‘No surprise’: US students slam Biden’s comments on Gaza encampments

[Woody]

Students say Biden risks ‘losing entire generation of voters’ over his Gaza policy and condemnation of college protests.

President Joe Biden says “order must prevail” on university campuses in the United States, just hours after police raided and dismantled another protest encampment in support of Palestinians.

Biden’s comments came shortly after police arrested at least 132 student protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), early on Thursday and cleared out an encampment.

On Thursday, students and other observers quickly slammed Biden’s statement as failing to recognise that US colleges and universities have called heavily armed police forces onto their campuses to disperse non-violent demonstrations.

“There’s a [sense of] disappointment, but there’s no surprise,” Kali, a student protester at George Washington University in Washington, DC, said of Biden’s remarks.

“For the Biden administration to demonise us in this way is honestly incredibly disappointing,” Kali told Al Jazeera. “It paints a target on the backs of Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, anti-Zionist youth.”

Biden’s approval rating stands at 28 percent among voters under age 30, according to a Pew Research Center survey released last week.

A recent CNN poll also showed that a staggering 81 percent of voters younger than 35 disapprove of Biden’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza.

He also said the prospect of Trump winning in November would not be enough to convince young voters to vote for Biden. “It’s not on us to make sure that Trump doesn’t come back; it’s on Biden and his campaign,” he said.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/2/no-surprise-us-students-slam-bidens-comments-on-gaza-encampments

[dspNY]

Horrible people. They above everyone deserve Trump.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The entire world condemns the Biden's administration response to these protests... except for atlas.

Laughable for a so-called democracy since the right to protest (which is a constitutional right!!! in your country) is essential in a democracy.

When there is no longer a right to protest, there's no democracy... And no it's not trump's fault this time that your democratic rights are at stake.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Horrible people. They above everyone deserve Trump.

The left eats its own; I love it.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Horrible people. They above everyone deserve Trump.

People who refuse to condemn this approach to the student protests are the ones who deserve Trump. If you want law & order, he's your candidate.

[YE]

Right to protest and “order must prevail” aren’t mutually exclusive.

[wbrocks67]

“For the Biden administration to demonise us in this way is honestly incredibly disappointing,” Kali told Al Jazeera. “It paints a target on the backs of Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, anti-Zionist youth.”

Biden literally did nothing of the sort, this person is just literally lying. He also made it a point in the speech to target out hate speech, so again, everything in this quote is a lie.

The people at these protests are the ones least likely to vote for Biden, they are the 'Genocide Joe' crowd of Twitter, so this is not surprising in the slightest.

Wild how they saw a speech from the president saying they completely had the right to peacefully protest and saw that as 'demonizing' them. A real victim complex here.

[Duke of York]

Al Jazeera is not the best source. And every single quote is a lie.  If young voters don't vote over this they deserve Trump.

[GAinDC]

“For the Biden administration to demonise us in this way is honestly incredibly disappointing,” Kali told Al Jazeera. “It paints a target on the backs of Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, anti-Zionist youth.”

Biden literally did nothing of the sort, this person is just literally lying. He also made it a point in the speech to target out hate speech, so again, everything in this quote is a lie.

The people at these protests are the ones least likely to vote for Biden, they are the 'Genocide Joe' crowd of Twitter, so this is not surprising in the slightest.

Wild how they saw a speech from the president saying they completely had the right to peacefully protest and saw that as 'demonizing' them. A real victim complex here.

They are desperate to be oppressed. They low key probably want Trump to win so they can enjoy some fresh, new outrage.

[GAinDC]

Has anyone seen the video of the protestor at an encampment demanding "humanitarian aid" like food and water? LOL

Girl, if you don't just leave and get a snack at Dunkin down the street!! lmao

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/columbia-protest-leader-goes-viral-is-mocked-for-demanding-humanitarian-aid-for-barricaded-students/

[dspNY]

Horrible people. They above everyone deserve Trump.

People who refuse to condemn this approach to the student protests are the ones who deserve Trump. If you want law & order, he's your candidate.

Here’s a rude dose of reality for you about American politics. If Biden loses votes on this issue it was because he was seen as not doing nearly enough to stop the protests. Most of America saw that it got out of control and view Biden as asleep at the wheel…

Here’s a second rude dose of reality about American politics. Most Americans expect college students to get an education and become productive members of society in the workforce. They are disgusted and in fact detest students cosplaying as Hamas terrorists…

[Sir Mohamed]

Horrible people. They above everyone deserve Trump.

Yup, at this point that might be true.

But overall it's just exemplary for the spirit of our time, that complicated issues and conflicts are seen through a black or white lense. Especially in this conflict there's a lot of grey. Unfortunately society seems to have increasing difficulty to form a more balanced opinion. I can understand such a mindset with regard to Ukraine, where you have a clear right vs. wrong side, this conflict though is much more complex.

[wbrocks67]

Horrible people. They above everyone deserve Trump.

Yup, at this point that might be true.

But overall it's just exemplary for the spirit of our time, that complicated issues and conflicts are seen through a black or white lense. Especially in this conflict there's a lot of grey. Unfortunately society seems to have increasing difficulty to form a more balanced opinion. I can understand such a mindset with regard to Ukraine, where you have a clear right vw. wrong side, this conflict though is much more complex.

This 100%. This is it summed up. Unfortunately this issue has become a completely black and white issue for these people, when it's much more complex than the 'Genocide Joe' people (and the right-wing Israel people as well) want to admit.

[Sir Mohamed]

Horrible people. They above everyone deserve Trump.

Yup, at this point that might be true.

But overall it's just exemplary for the spirit of our time, that complicated issues and conflicts are seen through a black or white lense. Especially in this conflict there's a lot of grey. Unfortunately society seems to have increasing difficulty to form a more balanced opinion. I can understand such a mindset with regard to Ukraine, where you have a clear right vw. wrong side, this conflict though is much more complex.

This 100%. This is it summed up. Unfortunately this issue has become a completely black and white issue for these people, when it's much more complex than the 'Genocide Joe' people (and the right-wing Israel people as well) want to admit.

We've witnessed this pattern at all fronts over the last couple of years. It's not just the Israel-Gaza conflict. The same was true with regard to Covid, you were either an "authoritarian Covid tyrant" or a complete "anti-lockdown lunatic". These sentiments were predominantly driven by the loudest and most radical voices on social media and influenced the minds of millions. We're also seeing this on several cultural issues, like BLM, abortion, law enforcement or immigration.

An accurate analysis of this development would be enough for an entire doctorate or 2k page academic study; my own theory is that the increasing complexity of the world (globalization, technical advances, cultural exchanges, digitalization, industries coming and going etc.) has just blown people's minds and evoked a deep seated demand for easy solutions and simple black/white thinking on complex problems. Populist political candidates and movements are masterminds in exploiting these demands and translate them into electoral success. On top of that, traditional political parties and mainstream governments have largely failed to effectively counter these narratives. Maybe in some cases because people no longer listen to them and have little faith in institutions as such anyway.

[Open Source Intelligence]

“For the Biden administration to demonise us in this way is honestly incredibly disappointing,” Kali told Al Jazeera. “It paints a target on the backs of Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, anti-Zionist youth.”

Biden literally did nothing of the sort, this person is just literally lying. He also made it a point in the speech to target out hate speech, so again, everything in this quote is a lie.

The people at these protests are the ones least likely to vote for Biden, they are the 'Genocide Joe' crowd of Twitter, so this is not surprising in the slightest.

Wild how they saw a speech from the president saying they completely had the right to peacefully protest and saw that as 'demonizing' them. A real victim complex here.

They are desperate to be oppressed. They low key probably want Trump to win so they can enjoy some fresh, new outrage.

You're not wrong, but it also shows how people that follow American politics but only care about election results are missing the forest for the trees. Fittingly, that statement describes a lot of people that post on this forum.

It's all based on an idea of party discipline that frankly does not exist. The parties are hollowed out shells with no internal structure or discipline and have never been weaker in the post-Civil War era than they are now. There's loads of evidence supporting this. What this has done has made the parties just a collection of interest groups, and shock, interest groups care about their interests more than the health of the political party. If you are pro-Palestinian interest, you're going to prioritize Palestinian interest ahead of the Democratic Party. It's horrible for an interest group to have their party win against their interest, then you're powerless. It's better for them to have a Democrat that sides with them win in 2028 than have a Democrat that does not side with them win in 2024. That's how American politics works now. You can see it up and down the ballot in primaries where there is no party discipline, the primary opponents are vicious to one another, because they don't owe fealty to the party, they owe it to interest groups.

Frankly Biden would've been better off if some kind of left-wing challenge to him formulated where the person was pro-Palestinian in the conflict, and he would've trounced him or her. (That challenge was definitely not Dean Phillips or Marianne Williamson.) Right now it's completely vague, gets TV coverage no different than the George Floyd Riots, and people can't gauge the size of real support for this. If 2024 was an open race for Democrats and the primary was held in this context, oh my God would there be a different discussion going on in this country. I think back to 2004 and how almost everyone in the Democratic field with a real chance (not Kucinich) was pro-Iraq War except Howard Dean who was considered an A minus/B plus-tier candidate. Dean then took the lead in the polls and forced most of the rest of the field to take a more anti-war stance. An open primary race for Democrats now with this conflict in the background for the last 7 months and American military support for Israel would've drawn out policy discussion on the issue in public of what should the party stand for, should we send military support, should we support a 2-state solution. The effects of this primary cycle where Biden did not engage anyone as incumbent and neither did Trump is we have had zero real policy discussion on anything from the 2 people most likely to become President where they say what they stand for and then are challenged on it. Policy discussion on Israel-Palestine now with an incumbent is the absolute last thing Democrats that only care about election results want. They don't care about Israel, they don't care about Palestine, they just want the issue to go away so it does not affect Biden's reelection. It's really no different than Republicans that only care about election results and what they think about abortion.

[Progressive Pessimist]

“For the Biden administration to demonise us in this way is honestly incredibly disappointing,” Kali told Al Jazeera. “It paints a target on the backs of Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, anti-Zionist youth.”

Biden literally did nothing of the sort, this person is just literally lying. He also made it a point in the speech to target out hate speech, so again, everything in this quote is a lie.

The people at these protests are the ones least likely to vote for Biden, they are the 'Genocide Joe' crowd of Twitter, so this is not surprising in the slightest.

Wild how they saw a speech from the president saying they completely had the right to peacefully protest and saw that as 'demonizing' them. A real victim complex here.

They are desperate to be oppressed. They low key probably want Trump to win so they can enjoy some fresh, new outrage.

I hate to use the cliche of "cutting off your nose to spite your face" but this is where we've been at since 2016 at least.

There's a strange prioritization of spite in our country where those who don't get everything they want are fine with Trump winning as the alternative so they can say "I told you so." Even if the entire country suffers for four years because they look at voting for a mainstream Democrat for President almost as a commitment to have sex with them, or something.

[GAinDC]

“For the Biden administration to demonise us in this way is honestly incredibly disappointing,” Kali told Al Jazeera. “It paints a target on the backs of Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, anti-Zionist youth.”

Biden literally did nothing of the sort, this person is just literally lying. He also made it a point in the speech to target out hate speech, so again, everything in this quote is a lie.

The people at these protests are the ones least likely to vote for Biden, they are the 'Genocide Joe' crowd of Twitter, so this is not surprising in the slightest.

Wild how they saw a speech from the president saying they completely had the right to peacefully protest and saw that as 'demonizing' them. A real victim complex here.

They are desperate to be oppressed. They low key probably want Trump to win so they can enjoy some fresh, new outrage.

You're not wrong, but it also shows how people that follow American politics but only care about election results are missing the forest for the trees. Fittingly, that statement describes a lot of people that post on this forum.

It's all based on an idea of party discipline that frankly does not exist. The parties are hollowed out shells with no internal structure or discipline and have never been weaker in the post-Civil War era than they are now. There's loads of evidence supporting this. What this has done has made the parties just a collection of interest groups, and shock, interest groups care about their interests more than the health of the political party. If you are pro-Palestinian interest, you're going to prioritize Palestinian interest ahead of the Democratic Party. It's horrible for an interest group to have their party win against their interest, then you're powerless. It's better for them to have a Democrat that sides with them win in 2028 than have a Democrat that does not side with them win in 2024. That's how American politics works now. You can see it up and down the ballot in primaries where there is no party discipline, the primary opponents are vicious to one another, because they don't owe fealty to the party, they owe it to interest groups.

Frankly Biden would've been better off if some kind of left-wing challenge to him formulated where the person was pro-Palestinian in the conflict, and he would've trounced him or her. (That challenge was definitely not Dean Phillips or Marianne Williamson.) Right now it's completely vague, gets TV coverage no different than the George Floyd Riots, and people can't gauge the size of real support for this. If 2024 was an open race for Democrats and the primary was held in this context, oh my God would there be a different discussion going on in this country. I think back to 2004 and how almost everyone in the Democratic field with a real chance (not Kucinich) was pro-Iraq War except Howard Dean who was considered an A minus/B plus-tier candidate. Dean then took the lead in the polls and forced most of the rest of the field to take a more anti-war stance. An open primary race for Democrats now with this conflict in the background for the last 7 months and American military support for Israel would've drawn out policy discussion on the issue in public of what should the party stand for, should we send military support, should we support a 2-state solution. The effects of this primary cycle where Biden did not engage anyone as incumbent and neither did Trump is we have had zero real policy discussion on anything from the 2 people most likely to become President where they say what they stand for and then are challenged on it. Policy discussion on Israel-Palestine now with an incumbent is the absolute last thing Democrats that only care about election results want. They don't care about Israel, they don't care about Palestine, they just want the issue to go away so it does not affect Biden's reelection. It's really no different than Republicans that only care about election results and what they think about abortion.

This sentiment is based on the assumption that if you lose an election, you can just try again next time. If Trump wins, I'm not sure there will be a next time.

[Red Velvet]

The entire world condemns the Biden's administration response to these protests... except for atlas.

Laughable for a so-called democracy since the right to protest (which is a constitutional right!!! in your country) is essential in a democracy.

When there is no longer a right to protest, there's no democracy... And no it's not trump's fault this time that your democratic rights are at stake.

You must be badly informed. USA’s guarantees on free speech have ALWAYS existed to protect White Supremacists and Neonazis ONLY as whiteness is the pilar structure on which the country was built on. You can freely protest for stuff that the elites already want.

A bunch of kids having an opposite opinion of their government don’t have these protections and they never really had if you look at how past protests of this kind (Vietnam; Iraq) were treated in their time.

[Open Source Intelligence]

This sentiment is based on the assumption that if you lose an election, you can just try again next time. If Trump wins, I'm not sure there will be a next time.

Really f*#king stupid then of Democrat PACs over time to spend money influencing primaries in the Republican Party to push the furthest right most Trumpy election denying candidate then to win to better improve their own general election chances isn't it? Not to mention everything you asshats did to help Trump win the 2016 primary thinking he would be a cakewalk for Hillary to defeat. Have you excommunicated those people yet for their part in all this?

Hey if that happens I'll be in a foxhole next to you. I'll have a gun and you'll have rocks, because most Democrats don't believe people should have guns. Good luck fighting from the trenches with your rocks.

[MichaelM24]

As someone who 100% supports the anti-genocide protests (and the fact I have to even write that sentence shows how far-gone Biden supporters and anti-free speech people are), I hope that these students look into third party alternatives, and understand that no one is ever required to vote for a presidential candidate that is helping support a genocide, as Biden clearly is.

[wbrocks67]

As someone who 100% supports the anti-genocide protests (and the fact I have to even write that sentence shows how far-gone Biden supporters and anti-free speech people are), I hope that these students look into third party alternatives, and understand that no one is ever required to vote for a presidential candidate that is helping support a genocide, as Biden clearly is.

He's not though. Let's speak facts here.

[MichaelM24]

As someone who 100% supports the anti-genocide protests (and the fact I have to even write that sentence shows how far-gone Biden supporters and anti-free speech people are), I hope that these students look into third party alternatives, and understand that no one is ever required to vote for a presidential candidate that is helping support a genocide, as Biden clearly is.

He's not though. Let's speak facts here.

As far as I can see, he's still supporting Israel. Look how much money we just sent over to them despite their actions toward Palestine. To me, that's clearly supportive of their policies.

If you want to quibble about whether or not it's a "genocide," then perhaps I can simply change the term to "extreme over-reaction," - either way, Biden clearly doesn't give a damn about the Palestians in this conflict whatsoever, and I think many of the protesters can see this.

[wbrocks67]

As someone who 100% supports the anti-genocide protests (and the fact I have to even write that sentence shows how far-gone Biden supporters and anti-free speech people are), I hope that these students look into third party alternatives, and understand that no one is ever required to vote for a presidential candidate that is helping support a genocide, as Biden clearly is.

He's not though. Let's speak facts here.

As far as I can see, he's still supporting Israel. Look how much money we just sent over to them despite their actions toward Palestine. To me, that's clearly supportive of their policies.

If you want to quibble about whether or not it's a "genocide," then perhaps I can simply change the term to "extreme over-reaction," - either way, Biden clearly doesn't give a damn about the Palestians in this conflict whatsoever, and I think many of the protesters can see this.

Yes, that's exactly why he's made it a huge mission to get as much aid into Gaza as he can, along with making there was $9B of humanitarian aid in the latest spending package. Along with his numerous remarks on the subject about caring about innocent Palestininan lives, yes this all definitely adds up to him not giving a damn about them at all. Why are people just straight up lying?

[MichaelM24]

As someone who 100% supports the anti-genocide protests (and the fact I have to even write that sentence shows how far-gone Biden supporters and anti-free speech people are), I hope that these students look into third party alternatives, and understand that no one is ever required to vote for a presidential candidate that is helping support a genocide, as Biden clearly is.

He's not though. Let's speak facts here.

As far as I can see, he's still supporting Israel. Look how much money we just sent over to them despite their actions toward Palestine. To me, that's clearly supportive of their policies.

If you want to quibble about whether or not it's a "genocide," then perhaps I can simply change the term to "extreme over-reaction," - either way, Biden clearly doesn't give a damn about the Palestians in this conflict whatsoever, and I think many of the protesters can see this.

Yes, that's exactly why he's made it a huge mission to get as much aid into Gaza as he can, along with making there was $9B of humanitarian aid in the latest spending package. Along with his numerous remarks on the subject about caring about innocent Palestininan lives, yes this all definitely adds up to him not giving a damn about them at all. Why are people just straight up lying?

Those aid packages have been absolutely laughable. Sure, lets drop some aid into Palestine while we send Israel millions of dollars. Seems a good trade.

I've not lied whatsoever. As far as I can see, Biden does not care. Maybe you think I'm wrong, but I'm not lying.

Biden is supporting Israel. His government is cracking down on anti-Israel talking points (freedom of speech, in other words). These are not lies - it's Genocide Joe being the piece of trash he is.

[wbrocks67]

As someone who 100% supports the anti-genocide protests (and the fact I have to even write that sentence shows how far-gone Biden supporters and anti-free speech people are), I hope that these students look into third party alternatives, and understand that no one is ever required to vote for a presidential candidate that is helping support a genocide, as Biden clearly is.

He's not though. Let's speak facts here.

As far as I can see, he's still supporting Israel. Look how much money we just sent over to them despite their actions toward Palestine. To me, that's clearly supportive of their policies.

If you want to quibble about whether or not it's a "genocide," then perhaps I can simply change the term to "extreme over-reaction," - either way, Biden clearly doesn't give a damn about the Palestians in this conflict whatsoever, and I think many of the protesters can see this.

Yes, that's exactly why he's made it a huge mission to get as much aid into Gaza as he can, along with making there was $9B of humanitarian aid in the latest spending package. Along with his numerous remarks on the subject about caring about innocent Palestininan lives, yes this all definitely adds up to him not giving a damn about them at all. Why are people just straight up lying?

Those aid packages have been absolutely laughable. Sure, lets drop some aid into Palestine while we send Israel millions of dollars. Seems a good trade.

I've not lied whatsoever. As far as I can see, Biden does not care. Maybe you think I'm wrong, but I'm not lying.

Biden is supporting Israel. His government is cracking down on anti-Israel talking points (freedom of speech, in other words). These are not lies - it's Genocide Joe being the piece of trash he is.

$9B of aid is laughable? What universe are we living in at this point? You are lying, if Biden didn't care, he'd say no words on the Palestinians and make sure they got $0 in aid. But that's not the truth. So you're lying. His "government" is not cracking down on anti-Israel talking points, that's another lie. I seriously do not understand the alternate reality some of you live in.

Also, the fact that genocide keeps being thrown around as if it has no meaning is a whole additional thing. There are acts of war and casualties of war, those are very different than a determined genocide.