Columbia University has fallen

[Sakiale]

yes, because israel has never lied 

[DontTreadOnMe]

Here's a fun angle in case anyone still believes that these protests are totally spontaneous.
‘Are You Being Paid to Protest’? At Columbia, Students Refused to Answer My Questions – Soldier of Fortune MagazinIe (sofmag.com)

  I just had a thought.  I cannot speak to non-USA protests.  
But I do believe many of these "protesters"  are either joiners-on from social media, or paid provocateurs and/or antifa.
Much like the warm months leading to the 2020 POTUS election, this may be the civil unrest of this Election Cycle.
 

[DontTreadOnMe]

Yeah, its the 60s and early 70s all over again. Right down to the BLM rioting and looting much like the 60s. I was a kid but I remember it.

It's not just that, but also the fears of WW3. I remember the brochures my father had on the coffee table that advertised bomb shelter plans. The siren tests and the drills. I half expect things like that to start up as what appears to the genuine birth of WW3 progresses. Seems like history truly does repeat and fear is the trigger.

Either the runup to WW3, or the runup to the need for a 21st-Century Crusade.

[DBCowboy]

Well... I'm not in the Israeli government nor do I have access to what their military capacity is.  However, when they were outraged and mourning, the world mourned with them.  A return strike (as I've said before) on Hamas would have gained them support -- up to a point.

There were 695 people killed outright in the October 7 raid. (French source here: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20...t-7-deaths)

Israeli response resulted in (count is ongoing) has been to kill 32,000 people (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-eas...024-03-21/ and confirmed by many sources.)

That's FIFTY TIMES the death toll from October 7.

That's not an eye-for-an-eye but rather an-entire-family-for-one-eye (not to mention the complete destruction of roads, cities, towns, infrastructure, animals, etc.)


And that's why the world is outraged.  

Possibly because Israel hasn't stopped?

Look... I can't answer that.  Nobody but the people who are holding the hostages (and their superiors) can actually answer that.   All we know is that they haven't.

I think something got lost there in your typing?  

But... let's stop and look at it from a "boots on the ground" perspective.  Just suppose that you are a Palestinian -- and this is your perspective (copied from Al Jazerra coverage on the war) To create the State of Israel, Zionist forces attacked major Palestinian cities and destroyed some 530 villages. Approximately 13,000 Palestinians were killed in 1948, with more than 750,000 expelled from their homes and becoming refugees – the climax of the Zionist movement’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Today, the refugees and their descendants number more than seven million. Many still languish in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries, waiting to return to their homeland. (source https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/Palestin...alisations)

And today's strikes by Israel killed 22 Palestinians, including 5 children. (source:  https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-h...f71187cc4e)

Wikipedia says the death toll includes 14,000 children (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Hamas_war) killed in the 6 months since October 7.

So there you are, a Palestinian.  Israeli fighters are killing your relatives and some of those are babies and young kids.  Does the killing (and you could call it murder) of people in your area incite you to surrender and agree to terms or does it make you so mad that you want to go in and kill all of them in retaliation?

For most people the answer is "I'm going to find the people who did this and do it to them, too!"

Israel's over-the-top slaughter of people is NOT self-defense and isn't inspiring anyone to surrender (there's an odd belief that bombing people into submission works.)  If it was happening in America, it wouldn't inspire you to surrender... or even negotiate.

Palestinians are humans, just like you.  If you were in a situation where another country was attacking, think about what tactics WOULD make you sit down and negotiate at the negotiating table.  In general, things like access and aid to help you and your country heal and build back (the carrot, so to speak) would get most people moving toward peace -- if you can get the attackers to Just Stop.  In fact, a promise of return to normalcy might get you to shut down the attackers.
 

Which is why many nations have stepped in to try and broker treaties that involve the exchange of prisoners and safety for aid workers.

Do you have any source for that statistic (not a blog, please, nor an op-ed.)

It's a horrible situation and words and diplomacy aren't doing a lot right now.  Israel shows no signs of stopping and neither does Hamas.  It's going to take squeezing Israel with financial sanctions (such as companies withdrawing from them) and stopping sales and shipping of weapons to get them to stop the killings and putting pressure on the allies of Hamas to get them to the table.

Protests do have a useful function -- spurring companies (sources of finance and material goods) to pressure these allies into a course where they will bring both forces to the negotiating table and to stop the killing.  But there will always be troublemakers whose grudges run so deep that they will eagerly attack in order to provoke responses.

---

Remember the duck-and-cover drills for atomic bomb attacks?

Good times... good times (kidding, folks.  I'm kidding.)

---

You might want to check the sources of the sources that you quote.  When I looked up the articles, I find that the main sources for your first article is not a standard news source but rather a right-wing source with a mission statement of "end the practice used by certain self-declared 'humanitarian NGOs' of exploiting the label 'universal human rights values' to promote politically and ideologically motivated agendas".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGO_Monitor

So you're not getting an unbiased source there.  You might want to dig a bit in less politically-aligned sources.

This isn't a war of attrition.

This is a war that Israel means to win.

[putnam6]

Well... I'm not in the Israeli government nor do I have access to what their military capacity is.  However, when they were outraged and mourning, the world mourned with them.  A return strike (as I've said before) on Hamas would have gained them support -- up to a point.

There were 695 people killed outright in the October 7 raid. (French source here: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20...t-7-deaths)

Israeli response resulted in (count is ongoing) has been to kill 32,000 people (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-eas...024-03-21/ and confirmed by many sources.)

That's FIFTY TIMES the death toll from October 7.

That's not an eye-for-an-eye but rather an-entire-family-for-one-eye (not to mention the complete destruction of roads, cities, towns, infrastructure, animals, etc.)


And that's why the world is outraged.  

Possibly because Israel hasn't stopped?

Look... I can't answer that.  Nobody but the people who are holding the hostages (and their superiors) can actually answer that.   All we know is that they haven't.

I think something got lost there in your typing?  

But... let's stop and look at it from a "boots on the ground" perspective.  Just suppose that you are a Palestinian -- and this is your perspective (copied from Al Jazerra coverage on the war) To create the State of Israel, Zionist forces attacked major Palestinian cities and destroyed some 530 villages. Approximately 13,000 Palestinians were killed in 1948, with more than 750,000 expelled from their homes and becoming refugees – the climax of the Zionist movement’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Today, the refugees and their descendants number more than seven million. Many still languish in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries, waiting to return to their homeland. (source https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/Palestin...alisations)

And today's strikes by Israel killed 22 Palestinians, including 5 children. (source:  https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-h...f71187cc4e)

Wikipedia says the death toll includes 14,000 children (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Hamas_war) killed in the 6 months since October 7.

So there you are, a Palestinian.  Israeli fighters are killing your relatives and some of those are babies and young kids.  Does the killing (and you could call it murder) of people in your area incite you to surrender and agree to terms or does it make you so mad that you want to go in and kill all of them in retaliation?

For most people the answer is "I'm going to find the people who did this and do it to them, too!"

Israel's over-the-top slaughter of people is NOT self-defense and isn't inspiring anyone to surrender (there's an odd belief that bombing people into submission works.)  If it was happening in America, it wouldn't inspire you to surrender... or even negotiate.

Palestinians are humans, just like you.  If you were in a situation where another country was attacking, think about what tactics WOULD make you sit down and negotiate at the negotiating table.  In general, things like access and aid to help you and your country heal and build back (the carrot, so to speak) would get most people moving toward peace -- if you can get the attackers to Just Stop.  In fact, a promise of return to normalcy might get you to shut down the attackers.
 

Which is why many nations have stepped in to try and broker treaties that involve the exchange of prisoners and safety for aid workers.

Do you have any source for that statistic (not a blog, please, nor an op-ed.)

It's a horrible situation and words and diplomacy aren't doing a lot right now.  Israel shows no signs of stopping and neither does Hamas.  It's going to take squeezing Israel with financial sanctions (such as companies withdrawing from them) and stopping sales and shipping of weapons to get them to stop the killings and putting pressure on the allies of Hamas to get them to the table.

Protests do have a useful function -- spurring companies (sources of finance and material goods) to pressure these allies into a course where they will bring both forces to the negotiating table and to stop the killing.  But there will always be troublemakers whose grudges run so deep that they will eagerly attack in order to provoke responses.

---

Remember the duck-and-cover drills for atomic bomb attacks?

Good times... good times (kidding, folks.  I'm kidding.)

---

You might want to check the sources of the sources that you quote.  When I looked up the articles, I find that the main sources for your first article is not a standard news source but rather a right-wing source with a mission statement of "end the practice used by certain self-declared 'humanitarian NGOs' of exploiting the label 'universal human rights values' to promote politically and ideologically motivated agendas".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGO_Monitor

So you're not getting an unbiased source there.  You might want to dig a bit in less politically-aligned sources.

 
Is NBC News a suitable source or is it too politically aligned? 

 

What did emerge is a vast network that includes left-leaning, billion-dollar American philanthropies and collaboration with at least one foreign organization that Germany and Israel have banned for allegedly working with or supporting Hamas and another terrorist group. 

Other groups have backing from major U.S. foundations. IfNotNow, an organization with the stated aim to “end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system,” was awarded $100,000 during the past five years by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a decades-old philanthropy based in New York. The fund has awarded close to a half-million dollars over the same period to Jewish Voice for Peace, another Palestinian rights organization. 

 
The Open Society Foundation, established by George Soros, has also given grants to Jewish Voice for Peace. A spokesperson said the foundation’s goal is to help establish lasting peace in the region
 

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/s-p...rcna143666

So certain of your thoughts and links and dismissive of any others. Incredibly supportive of taking and holding hostages?

You really believe these protests have no foreign support? Thats dangerously naive

Israel wasn't bombing Gaza till after 10/7

Israel is making sure Gaza won't be able to support and supply such attacks ever again. 

First my quote you didn't understand Ill try ans clarify

We had today in my hometown promises from the Emory protestors That there will be hundreds of 10/7s if not thousands in Israel and America. Are those empty terroristic threats? Thats not peaceful protesting... 

 Israel's response after 10/7 had to be swift, violent and overwhelming, it's all the Middle East understands. 

Hell there are likely to be copycat attempts for years, once Gaza is over.  Regardless

I think something got lost there in your typing?  Should fixed now see above

World wide uproar? Maybe but not in America LOL the protesting is likely making America even more pro-Israel 

For example Emory University the protests were 100-150 people about 1/3rd of those arrested weren't students for perspective Emory has over 7000 students. 

Same goes for UCLA USC these protests are in the hundreds UCLA's student body over 32,000 USC is 50,000 these protests are comically small compared to thier student body population. Especially when not all of those protesting are students, LOL especially when compared to the 70s riots on campuses

https://www.latimes.com/california/story...c-protests

Dueling Gaza protests at UCLA draw hundreds as USC sees peaceful demonstration

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/...hamas-poll

 
Many Americans support Israel over the terrorist organization Hamas in a poll released on Monday, with 80% of respondents saying they support Israel more in the conflict.
The poll comes as anti-Israel groups hunker down at dozens of colleges and universities nationwide. The groups have been protesting over the war, with students calling for their schools to cut financial ties with Israel, and divest from companies that have helped Israel. There have also been threats made against Jewish students.
The report by the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll found older voters supported Israel more than younger voters, with over 90% of voters older than 54 claiming they support Israel over Hamas. Among voters aged 45 to 54, 85% said they support Israel, and three quarters of the next bracket down said the same. But among younger voters aged 18-24, just 57% said they support Israel, and 64% of voters 25 to 34 said the same.

Israel/Palestine ranks 15th on the list of issues most important to 18-29 year olds, per spring 2024 Harvard Youth Poll. https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/47th-edition-spring-2024

https://thehill.com/policy/international...ests-poll/

An overwhelming majority of Americans support Israel in its war against Hamas over the militant group running the Gaza Strip, according to a new poll. 
The Harvard CAPS-Harris survey shared with The Hill showed 80 percent of registered voters said they support Israel more in the war, while 20 percent said they support Hamas more. That is about in line with the poll’s findings from last month, when 79 percent indicated they support Israel more. 
In this month’s poll, older age groups were much more likely to be supportive of Israel than younger respondents, though a clear majority of each age group supported Israel more than Hamas. More than 90 percent of those 65 years old and older and of those 55 to 64 said they support Israel more, while 85 percent of those 45 to 54 and three-quarters of those 35 to 44 said the same. 
Support for Israel was the lowest among the youngest age groups. Pollsters found 64 percent of those 25 to 34 and 57 percent of those 18 to 24 said they support Israel more, while the rest of those age groups said they support Hamas more. 

[guyfriday]

  I just had a thought.  I cannot speak to non-USA protests.  
But I do believe many of these "protesters"  are either joiners-on from social media, or paid provocateurs and/or antifa.
Much like the warm months leading to the 2020 POTUS election, this may be the civil unrest of this Election Cycle.
 

many of the protesters due in fact seem to be just people that are scared or outraged about other things and are joining in. There have been reports (posted here I believe, if not I'll go find some) that only a few of the people are really there for the reasons being stated, but many more are being funded through NGOs and "out reach groups".

I also believe that all this isn't really about the Hamas/Israeli Conflict, but is more about priming the fires for a non-Trotskyist win in November. Biden is going to push these protests to the breaking point as a way of keeping Hunter's Criminal Trials out of the media (good luck with that now that he wants to sue FOX News), as well as scare voters into "doing what he wants". 

My big hope is that just as we saw in the Covid lockdowns, people will just get burned out from these protests and ignore them leading up to the election. 

As for non-American riots and Protests, I wonder if those are about limiting economic recovery on a global scale?

[putnam6]

Here's how we know these protests aren't huge percentages of the student body population, because the universities are clamping down, and it gets barely noticed.

Gainesville UF protest was approximately 50 people University of Florida student body population 55,211


https://news.wgcu.org/section/public-aff...or-3-years

The University of Florida threatened pro-Palestinian student demonstrators with suspension and banishment from campus for three years if they violate a host of rules of behavior over protests that continued for a third day Friday.
 
The university said employees or professors caught breaking its rules would be fired.
Some of the rules were specific, such as prohibiting protesters from using bullhorns or speakers to amplify their voices, possessing weapons or protesting inside buildings on campus. Other rules were far more vague, such as one that said “no disruption,” or another that said signs must be carried in hands at all times.
Campus police circulated the list of prohibited activities late Thursday as about 50 protesters gathered for a second day of demonstrations. A university spokeswoman early Friday confirmed the authenticity of the document.
It said permitted activities included “speech,” “expressing viewpoints” and “holding signs in hands.” It wasn’t clear whether temporarily dropping a sign during hours-long protests would end in an arrest or trespass order.

[Kenzo]

Columbia University faculty marched in to protect the protestors wtf!

NOW: Columbia University faculty link arms and form a wall in front of the entrance to the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ as hundreds of students encircle the both lawns Students remaining in the encampment were told they could face disciplinary action after 2PM

[putnam6]

Columbia University faculty marched in to protect the protestors wtf!

NOW: Columbia University faculty link arms and form a wall in front of the entrance to the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ as hundreds of students encircle the both lawns Students remaining in the encampment were told they could face disciplinary action after 2PM

Yes unfortunately select universities have a bit more support, but it's barely over 5% if that of the faculty and student body at Columbia, the student body is over 36,000

[Kenzo]

Yes unfortunately select universities have a bit more support, but it's barely over 5% if that of the faculty and student body at Columbia, the student body is over 36,000

[Image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMXd4zHXoAAz...me=900x900]

I hope all those will be fired .

---

This ideology seen now in the universitys seems to echoing old Soviet playbook


Soviet Union propaganda has spilled over onto college campuses

What we are seeing here is protesters on American campuses, in 2024, spreading antizionist canards originating in Soviet Cold War propaganda.

Over the last few weeks I’ve watched some of my worst predictions come true about the destructive effects of conspiracist antizionism and the fear & loathing of Israel that have taken over portions of the left in recent years. It didn’t start in recent years of course - it’s simply when it all finally exploded to the surface. I know about it personally because I was born & raised in the USSR, where these ideas were born & propagated. I’ve been researching it since 2019.




The Language of Soviet Propaganda

---

Massive class action lawsuit just filed against Columbia


The plaintiffs are seeking relief for the Jewish students at Columbia who have been harmed and displaced by the rampant antisemitism on campus.