The Lead

Giving Direction to an Upside-Down World

by Jason Ross (EIRNS) — Apr. 26, 2024

April 26, 2024 (EIRNS)—In today’s upside-down world, university protesters opposing the deadly military policy of a nation-state stand accused of themselves being aggressors, driven by racial or religious animus. University presidents do not condemn Israel’s destruction of every university in Gaza, but instead tell their students that participating in a protest encampments will result in arrest and expulsion. Rather than addressing the hundred thousand casualties of the war in Gaza, the emotional concerns of people made uncomfortable by political viewpoints with which they disagree are being centered by the legacy media. Mass killer Benjamin Netanyahu presents himself as the victim of anti-Semitism.

Refusing absolutely to reflect on the contradictions between their conceptions and unfolding events in the world, including the popular shift away from support for the actions of Netanyahu’s Israel, the elites point the finger at Russia, China, or Iran.

Former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sees Russian influence on the protests. “It’s in Putin’s interest for ‘what’s-his-name’ to win,” explained the addle-brained Pelosi, referring to Donald Trump, “and therefore I see some encouragement on the part of the Russians.”

Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska blames China: “Pro-Hamas [sic] activists are taking over public spaces and making it impossible for campuses to operate,” he huffed. “Why is this happening?” he asks. “Well, let’s look at where young people are getting their news. Nearly a third of … these young people in the U.S. are regularly getting their news exclusively from TikTok. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas hashtags are generating 50 times the views on TikTok right now…. These videos have more reach than the top 10 news websites combined. This is not coincidence. The Chinese Communist Party is doing this on purpose. They are pushing this racist agenda with the intention of undermining our democratic values.”

The Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt helps out by blaming Iran, not just for the protests on U.S. campuses, but specifically for the actions of Jewish students: “Iran has their military proxies like Hezbollah, and Iran has their campus proxies like these groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace,” Greenblatt told the few viewers who saw him on MSNBC.

The Wall Street Journal blames “Hamas, Hezbollah, [and] the Houthis” for “grooming activists” in the U.S. (In a case of “it’s a small world,” the author Steven Salinsky works for the Middle East Media Research Institute, which was co-founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer and by neocon Meyrav Wurmser, a contributor to the 1996 report “A Clean Break” that Lyndon LaRouche denounced](https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2002/eirv29n36-20020920/eirv29n36-20020920_052-the_pollard_affair_never_ended.pdf) for its role in promoting what became the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Legacy media use these bonkers claims about campus protests to drown out any coverage of mass graves in Gaza.

In Gaza, there have been mortar strikes in the shore area where the causeway to the U.S.-proposed aid delivery pier is to be constructed, showing both the difficulties inherent in Biden’s solemn vow that there would be no U.S. “boots on the ground” at risk of being injured or killed and dragging the U.S. into conflict. Of course, if the U.S. really cared about supplies entering Gaza, it would demand that Israel allow trucks through the checkpoints. One must wonder what other purposes motivate Israel’s acceptance of the scheme.

(Meanwhile, an aid flotilla reflecting a genuine commitment to help the people of Gaza is in process.)

To put the world back in order requires concerted international efforts to end the conflicts and provocations playing out against Russia and China, and to secure a lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. These efforts must be animated by a worked-out conception of the future, by a vision of where the world should be headed. The guiding concepts for such a world are laid out in the “Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture” advanced by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and by contemporary discussions based on Lyndon LaRouche’s Oasis Plan for Southwest Asia.