As the anti-Israeli protest movement gathers traction on college campuses, President Joe Biden’s dreams of reassembling the coalition that propelled him to power in 2020 are becoming increasingly precarious.
Democrats who support Israel are now pressuring the president to act more firmly in response to antisemitic incidents at colleges and universities. This is in line with demands made by Republicans, such as former President Donald Trump, who has characterized the increasingly hostile protests as an indication of incompetence within the White House.
Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the upper echelons of the party have been cautious about the Gaza conflict for months. However, as the protest encampments become more entrenched, college administrators consider postponing commencement ceremonies, and Republicans intensify their attacks, Biden’s efforts to maintain unity are beginning to show signs of weariness.
When talking about the demonstrators’ overnight occupation of a Columbia University academic building, the White House and congressional leaders appeared to adopt a new, more assertive stance on Tuesday.
“President Biden upholds the freedom of speech, but calm, authorized protests are required. White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates stated that the president “condemns the use of the term ‘intifada,’ as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days.” “Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful – it is wrong,” Bates continued.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer criticized the demonstrators at Columbia as well, implying that they were about to “veer into criminality.
The New York Democrat declared, “Smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is not free speech.” “Those who committed this act of lawlessness should be held accountable and not just given a slap on the wrist.”
However, it’s unlikely that the administration’s change in stance would quell calls for Biden to deal more forcefully with the demonstrators. However, it would jeopardize the president’s reputation with younger people, the majority of whom, based on recent polls, disapprove of his handling of the war.
Tuesday saw the College Democrats of America, a mainstream group that supports Joe Biden, join forces with the demonstrators on campus, many of whom identify as Jews. In order to “stand up for the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people,” students who were willing to face detention and suspension were praised for their “bravery.”
The group sent a caution to the president’s campaign, even as it reaffirmed its support for Biden and other Democrats in the next election.
The College Democrats stated, “More and more young people find themselves disillusioned with the party every day that Democrats fail to stand united for a permanent ceasefire, two-state solution, and recognition of a Palestinian state.
increasing hostilities
Almost two dozen House Democrats gave university board members an ultimatum on Monday, just before protestors at Columbia took over the building: either remove the protest encampments or resign.
The pro-Palestinian protestors who took over Columbia’s Hamilton Hall declared that they had “liberated” the building in memory of Hind Rajab, a little Palestinian girl who was murdered along with her family in late January during the Israeli military operation in Gaza City.
CNN has gotten video of students chanting outside on Tuesday, saying things like “Palestine will live forever” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” According to footage, demonstrators also hung banners from a window that said “Hind’s Hall” and “Intifada,” the Arabic term for an insurrection.
Republicans have swiftly shifted their messaging in response to the most recent events. Republicans would “hold these universities accountable for their failure to protect Jewish students on campus,” House Speaker Mike Johnson declared during a press conference on Tuesday.
According to Johnson, “moral clarity on the issue is necessary.” “Everyone, starting with the president, should voice their opposition to this and emphasize that Jewish students are not second-class citizens and should be able to attend classes on par with other students.”
In contrast to the Democrats, Republicans have consistently condemned the demonstrations and associated attempts to halt Israel’s military campaign, which has claimed more than 34,000 lives in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the enclave. The party’s likely 2024 contender, Donald Trump, has gone so far as to say that Jewish Democrats, who include opponents of the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “hate their religion,” and he has attempted to associate Biden with the less morally dubious individuals in the college protest centers.
“Nobody is aware of the US’s current situation. In my opinion, Biden is seriously misguided and does not support Israel. Trump stated this over the phone with Fox News on Tuesday. You have to clean up the terror that we witnessed on October 7,” the president said.
Additionally, the GOP intends to draw attention to Democrats with a scheduled vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act on Wednesday. Rep. Mike Lawler, a freshman Republican from a swing district in the New York suburbs, presented the bill. The bill is supported by Democratic co-sponsors, but many moderates, progressives, and Jewish groups oppose the definition of antisemitism that links it to support for Israel. However, it is anticipated to pass the chamber and, come November, turn into a political wedge.
Democrats engaged in a heated back-and-forth last week when Florida Representative Jared Moskowitz addressed a statement from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont criticizing Democratic leadership for not putting his amendment “to end offensive military aid to Netanyahu’s war machine” up for a vote. In a social media post, Moskowitz implied that Sanders was dodging a more significant problem.
“Bernie, go ahead and be anti-Semitic,” wrote Moskowitz. “Why is everything so quiet?”
The following day, Sanders received support from New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been criticized by some left-wing activists for not standing up to Israel harshly enough.
On social media, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted, “In the Holocaust, Sen. Sanders’ family was killed.” “He dedicates all of his time to achieving tikkun olam. His dedication to defending innocent people in Gaza is a direct result of his Jewish beliefs. He deserves better than to be insulted in this manner, as do many other Jewish leaders. This is despicable.
In response, Moskowitz recounted the Holocaust experience of his own family and cited his support of help to Israel and Gaza in his votes.
Then he addressed Ocasio-Cortez, saying, “We see each other at work. We are both better than doing this here” on social media.
were occupying Hamilton Hall, one of the campus buildings also occupied during 1968 student protests, according to a social media post early Tuesday from Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.” title=”Protesters supporting Palestinians in Gaza barricade themselves inside Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall in New York on Tuesday, April 30. Dozens of protesters were occupying Hamilton Hall, one of the campus buildings also occupied during 1968 student protests, according to a social media post early Tuesday from Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.” />
reaching a deal with the administration to end their encampment in Providence, Rhode Island. The university agreed to hold a vote on divestment from companies that support Israel, according to the protest group.” title=”Protesters at Brown University celebrate April 30 after reaching a deal with the administration to end their encampment in Providence, Rhode Island. The university agreed to hold a vote on divestment from companies that support Israel, according to the protest group.” />
There were dozens of arrests. University police had warned students in an email that they faced more arrests if they didn’t disperse from the site.” title=”Students are arrested during the protest in Austin on April 24. There were dozens of arrests. University police had warned students in an email that they faced more arrests if they didn’t disperse from the site.” />
tense news conference where the crowd repeatedly interrupted him and at times loudly booed him and other Republican lawmakers who were with him.” title=”House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the media on the campus of Columbia University after meeting with Jewish students on April 24. He called on the school’s president to resign during a tense news conference where the crowd repeatedly interrupted him and at times loudly booed him and other Republican lawmakers who were with him.” />
to celebrate Seder, a ritual feast at the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Columbia student Cameron Jones told CNN: “I am Jewish and, to me, Passover symbolizes perseverance and resilience. I think this encampment represents those two ideals because we have seen the university take countless measures to try to suppress our student activism, and here is us persevering through that.”” title=”A group of Jewish and non-Jewish students gather at the Columbia encampment to celebrate Seder, a ritual feast at the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Columbia student Cameron Jones told CNN: “I am Jewish and, to me, Passover symbolizes perseverance and resilience. I think this encampment represents those two ideals because we have seen the university take countless measures to try to suppress our student activism, and here is us persevering through that.”” />
arrested at least 45 protesters the day before and charged them with criminal trespassing after they refused orders to leave.” title=”Pro-Palestinian demonstrators sit at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on April 23. University police arrested at least 45 protesters the day before and charged them with criminal trespassing after they refused orders to leave.” />
1968 revisited?
Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Dan Goldman of New York, along with nearly two dozen other Democratic co-signers, urged Columbia University’s board of trustees in a letter sent on Monday to “disband the encampment” right away. The school’s president has already called on the New York Police Department to disperse protestors. (The NYPD’s initial attempt was unsuccessful, and the campus scenes served as explosive fuel for additional, countrywide demonstrations.)
It’s tempting to draw comparisons between the antiwar movement of the 1960s and more contemporary Occupy Wall Street and the current, more heated standoff between Democratic officials and activists. particularly in the language employed by Republicans to profit from the unrest, as demonstrated by Richard Nixon’s 1968 appeal for “law and order” against the forces of anarchy and the “lunatic fringe,” as the right at the time referred to them.
In a strange way, Democratic officials in Washington appear to be united in their support of Israel, at least when it comes to Netanyahu’s purported goal of taking down Hamas, the terror organization that murdered at least 1,200 Israelis on October 7. Though they have not attempted to carry all of the demands of the protest movement to the national level, progressive leaders in the Senate, most notably Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Massachusetts, have criticized Israel’s behavior in Gaza and the hazy boundaries around US funding.
Almost all of the forces propelling the Democratic Party’s drive to unseat corporate-friendly centrists and moderates in primaries have been uncomfortable with the idea of openly opposing the White House or appearing to support the expanding protests.
A seasoned progressive strategist who has worked on both high-profile Democratic races and outside-the-party initiatives stated to CNN that there was “a pretty significant disconnect” between progressive elected politicians and the progressive base.
The strategist claimed that “even the Biden people who believe the progressive base will support him no matter what do think ‘We have to worry about Bernie’ or ‘We have to care about Warren.” “However, Sanders and Warren won’t be visiting the White House and telling them that something needs to be done immediately.”
After first hesitating, Sanders and Warren both declared their support for a ceasefire. The progressive members of the House “squad” were more vocal in their calls for peace, but they were mostly overshadowed by the partisan support for Israel’s first incursion.
Sanders vehemently refuted claims made by politicians in both parties that the protests are inherently antisemitic during Sunday’s episode of CNN’s “State of the Union.” Sanders also emphasized the need for additional checks on US military aid to the Netanyahu administration by citing the situation in Gaza.
When asked if he was comfortable with the term “pro-genocide” applied to Jewish student supporters of Israel, Sanders—a Jewish man whose father’s family perished in the Holocaust—tried to maintain the emphasis on the government of Israel’s conduct.
“I believe the International Court of Justice is in charge of defining what constitutes genocide,” he declared. But let me say this: there’s no question in my mind that what Netanyahu is doing right now, uprooting 80% of Gaza’s population, is racial cleansing. That’s the reality.
Whether acknowledged or not, this distinction is frequently seen by protestors as obscuring the greater picture, which is that Israel is violating international law by what its detractors perceive to be attempts to either totally marginalize or exterminate the Palestinian population in occupied territory, or both.
The Biden campaign and administration have presented a very different image. They contend that Israel’s ground war in Gaza is a justifiable reaction to the October 7th bloodshed. Sanders and Biden, along with almost every other prominent public leader, have stated that Israel has the right to self-defense.
On Tuesday, over 250 former Obama-Biden administration staff members pleaded with the White House to demand a quick ceasefire in Gaza. CNN received the letter from two signers, which was initially published by the Huffington Post.
Democrats’ predicament
When speaking on the subject, Biden has made an effort to defuse tensions around the student protests and Republican attempts to use them as a political football during election season.
When reporters questioned Biden about the protests last week, he responded, “I condemn the antisemitic protests; that’s why I’ve set up a program to deal with that,” and then, “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who has expressed disapproval of the killings and damage of civilians in Gaza and expressed willingness to condition aid to the Israeli government, attempted to separate the two concerns on Sunday.
When a protest goes too far, turns violent, or contains hate speech, we should all speak out. However, Murphy stated on Fox News that 95% of the youth present on these campuses do so because they think Israel is the victim of a basic injustice. “We also have a history of overnight, multiday protests in this country. Preserving the capacity of nonviolent protests to continue for more than a few hours doesn’t seem incorrect to me.
Republicans have shown little interest in examining the specifics.
A few days prior, the fourth-ranking House Republican from New York and leading Republican fundraiser, Rep. Elise Stefanik, demanded that the Biden administration launch an unprecedented assault on demonstrators, claiming that “anarchy has engulfed the (Columbia University) campus.”
This evil ideology is able to spread by allowing this support for terror to continue,” Stefanik stated. I insist that you uphold the law in order to revoke the visas and deport students who are here on a suspended visa due to their antisemitic actions.
There have been more developments added to this article.
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