Pro-Palestinian protests increase pressure on Biden from the left and right
- author, anthony zercher
- role, North American correspondent
An explosion of pro-Palestinian protests and clashes with law enforcement on U.S. college campuses has dominated headlines and sparked conversations among diplomats busy brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.
This puts US President Joe Biden under a new kind of domestic political constraint.
He is caught between leftists seeking peace and Americans concerned that the unrest is disrupting university education and threatening domestic order.
A message scrawled on a tent in a refugee camp in the besieged southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip shows exactly how far rumors of recent protests on U.S. campuses have reached.
It read, “Thank you to the students of Columbia University.” “thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Other tents had similar messages of gratitude and solidarity, which were videotaped and photographed by American journalists at the scene.
Over the past few weeks, police have arrested more than 2,000 protesters on dozens of college campuses across the United States.
A similar scene unfolded at Columbia University, where New York City police in riot gear forcibly removed protesters who had barricaded themselves in university buildings and cleared the university’s pro-Palestinian camp.
The unrest occurred at a tense moment in the war in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) appear to be preparing for a major military operation in Rafah, a haven for more than one million civilians. Israel claims it is Hamas’s last stronghold.
Meanwhile, the United States has reached a multi-week ceasefire agreement with Israel and Hamas that includes the release of some Israeli hostages held by Hamas, an increase in the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the return of Palestinians to the north. is approaching. This area was the site of an Israeli invasion a few months ago.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently completed his seventh visit to the region since the start of the hostilities, and Arab leaders announced a last-ditch effort to stop Operation Rafah, which observers say is likely to cause a humanitarian disaster. and held talks with Israelis.
At a State Department briefing on Thursday, Press Secretary Matt Miller said Israel had made significant concessions in recent negotiations and agreed to terms that Hamas said were necessary to reach a deal.
“Right now, it is Hamas that every day passes without a ceasefire,” he said. “They are the ones who are withholding a response to this proposal and are insisting on an immediate ceasefire.”
On Friday, Hamas’s leader said the group was considering the latest proposal in a “positive spirit,” and a delegation was sent to Cairo on Saturday to negotiate a ceasefire.
Any signs of progress would be welcome news for the Biden administration, which is under increasing pressure to halt civilian bloodshed and suffering in Gaza, at least temporarily.
At a press conference, Miller was dismissive of the impact of U.S. campus protests on U.S. efforts, but noted that it is difficult to avoid U.S. media coverage of unrest, even overseas, and that the topic was brought to Blinken’s attention. He acknowledged that the topic came up during his midterm meeting. East trip.
Despite the US government’s official denials, these protests have increased political pressure on Biden.
For months, the president has resisted calls from factions within the Democratic Party’s left to withdraw his vocal support for Israel.
A clear political shift comes as more liberal voters, especially young people and people of color who make up a key part of the electoral coalition, are increasingly critical of what they see as permissive, if not supportive, policies. He did this despite the risks. , Israel’s aggressive actions in Gaza.
Opinion polls show that Biden faces a tough fight for re-election in November, and whether his support in battleground states softens even slightly could be the key to victory and ending President Donald Trump’s remaining four years in office. There is a possibility of dividing.
Jessica Weeks, a political science professor at the university, said: “Tight electoral margins in some crucial electoral states like Wisconsin and Michigan make the war in Gaza even more likely to become important.” I think so,” he says. Wisconsin has been the site of pro-Palestinian encampments and subsequent police arrests.
At least for now, that appears to be a risk Biden is willing to take.
Vocal opposition to the administration’s support for Israel from the president’s left has been a recurring theme in the months since the Israeli invasion began. What’s new, and potentially more complicated, is the added pressure from the right and center as campus unrest dominates headlines.
Sensing a vulnerability, Republicans launched an attack on Biden, claiming he was failing to maintain law and order and turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called protesters “raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers” at a rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday night.
“I am calling for the immediate removal of camps, the vanquishing of extremists, and the reclaiming of campuses for all ordinary students seeking a safe place to learn.”
The next morning, after several nights of police crackdowns on demonstrators, Biden made a hastily scheduled appearance at the White House, declaring that some of the protests, including vandalism, trespassing and disrupting university activities, were illegal. accused of being.
“We are a civil society and order must prevail,” he said.
While U.S. elections have traditionally not been decided on foreign policy issues unless there are deaths of U.S. soldiers overseas, issues of law and order and domestic tranquility may become more salient, especially in college neighborhoods. That’s true for middle-class American voters who live in or go to school in. Send your children to prestigious universities.
This may explain why Biden, while defending America’s right to free speech in his remarks Thursday, spent most of his time warning protesters of the consequences of their actions. .
As the president finished his prepared remarks and was about to leave the room, a reporter asked if the protests had caused him to reconsider his Middle East policy.
The president’s one-word answer was “no.”
“Certainly, it is politically unwise to say that the president is making decisions that affect the national security of the United States based on the opinions of a 19-year-old student,” Ms. Weeks said.
But there’s no mistaking the political reality of Biden’s situation. The situation could escalate if ceasefire talks break down and a bloody Israeli operation in Rafah begins.
With college graduation season fast approaching, a new round of high-profile protests could be on the horizon.
In two weeks, the president is scheduled to speak at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Morehouse College is a historically black college, and administrators have already expressed concerns about campus security.
And in August, Democrats are scheduled to gather in Chicago for a convention to formally nominate Biden as their presidential nominee, the most intense since the 1968 Democratic convention was held in the same city at the height of the Vietnam War. It could become a national focus for protests. .
A ceasefire may give President Biden some breathing room. But removing the Gaza war as a powerful political threat to the president may require the kind of durable peace that is proving so elusive.
