Tuesday: Hili dialogue

April 30, 2024 • 6:45 am

Welcome to  the Cruelest Day, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, with May just around the corner. It’s also National Raisin Day.  I particularly like the golden ones.  Here’s a short video about how they make them. You have to start with grapes, of course:

It’s also Adopt A Shelter Pet Day, Bugs Bunny Day (he made his first appearance in a cartoon on this day in 1938) , National Mr. Potato Head Day (on April 30, 1952, the tuber man became the first toy advertised on television), Honesty Day, nternational Jazz Day, National Bubble Tea Day, National Oatmeal Cookie Day (the worst of all cookies), May Eve, “the eve of the first day of summer in the Northern hemisphere”, and Walpurgis Night in Central and Northern Europe.

Here’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt,” in which Bugs makes his first appearance, though looking very different from the later Bugs. Look for him at about 42 seconds in behind Porky Pig.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 30 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT on Monday afternoon faces the question, “what makes a protest antisemitic?” (This is, of course, opposed to a protest of the death of civilians in Gaza.) Clearly, there is a strong element of antisemitism (disguised as “antizionism” in the Columbia protest): to wit:

In a video shared widely online, a leader of the pro-Palestinian student movement at Columbia University stands near the center of a lawn on the campus and calls out, “We have Zionists who have entered the camp.”

Dozens of protesters, who have created a tent village called the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” repeat his words back to him: “We have Zionists who have entered the camp.”

“Walk and take a step forward,” the leader says, as the students continue to repeat his every utterance, “so that we can start to push them out of the camp.”

The protesters link arms and march in formation toward three Jewish students who have come inside the encampment.

“It was really scary because we had like 75 people quickly gathered around, encircling us, doing exactly what he said to do,” Avi Weinberg, one of the Jewish students, said in an interview. He and his friends had gone to see the encampment, not intending to provoke, he said. When it began to feel tense, one of the students started to record the encounter. They are not sure precisely how the protest leader determined they were supportive of Israel.

“Suddenly we are being called ‘the Zionists’ in their encampment,” Mr. Weinberg said. “He put a target on our back.”

I don’t think that the important question is whether the protestors are antisemitic or anti-Zionist, as they clearly equate the two, using the latter term as a euphemism. The question to me is whether the protests are against Israel’s behavior in Gaza or against the existence of the state of Israel, period, for the latter is antisemitic. As the NYT says, universities are struggling. Is this antisemitic? (The BDS movement clearly started this way):

Student demonstrators are specifically calling for their universities to make transparent all financial holdings and divest from companies and funds they say are profiting from or supporting Israel and its government’s policies. They also want “amnesty” for students and faculty who have been disciplined by the university as a result of their protest.

At Columbia, students are also calling on the university to end its five-year-old dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University. Some also object to the presence on the university board of Jeh Johnson, who served as homeland security secretary during the Obama administration and sits on the board of Lockheed Martin, a supplier of fighter jets to the Israel Defense Force.

Is this anti-Semitic? Can Jews be anti-Semitic?  So far I haven’t heard of any Jews saying or doing anything anti-Semitic, but if they’re anti-Zionist, then, in today’s climate, yes, they could be antisemitic.

Many Jewish students taking part in the current protests say they are doing so as an expression of their Jewish values that emphasize social justice and equality. Encampments have hosted Shabbat dinners and Passover seders. At Columbia, one student said that donors have supplied kosher meals.

This is a hard problem, but it’s clear that at Columbia University, the encampment has created an antisemitic climate. And that encampment should be shut down, though Minouche has no guts to do so.

*Speaking of Columbia (pardon my temporary obsession, as our own encampment just started), they’ve set yet another deadline for protestors to disperse.  Supporters of disbanding the camp even include Congressional Democrats.

Columbia University set a new deadline to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment as pressure mounts on school officials over their response to the protests, which spurred a movement on college campuses across the U.S.

A “Notice to Encampment” from the New York City university made the rounds on campus Monday, informing students that dialogue between the school and protest leaders was “at an impasse” and asking students to voluntarily disband the encampment by 2 p.m. The school said otherwise students would be suspended and not allowed to finish the semester.

A group of 21 House Democrats wrote a letter Monday to Columbia’s board of trustees calling on the school leaders to disband the encampment, which they called “a breeding ground for antisemitic attacks.”

The signees, including Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Rep. Adam Schiff of California, joined a number of Republican Congress members who have denounced Columbia over the protests.

. . . Columbia President Minouche Shafik said Monday the university wouldn’t divest from Israel. Shafik said the school offered to convene a committee to discuss academic freedom and to invest in health and education in Gaza.

Shafik should NOT be bargaining with the protestors this way. Acceding to their demands not only empowers them as well as other protestors, but violates the principle of institutional neutrality—a principle that Columbia has not accepted.  Seriously, investing in health and education in Gaza? What about Syria, or Yemen, or Ukraine? Shafik, I think, will not have a very long tenure at Columbia.

From the Washington Post. I’m writing this at 2:15 Monday, so clearing of the quad should have begun by now:

Columbia University ordered student protesters to leave their nearly two-week-old pro-Palestinian encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, saying those who do not will be suspended and will no longer be allowed on campus facilities, including academic buildings and residence halls.

A notice distributed Monday morning noted that negotiations to end the protest had reached an impasse and that the unauthorized encampment was creating “an unwelcoming environment” for students preparing for final exams and looking forward to commencement. It also listed seven university policies that it said the protesters were violating.

Protest leaders asked supporters in an email to “flood the campus to keep the University from its disgusting plan to lock students out of their homes.”

“If the University does not come forward with real, concrete proposals that address our demands, we will have no choice but to escalate the intensity of protest on campus,” according to the email from Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

*A federal appellate court has ruled that health plans must pay the cost of gender-affirming surgery:

A federal appellate court in Richmond became the first in the country to rule that state health-care plans must pay for gender-affirming surgeries, a major win for transgender rights amid a nationwide wave of anti-trans activism and legislation.

The decision came from a set of cases out of North Carolina and West Virginia, where state officials argued that their policies were based on cost concerns rather than bias. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rejected that argument, saying the plans were discriminating against trans people in need of treatment.

Judge Roger Gregory, writing for the majority, called the restrictions “obviously discriminatory” based on both sex and gender.

It’s the second ruling in favor of trans rights this month from the 4th Circuit, a once-conservative court that has become a trailblazer in the realm of transgender rights. The court was the first to say trans students had a right to use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity and the first to recognize gender dysphoria as a protected disability. Earlier this month, the court said a federally funded middle school could not ban a trans 13-year-old from playing on the girls’ track and field team.

All of these rulings split the appeals court down ideological lines. In a dissent from the ruling Monday, Judge Jay Richardson, a Trump appointee, wrote that there was no role for the federal court in policing what treatments health-care plans decide to cover.

This is an interesting case because it allows coverage for a surgical procedure to correct what’s seen as a psychological problem. I have to ponder this, but do worry that it might rush younger people into surgery before they’re mature enough to make that decision. For example, it’s difficult to construct an artificial penis, which doesn’t really work, but there is often dire medical consequences to that, and will insurance also cover those?

I thought at first this decision would surely be appealed to the Supreme Court, but the article adds this:

The ruling could be appealed to the Supreme Court, which recently allowed Idaho to enforce a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. But the conservative-led court has been reluctant to engage on this issue, letting multiple 4th Circuit rulings in favor of transgender rights stand. The court also generally waits until there is disagreement between circuit courts before getting involved.

Other states have banned hormonal treatment and surgery for trans minors; some have restricted care for transgender adults as well. Multiple other states have similar laws against insurance coverage for transition-related treatment.

It already looks as if there’s a conflict, but perhaps the Supremes are awaiting conflicting appellate-court decisions.

*Students began occupying a building at Columbia University as the University has started suspending others.

Student protesters at Columbia University declared Tuesday morning that they had taken over a building near the campus’s South Lawn, raising the prospect of further turmoil at the Ivy League institution. Hours earlier, the university started suspending students who refused to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus grounds.

A statement posted by student groups on Instagram said protesters have “taken matters into their own hands,” adding that the students plan to remain in Hamilton Hall until Columbia divests financially from Israel. A video shared by the group showed rows of students entering the building, carrying barricades. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the situation.

In a later statement circulated to media outlets, the protesters said an “autonomous group” had taken over the building — which includes the classics department and the departments of Germanic and Slavic languages — and renamed it “Hind Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab. The 6-year-old was killed in Gaza this year as she called to be rescued; a Washington Post investigation found that Israeli armored vehicles were present in the area at the time of the incident.

Photos showed students barricading themselves inside rooms in the building as crowds gathered outside. In the statement, the students described taking over the building as the “next generation” of previous student movements at Columbia and said they would remain in place until the university concedes to their demands: “divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty.” In 1968, students occupied five campus buildings in protest as they sought to end Columbia’s affiliation with a think tank involved in Pentagon weapons research, among other demands.

Minouche Shafik, Columbia’s president, said Monday in a statement that the university will not divest from Israel, a core demand of the protesters. By that evening, the Columbia administration began suspending students who refused to leave the encampment after days of negotiations failed to reach a resolution. Dozens of defiant protesters remained at the encampment despite the university’s warnings.

The protestors show no sign of giving in, chanting for Israel’s destruction:

Protesters responded with defiance, encircling the encampment and chanting anti-Israel slogans, including, “It is right to rebel! Israel can go to hell!” and “No more money for Israel’s crimes!” By Monday afternoon, dozens of students were still in the encampment at the center of the university’s Morningside campus, some dancing to Middle Eastern music playing on a stereo. Most of the other protesters had dispersed by late afternoon.

Well, the University has given students several deadlines for dismantling the encampment, but has let them all pass.  President Shafik must act now, removing demonstrators from buildings, or they will show a lack of resolve that will only hearted future protestors.

*The AP “oddities” section reports that a bunch of zebras got loose, temporarily turning a Washington State town into the Serengeti:

 It was an unusual wildlife sighting Sunday when four zebras escaped from their trailer and galloped into a Washington neighborhood.

Three of the four black-and-white striped animals were quickly captured, but the fate of the fourth wasn’t immediately known Monday, Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson said.

The zebras were being transported from Washington to Montana when the driver took the Interstate 90 exit for North Bend, located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Seattle, to secure the trailer.

That’s when the the zebras bolted.

Witness Dan Barnett of North Bent told KING-TV of Seattle that he was in “disbelief,” when he saw the zebras eating grass off the side of the offramp.

He and other drivers helped protect the zebras from the busy nearby interstate, as drivers on the offramp pulled over to “make a makeshift fence” to block the animals from the highway, Barnett said.

The zebras then began heading toward town, trotting past brunch patrons at a restaurant near the interstate exit. Soon after, three of the AWOL zebras were in Whitney Blomquist’s backyard.

They’re all recaptured safe, now, so you can rest easy. A tweet from earlier:

 

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s peckish again:

Hili: There is nothing interesting on the table. I’m going to check what’s in Szaron’s bowls.
A: Kulka was already there.
Hili: So you have to take something out of the fridge.
In Polish:
Hili: Na stole nie ma nic ciekawego, idę sprawdzić, co jest w miseczkach Szarona.
Ja: Tam była już Kulka.
Hili: No to musisz coś wyjąć z lodówki.
And a picture of loving Szaron:

*******************

From Science Humor:

From Stacey:

From Jesus of the Day. I think someone’s violating the Establishment Clause. . .

From Masih, people openly protesting the death sentence of a dissident Iranian rapper. You don’t often see such open protests in Iran!

From Nicholas Christakis; remember him?

Meanwhile at UCLA:

From Malcolm; this lovely cat’s going home!

From Barry, a real wimp of a d*g:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one I retweeted:

Two tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, a GOOD CAT, not a useless one. Why would a guy want to torture a mouse like that (or a gerbil)?

From Matthew, who says, “The fact that the helper moves away at the end is very hard to explain!”  I don’t quite get what he means. The job was done (IF it was a “job”).

20 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. On the diversity front, the EEOC says that failure to use a person’s preferred pronouns or allow them the use of the bathroom of their choice is harassment. It’s only a matter of time until gender is officially declared a protected class.

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  2. NYT : “what makes a protest antisemitic?”

    Example of mystification

    One thing is certain though – these camping expeditions have strict border control.

    Is the practice of “kind as doves” connected to the “wise as serpents” part? Communists infiltrated churches in Russia and in Brazil. It’s just what they do when they see a hegemony that impedes their religion.

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  3. Are the protests antisemitic? I like Sam Harris’s answer: it doesn’t matter.

    “If you have landed, proudly and sanctimoniously, on the wrong side of this asymmetry—this vast gulf between savagery and civilization—while marching through the quad of an Ivy League institution wearing yoga pants, I’m not sure it matters that your moral confusion is due to the fact that you just happen to hate Jews. Whether you’re an anti-Semite or just an apologist for atrocity is probably immaterial. The crucial point is that you are dangerously confused about the moral norms and political sympathies that make life in this world worth living.”

    https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-bright-line-between-good-and-evil

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    3. For anyone who was in the least doubt, Harris really brings moral clarity to the issue. Thanks for the quote!

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    5. I hadn’t previously come across that episode. I highly recommend clicking the link Robert provided, which is to a written transcript, and reading the whole thing.

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    6. That will infuriate PZ, the Horde, and Sam’s online stalkers like Eiynah (NiceMangos).

      They have repeatedly attempted to mitigate, whitewash or defend rancid antisemites and murderous fascists.

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  4. So I keep wondering: exactly what product do the students bring to a negotiating table?
    How many rebellious students and faculty are there relative to the whole? 1%? 5%? 50%?
    Would the current situation raise an opportunity for the administration to channel this energy into a university-wide debate or discussion by faculty with appropriate expertise and maybe students on the deep historical and political issues underpinning the current sloganeering?
    Do universities require the display of ID badges on lanyards or pockets by faculty and staff? Students?

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  5. Little Girl: “Mommy, what are these three crosses in the soda display?”
    Mommy: “They signify the Easter themed sales event this store is promoting.”
    Little Girl: “Does it mean Dr. Pepper is the holiest of all Coca-Cola products?”
    Mommy: “Well, your Dad sure did sing some lavish praises for how it worked to unblock whatever caused his constipation.”

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  6. That’s a chilling statistic about the Dutch Jews. I hadn’t heard that, and wondered where Queen Juliana was during that. Turns out in exile in London, along with Norway’s Haakon VII. It seems that both issued clandestine broadcasts back home during their exile, but I don’t know the extent of those.

    But an interesting tangential footnote. Wilhelmina abdicated in favor of Juliana in 1948. Juliana paid a state visit to Haakon VII in Oslo in 1953, and he picked her up in the giant open Mercedes seen starting around 1:00 – one of the spoils of war that had been General Falkenhorst’s – the Nazi military overlord of Norway during the war. Haakon seemed to enjoy receiving Allied dignitaries with it – Winston Churchill and QEII were also paraded thru Oslo in the MB.

    (The open car with wide whitewalls @ about 2:00 is a ’39 Buick, and the closed car @ 2:21 is a ’31 Lincoln. Haakon VII made his triumphant return to Oslo in the Buick, which was a gift from GM to Crown Prince Olav & Princess Märtha on a trip to the US in 1939. All three still exist – the MB is somewhere in CA last I heard, the Buick remains in the Royal Garage in Oslo and is occasionally used, and the Lincoln is privately owned outside Oslo.)

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  7. Our zebra escape captured a lot of interest yesterday. Residents were told to let the zebra do what it wants—graze—and not to try to catch or corner it, as it would only be spooked and run away. Fortunately, no zebras or people were injured.

    And, President Shafik needs to get control of her university right away or resign and leave it up to a successor. Rather than calm the situation, her inaction has allowed an escalation—the takeover of a building. I’m not expecting a resolution in her watch. The protestors have no respect for her and are walking all over her.

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  8. I’ve personally encountered two instances of Jewish antisemitism.

    One, online, is a Jewish person who claimed my criticism of Israeli domestic policy was anti-semitic, thus conflating the state of Israel with people who are Jewish. That’s a classic anti-semitic trope; obviously Israel is a nation of multiple races, religious beliefs and people, and no single demographic can be directly blamed for its misbehaviours.

    The other, in person is a Jewish community near to where I lived. They treat members of their own community as outcasts for dating (let alone marrying) non-Jewish people. This is both racist against non-Jewish people, and also anti-semitic for de facto claiming that Jewish people aren’t Jewish if they don’t act sufficiently Jewish.

    All of which is nonsense, and my friend from that community is happily living with his Irish Catholic girlfriend. He just won’t admit that to his parents…

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  9. “against the existence of the state of Israel, period, for the latter is antisemitic.”

    Perhaps, but antisemitic seems to mean taking a clear position against Jews as a people, whereas the existence of Israel could be construed as a legalistic argument about the 20th century establishment of Israel. In fairness, the expression of such an opinion should not be prevented as that would violate free speech.

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  10. I suppose it has occurred to readers that President Shafik may be unable physically to get the protesters off her campus. I’m sure it has occurred to the protesters, who are digging themselves in by occupying buildings, which increases the chance that someone will eventually get shot. (Why were the buildings left unsecured to allow the occupiers to get in? So they could use the bathroom and recharge their cellphones?). That’s why she is negotiating with them, hoping to find some Dane-geld attractive enough to induce most of them to leave. The more recalcitrant ones will hold out for larger gifts, secure in the knowledge that they are in the driver’s seat, as they have been since the 1960s. Don’t forget that those who aren’t students will not care about academic amnesty.

    It is not illegal to be an antisemite (or a Maoist anti-racist) as long as you don’t use violence or, if you are a business, discriminate in hiring or public accommodation. Harassment, shunning, heckling, and bullying aren’t illegal. (Menacing is.) So when the university tries to crack down on antisemitism, we must recognize it is trying to do this in the context of its rules and regs for enrolled students (and faculty.). This is contract law, which the Riot Squad cannot enforce. Parsing out whether particular actions and words are antisemitic or not, while clearly important, is now beside the point. The main point is, Does President Shafik have the power to get Columbia back from a mob of antisemites?

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  11. The zebra escape reminds me of a medical guideline (usually targeted toward students and residents) that is pretty common in the US regarding the fact that common ailments are much more likely to be seen presenting atypically than are very uncommon ailments presenting in their usual uncommon way: “If you hear hoofbeats coming down the road, you expect to see horses, not zebras.”

    This incident sort of throws a temporary monkey wrench into THAT guideline…

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  12. https://babylonbee.com/news/clever-college-students-figure-out-its-not-racist-to-call-for-the-murder-of-all-jews-if-you-just-call-them-zionists

    Maybe to solve the problem of trying to identify whether a “Zionist” is walking through an encampment, the universities could issue some kind of badges to them so that the protesters can be more prepared to stop them?

    Sorry, I’m having a hard time seeing the difference between these narcissists and the Hitler youth.

    Reply

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