Chloe Valdary is a student on a mission

By Ted Belman. I first became aware of Chloe Valdary when I read and posted an article about her by Lori Lowenthal Marcas under the title One person can make a difference. Please read that article again. Then she gave a major speech titled Reclaiming the Zionist Dream and it was made into a video. I watched the video and decided to write to her to ask her for the text which she supplied and which I have posted below.

As a result of reading Exodus she was motivated learn more and to work to support Israel. She is enrolled in International Studies at New Orleans University as a sophmore. She started the organization Allies for Israel and after delivering this speech she organized an event and invited Daniel Pipes. He graciously agreed to attend and speak. The event was a big success.

She started a project ‘Once And For All’ which she describes as “a NOLA based campaign dedicated to suppressing the evil phenomenon of anti-Semitism around the world through the use of media techniques such as film, music videos, mixed media and other artistic measures.” and to which Daniel Pipes through Mid East Forum donated $3000. Please visit her site to learn more. You will see that she is raising money to complete the project. Please show your support for her efforts as she is supporting us, and donate $20 or more. Show her your appreciation. You owe it to her and to yourself. Watch the video and read what she intends.

When Valdary found out about the BDS event that was taking place at Brooklyn College, the goal of which is to portray Israel as an “Apartheid State,” and an “evil occupier,” she wrote Letter to the Jews of Brooklyn. And what a letter it was. Read it. See her passion.

I told her that there are a number of groups that hire students to travel to US campuses to defend Israel. She said she would be interested in being one of those students. So now I am working to bring this about. Please tell me what groups I should be contracting. So far on my list is Hasbara Fellowships and The David Project.

By Chloe Valdary

And thank you again for showing up today. You are what this event is all about. You have taken off from your schools and your work, your daily schedules and routines just to be here today. To celebrate the Jewish state, Israel. But, you could do this at home, right? You could do this without taking off from work, right? So really, why do we gather here today? Let me take you back a few years ago if I may. It is April 1, 1933. The Nazis have won a large number of seats in the German Parliament. They call for a national boycott of Jewish businesses. They post signs on Jewish businesses that say ‘Don’t buy from Jews!‘ and ‘Jews, go to Palestine.’! These boycotts spread to Poland and to Austria. To Canada and even the US To Hungary and to the Middle East. Hotels, restaurants, and cafes bar Jews from entering. Jews are not allowed to become teachers, professors, judges. They are not allowed to enter the university. These laws accumulate over the years between 1933 and 1939. The end result of this is genocide. (pause)

Let’s fast forward a bit in time. It is July 9, 2005. 171 Palestinian non-governmental organizations create a campaign calling for the boycott, divestment, and sanction of the Jewish state, the state of Israel. The movement gains traction. More than 20 organizations from 13 European countries endorse this campaign. In Canada, in 2005, Israeli Apartheid Week begins in Toronto. In 2009, several French organizations voice their support of the movement. 2010, Australia holds its first national BDS conference. In 2011, the American National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus endorses the campaign. In 2012, Penn State hosts a BDS conference where men and women purporting to stand in the name of human rights call passionately for the annihilation of the Jewish state.

The year is 2013, ladies and gentlemen. How far will you let it go?

Imagine, if you can, what you would do if you were approached by someone or a group of people who simply said for whatever reason or another that the Holocaust never happened. What if they denied to your face that six million Jews were killed? What if they praised a nazi, and called him one of their heroes. Don’t think it could happen? It happened right here at this institution. Last November on a day that was called diversity day where cultural groups on campus advertised their organizations to the student body. How would you respond? In December of last year almost 400 students gathered in Copley Square at Northeastern University and chanted Hamas’s genocidal chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Over and over and over, they chanted for the death of the Jewish state. How would you respond? In Egypt in Cairo, during the Arab Spring, Egyptians chanted at a soccer game, One Nation for New Holocaust! One Nation for New Holocaust! Over and over they chanted for the death of the Jewish people. How would you respond? This past November, the UN voted to give non-member status to a region in Judea and Samaria, run by an anti-Semitic authoritarian despot who makes it punishable by death to sell land to a Jew and says his new state will be Judenrein. How will you respond? Anti-Semitism is rising, ladies and gentlemen. Jew hatred is spreading. That thing we said would never happen again…is happening. In Europe, in Hungary, Britain and Spain, anti-Semitism has increased. Last year there were 386 anti-Semitic acts in France, alone, up 45% from the previous year. In the Middle East, Mein Kampf is a best seller and Hitler is routinely praised. The Holocaust is routinely denied, and they call daily for another one. Ladies and Gentlemen, how will we respond!

George Washington said that the time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves. I believe that the time is near which must determine whether Jews and those who love them are to be courageous or cowards. To ignore the calls for annihilation or to go to battle. The time is ripe and as Frederic Douglass once said, it is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind and the earthquake!

We are all here to “Declare our Freedom,” but what does that mean? Declare Your Freedom. What does it mean to declare something, ladies and gentlemen? The New Oxford American Dictionary says that to declare something is to pronounce or assert, to openly align oneself for or against a position. To reveal one’s intentions or identity. To declare something is not merely to speak but also to act accordingly. You see it is crucial that we understand what today’s event is about and what is is not about. It is not simply for self-satisfaction nor is it so we return to our homes after being inspired by eloquent speeches, only to leave the words that we hear today in the back of our minds, unperturbed by the harsh realities of the world at present. Today’s event is our collective affirmation that as Americans and Israelis as Jews and Gentiles we will fight and we will stand for liberty.

And in fighting for liberty we fight for the promulgation of American ideals all over the world, ideals and values that Israel, the Jewish state espouses. We declare that our ideals are superior and we do not apologize for them. Free speech is superior to stifled debate. Free press who speak the truth are superior to a society where so-called journalists are actually paid informants who promote one tyrant over another. Freedom of religious practice is superior to both the imposition of religious dictates upon citizens and the denigration of religious freedom by secular dissidents. Liberty, from the root Greek word, liber, means having the freedom to think, to learn, to lead, to act, to debate, to question, to engage, to believe, to stand firm for what one believes, to work, to benefit from that work, to own property, to become successful, to achieve goals, these are all superior to enslavement. This liberty forms the bedrock of American culture and today we declare that we are not ashamed of it. We hold this liberty in high esteem and we strive to spread it across the globe.

Israel is a tiny country with an enormous heart. Like America, her people are resilient and, like Americans, they believe to their last dying breath in freedom. Like America, Israel is the only other place built to be a refuge for the oppressed to go and thrive and live. She is a liberal democracy that has triumphed against all odds, and although everyday whole countries call for her death, Israel continues to live. Israel continues to be. And in being, she laughs in the face of her ridiculers. She laughs in the face of the anti-Semites who sit at the UN planting her demise. She laughs at those who would throw her back into the ovens. She laughs and she lives. And she will continue to live as long as her people and our people elect every day to speak the truth, to stand up for what is right, to declare our freedom.

So this is why we are here, ladies and gentlemen. We are here because it is our duty to speak. It is our duty to act. It is our duty to strive towards a day when the Zionist dream will no longer be delegitimized, when the term will no longer be a dirty word. Let us define it today, once and for all. To be a Zionist is to believe in the self-determination of the Jewish people, the right of the Jews to settle in their ancestral homeland, like any other people on the face of the earth. To live and prosper in their sacred land. And as the declaration of independence of Israel so aptly states, we extend love and peace to our Arab brothers and sisters. We desire to live in harmony with them. To raise our children up so they may grow together in peace. So that the world may look upon our example as an ideal to strive towards.

But to those who would delegitimize the Jewish state, to those who call for its annihilation, to those who hold Israel Apartheid Week, to those who perpetrate BDS on college campuses and to those who deny the Holocaust while calling for the next, today let it be known that you will fail. We will no longer sit idly by while these things happen. Israel is the great cause of our time. As Americans, we will stand by her for it is right, it is just, and it is good.