Rope, tree, stuffed shirt Doctor Professor, some assembly required.
David
"We are now, my friends, in a situation where the majority of Americans
get their news and information about what is going on
"We are now, my friends, in a situation where the majority of Americans
get their news and information about what is going on with their
government from entities that are licensed by and subject to punishment
at the hands of that very government.Nobody can truly believe that this
is what our founding fathers had in mind."*---Neal Boortz*
On 1/10/2014 9:04 AM, [email protected] wrote:
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
IsraelâEUR^(TM)s neighborhood. As we speak, SyriaâEUR^(TM)s government
is dropping âEURoebarrel bombsâEUR?
<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-85cb037b7236_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-11e3-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/d83951de-3896-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html>
and Russia?
Which makes obvious that the ASA boycott has nothing to do with human
rights. ItâEUR^(TM)s an exercise in radical chic, giving marginalized
academics a frisson of pretend anti-colonialism, seasoned with a dose
of edgy anti-Semitism.
And donâEUR^(TM)t tell me this is merely about Zionism. The ruse is
transparent. Israel is the worldâEUR^(TM)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 âEUR" is to engage in a
gross act of discrimination.
And discrimination against Jews has a name. ItâEUR^(TM)s called
anti-Semitism.
Former Harvard president Larry Summers called the ASA actions
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW__sylpHJM> âEURoeanti-Semitic in
their effect if not necessarily in their intent.âEUR? I choose to be
less polite. The intent is clear: to incite hatred for the largest
âEUR" and only sovereign âEUR" 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-leading-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 isnâEUR^(TM)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>.
ItâEUR^(TM)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, IsraelâEUR^(TM)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 IsraelisâEUR^(TM) safety from the mob. The most
brazen display of rising anti-Semitism today is the spread of the
âEURoequenelle,âEUR? a reverse Nazi salute
<http://www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs/article/Parker-sorry-for-gesture-seen-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 MâEUR^(TM)Bala MâEUR^(TM)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 worldâEUR^(TM)s greatest piano virtuoso. He is
also a Jew of conviction. Deeply distressed by IsraelâEUR^(TM)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: âEURoeI am a Jew, Israel is a Jewish state.
.âEUR0/00.âEUR0/00. IsraelâEUR^(TM)s case is my case, IsraelâEUR^(TM)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.âEUR?
Full disclosure: I have a personal connection with Kissin. For the
past two years IâEUR^(TM)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 historyâEUR^(TM)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-stand-solidarity-israeli-academics-facing-threats-boycott/16583/>
or write your own. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly.
--
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