The hypocrisy runs amok. These elite universities are showing their true bias and hatred while protecting the privileged groups promoting hate and violence.
The big picture here....one that has been hidden away in 'Progressivism's' back cupboard for decades now....is that our universities are stuffed full of people (both 'students' and 'professors') who - in a saner culture - should have no place in an institution of higher learning at all.
The universities are held hostage by the tenured faculty and the nuts that control and perpetuate the much abused tenure privilege. DEI and tenure are like drug dealers and spoiled brat addicts.
Affirmative action starting in the 70's, began the slow, insidious rot of higher education. A college degree in the wrong major is absolutely worthless now. DEI is just a metastasis of the original affirmative action programs.
You can be opposed to what's going on in Gaza without screaming Death to America and Kill all the Zionists. You can be opposed to the Gaza War without commandeering university buildings and preventing anyone who won't repeat your loyalty oath from attending their classes. Have you seen what happened to the Portland State library? This isn't a contest of ideas or a political debate; it's a rampage of the barbarians.
"you can be opposed to something just don't take any action that will actually have any consequences or might lead to the changes you want". Also, what you (and this article) fail to mention is the extreme violence committed against the protestors. You're crying over damage to a library, but fail to mention a person ran their car into anti-Zionist protestors.
Babette, you are an antisemitic loon and you are the first person I have ever blocked on substack. I refuse to pretend that listening to people who hate Jews is of any value.
Brian, if there is a way to block people on Substack, please tell me how to do it! I know that I can block people from my own Substack, but how do I block people when posting comments on other Substacks? The loons like Babette are just to intolerable to bear.
Some people are so biased on this topic that it’s like talking to a wall. But it’s sad some people resort to name-calling when they have run out of answers. I agree with you and believe that protesting is a sacred right and one of the few ways to get any meaningful change in our present very money-controlled society. Raising your hand and saying “Please sir, stop the genocide” isn’t doing anything. Being against what’s happening in Gaza doesn’t make you antisemitic or pro-Hamas, just simply anti-genocide. Of course, we’re American, we’re always right. Even now, when the ICJ and ICC and the majority of the world disagrees with us, most of the commenters never stop and think “Could I be wrong this time?”
First, they aren’t children. They are adults protesting and damaging. If they don’t like what the university represents, then as a student don’t attend and go elsewhere. Most of these protesters don’t even know what they are protesting, but chanting the verbiage of the day. Many aren’t even students, but paid activists being used to create problems and destroy western values. Useful idiots.
1) Never called the protestors children, I was referring to the Palestinians (whom the students are protesting for). 2) They are asking for divestment because they believe it is wrong, leaving the school would not lead to the result the protestors want, so why would they do that? 3) They very obviously know what they want: divestment. 4) the idea that many aren't even students and they are paid is a giant hoax and conspiracy theory. We do know for sure the violent counter protestors have been not students and also have been the ones being paid. The protestors are heroes!
The Universities have had these peaceful protestors arrested by heavily armed police officers. You want to be a victim so badly it's embarrassing. The violence at UCLA was started by non student Zionists and yet the students who were asking for their tuition money not to be used on an ongoing genocide were the ones who were violently arrested.
There were lots of places where protestors behaved in the Ghandi / MLK school of civil disobedience:
"Do you want to leave or be arrested?"
"I'm not leaving, arrest me"
"OK"
There were also places that followed the Malcom X school of protest:
"Do you want to leave or be arrested?"
"F-you, pig! ACAB! Kill all the Zionists" (throws large brick at cop)
-----
If you refuse to leave an area of private property, you are trespassing. When you throw things at the cops who are trying to kick you out, you are assaulting a police officer. Actions have consequences.
It's not about their cause or their politics. I imagine you would feel differently if a bunch of violent MAGA protestors were occupying your living room.
Thank you Abigail for speaking truth in it's unvarnished glory in the face of the blatant hypocrisy of so many elite American university presidents. Their nearly uniformly tepid response to the hateful, antisemitic thuggery and harrassment aimed at students on campus who don't support the cause of the protestors is disturbing. As an alum of one of those universities mentioned, I am deeply disappointed in my university's president and administration offering to reward this behavior with scholarships and special faculty appointments. Please continue to bring your journalistic capabilities, honesty and courage - along with your legal training to call out such hypocrisy. And thank you for your two excellent books!
Zionists want to be victims so badly it's embarrassing. The whole system (the schools, government, the arms dealers) are all behind you. And yet you still think you are in the minority. Insane victim complex that will always baffle me.
Babette, I'm not saying that what Netanyahu is doing is right -- it certainly isn't, and I personally believe he should be tried for genocide -- but don't you recognize that Hamas started it all (at least in this round of hostilities) and that Hamas may care even less for the Palestinians than Israel does? Hamas knew Israel would react, and they knew that Gazans would die, yet they set this situation in motion. My point is, you can't rationally blame Israel without also blaming Hamas.
I do not blame Hamas. I don't believe the thousands of children who have been killed by the IDF soldiers blame Hamas. The guns and the bombs have been in Israel's hands, they are leveling the entire Gazan strip and ending hundreds of bloodlines and have been refusing any ceasefire. They don't want the hostages, they want an ethnostate.
"I do not blame Hamas." Yes, that's the problem, Babette. You can't lay the blame where it belongs: on the genocidal, militant, Muslim Brotherhood affiliated, political party / gang that was elected to lead Gaza 18 years ago and still retains support of 70%+ of the Gaza population.
We get it, you are upset not enough Jews died on October 7th and thereafter. It isn't for lack of trying by hamas and their supporting nations and factions. As for ethnostate, Israel has 2 million Israeli Arab citizens and they don't leave, their lives are good. Most of the Arab states ethnic cleansed themselves of Jews by making their lives so miserable they fled to Israel as soon as it was established. hamas ethnic cleansed Gaza of Jews in 2007. How many synagogues in Gaza? None. How many mosques in Israel? Dozens if not hundreds. Up your meds Babette and go back to reading Mein Kampf.
That's what happens when you use hospitals and universities as weapon storage depots, military staging areas, and missile launching sites. All the fault of hamas, and a war crime committed by hamas to turn what should be safe civilian areas into military targets.
The October 7 attack has succeeded beyond Hamas’s dreams. It was done entirely to provoke a response, the only possible response being dead Palestinians. And by choosing to hide behind the civilian population (as is their wont) Hamas deliberately maximised civilian casualties. As a PR exercise I doubt the world has ever seen anything quite so effective.
What people like you don’t get is that they - Islamic terrorists - play by fundamentally different rules. For a true believer in a heaven with virgins on tap, loss of this life is irrelevant. As far as Hamas is concerned all they’ve done is expedite the Muslim casualties’ journey to a better place. In return the infidel has damned himself, possibly irreparably, in the eyes of a very gullible world. A big win.
If you don't recognize that Hamas started the present conflict, then you don't know what "cause and effect" is. And if you are finding some reason to excuse Hamas for what they did on Oct. 7th, then you are an inhuman monster, just like they are.
Give me a break. It's all about the semantics and the optics. Tens of thousands of men, women and children in Palestine slaughtered mercilessly. Every single university completely destroyed. Every hospital destroyed. Their entire country obliterated in mere days.
But I guess there are zero Palestinian innocents. We have proof and its Hamas. Forget that so many of these terrorists organizations are intelligence constructs in the first place.
People are protesting what they have always protested--the slaughter of an entire peoples for imperialistic reasons. Anyone who disagrees or who calls out the imperialistic brute force is an anti-semite. You could set a clock to the propaganda campaign that started just two weeks ago when the obvious brutality struck a chord with too many people and hit a tipping point. We can't have that, can we? It's Israel or...or nothing! You either take the pro-Zionist side or you are the problem. So cue the Soros connection, the bombardment of footage carefully selected to anger the right such as defacement of a WW2 statue and trash laden quads after the police full court press. I sure would have liked to have seen even a single instance of that shut down during the Floyd riots where up to 50 people where actually murdered by rioters in June 2020.
Censorship is selective. Propaganda is relentless and well-coordinated. Where have I seen that before?
"All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
"this line which many have sought to claim is inauthentic comes from herman goering, former president of the reichstag, in an interview with gustave gilbert during his war crimes trial in nuremberg.
the full quote is all the more chilling in its entitlement, utter lack of ethics, and seemingly blasé presumption that power justifies power. you just “drag the people along.”
AL, you sound like an antisemite to me, and I'm not even Jewish -- and you too, Kevan Hudson. Comparing the numbers slaughtered doesn't win any arguments. Hamas attacked first, and that puts them more in the wrong. However, I also dislike Netanyahu. He is a war criminal and I think he needs to be prosecuted as such.
I've never understood antisemitism. I grew up with Jews and had many Jewish friends, more Jewish friends than from any other group. I am, in fact, a Zionist, and proudly so. The Jews have been treated so badly over the centuries that they deserve anything that the world chooses to give them; and if that includes a return to their ancient homeland, then I support it.
How did antisemitism get started? Can anyone explain it to me? It all seems to stem from the historical story about Jesus, something which I don't even believe happened. Someone once told me that the Jews killed Jesus, but I couldn't find any confirmation for that.
Insofar as the current situation is concerned, Hamas started it and Netanyahu is over-reacting. They are both in the wrong. What Hamas did on October 7th still horrifies me. To kill people in the way they did is more monstrous than killing people from the sky, although that's very bad also. As for the modern state of Israel, I remember reading that Palestinians were against Israel from the beginning in 1948. I believe in reincarnation and karma. If the Palestinians had simply accepted the state of Israel from the get-go, the situation would be very different today.
When I look at the demonstrators on the college campuses, and I see girls wearing hijabs, I want to throw up.
Your own blatant racism and total lack of understanding of any of the historical background to the current situation or even the present actions are reflected in the poor quality of your arguments.
Okay, Lynne. Correct me. Tell me what I said wrong. The truth is, most of my life I paid no attention to this situation. To me it was just people filled with hate doing their thing. So you may be right. But tell me what the truth is.
Read Illan Pappe, Norman Finkelstein, Max Blumenthal, Gideon Levy, Mike Pelod or check their interviews and podcasts on YouTube. All Jewish, some Israelis, all academics, writers and/or journalists, all experts on the Israel/Palestine situation.
Oh stop it Perry. She gave you a complete and substantive answer to YOUR request but it’s obvious you don’t want answers. You’ve been played in the worst way and you’re calling people anti-Semites which is exactly the corner you’ve backed yourself into. In other words, you’ve drank the kool aid but think you’ve come up with this perspective on your own. Talk about being sucked in by fast talkers!
Do you hear your bigoted willful ignorance? you do not even know or bother to look up who those are we recommend for more details, people who have made films, written books, and there are 1000s she has only mentioned a few writers and film makers. Last year the movie about Tantura was released, Israeli producers and directors.
1 - There is a deep history to the situation long before 'Oct 7th'. Israelis have been systematically murdering and displacing Palestinians for decades - in huge numbers.
2 - If the Jewish people deserve land because of their poor treatment for centuries why give it in Palestine where they were not treated badly? Why not in Germany?
3 - Hijabs is a form of clothing and pejorative use of such to describe a people points to racism. The Israeli government describes Palestinians as 'human animals'.
4- The university protests were almost entirely peaceful AND NOT calling for genocide of Jews. Many of the protests are led by Jewish students. They are calling for divestment from companies supplying Israel the means to commit genocide
You've got plenty of "facts" in your comment that are not actually facts. You are an antisemite.
If the Palestinian population had welcomed Israel in 1948, then Israel's treatment of Palestinians would probably have been much better for the last 75 years.
Palestine is the homeland of the Jews. Their religion has deep roots in that place.
Hijabs are a form of oppression used by Muslim men against women. For a woman to adopt one voluntarily speaks volumes about her. I have noticed that women in Muslim countries want to rid themselves of it, while American women wear their hajibs tightly, showing no hair. I can't respect a person who internalizes her oppression.
I've been watching the news too, and there is plenty of antisemitism in those university protests.
People forget that 68% of the Jews in Israel are from tbe Middle East and Sub Saharan African countries. These people are in their honeland as they were kicked out of theMiddle Eastern countries they did call home , including "Palestine"! Every single ceasefire in the Israeli-Arab wats has been broken by Arabs, and yet it is the Israelis that are the warmongers. The antisemitism acrosx the world staggers me. After WW2, all countries said never again to such a slaughter of Jews abd yet, Arab countries are allowed to bomb Israel with impunity and Israel is meant to simply sit back and take it. Ehat an injust world we live in. Some people on here need to examine their oersonal morals befire c
Palestinians are Semites as are Jews originating in that region, not the Europeans so your base assertion is meaningless.
You have been drinking too much kool aid and Zionist propaganda and reading too few scholars to display any nuanced understanding of what happened when the Jewish people were 'granted' by the imperial British a right to Palestinians homeland. Why should they accept such a deal as to have foreigners from Europe and elsewhere come and live on the lands they had lived on, cultivated and developed over centuries?. None of that religious historical entitlement nonsense please!
If you have been watching the mainstream news you are swallowing bucketloads of propaganda.
Yeah, I have done with arguing with people who endorse genocide and land grabs! It is too sad and ugly. I am over and out of this frankly horrible substance. Sickening!
That’s all propaganda but you speak of it like it’s real. You’re stuck in the matrix. Being anti-Zionist, ie anti- ruling class mafia is also standing up for the Jews, who the Zionists have used as pawns since the beginning. It’s how they pit us against each other.
Perry, stop calling people with valid opinions (those not formed by years of watching Hollywood movies) names and using tired old tropes to shame people. You’ve fed right into their hands.
There’s plenty of antisemitism in those protests? I have not read ONE article that even touches on the idea that these protests are “pro-Palestinian” or “anti-slaughter.” All of a sudden EVERY protest has been labeled “anti-Israel” or “anti-Semitic.” That’s when you know you’re being played and controlled.
> There is a deep history to the situation long before 'Oct 7th'. Israelis have been systematically murdering and displacing Palestinians for decades - in huge numbers.
Arabs have periodically attacked Israel, originally by conventional military means, later via terrorism. Each time they come out the worse in the resulting war and lose land in the process.
Hamas attacked first, Hamas attacked first! All of this just now started on Oct 7th 2023! The poor Israelis were just going about their business completely peacefully since the partition of Palestine! That’s literally the only argument that can be made to twist this into something that’s ok.
But there’s a gaping hole in that argument. If Oct 7th can be pulled from the historical context of a larger conflict then what’s stopping us from doing the same with Oct 8-today? Forget about what happened on October 7th, that was BEFORE! That doesn’t count. Only what happens after counts by that logic. Israel has just killed thousands of children! Now we have the god-given right, no - duty, to enact our revenge and kill all of THEIR children! Do you see where this leads? You’re endorsing an eye for an eye but the problem is what one side has lots quite a few more eyes in this slow-motion shitshow. With the exception of about 150M people who have fallen for this bs, literally everyone on the planet sees the hole in this logic. Israel is committing suicide before our very eyes! America is crumbling. Europe is further gone. How much longer can we prop up Israel? Shouldn’t someone realize that this is not just a losing argument but also so morally repugnant to the rest of the world that no one will lift a finger to stop the retribution when it comes? This is madness. No deus ex machina will save us from this folly, and it’s because people have twisted their hearts into thinking that there is a valid excuse for killing children. Reality check people - there isn’t and there never will be. To believe this is to reap the whirlwind. I pray every day that this is not the fate of Israel or anyone, no matter what atrocities have been committed. The cycle must stop somehow. Please help it to stop by not repeating this ridiculous argument.
Huxley said that there is no more delectable moral treat than to mistreat someone in the name of a righteous cause. Don’t fall for it.
> Hamas attacked first, Hamas attacked first! All of this just now started on Oct 7th 2023!
Ok, let's talk about the various Palestinian terrorist attacks and intifadas before that date. Or how about the Arab attempts to exterminate the Israelis in 1948, 1967, and 1973?
Ok, so how did so many Arabs get to be outside Arabia? Oh, that's right "settler-colonialism". But Arabs are "Brown" and these things are only evil when "Whites" do them.
Those always followed other atrocities and massacres by the Zionist invaders, killers, rapists, and thieves. Obviously, you only read Zionist history books. Why do you think there are so so many Jews Against Zionism? which, BTW, was a group began around 1916
why do you think there are no Jews Against Zionism? WHy do you not learn to use a search engine? Why did you not recognize one of the names Lynne gave you? why do you need to give bogus deflecting remarks on posts that are educational that, if you were smart enough and not so smug in your arrogance, you might learn to use a good search engine with the proper key words.
Your unfiltered display of bigotry here, are not shielded by your virtue signaling. I agree with Lynne, your remarks clearly are racist, and I am very cautious in using that label. Hamas did not start anything on the 7th, read the timeline leading up to this. Of course you won't, I know that.
Yikes, Sandi -- You are divorced from reality! It doesn't matter what has happened before between Israel and Gaza, the attack on Oct. 7th was so vicious that it stands on its own as a monstrous act that defines the character of the terrorists and of their movement. People who have even the slightest bit of wisdom know that violence begets violence. That vicious attack was guaranteed to invite a disproportionate response from Israel. The Hamas terrorists care nothing about the Gazan civilians. They knew that huge numbers of civilians would die. You are out of touch with reality, and your values are BADLY SKEWED. Now, it's time for you to put your hajib back on and go back to your tent city.
Who knows who started that? You only know what the US media reports. DO you realize how dumb that sounds? Oct. 7 was a set up--you can never sell me the idea that the Big Palestinian Idea was one day of bombing that they didn't have the ability to repeat even a second day. The concept alone is ridiculous. It was a staged massacred, like 9/11, to get people like you up in arms.
Now you are just talking nonsense. You remind me of my downstairs neighbor who fancies himself to have special insight into every situation, and who believes in multiple conspiracy theories. He is a diabetic with blood-sugar numbers in the danger zone, and yet he rejects the advice of his doctors.
"Oct. 7 was a set up--you can never sell me the idea that the Big Palestinian Idea was one day of bombing that they didn't have the ability to repeat even a second day."
I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means to put on a "staged massacre, the purpose of which is to inflame people". Hamas' feelings about Israel are well known. October 7th was an orgasm of hate.
The fact that replies on this feed actually endorse, justify and excuse sadistic brutal violent acts carried out by Iran (aka Hamas) on 10/7/23 is inconceivable. Does anything EVER justify the premeditated burning of babies alive? What kind of twisted logic is that. It’s like having compassion and defending a pedophile who violently brutalized children. These type of responses expose a deep societal current of moral decay and genuine ignorance. Case in point, pro-Hamas protests on privileged, rich elite well funded safe college campuses.
Nobody is justifying anything--rather, explaining how the masses are manipulated by the people in power who pit Jews and Palestinians and everyone else against one another in their pursuits to exert more power and control. The same forces responsible for the fake pandemic and the poisonous vax, which sweet Bibi was more than happy to force upon every Israeli. WAKE the hell up.
College students are protesting the slaughter of ten of thousands of Palestinians. Period. Just like they protested Vietnam and other social causes throughout history where innocents are dying. You are justifying mass murder because you believe "Hamas" fired rockets on Oct. 7. Be careful what you believe and wake the hell up.
They've got you where they want you, Tina. Nowhere in reality.
In simple terms, Israelis are not safe until Palestinians are safe, and they have not been safe from violent Zionism since 1947. Bibi' fascist rule has not made life safer for Jews. This is not a hard concept to grasp.
And ... Gazans are not safe from Hamas. That is the part of the equation that you didn't mention. Hamas knew that thousands of Gazans would die as a result of their attack. You are an extremist of the worst kind.
Al, war is ugly and insidious. There is NO pc in war. It is always about power. When you start a war leaders should count the cost to their people in advance. It is called a battle plan. The impact. The consequences. They plan offense to protect their citizens. Hamas did none of this. They left THEIR Gazan citizens vulnerable and unprotected. Encouraged the use of homes of everyday Gazans to traffic Israeli and American hostages through the network. Used citizens to inact kidnapping and barbarism. Built tunnels under their citizens as decoys. Yes, October 7th was about power. Derailing the Abraham Accord. Yes, I am sure Israel is not historically perfect. No country is. The wars between Arab countries and Israel go back hundreds of year. Yet, what occurred on 10/7/23 was butchery. It was wrong. The videos circulated by Hamas cannot be gaslighted. The prime party using this assault for power and control has been Iran. Every nation has a right to defend itself. What do you expect Israel to do about attacks from Hamas, Houthis and Hezbollah? I am deeply sad for “some” of the innocent Gazans but those complicit in the butchery I am not.
As for your comment about Vietnam, how American citizens treated our soldiers who returned from that war was despicable. Traumatizing. Demoralizing. Many who were involuntarily drafted or truly desired to protect freedom and their country became political targets. College Protestors again were mislead and naive in many accounts. Unleashed horrible accusations on tired, abused and beat down US citizens. Did not really know the full story but what media told them. Privileged college students, rich kids who dodged the draft and avoided going to war. Kinda like college protestors who don’t know the Quran, have never been to Gaza and are not knowledgeable about Sharia Law. Freedom and non-violence are not part of their language when it comes to infidels.
We actually have some agreement (Hamas attacked on October 7th and both they and Netanyahu are terrible), and then I am called Anti-Semitic based on what evidence? I decline to pick a side? I am neither a Zionist, or a terrorist supporter (Hamas)?
You are entitled to your free speech but name calling means I stop listening. Wish you the best.
I am using the numbers as a comparison to the protests in North America. We are pretty safe here whether Pro Israel or Pro Palestine. For Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East life is not safe.
I guess I should have offered an apology, which I'll offer now. However, as someone who seems to know a lot about things, please tell me why the world has hated Jews for 2000 years. I've never understood.
As an international human rights activist I see the consequences of hate based on race, ethnicity, religion, politics, sex or region. Often politicians and religious leaders stoke it up for reasons of control, money and power. Same with the gender ideology nonsense.
On the hopeful side we should look at the work of Darryl Davis getting KKK members to leave the organization including higher up members. After living in Asia for 15 years I saw far less racism at the tail end of my time. Lastly, I never thought East Timor would be free from Indonesia. But now it is the independent state of Timor Leste.
Ok, Perry, I'll play. You "sound" like a complete, self-serving idiot who buys the propaganda as fast as they can sell it.
For the record, I am pro-Jew, pro-Palestinian and pro-human. I am tired of being manipulated and watching, as usual, tens or hundreds of thousands of people die by the hand of the ruling class mafia. Vaccines were their thing too. Inflation is their thing. Wake up Perry! Stop thinking via Spielberg movies. You are believing story they are creating.
Okay, I have already told you that I'm not into movies. If you are pro-Jew, you are disguising that pretty well. That you use terms of like "ruling class mafia" shows that you believe in conspiracy theories to a certain extent, although I fully agree that the rich and corporate interests are trying their best to manipulate economies worldwide. As I keep saying, I get my news from the mainstream media, as non-mainstream sources aren't well known enough to be trusted. Most sources that I trust, like the PBS News Hour, have shown that they are unbiased. Also, if you are an anti-vaccer, then your opinions can't be trusted, as anti-vaccers subscribe to conspiracy theories. Saying you are an anti-vaccer is akin to being a Trump supporter or being pro-transgender ideology. It shows you are NOT a logical person. I've been getting vaccines all my life and have never been harmed by one. Yes, vaccines once came with a little mercury in them, but I believe that has been changed.
> Also, if you are an anti-vaccer, then your opinions can't be trusted, as anti-vaccers subscribe to conspiracy theories. Saying you are an anti-vaccer is akin to being a Trump supporter or being pro-transgender ideology.
You know what, screw it. You and AL deserve each other.
Hahaha! Clearly, you have been harmed by vaccines. Sounds like you have had one too many boosters too.
"Saying you are an anti-vaccer is akin to being a Trump supporter or being pro-transgender ideology." Right--Trump takes credit for OWS and still touts the vaxxes as "miracles." So, by your logic, YOU must be a Trump lover! And now I'm a transgender loving fool because I have an opinion about the latest "war?"
All the screaming about the university protests yet how many have died?
Meanwhile, in Israel - Palestine we have 1,200 Israelis killed on October 7th and hundreds of hostages. And on the Palestinian side 35,000 dead and counting.
Many on the left and right are only for free speech when it is their free speech. I would laugh at all the hysteria in North America but then I think of the Middle East - not a laughing matter.
It almost seems like Oct. 7 was a set up. Like 9/11 and WMD…
And the killing of Israelis is not a counter-argument—it is part of the problem. The Zionist regime will sacrifice as many Jews and other Israelis as it takes to garner international sympathy and destruction of the Arab state. Zionists are no friends to the Jews. They sold them down the river with the mandated poison injections already. Even the Israeli Jews hate Netanyahu and what is happening.
Seems you might be the bearer of fakery and false conspiracy theories and much bogus propaganda. European Jews hated Palestinian Arab Moslems and Christians for one reason, because they were the original peoples of Palestine, a place UK imperialist decided to finally give to Jews to solve their little Jewish European problem. Call it the final solution for the West's own antisemitism. But these new European arrivals also treated Jewish Arabs with distain. I suggest reading Naiem Giladi's writings.
No the original Zionist plan, more than a century old, was to create a Jewish state in all of Palestine. In 1947 the Zionists temporarily agreed to 56%, and then proceeded to take 78% in the 1948 war. Zionism never planned for a “multi-ethnic” state, but wound up with one because of its inability or failure to expel all the Palestinians in 48 and 67.
lol wake up. These are the same people behind 9/11, every single war we’ve started in the false name of something else, mockingbird media and covid/culling injections just to name a few.
Let’s not forget the “multi-ethnic” plan displaced the people of an entire region by dictatorial decision and has been land grabbing and killing those people ever since.
Since it is now well known even in MSM that Israel created Hamas to undermine Arafat and PLO, the signing of the treaties that would have stopped the theft of the lands, AL's remarks are not exactly hallucination. Where were WMDs found in Iraq and why was Iraq deemed involved in 9/11? Norman Finkelstein is very wise on this issue and this moment. We are lucky he is still around to lead protests, as well as the millions of Jews Against Zionism around the world.
Funny. I'm a non-Jew who supports Zionism. Because of the bad way Jews have been treated for 2,000 years, I believe the world owes it to them to give them back their homeland.
Supporting Zionism is not supporting Jews. You are conflating the two. Zionists don’t give a fig about the Jews. They’ve just used the plight of the Jews— in fact they created it- solely for purposes of manipulation.
Zionists are the nameless,, faceless rulers who control the media, military and intelligence agencies who convince you to hate Jews, or Palestinians, or Blacks or Whites, and on and on. Blame anyone, just don't look behind the curtain.
Get your head out of your ass, Abe. You are living in the matrix, believing all the lies you are told, and fed the pre-selected media bytes to convince you. Hamas is an intelligence construct so that doesn't even make sense. You are so caught up in their game, you can't see anything but what they want you to see.
My view is not the NYT view--you are correct. I don't buy government propaganda. At least I try not to.
You are forced to hate someone. Hate the Jews, hate the Palestinians, hate the Blacks, hate the Whites--hate as much as you can even to the point of murder! As long as you never look behind the curtain.
Thanks for the death wishes though! Always come to that from people like you (idiots). For the record, I am pro-Jew, pro-Palestinian, pro-human, but that doesn't work for you, does it? You've been told to take a side and dammit, you're going to follow orders!
hamas is fighting for the right to continue killing innocents in mass terror attacks - israel is fighting to prevent same....if you are unable to distinguish who is coming to get you from who is fighting to keep you safe, you are going to need someone to say prayers over your beheaded, raped arse
Occupy Wall Street, BLM, Antifa, Gender Ideology "Free Palistine", what next? It all seems to be the same thing: Oppressor v. Oppressed religion. When asked to stand back, faculty make the peace sign the way Christians once made the sign of the cross, hold their ground, and are shocked by arrest. They say they are "protecting" students. But they are encouraging students to break the law and demand to have no consequences. Real Civil Disobedience entails readiness for arrest. Such faculty should not be retained. And, the students should be expelled. It would be good for them to have consequences.
Truth teller. The hypocrisy is deafening and destroying young adults… Reform won’t fix these indoctrination centers. I was at my daughter’s graduation at Barnard in 2017 and was so disgusted that I threw up slightly in my mouth… my biggest regret in life has been giving tuition money to this evil place. It has to be gutted and newly created
Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and Armenia is a Christian country
Let's see
Congressman Henry Cuellar a Democrat -has been indicted for accepting Azerbaijan Muslim bribes $600000 while Muslims were ethically cleaning over 120000 Armenian Christians
According to the
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) 2024 Annual Report.
“Surprise! They don’t believe in either.” 💯 Admin is there to see Business gets done and play to the incentive structure and whatever virtue is en vogue. Rigorous search for Truth is increasingly not it, sadly. Each campus president that bends to ‘protected classes’ and law-breaking protestors suffers the destabilizing illogic of applied postmodernism. The queering of all norms and deconstructing of all Western meta-narratives supplants and then cleverly colonizes students’ minds under the new dogma and orthodoxy of critical pedagogy and social justice.
Moral certainty over Truth. Conformity instead of Free speech and Free thought. Business of many universities today is to keep selling the most expensive paper (diplomas) on the planet and role play social justice while the media and donors want it. We must change the incentives.
I read this in the Free Press and just finished it a second time now. This article gets at the heart of what's happening on college campuses. We're not just seeing rabidly antisemitic student thugs cosplaying as jihadists. We're seeing sympathetic and enabling administrators and professors. It's not students versus authority; it's students and authority versus western values (as exemplified by the success of America and Israel).
Well...that "there are at least two sets of rules governing elite universities today" is not news to any conservative who attends one of these schools, or any of the many other leftist universities in America (as I do). There are definitely two standards. Unfortunately, leftists are happy to cozy up to any group, including antisemites, who they believe further the cause. They get freedom of speech. Those who do not serve the cause, like conservatives generally or in this case those who support Israel (as I do) get harassment and intimidation. To all the left-leaning pro-Israel folks out there, welcome to the club.
And what is that cause? One protest leader said it clearly: “There’s only one solution, intifada revolution. We must have a revolution so we can have a socialist reconstruction of the United States of America.” So....climate change, so-called anti-racism, trans politics, and now supporting Hamas are all just part of the bigger picture. Any port in a storm, I guess.
I agree. They've just become more open about the "two sets of rules" recently. They've been there for decades. I went to UC Irvine in the 90's and the unequal treatment of conservatives was already obvious even then.
I have great respect for Abigail’s work. However I think her interpretation of the campus protests is very wrong. She is taking outlier elements and pretending they essentially define what the protests are about. In her view the students are *all* thugs, they *all* are driven by hate, and any concern they claim to have for the suffering Palestinians is just a cloak for antisemitism. Her apparent belief that speech offensive to Jews constitutes violence, whereas the astounding level of violence against the Palestinian civilian population doesn’t seem to rank as all that offensive, is frankly bizarre. But what Israel — with the active support of the US — is doing to Gaza is indeed offensive and the student demands that their universities sever ties with Israel and the war industry which supports it are perfectly appropriate. Just as it was when students in the eighties demanded that their institutions sever ties with apartheid South Africa. Or in the sixties when we demanded an end to the pointless and immoral war in Vietnam. We were right then. It’s no different today. And please note that the protesters today just as back then include many Jewish students.
I didn’t read she’s saying that protestors should not be allowed to say what they are saying about Israel. I read that there is a line between criticism of Israel and screaming things at Jews like “go back to Poland” or chanting Hamas approved slogans. I don’t understand why you can’t criticize Israel, condemn the murder of thousands of Palestinians without being in support of a terror grouping that doesn’t give a shit about its peoples lives. There’s a big distinction there, in my mind at least.
I think the short-sighted “Antisemitic Awareness Act” was a terrible move that will only lead to further degradation of our country. I think people should be able to say whatever they like and criticize whoever they like for any reason. I believe those assholes that defend the confederate flag also have that right. But you should not be able to follow around Jews leaving a synagogue harassing them. You should not be able to bar Jewish students, or students who do not support your views, from entering a building on campus that everyone has access to. You should not be allowed to harass and intimidate, period. Furthermore the universities have their own rules that should be enforced across the board, not just selectively to punish speech they don’t like.
I read this article as being about a general hypocrisy in the way dissidents are treated.
October 7th struck a deep chord within the Jewish community and stoked an old but very active trauma. In this sense we are easy to manipulate into feeling attacked. I wonder very much about what happened that day from behind closed doors. I am deeply affected by the pogrom and yet I still sense there is more to this story. Many Jews are conflicted as I am in this. There are belligerent, humanity denying actors in both camps of this conflict without a doubt. The majority of Jews I know do not want the destruction of Israel and would see the war come to an end. How that happens nobody has an answer for.
With this logic you could apply the “well we don’t really know” to most things. We live in an AI digital realm where many things are not what they seem. However, there is very real antisemitism embedded within this movement and people seem much more casual about it these days. Furthermore, there are videos with apparent pro-Palestinian protestors saying these things to other students and worse. I just find it interesting, and to the point of the article, that when Jewish people point out they are being harassed or having pretty awful epithets thrown their way they are almost immediately disbelieved. If these were black students this wouldn’t even be in question. In fact, the students in question would likely be met with harsh and immediate consequences.
why are you acting like these students (almost all of whom never said anything even remotely negative about Jewish people and a lot of them are Jewish) are not being met with extreme consequences.
Violent Zionist throwing firecrackers into peaceful encampments, violent arrests (including Annelise Orleck a Jewish professor at Dartmouth who was violently thrown to the ground by police), the use of mace, and a person driving their car into them.
Do you think people who just want their universities to stop using their tuition money on something they don't believe in deserve such violence?
Of course I don’t think they deserve violence. Maybe that isn’t obvious though. I agree there are many people that are wishing for outrageous harm to be done to people they don’t agree with (and I don’t mean harm as in words). It’s interesting hearing your words on the matter and I can see the places where we are probably getting different information. I think you are largely correct that *most* students involved have not said anything negative about Jewish people. I think *most *people who protest have good intentions. I also think most of them seem misinformed based on the footage I have seen and the signs themselves. I think most people protesting have seen incredible violence done to the people in Gaza and want something done about it. I can relate to that. I do not think the police coming in to clear out campus encampments that have derailed the end of the semester, left vandalized campus buildings and intimidated other students (whether it was student protestors or outsiders) is in anyway uncouth. I am surprised it was allowed to go on this long, to be honest. Regarding tuition money: if I were a student that paid absurd amounts of money to attend school there and the administration allowed a campus movement to grow so unruly that it actually had to move to virtual classes and suspend regular commencement ceremonies I would be absolutely furious.
Yes I think students of course can petition their schools to divest from causes they don’t believe in, but I do believe there should be reasonable limits in their methodology. And frankly, there are much more effective ways to do this. I find the documents that are floating around detailing methods for vandalization, obfuscation, and intimidation troubling. They include extremely radical notions of a “free Palestine.” And many methods of protest that are illegal. Unfortunately when these elements are introduced to a “protest” it begins to veer into riot territory…which is not a protected right, as you know.
And the masked girl standing with the misspelled (“Qasam”) sign was for sure a plant. Give Abigail some credit though, at least she didn’t go with the stabbed in the eye obvious hoax by that Yale girl.
It’s convenient to label those with unpalatable messages as “plants.” I am not saying we live in a world where funny business doesn’t exist, just that I find it odd that if you were to replace Jews with another favored oppressed group this 100% would not fly.
Have difficulty making sense of your comment. But just to clarify, by “plant” I meant that the “protester” standing alone with a sign hoping for “Qasam” [sic] to bomb the pro-Israel students nearby was clearly a provocateur out to make the pro-Palestinian students look bad. Boy did that photo of her get a lot of airplay! Just what the doctor ordered. You can even find anti-Palestinian groups on twitter openly seeking volunteer instigators.
I don’t doubt what you’re saying at all. It’s an unfortunate but routine strategy to delegitimize a movement. But everyone wants to say that about unsavory elements within a movement. I don’t know how much of anything that’s going on is organic. I believe many of those protesting for Palestine just want the bombardment to stop. I also think many protesting for Palestine are misguided souls that have been taken in by black and white “oppressed/oppressor” dynamics that doesn’t do justice to the actual issues. I think many protesting for Palestine are just agitators who do so because they hate our government and believe themselves to be oppressed. It’s possible I got some of that wrong but it’s my observation.
Do you think some of these bad optics are also coming from extremists who think vandalism and aggression are totally fine options for getting ones way? Ironically the same sort of thing they are protesting.
It is different today. Put in the language of the 60's, it's the difference between protesting the US invasion of Vietnam and declaring your allegiance to the Soviet Union. One of those is legitimate; the other is treason.
These protestors are saying "stop sending money and bombs to Israel", but they also beating up Jews, preventing Jews from attending classes, screaming "go back to Poland". That simple, cold racism. Nothing more. The most damning fact is that many of the students were posting pictures of paragliders on Oct 8th, long before Israel has responded at all. If you're doing that, you're not protesting against deaths in Gaza; you're protesting in favor of deaths in Israel.
This is the lesson of the "mostly peaceful" George Floyd riots: when the violence starts, actual peaceful protesters have 3 options.
1) Walk away and have no part in it.
2) Turn on them and do your part to suppress the violence, so that outsiders don't see your protests as violent.
3) Do neither. You are now complicit in it. The property damage and the blood is on your hands too.
If there is hate-driven thuggery going on, YES, they truly are all thugs, because they're actively supporting and providing cover for it, knowing full-well what they're doing.
Benjamin Netanyahu has accomplished what no human being was capable. He is a miracle worker. He has rehabilitated the reputation of Adolph Hitler. Amazing.
I often think Israel is Hitler's legacy and revenge. The reality is the West was already deeply anti-semitic before Hitler came to power, and rather than give Holocaust victims a piece and place in Europe, UK imperialist had already marked Palestine as the receptacle for Jewish colonists. What we discover is, a flip, the Zionists turning Jews into the abusers and using the locals as scapegoats while they delude themselves that they have religious privileges over the land. Europeans, after all, telling the original occupants who might date back to before Jesus, to scram. Abused become the abusers. Sad.
It should be noted that a great number of Israelis see how they are being used and manipulated and are against all of this, as are many Jewish Americans. But alas, the deep state tentacles are very long and most people buy into the propaganda.
You ARE the Truth Fairy for good reason. Thank you for being an articulating what so many are thinking.
The hypocrisy runs amok. These elite universities are showing their true bias and hatred while protecting the privileged groups promoting hate and violence.
The big picture here....one that has been hidden away in 'Progressivism's' back cupboard for decades now....is that our universities are stuffed full of people (both 'students' and 'professors') who - in a saner culture - should have no place in an institution of higher learning at all.
The universities are held hostage by the tenured faculty and the nuts that control and perpetuate the much abused tenure privilege. DEI and tenure are like drug dealers and spoiled brat addicts.
Affirmative action starting in the 70's, began the slow, insidious rot of higher education. A college degree in the wrong major is absolutely worthless now. DEI is just a metastasis of the original affirmative action programs.
Given what you say here I think you'd find this an interesting read: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/how-diversity-narrows-the-mind
Which was what the universities are upholding by having these protestors violently arrested.
If you think not wanting children to die is progressivism you are insane.
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1787870447805079680
have some empathy.
You can be opposed to what's going on in Gaza without screaming Death to America and Kill all the Zionists. You can be opposed to the Gaza War without commandeering university buildings and preventing anyone who won't repeat your loyalty oath from attending their classes. Have you seen what happened to the Portland State library? This isn't a contest of ideas or a political debate; it's a rampage of the barbarians.
"you can be opposed to something just don't take any action that will actually have any consequences or might lead to the changes you want". Also, what you (and this article) fail to mention is the extreme violence committed against the protestors. You're crying over damage to a library, but fail to mention a person ran their car into anti-Zionist protestors.
https://apnews.com/article/portland-state-protest-car-driver-detained-ad2a16f13a4a2a5986da0f485d33b8be
And what about the Zionists who threw firecrackers and heavy objects at peaceful protestors at UCLA?
https://forward.com/opinion/608479/ucla-violence-campus-protests/
Calling the protests a rampage of barbarians is right in a sense... the violent Zionists are revealing their true colors.
Babette, you are an antisemitic loon and you are the first person I have ever blocked on substack. I refuse to pretend that listening to people who hate Jews is of any value.
Brian, if there is a way to block people on Substack, please tell me how to do it! I know that I can block people from my own Substack, but how do I block people when posting comments on other Substacks? The loons like Babette are just to intolerable to bear.
Some people are so biased on this topic that it’s like talking to a wall. But it’s sad some people resort to name-calling when they have run out of answers. I agree with you and believe that protesting is a sacred right and one of the few ways to get any meaningful change in our present very money-controlled society. Raising your hand and saying “Please sir, stop the genocide” isn’t doing anything. Being against what’s happening in Gaza doesn’t make you antisemitic or pro-Hamas, just simply anti-genocide. Of course, we’re American, we’re always right. Even now, when the ICJ and ICC and the majority of the world disagrees with us, most of the commenters never stop and think “Could I be wrong this time?”
First, they aren’t children. They are adults protesting and damaging. If they don’t like what the university represents, then as a student don’t attend and go elsewhere. Most of these protesters don’t even know what they are protesting, but chanting the verbiage of the day. Many aren’t even students, but paid activists being used to create problems and destroy western values. Useful idiots.
1) Never called the protestors children, I was referring to the Palestinians (whom the students are protesting for). 2) They are asking for divestment because they believe it is wrong, leaving the school would not lead to the result the protestors want, so why would they do that? 3) They very obviously know what they want: divestment. 4) the idea that many aren't even students and they are paid is a giant hoax and conspiracy theory. We do know for sure the violent counter protestors have been not students and also have been the ones being paid. The protestors are heroes!
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/gaza-protests-in-us-israel-supporters-attack-pro-palestinian-camp-in-la-300-protesters-arrested-in-new-york.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/outsiders-columbia-universitys-hamilton-hall-rcna150530
The Universities have had these peaceful protestors arrested by heavily armed police officers. You want to be a victim so badly it's embarrassing. The violence at UCLA was started by non student Zionists and yet the students who were asking for their tuition money not to be used on an ongoing genocide were the ones who were violently arrested.
Violently arrested??? Give me a break.
https://twitter.com/joeyneverjoe/status/1786153234413076743
https://twitter.com/redstreamnet/status/1786027780263567855
There were lots of places where protestors behaved in the Ghandi / MLK school of civil disobedience:
"Do you want to leave or be arrested?"
"I'm not leaving, arrest me"
"OK"
There were also places that followed the Malcom X school of protest:
"Do you want to leave or be arrested?"
"F-you, pig! ACAB! Kill all the Zionists" (throws large brick at cop)
-----
If you refuse to leave an area of private property, you are trespassing. When you throw things at the cops who are trying to kick you out, you are assaulting a police officer. Actions have consequences.
It's not about their cause or their politics. I imagine you would feel differently if a bunch of violent MAGA protestors were occupying your living room.
65 year old Jewish Dartmouth Professor knocked to the ground by police officers, caught on video...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/us/dartmouth-professor-police-protests.html#:~:text=Annelise%20Orleck%2C%20a%20labor%20historian,according%20to%20the%20local%20police.
Like the westboro church version of Jewish
Thank you Abigail for speaking truth in it's unvarnished glory in the face of the blatant hypocrisy of so many elite American university presidents. Their nearly uniformly tepid response to the hateful, antisemitic thuggery and harrassment aimed at students on campus who don't support the cause of the protestors is disturbing. As an alum of one of those universities mentioned, I am deeply disappointed in my university's president and administration offering to reward this behavior with scholarships and special faculty appointments. Please continue to bring your journalistic capabilities, honesty and courage - along with your legal training to call out such hypocrisy. And thank you for your two excellent books!
"tepid response" and its hundreds of arrests.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-06/dozens-detained-at-ucla-early-monday
Zionists want to be victims so badly it's embarrassing. The whole system (the schools, government, the arms dealers) are all behind you. And yet you still think you are in the minority. Insane victim complex that will always baffle me.
No more War on Palestine!
Babette, I'm not saying that what Netanyahu is doing is right -- it certainly isn't, and I personally believe he should be tried for genocide -- but don't you recognize that Hamas started it all (at least in this round of hostilities) and that Hamas may care even less for the Palestinians than Israel does? Hamas knew Israel would react, and they knew that Gazans would die, yet they set this situation in motion. My point is, you can't rationally blame Israel without also blaming Hamas.
I do not blame Hamas. I don't believe the thousands of children who have been killed by the IDF soldiers blame Hamas. The guns and the bombs have been in Israel's hands, they are leveling the entire Gazan strip and ending hundreds of bloodlines and have been refusing any ceasefire. They don't want the hostages, they want an ethnostate.
"I do not blame Hamas." Yes, that's the problem, Babette. You can't lay the blame where it belongs: on the genocidal, militant, Muslim Brotherhood affiliated, political party / gang that was elected to lead Gaza 18 years ago and still retains support of 70%+ of the Gaza population.
The charter of Hamas from the ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/legal-documents/ACLURM019687.pdf Read it before you praise them.
Yes, what's going on in Gaza is terrible. War is always terrible. You know who is preventing a peace? Hamas. You know who is causing a famine? Hamas.
Yesterday they literally blew up the port where aid was coming into Gaza from Egypt. Previously they have smuggled weapons in on aid convoys.
We get it, you are upset not enough Jews died on October 7th and thereafter. It isn't for lack of trying by hamas and their supporting nations and factions. As for ethnostate, Israel has 2 million Israeli Arab citizens and they don't leave, their lives are good. Most of the Arab states ethnic cleansed themselves of Jews by making their lives so miserable they fled to Israel as soon as it was established. hamas ethnic cleansed Gaza of Jews in 2007. How many synagogues in Gaza? None. How many mosques in Israel? Dozens if not hundreds. Up your meds Babette and go back to reading Mein Kampf.
how many hospitals in Gaza? none. How many universities in Gaza? none. why? because the IDF bombed them all.
That's what happens when you use hospitals and universities as weapon storage depots, military staging areas, and missile launching sites. All the fault of hamas, and a war crime committed by hamas to turn what should be safe civilian areas into military targets.
The October 7 attack has succeeded beyond Hamas’s dreams. It was done entirely to provoke a response, the only possible response being dead Palestinians. And by choosing to hide behind the civilian population (as is their wont) Hamas deliberately maximised civilian casualties. As a PR exercise I doubt the world has ever seen anything quite so effective.
What people like you don’t get is that they - Islamic terrorists - play by fundamentally different rules. For a true believer in a heaven with virgins on tap, loss of this life is irrelevant. As far as Hamas is concerned all they’ve done is expedite the Muslim casualties’ journey to a better place. In return the infidel has damned himself, possibly irreparably, in the eyes of a very gullible world. A big win.
Sorry to hear that you're not a rational person. Hamas is ending those bloodlines, not just Netanyahu.
so when an IDF officer shoots a baby in the head it was Hamas who did it? Ok yes I'm the irrational one.
https://twitter.com/BekirDeveli/status/1787905730059604202
If you don't recognize that Hamas started the present conflict, then you don't know what "cause and effect" is. And if you are finding some reason to excuse Hamas for what they did on Oct. 7th, then you are an inhuman monster, just like they are.
No more Islmaic Jihad
Give me a break. It's all about the semantics and the optics. Tens of thousands of men, women and children in Palestine slaughtered mercilessly. Every single university completely destroyed. Every hospital destroyed. Their entire country obliterated in mere days.
But I guess there are zero Palestinian innocents. We have proof and its Hamas. Forget that so many of these terrorists organizations are intelligence constructs in the first place.
People are protesting what they have always protested--the slaughter of an entire peoples for imperialistic reasons. Anyone who disagrees or who calls out the imperialistic brute force is an anti-semite. You could set a clock to the propaganda campaign that started just two weeks ago when the obvious brutality struck a chord with too many people and hit a tipping point. We can't have that, can we? It's Israel or...or nothing! You either take the pro-Zionist side or you are the problem. So cue the Soros connection, the bombardment of footage carefully selected to anger the right such as defacement of a WW2 statue and trash laden quads after the police full court press. I sure would have liked to have seen even a single instance of that shut down during the Floyd riots where up to 50 people where actually murdered by rioters in June 2020.
Censorship is selective. Propaganda is relentless and well-coordinated. Where have I seen that before?
From: https://substack.com/home/post/p-144082414
"All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
"this line which many have sought to claim is inauthentic comes from herman goering, former president of the reichstag, in an interview with gustave gilbert during his war crimes trial in nuremberg.
the full quote is all the more chilling in its entitlement, utter lack of ethics, and seemingly blasé presumption that power justifies power. you just “drag the people along.”
AL, you sound like an antisemite to me, and I'm not even Jewish -- and you too, Kevan Hudson. Comparing the numbers slaughtered doesn't win any arguments. Hamas attacked first, and that puts them more in the wrong. However, I also dislike Netanyahu. He is a war criminal and I think he needs to be prosecuted as such.
I've never understood antisemitism. I grew up with Jews and had many Jewish friends, more Jewish friends than from any other group. I am, in fact, a Zionist, and proudly so. The Jews have been treated so badly over the centuries that they deserve anything that the world chooses to give them; and if that includes a return to their ancient homeland, then I support it.
How did antisemitism get started? Can anyone explain it to me? It all seems to stem from the historical story about Jesus, something which I don't even believe happened. Someone once told me that the Jews killed Jesus, but I couldn't find any confirmation for that.
Insofar as the current situation is concerned, Hamas started it and Netanyahu is over-reacting. They are both in the wrong. What Hamas did on October 7th still horrifies me. To kill people in the way they did is more monstrous than killing people from the sky, although that's very bad also. As for the modern state of Israel, I remember reading that Palestinians were against Israel from the beginning in 1948. I believe in reincarnation and karma. If the Palestinians had simply accepted the state of Israel from the get-go, the situation would be very different today.
When I look at the demonstrators on the college campuses, and I see girls wearing hijabs, I want to throw up.
Your own blatant racism and total lack of understanding of any of the historical background to the current situation or even the present actions are reflected in the poor quality of your arguments.
Still waiting to hear from you, Lynne.
Okay, Lynne. Correct me. Tell me what I said wrong. The truth is, most of my life I paid no attention to this situation. To me it was just people filled with hate doing their thing. So you may be right. But tell me what the truth is.
Read Illan Pappe, Norman Finkelstein, Max Blumenthal, Gideon Levy, Mike Pelod or check their interviews and podcasts on YouTube. All Jewish, some Israelis, all academics, writers and/or journalists, all experts on the Israel/Palestine situation.
And yet you can't say anything in your own words. That's generally a sign you've been taken in by fast-talkers.
Oh stop it Perry. She gave you a complete and substantive answer to YOUR request but it’s obvious you don’t want answers. You’ve been played in the worst way and you’re calling people anti-Semites which is exactly the corner you’ve backed yourself into. In other words, you’ve drank the kool aid but think you’ve come up with this perspective on your own. Talk about being sucked in by fast talkers!
Do you hear your bigoted willful ignorance? you do not even know or bother to look up who those are we recommend for more details, people who have made films, written books, and there are 1000s she has only mentioned a few writers and film makers. Last year the movie about Tantura was released, Israeli producers and directors.
1 - There is a deep history to the situation long before 'Oct 7th'. Israelis have been systematically murdering and displacing Palestinians for decades - in huge numbers.
2 - If the Jewish people deserve land because of their poor treatment for centuries why give it in Palestine where they were not treated badly? Why not in Germany?
3 - Hijabs is a form of clothing and pejorative use of such to describe a people points to racism. The Israeli government describes Palestinians as 'human animals'.
4- The university protests were almost entirely peaceful AND NOT calling for genocide of Jews. Many of the protests are led by Jewish students. They are calling for divestment from companies supplying Israel the means to commit genocide
You've got plenty of "facts" in your comment that are not actually facts. You are an antisemite.
If the Palestinian population had welcomed Israel in 1948, then Israel's treatment of Palestinians would probably have been much better for the last 75 years.
Palestine is the homeland of the Jews. Their religion has deep roots in that place.
Hijabs are a form of oppression used by Muslim men against women. For a woman to adopt one voluntarily speaks volumes about her. I have noticed that women in Muslim countries want to rid themselves of it, while American women wear their hajibs tightly, showing no hair. I can't respect a person who internalizes her oppression.
I've been watching the news too, and there is plenty of antisemitism in those university protests.
People forget that 68% of the Jews in Israel are from tbe Middle East and Sub Saharan African countries. These people are in their honeland as they were kicked out of theMiddle Eastern countries they did call home , including "Palestine"! Every single ceasefire in the Israeli-Arab wats has been broken by Arabs, and yet it is the Israelis that are the warmongers. The antisemitism acrosx the world staggers me. After WW2, all countries said never again to such a slaughter of Jews abd yet, Arab countries are allowed to bomb Israel with impunity and Israel is meant to simply sit back and take it. Ehat an injust world we live in. Some people on here need to examine their oersonal morals befire c
Palestinians are Semites as are Jews originating in that region, not the Europeans so your base assertion is meaningless.
You have been drinking too much kool aid and Zionist propaganda and reading too few scholars to display any nuanced understanding of what happened when the Jewish people were 'granted' by the imperial British a right to Palestinians homeland. Why should they accept such a deal as to have foreigners from Europe and elsewhere come and live on the lands they had lived on, cultivated and developed over centuries?. None of that religious historical entitlement nonsense please!
If you have been watching the mainstream news you are swallowing bucketloads of propaganda.
Yeah, I have done with arguing with people who endorse genocide and land grabs! It is too sad and ugly. I am over and out of this frankly horrible substance. Sickening!
That’s all propaganda but you speak of it like it’s real. You’re stuck in the matrix. Being anti-Zionist, ie anti- ruling class mafia is also standing up for the Jews, who the Zionists have used as pawns since the beginning. It’s how they pit us against each other.
Perry, stop calling people with valid opinions (those not formed by years of watching Hollywood movies) names and using tired old tropes to shame people. You’ve fed right into their hands.
There’s plenty of antisemitism in those protests? I have not read ONE article that even touches on the idea that these protests are “pro-Palestinian” or “anti-slaughter.” All of a sudden EVERY protest has been labeled “anti-Israel” or “anti-Semitic.” That’s when you know you’re being played and controlled.
> There is a deep history to the situation long before 'Oct 7th'. Israelis have been systematically murdering and displacing Palestinians for decades - in huge numbers.
Arabs have periodically attacked Israel, originally by conventional military means, later via terrorism. Each time they come out the worse in the resulting war and lose land in the process.
Hamas attacked first, Hamas attacked first! All of this just now started on Oct 7th 2023! The poor Israelis were just going about their business completely peacefully since the partition of Palestine! That’s literally the only argument that can be made to twist this into something that’s ok.
But there’s a gaping hole in that argument. If Oct 7th can be pulled from the historical context of a larger conflict then what’s stopping us from doing the same with Oct 8-today? Forget about what happened on October 7th, that was BEFORE! That doesn’t count. Only what happens after counts by that logic. Israel has just killed thousands of children! Now we have the god-given right, no - duty, to enact our revenge and kill all of THEIR children! Do you see where this leads? You’re endorsing an eye for an eye but the problem is what one side has lots quite a few more eyes in this slow-motion shitshow. With the exception of about 150M people who have fallen for this bs, literally everyone on the planet sees the hole in this logic. Israel is committing suicide before our very eyes! America is crumbling. Europe is further gone. How much longer can we prop up Israel? Shouldn’t someone realize that this is not just a losing argument but also so morally repugnant to the rest of the world that no one will lift a finger to stop the retribution when it comes? This is madness. No deus ex machina will save us from this folly, and it’s because people have twisted their hearts into thinking that there is a valid excuse for killing children. Reality check people - there isn’t and there never will be. To believe this is to reap the whirlwind. I pray every day that this is not the fate of Israel or anyone, no matter what atrocities have been committed. The cycle must stop somehow. Please help it to stop by not repeating this ridiculous argument.
Huxley said that there is no more delectable moral treat than to mistreat someone in the name of a righteous cause. Don’t fall for it.
> Hamas attacked first, Hamas attacked first! All of this just now started on Oct 7th 2023!
Ok, let's talk about the various Palestinian terrorist attacks and intifadas before that date. Or how about the Arab attempts to exterminate the Israelis in 1948, 1967, and 1973?
Boo hoo. Settler-colonialists face resistance... Israel was founded by terrorists, mate. And it has been massacring Palestinians ever since.
> Settler-colonialists
Ok, so how did so many Arabs get to be outside Arabia? Oh, that's right "settler-colonialism". But Arabs are "Brown" and these things are only evil when "Whites" do them.
I have submitted your bizarre comment to the Whataboutery 2024 Awards.
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2024/05/israels-destruction-of-gazas-hospitals.html
Those always followed other atrocities and massacres by the Zionist invaders, killers, rapists, and thieves. Obviously, you only read Zionist history books. Why do you think there are so so many Jews Against Zionism? which, BTW, was a group began around 1916
> Those always followed other atrocities and massacres by the Zionist invaders, killers, rapists, and thieves.
Um, no.
> Why do you think there are so so many Jews Against Zionism? which, BTW, was a group began around 1916
As the saying goes, "two Jews, three opinions".
why do you think there are no Jews Against Zionism? WHy do you not learn to use a search engine? Why did you not recognize one of the names Lynne gave you? why do you need to give bogus deflecting remarks on posts that are educational that, if you were smart enough and not so smug in your arrogance, you might learn to use a good search engine with the proper key words.
Your unfiltered display of bigotry here, are not shielded by your virtue signaling. I agree with Lynne, your remarks clearly are racist, and I am very cautious in using that label. Hamas did not start anything on the 7th, read the timeline leading up to this. Of course you won't, I know that.
Yikes, Sandi -- You are divorced from reality! It doesn't matter what has happened before between Israel and Gaza, the attack on Oct. 7th was so vicious that it stands on its own as a monstrous act that defines the character of the terrorists and of their movement. People who have even the slightest bit of wisdom know that violence begets violence. That vicious attack was guaranteed to invite a disproportionate response from Israel. The Hamas terrorists care nothing about the Gazan civilians. They knew that huge numbers of civilians would die. You are out of touch with reality, and your values are BADLY SKEWED. Now, it's time for you to put your hajib back on and go back to your tent city.
Who knows who started that? You only know what the US media reports. DO you realize how dumb that sounds? Oct. 7 was a set up--you can never sell me the idea that the Big Palestinian Idea was one day of bombing that they didn't have the ability to repeat even a second day. The concept alone is ridiculous. It was a staged massacred, like 9/11, to get people like you up in arms.
Now you are just talking nonsense. You remind me of my downstairs neighbor who fancies himself to have special insight into every situation, and who believes in multiple conspiracy theories. He is a diabetic with blood-sugar numbers in the danger zone, and yet he rejects the advice of his doctors.
"Oct. 7 was a set up--you can never sell me the idea that the Big Palestinian Idea was one day of bombing that they didn't have the ability to repeat even a second day."
I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means to put on a "staged massacre, the purpose of which is to inflame people". Hamas' feelings about Israel are well known. October 7th was an orgasm of hate.
Simpleton. No wonder you think people who live outside of the matrix are "conspiracy theorists."
"I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means to put on a "staged massacre, the purpose of which is to inflame people". "
Exactly, Perry--you do not know--you really do not understand what is happening. That IS the problem.
The fact that replies on this feed actually endorse, justify and excuse sadistic brutal violent acts carried out by Iran (aka Hamas) on 10/7/23 is inconceivable. Does anything EVER justify the premeditated burning of babies alive? What kind of twisted logic is that. It’s like having compassion and defending a pedophile who violently brutalized children. These type of responses expose a deep societal current of moral decay and genuine ignorance. Case in point, pro-Hamas protests on privileged, rich elite well funded safe college campuses.
Nobody is justifying anything--rather, explaining how the masses are manipulated by the people in power who pit Jews and Palestinians and everyone else against one another in their pursuits to exert more power and control. The same forces responsible for the fake pandemic and the poisonous vax, which sweet Bibi was more than happy to force upon every Israeli. WAKE the hell up.
College students are protesting the slaughter of ten of thousands of Palestinians. Period. Just like they protested Vietnam and other social causes throughout history where innocents are dying. You are justifying mass murder because you believe "Hamas" fired rockets on Oct. 7. Be careful what you believe and wake the hell up.
They've got you where they want you, Tina. Nowhere in reality.
> Hamas did not start anything on the 7th
True in the sense that they started it much earlier.
In simple terms, Israelis are not safe until Palestinians are safe, and they have not been safe from violent Zionism since 1947. Bibi' fascist rule has not made life safer for Jews. This is not a hard concept to grasp.
And ... Gazans are not safe from Hamas. That is the part of the equation that you didn't mention. Hamas knew that thousands of Gazans would die as a result of their attack. You are an extremist of the worst kind.
> In simple terms, Israelis are not safe until Palestinians are safe
I believe you have that reversed.
Al, war is ugly and insidious. There is NO pc in war. It is always about power. When you start a war leaders should count the cost to their people in advance. It is called a battle plan. The impact. The consequences. They plan offense to protect their citizens. Hamas did none of this. They left THEIR Gazan citizens vulnerable and unprotected. Encouraged the use of homes of everyday Gazans to traffic Israeli and American hostages through the network. Used citizens to inact kidnapping and barbarism. Built tunnels under their citizens as decoys. Yes, October 7th was about power. Derailing the Abraham Accord. Yes, I am sure Israel is not historically perfect. No country is. The wars between Arab countries and Israel go back hundreds of year. Yet, what occurred on 10/7/23 was butchery. It was wrong. The videos circulated by Hamas cannot be gaslighted. The prime party using this assault for power and control has been Iran. Every nation has a right to defend itself. What do you expect Israel to do about attacks from Hamas, Houthis and Hezbollah? I am deeply sad for “some” of the innocent Gazans but those complicit in the butchery I am not.
As for your comment about Vietnam, how American citizens treated our soldiers who returned from that war was despicable. Traumatizing. Demoralizing. Many who were involuntarily drafted or truly desired to protect freedom and their country became political targets. College Protestors again were mislead and naive in many accounts. Unleashed horrible accusations on tired, abused and beat down US citizens. Did not really know the full story but what media told them. Privileged college students, rich kids who dodged the draft and avoided going to war. Kinda like college protestors who don’t know the Quran, have never been to Gaza and are not knowledgeable about Sharia Law. Freedom and non-violence are not part of their language when it comes to infidels.
> However, I also dislike Netanyahu. He is a war criminal and I think he needs to be prosecuted as such.
Stop trying to meet these idiots half-way by throwing people under the bus. It's not going to work.
Everyone is a Nazi - yeah!
We actually have some agreement (Hamas attacked on October 7th and both they and Netanyahu are terrible), and then I am called Anti-Semitic based on what evidence? I decline to pick a side? I am neither a Zionist, or a terrorist supporter (Hamas)?
You are entitled to your free speech but name calling means I stop listening. Wish you the best.
I took your comparison of the death numbers to be an indication that you side with Hamas, but I can see now that it doesn't necessarily mean that.
Thanks for the clarification.
I am using the numbers as a comparison to the protests in North America. We are pretty safe here whether Pro Israel or Pro Palestine. For Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East life is not safe.
I guess I should have offered an apology, which I'll offer now. However, as someone who seems to know a lot about things, please tell me why the world has hated Jews for 2000 years. I've never understood.
Thanks.
As an international human rights activist I see the consequences of hate based on race, ethnicity, religion, politics, sex or region. Often politicians and religious leaders stoke it up for reasons of control, money and power. Same with the gender ideology nonsense.
On the hopeful side we should look at the work of Darryl Davis getting KKK members to leave the organization including higher up members. After living in Asia for 15 years I saw far less racism at the tail end of my time. Lastly, I never thought East Timor would be free from Indonesia. But now it is the independent state of Timor Leste.
Enjoy your week :)
Ok, Perry, I'll play. You "sound" like a complete, self-serving idiot who buys the propaganda as fast as they can sell it.
For the record, I am pro-Jew, pro-Palestinian and pro-human. I am tired of being manipulated and watching, as usual, tens or hundreds of thousands of people die by the hand of the ruling class mafia. Vaccines were their thing too. Inflation is their thing. Wake up Perry! Stop thinking via Spielberg movies. You are believing story they are creating.
Okay, I have already told you that I'm not into movies. If you are pro-Jew, you are disguising that pretty well. That you use terms of like "ruling class mafia" shows that you believe in conspiracy theories to a certain extent, although I fully agree that the rich and corporate interests are trying their best to manipulate economies worldwide. As I keep saying, I get my news from the mainstream media, as non-mainstream sources aren't well known enough to be trusted. Most sources that I trust, like the PBS News Hour, have shown that they are unbiased. Also, if you are an anti-vaccer, then your opinions can't be trusted, as anti-vaccers subscribe to conspiracy theories. Saying you are an anti-vaccer is akin to being a Trump supporter or being pro-transgender ideology. It shows you are NOT a logical person. I've been getting vaccines all my life and have never been harmed by one. Yes, vaccines once came with a little mercury in them, but I believe that has been changed.
> Also, if you are an anti-vaccer, then your opinions can't be trusted, as anti-vaccers subscribe to conspiracy theories. Saying you are an anti-vaccer is akin to being a Trump supporter or being pro-transgender ideology.
You know what, screw it. You and AL deserve each other.
Oh, are you an anti-vaccer, Eugine? Too bad.
Writing "vaccine" on a bottle of sulfuric acid doesn't magically make it safe to inject.
Hahaha! Clearly, you have been harmed by vaccines. Sounds like you have had one too many boosters too.
"Saying you are an anti-vaccer is akin to being a Trump supporter or being pro-transgender ideology." Right--Trump takes credit for OWS and still touts the vaxxes as "miracles." So, by your logic, YOU must be a Trump lover! And now I'm a transgender loving fool because I have an opinion about the latest "war?"
Look who is anti-Jew: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6luePKr-Ao/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
You are beyond out of touch.
All the screaming about the university protests yet how many have died?
Meanwhile, in Israel - Palestine we have 1,200 Israelis killed on October 7th and hundreds of hostages. And on the Palestinian side 35,000 dead and counting.
Many on the left and right are only for free speech when it is their free speech. I would laugh at all the hysteria in North America but then I think of the Middle East - not a laughing matter.
I do really appreciate Abigail’s two books.
It almost seems like Oct. 7 was a set up. Like 9/11 and WMD…
And the killing of Israelis is not a counter-argument—it is part of the problem. The Zionist regime will sacrifice as many Jews and other Israelis as it takes to garner international sympathy and destruction of the Arab state. Zionists are no friends to the Jews. They sold them down the river with the mandated poison injections already. Even the Israeli Jews hate Netanyahu and what is happening.
AL, you are a conspiracy theorist! There goes any credibility you might have had.
Seems you might be the bearer of fakery and false conspiracy theories and much bogus propaganda. European Jews hated Palestinian Arab Moslems and Christians for one reason, because they were the original peoples of Palestine, a place UK imperialist decided to finally give to Jews to solve their little Jewish European problem. Call it the final solution for the West's own antisemitism. But these new European arrivals also treated Jewish Arabs with distain. I suggest reading Naiem Giladi's writings.
The original Zionist plan was a mutli-ethnic peaceful sate util the Arabs made it clear that was impossible.
No the original Zionist plan, more than a century old, was to create a Jewish state in all of Palestine. In 1947 the Zionists temporarily agreed to 56%, and then proceeded to take 78% in the 1948 war. Zionism never planned for a “multi-ethnic” state, but wound up with one because of its inability or failure to expel all the Palestinians in 48 and 67.
lol wake up. These are the same people behind 9/11, every single war we’ve started in the false name of something else, mockingbird media and covid/culling injections just to name a few.
Let’s not forget the “multi-ethnic” plan displaced the people of an entire region by dictatorial decision and has been land grabbing and killing those people ever since.
Since it is now well known even in MSM that Israel created Hamas to undermine Arafat and PLO, the signing of the treaties that would have stopped the theft of the lands, AL's remarks are not exactly hallucination. Where were WMDs found in Iraq and why was Iraq deemed involved in 9/11? Norman Finkelstein is very wise on this issue and this moment. We are lucky he is still around to lead protests, as well as the millions of Jews Against Zionism around the world.
> Since it is now well known even in MSM that Israel created Hamas to undermine Arafat and PLO
Where by "created" you mean probably provided them support at one point in an attempt to buy peace or as part of a complicated multiparty diplomacy.
Wow, what must you have to go through to convince yourself of a story like that.
Funny. I'm a non-Jew who supports Zionism. Because of the bad way Jews have been treated for 2,000 years, I believe the world owes it to them to give them back their homeland.
Supporting Zionism is not supporting Jews. You are conflating the two. Zionists don’t give a fig about the Jews. They’ve just used the plight of the Jews— in fact they created it- solely for purposes of manipulation.
Zionists are the nameless,, faceless rulers who control the media, military and intelligence agencies who convince you to hate Jews, or Palestinians, or Blacks or Whites, and on and on. Blame anyone, just don't look behind the curtain.
Says you Perry, who unlike me, offers nothing in support of your ad hominem attack. Go back to bed.
i think someone with your view of the world and zeal should immediately travel to GAZA and start serving with HAMAS
Get your head out of your ass, Abe. You are living in the matrix, believing all the lies you are told, and fed the pre-selected media bytes to convince you. Hamas is an intelligence construct so that doesn't even make sense. You are so caught up in their game, you can't see anything but what they want you to see.
My view is not the NYT view--you are correct. I don't buy government propaganda. At least I try not to.
You are forced to hate someone. Hate the Jews, hate the Palestinians, hate the Blacks, hate the Whites--hate as much as you can even to the point of murder! As long as you never look behind the curtain.
Thanks for the death wishes though! Always come to that from people like you (idiots). For the record, I am pro-Jew, pro-Palestinian, pro-human, but that doesn't work for you, does it? You've been told to take a side and dammit, you're going to follow orders!
hamas is fighting for the right to continue killing innocents in mass terror attacks - israel is fighting to prevent same....if you are unable to distinguish who is coming to get you from who is fighting to keep you safe, you are going to need someone to say prayers over your beheaded, raped arse
Oh stop, I’m tired of the NYT headline. You’re the one unable to “see.” You’ve fallen for yet another series of propaganda.
Who invented Hamas? You’re being led around by your nose.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6luePKr-Ao/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Occupy Wall Street, BLM, Antifa, Gender Ideology "Free Palistine", what next? It all seems to be the same thing: Oppressor v. Oppressed religion. When asked to stand back, faculty make the peace sign the way Christians once made the sign of the cross, hold their ground, and are shocked by arrest. They say they are "protecting" students. But they are encouraging students to break the law and demand to have no consequences. Real Civil Disobedience entails readiness for arrest. Such faculty should not be retained. And, the students should be expelled. It would be good for them to have consequences.
Religious nature of this:
"Queer Theory is the Doctrine of a Sex-Based Cult
https://newdiscourses.com/2024/03/queer-theory-doctrine-sex-based-cult/
"Marxism is a Cult Religion"
https://newdiscourses.com/2024/03/marxism-is-a-cult-religion/
We are being prepared for a massive crackdown on civil rights. I'm just not sure whether it's from the Left or from the Right.
It is concerning.
Thank you, Abigail.
Truth teller. The hypocrisy is deafening and destroying young adults… Reform won’t fix these indoctrination centers. I was at my daughter’s graduation at Barnard in 2017 and was so disgusted that I threw up slightly in my mouth… my biggest regret in life has been giving tuition money to this evil place. It has to be gutted and newly created
Ok I can name a name can you?
Let's name a name
Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and Armenia is a Christian country
Let's see
Congressman Henry Cuellar a Democrat -has been indicted for accepting Azerbaijan Muslim bribes $600000 while Muslims were ethically cleaning over 120000 Armenian Christians
According to the
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) 2024 Annual Report.
We are now involved in Muslim Religious World War.
These are Muslim enemy combatants invading America. Please stop calling them left Democrat; Marxist ; Socialist;or Commie bastards.
These are not students in colleges.
These are not small town elected politicians.
These are not actors, writers or musicians.
Can we please start labeling them for what they are.
Muslim enemy combatants invading America.
Let's name names. Can we name every city council member who votes for a cease fire as a Muslim enemy combatant invading America?
Can we name every student arrested on every college campus as a Muslim enemy combatant invading America?
Can we name every professor linking arms to block the police on every college campus as a Muslim enemy combatant invading America?
Can we name every actor, musician, author who supports a cease fire as a Muslim enemy combatant invading America?.
Can we name every Federal and State politician who supports a cease fire as a Muslim enemy combatant invading America?
. . . Or even non-insulting cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.
“Surprise! They don’t believe in either.” 💯 Admin is there to see Business gets done and play to the incentive structure and whatever virtue is en vogue. Rigorous search for Truth is increasingly not it, sadly. Each campus president that bends to ‘protected classes’ and law-breaking protestors suffers the destabilizing illogic of applied postmodernism. The queering of all norms and deconstructing of all Western meta-narratives supplants and then cleverly colonizes students’ minds under the new dogma and orthodoxy of critical pedagogy and social justice.
Moral certainty over Truth. Conformity instead of Free speech and Free thought. Business of many universities today is to keep selling the most expensive paper (diplomas) on the planet and role play social justice while the media and donors want it. We must change the incentives.
I read this in the Free Press and just finished it a second time now. This article gets at the heart of what's happening on college campuses. We're not just seeing rabidly antisemitic student thugs cosplaying as jihadists. We're seeing sympathetic and enabling administrators and professors. It's not students versus authority; it's students and authority versus western values (as exemplified by the success of America and Israel).
Barbarians vs civilization. And most of our institutions are taking the side of the barbarians.
Well...that "there are at least two sets of rules governing elite universities today" is not news to any conservative who attends one of these schools, or any of the many other leftist universities in America (as I do). There are definitely two standards. Unfortunately, leftists are happy to cozy up to any group, including antisemites, who they believe further the cause. They get freedom of speech. Those who do not serve the cause, like conservatives generally or in this case those who support Israel (as I do) get harassment and intimidation. To all the left-leaning pro-Israel folks out there, welcome to the club.
And what is that cause? One protest leader said it clearly: “There’s only one solution, intifada revolution. We must have a revolution so we can have a socialist reconstruction of the United States of America.” So....climate change, so-called anti-racism, trans politics, and now supporting Hamas are all just part of the bigger picture. Any port in a storm, I guess.
(Love your work and thank you!)
I agree. They've just become more open about the "two sets of rules" recently. They've been there for decades. I went to UC Irvine in the 90's and the unequal treatment of conservatives was already obvious even then.
I have great respect for Abigail’s work. However I think her interpretation of the campus protests is very wrong. She is taking outlier elements and pretending they essentially define what the protests are about. In her view the students are *all* thugs, they *all* are driven by hate, and any concern they claim to have for the suffering Palestinians is just a cloak for antisemitism. Her apparent belief that speech offensive to Jews constitutes violence, whereas the astounding level of violence against the Palestinian civilian population doesn’t seem to rank as all that offensive, is frankly bizarre. But what Israel — with the active support of the US — is doing to Gaza is indeed offensive and the student demands that their universities sever ties with Israel and the war industry which supports it are perfectly appropriate. Just as it was when students in the eighties demanded that their institutions sever ties with apartheid South Africa. Or in the sixties when we demanded an end to the pointless and immoral war in Vietnam. We were right then. It’s no different today. And please note that the protesters today just as back then include many Jewish students.
I didn’t read she’s saying that protestors should not be allowed to say what they are saying about Israel. I read that there is a line between criticism of Israel and screaming things at Jews like “go back to Poland” or chanting Hamas approved slogans. I don’t understand why you can’t criticize Israel, condemn the murder of thousands of Palestinians without being in support of a terror grouping that doesn’t give a shit about its peoples lives. There’s a big distinction there, in my mind at least.
I think the short-sighted “Antisemitic Awareness Act” was a terrible move that will only lead to further degradation of our country. I think people should be able to say whatever they like and criticize whoever they like for any reason. I believe those assholes that defend the confederate flag also have that right. But you should not be able to follow around Jews leaving a synagogue harassing them. You should not be able to bar Jewish students, or students who do not support your views, from entering a building on campus that everyone has access to. You should not be allowed to harass and intimidate, period. Furthermore the universities have their own rules that should be enforced across the board, not just selectively to punish speech they don’t like.
I read this article as being about a general hypocrisy in the way dissidents are treated.
October 7th struck a deep chord within the Jewish community and stoked an old but very active trauma. In this sense we are easy to manipulate into feeling attacked. I wonder very much about what happened that day from behind closed doors. I am deeply affected by the pogrom and yet I still sense there is more to this story. Many Jews are conflicted as I am in this. There are belligerent, humanity denying actors in both camps of this conflict without a doubt. The majority of Jews I know do not want the destruction of Israel and would see the war come to an end. How that happens nobody has an answer for.
She has no source for the "Go Back To Poland" sign. We don't even know if it is real.
With this logic you could apply the “well we don’t really know” to most things. We live in an AI digital realm where many things are not what they seem. However, there is very real antisemitism embedded within this movement and people seem much more casual about it these days. Furthermore, there are videos with apparent pro-Palestinian protestors saying these things to other students and worse. I just find it interesting, and to the point of the article, that when Jewish people point out they are being harassed or having pretty awful epithets thrown their way they are almost immediately disbelieved. If these were black students this wouldn’t even be in question. In fact, the students in question would likely be met with harsh and immediate consequences.
why are you acting like these students (almost all of whom never said anything even remotely negative about Jewish people and a lot of them are Jewish) are not being met with extreme consequences.
Violent Zionist throwing firecrackers into peaceful encampments, violent arrests (including Annelise Orleck a Jewish professor at Dartmouth who was violently thrown to the ground by police), the use of mace, and a person driving their car into them.
Do you think people who just want their universities to stop using their tuition money on something they don't believe in deserve such violence?
> Violent Zionist throwing firecrackers into peaceful encampments
Of course, that couldn't possibly be a plant.
Of course I don’t think they deserve violence. Maybe that isn’t obvious though. I agree there are many people that are wishing for outrageous harm to be done to people they don’t agree with (and I don’t mean harm as in words). It’s interesting hearing your words on the matter and I can see the places where we are probably getting different information. I think you are largely correct that *most* students involved have not said anything negative about Jewish people. I think *most *people who protest have good intentions. I also think most of them seem misinformed based on the footage I have seen and the signs themselves. I think most people protesting have seen incredible violence done to the people in Gaza and want something done about it. I can relate to that. I do not think the police coming in to clear out campus encampments that have derailed the end of the semester, left vandalized campus buildings and intimidated other students (whether it was student protestors or outsiders) is in anyway uncouth. I am surprised it was allowed to go on this long, to be honest. Regarding tuition money: if I were a student that paid absurd amounts of money to attend school there and the administration allowed a campus movement to grow so unruly that it actually had to move to virtual classes and suspend regular commencement ceremonies I would be absolutely furious.
Yes I think students of course can petition their schools to divest from causes they don’t believe in, but I do believe there should be reasonable limits in their methodology. And frankly, there are much more effective ways to do this. I find the documents that are floating around detailing methods for vandalization, obfuscation, and intimidation troubling. They include extremely radical notions of a “free Palestine.” And many methods of protest that are illegal. Unfortunately when these elements are introduced to a “protest” it begins to veer into riot territory…which is not a protected right, as you know.
And the masked girl standing with the misspelled (“Qasam”) sign was for sure a plant. Give Abigail some credit though, at least she didn’t go with the stabbed in the eye obvious hoax by that Yale girl.
It’s convenient to label those with unpalatable messages as “plants.” I am not saying we live in a world where funny business doesn’t exist, just that I find it odd that if you were to replace Jews with another favored oppressed group this 100% would not fly.
Have difficulty making sense of your comment. But just to clarify, by “plant” I meant that the “protester” standing alone with a sign hoping for “Qasam” [sic] to bomb the pro-Israel students nearby was clearly a provocateur out to make the pro-Palestinian students look bad. Boy did that photo of her get a lot of airplay! Just what the doctor ordered. You can even find anti-Palestinian groups on twitter openly seeking volunteer instigators.
What was difficult to understand?
I don’t doubt what you’re saying at all. It’s an unfortunate but routine strategy to delegitimize a movement. But everyone wants to say that about unsavory elements within a movement. I don’t know how much of anything that’s going on is organic. I believe many of those protesting for Palestine just want the bombardment to stop. I also think many protesting for Palestine are misguided souls that have been taken in by black and white “oppressed/oppressor” dynamics that doesn’t do justice to the actual issues. I think many protesting for Palestine are just agitators who do so because they hate our government and believe themselves to be oppressed. It’s possible I got some of that wrong but it’s my observation.
Do you think some of these bad optics are also coming from extremists who think vandalism and aggression are totally fine options for getting ones way? Ironically the same sort of thing they are protesting.
It is different today. Put in the language of the 60's, it's the difference between protesting the US invasion of Vietnam and declaring your allegiance to the Soviet Union. One of those is legitimate; the other is treason.
These protestors are saying "stop sending money and bombs to Israel", but they also beating up Jews, preventing Jews from attending classes, screaming "go back to Poland". That simple, cold racism. Nothing more. The most damning fact is that many of the students were posting pictures of paragliders on Oct 8th, long before Israel has responded at all. If you're doing that, you're not protesting against deaths in Gaza; you're protesting in favor of deaths in Israel.
This is the lesson of the "mostly peaceful" George Floyd riots: when the violence starts, actual peaceful protesters have 3 options.
1) Walk away and have no part in it.
2) Turn on them and do your part to suppress the violence, so that outsiders don't see your protests as violent.
3) Do neither. You are now complicit in it. The property damage and the blood is on your hands too.
If there is hate-driven thuggery going on, YES, they truly are all thugs, because they're actively supporting and providing cover for it, knowing full-well what they're doing.
Benjamin Netanyahu has accomplished what no human being was capable. He is a miracle worker. He has rehabilitated the reputation of Adolph Hitler. Amazing.
I often think Israel is Hitler's legacy and revenge. The reality is the West was already deeply anti-semitic before Hitler came to power, and rather than give Holocaust victims a piece and place in Europe, UK imperialist had already marked Palestine as the receptacle for Jewish colonists. What we discover is, a flip, the Zionists turning Jews into the abusers and using the locals as scapegoats while they delude themselves that they have religious privileges over the land. Europeans, after all, telling the original occupants who might date back to before Jesus, to scram. Abused become the abusers. Sad.
It should be noted that a great number of Israelis see how they are being used and manipulated and are against all of this, as are many Jewish Americans. But alas, the deep state tentacles are very long and most people buy into the propaganda.
Every time I look at the photos I'm struck by the cowardice masquerading under masks as bravery.