Situational Update
Per the Times of Israel, Mossad head David Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and military envoy Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon will be dispatched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow for talks aimed at reaching a truce and hostage release in Gaza, Channel 12 news reports. A US source familiar with the negotiations says CIA director William Burns is scheduled to take part in the talks. However it remains unclear if Hamas will participate.
According to Israeli journalist Marc Schulman, recent reports indicate that Iranian officials have stated an attack will not occur if ceasefire talks prove successful. This development has fueled speculation. Additionally, the substantial U.S. military buildup in the region might be deterring the Iranians. The U.S. now has more aircraft available in the area than the entire Israeli Air Force, and the presence of the USS Georgia, which carries over 200 Tomahawk missiles—designated for offensive purposes—constitutes a credible, powerful force. While the U.S. officially stated that its role is limited to defending Israel, the Iranians cannot be certain that the U.S. would refrain from participating in an Israeli counterstrike aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities, should Iran choose to attack. Of course, all of this could be merely idle speculation, and there remains a real possibility that the Iranians or Hezbollah could launch an attack on us tonight
Iran has prepped its missile and drone units, similarly to steps taken before Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel in April, according to senior officials in Washington and Jerusalem quoted by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid.
FINALLY: Minouche Shafik, the Columbia University president whose campus became an epicenter of unrest this year following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, has resigned weeks before the start of the school year.
According to the IDF, the IDF and ISA struck terrorists operating in a Hamas command and control center, which was embedded inside a mosque in the Al-Taba’een school compound. Following an intelligence investigation, it can be confirmed at this time that at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated. These terrorists operated in order to advance and carry out attacks against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel from inside the compound. The strike was carried out using three precise munitions, which, according to professional analysis, can not cause the amount of damage that is being reported by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza. Furthermore, no severe damage was caused to the compound where the terrorists were situated. Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of a small warhead, aerial surveillance, and intelligence information.
Per AIPAC, immediately afterwards, the Hamas-run 'Gaza Health Ministry' claimed that 100 martyrs were killed, without distinguishing between the terrorists and civilians. Western media outlets, and anti-Israel members of Congress like Rashida Tlaib, ran with Hamas' narrative, prompting condemnations of Israel around the world:
CNN: 'More than 90 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on a school and mosque'
Washington Post: 'Nearly 100 killed in Israeli strike on school, Gaza officials say'
Reuters: 'Israeli strike kills nearly 100 in Gaza school refuge, officials say'
Hours later, after Israel investigated the incident and showed that the three precise munitions it used could not have possibly caused the damage Hamas claimed, Hamas revised its casualty number from 100 to 40.
Per Barak Ravid with Axios: Hamas announced on Sunday that it rejects the invitation by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt for a final round of negotiations over the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal planned for Thursday. In a statement, Hamas claimed several reasons for its decision: the new conditions and demands presented recently by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that killed dozens of Palestinians, many of them civilians.
The Numbers
Casualties
1,659 Israelis dead (+2 since Sunday) including 690 IDF soldiers (330 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza: +1 since Sunday)
Sergeant Omer Ginzburg (19), a Paratrooper who participated in the Khan Younis operations, an area we had entered three times previously. Ginzburg was fatally shot by a sniper
Additional Information (according to the IDF):
2,206 (+4 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 417 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
4,310 (+4 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 640 (no change since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
Note: we have always included the number of casualties in Gaza, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. We feel it is important to include this information with the caveat that this reporting ministry is not a trusted source of data by many. Most recently, The United Nations has begun citing a much lower death toll for women and children in Gaza, acknowledging that it has incomplete information about many of the people killed during Israel’s military offensive in the territory.
According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 39,965 (+175 since Sunday) people have been killed in Gaza, and 92,294 (+292 since Sunday) have been injured during the war.
We also encourage you to read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled "Gaza Health Ministry." The analysis found that "9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data" and that "an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates."
Hostages (no change since Sunday)
Portraits of Survival: The Israeli Hostages Who Made It Home: Visuals and Text by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv in the NYT
The New York Times followed more than a dozen former hostages for several weeks as they tried to rebuild their lives, campaign for the return of those still in Gaza and mourn for those who were killed.
Link: Portraits of Survival: The Israeli Hostages Who Made It Home
On October 7th, a total of 261 Israelis were taken hostage.
During the ceasefire deal in November, 112 hostages were released.
A total of 7 hostages have been rescued and the remains of 21 others have been recovered. Tragically, 3 have been mistakenly killed by the IDF, and 1 was killed during an IDF attempt to rescue him.
49 hostages have been confirmed dead.
This leaves an estimated 111-112 hostages still theoretically in Gaza, with somewhere between (assumed) 33-41 deceased. Thus, at most, 82 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
According to an article published in the WSJ, “Of the approximately 250 hostages taken in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, 116 continue to be held captive, including many believed to be dead. Mediators in the hostage talks and a U.S. official familiar with the latest U.S. intelligence said the number of those hostages still alive could be as low as 50.”
That assessment, based in part on Israeli intelligence, would mean 66 of those still held hostage could be dead, 25 more than Israel has publicly acknowledged.
Link: Families of Hostages in Gaza Are Desperate for News but Dread a Phone Call | WSJ
(Sources: JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, and the Times of Israel)
Listen
[PODCAST] Call Me Back with Dan Senor: Hostage Deal? Iran Attack? And Tisha B’Av - with Haviv Rettig Gur & Nadav Eyal
Against the backdrop of a possible Iran/Hezbollah attack, as well as international criticism of an IDF operation in Gaza City, there have been new developments in the hostage negotiations. This past Thursday, a multi-party statement was issued by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, declaring that the framework of a hostage deal was nearly complete, and urging Israel and Hamas to finalize the deal without further delay. Soon after, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office issued a statement that Israel would send its team to the now scheduled August 15th negotiations. Hamas had indicated its intention to participate as well. Now, suddenly, Hamas is reversing its decision. Although, at least according to some sources, this reversal may be last minute posturing by Hamas. Either way, the sudden acceleration of the process does make this dynamic seem different from previous rounds.
Watch
[WATCH] The War Israel Isn’t Fighting: A Conversation with Mosaic Magazine
Jonathan Conricus and Eylon Levy belong to a very small club: both have served as the faces of Israeli public diplomacy in the English language in an official capacity—Conricus in a military role, Levy in a civilian one.
Comparing their experiences, they agree that, for all the professionalism of the IDF spokesman’s office and those who serve in it, Israel has failed in conveying its message to the world. In their view, this is a major strategic problem, especially given the savvy with which its enemies use information warfare. They discuss the problem in depth, and conclude with a conversation about Sweden, the country where Conricus spent his childhood.
Gazans kidnapped IDF tank crew, including American hostage, new video shows - N12 report in the Jerusalem Post
[WATCH] A video showing the kidnapping of an IDF Armored Corps crew was obtained and released by N12.
The tank crew had four members, including tank commander Omer Neutra from Long Island, and tank gunner Nimrod Cohen from Rehovot, who are currently in Hamas captivity, as well as tank loader Oz Daniel from Kfar Saba, and driver Shaked Dahan from Afula, who the IDF has confirmed as killed in Hamas captivity.
Merav Daniel, mother of the late Oz, whose body remains in Gaza, spoke of recognizing her son, and her husband, Amir, said, “I recognized my son, even if the image was blurry – you can’t mistake your own child.”
Link: New video shows Gazans seizing American hostage Omer Neutra on October 7
Rocket Alerts in Israel tracks the number of rockets fired and UAV’s entering Israel.
Since August 1st, Hezbollah has caused 330 rocket alerts (36 in the last 3 days) and Hamas has caused 31
Raylan Givens posts on X: This is Israel: an IDF lone soldier from the US, Jordan Copper, died from a severe allergic reaction; he had no one in Israel. His family asked for people to come to his funeral; our people answered the call and came in thousands to honor one of our heroes.
What We Are Reading
The IDF’s Boot Is on Hamas’ Throat, by Andrew Fox in Tablet Magazine
There is desperation in Western media to declare Israel’s campaign in Gaza, Operation Swords of Iron, a failure. Over the past several months, there has been a steady supply of analysis beating the same drum: Israel is not winning. Hamas remains intact. The Israeli government has no plan. The very notion of a military victory is illusory. And so on. It’s a genre unto itself—one which, unsurprisingly, tracks precisely with the official talking points of the Biden-Harris administration and other Western governments that have been trying to bend Israel’s operation against Hamas to fit their own failed paradigms.
The latest installment came in last week, courtesy of CNN. An acme of the genre, the article cast aspersions on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim, which he made in his address before Congress last month, that “victory is in sight.” Instead, CNN claimed that of 24 Hamas battalions, only three are considered “destroyed” and another eight are combat effective, with 13 having only a “moderate” reduction in their fighting capability.
Never mind the veracity of such claims that demolished Hamas battalions are in fact still operational. The IDF, for what it’s worth, has dismissed them as false. The more important fact is that they are irrelevant.
The goals of the IDF operation are to dismantle Hamas’ administrative and fighting capabilities, which are almost entirely contingent on Gaza’s network of underground tunnels. The tunnels are the main focus of IDF ground-holding operations along the Philadelphi Corridor in Rafah, while IDF maneuver brigades strike Hamas wherever they coalesce. The IDF is having to fight a determined enemy that hides among and weaponizes the civilian infrastructure and population as human shields—all with the eyes of the world ready to condemn the slightest Israeli error. This takes time. It’s a long war against a consolidated and tenacious terror army. IDF sources I spoke to predicted another six to 18 months to finish the job, assuming no cease-fire is agreed.
This is not, and never has been, a counterinsurgency or counterterrorism operation—It is a conventional urban war against an irregular but fully formed terror army, with their own underground citadel.
The IDF’s way of war is not the West’s way of war. It is not designed, either operationally or logistically, to carry out protracted campaigns of attrition. It is a raiding army, and that is what its operational design reflects.
Phase A was defense against Hamas’ incursion on Oct. 7; airstrikes; and evacuation of Gaza’s civilian population from combat zones.
Phases B1 and B2 were the Gaza City break-in.
Phase B3 was the first cease-fire and hostage return.
Phases B4 and B5 saw continued operations in Khan Yunis and northern Gaza, focusing on Hamas’ central battalions, and undertaking the Rafah operation to seize and clear the Philadelphi Corridor of Hamas tunnels. This is still ongoing.
Phase C will be to continue to dismantle Hamas’ administrative and military capabilities in those areas through intelligence-led raids.
Phase D will be to stabilize an alternative governance structure and maintain IDF freedom of operation within the Gaza Strip.
At the start of the war, Western analysts and government officials told us that none of this could be done. In less than 10 months, this is an impressive achievement by the IDF, given the remarkable built-in defensive capabilities of Hamas. Finishing the job will take longer still.
The impact of IDF operations on the behavior of Hamas’ leadership has also been noteworthy, because the destruction of the tunnels is beginning to force them above ground. At the start of the war, senior commanders stayed inside underground; as of this writing, the 162nd Division alone has destroyed 1,635 tunnel shafts and 90 kilometers of tunnel network. The tunnels’ dwindling viability forces Hamas commanders to hide in the humanitarian zones aboveground instead, presenting the IDF with opportunities for high-value targeting—this is how Deif was killed—despite the difficulties of operating against the human shield strategy. The IDF will continue to strike in these zones when circumstances require it.
Hamas will fight for as long as its commanders remain in control. The IDF’s operational plan at this point is to force them to crack when they understand their own lives are in danger. The IDF has its boot on Hamas’ throat and will keep pressing until it quits.
The Anti-Israel Sanctions Machine, by Michael Doran in Tablet Magazine
President Biden recently achieved a historic first for which he has received no credit. He is the first president to form an interagency team dedicated to imposing sanctions on an ally, namely, Israel.
The White House has established an interagency initiative to produce sanctions against Israeli entities and individuals. The International Economics Directorate at the National Security Council (NSC) leads the effort. Ilan Goldenberg, who until April worked for Vice President Kamala Harris and has now moved to the Strategic Planning Directorate in the NSC, also plays a very enthusiastic role. In the State Department, the Office of Economic Sanctions Policy has the lead. It works closely with the Office of Foreign Assets Control at Treasury. Together they prepare evidentiary packages.
Biden did not create this sanctions machine in response to any development on the ground in the Middle East other than the surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. When the attack generated the fear in Washington that the resulting war would strengthen the Israeli right, Biden launched an initiative to counter it.
Under scrutiny, however, the propagandistic intentions of the administration become obvious. When I [Michael Doran] served on the National Security Council in the White House of President George W. Bush, I frequently helped with the sanctioning of specific individuals. This time-consuming process requires meeting strict evidentiary criteria. Treasury regulations require that misdeeds by potential subjects of sanctions must be recent, committed within the last five years.
The rise of the Israel targeteers is not the only historic first of Biden’s presidency. On his watch, the International Court of Justice smeared Israel with the accusation of apartheid. An unprecedented number of American allies have moved to recognize the state of Palestine. Iran attacked Israel with the largest ballistic missile barrage ever launched by any country against another. And for the first time, Tehran mobilized all elements of its “Resistance Axis” in a coordinated campaign.
Sinwar isn't avoiding deal talks, he's spotting an opportunity, by Itamar Eichner in Y-Net News
Hamas' statement made on Sunday saying it won’t attend talks on a hostage release and cease-fire deal later this week shouldn’t surprise anyone. In Israel, at least, no one showed major concerns.
Hamas' statement was expected for several reasons: First, it’s part of a tactic aimed at gaining leverage in negotiations. "This [holding negotiations] requires nerves of steel," members of the Israeli negotiation team said on Sunday, stressing there will likely be many more fake news and psychological warfare attempts by the terror group. In fact, it’s likely we’ll see more conflicting announcements, alongside pressure from mediators to hold the summit regardless by Thursday.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel: "There are ideas that the mediators presented, and we accepted them and are ready to implement them immediately. It’s unacceptable to give the enemy more time. Our position is clear, and we’re not waiting for a discussion on new frameworks."
Hamdan added: "There is a framework present that we’ve agreed upon, and we’re waiting for the announcement of implementation mechanisms that include stopping the war, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, providing additional aid, and beginning reconstruction.
This will also benefit him politically: the deal will return some of the Israeli hostages but will leave the possibility of renewing the war. Eyal added that Israel is willing to make some concessions, mainly in the monitoring of the movement of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has set this as a condition, but the current proposed clauses are vague and don’t detail a mechanism to achieve this.
However, CNN quoted an Israeli source who said: "Nobody knows what Bibi [Netanyahu’s nickname] wants." It was also noted Netanyahu is facing heavy pressure from the United States to agree to the deal, with American officials making it clear to their Israeli counterparts that they believe it’s time for an agreement in order to prevent a regional war.
Link: Sinwar isn't avoiding deal talks, he's spotting an opportunity: Y-Net News
Iran: The Next Nuclear Weapons State? Andrea Stricker, Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program Deputy Director and Research Fellow at FDD
An astonishing U.S. intelligence report just revealed a grim truth: The Islamic Republic of Iran may be conducting nuclear weapons activities — yet Washington is doing nothing about it.
As Iran inches across the nuclear threshold, America is wasting precious time. The United States, along with its European partners, must urgently mobilize the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to conduct inspections to detect and end the regime’s illicit activities. Washington must also restore a maximum economic pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic and signal a credible military threat to deter and penalize further advances.
After significant delays, a U.S.-Israel Strategic Consultative Group met in Washington in July to consider the new Iran intelligence and strategize what to do. While the two countries reportedly enlisted the IAEA for consultations, Washington’s main solution was to demand private clarifications from Tehran via diplomatic back channels and ask the regime to halt the activities. Iranian officials reportedly explained and denied the nuclear weapons-work, and the United States was satisfied and dropped the matter.
The regime’s breakout time — the time required to make enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear device — currently stands at seven days. Iran could produce enough material for up to 13 nuclear weapons in four months. Tehran has thousands of advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuge machines spinning across at least three sites and may be stockpiling untold quantities at secret facilities, including at a new nuclear facility buried deep under a mountain.
Due to the Tehran’s past, known work on nuclear weapons, the United States and Israel estimate Iran’s weaponization timeline to be about a year, if not longer. Yet independent non-governmental experts such as Albright believe the timeline may be less than six months. The obvious problem: no one knows for sure.
Absent truly remarkable human and other key intelligence, it is unlikely the West can find out more without IAEA inspections.
The IAEA should start inspections with entities involved in the alleged weaponization activities. While Iran would no doubt initially deny an IAEA request to inspect for weaponization work — Tehran’s safeguards agreement with the agency specifically covers inspections at facilities that are suspected to produce or house nuclear material — unified Western pressure and the threat of sanctions have succeeded in changing Iran’s calculus before.
IAEA inspections may have an effect of chilling further Iranian weaponization work, allowing time for world powers to revive a campaign of pressure and restore a credible military threat against Iran’s nuclear program. Inspections may also pave the way for IAEA member states to authorize an in-depth IAEA investigation of Tehran’s past and possibly ongoing weaponization work and verifiably ensure those activities have ended.
To stop the regime from breaking out of its nonproliferation commitments at an opportune moment, the United States, alongside Israel, must also continue to prepare and showcase military options and signal a credible willingness to use force to destroy or substantially set back Tehran’s program.
America First, Indeed, an essay in Clarity with Michael Oren
In response to Iran’s impending retaliatory attack against Israel, the United States has significantly augmented its military presence in the Middle East. In addition to aircraft carriers, destroyers, and submarines, the Biden Administration has dispatched F-22 Raptor Fighters to the area. US air bases as far away as Michigan and North Carolina have been placed on high alert.
The purpose of these deployments is to prevent Iran and its proxies from triggering a regional war into which the US could be drawn. To this end, American forces will act as they did in the First Gulf War in 1991 and, most recently, during the Iranian missile attack of April 14th, intercepting missiles aimed at Israel. Without such a shield, the administration has reasoned, Israel would be compelled to respond massively. Iran’s reply would be more devastatingly still, igniting an all-out war.
There are two problems with this approach. The first is a matter of numbers. Hezbollah, alone, is capable of firing an estimated 6,000 rockets a day at Israel. Added to that must be the missiles and drones launched by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Israel’s multi-layered air defense systems, even when augmented by those of the United States and other allies, are unlikely to intercept all these projectiles. Enough of them could penetrate that shield and cause the degree of damage that would necessitate the very Israeli response the White House seeks to preempt.
The second problem is strategic. No one has ever won a ballgame by merely playing defense. The successful intervention of 350 Iranian missiles and drones on April 14 was not, as President Biden defined it, “a win,” but rather “a non-lose.” It did nothing to deter Iran and, in fact, might have helped it to better understand—and more effectively evade—Israel’s defenses. Eager to remove the humiliation of its failed assault but prepared to attempt a more successful one, Iran is likely to launch an even larger strike in the future.
For both of these problems, there is one simple solution. It will foster stability in the Middle East and restore America’s role as the preeminent world power. It will guarantee President Biden a legacy of courage and vision. But to accomplish all that, America must not merely join in the defense against Iran. America must lead the attack.
Most significantly, perhaps, by leading the attack on Iran, the United States will restore its position as the preeminent world power, overshadowing the defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will send an unequivocal message to Russia and China about America’s commitment to Ukraine and Taiwan. An American attack on Iran will also open unprecedented paths to peace. It is important to recall that the two US-led peace conferences in the past – in Madrid in 2002 and in Annapolis in 2007– were both preceded by the large-scale use of American military force in the Middle East. So, too, could the United States, having eliminated the greatest obstacle to peace in the region, announce a major diplomatic campaign to expand the Abraham Accords and even address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Now that UN admits employee involvement in Oct. 7, it’s time to end UNRWA, by David May and Richard Goldberg in New York Post
The United Nations has found little evidence of Hamas infiltration of UN bodies in Gaza — conveniently enough, after investigating itself.
This is a whitewash.
Of UNRWA’s approximately 13,000 employees in Gaza, Israeli security documents revealed that 440 are active in Hamas’ military operations, 2,000 are registered Hamas operatives, and another 7,000 have an immediate family member who is a Hamas terrorist.
Of those, the UN determined that only nine may have taken part in the attack — just may — while effectively giving UNRWA a clean bill of health on terror finance at an institutional level.
Multiple investigations of UNRWA schools and their staff have found widespread dissemination of antisemitism, support for terrorism and even praise of Hitler
The White House, the State Department and some foreign leaders often claim that UNRWA is indispensable and irreplaceable to Palestinians’ well-being.
Many other groups, such as the World Food Programme, operate in conflict zones around the world, providing many of the same services as UNRWA without the ideological baggage. .
Link: Now that UN admits employee involvement in Oct. 7, it’s time to end UNRWA: New York Post
Antisemitism
Can Banning Sidewalk Chalk End Anti-Semitism? by Seth Mandel in Commentary
“We’re not going to just be copying encampment, encampment, encampment,” Barnard and Columbia “student organizer” Marie Grosso tells NPR about her plans for the renewed pro-Hamas rallies on campus. “We will be doing whatever actions we choose, escalations if that’s necessary. We will do what is necessary.”
So what are colleges doing to prepare for the fall semester of war and pizza? Columbia, regional capital of the tentifada, is restricting campus to students and their registered guests. According to NPR, the school is “considering” allowing university security officers to make arrests. Harvard is drafting rules that would forbid chalk writing on sidewalks—no justice, no hopscotch—and require pre-approval for signage around campus. “Nothing should be affixed to University property, including the exterior of buildings, doors, windows, fences, entry posts, gates, utility or flag poles, waste containers, existing signage, walls, floors, or tent structures, except in designated locations,” reads a draft document posted by the Harvard Crimson.
New rules are being put into effect when the existing rules weren’t enforced either. This is not a Harvard-specific problem, to be clear. If you want to stop students from breaking campus rules and city laws, you can.
Let’s go back to NPR’s student-activist, Marie Grosso. She was arrested at the Columbia University encampments—twice. What happened to her after that? “Like many students, her criminal charges have since been dropped. And her school suspension was downgraded to probation.” Ah. And the result: “Now she’s among scores of students around the nation using the summer to strategize and plan for what their activism might look like in the fall.”
Again, the problem on these campuses is that when these students disagree with someone, they chant genocidal slogans at them. And where are they learning the genocidal slogans? In many cases at the university. They are taking classes in subjects like “colonialism” and “decolonization” that fabricate the history of the world to such an extent that they might as well be flat-earthers. The students are told that while they might think that Jews are from Judea, reality is actually a Scientology-like story about aliens and secret races.
Link: Can Banning Sidewalk Chalk End Anti-Semitism? – Commentary Magazine
The rise of academic hate, by Professor Nicholas Giordano with Campus Reform
While many college professors still cherish the institutional values of education – robust debate, free speech, and intellectual curiosity – unfortunately there are too many professors who have become even more extreme and unhinged. Not only does their rhetoric reflect poorly on our institutions and my profession, but the impact of their radicalism is undeniable and dangerous. How dangerous? Consider how five members of the student council at a West Bank university, which has direct ties to several American colleges and universities, were recently arrested for planning a significant terror attack.
How long will it be before the same extremism fosters a terror attack within the United States as radical professors indoctrinate students with their hateful ideology? From the October 7th Hamas terror attacks, which resulted in the grisly death of nearly 1,200 innocent men, women, children, and babies, to the assassination attempt on former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump to attacks on voices like the Leadership Institute’s Riley Gaines who was attacked by a student mob at San Francisco State University.
With educators like these, is it any surprise that students support a terrorist organization like Hamas. Given the state of our education system, it shouldn’t shock people that 30% of Gen Z’ers believe that Osama bin Laden’s ideas were a force for good. Is it any wonder why some students chant ‘death to America’ and openly celebrate the attempted killing of a former President.
It is clear that these extremists have become a dangerous influence on our youth. As a professor, it demeans our profession, and it’s why so many Americans have lost faith in our higher education institutions.