The ugly side of Chicago

While some Democrats were dancing through the streets of Chicago last week joyfully dressed as abortion pills, most of the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention were focused singularly on demanding a cease-fire in Gaza. These protests were not on the nightly news, even as agitators burned an American flag, hijacked official DNC events, and were hauled off by armor-clad riot police. They were off-message for the Kamala lovefest that took place inside the United Center, and the mainstream media ignored them. And though it wasn’t Chicago 1968 redux, we should not underestimate the serious problems deep in the Democratic Party.

On the one hand, there are somewhere between 2 million and 3 million Arab Americans in the United States within a population of about 4.5 million Muslim Americans. Either way, they are less than 2 percent of the population. Yet their political influence this election cycle is outsized because of their concentration in particular swing states. As I heard someone joke recently, Democrats believe in a two-state solution for the Middle East: Michigan and Minnesota.

But the more direct source of the media circus is the willingness of some Palestinian activists to transgress traditional American norms around the rule of law as they seek to draw attention. In the 11 months since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, these agitators have a consistent pattern of illegal behavior, including shutting down major arterial highways in big cities, especially near airports. Two weeks ago, they did so in Los Angeles, but prior targets included San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the Port of Oakland, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, and New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. They’ve also taken over a New York City art museum and vandalized the private homes of these institutions’ leaders.

Of course, the best example of this lawless behavior has been the encampments on numerous university campuses, where student activists insisted on breaking school rules and state laws and defying police orders to clear out, to the point of wrecking a building at Columbia University (I represent several students suing the protestors at Columbia for ruining their classmates’ spring semester).

There are several consistent themes across this behavior. One is its blatant lawlessness. Not content to get a permit and hold a rally in a park, fully protected by the First Amendment, activists continue to press beyond the limits of the law by assaulting law enforcement, destroying private property, and vandalizing public spaces. Second is the hate speech that comes with it: signs proclaiming “Death to the Jews” and “Glory to the martyrs.” But third is its ineffectiveness: after six months of persistent national media attention, the pro-Gaza forces have barely moved the needle in terms of actual policy. Other than a pause of a single munitions shipment by the Biden White House in late spring, the United States has continued its support for Israel’s defensive measures in Gaza. And the United States coordinated regional and global allies to defend Israel when Iran threatened it with a wave of missiles and drones.

Indeed, the irony of everything is that the cause of Middle East peace in general and of the Arabs in particular may do better under former President Donald Trump. His son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was very close to the next generation of Arab leaders like MbS and MbZ (Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and Mohammad bin Zayed, ruler of the United Arab Emirates), helping to deliver the Abraham Accords that formalized peace between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and Kosovo (a non-Arab Muslim nation). Moreover, many Muslim families share Republican values on issues like religious liberty, the natural family, and friendliness to small businesses and entrepreneurs. This has led to an intentional effort by GOP leaders to open a dialogue with these communities.

Meanwhile, those who play the game by the rules within the Democratic Party are celebrating peanuts: pro-cease-fire advocates were allowed to list a panel discussion on an official calendar of convention-aligned events and Biden-skeptical delegates got a meeting with senior Harris campaign officials. They played the inside game at the same time the protestors played the outside game on the streets of Chicago. Neither seemed to be moving the needle, whatever tactics they employed. That doesn’t make the tactics acceptable.