“What we do believe is that they heard us,” Gaza protest organizer Hatem Abudayyeh tells a New York Times reporter.

Sure, “they” – Democratic leaders – “heard” self-appointed activists for the Palestinians during the four-day Democratic National Convention. They heard Abudayyeh’s peers urge that a pro-Arab speaker address the convention, that the government impose an arms embargo on Israel and that a cease-fire go into effect to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

On the third day of the convention, Democratic leaders refused any speaking slot for a pro-Arab representative despite months of negotiations, protest leaders said. Nor have there been any of the policy changes that they demanded.

“There have been no changes made, there have been no statements made that are in line with what we want to happen,” complained Ashley Taylor-Gouge, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, as quoted in the Times.

The pro-Arab network has spent the past 5½ years pressuring Democrats to undermine Israel, forcing them to walk a tightrope between Israel-bashers and the Jewish community. Not now. A week ago, I was ready to suggest that their influence could be waning. Not could be. It is waning. They have lost much of their credibility, and both protesters and high-level Democrats agree with that assessment, in so many words.

A relatively low turnout materialized for their demonstrations in Chicago last week. It was still a substantial amount of people, but far lighter than they expected.

“A small handful of people does not represent close to even a sliver of where the Democratic Party is right now,” declared Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday, the last night of the convention, according to the Associated Press.

Protest organizer Taher Herzallah affirmed the national Democrats’ attitude, saying, “People are trying to employ different tactics because we recognize that after 10 months of being on the streets, we have to deploy different tactics to make sure we are being heard,” according to the Times.

They are being heard. None of us can avoid hearing it. Their problem is that much fewer Americans are buying it. Not “Free Palestine.” Not “globalize Intifada.”

First they exposed their mobster-like operation during last spring’s campus harassment of Jewish students, installation of illegal encampments, seizure of buildings and resistance to police. Not to mention blocking already congested bridges, highways and airport entrances. Many threatened to ignore both Biden and former President Donald J. Trump at the polls, which could tip elections in swing states to Trump.

Then on July 21, President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president after dropping out of the race. Liberals, especially women, flooded a movement to elect Harris as president. Even those who sympathized with the Palestinians probably placed the Gaza war issue on the backburner. They have made it obvious that electing the first woman as president – one who will fight to enact liberal policies – is among their top priorities.

It would not surprise me if many Arab-American women vote for Harris rather than cast a protest vote for an independent candidate or not vote at all in standing up for the Palestinians. In Arab countries, subjugation of women is the rule and that system has been exported here to some extent. This election will be a golden opportunity to rebel – if they are allowed to vote.

Biden and Harris both tossed verbal bones to protesters during their speeches at the DNC.

“Those protesters out in the streets, they have a point,” said Biden. “A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”

What point do they have? Yes, many “innocent people” are being killed. We learned that once tragic events unfolded since Oct. 7, the day when Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis in southern Israel and took 240 others hostage. That was followed by Israel’s response that killed thousands of Gazans. What did Biden say that should satisfy the pro-Arab activists?

Harris’ words did little to appease them: “I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself…the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7.”

She then referred to Gazan deaths as “devastating” and described the “scale of suffering” as “heartbreaking.” She also said she hopes that “the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.” Is that what they want? Hamas seeks to destroy Israel and at least some Palestinians feel that way. The Palestinian leadership has rejected proposals for a two-state solution in the past.

As evidence that activists recognize that their cause has weakened, two organizers cited the need to release Israeli hostages during a television interview. That is unusual. For almost 11 months, advocates for Gazans have typically ignored the plight of hostages and other examples of Israeli suffering. That would be an attempt at respectability. Too late for most of us.

In another sign of desperation, activists are pouncing on African Americans for gathering behind Harris, who is part Black, while abandoning the Palestinian cause. “I’m so sick and tired of Americans playing your identity politics,” said a British Israel-basher on TikTok who claimed to be part Palestinian. “It’s f-ing insane, a Black woman in f-ing presidency is not going to save us, and no I’m not f-ing saying vote Trump in.”

The New York Post reports that another British Muslim attacked liberals for “weaponizing anti-blackness to defend the US empire all because they want a token ethnic president…She has very clearly stated that she won’t impose an arms embargo…It’s very clear where she stands.”

They are assuming that Black voters so identify with the Palestinians that their so-called struggle takes in all causes. “These are people who feel that they are entitled to the support of Black people no matter what, that they get to push us around and tell us who the hell we get to vote for if we support them,” TikTokker Tori Grier pushed back. “As if that means we’re just not supposed to give a damn about ourselves.”

Pushback is evolving in various ways, especially on college campuses. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday held a conference call with 200 college and university leaders to reinforce the need to devise and implement emergency plans as students return to campus this fall, according to a news release. She also noted that they can connect with necessary resources.

Many colleges nationwide are preparing for the possible onslaught of protests. Swarthmore hired outside investigators to build cases against students, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Rutgers has banned encampments.

In Manhattan, Sonia Ossorio joined other women’s rights to press Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, “to demand a full investigation of systemic rape during the Oct. 7 attacks and for the perpetrators to be held accountable for war crimes.”

In a Newsweek opinion piece, Ossorio writes, “The protests in and of themselves are not the issue…denying, downplaying and justifying rape and murder is inconsistent with protesting on behalf of human rights. Protests should not justify extremism. They should not excuse rape, they should not mislabel a terrorist attack as “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance.”

Ossorio, the executive director of the National Organization for Women New York City and Women’s Justice NOW, adds, “This lack of accountability isn’t an issue unique to Oct. 7. Women’s equality and women’s right to live free of sexual terror deserves greater world attention.”

The DNC’s resistance to the protest tactics should be studied by university officials, writes former federal prosecutor Gregory J. Wallance in The Hill, a Capitol Hill publication. “A no-appeasement policy should be the guiding principle for how, going forward, universities deal with disruptive, sometimes antisemitic pro-Palestinian demonstrations,” Wallance writes.

A no-appeasement policy is awfully late in coming, but it has arrived. Pro-Arab activists are on notice.

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