Thursday, March 26, 2009

Hatred Trumps Facts (Always...)

A Palestinian who writes for an Israeli newspaper wanders around America talking at campuses. He repeatedly encounters a vocal minority who aren't even slightly interested in what he has to say, unless he castigates Israel. When he doesn't always, they turn on him with fury, and attack him for not being attuned to the circumstances of the Palestinians; when he cites facts he is threatened:

I never imagined that I would need police protection while speaking at a university in the U.S. I have been on many Palestinian campuses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and I cannot recall one case where I felt intimidated or where someone shouted abuse at me.

Nice, isn't it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Among those who attack Israel in the west, there is a visible minority who are not only vicious but actively violent.

These are the people who violently attack peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators and speakers and issue threats to intimidate pro-Israel celebrities.

These are people who believe that they can act with impunity to threaten, intimidate and actively injure Jews and Israelis and those who do not adhere to the viciously anti-Semitic "party line" of the anti-Israel "struggle."

Western governments are not doing enough to lock these people up. Aside from the obvious concern about their violence, these people are also a problem in that they intimidate others who might otherwise be more apt to find solutions instead of engage in viciousness.