They don’t even know who Depeche Mode are. The students. At Columbia and now all over the US. They don’t know. I know they don’t know because I lived with a Gen Z kid for a period not too long ago, and she had no idea who Depeche Mode were. She couldn’t distinguish between AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. I’d play a song - any song - from
You did it again Eve! But when will the adults or people with spines show up on the campuses and tell these children they need to go to class and study the facts? They are raging without any sense that they are pawns of The Republic of Iran. Additionally, if one more news commentator likens this to the Viet Nam protests I will scream! Our service members are not fighting and dying in a war in foreign country! It was a civil war where we did not belong and 58,000 of our precious lives were lost and we were being lied to regarding why we were even there. This is in no way comparable! These protestors are out and out antisemites who wish Jewish students harm and are urging the destruction of Israel. .
Eve, as always, your words are brilliant and poignant. Here were my questions for the "protesters", which I posted as a (very) long FB status update:
1) Is there any other country that you feel doesn’t have a right to exist? Literally, any other country in the world that you would describe as “illegal”?
2) You constantly accuse Israel of committing genocide. Is there any other country on the planet against which you make a similar claim? Are you aware of what Russia is doing in Ukraine, and do you know anything about what it did in Bucha? Are you aware of any how many Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular died in the Syrian civil war? Did you protest at all over what has been going on for years in Sudan and Yemen, or do you only get agitated when you can blame Jews?
3) You constantly repeat Hamas talking points, including/especially its claims regarding civilian casualties. Why do you accept its numbers but completely dismiss any numbers from Israel?
4) You scream repeatedly that you want a “ceasefire now”. Are you aware that there was a ceasefire in effect until the morning of October 7th, and Hamas has broken every ceasefire agreement that was in place? Does that matter at all to you? Are you honest enough to admit that it’s really only Israel which you want to “cease firing”, and that you’re perfectly fine if Hamas continues to lob rocket after rocket at Israel, and that what happened on October 7th didn’t bother you at all?
5) What should happen to the remaining hostages that Hamas is holding, and has been holding for over six months now? Should Israel just forget about them?
6) What SHOULD Israel have done after October 7th? No country on the planet would accept what happened that day without responding.
7) You keep referring to Israel as a “settler/colonial” project. Colony of which country/ies? Where do you think the Jewish people came from?
8 ) I’m giving you a magic wand: You can erase Israel from the map. Where are the approximately 8,000,000 Jews who live there going to go? Judging by your protests here in the west, I think that we can safely assume that you don’t want them where you live. So, where should they go?
9) You claim that the Jewish people are not actually from Israel and therefore, have no right to be there. You’re parading around streets/campuses in North America screaming just that. Are you Native American? If not, how did you get here? Are you prepared to immediately go back to the country/ies where your ancestors originated?
10) You claim to not hate Jews, and that’s it’s only “Zionists” and/or Israelis who you dislike, but your protests are full of signs comparing Jews to Nazis and singing the praises of Hamas, an organization which has called for Jews worldwide to be wiped out. How do you reconcile those positions?
11) Not long ago, many of you were out on the streets, protesting that we should believe women when they claimed that they were raped and assaulted, a position with which I agree entirely, BTW. Yet, when Israeli women make that claim, you shout it down and/or deny that it even happened. Admittedly, some of you will concede that it happened, but then you follow it up with a claim that it was “justified”. Why is it “justified” only when Israeli women are the victims?
Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Dachau by US troops...and exposure of the Nazis’ crimes. Not one mention in the media. Today US students are actively supporting another Holocaust. How is this possible in a rational society? Oh, wait...we are no longer rational and have elected leaders who hate our country.
There is more here. These are sleeper cells of students for Justice in Palestine. This is part of a long game. The dumb kids are being run by professionals.
I'm so relieved to hear Eve's voice in print calling out, with exactly and precisely the right adjectives, the Gen Z kids who are galloping around the campuses with less control than over-excited kids at a 3 year-old's birthday party. It is literally breath-taking to me to see these girls and boys [we can hardly call them young women/young men] who have, after all, had the opportunity of a certain number of years on this earth, in their facile state of crass ignorance, posturing their power. Boy oh boy, are they privileged, are they into themselves .... how would they define the word 'responsibility', I wonder. Responsibility to truth, to history, to LEARNING! Give them two minutes wandering the streets of Tehran or seeking their Hamas heroes in Gaza, and they'd be shocked out of their little minds. One day the smiles on their faces will turn sour. The question is will they understand why?
I dont like it when the word "Kids" is used to describe the 18-24 yo Islamists and Leftist fascists who control these campuses. 18 yo Israeli Jewish "kids" have to go in the Army. When I was 18 I was in the US Navy. All adults. I am so disappointed in the young Jewish Americans (adults) who won't fight back...at least somewhere. This is what they want...dhimmis, lambs, and the collaborators. Maybe a few have to suffer ...god forbid... being dismissed from UCLA or Columbia for fighting back.
Interestingly, the comeuppance is already happening: hiring managers are indicating that they are 33% less likely to hire from the ivies ( article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2024/04/29/exclusive-employers-are-souring-on-ivy-league-grads-while-these-20-new-ivies-ascend ) What folks have not figured out is that, unlike the 1970s, in the age of social media the folks participating in these protests are long-term toxic. Just pragmatically as a hiring manager, I would be extremely wary going forward that I might end up with someone at my organization where a video or a photo of them spewing antisemitic vitriol would surface later on. Further, I predict that these protests - and the sheer amount of inherent entitlement being seen on the news daily - is going to completely sour the nation on student loan forgiveness, and there will be further resentment from the middle classes against these protest participants for tanking that for them.
"And now the youth have romanticized the terrorists and are giving up their lives in thrall to their cause; a cause they don’t even understand. They just want to be part of it because they have made nothing else for themselves. It has become their whole identity. " ---Eve, you concisely captured the last four years. Thank you for your strength and wisdom.
Eve - My credentials: I am a Vietnam era (I did not serve in the conflict, rather attended to wounded returning from the war in an Army Hospital). Currently in my 83d year. My expertise includes firearms training in pistol, rifle and shotgun for personal defense and sporting events.
While living on Long Island and in South Florida, I taught many of my Jewish friends the fundamentals of firearms use, my primary interest being safety foremost, then the ethics of firearms ownership. Now, having been retired for decades, I am compelled by the insanity of antisemitism and physical danger to Jewish communities and their children to offer home and personal defense training. Obviously, due to varying State laws, I cannot do it in person, so I would like to venture into online training - and for that, I need help.
Sadly, I have no expertise whatsoever in producing and presenting material online. I am willing to bear the expense to produce the films (videos?) because the training should be at no cost to the Jewish community as well as reflect my own philosophy concerning the use of of deadly force: “Only deployed in the gravest extreme!”
It is my hope that one of your subscribers living in the Central Florida/Orland area has such expertise and would be available to produce the material with me.
For privacy and security concerns, it would be prudent to communicate out of the public limelight - there are those who would take umbrage at Jews being able to defend themselves.
So, Eve, I ask for your approval… I will proceed only with that approval! Should you agree, please respond privately and I will engage a script writer friend to begin the adventure.
G_d speed, my friend. I hope you can get this off the ground. I've been saying since October that they should be teaching Krav Maga at Hillel. Try and avoid trouble, but if anyone puts their hands on you, hurt them.
I have been screaming into the void about antisemitism on college campuses for years now, but it has saved my own kids as well as those of family members who thankfully listened to me. While I am sure this shit storm probably isn’t what you envisioned or wanted, I am happy you are finally feeling some vindication.
Seven months ago we would not have thought this was possible or even likely. With an absence of consequence for the anti Zionist/anti Jew hatred, the behaviour has incrementally escalated. It will end badly unless our elected representatives take action firmly and decisively. Patronising warnings aren’t working. If our leaders won’t stand up to the mob we are doomed.
It is very hard to add to this blog. As a survivor of the 1960s, I see so many errors in the attempts to draw parallels between today's pro-Hamas demonstrators and my era's antiwar movement, besides the obvious one that we were at risk of being sent to fight a war we considered unjust while they don't want their parents' tuition dollars to be invested in a country whose government they don't like.
Today's demonstrators have no skin in the game. They will not be sent to Gaza. If they did find themselves in Gaza, they would be the targets of the people they claim to support, as those people oppose women's rights, gay rights, and any belief other than fundamentalist Islam and use death and torture to enforce their opposition.
This is a movement of the effete, in support of a group whose ideals they despise and in opposition to a group whose ideals they endorse simply based on a lack of education. This is, of course, ironic given that the sites and targets of the protests are institutions of higher learning. I only hope that the consequences of their actions don't destroy their whole lives...only a part of them so that they can learn and perhaps do something morally correct some day.
THANK YOU!!! My Israeli cousin introduced me Depeche Mode in 1998. She was a massive fan, following them on tours throughout Europe. You may have attended the same concerts. I was a GTA just before and then during the pandemic and I witnessed the indoctrination process on campus. The social justice departments which should never have existed to begin with are EVERYTHING in these schools. Every school. I believe these programs began after Obama took over. I know this is true because I took a required intro to sociology course in 2011 after having taken an intro to sociology in 2002 and there was a CLEAR difference. Firstly, the 2002 course taught about all the different schools of though from John Lock to Carl Marx to Hitler. The 2011 instructor began her course by stating - "by the end of the semester, you will understand why black people can't be racist." It was woke 101 and I still have all the school work documented. It even included gender confusion. I didn't realize at the time how dangerous it all was, so I just went along with it, answered the way she wanted, got the A+ and a nice recommendation to grad school. Now look where were are. Awful!
You did it again Eve! But when will the adults or people with spines show up on the campuses and tell these children they need to go to class and study the facts? They are raging without any sense that they are pawns of The Republic of Iran. Additionally, if one more news commentator likens this to the Viet Nam protests I will scream! Our service members are not fighting and dying in a war in foreign country! It was a civil war where we did not belong and 58,000 of our precious lives were lost and we were being lied to regarding why we were even there. This is in no way comparable! These protestors are out and out antisemites who wish Jewish students harm and are urging the destruction of Israel. .
And the faculty and administrators encourage and enable and participate with them.
Eve, as always, your words are brilliant and poignant. Here were my questions for the "protesters", which I posted as a (very) long FB status update:
1) Is there any other country that you feel doesn’t have a right to exist? Literally, any other country in the world that you would describe as “illegal”?
2) You constantly accuse Israel of committing genocide. Is there any other country on the planet against which you make a similar claim? Are you aware of what Russia is doing in Ukraine, and do you know anything about what it did in Bucha? Are you aware of any how many Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular died in the Syrian civil war? Did you protest at all over what has been going on for years in Sudan and Yemen, or do you only get agitated when you can blame Jews?
3) You constantly repeat Hamas talking points, including/especially its claims regarding civilian casualties. Why do you accept its numbers but completely dismiss any numbers from Israel?
4) You scream repeatedly that you want a “ceasefire now”. Are you aware that there was a ceasefire in effect until the morning of October 7th, and Hamas has broken every ceasefire agreement that was in place? Does that matter at all to you? Are you honest enough to admit that it’s really only Israel which you want to “cease firing”, and that you’re perfectly fine if Hamas continues to lob rocket after rocket at Israel, and that what happened on October 7th didn’t bother you at all?
5) What should happen to the remaining hostages that Hamas is holding, and has been holding for over six months now? Should Israel just forget about them?
6) What SHOULD Israel have done after October 7th? No country on the planet would accept what happened that day without responding.
7) You keep referring to Israel as a “settler/colonial” project. Colony of which country/ies? Where do you think the Jewish people came from?
8 ) I’m giving you a magic wand: You can erase Israel from the map. Where are the approximately 8,000,000 Jews who live there going to go? Judging by your protests here in the west, I think that we can safely assume that you don’t want them where you live. So, where should they go?
9) You claim that the Jewish people are not actually from Israel and therefore, have no right to be there. You’re parading around streets/campuses in North America screaming just that. Are you Native American? If not, how did you get here? Are you prepared to immediately go back to the country/ies where your ancestors originated?
10) You claim to not hate Jews, and that’s it’s only “Zionists” and/or Israelis who you dislike, but your protests are full of signs comparing Jews to Nazis and singing the praises of Hamas, an organization which has called for Jews worldwide to be wiped out. How do you reconcile those positions?
11) Not long ago, many of you were out on the streets, protesting that we should believe women when they claimed that they were raped and assaulted, a position with which I agree entirely, BTW. Yet, when Israeli women make that claim, you shout it down and/or deny that it even happened. Admittedly, some of you will concede that it happened, but then you follow it up with a claim that it was “justified”. Why is it “justified” only when Israeli women are the victims?
Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Dachau by US troops...and exposure of the Nazis’ crimes. Not one mention in the media. Today US students are actively supporting another Holocaust. How is this possible in a rational society? Oh, wait...we are no longer rational and have elected leaders who hate our country.
There is more here. These are sleeper cells of students for Justice in Palestine. This is part of a long game. The dumb kids are being run by professionals.
I'm so relieved to hear Eve's voice in print calling out, with exactly and precisely the right adjectives, the Gen Z kids who are galloping around the campuses with less control than over-excited kids at a 3 year-old's birthday party. It is literally breath-taking to me to see these girls and boys [we can hardly call them young women/young men] who have, after all, had the opportunity of a certain number of years on this earth, in their facile state of crass ignorance, posturing their power. Boy oh boy, are they privileged, are they into themselves .... how would they define the word 'responsibility', I wonder. Responsibility to truth, to history, to LEARNING! Give them two minutes wandering the streets of Tehran or seeking their Hamas heroes in Gaza, and they'd be shocked out of their little minds. One day the smiles on their faces will turn sour. The question is will they understand why?
I dont like it when the word "Kids" is used to describe the 18-24 yo Islamists and Leftist fascists who control these campuses. 18 yo Israeli Jewish "kids" have to go in the Army. When I was 18 I was in the US Navy. All adults. I am so disappointed in the young Jewish Americans (adults) who won't fight back...at least somewhere. This is what they want...dhimmis, lambs, and the collaborators. Maybe a few have to suffer ...god forbid... being dismissed from UCLA or Columbia for fighting back.
I was about to write a similar comment. These dhimmionstrators aren't children they're adults behaving like extremely ignorant spoiled brats.
I like “dhimmionstrators”!
Speaking of 80s music...
All you zombies hide your faces
All you people in the street
All you sitting in high places?
The pieces gonna fall on you
Interestingly, the comeuppance is already happening: hiring managers are indicating that they are 33% less likely to hire from the ivies ( article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2024/04/29/exclusive-employers-are-souring-on-ivy-league-grads-while-these-20-new-ivies-ascend ) What folks have not figured out is that, unlike the 1970s, in the age of social media the folks participating in these protests are long-term toxic. Just pragmatically as a hiring manager, I would be extremely wary going forward that I might end up with someone at my organization where a video or a photo of them spewing antisemitic vitriol would surface later on. Further, I predict that these protests - and the sheer amount of inherent entitlement being seen on the news daily - is going to completely sour the nation on student loan forgiveness, and there will be further resentment from the middle classes against these protest participants for tanking that for them.
"And now the youth have romanticized the terrorists and are giving up their lives in thrall to their cause; a cause they don’t even understand. They just want to be part of it because they have made nothing else for themselves. It has become their whole identity. " ---Eve, you concisely captured the last four years. Thank you for your strength and wisdom.
Eve - My credentials: I am a Vietnam era (I did not serve in the conflict, rather attended to wounded returning from the war in an Army Hospital). Currently in my 83d year. My expertise includes firearms training in pistol, rifle and shotgun for personal defense and sporting events.
While living on Long Island and in South Florida, I taught many of my Jewish friends the fundamentals of firearms use, my primary interest being safety foremost, then the ethics of firearms ownership. Now, having been retired for decades, I am compelled by the insanity of antisemitism and physical danger to Jewish communities and their children to offer home and personal defense training. Obviously, due to varying State laws, I cannot do it in person, so I would like to venture into online training - and for that, I need help.
Sadly, I have no expertise whatsoever in producing and presenting material online. I am willing to bear the expense to produce the films (videos?) because the training should be at no cost to the Jewish community as well as reflect my own philosophy concerning the use of of deadly force: “Only deployed in the gravest extreme!”
It is my hope that one of your subscribers living in the Central Florida/Orland area has such expertise and would be available to produce the material with me.
For privacy and security concerns, it would be prudent to communicate out of the public limelight - there are those who would take umbrage at Jews being able to defend themselves.
So, Eve, I ask for your approval… I will proceed only with that approval! Should you agree, please respond privately and I will engage a script writer friend to begin the adventure.
G_d speed, my friend. I hope you can get this off the ground. I've been saying since October that they should be teaching Krav Maga at Hillel. Try and avoid trouble, but if anyone puts their hands on you, hurt them.
I have been screaming into the void about antisemitism on college campuses for years now, but it has saved my own kids as well as those of family members who thankfully listened to me. While I am sure this shit storm probably isn’t what you envisioned or wanted, I am happy you are finally feeling some vindication.
Seven months ago we would not have thought this was possible or even likely. With an absence of consequence for the anti Zionist/anti Jew hatred, the behaviour has incrementally escalated. It will end badly unless our elected representatives take action firmly and decisively. Patronising warnings aren’t working. If our leaders won’t stand up to the mob we are doomed.
It is very hard to add to this blog. As a survivor of the 1960s, I see so many errors in the attempts to draw parallels between today's pro-Hamas demonstrators and my era's antiwar movement, besides the obvious one that we were at risk of being sent to fight a war we considered unjust while they don't want their parents' tuition dollars to be invested in a country whose government they don't like.
Today's demonstrators have no skin in the game. They will not be sent to Gaza. If they did find themselves in Gaza, they would be the targets of the people they claim to support, as those people oppose women's rights, gay rights, and any belief other than fundamentalist Islam and use death and torture to enforce their opposition.
This is a movement of the effete, in support of a group whose ideals they despise and in opposition to a group whose ideals they endorse simply based on a lack of education. This is, of course, ironic given that the sites and targets of the protests are institutions of higher learning. I only hope that the consequences of their actions don't destroy their whole lives...only a part of them so that they can learn and perhaps do something morally correct some day.
Holy sweet mother of nazis. This is it. Never again is right now. How can we stem the tide?
THANK YOU!!! My Israeli cousin introduced me Depeche Mode in 1998. She was a massive fan, following them on tours throughout Europe. You may have attended the same concerts. I was a GTA just before and then during the pandemic and I witnessed the indoctrination process on campus. The social justice departments which should never have existed to begin with are EVERYTHING in these schools. Every school. I believe these programs began after Obama took over. I know this is true because I took a required intro to sociology course in 2011 after having taken an intro to sociology in 2002 and there was a CLEAR difference. Firstly, the 2002 course taught about all the different schools of though from John Lock to Carl Marx to Hitler. The 2011 instructor began her course by stating - "by the end of the semester, you will understand why black people can't be racist." It was woke 101 and I still have all the school work documented. It even included gender confusion. I didn't realize at the time how dangerous it all was, so I just went along with it, answered the way she wanted, got the A+ and a nice recommendation to grad school. Now look where were are. Awful!
Nailed it again Eve!