In a solo commentary, Pinchbeck argues that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is serving as a prototype for authoritarian governance in the United States. Speaking as a secular Jew raised in New York, he sets Jewish participation in the labor movement, Selma, the anti-apartheid campaign and the antiwar movements, invoking Abraham Joshua Heschel and Hannah Arendt, against what he calls a perversion of that inheritance. He contends the American far right, the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 treat Israel as a working model of a militarized ethnostate built on walls, mass surveillance and criminalized dissent. He cites the State Department's Catch and Revoke program, which uses artificial intelligence to screen student visa holders' social media, and Palantir's role in Israeli targeting, arguing that Gaza is a laboratory for tools that will be turned on Americans.
In brief
- Pinchbeck argues that opposing Israel's policies toward Palestinians is consistent with Jewish ethical tradition rather than antisemitic, and that Jews in particular should keep speaking out.
- He claims the American far right, including the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, is copying Israel's playbook of purges, border militarization and criminalized dissent.
- He cites the State Department's Catch and Revoke program, which uses AI to monitor student visa holders' social media, as evidence that protest is already being punished without trial or appeal.
- Pinchbeck says Palantir technology was used in the Israeli military's Lavender targeting system, and that the same company works with ICE, US police departments and the Pentagon.
- He calls the founding formula of a land without a people for a people without a land a convenient lie, while also assigning the Muslim world and Islamic fanaticism a share of responsibility for the impasse.
- He argues that Gaza functions as a laboratory whose methods will be applied next to migrants, Black communities and activists inside the United States.
Full text
hey everybody today I want to talk about something that is kind of horrible and tragic and awful to talk about not just for the Palestinians but also for Jews everywhere so I grew up as a secular Jew and growing up in New York I believe that Jewish history and ethics and values demanded that we stand for justice oppose oppression fight for human dignity and human rights everywhere I believe that Jews have always been at the Forefront of struggles for justice for social justice and equal rights and so on we helped lead the labor movement in the early 20th century we marched in Selma with Martin Luther King Jr we were part of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa we organized against the Vietnam War and the Iraq War then you have people like Rabbi Abraham Joshua hesel who walked with Martin Luther King and said when I March in Selma my feet are praying and you have people like Hannah aand who warned us against totalitarianism against the dangers of nationalism so jewi history has often been one of fighting for justice not defending occupation and genocide and all these horrible things so these days though if you're a Jew and you're against Israel's Mass killing Mass starvation of Palestinians you're kind of considered an outcast or traitor so I want to say that you can be against Israel's destructive policies without being anti-semitic um whether you're Jewish or not I mean I completely love and honor what's great about Jewish culture and Jewish heritage for me that's our cultural heritage our scientific genius and our empathy for other people's struggles due to our own historical suffering so I find what is happening now to be a total perversion and I think that Jews need to keep speaking out about it and rejecting it Israel okay was meant to be a refuge for Jews and as we Now understand the idea that it was quote a land without a people for a people without a land was actually a convenient lie and okay even so it's no terrible you know it's terrible that no reasonable ution could be worked out over the last 80 years that was better than having these apartheid likee conditions for Palestinians and I don't absolve the Muslim world and Islamic fanaticism for its responsibility in This Disaster but I think Israel often acted terribly and sometimes you have a situation where both sides commit many wrongs and it doesn't make any rights but today what is happening in Israel is being used as a model for future authoritarianism in the US so in the far right in the US the nationalists the authoritarian billionaires the tech feudalists the think tanks like the Heritage Foundation when they look at Israel they see what they want for America's future and that's a hyper militarized ethnostate a nation built on walls apartheid Mass surveillance and fear a place where descent is criminalized where you fall in line or you get punished so we're seeing this starting already right now in the US International students are being deported just for protesting Israel's war in Gaza and this is really unprecedent ented the US state department has initiated a program known is Catch and revoke which employs artificial intelligence to monitor the social media accounts of student visa holders this program aims to identify individuals expressing support for Hamas or participating in demonstrations against Israel's actions in Gaza potentially leading to visa revocations and the first students have already had their visas revoked without trial no appeal simply because they exercised their right to free speech so if the US Government Can Deport students for protesting what's next for all of us who else is going to get silent how far is this going to go and at the same time we're seeing the expansion of the surveillance State uh you know unfortunately we have Peter Teal's company palente here which is deeply involved in the Israeli military's targeting of Palestinians palente technology was used in Project lavender which is an AI powered system that helped the IDF generate kill lists for air strikes in Gaza some reports suggest that these algorithms are responsible for the indiscriminate killing of thousands of civilians and palestin doesn't just work with Israel it's also working with IC with police departments across the US with the Pentagon and they're developing tools to track to detain and eliminate Palestinians but those tools are also being used or about to be used let's say against migrants black communities against activists here in the US so yeah Israel in sense is a test run Gaza is a laboratory and unless we do something about it we're going to be next so the Christian nationalist movement in the US has been explicit about their admiration for Israel's tactics you have far- rate figures like Steven Bannon Ronda santis and Tucker Carlson who praise Israel's non-nonsense approach to dealing with its enemies the Heritage foundation's 2025 project which lays out a blueprint for Republican takeover the US government calls for purging the Civil Service militarizing the Border criminalizing descent and cracking down on what's called woke ideology They're copying Israel's Playbook so I think this is why we really need to speak out particularly as Jews go this so goes against our Our Heritage and and our ethics and all that stuff and we've seen this before you know we know what happened in the Holocaust we know what happens when despotism goes unchecked when an entire people gets dehumanized when violence is justifi in the name of security uh so yeah I don't I don't know how we do it but I feel that we need to wake up and come together to push back against this trajectory oppose it before it's really uh too late
Automatic transcript, lightly edited for readability. Originally published on the Liminal News channel.