By Ben Samuels in Haaretz
WASHINGTON – Ahead of what appears to be a tightly contested U.S. presidential election, Democrats have highlighted the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank’s Project 2025 – a 922-page blueprint outlining conservatives’ plans to fundamentally alter the government – and its advocacy for Christian nationalism.
Project 2025 was unveiled last year, but earlier this month, the think tank presented a plan called “Project Esther,” specifically focused on combating antisemitism. Like Republican nominee Donald Trump’s and his party platform, the plan is primarily centered on punitive measures against the national pro-Palestinian protest movement that has gained prominence amid the Gaza war.
- Trump plays up U.S.-Israel tensions ahead of election
- In U.S. election, Israel might be the ultimate October surprise
- The real danger of Trump’s preemptive effort to blame Jewish voters if he loses
Project 2025 was created after the Heritage Foundation was advised by more than 100 conservative groups over the past several years, with the aim of concentrating presidential power and installing long-desired conservative priorities.
Many American Jews have expressed particular concern about the plan’s radical restructuring of the U.S. government – including defunding the Department of Education, whose Office of Civil Rights investigates allegations of antisemitism.
The recently proposed Project Esther, presented on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack, depicts antisemitism as inseparable from anti-Zionism. While it calls for a “national task force to combat antisemitism,” it effectively calls for a crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters.
The 33-page document’s underlying thesis is that “America’s virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American ‘pro-Palestinian movement’ is part of a global Hamas Support Network (HSN).”
The task force’s mission statement calls for a coalition to “dismantle the infrastructure” that allegedly sustains the network within one to two years.
“Supported by activists and funders dedicated to destroying capitalism and democracy, the HSN benefits from the support and training of America’s overseas enemies,” the document states.
It further says that the purported network “seeks to achieve its goals by taking advantage of our open society, corrupting our education system, leveraging the American media, coopting the federal government, and relying on the American Jewish community’s complacency.”
Project Esther also alleges that “anti-Israel and anti-Zionist Jew-haters” are “a threat not just to American Jewry, but to all Americans.
“Their ideology and actions directly challenge and attempt to undermine the American values that are fundamental to our way of life, our nation’s success, and our future,” it continues.
The document suggests how a potential Trump administration would crack down on protesters – something he has promised, notably calling for deporting protesters present in America on student visas and targeting universities’ tax-exempt status.
It notes specific laws that might “exploit [the network’s] vulnerabilities,” mentioning laws requiring people representing foreign entities to formally disclose their connections and legislation used to target organized crime and racketeering.
In the document, the Heritage Foundation singles out “Hamas Support Organizations” within the network, pointing to “National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP or SJP), alternatively known as the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC); American Muslims for Palestine (AMP); Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP); and Samidoun,” the last of which was recently designated for sanctions by the Biden administration.
It also puts major progressive foundations like the Tides Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, as well as Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation and the Alliance for Global Justice, in its crosshairs, attempting to link pro-Palestinian political action to broader ideology.
“The indispensable support network of activists and financial supporters that allows the HSN to succeed in its operations has a parallel goal of eliminating capitalism and democracy,” it says. “Making common cause with the HSN furthers the goals of these anti-American organizations along with those of America’s other enemies. Thus, the HSN poses a threat not simply to American Jewry, but to America itself.”
‘They will target Christians next’
The plan was drafted by a group of Trump-allied organizations, including the America First Policy Institute. The organization launched its own antisemitism policy paper a week after Project Esther’s publication titled “Woke Antisemites Won’t Stop with Jewish Students,” which expresses explicit concern about potential ramifications for Christians.
“Campus antisemitism is linked to the bizarre ‘Red-Green Alliance’ of radical leftists and Islamists,” the organization’s Christopher Schorr wrote. “The new Left antisemitism draws on critical race theory and related ideologies that frame the world in terms of inherent conflicts arising between supposed ‘oppressor’ and ‘oppressed’ groups.
“These ideologies are equally hostile to Christianity and the West,” the document continues. “If they succeed in driving Jewish life underground, they will target Christians next.”
Meanwhile, another participating organization named by Project Esther is the Philos Project, a pro-Israel group with a stated mission of promoting “positive Christian engagement in the Middle East” and whose major funders include Republican megadonors like Paul Singer.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, notably chose a Philos Project commemoration to mark the October 7 anniversary earlier this month. It was one of six evangelical Christian groups to be included in the original task force’s announcement out of 12 total organizations.
Project Esther attacks the American-Jewish community’s “complacency,” saying that “while a strong, capable element has mustered financial, political and moral support both for the Jewish state of Israel and for efforts to counter academic intolerance in some select institutions, particularly at the administrator level, significant components of the community remain disengaged.
“Some may be blind and deaf to the manifestation of HSN-inspired antisemitism at home,” it continues. “Some may be in such disbelief that they cannot even acknowledge the threat. More likely, many simply do not know what to do and are waiting for leadership to guide them.”
The only Jewish organizations that have committed to participation in the task force, according to the Jewish Insider, are the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Coalition for Jewish Values.
The first of these, founded in 2019 by Republican megadonor Adam Beren, has pressed for the adoption of the contentious International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. Progressives have vocally argued that it is too loose in conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
It found itself embroiled in controversy last year after releasing a video condemning “woke antisemitism,” charging that anti-Jewish hatred on the political left was the result of “the emergence and dominion of what many call woke ideology.”
The Coalition for Jewish Values was launched by several Orthodox rabbis following Trump’s 2016 election and pushes for Torah-based and “authentic” Jewish interpretations of current political issues.
Project Esther does not address antisemitism on the right. “White supremacists are not my problem,” Heritage task force leader James Carafano told Jewish Insider about the omission, “because white supremacists are not part of being conservative.”
Image by Ted Eytan Via Wikimedia