While American soldiers fight and die in Afghanistan and Iraq, students on the home front praise their murderers. During the Third Annual National Student Conference On Palestine Solidarity, held from November 7 to 9 at Ohio State University, “Islamist radicals gathered in America’s heartland to openly call for the destruction of Israel, the overthrow of the U.S. government and to take the side of the murderers in the War on Terrorism.” The report is from FrontPage, with thanks to Ruth S. King. The whole piece is illuminating.
“Fatima Ayoub, a female graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, spoke glowingly of ‘freedom fighters’ in ‘Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and Chechnya.’ These are all locations where al-Qaeda has been active, two of them areas where Americans are being killed. Most people would question if the Taliban and al-Qaeda are freedom fighters and ask about the 3,000 murdered on 9/11, but this crowd did not give it a thought. Trying desperately to maintain the multicultural flavor of the day, Ayoub pledged to fight for the ‘freedom of the Palestinian people and social justice with the Iraqis, Native and Black Americans.'” . . .
More: “Henry Hershkovitz, himself a ‘Jew For Palestine,’ lamented the arrest of Sami al-Arian as a ‘setback’ for the movement. Al-Arian is the North American leader of the terrorist organization Palestine Islamic Jihad, which has murdered more than 100 people, including some Americans.”
And: “the foremost ‘token Jew’ at this event was Ora Wise, a rabbi’s daughter and Hebrew teacher at Kol Chayeinu Synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. Ora chanted, ‘Zionism is racism,’ and called for the end of Israel, an ‘apartheid’ state. Ora spreads Palestinian propaganda around the U.S., providing an invaluable Jewish spokeswoman to the enemies of the Jewish state.
“Wise points to her own ethnicity as proof that there is no anti-Semitism in the movement. She did her job well at the conference, calling upon the ‘mainstream Jewish community to reject unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism against the Palestine Solidarity Movement.’ However, she admitted to a colleague of mine she is aware that the Palestinians’ ultimate goal is to wipe out Israeli Jews and appropriate Jewish homes to themselves. . . .
“As the conference drew to a close, Ora Wise read the principles that the inner circle had privately drawn up for the next conference. The P.C. document demanded adherence to ‘democratic procedures,’ even allowing a ‘transgendered’ person on every organizing board. Of course, the Palestinians these people support do not share any of their high-sounding democratic principles and, given the chance, would liquidate transgendered people. This conference hastened the day they can do precisely that, scripting the radical Islamists’ strategy for an American campaign to weaken Israel through divestment campaigns and campus protests until calls for the ‘Right of Return’ can finish her off. Then, just as Vietnam fell to Communism after America’s withdrawal, democratic Israel can fall to Islamofascism the same way. In this way, Americans – even Jewish/Americans – can be fooled into thinking they are supporting ‘human rights’ and ‘peace.’ Meanwhile, the suicide bombers and terrorists can ply their trade with the knee-jerk support of those Americans they would most like to kill: pampered college students and Jews from all walks of life.”
UPDATE: In a comment here, one of the conference organizers denies many elements of the story above and threatens legal action. Of course, intimidation and legal threats are a common tactic of many groups, so the jury is still out. I will keep you posted as to any response from author Lee Kaplan or FrontPage magazine.