Thread by @LaraFriedmanDC

Watching Congress & others escalate the targeting of any/all support for Palestinian lives/rights, I want to draw attention to the growing shift/escalation of language, evoking not merely the McCarthy-era trends in play, but also the 1917-1920 Red Scare. 1/

Key elements of McCarthyism & the 1917-1920 Red Scare were accusations that targeted Americans held "un-American" or "anti-American" beliefs & that their activism was inspired/driven/in support of nefarious anti-American foreign interests/actors. 2/

Both elements are prominent today.

Since virtually Day 1 of protests against Israel's devastating war on Gaza there's been an ever-louder drumbeat of allegations that protesters r agents, puppets, &/or supporters of nefarious foreign forces, ie Hamas or other terrorist orgs. 3/

At the same time, members of Congress & pro-Israel forces in the US have increasingly added the term "anti-American" or "un-American" to the list of adjectives ("anti-Israel", "pro-Hamas", "antisemitic") used to describe/delegitimize protesters. 4/

Note this week's letter from Chairs of the House Oversight Committee & the Committee on Education & the Workforce to the IRS, launching an investigation into US orgs it alleges are linked to the protests - protests they describe as "anti-American"



5/oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…

& note this article from EJewish Philanthropy today:
6/ ejewishphilanthropy.com/marc-rowan-its…

Here Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) on 5/6/24:

7/ cole.house.gov/media/weekly-c…

Here's a 3/27/24 letter from the House Committee on Education & the Workforce describing a program at Rutgers University:



/8 edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…

Here's Rubio (R-FL) bringing the two elements together in a 5/2/24 article



9/ jewishinsider.com/2024/05/marco-…

Here's the Chair of a House Education Committee subcommittee in his opening statement at a 5/8/24 hearing attacking the protests/protesters:



10/ edworkforce.house.gov/news/documents…

Here's a letter from the House Oversight Committee to the IRS Commissioner demanding an investigation into "the influence of America’s foreign adversaries...on U.S.-based tax-exempt organizations," bring together both elements:


11/ gop-waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/upl…

This thread could go on & on. The point is: however one feel about Israel's war on Gaza & US protests of it, one would do well to recognize that objectors to these protests have deliberately or inadvertently launched what increasingly looks like a new Red Scare.
12/

For folks unfamiliar with history, the 1917-20 Red Scare & McCarthyism led to people being arrested/deported & their lives ruined merely for being suspected of holding certain political views, not to mention actual executions.


end/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and…
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/juli…