Zionist Conspiracy

1. In recent weeks, the Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk has been leading
the anti-democratic campaigns of leftists. He is heading the group of
"intellectuals" demanding boycotts of Ariel University. He also is
leading assorted campaigns to boycott "settlers" and to prevent
investigation of the funding sources of anti-Israel organizations
(http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3980731,00.html ). So it
is not much of a surprise that the very same week that Kaniuk is
battling against freedom of speech and against democracy in Israel,
Tel Aviv University has announced that it will be awarding Kaniuk a
special university "honorary doctorate."

2. Speaking of hostility to freedom of speech at Tel Aviv University,
the death of Ze'v Segal is as good an opportunity as any to retell
this tale of horror.

Ze'ev Segal, who died yesterday, was a Professor at Tel Aviv
University in their Public Policy department. A legalist by training,
he was better known as the legal correspondent for Haaretz. For
decades he was the Haaretz voice on matters of law. As such, he never
once denounced the campaign of leftist McCarthyism to persecute and
indict Rabbis and other "Rightists" after the assassination of Rabin.
He never spoke up against suppression of freedom of speech of
non-leftists. He did not condemn extremists at Tel Aviv University,
including when they attempted to censor the law school and prevent an
Israeli woman army colonel from teaching there.

About 16 years ago, Segal organized a panel discussion at Tel Aviv
University on affirmative action quotas. The Supreme Court in Israel
had just issued a writ, one of its very stupidest decisions in its
entire history, ordering public companies to appoint women directors
by quota, irregardless of whether the woman appointed had any
qualifications in business. The Left in Israel was ecstatic at this
"victory." I wrote a series of articles attacking the decision and
attacking affirmative action programs of all sorts. Segal called me
up and invited me to participate in the panel he was organizing.
Attendance at the panel was mandatory for students in the department.

When I arrived, I saw there is no place for me on the platform.
Instead there were five people on the stage, who then spent 2 and a
quarter hours presenting the PRO side of affirmative action, singing
its praises, in a one-sided indoctrination. The five included
feminists, radical leftists. Not a single comment about anything
harmful or evil about quotas, double standards, dumbing down,
injustice from reverse discrimination, harm from hiring incompetents.
Nothing.

After two and a quarter hours of nonstop one-sided
indoctrination, Segal points to me in the audience and invites me to
the platform, announcing that I have three minutes to present the
other side, the reasons why affirmative action programs are harmful.
As I went to the mike, two feminists in the audience started
screaming, "Don't allow him to speak." I took the mike and announce
that the rules of the debate, with two and a quarter hours for one
side and three minutes for the other, did not appeal to me and so I
was relinquishing my three minutes. I then walked out of the hall,
with several students running out after me to shake my hand.

This was 16 years ago, before Tel Aviv University sunk even
further into the cesspool of one-sided leftwing indoctrination.

Aharon Barak, the past Chief Justice of Israel and Israel's worst
promoter of "judicial activism," is cited in Haaretz today saying that
he and Segal shared legal ideas. I cannot think of a worst
condemnation.

3. Rivka Carmi, the cabbagehead president of Ben Gurion University,
is suddenly concerned that her schools rep for being a camp for
pseudo-academic indoctrination in treason, is starting to hurt:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4012495,00.html

blurb:
In the past year, Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba suffered a series
of public statements by staff members which gave it an image of an
institution identified with radical ends of the political spectrum.
One of the most controversial affairs concerns Prof. Neve Gordon from
the Political Science Department. Gordon had published an article at
the LA Times calling for a boycott of Israel which he described as an
"apartheid state."
The new protocol states that "In voicing their political or religious
opinions, unlike particular professional views, staff members should
refrain from using the Ben-Gurion University's name." The lecturers
were asked to clarify they were speaking for themselves and not
representing the university's positions.

4. Speaking up for Avigdor:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=203159

5. Spain not bankrupt enough:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141680

6. BGU Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities David Newman continues
his campaign against freedom of speech for critics of the Left. See
his latest McCarthyist drivel here and especially read the talkbacks:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=203010

Here is one of the best responses to Israel's anti-democratic Left:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4012203,00.html
Spare us your criticism

Op-ed: Radical Left's automatic condemnation of IDF is cheap
substitute for honest criticism
Yoaz Hendel

It's nice and warm up there, on the mountain peaks of fake morality.
One can look at the world from afar and blur reality in line with his
ideology. It's pleasant to think that everything depends on us alone
and that the neighbors around us are so sane and honest.

If only we listen to the radical Left, the vision of our prophets
shall come closer to being realized. Hence, this "moral elation"
naturally prompts an effort to seek where we went wrong. And so, with
no connection to current events, fatalities and threats, far Left
groups mark the IDF as the ultimate guilty party.

Forget about different versions, and explanations, and apologies –
without the occupation and the uniforms, the roadblocks and the
arrests, everything would have been resolved a long time ago. In a
democratic state criticism is an important thing, yet the radical
Left's automatic condemnation of everything the IDF represents or
claims is demagoguery and a cheap substitute for honest criticism.

War is a dirty business, regardless of which side you look at it from;
human folly that prompts hundreds of small tragedies and the loss of
life. Humanity has yet to come up with a patent that resolves all
conflicts via good will alone, and if someone is working on it in
Switzerland, a few generations will likely pass before the solution
gets here.

World's most moral army
The IDF must fight because "good neighbors" filled with good will are
still nurturing their dream to harm Israel. Regrettably, wars are not
what they used to be. There is no longer a front that is detached from
the home front, but rather, a deliberate mixture of civilians and
terrorists. For terror groups, civilians are the enemies just like
they are the best line of defense. The implication of this is
complexity and operational dilemmas that present the risk of hurting
human beings. This is reality and there is no other.
As opposed to other armies, the IDF educates every soldier from his
first day in the military on the values of purity of arms and
safeguarding civilian lives, even if they belong to the enemy's camp.
The IDF does it not because of the next Goldstone Report, but rather,
because this is the Jewish army's moral code.
There is no perfect army, and Israeli soldiers are no angels. Mistakes
have happened and will happen – this is the nature of war. The IDF is
the world's most moral army because this is the target it works
towards achieving; the ideal. And when leftist groups make their
charges, we must remember that what we have here is not a
trigger-happy army, but rather, people who too happily fire off their
words.