RUTHFULLY YOURS

The instantaneous worldwide condemnation of Israel by such stalwart defenders of humanitarian rights as Russia, Syria, Turkey and the UN itself, illustrates that hate speech against Israel and Jews has become pro forma and acceptable without question. There was a brief respite from knee jerk anti-semitism after the Second World War exposed its horrifying consequences but following the declaration of Israel’s statehood, the mantle of Jew-hatred was assumed by the Muslim world and eventually by the radical left internationally. Now, in the 21rst century, after all the wars initiated against Israel by Arab forces, after all the world-wide massacres wrought by radical Islam, we still face the curious phenomenon of Israel being singled out as the world’s leading obstacle to peace in our time.

In the west, one of the formative reasons for the demonization of Israel in polite discourse is the leeway afforded to its enemies to express the most outrageous claims in our universities. We have raised a generation of students who have been manipulated by anti-Israel faculties, by craven attempts to boycott Israel economically and intellectually and by such phenomena as Israel Apartheid Week whose very title is not only a patent lie but an insidious attempt to delegitimize a democratic state. Ironically, Israel has successfully integrated people from all over the globe and has afforded more rights to Palestinians than all of their Arab pseudo-supporters combined. Israel has continued to extend humanitarian aid to its self-avowed enemies who deny its right to exist and refuse to meet with its leaders face to face. The non–Muslim students who support Israel Apartheid Week would never participate in a week-long hate fest dedicated to the condemnation of radical jihadi violence against Hindus, African animists, Christians, Jews, gays and women, yet they feel sanctimoniously comfortable scapegoating the only democracy in the middle east and the only bona fide ally of the United States in that region.

Universities which have severely limiting speech codes that protect against offending the sensitivities of numerous sacred cows have no problem allowing the often violence-inducing rallies and speeches that constitute Israel Apartheid Week at the most prestigious campuses in America. When it comes to Israel-bashing, the issue of academic free speech trumps concerns of campus safety for American Jewish students. Conversely, the pro-Israel speakers are often cancelled because of supposed concern for their safety – just think of where civil rights would be today if our government had not been willing to call in the National Guard when it was necessary. Instead of silencing the fomenters of violence, universities often silence its targeted victims. Muslims are allowed safe harbor to whip a crowd into a frenzied mob but there are speech codes to prevent any damage to the sensibilities of religious minorities, excluding Jews.

Imagine a game called “Lynch a Nigger” and before expressing outrage at such a suggestion, note that “Beat the Jew”, a game in which the losers are incinerated or enslaved attracted 40 participants online in California. Seven high school seniors will be disciplined for playing but the more telling point is that students felt no qualms about creating or advertising this horrific “game.” The same young people who have been raised with politically correct sentiments regarding blacks and now Muslims, felt free to organize a game spoofing the holocaust while persecuting Jews. This is a perfect example of the trickle down effects of Israel Apartheid Week or any of the other scurrilous attacks on campus conflating Zionism and Jews with racism, Nazism or apartheid.

Like useful idiots, college administrators have fallen into the traps of groups ultimately intent on destroying our freedom of speech while utilizing it to further their own goals. There is always a fine line in democracy between the expression of hateful thoughts and the incitement to what we now define as hate crime. Our p.c. society has deemed those more odious than the same crimes committed for the more traditional motives of greed, jealousy, rage, substance induced mindset, or any other frivolous emotion that unleashes murderous impulses. If you attacked or killed a Jewish student during Israel Apartheid Week, it would undoubtedly be considered a hate crime. Yet throughout the western world, including all major American cities, you can see kaffiyeh’ed rabble rousers holding signs urging exactly that directive. Their demeanor is frightening and intimidating and knowing what we do of the homicidal domestic incidences of radical jihad, the question is why we tolerate it.

Several Canadian politicians have taken the lead in condemning Israel Apartheid Week in that democratic country; it is time for American universities to remember the incendiary effects of Nazi propaganda and to recoil from its contemporary incarnation in the Islamic demonization of Zionism and Jews.