From college campuses to corporate newsrooms to Chinese-owned TikTok, anti-Israel content has become pervasive ever since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. Thousands of people are flooding the streets of cities across the U.S. to support Hamas, accuse Israel of “genocide,” and call for a ceasefire. Just last week, a pro-Palestinian protester killed a Jewish man on the streets of Southern California. Yet, the national outcry over antisemitism within the pro-Palestinian movement appears muted if not nonexistent. We must come to grips with the fact that this groundswell of support for terror didn’t happen in a vacuum. It is the culmination of years of anti-Israel sentiment that has taken over our institutions and even some companies.
Our campuses are full of radical anti-Israel professors, many of whom have praised Hamas’ attack and even blamed the Jewish state for the slaughter on Oct. 7. These antisemites are indoctrinating our students with poisonous lies about Israel. The attacks on the Jewish community at various universities are the predictable result of the antisemitic propaganda many professors are teaching. In response to these vicious antisemitic attacks, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and I are calling on President Biden to enforce existing law and cancel the visas of those who endorse or espouse activity that is in support of Hamas or other Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
It’s not just our campuses – anti-Israel sentiment is widespread on social media. TikTok is amplifying anti-Israel content to its users. Between Oct. 23-30, videos with #StandWithPalestine garnered 285 million views globally, while videos with #StandWithIsrael received just 64 million views. TikTok is attempting to shape the opinions of its users against Israel because leveraging the Palestinian cause to weaken Israel is in the interest of Communist China. The New Axis of Evil knows that by undermining Israel, they can undermine the entire West. This is why Beijing condemned Israel’s actions of self-defense in response to the Oct. 7 attack as “collective punishment.” It also explains why Beijing erased the Jewish state from its online maps.
As expected, the left-wing media have been willing participants in Hamas’ propaganda campaign. After briefly focusing on the Oct. 7 pogrom against Israel, the media quickly reverted back to their usual practice of declaring a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Outlets like the Washington Post continue to unquestioningly cite Hamas’ death toll statistics – numbers that don’t distinguish between terrorists and civilians. Perhaps most outrageous was the fact that left-wing outlets jumped at the fake story disseminated by Hamas that Israel bombed a hospital, killing at least 500 people. The media’s goal is clear: vilify Israel. This is why, in the midst of a nearly 400 percent increase in antisemitic incidents as compared to the same period last year, the White House is developing a national strategy to combat Islamophobia.
The horrific outpouring of support for Hamas and skyrocketing antisemitism across our country has been shocking, and it should be all the proof necessary that our institutions are completely broken. Still, leading cultural figures like Barack Obama, who claimed we are all “complicit” in the Hamas massacre, have shamelessly equivocated about Israel’s actions to eliminate Hamas and cast blame on both sides. Fortunately, in spite of this, the virulent antisemitism that has surfaced since Oct. 7 has been eye-opening for many Americans. It has exposed the true nature of our institutions and many of our nation’s most prominent voices. The backlash against Israel is even more reason why we need more free thinkers in positions of power so we can recapture these institutions. Those of us still willing to speak with moral clarity must stand with Israel and the Jewish people against those who want to see the Jewish state wiped off the map.
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When you make a statement like Marsha Blackburn made in her opinion letter to the Chattanoogan.com facts are needed to back up what she writes. The following clip from her letter makes a blatant statement but has no facts to back it up.
"Our campuses are full of radical anti-Israel professors, many of whom have praised Hamas’ attack and even blamed the Jewish state for the slaughter on Oct. 7. These antisemites are indoctrinating our students with poisonous lies about Israel. The attacks on the Jewish community at various universities are the predictable result of the antisemitic propaganda many professors are teaching. In response to these vicious antisemitic attacks, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and I are calling on President Biden to enforce existing law and cancel the visas of those who endorse or espouse activity that is in support of Hamas or other Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”
I need facts, not opinions. I need to see a list of all the radical anti-Israel professors and universities and of all of the campuses that she is talking about. I have attended five universities to get my degree and in a job that I had I called on the Social Science and Humanity professors in literally hundreds of universities and colleges, many of them elite colleges, and never heard a word that would support her premise. Without a list of the professors, colleges and universities who she seems to think are attempting to indoctrinate the students to antisemitic attitudes - without that list, Senator Blackburn is simply blowing smoke.
Just because students are rallying in support of the Palestinians is nothing more than students exercising their rights free speech and their right of peaceful assembly. I am no supporter of Hamas or Hezbollah, they are doing no good for the Palestinians who are non-combatants. I am not a supporter of hostages taken in the process of their activities. I also do not support the Hamas organization killing and capturing Israeli civilians. I do think that both Hamas and Hezbollah are terroristic organizations and need to stop their terroristic actions.
On the other hand, I do not think that Israel needs to be killing over 10,000 non-combatants. At the time of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the Jewish population of what is now Israel was 10 percent of the population in that area. Therefore, 90 percent of those already living there were Palestinians. There was an attempt in 1948 by the Israelis called the Nakba which was an attempt to ethically cleanse the area of all of the Palestinians and on the news the other night the question came up about what should be done to with the Palestinians and with that came a scream “kill them all.” Is that what Senator Blackburn wants?
World War I is the mother of all wars in Europe and the Middle East. Besides the Balfour Declaration, which was signed with no negotiations on the Palestinians. The other Middle Eastern wars were literally brought about by an agreement made in 1918 called the Sykes-Picot Agreement which realigned virtually all of the Islamic states with no attention being paid to the existence of the various sects of Islam. It was designed by two military men, one from England and one from France. The Peace of Versailles which stopped the fighting just tacitly accepted both the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a realignment for the purposes of giving the two countries, France and England control over the Islamic States. Almost nothing is written about the Sykes-Picot, I have found only two other than a trite treatment which is on Wikipedia that would give you a good assessment of the Agreement.
What the students are rallying for is the end of the indiscriminate missiles and bombs that are killing innocent Palestinians who had no control over Hamas and only a few of the leaders of Hamas even live in Gaza.
Wars are not fun and games to either the combatants or the non-combatants. I have been in mine. My fear is that this will evolve into a larger war, maybe World War III and the US will be involved.
Raleigh C. Perry