4 thoughts on “Sympathy For Claudine Gay”

  2. I hate this “fisking” business of interspersing quotes with snark. This style of argument insults my intelligence that I cannot read the source material and make my own conclusions.

    Rand, instead of linking to Claudine Gay’s letter, I think one should link to Bill Ackman’s letter.

    This is the wealthy donor who is getting criticism, even in right-wing circles, of using the power of his wealth and his ethnic heritage to effect change at Harvard.

    Maybe he is naive about “how academia works” in his ideas of firing everybody on what at Harvard would be our Board of Regents at the U. Perhaps Trump-like in thinking a donor should have any influence on “how we run things.”

    But I was moved by his description about how students were subject to harassment the day after the horrific attacks on Israel, before the Israeli leaders even got around to thinking about striking back. This isn’t a case of calling someone an anti-semite for repeating an ethnic joke they heard on a TV program. I think he patiently and persuasively explains what Jewish students are being subject to and why he thinks this is happening.

    2. This is somewhat tangentially related to the OP because it addresses one of the key issues facing Israel going forward

      https://open.substack.com/pub/bariweiss/p/imam-father-gaza-kidnapped-by-hamas

      I admit I did not study Allied Actions AFTER VE and VJ day. But I think the Nuremburg Trials set an important precedent. And I think it would be informative to study the processes and mechanisms put in place after the war to de-Nazify Germany and de-Imperialize Japan that led to what we now refer to as the modern post-war world. I think Israel committed an error when it failed to make unconditional surrender by Hamas the key criteria for cessation of war.

      This will all fall onto Israel’s shoulders and it will not be easy. They should offer Gazans relief in villages outside of the war torn Gaza Strip. Until Gaza has been essentially reduced in population to the point where it can be resettled by Israelis. No large groupings of Gazan’s allowed. And membership in Hamas is illegal. Subject to fine and imprisonment. Israel to take over Gazan education. Gazans can over time earn the “right-to-return” but only in numbers and terms as allowed by Israel. I’m not a fan of deporting all Palestinians to the Negev desert. We’ve already seen the disastrous effects leaving a people to dwell on their perceptions can have.

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