April 27, 2024

"He... compared Zionists to white supremacists and Nazis. 'These are all the same people' he said."

"'The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.' And, Mr. James said, 'Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.'..."

From "Columbia Bars Student Protester Who Said ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live'/After video surfaced on social media, the student, Khymani James, said on Friday that his comments were wrong" (NYT).

"[I]n an interview earlier in the week, Mr. James drew a distinction between the ideas of anti-Zionism, which describes opposition to the Jewish state of Israel, and antisemitism. 'There is a difference,' he said. 'We’ve always had Jewish people as part of our community where they have expressed themselves, they feel safe, and they feel loved. And we want all people to feel safe in this encampment. We are a multiracial, multigenerational group of people.'"

54 comments:

Leland said...

Be grateful we are not throwing you in jail for a decade until you grow up.

Christopher B said...

Dhimmitude

Tina Trent said...

If the illegal takeover is on public land or taxpayer-funded property (every university in the nation, public or private), then the trespassers can feel safe by leaving.

What a delight to see Emory faculty hauled off by police while whining "but I'm a professor!" Add another line to your vitae, sweet cheeks. You learned something important about the law today.

Money Manger said...

He’s correct in that the antisemitism circle and the anti-Zionism circle in the Venn diagram don’t perfectly overlap, but it’s close.

Iman said...

The little monsters among us…

Iman said...

Follow the money. Soros-funded.

Money Manger said...

At its source, the problem at Columbia and the other Ivies traces up to the Admissions Dept. For some time student applicants have known that the way to get the Ivy Acceptance Letter was to demonstrate Social Justice bona fides in High School: start an activist group, volunteer for an oppressed aid organization, discuss your personal victimhood.

Any trace of conservative bent (ROTC, expression of strong Christian faith, etc) dooms the application.
You reap what you sow.

Oligonicella said...

Asshole should be careful. Others can invent just as twisted logic to justify shooting him.

Jeff Vader said...

The quality of students at our top universities is less than impressive, wonder what it’s SAT scores were

rehajm said...

In announcing their decision to bar Mr. James from campus, the university did not make clear if he had been suspended or permanently expelled

I can tell you what the answer is…

The article is here to promote his manifesto. Knock down the paywall and spread it far and wide…

Goldenpause said...

It only took Columbia four months (and some adverse publicity) to get around to taking some action against this out of control loon. No wonder the place is a mess. Nothing will improve at Columbia until its current leadership is sacked.

Mike Sylwester said...

Since he now says publicly that his statements were wrong, the University should end this matter with a reprimand.

The NYT article repeatedly calls Mr. James a "pro-Palestinian student". Instead, the article always should have called him a "pro-Hamas student".

Rob said...

Note that Columbia barred him not when he made the offensive remarks, at a proceeding in front of Columbia administrators, but after the remarks were publicized.

Temujin said...

" 'We’ve always had Jewish people as part of our community where they have expressed themselves, they feel safe, and they feel loved."

I suspect anyone with a modicum of knowledge of the history of the Jewish people would disagree with this statement and look at it as dangerously naive and ridiculous. We have thousands of likewise 'educated' young people walking among us.

One wonders what you get for $60K+ a year. I guess they do have multiple pronouns. So there's that.

Mr. O. Possum said...

Runner-Up Prize: The Emory teacher who screams, "I'm a professor!" while resisting arrest, followed by "Oh, my God!" when she's taken down.

Big Mike said...

Rabbi Meir Kahane and his followers would have known what to do with him.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I’ve also heard that when some pro-Palestinian student protesters are asked if the Jewish hostages, now held by the Hamas, should be released, as a condition for further peace negotiations, the students said no.

Where does that cruelty come from? That unwillingness to empathize with people whose only crime was to be born to a certain ethnicity/religion.

Usually, that kind of strong emotion, comes from a desire for revenge. It’s personal. See the reaction of Ron Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, to the death of OJ Simpson, his son's killer. Fred is reported to have said "No great loss". And ever there, it was measured.

And so, I question the authenticity of the protesters. I believe it's all for show, a perverse pageant done for the attention, the chance to be an "influencer", just so they can get likes, upvotes and hopefully followers. Half of them couldn't say what if any investments the Universities have with Israel or any other country in the world for that matter.

Breezy said...

Why can we not sanction George Soros, tie up his funds or indict him? He’s an agent of chaos, from illegal immigrant invasion to non-performing DAs to fomenting unrest. Is his defense simply “free speech”? Is he simply too wealthy to curtail?

rehajm said...

Follow the money. Soros-funded

Yes, it has all the hallmarks of a top-down, well funded op.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

He is wrong. Jew-haters are Nazis.
Certain that cretin is a Holocaust denier, too.
Just another Temper tantrum for Terrorist a-hole.

rehajm said...

Mr. James drew a distinction between the ideas of anti-Zionism, which describes opposition to the Jewish state of Israel, and antisemitism

Distinction without a difference.

Howard said...

Cruelty and lack of empathy is easier to see in others than ourselves.

Jamie said...

He’s correct in that the antisemitism circle and the anti-Zionism circle in the Venn diagram don’t perfectly overlap, but it’s close.

I'm willing to say that this may be a technical truth, at least insofar as - like Queers for Palestine - there are anti-Zionist Jews.

But as an algorithm to determine whether a person is antisemitic, it works pretty darn well, as becomes apparent when you get them talking.

ga6 said...

"I didn't know the gun was loaded"

Sally327 said...

He wants to be taken seriously so he says serious sounding things that (I think?) he doesn't mean or doesn't understand how it will be perceived because he's used to being able to spout off and everybody around him nods and says "right on!" (or whatever the Gen Z equivalent is).

I blame his parents and everyone else who was responsible for his secondary education.

I also have to say that the last five years have been very eye-opening for me. It's been a long time since I sat in a classroom so had no idea what's been going on in academia. First the pandemic showed what it's like in the schools these days and now these Palestinian/Hamas protests on college campuses.

Mary Beth said...

they feel safe, and they feel loved

Safe and loved as long as they don't want their own country and they stay quiet.

Not so much "safe and loved" as not targeted at that moment.

Drago said...

Looks like there will be 1 less Howitzer Howard "Hero" on the Columbia campus.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Anyone who uses the word "Zionist" is a terrorist supporting Nazi jack-wad.

MadTownGuy said...

Breezy said...

"Why can we not sanction George Soros, tie up his funds or indict him? He’s an agent of chaos, from illegal immigrant invasion to non-performing DAs to fomenting unrest. Is his defense simply “free speech”? Is he simply too wealthy to curtail?"

Too well-connected.

MadTownGuy said...

Breezy said...

"Why can we not sanction George Soros, tie up his funds or indict him? He’s an agent of chaos, from illegal immigrant invasion to non-performing DAs to fomenting unrest. Is his defense simply “free speech”? Is he simply too wealthy to curtail?"

Too well-connected.

Kakistocracy said...

Protip: if you don’t want people to over generalize your protest as being violent and bigoted, don’t choose violent bigots as your public face.

holdfast said...

Except he’s not really barred, because he and all the other people who were supposedly barred from campus are still brazenly posting pictures from campus.

It’s hard to decide whether the Columbia administration is just completely feckless, or also terrorist simps themselves.

MadTownGuy said...

Regrets for the double comment. Blogger made me do it.

Aggie said...

If they don't expel the students that are spewing vileness like Tough Guy, even when they fold and pseudo-apologize, then that means they want it to continue. Suspensions are vacations.

Rick67 said...

James' Twitter bio states he is "anti-capitalist anti-imperialist". He is a Marxist. If we keep that central fact in mind then it helps us understand almost everything else he says and does. Including the statements that seem wildly contradictory.

"We don't hate Jews as an ethnic group. We hate Jews as representatives of capitalism". Anti-capitalist Jews - Jews who profess Marxism - are welcome and safe".

James will say anything no matter how contradictory or dishonest in order to remain in a position of power and influence. One of the four goals of the Marxist left is to gain power. And never ever ever to give it up.

William said...

I watch World News Tonight on ABC to be better informed. Not to be better informed on the world news but to be better informed on what people like George Stepanopoulos consider to be news. They had a snippet from this man's diatribe. Then they had a young woman who looked as sweet and wholesome as an apple dumpling who explained that she was demonstrating not against Jews but against Israeli policies and that she herself was a Jewish.

The Vault Dweller said...

His statements remind me of the young woman out in California who while during a city council meeting said something to the effect of, "since you seem to have no problem with with violence we will go to your houses tonight and murder you." Now her statement was more explicitly a threat than this guy's but I don't think either had an actual goal of killing people. However I do believe both have a murderous anger.

Yancey Ward said...

Jewish students in these universities probably should be organizing and arming themselves to the teeth. What is happening right now is the first stage- testing to see how soft they are and whether the university leadership will push back hard. I would say the universities are already failing in their duties and that more physical violence isn't that far off now.

Dude1394 said...

NAZIS gotta do NAZI stuff. And he IS a democrat party NAZI.

Rusty said...

Yancey Ward said...
"Jewish students in these universities probably should be organizing and arming themselves to the teeth."
As I've been saying all along. You have a right to be armed. Arm youselves. They've already unhumaned you. Now it's just the form of your elimination. As history has shown us repeadtedly. It is a very short trip from where you stand now to the pit where a police officer puts a bullet in your head.

Yes. Howard said that unironically.

Joe Smith said...

Bet you dollars to donuts that this DEI/AA genius needed 6-700 extra SAT points added just to drag him over the line.

That, or his essay entitled, "Jamal has two mommies and Jews are evil."

Whatever happened to going to college to actually learn things?

What a quaint notion...

PM said...

"Yeah, sorry. I was just trying to get laid by that girl in the burqa. No, that one, the one behind the one with glasses."

Narr said...

I'll keep using "Zionist" as a label for Zionists.

Zionism is a real thing, and the word is too useful and important to be twisted by PCness.

Michael K said...

Black anti-Semitism is alive and well.

Shahid Q. Public said...

And what, pray tell are the implications of this anti-Zionism today, versus 80 years ago before Israel was (re-)established. What are you proposing to do with all the Jews there?

Anti-Zionism is just antisemitism with barely cincealed extra steps.

Even 80 years ago, when there was no such thing as an Arab “Palestinian” people, and nation states were all the rage, the idea that Jews among all the nations of the earth did not deserve their own state also seems at least a bit anti-Semitic.

mikee said...

Saying the truth out loud is frowned upon in most social situations.

James K said...

“Jewish students in these universities probably should be organizing and arming themselves to the teeth.”

I know a bunch of Jews who are working on getting carry permits. There are two big problems in New York. First, the process takes about a year, between required training and the application process. Second, Manhattan is full of gun-free zones (no doubt including college campuses), so you can’t walk 200 yards in any direction without being in violation.

Incidentally, you’re not allowed to have a gun at a protest or rally. There was a Jewish member of the NY House who brought a legal gun to one of these anti-Israel rallies a few months ago and was arrested for it. If you have a permit it’s a relatively minor offense, but it’s still against the law.

Jim at said...

Eventually these loud-mouthed thugs are going to threaten the wrong person.

And it can't happen soon enough.

mccullough said...

It’s not Zionism, bro.

It’s anti-Arab colonialism.

Just like Spain eventually kicked out the Invaders.

We’re going to beat them back into Arabia where they are from.

Rusty said...

James K said...
Every Jew that went to the death camps and every Zek that went into the gulags wished they had a gun.
Get one anyway. You never need permission to defend yourself.
When the State tells you you don't need one is the time to seek one out.

Skeptical Voter said...

I think this same clown said that he hadn't murdered anybody "yet'. Now it's at least slightly possible that this kid grew up in an neighborhood with drive by gang shootings. But I doubt it.

More likely he's a city kid from a Black family with a middle class background and the only real violence he's seen is on video games. He blasted people away--then hit the reset button and everything was hunky dooky again. He doesn't know real violence. He's never taken a rifle from his shoulder and gone out and killed something--human being, deer, wild boar, rabbit. He's not been around when an animal has been slaughtered for meat. Heck he is most probably like that San Francisco drone who "buys his meat at the supermarket where no animals are injured".

I rate his statementw big talk from a little Twinkie who has a lot to learn.

Nancy Reyes said...

next to the murderous Islamic regimes of Iran, Sadam's Iraq, and today's Syria with it's civil war, Israel's actions seem minor.

But then, all that Nazi stuff ignores that those pushing this love Communism, ignoring the much larger numbers of murders of Stalin, Mao and PolPot.

Josephbleau said...

Their objective is not to be right. The objective is to be inconvenient.

Protesters float at the boundary between legal and illegal, like the kid who pinches you then smiles and says yes Mrs. Smith.

Krumhorn said...

He’s a confused queer. Why is it the case that the most loony of the bug-eyed lefties are so often confused queers? They sure make an outsized noise compared to their limited numbe.rs

- Krumhorn