AMERICAN EDUCATION REQUIRES AN OVERHAUL - It is time for the focus of education in the US to be on American greatness

By: Joseph Puder

Monday, November 27, 2023

ITAI's WEEKLY MIDDLE EAST REPORT

Free speech is enshrined in the American constitution and, the First Amendment gives citizens the right to express opinions without government restraint – effectively a fundamental right. Unfortunately, free speech rights have been abused by the dark forces of intolerance and hate who use the freedoms granted only by western democracies to undermine a democratic way of life.

Free speech can, at times, offend our senses with its slanderous lies, however allowing hate speech that leads to intimidation and violence must not be condoned or excused.  Nazi demonstrations in the 1930’s were hateful and called for violence, and the weak Weimar Republic let them go on until the violence between the Nazi fascists and communists made Germany impossible to govern. This unrest ultimately led to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi terror, and the Holocaust.

What we are witnessing in today’s America is a similar phenomenon - particularly related to US campuses. Radical leftists who consider themselves “progressives” are allied with jihadist Muslims who are calling for the elimination of the Jewish state with shouts like “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free.” The message is clear: Israel, and its Jewish people must be eliminated - murdered, just as Hamas did to 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023.

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, while visiting New York told the New York Post that the “so-called justice warriors” on American colleges rallying in support of Hamas should quit gaslighting and start thinking critically. She said, “Parents are paying big money for their kids to be indoctrinated and taught the opposite of critical thinking, which is what universities are supposed to be about. This (blindly demonstrating in support of Hamas’s murderous attack on Israel) isn’t critical thinking. It is brainwashing.”

The Marxist professors in American universities have a monopoly in the Social Sciences and Humanities in many Ivy League schools. Many of the professors are of Arab or Muslim background. With Arab-Muslim countries like Qatar, pumping billions of dollars into Ivy League university coffers, and funding anti-Israel provocateurs cum students, university presidents and administrators are conveniently ignoring antisemitic hate speech and calls for violence against Jewish students.

Regrettably, US administrations, both democrat and republican, have ignored the growing influence of Marxist professors’ dominance on campuses. These academic Marxists understand that in order to subvert and change American society they need to capture the minds of impressionable young people. Since the 1960’s anti-American indoctrination has impacted not only students but also the media. Graduates in Social Sciences and Humanities have taken up position in major media outlets, and a generation from now might be US representatives and senators, and perhaps even our presidents.

It is imperative that the US government deal urgently with the undermining of our American institutions and universities – especially those Ivy League schools who have received billions with strings attached. Funding for universities that allow hate speech on their campuses must end. Professors who engage in seditious anti-American and antisemitic indoctrination must be fired, and legal proceedings directed against them. Funds from nations hostile to the US must be sharply curbed especially when these funds are directed towards funding academic chairs that preach anti-Americanism, Antisemitism (which includes anti-Zionism) Islamophobia, or given to such hate groups as Students for Justice in Palestine.

It is time American students and foreign students who come to America, learn of a proud America that accomplished a great deal for humanity, and why so many people around the world flock to our shores. Re-education in American schools must begin in grade school, and instead of Critical Race Theory (CRT) the focus needs to be on the greatness of America and its institutions.