No one ever claimed racist lunatics had any sense. If they did, they would realize that the class struggle shows how many commonalities they have with those they hate. However, that never stopped them from loathing those who don’t look like them or come from a foreign country. We’ve seen it time and again throughout US history manifesting as official oppression, hate crimes, and state-sponsored murder. For many in the United States, none of this is new.
So how do far-right anti-Semites go from “Jews will not replace us” to supporting Israel? The answer is both simple and not so simple. On a basic level, they hate Muslims more than they do Jewish people (see Elon Musk, Marjorie Taylor Greene, etc). Extremists are feeding on the growing Islamophobic propaganda that is arguably at a level worse than after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, from all sides of the political aisle and society at large.
Anti-Semitism on the far right is also growing. At the same time, extremists are playing mental gymnastics in trying to decide who to oppose more, Meanwhile, the US government is playing into the hands of Islamophobes. Since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing carpet bombing of Palestinians, non-stop misinformation has been recreating the same anti-Muslim tropes after 9/11. This is arguably helping drive Islamophobia more so than anti-Semitism.
Many influential voices in the far right that drive conversations among hate groups are using much of the disinformation that is being promoted in Western news. A great example of that is the fake story of 40 beheaded babies that has been broadly retracted and thoroughly debunked. A story that despite the extremists on the right using to justify incoming attacks on Muslims in Western countries, many liberals have been using to justify their Islamophobia as well.
To say these are scary times for Jewish people and Muslims in the US is too easy. In fact, the current moment we are living in is beyond frightening. It’s dreadful. Even then, right-wing extremists are now using the US-Mexico border as an inflection point to drive further hate against immigrants. Not only are they suggesting Africans, Venezuelans, and Cubans might be coming across the border to harm the country, but they’re also conflating them with Hamas and Hezbollah.
Despite none of that being true, when questioned about the validity of such a claim while asking for assistance in debunking it, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Del Rio didn’t respond. Yet, a few days later CBP in San Diego issued a warning that Hamas and Hezbollah “may” try to use the US-Mexico border to enter the US and commit terrorist attacks. Again, without evidence and using the same tactic former president George W. Bush used to militarize the border.
Even asking the White House and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yielded no responses as of this writing, thus, suggesting that both see no problem with making such claims without any corroboration. As similar language that was used in the aftermath of 9/11 drives Islamophobia today and explodes across the country, it seems as though political leaders have no interest in countering the narratives any more than the little they have done so far – even if extremists are using their words to target Jewish people, Muslims, and yes, Latinos.
The situation is such that for us to counter these hateful and vengeful narratives, it seems that we are on our own. And since neither federal agency nor the White House can verify whether warnings of terrorists in the US are valid, we can only assume they are not. There is no evidence from CBP, DHS, the DOJ, or the Department of State to make such dangerously broad assumptions, yet, they are allowed to spread unabated while US authorities remain silent.
Rumors that began on the far right are being promoted by officials at CBP with seemingly similar ideologies (which we know exist within the department) who seem to be content with fomenting the lies. No one in government appears interested in admonishing them. Not their bosses or the president. Their silence can only ensure attacks on already oppressed groups.
Without their action, hate crimes are all but guaranteed.
