I make the above statement as the headline because New University editor Taylor Hudson allowed MSU cohort Anam Siddiq to be a co-writer of what was supposed to be a hard news story.

So I will just call it an op-ed from a member of the UC Irvine's Muslim Student Union.

In the op-ed, Siddiq and co-writer Daniel Johnson interviewed as many people as possible against the OC Independent Task Force Investigating Antisemitism without even addressing a single piece of evidence in the report.

For example, the President of Hillel (who stopped supporting the task force months ago) on campus, Michelle Eshaghian, was quoted in the story saying that while she believes antisemitism does exist on campus, the report lacked substantial evidence and legitimacy. But did Siddiq or Johnson ask why it lacked substantial evidence? Apparently not.

Kevin O'Grady, a representative from the Anti-Defamation League (who destroyed videotaped evidence of MSU events) also denounced the report, disputing the claim that antisemitism affects 100's of students. He was also never asked about what evidence he disputes.

Siddiq and Johnson also interviewed ineffective bureaucrat Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez, who was merely pleased that "Hillel and [Anteaters for Israel] students have begun to speak out against this distortion on the campus regarding anti-Semitism." Way to be leader Manuel! We should all follow your advice and just shut up.

The lone dissenter in the op-ed was task force member Ted Bleiweis.

And finally, Sidiq steered the op-ed to his organization's spokespeople Mary Bangee and Omar Zarka who will work on getting videos of speakers online and keep communications lines open with the Jewish community.

Really Omar! Apparently I've already done your job for you.

PS: To all of those who denounce the legitimacy of the report (Michelle Eshaghian, Kevin O'Grady, Manuel Gomez, Mary Bangee, Omar Zarka): are those who testified as victims of antisemitism all liars?

Please read the article below:

Jewish Group Refutes Civil Rights Report

By Anam Siddiq, Daniel Johnson

The Orange County Task Force on Anti-Semitism released a report compiling previous acts of alleged anti-Semitism at UC Irvine on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Since its publication the report has come under fire from various members of the UCI community, many of whom supported the investigation on anti-Semitism conducted by the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which stated that there is no evidence of anti-Semitic harrassment of Jewish students at UCI.

According to the report, the task force's investigation was conducted from February 2007 to February 2008, referencing numerous documents and consisting of over 80 hours of interviews conducted with "all participating and interested parties as reasonably practical." Among those contacted included the Executive Directors of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation, Hillel and members both past and present of groups such as Hillel and Anteaters for Israel.

However, Michelle Eshaghian, a third-year political science major and president of Hillel: The Jewish Student Union at UCI, stated that she and a lot of other Jewish students and leaders were not contacted for the investigation, and disputes its legitimacy.

"I think that [the report] lacked a lot of proper analysis. ... It looked really professional, but [the content] was horrible. ... [The task force] didn't have substantial evidence," Eshaghian said.

According to the report, the Hillel Foundation of Orange County formed the task force in December 2006, but decided to no longer continue the investigation in August 2007, stating that the task force was no longer "integral to its mission." However, according to Eshaghian, other members of the community then took up the task force.

"There were several organizations that wanted to go ahead with the investigation because the community was pretty much going crazy, but the way the task force wanted to take things wasn't the way Hillel wanted to go," Eshaghian said.

Yet, according to the document, its authors believed that the information collected up to that date was "too extensive and would continue."

According to Ted Bleisweis, one of the authors of the report, the investigation was held in order to inform students that, contrary to the OCR investigation's findings, anti-Semitism had not been dealt with appropriately by the UCI administration.

"We hope to get people talking about this. ... The goal of this report is to basically illuminate the problem and to get people to talk about it and hopefully calm things down on campus," Bleisweis said.

One of the aspects of the report that garnered strong criticism was the suggestion that students not continue to enroll in UCI. However, Bleisweis explained that the report only suggests this if violence breaks out as a result of anti-Semitism.

"The report doesn't say that [students should not enroll at UCI]. ... If the level of harassment that's been going on escalates to violence where somebody [gets] hurt, [or] somebody becomes injured because of the atmosphere of UCI, I would say absolutely that students ... should enroll elsewhere," Bleisweis said.

Although the report has gathered its share of critics, some of these opponents still believe that anti-Semitism is still prevalent on campus. One such critic is Kevin O'Grady, the Orange County regional director of the Anti-Defamation League [ADL], who has also investigated anti-Semitism at UCI. Even though O'Grady did not support the report's findings overall, he did not denounce the investigation completely.

"I think that [ADL] probably comes pretty close in [its] assessment of how bad anti-Semitism is," O'Grady said.

O'Grady differed in opinion with the aspect of the report describing the situation as partially shown through the number of students intimidated, according to the report.

"I would disagree that there are hundreds of students who feel intimidated­--I've heard from a couple, but that might be because those students have spoken to the task force and not to us," O'Grady said.

Similarly, while Eshaghian doubts the credibility of the task force's report, she agrees that anti-Semitism is a problem at UCI. However, Eshaghian does not place blame on the administration.

"I do believe there is anti-Semitism on this campus ... [but] I think that the chancellor and vice chancellor have made it ... clear to the community and to the students ... that they don't support hate speech," Eshaghian said.

Chancellor Michael Drake and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel Gomez declined to be interviewed in the investigation according to the report. However, Gomez cites the earlier report conducted by OCR as correctly showing that the UCI administration has dealt with allegations of anti-Semitism effectively.

"The fact that we had a three-year series, [an] independent, objective, professional investigation ... [The investigation showed] that the university in each and every single allegation responded effectively and promptly to each and every one of those so-called allegations," Gomez said.

Furthermore, Gomez mentioned the administration's faith in the UCI Jewish organizations in handling anti-Semitism and addressing any exaggerations of anti-Semitism that may exist.

"We are just extremely pleased that Hillel and [Anteaters for Israel] students have begun to speak out against this distortion on the campus regarding anti-Semitism," Gomez said.

Outside of the administration, another group that the report accused of allowing anti-Semitism to continue at UCI was the Muslim Student Union. Specifically focusing on speakers brought in by MSU, O'Grady expressed that the group contributed to anti-Semitism spreading on campus.

"Look, those speakers that the Muslim Student Union brings are anti-Semitic, you can't suggest ... burying Jews in the sand and not have it be anti-Semitic. ... They're absolutely anti-Semitic and it's absolutely hate speech," O'Grady said.

Marya Bangee, a fourth-year sociology major and the vice president of MSU disagreed that the speakers the organization brings in are anti-Semitic.

In referencing the quotes mentioned in the task force's report, Bangee addressed how quotes by MSU speakers can easily be misconstrued.

"Common sense dictates that any time you can hear a speech you can take out five or six words from that speech put them together and say, 'Oh my God, that's anti-Semitic,'" Bangee said.

Bangee went on to mention that in order to fully understand the intention of MSU speakers, their full statements must be heard as opposed to statements taken out of context.

"You have to listen to the entire speech or at least listen to the context in which those words are spoken, to be able to understand the message," Bangee said.

Omar Zarka, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major and the president of MSU, mentioned that in order to accomplish this, MSU is currently planning to record its speakers and make the recordings available to the UCI community. This may help in MSU's greater plan of keeping the lines of communications open with Jewish organizations.

"Communication is always open between both groups. ... Many people extrapolate that there's some sort of conflict or that we hate each other and there's no personal hate--like I don't hate anybody in AFI for who they are as a person, I disagree with their politics," Zarka said.

According to Bleisweis, regardless of any attacks that the investigation may face, the report is ultimately left open to interpretation.

"It's up to members of the community to determine ... in the end what it is that it means and what to do about it," Bleisweis said.

The full report and additional information about the authors of the investigation can be found on the Orange County Task Force on Anti-Semitism's official Web site located at http://octaskforce.wordpress.com.