Three Insider Perspectives on the Fate of Jews on Campus

Feb. 27 2024

Harvard administrators last week had to condemn what they rightly described as a “flagrantly anti-Semitic cartoon” that student groups, with faculty support, had distributed on social media. On Sunday, a Jewish professor named Raffaella Sadun resigned as co-chair of the school’s anti-Semitism task force, apparently because she felt it did not have power to make even minimal changes.

Nearly three months ago, David Wolpe resigned from the same committee on similar grounds. He explains his experience, and his decision, in this interview with Dovid Bashevkin. Bashevkin also speaks with Talia Khan—a student at MIT who testified at the fateful December congressional hearing—about the harassment she and her fellow Jewish students have been subjected to, and the university’s callous, if not hostile, response. In the final segment, the Harvard linguistics professor Steven Pinker, a longstanding critic of the corruption of American higher education, discusses how it is possible to combat entrenched anti-Semitism while defending academic freedom. (Audio, 96 minutes.)

Read more at 18Forty

More about: Anti-Semitism, Freedom of Speech, Israel on campus, University

The Benefits of Chaos in Gaza

With the IDF engaged in ground maneuvers in both northern and southern Gaza, and a plan about to go into effect next week that would separate more than 100,000 civilians from Hamas’s control, an end to the war may at last be in sight. Yet there seems to be no agreement within Israel, or without, about what should become of the territory. Efraim Inbar assesses the various proposals, from Donald Trump’s plan to remove the population entirely, to the Israeli far-right’s desire to settle the Strip with Jews, to the internationally supported proposal to place Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA)—and exposes the fatal flaws of each. He therefore tries to reframe the problem:

[M]any Arab states have failed to establish a monopoly on the use of force within their borders. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan all suffer from civil wars or armed militias that do not obey the central government.

Perhaps Israel needs to get used to the idea that in the absence of an entity willing to take Gaza under its wing, chaos will prevail there. This is less terrible than people may think. Chaos would allow Israel to establish buffer zones along the Gaza border without interference. Any entity controlling Gaza would oppose such measures and would resist necessary Israeli measures to reduce terrorism. Chaos may also encourage emigration.

Israel is doomed to live with bad neighbors for the foreseeable future. There is no way to ensure zero terrorism. Israel should avoid adopting a policy of containment and should constantly “mow the grass” to minimize the chances of a major threat emerging across the border. Periodic conflicts may be necessary. If the Jews want a state in their homeland, they need to internalize that Israel will have to live by the sword for many more years.

Read more at Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security

More about: Gaza War 2023, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict