The explosion of support for Hamas’s assault on human decency could well turn out to be the high-water mark of the progressive Left. The authoritarian multicultural ideology generated on campuses and transmitted dutifully by the established media has reached its apex and may now begin to descend.
Is sanity finally returning to America’s blue cities? The places that incubated inept policies such as “defund the police” and “sanctuary cities”, but welcomed open-air drug use, are beginning to have second thoughts. Read more
Xi Jinping should have entered San Francisco’s Apec conference with his tail between his legs, but instead has emerged as something closer to the king of the world. China may be experiencing tepid growth, a bloated real estate market, low industrial production, and an increasingly alienated youth yet, in spite of these factors, he appears to be wearing the crown.
For decades, China and Middle Eastern autocracies have been pouring billions of dollars into American and other foreign universities. Such funds support students from their countries but can also support academic programs that propagate these countries’ world views.
China’s so-called Confucius Institutes, for instance, which push the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda on college campuses and seek access to U.S. technological prowess, have garnered much international attention. Including these institutes and other efforts, China contributed $1.2 billion to American colleges between 2014 and 2020. It has spent roughly another $1 billion since 2020.
Middle Eastern countries’ donations draw much less attention. Between 2014 and 2020, Muslim-majority countries together donated $4.86 billion to American higher-educational institutions, representing 29 percent of all foreign donations.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia were responsible for much of this largesse. The two countries together invested $3.7 billion in American higher education and were cumulatively responsible for 2,303 grants, gifts, and contracts, of which 422 exceeded $1 million and 17 exceeded $50 million in value. Most of the largest gifts came from Qatar to Cornell and Carnegie Mellon.
Qatar’s role is particularly troubling, since the country is often an ally to both Iran and Hamas. The country also backs other terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and is home to the most important Middle Eastern media outfit, Al Jazeera. Along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar is among the largest donors to Palestinian organizations and causes.
It’s too early to make direct connection between a school’s anti-Israel agitation and its donations from Middle Eastern countries, but the biggest recipients, such as Cornell, NYU, Georgetown, and Harvard tend to have large pro-Hamas elements. Student groups on each of those campuses have embraced the Hamas cause, most prominently at Harvard, where more than 30 student groups initially signed pro-Hamas statements, though some have since sought to dissociate themselves.
Israel’s donations to American colleges and universities have proved somewhat ironic. Between 2014 and 2020, Israel made 373 gifts to U.S. colleges and universities, together worth $124.1 million. Twenty-nine of those gifts totaled more than $1 million. Surprisingly, Yeshiva University was not among the recipients. Israel’s largest nine donations, totaling $36 million, went to Brigham Young University. Yale was the tenth-largest recipient, with a gift of $2.4 million. Harvard’s five gifts from Israel totaled $3.1 million. Medical schools such as Johns Hopkins and Albert Einstein College of Medicine were also major recipients of Israeli dollars.
Some of the Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries’ donations may be used to stoke anti-Israel and anti-Jewish attitudes. The past decade has seen a surge of Muslim students, including large numbers whose tuitions are paid by Arab governments. These students, though a small portion of all enrollees, have often led the pro-Hamas activity on college campuses. They are frequently joined by Middle Eastern studies faculty, many of whom hold anti-Israel and anti-American views, and whose departments often receive funding from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. While Americans rightfully worry about Chinese influence in our universities, we seem to think less about attracting anti-Israel and often anti-American students to our shores.
Read the rest of this piece at City Journal.
Joel Kotkin is the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Executive Director for Urban Reform Institute. Learn more at joelkotkin.com and follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.
Marshall Toplansky is a widely published and award-winning marketing professional and successful entrepreneur. He co-founded KPMG’s data & analytics center of excellence and now teaches and consults corporations on their analytics strategies.
Photo: Sam Agnew via Flickr under CC 2.0 License.
Pure evil has been unleashed against the people of Israel. So many were brutally murdered, including babies who were beheaded in their cribs in one kibbutz! Children were butchered or kidnapped. Women were raped and then kidnapped or murdered and defiled. 260 young people were slaughtered at a music festival, and dozens more butchered or hauled away to Gaza. Holocaust survivors and other elderly met the same fates. The Hamas terrorists who did this are beneath the most vicious animals.
There is no “both sides” to this story.
No one can bring back the lost lives or even comprehend the horrific traumas, like those found on Instagram but often sanitized elsewhere. However, giving up is not an option. Following is a list of some of organizations that are actively Israel’s response to these catastrophes and greatly need support.
I am very involved in Jewish National Fund-USA (the first organization on the list) and can personally recommend the organization for its programs all across Israel for people of all faiths.
I am not intimately familiar with the other listed groups but have heard good things from friends and colleagues. You may want to review their websites for more information. (Note that the descriptions of these organizations comes from a Jerusalem-based source.)
Thank you for considering a donation at this very difficult time.
Paul Driessen
Jewish National Fund – USA – Emergency “Resilience Campaign. Every dollar raised by this JNF campaign goes to addressing critical, current needs: evacuation, transportation and emergency housing for hardest hit communities on the border; firefighting and protective equipment to combat ongoing rocket fire that’s destroying homes, buildings and livelihoods; bedding and hygiene supplies for those displaced from their homes; psychological treatment; and the promise to rebuild communities devastated by attacks, to keep their spirits and hope strong.
In one case, “JNF-USA purchased advanced security cameras that were installed on the roof of Bnei Netzarim Synagogue in Halutza. Last Saturday the cameras spotted 13 Hamas vehicles headed to Israel for an attack. With encrypted radios (also supplied by JNF), the local security teams coordinated an interception and guided IDF forces to cut the terrorists off, saving countless lives. www.JNF.org/SupportIsrael
Magen David Adom: MDA is Israel’s national emergency medical service. It plays a vital role in saving lives, especially during times of crisis. MDA provides ambulance services, blood donations and medical support to those in need. Your contribution can help MDA continue their essential work. https://www.MDAIS.org/en or its American Friends US site https://www.AFMDA.
United Hatzolah: This volunteer-based organization operates a network of first responders throughout Israel and is the largest volunteer ambulance service in the world. It provide rapid medical assistance during emergencies, often on motorcycles. (I’ve seen them in action.) Contribute to their lifesaving efforts at United Hatzolah. https://IsraelRescue.org/
Eran: Eran offers emotional support through a helpline to people experiencing crisis, anxiety, depression and PTSD. Your donation will help them continue this vital work. https://en.eran.org.il/donate-online/
Natal: Natal provides comprehensive support for Israeli victims of trauma and terror. Their programs offer psychological help and healing for individuals and families affected by violence. https://www.natal.org.il/en/
One Family: This organization provides assistance to victims of terror attacks: financial aid, therapy, and support networks for affected families. You can contribute to their mission at https://OneFamilytogether.org/
Trauma for Good: This organization uses innovative methods to help trauma survivors rebuild their lives. Its professionals empower survivors to turn their pain into strength and resilience. https://www.Trauma4Good.org/en/home2/
Zaka: This volunteer-based organization specializes in search, rescue and recovery operations during emergencies and terror attacks. It also provides emotional support to victims and their families. Its website is only in Hebrew, but any translation app can automatically translate the page. https://zaka.org.il/
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces: FIDF offers programs and services to support IDF soldiers and their families, helping to improve the lives of these brave individuals. https://www.fidf.org/
Brothers for Life: This organization supports wounded soldiers, including those who have lost limbs or been paralyzed, providing them with care, rehabilitation and resources to lead fulfilling lives. https://www.BrothersForLife.com/
Chayal el Chayal: This organization provides housing and support to “lone soldiers” (soldiers without family in the country) serving in the IDF. Your support ensures these soldiers have a home away from home. https://www.chayalelchayal.com/
Lone Soldier Center: The Center offers a wide range of services to lone soldiers, including financial support, social activities and mentorship programs. https://LoneSoldierCenter.com/
The Michael Levin Base: This organization also supports lone soldiers, by providing them with a sense of community and the resources to make their service in the IDF more manageable far from home. https://themichaellevinbase.org/
Bezri: This group is dedicated to improving the welfare of all IDF soldiers, by providing them with essential items and support. https://www.bezri.org/program_info.php?program_id=58
For an uplifting story of a young heroine who led her kibbutz in battling and killing two dozen Hamas terrorists, see https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12616229/Israeli-woman-Inbar-Lieberman-kibbutz-Nir-Hamas.html
For a article about the despicable elements running Harvard and Harvard Law School publications and organizations, see https://townhall.com/tipsheet/john-hasson/2023/10/10/meet-the-harvard-students-supporting-hamas-invasion-of-israel-n2629626
This new report examines the housing trends that are driving today’s migration of people and jobs, and suggests a urban strategy that better fits the aspirations of most Americans. Below is a summary of the report and a link to download the full report:
For generations Americans have voted with their feet—and their dollars—to achieve what has long been called “the dream,” namely, a home of their own, usually in a low- to mid-density community. This preference has existed for decades, and despite media assertions of a generational shift back to dense, urban living, the statistical evidence shows quite the opposite.
Amid all the hysteria, technological wreckage and gallons of spilt ink, artificial intelligence’s most potent legacy is yet to be discerned. Read more
As recently as the early Nineties, when the great cities of the Midwest and East Coast were careening toward what seemed like an inevitable downturn, the urban agglomerations along the Pacific coast offered a demonstrably brighter urban future. From San Diego to the Puget Sound, urban centers along America’s western edge continued to thrive and expand as migrants from other parts of the country, and the world, crowded in.
If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.
~Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire
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History has moved to the front line of social conflict, but rarely has it been so poorly understood and sketchily taught. After decades of declining interest, only 13 percent of eighth graders achieve proficiency in the subject today. The New York Times reports that “about 40 percent of eighth graders scored ‘below basic’ in U.S. history last year, compared with 34 percent in 2018 and 29 percent in 2014.” This phenomenon can be seen across the West. The study of and interest in the past, noted the Economist in 2019, has largely disappeared in the UK. Study of the 19th century, meanwhile, seems to be vanishing from European classrooms. “We are in danger of mass amnesia, being cut off from knowledge of our own cultural history,” noted the late Jane Jacobs in her 2004 book, Dark Age Ahead. When I show my students a picture of Lenin, barely one-in-ten of them recognize it.
Universities should be beacons of dispassionate learning, so it is particularly unfortunate that they have also been increasingly complicit in obliterating much that is valuable to historical instruction and understanding. In a 2013 article for the Guardian, Ashley Thorne lamented that university curricula were largely ignoring the literary classics. At many US colleges, Thorne noted, books written before 1990 are considered “inaccessible” to students. This breaks a vital link with the past that allows students to identify with their ancestors as part of an ongoing human story, rather than simply dismissing their thoughts and actions as alien, unintelligible, or even intrinsically evil.
The problem is further exacerbated by the much-discussed decline in academic viewpoint diversity, particularly in the social sciences and humanities. The history profession was once famously disputatious, but over the last generation or so, a diminishing number of conservative or even centrist historians has produced monocultural groupthink. A national survey of faculty members from 183 four-year colleges and universities, conducted in 2005, found that liberals were already seven times more numerous across history departments than conservatives. Without the cut-and-thrust of lively historical debate, history risks becoming an ideological discipline, as was the case in the Soviet Union or China today, taught by rote and incapable of generating excitement and interest.
The consequent decline in historical understanding suggests that generations of students will leave higher education ill-prepared to engage or even bother with the past. The 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment found that 86 percent of 15-year-olds are unable to tell the difference between opinion and fact. This lack of preparation empowers propagandists, who often know little about history to start with, to twist the past to suit their own ideological purposes for an equally ignorant audience.
Less remarked upon is the impact that this ignorance can have on how we understand our present and future. An understanding of the past that dwells exclusively on our crimes, mistakes, and failures at the expense of our achievements produces a distorted picture of human potential and an unwarranted sense of despair. This is particularly evident in the pessimism with which younger generations approach issues like race relations, climate change, and the continuing viability of liberal democracy. For if there is no hope to be found in the past, what possible hope can there be for the future?
Critics of traditional history instruction on matters related to race do sometimes raise valid points. Past school curricula distorted history in its own ways, particularly by ignoring the contributions of Asians and Hispanics as well as indigenous groups like Native Americans and Africans. A controversial claim made by one historian in the Washington Post (specifically, that neither Roosevelt nor Churchill opposed Nazism for its commitment to racial supremacy) may have provoked outrage from right-wing pundits, but the point was not entirely misplaced.
Ignorance and the willful politicization of historical debate, however, have also led to some outright fabulism. Vice President Kamala Harris inflamed the dispute over Florida’s history guidelines by falsely alleging that they mandate an outrageously revisionist account of American slavery. The Telegraph recently reported that, at Cambridge, students are being taught that “Anglo Saxons aren’t real” due to the term’s allegedly problematic ethnic connotations. Indigenous leaders in the Commonwealth have recently demanded that King Charles apologize for crimes committed long before he was born. And of course, there are ongoing efforts to redefine July 4th as a moment for national shame and atonement rather than celebration.
Read the rest of this piece at Quillette.
Joel Kotkin is the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Executive Director for Urban Reform Institute. Learn more at joelkotkin.com and follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.
Photo credit: African American children learning about Thanksgiving, with model log cabin on table, Whittier Primary School, Hampton, Virginia. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, [1899 or 1900]. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” wrote the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This may prove no problem to the West’s climate-obsessed elites, who rail about the coming apocalypse, even while undermining the production of the very resources that would be essential if they are to have any chance to reach their cherished “net zero” utopia. Read more
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Daniel Oberhaus, used under CC 4.0 License