Never confuse reasons with results.
The government is withholding $400 million in federal funds from Columbia University. The reason being given is that the New York institution supposedly isn’t doing enough to fight antisemitism.
To convey the actual result, consider a metaphor: Imagine a Chicago synagogue threatened by neighborhood Nazis. So I go spray-paint a big red swastika on the front door, explaining this will satisfy any antisemites who might be tempted to go inside and cause trouble.
Would you say, “Well done, Neil! That’ll keep the congregation safe.” Or would you suspect that, pretense aside, I’m actually hurting the very people who I am pretending to help? Because that’s the practical result of clawing back nearly half a billion dollars from Columbia, which though not quite a synagogue, has an undergraduate population that is 23% Jewish. Princeton University’s is less than 10%.
Meanwhile, 10 other colleges whose campuses were riven by pro-Palestinian protests during the war in Gaza, including Northwestern University, have received letters from the Justice Department warning them that they too are on the block.
Don’t get me wrong. Did student protests at various colleges, in the heat of the war in Gaza, often end up harassing Jewish students and calling for the destruction of Israel? Sure. Is that kind of thing going to happen in any situation where large groups of 20-year-olds are permitted to say what’s on their young minds? Again, sure. Defunding colleges for that reason is a ruse, the way that imposing tariffs on other countries because Americans abuse a lot of their fentanyl is a ruse.
In this era when language is degraded — I can’t bring myself to say “meaningless” though we’ve bought the ticket and are on the platform — one shouldn’t get caught up on reasons. Bullies are cowards and liars. They rarely say, “I’m hitting you because I’m a bad person and like it.” They always gin up excuses: “He bumped into me,” or “I didn’t like his face.” The reasons are supposed to explain away whatever wrong act is being done. They don’t, and it doesn’t help when the victim falls into the trap of assessing the validity of the excuse: “Hmm, maybe I did look at him funny….”
I would never pretend to read the government’s mind, no longer having the microscope I got for the boys when they were growing up. But one can connect the dots. With the Department of Education being disbanded, government scientific research frozen, study results censored, facts suppressed and the media threatened, demanding that elite universities gag their students feels of a piece. It’s all part of a war on the learned and on free expression.
Judaism is a religion, but it’s also a culture, and that culture values education, Stephen Miller notwithstanding, and believes in speaking out. Jews tend to think about stuff, then ask questions. Attacks on education, like attacks on free speech and tolerance, are attacks on Jews. And if Jews aren’t in the cross-hairs at this particular moment, give it time.
Because victims of hatred are fungible; any convenient target will do. Why do you think all this energy has been expended over trans people? It isn’t because the right is such a fan of women’s sports. Trans is the victim du jour. Donald Trump was elected in 2016 by demonizing Hispanics, later adding Muslims, then nimbly shifting over to trans folk and federal workers. Now colleges. The object of the hatred hardly matters. Jews are a common target, and there’s always an excuse — we were mean to Jesus, we drive hard bargains, the state of Israel is a country. Ignore the excuse. Look at the result. The government isn’t combating antisemitism; it’s manifesting it.
Remember that the primary motivation of the Trump administration is to aggregate power to itself while extracting retribution against anyone who questioned or might question Trump’s right to rule. Somehow, those reasons never get articulated. So naturally the educated classes are a target. The administration is flexing its muscles, for whatever reasons the public will buy. Seeing how far they can go.
This week ICE arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a valid green card holder, citing his leading pro-Palestinians protests at Columbia. The given reason was to combat antisemitism. The actual result is to begin acclimating the public to the idea of people being arrested for what they say. Label their speech antisemitisim — or treason, or dangerous — and snap on the cuffs. Legal residents now, American citizens later. It could be me next, for writing columns such as this one. Or you, for reading them.