I am struck yet again how hard it is to find something positive to affirm in our roiling public world. (Yes, there is the victory for abortion rights in Ohio, and some other Democratic triumphs, but nothing sufficient in my mind to create a feeling of hope.) There is little point in my recapitulating what I read and watch ranging from the wanton slaughter of innocents in Gaza, Israel, and the Ukraine to the continual legal cases and courtroom appearances of our thuggish, bellowing, omnipresent ex-president. There are even signs of a widening municipal scandal. They involve electronic devices, including at least two mobile phones that belong to our sleazy, smiling New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The FBI—the agency that has escalated a corruption investigation into his victorious 2021 campaign—has seized them. The tough-on-crime Adams has always skirted the illegal in his political career and has never been a poster child for political integrity.
Reading about the student protests of both sides of the Middle East struggle on college campuses reminds me of my days as a professor and activist in the 1960s and ’70s. Still, I had only a few students who had a penchant for embracing absolutes like Vietcong victory and turning Ho Chi Minh into a heroic savior. Most of the others were not particularly ideological; they were just against the Vietnam War and the needless expenditure of human life.
However, the war in the Middle East seems to have unearthed deep strains of existing anti-Semitism among student protestors who have taken the Palestinian side. At Cornell University, a student was arrested for purportedly threatening to slit Jewish throats. At Drexel University, a Jewish student’s dorm room door was set on fire. And at Cooper Union, pro-Palestinian demonstrators banged on windows and doors of a library where Jewish students were holed up inside. That is not to say that many of the protestors’ being anti-Israel and calling for a ceasefire (a few of the students are Jews) should be equated with anti-Semitic behavior. The majority of the protestors are antipathetic towards Israeli policy, not Jews. Still, the ugliness of anti-Semitism has erupted in the anti-Israel cause, and it brings back memories for me of the irrational, uncontrolled anger of some of my students in the ’60s. Though it was then directed towards other enemies—not Jews—and at least a few of my students engaged in name- calling or violent behavior.
As the war continues and possibly expands to the West Bank and the Lebanese border, anti-Israel protests will grow. The future only looks desolate, unless the sides decide that survival of the region is more significant than body counts.
I know Israel can’t exist with Hamas still controlling Gaza, but is it possible to have an international authority govern it? I have no answers, just questions and more questions. The only thing I do know is what Albert Camus once wrote that freedom itself is relative and one must embrace limits and moderation. He also wrote that absolutes are anti-human, and as a result he condemned revolutionary violence. How this applies to the Mideast is both obvious and difficult to achieve when dealing with warring entities.
