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Report: How a 'Pro-Israel' Democratic Congressman Cowered Before the Pro-Hamas Mob

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  May 14, 2024 2:15 PM

Many politicos may be familiar with Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, because of his role as the lead impeachment manager during former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate.  In late March of this year, Raskin tried to deliver a speech at the University of Maryland.  Its themes were democracy and "the threat to reason" in today's society.  His remarks were disrupted and drowned out by pro-Hamas agitators.  He was shouted down so aggressively that he was unable to complete his address, which was cut short by the university's president.  Here's how Inside Higher Ed described the melee at the time:

Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a speech by Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, at the University of Maryland on Thursday, the Capital News Service reported. The protesters shouted that Raskin was “complicit in genocide,” to which he responded that he has advocated for hostages to be freed and for a ceasefire. Raskin was unable to continue his planned speech on democracy as the protesters continued heckling him and arguing with audience members. But he said he was willing to take questions, which led to further discussion about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. University President Darryll Pines eventually stepped in to end the lecture early.

Pathetically, Pines not only didn't pursue any consequences for the disruptors who embarrassed the school and treated a prominent guest with terribly disrespect -- he defended them, praising their speech-suppressing bullying as "democracy and free speech and academic freedom" in action.  An official at FIRE, an organization that protects actual free speech rights on college campuses, blasted the comment as a "bastardization of free speech and the antithesis of democracy," and caving to "mob censorship:"

Not to be outdone, Raskin himself reportedly decided to start taking marching orders from the goons who interrupted and ultimately canceled his speech.  He may well publicly deny this as a decisive or significant factor in his vote, but what a craven decision that rewards execrable behavior, emboldens bad people, and validates both their indefensible tactics and their rotten cause:

"A source familiar with the matter tells JI that the angry messages and sudden disapproval of progressive voters had weighed on Raskin."  He got heckled into silence, and bombarded with anger from so-called 'progressives' because he, Maryland's only Jewish member, has generally been pro-Israel during his career.  But after the largest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, the radical-Left-Islamist alliance has turned hard against the Jewish State's right to exist and defend itself, and Raskin is flailing.  Calling for a 'ceasefire' wasn't even enough to keep the agitators off his back (they see a 'Zionist'), so he then graduated to voting against authorizing defense funding for the Israelis during their war of survival against genocidal jihadists.  It's breathtaking.  Suddenly, Maryland's Jewish population is noticing that it's getting awfully lonely out there, as the Democrats they've broadly supported for years have taken a distinct Israel-hostile turn:

Pro-Israel Democrats in Maryland are wondering how a state with one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country is represented by one of the Senate’s leading Israel critics — with some aspiring Democratic congressional candidates moving toward left-wing positions that until recently were rarely embraced in party circles...It was only eight years ago that [US Senator Chris] Van Hollen campaigned for the Senate as the pro-Israel candidate in 2016 against a challenger who took a more critical approach to the Jewish state.  Now, Jewish leaders in the state warn that Van Hollen’s standing with the community has plummeted...It’s not just Van Hollen who has drawn concern from the Jewish community’s side. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who represents Van Hollen’s old House district, was one of 58 lawmakers (including two Jewish lawmakers) to oppose security funding to Israel in the just-passed supplemental aid package.

The political winds are blowing, and pro-Israel Jews (the vast majority of American Jews) are feeling increasingly left behind and isolated on the Left.  With clear and unambiguous support for Israel receding dramatically among Maryland's left-lurching Democrats, popular former Governor Larry Hogan -- a moderate Republican running for the state's open Senate seat -- is leaning into the issue:

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President Joe Biden went from endorsing the elimination of Hamas after October 7th to withholding military aid and vital intelligence from the Israelis.  Other prominent Democrats are similarly moving away from previous positions -- driven not by principle, but far-Left politics.  Take note, voters:

It seems as though much of the "progressive" activist class is willfully or unknowingly aiding Hamas' literal strategy, with rising numbers of elected Democrats joining in that effort:

I'll leave you with an old-guard Democrat ripping members of his own party on this point.  What must be troubling to staunch Democratic Israel supporters is that the Hoyers of the world are being rhetorically outgunned by anti-Israel zealots, as figures like Sen. Van Hollen and Rep. Raskin stampede away from their own previous support for the Jewish state, in an hour of real danger and profound need: