Anti-Israel protesters have been unhinged and dangerous forever, but particularly since October 7.
We have documented here dozens of times the intimidation tactics, including particularly on campuses. The lasting impact of the campus protests and encampments is that with only a small number of exceptions, there were no consequences to violating campus rules. We saw several universities pay ransom for the encampments to end without disrupting reunions and graduation. The sense of being able to act with impunity was evident in the smugness of the “From the River to the Sea” crowd.
Woven into this fabric are faculty who encourage and defend the misconduct and administrators who are scared.
So too when it comes to the criminal laws. At Columbia, protesters including many non-students took over and trashed a campus building, but most are having their charges dropped completely or reduced to diversion agreements whereby the charges are expunged if they stay out of trouble for a specified time.
This societal weakness will encourage even more agressive action.
Anti-Israel activists, particularly in big cities, are getting more aggressive by the day, as they realize the majority of Americans are not with them, and Israel has the determination to keep fighting. Protesters are becoming hoodlums.
But it’s worse than that. I’ve often written and spoken about the Red-Green Alliane, the marxists/anarchists joining with the Islamists.
Islamism seems to have taken control of the movement. Islamist figures are now openly glorified in the protests. At a recent protest in New York City, protesters held up a photo of Yahya Sinwar, the psycopathic leader of Hamas in Gaza who was responsible for October 7 and now is in hiding, reportedly deep underground in Gaza surrounded by hostages as human shields.
A huge banner of the Grand Ayatollah of Iran, was unfurled.
[Update the image below allegedly was manipulated. The “Free Palestine, From The River To The Sea” banner is legitimate, the image of the Ayatollah was digitally added. See Reuters Fact Check. The Ayatollah has praised the protesters, but the banner reportedly was not hung from the museum.]
So many lines have been crossed by anti-Israel protesters in the U.S. since October 7, it’s hard to see that any lines are left. The increasingly dominant glorification and worship of Islamist movements and leaders, combined with ability to act with impunity, is a bad omen for this summer.
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