Image by Gama Films.

McCarthyism never really ended in America; it metastasized. The ideological purges that once targeted “communists” now target Muslims/Arab-Americans, and anyone sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. The stage may have changed, but the playbook is the same: weaponize fear, silence dissent, and punish expertise.

In the 1970s, the label “Arabist” was turned into a slur. To be an Arabist in the State Department once meant a career diplomat with deep knowledge of Middle Eastern culture and politics. But as U.S. policy increasingly aligned with Israel, journalists like Joseph Kraft recast Arabists as anti-Semitic and even anti-American, accusing the State Department of harboring a “basic bias” against Israel. In a New York Times article titled “Those Arabists in the State Department,” Kraft emphasized the Arabists’ behind-the-scenes influence, citing incidents like Donald Bergus’ “phantom memorandum,” in which Bergus, without official authorization, sent a policy proposal to the Egyptian government regarding Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. Egypt mistakenly assumed it reflected U.S. policy, creating tension with Israel. Kraft seized on the episode to paint Arabists as shadowy actors capable of subverting presidential priorities. In doing so, he shifted public and political perception: Arabists were no longer experts, but potential saboteurs. This was McCarthyism transposed onto Middle East policy—turning expertise itself into a mark of suspicion. Talcott Seelye, a respected ambassador fluent in Arabic, recalled that “[t]he Arabist taint… became a pejorative… implying we were too pro-Arab and not sufficiently attuned to Israel’s interests.” With that smear, expertise was silenced, and policy became captive to ideology and special interests.

Today, the role of Joseph Kraft is played by once-fringe influencers like Laura Loomer, who boast direct access to the president. Loomer has proudly claimed credit for the dismissal of Muslim employees at the State Department, branding them “Islamists” simply for being Muslims. In August 2025, she bragged that Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated a visa program for Gaza children needing medical care—victims of U.S.-supplied bombs—after she campaigned against it. Like McCarthy’s witch hunts, this is done under the guise of “national security.” In truth, it replaces experts with operatives and policymaking with paranoia.

The consequences are catastrophic. Without credible experts who understood the Middle East’s political and religious landscape and how it intersects with U.S. priorities, America blundered into two Gulf Wars (costing over $2 trillion and more than 7,000 American lives, along with estimates of over 1 million Iraqis killed, including children), the invasion of Afghanistan (another $2.3 trillion that led to the Taliban retaining power), and a policy that midwifed the rise of ISIS out of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. We were told Iraqis would greet U.S. soldiers with flowers; instead, they hurled shoes at President Bush. Today, Washington again insists that U.S. and Israeli policies are “reshaping the Middle East for the better.” After decades of war, trillions spent, hundreds of thousands of lives lost, and anti-American sentiment at record highs across the Arab and Muslim world, how much longer will we indulge this delusion?

I was also a victim of this type of McCarthyism. In 1999, House Minority Leader Richard Gephart appointed me to the National Commission on Terrorism, a 10-member panel charged with reviewing national policy on preventing and punishing terrorism. After pressure from extreme pro-Israel groups, Gephardt was forced to rescind my nomination, adding to the political exclusion of American Muslims in US policymaking. That exclusion not only damaged the commission’s credibility but also silenced a perspective that could have shed light on the root causes of terrorism and its impact on our nation. Two years later, 9/11 took place, and our policymakers again were in the dark as to how this horror reached our shores.

In 1954, it took one voice – Joseph Welch’s immortal rebuke to Senator McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”– to turn the tide. We need such voices again. We need leaders willing to call out McCarthyism 2.0 for what it is: an un-American witch hunt that weakens our democracy, undermines U.S. national security, and punishes patriotic Americans whose only “crime” is their faith or their empathy for the Palestinian people.

Media Contact

Misaal Irfan, Policy Communications Manager at 623-432-2364 or misaal@mpac.org

Blake Wood, Director of Communications at 846-696-8161 or blake@mpac.org

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