By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on May 3, 2024
An Editorial Opinion
Yesterday, President Joe Biden addressed the nation to condemn college protests against the Israel-Hamas war and Pro-Palestine student encampments on college campuses across America.
Biden acknowledged the right of students to protest the U.S.’s complicity in the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by Israel against innocent Palestinians in Gaza. However, Biden said the student protests must not disturb the orderly operations of the college and university campuses.
Protesting students who commit misdemeanor offenses (e.g., disturbing the peace, unlawful assemble, trespassing, etc.) must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, says Biden.
Meanwhile, Biden is using the full weight of the U.S. government to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Biden has steadfastly refused to condemn Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, which the U.S. aids and abets. Likewise, Biden has never explained how killing 13,000 innocent Palestinian babies and children and 9,000 innocent women with U.S. supplied bombs and other military aid makes the world safer.
Instead, Joe Biden continues to pledge his unconditional support for Israel's war effort. For reasons he has never articulated, Biden believes that Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against innocent Palestinians in Gaza somehow advance the national security of the U.S.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s position on Gaza is as extreme as Biden’s, if not more so. Trump has advocated killing innocent people of color in the U.S. (e.g., the "Central Park Five," who were later declared innocent of the charges against them), at the southern border (e.g., "military should shoot rock-throwing migrants"), and in Gaza. At least Trump openly expresses his disdain for the people of color he does not like.
Based upon their own words and actions, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are okay with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, provided that the victims are people of color. As far as I am concerned, there is not a dime’s worth of difference between Biden and Trump in this regard.