politics of anti-Semitism

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Charlie Kirk = Horst Wessel

Charlie Kirk was not just a “conservative” but a white supremacist who denigrated the advances of the Civil Rights era and sought to impose patriarchical subjugation of all but white men. Yet he was opposed as insufficiently “pro-white” by the so-called “Groyper Army” of Nick Fuentes. This raises the possibility that the anti-fascist rhetoric of Kirk’s accused shooter, Tyler Robinson, was actually fascist pseudo-anti-fascism. In any case, those who are making the analogy to the early martyr of the Nazi cause Horst Wessel are all too likely to be vindicated: Kirk’s death could similarly be exploited to consolidate fascist rule in the United States. In Episode 295 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down. (Image mash-up: CounterVortex)

Iran

Iran: post-conflict crackdown on civil opposition

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the ongoing crackdown on civil opposition by the Iranian authorities following the conflict with Israel. Since the outbreak of hostilities in June, Iranian authorities have arrested over 20,000 people on such dubious charges as espionage for Israel, which may carry the death penalty. Minority ethnic and religious groups have been particularly targeted, with Kurdish, Baha’i, Christian and Jewish minorities under threat. Amnesty and HRW urged criminal accountability for unlawful arrests and executions. (Image: Grunge Love via Flickr)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: The Twenty-Fifth Hour revisited

The case of Kilmar Abrego García, shunted from detention in one country to another, with no end in sight, recalls the World War II-era classic of dystopian fiction The Twenty-Fifth Hour by Romanian writer C. Virgil Gheorghiu. The wartime transnational detention system, harrowingly depicted in the novel, was seen by Gheorghiu as an inevitable manifestation of our technocratic civilization that exalts the machine above humanity, ultimately resulting in the treatment of human beings as mere cogs in the state-industrial apparatus. This process is more advanced today with the current hypertrophy of the technosphere, which is related to the re-emergence of abuses approaching those of the fascist era, and ultimately bodes poorly for humanity’s future. In Episode 294 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unsparing look at this grim juncture for the human race. (Image via Cocosse)

North America

MAGA-fascism and anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism II

The ideological enforcer of MAGA-fascism in American higher education (just met with craven capitulation by Columbia and Brown University) is the Trump regime’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Purporting to act on behalf of Jewish students, the Trump regime simultaneously attacks policies to promote campus diversity. This replicates the historical function of anti-Semitism—setting up Jews to take the hit for for the oppressive policies of (overwhelmingly) non-Jewish rulers. The perverse fascist pseudo-anti-fascism of the Trump regime has now become anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism. This cynical feigned opposition to anti-Semitism is especially dangerous when actual anti-Semitism is very much in evidence—not least by the Trump regime itself, over and over! Yet the ever-more egregious manifestations of Jew-hatred are increasingly weaponized by the political right—and ignored or even normalized by the ostensible “left.” In Episode 289 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes some encouragement from the growing ranks of Jewish voices breaking with the pro-Israel consensus to protest the Gaza genocide—while being clear in drawing the line against anti-Semitism. (Image: APE)

New York City

Zohran Mamdani and municipal resistance

Amid an amusingly paranoid reaction from the MAGA right, Donald Trump is threatening to have Zohran Mamdani denaturalized and deported under the archaic Cold War-era Communist Control Act if he continues with New York’s “sanctuary city” policy as mayor. A Justice Department memo has already set the machinery for “denaturalization” of citizens in motion. But the Islamophobic, xenophobic and old-school Red Scare backlash to Mamdani’s political rise could provide the breaking point in which localities coast-to-coast refuse to cooperate with Trump’s fascist agenda—vindicating Murray Bookchin’s theories of radical municipalism. In Episode 285 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Mamdani’s ascendance, whatever the limitations of his personal politics, heightens the contradictions in American society in a salubrious way, and may even open revolutionary possibilities. (Photo: Jim Naureckas/Flickr via The Jewish Angle)

New York City

Podcast: Zohran Mamdani and the weaponization of anti-Semitism

New York City’s mayoral race has become embroiled in the national and global dilemmas, with progressive candidate Brad Lander getting arrested by ICE and progressive frontrunner Zohran Mamdani being aggressively baited as an anti-Semite by the campaign of the overall frontrunner, disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. Joining Cuomo in this propaganda offensive, not surprisingly, is the pro-Israel doxxing operation Canary Mission. In the current fraught atmosphere, this is a serious matter; Mamdani has received death threats and his campaign is boosting security measures. In Episode 283 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the accusations against Mamdani that have been hyped by the New York Post and even the supposedly more objective Politico, and weighs them against Mamdani’s own responses. (Photo: CounterVortex)

Planet Watch

Podcast: in defense of dissident minorities

Amid the massive war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Gaza, there are dissident Russians and dissident Israelis who are courageously protesting, and resisting the consolidation of a pro-genocide consensus. Recent violent and deadly attacks on perceived Israeli or pro-Israel human targets in the US meanwhile point to the dangers of the notion of collective guilt. In Episode 281 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges that dissident minorities must not be dismissed as irrelevant, but encouraged and offered solidarity. (Photo via Novaya Gazeta)

Watching the Shadows

Trump issues new ‘travel ban’ proclamation

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation implementing a nearly full travel ban on nationals from a dozen countries, severely restricting potential entry into the United States. The proclamation is based on an executive order issued on Trump’s first day in office that laid the foundation for the administration to enact extensive immigration controls. Commentators have harshly criticized the ban, pointing out that it disproportionately affects Muslim-majority and African countries. Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard lambasted Trump for the action, calling it “discriminatory, racist and downright cruel.” The restrictions bear a striking resemblance to Trump’s 2017 travel ban, which blocked travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. (Photo: Minneapolis protest of 2018 Supreme Court decision upholding Trump’s first travel ban. Credit: Fibonacci Blue/Flickr)

Syria

UN Syria envoy: ‘fragile’ moment in transition process

The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, warned of grave consequences for the country’s future without genuine political inclusion and urgent economic support for a successful political transition. During a briefing to the Security Council, Pedersen noted the legacies of misrule, conflict and exclusion in Syria, stating that “the situation is inherently still extremely fragile.” The new government announced by President Ahmad al-Sharaa in March is more diverse, but still includes one woman in the 22-member cabinet: Hind Kabawat, a Catholic, who was appointed as minister of Labor & Social Affairs. Recalling the recent violence in the coastal region, Pedersen urged the new government to ensure that all segments of Syrian society are protected, and to prevent individuals or groups from taking justice into their own hands or committing revenge-driven attacks. The statement noted that such sporadic incidents continue to be reported. (Photo: SANA)

Watching the Shadows

MAGA-fascism and the dark side of 420

April 20 has become a national day of celebration for the hedonistic cannabis subculture, but it has also long been marked by the radical right and Nazi-nostalgists around the world for unsavory reasons. It now emerges that Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order declaring a state of emergency on the southern border also set a deadline of April 20 for a joint Pentagon-Homeland Security recommendation on whether to invoke the Insurrection Act. This has sparked much speculation that Trump will immediately do so, declaring martial law and consolidating a dictatorship… this weekend. How likely is this, and is the date a mere coincidence? In Episode 274 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down. (Image: APE)

Palestine

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism

In Episode 272 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses the Israel-hosted “International Conference on Combatting anti-Semitism” that featured speakers from the European and American neo-fascist (and even anti-Semitic!) far right. The established phenomenon of paradoxical fascist pseudo-anti-fascism has now been joined by anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism. While Trump’s 2019 executive order on anti-Semitism sought to conflate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, the new posture would actually substitute the prior for the latter entirely as the ideology to be opposed, in all but name. Anti-Semitism is now acceptable as long as it is pro-Israel, fulfilling Zionist founder Theodore Herzl‘s 1895 prediction: “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” (Photo of rally at NYU: CounterVortex)

Palestine

Israel anti-Semitism confab embraces fascism —yes, really

The Zionist-fascist convergence under Bibi’s regime is getting too blatant even for the habitually pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League, whose leader stayed away from a supposed “International Conference on Combating Antisemitism” held in Jerusalem under the auspices of the Israeli government, headlining Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu—and also featuring several figures from the European and American xenophobic (and even anti-Semitic!) far right. (Image via frgdr Blog. Hebrew lettering in background spells names of places in Europe where Jews were exterminated.)