As Morningside Heights Goes, So Goes the Levant
This is the childishly self-dramatizing conceit that's been driving the pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University, with similar ideas playing into protests elsewhere; "As Morningside Heights goes, so goes the Levant."
It allows students living privileged lives at elite universities to believe that they are on the front lines of fighting so-called genocide, and what happens at their schools -- and to them -- is exciting, dangerous and determinative of geopolitical events half a world away.
This is not to say that what's happening at Columbia isn't important -- to Columbia, in terms of who's really in charge and whether the rules apply to pro-Hamas protestors or not.
But that doesn't match the world-historical significance that the students want to attribute to their sloganeering and sleepovers.
According to the statement issued by Columbia protestors at the outset of this episode, Israel has undertaken a "brutal onslaught" against the Palestinian people for 75 years that is "enabled by financial investments made by institutions like Columbia University."
The Israeli-Palestinian dispute has been a focus of international attention, intense news coverage and extensive academic research for decades now, and yet no one to this point has realized Columbia's role in multiple wars, terror attacks and refugee crises.
Has anyone in the Middle East ever paused before taking a decision to ask, "What does President Minouche Shafik think?"
So, how does Columbia pull the strings in a conflict that, to the uninitiated, seems to be a function of the priorities of major geopolitical players in the region and around the world?
Well, the Columbia students claim, "The University's weaponization of policy to silence students enables the atrocities that Israel has subjected Palestinians to for decades."
As if Israel's pursuit of the war in Gaza depends on whether there's an illegal pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia or not.
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