Trump’s Alt-Right Pro-Israel Strategist Behind Palestine Action Ban is former British Intelligence

He was previously fired from his position in the FBI because of his extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric.

By Mnar Adley, Mintpress News

The U.S.’ designation of U.K.-based activist collective Palestine Action as a global terrorist group is part of a wider project, concocted by far-right pro-Israel strategist Sebastian Gorka, to criminalize left-wing or pro-Palestine dissent against Trump’s rule. MintPress exposes this plan.

The Man Behind It All

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it was placing Palestine Action on its list of global terrorist groups, as part of what it called a “broader U.S. government effort to address the threat of transnational far-left terrorism.”

The designation is one of the first clear signs that the Trump administration is making good on its promise to reorient its domestic and international strategy towards clamping down on what Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as “far-left terror” groups.

The policy shift was summed up in an ominous 16-page White House document published in May, titled “United States Counterterrorism Strategy.” The policy document was reportedly written by Trump’s counter-terrorism czar, Sebastian Gorka, who stated he was pouring his “life’s work” into making it a “blueprint” for American strategy.

“Currently,” the document claims, “we face three major types of terror groups: narcoterrorists and transnational gangs, legacy Islamist terrorists, [and] violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists.”

It is, however, the third group that the report appears most concerned with, noting that, “we recognize that a new type of domestic terrorism has emerged, driven by violent extremists who have adopted ideologies antithetical to freedom and the American way of life.” “Our national CT [counterterrorism] activities,” it concludes, will “prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.”

A former British military intelligence operative, the London-born Gorka has built a wide following among the global alt-right community. He was a controversial pick for Trump’s team, even in conservative circles. Described in Esquire magazine as the most “ridiculous” character in an “endless parade of whackadoos, smackbrains, rockheads, fanatics, lunatics, and general shit-for-brains” following Trump, he has openly flirted with fascism and Nazism, and is considered among the most hardline Islamophobes in the administration.

He was previously fired from his position in the FBI because of his extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric. Yet this sort of speech is creeping its way into official counterterrorism policy when the White House document advises that Europe can only remain strong if it has “honest conversations about Islamism.”

It also states that their priority is to track and crush the supposed “new and evolving alliances between the far-left and Islamists, i.e., the ‘Red-Green’ alliance.” For the White House, Palestine Action, which blends leftism and pro-Palestine agitation, fits this niche perfectly.

Founded in 2020, Palestine Action is a direct action group that attempts to end global complicity in Israeli war crimes by taking direct action against Israeli weapons plants operating in the United Kingdom, occupying their factories and destroying their machinery and inventory. They have proven highly effective, costing Israeli manufacturer, Elbit Systems billions of dollars in damages and lost contracts.

At times, the White House document reads like a far-right manifesto, and even claims that Christians are “the most persecuted people on Earth.”

Like many in Trump’s inner circle, Gorka made a name for himself not as an administrator, but as a media anchor, becoming a popular pro-Trump radio host. This has led to many suggesting he is dangerously underqualified for his position, including his former PhD advisor who stated that he would not consider Gorka an expert in terrorism.