The pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protests have spread to university campuses across the country, just as the agitators hoped (and planned) for them to do. As was also expected, some of these protests have turned violent. A Jewish student was poked in the face with a flagpole at Yale University and hospitalized; another Jewish student was knocked unconscious at the University of California, Los Angeles. Masked mobs have prevented entry of Jewish students and faculty into university facilities. Buildings have been vandalized and broken into at Columbia University, Cal Poly Humboldt and other locations. Frustrated college presidents at dozens of schools have finally begun calling in police to retake college property and clear unlawful encampments, resulting in hundreds of arrests. Because of their youth, or inadequate education, American college students tend to have insufficient understanding of the political, cultural and economic realities outside the United States. They are easy to rally under the brightly colored banners and simplistic slogans of the latest cause celebre. Their sweeping statements and infantile, attention-seeking behavior often reveal these “protests” to be little more than performative exercises in self-gratification.

EDITOR ’S NOTE: The following letter originally was submitted for publication in the Dispatch Record in August 2009, after the election of President Obama. Freida Holland has requested the newspaper rerun the letter, as its message still seems pertinent.

EDITOR ’S NOTE: Dennis Prager is off this week. We hope readers will enjoy the following guest column by Stephen Moore.

Picture this in your mind: Scores of college campuses across the United States are being roiled by pro Palestinian demonstrations. Students are camping out in tents on university malls and, in the case of Columbia University, breaking windows and occupying lecture halls.

The phrase “The chickens have come home to roost” is an idiom that, simply put, means the consequences of one’s actions are catching up to them. Only five months into President Biden’s presidency, in June of 2021, Texas Senator John Cornyn defied the majority of Texans’ position on the Second Amendment by co-authoring Senate Bill 2938 with liberal Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

This week marks a day of infamy for the city of Lampasas. Most people don’t know it, but on May 1, 2004, the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.

In his 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, President George Washington reached a stirring conclusion: “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

The explosion of violent antisemitic protests on college campuses is just the latest in a series of self-inflicted black eyes for higher education in the United States. In March last year, a group of students at Stanford Law School shut down a talk by federal Judge Kyle Duncan, screaming vulgar epithets and refusing to allow him to speak.

The terrorist Iranian regime’s unprecedented recent attack on Israel -- which included 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles and 110 surface-to-surface missiles -- is an unambiguous act of war under international law.

Father God, we call to Your remembrance the commitment that the Pilgrims made to You. You brought them from bondage and guided them to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where survival was possible. You sent Squanto, a native man, to teach them survival skills. During terrible hardships, You were their source of strength. Honor goes to You and remembrance to them with the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth. May “we, the people” take heed to the lessons on the monument for national survival.