Professor Michael Hudson, “Have You No Sense of Decency?” Congressional Hearings of University Presidents on Student Uprisings
The recent Congressional hearings leading to a bloodbath of university presidents brings back memories from my teen-age years in the 1950s when everyone’s eyes were glued to the TV broadcast of the McCarthy hearings….
..Only the epithets have changed. The invective “Communist” has been replaced by “anti-Semite,” and the renewal of police violence on campus has not yet led to a Kent State-style rifle barrage against protesters...
..But the common denominators are all here once again. A concerted effort has been organized to condemn and even to punish today’s nationwide student uprisings against the genocide occurring in Gaza and the West Bank…
..The moral stance of progressive Jews, and the ideal that Jews, blacks and members of all other religions and races should be treated equally, is the opposite of Israeli Zionism. In the hands of Netanyahu’s Likud Party and the influx of right-wing supporters, Zionism asserts a claim to set Jewish people apart from the rest of their national population, and even from the rest of the world, as we are seeing today.
Claiming to speak for all Jews, living and dead, Netanyahu asserts that to criticize his genocide and the Palestinian holocaust, the nakba, is anti-Semitic. This is the position of Stefanik and her fellow committee members. It is an assertion that Jews owe their first allegiance to Israel, and hence to its ethnic cleansing and mass murder since last October. President Biden also has labeled the student demonstrations “antisemitic protests.”
This claim in the circumstances of Israel’s ongoing genocide is causing more anti-Semitism than anyone since Hitler. https://www.globalresearch.ca/hearings-university-presidents-student-uprisings/5856029Arrests at UT Austin; Columbia suspends pro-Palestine student protesters
Arrests come as deadline passes for students protesting at Columbia University in New York, who now face suspension. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/29/columbia-university-threatens-suspension-over-pro-palestinian-protestsPaul Craig Roberts, Conservative Texas Republicans Align with Zionism
The conservative Republican Governor of Texas has equated student protests of Israel’s slaughter and genocide of the Palestinian to anti-semitism:
On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed that the arrests of protesting students would continue until the crowd dispersed. “These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled,” said Abbott.
From the conservative Republican governor’s standpoint, it is OK for Israel to slaughter the Palestinians but not OK for Texas university students to protest the slaughter. That a governor can say this with a straight face demonstrates the power of the Israel Lobby. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/04/29/conservative-texas-republicans-align-with-zionism/WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States has found that five Israeli units are implicated in gross human rights violations predating the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, US State Department deputy principal spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday... ABC News reported that the Biden administration has decided against cutting off military aid for three military battalions with the Israel Defense Forces, despite determining that they committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240429/us-found-5-israeli-units-responsible-for-gross-human-rights-violations—state-dept-1118182067.html
Attorneys Inside the Biden Administration Urge US To Cut Off Israel
A group of at least 90 lawyers, including 20 who work in the Biden administration, are urging President Biden to cut off military aid to Israel because its slaughter in Gaza doesn’t comply with US and international law.
The attorneys will make their case in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that was obtained by POLITICO. They argue in the letter that Israel has violated the Arms Export Control Act, the Leahy Laws, and the Geneva Convention. “The law is clear and aligned with the majority of Americans who believe the US should cease arms shipments to Israel until it stops its military operation in Gaza,” the letter reads. https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/29/attorneys-inside-the-biden-administration-urge-us-to-cut-off-israel/
