Meanwhile on the International front....

Opinion | Claudine Gay: What Just Happened at Harvard Is Bigger Than Me

On Tuesday, I made the wrenching but necessary decision to resign as Harvard’s president. For weeks, both I and the institution to which I’ve devoted my professional life have been under attack. My character and intelligence have been impugned. My commitment to fighting antisemitism has been questioned. My inbox has been flooded with invective, including death threats. I’ve been called the N-word more times than I care to count.

 

Attacks Heighten Fears of a Wider War for the Middle East and U.S.

American, Israeli and Lebanese officials insist that few parties want Israel’s war in Gaza to become a wider conflict that engulfs the Middle East.

But the assassination of a top leader of Hamas in Lebanon on Tuesday, and the deaths of scores of people in mysterious twin explosions in Iran on Wednesday, threatened to bring the Middle East — and the United States — closer to the brink of a regional war, which the Biden administration has tried to stave off since Hamas’s deadly attacks against Israel on Oct. 7.

Just hours after the bombs went off in Iran, the United States and 12 of its allies issued a written warning to another militia group in the region, the Houthis of Yemen, who have been mounting near-daily missile, drone and seaborne attacks on commercial vessels.

 

WaPo Editorial Board

https://wapo.st/3TNBcxY

In a less turbulent time, the ouster under pressure of an Ivy League college president would have been a major story. In the current political and cultural maelstrom, the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay feels even bigger than that. The proximate cause of Ms. Gay’s downfall appears to have been mounting academic plagiarism allegations against her. The deeper causes, though, lie in the clash between elite colleges, whose students and faculty lean sharply left, and a broader society in which populist conservatism is increasingly making its presence felt.

Like last month’s resignation of Ms. Gay’s counterpart Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania, her departure is nothing to celebrate. The fact that it reflects outside political pressure could set a dangerous precedent. The racist messages and threats sent Ms. Gay’s way are repugnant. Nevertheless, Harvard and other leading institutions of higher education would do well to reflect on how they themselves contributed to this debacle and how they can do better in the future.

 

Of course, it was a bad-faith, gotcha set-up with no good way to answer, but Gay still managed to fail. Say that regarding the code of conduct, context would matter, but that Harvard will not tolerate the call for the genocide of any group, including Jewish people. It was that simple and she screwed it up.

Even if you assume it was carelessness rather than intentional, what Gay plagiarized. If you are going to hold a position like that, you better be above reproach. She isn't.

 

To me, that just makes Gay's failure even worse and it makes her even more deserving of being forced out as Harvard President. She left herself vulnerable by plagiarizing and by failing so miserably when the spotlight was on her.

 

(insert latest example) for thee but not for me.

 

She didn't deserve much of what she had to hear and read. It is certainly worth nothing that many of the mob coming after her were motivated by racism. She still deserved to lose her job.

 

Islamic State claims responsibility for deadly Iran attack, Tehran vows revenge

https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...gest-attack-since-1979-revolution-2024-01-04/

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/04/gaza-displaced-civilians-resettlement-israel/

Amid the gradual downshift from full-scale war in some parts of Gaza, the fate of the enclave and its 2.1 million inhabitants remains far from clear. As some residents trickle back to their ruined neighborhoods, prominent politicians in Israel have questioned whether they should go home at all.

Controversial proposals from some Israeli officials to evacuate Gazans to camps in Egypt or other countries are causing rifts with Washington, Europe and the United Nations, and have been included in a case filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice alleging “genocide” in Gaza. Far-right members of the governing coalition have proposed sending displaced Palestinians to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the European Union or Chile.