Chuck Schumer and the Politics of Campus Antisemitism

‘Keep heads down,’ one of his staffers advised the president of Columbia. How did that work out?

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"the atmosphere on campus when students returned to school in the fall remained hostile to Jews and supporters of Israel. Why would the atmosphere have changed? Protesters who broke the law came away largely unscathed. Arrests were made, but charges were dropped. Suspensions were issued and later reversed. Task forces at Harvard and Stanford issued reports that amounted to exercises in politically correct equivocation. Predictably, both antisemitism and Islamophobia were deemed matters of great concern, as if pro-Israel students had been occupying buildings, calling for genocide and physically threatening Muslim students."

"his office reportedly was advising university presidents to ride out the protests because the disruptions were damaging Republicans. According to text messages cited in a House Education and Workforce Committee report issued by Republicans last year, a Schumer staffer told Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, who later resigned, that “the best strategy is to keep heads down.”"

"Immigrants don’t have the same rights as U.S. citizens. The law says that an alien who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity” is “inadmissible.” Mr. Khalil belongs to Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an organization that has championed Hamas and says it is “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.”"

"Mr. Trump is acting in the tradition of previous presidents of both parties who stepped in when local officials declined to protect the rights of minorities."

"Schools are legally obligated to protect the civil rights of all students. Jews are no less deserving of federal intervention than blacks were under Eisenhower and Kennedy."

"The woke left never tires of highlighting slights against blacks and other favored minority groups. The relative blindness of progressives to antisemitism, however, especially when it emanates from nonwhites, undermines their moral credibility."