LARRY SUMMERS SAYS CAMPUS UPROAR BUOYS US ADVERSARIES
(Bloomberg) -- Former Harvard University President Larry Summers renewed his criticism of college protests stemming from Israel’s war against Hamas, saying the increasingly chaotic scenes on American campuses were encouraging US adversaries.
Occupied buildings, disrupted commencement plans and scuffles with police send a terrible signal to countries such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea at the “most dangerous geopolitical moment” in decades, Summers said Friday on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin.
“It seems to me that anybody sitting in one of those countries has to be taking great encouragement from the spectacle that is being made by our young future elites on so many of our leading college campuses, and even more by the craven responses that are typifying university leaderships,” Summers said.
Summers’ remarks built on a litany of scoldings directed at college demonstrators and university administrators since the Oct. 7 terror raid on Israel by Hamas. That assault, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis, created a widening rift on campuses as some students sought to blame Israel for provoking the attack — an assertion that immediately stirred claims of antisemitism.
The tumult has only grown since then, with Israel’s bombardment of Gaza — and the death of thousands of civilians — keeping protests alive. This week, as protesters erected encampments on dozens of campuses, police in riot gear retook an occupied building at Columbia University and dismantled barricades and tents at the University of California at Los Angeles.
President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the rights of demonstrators but declared that “order must prevail.”
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Months of turmoil have already toppled campus presidents, bitterly divided students, upset powerful alumni and prompted investigations by Congress.
The uproar has stoked accusations of antisemitism as well as concern about suppression of free speech for pro-Palestinian voices. This week, university leaders have drawn reproach for bringing in police to oust demonstrators in what critics called a heavy-handed crackdown.
Summers has been outspoken in chiding schools including Harvard for failing to stamp out antisemitic behavior on campus, and he renewed that line of criticism Friday.
“I predicted that given the craven weakness they showed in the wake of Oct. 7 that come the spring, which is always protest time on college campuses, there would be a massive and ugly disruption,” Summers said. “And that’s where it’s been.”
(Updates with additional context about campus turmoil in seventh paragraph)
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2024-05-03T20:07:43Z dg43tfdfdgfd
