One year on from Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack, and Israel’s US-backed unfettered retaliation against Palestinians in Gaza, a prominent right-wing US think tank released a playbook on how to destroy the Palestine solidarity movement in the United States.
The think tank recommended purging student curriculum and social media of anything deemed antisemitic or sympathetic to the 'Hamas cause'. Cutting off public funding to institutions. Revoking visas, or even deporting foreign students who pushed for Palestinian rights.
But, this playbook was labelled outlandish. Laughed off as being far-fetched. No outrage. No one got ‘cancelled’. Oh the naivety.
Little did activists, politicians or the media know that the playbook – known as Project Esther – would soon become a tangible threat to the status quo in the US. Because President Donald Trump is following its blueprint – almost to the ‘T’.
And no one is laughing now.
What is Project Esther all about?
Helmed by The Heritage Foundation, Project Esther is part of “a national strategy to combat antisemitism”. According to its executive summary, the project is named after the “historic Jewish heroine who saved the Jews from genocide in ancient Persia”.
Whilst combating antisemitism in the US, the playbook also means to “ensure the security and prosperity of all Americans”.
For context - The Heritage Foundation is the very same conservative think tank behind 'Project 2025'. Many have called it the closest contemporary parallel to the Orwellian totalitarian dystopia described in his book, '1984'.
Project Esther’s “national strategy” basically involves criminalising opposition to Israel’s current genocide, and exterminating freedoms of speech and thought, along with a whole lot of other rights. It aims “to dismantle the infrastructure that sustains the Hamas Support Network (or HSN), as well as the affiliated Hamas Support Organisations (or HSOs) inside the US within 12 to 24 months”.
Just FYI, neither the HSN nor the HSOs actually exist.
The authors have also outlined what they call the “desired effects that will either contribute to, or directly result in achieving the desired end state”. These 19 “desired effects” include denying non-citizen Palestinian rights supporters (or HSOs) access to universities, ensuring that social media platforms do not allow “antisemitic content”, and presenting undeniable evidence of “criminal activity” by such HSOs to the executive branch.
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It further calls for the marginalistion of the Congressional “Hamas Caucus” – they're Congressmen and women who have condemned senseless violence in Gaza. Like Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The people behind this multi-faceted playbook “hope that this effort will represent an opportunity for public-private partnership when a willing Administration occupies the White House,” whilst also reiterating that “Project Esther cannot be a solely Jewish effort but must be an American effort."
In Trump they seem to have found their “Big Brother”.
Though Trump isn’t admitting it any time soon, his first few months as President seem to align with what Project Esther is trying to achieve. Take for example Trump holding Harvard’s funding hostage or deporting pro-Palestine activists like Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student.
But Project Esther’s architects have no such qualms in drawing parallels.
Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security advisor to Trump and now VP at THF, oversees Project Esther. She declared in an interview recently that some of the efforts “in terms of legislative, legal and financial penalties for what we consider to be material support for terrorism” are being executed.
Robert Greenway, a THF national security director who co-authored Project Esther, doubled down and declared it’s “no coincidence that we called for a series of actions to take place privately and publicly, and they are now happening.”
Predictably, White House officials declined to comment on their statements. But if the past few months are anything to go by, expect Trump to implement more such outlandish recommendations of Project Esther.
