{"id":268920,"date":"2023-05-16T06:45:54","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T06:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=268920"},"modified":"2023-05-20T05:26:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T05:26:49","slug":"is-the-united-states-moving-its-capital-to-jerusalem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=268920","title":{"rendered":"Is the United States Moving Its Capital to Jerusalem?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philip Giraldi \u2013 The Unz Review May 16, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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McCarthy and entourage in Israel<\/p><\/div>\n

It would seem that American politicians and media think that the entire world should rightly conform to the marching orders emanating from Washington, even though that pretense has become a bit shopworn after more than twenty years of pointless wars initiated and sustained by a serious of clueless presidents and Congress. Increasingly, the international community is looking for a way out of the tight embrace offered by the White House, a growing sense that a multipolar world would be much better than \u201crule of law\u201d dictated by any self-proclaimed superpower.<\/p>\n

Recently there have been indications that rather than Washington being the center of the universe that title should rightly belong to Jerusalem as an extremist-led Israel has demonstrated its power over the self-anointed idiots who fancy themselves to be the \u201cleaders\u201d of the United States of America. Why do I think that? I truly believe that there have been several interactions lately involving US politicians and the Israelis that illustrate just how ignorant and self-absorbed America\u2019s governing class actually is. The most egregious example of the \u201cwag the dog\u201d syndrome whereby Israel says \u201cjump\u201d and the fawning American government representatives beg to ask \u201cHow high?\u201d comes from none other the newly appointed Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, who spoke before the Israeli Knesset on May 1st<\/sup>. McCarthy made it a point to flatter his Israeli hosts by emphasizing that traveling to Israel was his first foreign trip as speaker, underlining the value of the relationship, and observing that he was also only the second speaker invited to make the trip to the Jewish state to address the Knesset.<\/p>\n

McCarthy was accompanied by the usual cast of congressional toadies who flock to Israel during every recess. The group was bipartisan and included the loathsome Steny Hoyer of Maryland who has made and even led the groveling entourage more than twenty times. The ambition-driven McCarthy, who has never been accused of having a great deal of brain power, delivered a predictable speech<\/a> that produced the pro forma<\/em> standing ovations from the audience, but I would call attention to one part of it in particular where he said the following: \u201cThis is the foundation of our special relationship: We are the only two countries in history that were conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that we are all equal. Our values are your values. Our heritage is your heritage. Our dreams are your dreams. America is grateful for our friendship with Israel. We are a better nation because of it. And we must never shy away from defending it\u2026 As long as I am speaker, America will continue to support fully funding for security assistance in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly every line in this part of the McCarthy speech is basically either an out-and-out lie or a twisting of reality to such an extent that it is incomprehensible. Palestine, by the way, was not mentioned by McCarthy, but how Israel can claim to be \u201cconceived in liberty\u201d with the \u201cproposition that we are all equal\u201d when it has been engaged in genocide and expulsion as well as government endorsed violence directed against its Christian and Muslim subject population? And if American and Israeli values are identical, can we expect in the US different laws based on religion. And our common \u201cheritage?\u201d Israeli Jews claim to be \u201cchosen,\u201d don\u2019t they? And finally, how on earth does McCarthy claim that the United States is a better nation because of its ties to Israel? It is ridiculous and insulting, but it leads to the punchline that McCarthy is making an unconstitutional pledge to defend Israel, no matter what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his band of criminals do, presumably to include attacking Iran. McCarthy should be impeached. Or even better he should magically become a Palestinian and spend a couple of months under the Israeli occupation. He might change his tune.<\/p>\n

McCarthy continued his exaltation of Israel campaign after his return to Washington. On May 9th<\/sup>, he blocked an effort by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to host a gathering<\/a> at the Capitol Visitor Center that would have included least nine groups for an event entitled \u201cNakba 75 and the Palestinian People.\u201d \u201cNakba\u201d in the title of Tlaib\u2019s canceled event is the Arabic word for \u201ccatastrophe,\u201d which would have meant the speakers would be describing the founding of the state of Israel as a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d for the Arab inhabitants of historic Palestine, which it was with hundreds of thousands left homeless, many winding up in refugee camps. McCarthy announced in a message that he was shutting down the event, tweeting that \u201cThis event in the US Capitol is canceled. Instead, I will host a bipartisan discussion to honor the 75th anniversary of the US-Israel relationship.\u201d McCarthy announcement was in response to a letter from Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt to him which said ADL had concerns that some of the organizers of the \u201cNakba\u201d event \u201chave a record of rhetoric that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel, as well as dangerous stereotypes about Israel\u2019s supporters.\u201d Apparently free speech relating to a historic event is not even allowed to congressmen in today\u2019s Zionist-occupied America.<\/p>\n

If more evidence of the slime that is at the heart of the American political class is needed, I would cite another event which took place in Jerusalem on April 27th<\/sup> as both shameful and a disgrace. And \u201cno\u201d I am not referring to the Israeli police and army shooting dead more Palestinian teenagers on and around that date before stealing their family homes and destroying their livelihoods. I am referring to Florida\u2019s governor and presidential aspirant Ron DeSantis\u2019s groveling performance in bowing to Jewish power and money during his own trip to Israel. His abhorrent crawling before his masters culminated in his signing a new state law that will inter alia<\/em> exploit the \u201chate\u201d mechanism to criminalize nearly all criticism or even skepticism regarding Israeli apartheid, of the co-called holocaust narrative, or of the behavior of Jewish groups and individuals.<\/p>\n

At the signing, DeSantis boasted<\/a> how \u201cWe are doing what we can do in Florida to enhance the ability to hold people accountable when that really crosses the line into threatening conduct. We are fighting back.\u201d He also made clear that the legislation was as much about Israel as about Judaism, arguing that<\/a> rejecting \u201cIsrael\u2019s right to exist is antisemitism\u201d and adding that the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is \u201cDOA\u201d in his state. He also bizarrely described<\/a> \u201cIran\u2019s pursuit of nuclear weapons\u201d as an \u201cexistential threat to the state of Israel and to the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps DeSantis should have checked with the CIA and even Mossad before commenting on Iran as both have confirmed that the Iranians do not currently have a nuclear weapons program. Unsurprisingly DeSantis claims that<\/a> \u201cFlorida is the most Israel-friendly state in the country and as long as I\u2019m Governor, we will continue to stand with the Jewish community.\u201d In that he is no doubt correct. Twenty-six other states have penalized anyone<\/a> seeking to either boycott Israel or promote doing so, sometimes to include denial of government jobs or benefits, but there is no doubt that Florida is currently number one in its deference to the Jewish state and its claimed interests.<\/p>\n

The bill (HB 269\/SB 994), which passed unanimously in both chambers of the Florida legislature, attempts to criminalize what it perceives as anti-Semitism. Even though its language avoids identifying Jews as the protected class, the clear intent of the document is to do just that. It accomplishes that by transforming what would have once been seen as trivial incidents into hate crimes, which are felonies. It includes \u201cto litter a yard with a flier, harass people, disrupt schools or religious services, deface graves and certain buildings, or project images on someone else\u2019s property\u201d as possible actions rendered felonious based on racial or ethnic prejudice, making them hate crimes. It might mean, for example, that if someone laughs at another person\u2019s clothes and if the attire is considered \u201cethnic or religious\u201d that person can be arrested and charged with a third-degree felony as a hate crime. Or if a student in a college history class disputes the standard largely fabricated narrative relating to the founding of Israel, a Jewish student can feign distress and demand that the offender be arrested.<\/p>\n

One of the bill\u2019s co-sponsor\u2019s State Representative Randy Fine, who was present at the signing in Jerusalem, explained how \u201cThere is no First Amendment right to conduct. If you graffiti a building, it is a crime now, but if your motivation is hate, it will be a third-degree felony and you will spend five years in prison. If you want to litter, it\u2019s a crime right now, but if you litter and your motivation is a hate crime, it will be a third-degree felony and you will spend 5 years in jail.\u201d After the bill passed the Senate, Fine tweeted that the bill was \u201cthe strongest antisemitism bill in the United States\u201d adding \u201cTo Florida\u2019s Nazi thugs, I have news: attack Jews on their property and you\u2019re going to prison. Never again means never again.\u201d Another co-sponsor Mike Caruso warned \u201cIf we do nothing, we are going to have 1933\u2019s Nazi Germany all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis, who is seeking Jewish money and media support for his run at the presidency, turned in something of a repeat performance<\/a> of his inaugural trip to Israel back in 2019. At that time, he boasted, like Kevin McCarthy, that his first foreign trip was to good friend and perpetual ally Israel. He took his entire gubernatorial cabinet with him to celebrate his election and theatrically signed an earlier bill (HB 741) in Jerusalem that sought to \u201ccriminalize ordinary political speech\u201d by making religion as a \u201cprotected class\u201d similar to \u201cracism\u201d to be included in \u201chate crime\u201d legislation. The new designation specifically included attempts to \u201cdemonize Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida bill also included<\/a> the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, similar to that which is favored by the office of the US Department of State\u2019s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, maintaining that \u201canti-Semitism\u201d is \u201ca certain perception of Jewish people, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jewish people, rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism directed toward a person, his or her property, or toward Jewish community institutions or religious facilities.\u201d Under the bill, the BDS movement was defined as a terrorist \u201chate\u201d group no different than the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) or the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS), which at that time prompted some civil libertarians to question if criticism of the behavior of the Jewish state could be deliberately mischaracterized as being an \u201canti-Semitic hate crime\u201d that should or might be construed as criticism of the Jewish people and their religion.<\/p>\n

HB 741 amended Florida\u2019s \u201chate crime\u201d statute to include such \u201cantisemitic\u201d acts as:<\/p>\n