I remember reading somewhere long ago that, after the vicious Munich massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympics in 1972, Arafat and the Palestinians actually garnered a lot more support than before – and certainly more fame – all around the world. Since then, that support has swelled, due to a combination of immigration to Western countries from Arab and Muslim lands as well as the takeover of academia by the left. After all, it’s in school that these ideas can be most effectively spread, and the left is well aware of that.

It seems clear to me that the people making these statements – be they in academia or in the arts – are largely unafraid of any backlash. I doubt they’ve experienced anything of the sort before, and most may not even be experiencing much of it now, although some have seen some negative consequences. Living in a bubble where almost everyone agrees with them, and where they have had protected status, hasn’t led them to be afraid of voicing opinions like the ones in the letters. I believe they actually see such declarations as proof of virtue, and by signing them they are signaling that virtue. In their circles, it probably has long worked that way, so why would they expect anything different?

[That is why the effort to apply consequences to such statements matters so much. The babied leftists at Harvard are crying about the ‘violence’ of losing job offers because they themselves endorsed ACTUAL TERRORIST VIOLENCE in public declarations like this. They have gone too long being coddled as nothing more than misguided dreamers. It’s time for consequences and a resetting of the social incentives for terrorism apologists. — Ed]