XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc, soc.culture.israel   
   XPost: alt.politics   
   From: d@ray   
      
   Austin, Texas – Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) supported the arrest of   
   dozens of student protestors and issued threats of expulsion from Texan   
   Universities on Wednesday, over what he called acts of “antisemitism.”   
      
   The shocking, constitutionally fraught police action would come amid mass   
   arrests and violence at several American colleges, aimed at cracking down   
   on pro-Palestine rhetoric now found coast to coast.   
      
   “Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses,”   
   proclaimed Abbott on X, formerly Twitter. “These protesters belong in   
   jail.”   
      
   “Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in   
   hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in   
   Texas should be expelled,” the post continued.   
      
   The post was in reply to a shocking video depicting armored members of the   
   Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) physically removing throngs of   
   peaceful protestors from an outdoor common area of the University of Texas   
   in Austin. According to reports, the clashes between pro-Palestine   
   demonstrators and police would culminate in over 30 arrests.   
      
   Painted as a “tense standoff,” the highly televised event also saw the   
   concerning use of police on horseback, rounding up American citizens for   
   merely expressing political views contrary to the state of Israel.   
   Nationally, over 100 would be arrested.   
      
   The protest at UT Austin was said to have been organized by the Palestinian   
   Solidarity Committee, which directed students to “occupy” the South Lawn in   
   order to raise awareness of the ongoing Palestinian genocide. In response,   
   the University had sent a letter urging organizers to cancel the event,   
   prior to the hostilities on Wednesday.   
      
   “Simply put, the University of Texas at Austin will not allow this campus   
   to be ‘taken’ and protestors to derail our mission in ways that groups   
   affiliated with your national organization have accomplished elsewhere,”   
   the letter read.   
      
   Online commentators were quick to point out Governor Abbott’s apparent   
   hypocrisy. In 2019, the long-time supporter of Israel once signed a law   
   designed specifically to “protect free speech on campus.” This stunning   
   policy reversal led many to see Abbott as merely a tool of international   
   Zionism, attacking him for a perceived “America last” position.   
      
   “Incredibly disturbing footage out of Texas where authorities appear to be   
   barring any pro-Palestinian protest at all in open outdoor areas of   
   campus,” read a post by First Amendment attorney Alex Morey on X/Twitter.   
   “…This appears to be a blatant violation not just of the First Amendment   
   but S.B. 18, which requires these spaces be open to protest.”   
      
   “Who can curtail Americans’ speech most aggressively for Israel? Winner   
   gets an all-expense paid trip to the Western Wall and a special   
   commemorative Yarmulke,” said Journalist Michael Tracy, also to X/Twitter.   
      
   Others, however, pointed to the grim reality of Abbott’s military-style   
   crackdown on free expression. Political podcaster and anti-Zionist Mike   
   Peinovich said the move was made specifically to arrest and identify   
   pro-Palestine leftists in order to politically gatekeep them from future   
   positions of prestige.   
      
   “(Jews) want, and in some cases have succeeded, in getting the cops to go   
   in and bust heads. They then want to dox and ruin the future of anyone   
   involved, as well as impose legal costs on the Universities for mental   
   health damage to Jewish students…” read a post to X/Twitter.   
      
   “Ultimately, their goal is to make pro-Palestine activism so personally and   
   institutionally costly and to create such a stigma associated with it that   
   University communities police themselves for it and the internal cultures   
   shift to make Palestine out of bounds like Nazism is,” read another.   
      
   Abbott, the Republican governor who has so far done little to stem the flow   
   of thousands of foreign migrants from entering the United States illegally,   
   has often signaled support for the regime in Tel Aviv. In March, Abbott   
   personally signed Executive Order No. GA-44, a brutal hate speech policy   
   designed to “address(ing) acts of antisemitism in institutions of higher   
   education.”   
      
   The law was panned as a blatant “attack” on the First Amendment, made to   
   protect Jews from criticism as the war on Gaza continues into 2024.   
      
   Abbott’s decision to send in “shock troops” to disperse peaceful student   
   protestors fell in line with international calls to deal with anti-Zionist   
   rhetoric on American campuses. In a publicized address, Israeli Prime   
   Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called for a heavy-handed crackdown,   
   handwaving protestors as merely “antisemitic mobs” in support of   
   “genocidal   
   terrorists.”   
      
   “Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” said the Israeli   
   leader to an audience on Wednesday. “They call for the annihilation of   
   Israel…They say not only death to Israel, death to the Jews, but death to   
   America.”   
      
   “This tells us there is an antisemitic urge that has terrible   
   consequences,” he continued.   
      
   Abbott has found allies in many mainstream GOP politicians seeking to court   
   the Israel lobby. On Tuesday, one day before the political repression at U   
   of T, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton bizarrely referred to pro-Palestine   
   protests at New York’s Columbia University as a “nascent pogrom,” and   
   even   
   urged President Joe Biden to send in the National Guard to suppress   
   criticism of Israel by force.   
      
   “The nascent pogroms at Columbia have to stop TODAY, before our Jewish   
   brethren sit for Passover Seder tonight,” said Cotton in a breathless   
   tweet. “If Eric Adams won’t send the NYPD and Kathy Hochul won’t send the   
   National Guard, Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and break up these   
   mobs.”   
      
   Cotton previously drew controversy for his rabidly pro-Zionist rhetoric   
   when he urged American drivers to “take matters into their own hands” when   
   dealing with pro-Palestine protestors who block traffic. The tweet, which   
   earned millions of views on social media, appeared to call for vigilante   
   justice against Israel’s critics, up to and including throwing them from   
   bridges.   
      
   Meanwhile, support for Israel continues to decline rapidly as it   
   increasingly stands face-to-face with the consequences of its own horrific   
   actions in the region. In early March, Israeli warplanes bombed a home in   
   the southern Gazan city of Rafah, killing over 14, many of them children.   
   So far, more than 30,320 Palestinians have been killed, with an additional   
      
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