Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student, is facing deportation for espousing what are described, in some quarters, as pro-Hamas views.

The email arrived with a question: “Is this Nazi enough for you?”

Attached was a story about the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for espousing what are described, in some quarters, as pro-Hamas views. The question from a reader was also a reference to my weekend column, which pointed to hair-on-fire rhetoric in Troy and suggested that progressives should stop describing Republicans as Nazis.

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That was a surprisingly controversial take, which may say something about our grim and confused political moment. But also confusing is the suggestion that an arrest for alleged antisemitic bigotry is something the Nazis would have done.

A quick and facile history lesson, for those who need it: The Nazis were (and are) good with antisemitism.

As you may know, Khalil was a negotiator during the protests that made Columbia a center of international attention and outrage. Those demonstrations contributed to making campus life hostile for Jewish students, who, according to a report from a Columbia antisemitism task force, were subjected to verbal abuse, physical intimidation, and hateful imagery that........

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