The barbaric attacks by Hamas terrorists against predominately civilian targets in Israel on October 7 tore open a cultural scab that revealed the festering antisemitism now plainly in evidence among the progressive Left in this country. Most troubling is the failure of Democrat elites to acknowledge the religious animus growing among its own supporters.
This past week provided two more examples of moral confusion. One, the almost comic inability of the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT to say whether student calls for genocide against Jews violated their respective university codes of conduct. The other, the Baltimore City Council’s failure to support a resolution that condemned the Hamas attack and expressed solidarity with the Israeli people.
Societal fabric tears all too easily. Many Jews no longer feel safe in high schools and on college campuses. They are reluctant to wear clothing that proclaims their religious identity. Last month, Jewish students at Cooper Union in NYC locked themselves in a university library to avoid mobs with Palestinian flags who rushed past security and tried to confront them. Last week, a Jewish teacher in a NYC school was targeted by hundreds of students and hid in a classroom after being seen on social media holding an “I Stand with Israel” sign. Tongue-tied Ivy League presidents stymied about whether calls for genocide violate codes of conduct plainly signal to brutish elements that we no longer live in a civil society. Their confusion signals that the old standards respecting free speech and open debate no longer apply.
The all-Democrat members of the Baltimore City Council seem similarly mystified about the difference between right and wrong. Last Monday, they tried but couldn’t muster the votes to condemn Hamas for its horrific terrorist attack or stand with Israel following the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Then on Thursday, far left members called for an extended cease fire, a move that would virtually ensure the long-term survivability of Hamas as the governing body of Gaza and as a permanent existential threat to Israel.
It is increasingly evident that significant and influential elements on the Left now regard Jews as expendable, both politically and otherwise.
Tom Kennedy
