ASRA NOMANI: Woke army retreats in D.C. protest, pivots to ‘FIGHT BACK’ for Gaza

Before Inauguration of President-elect Donald Trumpthe multimillion-dollar network of socialist and Islamist organizations scaled back its plans for a massive urban “resistance,” retreating to a quiet park in the corner of Washington, DC, called Meridian Hill. Now they’re predicting a crowd of 2,000, a far cry from the 50,000 originally planned for the National Mall, the Washington Monument and Constitution Avenue NW.

But the network of well-funded organizations, which I call the Woke armyis moving forward with protests in 84 cities, rebranded in emails sent Sunday afternoon to supporters as “STAND WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. WE ARE FIGHTING BACK,” following a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. In the nation’s capital, the ANSWER Coalition, a self-proclaimed Marxist organization based in DC, secured the permitwhich I received, for a smaller protest on Meridian Hill after he withdrew his application for larger city protests.

THE PROFESSIONAL PROTEST MACHINE BEHIND THE ANTI-TRUMP ‘PEOPLE’S MARCH’

Despite the media portrayal of these protests as mass movements, they are anything but. The operations of the ANSWER coalition are highly coordinated and financed by professional activist networks, similar to Saturday’s “People’s March”, which my reporting revealed organized by the for-profit professional protest logistics company, Movement Catalyst LLC, which executes events with military precision.

These professional organizers create a polished veneer of “grassroots” spontaneity for protests that are, in fact, carefully crafted political theater, not grassroots but AstroTurf. They sent almost identical emails around 4pm on Sunday, inviting followers to their protests on Monday.

I’ve been following these organizations for years as part of my reporting for the Pearl Project, a nonprofit journalism initiative named after Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was murdered in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002 in the name of identity politics and sectarianism. Democracy thrives on transparency, and the public deserves to know when protests are driven by ideological agendas masquerading as mass movements.

Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation created the ANSWER coalition, short for “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism,” after 9/11. He has consistently advocated for authoritarian regimes, including socialist governments in Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea and Cuba. Brian Becker, the leader of the ANSWER coalition that received a permit to protest on Meridian Hill, is a vocal proponent of Marxism and socialism.

The organization’s history includes incendiary anti-American incidents, such as last summer’s protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where Zaid Mohammed Mahdawi, president of the Richmond chapter of Muslims of America for Palestine, spray-painted “HAMAS IS COMIN” on a statue at Union Station. The National Park Service revoked the ANSWER Coalition’s permit after the protest turned violent, with protesters burning American flags and clashing with police.

Michael Litterst, a spokesman for the US National Park Service, told me today that the ANSWER coalition has “cancelled” its application for the city protest. Questions were addressed to the ANSWER Coalition as to why it canceled its application. The ANSWER coalition did not respond to a request for comment.

The permit reveals the intricate planning behind this alleged protest, which the media will likely describe as spontaneous:

• 7am: “Loading equipment to the upper level of Meridian Hill Park.”
• 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: “Speaking and possible acoustic music.”
• 12:30 to 12:45: “Organize for the march.”
• 12:45 p.m.: “March Retreats (South of 16th Street to H Street at Black Lives Matter Plaza),” near the White House.
• 12:45 PM to 4:00 PM: “Remove equipment from Meridian Hill Park.”

The equipment list reveals the professionalism behind these protests: one stage, 20 tables, 40 chairs, 200 hand signs, banners, sound system, podium and propaganda materials, including literature and bumper stickers. The permit for the ANSWER Coalition said it plans to bring an “opaque secure donation bin.”

Behind the banners and megaphones hides a well-funded operation intent on reshaping the narrative of local resistance into one that serves its own ideological goals.

The Park Service permit bolded organizers: “It is prohibited to climb, remove or in any way injure any statue, seat, wall, fountain, light pole, elevator tower or other architectural feature” inside the park.

The history of the ANSWER coalition raises questions about its ability to maintain order. But Litterest, a spokesman for the US National Park Service, told me, “D.C. courts have previously indicated that denial or limitations of First Amendment permits for demonstrations based on planned acts of violence are appropriate only when and where the threat is real, significant and beyond that reasonable control of law enforcement.”

Last week, on website created just days after Trump’s election, protest organizers said they had about 50 groups of “supporters.” Now that number has increased to 205 groupsand from the names on the ever-growing list it is clear that their origins are far from folk roots. I added new names public public database of the Pearl projectand, according to my new analysis, 58 groups are self-described socialist organizations, 25 are Islamist, Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian, and the remaining 122 are socialist and Islamist-adjacent. They consistently seek to destroy Israel as a state.

“Red” in tomorrow’s alliance includes well-funded protesters: the ANSWER coalition; Code Pink, an anti-Israel group funded by Neville Roy Singham, a Shanghai-based American billionaire with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to The New York Times; the Party for Socialism and Liberationadvocating the dismantling of capitalism and aligning the US with socialist regimes; The People’s Forum, a socialist group that serves as a proxy for Singham’s pro-China agenda, also documented by The New York Times; and the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the US

Also now includes “Project for a Revolutionary Marxist International”.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONS

The “greens” of this axis include: Students for Justice in Palestine, founded by UC Berkeley academic Hatem Bazian, and now instigating many anti-Jewish campus protests, now banned on many campuses; Palestinian feminist collective, dedicated to “Palestinian liberation and beyond“; Palestinian Youth Movement, dedicated to “mobilization, agitation and confrontation strategy“; The US Palestinian Community Network, which organized days of protest in Chicago for disrupting the Democratic Party convention; and the Muslim American Society, which created “Survive Pack” with the help of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose co-founder Nihad Awad said that “happy” about Hamas incursions into Israel on October 7.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The ANSWER coalition’s stated purpose for protesting in Washington is to “present popular resistance to the Trump administration,” but its real goal is more insidious: dismantling American democracy and promoting authoritarian socialist ideologies. From Beijing to Caracas, the ANSWER coalition and its allies the Army of the Awakened draw inspiration from regimes like Hamas that suppress dissent and restrict freedoms.

As the Wake Army marches from Meridian Hill Park to Black Lives Matter Plaza, it is critical for Americans to remain vigilant. Behind the banners and megaphones hides a well-funded operation intent on reshaping the narrative of local resistance into one that serves its own ideological goals. Understanding these forces is the first step towards preserving democracy.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM ASRA NOMANI