I’ll preface my commentary with the obvious: All of the “mostly peaceful” protests by our “college educated” on campuses nationwide that are clearly pro-Hamas and aimed at Jewish students are wrong, illegal, and all involved should either go back to the classes their parents and taxpayers are funding or be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But why the sudden sanctimonious outrage from the media and pundit class, billionaire donors, business leaders, and politicians? Why are the harassment and threats against Jewish students a red line that’s been crossed and now found to be totally unacceptable? It’s only because the current violence hits too close to home.

Several major donors have called a hard stop to their past donations:

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a Columbia graduate, said he was stopping donations immediately and charged the college with failing to keep its Jewish students safe.

Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman, a business school graduate, said he would stick with a stop on donations which began shortly after the October 7 Hamas massacres.

[snip]

Cooperman, Blavatnik and Kraft have donated nearly $100 million in total to Columbia, according to some estimates — money that has created multiple buildings on campus, scholarships for engineers, and a center for Jewish students.

After Eric Garner’s death in 2014 death and Freddie Gray’s in 2015, college students eagerly joined the burgeoning #BlackLivesMatter #DefundThePolice movements. Permitless street protests started becoming a new norm where traffic was strategically snarled, and thousands of commuters were held hostage to those who believed they could demand to be heard at the inconvenience of others.

Many of those protests resulted in millions of dollars of public and private property damage, looting of businesses, and burning of buildings and homes in predominantly black neighborhoods. Still, we were all told to deal with it because protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Image: The aftermath of the George Floyd riot in Minneapolis. YouTube screen grab.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal, and the few charged were dismissed.

Those protests also resulted in compliant progressive local legislatures beginning to actually defund their law enforcement agencies, resulting in unsafe streets for citizens and the assassination of police officers nationwide. The negative ramifications to public safety felt since have been profound.

After President Donald Trump’s 2016 election, students from high school through college were encouraged to leave campuses and take to the streets, again without permits, and to disrupt traffic, again resulting in the expected public and private property damage. The outrage from those with influence was minimal because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal, and the few charged were dismissed.

After George Floyd’s death in 2020 (and too many still don’t know that the actual cause was self-inflicted), tens of thousands of protesters, including college students, took to highways and streets for the summer, causing intentional disruptions for thousands of commuters, damaging and/or destroying hundreds of public and private buildings, attacking law enforcement, burning and looting businesses and homes, primarily in black neighborhoods. Once again, the American people were told to suck it up because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Many politicians embraced and encouraged the tumult.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal, and the few charged were dismissed.

Conservatives have been met with threats and eventual violence after being invited to speak on college campuses for many years, but the outrage was minimal and we were told to suck it up because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal, and the few charged were dismissed.

Female activists have been met with threats and eventual violence after being invited to speak on college campuses against the unfair and dangerous incursion of transgender athletes into their sports. The outrage was minimal, and the women were told to suck it up because the protesters were exercising their right to free speech.

Arrests and prosecutions were minimal, and the few charged were dismissed.

It could be argued that, if those now expressing their outrage had stepped in and efficiently cracked down on the illegal street takeovers and protests back in 2014, the red line between common decency and anarchy would not have been crossed. In almost every case, college students contributed to the ranks of unruly protesters, participated in the mayhem and destruction, and afterward returned to the safety and warmth of their dorms or homes.

Almost all the pundits on the left and the news networks gave aid and comfort to the violent protesters by labeling them as #MostlyPeaceful despite the clear optics to the contrary.

Almost all of those who donate hefty sums to colleges and universities—and are quite vocal today—were silent during those protests.

There was no legislation introduced on Capitol Hill to outlaw the activities of #Antifa and other anarchists whose sole mission was to exploit grievances as an excuse to commit acts of destruction...maybe because some of the protesters were relatives of those same legislators.

And all the protests, excused and/or applauded by the left, resulted in hundreds of injuries and deaths. Those lives didn’t matter to all those now belatedly expressing horror and outrage.

And who are Ivy League college presidents and administrators now calling to quell unruly antisemitic students and outside agitators? Ah, yes, the very police they had no problem smearing, defunding and/or removing from their campus safe spaces, acquiescing to activists and radicals. Funny how irony works in the small college-educated mind.

The threats and violence against Jewish students on college campuses and street/highway takeovers by the pro-Hamas-indoctrinated are the direct result of not shutting down misguided and illegal student-fueled protests ten years ago. It’s shameful that it took a decade of this societal breakdown and violence before wealthy Jewish donors finally woke up to the fact that it was always going to end with attacks on the Jews.

The toothpaste is out of the tube.

Bob Parks blogs at Black and Right.