In a revealing moment during her recent CPAC speech, Donald Trump’s newly appointed UN ambassador, Elise Stefanik, openly took credit for the ousting of multiple Ivy League university presidents on Israel’s behalf. “Do you remember that famous Congressional hearing with the anti-Semitic university presidents from Harvard and Penn?” she asked the crowd. “I should say former presidents after my questions. Five down and so many to go.”
Stefanik was referring to her high-profile exchanges with university leaders, which she claims exposed their alleged tolerance for anti-Semitism and failure to combat calls for genocide against Jews. A widely circulated clip from the hearing showed Stefanik grilling then-Harvard President Claudine Gay, repeatedly pressing her on whether calls for the genocide of Jews were considered permissible speech on campus. However, the full video provides a broader context to the exchange.
Gay, who was later pressured to resign amid supposedly unrelated plagiarism accusations, faced Stefanik’s pointed questioning, which escalated into a demand for a yes-or-no answer. “A Harvard student calling for the mass murder of African Americans is not protected free speech at Harvard, correct?” Stefanik pressed, and Gay refused to give a direct yes-or-no answer.
Last April, a wave of protests swept across college campuses in the United States, leading to the formation of student encampments demanding that their universities divest from companies complicit in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The movement, which quickly gained international traction, began at Columbia University after Gay was pressured into calling the New York Police Department to forcibly disperse student demonstrators.
Stefanik, who received at least $796,829 from pro-Israel donors between 2023 and 2024, argued that pro-Palestine student protests were calls for the murder of Jewish people. Central to this claim was her misrepresentation of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as incitement to genocide. Ironically, the phrase originates from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, yet when used by pro-Palestine demonstrators, it was framed as a call to kill the Jewish people.
As a foreign leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, led the charge in demanding that American students be stripped of their free speech rights, likening peaceful anti-war encampments to Nazi rallies that preceded the Holocaust. Stefanik took up the cause domestically, amplifying accusations of rampant “anti-Semitism” on college campuses and spreading widely discredited hoaxes—among them, the false claims that a Jewish student was “stabbed in the eye” with a Palestinian flag and that protesters had chanted “death to the Jews.” She also pushed for an ultimatum: universities could either suppress student protests against Israel or risk losing federal funding. (more...)
Elise Stefanik Brags About Purging University Leaders for Failing Israel’s Loyalty Test
One down.
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 9, 2023
Two to go.
This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most “prestigious” higher education institutions in America.
This forced resignation of the President of @Penn is the bare minimum of what is required.…
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