The outgrowth of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the U.S. over the past week has become an opportunist’s playground.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made that abundantly clear Wednesday when he pushed conservative talking points generalizing the protests as “antisemitic”; said they were “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s” during the rise of Adolf Hitler.
“It’s unconscionable,” he declared. “It has to be stopped.”
Bibi apparently wants U.S. tax dollars for his bombing campaign in Gaza — but without the backtalk.
Bibi apparently wants U.S. tax dollars for his bombing campaign in Gaza — but without the backtalk.
In response, Sen. Bernie Sanders aptly noted on X that it’s “not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in a little over six months your extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 — 70% of whom are women and children.”
“You will not distract us from this immoral war,” Sanders wrote.
It was a fitting declaration at a time when many people — both here and abroad — are using the chaos, consternation and confusion surrounding the campus protests to advance their political causes. As The New York Times noted, Netanyahu’s remarks seemed like a pretty obvious attempt to paint the Biden administration and its liberal allies into a corner.
In portraying the antiwar protesters as antisemites, Mr. Netanyahu is aligning himself with some Republican leaders, who have sharply criticized university leaders and the Biden administration for doing too little to crack down on the protests.
Last month, Mr. Netanyahu spoke to Senate Republicans via a video link during a closed lunch meeting and criticized the Democratic majority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. Mr. Schumer, who is a Jew, had said in a speech on the Senate floor that Mr. Netanyahu was an impediment to peace in the Middle East and called for a new election to replace him.
Israel’s far-right national security minister has essentially supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and the prime minister appears to be like-minded. Which is to say: He’s incentivized to play up cultural divisions that could hurt Biden’s re-election chances.
And all of this underscores the dubious political tactics being deployed by Republicans.
And all of this underscores the dubious political tactics being deployed by Republicans.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s visit this week to Columbia University, where he was shouted down and met with boos, is a prime example. Johnson got a photo-op out of it that he can use to engender goodwill among his raucous GOP caucus, while browbeating student activists and campus leadership. Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes reportedly made an appearance at Columbia as well, seemingly dressed as a pro-Palestinian protester, fueling concerns about how extremists might be seeking to capitalize on the campus turmoil.
And Trump, who has been known to have white supremacists and others who push antisemitism in his circle, seems to be relishing the conflict himself, claiming that the protests have been worse than the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. In a social media post, he claimed that Biden “HATES Israel and Hates the Jewish people. The problem is that he HATES the Palestinians even more, and he just doesn’t know what to do!?!?”
The cynicism should be easy to detect. But all this shows how right-wing figures — both in the U.S. and Israel — are evidently looking to use the campus protests to their advantage in November’s presidential election.