History Rhyming with a Vengeance, or 1968 Redux

      History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
                                                                                Mark Twain

Pro-Palestinian protestors occupying Hamilton Hall - Getty Images

Today marks a historic occasion. By seizing control of Hamilton Hall, students at Columbia University have anchored in historical memory the nexus between the horrors inflicted in Vietnam that was the hallmark of my generation with the horrors inflicted in Gaza that is the hallmark of the new generation. It is testament to the majesty of these young people that they have risked their futures for the sake of a poor, powerless people halfway around the world in order to uphold that sacred principle that every life is worthy and the murder of none shall pass in silence. As Abraham Lincoln famously quoted, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." The right of the people of Gaza to live is an eternal truth. May the young soldiers in Hamilton Hall be honored and blessed for not countenancing, come what may, its extinguishment.

Norman Finkelstein

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