Academic Terror - Not a safe environment

Way back when I was in College, I went to a relatively non-politicized university, but it was always easy to tell who was politically right, and who was politically left. Those who kept their political views to themselves were presumably right, while those on the left made it openly clear what their views were, and often enough your grades were a reflection of how closely you toed their line.

I was young and naïve at the time, and didn’t understand how significant and dangerous this was.

With one professor, a few of us decided as a joke (and an experiment) to hand to hand in a series of essays that were very similar enough in content and subject. Some reports were accurate, factual and politically neutral, while others modified the facts and conclusions to match this professor’s worldview. You can guess which reports got the A’s, and which ones didn’t.

I had another professor that regularly started spouting leftwing political nonsense in class and essentially dared anyone to disagree with her. At the beginning of the semester I started to make the mistake of raising my hand to point out her errors in economics and politics when the looks of everyone around me made it clear that silence was going to be a virtue in this class.

There are those that espouse that professors can say what they want and it’s about Academic Freedom, and creating a safe intellectual environment.

But college campuses are not safe intellectual environments. If you dare disagree with a left-wing professor in your political science or history courses, your grades might well reflect that mistake (of disagreeing with them). That was true then, and is very true now, particularly in Israel.

This is academic terror. This stifles academic freedom and intellectual honesty.

If I had known then what I understand now, I would have reported this treatment. But this wasn’t considered a burning issue back then (as far as I knew).

Last week I was embarrassed by what I read in the papers.

I read that Im Tirtzu threatened Ben-Gurion University, that if they don’t fire some of their professors, Im Tirtzu is going to go to BGU’s donors and tell them all about the University's political bias. This message that they said BGU should fire the teachers was making the rounds everywhere (Ha'aretz to their credit, was the exception, and actually did not say Im Tirtzu said BGU should fire their staff).

From what was reported in the papers, it sounded like Im Tirtzu got a little full of themselves and decided to flex muscles they don’t really have.

Im Tirtzu did not look good.

But, I also knew that if I waited just a bit, something is going to come out that will make this all make sense.

Before Im Tirtzu became famous and put the spotlight on Naomi Chazan and the New Israel Fund they were involved in another interesting project. They researched and rated teachers at various universities based on student reports and curriculum material (what textbooks each class required). They published reports on which teachers were post/anti-Zionists and which aren’t.

(For "anti-Zionist", they only took the most extreme definition, so there wouldn't be questions about borderline anti-Zionist, or LW "Zionists").

A similar study was also done by an independent research organization.

Leftwing professors are calling this McCarthyism and a threat to Academic Freedom. But as someone who experienced their kind of Academic Freedom, I could only wish I had had this report available in my college days.

But I digress.

So let’s get back to the facts that Makor Rishon published in this weekend’s paper.

The first is that Im Tirtzu did not tell BGU to fire its professors.

Im Tirtzu said that BGU needs to “put an end to the Anti-Zionist tilt” in its classrooms. If BGU didn’t end the open anti-Zionist agitation in the classrooms, then they would expose this incitement to BGU’s donors.

But what “anti-Zionist tilt” was Im Tirtzu talking about, and who were they talking about?

Well it seems that at BGU, 9 out of it’s 11 professors in the Political Science department openly express anti-Zionist opinions in the classroom, are members of radical-left organizations, and the department head, Neve Gordon, has called for (wait for it...) a full economic, cultural and academic boycott against the State of Israel.

(This department head wants funding cut off to his own university to protest the whatever!)

If that was all of it, you could always just write it off as typical leftwing academia and nonsense.

But that isn’t all there is.

You're probably saying to yourself, if we’re writing about this and Im Tirtzu is involved, then how are we going to bring the New Israel Fund into the picture here.

Hold on to your seats, because this is going to blow you away.

Ben Gurion University offers a course called “Societal Change in the Periphery”.

Ben Gurion University receives NIS 7,300 for each student that attends this course from… the New Israel Fund.

But the connection hardly ends there.

By taking the course, the students must also volunteer/intern in one of the various “societal change” organizations on the BGU list.

BGU gives course additional course credits to the students who volunteer in these various organizations (commonly known as the Easy A).

But some (most?) of these social change organizations (always LW of course), while claiming to be involved in social issues, have also been involved in radical left political issues such as trying to get arrest warrants against General Doron Almog and calling for senior IDF officers to be brought to international trial.

But it gets better (you're probably asking yourself, “How much more can their be?”, and won’t you be surprised).

You get one guess who funds these organizations.

It turns out that all these organizations on the BGU intern list for this program receive NIF funding and are connected to the NIF’s activist arm Shatil.

But it gets even better than that. (!)

Some of these organizations that receive NIF funding, that students who take the “Societal Change in the Periphery” course are required to volunteer/intern in, and that BGU receive NIS 7300 per student for... these organizations are currently (or were, in one case) headed up by professors and lecturers at BGU, such as Neve Gordon (that name again) who ran “Physicians for Human Rights” and Haim Yakobi (who teaches the “Societal Change in the Periphery” course) who heads up “Bimkom”, and Yishai Menuchin who heads up “The public committee against torture”.

Getting back to the start of the post, it seems that the NIF has it claws deep inside the BGU Political Science department. One can only imagine the brainwashing and academic terror that happens when 9 out of the 11 political science professors have radical leftwing outlooks that they aren’t afraid to share.

I am sure that Im Tirtzu will be good at convincing BGU’s donors that a donation to BGU hurts the Zionist cause, because they have enough materials and studies to prove it.

But I also wonder if there is another way.

Every week we learn more and more about how the NIF works and how they use their connections and funding.

For instance, last week a picture was publicized with Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch participating at an NIF event two years ago when they received a $20 million dollar grant from the Ford Foundation.

Presidential Summit: Justice Dorit Beinisch (center right), President of Israel’s Supreme Court, meets with Ford Foundation President Susan Berresford (center left). In the back row from left to right are Israel Executive Director Eliezer Yaari; NIF Board VP in Israel Neta Ziv; Ford Foundation Deputy Vice President, Program Management David Chiel; Ford Israel Fund Director Aaron Back; and NIF CEO Larry Garber.

Maybe it’s time we on the right learn from the NIF.

Maybe it’s time for organizations on the right to duplicate the activities of the NIF.

Openly funding courses and professors who express and teach Zionism and love for Israel.

Training and supporting the next generation of lawyers, judges, and prosecutors with a Zionist and Jewish perspective.

Funding, training and support for activist organizations. Particularly the small one or two person organizations.

Enough NIF activities and methodologies have been exposed (and continue to be exposed) that can be copied by a True Israel Fund and then we can fight fire with fire, instead of with just spilling buckets of water on various hot-spots.

Obviously, it will be more difficult without the millions of dollars that come in from foreign governments who want to influence Israel from within, but there are still rich Zionist Jews out there who could match at least some of this massive foreign funding.

This is a fight over the long haul, and if we also don't start actively influencing the next generation in the schools and in the field instead of always playing defense, then we're fighting a losing battle.

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Melbourne Cancels Fund-raising Speech for New Israel Fund

The Melbourne Jewish Community has canceled a speaking appearance of Naomi Chazan, the director of the controversial New Israel Fund, due to the support of the anti-Israel Goldstone report, by NIF-funded organizations.

The JPOST has the scoop:

In light of allegations contained in a report by the Zionist student organization Im Tirtzu, which accused the New Israel Fund of direct responsibility for the UN’s Goldstone Report on the IDF’s Gaza offensive last winter, The Jerusalem Post has learned that an invitation for NIF chairwoman Prof. Naomi Chazan to speak at a synagogue and Jewish community center in Melbourne, Australia, this month has been canceled.

According to a former member of the Melbourne Jewish community now living in Israel, Chazan had been invited to speak as part of a United Israel Appeal fund-raiser at Temple Beth Israel and the Beth Weizmann Community Center in Melbourne next weekend, but the allegations raised by the Im Tirtzu report had “sparked an enormous backlash” among community members there and the invitation had been rescinded.

While the NIF and its supporters have criticized Im Tirtzu’s report as “slanderous” and “an attack on freedom of speech in Israel,” it appeared on Tuesday that the uproar the report has generated in Israel had not yet subsided, and might in fact be spreading abroad.

“People were shocked when they learned about [the report],” the Melbourne Jewish community member, who asked to remain unnamed, told the Post. “From what I understand, there was a huge public upheaval with regards to Chazan’s visit after the report was made public.”

The invitation to bring Chazan to Melbourne had been extended by the Union of Progressive Judaism – the Australian equivalent of the Reform Movement – which is one of 51 organizations that belong to the Zionist Council of Victoria.

According to ZCV President Dr. Danny Lamm, news of the report, and the Hebrew copy of it found on Im Tirtzu’s Web site, had generated angry responses throughout the Melbourne Jewish community and the decision was made to withdraw Chazan’s invite.

“The activities of the NIF are anathema to Zionist groups such as ours, and frankly, we’re just not interested in having anything to with it,” Dr. Lamm told the Post by telephone from Melbourne on Tuesday.

“It’s not new to me, or many of us, that the NIF has supported groups that have damaged Israel and will continue to do damage to Israel, but others were surprised by this,” he added.

Lamm made it clear that the Zionist Council of Victoria represented all branches of Jewish political and religious affiliation, “from Likud to Meretz” and that they would “never bar anybody from the left just as they wouldn’t bar anyone from the right.

“But the sort of stuff the NIF supports is so far removed from the community here,” Lamm added, saying “it was decided that Chazan’s public appearances be canceled.”

Kudos the the Jews Down Under!

And why does the NIF call the Im Tritzu report slanderous? They have yet to deny any of the allegations, and just repeatedly use the smokescreen mantra; "its slander by the fascist Im Tirtzu organization."

When you criticize the IDF, its "civil rights". If you criticize the NIF, you're a fascist.

NIF: Thanks for clearing that up!

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Unmasking the New Israel Fund

There's been a lot of commotion lately about the New Israel Fund -- here on the blog, and all over Israel.

The most recent incident can be traced back to the brutally lopsided, Goldstone report, written by Judge Richard Goldstone, who was described by Professor Alan Dershowitz, as "an evil, evil man; a traitor to the Jewish people."

The Zionist Student Organization, "Im Tirztu" (if you will it), has made some serious allegations against the NIF, and has started a highly publicized campaign against the NIF. The Jpost reported:

A soon-to-be-released report by the Zionist student group Im Tirtzu, which accuses the New Israel Fund of direct responsibility for the UN’s Goldstone Report on the IDF’s Gaza offensive last winter, is “just another in a series of attempts to quash freedom of speech in the human rights and civil rights community in Israel,” the NIF’s CEO Daniel Sokatch told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

According to the Im Tirtzu report, 92 percent of the Goldstone document’s allegations criticizing the IDF’s conduct came from 16 Israeli NGOs that received some $7.8 million from the NIF in 2008-2009 alone.

Im Tirtzu members have begun a protest campaign to coincide with the release of the report, and on Saturday night they staged a mock rally of Hamas members outside the Jerusalem home of NIF chairwoman Naomi Chazan, a former Meretz MK.

92% of the information in Goldstone's report came from organizations funded by the NIF?

What exactly is the New Israel Fund? It definitely isn't a Zionist fund in the classical sense of the word. Their website claims they are:

The New Israel Fund (NIF) is the leading organization committed to democratic change within Israel. Since 1979, NIF has fought for social justice and equality for all Israelis. We believe that Israel can live up to its founders' vision of a state that ensures complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants, without regard to religion, race or gender.

Or, basically, the eradication of any Jewish character of the State of Israel? I'll admit, reading the NIF's English website, it sounds like an organization dedicated to social justice, ecological preservation, helping women, elderly, the poor and downtrodden...even religious Zionism...all very crunchy granola, nothing too radical...in fact they sound like the support lofty and worthwhile organizations.

Yet on their website, they also support the most radical of left-wing ideologies in Israel.

Lets pick a few:

Shatil / Zochrot.

Proudly showing off their New Israel Fund funding logo, Zochrot is dedicated to "raising consciousness of the moral bankrupcy caused by the tragedy of Israel towards the Palestinian Nation, and advancing the right of return for the refugees."

The "right of return" is a code word for the eradication of Israel as a Jewish State, because an influx of a few million Palestinians would radically change Israel's demographics. And all Funded by the NIF (Yet for some odd reason, I could find no mention of the radical Zochrot organization on the NIF English website. Could it be that NIF is hiding some of the more radical elements of its agenda from Jewish donors abroad?).

Who else does NIF fund? Machsom Watch. An organization dedicated: To protect the human rights of Palestinians in the Territories and work to end the Occupation.

Ilam: To challenge discrimination and promote equality for the Palestinian population in the Israeli media; to strengthen the media as a tool for internal Palestinian discourse and to ensure the Arab public's rights to appropriate media coverage and its integration into media activities.

Note: Ilam isn't referring to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank -- they are referring to Israeli Arabs, citizens of Israel, as the Palestinian population.

Mada - - The Arab Center for Applied Social Research

Promotes the collective social and economic rights of Palestinian citizens in Israel and promotes their participation in decision making.

And so...

Responding to all these allegations, the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee voted Wednesday to appoint a special subcommittee to inquire into the matter of contributions to Israeli NGOs from foreign governments and organizations. The decision comes after research by the Im Tirtzu movement, which found that the New Israel Fund finances most of the Israeli NGOs which testified against Israel in the Goldstone Committee.

MK Danny Danon said that “the committee will have to act swiftly in order to remove the strategic threat that the New Israel Fund poses to Israel.” (INN)

Now, if you take these radical ideologies supported by the NIF, and add to that that NIF sponsored organizations that contributed 92 percent of the Goldstone document’s allegations, then you have to decide whether the NIF is really pushing for the agenda you believe in.

Unless of course, you believe that Israel does not have the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism.

Or if you believe that the IDF intentionally shelled women and children in Gaza.

Or if you support the Palestinian "Right of Return."

Or if you believe that Israel should not be a Jewish State.

And yet...while NIF believes in civil liberties and freedom of speech for all -- and that Israel and the IDF should be investigated by Richard Goldstone -- they believe there is only one body that may not be investigated at all, and is above reproach.

The NIF.

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