Truncheons for Democracy

Since Hamas’ October 7 attack, the US has backed Israel’s invasion of Gaza. That support has included billions of dollars and ongoing cover in various forms. Civilian deaths have mounted in a way that I find impossible to justify. Even so, President Biden’s support has held fast and we've vetoed multiple UN resolutions, including one calling for an immediate cease-fire back in February, and another last week that aimed to give Palestine full UN membership.

A report published last week found 42,510 Palestinians have died in the first 200 days of fighting, “while thousands remain missing and are presumed dead.” Of those accounted for, fewer than 4,000 were soldiers, the IDF’s purported targets. Of the 38,621 recorded civilian deaths, 10,091 were women, and 15,780 were children. Please do not view any of those tragedies as statistics.

But while thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed, only one event has seemed to pull Israel's actions into focus, the bombing of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy. That horrific tragedy was the only one that felt like it was treated as such. The following is from a statement on the attack by President Biden.

I fully agree with this assessment, but I haven’t seen anything rise to that level in response to civilian deaths. And while Biden spoke with Netanyahu to demand change following the WCK attack, no specific demands were made public, so we should probably expect the status quo unless Israel gets caught doing something that gains similar attention.

During Israel’s onslaught, some members of Congress have used the moment for self-promotion in various ways. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) did so via the questioning of university leaders, including the ones from Harvard and Penn who ended up leaving their posts due to the resulting backlash. Following the resignation of Harvard’s President, Stefanik claimed it was “just the beginning of what will be the greatest scandal of any college or university in history.” Expect her to try to make good on that promise.

Stefanik was formerly viewed as a moderate, but the Harvard grad was removed from the advisory board of the Institute of Politics for her “public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence.”

NPR’s new CEO, Katherine Maher, recently found herself in the crosshairs of a similar attack. It started with one of her editors writing a post for Bari Weiss’ Washington Free Beacon. In it, he claimed that while the outlet “has always had a liberal bent,” things had changed over the years, and it no longer embodied “an open-minded spirit.” Those claims were soon followed by multiple posts from Christopher Rufo, another leader in the ongoing witch hunts. He attempted to drag Maher down the same path as Harvard and Penn’s former leaders, but as David Roth put it, “simply through refusing to treat the story or the individuals and institutions pushing it as serious or in earnest, which they manifestly are not, the story was more or less put to rest as anything that any normal person would have any reason to know or care about.” While this approach may not always work, playing their game is a fool's errand.

Now the Republican-led House Education Committee has three more university Presidents in their sights with a session scheduled for May to discuss student protests. The reasons for doing so are surely aimed at learning and helping improve future responses and not another round of McCarthy-like show trials. (By the way, I generally provide links for all sources but no way in hell am I linking to the Beacon or Rufo’s crap.)

In recent weeks, students at universities across the country have launched protests against the war. A few weeks before this kicked off, Columbia University’s President Minouche Shafik was also grilled by members of Congress. She took a different approach from Harvard and Penn’s leaders by seeming willing to agree to whatever they wanted. In that hearing, she claimed her students were “getting the message that violations of (their) policies will have consequences.” (This is where I turn to stare directly into the camera.)

On April 18, the day after the hearing, Shafik sent the NYPD to dismantle the encampment, and over 100 students were arrested. Many other university leaders followed suit in the days that followed.

A few days after that, Rep. Stefanik called for Shafik to resign. She also called for an ethics investigation into special counsel Jack Smith around his prosecution of Donald Trump. (I won’t be surprised if she ends up being Trump’s running mate.) House leader Mike Johnson has also called for Shafik’s resignation while suggesting the possibility of bringing in the National Guard. Others, like Senators Cotton and Hawley, have done the same. If all you care about is control (or maybe publicity), you probably take different lessons than I do from the Kent State Massacre.

Shafik is in charge of the university. On the surface, it would seem that the administration is there to serve the students and faculty, but she was appointed by the Board of Trustees and needs to keep them happy. She also has the attention of Congress, so there are multiple stakeholders with divergent interests. She tried to please the members of Congress who pressured her in the hearing, and I assume their interests align with the Board of Trustees. So far, going down that path has only escalated matters, while pleasing those who want universities to be viewed as hotbeds of lawlessness and those who would like to deflect attention from Gaza.

On April 26, the Columbia Spectator reported on an email co-signed by Columbia University’s President, Provost, and the Board of Trustees’ co-chairs. That communication announced that bringing “back the NYPD at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus, and drawing thousands to our doorstep who would threaten our community.”

On the same day, Columbia’s students claimed their negotiations with the school’s leadership were at an impasse, and they would stay until their demands were met.

The uni’s leaders responded by giving the students until 2 pm on April 29 to leave the encampment or face suspensions. The protesting students didn’t blink, so the suspensions flowed.

On April 30, inflaming things and drawing in people who would threaten their community came back in vogue as the school’s leaders sent the police back in to arrest their students for protesting genocide. Other schools continued to do the same. In sum, over 1,500 protestors have been arrested across the US since April 17.

The student protests and the war they’re protesting, divide the Democrats, while Republicans are united in support of their interests. In the paragraph below, Adam Serwer shares how this wedge issue plays into the Republicans’ hands at a time when things are otherwise going pretty well for the Dems.

We’re in an election year where Trump is openly threatening authoritarianism. Biden has risked support at home as he’s held fast in his support of Israel. He signed a bill sending them $17 billion last week and told reporters, “My commitment to Israel – I want to make clear again – is ironclad.” But here’s the thing, he can support Israel without supporting the ongoing genocide. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is reportedly getting ready to charge Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity for the attacks in Gaza.

It shouldn’t have had to come to this, but Biden now has an easy out on the table. All he has to do is stand aside while the International Criminal Court does its thing and then remove support from Netanyahu ‘in light of the ICC’s findings.’

End the war. End the protests. Focus on what needs to be done for America.