The Verdict on Columbia — Better Late Than Never

After being grilled and bombarded yesterday in Congress before the House Education Committee, today, Columbia University’s president, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik went home to New York and summoned the police to remove anti-Israel protesters from Columbia’s campus.Ms. Shafik’s message: these were “extraordinary steps … because these are extraordinary circumstances.”I’m sure that’s right, but she wanted to sound and look tough in order to keep her job — in contrast to Harvard University’s Claudine Gay, who got the axe because she neither looked nor acted tough on antisemitism.So Columbia’s Ms. Shafik had the New York cops clear the campus, many were arrested, many others will be suspended. They probably won’t take exams. Some won’t graduate.I still see the problem for these elite Ivy League schools being that their presidents and board of directors remain afraid to label antisemitism a hate crime.A key part of this sad tale: DEI — a.k.a. diversity, equity, and inclusion — still rules on these college campuses. And some of the biggest victims of these DEI policies end up being Jewish people and Israel.Until the DEI agenda is rooted out from these schools, these anti-Jewish hate crimes will continue.You had kids out there at Columbia today screaming “we are Hamas” and “from the river to the sea” and other nonsense. These are clear hate crimes targeting Israel, Jewish people, and their very right to exist.Just imagine if student protesters were attacking Blacks or transgender people or any woke identity, how fast these Ivy presidents would’ve kicked everyone out. Probably would lock them up in jail.I guess Ms. Shafik comes out better than some of these elite schools, because at least she took action and did lay down the law, putting down a true red line of sorts. Better late than never.Ms. Shafik admitted to Congress she’s got more work to do, though. The school was not really prepared for these kinds of situations.In fairness, she did fire an antisemitic professor, a guy named Mohamed Abdou.Like most of these big-time schools, though, officials are still afraid to talk about the Jewish history and experience, going back to the Holocaust, back to Joseph Stalin, and back throughout history about the persecution of Jews.A hate crime is a hate crime. Antisemitism is antisemitism. There should be no room for any of that in any of our schools. College presidents have a lot more work to do.At least Ms. Shafik brought the cops in and cleared the protesters out, though. I will score this one for some appropriate sanity.From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.

The Verdict on Columbia — Better Late Than Never

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