Texas Dem’s vow to castrate Zionists highlights anti-Israel turmoil in US politics
Congressional candidate’s call to imprison ‘American Zionists’ draws outrage from other Democrats, as lines continue to blur between right and left, Israel criticism and antisemitism
A Texas congressional candidate’s call to imprison and castrate “Zionists” rocked her Democratic party this week, as lawmakers expressed alarm and decried antisemitism in politics.
Two Democrats — US Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Jared Moskowitz — said in a joint statement that if the candidate, Maureen Galindo, enters Congress, “We will force a vote to expel her every single day.”
Every Democrat in Congress signed onto a joint statement saying her “vile, bigoted and antisemitic views” were anathema to the party.
Galindo’s anti-Jewish rhetoric is not an isolated incident, though, but highlights the mess surrounding Israel, Jews, and anti-Zionism that has become endemic in American politics.
Galindo won a primary in March in Texas’s 35th Congressional District, around San Antonio, with 29% of the vote, beating her rival, Johnny Garcia, who had 27%. The party’s candidacy will be decided in a runoff election next week.
Her campaign made the vow to imprison Zionists in an Instagram post last week that circulated widely on Tuesday.
“She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking. (It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists),” the campaign said.
In other recent statements, Galindo railed against “Zionist billionaire Jews,” blamed Israel for immigration enforcement in the US, demanded treason charges against politicians linked to Israel, and said that Zionists control the media.
Unlike other anti-Zionists in US politics, Galindo often refers to “Zionist Jews.” She also attacks Christian Zionists, but is overwhelmingly focused on Israel.
She views Zionists as a malevolent, controlling force, and as a threat, both hallmarks of antisemitism.
She said of her opponent, “He’s funded by the Zionists who control San Antonio. I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but we have the Epstein files now.”
Same message, new package
Her statements reflect a hodgepodge of antisemitic, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel views, echoing the far left, the far right and anti-Israel sources in the Middle East, sometimes blending the different influences into a single statement.
“They run the Epstein networks and they control DHS, because that was the whole point of DHS and ICE, was for the Israelis to occupy America,” she said earlier this month.
Tying US law enforcement to Israel is common on the far left — see New York’s Zohran Mamdani saying that “when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF” — while the allegation that Zionists are occupying the US is more common on the far right. White supremacists refer to Washington as the “ZOG,” or the “Zionist Occupied Government.”
“This is an Israeli occupation of America,” she said in a radio interview.
Galindo has also said she is “concerned, though, about the genocide that Israel is doing and they might try to bring it here, too,” bringing together the left’s genocide allegations in Gaza with the far right’s portrayal of Jews as an existential threat to the US.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/texas-dems-vow-to-castrate-zionists-highlights-anti-israel-turmoil-in-us-politics/