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May 22, 2024 25 mins
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block heads to D.C for grilling on campus antisemitism. Zionism: Enormous disagreement over a word in use for 125 years. San Francisco tries tough love by tying welfare to drug rehab.
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(00:00):
You're listenings k I Am six fortythe Bill Handles show on demand on the
iHeartRadio. F you are listening tothe bill Handle show. You see I
am six forty bill Handle Here ona Wednesday humpday, May twenty second.

(00:26):
A lot going on, as Isay every day. Why because a lot
going on. Norway, Spain,and Ireland have just announced plans to formally
recognize a new palate or to recognizethe Palestinian state, as one hundred and
thirty other countries have already done.And the NFL is going to launch a
program aimed at increasing the number ofminority and women own businesses. After that

(00:49):
speech by the Kicker of Kansas Cityand so the NFL said, we want
we want minority women owned businesses dealionwith us. However, the women all
have to be pregnant, otherwise wewill not allow that business. Okay,
here's what's going to go on todayooh, or tomorrow. UCLA Chancellor Jean

(01:11):
Block is going to testify before aHouse committee, Republican led House committee,
and it's about the anti Semitism atUCLA and how a pro Palestinian encampment,
the whole thing ended in violence andhe is going to be nailed. UCLA
probably one of the top colleges inthe country in terms of the protests over

(01:36):
the war, including that violent mobattack three weeks ago, probably the most
serious of the encounters, which thepro Palestinian protesters were attacked by ostensibly a
group of Israeli counter protesters, althoughat this point we don't know most of
them, we understand were outside agitators. And so here is what's going to

(02:00):
happen. First of all, thiscommittee, it's the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce, has grilled universitypresidents big time, and that resulted in
the resignations of the presidents of HarvardUniversity of Pennsylvania, who really blew it.
The chair, Representative Virginia Fox,a Republican, said that the committee
has a clear message for mealy mouthed, spineless college leaders. Where do you

(02:24):
think she's at. Congress will nottolerate your dereliction of duty to your Jewish
students. No stone must go inturn where buildings are being defaced, campus
screens are being captured, or graduationsare being ruined. And here is the
problem. The pro Palestinian demonstrators,for the most part, all they're arguing,
is First Amendment rights. Not amention of stopping students from entering school,

(02:47):
not a mention of defacing, nota mention of blocking entrances, not
a mention. It's just First Amendmentrights. We have the right to protest
peacefully. And what block said,Uh, he's going to say that the
challenge U c l A faces theimpact of this perniche, pernicious form of

(03:07):
hate. I will continue to insistin anti semitism as well as Islamophobia,
anti Arab hate, any form ofbigotry or hostility or discrimination is antithetical to
our values. A complete pablem ofcourse. Uh. It's it's getting really

(03:27):
really uh dissentious. I mean alot of dissension across the country. This
thing is going down two paths,much like the politics of the United States.
And during December fifth, I meanthis was crazy during hearing on anti
semities. I'm straight out the presidentsof Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania and
M I. T were facing pressurebig time after giving evasive response, they

(03:53):
actually were asked. I think itwas Harvard specifically, the president of Harvard,
is the call for the genocide ofJews? A violation of student conduct
rules. And you know what theanswer was, It depends on the context.
The genocide of Jews must happen,depends on the context of how you

(04:18):
actually say genocide of the Jews.You think that didn't explode big time.
So and the politics of this,because of course it's not just simply protests
against the pro Palestinian or protests againstthe Zionists, which I'm going to talk
about the war and coming up nextsegment, I'm going to give you a

(04:42):
talk on Zionism and how complicated justthe word is. And you're seeing these
placards, So this thing is breakingdown politically. Republicans they're in lockstep.
I mean, for the most part, they believe in backing up Israel.
They believe in everything Israel does.The Democrats are really split on this because

(05:05):
you have liberal Democrats, of whichJews actually are probably one of the biggest,
one of the biggest blocks of peoplewho support Democrats. They're saying,
the Palestinians are right. You've gotAOC, You've got Bernie Sanders talking about
how the war must end and usethe word genocide, which in and of

(05:29):
itself is a loaded word. Genocidethey're equating what Hitler and Turkey did with
the Armenian genocide, and that isthe systematic rounding up of an ethnic group
for the purpose of killing them inmass, for the purpose of wiping out

(05:50):
that population. That's genocide. Whetheryou agree with Israel or is or is
not doing in terms of the numberof Palestinians that have died as a result
of the war, do you reallybelieve that Israel is rounding up Palestinians,
killing them men, women and childrenfor the purpose of wiping out Palestinians in

(06:15):
the Holy Land. That's genocide.So let's really be careful with our words,
please. And I must also tellyou that as this war progresses progresses,
and the more Palestinians, the greaternumber of Palestinians who have died,
that goes right into the playbook ofHamas. They want this to happen.

(06:38):
They're winning the pr war. Themore that die, the better Hamas comes
off. And I truly believe that. Now what and this I'm going to
get into because I'd like to divea little bit deeper into what you're seeing
on these placquer placards in the demonstrations. The pro Palestinian anti Israeli demonstrations,

(07:04):
and that there's the word Zionism.Zionism equals racism, Zionism equals oppression,
Zionism equals genocide, and just theword itself has an entire history that I
want to share with you. Andright now, basically the definition of Zionism

(07:28):
is Jewish nationalism pro Israel as astate. That's what Zionism actually is.
For example, the Arab countries thatdon't recognize Israel don't use the word Israel.
For example, you'll never see Hamasusing the word Israel. It's the
Zionist and its entity not recognizing Israelas a country. It's just this entity

(07:53):
that wants a country there for Jews, which of course, in their minds
simply doesn't so for a lot ofpeople, particularly those that believe in Israel
and or pro Israeli, including meJewish, it equates to the right of
Jewish people to have their own state, a sovereign country, and self determination

(08:13):
in an ancestral homeland. And youcan't argue with this. Jews have been
the victim of oppression, ostraism,genocide in much of the world, and
what these pro Palestinians are viewing thatZionism is all of that, and what

(08:35):
the pro Israeli crowd does is viewanti Zionism as a basically bigotry and anti
Semitism. It's just a word thatconnotes all of that. And for other
Zionism is colonialism, racist, manifestdestiny. And let's first explain the concept
of zion. Where did the wordcome from? It actually started in the

(08:58):
lay eighteen hundreds. Theodore Herzel wasconsidered the father of the monern state of
Israel. In the eighteen nineties wroteabout this and he argued for the creation
of a Jewish state. And myparents told me about is at every house,
every temple, there'd be a littlebox where people would put money in,

(09:22):
and that was to buy land fromthe Ottomans, from the Brits,
from the Arabs who were there controllingthe state which was going to be the
state of Israel. Of course,that never happened until Israel actually declared and
then fought a war to establish asovereignty, much like we did against England
in the seventeen hundred. The wordZion is a biblical term for Israel and

(09:46):
Jerusalem. The word Zion is thesite in Jerusalem where the temple stood,
and how long ago do you thinkthat goes? So let me tell you
a little bit about the Palestinian viewthat Israel shouldn't be there because it is
historically Palestine, it belongs to them. Okay, how about this one.

(10:09):
If you look at the holiest prayerin Judaism, the holiest prayer is the
declaration of Monotheism, and that isno big deal. By the way,
that only goes back four thousand years. And in Hebrew at schamai Israel,

(10:31):
I don't know Yelohino, I don'tknow yahad here oh Israel. It starts.
It starts with hero, oh Israel, the Lord, our God,
the Lord is one. Unfortunately,Jews had the very bad luck of having
God chosen them to declare Monotheism.How'd that work out for us? Huh?

(10:54):
I wish they had chosen someone else. God has not been very very
good to the Jews. Had Mosesgo up to the land of Israel and
turn basically turn left. You couldhave turned right if God had said turn
right, you get all this oil. No chance. So God brings the
Jews to a desert. Nice,nicely done, and so Zionism the word

(11:22):
goes back so far in history.There was only one time in history,
during King David's time when Israel actuallywas a sovereign entity. That was once
during King david second time, nineteenforty eight, and that's when Israel became

(11:43):
a sovereign state. And it carvesout that area that in the Bible indicates
where Israel is, which by theway includes the West Bank known as Judea
and Samaria part of Israel and historicallybiblically, which is why you have the
ultra nationalist Jews are saying they won'teven say west Bank, it's it's Judea

(12:07):
and it's Sumaria, simply part ofthe history. Okay, So I'm going
to come back and talk a littlebit more about the word Zionism and what
it means, and the politics ofit, and how the word is just
bandied about in these demonstrations, likethe word genocide. I mean, come

(12:28):
on, guys, I mean alot is going wrong. As I said
in the last segment, a lotis going wrong in Israel and in on
the West Bank and in Gaza forexample, you know, which is part
of Israel. But you know it'snot genocide. It really isn't you know,

(12:48):
Let's be a little bit more carefulwith our words. Zion was Israel.
Zion was that part of Jerusalem inwhich the Temple was built. I
mean, there is a huge amountof history, and you have a lot
of people, particularly the protesters,are with their placards and their chance that
Zionism is straight out racism, that'sall it is. And you also see

(13:13):
those placards that say from the riverto the sea, Palestine will be free.
Do you know what's in the middleof that. By the way,
Israel happens to be right between theriver and the sea. And what does
that mean. Well, if youtake Hamasa's position, there should be no
Israel, it doesn't exist. Thisis all Palestine Palestinians, which, by

(13:33):
the way, the concept of Palestiniancitizens and Palestinian passports was created in nineteen
sixty seven after the Sixth Day WarIsrael, however, it goes back I
don't know, four thousand years andthe history, as I said, of

(13:54):
Israel goes so it's part of theBible where a Judaic Christian country here or
belief system, even Islam comes fromearly Judaism. If you take a passover
plate if you ever look at Passover, there is a shank bone. There
is a bone of an animal,which represents the bone of a sheep.

(14:16):
And this was Jews are also giventhe credit for getting away from human sacrifice,
and they're given the credit for movingover to animal sacrifice, the sanctity
of human life that comes right fromthe Bible. Abraham with Isaac, when
Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac,and at the last moment, God said,
just kidding, really, don't meanit. And then the burning bush,

(14:41):
and there was a sheep a ramand Abraham went over. It was
right. The antlers were caught up, the horn was caught up in the
burning bush made out of asbestos soit could burn forever. And out came
the sheep, and the sacrifice wasmade. That became the beginning, know
at least traditionally of giving up humansacrifice. By the way, that story

(15:05):
of the sheep, the people thathave sheep has now been transferred over to
the folks in Bakersfield, and theyare now responsible for all of the animal
sacrifice in this country at least,And so it goes all the way back
there. I mean, this isand Zionism, the concept of Israel is

(15:26):
tied up in all of that fromthe earliest days. And so to argue
that number one, Zionism shouldn't exist, which is being argued, or it
is genocide. And that is thebelief in a country, belief in a
sovereign state. I mean it goesback it just I mean it goes back
on and on. You know thatRussia, the Bullshap Revolution, early on

(15:54):
the Soviet Union was favorable to Zionism. Okay, however, so much anti
Semitism that after the Bullshit Revolution duringthe initially the Bolsheviks were okay with it,
and then two years later they changedtheir mind. Russia, by the
way, was one of the few, and then they changed their mind again.
Russia was one of the few countriesthat initially recognized Israel when it declared

(16:18):
its in independence. And the wholeconcept of Israel, and I'm not going
to go through the whole history cameto be it was owned by the Ottoman
Empire. That position was controlled bythe Ottomans. And then the Brits excuse
me, and in Britain out camewas called the Balfour Declaration, and it

(16:45):
was separation of Israel, and againWest Bank Palestinian state and the country of
Israel. Two state solution. TheArabs turned it down, didn't want it.
Why because Israel shouldn't exist. Andthat is the concept of what the
war was started in nineteen forty eight. And I have told you also to

(17:07):
give you an idea of the worldview of Zionism, okay, because Israel
is not particularly like there's a lotof anti Semitism around the world. I
mean a lot. In nineteen seventyfive, the United Nations General Assembly formally
declared Zionism a form of racism.The definition of Zionism is racism. That's

(17:33):
the UN General Assembly in nineteen seventyfive. And if you look at the
resolutions that have been passed by theUN since it was created basically nineteen forty
six, by the way, theSan Francisco is where it first started,
the vast majority or more resolutions thanany other resolution that has passed has been

(17:53):
passed by the Security Council, andcertainly the General and certainly the General Assembly
has been anti Israel, has beenanti Israel, not recognizing Israel, declaring
Israel a racist state, illegitimizing Israel. And so when you see the word

(18:14):
Zionism up there and anti Zionist placards. It goes. It's not just a
word that's thrown about what it is. And this is interestingly enough, Muslims
believe in Abraham and Isaac, believein Moses, and yet at the same

(18:37):
time they're saying Israel should not exist. Certainly does position of Hamas. By
the way, they believe in Jesusas well. Yeah, and Jesus shows
up in the Qur'an. Yet butnot as a deity, only as a
prophet, only as a prophet,as does Abraham as a prophet. And
how did how did Muslims get ahold of Bethlah? Oh? It was

(19:02):
during the crusades, all the warsthat happened you talking about, there were
a lot. I don't know howmany crusades there were over the given years.
It must have been thirteen of them. There was the first Crusade,
the second, all through the ninehundreds through the thirteen hundreds. I mean,
you've got Europe, You've got thepopes going to free the Holy Land,
and it switched back and forth.And so there is a lot of

(19:26):
the Islamic culture. Where you lookat Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the international city.
It's Christian certainly, so much Christianity. You've got Islam there, and
you have Judaism one city that's criticallyimportant in the history and the belief system
of three different religions. No othercity has that. Yeah, but Judaism

(19:48):
is arguably the oldest of the three. Oh, by far, Oh,
by far, it's the oldest ofthe three. The only religion that's probably
older than Judaism are the Moonies.No, I don't think that's correct.
But do I have that wrong withRobert Moon? I believe so, Oh,
I believe. Oh and just fairenough Zoroaster maybe anyway, So I

(20:15):
could go on and on and on. Now, let me tell you what's
going on in San Francisco. Actually, San Francisco tried something that we started
here in La and that is adrug court essentially, and it's a very
strange concept. Beginning next year,there's a new city requirement. Single adults

(20:37):
with no dependents who receive cash cashbenefits have to be screened for illegal drug
use. Well, actually you don'thave to be screened. They can say
no, thank you. It iscompletely voluntary, And we have something very
similar because if people say no,that's okay, too, not a problem,
so why would you do it?Well, in the case of San

(21:00):
Francisco, in this they don't knowif it's working or not because it doesn't
kick in until next January. WhatSan Francisco is saying that public assistance recipients
who screen positive for addiction, eventhough they don't have to be screened,
and there's a ten question drug abusetest, they'll be referred for treatment.

(21:23):
Okay, if you're positive, we'rereferring to treatment. You don't have to
go if you don't want. Buthere's the bottom line. If you refuse
to go, or you say yesand you fail to show up, then
you forfeit the money that the citygives you a whopping one hundred and nine
dollars a month if you either livein or qualify for a shelter or some

(21:48):
kind of housing. If you havea home address, that's seven hundred and
twelve dollars a month to help youpay for your rent. Because, as
you know, seven hundred and twelvedollars in San Francisco goes a whole lot
towards rent. How many people doyou actually have to have to if you're
able to afford a one bedroom apartment. If someone is homeless and receive seven

(22:11):
hundred and twelve dollars, what aboutfourteen people living in a one bedroom house.
So why did this come into being? Well, the executive director director
of San Francisco Human Services Agency said, there's three reasons here. One to
incentivize people with substance the use disorderto enter treatment. Right, you don't

(22:33):
enter treatment, you don't get anymoney. Okay, to prevent tax payer
money from being used to buy illegaldrugs. You don't go into treatment,
We're not going to give you amoney and that means you're probably still a
drug addict, makes sense, andwe're not going to give you the money
that you're going to use to buydrugs. And to dissuade drug seekers from

(22:53):
moving to San Francisco. San Franciscotraditionally has some of the best benefits.
A great place to be homeless.San Francisco, LA is a great place
to be homeless. Try going toPeora, Illinois and be homeless. How
much you think they're going to giveyou. Try going to Alabama or Mississippi,
and Mississippi you're out on the street. How much state or county money

(23:14):
you think you're gonna get that's whySan Francisco, in LA and particularly southern
California. You know, for example, how many people are in North Dakota
during the winter who are homeless livingoutside in tents, not too many.
Or upstate New York, Buffalo,New York. And what kind of winners

(23:36):
do we have here? Well,we have some of the best weather on
the planet, which is why somany people here. Right now, about
fifty eight hundred people in San Franciscoreceive benefits under this new measure, They're
all going to be yanked of money, but will still be of course eligible

(23:57):
for housing. And I don't knowif you know many homeless people. And
I know of one my brother's exfiance, who has mental issues, and
I found her on the street andput her up at a apartment, actually

(24:18):
put her up at a hotel forthirty days until we found someplace. And
so through her I was able to, I guess, meet and know of
homeless people people who lived on thestreet, probably forty percent were mentally ill,
all living on gr general relief,which is like two hundred dollars a
month, and they all drug addicts, all alcoholics, because that's just simply

(24:44):
living on the street so we'll seeif this works. Maybe the problem is
it's all voluntary. I mean youcan't well, you can't force people in
the treatment. You know, welcometo the US and court cases and Ronald
Reagan and the ACLU basically said,you have every right to be homeless.
You have every right to be crazyand homeless. As long as you're not

(25:04):
in danger, you can live whereverthe hell you want. Used to be
that used to be thrown into mentalinstitutions where you had three meals, you
had a place to sleep, itwas clean, it was safe, but
it was involuntary. Sometimes, huh, the world has not gone. Sometimes

(25:26):
freedoms are really not that free.Kfiam six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio
app. You've been listening to theBill Handle Show. Catch my Show Monday
through Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app

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