Whither Academia?

Four members of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends attended an academic discussion of “The Israeli Palestinian Conflict” at the Ford School for Public Policy on the University of Michigan campus. For ninety minutes Professors Shai Feldman and Khalil Shakaki lectured an audience of 50 people and answered note-card-filtered questions without once mentioning the J-word, as if Israel was not a Jewish state committing crimes against the Palestinian people with Jewish soldiers using weapons adorned with Jewish religious symbols and with worldwide support of the Jewish community.

These two professors, both affiliated with Brandeis University, create the illusion of discussion as they talked past the 800-pound gorilla sitting right in the middle of the plush Annenberg Auditorium. Listen to Shai Feldman, who claims to be a “fifth generation Israeli”, talk about the “Golden age” of Israeli-Palestinian history which ended upon the assassination of PM Rabin. Hear him talk about his claim that there is “no architect” with which to continue the “peace process”, and remember the claims fifteen years ago that Yasser Arafat provided “no partner” for peace negotiations. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

Also pay attention the quisling role played by Dr. Shakaki, whose presence gives a false credence to this dialogue. Both professors “team teach” the “conflict”, and neither call the issue by its right name: the Jewish ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Thank you, Dr. Shakaki, for playing your role to perfection, for bringing up non-issues like the “mind-set” of Mahmoud Abbas, and the “status quo” being shaken by the current stabbings in Palestine.

Feldman claimed that since Jerusalem was “a Jewish city”, only the local Jewish police – and not IDF troops – patrolled the town. Shakaki remained silent, while the four JWPF members cast quizzical gazes at each other. Had we missed the UN memo declaring Jerusalem all-Jewish? Both professors patted themselves on the back when Feldman claimed the two were “entrepreneurs for peace”. Really.

How far has academia fallen? Have suits and neckties substituted for critical analysis? Are students to be led by the Snake and the Sycophant, aka Feldman and Shakaki, away from understanding a simple situation and toward a false construct? JWPF members expect better from our intellectuals. So should you.

America First? Not in New Jersey!

Deir Yassin Remembered is an organization with a board of advisors comprising seventeen individuals from Ramallah to Melbourne. Our New Jersey rep contacted the local Lamar Advertising Company and requested the billboard used in Detroit be installed on a billboard near his hometown of Teaneck. DYR Executive Director Dan McGowan summarizes the result of this attempt in an article published on =Dissident Voice=.

Deir Yassin Remembered, a not-for-profit organization of Jews and non-Jews working for the human rights of Palestinians, rented a billboard in Detroit. The message was simple: “America first, not Israel.”

DYR’s new billboard in metro Detroit.

The mega billboard company, Lamar, designed the message and produced the 14’ x 48’ vinyl for $700. It charged an additional $3,000 to display it for four weeks and agreed to ship the vinyl to the next location at the end of the rental period.

But when Deir Yassin Remembered tried to rent a billboard in Bergen County (NJ), Lamar refused saying “due to its sensitive nature, we do not want to post in here in New York or New Jersey.”

In a country whose Congress gives 28 standing ovations to the Prime Minister of Israel, an apartheid state to whom we give the lion’s share of our foreign aid, free speech is often not allowed, even when you are willing to pay for it.

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Nov. 14: Seven vigilers
Nov. 21: Five vigilers
America First, NOT Israel
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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