Kurtzer’s advice on Columbia should be ignored
It mystifies me why people who fail at their jobs continue to be given platforms to give advice. Daniel Kurtzer is a former State Department Arabist who failed spectacularly, along with his colleagues, in achieving their vision for Middle East peace. Now, as if to prove his alma mater gave him the tools for this failure, he is pontificating about the solution to Columbia’s antisemitism problem without acknowledging it exists.
Kurtzer does ask an excellent question to which anyone knowledgeable already knows the answer:
“Where are those in the Palestinian, Palestinian-American, and pro-Palestinian community who should be telling those who support Hamas and threaten Jewish students that they are hurting the Palestinian cause? At a minimum, why have you failed to condemn them and their tactics?”
Where indeed.
They are probably in the same place as the people Kurtzer thought believed in a two-state solution and were willing to live in peace with a Jewish state. If such a group exists, they probably meet in a telephone booth.
It beggars the imagination to think that students who are stupid enough to call themselves “Queers for Palestine” would know what is good for the Palestinian cause that persecutes and murders LBGTQ Palestinians.
And the non-LBGTQ cheerleaders for murdering Jews have never shown an ounce of concern for the persecution of Palestinians by their fellow Palestinians or Arabs in other countries.
While in the State Department, peace processors like Kurtzer ignored the Palestinians calling for jihad and the liberation of Palestine, and their rejection of every peace initiative. Equally myopically, Kurtzer believes their campus supporters are different. The protesters don’t chant, “two-states now” or “peace now” because they are no more interested in peace or a two-state solution than Hamas and the PLO. They share the eliminationist views of those organizations, so, unsurprisingly, what you do hear is “intifada now” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.”
Kurtzer says American Jewish leaders must “keep their focus on protecting free speech and academic freedom and ensuring the safety of all students – Jewish and non-Jewish – on college campuses.”
No, that is not their role. Their job is to ensure the protection of Jewish students. The non-Jews are in no danger. No mobs are calling for their deaths. Jewish leaders must ensure that freedom of speech is not abused, and that Jews are treated the same as other minorities on campus. No one would tolerate the use of the N-word or calling for the death of Blacks, LBGTQ, or women. Jewish leaders should make clear to professors like Kurtzer that academic freedom does not apply to antisemitic speech. There is nothing “academic” about Jew-hatred. Bigotry is permissible under the First Amendment, but that doesn’t mean it is also shielded by academic freedom.
Like so many others unwilling to recognize the campus jihad against Jews, Kurtzer minimizes the seriousness of antisemitism by conflating it with other forms of bigotry. It’s the same cowardice that leads university heads – and the president of the United States – to feel compelled to link condemnation of antisemitism with Islamophobia.
Where are the tent encampments calling for death to Muslims? Where are the Jews who supposedly support genocide? Why aren’t they out marching with signs that say, “Death to Hamas”?
I agree with Kurtzer that “it is wrong to advise students to go home and stay home,” but not because it would hurt the university. They should stay and fight to show they will not be intimidated by antisemitic bullies. They should be marching with Israeli flags through the campus singing Hatikvah and Am Yisrael Chai.
Students should be trained to protest instead of just debating. If hundreds of Jewish students were camping out to insist universities meet their demands to hold students and faculty accountable for their bullying, intimidation, and indoctrination, they would be the ones getting attention. Instead, Jewish students are being told to be scared, to hide, and to stay home. Why is no one mobilizing the thousands of Jewish students and faculty? Can they be mobilized, or are they too scared or indifferent to stand up for themselves and Israel?
The intensity of the protests today is new, but the tolerance of antisemitism is not. Universities have had decades to act but have decided that Jews don’t need or deserve protection because they will accept being bullied and won’t make a fuss like the antisemites are doing today.
Sadly, Jews still haven’t learned what makes universities act. They think they can sue them to get satisfaction. So many complaints have been filed since Oct. 7, it will take years for them to be resolved. Today’s Jewish victims will be long gone.
Kurtzer is wrong when he says students shouldn’t be told not to apply to the best universities. There is no reason for parents to spend $400,000 for a degree at an Ivy League school that allows its faculty and students to promote antisemitism. If the protesters are any indication of the education you get at these institutions, then they are morally, if not academically, bankrupt. Sure, Princeton has an excellent physics department, and the professors use their classroom to teach science and not propaganda, but do you want your child to have to go through gauntlets of protestors or live in a dorm with antisemites? There is no shortage of successful people who received their educations at state universities (though you must also pick those wisely) for a fraction of the price.
Kurtzer is also wrong to advise donors not to withhold funds. Universities care only about money and their image. If not for some billionaires getting publicity for taking a stand, enablers like the presidents at Harvard and Penn would still have their jobs. Hopefully, large and small donors will stop giving to their alma maters and more heads will roll.
And he’s wrong about politicians getting involved. Perhaps they are the only ones who can force universities to change by threatening their federal funding, investigating their discriminatory policies, and holding their leaders accountable.
And he’s wrong to criticize the Israeli prime minister for speaking the truth in suggesting that the situation on American college campuses is beginning to look like Germany in the 1930s and will deteriorate further if people like Kurtzer are listened to.
“Let Columbia and other universities figure this out,” Kurtzer says.
No, they haven’t a clue. They refuse to define antisemitism, let alone act against it. Members of task forces appointed to advise universities on how to address the problem are resigning because they see nothing will change.
Kurtzer says we should “defend the very values that universities like Columbia have been instilling in their students – critical thinking and debate about ideas and inclusivity, designed to foster creative and respectful discourse that defines a liberal education.” Except critical thinking is precisely what is not being taught, as is evident by the ignorant views of the protesters who are supposed to represent America’s elite. Critical race theory, which is taught at Columbia, is the antithesis of critical thinking, and the current value placed on inclusivity while excluding Jews and demonizing them as oppressors and beneficiaries of white privilege are at the root of the problems.
