I am appalled by the recent displays of antisemitism in the U.S. Across the country there has been an expression of anti-Israel and antisemitic vitriol. These demonstrators ignore the fact that Hamas continues to attack Israel, firing rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli neighborhoods for the sole purpose of killing civilians and terrorizing the people. The protests against Israel Defense Forces actions by ill-informed students occupying campus open spaces and university buildings ring hollow. Charging the IDF with genocide while chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which implicitly encourages Hamas to commit genocide against the people of Israel, is the height of hypocrisy.
I am equally appalled by the faculty on UC campuses who choose to join these protests. Their job is to teach students how to think, not to reward them for adopting the faculty’s favored political agenda.
It is time for this nonsense to stop and for common decency to be restored. If not, what comes next – brown shirts and Kristallnacht? Heaven help us all.
— Edward Peltzer, Soquel
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