Embattled Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said Monday that negotiations with student organizers of the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel demonstration had failed to reach an agreement. Fine. It's past time for Shafik to give law enforcement the go-ahead to physically remove the demonstrators if necessary.
Besides, negotiating with agitators who carry signs declaring "Death to Zionists," "From the River to the Sea," and other such antisemitic vileness only serves to further empower the demonstrators.
As RedState reported on Sunday, Columbia demonstrators are now demanding "amnesty" for their actions so their future career opportunities won't be affected. This is insane, and it would be even more insane if Columbia caved to the demand.
As is the case with most left-wingers, Shafik continues to want it both ways.
On one hand, Shafik says the demonstrations have created “an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty” and that “external actors” have contributed to a “hostile environment” around university gates, which has become a “noisy distraction” for students. On the other hand, she has refused to call in the cops.
Laughably, Shafik continues to call for the demonstrators to voluntarily disburse.
We urge those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse. We are consulting with a broader group in our community to explore alternative internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible. We will continue to update the community with new developments.
The naïveté is breathtaking and not dissimilar to urging Hamas to voluntarily stop launching horrific terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.
To be fair, Shafik has (so far) stood against the demonstrators' demand that Columbia divest from investments in weapons manufacturing or otherwise supporting Israel in its war against Hamas.
"While the university will not divest from Israel,” Shafik said, she also revealed what sounded like a counteroffer to the demonstrators: an expedited timeline for a review of new "proposals from students" by the school's Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing, which explores divestment.
The University also offered to publish a process for students to access a list of Columbia’s direct investment holdings, and to increase the frequency of updates to that list of holdings.
Again, acquiescence — however slight — only emboldens demonstrators and their future demands.
It's Not Just the Columbia President's Fault
Shafik is far from the only obstacle standing in the way of removing the demonstrators from the university's campus, as reported by the New York Post.
Columbia University is failing to clear out the disruptive anti-Israel encampment on campus because its “ultra-liberal” board of trustees is stacked with Democratic apparatchiks and megadonors whose judgment is clouded, critics told The Post.
Among those trusted with governing the Ivy League college are a billionaire from the prominent Pritzker family; a hedge-funder who has donated well over $4 million to Democratic causes, including $775,000 just this election cycle; President Barack Obama’s former homeland security secretary, and a federal judge appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) told the Post, “It’s no surprise that the board of trustees for a university allowing woke left-wing ideology and antisemitism to fester is made up of Democrat operatives and donors."
To Malliotakis's point, at least six of the board’s 21 trustees have direct ties to the Democrat Party, according to an investigation by the Post, which examined voter registration and political donation records, among other public records.
The Bottom Line
So Columbia University finds itself exactly where it deserves to be. Its embattled president is seemingly eager to end the demonstrations and clear the encampment from the campus. Yet, ironically, the liberals who sit on the board or make mega-donations to the university continue to reap what they sow.
How refreshing.
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