Israel Leader Says Pro-Palestinian Protests Are Nazis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Wednesday that protests at U.S. universities against Israel’s war in Gaza were “horrific” and should be stopped, using his first public comments on the subject to castigate the student demonstrators and portray them as antisemitic.

Mr. Netanyahu appeared to equate protests against his government’s prosecution of the war Gaza with hatred of Jews. He said the protests on American campuses were “reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s,” an apparent reference to ideologically militant pro-Nazi student groups that, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, worked with the security forces to carry through Hitler’s agenda.

“It’s unconscionable,” he said. “It has to be stopped.”

The demonstrations are becoming a political headache for President Biden, because the student protesters, and other left-leaning Democrats who sympathize with them, are important constituencies in his hopes for re-election in November.

By portraying the protests in such stark moral terms, the Israeli leader could reinforce Mr. Biden’s political bind.