Andrew Bolt: The four things that show anti-Israel protesters lack any reason
These protesters aren’t trying to convince you with facts and evidence. They’re trying to intimidate you with their passion or collective power.
Andrew Bolt
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There are four things about many anti-Israel protesters that right off the bat make me assume they’re enemies of reason, even before they try to put their points.
I’m talking about things they do that would embarrass any civilised person who prides themselves on their brains, integrity and independence.
First, these protesters chant.
Listen to the students now occupying parts of the universities of Sydney and Melbourne.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.” Or: “Free-free, free Palestine.” Or: “Sydney uni you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”
People who think for themselves don’t chant. Chanting actually insults them, because it means surrendering their will, reason and even compassion to a mob. Or to a Fuhrer.
No, chanting is a sure sign of an inferior mind.
That’s because these protesters aren’t trying to convince you with facts and evidence. They’re trying to intimidate you with their passion or collective power, or trying to seduce you into dissolving into their gang. Their tribe.
People who love freedom argue. People who love power chant.
Here’s another thing these protesters do, and it’s related.
They go for the kids.
I’ve watched a video last weekend of Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah coaching young children brought to the anti-Israel protest at Sydney University to complete the slogan: “Always was, always will be …”
“Aboriginal land,” some shouted, as their mothers clapped, proud to have indoctrinated them so young.
Abdel-Fatteh hen clapped along as one boy chanted “intifada, intifada”, a Palestinian call for armed struggle or terrorism.
In Melbourne, activists outside the Flinders St station led students on a school strike for Palestine into a chant of “from the river to the sea”, calling for Israel’s annihilation.
Few students there would actually know what the chant meant, what the river was or what horror destroying a country of more than 7 million Jews would involve.
But that’s why leaders of bad causes recruit the young. Children are so ignorant and short of empathy.
That’s another sign that the anti-Israel cause is beyond reason, even before the activists speak.
A third sign?
Many protesters are bullies.
They’ve blocked streets and trams. They’ve graffitied shops and politicians’ offices. They’ve menaced Jews outside a Caulfield synagogue. They’ve shouted down meetings. They’ve frightened Jews away from a Sydney Opera House commemoration for the 1200 Israelis slaughtered on October 7, chanting: “Where’s the Jews?”
People complain: “But they’re just turning us off their cause by acting like that.”
That misses the point. These protesters actually like to bully. They like to imagine themselves in a holy war against evil you. They’re not out to persuade you but to frighten and conquer.
That’s one more sign that reason is not on their side. They’re on the side of barbarism, needing to intimidate you instead.
And to the final thing they do that makes every fibre of my body alert to danger.
They’re rude and rarely debate.
Have you noticed how many anti-Israel protesters would rather shut down a debate than join one?
Last week, for instance, fellow Sky News host Chris Kenny went to the Melbourne University anti-Israel protest to ask students there to put their point on air. None would.
Or there’s this variation: yes, some will debate, but then refuse to even discuss the October 7 massacre that started this war.
They resort instead to whattaboutism, a dead giveaway of someone fleeing from reason.
Take Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network. Asked repeatedly on Sky News to condemn that massacre by Hamas, and the rapes and kidnappings, he repeatedly deflected: “Why don’t you condemn the atrocities perpetuated on the Palestinians?”
Many prominent global warming extremists are likewise allergic to debate. Some, like former chief climate commissioner Tim Flannery, actually have a policy of not debating sceptics, allegedly to not give them credibility.
The truth is: they rarely win in a battle of reason. Facts aren’t their friends.
No, what I see in so many anti-Israel protesters even before I hear them are not fighters against injustice but collectivists in eager search for a tribe where they can hide their ignorance and surrender their judgment.
The tribe is the home of the silly, scared and weak. It’s where the ignorant and uncivilised can bigger themselves with their war-chants, and lash out like holy avengers at scapegoats. It’s where they don’t have to think, or reason with people better informed.
See how happy many are at their protests against supposed “genocide”. At Melbourne University, Even their smiles alarm me.
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