Jerry Gordon, who writes The Iconoclast in the New English Review, has made the connection between the brutal murder of the Italian International Solidarity Movement activist in Gaza and the senselessness of the Olive Tree Initiative, which sends University of California students into the West Bank to "dialogue" with figures on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
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"AP and The Jerusalem Post reported the abduction and execution by Al Qaeda Salafist extremists of 36 year old International Solidarity Movement (ISM) Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni.
Roger Simon on Pajama Media’s blog, The Tattler noted in a post, “Headless in Gaza” the consequences of Arrigoni’s death vis a vis the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) at U.C. Irvine and other UCAL system colleges and universities. Simon noted this in his blog post.
It’s hard to know what to say about this breaking AP story from Gaza – Hamas: Body of Kidnapped Activist Found:
The body of an Italian pro-Palestinian activist abducted a few hours earlier by Islamic extremists has been found hanged in a Gaza City house after a clash between Hamas police and the abductors, Hamas officials said in the early hours of Friday morning.
The officials said Hamas police stormed an apartment in Gaza City belonging to a member of the extremist group that released a video of the activist. Hamas police said they found the man dead after he was hanged. Security officials added that two men were arrested and others were being sought in the killing.
The International Solidarity Movement had identified the kidnapped activist as Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, a member [of that group] from Italy. An Italian doctor was on his way from Israel to examine the body, a Hamas official said. His abduction was first kidnapping of a foreigner since Hamas overran Gaza in 2007. In the past, all foreign kidnap victims in Gaza had been released unharmed.
The ISM, I should remind readers, is the “activist” (what a reactionary term “activist” is – only the MSM could coin it) group that sponsored the trip by UC Irvine students on which they were told to lie about their meeting with a Hamas leader. The politically unconscious souls who arranged that tour should be thankful one of the UCI students wasn’t kidnapped.
BTW, according to the JPost, poor naive Arrigoni was kidnapped by a group of Salafists allied with Al Qaida.
The abduction and execution of hapless Italian ISM advocate Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza illustrates the dangers of misguided liberals, academics and Jewish communal leaders in Orange County, California and elsewhere in the US who believe that dialoging with the enemy will hone your skills in combating hate. As illustrated in the Arrigoni case, it will make you dead. His shaved head bearded Salafist abductors had their kafir to kill, regardless of whether he was pro-Palestinian or not. The U.C.Irvine Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) disclosures of dalliance with Hamas operatives on the West Bank during a 2009 trip should have been a wakeup call. The FOIA disclosures should have brought the benighted OTI programs at U.C.Irvine to a screeching halt and the snapping shut of purses of major Jewish donors to the Rose Project that funded those OTI trips. Instead it has resulted in accusations against the messengers. Could l’affaires Arrigoni be repeated on any upcoming OTI trips in 2011, with the kidnapping and imprisonment of hapless Jewish students by the perpetrators of Sgt. Galid Shalit’s episode? Quite possibly. Witness the solidarity meeting of OTI aficionados from several UCAL system campuses last weekend at UCLA. L’affaires Arrigoni should jar these feckless tours orchestrated by left liberals in academia and J Street sympathizers in Jewish communal organizations. Alas, it will not.
This raises the prospect of real danger to students who go on these misguided trips to dialogue with Jihadi enemies of the Jewish State of Israel, a matter of concern that we had raised in a recent Iconoclast blog post, “It’s Security Stupid: Stop the Olive Tree Initiative Programs in the U.Cal System, Now!” We noted:
The bottom line is that OTI has to stop because of basic security concerns that no self respecting university administrator would permit; putting students in harm’s way. It is not about "censorship of views," as the multiculturalists would opine. It is about common sense protection of life and limb.
Multiculturalism and diversity of opinion encounters cannot put university students and the U.Cal system at risk of their possible wrongful death. No court in California, or elsewhere in America, would give any standing to waivers signed by students in the event of a wrongful death action filed by the parents against an U.Cal institution that sponsored an OTI trip in the Palestinian Territories fraught with physical peril, especially if the trip included meetings with terrorists (however spontaneous or casual the meeting appeared to be).
Given L’affaires Arrigoni in Gaza, it is time for the U.C. Irvine and UCAL system chancellors to take action and stop the OTI programs. Perhaps that action will also cause Jewish communities in Orange County and elsewhere to ask their respective Federations to take the Pledge to bar such dangerous programs putting their children at risk and defaming Israel in the process."
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I have to concur. I have tried to keep an open mind about this Olive Tree Initiative. Yet, with the disclosures of so many of the figures involved, the connections with the ISM, the recent revelation that students met with a top Hamas figure on the West Bank, and the recent slaughter of a family of 5 in Itamar, prudence if nothing else dictates that this program should be discontinued. Gordon is right. This is a lawyer's dream if, God forbid, one of our students gets kidnapped or killed over there on one of these trips. In addition, the question begs; who the Hell do you want to dialogue with, for Christ's sake? It is time for sensible adults to wake up and smell the facts. This is not about bringing peace to the Middle East. This is not about money. This is not about one day receiving the Nobel Peace Prize or even some dopey award from that feckless Orange County Human Relations Commission (which has already recognized the OTI). This is not even about who gets indoctrinated any more. This is about exposing our college kids to very real danger.
To continue to do so in the face of all this savagery and barbarism that is going on in Gaza and the West Bank is beyond asinine. It would border on criminal negligence.
I challenge anyone to explain to me how this could not happen to a UC student participating in the Olive Tree Initiative.
* American Embassy Jerusalem travel advisory on Israel, Gaza and West Bank
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_922.html
12 comments:
Wow, this man's body isn't even cold yet and you're already using his murder to try and score cheap political points. Way to keep it classy.
Talk about Johnny on the spot. It is classy. This is about preventing the next Vittorio Arrigoni from being a UC student. You didn't take my challenge. Can you give me an explantion how this can't happen on a OTI trip?
For one I don't recall the children going to Gaza, working with any activist groups, and upon actually talking to school officials about the trip, I believe the OTI trip coordinates with Israel the entire time.
They don't talk to activist groups? No, they don't go to Gaza, they go to the West bank. Itamar is in the West Bank. Can Israeli officials guarantee their security in the West Bank?
What is the policy of the US embassy as to its employees and/or dependents going to the West bank?
A very well written piece! It does not take a genius to realize that a threat assessment of the OTI ventures are, at this point, dangerous. Will the major players supporting the OTI change their minds? The answer is no. The major players do not have the testicular tissue to admit they are worng, so the dangerous trips will continue. That is it, in a "nut-shell" (pun intended".
Squid
Gary, ask the US embassy. USAid and US officials work daily in the West Bank. The region is dangerous, yes, but you are making a wild jump in associating a radical Islamist sect in Gaza to mainstream life in the West Bank.
Not pretending it is dangerous, is of course, wrong, but students and community are both aware. As you are also probably aware, the UC system sponsors study abroad programs to Egypt, Egypt which is in the middle of a cluster****. Why no outrage at this system?
One of the major problems OTI has is that they were caught telling the students to lie about their trip to hear the Hamas spokesman in the West Bank trip. This was disclosed recently by a FOIA request that turned up a 2009 letter from the Federation Director and Rose Co-Chairmen to the UCI Chancellor.
Now the question has to be raised about what other lies they are telling. What other trips to hear what other speakers haven't been disclosed?
It may very well be that the students who went on the later trips are just better liars or secret keepers than the students that went on the 2009 trip.
Once the credibility is lost on such a dangerous situation like this one, it can't be restored. No amount of assurances would be enough to overcome this crucial lie, hidden these last several years, to make anyone comfortable about any future OTI trip.
If the Muslims want to fund it and go on it, fine! It is just another one of their propaganda efforts. There are plenty of Israel sponsored trips that the Jewish students can go on to get the Israeli side of the issues. If the philanthropists want to donate to that it would be great but it seems, by their refusal to cut ties with OTI, that the WANT the students to hear the Palestinian narrative ... regardless of the danger to them, regardless of the worldwide criticism of them, and regardless of the diminishing support for the Federation in the OC Jewish community. They don't represent their Jewish constituency, only their J-Street agenda.
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emigrated to Cali in 1950's as a very little kid, leaving behind close family members in England. As a young adult in the early 1980's temporarily returned to England and saw how the IRA fought for their freedom. Some of my close family members will never fully recover form the IRA's fight for justice and freedom in English pubs or department stores.
The IRA was and is still sanctioned by Ireland's favorite hero Gerry Adams who heads Ireland's popular political party, Sinn Fein. anytime a political group resorts to civil violence against innocents, it is evil and should be pushed away from human decency. The OTI may have peaceful intentions but it is corrupted by its association with leaders who approve of death and destruction as a form of persuasion
Anonymous, I just re-read your post and your comment, " I believe the OTI trip coordinates with Israel the entire time."
The fact of the matter is that this was an "unscheduled" trip arranged by a UCI Professor ( the one in charge of OTI I presume) and two graduate students. The Israeli government did not know about it. Further, the students were told to lie about it to keep it hidden. It seems the original intention to lie was also to keep the same "unscheduled" trips a future option.
Lies and conspiracies to lie makes all future statements untrustworthy.
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@Miggie You are a loon.
Name and profile of Duwaik was published, publicly, and the university notified. I compel you to end your blood libel against and do something worthwhile. How many students from the trip have you talked to? How many school officials? Around 0? Go figure.
Also Gary, under your logic, going to Israel PERIOD is unsafe and not OK, even for Birthright - rocket attacks on the south and the bombing in Jerusalem, for example.
No one is asking you to donate to OTI, and we don't need your approval to raise funds, doing quite well a-matter-of-fact. Does that just boil your blood?
"Does that just boil your blood?"
Not exactly. What boils my blood is those damn Cubs.
As for your claim about publishing the Duwaik name, it seems the first written mention I see of Duwaik by OTI is the 2010 pamphlet OTI put out called Expressions-Impressions, in which he is listed on the itinerary report. (Nothing said about his affiliation with Hamas, of course.) This was only after the Oct 2009 letter from the Jewish Federation to UCI complaining about the fact that OTI had met with a top Hamas rep in West Bank. It would appear that the Fed learned of the Duwaik matter not from any OTI paperwork rather by being told by certain students about it. Eventually, it took a Freedom of Information request to the university to bring it to light because the Fed apparently didn't clue in the community as to what they had learned.
If you wanna go and save the world by talking to those folks, go ahead. As long as others are paying the expenses by being sold a bill of goods, they have a right to know how their money is being spent. What I am saying is that after Itamar and what happened to Arrigoni, anyone involved in sending more OTI trips over there is going to have to answer many, many questions if, God forbid, a student gets kidnapped or killed over there.
Don't forget to click a few ads before you sign off, OK?
PS: Miggie is not a loon. Hopefully, when you are a little older, you will know half as much as he does. I say that because I know him personally.
This makes about as much sense as blaming Sarah Palin for the shooting of Rep. Giffords in Arizona. Take a step back and look at your chain of circumstances:
Salafists associated with al Qaeda, obviously sworn enemies of Hamas (an important rift which any competent military strategist would take note of), kidnap and kill an Italian in Gaza to support the Palestinian cause (which he obviously didn't understand in any very precise, focused way).
And so this idiot who has appropriated the name "Iconoclast" for himself -- probably without understanding the origin of the word -- draws a connection to students travelling to the middle east to talk to various people of various viewpoints?
OTI doesn't send people to work in Gaza. It sends people to talk in relatively safe venues and then go home. Of course there is some risk to almost any decision in life. Mountain climbers also die.
This is a case of a man with a point of view stringing together several events to paint a picture pleasing to his original point of view, rather than analyzing data in any meaningful way.
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