There is a plus-side to the vile anti-Israel and antisemitic encampments at Columbia and several other universities – the anti-American side of the movement is on full display. As I’ve been saying for years, the racialized and radicalized campuses are a threat to our nation, now they have shown their hand for all to see.
When they burn American flags, and when they chant for the destruction of the U.S., they are showing us who they really are.
It’s going to get worse.
After spending months screaming for an Intifada (the suicide bombing campaign against Israel), don’t be surprised when some of them try to fulfill their sick fantasies.
Remember, they made a hero of the guy who set himself on fire. They are normalizing the Shahids.
It’s a dangerous cult.
The role of faculty also is being exposed. Faculty are the instigators and are trying to play the role of protectors.
Faculty are a major source of the problem. Anti-Zionist faculty see activism as a central part of their teaching role. There is almost no counter-balance, pro-Israel faculty with rare exceptions don’t get hired b/c the hiring committees are run by anti-Zionists. Academia is broken beyond repair.
I had a chance to talk with Chris Beers about this on NTD TV today, Dehumanization of Jews Led by University Faculty:
Pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University have led to one rabbi linked to the school calling for Jewish students to stay home for their safety. NTD spoke with Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson about the legal ramifications of the famed university’s policies, which are leaving the door to discrimination open.
Chris Beers (00:00):For legal analysis of the pro-Palestinian protests we’re seeing on university campuses, we’re joined by Cornell Law School Professor William Jacobson. Thank you for your time. William.A Columbia rabbi is telling Jewish students to stay home for their safety while these protestors are allowed to stay on campus. You’re the founder of the Equal Protection Project, ensuring the law is being administered fairly in the country. Is there some kind of civil rights violation in all of this?WAJ (00:30):Well, there potentially is because Columbia receives federal funding. Therefore they have to comply with the federal civil rights laws. And they cannot allow a campus where people are harassed and denigrated based on their religion or based on their national origin. And based on the videos that have been released, there’s incontrovertible evidence that there is widespread harassment of Jewish students, widespread harassment of Israeli students or people supporting Israel. So I think, yes, there, there are legal problems.But at it’s core, this is a cultural problem. This is an openly anti-American movement, which is using Israel as the scapegoat.Beers (01:11):And will it come down to that? Do you think that these colleges will end up losing funding over this? What would that take?WAJ (01:17):Probably not. The reality is in the Biden administration, probably not, because there are many in the Biden administration who are very sympathetic to these protests and these protesters. But that doesn’t mean that alumni can’t cut them off. And I know in your intro you mentioned Robert Kraft. He should have cut off his funding a decade ago. The problems at Columbia have been known and well-documented for over a decade, maybe 20 years. And so people need to wake up. And not just Jewish donors.Donors who truly believe in the value of higher education should not be funding what has amounted to a pogrom against Jews and against pro-Israel students on campus.Beers (01:58):Talk to us about how things have gotten to this point on these college campuses.WAJ (02:03):I’d say you have to go back really 10, 20 years. There has been a gross dehumanization of Israeli Jews and of Israel on campuses led mostly by faculty.There is no diversity of viewpoint among faculty on campuses, not just on domestic issues. We often talk about Republican versus Democrat and how there are no Republican professors left pretty much.The same is true for Israel.There are almost no openly pro-Israel professors left because they don’t get hired. If you have anything Zionist on your CV, on your resume, the likelihood of getting hired in the humanities or the social sciences at a place like Cornell or at Columbia, or at Harvard or at Yale, is close to zero.So they have over 20 years weeded out diversity of viewpoint when it comes to Israel, just like they’ve weeded out diversity of viewpoint on domestic issues.Beers (03:01):Now, it sounds like you’re talking about the professors being held to this standard, but what about the administration of these universities?WAJ (03:08):Well, the administration lets this happen. They see what’s going on. It’s been no secret. The criticism of what’s been happening at places like Columbia has been vocal for over a decade. But the administration doesn’t care. And that might be because they sympathize with those professors. They are part of that culture. They are part of the anti-Western anti-Israel, antisemitic culture that has flourished on a lot of these campuses. So the administrators are to blame. They are highly compensated. Some of them make seven figures depending on the university, and they just go along with what’s happening. They don’t try to rock the boat. They’re frankly afraid of their own students and afraid of their own faculty. So there is a major problem at the administration level in higher ed at these elite schools.Beers (03:56):So yeah, what you’re talking about is systemic. There’s the students, the professors, the administration. I mean, what about the board? Where does this, where does the buck stop here?WAJ (04:06):You’d think the board of trustees at these places would be more active. But in most of the instances, they’re not. They are part of the system.People have to understand, and I’ve been yelling about this for a long time, that academia, particularly at the level of Columbia and the Ivy League, is completely broken. I don’t think it can be repaired internally. They have created over 20 to 30 years a unified monoculture which is hostile to western values, which is hostile to capitalism, and which exploits and singles out Israel as the object of their ire as a mobilizing tactic.So higher ed is deeply broken. People need to understand that there is no internal opposition left.Beers (04:55):And William, just in the last 30 seconds or so, what’s the solution here?WAJ (05:00):I think the solution has to come from outside the universities. Congress can cut funding. Congress can revoke tax exempt status. These are supposed to be educational institutions. Congress has a lot of power. It’s not going to come administratively from the Biden administration. You’d think the Department of Education would be more active than it is, but it’s not going to happen under this administration. So I think that donors, I think government, I think passing restrictions on the use of federal funding. Those are possible solutions, but they’re really stop gap.Until you change the culture of these institutions, nothing’s going to really change.Beers (05:39):All right. William Jacobson, professor at Cornell Law School and founder of EqualProtect.org. Thank you so much.WAJ (05:47):Thank you.
One possible solution I didn’t think to mention. Get rid of the damaging, intellectually useless make-work departments which serve as a job corps for people who want to tear us down. Their tenure doesn’t protect them if the department is eliminated. This will never take place at the Columbias of the world, but it can take place through defunding at public universities.
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