WELL, AND HOW'S THAT WORKING FOR YA'?

It is a sad day indeed when the proof of the pudding is right there before your eyes, yet you remain willfully selectively blind to that truth. Oh, for sure we understand how difficult it would be for you to admit your errors and to actually, maybe, possibly, hopefully, in deference to the truth, actually admit your egregious misdeeds and erroneous beliefs. Of course, the best result would be a loud and vocal apology to those you have harmed, those you   mislead, and those you have 'inspired' to follow you down that path to Hell upon which you gallop in joyous frenzy. 

And so here we are at the very beginning of a new semester, and it is the same old, bloody old verbal violence, the same aura of imminent physical threat.   We are even more disappointed via the inaction of college and university employees and figures of authority and power. They boast of the new clothes they have bought and draped over the offenders, uselessly, in a vain effort to hide the truth, in all its ugliness. 

No, I am in error, for we knew then, and we know    now that there has been a change. However, that change has been for the negative. The agitators and their cohorts have learned well the lessons of last semester. Universities are ready and willing to be intimidated by a bunch of hooligans enamored by the media and the attention garnered. Oh, for joy, the masks, the draped scarves of hate, the frantic calls from parents. The joy of 'youthful' rebellion. Neither pleasant nor enticing for the targets of the hate, but, well, c'est la guerre.

In any case, now it is obvious that the university authorities are as threatening as a gnat. Just smack at it and away it flies. No resultant consequences of any consequence, at all, as all were forgiven over the summer break. And here they are again first day, in all their ugliness, reeking of bloodlust and rampant antisemitism. The same enabling nasty emails and texts between university officials who then must resign and so what - these protester gangsters could care less - there are plenty more in situ

Disappointing to us as we watch the hate unroll, but not surprising. Disappointing, but not surprising the constant, gravely mistakenly conflation of Islamophobia, barely ever even hinted at, never to be seen, with the rampant viral antisemitism so much in ugly blossom round the world. It is absolutely critically necessary to put that nonsense aside and deal with the brass tacks of reality.    

There must be a change - big change, many changes. There must be an acknowledgement that. their vaunted programs to educate people about antisemitism are useless. Certainly, as they are right now. Perhaps the authorities need to be reminded that “if you build it, they will come” is only so in the movies. These protesters and vandals want no part of them nor, if they ever attended a session, an email program, have they internalized any aims and goals of said program. These purportedly 'new' programs of education, dressed as new, are not.     Berkely has had one in place since 2019 and “Well, how's that working for ya?”  Not!! Empty words, useless programs, not followed up with boosters, are they? No actual impact at all. 

"The University of California Berkeley is expanding its antisemitism education in the 2024-25 school year as well as banning encampments and prohibiting masking to conceal one’s identity. ... announced “new campus programs to provide antisemitism education to larger numbers of students, staff, and faculty,” in a letter to the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate.

Of the three main areas ... one is focused on incoming students, one on RAs, and one on registered student organizations.

Incoming students received expanded antisemitism education at Berkeley’s Golden Bear Orientation. RAs receive a “more intensive orientation process” for their education, while registered student organizations’ signatories “do a series of online trainings” that includes education on antisemitism and Islamophobia."

Still ignoring a major, influential source of inspiration of much of the protest movement, the violence, the intense hatred, the ever-rising clarion calls for elimination of Israel, denied right or legitimacy as a nation, and for the determined effort to exclude, isolate, dehumanize, and exterminate. The professors encourage and practice this policy within their classrooms, encouraging students to focus on the Jew, the Israeli and demean them, chase them out. Where are the programs to stop that egregious violation of ethics and the purpose of higher education, the responsibility of professors to reach for, encourage and role model the highest levels of humanity rather than wallow with and in the dregs. 

We, the universities, the authorities, political leaders, law enforcement, and yes, parents, have not internalized these lessons, understood the fact, the basic fact, that consequences and carry through are a must, that not doing so kayos the program before it even begins. The response to "Well, how's that working for ya'? will be an emphatic "Well, it is broken, and can we fix it?" We are late at the gate already and had better get going.

Can we?

Are there enough of those who actually wish to do so?  Is there strength enough to conquer the hatemongers, the negative voices? Or is the power of the negative too overwhelming to be defeated? 

Questions we all must ask ourselves and of others. To stand aside and do nothing is to be complicit, to enable the ugliness to continue and grow ever stronger, ever more consequential, ever more harmful and savage and finally bloody.  

That is where hate and violence lead and quite frankly we have all been there, done that and we should all be tired of that.