America has for years been a polarised powder keg waiting for the spark to ignite the fuse. It has come in the form of student protests against American support for Israel.
Protesters, counter-protesters and rent-a-mob have violently coalesced around the conflicting fates of Palestinians and the State of Israel.
As of Friday demonstrations have broken out on 140 college campuses in 45 states. More than 2,000 students have been arrested by police storming barricaded encampments and university buildings with riot gear.
President Joe Biden is trying to thread his way through the oft conflicting principles of freedom of speech and the rule of law. “There’s the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos,” he said. At the same time he is standing firm on his support for Israel while privately bemoaning the fact that he is not being given sufficient credit for pressuring the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The political result could be a November victory for Donald Trump as young people continue their Gaza protest by boycotting the polls and the older generation vote for the strong man politics of Trump.
But what do the protesters want? It varies. Some what the total destruction of Israel. Others are focused on a ceasefire and the two-state solution. Still others have been drawn to the barricades by the issue of free speech. Counter-protesters fear that Israel and Jews in general are facing the problems of the 1930s. Rent-a-mob just sees an advantage in chaos.
Two issues, however, stand out: An end to the US government military aid and other support for the state of Israel, and divestment of universities in companies investing in Israel. The first is a long way off and may never be reached. The second is more possible. Both could have a serious impact on Israel and the Middle East.
There is no appetite among either the Democratic or Republican political establishment for an end to aid for Israel. Congress has just approved $14 billion package for the Jewish state. Since 1948 the US government has provided Israel with $300 billion. Nearly 20 percent of Israel’s defense budget is paid by the US.
Israel’s democracy is developing disturbing flaws. But it is the only democratic country in a sea of autocracies and America’s sole true-blue ally in a strategic region of the world. Stopping aid would also remove any influence that Washington has over Israel’s increasingly erratic governments. Many think that American influence is questionable. But at the moment it is holding back the Israelis from attacking Rafah and possibly Iran as well.
Affecting investment in Israel is another matter, especially investment by university endowment funds. American universities are flush with cash. Harvard alone has an endowment fund of $50.7 billion. The endowment funds of the top 200 American colleges total $840 billion plus. Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University have already negotiated deals with students to end protests in return for talks on divestment of university funds in companies that invest in Israel and armaments production.
As a political tool divestment works. Starting in 2012, student-based climate change activists started to demand that endowment funds withdraw from fossil fuel companies. As of July 2023 a total of 1,593 institutions worldwide (not just educational) with assets of $40.5 trillion had begun or had committed to some form of fossil fuel divestment.
And this financial weapon has had an impact. Research by Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment found that divestment has seriously hit the share prices of fossil fuel companies and affected companies’ ability to conduct research and identify new fossil fuel sources. “The outcome,” reported the researchers, “of the stigmatisation process poses the most far-reaching threat to fossil fuel companies. Any other direct impact pales in comparison.”
The Israeli economy depends heavily on foreign direct investment, especially American. More than 2,500 American companies operate in Israel and total American investment at the end of 2023 was $40.4 billion. The US is Israel’s number one trading partner. A total of 26.5 percent of Israel’s trade is with America. US-Israeli economic ties contributed mightily to Israel’s healthy 6.7 percent growth rate at the end of 2023.
From the point of view of student demonstrators, taxes drawn from a successful Israeli economy help to finance the country’s military which is the second largest in the world per head of population.
* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain".
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13 Comments
Thank you a widely researched article!
Might an underlying matter/problem be in perceptions of democracy?
It is suggested that a three phase model is appropriate for democracy analysis thus:
1) Input (elections etc)
2) Process
3) Output (conditions of and for citizens and their children)
It is further suggested that unless a country performs well on all three, its claims to be a genuine democracy are questionable.
How democratic/equitable are the outputs of Israeli democracy concerning the Palestinians?
How democratic/equitable is the treatment of their older children, who ask reasonable questions, by the governmental institutions of the U. S. A?
How democratic/equitable is our country’s acquiescence/connivance at 25% or so of our children being permanently short of food/hungry?
Thank-you for a thoughtful article.
If I was to ask for one thing further, it would be consideration of the 40-year policy of the Iranian Government to maintain and prolong conflict in the Middle East; I suggest that that is perhaps a more important factor than anything to do with Israel.
@ Matt Wardman, You are right about Iran and its 40 years of destabilising the region. It does deserve an article which I will write at some point in the future. But to do the subject justice will require some more research and questioning on my part. In the meantime, I don’t think the protesting American students see a direct connection. Perhaps they should, but I was trying to put myself in their sandals.
@ Tom Arms @ Mark Warman,
“…….. Iran and its 40 years of destabilising the region. ”
You need to go back further than 40 years. More like double that to the time when the US and British overthrew Iran’s democratically elected government. For the west, the Iranians just happened to be living on top of large oil reserves but it wasn’t really theirs.
Similar conflicts have happened elsewhere in the region too. The destabilisation of the region has been largely the result of geopolitical conflicts waged by external superpowers. It’s all about the oil of course.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690363402/how-the-cia-overthrew-irans-democracy-in-four-days
This article is a disturbing example of the both sides-ism that is too frequently deployed on this subject.
Where is the evidence that any significant element of these protests is calling for “the total destruction of Israel”? Or that the pro Palestinian protesters have been one of the more significant sources of violence (especially before the police were set on them)
Many bath faith accusations have been made against them in only to be debunked afterward.
On the other hand the counter “protestors” (many of whom don’t appear to be students) have clearly been the source of the worst violence, with crowds of them charging at the protesters with weapons, separating individuals from the crowd and meeting them to a bloody pulp, and even attempting to kill multiple people by throwing fireworks into groups of protesters. This in full view of the police, who instead focus on breaking up the pro Palestinian protesters. (Not the first time American police turned a blind eye to violence from the far right in such a scenario)
Peter Martin is right about Iran: ‘You need to go back further than 40 years. More like double that to the time when the US and British overthrew Iran’s democratically elected government.’
Last year, David Owen wrote: ‘UK should finally acknowledge its role in 1953 Iran coup as it would benefit both reform movement in country and Britain’s credibility.’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/15/uk-should-finally-acknowledge-role-in-1953-iran-coup-says-david-owen
71 years ago, the UK and USA ousted Mohammad Mosadegh the popular, elected leader of an ancient and proud country. 9 years later I recount in my book Hitchhiking to India in 1962 how a mob threatened me after the coup by a CIA scared of the Soviet Union. Britain then had the oil, but it also had the history: the ‘Great Game’ with Russia in Afghanistan. History repeats itself.
My play Operation Ajax, which was read at the Irish Centre in London, is based on extensive research including Stephen Kinzer’s book ‘All the Shah’s Men’, which the Washington Post Book World described as “for anyone with more than a passing interest in how the United States got into such a pickle in the Middle East.”
The BBC’s Iranian correspondent wrote: ‘It’s wonderful to read such a play with deep consideration on my home country, Iran’s near history and political events.’
https://freedombooksandplays.com/ajax.html
@Steve Trevethan
“It is suggested that a three phase model is appropriate for democracy analysis thus:
1) Input (elections etc)
2) Process
3) Output (conditions of and for citizens and their children)
It is further suggested that unless a country performs well on all three, its claims to be a genuine democracy are questionable.”
An interesting set of questions.
Given the levels of inequality in our own country – how well does UK perform on these tests?
“For the west, the Iranians just happened to be living on top of large oil reserves but it wasn’t really theirs.”
“Why did God put our oil under Middle Eastern sand?”
Thanks to Nonconformistradical!
A possible response is, “Alas, by no means well enough and, presently, with little indication of a deep desire to do better.”
Might an objective, incisive, main stream media, not least the state owned B. B. C., and an educational set up which taught children/students to question well and persistently and not just to accept what they are officially told, help?
P.S. Might it also help to develop the governing body of The Bank of England (N. I., Scotland, Wales?) so that there is representation of the whole of our society and not just representatives of the banking industry?
@ Steve,
Your suggestion wouldn’t do any harm, but it goes against the contrived fiction that the BoE is independent from any Government, including the devolved National governments, so it probably won’t happen.
It’s would be more realistic to start by calling for a name change. Instead of the Bank of England we should have the Bank of the United Kingdom.
It may seem a trivial point but these small matters can be irksome to our fellow citizens who might not live in England but do live in the UK.
“Guerilla politics aims its message at individuals or small groups.”
[From Jay Conrad Levinson]
The rule of law is supposed to support public interest. It is the servant of the people via its elected representatives. Balancing free speech and peaceful demonstration against the disturbance caused is ultimately a political decision. if the protest causes no or minimal disturbance doesn’t the equation favour the former?