I am not sure how I got on the email list for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), but the most recent from communications director Cat Knarr is entitled “LANDBACK from Turtle Island to Palestine.”

If you haven’t heard of “Turtle Island,” it is leftspeak for the purportedly occupied United States, just as the same people say Israel is “occupying” Palestine.  Knarr explains, “Every fourth Thursday of November, Indigenous peoples who are native to Turtle Island — otherwise known as the settler colonial United States — spend their day fasting and mourning.”  Knarr is of Palestinian and Colombian descent and therefore not an indigenous Native North American.  Perhaps she should walk her own talk and go back to either Colombia or “Palestine” to avoid occupying “Turtle Island.”

Knarr is not the only “Palestine”-supporter to refer to North America as Turtle Island.  We need look no farther than Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who writes, “From Turtle Island to Palestine, water is a human right.”  As Tlaib also is anything but a Native American, she should also walk her talk by moving back to where she or her ancestors came from.

The bottom line is that USCPR has made it clear that its agenda is not just about Israel; it is also about the United States, which it defines as a settler colonialist entity.  In case USCPR hasn’t noticed or doesn’t care, by the way, all Native Americans have been U.S. citizens for a hundred years, and therefore have the same rights as every other citizen.  Native Americans have served in both the House and Senate.

I will now ask USCPR to come up with a list of Christians and Jews who have served in the governance of “Palestine.”  I won’t hold my breath waiting for a response.

That Ain’t Settler Colonialism, Mate; This is Settler Colonialism

Also, if USCPR is going to lie to me, I wish it would respect my intelligence by telling halfway believable lies.  Jews have been indigenous to Israel for thousands of years.  Persians, Greeks, and Romans showed up in that region later; Antioch in Syria is named for Antiochus, one of Alexander the Great’s generals.  Alexandria in Egypt is, of course, named for Alexander.  Only well into the seventh century did settler colonialists from the Arabian Peninsula swarm into the Middle East to subjugate the indigenous inhabitants — i.e., the “Palestinians” are themselves occupiers and settler colonialists.  In the sixteenth century, Turkish settler colonialists — they were originally from Central Asia — subjugated the Arabs.  As Recep Erdoğan continues to allow himself to make noises about Israel, it’s necessary to remind the entire world that he and his people are illegally occupying Anatolia, which formerly belonged to the Greeks, and also Constantinople, which rightfully belongs to Greece, regardless of how frequently Erdoğan calls it Istanbul.

USCPR’s definition of the United States as a settler colonialist nation, the same definition its camp uses to foment hatred of Israel and Jews, should meanwhile make it clear that Israel’s enemies are our enemies as well — just as we learned the hard way in late 1941 that the enemies of the United Kingdom were also enemies of the United States.  The Axis back then consisted of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Communist Russia.  The last was not formally an Axis member, but it colluded with Germany to invade Poland and changed sides only when attacked by Germany.  Then it took over the countries the Nazis had tried to take over (Poland and Czechoslovakia) and even more — that is, Stalin took over where Hitler left off.  Today’s Axis of evil consists of Russia, Communist China, Iran, and North Korea, and Iran is pulling a lot of the strings in the Middle East.  We must therefore regard Iran, along with its puppets and tentacles like Hamas, Hezb’allah, the Houthis, and South Africa, as de facto if not de jure enemies of the United States, and entities like USCPR and Students for Justice in Palestine as water-carriers and enablers for the enemies in question.

Accuse the Other Side of What Yours Is Guilty Of

I also found this item on USCPR’s website: “Action Toolkit: There’s No Pride in Apartheid!”  “Meanwhile, I’ve seen Zionists spew racist hate against us, wishing violent harm on queer Palestinians. The Israeli apartheid state surveils, blackmails, and harasses our queer Palestinian people.”  I see a lot of rainbow flags in this Tel Aviv gay pride march, and no LGBT people are being harmed by the police or anybody else.  Perhaps LGBT people for “Palestine” should try that in Gaza and see what happens to them.

The USCPR web page does stipulate that there is anti-LGBT discrimination in “Palestine,” for which it blames the British and the Israelis.  Gaza has had autonomy since 2005 and has had plenty of time to clean up its act even if this is true, but it has chosen not to do so.

USCPR: Destroy Your Career for Our Cause

About half a year ago, USCPR organizing and advocacy director Iman Abid asked me to sign a letter to encourage State Department employees to resign from their jobs in protest of a nonexistent genocide in Gaza.  The only attempted genocide took place on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attempted to carry out the words of its charter and, having sowed the wind, reaped the whirlwind.

USCPR writes, “The very least State Department officials can do is be willing to make the same sacrifice for the sake of human rights and the 2.3 million Palestinians living through genocide at this very moment.”  This is typical of leftist organizations whose position is that sacrifices must be made for the Cause, as long as the sacrifices are made by others — never by themselves.  The bearded old men in Gaza who tell impressionable teenage boys that, if they die in battle against the infidels, they will get one-on-one meetings with Allah and seventy-two willing virgins never seem to be in a big hurry themselves.  Black Lives Matter proclaimed similarly that looting is a form of reparations, but when those who acted on this found their lives messed up with felony records, BLM was nowhere to be found to provide legal or other assistance.  USCPR wants federal career employees to throw away years or decades of seniority and hard work for the Cause.

In Jerry Pournelle’s Prince of Mercenaries, the protagonist finds himself sentenced to exile off-planet after being caught up in a riot in which extremists known as Lampburners attack the police and then flee the scene while the police take out their anger on peaceful demonstrators.  This is simply more of the same thing: professional troublemakers start something and leave relatively innocent people to hold the bag.

The BDS movement, meanwhile, asks and even demands that businesses and universities blow up their reputations, just like suicide bombers who blow themselves up, for the Cause.  There is now bipartisan, and I stress bipartisan, support for legislation that would pull federal support from universities that join the BDS movement.  “Lawmakers want to yank federal financial aid from colleges that divest from Israel.”  When Donald Trump takes office on January 20, things will get far worse for them very quickly, so they need to learn that allowing oneself to be caught up in incitement or extremism from USCPR, SJP, Jewish Voice for Peace, and similar entities is a bad idea.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way.  The author is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to “cancel culture” for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter.

Image via Pexels.