In last week’s column during the Hunter Biden trial, I wrote that “in contrast to Trump’s trial, where Trump and his acolytes including the House Speaker repeatedly attacked the prosecutor, the Judge, the judge’s daughter, the jury, and the process. In Hunter’s case, the president and important Democratic party elected officials have not attacked the prosecutor, the judge, the judge’s family, the jury or the process.” That has continued, even though Hunter was convicted. Furthermore, the president said not only would he not pardon his son, but he would not commute his sentence.
The initial response by Trump and his supporters to Hunter’s guilty verdict was jubilation, talking about how the system worked. The obvious problem for Trump is that it is hard to attack the Department of Justice when the prosecutor in Hunter’s case, David Weiss, was appointed special prosecutor through the DOJ. Moreover, Weiss had previously been the United States Attorney in Delaware who was appointed by Trump. It is hard to argue jury bias in New York when Delaware, which is Biden’s home state and much smaller than Manhattan in population, convicted Hunter Biden. If the son of a president is convicted of a felony, which has never happened before, and the proceeding was properly done, then so can a conviction of a former president. So, Trump and his supporters came up with some new nonsense that this was a distraction to keep the investigation off the Biden crime family headed by the president.
Also last week - as mentioned by my fellow columnist - was the despicable protest outside the Nova Festival exhibition in New York City. They must have known that family members of those who were killed and others who survived would be there for an event. There was universal condemnation to the protest. For example, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote, “The recent protest at the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in lower Manhattan, where some participants chanted antisemitic slogans, endorsed the repugnant actions of terrorist groups like Hamas and celebrated the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians is unconscionable and un-American. The egregious behavior on display designed to justify the killing of Jews has no place in a civilized society.” Even AOC wrote that “The callousness, dehumanization and targeting of Jews on display at last night’s protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitism - plain and simple.”
This was just one of a few high-profile anti-Semitic acts by Palestinian protestors. One incident that made its rounds showed someone from the group asking riders on a subway train if there were any Zionists and, if so, they should leave the train. Also, they put red paint and the Hamas symbol on the door and windows of the Jewish head of the Brooklyn Museum. I hope they keep it up. The more this goes on, the clearer it becomes to the rest of this country what their goal is. They have tried to clothe themselves in legitimacy by claiming they are merely looking for a ceasefire to protect Palestinians in Gaza. These acts show them for who they are: a bunch of anti-Semites whose goal is the destruction of the State of Israel and the Jews who live in it. The more the world sees their true goals, the more likely their movement will fail.
We saw overreach by the protestors after George Floyd, which sunk their movement. At first there was staunch support for the protestors. They seemed to want accountability for excessive force by law enforcement against Blacks. What caused the defeat of the protest was the realization that those protesting were not merely opposed to excessive force by the police. Their goal was to defund the police. Also, their tactics, such as torching a police station in Seattle and taking over an area of the city and torching a Federal Courthouse, indicated that these were dangerous radicals.
I have heard complaints that Biden is not doing enough to deal with these protestors engaged in anti-Semitic and violent conduct. Since these disturbances are local, they are the purview of the states. Thus, Biden has few options. Trump had the same problem during the protests after the killing of George Floyd. All they have is the bully pulpit. Unfortunately, the more Biden talks today just like Trump did a few years ago, the radical left got more emboldened.
Another benefit of the protests outside the Nova Festival Exhibition is that it reminds people what happened at the festival on October 7. Hopefully, this will result in more people going to see the exhibit, which was extended another week.
We live in tough times. It is important to look for a glimmer of hope.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
