Michael Perelman writes:

>> The curious position proposed here is that it is no violation of free speech 
>> to have
>> people lose their jobs because they take a position that is not sympathetic 
>> to the
>> policies of Israel.
>>
>> I doubt that anybody has ever lost a job in this country for taking the 
>> position in
>> favor of what is commonly called "free enterprise."  If, however, the 
>> country should
>> take a turn to the left, but that position be justified?

Please be concrete.  Please give me an example where somebody lost their job 
because they criticized Israel.

To be fair, we have discussed previously whether conservatives have a difficult 
time in academia and the argument goes nowhere because the only concrete 
examples are the very few cause celebres, which are almost always complicated, 
and we can't speak concretely about the unseen graduate student who decides not 
to apply to a program because he knows it would be futile.  I assume a similar 
result will occur here.

I stand by my original argument made at the beginning of this exchange -- 
almost all examples used by anti-Israel critics of repression of views turn out 
on examination to be nothing more than harsh criticism.  Because there are so 
few conservatives in academia, the only time Lefties experience harsh criticism 
in academia is on a topic that is emotional for liberal Jews, who are numerous 
in academia.  Because Lefties rarely experience harsh criticism in academia, 
they confuse it with real repression when it occurs.

David Shemano

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