It is not a coincidence that Donald Trump is suing George Stephanopolous at the same time that there is a bill in Congress claiming criticizing policies done by Netanyahu and his government is on par with Holocaust denial and calling for genocide against Jews.
They are two sides of the same coin.
Israeli Democracy in Peril
At the core of democracy is the freedom of speech and the press. There has been a massive erosion of democratic norms in Israel under Netanyahu’s rule, as we see from Israel arresting more journalists than all but five other countries despite being the 93rd most populous nation. Democracy cannot exist when journalists are frequently arrested or killed for doing their job. In 2020, Israel scored 69 out of 100 points in the Press Freedom Index, slightly above Hungary. Today, Israel scores 53 points, below every NATO country except Turkey.
There has been severe democratic backsliding in Israel over the last few years. To not recognize these facts and call them out is doing a great disservice to Israelis who want to live in a democracy and to support a corrupt, plutocratic government that is destroying the country.
To maintain power, Netanyahu is using more extreme methods, which is easily seen in how Israel is the 6th most dangerous place to be a journalist on Earth out of about 194 countries.
The Zionist movement is now trying to erode freedom of speech in the United States by passing a law criminalizing political speech. This is profoundly anti-democratic. Welcome to Zionism, an inherently authoritarian religious extremist movement of Evangelical Christianity.
To silence critics of their savior, serial rapist Donald Trump, Evangelicals are now working towards attacking journalists like we are seeing with the persecution against George Stephanopolous.
Zionism is Inherently Evangelical
Evangelical Christians believe the end times are coming soon. They have believed they have been coming soon for centuries and will always believe the end times are coming soon. Because of this, they believe Israel is the place where Jesus will arrive in Israel, as prophesied by the Book of Revelations, and so Israel needs to not be under Muslim control. This is why the United States will not endorse the two-state solution as long as Joe Biden is President. Joe Biden may be a Catholic, but he is obviously influenced by their ideology. He has only changed his social positions since the Obama Presidency. He is a fundamentally conservative Catholic.
This is why Evangelical Christians did not oppose the Third Reich, and the Catholic church had a mixed response. Israel was never about saving Jewish lives. It was always about putting Jews in danger instead of Christians, while the most radical Zionists became leaders and ensured perpetual conflict with their neighbors. This fits into Evangelical mythology of Christians being the perpetual victims, now putting Jews in the boat to be the ones in danger. I believe this is a big part of why not all victims of the Third Reich were able to reclaim citizenship immediately after Hitler committed suicide in a bunker because he was a coward.
Evangelical Christianity led to only some Third Reich victims being able to reclaim citizenship, and they opposed Jewish immigration to the United States, so Israel was left as the only option for many of these now-stateless people. It wasn’t a free movement. The claim it was a choice is mythology. It was forced on many Jews deprived of German citizenship who could not attain American citizenship.
Zionism has been a Christian idea since at least the First Crusade.
Biden’s version of Christianity is why he criticizes descendants of Holocaust victims who criticize Zionism as being anti-semitic.
Evangelicalism is Inherently Authoritarian
So here we have the stage. Zionism is a fundamentally Christian ideology. Evangelicalism takes the most extreme Christian viewpoints and puts them on steroids. They support an adulterer (Exodus 20:14) and cheater, claiming he is going to bring in Christian Nationalism. He has embraced their zeal against abortion (Numbers 5:19-22) and the death penalty. (Exodus 20:13)
So, George Stephanopolous’s criticism of Donald Trump is not just to criticize him personally but to attack the entire Evangelical movement.
Likewise, advocating for the rights of the Palestinians is to prevent Israel from having Bethlehem, which they believe is necessary for Jesus to return from the dead.
These ideas are based on mythology and are obviously never going to happen. But the Evangelical movement, in general, is not democratic. There is no process for the average members of many churches to elect their leaders. Their leaders are often appointed by those who came before, such as in the Mormon and Seventh-Day Adventist denominations. There is no direct way for members of such organizations to impact their leadership except to leave.
Their internal organization system, which stifles all disagreement, and their inherently authoritarian polity lead them to support sanctions against journalists. They do not care how Israel governs itself. It is irrelevant to their goal of the second coming of Jesus.
Criticism of Israeli politics and journalists investigating Donald Trump are both attacks on the Evangelical movement. This is why they are fighting for the criminalization of such acts.
Democrats must oppose both the conflation of hate speech with political speech and the suing of journalists. Hate speech is not free speech. Criticizing policy is not hate speech but the most protected speech under our laws.
Evangelicalism is a threat to American democracy and global security.
References:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/18/israeli-arrests-of-palestinian-journalists-soared-in-2023-cpj
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68582953
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism