The Ariel Sharon Ignored by the MSM
I never expected Ariel Sharon to be treated fairly by the mainstream media. I'd like to reiterate one point made by Prof. Jacobson in his post memorializing Sharon: Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount was not the cause of the so-called Second Intifada.
The New York Times obituary of Ariel Sharon gets it wrong:
Given how he had crushed the Palestinian guerrilla infrastructure in Gaza in the early 1970s, there was logic to his election. But there was a paradox, too. It was Mr. Sharon’s visit, in September 2000, accompanied by hundreds of Israeli police officers, to the holy site in Jerusalem known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, that helped set off the riots that became the second Palestinian uprising.Similarly, the Washington Post's obituary:
Mr. Sharon’s controversial visit in September, 2000 to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, or Noble Sanctuary, a site considered holy to both Muslims and Jews, helped trigger a second Palestinian uprising that smothered hopes for a final agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
The Ariel Sharon Ignored by the MSM
David Gerstman
The IPT Update
General security, policy
1.
Obama fights a push to add Iran sanctions; Former CT resident arrested
after attempting to ship sensitive military documents to Iran
2. China conducts 1st test of new ultra-high speed missile vehicle
3.
US investigating export and import procedures at Honeywell after the
firm included Chinese parts in equipment it built for the F-35 fighter
jet
4. State Dep't designates three Ansar al-Shari'a organizations and leaders
5.
Senate report: Attack on U.S. compound in Benghazi could have been
prevented; Senator: Benghazi survivors blamed attack on terrorism in FBI
interviews
6. Colorado woman sentenced in conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists
7. Ex-US soldier who sought to join al Shabaab convicted and sentenced to 7 years
8. Oregon terror convict for Mohamed Mohamud seeks snooping evidence
9. Calgary man killed while fighting in Syria: security source
Hamas Trains 13,000 Teens to Emulate 'Suicide Martyrs'
IPT News
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4266/hamas-trains-13000-teens-to-emulate-suicide
Hamas has historically engaged in concerted efforts to brainwash its youth to wage violent jihad. Roughly 13,000 high school students participated in a week-long training camp geared to enable the teenagers "to follow in the footsteps of the suicide martyrs."
This is more than twice the enrollment from last year's camp, the Times of Israel reports. The "Pioneers of Liberation" camp included weapons training, marching exercises, and "security awareness" classes concerning the identification of Israeli spies.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4266/hamas-trains-13000-teens-to-emulate-suicide
Hamas has historically engaged in concerted efforts to brainwash its youth to wage violent jihad. Roughly 13,000 high school students participated in a week-long training camp geared to enable the teenagers "to follow in the footsteps of the suicide martyrs."
This is more than twice the enrollment from last year's camp, the Times of Israel reports. The "Pioneers of Liberation" camp included weapons training, marching exercises, and "security awareness" classes concerning the identification of Israeli spies.
The Scoop: Netanyahu, King Abdullah Secret Talks Aim at Neutralizing Kerry
By: Yori Yanover, JP
His Majesty King Abdullah meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Amman on Thursday Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Royal Court Secretary of State
John Kerry’s effusive optimism regarding the peace talks have been a source of concern not only to Netanyahu and the majority of his coalition government, but also to King Abdulla II of Jordan.
The two leaders’ supposedly secret meeting on Thursday in Amman—which was made public almost immediately by the Jordanians—was devoted to one issue: Jordan is very unhappy about the possibility that Israel would take the IDF out of the Jordan Valley.
New Islamophobia outbreak in UK: Two Muslims charged with traveling to Syria to wage jihad
The BBC, true to its constant practice and standard journalistic form, never identifies what kind of terrorism these two men were traveling to Syria to engage in. It is left to the reader to know, and of course, most will, though some of the leading lights in the British intelligentsia no doubt believe the Syrian anti-Assad "rebels" to be plucky freedom fighters and that anyone who thinks otherwise is a racist, bigoted "Islamophobe."
Anyway, it's a good thing that British authorities banned Pamela Geller and me from entering the U.K., eh? If we had gone there, Muslims might have become so enraged by our "Islamophobia" that they would have gone to Syria to engage in jihad and then returned to Britain to wage more jihad. Now that we are banned, huzzah! The jihad terror threat in Britain is a thing of the past!
Friday, January 17, 2014
The truth hurts
Caroline Glick
Friday, January 17th, 2014
To hear it from the White House, and from Israel’s leftist media, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon is a major liability. As half the planet now knows, Ya’alon is harshly critical of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s persistent efforts to force Israel to surrender its land and ability to defend itself to the PLO.
In a private conversation that Ya’alon did not expect to be made public, he criticized Kerry’s so-called security plan that offers Israel advanced technology in exchange for PLO control over its eastern border. Ya’alon also rejected the notion that the PLO is interested in making peace. And he stated the inconvenient fact that PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas is only in power because Israel has security control over Judea and Samaria.
Friday, January 17th, 2014
To hear it from the White House, and from Israel’s leftist media, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon is a major liability. As half the planet now knows, Ya’alon is harshly critical of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s persistent efforts to force Israel to surrender its land and ability to defend itself to the PLO.
In a private conversation that Ya’alon did not expect to be made public, he criticized Kerry’s so-called security plan that offers Israel advanced technology in exchange for PLO control over its eastern border. Ya’alon also rejected the notion that the PLO is interested in making peace. And he stated the inconvenient fact that PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas is only in power because Israel has security control over Judea and Samaria.
Sharon's Final Road
CAROLINE GLICK
January 17, 2014
During his long career, Ariel Sharon built a lot of roads. As
housing minister in the early 1990s and as national infrastructures
minister in the late 1990s, Sharon played a key role in building
everything from the Trans-Israel Highway to access roads to isolated
communities.
Since he passed away on Saturday, his role in building Israel's national infrastructures has been widely noted. But no mention has been made of the final and most important road that he paved.
That is the road to Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Sharon's most controversial - and damaging - act was his decision in late 2003 to surrender the Gaza Strip to Palestinian terrorist organizations. The action, which involved not only withdrawing Israeli military personnel and transferring control over the international border with Egypt to the Palestinian Authority, but also forcibly removing 8,000 law-abiding, patriotic Israelis from their homes and farms and the bulldozing of their flourishing communities, was carried out in August 2005.
Since he passed away on Saturday, his role in building Israel's national infrastructures has been widely noted. But no mention has been made of the final and most important road that he paved.
That is the road to Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Sharon's most controversial - and damaging - act was his decision in late 2003 to surrender the Gaza Strip to Palestinian terrorist organizations. The action, which involved not only withdrawing Israeli military personnel and transferring control over the international border with Egypt to the Palestinian Authority, but also forcibly removing 8,000 law-abiding, patriotic Israelis from their homes and farms and the bulldozing of their flourishing communities, was carried out in August 2005.
The Daily TIP: Top Iran negotiator: Iranian nuke concessions reversible in one day
|
Taliban Commander Forces Sister Into Suicide Bombing
The Clarion Project
A young Afghani girl has been detained by border police in Helmand province after attempting a suicide bombing. She told police that her brother, a local Taliban commander, had ordered her to carry out the attack. Her age is estimated at between 8 and 10. She was found in a state of "shock and confusion."
The girl, named Spozhmai, told police that her brother Zahir, a local Taliban commander, had convinced her to attack a police station. He had threatened her with allegations of "illicit relations" with the police. She refused to wade across a cold river to carry out the attack and was beaten by her father on her return.
Scared, she ran away from home, and handed herself into the police the next day.
The Commander of border police in Lashkar Gah , Col. Hamidullah Sediqi, said: "She was forced by two Taliban commanders to wear the suicide vest and blow up the police base. "One of the commanders is her brother. As you can see, this innocent girl, she shouldn't be doing this. No one and no religion allows her to do this."
A young Afghani girl has been detained by border police in Helmand province after attempting a suicide bombing. She told police that her brother, a local Taliban commander, had ordered her to carry out the attack. Her age is estimated at between 8 and 10. She was found in a state of "shock and confusion."
The girl, named Spozhmai, told police that her brother Zahir, a local Taliban commander, had convinced her to attack a police station. He had threatened her with allegations of "illicit relations" with the police. She refused to wade across a cold river to carry out the attack and was beaten by her father on her return.
Scared, she ran away from home, and handed herself into the police the next day.
The Commander of border police in Lashkar Gah , Col. Hamidullah Sediqi, said: "She was forced by two Taliban commanders to wear the suicide vest and blow up the police base. "One of the commanders is her brother. As you can see, this innocent girl, she shouldn't be doing this. No one and no religion allows her to do this."
Competing Human Rights in Canada
Raheel Raza
Many of us who came from theocratic and patriarchal counties are wholly dependent on Canada's liberal, secular values to maintain our equality -- which others are working so tirelessly to curtail.
Not even one women's group come out to lobby for women's rights or to remind the nation that a decision to support segregation is a slap in the face of equality.
Reasonable accommodation is celebrating our holidays with joy; unreasonable accommodation is criticizing others who wish to say Merry Christmas and celebrate their cultures, too.
York University, where Sociology Professor Paul Grayson teaches. (Image source: Andrei Sedoff/Wikipedia)
Although Canada's diversity is usually touted globally, a clash of rights is now playing itself out.
Even
though the struggle for reasonable religious accommodation is not a new
issue in Canada, this is the first time that the challenge of religious
accommodation at a secular institution of higher education is being
noted, and argued, by the media here.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Swedish editor defends Sharon-Hitler comparison
A young Ariel Sharon Photo: REUTERS/Handout .
BERLIN – Isaac Bachman, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, slammed
Per Jönsson, an associate editor at the Swedish Institute of
International Affairs (UI), on Tuesday for comparing the military
policies of the late Ariel Sharon to the Nazi regime.
Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and director of its Jerusalem office, weighed in on the row, saying Jönsson’s statements likely come from anti-Semitism, a dislike of the Jewish state or both.
Writing on his Facebook page, Bachman said Jönsson “continues to ‘ride over Israel’s back’ on his way to fame. I guess he has not forgotten but ‘just’ ignored the fact that the Nazis were engaged in a genocide, with no provocation on behalf of their totally innocent victims, while Israel – from its very first day of independence – is defending itself from cruel and unceasing terrorism, and organized hatred towards Jews and Israelis alike.”
Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and director of its Jerusalem office, weighed in on the row, saying Jönsson’s statements likely come from anti-Semitism, a dislike of the Jewish state or both.
Writing on his Facebook page, Bachman said Jönsson “continues to ‘ride over Israel’s back’ on his way to fame. I guess he has not forgotten but ‘just’ ignored the fact that the Nazis were engaged in a genocide, with no provocation on behalf of their totally innocent victims, while Israel – from its very first day of independence – is defending itself from cruel and unceasing terrorism, and organized hatred towards Jews and Israelis alike.”
US Involvement in Rabbi Pinto Corruption Case Revealed
Maayana Miskin
Corruption allegations reported earlier Thursday that have shaken Israel’s police force, resulting in the resignation of a top police official, are the result of an investigation by the FBI in the U.S.
The connection to an investigation that the FBI has been carrying out into corruption allegations against the popular Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto became clearer as a gag order on the case was lifted Thursday.
Congressman and illegal donations case
Rabbi Pinto is connected to a case the FBI has been investigating since 2010, against Congressman Michael Grimm of New York. Grimm is under investigation for alleged illegal donations to his 2010 elections campaign. During the campaign Grimm received support from Ofer Biton, who at the time was one of the Rabbi Pinto's top aides. Biton was later accused of having embezzled millions of dollars from Rabbi Pinto’s congregation.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Dear Defense Minister Ya'alon,
Please know that I am among the many who admire and
support your efforts on behalf of Israel.
As we are aware of the unyielding
pressures placed on this country by others, it is reassuring that you stand firm
against those who do not understand the precarious situation in the Middle
East; some critics of Israel have political interests that are
not compatible with our security.
I personally applaud your candor in expressing your
frustration with U.S. Sec'y of State Kerry's unending pressure for dangerous
concessions by Israel in the interest of creating yet another
terrorist-apartheid state in the chaotic Middle East.
My personal feeling is that it is time for us to take
the initiative and tell the regional history of the last one hundred years
-starting with San Remo. We simply cannot allow the world to think that
our history began in 1948. How many times can we permit the partition of
our promised homeland ?!!! No nation can survive with 'settlement
blocks'. It is time to establish our legal and historical rights to the
land.
No End to Palestinian Claims: How Israel and the Palestinians View Borders
Vol.
14, No. 1 8 January 2014
- An internal, strategic document formulated in the office of Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in 2013 states that the aim of the current U.S.-led talks is not to reach an agreement but, rather, to create an alibi for imposing a solution on Israel. The Palestinians agreed to enter the talks only after receiving a written commitment from Kerry to support the Palestinian position on the 1967 lines.
- However, there have been repeated signs that the Palestinian leadership has claims to Israeli territory within the 1967 lines. In 1999, the PLO was planning to replace the Oslo Accords with Palestinian territorial demands based on the Partition Map that appeared in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947 and thereby extend Palestinian territorial claims.
- After Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in 2005, the Palestinians demanded the annexation to Gaza of the Israeli border village of Netiv Ha’asara. In negotiations over the water issue, the Palestinians demand not only the water of the West Bank and Gaza, but also a division of the Israeli aquifer and the Sea of Galilee. They also claim sovereignty over the al-Hama enclave in the Golan Heights because it was part of the British Mandate for Palestine.
- In September 2011, Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly that he was applying for UN membership “on the basis of the 1967 borders.” But in the formal Palestinian submission to the UN, there is no reference whatsoever to the 1967 lines but only to Resolution 181 from 1947. Thus, there is considerable, cumulative evidence that the Palestinian leadership is maintaining claims to Israeli territory within the 1967 lines.
Destroying Syrian Chemicals at Sea
Shoshana Bryen
Are you ready for an experiment? The U.S. government is about to try something never before undertaken, utilizing equipment never before used under these circumstances. Are you ready for the first stab at neutralizing chemical weapons at sea, on a ship not designed for that purpose, using downsized machinery intended for the stability of land-based operations? Are you comfortable?
CNN's Christiane Amanpour -- a woman with a limited understanding of sovereignty, it appears -- wrote this week, "No countries wanted to destroy Syria's chemicals on land, so the UN is doing it at sea." No. The UN is not destroying Syrian chemical weapons at sea; the United States is doing it at the behest of the UN. The MV Cape Ray, a transport and humanitarian-response vessel owned by the U.S. Maritime Administration will be the platform. The MV Cape Ray is, generally, an insertion ship -- it has taken surge weapons to troops in Iraq, and humanitarian supplies to Haiti after the earthquake and New England after Hurricane Sandy. Thirty-five American seamen and an unknown number of American military personnel will be aboard the ship, along with chemical weapons experts from various countries. U.S. military personnel will operate the machinery.
Are you ready for an experiment? The U.S. government is about to try something never before undertaken, utilizing equipment never before used under these circumstances. Are you ready for the first stab at neutralizing chemical weapons at sea, on a ship not designed for that purpose, using downsized machinery intended for the stability of land-based operations? Are you comfortable?
CNN's Christiane Amanpour -- a woman with a limited understanding of sovereignty, it appears -- wrote this week, "No countries wanted to destroy Syria's chemicals on land, so the UN is doing it at sea." No. The UN is not destroying Syrian chemical weapons at sea; the United States is doing it at the behest of the UN. The MV Cape Ray, a transport and humanitarian-response vessel owned by the U.S. Maritime Administration will be the platform. The MV Cape Ray is, generally, an insertion ship -- it has taken surge weapons to troops in Iraq, and humanitarian supplies to Haiti after the earthquake and New England after Hurricane Sandy. Thirty-five American seamen and an unknown number of American military personnel will be aboard the ship, along with chemical weapons experts from various countries. U.S. military personnel will operate the machinery.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
The Islamization of Belgium and the Netherlands in 2013
Soeren Kern
In January, the gangland shootings of two young Moroccan men in downtown Amsterdam drew renewed attention to the growing problem of violent crime among Muslim immigrants. The two men were gunned down with AK-47 assault rifles in a shooting the mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, described as reminiscent of "the Wild West."Belgium and the Netherlands have some of the largest Muslim communities in the European Union, in percentage terms.
In March, the Dutch public broadcasting system NOS television reported that the Netherlands has become one of the major European suppliers of Islamic jihadists. According to NOS, about 100 Dutch Muslims are active as jihadists in Syria; most have joined the notorious Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Jewish Actress Mayim Bialik Draws Online Praise, Criticism for Posting Picture With IDF Cousin
Joshua LevittJewish-American actress and parenting blogger Mayim Bialik drew praise and criticism online on Friday after posting a seemingly innocent photograph, showing her visiting her Israeli cousin’s son as a boy of 5 years old and then as a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces at 20.
Bialik is best known for her lead role in the 1990s NBC sitcom Blossom, as well as her current role as Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory. But, as a mother of two sons, she has also become a parenting advocate with a large online following.
On blog Kveller, a website described as “a Jewish Twist on Parenting,” Bialik posted the photo on Thursday with the caption, “A very special #ThrowbackThursday: Here’s me and my cousin’s son when he was 5 and now, 15 or so years later, as an Israeli soldier. Sweet!”
Abbas Denies His Authority to Make Cardinal Decisions for a Lasting Peace Agreement
Jonathan D. Halevi
- Mahmoud Abbas is not a serious partner for negotiating with Israel because he does not have the authority to make decisions for the Palestinian people. His rejection of any authority to make historic decisions regarding a political compromise closes the door to any stable, lasting solution for two states living in peace next to each other.
- Abbas outlined his positions on January 10, 2014, at a meeting in Ramallah, where he demanded full sovereignty in all the territory conquered by Israel from the Kingdom of Jordan and Egypt in the defensive war it fought in 1967 ("the '67 lands"), and especially in the area called "eastern Jerusalem," which includes the Old City, the Temple Mount, the Jewish Quarter, the Western Wall, and other Jewish historical sites. Without an Israeli withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem and all the Jewish holy sites located there, in the eyes of Abbas, there is no Palestinian leader who has the authority to sign a political agreement with Israel.
“A Rapidly Shifting World”
As most of you undoubtedly know, Ariel (Arik) Sharon, 85, former prime
minister of Israel, passed away yesterday, after eight years in a comatose state
following a stroke.
Credit: channelnewsasia
In some quarters, the news is filled with laudatory articles about
him. For in his younger days he was a brilliant and fearless military
commander whose strategies were critical in the victories in 1967 and
1973. Subsequently, as a government minister, he fostered the building of
communities in Judea and Samaria.
None of this can be taken away from him. Nor would I wish to do
that.
In Arab and related anti-Israel quarters there is obscene jubilation at his
death, with the leveling of accusations against him that are absolutely not
true. He was not responsible for the massacre at Sabra and Shatila.
And, I hasten to point out, he did not initiate the Second Intifada by going
onto Har Habayit. That Palestinian Arab war against Israel begun in 2000
was not a spontaneous uprising of anger – it had been thoroughly pre-planned by
Arafat, who was waiting for a pretext to begin. It is important that this
record be kept straight. The anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish media saw him as a
special target for vilification, so that he was represented – with outrageous
injustice – as a monster. This cannot be allowed to stand. Against such
accusers I stand read to defend his record.
And yet... and yet...
Ariel Sharon: Warrior
theoptimisticconservative
The
careers of the greatest warriors often remind us of the importance of
statesmen with political principles and strategies. It may be Ariel Sharon’s fate to serve, in part, as such a reminder. But if we do not learn to know the world through the prism of his career, we will be shortchanging not only him, but ourselves.
Sharon was, as Caroline Glick says, larger than life. Jeff Dunetz calls him “an enigma wrapped in a paradox,” which in some ways he was. He was a leader whose maneuvers sometimes alarmed, even angered, his military superiors and his own people. It is a serious question whether Israel would have survived to this day on her current, sustainable geopolitical basis, if she had not had Ariel Sharon fighting for her in 1956, 1967, and 1973. It is an equally serious question whether his leadership helped or harmed Israel in 1982 and 2005.
In his milieu, in 1973.
Sharon was, as Caroline Glick says, larger than life. Jeff Dunetz calls him “an enigma wrapped in a paradox,” which in some ways he was. He was a leader whose maneuvers sometimes alarmed, even angered, his military superiors and his own people. It is a serious question whether Israel would have survived to this day on her current, sustainable geopolitical basis, if she had not had Ariel Sharon fighting for her in 1956, 1967, and 1973. It is an equally serious question whether his leadership helped or harmed Israel in 1982 and 2005.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
The Truth about Eish Kodesh – Please Read and Repost!
I
have not made any entries or updates to my personal Facebook page for
several months, and was not planning on doing so. I am simply too busy,
and anyone who wants to reach me can always do so by email or through
the Temple Institute's Facebook page. But after what transpired this
past week concerning the tiny community of Eish Kodesh, and in the face
of the lies that are being perpetrated in the media, I cannot remain
silent.Of even greater concern is the complacency and prejudice of the
general public, even among those who identify ideologically with the
settlement movement.
End of an era 'Sharon was no warmonger, he just put Israel first'
Ynet's
senior military analyst Ron Ben Yishai speaks of Ariel Sharon, a military and
political commander he knew, and says Sharon was not a warmonger, but rather
Ben Gurion's true disciple, only interested in Israel's survival
Ben-Yishai was the first Israeli journalist to cover the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut, for which Ariel Sharon was forced to resign as Israel's defense minister.
| Ynet special: Ron Ben-Yishai speaks with Attila Somfalvi about Ariel Sharon's legacy |
According to Ben-Yishai, Sharon's "legacy is firstly the survival of the Jewish nation, of the Jewish people in their own homeland; he is a true follower of Ben Gurion. When I say that Israel's survival was the only consideration I mean everything was secondary or third rate to this consideration."
U.S.-Israeli Prof. Slams MLA Conference as Assault on Academic Freedom (INTERVIEW)
Joshua Levitt
An
American-Israeli professor, addressing a counter-conference on the
sidelines of a polemical Modern Language Association annual meeting in
Chicago, on Thursday said the MLA resolution seeking to sanction Israel
was an academic sham promoted by a hypocritical Arab ideologue who
actually benefited from the embrace of multiculturalism by Israeli
universities that the resolution aims to vilify.
In a revealing interview with The Algemeiner, Ilan Troen, Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and Professor Emeritus at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, said the core accusation of the MLA resolution, which condemns Israel for restricting foreign scholars from visiting the Palestinian territories is “simply not true.”
Ironically, he said, the main voice behind the MLA resolution is Omar Barghouti, a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, who was born in Qatar, received a Masters in electrical engineering from Columbia University, in New York, and graduate degree in Ethics from Tel Aviv University, where a petition, with 184,000 signatures, was presented to expel him for his work denigrating Israel. But the president of the school refused to do so, on the basis of academic freedom.
“The resolution is about not honoring rights of Palestinians to higher education, that Israel doesn’t permit people to come into the West bank or Gaza to teach, which is simply not true,” Prof. Troen said. ”This is a malicious, mendacious excuse to use a false issue to boycott Israel.”
“The fact is that Americans of all descents go to teach in Palestinian universities,” he said. “The resolution talks about the arbitrary inhibition of Americans of Palestinian descent to enter the West Bank or Gaza, which is simply not true and they present no evidence.”
Prof Troen gave the example of Haifa University, where 3,000 Arabs who grew up under the Palestinian Authority attend the school, a third of the undergraduate student body, with another 1,200 there doing graduate studies. Meanwhile, he said, there are some 3,000 academic programs to help them pass national matriculation, to be able to study at the university level.
At Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where Prof. Troen served as Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and as Director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Archives, in Sede Boker, he said a program called Achva, meaning “solidarity” or “brotherhood” was created as “a place where Jews and Arabs could go to learn together.”
He said that among Arabs living under the PA or in Israel, ”no group is engaged in supporting a boycott.”
“This is externally generated by people hostile to Israel as a state… not from the Arab population,” he said. “Even in the Future Vision documents written by Arab intellectuals, most of whom teach at Israeli universities, they argue about problems in Arab society, and not once do they call for a boycott of part of the system, but to enlarge opportunities to participate, not to eliminate them.”
He listed three major areas where Jews and Arabs work together in academia. In medicine, where 300 Arab doctors are working with Jews in joint research on issues “from cerebral palsy to cancer to drug abuse;” in desertification, where, Israeli academics are world leaders in arid zone irrigation, desalinization and solar power, and work on projects that include many Arabs from those living in the PA and in Israel, as well as Egyptians and Jordanians, and “none of them are interested in boycott;” and in working on new narratives, a more complex issue.
“Twenty years ago, academics from both sides tried to mitigate the conflict by sharing their narratives, to create a single unity narrative, but they found that each one holds their own truth, and marshals facts to support it,” said Prof. Troen. “Then the academics started work on parallel narratives, like in nature, ideas that do not meet, but each side learns the other person’s narrative, a way of engendering empathy that can lead to mutual understanding. And none want to boycott the other, that’s how important this is for those academics working together on these issues.”
“I think [supporters of the MLA resolution] all could learn a great deal from academics actually working together on essential scientific research, which has no limits, no borders, cannot be hijacked for political cause,” he said. “This is just another attempt to boycott Israel by a coterie of polemicists for the sake of political gains, who have gone to this huge organization which has allowed their hatred to slip through.”
He described those behind the resolution as a “travelling roadshow, who go from university to university, from association to association” to denigrate Israel. “This is antithetical to the spirit of academic freedom and a necessity for higher education to engage in unimpeded joint research across all borders.”
“I think it’s telling that 164 university presidents have signed statements that they do not support the ASA [American Studies Association] boycott of Israel, true academics do not want to see Israel become a pariah state,” he said.
Born in Boston, Prof. Troen made aliyah in 1975 before returning to lead the Brandeis program. His permanent home is in Omer, a community outside Beer-Sheva.
In a revealing interview with The Algemeiner, Ilan Troen, Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and Professor Emeritus at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, said the core accusation of the MLA resolution, which condemns Israel for restricting foreign scholars from visiting the Palestinian territories is “simply not true.”
Ironically, he said, the main voice behind the MLA resolution is Omar Barghouti, a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, who was born in Qatar, received a Masters in electrical engineering from Columbia University, in New York, and graduate degree in Ethics from Tel Aviv University, where a petition, with 184,000 signatures, was presented to expel him for his work denigrating Israel. But the president of the school refused to do so, on the basis of academic freedom.
“The resolution is about not honoring rights of Palestinians to higher education, that Israel doesn’t permit people to come into the West bank or Gaza to teach, which is simply not true,” Prof. Troen said. ”This is a malicious, mendacious excuse to use a false issue to boycott Israel.”
“The fact is that Americans of all descents go to teach in Palestinian universities,” he said. “The resolution talks about the arbitrary inhibition of Americans of Palestinian descent to enter the West Bank or Gaza, which is simply not true and they present no evidence.”
Prof Troen gave the example of Haifa University, where 3,000 Arabs who grew up under the Palestinian Authority attend the school, a third of the undergraduate student body, with another 1,200 there doing graduate studies. Meanwhile, he said, there are some 3,000 academic programs to help them pass national matriculation, to be able to study at the university level.
At Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where Prof. Troen served as Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and as Director of the Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Archives, in Sede Boker, he said a program called Achva, meaning “solidarity” or “brotherhood” was created as “a place where Jews and Arabs could go to learn together.”
He said that among Arabs living under the PA or in Israel, ”no group is engaged in supporting a boycott.”
“This is externally generated by people hostile to Israel as a state… not from the Arab population,” he said. “Even in the Future Vision documents written by Arab intellectuals, most of whom teach at Israeli universities, they argue about problems in Arab society, and not once do they call for a boycott of part of the system, but to enlarge opportunities to participate, not to eliminate them.”
He listed three major areas where Jews and Arabs work together in academia. In medicine, where 300 Arab doctors are working with Jews in joint research on issues “from cerebral palsy to cancer to drug abuse;” in desertification, where, Israeli academics are world leaders in arid zone irrigation, desalinization and solar power, and work on projects that include many Arabs from those living in the PA and in Israel, as well as Egyptians and Jordanians, and “none of them are interested in boycott;” and in working on new narratives, a more complex issue.
“Twenty years ago, academics from both sides tried to mitigate the conflict by sharing their narratives, to create a single unity narrative, but they found that each one holds their own truth, and marshals facts to support it,” said Prof. Troen. “Then the academics started work on parallel narratives, like in nature, ideas that do not meet, but each side learns the other person’s narrative, a way of engendering empathy that can lead to mutual understanding. And none want to boycott the other, that’s how important this is for those academics working together on these issues.”
“I think [supporters of the MLA resolution] all could learn a great deal from academics actually working together on essential scientific research, which has no limits, no borders, cannot be hijacked for political cause,” he said. “This is just another attempt to boycott Israel by a coterie of polemicists for the sake of political gains, who have gone to this huge organization which has allowed their hatred to slip through.”
He described those behind the resolution as a “travelling roadshow, who go from university to university, from association to association” to denigrate Israel. “This is antithetical to the spirit of academic freedom and a necessity for higher education to engage in unimpeded joint research across all borders.”
“I think it’s telling that 164 university presidents have signed statements that they do not support the ASA [American Studies Association] boycott of Israel, true academics do not want to see Israel become a pariah state,” he said.
Born in Boston, Prof. Troen made aliyah in 1975 before returning to lead the Brandeis program. His permanent home is in Omer, a community outside Beer-Sheva.