The anonymous author of the following piece, an Israeli-American, asks, and answers, his own query: how did his former friend, a leftist and a pacifist, and now a university professor brainwashing his own students, end up as a supporter of Hamas and its murderers?
More on this malevolent metamorphosis can be found here: “Thoughts On A Socialist Murderer (Guest Post),” Elder of Ziyon, May 23, 2025:
The murderer of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky wrote a manifesto before setting out to commit a premeditated cold blooded dual murder. His manifesto sounded strangely familiar. I had heard an old friend of mine say similar things. My old friend is also a Socialist, and a Marxist, and a Harvard graduate, and is now a sitting professor. When we were friends in grade school, he was a peace activist who often quoted Martin Luther King. He strongly believed in non-violent protest. He opposed the Vietnam War. In fact, he opposed all wars. He believed that all conflicts could be solved through UN negotiations and peace treaties. He believed all crimes should be adjudicated in international courts, since he did not trust the US court system. He believed the US was corrupt, while the major Communist dictatorships were utopian. His parents had a poster of Che Guevarra, and a bust of Karl Marx prominently displayed in their home. He had a strange fascination with Carlos The Jackal. I knew there was something odd about his family and the belief system he had grown up with, but I did not place him within the same groups of radical lunatics portrayed in Hollywood movies. After all, he was a straight-A student, and he was very well read in literature, history, philosophy, and the sciences. He was a Renaissance man. He would read the entire Sunday edition of the New York Times every weekend. His teachers all loved him. He was admitted to Harvard on a scholarship, without the help of any family connections. He later became a university professor. I admired his accomplishments, and I thought he must be doing something right….Circling back to Elias Rodrigues, I have to wonder if my friend would be capable of committing a similar crime. If he expressed support for Hamas in 2001, he is no different than the campus activists organizing the hundreds of marches and encampments supporting “the Gaza resistance” today. If a college professor has no morals, and makes political allegiance with barbarians, than the question is a valid one. My conclusion is that it is a moot point. Even if the professor wouldn’t actually pull the trigger, I have no doubt that these professors would do nothing to stop the actual “trigger man.” The guilt is shared by the entire ideology that justifies vigilante murder in the name of a deranged interpretation of social justice. I shudder to think how many seemingly normal people are walking around with this latent leftist brainwashing. It reminds me of The Manchurian Candidate. Is this life mimicking art, or was the story a guidebook for a long-term Soviet project?
His former friend has no interest in reading any of the books about Israel that were suggested he might read, or that were not just suggested, but given to him to read. He burned, without reading, the copy of The Case for Israel he had been given. He’s one more example of a widespread phenomenon, observable especially among leftists, whenever the subject of Israel is raised. The refrain of these leftists is this: I know all that I need to know about Israel. My mind is made up; Israel is a colonial-settler ethnic-cleansing genocidal state, and please don’ try to confuse me with facts. Besides, all we know on earth, and all we need to know, is this: From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Big Dude says
This professor will indoctrinate a generation. We are lost. He is a Hitler in training. His students will be SS with delight.
Edward Amos Brandwein says
There’s no such thing as a “Leftist Pacifist”: the very concept is an oxymoron
somehistory says
People like this man’s friend….and this man’s friend….are blood guilty
When a perp commits a crime, there may have been associates who helped….aided and abetted…before the crime was committed. If they plan the crime together, there is the crime of conspiracy.
If the perp has help actually committing the crime, those ones share the guilt firsthand. There may be people who work to protect the criminal(s) after the crime has been committed and that too is a crime…accessory after the fact is a felony..
Teaching a young child to lie, is wrong. So is teaching young adults that committing murder for a political idea or cause is a good thing, is also wrong. Each teacher is guilty of whatever their students then do.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Somehow, these self-styled “pacifists” only want peace for themselves. In other words, they don’t want anybody killing, raping, looting or maiming them, but they have no qualms about doing the same thing to others. They are the scum of the earth, and true peace will not be realized w/o their demise!
crown says
“ Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.“
Though not a conventional believer, I am now quite convinced that the world is hurtling towards The Apocalypse adumbrated in The Book of Revelation, and in the Book of Ezekiel.
somehistory says
Many of the other prophets and Bible writers, have expressed facts about Armageddon
Mankind is headed there and traveling fast..
James Lincoln says
Leftism is the “gateway drug” to violent groups like BLM, antifa, etc.
Winston 101 says
Yes, indeed, Mr. Lincoln.
Leftism is based on feelings, not thought. Their minimal thought structure exists to justify their feelings. And those feelings are: Envy and Anger.
The formula is E + A = V, ( V=Violence.)
It’s used by groups of the less accomplished, e.g. Islam, toward those who are more
accomplished, the Jews.
The first application of the formula I recognized was learning about the persecution of the
“Kulaks” under Stalin.
John Pepple says
“He would read the entire Sunday edition of the New York Times every weekend.”
That’s already a bad sign. The amount of news out there is effectively infinite, and no one source can cover it all. If you are spending that much time on the NY Times, that means you are ignoring other news sources that may cover news (and issues) that the Times isn’t covering. You will miss a lot.
Nevertheless, this idea that one ought to read the entire NY Times Sunday edition is widespread in academia, and the only dissent comes from leftists who think the Times isn’t leftist enough. Sheesh.
And what is sad about it is that it is so easy to get access to a staggering variety of other sources these days, compared with the days before the Internet. But they have no interest.
OLD GUY says
It is so sad that someone is motivated by another to go out and commit murder for any reason. This young mans actions will in no way effect Palestine or Hamas, but he did destroy three lives for absolutely nothing.
40 rounds says
Turns out he is a total coward, shooting two people in the back, shooting an unarmed woman several times. I really hope someone kicks his ass along the way to justice