From the Boston Globe:
Republican US Senator Scott Brown is calling on Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to cancel a conference on a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I want to condemn in the strongest possible terms Harvard’s sponsorship of a conference exploring a ‘one-state solution’ to the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” he said in a statement. “This is dangerous thinking that gives comfort to Israel’s enemies who view the ‘one-state solution’ as a euphemism for eliminating Israel as a Jewish state. Harvard may have a right to do this, but that doesn’t make it right to do it. The University should cancel this conference.”
The Globe reported this morning that the conference has drawn criticism from the Anti-Defamation league, which said it has dangerous implications for Israel. The ADL has not called on Harvard to cancel the conference, but has instead asked Harvard President Drew Faust to denounce its theme.
The conference organizer, Ahmed Moor, a first-year student, told the Globe that the conference is intended to discuss ways that all residents of the region enjoy human rights. The Kennedy School told the Globe that the conference is student organized, but received modest funding from the school’s student government and the event’s website will use the school’s name and logo.
Brown, facing a reelection challenge from Elizabeth Warren, has made the Democrat’s ties to Harvard University a centerpiece in his strategy to label her an out-of-touch elitist. Warren teaches at Harvard Law School.
Brown even made a reference to elitism in his in his statement attacking the conference.
“Academic elites need to understand that their ideas have real world consequences well beyond the comforts of the ivory tower, and the last thing Israel needs is Harvard legitimizing a terribly misguided idea,” he said.
Warren’s campaign, in a statement, would not say whether she agrees with calls to denounce or cancel the conference.
dershowitz is good, man.
Dan, is this your stand up comedy routine? I think I missed the punch-line.
abu — yea, i was kiddin’
dersh the other day said he was gonna “wage a campaign” against all the one staters and “anti-israel bigots” like mj rosenberg and others – i would say this might very well be the dersh’s first salvo in that effort……..
i type sitting down
Another example of how the Israel lobby is ruining the Republican Party. Doesn’t Scott Brown believe in basic American values? America is not an ethnocentric or theocentric state, or, what is worse, a combination of the two. Ethnic and religious nationalism are incompatible with modern Western democratic values. And to top it off, Brown has positioned himself as an opponent of academic freedom and free speech. This is your brain on Likud Zionism.
The bigger statement in this story is the non-statement coming out from Warren’s campaign.
The fact of the matter is, the lobby’s presence in the Republican party is smaller because it’s base is much more pro-Likud than the Democratic base. Which is why there’s much more pressure at the top in the Democratic caucus to keep the pols in line.
Warren is a case in point. She has already been exposed as a hack to the lobby.
Her campaign’s response has put to rest the question whether she was merely misinformed or actually sold herself out in such a blatant way.
The rot crosses party lines, a rare thing in these polarizing times. Which is why the lobby’s so effective. I personally think that MJ Rosenberg will get fired. Most of the CAP bloggers are either gone or silenced.
The lobby has shown it’s powers. This isn’t an easy fight but it must be fought anyway.
Everywhere you look, Israel and their agents are terrified, screaming hysterically, every time a debate is announced. Is their position so weak, so defenceless and vulnerable, so easily toppled that they daren’t risk the tiniest amount of open debate about people’s opinions? Really, they are making themselves enemies everywhere with their odious brownshirt tactics, so antithetical to American principles.
Unfortunately, the automatic screaming is effective – all media outlets, all those who publish opinions know that if a pro-Palestinian or an anti-Zionist position is taken, the “anti-Semitism”, “self-hating Jew”, “Jew-hatred” shrieks will automatically appear and are intimidated into silence by them.
Witness CAP.
the lobby wouldn’t be screaming so loud if their tight control of information on the i/p conflict (as well as the national security threat from their israel firstness ) wasn’t getting out to the public. remember, too, that the number of americans receiving most or all of their information from the internet is steadily rising.
Yeah, yourstruly, thanks to the internet, it’s definitely getting harder for the mainstream media to keep a lid on information showing how the Israel First Lobby has worked for so long. Who knows, maybe the MSM some day will be forced to actually employ real journalists with a first duty to inform the American public towards informed consent of the governed?
The Zionists work by 1) screaming blue antisemitic murder and 2) destroying all potential opponents militarily and both of these modes of operation look tricky in 2012 now they have lost control of the narrative.
Equality under the law regardless of color or creed should be American values, and sometimes we have even practiced them. But very often in our history these have not been our operative values. We are less a “nation of immigrants” than a settler-colonial state, the result of some European tribes conquering territory and subjugating other tribes. Ditto for Israel. The settler-colonial tribalism of Israel speaks on a gut level to a lot of Americans, particularly to white Americans. (This, by the way, is not to disagree in the slightest with Mr McBride above.) I’ve all but given up on trying to talk values and morality to people like Scott Brown; Republicans and Democrats like that don’t really give a toss about “Western democratic values,” academic freedom or free speech, with them it’s all narrowly self-interested tribalism. The only argument that might even make a dent with these yahoos is the sizable national security liability that our costly special relationship with Israel presents. Fortunately this happens to be an easy argument to make.
Yeah, Chespirito, it may be “an easy argument to make,” but very difficult to get in front of the ears and eyes of Dick and Jane.
Too right, Citizen, too right! But worth a shot, and the best play to lead with all the same.
‘ ‘ Elizabeth was unaware of this conference, but she is a strong supporter of the steadfast relationship between Israel and the United States, and she firmly believes in a two-state solution,” spokeswoman Alethea Harney said. ‘ ‘
Very astute. “Elisabeth is unaware, and she shall remain unaware”. And by being for “two state solution” she is to the left of Danny Dannon and GOP.
“she firmly believes in a two-state solution,”
That train left years ago.
Presumably she also firmly believes in sub prime mortgages.
I thought that the two state train was a mirage that never existed.
It was a mirage insofar as Israel has no intention of ever granting Palestinians sovereignty in their own land. The cost for so-called “Jewish” self-determination is Palestinian self-determination.
seafoid, if Warren knew as much about the I-P conflict as she knows about sub prime mortgages I’d be very happy. I bet she’d learn on her own and despite her handlers if she actually wins the election–her track record shows a deep morality, great courage, stamina, honesty, and a sense of the public good–she will learn about it, same as she learned Obama wouldn’t appoint her to the new slot for consumer protection that was the result of her hard work more than anyone’s.
Cancel you say? Great. Join myself and others in ‘cancelling’ AIPAC’s idea of representing every single [American] Jew in DC.
“We will have rotating signs on large LED screens on 3 sides of a truck.
If any one of these messages speaks to you, we urge you to sign on.”
Panels 1 and 2:
REMINDER: AIPAC speaks for AIPAC, not for the Jews
AIPAC supports settlements, American Jews don’t.
AIPAC supports war with Iran, Jews don’t.
—JewishVoiceforPeace.org
Panel 3:
REMINDER: AIPAC supports war, we support peace.
(Your name below headline.)
—JewishVoiceforPeace.org
Thank you.
/AIPAC supports settlements, American Jews don’t.
AIPAC supports war with Iran, Jews don’t./
Funny how you take to yourself the right to speak for Jews
while denying it from AIPAC.
You probably should have said
//AIPAC supports settlements, Some American Jews don’t.
AIPAC supports war with Iran, Some Jews don’t.//
A slight difference but it would make you look like less of a hypocrite.
You haven’t understood it. Obviously some Jews support war with Iran, they’re all over the MSM and they’re members of aipac. “Jews” as a homogenous, monolithic bloc is what is referred to here. You are either a pedant, or you lack comprehension skills.
mikeo, some people have good logic skills but no sense of disproportionate power relations.
Barbara Walters kissed Shimon Peres on “The View” the other day. I can’t remember if it was on the lips or not, but kiss it was.
Audience applauded kissing a war criminal.
What does this have to do with anything? It makes Brown’s position (and so many other’s) look so freakishly “normal.”
I wish there could be some heads up on this type of stuff. It seems we are reacting.
Panel 1: Dear Earthlings of either sex and indeterminate Earthlings, Greetings
Resistance is futile, bow to AIPAC!
Panel 2: Elites and morons, unite! Together, bow to AIPAC!
Panel 3: Bow to AIPAC! Remove all treacherous anti-AIPAC ideas of which there are many [flashes]
…………..
[flash 129]
Pinky and the Brain season 1, episode 5. Two laboratory mice try to take over the world. They create a fictional island nation Brainania and get billions of dollars of aid from US government each year. Remove Pinky and the Brain episode Brainania!
For such a shitty little country, Israel gets far more attention than it deserves. Period.
casaananda, that’s the direct result of the American campaign finance system.
Read “The Girl from Ha Giang” — available on Kindle/Amazon now. A somewhat fictional treatment of the racist Occupation.