Update for people in the comments suggesting that Khalil might have broken some laws we don't know about: Administration sources told the Free Press that "The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law."
Also: Irony is dead.
Instead, the Free Press reports that Khalil is a "threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States." I'm not sure what this administration has done over the last 6 weeks to earn the benefit of the doubt, so I'd like to see their evidence and here a fuller explanation.
Because it sure seems to me like *anyone* can be labeled a threat to America's "foreign policy." Mark Kelly was "threatening" the administration's foreign policy by visiting Ukraine.
If there are commenters on Youtube who'd say police shooting 5-year-olds who wouldn't share at the playground were justified use of force, good luck convincing half of 'M'rk'ns Khalil didn't have it coming.
When they came for the socialists, MAGA said I'm not one, and they had it coming.
When they came for the Jews, MAGA said I'm not one, and they had it coming.
When they came for me, MAGA whined I'd voted for Trump.
Philosophical: is learning from experience possible in our FAFO Age?
We used to have a process that allowed the state to determine whether or not someone had committed a crime. If I remember correctly, the process relied on the state filing formal charges, and presenting evidence to support those charges in an open court. Both the state and the accused party could question witnesses to elicit testimony, and cross-examine the witnesses presented by the other party. A panel of citizens would review the evidence and determine whether or not the accused had been proven guilty.
If we allow the state to discard that process for people we don't like, we should not be surprised to find the process no longer applies to us.
Senator Kelly was acting, and continues to act, as a patriot. I can't say the same for the Republican President and Vice President of the United States. Frankly, they are acting more like traitors than leaders who truly love this country. A pox on both their houses!
“Some fraction of their former land” is the very basis of the two-state solution (currently dead in the water, of course, but that’s irrelevant here). A maximalist land claim is a fantasy, and a potentially troubling and dark one. Because one might end the slogan “…free of Jews,” and there are certainly people desirous of that.
Considering Trump's foreign policy is all over the place from one day to the next, anyone and everyone could be considered a threat. Honestly, when I see the words "threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.", the first person I think of is Donald Trump.
But it is ok if Musk negotiates with Putin and Trumps golfing buddy negotiates with Hammas. This is definitely trying to get us used to the all seeing OZ (aka Trump and Musk) and any little thing they want to any one anyone. Anytime anywhere.
Karoline Leavitt has also said confirmed that the only accusations against Khalil are that he led protests at Columbia & distributed flyers that were "pro-Hamas propaganda". (She declined to share these fliers with reporters, so even this 2nd charge could be a lie.)
If Khalil had actually been charged with any serious crime involving terror organizations, then he would have been arrested by the FBI & not by ICE, and would have been moved to Federal Prison & not immigration detention.
Since this happened in New York, the state has not charged him with any crime. This is on ICE and DHS to put up or shut up. And in WAPO, it was reported his wife, who was an American citizen to leave or be arrested. Calling ACLU for one enormous law suit.
Is that administration admission enough to get Mona defending Khalil? If Mona Charen is at least anti-anti-Khalil, I might think that they might not get away with this.
Apparently Kelly hasn't been accused of violating the Logan Act, which has periodically been dredged up (without success) against partisan opponents of particular administrations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act?wprov=sfla1
Instead, Elon called him a "traitor." Whether that's supposed to pave the way for a groundbreaking new precedent or is just typical MAGA bloviation, I could only speculate.
Anyway, the gov't can't deport otherwise legal foreigners (like, apparently, Khalil) just because the WH or State Dep't finds their ideas "threatening." The time for summarily excluding "threatening" foreigners is before they first enter the country. At least, the last time I looked.
Apparently, this government is about to do exactly that, setting a dangerous and deliberate precedent. They also want to eliminate birthright citizenship and 'deport' American-born citizens. To where is not clear, but all the moves Trump and his gang of thugs are making are in service of their totalitarian project. ICE has even arrested and detained native Americans. I don't know if any have been deported somewhere, but it wouldn't surprise me.
They will strip naturalized citizens they don't approve of; Black, brown, Asians, political dissidents of any creed or color, LGBTQ people etc., declare them illegals and criminals and ship them off to who know where, or detain them indefinitely in prison camps.
Yeah, it is slippery and a slope we are already well on our way down. Certainly folks like JVL and others at The Bulwark are targets, but they're really visible. The commenters and supporters are easy, cheap targets that could easily be next.
Sadly, I've been saying to myself that the bulwark is my canary in a coal mine. If The Bulwark disappears, then I know it's time for me to shut up or risk jail.
And similarly to the comparison you made to Vance not having any sympathy for fired federal workers, one could have noted the irony in Trump's post:
"If you support terrorism, the slaughtering of innocent men, women and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here." Strikes me that this statement fits supporters of Russia to a tee. Is Trump going to self-deport? Perhaps to Russia?
Jew here, and can I just say, I think it is as antisemitic to use Jews as an excuse to obviously violate the first amendment rights of protestors whose policy positions a lot of Jews disagree with as it is to be Camp Auschwitz guy. Congrats to Trump on making Jews even less safe in the world, hands off using us as an excuse for your fascism please.
Allow me to restate JVL's arguments, with three substitutions:
- replace Israel with Russia,
- replace Gaza with Ukraine, and
- replace Mahmoud Khalil with Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman (Ret), who I think is one of the VERY few heroes of the first Trump Administration.
Here goes:
"Alexander Vindman was one of the leaders of the anti-Trump, Deep State movement. In his private behavior and public statements Vindman tried to stay just this side of respectability: He did not participate in the public denunciations of the President at the time; he dutifully followed the law; and he claimed that both Ukrainians and Russians were oppressed by the Russian State.
But it is clear that Vindman carries a deep-seated animus toward Russia and it is easy to understand how his brand of deep state activism would make members of Trump’s Russian admirers uncomfortable. And I am sorry, but despite his careful statements I am picking up what Vindman was laying down. The guy’s entire identity was wrapped up in hating Russia".
Would that be a fair set of claims? Of course not. There is no evidence for these claims of anti-Russian bigotry by Vindman.
Just as it is unfair to claim that Khalil's identity was "wrapped up in hating Israel".
Allow me to offer an alternative of "Khalil's identity": that he hates that his adopted country was a material sponsor of genocide of Gazans, undertaken our most sacrosanct ally".
What is your evidence that Mr. Khalil is a bigot? I’ve scoured various sources and have found nothing to indicate that. Protesting the indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of innocent women and children is not bigotry. Being against these actions of the Israeli government seems very similar to our collective opposition to the actions of the Trump administration. Are we anti-American? Maybe I have missed something, but I have not found any evidence that Mr. Khalil has expressed bigoted beliefs.
Also I just learned that my alma mater, Swarthmore College, is among the 60 institutions that got the "warning letter" from the Administration about not sufficiently protecting students from antisemitism.....as one commenter pointed out, "BS".
If Republicans in CONGRESS won't stand up for their ARTICLE I powers, why should it come as a surprise that nearly all Republicans won't stand up for the 1st Amendment? [Yes, caveat for Mike Pence, who still identifies as a Republican, but I'm not aware he's in favor of ridding the US of all Muslims.]
Setting aside what the Trump administration has said about Khalil, I don't think this is a pure free speech issue. He was the advocate and negotiator for the Columbia protestors who were doing plenty of illegal, violent, pro-Hamas deeds in their months of mayhem — right up through last week when they took over a building on the Barnard campus! In addition to their disruptive, destructive protests (NOT protected speech), they were promoting Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. For a noncitizen to promote a terrorist group is grounds for removal under immigration law.
I'm a Jew and a retired university employee. The DOJ is now investigating 60 colleges and universities for "anti-Semitism." What BS. The classic fascist move is to eliminate intellectuals and any center of dissent. Believe them when they say Mr. Khalil's arrest is the first of many. Good that an observant Jewish judge has stopped it, for now. Time to get loud, folks.
Being "...against Israel..." needs clarification. Am I "against Israel" when speak out against Bibi's murderous coalition that includes members who advocate ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank by any means necessary? In MAGA terms, I'm an anti-Semite. For the rank and file, that's an easy accusation because they don't realize there are many Israelis who share my sentiments. For MAGA politicians it's easy because their starting point on any issue is to lie.
So while I fully support Israel's right to exist and dismiss Hamas' "river to the sea" dream as absurd and uselessly hateful, I can label Bibi's government as borderline Nazi. The difference between the Nazis and Bibi's coalition is measured in time and method. The Nazis attempted eradication began as flood and the barbarity of the extermination camps speak for themselves; Bibi's is a slow drip and it's legitimized by using standard weapons of war with only a whiff of terror from the settlers.
I've tried to find something execrable stated by Khalil. Holocaust denial, applying a Final Solution to the "Jewish problem." The usual hateful drivel spouted by true anti-Semites. The CNN article seems to portray him as an activist trying to find common ground with Israelis outside of Bibi's coalition. If that's him, that's me.
In physics, we often say, "Imagine a spherical cow."
This phrase is so common that it was a meme before memes existed. Let's take a variation of that: imagine a perfect anti-genocide, pro-Palestinian protestor. I put to you that JVL described that perfect protestor thus:
"In his private behavior and public statements Khalil tried to stay just this side of respectability: He did not participate in the encampments; he dutifully decried antisemitism; he claimed that both Palestinians and Jews were oppressed by the state of Israel"
JVL presents not a shred of evidence of violence OR bigotry by Khalil. He even says that "bigotry is the wrong descriptor" of him.
But that's where JVL's evidence-based reasoning ends, and his ideology begins.
Exactly one sentence later, JVL says he is "picking up what Khalil is laying down. The guy's entire identity was wrapped up in hating Israel".
This claim may be true, but JVL presents NO EVIDENCE for it. Instead, JVL is just "picking up" on it. From where? The ether? Trump? The Israel lobby? Where?
This is JVL being a bigot, in a post about bigotry.
Further on, JVL says of Khalil: "His views are bigoted and extreme". Again, WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE for that claim, JVL? You have just stated his public views, and none of them are "bigoted and extreme", in fact, quite the opposite.
You should retract these unfounded claims and apologize to Khalil, unless you can back them the FVCK up.
Just listen to Khalil’s words, in the article that JVL cited:
“As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other”.
What more could JVL want? Seriously? That he praise Netanyahu?
JVL, I'm super glad you support the rule of law for people you clearly detest, but at least don't lie about why you detest them.
Yes, JVL, I agree with Parrhizzia. I’ve been one of your greatest backers, but from the extent of my knowledge, which includes the article you directed us to, I found your comments about Khalil to be, at the very best when squinting, “just this side of respectable”. Not what I have grown accustomed from you.
How any of my Jewish “mishpacha” can support what this White House is doing to Khalil is beyond me, no matter our personal animosity for this guy.
For one, Jewish pain is being exploited, objectified to advance Trump’s authoritarian agenda — his professed desire to protect the Jews is a hollow lie.
For another, illiberalism on the part of the state has always been the greatest threat to Jews in Europe or the U.S. When we allow the equal application of the law to decay (as has happened with the government’s extralegal attempt to deport him forthwith), Jews eventually pay the price. We are not safe. I hope my people can see this truth beneath our understandable disdain for this guy. We are better off living in a society of laws that protects people we hate than a society of arbitrary power that occasionally provides a comforting mirage of protection for the Jewish people.
- He is a rapist (I believe his ex-wife and the 3 dozen other women).
- He is a career criminal (why the SDNY, NYPD and NY FBI field office never prosecuted him is a scandal of epic proportions).
- He is an insurrectionist (Jan 6, 2020 was an autocratic attempt).
- Like many of his followers, Trump suffers from the Dunning Kruger effect, resulting in the unnecessary deaths of 200,000+ Americans during COVID.
But none of these crimes, nor anything he has yet done in his second term, comes close to the "crime of crimes" ... genocide, which I believe Biden has undertaken with Israel.
Now you may say "it's not a genocide when Israel does it", or "actually, it's a necessary genocide", or some other justification. I'm not here to debate it - I have laid out the evidence that it is a genocide here:
As part of this genocide, which the US is a material sponsor of, Biden:
- supplied the weapons for the genocide,
- gave cover for Israel before the international community,
- protected and empowered Netanyahu, so that he could stay in power and continue the genocide (as well as avoid political and legal accountability),
- met with Netanyahu and Gallant when they were wanted war criminals,
- violated both domestic law (the Leahy Law), and nearly every international humanitarian law in his support of the genocide.
- lied to Congress and the American people in support for the genocide.
- supported the violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, by lying about "foreign terrorist funding" of anti-genocide protestors, giving the FBI an illegal predicate to investigate ALL anti-genocide protestors.
I consider the last three points impeachment worthy, and very, very fascistic, of an order that Trump is only now attaining.
Lastly, on Trump, while it is true that Trump has suggested the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, which WOULD be a war crime, Biden and Blinken took material steps to undertake that cleansing. Early on in the genocide, Blinken travelled to Egypt and Jordan, begging them to participate in the ethnic cleansing for the benefit of Israel. Both countries declined to participate in that war crime.
Biden and Harris lied about "seeking a ceasefire", and lied about "Hamas being an impediment to a ceasefire", while Trump, even before assuming office, sent one negotiator, ONCE to Israel, and immediately achieved a ceasefire*. For all of Israel's bluster, that ceasefire has generally held in Gaza.
In short: Trump stopped the genocide that Biden and Blinken enabled.
* fun fact: ever since 1948, every military adventure Israel has ever undertaken has two characteristics: they are always on someone else's land, and they are always ended by a superpower telling them STOP, not because they achieve their stated military goals. Same today in Gaza.
You make a lot of good points here. I don't buy that Trump is the reason for the ceasefire (though I'm not ruling it out), but the rest of this is pretty convincing for your original statement.
Update for people in the comments suggesting that Khalil might have broken some laws we don't know about: Administration sources told the Free Press that "The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law."
Also: Irony is dead.
Instead, the Free Press reports that Khalil is a "threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States." I'm not sure what this administration has done over the last 6 weeks to earn the benefit of the doubt, so I'd like to see their evidence and here a fuller explanation.
Because it sure seems to me like *anyone* can be labeled a threat to America's "foreign policy." Mark Kelly was "threatening" the administration's foreign policy by visiting Ukraine.
If there are commenters on Youtube who'd say police shooting 5-year-olds who wouldn't share at the playground were justified use of force, good luck convincing half of 'M'rk'ns Khalil didn't have it coming.
When they came for the socialists, MAGA said I'm not one, and they had it coming.
When they came for the Jews, MAGA said I'm not one, and they had it coming.
When they came for me, MAGA whined I'd voted for Trump.
Philosophical: is learning from experience possible in our FAFO Age?
| here a fuller explanation.
Hear? Editors really are so expensive.
We used to have a process that allowed the state to determine whether or not someone had committed a crime. If I remember correctly, the process relied on the state filing formal charges, and presenting evidence to support those charges in an open court. Both the state and the accused party could question witnesses to elicit testimony, and cross-examine the witnesses presented by the other party. A panel of citizens would review the evidence and determine whether or not the accused had been proven guilty.
If we allow the state to discard that process for people we don't like, we should not be surprised to find the process no longer applies to us.
Senator Kelly was acting, and continues to act, as a patriot. I can't say the same for the Republican President and Vice President of the United States. Frankly, they are acting more like traitors than leaders who truly love this country. A pox on both their houses!
I read that he grew up in a Syrian refugee camp, I figure he's entitled to his opinion, whether I agree with it or not.
What part of the pro-Palestine position do you disagree with?
How about this one: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
So they should not be free? Or only free on some fraction of their former land? Without compensation, I assume.
“Some fraction of their former land” is the very basis of the two-state solution (currently dead in the water, of course, but that’s irrelevant here). A maximalist land claim is a fantasy, and a potentially troubling and dark one. Because one might end the slogan “…free of Jews,” and there are certainly people desirous of that.
ME! I'm a threat to American foreign policy because I think we should oppose Putin's foreign policy.
Arrest me, Trump! Please! I'm ready!
The golden rule of authoritarianism: the authoritarian comes for everyone, eventually.
Considering Trump's foreign policy is all over the place from one day to the next, anyone and everyone could be considered a threat. Honestly, when I see the words "threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.", the first person I think of is Donald Trump.
But it is ok if Musk negotiates with Putin and Trumps golfing buddy negotiates with Hammas. This is definitely trying to get us used to the all seeing OZ (aka Trump and Musk) and any little thing they want to any one anyone. Anytime anywhere.
Yeah, I was on Twitter last night, arguing with some idiot, he'd never heard about Trump negotiating with Hamas behind BIbi's back.
Just like the idiot didn’t know Felon Trump negotiated with the Taliban behind the Afghan’s back, and then blamed Biden for the foul up.
Karoline Leavitt has also said confirmed that the only accusations against Khalil are that he led protests at Columbia & distributed flyers that were "pro-Hamas propaganda". (She declined to share these fliers with reporters, so even this 2nd charge could be a lie.)
If Khalil had actually been charged with any serious crime involving terror organizations, then he would have been arrested by the FBI & not by ICE, and would have been moved to Federal Prison & not immigration detention.
Since this happened in New York, the state has not charged him with any crime. This is on ICE and DHS to put up or shut up. And in WAPO, it was reported his wife, who was an American citizen to leave or be arrested. Calling ACLU for one enormous law suit.
Is that administration admission enough to get Mona defending Khalil? If Mona Charen is at least anti-anti-Khalil, I might think that they might not get away with this.
Don't get carried away, William.
Don't tell the folks at FP who Trump's DNI is.
Apparently Kelly hasn't been accused of violating the Logan Act, which has periodically been dredged up (without success) against partisan opponents of particular administrations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act?wprov=sfla1
Instead, Elon called him a "traitor." Whether that's supposed to pave the way for a groundbreaking new precedent or is just typical MAGA bloviation, I could only speculate.
Anyway, the gov't can't deport otherwise legal foreigners (like, apparently, Khalil) just because the WH or State Dep't finds their ideas "threatening." The time for summarily excluding "threatening" foreigners is before they first enter the country. At least, the last time I looked.
Apparently, this government is about to do exactly that, setting a dangerous and deliberate precedent. They also want to eliminate birthright citizenship and 'deport' American-born citizens. To where is not clear, but all the moves Trump and his gang of thugs are making are in service of their totalitarian project. ICE has even arrested and detained native Americans. I don't know if any have been deported somewhere, but it wouldn't surprise me.
They will strip naturalized citizens they don't approve of; Black, brown, Asians, political dissidents of any creed or color, LGBTQ people etc., declare them illegals and criminals and ship them off to who know where, or detain them indefinitely in prison camps.
We all know where this leads.
Ah yes, the old national security threat catchall. It seems they have given up the broad brush for a push broom.
Between the Trump administration and the Free Press, "credibility" is on milk cartons.
Ah yes, the old threat to national security. It seems they given up the broad brush for a push broom.
Slippery slope, and it's gon' get bumpy AF
And this regime is definitely sliding the slope to full authoritarian power.
Yeah, it is slippery and a slope we are already well on our way down. Certainly folks like JVL and others at The Bulwark are targets, but they're really visible. The commenters and supporters are easy, cheap targets that could easily be next.
Sadly, I've been saying to myself that the bulwark is my canary in a coal mine. If The Bulwark disappears, then I know it's time for me to shut up or risk jail.
Even now, we’re very far from that. And fear is the mind-killer.
And similarly to the comparison you made to Vance not having any sympathy for fired federal workers, one could have noted the irony in Trump's post:
"If you support terrorism, the slaughtering of innocent men, women and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here." Strikes me that this statement fits supporters of Russia to a tee. Is Trump going to self-deport? Perhaps to Russia?
Jew here, and can I just say, I think it is as antisemitic to use Jews as an excuse to obviously violate the first amendment rights of protestors whose policy positions a lot of Jews disagree with as it is to be Camp Auschwitz guy. Congrats to Trump on making Jews even less safe in the world, hands off using us as an excuse for your fascism please.
Allow me to restate JVL's arguments, with three substitutions:
- replace Israel with Russia,
- replace Gaza with Ukraine, and
- replace Mahmoud Khalil with Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman (Ret), who I think is one of the VERY few heroes of the first Trump Administration.
Here goes:
"Alexander Vindman was one of the leaders of the anti-Trump, Deep State movement. In his private behavior and public statements Vindman tried to stay just this side of respectability: He did not participate in the public denunciations of the President at the time; he dutifully followed the law; and he claimed that both Ukrainians and Russians were oppressed by the Russian State.
But it is clear that Vindman carries a deep-seated animus toward Russia and it is easy to understand how his brand of deep state activism would make members of Trump’s Russian admirers uncomfortable. And I am sorry, but despite his careful statements I am picking up what Vindman was laying down. The guy’s entire identity was wrapped up in hating Russia".
Would that be a fair set of claims? Of course not. There is no evidence for these claims of anti-Russian bigotry by Vindman.
Just as it is unfair to claim that Khalil's identity was "wrapped up in hating Israel".
Allow me to offer an alternative of "Khalil's identity": that he hates that his adopted country was a material sponsor of genocide of Gazans, undertaken our most sacrosanct ally".
Which do you think is a better explanation?
What is your evidence that Mr. Khalil is a bigot? I’ve scoured various sources and have found nothing to indicate that. Protesting the indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of innocent women and children is not bigotry. Being against these actions of the Israeli government seems very similar to our collective opposition to the actions of the Trump administration. Are we anti-American? Maybe I have missed something, but I have not found any evidence that Mr. Khalil has expressed bigoted beliefs.
Joyce Vance today in her column Civil Discourse, takes much the same line as JVL re Khalil:
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/first-they-came-for?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=9qxw7&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Also I just learned that my alma mater, Swarthmore College, is among the 60 institutions that got the "warning letter" from the Administration about not sufficiently protecting students from antisemitism.....as one commenter pointed out, "BS".
If Republicans in CONGRESS won't stand up for their ARTICLE I powers, why should it come as a surprise that nearly all Republicans won't stand up for the 1st Amendment? [Yes, caveat for Mike Pence, who still identifies as a Republican, but I'm not aware he's in favor of ridding the US of all Muslims.]
Setting aside what the Trump administration has said about Khalil, I don't think this is a pure free speech issue. He was the advocate and negotiator for the Columbia protestors who were doing plenty of illegal, violent, pro-Hamas deeds in their months of mayhem — right up through last week when they took over a building on the Barnard campus! In addition to their disruptive, destructive protests (NOT protected speech), they were promoting Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. For a noncitizen to promote a terrorist group is grounds for removal under immigration law.
I'm a Jew and a retired university employee. The DOJ is now investigating 60 colleges and universities for "anti-Semitism." What BS. The classic fascist move is to eliminate intellectuals and any center of dissent. Believe them when they say Mr. Khalil's arrest is the first of many. Good that an observant Jewish judge has stopped it, for now. Time to get loud, folks.
Being "...against Israel..." needs clarification. Am I "against Israel" when speak out against Bibi's murderous coalition that includes members who advocate ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank by any means necessary? In MAGA terms, I'm an anti-Semite. For the rank and file, that's an easy accusation because they don't realize there are many Israelis who share my sentiments. For MAGA politicians it's easy because their starting point on any issue is to lie.
So while I fully support Israel's right to exist and dismiss Hamas' "river to the sea" dream as absurd and uselessly hateful, I can label Bibi's government as borderline Nazi. The difference between the Nazis and Bibi's coalition is measured in time and method. The Nazis attempted eradication began as flood and the barbarity of the extermination camps speak for themselves; Bibi's is a slow drip and it's legitimized by using standard weapons of war with only a whiff of terror from the settlers.
I've tried to find something execrable stated by Khalil. Holocaust denial, applying a Final Solution to the "Jewish problem." The usual hateful drivel spouted by true anti-Semites. The CNN article seems to portray him as an activist trying to find common ground with Israelis outside of Bibi's coalition. If that's him, that's me.
Excellent. Right in the face and as clear as a bell. In JVL’s voice…“Tell me I’m wrong. I dare you!”
Hear, hear!
Every Bulwark member is a threat to this regime. That's what unites us. Bring it on.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-845664?utm_source=jpost.app.android&utm_medium=share
In physics, we often say, "Imagine a spherical cow."
This phrase is so common that it was a meme before memes existed. Let's take a variation of that: imagine a perfect anti-genocide, pro-Palestinian protestor. I put to you that JVL described that perfect protestor thus:
"In his private behavior and public statements Khalil tried to stay just this side of respectability: He did not participate in the encampments; he dutifully decried antisemitism; he claimed that both Palestinians and Jews were oppressed by the state of Israel"
JVL presents not a shred of evidence of violence OR bigotry by Khalil. He even says that "bigotry is the wrong descriptor" of him.
But that's where JVL's evidence-based reasoning ends, and his ideology begins.
Exactly one sentence later, JVL says he is "picking up what Khalil is laying down. The guy's entire identity was wrapped up in hating Israel".
This claim may be true, but JVL presents NO EVIDENCE for it. Instead, JVL is just "picking up" on it. From where? The ether? Trump? The Israel lobby? Where?
This is JVL being a bigot, in a post about bigotry.
Further on, JVL says of Khalil: "His views are bigoted and extreme". Again, WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE for that claim, JVL? You have just stated his public views, and none of them are "bigoted and extreme", in fact, quite the opposite.
You should retract these unfounded claims and apologize to Khalil, unless you can back them the FVCK up.
Just listen to Khalil’s words, in the article that JVL cited:
“As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other”.
What more could JVL want? Seriously? That he praise Netanyahu?
JVL, I'm super glad you support the rule of law for people you clearly detest, but at least don't lie about why you detest them.
Yes, JVL, I agree with Parrhizzia. I’ve been one of your greatest backers, but from the extent of my knowledge, which includes the article you directed us to, I found your comments about Khalil to be, at the very best when squinting, “just this side of respectable”. Not what I have grown accustomed from you.
How any of my Jewish “mishpacha” can support what this White House is doing to Khalil is beyond me, no matter our personal animosity for this guy.
For one, Jewish pain is being exploited, objectified to advance Trump’s authoritarian agenda — his professed desire to protect the Jews is a hollow lie.
For another, illiberalism on the part of the state has always been the greatest threat to Jews in Europe or the U.S. When we allow the equal application of the law to decay (as has happened with the government’s extralegal attempt to deport him forthwith), Jews eventually pay the price. We are not safe. I hope my people can see this truth beneath our understandable disdain for this guy. We are better off living in a society of laws that protects people we hate than a society of arbitrary power that occasionally provides a comforting mirage of protection for the Jewish people.
What you say about Trump, goes 100x more for Biden.
Care to give some evidence for that claim?
Of course.
First, so we are clear, and you do not think I am a Trump supporter, allow me to give my assessment of Trump:
- He suffers from malignant narcissistic personality disorder (I was saying this WELL before George Conway ever did).
https://x.com/parrhizzia/status/1283174317547610112
- He is a rapist (I believe his ex-wife and the 3 dozen other women).
- He is a career criminal (why the SDNY, NYPD and NY FBI field office never prosecuted him is a scandal of epic proportions).
- He is an insurrectionist (Jan 6, 2020 was an autocratic attempt).
- Like many of his followers, Trump suffers from the Dunning Kruger effect, resulting in the unnecessary deaths of 200,000+ Americans during COVID.
But none of these crimes, nor anything he has yet done in his second term, comes close to the "crime of crimes" ... genocide, which I believe Biden has undertaken with Israel.
Now you may say "it's not a genocide when Israel does it", or "actually, it's a necessary genocide", or some other justification. I'm not here to debate it - I have laid out the evidence that it is a genocide here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-158564554
As part of this genocide, which the US is a material sponsor of, Biden:
- supplied the weapons for the genocide,
- gave cover for Israel before the international community,
- protected and empowered Netanyahu, so that he could stay in power and continue the genocide (as well as avoid political and legal accountability),
- met with Netanyahu and Gallant when they were wanted war criminals,
- violated both domestic law (the Leahy Law), and nearly every international humanitarian law in his support of the genocide.
- lied to Congress and the American people in support for the genocide.
- supported the violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, by lying about "foreign terrorist funding" of anti-genocide protestors, giving the FBI an illegal predicate to investigate ALL anti-genocide protestors.
I consider the last three points impeachment worthy, and very, very fascistic, of an order that Trump is only now attaining.
Lastly, on Trump, while it is true that Trump has suggested the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, which WOULD be a war crime, Biden and Blinken took material steps to undertake that cleansing. Early on in the genocide, Blinken travelled to Egypt and Jordan, begging them to participate in the ethnic cleansing for the benefit of Israel. Both countries declined to participate in that war crime.
Biden and Harris lied about "seeking a ceasefire", and lied about "Hamas being an impediment to a ceasefire", while Trump, even before assuming office, sent one negotiator, ONCE to Israel, and immediately achieved a ceasefire*. For all of Israel's bluster, that ceasefire has generally held in Gaza.
In short: Trump stopped the genocide that Biden and Blinken enabled.
* fun fact: ever since 1948, every military adventure Israel has ever undertaken has two characteristics: they are always on someone else's land, and they are always ended by a superpower telling them STOP, not because they achieve their stated military goals. Same today in Gaza.
You make a lot of good points here. I don't buy that Trump is the reason for the ceasefire (though I'm not ruling it out), but the rest of this is pretty convincing for your original statement.
You are most welcome.