Actually, nothing really new at Columbia. New students arriving, classes start next week. Still tight security at the gates and the administration’s highest priority is to continue to ensure that no “antisemitic” protest of the war crimes going on in Gaza occurs on this campus. Some people here think this is great, some are appalled, most just don’t care.
I don’t think there’s anyone now unaware of the ongoing wholesale killing of innocents going on in Gaza as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign to drive the Palestinians from that land. The trustees and administration of Columbia know what is going on and have made their decision about their role in it.
In case you think this description of what is happening in Gaza is just the misguided opinion of one particular “antisemitic piece of shit”, here’s a clear explanation of what is going on from a New York Times commentator not known to be an “antisemitic piece of shit”:
I will leave it to historians to debate whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. But what is absolutely clear to me right now is that this Israeli government is committing suicide, homicide and fratricide.
It is destroying Israel’s standing in the world, it is killing Gazan civilians with seemingly no regard for innocent human life, and it is tearing apart Israeli society and world Jewry, between those Jews who want to still stand with Israel no matter what and those who can no longer tolerate, explain or justify where this Israeli government is taking the Jewish state and now want to distance themselves from it….
It is one thing for a country at war to justify collateral damage when going after the enemy’s top leaders. It is something entirely more sinister when you are killing and wounding dozens of civilians to try to kill, say, the deputy to the deputy commander.
It is also devious and sinister when you use your military to move hundreds of thousands of Gazan civilians from one part of Gaza to the other — under the guise of evacuating them from fighting zones — and then deliberately bulldoze the homes they left behind for no real military reason but with the clear ulterior motive of making life so miserable for them that they will leave the area entirely. And it is shameful when you stop and start humanitarian aid, with the hope that people will get hungry enough to leave.
But as I said, this is not just homicide pure and simple; it is also suicide and fratricide. Israel is now well on its way to making itself a pariah state.
Update: The IDF has explained what they did yesterday at Nasser Hospital, killing at least 20 people including many journalists and health care workers. They identified a camera taking pictures from a building, were well aware that it was a hospital building. A tank shell was fired at the part of the building where the camera was, killing at least one person near the camera. They then waited ten minutes, until first responders and journalists had gathered at the site where the person was killed, and launched another shell, which is the one that killed a large number of journalists and health care workers.
The camera the IDF was targeting was a Reuters camera.
Shelling a hospital with a tank because a camera is there? Then shelling the hospital again to kill those who responded to try and help the killed and injured? It doesn’t get much more war-crimey than that, and this is what Israel is doing every day to the population of Gaza. It’s also what the Columbia administration is going all out to stop anyone from protesting about on campus.
