It took former Friends actor David Schwimmer to state the obvious about the protests sweeping American campuses, “If this were any other minority group the response would have been immediate outrage and action. And yet this antisemitism grows, spreading from middle school to high school to college campuses nationwide…”
It’s a sign of our bizarre times that former Friends actor David Schwimmer had one of the most insightful things to say about the supposedly pro-Palestinian yet not antisemitic protests raging on college campuses in recent weeks. After noting that “Jewish students across America are experiencing the worst attacks on their rights, dignity and safety in my lifetime” while acknowledging “some of the protests are peaceful,” he accurately observed that “If this were any other minority group the response would have been immediate outrage and action. And yet this antisemitism grows, spreading from middle school to high school to college campuses nationwide…” At least in my humble opinion, this is a greatly underappreciated aspect of the ongoing spectacle of Democrat politicians up to and including the President and the mainstream media contorting themselves into something more twisted than pretzels to separate antisemitism from anti-Zionism. Last week, before President Biden was shamed into making a formal statement on the protests, he was asked by a reporter, “Mr. President, what’s your message to the protesters? Do you condemn the antisemitic protests on college campuses?” He responded by attempting to split the baby in half, “I condemn the antisemitic protests…I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians and their − how they’re being −” In his own halting style, the President is making the claim that these protests are comprised of both those who are outright antisemitic and others that are simply sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians. This is an assertion that some percentage of the protestors have legitimate concerns while others are worthy of condemnation even though they are part of the same group, gathered in the same place, and in many cases, saying the same things. In principle, this might be true. Certainly, it is possible to criticize Israeli actions in Gaza, believing they are causing too much carnage among Palestinians and not providing enough aid, while not being antisemitic, or even anti-Israel. In practice, however, this distinction would not be extended to anyone else as Mr. Schwimmer suggested.
We know this from relatively recent experience in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a protest that originally began to preserve a statue was taken over by more radical white nationalists and descended into chaos, resulting in the death of a counter protester. The original Unite the Right Rally, however, was a peaceful gathering of concerned citizens who believed the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that was erected in 1924 erased the region’s history. The debate began the previous year, when the City Council appointed a commission to determine the future of the statue. The commission’s original report recommended either relocating it or adding historical context, a move that even The New York Times acknowledged might have satisfied groups that wanted to preserve the statue. As they reported, “One group, Friends of C’Ville Monuments, said on its website that statues could be improved ‘by adding more informative, better detailed explanations of the history of the statues and what they can teach us.’” In February 2017, however, the City Council surprised residents by suddenly voting to remove the statue. They were immediately sued, with opponents claiming they didn’t have the authority to do so under state law. Simultaneously, the City Council proposed renaming “Lee Park.” This was a step too far for opponents of these measures. Jason Kessler, who the Times described as a “relative newcomer to the white nationalist scene who is well known in Charlottesville, where he has fought against the city’s status as a sanctuary city for immigrants,” organized a rally in response preserve the statue and the name of the park, but long before the rally began, he was far from welcomed by those currently advocating the importance of free speech. On the contrary, the City Council issued a permit for the event only to revoke it. Unlike the occupiers today, Mr. Kessler did not proceed on his own without legal permission. Instead, he sued the city in Federal Court and received an injunction to proceed with the rally as planned. This, however, was still too much for his opponents. Rather than simply allow a fully legal and permitted protest to proceed peacefully as we are now solemnly told is our right and duty as Americans, national progressive groups decided to stage their own counter rally.
Hence, photos from earlier in the day show a purely peaceful protest with participants displaying a range of opinion, from those bearing traditional American flags and Gadsden flags to more controversial imagery such as the Confederate flag and even the Nazi flag (many of which have been seen at pro-Palestinian protests). At first, they marched through the streets and gathered around the statue as protestors usually do, but it was only when the counter protest, organized primarily by Black Lives Matter, came on the scene and forced a direct confrontation that things got ugly. Violence between both groups caused a riot and a person was run over by a car pulling out of a jammed spot, killing them. Later that evening, hardcore white nationalists, those of an actual Nazi bent, continued the protest complete with tiki torches in what can only be described as a haunting display. After these unfortunate events, President Donald Trump attempted to make a distinction between the various groups, believing quite reasonably that there was a difference between those who sought to preserve history and those who advocated white supremacy. He outright condemned the “display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides,” but also noted that there were “very fine people on both sides,” before adding a clarification that he was not referring to white supremacists in the very same statement, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally–but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.” At the time and even to this day, there were few, if any, in the mainstream media or elsewhere that were willing to acknowledge the distinction.
President Joe Biden famously asserted that the rally and former President Trump’s reaction are the primary reason he ran for the White House. As late as last week, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed Biden’s forceful condemnation of Charlottesville and his refusal to acknowledge any legitimacy to any of the participants almost seven years ago somehow inoculated him from having to speak publicly about the deteriorating situation on college campuses. “And I would just add that no President — no president has spoken more forcefully about combating anti-Semitism than this President,” she declared at a press briefing. “Let’s not forget in 2017. He was very clear what we saw — the anti-Semitic vile that we saw in Charlottesville — on the streets of Charlottesville. He called that out. He called that out. And one of the reasons he stepped into the 2020 election is because of what he saw — is because he wanted to — uh — he wanted to speak out and speak against what we were seeing in this country at that time — uh — democracy was under attack. Our freedoms were under attack, and we’re still fighting for that today, obviously, but it — he hasn’t just done that by speaking.” Note the irony of freedoms being under attack when a lawful protest, however objectionable, was at first shut down by the city and then flooded with counter protesters. Later in the same briefing a reporter brought up the topic again, asking since you brought up Charlottesville, what do you say to those critics saying he is trying to have it both ways? That he’s essentially trying to talk about both anti-Semitism and what’s going on with the Palestinians?” She responded by claiming no one at Charlottesville had a legitimate reason to protest, unlike those on college campuses today, despite that many are saying the same antisemitic and racist things. “I would say to those critics: No, he’s not doing a both sides scenario here. When you think about Charlottesville, you think about the vile anti-Semitism that we heard on the streets of Charlottesville… not far from here. The president and many of us wanted to make sure that was called out. Somebody died, a young woman lost her life, and when the president saw that, it put him in a situation where he believed it was the right thing to speak against it. He wrote an op-ed in The Atlantic because of that. He decided to run because of what he saw in Charlottesville. And that was vile, nasty rhetoric, and you had the former president talk about both sides. There was no both sides here. None. Absolutely none.” Except, of course, there clearly were: There is a fundamental distinction between those who believe that statues should be not torn down and parks renamed in service of progressive causes, and those who use antisemitic slurs and embrace Nazi ideology. If there is a distinction today, there was one then as well.
Ms. Jean-Pierre is far from the only one to refuse to acknowledge any distinction. Even before the protest, the rental website AirBnB canceled reservations out of fears of white supremacists, claiming that booking a room to attend the protest violated their commitment to “accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age.” Media reports then and now roundly describe the protest as “white supremacist” from front to back without splitting hairs of any kind. Wikipedia claims the primary goal of the rally was the “Promotion of white supremacist and white nationalist ideologies” and relegates the original impetus to secondary status, as “Protesting against the Charlottesville City Council’s decision to order the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials from local public spaces.” They open their article on the topic by declaring, “The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017.” To be clear, this should not be construed as an endorsement of Unite the Right, much less white nationalism, or any other conservative or progressive protest for that matter, merely as evidence that some protests are more equal than others. This, alas, isn’t remotely surprising. There has not been a conservative protest in my lifetime that wasn’t immediately branded racist, nor a conservative politician who hasn’t been repeatedly hounded by claims their policies and language include hidden racist “dog whistles” on every topic, from taxes to national defense. Subtlety or nuance of any kind is reserved exclusively for progressive causes, where the riots that rocked the country in the summer of 2020, causing far more destruction and killing far more people than anything that happened in Charlottesville are still characterized as “mostly peaceful.” This point didn’t need to be made any more plain and yet somehow it has, suggesting current events have a way of further illuminating even established issues. Just last week, a group of fraternities organized a counter protest to the pro-Palestinian events on the campus of the University of Mississippi. The mostly white students came to the event with American flags, Trump flags, and other patriotic regalia including American flag outfits. As CNN described it, “About 30 pro-Palestinian protesters were demonstrating in a barricaded zone when they were surrounded by an estimated 200 counterprotesters, some holding American flags, several Trump flags and some dressed in red, white, and blue.” While there was no violence on either side and no one was arrested, at some point a group of young men came in contact with an overweight black woman that had gotten past the barricade and began recording and chanting something at the young men including declaring herself to be “not so peaceful.” The young men responded in kind, but regrettably, one of them, from slightly off camera, appears to have taunted the woman by making monkey sounds.
The media immediately responded by branding the incident irredeemably racist, and demanding the fraternity be barred from campus. Jemele Hill posted on X, “1) What fraternity does he represent? That fraternity’s national leadership needs to be contacted immediately and that frat should be barred from campus. 2) We have recently seen endless conversations and action items created about antisemitism, but I’m guessing that same energy won’t be there to protect this open hostility directed at Black students.” She wrote that, even as the school immediately sprung into action, opening an investigation. Chancellor Glenn F. Boyce said that officials “are aware that some statements made were offensive, hurtful and unacceptable, including actions that conveyed hostility and racist overtones.” “Yesterday, we observed a demonstration on our campus—a place for the expression of diverse viewpoints, protected by our constitutional First Amendment Rights,” the Ole Miss Associate Student Body released its own statement, “Yet, amidst this expression, unacceptable remarks were made that departed from our cherished values.” The NAACP also inserted itself into what was by all reasonable standards a minor if regrettable incident, blasting a Congressman who had tweeted in support of the students and the students themselves. “These actions conducted by a member of the House of Representatives, regardless of intent, legitimize and propagate racism and undermine the principles of equality and justice that our government is sworn to uphold,” they wrote in a letter to Congress. All this, when the black woman involved in the incident said she was not intimidated in the least, even admitting her own role. “One thing that will never break me is people taunting me or making monkey noises at me,” Jaylin R. Smith, a journalism and new media graduate student, told CNN last Friday. “I said some insults back, too. I cursed like a sailor at them, and I regret letting them get to me like that,” she said. “The monkey gestures – and people calling me fat or Lizzo – didn’t hurt my feelings, because I know what I am. I am so confident in my Blackness. I am so confident in my size, in the way that I wear my hair, and who I am. They do not bother me. If anything, I felt pity for them for how stupidly they acted.” Thus, a couple of seconds of video and off-color gesture become the subject of national attention all while everyone in a position of power in Democrat circles uses the equivalent of an electron microscope to split increasingly invisible antisemitic hairs, not surprisingly coming up in favor of the righteousness of the pro-Palestinian protestors (almost) every time.
They reach this conclusion simply by ignoring or excluding any incidents that do not conform to the narrative. Pay no attention to the Columbia University Palestinian “resistance” leader who openly called for the killing of Zionists – four months ago. Khymani James told a disciplinary committee at the school that Zionists “don’t deserve to live.” “Be grateful that I’m just not going out and murdering Zionists,” he added, then went blithely about his protest business, so confident he would not be disciplined he posted the video on his social media channels. He was not expelled until someone found it and showed it to the school. Nor should we find anything unseemly about repeated calls, chanted over and over again at these protests to destroy an entire country, allowing Palestine to be free “from the river to the sea.” This while they taunt Jewish students with instructions to “Go back to Poland,” calling them “baby killers,” and demanding Hamas and their terrorist sponsors in Iran “globalize the Intifada” or to have the group mostly responsible for October 7 target their fellow students next. Rather than American flags, they openly wave the insignias of stone cold terrorists, from Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Everyone one of these groups is committed to the destruction of Israel and a jihad against Jews, not to mention the same against America. There is no mystery why Death to America chants have been a fixture of some of these protests. There is no mystery what the goals of the groups protesters have been aligning themselves with are. Sadly, there is no mystery why this reality is not being called out by Democrats and the mainstream media: They have cultivated these radicals for years, and now that that they have been unleashed on a sitting Democrat President, nuance and rationalization are suddenly of the utmost importance.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 