The Free Press
Honestly with Bari Weiss
When Students Become Terrorists
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When Students Become Terrorists
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Last year, at colleges across America, students etched themselves into history, or infamy, with the most dramatic campus protests in a generation.

In preparation for the fall semester, some major universities—from NYU to UCLA—have implemented new rules and decided to enforce old ones to protect Jewish students from activists who had declared sections of campus no-go zones for Zionists. Universities that turn a blind eye to the Tentifada phenomenon now risk violating federal statute. 

Nonetheless, the chaos appears to be returning. At Temple University, protesters marched in solidarity with Palestinian “resistance against their colonizers.” Last week, a man attacked a group of Jewish students with a glass bottle on the University of Pittsburgh campus outside the school’s “Cathedral of Learning.” Meanwhile at the University of Michigan, four agitators were arrested during a “die-in.”

So clearly the danger is not yet over entirely for campuses, even though some of the steam may be leaving the movement. The Democratic National Convention, for example, was supposed to be the exclamation mark of rage, but the protests barely registered as a tussle. 

But history teaches us that it takes only a few student true believers to make quite a mess once they decide that boycotts and sit-ins aren’t making a difference. 

To understand this moment and the risk these student protesters pose, Free Press columnist Eli Lake looks at America’s history with Ivy League domestic terrorists. More than 50 years ago, campus unrest also spilled into the streets and moved off the grid as a small and lethal group of radicals called the Weather Underground took the plunge from protest to resistance. But the Weather Underground railed against the establishment. Today’s campus protesters are supported by it. Call them. . . the Weather Overground.

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Thank you for investigating, connecting the dots, and comparing/contrasting the 60/70's to now. Having lived through both, you did a great job.

I was intrigued by the justice dept.'s decision to not prosecute the Weather Underground because the illegal, unwarranted wiretapping made the evidence not admissible and would have exposed behavior that would erode trust.

I was surprised that you didn't connect the dots of the unwinding of the Weather Underground movement (and non-violent protest) with the resignation of President Nixon in 1974 over (ironically) the attempted bugging of the DNC headquarters in the Watergate building (which probably would have also opened a wider investigation into unwarranted wiretapping elsewhere if Nixon hadn't resigned to avoid prosecution).

Back to your comparison/contrast between the non-violent protestors of the 1960-70's and today.

Today's students who relate what they are doing to the 60-70's are mimicking without understanding the dynamics. As you say, they are protesting to justify war by Hamas, not because they personally feel threatened. In fact their actions are threatening other students -Jews and "Zionists". And, as you say the "establishment" media, university administration, and corporations today are collaborators with student protestors, not pushing back or even punishing the students whose threats become violence.

In contrast, in the spring of 1969, students were protesting for peace, not war, and universally felt threatened because Nixon escalated the war and expanded the draft. To quell the protests, the "establishment" brought in the National Guard and students were killed. https://www.kentguardvoices1970.com/the-shootings.html

From my personal observation point in Pittsburgh, the home town of one of the Kent State shooting victims, and a freshman at a HS near the Universities, the threat of going to war and the Kent State shootings triggered an increase in student non-violent protests. The violent Weather Underground exploited these protests, unlike the paid protestors today who are influencing the protestors on-line and in real life.

I observed that it was Kent State shootings and, more importantly, the resignation of President Nixon, (not the Weather Underground) that changed the hearts and minds of even conservative parents.

Incidentally, culture reflected these developments. If you listen to the music of the Beatles, pre-1968 (when the White Album was released) vs after, the "rock" becomes a lot "harder". The film "Across the Universe" is one way to experience this evolution and connection to student protests and how they became exploited by the Weather Underground.

And just as quickly, after Nixon resigned, and everyone wanted to forget, feel-good popular music emerged with Saturday Night Fever (1977). Maybe that's what the Harris/Walz "Joy" campaign is trying to re-enact or mimick - again, without understanding all the dynamics.

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We can see where this is going. The radicals couldn't overthrow the US—and the west—by force, so they take over the educational institutions. This long path is much slower, but much surer to complete the dismantling of Western Civilization; a decent into dark ages.

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