To understand the current headline-dominating furor over the protests taking place on college campuses against the war in Gaza, think about the death toll of each. As of the time of writing, more than thirty-four thousand Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, almost certainly a massive undercount. On US campuses, that figure is zero.

It’s this cosmically vast discrepancy in terms of “harm” and “safety” that more than anything explains the absurd and ongoing freakout over college students protesting the war on Gaza — one that would be laughable if it weren’t so menacing.

Columbia University administrators have been hauled before Congress and pressured to crack down on faculty and students over their speech. The Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt has called for the National Guard to be sicced on protesters at Columbia — one of several figures to do so, including several US senators — knowing full well that the last time that happened, at Kent State in 1970, four students were killed. Supporters of Israel’s war, including the Israeli government itself, have hysterically labeled the protests — overwhelmingly comprised of students sitting in place and talking, sometimes dancing, often featuring large numbers of Jewish students — “terrorism,” “pogroms,” “riots,” and “mobs” seeking to destroy the country and that have led Jews to flee its borders.