Tuesday, January 23, 2007
A History of Anti-Semitism on Campus
1. A History of Anti-Semitism on Campus
By Amihai Glazer
The hate speech practiced by the Muslim Student
Union at UCI is well known. Also well known is the UCI
Administration.s repeated statements that the Muslim
Student Union has freedom of speech rights to
organize such events as .Holocaust in the Holy
Land.. They are right. Free speech has more
protection at a public university than perhaps at any
other location; even administrators who find the
Muslim Student Union despicable agree that they
have a right to organize events full of hate. Indeed,
though speakers cannot incite listeners to violence
against a specified individual, they do have the right
to incite generalized hatred of Jews and Zionists.
But that does not mean that the University
Administration is bound to silence. University
presidents at several campuses have embraced the
opportunity to denounce hate speech. In September
2002, Harvard President Lawrence Summers issued a
memorable speech citing the upturn in anti-Semitic
incidents and noting that supposedly progressive
universities were taking part in actions that
were .anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent.. Faculty
and students calling for divestiture from firms
investing in Israel, but from nowhere else, offer one
example.
Chancellor Berdahl of UC-Berkeley signed a letter
published in The New York Times warning against
extreme anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish activity on
campus. (UCI's chancellor at the time, Ralph
Cicerone, refused to sign the letter.) In September
2002 the president of the University of Michigan,
Mary Sue Coleman, concerned about a forthcoming
conference which featured vehemently anti-Zionist
speakers, issued a statement saying: .This
conference is sponsored by a student organization,
following established University procedures for holding
events on campus ... The agenda of the conference
represents the views of the organizers and not the
University of Michigan..
Faced with another anti-Zionist conference (planned
by New Jersey Solidarity), Richard L. McCormick,
President of Rutgers, the State University of New
Jersey, stated .For myself, I find abhorrent some
elements of NJ Solidarity's mission. In its mission
statement, NJ Solidarity expresses its opposition to
Israel's right to exist and supports Palestinians human
right to resist occupation and oppression by any
means necessary. These views are in conflict with my
own and, I believe, with the majority of the university
community.. He went on to state: .Freedom of
expression must not be used to incite hatreds or
demonize individuals and groups..
In contrast, UCI has stood silently as speeches
espousing violence were delivered on campus. One
such occurrence was in spring 2002, at a forum
which then-chancellor Cicerone attended. A panelist,
Visiting Professor James Sterba, spent his allotted
time justifying suicide bombings against civilians. No
one from the Administration in attendance ever
distanced himself from such a view. In winter 2004
and again during the week of May 17, 2004, UCI
witnessed a public lecture by Amir Abdel Malik Ali, a
known hate-monger invited by the Muslim Student
Union during its .Anti-Oppression Week. and during
its .Anti-Zionism/Zionist Awareness Week.. Mr. Ali
had the honor of making his hateful speech from a
lectern emblazoned with the UCI emblem.
Fortunately, the UCI Administration no longer allows
such implicit approval. But the Administration does
continue its practice of not enforcing its own rules
when they are violated by the Muslim Student Union.
For example, the Muslim Student Union was allowed
to erect a massive .Apartheid Wall. on a public
walkway, though University policy forbids even the
placement of paper posters on public walkways.
UCI continues in other ways to aid and abet anti-
Semitic and anti-Israeli activity. This year, UCI
honored Ms.Vanessa Zuabi with the Outstanding
Community Service award at its 2006 Lauds & Laurels
Awards ceremony. When Ms. Zuabi was vice
president of the Society of Arab Students, the group
organized a rally in May 2004, purportedly to
demonstrate unity against hate crimes. The rally
came a week after the group's anti-Israel cardboard
wall was destroyed. Jewish student group leaders
approached the leaders of SAS and expressed
sympathy about the destruction of the wall, noting
that they had suffered a similar incident the year
before, when their Holocaust memorial was
destroyed. The Jewish student groups expressed
their interest in showing their solidarity in the cause
of peace by participating in the rally with SAS and
the rest of the UCI community. Had Ms. Zuabi and
the rest of the SAS leadership truly been interested
in promoting peace and in bringing the campus
community together, she and her fellow group
members would have accepted this overture.
Instead, the Jewish student groups were told that
they were not welcome, and unlike other groups on
campus, were not allowed to speak at the rally.
Furthermore, a rally organized by the Society of Arab
Students had a poster with a drawing equating the
Star of David to a swastika. The week
after .Holocaust in the Holy Land,. UCI announced
that Ms. Zuabi would be honored as the student
speaker for the commencement ceremony of the
School of Social Sciences In short, UCI honored a
person who had engaged in anti-Semitic activity.
Nevertheless, there is hope. On May 30, 2006,
Chancellor Drake issued a public statement,
saying .Make no mistake: I find hate speech
abhorrent. It is inconsistent with advancing
understanding or dialogue...I ask you to join me in
renouncing hate speech as a form of expression....
Though the timing of the statement suggests that it
was issued in response to .Holocaust in the Holy
Land,. the statement does not explain who engaged
in hate speech, or who were its victims. I wish a
future statement would.
From Standwithus.org
Amihai Glazer is a professor of economics at the
University of California, Irvine. He received his Ph.D.
from Yale University in 1978.
2. A Letter to the Editor of the Jewish Press:
Unwelcome Guest
A family checked into the Park House Hotel in Boro Park last week under
an assumed name (we now know it was the wife.s maiden name). We did not
know the true identity of this family, who paid in cash for their stay
through Motzei Shabbos.
On Friday afternoon someone recognized the head of the family as being
none other than Mr. Moshe Arye Friedman, who recently traveled to Iran
with members of Neturei Karta to attend the notorious Holocaust denial
conference there.
When we were informed as to his true identity we asked Mr. Friedman to
leave, but he refused. We checked with the police and were advised that
since he had paid for his stay, we had no legal cause to put him out.
A demonstration outside the hotel against Mr. Friedman caused great
angst to our other guests, to many prospective guests, and to neighborhood
residents.
We wish to make clear that had we known who Mr. Friedman was, we would
not have taken his reservation, nor would we have accepted him as a guest
in our hotel.
Israel Tyberg
Manager
Park House Hotel
Brooklyn, NY
3. Will Beilin's next project be an apologia for Mein Kampf?
Carter Is No More Critical of Israel Than Israelis Themselves
Opinion
Yossi Beilin Fri. Jan 19, 2007
http://www.forward.com/articles/carter-is-no-more-critical-of-israel-than-is
raelis/
4. PC Terrorism on Israeli state-run taxpayer-financed radio:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=119933
5. The Axis of Anti-Semitism:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3354891,00.html
6. Scandinavian Anti-Semitism:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26541
7. January 22, 2007
When "Chicken Little" Grows Up
by Daryl Temkin, Ph.D.
Few American children miss the experience of being
read the classic story of "Chicken Little". This was
the chicken who was hit on the head by a falling acorn
and interpreted the incident to mean that the sky was
falling. Whereupon the life purpose of the Chicken
Little character became to warn the world of this
imminent disaster . until it was discovered that an
acorn was not the sky.
This American classic children's story perhaps has a
charm effect upon a child's mind but when read by an
adult, the story contains a very deep, dramatic, and
powerful lesson about life.
This is a story of how a "rational" misperception may
forever plague the adult mind. How many times have we
interpreted a situation and made a serious judgment
call only to discover later that our evaluation of the
circumstance was false? Tragically many adults after
discovering that their original judgment or conclusion
was wrong still refuse to correct their errors and
stand by their original position in spite of how wrong
and misguided.
No matter how intelligent, how wise, or how brilliant
we may be, we occasionally make what appears to be
"rational" conclusions which, after further
consideration or investigation, turn out to be
misinterpretations. The challenge appears when we
discover that we are, as the phrase goes, "barking up
the wrong tree". Admitting that one is wrong is often
difficult. It is even more difficult for those who are
considered "experts" with high academic credentials or
those who hold high political positions. Too often
these people would rather be wrong and claim they are
right than to admit that they made a significant
mistake in judgment.
The key turning point in the Chicken Little fable
occurs when undeniable proof that the sky is not
falling is presented and realized. At this point, the
main character has the option to redefine her previous
erroneous sense of reality which had become a strongly
held belief. In this case, that which was once so
firmly believed and even formed a life identity and
purpose is suddenly rendered a meaningless pursuit and
a misguided adventure. Responsible acceptance of the
new information frequently requires a psychological
transformation, a new beginning, and perhaps even the
difficult process of overcoming shame and
embarrassment for the mistaken conclusions which
effected past leadership.
The lesson of this story is that one can make a total
change as to how one perceives the world when a
"rational" misperception is revealed. Initially one
might ask, "What's so brilliant about that?" Then one
realizes that few people are willing to change their
mindsets even in the face of revelations which totally
challenge and negate their previously held conclusion.
The need to be right even when one is wrong is what
needs to be overcome and dismissed.
Few children when read this story are mature enough to
understand the painstaking task that is often involved
in the reevaluation of a strongly held position.
Adults considering this issue realize that it can be a
perplexing if not an arduous task to correct a
mistaken perception yet alone a mistaken conclusion.
As one gains life experience it becomes apparent that
many people who are considered bright and successful
when presented contradictory information refuse to
accept it and resist modification of their conclusions
regardless of the facts. The annals of human history
reveal that clinging to theories which have never
worked, holding to ideas that constantly fail,
supporting positions that are clearly untenable,
standing by actions that can only lead to dead ends,
and retesting plans that in the past have only led to
disasters, is a shockingly repeated scenario. Our
current day confrontation with worldwide terrorism is
replete with grandiose judgment errors which appear to
resist correction. What is worse, the errors in
judgment are reinforced to the point that they become
engraved in stone, and then are called "government
policy".
For mysterious reasons America is now supplying arms
as well as financial aid to its own enemy terrorists.
To the disbelief of all concerned, the Israeli army
has been forced into the position of transferring
American weapons to the Palestinian factions which
will be attempting to kill the very soldiers supplying
them with these weapons. The Israeli army is appalled
that it has to do this, but it cannot question the
operation since it is United States' policy.
America which has been portrayed as a friend of
Israel, is now not only supplying weapons to Israel 's
enemy, an enemy sworn to the total destruction of
Israel, but America is also actively training the
Palestinian soldiers in fighting techniques. To make
sure that there are no mistaken notions surrounding
this hard-to-swallow abominable situation, the
Palestinian military leaders and participants in the
Palestinian-American training camps have freely and
publicly declared that Israel will be the victim of
all of this American supplied warfare training and
weaponry.
America which once appeared to be caring for the State
of Israel has had a long history of expecting Israel
to sacrifice itself for American interests. The list
is extensive and includes major issues such as
Jonathan Pollard being imprisoned for life, the failed
land for peace negotiations, the meaningless two state
solution peace plan, the requirement that Israel not
respond to the thirty-nine Iranian scud missiles that
landed upon the Tel Aviv civilian population, the
requirement that Israel not gain a decisive victory by
destroying the cut off and surrounded Egyptian Third
Army during the Yom Kippur War, the demand that there
be no Israeli supervision of the Egyptian-Gaza
crossing where now millions of pounds of explosives,
major weapons, and ammunition freely flow into the
Gazan hands of world terrorist organizations, as well
as forcing Israel to pull out of Lebanon leaving its
kidnapped soldiers behind, and likely, soon, Israel
will be required to relinquish more land and terrorist
prisoners in order to establish a false and failed
peace which will only empower every known terrorist
organization to achieve its next ultimate victory.
And what does Israel do? It supplies America with
reams of military and security intelligence which
American dollars could never buy.
"Land-for-Peace" is a failed and disastrous policy
which is still being promoted as if it is a wonderful
idea. A "two state" solutions is an unworkable
situation which is still being upheld as a panacea to
Middle East peace. The belief that a sworn enemy can
quietly reside adjacent to its most hated nemesis and
that life will be fine, is such a total misjudgment -
- but the World is silent to the lie and yet the
United States as well as the European Union continue
to "pound the pavement" preaching this clearly foolish
and impossible ideal. The "Right of Return" is working
its way back to the discussion table despite the fact
that it means the end of Israel's existence. America,
believing the fantasy that the competing Palestinian
factions will only fight and kill each other, is
arming the preferred faction even though both are
vehemently calling for the destruction of Israel and
America . this is terrifying and tragic.
Furthermore, all this is happening under the shadow of
America's proclamation that it will not prevent the
continuation and completion of the Iranian nuclear
reactors. Even though it is clearly known that soon
these reactors will produce high grade plutonium, the
essential ingredient for a nuclear weapon.
Chicken Little was screaming to all she could find
that the sky was falling. At that time, she was wrong;
she had made a major misperception. But at least when
enlightened, she was able to understand that her
actions were wrong and without letting her pride get
in the way, she proceeded to revise and correct her
interpretation. Her pride and personal image did not
prevent her from admitting to the world that she was
wrong. This is not happening today with our world
leaders.
If Chicken Little grew up today and made it her
purpose to scream to the world that the sky is
falling, she would be right. She would be right to
say, "Why didn't you learn from me -- my story was
telling you that humankind must not be stubborn and
intransigent when it comes to recognizing a mistake
and rectifying it?" The life of the world is at stake,
it.s time to stop acting as if only an acorn has
fallen.
Daryl Temkin, Ph.D. is the director of the Israel
Education Institute which is devoted to teaching
history and contemporary issues of Israel to Jews and
Non-Jews.
His weekly opinion column, .Pivotal Thought., has been
the interview and discussion topic for various talk
radio and television news commentary programs.
The Pivotal Thought column appears in a number of
newspaper publications as well as on Internet blogs
and E-magazines. It appears weekly in the newspaper
Shalom LA, Israel-Jewish Life and it often appears in
the newspaper, Muslim Today.
Permission is granted to publish the Pivotal Thought
column with appropriate credits. Please infrom the
Israel Institute as to where the column is appearing.
email: daryltemkinphd@...
web: http://Israel-Institute.org
Israel Institute 1227 Smithwood Dr Los Angeles
CA 90035
8. Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin - Jan. 22, 2007
Palestinian street named for Saddam Hussein was paved with USAID money
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Palestinian Media Watch:
p:+972 2 625 4140e: pmw@pmw.org.il
f: +972 2 624 2803w: www.pmw.org.il
After Saddam Hussein's execution, the Palestinian Municipality of Yaabid
decided to name both a school and its main street after the Iraqi
dictator.
It appears that the same street was paved 18 months ago using grants from
USAID.
This is not the first time that US money has gone to build Palestinian
infrastructures that are named to glorify terrorists and enemies of the
US.
Three examples:
1. After the US gave the Jenin municipality money for road works in the
city, a block in the center of Jenin was named for the first Iraqi
suicide
terrorist who killed four American soldiers in Fallujah. The mayor of
Jenin
participated in the anti-American rally and the speakers blessed the
"resistance of the residents of Fallujah" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 4,
2004].
2. USAID funded the building of the Salaf Khalef Sports Center. Salef
Khalef
(Abu Iyad) the head of the Black September terror organization, was
behind
the killing of two US diplomats in Sudan and the 11 Israeli Olympic
athletes. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May, 30, 2004]
3. USAID funded renovations of the Dalal Mughrabi School named in honor
of
Dalal Mughrabi and her terror group, who killed American photographer
Gail
Rubin and 36 Israelis. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 14, 2004]
The following is the article on the naming of Saddam Hussein Street:
"In the Yaabid Municipality. thousands of citizens held a requiem for the
soul of Saddam in the mosque. Following that, a march began in the
streets
of the municipality, that ended at the offices of the Yaabid
Municipality,
where a mourners' tent was opened in his memory. Public figures and the
[Armed] Factions in Yaabid decided to name one of the schools in the
municipality and its most important street after Saddam to immortalize
his
memory and to emphasize the values of Arabness and Jihad, which he
represented."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, January 4, 2007]
The following is from the PMW archives on the USAID funding:
"The Yaabid Municipality in the Jenin area held a ceremony yesterday for
the
inauguration of a project of the paving of the main street of the
municipality, funded by the United Stated Agency for International
Development (USAID). The project of paving and renovating the main
entrance
to the municipality and some of the inner streets is three kilometers
long
and cost $402,000."
[Al-Ayyam, July 14, 2005]
9. Lawless Law in Israel
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467790364&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
