Campus Watch is Missing the Point (and so is the Right as a whole)
Reader comment on item: An Inadvertent Endorsement of Campus Watch [at Georgia Tech]

Submitted by Pro-Israeli Democrat (United States), Apr 21, 2006 at 07:53

This message is a follow-up to my previous entry, in which I express my doubts about the intentions of the American Right in calling for "diversity" in Middle East studies. This is symptomatic of another error they are making in trying to pinpoint the so-called "unholy" alliance between Radical Islam and the Far Left. As a moderate-liberal college student, I have come to know many Americans on the Far Left, and here is how I would describe many of them:

* They support both Israeli and Palestinian statehood (I have my doubts due to the rise of Hamas, and favor the Israelis anyway. I defend Israel in debates all the time)

* They attend Holocaust-related lectures and memorials

* Some are, in fact, Jewish (as I am), although most were born Catholic

* Most have contempt for religion in general

* All deplore the acts of 9/11 and terrorism in general

* Most simply want to protect American democracy and put an end to so-called "anti-terrorist" measures that are meant to crack down on dissenters, NOT capture Al-Qaeda, Hamas, or Hezbollah operatives

* Most care more for maintaining civil liberties such as dissent, free speech, and abortion than they do for establishing a Palestinian State (even those who sympathize with the Palestinian Arabs).

So, the thought that the Left is going to align itself with radical islam to destabalize the West is, in my mind, completely irrational. The real problem is the allegience between radical Islam and the far RIGHT (Fundamentalist Christians, Klansmen, Neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, etc.) Just look at history!!! During World War II, Haj Amin al Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem and distant relative of that terrorist Arafat, not only supported Adolf Hitler, but sent Arabs to SS regiments.

During the Early 1990s, the Iranian government ordered Hezbollah to bomb a Jewish Community Center and the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was not "leftists" that helped Hezbollah carry out the operations, but local NEO-NAZIS. Each attack killed about 90 people, and left Argentina's Jewish Community stunned. Reverend Fred Phelps, meanwhile, supported Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War and after September 11th, expressed "admiration" for what Al-Qaeda had done to America. He believes that 9/11 was justified since the US has "legalized" homosexuality, and pickets the funerals of American Troops for the exact same reason. I am sure he would get along with Ayman-Aal Zawahiri.

More recently, we have seen Televangelist Pat Robertson call Ariel Sharon's stroke a "punishment from God" (I was OUTRAGED), and white supremacist David Duke pay a "goodwill" visit to Syria, where he claimed that America was "occupied by Zionists". Iran's loudmouth, dumb @$& president Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad would be proud, for Duke also denies that the Holocaust happened, as do many on the Far Right who call it a Zionist "hoax".

I have never met a single leftist who thought such a ridiculous thing, let alone said it. While there is little evidence to support the claim that "leftist" professors and college students will aid in Al-Qaeda attacks, the Far Right has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction (consult the "Turner Diaries" for this), denied the Holocaust, and attempted to justify 9/11 for whatever reason. So, the lethal alliance is not between Radical Islamists and peace protestors. It is between Radical Islamists, skinheads, and Holocaust-denying white supremacists. Their political views converge naturally and this alliance has been in place at least since World War II and should make everyone nervous. It certainly scares me.

...If organizations such as this were effective in fighting the war on terror, they would hone their attention on on the disturbing ties between Islamic Fundamentalists and White Supremacists, rather than Islam and the "left". Peace protestors demonstrating against the Iraq War do not want to destroy Israel. Neither do Arab-American history professors. Neo-Nazis and Baptist Ministers on the other hand, would love to see a nuke fall on what they consider to be "the zionist entity" (does that language sound familiar? If it does, that is because this is what the Islamists say when they refer to Israel)?

Even conservatives should also remember, first and foremost, that our president is not a terrorist-fighting action hero. He is a clown and a businessman first and foremost and one of his campaign financers in 2000 was a man by the name of "Arian". Arian is a leading member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the group that launched several suicide attacks against Israeli civilians this week. To see Bush (AND NO I AM NOT COMPARING BUSH TO HITLER, FOR THAT IS EQUALLY RIDICULOUS) posing with a leader of Islamic Jihad makes me sicker than anything else, as does his "strollin' through the garden" with Saudi Royals and his proposed Dubai Ports Deal. All play into the hands of terrorists. Hard-line conservatives (including former generals) know this as well, and want Bush to go the way of his ideological inspiration, Richard M. Nixon.

The Iraq war has only served to create more terrorists and grant the Iranians hegemony in the South (I have strongly opposed it from the beginning on both moral and strategic grounds, although I believe that both the Afghan War and the '91 Gulf War WERE justified...I am not anti war. Far from it). So George W. is no better at fighting terror than Carter, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton (and all four could not fight terror if their lives depended on it. It is amazing how many opportunities Reagan missed to crush the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Southern Lebanon, just as it is amazing how many Clinton missed to take out Osama bin Laden). One can support Israel without supporting the Administration (and I sincerely believe that Israel is now in MORE danger thanks to Iraq and the implications for the nukey Iranians). I think George W. is the next Nixon and I LOVE the Israelis. There is no contradiction between being a liberal American and supporting Israel. It is sad that some conservatives see it that way.

I also believe that Campus Watch wants us to believe that Iraq is now a happy place with happy, jolly people (and to have college professors tell us just how happy and wonderful the new Iraq is). Are abductions, targeted killings of homosexuals by Shiite militias, suicide bombings by Sunnis, the growth of "Al-Qaeda" splinter groups and other Wahhabi nutcases, and the price paid by American tax-payers "happy" things? I don't think so, and thus I am dreaming of a world without FOX news, or without its Middle Eastern equivalent, Al-Jazeera.

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