On October 22, Harbinger’s Daily ran Erick Stakelbeck’s commentary calling the Palestinian flag, seen at unrest in France and Italy and at US protests, a symbol of “Islamo-communism”. It ends by urging Christians to vote November 3. Three verdicts ride one flag: anarchy, a coined faith-and-creed word, and a civilization’s destruction. None names a person. The article gives no one who carried the flag, no count of protesters or arrests, no single incident, only ‘rioters in France and Italy’ and ‘violent outbursts here in America’. The flag first appears in the seventh paragraph, the only one that uses ‘Islamo-communism’ or ‘Judeo-Christian’. The headline is built from one paragraph. The tell is a people given one aim with no person or number behind it. A flag that stands for Palestine and its people becomes one body that ‘wants to destroy’. The habit it rides is us and them: whoever under the other side’s flag threw a stone stands for all who fly it. The device is the hard word, ‘orcs’ for protesters, ‘Anarchy’ for a national flag. A plain sentence would say a Palestinian flag was seen at unrest in France and Italy and at US protests. The savior arrives last: ‘common-sense, patriotic Americans, including Christians’ voting November 3. Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire column ran the same path three days earlier, from the flag to ‘hatred of the West’ to the vote, while noting some flag-wavers are French citizens. Stakelbeck directs the CUFI Watchman Project of Christians United for Israel, and the page carries donation banners. The enemy is a civilization’s, the remedy is a ballot, and the date is 12 days away.
