'I never thought I'd see this ... in America!' Lowcountry reaction to campus unrest

Some college and university graduations have been cancelled due to ongoing pro-Palestine protests, and now arrests, across our country. 

Graham Horsman, a former Israeli Army Counter Terrorism Veteran, is highly anticipating his graduation from Charleston School of Law next week, and reacts in-depth to the current conflicts, including enforcement response as well as the growing anti-semitism emerging across American higher education institutions.

Thank you for listening!

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
This is the Kelly Golden Show podcast. Graham Horseman's actually been on the program
here before. He's a current CharlestonSchool of Law student, actually going to
be graduating next week. Graham,congratulations, your graduation, though, hopefully
will go on. Unlike out atCalifornia and their university graduation that are being

(00:25):
canceled. There's no I pray nofear or spread of that at Charleston's School
of Law. Do you feel likewith students, are there protest what's going
on? No? Absolutely, absolutely, hot Kelly, There's nothing like that.
But I've seen so far in Charlston. I know we've had some protests
in Columbia, South Carolina that isat Emory of course, and in the
region, but nothing in Charleston sofar. No, Heckler's vetos as far

(00:50):
as the graduations, Thank goodness.I'm gonna pray that it stays that way.
So, Graham, let's talk aboutyour background here for a second,
because I know what you grew uphere in Mount Pleasant, but you spent
time in Israe, including serving inthe Israeli Defense Force. That's right,
Kelly, So I lived in Ispent about ten years in France and then
I spent a couple of years inIsrael where I served in I served in

(01:10):
a counter chairs immunit in in theIsraeli Defense Forces. Mostly I was located
in Juday and Samaria, which isin English better known as the West Bank,
doing mostly a lot of law enforcementtype operations. So how about give
me, as a current student outof college, you know, in a
university here in America, given yourbackground former ideaf, your reaction to the

(01:34):
rising anti Semitism in the levels withwhich it is getting here in the United
States. Well, Kelly, youknow, I never thought i'd see this
caliber of anti Semitic behavior on displayhere in the United States of America and
in New York City, all ofall places. Just when you think these
so cold elite institutions just can't getany worse, I think these protests tell

(01:57):
you really everything that you need toknow. On one hand, you have
these violent, hateful, vitriolic proPalestinian protests calling for the murder of Jewish
students. The only American flags yousee are the ones that they are trying
to burn. And on the otherhand, when you have these pro Israel
gatherings, you see nothing but patrioticJewish Americans, people who love this country,

(02:19):
who are grateful towards this country.You have an ocean of American flags,
we have prayer vigils. The contrastcannot be more more stark, and
frankly, it could be more terrifying. I mean, people are afraid,
and rightly so imagine for a secondwhat these people would do if they were
in charge, or in places wherethey are in charge, in the Middle
East or in Gazma Kelly, ifyou were eyed at anything like this,

(02:42):
if we did one fraction of whatthese people are doing, we would be
expelled, we would be arrested.They would throw the book at us.
I mean, the DA in NewYork would be having a field day.
They'd be holding press conferences on thecourthouse steps. But for some reason,
these people, they have this sortof privilege we love to talk about privilege.
Well, they have this very specialprivilege where they can violate the law

(03:05):
with im community and they do notget arrested, or when they do get
arrested, that chargers are immediately droppedand they are immediately released. I mean,
it's it's nonsensical. And meanwhile,we have you know, the d
or the Attorney General in New Yorkwho's more worried about prosecuting you know,
Donald Trump, of all things.And meanwhile, we have this, these
threats, you know, these theseconcrete threats to to Jewish students. You

(03:28):
know, I'm receptive to the needto address these protests without you know,
further eroding our First Amendment rights.And I'm the first to say that's in
it's precisely in these times of crisisthat our commitment to our values is tested.
But when you have these specific,these very specific calls for violence,
these immediate threats, we are steppingwell out of First Amendment protected political speech

(03:49):
and into the realm of criminal conduct. And the question is where does this
lead? I mean, I thinkwe saw in twenty twenty what happens when
we don't have a swift and effectivejustice, when we don't with protesters in
that manner. So, you know, how far are we going to let
them go when they chance you know, death to America and for the murder
of Jews and they don't get expelled. And that's what would happen if these

(04:10):
universities had any shread of ideological honestyand consistency in the application of their policy.
You know, if it were notfor these these cowards masquerading as university
administrators. But instead of sanctions,they're emboldened and empowered and they graduate to
physical violence and they're attacking people.So what is it going to take,
Helly, is it going to takethem dragging Jewish students out of their dorm
rooms to murder them before law enforcementsteps in and we do something about these

(04:34):
people? Graham? We know thatthis is chaos by design to sew division,
But what is the answer. Howdoes this stop? I mean that
was the conversation today. How doesit stop? Because police are there?
But what's needed to actually end this? Well, we need political will.
I mean, we need the electedofficials of these jurisdictions to order law enforcement

(04:57):
to do their job. And I'msure that law enforcement is you know,
would be happy to clear these peopleout, you know, And it's not
it's not their fault. It's it'sthe elected officials in charge here. You
know, these these are also universityadministrators, these people that are in charge
of these so called elite institutions whojust tolerate this type of behavior. And
you know, if I had ason or daughter who was attending one of

(05:18):
these schools for uh, you know, some extravagant some of money, and
you know, they can't graduate,they can't go to class. All,
all educational activity is paused to dealwith these people who have a Heckler's veto
over over the running of the school. I mean I would be I would

(05:41):
be frankly a little bit a littlebit angry. And this is not just
happening here, Kelly, I mean, this is happening all over the Western
world. I mean in France justrecently we had a Jewish woman who was
kidnapped and raped by pro Palestinian quoteunquote activists who cited revenge for what's happening
in Gaza as as his motives.In the UK, we had just a

(06:03):
kidnapping attempt that was recently spoiled.This has been going on for years in
Europe. For years, I meanas far back as I can remember,
we've had soldiers, police officers infront of Jewish schools, in front of
Jewish community centers, for you know, the well over ten years. I
mean I remember two thousand and eight, we would have soldiers in front of

(06:25):
the schools. And it's not justit's not just the Jewish community, you
know, the Jewish community is inmany ways a bellweather. I mean,
it is clear that these people hateAmerica. So you know, I'll let
your mind wonder as to who's asto who's next. But you know,
in France where this type of behavioris spreading, I mean, we've had
priests who've been beheaded in churches.I mean, the amount of the assaults

(06:47):
against Western civilization, against the Jewishcommunity, against the Christian community is just
unrelenting. So again, you know, up up to the audience to imagine
who's next. But I think weall know. Graham Horseman is a current
Charleston School of Law student about tograduate next week. Fingers cross Graham on

(07:08):
this one because of what we're seeingwith the canceled graduations across at least our
country. I want to get intohamas and hostages that remain in the October
attacks in Israel. I know,you have a cousin who is what from
Charleston who's currently serving in the Israelidefense for us right now, what kind
of boots on the ground perspective canyou give us there? That's right,

(07:30):
Kelly, we have a couple membersof our community serving. We have you
know, one of my good friends, Hearon Charleston, who flew back to
Israel on October eighth. The dayafter, he bought a plane ticket and
flew back to Israel, as didso many thousands of young Israelis all over
the world to join their reserve,their reserve units. And it's it's a

(07:50):
difficult situation on the ground because thestated goal of destroying Hamas is just you
know, and it's in my opinion, it's just not feasible. Even if
you were to destroy Kamas, evenif you were destroy every member of Kamas,
all fifty thousand and sixty thousand militives, you know, we'd be right
back in the same spot very shortlyafterwards, because their sons, their nephews,

(08:11):
their cousins, their friends would takeup arms. And that's for the
very simple reason that Hamas is notholding the Palestine people hostage. They are
not this boogeyman. They represent thewill of the Palestinian people. Every poll
done before or after October seventh showsextremely high levels of support for Hamas,

(08:35):
and until that changes, we arenot going to see any change. You
know, I have friends in Gazawho rotated in and out of Gaza in
the past few months, and youknow, they're telling me that they are
seeing a huge amount of material andideological support for Hamas when they move into
these buildings, When they move intoa home, don't they see, you

(08:58):
know, posters and and pamphlets andtextbooks glorifying Hamas calling for the death of
Jews, not just an Israel,but all over the world, calling for
attacks on America. And so it'sa very difficult situation and a lot of
these protesters, you know here inAmerica, you know, simply don't understand
the reality of war. You havevery specific threat in Gaza, which is

(09:20):
we have an enormous amount of houseads. We have these homes that will
be rigged with explosives by militants andour soldiers will engage in firefights. They'll
move into these into these buildings,into these structures, losing soldiers in the
process. And when they get there, you'll find the militants have already escaped

(09:41):
by a tunnel, and with thesoldiers inside the home, the militants will
remote detonate the house, killing anentire squad or more of soldiers. I
mean, how long does it takewhen you know one out of every five
homes is going to be detonated inthis fashion. How long before you start
just clearing the area and blowing blowthese structures up. And unfortunately, we're

(10:03):
put into a situation where if westart taking fire, we're afraid to shoot
back because of what some bureaucrat inyou know, the Biden administration might think,
or because of what some college studentmight do on a college campus.
And it's an impossible situation. Youknow, hold us to standards, hold
us to high standards. We holdourselves to high standards, but don't ask

(10:26):
of us the impossible. We havea very difficult task, and it's very
difficult for the for the soldiers onthe ground. And meanwhile, the Biden
administration they're floating sanctions against IDF units. They're floating sanctions against IDF units,
against Netsa Yehuda unit, and theidea of Thai Religious Battalion in the IDF,
which was actually part of my regiment. I served several weeks actually with

(10:48):
that unit, embedded with that unit. And it's it's sad, it's just
it's frankly disappointed. It's sad tosee that the Biden administration has thrown Israel
under the bus to appease the swingvoters in in Dearborn, Michigan. Frankly,
very very stat to see that happenin America. Yeah, let me
let me you know, let mejust say, if if the world,

(11:11):
you know, whether it's blanket inthe state department or or college students or
protesters, that these people put halfas much pressure on Hamas and their their
their funders and their supporters to releasethe hostages as they did on Israel to
you know, stop dessending itself.Maybe we would actually see the hostages released

(11:31):
and get somewhere with us. Yeah, I would agree with that. I
think bb Net Yaho's response to somuch of this hit the pushback of the
Biden regime has been something certainly Ishare literally on a daily basis here on
the program. But I mean,Graham, has there been pushed back in
Israel with regards to because not everybodyis you know, quote unquote conservative or

(11:54):
Republican when it comes to Israel,right, there are woke people there too,
That's unfortunately true. You do havea number of people who are who
don't appreciate the danger. Luckily there, I would say, fewer in number
than than what we're seeing here.Yeah, In in in the States.
But remember a lot of these communitieson the border with Gaza were fairly left

(12:16):
weaning, fairly left leaning, uh, you know, and and sadly,
uh you know, we we knowwhat happened there, and so it's you
know, it should take only oneof these events, you know, to
set people you know, compass straight. Uh. You know, hopefully it
doesn't take more. If at thispoint, after seeing what has happened,

(12:37):
Uh, you are out protesting youknow, the army, or out protesting
vibingtajo instead of out, you know, protesting these people who are trying to
kill us, I would call intodoubt you know, your your moral compass.
Uh at that point. This isjust an insane time to be living
in. This is I mean,murderous terrorists don't care whether you're red or

(13:01):
blue, or vote Democrat or Republicanor no matter how they leaned politically.
Like you mentioned the current president tryingto get votes in a swing state.
It is awful frankly where we are. That's right, Kelly. And you
know, some of those terrors thatwere caught on October seven and thereafter,
they had very detailed plans of thesecommunities because the people that worked in these

(13:24):
communities. We had people from Godthat work, and we had Palestinians for
work in these communities, who hadworked there for years, who knew these
families, who knew them by name. They had lists of names they knew.
In this house, you know thishouse, you have to be careful
because this guy works for the police, so he likely has his fire arm.
You have to be careful in thishouse. Killed these people first.
I mean they had even down tothe names of the pets to tell you,

(13:46):
Kelly, these were people who wereallowed into these communities, who were
trusted workers in these communities, andthey turned around and gave either information to
our enemies or participated, even worse, participated in these in these attacks.
My prayers. There are many peoplewho want to see peace in this region,
and I don't know is that evereven possible. A lot of the

(14:07):
people who want to see peace,unfortunately, are not the people on the
ground, who are not the peoplemaking the decisions. The Palestinians are not
interested in anything resembling peace with anytypes of minority groups living in the region,
whether that be Jews, whether thatbe Christians, whether that be you
know, people of any persuasion politicalor otherwise they state repeatedly, repeatedly.

(14:31):
I mean, you can go onYouTube and find compilations, hour long compilations
of people on every stratus of godsand society saying that their goal is to
eliminate Israel, to drive the Jewsinto the sea. Usually they throw some
you know, death to Americas inthere too. I mean, we have
to do a better job of listening. That's what we need to do.

(14:52):
We need to do a better jobof listening to what these people say,
because what they say is no joke. When the Whosies down in Yemen's say
death to America, We're going toattack you know, American warships, and
we don't listen. We see whathappened. They do exactly what they say
they're going to do. They attackAmerican assets in that region. When Iran
says that they're going to attack Israel, they do it. When these people

(15:15):
generally announce what they're going to dolong before they do it, and we
need to do a much better jobof listening and taking them seriously at their
threat. So, as former IDFin Israel, gram horsemen your thoughts about
the porous open border and what hasquite literally almost feels like been promised is

(15:37):
coming, whether it's from our governmentor even people on social who are coming
across the border admitting that they're fromcountries that hate America. On what may
be coming next here. You havea lot of foreign students and foreign agents
who are participating in these in theseprotests, and I think it's very clear,
and I think that you'll agree withme on this, is that anyone

(15:58):
who comes to this country to takeadvantage of what this country has to offer
and then goes around, turns aroundand chance gets to America, burns the
American flags, has no business here, has absolutely no business. No sane
nation would allow this to continue.No sane nations would allow the border to

(16:18):
just be thrown open. There needsto be organization, There needs to be
a process, and it needs tobe enforced. I mean, it really
does. And unfortunately, we knowthat we have foreign agents coming across the
southern border. I mean, that'sthat's clear. We've known that for years
that we have, you know,people who identify with these Islamic militant organizations

(16:41):
who are entering or entering this country. And you know a real question is
who are these protesters going to support? When it comes down to it.
If it comes down to it,you know whose side are they going to
be on? And I think that, I mean, the answer is crystal
clear. I mean they say itthemselves. And that's really what is frightening
to me. I just finished tosay that I think that these protests are

(17:03):
a microcosm of what's going on inthe Middle East. You have a situation
in Israel where we are attacked againand again with monthly terrorist attacks, suicide
bombings, car ramming attacks, shootings, stabbings on a monthly basis, again
and again. And when you haveIsrael respond to that, it's only then

(17:26):
that you have the calls of genocideand the outrage. And that reflects what
might happen here in that you havethese protesters pushing the envelope, assaulting people,
attacking people in the Jewish community,and I'm afraid that one day they
might put us in a situation,they might put someone out there in a

(17:48):
situation where they might have to defendthemselves. And I can guarantee you when
that happens, and only when thathappens, then you will have outrage across
the countries. Then you will havethese anti Jewish protests happening all across the
country, and I pray that itdoesn't get to there. I pray that
the authorities step in and put anend to this before it degenerates that far.
I really hope, so, Kelly, I think what you're really going

(18:11):
to see when something like that happensis more people showing their support for Israel.
You'll see that the majority of peopleare not lunatics like the ones that
we're seeing on full display on youknow, these indoctrinated campuses, and these
basically useful limmings of people coming fromoutside of the university, some of them.
I mean, we know that theseare funded protests, and these aren't

(18:32):
all students. Look at the colorsof the you know, the tents that
they're camping out with, they areall the same color. There's major funding
behind this, and as you said, you know, I hope the silent
majority does step up. Who's morenumerous the silent majority? Are these useful
or useless idiots? Rather? That'sa question, that's way, that's a
serious question. There's a purpose behindthis, and you have to ask yourself
what's on the other side of it, what's next? Drone view this Graham,

(18:56):
you know what's the goal, Hei, Kelly, I just don't know.
I have to think, I haveto believe that there's some people out
there that are just you know,useful or useful city Its depending on how
you look at it and who arebeing you know, instrumentalized. Graham.
I appreciate your time. Good luckat graduation next week. I would hope
weish and pray that nothing like thathappens in South Carolina that we're canceling graduations

(19:19):
because I know a lot of thesestudents didn't get their high school graduation because
of COVID. If they made itthrough university or college in four years,
they didn't get their high school graduation, and now some of their college graduations
are being canceled. This is wrong, awful, Hey man, Kelly,
thank you for having me that.Kelly Golden Show podcast is powered by Disaster

(19:41):
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