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US Senator encourages violence to ‘put an end’ to pro-Palestine protests
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Little Rock, Arkansas – US Sen. Tom Cotton (R) appeared to encourage American drivers to “put an end” to pro-Palestine protests, by violently removing crowds that block traffic. The ghoulish post is just the latest bit of rabidly pro-Israel chatter emerging from mainstream Republicans and comes as Zionist sympathies continue to plummet worldwide.
Senator Cotton made the statement to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. At the time of press, it had quickly reached an audience of 3.4 million viewers. In it, Cotton “encouraged” drivers who get stuck in traffic behind “pro-Hamas mobs” to resort to vigilante justice to remove them.
“I encourage people who get stuck behind the pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic: take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way,” said Cotton in an alarming post. “It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.”
The US Senator would follow up the tweet with a video reposted from the account of Jewish writer Miha Schwartzenberg, which depicts a man physically dragging a series of pro-Palestine protestors sitting in an unidentified roadway.
In an interview with Fox News, Cotton discussed a recent pro-Palestine demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, alleging that if the same protest were to happen in his home state of Arkansas, the protesters would be violently thrown off a bridge and be nothing more than “wet criminals.”
“If something like this happened in Arkansas on a bridge there, let’s just say that there would be a lot of wet criminals that would have been tossed overboard, not by law enforcement, but by the people whose road they are blocking,” Cotton said.
While advocating for violence against peaceful demonstrators might appear shocking, so too is Cotton’s hypocrisy. The Arkansas politician once publically condemned citizens for doing the same thing in 2017.
In the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Cotton referred to the rally’s nearly 300 First-Amendment-protected attendees as “contemptible little men,” after James Fields—a driver who was also stuck in traffic behind protestors—was forced to accelerate his vehicle into a crowd of heavily-armed ‘Antifa’ who had surrounded his vehicle.
The event would later culminate in the death of anti-White extremist Heather Hayer and would be used to smear the rally’s eventgoers as violent extremists to this day.
“I’m currently traveling in the Balkans, where the long, violent history of ethnic supremacism still stalks the land and is a reminder of how unique America is,” bemoaned Cotton a day after Hayer’s death in 2017. “White supremacists who claim to ‘take America back’ only betray their own ignorance of what makes America so special: our country’s founding recognition of the natural rights of all mankind and commitment to the defense of the rights of all Americans.”
“These contemptible little men do not speak for what is just, noble, and best about America. They ought to face what they would deny their fellow citizens: the full extent of the law,” he continued.
Cotton has previously used his office to breathlessly signal support for the regime in Tel Aviv, often at the expense of American citizens back home. In March, Cotton introduced the Stop Pro-Terrorist Riots Now Act, a pro-Israel law aimed at combatting “pro-Hamas mobs committing crimes and perpetrating violence” in the United States.
The bill would increase punishment for those convicted of rioting from 5 years to 10 years in prison, and create a mandatory one-year minimum penalty for those who support or attend a riot.
The following day, Cotton would introduce two more pieces of pro-Israel legislation, including the “No Clearances for Terrorist Sympathizers Act,” and the “Prohibiting Certain Off Post Protests Act.” The bills were put forth by Cotton to revoke or deny security clearances to those with pro-Palestine sympathies and specifically painted self-immolating US Airman Aaron Bushnell as a supporter of terrorism.
The latter of the two bills would openly infringe on the First Amendment rights of US Servicemen, as it would “codify a ban preventing military members from participating in ‘off-base’ political demonstrations.”
Interestingly enough, AIPAC and the Pro-Israel America PAC consistently appear as some of Cotton’s top campaign donors, with the latter ranked #4 in a list of contributors maintained by Open Secrets.
Antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric has only increased since the events of October 7th, with the embattled Israeli regime now facing “plausible” accusations of genocide against ethnic Palestinians in Gaza. In response, Conservative figureheads and politicians have increasingly proved themselves to be Israel’s most loyal defenders, often taking steps to protect Jews and Zionists from inconvenient criticisms.
Despite the unpopularity of pro-Israel rhetoric by a growing number of Americans, Republican politicians continue to introduce—and even pass—constitutionally dubious laws aimed at crushing pro-Palestinian dissent. Just this month, Senate Republicans in New York quietly introduced a new set of laws that would effectively make it illegal to challenge Jews in the Empire State.
If approved, the legislation would make it a misdemeanor to tear down pro-Israel posters and flyers—like the now infamous “KIDNAPPED” posters—as well as prohibit the removal of pro-Jewish materials from public property. Republican Minority leader Robert Ortt, said the laws were proposed to safeguard “religious groups” in the state.
In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott used his office to sign an executive order to “punish” so-called “antisemitic rhetoric” in Texas colleges. The ostensibly pro-First Amendment Abbott specifically referred to the concept of free speech as “an enemy,” and stated that one of his goals was to “punish” those who espoused pro-Palestine rhetoric.
Bloodthirsty statements like the one used by Cotton appear to track alongside many other Republican politicians since the war first began. When confronted by a pro-Palestine activist over what to do with Palestinians in Gaza, US Congressman Andy Ogles ominously stated he would like nothing more than to “kill them all.”
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