United States President Joe Biden weighed in this morning on the anti-war demonstrations, condemning the protesters with reckless platitudes. One can expect both parties to compete with each other in their effort to save the republic by using police-state measures to repress challenges to the war policy. In reading his address, one might almost forget that the only violence has come from the opponents of the protesters.
Biden framed the issue: “There’s a right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest—it’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations—none of this is a peaceful protest.… Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest—it’s against the law.”
Without citing one single instance of an actual anti-Semitic comment or a threat of violence against any Jew, he contended: “There should be no place on any campus—no place in America—for anti-Semitism or threats of violence against Jewish students…. I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions. In America, we respect the right and protect the right for them to express that, but it doesn’t mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate and within the law.”
