The philosopher Henrich Heine wrote, “Never underestimate the power of ideas. Philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor’s study could destroy a civilization.”
Spanning the course of four decades, I have been a political activist for Israel and the Jewish people, centering most of my work on Capitol Hill. Over time, I have watched how ideas shaped in the college classroom have gradually and incrementally made their way into the corridors of power.
When I first began political activism in the 1980s, the memory of the Holocaust was still fresh, and members of both parties would line up to meet with the group I was then affiliated with.
I remember how the late Senator Daniel Inouye (D - Hawaii) spoke, his voice laden with emotion, of what he saw as a young Army officer, when he first entered the concentration camps. That vivid memory made him into a life-long Zionist.
As Inouye was speaking, a revolution was beginning to percolate on college campuses, beginning with the writings of Edward Said and his 1978 book “Orientalism” and culminating in “Critical Race Theory,” which views Jews as privileged and “hyper-white.”
Today, the Middle East Studies Association posts this statement: “MESA’s Board of Directors condemns the ongoing Israeli government assault on the Palestinian people ... there can be no academic freedom and adequate access to education, so long as there is apartheid.”
What began in Middle Eastern Studies classrooms has metastasized throughout the humanities and the social sciences. By now, the “educated” have become the policymakers on Capitol Hill.
This summer, when educating people on Capitol Hill about the indoctrination and military training that students from Gaza receive in Hamas summer camps, including learning how to fire a gun and to jump through hoops of fire, one Democratic staffer said to me, “Isn’t it the same as what we get here? I went to the Boy Scouts and we learned to fire a gun.”
I remember how the late Senator Daniel Inouye (D - Hawaii) spoke, his voice laden with emotion, of what he saw as a young Army officer, when he first entered the concentration camps. That vivid memory made him into a life-long Zionist.
As Inouye was speaking, a revolution was beginning to percolate on college campuses, beginning with the writings of Edward Said and his 1978 book “Orientalism” and culminating in “Critical Race Theory,” which views Jews as privileged and “hyper-white.”
Today, the Middle East Studies Association posts this statement: “MESA’s Board of Directors condemns the ongoing Israeli government assault on the Palestinian people ... there can be no academic freedom and adequate access to education, so long as there is apartheid.”
What began in Middle Eastern Studies classrooms has metastasized throughout the humanities and the social sciences. By now, the “educated” have become the policymakers on Capitol Hill.
This summer, when educating people on Capitol Hill about the indoctrination and military training that students from Gaza receive in Hamas summer camps, including learning how to fire a gun and to jump through hoops of fire, one Democratic staffer said to me, “Isn’t it the same as what we get here? I went to the Boy Scouts and we learned to fire a gun.”
