Monday, October 29, 2012
The Death of a "Poet"
Haaretz, the Palestinian newspaper published in Hebrew, has uncovered
a new scoop. It claims that the leftist "poet" Shai Mizrachi, who
committed suicide a few days ago, a day before his 38th birthday, was
in fact the victim of Right-wing political persecution. In fact, it
runs this "scoop" under the large banner headline on a flaming yellow
background, reading "Hate Crime," in its October 26, 2012 weekend
supplement, and it is spread over 7 full magazine pages! (You can
see the electronic version in Hebrew with a different headline here:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/1.1850145 )
As it turns out, Mizrachi was in a sense really the victim of
political hate, but the criminals responsible for his death were not
members of the Israeli Right Wing but rather faculty members in the
Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University.
Mizrachi was a mentally unstable far-leftist who saw himself as a
poet. He was active in a leftist political movement of poets in
Israel that agitated in favor of Palestinian "rights." He also ran an
internet site in Hebrew called "Chaos," where he posted his "poetry"
and political diatribes.
Shai evidently had a long history of mental illness and depression.
At one point he changed his name to Shai-Arie (where Arie means lion)
and had a lion tattooed on his chest. He liked to hang out at the
zoo. He also liked to go to karaoke bars.
He failed in everything he tried. He was repeatedly rejected from a
batch of computer degree programs to which he applied for admission.
He was fired from all the jobs he held and was under psychiatric care.
He was hospitalized for psychiatric ailments. In the end he was
accepted to the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University, where
he quickly morphed into a far-leftist violent radical, under the
indoctrination of that department's radical leftists. Once again, the
Politics Department at Ben Gurion University could claim a success!
Once he got his BA, he basically did nothing but try to sell his
poetry and organize political protests in favor of the Left's agenda.
This past April there occurred the now-notorious incident in which a
group of violent "anarchists" from the "International Solidarity
Movement," who had been foolishly allowed to enter Israel, attacked
Israeli soldiers. One anarcho-fascist from Denmark attacked an
Israeli colonel named Shalom Eisner and broke his finger. Eisner was
then filmed striking his attacker in the face with the butt of his
rifle, in a doctored film that deleted the provocation that produced
the butt smack. The anarchist by the way was not injured. At the
time, the incident was reported by me in these postings and I
suggested that Eisner be granted a medal. Instead, the leftist
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and rest of the leftist conspiracy
persecuted Eisner and he was forced to resign his commission.
As the media were buzzing over this, Shai Mizrachi posted a photo of
Eisner on his Facebook page showing Eisner with a Nazi swastika
superimposed over his forehead. Mizrachi added that Eisner deserved
to die, and claimed Eisner had broken his own finger. Mizrachi
expressed regret that Eisner had not had his head broken instead.
Note how his call for Eisner to be killed did not cause the Israeli
leftist Attorney General to prosecute Mizrachi for incitement to
murder, in spite of a petition from a right-leaning NGO that he do so.
And remember how it is supposed to be prohibited in Israel to use
Nazi rhetoric in political discourse? Well, that prohibition only
applies when a non-leftist accuses an Israeli leftist traitor, one who
is engaged in illegally entering Ramallah to interfere with IDF
anti-terror operations and serving as a human shield for Palestinian
murderers, as being a "Judenrat wannabe." Mizrachi's planting a
swastika on Eisner's face was protected speech.
Evidently Mizrachi was then harassed by some irate Israelis upset by
his behavior who called his house or emailed him and cussed him out.
Mizrachi's parents evidently also received some irate and
less-than-civil phone messages. Haaretz insists this was all part of
a vast right-wing conspiracy to persecute the poor victim Mizrachi.
A while later, Mizrachi participated in a contest for a short "poem"
sponsored by the Israeli state lottery commission. The poem had to
have less than 140 characters or letters in it. Mizrachi won first
prize and 15,000 shekels. You do not want to hear my personal opinion
of this or of his other "poems," since I am a mere philistine
economist. As further evidence of the vast right-wing conspiracy,
some people wrote to the lottery commission and demanded that it
revoke the prize, which the commission refused to do. But Haaretz
insists this is part of the campaign of harassment that drove Mizrachi
to suicide.
Some time after this, actually a few months later, Mizrachi slipped
into a deeper depression and committed suicide. The fact that he had
been mentally unstable for many years before this did not deter
Haaretz from insisting that for all intents and purposes he was
murdered by the vast right-wing conspiracy, which persecuted him for
no reason at all by sending him angry emails just because he had
insulted an Israeli army hero, posted a swastika over his face, and
called for that hero to be murdered.
If Mizrachi was a victim of anything, he was a victim of the
indoctrination center pretending to be an academic department, the one
calling itself the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion "University."
The "academic department" that converted Mizrachi into a violent
leftist radical hater of Israel.
a new scoop. It claims that the leftist "poet" Shai Mizrachi, who
committed suicide a few days ago, a day before his 38th birthday, was
in fact the victim of Right-wing political persecution. In fact, it
runs this "scoop" under the large banner headline on a flaming yellow
background, reading "Hate Crime," in its October 26, 2012 weekend
supplement, and it is spread over 7 full magazine pages! (You can
see the electronic version in Hebrew with a different headline here:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/1.1850145 )
As it turns out, Mizrachi was in a sense really the victim of
political hate, but the criminals responsible for his death were not
members of the Israeli Right Wing but rather faculty members in the
Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University.
Mizrachi was a mentally unstable far-leftist who saw himself as a
poet. He was active in a leftist political movement of poets in
Israel that agitated in favor of Palestinian "rights." He also ran an
internet site in Hebrew called "Chaos," where he posted his "poetry"
and political diatribes.
Shai evidently had a long history of mental illness and depression.
At one point he changed his name to Shai-Arie (where Arie means lion)
and had a lion tattooed on his chest. He liked to hang out at the
zoo. He also liked to go to karaoke bars.
He failed in everything he tried. He was repeatedly rejected from a
batch of computer degree programs to which he applied for admission.
He was fired from all the jobs he held and was under psychiatric care.
He was hospitalized for psychiatric ailments. In the end he was
accepted to the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University, where
he quickly morphed into a far-leftist violent radical, under the
indoctrination of that department's radical leftists. Once again, the
Politics Department at Ben Gurion University could claim a success!
Once he got his BA, he basically did nothing but try to sell his
poetry and organize political protests in favor of the Left's agenda.
This past April there occurred the now-notorious incident in which a
group of violent "anarchists" from the "International Solidarity
Movement," who had been foolishly allowed to enter Israel, attacked
Israeli soldiers. One anarcho-fascist from Denmark attacked an
Israeli colonel named Shalom Eisner and broke his finger. Eisner was
then filmed striking his attacker in the face with the butt of his
rifle, in a doctored film that deleted the provocation that produced
the butt smack. The anarchist by the way was not injured. At the
time, the incident was reported by me in these postings and I
suggested that Eisner be granted a medal. Instead, the leftist
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and rest of the leftist conspiracy
persecuted Eisner and he was forced to resign his commission.
As the media were buzzing over this, Shai Mizrachi posted a photo of
Eisner on his Facebook page showing Eisner with a Nazi swastika
superimposed over his forehead. Mizrachi added that Eisner deserved
to die, and claimed Eisner had broken his own finger. Mizrachi
expressed regret that Eisner had not had his head broken instead.
Note how his call for Eisner to be killed did not cause the Israeli
leftist Attorney General to prosecute Mizrachi for incitement to
murder, in spite of a petition from a right-leaning NGO that he do so.
And remember how it is supposed to be prohibited in Israel to use
Nazi rhetoric in political discourse? Well, that prohibition only
applies when a non-leftist accuses an Israeli leftist traitor, one who
is engaged in illegally entering Ramallah to interfere with IDF
anti-terror operations and serving as a human shield for Palestinian
murderers, as being a "Judenrat wannabe." Mizrachi's planting a
swastika on Eisner's face was protected speech.
Evidently Mizrachi was then harassed by some irate Israelis upset by
his behavior who called his house or emailed him and cussed him out.
Mizrachi's parents evidently also received some irate and
less-than-civil phone messages. Haaretz insists this was all part of
a vast right-wing conspiracy to persecute the poor victim Mizrachi.
A while later, Mizrachi participated in a contest for a short "poem"
sponsored by the Israeli state lottery commission. The poem had to
have less than 140 characters or letters in it. Mizrachi won first
prize and 15,000 shekels. You do not want to hear my personal opinion
of this or of his other "poems," since I am a mere philistine
economist. As further evidence of the vast right-wing conspiracy,
some people wrote to the lottery commission and demanded that it
revoke the prize, which the commission refused to do. But Haaretz
insists this is part of the campaign of harassment that drove Mizrachi
to suicide.
Some time after this, actually a few months later, Mizrachi slipped
into a deeper depression and committed suicide. The fact that he had
been mentally unstable for many years before this did not deter
Haaretz from insisting that for all intents and purposes he was
murdered by the vast right-wing conspiracy, which persecuted him for
no reason at all by sending him angry emails just because he had
insulted an Israeli army hero, posted a swastika over his face, and
called for that hero to be murdered.
If Mizrachi was a victim of anything, he was a victim of the
indoctrination center pretending to be an academic department, the one
calling itself the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion "University."
The "academic department" that converted Mizrachi into a violent
leftist radical hater of Israel.
# posted by Steven Plaut : 11:47 AM
Tel Aviv University Professor Denounces Radical Politicization in Israeli universities:
Professor Ziva Shamir, a high-ranking researcher of literature at Tel
AViv University, recently published a sharply worded essay against
"the political anarchy in academia" She says that university
faculties have become breeding grounds for lecturers with radical
world views, and that they "harass students politically"
She was interviewed at length here:
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6220
Here is an excerpt:
She says, "Very few will dare admit openly that several departments in
Israel's largest universities, like many places around the world, are
now on the most radical fringe of the political map, and quite a few
fields of study long ago gave up solid research for fashionable
'discourse.'" In certain departments, says Shamir, it is impossible to
express all opinions freely because the "defenders of free speech"
will set up an immediate outcry and boycott any 'non-standard' speech
without delay. They will condemn the speaker vociferously and
delegitimize him publicly.
"Nobody will even admit that in quite a few departments, many of the
lecturers can no longer be trusted, since they are tainted by extreme
radical thinking. They use the objects of their research and the
subjects they teach as nothing but a platform on which to proclaim
their extreme political axioms," Shamir says.
...
There are lecturers who commit political harassment. Sometimes it's
hard to tell the difference when it comes to the fine points of what
is allowed and what is not, but it's important to know that political
harassment is like sexual harassment. Lecturers in classes have
authority over their students. Add to that the fact that low-ranking
staff members are dependent on their superiors for years.
"This leads to phenomena that are similar to cloning. A department
head collects people around him who think as he does. Sometimes, the
staff member behaves at first like one of the anusim [the Jews of
Spain who were forced to convert to Catholicism during the time of the
Inquisition, also called Marranos]. Later, they end up 'converting'
because they have no choice. When a language teacher gives the class a
sentence for analysis such as 'IDF soldiers at checkpoints act like
neo-Nazis,' what is there to talk about? Israeli academicians call
abroad for the boycotting of Israel and its educational institutions
and then they're astonished when the rug is pulled out from under
them."
To read the full interview, go to
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6220
2. From the wonderful Latma people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kYpIzp9co0&feature=BFa&list=UUq9C_cYZ6usvhOEkIEeC3nw
AViv University, recently published a sharply worded essay against
"the political anarchy in academia" She says that university
faculties have become breeding grounds for lecturers with radical
world views, and that they "harass students politically"
She was interviewed at length here:
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6220
Here is an excerpt:
She says, "Very few will dare admit openly that several departments in
Israel's largest universities, like many places around the world, are
now on the most radical fringe of the political map, and quite a few
fields of study long ago gave up solid research for fashionable
'discourse.'" In certain departments, says Shamir, it is impossible to
express all opinions freely because the "defenders of free speech"
will set up an immediate outcry and boycott any 'non-standard' speech
without delay. They will condemn the speaker vociferously and
delegitimize him publicly.
"Nobody will even admit that in quite a few departments, many of the
lecturers can no longer be trusted, since they are tainted by extreme
radical thinking. They use the objects of their research and the
subjects they teach as nothing but a platform on which to proclaim
their extreme political axioms," Shamir says.
...
There are lecturers who commit political harassment. Sometimes it's
hard to tell the difference when it comes to the fine points of what
is allowed and what is not, but it's important to know that political
harassment is like sexual harassment. Lecturers in classes have
authority over their students. Add to that the fact that low-ranking
staff members are dependent on their superiors for years.
"This leads to phenomena that are similar to cloning. A department
head collects people around him who think as he does. Sometimes, the
staff member behaves at first like one of the anusim [the Jews of
Spain who were forced to convert to Catholicism during the time of the
Inquisition, also called Marranos]. Later, they end up 'converting'
because they have no choice. When a language teacher gives the class a
sentence for analysis such as 'IDF soldiers at checkpoints act like
neo-Nazis,' what is there to talk about? Israeli academicians call
abroad for the boycotting of Israel and its educational institutions
and then they're astonished when the rug is pulled out from under
them."
To read the full interview, go to
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6220
2. From the wonderful Latma people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kYpIzp9co0&feature=BFa&list=UUq9C_cYZ6usvhOEkIEeC3nw
# posted by Steven Plaut : 12:05 AM
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
About that "Apartheid Survey" the Press is Buzzing over
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/HebrewU%20-%20Amiram%20Goldblum%20-%20Sponsored%20Anti-Israel%20survey.htm
Special Isracampus Report
Hebrew University - Anti-Israel "Survey" Organized and Sponsored by
Amiram Goldblum (Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences) Claiming that Most
Israeli Jews favor Apartheid
Amiram Goldblum (a founder of "Peace Now") runs a small foundation
that was set up in memory of his late wife, Yisraela Goldblum, who was
a senior official in the Far-Leftist New Israel Fund. The Yisraela
Goldblum Fund is operated in conjunction with the New Israel Fund. The
fund makes grants to causes supported by the Left (see for example
http://choosingtosee.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/coffee-books-and-discussions-yafa-cafe-sets-the-stage-for-co-existence/),
but recently claims to have conducted a survey of attitudes in Israel.
The story appears in English here:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/survey-most-israeli-jews-would-support-apartheid-regime-in-israel.premium-1.471644
The results of this supposed survey are reported in the column by
anti-Israel extremist Gideon Levy in Haaretz.
Among the "findings" of the "survey" are these:
The survey indicates that a third to half of Jewish Israelis want to
live in a state that practices formal, open discrimination against its
Arab citizens. An even larger majority wants to live in an apartheid
state if Israel annexes the territories.
The survey conductors say perhaps the term "apartheid" was not clear
enough to some interviewees. However, the interviewees did not object
strongly to describing Israel's character as "apartheid" already
today, without annexing the territories. Only 31 percent objected to
calling Israel an "apartheid state" and said "there's no apartheid at
all."
In contrast, 39 percent believe apartheid is practiced "in a few
fields"; 19 percent believe "there's apartheid in many fields" and 11
percent do not know.
The "Russians," as the survey calls them, display the most objection
to classifying their new country as an apartheid state. A third of
them - 35 percent - believe Israel practices no apartheid at all,
compared to 28 percent of the secular and ultra-Orthodox communities,
27 percent of the religious and 30 percent of the observant Jews who
hold that view. Altogether, 58 percent of all the groups believe
Israel practices apartheid "in a few fields" or "in many fields,"
while 11 percent don't know.
The "findings" of the "survey" have been challenged here:
http://honestreporting.com/haaretz-creates-non-existent-apartheid-state/2/
and the New Israel Fund itself has announced it does NOT stand behind
the "findings" in the "survey" (see
http://www.nif.org.il/news/2012/10/23/513).
The "survey" is already being featured on dozens of Jihadist and
anti-Semitic web sites, such as
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/rumors_conspiracy_theories_urban_legends_hoaxes/
The press release by the Goldblum Fund announcing the "findings" of
the "survey" appears here in English:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Poll-on-Apartheid-in-Jewish-Population.doc
and in Hebrew here:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Poll-results-1.pdf
A list of background pieces about Amiram Goldblum may be seen here:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=003938713500856905333%3Aghdjn7wl9zu&ie=UTF-8&q=amiram+goldblum&siteurl=www-open-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fifr%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252Fcoop%252Fapi%252F003938713500856905333%252Fcse%252Fghdjn7wl9zu%252Fgadget%26container%3Dopen%26view%3Dhome%26lang%3Dall%26country%3DALL%26debug%3D&ref=isracampus.org.il%2FSearch%2520page.htm&ss=4672j1894446j17#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=amiram%20goldblum&gsc.page=1
Special Isracampus Report
Hebrew University - Anti-Israel "Survey" Organized and Sponsored by
Amiram Goldblum (Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences) Claiming that Most
Israeli Jews favor Apartheid
Amiram Goldblum (a founder of "Peace Now") runs a small foundation
that was set up in memory of his late wife, Yisraela Goldblum, who was
a senior official in the Far-Leftist New Israel Fund. The Yisraela
Goldblum Fund is operated in conjunction with the New Israel Fund. The
fund makes grants to causes supported by the Left (see for example
http://choosingtosee.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/coffee-books-and-discussions-yafa-cafe-sets-the-stage-for-co-existence/),
but recently claims to have conducted a survey of attitudes in Israel.
The story appears in English here:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/survey-most-israeli-jews-would-support-apartheid-regime-in-israel.premium-1.471644
The results of this supposed survey are reported in the column by
anti-Israel extremist Gideon Levy in Haaretz.
Among the "findings" of the "survey" are these:
The survey indicates that a third to half of Jewish Israelis want to
live in a state that practices formal, open discrimination against its
Arab citizens. An even larger majority wants to live in an apartheid
state if Israel annexes the territories.
The survey conductors say perhaps the term "apartheid" was not clear
enough to some interviewees. However, the interviewees did not object
strongly to describing Israel's character as "apartheid" already
today, without annexing the territories. Only 31 percent objected to
calling Israel an "apartheid state" and said "there's no apartheid at
all."
In contrast, 39 percent believe apartheid is practiced "in a few
fields"; 19 percent believe "there's apartheid in many fields" and 11
percent do not know.
The "Russians," as the survey calls them, display the most objection
to classifying their new country as an apartheid state. A third of
them - 35 percent - believe Israel practices no apartheid at all,
compared to 28 percent of the secular and ultra-Orthodox communities,
27 percent of the religious and 30 percent of the observant Jews who
hold that view. Altogether, 58 percent of all the groups believe
Israel practices apartheid "in a few fields" or "in many fields,"
while 11 percent don't know.
The "findings" of the "survey" have been challenged here:
http://honestreporting.com/haaretz-creates-non-existent-apartheid-state/2/
and the New Israel Fund itself has announced it does NOT stand behind
the "findings" in the "survey" (see
http://www.nif.org.il/news/2012/10/23/513).
The "survey" is already being featured on dozens of Jihadist and
anti-Semitic web sites, such as
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/rumors_conspiracy_theories_urban_legends_hoaxes/
The press release by the Goldblum Fund announcing the "findings" of
the "survey" appears here in English:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Poll-on-Apartheid-in-Jewish-Population.doc
and in Hebrew here:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Poll-results-1.pdf
A list of background pieces about Amiram Goldblum may be seen here:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=003938713500856905333%3Aghdjn7wl9zu&ie=UTF-8&q=amiram+goldblum&siteurl=www-open-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fifr%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252Fcoop%252Fapi%252F003938713500856905333%252Fcse%252Fghdjn7wl9zu%252Fgadget%26container%3Dopen%26view%3Dhome%26lang%3Dall%26country%3DALL%26debug%3D&ref=isracampus.org.il%2FSearch%2520page.htm&ss=4672j1894446j17#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=amiram%20goldblum&gsc.page=1
# posted by Steven Plaut : 8:08 AM
Monday, October 22, 2012
Breaking News - A Major Breakthrough at Last regarding Tenured Treason in Israel
Breaking News
A Major Breakthrough at Last with regard to Tenured Treason in Israel
Over this past weekend Israel's Minister of Education Gideon Saar gave
an interview in which he formally called for the firing of Ben Gurion
University's Neve Gordon. The news story appears in Hebrew in Maariv
here: http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/409/939.html and is also in
other media.
Saar is a Minister from the Likud party. Gordon is the tenured
extremist in the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University who
this week is the keynote speaker in a conference in Canada endorsing
Arab terrorism against Jews. Gordon is a vile anti-Semite whose
"academic" career has consisted mainly of churning out Bash-Israel
propaganda. He is the leading voice in Israel calling for a world
boycott of Israel. He regularly denounces Israel as a Nazi-like
monstrosity and as an apartheid regime. He writes columns that
appear in the Iranian state Holocaust Denying newspaper and on the web
sites of Neo-Nazis and Holocaust Deniers.
In the Maariv report, Saar is cited as mocking the claims by BGU
president Rivka Carmi that she cannot legally fire Gordon. Saar, who
is a lawyer, dismisses the claim.
The Department of Politics at BGU is an anti-Israel indoctrination and
propaganda center which the Israeli Council on Higher Education has
called to be closed down.
This is the first time that an Israeli politician has openly called
for the firing of an anti-Israel tenured extremist.
A Major Breakthrough at Last with regard to Tenured Treason in Israel
Over this past weekend Israel's Minister of Education Gideon Saar gave
an interview in which he formally called for the firing of Ben Gurion
University's Neve Gordon. The news story appears in Hebrew in Maariv
here: http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/409/939.html and is also in
other media.
Saar is a Minister from the Likud party. Gordon is the tenured
extremist in the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University who
this week is the keynote speaker in a conference in Canada endorsing
Arab terrorism against Jews. Gordon is a vile anti-Semite whose
"academic" career has consisted mainly of churning out Bash-Israel
propaganda. He is the leading voice in Israel calling for a world
boycott of Israel. He regularly denounces Israel as a Nazi-like
monstrosity and as an apartheid regime. He writes columns that
appear in the Iranian state Holocaust Denying newspaper and on the web
sites of Neo-Nazis and Holocaust Deniers.
In the Maariv report, Saar is cited as mocking the claims by BGU
president Rivka Carmi that she cannot legally fire Gordon. Saar, who
is a lawyer, dismisses the claim.
The Department of Politics at BGU is an anti-Israel indoctrination and
propaganda center which the Israeli Council on Higher Education has
called to be closed down.
This is the first time that an Israeli politician has openly called
for the firing of an anti-Israel tenured extremist.
# posted by Steven Plaut : 11:51 AM
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The Campaign by the Totalitarian Left to Preserve Ben Gurion University’s Center for Radical Indoctrination
1.
The Campaign by the Totalitarian Left to Preserve Ben Gurion
University's Center for Radical Indoctrination
By Steven Plaut
There is a species of radical Leftist that believes that it is the
main purpose of taxpayer-funded universities to engage in
indoctrination of students into radical leftwing ideology. Such
people believe that the only legitimate form of scholarly research and
teaching is to force upon students the ideas and agendas of the
radical Left, because only these represent correct thinking.
For such people, the highest form of academic inquiry is to
engage in one-sided advocacy. They believe that faculty members at
universities should be hired mainly, if not exclusively, on the basis
of their devotion to radical leftist ideology. They believe that
classrooms should be arenas in which students are immersed into
leftist NewThink. They believe that student grades should reflect the
extent to which the student toes the ideological line of the radical
Left. They believe academic conferences and research forums should be
restricted to those who advocate the Left's political agenda, while
non-leftist dissident thought should be suppressed and barred. Most
importantly of all, they believe that those who dare to criticize the
radical tenured Left should be silenced and demonized.
The totalitarian Left in Israel believes that taxpayers are
morally obligated to fund the teaching of extremist ideology in the
classroom, including by people advocating the demise of those same
taxpayers and of their country. It is the job of citizens to sit back
passively and pay for the Far Left to operate propaganda centers,
while the radicals collect their cushy salaries as payment for
advocating their anti-Israel agenda. It is the job of universities to
criticize (actually to demonize) the state of Israel, the tenured Left
insists, just as long as no one is permitted to criticize those
critics of Israel.
Nowhere is this ideological extremism so clearly on display as in
the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University (BGU), a
pseudo-academic propaganda and indoctrination center disguised as an
academic department. It is not the only such department in Israel nor
at BGU, but it may well be the worst.
Last year an international panel of experts appointed by the
Israeli Council of Higher Education (which oversees and funds
universities) called for shutting down this BGU department altogether,
due to the abysmally low quality of its work and due to its having
replaced serious scholarly research with one-sided "advocacy." The
Israeli academic Left had tried to stack the panel in favor of the
department. It attempted to include on the panel Ian Lustick, an
anti-Israel and anti-American radical leftist from the University of
Pennsylvania, who would naturally defend any leftist pseudo-academic
advocacy department. Lustick is a close crony of Norman Finkelstein
and attempted to prevent DePaul University from firing Finkelstein in
a similar manner. The Council however was on to the Left and rejected
Lustick's membership. It did allow the far leftist Prof. Galia Golan
to be included. A founder of the far-leftist "Peace Now," she
submitted a "minority position paper" defending the BGU department.
The far-leftist faculty members in the department denounce
Israel in unison, and some – including the Israeli Norman Finkelstein,
Neve Gordon - call for world boycotts of Israel. In response to the
CHE criticism of the departmental obsession with one-side advocacy,
BGU hired three new politics faculty members in order to generate
diversity and pluralism; but the three new ones are also far-leftist
anti-Israel radicals.
Students in political science at BGU who dare to express
pro-Israel opinions tell of being penalized and harassed by the
faculty. The single non-leftist faculty member who taught in the
department was fired a few years back for incorrect thinking.
Diversity and pluralism in the department consist of people of various
ethnicities, genders, heights and weights all advocating Far Leftist
and Marxist "ideas." Diversity of thought is suppressed mercilessly,
and serious academic standards are trashed.
In recent weeks, the totalitarian Left has been circling its
wagons in solidarity with the Department of Politics at BGU.
Leftist-dominated academic associations are flooding the press and the
CHE with angry demands to defend the right of the Department of
Politics at BGU to engage in "advocacy" and leftist indoctrination.
Recruited by the members of BGU's politics department, foreign members
of the academic Left and Israeli tenured radicals, even some notorious
members of the communist party, have been leading the campaign to
defend the BGU propagandists.
The campaigners demand that the right of BGU leftists to
indoctrinate and propagandize at taxpayer expense be defended against
CHE criticism and interference. The defenders of the department
insist that "positivism," meaning actual scholarly research, is only
one legitimate strand of academic activity in political science,
meaning they really want ideological indoctrination to be the
"alternative" function of academics. A recent one-sided "conference"
devoted to advocating political advocacy as the calling for academia
was held at Ben Gurion University. Participants in the "conference"
were greeted by BGU President Rivka Carmi, who regularly insists she
is not aware of any one-sided advocacy or indoctrination activities
held at BGU. This is the same Carmi whose belief in pluralism was
manifested in her firing Prof. Yeruham Leavitt because he had dared to
express a politically incorrect opinion about children being raised by
homosexual couples.
And so the Orwellian inversions continue. Under the campaign to
defend the right of BGU radicals to indoctrinate students into
anti-Israel ideology, pluralism and diversity are achieved by
maintaining a department in which only far leftists may teach.
Academic freedom is achieved by suppressing the right to criticize
anti-Israel extremists. The highest form of scholarly research is the
promulgation of hate propaganda and anti-Zionist advocacy. Diversity
of ideas is achieved by suppressing all non-leftist thought. And the
highest form of public responsibility and accountability is when
taxpayers are coerced into paying for the inculcation of extremist
ideas, those which the taxpayers themselves reject and abhor.
See also
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/BGU%20-%20Neve%20Gordon%20-%20endorsing%20Palestinian%20Terrorism.htm
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Steve%20Plaut%20-%20BGU%20-%20Assault%20on%20Academic%20Freedom%20by%20Totalitarian%20Left.htm
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/BGU%20-%20Plaut%20enlightens%20David%20Newman.htm
2. The political extremism at the dept of politics at BGU turns out
to be even worse than we all thought.
Not only are all regular faculty members of the dept of politics
radical anti-Israel leftists, including all three of the newly hired
people. I reviewed the list of the adjuncts or non-regular (outside)
teachers in the department and, while I did not check every single one
of them, it also appears that they are all radical leftists.
And now it appears that even "affiliated faculty" from overseas in
this department are also Israel-hating leftists. The department just
announced that Joel Migdol from the University of Washington is
joining as such a foreign "affiliated faculty" member. Migdol is an
anti-Israel extremist who served for years as the sidekick for the
late communist sociologist from the Hebrew University, Baruch
Kimmerling. Together they composed a pseudo-history book about the
"History" of the Palestinian "people," which is standard reading today
on all PLO sites and in anti-Israel courses (including some at BGU).
Kimmerling himself was infamous for endorsing bombings and mass
murders against Jews by Palestinian terrorists. (Background on
Kimmerling is available on Isracampus.com )
3. I think you will enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=w-dyMsXNHx4
(Note: The Yossi Alpher who is interviewed in the clip with "Bruno"
is a notorious Israeli leftwing extremist who runs the "Bitter Lemons"
web site)
4. The Failure of the American Jewish Left
by David Brog
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3358/american-jewish-left
5. American Islamofascists will beholding a "Destroy Israel"
conference in Chicago,
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/destroy-israel-conference-comes-to-illinois/
You will be happy to hear there will be a Jewish contingent there,
including pseudo-historian and academic-fraud Ilan Pappe, Jewish
anti-Semite blogger Max Blumenthal, and of course Hezb'Allah agent
Norman Finkelstein (who was a star of its conference last year). Tel
Aviv University's pride and joy PhD candidate Omar Barghouti will also
be there.
The Campaign by the Totalitarian Left to Preserve Ben Gurion
University's Center for Radical Indoctrination
By Steven Plaut
There is a species of radical Leftist that believes that it is the
main purpose of taxpayer-funded universities to engage in
indoctrination of students into radical leftwing ideology. Such
people believe that the only legitimate form of scholarly research and
teaching is to force upon students the ideas and agendas of the
radical Left, because only these represent correct thinking.
For such people, the highest form of academic inquiry is to
engage in one-sided advocacy. They believe that faculty members at
universities should be hired mainly, if not exclusively, on the basis
of their devotion to radical leftist ideology. They believe that
classrooms should be arenas in which students are immersed into
leftist NewThink. They believe that student grades should reflect the
extent to which the student toes the ideological line of the radical
Left. They believe academic conferences and research forums should be
restricted to those who advocate the Left's political agenda, while
non-leftist dissident thought should be suppressed and barred. Most
importantly of all, they believe that those who dare to criticize the
radical tenured Left should be silenced and demonized.
The totalitarian Left in Israel believes that taxpayers are
morally obligated to fund the teaching of extremist ideology in the
classroom, including by people advocating the demise of those same
taxpayers and of their country. It is the job of citizens to sit back
passively and pay for the Far Left to operate propaganda centers,
while the radicals collect their cushy salaries as payment for
advocating their anti-Israel agenda. It is the job of universities to
criticize (actually to demonize) the state of Israel, the tenured Left
insists, just as long as no one is permitted to criticize those
critics of Israel.
Nowhere is this ideological extremism so clearly on display as in
the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University (BGU), a
pseudo-academic propaganda and indoctrination center disguised as an
academic department. It is not the only such department in Israel nor
at BGU, but it may well be the worst.
Last year an international panel of experts appointed by the
Israeli Council of Higher Education (which oversees and funds
universities) called for shutting down this BGU department altogether,
due to the abysmally low quality of its work and due to its having
replaced serious scholarly research with one-sided "advocacy." The
Israeli academic Left had tried to stack the panel in favor of the
department. It attempted to include on the panel Ian Lustick, an
anti-Israel and anti-American radical leftist from the University of
Pennsylvania, who would naturally defend any leftist pseudo-academic
advocacy department. Lustick is a close crony of Norman Finkelstein
and attempted to prevent DePaul University from firing Finkelstein in
a similar manner. The Council however was on to the Left and rejected
Lustick's membership. It did allow the far leftist Prof. Galia Golan
to be included. A founder of the far-leftist "Peace Now," she
submitted a "minority position paper" defending the BGU department.
The far-leftist faculty members in the department denounce
Israel in unison, and some – including the Israeli Norman Finkelstein,
Neve Gordon - call for world boycotts of Israel. In response to the
CHE criticism of the departmental obsession with one-side advocacy,
BGU hired three new politics faculty members in order to generate
diversity and pluralism; but the three new ones are also far-leftist
anti-Israel radicals.
Students in political science at BGU who dare to express
pro-Israel opinions tell of being penalized and harassed by the
faculty. The single non-leftist faculty member who taught in the
department was fired a few years back for incorrect thinking.
Diversity and pluralism in the department consist of people of various
ethnicities, genders, heights and weights all advocating Far Leftist
and Marxist "ideas." Diversity of thought is suppressed mercilessly,
and serious academic standards are trashed.
In recent weeks, the totalitarian Left has been circling its
wagons in solidarity with the Department of Politics at BGU.
Leftist-dominated academic associations are flooding the press and the
CHE with angry demands to defend the right of the Department of
Politics at BGU to engage in "advocacy" and leftist indoctrination.
Recruited by the members of BGU's politics department, foreign members
of the academic Left and Israeli tenured radicals, even some notorious
members of the communist party, have been leading the campaign to
defend the BGU propagandists.
The campaigners demand that the right of BGU leftists to
indoctrinate and propagandize at taxpayer expense be defended against
CHE criticism and interference. The defenders of the department
insist that "positivism," meaning actual scholarly research, is only
one legitimate strand of academic activity in political science,
meaning they really want ideological indoctrination to be the
"alternative" function of academics. A recent one-sided "conference"
devoted to advocating political advocacy as the calling for academia
was held at Ben Gurion University. Participants in the "conference"
were greeted by BGU President Rivka Carmi, who regularly insists she
is not aware of any one-sided advocacy or indoctrination activities
held at BGU. This is the same Carmi whose belief in pluralism was
manifested in her firing Prof. Yeruham Leavitt because he had dared to
express a politically incorrect opinion about children being raised by
homosexual couples.
And so the Orwellian inversions continue. Under the campaign to
defend the right of BGU radicals to indoctrinate students into
anti-Israel ideology, pluralism and diversity are achieved by
maintaining a department in which only far leftists may teach.
Academic freedom is achieved by suppressing the right to criticize
anti-Israel extremists. The highest form of scholarly research is the
promulgation of hate propaganda and anti-Zionist advocacy. Diversity
of ideas is achieved by suppressing all non-leftist thought. And the
highest form of public responsibility and accountability is when
taxpayers are coerced into paying for the inculcation of extremist
ideas, those which the taxpayers themselves reject and abhor.
See also
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/BGU%20-%20Neve%20Gordon%20-%20endorsing%20Palestinian%20Terrorism.htm
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Steve%20Plaut%20-%20BGU%20-%20Assault%20on%20Academic%20Freedom%20by%20Totalitarian%20Left.htm
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/BGU%20-%20Plaut%20enlightens%20David%20Newman.htm
2. The political extremism at the dept of politics at BGU turns out
to be even worse than we all thought.
Not only are all regular faculty members of the dept of politics
radical anti-Israel leftists, including all three of the newly hired
people. I reviewed the list of the adjuncts or non-regular (outside)
teachers in the department and, while I did not check every single one
of them, it also appears that they are all radical leftists.
And now it appears that even "affiliated faculty" from overseas in
this department are also Israel-hating leftists. The department just
announced that Joel Migdol from the University of Washington is
joining as such a foreign "affiliated faculty" member. Migdol is an
anti-Israel extremist who served for years as the sidekick for the
late communist sociologist from the Hebrew University, Baruch
Kimmerling. Together they composed a pseudo-history book about the
"History" of the Palestinian "people," which is standard reading today
on all PLO sites and in anti-Israel courses (including some at BGU).
Kimmerling himself was infamous for endorsing bombings and mass
murders against Jews by Palestinian terrorists. (Background on
Kimmerling is available on Isracampus.com )
3. I think you will enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=w-dyMsXNHx4
(Note: The Yossi Alpher who is interviewed in the clip with "Bruno"
is a notorious Israeli leftwing extremist who runs the "Bitter Lemons"
web site)
4. The Failure of the American Jewish Left
by David Brog
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3358/american-jewish-left
5. American Islamofascists will beholding a "Destroy Israel"
conference in Chicago,
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/ryan-mauro/destroy-israel-conference-comes-to-illinois/
You will be happy to hear there will be a Jewish contingent there,
including pseudo-historian and academic-fraud Ilan Pappe, Jewish
anti-Semite blogger Max Blumenthal, and of course Hezb'Allah agent
Norman Finkelstein (who was a star of its conference last year). Tel
Aviv University's pride and joy PhD candidate Omar Barghouti will also
be there.
# posted by Steven Plaut : 12:55 AM
Sunday, October 07, 2012
The Campaign by the Totalitarian Left AGAINST Academic Freedom in Israel
In recent weeks the very worst assault upon academic freedom in
Israeli history has transpired in the form of a growing campaign of
"solidarity" with the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University.
This "department" is nothing more than an anti-Israel far-leftist
propaganda and indoctrination center, containing pseudo-academics,
misrepresented and disguised as a university academic department. It
is also a department in which freedom of speech and academic freedom
are brutally suppressed.
The department is the epitome of the ideal of the Far Left
regarding what they think universities should be, namely totalitarian
indoctrination centers in which students are brainwashed into Marxist
and Far-Leftist ideology, in which no non-leftist dissent is
tolerated. Every single member of the department of politics at BGU
is a far leftist and most engage in anti-Israel agitprop such as
calling for world boycotts of Israel. The functioning of such an
indoctrination center at BGU is defended in the name of academic
freedom and freedom of speech by Rivka Carmi, the president of BGU.
She is the very same person who fired Professor Yeruham Leavitt for
daring to express an opinion of disapproval in a classroom regarding
children being raised by homosexual couples. (See
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/yeruham-leavitt-ben-gurio_n_636927.html
) So you get the idea of what is regarded at Ben Gurion "University"
as academic freedom. Suffice it to say that the single non-leftist
Zionist faculty member who once taught in the department of politics
was fired for incorrect thinking.
The nature of the Department of Politics as a pseudo-academic
taxpayer-funded anti-Israel agitation center is well known by now. An
international panel set up by Israel's Council on Higher Education
investigated things and recommended that the department be shut down
altogether. Since then, the anti-democratic totalitarian Left in
Israel and abroad has been circling the wagons in solidarity with the
department and denouncing the Israel Council on Higher Education as a
fascist oppressive tool of the "Right." In typical Orwellian
inversion, these enemies of academic freedom and freedom of speech
demand that the BGU department of politics be preserved as a
totalitarian anti-democratic indoctrination center, one in which no
pluralism or diversity or dissent from leftist dogma is permitted.
And all this "solidarity" is supposedly in the name of preserving
academic freedom. In reality, what they want defended is the power of
radical pseudo-academics to indoctrinate students in extremist
ideology and to prevent all dissenting non-leftist opinion from being
heard!
Anyway, today the Deputy Editor of Maariv, Ben Dror Yemini, who is
himself left of center but is a bona fide Zionist patriot, takes on
the "Solidarity with Ben Gurion University" movement. He does so in
Hebrew here: http://www.nrg.co.il/app/index.php?do=blog&encr_id=f2b4c1b55be76d1e6d7b777256ea0370&id=4085#responses
Here is my translation of the relevant segments in his column:
Academic Silencing of Dissent?
By Ben Dror Yemini
Here is how valid on-target criticism of the Department of Politics at
Ben Gurion University morphed into yet another campaign to villify
Israel as a monstrosity
********
The academic world has found itself in the heart of yet another
storm in response to the recommendations to end all registration of
new students in the degree programs of the Department of Politics at
Ben Gurion University. Hundreds have signed petitions demanding that
this "assault against academic freedom" be stopped. As usual, the
outward impression is supposed to be of the forces of enlightenment
battling against the forces of darkness, meaning those seeking to
silence "critics." This impression is worth a closer look!
Reminder: The Israel Council on Higher Education (CHE) appointed
an international panel of experts to examine the department in
question, as part of the examination of all departments of political
science in Israel. The report was submitted a year ago. Regarding
the department at BGU, the panel reported finding extreme weakness in
three critical areas: course content (which is academic politeness to
say the courses are anti-Israel agitprop and indoctrination -- SP);
faculty (a polite way of saying they are all far-leftists and Marxists
-- SP), and research (a polite way to say they engage in anti-Israel
hate propaganda and not in scholarly research – SP).
While failures exist in many departments, the only one for which
the panel issued a call that it be shut down was the politics
department at Ben Gurion University, at least unless major changes and
reforms were to take place in it. The CHE unanimously adopted the
panel's recommendations. It is worth noting that the members of the
CHE are NOT political hacks or apparatchiks and they were NOT
appointed by the Right or even by the Minister of Education. The
panel included two prominent and distinguished political scientists
from Germany….The "reforms" were supposed to be two-fold, first in the
area of recruiting faculty who could teach sub-disciplines not
currently taught in the department (meaning anything other than
Marxist leftism – SP) and introduction of diversity of points of view,
so that not only "critical" (meaning Marxist – SP) ideology was being
taught.
The department did hire three new people. (All three were also
far-leftists; what grand diversity!! – SP). No one checked up on
their political opinions or challenged their credentials. The problem
was with regard to the second goal. Two of the three (Yemini is wrong
– actually all three – SP) were hired in direct defiance of the
instructions of the CHE. The panel had criticized the fact that most
of the existing departmental faculty members belong to the "critical"
(meaning Marxist – SP) strand of political science, considered fringe
in academia. These are people who toss out conjectures that cannot be
tested or disproved in a scientific manner. The CHE ordered the
department to diversify away from its monolithic "critical" makeup.
So what did Ben Gurion University do? It hired MORE "critical"
faculty members. One of these is not even a political scientist at
all… Meaning that the department simply defied the CHE.
This is the background to the recommendation by the CHE to shut
down the department! But that recommendation served as the spark for
a new campaign (by the anti-Israel far Left). So instead of carrying
out the CHE instructions, BGU and its department of politics launched
a political campaign. The university hired lawyers and a public
relations firm, one specialized in the political campaigns of the
Left. Ben Gurion University, and please excuse my non-academic
characterization, simply went bananas.
It is true that most devotees of the "critical studies" doctrine
are leftists who are not particularly fond of Zionism. But the need
for pluralism and diversity was bona fide academic, par excellence,
and not a political initiative. That is what the international panel
demanded. SO then along come the screaming rabble leaders of the
"campaign" to "defend" the department at BGU, such as Prof. Zeev
Sternhell (see http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Steve%20Plaut%20-%20Sternhell%20Attack.htm
and http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/HebrewU%20-%20Zeev%20Sternhell%20-%20defends%20Leftist%20McCarthyists.htm
) , who have no interest in serious academic diversity of ideas.
They are trying to dictate to the CHE uniformity in thought, while
ignoring the panel's recommendations. …
Those are the facts, but the "campaign" has been launched,
impervious to facts and truth. Academics and journalists from around
the world are sending swarms of angry messages to the CHE. Petitions
inside and outside Israel are being collected. The signers are
unaware of the fact that this is a battle by the CHE AGAINST those who
seek to suppress pluralism and restrict academic freedom (the
department of politics at BGU and its supporters – SP). The CHE is
the agency SEEKING diversity and pluralism! But it is always such fun
to proclaim that Israel is a reactionary backward primitive entity
that censors and silences its leftist academic critics. This is an
unprecedented campaign of intimidation and distortion directed AGAINST
the members of the CHE by these who would coerce them into adopting
the political agenda of the Far Left. This is no academic campaign. …
It is possible that the campaign by Sternhell and his ilk will
succeed. If so, this will be the death of academic freedom in Israel.
2. I suppose by now everyone is familiar with that loud and
obnoxious classic by the Baha Men, "Who let the Dogs Out?" – which you
can see in its original here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He82NBjJqf8
Well, I thought that before the celebrations of Tishrei come to an
end, we need a global Jewish anthem describing those Israeli Leftists,
those who like to call themselves "doves." Soooo, fresh to you from
the Nakbadizer Studios of scenic Haifa Bay, we bring to you:
"Who Let The Doves Out"
Who let the doves out
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
When the party was nice, Labor Party was jumpin' (Hey, Yiddie, Yi, Yo)
And everybody havin' a ball (Hah, ho, Yiddie Yi Yo)
I tell the lefties "start the name callin'" (Yiddie Yi Yo)
Shelly Yachimovich to the call
The dingbat show down
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Say, A lefty is nuttin' if he don't have a bone, All lefty hold ya'
bone, all moonbat hold it
A lefty is nuttin' if he don't have a bone, All lefty hold ya' bone,
all moonbat hold it
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Israeli history has transpired in the form of a growing campaign of
"solidarity" with the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University.
This "department" is nothing more than an anti-Israel far-leftist
propaganda and indoctrination center, containing pseudo-academics,
misrepresented and disguised as a university academic department. It
is also a department in which freedom of speech and academic freedom
are brutally suppressed.
The department is the epitome of the ideal of the Far Left
regarding what they think universities should be, namely totalitarian
indoctrination centers in which students are brainwashed into Marxist
and Far-Leftist ideology, in which no non-leftist dissent is
tolerated. Every single member of the department of politics at BGU
is a far leftist and most engage in anti-Israel agitprop such as
calling for world boycotts of Israel. The functioning of such an
indoctrination center at BGU is defended in the name of academic
freedom and freedom of speech by Rivka Carmi, the president of BGU.
She is the very same person who fired Professor Yeruham Leavitt for
daring to express an opinion of disapproval in a classroom regarding
children being raised by homosexual couples. (See
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/yeruham-leavitt-ben-gurio_n_636927.html
) So you get the idea of what is regarded at Ben Gurion "University"
as academic freedom. Suffice it to say that the single non-leftist
Zionist faculty member who once taught in the department of politics
was fired for incorrect thinking.
The nature of the Department of Politics as a pseudo-academic
taxpayer-funded anti-Israel agitation center is well known by now. An
international panel set up by Israel's Council on Higher Education
investigated things and recommended that the department be shut down
altogether. Since then, the anti-democratic totalitarian Left in
Israel and abroad has been circling the wagons in solidarity with the
department and denouncing the Israel Council on Higher Education as a
fascist oppressive tool of the "Right." In typical Orwellian
inversion, these enemies of academic freedom and freedom of speech
demand that the BGU department of politics be preserved as a
totalitarian anti-democratic indoctrination center, one in which no
pluralism or diversity or dissent from leftist dogma is permitted.
And all this "solidarity" is supposedly in the name of preserving
academic freedom. In reality, what they want defended is the power of
radical pseudo-academics to indoctrinate students in extremist
ideology and to prevent all dissenting non-leftist opinion from being
heard!
Anyway, today the Deputy Editor of Maariv, Ben Dror Yemini, who is
himself left of center but is a bona fide Zionist patriot, takes on
the "Solidarity with Ben Gurion University" movement. He does so in
Hebrew here: http://www.nrg.co.il/app/index.php?do=blog&encr_id=f2b4c1b55be76d1e6d7b777256ea0370&id=4085#responses
Here is my translation of the relevant segments in his column:
Academic Silencing of Dissent?
By Ben Dror Yemini
Here is how valid on-target criticism of the Department of Politics at
Ben Gurion University morphed into yet another campaign to villify
Israel as a monstrosity
********
The academic world has found itself in the heart of yet another
storm in response to the recommendations to end all registration of
new students in the degree programs of the Department of Politics at
Ben Gurion University. Hundreds have signed petitions demanding that
this "assault against academic freedom" be stopped. As usual, the
outward impression is supposed to be of the forces of enlightenment
battling against the forces of darkness, meaning those seeking to
silence "critics." This impression is worth a closer look!
Reminder: The Israel Council on Higher Education (CHE) appointed
an international panel of experts to examine the department in
question, as part of the examination of all departments of political
science in Israel. The report was submitted a year ago. Regarding
the department at BGU, the panel reported finding extreme weakness in
three critical areas: course content (which is academic politeness to
say the courses are anti-Israel agitprop and indoctrination -- SP);
faculty (a polite way of saying they are all far-leftists and Marxists
-- SP), and research (a polite way to say they engage in anti-Israel
hate propaganda and not in scholarly research – SP).
While failures exist in many departments, the only one for which
the panel issued a call that it be shut down was the politics
department at Ben Gurion University, at least unless major changes and
reforms were to take place in it. The CHE unanimously adopted the
panel's recommendations. It is worth noting that the members of the
CHE are NOT political hacks or apparatchiks and they were NOT
appointed by the Right or even by the Minister of Education. The
panel included two prominent and distinguished political scientists
from Germany….The "reforms" were supposed to be two-fold, first in the
area of recruiting faculty who could teach sub-disciplines not
currently taught in the department (meaning anything other than
Marxist leftism – SP) and introduction of diversity of points of view,
so that not only "critical" (meaning Marxist – SP) ideology was being
taught.
The department did hire three new people. (All three were also
far-leftists; what grand diversity!! – SP). No one checked up on
their political opinions or challenged their credentials. The problem
was with regard to the second goal. Two of the three (Yemini is wrong
– actually all three – SP) were hired in direct defiance of the
instructions of the CHE. The panel had criticized the fact that most
of the existing departmental faculty members belong to the "critical"
(meaning Marxist – SP) strand of political science, considered fringe
in academia. These are people who toss out conjectures that cannot be
tested or disproved in a scientific manner. The CHE ordered the
department to diversify away from its monolithic "critical" makeup.
So what did Ben Gurion University do? It hired MORE "critical"
faculty members. One of these is not even a political scientist at
all… Meaning that the department simply defied the CHE.
This is the background to the recommendation by the CHE to shut
down the department! But that recommendation served as the spark for
a new campaign (by the anti-Israel far Left). So instead of carrying
out the CHE instructions, BGU and its department of politics launched
a political campaign. The university hired lawyers and a public
relations firm, one specialized in the political campaigns of the
Left. Ben Gurion University, and please excuse my non-academic
characterization, simply went bananas.
It is true that most devotees of the "critical studies" doctrine
are leftists who are not particularly fond of Zionism. But the need
for pluralism and diversity was bona fide academic, par excellence,
and not a political initiative. That is what the international panel
demanded. SO then along come the screaming rabble leaders of the
"campaign" to "defend" the department at BGU, such as Prof. Zeev
Sternhell (see http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Steve%20Plaut%20-%20Sternhell%20Attack.htm
and http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/HebrewU%20-%20Zeev%20Sternhell%20-%20defends%20Leftist%20McCarthyists.htm
) , who have no interest in serious academic diversity of ideas.
They are trying to dictate to the CHE uniformity in thought, while
ignoring the panel's recommendations. …
Those are the facts, but the "campaign" has been launched,
impervious to facts and truth. Academics and journalists from around
the world are sending swarms of angry messages to the CHE. Petitions
inside and outside Israel are being collected. The signers are
unaware of the fact that this is a battle by the CHE AGAINST those who
seek to suppress pluralism and restrict academic freedom (the
department of politics at BGU and its supporters – SP). The CHE is
the agency SEEKING diversity and pluralism! But it is always such fun
to proclaim that Israel is a reactionary backward primitive entity
that censors and silences its leftist academic critics. This is an
unprecedented campaign of intimidation and distortion directed AGAINST
the members of the CHE by these who would coerce them into adopting
the political agenda of the Far Left. This is no academic campaign. …
It is possible that the campaign by Sternhell and his ilk will
succeed. If so, this will be the death of academic freedom in Israel.
2. I suppose by now everyone is familiar with that loud and
obnoxious classic by the Baha Men, "Who let the Dogs Out?" – which you
can see in its original here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He82NBjJqf8
Well, I thought that before the celebrations of Tishrei come to an
end, we need a global Jewish anthem describing those Israeli Leftists,
those who like to call themselves "doves." Soooo, fresh to you from
the Nakbadizer Studios of scenic Haifa Bay, we bring to you:
"Who Let The Doves Out"
Who let the doves out
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
(tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
When the party was nice, Labor Party was jumpin' (Hey, Yiddie, Yi, Yo)
And everybody havin' a ball (Hah, ho, Yiddie Yi Yo)
I tell the lefties "start the name callin'" (Yiddie Yi Yo)
Shelly Yachimovich to the call
The dingbat show down
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Say, A lefty is nuttin' if he don't have a bone, All lefty hold ya'
bone, all moonbat hold it
A lefty is nuttin' if he don't have a bone, All lefty hold ya' bone,
all moonbat hold it
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
Who let the doves out (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)
# posted by Steven Plaut : 6:58 AM
