By Joseph Frager, MD
Elie Wiesel said it best. “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” The silence from university presidents at Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, George Washington University, and Cooper Union is deafening. Paid protesters, agitators, and rabble rousers have wreaked havoc on campuses around the country.
At Cooper Union, Jewish students were subjected to a pro-Hamas mob that terrorized them. At George Washington University the statements, “Glory to our martyrs” and “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” which is the code for the annihilation of Israel, was projected on its library wall. At Penn, well-known anti-Semites were featured at the Palestine Writes Festival held on the eve of Yom Kippur—the holiest day of the Jewish year. This was met with total silence from the hierarchy and carried extra meaning of outrage in light of the massacre on October 7, not long afterwards. Similarly, Princeton’s inclusion of Jasbir Puar’s book entitled, The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability for a Humanities course eerily predicted and encouraged the Hamas abhorrent behavior on October 7. At Harvard, a student group penned a letter saying that Israel was “entirely responsible” for the October 7th evil.
Besides a number of protests in support of Hamas at Columbia, one of its full professors, Joseph Massad, called the horrific actions of Hamas on October 7 “astounding” and “incredible.” Thirty-four thousand signatures were garnered asking for his firing.
Pro-Hamas demonstrations have sprouted up like wildfire. After the slaughter of well over 1,400 men, women, and children using the cruelest, most vicious, and barbaric methods in the history of the human race, one might think that pro-Hamas supporters might run for cover. Quite the opposite. They are more vocal, more violent, and more emboldened than ever. The rise of Hamas in America is alarming. When did society become so twisted? Although according to a Harvard (CAPS)/Harris poll performed by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies, Harris and HarrisX the majority of Americans from both Republican and Democratic Parties overwhelmingly support Israel over Hamas. Eighty-four percent of Americans support Israel and 88% say Israel has the right to respond militarily. The kicker is that among 18–24-year-olds in the U.S., only 48% feel the same way. The 18–24-year-old group do a little better at 65% when asked if Israel has the right to protect its citizens by retaliating against Hamas. The generational divide is disturbing, and shocking. It also points to the brainwashing that has been happening on campuses around the country.
Unless the U.S.’s 18–24-year-old voter bloc has a total transformation, which is unlikely, America is headed towards very serious and blinding headwinds. How anyone on this earth can justify the beheading of babies, the murder and kidnapping of Holocaust survivors, and the rape and sodomizing of women, is beyond the pale. There is something seriously wrong and utterly despicable that this demographic of young people can hold such an opinion. It is beyond comprehension. It requires more than just an attitude adjustment. Unless America reverses course it does not bode well for this great country.
