<p>you're right lets just round up all the arabs in the country and send them to podunk,Iowa to a mass hog farm and only give them hog. Then, let's claim that they are forming a conspiracy to take down our country. Hmm, does the previous sentiment sound a bit .... Hitleresque?</p>
<p>please, sempitern. some of us are actually trying to have a discussion around here.</p>
<p>Sempitern,</p>
<p>I'm an infrequent poster and very frequent reader. I am very liberal on most issues, and I am pro-Israel. And I am inclined to believe that you exaggerate 75% of your comments and, when you're not exaggerating, you're misinterpreting.</p>
<p>Your last post was a double-whammy. Nice.</p>
<p>Here's the deal: I do think some Jewish people (myself included) are highly sensitive about being Jewish. One comedian I saw in a Manhattan comedy club told this joke,</p>
<p>"Hey Tommy, you a Jew?"
"Woah! cool it! I'm Jew...ish."</p>
<p>It was actually funny because it had good delivery. The point is, even the word "Jew" sounds offensive to many Jewish people. And some of us might even be a tad neurotic about the whole deal (think Woody Allen in Annie Hall). But with nary a nation in Europe that hasn't been anti-Semitic at some point in its history (nearly all of them have kicked out/tortured/murdered Jewish populations), it's easy to understand why some of us might be so sensitive. My grandparents escaped the pogroms in Russia and as a result had an intense fear of Russian gentiles for years to come... it was irrational, but it was understandable.</p>
<p>The Columbia students have a right to voice their opinions, and the professors a right to voice their own. The exact nature of the "intimidation" was unclear in the first cited article... can anyone clarify what was so intimidating?</p>
<p>of course I am exaggerating.. the whole point of my previous post was to emphasize how people can take this debate to such extremes</p>
<p>anyone know what the administrators are planning on doing about the professor(s) in question?</p>
<p>so far, I believe they have a panel to investigate the three more prominently accused professors</p>
<p>as well as the students, I might add, and the teacher in the medical school and others</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> Yare yare.....</p>
<p>Yare?! Huh?</p>
<p>Japanese I tell ye <em>kuchiduke</em></p>
<p>You ask, "can you defend the violence done against Jewish students at Berkeley?" No, I cannot, and I'm not trying to. Can you defend terrorism in the Middle East, or anywhere at all for that matter? No, you can't, and I'm not asking you to. I don't want you to defend terrorism. We are all in agreement on the fact that racially motivated violence is a **Bad Thing<a href="tm">/b</a>.</p>
<p>The problem is, I'm not seeing any sort of violence come out of the Columbia thing, so I don't really understand your point. Are you trying to say that "anti-semitism is bad"? Because if that's the case, then we can stop discussing the whole thing, because everybody agrees with you.</p>
<p>I think the problem is that your point is coming across as "anti-semitism is bad, but the anti-Palestinian racism... well, they're terrorists, so it's no big deal." (Please don't get huffy about the exaggeration, that's honestly the viewpoint that I see in your post.) I don't see how you can defend just one side in the Columbia instance. Both sides are equally culpable.</p>
<p>i've never made any sort of allegation against the Palestinians, nor dismissed their side because they are "terrorists" (although I agree that is the case). </p>
<p>what I am protesting is the seeming lack of shared discussion between the pro Palestine professors and Jewish students. If groups of Jewish students are feeling nervous and unable to get the college experience of participation simply because they are expressing pro-Israel views, that needs to be taken care of. </p>
<p>I am not saying that the professors should be forbidden from holding those views, but I am saying that Columbia needs to be more adamant about having them express those views fairly.</p>
<p>Well if you agree that "that is the case," then don't tell the professors that! That would not go down well. Actually, don't tell anyone that. It's a bad thing to say, and it's a bad thing to think.</p>
<p>But moving on, yes I believe Columbia is in the process of working on this. I think explaining and posing opinions rather than asserting and getting heated about it would be a better route for both sides. BOTH SIDES. Note that not everyone got heated about it. </p>
<p>Do you think there are only 14 Jewish people in the school and all of them got upset? There's something very unusual as well about the Jewish students who are complaining to the Jewish professor, who seems to be their religious guardian and support group. They seem equally unable to handle opposite opinions. Where are the other Jewish students? The problem has also never occurred until now (or not to this degree), so what has happened?</p>
<p>the other ones knew to keep their mouth shut and not get screamed at by leftist weirdos. :)</p>
<p>"It's a bad thing to say, and it's a bad thing to think."</p>
<p>Thanks, but I'll moralize by myself if it's all the same to you. I think the last election showed enough to leave the moralizing up to Republicans. (i'm keeding, i'm keeding!)</p>