Failure to Condemn Hamas

It is not just the leftist intelligentsia that has just awakened to the horrors that our supposedly great universities are teaching. Donors, those whose generous support fills their endowments, have finally figured out what is going on. 

In places like Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, deep-pocketed donors are closing their checkbooks. They are appalled by the failure of the presidents of these schools to denounce those students who blamed Hamas terrorism on Israel.

What does it mean to fail to condemn and denounce? First, it means that Hamas was simply making a statement. Second, it means that Israel has no right to punish Hamas for making said statement.

Such an attitude is beyond appalling. Educators are teaching students that cowardice is a virtue and that it should be rewarded. Didn’t Joe Biden promise a major infusion of funds to Gaza, and thus, to Hamas? 

They are also teaching that some people need not play the game by the rules. When Hamas murdered babies and women, it was showing superior strength and power. For that, college presidents believe that it should be respected. 

The lesson is-- violent oppression is the meaning of life. Free market competition and playing the game by the rules is for chumps. Those who have succeeded in the marketplace have done so because they have overpowered others, because they cheated and stole. 

This is the lesson major universities have been teaching. We have seeing it in the spike in urban crime. Now, we see it in its raw form.

On the other side, one notes that these school presidents, like most presidents of Ivy League schools, are women. If it is any consolation, these schools are being run by strong, empowered women. Repeat after me-- strong, empowered women. 

And yet, when push comes to shove, they have failed at basic moral guidance.

Harvard graduate and Rabbi Julia Appel raised these issues in the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson:

As a rabbi and Harvard College graduate, I am dismayed at President Gay’s continued refusal to publicly rebuke her students who signed on to the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee’s statement last week.

What lessons should the Harvard administration have taught to students who denounced Israel for a massacre committed by Hamas? 

The first was, actions have consequences and you are responsible for your behavior. Assuming, that is, that you are an adult:

Harvard University says it prepares its students for success in the world outside the academy. This should include understanding that, while you are able to say what you like, you are also responsible for the consequences of your speech.

As for those executives, like hedge fund billionaire, Bill Ackman, who have declared that they will not hire any students who belong to the offending groups, Appel explains that:

… no one is required to befriend or support them, to hire them, or keep them on staff.

She adds that freedom of speech does not absolve you of responsibility for your words. It also does not mean that no one can criticize what you have said.

Freedom of speech means that the government does not imprison you or murder you for your speech. It does not mean that you are immune from criticism or consequence. President Gay must uphold her position as an educator by reminding the student signatories of this truth.

But also, your freedom to say anything does not mean that you should. Evidently, the news organizations that rushed to condemn Israel for a misfired missile, sent yesterday by the Islamic Jihad terrorists, into a crowded hospital, did not heed the lesson. 

Perhaps more importantly, just because you can say anything doesn’t mean you should. Speech can cause great harm. A just society is not only one where people have freedom of speech; it is one in which individuals consider the impact of their speech on others.

Again, the weak-kneed president of Harvard told students to feel compassion for those whose groups signed the statement blaming the massacre on the Israelis. It is not exactly a manly virtue. It is not even a leaderly virtue.

Appel remarks that some actions are so heinous that we ought not to shower their perpetrators or their defenders with compassion.

Instead, President Gay has asked all students to “meet one another with compassion.” That is not possible when the other person appears to accept the murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping of your parents, siblings, cousins, and friends. I am astonished it needs to be said, but President Gay must guide the student signatories in understanding that they should not rationalize mass murder. That the student groups later walked back their statement by clarifying that they “remain staunchly opposed against violence against civilians” does not undo their original statement.

Harvard President Claudine Gay suggested that all opinions should command the same quota of respect. Thus, we should respect the views of those who defend mass murder and genocide:

Instead, President Gay has characterized the horror many rightfully feel at the statement of Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee as “declaring the rightness of our own points of view and vilify[ing] those who disagree.” The signatories of this statement have vilified themselves by apparently justifying mass murder. President Gay has failed in her duties as an educator by not rebuking their position, for the sake of what is right, but also for the sake of the signatories themselves.

Along with Julia Appel, emeritus law professor Alan Dershowitz has also taken President Caudine Gay to task on his Substack column:

As Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, put it in refusing to condemn the more than 30 student groups who blamed Israel alone for the Hamas horrors: “Harvard embraces a commitment to free expression.”

That would be acceptable if the university had a strict and consistent policy of never taking positions on issues that do not directly involve the university.

The University of Chicago has that policy. Harvard does not.

Some suggest that universities should manifest neutrality on larger public issues. Unfortunately, they have issued grand public statements on other issues, like the murder of George Floyd.

Dershowitz continues:

Former Harvard president Lawrence Summers reminded the current administration the school has forfeited that prerogative — to “pursue a policy of neutrality” — by speaking out on other issues such as the killing of George Floyd.

The president of Harvard should have condemned those student groups who blamed Israel for the massacre:

Is supporting the mass murder of Jews any less deserving of condemnation than supporting those who burn churches, shoot gays or lynch blacks?

How then can you justify not condemning the Harvard groups?

Is it because you would be criticized for condemning pro-Hamas students but praised for condemning anti-black and anti-gay bigots?

That is not a principled basis for making a distinction. What then is the basis?

A good question, one that the presidents of major universities have failed to ask or to answer. Failing to condemn the actions of Hamas counts as a validation of their tactics. It tells students, yet again, that the game is rigged, that people who have failed at it were cheated and oppressed and that any means of destroying it are acceptable.

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