This is real, and backed by research, Holocaust research on how Hitler began it. Pro-Palestinian protesters participate in a Nakba Day rally and march on May 15, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City Pro-Palestinian protesters participate in a Nakba Day rally and march on May 15, 2025 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City © Spencer Platt/Getty Images Months before President Donald Trump returned to office, the creators of Project 2025 unveiled a blueprint to shut down pro-Palestinian activism in the United States. The conservative Heritage Foundation's Project Esther sought to equate actions such as participating in pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses with providing material support for terrorism so that the demonstrators could be deported, face prison time, civil penalties or other serious consequences, The New York Times reported. Donate to Help Jews - IFCJ.ca Ad Donate to Help Jews - IFCJ.ca support.ifcj.ca Learn more call to action icon Newsweek has contacted the Heritage Foundation and the White House for comment via email. Why It Matters The Trump administration appears to have adopted some of the suggestions in Project Esther, including casting pro-Palestinian demonstrators as supporters of Hamas. The administration has withheld federal money from universities, arguing that they allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year, and revoked the visas of international students accused of participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Pro-Palestinian protests have flared again on college campuses this year, pushing for the same goal that drove demonstrations last year: an end to university ties with Israel or companies that provides weapons or support to Israel amid its ongoing war in Gaza. What To Know About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and about 250 people were taken captive. In the 19 months since, Israel has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, the Associated Press reported, citing Palestinian health officials. As anger over Israel's actions in Gaza mounted, the Heritage Foundation unveiled a policy paper called Project Esther on the one-year anniversary of the attack. IFCJ.ca - The Fellowship Ad IFCJ.ca - The Fellowship support.ifcj.ca Learn more call to action icon The document said the "virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-American groups comprising the pro-Palestinian movement" are pro-Hamas and "effectively a terrorist support network." The document said the project's aim was to "dismantle the pro-Hamas support network's infrastructure across America, including but not limited to propaganda, organizations, funds, access, communications, platforms, and people." It includes calls to revoke the visas of international students and faculty who have supported pro-Palestinian causes, deport pro-Palestinian activists, defund organizations that help them and discredit the broader pro-Palestinian movement by casting any critics of Israel as supporters of Hamas. However, many pro-Palestinian groups and activists, some of them Jewish, say they support Palestinian rights, not Hamas or terrorism. What Is The Heritage Foundation? The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., What Is Project 2025? Project 2025 is a nearly 1,000-page blueprint for Trump's second term from the Heritage Foundation. It outlined a proposed massive overhaul of the federal government that was drafted by longtime allies of Trump and former Trump administration officials. On the campaign trail, Trump denied it was a blueprint for his second term, but his policies since returning to office reflect many of the positions put forth in Project 2025. 7 Secrets of Wealthy Investors Ad 7 Secrets of Wealthy Investors Fisher Investments Learn More call to action icon What People Are Saying Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security adviser to Trump and the Heritage vice president who oversees Project Esther, told The New York Times that there are clear parallels between Project Esther and recent actions taken by the Trump administration against pro-Palestinian demonstrators. "The phase we're in now is starting to execute some of the lines of effort in terms of legislative, legal and financial penalties for what we consider to be material support for terrorism." Stefanie Fox, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said on Democracy Now! that Project Esther has "absolutely nothing to do with Jewish safety, and it is intended solely to destroy the Palestinian liberation movement using tools that can then be used against all communities and movements and democracy itself. "We can see clearly that Project Esther sets out a path for the Trump administration to sharpen those legal regimes that will best advance MAGA goals. So, for example, the targeting of international students like Mahmoud Khalil for abduction and deportation because of their political views is a terrifying attempt to expand already-unjust counterterrorism and immigration laws against [the] Palestinian rights movement, immigrant communities and civil liberties writ large." Harrison Fields, the White House's principal deputy press secretary, told Axios in March: "It's always been a core principle of President Trump, his administration and the Republican Party to combat antisemitism, stand with Israel and revoke visas of foreign nationals who support terrorism and jihadism." What Happens Next According to The New York Times, Heritage Action, the think tank's grassroots advocacy arm, is working to help states pass legislation that penalizes those who support boycotts against Israel.
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In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
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You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
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