It doesn’t matter if you support Israel’s war in Gaza or not. There comes a time when you look at the protesters here in the United States and you just have to shake your head. You have to wonder if they really believe their taking over university libraries, causing graduation ceremonies to be canceled, their intimidation of anyone who doesn’t stand up and believe in their cause actually accomplishes anything. Then there comes the day when you look at their attempts and can only shake your head and laugh, even as part of you wants to cry over the sad state of our education system. If you haven’t reached that point yet, let me introduce you to the Princeton University hunger strikers, the latest to hit comedy gold on the protest circuit.

Like so many universities across the nation, Princeton found itself at the center of a protest not only against Israel’s actions in Gaza but also against the university’s financial ties to businesses, etc., with pro-Israeli stances. Like all “good” college protests, this one began on April 25th with a sit-in. Four days later, students (and possibly others) “occupied” an administration building. As a result, 13 students were arrested.

When the disruption of campus and its administration didn’t follow–how dare they actually call in the authorities to protect the rights of all the students and not just the ones backing an anti-Israel program–a dozen or so students decided they just had to take a stance. So they went to what the Times calls the third stage of protesting: the hunger strike.

After eight days, the strikers held a rally because the university is being so mean to them. It truly is comedy gold. In the following clip, starting at the 23 second mark, you can hear the protesters for yourself. I don’t know which is more pathetic: the self-victimization and failure to see that they are hungry because they haven’t eaten, the delusion that Princeton would rather see them die than to give up their pro-Israel stance, or the fact that they’re so-called grand gesture has such a small turnout and they fail to see the writing on the wall.

“We are both hot and cold at the same time. We are all immunocompromised and based on the university’s meeting yesterday with some of our bargaining team, they would love to continue physically weakening us because they can’t stand to say no to unjust murder.”

Ooookay. Please, madam protestor, tell me how the university administration is physcally weakening you? Are they keeping you from eating? Have they set up a cordon that keeps out anyone with a bottle of water or a sack of food from the nearest McDonalds? Hmmm, maybe if you’re actually immunocompromised, you should have thought about that before you decided to make your grand stand and not eat. But at least you have your mask on.

But, gee, they’re at least being equal opportunity hunger strikers. Areeq Hasan, one of the protestors, said the following:

We feel unheard at every step of the way, so therefore we resorted to a hunger strike. . . It is in solidarity with the history of Palestinian political prisoners since 1968. … We’re tapping into this long-standing tradition with both Palestinian political prisoners and also in the Irish and Indian liberation movements.”

I’m sure the IRA prisoners held in Maze Prison back in 1980, a strike that lasted more than 50 days if I remember correctly, really identify with these privileged college students complaining about how the university is trying to kill them. I doubt most of those involved in the Indian liberation movement would have much sympathy either. After all, those protesters were in the middle of fights for independence of their own countries. They actually had a stake in what was happening around them. They weren’t railing at a college because of what company it invested in.

Then there’s the little fact that these protestors seem to forget what started this latest round of trouble in Gaza. Israel didn’t just decide one morning to start dropping bombs on apartments and schools in Gaza for the hell of it. Hamas, staging out of Gaza, attacked Israel. For the most part, they didn’t attack military targets. No, like the good little terrorists they are, they hit soft targets: a concert, commuities, homes. More than 1,000 died, including children. Something liike 250 men, women, and children were taken hostage. Some of those have died (or been killed) since then. Hamas continues to hold the others. But they are forgotten by the protestors who refuse to place the blame for what is happening in the Middle East anywhere but solely at the feet of the Israelis.

So pardon me if I have little sympathy for a small group of students who think their privileged lives at Princeton are soooo important the university administrators will immediately buckle and agree to their demands because they get a little hungry.

Still they contend they have only “simple” demands:

Since we began our hunger strike, we have had simple demands. We want a meeting and good faith negotiations with the university to talk about disclosure and divestment from companies involved in the Israeli occupation, and we want amnesty from legal and disciplinary charges for students that have been arrested for peaceful protests.

Good faith runs both ways. It doesn’t mean you continue to act up just because you don’t like what the other side said. If you want the university to negotiate in good faith, you must do so as well.

I so love the rhetoric these folks, and it isn’t limited to Princeton, about the so-called peaceful protests. You can be as peaceful, and I use that term loosely, as you want and still break the law. Freedom of Speech is not a blanket get out of jail free card. If you want to stand for something, then be ready to face the consequences for it. Or is that too difficult of a concept for these precious protestors to understand?

Read the room and realize you are being heckled and ask yourselves why? You’re telling your audience you’re performing a drama of epic proportions. Instead, you’re performing comedy gold and don’t even see it.

Featured image created using Midjourney AI.