In February, Harvard University once again found itself in the spotlight when student and faculty groups distributed a poster on social media that included an anti-Semitic cartoon. Sara Yael Hirschhorn notes that the drawing came from a newsletter published in 1967 by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC), which, under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael, had then decided to ignore the second word of its name and embrace Black Power, Third Worldism, and anti-Semitism:

The unsubtle message of the cartoon was that Israel and the Jews, together with American capitalism, were guilty of subjugating and murdering not only Black and Brown peoples, but Arab nationalism and Islam. It illustrated a feature called “Third World Roundup,” which asked readers to “test their knowledge” of 32 anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic talking points regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict. . . . For example, apparently thanks to “white European, American, and Australian states . . . Israel was planted at the crossroads of Asia and Africa,” and “the Rothschilds . . . were involved in the original conspiracy with the British to create the ‘state of Israel.’” The text seems to have been drawn from PLO propaganda, itself likely a product of Soviet agitprop.

This conflation of American racial tensions with a toxic mix of old-fashioned anti-Semitism, Arab hatred for Israel, and general anti-Western leftism doesn’t seem very different from what one might encounter at a ceasefire protest today. While the campus groups last month pled “ignorance and inadequate oversight,” and scrubbed the cartoon from the poster, the results weren’t much better:

Then they re-shared the larger post with the offending cartoon swapped out for a photograph of Stokely Carmichael. Interestingly, no one seems to have commented on a graphic on the flyer’s bottom left of Huey P. Newton, the founder of the Black Panther Party, meeting Yasir Arafat in 1980. The photo was taken from The Black Panther, an often virulently anti-Semitic periodical supporting violence. Stokely Carmichael himself would later quip that the “the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.”

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.