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| Presidents of MIT, Penn, and Harvard testifying in congress yesterday (NBC) |
Or, how about this. Imagine someone urging people to protest and fight like hell to overturn the 2020 election. And to say that he doesn't think the call to hang Vice-President Pence for refusing to do it - is such a bad idea .
This one we don’t have to imagine at all. The former President has been indicted for doing exactly that. Trump has been defending his comments as a matter of exercising his free speech rights.
And yet when it comes to calling for genocide of the Jewish people, the presidents of 3 major universities (Harvard, MIT and Penn) have been saying that such rhetoric comes under the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech. And that protestors urging it will remain undisciplined by the university. This is how it went at a 5 hour Republican lead hearing in the House of Representatives. As reported by JTA:
When New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik asked directly if “calling for the genocide of Jews” is against the universities’ respective codes of conduct, all three presidents said the answer depended on the context.“It is a context-dependent decision,”
Penn President Liz Magill responded, leading Stefanik to reply, “Calling for the genocide of Jews is dependent on the context? That is not bullying or harassment? This is the easiest question to answer ‘yes,’ Ms. Magill.”
The presidents’ testimony came amid increased tensions on college campuses nationwide since Pro-Palestinian students or faculty — including at the three universities represented at the hearing — have made headlines for speech and actions on campus that a range of critics have called antisemitic or inappropriate.
Context? Really?
You could see their sense of moral superiority as they all framed the issue as a matter of free speech. It was written all over their smug faces. They think they are protecting free speech when in reality they are protecting the kind of hate speech that has contributed to antisemitic violence well beyond the halls of academia. Kind of like Trump’ s free speech contributed to the insurrection of January 6th.
Thank you, Congresswoman Stefanik for calling it out in the dramatic fashion you did,
The massive increase in anti Israel protests taking place all over the US by the left provides clarity about the danger of extremist left wing antisemitism. In my view it presents a far greater danger to Jewish Americans than the extremist anisemitism of the right. Which until recently was considered the far more dangerous of the two. Rightfully so since antisemitic extremist right was far more likely to act in their antisemitism than the antisemitic extremist left.
But no more. Ask any Jewish student on campuses like Harvard how safe they feel. And from whom they fear being endangered. Hint. It is not the White Supremacists. It is from the pro Palestinian left - encouraged by the very attitude expressed by these 3 presidents. Who are allowing them to call for genocide of our people as a matter of free speech! Kind of like the free speech of former President Trump on January 6th.
What this says about our intelligentsia is that they ain’t as smart as they think they are. And more importantly not as moral as they think!
But despite the sad turn of events, there is some good news with respect to Israel and the Jewish people. The Biden administration is still giving its full throated support for Israel's mission to destroy Hamas. Government officials have been defending Israel against accusations that they are not protecting Palestinian civilians. Describing Israel urging Palestinians to evacuate areas that are about to attacked. And giving them enough time to leave.
They are also quick to add that a lot of Palestinian casualties are the direct responsibility of Hamas who uses them as human shields. In other words these officials are in effect repeating Israel’s narrative of doing the best thy can to protect Palestinian civilians. Without any equivocation.
For their part - the media has been more even handed than usual in reporting about the war. Although there are some exceptions, for the most part (at least in the electronic media) every report about the devastation in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians (which is very real) has been accompanied by the suffering of Israelis from the events of October 7th. Most recently describing the horrific use of sexual violence against their female captives.
It is comforting to see the Biden administration continue its full throated support of Israel’s war on Hamas. And the even stronger support for Israel on the Republican side of the political aisle. If there is any disappointment to be had on that score it is with Democrats (and one Republican) as reported at CNN:
The House passed a Republican-led resolution on Tuesday condemning antisemitism in the United States and globally.
A number of Democrats, however, expressed concern that the language of the GOP resolution is overly broad and would effectively define any criticism of the Israeli government or its policies as antisemitism. The vote was 311 to 14.
Ninety-two Democrats voted “present,” and 13 Democrats and one Republican voted against the resolution.
But still, it is upsetting that there are so many Americans that are indeed actual antisemites, that have been given ‘permission’ by the pro-Palestinian supporters to come out of the woodwork and join them.
I hope that once the war is concluded and things get settled in Gaza, we can return to a time where we can once again read about Judaism being the most admired religion in America and other nice things said about us. But more importantly I hope that long before the conclusion of the war, the remaining hostages are freed and brought home soon to be reunited with their families.