Criticizing contemporary humanities professors for having “snuffed out the divine” in their disciplines, William Kolbrener argues that in so doing they have denied literature’s ability to let the reader transcend his own experiences, instead falling back on the narrowmindedness of identity politics.

In a time when the most educated have dispensed with traditional knowledge as a form of wisdom, the humanities have [rejected the] notion that works of the past can help edify our sense of who we are today, and more than that, help us move forward into an uncertain future. [But] we do not have to give up our identities—or commitments—when encountering minds, cultures, and worlds different from our own.

[For today’s politically correct critic], it’s understood that it if you’re a gay man, or a black woman, or even a Jew, it’s difficult to approach a work—let’s say John Milton’s Paradise Lost—that presupposes a white male Protestant reader. With that said, I am a Jew, and a Miltonist. . . . I can look with awe at his representations of God, faith, and the human psyche. I may exercise my skepticism when reading and interpreting him—and Milton is above all a skeptical believer—but it does not stop me . . . from being inspired, not only by Milton’s God, but by Milton’s Adam and Eve, his man and woman.

Finding the infinite in literature—in Homer, Shakespeare, or even the self-proclaimed atheist Virginia Woolf—[can lead to] a better understanding, in our world of suffering, of the possibilities for freedom and human transcendence.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.