Anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters sure don't like to be publicly identified with a cause they claim is righteous. Why is that?
The 100-plus congressional staffers who walked out of the Capitol on Nov. 8 to demonstrate their support for a ceasefire said they took action because they were "no longer comfortable staying silent." But they wore masks to cover their faces.
Likewise, on college campuses, protesters have used keffiyehs to shield their identities and claimed that attempts to film the public protests amount to harassment.
Schools like Harvard and Columbia have made their views clear, forming "resource groups" for the doxxed. Harvard's dean of students, Thomas Dunne, denounced doxxing as a "repugnant assault on our community." His statement was less equivocal than university president Claudine Gay's feeble attempts to condemn Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel. No both-sidesism there!
Of course, there is nothing these schools can do to protect students from doxxing by the press—the Washington Free Beacon or anybody else. Instead, feckless administrators offer pablum and commissions to pacify angry and entitled students.
There was a time when civil disobedience implied that the disobedient would accept some consequence for their actions and that bearing those consequences demonstrated a commitment to the cause that was so deep it might persuade others. But these masked congressional staffers and their keffiyeh-wearing counterparts on campuses aren't seeking to persuade—they seek to intimidate. It is not civil disobedience, it is an attempt at mob rule by a violent fringe.
The disgruntled Capitol Hill staffers lambasted their bosses, members of the House and Senate, for "not listening to the people they represent." They demanded! When was the last time you put a list of demands in front of your boss while wearing a mask? If you want to tell your boss—who was actually elected by the people he represents—that he doesn't know how to do his job, own it.
We did a little digging, and well-informed tipsters tell us that a staff assistant to pro-Israel Democratic Colorado senator Michael Bennet, Yousof Omeish, was among the protesters on Capitol Hill. A 2022 Yale graduate, Omeish has accused Israel of genocide and of the "indiscriminate targeting of hospitals." And he charged that a mealy-mouthed statement on the Oct. 7 terrorist attack from the university's supine president, Peter Salovey, undermined Palestinian lives.
A spokeswoman for Bennet told us that staff "are allowed to express their opinions on issues of public concern as private citizens" and that their actions "do not reflect the Senator's personal views or policy positions."
It is in the public interest to know that the senator employs Omeish. And the doxxing of college students helps to ensure that when Bennet makes his next hire, he will do so with a full picture.