There is a lot of talk these days about hate in our public discourse. In truth, much of what is denounced as “hate,” especially by the Left, could more properly be described as disagreement. But every once in a while you come across the real article.
As in the case of Lara Kollab, an American Muslim from Ohio, who was fired from a residency at the Cleveland Clinic, one of America’s most respected medical institutions, after her long history of public anti-Semitism came to light. The Daily Mail has a good account.
It is easy to understand why the Cleveland Clinic thought she had to go, since she tweeted this:
For reasons of liability if nothing else, the Cleveland Clinic could hardly have a doctor on staff who had publicly pledged to deliberately subvert the care of certain patients.
Kollab’s hateful tweets go on and on; there are many at the link. Here are just a couple:
There are many more along the same lines.
Ms. (or is it Dr.?) Kollab has now issued an apology, with the help of her lawyers:
Several social media comments posted on my twitter account years ago have surfaced recently, causing pain, anguish, and a public outcry. I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts. This statement is not intended to excuse the content of the posts, but rather to demonstrate that those words do not represent who I am and the principles I stand for today.
The grotesquely anti-Semitic tweets date mostly from 2012 and 2013, when Kollab would have been in her last years of college.
As a girl in my teens and early twenties, I had difficulty constructively expressing my intense feelings about what I witnessed in my ancestral land.
She means “Palestine,” not Ohio.
Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause.
Or perhaps not realizing that her social media posts under the name “@ellekay” would come to light and be attributed to her.
I matured into a young adult during the years I attended college and medical school, and adopted strong values of inclusion, tolerance, and humanity.
Her lawyers, one suspects, wrote that part of her “apology.”
I take my profession and the Hippocratic Oath seriously and would never intentionally cause harm to any patient seeking medical care. As a physician, I will always strive to give the best medical treatment to all people, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or culture.
She’d better take this position, if she ever wants to work as a doctor.
I have learned from this experience and am sorry for the pain I have caused. I pray that the Jewish community will understand and forgive me. I hope to make amends so that we can move forward and work together towards a better future for us all.
Is it just me, or do her venomous tweets sound a great deal more sincere than the apology that was released through her lawyers?
It is ironic–or, then, again, maybe too typical to be ironic–that Kollab is a graduate of a Jewish medical school, the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York. The case of Lara Kollab is a useful reminder that politically-motivated hate does actually exist, and is found predominantly, although not quite exclusively, on the Left.
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