[note: The author is not one of our
friends (obviously) but his piece undercuts the "official" version for
the police crackdown. -ed.]
Pro-Israel Speaker
Sparks Small-Scale Riots
By: Johnny Slemrod
When Raymond
Tanter, former staff member of the National Security Council and
current Georgetown University Professor of Political Science came to
campus Thursday night to speak concerning contemporary Iranian-U.S.
relations, the Ann Arbor Police Department was out in full force.
Blaine
Coleman, an Ann Arbor resident infamous in the Jewish community for his
manipulated and uninformed rhetoric condemning the University of
Michigan and the city of Ann Arbor for their investment in Israel
attended. He came with a group of eight sixty-something year-olds clad
with homemade posters with statements such as “Zionists are Racist
Murderers,” and “No Wars for Israel” (complete with the letter “s” as a
swastika), destined to disrupt the lecture.
[note the author's assumption
that people carrying signs of protest are "destined" to disrupt--this
was apparently the prevailing attitude of those in attendance.]
Despite
Mr. Coleman and the other the protestors obstructions, Tanter provided
a surprising the wealth of information concerning diplomacy and
dialogue between the United States and Iran today...
...
When
a member of the audience asked why his presentation seemed only to
speculate on what is best for him, and not actual Iranian citizens, he
responded with an account of his experiences with Iranian resistance to
the current government. Tanter frequently appears on radiocasts and
television programs in Iran devoted to resisting the current
government. His experience has led him to the conclusion that “They
don’t want this government, but they don’t want American imperialism.”
The
first word I wrote down on my notes while attending Professor Raymond
Tanter’s speech about Iranian-American relations was “chaos.” Yes, the
obnoxious fanatical anti-Israel protestors came out hoping to disrupt
the speech in any way possible. But as the lecture continued, their
shouts gradually lessened as Tanter delivered an educated speech which
helped paint a picture of the Iranian regime’s motivations and what the
international community, specifically the U.S. and Israel, can do about
them.
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