Originally published in Jewish News Syndicate
The Trump administration unveiled a massive agreement with Columbia University last week, settling numerous complaints regarding the antisemitic environment that the university permitted and fostered on campus. The deal includes more than $200 million in fines, plus a $21 million fund for Jewish and other employees.
Columbia will appoint a senior vice provost to independently review and restructure academic departments where antisemitism has been embedded in the curriculum, and a resolution monitor, appointed in conjunction with the U.S. government, who will track compliance throughout the three-year agreement.
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After more than 250 years of building its global reputation as a leading educational institution, and destroying it in just two, Columbia admitted that it needs a nanny to relearn what it means to behave like a civilized school. Its national shame provides a stark warning to the more than 60 other schools currently under investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Some Jewish advocates question whether this settlement goes far enough. It fails to impact the selection of Columbia’s next permanent president, and Claire Shipman remains the university’s interim president, despite texts that she wrote in which she suggested that a Jewish board member should be replaced with a Middle Easterner or Arab. Additionally, one of the school’s most virulently antisemitic professors remains on Columbia’s faculty and will even give a course in Zionism. Skeptics of the agreement also question how much power the vice provost and resolution monitor will truly wield.
These are legitimate concerns, but given U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions during his first term and the first six months of this new term, he has earned the benefit of the doubt. Domestically and internationally, the president has pushed back forcefully against antisemitism, and it should be expected that the implementation of this agreement with Columbia will be no different.
Trump hasn’t simply denounced antisemitism in press conferences and moved on. He has acted: defending Israel, protecting Jewish students and confronting enemies of Jews and civilization on multiple fronts. What a difference a new administration makes.
The Biden administration unveiled its “National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism” in May 2023 with great fanfare. However, when the Hamas-led massacre of Jews in southern Israel on Oct. 7 was met with open rejoicing on campus and in major cities across America just months later, the much-vaunted strategy proved meaningless and useless.
It was only under Trump that the Department of Education put schools on notice, as noted above, and the government pulled funding from leading universities that refused to take action. The Justice Department also formed the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism with Leo Terrell at its head. When, on June 1, an antisemitic firebomber attacked Jews rallying for hostages being held by Hamas, hate-crime charges came but hours later. The difference between President Joe Biden’s national strategy and Trump’s task force on antisemitism could hardly be starker.
Internationally, Trump reinstated military shipments to Israel that had been slow-walked or blocked under Biden. He reversed sanctions on Jews living in Judea and Samaria. And, whereas the State Department under Biden condemned Jewish life in the Holy Land and attempted to limit Israel’s self-defense, Trump applauded the heroism of the Israel Defense Forces and vowed to emulate its effectiveness with a “Golden Dome” at home.
During Trump’s first term, the United States withdrew from antisemitic international organizations like the United Nations’ Human Rights Council and UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Biden rejoined both, but Trump has already reversed those disgraceful actions. And when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials, Trump responded with sanctions; freezing assets, banning travel and declaring ICC overreach a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
Most strikingly, Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also sanctioned U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, deriding the purported human rights investigator for having “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.” Not long after, the three members of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory resigned, avoiding similar sanctions; “coincidentally,” of course.
And when Iran seemed on the verge of developing nuclear weapons to drop on Israel, Trump joined Israel’s response without risking a single American. For the first time, the United States dropped the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs that were designed and developed with those Iranian nuclear sites in mind. The bombs were dropped, not once, but 14 times. The message was clear: America is back, and the era of appeasement is over.
Trump also went far beyond defense, working to expand the Abraham Accords, pursuing regional peace not by rewarding terrorism but by forging alliances between nations willing to choose prosperity and tolerance. He introduced a “freedom zone” plan for Gaza that offers a pragmatic alternative to the failed demands of Hamas.
At home, Trump has once again elevated Jewish voices as trusted advisers. He launched a Religious Liberty Commission, featuring an Advisory Board of Religious Leaders, four of whom are Orthodox rabbis, including this writer.
Six months in, America has witnessed decisive action for fairness, tolerance and stability, and Trump is just getting started. In an era of rising hatred and retreating values, Americans have a president who stands against both, not in word alone, but in deeds. Americans should be proud of our president. Hopefully, the administration’s settlement with Columbia University and other actions will prove to demonstrate the moral clarity for the benefit of all students and Americans.
Photo credit: Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore, with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license on Flickr