I didn’t intend to return to this topic so soon but was so appalled this week I felt compelled to.
The presidents of Harvard, MIT and University of Pennsylvania were unable—after being asked several times to do so—to say that calls for the genocide of Jews violated their student codes. One of the three has now resigned, with another holding on only by the sharpened claws of her ferocious identity politics, after their disastrous appearance before a U.S. House Committee last week.
What happened? The three college presidents were pressed about the massive protests on their campuses where chants calling for the genocide of Jews, “intifada,” and “from the river to the sea” were heard. All three awkwardly dodged the question or claimed it did not violate their policies as such, and whether the characterization of such vile hate speech violated school policy depended on the “context.”
That’s insane. The presidents attempted to draw a false moral equivalence between calls for the genocide of Jews— equating it to Islamophobia— despite virtually no evidence Islamophobia is a problem even remotely comparable to the shocking wave of hate directed at Jews. (H. Grossman, Fox News, 12-082023). In fact, “critics say that putting incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia together is to equivocate the two, when Jews are the #1 targets for hate crimes, according to the latest statistics. Jewish people comprise 2.4% of the U.S. population but make up 60% of hate crimes linked to religion.” (Id.).
Now, back to the three university presidents. During the hearing, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik repeatedly asked the presidents whether calling for the genocide of Jews constituted bullying, harassment, and intimidation in violation of their institution’s codes of conduct. All three dodged giving a “yes” or “no” answer, saying, as noted above, that it depended on the context and seem- ing to suggest that only if gatherings of students chanting genocidal slogans crossed into «conduct» would it be prohibited.
My God. Can you imagine if black people were being verbally targeted for slaughter and elimination! What about transgender people? What about the mentally handicapped? What about gay people, Asians, or American Indians? The Leftist uproar would shake the globe. But not for Jews. They can be threatened with murder and only when the knife comes to the throat, it might be condemned at Harvard.
This intellectual dishonesty is well summarized by the Wall Street Journal: “Calling for perspective and balance on an atrocity that warrants neither reveals their (universities) long-held preferences… The American professoriate leans heavily Democratic. On elite campuses it’s nearly unanimous. Conservatives, libertarians and classical liberals who work in higher education report high levels of self-censorship. Students write essays arguing positions they don’t hold simply to please their progressive professors. Doing otherwise would damage their transcripts. Rational discourse on an issue like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict simply isn’t allowed. Only the academic postmodern progressive lens is tolerated.” (C. Asness, WSJ, 12-13-23).
This is the intellectual rot that has poisoned our American institutions of “higher learning” for decades—masquerading as political correctness— coming home to roost. This is where we are with the Woke American Left. There can be no dissenting thought, no genuine exchange of ideas. Rather, you are either Woke, or you are silenced. Censored. Cancelled. Free speech in the context of genuine academic freedom is largely non-existent in American higher education. Many of us have observed this academic censorship for years but the virulent antisemitism we are currently witnessing on college campuses is a stark and disturbing reminder.
Finally, we must all be alert to the growth of this malignant mind virus and vigilant in defense of our safety in view of the warning of Martin Niemöller, a German theologian and Lutheran pastor best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s. Rev. Niemoller is well known for his widely quoted 1946 poem “First they came …” “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
We must speak now.
