The Israel-Hamas war has raised tensions on U.S. college campuses, dividing students, faculty, and administrators alike. Campus protests, as well as hate crimes against both Jewish and Muslim victims, have all increased since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Straight Arrow News contributor Matthew Continetti accuses university administrations of ignoring Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel and of failing miserably in their public roles as thought leaders. Continetti warns these universities that they will “never live down this shame.”

After Hamas murdered more than 1,400 Israelis in the worst terror attack in the history of the Jewish state, the unimaginable happened. Student activists in America and in the international Left mobilized to defend, apologize for, and appease evil.

Who could have predicted that within 24 hours of a pogrom, the message from the academy would be, in so many words, that Israel “had it coming”? The actions of these young people and the elites who run the schools where they are supposed to learn the best that has been thought [sic] and said are more than appalling. They are evidence of Western confusion and decadence.

After the terror attacks against America on September 11, 2001, similar scenes of anti-American denunciation and celebration played out in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Now, after Israel’s 9/11, they take place openly and unabashedly in the heart of the West. Whatever this is, it is not progress.

The last war with Hamas, in the spring of 2021, was accompanied by a surge in anti-Semitic violence worldwide. The Jewish community must prepare for another hateful backlash as Israel conducts its ground campaign to destroy Hamas. Campus anti-Zionism and left-wing antisemitism are not new. Many of the organizations behind the rallies and letters, and social media posts have been around for a while.