Liberal-leaning US campuses are taking the Joe Biden administration to task for its support of Israel's retaliatory actions after the brutal Hamas attack.
There is an outbreak of anti-Semitism on university campuses and growing concern about the possible consequences. On Monday, the White House began to prepare a series of measures for the alarming increase in these incidents.
While not linking it to campuses, FBI Director Christopher Wry warned the Senate yesterday that there is a breeding ground for the country and Jewish communities to be targeted for violence by domestic extremists and international terrorists.
"We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies serve as inspiration as we have not seen since the Islamic State launched its so-called caliphate," he said. "This is not the time for panic, but for vigilance", Wry clarified.
One of the places on the radar are universities, which have become a small universe where society is portrayed. The intimidation of Jews "has reached a historic level", he insisted in relation to the US as a whole.
Since the terrorist attack of October 7, anti-Semitism has grown exponentially and this is particularly evident on university campuses.
"Israel's massive counterattack obscures Hamas terrorism and makes this organization a hero to some," wrote Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times. On a personal level, added this expert on the Middle East conflict, "I am horrified by the reaction of these students and progressives who are on the side of Hamas against Israel."
Among others, the FBI has the focus of its investigation at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York state. Jewish students at this center, one of eight that belongs to the elite group of the Ivy League, have stopped spending the night in the dormitories and apartments of its facilities because of the uncertainty about their safety. They are afraid of the threats that run through the networks.
In fact, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that a suspect is in custody as part of the investigation at Cornell.
"The students' first reaction is genuine fear," explained Molly Goldstein, president of the Jewish Center at this university. “We get calls from colleagues who are off campus asking if it's safe to go back to the dorms. Some are too scared to sleep here", he remarked.
The first alarms went off when, almost immediately at the beginning of this war crisis, the coalition of students in solidarity with Palestine from Harvard, also from the Ivy League, issued a statement in which they put all the responsibility on Israel They accused this country of making the Palestinians live in an open-air prison and of trying to annihilate them. Since then, there have been protests on more than a hundred campuses against Israel and pro-Palestine. Even swastikas appeared.
At the same time, anti-Semitic threats have multiplied. Thus, on Monday, in Manhattan, students from Columbia – another elite university where more than a hundred professors signed a letter in favor of students who defended the “military action” of Hamas – led to end a march because of the situation of helplessness and because they feel abandoned by the administrators in view of the personal risk.
"Inaction has allowed the spread of anti-Semitic rhetoric," said Eli Schmidman at a press conference. Wearing the qipa means risking harassment and receiving insults at the university, he explained.
But the issue is not clear-cut, according to Alejandro Mayorcas, Secretary of National Security. "Since October 7 - he indicated - we have responded to an increase in threats to Jews, Muslims and Arab American communities".
