To the Editor:
In my article "Diversity: The Last Refuge of Scoundrels" published in the Fall 2023 issue I stated , "Most university administrators would object to the suggestion that they obtained their philosophy from Mein Kampf."
I confess my error. In a Congressional hearing December 5, 2023 the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn made it clear, without objection, that Mein Kampf was the source of their philosophy.
Jonathan Katz
Professor of Physics
Washington University
To the Editor:
A postscript to Shale Horowitz's highly insightful “Western Self Hatred: Understanding and Fighting the Newest Left” (Summer 2023). While powerful, the utility of framing the European West as the scapegoat for all the world's ills has serious limitations. Thus, the need for familiar, all purpose, sub scapegoats: Israel and Jews. Intertwined anti-Zionism and antisemitism have long been central tenets of Newest Left ideology. October 7, 2023 should have dispelled any remaining doubts. The unspeakable atrocities committed that day, fueled instant mass demonstrations on many North American campuses. Not in condemnation of such bestiality, but in support of Hamas. Student newspaper editorials, and joint organizational statements blamed Israel for the carnage. Jewish students and faculty became targets for intimidation, harassment. even violence, barely noted by administrators, lacking "context" to intervene.
The protests weren't only on campus. Leftist mobs repeatedly filled city streets, in America and many Western capitals. They disrupted traffic, closed down high-profile public spaces, disrupted major civic events, boycotted Jewish stores and stars, and engaged in much other destructive behaviors. They may have damaged their cause in the eyes of inconvenienced and offended bystanders and the wider, watching public, but they also demonstrated just how numerous, committed and determined they have become.
For observers dedicated to America's founding principles, and Western Enlightenment ideas, the current situation must seem dire. It will take much more, though, than hope to validate Prof. Horowitz's concluding optimistic outlook. Turning around the societal devastation that began in our universities, must also begin there. Meritocracy must be recovered, past great human accomplishments celebrated, diversity of opinion treasured, and equality of opportunity ensured, with inclusion of all those seeking a rich educational experience.
Richard D. Wilkins
Head, Syracuse University Chapter
Alums for Campus Fairness
Syracuse, New York
Shale Horowitz replies:
Leftist antisemitism and Western self-hatred are closely related, with intertwined ideological sources, histories, and institutional underpinnings. Leftist antisemitism not only denies Israel’s right to exist. Like its Islamic extremist allies, the Western far left seeks to destroy Israel, to kill or expel her Jewish population, and to intimidate and forcibly assimilate the rest of the world’s Jews. Why?
First, Biblical Israel is the seed of Christianity, and thus of one of the West’s two core civilizational traditions. Those who hate Christianity almost inevitably hate Judaism.
Second, modern Israel and Judaism—including traditional Judaism—grow out of the complex civilizational interplay of Athens and Jerusalem. They are a part of the West in virtually every sense, both being influenced by the West and influencing the West. In the modern world, Israel has particularly close relations with the United States—the most powerful exemplar and leader of the West. Those who hate the U.S. tend also to hate Israel: the friend of my enemy is my enemy. Similarly, those who hate the U.S. and the West also tend to support their enemies. These include Israel’s regional enemies, from pan-Arab socialists to Islamic extremists.
Third, modern Israel and Judaism are evolving away from their more leftist-influenced, post-World War II forms toward greater traditionalism. More traditional Jews supporting a traditional, civilizationally-based national homeland are like kryptonite to the far left—which cannot abide communities and nations that thrive by seeking meaning, fulfillment, and happiness through traditional Western values rather than through cultural hedonism, economic collectivism, and political messianism. Israel and traditional Judaism are in the same category as Evangelical Christianity, traditional Catholicism, or Mormonism. Historically, leftist antisemitism in the West grows directly out of the Soviet turn toward antisemitism, particularly as expressed in crude international propaganda aimed at the Arab and Islamic worlds. The Soviets depicted Israel as akin to Nazi Germany, with Jews manipulating the world through a Protocols-of-the Elders-of-Zion-style conspiracy centered on global capitalism and its U.S. epicenter.
The Soviet and Arab League rhetoric was swallowed whole by the Western far left and mainstreamed through far-left-influenced institutions—such as public schools and universities, the mass media, and leftist Protestant churches. Israel is racist, an apartheid state, a genocidal state, and most recently, an expression of white supremacy.
This is not a historically grounded, rational critique based on standards applied to all states and peoples. Rather, it reflects an already-existing hatred and desire to destroy.
The far left targets Israel for almost exactly the same reasons and in the same ways as it targets the traditional West. These hatreds bind the far left to the global Islamic extremist movement. Thus, Israel and the West not only have common origins and values, but also common enemies.
The best defense is an ideological counteroffensive against these common enemies. This will not be an easy or short struggle, but it is one we can and must win.
Shale Horowitz
University of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
