A serious red line has been crossed: America’s democratic freedoms, expansive on paper, will simply not tolerate serious dissent on the U.S.–Israel relationship. As criticisms of Israel have become more mainstream, the attempt to shut them down entirely has become more extreme.

In pursuit of this blank-check relationship with an Israeli government that is becoming ever-more intransigent with each passing year, pro-Israel forces in the U.S. are attacking our own democratic freedoms in order to suppress public outcry about apartheid and potential genocide 6,000 miles away. And, if the recent campus crackdowns are any indication, these forces are winning their battle.

With tens of thousands of Palestinians left dead and the Israeli assault on Gaza ongoing, the U.S. protests targeting university ties with Israel over the last month — voluble and outspoken — have been overwhelmingly nonviolent.

Yet these nonviolent protests have met with the full brutal force of the U.S. security state. Dispersing the protest encampments, police have viciously beaten protesters, fired rubber bullets, and enveloped students in dense clouds of tear gas.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    It’s just important to know that the side that is at fault is Israel and not Jews. If people understood that, then antisemitic hate crimes wouldn’t be up 400%.

    “If there wasn’t any racism, there wouldn’t be racism”? I’m not sure what the point is here.

    The real ignorance is people hearing Biden and Congress condemning antisemitism and conflating it with judgement of anti-Israel protest. They are not the same. Biden knows that, as do the thirty-something Jewish members of Congress. I blame Netanyahu for manipulating that term in defense of Israel, but that doesn’t excuse the ignorance of Americans.

    You’re really not seeing the conflict between “There has been a spike in antisemitic activity, yes” and “Biden objecting to antisemitism in the protests while acknowledging their right to voice their grievances with Israel is ignorance”?

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I hear it as condemnation of hate crimes that are propelled by the false narrative that protesting Israel is the same as protesting Jews. He’s also saying there’s a difference between protest and attacks.

      The spike coincided with the response to October’s attack. It’s a direct correlation that clearly needs to be clarified to some.