By now, you’ve probably read what happened. Hundreds of “protesters” – ostensibly there to protest Israel’s war against Hamas – instead engaged in an orgy of antisemitism. They spray painted “Hamas is coming” and “All Zionists are bastards” on historic statues. They assaulted a police officer, tore down and burned Americans flags.
It was disgusting, despicable and most elected officials on both sides had the sense and decency to say as much.
But this keeps happening. For months now, our college campuses and public spaces have been overrun by people spewing hatred against Jews, intimidating and bullying bystanders and blatantly breaking laws.
Most haven’t been held accountable. In fact, dozens who ran rampant at Columbia university this past spring – breaking into buildings and threatening janitorial staff and university employees – just had charges against them dismissed.
There are two lessons I think the No Labels community can draw from this.
The first is that this will not stop unless and until the commonsense majority stands up and says enough. In America, you have the right to say whatever you want. But you don’t have the right to assault people, destroy property and break the law. If we keep letting people run rampant with no consequences, we can expect to see more chaos.
The second lesson is that there is a right way and a wrong way to make a point and win hearts and minds. I’d like you to look at this picture from a very different kind of protest.
