This week, I-Fest, the 60th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel is being commemorated by the Jewish student group, Anteaters for Israel, Hillel and the Jewish Student Union.
The tone of the celebration is upbeat, featuring food, music, belly dancing, a Shabbat dinner and nightclub event. The theme of the week is "Peace, Love, Israel". I witnessed the start of the festivities today, which featured free hamburgers and two belly dancers.
On a more serious note, David Horowitz will appear on campus May 13th. His topic will be: Campus Support for a New Holocaust. I plan to attend, and will report on the event. It will be interesting to see if Horowitz's freedom of speech is respected.
But there will be a skunk at the garden party. The Muslim Student Union is bringing in radical former DePaul University professor, Norman Finklestein to speak against Israel. Then, the following week, all the skunks will arrive, again courtesy of the MSU. As every quarter, radical Oakland Imam, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, will slink onto campus to spew his anti-Semitic venom, talk about destroying Israel and glorify suicide bombers as "heroes". He will be joined by another radical "religious" figure, Mohammed Al-Asi, who will insult Israel, Israelis and Jews in general. Other leftist professors will join in to tell listeners what an evil country Israel is. It is the same show every quarter from the MSU.
What I hope will be noted by the various audiences at UCI is the happy, upbeat tone of the I-Fest compared with the hate that will be expressed the following week by the MSU and their speakers.
Of course, the administration of the university will hide under their desks, "support freedom of speech", and insist that there is no place for hate speech at UCI-a real contradiction. Chancellor Michael Drake recently told a meeting of Hillel in Washington DC that "there was no room for hate speech at UCI"-even as it happens every quarter. The Dean of Student Affairs, Manuel Gomez, as is his wont, will reject all criticism of MSU speakers as the unfounded allegations of outside groups. (I am not part of an outside group-I have taught part-time at UCI for 10 years. I've seen it. I've heard it. I know what I am talking about.) And the rest of the faculty, with a handful of exceptions, will remain silent-either out of fear, apathy or sympathy with the enemies of Israel.
It should be an interesting two weeks.
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