Originally published by Communities Digital News
SAN DIEGO, September 25, 2014 — A visit to the University of California, San Diego, by outspoken conservative author David Horowitz a few years ago is getting renewed attention, and rightly so. The story is as relevant as ever. It was designed to be a cordial and informative open forum at the University of California, San Diego. Instead, some shocking comments were made about Jews from a Muslim student during an exchange with Horowitz
Horowitz was invited to the campus as a guest speaker by the student club, “Young Americans for Freedom.”
During an open exchange, Horowitz asked a member of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) if she supports groups such as Hamas and similar terrorist organizations.
At first she replied with a question, “Are you asking me to put myself on a cross?”
Then she continued. “If I say something I’m sure I will be arrested. For reasons of Homeland Security.”
So far, the audience was only witnessing a warm up. The real fireworks were ignited when Horowitz offered the most pointed question of all.
“I’m a Jew…The head of Hezbollah has said that he hopes we will all gather in Israel so that he doesn’t have to hunt us down globally. For it or against it?”
After a moment of silence the student said, “For it.”
UCSD Rabbi Yehuda Hadjad said her comments made many Jewish students feel uneasy. Evidently the rabbi has a gift for Grand Canyon sized understatement.
“It was very painful for us to hear that,” Hadjad said. “We have someone telling us that they will be hunting us down wherever we are and if we would all be in Israel it would be easier for them. It brings a very uncomfortable situation and atmosphere on campus.”
Horowitz himself gets accused of extreme views. He has referred to this event entitled “Justice in Palestine Week” as a cause linked to terrorist groups. Some say they even caught him calling the group “Hitler Youth Week.” If true, that would certainly be an extreme statement. But given the Muslim woman’s answer to his question and the fact that several terrorist groups are connected to the Palestinian cause, it may be time to remind ourselves than an extreme view might also be the truth, an outrageous truth perhaps, but truth nevertheless.
The Muslim student has since walked her comment back. She apologized, claiming she didn’t accurately hear the question.
“Had I understood the nature of the question,” she put in writing, “I would never have responded the way that I did- by providing an answer that misrepresented my beliefs.”
Perhaps she thought Horowitz was asking if she loved Jews and wanted to join hands with them around a campfire and guitar to sing about world peace.
Or, inasmuch as she had already put it on record that she does not renounce Hamas, an organization which calls for the death of Jews, maybe she did hear the question and in a quick unguarded moment revealed her heart. Maybe she regrets the comment only because of the bad publicity.
A UCSD spokesperson also wrote a statement: “At UCSD we strongly condemn any suggestion that violence, especially genocidal violence, is a legitimate political tool. We firmly believe that this one student’s opinion is not representative of the opinions of the majority of our student body.”
Great sounding words. Let’s hope they are followed up by action. Anti-Semitism is on the rise today on college campuses all over the country.
In April of this year, Anti-Israel student activists at the University of Michigan shouted death threats at Jewish student council members, using words such as“dirty Jew” and “kike.”
At University of California, Berkeley, a Jewish girl holding an “Israel Wants Peace” sign was deliberately hit with a shopping cart pushed her direction by the head of “Students for Justice in Palestine.”
At Harvard University, the “Palestine Security Committee” decided to have fun with Jewish students by placing fake eviction notices on their dorm room doors.
At Northeastern University in Boston, “Students for Justice in Palestine” desecrated a menorah and disrupted several Jewish events.
In the fall of 2013, San Francisco State University witnessed an all day event sponsored by the “General Union of Palestine Students.” This one was especially creative. Participants were invited to make posters and t-shirts saying, “My Heroes Have Always Killed Colonizers.” The colonizers, of course, were Jews. Somehow, the fact that Jews have been living in the Holy Land since ancient times was conspicuously ignored.
The immediate aftermath of these events was not followed up with any official response on the part of the universities.
Although most professors would not endorse such vandalism, and would deny being anti-Semites, many of their teachings fuel the fire for Jew hatred by relaying historical revision about Israel.
UCSD Communications professor Gary Fields has written a book entitled Dispossession which takes on the Palestinian cause and accuses Israel of occupying land it should not have. He also said in an article for the San Diego Union Tribune that Israel has a “time honored strategy of disinformation.”
David Klein, a California State University, Northridge, math professor put up Web pages on the university’s server calling for a boycott of Israel. What that has to do with teaching math is anybody’s guess.
David Lloyd, professor of English at University of California, Riverside has put together a campus event featuring Omar Barghouti who has accused Israeli soldiers of “hunting children,” and accused American Jews and other Israeli sympathizers of both controlling the media and “buying and paying for the allegiance of Congress.” Lloyd offered course credit to any of his students who attended Barghouti’s speech.
At NYU, Prof. Lisa Duggan organized a conference that provided a platform for 21 anti-Israel activists to call for Israel’s elimination.
In general today, many professors talk as if Israel exists illegally even though her statehood was legally voted upon by the United Nations. They talk as if Palestinians are merely after their own state when in fact they turned down a state of their own in 1947 after the same United Nations voted to partition land between Jews and Arabs. They talk as if Israel has “occupied” Palestine when in fact the “occupied territory” was expansion taken from countries who had openly sworn to annihilate Israel and instead were stopped with a preemptive attack during the 6 day war of 1967. Finally, they talk as if today’s acts of terrorism in the name of Islam are due to both Israeli and American policy when in fact the Koran commands such Jihad in places such as Surah 9:
“Prophet make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home an evil fate. They swear by God that they said nothing yet they uttered the word of unbelief and renounced Islam after embracing it.”
It’s high time for some moral clarity: The problem Middle East Muslim countries have with Israel is that Israel is not a Muslim country. That statement is extreme. That statement is also true.
This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
Bob Siegel is a weekend radio talk show host on KCBQ and columnist. Details of his show can be found at www.bobsiegel.net.
NBC San Diego, the Independent Sentinel, and Times of Israel contributed to the hard news portions of this article.
For more information on this subject, see Bob’s latest book:
The Holocaust Against Israel
-For more detail on the history of Israel and the Palestinians see Bob’s article for CDN The Historical truths behind the Israel – Palestine conflict
-For more detail on the religion of Islam where Bob acknowledges peaceful Muslims who veer away from or reinterpret the clear Jihad commands of the Koran see Bob’s article for CDN Obama on ISIS: Is the Islamic State really unrelated to Islam?
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