Taking Pride at Barbarism

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I'm sure that many of you haven't heard of it, but Michael Oren, the Israeli Ambassador to the US, was recently invited to give a speech at the University of Irvine, California. I guess that the framework of a respected academic institution could falsely lead one to expect that its students would be open to new ideas, put on a good behavior, and god forbid - even be polite.
Yet a group of students decided that open discussion was a less favorable form of communication compared to, well, just screaming, and decided to constantly interrupt Oren's speech.
This is the true violent spirit of resistance, ladies and gentlemen - when you don't let the Israeli official talk, maybe he'll shut up. Maybe he and the rest of the pro-Israeli bunch in the room will change their minds. There might even be a chance that this scandalous state of Israel will just go away.

These students were escorted out of the event, not before shouting out some more of their hateful speech. Nice job guys, enjoy the police station.

Being barbaric is by no means considered "critical thinking". Interrupting people in their speech doesn't come across as "bold", but rather rude and an indicator of ignorance. Shout-outs belong to street vendors in markets, not to members of the academia. Acting in such manner may grant you the instant gratification of "sticking it" to someone as well as the applauds of your supporters, but you will always, always be looked as a narrow minded person by the rest.
Yet when you communicate your opinion in a civilized manner that respects the other side (and truthfully yourself too), you will gain both its empathy and its attention. You might not change THEIR minds, but you will surely influence the undecided by your tolerance as well as the confidence in your arguments. There's an old Hebrew say that states: "words of wisdom are calmly said". You can yell and scream until you're blue in the face but that won't make your argument any more convincing than presenting it in a civilized and respectful manner.

Note the benevolent, classy and mature response of Michael Oren, who lastly said that he was sorry to see those students leaving as they were an audience he had wished to address too. Unfortunately he was wrong in his basic assumption that these students were interested in an open discussion and listening in the first place.

Check out the letter that ambassador Oren then wrote about the incident, stating that he is willing to come back and speak at Irvine

Putting the 'Pop' in Populism

So I really don't have time to keep this blog running, at this very moment I'm sitting in class denying the fact that once it is over I still have three problem sets and a paper to work on. But I guess that just like all other things in my life post moving to the US I will just have to make time for this.

I believe I don't need to introduce myself, if you've made it here - you probably know who I am. However, if this blog is our first interaction then a) nice to meet you b) all you need to know about it me is that I'm probably the coolest kid you'll ever meet.

The idea for this blog started after several interesting discussions over facebook on some hot topics such as my country, Israel, and the question of its legitimacy and conduct. Being the fervent pro-Israeli that I am, I will try to shed some light on how things in my country and region *really* are in contrast to many things you might have heard.

Stay tuned, it's going to be SABABA.