Jewish Voice for Peace, again taking issue with the punishment of students who repeatedly disrupted a speech at UC Irvine by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, seems to have discovered the concept of "legitimate expression in an open and democratic society." A press release by the organization, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, uses this phrase to describe the planned interruption of a speech by members of the Muslim Student Union.
Looking back through this blog's postings, it seems pretty clear that to JVP (and its subsidiary MuzzleWatch) "legitimate expression" means anything said or done in order to criticize Israel. Meanwhile, the organization continues to regard anything said or done in order to defend Israel against unfair attacks as "muzzling."
Speaking of this LA Times piece, the reporter describes Jewish Voice for Peace as "a liberal group that advocates for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories." This, I believe, is an inadequately vague description that serves to mislead readers. Because that phase could be used to describe groups like Peace Now and B'tselem, which , faults and falsehoods notwithstanding, belong in a wholly different category than Jewish Voice for Peace. A "liberal group that advocates for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories" could also describe those who call themselves "liberal Zionists," or even members of Israel's mainstream Labor party.
Again, JVP does not fit in with these groups, and so should not share a description with them. It is, at best, a radical anti-Israel group.
I agree that the media tends to softpedal/lie for extreme-Left ME-related organizations, but as long as sites that point out how extremist and fringe-ensconced the likes of JV4P are, that's not a major concern for me. What I love is that JV4P wants to be charged for disrupting Ambassador Oren's speech, because the MSU members got charged and to let Jews off while punshing Muslims is wrong. I actually agree with JV4P in this one case, seeing as how the thing we're agreeing about is "we (JV4P) are law-breaking opponents of free speech and proud of it", and wish them success in getting the criminal records they so richly deserve.
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