While the discussion was interesting, I find it missed the key point that Jews are complaining about. Jews see this in transactional terms. A matter of allyship. The allyship in question arises from the historic treatment of Jews by Christian and Arab populations, and from Jews playing an important role in the various civil rights movements around the world. Jews feel that they deserve an accommodation based on these historical facts. Not in every instance, but clearly in an instance where heinous acts of barbarism were committed against Jewish civilians. The Jewish community expects that given these circumstances, even people who would ordinarily support the Palestinian cause would say that in this instance, we cannot condone the way the Palestinians acted. That there is not universal condemnation of Palestinian behavior is seen by Jews as an extension of historic antisemitism. Jewish history tells us that the distance between being called slurs on college campuses, and being expelled from our homes or murdered, is a very short one. As Glenn said during the episode when describing his discussion with one of his Jewish students, for Jews this is existential. And If you can't parse the Palestinian issue from the Jewish issue in this particular instance, given these specific details, Jews will feel, and I suspect history will show, that you fell on the side of the antisemites. The same way that those who supported Stalin;s purges ended up on the wrong side of history.
I think a secondary issue here, and why this dispute is hard to square for so many people, is that it's a battle between white supremacy and Islamic supremacy. And while Bessner's points about liberalism being on the way out might have some validity, Muslim supremacy is the dark ages and it makes no sense for people to support it.
While the discussion was interesting, I find it missed the key point that Jews are complaining about. Jews see this in transactional terms. A matter of allyship. The allyship in question arises from the historic treatment of Jews by Christian and Arab populations, and from Jews playing an important role in the various civil rights movements around the world. Jews feel that they deserve an accommodation based on these historical facts. Not in every instance, but clearly in an instance where heinous acts of barbarism were committed against Jewish civilians. The Jewish community expects that given these circumstances, even people who would ordinarily support the Palestinian cause would say that in this instance, we cannot condone the way the Palestinians acted. That there is not universal condemnation of Palestinian behavior is seen by Jews as an extension of historic antisemitism. Jewish history tells us that the distance between being called slurs on college campuses, and being expelled from our homes or murdered, is a very short one. As Glenn said during the episode when describing his discussion with one of his Jewish students, for Jews this is existential. And If you can't parse the Palestinian issue from the Jewish issue in this particular instance, given these specific details, Jews will feel, and I suspect history will show, that you fell on the side of the antisemites. The same way that those who supported Stalin;s purges ended up on the wrong side of history.
I think a secondary issue here, and why this dispute is hard to square for so many people, is that it's a battle between white supremacy and Islamic supremacy. And while Bessner's points about liberalism being on the way out might have some validity, Muslim supremacy is the dark ages and it makes no sense for people to support it.