Today, the Muslim Student Union continued their "Palestinian Holocaust" Week at UCI. Today's featured speaker at noon was Anna Balzer, a young Jewish-American activist, who has traveled often to Israel and the Palestinian-occupied territories. She is a Palestinian sympathizer, and is associated with the International Women's Peace Service.

I should state that Ms Balzer does not come across as a "bomb thrower" (no pun intended.) Her presentation argued that Palestinians are being treated unjustly by Israel in the name of maintaining a Jewish state. She did not blast the United States, unlike many of the other MSU speakers. She is opposed to Israel as a "Jewish state".

In the next video, Baltzer compares the Palestinian issue to the 1960's Civil Rights movement:

And don't be fooled by her supposed advocacy of a peaceful Palestinian resistance. In a recent blog post, she compared the employment of terror tactics as a necessity that will be judged more favorably once the jihadists establish political legitimacy. After all she argues ,even Martin Luther King, Jr. was viewed as a radical in his time:

 Some might call blowing up a wall "extreme." In fact, just about any action taken unilaterally for Palestinian liberation is portrayed as such. Martin Luther King was also called an "extremist," and eventually embraced the word, calling on others to join him in creative extremism. Criticism of the status quo will always be dismissed as ideological or extreme, and that's what makes challenging power structures so uncomfortable. We would prefer to affect change through consensus and the blessing of communities that have traditionally supported the status quo, like mainstream Jewish temples and US legislators. But, my friends, this is unrealistic; these groups will hopefully become a part of the movement someday, but they will not lead the movement today. And while it would be nice to wait until a day when it feels more convenient, remember that change will never be convenient for those who are profiting off of the way things are. Let us not forget that Palestinians, like people of color in Dr King's time (and still today), have not had the luxury waiting and choosing a convenient time... Indeed, there is no convenient time. But inconvenience and discomfort are a small price to pay for justice. Remember that prophets have always been scorned in their own time.

"The deterioration in discourse nationally and what we see in some of these speakers is not conducive," said UCI Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel Gomez. "It is just rhetoric coming back and forth at each other. My hope would be to get authentic dialogues going with discussion revolving around differences, not to agreement, but to understand different perspectives."

This is a global movement for genocide. Hitler called this the final solution.

During the question and answer session, I pointed out to Horowitz that 99% of the students at UCI have nothing to do with the ugliness, but that we had 2 problems: the MSU and the administration, which was ?in the tank for the MSU? and was hiding under their desks, either out of fear, apathy or just not caring about their Jewish students. I implored Horowitz to keep the public spotlight on UCI because the public needs to know what is going on our campuses. Horowitz urged me to keep him informed of what is going on. (I will.) There are two more days to report on. That is if I don?t get fired today. These academic types have no sense of humor, you know.

JERUSALEM - A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, wounding at least three people and leaving two trapped under rubble, officials said.
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Rescue service spokesman Eli Bean said two babies were among the wounded. Witnesses told Israeli radio stations that the rocket caused considerable damage and Bean said at least two people were trapped.

The rocket attack came as President Bush wrapped up talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The Israeli leader said at the end of the talks that Israel would not tolerate attacks from Gaza militants.

Two people were killed in recent days in attacks by Palestinian militants on Israeli communities outside Gaza.

The homemade rockets militants usually fire at Israel do not have enough range to reach Ashkelon. Militants use longer-range rockets to hit the city of 100,000, 9 miles from the Gaza-Israel border.

Yesterday he gave his routine stump speech against Jewish immigration and settlement in Israel, rebuking the race as filthy hoodlums who took the lowly ghetto lifestyle they learned in Europe and brought it to an otherwise pristine Arab world.

*As the years go by you are going to feel more cornered in the nation state ghetto you
constructed.

*Just like you (Jews) didn't learn from exile, you didn't learn from ghetto life.

*You left the ghettos of Europe, there were no ghettos to speak about in Muslim Countries. You left those ghettos and came in the fashion that you did, with all the bloodshed that went with it and still continues.

*You came to the holy land, which you desecrated and blasphemed with every decision that you made and still are making and then you realize that you are in a territory of hostilities around you. These hostilities didn't come from nowhere, these hostilities are a reaction to all the misery and all the hostility that you brought with you.

*Then as you realized you have located yourself you began to build a wall, a barrier, around the country you are living in, isn't this a grand definition of a ghetto!

Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination.

No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Happy birthday, Israel! You turn 60 years-old this week and my, have you grown! You went from a humble 7 percent to a whopping 88 percent of Palestinian land (including chunks of the West Bank and Gaza, which are now known as occupied Palestinian territories). Here at UC Irvine, several organizations (such as Hillel) put on iFest, a week-long celebration of your birthday. They had many cultural attractions for students to experience. One of the attractions advertised was henna, which actually dates back to ancient Egypt and India, not Israel. That's okay, though, because they also had yummy shawarma sandwiches, which, now that I think about it, date back to Turkey and Syria. All right, well, have no fear because they did provide something that actually was from the Israeli culture: hookah! Oh wait, that also traces back to India and was popularized by the spread of the Ottoman Empire. So I guess they couldn't really provide anything authentically "Israeli," but you catch my drift. Anyways, it was loads of fun, and it was all for you. They wanted to show UCI the jewel of the Middle East by providing an incredible clubbing experience, some mediocre belly dancers and many other moral forms of entertainment ... they are a religious organization, after all. Now that the big day is almost here, I say that we give Israel a toast. Here's to 60 amazing years of ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people and driving them out of their homes. Here's to 60 years of keeping the 4 million registered Palestinian refugees out of Palestine and denying them the right to return to their homeland. Here's to 60 years of "accidentally" killing Palestinian children, although you might want to be more careful when you indiscriminately shoot at civilians because the death toll is getting a bit high. Approximately 1,000 Palestinian children have been killed since 2000. I'm sorry, how inconsiderate of me to dampen the mood; let us continue with the toast. Here's to the 18,000 Palestinian homes you have demolished and to not demolishing a single Israeli home. Here's to 60 years of having the support of the United States, which continues to veto U.N. resolutions condemning your attacks on Gaza and other issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here's to 60 years of claiming peace and unity, yet ruthlessly murdering Palestinians and other Arabs in neighboring countries. Here's to cutting down hundreds upon hundreds of olive trees, many of which had existed in Palestine twice as long as your disgrace of a nation. Lastly, here's to allowing the 4 million Palestinians in Gaza to live well below the poverty line, leading to the starvation of many men, women and children who did nothing wrong but be born under your occupation. Happy birthday, Israel, and thanks for being an incredible example of morality and democracy. Mariam Moustafa is a third-year international studies major. She can be reached at mmoustaf@uci.edu.

 Hate Fest at UC-Irvine-Mohammed Al-Asi by Gary Fouse

After an upbeat week-long celebration of Israel's 60th birthday last week, the Muslim Student Union now takes over the stage at UC-Irvine this week with their usual invited speakers who come and preach hate. Today, I witnessed the speech of "Imam" Mohammed Al-Asi as he talked for an hour about the "racist, Zionist State of Israel".

Let me set the scene for you. The event took place outside near the flagpoles. The Muslim Student Union boys were all decked out in paramilitary-looking olive green T-shirts with Palestinian-type scarves. On the front of the shirts was a tank with some reference to "Resistance". On the back was a quotation from Martin Luther King (an apostle of non-violence who would never have countenanced terror and suicide bombings.) During the speech, about 5 of them flanked the speaker, trying to look menacing in the fashion of Louis Farrakhan's Fruit of Islam. (Personal note to MSU: dressing up like Jihadist fighters will not win many hearts and minds in this country.)

Meanwhile several of the university deans and their assistant deans hovered around the area making sure bystanders (and Jewish counter-protesters) kept the walkways clear for students. Several Jewish counter-protesters walked around with posters referring to Hate Speech. The ever-vigilant deans,led by Dean of Judicial Affairs, Edgar Dormitorio, tried on several occasions to move them here and there.

Al-Asi, who is an American-born Arab, was formerly affiliated with the Islamic Center in Washington DC until they apparently cashiered him for his radical preachings. He is an ally of Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas. He advocates the destruction of Israel and removal of Jews from "The Holy Land". In his past speeches, he has made such statements as, "You can take a Jew out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the Jew". In his previous speech at UCI, he questioned Jews on why they would want to live in the ghetto of Israel (by building a wall to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers).

In his speech, Al-Asi took us through his version of the Israel/Palestinian conflict. Of course, he conveniently ignored how Arabs attempted to invade Israel in their unsuccessful wars to wipe out the Jewish state. Also missing was any mention of the terror attacks and the suicide bombings. It was all about how Israel has victimized the Palestinians. Al-Asi basically painted the Arabs as victims who are merely trying to reason with Israel in the interest of fair play.

Al-Asi is a master of the implication in his speech. As his speech progressed, he became increasingly angry in his tone. He made an ominous reference to the millions of Palestinians, Muslims and others who surround Israel and implied that Israel's time is running out. His main implication was that Jews must leave the Holy Land-or else("or else"- my words).

He also made a slip when he referred to the Oslo Accords, that led to increased hope for Palestinians that never succeeded. He informed us that the principal US negotiator was a "member of the Jewish faith" (a polite way of saying that he was- a JEW). Of course, Mr Al-Asi would insist that he is not anti-Jew, only anti-Zionist.

At the conclusion of the speech, the MSU shouted "Allahu Akbar!", and Al-Asi took a couple of questions from a Jewish student. The first question was whether during the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem, Jews could pray at Temple Mount. His answer was that he could not speak for Jordan since he was just as opposed to the government of Jordan as he was to Israel (No answer).

The next question was whether Muslims are allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. His answer was that some were, but it was restricted by the Israelis.

The last question was from a sympathetic listener who asked why Palestinians had to pay for the crimes that were done to Jews in Europe (the Holocaust).

The audience? Muslim students, Jewish students and deans- A total of perhaps 100 people. The vast majority of students passed through the area and ignored the whole thing.

But there was another group of people present. A group of about 30 or so middle school students who had been bussed in for a UCI tour. There they were, gathered by the flagpoles with their bus in the background, listening to the words of hate being preached by Mr Al-Asi. It would have been fitting had Dean Dormitorio and his horseholders taken the pains to move them out of the way of Al-Asi's poison.

Norman Finkelstein at the Student Center on Wednesday night? Oh, you know I wouldn't miss this. Anyone who came to Alan Dershowitz's speech earlier this year will remember that the amused speaker held up a political cartoon that Finkelstein had allegedly commissioned. It depicted a smiling and pantsless Dershowitz masturbating to TV images of Lebanese corpses. Finkelstein also wrote "Should Dershowitz Target Himself for Assassination?" His work elicited praise from anti-Semites and Holocaust-deniers, such as David Irving and the Institute for Historical Review.

Many scholars harbor disdain for Finkelstein's work. Professor Israel Guttman of Ha'aretz Magazine stated, "This is not research; it isn't even political literature." Professor Hans Momsen named Finkelstein's "Holocaust Industry" a "trivial book, which appeals easily to aroused anti-Semitic prejudices." Professor Omer Bartov of the New York Times Book Review described his work as "brimming with indifference to historical facts, inner contradictions, strident politics and dubious contextualization."

This is the kind of person the Muslim Student Union and co-sponsoring groups were proud to invite to our campus. "Israel acquired [Gaza and the West Bank] in the course of a war ... which the International Court of Justice has proclaimed to be inadmissible," Finkelstein stated, referring to the Six-Day War, while completely ignoring the "uncontroversial" fact that Jordan, Egypt and Syria initiated the war against Israel by amassing troops at its borders.

He also ignored the 1964 Palestinian Liberation Organization Covenant, which states that the PLO "doesn't exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank ... or the Gaza Strip." Israel did not capture any territory from its enemies because the PLO only amended its charter to claim these territories after Israel claimed them in 1967. The only territory Israel captured was the Sinai Peninsula, which it gave back to Egypt in 1979.

Finkelstein undermined his credibility by blatantly attacking dissenters. I would have blushed with embarrassment if a speaker I invited had made such statements. "Most peace initiatives came from the Arab world. ... Arabs showed a remarkable tendency for compliance with negotiations. It was Israel that violated formal and informal agreements," Finkelstein said. Someone sound the Bullshit Trumpet.

At last November's Annapolis Peace Conference, Mahmoud Abbas walked out on peace negotiations without even saying "No" to the offers. Classy. And at the Camp David negotiations, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the PLO 95 percent of the West Bank, 100 percent of Gaza, a capital in Eastern Jerusalem, the removal of all Jewish settlements in those areas and $30 billion to help resettle Palestinian refugees. This was more than the PLO could ever hope for, but it refused.

"What's the difference between Palestinians who target civilians and Israelis who unintentionally kill civilians?" Finkelstein asked. Call me crazy, but don't cowardly Palestinian militants use civilians as human shields so that when Israel attacks the groups, it ends up killing civilians? Don't believe me? Dr. Mounir Herzallah said, "A local sheikh explained to [him] laughing that the Jews would lose ... because the rockets would either be fired at them, or if they attacked the rockets depots, they would be condemned by world opinion on account of the dead civilians."

Finkelstein also said, "Jews did not suffer uniquely in the Holocaust." Really? The systematic extermination of six million people doesn't qualify as "unique suffering?" And I suppose the additional five million gypsies, gays, blacks, mentally handicapped and other people killed by the Nazis was just a simple case of first-degree murder.

One audience member was prevented from asking about the Fink's support for Hezbollah because the students managing the microphone shut it off halfway through his question. When Finkelstein had the microphone turned back on, he replied, "I have no interest whatsoever in Hezbollah as a political organization. I have only one interest: ... Do the Lebanese people or does Hezbollah have the right to resist foreign occupiers? ... Every victory of Hezbollah, I celebrate." And the audience went wild.

This event opened my eyes to just how many people are misinformed. Nearly 200 people stood and cheered for a guy who admittedly supports a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has been condemned for using human shields, "honor killings," firing rockets on civilians in Israel and mounting operations in civilian centers and mosques. And that's excluding their violent mindset toward anybody who isn't a Muslim. Israel - at the very least - should have the right to defend itself against such barbarianism.

I don't understand why people like Finkelstein are invited to our campus. The event was not a lecture but a three-hour demonization of Israel that excluded crucial facts. As Peter Novick, the professor whom Finkelstein credits for his book "Holocaust Industry," once said, "No facts alleged by Finkelstein should be assumed to be really facts, no quotation in his book should be assumed to be accurate."

Aaron Elias is a second-year English major. He can be reached at eliasa@uci.edu.

While the West is busy living its daily life, a beast is busy killing the freedom of a small community on the East Mediterranean: Lebanon. Indeed, as of last week, the mighty Hezbollah, armed to the teeth with 30,000 rockets and missiles and aligning thousands of self described "Divine soldiers" has been marching across the capital, terrorizing its population, shutting down media, taking its politicians and the Prime Minister as hostages, and looting at will. The hordes of Lebanon's "Khomeinist Janjaweeds" have conquered already half of the Middle East's cultural capital, Beirut. As I have reported before, Hezbollah has occupied West Beirut and has since sent its storm troops in multiple directions to resume the blitz.

This huge force, by Lebanon's standards, was joined by an undetermined number of real Iranian Guards, shipped from Tehran to man sophisticated weapons offered by the Khamanei regime as a gift to topple the democratically elected Government of Fuad Seniora. In addition, from the four corners of the country, Jihadist and ultra radical organizations have joined the fray including: The Nazi-like SSNP, the Amal Movement, the Wi'amWahhab pro-Syrian militia, and many others. And to top it, Damascus was able to neutralize the Lebanese Army which has been equipped recently by the United States. Its Commander, a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic was "convinced" by the Assad regime to open the passages to Beirut and all other regions for the hordes to thrust into their enemies' backyards. Reminding us of the tales of Greek Antiquity, this Xerxes -Khomeinist- Army burst into the capital, whipping out the thin internal security forces and reigning in with brutality.

"...We have a psychosis in the Jewish community that is unable to co-exist equally and brotherly with other human beings. You can take a Jew out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the Jew, and this has been demonstrated time and time again in Occupied Palestine. And now they have American diplomats and politicians and decision makers and strategists in their pocket....

Imam Muhammed Al-Asi
UC Irvine
February 21, 2001

"If the only thing the Israelis and their mentors, and their sponsors, and their superiors in Washington DC, are going to understand is the use of force, then that's the language we're going to communicate with, we're going to use force, and whatever was taken by force can only be retrieved by force."
Imam Muhammed Al Asi
UC Irvine
May 15, 2002

"It is about time we begin to open our eyes, see for ourselves and identify this cancerous presence of the Israeli interest that has taken over the American body politic."
Imam Muhammed Al Asi
"Israel Awareness Week"
UC Irvine May 18, 2005

Al-Asi is a devout supporter of Iran's late leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He frequently speaks at universities across the United States, Canada and Europe.  Formerly, Imam Al-Asi led prayer at the Islamic Center of Washington. Although he was allegedly elected Imam by the congregation at the time, he was expelled from the Center in 1983 for preaching extremist views. Although he still identifies himself as the Imam of the Islamic Center, the Center has stated that it has no affiliation with him.

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