|
Trending Topics
|
Red Guard Tactics at UCLA
(Wall Street Journal) Elliot Kaufman - The protesters at UCLA attempted to twist Zionism - support for the existence of a Jewish state - from a modest expression of political decency into a radical and global evil, unique among the nations. In the spring, protest encampments denied "Zionists" access to a main quad and thoroughfare, a library and even some classrooms. The protesters set up barriers and checkpoints, forcibly blocking students from parts of campus unless they deemed Israel guilty of the vilest crimes; rejected Zionism, or Israel's right to exist; and endorsed the protesters' political program. These are Red Guard tactics, anathema to the academic spirit. What university that still believed in its mission would tolerate them? The anti-Israel fanatics demand that Jews relinquish their dignity and the solidarity that sustains Jewish peoplehood. Around half the world's Jews live in Israel, which has become the center of Jewish cultural creativity. The Jewish future, in every sphere, increasingly is built there. To seek to destroy or dissolve the State of Israel, as anti-Zionists do, and leave those seven million Jews and that Jewish future in the hands of an Arab majority that cheers the Oct. 7 massacre, is beyond reckless. For Jews, it betrays a cruel indifference to or contempt for one's fellows. To demand that Jews take such a position, or else be vilified and shut out, is extortionate.