Robert Reich thinks
that Harvard's donor class, namely its Zionist members, risk fueling
actual antisemitism by chasing out President Claudine Gay. This:
As
a Jew, I also cannot help but worry that the actions of these donors –
many of them Jewish, many from Wall Street – could fuel the very
antisemitism they claim to oppose, based on the age-old stereotype of
wealthy Jewish bankers controlling the world.
Is the nut graf, though the last one in the story.
It's hard to argue with this. That of course wouldn't justify such antisemitism, but, again, it's hard to argue with Reich's fear that it will trigger such antisemitism.
Beyond Reich, it's hard to argue that this doesn't reflect on how things like the "military-industrial complex," or, vis-a-vis foreign policy, what I call theNat-Sec Nutsacks™, are not a stereotype but reality. (They may be a generalization, but sweeping observations that are 51 percent or more true, to riff on informal logic, are generalizations, not stereotypes.) And, as part of that, it reflects on the generalization that, in the Middle East, Zionism, hand in hand with the Christian Religious Right, drives those two.
Also, per Reich, it bodes not so well for Harvard's future:
I can understand the frustrations of these donors. But to use their influence to force the ouster of these university presidents is an abuse of power. It sets a dangerous precedent of mega-donor intrusion into university life.
To go beyond Reich, when the Harvards of the university world stoke fears about Trumpian-like quashing of academic freedom, state government and other attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts in academia and more, these donor actions cut out the ground from underneath them.
(Update: I called it! Bill Ackman said DEI is next in his gunsights.)
==
This afternoon, NPR was discussing the Gay resignation, through an interview with the editor of the Harvard Crimson. And, got almost nothing correct, or at least, hid the reality of Gay's last two months.
For that, we go to Mondoweiss.
First, rather than than tolerating antisemitism, back in November she was trying to censor "from the river to the sea" being used on campus. A month before that, the Harvard Grad Union called on her to get doxxing of Palestinian activists and other anti-Palestinian activities to stop.
Second, there was a raft of McCarthyist (the original one and the guy just booted as Speaker, both) type of original cancel culture behind the recent House hearings by Rep. Elise Stefanik, the ones that hung Gay out to dry. Stefanik, herself arguably actually antisemitic, basically gaslighted Gay and two other university presidents at her hearing.
That said, Gay, along with Penn's Liz Magill and MIT's Sally Kornbluth, offered Stefanik plenty of rope for the self-lynching, Mondoweiss notes, by not challenging her absurdity that "from the river to the sea" is genocidal.
And, re the #BlueAnon chuds? Many House Democrats played right along.
Finally, the day after the resignation, a new guest commenter at Mondoweiss, a South African-American and fellwo Black American, noted she was both furious FOR Gay for being the target of racial and/or sexual related bullying and also furious AT Gay for putting up with ongoing blatant anti-Palestinian activities at Harvard and even, arguably enabling them. She notes the doxxing affected the safety of Black students at Harvard, among others.
This:
Let me be clear: President Gay was forced out not because she is antisemitic and/or anti-Zionist but because she is not Zionist enough. The Congressional hearing on December 5 was little more than political theater in which right-wing leaders created and seized an opportunity to undermine core tenets of liberal arts institutions and divert attention from the genocide in Gaza.
What else can you say? Well, you can say, as I did above, that all three presidents gave Stefanik et al the rope to hange them after gaslighting them. And as linked via Mondoweiss, Gay's post-resignation inked NYT op-ed STILL doesn't push back against this.
It's even worse than Michael Arria's one quote at Mondoweiss. Per the linked piece above by Aaryan Morrison, Gay's column is groveling to Harvard.
This, a different quote than Arria's:
Those who had relentlessly campaigned to oust me since the fall often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults, not reasoned argument.
Indicates how she doesn't get it. The antisemitic smears were of a piece with and intertwined with the racist ones. Gay simply doesn't get the whole issue of weaponized Zionism.
And, tying the two issues together? At The Nation, Dave Zirin says that DEI's lack of objective metrics and such allows Zionists to claim they're being picked on whenever a Palestinian flag is waved in their direction.
That said? Contra Mondoweiss' Philip Weiss, I'm not so sanguine about today's American Jewish youth saving the religion here in the US, especially if this war goes on a lot longer with blank checks from the American political establishment and the American Jewish establishment. Rather, the elders of that Jewish establishment are likely to somewhat self-genocide their own religion. I expect most younger non-Zionist American Jews to abandon even Reform-type Judaism, even for Pesach at a Reform synagogue.
