Thursday, March 1, 2007

Anti-Israel hatred at universities

I attended a top-notch undergrad school. At my undergrad school, I was simply apolitical and apathetic with regards to Israel. The four memories I have concerning Israel are as follows...
  • During my last semester at college, I took a writing class concerning the theory of space. The prof would mention Israel with regularity, calling Sharon some sort of a monster.
  • I remember having a conversation with a "progressive" back in 2000 or so, and telling her I wouldn't vote for Nader in part because he was anti-Israel. This "progressive" said she was pro-Palestinian, and this was a positive position of Nader's.
  • Hanan Ashrawi, a spokesperson for the PLO, came to speak at my alma mater. I didn't pay attention to this, but I recall there were Hillel groups who were upset with her. (Please note the Camera link about this woman)
  • Many undergrads were applying to go to Birthright Israel, a free trip to Israel, but at the time, pre-Intifada, (I am oooold), Birthright had a massive waiting list! During the Intifada, no one wanted to go, sadly.
These are the totality of my memories concerning Israel, as an undergrad. My impression is that things have radically changed in the years since I have graduated. Please read the following article about 'Palestine Awareness Week" at Saint Louis University. You will see how there is a concerted effort to indoctrinate students into hating Israel, and blaming the Jews for the world's problems. This is hardly an isolated incident. Columbia University is an Ivy League school that is widely seen as one of the best in the world. Note who the Chairman of the Mideast Studies Department is - Rashid Khalidi. This individual also has served as the President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 1994. Mr. Khalidi publishes the Journal of Palestine Studies, a Palestinian propoganda journal that regularly refers to the creation of Israel as "an-Nakba," (catastrophe in Arabic) Mr. Khalidi famously said "the tragedy of September 11 was a godsend” to “American Likudniks and their Israeli counterparts” because it “enabled them to draft the United States to help fight Israel’s enemies.” (source) In addition, Mr. Khalidi is responsible for gross plagiarism of his 'academic' works. (source) Essentially, Mr. Khalidi, who is the Chair of Columbia's 'Mideast Studies' Department, was Arafat's minion. (source) Juan Cole was the most recent president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Juan Cole is, like Khalidi, a propogandist. He has been known to bend the truth to his liking when it suits him, including the absurd claim that Ahmedinejad (aka Dinnerjacket) never said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. (source) Mr. Cole also stated some of the following things...

The Neocons wanted to knock down Saddam, Khamenei and al-Asad in hopes that those countries would be so weakened and preoccupied with internal power struggles that Sharon would have an unimpeded opportunity to pursue his dreams of Greater Israel.” (source)

It may be that the powerful Likudniks inside the US government are deliberately engineering a diplomatic rift in NATO, so as to ensure that Paris and Moscow cannot position themselves to influence Washington’s position (usually supine) toward Sharon’s excesses.” (source)

Paul Wolfowitz’ attitude to NATO allies is “so gratuitous and immature that one can only guess something else lay behind it,” that something being a wish to create bad blood between the U.S. government and states that are, in Cole terms “no longer a knee-jerk supporter of Israeli militarism and expansionism.” (source)
For more on Juan Cole, please read here. Mr. Cole is a professor in the Mideast Studies Department at another prestigious school - the University of Michigan. And for the creme de la creme of academia, Harvard, Culture for All already covered the firing of president Lawrence Summers for noting the anti-Israel bent of academia! The anti-Israel entrenchment of academia runs far and wide. Remember, I am not citing junior professors. I am citing some of the top professors in the field. And this is just the US. At Oxford, for example, Tariq Ramadan is teaching - a known propogandist for the Muslim Brotherhood. And lest we forget, Culture for All already profiled Karen Armstrong. What should be done? There is no clear answer. It is troubling to see lies taught as fact in universities across the world. It makes one wonder what sort of primrose path the world is heading down.

11 comments:

Abu Sa'ar said...

Heh. It ain't new. And I reckon it ain't going to change until the West collapses, or comes close enough to a collapse to facilitate a massive paradigm shift.

I don't know if there's anything to be done to save the academia.

But I know what I would like to do about it... and it includes small bits of lead flying really fast. In some cases, pliers and a blowtorch would be more appropriate.

These pathetic, abominable excuses for hunams are doing their best to bring about another genocide of the Jews, they have utterly and completely corrupted all the Western educational institutions... and they are also working really hard to destroy the Western democracy - that is, the only thing between them and a ballistic lobotomy.

Red Tulips said...

Raccoon:

It's sickening to think that I am still supporting this malarcky, with my student loan payments! Ugh!

My concern is not just the dismantlement of educational institutions (and it is hardly limited to the US - Israel has 'scholars' such as Ilan Pappe), but rather the indoctrination of world youth.

And frankly, the most disturbing aspect of it all is that many of these 'scholars' are Jewish! Some, like Pappe, are even Israeli!

It makes me wonder about the will we have to fight.

Irina Tsukerman said...

I've seen Khalidi speak a couple of times. He's pretty impossible to argue with. But Joseph Massad (another Columbia star involved in a scandal a couple of years ago), is even worse. He's completely paranoid, it seems. And have you heard the story about the woman "archaeologist" at Barnard who wrote a completely bogus book about how there was no real Jewish presence in Israel and all the digs are fake????

Abu Sa'ar said...

here's a sample. I don't think this guy quite comes up to pliers and blowtorch standards... but an addition of some lead to the man's cranuim would probably be an improvement to his overall condition.

We have the will to fight. We're just waiting for enough people to get pissed off enough and wake the hell up.

But I don't think this will pass without much bloodshed. I'll see you on the barricades; get some arms training and learn how to make IEDs.

Red Tulips said...

Irina:

I did not hear the story about the 'archeologist,' but it's not surprising, sadly. I also have heard of Joseph Massad...very, very sad.

Raccoon:

I hope it doesn't have to come down to IEDs, which are indiscriminate in their violence. And that 'scholar' you linked is a Pappe-mirror, eh?

iska said...

interesting how you wish to kill people who don't think like you...but you have a lot of company I'm afraid.

Red Tulips said...

Iska:

Please reference one place where I, the blog author, advocated killing a professor who doesn't think like me. Raccoon is a commentator on the blog, not a contributing member. And I assure you he has no intention of killing anyone and was speaking out of frustration. I believe in freedom of speech...but I also believe that the amount of hate speech directed towards Israel (and the US, for that matter) reflects poorly of our societies, and ultimately will lead to a corruption of the next generation. That DOESN'T mean that I think killing these profs is the answer.

Hope that clarifies, and welcome to Culture for All!

Abu Sa'ar said...

Iska -

I wouldn't really kill these people, unless they would be actively supporting my enemies (and thus trying to kill me). My words are indeed fueled by frustration - had I actually wanted to kill them, I would just do so (or organize a political group to do so) rather than blather about it on websites. Fortunately for everyone, most of them are not yet insane enough to actively support Muslim terror.

The indirect support to Muslim terror these people provide, however, is having a direct and obvious effect on me;

With every new piece of slander, with every new child these monsters brainwash to hate me, with every obstacle they manage to put in the way of my defenders, these people are making my life more dangerous.

The immediate effect is economic - more of my taxes get wasted on stopping the friends of these "academics" from murdering me. The less immediate effect is psychological - my life becomes less secure, I have more trouble traveling, I see more fear and wariness around me. And the final, inevitable, effect is in lives lost - lives of children brainwashed by these people, lives of people dying to protect me, innocent lives of civilians killed by Muslim terror, possibly-innocent lives of Muslim terrorists' meatshields.

This is a high price to pay for freedom of speech, isn't it? And this is not just freedom of speech - this is people who support my enemies, right in the nerve center of the West, right in the positions that give them the greatest influence on impressionable young minds.

I am not sure how to deal with these... semi-enemies. Mayhap their intention is simply deluded. Perhaps they are mentally imbalanced, or too stupid to understand what's going on - I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

But words kill. How would you deal with those who are working to destroy you, but perhaps are doing so out of stupidity, insanity, or naivety?

So... would you still say we're talking about people who just "don't think like us"? Remember - this is not a disagreement on a minor philosophical point. This is a disagreement about my right to exist.

BHCh said...

Raccoon:

I know you don't mean it, but why say it?

We shouldn't go down to their level, which really shouldn't be that difficult. Common sense is our best weapon

Abu Sa'ar said...

Shlemazl - because I am frustrated and tired and sometimes, when my knees hurt really bad and I can't sleep for weeks on end, I say stupid things.

And our detractors are notoriously impervious to common sense. It seems as if we have no best weapon at all, sometimes.

IsraeliDiary said...

It is really sad how people influence others to hate one group or another. They don't realize how much damage they're causing. Nothing good ever comes out of hatred.

Bias and incitement must not be tolerated in universities, the media or anywhere else.

What can I say? I wish people weren't influenced that easily. :(