Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Why are elite college campuses so obsessed with Israel? John McWhorter argues it’s not really about Israel at all. For a generation raised to see American history as a story of white supremacy, Israel became a proxy, a place where the sins of America could be symbolically undone. That’s how campus protests got so fierce, and why Jewish students were left to walk through gauntlets while administrators looked away. John and I discuss what that reveals about the left’s relationship with antisemitism, and why it looks so different from the kind that comes from the right.
Why are elite college campuses so obsessed with Israel? John McWhorter argues it’s not really about Israel at all. For a generation raised to see American history as a story of white supremacy, Israel became a proxy, a place where the sins of America could be symbolically undone. That’s how campus protests got so fierce, and why Jewish students were left to walk through gauntlets while administrators looked away. John and I discuss what that reveals about the left’s relationship with antisemitism, and why it looks so different from the kind that comes from the right.
