An Open Letter to Students Protesting the Gaza War

 

Dear Students,

 

      I am a middle-aged college professor now, but I was an undergraduate like you once, and passionately involved in student activism. In my day there were two issues that moved us most to action: the campaigns to divest from South Africa and to oppose the US government’s sponsorship of the Nicaraguan “Contras.” I participated in both, and in one protest during my freshman year was arrested for sitting in at the office of the Governor of Rhode Island (who had ordered a contingent of the Rhode Island Air National Guard to Honduras, to participate in military exercises widely perceived as an act of intimidation against the Nicaraguan government).

       I respect your passion, and I sympathize with your cause. Like you I feel that there should be a cease fire in Gaza. I understand and admire your efforts to put pressure on those in power to achieve that goal.

       Much of what I see in your movement, however, distresses me. The rhetoric being used by some of the leaders of your movement is offensive (for example, “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground,” a chant that I saw on video being intoned by a crowd of students outside of the gate to Columbia University). But if the problem were purely rhetorical, I would not be so concerned.

       There are substantive complexities of the situation for which your movement as a whole is not, to the extent that I can see, accounting. The fight for divestment in South Africa and against “Contra Aid,” respectively, put my generation of activists at least tacitly on the side of the African National Congress and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. This was a moral choice that we made with open eyes. Both the ANC and the Sandinistas had engaged in political violence, but neither group, from the perspective of their international supporters, had forfeited the authority to advocate for the people of South Africa and Nicaragua against those who oppressed them.

        The same cannot be said about Hamas. The atrocities of 10/7 involved a level of nihilistic cruelty and gratuitously obscene violence that cannot be justified by any appeal to the rights or interests of “the people.”  Hamas are among the worst kinds of criminals: those who justify their obscenities in the name of God. The people of Gaza themselves know this. In surveys only 38% of Gazans express support for the continued leadership of Hamas when this war finally ends. It is truly remarkable, given all the Gazans have suffered, that Hamas enjoys less support in Gaza than either major political party does here in the US.

                These facts are crucial for you to consider, because your movement has no hopes of making a positive impact if you are in any way “pro-Hamas.” This does not operate as a matter of perception…I am not asking you to consider what politicians or university administrators or even the general public “thinks” of you. Hamas is at the root of the problem that you are confronting. The people of Gaza need to be free of Hamas as much or more than the citizens of Israel do. Unless your movement is as much “anti-Hamas” as it is “pro-cease fire” or “anti-Netanyahu government (a conviction that I share with you most ardently),” your chances of aiding the people of Gaza are very slim.

                Another problem I perceive in your movement is the use of the word “Zionist.” It is very common to hear those speaking on behalf of the movement characterize their opponents as “Zionists.” This is a mistake. For example, I am a Zionist, and I am not your opponent. But the problem runs deeper than that.

                Much attention is paid to the question of what will happen to the people of Palestine in the wake of this war. That concern is absolutely legitimate, and advocates of a cease fire are right to point out that the lack of any plan for the future of the Palestinian people has delegitimized the campaign being conducted by Israel in Gaza. But such questions apply equally to everyone concerned with this problem. What will happen to the Jews of Israel-Palestine in the wake of this war?

                Such a question might seem odd, but it arises naturally from any contention that the opponents of your movement include all “Zionists.” Do you see a future in which the more than seven million Jews who live in Israel-Palestine continue to live there? If so, you are effectively a “Zionist.”  There is as much diversity of political opinion among Zionists as one may find among “Democrats” or “Republicans.” Some Zionists have insisted that Jews must have a sovereign state in which they are the majority. But other Zionists (such as Albert Einstein or Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah) have advocated only for a Jewish “homeland” in Israel-Palestine, where Jews would gather in large numbers but in which they would share power equally with the non-Jewish Arabs who would be their co-citizens. Though such Zionists are in the minority in Israel today, they continue to participate in Israeli politics. Thus, any scenario in which Jews remain in their current homes is effectively a “Zionist” future…the only question being “Zionism of which kind?”

                 This is important because anyone who says that they oppose all Zionists risks being interpreted as advocating for the expulsion of all Jews from Israel-Palestine, which of course would be a form of obscene antisemitism. A movement built on such shaky foundations stands little chance of political success. For your efforts to really bear fruit for the people of Gaza, it is imperative to clarify that you do not support Hamas, and you do not view all Zionists as your opponents.

                I am left in an ambivalent position. I have seen counter-protestors waving Israeli flags in opposition to your movement. I cannot join them, because like you I believe that the Netanyahu government has forfeited all legitimacy in their conduct of this war. At the same time, however, I cannot in good conscience come stand with you. Until it is made clear that you stand against Hamas, and do not view all Zionists as your opponents, I cannot add my voice to yours. Instead I offer this letter as my contribution to your cause. I hope, if you read it, that you perceive in it my earnest hope to be of help to your work.

 

                                            Sincerely,

 

                                            Andrew Meyer

                                            Professor of History

                                       Brooklyn College

MAGA Extremists Will Become MUCH More Violent if Trump Wins

 

A new movie, Civil War, purports to explore a potential future in which the United States dissolves into fratricidal violence. All indications are that the film (which I have not seen) is critically sophisticated and thought-provoking. Michelle Goldberg, writing in the New York Times, notes that “it’s not a stretch to interpret the film as a premonition of how a seething, entropic country could collapse...”

 

As Goldberg is right to point out, the specter of political violence hangs heavily over the US. It is no longer an abstraction or hypothetical. Assaults such as those on Stephen Scalise and Paul Pelosi, to say nothing of the terrorist attacks of January 6, 2021, have engendered a climate of tension and fear.

 

But for all the very real tragedy that has already transpired and the genuine cause for apprehension as we face the future, it is important that we remain clearly analytical about what is likely to happen moving forward. There is a real danger that political violence will escalate, but the general sense of how and why that would occur is misguided. Most people worry about the potential for violence by MAGA extremists if Donald Trump loses the election this coming November. But a sharp escalation of political violence in the event of Trump’s defeat is highly unlikely. Rather, a surge of political violence by MAGA extremists is almost certain in the event of Trump’s victory.

 

Predicting what violence is likely to occur if Trump loses does not require occult powers or mysterious calculations. We only have to consult the record of what happened the last time that Trump lost an election. For all of Trump’s warnings of a “bloodbath” in the event of his defeat in 2024, the aftermath of the 2020 election all but proves that such dire prognostications are not likely to pay out.

 

There was violence after November 2020, but it peaked on January 6, 2021. The terrorist mobs that stormed the Capitol wounded police officers and suffered fatalities, and in the immediate wake of that awful day a frenzy of expectation developed among the fascist militias who had been most instrumental in the atrocities of January 6. Posters appeared everywhere calling for Trump’s supporters to “refuse to be silenced” and to join an “armed march on the Capitol and on all state capitals” scheduled for January 17, 2021.

 

Initially there seemed to be real reason to fear that January 17 would be another terrible day. But in the wake of the ratification of Joe Biden as President Elect it became clear that all of our sovereign institutions, from the Congress to the military to governors' mansions in all fifty states, would stand firm in support of the legitimate transfer of power. Knowing that any armed provocation would be met with a lethal response, fascist terrorists took the better part of valor on January 17, 2021. The day was not “silent,” but the loudest sounds of protest came from crickets.

 

What is most important to note in using January 17, 2021 as a gauge to predict what will happen after the election of 2024 is the fact that at that time Donald Trump was still president of the United States. Despite the fact that their Dear Leader was still Commander-in-Chief and possessed of the full powers of the presidency, fascist extremists remained in their hidey-holes on the single day when their violent assaults might have made the biggest impact on the nation’s psyche. If they did not go on the rampage then, how likely is it that they will do so while Joe Biden is not only the sitting President, but has been given another four years in office?

 

Any fears that violence will attend Trump’s defeat are rooted in an exaggerated estimation of his supporters' political convictions. Even the most extreme fascists in Trump’s coalition know that he is an utterly corrupt and incompetent clown. Dying to keep that man in office while he was still there was not worthwhile. Dying for the slim chance that you could somehow force him back into office over the will of the voters will be even less motivating.

 

If Trump wins the 2024 election, however, the entire motivational structure of Trump’s most extreme supporters changes. With Trump coming into office the impetus for fascist extremists to engage in acts of terror will be irresistible. Again, this is predictable because the fascists themselves are not fools. They know exactly what kind of venal grifter they are dealing with in Trump.

 

Committing acts of terror (say, assaulting a Planned Parenthood Clinic or a meeting of Campus Democrats) as Joe Biden is leaving office (or shortly after Trump has been sworn in) will force Trump to choose. Will he uphold the “rule of law” and risk alienating his base supporters, or will he remain true to the “war of us versus them” rhetoric that has propelled his political rise since 2015, and use his power to help effect “retribution” on “those animals” as he consistently promises on the campaign trail? Trump himself has little interest in any questions of governance, so the only way that fascists can guarantee that government power will be used against the “wrong people” will be to begin assaulting those people in the early stages of Trump’s second term, and force him to show the world where he stands.

 

That is the juncture at which we here in the US have arrived as a nation. If Joe Biden is elected, the specter of political violence may not go away immediately, but it will begin to recede. If Trump is elected, the political violence we have seen until now will barely qualify as a beginning. In that event, everyone should watch closely and take heed. If the full power of the US government falls into the hands of the fascist terrorists who engineered January 6, this country will not be a safe place for anyone possessed of an independent mind or a decent civic conscience.