Latest news with #Anti-Israeli
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: Harvard defends itself in a way all Americans should understand
Feeling like a medieval messenger, Abraham Verghese said, the distinguished physician and writer had 'slipped into the besieged community' of Harvard University Thursday to deliver the school's commencement address. Any other year, such a metaphor would have been absurd. Even a year ago at Harvard, the very notion of community was stretching the definition of the world, with students and faculty at odds over the school's response to the conflict in the Middle East. A matter of weeks ago, twin internal Harvard reports had found both a rise in 'Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli bias' and in 'Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian bias.' No wonder the university's President Alan Garber called the 2023-24 academic year 'disappointing and painful.' But nothing squelches internal fighting like a common enemy. This week, Harvard finally got its act together to defend itself, and by extension, all American universities, against extraordinary governmental attacks by articulating a defense resting on three granite pillars: freedom of speech, the importance of the rule of law and the value of America educating the world. Such, of course, are traditional Republican values as well as Democratic positions, arguably more so, given Democrats queasiness over at least the first two during the COVID era. Finally, a higher education sector that had fallen under the thrall of extremists and thus removed itself from the lives of most Americans has figured out that it can explain its importance if it does so in language core to the founding and essence of this republic. Such a defense was a long time coming but was balm for the ears once it arrived at what must surely have been just about the most politically charged graduation in Harvard's long history, given that contemporaneous news of a court putting a hold on the Trump administration's intent to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students became part of the ceremony. After all, what American argument could possibly be made for prohibiting international students, at least beyond the tiny percentage employed as some kind of spy? The benefits flow both ways: loyalty to America from such graduates has long been a major source of U.S. soft power and, of course, their full tuition, typically, boosts the local economy and often subsidizes low-income domestic students. And who beyond a xenophobe could possibly believe that one's education is not enhanced by a classmate from elsewhere in the world, a truth that applies to kindergarten just as much as at Harvard? Garber was greeted by a long, standing ovation at Harvard on Thursday, reflective of broad appreciation of his stand against the Trump administration. But Verghese, of Stanford University, a physician who spoke of compassion, healing and of life's brevity, was the chief messenger of sanity. 'The outrage you must feel, the outrage so many feel,' he said, 'also must surely lead us to a new appreciation. Appreciation for the rule of law and due process, which till now we took for granted — because this is America after all!' Verghese noted it was 'a reflex of so-called strong men to attack the places where truth and reason prevail.' An immigrant himself, he captured the fundamental optimism of the aspirational arriver on American shores: 'Who believes in America more than the immigrant who runs down the gangplank and kisses the ground?' He said the values of a university fighting against 'a cascade of draconian government measures' represent the values of the entire nation and he did so with optimism, this being a graduation and all. 'I know,' he said, 'that we will find our way back to an America whose attributes I admired from afar.' We know that too. And we also know that the students who graduated in recent weeks from many fine universities, including those matriculating next weekend at the University of Chicago, will be among those charged with that return. 'Though many would be loath to admit it,' Garber said Thursday at Harvard, 'absolute certainty and willful ignorance are two sides of the same coin, a coin with no value but costs beyond measure.' Here was a clever, even a passive-aggressive metaphor of a meme, along the same lines as Verghese saying that immigrants can and will 'keep America great.' 'The world,' Garber said, 'tempts us with the lure of what one might generously call comfortable thinking, a habit of mind that readily convinces us of the merits of our own assumptions, the veracity of our own arguments, and the soundness of our own opinions, positions, and perspectives — so committed to our beliefs that we seek information that confirms them as we discredit evidence that refutes them.' It was inspiring to hear such strong minds focus not on dogma or the grievances of identity politics but on the importance of critical thinking, of staying open to the world, of challenging one's own certainties, of being led not as sheep scared to go against the majority and determined to filter all facts through personal biases but as Americans open to being flat wrong. It is not only Harvard's best defense — or any university's best defense — against an authoritarian government. It is this country's best defense. The next step, though, is to better understand why those attacks on free academic speech and openness to the world are arriving from a legitimately elected administration with the backing of so many fellow Americans, including so many of those who value freedom above all else. That's the most important charge to the Class of 2025.
New York Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Hamas taunted Israeli hostages with images of antisemitic Columbia University protests: ‘We have our own people everywhere'
Hamas captors cruelly taunted Israeli hostages with news stories and photos of antisemitic protests at Columbia University — and bragged about having an 'army' of propagandists to spread their hate, according to new court papers. Freed hostage Shlomi Ziv claimed he was shown disturbing images and stories of the protests that engulfed the Upper Manhattan campus last year while he was in captivity in the Gaza Strip. 5 A new filing in a federal lawsuit claims anti-Israeli Columbia University protesters are 'foot soldiers' for Hamas. AP Advertisement 5 Columbia University's Upper Manhattan campus has been a hotbed of anti-Israeli sentiment since the Oct. 7 attack. AFP via Getty Images 'With the news report on, his captors told him, 'You see, we have our own people everywhere,' a court filing from Thursday said. 'They then told him that Hamas has an 'army' operating out of Gaza that focuses specifically on media and sending Hamas propaganda and messaging throughout America.' The shocking allegation was revealed in an amended lawsuit filed against a slew of anti-Israel groups in Manhattan federal court for 'aiding and abetting Hamas' continuing acts of international terrorism and violations of the law of nations' following the terror groups Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead and hundreds kidnapped. Advertisement Ziv, who is a plaintiff in the suit, was held in captivity for 246 days before he and four others were rescued in an Israel raid in June 2024. He claimed he was shown Al-Jazeera stories and pictures of the Columbia protests and that his captors 'bragged about having Hamas operatives on American university campuses.' Filed on behalf of former hostages, the families of slain hostages, and former Israeli military personnel drawn into the Jewish State's counter-offensive against Hamas in Gaza, the suit claims the Ivy League school's protest organizers are essentially an arm of the terror group that impacted their lives. 5 Shlomi Ziv was taken hostage by Hamas and held for over 240 days in the Gaza Strip before being freed. GoFundMe 5 Anti-Israeli organizers at Columbia University are essentially part of the Hamas terror network, a new lawsuit claims. REUTERS Advertisement 'The associated defendants acted as Hamas' foot soldiers in New York City and on Columbia's campus and enacted [protest organizer's] plan to disrupt Columbia's operations to assist Hamas,' the suit said. The lawsuit, originally filed March 24, names several campus groups, including Within Our Lives, United for Palestine, Columbia Students for Justice In Palestine, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice For Peace, and individual group founders or leaders. Ziv, an Israeli citizen, was working security at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 when he was kidnapped. He and other hostages were starved and beaten 'almost every day,' their doctor said. The Manhattan campus has been a hotbed for anti-Israeli demonstrations that have terrorized Jewish students — including some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit who were enrolled at the school. Advertisement The school is among dozens of colleges and universities in the US that have seen pro-Palestinian protests, and anti-Israeli encampments following the Oct. 7 attack. 5 Shlomi Zi after his rescue by Israeli military forces in Gaza, where he was held for more than 240 days. AFP via Getty Images Last week, students burned their diplomas in protest on the Columbia campus, two weeks after masked student protesters stormed into the Butler Library at the school. Last year, a mob of students took over Hamilton Hall on the campus and had to be forced out in a wild NYPD raid, leading to several arrests.
