Let the antisemites speak freely
On Sunday, Oct. 8, mere hours after Hamas’s horrific terror attack, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Group, consisting of several dozen organizations, released a joint statement. “The Israel regime is entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence. …The apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” they wrote, as Israel police were still finding the bodies of murdered babies. And later: “The coming days will require a firm stand against colonial retaliation.”
Entrepreneur Bill Ackman’s response was rational and reasonable. He posted on X that, to ensure no CEO with his mindset “inadvertently” hires a member of one of the student groups who signed the letter, the “names of the signatories should be made public so their views are publicly known.” He added that only the names of member who support the letter should be made public.
“One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists, who, we now learn, have beheaded babies, among other inconceivably despicable acts,” he wrote.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a former tech entrepreneur, pushed back at this idea. “It’s not productive for companies to blacklist kids for being members of student groups that make dumb political statements on campus,” he posted on X. “Those calling for blacklisting students right now are responding from a place of understandable hurt, but I’m confident that in the fullness of time, they will agree with me on the wisdom of avoiding these cancel-culture tactics.”
But Ackman wasn’t suggesting that these students be arrested for their speech or suspended by or kicked out of Harvard. He wasn’t saying the Harvard students’ views should be banned from Instagram or TikTok. It is not “cancel culture” to want to avoid hiring Ivy League students whose viewpoints you find odious, or who have revealed themselves to be idiots at best and antisemites at worst.
In fact, Ackman and those like him are encouraging more speech, and that’s a good thing. Put your name on it, they urge, and don’t hide behind the safety of an organization. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences of that speech. And let’s be honest — in our culture today, holding the positions of these students could get you hired as much as it could get you blacklisted, depending on the organization you’d like to be a part of.
We have entered a disturbing time in the wake of the terror attack. What appears to be a vast undercurrent of Jew hatred silently boiling just below the cultural surface has manifested itself through extreme skepticism of Israel, or pro-Palestinian pronouncements that verge on supporting Hamas. We see this in the press, in academia, in Congress and especially among extremists online. And it’s not just on the progressive left, either. We see it from some on the populist-leaning right as well.
But it’s also a clarifying moment, and one we should welcome. As painful as it may be to see the hateful words on display, we want the antisemites to reveal themselves, not be relegated to the shadows, where that belief can metastasize in the darkness. Only in the light, with eyes wide open, can we see the hatred of Jews that exists in America and around the world.
Because it does us no good to ignore the realities of what Jews are faced with, long before this terror attack. A March Gallup poll showed that, for the first time since the company began asking the question in 2001, more Democrats said their sympathies were with the Palestinians than with the Israelis, 49 percent to 38 percent. In 2022, it was 40 percent with the Israelis and 38 percent with the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Republican line has barely shifted (currently 78 percent with the Israelis to 11 percent with Palestinians).
Polls since the terror attack have been more encouraging, indicating that Americans of all political persuasions largely support Israel.
But it’s not just in the U.S. A poll of citizens of Jordan, which borders Israel, found that 84 percent oppose doing business with Israel, only 12 percent support the Abraham Accords (the Trump administration’s plan to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab countries), and 60 percent support Hamas firing missiles at Israel. A September poll of Palestinians found that a majority (53 percent) favor “armed struggle” against Israel over negotiations (20 percent) or non-violent resistance (24 percent).
This is just a snapshot. And it should be entirely unsurprising, given what we’ve seen over the last 10 days — the protests calling for the destruction of Israel, cheering the murder of Israelis and more. But that’s why it’s important to continue to allow as much speech as possible.
France is cracking down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations. It’s the wrong approach Meanwhile, social platforms are wrestling with what to allow, from graphic pictures and video of atrocities to hate speech. This is one area that X, under new owner Elon Musk, is distinguishing itself from other more restrictive platforms.
Yes, more speech leads to more misinformation. But consumers are smart, and they can sift through the noise. It’s important that the world sees Hamas’s horrifying acts reads the hateful invective being spewed against Israel and Jews. And then we should let the market decide which viewpoints cross the line of decency.
If we hide the truth, we sacrifice long-term opportunities to address the issues head-on, to have tough conversations in favor of a short-term façade of respectability. Don’t shut down the antisemites. Let them speak freely, so we may know their names, and proceed accordingly.
Steve Krakauer, a NewsNation contributor, is the author of “Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People” and editor and host of the Fourth Watch newsletter and podcast.