultra-Zionist gentiles get to lecture Jews about antisemitism even as they lay waste to the liberal lifestyle that has allowed American Jews to thrive In its plan Project Esther describes its opponents as a Hamas Patronage Arrangement that aims to achieve its goals by taking advantage of our open society corrupting our coaching system leveraging the American media co-opting the federal ruling body and relying on the American Jewish society s complacency It s a little unclear who falls under this sinister umbrella the description targets both radical groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace as well as run-of-the-mill liberals As Baker released greater part of the Americans who dreamed up Project Esther are Christian though they worked in concert with Jewish Israeli officers Several of the Americans singled out by Project Esther meanwhile are Jewish At one point Project Esther singles out the majority of Jewish House Democrats who declined to censure their colleague Rashida Tlaib for anti-Israel language including her defense of the slogan From the river to the sea Their votes revealed Project Esther are indicative of the strong strain of antisemitism that is running rampant through the progressive left as well as a dangerous complacency and indifference across America s Jewish area It describes the Jewish Rep Jan Schakowsky as part of a Hamas caucus in Congress one that s also supported by Jewish Sen Bernie Sanders Indeed one clue that there s something off about Project Esther s definition of antisemitism is how often it tags Jews as perpetrators The outfit s distorted definition of antisemitism matters because Trump since returning to the White House has put into practice orders that closely reflect Project Esther s proposals He s defunded universities on the pretext of punishing them for antisemitism and attempted to deport pro-Palestinian pupil activists If Project Esther has its way the crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech will go even further It wants to see those it calls Hamas supporters removed from university staffs denied the right to protest and banned from social media Ultimately it hopes to see them stigmatized the way the KKK and al-Qaida are American Jews overwhelmingly detest Hamas of module and a modern survey of Jewish voters by the Democratic research firm GBAO Strategies shows that a large majority are worried about antisemitism on college campuses But greater part Jews are not onboard with the way Trump is enacting the Project Esther agenda According to the GBAO poll of Jewish voters disapprove of Trump s approach to antisemitism Nearly say the word fascist describes him This isn t surprising Jews tend to teach their children to be wary of fascism from a very young age with its nationalist bombast its cult of masculinity its contempt for pluralism and its relentless bludgeoning lies Uncanny parallels Philip Roth among the greatest of American Jewish writers captured this deep-rooted fear in his novel The Plot Against America which envisions an alternative history in which Charles Lindbergh an outsider and a celebrity defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the electoral process and then signs a treaty with Nazi Germany Related Articles Letters New leadership will unlock S J animal shelter adjustment Israeli strikes kill at least in Gaza as Israel allows more aid into Palestinian territory Trump envoy confirms that Hamas has agreed to release the last living US hostage in Gaza Israel launches a new military operation in Gaza Netanyahu tells negotiating band to stay at talks Gold palaces jet deals and McDonald s Donald Trump at home in Middle East Paging through the book now I find specific details newly eerie Lindbergh s America first platform and his warning about the infiltration of inferior blood into the country his big fictional preelection rally at Madison Square Garden and the narrator s incredulity at a threatened war with Canada But even Roth for all his prescience couldn t have foreseen a modern-day Lindbergh who in transforming America into something out of Jewish nightmares pretends he s trying to ensure Jewish safety Roth was our preeminent chronicler of what he once called the Indigenous American berserk He had no idea how berserk things were going to get Michelle Goldberg is a New York Times columnist