Thank you for this excellent timeline. In fall of 1988, my late husband and I attended a talk -- a plea, really -- given by Edward Said at UCSB. I recall the talk was given in a small lecture hall over in the Arts building. I recognized some of those attending, including a few of Frank's colleagues from the English Dept. Said was there to speak on behalf of the Palestinians, this during the time of the uprising which was much publicized globally that year. Frank and i attended because we had just returned from 6 months in East Berlin. We heard all sides to the ongoing conflict through American Forces Radio, GDR news reports, and the BBC. But that night in the lecture hall, Said could not be heard. Throughout, audience members shouted him down. I was stunned that professors I respected could heckle and berate as they did. Finally, Said raised his arms out and stated: "What can I say, we are all animals and we deserve to die." That's word for word.The shouting then continued. I support Israel and her right to exist. I do not recognize "the other side" argument as is currently inserted following the October 7 pogrom. But the point of my Said story is really about the audience. At that time, liberal academics unequivacably supported Israel. But their response that night was uncivil, a mob. Nothing was achieved. Today, campus liberals engage in the same horrific behavior, even worse. All that has changed? Now it's Gaza and the Palestinian Arabs they embrace, and Israel is the villain. That's what makes today's anti-Israel protests so dangerous and now deadly. The motivation comes from blind political ideology which leads to bigotry, and the rise in anti-Semiticism.
this article focus wholly upon the Jews and their history in the region, but make no mention of the displacement of more the 700,000 Palestinians by the powers-that-be in order to make space for new arrivals of European Jews…
Thank you for this excellent timeline. In fall of 1988, my late husband and I attended a talk -- a plea, really -- given by Edward Said at UCSB. I recall the talk was given in a small lecture hall over in the Arts building. I recognized some of those attending, including a few of Frank's colleagues from the English Dept. Said was there to speak on behalf of the Palestinians, this during the time of the uprising which was much publicized globally that year. Frank and i attended because we had just returned from 6 months in East Berlin. We heard all sides to the ongoing conflict through American Forces Radio, GDR news reports, and the BBC. But that night in the lecture hall, Said could not be heard. Throughout, audience members shouted him down. I was stunned that professors I respected could heckle and berate as they did. Finally, Said raised his arms out and stated: "What can I say, we are all animals and we deserve to die." That's word for word.The shouting then continued. I support Israel and her right to exist. I do not recognize "the other side" argument as is currently inserted following the October 7 pogrom. But the point of my Said story is really about the audience. At that time, liberal academics unequivacably supported Israel. But their response that night was uncivil, a mob. Nothing was achieved. Today, campus liberals engage in the same horrific behavior, even worse. All that has changed? Now it's Gaza and the Palestinian Arabs they embrace, and Israel is the villain. That's what makes today's anti-Israel protests so dangerous and now deadly. The motivation comes from blind political ideology which leads to bigotry, and the rise in anti-Semiticism.
this article focus wholly upon the Jews and their history in the region, but make no mention of the displacement of more the 700,000 Palestinians by the powers-that-be in order to make space for new arrivals of European Jews…