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.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    He’s not talking about peaceful protest there. He’s clearly addressing attacks on Jewish people. In case you’re not aware, antisemitism is prejudice against Jews, prejudice against Israel is nationalism. I know Netanyahu likes to conflate the two, but Biden knows the difference.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      He’s clearly addressing attacks on Jewish people.

      But those haven’t been happening…

      And cops are getting violent with all of them. Even the protestors who are also Jewish and carrying signs saying so.

      This isn’t a religious thing. It’s a genocide thing.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        That’s outrageously incorrect. We’re not talking about attacking pro-Israel protesters, or attacks by pro-Palestinian protesters. We’re talking about people ignorantly attacking Jewish students simply because they’re Jewish.

        Antisemitism in the US is up 400% since October. College students across the nation have been targeted.

        https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-antisemitic-incidents-up-about-400-since-israel-hamas-war-began-report-says-2023-10-25/

        https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/business/antisemitism-college-harvard-upenn/index.html

        https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/73-jewish-college-students-experienced-seen-antisemitism-start-school-rcna127014

        https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-jewish-students-say-pro-israel-violence-at-ucla-protest-camp-undercuts-advocacy/

        This isn’t a religious thing. It’s a genocide thing.

        That’s exactly the ignorance that is causing the problem. Jewish is both an ethnicity as well as a religion. That’s why antisemitism is uniquely different, it’s both religious persecution and racism. You should be more informed or you may unintentionally promote hate.

        Jews are not committing genocide. Israel is.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          People want their side to be all good and the opposition to be all bad.

          I mean, the opposition is all bad in this case, but one’s own side is rarely all good. People more often engage in hagiography than analysis.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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            5 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%. 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.

            • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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              5 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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                5 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.