Friday, February 26, 2010
[The following, by Charles Jacobs, appears in this week's Jewish Advocate]
On Feb. 8, the Muslim Student Union (MSU) disrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California-Irvine. It was done cleverly. A Muslim student from the audience stood up and began shouting during Oren's talk. After he was removed from the hall and the talk resumed, another Muslim student stood up and began to shout. This happened about a dozen times. Oren courageously and with eloquence finished his talk.
Though the Irvine disruption was not nearly as impressive as the 2002 Muslim victory in Montreal when students violently prevented Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking at Concordia University, the California incident demonstrates the growing strength of the MSU; it also is a marker of Jewish political decline on American campuses.
For years, the Irvine campus has witnessed publicly funded anti-Israel and anti-Semitic speakers and programs; and, for years, the established Jewish community has failed to respond effectively. At Irvine, where Jews are sometimes frightened to openly identify themselves, only the stalwart Zionist Organization of America and the valiant grass-roots group Stand With Us have consistently challenged the university to fulfill its responsibility and protect the students and free speech. Hillel, the national Jewish campus organization, created in times of peace to ensure that Jewish boys meet Jewish girls, staffed with warm-fuzzy Kumbaya-niks, remains in denial - or worse.
Across the country, university administrations are notoriously weak actors. While the left and Muslim groups - supported by radical faculty - push hard, the Jewish establishment tries to sweet-talk, and the Jews lose. In 2004, when the David Project produced a film documenting the intimidation and harassment of pro-Israel students by Arab professors at Columbia University ("Columbia Unbecoming"), many Jews on Columbia's faculty were upset - not at the egregious actions of Muslim or Arab professors, but at the David Project for raising the issue. The New York Jewish establishment tried to minimize the conflict and marginalize the problem. They "made nice" with the administration behind closed doors, showing themselves to be the good, reasonable Jews. (We nicknamed the film, "The Marranos of Morningside Heights.")
Since 2004, the problem for Jews on campus has only worsened. The alliance between the left and the Muslim students has gelled, while the Jews are divided and with weak leadership. And increasingly, especially in California, it is the radical Muslim students who are vigorously taking the lead against Israel and Jews.
This campus phenomenon - the growth of the Muslim factor, the Jewish establishment's reluctance to respond forcefully to threats and the failure of public officials to protect Jews against Muslim threats - now mirrors the situation developing for Jews off campus: As mosques, funded by Saudi Arabia, and controlled by radical Muslim organizations, expand across America - unopposed - Jewish leaders fail to respond. Here too, "making nice" - through "dialogues" and outreach programs such as "twinning" synagogues and Islamic centers - is the Jewish establishment's primary response. And even when, as in Boston and Buffalo, such naïveté backfires, and Jews find instead of sincere and peaceful partners to shake hands with that they have been hoodwinked by Islamist anti-Semites, Jewish leaders remain silent.
Meanwhile, in contrast to the Jewish community, a significant portion of America is in rebellion against - and is in the process of challenging - its political establishment. Grass-roots frustration expressed first in raucous "town hall" meetings and now in the Tea Party movement defeated incumbent Democrats and influenced elected officials not to run for re-election. Americans are angry with both parties. Why? Former CIA official Herbert Meyer notes that Americans were shocked by "two catastrophes we hadn't imagined our political establishment would allow to happen." First there was 9-11, "when we discovered that for years, Al Qaeda and its allies had been waging holy war against us," and our leaders - who knew - did not tell us. The second was "the 2008 financial crash, which revealed that our economy is a house of cards built on a pile of debt so high we cannot possibly repay it."
Changing America's Jewish leadership is more difficult: Jewish political leaders are not democratically elected - or replaced. As with royalty, we may get lucky from time to time with an outstanding leader. But our "leaders" are mostly selected and controlled by well-intentioned philanthropists. Many of these donors are politically liberal, and even those who are not are inherently conflict-averse and comfortable with the status quo.
Meanwhile, as we wait and pray for more effective leadership, we need to introduce the concept of "accountability" for our sclerotic Jewish leaders - perhaps by lighting grass-roots fires under them. What about a town hall meeting?
Charles Jacobs is President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance
The Jewish Left is a key pillar of the Leftist Multicultural Politically Correct Establishment.
Give us some credit please, for having principles EV (this goes for Jacobs and other right wingers too).
Not everything is about "multiculturalism" or "political correctness" and I also don't think it's right to single out "Jewish" right or leftwingers in any case, although I realize it drives you guys nuts that we continue to have principles and won't just buy into the Republican or - God help us - CPAC party line - Michelle Bachman, Ron Paul and all.
The principled Left is concerned about many substantive issues, and we take exception to the position of the Right on these matters.
This doesn't make us some sort of threat to red blooded right wing Amuricans.
Maybe if you guys would listen to us once in awhile you're realize that we have something to say. We might even be able to work together.
But noooooooooooooooooo.
Instead of listening to each other and trying to work together people are so busy drumming up anger and rage between Americans that we can't help our country pull out of this economic mess, we can't help our own poor, we can't get our industries off their collective rear ends, we can't even attempt to undo the damage to the environment and we can't compete globally because we're busy having "tea parties".
Where's the creativity in that? Or even the basic common sense?
All this is doing is polarizing people and empowering the wingnuts.
OK, I do agree with Charles Jacobs, totally, that this campus business and other attempts to marginalize Jewish people and demonize Israel are just unacceptable and we should stand up.
Sophia: You were distracted by EV's flaming comment. His thoughts are hardly worth the time you take to rebut them. Because they are unrebuttable, like any conspiracy theory. He thinks he can bully Jews into breaking away from liberal thinking. And I mean "liberal" in its classic sense.
FWIW, I too agree with Jacobs. But how to stand up in such a way as to challenge these bullies and put them on the spot? It is not possible to turn the tables on these Muslim Students. Their tables have a very low center of gravity, practically unturnable.
Those uppity white Euro Christian males...thinking that they have a right to redress of grievances in a democracy.
I too think that white Euro Christian males should organize under new leadership, to counter the thugs of the Left and their gaggle of tribalist minorities. But they set the bar so low. I guess in the end, you just have to go with your tribe and get down to defending it in the mud.
Well, Sophia, I think my point about waste of time was nicely illustrated in the intervening two posts.
Noga, you are too right. I mean correct:)
As far as What To Do. Considering the stuff at the following link, I have that completely hopeless feeling:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2010/02/27/stoppers-for-tonge/#comment-452711
Things in the US haven't descended to that level YET but the fact that in Britain we're down in the gutter. Indeed it's hard to believe this isn't taking place in the Middle Ages.
The cause of fairness and rationality is broader than the fight against antisemitism. So far unfortunately it seems that we are losing - all of us who care about balance, reason, rationality - words are beginning to lose their meaning.
Vicious "history" and distortions of words and meaning are a problem, we see this in many anti-Zionist narratives but polarization and misreading of other political and social phenomena are part of this also. People just throw words around, completely disconnected from any kind of reality. For example referring to Bush as Hitler or Obama as a Marxist - these are equally absurd constructs.
So this thread is pertinent too because it discusses context of political ideologies but also the way peoples' vision of Israel has evolved and in fact, gone in a loop - one guy even uses German words and Nazi memes in regard to Israel:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2010/02/27/trotskyist-parties-new-york-1955/
I think a big problem is general ignorance. That might be forgiveable among the young, but if they shut their ears and won't even listen, or let others listen, how will they learn?
Also, especially as older people die, the living links to great historical events in the 20th century are lost and people are now just inventing stuff or misreading things or casting things that did happen in a political light - for example, the "naqba." Somehow people ignore the war itself, it's as though the "ethnic cleansing" just happened and that it was a deliberate plan and the war as a precipitating event didn't even occur.
And, there's no imagination as to what would have happened to the Israelis let alone other Middle Eastern Jews had the war been lost. This is unforgiveable considering both the time frame of the war but also the heavily documented, on the record comments of Arab leaders. These threats continue to this day, from heads of state as well as leaders of militias like Hezbollah and Hamas.
The whole business in Dubai is an example of people making assumptions and casting aspersions on Israel when the nature of Dubai itself as a base for radicals and even their banks is completely overlooked as is the nature of the Hamas itself and what its operative was doing there (using a false passport by the way.)
I think in this case I have to agree with people who castigate "the media." If trusted, state-sponsored outlets like the BBC are biased what are we to make of "The Palestine Times?"
Finally, since everybody is busy talking about "The Israel Lobby" and blaming Jewish influence and "Jewish money" etc for this and that, one is left to ask, what about all that oil money? It has had no effect on cultural, political and academic discourse in the West?
words are beginning to lose their meaning - Sophia
Thanks to the Western New Lefts concerted and continuous assault on reason, language and truth for the last half century.
Personal truth as truth.
Revolutionary truth as truth.
Feeling as truth.
Tribalism as multiculturalism.
Moral and Cultural relativism.
Deconstruction of literay text.
Post modernist drivel.
Deligitimizing Western Civilization.
These things have consequences. You should have been against them all along....but alas... Better late than never, I suppose.
Dont you oppress me!
EV, do you seriously believe the only violators of reason are on the Left?
Because if so I think you're missing something.
The biggest threat to reason comes from the Left.
You can see their latest assault on science with regards to Anthropogenic Global Warming. They do not care for the integrity of the institution(s) of science, they have an ideological agenda, and however they can promote it is honorable in their minds. It is revolutionary truth.
Here Monty Python covers this notion of personal truth as truth....the assault on reason.
I Want to Have Babies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c
Consider this from Mark Steyn, Sophia.
A missed opportunity for diversity
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/02/25/a-missed-opportunity-for-diversity/
Racial and cultural purists as multicultural diversity celebration.
OK. A global warming denier. Why am I not surprised.
You are in for a big surprise EV and it won't be a good one.
Meanwhile you have once again managed to hijack the conversation. Instead of contributing some positive ideas to the dicussion, you bang us over the head with phoney-baloney "arguments" which have the value of dead fish, which if we don't change our ways pdq are all that's gonna be left in the ocean (think I'm kidding? Get a grip. But it's easier isn't it put your head in the sand than to deal with the problems and try to change before it's too late.)
I don't want to hear ANYTHING from Mark Steyn by the way. That article you linked is total bullshit. It completely missed the point of the Olympic celebration as well as its spirit.
And, it's just plain mean.
Yeah, You are right Jacob. The world is just a small village where humanity lives! It's time to learn more about multiculturalism side by side with the nature of ACCOUNTABILITY. That may lead to unify the marginalized.
First Nation tribes are ethnically cleansing territory with racial purity blood tests and it's Mark Steyn that is mean for bringing it up.
Kindof like how Israeli Jews bring up the fact that Palestinians require(d) the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Gaza and the West Bank. Those mean Jews, how impolite of them!
"[Some Mohawks] say it's about time and 'get these white people out of here'
http://stage.www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/83567902.html
C'mon Sophia, Steyn is great...and right...especially about the Olympic opening. God that was awful. A real snooze-fest. Dancing/flying boy reminded me of Edward G. Robinson's death at the end of Soylent Green. "I told you it was beautiful Thorn!" I half expected poison gas to pour in and off everyone in the stadium.
Mowhawk territory in Canada is Judenrein.
You are, as I have said before, just plain mean.
How do you expect the First Nations to feel? They have all but been exterminated (sort of like Jews) and especially in the US live in essentially 3rd world conditions. They suffer from poverty, disease, substance abuse. Their cultures have basically been destroyed.
Do you really begrudge them the little they have?
And - are you completely unable to see the beauty of their creations?
So you would support Europeans ethnically cleansing their lands, to protect their culture from Islamization? Right?
Or do they have to be reduced to reservations before you will support that?
European Nationalists see this Mohawk policy as a model.
Sophia you are legitimizing that model, by apologizing for it.
The New Lefts support of militant racist radicals has consequences.
They also like Israel's Jewish nationalism, as a model.
The principled Left is concerned about many substantive issues, -- Sophia
I guess ethnic cleansing of white Euros isnt one of them.
EV. What is up with you?
I ask this in all seriousness.
You have (not for the first time) deflected a conversation about Jewish, fairness and free speech issues and the oppression of Jewish and proIsrael students and speakers at American universities into a diatribe about "white people," which you seem to think are in danger of being "ethnically cleansed" (HELLO????) and along the way manage to insult the Canadians, the Olympics, the Left en masse and the people of the First Nations not to mention the Jews, who can't get a word in edgewise around here.
Your lack of sensitivity is absolutely astonishing, unless of course you are deliberately being a schmuck, which I think is possible.
Now - if you have something interesting to contribute to the discussion about Jacobs' article, I'm sure we'd all like to hear it.
Is there ever a time to talk about ethnic cleansing of white people?
For you, it seems not.
Any group that wishes to ethnically cleanse white Euro Christians is perfectly at rights to do so, according to you.
Im trying to get you to see that there is a groundswell, against this anti White Euro Christianism of the Left, and if you dont change your evil ways, you arent going to like what happens.
Yes, you can certainly blame it all on "the other" and say to yourself that your suspicions were confirmed about that dastardly group of human beings, continuing to draw a cordon saintaire around these folks and dismissing their human concerns about preserving their cultures via nation states and controlled immigration.
But alas, the Mohawks and the Israeli Jews are afforded sympathy.
You are creating your own worst enemy. I suggest you open up a dialogue, instead of tightening the cordon saintaire.
As to Charles Jacobs, he wrongly conflates tribalist political groups with the Tea Party Movement.
If he wants to create the Jewish version of the Black Panthers or the KKK that is all well and good.
EVil lives under a bridge.
You were supposed to say....."that isnt what Charles Jacobs is talking about creating."
Then go on to explain some nuance to the proposition.
Then I could reply.
That is exactly the type of organizations that I propose for my groups to create as well!