Pages

October 30, 2009

Column One: Silencing dissent in America


"While many commentators claim that the situation on college campuses is unique, the fact is that the attempts of leftist activists on campuses to silence non-leftist dissenters regarding Israel and a host of other issues is simply an extreme version of what is increasingly becoming standard operating procedure for leftist activists throughout the US."
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST

Former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold should probably buy himself a flak jacket. Gold is scheduled to debate Richard Goldstone at Brandeis University next Thursday and the anti-Israel forces are organizing quite a reception for him.

Goldstone, who chaired the UN Human Rights Council's commission charged with accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, has become a darling of the anti-Israel Left in the weeks since his report accusing Israel of committing both war crimes and crimes against humanity was published last month. And anti-Israeli leftists don't like the idea of someone challenging his libelous attacks against Israel in a public debate at a university.

In an e-mail to a campus list-serve, Brandeis student and anti-Israel activist Jonathan Sussman called on his fellow anti-Zionists to disrupt the event that will pit the "neutral" Goldstone against Gold with his "wildly pro-Zionist message." Sussman invited his list-serve members to join him at a meeting to "discuss a possible response."

As the young community organizer sees it, "Possibilities include inviting Palestinian speakers to come participate, seeding the audience with people who can disrupt the Zionist narrative, protest and direct action." He closed his missive with a plaintive call to arms: "F**k the occupation."

Apparently the aspiring political organizer never considered another possibility: listening to what Gold has to say.

It seems rather unfair to pick on a small fry like Sussman. A brief Web search indicates that Gold's would-be silencer divides his time fairly equally between publishing rambling, Communist verses to paramours and calling for the overthrow of the US government.

The problem is that Sussman's planned "direct action" against Gold is not an isolated incident. On college campuses throughout the US, Israelis and supporters of Israel are regularly denied the right to speak by leftist activists claiming to act on behalf of Israel's "victims," or in the cause of "peace." In the name of the Palestinians or peace these radicals seek to coerce their fellow students into following their lead by demonizing and brutally silencing all voices of dissent.

This, by the way is true regardless of where the speaker fits on the pro-Israel spectrum. Earlier this month former prime minister Ehud Olmert - who during his tenure in office offered the Palestinians more than any of his predecessors - could barely get a word in edgewise above the clamor of students at the University of Chicago cursing him as a war criminal.
(More...)

10 comments:

Left Coast Rebel said...

I've been aware of the radically anti-semitic aspect of college campi for some time. I will never forget seeing flyers and distribution of material for socialist-leftist causes alongside anti-semitic material. Cal State Long Beach. Some things you never forget.

Anonymous said...

Reb, I recently saw the same thing at San Francisco State. I expected some level of anti-Zionist feeling, but the overwhelming mood was hatred of Jews.

It's scaring the shit out of me when I realize the President's name is Hussein.

Opus #6 said...

U C Irvine is a hotbed of anti semitism as well.

I hope Mr. Gold is protected by the event organizers. They should show rude audience members to the door.

Anonymous said...

They won't protect him, Ope. Jew-baiting seems to have become a popular campus sport. Hostile crowds are encouraged.

Rhod said...

All the bizarro fetishes of leftism come together in this attitude.

The cult of the victim, anti-Westernism, hatred for America's friends and love for her enemies, Europeanized opinion, subservience to the UN; all of the superstitions, ugliness and grotesque compulsions of leftism find their outlets in hatred and slobbering prejudices.

The time will probably come when we'll have to fight them. I live for that day.



It's a disease

Wetzy said...

I am a Jew. I am tired of me and my ancestors getting blamed for everything wrong in the world. I want to love my wife and raise my children. I also want to pursue happiness in my life. If that means I have to fight I will. Never again.

Rhod said...

Wetzty, I am one Gentile who will fight alongside you. Our enemies are the same.

Anonymous said...

Rhod, anybody who's paying attention is realizing the enemies are the same.

Anonymous said...

Wetzy, I hope there are a lot more folks with your passion because fighting may be exactly what we have to do.

Anonymous said...

Amen to what Rhod said.

The postmodern ghouls of this century are the same as last ... the Nazis, the Bolsheviks ... they always hate the Jews.