The Guardian distorts truth about antisemitism on college campuses
December 12, 2023
The Guardian reports that there have been no calls for the genocide of the Jews on American campuses.
So, those calls for the eradication of Israel, from the river to the sea, that wiping out of the Jewish presence and state? A fantasy, all in our mind, perhaps. But then there’s a reason why you buy a T-shirt in Britain (and a coffee mug, too) that reads “The Guardian. Wrong about everything. Always.” For when we come to a conflict between reality and the calls of progressive politics, the Guardian always takes that wrong side.
But they do say this: “The first and most important reason is that there’s no evidence anyone since 7 October, or even in recent history, has called for the genocide of Jews on any American campus, public or private.”
That’s not the way we read it. Nor is it the way any sentient being reads it either. But then the column is written by an academic at an American college, which is precisely the problem we’re all complaining about. How American academia is hypocritical on this specific issue.
We’re all for free speech ourselves. So, we agree with this part of the argument: “Public universities, as state actors, are bound by the first amendment, as are private universities which receive federal funding. And the vast majority of private universities guarantee freedom of speech and academic freedom as part of their core mission. The American university is, by tradition and design, precisely where abhorrent ideas can be uttered. So, if someone had called for the genocide of Jews, which they haven’t, that would be extremely disturbing but still protected speech. “
Yes, but. And it’s a big but. We all know that if similar statements had been made about certain other groups, they would have been shut down by the colleges themselves. As we’ve said:
And that’s antisemitism itself. Jews are being treated differently than others. That’s racist discrimination, and it’s coming from those very Presidential offices. We know that if anything like the same were said about people of color, Native Americans, women, and people of non-traditional sexualities, then the response would have been different. But it’s Jews, so it’s different.
That’s where the problem is. Academia currently runs a free speech for me, not for thee, system, which is, in itself, both discrimination and not free speech.
But to show how wrong The Guardian is – always – there’s this: “Billboard trucks drive around Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City and Washington, D.C., broadcasting the names and faces of Palestinian supporters and libelously labeling them “antisemites.” That’s us, of course. And we’re not saying anything about Palestinian supporters at all. We’re calling out antisemites for being antisemites.
Someone has to, after all, given that American academia won’t, and colleges won’t.