Chesler's Facebook Chronicles

Dear Readers and Supporters:

I have just returned from a week in sunny Los Angeles. It was a working vacation. I kept posting at Facebook while I was there and even before I left. Here are my most urgent musings.

I'll be Howling With Wolves tomorrow, on Tuesday, 4/29. Do listen in!

- April 29th at 9 PM EST - Listen live at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/howlingwolves/

Another Strange Airport Story 4/27

At the Los Angeles airport, my luggage was "randomly" inspected--just as it was when I left Newark. "Random"--that's me. But something new happened. People wearing sneakers were allowed not to remove them. I was barefoot, wearing Crocs. I was asked to remove my Crocs and then to show the agent who patted me up and down the soles of my feet. What???? And then I had to wait for a readout of the liquid-fueled pat down. Really: I am in a wheelchair because I cannot stand for long periods of time. I had a walker and a cane. What about me screams: "Possible security threat?" Afterwards, my companion told me that agents went through my carry-on luggage very carefully. Of course, I had to remove my "Sh'ma," the central prayer of Judaism that I wear as jewelry, and hand it over to an agent. In the confusion, I walked away without it and am now trying desperately to retrieve it from Lost and Found at LAX. Really, what kind of list am I on anyway and why?

Big Lies in my own Hotel! – 4/26

The American physician spoke this morning to a gathering of lawyers. She described the medical suffering of people, mainly children, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about whether she had treated any attempted honor killing cases or acid-disfigured girls in honor-related crimes, she insisted that she had never seen or heard of such things. "That happens only in the rural areas, not in the large cities." Even if this is true, what does it mean that she downgrades it and refuses to factor it into her understanding of south east Asia?

This same physician, whose father is Pakistani, writes about being treated in "racist" ways in America post 9/11 or post the Boston Marathon bombing. If true, this is absolutely unacceptable. Other Muslims have said similar things about America—some have been persuaded that "Islamophobia" really exists; some have endured unfair post 9/11 blowback; some believe in Islamic supremacism and feel persecuted when they of whom have been persuaded of hundreds of opposite reactions-- we now know that the greatest crimes against a religion in America is against Jews, not Muslims, not brown-skinned presumed Muslims.

However, in articles this physician has written in the New York Times and Huffington Post (and elsewhere) she also presents a false moral equivalence between "sociopathic violent" Muslims commmitting jihadic acts and random acts of sociopathic young white men who shoot up schools and theaters. The school shooters are not indoctrinated by an ideology which commands killing for the sake of Allah. Perhaps Islamist jihadists are also sociopaths who are violent but it is the cult-indoctrination and organizational support that leads to 9/11, 7/7, 3/11, Mumbai, Boston, etc. That--and the Muslim-on-Muslim violence deep poverty and hopelessness caused by Arab and Muslim tyranny.

In my own hotel! Before educated lawyers. In America.

Later the same day, based on additional information I posted this correction: The physician merely said that she herself had never treated any victims of honor violence of attempted honor killings; that such violence was more rural than citified; and that patient with acid disfigurements had been wounded long ago and their burns were "old."

However, say I: Recently. the Pakistani government and media acknowledged that approximately 1800 girls and women had been honor killed in 2013 alone. Government stats are always the tip of the iceberg. Had it been me, ministering in Pakistan, I would have acknowledged the gender apartheid and the Muslim-on-Muslim violence more quickly and freely

Standing with Stand With Us – 4/25

I had a passionate meeting with Roz Rothstein and Gary Ratner in LA tonight, information, ideas, words, memories, flew, Phil Blazer and David Wiener dropped in--Phil and I have been trying to meet--and it was an important and enjoyable get together. I am so glad that Stand With Us is still standing, is growing, is standing for the truth and for what matters. Only now do I realize that we forget to take a photo together for history's sake--so imagine us as we are: talking up a storm, serious, and yet strengthened by our common resolve.

A Rabbi and a Feminist... – 4/23

Last night in Los Angeles, California I had a rather wonderful time with Rabbi David Baron at the Temple of the Arts. The synagogue is located in a beautifully restored Art Deco movie theatre and dedicated to Judaism through music, film, and the arts. The people who came were of all ages and belief systems including Wicca, Zionism, secularism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. A cousin who works in "the industry" also came. After I spoke, the discussion was intense and intimate. The rabbi, David Baron, asked me to explain why American feminists were so silent about the plight of Muslim women and whether I thought that Oriana Fallaci's prophecy about the Islamification of Europe could apply in America. ("It could if we are not vigilant and if a large number of hostile immigrants make common cause with politically correct Westerners.")

Two former Brandeis alumni, a man and a woman, were obsessed with Brandeis's dis-invitation of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and implored me to hold Brandeis "accountable" especially since Brandeis had also invited anti-Zionists such as Tony Kushner, Adrienne Rich, and Desmond Tutu and had not felt that their views violated Brandeis's "core values." Someone else suggested that Brandeis had accepted Saudi money and that was why they dis-invited Hirsi Ali. I asked him to send me proof of this.

One woman, wonderfully dressed in a light pink suit, had spent time in Kabul and wanted to discuss the Afghan Buddhist art. She also wanted to know whether I had visited the "green bazaar" and how Islam had managed to conquer a Buddhist country. ("By the sword, Madam, by then sword, here, as elsewhere" I said). Another woman was born in Persia as was her mother. She fervently said: "Women must bring down the misogynist mullah-ocracy." ("Amen," said I). We two exchanged some phrases in Farsi/Dari. (I love the opportunity to do so).

Someone else wanted to discuss the fact that Afghans consider themselves "Aryans" and named their airline "Ariana." Soon, we got to the folk myth (or scholarly reality) that Pushtuns either claim or are viewed as descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel (Bani Israel). Thus, perhaps I had married a descendant of Joseph, one of my most favorite Biblical figures.

And a very good time was had by all.

Brandeis Feminists Fail the Historical Moment – 4/16

Brandeis professors who demanded that Ayaan Hirsi Ali be "immediately" dis-invited wrote that "we are filled with shame at the suggestion that (Hirsi Ali's) above-quoted sentiments express Brandeis's values." The professors also castigated Hirsi Ali for her "core belief of the cultural backwardness of non-western peoples" and for her suggestion that "violence toward girls and women is particular to Islam." The professors note that such a view "obscure(s) such violence in our midst among non-Muslims, including on our own campus."

This is exactly what these professors are teaching the more than four thousand Brandeis students who signed a petition to rescind Ayaan Hirsi Ali's award.

Read my article at: http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/1282/brandeis-feminists-fail-the-historical-moment

NOT AN HONOR KILLING: BRANDEIS AND HIRSI ALI – 4/14

Some have claimed that Brandeis "honor murdered" Ayaan Hirsi Ali. This is not true. This leap via metaphor does not do justice to what a real honor killing is. An honor killing is committed by one's own family of origin—one's parents, siblings, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, most often against a very young girl (average age=17). This is a classic honor killing and it is a conspiracy by intimates who have been monitoring, harassing, guarding, beating, warning, and threatening this young girl for her entire life. If this takes place in the West, especially in Europe, where freedom tempts, the human sacrifice is also torturous—although torture-murders also exist among Hindus in India. Married mothers (average age=36) are also honor murdered, often by their husbands, but also by their in-laws and by their own family of origin. None of this is "like" western domestic violence.

What Brandeis did to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is different. They asserted a politically correct right of censorship, thus eroding all America's right to real academic freedom, intellectual diversity, freedom of inquiry, freedom of religion (which means freedom to embrace and freedom to leave a religion), and the right to criticize anything if done in a logical and reasonable way. What Brandeis did was to give in to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in America aka the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)—which is not a civil rights organization but is a pro-terrorism, anti-infidel, anti-Israel, Islamist supremacist organization. Brandeis highlights the "perfect storm" I first saw coming our way back in 2000, when Arafat launched his Al Aqsa Intifada: An alliance between Western academics and intellectuals, historical Islam's classic infidel- and Jew-hatred, and the barbaric misogyny, apartheid, and tyranny that characterize too many Muslim countries today. I first wrote this in 2001-2002 and published my book, "The New Anti-Semitism," in 2003. Brandeis has just turned Islamist supremacism into a politically correct virtue. They have mainly dishonored themselves and American Academe, not Hirsi Ali, and this fact saddens me enormously.

I once taught a course at Brandeis. My son and daughter-in-law both attended Brandeis. I am outraged and unhappy that they have chosen this particular path. Justice Brandeis was, himself, an ardent Zionist. Would they now rescind their invitation to him as well? In these times, I fear they might.

Brave, Bold and Brilliant: Caroline B. Glick – 4/7

In the 1940s, Murray S. Greenfield was one kind of hero. Today, we have warriors who serve in another kind of war, that of Ideas and Propaganda, heroes who try to combat the Big Lies being told about Israel, Jews, America, and about Islamism. Caroline B. Glick is one of these heroes. She is a small, intense, passionate woman who possesses an amazing number of facts—so much so, that any question she answers is detailed, complex, and brilliant. Caroline is a reporter at the Jerusalem Post and has written a new book: "The Israeli Solution. A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East." It is logical, tough-minded, bold, carefully researched, powerful, and practical. Before anyone dismisses this as a right-wing rant or a hate-filled book, please, please read it. She talks real demographics, not fantasy demographics. Glick envisions extending Israeli residency and ultimately citizenship to Arabs who currently live on the West Bank. This is so different from the ethnic cleansing being demanded by Palestinians and their global supporters, namely, that Jews must leave, that the West Bank must become as "judenrein," Jew-free as Gaza and Saudi Arabia are. Many Arabs would welcome the benefits of democracy, lawfulness, employment, etc. that they cannot have under the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the PLO/Palestinian Authority. I asked Caroline to inscribe her book to me—and she wrote something that surprised me and actually caused me to blush. Thank you Caroline B. Glick!

Give Me Heroes And My Cup Runneth Over 4/7

I love heroes, I am at their service. All week, someone named Murray Greenfield kept calling. I had suffered a death in my family and I still had professional obligations to keep and keep them I did. By the end of the week, I just wanted to hide. And then Murray sent over a book—one that he wrote and published: "The Jews' Secret Fleet. The Untold Story of North American Volunteers who Smashed the British Blockade of Palestine." Murray was one of the young American sailors who agreed to crew one of eleven leaky boats, none meant to cross the Atlantic, yet these boats brought thousands of Jewish Holocaust refugees from Europe to Palestine. Ah, so a hero was trying to meet with me and despite considerable exhaustion, I met him. Greenfield is also the publisher of Gefen, Israel's largest publisher. I was utterly flattered that he wanted me to do an interview with him just as I had done with one of his Mossad Aliya Bet friends, David Gutman (z'"l). Murray crewed on the boat, "Hatikvah," David crewed on the "Geulah" and the "Ben Hecht." Oh, how charming he was, how vibrant, how alive. Of course, I forgot to take his photo—but I had him send one. He was still in the hotel restaurant lobby where we met.