UCLA is the home of something called the Center for Near East Studies, which consists of a bunch of Israel-haters masquerading as academics. It features such luminaries as James (Dr. Doom) Gelvin and Gabriel (Huggy Boy) Piterberg. Gabe is a well-known figure around campus since there are alerts for all co-eds to steer clear of the "Kissing professor". But I digress.
Gelvin (in foreground)
In April, CNES held yet another conference dedicated to bashing Israel. My friend and colleague, Eric Golub, attended and wrote a report for Algemeiner and Campus Watch. The conference made history for coining a new term to describe the Arab inability to beat Israel at war. Instead of Nakba (catastrophe), it is Naksa (setback). That is to describe what happened when the Arab world initiated a war with Israel in 1967 (with nakbarian consequences for them).
Piterberg: The warm afterglow
"Good news, mein Fuehrer. It's only a setback."
(I wonder what they'll call the 1973 failure to defeat Israel.)
Honestly, don't these people get tired putting on these same old conferences about Israel? It must be to justify their existence. The Center for Near East Studies is a true nakba for UCLA. This conference was obviously just the latest, er, naksa.
June Chu, the Yale University dean of residential Pierson College who got caught making a series of comments trashing white people on social media, has been placed "on leave" by the university.
When the story first hit in May, I wrote this about it. I have not changed my opinion.
Of course, I don't know the difference between being suspended and placed on leave, but if Yale is appointing a new dean, that means she is gone from the position.
Below is an article by me that was published today in the Times of Israel Blogs.It concerns the lawsuit filed against San Francisco State University by the Lawfare Project on behalf of Jewish students.
A couple of weeks ago, our favorite Cold Warrior, Maxine Waters, got testy with a reporter named Michael Tracey who pressed her on why she is so upset about the Russians. Then, when the reporter brought up President Obama's cooperation with the Russkies, Maxine brushed his arm away and stormed off calling him an Obama-hater..
This is the template of what needs to be done across the nation. Enough is enough. Too many universities have coddled pro-Palestinian students who have engaged in a campaign of intimidation and harassment against Jewish students in the name of promoting the Palestinian cause. San Francisico State University is arguably the worst university in the nation in that the president, Les Wong, has actively voiced his support for the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in spite of their history of expressing support for the murder of Israelis.
Other universities should be put on notice. If you don't confront the anti-semitism on your campus and deal effectively with incidents of disruption by groups like GUPS, Students for Justice in Palestine and Muslim Student Association chapters, you will face a lawsuit. That will result not only in financial loss, but the loss of Jewish students and your national reputation.
I fully support this action. It is time for Jewish students to stand up and speak out. It cannot be done without you.
(Lest it be overlooked)
Another, albeit small, terrorist attack took place today on the Champs L'Eysees in Paris. A 31-year-old man known to police as a "radical" crashed his car into a police van, whereupon it exploded and El Bad Guy burned to death. No cops or by-standers were hurt.
"Collomb said said (sic) he will present a bill on Wednesday at a Cabinet meeting to extend the state of emergency from July 15, its current expiration date, until Nov. 1. He added that Monday's incident showed that a new security law "is needed" in France and the measure would "maintain a high security level" beyond the end of the state of emergency." How about rounding up these known extremists and sending them to Devil's Island?
A (Turkish) new mega mosque has opened in Cologne, and sure enough, the mayor of Cologne, Henriete Reker, Germany's version of Nancy Pelosi, was there to give an incomprehensible speech with some astounding assertions. Lost in the prattle was the fact that this was the city that saw the 2016 New Years grope fest outside the train station and next to the iconic Dom cathedral, a scene so out of control that the police could not break through the rioters to save their women from hundreds of sexual assaults.
And most astounding of all, the mayor said "Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of dissent."
The Finsbury Park Mosque in London has been linked to radicalism for several years. Last night as worshipers emerged from the mosque, a van drove through several of them, killing one and injuring several others. A man reportedly got out of the van and began stabbing people before he was subdued by police. He reportedly screamed, "I'm going to kill all Muslims."
This is unfortunate and must be condemned. It is not the way to combat terrorism.
Update: Fox News (Shepherd Smith) reported today that since 2003, Finsbury Park Mosque has done much to reverse its radical reputation.
Al Quds is the Arabic word for Jerusalem. Al Quds Day celebrations are dedicated to the proposition that Jerusalem belongs to Muslims based on a fable that the Prophet Mohammad flew on a winged horse to "the farthest mosque" (Jerusalem), from where he ascended to heaven for a cup of tea with the previous prophets. Accordingly, these celebrations are typically marked by wild ideas and plenty of hate towards Israel. Such was the case Sunday in London. Now they are even blaming this past week's horrific apartment house fire on-you guessed it- the Zionists.
The only thing missing from this extravaganza was Maxine Waters telling the mobs to "Stay woke". Of course, Maxine would have probably taken the wrong plane and wound up in Korea.
It seem the US Government (at least under President Obama) is not the only one that hires questionable Muslim figures to sensitive government posts (e.g. Mohamed Elibiary to DHS). Now there is a controversy in Australia where the military gave an advisory role to an imam accused of making controversial statements as well as supporting the supremacist organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
In the above video, Senator Cory Bernardi questions the defense minister Marise Payne as to how she can support the appointment of Sheikh Mohamadu Nawaz Saleem. Her answer?
Today I attended a presentation on Islamophobia by Masih Fouladi, CAIR (Los Angeles) advocacy manager. The speech was held at the Irvine Ranch Water District Community Room and was sponsored by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. (Oh, the irony.) The scheduled speaker had been CAIR Southern California director Hussam Ayloush, but he had another engagement. The speech was entitled, "Fighting Islamophobia in 2017". There were about 30 people in the room almost all older members of the AUSCS. It was a mostly progressive audience. Fouladi stated that he had no objections to my videotaping, so the presentation and q and a is on tape (below).
Fouladi spoke for about 15 minutes on activities that CAIR is involved in since the new administration took office. His tone was that there was much concern over the Trump administration due to issues like the travel ban. He described how CAIR tries to join with other minority groups. He then took questions from the audience. Though Fouladi had a sympathetic audience, he did get a couple of critical questions from some including myself. I asked him for his definition of Islamophobia (hate, fear, irrational fear, etc) and whether he would consider religious minorities in the Muslim world (Christians, Yazidis, Baha'i) who are being persecuted as Islamophobes. I thought his response to the latter part was wandering and evasive.
He was asked by one woman to address the problem of anti-semitism at UC Irvine. Here again, he was evasive and tried to steer the issue to Muslims being harassed. (He is a UCI grad himself.) . His questioner had mentioned the 2010 Michael Oren (Israeli ambassador) disruption at UCI, and Fouladi mischaracterized it by referring to "a couple" of students who had spoken out ("exercising their free speech rights"). He characterized the subsequent trial as an injustice. He said nothing about the free speech rights of Ambassador Oren. He also stated that the (UCI) administration had given more support to the Jewish students as opposed to the Muslim students (false).
I followed up with that be telling the audience that I was a former UCI teacher, had attended so many of the events in question and that there had been a lot of rhetoric that crossed the line from criticism of Israel to anti-Jewish rhetoric. As examples I mentioned Mohamed al Asi and Amir Abdel Malik Ali. Fouladi resorted back to his tap dance insisting that CAIR would not tolerate anti-semitic speech. One thing he repeated several times was that Muslims cannot be expected to respond every time a Muslim says or does something objectionable. A lady sitting in front of me turned and thanked me for the question.
As usual, Fouladi threw out that verse from the Koran (5:32) that says killing one person is as if killing the world. The full verse is never used because it reveals that it was directed to the Jews. The following verse (5:33) gives the instances when killing someone (in Islam) is perfectly justified. Gates of Vienna has a good piece on Sura 5 verses 32 and 33 of the Koran.
I also found it interesting that this particular organization would sponsor this particular event. Were they not aware that Islamic doctrine believes there should not be a wall between religion and the state? Were they not aware of Islam as a political ideology? Or are they too concerned with keeping "wacko Christians" under control (to use a term one of the audience members used)? I could have asked questions all afternoon, but I was glad to get two swipes at the apple as it was. All in all, Fouladi gave his audience a lot of mis-information.
At any rate, the full event is available on video below. It lasts about an hour.
Karen Lugo has an article in American Greatness on how the Justice Department has been putting pressure on communities not to fight the construction of new mosques in their neighborhoods no matter what the problems resulting in terms of traffic and late night noise.
Born 1945 in Los Angeles. Worked from 1998-2016 as adjunct teacher at University of California at Irvine Ext. teaching English as a second language.
Served three years in US Army Military Police at Erlangen, Germany 1966-68.
1970-1973- Criminal Investigator with US Customs
1973-1995 Criminal investigator with Drug Enforcement Administration. Stationed in Los Angeles, Bangkok, Milan, Italy, Pittsburgh and Office of Training, FBI Academy, Quantico, Va. until retirement.
Author of Erlangen-An American's History of a German Town-University Press of America 2005,
The Story of Papiamentu- A Study in Slavery and Language, University Press of America, 2002, and
The Languages of the Former Soviet Republics-Their History and Development, University Press of America, 2000.
