On October 7th, 2024—exactly one year after Hamas’s brutal invasion of Israel—author, lawyer, and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro addressed Yale students, faculty, and the public on how October 7th broke America’s campuses. Hosted by the Buckley Institute, and made possible by the Young America’s Foundation, Shapiro filled the more than 400 seat lecture hall, with long lines stretching down Hillhouse Avenue. This was Shapiro’s first of four events in a series – he will speak next at UCLA, Cornell, and Vanderbilt.
Daniel Dumontet and David Dumontet
Staff Writers, The Beacon
“[October 7th] revealed to me a cancer that’s at the heart of American education,” opened Shapiro, citing a year of fierce—sometimes violent—national protests and what he sees as both the media’s and college students’ uninformed and biased condemnation of Israel’s actions since October 7th.
Underneath the overt calls for a ceasefire or for Yale to divest from weapons manufacturers, Shapiro sees greater forces at play. “[This] day is not just a day of mourning. It’s a reminder of what happens when the west goes to sleep on its own principles… when it cultivates an entire generation of people who don’t believe in the mission of its civilization.”
Broadening his critique beyond college campuses to western society as a whole, Shapiro believes that the protests across the nation are merely a symptom of a festering self-hatred that began with the post-World War II intellectual class. Shapiro criticized the growth of DEI policy and programming for manufacturing a “victim-victimizer mentality,” where “college students are inculcated to believe that success is inherently connected with exploitation.” These ideas, which Shapiro proposes are diametrically opposed to traditional neoliberal American values such as hard work and individual agency, are what have mobilized so many students against Israel. In their quest to “fight the great oppressor,” they have found Israel to be the “bleeding point of the spear in that vision”.
Shapiro pushed that Jews and Asian Americans, both being disproportionately successful minority groups, disrupt an anti-western, leftist narrative that minorities are victims. This often leads to the exclusion, alienation, and resentment of these groups. Israel, as seen through the lens of being a western colony, is co-opted by this narrative as a western nation whose disproportionate success is criticized as a system of exploitation and victimization.
Shapiro’s controversial claims didn’t go unchallenged. In the Q&A, one student pressed Shapiro on his defense of free speech, claiming that while he criticized the left’s ideological intolerance, by double standard he ignored the right’s intolerance.
Paying close attention to this interaction, Dr. Evan D. Morris, Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the Yale School of Medicine, commented, “[Shapiro] was gracious… At one point he thanked [this] questioner, who identified himself as left-wing. ‘Thank you for coming, seriously’, said [Shapiro]. When the questioner finished his question, the speaker gave a serious answer. He was not dismissive of the question and admitted that there was ‘some gray area’ in the matter.”
Indeed, Shapiro’s viewpoints are what drew such a large and diverse crowd. The Buckley Institute’s student president, Trevor MacKay ’25, highlighted the amazing turnout, thanking the student volunteers, Yale Police, and Yale Security for helping with an event that “at least 1,400 people were lined up to see.”
Facilitating the first half of the event with directed questions, Trevor set the tone for an intellectually stimulating exchange of political ideology, with topics ranging from America’s dual role as both ally and mediator, to the Russia-Ukraine War, and even the social impact of the anime Sailor Moon (brought up in the Q&A). “As with all of Buckley’s events, the crowd more accurately reflected the political distribution of the United States when compared to the general Yale population… a stark contrast with the strongly progressive culture on campus. The crowd was politically diverse, lively, and engaged.”
One Yale junior sat at the back of the lecture and donned her bright pink ‘I Stand With Planned Parenthood’ shirt. When asked what drew her to hear Shapiro speak, she said, “I’m open-minded to being here today; I’m a very liberal person.” However, she did raise some concerns about Shapiro’s well-known rhetoric and famous debating style. “I sometimes fear that people like Ben Shapiro are espouting [sic] dangerous beliefs that I think have real implications for real people.”
No more than three rows in front of her, a Connecticut high school junior sported a bright red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat. This flare of color stood out in a sea of neutral vests, navy-tone sweaters, and gray blazers. He was unfamiliar with the Buckley Institute, but thanked it for bringing one of his childhood political heroes to come speak. “I’m grateful that [Buckley] had the courage to have a conservative voice on [Yale’s] campus.” The event, he said, “might actually impact my college decision, because I didn’t know [the Buckley Institute] was a thing. It’s a very good and unique thing for a top university.”
This opinion is shared by prospective students, current Yalies, and professors alike. Kate Stith, Lafayette S. Foster Professor at Yale Law School, remarks, “I am in favor of students, centers, individual faculty, and adjacent entities such as Buckley being free to provide a wide variety of contested and thoughtful viewpoints.”
Toward the end of the night, while discussing Israel’s military response to the events of October 7th, Shapiro turned to the audience and said, “Everyone in the audience your age is in the Israeli military. Everyone. If you think their parents want them to be serving on the front lines in Southern Lebanon… if you think that’s what the Israelis want, you’re out of your mind.”
Yet, Shapiro believes that “the only way out is through”. Reflecting on Israel’s history of making peace with previously belligerent neighbors such as Egypt and Jordan, he envisions a hopeful future where peace is possible. Echoing the spirit of George Washington’s 1793 State of the Union Address, Shapiro maintained that history cannot escape a fundamental truth: peace must come through absolute victory.
“War is ugly; no one wants war. Particularly not the Israelis… who have been at a state of constant war since 1947… If you’re talking about how they achieve a long-lasting peace with Lebanon [and in Gaza], the answer is going to have to be such a devastatingly effective military victory… [and] by crushing the hopes and dreams of people who wish to attack their neighbors.”
A full recording of the event can be found here or on the Young America’s Foundation YouTube Channel.