Palestinian State on Broadway

Israelis concerned about the establishment of a Palestinian State in their neighborhood will not draw any comfort from the Palestinian State now being established in ours on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  As far as neighbors are concerned, we could wish for better.

Members of Columbia’s Palestinian student organizations and their sympathizers (some actually admitted to the University), heads wrapped in kaffiyes to shield them from NYC smog (and from identification) have spent the last two weeks in an encampment on the main quad on campus, chanting “from the river to the sea” and “intifada now” (translation: “kill the Jews in Israel) and saying, in recorded interviews, that “Zionists should not be allowed to live” (translation: kill most of the rest of us).  They then denied with a straight face (if you could see one) making Jewish students, some of whom report they have been assaulted physically as well as mentally, feel at all uncomfortable.  Their proof: some Abby Hoffman wannabe’s held an outdoor seder among the collection of $29 Amazon tents.

The university first attempted to reason with the occupants of the encampment. When that failed, they allowed the police to issue some of them summonses for trespass.  When even that failed to restore order, the school’s administrators attempted to negotiate again, to no avail.  Finally, the trespassers were directed to vacate or face school discipline.  Their answer:  peering through head gear with desert sunglasses looking exactly like Isis warriors ready to behead an infidel poetry student who might accidently wander by, they pulled out hammers from under their robes and began smashing open the glass doors in order to storm and occupy nearby Hamilton Hall, which they trussed with zip ties they just happened to have and blockaded with upturned metal tables and pilfered police barricades.  I suppose it’s only natural to want to take over a state that has indoor plumbing.

What does this say about the future?  For years, decades now, Israel has been searching for a “peace partner” so it can finally separate from the Palestinians.  Somebody reasonable, non-violent, trustworthy, grounded, calm, civilized, able to command the respect of both sides.  Good luck finding someone with those traits in the Middle East.  You can’t even find one on an Ivy League campus in New York.