We have been spilling digital ink about this for the last 6 years. Lo and behold there is an anti-Semitic group on the campus called the MSU! While the administration and the deans deny that there are any problems, it seems that in fact that is not the case.
Recently, the UCI student government passed a first reading of a resolution BACKING the MSU, and the anti-Semitic thugs trying again to shut up the Jews from speaking freely at UCI.
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I think that the speeches, from the bit which we could see on the YouTube clip, were quite well said, and sincerely support the attempted diplomacy.
Rabbi Yonah: Thanks for posting!
Alex: a university is meant to be a place of intellectual disputes, a battle ground of ideas, if you will; not of fists. While I am not one to shy away from a fight, I believe that it is most wise to avoid one whenever possible. The students who are already affiliated are not the target audience. Rather, the goal is, which I believe the Jewish students actively engaged, is that they need to “win over” the neutral students. Physical violence, or the threat of violence, does not often serve to win people over.
Tori: I agree that efforts should be made on all of the campuses with Jewish populations who are facing anti-Semitism. We, here, at Jewlicious, happen to be close to UCI, through Rabbi Yonah and the Jewlicious Festival, so we sometimes focus on them. However, I would encourage anyone (you, your friends, any of our readers), to be active, to organize, and not to remain silent in the face of blind hatred and anti-Semitism.
This student council are just a bunch of nerds on a power trip. The writing is on the wall for UCI, the Arab population vastly outnumbers the Jewish, the administration consists of ostriches, and basically this school is just lost. Maybe we should be focusing on the schools with large Jewish populations where there is lots of anti-Israel hysteria like NYU, Columia & UCLA? The situation at the latter is so bad that Daniel Pearl’s father had to write an op-ed about it.
Also, Alex was right when he questioned your assertion that this speech was “highly effective.” Was the motion reversed? I don’t think so. The cheesy music in the video did not help either.
Ignore it, it’s just Alex.
Alex has bigger problems to chew on, now that his version of “the sky isn’t falling” has been proven wrong and it appears that Israel has a serious jam on its hands.
what’s all of the complaining about? the last guy, isaac yerushalmi, did a brilliant job. even though he spoke with an even, moderate tone (but not monotonous, mind), he conveyed his point really well.
Oren was silenced, P.J. The audience also suffered.
Oren only got to finish his speech because the disruptors ran out of disruptors. However, nobody knew that they ran out, because of their system of rising every few minutes to disrupt. In addition, due to the time lost, there was no question and answer period. As a consequence, it was not only Oren’s right to speech that was disrupted, it was also the right of the audience to hear him which was disrupted.
An honest question: Who was silenced here? It seems salient that Oren finished his speech. Lectures at universities aren’t political rallies or private conversations. Heckling comes with the territory, and speakers should expect it – especially when talking about contentious issues.
…from the mouth of babes…
@AlexK, thanks for your comments and criticism.
FYI, following our speeches at the Student Government meeting, we were approached by several council members who apologized for passing the resolution. They did no realize the implications it had. We need to remember that the Jewish-Muslim , Israeli-Palestinian issues are difficult and confusing for people who are not actively involved in them. We need to do a better job at educating our communities.
There is one council member working on repealing the legislation, and another council member who has just introduced another legislation implicitly condemning the “Irvine 11”:
http://www.asuci.uci.edu/legislative/legislations/print.php?cnum=R45-82
It will be voted on at the start of Spring quarter.
My personal belief is that it’s always better to use diplomacy when possible. We can’t let our emotions get the best of us, otherwise our brains will turn off and we’ll lose the war. We need to think smart.
Regardless, your comments and criticism are always welcome and appreciated.
Thanks. I feel the same way about you. Like playing devil’s advocate, depending on the company, I’ll go as far left or right as I have to for the sake of the argument. However, no level of denial or whitewashing will be able to erase away comments (in audio and video) where Obambi and his minions like Van Jones and that weird tongue thrusting woman speak highly about Marxism, Communism, Single Payer Socialized Healthcare and all of the other evils that are contrary to the principles this country was founded on. Perhaps they don’t show these things on the types of news programs you frequent?
Why, just the other night, I forced myself to watch a few minutes of the idiot Bill Maher’s show, and the poor bastard is so secluded from the objectivity and the opposing view that he is probably the last one to get the message that AGW is a myth that’s been debunked. He just sat there denying every fact this black conservative girl was giving him and brushed her off like she was an idiot. It was pathetic to watch and I really felt pity for the guy. It’s sad that in the US today, people still act like my grandma did, crying when Stalin died. The difference is, she wasn’t allowed to know the truth while Bill simply ignores it because it doesn’t fit in his world. I see tragedy in his and our future when that bell comes tolling.
Alex, for a bright guy, you sure are wacko. Let go of the fringes and come back to the center. It’s much more reasonable over here.
Nah. It’s be really hard to do anyway. You’d have to refute all of the investigative evidence Glenn Beck has dug up in one year. Yes, he’s an idiot and there’s many things I disagree with him, but it’s hard to refute Barry’s own personal life history and words.
You need me to refute the Marxist allegation?
Thanks Meddle. If you can’t refute the big stuff, sweat the small stuff.
Froylein, Alex needs some reading and comprehension lessons.
Middle: “And frankly, they could give a flying fuck about the conservative voices.”
Ah. I guess that’s what we call the “age of post-partisanship” that Obambi bandied about. Thanks for confirming what we already know: that our president is hyper-partisan Marxist who only cares about his constituency which is comprised of radicals and anti-Semites, and oh yeah, a bunch of naive American Jews.
Did something happen after these powerful speeches that I missed? How do you define “highly effective”? What was the result of these actions. I’m always ready to eat crow when I’m wrong.
G-d you are daft Meddle. Do people who carried concealed weapons go around shooting people as a matter of practice or do they carry them for protection? Try thinking about that for a minute.
Look, these Jews can do what they want. I know I wouldn’t let my kid go to a school where he has to hide who he is and face threats and intimidation. So since you feel youi not only represent these kids but also have everything figured out, then I wish you and them well. Geez, you write a couple of blog posts and all of the sudden you’re Hagannah.
And by the way, while I think you guys mostly do great work here and getting out the message, fighting anti-Semitism and all that (all from a left of center position mind you), it’s pretty ballsy to suggest that the US corruptocrats in Obambi’s admin reversed course thanks to your efforts as you did in the other thread. Sure, you helped, but so did a myriad of other authors, both liberal and conservative, mostly conservative of course, who have much larger readership.
who have much larger readership
That hurts. 🙁
We’re focused on Jewish topics…and you do remember that we’re a minority in the world, plus we’re competing with 15 million other Jewish blogs and about 7 or so well funded news publications…
who have much larger readership
That hurts.
We’re focused on Jewish topics…and you do remember that we’re a minority in the world, plus we’re competing with 15 million other Jewish blogs and about 7 or so well funded news publications…
… but we punctuate correctly!
No, Alex, I was suggesting that the groundswell of opposition, of which I represent a small part, is what made this administration do a rethink of where they were headed domestically. And frankly, they could give a flying fuck about the conservative voices. They care about Jewish Democratic supporters who have really been offended by what happened and have said so.
When was the last time you tried to conceal a Louisville Slugger, Alex? Or a taser?
And who suggests I’ve got anything figured out. As Yonah wrote, we have been writing about this and he has physically and personally been active at UCI for six years now and there has been little change in what the MSU does and the university’s continued acceptance of it. I don’t claim to have the solution and, in fact, my solution would be to take a counter-offensive. But that’s neither here nor there. The students went to the student council as a group and were highly effective, so it seems they don’t need your advice or mine.
Um, let me guess, you bash the MSU members with baseball bats? Great solution, Alex. Enjoy your stay in prison and I hope it was worth it.
Yes, please let me know when this Obama styled diplomacy works. If and when it does, I’ll happily eat crow. And what do you suggest they do when it doesn’t work? Write a strongly worded poem? This would have been great years ago. For some reason, I don’t think anything will change, which is why I suggested a change in tactics. When the next pro-Israel speaker gets shouted down or the next Jewish kid gets intimidated and/or accosted on campus, then what?
How is Kalil a troll? He had a valid point. Not sure I agree with his end game, but trolling?
Furthermore, this was a good move by them, and I applaud them, but why did it have to be so damn cheesy, especially the guy at the end? It sounded like the speech at the end of that Mel Brooks movie about Warsaw during WWII. Can’t we find some collegiate Jewish speakers that sound a bit more manly and authoritative than so damn effeminate? I mean, perception is reality, and we have a long history of sounding whiny and wimpy. This may sound great to us and other intellectuals and civilized people, but I can’t imagine these MSU cowards doing anything but laughing. Bring in a guy like the Bear Jew or someone that sounds like Kahane and you’ll make much more progress. Somewhere in that statement should have been “if you, the student government don’t do what you are supposed to, we will take matters into our own hands and make sure we deal with these problems with everything at our disposal: legal AND physical.”
This is America GD it in 2010. There is NO reason that 9 years after these chump’s heroes attacked us, we have any reason to fear Arabs in our own country. They need to be on the defensive, not the people who love this country. Bring f***ing Louisville Sluggers to school. Bring tazers, learn Krav Maga, band together, find allies who share a mutual disrespect for the MSU. Stop being pussies.
Alex, this was a show of strength and it was effective. It is true that the last speaker is soft-spoken, but he’s also very intelligent and very articulate. You obviously can’t see most of what he says in this video, but it doesn’t strike me as whiny, it strikes me as firm, but expressed in a mature and serious manner. He’s trying to be diplomatic, while you would come in with Louisville sluggers and tazers. Who’s living in the real world and who is in fantasy-land?
Wow. So let me get this straight:
1) two members of the MSU wrote a motion condemning the administration’s “harsh” punishment of the students who disrupted Oren’s lecture
2) the motion was passed
3) upon further questioning by the student body, it turns out that nobody on the student council (other than the two people who wrote the motion) attended Oren’s lecture or even had a clue what it was about
I guess “standing up for student rights” at UCI simply means that you blindly support anything that appears to question the administration’s authority?
Come now Kalil, don’t be a troll.
Why don’t they just go around to muslim talks and disrupt them? If Jews complain no one listens because they’re sick of hearing the word “anti-semitic”, but if muslims complain something would get done because no one wants to get killed.
Holy cow! Are we in 2010? In the USA?
Unbelievable.
That was heart-breaking.
That video needs to be distributed to every politician in Sacramento and to every senior member of the UC administration in California.
All these years that we’ve been yelling about UC Irvine here at Jewlicious and you over there in person, Yonah, and the situation has not improved. Now it’s been sanctioned by the student body. Unbelievable!
On another note, we’ve met some of these young men and women at Jewlicious Festivals in the past and, as always, I find their intelligence and demeanor to be very impressive.
This is a great start! Nice job UCI Jewish students! Keep going!! Your approach was fantastic.