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Anti-Semitism Poisons America
(Wall Street Journal) Walter Russell Mead - As students and professors at elite universities across the U.S. exulted at the news of mass murder and torture of Israeli Jews by Hamas terrorists, Jewish students were warned to take precautions on campus. That is a problem, and not only for American Jews. The beliefs that have made the U.S. a uniquely hospitable home for Jewish citizens are essential to national cohesion and strength. For America to work, many different religious and ethnic identities must coexist under a common commitment to constitutional politics and the rule of law. America's vital center is defined by the conviction that people of different cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds together can build a peaceful and prosperous society in which all can follow their consciences while upholding the framework of our common life. Jew-hatred is both a disabling mental virus and a social blight. Societies dominated by irrational hatreds and conspiracy theories are rarely well-governed. Where Jews are hunted in the streets, no one's liberty or property will long be secure. A society whose educated elite has contracted a destructive mind virus in our citadels of learning will neither govern itself well nor have much to contribute to the world. The writer, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, is Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College.