“Hi y’all,” began the letter to other NYU students.
Considering the topic, it was an odd and somewhat jarring salutation — cheerful, informal, chillingly indifferent.
But the letter would soon turn from merely odd to downright grotesque.
“Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life,” Ryna Workman, who identifies as they/them, began.
Workman is the NYU Law School Bar Association president and apparently believed that holding this nominal position meant they should share their thoughts on the horrific and unprecedented attacks by Hamas terrorists on innocent Israelis with the NYU student body — and ultimately, the world.
They go on to dismiss the unspeakable violence wrought by Hamas, which now includes the deaths of 1,200 Israelis. Women have been abducted and reportedly raped. Over 100 people have been taken hostage. The lifeless bodies of murdered civilians have been dragged through the streets as trophies.
Despite these horrors, Workman writes cavalierly, “I will not condemn Palestinian resistance,” and proceeds to list a dozen of other things they do find objectionable. “Instead…I condemn the violence of apartheid. I condemn the violence of settler colonialism. I condemn the violence of military occupation….” and on, and on.
That Workman, whose cushy law firm job offer at Winston & Strawn has since been rescinded, supports the Palestinian position is not itself inherently problematic. It’s not even all that interesting, considering how fashionable it’s become for young people to oppose Zionism.
Not every thought is worth airing
What is shocking and deeply disturbing, however, is the idea that Workman imagined themselves such an important voice on this fraught and complicated issue, they wasted no time in foisting their unvarnished — and unsolicited — beliefs on their fellow students. And they did so with a cruel indifference to the human suffering in Israel, as well as the large population of Jewish students on NYU’s campus who might be hurting, or even wondering if their loved ones are alive.
This arrogance is becoming an unfortunate hallmark of a social media and influencer generation that believes every thought in their head is worthy of publication and amplification.
There are even more alarming trends, however.
One is the seeming belief among many in this younger generation that political, social, cultural and economic grievances are best solved through vengeance, and that even violence is sometimes justified.
There’s also been a shocking rise in antisemitism among young Americans, who hold significantly more anti-Israel sentiment than older adults. Fifty-seven percent of young adults believe two or more anti-Jewish tropes are at least somewhat true, according to one study. According to another, about a quarter of young people believe that Jews “talk too much about the Holocaust,” that Jews “have too much power in business,” and that Jews “think they are better than other people.”
And finally, perhaps because of these beliefs, there’s a disturbing lack of basic human empathy for Jewish suffering.
A student group at California State University in Long Beach posted pro-Palestinian rally posters that featured a paraglider, like the ones who descended into Israel to murder 260 concert-goers, celebrating the terrorists.
Students for Justice in Palestine called the massacre of Jews “a historic win for Palestinian resistance,” and groups at Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Butler University, University of Louisville, Binghamton University, and the University of Virginia planned pro-Palestinian rallies.
Thirty-one student organizations at Harvard signed onto a letter holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Stanford students hung bedsheets defending the Hamas attacks, with one reading “The illusion of Israel is BURNING.”
‘Appalling lack of humanity’
I have no interest in changing anyone’s mind on the politics of this conflict — even what I believe to be a warped worldview of Israel’s role in it. But is there a place in our conversations for basic human empathy? Compassion for murdered men, women and children?
One can support the Palestinian cause, mourn the suffering of the Palestinian people — for they, too, are victims of Hamas — and even criticize Israeli policies while also acknowledging the devastating loss of life among Jews, without blaming them for their own murders. The lack of humanity is appalling.
Believe me, I’ve seen what indifference to suffering looks like. As a board member of INARA, a humanitarian aid organization that almost exclusively services Arab and Muslim children who are victims of war and conflict, I’m often disheartened by the lack of empathy for even the most vulnerable among us.
That these students are increasingly expressing more indifference toward suffering, feeling compelled to proudly announce and broadcast their own intolerance, and fomenting more animosity toward Jews, makes one wonder: Are colleges preparing young Americans for a future in which we understand each other, or one in which we hate each other?
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
