The Los Angeles Times published a picture yesterday, on their website and possibly in print editions, of a woman in a blue t-shirt, at a gathering or skirmish, that they describe as part of the ongoing on-campus conflict here loosely based around or in reaction to the conflict seven thousand miles away between a Democracy with a military and a terrorist group with billions of dollars of back, Israel vs. Hamas. The woman’s is described in the cutline as being the daughter of a UCLA professor. It says she was shouting. Indeed, her mouth is open, and her ams are outstretched; her right fist is balled. I cannot make out what is in her left hand. I guess, her purse. She has a second back, a book bag, over her left shoulder. But what catches my eye is the shirt: JEWS FIGHT BACK NOW.

I’m using such as my headline, first thing, Monday morning. Seven hundred miles away from the conflict in LA.

Yesterday afternoon I hopped on my bike and was heading towards White Plaza on Stanford’s campus; I wanted to see the pro-Hamas protests here. I told myself I was going to a baseball game, Cal vs Stanford. But when I got as far as Palm Drive and Campus Drive I noticed a road block, to restrict parking near Frost Amphitheatre, and Bing and stopped to looking into – -using a handheld computer device that I favor — the possibility of a concert at the amphitheater.

Indeed, something called Dabin: Stay in Bloom was about to transpire. A young woman confirmed my conclusions: Dabin is a young EDM musician and producer from Toronto now living in Denver, of Korean heritage. Most of the young people I could observe were Asian. I decided, especially as a concert promoter that it made more sense to take in a couple hours of a music event than to proceed on to White Plaza to scoff at the pro-Hamas and antisemitic crowd.

I have to admit, if you excuse the digression, that I felt out of place for being white and old – I’m 60. The vast majority of concert goers were young – -around 20 to 30 – -and Asian. I was dressed in some hiking shorts, running shoes and a Van’s zipper hoodie and a light blue Swetka’s cap – it’s a tennis store, I play or played tennis. Many of the others there wore underwear –okay, I probably noticed 100 people in their underwear. I was trying to avert my eyes. Or not stare. Or not being called out for staring.

It occurred to me that my first concert, a day on the green by bill graham at the A’s ball park, I was 14 and most of the people were in their 20’s or 30’s and I tried to think of myself as much older than I was, somehow. Now, 46 years later I am way too old to be there and I tried to think of myself as young.

During one song by Tiffany Day – who is a pop artist with a live drummer playing keyboards but mostly singing along to beats — I got up and danced, mildly: I shifted my weight from side to side, more or less on the rhythm or on the break.

I noticed that after I finished – and I really did so mainly to avail DVTs in my legs for sitting for so long, on the curb of the raked amphitheater, that the miscellaneous people behind me said “Hey, let’s move up” and deserted, leaving for a while an empty pocket around me.

I called a friend and asked which was more weird: to be in an amphitheatre surrounded by half-naked young people or to leave such a place and sit in the dark and watch an old Hitchcock movie? Although I reported to him via text that I was “digging in” –meaning sitting down again, reclaiming my seat and not “digging it” in the sense of actually enjoying it — I actually left, around 6:30 — I had arrived at 4. Or I arrived at 4, bought a ticket on line and waited a half hour of the ticket to load to my account (after I changed the password to my account).

I have about an hour until I meet my trainer, just enough time to go to campus, via car and peep the protest tents. It’s like picking a scab.

The shirt can be read two ways: first, it could have an implied comma, Jews, comma, fight back now. Like a command. Or it could be read straight up as descriptive, Jews fight back now. As in we are fighting back, by going to the rallies and demonstrations and speaking our or screaming or just staring in scorn at the antisemitics.

In March, a group of pro-Hamas demonstrators marched down the street in my neighborhood – -it was Emerson near University – -and I said no thank you to a man handing out pamphlets but then said “HAMAS SHOULD SURRENDER” and a young woman turned and flipped me off – -an obscene gesture. I have this on tape. I taped about 3 minutes of the confrontation.f

“Jews fight back now” to me means that perhaps in 1930 as assimilated Jews in Germany stood up to Hitler and antisemitism maybe they could have prevented the Holocaust. Part of the success of the Holocaust was that Jews didn’t realize how bad this was getting.

Since October 7 –although for me I didn’t realize until a day or two later, let’s say October 9, 2023 – there has been what I call a “soft pogrom”. Soft in the sense that we have not been physically confronted , not been raped or murdered or beaten up, or had our windows smashed, but that today’s Nazis are feeling us out, looking for a sign from the majority that they can attack us without punishment.

Today’s pro-Hamas demonstrators are Nazis in that Hamas was founded by Muslim Brotherhood, who were an offshoot or ally of Hitler’s Nazis. The people who slander Israel and Jews and are trying to start a fight know that they are doing nothing for the tragedy of civilians 7,000 miles away, they are using this as an excuse to try to kill Jews here. History clearly shows.

The college students, at Stanford, at Cal, at UCLA or USC should be expelled — if they don’t know their place in history they have no right to be educated here. Good bye! Shalom! Adios. Hasta la vista, babies.

Jews fight back now.

Jews, fight back now.

Postscript:

1. I posted under Lorraine Al’s column that her narrative was biased an antisemitc. I said perhaps Hamas stripped bodies and put them in a mass grave. to wit:

   It’s a tragedy, but it is a modern Democracy — like us — fighting against a terrorist group, who killed 1,000 civilians. on October 7 – -including the rape and mutilation of hundreds of women, and uses women and children as human shields, as martyrs, perhaps, as you report, stripping their bodies and dumping them in a mass grave.

   How about some reporting on why a million Muslims would live under the thumb of Hamas and not exercise their rights as Israel citizens?

   Or why do American college students jump in on the side of the brown oppressed people rather than side with the believers in women’s rights, gay rights, etcetera?

   Your narrative is biased and antisemitic.

   About Lorraine Ali

2. I notice that Getty Images wants to charge $500 to use this photo. I consider it “fair use’. I cannot find the identity of the woman yelling. Maybe her name is not “Johanna Isreal” she gave that as a nom de guerre. Maybe the photo is staged. But the t-shirt is real enough, I think.
3. The first version of this one minute ago read “jew fight back now” dots me, as herb Caen would say.

edit to add, hours later:

UKRAINE FIGHT BACK NOW

MR REZNIKOV

I biked over to Stanford, at the end of my workout, partly to cycle the lactic acid from my system but partly — like the proverbial dead cat — curious about the pro-Hamas or Maoist installation at White Plaza. There were about eight students there, commiserating or lying to each other about their miserable parents, and a bookshelf. Apparently they hate all Jews but love Karl Marx. I did not engage. 

About forty yards from the compound I saw a flyer on a kiosk: the former defense minister of Ukraine was speaking just then at Encina Commons, a short bike ride away.

What an amazing experience! An actual world leader, trying to explain himself to everyone from current undergrads to our former ambassador to Russia. Breaking down the reality. It was quite inspiring. Ukraine looks to Israel for clues on how to survive. The pitch: we in the U.S. must help Ukraine if we want to preserve Democracy. The axis of evil is: Putin, Iran, North Korea. If Ukraine falls, so does Seoul. I sat next to McFaul. Or he sat next to me – I got there first. He nodded at the guy next to me. I pretended I did not know him. He asked the second to last question. Most of the people asking questions were ex-military, or ex-Soviet Republic subjects. As I unlocked my bike I said to three students: isn’t it great that at Stanford you can see actual world leaders five minutes from your dorm. Contrast this with the stooges and Fifth Columnists playing their form of liar’s poker in Little Rafah. 

I rode back to the kiosk to snag the poster, but my wife later threw it away. More cognitive warfare, I suppose.