Will Iran Ever Be Held Accountable?
By Steve Hunley
Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, was grilled last week about the school’s response to antisemitism and seemingly only reluctantly admitted calling for the annihilation of the Jewish people was indeed a violation of the university’s code of conduct.
To put things into perspective, the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, a terrorist organization, was the single worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The demonstrations described as “pro-Palenstine” are more truthfully described as antisemitic protests. Not since the Nazis have groups of people so openly called for the killing of Jews and Jewish people. We’ve witnessed groups chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” For those of us old enough to recall the taking of American hostages by Iran during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, we can also remember the images of the mullahs and their supporters parading and chanting “Death to America.” They referred to our country as “the Great Satan.” To think that American citizens would be chanting the same thing as an extremist country that countenanced terrorism is astonishing and vile. What’s worse is barely any Democrat in the country would open his or her mouth to condemn it. It took Michigan governor Gretchen Witmer a week to finally say something about it.
There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of Americans do not agree at all with those supporting Hamas. There is no doubt in my mind that the great majority of Americans still find the idea of targeting civilians, raping women, beheading infants, and killing small children is utterly unacceptable. The notion such bestial behavior is not an act of war is simply insane.
The recent attack by Iran and its satellites on Israel with missiles and drones is also an act of war. Joe Biden’s comment about Israel simply hunkering down and “take the win” is wrong and cowardly. How would history have judged President Franklin Roosevelt had he said America should “take the win” after Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese? Someone trying to kill you and failing does not absolve them of attempted murder, nor does it mean they won’t try again.
The appeasement policy towards the Muslim extremists and fanatics that make up Iran’s government began under President Barack Obama who literally flew them billions of dollars in cash. Biden has also helped Iran finance its terrorism by releasing $26 billion to the mullahs. The Obama-Biden Middle Eastern policy is yet another gaping failure, especially when compared to the Abraham Accords. Neither is it in the best interests of peace in the world or that of the United States.
The very same people who scream for more and more funding so that Ukraine can buy weapons of war and kill Russians are those who fault Israel for trying to defend itself against aggressors who are even more demonic and vicious than Putin. The very same people who repeat the LIE that the Israelis are trying to commit genocide on the people of Gaza are those who ignore the open calls for the extermination of the Jewish people. They might as well be Nazis as well as liars and hypocrites. Yet almost daily there is some “pro-Palestine” protest that calls for the genocide of Israeli and Jewish people.
When a college or university president is so reluctant, almost like pulling teeth, to dance around the question of whether it is wrong to call for the literal killing of an entire race of people we should be reflecting upon just what has happened to our moral fiber and national character. The absolutism loudly demanded by the Leftist minority requires immediate and unquestioning agreement, otherwise one is canceled.
The kind of behavior oftentimes tolerated on the campuses of our elite and elitist colleges and universities is both disgraceful and appalling. They cry “academic freedom” and “free speech,” rights they only allow themselves and extend to nobody else and most especially deny to anyone who does not agree with them. Like the Nazis, they are authoritarians. The very same people who claim for themselves compassion and propose to “lead with kindness” are those who are calling for the blood of Jews and denying or pretending the violence and bloodshed never happened. It is just disgusting. If they had an infinitesimal speck of character, they would be truly ashamed of themselves. Instead, they are loud and proud in their calls for genocide and murder. Only Israel cannot protect itself.
If someone came into your home, raped your wife and daughters and tried to kill or did in fact kill your family, should your response be measured? Should your response be to allow it to happen again and again? The very idea is incredibly stupid and unworthy of even the most juvenile and undeveloped mind. Can you think of what would happen if any person called for the genocide of Blacks, Whites, Latins, or Asians? Yet it is happening with alarming regularity, daily, to exterminate the Jewish people and the mainstream media largely ignores it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will do whatever is necessary to defend itself. That is only logical and right. Ukraine is doing the same thing right now and no one hears a single peep of protest or complaint by anyone.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former president of Columbia University, the general who led Allied Forces on D-Day to repel the Nazis, and a president of the United States, once said, “The principal purpose of education is to prepare the student for effective personal and social life in a free society. From the school at the crossroads to a university as great as Columbia, general education for citizenship must be the common and first purpose of them all.”
Eisenhower also personally saw firsthand the fruits of Adolf Hitler’s hatred of Jews when he saw what had happened at one of the many concentration camps operated by the Nazis. The general could barely believe his eyes and said the cruelty, starvation and viciousness beggared description and boggled the mind.
Hitler’s Germany and his Nazi Party first stripped Jews of their humanity, making them seem less than human beings. Then it became much easier to deprive them of their basic human rights and freedom. Then it became easier still to kill them and stack their lifeless bodies like so much cordwood.
There is a reason why the Left wants to revise history and we are watching now as history repeats itself.
