Groucho Marx once quipped that he would never join a club that would have him as a member. I suppose my standards are not as high as Groucho’s because on Saturday night, even as thousands of Rutgers students poured into the RAC to watch the Scarlet Knights lose to the Pitt Panthers, I went to Trayes Hall on Douglass Campus for an event titled Never Again for Anyone. The premise of the event was that Palestinians are the victims of ethnic cleansing at the hands of Israelis, and that this is analogous to the Jews who were victims of genocide by the hands of Nazis. Of course, it is an idiotic premise that flies in the face of proper historical analysis, common sense and decency.
As I found out last night, I had no reason to expect any level of decency from the organizers of the event. The event was sponsored by the Rutgers University student group, BAKA: Students for Middle Eastern Justice. As a side-note, an event that I organized last semester had been interrupted and disrupted by BAKA. The event I held was for Ishmael Khaldi-an Israeli Bedouin who served as a consul to San Francisco. The BAKA disrupters viewed Mr. Khaldi as an “Uncle Tom,” who sold out his people out to the genocidal Israeli government.
At a little after 5 on Saturday, I walked with several of my friends to Trayes Hall where we entered peacefully, and signed in. The people behind the desk were polite, as they asked us to display our Rutgers ids, and to write our names and email addresses on a sheet of paper that was lying on the desk. On the same table, there was a sign that read, “$5-$20 Suggested Donation. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.” In addition, this event had been advertised on the Facebook event and on the official website as “Free and Open to the Public.” I declined to pay, as did all my friends. The people behind the desk continued to be polite, and said that our decision was fine.
The organizers told us that the doors would not open until 6:30 and that we should form a “queue” to be prepared to enter the room. We did as we were instructed. A couple minutes passed and I exchanged pleasantries with other people in the line. By now, the group of Jews and Zionists grew to several hundred. One report estimates the number at four hundred pro-Israel supporters. After a few minutes, a non-student, adult organizer of the event entered the lobby where we were waiting and told us that the $5 fee was now mandatory for admittance. The money, we were told, would go to the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. At this point, the crowd got very upset that they had been lied to. One female organizer announced that anyone who did not want to pay could watch the event on Facebook. Up to this point, no such video of the event has been put onto Facebook.
Several witnesses who entered the actual event reported an organizer saying that they decided to charge $5 once “150 Zionists showed up.” The organizers asked Rutgers Police to refuse us entry into the room, which they did. There were about ten officers in the building to stop us from going into the room. Rutgers students took out their Rutgers id cards, held them out, and began shouting, “Let the students in!” In the meantime, non-Jewish and anti-Zionist students were allowed into the event for free without paying a $5 charge, since they were members of BAKA. When one student attempted to join BAKA on the spot to be allowed entry, he was-again-refused. It became clear that the organizers wanted to shut out all dissenting voices, even if doing so violated Rutgers University guidelines, let alone human decency.
One student who entered the event reported that the room-with a capacity of 320-was less than half filled. Those who entered had the chance to listen to several speakers, including Hajo Meyer, a Holocaust survivor. The speakers not only accused the State of Israel of ethnic cleansing, but they also marginalized the severity of the Holocaust. One speaker argued that while it is true that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, many survived, thus implying that the Holocaust really was not as terrible as those racist Zionists (alas, I repeat myself) want to make it seem.
As I noted above, BAKA has a history of intimidating others who disagree with their warped views. In addition to disturbing my event, they also have intimidated several of my friends who attended past BAKA events.
Even worse, they are engaged in an effort to delegitimize and to destroy the State of Israel. Their accusations are outlandish and false, but they are nonetheless dangerous to our society and to Rutgers University. Israel is the greatest friend America has in the Middle East, and possibly in the entire world. As we watch the Egyptian people struggling for their freedom, it is worth remembering that there is only one stable democracy in the Middle East that grants equal rights to women, gays, ethnic and religious minorities, and all of its citizens. That is Israel. BAKA actively seeks to undermine those liberties: the same liberties that we celebrate and embrace in this country. If BAKA is interested in comparing people to Nazis, perhaps they ought to look themselves in the mirror.
Noah Glyn is a junior at Rutgers University and a Fellow with the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). Noah majors in economics and history.
Pick up a copy of the triCityNews. Read about the power of your favorite blog, the downfall of Anna Little and Dan Jacobson’s obsession with Diane Gooch.
As a blogger, it is always nice to be recognized by another media outlet. Over the years, MMM has been cited by FoxNews, CNN, The Drudge Report, The Star Ledger, Asbury Park Press, NJN, and others.
This week we hit pay dirt with front page exposure in the only profitable newspaper left in America, Dan Jacobson’s triCityNews.
I’d link you to the story, but Dan doesn’t publish on the Internet. That is why he has the only profitable newspaper in America, according to the New York Times.
You’ll have to pick up the paper, for free, at one the the coastal Monmouth establishments that carries it, from Atlantic Highlands to Belmar.
I recommend you pick up the paper. The story featuring me and MMM, Rumble on the Right, is filled with intrigue, sex and money; intrigue over the power of this blog, Mickey Gooch’s money and Jacobson’s sexual fantasies.
I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I love it when others do. I’m happy to return the favor and toot my horn for Dan Jacobson.
Today is the 12th anniversary of the triCityNews, which is another reason to pick up the paper. With my mug on the cover, this historic edition is likely to become a collectors item.
What Jacobson has accomplished as a business, and the difference he has made in the communities he serves, as an “alternative” newspaper is remarkable. As he said in his first publisher’s message twelves years ago, which is reprinted in this week’s edition,
Alternative newspapers hit the issues mainstream media won’t touch. That means the triCityNews will be there to inform you about relevant local politics, the gay community, youth, sex and all radical and ethnic groups. News coverage will be incisive and perceptive. Photo and stories about politicians handing plaques to constituents are left to the other guys.
Many on the Jersey Shore are unfamiliar with alternative newspapers. They have told us that the triCityNews is like nothing they have ever seen. We’re proud of that. That’s where we always want to be.
There is something else Dan should be proud of. He’s done it with class.
As irreverent as Dan often is, his publication is anything but “underground” as many, most in my experience, alternative newspapers are. The Village Voice and the Boston Phoenix are two alternative papers I am familiar with from my twenties when I lived in both New York City and Boston. They were underground rags predominantly funded by ads for adult services establishments, strip clubs and head shops.
Dan’s publication is funded by ads for first class small businesses in Monmouth County. To find an ad for an adult service establishment in Monmouth County, you’ll have to look to the publication that Dan and I both love to bash, the Asbury Park Press.
Congratulations Dan. Here’s to another 12 years or until Mickey’s check clears.
Pension reform needs to happen by April or it won’t happen this year
During his Town Hall meeting in Middletown yesterday, Governor Chris Christine laid the blame for inaction on his pension reform package right in the laps of the Democratic legistlative leaders; Senate President Steve Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and Senate Minority Leader Barbara Buono. Christie read quotes from the statements each Democratic leader issued when he released his pension reform proposal last September.
The governor laid out the legislative calendar and asserted that is the reform agenda is not passed by the legislature by April, it won’t happen this year as the legislature will focus exclusively on the state budget in May and June and then leave on July 1st to launch the election campaign. All seats in the legislature are up this year.
What Christie didn’t say is that if the legislature fails to deliver his reform agenda before they recess, that the campaign will be about the agenda.
Maybe that’s the campaign the Democrats want. I hope so, because a campaign like that, a referendum on Chris Christie’s reform agenda , could very well lead to a Republican controlled legislature and more conservative reform measures, rather than these compromise measures.
So Francis favors transparency. Well that’s terrific. The first step down that long hallway toward redemption for Mr. Pallone you ask?
Hardly.
An article in the Atlanticville, interestingly enough dated for tomorrow, talks about how the public will be completely shut out of the decision-making process regarding the future of Sandy Hook’s Ft. Hancock. Perpetual “I don’t give a rat’s ass about New Jersey Forts” Congressman Francis “Waddles” Pallone weighs in on that process:
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th District), who has opposed Rumson developer James Wassel’s controversial plan to rehabilitate historic buildings at the fort, said Monday the park service should be “very transparent at every point” of the process concerning planning for the fort’s future.
Good start, right? After literally defecating on the bed for years when it came to saving Ft. Monmouth from extinction, all of a sudden Francis cares about what happens to Ft. Hancock, albeit when no jobs are at stake.
Wrong, of course:
What comes out of the meetings should be quickly announced, he said.
Pallone said that transparency was needed because of the “Wassel experience,” where “a lot of the decisions” were made “without transparency.”
Ah. Now I get it. “Transparency” means making huge decisions without being, ya know, “transparent”, and then delivering the goods to the unwashed masses “quickly”.
Thanks for the update big guy! Remind me to email whatever dictionary company is still publishing dictionaries. Do they still publish dictionaries?
I don’t have enough Scotch on hand tonight to chronicle Frank’s other myriad “definition malfunctions” throughout the years, but suffice to say the man has quite an issue with both ethics and simple English.
The Governor is disappointed that the President did not address the “big things.”
By Art Gallagher
There was no classic “YouTube moment” confrontation at Governor Chris Christie’s Middletown Town Hall meeting today. But if any of Christie’s statements today are to “go viral” or make national news, this is probably it.
Christie reminded the crowd of over 200 who came out in the snow that he broke from tradition in his State of the State address. Rather than an address that “strokes the erogenous zones of every constituency,” the governor said quoting columnist George Will, Christie said his address was designed to deal with “big things;” fiscal discipline, government employee pension and health care benefit reform, and education reform.
Christie said he noticed that President Barack Obama invoked a similar theme in his State of the Union address last night. Christie said that he was flattered that the President was imitating him.
Christie didn’t say it, but I will, maybe Vice President Biden wrote that part of Obama’s speech.
At about 2:20 in this clip, Christie says that he is disappointed that Obama did not address the federal “big things,” entitlements, in the State of the Union address. Christie said that federal entitlements are analogous the pension and employee heath care reform on the state level, and the President “never mentioned boo about it last night”
In the remainder of the clip, Christie made his case for doing the “big things.” He said he didn’t run for governor to be somebody, that he already was somebody. He said he came to do something.
Christie’s not running for President. He is running for another term as governor. He said he “guaranteed” that there will be somebody on the ballot opposite him in three years promising the easy way. He said that his way will return New Jersey to prosperity and that the easy way would lead to economic ruin.
Governor Chris Christie was in great form this morning as he met with over 200 residents who came out in the snow for a Town Hall meeting in Middletown.
About 40 minutes into the meeting Christie turned to the residents for questions. The first questioner, a councilman from a town with a large regional high school, asked the governor if there was a way that students who drive themselves to school could sign a waiver giving up their school busing privileges to that the district could save money on transportation costs.
Note the reactions of the three lawyers sitting directly behind the governor.
Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande’s“Snow Match” program is in need of able bodied volunteers to shovel sidewalks and driveways, especially in Freehold, where many seniors are calling into Casagrande’s office for help.
Casagrande has been matching volunteers and seniors/disabled since just after the first of the year.
Please call Casagrande’s office at 732-866-1695 or email [email protected] with your name, phone number and address if you are willing and able to shovel for a senior or disabled neighbor anywhere in the 12th legislative district, especially in Freehold.
By Noah Glyn
By Art Gallagher