Sunday, October 16, 2016

FrontPage Mag Says "Hello" to San Francisco State University

Michael Lumish

{Also published at the Elder of Ziyon and Jews Down Under.}

rabab1David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine has a piece entitled, San Francisco State: A Haven for Supporters of Terrorists.

Whatever anyone might say about Horowitz he definitely does not pull punches. I always think of the guy as a general marshalling his troops and setting them forth to ideological warfare. But I feel reasonably certain that he, himself, would agree with that assessment.

The editors at FrontPage tell us:
Last night, the David Horowitz Freedom Center brought its Stop the Jew Hatred on Campus poster campaign to San Francisco State University, a campus that is notorious for its glorification of anti-Israel terrorism and anti-Semitism...

The posters are part of a larger Freedom Center campaign titled Stop the Jew Hatred on Campus which seeks to confront the agents of campus anti-Semitism and expose the financial and organizational relationship between the terror group Hamas and Hamas support groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine. As part of the campaign, the Freedom Center has placed posters on several campuses including San Diego State University, the University of California-Irvine and the University of California-Los Angeles. The campaign also recently released a report on the “Top Ten Schools Supporting Terrorists” which may be found on the campaign website, www.StoptheJewHatredonCampus.org. San Francisco State University is among the campuses listed in the Top Ten report.
I do not know what effect this kind of "guerrilla politics" will have on the way people think about either the rise of Political Islam or the Arab-Israel conflict, although it may get a few people talking on that campus... either that or they will ignore the whole thing entirely.

One or the other.

My guess is that many Jewish students at SFSU will roll their eyes and turn away. Some will want to keep their head down out of fear for their social standing. Others will feel a degree of relief in recognizing that at least some people genuinely are pro-Israel and pro-Jewish, even if it does come from the much berated American right-wing. And maybe there will even be a few other Jewish students inspired to stand up and organize on behalf of their own people.

We shall see.

I feel a strong connection to this story in part because I am an alumnus. It is also because the university put up a mural of Edward Said, one of the most prominent anti-Semites working in academia in the United States during the twentieth-century.

There should be two caveats in discussing SFSU anti-Semitism, however..

The first is that Jewish parents who send their kids to that university should know that if their kids keep their heads down they'll be just fine. When I was there at the end of the 1990s, I honestly did not care that much about Israel and I had a terrific university experience at SFSU.

Of course, there was the day where I witnessed a bunch of black students holding up a poster with an American flag wherein the stars were replaced by 50 little Stars of David. That was a sort-of "wake up call" but all it elicited from me was a strongly worded letter to the editor. As I recall, the letter was not so much about condemning the poster itself, as it was about its potential for alienating Jewish students from left-leaning coalitions.

The second caveat is that this is obviously not a distinct SFSU problem. Sure, SFSU is prominent among American universities in its advancement of hatred toward the Jewish State of Israel - and thus inevitably toward Jews, in general - but it is hardly alone.

The current ongoing kerfuffle around SFSU is primarily about the rise of an anti-Israel / anti-Jewish political culture on that campus nurtured by, among others, Professor Rabab Abdulhadi, faculty advisor to the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) and Associate Professor of "Race and Resistance Studies."

The development of these interrelated stories was organic. I wrote about it. Dusty at Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers wrote about it. And, most significantly, both Cinnamon Stillwell (West Coast Representative for the Middle East Forum's Campus Watch) and Tammi Benjamin (AMCHA Initiative founder and UC Santa Cruz instructor) covered the stories, as well.

Most recently even Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Studies Forum has written about SFSU anti-Semitism, so the broader story appears to have legs.

For me it started with the guy below, Mohammad G. Hammad, former president of GUPS, holding his trusty blade back in 2013:

Muhammad1

If you are reading this it is fairly likely that the face above may look familiar. Mr. Hammad posted the photo above on his Tumblr page with this message:
I seriously can not get over how much I love this blade. It is the sharpest thing I own and cuts through everything like butter and just holding it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier…
That was the moment that I got hooked on the story, mainly out of well-founded concern that the university - while expelling an advocate for outright murder in Mr. Hammad - would nonetheless continue to support GUPS even as members of GUPS call for Intifada which is nothing less than a call for the genocide of the Jews in the Middle East.

This is what must be understood by university administrators around the country. When students cry out for Intifada they are crying out specifically for Jewish blood and university administrators from around the country (and Europe, and Australia) need to account for why they are just dandy with student calls for genocide.

Someone like Jerusalem mayor, Mir Barkat, must have an amazingly strong stomach to endure hate-filled students screaming in his face for his own murder as we saw last spring when he was invited by the local Hillel to speak on campus.

The man got ambushed.



Then, of course, we have Abdhuladi's attempt to normalize anti-Jewish hatred on university campuses though her successful efforts to partner SFSU with that "greenhouse" for Jihadis, An-Najah University in Nablus.

And finally - for the moment - there was the Edward Said mural festivities that featured GUPS members, and others, holding aloft signs calling for the murder of "colonizers." I do not know about you, but when Arab or Muslim students from organizations like GUPS - or, say, the Muslim Student Association, or, say, Students for Justice in Palestine - hold aloft signs calling for the killing of "colonizers" my guess is that they are not referring to the Polish. On the contrary, I get the sneaking feeling that they may be discussing my friends and relatives in places like Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.

In any case, stay tuned because as long as the President of San Francisco State University can say, as President Wong did not so long ago, that  "GUPS is the very purpose of this great university" then Jewish people associated with that campus, if they care about Israel and their fellow Jews, have a fight on their hands whether they like it or not.

My first recommendation is to encourage Jewish SFSU donors to divert their generous offers to AMCHA or Campus Watch, rather than to an openly anti-Semitic university.

My next recommendation is to keep a close eye on the writings and investigations of:




And, indeed, I will have my say, as well.

I don't think that any of us are much in the mood to allow this virulent hatred of Israel and Jews - based on lies, misinformation, and propaganda - to continue without response.

What we need, however, is for the mainstream press to pick up the larger story of the camouflaging of campus anti-Semitism under a veil of anti-Zionism and drive it home to the peoples of North America, Europe, and Australia.

That and a little Krav Maga for your kids might be good.

22 comments:

  1. The posters will get noticed, have no doubt. But unlike the homunculus with the knife, the Jews have a strong prohibition against murder, and do not generally engage in murderous threats. This renders them with a built-in disadvantage in winning the "affections" of much of the current western elite.

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    1. I tend to doubt that this kind of thing will work very well, but who knows?

      What I would like to know is, just who put up those posters?

      Was it students in touch with Horowitz's organization or did they just hire people to walk onto campus and put these posters up?

      My guess is the latter, but I honestly do not know.

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    2. Horowitz does these kinds of things. It gets him publicity and reactions which he uses in his speeches at various other universities and other forums. If you're talking about anything positive coming about on the campuses with the posters, there is little chance. It is a tactic to motivate conservative youths in college. If you go on youtube and watch some of his speeches you'll know what I mean. I once saw him once speak at Berkeley out of shear curiosity (I had never heard of him before that). He is an interesting fellow with an interesting history to say the least.

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    3. Jeff,

      what I find interesting about Horowitz is the same thing that I find interesting about Tammy Bruce or, say, Phyllis Chesler, or any number of people who started in one political space and then thought their way through it.

      They're both apostates, in other words.

      I've been referencing Tammy Bruce a lot recently because I've only just now become aware of her existence. She's a former NOW director out of the LA office who currently self-identifies as a pro-choice, feminist, lesbian, conservative.

      I don't think it gets much more transgressive than that.

      But she was writing 10 years ago and I assume she's still doing her radio show.

      In any case, she, like Horowitz - and like both of us, along with millions of others - thought her way past the acceptable boundaries of discussion within her ideological-political home.

      That's rarely an easy trip.

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    4. I agree. We could perhaps add the late Dr. Barry Rubin.

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  2. I dunno...
    Maybe promise to increase Syrian "refugee" admittance by 550%?
    Recruit Hillary's girlfriend Huma Abedin?
    Perhaps he should just call Bibi and yell at him for a couple of hours?

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  3. Why Krav Maga just for the kiddies? How about for adults AND even for people 40+. In fact, I am teaching a seminar (along with another gent who is a black belt in the Korean Martial Art of Kook Sool) and an Israeli Krav Maga school owner in the next few weeks. I highly recommend Krav for everyone. It is, as Imi Lichtenfeld said "So that one my walk in peace": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imi_Lichtenfeld

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    1. Heya mister,

      thanks for dropping in.

      I guess I was just thinking that if I had a kid heading into college, I would definitely want him or her to know a martial art.

      In any case, it's been awhile.

      I hope that you guys are doing great.

      ML

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    2. All is well - thanks! It's always a good time to learn Krav though. Even at our "advanced" age ;-)
      The guy I am doing our seminar with is 59 and can kick above my head (and I am 6'). Now, I can't do that but...

      I agree with you though... on today's campuses knowing how to defend yourself is important. Not just from potential political issues but also just for general safety

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  4. I don't think anyone here hates immigrants. I think that is a diversion and you should rethink it. People are rightly worried about the rise of a violent political movement, and a virulently antisemitic one at that, and its spread westward. Broad brushing people who have legitimate concerns for their own safety and the security of their neighbors as "haters" is grievously unfair and likely to cause a backlash which in turn causes hatred which causes hatred of Jews. (Are their any social, political or economic upheavals that haven't caused hatred of Jews? ) Isn't the rise of political, radical Islam causing hatred of Jews in the West? (Yes.) If there were no danger coming our way via the M.E. you wouldn't need to pass through security checks at the airport. There would be no Fort Hood, Boston Marathon bombing, San Bernardino, and about 60 gay people would still be alive, not to mention 3,000 or so more from 9/11. Our way of life is being challenged and the calls to "get used to it," and "it has nothing to do with Islam" are a sellout of our basic freedoms, intelligence, and moral.
    For all your ad nauseam talking points about Trump, it is easy for someone to come back and say how Hillary Clinton is surrounded by Israel haters. Don't get me wrong, I find Trump loose lipped, irresponsible, and in need of classes in civics and sensitivity training. But it would be easy to talk about how she panders to Bernie voters. Bernie is the "good Jew" who rails against the big banks, and you know who controls them, huh? Or how she has throughout her career been all over the political map. Or how she was an enabler for her husband's sexcapades for the promise of political power. And on top of it all there is the media and the Democratic Party whose attacks on Trump have exceeded those against other recent GOP nominees only in degree, not in kind, i.e., they all get the same treatment. (I am not a Republican.) But when all one can muster is "you're a racist," you're a sexist," "you're a homophobe," in place of serious arguments about policies, i.e., will work better and why, what we have are convenient shortcuts to political power through condemnation and demonization, and not democratic governance resulting from an informed consent. I find that of the gravest concern.
    I asked you a few times for the evidence that supports your contention that Hillary Clinton would be the most pro-Israel president ever in the milky way galaxy. I'm still waiting.
    I'm sorry if all this sounds harsh, but I do respect you.

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  5. Read her book, read Bill's book. And who do you think was better?

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  6. I'm not likely to read her book between now and the election. I was hoping you would make the case, since you have evidently read her book. You have a chance here to win me and others over.

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  7. Among other parts, pages 617-518 of "Living History" HIllary clearly says that Israel is willing to make concessions for peace, but the Arabs are not. So which president has been better for Israel?

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  8. Sound like she has a clear idea which party is more susceptible to pressure.

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  9. And which president do you think has been better than Hillary would be?

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  10. To suggest Trump is fanning the flames of antisemitism sadly illustrates the character assassination that so prevalent among detractors, much of it based on pure Pavlovian ignorance.

    Reasonable people understand he is speaking about things like the Davos World Economic Forum, not Jews.

    Those praising Clinton need only be reminded of her private versus public positions before suggesting with certainty about how much better she will be.

    Not to mention that her judgment has proven rather inept.

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  11. Joseph,

    your question is impossible to answer.

    There is no way to tell which president has been better than Hillary would be for Israel.

    However, no previous Secretary of State has been quite so enamored of the so-called "Palestinian narrative" as Clinton is under Obama.

    No President of the United States or Secretary of State has been so insistent that Jews be allowed to live in certain places, but not others, within the Jewish homeland.

    In this way, both Hillary and Obama verify the narrative of perpetual Arab victimhood through the clear implication that Jewish people have essentially stolen land that rightfully belongs to Arabs.

    Furthermore, of course, Hillary and Obama are both friendly with Jihadist organizations like the Brotherhood and therefore cannot be trusted on the issue of Political Islam and its implications for the question of immigration.

    For me, tho, it's not just about Israel.

    It's about universal human rights.

    It's about standing up for Gay people and women and Yazidis and Copts under the boot of al-Sharia, as well as standing up for the Jewish state as it continues to weather ongoing aggression by the much larger majority population in the region.

    It's also about getting the Left to understand that when they ignore or justify the abuses to millions of ordinary people under the rule of Islamist regimes that they are betraying their very own core values.

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  12. Joseph,
    I think they all knew that Israel would make concessions, but the Arabs won't. So if you want "peace" go after the Jews to make concessions. They're the conciliatory party, and if they decide not to make concessions then the lack of peace is their fault and an insult to the peace processors. Getting Arafat to say he recognized Israel was considered some monumental feat. Of course, what he and the PLO mean by recognition vs. what it means in typical diplomatic parlance are quite different things that have been glossed over because they are not the conciliatory party and therefore not expected to be. I could go on.

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  13. You're such a ray of sunshine, Trudy.

    That's why we love ya.

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  14. And I was about to ask, "Where has Trudy been?"

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  15. I was in Brooklyn at 770 then out on LI for a few days. Helping a friend do some house hunting. They just got their settlement from Superstorm Sandy and the house is a complete knockdown.

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