Our good friends on the left have been assuring us that the many protests against Israel’s policies against the poor, poor Palestinians is simply support for an oppressed people, and is in no way anti-Semitic. Steve Keeley, of Fox 29 News, reproduced and tweeted out the message of John Fry, President of Drexel University in Philadelphia, concerning the new encampment of pro-Hamas protesters there:
While protest encampments such as this one are not legally protected, we had hoped last night that this demonstration would remain peaceful and respectful of others. Regrettably, that is not the case here. This demonstration already has proved intolerably disruptive to normal University operations and has raised serious concerns about the conduct of some participants, including distressing reports and images of protesters subjecting passersby to antisemitic speech, signs and chants.
There’s more of Dr Fry’s message, which can be seen at Mr Keeley’s tweet. The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the creation of the ‘encampment’ at Drexel, but, in an article last updated at 10:14 PM EDT on Saturday, had nothing on Dr Fry’s message or the anti-Semitic behavior of many of the protesters.
A similar ‘encampment’ had been kicked out of the University of Pennsylvania’s nearby campus on Friday evening, and it turned out that 13 of the 19 protesters arrested had no connection to the University; they are just agitators. I wondered Sunday night just how many of the kicked out non-Penn students were right back at it at Drexel, trying to make it appear as though this silly movement was larger than it has been.
Then I came across this, from the editors of The Wall Street Journal:
What It’s Like Being Jewish at Harvard
An alumni report on antisemitism on campus includes startling testimony from students and faculty.
by The Editorial Board | Sunday, May 19, 2024 | 4:57 PM EDT
Antisemitism has emerged on America’s college campuses recently in a way that might seem sudden, but it has been growing for years. The Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance last week published a report that compiles testimony, much of it anonymous, from 50 current and former Jewish students and faculty. Here are a few of the disturbing things they said:
• “Harvard signals that Jews are only acceptable so long as they don’t fully embrace Judaism.” The only way to cope is “not to dress ‘too Jewish,’ request the university accommodate Jewish holidays, speak Hebrew, or, God forbid, actually support Israel’s right to exist.”
• “It’s so much harder for the students who are visibly Jewish. I have a friend who wears a kippah who was physically cornered by a group of students demanding he denounce the so-called genocide.”
• “Because of my Jewish and Zionist identity, people think I am a monster. I have heard people say, ‘Zionists should be slain.’ I have heard people say, ‘You can’t possibly believe an Israeli, they are all settlers.’”
• “It’s pretty scary to walk around campus,” and pretty much all the Orthodox guys “have started wearing baseball caps.”The report says bullying of Jewish students took place well before Oct. 7, when Hamas massacred Israelis civilians and precipitated the current war in Gaza. But since then, the problem has become “louder, prouder, and more visible.” While fellow students have been responsible for much of the problem, the Jewish alumni also document how it’s fueled by the Harvard professoriate and the school itself.
The editorial continued to note several instances of anti-Semitism in both speech, including some blaming Israel for all of the violence even before Israel was able to respond to the October 7th attacks, including the October 8th statements by almost three dozen student organizations, at least until some tried to walk back their statements as various CEOs let it be known that they’d never hire the grads. If you are stymied by the Journal’s paywall, you can also read it here.
Harvard is somewhat notorious for beginning its “Jewish quota” because there were ‘too many’ Jewish students at the time. Then, last year, the Supreme Court, in Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard, noted and tossed out the university’s race-based Affirmative Action program, one modified because there were too many Asian students. It’s not as though America’s oldest and most prestigious college has any compunctions about discrimination!
Herman Wouk, in his historical novel The Winds of War, noted that the universities went over to the Nazis “in a body,” even before the Nazis came to power. Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State was published in 1896, before the Nazis, due to the rampant anti-Semitism in Europe. The “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” campaign, usually referred to as BDS, was created in 2005, 18 years before Hamas’ latest attack on Israel.
This stuff has nothing to do with the ‘Palestinians.’ They are just another lame excuse for people to be more blatant in their anti-Semitism.