Putting Students in Danger

In what is literally a miracle, Princeton graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released from more than two years of terrorist captivity in Iraq, thanks to pressure from President Donald Trump and the State Department. As President Trump noted, “I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kata’ib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months. I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!”

Ironically, although President Eisgruber has been styled as “The University President Willing to Fight Trump” (The New York Times), Tsurkov is in fact the second Princeton graduate student that Trump has had to help release from an Islamist tyranny.

The University’s indifference to its Jewish students is appalling. It is time for Princeton to apologize to Tsurkov for approving a dangerous trip to do her graduate work, even though her advisers knew well she was both Jewish and an Israeli citizen. If the precedent holds for the last graduate student Princeton lost to 40 months of captivity in Iran, Xiyue Wang, the University might have to pay a significant sum to resolve claims over its negligence and indifference to putting its students in danger.