Yes, folks, the circus is back. The Muslim Student Union, now re-instated, but still on probation, is hosting another anti-Israel hate week May 9-12 at UC-Irvine. Next week, perhaps mindful of their suspension, the MSU is bringing in a rather weak line-up, many of whom are themselves Jewish (sort of). Believe it or not, there will be no Amir Abdel Malik Ali and no Normie Finkelstein. Here is the schedule.
The theme for year's extravaganza is: "Palestine-The Invisible Nation" (I guess that's because there has never been a nation called "Palestine".)
On May 5 at 8 pm (this week), the Students For Justice in Palestine are dragging in former State Department diplomat Edward Peck was an opponent of the Iraq war and more recently was on board that "Freedom Flotilla" when it was raided by the Israeli Navy. He thinks Hizbollah is not a terrorist organization. I guess he never heard of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon. Now Peck has "graduated" from the State Department to Students for Justice in Palestine.
Next week it's on to the main event as they say in the circus. On Monday at noon and then at 8 pm, the featured speaker is Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a fringe cleric from a fringe Jewish sect called Neturei Karta. These clowns believe that Israel should not exist. More specifically, this charming speaker attended the 2001 Durban Conference on Racism, which was a show-trial against Israel. In 2006, he attended Iran's Holocaust inquiry that tried to paint the Holocaust as a hoax. Worst of all, this clown is a big fan of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom he insists, is a nice guy and not anti-Semitic.
On Tuesday at noon, we have retread Alison Weir, an American activist who made a film called "If Americans Only Knew." Since then, she has been riding that "wave" and will no doubt give pretty much the same lecture she gave last year. She will do an encore performance at 2 probably to show her film for the 1,000th time.
Tuesday evening, we have a couple of guys named Amir Mertaban, a young MSA type, and Mohamad Ahmad. Which Mohamad Ahmad, you ask? God only knows.
On Wednesday, it's Israeli anti-Israel activist Matan Cohen, who was at UCI just a weeks ago. He is involved with Jewish Voice for Peace and Anarchists Against the Wall. A few years ago, Isralei soldiers shot out his eye. To this day, it's the greatest thing he has ever done. More recently, he was involved in the JVP disruption of Bibi Netanyahu's speech in New Orleans. He is an arrogant young twit who told us at UCI that people who support Israel have no right to be heard because it is all "useless discourse". Sounds like a Trotskyite to me. He will also speak at 2 pm on Boycot, Sanctions and Divestment.
At 8 pm, same date will be another retread from last year, Hedy Epstein, a misguided lady in her 80s, who left Germany as a young girl in the 1930s and lost her family in the Holocaust. She is an activist for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and she apparently has no clue that the Palestinians she supports want to kill the Israelis.
On May 12, we have Iraqi war vet Michael Prysner. He became not only anti-war upon his return to America, but anti-capitalist and anti-America as well. He is a young Ramsey Clark in the making who recently ran against Allen West and Ron Klein in the last Florida congressional race. His party? The Party of Socialism and Liberation.
At 8 pm on Thursday, we will once again be treated to the presence of UC Beserkeley
Hatem Bazian
3 comments:
Apparently the suspension did tone down MSA's behavior, which is for now within the bounds of free speech over matters on which others may differ.
None of these speakers sound particularly inspiring to me. I've spent a good part of the last week reading some of the best and most insightful reporting from the Middle East from 1948-1955, and this mess of off-the-cuff opinionation doesn't measure up.
The circus is also coming back to UC San Diego. For what it's worth, I just noticed this fawning description of Hamas on the UCSD SJP chapter's website:
"Hamas (the Movement of Islamic Resistance) was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian intifada along religious-nationalist ideological lines. A vast social organization, Hamas provides schools, medical care, and day care for a number of Palestinians who otherwise live difficult lives. Hamas also has a militia established to fight Israeli troops in the occupied territories, and has turned out to be a counterweight to Fatah, given its long record of opposition to the Oslo Accords and its clean record as far as domestic corruption in governance was concerned. Democratically elected, Hamas officials have often stated that they are ready for a long-term truce with Israel during which time final status negotiations can occur."
http://www.sjpucsd.org/general-background-information.html
The page seems to forget that Hamas and/or its "milita" is (quite rightly!) officially classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and every other Western country on the planet.
I'm starting to feel bad for the naive and uninformed students of UCSD, as SJP's propaganda becomes more and more a part of their "education."
"Hamas provides schools, medical care, and day care for a number of Palestinians who otherwise live difficult lives."
This, for better or for worse, is a fact. Most armed organizations that really have any staying power do the same. Until someone does better at providing schools, medical care and day care for Palestinians who live difficult lives, or builds an economic life that makes such things unnecessary to most of them, Hamas will be a player, no matter who chooses to label them "terrorist." Many of the elected leaders of Israel were dubbed "terrorists" by the British administration at one time.
The Algerians dubbed "terrorists" by the French were the invaluable go-betweens who got the hostages out of Tehran for the U.S. Ian Paisley found that if Gerry Adams could take a seat in Parliament, he wasn't such a bad terrorist after all.
Hamas aren't my idea of heroes, but they are players, because they do have a base of support. More thinking needs to go into how to dry up that support, rather than how to condemn them every time they are mentioned.
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