UCI Facilitates Secret Meeting with Hamas for their Students
Some people wonder why Jews are so often destructive of their own interests; some of the answer to this dilemma may be in the education of their children.
No greater laboratory for this study exists than Orange County’s University of California at Irvine. For years a graduate center of European cultural relativist thought — Jacques Derrida taught there — UCI became a natural incubator for extremist ideologies, because, as the relativists decreed, all philosophies and cultures were equal, even those that violently oppressed women and homosexuals and did not, ironically, tolerate free speech.
This led inexorably to a boisterous attempt by their Muslim Students Association to shout down the Israeli Ambassador when he attempted to speak on campus, numerous attempts to delegitimize and boycott Israel, and scurrilous public racist attacks on Jewish students. All this became so excessive that it made national news and the dithering university administration had to act — at least in a palliative manner.
But that was on the surface and therefore subject to scrutiny and debate. Unfortunately, in the background, something far more troubling was occurring under the benign name of the Olive Tree Initiative, an idea of Jimmy Carter’s adopted by the university.
The original intent of the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) seemed innocent enough — sending Jewish, Christian, and Muslim students to Israel/Palestine to meet and greet their contemporaries and to be educated by “neutral speakers.”
But was OTI really an “olive branch” or was it taken over by something else more devious? And just who are those neutral parties?
Perhaps in an effort to be thought of as “fair” or “good,” the organizers of this endeavor made alliances with groups that can only be described as totalitarian.
One of those is the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) — an organization whose name and behavior reeks of the communist fronts of the 1930s. This was the group that — in the name of peace and justice — encouraged Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall and Tristan Anderson to go to Gaza to be killed or injured in violent demonstrations. An Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs report implicates ISM in the Mike’s Place terror attack of 2003. More recently they were spokespeople in the “Free Gaza Flotilla” of May 2010. (Lee Kaplan explains their etiology here.)
Not surprisingly then, many of the supposedly neutral speakers brought to address the students on their overseas trips turned out to be not so neutral after all. One of them was Aziz Duwaik of Hamas, who met with the students in secret inside the West Bank, far from the supposedly-impartial forum of the college campus where such meetings might be deemed appropriate.
Thank you for making an excellent argument against any further immigration into this country – it is coming from all the wrong neighborhoods.
I do not want these ancient feuds and generational posturing taking place here. We came here to escape such nonsense and not to embrace it. We cannot escape any further on the mainland than California.
Please go away and take the extra flags with you and don’t forget to close the door.
Thank you for making an excellent argument against any further immigration into this country – it is coming from all the wrong neighborhoods.
Which neighborhood worthy of the USA is a ‘good’ one?
We should restrict any/all immigration. PERIOD. The only way third world countries are going to rise above is for the smartest and brightest of them to turn their own countries around rather than fleeing to America.
Otherwise, we take the best and brightest from the darkest places that need a shining light to teach and to sacrifice and to do good for their own rather than to do good for America.
Hey, my folks were from Germany and Ireland..that does not mean they were Nazis or members of the IRA.
This is simply outrageous! That a terrorist organization is protected by UC Irvine is madness. But, then again, this is California so what would one expect?
How much ya wanna bet they all become democrats.
I am a native Californian, and have always deeply loved my state. Lately, I have been wondering why.
It is bad enough that UCI is secretly sending its students to visit terrorists like Hamas, but on a trip sponsored by a Jewish group? The professors that organized this secret trip should be severly discliplined, and UCI should formally apoligize for being involved in organizing it. They should also put in formal procedures to make sure nothing like this can happen again, and if it does, any professors involved are dissmissed, regardless of tenure. Not that that will happen. The UCI leftists will all circle their wagons to protect their terrorist friends.
With the budget crisis in CA, it would be a great idea for CA to defund this nest of leftist and moslem terrorism, if UCI refuses to clearly reform, but considering this is CA, that wont happen either.
i live in o.c. and this uci crap has been going on since the 80′s at least
the muslim organizations know the uci presidents are afraid of them and cower for fear of the ever looming 1st amendment right showdown circus were they to put an end to this circle jerk
the scary thing is students still flock to the uc schools in droves, say they dont care campus shenanigans (california’s trademark apathy always active)– yet still get indoctrinated unbeknownst to them
all u.c.’s are like this and need to be defunded by the next governor of california
giving credibility to hedonistic narcissism, anti-semitism, anti-americanism, and entitled dunderheads is a complete joke
And to any leftist who might want to come here and try to defend this travesty, on the grounds that we should try to open a dialog with our enemies, I ask this, why the secrecy?
If this Hamas visit had been publically announced beforehand, as part of the event itinery, and cleared in advance with any sponsors, and with the UCI administration, that would be one thing. In that case, it may be unwise, but not necessarily evil. But doing it in secret is a sure tipoff to me that the organizers knew in advance that they were doing something underhanded and evil.
“But doing it in secret is a sure tipoff to me that the organizers knew in advance that they were doing something underhanded and evil.”
Not to mention extraordinarily dumb. It’s surprising the whole thing took this long to come out. Some students obviously complained – as well they should. I agree with the previous commenter that the professor’s involved should be fired. This is unconscionable behavior from representatives of a public university.
The left has taught the same course for over forty years, skullduggery and conspiracy after the fact to subvert the truth and to suborn perjury.
This is a dual class in leftist politics as well as a primer for journalistic ethics.
The UCI cannot be shamed because it knows damn well what is going on over at that campus and has been going on for years. The hatred of Jews is palpable and the slander of Israel is rampant. There is no reason to sugarcoat it. This is prevalent on this campus because it is tolerated at best and silently endorsed at worst by some of the powers that be in that University.
Raise fees. Earning money for tuition will give them something else to occupy their obviously copious amounts of free time.
u.c.’s have been raising fees every year for decades (in 80′s and 90′s they were well priced for in-staters but with the slew of horrible governors and terrible economic conditions even in-state tuition is pricey)— anyways, most of the troublemakers dont even attend a university but flock there as they are beacons for all malcontents
I live in Orange County, which, once upon a time, was a quiet, family oriented, tolerant, conservative place. I believe it was Jesse Unruh who said he was going to change it to a liberal bastion by putting a University there. We have been letting the “educators” work to destroy us ever since.
Tom Hayden, Angela Davis, Ward Churchil, William Ayers and now Hamas.
The enemies of the USA have been teaching our children for decades.
“The enemies of the USA have been teaching our children for decades.”
You are so correct in that statement. Its a sad, depressing fact that the education system IN GENERAL, is the enemy.
There are some good teachers and professors but by and large, the machinery of the systems they toil in is aimed directly against us, Financially and Politically. Their instututiions despise us, and actively work to undermine our freedom despite the best efforts of the few “good eggs” that care.
In the overwhelming majority of campuses, truth is forbidden, common sense is gone, morality and judgement are nonexistant…..so what are we to do with them?
Their power structures and Criminal Conspiracy Unions are tapped directly into our payroll deductions every week, via money laundering Politicians willing to sell our childrens future for campaign cash.
They are the enemy, but how do you fight them when they have unlimited access to YOUR OWN money, to use against YOU?
Re: #10 Tyree
I don’t think it’s that way at all. I live in California and know and work with many liberal/progressives. My kid attended UC Berkeley. My wife is a state employee who works with the legislature. Most of our friends work for the state or a school district. These people aren’t intentionally evil. They don’t sit up nights thinking of ways to undermine our society by mis-educating our kids. They’re nice people who go to work every day and they only see and talk to people who think the way they do. I don’t think they ever consider their beliefs to be detrimental to the country. I don’t think they consider their beliefs. They don’t question what they KNOW to be true. They believe what they believe because they think liberalism/progressivism is the best thing for everyone. It’s no evil plot. They have a set of beliefs and everyone they know believes the same way and their goals in life are not to destroy America but to make it better. In thier minds they are good people. And, knowing many of them, they are good people. The longer I live in this great country of ours the more I realize people filter the world through the lens of their belief system and it’s the rare man or woman who questions his or her own world view. they’re not bad people, these progressives, they’re just wrong.
But i guess that’s the difference between them and someone like me. If these friends and acquaintances knew the depths of my conservative beliefs they would undoubtedly think I was an ignorant and evil person. I see their beliefs as wrong while still being able to see the goodness of the person, and most of them are good people.
Ref Dave S. “They don’t sit up nights thinking of ways to undermine our society by mis-educating our kids.”
Dave, the Lib/Progressives know exactly what they are doing. The US, to them, is and has been an evil place of inequality and expliotation whose only redeeming feature is the march of Progressivism/Marxism. They are teachering that worldview to our youth. They would happily reduce all conservative opinion/philosophy/religion to the stunted/oppressed status that religion had in the old Soviet Union. All for the “Greater Good” and a “Brighter Future”. After all, we conservatives are, by Progressive definition, evil folks who must be brought under the strict control of the central government. See “Hate Crime/Speech” legislation.
Rifle308
Dave …you have delivered what can only be described as a delicious little load of California crap and pap,this syrupy bunk is known best in middle America as a crock of hooey.
You know what makes me laugh? The Radicals (Islamic/Muslim) argue against every, every, every ‘perceived slight’ (Actually Truth as people see it), yet these “peaceful” “tolerant” “religious folk” from the land of Ancient, defiles Israel and ‘hates’ the Jews with every ounce of their being – every chance they get, they are obsessed. Do I smell the smell of hypocrisy here?? The ‘peaceful’ people they are, I wonder if when they pray, they pray for ‘tolerance’. Somehow I doubt it…
Actually, they are probably giddy with joy they have found more pliable ‘youthful’ “haters” at ‘Berkeley’. At Berkley? Oh, now, thats a shocker. And, Now Irvine?? Oooo – Wait a minute!! Liberals are – Haters?? Intolerant??? No, wait! What am I saying here!? ‘That Privilege’ is reserved only for Republicans, Conservatives or anyone on the ‘Right’ RIGHT?? – Or do I have that wrong somehow? My guess is, there is something dreadfully wrong with this picture?
I agree with James May #1: “I do not want these ancient feuds and generational posturing taking place here.” Haven’t we enough ‘intolerance’ from the Liberals/Progressives/Dems/Left and their Ilk??
There’s a word to describe this. It’s called treason. But don’t try to use that word against a liberal. To them it’s a badge of honor.
Just another day at UC Intifada. If my fellow Jews had any brains or cared about their safety, they’d live in rural Nebraska, with our Christian allies, like I do. Get away from the Muslims, atheists, leftists and other anti-semites!
I’ve always been confused by the ideology that allies itself with those who wish to oppress or destroy it. Occasionally, you see radicalized Muslim women, in the U.S. or Europe, who want Sharia, so that their husbands can beat them, their brothers honor kill them, and they can be kept from having particular jobs, made to wear hijab or whatever, even perhaps imprisoned inside their own homes. It’s a sort of weird phenomena, but in this particular instance, Jews allying themselves with what amount to genocidal lunatics…you’d think that *Jews* of all people would be a bit paranoid about this sort of thing.
Apparently not. Memory is a funny thing. These days, “Islamophobia” is the new anti-Semitism, to the point that the old anti-Semitism is acceptable, provided it’s aimed at those “Islamophobic” Jews. They can’t tolerate extremist Islam, because it advocates their extermination! How intolerant of them…perhaps they need to go to grad school in the California university system, and get properly enlightened…
From the point of view of Academic Freedom these conversations make sense.
The boycott of some universities of some Israeli academics is also absurd.
But Israel is in no position to tell Americans who they can and cannot talk to.
That is a matter of American fundamental interests–we may disagree with these academics–we can choose not to send our kids to their schools.
This is America–WE have freedom of expression, speech, religion as fundamental rights.
Yes. That’s nice. And utterly irrelevant given the fact that the United States government has designated Hamas a terrorist organization. But good job entirely missing the point of the article to instead focus your bogus indignation on the Israeli government.
Israel was not involved at all in this, you liar. Just to set the record straight, “Victor” is known for consistently spewing antisemitic savagery and loudly defending genocidal annihilationists such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Needless to say, in “Victor’s” twisted world it’s *always* the fault of da Jooooooos.
It is always a bad idea to have an organized educational system that would encourage or take aways any Jews who might have otherwise been Torah observant.
It is rare these days to hear much good coming out of California. For those who abhor the insane doings of this state; they should move.
Disagree. They should stay and work to change it. California is the most populous state in the USA and still the center of innovation. It is far too important to abandon.
I agree strongly Mr. Simon. Great Americans stand and fight. Perhaps it is just as important for us to hold our ground here with our families and businesses, as it is for a US Soldier to hold his.
Having lost everything these past 3 years, I won’t lose my pride and will to fight Socialism from within.
By what standard do you make the claim that California is still the center of innovation in the USA? California has been bleeding companies and those that innovate like an cut femoral artery. Perhaps in terms of volume, only, and that’s a time limited phenomenon. Certainly not in terms relative to its population. As California continues to be a safe haven for those who both hate our country AND suck up its social benefits, its ability to actually produce value is rapidly declining. California is becoming another France; once great, now a memory and an anachronism. And yes, I’ve been to California. I was born there and lived there more than half my life. I left due to being overtaxed, over-regulated, and scared to send my kids to the public schools.
Unfortunately, many religions have stunted the spiritual/intellectual growth of individual human beings throughout history, but eventually modernity caught up with ‘most’ of them and Islam is not the only Cheese that stands alone in that regard (Jehovah Witnesses/Mormons/Scientology), only, the last three mentioned don’t want Sharia which is far worse than all three of them thar combined. *cough-cough*.
Religion sucks. I believe and pray to God in the name of Jesus but I don’t need no stinkin’ religion to provide me a relationship with my father who art in heaven.
As a UCI Alum in the eighties, none of this was going on yet. The biggest problem on campus was trying to find something to do. I had many Persian friends – and still do – but politics wasn’t in the vernacular.
In South OC the Persian community is a successful, hard-working and American group, perhaps no more or less than any other ethno-cultural group. I’ve been to many events, weddings, birthdays etc. and I love my Persian friends here, just like my Jewish ones.
In 2006 during the Mohammed Cartoons ‘issue’ there was a public debate at the UCI Student Center where some of the cartoons were to be shown. My wife and I heard a commotion and went over to the demonstration.
It started out pretty benign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nepueS8Kq84
We left 20 minutes later in sheer terror. It gradually became a mob apparently ready to explode with all the screaming and jumping up and down, bullhorns and everything else you’re used to seeing in Zombie’s photos.
I wouldn’t describe the atmosphere as hateful. But great joy was being had by appearing deeply injured and aggrieved. And the more you yelled and jumped up and down in rage, the more approval you would get. So parties vied for “most enraged” status and fed off each other’s adrenaline.
What was accomplished that night? A lot of sweat, sore vocal cords, back-slapping and petrified non-Muslims. There are dozens of other cultures at UCI who don’t take pleasure in displays of victimhood. But as I saw firsthand, Islamic culture thrives from claiming to be maligned in some way by somebody. Deny it? You’re the enemy.
I’ve heard it said about Italians that it is more important to have someone to hate than someone to love. That baton was passed that night, for sure.
Roger L Simon,
I am also a big fan of ‘roll up the sleeves, dig in and bring some moral clarity’ to a people badly in need of it. But the degeneration has been long and escalating. There are those who will not listen.
Daylight is a-burning and the watchman is obliged to speak.
The problem is the Occupation – California must be returned to its rightful owner, Mexico as soon as possible. It is unforgivable that the yanqui imperialists are allowed to strut about on our Mexican homeland.
Hopefully, Delores forgot the [sarcasm tab], if not – Delores what about Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua,El Salvador,and Costa Rica. All those countries used to be part of the First Mexican Empire – you don’t want them back? Why not?. Plus many of the now Mexican states had their own revolutions and wars with Mexico,like Texas, but they lost their wars (Republic of Yucatan and Republic of Rio Grande) and ended up being part of Mexico. Delores, selective memories or just political hog wash!!!!
you mean the indigenous populations not the Spanish Mexicans don’t you.
your name isn’t an indigenous native name. and do most people refer to you as payasita !
Moral degradation of Jewish assimilants is tremendous.In the past they believed in an ascent as the aresult,today they think more practicaly,becides there is a great inertia of Jewish collective social attitude.
And all with the stamp of approval by “The New Interfaith.” Ironically, this is the piece American Jews will not open their eyes to.
http://wwwtwosetsofbooks.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-new-faith-leaders-mean-when-they.html
I agree that Californians should dig their heels in and fight, we don’t have room for all of you here in Texas!
Most leftists are against the death penalty. I wonder how they justify the deaths of the Fogel family, since their only crime was living in a place that the Left believes should be free of Jews.
The ISM is dedicated to non-violent resistance to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. That’s a good thing, not bad. Also, criticism of Israel (a political state) is not anti-Semitic. Given Israel’s dismal human rights record, it’s actually pro-Jewish in that real Jews put justice ahead of ethnic/religious allegiance. Unconditional support for the policies of any government is wrong.
Do you really believe the hogwash you just wrote? Or did your UCI professor pass on the bullet points hoping you’d regurgitate them the next time someone dared speak out against the cult of Islamic Jihadism?
The article is talking about a secret meeting between UCI students and an operative of the oh-so-peace-loving, human rights affirming, sweep Jews into the ocean Hamas and you launch into some BS about atrocities committed by the only democratic state in the Middle East? Either you are a terrible writer and don’t know how to convey sarcasm, or you just stepped out of the depths of the UCI looney bin.
Aziz Duwaik is listed as the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Doesn’t that make him the second most powerful Palestinian politician?
A meeting with him hardly seems controversial.
Listed where Blackball? Jihadist websites are hardly objective when it comes to titles and authority.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Aziz+Duwaik
i say get rid of all the middle easterners in the USA. they are only here to kill us.
no more third world country people either, cause they are ignorant and sheeple, the democrats tell them how to vote, thats why their countries are unlivable.
our univeristies are breeding grounds for our enemies, be careful where you send your kids to school and make sure that they are grounded in your family’s core believes so that they won’t be swayed by the enemy.
As a part-time teacher at UCI, I have been involved in this struggle for about 5 years. Anti-American and anti-Semitic speakers have been coming here for years courtesy of the MSU. Only after the Israeli ambassador was disrupted in February of 2010 did people wake up and force the university to take punitive action-pitiful as it was.
As for the Olive Tree Initiative, the actual stated goal is to give Jewish, Muslim and other students a trip to the Holy Land and meet with advocates for both sides. Unfortunately, many of the Palestinian figures have ties to International Solidarity Movement, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel (and has ties to Hamas). This led to an outcry within the OC Jewish community. In defense, the OC Jewish Federation and Hillel circled the wagons and attempted to shoot the messenger. The last 6 months have been one of bitter controversy over this issue. All the while, the Fed kept this mess with the Hamas rep under wraps.
This whole thing is a shameful mess.
Gary Fouse
Adj teacher
UCI-Ext
Mr. Fouse,
Thanks for having the courage to speak up on this issue. I hope you and other like-minded instructors continue speaking truth to power.
Poppakap,
I appreciate that. I hope PM will continue to follow this story. UCI is a microcosm of a world-wide problem. The focal point in the US and Canada is to be found on our university campuses. Sadly, most of the major Jewish organizations are too embedded with the universities and afraid to expose the problems that exists.