Critics have suggested the Israeli President Netanyahu defending use of Nazi salutes at U.S. political rallies is indicative of an historically ignorant extremist right-wing alignment with U.S. leaders overtly planning mass ethnic cleansing.
“@elonmusk is being falsely smeared,” [Netanyahu] wrote. “Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel….”
That logic is so impeccable, where do I even begin.
Do you know who else visited Israel?
Hamas.
Do you know who else adopts and promotes Nazi symbolism?
Hamas.
Somehow we are supposed to believe however that Elon Musk is totally different and a friend because what… his grandfather was so anti-Semitic and racist that after Hitler lost WWII he ran towards South African apartheid to raise Elon on blood money?
That kind of friend?
Let’s all just admit Netanyau is a politician notorious for saying whatever gives him power in the instant and erasing accountability for it soon after. There’s been a pattern of selective historical memory and inconsistent application of standards by him when assessing threats.
He’s obviously no historian, in other words. And perhaps more importantly he has zero credibility left on the topic of threats to Israel, that’s for certain, given Hamas invaded on his watch while he directly undermined the political independence, authority and judgment of the Israeli military.
And now this:
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said… an analyst with Israeli network Channel 12 News, cited Israeli officials and reported that the move was “not a slip of the tongue….”
An ethnic cleansing plan? Let’s run that one up the flag pole and see who salutes it.
Israelis must be thinking “first they came for“… because that’s what is going on now.
Americans are also seeing it on home soil for very similar sounding Trump plans, where large populations allegedly will soon be confronted by combat troops demanding “papers please” like the 1930s.
Have a nice house? Papers please.
Successful business? Papers please.
Sandy beach access to the sea? Papers please.
Practically speaking, as a matter of national security extended into interventions/invasions abroad, the American GOP has forever (since at least my time in the early 1990s on Capitol Hill meetings with Senator Bob Dole) complained they have been blocked as foreigners from rapidly acquiring and owning property in Israel. The American eminent domain (eviction for profit) aspiration in foreign policy being reported is not really news on that note, but this marks a substantial pace change. The sloppy “grab them by the glaciers” bombast replaces decades of norms that meant more orchestrated diplomatic whispers behind closed doors.
The current situation should thus be framed more accurately beyond a political crisis of the moment in Gaza. It’s the abrupt unstable convergence at the White House of historical patterns of racist displacement, economic interests in foreign value extraction, and the normalization of the worst extremist rhetoric by high-profile American politicians.
We’re in a particularly dangerous moment because various strands of extremist ideology, economic interests, and weakened institutional protections are amplifying each other without sufficient evidence of safety from resistence let alone impedance.
The very instant Netanyau said the obvious Nazi salute by a man with a long documented history of Nazi affinity isn’t a threat to Israel, the shock should have been registered appropriately. An Israeli leader should face full accountability for endorsing Nazism in 2025, such as surrendering his seat and authority to lead. It’s much more clear-cut than America, and so ethnic cleansing statements there represent a bellweather of what’s likely coming for America. The lack of immediate consequences after such clear breaches in integrity, blowing past historical lines, suggests a catastrophic weakening of institutional safeguards against violent extremism.