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Harvard Let Students Mourn the US Election; Where Was That Sympathy Post-October 7?
Students accusing Israel of genocide at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Nov. 16, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, Harvard professors quickly rescheduled or even canceled classes, offering students space to “process” their emotions.
Class attendance was optional, assignments were extended, and some professors even opened their offices as “spaces to grieve” the results of an election.
This was their response to an exercise of the democratic process. Harvard’s response last year to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust stands in telling contrast.
On October 7, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis, Americans, and others were massacred by Hamas and Palestinian terrorists, Jewish students were faced not with grief counselors and sympathetic professors, but a mob that was often incited by those same professors.
The overwrought response to the results of a free and democratic election — which Palestinians have been denied for almost two decades by their own leaders — reveals a troubling pattern of emotional manipulation and simplification by Harvard. It’s a real-world manifestation of a problem that follows the pattern of social media rage-bait.
On TikTok, algorithm-driven narratives often prioritize distortion over substance. TikTok’s content caters to user preferences, often resulting in echo chambers and oversimplified narratives. However, users generally understand the platform’s nature — it is social media, designed for quick consumption and viral spread. There’s an implicit understanding that content is often exaggerated or sensationalized for engagement.
Harvard, on the other hand, purports to be a bastion of higher learning and critical thinking. Strikingly, its treatment of the Israel-Palestinian conflict has devolved into a similar pattern of reductionism and emotional manipulation. The difference? Harvard’s approach comes with the veneer of academic credibility, making it far more insidious.
On social media, professional expertise is often seen as a plus. Commercial landscapers, fashion designers like me, and devoted activists are sought out for our conclusive opinions. But academia is supposed to be different. Higher education isn’t supposed to deliver an endless stream of hot takes. Universities are meant to teach and hone the process of discovering truth, in contrast to activists who advance crystallized conclusions. You would think that Harvard would want its students in class the day after a pivotal election to engage with the results, not encourage students to retreat from this challenge under the guise of “processing their emotions” — a “processIng” notably free of supervision from mental health professionals.
“It’s indoctrination, not education,” a faculty member is quoted as saying in the academic audit conducted by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (HJAA) released in May 2024.
False accusations of Israeli genocide are buttressed by academic theories like settler colonialism. The HJAA audit found that the settler colonialism framework exists across the School of Public Health, the Divinity School, and the English and Anthropology departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, not just in fields focused on the Middle East.
Since October 8, 2023, Harvard has stubbornly demonstrated that it has sunk below the intellectual standards of TikTok in its approach to the ongoing Middle East conflict. Both Harvard and the social media company present a crude, simplified, and emotionally provocative view of this prominent issue, but at least with TikTok, users know what they’re getting. Harvard today is no better for academic discourse than the comment section on a social media video, the place where carefully cited facts are given the same weight as the poop emoji. In that context, it makes sense that professors would feel students need space to “grieve” a presidential election that didn’t go their way.
However egregious Harvard’s failings are in comparison to TikTok, there is one significant difference, where Harvard does offer hope. We are mired in debates about making social media safe and free, safeguarding the First Amendment while protecting the vulnerable. Clean solutions for social media are elusive. But Harvard does have a clear path to improvement.
Harvard’s recent steps toward institutional neutrality should be applauded and taken as a starting point. Harvard must demonstrate a clear commitment to stamping out antisemitism by adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, conducting an independent investigation into the issue on campus, and actually enforcing the university’s own code equally and transparently. Faculty members, who too often are the ones pushing antisemitism on their students, should have additional training to combat this. And if professors continue to make campus unsafe for the Jewish community, the administration needs to act as the adult in the room and dismiss them.
Harvard could also end its collaboration with Birzeit University, known for educating would-be terrorists, graduating actual terrorists, some while imprisoned for conducting lethal terror attacks, hosting military parades featuring mock suicide bombers, and barring Israelis from entering.
Scores of students are already reconsidering their attendance at this storied institution because of its failure to prevent campus from turning into the worst iterations of a social media echochamber. Harvard can either renew its focus on academic integrity — and Veritas — or ride the social media cycle through to irrelevance like MySpace and Friendster.
Roni Brunn is the Vice President of Media Relations at the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance and a social media content creator.
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
The post Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
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3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – The third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has concluded on Saturday, US media reported.
The two sides are understood to have discussed the US lifting of sanctions on Iran, with focuses on technical and key topics including uranium enrichment.
On April 12, the US and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, marking the first official negotiation between the two sides since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The second round of indirect talks took place in Rome, Italy, on April 19.
All parties, including Oman, stated that the first two rounds of talks were friendly and constructive, but Iranian media pointed out that the first two rounds were mainly framework negotiations and had not yet touched upon the core issues of disagreement.
According to media reports, one of the key issues in the expert-level negotiations will be whether Washington will allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment within the framework of its nuclear program. In response, Araghchi made it clear that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable.
The US, Israel and other Western actors including the United Nation’s nuclear agency reject Iranian claims that its uranium enrichment is strictly civilian in its goals.
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