It costs around $90,000 a year to attend Columbia University.
Most undergraduates do four years of studying there, which means that if they’re not getting any subsidized grants, their parents are coughing up a total of $360,000 just for their tuition, housing, food and books.
Add in other expenses like travel, and Mommy and Daddy won’t be getting much change out of $400,000.
That’s a lot of money.
But those parents would doubtless consider it a price worth paying to give their child what is supposedly one of the best educations in the world at such a supposedly elite institution with a supposedly world-class reputation.
I use the “supposedly” because Columbia has now proved itself to be none of those things.
Instead, it’s become a disgraceful hotbed of toxic terrorism-supporting insanity and its lunatic students have literally taken over the asylum.
The increasingly disturbing situation on Columbia’s campus exploded last night in shocking and shameful scenes as a violent mob broke into one of the university’s historic buildings, then brandished a banner with the word “INTIFADA.”
As if there were any doubt about their intentions, they brazenly harassed and intimidated Jewish students, holding some against their will.
Another of the mob’s banners demanded a “Liberation Education,” which is ironic because these morons are hopefully going to get a harsh lesson in a real-world education on the legal repercussions of committing crimes like trespass, property damage, assault and false imprisonment.
But as I’ve watched this escalating mayhem, one thought has kept recurring to me: Where the hell are their parents?
How could anyone be happy or proud of their child abandoning their hugely expensive tuition to be part of a self-styled intifada against Jews?
This has gone way beyond an expression of free speech or right to protest, or legitimate criticism of the way Israel’s government is waging the war on Hamas.
I’ve heard a lot of BS spouted since these protests started about how most of the students taking part are entirely peaceful in their intent, etc.
But as we saw overnight, that is nonsense.
For days now, the Columbia demonstrators have been chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “There is only one solution — intifada revolution!”
Neither of those phrases is ambiguous or remotely peaceful.
The “From the river to the sea” chant alludes to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, where, of course, Israel sits.
To a Jewish ear, it is a violent call to erase Israel from existence, which is the stated intent of Hamas.
As for an intifada, we all know what that means.
At least those of us with even a modicum of basic knowledge of Middle East history know what it means.
Intifada is an Arabic phrase that translates to “uprising” or “shaking off.”
It became notoriously immortalized by the two intifadas that erupted in 1987 and 2000 — when Palestinians rose up against what they deemed the longtime Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The First Intifada, which lasted for six years until 1993, escalated into violent riots and acts of terrorism by Palestinians against Israelis, fueled by a very aggressive Israeli military response, and caused the deaths of 160 Israelis and 1,087 Palestinians.
The Second Intifada, which lasted for five years until 2005, involved significantly worse violence and acts of terrorism from Palestinians against Israelis, amid a significantly more aggressive Israeli military response, and led to 1,000 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinian deaths.
Whatever your view of the rights and wrongs of any of this, there is one undeniable fact: The Intifadas were violent uprisings.
And here’s another undeniable fact: When Jewish people hear the word “intifada,” they believe it denotes a desire to do them violent harm.
So these chants and banners, accompanied by acts of increasing violence and intimidation, will have sent a shudder down the spine of many Jewish undergrads.
Yes, yes — I know there are some Jewish students joining the protests too.
But honestly, I wonder what the hell they’re thinking if they’re involving themselves in those chants or standing near those banners, or seeing fellow Jews being jostled and threatened.
Are they really encouraging another violent uprising against their own people?
If so, have they taken leave of their senses?
And where the hell are THEIR parents?
Many of them must be horrified, but why aren’t they doing anything about it?
Aside from the hideous antisemitic rhetoric, if I were paying $400,000 to have my child educated at Columbia, I wouldn’t be too happy seeing that child risking their chances of completing their degree or even jeopardizing future employment by chanting on camera about launching a violent attack on Jewish people.
In fact, I’d be livid.
Especially if I then saw scores of faculty members, in orange safety vests, joining the students in solidarity.
“We salute you, we stand with you,” bellowed Shana Redmond, a professor of English and comparative literature, to the mob with her megaphone. “And we’re so proud to be your professors.”
Wow.
How on Earth has it come to this?
I’m all for the right to peaceful protest — it’s the bedrock of any democratic society.
And I’m all for university students vociferously expressing themselves about world events.
But when they make direct calls for violent action against Jews, that doesn’t just cross my red line, it tramples all over it.
And if this were one of my kids, I’d be headed straight up to Columbia faster than Usain Bolt on Adderall to drag them out of that hateful tented tinderbox.
Not least because I suspect many of these protesters don’t really understand what they’re doing and have been swept along on a wave of virtue-signaling peer pressure to show how much they “care” about Gaza.
I remember a similar frenzy after George Floyd was murdered and sparked a social media campaign titled “Black Out Tuesday,” in which everyone was urged to post only a black square to show they cared about what happened.
I don’t like enforced shows of Instagram or Facebook groupthink, caring or otherwise.
So I didn’t post a black square. Instead, I went to my local park with some friends and later, forgetting all about the black square directive, I Instagrammed a photo of the bottle of rosé we were drinking — and promptly got bombarded with outraged vitriol.
“No respect shown from Piers Morgan today,” one follower said. “Today was a day for us all to unite and black out social media. Obviously way too much to ask from some of those who are not directly affected.”
Minutes later, my three sons all messaged me on our WhatsApp chat group to express concern about what I’d done, saying they were being abused for it by social media trolls, and even their own friends were asking why I had committed such a social crime.
“You’re the only person on my feed all day who did one that wasn’t a black square,” said my eldest.
“I prefer to make my points in my way,” I replied.
“I think it’s actively provocative to post something else today,” retorted my middle boy. “It was a day of not posting. Surprisingly out of touch.”
I found their censorious attitude rather irritating given I’d spent three hours debating the Floyd murder that morning on breakfast TV in the UK. I’d also written a column about it, making my own very angry feelings about his death very clear.
It was stunning to see the real-time impact of their social media and peer pressure, and the very genuine fear of not being seen to “care” in the agreed manner.
I’m sure that’s fueling a lot of what we’re seeing at Columbia and other US universities.
But the abject failure of these protesters’ parents to inject some common sense and discipline into their children is what shocks me most.
Evil prospers when good parents do nothing.
