Friday, June 2, 2006
Larry Summers, who's previous statements against an anti-Israel academic boycott some credit with being a factor in his ouster from Harvard, is apparently bowed but not broken:
FT: Israeli academic boycott 'anti-Semitic', says Harvard president
Larry Summers attacked the decision by members of Natfhe on Monday to support a boycott of Israeli academics who fail to dissociate themselves publicly from Israel's "apartheid policies".
He said: "There is much that should be - indeed that must be - debated regarding Israeli policy. And all views can be, should be and will be expressed by those in academic life.
"However, the academic boycott resolution passed by the British professors union in the way that it singles out Israel is in my judgment anti-Semitic in both effect and in intent [emphasis mine]."
He added that he hoped the decision would be repudiated "in the strongest possible terms" by scholars around the world...
Interestingly, Stephen Rose gets the last word in both this and the Haaretz article I read on the boycott. In both cases he is lauded for his academic credentials, not for his anti-Israel activities which are his real claim to fame. Intentional bias in framing the story? You be the judge.
"There is nothing anti-Semitic about putting pressure on Israeli institutors and their academic staff to fight against the illegal and anti-human-rights policies of the Israeli state.
"When Israeli academic institutions and staff protest for the academic freedom of their academic colleagues in Palestine then I will feel more sympathetic to them."
"When Israeli academic institutions and staff protest for the academic freedom of their academic colleagues in Palestine then I will feel more sympathetic to them."
Shouldn't the honorable Neurobiologist take it up with the Palestinian Authority, because in Israel the Arabs have complete academic freedom where for example the Dean of Haifa University is an Arab; but then I suppose this is the Freudian slip that exposes his opposition to the Jewish state.
As for the
"... to fight against the illegal and anti-human-rights policies of the Israeli state. "
One needs to ask if this following post from Treppenwitz is an example of anti-human-rights policies practiced in the hated zionist state?
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2006/05/not_with_a_whim.html
"However as this little Palestinian girl was already in an Israeli hospital and suffering from a condition that the Palestinian medical community was not able to adequately treat, a creative solution was sought.
The Schneider Medical Center agreed to absorb a large chunk of operation's cost, as did the Peres Center for Peace. Of the $58,000 price tag, Schneider Hospital and the Peres Center each agreed to pay $24,000, while the PA was asked to kick in only $10,000. Not a bad deal considering how the rising cost of rocket components and guns has the Palestinian Authority in a bit of a financial crunch just lately.
So what happened? "
Were it the case of AHR then I'm sure that they would not have permitted the situation to have occurred in the first place.
" Anyway, knock me over with a feather... Abu Mazen (Dr. Abbas' nom de guerre) agreed that the PA would pay its share for the operation and forwarded the bill to his Minister of Health, Dr. Bassim Na'im (who actually is an MD).
Well, it seems Dr. Na'im had a bit of a conflict when presented with the bill. You see, in addition to being a physician ('First do no harm'), he's also a member of Hamas ('First, do no good').
Guess which side won this Faustian tug-o-war? You got it... Dr. Na'im refused to write the check for the PA's share of the bone marrow procedure because, "...it would be seen as cooperating with the Zionist enemy."
Strange that Hamas did not go running to its European supporters for help in this humanitarian crisis.
By the way whenever one comes across the bad state of Arab towns and villages bear in mind that most of the inhabitants object to paying rates and taxes because " the money will go to the Jews".
Small wonder they appear as they do because they negate their responsibility in society.
Good for Summers, but he's truly a voice in the wilderness on this one.