Steven Plaut Speaks-We Should Listen
1. Ben Gurion University President Rivka Carmi Complains that her
university is under unprecedented attack thanks to the “treasonous
article” published by Neve Gordon in the Los Angeles Times
The letter was sent en masse to the entire faculty of BGU (august 23, 2009
Isracampus Translation of the Letter:
From: Rivka Carmi, President, Ben Gurion University, The President’s Office
To all faculty members of Ben Gurion University, Shalom!
It is my desire to share with you my thoughts about a very serious
matter that has been developing in recent days, one carrying the most
severe consequences for the University.
This past Thursday I returned from a trip to the US. Following a
year of dramatic decreases in the levels of contributions and
donations to BGU because of the global financial crisis, this time I
definitely sensed some optimistic glimmerings of signs of recovery,
willingness to pursue cooperation, and to discuss the needs of the
University and its plans. In all of my discussions, the academic and
social (sic) reputation of the University, as well as its role in the
development of the Negev and of all of Israel, was saluted and
appreciated.
But less than an hour after my landing in Israel I received a
panicky phone call from the US, in which I was informed that a faculty
member at BGU, Dr. Neve Gordon (since promoted under Rivka’s guiding
hand and with her blessings to Associate Professor --- Isracampus) had
just published an article in the Los Angeles Times. This article
calls upon the entire world to boycott the state of Israel, which
Gordon there terms an apartheid regime. From that point and onwards,
I received and continue to receive an unprecedented storm of angry
messages and outraged letters from donors and supporters of the
University, as well as from others who merely heard about the article.
I also was forced to take enraged phone calls from donors and Jewish
public figures in Israel and abroad.
This was not the first time that I and other officials at BGU have
been subjected to similar frontal assaults. I never shared
information about these attacks with you, the faculty, because I
believe that dealing with them is part of my job. Nevertheless, this
time the attack is unprecedented in its severity and scope. This is
due to the extremist message comprising the article in question,
regarded by many readers as outright treason against the state of
Israel, and also because it appeared in a newspaper of such wide
circulation, especially among the Jewish community. I have real and
concrete reasons to suspect that this article will produce massive
destructive damages to the ability of the University to raise funds,
and it will cause enormous harm to the fiscal condition of the
University, facing its worst budgetary crisis in history.
I feel the necessity of sharing with you my fears of these
enormous damages and their impact upon the economic condition of the
University, on its academic and social (sic) reputation, on its
professional levels, and on the loyalty of all of us.
The university officials and many of you members of the faculty
work hard at raising funding for the University. Unfortunately,
without these donations we simply do not have life (sic), and
certainly not development and progress. This work is particularly
difficult during a period of global financial strife and of
intensified competition for funding from other public bodies,
especially other universities. An article such as this brands our
University as an institution undeserving of global Jewish support.
Many of those contacting me stated that they would never again support
any Israeli university employing people who harm Israel in this way,
and indeed that they would encourage their friends and associates to
likewise withhold donations. I am citing the bottom line from so many
letters and messages that I am receiving these days.
Colleagues, I am not addressing here the actual contents of that
article by Gordon, in spite of the fact that I personally find it
deeply repulsive. All I wish to do is convey to you the hardship that
the University now finds itself facing, to let you know what the cause
of that hardship is, and – as I said – to convey to you my fears of
what the future brings regarding the prospects of the University.
Cordially,
Prof. Rivka Carmi
2. Michael Lerner, the editor of the pro-LSD pro-jihad “Tikkun
Magazine,” is sort of permanently fixated in Purim. He spends every
day of the year in his Purim costume pretending to be a Rabbi. As it
turns out, he does not have ANY rabbinic ordination at all, of any
sort. Not even a Reform or a Reconstruction-deconstructionist one.
Well, it seems some valiant heroic protesters from the Bay Area Jewish
community keep expressing their unhappiness with Lerner’s campaigns on
behalf of the Hamas and other anti-Semites. A few days ago, Mikey
gave a big honor to the Israel-bashing UN “Judge”, Richard Goldstone.
The nexte day, claims Mikey, his home was “vandalized” for the third
time. (Here is a report regarding the first of the three times:
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/05/07/poor-michael-lerner%E2%80%99s-petunias/
I especially like the last of the talkbacks on that page!) Now,
"vandalizing" for Reb Mikey means that someone tapes a leaflet
protesting Lerner’s anti-Israel activities onto to Mikey’s door.
Mikey owns a great big expensive house up in the bourgeois Berkeley
Hills, the funding for which has never been publicly revealed.
Here is Mikey’s version of what happened
(http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/rabbi-lerners-house-attacked-3rd-time-day-after-we-gave-south-african-justice-richard-goldstone-the-tikkun-award
): “Only one day after Rabbi Lerner presented the Tikkun Award to
South African Justice Richard Goldstone, at a celebration of Tikkun’s
25th Anniversary attended by over 600 people at the University of
California, Berkeley, Rabbi Lerner’s home was again assaulted by
extremist Zionist haters who plastered posters over his home once
again. This is the 3rd assault on his home since Lerner announced the
award to Justice Goldstone whose report on Israel’s human rights
violations during the Israeli assault on Gaza in Dec. 2008 and
Jan.2009 was denounced by the State of Israel and by the
AIPAC-dominated House of Representatives last year. You would not have
known about the 2nd attack, which was reported to the police but not
to the media because Lerner had been advised that not giving the
attackers attention might make future attacks less likely. That
strategy failed. Each time the posters have sought to display Lerner
as either a tool of an evil Goldstone trying to hurt Israel.”
So no need for you to waste any time on those Jewish babies murdered
in Itamar. The REAL atrocity Tikkun wants you to get upset over is
the malicious scotch taping of a leaflet on Mikey’s door. Let us note
that the perps did not so much as trample upon Mikey’s petunias!
3. Haaretz this week reports that the Hebrew University is finally
getting serious about dealing with sexual predator Eyal Ben-Ari, the
far-leftist professor of sociology who supervised that thesis that
“proved” that the reason Jewish soldiers do not rape Arab women is
that the Jews are such racists. Ben-Ari has been suspended without pay
for two years because of his molestation and harassment of his female
students. Now the Hebrew University administration is appealing the
previous disciplinary measures against Ben-Ari and is seeking his
complete dismissal. This is revolutionary because Ben-Ari has tenure,
thanks mainly to his far-leftist diatribes, and ordinarily professors
do not get stripped of tenure simply because they are criminals.
Here is the latest:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/both-sides-appeal-in-case-of-lecturer-suspended-for-relations-with-student-1.349902
Meanwhile, the OTHER leftist professor of sociology at the Hebrew
University to be found guilty of “inappropriate sexual relations” with
his student is Gideon Aran. He is suddenly the focus of attention by
the Berkeley student newspaper
(http://www.dailycal.org/article/112410/campus_officials_unaware_of_visiting_professor_s_p
) - he is on leave at Berkeley this spring.
university is under unprecedented attack thanks to the “treasonous
article” published by Neve Gordon in the Los Angeles Times
The letter was sent en masse to the entire faculty of BGU (august 23, 2009
Isracampus Translation of the Letter:
From: Rivka Carmi, President, Ben Gurion University, The President’s Office
To all faculty members of Ben Gurion University, Shalom!
It is my desire to share with you my thoughts about a very serious
matter that has been developing in recent days, one carrying the most
severe consequences for the University.
This past Thursday I returned from a trip to the US. Following a
year of dramatic decreases in the levels of contributions and
donations to BGU because of the global financial crisis, this time I
definitely sensed some optimistic glimmerings of signs of recovery,
willingness to pursue cooperation, and to discuss the needs of the
University and its plans. In all of my discussions, the academic and
social (sic) reputation of the University, as well as its role in the
development of the Negev and of all of Israel, was saluted and
appreciated.
But less than an hour after my landing in Israel I received a
panicky phone call from the US, in which I was informed that a faculty
member at BGU, Dr. Neve Gordon (since promoted under Rivka’s guiding
hand and with her blessings to Associate Professor --- Isracampus) had
just published an article in the Los Angeles Times. This article
calls upon the entire world to boycott the state of Israel, which
Gordon there terms an apartheid regime. From that point and onwards,
I received and continue to receive an unprecedented storm of angry
messages and outraged letters from donors and supporters of the
University, as well as from others who merely heard about the article.
I also was forced to take enraged phone calls from donors and Jewish
public figures in Israel and abroad.
This was not the first time that I and other officials at BGU have
been subjected to similar frontal assaults. I never shared
information about these attacks with you, the faculty, because I
believe that dealing with them is part of my job. Nevertheless, this
time the attack is unprecedented in its severity and scope. This is
due to the extremist message comprising the article in question,
regarded by many readers as outright treason against the state of
Israel, and also because it appeared in a newspaper of such wide
circulation, especially among the Jewish community. I have real and
concrete reasons to suspect that this article will produce massive
destructive damages to the ability of the University to raise funds,
and it will cause enormous harm to the fiscal condition of the
University, facing its worst budgetary crisis in history.
I feel the necessity of sharing with you my fears of these
enormous damages and their impact upon the economic condition of the
University, on its academic and social (sic) reputation, on its
professional levels, and on the loyalty of all of us.
The university officials and many of you members of the faculty
work hard at raising funding for the University. Unfortunately,
without these donations we simply do not have life (sic), and
certainly not development and progress. This work is particularly
difficult during a period of global financial strife and of
intensified competition for funding from other public bodies,
especially other universities. An article such as this brands our
University as an institution undeserving of global Jewish support.
Many of those contacting me stated that they would never again support
any Israeli university employing people who harm Israel in this way,
and indeed that they would encourage their friends and associates to
likewise withhold donations. I am citing the bottom line from so many
letters and messages that I am receiving these days.
Colleagues, I am not addressing here the actual contents of that
article by Gordon, in spite of the fact that I personally find it
deeply repulsive. All I wish to do is convey to you the hardship that
the University now finds itself facing, to let you know what the cause
of that hardship is, and – as I said – to convey to you my fears of
what the future brings regarding the prospects of the University.
Cordially,
Prof. Rivka Carmi
2. Michael Lerner, the editor of the pro-LSD pro-jihad “Tikkun
Magazine,” is sort of permanently fixated in Purim. He spends every
day of the year in his Purim costume pretending to be a Rabbi. As it
turns out, he does not have ANY rabbinic ordination at all, of any
sort. Not even a Reform or a Reconstruction-deconstructionist one.
Well, it seems some valiant heroic protesters from the Bay Area Jewish
community keep expressing their unhappiness with Lerner’s campaigns on
behalf of the Hamas and other anti-Semites. A few days ago, Mikey
gave a big honor to the Israel-bashing UN “Judge”, Richard Goldstone.
The nexte day, claims Mikey, his home was “vandalized” for the third
time. (Here is a report regarding the first of the three times:
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/05/07/poor-michael-lerner%E2%80%99s-petunias/
I especially like the last of the talkbacks on that page!) Now,
"vandalizing" for Reb Mikey means that someone tapes a leaflet
protesting Lerner’s anti-Israel activities onto to Mikey’s door.
Mikey owns a great big expensive house up in the bourgeois Berkeley
Hills, the funding for which has never been publicly revealed.
Here is Mikey’s version of what happened
(http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/rabbi-lerners-house-attacked-3rd-time-day-after-we-gave-south-african-justice-richard-goldstone-the-tikkun-award
): “Only one day after Rabbi Lerner presented the Tikkun Award to
South African Justice Richard Goldstone, at a celebration of Tikkun’s
25th Anniversary attended by over 600 people at the University of
California, Berkeley, Rabbi Lerner’s home was again assaulted by
extremist Zionist haters who plastered posters over his home once
again. This is the 3rd assault on his home since Lerner announced the
award to Justice Goldstone whose report on Israel’s human rights
violations during the Israeli assault on Gaza in Dec. 2008 and
Jan.2009 was denounced by the State of Israel and by the
AIPAC-dominated House of Representatives last year. You would not have
known about the 2nd attack, which was reported to the police but not
to the media because Lerner had been advised that not giving the
attackers attention might make future attacks less likely. That
strategy failed. Each time the posters have sought to display Lerner
as either a tool of an evil Goldstone trying to hurt Israel.”
So no need for you to waste any time on those Jewish babies murdered
in Itamar. The REAL atrocity Tikkun wants you to get upset over is
the malicious scotch taping of a leaflet on Mikey’s door. Let us note
that the perps did not so much as trample upon Mikey’s petunias!
3. Haaretz this week reports that the Hebrew University is finally
getting serious about dealing with sexual predator Eyal Ben-Ari, the
far-leftist professor of sociology who supervised that thesis that
“proved” that the reason Jewish soldiers do not rape Arab women is
that the Jews are such racists. Ben-Ari has been suspended without pay
for two years because of his molestation and harassment of his female
students. Now the Hebrew University administration is appealing the
previous disciplinary measures against Ben-Ari and is seeking his
complete dismissal. This is revolutionary because Ben-Ari has tenure,
thanks mainly to his far-leftist diatribes, and ordinarily professors
do not get stripped of tenure simply because they are criminals.
Here is the latest:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/both-sides-appeal-in-case-of-lecturer-suspended-for-relations-with-student-1.349902
Meanwhile, the OTHER leftist professor of sociology at the Hebrew
University to be found guilty of “inappropriate sexual relations” with
his student is Gideon Aran. He is suddenly the focus of attention by
the Berkeley student newspaper
(http://www.dailycal.org/article/112410/campus_officials_unaware_of_visiting_professor_s_p
) - he is on leave at Berkeley this spring.
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