US Jews made to feel unsafe

In his op-ed, Stephen J. Lyons asks why he can’t criticize the war in Gaza without being called antisemitic. He certainly can criticize it in my opinion, and I’m glad that he mentions the horrific actions of Hamas. I am one of thousands of Jews who have disliked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for years and are horrified by the way he is conducting the war. He is trying to stay in power when most people want him removed and is supported by extremists. Jews, too, have protested here and in even larger numbers in Israel. So protesting the war should not engender that accusation.

However, there is an aspect of Lyons’ op-ed that is more questionable. Asking a university president if it is acceptable for students to advocate for the genocide of all Jews is not a “linguistic trap.” What if the question had been how they would feel if a group were marching and loudly calling for the genocide of all Black people? I know Jewish faculty members on college campuses who fear for their safety because of pro-Palestinian protesters and the slogans they are allowed to chant and yell. If universities are “islands of repression,” as Lyons wonders, the ones being repressed are the Jewish students and faculty members who bear no responsibility for Israel’s actions — not the Palestinian students.

I think the U.S. should make military aid conditional on the protection of Gaza’s civilians, but everyone also has to insist that Jews not be made to feel unsafe because of the actions of a foreign government they cannot control. — Joyce Porter, Oak Park