Senator-turned-university-president disses fellow educators for silence

University of Florida President Ben Sasse, a former Nebraska senator, criticized other academic leaders around the nation for not publicly condemning the Hamas-led attack on Israel last week.

“You got so many universities around the country [who] speak about every topic under the sun, Halloween costumes and microaggressions. But somehow in a moment of the most grave grotesque attacks on Jewish people since the Holocaust, they all of a sudden say there’s too much complexity to say anything,” the former Republican senator said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

In Sasse’s own statement, addressed to Jewish students and alumni at the University of Florida, he forcefully condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and slammed those in “elite academia” inadvertently or explicitly expressing support for Hamas. Sasse also promised to “protect our students” in the event it becomes the site of any “anti-Israel” protests.

The current fighting between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza has caused bitter division on numerous college campuses across the country.

At Harvard, a statement from student groups that blamed Israel for the Hamas-led attack spurred outrage from several prominent alumni, including members of Congress. Harvard issued its own statement, which was also the subject of fierce online backlash.

Following that response, Harvard University President Claudine Gay issued an independent statement on Tuesday condemning the “terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”

Saying “it’s easy to condemn evil as evil,” Sasse told host Shannon Bream he didn’t understand all the ambiguity from other educational leaders.

“We just did two basic things,” Sasse said Sunday. “We announced that we’re going to protect our Jewish students, and we’re going to protect speech.”