Harvard students are learning a valuable lesson about consequences
SAN DIEGO — There are few things more depressing than seeing Harvard students and their supporters begging for spare change to get the students out of a hole they dug themselves.
Harvard’s Arab Alumni Association is asking members for donations to help the students linked to a now-infamous letter blaming Israel for the vicious Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists. Those attacks killed at least 1,400 people in Israel and sparked a war that so far has killed thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Daily Mail, the leaders of the association say they fear for the mental health of the students, who are experiencing “relentless bullying and intimidation.” The association says that students “may require legal counsel, healthcare, mental health support, financial aid, or mentorship to navigate these turbulent and uncertain times.”
But who created the turbulence and uncertainty? For the students, this is a self-inflicted wound.
It doesn’t take an Ivy League education to see that being linked to this abhorrent letter, which was endorsed by 34 student organizations, could hurt students’ standing on campus — and future job prospects. It’s no surprise many are claiming they never read it.
If that is true, they missed out. The letter, while offensive and wrongheaded, also represents an important aspect of our nation’s cultural decline — how supposedly intelligent students who work their tails off to get into an elite university could, upon stepping onto campus, put everything they’ve worked for at risk by forsaking their decency and decorum.
The self-righteous dispatch — released on the day of the barbaric attacks — declares: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Condemnation came swiftly, from both conservatives and liberals. Some demanded that Harvard punish the students and the organizations. Retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, a vocal defender of Israel, wants the university to release students’ names.
Some of the names have already leaked, and they’ve been posted online. A private group paid to have a truck drive through Harvard Square, plastered with the names and faces of some of the students linked to the letter, under the words “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.”
That stunt was uncalled for. Even as an unflinching supporter of Israel, I have to ask: Does being critical of how Israelis treat Palestinians automatically make you an antisemite?
Note the irony. Many parents make sacrifices to send their kid to a school like Harvard, on the assumption that doing so will put their offspring on easy street. Then the kid goes there and — after getting swept up in politics — does a dumb thing that makes life more difficult.
Meanwhile, Harvard President Claudine Gay, who has been on the job for only a few months, has made multiple statements about the controversy. The gist of her remarks is that while the university rejects terrorism, hate and violence, it also won’t abide suppression of free speech or harassment of individuals based on their beliefs, even if they reflect views that are “objectionable or outrageous.”
Off campus, there is a separate question about whether prospective employers should punish those linked to the letter. There have already been reports that students at other elite universities who expressed sympathy for the Palestinians after the attacks have had offers of jobs or internships rescinded.
Employers can do as they see fit with these wannabe activists. In fact, I can think of several reasons none of the people behind the letter should be hired anywhere — and those reasons have nothing to do with international affairs or the politics of the Middle East.
The Harvard students who couldn’t wait to bash Israel made one mistake after another. They failed to show propriety, civility and good judgment at a sensitive time when millions of people around the world were still in shock over a horrible attack. They didn’t practice critical thinking, show levelheadedness or consider a different perspective. Instead they rushed to comment on a complicated foreign policy issue without having all the facts, and then failed to do their due diligence — either by not reading the letter before signing it, or by failing to ensure that the document had the backing of all the members of the organizations they represented.
And when the whole thing went south, they refused to take responsibility for doing anything wrong. Not a good look, kids.
What employer would want to hire someone like that — especially without an apology and admission of fault? And how many alumni benefactors would want to bail them out?
Save your money, folks. These young people — supposedly among the best and the brightest — got themselves into this mess. They can figure a way out.