On September 25th, there was a flier stuffed under my dorm door advertising a rally planned by Cornell’s Coalition for Mutual Liberation, a group that supports and advocates for Cornell to divest from Israel. The rally was prompted by the possible deportation of British Cornell graduate student Momodou Taal for international student visa violations resulting from his suspension.
The specificities of the Taal case are complicated, and despite my personal beliefs about him and his movement, what I was more concerned with on the flier was that the same people supporting Taal were also, “RALLY[ING] FOR LEBANON.”
The all-caps inclusion of Lebanon on the flier under my door would seem to be the result of the Israeli Defense Forces recent precision strikes against top Hezbollah commanders and operatives.
Hezbollah is a powerful paramilitary terrorist organization that operates within Lebanon as a “state within a state,” exercising substantial political and social power. Apparently these precision strikes, while cheered across the middle east from Syria to Iraq, are upsetting to those at Cornell who support terrorist activity in the Middle East. Hezbollah is no friend to America; in 1983 the group killed over 200 U.S. Marines. Similar to those at Cornell who were “exhilarated” by the horrific October 7th attacks upon Israeli civilians, CML seems to care more about the destruction of Israel than they do about the plight of the Palestinian people. Cheering for Hezbollah clearly exposes this hatred.
In no way can I comprehend how clear-thinking, well-educated Cornell students (and faculty) can gather in support of Hezbollah, as that is what the CML poster seemingly referred to. The terrorists of Hezbollah, began the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on October 8th, 2023, before Israel had fired a single shot into Lebanon. At that time, Israel was still fending off Hamas’s infiltration of its border. Hezbollah has launched over 8,000 rockets armed projectiles into Israel indiscriminately killing Israeli Druze children and internally displacing 70,000 Israelis. Is this the group Cornellians feel the need to protest for? And if it is, why?
If the CML and whatever other groups organized the rally truly cared about the collateral damage stemming from the recent targeted attacks on Hezbollah, why are they not similarly outraged (and rallying) on behalf of innocent victims of tragic events in places like Ethiopia, Burma and South Sudan.
Israel is the only country in the world that people often question its very existence. Many of those rallying with the CML “Lebanon” and “exhilarated” by the attacks on Israel seem to be protesting out of thinly disguised antisemitism and hatred for Israel.
I ask this question rhetorically, but what would you do if you had a, and I use this term carefully and definitionally, a genocidal enemy on your doorstep reaching their hand through your window.
I would be the first to acknowledge that this conflict is complicated and there are many moving pieces, but to those supporting “LEBANON,” please engage in some critical thinking. Do you really know what and who you are supporting?
Hezbollah is a terror organization that seemingly has no care for those closest to them, especially the Lebanese Christians and Sunni Muslims.
By targeting and reducing the massive amount of weapons Hezbollah commands, Israel significantly limits the destruction of any future conflict. Israel’s alleged pager and walkie talkie attacks are a precise way of targeting an enemy from afar. The targeted assassinations of top Hezbollah leaders serve to cut the organization at its head to expedite the fighting with as few non combatant casualties as possible.
CML is a group that represents over 40 Cornell organizations. I hope that those supporting this organization can reconsider their alliances as it is evident that they are not coming from a true place of caring about Palestinian lives. The group is primarily a vessel to disparage and attack Israel and Zionists at Cornell.
The Lebanese people would be far better off without the terrorists of Hezbollah living within their nation. If you genuinely care about the Lebanese people, you should be protesting to rid Lebanon from Hezbollah, no different than if you genuinely support a free Palestine, you should be protesting to Free Palestine from the equally depraved terrorists of Hamas. To the Cornellians supporting Hezbollah, your agenda is apparent and your stance on America, Israel and Western Society is known.
Noah Farb is a first year student in the College of Arts and Sciences. His fortnightly column Thinking Critically discusses politics and current events. He can be reached at nef36@cornell.edu.
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