Rabbi urges Jewish students at Columbia to leave campus

[Antonio the Sixth]

We really should be able to all agree that 1. People have a right to peacefully protest on campus and 2. Protests cross the line once they turn to hate speech and harassment. We can talk about where the line is exactly but there seems to be a lot of people on both sides (I know, I know) seemingly denying its existence.

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

Biden has a great opportunity for a sista souljah moment here by forcefully condemning the protestors. Regrettably however he seems more concerned with fruitlessly trying to get people like this to vote for him.

rare Biden W if true.

[jojoju1998]

I am no anti intellectual, but American Academia is getting extrmely toxic when it comes to this Israel stuff. It's one thing to condemn the Israeli actions but to have or encourage this extrmeley anti semitic bull crap, is not kosher ( no pun intended.).

[Ferguson97]

Trying to argue that people screaming “Go back to Poland!” to Jewish people in New York are merely expressing their opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine is so deeply unserious that it’s not even really worth responding to.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

The attempted Cooper Union pogrom should have been the end of this and led to a large-scale crackdown, but the mob was very effective at convincing Biden his then-poor poll numbers were their doing.

[GeneralMacArthur]

My post from last week on this subject was prophetic.

I feel like I am going to be quoting this post a lot over the coming summer.

I want to add something to my above post.

In that post, I was only talking about the anti-Israel anti-Zionist stuff that has been completely normalized by society.  You can get away with saying "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" these days and most people will still see you as a reasonable, normal person.  You'll keep your job, you'll stay in school, you won't suffer any consequences.

But many of these pro-Palestine anti-Israel people are also engaging in truly heinous and appalling racism, totally dehumanizing rhetoric about Jews, genocidal fantasies, explicit calls for killings and celebrations of murder, open celebration of the 10/7 attacks, glorification of Hamas, denial of the Holocaust, total rewriting of the history of Israel and history of the Jews including 100% fake stuff, real blood libel, drumming up old anti-semitic tropes like Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and so forth.  You see this from many of the most popular pro-Palestine accounts on Twitter, which often feels like a f--king KKK rally.

It has not been normalized by society, yet.  But it's only a matter of time.

Because the thing is, it's often the same people engaging in both.  People who want to put up a socially acceptable veneer will then turn around and retweet accounts like Jake Shields, who openly denies the Holocaust.  People will say "I'm just anti-Zionist, not anti-Jewish" and then attack local businesses and celebrities and media figures and university professors simply for being Jewish (see the UC Berkeley thing).

So the whole anti-Israel thing really feels like a classic motte-and-bailey.  How many people who profess in public to only be anti-Zionist are actually steeped in disgusting Jew hate?  The popularity of these anti-Jew accounts and their rhetoric isn't an accident.

Many Jews are willing to give people the benefit of the doubt.  Me, I'm way more cynical and way less generous to people.  I see everyone saying "I'm not anti-Jew, I just really really really hate Israel and make it my entire personality" and then some tweet by a prominent anti-Zionist influencer retelling the "story" of Simon of Trent getting 100,000 retweets and going red-hot viral.

And you know what I think?  I think, none of these people cared that much about Israel seven months ago, none of these people cared about humanitarian crises in the middle east or civilians getting bombed or settler-colonialism or the history of the Jews seven months ago.  But since the 10/7 attacks, they've been radicalized hardcore into being extremely anti-Israel, and they're putting themselves in this environment that's trying its damndest to radicalize them further and push them over the line into being anti-Jew.  If they're not already Jew haters, it's inevitably going to happen, because that's just how peer pressure works.

I was describing a social media phenomenon, but it turns out this also accurately describes the Columbia protests.

I don't care if you, dear student, claim you are camping out on campus because you just want civil rights for Palestinians.  Your little protest is being dominated by voices calling for the deaths of Jews, praising Hamas, celebrating 10/7, harassing and physically attacking Jewish students and faculty on campus, even wishing for their deaths.  You have willingly put yourself in this environment with these people, and if you are not either forcibly rejecting and condemning them, or leaving, I am going to assume that you are at least willing to tolerate those viewpoints, if not secretly in agreement with them.

The fact that so many of these videos feature call-and-response chants where the crowd joins in, en masse, with the evil things being chanted by the evil person, proves that I'm right.

The fact that the default reaction by "anti-Zionists" to every single one of these "Hamas Hamas make us proud" posts on social media is to try and defend them and justify them, proves that I'm right.

Once you scrape away the veneer of "we just want peace and love" and put their ideology to the test, you find most of these people are subscribing to the exact same Jew hate.  They're just more willing to play the childish denial game, because they want to maintain some level of social respectability.  But put them next to some Hamas-lover who doesn't care about social respectability and is willing to say what they're really thinking, and ask them to condemn that person, and they won't do it.  In fact if you take the cameras off them, they'll start chanting along.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

A lot of this hair splitting to argue "actually it's not anti-Semitism" reminds me of the time Libertas tried to argue he's not anti-Semitic because he doesn't hate all Jews...he only hates a certain type of Jews...and then tried to argue that all "real Jews" should also hate Ashkenazis anyway because all they do is oppress other Jews with their secret control of lots of money and the media.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

As a general rule, any time Chuck Schumer and Mitt Romney are on one side, and Ilhan Omar and Jake Shields are on the other, it shouldn't be hard to figure out what's going on.

[Horus]

This particularly nasty character, who has been working day in and day out to make life utter hell for pro Palestine students, had his badge deactivated and is throwing a fit lol.

https://twitter.com/luketress/status/1782407863282926014?t=Pmu1zeIvSwTbx8O6ORqk4...

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

This particularly nasty character, who has been working day in and day out to make life utter hell for pro Palestine students, had his badge deactivated and is throwing a fit lol.

https://twitter.com/luketress/status/1782407863282926014?t=Pmu1zeIvSwTbx8O6ORqk4...

If Columbia had deactivated the badge of the campus' loudest whistleblower without any due process for a professor, that would be a massive scandal, but it seems like they've deactivated all badges and will only allow professors on campus with police escort - which speaks pretty loudly to the state of things.

[quesaisje]

Columbia told Davidai that he is being refused entry "for his safety" (per the Post), which is the standard bureaucratic excuse for doing whatever needs to be done to protect the institution.

[dead0man]

Columbia told Davidai that he is being refused entry "for his safety" (per the Post), which is the standard bureaucratic excuse for doing whatever needs to be done to protect the institution.

and the protestors

[Hindsight was 2020]

Yeah it’s kinda obviously a big yikes to be labeling people as Zionists just for wearing a Star of David

[The Free North]

Just ignore them. Let them stay in tents as long as they want. It won't change a thing. They want attention. Don't give them any.

Drumming in a circle and 'mic checks' do literally nothing. Only a fool would conflate this 'protest' as actual advocacy.

[dead0man]

Just ignore them. Let them stay in tents as long as they want. It won't change a thing. They want attention. Don't give them any.

Drumming in a circle and 'mic checks' do literally nothing though. Only a fool would conflate this 'protest' as actual advocacy.

if that's all they were doing this wouldn't be a story

[heatcharger]

Biden has a great opportunity for a sista souljah moment here by forcefully condemning the protestors. Regrettably however he seems more concerned with fruitlessly trying to get people like this to vote for him.

Biden having a Sista Souljah moment is the new Infrastructure Week.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

From the NYT,

Before he left for his motorcade, a reporter asked Biden if he condemned antisemitic protesters.“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” Biden said. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

That's a fair statement. I really do believe that Biden is a good man, and perhaps the best we could really ask for in this moment. AOC of course also came out in support of the protesters while /w Biden for earth day, but that's less surprising/relevant to the mass of people here I'd assume.

As an aside, is this the thread for talking about the protests, or not? Obviously the title is leading and multiple posters seem to criticize me for talking about the intent of the protests here but I was originally looking for a thread to do just that.

So depending on how long these protests go on, and the 'aftermath' it may be needed to edit the title or create a mega thread.

[Neo-Malthusian Misanthrope]

Columbia had cancelled in-person classes today, I'd assume anybody on campus who isn't silently working with a laptop (if such a thing would even be feasible) is a rabble-rouser. That goes for both the protestors and that professor who had his access revoked.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

From the NYT,

Before he left for his motorcade, a reporter asked Biden if he condemned antisemitic protesters.“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” Biden said. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

That's a fair statement. I really do believe that Biden is a good man, and perhaps the best we could really ask for in this moment. AOC of course also came out in support of the protesters while /w Biden for earth day, but that's less surprising/relevant to the mass of people here I'd assume.

As an aside, is this the thread for talking about the protests, or not? Obviously the title is leading and multiple posters seem to criticize me for talking about the intent of the protests here but I was originally looking for a thread to do just that.

So depending on how long these protests go on, and the 'aftermath' it may be needed to edit the title or create a mega thread.

OK so do you think telling Jews (and in some cases not even people who are confirmed Zionists or supporters of the Israeli government, just people wearing a Star of David) "Go back to Poland" is anti-Semitic or not?

If it is anti-Semitic, then that means that yes some of the protesters are anti-Semitic. This does not mean that all of them are, and there is no need to either defend them all or condemn them all, a distinction can be made between the ones who are anti-Semitic and the ones who are not.

[heatcharger]

Inspiring statement from President Biden…

https://twitter.com/jenniferjjacobs/status/1782489572657492239?s=46&t=J_equ3...

And some I assume, are good people.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

From the NYT,

Before he left for his motorcade, a reporter asked Biden if he condemned antisemitic protesters.“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” Biden said. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

That's a fair statement. I really do believe that Biden is a good man, and perhaps the best we could really ask for in this moment. AOC of course also came out in support of the protesters while /w Biden for earth day, but that's less surprising/relevant to the mass of people here I'd assume.

As an aside, is this the thread for talking about the protests, or not? Obviously the title is leading and multiple posters seem to criticize me for talking about the intent of the protests here but I was originally looking for a thread to do just that.

So depending on how long these protests go on, and the 'aftermath' it may be needed to edit the title or create a mega thread.

OK so do you think telling Jews (and in some cases not even people who are confirmed Zionists or supporters of the Israeli government, just people wearing a Star of David) "Go back to Poland" is anti-Semitic or not?

If it is anti-Semitic, then that means that yes some of the protesters are anti-Semitic. This does not mean that all of them are, and there is no need to either defend them all or condemn them all, a distinction can be made between the ones who are anti-Semitic and the ones who are not.

Obviously. It's horrible. It's antisemitic. It shouldn't be said.

I'm not here to have clips of a single protester thrown around when country-wide campus protests are being held however about an overseas genocide that we are complicit with.

Vandals during the BLM protests did not make a riot, either.

In any case, you are one of the most bad faith debaters on here BRTD so you're joking if you think I'm getting into it /w you. My original post and question stands.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Inspiring statement from President Biden…

https://twitter.com/jenniferjjacobs/status/1782489572657492239?s=46&t=J_equ3...

And some I assume, are good people.

Wow, I can't believe he hedged like that. A Charlottesville-tier statement.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Inspiring statement from President Biden…

https://twitter.com/jenniferjjacobs/status/1782489572657492239?s=46&t=J_equ3...

And some I assume, are good people.

Totally disgraceful. Insane how afraid the democrats are to lose votes from Islamists that they can’t stop both siding this

[Lief 🗽]

It’s only a Trump-style statement if you are dumb. There are good people on the pro-Palestinian side; there were not any good people among the white nationalists at Charlottesville.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Governors today need to emulate this