I don't know the names of the thousands murdered that day, so many in my city, my home. But I'll never forget the feelings that day or those people.
I'm tired of the circus that 9/11 has become.
I'm tired of the politicians using this for their own platforms and sound bites.
I'm tired of semi famous people trying to make 9/11 something of their own. The movies, specials etc...screw you all.
I'm going to tell you how it felt and try to help you see the day as it was then...not what crap lie it's become.
I was three months and one day into my 30th year. I worked a job that was on 50th street directly across from a firehouse where before I could even make it to work that Tuesday, election day, the firemen left never to return. Not one man from that house ever came home. NOT ONE.
I was in the subway and late for work. I had no idea what happened. The entire event happened while I was underground. I was on the E train which was the train that went directly to the Towers as the last stop in Manhattan. So it was delayed and I was late to start work.
When I was able to get out the streets were very quiet but no one said a word to me. I went to buy breakfast and I didn't even hear a report on the radio in that bagel shop. But I didn't suspect anything. When I arrived at my desk a co-worker came up to me and said, "No one has told you what happened have they?" And then she took me to her television in her office. And I was watching live TV of the towers with smoke and fire consuming them. And I still didn't believe it. This was before DVRs and other electronics we have today. And I stuck my hand in the vcr and was angry and said, "This isn't funny. Don't joke about this?" And there was nothing in that machine.
I knew in that instant it was Muslim terrorism. I knew those bastards did this. I didn't know their names. And I didn't care about their names.
We could not get phone calls in or out. But we could get internet. I remember emailing my brother. Who as it turns out was home from work that day and slept through the entire thing. He didn't even know the world was changed until hours after it was all over. I remember emailing a friend of mine who lived and worked in Manhattan. I remember all of us not knowing what to do.
I remember a male coworker frantic because his mother worked in the Towers. Finally a call came through and it was her. And I was able to tell him she was fine and not there. She was safe. I remember running through the hallway frantically looking for him to let him know.
And then I remember a few of us in a room together desperately trying to get cell calls in or out and telling one another of the reports we were hearing. I watched the first tower fall. I watched it live. All you could see what smoke. And then one Tower. And I guess there was a need in me to disengage from the reality and I remember thinking that at least one building was still there. We still have one building.
And within a few seconds it hit me. There were people in there. And I started screaming this.
And then the reports came that people were jumping. And I again couldn't grasp this. One of my co-workers had to tell me sternly that they were jumping because it was so horrible inside.
And then the news reports started coming about what they first reported as possible car bomb attacks at the Pentagon and then possibly another plane. We weren't getting the clear details, yet.
And THEN...
I remember thinking and saying, "Someone declared war on us."
I got a beep from my mother. She was desperate to find me. I didn't own a cell phone then. Somehow I managed to get a line out to her and tell her I was fine and that I love her and I was ok and not near the Towers. It took a lot of tries to get that phone line out.
After a little while I decided to leave and find my friend and meet him at his place of business. By this time both Towers had fallen. I brought a co-worker with me. She lived out of the city and I wanted to make sure we were both not alone. At his location he had phone service and I called my mother again. And then she told me about another plane. "There's a fourth plane. Another plane missing." This was the one that turned out to crash in Shanksville.
That plane was missing at the time. My mother confirmed the plane hitting the Pentagon. I told her where I was and that I'd probably be in the city that day because there was no subway service.
My friend and I went looking for an open pharmacy to see if I could get a few pills of the medication I was taking at that time. We found a location that said no problem. Everyone wanted to help one another. And everyone was shell shocked.
On that walk I saw the people from lower Manhattan covered in dust.
I remember earlier in that day watching on TV the scenes from just after the collapse. The flag swinging from the traffic light pole. That image has always stuck in my mind.
Now I was seeing these people who escaped on the streets, covered in whitish gray soot. I saw a few people draped in Israeli flags in solidarity. These few knew the situation from early on. I think this made my friend angry.
Eventually late at night after watching the news for hours in his apartment and after having a spagetti dinner with his roommate and the co-worker I brought along, I learned that the subway was running again. And he walked me from 34street where he lived up to 53 and Lexington to get my train.
In the car I sat on there was about 3 other people. All women. And no one else. And we all had the same blank look on our faces. It's a stunning feeling.
We could not be sure we'd get home safe. We could not believe we were under attack. We couldn't believe that we witnessed and heard about people jumping from buildings, some holding hands as they knew they were going to die.
I remember having to go back into the city two days later. As I got off my bus to my train and walking slightly up an incline where I could then see Manhattan, the gasp that I took as the person one step before me and before them took in the same spot. To see the city covered with the still burning embers and knowing we were going into that. The smell in the city for days.
Everywhere were desperate posters. Everywhere! And we prayed that they would be found alive somewhere.
And we lit candles and prayed for the souls of the Fireman of that station that we knew weren't coming back. We stood at their Firehouse and sang G-d Bless America. And we looked at the faces that were murdered every day for months upon months on the posters all over the city.
So on this September 11, 10 years later I want you to remember those feelings. I want you to remember the people that we lost. The buildings were just buildings. There were lives in there that can never be replaced.
And I want you to remember that there is no policy in the world that can ever justify this kind of heinous act on innocent civilians. And there is no policy in the world that can justify the mental illness that allows anyone to claim that these people were not innocents or civilians. And I want you to stand up to the bastards in our own country that try to bastardize and manipulate to show any sympathy with a cause that created this perpetration upon us. I want you to make the lives of people who believe in that disgusting garbage, so hard on them that their sick ideology can never become a movement that destroys us from within.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
There IS NO Civility
We have a huge problem. It's the same problem that allowed for Obama to be voted as President.
It's the mindset that if we don't like something we can just attack. Those that subscribe to this mindset are the very people that resonate with Obama. And it trickles down to the lowest of levels...in your very little neighborhoods for "small" things.
Are any of you as exhausted as I am at the lack of honor from the people who live around you in a simple act of driving? Just today driving down a local road, with absolutely no one behind me I had to honk my horn to protect myself from a car with a family in it, the man driving and the woman next to him, because he wanted to pull out in front of me which surely would have smashed into me had I not stunned him with my horn. And as I passed by his woman decided to pitch a fit and scream and throw her body around to show me her anger. How dare I blow my horn!
We have raised at least two generations of people who have complete lack of respect for others, no idea of self control or how to deal with any situation that doesn't fit their immediate wants and needs. And good people sit there and get smacked! Yes literally and figuratively.
The decent people, the few that exist do not behave this way but are subjected to the behavior and usually find themselves stunned in the moment.
We have seen this with beat downs at protests. Our own politicians are inciting this sick behavior. Teaching each other to hate our own neighbors and fight one another. And yes it does boil down to the smallest of things, like driving and parking spaces. I've seen it first hand.
And it spreads to larger worldwide issues as well. Letting the world beat on Israel and chastise them for defending themselves against a ship load of armed militant terrorists. The fact that Americans, many of them younger than myself were on that boat thinking believing with every fiber of their being that violence was ok because they didn't believe in the policies of a free nation, one that they are not even citizens of is so insanely outrageous. And they live here and they take it to their every day lives, on the street.
This belief system doesn't live in a vacuum. Never forget that.
It's the mindset that if we don't like something we can just attack. Those that subscribe to this mindset are the very people that resonate with Obama. And it trickles down to the lowest of levels...in your very little neighborhoods for "small" things.
Are any of you as exhausted as I am at the lack of honor from the people who live around you in a simple act of driving? Just today driving down a local road, with absolutely no one behind me I had to honk my horn to protect myself from a car with a family in it, the man driving and the woman next to him, because he wanted to pull out in front of me which surely would have smashed into me had I not stunned him with my horn. And as I passed by his woman decided to pitch a fit and scream and throw her body around to show me her anger. How dare I blow my horn!
We have raised at least two generations of people who have complete lack of respect for others, no idea of self control or how to deal with any situation that doesn't fit their immediate wants and needs. And good people sit there and get smacked! Yes literally and figuratively.
The decent people, the few that exist do not behave this way but are subjected to the behavior and usually find themselves stunned in the moment.
We have seen this with beat downs at protests. Our own politicians are inciting this sick behavior. Teaching each other to hate our own neighbors and fight one another. And yes it does boil down to the smallest of things, like driving and parking spaces. I've seen it first hand.
And it spreads to larger worldwide issues as well. Letting the world beat on Israel and chastise them for defending themselves against a ship load of armed militant terrorists. The fact that Americans, many of them younger than myself were on that boat thinking believing with every fiber of their being that violence was ok because they didn't believe in the policies of a free nation, one that they are not even citizens of is so insanely outrageous. And they live here and they take it to their every day lives, on the street.
This belief system doesn't live in a vacuum. Never forget that.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Lame "Conservatives"
I don't know whether I'm more angry or disappointed in many of the people I've come to know on Twitter. I fought the hard left, with their horrendous personal attacks and mob mentality and not 2.5 years after Obama was put into office anyway I'm seeing the writing on the wall - that I'll have to do the same from those I aligned with because they are a bunch of panty waste hypocrites.
These people and they know who they are, pretend not to buy into the cult of personality but they are frauds. They are in LOVE with Perry and Palin and because those people and a few even sicker others on the right of the aisle have promised them the goodies they want rather than the goodies Obama promised his flock, they will defend these people showing a total loss of whatever mind they had in their noggin.
My favorite response when I show clear evidence that a candidate on the Right is not worthy of a vote because the easily traceable facts show that that candidate supports Islamists is:
"I just don't see it."
Laughable. That response is like a toddler that plays peek - a - boo with you and holds his/her hands over their eyes and thinks the world cannot see them.
If you don't see it, it is because you are a sell out and exactly the same as the O-bots!
This country is in a fiscal crisis. True DAT!
Simply fixing that problem ( not that it would be anything close to simple) does not equal a better safer more solvent country. Think I'm wrong?!? OH REALLY!???
Then I'll buy you a one-way ticket to Dubai. Their economy is strong. Want to live there? Or try Saudi Arabia where the government's economy is strong. The people are being crapped upon but the government has a decent bank account. Want to live under that Sharia? They don't allow any Jews to step inside their borders. Women have no rights at all. They still kidnap blacks from Africa and enslave them too.
So when you ass-lick your favorite candidate knowing that they support and pander to and collaborate with Islamists rather than challenging their positions and forcing them to change their positions or lose your vote along with your respect then YOU my dear are a fucking dumb shmuck and should lose your right to vote.
These people and they know who they are, pretend not to buy into the cult of personality but they are frauds. They are in LOVE with Perry and Palin and because those people and a few even sicker others on the right of the aisle have promised them the goodies they want rather than the goodies Obama promised his flock, they will defend these people showing a total loss of whatever mind they had in their noggin.
My favorite response when I show clear evidence that a candidate on the Right is not worthy of a vote because the easily traceable facts show that that candidate supports Islamists is:
"I just don't see it."
Laughable. That response is like a toddler that plays peek - a - boo with you and holds his/her hands over their eyes and thinks the world cannot see them.
If you don't see it, it is because you are a sell out and exactly the same as the O-bots!
This country is in a fiscal crisis. True DAT!
Simply fixing that problem ( not that it would be anything close to simple) does not equal a better safer more solvent country. Think I'm wrong?!? OH REALLY!???
Then I'll buy you a one-way ticket to Dubai. Their economy is strong. Want to live there? Or try Saudi Arabia where the government's economy is strong. The people are being crapped upon but the government has a decent bank account. Want to live under that Sharia? They don't allow any Jews to step inside their borders. Women have no rights at all. They still kidnap blacks from Africa and enslave them too.
So when you ass-lick your favorite candidate knowing that they support and pander to and collaborate with Islamists rather than challenging their positions and forcing them to change their positions or lose your vote along with your respect then YOU my dear are a fucking dumb shmuck and should lose your right to vote.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Blame Game
Obama is always blaming the previous administration for the current situation. His famous line is he inherited what was given him. Um, yeah, we all inherit what was given us, and then it's OURS! But I digress.
So let's continue with the logic of it's the person's fault from the past that we have been served by the current administration for the past 2 ish years. So if this is the logic and wisdom and reasoning for all the ills we have NOW, how the hell can it be the fault of the Tea Party, that came in response to the current administration, that is now responsible for the debt crisis?
Make up your friggin cocaine fried mind Mr. Obama!
Friday, July 15, 2011
Me Myself and I
I had a very upsetting situation happen to me at a government affiliated/run college back in March. While I cannot go into any details about it at this time here's what I can say. The way the people who were supposed to be on my side, "friends" used me and treated me and the organizations that they begged me to work with threw me under the bus making my personal situation worse than when it started has taught me a big lesson: I am for myself only.
I don't know the following two women well, but from following them online, their blogs and articles they seem to show a consistency of being truth tellers and not running with the herd. They are Phyllis Chesler and Debbie Schlussel. They might even hate/dislike each other for all I know. But outside of these two women I am disgusted by the Jewish community at large both on the right as well as the left.
So from this point forward I am for MYSELF.
I don't know the following two women well, but from following them online, their blogs and articles they seem to show a consistency of being truth tellers and not running with the herd. They are Phyllis Chesler and Debbie Schlussel. They might even hate/dislike each other for all I know. But outside of these two women I am disgusted by the Jewish community at large both on the right as well as the left.
So from this point forward I am for MYSELF.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Weiner Has Been Neutered
It's official Rep. Anthony Weiner from Queens, NY is the first official man to neuter himself.
BTW to any media points that put this in their papers and try to say they wrote this headline: BULLSHIT. GO CHECK MY TWITTER TIMELINE. You print my headline you attribute it properly. One damn LIAR is enough for one week.
BTW to any media points that put this in their papers and try to say they wrote this headline: BULLSHIT. GO CHECK MY TWITTER TIMELINE. You print my headline you attribute it properly. One damn LIAR is enough for one week.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Israel Day Parade 2011 - Stand With Us -Curtis Sliwa and ME
I am so excited that I got to meet Curtis Sliwa that I'm posting this photo of me and him even though I'm doing some strange chin thing making my face look fat. Thanks Curtis for being Pro-Israel. You're one cool dude.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
CUNY Has Turned Into a MOB Run Institution -No Longer Educational
Bowing to pressure from the mob, instead of standing up for facts deligitimizes any academic institution.
Your degrees aren't worth the paper they are printed on. They may as well read: Community Organizer College care of ACORN.
SHAME ON YOU CUNY!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Just Who Nominated Kusher...No Surprises Here
Read Phyllis Cheslers latest article to see the ties to Communism.
You're all a bunch a fucking sheeple morons. Shame on you CUNY! SHAME SHAME SHAME! My use of the word FUCK is far less vile than who you are as a person and organization and I shall continue to use it until you stop your Jew hatred.
You're all a bunch a fucking sheeple morons. Shame on you CUNY! SHAME SHAME SHAME! My use of the word FUCK is far less vile than who you are as a person and organization and I shall continue to use it until you stop your Jew hatred.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Support Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, CUNY Trustee Who Spoke Up For Israel and is Now Facing Personal Attacks
I have a call to action. Jeffrey Weisenfeld is under attack as a Board of Trustee at CUNY. He used facts & logic and brought the attention of Kushner who was about to receive an Honorary Degree, regarding his virulent anti-israel hatred, to the Board. We need letters written immediately in support of him to CUNY & the NY Times. This is extremely important.
As I am an alumni and some of you know of the horried experience of discrimination I faced recently at Brooklyn College (a CUNY school) recently where I was targeted at an event for holding my folded up Israeli flag in my hands, just like I was holding any other bag or item I had, pulled aside and refused entry and then forced off campus by a security guard who a hatred for Jews and clearly violating not only their own rules of their student handbook but my freedom of speech and title iv (I believe, which was changed a couple of years ago to protect Jews as well as other minorities)....this is a pattern. Not only on CUNY campus's but on all college campus's.
Last week Jeffrey Weisenfeld brought this horridness in the form of Kushner to the Board and he was successful in taking the honor away from the anti-Israel Jew basher and since then the NYTIMES has gone after Kushner with character attacks rather than the facts of the situation, typical yes, but proper no. This is our time to speak out and effect a positve change.
Your letters in support of Jeffrey will help the Jewish students and faculty on campus. Your letters will be a catalyst to the progressive agenda overtaking the college campus's today. Jeffrey is gutsy. And we need to support him.
Below is a letter I am going to be a signatory on as I am an alumni. Please read it and if you are a CUNY graduate please let me know and I can get your name on this letter as well. If you are not a CUNY alumni please use this letter as an outline for what you will write.
Two letters need to be sent. One to the Board of Trusties and one to the NYTIMES. We need to put the pressure on. Please have your spouses and friends also write and mail the letters. I'll try to get fax and email addresses as well. This is timely. Please send this letter to your FB friends as well. We need hundreds if not thousands of letters in support of Jeffrey IMMEDIATELY. The fax to the CUNY Board of Trustees is 212 794-5678.
--
Statement: Association of CUNY Alumni and Retirees
As alumni, professors and students of the City University of New York, we wish to comment regarding the character assassination that is now transpiring via email attack and media attacks on Trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a gifted and serious CUNY Trustee who performed his duty and exercised due diligence regarding the recent vote on CUNY honorary degrees. Many who are presently impugning Mr. Weisenfeld’s character are also responsible for a very unwholesome and dangerous demagoguery that is creeping into mainstream dialogue at CUNY campuses. We are particularly cognizant of a dangerous demagoguery at Brooklyn College where we have most recently been made aware of an anti-Israel and anti-semitic culture that is growing, aided and abetted by the campus administration. Brooklyn College is not alone in this regard, however, and documentation is mounting regarding abuses on other campuses, supported by local CUNY administrations.
On many CUNY campuses, Muslim Student Association (MSA) clubs (sometimes dubbed Palestinian Clubs) are aided, abetted and supported by off-campus “advisors” and Imams from radical Muslim groups. They operate as virtual missionary groups, exercising tactics which are contrary to free inquiry and which seek to foment hatred towards other campus groups. Most are also supported by a professors’ union that promotes rhetoric which encourages and promotes this hatred.
We have also been made aware that professors who are politically pro-Israel are intimidated and prevented from speaking freely, out of fear of retribution when seeking reappointment, tenure and/or promotion. There is little doubt that there are valid bases for this fear.
All this is reflected in the venom that is pouring out of the CUNY professoriate in the attempt to stifle Trustee Wiesenfeld for the simple exercise of his right and responsibility as a member of the Board of Trustees.
We ask that the Board initiate an investigation into the assault on Jews at the City University, disguised as anti-Israelism, which seeks to mask its true agenda: anti-semitism. We ask that a representative task force be established to investigate this phenomenon.
We are grateful that one member of the Board, Mr. Wiesenfeld, has the courage to speak the truth. He is a giant among men and a hero to so many. We shudder to think what will happen when his tenure on the Board is over. We fear the demise of CUNY as an institution of free speech and inquiry.
Should the Board of Trustees continue to ignore the current assault against those of free will who object to the administration’s uninspired and cowardly support of radical liberal orthodoxy and against those who are supporters of the State of Israel, then please be aware that our Association of CUNY Alumni and Retirees will assure:
- That CUNY alumni are apprised of recent events and are exhorted to reconsider donations to their alma maters – colleges which are no longer institutions which are protective of all.
- That Jewish graduates and others of good will are apprised that the colleges which were once their homes, are no longer welcoming to supporters of Israel.
We will not sit by idly and allow this cancer to continue to grow.
Members, Association of CUNY Alumni and Retirees
Support Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, CUNY Trustee Who Spoke Up For Israel and is Now Facing Personal Attacks
I have a call to action. Jeffrey Weisenfeld is under attack as a Board of Trustee at CUNY. He used facts & logic and brought the attention of Kushner who was about to receive an Honorary Degree, regarding his virulent anti-israel hatred, to the Board. We need letters written immediately in support of him to CUNY & the NY Times. This is extremely important.
As I am an alumni and some of you know of the horried experience of discrimination I faced recently at Brooklyn College (a CUNY school) recently where I was targeted at an event for holding my folded up Israeli flag in my hands, just like I was holding any other bag or item I had, pulled aside and refused entry and then forced off campus by a security guard who a hatred for Jews and clearly violating not only their own rules of their student handbook but my freedom of speech and title iv (I believe, which was changed a couple of years ago to protect Jews as well as other minorities)....this is a pattern. Not only on CUNY campus's but on all college campus's.
Last week Jeffrey Weisenfeld brought this horridness in the form of Kushner to the Board and he was successful in taking the honor away from the anti-Israel Jew basher and since then the NYTIMES has gone after Kushner with character attacks rather than the facts of the situation, typical yes, but proper no. This is our time to speak out and effect a positve change.
Your letters in support of Jeffrey will help the Jewish students and faculty on campus. Your letters will be a catalyst to the progressive agenda overtaking the college campus's today. Jeffrey is gutsy. And we need to support him.
Below is a letter I am going to be a signatory on as I am an alumni. Please read it and if you are a CUNY graduate please let me know and I can get your name on this letter as well. If you are not a CUNY alumni please use this letter as an outline for what you will write.
Two letters need to be sent. One to the Board of Trusties and one to the NYTIMES. We need to put the pressure on. Please have your spouses and friends also write and mail the letters. I'll try to get fax and email addresses as well. This is timely. Please send this letter to your FB friends as well. We need hundreds if not thousands of letters in support of Jeffrey IMMEDIATELY. (I'll post the addresses and emails and fax soon.)
--
Statement: Association of CUNY Alumni and Retirees
As alumni, professors and students of the City University of New York, we wish to comment regarding the character assassination that is now transpiring via email attack and media attacks on Trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a gifted and serious CUNY Trustee who performed his duty and exercised due diligence regarding the recent vote on CUNY honorary degrees. Many who are presently impugning Mr. Weisenfeld’s character are also responsible for a very unwholesome and dangerous demagoguery that is creeping into mainstream dialogue at CUNY campuses. We are particularly cognizant of a dangerous demagoguery at Brooklyn College where we have most recently been made aware of an anti-Israel and anti-semitic culture that is growing, aided and abetted by the campus administration. Brooklyn College is not alone in this regard, however, and documentation is mounting regarding abuses on other campuses, supported by local CUNY administrations.
On many CUNY campuses, Muslim Student Association (MSA) clubs (sometimes dubbed Palestinian Clubs) are aided, abetted and supported by off-campus “advisors” and Imams from radical Muslim groups. They operate as virtual missionary groups, exercising tactics which are contrary to free inquiry and which seek to foment hatred towards other campus groups. Most are also supported by a professors’ union that promotes rhetoric which encourages and promotes this hatred.
We have also been made aware that professors who are politically pro-Israel are intimidated and prevented from speaking freely, out of fear of retribution when seeking reappointment, tenure and/or promotion. There is little doubt that there are valid bases for this fear.
All this is reflected in the venom that is pouring out of the CUNY professoriate in the attempt to stifle Trustee Wiesenfeld for the simple exercise of his right and responsibility as a member of the Board of Trustees.
We ask that the Board initiate an investigation into the assault on Jews at the City University, disguised as anti-Israelism, which seeks to mask its true agenda: anti-semitism. We ask that a representative task force be established to investigate this phenomenon.
We are grateful that one member of the Board, Mr. Wiesenfeld, has the courage to speak the truth. He is a giant among men and a hero to so many. We shudder to think what will happen when his tenure on the Board is over. We fear the demise of CUNY as an institution of free speech and inquiry.
Should the Board of Trustees continue to ignore the current assault against those of free will who object to the administration’s uninspired and cowardly support of radical liberal orthodoxy and against those who are supporters of the State of Israel, then please be aware that our Association of CUNY Alumni and Retirees will assure:
- That CUNY alumni are apprised of recent events and are exhorted to reconsider donations to their alma maters – colleges which are no longer institutions which are protective of all.
- That Jewish graduates and others of good will are apprised that the colleges which were once their homes, are no longer welcoming to supporters of Israel.
We will not sit by idly and allow this cancer to continue to grow.
Members, Association of CUNY Alumni and Retirees
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Ivy Leaguers Praising Hezbollah and Weeping the Loss of Bin Laden...It's All the Fashion You Know?
On May 2, 2011 Columbia University hosted Rabid Jew Haters:
Norman G. Finkelstein, author of This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion
and Rashid Khalidi, author of The Iron Cage, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia, and Co-Director of CPS, Peter Weiss, Vice President, Center for Constitutional Rights
It ran from 7:30 PM ~ 10:00 PM in room 417, Altschul Auditorium, International Affairs Building, Columbia University, 420 West 118th Street, NY, NY 10027
Norman G. Finkelstein, author of This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion
and Rashid Khalidi, author of The Iron Cage, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia, and Co-Director of CPS, Peter Weiss, Vice President, Center for Constitutional Rights
It ran from 7:30 PM ~ 10:00 PM in room 417, Altschul Auditorium, International Affairs Building, Columbia University, 420 West 118th Street, NY, NY 10027
Funny how things come full circle...especially things our PC society claims to be against and should never have had it's chance to come full circle. The Ivy Leagues have a dirty little-known secret of the Jewish Quota in their admissions policy, born out of hatred, once openly flaunted and now swept under the rug. But their welcomed panel is changing that once again.
Phil Orenstein decided to gather a group of Israel supporters and go courageously to this event. I was unable to attend. With his permission I am posting is his first-hand reporting of the experience:
Here's a recap of some of the highlights. As I was handing out the Horowitz flyers I met a young woman Columbia undergrad from Hasbara (also a Camera Rep on campus), Danielle Reich who came to defend Israel. There were altogether 250 people and only a handful of Israel supporters. Most of the people handed the flyer back to me after they saw the name David Horowitz. Michael Ackerman was there but I only found that out today.
Danielle and I were engaged in arguments with several people around us. The speakers, Finkelstein and Kalhidi were vile and venomous and it was grueling to listed to their talks, but the audience was worse. The person I was sitting next to was mourning the death of OBL. In fact I think everyone in the audience was a supporter of OBL. I got into an argument with one white middle aged lady who said that Israel backed out of every deal and shortchanged the Palestinians, read Dennis Ross's book, one of your guys, she said. I said Arafat backed out of the deal which would have given the Pali's a state and she kept saying BS, Israel backed out, read Dennis Ross.
One young woman was praising Hezbollah and said Israel was the worst thing that happened since the Holocaust. I confronted her on her statements and she and her friends said "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter"
Before the lectures people were passing out literature on the "nakba" the freedom boat, etc. I spoke to Palestinian Muslim who looked more like a 1960's beatnik with a goatee, who said the Pali's have had a "culture" there for many past generations, when I told him that there was no Palestinian entity of Arab people during the 400 year Ottoman occupation of the land, and during the British conquest. I told him Mark Twain said it was a desolate land with no inhabitants. Everything I said he answered was Zionist propaganda. He claimed there was no Arab War with Israel in 1948, Zionist propaganda. I just walked away.
First there was a video of the UN testimony from the Goldstone hearings in which the victim described how his 3 children were intentionally shot in the chest by Israeli soldiers at point blank range. The speakers were grueling and hard to listen to. Finklestein went into excruciating detail of the war in Gaza. He said Israel reneged on lifting the blockade during the Hamas cease fire. Israel needed a pretext to launch the war in Gaza. It wasn't a war, it was a massacre of 1400 civilians including 350 children by bombing while they slept, targeting civilians and dropping white phosphorous using "an insane amount of firepower" quoting the testimony of Israeli soldiers. 100-1 Palis to Israelis deaths. There were no engagements with Hamas fighters, no battles took place, only massacres. Human shields were a lie, etc. etc. He went on like this for 30 minutes and the audience groaned in support and derision of Israel.
Rashid Kalhidi was worse. He lambasted the politicians and the media for their pro-Israel lies and distortions of the truth. They frame Gaza in a narrative of terrorism and Hamas, which is far from the truth. He went on to talk about the collective punishment, siege of Gaza, like a prison where no people, goods can enter or leave, etc. etc. Then he went on to talk about the Arab revolutions which are for true democracy. But then he blamed Israel as the crux of the problem. He said all the Arab uprisings are concerned about the suffering of their Palestinian brethren, and in Egypt the new regime will not be servile and submissive to Israel and the West like the Mubarak regime was in dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli issue. The new regime will solve it with or without Israel's cooperation or else (with an implied threat of violence).
No one interrupted. There were I think only 2 security guards in back. Everyone was well behaved. (There were probably only a tiny handful of Israel defenders) During the Q&A everyone was respectful, polite and asked their questions and sat down, unlike the harassment we have to face at our lectures like the one with Horowitz. I asked: "Why the total silence on the Arab dictators as they massacre their own people. Why is the only focus on demonizing Israel, the only fee democracy in the Mideast? And why aren't Israeli Arabs revolting, who have more rights than in Arab countries and in fact 80% of whom would stay in Israel if there was a Palestinian state."
I got an answer from Kahlidi who said he does speak out in other lectures on the brutality, and he agreed with me that the Israeli Arabs do have somewhat more freedom than in Arab nations and they would stay in Israel because it's their home. I don't know which way he meant it, but judging from his threatening tone, he probably meant that it's their true home, not Israel's. After that I shook my head and left. It was 10pm.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Why It is Nearly Impossible to Communicate w/Liberal-Progressives Who Love Obama
C
UPDATE:This is like a cat batting a ball of yarn. YAWN! Can you say derangement syndrome?
- LI never bashed you. I wrote facts. You really need to calm down and read what I wrote. I wrote facts period. You are bashing Carrie. You need to calm down, seriously.3 hours ago ·
John What time are you 2 ladies having lunch together today??? hahaha ...Seriously though, you both have strong beliefs and you're obviously not going to be able to sway the other, so it's probably best to squash it and move on.
3 hours ago ·
John LOL!
3 hours ago ·
S ok im hating !!!
2 hours ago ·
L
OK every1 is entitled to their own opinions however no1 has refuted the facts I've mentioned. Are you all denying that Obama used intelligence from the Bush admin? Because Obama has thanked Bush on a call b4 he went on TV &Bush gave kudos to Obama as well. Are you denying that Obama kept GITMO open which led to his knowledge of where Bin Laden was hiding out? Are you denying his campaign statement that Obama said he wouldn't kill Bin Laden but only capture him? Obama has only followed the Bush protocals which you all seem to hate. So why the adorement for Obama and the hate of Bush. W/that said I'll out myself as a registered Democrat- life-long. I voted for Clinton both times ¬ once for Bush. But I go on policies and facts. I call out hypocracy. To say Obama did this on his own and make derrogatory statement about Bush is not fair or accurate. The bastard is dead. Both sides of the aisle r happy about this one.
about an hour ago · · 1 person
C I'm denying 99*% of what you said! Now I'm tired of "debating" w you cause its annoying!!!!!!
about an hour ago ·
C I'm denying 99*% of what you said! Now I'm tired of "debating" w you cause its annoying!!!!!!
about an hour ago ·
D LMAO.. thats like saying obama is using bush's oval office desk.. used his intel? are these the same intel that let 9/11 happen? idk if u know how it works.. they gather up info.. then that intel gets passed on the sec of defense and joints.. they brief the pres.. pres goes yes or no from them guys/gals... go look at the video of obama and the joints its out there b4 u say he didnt do anything..
56 minutes ago · · 1 person
C
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