It seems to me that what's happening in Texas (and Georgia and Arizona) is so very much what's happening in Israel now: it's about demographics and race, fear and ethnic cleansing. In Texas, what ethnic cleansing looks like is this: a frightened Republican Party watching its demographic base shrink, watching the browning of their constituency, fearing the compelling voices of progressive leaders. So, how do you maintain power (White Power, Republican Power) when change is coming, when the numbers are against you? You make it harder for folks to vote. You intimidate and frighten and demoralize.
In Israel, fear is king. I get that, and some of it is historical and generational and brutal beyond measure. But nothing that Israel does in Sheikh Jarrah, or in Gaza, or with its American-funded "Iron Dome" meaningfully addresses or strategically diminishes anti-Semitism. It just doesn't. Instead, Netanyahu and his political class seem to stoke it and build on it, and profit from it. Israel's response to Palestinian demography is to "purify" a democratic state--of dissent, of Palestinian influence and Palestinian culture and presence. Is there any question of this? The Netanyahu government says its periodic wars on Gaza are akin to "mowing the lawn"...weeding the turf...Is that not grotesque? Clearly the purpose of policy and war is to demoralize, terrorize, deplete, diminish and cleanse.
Make no mistake. In both cases, our concern is human rights; our passion is human rights; our vision is human rights. And the only way to ensure, to protect and promote human rights is a thoroughgoing democracy--in which every human being is equally valued, in which every human being is equally protected, in which every human being is invested in the process and responsible for the government we create. Together. If human rights are our concern, if democracy is the way forward, we have to connect what's happening in Israel to what's happening Texas and Georgia and Mar E Lago now.
In Texas and Georgia, Republicans bully their way to the point where they can intimidate voters, and then (failing that) overturn elections. In East Jerusalem (Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah), fear and policy move Palestinians out and Israeli (or Brooklyn) settlers in, and thereby seek to frighten Palestinian neighbors to the point where they leave or give up.
In Texas, you persistently and sinfully rewrite the rules, perverting democracy in every way. In Israel, you do pretty much the same thing. Over and over and over again.
