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Examining the Hate at Harvard, Columbia, and Elsewhere
Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
My bet is that both Ruth R. Wisse and The Wall Street Journal received more than a handful of nasty comments and threats since her opinion essay (“Harvard is an Islamic Outpost”) appeared in the WSJ last week.
But we should thank her for this powerful piece, where she documents the slow penetration and infestation of Islamist ideology into Harvard and academia at large. This has rapidly accelerated in classrooms and through student action since October 7, 2023. The same process has been happening on numerous other campuses around the US, most prominently at Columbia University.
The ensuing chaos, encampments, limiting campus access to Jewish students and faculty, calls for destruction of Israel and so much more, were encouraged by some campus administrators and faculty as expressions of free speech.
But this conduct has finally been called out for what it is — support for terrorist groups, and an assault on the rights and safety of Jewish students. And as Ruth Wisse compared celebrations of October 7 to Kristallnacht pogroms, she noted that “some people were forced to confront what they tried to ignore.” Some, however, did not — and continued to claim that support for October 7, and calls for genocide against Jewish students, were protected as free speech.
It is incomprehensible that the previous administration let radical leftists, radical Islamists, and their supporters have free rein when it came to endangering the civil rights of Jewish students, and it is incomprehensible that the few student leaders of these antisemitic and anti-Zionist demonstrations were considered heroes and freedom fighters.
This would not have happened if the hate had been directed against any other minority group besides Jews.
Now, Columbia, Harvard, and other universities are grappling with the consequences of their inaction. They do not want to lose the huge amount of Federal money they receive, but they do not want to be seen as acquiescing to Trump and people like him. That might be the reason why Harvard President Alan Garber is finalizing a task force dealing with antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment at Harvard. Unfortunately, this task force is diminished by a concurrent task force “on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.”
Harvard still refuses to admit that it has a unique problem regarding discrimination against Jews.
And as for foreign students who have been allowed to support terrorism in the streets of America and on their campuses, it is tragic — if not a travesty — that they are allowed to extol support for radical and terroristic ideologies that seek to destroy our way of life. They often do not appreciate the freedom they experience here, or tolerate any viewpoints that differ from their own. They do not express gratitude for the opportunity to obtain a great education that they can take back home to improve lives in their countries, but are instead seeking to misuse their visas to advocate for terrorism.
It is a pity that this is lost on some of the best universities in the US. Kol Hakavod to Ruth Wisse.
Dr. Jaroslava Halper has been a professor of pathology at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA for many years. She escaped from communist Prague because of antisemitism, and lack of freedom and free speech. The gradual increase of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in certain circles in her second homeland, and the devastating October 7 massacre by Hamas, led her to realize that more active engagement is necessary to combat antisemitism, including anti-Zionism.
The post Examining the Hate at Harvard, Columbia, and Elsewhere first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.