What isn’t being said at Columbia
Why the double standard applied to Israel is inherently antisemitic
(First published on the Times of Israel)
Not to get too academic here, but what is the criteria by which one decides to go out and protest the support of one’s government of another? If we are to accept the protestors at Columbia and campuses across the world at their word, they are motivated by purely humanistic calculations. The mass death in Gaza is simply too much for them to bear, and they hold Israel solely responsible. From their perspective, their protest is a legitimate outcry against their government’s support for a country killing so many innocent people.
I share their concern for the safety of innocents. While I recognize the fact that Israel has done more to protect civilians in urban warfare than any other army in history, I believe the government of Israel has pursued a ruinous strategy that has managed to fail on all fronts. Too many innocents have suffered the price of that failure. That is why I have joined the weekly protests here in Israel in support of the hostages and calling for the immediate resignation of our failed political leadership. Yet my protest and the protests of my fellow Israelis are different than the protests on campus in that we are Israeli, served our country, and are directly impacted by its policies.
The students and faculty protesting, on the other hand, have a clear choice. They could protest their country’s lack of action to end the on-going actual genocide in Sudan, or the slow genocide in the Congo, or the genocidal and slave-owning regime in Yemen. Or Turkey or Iran’s repression of the Kurds. They could foreswear their iPhones and Chinese-manufactured items in protest of the government’s internment of the Uyghurs and ethnic cleansing of Tibetans. They could protest the Chinese support for devastation and wanton violence against the Rohingya and Hmong and myriad other peoples across the countries they are literally colonizing. Incidentally, Chinese arms and money and Russian training and mercenaries are behind nearly all of these ethnic cleansings and wars.
Or if the protesters are simply racists who do not care about Africans or Asians or non-Arab Middle Easterners, how about the war the US is most actively supporting with its guns and treasure? In Ukraine, as of 22 February 2024, “30,457 civilians were killed and wounded, including 10,582 civilians killed in the conflict, including 587 children,” and “31,000 soldiers had been killed since 2022” which is probably an underestimation. The British estimate that “approximately 450,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded,” with Ukraine estimating 180,000 of those dead. If we are humanists and move behind a Rawlsian Veil, and accept the claim that the students and their professors only want their government to stop human suffering, one would imagine they would pick any of these conflicts first on a dollars-for-blood calculation of return on investment.
All of which is to say that the choice of a conflict to protest says as much about the protestors as it does about the conflict they are protesting. When the only cause you care about is the destruction of the Jewish State, you accept the historic mantle of antisemitism. When the only blood worthy of your time is the blood spilled by Jews, you perpetuate the blood libel. When you live and breathe and eat from a Western colony that continues to colonize and denigrate a people from wanting to live freely in their ancient home, you are the heir to the empires who exiled the Jews time after time.
The well-meaning people justifying the protests on campus are, too, implicated in this bias. A Left that does not value all blood equally, a Left that doesn’t stand against antisemitic intentions and actions, a Left that accepts silence when it comes to the violence in Africa or Asia or Europe and even champions the perpetrators is no Left at all. It is a racist, anti-humanitarian movement obsessed with the alleged crimes of the Jews. Those who perpetuate the claim that the protestors are antiwar when they loudly proclaim they are for annihilation of Israel are fellow travelers and apologists who should know better.
What is not being said at Columbia or in the coverage of Columbia is that if these protesters really wanted a ceasefire they would first and foremost call for Hamas to release all of the hostages. Every last one of them. Without regards to the color of their skin or the origins of their DNA. Then, my fellow citizens in Israel would finally be able to take down this government and end this poorly executed war. Until those who presume to be anti-war identify the true evil that sparked this round of violence and stand in solidarity with the innocents bleeding on all sides, there will be no peace, only antisemitic spasms of political violence.
Updates on my work:
For Hebrew speakers, Israel’s leading business paper, TheMarker, hosted me on its podcast to talk about Columbia and more importantly the World’s Campus strategy for how to transform Israel’s relationship with the academy and the world.
For English readers, this whitepaper dives into the World’s Campus strategy - would love to hear what you think.
My book providing a new vision for Israel is first draft ready! I’m looking for early readers to give comments and suggestions, so if you’re interested, feel free to take a look here and let me know if you’d like the epub version for your Kindle.
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You wrote: "I believe the government of Israel has pursued a ruinous strategy that has managed to fail on all fronts."
I live in the United States and I believe the only reason the strategy has not yet succeeded is because of our lack of support for Israel to finish defeating Hamas in Rafah and lack of US support to invade Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah's rocket capacity and tunnels and re-establish a buffer that international security guarantees failed to deliver. Doing these things would deter the Islamist Republic of Iran and terrorism around the world.
I know you have friends in Gaza and you are very concerned for their safety. I am too. However I think they are far less safe if Israel can't finish the Rafah operation and take control of the border with Egypt. As we speak, Hamas is using the drawdown of troops from Gaza to kill people who it deems collaborators with Israel. I'm sure your friends will be highly likely to be on their list of suspected collaborators. And if Hamas kills them and their bodies are later dug up in a mass grave, Hamas will claim that Israel killed them during the war.
And if Israel isn't supported by the United States to win the war that was launched on it simultaneously by Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel will have no bargaining power to require that Palestinian leadership drop the "right of return" demand as a precondition to negotiation for recognition of statehood. This is what Einat Wilf has been saying is an essential precondition. No leverage = no precondition.
What is in the works is that European countries are going to unilaterally recognize Palestine as a state at the United Nations and the US is not going to veto. By protesting against the current government in Israel you have sent a message to Americans that you want the war to be forced to end before Israel can win. If this plays out like I think it will, Israel will have no leverage to make any demands and all the power will be in the hands of the alliance of dictatorships and the terrorist groups that give them plausible deniability when they attack democracies.
There's an article on JNS called "How MBS will prop up Ramallah—and sideline Israel" - please take a look at that. Israel needs to win the war and for American politicians to support Israel to do it, they have to see that you are standing in solidarity with the current administration to finish the job.
This ongoing story about the idf has done more to protect civilians in urban warfare than any other army in history! where does this come from? we know that eyes in the sky can see exactly who the target is! we know that the precision bombs can hit exactly where they are meant to! we know this because the idf told us so when they took out hezbollah leadership in Lebabnon and Iranian leadership in Syria. So why the high kill rate? why the destruction of all civil infrastructure? and so many homes? Have you actually tracked the destruction of civilian infrastructure? How long will it take to be rebuilt? What sort of life will the people there live if the war ends? Do you think they will like Israel for destrying wgat they had? will this build peaceful future generations?
Then you go on to suggest where the students should protest they want genocide to end in other parts of the world etc BUT this is not on their screens day in and day out and their govt is not funding those govts with the largest proportion of foreign aid to any other country to the tune of $3.5 billion excluding additional support for the war in gaza!
using that argument is like saying the anti vietnam war movement and the anti iraq war movement should have focused on something else! which indeed they should have. like the abiliity of the state to lie to its people and conduct a war in violation of UN resolutions on trumped up evidence. I can think of many reasons to protest but normally it takes one flash point in this case the war in gaza and the slaughter of innocents. How can you now state that the protests is antisemitic because its focused on israels aggression !!!! sorry but it doesnt add up. You may want it to but it doesnt.
The problem in the world is that leaders are not held accountable, there should have repurcussions for the lies in the Iraq war but the west contrils the narrative and they are the good guys and good guys cant be charged with war crimes.
To further state that the protests are for the destruction of the Jewish state is a leap. The protests are to stop the killing and destruction of Gaza. How will that result in the destruction of the zionist project ?
And then finally the blame is shifted to Hamas they must release the hostages and everything will be ok, there will be a ceasefire. But how many times has Hamas offered to release hostages ? the problem is that The Israeli war cabinet doesnt like the terms as there is another agenda we have heard it vocalised live on TV by the leadership!