Biden, College Protests, Gaza and 2024 Elections

Chido Nwangwu writes about protests across university campuses in the United States against President Joe Biden’s handling of the latest war in the Middle East.

Amidst his own personal concerns, increasing pressure from protests across college campuses, disagreements with the “progressive wing” of his Democratic Party, criticism from humanitarian organizations in the world, growing negative assessments from polls of his handling of the latest war in the Middle East, U.S President Joe Biden has made public an unusual step and position in his country’s relationship with Israel.

On May 8, 2024, Biden told CNN that he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if it launches major invasion of Rafah (in the Palestinian Territories). He said “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.”

He has had some disagreements with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, notably: “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem.”

It has been an unusual two weeks in the United States to see the college protests spreading and clashes with Police escalating over the current Israel-Hamas/Palestinian war.

From Columbia University in New York to the University of Texas in Austin, from the University of California to the University of  North Carolina at Chapel Hill, some students and other affiliated interests have been protesting against America’s staunch ally Israel regarding its retaliation war in Gaza.

Those who support Israel argue that a number of the pro-Palestinian protests have been violent and anti-Semitic.  On the other side, the protesters insist that Netanyahu’s government has been waging a war of genocide in Gaza.

The protesters are impacting the way, younger and older generations of people in the United States are defining the knotted, divisive and dangerous issues that follow the seemingly Intractable crises!

There are also the issues being raised regarding who should get involved in the protests and who are America’s friends or enemies.

On May 1, 2024, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) said on NewsMax that the U.S. government should revoke the visas given to international students who are involved in the ongoing nationwide college protests against Israeli war activities in Gaza and other parts of the Palestinian territories. 

“You cannot go around yelling ‘I am Hamas’ or ‘We are Hamas’ or ‘River to the sea’ and pushing out Jewish students and have the university not step up,” Blackburn said on “The Hill” on NewsNation.

“Now, in my opinion, for the students who are out protesting, shouting ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ and … being Hamas sympathizers, if they’re foreign students, I would pull their visa and deport them,” she added.

She argued that if they are U.S. students on federal student loans, she would call for pulling their loans.

“You cannot sit by and just let this activity continue and have Jewish students put … in harm’s way.”

The seriousness of protests became the hours long, live news coverage on U.S and international channels and social media platforms. Especially when on Tuesday night,  April 30, 2024, New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers entered the Columbia University campus. The authorities said it was in response to some protesters who took over a campus building and were flying a Palestinian flag…

Columbia University said it had to bring in the NYPD: “After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice.”

The decision has been criticized by Democratic congressman Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, who stated he was “outraged by the level of police presence called upon nonviolent student protestors on Columbia and CCNY’s campuses.”

I think that it’s increasingly evident that the young, voting age population are going to be critical demographics as the battles in and around Gaza are also playing out in different ways across universities/colleges here in the United States.

Who knows or who can predict the November 2024 elections?

It’s a summer of political turmoil and uncertainty….

-Dr Nwangwu is Founder of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline.com; established USAfrica multimedia networks since 1993.

Follow him on X (Twitter) @Chido247