Hat tip to Students for Academic Freedom
Sara Dogan, writing for Frontpage Magazine (and Students for Academic Freedom) has written an excellent piece about what Jewish students who support Israel have to put up with at Hampshire College in Massachusetts
http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/letters/2830/hampshire-college-anti-semitism
Hampshire College has the "distnction" of being the first US university to adopt the anti-Israel "Boycot, Divest and Sanctions" policy directed at firms doing business with Israel. It is also where a young Israeli pro-Palestinian activist named Matan Cohen studies. Cohen is involved with an organization called Anarchists Against the Wall. And make no mistake. Cohen is an anarchist. He participated in the disruption of a speech by Bibi Netanyahu in New Orleans along with the crazies of Jewish Voice for Peace in 2010. He has appeared at UC Irvine twice in the past year and has stated that people who support Israel should have no right to speak. On both his appearances at UCI, I have called him on the arrogance of anyone coming to this country and telling us who does and does not have the right to speak. I also questioned him on the sparseness of his resume, which basically consists of being a student and anarchist.
Cohen (R) at UC Irvine. Yours truly on left.
Surprising that Cohen is not mentioned in the article. He must have been on vacation when the incidents occurred. Even anarchists need a break now and then.
And how about that professor at Hampshire, some character named Sayres Rudy? How professional is that when a professor joins students in shouting down a speaker? It tells you a lot about what what we have teaching our youth, doesn't it?
YEAH!
It sounds like Matan Cohen is what we used to call a "Professional Student".
ReplyDeleteHe will never graduate, never look for work, never move out of Mommy's basement. In fact he will never grow up either.
Anarchists of the world, disperse! You have nothing to lost but your platform!
ReplyDeleteThis is laughable--a pathetic attempt at simplifying and degenerating a passionate, hardworking Israeli man.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteWho are you talking about-Cohen or Rudy?
Making fun of others does nothing but ruin the legitimacy of an argument. Please try to approach this in a way that shows maturity.
ReplyDeletehahaha can't stop laughing ..I am not Arab nor Israeli, but I know who the crazy Bullies are .. the Ones in F 18s and Tanks throwing white Phosphor bombs on defenceless Families and killing more than a thousand people plus about 10,000 injured!!!
ReplyDeleteYou know absolutely nothing about Hampshire Students, Matan, or the "official move of Hampshire to divest".
ReplyDeleteGo ask some students, or Sayers himself and other professors before you write such nonsense.
If you spent more than five minutes asking Cohen why he does what he does, this petty rant would make you feel embarrassed. As for the comment about his being a "professional student" he's probably already made a bigger impact on the world than you ever will.
ReplyDeleteZawba
ReplyDeleteI am posting your comment because it makes my argument about the hatred toward Jews coming from the pro-Palestinian side. Your "name" matches your comment.
Grace,
ReplyDeleteSave your pious lectures, please. When people act as dopey as those idiots at Hampshire College, they deserve all the derision they get. Professors who lead students in disrupting speeches deserve all the derision I can muster.
To the Anonymous, who suggested I spend 5 minutes talking to Matan Cohen, you clearly did not read the article or look at the picture. I have dealt with him twice at UCI and on the latter occasion (picture)I spoke with him 10-15 minutes, one -on-one. I will say one thing in his defense. As an Israeli Jew, he does have the courage of his convictions. He speaks out and puts his own body on the line. That is more than I can say for some Jews, who proclaim their support for Israel while working behind the scenes with her enemies.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, Cohen has more courage than those who comment anonymously on blogs and spew hate.
Cohen's chief intellectual weakness is that he would decide who has or doesn't have the right of free speech without being shouted down.
One day this great man, Matan Cohen, will look back on what he has done and said and stood for with pride, and those who oppose him and fight against human rights, equality, and freedom for all human beings, will disappear into anonymity, pretending that they always stood by his side and agreed with him...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty good. You should write his biography. Maybe you could have a picture of Matan on a horse with his arm pointing to a brighter future.
I just love to watch the fight for human rights, freedom and equality that Cohen's fellow Israel-haters engage in in the ME. One day, if Israel is overrun by the Arab world, you will see the same sort of human rights, freedom and equality that has characterized the ME since time began.
"This great man"....Matan is a student and anarchist by his own words. There is nothing else on his resume nor will there ever be.
PS: Anonymous,
ReplyDeletePlease explain to me how this great man, Matan Cohen, stands for freedom, human rights and equality when he makes statements in public (in my presence) that those who speak in favor of "the Zionist state" should have no right to speak without being disrupted or be able to walk comfortably on a college campus.
An.
ReplyDeleteStop it. BDS is part of the ISM strategy of deligitimizing Israel in the face of the world. The goal is the eventual disappearnce of the Jewish state. All the while, it ignores Palestinian terrorism, shooting of rockets into Israel from gaza etc. I suggest you call for a boycott of Gaza and PA until they stop shooting rockets into Israel,and depicting Jews as apes and pigs respectively. Where was your outrage at the massacre of the Fogel family including an infant in its crib? I heard nothing from the BDS folks on that. Where were the college demonstrations protesting that act of horror?
When your side continues to hold Israel to standards you don't demand from its neighbors and enemies, then I must conclude there is an anti-Jewish element here.