Thread by @shadihamid

Harvard President Claudine Gay's response to Elise Stefanik was embarrassing but not for the reasons people claim. It was embarrassing because she accepted Stefanik's premise that saying "intifada" is equivalent to a call for genocide, which is ridiculous.

The problem with these college presidents is that they're spineless technocrats who don't have the courage of their convictions. GOP officials are popularizing the idea that pro-Palestine sentiment = pro-Hamas sentiment. This should be rejected out of hand.

As for @EliseStefanik, she doesn't speak Arabic and has not the slightest idea what intifada means, or that the first intifada (when the word became popularized) had nothing to do with calling for genocide and included large-scale civilian action, such as general strikes and economic boycotts. Are we really arguing that Palestinians don't even have the right to *nonviolent* resistance against occupation?

Republicans are trying to criminalize pro-Palestine speech by equating it with antisemitism. I've been on the receiving end of this silliness with @tedcruz accusing me of being a Hamas "shill" simply b/c I said Israel isn't prioritizing precision in Gaza.

https://x.com/tedcruz/status/1731030663594185209?s=20

"From the river to the sea" is a stupid slogan to use but to assume that college students mouthing it support genocide against Jews is the mirror image of assuming that Israelis support genocide against Palestinians merely because they back their government's war in Gaza.

Yes, a random student saying "from the river to the sea" might be offensive but it's protected speech. Words aren't violence. Actual violence is violence. College isn't a place where you should expect to be protected from offensive things.

Islamophobic sentiments are protected speech too, and I'd counsel Muslim students to not complain to DEI departments and instead toughen up and learn how to argue effectively and respond to bigots as part of any free, contentious debate. This isn't rocket science.

But the bottom line is that Republicans are increasingly becoming a party of snowflakes who want *more* cancel culture on campus and want to criminalize free speech that they disagree with. That's what all of this comes down to.