Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president, blasted the Ivy League school’s administration over its lack of response to dozens of student groups who blamed Israel for Hamas’ surprise attack this weekend.
“In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Summers, the former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton who later went on to advise Barack Obama in the White House, wrote on his X social media account.
“The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel.”
“Instead, Harvard is being defined by the morally unconscionable statement apparently coming from two dozen student groups blaming all the violence on Israel,” he wrote, adding: “I am sickened.”
Summers reacted on Monday to a statement signed by more than 30 Harvard student organizations who said they were holding Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ mass slaughter.
“I cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”
He added: “To be clear nothing is wrong with criticizing Israeli policy past, present or future.”
“I have been sharply critical of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. But that is very different from lack of clarity regarding terrorism,” Summers wrote.
Summers wrote that he hopes a condemnation of the student groups’ statement “will soon be forthcoming.”
The Post has sought comment from Harvard.
Summers noted that Harvard President Lawrence Bacow issued a statement condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.
The school even hoisted the Ukrainian flag over Harvard Yard in solidarity, noted Summers, who lamented that there was “no official Harvard statement at this time of moral testing.”
The statement by the student groups sparked outraged condemnation and calls by a congresswoman for the Ivy League school to denounce the “abhorrent and heinous” support of “evil and terrorism.”
In a letter titled “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine,” 31 student organizations — including the Ivy League’s affiliate of Amnesty International — condemned Israel, even as its residents are kidnapped and more than 700 have been killed by the terrorist organization.
The groups claim Hamas’ attack “did not happen in a vacuum,” and the Israeli government has forced Palestinians to live in an “open-air prison for over two decades,” according to the letter obtained by The Post
Additional Reporting by Melissa Koenig
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