[News] The Zionist-white supremacist alliance in Trump's White House

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/zionist-white-supremacist-alliance-trumps-white-house 



  The Zionist-white supremacist alliance in Trump's White House

Ali Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah> 15 
August 2017

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A much-discussed article 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/steve-bannon-trump-white-house.html> 
in /The New York Times/ about pressure on President Donald Trump to fire 
his adviser Steve Bannon 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/steve-bannon> contains this 
intriguing sentence:

    Mr. Bannon’s ability to hang on as Mr. Trump’s in-house populist is
    in part because of his connections to a handful of ultrarich
    political patrons, including Sheldon G. Adelson, the pro-Israel
    casino magnate who is based in Las Vegas.

As executive chairman of /Breitbart News/ before joining the Trump 
campaign, Bannon transformed the right-wing outlet into what he 
described 
<http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news/> 
as the “the platform for the alt-right” – the collection of neo-Nazis, 
white supremacists and racists who have been the renewed focus of 
outrage since their violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.


    Israel’s silence

Bannon is widely viewed as the champion of the white supremacists – some 
of whom were openly parading with Nazi flags 
<https://www.vox.com/2017/8/12/16138352/this-weekends-charlottesville-rally-shows-how-close-good-old-boys-and-nazis-really-are> 
– and the reason why Trump did not explicitly condemn them immediately 
after one of their number, allegedly James Alex Fields, 20, rammed his 
car into counterdemonstrators killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/heather-heyer-charlottesville-victim.html> 
and injuring more than a dozen others.

Hence the renewed pressure on Trump to fire Bannon. But if Bannon 
supports the white supremacist and clearly anti-Semitic far-right, why 
does he enjoy the backing of Adelson?

The Las Vegas billionaire, as is well known 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-columnist-resigns-over-gag-order-pro-israel-mogul-sheldon-adelson>, 
is a major financier of the US Republican Party and one of the biggest 
donors to pro-Israel organizations in the United States. Adelson has 
said 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/billionaire-gingrich-backer-adelson-regrets-he-served-us-instead-israeli-military> 
he regrets serving in the US army, instead of Israel’s.

He is also a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – 
and that’s where the answer can be found.

Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, have been conspicuously silent 
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/3-days-later-israeli-leaders-still-conspicuously-silent-on-charlottesville/> 
about Nazis rampaging in Charlottesville – all the more strange since 
Israel is usually quick 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-moves-quickly-exploit-paris-attacks> 
to 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-spin-doctors-move-exploit-orlando-massacre> 
exploit 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-quick-exploit-manchester-bombing> 
international events to its advantage. (After three days of silence 
<http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.807025>, Netanyahu finally, on 
Tuesday, tweeted 
<https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/897454226078658561> a general 
condemnation of “anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and racism” without 
specifically mentioning Charlottesville.)

Why is the “Jewish state” apparently so reluctant to speak out against 
Nazis?


    Israel’s anti-Semitic alliances

While Israel purports to be the protector of Jews all over the world, 
Zionists historically made alliances 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/201212249122912381.html> 
with the world’s most lethal anti-Semites. Zionists and anti-Semites, 
after all, shared the analysis that Jews do not belong in Europe, so why 
not cooperate to transport them somewhere else – Palestine.

This odious alliance continues in updated form, as journalist Max 
Blumenthal observed:

    But this is the essence of Zionism and why it's been received so
    amenably by gentile fascists who also want Jews out
    https://t.co/HxJWqyia51

    — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 14, 2017
    <https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/896976764597043200>

A cornerstone of Israel’s policy today is to cement ties with other 
ultra-nationalist, racist and Islamophobic forces around the world – 
even if they are also anti-Semitic.

A striking example is Netanyahu’s own embrace 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/benjamin-netanyahu-hungary-state-visit-viktor-orban-anti-semitism-controversy-far-right-anti-a7846346.html> 
of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, despite the latter’s recent 
praise 
<http://www.jta.org/2017/06/26/news-opinion/world/hungarian-jews-slam-prime-ministers-praises-for-hitler-ally-horthy> 
for Viktor Horthy, the wartime ally of Hitler who oversaw the murder of 
500,000 Holocaust victims.

Israel’s interests took precedence over the safety concerns of Hungarian 
Jews, as Netanyahu ordered his foreign ministry 
<http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.800437> to tamp down criticism of 
Orban’s anti-Semitic dog whistles.

Notably, Richard Spencer, the neo-Nazi ideologue who wants to create an 
Aryan homeland in North America, has called his mission a “sort of white 
Zionism 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/trump-bringing-white-zionism-white-house>.” 
Spencer has ties 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/email-2007-ties-trump-adviser-stephen-miller-neo-nazi-richard-spencer> 
to another senior White House adviser, Stephen Miller.

A similar ideological alliance prevails inside the White House. And 
Israel has guarded it: Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, 
publicly defended Bannon 
<http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/306658-israeli-ambassador-defends-bannon> 
in the days following last November’s election, after American Jewish 
groups strongly criticized Bannon’s appointment to a top position.


    Ideology and convenience

But the Adelson-Bannon partnership is also one of convenience. The 
Adelson-backed Zionist Organization of America is waging a campaign 
<https://www.poynter.org/2017/how-sheldon-adelson-uses-the-media-to-punish-those-he-dislikes/469983/> 
against Trump’s National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, which aims to 
portray the army general as “hostile to Israel.” 
<http://zoa.org/2017/08/10371905-zoa-nscs-mcmaster-reassign-him-to-area-not-dealing-with-israel-or-iran/>

McMaster also happens to be one of Bannon’s key opponents 
<https://www.salon.com/2017/08/14/h-r-mcmaster-and-steve-bannon-are-in-the-middle-of-a-serious-white-house-feud/> 
inside the White House.

Establishment Israel lobby figures, such as the Obama administration’s 
ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, have leapt to McMaster’s defense:

    Two leading Israeli security figures debunk the absurd and offensive
    canard that McMaster is unfriendly to Israel.https://t.co/Kp2GnBvkaL

    — Dan Shapiro (@DanielBShapiro) August 14, 2017
    <https://twitter.com/DanielBShapiro/status/897058432813076480>


    Choose your war

There are substantive issue at stake. Part of Bannon’s ultra-nationalist 
“America First” agenda is opposing some US military interventions, 
particularly 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/world/asia/us-troops-afghanistan-trump.html> 
a renewed “surge” in Afghanistan that is supported by McMaster and US 
defense secretary James Mattis.

That is not Adelson’s – or Netanyahu’s interest – however. Bannon and 
other ultra-right figures including White House advisor Sebastian Gorka 
– have been key opponents of the international deal with Iran over its 
nuclear energy program. Blocking or undermining the Iran deal has been 
Netanyahu’s preoccupation for years 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/obama-buries-gaza-under-iran-nuclear-deal>.

Bannon and Gorka furiously opposed 
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/21/trump-assigns-white-house-team-to-target-iran-nuclear-deal-sidelining-state-department/> 
the State Department’s recent certification that Iran is in compliance 
with the terms of the agreement.

The Zionist Organization of America’s key allegation 
<http://zoa.org/2017/08/10371905-zoa-nscs-mcmaster-reassign-him-to-area-not-dealing-with-israel-or-iran/> 
against McMaster is that he is too sympathetic towards Iran.

Reporting by /The Forward/ revealed 
<http://forward.com/news/national/366181/exclusive-nazi-allied-group-claims-top-trump-aide-sebastian-gorka-as-sworn/> 
that Gorka is a member of a Hungarian far-right group that was 
controlled by the Nazis during the war, and has given backing 
<http://forward.com/news/national/367937/exclusive-controversial-trump-aide-sebastian-gorka-backed-violent-anti-semi/> 
to an anti-Semitic militia.

For those who support justice and oppose war and racism, there is no 
“side” to choose in this battle. On one side, you have the 
Bannon-Adelson faction pushing extreme Zionism, anti-Semitism, white 
supremacy and possible war with Iran. On the other, you have have the 
McMaster faction, backed by the DC establishment, which wants to 
perpetuate America’s existing imperial wars, starting with escalation in 
Afghanistan.


-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20170815/07e67223/attachment.htm>