Updated at 2:00 PM EDT on 11 December 2019:
The central premise in the post below is inaccurate. It is inaccurate because The New York Times‘ reporting it is based on what factually inaccurate and misleading regarding the text of the forthcoming Executive Order. For a full discussion of this, please see my post at this link. – Adam L Silverman
From The New York Times (emphasis mine):
President Trump plans to sign an executive order on Wednesday targeting what he sees as anti-Semitism on college campuses by threatening to withhold federal money from educational institutions that fail to combat discrimination, three administration officials said on Tuesday.
The order will effectively interpret Judaism as a race or nationality, not just a religion, to prompt a federal law penalizing colleges and universities deemed to be shirking their responsibility to foster an open climate for minority students. In recent years, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions — or B.D.S. — movement against Israel has roiled some campuses, leaving some Jewish students feeling unwelcome or attacked.
In signing the order, Mr. Trump will use his executive power to take action where Congress has not, essentially replicating bipartisan legislation that has stalled on Capitol Hill for several years. Prominent Democrats have joined Republicans in promoting such a policy change to combat anti-Semitism as well as the boycott-Israel movement.
But critics complained that such a policy could be used to stifle free speech and legitimate opposition to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the name of fighting anti-Semitism. The definition of anti-Semitism to be used in the order matches the one used by the State Department and by dozens of other nations, but it has been criticized as too open-ended and sweeping.
hotshoe
God damn him. The Dumpster, I mean, damn him.
Adam L Silverman
@hotshoe: I don’t believe in Hell, so feel free to damn me as much as you need.//
NotMax
So Ivanka not a real ‘murkin?
//
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Adam, in your opinion, how bad could this get within the next 5 years or so? Obviously that depends a lot on 2020.
If something like, god forbid, Kristallnacht or the Tulsa Riots happened in the US is there anyway it could prevented, or even combated by citizens if the government was unwilling/unable to act or even the perps?
We have a few factors going for us that Nazi Germany didn’t: a decades-long cultural value of tolerance and a liberal tradition
I have to believe that based on the above factors, that any attempts at a Kristallnacht or Tulsa Riot-level event would be met with a huge backlash
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Things could get very bad. Or they could not. I have no way of predicting.
As for whether something like a Kristallnacht or Tulsa Race Riot, I will just remind you that America is awash with guns. A lot will depend on what local leadership, including law enforcement leadership, does.
jayjaybear
A lot of the more conservative Jews seem to believe that tikun olam is a butter substitute rather than a divine directive.
Timurid
@jayjaybear:
Trump finally got Seth Mandel’s vote.
Mike in DC
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
If you want a better “model” for a second Civil War, think in terms of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland: factional and sectarian conflict, attacks and reprisal attacks, ambushes of government forces by one side or the other, crackdowns on civil liberties, attacks on government facilities, and on again, off again “peace” talks. Went on like that for thirty years. I think that’s far more likely than some kind of state vs state or city vs rural conflict. Even then, I tend to think we’ll stop short of that. That kind of violence tends to pose an unacceptable risk to actual politicians as well.
laura
Is this “othering” on a grand scale, or am I off base in how many ways this can go wrong here and abroad?
Who’s ordering this because there’s no way trump could give two scoots about this on his own – there’s simply no up side unless the organization has a real estate deal on the line.
Adam L Silverman
@laura: This is an attempt to try to reverse the 16% slide in Jewish American support for Republicans over the past three years. It was at 33% and it is now at 17%. It is also pandering to the Christian Zionists.
FelonyGovt
Trump seems to think he is doing Jews a favor. Actually he is othering us. This is frightening.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: How does this reverse the slide? No Jewish American that I know has reacted to this move with anything but horror and dismay.*
*This, of course, might be a Pauline Kael situation.
rikyrah
Thanks for explaining it to me. I suspected that it was bad?
CaseyL
This is catastrophic, enough to seriously make me consider getting out of the country pronto.
In an earlier thread, I said Kristallnacht would happen in the next year, depending on how big a hit the GOP takes in the 2020 elections. If Trump loses, all bets are off.
I no longer believe in any kind of essential goodness in Americans – not because I fear they are evil, as I have come to see they just don’t care what happens to non-white non-christians. We have hollowed out any sense of economic security and shared community for all but the well-off. People who are frightened for their own personal future are far, far more likely to be looking for scapegoats. It has been that way all through history.
I’m incredibly angered by this. I was incredibly angered when Trump and the GOP did it to Muslims, to Hispanics, and to any-and-all immigrants. Now my rage has gone up to a notch I didn’t think was possible.
Adam L Silverman
Good statement.
tokyokie
My late thoracic surgeon was born and attended medical school in Iran, but because his surname ended in “-ian,” I deduced that he was an ethnic Armenian. (An Armenian-American friend once told me you could always tell who was Armenian, because their family name rhymes with Armenian. Although his didn’t.) Anyway, in the surgeon’s waiting room was a fresco of Iran, with a prominent Star of David. Thus I concluded that he was an ethnic Armenian Jew from Iran, just to give you a good example of how convoluted mixes of ethnicities can become. But his nationality wasn’t that he was a Jew, he was a naturalized U.S. citizen. And one who contributed more to his community than Donald J. Trump could ever conceive of doing. I am only alive today because of this man’s surgical skills, and seeing der Trumpenführer and his loyal thugs wipe their feet on his and every other American Jew’s identity fills me with sorrow and rage.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t think it will. I think the people that advise the President on this stuff are convinced that if they can get him to do enough things in support of Israel, which is what this is really about, think it will. They have so conflated Judaism and Israel that they can’t see they’re not the same thing.
SFAW
As does laura, I want to know who’s getting him to do this. Is it more of Putin’s fuckery, trying to destroy America from within? Is it the Barr/Opus Dei psycho contingent? Miller and other assorted Nazis?
It sucks that there are so many candidates for the role.
Adam L Silverman
@tokyokie: This is my dad from when he was 19 or 20. He was born in Denver. My paternal grandfather was born in Minneapolis and my paternal grandmother in Massachusetts. I don’t have any records before that. However, we liked to refer to dad as The Glorious Leader!
We put the Jew in Juche…
O. Felix Culpa
Can this executive order stand? Where does any president get the authority to officially determine and “recognize” a particular ethnicity or race? And what about first amendment rights?
Jay
Adam, I saw this announcement earlier, and was horrified.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
You mean that You People (i.e., The Joooos) don’t take your orders/directions from Bibi? But I thought You People had dual loyalties? etc etc
oatler.
It was probably on orders from Bibi.
Jay
Columbia joined “the club” last night,
Tonight, India,
NotMax
Meanwhile, thrice indicted Netanyahu barely treading water ahead of Wednesday’s hard deadline.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: “Dorfman, I’ve given this a lot of thought. From now on, your Delta Tau Chi name is Flounder.”
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: It is being pushed by the Republican Jewish groups, as well as the Jewish advocacy groups that think the BDS movement, and describing what Israel is doing in the West Bank as apartheid, are anti-Semitism, not anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. These are folks who have completely conflated Judaism with Israel. They actually do have a dual loyalty and, to be blunt, their loyalty is to Israel above American despite most of them being US citizens and not Israelis or holding dual citizenship.
Mary G
I have been yelling at people on Twitter over this and gotten so angry with the “identity politics” bullshit arguments. The acceleration of in-your-face racism between his speech and now this in just a week or ten days is frightening as f*ck. It’s so surreal. I grew up thinking America was getting over all these sins and they were just hiding.
Adam L Silverman
@O. Felix Culpa: I suspect someone will try to enjoin it. And they should. Most likely ACLU and FIRE. Possible Mikey Weinstein’s Freedom From Religion Foundation. I’d really like to see the Union of Conservative Judaism and the Union for Reform Judaism do so as well.
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t pee on Bibi to put him out if he was on fire.
I am in no way, shape, or form advocating for him to be set on fire or harmed in any way, but I feel no reason to, nor would I, place my life in jeopardy to save him from harm.
Jay
Chetan Murthy
@CaseyL:
Every time someone talks about emigration, I say the same thing: Don’t emigrate — move to California instead! Sure, it’s expensive, but emigration isn’t cheap either. And the difference is, you’re an American and so are we! And there’s so many people of color here, it’s gonna be *tough* for the white supremacists to fuck with us. Move to California! Taco trucks on every corner!
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Anyone who tried to call my dad Flounder at the age of 19 or 20 would have first received wall therapy and then been ejected from whatever premises they were in through a window. And if no window was available, my dad would have used their body to create one to eject them through. My guess is that it would have happened at the age of 63, right before he died when he was much frailer, as well.
Chetan Murthy
@Adam L Silverman:
Until recently I had never met a Jewish-American such as you describe, Adam. But I’ve met one, and yeah, it was pretty horrific. The thing is, I can’t see such a person voting for the Dems *anyway*. So this seems a bit of a useless measure. Though, to shore up the Christofascists, THAT I can see as being useful, and this certainly will do that.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: When all is said and done with this investigation, it is going to be another example of white Christian domestic terrorism.
Mnemosyne
@Mike in DC:
Interesting thing I only found out recently: the Troubles were kicked off by Ulster Catholics trying to take a page from American civil rights protesters and their nonviolent efforts getting suppressed so harshly that violence seemed like the only answer.
O. Felix Culpa
@Adam L Silverman: I hope that happens. And that the courts burn his ignorant racist ass.
Adam L Silverman
@Chetan Murthy: Are you doing the occupational headhunting? If you can slot me into something for a national security professional specializing in low intensity warfare, I can be there next week.
Adam L Silverman
@O. Felix Culpa: He had about 60% of his wall funding misappropriation shut down today.
NotMax
@SFAW
Did you still want get in touch outside of B-J?
In case you might have zapped an e-mail my way, nothing has showed up in that account.
Mnemosyne
@Chetan Murthy:
It’s also designed to bring out the Nazis and White supremacists who might be feeling a little discouraged by the whole impeachment thing. Having those non-voters turn out in 2016 was what put Trump over the top in 4 crucial states, and he can’t afford to have them stay home in 2020.
O. Felix Culpa
@Adam L Silverman: That court ruling gave me joy.
Chetan Murthy
@Adam L Silverman:
Dude, I”m old, slow, weak, and have one bad eye and one worse one. When and if the time comes, I’ll retrain as a medic and stretcher-carrier.
Also: very dry comment, that. Very, very dry. *grin
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Would have outright rejected and fought it lox, stock and barrel?
:)
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
when the Hong Kong protesters seized the Parliament, they wrote graffiti on the wall, for the Parliamentarians saying:
”Peaceful protest does not work,….
you taught me that.”
through out history, large numbers of armed resistance groups were rooted in the brutalization of peaceful dissent and attempts to claim rights.
Chetan Murthy
@Mnemosyne: You’re talking about Bloody Sunday, yes? I don’t really know that history, but I remember that it was a nonviolent march that the Brits shot up.
SFAW
@NotMax:
I sent my contact info to Adam and Anne Laurie late that night (i.e., when we had the extended “chat”), but it may have not made it through. I’ll try again. Thanks for being diligent.
[Adam: I’ll be shooting you an e-mail, I hope I use the correct syntax, etc. If you don’t see it in the next 5-10 minutes, please let me know here, and I’ll try again.]
joel hanes
@Chetan Murthy:
Move to California! Taco trucks on every corner!
And a Thai restaurant, or a Vietnamese restaurant, or an Indian restaurant, or a sushi place, or a Korean restaurant, or a Chinese restaurant, or a Mexican restaurant in every strip mall. In large strip malls, maybe three or four of the above. In silicon valley, you could go to an Ethiopian restaurant, or to a pretty old-fashioned German bierstube, or to a sort-of-an-English-pub (the Duke of Edinborough), or to a Pakistani restaurant, or an Iranian place, or to a very fine Afghani-style place (Kabul).
Adam L Silverman
@Chetan Murthy: Occupational headhunting was a reference to you finding me a job so I can move to California. Nothing else.
Mnemosyne
Totally OT, but I was trying to search Amazon for an herb grinder so I could turn some leafy dried herbs like oregano and scallion into powder for a chili powder I’m making from scratch.
Turns out that the ones they sell on Amazon are for a TOTALLY DIFFERENT kind of “herb.” Feh.
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: I just sent you an email. And I just checked, the last email I got from you was back in October 2018.
Mnemosyne
@joel hanes:
There’s supposed to be a really good Basque restaurant out in Riverside.
And don’t forget that you can pick your favorite region of Mexico to get the style of Mexican food you want.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Get a good coffee grinder.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax:
@SFAW: I’ve sent SFAW’s email info to NotMax.
divF
@Mnemosyne: I have a Braun coffee grinder that I use exclusively for spices (I grind uncooked rice to clean it between uses). Would that work for dried herbs, as well?
Chetan Murthy
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know what sort of chili powder you’re trying to make, but on the off-chance it’s for Indian food, long ago an Indian-American friend who’s an -excellent- cook turned me on to using a “blade coffee grinder” for grinding up herbs and spices. I instantly stopped using powdered coriander/cumin/etc and switched to grinding it up for each time I cooked. It, uh, renders the grinder “fragrantly” unsuitable for grinding coffee beans, though …..
Joey Maloney
Using raw rice to clean the grinder is genius! Will try that next time.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
Got it, sent you a reply.
Jay
@ruemara:
seconded,
if you use pliers or wire cutters to hack up cinnamon sticks before grinding, and a fine sifter, you will never used jar cinnamon ever again.
Jay
Jay
Mnemosyne
@ruemara (and everyone else):
That’s what it’s looking like I’ll need to do. I’ll probably get a manual one because I have an anxious cat with a heart murmur who HATES the sound of an electric coffee grinder.
Mary G
More of this kind of thing popping up too:
I had somebody tell me I was taking up too much sidewalk yesterday, because between a newspaper stand and a potted tree in front of a coffee shop they had to walk single file to go past me.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
to avoid waking SWMBO in the early am, I bury the grinder under tea towels, a coffee cosy on top of a cork heat pad.
turns the high whine/gravel rolling sound into a fine buzz.
SFAW
@Chetan Murthy:
Only if you don’t like exotic-flavored coffee, you tyro. Cumin-infused coffee/espresso/latte — it’s the next big thing. You heard it here first.
If you want to see my video on how it’s done, I’ll send you a tape. Can you use Betamax? [I don’t have it in VHS.]
Jay
Jay
@SFAW:
can you post it to MySpace?
tokyokie
@Mnemosyne: In the early 1970s, I got to know an Irishman who was a Protestant who lived in the Republic of Ireland. He had nothing but unbridled contempt for his co-religionists in Northern Ireland. “Doncha see,” he said to me, “they’re afraid that were they to become the minority, the same shite they’ve been doin’ for years to the Catholics would happen to them.” And he could attest from personal experience that nothing is further from the truth.
His point-of-view has greatly shaped my feelings about “the Troubles.”
smike
@Mike in DC:
The problem I see is that the civilian population in the US is now armed with military grade weaponry of all kinds, much of it quite legally obtained.
Chaos is easy to imagine.
Paul M Gottlieb
@Adam L Silverman: I would! In fact, he wouldn’t have to be on fire!
Gvg
Just proves Kushner and Ivanka aren’t that smart. If they were, they would have headed this off. I also notice we don’t hear as much about them as we used to. I wonder if their influence has dropped.
hope for the courts to put a stop to this.
Israel under Bibi is burning a lot of bridges. It used to be that the Palestinians would always do something offensively violent or turn down some peace effort just as people would start to get bothered by something Israel did. It seemed to me Israel benefited by having an opponent group that was worse than them. Since Arafat died, seems like the Palestinian’s have quit doing own goals in the view of the American public. Kind of interesting really.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Gvg: Who was it who said of Arafat that “he never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity”?
CaseyL
@Chetan Murthy: I like California just fine (lived in the Bay Area for a year or so back in the early 80s) but it is expensive, and the places I could afford are in areas which – even in California! – seem to attract RWNJs.
I live in Seattle, which is about as liberal and secular as you can get. I’m still worried. I could say America has turned incredibly ugly incredibly fast, but some of the viciousness has always been there. It’s like we’ve been fighting cancer for decades, and now it’s metastasized. In other countries where similar hatreds have been legitimized and let loose, the disease doesn’t stop before it has burned everything down.
Jay
@Gvg:
the target of this, is BDS.
Bari Weiss and others are just thrilled. The Likkuidnick’s have forgotten real history and just use their version to claim the victim role.
Jarvanka have no clue what they have unleashed, and meh, they think their money and privledge will protect them.
john fremont
@Mnemosyne: I listened to a radio show 30 years ago about how the Ulster Catholics were inspired by Martin Luther King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail.
JGabriel
@Jay:
NYT:
Sorry, Cory, but I’m afraid they already have.
smike
Waaait a minute, now…… Does this mean that Christianity is now a nationality? A race? Must they establish their own country? I have so many questions.
Amir Khalid
If Trump makes Judaism a nationality, doesn’t he also make nationalities of brown people’s faiths like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, not to mention the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Wouldn’t adherents of all these other faiths also be entitled to freedom from calumny?
Viva BrisVegas
@Amir Khalid:
You mean like white christian nationalists?
I think that’s the idea of whichever cryptofascist currently has their hand stuck up Trump’s arse.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. The right wing are working hard at those divisions. If they can break it, they get to own it.
Frances Perkins
Surely this proposal is unconstitutional. Can some of our lawyers weigh in?
Jim Parish
@CaseyL:
It seems to me that you’re giving in to their claim, that “Americans” refers only to white Christians. Please don’t do that.
Patricia Kayden
Matt McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy: The number of nuclear bombs it’d take to turn California into a deep-red state is probably less than 10. They have thousands.
Jado
“Why those who support this stupidity can’t seem to learn it, remember it, and/or understand it is beyond 7 to 10 year old me! As well as current me.”
I understand why they do this – *$DOUGH$$!!
This track suits their current economic and political goals. Nothing more. There are NO ideals or morals there beyond the acquisition and retention of political and economic power.
SFAW
If I thought he had the rationality or intellect to make the connection, I’d wonder if Steven Miller saw this and said “Shit! Just like Germany. Maybe I should re-think some things.” And then try to undo some of his racist crap.
But I have little doubt that he fully supports this, and continues to think that he’ll be “saved” when the Nazis gain unassailable power.
Kristine
@Chetan Murthy: That’s why I have separate grinders for spices and coffee. Play it safe.
Jinchi
I have to admit that I’m completely baffled by the logic redefining Judaism as a nationality will somehow end the BDS movement, because the BDS movement is targeted at Israel, not Judaism.
The implicit, but unspoken assumption seems to be that the American president is declaring all Jews to be citizens of Israel, but I’m pretty sure Israel is not going to consider itself bound to that decision.
In any case, nations are not protected under American law. We can protest Germany, Russia, China (and Israel) freely and openly. So he’s not so much declaring Judaism a nation, he’s declaring Israel a religion.
Jinchi
Trump’s recent speech to the Israeli American Council a few days ago got a lot of backlash, but I haven’t seen quotes from anyone actually in the room, and I haven’t seen reports that he was booed or that people walked out in protest.
They invited him to speak, knowing that he regularly attacks Jews for disloyalty to Israel. If I were searching for the rare Jewish American who supports this policy, that’s where I’d start.
J R in WV
Thanks for this educational article, Adam. I had no idea something like this was ever even in a pipeline to be considered.
Of course, the very idea that something should be “considered” is anathema to Trump. He operates on instincts, bad ones. Inquiring as to whether a move to reconsider Judaism would gain favor among the Jewish community before announcing the thing is contrary to Trump’s whole being.
Jay
@Jinchi:
declaring the Judism is a nationality brings Title X protections to University Campus’s. Under Title X, students and groups can be expelled, federal funding cut.
Jinchi
Expelled for what? They are criticizing the actions of a government not the existence of a people.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mnemosyne: Just buy an extra coffee grinder. If you can get one with adjustable fineness, tant mieux, but I doubt you’d even need that. (ETA: ruemara at #53 supra FTW.)
Uncle Cosmo
@Uncle Cosmo: Also divF & Chetan Murthy above. Looks like it’s a movement!