The spread of protests against policies that have generated the current humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip has been remarkable. Initially centered at Columbia University in New York, the protest movement quickly lit up other college campuses in the United States and has now inspired similar actions around the world. The immediate stimulation for the protests has been the mass suffering of Gazans amid an Israeli assault and blockade. But the expressions of outrage over what has been happening in Gaza over the past half year must and do include broader opposition to the policies that deny political rights to a population under occupation by a militarily superior foe.

The protests constitute one of the largest and most salient open expressions of opposition to Israel’s subjugation of the Palestinians and to U.S. policies that, for many years under administrations of both parties, have, in effect, condoned Israeli actions. As such, the protests raise hopes of moving the needle of politics and diplomacy on this subject and maybe, just maybe, generating real action toward resolving the destructive Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Thus, Peter Beinart, one of the most astute observers of issues involving Israel and the Palestinians, comments with good reason about the protest movement. Whatever its features that deserve criticism, the movement is also a “tremendous opportunity” that “holds the possibility in a way that no movement in America has” in his lifetime “to end American institutional complicity with the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

The opportunity and possibility are certainly there, but unfortunately, the way the protests have been shaping up, along with some countervailing political realities, means the opportunity may be lost. The demonstrations may hurt the cause of ending oppression at least........

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