Cornell Faculty Living Out "some sort of weird revolutionary fantasy through these students" (2024)

Cornell Faculty Living Out “some sort of weird revolutionary fantasy through these students”

My appearance on Fox and Friends talking about recent anti-Israel hooliganism on Cornell’s campus: “This is a cultural problem on the campuses…. It’s a culture on the campus that encourages anti-Americanism, encourages antisemitism, encourages anti-westernism…. There are faculty members who egg this on and who act as advisors on this.”

I appeared on Fox and Friends this morning to talk about the latest act of anti-Israel hooliganism on Cornell’s campus,Anti-Israel Mob Hits Cornell on First Day of School.

Transcript auto-generated, may contain transcription errors. Lightly edited for transcription clarity.

Lawrence Jones: Yesterday was only the first day of the semester. But already anti-Israeli protestors have descended onto Cornell’s campus, even shattering the door to an administrative building and spray painting ‘Israel bombs, Cornell’s pays’ and ‘blood is on your hands’ on the wall. Cornell University law professor William Jacobson, is the founder of the Equal Protection Project, and he joins us now.

Sir, I want to get your reaction to all of this nonsense there, but, I just found this, this statement, from the university, just stunning. ‘Our aim is not to punish individuals or to suppress the views being to promote it, but to protect the rights of all in our community.’ I mean, what a nonsense. No one is against the First Amendment, but these people are breaking the law and they’re also intimidating people. Right?

WAJ: Well, I think that’s the main mistake the administration made last year and appears to be continuing to make, which is there’s a huge difference between free expression and intimidation and violence. And they don’t seem to recognize that when you use bullhorns inside the library, when you set up an encampment right in the middle of the main quad, you’re not doing it really to express yourself. There are a million other ways to express yourself. You’re doing it as an act of dominance. It’s an act of saying that we are going to defy the administration and we’re not going to live by the rules that everybody else has to live by. And we want special privileges. And unfortunately, the administration has been accommodating of those special privileges of the people who are engaging in the intimidation.

Jones: It is so well said. And they later say this in another statement. ‘We are appalled by the graffiti spray painted and glass shatter overnight along the front entrance of Day Hall. Those responsible will be subject to suspension and criminal charges.’ Okay? But they never find these people. They never, never go after them. And there’s no real plan yet to stop what happened last year from happening this year, right, William?

WAJ: That’s right. Last year we were one of the worst campuses in the country. We had a student last year who’s now in prison for four years for threatening to shoot up the kosher dining hall. We’ve had encampments. We had two students testify in Congress about the endless acts of harassment and intimidation they received, two Jewish students. And the administration really, I think, has lost their way.

And a part of that reason is the faculty mostly backs, at least the vocal faculty, backs these students and eggs them on and lives out some sort of weird revolutionary fantasy through these students. And that’s really the problem, is they don’t understand that there are other people on the campus who would like to be able to study and get an education.

Jones: William, what you’re pointing out is that the issue is more per pervasive. I mean, people thinking once they fire these presidents and they get rid of a few people here and there, but it’s all over academia right now, right?

WAJ: That’s right. This is a cultural problem on the campuses. It’s not a president who’s the problem. It’s a culture on the campus that encourages anti-Americanism, encourages antisemitism, encourages anti-westernism. These students are chanting for decolonization. They refer to the United States as Turtle Island, and the university encourages this. There are faculty members who egg this on and who act as advisors on this.

So this is a deep cultural problem that the administration refuses to address. Instead, they treat it as a problem of a protest here and there, or graffiti here and there. And that’s not the problem on the campus.

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