Academia’s ‘no comment’ capitulates to terrorism  - opinion

As a cartel of universities across the West adopts a neutrality policy on Israel’s war against Iran-proxy Hamas, the collective “no comment” is meant to quiet the angry mob trying to chase the Jews off campus – and off the face of the Earth. It won’t work; reeking of capitulation to terror, radicals, and foreign propaganda, it’s a sloppy communications strategy for a high-stakes moment in history. 

Cloaked in the language of academic neutrality, “no comment” is so dangerous because it is designed to appear innocuous. Harvard’s statement on the topic cited an unwillingness to “compromise” whatever is left of its integrity and credibility by speaking officially “outside its institutional area of expertise.” Isn’t this specific institution supposed to possess the planet’s leading expertise in topics such as history, international affairs, and ethics? Asking for a friend. 

But wait, there’s more. 

The Harvard task force, co-chaired by Noah Feldman, wrote that it sought to avoid “intense pressure” to issue official statements “on nearly every imaginable issue of the day.” Meanwhile, Williams College President Maud Mandel wrote, “It makes some issues visible while leaving many more unseen.”

In fact, it is intellectually dishonest to equate Israel’s war with the typical issues or micro-aggressions that may offend or polarize today’s coddled students. Plus, admitting that your institution is afraid of intense pressure might just lead to more of it by unscrupulous actors.

I’d like to send the task force that published Harvard’s policy on a field trip four miles off-campus, just over the bridge to the New England Holocaust memorial with its etched mea culpa from ex-Nazi supporter Martin Niemöller:

“They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up – because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up – because I wasn’t a Jew... Then they came for me – and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

In theory, there should be enough scholars of history within the walls of American academia to inform university communications policies. 

There should be enough intellectual firepower within the ivory tower to recognize that while Israel fights an existential war on behalf of the West, normalizing crimes against humanity by failure to condemn doesn’t end well for any of us. Through silence, societies will ensure that no place on earth is safe from the radical ideologies of destruction, such as the taking, abuse, and execution of civilian hostages (and grossly misidentifying them as prisoners of war). 

Hillel International’s comment to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency mentioned “returning campuses to their core missions of education, learning and research.” Yet a university is not a bubble where learning and research can take place sealed off from society. Simply recall John Donne’s book No Man is an Island, and extrapolate. 

The intellectual abdication of these parts of American academia should be deeply troubling, even more so when endorsed by members of the Jewish community. It plays right into the hands of foreign-seeded disinformation efforts, empowering radicals and useful idiots manipulated by lowbrow propaganda. 

Texas and Florida take a stance against antisemitism 

In stark contrast, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent letter to his state’s university leadership took a clear stance against Jew-hate. On September 12, 2024, Abbott reminded all Texas higher education institutions of his executive order to review their free speech policies and update them to include the statutory definition of antisemitism, establish appropriate punishments for violators, and enforce these policies with “appropriate discipline” to protect Jewish students from antisemitic groups on campus. 

Meanwhile, in late August, Florida’s attorney general reiterated the state’s strong position that “There is no room in our state for lawlessness or antisemitism. As a new school year begins, we are renewing our commitment to making Florida a safe state for Jewish students.”

The approach in Texas and Florida is professional because it employs a communications policy that supports institutional strategic goals, like campus safety, instead of leaving a vacuum where provocateurs and the misinformed mob can wave pitchforks with impunity.  

Silence is surrender. Silence is complicity. What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. We’ve been here before, and you don’t have to be an Ivy League scholar to know how this ends. 

The writer uses tech, data, and public opinion to turn outsiders into insiders. She is a senior technology communications executive and nonprofit leader, and advocates for the economic inclusion of immigrants to Israel, as co-founder of The Reboot Startup Nation and the Economic Integration Org.