Look I hate to opine on this but my understanding is they know the Republicans are not moveable on the Palestinian issue… the Republicans will not even pretend to care regardless of how many people set themselves on fire. Protesting them accomplishes less than nothing.
With the Democrats, it’s a different story… the protesters see democratic leadership as malleable, vulnerable, and possibly responsive to outside pressure, you know how democracy is “supposed” to work. Getting them to at least pretend to care is an achievable first step in their eyes.
I also understand how people view the protesters as extremely shortsighted and counterproductive to stopping the fascist movement on the right in the 2024 election… but to many of them having a permissive/complicit stance on obvious ongoing genocide is a line they refuse to cross and they’re going to apply pressure to stop it at the most strategic places.
Democracy is messy, a republic if you can keep it… yada yada