Congressional leaders including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Pat Fallon (R-TX) promised that under a new Trump White House, universities would be punished with loss of federal funding and the revoking of official accreditation if they allow student protests on campus. On Oct. 1, Representative Scalise said that the message to universities is, “Your accreditation is on the line. You’re not playing games any more, or else you’re not a school any more,” according to London’s The Guardian. Scalise said that he was determined to confront any anti-Israel protests, calling them “disgusting” and “unacceptable in America.” Scalise said, “We’re bringing legislation to the floor to continue to confront it, to stand up against it, to show we support Israel.”
The congressmen were speaking at a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), where the topic was ostensibly the spread of anti-Semitism in America. However, the entire discussion was focused on the elimination of any criticism of Israel’s military operations against Gaza. The one-hour event did not distinguish between a racist hatred of Jews and political opposition to a military effort by Israel, or even sympathy for the suffering by Palestinians. Many Congressional representatives have close working relations with AIPAC and many, including Scalise, have accepted free trips to Israel paid for by a group founded by AIPAC, the American Israel Education Fund.
Scalise saved his harshest criticism for Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University, where pressure has already forced out the university presidents. Scalise criticized the leaders at these universities saying, “You start siding with a terrorist organization, and you think that’s mainstream, because all your friends are in this little bubble, and I don’t know who you’re talking to—you’re sure not talking to normal people any more.” Scalise then mocked Jewish peace activists saying, “I’m a Jewish student, and I’m on the side with terrorists who want to kill me.”
