The pro-Palestine protests at US universities continue to escalate. Many see parallels to the Vietnam War protests. The government is under pressure to act, but has little leeway.
“Move out of the way, police officers!” Chants like this one at George Washington University can be heard at more and more universities across the United States. It’s a balancing act for university management: allegations that Jewish students feel threatened are putting them under pressure to act. If the police allow the protest camps to be cleared, there is a risk of escalation.
From a government perspective, a similar dilemma arises. President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said there was no place for anti-Semitism on campuses or anywhere else and called it a “painful moment for America.” Freedom of expression is important, but it must be exercised within legal limits.
How the Republicans want to use the protests
The Republicans are trying to use the situation for the election campaign and are accusing the government of sitting idly by and watching the chaos at the universities after the chaos on the border with Mexico. “Stop the protests now!” posted Donald Trump on his online network Truth Social.
Republican Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida calls the Biden administration’s Israel policy weak on Fox News: “This ambiguity, this wishy-washyness is visible to the whole world.” While Secretary of State Antony Blinken is trying to get Hamas to release the hostages, Hamas is seeing the student protests here. “The message to Hamas is: Time is working for them.”
Harshness like the Vietnam protests?
So show more toughness, even at universities? No, says Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia: “Calling the National Guard onto college campuses – that would remind a lot of people of what happened during the Vietnam War. And that didn’t end well.”
The low point of the operations at that time was when four students were shot during a National Guard operation at Kent State University in Ohio in 1970.
Police use pepper spray against pro-Palestinian protesters in Austin, Texas, who are blocking police vehicles from leaving the university.
Differences between Vietnam and Gaza protests
The question of whether the demonstrations against the Gaza war are comparable to the protests against the Vietnam War is being asked more and more often in the US media.
“The protests themselves are pretty moderate this time,” says Angus Johnston, a professor at the City University of New York. He emphasizes the differences on the PBS television station. “We haven’t seen any real riots like in the late 1960s, stones being thrown at police officers or even buildings being set on fire like back then.”
What is currently adding fuel to the fire are police operations with mass arrests of students and, in some cases, baton attacks against lecturers.
Biden “can’t win”
And President Biden? Does he have room to change his Middle East policy? He definitely has a problem: A CNN poll found that 71 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, while only 28 percent are satisfied.
Biden’s options are very limited, says Alex Thompson from the news portal Axios. “It’s a situation where he really can’t win.” If he were to act much more pro-Palestinian now and comply with the party left’s demands to turn completely against Israel, he would have a whole other set of problems with the country’s political center. “The issue splits the Democratic Party exactly in half; there is no easy answer.”