In October, I asked what the next mutation of campus anti-Semitism was going to be, warning against the classic mistake of “fighting the last war.” Well, we have our answer: terrorism.
A freshman at George Mason University in Virginia has been arrested and charged with plotting to bomb the Israeli consulate in New York.
By all accounts, the suspect, Abdullah Hassan of Egypt, was serious about his mission.
“Hassan floated different options such as assault rifles, a suicide vest or a backpack stuffed with a homemade acetone-peroxide bomb — for which he sent the informant a detailed instructional video stamped with the Islamic State logo, according to charging documents,” the Washington Post reports.
Hassan went through the relative merits of explosives vs. shooting sprees. Lest anyone try to argue this was some kind of purely political act of anti-Zionism and not anti-Semitism, Hassan had explained that he was targeting New York City because of how easy it was there to find targets who were “Yahud”—Arabic for “Jews.” He was immersed in the intricacies of the plan, “micromanag[ing] details such as the size of ball bearings to be used as shrapnel for a bomb.”
Hassan had been interviewed but not charged by the FBI two years ago for spreading ISIS propaganda, so we can say he was on their radar, as officials often admit when someone escalates their threat to society.
It has not been GMU’s strongest semester. In November, the president of the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and her sister were barred from campus. A day earlier, police had searched their home and found guns, ammunition, anti-Semitic literature, and “death to Jews” paraphernalia. This was in connection with an investigation into an act of anti-Semitic vandalism on campus.
The worst part is that these two cases are not connected. We’re not dealing with a specific, extreme student group or a particular clique of activists under the influence of a radical professor or network. We’re just seeing an atmosphere on campus conducive to violent Jew-hatred.
That does not, however, disconnect it from the on-campus radicalization that has been going on for a long time but which massively increased after Oct. 7, 2023. This is the next step in a process that nurtures both kinds of extremism. Post-Oct. 7, faculty and students teamed up to turn college campuses into mob sites. Tentifada encampments were set up to prevent Jewish students from accessing public parts of campus, and professors began not only joining the protests but reducing the necessity of going to class by rewarding anti-Zionist activism and participation at sit-ins. The administrations almost universally incentivized this behavior by bowing to activists and their outside patrons. Students were rarely punished and district attorneys dropped charges out of political sympathy with the tentifada.
That meant that in future years, already-radicalized students would seek to join these campuses, knowing they’d be well at home there. Which is exactly what appears to have happened with Hassan.
Which means Hassan is unlikely to be much of an outlier. We can’t know how many people with violent designs will be caught while on campus, but we can be sure they know that America’s campuses—certain ones more than others—are the right destination for them.
After the Hassan news hit social media, an absolutely chilling detail emerged. Adam Mossoff, a Jewish professor at the university’s law school, posted: “For the past year, a permanent police presence has been assigned to the faculty suite of offices where I & [Professor David Bernstein] work. I have greater clarity now why this had to be done. It’s shameful that GMU has fostered an environment where this is needed for its profs.”
The school seems to have good reason for taking extra measures to protect its Jewish professors. That it needs to do so—and it clearly needs to do so—is more proof that the American system of higher education is becoming a place that puts Jews in escalating physical danger.
