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When Words Become Weapons

(New York Post) David Harris - What does "Free, free Palestine" mean? It sure isn't a cry for peace or coexistence. Rather, it's a call for the annihilation or expulsion of nearly 10 million Israelis, who live in a land associated with the Jewish people since time immemorial. Hamas, arguably the most regressive social movement on the planet, has been repackaged as a "progressive" cause. That has led to bizarre images of politicians, not to mention LGBTQ and women's groups, embracing a cause that opposes everything they purportedly stand for. Unless decisive action is taken, more innocent people may meet the same fate of political violence in America as Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. Free speech is a hallowed tradition. But when free speech becomes violent speech, when it seeks to incite, when it says some people, like Israelis and Zionists, have no right to live, it has crossed a line that can't be ignored or intellectualized away. When instigators march around with their faces covered to hide their identity, this must be stopped. In fact, it should have ended long ago. Would anyone today allow the Ku Klux Klan to get away with this at Columbia? Antisemitism has a long and lethal history. It must never be minimized, rationalized or lumped together with every other "ism" or "phobia" under the sun to diminish its significance and specificity. Appeasing the mob isn't a strategy; it's an act of abject cowardice. Unless things change, and rapidly, in taking on the elaborate ecosystem in which Sarah and Yaron's assassin was incubated, more lives will be lost. The writer is executive vice chair of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).
2025-05-27 00:00:00
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