(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Fractured American Right on Hamas Attack: Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, War Mongering, Left Bashing [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-23 The October 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel is fueling a mixed bag of responses on the American right: Christian Zionists envision Armageddon scenarios, Neo-cons salivate over another possible foreign engagement; anti-Semites are mobilizing their non-unique brand of hatred; anti-globalists are warning about US military involvement, and the anti-woke crowd has BLM, student protesters and pro-Palestinian supporters in its crosshairs. The Hamas attack which resulted in the murder of 1400 Israeli civilians and soldiers, wasfollowed by the Israeli government’s launch of a wave of retaliatory bombing targeting the Gaza Strip. Thousands have been killed, denied food, water and electricity, and over a million Palestinians are being uprooted and have fled Gaza City for the purportedly safer south. In the U.S. some right-wing politicians, commentators, Christian Zionists, and MAGA supporters are seizing the opportunity to both revive the sordid days of post-9/11 when Islamophobia reigned and Bush administration officials attacked free speech. Black Lives Matter, campus groups, and pro-Palestinian organizations are being subjected to increased scrutiny and even attacks. So-called anti-globalists, are warning of a pro-Zionist cabal in the US government that is aiming to draw the country into another ground war, similar to the US’s protracted engagement in Afghanistan. Gaya Gupta of the New York Times recently reports that both anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim harassment has increased dramatically. The Anti-Defamation League has reported a 55 percent increase in incidents in week after October 7thcompared to last year. And, The Council on American-Islamic Relations states that anti-Muslim incidents have spiked from 2-3 per month to 18 in the past week. In Plainfield, Illinois, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy was brutally murdered, and his mother injured, by their landlord, a conservative talk radio listener whose anti-Muslim belligerence had escalated as he became ‘obsessed’ with the Israel-Hamas war. Writing for Religion Dispatches, Ben Lorber explores the differing responses that Right wing organizations have had to the Israeli-Hamas conflict. The right is divided in how to react to the Hamas attack, according to Lorber. “The U.S. Right has … leapt into frenzied overdrive, ramping up Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and war-on-terror saber-rattling while calling for repression of Palestine solidarity protests in the US“ (https://religiondispatches.org/the-right-is-deeply-divided-over-support-for-israel-though-its-not-over-justice-for-palestinians/). “Right-wing pundit Christopher Rufo, who helped craft the Right’s anti-CRT talking points in 2021, called on conservatives to ‘create a strong association between Hamas, BLM, [Democratic Socialists of America] and academic ‘decolonization’ in the public mind. Connect the dots, then attack, delegitimize, and discredit.’” Meanwhile, “a debate is unfolding on the Right regarding the nature and scope of U.S. support for Israel—a debate exposing deep fault lines in the MAGA coalition and bringing ascendant varieties of far-right antisemitism closer to the mainstream.” In an unprecedented move, President Biden visited Israel during wartime. He issued clear-cut statements in support of Israel’s far right government, while cautioning it to play by the international rules of warfare. Some on the right are ramping up the rhetoric. Lorber, who works for the progressive research organization, Political Research Associates, reported that “Republican Senator Tom Cotton stated on October 7, the day of Hamas’s attack, that ‘Israel will need reinforcements in this war,’ and called on President Biden to ‘send everything that shoots on everything that flies.’ “‘This is not just an attack on Israel,’ stated Nikki Haley, 2024 presidential hopeful and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. ‘This is an attack on America because they hate us just as much…this is the reason that we have to unite around making sure our enemies do not hurt our friends.’ Senator Lindsey Graham called for ‘coordinated effort between the United States and Israel to put Iran out of the oil business by destroying their refineries,’ should Hezbollah enter the war. However there are those on the right, including Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and others who warn against getting sucked into another “globalist” military enterprise. On his War Room broadcast, Bannon said that “the globalists (a conspiratorial term with frequent antisemitic connotations) are trying to suck you into another massive war in the Middle East…they’re back to where they were with Bush spreading the bald-faced lies to get us into Iraq, with the same intensity…I’m so sick of these people that want to send your sons and daughters on these foreign battlefields immediately to die.” Not to be outdone rhetorically, Christian Zionists are salivating at the possibilities, seeding their congregations with incendiary comments. Lorber reports that evangelical pastor Greg Locke told his congregationthat “Israel should make the Gaza Strip a parking lot by this time next week! Destroy the whole thing!” Calling “open borders” an “opportunity for a bunch of Hamas sleeper cells to come into this nation right now and start killing innocent men, women and children,” Locke continued, “Islam is a Satanic death cult…the Muslim religion hates Jewish people to the core of who they are.” “What Hamas did to Israel is being watched closely by BLM race arsonists in America,” warned Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk, suggesting Black protesters might violently attack U.S. civilians. Meanwhile with pro-Palestinian rallies taking place across the country, Donald Trump Jr., seized an opportunity to divert the public’s attention from his father’s legal woes and called on U.S. intelligence agencies to “stop spying on patriotic Americans and start spying on actual terrorists.” Trump Jr. added: “as we perpetually indoctrinate our children with weakness, feminize our boys, attack masculine men, glorify trans insanity…one day, the savages you see brutally attacking innocent civilians in the streets of Israel will be on your front door & you and your loved ones will have ZERO capability of defending themselves. That’s the future the left is creating for you.” In a stunning reminder of post-911 when Bush‘s press secretary Ari Fleischer warned “all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do,” Senator Josh “Running Man” Hawley spoke about “terror groups…infiltrating our campuses” and called for the Department of Justice to investigate the funding of student activism. The American right’s divisions are being played out for all to see in the battle over choosing a Speaker of the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, the Israel-Hamas/Gaza war has the potential of setting off a wider conflagration in the Middle East, Ukraine continues to battle the Russian Invasion, and a government shutdown looms in less than a month. Since the time of the Reagan administration, uneasy but ultimately broad and politically effective alliances have served right-wing forces in the U.S. Will the Right be able to come up with any unified strategies? That future is more unclear than at any point in the past 50 years. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/23/2201069/-Fractured-American-Right-on-Hamas-Attack-Anti-Semitism-Islamophobia-War-Mongering-Left-Bashing?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/