Progressives’ Pro-War Protest Movement

By Seth Mandel

Friday, April 19, 2024

 

Yesterday’s protests at Columbia highlighted a key difference between the left-wing protests of generations past and the current demonstrations: While both cheer America’s enemies, the 2024 version is ostentatiously, undeniably pro-war.

 

I used to shake my head when people would accuse others of being “warmongers,” because the term was so often reserved for people who very obviously did not fit the bill. If you want to know what a warmonger actually is, check out those who have for six months cheered rabidly for the very concept of war itself. Anti-war protesters usually lose interest when the U.S. isn’t involved. But personal interest has no role here; these protesters live vicariously through any fascist with a gun, drone, or rocket launcher.

 

“Never forget the 7th of October,” they shouted at Jews at Columbia last night. “That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, not 10,000… The 7th of October is going to be every day for you.”

 

This kind of enthusiasm for the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, complete with sexual torture and the dismemberment of young children, is important to note for several reasons, only one of which is that it highlights these protestors’ uncontrollable urge for the Mideast war to go on forever. It’s also notable because it’s honest: The Hamas-a-thons all around the country have been clear about what their participants want. Screeching bloodlust so explicit it would have made Nazis blush has become the ticket to ride in progressive activist circles.

 

“Iran, you make us proud!” they cheered in New York City, after the Islamic Republic launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones from its territory aimed at Israel, in what was an unprecedented region-wide act of war.

 

In January, another chant became popular at such gatherings: “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud; turn another ship around!” This was a reference to the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen who declared war on civilian ships traversing the Red Sea. Though the Houthis talk mostly about their hatred for Jews and America, their victims so far have been Vietnamese and Filipino. The Iran attack, lauded by Khamenei fans in New York City, badly injured one person: a young Arab girl. But it doesn’t matter to these psychos whose blood you draw so long as you pair your war strikes with demented comments about Jews.

 

Two of the most popular slogans throughout this war have, of course, been “Globalize the intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” with the word “free” occasionally exchanged for “Arab.” Both versions of the latter slogan are a call for a war to be launched on Israel and not stopped until millions of Jews are dead. In contrast to the “from the river” chant, which envisions a traditional land invasion, “intifada” conjures an unconventional war waged by those in civilian garb that expands the scope of battle to every inch of the planet.

 

At these Hamas groupie conventions, you’ll hear and see versions of the slogan “resistance by any means necessary,” which is a call for a war of both conventional and unconventional means.

 

And of course, how can we forget the Quds Day rally in Dearborn, Michigan. Quds Day, for the uninitiated, was invented by Iran as an excuse to hold anti-Jewish rallies. Muslim leaders in Dearborn led a particularly raucous one this year at which attendees shouted “Death to America!” Again, not very subtle. Speakers repeatedly referenced Ayatollah Khomeini, their hero, who upon taking power warned the U.S.: “Now we are at war, a political and economic war. It is possible that military war will also come along.” Khomeini, in fact, saw every battle with his opposition as ultimately a battle against the “Great Satan,” also known as the United States. That became, and remains, the defining spirit of Iranian leadership.

 

It is not meant to be taken metaphorically. In late January, an Iranian militia killed three American troops and wounded 34 at a U.S. base in Jordan, only the latest in Iran’s decades-long war on the U.S.

 

At yesterday’s Capitol Hill hearing on anti-Semitism at Columbia, Rep. Ilhan Omar said the ongoing protests shouldn’t so much be characterized as anti-Israel vs. pro-Israel but anti-war vs. pro-war. She was right, but not in the way she intended. Israel’s supporters never wanted this war. President Biden never wanted this war. But for the anti-American and anti-Israel demonstrators on college campuses and all around the country, war is all they desire.