China, Iran, Russia Amplify “No Kings” Protests
Plus: Egypt is smuggling arms into Gaza via drones; NYT editorial backs JFK centrism
State-run or state-dominated media outlets in American enemies such as China, Iran, and Russia are amplifying Saturday’s “No Kings” protests in America.
Coverage of the events put such outlets in something of a bind. Typically they do anything possible to magnify division in America (almost like the Harvard Crimson, which this morning in a news article described Senator Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, as “divisive” merely for being a supporter of Israel.)
The catch is that by writing about public assemblies against the government, the outlets might remind readers in China, Iran, and Russia that those countries, unlike America, are actual dictatorships. In those countries, unlike in America, people who take part in anti-government protests are detained and in some cases shot or hanged. The editors at such publications had to weigh the upside of making America look unhappy and divided against the downside risk that reading about protests in America might inspire people in China, Iran, or Russia to follow suit and take to the streets in protests against regime authoritarianism there.
It’s a bit hard to parse from America what is intended for external versus internal consumption, but it appears that some of the foreign outlets decided that the opportunity to make President Trump look unpopular and to make America look riven by internal dissent outweighed the danger that the coverage might inspire copycat activity in Moscow, Beijing, or Tehran.
The outlets I checked all prominently covered the U.S. protests, with little-to-no skepticism. The tone of the coverage was more Americans rally against President Trump than Americans show deep commitment to freedom and rule of law. I’m not making any characterization here of the actual protesters or the actual protests, just of the foreign press coverage of them in hostile outlets.
The list of No Kings “partners” includes a range of organizations that included labor (the American Federation of Teachers, the Communications Workers of America, which includes the Newsguild union that represents reporters at the New York Times and the Associated Press), anti-Israel (the Arab American Institute, Jewish Voice for Peace), and Soros/Open Society funded groups such as Indivisible and the ACLU.
NYT editorial backs JFK-style centrism: New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has been hunting for a more pro-Trump opinion columnist. I am told he feels the conservatives columnists he has now are too predictably anti-Trump. We’ll believe it when we see such a hire. In the meantime, it was amusing to see a Times editorial calling for “a creative, re-energized political center,” citing, as a model, none other than President John F. Kennedy (see the book JFK, Conservative for details.)
The editorial argues for centrism mainly on the instrumental grounds that it’s the most likely winning strategy for Democrats to block Donald Trump, not on the principled grounds that it will produce the policies most likely to generate national success or individual flourishing. Yet it’s interesting to see a consensus shaping up among outlets ranging from Bari Weiss and her Free Press and CBS News to the Washington Post editorial board in its new incarnation in favor of this sort of politics. It’s particularly rich to see the Times citing Senator Manchin as a centrist success when its news and opinion columns have been somewhat derisive toward the senator. I mentioned Manchin favorably here at the Editors back in September 2024 when Times columnist Bret Stephens asked “Why does America no longer seem to have any good politicians?”
Egypt is smuggling arms into Gaza via drones: One of the mysteries of Gaza has been how Hamas still has ammunition and explosives left after two years of war and with Israel having control of the Philadelphi Corridor that had served as the smuggling-tunnel highway between Egypt and Gaza.
Brigadier General (Reserve) Amir Avivi, the founder and chairman of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, offered a possible answer in his video briefing today. He said that last month 500 large drones have flown from Egypt into Israel’s Negev desert, carrying cigarettes and drugs but also weapons that are then moved from Bedouin in the Negev into Gaza. “It’s crazy,” he said.
“These terrorists are very creative,” said Avivi, who has been a reliable source over the past two years on developments in the war.
He said a similar drone-smuggling operation may be taking place from Jordan into Judea and Samaria. “In the Jordanian border it’s even worse,” he said, because Israel has less of a handle on what is happening there than it does with Gaza.
He said Jordanian and Egyptian troops “are completely cooperating” with the smugglers, who are flush with drug money, “and people are getting paid.”
Israel has anti-drone technology, but it’s not even 50 percent effective, he said. He said Israel is changing course to treat the smuggling as terrorism rather than crime and to fight it with the Shin-Bet rather than the police.
Avivi said he’d love to be wrong but it appears that “going back to fight” for Israel in Gaza is imminent. “Every single day that we don’t launch the attack, they are regrouping, they are getting stronger,” he said. With the live hostages back in Israel, “now it will be much easier for the IDF to maneuver,” he said.
Avivi has been a more credible and clear source on what is happening there than the Wall Street Journal news pages, which have been frustrating (in contrast to the Journal editorial pages, which have been super). The latest example is here, from Saturday’s print paper, with my annotation—a question mark—in blue ink:
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A constructive "No Kings" theme would be to lament the paralysis of Congress that has resulted in presidents from both parties ruling largely by executive order instead of passing legislation. One major reason for this paralysis is the 60-vote rule in the Senate, which makes it very difficult to pass legislation, even a bill to end the government shutdown.
I was close enough to the Pittsburgh "No Kings" demonstration to see an unfiltered sample of the signs, which were handmade and thus likely representative of the individual demonstrators. None mentioned congressional paralysis. Most we simply anti-Trump statements.
This was a missed opportunity to make common cause with Republicans who oppose the administrative state.
When Israel's president Moshe Katsav was convicted of rape in 2011, Israeli reporter Khaled Abu Toameh wrote about how Palestinian Arabs reacted to the news. The most common view was to lament their inability to remove unworthy leaders, and admire Israel's ability to do so.