Vice President Kamala Harris has lost the opportunity to break with the anti-Israel radicals who will be in Chicago throughout the Democratic National Convention (DNC), according to the Wall Street Journal‘s Kimberley Strassel.
As many as 100,000 protesters are expected, representing scores of anti-Israel groups, among other radical causes. Only one pro-Israel group will be demonstrating — and has not received a permit from the city to march to the DNC.
Harris has lauded the “emotion” behind such protests — which have included antisemitic rhetoric and violence on college campuses and in city streets across the country.
Harris has said she does not agree with everything said at such protests, but Harris recently hired a liaison to the Muslim and Arab communities who is a veteran of radical anti-Israel protests on campus, and who argued vehemently against the idea that such protests are antisemitic.
Strassel wrote:
[E]nraged leftists haven’t gone anywhere, as evidenced by their meltdown over Kamala Harris’s consideration of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a running mate. She ducked that confrontation by going with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, yet what Democrats continue to fail to appreciate is that this crowd won’t be appeased by anything less than full capitulation. That includes an end to any support for Israel. For a sense of the “unity” in the party, see the chaotic videos from a Wednesday night rally by New York Democrats in advance of next week’s convention. Its afterparty was besieged by an anti-Israel mob intent on mayhem. Many carried placards reading: “Kamala = Genocide.”
The Coalition to March on the DNC boasts 150 groups, including Black Lives Matter and Students for Justice in Palestine. It is already coordinating buses of protesters into Chicago. It’s asking for donations for “medical kits” and other supplies to “ensure that the March on DNC coalition” can “withstand the repression” of the Chicago police. Among other groups coming are outfits like Samidoun and Behind Enemy Lines, which agitate for “direct action” that goes well beyond marching. A recent Behind Enemy Lines post reads: “Now that the butchers of Gaza are coming to Chicago, it’s time to take this political battle into high gear,” which involves “getting in the streets to actually shut down Genocide Joe and Killer Kamala.” One protest is planned for outside the Israeli consulate, and its poster reads: “Make It Great, like ’68!”—a reference to the violence outside that year’s Democratic convention in Chicago.
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What will be Ms. Harris’s response to any chaos next week? Equivocation won’t look good. Yet in some ways, the opportunity to break with radicals and lay down moral markers has already passed them by. Ask Minouche Shafik.
Shafik was the president of Columbia University, who resigned last week over her failure to stop antisemitic protests.
Notably, Harris solicited bail money for Black Lives Matter rioters in 2020, and joined protests outside the White House after they had become violent. She also called federal law enforcement officers in Portland a “paramilitary.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
