Radicals Disrupt Michael Oren Speech at UCal Irvine

By Scott Winchell

We have all heard about the recent spate of uprisings at universities and colleges and other venues such as Senate hearings where speakers are disrupted. They have been pelted with objects, shouted down, and generally assaulted by a minority of vocal haters because they disagree with the invited speaker or guest. Unfortunately, these groups and individuals are the true haters. The have no legitimate arguments, just hatred.

At the University of California at Irvine, the Ambassador from Israel to the United States, Michael Oren, was invited to speak on the campus. The video below shows the welcome he received. The Ambassador, Faculty, and Staff asked for and expected a level of civility, respect, and hospitality as is customary for invited guests, especially when in the Middle East, and also as part of the code of conduct for students at the University. What they received from about 50 pro-Palestine students, and what appears obvious, many outsiders, was quite a bit different.

At UCal Irvine, the offending group sat together, read from notes as they shouted, and rose at intervals designed to totally disrupt the event. Then, en masse, they walked out in a very noisy fashion shouting epithets into the awaiting arms of the police.

They were well choreographed, well planned, and designed to stop the speech of others. They are almost always devoid of a true grasp of the facts of what they are representing, and are usually just young ultra-liberals who have a skewed view of the world. This is common on our campuses today when it comes to the Middle East.

They may have a voice that they want to spread, but they always seem to do so in the wrong manner. Shouting down a view point of theirs would create a riot, but it is okay for them to shout down others, hypocrisy at its best. These pro-Palestinian kids know so little of what they speak, yet they do not want to hear opposing factual accounts. Don’t trouble me with facts, I have made up my mind!