Opinion | America, no longer the land of the free
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
America is in turmoil. Pro-Palestinian protests are spreading like wildfire across US campuses. To the outside world, something else is even more upsetting: US politicians' reactions to the unrest. One, incredibly, compares the outbursts of demonstrations to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, calling them a textbook case of a plot to "overthrow a democracy", without mentioning that the only weapons in the hands of students are tents and banners. Opportunistically, Trump blames Biden for the anti-Israeli campaigns. Others call protestors fascists and Nazis for daring to stand up against the massacre of unprotected Palestinians. The one who takes the cake is a Republican congressman who stoops low to milk the anti-China opportunities. Guess what? He pins the protests on the Chinese Communist Party! Why? Because when you drag in the CCP, no evidence is required for your accusations. Scapegoating China has become a goldmine and an all-too-easy game to play. Soon, they will blame China for Trump's constipation or the senators' diarrhea. The big lie against China is getting bigger and uglier by the day.
But there is a snag. The big lie has been exposed by an unlikely source: hundreds of Jewish students who join the Pro-Palestinian protest in New York. Their loyalty to Israel being unquestionable, you can't blame outside forces for their anger at the slaughter of women and children in Gaza. They are in no body's pocket and have no idea what CCP smells or looks like. Remember, US politicians used to savagely condemn Hong Kong for restoring order in the streets after nine months of lawlessness. But now US hypocrites are using brutal force against peaceful demonstrators. They urge Biden to send in the federal troops. Talk about double standards.
The protests have become a litmus test for the US Constitution. So far, more than 200 campuses have been engulfed in sit-ins by students and walk-outs by faculty. The scale and ferocity of the protests have familiar echoes of the anti-Vietnam war more than five decades ago. They seem unstoppable, their ranks being swelled by the anger of protestors being manhandled and arrested by riot police, with students suspended and even threatened with expulsion. A valedictorian has been disinvited for her pro-Palestinian views. One senator has brazenly suggested that anti-Israeli protestors should be thrown off the bridge. Another has outdone himself by calling for a quick nuclear solution to the messy Gaza problem, as per Hiroshima and Nagasaki. American politicians have loose lips that sink ships. They will say anything for political gains, however loony and outrageous. Protecting the First Amendment rights is the last thing on their minds. Moral leaders they are not. America today looks like one big viper's nest.
But one thing is clear. These protests will not go away as long as the slaughter continues in Gaza. Being pro-Palestinian is not being anti-Jewish, only being anti-Netanyahu, a butcher known for the merciless efficiency of his killing machine.
They say that all politics is local. Not so in this case. The protests are a cry-out against mass slaughter in a far corner of the earth. With social media, the massacre is neither out of sight nor out of mind. Israel is guilty of apartheid, genocide and ecocide, the wholesale destruction of Gaza. Student protestors have no vested interests in the conflict. No one can predict the outcome of this campaign. It may achieve what the anti-Vietnam protests eventually did---bring down a government, end the glittering career of a US president and bring peace to a troubled region. The protests now have a life of their own, with the International Court of Justice poised to issue a warrant for the arrest of Netanyahu as a war criminal. Biden himself is not sitting so pretty either, with young voters sickened by his complicity in the Israeli atrocities, with American bombs enabling the killings. Soon, it may be a question of whether American actions will save Netanyahu's skin, or claim Biden's scalp.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | America's China disease
Opinion | The birth of a country of cruelty, and the death of the global 'rule-based' order
Opinion | Biden or Trump—Who is the lesser of two evils for China?
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