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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Phil Orenstein</title>
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		<title>A Tale of Two Synagogues</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/phil-orenstein/a-tale-of-two-synagogues/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-tale-of-two-synagogues</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 04:42:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Orenstein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chabad House]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Great Neck]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islamic Center of Long Island]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Synogogues]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Truth and freedom won the day on April 14 when Pamela Geller spoke at the Chabad event in Great Neck. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/gl.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-187950" alt="gl" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/gl.jpg" width="280" height="296" /></a>This is the story of the glorious miracles that happen when freedom-loving people stand up, refuse to be intimidated and fight back. It all began back in February 2013, when the Men’s Club of the Great Neck Synagogue on Long Island, NY, planned a quiet informational breakfast on Sunday morning, April 14, with Pamela Geller speaking on the “Imposition of Shari’a in America.&#8221; Geller was joined by Greg Buckley Sr., who spoke about his son&#8217;s tragic “green on blue” murder at the hands of jihadists in Afghanistan. But astonishingly, a raging firestorm of intimidation, threats and harassment erupted over Geller’s invitation to speak, which eventually forced the synagogue to cancel the event. However, events ultimately ended in a victory for freedom of speech and conscience, which sent the profound messages of Pamela Geller and Greg Buckley Sr. reverberating across the nation.</p>
<p>For those who are not familiar with the speakers, <a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/about.html">Pamela Geller</a> is a well-known author, investigative journalist, activist, captivating speaker and founder, editor and publisher of <a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/">AtlasShrugs.com</a>. She is also the executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (ADFI) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). She is perhaps best known for spearheading the protest against the Ground Zero mosque, as well as her subway ad campaign calling for the support of Israel and the defeat of jihad.</p>
<p>Greg Buckley Sr. is the father of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GregBuckleyJr">Marine Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr</a>., who was one of three Marines killed in an insider attack in a “safe” zone on his military base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan on August 10, 2012.  He was working out with fellow unarmed marines in the gymnasium when he was shot with an assault rifle by the 19-year-old “tea boy” (slave) of the “allied” Afghan district police chief that Greg’s Marine Battalion was charged with training. The boy-murderer immediately shouted, “I did Jihad” to cheers of the locals.  Cpl. Buckley&#8217;s killers were apprehended but one was soon released to uphold the Obama administration’s policy of “cultural sensitivity” to the Afghanis. Greg Buckley Sr. is calling for swift justice for the murderers of his son and demanding their prosecution on American soil as terrorists.</p>
<p>The firestorm surrounding the talk started when an alliance of Long Island leftist and Muslim groups, the Islamic Center of Long Island (ICLI), the Unitarian Church, the Interfaith Alliance, and others, heard the news that Pamela Geller would be speaking in Great Neck. They launched a fierce campaign to harass Great Neck Synagogue Rabbi Polakoff with a flood of daily calls, emails and threats of a protest march on the synagogue. They slandered Geller as a bigot, Islamophobe, hate-monger, Nazi, and rallied their minions to shut down the event, which was all revealed in a <a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/03/myjihad-in-great-neck-muslims-leftists-coordinate-to-stop-pamela-geller-from-speaking-at-synagogue.html">leaked email thread</a>.</p>
<p>The email thread exposed that the mastermind behind the campaign of intimidation and threats was Habeeb Ahmed, first vice president of ICLI. Ironically, he is also a <a href="http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/HRC/Commissioners.html">Nassau County Commissioner of Human Rights</a>. He used the authority of his political office to incite public outrage against Pamela Geller&#8217;s appearance at Great Neck Synagogue, exhorting his coalition: &#8220;We need to stop her from coming to Great Neck.&#8221; He provided the rabbi’s personal email and phone, and directed the alliance to strong-arm the rabbi to cancel: “[A]t this point let’s all make calls and speak to the Rabbi. Let&#8217;s tell our friends and family to do the same. Send this to all your email lists.” His email signature on every message in the thread read:  “Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, Nassau County.” The hysteria continued as one person compared the synagogue event to &#8220;the equivalent of a church in the 1930&#8242;s inviting a representative of the Nazi Party to speak.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite all the histrionics over Pamela Geller’s message, it is actually a message of righteous indignation directed against those who strap on suicide bombs, commit honor killings and beheadings in the name of their religion, murder those who renounce their faith, hang homosexuals, firebomb churches to protest the Pope’s remarks about Islam, incite deadly rioting across the Muslim world because of a cartoon caricature of their prophet, and commit mass murder and persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Her message is directed against radical Islamic terrorists or jihadists, not peaceful Muslims. There is nothing in her message that can be considered hateful or offensive to any ethnic group or faith. Yet a Human Rights Commissioner uses the seat of his government office to censor and incite a public campaign of daily harassment and threats against a rabbi for inviting Pamela Geller to speak at his own synagogue. Ironically, Commissioner Ahmed’s own mosque was identified as a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/23/AR2011012304448.html">hotbed of radical Islam</a> in last year&#8217;s congressional hearings addressing homegrown Islamic terrorism. Former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, called the Islamic Center of Long Island’s leaders extremists who <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/23/AR2011012304448.html">“should be put under surveillance.”</a></p>
<p>In the aftermath of 9/11, no one tried to stop or harass ICLI leaders Ghazi Khankan and Safar Chadda when they preached <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/23/AR2011012304448_3.html">conspiracy theories</a> that Israel and the CIA were responsible for the terrorist attacks on 9/11, in order to blame the Muslim world. “The Israeli government would benefit from this tragedy by now branding Palestinians as terrorists and crushing them by force&#8221; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/23/AR2011012304448_3.html">said Chadda</a>, a dentist from Pakistan who was then co-president of the mosque. No one tried to strong-arm ICLI to cancel, when raving conspiracy theorist <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/1428/al-quds-day-celebrating-hate-and-supporting-terror">Mauri Saalakhan</a>, who curses the Jewish lobby and praises Ayatollah Khomeini and global terrorist groups, was invited to <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3340/american-islamist-promotes-jewish-conspiracy-on">preach at ICLI</a> and sermonize that Hamas was a &#8220;resistance organization – whose armed resistance is legitimized by clearly established international law.&#8221; But the elitist hypocrites of the interfaith alliance relish their intimate relationship with Commissioner Ahmed and his radical mosque, and instead excoriate and censor Pamela Geller for fighting hatred and violence against innocent people.  You have a right to be an elite fool in America, but a government official has no right to use his public office to crush someone’s right to free speech.  In the process, the freedom of Greg Buckley Sr. to speak about his son’s “green on blue” murder by jihadists was also being quashed. While ranting about Geller, when Ahmed and his minions were asked by reporters about Buckley, they went silent, claiming they didn’t know.</p>
<p>Alarmed by this abuse of power, a group of concerned community leaders met with Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and his top aides to express their concern about the mounting opposition to the Great Neck Synagogue event, and demanded action on the malfeasance of his Commissioner Ahmed, and called for his dismissal.  Mangano assured us of his cooperation for the protection and safety of all involved, promising a significant police presence, extra patrols, and plainclothes detectives to immediately remove any troublemakers. He also assured us that he will take action to investigate Habeeb Ahmed for his unauthorized use of a Nassau County title to obstruct free speech. Soon after, Commissioner Ahmed issued an apology.</p>
<p>However, the opposition, harassment and bad press grew louder and harsher than ever. The Muslim/Interfaith alliance rallied <a href="http://forward.com/articles/174306/leftist-jewish-groups-want-synagogue-to-cancel-spe/?p=all">left-wing Jewish groups</a> to join the acrimony, including Jewish Voices for Peace, a radical anti-Israel group that supports the BDS movement, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and others who have all likewise asked their members to flood Great Neck Synagogue with calls objecting to Geller’s appearance. Their strategy was to divide and conquer the Jewish community, by turning Jew against Jew.</p>
<p>In order to stand up to the opposition, a mass counter-protest outside the synagogue with flags, banners and signs for “free speech” and “justice for LCpl Greg Buckley, Jr.” was organized to defend the free speech of Geller and Buckley. Patriotic groups, Church groups, Orthodox Jewish congregations, and Veterans in uniform rose up from all across Long Island and Queens. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the speakers, whether the venue is a synagogue, church or civic hall, freedom of speech and conscience are sacrosanct in America. The Conservative Society for Action, Rockville Center Tea Party Patriots, Patriot Guard Riders, Nassau County Federation of Republican Women, and many other patriotic groups and freedom-loving individuals answered the call of duty to defend free speech in America.</p>
<p>Despite the fierce opposition and the daily barrage of phone calls and e-mails, Great Neck Synagogue and Rabbi Polakoff stood firm.  The synagogue opened up its largest room for 1000 people to attend, including dignitaries, rabbis, and local elected officials, who stood in solidarity with Geller. What started out as a quiet little breakfast soon became a titanic event, as the war of words over <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/hate-speech-has-no-place-synagogue">hate speech</a> vs. <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/truth-must-have-place-synagogue?utm_source=Newsletter+subscribers&amp;utm_campaign=cce33ef88b-JTA_Daily_Briefing_4_12_2013&amp;utm_medium=email">free speech</a> spilled out onto the national airwaves, blogs and Jewish weeklies.</p>
<p>Further unrest was brewing. Longing for his revolutionary days of social justice activism in the streets, Rabbi Jerome Davidson, a left-wing rabble rouser and former rabbi of a nearby Reform congregation, jumped on the attack bandwagon against Geller and Great Neck Synagogue. In the past he notoriously fought against displaying a large menorah in Great Neck’s town square, and marched on Rep. Peter King’s office to protest the congressional hearings on Muslim radicalization. His synagogue cherishes their “relationships and friendships within the local Muslim community,” and boasts “deep and abiding connections with the Islamic Center of Long Island.” However, not one word was said about Ghazi Khankan and Mauri Saalakhan and other Islamic terrorist supporters preaching anti-Semitic tirades at ICLI. Rather, he joined the hysterical outcry against allowing a Jew to speak the truth about radical Islam in a synagogue. Foaming at the mouth he wrote, <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/hate-speech-has-no-place-synagogue">“Hate speech has no place in synagogues”</a> and said on <a href="http://pix11.com/2013/04/09/controversial-anti-jihad-blogger-will-bring-armed-guards-to-synagogue-speech/#axzz2Q1eLxOu1">TV news channel WPIX</a> that it was “his mission to continue challenging Geller&#8217;s visit to Great Neck,” and together with the Muslim community called for Rabbi Polakoff to cancel the event, and threatened a march on Great Neck Synagogue if he didn’t.</p>
<p>A few days before the event, Great Neck Synagogue convened an emergency meeting of the executive board and announced that after the weeks of incessant harassment and threats, and the public announcement of a protest march, the synagogue made the decision to cancel the event in order to avert the &#8220;legal liability and potential security exposure of our institution and its member families.&#8221; With the threats to the safety of the children attending Sunday school the very same morning, the synagogue’s executive board had no choice in the matter.</p>
<p>There was an immediate outcry from all those who were looking forward to attending and mobilizing for the event. “We lost,” they lamented, “this was a crushing blow to freedom of speech in America…the thugs and bullies won, and we, the decent, freedom-loving people in New York, lost.” They railed against the synagogue’s decision, calling it capitulation to bullying tactics of the left. When you give in to thuggery and intimidation, it only emboldens the opposition and endangers the safety of the children even more so. You could almost hear the popping of Champagne corks in pompous celebration by Rabbi Davidson and his Muslim and interfaith friends reveling in their triumph over right-wing “extremists” and “hatemongers.”</p>
<p>However, the next day, a miracle occurred. Two courageous rabbis stood up and voluntarily invited Pamela Geller and Greg Buckley Sr. to speak at their synagogues on the same day, Sunday, April 14, despite the threats of fierce opposition. One was Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg of Congregation Beth-El of Edison, NJ and the other was Rabbi Geisinsky of Chabad of Great Neck, five minutes from Great Neck Synagogue, where the event was scheduled for the same time, 10:00 am.</p>
<p>This was a miracle in more ways than one. Rabbi Geisinsky had a massive heart attack a couple of months before April 14, and was pronounced dead. He had no pulse lying on the hospital bed for 40 minutes. His doctors thought that if he lives, he would at best be brain dead. The entire community, friends and relatives prayed for their beloved rabbi day and night. Miraculously, he recovered completely, and is now fully active, and in great shape mentally and physically. He said this is why he is alive today &#8211; to defend and protect our fundamental freedom of speech and conscience and that&#8217;s why he opened up his synagogue to convey the truth despite the looming danger. When asked about the massive crowds coming to his small Chabad House, threats from Rabbi Davidson and the Muslim alliance and the potential for danger, he answered, “I’m not concerned with that, we need a strong show of force.”</p>
<p>The Sunday event was a mere two days away. At sundown on Saturday, immediately following Shabbat, Rabbi Geisinsky convened an ad hoc planning meeting of miracle workers from Chabad, Great Neck Synagogue and local Tea Party and community activists who put together the program and logistics in a matter of hours. Local synagogues were called upon to borrow hundreds of chairs that were needed for the anticipated overflow crowds, since the Chabad House seats only 200. Over $4000 was willingly donated from everyone in the room, the cost for finding late Saturday night contractors to set up a jumbotron and loudspeaker system the next morning for the outside crowd. Parking for over 300 vehicles was organized and coordinated with the County and Village police. Detailed security measures were arranged to digitally photograph each person’s ID.</p>
<p>At the second synagogue in New Jersey, Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg, who is the son of Holocaust survivors, is no stranger to controversy. He made his stand against anti-Semitism after a rude awakening as an organizer of interfaith events when <a href="http://www.njjewishnews.com/article/16286/rabbis-reversal-riles-shoa-memorial-event">Muslim imams refused to stand</a> while Israel&#8217;s national anthem, &#8220;Hatikva,&#8221; was being played. He fought against future events where the politically correct interfaith and Jewish leaders decided to omit the Israeli anthem to appease the Muslim community. Despite personal attacks, he continues to speak out and tell the truth, and urges all Jews to change their meek persona, to stand up boldly and fight back.  <a href="http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/174814/shul-axes-pamela-geller-and--others-invite-her/">He declared</a>, “I cannot keep silent any longer. The voices of my father and my mother, survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, compel me to speak out — with zeal.” This is why he invited Pamela Geller and Greg Buckley Sr. to speak at his synagogue on April 14. After he invited them, he reported receiving a death threat and <a href="http://www.njjewishnews.com/article/17089/rebuking-colleagues-nj-rabbi-welcomes-anti-jihadi-blogger">40 BB pellets were fired</a> into the garage door at his home. He was not deterred. He said he believed <a href="http://www.njjewishnews.com/article/17089/rebuking-colleagues-nj-rabbi-welcomes-anti-jihadi-blogger">Geller needed to be heard</a>, “I would never force anyone to hear Ms. Geller, but neither will I stand by while thugs threaten violence merely because they do not like the message being delivered.”</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it turned out to be an incredible victory for the truth and free speech in the war “in the information battle space” as Geller described it in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5sHVtf95-o&amp;feature=share&amp;list=UUnv6WoPrsAxcf37C4WjsREA">her speech on Sunday morning at the Chabad of Great Neck.</a> In a resonant voice to the packed room of 200 in the Chabad House and outside on the jumbotron to the overflow crowd of more than 500, Geller intoned as everyone listened in rapt attention, &#8220;I am accused of being a hater, a bigot, because that is the war we are in. We are in a war in the information battle space, the war of ideas. All the bullets, bombs, and the bloodshed come as a result of what happens in this war – part of the war is to destroy anyone who speaks the truth.&#8221;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/hr.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-187955 aligncenter" alt="hr" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/hr.jpg" width="450" height="450" /></a></p>
<div style="text-align: center;"> <strong>Packed room of 200 in the Chabad House.</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Chabad-outside-2.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-187956" alt="Chabad-outside-2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Chabad-outside-2.jpg" width="450" height="223" /></a></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><strong> Outside on the jumbotron to the overflow crowd of more than 500. </strong></p>
<p>Pamela Geller often says, “truth is the new hate speech,” but truth and freedom won the day on April 14 at two synagogues. It was a victory over the forces that demonize dissent and crush freedom of speech just because of a viewpoint that doesn’t conform with their delusional perception of reality. Pamela Geller and Greg Buckley, Sr. will be speaking at other synagogues and venues in the future, to continue to speak the truth and defend our freedoms. Many will oppose, and many more will stand in solidarity with them. Miracles happen, and truth triumphs over adversity when many good freedom-loving people stand up, fight back and will not be intimidated.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>Open Letter to CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/phil-orenstein/open-letter-to-cuny-chancellor-matthew-goldstein/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=open-letter-to-cuny-chancellor-matthew-goldstein</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:30:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Orenstein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BDS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boycott]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brooklyn college]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178587</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Booklyn College lends legitimacy to the campaign to destroy the Jewish state. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/phil-orenstein/open-letter-to-cuny-chancellor-matthew-goldstein/img_0221-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-178590"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-178590" title="IMG_0221" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_02211-450x328.jpg" alt="" width="295" height="215" /></a>February 20, 2013</p>
<p>Chancellor Matthew Goldstein<br />
Office of the Chancellor<br />
535 East 80th Street<br />
New York, NY 10075<br />
Phone: 212.794.5311<br />
Fax: 212.794.5671<br />
<a href="mailto:chancellor@cuny.edu">chancellor@cuny.edu</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Open Letter to CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein:</p>
<p>I write this letter calling for the resignation of Brooklyn College President Karen L. Gould and Paisley Currah, chair of the political science department for their unscrupulous actions in violation of students’ First Amendments rights, sanctioning blatant viewpoint discrimination, and promoting biased political propaganda under the auspices of the City University of New York.  As a former adjunct instructor in the CUNY system and a New Yorker concerned with how my tax dollars are spent in our publicly-funded City University system, I add my voice to the growing concern incurred by the college president and political science department chair over the irresponsible manner in which they handled the virulent anti-Semitic event on February 7 co-sponsored by Brooklyn College’s political science department, entitled “<a href="http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/02/abuse_of_academic_freedom_at_b.html">BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement Against Israel,”</a> which serves to promote a global boycott of Israeli businesses, academics and institutions, and deny the legitimacy of the State of Israel.</p>
<p>The featured speakers at the BDS forum advocated boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning Israel, and have <a href="http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/02/abuse_of_academic_freedom_at_b.html">praised the terrorist groups</a> Hezbollah and Hamas whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews. One of the speakers, Omar Barghouti, founder and foremost advocate of BDS, has asserted that Israel is a racist apartheid state that has no right to exist, and he <a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&amp;x_issue=51&amp;x_article=1803">advocates for a Palestinian state</a> to replace Israel. He is not only promoting a global campaign to boycott and financially harm the Jews, replete with activists carrying signs saying “Don’t buy Israeli apartheid goods,” but also sponsors an academic boycott campaign against Israeli academics and universities known as the<a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/the-chutzpah-of-omar-barghouti/"> Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel</a>. This offshoot of the BDS movement flies in the face of the noble mission of academia as “free and open exchanges of ideas.”</p>
<p>Barghouti&#8217;s unscholarly crackpot theories, lies and deceptions have been <a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&amp;x_issue=51&amp;x_article=1803">well documented</a> and Brooklyn College’s BDS forum was a medium for the dissemination of these crackpot anti-Semitic theories. The BDS movement is not a campaign for Palestinian rights as its spokesmen ostensibly claim, or to protest disagreeable Israeli policies, but it is in effect political and economic warfare against Israel, seeking to dismantle the Jewish state.  For an academic department to sponsor such vicious propaganda is a breakdown of academic standards.</p>
<p>Propaganda and proselytism to students are forbidden according to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) regulations set forth in 1916 that officially declared that students must be presented with both sides of an issue. The BDS forum was pure political propaganda and although Brooklyn College president and political science department chair were petitioned to allow pro-Israel speakers, they refused to permit diversity of intellectual opinion by authorizing a one-sided bigoted event where Jewish students were expelled and denied the opportunity to ask questions.</p>
<p>I am pleased to learn that you have asked CUNY’s Office of Legal Affairs to <a href="http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/02/13/statement-by-chancellor-matthew-goldstein-3/">coordinate an investigation</a> into allegations that Jewish students were deliberately barred, forcibly ejected from the event, and their rights of free speech were denied.  But more unsettling questions remain, which should be the major focus of investigation and punitive action. The question of why overt viewpoint discrimination and one-sided anti-Semitic indoctrination under the guise of anti-Israelism is tolerated in any academic institution which should be “free and open exchanges of ideas,” needs to be investigated and appropriate action taken to remove the culpable faculty and administrators  before unforeseen consequences materialize.</p>
<p>In order to clarify my concerns, let’s take a look back in history to 1933 when Hitler rose to power and became Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis won a large number of seats in the German parliament. What followed was the notorious nationwide Nazi boycott targeting Jewish businesses and professionals directed by Nazi stormtroopers posting signs everywhere saying “Do not buy from Jews!” Widespread anti-Semitism mounted with the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 depriving Jews of their basic rights as citizens and banning them from all professional jobs in education, politics, academia and industry which escalated in severity ultimately concluding in the &#8220;Final Solution.”</p>
<p>In November 1933, <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=3634">Martin Heidegger, the 20<sup>th</sup> century’s leading intellectual idol </a>issued a decree applying the Nazi racial policies to the students and faculty of Freiburg University where he was rector. Jewish professors were fired and ultimately expelled from all German universities. When Hitler came to power, the majority of professors and students fell all over themselves to demonstrate their allegiance and obediently turned their universities into indoctrination centers for the Third Reich. The notorious book burnings took place, and freedom of expression, free inquiry, independent research and all objectivity was crushed under the jackboot of the “Fuhrer Principle” and absolute allegiance to the Nazi Party. Universities became the training grounds for the intellectual troops dedicated to serving Hitler for the extermination of European Jewry.</p>
<p>Ideas have powerful consequences in the real world and the seductive but destructive <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=3634">ideological precursors of Nazism </a>- German romanticism, Volkish ideology, anti-Semitic mythology, Hegelianism, racial nationalism, social Darwinism &#8211; were percolating in the German university decades before the emergence of the National Socialism.  The renowned philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, was rector of Berlin University and his messianic ideology of nation-worship spread like wildfire. The <a href="http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=3634">Hegelian concept of <em>Absolute Spirit</em> </a>culminated in the state as the “Divine Idea as it exists on Earth” and the Germans were the proud “chosen people” whom <em>Spirit </em>selected as its agent in human history, and the wretched wandering Jews must die out and be consigned to the scrap heap of human history. The human incarnation of Hegel’s <em>Spirit</em> walking on earth, to lead them out of the darkness to the promised Aryan land of true freedom, was the Fuhrer himself, Adolf Hitler. These 19<sup>th</sup> century academic ideological movements gave birth to the totalitarian political regimes of the 20<sup>th</sup> century and the mass murder of 100 million people.</p>
<p>My point is that when we look at the present day radical anti-Semitic ideological movements that are being given the imprimatur of respected universities and academic departments, this is remarkably similar to the malicious racialist ideologies that were incubating for decades in the eminent German universities that became the seedbed of the bloody atrocities of the past century. Thus the co-sponsorship of the BDS forum by Brooklyn College’s political science department gave legitimacy and an authoritative stamp of approval to the BDS movement, an extremist political propaganda tool for the destruction of the State of Israel. This is the critical turning-point where bad ideas start to become ugly realities. Now is the time to draw the line before anti-Semitic radicalism given legitimacy by Brooklyn College, escalates to its dreadful conclusion.</p>
<p>It is unacceptable for an academic department to sanction such extremist political indoctrination and to censor and prohibit opposing viewpoints. This corruption of AAUP standards must be investigated as well. President Karen Gould and Chairman Paisley Currah, need to be held accountable for permitting these academic violations under their watch, who like their rector forbears of Freiburg and Berlin Universities, have become the custodians of bourgeoning evil.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Phil Orenstein</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Cc: President Karen L. Gould<br />
2129 Boylan Hall<br />
Brooklyn, NY 11210<br />
718.951.5671<br />
<a href="mailto:bcpresident@brooklyn.cuny.edu">bcpresident@brooklyn.cuny.edu</a></p>
<p>Provost William A. Tramontano<br />
3137 Boylan Hall<br />
Brooklyn, NY 11210<br />
718.951.5864<br />
<a href="mailto:tramontano@brooklyn.cuny.edu">tramontano@brooklyn.cuny.edu</a></p>
<p>Political Science Dept Chairperson Paisley Currah<br />
3413 James Hall<br />
Brooklyn, NY 11210<br />
718.951.5306<br />
<a href="mailto:pcurrah@brooklyn.cuny.edu">pcurrah@brooklyn.cuny.edu</a></p>
<p>NYC Council Member Dan Halloran<br />
166-08 24th Road<br />
Whitestone, NY 11357<br />
Phone 718-631-6703<br />
Fax 718-631-6707<br />
<a href="mailto:dhalloran@council.nyc.gov">dhalloran@council.nyc.gov</a></p>
<p>NYC Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez<br />
Chair, Higher Education Committee<br />
618 W. 177th St Ground Floor<br />
New York, NY 10033<br />
Phone 917-521-2616<br />
Fax 917-521-1293</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Obama or Romney: Who is Better for Israel?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/phil-orenstein/obama-or-romney-who-is-better-for-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-or-romney-who-is-better-for-israel</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/phil-orenstein/obama-or-romney-who-is-better-for-israel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Oct 2012 04:44:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Orenstein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dan Fleshler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jeffrey Wiesenfeld]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=162875</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A debate between two distinguished voices serves as a wake-up call to all Jewish voters.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/phil-orenstein/obama-or-romney-who-is-better-for-israel/wall-14/" rel="attachment wp-att-162882"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-162882" title="wall" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/wall-450x277.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="194" /></a>Two distinguished and knowledgeable speakers, Dan Fleshler, a media and public affairs strategist in New York City, and Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, trustee of the City University of New York and former FBI foreign counter-intelligence agent, represented the 2012 presidential candidates at the October 14  <a href="http://www.rtfh.org/calendar/events/israeli_affairs/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">Israeli Affairs Breakfast at the Reform Temple of Forest Hills</span></a>. In order to maintain civility the event was billed as a “panel discussion,” not a debate, on the current hot-button issue that is dividing Jewish communities across America.</p>
<p>Lois Silverman, past president of the congregation introduced the speakers and the topic, “Obama or Romney – who is better for Israel,” saying that the U.S. and Israel have an unshakable relationship and that we are looking forward to hearing the speakers clarify the rather puzzling foreign policy positions of both Governor Romney and President Obama. They did the job, as they presented two diametrically opposed political views on the outcome of the election on Israel. The room was packed with an equally balanced audience from the political left to the right.</p>
<p>Dan Flesher started off lambasting Romney’s lack of foreign affairs experience and his dozens of foreign policy advisors vying for his heart and mind, many of whom are the neoconservatives and hawks who got us into the Iraq War. The far better bet for the State of Israel, he argued  is Obama’s “bridge building” approach to broker a secure peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors.</p>
<p>Fleshler has been a longtime American Jewish activist struggling to counteract the powerful influence of AIPAC, America’s leading pro-Israel lobby, and other hawkish groups that he maintains, have a stranglehold on America’s Middle East policies.  He authored <em>“Transforming America’s Israel Lobby – The Limits of Its Power and the Potential for Change”</em> (Potomac Books, May 2009) where he makes the case for a domestic pro-peace political bloc that is both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian, seeking an end to the Israeli “occupation” and envisions a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is a member of J Street’s national Advisory Council and a board member of Americans for Peace Now (APN), groups that share the same vision that the only path to peace is to secure a viable Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, based on the 1967 borders. It should be noted that <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=7458" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">J Street, partially funded by George Soros</span></a>, Arab and Muslim Americans and Iranian advocacy organizations, endorsed the Arab and Palestinian sponsored UN resolution to condemn Israel in the UN Security Council which spurred Democratic representatives to cut their ties with J Street.</p>
<p>Although Mitt Romney has pledged to eliminate “daylight” between the United States and Israeli governments, the accusations that Obama is anti-Israel because he has differences with Israeli policies are unfounded, according to Fleshler. Even as Obama seeks to put “daylight” between U.S. and Israel, we need to look at his record in the historical context of his predecessors rebuffing Israel. Past presidents such as Ronald Reagan suspended strategic cooperation with Israel and Gerald Ford sought a reassessment of US-Israeli relations, as did other presidents. However President Obama has delivered more military aid to Israel than any administration including the bunker-busting bombs, which were originally denied by the George W. Bush administration.</p>
<p>Obama has four years of experience in US-Israel relations, to Romney’s zero Fleshler stressed. His Middle East policy informed by notable advisors, maintains that the Israeli-Arab conflict as well as the existential threat involving Iran, cannot be solved without US engagement, in order to breach the differences between both sides. Both Israel and the Arab states will have to make concessions and tone down anti-Semitic rhetoric. Obama continues to pursue this bridge-building approach, the path laid out by Bill Clinton, the best template to resolve the Middle East conflicts without resorting to war. The Right has no answers and Fleshler stated that we can only hope and guess as to what Romney will do for Israel.</p>
<p>He compared the presidential candidates’ Middle East policies to two different treatment options of cancer specialists. One way is to cut out the cancer by drastic surgery, hoping the patient lives. The other option is the more diligent, painstaking approach, a step by step process treating the cancer by all therapeutic treatments available until the cancer goes into remission. Fleshler indicated that the former is Romney’s radical approach, while the later is Obama’s conscientious approach, which is best for Israel. The cancer specialist who doesn’t give up is the best way to save the patient.</p>
<p>The next speaker, Jeff Wiesenfeld delivered a clarion call to all American Jews to learn the lessons of our 2000 year history in the diaspora, from persecution and pogroms to the Holocaust, and apply it to the present when the State of Israel faces the prospect of extinction, in order to cast an informed vote for the presidential candidate who will be best prepared to protect Israel. Wiesenfled’s parents as well as his in-laws were Holocaust survivors, so when he speaks out in defense of Israel, it’s from the depths of his soul. On countless occasions he has stood up courageously as a Jewish warrior, the Maccabee of our age to defend the State of Israel and confront rabid anti-Semitism head-on regardless of the fear of repercussions or the straightjacket of political correctness, which renders more timid souls to perpetual silence.</p>
<p>Wiesenfeld delved in the history of the Jewish people discussing the plight of Gypsies, stateless wanderers, in order to help visualize the importance of our historic connection to Israel. Before we had a Jewish national homeland we were defenseless wanderers, like Gypsies who had no home, no state and no respect, and who are irrelevant today. We were powerless and vulnerable, but who could believe the prospect of the extermination of six million Jews? Wiesenfeld lamented in righteous indignation that the world did not “set a red line.”</p>
<p>Today the president of Iran threatens to “wipe Israel off the map.” But the difference today, Wiesenfeld admonished, is that there will be no “retail” Holocaust. One bomb is all that is necessary for instantaneous annihilation, all dead, rather than the Nazi’s systematic extermination process of 10,000 per day.</p>
<p>Today we need to set a “red line” for Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran is just as deadly fanatical as Nazi Germany. Before World War II, Russian Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky warned the Polish Jews to believe Hitler; the volcano is erupting and the time is short for them to be spared. Ahmadinejad, like Hitler, means what he says. He means to destroy the Jewish State. Iran has determined to develop nuclear weapons and deploy them against Israel, a threat even worse than the Holocaust. Germany had at least 70 million sympathetic to the Nazis, while 150 million Muslims are sympathetic to the jihadist terrorists. This time there will be no repeat of the diaspora. If Israel is destroyed, the Jewish people are finished. Israel is a haven where Jews can go to be safe, a homeland where we’re not vulnerable, and a safe haven to prevent a recurrence of the Holocaust. Without Israel, Jews would have nowhere to turn and would be unwelcome and vulnerable in every country. This means the end of the Jewish people and Judaism.</p>
<p>But as Jews, we are the only people who act against our own interests, Wiesenfeld admonished. He elaborated on the Jews’ historic love affair with the Democratic Party. Early in the last century, there were no answers for the downtrodden Jews of Eastern Europe who faced violent anti-Semitism on a daily basis. Marxism delivered a message of hope for the Jews. Here was an answer to save the Jews from their destiny of continuous persecution as they found a ticket to assimilation and acceptance in hostile societies embracing this new universal faith in the “Brotherhood of Man.” However the communists were no better for the Jews than any other tyrant. When they came to America, Jews all flocked to the Democratic Party, the Party of the downtrodden, taking the tenets of Marxism with them.  They voted for Roosevelt and embraced the labor union movement, the socialist platform, and the New Deal social reforms. Since then Jews have traditionally voted Democratic.</p>
<p>Tradition is the lifeblood of the Jewish people. Tradition held us together as a people through the 2000 year history of persecution in diaspora. But in America, this is one false tradition that should be discarded.  In a free market capitalist society where Jewish immigrants have enjoyed equal opportunities and have prospered, there’s no need to hang on to socialist traditions or the Democrat Party. This point was emphasized by Wiesenfeld’s reminder of the recent Democratic National Convention floor vote, which after three tries followed by boos and jeers, the majority of delegates resolved to reject Jerusalem as Israel’s indivisible capital.  “Those boos were for you! They don’t want your Israel,” he said.</p>
<p>Wiesenfeld blasted Obama’s cheerleading for the “Arab Spring” which turned into a nightmare for Israel. Today’s escalating chaos in the Middle East is the direct outcome of Obama’s foreign policy beginning with his Cairo speech of apologies for America, a show of appeasement to adversaries and weakness to the world. Obama worked against Mubarak, one of our allies, the same way in which Carter worked against the Shah of Iran and ushered in the Iranian Revolution and the tyrannical reign of the ayatollahs. We can’t have four more years of this nightmare for Israel.</p>
<p>During a heated question and answer period which reiterated many of the above points, Wiesenfeld called it “nourishkeit” responding to a question about whether Obama or Romney would be better for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said that the Mideast is in flames and Islamism is on the rise and we are giving the Palestinians money and weapons to fight Israel. It is an irrelevant discussion now since we have no partner for peace. We can only work with partners who really want peace and Israel will never go back to the “Auschwitz borders,” of 1967 as a condition for negotiations. These remarks were greeted with rousing applause.</p>
<p>Fleshler summed up his arguments saying that Obama, while not perfect, is better for Israel’s security, grading him six out of ten points on his foreign policy. Like the cancer specialist who wouldn’t give up, Obama too will never give up trying to bring about negotiations for peaceful solutions, not just sit back like Romney saying it’s impossible. Fleshler claimed that Iran hasn’t made the determination to get nukes and America doesn’t want another war in the Middle East, which would be an all out conflagration worse than anything we’ve seen in Afghanistan or Iraq. Obama is now doing everything to prevent us from getting to that point. Obama’s policies will eventually solve the problem and save Israel. The moderate approach of the middle ground is the answer, not the extremist approach of the right wing settlers who burned down Palestinian olive groves. Fleshler cautioned that we should not trust Romney with his George W. Bush-like policies and his ties to Evangelical Christians. At this point, members of an outraged audience hissed and booed as one person called out “that is a lie” in reference to his remark about the burning of the olive groves, while another said “what about the Fogel family murdered in their sleep?” <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161332#.UIll6YVl-qM" target="_blank">It has been documented</a> that the destruction of olive groves belonging to Arab farmers have been planned actions executed by Arabs and anarchists seeking to blame Jews.</p>
<p>In his closing remarks, Wiesenfeld affirmed that Israel, America’s greatest ally, is a legitimate issue in this election. He said that giving Obama a grade of six out of ten in foreign policy is a failure in his book. He gives Romney a higher grade for offering superior executive credentials, a different approach to foreign affairs and leadership grounded in reality. Romney’s policies are guided by the fact that there can be no peace talks without true partners for peace. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat, do not want peace with Israel. There can be no compromises with no one to talk to. The Jewish State faces an unprecedented opportunity for extinction. Romney would not fail to draw the “red line” on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The president has done nothing for the State of Israel. He did nothing for the Iranian people when they rose up against Ahmadinejad. Wiesenfeld&#8217;s concluded that Jewish voters had to affirm their inviolable connection with Israel and select the man best prepared to deal with the threats to her survival at a critical time when the Middle East is in flames and America’s greatest ally, Israel is in peril.</p>
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<p>Phil Orenstein is the Machine Shop Manager at Orics Industries Inc., NY., formerly an adjunct lecturer on Computer Aided Manufacturing at Queensborough Community College. He is a Republican County Committeeman who blogs at Democracy-Project.com and a member of the National Conference on Jewish Affairs. Email: <a href="mailto:maduroman@att.net" target="_blank">maduroman@att.net</a></p>
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		<title>Raoul Wallenberg’s Legacy for America’s Patriots</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/phil-orenstein/raoul-wallenberg%e2%80%99s-legacy-for-america%e2%80%99s-patriots/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=raoul-wallenberg%25e2%2580%2599s-legacy-for-america%25e2%2580%2599s-patriots</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Orenstein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Communism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Frank Marshall Davis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marx]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nazism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Raoul Wallenberg]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=139254</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An enduring symbol of individual initiative, freedom and the sanctity of the individual against the all-powerful state.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/raoul.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-139257" title="raoul" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/raoul.jpg" alt="" width="306" height="436" /></a><em>Editor&#8217;s note: August 4, 2012 marks the centennial birthday of World War II hero, Raoul Wallenberg. The following article commemorates his life and legacy. </em></p>
<p>The Colorado movie massacre was a tragedy and the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. It’s still in the news. Every commentator and so-called social science authority has a theory and root cause analysis. Worst of all, people are politicizing the issue. New York Mayor Bloomberg, along with his call for banning super-sized sugary drinks, salt, trans fats, cigarettes, baby formula and Orthodox circumcisions, is getting up on his soap box for stricter gun control. Every cockroach is coming out of the woodwork to sound off. Nassau County Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who never speaks in public, is also suddenly grandstanding gun control, her one-issue agenda. Liberal commentators are blaming everyone from Bush for overturning the assault weapons ban and the Colorado Tea Party as the cause of the shooting. But all this grandstanding is just deflecting us from the real issues. The real issues affecting America that no one wants to talk about are what we are going to talk about here. It’s a message of truth, hope and strength for the Tea Party and for freedom loving people everywhere.</p>
<p>I am involved in a community project in Queens, New York, to place a statue of Raoul Wallenberg, one of the foremost heroes of WWII, at the Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College.  The message of his life and legacy is particularly germane to the Tea Party which is all about individual initiative, constitutionally limited government and free enterprise. Raoul Wallenberg epitomizes individual initiative, freedom and the sanctity of the individual against the all-powerful state.</p>
<p>Comfortable in his affluent Swedish homeland, while nearly everyone was steeped a culture of denial and submission, Wallenberg was alarmed and stood up fearlessly taking action during WWII when millions of Jews were being rounded up and sent to be slaughtered in the Nazi death camps. Jews were considered traitors and sub-human parasites in Hitler’s Germany and civilized people in German and European high society turned away from the horrors of the concentration camps believing it can’t happen here.</p>
<p>Jews were well off and no one wanted to believe that millions of European Jews were being massacred right next door. Life was comfortable outside the war zone in Wallenberg’s homeland of Sweden and good people believed they were insignificant and powerless in the face of Hitler’s mighty authoritarian state. But Wallenberg, a righteous Christian stood up alone against all odds and became a heroic figure in the fight of good against hatred and evil saving 100,000 Hungarian Jews from extermination toward the closing days of WWII.</p>
<p>He stood eyeball to eyeball with Nazi colonel Adolf Eichmann in Hungary, who was charged with rounding up all the Hungarian Jewish men women and children, the remaining large concentration of Jews left alive in Europe in the last days of WWII, and deporting them to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps in neighboring Poland for slaughter. He bluntly told Eichmann you cannot kill the Jews and that he, Raoul Wallenberg would stop him. He did so with the spirit of his fierce determination and diplomacy and the bold strategy of issuing 1000’s of protective Swedish passports to Hungarian Jews. He was the hero that appeared in times of great danger to win the battle against great evil. We will be erecting the statue at Queensborough Community College, the first Wallenberg memorial on a U.S. college campus, to model his life as an example for our youth and all good people to follow today.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the present. Today we are beaten down by the growing power of the state. We live in a communist state in the USA run by the ruling elites. Communism, Nazism, Fascism, Islamism are all the same. They are all about big government control by an authoritarian party. They function to eradicate the people’s freedom of speech, thought, property, guns and money and place total power in the hands of the minority elites, destroying the middle class in the process, leaving just the peasants and the ruling class.</p>
<p>Obama’s first term is the tip of the iceberg. Today our conditions are very much like pre-war Nazi Germany when Hitler rose to power, was appointed chancellor and started nationalizing the banks, auto industry and healthcare and then seized absolute power.</p>
<p>Similarly Obama took control of the auto industry, the banks and nationalized healthcare. The state now controls the schools, the press, our cultural institutions, our healthcare and large sectors of the economy. Our freedoms are being stripped away. Soon the internet will be a tool of the government and free enterprise will no longer be free. They will soon seize control of our property, our money through undue taxation, our guns and our total welfare from cradle to grave.  Government is the biggest criminal element in the world. The government is stealing your money, not the rich, not Bain Capital, not the banks.</p>
<p>Obama is the master of manipulating the system for power. Nine million people are now on the federal disability rolls. It has increased five million since Obama took office. People are gaming the system with back problems, depression and anxiety so they can collect lifetime disability payments, encouraged by the Obama administration, since it takes millions of people off the unemployment statistics who are not counted as unemployed. This keeps the unemployment numbers down, a key economic indicator for the coming presidential election. Likewise, 46 million people are on food stamps. Food stamp commercials, on TV for the first time in U.S. history, are Obama’s taxpayer funded campaign commercials, since people getting government handouts will vote to have them continue. And over 100 million people are now getting welfare payments from the government. This 35% of the American people are guaranteed votes come Election Day. National security secrets were leaked by the White House putting the lives of our field agents in jeopardy in order to boost Obama’s national security resume.</p>
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		<title>Letter to UCI Administrators on Rejection of Wallenberg Statue</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/phil-orenstein/letter-to-uci-administrators-on-rejection-of-wallenberg-statue/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=letter-to-uci-administrators-on-rejection-of-wallenberg-statue</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 04:49:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Orenstein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phil orenstein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uc irvine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uci]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wallenberg statue]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=124975</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Exposing the rampant anti-Semitic hate long entrenched at UC Irvine.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/irvine.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-124980" title="irvine" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/irvine.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="498" /></a><em>Editor&#8217;s note: Below is a letter written by Phil Orenstein to UC Irvine administrators regarding UCI&#8217;s rejection of the Wallenberg Statue.</em> <em>It seeks to push back against and to expose the hostile anti-Semitic climate on the UCI campus. See Jamie Glazov&#8217;s Frontpage interview with Peter Lancz on &#8220;The Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign against Racism,&#8221; <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2010/07/29/the-raoul-wallenberg-world-campaign-against-racism/">here</a></em>.)<em><br />
</em></p>
<p>Dear Dean Lewis, President Yudof, and Chancellor Drake,</p>
<p>As a former college lecturer and current member of the <a href="http://ncjausa.org/">National Conference on Jewish Affairs</a>, I find it appalling and perplexing that University of California, Irvine would summarily reject, without explanation, the <a href="http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/uc-irvine-school-of-fine-arts-rejects.html">proposal for the erection of a commemorative Wallenberg statue</a> on the University of California, Irvine campus (1). This would have served as an exemplary educational tool to teach the majority of the student body vastly unfamiliar with the heroic deeds of <a href="http://cifwatch.com/2010/10/03/a-fathers-dream-a-sons-mission-and-the-memory-of-a-righteous-martyr/">Raoul Wallenberg</a>, the Swedish diplomat who risked his life to save 100,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps (2).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lancz.com/wallenberg/">Peter Lancz</a>, son of Hungarian master sculptor, Paul Lancz who was saved by Wallenberg himself, had originally proposed to University of California president Mark Yudof that the statue be erected on the UC Irvine campus, which has in recent years become notorious for rampant anti-Semitic hate speech and obstruction of pro-Israel speakers. This stellar opportunity, funded through outside donors, has now been discarded, further tarnishing the reputation of UC Irvine.</p>
<p>During this centennial celebration year of Wallenberg’s birth, Peter Lancz is spearheading a nationwide effort to raise awareness and keep the memory of this true hero and savior alive, fulfilling his father’s dream of fighting bigotry and anti-Semitism on campus, which in his own words is “the cancer of the human soul.” The proposal was forwarded to UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake, and finally sent on to the Claire Trevor School of the Arts to be considered by the Public Art Program Council.</p>
<p>How ironic that a few days after the rejection letter, the <a href="http://studioart.arts.uci.edu/gallery/eflierCAC.html">Claire Trevor School of the Arts</a> hosted a conference of rabid anti-Israel artists and filmmakers entitled “&#8230;and Europe will be stunned: The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland,” envisioning the return of over three million Jews to Poland (3). This is not an actual political movement, but an artistic project to demonize Israel by deconstructing Zionism as the malicious product of European propaganda, “at the price of bringing a disaster upon the people already inhabiting that land” in the words of one of the speakers. Now anti-Semitic hate speech is considered rational discourse and even merits an arts conference espousing, under the umbrella of institutionalized “academic freedom” the proposition that Israel has no right to exist.</p>
<p>But the Wallenberg rejection further exposes “the cancer of the human soul” long entrenched at UC Irvine. The arts conference was bland compared to the epidemic of virulent hate speech and anti-Semitic attacks on the UC Irvine campus, that <a href="../2012/01/23/muslim-hate-groups/">Judea Pearl</a>, father of Daniel Pearl, journalist murdered by Islamic terrorists, called the “proving grounds for a nationally orchestrated Israel-defamation campaign.” Throughout the school year and especially during “Israel Apartheid Week” extremist speakers call for terrorist attacks on Israel and jihad against the United States. <a href="../2012/01/23/muslim-hate-groups/">Imam Amir-Abdel Malik-Ali</a>, a notorious supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, has spoken at UCI numerous times, calling for the destruction of the &#8220;apartheid state of Israel,&#8221; comparing Jews to Nazis, and going on long anti-Semitic tirades about the “disproportionate numbers of Jews, Zionist Jews, in the media, in finance and foreign policy.” He preached suicide bombing of Israel to a campus audience saying: “That ain’t suicide, that’s martyrdom.” This is pure incitement to violence against Jews and it has precipitated hostile attacks, rock throwing and desecration of a Holocaust memorial on campus (4).</p>
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		<title>The Ugly War Against Israel on College Campuses</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/phil-orenstein/the-ugly-war-against-israel-on-college-campuses/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-ugly-war-against-israel-on-college-campuses</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/phil-orenstein/the-ugly-war-against-israel-on-college-campuses/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:38:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Orenstein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[acadermia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jew-Hate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslims]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=116523</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Organizations tasked with defending Jews succumb to the comfort zone of silence.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/jew-hatred.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-116525" title="jew-hatred" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/jew-hatred.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="272" /></a></div>
<p>As Israel becomes increasingly isolated in the world, an organized propaganda war of hatred and incitement against Israel and Zionism is being conducted on college campuses today. Recently, on November 14, the aptly named event, “The Ugly War Against Israel on College Campuses” at Temple Beth Sholom in Roslyn Heights was an inspirational call to action to stand up for Israel with the faith and integrity of Abraham. Those students and alumni who speak out and fight on the battlefield of our college campuses will make all the difference.</p>
<p>The event was part of an ongoing lecture series sponsored by the <a href="http://www.bethsholom.com/images/stories/downloads_files/herbert-tarr-11.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">Rabbi Herbert Tarr North Shore Institute for Adult Jewish Education</span></a>. The house was packed with students and attendees from across the political spectrum. Supporters of AIPAC, StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, National Association of Scholars (NAS), and others were in attendance. Various members of the National Conference on Jewish Affairs (NCJA), a new pro-Israel, anti-Islamist umbrella organization of Jewish leaders and groups were handing out literature. They work closely with young Jewish students in the belly of the beast on campus.</p>
<p>The propaganda war against Israel was addressed by two eminent speakers, <a href="http://eev.liu.edu/HolocaustReCtr/survivors/iroth.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">Irving Roth</span></a>, Director of Temple Judea’s Holocaust Resource Center and international educator, and <a href="http://www.educationupdate.com/archives/2006/Oct/html/spot-jeff.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">Jeffrey Wiesenfeld</span></a>, trustee of the City University of New York (CUNY) and former FBI Foreign counter-intelligence agent. They both presented personal experiences, research and anecdotal reports on the movement to delegitimize Israel that has overrun college campuses and extends its cult-like tentacles into New York’s highest political and cultural circles, and most importantly, how to fight it.</p>
<p>“The soul of America is at stake. The battlefield of our college campuses is where the fight for the soul of America takes place.” Irving Roth, a Holocaust survivor, trumpeted this message about the urgency of the battle we face as he opened our eyes to the troubling extent of the infiltration of campuses by anti-Israel professors, administrators, department chairs and the <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6175" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">Muslim Students Association</span></a> (MSA), an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. He laid out the alarming details of how well-funded, well-organized and long-standing is this ubiquitous propaganda movement, and just as deadly as the nonstop terrorist violence against Israel.</p>
<p>From the birth of the State of Israel in 1948, Arab armies could not defeat her on the battlefield so they sought to convert American college campuses to a propaganda machine to lionize Islam and demonize Israel. This ongoing campaign of hate and anti-Semitism has been well funded by Saudi Arabian petrodollars with professorships on sale for upwards of $50 million to peddle the Palestinian narrative that Israel is an “apartheid state” that is “occupying” Palestine.</p>
<p>Roth explained that the propaganda tool “apartheid state” was initially applied to Israel at the 2001 Durban “conference against racism,” the first of a series of UN sponsored hate-fests equating Zionism with racism held in South Africa, in order to brand Israel with the likeness of apartheid South Africa. The international outcry against South Africa, where the white ruling minority legally sanctioned segregation for blacks and declared them second class citizens who could not vote, hold office, were denied citizenship and civil rights, was such a powerful mobilizing force that Arab propagandists used it to rally international condemnation against Israel. Roth shared a story of visiting an Israeli hospital, where Jews, Arabs, Christians, and Muslims are all given the same level of care, to show that equating Israel with apartheid is the biggest lie in the world.</p>
<p>The “Big Lie” was taken to campuses and marketed nationally as annual hate-fests named <a href="http://apartheidweek.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">“Israel Apartheid Week”</span></a> and the global crusade to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) Israel, based on Israel’s alleged “apartheid” policies. Repeating lies often enough that they will be believed, is the method of indoctrination used on campus by the MSA and its affiliates. This campaign of malicious lies and false scholarship to delegitimize Israel orchestrated by the MSA has been going on for decades where branches have been set up on 150 campuses in America. Well-financed, militant, professional Arab activists enroll in a few classes to qualify as students and infiltrate the college system.</p>
<p>In order to confront this rampant academic deceit, Roth insisted that Jewish students need to be pro-active in the classroom and stand up against lies and defamation of Israel when they hear it from professors or fellow students. Just as the IDF and U.S. soldiers sacrifice their life for freedom and democracy on the battlefield, students are making the relatively small sacrifice of potentially lower grades by speaking out in the classroom.</p>
<p>With an Evangelical Christian population numbering over 80 million in America, Roth admonished us to join together with our Christian neighbors who show stronger support for Israel than most Jews. Roth shared experiences of Evangelical services he attended were he heard spiritual paeans to the State of Israel that moved him to tears. He urged us to share our heritage with college students. For two millennium, the Jewish people have been rejected from countries throughout the world. Now at long last we have the Jewish State, a safe haven that can welcome our people home. We need to teach our youth what the blessing of Israel means to the Jewish people and to stand up and defend it.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, the son of Holocaust survivors himself, has often raised his voice fearlessly in defense of the State of Israel and the condition of Jewry worldwide and has repeatedly faced negative repercussions from certain segments of the Jewish community. He railed at these “Jewish enablers” of anti-Israel defamation who disregard the Torah and the commandments, and instead worship at the altar of “social justice.” They are the idolaters of today. He expressed outrage against the Jewish organizations that stood by silently and some of whom, together with the entire academic community condemned him when he stood up forthrightly defending the Jewish State.</p>
<p>Wiesenfeld gave us a taste of the rampant anti-Zionist and anti-Israel fervor on campuses nationwide that has been exacerbated recently by the hostile stance of President Obama toward Israel. He pointed out that the most anti-Israel president in history, who has sold out Israel to curry favor with our adversaries, has given the green light for animus toward Jews and Israel to gather momentum on campuses today.</p>
<p>Anti-Israel events such as “Palestine Day” and “Palestine Awareness Week” at such colleges as University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, and many others made the case that Israel, created through “ethnic cleansing” needs to be eliminated, replete with mobs chanting “death to Zionism” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Violent anti-Israel riots broke out at <a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=46&amp;x_review=9" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">Concordia University</span></a> preventing Netanyahu from speaking after being invited by a Jewish student group. Recently a professor was heard screaming <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/kent-st-prof-reportedly-yells-death-to-israel-at-event-with-israeli-diplomat/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800080;">“death to Israel”</span></a> at a Kent State event where Ishmael Khaldi, an Arab Israeli diplomat was speaking.</p>
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		<title>Challenging the Slander at Columbia&#8217;s Israel-Bashing Event</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/phil-orenstein/challenging-the-lies-at-columbia-israel-bashing-event/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=challenging-the-lies-at-columbia-israel-bashing-event</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/phil-orenstein/challenging-the-lies-at-columbia-israel-bashing-event/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 May 2011 04:34:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Orenstein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Center for Constitutional Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CPS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[david horowitz freedom center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[depaul university]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[event]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gaza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Goldstone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Norman Finkelstein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rashid Khalidi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[report]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=92730</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Finkelstein and Khalidi utter shameless lies against the Jewish State.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Khalidi1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-92791" title="Khalidi" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Khalidi1.jpg" alt="" width="252" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>The Center for Palestinian Studies (CPS) at Columbia University hosted an event on May 2, 2011 entitled “Gaza: Israel’s War and the Goldstone Report.” The panel of rabid anti-Israel academics included Norman Finkelstein, author of “This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion;&#8221; Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab studies at Columbia, co-director of CPS, and author of “The Iron Cage” (and former professor of political science at DePaul University who was denied tenure and resigned); and Peter Weiss, vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.</p>
<p>I gathered a couple of defenders of Israel and attended the event in order to challenge the radical anti-Israel orthodoxy at Columbia. Before the event began, I handed out a printout of David Horowitz’s forceful and factual ad that ran in the <em>New York Times</em> last week, entitled: <a href="http://www.campsol.com/fpm/images/042911_ad.html" target="_blank">“The Palestinians’ Case Against Israel is Based on a Genocidal Lie.”</a> I had the fortune to meet Danielle Reich, a Columbia undergraduate student, Hasbara fellow and campus Camera representative, who came to defend Israel as well. There were altogether 300 people, an assemblage of student activists, faculty and aging hippies with a handful of Israel supporters. Many people handed the flyer back to me after they saw the name David Horowitz Freedom Center. I engaged a few folks in debate over some of the points in the ad.</p>
<p>I reiterated the message in the Horowitz ad that the Palestinian claim that Israel “occupies Palestine” is an outright historical lie and that there has never been a “Palestinian” state or entity to occupy before the PLO was created in 1964 in order to obliterate the State of Israel. People asked why I am denouncing the Palestinian people. I said, &#8220;Because they are suffering,&#8221; echoing the message in the ad. But, I continued, the cause of their suffering is not Israel, but sixty years of Arab aggression. If we continue to blame and demonize Israel, we will never get to the core of the Israeli-Palestinian question, which is that Arab dictatorships have been using the Palestinian people as political pawns in their war against the State of Israel. This is the manner in which Danielle and I argued with some of the anti-Israel activists around us before the event began.</p>
<p>The speakers, Finkelstein and Khalidi, were venomous in their detailed demonization of Israel, and it was grueling to listen to their talks, but the audience was worse. The person I was sitting next to was mourning the death of Osama bin Laden. In fact, I think many in the audience were OBL sympathizers. I got into a vehement argument with one middle-aged lady who viciously attacked Israel, saying that Israel backed out of every deal and shortchanged the Palestinians and that I should read Dennis Ross&#8217; book, whom she described as “one of your guys.” I said Arafat backed out of the deal which would have given the Palestinians a state and she kept hollering, &#8220;Bulls**t, Israel backed out, read Dennis Ross.&#8221;</p>
<p>I overheard one young woman praising Hezbollah and saying that Israel was the worst thing that happened since the Holocaust. I confronted her on her statements, asking her to repeat what she said about Israel and why she was praising a terrorist organization. She was startled to find a supporter of Israel in the midst of an otherwise compliant group of Muslims and left-wing activists and was speechless. Her friends chimed in saying, &#8220;One man&#8217;s terrorist is another&#8217;s freedom fighter,&#8221; making the point that they, too, are admirers of Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Before the lecture, people were passing out nefarious literature on &#8220;Nakba&#8221; (the Palestinian anniversary of the creation of Israel, &#8220;the catastrophe&#8221;) and the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” to their activist friends and announcing upcoming events to excoriate the Jewish State. I spoke to a Palestinian Muslim sporting a 1960s beatnik goatee, who said the Palestinians have had a &#8220;culture&#8221; in the region for many past generations, after I confronted him with the fact that there was no Palestinian entity during the 400 year Ottoman reign and during the British rule after World War I. I mentioned the fact that Mark Twain said it was a desolate land with virtually no inhabitants. To everything I said, he answered, &#8220;Zionist propaganda.&#8221; He even claimed there was no Arab War with Israel in 1948. It is all Zionist propaganda. There was nothing further I could say to the deaf and dumb.</p>
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