LOS ANGELES.–White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby, 60, denounced the takeover of a building on the Columbia University campus by pro-Palestine protesters, demanding that 62-year-old Columbia President Minouche Shafik Boycott, Divest and Sanction [BDS] Israel for its war with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas terrorists, planned, organized and executed by 61-year-old Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, raped, tortured and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, mostly teenagers, Oct. 7, 2023 in the worst massacre of Jews since the WW II Nazi Holocaust. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas, vowing to wipe out the terror group to prevent a repetition of another terrorist act. President Joe Biden, 81, has been conspicuously absent in managing pro-Palestine protest sweeping college campuses around the country. Protesters forcibly took over a building at Columbia.
Biden has said almost nothing about the growing protests that are getting out-of-control from the Atlantic to the Pacific, where Humboldt State Polytechnic University, Arcata, Calfi., had its administration building, commandeered by pro-Palestine activists. “The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach. This is not an example of peaceful protests,” Kirby said, speaking for the president. But why doesn’t Biden speak for himself? Pro-Palestine protesters are spreading anarchy around the country at college campuses and Biden lets his 49-year-old Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speak for him, unwilling to condemn the blatantly unlawful acts. Kirby said Biden has no plans to federalize the National Guard and begin the lengthy process of clearing out encampments and occupied buildings.
New York City Police Department [NYPD] said it would not move into the Columbia University campus without an expressed written request by Columbia President Shafik or the Board of Trustees, something that hasn’t happened. University officials fear a repeat of the dreaded May 4, 1970 Kent State massacre where Ohio State National Guard troops killed four students during Vietnam War protests on campus. Once armed, riot-clad police get involved there’s always a chance of a mishap where violence can spiral out of control. “There’s no active effort to look at federalizing the National Guard at this time,” Kirby said. Kirby said he’s not aware of any bad actors, like terrorists, at the college campus protests around the country, including Humboldt State or UCLA. What kind of “actors” pitch tents, illegally break into private college property and take over physical buildings?
Biden White House watches before its eyes the illegal, brazen takeover of university campuses, not a legal protests, but occupying private property, pitching tents, cordoning off areas and seizing private property. Why would Democrats and the White House condemn the take over and vandalism at the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021 but not condemn in the strongest possible terms what’s happening on college campuses in the name of the First Amendment. No First Amendment protests give hoodlums the right to seize campus buildings or pitch tents on private property. Kirby is either clueless or accepts what happening at Columbia, Humboldt State or scores of other campuses around the country. When Kirby talks of bad actors, who does he think broke into campus buildings, like rabble rousers did to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021? Yet Biden and Kirby condemn the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots.
What’s the difference between breaking into the Capitol Jan. 6 or what pro-Palestine rioters have done on college campuses around the country. Today’s pro-Palestine protests have all the markings of the same rabble rousers that stage street protests at Occupy Wall Street or the street violence that erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s May 25, 2020 death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Kirby doesn’t see any “bad actors” hijacking private property on campuses around the country. What more does Kirby need to see to take the current anarchy seriously? White House officials don’t take the chaos on the Mexican border seriously, as millions of illegal aliens stream across the Mexican border into the U.S. White House officials won’t take a stand because they’re too concerned about placating Muslim voters in battleground states ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Reports of hate speech from Pro-Palestine agitators are ubiquitous with Jewish students on campuses feeling intimidated and threatened. It’s not enough that Biden’s spokespersons say he does not accept the use of “intifada,” the Palestinian term for uprising, to say what’s going on U.S. college campuses. Joe Biden “condemns the use of the term ‘intifada’ [uprising] as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days,” White House Spokesman Andrew Bates said. “Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful—it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America,” Bates said in a statement. Watching Biden stay on the sidelines when American campuses have been illegally seized by pro-Palestine agitators shows that he’s not capable of leading the country. Voters need to ask whether he’s ready for four more years.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
