The Knesset Situation
Talks have resumed this week between Israel and the Palestinians (and the Egyptians and the Jordanians).
Headheeb has a great post about the
political struggles Ariel Sharon faces at home.
Headheeb places the chances of Ariel Sharon pushing the budget through at 70 percent. When you read his post, you will find that even when something is 70 percent certain in Israel, it still takes a Megillah to explain why. No one ever said democracy was pretty, but when it comes to Israel . . . I'll just say that sometimes you don't want to know how gefilte fish is made before you eat it.
Jonah Goldberg and Juan Cole
A few weeks ago, I posted my email discussion with
Juan Cole based on inaccurate comments he had made about the Middle East Media Research Institute. Cole dismissed me in his arrogant way. Now Jonah Goldberg of the National Review finds himself in a similar fight. He cites the posts of yours truly in his
latest salvo as an example of why he finds Cole to be arrogant, and why he thinks debating him on the Middle East would be a waste of time. The original post refuting Cole's MEMRI critique is
here and the post featuring my email discussion with Cole is
here.
Anti-Zionism or Antisemitism: You make the call
Apparently, the Student Union at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies has been taking lessons from the
Mark Elf School of Debate, where opposing views are censored. According the
Guardian, the Union
set a policy last November which made the elimination of "foreign occupation, apartheid, [and] Zionism" as a prerequisite for peace a fundamental belief of the union. Hosting an official from the Israeli embassy would compromise this, [Kavita Meelu, co-president of the union responsible for its societies] said in an email.
This policy was cited by the Union when they tried to ban an Israeli embassy official who had been invited by the Jewish Society from speaking at the school as part of a debate. To their credit, the school's authorities stepped in and forced the Union to reverse that decision.
Is the Union anti-Zionist or antisemitic, or both? Doubtless, the leadership of the Union will defend this policy on anti-racism or anti-imperialism grounds.
Don't believe the hype.
A quick perusal of the website of SOAS's Islamic Society, which is under the Student Union's jurisdiction, reveals that they have hosted such speakers as Professor Yakub Zaki,
a UK-based Islamic fundamentalist and Holocaust denier who has claimed that Jews were not gassed in concentration camps, and
Azzam Tamimi, who has declared himself an advocate of suicide bombing. It is clear from this double standard that the student union's banning of Zionist speakers, besides being an act of censorship, is an ugly example of anti-Jewish hatred disguised as anti-racism.
