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The Coming Protests at the Democratic National Convention

(Times of Israel) Kenneth Jacobson - It is reasonable to expect that there will be large demonstrations regarding U.S. policy toward Israel outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It is equally likely that these demonstrations will be compared to the same convention in the same city in 1968. Yet there are significant differences. The anti-Vietnam War protests were directed at U.S. political leaders. Whatever one's views on the war, there was a legitimacy to the protests because they did not target any particular group of Americans, other than the political leadership. While today's pro-Palestinian protests oppose U.S. support for Israel, they are radically different because of the significant hate component that has characterized these protests since Oct. 7. There has been explicit or tacit support of the terrorism of Oct. 7. Long before Israel took action to defend itself, protestors were either rationalizing or actually supporting Hamas's terrorism. The phrase "by any means necessary" appeared almost immediately. Explicit support for Hamas has remained an element in the protests ever since. There also has been the persistent theme of delegitimizing the Jewish state, leading to calls for Israel's disappearance. Other manifestations of this are false references to Israel as an apartheid state as well as the genocide charge. These are not about policy disagreements but hate, things that were absent in the protests in 1968. In addition, the current protests are targeting a particular community within the U.S. - American Jews. This type of antisemitism is of a kind that hasn't been seen in decades, catalyzing the largest number of antisemitic incidents in America in years. The writer is Deputy National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.
2024-08-18 00:00:00
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