Protests on many American campuses against the war in Gaza have delighted Republicans. The woke bogeyman is back. In their eyes, there's nothing like the classic partisan culture war for attacking the Democrats for what they see as undue leniency and tolerance toward the violent far left. As the Columbia University encampment in New York was being evacuated on the evening of April 30, the three main news channels were broadcasting special editions. CNN even had three reporters on campus. But it was Fox News that seemed most inspired by the event.
The on-screen banner labeled the protestors as "anti-Israel" demonstrators. On air, Donald Trump's shadow adviser Stephen Miller asserted that this is all because of Joe Biden. He accused Biden and his party of blowing on the embers of anti-Semitism. According to Miller, campuses have fallen into tyranny and anarchy, and free access to classrooms is in danger. Famed presenter Sean Hannity spoke in grave tones of tragic times. "America right now doesn't seem to have moral clarity," he said, as he greeted an unexpected guest on the phone: Donald Trump, who was busy that day as a defendant in a Manhattan courthouse. "I think you have a lot of paid agitators," asserted the former president. The proof, according to him is evident in signs that carried identical slogans.
Pressed to turn the page on the new military aid to Ukraine, which he had helped promote, House Speaker Mike Johnson was the first to take up the subject. On April 24, he took to the steps of Columbia University to call on its president, Nemat Shafik, to resign if she failed to "immediately bring order to this chaos." On Wednesday, by a vote of 320 to 91, the House passed a bill to combat anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial on campus.
While Biden is seeking a balanced position, defending freedom of expression while denouncing hate speech and hateful acts, Republicans aren't bothering with nuance. Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance claimed that participating in such encampments falls under "mental illness." We can't recall such vigorous condemnations of Trump, when he dined at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022 with supremacist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes. Since then, the former president has constantly questioned the loyalty of American Jews. "Any Jewish person that votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined," he said, on April 10.
Republicans are all the more delighted with the current situation because they are presenting a united front, in contrast to the divided Democrats. Conservatives have taken note of the large number of white protest votes cast against the Biden administration, in connection with the war in Gaza, during the Democratic primaries in several states. Pressure is also mounting among left-wing members of Congress to question the unconditional nature of military aid to Israel. Even though Biden is maintaining a highly pro-Israel line, despite the massive war crimes committed in Gaza, he is now being attacked for his lack of commitment by certain Republicans.
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