WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF THE "MOSTLY PEACEFUL" PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS?

BLM just got an election year upgrade

by Colin Liddell

My macro-empirical impression of the pro-Palestine protests -- given the almost always revealing timing -- is that they are the 2024 version of the 2020 BLM protests. Both work exactly the same way: discrediting or dividing the Democratic coalition. The most obvious beneficiary of this process in both cases would be Donald Trump and, beyond him, the Kremlin.

This doesn't "prove" anything, but it does strongly point in a certain direction.

Like BLM in 2020, the Pro-Palestinian protests, which were essentially caused by a decision to attack Israel made by a very small group of Hamas leaders in intimate contact with Iran and Russia, are designed to look like an American-as-apple-pie, "grassroots" upsurge of idealistic student radicalism. 

However, history has already revealed the surprising extent to which the Soviet Union went to infiltrate and co-opt student radicalism in the 1960s. The effectiveness of this trick has only been strengthened by the move to a more internet-based society and culture.

So, without any so-called "hard" evidence at all, beyond the intrinsic nature of the Kremlin and the effectiveness of the method referred to, it stands to reason that Russian secret services, and possibly those of one or two other countries, is actively involved in attempting to weaponize student radicalism in the USA in a vital election year.

But is there anything more solid than cast-iron speculation and adamite inference that can be pointed to "prove the case" for those who perpetually give everyone and his dog the full benefit of every doubt? If the Russian influence network is doing its job properly, there won't be many obvious signs, at least not yet. But, still, it's worth looking out for them. One way to do this is to keep a close watch on any of the groups involved in front-line organisation of the protests.

An NBC article back in March looked into the Pro-Palestinian groups that were then only disrupting Biden's campaign events and blocking city streets:

"Who's behind the pro-Palestinian protests that are disrupting Biden's campaign events and blocking city streets?

NBC News examined links to an organization banned by Germany and Israel but found no direct financial ties to any U.S.-designated terrorist groups."

This suggests to me that the two female journalists were looking squarely in the wrong direction. Kremlin entryism would be unlikely to mount an influence op through "accredited" terrorist organisations. But, idiots or not, NBC has a lot more time, money, and resources to look into the groups behind the "Muh Gaza" movement than I do. So, let's hand it over to them:

"To understand which groups are organizing the protests and any potential ties to foreign groups, NBC News reviewed the tax filings and social media posts of the organizations behind the highest-profile demonstrations, as well as court filings, government reports and legislative hearings related to the pro-Palestinian movement in America."

Yup, tax returns! We're in the realm of serious journalism now!

"What [emerged] is a vast network that includes left-leaning, billion-dollar American philanthropies and collaboration with at least one foreign organization that Germany and Israel have banned for allegedly working with or supporting Hamas and another terrorist group. [...]

Several of the pro-Palestinian organizations, including WITHIN OUR LIFETIME and the U.S. PALESTINIAN COMMUNITY NETWORK, do not have public tax filings. However, they and several other groups use a progressive nonprofit group based in New York called WESTCHESTER PEOPLE'S ACTION COALITION FOUNDATION, or WESPAC, as their fiscal sponsor to collect and process online donations. U.S. tax law allows nonprofit groups with 501(c)(3) status to collect money on behalf of smaller groups.

Howard Horowitz, WESPAC’s board chair, declined to share its financial filings for the organizations it sponsors. 

'Isn’t the big story the ongoing genocide in Gaza?' Horowitz said in an email.

Other groups have backing from major U.S. foundations. IFNOTNOW, an organization with the stated aim to “end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system,” was awarded $100,000 during the past five years by the ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND, a decades-old philanthropy based in New York. The fund has awarded close to a half-million dollars over the same period to JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE, another Palestinian rights organization. [...]

THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION, established by George Soros, has also given grants to Jewish Voice for Peace. A spokesperson said the foundation’s goal is to help establish lasting peace in the region."

Jewish chair of WESPAC Howard Horowitz

Elsewhere in the article they also focus on a not particularly important group called SAMIDOUN:

"Officials concerned about hidden links to terrorist groups point to a little-known international organization called Samidoun, the Arabic word for 'steadfast.' 

On its website, the Canadian-registered nonprofit group describes itself as 'an international network of organizers and activists working to build solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for freedom.'"

Banned in Germany and called a "terrorist organisation" by Israel, this is probably just a genuine "terrorism-slash-guerrilla-war-supporting" organisation and nothing at all sinister in the sense that we mean here. 

So, a quick re-cap, the NBC pair have dug up a rag-bag of shit-stirring organisations, namely:

👉🏿 WITHIN OUR LIFETIME

👉🏿 U.S. PALESTINIAN COMMUNITY NETWORK

👉🏿 WESPAC

👉🏿 IFNOTNOW

👉🏿 ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS FUND

👉🏿 JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE

👉🏿 THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION

👉🏿 SAMIDOUN

Great work, but there is no clear Kremlin footprint here, so, if Putin is involved, then his FSB boys are doing a good job hiding the strings.

But just because you don't see them, doesn't mean there aren't any strings. The chances are that almost all these organisations will have Kremlin plants within them, and that all these plants will push in the same direction when they get the signal to do so. Then there are what are called "useful idiots," those supported in their positions in these groups because they can be switched on and off by the more conscious actors.

But there are also other ways in which these organisations and the hysterical and malleable student bodies they control can be weaponised. One way is to control the Leftist radical dissident sphere through memes, talking points, and simulated online enthusiasm. In fact, many of the methods that the Kremlin used to subvert the dissident right are on display here.

The naively conducted NBC investigation even stumbles across traces of this. The article refers to Treasury Department official Jonathan Schanzer's criticisms of Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley, who founded the national branch of STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE:

"Schanzer argued that Bazian and his organizations are part of a network that is 'providing training, talking points, materials and financial support to students intimidating and threatening Jewish and pro-Israel students on college campuses.'" 

But the NBC girls are still hunting for their chimeric "terroristic" smoking gun and getting nowhere fast:

"According to congressional testimony, public statements and interviews, current and former government officials in the U.S., Europe, Israel and Canada claim that some leaders of the pro-Palestinian protest movement promote rhetoric from Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP. They also say some groups work with members of the PFLP. The State Department has designated both groups as terrorist organizations."

The real story here is not that there are people in the protests who support forms of struggle that are sometimes called "terroristic." It is that there is a vast, hysterical, dissident radical subculture that can easily be stampeded like a herd of cattle at the right moment and in the right direction to influence and destabilise US politics. Real NPCs.

The US media, with its need to stay within the narrow shelter of "verifiable sources," seems extremely uncomfortable and incapable of dealing with the nebulous nature of this shadow world. 

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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying it here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia).