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Today's Antisemitic Protesters Are Violating Civil Rights Laws
(Wall Street Journal) Jason L. Riley - After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, antagonism toward Jewish students on college campuses escalated. It worsened further after Iran, Hamas' state sponsor, fired ballistic missiles at Israel on April 13. After hundreds of demonstrators set up encampments at universities, the White House issued a statement on Sunday condemning the violence and intimidation as "blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous." It's also illegal. Unauthorized protests violate school policy, while trespassing, blocking traffic, engaging in disorderly conduct, causing a disturbance and refusing police orders to disperse are all crimes. In 1957, white mobs in Little Rock, Ark., in defiance of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, were preventing black students from safely attending school. President Dwight Eisenhower decided to do something about it. "Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts," he said. Then Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne Division. The particulars then and now may differ, but the same principle is at stake. The federal government was obligated to come to the aid of an ethnic minority group being threatened by mob violence. Jews in 2024 deserve no less protection than blacks in 1957.