48 Comments
And so the madness begins. An anti-Ahmadinejad press conference that just went down in front of the Broadway gates included state assemblyman Dov Hikind, who called for New Yorkers to “show up by the thousands” and create an impenetrable human barrier around Lerner Hall. Also present was the principal of the Rambam Jewish day school in Long Island, who referred to the Iranian leader as “worse than Hitler.” Former LionPac head Ari Gardner gave a short talk, as did New York City council member David Weprin.
“This invitation is a slap in the face to all New Yorkers and especaill to those families who lost loved ones on 9/11,” Weprin’s release reads. Does using 9/11-fueled hysteria to demonize a middle eastern leader sound familiar? Well it did to the few counter-protesters who decided to crash this particular Iran-bashing party–one man who looked liked he hadn’t bathed in days was busy covering the Columbia Coalition’s stirring Iran execution posters that have been posted by people who are well known to be in the Columbia Coalition (whew…) with fliers for a protest against “Zionist thugs” on Low Plaza at noon tomorrow. Hillel president Josh Rosner demanded that security remove him for defacing student property; after much shouting the NYPD escorted him off the premises. “You’re a Nazi!” one counter protestor shouted at a righteously irate Rosner. To which the Hillel president replied, “I’m a Jew!”
This tennis match of invective was like catnip to the dozen or so media outlets (Bwog spotted everyone from 1010 WINS to Univision in attendance) gathered in front of the Broadway gates. With camera-people outnumbering protesters roughly two to one, every individual shouting match drew a swarm of journalists keen to jump on the next big escalation. No fistfights today, but some interesting tidbits have emerged from the press conference’s sidelines:
– The socialist group Revolution is planning on having some kind of a presence at tomorrow’s rally. Like the CCAW, they don’t characterize their action as a counter-protest, although they plan on unfurling a banner reading “Ahmadinejad is bad, Bush is worse.” The upshot: there will definitely be a non-counterprotesting counter-protest tomorrow involving several outside socialist and far-left wing groups.
– So remember the David Project? They had an operative on campus today, although none knew whether or not MEALAC-scandal villain Charles Jacobs will be in attendence tomorrow.
– Hikind again: “My dream is that New Yorkers come here by the thousands and try to stop him…it’s civil disobedience. I would love it.” Umm…anybody with him?
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48 Comments
@Dean and the 1000 civilians killed in 2006 . Did they comit suicide or they where killed by Israel
@Lolahmadinejad Ize in ur stoodent senter
Ruwining ur reputashun.
@Ahmedinejad is NOT a baller.
@ugghhh not looking forward to walking to campus tomorrow
@and let's not forget that Jordan kicked out EVERY SINGLE Palestinian, which is why they’re in Lebanon being mistreated in the first place. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_in_Jordan
The Lebanese hate the Palestinians, and wish they would just leave.
http://basel-jarrad.blogspot.com/2007/05/palestinians-in-lebanon.html
@Hey Bwog... …Is it too early for lolAhmadinejads?
@Seconded. This is... a great idea. Seriously, like friday, you should have a lolahmadinejad contest. The possibilities are amazing.
@Everybody Hates... Oh, and by the way, despite the initial wild speculations by the international media, there never was a massacre in Jenin. Every human rights organization that was on scene will attest to that fact.
@i should've said “Jenin”…Anti-Israelis cite that all the time. What happened in Lebanon recently was about 4x that purported figure in Jenin.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070904/wl_nm/lebanon_fighting_dc
“At least 42 civilians and 163 soldiers were killed, bringing the death toll to 427 — Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.”
I would call it a massacre based on those numbers.
@difference There’s a difference between a military operation targeted at militiamen and a massacre- even if the former unintentionally claims the lives of civilians.
@but isn't that generally what happens with Israel and Palestinians? Israel aims to target terrorists, and sometimes unintentionally claims the lives of civilians. When that happens, Israel gets BLASTED for it. But when Lebanon does it, Nobody Gives A Shit!
@yes Predictably so.
@and it's not okay. If a person is to claim to be concerned for the welfare of the Palestinian people, they ought to be criticizing Lebanon far more often than they criticize Israel, or at the very least EQUALLY. But these clowns don’t. None of them do. This “concern” for Palestinians is just a guise for rabid Anti-Semitism. Period.
@Everybody Hates... I don’t think the Lebanese operation was a “massacre.” They killed a couple of terrorists after they let the civilian refugees leave. But many Arab states have treated the Palestinians incredibly harshly. For instance, in the advent of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, the Kuwaiti government expelled 500,000 Palestinians because some had celebrated the Iraqi military campaign.
@zionism is a pejorative term. Those who believe in the “jewish state” (ie – the exclusion of the Palestinian people from Palestine) are racists just like the Americans who want to keep the Chinese or Mexicans out, with the added sick twist that most of the Palestinians used to LIVE IN THE TERRITORY OCCUPIED BY THE ZIONIST STATE. Zionism is racism folks, like it or not. The “homelands” proferred to the Palestinains are nothing without the full right of return. They’re just like the racist homelands of South Africa.
@in that case then ALL of the Arab states are also guilty of the same racism, since they all kicked out the Palestinians, also. Have you heard about what the Lebanese have been doing to the Palestinians lately? There was a massacre a few weeks ago about 4x the size of Jenin. I bet you didn’t hear about that, because odds are you don’t give a shit about Palestinians, you just care about insulting Israel. EVERYONE hates Palestinians. EVERYONE.
@pejorative term You’re right. Those who believe that there should continue to be a “Jewish State” in Palestine are the most racist, colonialist people on the entire planet. Their vast, globe-spanning empire must be toppled and the natives emancipated.
@pejorative term At least no one lived on this continent before the European colonialists arrived.
@Hamedooni I’d like to respond to all of you.
Stop bitching about Zionism being racism. First of all, do you think that Jews can immigrate freely to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, or UAE? No chance. Moreover, the number of Jews expelled from these countries far outnumbers the numer of Palestinians who were FORCED to leave(ie. didn’t leave because they didn’t want to be ruled by Jews). The high estimate of total displaced Palestinians, including those were not forcibly moved, is 750,000. The high estimate of Middle Eastern Jews forced to move is over 1.2 million. Get your fact straight, you f-ing asshole. The reason no one worries about the Jews is because they started lives in other countries and have lived reasonably successfully. The reason people bitch about Palestinians is they humped like bunnies in order to create a large enough “refugee” population to gain global attention. It was their plan from the start—this has been well documented—to fuck enough to create a population large enough to outnumber Jews in Israel. It has been grossly irresponisble of them to have 7-8 children homes when the economic situation could barely support them.
Second, how long do you think Islam has existed? The religion is quite new to the Middle East compared to Judaism. Without getting into any “Jews were there first” entitelment arguments, Islam was a religion that forcibly converted Jewish populations in the Middle East that had been there for thousands of years. The Islamic governments that followed marignalized Jewish populations and were actually racist, IE. created laws that turned jews into second class citizens and forced more conversion. Do you know that regardless of the size of the Jewish population in Iran, for example, they have a quota on the number of elected officials they can have? Ignoring immigration laws, there are no Muslim specific laws in Israel except the one exempting them from required army conscription.
There is nothing remotely liberal about supporting a middle eastern country except for Israel. We are talking about countries that A. Kill gays B. Legalize honor killings of women C. Turn women into second class citizens D. Legalize religious persectuion.
The second the Bush administration does any of these things, you can start to compare the two. But until then, you are by far the most conservative people on this campus because you are supporting the most regressive states in the world and condemnt he most progressive. You should all be embarassed to associate yourselves with liberalism.
@i seriously think that Ahmadinejad is going to just talk about the Iraq war. That’s a safe topic for just about anywhere in the country right now since the majority of people are opposed to it at this point. And then he’ll turn every question we ask back on us. ugh
@seriously You’re probably quite right.
@crazy Zionists Why are those Zionists so freakin mad? And what’s with all those racist occupation flags? Gee! If I didn’t know better, I’d think their people had almost been wiped out some time in the past, and we just invited someone who said he wants to finish the job! But hey, what do I know? I just go to Columbia.
@@crazy Zionists I’ll bet you’re one of them. Your logic made no sense, and the hypocrisy of Zionists everywhere continues to amaze me. I’ll bet you think the Palestinians are a sub-human, troglodytic tribe of people too. I don’t agree with Ahmadinejad either, and I think he’s a crazy person, but I have no problem with him coming here. Shit, I already think he’s a crazy person, listening to him is not going to change my mind and make me anti-Semitic, as you and your buddies in Hillel/LionPac are claiming.
And to claim he’s worse than Hitler when he hasn’t even committed genocide? What a load of crap. If that’s the best argument you can make, well that’s just sad.
@shhhh Let’s cut it out with this “zionist”-as-a-perjorative-term bullshit.
Your point about Ahmadinejad being compared to Hitler is right on.
Hitler: killed 6-7 Million Jews. Ahmadinejad: wouldn’t mind doing it, but has not.
I hate to say it, but GODWIN’S LAW. Now let’s be nice until tomorrow.
@demonizing That poor leader of the Islamic Republic… They’re “demonizing” him! What has this kind little man done to deserve it?
@Charles Dickens “Now, what I want is, Facts.”
Because outrageous hyperbole that is an insult to present and history helps move discourse forward right?
@what a joke.
worse than hitler? pathetic.
@lets face it: the jews cannot be wrong.
@random walker “Hillel president Josh Rosner demanded that security remove him for defacing student property; after much shouting the NYPD escorted him off the premises.”
I saw this happen as I was walking back to EC with my Amir’s lunch. Funny how it’s only defacement of student property when anti-Israel posters are put up, but not anti-Iran ones. Oh the hypocrisy.
@mike I’m honestly enjoying all this moral outrage and moral panic over Ahmadinejad’s visit much more than I could possibly enjoy Ahmadinejad himself. I wish he would come to campus every week, just to rile up all these student groups. Perhaps we could make him adjunct professor or something, and require only that he deliver a few lectures a month.
@any possible way will the event be broadcast anywhere?
@Worse than Hitler? Really, worse than Hitler? Isn’t that kind of, like, intellectually equivalent to Holocaust denial?
@Anonymous I saw a reporter approach the guy with the flag: he was shocked and disappointed to learn that the speech is tomorrow, not today.
@would you say Shocked and Awed even?
@oHh Don’t worry. Last time people called for alumni to stop donating, we got a single donation of 400 million dollars or some shit. Most of out alumni are not morons, thank heavens.
@A warning If some crazy Zionist tries to keep me from getting to my classes, he will get a slap on the face.
@gilchrist this opinion is great:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDM5ZmU0ZThlYTJhYmNhMDcxOGQ1ZmU5YTQ0ODRlMzA=
@allah goddamn, I will be soooo inconvenienced tomorrow when I go to class
@well... Anyone notice the random metal barrier that they put up on 114th street in front of the frat houses…
@on the other hand i will enjoy watching them try to form an “impenetrable barrier” around lerner when they can’t come on campus…yeah, that’s gonna work well.
@hey they could surround the whole campus, from 114th up to 120th, broadway to amsterdam. that would be pretty cool; columbia’s built like a fortress, i’ve always wondered what an actual seige here would look like.
@Real Smart I love how one of the speakers at the press conference called for alumni and others to cut off funding to Columbia, because having Ahmedinejad is so outrageous and isn’t educational. Apparently they think education is really important and how do they want to promote it? No more money for the university! Yay!
Would people please grow up?
@i plan to protest by brandishing my copy of Herodotus
@please watch the typos — thank you!
@jim gilchrist defending the event:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297748,00.html
@at this rate students on the other side of broadway from campus may wanna plan their walks to class tmrw.
@A poster hanger They are not columbia coaliton posters. No one who was putting them up said they were.
@correction “the Columbia Coalition’s stirring Iran execution posters”
Columbia Coalition people told me this morning that those aren’t the Columbia Coalition’s posters. They were put up without Columbia Coalition approval. Bwog should confirm this.