These Are Not Your Parents' Protests

The most salient elements of the anti-Israel student protests are their radicalness and timing. Timing first: There has been opposition to Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians—“the occupation”—for decades, becoming more pronounced as the hopes of the Oslo era two-state solution faded after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. I have participated in some. The liberal antiwar group Code Pink once organized demos outside the annual AIPAC gathering; they were often creative, with mock ups of the Israeli checkpoints which rob Palestinians of hours every day when traveling from one part of Israeli controlled territory to another. Medea Benjamin gave spirited speeches to delegates walking from their hotels after breakfast to the AIPAC main event. “Palestinians didn’t do the Holocaust” she cajoled them, seeking to sever the link—an ubiquitous trope of Israeli propaganda—between opposition to whatever Israel does and the greatest crimes of the past century. 

Those demos were held during a critical moment in the Israel–Palestine conflict, the first years of Barack Obama’s presidency. The popular new president was making a sustained effort to reign in Israel’s West Bank settlement building and reignite diplomacy towards a two state solution. AIPAC opposed him vigorously. So did leading senators from his own party. Code Pink’s actions never drew more than eight or ten dozen people, and their political impact bordered on zero. Obama eventually concluded this battle with the Israel lobby was not worth the political cost and gave up.