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Victor Davis Hanson’s interview this week landed like a bucket of cold water for anyone still pretending the left has a monopoly on decency about anti-Semitism. Hanson didn’t whisper. He said the obvious: the progressive left has drifted into a place where anti-Jewish ideas get dressed up as moral theory and handed out at faculty meetings. That’s a big claim, and it deserves to be taken seriously.
What Hanson actually said — and why it matters
Hanson pointed out that anti-Semitism used to be a right-wing shame. Liberals once made movies and books to shame it out of the public square. That was then. Now the left often couches hostility to Jews in phrases like “decolonization” and “resistance.” Colleges applaud. Activists cheer. The result is that open, honest opposition to anti-Semitism has eroded across much of elite culture.
Universities, foreign cash, and bought ideas
The interview also highlighted something many people whisper about: heavy funding from Gulf states into American universities. When foreign money pours into our campuses, it buys influence — not just buildings or programs, but ideas. If a university’s funding is tied up with regimes that back anti-American or anti-Israel groups, you should not be surprised when some departments start echoing those viewpoints. Call it what it is: influence-peddling dressed up as philanthropy.
MAGA, the parties, and the collapse of bipartisan pushback
Hanson noted — and it’s hard to argue — that the old bipartisan consensus against anti-Semitism is fraying. Some on the right have shifted into strange alliances with Islamist anti-Zionism, and parts of the left no longer treat Jew-hatred as a red line. That leaves movements like MAGA, for all their flaws, as one of the few forces still willing to call out attacks on Jews. That’s not praise; it’s a warning about how weak our cultural defenses have become.
What should be done
We need clear steps: transparency on foreign gifts to universities, firmer campus rules that protect students of all faiths, and public leaders who actually name anti-Semitism when they see it. Stop pretending every critique of Israel is a protected moral act. The left can rediscover decency, or the rest of us can force the issue by making influence and ideology public. Either way, the silence has been loud enough. It’s time someone turned off the speaker.
