Kerby Anderson

Earlier this week I talked about the rising crime rate, but there is an element that is different. Lee Smith explains that sometimes street violence has been used as a political tool. To understand this, we need only look to Arab countries where street violence is used to keep the “faithful” in line. That may be an explanation for what has been happening in America. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators were attacking Jews in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. Why would they be attacking American Jews in this country, if their anger was towards the nation of Israel? Some say this shows that the tensions in the Middle East have more to do with religion than what is happening in Gaza or the West Bank. While that may be true, Lee Smith argues that these protests are really a political tool used to keep Democrats in line. That explains the diversity of the groups protesting. He acknowledges that “it makes no sense that activists from the LGBT wing show up in support of the pro-Palestinian wing.” But these disparate groups actually do have a goal, he says, “upholding the Democratic Party. When LGBT activists are called to demonstrate on behalf of Islamic terrorists, they show up to fly the flag not for Hamas but for the Democrats.” He also notes that these groups rarely campaign in rural America or even in suburban America. Of course, they may have a fear of meeting a well-armed citizenry. But the greater desire may indeed be to merely keep the “party faithful” in line. I had never really thought about why most riots and protests surface in only certain areas of the country. Lee Smith’s perspective helps provide a partial explanation for why riots and protests are found in certain cities and not in others.