It’s bewildering — what seems to be a tidal wave of passionate activism infecting 200 or more college campuses nationwide, all on precisely the wrong side of a very important world issue.

Wrapped in feel-good slogans like “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea,” the student activists and their compatriots are condemning the military actions taken by Israel in reaction to the barbaric Hamas attack on Israeli civilians eight months ago, and demanding the termination of public and private financial support to Israel.

In effect, thousands of young American university students — supposedly our best and brightest — are wholeheartedly preaching to the world a message that is implicitly pro-terrorist and anti-Semitic.

What gives? How can they be so wrong? And what do we do about it? My thoughts:

1.) The issue is really not that complicated. Yes, the perpetual unrest in the Middle East continues to defy resolution, and the plight of the stateless Palestinians remains unresolved. But there is nothing at all unclear about the Hamas actions of last October 7 — a preplanned, large-scale orgy of rape, torture, and murder of 1,200 people, and the abduction of hundreds more (including five American citizens) — nor is there anything unclear about Israel’s resolve to eliminate that menace once and for all.

A brief summary of undebatable facts:

• Hamas is an Islamic resistance organization unabashedly dedicated to the total extinction of Israel. Hamas has controlled the Palestinian enclave in Gaza, bordering Israel, since 2007.

• The October 7 assault was only the latest in repeated hostile actions by Hamas, including suicide bombings and indiscriminate rocket attacks. Negotiated agreements to cease hostilities are meaningless to Hamas — one such agreement was in place on October 7.

• Palestinians residing in Gaza, while generally supportive of Hamas, are pawns in the Israel-Hamas war. Hamas’s primary defensive tactic is to use them as human shields, embedding their military forces and operational controls in densely populated areas, thus guaranteeing that the inevitable Israeli counterattacks will incur substantial noncombatant human casualties.

Faced with an adversary actively committed to its annihilation and oblivious to human consequences, the Israelis have no choice: They must eliminate the ongoing threat to their nation’s survival. They deserve our respect and full support.

2.) The protests sweeping U.S. college campuses may look like a spontaneous outpouring of concern by idealistic college students. But look again.

Notice that the protests came to life nearly simultaneously and that they are remarkably similar in style and choreography — tent encampments erected on campuses, protesters’ faces obscured by masks, signs with common messaging, occupation and /or defacing of campus facilities, intimidation of Jewish students — all in direct noncompliance with university regulations. The wave of on-campus protesting coincided with the peak period of term exams and graduation activities — perfect timing for maximum disruption of campus life and full-bore national attention.

While student enthusiasm for the current movement is surely authentic, it seems clear that college campuses are the stage and college students are the performers — and behind the scenes, there are producers and directors who have a much broader agenda in mind. We don’t yet know the extent and the specifics, but it is widely and reliably reported that George Soros and other wealthy supporters of left-wing causes are contributing substantially to the campus uprisings.

3.) Keep in mind the long and checkered history of mass protest in the U.S. The right to protest is a central feature of American culture and tradition, properly protected by our Constitution. Sometimes, it’s constructive — and sometimes it’s not.

At times, protest has paved the way to profound, positive change — most notably, our collective recognition and commitment to civil rights. However, in other cases, protest movements have precipitated ill-conceived and shortsighted reactions, such as the BLM/George Floyd defund-the-police initiatives. Some have long-term consequences. For example, 1980s anti-nuclear power activism is a significant contributing factor to today’s serious shortage of the safe and clean electricity that nuclear power can produce.

Keep in mind as well the slippery slope between meaningful protest and violent riots. We’ve seen again and again that protests described as “mainly peaceful” sometimes devolve into violent assaults on police, property damage, arson, looting, and the like. It’s happening now.

4.) U.S. policy on the Israel-Hamas war is woefully ambiguous and internally inconsistent. President Joe Biden expresses full support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resolve to destroy Hamas but simultaneously objects to Israeli military actions necessary to get the job done. Biden endorses efforts to achieve a negotiated ceasefire to enable the return of hostages (any who may still be alive), but that noble objective effectively rewards Hamas’s actions in abducting them. How is that going to work out?

So, what now? As a protest of one, I’d argue for starters:

• Put in place an unambiguous U.S. policy of support to Israel. We must lead, not follow, and keep the partisan politics home.

• University chancellors must recalibrate their students on both their rights and responsibilities under the First Amendment and upgrade and enforce campus policies, rules, and regulations accordingly. They must not permit student activism to interfere with their central mission of student education.

• Our U.S. security professionals must pay attention to yet another reminder of the challenges we face here at home. For four years, they’ve warned of the imminent threat posed by domestic right-wing extremists while largely ignoring that posed by extremists on the other side and by unknown forces among the millions of unvetted illegal immigrants now here. And don’t lose sight of the terrorist organizations like Hamas that hate us just as fiercely as they hate Israel.

It’s a dangerous world out there. Take heed, America!