The problem is not the protesters, it is what they are protesting

Power Station

America is heading into a presidential election that will determine whether we remain a democracy or consign ourselves to autocracy. It is happening while the world witnesses a devastating assault on Palestine by Israel, a constitutional democracy, led by an autocratic leader, Bibi Netanyahu. Much like aspiring autocrat Donald Trump, he does not recognize the rights and humanity of many within his own nation. While Netanyahu characterizes Israel’s war on Gaza, prompted by the horrendous October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, as a strategy to eliminate Hamas, it is the people of Palestine who are bring killed by the thousands, leaving famine and destroyed infrastructure in its wake. As a Jew and a believer in the power of nonprofits to advance democracy I am devastated by this nation’s responses to the ongoing assault on Gaza and to those who are standing up to question it here at home. For this episode of Power Station, I reached out to Wa’el Alzayat, former U.S. State Department diplomat and Middle East policy expert who is now CEO of Emgage, a nonprofit that generated a turnout of 1million Muslim American voters in the 2020 election. We talk about the labeling by the Anti-Defamation League of protestors, including Jewish students as pro-Hamas and antisemitic, the weaponization of antisemitism by members of Congress who themselves traffick in anti-semitism and the opportunity for President Biden to take a risk and do what is right. I am grateful to Wa’el Alzayat for informing a conversation that we should all be committed to.