When faced with complexity and nuance, simple minds yearn for order. Dichotomies such as “us versus them”, “pro-Palestinian versus pro-Israeli,” and “radical versus moderate” underpin the lexicon of such individuals. There is no shortage of such individuals in government (Federal and State), school administrations, the business world, cable news and the public itself.
College students are refusing to accept a status quo in which the profit of the arms suppliers and their patrons in Congress appears to always trump justice for the thousands of victims upon whom the weapons explode. For the vast majority of students, their angst is not fueled by hatred of an ethnic group or religion. It is a grave injustice to cast aspersions upon their character. On the other hand, there have been instances of ethno-religious intolerance that must be dealt with swiftly.
When leaders in government and college administration refuse to acknowledge the legitimate concerns of a restive public, however, peaceful protest may morph into the unmediated expression of strident political demands resulting in smashed windows and Heaven forbid, smashed heads. Instead of addressing the concerns and coming to a solution, members of Congress are writing a bill that will limit not only speech, but thought itself. It is against this backdrop that Congressman Jerry Nadler (D) of NY and Rep. Greg Casar of TX have thankfully stood up for the First Amendment.
Rep. Jerry Nadler said to the NOTUS magazine, “the antidote to antisemitism on college campuses is to increase the budget of the DOE’s civil rights office, not “fooling around with definitions that are just going to infringe on free speech in certain circumstances.” “The Lawler (R) of NY bill is an absurd bill,” he said. “It’s a terrible bill. I’m going to vote against it.” Similarly, Rep. Casar (D) of TX stated, “It’s important for us to be able to condemn and combat all forms of bigotry, from racism to antisemitism to Islamophobia. But criticism of the Netanyahu government is part of our democratic right,” Casar said. “It certainly isn’t antisemitic in and of itself.” To wit, www.notus.org/...Such sentiments reflect Senator Sander’s impassioned speech on the need to keep Netanyahu accountable for his egregious human rights violations.
What is it about the Lawler bill that our Progressive champions find so disconcerting? The bill adopts an overly broad definition of anti-Semitism that conflates legitimate criticism of the Israeli regime and its policies vis a vis the Palestinians with bigotry (a repulsive trait) towards people practicing the Jewish faith. Should Lawler’s bill pass with the support of more hawkish Democrats, there will be a chilling effect on speech in the Ivory Tower. Academics, both Jewish and non-Jewish, would be censored for teaching the history of the Intifada resistance movement and discussing the dispossession of the Palestinians in the West Bank from their land. Daring to question the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza could be construed as criticism of Jewish people—an absurd notion since many Jewish people themselves abhor such violence as a tenet of their deep faith. Holding the government of Israel to account for its violations of international law in the ICJ and ICC would be deemed anti-Semitic. In fact, Bibi has already urged his devoted cheerleaders in Congress to exercise all their leverage to prevent the ICC warrants against him from being delivered. There is even talk of weaponizing the DOJ to silence the speech of students and professors who refuse to parrot Newspeak—“a confusing language with a restricted vocabulary and grammar designed to limit the range of thought.” To wit, cfa.gmu.edu/...We would find ourselves in Orwell’s dystopian Oceania where we would be required to “simultaneously repudiate morality while laying claim to it.” This type of “Doublethink” in which “one is conscious of the truth while telling carefully constructed lies” has been the hallmark of some government officials with whom we are all too familiar.
If anyone is troubled by this descent into this Orwellian dystopia, write to your Congressional Representative and Senator and support the Progressive Democratic Caucus in their effort to craft a reasonable bill that safeguards the First Amendment and tackles the problem of bigotry effectively.