{"id":1445,"date":"2011-11-19T17:30:18","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T17:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1445"},"modified":"2013-03-11T17:33:23","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T17:33:23","slug":"despicable-israel-libels-on-display-in-california-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/despicable-israel-libels-on-display-in-california-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Despicable Israel Libels on Display in California Universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n

FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n

The moral and intellectual corruption of American universities has recently manifested itself in the California State University system, the largest in the country. A group of faculty and administrators has sent a letter to Chancellor Charles Reed asking that he not approve the reinstatement of the Israel Study Abroad Program, which was suspended apparently for budgetary reasons. Behind the various pretexts justifying this request, however, lies the usual leftist hatred of Israel based on false history and moral idiocy.<\/p>\n

The pretexts are transparently specious. The argument about budget constraints is made on a regular basis about everything the university does, and usually reflects professional or ideological preferences rather than principle. If the issue were a study abroad program at Arab-American University in Jenin, which the letter writers recommend the CSU should create, money would not be a problem. Nor is the evocation of the State Department Travel Warning any more legitimate. In fact, if you read the actual\u00a0warning<\/a>, you\u2019ll see that it is generated not by Israel\u2019s malevolence, but by the threat of terrorist attacks by Palestinians: \u201cIsraeli authorities remain concerned about the continuing threat of terrorist attacks. US citizens are cautioned that a greater danger may exist around restaurants, businesses, and other places associated with US interests and\/or located near US official buildings, such as the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and the US Consulate General in Jerusalem. US citizens are also urged to exercise a high degree of caution and to use common sense when patronizing restaurants, nightclubs, cafes, malls, places of worship, and theaters, especially during peak hours. Large crowds and public gatherings have been targeted by terrorists in the past and should be avoided to the extent practicable.\u201d Moreover, if State Department travel warnings are grounds for eliminating a study-abroad program, shouldn\u2019t the Cal State system suspend all programs in Mexico, where according to the State Department, \u201cthe security situation poses serious risks for US citizens\u201d?<\/p>\n

The mention of Americans killed or injured in Israel is equally dishonest. Emily Henochowicz lost an eye to an Israeli tear-gas canister, but as the letter admits, she was involved in a violent protest against Israel. Charges that callous Israeli soldiers deliberately targeted her have been refuted by a\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0that shows her being struck by a ricocheting tear-gas canister. Even worse is the reference to Furkan Dogan, the Turkish-American killed when members of a Turkish hardcore Islamist outfit attacked Israeli commandos during an attempt to run the Israeli blockade of terrorist-run Gaza in an act of provocation. Of course, if an American student anywhere in the world involves himself in a violent protest against the host country, he runs the risk of injury. That\u2019s why guests in another country should stay out of local politics they usually don\u2019t understand. To suggest, as the letter does, that this risk exists only in Israel is dishonest. The fact is, the danger to Americans in Israel does not arise from Israeli security forces, but from the indiscriminate slaughter perpetrated by Palestinian terrorist attacks like the Hebrew University massacre in July 2002, which killed four American students.<\/p>\n

So too with the other objections, such as the greater risk of profiling for Muslim American students. Once again, the letter does not confront the reasons for such scrutiny in Israel: the existence of a critical mass of Palestinians who do not accept Israel\u2019s existence, and have adopted terrorism as the means to force Israel into suicidal concessions. And this brings us to the real reason for the letter: not the pretexts of safety, or restrictions on travel, or extra security screening, or all the other security procedures Israel is compelled to employ because for 60 years too many Palestinians want to kill Israelis more than they want their own state. Rather, the letter represents yet another attempt to delegitimize Israel and weaken support for the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. Hence the despicable libel with which the letter ends: that Israel is an \u201capartheid\u201d state, and hence \u201cCSU participation with the government of Israel in the proposed study abroad program could be interpreted as an endorsement of the international crime of apartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n

No charge more reveals the moral and intellectual dishonesty of Israel Derangement Syndrome. The answer to this lie was recently\u00a0written<\/a>\u00a0by South African Richard Goldstone, a critic of Israel. This is the same person who had to retract his UN report on Operation Cast Lead, the 2008-9 Israeli invasion of Gaza to stop the rain of missiles aimed at Israeli civilians, because evidence refuted his earlier charge that Israel had deliberately targeted non-combatants. As Goldstone points out, \u201cIn Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: \u2018Inhumane acts . . . committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.\u2019 Israeli Arabs \u2014 20 percent of Israel\u2019s population \u2014 vote, have political parties and representatives in the Knesset and occupy positions of acclaim, including on its Supreme Court. Arab patients lie alongside Jewish patients in Israeli hospitals, receiving identical treatment.\u201d What separation and controls that do occur in the West Bank, Goldstone points out, are made necessary by terrorist attacks that endanger Israeli citizens. In short, as Goldstone concludes, \u201cThe charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

That this lie is promulgated in this letter reveals its true intent: to demonize Israel with a question-begging smear. As such, the letter reminds me of something George Orwell says in 1984 about Big Brother\u2019s distortion of history: \u201cIf the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death . . . And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed \u2014 if all records told the same tale \u2014 then the lie passed into history and became truth. \u2018Who controls the past\u2019 ran the Party slogan, \u2018controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.\u2019\u201d Hatred of Israel is predicated on a vast distortion of history in which the 3000-year Jewish presence in that region is turned into a manifestation of \u201ccolonialism,\u201d \u201cracism,\u201d and \u201cimperialism,\u201d while the violent attacks by the descendants of conquerors, occupiers, colonists, and immigrants are justified as understandable \u201cresistance\u201d on the part of the indigenous. That such a betrayal of historical truth, critical thinking, and moral clarity \u2014 which comprise the core of the university\u2019s mission \u2014 should be found in a university is another appalling sign of the collapse of American higher education.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92011 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The moral and intellectual corruption of American universities has recently manifested itself in the California State University system, the largest in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,16],"tags":[1014,221,91,133,231,1027,493,1059,93,162,80,232,478],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-nj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":862,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-a-creature-of-the-corrupt-university\/","url_meta":{"origin":1445,"position":0},"title":"Obama a Creature of the Corrupt University","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The November presidential election was the favorite topic at the Freedom Center\u2019s West Coast Retreat last weekend. Amidst the prognostications and arguments about which Republican would or should get the nomination, or how pessimistic or optimistic conservatives should be about defeating the President, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3357,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/memo-to-the-general-free-speech-doesnt-kill-people-jihadists-kill-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":1445,"position":1},"title":"Memo to the General: Free Speech Doesn’t Kill People, Jihadists Kill People","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society Citizen control of the military is one of the most important foundations of political freedom. Rather than an instrument of a powerful autocrat or king, the army in a republic serves the collective interests, security, and policies of the state as determined\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5162,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-caldron-of-anti-semitism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1445,"position":2},"title":"The Caldron of Anti-Semitism","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The use and abuse of popular culture's favorite victim. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers As if there isn\u2019t enough evidence of the ideological corruption of America\u2019s universities, along come\u00a0Chicago\u2019s John Mearsheimer and Harvard\u2019s Stephen Walt, arguing that the \u201cIsrael lobby\u201d dominates American foreign policy to the hurt of our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-palestinian-playbook\/","url_meta":{"origin":1445,"position":3},"title":"The Palestinian Playbook","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thronton Frontpage Magazine The most depressing thing about the Obama administration\u2019s foreign policy debacle unfolding in the Middle East is that for sixty years we\u2019ve repeatedly experienced the same Islamist game plan for defeating us that is being employed today. There is no tactic currently being used by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Palestine"","block_context":{"text":"Palestine","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/palestine\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2043,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-other-california\/","url_meta":{"origin":1445,"position":4},"title":"The Other California","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton City Journal In 1973, as I was going through customs in New York after spending the summer bumming around Italy and Greece, the customs agent looked at my passport and said with a Bronx sneer, \u201cBruce Thornton, huh? Is that one of them Hollywood names?\u201d Hearing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3052,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/corrupt-language-breeds-bad-history-and-bad-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1445,"position":5},"title":"Corrupt Language Breeds Bad History and Bad Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society As the history of communism and fascism both illustrate, modern political tyranny has relied on fabricated history to legitimize its claims and actions, and such history in turn relies on the debasement of language. Nowhere is this axiom more evident than in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Israel"","block_context":{"text":"Israel","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/israel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1446,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions\/1446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}