Japan Today
entertainment

Seinfeld speech at Duke commencement prompts walkout protesting his support for Israel

30 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Thomson Reuters 2024.

©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.

30 Comments
Login to comment

Seinfeld speech at Duke commencement prompts walkout protesting his support for Israel

Good.

-4 ( +17 / -21 )

Good. This cleared the venue of fools so the ceremony could proceed smoothy. These protesters are just a small, noisy minority who don't represent most of the students body or teaching faculty. They're welcome to protest, but just do it elsewhere so that people who actually valued their education could celebrate it in peace.

5 ( +25 / -20 )

Not his loss...

3 ( +14 / -11 )

It was actually a very good speech! Excerpt below.

Find fascination. Fascination is way better than passion. 

I will give you my three real keys to life.

(1) Bust your ass

(2) Pay attention 

(3) Fall in love with anything and everything every chance you get

The only thing you ever need to pay attention to in life are work and love.

If you have been at this amazing place for four years and still have no idea what you like, what you’re interested in, or what you want to do in life, you are the luckiest ones here. Those of you that think you know what you want to do are very likely wrong and perhaps even overestimating your ability to do it. You have convinced yourself that you know who you are and what’s going on in the world. You don’t know either. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76QV2SrSqgo

12 ( +20 / -8 )

I wish they'd keep walking - all the way to their dream paradise in Palestine!

3 ( +20 / -17 )

Great speech. Good for Jerry.

1 ( +15 / -14 )

Awesome speech by a great comedian and public speaker. These graduates were very lucky - most of us have had to pay $ hundreds to see Jerry live!

As for the haters - let them hate. They missed their chance of seeing Seinfeld.

-4 ( +18 / -22 )

An entire generation that can't tolerate dissent.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

Seinfeld's wife Jessica, friend of Bill Acklam, was one of the funders of the organisation responsible for hiring the thugs who attacked the peaceful protesters at UCLA recently. The thugs were Iranian pro-monarchists who have grown close to the genocidal Zionists in recent years as they share a "common enemy".

What's the deal with genocide, Jerry?

https://onlysimchas.com/jewish-news/israel/comedian-jerry-seinfeld-visits-israeli-counter-terror-training-camp/

4 ( +16 / -12 )

I wish they'd keep walking - all the way to their dream paradise in Palestine!

Why can't people live in peace together? Blame Hamas? Okay. Blame Netanyahu? Yep, him, too. Both are guilty here. But right now, Netanyahu is showing little care for any Palestinian innocents.

1 ( +12 / -11 )

Seinfeld is Jewish!?

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

People that support Israel, support a bunch of delusional religious zealot,they cannot name one of them,but naive support them

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

Sad that Seinfeld supports genocide against Palestinians.

-4 ( +10 / -14 )

Sad that Seinfeld supports genocide against Palestinians.

To the best of my knowledge he was never asked if he did support it. Quite a wild assumption this is!

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

Why can't people live in peace together? Blame Hamas? Okay. Blame Netanyahu? Yep, him, too. Both are guilty here. But right now, Netanyahu is showing little care for any Palestinian innocents.

I read "Blame Netanyahu" and I want to ask this person, okay, so in this situation, how would you fight a WAR?

Also if he showed little care for Palestinian innocents I imagine the body count would be SIGNIFICANTLY higher.

-5 ( +7 / -12 )

To the best of my knowledge he was never asked if he did support it. Quite a wild assumption this is!

Not an assumption at all. Seinfield supports what Israel is doing, which is killing Palestinians indiscriminately and cutting off food aid, resulting in countless death among women and children.

1 ( +12 / -11 )

Jerry Seinfeld drew criticism earlier this month when it emerged that while in Israel to perform in Tel Aviv, the famous comedian visited an air force base and took his family to a tourist attraction in the occupied West Bank for ideological and military instruction.

Caliber 3, the Israeli firm that runs what Israeli newspaper Haaretz calls an “anti-terror fantasy camp,” boasted about the Seinfeld family’s patronage in a Facebook post on 7 January.

https://electronicintifada.net/content/seinfeld-boosts-israels-shoot-kill-fantasy-tours/23096

Why would any human want to go to the Occupied Terrorities to visit a facility that celebrates the Occupation? The settlements are officially illegal. Its like going to the Sengakus and waving a Chinese flag.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Shocking how so many young Americans support terrorism.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

People that support Hamas, support a bunch of delusional religious zealot,they cannot name one of them,but naive support them

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Peaceful, non-disruptive protest. Handled well by everyone.

Hamas attacked and had been attacking Israel for years. On 10/7, they went too far and started a war. It has cost them 35K Palestinians.

Seems like a bonehead mistake to me.

I support Israel too, but I don't like their targeting of non-combatants. The 35K people killed, I wouldn't know how to target just the non-combatants, since those fighting sleep next to them.

Hamas needs to be completely destroyed, everywhere in the world. Israel knows this. They've shown nothing but bad behavior and poor judgement when they do come to actions and negotiations.

When all Palestinians behave in a civilized way, then they will be heard and gain greater political standing. Hamas needs to go. That name is corrupted forever as a terror organization that kills people and takes hostages without any due process of a legal system or govt.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I've worked closely with lots of Jews over the decades in the US and around the world. Never had any issues. I worked for a Jewish owned company in the US for 3 yrs. The company had people from all the major faiths. It wasn't a problem. Sometimes we disagreed on work-related topics. We learned about each other's religions - or lack of religion. The Muslim employees took the time they wanted for their religious needs. It wasn't a problem. Same for Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Taoist. Even Catholics got their extra time off for all those festivals/holy days that seem to happen every other week.

Israelis prefer peace, but won't put up with nonsense. They did in Germany which got at least 6M of them murdered. Never again.

If Israel wanted, they could flatten all of Gaza. Hamas miscalculated and needs to release all the hostages to make the war stop. They started it with no good plan for any ending. Did they think holding hostages would get them land and self-governance? Nobody is that stupid. Well, not before Hamas.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Also if he showed little care for Palestinian innocents I imagine the body count would be SIGNIFICANTLY higher.

Exactly. You’ll never get a response to this that makes sense and doesn’t require massive amounts of mental gymnastics to justify

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

This cancelling and protesting needs to end.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

An entire generation that can't tolerate dissent.

Exactly, and that has to stop, good on Seinfeld, the guy is a rock.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Seinfeld supports what Israel is doing, which is killing Palestinians indiscriminately and cutting off food aid, resulting in countless death among women and children.

Seinfeld attended a Bari Weiss event in New York in March. Weiss is an ultra-Zionist propaganda machine and former New York Times journalist implicated in the murder of the Palestinian poet, writer and university professor Refaat Alareer.

Before Alareer, his sister and her four children were deliberately targeted and murdered by IDF bombs in December 2023, he wrote on Twitter, "If I get killed by Israeli bombs or my family is harmed, I blame Bari Weiss and her likes."

Seinfeld supports a woman who advocated the murder of a poet, and all because he mocked IDF propaganda on Twitter.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

I saw Seinfeld give an interview in which he spoke of his "Jewish Identity " and of the thousands of years of oppression Jews have endured and how that shaped himself and his "Jewishness "

To that I would say, Jerry, you would have no idea what happened 500 years ago, let alone 2000 years , so how can one appropriate a long past ,probably false, and misrepresented history to affect some eternal victimhood for being Jewish.

It is non sensical.

This is the mythology some, not all, Jews tell themselves to maintain a level of entitlement and righteousness.

The Chinese in Indonesia were subject to mass slaughter in the 1960's but I dont see that actual historical event clouding every part of a Indonesian Chinese person sense of self.

Australia former POW's of the Japanese similarly are not holding deep seated anger informing every aspect of their being.

Nor are the Japanese victims of atomic bombs hateful toward America.

I can see how the Holocaust would maintain a hundred years of hate toward Germany, but no, the actual perpetrators of that calamity are Israels second biggest supplier of weapons.

And Palestinian people, who had zero to do with oppression of Jews, are paying a price for another nations crimes.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

If Israel wanted, they could flatten all of Gaza.

Exactly. This talk of “genocide” is errant rubbish.

Israelis prefer peace, but won't put up with nonsense.

Amen!

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

So much for “education”. The Ill-educated don’t have the wits or manners to listen to a differing point of view.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

The Chinese in Indonesia were subject to mass slaughter in the 1960's but I dont see that actual historical event clouding every part of a Indonesian Chinese person sense of self.

One of my very best friends in the world is Indonesian of Chinese descent. Half his family was killed in the massacres. It is a huge weight on him. I've known him almost 30 yrs. His wife is also Chinese-Indonesian. They have 3 children and enjoy life in the US. Every few years, the family returns to Indonesia for a visit. Times there have changed and ethnic Chinese are again allowed into politically powerful positions. In those roles, they often have to work with people who have killed their families that are also politically powerful and never held accountable. Imagine having to see someone who you know killed 500+ people by machete or with a rifle that is now a Police Chief of Lt Governor. Crazy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Seinfeld attended a Bari Weiss event in New York in March. Weiss is an ultra-Zionist propaganda machine and former New York Times journalist implicated in the murder of the Palestinian poet, writer and university professor Refaat Alareer.

Bari Weiss’s writing and interviews show her to be intelligent and eminently sensible.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites