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- Dershowitz calls Hawking an ‘ignoramus,’ a ‘lemming,’ and likely an … 149
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- Guatemalan genocide got assist from US, Christian Right, and Israel http://t.co/oJT9HsoQcD, 24 hours ago
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Go everybody that can.
Ask intelligent and compassionate questions.
I don’t think I’ve ever said this before and I might not ever say this again but this is a good and positive comment by Witty
Cheap sentiment. What’s a “compassionate” question, anyways?
For starters, a “compassionate” question is one delivered respectfully.
>> What’s a “compassionate” question, anyways?
One that isn’t maximalist, destabilizing or revolutionary.
“How will I know if it’s one of those instead of just ‘compassionate’?”
You can be sure the “humanists” will let you know.
Joseph ~ beware the motherhood statement:
a “feel good” platitude, usually by a politician, about a worthy concept that few people would disagree with, without any specified plans for realisation.
It’s a RW speciality.
Richard, I want you to know that your comments on this forum enlarge my understanding. I think that’s Hass’ role, too- offering her Israeli readers opportunities to enlarge their understanding of people whose lives they affect but don’t share or experience in any real & direct way as she does by living in Ramallah. So she provides a reality check- and basis for compassion- across a great divide. Can’t ask more from a journalist than that.
“Richard, I want you to know that your comments on this forum enlarge my understanding.”
Mine too. Coming here and reading RW has made me more critical and more distrustful about liberal Zionism. I’ve read liberal Zionists who were intellectually honest about the crimes committed in its name–people like Avi Shlaim, Jerome Slater and a few others (I’m going blank on the names, but there are others). Then I came here and read RW and notice how similar he is to other self-described liberal Zionists that I’ve seen, who are more interested in protecting the good name of Zionism than in telling the truth about what has been done to the Palestinians. So now when someone says “liberal Zionist” I tend to think more of RW’s contortions and suspect he’s probably a more representative specimen of that political species than, say, Jerome Slater.
The common thread of a liberal Zionist, whether Slater, Shlaim or me, is that we are willing to live with Palestinians as genuine peer neighbors, with fully equal civil rights. And, that we commonly oppose expansion of the settlements.
We differ, really only slightly, in how to get there, and in how we react to invoked stimulations by the resentful left (Dershowitz, Morris).
I don’t know any liberal Zionists that supports academic BDS. Do you? Does Slater? Shlaim?
I know Uri Avneri does not.
Ooops! Hit the wrong button (Report comment)
Anyway..Witty
“Ask intelligent and compassionate questions.”
I strongly dislike your tone…Gently and kindly, you’re not in a position to lecture any of us on the right attitude to have in polite society..
Compassionate questions? What the hell is that? Does this have something to do with Bush’s compassionate conservatism?
An intelligent and compassionate statement is one that is intended to elicit understanding of what the presenter presented in their comments, in what is logically inferrable (disclosing one’s references and assumptions), and open to hearing what the presenter actually has to say without prejudice.
The violations of compassionate inquiry are those on the right that add up a statement say by Amira Hass, as indicative of disloyalty, when in fact it is possible that her inquiries are an expression of loyalty in the form of desiring a higher quality of governance.
And, a violation of compassionate inquiry would be similarly a demonizing approach on the part of dissenters, whether stated in the name of solidarity with Palestinian nationalism or humanism, particularly the failure to acknowledge that Israel is a nation and has responsibilities to all its citizens, including security.
Willing to listen.
If you’re pro-Israel, like certain so-called compassionate inquirers, be sure to ask questions that misdirect from the heart of the matter, obfuscate, and implicitly excuse Israel for mass murders of innocent civilians on the grounds that it should provide “security” for its citizens, implicitly say that Israel has responsibilities to provide security for its citizens and may therefore kill innocent people at any time, not to mention beating, abuse and torture to extract false confessions, imply that Israel may imprison non-citizens for non-violent political activity (after all such activity threatens the state of Israel) and imply that Palestinians who aren’t citizens of Israel have no right to life.
Don’t go, even if you can.
But if you do, ask stupid and ignorant and pitiless questions.
Compassionate to whom?
Tell’m Amira!
Amira=Princess in Arabic, and princess she is!
The hyprocrisy in the comment section hit an all time high here. Seriously you guys bitch and moan about RW hijacking the comment section but ya’ll just wasted no less than 10 comments responding to a one line comment asking ppl to go see a Pro-Palestinian speaker and ask questions.
“ya’ll just wasted no less than 10 comments”
So the supply of comments is limited? BTW, you don’t know what the word “hypocrisy” means. Why don’t you go look it up, and then come back and tell us how our dislike of Witty represents “hypocrisy”?
Or would that be “censorship”?
I’ll say one thing for you, Yoni. You have done even more than Witty to combat ethnocentric myths. No one reading your could have any illusions about superior Jewish cogitation. Not to mention your work combating the perception that Judaism has strictly delineated gender roles.
I must commend you for both of those efforts, and I do believe they are genuine. Whoops, that was two things.
BTW, how was your wedding? I didn’t get an invitation, but I still wish you well. As you told us it was imminent, I must assume the happy event has taken place. Congratulations!
yonira – does this mean you endorse my call to not feed the troll?
For once, yonira is right. People aren’t going to read through a bunch of drivel responding to the resident fathead just to get to some substantive comments pushed further and further down the thread. Every response to the troll is taking space from serious commenters.
LOL, imminent Mooser, you were the one who spoke of there being a wedding, i had never mentioned in. Thank you for asking though, we are moving in together towards the beginning of 2011 and then my love will explore Judaism to see if it is right for her.
As for the other nonsense, i am not sure what you are talking about. Mooser how does my gentile mother and Christian upbringing fit into your claims of my ethnocentric superiority ‘complex’
Mooser, he’s an Evangelical!
Mocking my religion is inexcusable. I have never mocked those of different faiths on here, I would appreciate it if I was given the same respect.
One of the great ironies of US higher education:
While SUNY Albany was able to maintain programs in Judaic Studies, Africana Studies, Globalization Studies, and a whole host of largely worthless disciplines in the Business School and the social sciences, it just this month abolished majors in French, Italian, Russian, classics and theater, terminating the tenure of 20 faculty members in the Dept. of Foreign Languages.
Also, note that the university has money to bring in Amira Hass– last week, they brought in Barbara Walters to speak as well. Anyway here are the details:
link to insidehighered.com
Who needs foreign languages, classics etc?
“If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!”
The program is obviously independantly funded.
You have heard of funded fellowships and programs?
“a whole host of largely worthless disciplines in the Business School and the social sciences”
Are you suggesting that the Albany programmes were worthless, or that the whole lot is worthless, regardless of where and by whom taught ?
If the latter, hurray!
French, Italian, Russian, classics and theater
What?!?
Why is ‘Judaic Studies’ in scare quotes?
To Witty’s earlier comments about “compassion” etc:
link to youtube.com
I didn’t put Judaic Studies in in scare quotes, and I don’t think Judaic Studies is a worthless discipline. I simply think that French and Russian and classics are more central to the the university mission than Judaic Studies or any ethnic studies for that matter– I don’t want to single out Judaic studies. I think Women’s studies should also go before those.
But before all of those, I think Business Management or Human Resource Management should go.
You get my drift?
Wiki: “Jewish studies (or Judaic studies) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (especially Jewish history), religious studies, archeology, sociology, languages (Jewish languages), political science, area studies, women’s studies, and ethnic studies. Jewish studies as a distinct field is mainly present at colleges and universities in North America.
Related fields include Holocaust studies and Israel studies, and in Israel, Jewish Thought.”
Is there any other academic discipline in the USA centering on one group of humans in the same interdisciplinary manner, with the same broad yet not scope? Should there be?
Albany also has a related Hebrew Language studies program. Yet it abolished majors in French, Italian, Russian, classics and theater, terminating the tenure of 20 faculty members in the Dept. of Foreign Languages. Is Hebrew so much more important? Albany also participates in the SUNY-wide Israel study program for a semester or a year, which is overseen by the Judaic Studies department and is open to everyone. Who decides what to cut and not? What is their criteria? Just asking.
African-American studies?
Black studies.
Madrid, thanks for clarifying. I’m torn about this topic, but understand it as a fact of life for any campus struggling for students and money. In New York State, there is simply enough demand, enough outside funding, to make Judaic Studies viable and attractive for a campus. Decisions on which majors to have are not objective; they are based on funding, student interest, academic fashion, and even personalities.
Given the rise of distinct programs in ‘Israel Studies’ I feel like ‘Judaic’ programs shouldn’t be controversial.
And you know what? Let everyone have what they want for a few years. There should be – and probably will be – more programs around Kurds, Turks, Arabs, Berbers and Islamic civilization to mirror the rise of Judaic and Israel centered programs. It’s a way for identity groups to exert some political muscle in this society, and it’s relatively benign compared to the harmful impact of efforts targeting academic freedom, Middle East Studies departments in general, and Palestinian solidarity efforts in particular.
I don’t have any problem with Judaic studies or Women’s studies or Russian or African or African-American studies or Islamic studies or any other group in principle.
Now of course scholars within those disciplines might do a poor job if they allow ideology to twist their scholarship, but that’s a potential problem in almost any field. (Economics comes to mind).
Our high school students shouldn’t be allowed to graduate without knowing how to speak read and write: English, a Romance language (French, Spanish, Italian), a pictographic language (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and a fourth elective.
It’s how they do it in Norway and those kids rank as some of the brightest on the planet. We’re where? 32nd? In a so-called global economy? No wonder no one outside North America wants to hire our engineering students. They’re language challenged; they can’t talk to the workers on the floor.
She is the epitome of the “speak truth to power” journalist. She considers it her job to monitor how those who have power exercise it. This is why she does not consider it to be responsible journalism to automatically give equal time to the prisoner and the jailer.