As a student at Penn State, I spent a fair amount of time serving out some form of probation for various acts of stupidity. It began the very first week of classes when I discharged a fire extinguisher into the quad from the seventh floor of my dorm building.
That spring, I was ratted out by an RA for my alleged participation in a group streak through a neighboring dorm complex. I will neither confirm nor deny whether the charge against me was warranted.
A number of my fraternity brothers and I also got pinched for sneaking a keg into Eisenhower Auditorium, as well as for launching water balloons at floats in the homecoming parade.
During my junior year, in a stroke of capitalist genius, a few days before a home football game, I visited a local florist and ordered a few hundred carnations, asking that they be sprayed with blue paint. I think I paid 50 cents each.
That Saturday morning, I carried my merchandise through an ocean of blue-and-white-clad tailgaters, charging the enthusiastic and inebriated alumni $3.00 a pop.
I'd sold all but about three when the campus jackboots caught up to me, confiscated the remaining flowers, and tacked on another semester of probation. Still, I cleared about 700 bucks that day.
But, like I said, it wasn't always just me acting alone in breaking the rules. When we returned from Thanksgiving break my freshman year, the brothers in the house instructed us pledges to go to the campus golf course and bring back a Christmas tree. We successfully selected and harvested a lovely Douglas fir and returned it to the house without being detected by the authorities.
And it's a good thing because, a couple of months later, during their hell week, a pledge class in another fraternity got busted doing the same thing we'd done back in December. The guys the cops were able to nab were all expelled within a week.
So, at least back in the 80s, the notion of kicking a kid out of school wasn't unheard of, even for the offense of felling an inanimate object.
Incidentally, there weren't any signs posted in the area warning that the trees were off-limits, so the culprits might've copped an ignorance plea.
Anyway, yeah, I'll admit it; I was anything but a model campus citizen. However, witnessing the level of ignorance recently on display on American campuses, my own undergrad hijinks are beginning to seem relatively intelligent.
And, if I were to further bare my soul, I could probably recall, in addition to some regrettable acts, a few phrases I wish I could take back, as well.
However, one line that surely has never crossed my lips is, "Keep it moving, you Zionist bitch."
Last Wednesday, at an anti-Israel protest near Columbia University, a presumably Jewish man defiantly marched past the protestors, wearing an Israel flag over his shoulders. As he passed, he was told to, “Keep it moving, you Zionist bitch.”
He then turned to a man holding a sign that read, ISRAEL IS SLAUGHTERING PALESTINIANS, and asked him, “But Hamas is okay?”
At that point, some fat chick with a keffiyeh wrapped around her face chimed in. While continuing to loudly bang a metal object against a barricade, she screamed, “We ARE Hamas!”
Just to make sure that he’d heard her correctly, another pedestrian asked the chubby dolt, “You’re Hamas? Wow, you’re Hamas?”
To which the rotund genius replied, “Yes, we’re all Hamas, pig!”
It doesn't require a thorough examination of that expression to determine what it plainly implies, intentionally or not.
It means that the protesters in question want to associate themselves and their identities with the very group who, just 201 days ago, slaughtered 1,200 people, and was considerate enough to broadcast their barbarity to the world, just so we could all see it for ourselves.
I don't know if that sort of thing is being said at other campuses yet, but you can bet it's on the tip of a lot of tongues.
Why is this particular strain of hatred allowed?
If you're being honest and have an IQ over 70, there's no getting around the fact that anti-Semitism is a reality that's been around for a long time. I won't delve into the history of the disorder, but let's just acknowledge that it wasn't invented on October 7.
Of course, I'm not suggesting that ethnic and racial animus doesn't exist elsewhere. Stereotypes are often at the root, but thankfully, in 21st-century America, they generally don't metastasize beyond jokes or idle acrimony.
You know what I'm talking about. Irish are drunks, Poles unintelligent, Italians violent and Jews cheap.
The difference, though, is that, while most of those categorizations stop at the punchline, the grudge against Jews extends well beyond it and isn't limited simply to the notion that the race is somehow tight with their cash. Where it manifests itself, the grievance against Jews is all too frequently vicious.
And, in case you haven’t noticed, it has manifested itself to an absurd degree.
Just listen to the chants.
We say justice, you say how?
Burn Tel Aviv to the ground.
or
Yes, Hamas, we love you.
(Yeah, no shit, they said that.)
Also at Columbia on Wednesday, a pale-faced blond woman led a small group in chanting, “Israel, go to hell. It is right to rebel.” Despite the brevity and repetition of the cadence, the mastermind seemed to be reading it from the screen of her phone.
On Friday night, just outside the university gates, a delightful young man wearing a red keffiyeh yelled at two Jewish students, "Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10...100…1000…10,000...The 7th of October is going to be every day for you."
So, it’s now cool —in public, as police look on— to threaten your fellow citizens with barbaric acts of violence and murder, at least if they’re Jewish.
But the continuum of stupidity isn't constrained by any sort of logic. A few nights ago, one crowd chanted, "NYPD, go to hell."
Another group insisted, "Brick by brick, wall by wall, NYPD will fall."
(The meter of that verse left much to be desired.)
What the hell does the NYPD have to do with Gaza, dummies?
You might also wonder why the angry students have chosen to direct their ire at educational institutions.
Well, while I’m sure that the overwhelming majority of them wouldn’t be able to accurately articulate the reason, it's because (they claim) they want their schools to disassociate themselves with Israel. No more Israeli money or research projects. No more endowment dollars being invested in anything having to do with the evil Zionist state.
But the way I see it, if you're a student who considers your college to be somehow complicit in alleged human rights abuses, I couldn’t think of a better way to express your displeasure than to deprive the bursar of your next tuition installment…and the next. Yeah, put your money where your ill-informed, Jew-hating mouth is and drop out!
Of course, that would require a certain degree of moral courage, an attribute that I don’t imagine is in abundant supply among these morons.
And that lack of cohones would make it even less likely that they’d take me up on my next suggestion.
If they mean it when they holler things like, “We are Hamas,” why not seize the moment?
Seriously, go for it.
Run to the sound of the guns when your Palestinian brothers need you most.
Anybody?
While I’m on that topic, it’s probably worth pointing out that, since October 7, more than 10,000 American citizens have joined the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces, bringing the total number to over 23,000.
Nobody’s stopping America's Jew-hating, Hamas-loving undergrads from hopping a flight to Israel (er, Palestine) to join the fight.
Another way of looking at the protestors and their demands is a little simpler.
I graduated from Penn State 34 years ago and anyone who knows me knows that I’ll always be a proud, flag-waving, sweatshirt-wearing Nittany Lion.
But I’m also a realist who recognizes that, once PSU cashed my last tuition check, my official relationship with my “Dear Old State” was over.
My point is that colleges are businesses, plain and simple.
If you refuse to leave your local Home Depot because you’re upset over some corporate policy, and see fit to scream obscenities at the cashier, before too long you’re gonna be escorted from the premises and potentially arrested.
If the manager of your health club has to repeatedly remind you that smoking is prohibited in the gym, pretty soon your membership will be revoked. He sure as shit ain't going to tell the other members to stay home while he and you work out your differences over the matter.
And, unlike my Christmas tree anecdote —which did have a possible loophole— students at these schools have repeatedly been admonished to cease and desist their jackassery.
On Tuesday, Columbia's president, Minouche Shafik, warned the student protestors that they had until midnight to remove their encampment and that, if they failed to comply, the school would "consider alternative options."
So far, so good. Only, when the intransigent crowd refused to budge, the "alternative option" Shafik employed was to extend the deadline for 48 hours in order to allow for negotiations with the very people who'd just blown her off.
So now the administration of one of America's most iconic universities is in talks with students who zealously support a group that, for the past 27 years, has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, was responsible for the deaths of 1,200 innocents in October, and continues to detain over 100 hostages, including a one-year-old and nine American citizens.
Wanna know who wasn't invited to the negotiating table?
You got it, the Jewish kids. Am I the only one who finds that totally messed up?
I was pleased when I learned of House Speaker Mike Johnson's plans to visit Columbia yesterday, both because it was nice to hear that someone (anyone) from inside the Beltway cares enough to make the trip, but also because it should give him a few minutes' respite from Marjorie Taylor Greene and company.
It is worth pointing out that President Biden will be landing at JFK this afternoon for a campaign event in Westchester, and, just before 8 pm, his helicopter will be landing near Wall St, about 10 miles south of Columbia University.
So, there's that.
Anyhow, as the Speaker tried to address the crowd, he was met with mocking chants of, "We can't hear you" and "Mike, you suck."
While Johnson should be applauded for the effort, other elected officials have gone out of their way to generously endow the army of haters with a sort of legitimacy.
In March, Chuck Schumer told the world —to include the students now protesting— that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had "lost his way." Somehow, though, he failed to so much as mention the Iranian regime orchestrating the concerted assault on the Jewish state, or the leaders of Hamas, PIJ or the Houthis.
The State Department added fuel to the fire of Jew hatred this week when it released its 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The preface, signed by Secretary Antony Blinken, mentions human rights concerns in Gaza before so much as a word about Iran or the Taliban.
When pressed by reporters on Monday over what appears to be an example of his department holding Israel to a double standard, Blinken insisted that was not the case.
"Do we have a double standard?" the secretary began, "The answer is 'no'."
Unfortunately for him, one of his ambassadors —perhaps unwittingly— called BS.
When asked the same question the following day, David Satterfield, Blinken's special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, replied, "Now with respect to Israel, we require from Israel…a very different standard of conduct."
He went on to justify (rationalize?) the policy, saying, "It's the morally right thing to do. It is the reflection of what Israel is — a democracy with values."
So, since Israel's a democracy with values, the double standard is somehow kosher. I don't get it.
Since nobody around here listens to her anymore, on Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi told an Irish news station that Benjamin Netanyahu should resign, calling him "an obstacle to the two-state solution."
"We recognize Israel's right to protect itself," she obliged herself to say.
However, comma…
"We reject the policy and practice of Netanyahu - terrible," she continued. "What could be worse than what he has done in response?"
Well, Nancy, the fact is that there could have been so many worse responses, you twit. In fact, Israel’s has been fairly commendable.
First of all, per the laws of war, Israel would've been within it's rights to simply carpet bomb Gaza in its entirety.
It didn't. Instead, the IDF has proceeded methodically —delicately, even— since the ground offensive began in late October. In fact, Israel waited weeks before even entering Gaza, giving civilians warning and opportunity to evacuate Hamas strongholds.
"Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history," says John Spencer of the Modern Warfare Institute at West Point, "Above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
And yet, knuckleheads like Biden, Blinken, Pelosi, and the dimwits that make up The Squad believe they have any right to criticize Israel's conduct of an existential struggle against an enemy hellbent on its eradication.
Think about how long we've been talking about the impending Rafah operation. Israel has repeatedly delayed the assault to allow civilians to relocate.
Over the past six months, Israel has made upwards of 70,000 phone calls, left over 15 million pre-recorded voicemails and sent over 13 million text messages instructing civilians in Gaza to leave combat zones, as well as suggesting where they should go and the best route to take.
Finally, contrary to the baseless claims of the 'massacre' and 'genocide' being perpetrated by the Jewish state, the Israeli military has been remarkably effective in minimizing civilian casualties.
The IDF recently reported having killed about 13,000 Hamas terrorists since October 7. Last Thursday, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry released an updated death toll of 33,970 Gazans.
The health ministry doesn't go to the trouble of differentiating between civilians and Hamas fighters, and many observers believe that number to be inflated.
However, even taking Hamas at its word, if you subtract the 13,000 terrorists that the IDF claims to have exterminated from the ministry's total death toll, the result is 20,970, or a ratio of less than 2-to-1.
That's two civilian deaths for every combatant death.
For what it's worth, sources including the UN and EU estimate that, in modern warfare, civilians typically account for 80 to 90 percent of casualties. In other words, a ratio of eight or 9-to-1.
Let those numbers sink in for a moment. The modern-day average for civilian casualties in a war zone is somewhere between 80 and 90 percent.
Israel has managed to reduce that number to about 20%.
I'm not sure how the hell that equates to genocide, but you've got an awful lot of Kool-Aid drinkers out there convincing themselves that it does.
Brian O'Leary is a retired Marine Corps colonel, who served for 30 years, including combat deployments to Somalia and Iraq, and command of an infantry battalion in Afghanistan. Additionally, he has spent 25 years in the financial services industry. Brian earned his BA in English from Penn State University and his MA in National Security Studies from the US Army War College.
IG - @brian_oleary34 X - @brianoleary34
If I were a rich Jew, Id hire a bunch of actors wearing SS uniforms and waving signs saying "JUDEN RAUS" or "to the ovens" and co-mingle with the jew hating demonstrators, just to screw with their whole scene. It would make great TV. Or get real skin-heads to join them.
The Hamas loving morons camping out to share the"Gazan experience" should get the real thing. If I were in charge I would have let a bunch of prisoners from Rikers Island free for 24 hours with weapons and set them mass rape and slaughter them for the full Gaza experience. GPS electroshock collars on the inmates could control them.