What do we need to do about Israel’s anti–israeli protests? Pro-Israelism and the “pro-genocide” of Jewish university students

Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators seem to believe, given the moral enormity of mass death, displacement and starvation in Gaza, that deferring to mainstream Jewish sensitivities means buckling to so-called respectability politics, which whitewash horror in the name of civility. The National Lawyers Guild, a left-wing group that has provided legal support for protesters, recently issued a statement saying they threaten everyone’s safety if the Jewish students, faculty and trustees block Divestment.

The leader of the Black Panther party said that in order to work with non-violent means, he had to have a conscience. The United States has none.” Within the movement, I imagine such rhetoric functions as a sign of total commitment, a no-going-back rejection of hollow liberal pieties. Outside of it, to the extent that anyone takes this language seriously, it serves to stoke a raging panic about the protests that both distracts from the war and feeds a growing backlash that threatens academic freedom.

Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar made a comment about the “pro-genocide” of some Jewish university students, which resulted in a resolution being introduced to censure her.

This comes after Fox 5 New York asked about rising antisemitism during her visit to a Columbia University student protest camp.

“Attempts to misconstrue her words are meant to distract from the ongoing violence and genocide occurring in Gaza and the large antiwar protests happening across our country and around the world,” the statement reads.

The leader of the House Progressive Caucus said that her colleague’s pledge to bring forward the censure resolution was ridiculous.

“This is not what we need and these censure resolutions — if we were to censure everything that we didn’t like that somebody from the other party said, we’d be censuring people all day long,” she said.

House Republicans have been focusing on allegations of rising antisemitism at colleges and universities as students continue to engage in demonstrations against the Israeli government as it continues its war against Hamas.