US-backed Israeli efforts to curb freedom of expression are likely to backfire

 

Credit: Doctors of the World

By James M. Dorsey

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 US President-elect Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may soon diverge in their approaches to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Yet, the Trump administration is set, as a ceasefire takes effect in Gaza, to cement suppression of criticism of the Jewish state, a pillar of Israel’s long-standing effort to manipulate US and international public opinion and squash public censure.

The restrictions on freedom of expression come on the back of the adoption of a restrictive definition of anti-Semitism.

“The Gaza crisis is truly becoming a global crisis of the freedom of expression. This is going to have huge repercussions for a long time to come,” said Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

“We need freedom of expression,” Ms. Khan said, arguing that it is important for democracy, development, conflict resolution, and peacemaking. “It will be harder to negotiate if you shut down one side,” she added.

Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu are cut from the same cloth. Both men have little, if any, regard for Palestinians. They also share a desire to undercut freedoms of expression and the press.

Mr. Trump’s designation of media institutions as an “enemy of the American people” strokes with Mr. Netanyahu’s attempts to curtail freedoms of the Israeli press that has, with some exceptions, failed to empower Israelis to form independent opinions of their own by fully and accurately reporting the Gaza war.

Mr. Netanyahu hasn’t limited his illiberal effort to Israel. Enabled by Mr. Trump, outgoing US President Joe Biden, and European leaders, Mr. Netanyahu has successfully jeopardised freedom of expression in the United States and Europe by equating criticism with anti-Semitism, with the backing of Israel’s bureaucracy, political elite, and public.

Nowhere is that more of an imperative for Mr. Netanyahu than in the United States, where grassroots support for Israel is strong among significant segments of the conservative and Christian public that returned Mr. Trump to office.

Counterintuitively, suppressing criticism of Israel could prove to be a double-edged sword for Mr. Trump, provided he keeps his eye on the ball in ensuring that Israel and the Palestinians fully implement the truce’s three stages and moves to engineer the establishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and the Jewish state.

So far, Israel and Hamas have only agreed on the modalities of the ceasefire’s first phase with the details of the implementation of the second and third phases, which would make the halt of hostilities permanent rather than temporary, yet to be negotiated.

Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, insisted this weekend that the incoming administration was committed to ensuring that the ceasefire in its totality is implemented by Israel and Hamas.

Even so, lurking in the background is Israeli uncertainty on what objectives will dominate Mr. Trump’s Middle East policy.

Taking credit for clinching the ceasefire, Mr. Trump said he would “continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords.”

Mr. Trump was reiterating his determination to engineer Saudi recognition of Israel as the crown jewel of his success in persuading the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco to establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state during his first term in office.

To achieve that, Mr. Trump will have to craft a credible resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And that is where the rub is. Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu both want to see a formalisation of Saudi-Israeli relations, but may differ on the price tag.

Mr. Netanyahu’s problem is that Israel’s Gaza war conduct has significantly raised the price Israel would have to pay for advancing Palestinian national rights.

Before Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appeared confident that Saudi and Muslim public opinion would allow him to recognise Israel with only a fig-leaf reference to the Palestinians.

Taking credit for clinching the ceasefire, Mr. Trump said he would “continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords.”

Mr. Trump was reiterating his determination to engineer Saudi recognition of Israel as the crown jewel of his success in persuading the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco to establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state during his first term in office.

To achieve that, Mr. Trump will have to craft a credible resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And that is where the rub is. Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu both want to see a formalisation of Saudi-Israeli relations, but may differ on the price tag.

Mr. Netanyahu’s problem is that Israel’s Gaza war conduct has significantly raised the price Israel would have to pay for advancing Palestinian national rights.

Before Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appeared confident that Saudi and Muslim public opinion would allow him to recognise Israel with only a fig-leaf reference to the Palestinians.

Increasingly, Saudi Arabia has insisted as the war dragged on that it will settle for nothing less than an independent Palestinian state. Escalating the kingdom’s rhetoric, Mr. Bin Salman accused Israel in November for the first time of committing genocide in Gaza.

Mr. Netanyahu rejects the notion of Palestinian independence but may be persuaded to accept a semblance of Palestinian self-determination provided the Trump administration green-lights an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and critical infrastructure.

Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu’s potential differences have not prevented the President-elect, supported by a substantial number of Democrats, from moving ahead with proposed legislation, that resembles restrictions on freedom of expression in Russia and Hungary and would curtail criticism of Israel. 

Increasingly, Saudi Arabia has insisted as the war dragged on that it will settle for nothing less than an independent Palestinian state. Escalating the kingdom’s rhetoric, Mr. Bin Salman accused Israel in November for the first time of committing genocide in Gaza.

Mr. Netanyahu rejects the notion of Palestinian independence but may be persuaded to accept a semblance of Palestinian self-determination provided the Trump administration green-lights an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and critical infrastructure.

Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu’s potential differences have not prevented the President-elect, supported by a substantial number of Democrats, from moving ahead with proposed legislation, that resembles restrictions on freedom of expression in Russia and Hungary and would curtail criticism of Israel.

The US House of Representatives, in response to last year’s college campus Gaza protests, adopted Resolution HR 9495 barely two weeks after Mr. Trump won the November presidential election. The legislation has yet to be endorsed by the Senate.

“The bill’s language is something of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It echoes the “foreign agent” laws that are the cornerstone of repression in Russia under (President Vladimir) Putin and, more recently, Hungary under (Prime Minister Victor) Orban, among other authoritarian regimes,” said journalist and podcaster Samantha Karlin.

The legislation empowers the US Treasury to investigate non-profit entities for suspected “funding (of) terrorist organizations” without providing exculpatory evidence and revoke their tax-free status.

With the goal of ‘intercepting and obstructing terrorism,’ the legislation expands government powers to wiretap American nationals and scour the Internet for information about people from Internet providers without a search warrant.

“Because the proposed bill gives so much power to a presidential appointee, it can, in theory, target a range of organisations with the “terrorist supporting” label as a form of harassment. This includes reproductive rights organizations such as Planned Parenthood, investigative media organizations like ProPublica, and humanitarian aid organizations providing help to Gaza — all already in the crosshairs of the Trump administration for political or ideological reasons,” Ms. Karlin said.

 

Protesters demonstrate in Washington. Screenshot of AP photo fragment

Thousands of people bundled in hats, gloves and scarves, and carrying banners that read “We Will Not Be Silent” and “Our Freedoms, Our Futures, Our Fight,” marched this weekend in Washington in near freezing weather to protest Mr. Trump’s policies they believe will undermine the rights of women, immigrants, social and racial minorities, and civil rights, including freedom of expression.

Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu’s efforts to curtail debate are bolstered by widespread polarization across the globe, increasing anti-foreigner and anti-migrant sentiment, the rise of religious nationalism, and mounting poplar distrust of political and economic elites.

Scholars Moustafa Bayoumi and Pamela E. Pennock trace the origins of efforts by Israel and its backers to counter, if not quash, expressions of support for the Palestinians to the 1960s.

Mr. Bayoumi argues that Islamophobia in the United States took on an anti-Palestinian dimension in the wake of the 1967 Middle East war.

Ms. Pennock documented pro-Israeli attempts to counter criticism of Israel going back more than half a century that helped lay the groundwork for current efforts to curtail fundamental democratic freedoms, including freedom of expression and assembly.

Ms. Pennock quoted a 1969 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report on a conference at Ohio State University of the Organization of Arab Students of the US and Canada that could have been written today.

The report warned that “the threat on the campuses and in the churches can no longer be ignored but must be confronted directly. Otherwise, we will lose by default because the Arabs are making rapid gains in several areas.”

The House of Representative’s resolution is the latest building block of Israel’s successful US-supported campaign to taint and curb criticism of the Jewish state.

The Anti-Defamation League likely looks back at the report 56 years later as accurately expressing its worst fears despite the resolution.

Israel’s image and reputation are in tatters in the court of international public opinion after a 15-month relentless, indiscriminate assault on Gaza that killed more than 46,000 people in response to Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack in which some 1,200 mostly civilian people were killed.

Israel’s self-inflicted wounds weaken Mr. Netanyahu, or whoever may eventually succeed him, in dealing with Mr. Trump if, and when the president focuses on achieving his Middle East policy goals, particularly a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the key to engineering Saudi recognition of Israel.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and podcast, The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey.