Liam Conner
Washington – Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that many of the young protesting the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses “don’t know much about this history” of the region, as American universities in recent weeks have become the center of opposition to the the impact of the war on the Palestinians in Gaza.
“What happened between Israel and the Palestinians decades ago is very complex, very difficult,” Gates said on “Face the Nation.” “And I think a lot of the young protesters don’t know much about that history.”
As protests on college campuses erupted across the country in recent weeks, some of which featured anti-Semitic rhetoric that raised concerns about the safety of Jewish students on campuses, Gates said universities — balancing free speech considerations with protections for all students – have applied their rules regarding demonstrations inconsistently.
“So I think where you saw success in managing the protests and where the protests were not disruptive, even though students were defending their views, was in the universities where the rules were enforced and enforced consistently,” he said. .
CBS News
Regarding dynamics in the region more broadly and their implications for American security, Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense between 2006 and 2011 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, noted that there are four wars underway in the Middle East. East. At the moment. He pointed to the war in Gaza, between Israel and Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Syria and Iraq, saying Iran is “the sole power behind all four of these conflicts.”
“We are so worried about Gaza that we can’t talk enough about how to deal with an Iran that is basically the one that provides the weapons, the planning and the intelligence in all four of these conflicts, and that Iran is the source of the problem,” he said. Gates. “How do we deal with this? That’s the real problem, it seems to me this is being overlooked.”
Meanwhile, Gates said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has “essentially ignored” US views and requests, including those relating to humanitarian aid, as the war in Gaza continues. Referring to President Biden’s recent decision to withhold some specific weapons from Israel, Gates said that “when our allies ignore us, and particularly on issues that are of enormous importance to us and the region, then I think it is reasonable to take measures that try to get their attention.”
