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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Hampshire College Divests from Israel |
| 2009-02-17 |
| EFL Several months ago, a rabidly anti Israel group on the Hampshire College campus began a campaign to try to get the college to divest from six companies that they claim helped "the Israeli occupation of Palestine." Those who came up with this formulation regard all of Israel, including Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ben Gurion Airport, as "occupied Palestine." In other words, their goal is to end the existence of Israel. This divestment effort is part of an international campaign against Israel. Until now, every American university administration has categorically rejected this attempt to single out Israel in a world filled with massive human rights abusers. But Hampshire caved in to student and faculty pressure and as Board of Directors agreed to divest from these six companies along with a series of others that did not meet the standards of Hampshire College. The student group, supported by many faculty members, claimed total victory, issuing a press release that boasted that Hampshire has become the first college in the United States to divest from Israel. It urged other universities to follow its lead. Note that the instigators are complete terrorist kool-aid drinkers; advocating the complete destruction of Israel; and not mere critics of various Israeli policies. Those supporting the petition include the notorious anti-Semite Cynthia McKinney, America and Israel basher Noam Chomsky and other Israel haters. The six companies include General Electric, ITT, Motorola and other corporations that employ thousands of American workers. The divestment campaign applies to Israel and Israel alone. Hampshire will continue to deal with companies that supply Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Belarus and other brutal dictatorships around the world that routinely murder civilians, torture and imprison dissenters, deny educational opportunities to women, imprison gays and repress speech. Indeed many of those who support divestiture against Israel actively support these repressive regimes. This divestment campaign has absolutely nothing to do with human rights. It is motivated purely by hatred for the Jewish state. As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman put it: "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vial. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanctions--out of proportion to any other party in the Middle East--is anti-Semitic and not saying so is dishonest." The petition itself mentions nothing about terrorism directed against Israeli civilians, rocket attacks aimed at its kindergartens, and the unwillingness of Hamas even to recognize Israel's right to exist. It seeks to express "solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation." It fails to add that Palestinian students have more and better access to education than Arab students in nearly every other part of the Middle East. It fails to mention that students are routinely arrested for expressing dissenting views in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Muslim nations. It fails to mention that Israel has affirmative action programs for its Palestinian students. It fails to mention that when Israel ended the occupation of Gaza in an effort to trade land for peace, all it got in return was more than 6,000 rockets fired from Gaza at its children. It fails to present any balance concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict. When protests over Hampshire action began, the administration issued a statement of clarification, which did not mention Israel but claimed, obliquely, that "the decision expressly did not pertain to a political movement or single out businesses active in a specific region or country." [To read the entire statement, go here.] But Hampshire President Hexter acknowledged that "it was the good work of SJP"--the virulently anti-Israel group called Student For Justice in Palestine--"that brought this issue to the attention of the committee." They can't have it both ways. They undertook no action based on alleged violations by any country other than Israel, which allowed the anti-Israel group to claim victory, as they have been doing even after the "clarification." Virtually every media report was headlined "Hampshire First College in United States to Divest From Israel." I see dhimmis like the Hampshire administrators as the witch-doctors and shamans of a new kind of cargo cult. They believe that if they shake their feathers and rattle their gourds in the right direction, the gods (in the form of wealthy oil ticks) will shower them with recycled petro-dollars. Unlike the original cargo cultists, though, they are probably right. |
| Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy |
| #8 The free hand of market forces killed Antioch. Bankrupt ideas - bankrupt college. |
| Posted by: GORT 2009-02-17 21:51 |
| #7 Sounds like Antioch College in Ohio. Before it closed. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-02-17 18:39 |
| #6 Lucky Israel |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-02-17 16:23 |
| #5 Trolling, NS? ;-) Saint John's is more of a mixed bag - or used to be. Now, I'm not quite sure. But in the early 70s SJC had people like Leo Strauss and Herman Kahn give talks or visit with students. I'm pretty sure Hampshire wasn't as welcoming .... |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-02-17 15:34 |
| #4 Sounds like St. Johns in Annapolis. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-02-17 14:14 |
| #3 When I was up there in the giant reeducation camp (UMASS, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Hampshire) known as the Pioneer Valley before I escaped in the 70's, Hampshire College was known as the home of the real weirdo's. One of those free form, no grades, make your own major, have your graduation class pose in the nude for their class picture (no kidding) colleges which seemed to cater to rich, liberal NYC kids. It's 50 g's a year to go there, so I doubt that's changed much... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-02-17 13:50 |
| #2 This looks like the action of a fifth-rater trying to claw their way up the rankings the easy way, rather than improving academically. But perhaps Hampshire College is one of those quiet jewels of academia known only within the region. Still, I don't remember them courting trailing daughter #1, for all she was a National Merit scholar; perhaps they don't aspire that high. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-02-17 13:36 |
| #1 Hampshire College. Where the clocks stopped in about 1969... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-02-17 09:16 |