‘I Do Not Say That Lightly’: CNN’s Dana Bash Warns Rising Anti-Semitism Is ‘Hearkening Back to the 1930s in Europe’

CNN anchor Dana Bash began her show Wednesday with an ominous indictment of the pro-Palestinian protests that have gripped college campuses across the country and the rising anti-Semitism in the U.S.

“Welcome to Inside Politics. I’m Dana Bash. We start with destruction, violence and hate on college campuses across the country. This was the scene just a short while ago at the University of Wisconsin, Madison,” Bash began as she showed images of various protest sites, adding:

Police clashing with protesters. 12 people were arrested. Hours earlier, protests rocked the University of Arizona, where campus police used chemical irritant munitions to remove protesters. Around the same time, at UCLA pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups were attacking each other, hurling all kinds of objects: a wood pallet, fireworks, parking cones, even a scooter. And before that, the NYPD was able to clear Columbia University after protesters barricaded themselves inside a campus building. 300 people were arrested at Columbia and City College of New York. But it is unclear how many were actually students. New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned this morning that professional outside agitators are getting involved.

A clip of Adams then ran, showing the mayor saying, “There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I’m not going to wait until it’s done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it. This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children, and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the City of New York.”

“Many of these protests started peacefully with legitimate questions about the war, but in many cases they lost the plot. They’re calling for a ceasefire. Well, there was a ceasefire on October 6th, the day before Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than a thousand people inside Israel and took hundreds more as hostages,” Bash continued, adding:

This hour, I’ll speak to an American-Israeli family whose son is still held captive by Hamas since that horrifying day that brought us to this moment. You don’t hear the pro-Palestinian protesters talking about that. We will now protesting the way the Israeli government, the Israeli prime minister, is prosecuting the retaliatory war against Hamas is one thing. Making Jewish students feel unsafe at their own schools is unacceptable, and it is happening way too much right now.

Bash then played a viral clip in which a self-identified Jewish student, “I’m a UCLA student. I deserve to go here. We pay tuition. This is our school, and they’re not letting me walk in, my class is over there. I want to use that entrance. Why can’t you let me go in? This can be over in a second. Just let me and my friends go in.”

“Again, what you just saw is 2024, in Los Angeles, hearkening back to the 1930s in Europe. And I do not say that lightly. The fear among Jews in this country is palpable right now,” Bash concluded.

Watch above via CNN.

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