Israel-Gaza Briefing: Pro-Palestinian protests heap pressure on Biden from left and right

Republicans, sensing vulnerability, have gone on the attack, claiming Biden is unable to maintain law and order and is turning a blind eye to antisemitism.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, called protesters “raging lunatics and Hamas sympathisers” at a Wisconsin rally on Wednesday night.

“I say remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn,” he said.

The following morning, after several nights of police crackdown on demonstrators, Mr Biden made a hastily scheduled appearance at the White House to condemn what he said was the lawlessness of some protests – including vandalism, trespassing and disruption of university activities.

“We are a civil society, and order must prevail,” he said.

US elections have not traditionally been decided on issues of foreign policy unless American soldiers are dying overseas, but issues of law and order and domestic tranquillity can be more salient – particularly to the kind of middle-class American voters who live in college towns or send their children to prestigious universities.

It could explain why Mr Biden, in his Thursday remarks, defended American free speech rights but spent most of his time warning protesters of the consequences of their actions.