On Nov. 15, sounding nothing like the racist threat to democracy that many of those who oppose him fear, President-elect Donald Trump announced measures “to defeat antisemitism and defend our Jewish citizens in America.” The former and soon-to-be president aims to act expeditiously. “My first week back in the Oval Office my administration will inform every college president that if you do not end antisemitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal taxpayer support,” he stated. “I will inform every educational institution in our land that if they permit violence, harassment, or threats against Jewish students, the schools will be held accountable for violations of the civil rights laws.” Trump emphasized that “Jewish Americans must have equal protection under the law.” And he promised that “[m]y administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets.”

Trump’s words hearten, particularly considering the blatant upsurge of antisemitism on campus and off since Oct. 7, 2023. On that horrible day, Iran-backed Hamas jihadists from Gaza massacred some 1,200 persons in southern Israel, among them approximately 40 Americans, and took approximately 250 hostages, including 12 Americans. Particularly at America’s most selective colleges and universities, campus protestors rushed to embrace the perpetrators of the mass atrocities against Israel, to heap blame on the Jewish victims of barbarism, and to pour scorn on the nation-state of the Jewish people for exercising its right to self-defense.

Peaceful protests, which abide by reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, contribute to universities’ educational mission. But many of the post-Oct. 7 anti-Israel protests at the nation’s best universities not only featured calls for the destruction of the Jewish state but also intimidation of Jewish students, seizing and vandalism of campus property, and disruption of universities’ educational mission.