The US government on Tuesday released a new strategy to combat domestic terrorism, while leaving open many questions about what that strategy will mean for issues like antisemitism.
The new strategy clearly represents an increased commitment of financial, intelligence and law enforcement resources to counter domestic terror groups, including antisemitic groups and some involved in the January 6 Capitol riots.
Groups like the Anti-Defamation League strongly support the new strategy and heightened government efforts to expand the battle against antisemitism in both the physical and digital worlds.
On the other hand, the Biden administration has delayed decisions on many core issues concerning domestic terrorism, fearing the blowback of criticism for impinging on free speech and other rights.
In fact, many of the practices the Biden administration is still unsure about on handling provocative social media posts, like data mining to profile individuals, are practices which the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) adopted as early as the 2015-2016 Knife Intifada.
In addition, Israel passed a counter-terrorism law in 2016 re-defining as more serious crimes a wide array of actions which support terrorism so as not to allow persons who help form a terror network escape prosecution simply because they did not pull the trigger during a shooting.
The Biden administration is still undecided about whether passing a similar law to define domestic terrorism in broad terms is necessary and worth the risks to Americans’ civil liberties.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said, “Domestic terrorism – driven by hate, bigotry, and other forms of extremism— is a stain on the soul of America. It goes against everything our country strives for and it poses a direct challenge to our national security, democracy, and unity.”
Biden stated that the new strategy “lays out a comprehensive approach to protecting our nation from domestic terrorism while safeguarding our bedrock civil rights and civil liberties – values that make us who we are as Americans.”
“We have to take both short-term steps to counter the very real threats of today and longer-term measures to diminish the drivers that will contribute to this ongoing challenge to our democracy,” said Biden.
Unlike Israel, the US has a constitution, and the constitution places firmer limits on what the state can do, even in the areas of national security.
In contrast, since Israel has no constitution and has been in a state of perpetual conflict with various neighbors, the laws and culture empower the state to take much more drastic measures to fight terror, even impinging on certain key rights of citizens.
Another problem is a Democrat-Republican divide over some of these issues.
Some Republicans clearly condemn groups involved in the January 6 riot, but others are more worried that Democrats might try to use the issue to tar the whole Republican party in the 2022 midterm elections, and to suppress ideological dissent.
There is no evidence that the Biden administration has abused existing anti-domestic terror authorities, but some Republicans already feel that the social media giants themselves have shown a pro-Democrat bias.
Moreover, many Democrats are strong privacy rights activists who vehemently oppose government monitoring social media posts in any fashion, and claim that there is little effective intelligence to be gained.
The new US strategy will encourage and support American intelligence agencies studying social media trends in order to help analyze and prepare for domestic terror threats.
However, as things stand, the Biden administration said that it is not data mining individuals’ social media posts to perform surveillance on them or to carry out criminal probes, short of special cases involving a court-approved search warrant.
In Israel, by using social media platforms, the Shin Bet has much easier access to private information.
A fact sheet distributed by the White House said it would “augment its efforts to address online terrorist recruitment and mobilization to violence by domestic terrorists through increased information sharing with the technology sector and the creation of innovative ways to foster digital literacy and build resilience to recruitment and mobilization.”
“The United States also recently joined the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, an international partnership between governments and technology companies that works to develop new multilateral solutions to eliminating terrorist content online while safeguarding the freedom of online expression,” said the statement.