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Baruch College: Living and Learning in a Country Far, Far Away
by Tara Ezer
 Since its inception in 1948, Israel has suffered a bad reputation. For those who have never traveled to this tiny country that is roughly the size of New Jersey, Israel is perceived as an incredibly dangerous place. I find these critics humorous because many of them have never stepped foot on the soil and are basing their opinions solely on how the media depicts Israel. What they don't realize is that Israel is one of the most unique countries in the world and thrives culturally, economically and politically. (Ticker)
UConn: American Bashing of Israel Must Cease
by Aaron Igdalsky
Th e media at large - and in turn many Americans - have decided to ignore the positive things Israel does accomplish. Just a week ago, Israeli intelligence, gained from interrogation of suspected terrorists, allowed Israeli police to stop a terrorist plot in Tel Aviv. Bombers had planned a suicide attack at a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Fortunately, this despicable act was never able to occur, thanks to strong anti-terrorist measures undertaken by the state of Israel. Israel's military is indeed quite strong, but acts completely within its limits based on international diplomatic standards. Israel is a small nation of just over six million people, roughly the size of New Jersey. Israel is surrounded by much bigger, much angrier enemy states that pay big money to fund anti-Israeli and anti-American terrorism. Israel enforces stringent security rules that are necessary to maintain the security that benefits Jews and Arab-Israelis alike. (Daily Campus)
Emory: Engaging In Selective Hearing at Columbia
by James Yeh
 Ahmadinejad has fervently supported developing nuclear power within his country, presumably for nefarious purposes. When pressured by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to change course, Ahmadinejad said, “Our answer to those who are angry about Iran achieving full nuclear fuel cycle is just one phrase. We say: Be angry at us and die of this anger, because we won’t hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation to enrich uranium.” In addition to developing a nuclear arms program, Ahmadinejad has made several anti-Israel and anti-Semitic remarks. He denies the Holocaust ever occurred and has said that Israel is a “disgraceful stain [on] the Islamic world that must be wiped off the map.” (Emory Wheel)
Georgia: U.S. Should Not Try to Satisfy Iran
by Bradley Alexander
 If these protestors get their wish, one thing is certain - the frightening consequences of appeasing the ugliest ideology on the planet for Israel, the U.S. and the world will be on their hands. It is pathetic that some students are so infatuated with third-world totalitarianism and imbued with the rhetoric of genocidal maniacs that they cannot find the strength to defend themselves, the country providing their freedom and security or our democratic ally, Israel. (Red and Black)
Harvard: The Tough-Guy Liberal
by Harvey Mansfield
 Ahmadinejad had a better understanding of the conditions of free speech than did Bollinger, who thought it was possible to invite and listen to an enemy without honoring him. So Columbia at this time was not guilty of honoring what should be dishonored. Well, yes, if you separate ideas from deeds. But can you do that? Bollinger the velvet revolutionary thinks you cannot, but Bollinger the apostle of inquiry thinks you can. You can refrain from honoring Ahmadinejad while still engaging his ideas by reading his speeches and writings and by listening to him. But you cannot help honoring him if you invite him to speak at a place where ideas are taken seriously for their truth. It's no doubt a good experience for students at Columbia and their innocent professors to spend an hour listening to a man who they have to know is lying to them through his teeth. This will help them learn about politics. But you cannot pretend that no tuition is being paid for what you learn. The writer is professor of government at Harvard. (FrontPage)
IDC: Ahmadinejad's Agenda
by Barry Rubin
 Ahmadinejad has not yet achieved the status of being equivalent to Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin as the world's leading threat to peace and freedom; but he is certainly trying to rise to this level. It should be rather obvious that this is not a problem caused by lack of communication, and that engagement with Ahmadinejad will not have any moderating effect. He must be opposed and his regime pressured. Aside from the problems posed by the Iranian government in general, taking a tough stand against Ahmadinejad is necessary to convince his colleague-rivals that they must get rid of this guy and tone down their country's behavior in order to ensure their own survival and that of their regime. (Jerusalem Post)
McGill: Ahmadinejad and International Law
by Irwin Cotler
 A person who incites to genocide; who is complicit in crimes against humanity; who continues the pursuit of the most destructive of weaponry in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions; who warns Muslims who support Israel that they will "burn in the umma of Islam;" who is engaged in a massive repression of human rights in Iran; who assaults the basic tenants of the UN Charter - such a person belongs in the dock of the accused, rather than the podium of the UN General Assembly. State parties to the Genocide Convention, such as Canada, have not only a right, but a responsibility, to enforce the convention, particularly as regards the prevention of genocide. The writer is Opposition Critic for Human Rights and former minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada and professor of law at McGill University. (Jerusalem Post)
Princeton: A Tale of Two World Leaders
by Joshua W. Walker
 Iran's Ahmadenijad emphasized the reality of a global clash of civilizations in which Iran is trying to change the tide, and he asked for our support. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid the Council on Foreign Relations a visit Thursday. During his 40 minute speech, Erdoğan never uttered the words God, faith, or Islam, yet he painted a far brighter picture for his American audience. Seeing two leaders who are often demonized in the press, it was apparent that they are both very human. The contrast, however, between Turkey's Erdogan's “alliance of civilizations” and Ahmadenijad's “clash of civilizations” couldn't have been more pronounced. The writer is a graduate student fellow at Princeton University. (Turkish Daily News)
Southern California: President of Iran's Performance is a Flop
by Alexander Comisar
 Despite Ahmadinejad's embarrassment of an address, universities throughout the nation must not be discouraged from following in Columbia's footsteps. Being an active student is about having questions and tenaciously seeking the answers to those questions. The students and faculty of Columbia University who attended the event wanted to know what the president of Iran had to say for his cruel and discriminatory actions. So, they asked him in person. If Iran's president had actually answered any of those questions, Columbia's bold move might have advanced America's understanding of the Middle East by leaps and bounds. (Daily Trojan)
Right Decision Wrong Reasons
 The British University and College Union has backed down for legal reasons. The proposal has been rejected on a technicality. And in much the same way as we regard the criminal who walks free from court, not because of a lack of evidence, but because due process wasn’t followed to the letter, so those who voted for a boycott will regard Israel - still a criminal, still culpable and still to be shunned and vilified. The argument against an academic boycott, or indeed any sanctions, has not been won. The UCU’s decision does not reflect a sea change in the attitudes of those members hostile to Israel. Their hearts and minds are still swayed by the image they have of the Jewish state - an aggressive, militaristic and repressive power enforcing an apartheid-style rule over the peace-loving Palestinians under its occupation. To truly win the boycott battle instead of simply sighing with relief, it is imperative that we address these misconceptions and radically alter the perception of Israel that exists. (TotallyJewish)
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Brown: Terrorism's Root Cause: the Terrorists
by Zack Beauchamp
 Raymond Ibrahim, a scholar of Islamic history and culture who studied at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and is now a research librarian in the Near East section of the Library of Congress also found a wealth of untranslated works by al-Qaida members (including tracts by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri) designed as theological treatises for both fundamentalists and the rest of the Muslim world. In these works - better indicators of al-Qaida's motivations than videos so tailored for Western audiences as to have English subtitles scrolling on the bottom - one almost never sees references to the United States, Israel, or even the West as a whole. Instead, they are subsumed under the Arabic word "kufr," or "infidelity," which Ibrahim translates as contextually meaning "the regrettable state of being non-Muslim that must always be fought through 'tongue and teeth.'" Given this evidence, it is clear that Chomskyian isolationism simply will not make terrorism go away. A truly effective counterrorism policy must take into account the real motivations and beliefs of Islamic fundamentalists, and find a way to ensure that their beliefs do not spread in the Muslim world. (Brown Daily Herald)
Cornell: Left, Right or Wrong?
by Lee Blum
 In order for peace to be achieved, both Israel and the Palestinians need to change. The first step is for the Palestinian people to force Hamas to change or to vote it out of power. The existence of Israel needs to be recognized and the terrorism needs to cease. At the same time, Israel needs to tear down the walls and remove its troops from Palestinian lands. Israel is the wealthier and arguably more powerful nation and therefore needs to take the leading role. However, the ball is in the court of the Palestinian people. If Hamas continues to get elected and does not reform its “political agenda,” it is unlikely that we will see peace any time soon. (Cornell Daily Sun)
George Washington: Small Lies, Big Lies, and the Israeli Lobby
by Amitai Etzioni
 There are quite a few who have taken for granted the veracity of claims that the Israeli lobby is all-powerful on the grounds that a new book making this case has been written by two highly regarded scholars; John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt of the University of Chicago and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, respectively. In fact, the quantitative data they cite amount to (at best) a very thin reed on which to hang such a mighty claim. I will donate my house to anyone who can find a half respectable social science publication that would publish what these two present as evidence. The writer is a University Professor at The George Washington University. (Huffington Post)
Harvard: Ahmadinejad Holocaust’s Myths
by Alan Dershowitz
The Palestinians and their Arab allies were anything but neutral about the fate of European Jewry. The official leader of the Palestinians, Haj Amin al-Husseini, spent the war years in Berlin with Hitler, serving as a consultant on the Jewish question. He was taken on a tour of Auschwitz by Himmler and expressed support for the mass murder of European Jews. He also sought to “solve the problems of the Jewish element in Palestine and other Arab countries” by employing “the same method” being used “in the Axis countries." He would not be satisfied with the Jewish residents of Palestine - many of whom were descendants of Sephardic Jews who had lived there for hundreds, even thousands, of years - remaining as a minority in a Muslim state. Like Hitler, he wanted to be rid of “every last Jew.” (Jerusalem Post)
See also The Arabs and the Holocaust by Ashley Perry (Jerusalem Post)
See also Hitler, The Mufti of Jerusalem and Modern Islamo-Fascism (YouTube)
Illinois - Chicago: The Slow Restoration of Free Speech
by Christopher Skeet
Ahmadinejad is more than your average cookie cutout psychopathic dictator. He does improv as well. He got a good laugh from his Columbia audience when he denied the existence of homosexuals in Iran. This seems a rather strange absurdity, considering the approximate 400 known Iranians who have been executed for homosexuality. So when this degenerate lunatic took the stage at Columbia, the audience did the right thing. They didn't shout him down, rush the stage, or silence him. They let him make a complete fool out of himself. And, with flying colors, he did exactly that. (Chicago Flame)
UMass: Free Speech or Morality?
by Greg Collins
 The fact that Columbia University and its president Lee Bollinger hosted the speech is no laughing matter. These remarks exposed the utterly horrifying views of an utterly horrifying regime which dishonors the Islamic community. The school's acceptance of Ahmadinejad reflected more poorly on the complete ignorance and selfishness of Columbia University than Ahmadinejad's speech did on Iran. Specifically, Bollinger's justification to welcome the Iranian president in the name of free speech was shamelessly hypocritical and deeply insensitive to those who suffer or have suffered under his regime. (Daily Collegian)
Ohio State: Iran Threat to U.S., World
by Ben Schwarzwalder
 In Iran, for example, one such "investigative report" on Iranian television was preaching the evils of Israel and American business. The program stated that "Coca-Cola, besides its clear continuous support of the Israeli government, had announced its willingness to invest billions of dollars to topple the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Another propaganda-fueled TV program in Iran stated that Pepsi stands for "Pay Each Penny Save Israel." There are thousands upon thousands of TV programs just as shocking as those previously mentioned that the Islamic extremists in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries are utilizing as mind-controlling propaganda. (Lantern)
Santa Barbara: Riding an Israeli Electric Car to Peace
by Benjamin Bakhshi
  Within five years Israel should be shipping the first electric automobile ready for mass adoption. If the Israeli car succeeds in the marketplace it will have potential to reduce anti-Semitism in the world, and further legitimize Israel's standing. The reputations of German and Japanese automobiles have certainly diluted American memories of old wars; if the Israeli car is as reliable as its German and Japanese competitors, then maybe it can dilute Arab memories of past wars, and be the car we all ride towards peace. And in the future people will no longer ask who killed the electric car. They'll ask who killed the internal combustion engine. And the answer will be: Shai Agassi, Israeli. The writer is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara. (Israel21c)
Boycott Battle Won. The War Goes on
by Manfred Gerstenfeld
From the Israeli viewpoint the victory in one battle should not be interpreted wrongly. A few years ago, when there was a temporary lull in the boycott efforts, Israeli authorities and university managements thought that they could ignore the matter further. They were rudely awakened in 2005 when the boycott issue was successfully raised again in the UK. The numerous diehard enemies of Israel on campuses in the UK and elsewhere will continue their war for many years to come. Therefore the abandonment of the UCU boycott is an opportunity for reflection on how to continue to turn Israel's accusers on the campus systematically into the accused. (Jerusalem Post)
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