The supportive response of many college students and faculty to Hamas ’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, should be a major wake-up call to anyone still unsure about the degree to which our schools have become a haven for radical and violent left-wing ideologues.

Columbia University professor Joseph Massad called the Hamas assault “awesome.”

Cornell University professor Russell Rickford described the mass killing of hundreds at a music festival in southern Israel as “exhilarating” and “exciting.” Yes, the same Cornell where police have arrested a student who had threatened to “slit the throats” of the school’s large population of Jewish students.

Zareena Grewal, a professor at Yale University, called Israel a “murderous, genocidal settler state,” later proclaiming Hamas’s onslaught to be an “extraordinary day.”

These are not fringe schools. They are the elite of the elite, and these professors are molding the minds of the next generation of lawyers, doctors, teachers, and more.

The result? According to a recent Harvard-Harris poll, 51% of 18-24-year-olds said that Hamas killing 1,400 Israeli civilians “can be justified by the grievance of Palestinians.”

In case you want to dismiss a poll, here are just a few examples of how those views are playing out in the real world.

More than 30 student groups at Harvard signed a joint statement claiming that the “Israeli regime” is “entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.”

A University of Virginia student group called for “mass mobilization” and celebrated the “broken down artificial barriers of the Zionist entity.”

And high school students in Sacramento and San Francisco recently staged walkouts in solidarity with Hamas, while thousands of students in Michigan marched through hallways chanting “Allahu Akbar.”

While a Jew myself, I’ve always been hesitant to throw around the charge of “antisemitism,” in part because I think many people have become numb to the far Left’s incessant and often baseless accusations of various “isms.” But what we’re seeing almost daily is blatant and unapologetic antisemitism, and it really is a bit shocking.

Some may wonder how professors and students who lecture us about “microaggressions” and the “violence” of calling someone by the wrong pronouns could also voice support for a bloodthirsty terrorist group that raped women, murdered the elderly, and killed children in the most gruesome and unthinkable manner.

In truth, it is a direct result of the toxic, historically illiterate, and Marxist “social justice” agenda that has overtaken our classrooms at every level.

This Marxist worldview categorizes every group into either “oppressors'' or “oppressed,” and regardless of basic facts or history, a group deemed to be “oppressed” is to be supported, no matter how vicious and inhumane their acts may be. Whether it’s a Hamas terrorist beheading and burning Jewish babies or a group of “trans” activists shouting down and physically threatening conservative speakers, they can both be excused. After all, they are the victims of history and our current culture, and are thus entitled to fight back “by any means necessary.”

Even the people perpetrating these evil acts recognize what’s going on, and they’re using it against us. For example, in a recent interview with Vice, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar declared , “The same type of racism that killed George Floyd is being used by [Israel] against the Palestinians.”

By dishonestly painting their genocidal crusade against the world’s only Jewish state as a struggle against “racism” and “colonization,” Sinwar and his terrorist allies are trying to mobilize an army of leftists to stoke division and even violence within the borders of the United States, and it’s working.

The shock and outrage many of us feel when we watch significant portions of the higher education system rallying in support of terrorist killers must be channeled into demands for change. De-radicalizing our classrooms is no longer just a moral imperative. It’s a matter of urgent national security.

For starters, any school officials who expressed support for Hamas or celebrated the violence should be fired immediately. These toxic and openly antisemitic people have no business being involved in the education of the youth.

People also need to rally around candidates at every level of government, from school boards to Congress, who recognize that cultural Marxism in classrooms is a very real and pressing threat. I founded 1776 Action to do just that, and we are gearing up for a pivotal year in 2024.

Addressing the crisis of patriotism among the youth and stopping extreme identity politics from continuing to poison our classrooms is a fight for everyone. But in particular, it requires patriotic parents to be active in the education of their children.

Fortunately, such a movement of parents has joined this fight, and they deserve the support of all of us. The future of America and Western civilization depends on it.

Adam Waldeck is the founder of 1776 Action .