{"id":296248,"date":"2025-06-02T12:01:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T11:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=296248"},"modified":"2025-05-29T07:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T06:03:19","slug":"trumps-useful-idiots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/06\/trumps-useful-idiots\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Useful Idiots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Trump\u2019s Useful Idiots – by Mr. Fish<\/p><\/div>\n

A bankrupt liberal class, by signing on for the Zionist witch hunt against supposed antisemites and refusing to condemn Israel for its genocide, provided the bullets to its executioners.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

26 May 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0The media, universities, the Democratic Party and liberals, by embracing the fiction of \u201crampant antisemitism,\u201d laid the groundwork for their own demise. Columbia and Princeton, where I have taught, and Harvard, which I attended, are not incubators of hatred towards Jews. The New York Times, where I worked for fifteen years and which Trump calls \u201can enemy of the people,\u201d is slavishly subservient to the Zionist narrative. What these institutions have in common is not antisemitism, but liberalism. And liberalism, with its creed of pluralism and inclusiveness, is slated by our authoritarian regime for obliteration.<\/p>\n

The conflation of outrage over the genocide<\/a> with antisemitism is a sleazy tactic to silence protest and placate Zionist donors, the billionaire class and advertisers. These liberal institutions, weaponizing<\/a> antisemitism, aggressively silenced and expelled critics, banned student groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, allowed police to make hundreds of arrests<\/a> of peaceful protests<\/a> on campuses, purged professors and groveled before Congress. Use the words \u2018apartheid<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018genocide<\/a>\u2019 and you are fired or excoriated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zionist Jews, in this fictional narrative, are the oppressed. Jews who protest<\/a> the genocide are slandered as Hamas stooges and punished. Good Jews. Bad Jews. One group deserves protection. The other deserves to be thrown to the wolves. This odious bifurcation exposes the charade.<\/p>\n

In April 2024, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, along with two board members and a law professor, testified before the House of Representative education committee. They accepted the premise that antisemitism was a significant problem at Columbia and other higher education institutions.<\/p>\n

When Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University David Greenwald and others told<\/a> the committee that they believed\u00a0 \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d and \u201clong live the intifada\u201d were antisemitic statements, Shafik agreed. She threw<\/a> students and faculty under the bus, including long-time professor Joseph Massad.<\/p>\n

The day after the hearings, Shafik suspended all the students at the Columbia protests and called in the New York City Police Department (NYPD), who arrested at least 108 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have determined that the encampment and related disruptions pose a clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the University,\u201d Shafik wrote<\/a> in her letter to the police.<\/p>\n

NYPD Chief John Chell, however, told<\/a> the press, \u201cthe students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat disciplinary action has been taken against that professor?\u201d Representative Elise Stefanik asked in the hearing about Columbia law Professor Katherine Franke.<\/p>\n

Shafik volunteered that Franke, who is Jewish and whose position at the law school where she had taught for 25 years was terminated, and other professors, were being investigated. In an apparent reference to visiting Columbia Professor Mohamed Abdou, she claimed<\/a> he was \u201cterminated\u201d and promised he \u201cwill never teach at Columbia again.\u201d Professor Abdou is suing<\/a> Columbia for defamation, discrimination, harassment and financial and professional loss.<\/p>\n

The Center for Constitutional Rights wrote<\/a> of the betrayal of Franke:<\/p>\n

In an egregious attack on both academic freedom and Palestinian rights advocacy, Columbia University has entered into an \u201cagreement\u201d with Katherine Franke to leave her teaching position after an esteemed 25-year career. The move \u2014 \u201ca termination dressed up in more palatable terms,\u201d according to Franke\u2019s statement \u2014 stems from her advocacy for students who speak out in support of Palestinian rights.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her ostensible offense<\/a> was a comment expressing concern about Columbia\u2019s failure to address harassment of Palestinians and their allies by Israeli students who come to campus straight from military service \u2014 after Israeli students sprayed Palestinian rights protestors with a toxic chemical. For this, she was investigated for harassment and found to be in violation of Columbia\u2019s policies. The actual cause of her forced departure is the crackdown on dissent at Columbia resulting from historic protests opposing Israel\u2019s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Franke\u2019s fate was sealed when former Columbia president Minouche Shafik threw her under the bus during her cowardly appearance before Congress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see my interview with Franke here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite her capitulation to the Zionist lobby, Shafik resigned<\/a> a little more than a year after assuming her position as head of the university.<\/p>\n

The crackdown at Columbia continues, with an estimated 80 people arrested<\/a> and over 65 students suspended<\/a> following a protest in the library in the first week of May. Former television journalist and Columbia\u2019s acting president Claire Shipman condemned<\/a> the protest, stating,\u201cDisruptions to our academic activities will not be tolerated and are violations of our rules and policies\u2026Columbia strongly condemns violence on our campus, antisemitism and all forms of hate and discrimination, some of which we witnessed today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, appeasement does not work. This witch hunt, whether under the Biden or Trump administration, was never grounded in good faith. It was about decapitating Israel\u2019s critics and marginalizing the liberal class and the left. It is sustained by lies and slander, which these institutions continue to embrace.<\/p>\n

Watching these liberal institutions, who are hostile to the left, be smeared by Trump for harboring \u201cMarxist lunatics,\u201d \u201cradical leftists,\u201d and \u201ccommunists,\u201d exposes another failing<\/a> of the liberal class. It was the left that could have saved these institutions or at least given them the fortitude, not to mention analysis, to take a principled stand. The left at least calls apartheid apartheid<\/em> and genocide genocide<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Media outlets regularly publish<\/a> articles and OpEds uncritically accepting claims made by Zionist students and faculty. They fail to clarify the distinction between being Jewish and being Zionist. They demonize student protesters. They never bothered reporting with any depth or honesty from the student encampments where Jews, Muslims and Christians made common cause. They routinely mischaracterize anti-Zionist, anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian liberation slogans and policy demands as hate speech, antisemitic, or contributing to Jewish students feeling unsafe.<\/p>\n

Examples include, The New York Times: \u201cWhy the Campus Protests Are So Troubling<\/a>,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice,\u201d<\/a> and \u201cUniversities Face an Urgent Question: What Makes a Protest Antisemitic?<\/a>\u201d; The Washington Post: \u201cCall the campus protests what they are<\/a>\u201d \u201cAt Columbia, excuse the students, but not the faculty<\/a>\u201d; The Atlantic: \u201cCampus Protest Encampments Are Unethical<\/a>\u201d and \u201cColumbia University\u2019s anti-Semitism Problem<\/a>\u201d; Slate: \u201cWhen Pro-Palestine Protests Cross Into Antisemitism<\/a>\u201d; Vox: The Rising Tide of Antisemitism on College Campuses Amid Gaza Protests<\/a>\u201d; Mother Jones: \u201cHow Pro-Palestine Protests Spark Antisemitism on Campus<\/a>\u201d; The Cut (New York Magazine): \u201cThe Problem With Pro-Palestine Protests on Campus<\/a>\u201d; and The Daily Beast: \u201cAntisemitism Surges Amid Pro-Palestine Protests at U.S. Universities<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times, in a decision worthy of George Orwell, instructed its reporters to eschew words such \u201crefugee camps,\u201d \u201coccupied territory,\u201d \u201cslaughter,\u201d \u201cmassacre,\u201d \u201ccarnage,\u201d \u201cgenocide\u201d and \u201cethnic cleansing,\u201d when writing about Palestine, according to<\/a> an internal memo obtained by The Intercept. It discourages the very use of the word \u201cPalestine\u201d in routine text and headlines.<\/p>\n

In December 2023, Democratic Governor of New York Kathy Hochul sent a letter<\/a> to university and college presidents who failed to condemn and address \u201cantisemitism,\u201d and calls for the \u201cgenocide of any group.\u201d She warned that they would be subjected to \u201caggressive enforcement action\u201d by New York State. The following year, in late August, Hochul repeated these warnings during a virtual meeting with 200 university and college leaders.<\/p>\n

Hochul made clear<\/a> in October 2024 that she considered pro-Palestine slogans\u00a0 to be explicit calls for genocide of Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are laws on the books \u2013 human rights laws, state and federal laws \u2013 that I will enforce if you allow for the discrimination of our students on campus, even calling for the genocide of the Jewish people which is what is meant by \u2018From the river to the sea,\u2019 by the way,\u201d she said at a memorial event at the Temple Israel Center in White Plains. \u201cThose are not innocent sounding words. They’re filled with hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Governor successfully pressured City University of New York (CUNY) to remove a job posting for a Palestinian studies professorship at Hunter College which referenced \u201csettler colonialism,\u201d \u201cgenocide\u201d and \u201capartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in his new book \u201cAntisemitism in America: A Warning<\/a>,\u201d leads efforts by the Democratic Party \u2014 which has a dismal 27 percent approval rating in a recent NBC News poll \u2014 to denounce those protesting the genocide as carrying out a \u201cblood libel\u201d against Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever one\u2019s view of how the war in Gaza was conducted, it is not and has never been the policy of the Israeli government to exterminate the Palestinian people,\u201d he writes<\/a>, ignoring hundreds of calls<\/a> by Israeli officials to wipe Palestinians from the face of the earth during 19 months of saturation bombing and enforced starvation.<\/p>\n

The grisly truth, openly acknowledged by Israeli officials, is far different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble, with total destruction [which has] no precedent globally. And the world isn\u2019t stopping us,\u201d gloats<\/a> Israel\u2019s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night, almost 100 Gazans were killed\u2026it doesn\u2019t interest anyone. Everyone has gotten used to [the fact] that [we can] kill 100 Gazans in one night during a war and nobody cares in the world,\u201d Israeli Knesset member Zvi Sukkot<\/a>, told<\/a> Israel\u2019s Channel 12 on May 16.<\/p>\n

The perpetuation of the fiction of widespread antisemitism, which of course exists but which is not fostered or condoned by these institutions, coupled with the refusal to say out loud what is being live streamed to the world, has shattered what little moral authority these institutions and liberals had left. It gives credibility to Trump\u2019s effort to cripple and destroy all institutions that sustain a liberal democracy.<\/p>\n

Trump surrounds himself with neo-Nazi sympathizers<\/a> such as Elon Musk, and Christian fascists who condemn Jews for crucifying Christ. But antisemitism by the right gets a free pass since these \u201cgood\u201d antisemites cheer on Israel\u2019s settler colonial project of extermination, one these neo-Nazis and Christian fascists would like to replicate on Brown and Black in the name of the great replacement theory. Trump trumpets the fiction of \u201cwhite genocide\u201d in South Africa. He signed an executive order in February that fast-tracked immigration to the U.S. for Afrikaners \u2014 white South Africans.<\/p>\n

Harvard, which is attempting<\/a> to save itself from the wrecking ball of the Trump administration, was as complicit<\/a> in this witch hunt as everyone else, flagellating itself for not being more repressive towards campus critics of the genocide.<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s former president Claudine Gay condemned<\/a> the pro-Palestine slogan \u201cFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,\u201d which demands the right of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, as bearing \u201cspecific historical meanings that to a great many people imply the eradication of Jews from Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard substantially tightened<\/a> its regulations regarding student protests, in January 2024, and increased<\/a> the police presence on its campus. It barred<\/a> 13 students from graduating, citing alleged policy violations linked to their participation in a protest encampment, despite an earlier agreement to avoid punitive measures. It placed<\/a> more than 20 students on \u201cinvoluntary leave\u201d and in some cases evicted<\/a> students from their housing.<\/p>\n

Such policies were replicated<\/a> across the country.<\/p>\n

The capitulations<\/a> and crackdowns<\/a> on pro-Palestine activism, academic freedom, freedom of speech, suspensions, expulsions and firings, since Oct. 7, 2023, have not spared U.S. colleges and universities from further attacks.<\/p>\n

Since Trump took office, at least $11 billion in federal research grants and contracts have been cut or frozen nationwide according to<\/a> NPR. This includes Harvard<\/a> ($3 billion), Columbia<\/a> ($400 million), University of Pennsylvania<\/a> ($175 million) and Brandeis<\/a> ($6-7.5 million annually).<\/p>\n

On May 22, the Trump administration intensified its attacks on Harvard by terminating<\/a> its ability to enroll international students that make up<\/a> around 27 percent of the student body.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,\u201d Kristi Noem, DHS Secretary wrote<\/a> on X, when posting screenshots of the letter she sent<\/a> to Harvard revoking foreign student enrollment. \u201cLet this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvard, like Columbia, the media, the Democratic Party and the liberal class, misread power. By refusing to acknowledge or name the genocide in Gaza, and persecuting those who do, they provided the bullets to their executioners.<\/p>\n

They are paying the price for their stupidity and cowardice.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for\u00a0<\/em>The New York Times,\u00a0where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief. He previously worked overseas for\u00a0<\/em>The Dallas Morning News,\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor, and<\/em> NPR. He used to be the host of the Emmy Award-nominated <\/em>RT America show\u00a0<\/em>On Contact.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – chrishedges.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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