Elie Wiesel said it best: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
The silence from university presidents at Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, George Washington University and Cooper Union is deafening.
In support of Hamas’s Oct. 7 rampage through southern Israel, paid protesters, agitators and rabble rousers have wreaked havoc on campuses across the U.S.
At Cooper Union, Jewish students were subjected to a pro-Hamas mob that terrorized them.
At George Washington University, the statements “Glory to Our Martyrs” and “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea”—barely concealed code for the annihilation of Israel—were projected on its library wall.
At UPenn, just before the atrocity, well-known antisemites were featured at the Palestine Writes Festival, held on the eve of Yom Kippur. It was met with total silence from the university hierarchy.
Similarly, Princeton’s inclusion of Jasbir Puar’s antisemitic book The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability in a humanities course eerily predicted and encouraged Hamas’s rampage.
At Harvard, a student group penned a letter saying that Israel was “entirely responsible” for Hamas’s horrific crimes against humanity.
Besides a number of pro-Hamas “protests” at Columbia, one of its full professors, Joseph Massad, praised Hamas’s atrocities as “astounding” and “incredible.” A petition demanding he be fired received 34,000 signatures.
Pro-Hamas “demonstrations” have spread like wildfire. Following Hamas’s monstrous crimes, one might think that Hamas supporters might run for cover. Quite the opposite occurred. They are more vocal, more violent and more emboldened than ever.
The rise of Hamas in America is alarming. How did our society become infected with such twisted and monstrous derangement?
Fortunately, according to a Harvard/Harris poll, the majority of Americans from both the Republican and Democratic parties overwhelmingly support Israel over Hamas. Some 84% of Americans support Israel and 88% say Israel has the right to respond to the atrocities militarily.
Among 18-24-year-olds, however, only 48% support Israel in this fight. They do only slightly better at 65% when asked if Israel has the right to protect its citizens by retaliating against Hamas.
This generational divide is disturbing and shocking. It points to the highly effective antisemitic brainwashing that has been underway for years on campuses across the U.S.
Unless the 18-24-year-old voting bloc undergoes a total transformation, which is unlikely, America is headed in a very dangerous direction. Overcoming such monstrous beliefs requires more than just an attitude adjustment. America must do everything possible to deprogram its young people. Failure to do so will not bode well for this great country.
