Former free speech proponent Sen. Hawley is now calling for the national guard to suppress anti-Israel protests
By isabelle // 2024-04-25
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Senator Josh Hawley, like many conservative lawmakers who once claimed to support free speech, has abandoned his principles to go all in for Zionism and call on the National Guard to step in at the nation’s colleges where disruptive anti-Israel protests are taking place. The Republican Missouri senator tweeted on Monday: "Eisenhower sent the 101st to Little Rock. It's time for Biden to call out the National Guard at our universities to protect Jewish Americans." He has also sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to deploy the National Guard to protect Jewish students at Columbia University. After the October 7 attacks on Israeli soil carried out by Hamas terrorists, Hawley called on the Department of Homeland Security to cancel the visas of people who criticize Israel and deport those who espouse anti-Israel political views; he also called on the DHS to fire employees who were critical of the Jewish state. When he was accused of anti-Semitism after attending a conference held by an advisor to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019, Yoram Hazony, he said that he would die for the country, writing on X: "You'll have to carry me out on a slab before I compromise my defense of the Jewish people, their greatness, their history, their safety and the state of Israel." It’s an interesting stance to take for someone who has made a name for himself in his party via his open criticism of wokeness, cancel culture and the rampant censorship of conservatives online. However, Hawley is not the only lawmaker calling for the National Guard to take action against the disruptive protests. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has made a similar call, asking the Biden administration to do something about the pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City if the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, fails to get things under control. In a posting on X, he wrote: “The nascent pogroms at Columbia have to stop TODAY, before our Jewish brethren sit for Passover Seder tonight. If Eric Adams won’t send the NYPD and Kathy Hochul won’t send the National Guard, Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and break up these mobs.” Four years ago, Sen. Cotton wrote an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the use of military force against people protesting the death of George Floyd, spurring a fiasco at the paper that resulted in the resignation of its editorial page editor.

Protests continue as the death toll in Gaza rises

Protests against the war in Gaza at the Ivy League college have gotten so out of hand that the university has announced classes will be held remotely in hopes of defusing tensions. Numerous students have set up camp on the school’s central lawn and are demanding that they divest from businesses that are profiting from the violence. Last week, the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, called the New York City Police Department to come and break up a tent encampment there, which led to 100 arrests; some of the students involved have been suspended. These senators are going out of their way to protect Israel from criticism, but there is no getting around the fact that their actions in Gaza are inexcusable. The death toll in Gaza recently passed 34,000, with most of the victims said to be women and children. Around 77,000 people have reportedly been wounded, and there is an unknown number of dead bodies buried in the rubble of bombed-out homes and buildings. These numbers will likely continue to climb as tensions escalate amid missile and drone strikes between Iran and Israel. Sources for this article include: Fox5SanDiego.com InformationLiberation.com Politico.com TheGuardian.com
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