December 19, 2023

Courage is assumed when one joins the US Marines. After all, the Marines are known for fostering and appreciating physical courage, but they’re also taught to always look for moral, ethical, and intellectual courage. Those are cherished attributes in a service built on meritocracy. I continue to honor those qualities when I see them and, recently, Cornell’s president showed them.

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When I left active duty in 1975 after having served as a Marine pilot during the Vietnam War, I did not know what to expect when I began as a graduate student at Cornell University. During the Vietnam War, Cornell had been noted for having a very large cadre of anti-war activists. To my surprise, I was totally accepted into the student body without any rancor or negative judgment. It was a remarkable place for learning.

In the summer of 1976, we wanted to have a 4th of July party on campus to celebrate America’s bicentennial. The specific Fourth was a double celebration at Cornell for that was when Israel conducted Operation Thunderbolt to rescue the hostages held at Entebbe, it’s remembered as the most successful commando raid in history. Everyone was awed by how Israel’s leadership, backed up by one of the most professional militaries in the world, was so successful in saving so many lives.

Sadly, though, its leader, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, was the only military casualty, killed as he led his team from the front. Yoni’s death meant that, for the Israeli students on campus, Israel’s victory was bittersweet. That’s because Yoni’s father, Benzion Netanyahu, had been a distinguished history Professor at Cornell.

Image: Sage Hall at Cornell University in 1985 by Upsilon Andromedae. CC BY 2.0.

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Israel’s fate and its connection to Cornell made the news again after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. This time, though, Cornell’s students weren’t proud of Israel. Instead, vicious, potentially deadly antisemitism reared its ugly head.

Russell Rickford, an associate history professor, stated that he was “exhilarated” by the Hamas attack. He later apologized: I am sorry for the pain that my reckless remarks have caused my family, my students, my colleagues and many others in this time of suffering.”

Derron Borders, who was the college’s “diversity and inclusion director” at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, was even more vicious:

“F–k your fake outrage at Palestine when you’ve literally been silent about the violence perpetuated by Israel against Palestine every day,” Borders wrote on the day of the Hamas invasion.

He has since continued his invective against Israel, although he is on a leave of absence from Cornell.

Meanwhile, a Cornell student, 21-year-old Patrick Dai, went beyond expressing ugly opinions. Instead, he directly threatened the lives and well-being of Jewish students at Cornell. Justice was direct and swift as he was identified and arrested.