How does the university uprising affect the future of American support for Israel?
The heated student protest movement against the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the associated controversy over Washington's unprecedented and unconditional support, shakes the peculiarity of American-Israeli relations, which some considered a sacred bond that would not be subject to any significant vibrations.
The majority of Americans supported Israel when it began its aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7, following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, but American public opinion has changed over the past six months, to a majority that opposes the war and demands that it stop.
American opinion polls, demonstrations, and official discourse have changed, with President Biden threatening Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to change policy unless Israel reviews military behavior and avoids targeting civilians and relief convoys.
Student movement component
The massive student movement, which extended to hundreds of universities, and was led by elite universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, added an influential new dynamic, recalling the American collective memory of the years of protests against the Vietnam War.
It is worth noting that most American families look with pride and aspire to the prestigious elite universities (Ivy League), and raise their children to dream of entering one of these universities that place their graduates on a distinguished path of career and class advancement. Therefore, it is important to continue the harsh security dealings with the protesting students of these universities. Without violence against the policies of the Joe Biden administration and the administration of their universities, it would cause widespread anger among American groups that are not necessarily politicized.
The pictures of police officers and armed National Guard forces attacking professors and students at prestigious universities were unfamiliar to Americans, who were granted the absolute right to free speech and peaceful assembly by the First Amendment. They were also taken aback by the justification offered by pro-Israel lobbyists for these unusual practices in the US, most notably the arrest of over 500 individuals. pro-Palestinian university attendees.
Progressive star
With Representative Ilhan Omar attending some university events and the support of several other members of Congress, including Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Cortez, the American student movement pushed to confirm the rise of the progressive movement in the Democratic Party. It has also become customary for members of both houses of Congress to declare their opposition to Israel's policies.
For example, the progressive senator belonging to the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders, tweeted and responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the “X” platform and said without any fear of the consequences of what he would say:
“No, Mr. Netanyahu, it is not anti-Semitism or support for Hamas to point out that In just over 6 months, your extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 others, including 70% women and children. You will not distract us from this immoral war.”
On the other hand, Representative Summer Lee achieved a remarkable victory in the primary elections in Pennsylvania two days ago, despite the Jewish lobbies mobilizing many resources against her to remove her from Congress, after she became one of the most vocal anti-Israel legislators during the past two years, winning by 61 percent. % of votes.
Shaking historical ties
During a lecture at a forum on American politics and divine religions held in Boston years ago, Walter Russell Mead—a Wall Street Journal writer and researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations—stated that “American Protestant support for the Jews and Israel existed before the Jews set foot in the emerging American state, and before Israel was founded.” Thus, it came as no surprise that the United States, through President Harry Truman, recognized Israel as the first nation in 1948, just a few minutes after its founding.
According to Mead, the early Protestant Americans who practiced religion thought they were a chosen people and that their brand of Christianity was the best and most accurate. He also said that the creation of the Jewish state in Israel demonstrated that the American people were also chosen, that God blessed the United States and its citizens, and that the success of the Israelites was a success for the Americans.
Over the past three-quarters of a century, the United States has sponsored Israel, providing it with no less than $260 billion in military and economic aid, according to data from the Congressional Research Service, but all recent evidence indicates that these ties have been shaken.
Trita Parsi, Vice President of the Quincy Institute in Washington, tweeted on the “X” platform, commenting on the developments in American universities, attaching pictures of the student movement at Harvard University, and said, “The shortsightedness of the Israeli government is astonishing. It ensures that a large portion of an entire generation of Americans - "Including the incoming elite - they will view Israel as a genocidal, apartheid state that threatens American democracy. This was Harvard earlier today."
College youth were angry
Young Americans support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza by a ratio of 5 to 1, according to a youth poll conducted by the Harvard Institute of Politics, between 14 and 21 March, among 2,010 young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, and published in Harvard University this week. In the past, it was stated that 51% of respondents support a ceasefire, while only 10% oppose it.
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip introduced the concept of the “ugly war” to Generation Z of American youth, who were born during the late 1990s and early 21st century. Pictures of innocent civilian victims and the destruction that affected hospitals, schools, and all facilities necessary for life showed what... It concerns the scourge of war on human beings, especially with the stronger party ignoring the minimum rules of international law and the agreed upon rules of war.
The position of this American generation on the Israeli aggression, and the amount of support and sympathy for the Palestinian side in the conflict, represented a shock to the generation of parents, who were surprised by a different mentality in terms of their vision of themselves and the world, and the meanings of truth, justice, and equality.
Slogans such as “Israel’s right to exist,” “strike the terrorists,” and “anti-Semitism” no longer alone dominate the American scene, and are now crowded out by slogans such as “apartheid,” “genocide,” and “ethnic cleansing,” in particular. Among American youth.
However, proponents of Israel are alarmed by what they see happening in American cities' universities, particularly as the number of American Jews is declining while that of Arab and Muslim Americans is rising. This new generation of Americans is obviously involved in the student movement and is working to disprove the notion that the American alliance is inevitable and that Israel deserves US unwavering support.
