Dave Portnoy unloads on anti-Israel college protesters: 'I wouldn't hire any of these activists

[Della]

Because of their heritage- Arab, which is automatically linked to being muslim. My husband's colleague is Persian and Jewish. Her name is Persian. She was born in Iran and immigrated to the US with her family when she was in middle school. Right after 9/11 many muslims feared for their lives because "patriots" targeted them and called them terrorists, as we all know. When the Boston bombings occurred, and one of the brothers was brought to Beth Israel trauma unit, the trauma team had Jewish physicians trying to save his life. They were later asked how they felt about trying to save the life of a terrorist ( the surviving brother later stated they were self radicalized and made bombs by some mag from the Arab Peninsula). The physicians answer that they had no idea who he was as is always the case with trauma patients and that they would not have done anything different. They would've still tried to save his life. BUT the general public heard Arab Peninsula, Al Qaeda, and of course Islam/Muslim. So, if you were Arab/Arab name/ etc...well there you go.

Prejudices exist. And when a group calls attention to itself in a way that is seen as negative, anti-American ( like the flag incident on campus), we know how that's going to play out. Some of these kids get their info from tikTok ffs. They seem to have forgotten or not know that Palestine and Hamas is linked to the terrorist attacks on US soil. So yeah, it is going to piss off a lot of Americans. Especially when they go for the US flag.

And all this bs about divesting... Are these kids not getting financial aid, scholarships directly from the school? So they divest from Israeli companies and wealthy Jewish/Israeli donors stop donating, now what? Go for the US government to divest from Israel financially as well? How does it affect not only the US and Universities' bottom line but the students who also benefit from these investment returns? The financial markets are complicated. For these students to think it is just a matter of divesting and that it will not have a direct effect on them is naive at best.

What's next on their ridiculous demands? Fire all the Jewish professors and stafff and faculty? Look at the demands in Michigan re connections to the Israeli University.
These demands are petulant, naive, and radicalized and ill informed, be it purposefully or otherwise. Regardless, it needs to stop. Protest with your money and drop out. Good luck finding ANY reputable university that is not supported by US government dollars, and/orglobally academically and financially connected,

Want to change the world? Go volunteer at the frontlines. My husband's colleague did on the Israel side, because he is Jewish and has family there. Love Palestine? GO help them get out of Rafah and into some refugee camp. Send clothes and whatever else is needed, instead of asking for Taco Bell deliveries and DoorDash because you don't have two nickels to rub together and are so entitled to ask for handouts while asking the very people who are supporting your education to divest!

Oh and by the way the you is the protester, not you WP

I can certainly understand that. But these same profilings existed before these protests. We saw it after 9/11 and on. My husband's colleague experienced it after the Boston bombings.
It is unfortunate, but these actions of rioting and property destruction only furthers whatever profiling and prejudices already exist towards the Arab immigrants and now extend to Arab Americans , if they don't already exist.

Why would Arab Americans (the majority of whom are Christian) be discriminated against after 9/11 or Boston bombings?

Uh. What?

[Della]

I can certainly understand that. But these same profilings existed before these protests. We saw it after 9/11 and on. My husband's colleague experienced it after the Boston bombings.
It is unfortunate, but these actions of rioting and property destruction only furthers whatever profiling and prejudices already exist towards the Arab immigrants and now extend to Arab Americans , if they don't already exist.

Why would Arab Americans (the majority of whom are Christian) be discriminated against after 9/11 or Boston bombings?

People were lumping them all in one category. I remember the ignorance got pretty bad after 9/11.

They do that. They think we're a monolith.

[WellPreserved]

I agree with some of your points. In particular protesting human rights abuses. I agree we all have every right to protest. Peaceful protests will garner more support and attention than how these students are going about it. Their reason for protest? Human rights abuses. Their divest demands? Fucken stupid.

So this misguidedness leaves everyone where? How misguided do they have to be before they are seen as many in the general public see these protesters/rioters?

They are not camping out in front of Israeli embassies or the The White House, Lincoln Memorial, etc. They are asking , no, demanding divesting. They are not just asking the US government to stop sending weapons to Israel against Palestinians. They are accusing Universities of funding genocide and apartheid. They are blurring the lines of institutions of higher learning with government institutions and government itself. Anyone protesting Iran for funding Hamas who lead to this horrific humanitarian situation in Palestine?

In the street, when someone is walking along and suddenly gets attacked, they fight back to defend themselves. If the attacker just got one punch in, one sweep, or two, it doesn't matter. The person attacked is going to return the strikes with everything they got until 1. They cause enough damage to create distance and can get away or 2. The attacker is down and disabled enough not to get up and pursue. Israel was attacked.The attack is heinous. They are striking back and have chosen option two; to attack until the attacker is disabled and cannot rise to pursue.

Because of their heritage- Arab, which is automatically linked to being muslim. My husband's colleague is Persian and Jewish. Her name is Persian. She was born in Iran and immigrated to the US with her family when she was in middle school. Right after 9/11 many muslims feared for their lives because "patriots" targeted them and called them terrorists, as we all know. When the Boston bombings occurred, and one of the brothers was brought to Beth Israel trauma unit, the trauma team had Jewish physicians trying to save his life. They were later asked how they felt about trying to save the life of a terrorist ( the surviving brother later stated they were self radicalized and made bombs by some mag from the Arab Peninsula). The physicians answer that they had no idea who he was as is always the case with trauma patients and that they would not have done anything different. They would've still tried to save his life. BUT the general public heard Arab Peninsula, Al Qaeda, and of course Islam/Muslim. So, if you were Arab/Arab name/ etc...well there you go.

Prejudices exist. And when a group calls attention to itself in a way that is seen as negative, anti-American ( like the flag incident on campus), we know how that's going to play out. Some of these kids get their info from tikTok ffs. They seem to have forgotten or not know that Palestine and Hamas is linked to the terrorist attacks on US soil. So yeah, it is going to piss off a lot of Americans. Especially when they go for the US flag.

And all this bs about divesting... Are these kids not getting financial aid, scholarships directly from the school? So they divest from Israeli companies and wealthy Jewish/Israeli donors stop donating, now what? Go for the US government to divest from Israel financially as well? How does it affect not only the US and Universities' bottom line but the students who also benefit from these investment returns? The financial markets are complicated. For these students to think it is just a matter of divesting and that it will not have a direct effect on them is naive at best.

What's next on their ridiculous demands? Fire all the Jewish professors and stafff and faculty? Look at the demands in Michigan re connections to the Israeli University.
These demands are petulant, naive, and radicalized and ill informed, be it purposefully or otherwise. Regardless, it needs to stop. Protest with your money and drop out. Good luck finding ANY reputable university that is not supported by US government dollars, and/orglobally academically and financially connected,

Want to change the world? Go volunteer at the frontlines. My husband's colleague did on the Israel side, because he is Jewish and has family there. Love Palestine? GO help them get out of Rafah and into some refugee camp. Send clothes and whatever else is needed, instead of asking for Taco Bell deliveries and DoorDash because you don't have two nickels to rub together and are so entitled to ask for handouts while asking the very people who are supporting your education to divest!

Oh and by the way the you is the protester, not you WP

The BDS movement started in the early 2000s so let's not pretend that this is something novel.

Many of the BDS protest movement organizers saw success in the anti-Apartheid movement of the 80s and this is what they are acting on. I don't agree with the movement but think it's disingenuous to paint it as comprised of petulant and naive young adults.

Anti-semitic speech is never okay and should not be tolerated. Anti (insert demographic here) speech is never okay. Protesting human rights abuses, again IMO, should never NOT be okay even if protestors are misguided.

A lot to unpack so I may miss some points, lol.

The protests and anti-semitic speech of protestors is relegated to a relatively small but extremely vocal and present loud group of protestors. These protests have been happening worldwide even before October 7th however focus on them is of course intensified, as are the protests (particularly among students) since October 7th. The horrific anti-semitic speech and actions we're seeing in the media happening at Universities such as Columbia, UCLA, etc are actually a small number of protestors as "encampments" were/are present at over 200 Universities in the US and are spreading to Universities worldwide. Universities that have done better with these protests are ones that have listened to the demands of the protestors as well as listening to complaints of harassment of Jewish students. I'll say again, anti-semitism has no place in protest. In our nearby state universities, encampments have been peaceful and Jewish students have felt safe.

You may see the divestment demands as "stupid" but it worked with SA. Also, currently, BDS is calling for divestment of companies that are funding the war, not all Israeli companies (even though some are calling for such). Is this really so different from protestor's calling for Universities to divest from SA companies even if their premise that Israel is engaging in apartheid is misguided? Shouldn't the call for divestment itself, without the hateful rhetoric and assault that has been perpetrated by some of the protestors, be considered peaceful protest? When did calls for divestment become hateful speech?

Everyone has their red line when it comes to defense. While many feel that Israel has not crossed that line, many other feel that they have. Again, BDS protestors have been protesting since 2005(?) so that line was crossed in their minds well before October 7th and in light of the increased settler violence in the West Bank, that line has been obliterated.

I wrote this in another thread but will re-write here. Protestors protest what and where they think they can enact change. Employees protest in the form of strike when they are dissatisfied or feel abused by their companies policies. Students are protesting what they see as their university policy by the way of investment and these are the protests you see in the encampments. Many are protesting their governments supplying arms to Israel and these protests are what you see worldwide on the streets in the form of marches. Israelis are protesting their own government's policy in Gaza on the streets of Tel Aviv.

I guess I'm old enough to remember protests against Israel and Reagan threatening Begin with cutting off US aid if Israel didn't stop its attack against Palestinians in Lebanon. It worked. Protest against Israel didn't start October 7th but "unconditional support" seemed to. It now appears that unconditional comes with conditions so we'll see how this plays out in the coming months.

Regardless, a minority of students at a minority of universities were caught on video spouting hate speech against Jews which was horrific. I'm a little loath to say that all students from a demographic "deserve" to be targeted. Most of these campus "encampments" were organized by multiple student organizations including LGBTQ groups and BLM. Should LGBTQ and Black students also be discriminated against because some of them "dared" to challenge university funding?

Just to add, I think protestors in the US need to take a back seat to protestors in Israel and rather than protesting against Israel, they would be better served to align their protest (and marches) with Israelis. That's just my two cents.

[Momto2boys973]

So if protesters are misguided and no human rights are being violated, it’s OK to protest and encourage others to do so? It’s OK to disrupt and target people just because you were told that they were violating human rights? I mean, if you’re going to glorify a group of people and demonize another, shouldn’t you at least make sure you’re right about it before doing it?

Because of their heritage- Arab, which is automatically linked to being muslim. My husband's colleague is Persian and Jewish. Her name is Persian. She was born in Iran and immigrated to the US with her family when she was in middle school. Right after 9/11 many muslims feared for their lives because "patriots" targeted them and called them terrorists, as we all know. When the Boston bombings occurred, and one of the brothers was brought to Beth Israel trauma unit, the trauma team had Jewish physicians trying to save his life. They were later asked how they felt about trying to save the life of a terrorist ( the surviving brother later stated they were self radicalized and made bombs by some mag from the Arab Peninsula). The physicians answer that they had no idea who he was as is always the case with trauma patients and that they would not have done anything different. They would've still tried to save his life. BUT the general public heard Arab Peninsula, Al Qaeda, and of course Islam/Muslim. So, if you were Arab/Arab name/ etc...well there you go.

Prejudices exist. And when a group calls attention to itself in a way that is seen as negative, anti-American ( like the flag incident on campus), we know how that's going to play out. Some of these kids get their info from tikTok ffs. They seem to have forgotten or not know that Palestine and Hamas is linked to the terrorist attacks on US soil. So yeah, it is going to piss off a lot of Americans. Especially when they go for the US flag.

And all this bs about divesting... Are these kids not getting financial aid, scholarships directly from the school? So they divest from Israeli companies and wealthy Jewish/Israeli donors stop donating, now what? Go for the US government to divest from Israel financially as well? How does it affect not only the US and Universities' bottom line but the students who also benefit from these investment returns? The financial markets are complicated. For these students to think it is just a matter of divesting and that it will not have a direct effect on them is naive at best.

What's next on their ridiculous demands? Fire all the Jewish professors and stafff and faculty? Look at the demands in Michigan re connections to the Israeli University.
These demands are petulant, naive, and radicalized and ill informed, be it purposefully or otherwise. Regardless, it needs to stop. Protest with your money and drop out. Good luck finding ANY reputable university that is not supported by US government dollars, and/orglobally academically and financially connected,

Want to change the world? Go volunteer at the frontlines. My husband's colleague did on the Israel side, because he is Jewish and has family there. Love Palestine? GO help them get out of Rafah and into some refugee camp. Send clothes and whatever else is needed, instead of asking for Taco Bell deliveries and DoorDash because you don't have two nickels to rub together and are so entitled to ask for handouts while asking the very people who are supporting your education to divest!

Oh and by the way the you is the protester, not you WP

Why would Arab Americans (the majority of whom are Christian) be discriminated against after 9/11 or Boston bombings?

The BDS movement started in the early 2000s so let's not pretend that this is something novel.

Many of the BDS protest movement organizers saw success in the anti-Apartheid movement of the 80s and this is what they are acting on. I don't agree with the movement but think it's disingenuous to paint it as comprised of petulant and naive young adults.

Anti-semitic speech is never okay and should not be tolerated. Anti (insert demographic here) speech is never okay. Protesting human rights abuses, again IMO, should never NOT be okay even if protestors are misguided.

[WellPreserved]

So if protesters are misguided and no human rights are being violated, it’s OK to protest and encourage others to do so? It’s OK to disrupt and target people just because you were told that they were violating human rights? I mean, if you’re going to glorify a group of people and demonize another, shouldn’t you at least make sure you’re right about it before doing it?

Because of their heritage- Arab, which is automatically linked to being muslim. My husband's colleague is Persian and Jewish. Her name is Persian. She was born in Iran and immigrated to the US with her family when she was in middle school. Right after 9/11 many muslims feared for their lives because "patriots" targeted them and called them terrorists, as we all know. When the Boston bombings occurred, and one of the brothers was brought to Beth Israel trauma unit, the trauma team had Jewish physicians trying to save his life. They were later asked how they felt about trying to save the life of a terrorist ( the surviving brother later stated they were self radicalized and made bombs by some mag from the Arab Peninsula). The physicians answer that they had no idea who he was as is always the case with trauma patients and that they would not have done anything different. They would've still tried to save his life. BUT the general public heard Arab Peninsula, Al Qaeda, and of course Islam/Muslim. So, if you were Arab/Arab name/ etc...well there you go.

Prejudices exist. And when a group calls attention to itself in a way that is seen as negative, anti-American ( like the flag incident on campus), we know how that's going to play out. Some of these kids get their info from tikTok ffs. They seem to have forgotten or not know that Palestine and Hamas is linked to the terrorist attacks on US soil. So yeah, it is going to piss off a lot of Americans. Especially when they go for the US flag.

And all this bs about divesting... Are these kids not getting financial aid, scholarships directly from the school? So they divest from Israeli companies and wealthy Jewish/Israeli donors stop donating, now what? Go for the US government to divest from Israel financially as well? How does it affect not only the US and Universities' bottom line but the students who also benefit from these investment returns? The financial markets are complicated. For these students to think it is just a matter of divesting and that it will not have a direct effect on them is naive at best.

What's next on their ridiculous demands? Fire all the Jewish professors and stafff and faculty? Look at the demands in Michigan re connections to the Israeli University.
These demands are petulant, naive, and radicalized and ill informed, be it purposefully or otherwise. Regardless, it needs to stop. Protest with your money and drop out. Good luck finding ANY reputable university that is not supported by US government dollars, and/orglobally academically and financially connected,

Want to change the world? Go volunteer at the frontlines. My husband's colleague did on the Israel side, because he is Jewish and has family there. Love Palestine? GO help them get out of Rafah and into some refugee camp. Send clothes and whatever else is needed, instead of asking for Taco Bell deliveries and DoorDash because you don't have two nickels to rub together and are so entitled to ask for handouts while asking the very people who are supporting your education to divest!

Oh and by the way the you is the protester, not you WP

The BDS movement started in the early 2000s so let's not pretend that this is something novel.

Many of the BDS protest movement organizers saw success in the anti-Apartheid movement of the 80s and this is what they are acting on. I don't agree with the movement but think it's disingenuous to paint it as comprised of petulant and naive young adults.

Anti-semitic speech is never okay and should not be tolerated. Anti (insert demographic here) speech is never okay. Protesting human rights abuses, again IMO, should never NOT be okay even if protestors are misguided.

I know you disagree but almost every international human rights group as well as some human rights groups in Israel have been stating for years that Israel was/is violating Palestinian human rights. You can claim that they are all wrong but should "we" blame young people worldwide for believing them?

[cgd5112]

Maybe. But it certainly happened to her at that time. And the thing is that iit has been my experience that some people ( these are the ones I've had exchanges with , so it may not be a generalized view across the country) do not distinguish between Palestinian Arabs and Arabs from say Egypt for example. Nor do they know, and I didn't know either until we lived inSan Diego that there are Persian Jews in Iran.

And sone don't care or know that Persians are not Arabs. So I can see how these protests can have an adverse effect on not only Arab American students but also on Persian American students with potential future employers, as WelP pointed out..

I can certainly understand that. But these same profilings existed before these protests. We saw it after 9/11 and on. My husband's colleague experienced it after the Boston bombings.
It is unfortunate, but these actions of rioting and property destruction only furthers whatever profiling and prejudices already exist towards the Arab immigrants and now extend to Arab Americans , if they don't already exist.

The reason I called it virtue signaling is because while perhaps not the intent, practically speaking is that unless a protestor was caught on video, arrested, or expelled, there is no way for an employer to know if or if they weren't involved in protest.

My worry is that employers will enact policy that leads to racial profiling in their efforts to bar protestors, i.e., Arab American graduates from Columbia will internally be labelled "unemployable".

That's quite a myopic view.

[cgd5112]

LOL! Oops- thanks for tge chek. It was suppose to read liked and celebrated. I can't type for shit.

Because of their heritage- Arab, which is automatically linked to being muslim. My husband's colleague is Persian and Jewish. Her name is Persian. She was born in Iran and immigrated to the US with her family when she was in middle school. Right after 9/11 many muslims feared for their lives because "patriots" targeted them and called them terrorists, as we all know. When the Boston bombings occurred, and one of the brothers was brought to Beth Israel trauma unit, the trauma team had Jewish physicians trying to save his life. They were later asked how they felt about trying to save the life of a terrorist ( the surviving brother later stated they were self radicalized and made bombs by some mag from the Arab Peninsula). The physicians answer that they had no idea who he was as is always the case with trauma patients and that they would not have done anything different. They would've still tried to save his life. BUT the general public heard Arab Peninsula, Al Qaeda, and of course Islam/Muslim. So, if you were Arab/Arab name/ etc...well there you go.

Prejudices exist. And when a group calls attention to itself in a way that is seen as negative, anti-American ( like the flag incident on campus), we know how that's going to play out. Some of these kids get their info from tikTok ffs. They seem to have forgotten or not know that Palestine and Hamas is linked to the terrorist attacks on US soil. So yeah, it is going to piss off a lot of Americans. Especially when they go for the US flag.

And all this bs about divesting... Are these kids not getting financial aid, scholarships directly from the school? So they divest from Israeli companies and wealthy Jewish/Israeli donors stop donating, now what? Go for the US government to divest from Israel financially as well? How does it affect not only the US and Universities' bottom line but the students who also benefit from these investment returns? The financial markets are complicated. For these students to think it is just a matter of divesting and that it will not have a direct effect on them is naive at best.

What's next on their ridiculous demands? Fire all the Jewish professors and stafff and faculty? Look at the demands in Michigan re connections to the Israeli University.
These demands are petulant, naive, and radicalized and ill informed, be it purposefully or otherwise. Regardless, it needs to stop. Protest with your money and drop out. Good luck finding ANY reputable university that is not supported by US government dollars, and/orglobally academically and financially connected,

Want to change the world? Go volunteer at the frontlines. My husband's colleague did on the Israel side, because he is Jewish and has family there. Love Palestine? GO help them get out of Rafah and into some refugee camp. Send clothes and whatever else is needed, instead of asking for Taco Bell deliveries and DoorDash because you don't have two nickels to rub together and are so entitled to ask for handouts while asking the very people who are supporting your education to divest!

Oh and by the way the you is the protester, not you WP

Why would Arab Americans (the majority of whom are Christian) be discriminated against after 9/11 or Boston bombings?

Uh. What?

[Momto2boys973]

Well, yeah I disagree. Because it’s blatantly obvious that these “human rights groups” you’re blindly believing are anything but unbiased. Amnesty International? Just a few weeks ago they eulogized a terrorist serving a life sentence for kidnapping, torturing, castrating and murdering an Israeli teenager, calling his death “heart wrenching” and referring to him just as a “writer”. All while saying that he died neglected in an Israeli prison when in reality he died in an Israeli hospital where he was receiving care for a terminal illness. And it refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization. And the U.N.? Just today footage of terrorists coming and going from an UNRWA facility using U.N marked vehicles. Doctors Without Borders? NGO Monitor made these statements: “ However, as shown by MSF’s political campaigns since the brutal Hamas October 7 massacre, its stated commitment to the principles of “neutrality and impartiality” do not extend to Israel. MSF has repeatedly demonized Israel, ignored Israeli victims, and erased Hamas’ massive war crimes and responsibility for turning Gaza into a massive underground terror base.”
“In multiple statements, MSF uses extreme rhetoric that casts Israel as the perpetrator of the very worst crimes.”

https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/do ... as-terror/

Red Cross?
“The International Red Cross has adopted an overwhelmingly skewed approach to the Hamas-Israel war in its social media, according to a new report by the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.”

https://unwatch.org/report-red-cross-s ... st-israel/

So maybe you’re all for blindly believing these groups with an obvious agenda because it matches yours. But if you’re going to go on a demonization campaign, the least you can do is be SURE that you’re not demonizing the good guys and thus helping the bad guys. Just because you don’t care about giving these accusations any credit and don’t bother to analyze the reality and just jump on the bandwagon that matches your own prejudices, that doesn’t make it true.
I’ve lived in Israel, I’ve met IDF soldiers, I’ve talked with Arab citizens of Israel, I’ve seen what anti Israel activists do, I’ve experienced both antisemitism and support, I’ve seen the intellectual and moral contrast between Israel supporters and Hamas supporters. I’ve seen firsthand the bunch of lies being spread and the double standard when it comes to Israel. Of course I’m not saying Israel is perfect, no country is. But fact is that while other countries are accused of “making a mistake”, Israel is accused or “war crimes” for the same mistakes.
So what do you have to be 100% sure that your idea of these alleged “human rights violations” are undeniably true? Because I have no problem claiming that about 98% are false and the remaining 2% are committed by many other countries and go ignored.

So if protesters are misguided and no human rights are being violated, it’s OK to protest and encourage others to do so? It’s OK to disrupt and target people just because you were told that they were violating human rights? I mean, if you’re going to glorify a group of people and demonize another, shouldn’t you at least make sure you’re right about it before doing it?

The BDS movement started in the early 2000s so let's not pretend that this is something novel.

Many of the BDS protest movement organizers saw success in the anti-Apartheid movement of the 80s and this is what they are acting on. I don't agree with the movement but think it's disingenuous to paint it as comprised of petulant and naive young adults.

Anti-semitic speech is never okay and should not be tolerated. Anti (insert demographic here) speech is never okay. Protesting human rights abuses, again IMO, should never NOT be okay even if protestors are misguided.

I know you disagree but almost every international human rights group as well as some human rights groups in Israel have been stating for years that Israel was/is violating Palestinian human rights. You can claim that they are all wrong but should "we" blame young people worldwide for believing them?

[Momto2boys973]

Sadly, the younger generations have forgotten 9/11. Lousy job of America to remember what happened. This is why we Jews created Yom Hashoah. We know how easily things can go from forgotten to corrupted. The same kids that are protesting for Israel’s and America’s destruction “discovered” this guy called Osama Bin Laden and now think he had very good points! Can it get any creepier than that? They’re idolizing the one who committed 9/11. And that’s because America remembered it for a couple of years and then got over it. Like the world did with the Holocaust. The U.N was created out of the League of Nations to oversee peace, to be sure that what happened in Nazi Germany will never happen again. The world felt guilty. They had an idea of what was happening, but I think they didn’t know the extent of the genocide machine the Nazis created until they saw it. So in their guilt they were convinced that creating a Jewish state will prevent this from happening again.
But what do you know? It’s 76 years (today actually! Happy birthday ) and the world got over it decades ago and now they regret it. Why? Who knows. Maybe the U.N has the same simplistic woke mentality where the weak are good and the strong are bad and Israel committed the grave sin of going from a group of people that miraculously survived a genocide, who were still persecuted to a group of people who created a strong, productive and prosperous country. So we went from being the “good” guys- weak, poor, oppressed- to being the bad guys by achieving success.
Now add to that the fact that radical Islamist terrorism is scary and they have tons of money and you can see how the U.N went from helping to create Israel to helping destroy it.

LOL! Oops- thanks for tge chek. It was suppose to read liked and celebrated. I can't type for shit.

Because of their heritage- Arab, which is automatically linked to being muslim. My husband's colleague is Persian and Jewish. Her name is Persian. She was born in Iran and immigrated to the US with her family when she was in middle school. Right after 9/11 many muslims feared for their lives because "patriots" targeted them and called them terrorists, as we all know. When the Boston bombings occurred, and one of the brothers was brought to Beth Israel trauma unit, the trauma team had Jewish physicians trying to save his life. They were later asked how they felt about trying to save the life of a terrorist ( the surviving brother later stated they were self radicalized and made bombs by some mag from the Arab Peninsula). The physicians answer that they had no idea who he was as is always the case with trauma patients and that they would not have done anything different. They would've still tried to save his life. BUT the general public heard Arab Peninsula, Al Qaeda, and of course Islam/Muslim. So, if you were Arab/Arab name/ etc...well there you go.

Prejudices exist. And when a group calls attention to itself in a way that is seen as negative, anti-American ( like the flag incident on campus), we know how that's going to play out. Some of these kids get their info from tikTok ffs. They seem to have forgotten or not know that Palestine and Hamas is linked to the terrorist attacks on US soil. So yeah, it is going to piss off a lot of Americans. Especially when they go for the US flag.

And all this bs about divesting... Are these kids not getting financial aid, scholarships directly from the school? So they divest from Israeli companies and wealthy Jewish/Israeli donors stop donating, now what? Go for the US government to divest from Israel financially as well? How does it affect not only the US and Universities' bottom line but the students who also benefit from these investment returns? The financial markets are complicated. For these students to think it is just a matter of divesting and that it will not have a direct effect on them is naive at best.

What's next on their ridiculous demands? Fire all the Jewish professors and stafff and faculty? Look at the demands in Michigan re connections to the Israeli University.
These demands are petulant, naive, and radicalized and ill informed, be it purposefully or otherwise. Regardless, it needs to stop. Protest with your money and drop out. Good luck finding ANY reputable university that is not supported by US government dollars, and/orglobally academically and financially connected,

Want to change the world? Go volunteer at the frontlines. My husband's colleague did on the Israel side, because he is Jewish and has family there. Love Palestine? GO help them get out of Rafah and into some refugee camp. Send clothes and whatever else is needed, instead of asking for Taco Bell deliveries and DoorDash because you don't have two nickels to rub together and are so entitled to ask for handouts while asking the very people who are supporting your education to divest!

Oh and by the way the you is the protester, not you WP

Uh. What?

[WellPreserved]

Well, yeah I disagree. Because it’s blatantly obvious that these “human rights groups” you’re blindly believing are anything but unbiased. Amnesty International? Just a few weeks ago they eulogized a terrorist serving a life sentence for kidnapping, torturing, castrating and murdering an Israeli teenager, calling his death “heart wrenching” and referring to him just as a “writer”. All while saying that he died neglected in an Israeli prison when in reality he died in an Israeli hospital where he was receiving care for a terminal illness. And it refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization. And the U.N.? Just today footage of terrorists coming and going from an UNRWA facility using U.N marked vehicles. Doctors Without Borders? NGO Monitor made these statements: “ However, as shown by MSF’s political campaigns since the brutal Hamas October 7 massacre, its stated commitment to the principles of “neutrality and impartiality” do not extend to Israel. MSF has repeatedly demonized Israel, ignored Israeli victims, and erased Hamas’ massive war crimes and responsibility for turning Gaza into a massive underground terror base.”
“In multiple statements, MSF uses extreme rhetoric that casts Israel as the perpetrator of the very worst crimes.”

https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/do ... as-terror/

Red Cross?
“The International Red Cross has adopted an overwhelmingly skewed approach to the Hamas-Israel war in its social media, according to a new report by the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.”

https://unwatch.org/report-red-cross-s ... st-israel/

So maybe you’re all for blindly believing these groups with an obvious agenda because it matches yours. But if you’re going to go on a demonization campaign, the least you can do is be SURE that you’re not demonizing the good guys and thus helping the bad guys. Just because you don’t care about giving these accusations any credit and don’t bother to analyze the reality and just jump on the bandwagon that matches your own prejudices, that doesn’t make it true.
I’ve lived in Israel, I’ve met IDF soldiers, I’ve talked with Arab citizens of Israel, I’ve seen what anti Israel activists do, I’ve experienced both antisemitism and support, I’ve seen the intellectual and moral contrast between Israel supporters and Hamas supporters. I’ve seen firsthand the bunch of lies being spread and the double standard when it comes to Israel. Of course I’m not saying Israel is perfect, no country is. But fact is that while other countries are accused of “making a mistake”, Israel is accused or “war crimes” for the same mistakes.
So what do you have to be 100% sure that your idea of these alleged “human rights violations” are undeniably true? Because I have no problem claiming that about 98% are false and the remaining 2% are committed by many other countries and go ignored.

So if protesters are misguided and no human rights are being violated, it’s OK to protest and encourage others to do so? It’s OK to disrupt and target people just because you were told that they were violating human rights? I mean, if you’re going to glorify a group of people and demonize another, shouldn’t you at least make sure you’re right about it before doing it?

I know you disagree but almost every international human rights group as well as some human rights groups in Israel have been stating for years that Israel was/is violating Palestinian human rights. You can claim that they are all wrong but should "we" blame young people worldwide for believing them?

I am not a protestor.

"You can claim that they are all wrong but should "we" blame young people worldwide for believing them?"