|
Alberta: Iranian Prez a Man to Heed: Prof
by Brookes Merritt
 University of Alberta expert on the Middle East said Edmonton should be paying attention to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York. "This man is the single greatest threat to Israel. He's said he wants to wipe them off the map, he's denied the Holocaust and I don't think there's any doubt his goal is to arm Iran with nuclear weapons," political science professor and Middle East expert Thomas Butko said. Butko said Bollinger handled the political hot potato well. Considering Columbia has one of the country's bestknown journalism schools, Bollinger would have been foolish to deny the Iranian president a forum for free speech. (Edmonton Sun)
Columbia Law Dean Slams Ahmadinejad Invite
The dean of Columbia Law School is criticizing the university's decision to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to campus. Last week, the dean of the law school, David Schizer, joined Jewish groups and others in criticizing the invitation. "Although we believe in free and open debate at Columbia and should never suppress points of view, we are also committed to academic standards," Schizer said in a statement. "A high-quality academic discussion depends on intellectual honesty but, unfortunately, Mr. Ahmadinejad has proven himself, time and again, to be uninterested in whether his words are true." Schizer described the Iranian leader as a "reprehensible and dangerous figure who presides over a repressive regime, is responsible for the death of American soldiers, denies the Holocaust, and calls for the destruction of Israel." Still, Schizer added, "I recognize that others within our community take a different view in good faith, and that they have the right to extend invitations that I personally would not extend." (JTA News)
Heidelberg, Germany and Tel Aviv: Digging Through the Bible
by Will King
 The third season of renewed excavations at Ramat Rahel in Jerusalem has come to a close, with several exceptional finds that have increased archeologists' understanding of the site. The excavations are the result of a joint project between Tel Aviv University and the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and are scheduled for another three seasons, with the next to begin in the summer of 2009. Dig director Dr. Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University said that the goals of this year's dig were to expand the area around a Byzantine (fourth-seventh centuries CE) church previously excavated by Yohanan Aharoni of the Hebrew University in the 1950s, and to further expose a garden and a profound water system from a palace or administrative building that was in use from the late Iron Age (seventh-sixth centuries BCE) until the beginning of the Hasmonean period in the 2nd century BCE. (Jerusalem Post)
Michigan: Students Split over Ahmadinejad Speech
by Kimberly Chou
 University of Michigan students and faculty are split over whether or not Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak at Columbia University. Leaders of some University of Michigan pro-Israel groups slammed Columbia and its president, former University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger. "Our campus should never extend an invitation to a man actively engaged in murdering our soldiers and terrorizing not only his own Iranian people but the world," said Ari Siegel, the president of Israel IDEA. Ben Hamburger, the chair of the student governing board of University of Michigan Hillel, an umbrella organization for campus Jewish groups, said in a written statement that Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust and failure to address human rights abuses in Iran are "reprehensible." (Michigan Daily)
Princeton: Iranian President Wouldn't Be Welcome
by Matt Westmoreland
 As thousands of protestors marched through the streets surrounding Columbia's campus, Princeton community members were puzzled and angered by the event that brought Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the podium. Some were unsure whether Princeton would open its doors to such a controversial world leader. "There are lots of things that are troubling about this particular invitation," acting Wilson School Dean Nolan McCarty said Monday night. "It's very difficult to handle free speech for someone who himself controls the regime that doesn't support those values. It's a very difficult case to make that he should be included in the realm of open ideas and debate that the University is founded on." (Daily Princetonian)
See also Students Flock To Web To Lash Out At Columbia (CBS)
Southern Methodist: Israeli Diplomat Visits
by Tiffany Glick
 Despite remarks made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Israel is a thriving country with many opportunities for college students and recent graduates, says Deputy Consul General of Israel to the Southwest, Belaynesh Zevadia. Zevadia came to SMU last week to discuss Israeli foreign affairs with professors and students. Many people may hold the misconception that Israel is a target for conflicts in the Middle East and an unsafe location for American tourists. Zevadia said that if there is a safest place in the world, it would be Israel. She says the country is on alert at all times, aware of the threat against it. "We know that we have to be on alert to keep our citizens safe," Zevadia said. "Life is going on in Israel." (SMU Daily Campus)
Utah Valley State College: Professor Reflects on Years in N.Y., Israel
by Justin Ritter
 Before one UVSC professor began his teaching career, he spent his days studying the Old Testament at the feet of prestigious rabbis and searching for artifacts in the Middle East. His studies finally took him to Israel, where he lived in Jerusalem in a building that predates the formation of the United States. Dr. Alex Stecker described Jerusalem as, "A city that has more than three thousand years of history....There you live, you breathe it, you touch it and it touches you." In Israel, Stecker studied under the rabbis of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, eventually earning doctorate degrees in rabbinical studies and archaeology. (NetXNews)
York Jewish Student Group Decries American School’s Invitation to Controversial Iranian President
by Hilton Yip
 York’s Jewish student group has criticized Columbia University for allowing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give a speech to students. Ahmadinejad is notorious for his anti-Israel comments, including denying the Jewish Holocaust and calling for Israel to be “wiped off the face of the Earth.” Protesters gathered outside a lecture hall at Columbia on Monday Sept. 24 to decry Ahmadinejad’s presence, holding signs and singing songs. Security was tight, and dozens of students in the audience wore shirts saying “Stop Ahmadinejad’s evil.” Eva Zucker, president of Hillel at York, said that it was unacceptable for Columbia to have hosted Ahmadinejad. “We find it distressing that Columbia University would provide a forum for a known Holocaust denier and violator of human rights who has both actively and openly espoused his despicable views,” she said. (Excalibur)
|
|
Brandeis: Time Not Working to Israel’s Advantage, Academic Says
by Paul Lungen
 Asher Susser is a unilateralist. As an academic who has studied Middle East politics for decades, he supports unreciprocated actions by Israel that would separate it from a hostile Palestinian population while stemming international efforts to delegitimize it. Unilateral withdrawals serve Israel’s long-term strategic interests, he maintained. For too long, Israeli policy-makers were concerned with short term security, what Susser calls “current security.” Instead, they should focus more on “basic” or “existential security,” he said. As an example, he pointed to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) focus on policing the Palestinians instead of meeting long-term threats on its borders. The result was that soldiers didn’t receive proper training and support in the campaign to root out the Hizbullah presence in southern Lebanon last summer. (Canadian Jewish News)
Georgetown: Grad Receives Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship
 Recent Georgetown University graduate Aaron Shneyer (COL '05), of Rockville, Md., is one of four recipients of the Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship, a new award created by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, to promote “the power of music” as a global force for mutual understanding. Shneyer, who majored in anthropology with a minor in music, will travel to Jerusalem to develop a year-long music program bringing together Israeli and Palestinian high school students to write and play music together, culminating in performances in their own communities. (Georgetown University)
Hofstra: Firing Up The Unaffiliated
by Gary Rosenblatt
 Alexa Silverman, a 20-year-old student at Hofstra University, describes herself as a secular Jew who “had a problem with the way Judaism was taught” when she was young. More than half of those under 35 surveyed did not agree with the statement that “Israel’s destruction would be a personal tragedy.” All the more reason why our community should be paying more attention to a little-known success story, a low-budget, nonprofit group based in New York called Fuel For Truth, which has made impressive strides in making pro-Israel advocates and activists out of primarily secular, disaffected Jews between the ages of 18 and 34. Among its most fervent volunteers are Silverman and Turk, who spend hours each week recruiting new members or planning events. (New York Jewish Week)
Ohio U's McDavis Signs Onto Statement Opposing Anti-Israeli Academic Boycott
by Jim Phillips
 Though it may have taken longer than some would have liked, Ohio University has now joined other colleges in the state and nationwide on a petition opposing a boycott of Israeli universities. McDavis said that while he strongly agrees with Bollinger's statement, he wanted to run the measure by OU's deans and top administrators before putting the university on record as supporting it. The deans and administrators "were unanimously in support" of his signing it, he added. (Athens News)
Rutgers: Boycott Debate Simmers on Israeli Front-Burners
by Bryan Schwartzman
 "My response is that, when you hear the word boycott, you roll up your sleeves and double your efforts," Richard Isralowitz, a visiting scholar at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, said in an interview before his presentation. "One has to be on the alert. What happens in England could easily become an issue in other European countries and elsewhere." For the 59-year-old, New Jersey-born academic, the best way to inform others about the value of Israeli research - and regardless of one's political ideology, the folly of boycott - is through increasing exchanges, contacts, and collaborations between Israeli and foreign universities. (Jewish Exponent)
Tel Aviv: Making Peace Work at Israeli High Schools
 If you want to make peace you don't talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies," said Moshe Dayan, one of Israel's great politicians known for his peace activism. In line with this thinking is Tel Aviv University's (TAU) Conflict Resolution Program for High School Students, an after-school series of workshops and games that give teens the language and tools to become the world's next generation of peacemakers. Developed through the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at TAU, the program targets both Muslim and Jewish youths. "When they grow up, we want them to be different from the way politicians are today," says program coordinator Eyal Shachter, a lawyer working toward an MA in conflict resolution at TAU. (Jerusalem Post)
Virginia Tech: Kaine Wants Medal for Slain Tech Professor
by Rex Bowman
 Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is asking President Bush to bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously on a Virginia Tech professor. Liviu Librescu (pictured right) was slain April 16 while trying to bar a door against the gunman who killed 32 people on campus. Librescu, a Romanian-born scientist, was a Holocaust survivor who refused to swear loyalty to the Communist Party in Romania and was fired from his teaching job after asking for permission to immigrate to Israel. He eventually moved to Israel, where he taught at Tel Aviv University before moving to Blacksburg to teach at Tech. In a letter to the president dated Thursday, Kaine hailed Librescu as a man "who sought liberty and truth during his lifetime," and the governor urged Bush to give Librescu the medal, the nation's highest civilian award. (In Rich)
Do Colleges Provide the Grounds for Hate?
by Jared Shelly
For college students interested in Middle Eastern politics, taking classes on the subject or debating with peers can provide an entry point into shaping their own ideas on often contentious issues. However, if a student happens to hold pro-Israel or anti-Islamist views, they are frequently in the minority on school grounds and, in fact, may be shouted down by professors and other students, according to a panel of experts. The panelists even suggested that the sentiment on campus is breeding a "new anti-Semitism." Acting as moderator, talk-radio host Michael Medved asked if some are wrongly labeling the anti-Zionist students and faculty as anti-Semites. "I don't think so," replied Cliff May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, speaking to more than 600 people at Temple Beth Hillel/Beth El in Wynnewood. "Anti-Israelism has become the new anti-Semitism. [The goal] is a Mideast free of Jews. Today, the anti-Semites have the Jews in one place; now, they need to destroy them there. Anti-Zionism means the elimination of Israel. It means another Holocaust." (Jewish Exponent)
|