Like most of America’s cultural battles, this one is a class battle in disguise. It’s a symptom of a much larger divide in the US between an over-credentialed elite and America’s working class. And while the Squad masquerades as the champions of ‘black and brown’ working-class communities, both domestically and in the Middle East, its real national base is, in fact, rich progressives – a small, rancorous elite. These are the only Americans aside from far-right white supremacists who have a problem with Israel, and who find it hard to condemn Hamas and easier to question its rape victims.

It’s no accident that the vast majority of pro-Palestinian activism in the US has happened on college campuses. Unlike in Europe or Canada, there is no wellspring of support from average Americans for this cause. The universities aren’t the tip of some broader anti-Israel iceberg – they are the entire iceberg. Average Americans do disagree over the level of economic support that should be given to Israel, and whether that support should be unconditional – fair questions in a democracy, for sure. But they would never endorse the Iran-backed terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip. For that, you need a college degree. Indeed, the more degrees you have, the more likely you are to find yourself calling for resistance to Israel ‘by any means necessary’. Hence the college professors joining the encampments and giving students extra credit for going.