The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is widely recognised as having significant influence over the United States government.
It uses campaign funding and election strategies to sway the Senate and House of Representatives in favour of candidates who support its agenda.
AIPAC also exerts influence over various aspects of governance, including banking, finance, media, entertainment, and foreign policy.
This could explain why the US has vetoed Security Council resolutions condemning Israel for its atrocities and sanctions for a ceasefire. This gives Israel carte blanche to carry out the massacre of the Palestinian people.
With Donald Trump as president, he will support and advance Israel’s atrocities to annihilate Palestine, as he wants to seize Gaza and turn it into a billionaire’s Riviera.
Trump has long been a defender of Israel. He provided Israel with unflinching support in his first term by giving billions of dollars in military aid to fund the genocide of the Palestinians.
His obsession and unflinching support were blatantly clear during his first term when he moved the US Embassy to the disputed Jerusalem and gave his blessings for the annexation of the Golan Heights.
In May 2017, Trump became the first sitting United States president to don the skullcap and pray at the Western Wall.
The current resumption of Israeli bombings after the aborted ceasefire (which Israel breached from day one) is condoned by the US, fulfilling Trump’s promise of raining hell on the Palestinian people.
Trump has signed an executive order criminalising those who express antisemitic sentiments, as well as those supporting the Palestinian cause through protests against the Israeli genocide.
He has targeted universities and threatened to cut funding for allowing protests in support of Palestinians, which he deemed antisemitic.
This is despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged “war crimes”.
Trump is undermining academic freedom and freedom of expression to protect the atrocities of the Zionists.
Columbia University, the hotbed of protests in support of Palestine, capitulated to his demand when he threatened to cut federal funding.
Trump intimidated Tufts and Georgetown Universities and froze funding to Cornell and Northwestern Universities for “civil rights violations” for supporting Palestine and criticising Israel.
He also threatened to review the grants awarded to Harvard to crack down on antisemitism. However, Harvard University professors are suing Trump for attempting to undermine free speech and academic freedom and infringing on curricular matters when he demanded changes in departments’ programmes that he deemed antisemitic.
Trump’s erratic and incoherent policy shifts and actions have caused fear among academics and university administrators, forcing a few eminent scholars to search for positions abroad.
Education is a core element of national development, and any sane leader would not undermine the very institution that made the United States a technological and scientific powerhouse.
Trump should not curb the freedom of inquiry and expression that has catalysed critical thinking and advanced socio-cultural development, which is the hallmark of American universities, among the top educational institutions in the world.
Trump is applying the same erratic and incoherent policies that have undermined global trade to intimidate and destroy the hallowed and sacrosanct realm of multicultural and multidimensional education — all under the guise of preventing antisemitic sentiments.
Foreign and immigrant students have become the main target of Trump’s education shenanigans, irrespective of whether they are permanent residents married to US citizens or those with valid visas. Their status could be revoked and they could be deported.
Who knows, even US citizens of immigrant origin could have their citizenship revoked and face deportation.
The American people must regain control of their nation to serve themselves and not be subservient to a foreign government.
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
