# I support the cause of the pro-Palestinian protestors

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-support-the-cause-of-the-pro-palestinian-protestors/1000841>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [April 27, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-support-the-cause-of-the-pro-palestinian-protestors/1000841 "2024-04-27T14:24:26Z")\
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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-support-the-cause-of-the-pro-palestinian-protestors/1000841/1 "2024-04-27T14:24:26Z")

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I do have some caveats.

First off, I support putting pressure on Israel to cease fire in Gaza, IMO that is a just cause. That would be primarily for the purpose of providing food and medical aid to Gazans. I have no doubt that Hamas will take advantage of a cease fire for their evil purposes so it can’t be a total cease fire and withdrawal from Gaza, but the current situation is harming far more people than can be justified. I expect Israel to continue to hunt down and kill members of Hamas. So a cease fire will have conditions. And any future chance for a future of peace in the region desperately needs an end to escalation of hostilities there.

Second, a major motivating factor behind the protests spreading across college campuses is springtime. College students will go outside and protest anything given a popular motivation. Trying to crack down on such protests is counter-productive. That just provides further motivation as the protestors feel that their right to free speech is under attack. We are talking about young stupid people surging with hormones. They don’t understand that given a choice of liver and onions or lutefisk to eat that chanting “We want a cheesesteak!” is not going to result in a cheesesteak for dinner. The rest of us need to remember that we were once young and stupid too and didn’t know how conceive of productive, realistic compromises that provide solutions. But someone still has to apply the pressure to change the menu to include better choices, otherwise it’s too easy to complacently to sit and hope it gets better.

Now I also realize that there are external factors at play. Antisemitic and pro-terrorist influences are at play here. We the adults have allowed severe pollution of public discourse with ‘fake news’. It’s no surprise that it’s more difficult than ever for American youth to work out the nitty gritty details of political issues. The anti-war movement in the 60s included radical groups that didn’t represent the American public at large or in the anti-war movement itself. However, tarring the whole effort with the bad intentions of a minority isn’t going to work any better than arresting protestors.

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