John Kerry’s Mideast peace deal is a disaster
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- Written by Gideon Levy Gideon Levy
- Published: 19 February 2014 19 February 2014
- Hits: 4026 4026
Failure is assured even if ‘success’ is achieved. Sooner or later, the Palestinian rebellion will erupt again, as justified as ever.
If United States Secretary of State John Kerry fails in his efforts, it will be a disaster; if he succeeds, it will be an even greater disaster. Failure is liable to herald what New York Times analyst Thomas Friedman has called “the Brussels intifada,” a third intifada that won’t involve bombings and violence but sanctions and international boycotts of Israel. Failure will push the Palestinians back to the United Nations, where even the U.S. may remove its automatic and blind veto umbrella that has always protected Israel there. In the end, failure is also liable to reignite the fire of rebellion in the territories.
But success would be even more ominous. Kerry is not an honest broker, because the U.S. cannot be one − not even the U.S. of President Barack Obama, as disappointing as that is. The absolute ally of one side can never be a fair intermediary, not in business and not in diplomacy. An ally that cannot exploit the dependence of its protectorate to advance a fair agreement can’t achieve anything that will resolve the ultimate problems.
Instead, the name of the game now is exploiting the weakness of the Palestinian Authority. With the Arab world fighting its own regimes and the Western world tired of this endless conflict, the Palestinians are left alone to their fate. America is trying to bring them to their knees and subdue them. If it succeeds, it will be a disaster.
Bill targeting academic groups that boycott Israel halted in New York Assembly
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- Written by Alex Kane Alex Kane
- Published: 04 February 2014 04 February 2014
- Hits: 3918 3918
There was little notice last week when the New York State Senate took up legislation to prohibit state aid from flowing to academic groups that boycott Israel. It passed quietly–and overwhelmingly. But when the same legislation started making its way through the New York Assembly, activists sprung into action–and have stopped it from advancing, at least for now.
Three committees in the New York Assembly did not discuss or vote on the anti-boycott legislation, a victory for the coalition of civil liberties and Palestinian rights groups that mobilized fast over the weekend to stop the legislation from passing. Activists said that Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, the chair of the Higher Education Committee, announced that the anti-boycott bill was taken off the agenda for discussion yesterday. Glick also said that the legislation will be reworked, so it could come back in a different form.
“We hope that New York legislators have realized that it is inappropriate for them to deny state funds to universities in an effort to silence political speech activities that they personally disagree with. The right to engage in human rights boycotts, used to oppose segregation in the U.S. South, the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and now aimed at achieving equal rights for Palestinians, is protected by the First Amendment,” Dima Khalidi, Director of Palestine Solidarity Legal Support and Cooperating Counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement. “The threat to this right will remain until the New York bill and similar bills in other states are entirely defeated.”
The bill would cut off money to students and scholars from state institutions who need aid to travel to conventions organized by the American Studies Association, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and the Association for Asian American Studies, all of which have voted to boycott Israel. Those three organizations have endorsed the boycott of Israel, and many members of the New York legislature want to cripple the ability of scholars to participate in those academic groups.
The legislation also calls for punishing any school in violation of the ban with a cut-off in state aid and prohibits departments at state schools from paying membership fees to academic groups that boycott Israel. But for now, the broad coalition that pointed out that the legislation was an attack on academic freedom has won out.
Over the weekend and yesterday, many activists called in to various Assemblymembers to express opposition to the bill. And as the Albany Times Union‘s Casey Seiler reports, a group that is normally an ally of the powerful Assembly Speaker who authored the bill, Sheldon Silver, expressed strong opposition to it. The New York State United Teachers union issued a statement saying that the bill “violates the principles of academic freedom, the First Amendment protection of speech and protection of association.” The Professional Staff Congress, the union for City University of New York faculty, opposed the bill, and so did groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild.
About seventy-five members of the Columbia University faculty also joined the pile-on against the bill. And the New York Times published an editorial blasting the legislation. ”The New York bill is an ill-considered response to the American Studies Association resolution and would trample on academic freedoms and chill free speech and dissent,” the Times stated. ”Academics are rightly concerned that it will impose a political test on faculty members seeking university support for research meetings and travel.”
Article on PSU President's Wim Wiewel's trip to Israel in July 2013
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- Written by Trevor Williams for Global Atlanta Trevor Williams for Global Atlanta
- Published: 04 February 2014 04 February 2014
- Hits: 4186 4186
President's Israel Trip to Spur New Programs for Kennesaw
Whose land is it? "As I always said when I was teaching a class, it
depends on when you want to start and it depends on when you want to
stop," he said.
Trevor Williams
08.08.13
Is it more productive to meet a prime minister or a pollster?
For understanding a conflict, surprisingly, the latter might have been the better choice, Kennesaw State University President Daniel Papp said about a chance meeting on his "eye-opening" trip to Israel in July.
Of course, he may never know. Dr. Papp and seven of his peers were slated to meet with the presidents of Israel and the Palestinian Authority on July 3.
Egypt's military picked that same day to stage a coup, putting the always-tense region on even higher alert. The elected officials suddenly "had better things to do" than meet with leaders of American institutions, Dr. Papp told a small group of KSU backers at a breakfast briefing Aug. 7.
But the presidents' stand-in had a unique perspective.
Khalil Shikaki, a top Palestinian pollster, told the group his research shows that most people on both sides of the territorial conflict want to forget about it and move on; it\'s extremists making up 15-25 percent of each population who continue fueling the fire.
That was interesting on many levels to Dr. Papp, an expert in Russian foreign and defense policy heading up a university with one of the few doctoral programs in international conflict management.
In fact, discussions on geopolitics permeated the Project Interchange seminar, an annual program organized by the American Jewish Committee to help American university presidents understand Israel and the region better.
Dr. Papp put on his professor's cap during the briefing at the Georgian Club.
With a presentation mixing maps, charts and statistics with tourist photos, he showed that although Israel was around in biblical times, the modern state emerged 64 years ago (as of Aug. 7) as former British colonies were partitioned after the two world wars in the 20th century.
Whose land is it? "As I always said when I was teaching a class, it depends on when you want to start and it depends on when you want to stop," he said.
One thing that can't he argued: Israel is a melting pot of cultures. In addition to the various strands of Jews and Arabs, about one of eight Israelis hails from the former Soviet Union. The holy sites on the temple mount in Jerusalem illustrate the diversity of faiths rooted in the Abrahamic tradition.
"These are right on top of each other," he said of the western wall of Judaism's holy temple, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock mosque. "You can say that and say that and say that, but until you actually see it, you cannot - or at least I could not - fully appreciate it."
In the progressive coastal city of Tel Aviv, however, the group saw more sun worshippers than scholars of the Torah.
They also traveled to Haifa to visit the Technion, which Dr. Papp called the "Georgia Tech of Israel."
He conceded that the Technion wasn't the best partner for Kennesaw but was hopeful that meetings at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University would pave the way for formalized student and faculty exchanges. Although he didn't visit, he also cited Bar-Ilan University as a potential partner.
The trip also produced bonds among the American universities. After striking up a friendship with Portland State University President Wim Wiewel, Dr. Papp said a Kennesaw group would head to Oregon to study its community engagement strategies.
For more on the trip, click here. http://web.kennesaw.edu/news/stories/top-us-university-presidents-explore-innovation-and-bilateral-academic-opportunities-israel
Community objections to PSU President Wim Wiewel's statement on the ASA boycott of Israeli institutions
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- Written by AUPHR and others AUPHR and others
- Published: 04 February 2014 04 February 2014
- Hits: 4950 4950
February 3, 2014
President Wim Wiewel
RE: Objections to your statement on the ASA boycott of Israeli institutions
Dear President Wiewel,
As members of Portland State University’s Oregon community we are deeply disturbed by your recent statement on January 14th against the American Studies Association's boycott of Israeli academic institutions. We oppose a number of declarations made in your statement.
First, the ASA resolution does nothing to curb academic freedom or the free exchange of ideas because it is not directed at individual Israeli academics but at institutions complicit in Israel's denial of fundamental human rights to Palestinians living in Israel, under occupation in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and in the diaspora. Israeli academics are free to attend ASA-sponsored conferences as long as they are not being paid to attend by Israeli institutions. Your letter misrepresents the ASA's position and willfully ignores Israel's ongoing denial of academic freedom to Palestinians.
Video: "Checkpoint" by Jasiri X
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- Written by Jasiri X Jasiri X
- Published: 31 January 2014 31 January 2014
- Hits: 4759 4759
This fabulous music video is a must see~
"Checkpoint" is based on the oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/checkpoint