SPME
Four recent incidents illustrate how American Jewish institutions are manipulated to subvert support for Israel. Call it the fairness trap. Vassar Hillel announced it would join its counterpart at Swarthmore and reject Hillel International’s guidelines prohibiting anti-Israel speakers and activities.…
read moreRabab Abdulhadi, director of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative at San Francisco State University (SFSU), organized a recent delegation to “the West Bank” and “the 1948 areas of Palestine” during which she met with individuals affiliated with U.S. State Department-designated…
read morePerhaps when literary critic C.S. Lewis despaired of “omnipotent moral busybodies . . . who torment us for our own good,” he was speaking about those well-meaning, but naïve college students who “torment us without end for they do so…
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Last week, I argued here that there was no point in debating with people who fundamentally disagreed with you; if you believed in Israel’s right to exist, I wrote, and someone didn’t, you really have very little reason to sit down and…
read moreNew York University (NYU) professor and president-elect of the American Studies (ASA) Association Lisa Duggan recently wrote on her Facebook regarding the Feb. 28-March 1 “Circuits of Influence: U.S., Israel, and Palestine” conference she helped organize, “PLEASE DO NOT post…
read more“They finally did it: found a Negro Zionist: Uncle Tom is dancing for joy!” tweeted extremist Richard Silverstein, who maintains the Tikun Olam blog. He explained in a follow-up: “when I call @cvaldary ‘Negro Uncle Tom’ it reflects on her betrayal of progressive…
read moreRecently I was contacted by a fellow Vassar alumna through Facebook. She wanted to know if I was aware that our genteel alma mater had become a hotbed of anti-Israel, pro-boycott sentiment. Suddenly, my stomach was in knots—a feeling that Vassar…
read moreMore and more, we hear from faculty and students about the need to have an “open tent” or a “big tent,” of ideas and opinions specifically, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. While the nature of public discourse demands…
read moreFirst there were the book-burnings, then came the boycott of Jewish businesses, after that, with mounting violence,Kristallnacht; the stage for the Holocaust was set. That was in Hitler’s Germany, and nothing, even the vilest and most despicable actions of various…
read moreThe backlash continues against the anti-Israel boycott resolution that the American Studies Association adopted last month. Over 200 university presidents have distanced themselves from it. Numerous other organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, have condemned it too. Some…
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