Campus Protests Grow over U.S. Support for Netanyahu, Sowing Panic in Washington

With no end in sight to Israel’s killings of Palestinians in Gaza, and with the U.S. Congress voting for another $15 billion aid package for Israel, protests have erupted on college campuses throughout the United States, leading to panicked calls from pro-war officials for a harsh crackdown on demonstrators. The protesters’ demands include an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population facing starvation due to an Israeli blockade, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and an end to the financial ties between their universities and the Israeli government, military and other firms.

To publicize and organize support for these demands, students and faculty have set up encampments at more than 75 universities. Though the protests have been largely peaceful, despite the deployment of some “pro-Israel” provocateurs, there have been more than 800 arrests, expulsion from school of some protest leaders and student organizations, and some heavy-handed police interventions.

The show of conscience of young people on the nation’s campuses has provoked calls from elected officials for censorship and surveillance of students, as well as mass arrests and even deportations of foreign participants. Most outrageous is the labeling of protesters as “anti-Semitic”, even in the case of Jewish students in organizations such as Jewish Voices for Peace. Leading the charge is Prime Minister Netanyahu himself, who released a video saying that the scenes on the campuses are reminiscent of Nazi Germany, and calling on the government to put an end to the demonstrations! President Biden also denounced the protests as anti-Semitic, as well as various pro-Israel war hawks from both parties.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who pushed through Biden’s supplemental war bill, and has long been a leading defender of U.S. aid to Israel, appeared on the Columbia University campus, which was one of the centers of the protest, and called for a crackdown on what he described as a “pro-Hamas movement”. This was echoed by Republican Senators, such as Tom Cotton who called the protests “nascent pogroms”, and Ted Cruz, who claimed — with no evidence — that demonstrators displayed a “hatred of Jewish students” and should be expelled and arrested. Others see the “long arm” of Vladimir Putin or the Chinese Communist Party…

These would-be SS “Thought Police” have proposed new legislation to mandate “anti-Semitism monitors” for all campuses, to spy on students and faculty, with a loss of federal funding for any institution which refuses to comply.

These hysterical efforts at suppressing dissent against the mass killing in Gaza was identified by Ray McGovern, a co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), as a sign of absolute panic among war hawks in the establishment. Speaking at the LaRouche Organization’s weekly Manhattan Project event, McGovern expressed joy at seeing youth engage in an “I-Phone revolution”, which means that now, due to social media, “Nothing hidden will remain hidden.”