Arrests Made After Chaos Breaks Out During Antony Blinken’s Testimony

(RepublicanJournal.org) – Left-wing activists have disrupted a Senate committee hearing in a protest against Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Capitol police removed at least four people after they accused him of war crimes in Gaza.

On May 21, Secretary Blinken appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to give an update on his department’s budget. The key item on the agenda was President Biden’s latest foreign aid package of more than $60 billion for Ukraine, Taiwan — and Israel. That was an obvious magnet for the anti-Israel faction on the left of the Democratic Party, and they didn’t miss the opportunity.

As Blinken made his opening statement, an activist stood up and started shouting the name of a Palestinian boy allegedly killed by the Israeli military. He was quickly removed by Capitol police; on the way out he called Blinken “the Butcher of Gaza” and claimed the secretary would be “remembered for murdering innocent Palestinians.”

As soon as the first protester was removed, others popped up and continued the verbal assault. An elderly woman began yelling “Stop the genocide!” and was quickly escorted out too. As a rattled Blinken started over with his speech another woman ran towards him shouting that he was a war criminal with “the blood of 40,000 people” on his hands. Finally, as the third protester was hauled out, another woman started accusing him of “funding a genocide” and claimed mass graves had been found outside Gaza hospitals.

Although President Biden has recently started retreating from traditional US support for Israel, putting pressure on Jerusalem to scale back its war against Hamas and even halting shipments of weapons, that isn’t enough for his party’s ultra-left. The notorious “Squad” faction of the House Democrats has been particularly loud in opposing the Jewish state, and the Dems are also facing problems with the Muslim-American vote. The disruption of Blinken’s hearing shows that Biden is caught between alienating the far left and alienating everyone else.