by Rabbi Dov Fischer in The American Spectator

My prior two installments in this series are here and here. I urge you to read them for background and context.

Because of political correctness, one of the glaring causes of the current campus student riots may not be spoken. We all see it. We all know it. But we must not say it.

Well, I am not “we.” I am I. No one tells me what I may say. So I will say it: The central incitement and cause of the current season of campus riots is the disproportionate prevalence of non-American foreign students from Arab and Muslim countries on American campuses. I document below. These are not the home-grown riots of 1968 and of the early 1970s in which native kids, legitimately concerned about getting drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, rioted to stop the war. These are led by Arabs and Muslims from outside our country determined to destroy Israel “from the river to the sea,” and to take America down, too, in time.

There were many good and legitimate reasons for kids in the late sixties and early seventies to oppose the war. This is not the place to relitigate that issue, but some rightly were scared to go when 50,000 body bags were coming back. Some were patriotic and were ready to go, but only if the U.S. would fight to win outright, and Lyndon Johnson would not. He has no end game. Some leftists were communists and other “Hate America” types. But I was there at Columbia in the early seventies, and most did not want to fight in a war that seemed, by then, to have no meaning. Because it no longer did. We knew of the “domino theory,” but it wasn’t going anywhere. An 1860’s Civil War could inspire Northerners to fight against slavery and Southerners to fight for states’ rights and independence from a meddling federal government. World War II was a fight against Hitler, Mussolini, and the crazy Japanese emperor who had bombed Pearl Harbor. The Korean War made sense, and we saved South Korea. But Vietnam just did not make sense to so many kids on campus.

So those riots were homegrown. No matter your feelings about them, they at least were indigenous. By contrast, the current riots are incited with foreign money and led by foreign students from Arab and Muslim countries. Yes, there are Jews too. I have written often in the past, and surely will many times again, about the sickness and psychological issues that impel a small class of Jews to hate other Jews and want to destroy us. We see it in George Soros, one of the most hated people in Israel, who has been funding programs for years to destabilize Israel’s governments. We see it in Ben & Jerry, who boycott Israel. We see it in Bernie Sanders, who meanders with Ilhan Omar and Rashid Tlaib, endorsing them and campaigning for them. The Soviet Revolution had an entire Yevesektzia (Hebrew Section) aimed at closing down synagogues and arresting rabbis. But make no mistake: The chief incitement comes from non-American Arab and Muslim students here on student visas.

Expanding a bit on what I wrote in this column on Jan. 3:

These universities have been bought by Arab Muslim sheikhdoms intent on exporting their Islamism to America. They pay the professors’ salaries obliquely by buying and paying for the Middle Eastern Studies departments that breed hatred for the West, taught by Arab Muslim professors who hate the America where they are, and also by a fair share of extreme radical non-Muslims. Beyond that, the Arab Muslim sheikhdoms pay full tuition for tens of thousands of their own Arab Muslim citizens to be students at American universities. Those troublemakers are cash cows whom the universities eagerly embrace because they are not eligible and therefore do not apply for scholarships or need DEI approval; rather, their governments pay full freight for them.

Every single one of them can be tallied as proof that the university is meeting DEI/affirmative action quotas for admitting non-White, non-Judeo-Christian students. That way, the schools do not have to admit as many blacks and Hispanics as they otherwise would. Arabs and Muslims are every bit as intersectional/DEI-certifiable.

According to Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of Open the Books:

Foreign influence on gifts and grants since 1990 is a big number. It’s $43 billion and roughly one out of every four of those foreign gifts and grants have come from … three countries who oftentimes don’t have U.S. interests at heart. They’re adversarial to our foreign policy positions and the American way of life. That’s Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China.

The Jewish Virtual Library reports, “According to the Department of Education (DoE), between 1986 and Oct. 17, 2022, colleges and universities received nearly $44 billion from foreign sources, and nearly one-fourth — $10,826,665,022 — came from Arab individuals, institutions, and governments.” Qatar, which refuses to join the Abraham Accords and literally houses and grants asylum to the top leaders of Hamas, gave $2.7 billion in one year to several colleges, including Cornell, Texas A&M, Northwestern, and Georgetown in one year. Why? Because they like the melody of “Yankee Doodle”? What were they getting for that cash?

“Today,” Tablet magazine reports, “there are more than 1 million foreign students enrolled at American universities.” At elite universities, like those where the campus riots are rampant, they make up as much as 25 percent of the student population. In the Ivy League alone, 2,019 foreign students make up 19 percent of the student body at Brown. At Columbia, 14,088 foreigners make up 38 percent of the student body! At Cornell, 6,745 make up 26 percent. Harvard: 5,492 make up 22 percent. University of Pennsylvania: 6,687 for 23 percent. Yale: 3,497 for 24 percent. Similar at Dartmouth and Princeton. Even at Texas A&M, on the “other side of the world” from the northeastern Ivies, Saudi Arabia pumped in $293 million in tuition, Turkey $108 million, and Kuwait $43 million.

Consider these statistics from the Jewish Virtual Library, listed by number of donations, total amount donated, largest single donation, and recipient of that largest donation:

• Qatar, 1056, $5,177,893,434, $151,000,000, Cornell University
• Saudi Arabia, 5735, $2,979,248,893, $74,119,050, University of Idaho
• UAE, 1159, $1,289,011,024, $75,000,000, MD Anderson
• Kuwait, 1177, $857,970,510, $11,338,954, USC
• Oman, 596, $180,667,586, $10,144,906, West Virginia University
• Egypt, 110, $125,799,882, $31,831,520, Harvard
• Bahrain, 47, $93,928,121, $25,770,000, Cal State Northridge
• Iraq, 42, $50,128,527, $39,108,635, Arkansas
• Jordan, 73, $26,680,944, $3,768,265, NY Institute of Technology
• Lebanon, 45, $24,288,730, $2,500,000, Harvard
• “State of Palestine,” 21, $10,161,000, $775,000, Harvard
• Libya, 11, $7,247,030, $2,210,000, Tufts
• Syria, 5, $2,605,641, $1,240,939, University of South Florida
• Tunisia, 3, $1,033,701, $574,650, Harvard

In addition, Harvard and Yale received more than $30 million from Saudi Arabia for the formation of Islamic studies programs. The United Arab Emirates also was in the mix. This has been going on everywhere for years, and virtually no one in the U.S. Senate or the House has noticed it or taken action to preserve academic integrity and American sovereignty. They are targeting our kids — just skim the news for the results.

You want more proof that Arab and Muslim students are at the center of the uprisings? Look at the list of more than 30 Harvard student groups that signed a letter against Israel and Jews: the vast majority are unequivocally foreign students, Arabs and Muslims, by their own admission. Go ahead and scan the list:

• African American Resistance Organization
• Bengali Association of Students at Harvard College
• Harvard Act on a Dream
• Harvard Arab Medical and Dental Student Association
• Harvard Chan Muslim Student Association
• Harvard Chan Students for Health Equity and Justice in Palestine
• Harvard College Pakistan Student Association
• Harvard Divinity School Muslim Association
• Harvard Middle Eastern and North African Law Student Association
• Harvard Graduate School of Education Islamic Society
• Harvard Graduate Students for Palestine
• Harvard Islamic Society
• Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine
• Harvard Divinity School Students for Justice in Palestine
• Harvard Jews for Liberation
• Harvard Kennedy School Bangladesh Caucus
• Harvard Kennedy School Muslim Caucus
• Harvard Kennedy School Muslim Women’s Caucus
• Harvard Kennedy School Palestine Caucus
• Harvard Muslim Law School Association
• Harvard Pakistan Forum
• Harvard Prison Divest Coalition
• Harvard South Asian Law Students Association
• Harvard South Asians for Forward-Thinking Advocacy and Research
• Harvard TPS [Temporary Protected Status] Coalition
• Harvard Undergraduate Arab Women’s Collective
• Harvard Undergraduate Ghungroo
• Harvard Undergraduate Muslim Women’s Medical Alliance
• Harvard Undergraduate Nepali Students Association
• Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee
• Middle East and North African Graduate School of Design Student Society
• Neighbor Program Cambridge
• Sikhs and Companions of Harvard Undergraduates Society of Arab Students

Look at the above list of Israel and Jew haters at Harvard. “Bengali” refers to Bangladesh, which is 91 percent Muslim. “Chan” is a Chinese form of Buddhism. Pakistan is 96.47 percent Muslim. “North Africa” covers these countries: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. “South Asia” covers Muslim countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. Almost everything else is “Arab” this and “Muslim” that, “Muslim” this and “Arab” that. Throw in a few radical-extreme blacks, some undocumented aliens (“Harvard Act on a Dream”; “Harvard TPS Coalition”), a handful of sick Trotskyite Jews, and there’s your revolution.

Do you see what is going on here? We have over 1 million foreign students here in our country. It sounds trite but is true: Most are very fine people. They just want to get a great education in the greatest country there ever was, bring back what they learn to the dirt holes whence they come to help those third world places improve, and maybe someday move back to America themselves to experience the “American dream” that attracted so many of our forebears. They are good people, and they can help build an even greater America, as many have done in high-tech and medicine.

However — and sadly — too many of them are angry, hateful troublemakers who have come here and upset our fragile apple cart. They were invited here as our guests, not to smash our windows and corrupt our campuses. In the best of all worlds, we should ban students coming only from the “Hate America” countries. But we have learned from experience, during the early days of President Trump’s first term, that the courts will not allow it. Leftists will run to Obama judges and argue that the bans are racist and Islamophobic because they pinpoint only places like Pakistan, Qatar, and Kuwait. Therefore, with deep regret, I propose that America institute an across-the-board two-year moratorium on allowing any and all foreign students onto our campuses. This will penalize many innocents, but not forever. No non-American has a G-d-given right to be here. Our Constitution does not mandate it. We have a country to protect, and tough times call for tough measures. They can come in two years if they want it that much. We plan still to be here.

Perhaps no innocent foreign students will feel the unfairness more than Israeli exchange students. To them, my co-religionists and brothers and sisters in the Land of Zion, I would say: “I feel it. You don’t deserve this. With Jew haters abusing their student visas to seek Israel’s destruction, you hardly deserve to encounter a two-year ban from American colleges and universities as they do. But our legal system is complex, and it’s either all-or-nothing here. The Obama judges will not allow anything else. And, honestly, when your country understandably went into full lockdown in 2020 over COVID, you even banned American and other Jews from flying to Israel. It was nothing personal, but you had your country to protect. The Chief Rabbi of South Africa published an impassioned plea in the Jerusalem Post, begging for the right of his community and other Jews around the world to enter so that elderly Jewish grandparents could see their grandchildren, now on aliyah and living permanently in Israel, and so that others could visit Jerusalem during festivals like Sukkot, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. Yet, with heavy hearts, you would not let us in — and we get it. You had a country to protect: your own. Now, likewise, we Americans have a country to protect: our own. And we are facing a disease as bad as COVID because it is wiping out our young people, threatening their very safety, destroying their souls. We have to do this, a cooling-off period for two years. Then the moratorium will end, and we will welcome you with open arms.”

And that is what we all must do: We must close America’s campuses to foreign exchange students and foreign money donations for the next two years, banning all foreign funding for all American universities for those two years as well.

Originally published in The American Spectator