Friday, February 13, 2009
The Hebrew University Tenured Left launches a Jihad against a General
(see web page for links and photos)
The Hebrew University Tenured Left launches a Jihad against a General
NO HEROES NEED APPLY!
In recent years Israel's airhead leftist professors have taken to
demonizing the officers of the Israeli Defense Forces. It goes well beyond
the silly "Boycott ROTC" campaigns on American campuses, in which
anti-American students and faculty demand that the military be kept off
campus while at the same time demanding federal funding for themselves.
Over the past few weeks the anti-military behavior of the Campus Left in
Israel was in the headlines because of a petition of professors and
lecturers at Tel Aviv University to prohibit a woman army colonel from the
IDF's international law section from lecturing at the Law School at TAU.
In response to a public outcry against the leftists and open threats from
Olmert to block funding for any academic institution that persecuted or
boycotted army officers, Tel Aviv University repudiated the petitioners,
hired the colonel, and the Dean of the Law School defended the decision.
The far Left's First Amendment, which holds that you have the right to
freedom of speech if and only if you agree with them, crashed.
Previous to that there were numerous other attempts by the tenured Left in
Israel to demonize and boycott the military. There were petitions against
allowing police and military intelligence officers to study at the
universities. An Arab professor at a college refused to allow a student
wearing a reserves uniform to enter the classroom. A Hebrew University
professor of history threatened sanctions against students who serve in
the army. Petitions of hundreds of Israeli tenured leftists called on
students to refuse to serve in the IDF.
But now the campaign of the tenured Left against the military has
escalated to attacking and smearing a general who is a candidate for
President of the Hebrew University.
The current President of the Hebrew University, Prof. Menachem Magidor, is
about to end his term (he has held the job for 12 years). Among the
contenders to replace him is an IDf general, Eliezer Shkedi (sometimes
written Shkedy), who had been commander of the Israeli Air Force. (The
other contenders include two professors and a couple of business moghuls.)
Shkedi personally shot down two Syrian planes in the 1982 Lebanon War. He
led Israel's task force on Iran and also holds a degree from the US Naval
School. He is outspoken about Iran and Israel's security needs. So
naturally the Friends of the Hamas around the world consider him to be a
war criminal.
(to right - leader of the attack on Shkedi, Yaron Ezrahi)
And that is what has upset the Tenured Left. A group of Hebrew University
leftist faculty members are lobbying to prevent Shkedi from even being
considered for the post. They are led by far-leftist Yaron Ezrahi, a
political science professor at Hebrew U and the main personality at the
Far-Leftist think tank, the Israel Democracy Institute. He is all in favor
of freedom of speech for the Left, he promotes affirmative action for
Arabs, and he denounces Israel for its "war crimes." He was joined by
Prof. Ruth Hacohen, who teaches musicology there.
Now let me clarify that in general I do NOT think that generals make good
heads of universities, but that is because they understand the command and
control style of management that works in the army but cannot work in
universities. THAT, however, is NOT why the moonbats are opposing Shkedi.
In any case, the Technion in Israel has been managed by generals, so there
is ample precedent.
The leftist moonbats oppose Shkedi because they oppose Israel exercising
military force to defend its civilians and they oppose anyone who dares to
do so.
The Tenured Left opposes Shkedi because the Israeli Air Force under his
command actually killed terrorists without reading them their Miranda
rights and defended Jewish children from genocidal terrorists. No one who
is involved in "using force" should be the head of a university, they
whine. The leading contender to replace Magidor is not even Shkedi but
rather Professor Menachem Ben Sasson, except that HE was until now a
Knesset Member from Olmert's Kadima. Now that Kadima is considered to be
the leftist opposition to Netanyahu, the campus leftists see no problem
with having a politician from it serve as university chief.
In any case, if Shkedi were to get the job, it is hard to believe that he
could muck things up worse than Magidor did over the past 12 years. Beside
leading the Hebrew University into a financial nosedive, Magidor made
headlines by endorsing the most incredible atrocities of the campus Left,
including that infamous thesis that claimed that the reason IDF soldiers
do not rape Arab women is because the Jews are so racist, and also circled
the campus wagons around a leftist professor of sociology accused of
raping his graduate students.
