Israel invaded Gaza on October 27 of last year. Its cruel and barbaric onslaught, now in its sixth month, has killed more than 34,000, injured 75,000, and grieved millions.
Despite the pro-Israeli stance of the US government, the destruction of Gaza has begun to stir America's conscience. A few months ago, anti-war protests began to erupt in the US. During the APEC summit in San Francisco, protestors shut down the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. More recently, they shut off traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge.
From April 17 onwards, the protests have swept across several university campuses, from the east coast to the west coast, from "sea to shining sea." Protests are currently underway at more than 30 campuses.
University officials have called in the police, which has led to the arrests of several hundred students. Even professors are not being spared. At Emory University, the chair of the philosophy department was arrested, and an economics professor was thrown face down to the ground by a police officer and handcuffed. Both were women.
At the University of Southern California, the commencement speech by the best student was cancelled because she had called for a ceasefire on social media. University officials feared that her speech would unleash violence. They miscalculated. The cancellation of her speech unleashed large-scale protests on campus, forcing the university to cancel the graduation ceremonies in their entirety.
The world is now witnessing the barbaric treatment of unarmed students by police in full battle gear. Police brutality is being captured on video and transmitted worldwide in seconds. At Princeton University, police led Chris Hedges, a noted journalist, away from the megaphone as he sought to speak to students who were protesting the war in Gaza.
Not deterred by Sander's rebuttal of Netanyahu, the latter's "call to arms" was picked up by the Republican leader of the house, Mike Johnson, who has long espoused anti-Palestinian sentiment in Congress
Concerned that he was losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans, the Israeli warlord Bibi Netanyahu labelled the students as "antisemitic mobs" and stated, "This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s."
Senator Bernie Sanders, a Jew, issued a scathing rebuttal of Netanyahu. "No, Mr. Netanyahu. It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in little over six months your extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 – seventy percent of whom are women and children. It is not antisemitic to point out that your bombing has completely destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than one million people homeless – almost half the population." He said that Netanyahu was insulting the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract them from the criminal indictment he was facing in Israeli courts.
Not deterred by Sander's rebuttal of Netanyahu, the latter's "call to arms" was picked up by the Republican leader of the house, Mike Johnson, who has long espoused anti-Palestinian sentiment in Congress and is responsible for sending another $26 billion in aid to Israel. He appeared on the Columbia University campus and, hectored the protestors for being antisemitic and asked for the president of the university's resignation.
Arch-Zionist Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard professor, stepped into the fray and co-authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal reiterating Netanyahu's sentiments but went one step further. He also rebuked Joe Biden, who, while criticising the protestors, had also asked Americans to remember what was happening to the Palestinians. Larry Summers, a former US Treasury Secretary and former Harvard president, joined the fray by condemning the protestors for being antisemitic.
Today's student protests evoke the 1968 campus protests against the Vietnam War. But there is a major difference. The Vietnam War was being fought by American troops. This war is being fought by Israeli troops, but the protestors have seen through the façade, since the US has armed the Israeli military to the teeth.
On the one hand, there are Americans who are ignoring the war crimes Israel is carrying out in Gaza and heaping blame on the protestors for breaking the law. They are pressuring university officials to take stronger steps to stop the protests and, if they are unwilling to do so, to resign. On the other hand, there are Americans who are deeply upset by Israel's actions and the ironclad US support for Israel
Sure enough, Joe Biden, as he affixed his signature to a bill that would provide $26 billion in aid to Israel (and ban TikTok, which has allowed the spread of pro-Palestine content), said the US commitment to Israel's security was ironclad. Elsewhere, he reversed his promise to sanction an Israeli battalion in the West Bank, which was accused of having committed war crimes. Why? Because Israel assured Biden that it was going to investigate the matter.
Earlier, Biden had said the US would not issue visas to the settlers in the West Bank. It's unclear whether this anodyne punishment would have had any impact on how the settlers were treating the Palestinian settlers in the West Bank. It's equally unclear whether Biden even delivered on his promise.
The student protests are revealing the sharp divisions in American society that have emerged since Israel entered Gaza on October 27. On the one hand, there are Americans who are ignoring the war crimes Israel is carrying out in Gaza and heaping blame on the protestors for breaking the law. They are pressuring university officials to take stronger steps to stop the protests and, if they are unwilling to do so, to resign.
On the other hand, there are Americans who are deeply upset by Israel's actions and the ironclad US support for Israel. To them, when they see the hundreds if not thousands of students who have chosen to voluntarily live in tents, they are reminded of the million Palestinians in Gaza who are forced to live in tents because Israel has bombed their houses. The students have access to food, water, and sanitation. They have access to medical treatment, should that need arise. Those in Gaza do not.
These Americans know that Israel's atrocities are happening with the full knowledge of the US. They are outraged that Biden has not taken any steps to restrain Israel and that he has time to crack jokes at the White House Correspondents Dinner without sparing a moment to remember the Palestinians whom Israel has killed, injured, or grieved by American bombs and tank shells.
Biden must know that the war in Gaza has come to America, and his pro-Israel stance may cost him the presidency in November.