a Rutgers University law student has been arrested for disorderly conduct after the 31-year-old hung pro-israel signs as a form of counter-protest near a pro Palestinian encampment on the ruter Newark campus last week according to school officials the student was taping posters to trees reading stand with Israel stand with America and Hamas are dirty Savages when according to a video of the incident obtained by nj.com he clashed with Rutgers University Police and Newark officers an attorney for the student says his actions were a response to the quote offensive anti-semitic encampment on campus ruter is on a list of schools under investigation by Congress for anti-Semitism and its president Jonathan Holloway has been called to testify before Congress later this month about how the school handled Pro Palestinian demonstrations at the New Brunswick campus Holloway also faced criticism from Governor Murphy and Republican lawmakers for agreeing to eight out of the 10 demands made by Pro Palestinian students with several GOP members calling for legislative hearings over at Princeton University the hunger strike continues with calls from the racial Justice group people's Organization for Progress for the University to drop charges against student protesters who've been arrested human rights expert and former Congressman Tom malinowski has been observing the college L movements and finally weighed in about the real political effect the protests are are having he joins me now Tom malanowski thanks for coming on the show you had uh what I'll say was was an interesting and and nuanced thread on uh the social media platform X recently um with your observations about these campus protests what is your thought on how this is adding or or detracting from the conversation around Israel and Gaza right now well thank you uh thank you for saying that I was nuanced on social media that that seems like a rare thing these days and sometimes it feels lonely on social media if you try to be reasonable on an issue but I think most Americans are when they look at this terrible situation I think most Americans are pro-israel but they don't necessarily agree with the Netanyahu government and what it's doing in Gaza most Americans are pro Palestinian in the sense that they sympathize with the plight of innocent victims of of this war but they're anti- Hamas and I I think that's what's the that middle ground which I think represents most of us has been lost in the controversy over these protests you have a lot of students who I think care profoundly about saving lives in Gaza but their voices are drowned out by people who are basically calling for the end of the state of Israel um and on the other side that produces a a an angry reaction that just says arrest all these kids bring in the police and anybody who criticizes Israel is somehow pramas and between those two extremes I think we lose the center which is where most Americans are and where the solution lies one piece of that thread if I can read it quickly was uh you wrote people obviously have a right to agitate for whatever they want but the actual political effect of these protests has been to shift attention away from Gaza at the very moment after the world Central kitchen uh raid uh workers who died uh when opinion was shifting against the war so what do you see then as the role for these protests how would you perhaps guide students if you were in that position to find some of that middleground and historically speaking is that the way that demands like the ones they're making are achieved by going the middle route yeah well look I I I think there's a lot to be angry about when when you're when we're looking at the situation in Gaza I I I want kids I want Young Americans to care about the the plight of the innocent civilians who are caught in the middle of this conflict um I want them to be supporting a ceasefire I want them to be asking tough questions about the role of the United States uh in in this conflict but if their goal is to stop the violence and to save lives literally today as we speak that the way to do that is not to go out there with manifestos and signs calling for the end of Zionism for the end of Israel calling for these things that are much more extreme and certainly far more ambitious because you're going to turn off the vast majority of people who might be willing to join you in pressuring the Israeli government to stop this war and in in doing that you're basically betraying the people on the ground who whose lives were trying to save because you're you're losing the political Coalition needed to put pressure on governments to do that so that's the point I'm making they probably don't welcome uh a uh an former Congressman like me telling them um what their message should be uh and again they got a right to be out there demonstrating for whatever they want but if they want if we want to be effective in stopping this violence today we've got to unite people who are from every part of the political Spectrum when it comes to Israel um around a call for ceasefire former Congressman Tom malanowski thanks so much for sharing your Insight thank you