...We cannot help but wonder why the people under the PSM umbrella did not gather to teach or learn how to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians by building hospitals and schools or how to build peace-directed coalitions by promoting dialogue with pro-Israel, pro-peace advocates around the world. Nor did anyone address the tragic outcome of the recent Palestinian elections, or whether HAMAS will change its charter and work towards peace in the region. Instead, the sole purpose of this conference was to create campaigns that would hope to label Israel as a "pariah" state.

Many of the campaigns involved deception, and the agendas were the same as those in prior years, ignoring the fact that so much has changed in the Middle East during the last year in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. This conference simply ignored that so much has changed on the ground.

Non-violence was not high on their agenda. Opening panelist Philip Farah told the audience that Mahatma Ghandi had once said that "If the choice were between violence and submission, we would choose violence a thousand times."

And there was an acceptance of the art of deception throughout the conference. For example, opening panelists advised the audience to "inoculate" themselves against the charge of anti-Semitism by working with "Jews and Israelis." The message was that when you have Jews on your team, you obviously cannot be accused of being anti-Jew.

Holding the conference on the Sabbath did not seem to trouble the two ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta rabbis who showed up and stayed all day so they could attend this conference...

Some incredible examples of the training we witnessed that teach deception, follow:

Maher Bitar and Nadeem Muaddi told people how to infiltrate churches in order to gain support for an anti-Israel agenda. They emphasized "targeting" small churches that don’t have their own political agendas already. "Be patient about bringing up the divestment issue with your new Christian friends", Mauddi advised. To win the congregants' trust, he encouraged activists to deceive their new prospective friends by "looking and acting Christian." "Dress conservatively," he said. No kyffias, sandals or jeans. Instead, "men should wear button-down shirts, sports coats or khakis". He went on to say that women should wear mid-length skirts with colored pantyhose. He told them to be well-groomed and to speak nicely, avoiding curse words and slang. "Mind your manners." he said. "If someone sneezes, say 'God Bless you. And always come bearing gifts, especially something from the Holy Land like holy water or rosary beads." He further advised the activists to get involved in the church community. "Don’t look down on the church ladies' clubs—join them". All the participants regarded the Presbyterian vote (that has been considering divestment) as an exciting victory. They gave credit to Sabeel, the Palestinian Christian group that has worked hard to demonize Israel and promote divestment in North and South American mainline churches. The people in all these sessions seemed to welcome the advice about how to deceive and manipulate the churches so they could spread the virus of hatred through well meaning religious communities..

...PBS was there filming a documentary which will be shown in about 8-10 months. The rhetoric was vile, and the University behaved horribly toward us. They used excessive force to remove one of us (a 65 year old man with a cane and a heart condition) who demanded a straight yes or no answer on whether the panel would condemn homicide bombers. I was banned from attending press events Sunday even though I had bona fide press credentials because I also had a paid-for participant pass. I was free-lancing for a local paper. The vice-president for communications of the school Eric Smollson refused to explain his decision and brushed me off with a rude have your publisher call me Monday. His eyes burned with hatred. I was also banned from sessions Sunday because I was seen distributing Israeli flags to the Survivors and Refuseniks who were so proud and pleased to see Jews standing up to the Wahabist agents. Some had tears in their eyes. A young Jewish female student ran to us crying thanking us for our presence because the Nuturei Karta had been so hateful to her as she merely walked through campus and asked who they were.

To tell you the truth, the University Administration, in its heavy handed and unexplained expulsion of Jewish protestors who merely yelled out remarks, were worse to deal with than the Muslim students. Most of the participants and organizers were outside provocateurs, communists, and anarchists. Palestinian Solidarity of New Jersey had a Palestinian flag with a bloody fist adorning its table. The group was giving away lapel pins which included an AK47, AK47 in a raised hand, and red stars with a hammer and sickle. When I asked the young Caucasian nebbish whether he realized his heroes are happy to die for the cause and whether he was ready to do so as well, given his symbols of death and mayhem, he ignored me and looked at the floor. Nobody would even begin to discuss with me how Israel had been selected for boycotts and divestment efforts for alleged human rights violations over all of the other states who sponsor them such as most Muslim nations which condone honor killings of rape victims, stonings of adulteresses but pats on the backs of adulterers, denying women the right to vote and drive cars, and so on. They were utterly baffled as to why Palestinians living in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt as refugees were denied the right to vote in the PA elections...

...Very few people young enough to be undergraduate students were seen anywhere at the event. In fact, at Shabbat dinner, the Hillel students told us that they had a generally good relationship with Muslim students on campus and felt that outside troublemakers had come in to stir things up. They told us that there were no incidents of anti-Semitism or disrespect to Muslims. On the other hand, a strong turnout of George Washington University, American University, and University of Maryland Students were there to protest the Hoya event...I got the same [screaming] treatment from featured speaker Alison Weir. I asked her if she would dialogue with me or had to lecture me. She insisted that she had to lecture me and then took extreme close-up pictures in my face until I called security. Ms. Weir is a contributing writer to David Duke's website with a history of spewing Jew and Israel hatred. There was one pathetic youngster of Middle Eastern lineage who complained bitterly in one session that she had been banned from her paper at the University of Cincinnati based on her race. When asked what she had written for them, she proudly announced a very scholarly piece deny the Holocaust. Oy! There was also a session in which attendees were taught how to use the Birthright Israel program (intended to pay for the first trip to Israel of a Jewish youngster) to get free airfare to the Land of Israel and then to break away from the group to join up with the ISM and other Israel haters in terror strongholds in places like Ramallah and Shchem...