Coming Soon to a University Near You

Ari Bussel

Two separate events occurred at the same time on two continents. Both followed the same exact script: An Israeli figure came to a hostile campus to talk about the prospects of a better future in the region and to answer questions, including those of the most vigorous opponents. As each started to speak, he was interrupted by shouts “murderer,” “Israel is guilty of …,” “Zionism is the …” etc. A young Muslim man stood and shouted, reading from a note, was escorted out, followed a minute later by another young Muslim man who stood and shouted and the cycle repeated. At one point, the remaining members of the Muslim contingency stood in unison, walked out and continued their noisy interruptions outside, attempting to further disrupt the proceedings. In previous events they had used loudspeakers and drums. For some reason, these were missing.



Had the opposite been the case, a virulent anti-Israeli speaker speaking, calling Israelis the new Nazis, claiming the Holocaust was an excuse to steal land from the Arabs or even calling for the annihilation of the Jewish State, a feeling of military control would have pervaded. Instead of the local police protecting, there would be private security brutalizing anyone who even seemed to think differently. A chilly fear would have descended, immobilizing and preventing anyone from expressing an opinion, asking a question or veering out of line. It is a most frightening scene, an even worse feeling that stays with a person for a very long time.



But in both cases, the speakers came to speak about Israel’s policies. In the UK it was Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon, previously the Israeli Ambassador to the United States. In California it was the current Israeli Ambassador, Dr. Oren, himself an academic. Dr. Oren implored at one point: “We have an opportunity here to exchange ideas. We have an opportunity to hear a different perspective.

This is why you have come to this campus as students. You have not come to this campus to hear one idea, you have come to hear a multiplicity of ideas. It is a humble suggestion. It is one of the inestimable values of education in this country. You have this opportunity. Don’t squander the opportunity.”



Only members of the University holding an Oxford Union membership were allowed to attend the UK event. In California the vast majority of attendees were members of the local Jewish and Israeli community rather than students and faculty. The constant interruptions by the Muslims were called “uncivilized,” “exceeding the principles of free speech” and the like. Each university has released an announcement denouncing the conduct in these events.



For those participating in such a gathering for the first time, the opportunity was eye opening, traumatic. One lady remained seated well after everyone dispersed. She continued shaking, in shock. Realization dawned for the first time: The very foundations of our society are not as solid and impenetrable as we thought but are crumbling before our very eyes just as we stand by and watch.



Let us look at the California event I attended. By now, many have seen it on YouTube or the news. It is worthwhile watching. The speech itself was not as captivating as the one given by the Ambassador earlier in the day at a Church across the way. Ambassador Oren was visibly nerved and reminded the Muslim objectors of Middle Eastern hospitality.



When a person is invited as a guest to one’s home in the Middle East, said Ambassador Oren, no harm should befall him. Muslims here are either too young to follow the traditions of their own people or have grown up in the United States under the illusion of a false reality and are thus unfamiliar with the very foundations of the culture they strive to spread (brutality, silencing, beheadings, fear and corruption, female slavery and subjugation and ethnic cleansing, essences of Sixth Century existence, alongside some of the tenants of survival in a barbaric society).



Allow me to describe the setting: I arrived late from that earlier event with Ambassador Oren. There was a very long line of people waiting inside the Student Center. Almost two hundred people were being told the hall was full and they must enter an overflow room or leave. As a member of the press I was invited in, bypassing what looked like a long line at a busy airport.



The airport setting analogy was most befitting. Muslims are up in arms against “Profiling,” yet it is no coincidence that Muslims are perpetrating terrorist attacks. If they have nothing to fear, why not embrace profiling as a means to keep everyone safer? They should vomit from within their midst Islamists who want to destroy the 21st Century Western way of life, if indeed they oppose terrorism and Islam is truly a peaceful religion. But they do not. They fight back, insisting they suffer as a result. All too soon they – the perpetrators and their supports – will be protesting against airport checkpoints.

We all suffer as a result. I cannot enter a gate without having my bottle of water confiscated, my computer turned on and half of my wardrobe removed because of what fellow Muslims do “for the sake of Allah, the All Merciful.” They slash the throats of innocent flight attendants, fly into high-rise buildings or simply explode themselves among hundreds of others.



Likewise at my own alma mater, the University of California, I cannot attend a lecture without having to go through multiple checkpoints and screening surrounded by police officers. Under the heading of “free speech” Muslims take away our basic rights, depriving us of legitimate discourse, civil gatherings, normalcy and sanity. Fear prevails.



Jewish students are afraid to stand up. Secular Americans watch, absorb and internalize. Fear is so contagious, it can be felt. It is chilling and cannot be ignored. This new feeling is embedded in the individual and our collective memories and never leaves. Like a nightmare from which we cannot awake, it remains.



I passed security and was now inside. The place was familiar: I was inside this hall before to hear another speaker a couple of years ago. The police were present then too and about a hundred members of the Muslim Student Union. Most were not students at UCI. When the audience was asked to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, they remained seated as a block.



An attending Congressman wrote the next day that as guests in this country (many are here on Student or other Visas), they should have shown some basic respect to their host country, a feeling shared by many. A foreigner is not expected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but we expect one to at least stand up.



Later they started interrupting the speaker, until the police were forced to remove a few. Then, they stood in unison, left the hallway and continued the demonstration outside, shouting, trying to create as much an interruption as possible.



This is truly the modus operandi of Muslims: Silence everyone who does not think as they do. Prevent one from speaking and do not engage in discussion. Shout and pervert free speech like a lunatic. Attack (first verbally) those in front of you – not the substance of the argument but their features, heritage, traditions. If possible, threaten and do not hesitate to act. There are no consequences for this behavior. The next step – physical harm – is very easy to reach. All this will be protected under the guise of political correctness, the greatest gift ever bestowed on the Muslim world.



UCI is a hotbed of anti-West activity, a hornet nest. The script is not new, although each time brings an interesting twist. Anyone standing in their way, any reasonable person with clarity of thought and knowledge of history and current events is deemed a threat and must be silenced. An effective way to do so is by utilizing the victim’s mentality: “He is an Islamophob. He hates us. We are poor and weak. We want peace. We just want that to which we are entitled – free speech”— but only for us! What a twisted world.



One would surely ask:



1) Why does the campus allow such inflammatory events? Speakers should be welcome, but events should only be open to students and faculty with valid IDs. Realize, outside agitators are there to exploit. As one enters, one should present his / her ID. If one is removed for unruly behavior, there should be immediate, severe consequences. Outside organizations should not be allowed to rent university facilities for such events (someone needs to cover the costs associated with increased police presence, the bad reputation to the university as an academic institution, etc.).



2) Why was nothing done thus far to better educate and enforce existing rules and regulations (such as the code of student conduct)? If a student knew that she might be expelled form the University, that her loans or grants would be rescinded or her visa to the U.S. would be revoked, perhaps she would think twice before orchestrating or participating in disruptive behavior?


Author and speaker Susanne Reyto observed on another occurrence how University Police “seem to protect protestors more than the audience.” But it is not only the police. It is the faculty and administration, all the way up to the Regents of the UC system. There is a current of dismissal, closing one eye (and often both), acquiescence and silent agreement to look the other way. A dangerous inability to reconcile the idea such behavior can exist in a top academic institution and pose any threat to the very fabric of that institution and society at large.



Excuses abound justifying the Muslim actions against Israel and the Zionists. This reflects a complete lack of understanding of the true nature of the enemy. The Muslims are not only after Israel, they are against the American way of life, the very freedoms our Constitution affords and everything the United States of America stands for and symbolizes.



The Regents reflect in part the approach of the current Administration that talks and reconciliation, consensus building and appeasement can prevail. Try to negotiate with hijackers and history will bear out such folly. Negotiating through strength is the only successful method, not high hopes and dreams. The Administration has taken denial to its highest level, one that translated into movement-constricting action: The true nature of the threat cannot be discussed, ergo it does not exist.



The new language of President Hussein Obama’s Administration includes: These are deranged individuals, not terrorists. These are isolated incidents rather than a well-thought, very carefully planned and superbly executed campaign of war against us. Islam is a peaceful religion, and we are one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. The Islamic roots are deeply connected to those of the Pilgrims who fled to this country and created the best example of a free country on earth. Had it not been the current President of the United States of America who uttered these pronunciations during the last year, one would be justified in asking under what influence is the writer or what substances might he be consuming?



Back at the UCI, the vast majority of those in the hall were non-Muslim. Their student years have long passed. There were two groups of MSU, one on either side. Each block was immediately recognizable by the head coverings of the young women and the unshaven, dark skinned Middle Eastern young men.



The men had notes in their hands, inscribed with phrases they were soon to shout. The women were sitting and laughing, one orchestrating the order in which the men rose from either side of the hall. Hands were raised recording every movement, watching the audience, waiting for the cue, getting ready for the right moment. All were ready, calm, calculated, their passion controlled. They came to perform and inflict harm, and they succeeded as they did numerous times before and as they will undoubtedly do at future events.



One must keep in mind the calculated, cold manner of execution and the role women play, a true testament to equality of the sexes that will never be found in Muslim countries or under Sharia Law.

This was no dress rehearsal, but a very well executed performance in its mth appearance. The University has done nothing of substance to counteract this increasing tide, thus reinforcing and permitting it to gather strength. Outsiders remain in denial, thus the appearance of the Ambassador in California and his boss in the UK were merely tokens too little, too late. Other than news coverage, they achieved little at the campuses themselves. The university played into the hands of the Muslims, and if anyone won this round, it is the Muslims.



The Muslim anarchists must be uprooted, extracted from the once fertile ground into which they invaded, cut into pieces, crushed and destroyed. If permitted to rise again, they will continue to defile the essence of freedom, attempt to destroy the system from within. We must protect our way of life.



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must act. Preventing free speech in universities is just a small warning sign. Israeli officials already know better than to travel freely anymore as many face the inconvenience of public arrests and trials for crimes committed against humanity if they set foot in places like – unbelievably yes, Great Britain.



We as Americans, must express our disgust and act to protect our own system and ideals. This successful approach against Israeli officials can also be used not less successfully against others – perhaps a US Senator, a local businessman or a labor representative.



Our very system is being undermined and Israel is just a temporary decoration. The scenery may change as quickly as from one play to the next and the victim will change while the perpetrators continue their very effective action.



Wake up oh great nation. Our values and foundations are at stake, as our enemies use them to topple our system. The University of California at Irvine was just a preview of what is coming soon to a University near you.





In the series “Postcards from Israel,” Ari Bussel and Norma Zager invite readers throughout the world to join them as they present reports from Israel as seen by two sets of eyes: Bussel’s on the ground, Zager’s counter-point from home. Israel and the United States are inter-related - the two countries we hold dearest to our hearts - and so is this “point - counter-point” presentation that has, since 2008, become part of our lives.