Exactly a month later, on Nov. 15, more than a half-million war opponents flooded the nation's capital for the Mobilization, and more than 100,000 rallied in a simultaneous antiwar demonstration in San Francisco.
As a result of the demonstrations, Nixon cancelled his war plans, according to his memoirs. According to Daniel Ellsberg, who was then working for the Nixon administration: "Every 10 minutes he [Nixon] was calling the Situation Room and finding out what was going on, getting the reports from the U-2s on crowd size" He was totally absorbed."
Robert Levering was a full-time anti-Vietnam War organizer from 1967 to 1973, and wrote "At the time, we knew opposing the Vietnam War was the right thing to do. But it sure helps to realize that it made a real difference to have marched and rallied, petitioned and lobbied, sat through countless meetings and engaged in civil disobedience."
"Hopefully, those involved in today's struggles will find some helpful lessons from our experiences," Levering wrote in 2019, and the college students in the streets today, across the world, have grasped the torch of freedom in both hands.
Zionism is a political ideology
Zionism, is a political ideology that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine. The roots of Zionism originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, but Theodor Herzl, an Austrian journalist put a political twist to the theory when in 1897 in Switzerland he stated, "Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law."
Supporting the occupation of Palestine is not a pillar of the Jewish religion, and this explains why so many Jews are opposed to the Israeli government's brutality and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Not every Jew is a Zionist, but US President Joe Biden has stated he is a Zionist.
President Biden flew to Israel in October to show his support of the revenge attack begun by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following the October 7 attack by Hamas.
Biden told Netanyahu, "I don't believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist." That statement has set the tone of the unflinching US support of Israel, and the 36,000 death toll and rising. Regardless of accusations in the ICJ of genocide, and the UN reporting starvation and famine due to Israel's blockade on food to Gaza, Biden will not be swayed.
The US government, and the Biden Administration hold the keys to war and peace in Gaza. The students, and others around the world feel they must have their say. As Patrick Henry said in 1776, "Give me liberty, or give me death."
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
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