Three top university presidents on the hot seat for refusing to condemn Jewish genocide remarks on campus

[Dan Druff]

I've said for many years that there's a left-wing anti-Semitism problem at US universities.

People didn't believe me, or thought I was exaggerating.

This became especially apparently in 2019 when Trump signed an executive order requiring antisemitism allegations to be investigated on campuses the same way as other forms of accused bigotry.

The left complained about this executive order, citing "free speech" concerns. LOL. So your free speech is being violated when you're investigated for Jew bashing, but not when you're investigated for misgendering someone? Makes loads of sense.

Anyway, the truth is that the left has long hated Israel, and by extension, any Jews who do not loudly condemn Israel. This sentiment has long been pervasive on college campuses, while right-wing antisemitism is virtually nonexistent because... well, most white supremacists don't go to four year universities.

Leftists feared that Trump's 2019 Title VI order would expose the dirty little secret that colleges have long tolerated left wing antisemitism.

Then, for 4 years, things went mostly quiet. Trump's order did not have that much effect, and campus antisemitism was still fairly common. Still, who was going to report on it? The left wing media? Not likely. The NY Times actually did a fairly decent piece about 2 years ago about left wing antisemitism (though they laughably "both sides" the issue, claiming right wing antisemitism is a problem at colleges as well). But at least they were willing to call out the problem.



Fast forward to the aftermath of October 7, 2023.

There have been blatant displays of antisemitism on college campuses, including chants of "from the river to the sea" (calls for Palestinians to take over all of Israel and murder all Jews there) and "globalize the intifada" (calls for Muslims to murder any Jews found in the world who show support for Israel).

There is little debate that these phrases are basically calling for both the complete destruction of Israel and murder of all Jews (except perhaps the ones who express support for the Intifada!)

Despite that, these demonstrations highly featuring such chants have been allowed to take place on college campuses.

Keep in mind that this is NOT a first amendment question. I agree that such chants should be allowed on public streets, even if disgusting. However, college campuses have not allowed free speech when it comes to any form of bigotry. You are not allowed to call for the murder of blacks, gays, trans people, or any other minority group, or you will be expelled and banned from campus. In fact, you can get in trouble on a college campus for simply "misgendering" someone! Apparently it's okay to call for the death of all Jews, though.

University presidents have been dancing around this issue for the past 2 months, because in reality they agree with the protesters. They are far left themselves, and feel that Israel is an evil oppressor. They do not mind the chants calling for the extermination of Jews who support Israel, but of course cannot say this out loud. At the same time, they do not want to do anything to restrict or punish such speech, even while restricting all other forms of speech against other minority groups.

Well, this all came to a head this week, as Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik grilled three prominent university presidents, where lots of antisemitic hatred has been brewing for the past two months, with zero consequence.

Harvard's Claudine Gay, the University of Pennsylvania's Liz Magill and the MIT's Sally Kornbluth appeared before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to explain and defend their approaches.

Stefanik completely owned them. None of these women denied that genocidal statements against Jews were made on their campus, but rather attempted to claim that "it depends upon the context" as to whether genocidal statements against Jews were okay!

In fact, there general position was that statements supporting Jewish genocide were okay by university standards, so long as they didn't directly target individual students!

Do you think you could make statements about black genocide or gay genocide at any of these schools? Of course not. And these women really had no answer.





Now there's increasing calls for all three to either resign or get fired.

Penn's Liz Magill further stepped on herself by releasing this stilted non-apology clarification of what she meant, claiming that she wasn't focused on the question properly during the Congressional hearings, and would seek to change Penn policy regarding antisemitism. Right.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/Penn/status/1732549608230862999


Laughably, Penn disabled replies to this tweet, and it was received extremely poorly by almost everyone. Even Democratic Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro called her behavior unacceptable, and opened the possibility that she might be fired.

It is amazing to me that three major university Presidents could not make the simplest of simple statements: Calling for Jewish genocide is always unacceptable on campus, and anyone caught doing so will be disciplined. They all refused to say this, despite given multiple chances.

Instead, they tried to dance around it with bureaucrat-speak, and it became clear as day that they really had no problem with calls for Jewish genocide.

Slowly I am watching fellow Jews wake up to the fact that the Democratic Party has hated them for a long time, and they've been supporting the wrong side.

I've been saying this for many years.

[garrett]

"Harvard's Claudine Gay, the University of Pennsylvania's Liz Magill and the MIT's Sally Kornbluth appeared before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to explain and defend their approaches."

They're all LIBERAL Universities surprised Cornell and Yale didn't make that list, MIT isn't Ivy League

[Sloppy Joe]

Little crunchy what with the jews currently genociding and all

[Sanlmar]

These are private schools.

It would be more appropriate if they were state schools and the involved state reviewed their state university’s policies and practices.

Congress being involved really should trigger a “stay in your lane response” if you are conservative. Why does this have ANYTHING to do with Congress. That’s ok, I do not expect a reply.

It does not please me to see the rise in antisemitism. Sadly, what you are witnessing is just the opening act

As an aside, just wait til those Turkish ships with aid try to land in Gaza. Then it’s game on potentially.

[hesterandeldridge]

I wonder what makes highly educated individuals feel this way , Im sure these are not your common variety uninformed bigots.

any type of genocide should be condemned is the obvious answer .

[country978]

Little crunchy what with the jews currently genociding and all

These colleges have big problems on their hands. They've been so hell bent on protecting the queers and the blacks amongst them that they cannot help but expose themselves as the ultimate hypocrites when it comes to the Jews.

Maybe split and the rest of the Westborough folks can go hold up the "God hates fags" signs in front of Harvard and see if they have a problem with that "context."

[Dan Druff]

These are private schools.

It would be more appropriate if they were state schools and the involved state reviewed their state university’s policies and practices.

Congress being involved really should trigger a “stay in your lane response” if you are conservative. Why does this have ANYTHING to do with Congress. That’s ok, I do not expect a reply.

It does not please me to see the rise in antisemitism. Sadly, what you are witnessing is just the opening act

As an aside, just wait til those Turkish ships with aid try to land in Gaza. Then it’s game on potentially.

Penn not private.

Other 2 also receiving federal funding.

[Sanlmar]

These are private schools.

It would be more appropriate if they were state schools and the involved state reviewed their state university’s policies and practices.

Congress being involved really should trigger a “stay in your lane response” if you are conservative. Why does this have ANYTHING to do with Congress. That’s ok, I do not expect a reply.

It does not please me to see the rise in antisemitism. Sadly, what you are witnessing is just the opening act

As an aside, just wait til those Turkish ships with aid try to land in Gaza. Then it’s game on potentially.

Penn not private.

Other 2 also receiving federal funding.

Federal funding for what? I would rather the Fed’s did not - perhaps it’s research.

Your response is your typical sophistry. The issue is that Congess has no business conducting hearings on this.

[Dan Druff]

Oh wow I guess Penn is private. Never knew that. West coast bias and all.

Most universities receive federal funding though, hence they need to adhere to certain rules.

A few rebellious ones like Hillsdale refuse it, so they can do whatever they want.

[Dan Druff]

I actually wish there was no speech standards on campus, aside from targeted harassment.

You want to say offensive shit, let it rip.

But it has to be consistent. There can’t be hyper restricted speech about the blacks, gays, and trans, but a free for all to chant for genocide against the Jews.

That’s what Trump (correctly) tried to fix in 2019, and we now see why there was a need for that.

[Dan Druff]

But yeah the Congressional hearing is justified because all 3 of these schools get federal dollars.

There’s also discrimination at play here. You can’t have one speech standard regarding Jews and a different one regarding everyone else.

[Sanlmar]

I actually wish there was no speech standards on campus, aside from targeted harassment.

You want to say offensive shit, let it rip.

But it has to be consistent. There can’t be hyper restricted speech about the blacks, gays, and trans, but a free for all to chant for genocide against the Jews.

That’s what Trump (correctly) tried to fix in 2019, and we now see why there was a need for that.

Yes, hate speech is not protected consistently.

Private schools can and should set a tone and a culture through leadership. You don’t like the environment don’t spend $75k to go there.

If Liberty University (Jerry Falwell’s joint) wants to bounce you for talking shit about Israel, Palestine or Unitarians then I think that should be their privelege.

Doubtful you see this at BYU.

Congress getting involved in speech at institutions that are not Federal is not a good sign of the times. This is hysteria. Never good if you are conservative

[Dan Druff]

I actually wish there was no speech standards on campus, aside from targeted harassment.

You want to say offensive shit, let it rip.

But it has to be consistent. There can’t be hyper restricted speech about the blacks, gays, and trans, but a free for all to chant for genocide against the Jews.

That’s what Trump (correctly) tried to fix in 2019, and we now see why there was a need for that.

Yes, hate speech is not protected consistently.

Private schools can and should set a tone and a culture through leadership. You don’t like the environment don’t spend $75k to go there.

If Liberty University (Jerry Falwell’s joint) wants to bounce you for talking shit about Israel, Palestine or Unitarians then I think that should be their privelege.

Doubtful you see this at BYU.

Congress getting involved in speech at institutions that are not Federal is not a good sign of the times. This is hysteria. Never good if you are conservative

If they're receiving federal funding, AND are forced to adhere to various standards in order to get that funding (which they are), then it definitely is Congress' business to get involved here.

As I said, I would love it if colleges could simply become bastions of free speech and expression, regardless of how offensive. That would at least be a fair and consistent way of handling speech issues.

The problem is that colleges have become excessively speech restrictive in the past 30+ years, and this has especially ramped up over the past decade. Hell, you can't even wear "culturally appropriating" Halloween costumes on campus anymore!

So if they're going to make these colleges into safe spaces where nobody can ever be offended in the slightest, they can't also take the position that chanting about genociding Jews is okay.

That's hypocritical, unfair, and discriminatory.

The problem is that these university presidents see racism, homophobia, and transphobia as evil bigotry, whereas hating the Jooooooooooos is kinda okay, because you know... them Jews have it coming for supporting Israel the evil colonizer. Bigotry and genocide is okay if it's against people who disagree with your political positions, you see.

[Sanlmar]

If they're receiving federal funding, AND are forced to adhere to various standards in order to get that funding (which they are), then it definitely is Congress' business to get involved here..

I have no idea what creepy standards the Fed’s would impose on a private or state institution for research or whatever. You cannot support these kinds of restrictions as a conservative

Of course, there is the whole Federal student loan debacle that has ruined higher education. That’s an opportunity for the Federal pathogen to invade the host too.

I reiterate that ideologically Congress should not involve itself in state or private education - despite some fine print. You should be ashamed as a conservative.

You are cherry picking your hate speech. It’s illogical

The message you and everyone should be promoting (including your representative in Congress) is that Zionism should not be confused with Judaism. No Jewish American should be subject to fear because Netanyahu is a corrupt dumbass. The difference is obvious to you and me but your average American mouth breather and college Freshman might not have considered the thought explicitly.

[garrett]

If they're receiving federal funding, AND are forced to adhere to various standards in order to get that funding (which they are), then it definitely is Congress' business to get involved here..

I have no idea what creepy standards the Fed’s whould impose on a private institution for research or whatever. You cannot support these kids of restrictions as a conservative

Of course, there is the whole Federal student loan debacle that has ruined education. That’s an opportunity for the Federalmpathogen to invade the host too.

I reiterate that ideologically Congress should not involve itself in state or private education - despite some fine print. You should be ashamed as a conservative.

You are cherry picking which hate speech should and shouldn’t be allowed.

The message you and everyone should be promoting (including your representative in Congress) is that Zionism should not be confused with Judaism. No Jewish American should be subject to fear because Netanyahu is a corrupt dumbass.

This and as i've shared in 2020 got hit by a car wasn't good and because the injuries/surgeries got a lawsuit but also made me DEBT FREE

I was 60kish in debt to Universities from Ohio State/Rutgers+Community and its all gone now incredible and not saying don't understand just very very odd in life how your worst memory and times can ultimately result in you being Debt Free and free again in so many ways i was lucky fortunate, blessed whatever you believe and ultimately im now debt free. SO yes that's been an incredible benefit of the WORST times of my life probably physically and injury wise for sure. Lso with no debt for 4+ years and doing the right thing my Credit Scored in the 700s which for me is incredible on top of it all. You could never plan for this to have happened to you or me and didnt so the end results been pretty amazing but just to me pretty good to understand now.

No it wasnt a brag it was learning to feel normal again from not really ever expecting that all to happen which is great of course, free feeling..

[Dan Druff]

If they're receiving federal funding, AND are forced to adhere to various standards in order to get that funding (which they are), then it definitely is Congress' business to get involved here..

I have no idea what creepy standards the Fed’s would impose on a private institution for research or whatever. You cannot support these kinds of restrictions as a conservative

Of course, there is the whole Federal student loan debacle that has ruined higher education. That’s an opportunity for the Federal pathogen to invade the host too.

I reiterate that ideologically Congress should not involve itself in state or private education - despite some fine print. You should be ashamed as a conservative.

You are cherry picking your hate speech. It’s illogical

The message you and everyone should be promoting (including your representative in Congress) is that Zionism should not be confused with Judaism. No Jewish American should be subject to fear because Netanyahu is a corrupt dumbass.

Your line about Zionism/Judaism has been the exact excuse used by left wing antisemities for the last decade. "We don't hate the Jews, we just hate the government of Israel."

It's nonsense. They also hate the Jews because Israel is a Jewish state, and thus most Jews have a fondness for it (and a connection to it). The only Jews who get a pass are the ones whose leftism supersedes their Judaism, and loudly denounce Israel.

The cheering about the murder of 1400 Jewish civilians, the tearing down of posters of kidnapped children, the calls for genocide... these are all direct and blatant antisemitic feelings, NOT simply the support for supposedly oppressed Palestinians.


I am not cherry picking hate speech. I am not a fan of the term "hate speech" in general. I have taken shit at the WSOP each year, and more recently on Twitter, for allowing "hate speech" on this site. My response was always that I am pro free speech, even if I don't agree with such speech. That response is getting less and less popular over time.

But I do believe that you can't take the position that you aggressively restrict so-called hate speech in some cases, but completely allow it in others.

These colleges need to go one way or the other. If they want to make their campuses into safe spaces, then they have to protect everyone, not just the minorities they like. If they want to commit to free speech, then it has to be completely free -- not just free when they agree with it.

Consistency is the goal.

There is a lot of federal funding going to these schools. You may not like it, but that's a fact. There are certain standards tied to this federal funding. If you accept it, you need to adhere to those standards. These schools want the federal funding, and that comes with Congressional hearings when they decide to protect certain minority groups over others.

[Small_Banana]

Little crunchy what with the jews currently genociding and all

Palestinian chant about a genocide = bad
An actual genocide going on = good

[Sanlmar]

Your line about Zionism/Judaism has been the exact excuse used by left wing antisemities for the last decade. "We don't hate the Jews, we just hate the government of Israel."

It's nonsense. They also hate the Jews because Israel is a Jewish state, and thus most Jews have a fondness for it (and a connection to it). The only Jews who get a pass are the ones whose leftism supersedes their Judaism, and loudly denounce Israel.
.

There are plenty of conservatives that hate the present government of Israel. It’s not an excuse.

Conservatives NOT neoconservatives

You can have a fondness America but be of the opinion Biden and his policies are idiotic and dangerous.

Maybe there is an intersection with left wing antisemites as they dislike the government of Israel too.

[Dan Druff]

Little crunchy what with the jews currently genociding and all

Palestinian chant about a genocide = bad
An actual genocide going on = good

Which genocide is going on?

You mean Israel's attempt to kill the terrorists who just senselessly murdered, kidnapped, and raped their civilians, and their repeated attempts to get Palestinian civilians to get out of harm's way?

That genocide?

[Orko]

There's a full blown war going on over this shit. Jews are going scorched earth.

Bill Ackman supposedly paid people to the dox the students at Harvard who supported Palestine. Put their faces on giant posters drove around campus and in some cases to their homes.
He declared you have no future working on anything related to banking or finance or wall street and Larry Fink agreed with him. There's much more going on, I might post it if i run into it again.

Two people have came ford saying a Jewish billionaire offered $20 million to run against Rashida Tlaib. One of them a very popular black actor who would beat her easily.
Leave Rashida alone, she's a sweetheart.

Nixon talked about this. Black people don't sell out llike that, we are very lucky lin that way.

My position is Israel is way richer than the USA, pay for own genocide and ethnostate. At the very least register under FARA.

All foreign aid to Israel is already illegal.