There are additional ways to oppose anti-Semitism than what is proposed here by Charles Krauthammer. However, he has identified the re-emergence of a serious problem and has added his voice to the fact that anti-Jewish bigotry is flourishing on the political Left - in the Democratic Party, which is the party that most (90% or so) academics vote for. BR -------------------------------------------------------- W Post How to fight academic bigotry
By _Charles Krauthammer_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/charles-krauthammer/2011/02/24/ADJkW7B_page.html) , Published: January 9, 2014 < For decades, the _American Studies Association_ (http://www.theasa.net/what_does_the_academic_boycott_mean_for_the_asa/) labored in well-deserved obscurity. No longer. It has now made a name for itself by _voting to boycott Israeli universities_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/16/u-s-academic-group-votes-to-boycott-israeli-universities/) , accusing them of denying academic and human rights to Palestinians. Given that Israel has a profoundly democratic political system, the freest press in the Middle East, a fiercely independent judiciary and astonishing religious and racial diversity within its universities, including affirmative action for Arab students, the charge is rather strange. Made more so when you consider the state of human rights in Israel’s neighborhood. As we speak, _Syria’s government is dropping “barrel bombs”_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-syria-barrel-bombs-bring-a-new -form-of-terror-and-death-to-aleppo/2013/12/23/6f8a7f0c-6bed-11e3-aecc-85cb0 37b7236_story.html) filled with nails, shrapnel and other instruments of terror _on its own cities_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/uk-proposes-un-condemn-syrian-air-raids-on-aleppo/2014/01/08/f7ff6986-789c-11 e3-a647-a19deaf575b3_story.html) . Where is the ASA boycott of Syria? _And of Iran, which hangs political_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071902061.html) , religious and even sexual dissidents and has no academic freedom at all? Or _Egypt, where Christians are being openly persecuted_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-can-muslim-lands-learn-to-tolerate-christianity/2013/12/26/912d9162- 6e6d-11e3-aecc-85cb037b7236_story.html) ? _Or Turkey_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkey-police-dismissed-after-launching-new-probe /2014/01/08/9d4de178-7853-11e3-a647-a19deaf575b3_story.html) , Saudi Arabia or, for that matter, _massively repressive China_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-dismisses-professor-advocating-free-speech/2013/10/19/d8395 1de-3896-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html) and Russia? Which makes obvious that the ASA boycott has nothing to do with human rights. It’s an exercise in radical chic, giving marginalized academics a frisson of pretend anti-colonialism, seasoned with a dose of edgy anti-Semitism. And don’t tell me this is merely about Zionism. The ruse is transparent. Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. To apply to the state of the Jews a double standard that you apply to none other, to judge one people in a way you judge no other, to single out that one people for condemnation and isolation — is to engage in a gross act of discrimination. And discrimination against Jews has a name. It’s called anti-Semitism. Former Harvard president Larry _Summers called the ASA actions_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW__sylpHJM) “anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent.” I choose to be less polite. The intent is clear: to incite hatred for the largest — and only sovereign — Jewish community on Earth. What to do? Facing a similar (British) academic boycott of Israelis seven years ago, Alan Dershowitz and _Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg_ (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1979/weinberg-bio.html) wrote an open letter declaring that, for the purposes of any anti-Israel boycott, _they are to be considered Israelis_ (http://spme.org/spme-research/letters-from-our-readers/alan-dershowitz-and-15-nobel-laureates-lead ing-thousands-of-academics-worldwide-to-protest-british-academic-boycott-of- israel-please-sign-solidarity-statement-now/3260/) . Meaning: You discriminate against Israelis? Fine. Include us out. We will have nothing to do with you. Thousands of other academics added their signatures to the Dershowitz/Weinberg letter. It was the perfect in-kind response. Boycott the boycotters, with contempt. But academia isn’t the only home for such prejudice. Throughout the cultural world, the _Israel boycott movement is growing_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/22/AR2011032203039.html) . It’s become fashionable for musicians, actors, writers and performers of all kinds to ostentatiously cleanse themselves of Israel and Israelis. The example of the tuxedoed set has spread to the more coarse and unkempt anti-Semites, such as the thugs who a few years ago disrupted _London performances of the Jerusalem Quartet_ (http://www.classical-music.com/news/jerusalem-quartet-concert-disrupted-anti-israeli-protests) and _the Israeli Philharmonic_ () . Five years ago in Sweden, _Israel’s Davis Cup team had to play_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/sports/24iht-tennisdavis24.20403874.html?_r=0) its matches in an empty tennis stadium because the authorities could not guarantee the Israelis’ safety from the mob. The most brazen display of rising anti-Semitism today is the spread of _the “quenelle,” a reverse Nazi salute_ (http://www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs/article/Parker-sorry-for-gesture-se en-as-offensive-5103460.php) , popularized by the openly _anti-Semitic French entertainer_ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10559313/Anti-Semitic-comedian-Dieudonne-appeals-ban-on-shows-in-France.html) , Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala. In this sea of easy and open bigotry, an unusual man has made an unusual statement. Russian by birth, European by residence, Evgeny Kissin is arguably the world’s greatest piano virtuoso. He is also a Jew of conviction. Deeply distressed by Israel’s treatment in the cultural world around him, Kissin went beyond the Dershowitz/Weinberg stance of asking to be considered an Israeli. On Dec. 7, he became one, defiantly. _Upon taking the oath of citizenship_ (http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001415.html) in Jerusalem, he declared: “I am a Jew, Israel is a Jewish state. . . . Israel’s case is my case, Israel’s enemies are my enemies, and I do not want to be spared the troubles which Israeli musicians encounter when they represent the Jewish state beyond its borders. ” Full disclosure: I have a personal connection with Kissin. For the past two years I’ve worked to bring him to Washington to perform for Pro Musica Hebraica, a nonprofit organization (founded by my wife and me) dedicated to reviving lost and forgotten Jewish classical music. We succeeded. On Feb. 24, Kissin will perform at the _Kennedy Center Concert Hall_ (http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=XOPMH) masterpieces of Eastern European Jewish music, his first U.S. appearance as an Israeli. The persistence of anti-Semitism, that most ancient of poisons, is one of history’s great mysteries. Even the shame of the Holocaust proved no antidote. It provided but a temporary respite. Anti-Semitism is back. Alas, a new generation must learn to confront it. How? How to answer the thugs, physical and intellectual, who single out Jews for attack? The best way, the most dignified way, is to do like Dershowitz, Weinberg or Kissin. Express your solidarity. Sign _the open letter_ (http://spme.org/spme-statements/call-academics-worldwide-join-nobel-laureates-university-presidents-sta nd-solidarity-israeli-academics-facing-threats-boycott/16583/) or write your own. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
