The open antisemitism running rampant on Columbia University’s campus in New York City has drawn condemnation from both sides of the aisle, but one prominent Democrat and alumnus of the school is remaining silent, choosing not to speak out against the anti-Israel demonstrations taking place there.

In a lengthy Monday post on X commemorating the celebration of Passover, former President Obama, who graduated from Columbia in 1983, made no mention of protestors’ violent rhetoric aimed at the university’s Jewish students and staff, and neither he nor his representatives responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about the antisemitic demonstrations that have engulfed the campus since last week.

A number of other Democrats have, however, joined their Republican colleagues in denouncing discrimination against Jews at Columbia, which was forced to move all classes to virtual on Tuesday because of safety concerns.

NY HOUSE REPUBLICANS DEMAND COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT STEP DOWN OVER ANTI-ISRAEL ‘CHAOS’

“Every American has a right to protest,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “But when protests shift to antisemitism, verbal abuse, intimidation, or glorification of Oct. 7 violence against Jewish people, that crosses the line.”

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, another Democrat, also denounced the display of antisemitism at the university, saying she was “appalled.” 

“Threats of violence against Jewish students and the Jewish community are horrible, despicable and wholly unacceptable,” she said. “Using the rhetoric of terrorists has no place in New York, where we pride ourselves on tolerance and the right of every group to practice their religion in peace.”

HOUSE DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS CONDEMN ANTI-ISRAEL COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROTESTS: AN ‘ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY’

Others who joined their party members in addressing the encampment were Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and John Fetterman, D-Penn.

The anti-Israel agitators initially formed the encampment last Wednesday — setting up tents and refusing to leave. They have proceeded to march in and around the campus demanding the school end affiliations with groups that support Israel amid its war with Hamas in Gaza, which has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

The university announced early Tuesday that classes on the main campus would remain virtual or hybrid “until the end of each school’s Spring 2024 semester” due to safety concerns over the demonstrations. Classes initially went virtual on Monday.

Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

There’s no record of Edmund Burke — the great Irish-born British statesman and father of modern conservatism — actually saying what is often attributed to him: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” But it does capture his worldview well enough.

It also captures a renewed, possibly short-lived triumph of courage and wisdom within the Republican Party.

Amid threats to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson for allowing a vote on aid to Ukraine, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) captured the party’s own divide between the good and the rest in colorful terms on CNN Sunday. “It’s my absolute honor to be in Congress,” he said, “but I serve with some real scumbags.”

Gonzales was taking aim at Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Bob Good (R-Va.), but he could have included quite a few others.

For the last few years, congressional Republicans have been split into factions that are not ideological in the traditional sense. Pick nearly any standard domestic policy issue — abortion, gun rights, taxes, immigration — and you won’t see much evidence of the schism. Even (public) support for Donald Trump doesn’t delineate the divide.

No, the difference is largely over tactics, rhetoric and psychology. One faction, comprising an overwhelming majority of the House GOP caucus, is interested in accomplishing the possible. The other is more interested in aiming for the impossible and then complaining about falling short.

Of course, members of the latter group don’t admit to the impossibility of their goals; that would ruin the con. They insist that with enough willpower, particularly among their leaders, they could impose their will on the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House. They make that case on television, on social media and in floor speeches. And when they inevitably fail, they whine that they were “betrayed” by Republican quislings who collaborated with the Democrats, all while raising money off the notion that they’re courageous warriors who are willing to lose on principle.

The success of their schtick has depended on a number of factors. One is that the Republicans’ narrow House majority empowers the fringe.

To become speaker last year, Kevin McCarthy agreed to a change in the rules that makes it possible for a single representative to move to “vacate the chair” — that is, trigger a vote on whether to depose the speaker. That’s what happened last year after McCarthy avoided a default on the national debt, kept the government open and committed other alleged outrages.

Gaetz and seven other Republicans, representing less than 2% of the country, were enough to oust McCarthy against the wishes of 95% of the Republican caucus, with Democrats uniformly hewing to the bipartisan tradition of refusing to support a speaker of the opposite party. In other words, the Republican firebrands, who think the worst sin imaginable is to work with Democrats, voted with Democrats to oust their leader.

McCarthy’s successor, Johnson, brought four bills to the House floor Saturday — three to provide vital military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and one to force a Chinese company to sell TikTok or cease operating in the United States. The bills passed overwhelmingly, with all but the Ukraine bill winning a majority of Republicans’ votes.

Now Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky,) want to oust Johnson for his “betrayal” — not of the caucus, country or Congress but of the tiny fringe faction that thinks it should call the shots.

They’ll probably fail, for several reasons. First, few Republicans — including some who oppose Johnson — want to be seen following the lead of the House’s most notorious cranks and bigots. Second, Trump doesn’t want the Republican caucus to turn into an embarrassing circular firing squad while he is running for president. (It’s remarkable that Trump is worried that other Republicans will make him look bad.) Third, Democrats have signaled that they will help Johnson keep his job after he courageously did the right thing. And finally, no one appears to want Johnson’s job who could also get the job.

The most important development for the party in all of this is that the rest of the caucus has realized that going along with the arsonists — all of whom have safe seats and would be happy to throw their bombs from the House minority — amounts to politically suicidal appeasement.

“The majority of the majority — the vast majority of the majority — is sick and tired of these high school antics,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said last week. He also noted that “the only way to stop a bully is to push back hard.”

One can only hope that realization sticks.

@JonahDispatch

House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., is calling for an end to taxpayer-funded media, the latest top Republican to push back on National Public Radio (NPR) after a now-former employee accused it of operating with an overwhelming left-wing bias.

Good’s new Defund NPR Act, introduced Friday, would block federal funding from going directly toward NPR and also block public radio stations that get federal grants from using those taxpayer funds to buy content from or pay dues to NPR as a member station.

“The government shouldn’t be in the business of funding media, and it certainly shouldn’t be funding media that has a clear bias,” Good told Fox News Digital in his first interview on the legislation. “NPR has had a clear left-wing bias for decades, and it’s just growing by the day. And there’s no reason for taxpayers to have to fund this.”

NPR WHISTLEBLOWER URI BERLINER RESIGNS: ‘I CANNOT WORK IN A NEWSROOM WHERE I AM DISPARAGED’

The Virginia Republican said that if the case were reversed – a partially federally funded outlet being accused of a rightward slant – the public outrage would be compounded.

“We have a free and open press, or at least theoretically we’re supposed to in this country, as protected in our First Amendment, and that’s a critical, foundational right in this country,” he said. “But the government shouldn’t be putting their thumb on the scale and forcing taxpayers to fund that. Could you imagine if we were trying to get what was recognized as a strong conservative-leaning media organization to be funded by taxpayers? Can you imagine the outrage in doing so?”

Conservatives have long accused NPR of reporting with a left-wing bias while some of its funding is provided through federal grants and other government-backed dollars.

Those concerns were recently magnified when now-former NPR editor Uri Berliner asserted in an op-ed that the outlet mishandled critical stories that stemmed from Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive and COVID-19 lab leak theories, among others, and that registered Democrats were vastly overrepresented in the newsroom by 87 to 0.

NPR CEO DODGES QUESTION ON IF SHE SHOULD PRIORITIZE ‘VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY’ IN THE NEWSROOM FOLLOWING EDITOR’S EXIT

Rep. Bob Good’s proposed bill comes after former NPR editor Uri Berliner, above, accused the newsroom of extreme bias. (JP Yim/WireImage/File)

NPR chief news executive Edith Chapin responded in a statement published by the outlet, “We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories. … We believe that inclusion – among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage – is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.”

Berliner was suspended without pay for five days soon after, but he resigned a day later.

“I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,” Berliner said in a portion of his resignation letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, in which he also opposed calls to defund NPR. “But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cited in my Free Press essay.”

Good told Fox News Digital that Maher “doesn’t seem concerned about truth.”

NPR BOSS ONCE CALLED FIRST AMENDMENT A ‘CHALLENGE’ AND ‘REVERENCE TO THE TRUTH’ A DISTRACTION

NPR CEO Katherine Maher has also caught criticism in the fallout. (Screenshot/Carnegie Endowment/File)

“She’s clearly a left-wing individual as well, and she fits for that organization. And that’s fine, but it shouldn’t be on the taxpayer dollar,” Good said.

While most of NPR’s funding comes from corporate sponsorships, according to its site, the nonprofit also benefits both directly and indirectly from federal funds. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which got a fiscal 2026 advance of $535 million in the latest government funding deal, oversees both NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service.

Fox News Digital reached out to NPR for comment on Good’s bill and comments.