Recently, I participated in a Toronto conference which was sponsored by Advocates for Civil Liberties and coordinated by the rather wonderful Meryle Kates. The speakers were powerful and the audience was packed, respectful, incredibly sober and fully engaged. The title of the conference was “When Middle East Politics Invade the Campus.”
No heckling or jeering here.
Now, Kates has edited the entire day’s proceedings down into a half hour video. I am posting it for your pleasure and edification. A video of the entire conference may be viewed HERE.
The speakers, including myself, were: A group of amazing Canadian students, Dr. Catherine Chatterly, Maj. Elliot Chodoff, Dr. Richard Cravatts, Dr. Salim Mansur, Dr. Andrew Roberts, and Dr. Gil Troy. Everyone was sophisticated, informative and eloquent. We should have this conference every year. Indeed, every city in the world needs a conference like this every year.
Here is what Kates has me say on video.
“A genocidal anti-Zionism characterizes anti-Semitism today. Its aim is to destroy the Jewish state. Israel is under profound and existential siege.
Propaganda leads to murders and then genocide. Had Americans been killed in the same proportion that Israelis were during the early years of the Second Intifada, 48,700 Americans would have been murdered and 340,000 more would have been wounded. Yet Israel was shamed—shamed!—for building a security fence.
Objective truth doesn’t matter anymore. Only Big Lies matter. Propaganda is the order of the day, and multicultural relativism is the mantra of the day. My President Obama has said that you can’t use “Islamic radical” in official documents!
The protestors who want to divest from Israel want to be seen as anti-racists. But by holding Arab and Muslim countries to a much lower ethical standard, and by
Objective truth doesn’t matter anymore. Only Big Lies matter.
condemning their inhabitants to continued Islamist barbarism, which includes slavery and racism, and gender and religious apartheid, they fail every test of non-racism. Their anti-Zionism is racism—both against Jews and against Muslims.
The majority of honor killings worldwide are Muslim-on-Muslim crimes—and yes, Hindus and Sikhs do commit this crime, but they rarely do so in the West.
The battle for women’s rights is the battle for Europe and for Western values—it is also the key to the battle for Israel. It is a necessary part of true democracy, along with freedom of religion, tolerance of homosexuals, freedom of dissent, and a free press. Here, then, is exactly where the battle for the greatest values of western civilization in this 21st century is joined.
As they say, it starts with the Jews but it never ends with us.”
