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| International |
| The academic left at work |
| 2003-12-27 |
| I found this article eriely similar to reports on Leftist academics at UCAL. EFL "How could you report the war in Iraq if you sided with the Americans?" "How can you say that George Bush is better than Saddam Hussein?" These are some of the milder questions I received from an audience of some 150 undergraduate students from Tel Aviv University’s Political Science Department. The occasion was a guest lecture I gave last month on my experiences as an embedded reporter with the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division during the Iraq war. Many of the students were visibly jolted by my assertion that the patriotism of American soldiers was inspirational. The vocal ones among them were appalled when I argued that journalists must be able to make moral distinctions between good and evil, when such distinctions exist, if they wish to provide their readership with an accurate picture of the events they describe in their reports. "Who are you to make moral judgments? What you say is good may well be bad for someone else." "I am a sane human being capable of distinguishing good from evil, just like every other sane human being," I answered. "As criminal law states, you are criminally insane if you can’t distinguish between good and evil. Unless you are crazy, you should be able to tell the difference." When the show was over, and the students began shuffling out of the lecture hall, a young woman approached me. "Excuse me," she said with a heavy Russian accent. "How can you say that democracy is better than dictatorial rule?" "Because it is better to be free than to be a slave," I answered. Undeterred, she pressed on, "How can you support America when the US is a totalitarian state?" "Did you learn that in Russia?" I asked. "No, here," she said. "Here at Tel Aviv University?" "Yes, that is what my professors say," she said. In the weeks that have passed since I gave that lecture, I have not been able to get those students out of my mind. The student discovered that not only were the professors overwhelmingly self-identified with far left and Arab political parties, most also expressed absolute intolerance for the notion that professors with right-wing or even centrist views should be allowed to teach in their departments. "Over my dead body," said one. Students speak of a regime of fear and intimidation in the classroom. Ofra Gracier, a doctoral student in Tel-Aviv University’s humanities faculty explains the process as follows: "It starts with the course syllabus. In a class on introduction to political theory for instance, you will never see the likes of Leo Strauss or Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman. You will only get Marx and Rousseau and people like that. So, if you want to argue with Marx, you are on your own. You don’t know anything else. "But say you want to dispute your professor. I was taught this class by Yoav Peled, an avowed communist. He was explaining why capitalism is evil. I mentioned the Asian economic miracle – South Korea, Japan, Singapore. He went nuts and spent the rest of the class screaming at me. "there is a dire lack of scholarship in certain areas. For instance, if you want to research the issue of Palestinian policies of land discrimination against Jews, you have to go to primary sources. No one has written a book about it even though it is a huge issue. But if you want to research the question of alleged Jewish land discrimination against Arabs, you have a bookshelf full of books at your disposal." Indeed, Dr. Martin Sherman of Tel-Aviv University’s Political Science Department was unable to get the university’s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies to publish his original work on the hydro-strategic impact of a Palestinian state on Israel. Sherman, with degrees in physics and geology and practical experience as a water adviser in the Ministry of Agriculture, is a recognized expert in the field. "My paper showed conclusively that the establishment of such a state would involve the transfer of control over 60 percent–70 percent of Israel’s water sources to the Palestinians. They wouldn’t have it. I was strung along by Shai Feldman [the head of the Jaffee Center] for months and months, until it was finally made clear that it wouldn’t be published." Time for clean out these morons, whether its in Israel, Berkely, or Oxford. Get rid of them all. They are poisonous scum. My brother spent years getting his doctorate at Berkely and I have been there many times. The detachment from the real world of these people is shocking. I’m hoping Arnie does the business in Cal and shows the way for everyone else. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #11 Don't sweat it too much Rivrdog it's still way early in the game for both of ya. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-27 8:29:52 PM |
| #10 dog, condolences. My own seems determined to go without "higher education" and may end up not amounting to much, but at least she hasn't done anything like that to |
| Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) 2003-12-27 8:22:22 PM |
| #9 Here's a fairly clear example of the leftism on campus. My youngest daughter entered the University of Oregon and studied Biology, as part of a Pre-Med curriculum. She is a good student, always put her studies first ever since Middle School. She worked her way up to a 3.8 GPA in a difficult subject area at U of Oregon. In her Junior year, when it became clear that she would have the grades to get into medical school, we started looking around at how the $150K-250K cost would be met. I found that the US military gives scholarships, full rides, to medical school in return for about 5 years of the young doctor's time when they graduate. They offer up to $50K/yr and a cash stipend of $1200/mo, and a commission as a 2Lt when you enter the program. The Navy, Army and Air Force have the same deal, there are a few differences about residencies, etc but the programs are essentially the same. Daughter was initially enthused. Even thought she would look good in Navy Whites. She had plenty of family tradition, as my Dad, one uncle and a first cousin were all military doctors. She had a year to wait to sign up for the program, and after our viisit to the Navy recruiter, she couldn't wait to get back to school and tell everyone how Uncle Sammy was going to pay for her expensive medical education. Well, she told everyone back at school. Her laboratory professors, all a bunch of lefty weasels started to work on her, unbeknownst to me. When it became time to sign up for the program, the Navy sent materials to me and I called her to say I was forwarding them down to the U of O for her. I was stunned when she told me not to bother, she had decided not to take the scholarship. I asked her what had changed her mind, and she said that she couldn't be part of the illegal Bush war (plans). I told her that as a new doc, she wouldn't be going into combat, but she gave me more of the same lefty antiwar malarkey. End of the story is, she's going to be $200K in debt when she graduates, and will be broke for the first 6-10 years after she adds MD to her name. She won't be able to live like the well-off doctors she learns from, and she knows it. She has doomed herself to poverty for the first half of her life while she pays off those loans, all because her professors filled her head full of antiwar mush. If I had names, I would be spending my retirement in prison for felony assault or worse... |
| Posted by: Rivrdog 2003-12-27 6:05:47 PM |
| #8 For information on staff at the Jaffee Center see: www.tau.ac.il/humanities/faculty/ins/cen_jaf.html |
| Posted by: Tancred 2003-12-27 12:23:03 PM |
| #7 Shit, you can get a better real world Geo-politico education here at Rantburg than any of those high dollar class rooms. Your right Barry regarding the blogosphere. It's the open mic. I read more intelligent posts and remarks here than you could get at any top U. Rantburg U! |
| Posted by: Lucky 2003-12-27 12:18:52 PM |
| #6 See like "maD cOw DisEase" it is spreading after breaking out on US campuses. Now you guys know what to believe when suddenly ex security guys come out backing Yossi Beilin or reservists refuse to serve. They are from the Political Science faculty. Remember too, some months back students started boycotting the classes of lecturers who supported the "reservists" who refused to fly. There are more solid thinking kids on campus than these idiotarians. The unfortunate thing is that they have been brainwashed by the copying of curriculums from Berkely and such places. Don't forget most get their doctorates from the US Ivy League places if not the LSE or Sorbonne. What can one expect? Just pray for enough blogs to expose this. |
| Posted by: Barry 2003-12-27 12:09:25 PM |
| #5 This is a tough call. With high school students, those of minority age, have no de facto responsibility, but when they enter college, they are adults, and they must know there are consequences for what they believe, inasmuch as they believe there are none. While personal behavior can be traced to parents, political beliefs are shaped by those you are closest to (that can includes parents and family); those who say the things that seems to matter to you. College teachers seem to have developed this little Marxist world and no one gains entrance unless you hold valid beliefs, just like every communist political organization the world over. I think cleaning out these folks would be a good direction to go. And by cleaning out I don't mean firing squads. I mean reassignment; to janitorial services where they can be closer to the 'people' they profess to love so much. Oh, and by the way: Were the situation reversed and Berkeley was inundated with rightwingers and anti-idiotarians, the left would be calling for firing squads. |
| Posted by: badanov 2003-12-27 10:30:26 AM |
| #4 Sorry jack, but this sounds like the standard Lefist mantra that no one is responsible for any thing. And if no one is reponsible for anything who takes responsibility for the world we live in? Well I for one am extremely glad people are trying to take responsibility. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2003-12-27 8:28:43 AM |
| #3 Hopefully the IDF takes most of these Yuts in hand after graduation and gives them a good education. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-27 7:41:02 AM |
| #2 OMIGAWD, PEOPLE! READ!! This isn't Berkeley or Columbia, frcrissake, it's Tel-Aviv f***ing University! Aren't any of the professors Israelis? If 5th-columnists |
| Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) 2003-12-27 5:58:51 AM |
| #1 Phil, the real problem here is not the left-wing, no nothing, pussilaminous academics but the family, the peers, the friends, the teachers in grade and high school and others that have left that student without any other perspective to measure all this BS against. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2003-12-27 5:25:46 AM |