Foreign policy expert says anti-Israel activists have ‘a fascist mentality’
Harley Lippman tells Fox News Digital that anti-Israel activists need to quit calling for a cease-fire if they want the war in Gaza to be resolved.
Foreign policy expert Harley Lippman says ignorant, antisemitic anti-Israel activists have "a fascist mentality" and need to quit calling for a cease-fire if they want the war in Gaza to be resolved.
"This conflict is actually very resolvable. The analogy I'll use is if you have a fire, you don't put out two-thirds of the fire, you put out the whole fire. And that's what Israel is encountering right now. To ask Israel to stop and not go into Rafah would be a disaster of monumental proportions. Why? Because it would mean that Hamas wins," Lippman told Fox News Digital.
"And if they win, there is going to be an assault of radical Islam on America and on America's friends and allies all over the world, because they'll be emboldened," he continued. "What Hamas will do out of the rubble will be, they'll get out, plant their flag, and say, ‘We stood up to the largest military power in the region for a half year, and we're still here,’ and that is going to really galvanize them, and that would be counterproductive to everything that we want to do."
Foreign policy expert Harley Lippman says ignorant, antisemitic anti-Israel have "a fascist mentality" and need to quit calling for a cease-fire if they want the war in Gaza to be resolved. (Rod Lamkey/CNP for Fox News Digital)
Lippman serves on the board of the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act and is an Executive Committee member on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
While Lippman believes Israel needs to completely destroy Hamas, other Americans have taken to the streets to call for a cease-fire during anti-Israel rallies and demonstrations. Lippman believes that attempts to disrupt the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York and other efforts to storm Easter church services are telling about the anti-Israel protestors.
"There are no Jews there, so what does that tell you? These are people… they have a fascist mentality. And, while it may start with the Jews, it never ends with the Jews. Jews are the canary in the coal mine. It reveals the health of a society, and the more antisemitism you have, the more unhealthy your society is," Lippman said.
Lippman, who sits on the Yale School of Management Board of Advisors and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs, knows college campuses well. He is completely stunned at what has occurred on campuses throughout the nation, particularly at Harvard University. His comments also come after a recent dust-up at Vanderbilt University led to the expulsion and suspension of several students protesting the war in Gaza.
"It does not violate a code of conduct to promote genocide of Jews. Yet, if they did it to any other people, they would be stopped and reprimanded," Lippman said before noting that using the wrong pronouns to identify someone, and engaging in sizeism, fatphobia, or transphobia are all violations.
"But you’re not in violation if you show antisemitism, hatred of Jews or even violence against Jews, and that’s what is extraordinary," he said.
INTERIM HARVARD PRESIDENT PLEDGES TO TACKLE ‘PERNICIOUS’ CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM AND SELF-CENSORSHIP
Students from Brooklyn College and supporters hold signs during a demonstration at the entrance of the campus on October 12, 2023. (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket)
Thousands of anti-Israel protestors fill Freedom Plaza and the surrounding streets for rally and march calling for an end to the Israel - Hamas war, in Washington, DC on Saturday, November 4, 2023. (Rod Lamkey/CNP for Fox News Digital)
Harvard University Interim President Alan M. Garber has pledged to tackle what he described as "pernicious" antisemitism on the Ivy League campus after former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned last year partially over controversy over her handling of antisemitism.
Lippman said schools could be in hot water if they accept federal money under Title IV but fail to honor the requirement to protect all students. He doesn’t think Jewish students are being properly protected at certain schools, and said some complaints he’s been privy to would "scare the daylights" out of any decent America.
"You would think that this was 1932 and it was Nazi Germany. There are thousands of complaints that are very, very detailed and very specific about Jewish students feeling frightened, calling up the dean, calling out professors, sending in emails, asking for help and getting no response," Lippman said.
"One example, there were these [anti-Israel] protesters and they wear masks. I have to tell you, think about what it means when someone is chanting to kill you, wearing a mask. How incredibly scary that is, and how much that could lead to violence because you're wearing a mask, you're anonymous," he continued. "It allows you to be violent and do things that you otherwise wouldn't do because you wouldn't want your face to be seen."
Lippman recalled another group that is known to conduct violence while wearing a mask: the Ku Klux Klan.
"At Harvard, if you wore a white robe and you had a sign saying, ‘Genocide to Blacks,’ you are promoting genocide of African-Americans. That would never stand. They would arrest you in in minutes," he said. "Yet if you do that to Jews and say, ‘I want to kill Jews,’ or, ‘We should wipe out all the Jews drom the face of the earth,’ nothing happens to you. How can that be acceptable?"
Anti-Israel activists gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2023. (Joseph Prezioso / AFP)
Lippman says he is regularly asked why college students feel emboldened to express hatred of Jews and Israel, and what motivates young people to behave in such a way. He feels there are two critical reasons.
"One is antisemitism. You know, I like to say history doesn't repeat itself. People do. It's been around for thousands of years. It's still here today. You know, we like to think the Holocaust was something in the past with black and white pictures, movies like ‘Schindler's List.’ It's a bit of arrogance on our part… it's here today," Lippman said.
"The other reason is ignorance. They have this view that Jews are colonialists who kicked out the local population in effect. And also, they have this view that if you were an oppressed person, the ends justify the means," he said. "Well, it's just all not true."
Fox News Digital’s Nilolas Lanum contributed to this report.
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