Commentary: A snake on the chest of American universities

It is a scenario that threatens to spread from the US to Europe and beyond to the rest of the world. A group of radical students occupy part of the university and set up camp there. Soon there will also be verbal anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish students, sometimes vandalism. Or both. And from morning to night – but especially when the police approach – the group flaunts its right to free speech.

The leadership will begin with the mutineers meeting. But this often leads nowhere, also because rectors and their representatives have been creating the conditions on campus for years so that small, but extremely noisy, and above all, extremely left-wing opinion platforms remain protected from criticism.

In short, so that opinion ensembles that look enlightened and progressive, but in reality are characterized by a Marxist militant attitude and a tendency to bully people with a different opinion, cannot be pillaged. Universities in the USA played on the breast of the snake. Now they don’t know what to do with him.

But to understand each other. Of course, everyone should have the right to freedom of speech, even if they say the most stupid things. Let the students, affected by something that they think is criminal, gather, drum, strike, or ridicule. Or let them just roll on the ground in the spirit of civil disobedience.

Not only universities, but in general the whole society should be able to handle it. But only until such individuals begin to limit the freedom of others, perhaps by force. Then the fun ends and the police have to step in. Above all, however, it is necessary to confront the delusion that violence can be understood as a manifestation of free thinking and healthy debate. On the contrary, discussion is made impossible by violence.

So how does Israel relate to this? The tolerance of intolerance has created space for an intellectual bullfight in American universities, in which this Middle Eastern country has begun to play the role of a red rag.

As a relatively new state on the world map, it fits perfectly into the silly idea of ​​something artificially created. Israel is also technologically advanced, so you can put it like a pexes against the imaginary picture of usurpation capitalism. It is a Jewish island in a Muslim sea, therefore in the eyes of habitual brevity it looks like something alien. The settlers, who, it is true, are still conquering other parts of the West Bank in a rather indiscriminate way, are then nothing more than the reincarnation of the genocidal colonizers of ancient times. And the biggest sin: Israel is an ally of the United States. After all, you can only manipulate and exploit others, goes the dogmatic, fanatical creed. The vicious circle closes with Gaza. The blindness of the extreme left only sees the Palestinian victims there and without hesitation ignores the hostages who have been imprisoned in the musty tunnels for over half a year.

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The protests have been going on for a few weeks and, unfortunately, the distorted view that they speak for the entire young generation is starting to take hold in the world. Simply that they are similar to the anti-war storms of 1968, when young Americans turned against the campaign in Vietnam.

But at that time there was conscription in the USA. Half a million Americans fought in Vietnam. That year, 17,000 people lost their lives there. Is anyone at risk of being taken away and deployed in Gaza today?

Moreover, compared to the situation more than half a century ago, no polls yet confirm that young Americans identify with pro-Palestinian protesters in droves. Less than five percent of people under the age of 29 express their support for them. For example, the graduates are rather worried that the lavish closing ceremonies are being canceled due to enhanced security measures, which is also sad for many because they have already missed the ceremonial matriculation ceremony due to covid-19.

The popular left-wing guru Bernie Sanders became the standard-bearer of the interpretation about “spokespeople of the young generation”, who said at the weekend that “Gaza is Vietnam for Joe Biden”. Which is a media-grabbing statement, especially when you add to that that a pro-Palestinian group at New York’s Columbia University occupied the famous Hamilton Hall. The police chased him away, but the point is different. In 1968, the hall was the site of one of the first tribunes of the protests of that time.

But Sanders is right that chaotic scenes are not something that would be useful to Biden six months before the election. Donald Trump will surely try to portray him as a person incapable of guaranteeing peace. Paradoxically, it will probably be quite similar to how Biden spoke about Trump at the time. Specifically, four years ago, when Trump’s mandate was running out and America was unexpectedly paralyzed by protests after the death of a black man, George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer.

And second, it is clear that the current protests are likely to hurt Biden among the large Arab community in Michigan, one of the key swing states for the presidential race. Both major parties have equal support there. If anything, then the current uproar at American universities will go down in history not as a powerful expression of youth discontent, but as a minor ingredient in this year’s election stew in the United States.