Leftists love to commit mob violence under the cover of legitimate protest: Witness the pack of pro-Palestinian thugs allegedly protesting against “Zionism” who stormed the library at Manhattan’s Cooper Union. 

The Hamas-lovers began their protest outside as part of a faculty-blessed walkout.

But then, yelling and carrying signs that read “Zionism Hands Off Our Universities,” they decided to take it indoors and breezed past school security.

No challenge, when the mob reportedly numbered about 100, against only a dozen school security officers.

They were seemingly on their way to the school president’s office to demand she denounce Israel’s justified counterattacks on Gaza after the Hamas atrocities launched from there. 

But, surprise surprise, like many other lefty mobs, they turned their anger away from the powerful and directed it at the powerless.

In this case, Jewish students who happened to be in the library at the time.

The protesters banged on the doors and reportedly shouted antisemitic rhetoric. 

What does a random assortment of Jewish students have to do with a private university’s official policy statements?

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Pretty unclear to anyone not brain-poisoned by the left’s institutional Jew-hatred. 

But the ugly affair is proof positive that “Zionist” is now officially the lefty word for “Jew.” 

The students stood their ground, despite an administrator’s offer of escort off campus, and the security staff locked the library doors — which shows that the school understood exactly what was going on.

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Yet the response saw no arrests made, and no summons given, despite the NYPD’s presence during the entire incident. 

One student claimed the school specifically told police not to get involved.

So these goons were enough of a threat that the school offered students a private escort to get away and locked doors against their entry, but not enough to demand police intervention?

Such administrative winking at mob tactics is as disgusting as the tactics themselves.

Cooper’s president, Laura Sparks, issued an empty message that night that boils down to we did nothing wrong. Pathetic.

The protest organizers — and Cooper Union — owe massive apologies to the school’s students, Jewish and otherwise.  

But the school’s so far shamefully silent on the real issues.

So no bets on when it will show the least bit of spine.