I hate to say it, but they have a point. The First Amendment protects individuals from the government. The government can not prevent you from speaking your mind, associating with people or practicing your religion. However, Columbia University is a private school, they can indeed, shut down a demonstration and kick students out if they violate rules Columbia has decided on. A public university has less freedom in that respect as they are somewhat of an extension of government.
That is what pi$$e$ (Really GoComics?) the right off. Schools like Columbia, Harvard and Yale ALLOW these protests. They are committed to a free exchange of ideas and freedom of expression. They could be more like Liberty University, which is very restrictive, but they choose not to be.
There is a correlation between education and whether you’re a liberal or a conservative. Liberals tend to be more educated. Keep that in mind and you will understand why this is an issue.
Harassment is not an effective tactic and really poor behavior. My point of view here is that calling people anti-Semitic because they think Israel is behaving badly is incorrect. If some Jewish students feel unsafe, it’s not because they are Jewish, it’s because they holding a position that others find abhorrent.
Having the opinion that Israel’s slaughter of civilians is wrong does not make you an anti-Semite.
And let me be clearer here. If you harass someone who is Jewish because you assume they support Israel because they are Jewish, yes, that is anti-Semitic. However, that cuts both ways. Calling someone a “self loathing Jew”, because they do not support Israel is also anti-Semitic. There are plenty of Jewish protesters out there, support for Israel during this war is not monolithic. Like every other issue it’s not black and white. One can oppose Hamas and also feel sympathy for Gazans caught in this war. You can mourn both Israeli and Palestinian dead. You can be appalled by the behavior of both combatants.
As a child of the 60’s, the parallels between campus protests then and now is not lost on me. The right Wing reactions are nearly the same, except rather than calling them COMMUNISTS!, now it’s ANTI-SEMITES!
Eventually, the students of the 60’s and 70’s won the argument. I suspect the students of today will win thiers. Israel’s anger at the terrorist attack in October is understandable. However, the brutality and inhumanity of this war is becoming more apparent to Americans every day it continues.
Maybe. But I find the most interesting thing here is the reaction of republicans. After the first day of testimony it’s very clear that Mr. Trump had somethings to hide and that the only news sources he wants to work with are two that are well known for having no journalistic integrity who see him as a cash cow who will make money for them as long as they sell his bull sh!t.
It is pretty ironic that Trump allied himself with the epitome of fake news.