Hamas Exposes Academia’s Moral Perversion

o view a PDF of this briefing, click here    To dig deeper into this subject, click here 

                                  
“The cheerleading for Hamas on many campuses has led wealthy donors to suspend their financial support, but it has also precipitated a shattering moment of moral clarity. Quoth one major donor to Harvard: “We are stunned and sickened by the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians.” – Roger Kimball
 _______________________________________________________

This week’s  Communiqué Isranet  is Appeler un chat, un chat: les ONG humanitaires et l’ONU sont les alliés du Hamas
———————————————————————————————-

OUTRIGHT LIES

University Presidents’ Abhorrent Hypocrisy on Anti-Jewish Speech:  The Editors, National Review, Dec. 6, 2023 — All of a sudden, America’s elite universities have started to sound like John Stuart Mill. Asked yesterday by Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) whether students who call for “intifada” or shout “from the river to the sea” were acting “contrary to Harvard’s code of conduct,” Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, struck a notably enlightened pose.
_______________________________________________________

Hamas’s Barbarity Heightens the Crisis in Higher Education:  Michael R. Bloomberg, WSJ, Nov. 17, 2023
Hamas and Retaking Higher Education:  Roger Kimball, The Spectator, Nov. 14, 2023
Hamas: Made in the U.S.A.:  Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, Nov. 25, 2023
Hate in America: Our Universities have been Incubators for Years:  Penny Pance, Washington Times, Nov. 28, 2023
______________________________________________________

Hamas’s Barbarity Heightens the Crisis in Higher Education
Michael R. Bloomberg
WSJ, Nov. 17, 2023

“Instead of issuing statements on selective issues, college presidents should adopt the policy the University of Chicago has stuck to since 1967, when it declared: “The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic.”

The barbaric attack by Hamas against Israel—the intentional slaughter of defenseless civilians, including children and babies, and the taking of hostages—should have been a unifying moment for America. Shamefully, it has become something else: a wake-up call about a crisis in higher education.

It has been painful to watch students at elite colleges implicitly or explicitly endorse Hamas’s attack. They aren’t old enough to remember 9/11, and it’s clear they never learned its lesson: Intentionally targeting civilians for slaughter is inexcusable no matter the political circumstances.

For Americans, this isn’t a matter of defending Israel but of defending our nation’s most sacred values. One can support the Palestinian people and still denounce the intentional slaughter of civilians.

Why have so many students failed to do so? The answer begins where the buck stops—with college presidents. For years, they have allowed their campuses to become bastions of intolerance, by permitting students to shout down the voices of others. They have condoned “trigger warnings” that shield students from difficult ideas. They have refused to defend faculty who run afoul of student sentiment. And they have created “safe spaces” that discourage or exclude opposing views.

College presidents have also allowed campuses to become institutions of conformity. In a 2014 commencement speech at Harvard, I warned that many of America’s top colleges had become Soviet-like in their lack of viewpoint diversity. As I noted, 96% of donations from Ivy League faculty and staff in the 2012 presidential election went to Barack Obama, while only 4% went to another Harvard alumnus, Mitt Romne. … [To read the full article, click here]
________________________________________________________

Hamas and Retaking Higher Education
Roger Kimball
The Spectator, Nov. 14, 2023

‘The real change, if it comes, will be the loss of widely shared social legitimacy that this revolution-by-major-donors may precipitate.”

Maybe there is something for which we have to thank Hamas after all. That savage terror group epitomizes the latest form of murderous, antisemitic brutality. The world — most of it — has been sickened and appalled by the spectacle of burnt, mutilated and headless corpses. Aiming at maximum shock, the terrorists made no distinction between young and old, male and female, Israeli and foreign national.

Recording from Today’s Q&A

I was very happy to be able to cover so many of your questions today during the briefing and look forward to doing another Q&A session next week.  It was also great to start Hanukkah with candle lighting by soldiers on the Gaza border.

One of the questions I addressed today was about UN Security Council Resolution 1701.  The IDSF Research Department published a paper on this issue this week, click here to read it.

If you missed today’s briefing, you can view the recording by clicking here.

The next briefing will be on Monday at 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  We will hear from Lt. Colonel Res. Sarit Zehavi about what is happening on Israel’s northern border.  Click here to sign up if you have not already done so. If you have already registered for the briefings, then you do not need to register again.

If you enjoy our daily briefings and find them educational, please consider forwarding this email to family and friends, and encourage them to register as well.

ICYMI: The Concept of “Proportionality” in International Law and the Laws of Armed Conflict

In Case You Missed It

Please consider sponsoring an EMET webinar featuring top experts offering critical insights impacting Israel and U.S. national security. Policymakers and the general public need to hear these voices. Your support is essential for these webinars to continue. Sponsor a webinar here.

This webinar was generously sponsored by Donna Gary in loving memory of David Arthur Cohen

As the days of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have come to a close, some serious questions will be asked about the IDF by many critics of the state of Israel. First and foremost: Is this a just and moral war? What does the concept of “proportionality” mean during armed conflict? What is the first obligation of any government? Is the IDF behaving morally, ethically, and legally according to the standards set forth under international law?

Here to answer these questions is Natasha Hausdorff, Director of UK Lawyers for Israel. UK Lawyers for Israel uses the law against attempts to undermine, attack, and de-legitimatize the state of Israel, Israeli organizations, Israelis, and supporters of Israel.

About the Speaker: Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister in London, who holds law degrees  from Oxford and Tel Aviv Universities and was a Fellow in the National Security Law Programme at Columbia Law School.

Natasha previously worked for Skadden Arps, in London and Brussels and clerked for the President of the Israeli Supreme Court, Chief Justice Miriam Naor, in Jerusalem.

She speaks frequently on international law, foreign affairs and national security policy on television and through the media.