Joe Biden’s support for Israel in the immediate aftermath of Hamas terrorists’ brutal October 7th attacks has run smack into the long-simmering anti-Israel attitude among radical college and university students, which has now metastasized into something larger and more dangerous that demands a response from Biden. The question before him now is simple – what should he do?
That the intifada has arrived on America’s college and university campuses – and with it, a rash of antisemitic attacks – is beyond doubt, and clear to see. From California to New York, from Michigan to Florida, protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza (in response to the terrorist attacks of October 7) and the Biden administration’s continued military assistance to Israel have crossed the line from First Amendment-protected demonstrations of support for a political position into illegal conduct, including obstructing traffic, unlawful assembly and trespassing, and even assault.
Many of the activists are coordinating their actions. A week and a half ago, on the very Saturday that Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles against Israel in the Islamic Republic’s first-ever large-scale direct assault on Israel, pro-Palestinian activists met in Chicago under the umbrella of the “March on the DNC Coalition” to discuss their plans to use the August Chicago Democratic National Convention as a platform for protest. When news of Iran’s strike against Israel was announced, the audience cheered and chanted, “Hands off Iran!”
Two days later, a coordinated protest called “A15” – described as a “worldwide economic blockade in solidarity with Palestine and calling for an arms embargo and end to U.S. taxpayer funding for Israel” – launched deliberate protester-generated traffic jams on key thoroughfares across the nation: In New York, protesters stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and held demonstrations on Wall Street; in Philadelphia, 68 protesters were arrested after shutting down traffic and blocking key intersections in the Center City area; in Chicago, protesters blocked traffic on the access road between the Kennedy Expressway and O’Hare Airport; and on the West Coast, protesters shut down traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge during the entire morning rush hour.
Then, in New York City – media capital of the world – the once-prestigious Columbia University became a focus of attention. Even as the university’s president was sitting through a congressional hearing examining her administration’s response to rising antisemitism on her campus, pro-Hamas demonstrators were showing just who was in charge of the grounds of her campus. “Oh Al-Qassam [Brigades], you make us proud!” they chanted. “Kill another soldier now!”
The Al-Qassam Brigades are the military wing of Hamas, the Islamic terrorist organization that launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7 and killed 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds of hostages. The activists’ chant was an explicit call for the killing of Jews.
Elsewhere on Columbia’s campus, protesters made the threat more explicit, screaming at two Jewish university students, “Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 … 1,000 … 10,000 … the 7th of October is going to be every day for you.”
Biden was slow to respond, and he was confused when he did. On Sunday, in a written statement, Biden said, “Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.” But the very next day, in his first public remarks, he waffled, seeming to recognize a moral equivalence: “I condemn the antisemitic protests … I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
The situation has gotten out of hand, and it’s time for Biden to step up. Given the vast size of the federal behemoth, he has many tools at his disposal.
He should start by restoring order immediately, including by sending in the National Guard. There’s precedent already for a president federalizing a state’s national guard, even over the wishes of a state’s governor, to protect students being denied their civil rights – President Dwight Eisenhower did just that when he federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered in the 101st Airborne Division in 1957 to ensure that nine black students could safely attend classes at Little Rock’s Central High School.
Once order has been restored, Biden should go broader, and look at the colleges and universities. They rely on federal funding – they receive grants for research and other projects, they received federal funding for contract work, and, of course, they receive tens of billions of dollars every year in the form of student financial aid. Biden should put university administrators on notice – federal funding comes with strings, and one of them is a requirement that their environments be made safe for students.
It's not just the universities that need attention from the federal government – it’s the students, too. How many are international exchange students, here on student visas? The Immigration and Nationalities Act is clear: Anyone who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization” is ineligible for entry into the United States. If international students are endorsing Hamas, or chanting their support for Hamas or other terrorist organizations, their visas should be revoked and they should be deported.
Sadly, it is not as if we could not have seen this coming. This explosion of antisemitism on campus is the result, at least partly, of two generations’ worth of fallacious “scholarship,” in which universities taught their students wrongly. It will not go away overnight, either, but if we are going to correct this problem, we must begin immediately. It is a time for moral authority from the Oval Office. Biden must step up – or we the people will replace him with someone who will.
Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.