What Is Flig?

Kesher Talk has a link-rich article on the PSM, and their ISM buddies. The Chronicle has their day-of overview and a summary of Pipes' speech last night.

A cartoon from the Durham Little Paper.

If you have links, or a personal experience of the conference, protests, or surrounding events, please drop me an e-mail through the link at the left.

The Students Against Terror concert and rally sounds like it was a great success, but the focus of the Chronicle article is that some folks were upset:

Although the concert and rally were advertised as a decidedly apolitical event, many students and several organizations that endorsed the event expressed concern that it became an emotionally charged pro-Israeli forum.

Guess who had the strongest whine complaints:

Mo Sarhan, a junior and past president of the Arab Students Organization, said he felt like he had an "uneducated and unrealistic" idea of what the event was going to be about. "I was told that it was apolitical, and I encouraged the ASO to endorse this event. However, when I got there, I found that it was completely political in a pro-Israeli way and at some points anti-Islamic," Sarhan said.

Sarhan added that he did not believe the concert and rally fostered unity or dialogue. "I feel like the rally against terror didn't bring the campus together but instead brought together the pro-Israeli groups on campus to hear things that they wanted to hear," he said.

Here's what he's apparently complaining about:

Mohamed Yahya, who experienced state-supported violence in Sudan, polarized the crowd when he asked for help from his "Jewish brothers." Brigitte Gabriel, who witnessed terrorist-type activities in Lebanon and founded the American Congress for Truth, angered many members of the crowd when she referred to Arabs as "barbarians."

If anyone finds a transcript of Gabriel's remarks online, please let me know. I'm curious as to the context.

Update:

Whaddaya know? Here's some context to both quotes above:

Among the speakers was Brigitte Gabriel, a Christian who fled Lebanon for Israel during the Lebanese civil war and now runs a Virginia-based organization aimed at exposing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. She finished her speech by describing what she sees as the difference between Israel and "the Arab world."

"It's barbarism versus civilization," she said. "It's civilization versus dictatorship. It's good versus evil."

Mo Sarhan, a junior whose parents fled from the West Bank to Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War, watched, bemused. His student group, the Arab Students Organization, endorsed the rally to show that many Arabs oppose terrorism, he said.

"Violence on either side [of the conflict] should not be accepted by anyone," he said.

But, as Sarhan listened, he said he was disappointed.

"I can't believe we endorsed this," he said, between puffs on a cigarette.

The Duke Chronicle reports that the Jewish Defense Organization wishes to shut down the conference. While these guys appear to be jerks (I agree with about 10% of their agenda, it looks like) I think the Chronicle reporter went over the line by saying "at least one group has hinted at its desire to incite violence." There doesn't appear to be any reference to the PSM conference on the JDO website.

And in other news of people who need to get lives, someone sent out an email with the forged address of a Duke student, exaggerating the founding principles of the PSM. There's no need to when the truth is damaging enough.

Update:

Duke's page for links and info is here.

Who are the PSM and why are they objectionable? The ADL has a backrounder.

The PSM's own page on the conference, including lists of events and speakers is here.

Information on the PSM and their links to the terror-supporting ISM can be found at netWMD. Also available are links to a petition protesting Duke's support for the conference and a form to send letters to Administrators and politicians.

Here is the text of the letter I sent:

As an alumnus I am angered and saddened at the support Duke University is providing to the ISM by hosting their conference. While they are capable of providing an acceptable face to the media, any amount of research would expose the anti-semitism and support for violent action that are at the heart of this organization.

President Brodhead's recent letter, and the glib moral relativism and blindness inherent in the phrase "the historic inability of the Israelis and Palesinias to find a workable solution to their...conflict" left me appalled and resolute in my decision to never donate any funds to the University or it's endowment.

I hope that the conference ends without violence, and that the community's eyes are opened to what ISM/PSM truly represents.

The Freeman Center for Jewish Life is co-sponsoring a Concert Against Terrorism and a Teach-In but is not directly protesting the event. Duke University Israel Initiative was formed in response to the PSM conference.

The Joint Israel Initiative, headed by Mollie Lurey, supports the ongoing efforts towards a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and yearn for peace throughout the region. To this end, we call on all campus organizations, the University administration, and the Board of Trustees to:

• Condemn the murder of innocent civilians, whether by individuals, groups, or nations, anywhere in the world.

• Support the need for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that guarantees safe and secure borders.

To accomplish this, the Israel Initiative is sponsoring a range of program and events in the coming year. We are working closely with Duke officials, local Jewish community leaders, and national organizations to create a wide range of activities that provide an unbiased perspective on the diversity of opinion within and outside the Jewish community. We are proud to announce that this year we will be bringing to campus Alan Dershowitz, Yossi Beilin, Gary Bauer, and Avram Burg.

Meryl Yourish has a post about the Palestinian Student Movement's conference and the display of a bus destroyed by a suicide bomber.

She adds her usual pointed commentary, of course.

Check back here over the next few days for links and commentary on the conference.

The Volokh Conspiracy points out what may be one of the stupidest things Kerry has said (this week.)

When I asked Kerry what it would take for Americans to feel safe again, he displayed a much less apocalyptic worldview. "We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance," Kerry said. "As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life."