Wolfgang Hansson
This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.
Published 21.59
The United States is Israel's main ally in the world and has been for many decades.
Therefore, the growing student protests at American universities should seriously worry Israel. But also President Biden.
Today's young people do not have the holocaust on their retinas and see Israel not as a victim but as a superior military power that commits severe abuses against the Palestinians.
In addition, fueled by strong Jewish-American organizations that pleaded for Israel's cause.
Protests in support of the Palestinians were more or less non-existent.
The recent Gaza war has completely changed that picture.
The realization that it was Israel that was attacked in a terrorist attack by Islamist Hamas on October 7 last year is increasingly fading in the light of Israel's violent revenge.
Those who participate in the protests instead see the more than 30,000 dead civilians, of which more than 13,000 are children, as an unreasonably high price that the Palestinians have had to pay.
The feelings are shared by almost half the population. About the same number of Americans who think Israel's warfare is acceptable (38 percent) find it unacceptable (34 percent), according to a recent survey by the polling institute PEW. The older are more pro-Israel than the younger.
The protests at American universities have been going on for a long time but have increased sharply lately and spread across the country. Now they are held at many of America's most prestigious universities such as Yale, Harvard, Berkley, MIT and the University of Columbia.
Tent protests at the University of Columbia. Photo: Emelie Svensson
The students set up tent camps on campus where the protests are going on around the clock. Several universities have turned to the police to remove the protesters, while others are debating how to strike the balance between maintaining free speech while protecting Jewish students.
It could be the beginning of a new Vietnam movement we are seeing but this time with the tip pointed at Israel. The Vietnam movement targeted American politicians' support for US warfare in a poor country on the other side of the globe.
Now those who are protesting want both an end to Israel's warfare and to the American weapons that are being sent to Israel in a torrent and without which Israel would not be able to wage its war.
The protests cannot be explained simply by the fact that today there are many more people with roots in the Middle East living in the United States. That is a factor. But something else also happened.
Previous generations felt strong support for Israel because the historical background of six million murdered Jews during the Second World War was still kept alive. Today, there are not many Holocaust survivors left who can testify to the Nazis' war of extermination.
Today's young people mainly see how a prosperous and militarily superior state strikes back in a disproportionate way against the terrorist attack it was subjected to. Not primarily against the perpetrators of Hamas, but indiscriminately against the civilian population.
You also see how the current Israeli government is not in any way trying to create peace by agreeing to the formation of a Palestinian state.
That's what sparked the anger. It is of course reinforced by the fact that many more with origins in the Arab world have emigrated to the United States in recent decades. A phenomenon that we also see in Sweden and parts of the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel is declining.
For Israel, it is a dangerous development in the long run. The country is completely dependent on military support from the US in the order of SEK 30 billion a year. Now you get extra allocation. As recently as last night, the Senate approved a new aid package in the multi-billion class.
But if Israel loses the battle for public opinion in the US, you are in a bad place. One of the slogans heard at the protests, "Palestine - from the river to the sea", is difficult to interpret in any other way than that Israel should not have the right to exist. When such sentiments take root in the country that is the Jewish state's biggest supporter, it should seriously concern all Israelis.
The protests also pose a challenge to President Joe Biden in the November presidential election.
Threatening Biden victory
Already, many with roots in the Middle East in key states like Michigan have said they cannot imagine voting for Biden in the presidential election. In primaries held earlier this year, tens of thousands protested by not giving Biden their vote.
Because margins in swing states like Michigan can be slim, the protests are a clear threat to an electoral victory for Biden.
If Israel continues the Gaza war in the way it has conducted it so far, the image of a genocide risks setting in. Then it doesn't matter if Israel says that all they are doing is defending themselves and that they are trying to avoid civilian casualties as much as they can.
Israel cannot afford to ignore the public opinion of its main ally in the long run. Neither does Biden.
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