WHY CAN’T PEOPLE PROTEST NETANYAHU WITHOUT WAVING HAMAS FLAGS & BURNING OURS?

I’m against Netanyahu too-but why burn our flag, and what kind of person embraces Hamas? Do these “useful idiots for Iran” really think they’re scoring points with the American public?

(Originally published in Stephen Shaiken’s substack on July 25, 2024.)

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress, although dozens of Democratic House members avoided the speech, and Vice President Kamala Harris opted to forego her Constitutional role as President of the Senate; she will meet privately with Netanyahu later today.

Netanyahu was greeted with thousands of protesters outside the US Capitol building, exercising their First Amendment rights. The First Amendment includes the right to take peaceful actions and make statements which revolt and disgust most Americans, but that’s the whole point of the Amendment; even the most despicable and unpopular speech is protected, so long as it is speech only, not connected to promoting violence or criminality.

Even as despicable an act as burning the American flag is Constitutionally protected. In Texas v. Johnson, 491 US 397 (1989), the very conservative Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, wrote the majority opinion in a 5–4 decision holding that a state may not criminalize flag burning, because…