The great thing about living in a country with free speech is that everyone gets to share their opinions. The terrible thing about living in a country with free speech is that… everyone gets to share their opinions. A prime example of the latter can be found in a letter signed by 31 student groups at Harvard University offering their joint take on Hamas’ attack on Israel this week. As the New York Post reports, the cringe-inducing letter lays all of the blame for the bloodshed squarely on the shoulders of Israel. The Post editorial board correctly points out that this sort of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. A culture has evolved at Harvard where groupthink has taken hold and produced a significant body of young individuals who can rationalize virtually anything that’s approved on the left and go so far as to not only justify, but celebrate literal war crimes.

A letter signed by 31 Harvard University student groups blaming Israel as “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ heinous attacks shows how low US higher education has sunk.

Even the campus Amnesty International chapter joined in making excuses for the targeting and kidnapping of civilians, buying the hard-left idea that “fighting imperialism” (or whatever) justifies utter atrocities.

That is: A pack of privileged students justified out-and-out war crimes as somehow legitimate.

The title of the pretentious letter was, “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine.” They littered the statement with the usual misinformation about Israel, describing the country as an “apartheid state.” As the Post points out, this is completely false because Israeli Arabs are granted full civil rights, aside from certain specific matters involving voting, among other things, unless they apply for and are granted Israeli citizenship.

Of course, people can convince themselves of nearly anything with the right motivation and influence. It’s just far easier to fall into such a mental and moral trap when you are surrounded by and spend nearly all of your time with a sizeable group of people who are all preaching from the same hymnal. (And yes, this can be true in conservative circles, also.) Sadly, this phenomenon is hardly unique to Harvard. It’s just more visible there.

I’m not saying that there is no room for a debate or even sympathy for the rank-and-file Palestinians. The conditions in the Gaza Strip are terrible, with many resources being in short supply and scant economic opportunities. But those conditions exist almost exclusively because of Hamas and its unwavering focus on wiping Israel off the map and driving the Israelis into the sea. That leaves Gaza in isolation. And behind the scenes, the mullahs in Iran are pulling all the strings.

I can also understand some of the historical grievances held by Arabs in the region which date back to the creation of the modern state of Israel. But there is no time machine that can take them back to rewrite history. They must deal with the Israel of 2023, not the Israel of 1948.

The cultural shift in the United States to a severe anti-Israel stance on the left has been disturbing to observe. Israel has been under attack, both figuratively and literally, from the moment it was announced as an independent state. They have grown to become an unwavering ally of the United States in a region where many countries are either not big fans of ours or are outright adversaries. Whether people care about all of that history or not, it would be nice if more of our young people – particularly at Harvard – could take a moment and realize who their friends are. They should also understand that if the Hamas militants they are cheering on ever got hold of them, they would likely be thrown off of a roof as infidels.