Last week, it was revealed -- to the surprise of no one -- that some of the pro-Hamas 'encampments' sprouting up across campuses are being funded by deep-pocketed leftists. "George Soros and his hard-left acolytes are paying agitators who are fueling the explosion of radical anti-Israel protests at colleges across the country," the New York Post reported. "The SJP parent organization has been funded by a network of nonprofits ultimately funded by, among others, Soros, the billionaire left-wing investor." So-called progressives have tried to pretend that criticizing Soros for his chaos-sowing political donations, of which he says he is proud, is somehow "anti-Semitic." Many of these same people deny the overt, actual anti-Semitism on parade at Soros-funded hate rallies. It's fascinating to see how "brave" these students seem to believe they are, while also trying to avoid any negative ramifications for their behavior. Part of old school civil disobedience is accepting consequences. But these people want to cosplay as radicals, including shouting terrorist slogans at the top of their lungs -- just without any meaningful risks or downsides. They're demanding amnesty, per the Associated Press, which reports sympathetically about these people's self-created "plight:"
The students’ plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives...Questions about their academic futures remain. Will they be allowed to take final exams? What about financial aid? Graduation? Columbia says outcomes will be decided at disciplinary hearings, but Alwan says she has not been given a date. “This feels very dystopian,” said Alwan, a comparative literature and society major...For international students facing suspension, there is the added fear of losing their visas, said Radhika Sainath, an attorney with Palestine Legal, which helped a group of Columbia students file a federal civil rights complaint against the school Thursday. It accuses Columbia of not doing enough to address discrimination against Palestinian students. “The level of punishment is not even just draconian, it feels like over-the-top callousness,” Sainath said...More than 40 students were arrested at a Yale demonstration last week, including senior Craig Birckhead-Morton. He is due to graduate May 20 but says the university has not yet told him if his case will be submitted to a disciplinary panel. He worries about whether he will receive a diploma and if his acceptance to Columbia graduate school could be at risk.
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"Clear the charges and withhold other consequences." No. It's remarkable to watch these entitled adult children brazenly violate school policies and break laws, then turn around and insist that none of those actions should hurt them in any way. Several of the students quoted are now angry at their universities for even leaving them in limbo about the direct results of their own actions. It's everyone else's fault but theirs. Oh, and pity the poor international students who've committed similar violations, rallying in solidarity with murderous terrorists, who now fret they might lose their visas. I'm skeptical that the current US administration has any appetite whatsoever for expelling such terror-sympathizing or -supporting guests, with no right to remain in the country, but those people should have their visas yanked. There is no courage or honor in engaging in American activism while demanding privacy, anonymity and amnesty. But that's exactly what these brats want:
They wear masks, sign letters anonymously, chase away cameras, and beg for amnesty so no one ever knows they did it. https://t.co/h81yI1MfTG pic.twitter.com/1MX4nNEIRI
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) April 28, 2024
Sniveling cowards, on behalf of an evil cause. What a combination. And yes, these 'encampments' are making a habit of trying to stifle press coverage. They want to publicly protest in private, getting their message out, except in ways they don't control, occupying and "liberating" land they don't own. What lovely, principled, rational people. One element of their calculus that is rational, however, is their conclusion -- contained in shared documents -- that they will be able to get away with it. They determined ahead of time that punishments would be temporary or nonexistent at the institutions they've captured, and there's a good chance they're right:
They are literally planning around no consequences https://t.co/RoTPT4abnt
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 26, 2024
The only way to deter this lawless disregard for rules is to enforce the rules, with painful repercussions. How many of these left-dominated "elite" schools are willing to do that? In our nation's capital, a private university tried to enforce its rules, albeit belatedly. But the DC higher-ups decided they wouldn't help restore order, even despite the institution's request. Why? Bad optics, they said. So these are the optics they have instead:
DC officials told police to stand down rather than clear this mess at GW, at the school’s request. Bad optics, apparently. They prefer the optics of piles of garbage and people shouting “globalize the intifada,” an explicitly pro-Jew-killing-terrorism chant: https://t.co/1WtjOin70k pic.twitter.com/JVARDx8F5I
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 29, 2024
This unfolded after the GW mob decided to expand its footprint, in light of DC's non-intervention. They overrode outnumbered officers, piled up the barricades, and chanted in support of the intifada late into the night. Another 'no consequences' lesson learned, with immediate and inevitable fallout. One of the students quoted in the AP story above whined about how consequences feel "very dystopian" to her. Perhaps the scenes at George Washington University (and many others elsewhere) feel more than a bit dystopian to Jews on campus, as well as anyone else with common decency, or who doesn't hate Western civilization. At Yale, they tore down an American flag from a war memorial, cheering. At Harvard, they chanted while hoisting a Palestinian flag on central campus, in a space where Old Glory typically flies:
The Ameican flag at Harvard University had been replaced with a Palestinian flag.
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 28, 2024
Video via @sfmcguire79pic.twitter.com/qHxgRn5gqq
Over at Columbia, where journos have been trying to whitewash the nature of the on-campus mob (as we discussed yesterday), they're shouting for violence against insufficiently-radical Palestinian leaders -- and calling for ethnic cleansing the Jews from Israel's land. Understand what we are dealing with:
This is at Columbia.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 29, 2024
They first chant that Abbas, President of the PA, is a spy & they will step on his head (bc of his comments acknowledging Israel’s right to exist) & then chant Palestine should only be Arab.
Don’t let anyone gaslight you about the nature of these protests. https://t.co/bTbujBB5ly
I'll leave you with a reminder that not only do these people feel entitled to a lack of punishment for any of their actions, no matter how heinous, many also expect us to pick up the tab for the debt they've knowingly incurred to attend these 'elite' asylums. And they really are not sending their best:
“Unfortunately, being Gen Z means dealing with repeated states of the world that are in absolute hostility and turmoil.”
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 28, 2024
That is apparently the most articulate quote that the New York Times could extract from a Columbia protester. pic.twitter.com/d4fIOU4a3e
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