Today on college campuses we are seeing the Israel-Hamas war being imported by the Left. The goal of their operations is to weaken the social fabric of society. In the same way that the Vietnam War once created a flashpoint for revolution, pro-Palestinian sympathizers are using the Israel-Hamas war to create polemics that lead to a subversion of the system.

Creating Polemics

It’s as if the pro-Hamas organizers all have the same copy of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, and they are implementing every rule that involves weakening one’s enemies through the tactic of heightening tensions. (Of Alinsky’s 13 rules for radicals, the five below deal with increasing pressure):

1. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.
2. Keep the pressure on, never let up.
3. The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure on the opposition.
4. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.
5. Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

Just as the 1960s far-left group Weather Underground organized the “Days of Rage,” in October 1969 in Chicago, around John Jacob’s slogan to “bring the war home,” Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) has also galvanized a popular movement around the Marxist language of oppression and liberation.

As they write on the CUAD website, Columbia University Apartheid Divest is a “coalition of student organizations that sees Palestine as the vanguard for our collective liberation.” They are a “continuation of the Vietnam anti-war movement and the movement to divest from apartheid South Africa.”

The language they use is utopian and idealistic. They want a collective future of liberation and the end of oppression. Those who are deemed on the right side are promoted as good, while those who are oppressors don’t deserve to exist. 

Open Calls for Murder

The pro-Palestinian side presents itself as calling for peace (a ceasefire) while at the same time, openly calling for the murder of Jews.

For example, Jon Levine, a correspondent for Newsweek, reported that just four days after the October 7 massacre in Israel, a pro-Hamas rally occurred in New York City. Protesters dressed up as Islamist fighters, chanting “Death to Israel” and “We want it all,” indicating that the coordinated bloodletting on October 7^th was just the beginning.

Just two weeks later, at Cooper Union, on October 25, 2023, eleven Jewish students sheltered inside the library, attempting to call 911, while pro-Hamas protesters waved wooden sticks at the library’s windows. No police came, but the protesters eventually left.

Late in October 2023, posts appeared on an online discussion forum on fraternities at Cornell University, encouraging the killing of Jews. One post stated, “If you see a Jewish student on campus, follow them home and slit their throats.”

We can see the organized, coordinated efforts to terrorize in the pro-Hamas rally in New York City, the Cooper Union library incident, the anonymous posts at Cornell University by username “kill Jews.”

Victimhood Status Ensures Right to Violence

Interestingly, the “victims” consider themselves oppressed while at the same time attending the most elite institutions in the United States. Other vocal sympathizers are history professors, medical students, and artists. They are not all Palestinian. The pro-Palestinian faction is multi-ethnic and seemingly educated, at least educated enough to attend an Ivy League school.   

For example, on April 26, 2024, Khymani James, an organizer for Columbia University’s anti-Israel encampment, was banned from the university campus after a video he livestreamed in January came to light, showing him saying that “Zionists did not deserve to live.”

He further stated, “The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. So, yes, I feel very comfortable -- very comfortable, calling for those people to die.”

“Be glad, be grateful that I’m just not going out and murdering Zionists.”

“Zionists, along with all white supremacists, need to not exist, because they actively kill and harm vulnerable people.”

Another open call for murder occurred at a Bakersfield city council meeting on April 10th when Riddhi Patel stated during public comment:

“Regardless of whether you elect people into office, they’ll backstab you. They’ll let you die. And for that reason -- you guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors. We’ll see you at your house. We’ll murder you.”

She also stated, “I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you mother****ers.”

Patel was able to post her bail of $500,000. (Where did she get the money for her release?)

Conclusion

These revolutionaries are the new face of the Marxist, far-Left, pro-Hamas movement. With breathtaking assurance, they tell us that Jesus would have killed Bakersfield city councilmen for not voting on a ceasefire. They take umbrage at having to go through a metal detector before attending a public meeting. It is a sign of their oppression. They don’t know how to say thank you. Nor do they acknowledge the blessing of being given time to speak at a public meeting and having one’s input considered.

Instead, we are told that we should be grateful that they are not murdering Zionists. From their statements, it would seem that the “Days of Rage” are here again, and they have a higher calling, not just to “bring the war home,” Just as Weatherman leader John Jacobs stated back in the sixties, they will “shove the war down your dumb, fascist throat and show [you] while [they] are at it, how much better they are than [you], both tactically and strategically as a people” (Gillies 86). Through their words, they tell us who they are and what they are capable of, tactically and strategically. They present themselves as victims, yet they are anything but.

Anne-Christine Hoff is an associate professor of English at Jarvis Christian University.

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