The Circus is Coming Back to UC-Irvine

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


"One person's hate speech is another person's education."


Yes, folks, the circus is back. The Muslim Student Union, now re-instated, but still on probation, is hosting another anti-Israel hate week May 9-12 at UC-Irvine. Next week, perhaps mindful of their suspension, the MSU is bringing in a rather weak line-up, many of whom are themselves Jewish (sort of). Believe it or not, there will be no Amir Abdel Malik Ali and no Normie Finkelstein. Here is the schedule.

The theme for year's extravaganza is: "Palestine-The Invisible Nation" (I guess that's because there has never been a nation called "Palestine".)

On May 5 at 8 pm (this week), the Students For Justice in Palestine are dragging in former State Department diplomat Edward Peck was an opponent of the Iraq war and more recently was on board that "Freedom Flotilla" when it was raided by the Israeli Navy. He thinks Hizbollah is not a terrorist organization. I guess he never heard of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon. Now Peck has "graduated" from the State Department to Students for Justice in Palestine.

Next week it's on to the main event as they say in the circus. On Monday at noon and then at 8 pm, the featured speaker is Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a fringe cleric from a fringe Jewish sect called Neturei Karta. These clowns believe that Israel should not exist. More specifically, this charming speaker attended the 2001 Durban Conference on Racism, which was a show-trial against Israel. In 2006, he attended Iran's Holocaust inquiry that tried to paint the Holocaust as a hoax. Worst of all, this clown is a big fan of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom he insists, is a nice guy and not anti-Semitic.

On Tuesday at noon, we have retread Alison Weir, an American activist who made a film called "If Americans Only Knew." Since then, she has been riding that "wave" and will no doubt give pretty much the same lecture she gave last year. She will do an encore performance at 2 probably to show her film for the 1,000th time.


Tuesday evening, we have a couple of guys named Amir Mertaban, a young MSA type, and Mohamad Ahmad. Which Mohamad Ahmad, you ask? God only knows.

On Wednesday, it's Israeli anti-Israel activist Matan Cohen, who was at UCI just a weeks ago. He is involved with Jewish Voice for Peace and Anarchists Against the Wall. A few years ago, Isralei soldiers shot out his eye. To this day, it's the greatest thing he has ever done. More recently, he was involved in the JVP disruption of Bibi Netanyahu's speech in New Orleans. He is an arrogant young twit who told us at UCI that people who support Israel have no right to be heard because it is all "useless discourse". Sounds like a Trotskyite to me. He will also speak at 2 pm on Boycot, Sanctions and Divestment.


At 8 pm, same date will be another retread from last year, Hedy Epstein, a misguided lady in her 80s, who left Germany as a young girl in the 1930s and lost her family in the Holocaust. She is an activist for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and she apparently has no clue that the Palestinians she supports want to kill the Israelis.

On May 12, we have Iraqi war vet Michael Prysner. He became not only anti-war upon his return to America, but anti-capitalist and anti-America as well. He is a young Ramsey Clark in the making who recently ran against Allen West and Ron Klein in the last Florida congressional race. His party? The Party of Socialism and Liberation.

At 8 pm on Thursday, we will once again be treated to the presence of UC Beserkeley professor propagandist Hatem Bazian,a charming Palestinian fellow, who goes around university campuses with a road show called "Never again-for anybody", which compares Israel to Nazi Germany.

So that's it folks. Bring the popcorn, and don't miss the dancing bears.