Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Exposing Israel's Academic Fifth Column
June 5, 07
The campaign by Israel Academia Monitor and others against Israel's academic fifth column reached a new level of success this evening. The prime time political debate show "Politics" on Channel One television devoted about a half hour to the behavior of Israel's leftwing extremist anti-Israel professors and to their seditious promotion of international boycotts of Israel. The two stars of the debate were Prof. Gerald Steinberg, who operates NGO Monitor (a web site somewhat similar to Israel Academia Monitor but focused on anti-Israel Non-Governmental Organizations), and Nadav Haetzni, an eloquent lawyer and columnist for Maariv who is on the Israeli political Right. They explained at length that the Israeli professors running to Britain and elsewhere to promote the boycott of Israel are anti-democratic and treasonous, people who are incapable of persuading the Israeli public democratically to adopt their agenda and so then team up with enemies of Israel overseas to impose their agenda against the will of Israelis.
They were joined by three people from the left, the director of Peace Now, a representative (as in th efamily of Amira Hass) of the "Yesh Gvul" extremist group that promotes insurrection among Israeli soldiers, and a left-leaning ex-general. All three of these denounced the behavior of those who go abroad to incite boycotts against Israel (even the Yesh Gvul guy!). Finally the panel featured Prof. Rachel Giora, one of the most extremist and battiest Israel-haters at Tel Aviv University. Giora, whose discourse on the show was so amazingly arrogant and irrational, went on at length about why she supports the boycott and how the anti-Semites in Britain calling for the boycott are the true friends of Israel - the proof being that many of the leftists there boycotting Israel are themselves British Jews. Some proof.
Part of the TV debate wandered off topic and developed into an argument of Right vs. Left in Israel. But other than the ultra-extremist Giora, all accepted the proposition that debate over Israeli defense and national policy is properly conducted among Israelis and that it is anti-democratic to drag in hostile foreign organizations. Steinberg and Haetzni scored many points by pointing out how all the radical anti-Israel groups of the Left in Israel are maintained and funded by hostile foreign interests. The entire debate was clearly won by the "Right." The most effective factor determining the outcome of the debate and the perception was the fact that Giora came in with her hair dyed purple, making scowling facial expressions, and she quite seriously looked like a circus clown. No doubt thus she was perceived by the public. (The TV show has huge viewership!) Before IAM's activism began, the mainstream media were largely unaware of the behavior of Israel's academic extremists.
In a different part of the show, a series of lefties ranted on about how terrible Israel's victory in 1967 in the Six Day War was because it meant Israel became an occupier. Clearly being annihilated and thrown into the sea would have been a better alternative in the minds of these people. Uzi Landau from the Likud rebutted them well. Then the show called in a pollster who had just asked the Israeli public whether the Six Day War victory was an achievement for Israel or a problem. 90% said an achievement and 2/3 of THOSE said a fantastic achievement. So the Left's latest assault on Israeli survival, painting the Six Day War victory as another catastrophe (like the 1948 'Naqba'), just is not working.
The campaign by Israel Academia Monitor and others against Israel's academic fifth column reached a new level of success this evening. The prime time political debate show "Politics" on Channel One television devoted about a half hour to the behavior of Israel's leftwing extremist anti-Israel professors and to their seditious promotion of international boycotts of Israel. The two stars of the debate were Prof. Gerald Steinberg, who operates NGO Monitor (a web site somewhat similar to Israel Academia Monitor but focused on anti-Israel Non-Governmental Organizations), and Nadav Haetzni, an eloquent lawyer and columnist for Maariv who is on the Israeli political Right. They explained at length that the Israeli professors running to Britain and elsewhere to promote the boycott of Israel are anti-democratic and treasonous, people who are incapable of persuading the Israeli public democratically to adopt their agenda and so then team up with enemies of Israel overseas to impose their agenda against the will of Israelis.
They were joined by three people from the left, the director of Peace Now, a representative (as in th efamily of Amira Hass) of the "Yesh Gvul" extremist group that promotes insurrection among Israeli soldiers, and a left-leaning ex-general. All three of these denounced the behavior of those who go abroad to incite boycotts against Israel (even the Yesh Gvul guy!). Finally the panel featured Prof. Rachel Giora, one of the most extremist and battiest Israel-haters at Tel Aviv University. Giora, whose discourse on the show was so amazingly arrogant and irrational, went on at length about why she supports the boycott and how the anti-Semites in Britain calling for the boycott are the true friends of Israel - the proof being that many of the leftists there boycotting Israel are themselves British Jews. Some proof.
Part of the TV debate wandered off topic and developed into an argument of Right vs. Left in Israel. But other than the ultra-extremist Giora, all accepted the proposition that debate over Israeli defense and national policy is properly conducted among Israelis and that it is anti-democratic to drag in hostile foreign organizations. Steinberg and Haetzni scored many points by pointing out how all the radical anti-Israel groups of the Left in Israel are maintained and funded by hostile foreign interests. The entire debate was clearly won by the "Right." The most effective factor determining the outcome of the debate and the perception was the fact that Giora came in with her hair dyed purple, making scowling facial expressions, and she quite seriously looked like a circus clown. No doubt thus she was perceived by the public. (The TV show has huge viewership!) Before IAM's activism began, the mainstream media were largely unaware of the behavior of Israel's academic extremists.
In a different part of the show, a series of lefties ranted on about how terrible Israel's victory in 1967 in the Six Day War was because it meant Israel became an occupier. Clearly being annihilated and thrown into the sea would have been a better alternative in the minds of these people. Uzi Landau from the Likud rebutted them well. Then the show called in a pollster who had just asked the Israeli public whether the Six Day War victory was an achievement for Israel or a problem. 90% said an achievement and 2/3 of THOSE said a fantastic achievement. So the Left's latest assault on Israeli survival, painting the Six Day War victory as another catastrophe (like the 1948 'Naqba'), just is not working.
# posted by Steven Plaut : 11:33 PM
