After suffering from imposed starvation from the oppressor in an attempt at genocide. After fighting off years of incursions into their land where their people and culture were wiped out to make room for their oppressors. After heroically attempting to fight off the oppressor and being abandoned by the US yet again. After many attempts by the oppressor at replacing the democratically elected government with authoritarians. Where are the student protests for Ukraine?
I get it. There is some delusion that pressure on Biden to put pressure on Israel will bring some magical solution to the Israeli/Palestinian problem. I too am frustrated over continued US support on both sides of the aisle for policies which fail to truly help Israel and only result in horrendous suffering for the Palestinians. Something has to change. I just can’t help but notice that now is the time.
The one thing that would allow a GOP victory in November would be a massive split in the left. Putin would be so proud of his propaganda unit if they help the GOP win. Trump would destroy Democracy in this country and allow authoritarians across the globe to do whatever they think they could get away with. But the Palestinians will get pea… no Trump will allow Israel to do whatever they want with the Palestinians and we’ll all be too busy running for our lives to notice that the main stream media has forgotten about Israel/Palestine again.
Russia has been encouraging far-left academics for years to put out pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian BS. When Russia started this war they used these mouthpieces to call for peace when it looked like the best outcome for Russia would be freezing the current lines of conflict. But their attempts to vilify Ukraine fell flat and the trope of US acting as a colonial power wasn’t effective in the face of obvious Russian colonialism. So the Russian propaganda units needed a people and conflict far murkier to gin up division in the American political left.
(Re)Enter Israel/Palestine and a series of horrific attacks done in the name of the Palestinian people but accomplished with the support of Iran, a strong ally of Russia. The October attacks, meant to be as brutal as possible in order to generate a maximum Israeli response, also accomplished Iranian goals by sabotaging Israeli/Saudi relations.
After the attacks, the American left exploded with division. World events are complicated and definitely don’t revolve solely around US political elections, so the attacks probably weren’t designed to split the US political left. But the Russian propagandists certainly recognized the opportunity when presented.
Russian propagandists in the US don’t need people to see Russia as good in order to score a win. They simply need to divide political support for Biden any which way they can. The more we pressure Biden to act and make a stand on Israel/Palestine the more we encourage Biden to alienate a significant portion of the votes he needs for reelection. He doesn’t gain more votes from the right if he supports the Palestinians. He only loses a significant chunk on the left. He doesn’t gain votes on the far right by supporting Israel either. Even if they support that policy, they still hate him on other things. The political right is not divided on Israel/Palestine. This is only a divisive issue for the left.
I have supported the people of Palestinian freedom for decades, but not their government. I have gone to pro-Palestinian events and rallies hosted by groups working to build what I felt was a reasonable peace movement. I think the US has been complicit in letting Israel settle in the occupied territories and I’d love to see the US government change its policy towards Israel to let the Israeli government know that we have limits on our support for them.
I also think a great deal of antisemitism exists on the left and I get nervous when Western pro-Palestinian events forget that Palestinian leadership is authoritarian. We’re not talking about a people led by Nelson Mandela. I don’t have blanket unquestioning support for Palestinians because enough of them want to wipe Israel off the map (just as I don’t have unquestioned support and/or opposition to Israel). Neither side has a clear and majority opinion to seek a true peace with all the compromise and difficult trusting it will require. I will support groups on both sides (and have in the past) who work towards true peace and encourage their respective people to build that peace. I have no time for destructive and divisive us-versus-them idiocy.
The absolute worst possible outcome for the people of Palestine would be a second Trump presidency. So STOP working so hard to bring it about. You are mostly adults. I’m not asking you to stop your support of the Palestinian people. I’m asking that you have a modicum of patience and common sense to wait another seven months to launch your protests so that your protesting now doesn’t bring more atrocities here in the US with Trump authoritarianism. Seriously. Grow up. The issue will wait. It’s been going on for decades and a few more months won’t change anything. By all means make your opinions known, that’s important.
But escalating in such a way as to bring negative consequences for Biden no matter what he does isn’t helping Palestinians, it’s helping Russians.