The Old College Try
I support the right to protest. I worry about the way some campus protests have morphed into antisemitism (and I’ve been hearing from young people about the increase of antisemitism on their campuses for years). I agree that the civilian cost in Gaza has been heartbreaking and that peace is the only way forward. I don’t get the idea of a protest against Israel that doesn’t also call on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire, or a call for divestment a few weeks after Iran launched a state-on-state attack and their proxies are attacking US ships. You can be for peace and for Palestinians, but you can’t be for Iran and its terror proxies. And when I see a protest leader on Columbia’s NYC Ivy League campus calling for humanitarian aid (for the protesters), I wonder if The Onion started a university. I also wish the focus of more young people was directed 140 or so blocks south where a former president wannabe fascist is on trial. Of course, if Mike Johnson came to my campus and said I was doing something wrong, I’d probably be inclined to do more of whatever it was I was doing. All that said, as long as the protests are peaceful (and not breaking into buildings), it seems both wrong and counterproductive to respond with heavy-hand police actions. And the protester on protester violence we’re seeing is a failure of both the participants in that violence and the school leaders tasked with keeping students safe. Basically, I’m pissed at everyone on every side of these protests (hey, it’s the Middle East), so I’m going to focus on what could be a glimmer of hope in the region that has become (once again) the world’s infected open wound. Bloomberg (Gift Article): US and Saudis Near Defense Pact Aimed at Reshaping Middle East. “Once the US and Saudi Arabia settle their agreement, they would present Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a choice: either join the deal, which would entail formal diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia for the first time, more investment and regional integration, or be left behind. The key condition for Netanyahu would be ending the Gaza war and agreeing to a pathway for Palestinian statehood.”
+ I’m especially flummoxed by Muslim voters in Michigan and elsewhere who think that teaching Biden a lesson by re-electing the Muslim-banning Trump (whose position is that Israel should continue its war efforts in Gaza) is somehow a good idea.
+ “Two hundred and eight days after it invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,200 people and abducted 253, it is a sickening reality that Hamas still holds the key to what is unfolding.” All eyes, still, on Hamas.
