Opinion
Dry Bones
Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us .
Editorial
Countering Campus Hatred
T
here's a fine line between free
speech and incitement. Just ask
Jewish students on campuses any-
where in America: The bar has been raised
amid growing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel
tensions stirred by pro-Palestinian agitators.
Jewish organizations ranging from
the Anti-Defamation League and
StandWithUs to the Simon Wiesenthal
Center and Hillel: The Foundation for
Jewish Campus Life have galvanized
through separate, but related educational
initiatives to support Jewish and pro-Israel
students against threats and harassment
emanating from pro-Palestinian activity.
"The level of activity and nature of
activity in three specific areas is measur-
ably different in kind, not merely degree,
from what we've seen before," Wayne
Firestone, national president of Hillel, told
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).
The three areas are: academic hostil-
ity toward Israel, physical intimidation
of Jewish students, anti-Zionist activities
similar to the Israel Apartheid Week, the
annual weeklong festival of anti-Israel
events that just concluded its fifth year.
University presidents may generally
understand the unrest, like Firestone sug-
gests in an April 13 JTA story, but they
need to be more vigilant as the prevailing
mood of Jew- and Israel-bashers intensi-
fies.
Anna Kolodner, executive director of the
well-respected David Project Center for
Jewish Leadership in New York, told JTA
that university administrators must step up
enforcement of polices on civil discourse
to protect pro-Israel backers. "I think the
situation is getting out of hand," she said. "I
think very soon we're going to see physical
activity unlike we've seen before!'
Like StandWithUs, the David Project
has trained student leaders and activ-
ists, helped organize speakers and panel
discussions, and further assist students in
responding to pro-Palestinian rallies.
University administrators in Michigan
have done a better job than many of
their peers in recognizing the difference
between protest and hatred. But they can't
let down their guard. At the same time,
they should re-examine internal policies
toward prejudice or bigotry of any sort.
Such re-examination would send a strong
and stern message to hate-mongers, both
seasoned and budding.
John Moghtader, 21, a junior at the
University of California, Berkeley, a bas-
tion of political activism, is the president
of Tikvah, a pro-Israel student group. He
reportedly was recalled from his student
Senate seat in a vote precipitated by the
Associated Students of the University of
California at a cost of $25,000. He told JTA
that his kippah-wearing friends attract
glares by Students for
Justice in Palestine sup-
porters. "It's not a com-
fortable atmosphere," he
said. "If you're a Jew who
supports Israel at all,
you're setting yourself up
for an extreme amount
of hostility"
That should shake the
timbers of Jews across
the land.
And that is why Jon
Loew's approach reso-
nates. He founded the
pro-Israel Fuel for Truth,
a popular campus pres-
ence through its Old
Skool program. "Jews
on campus are going to
continue to be picked on until the Jews
on campus give them a reason to think
twice about picking on them," he told JTA.
"The aggressive protests that are being
organized by our enemies need to be met
with an equal or greater response from
our side.
"I'd like to see an alternative suggestion
by any other member of our community"
Don't dismiss that call.
The Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media
Watch reports that Hamas, the Palestinian
terrorist group controlling Gaza, defiantly
www.drybonesblog.com
continues to teach kids that death exceeds
life. This "lesson" is a means to stirring
kids to "martyrdom" — to blowing them-
selves up to murder Israelis to satisfy
Allah.
In Hamas' orbit, Palestinian death trans-
lates to honor and victory when Zionists
are victimized. American campuses can't
downplay the terrorist-oiled gears that
drive the seemingly issue-oriented pro-
tests waged against Israeli "actions!'
Ignoring the underlying propellants of
those protests is dangerous.
Reality Check
Busy Doing Nothing
A
s far as I can tell, there are three
big advantages to being a semi-
retired journalist.
First, I can go to work without putting
my pants on. I knew some newspaper
guys who did this back in the 1960s, but
it never struck me as an especially good
path to career advancement.
Second, I don't have to go to meetings. I
hate meetings. I hate sitting around a table
and endlessly chewing over something
that should have been obvious at the start.
I hate wasting time with upwardly striving
politicians who have nothing to say, which
happened a lot at my previous position on
the editorial board of the Detroit News.
Finally, I don't have to go to workshops.
If there is one thing I hate more than
meetings it is workshops because they
last longer and are only intended to bring
you around to the point of view of your
employer.
The best word I can come up with
to describe them is tedious.
Actually, there are other words
but I can't use them here.
One of the worst workshops
was conducted by some guy
who handed everyone packets
containing various amounts of
pretend money. We were then
told to try and improve our
situation by trading with people
who had more than we did.
Unless those people were
complete idiots, or candidates
for sainthood, there was no
advantage to them in such a
trade. "So you see:' said the facilitator,
"people who are born financially disad-
vantaged deserve special breaks because
there is no way for them to get ahead!"
A bigger crock I have never heard,
although you aren't allowed to say that
in a workshop. People who are born into
poverty advance all the time in this coun-
try through education and
discipline. In addition to that,
our system constantly creates
new wealth. It is not a zero-sum
game. The supply of capital is
not finite.
When a few people did point
that out to him in the discus-
sion period, he threw up his
hands and said, "I just didn't get
through to you people today"
He got that right.
Even screwier was a two-day
session on the kinder, gentler
management techniques that
had to be used in the 21st century. The old
ways were passé, we were told. You couldn't
crack the whip anymore over this new,
diverse, authority-resistant workforce.
You had to take into account the opinions
and sensibilities of subordinates and treat
them with respect.
It took two days to get this mes-
sage across. Then the corporation sent
in a head honcho whose management
technique was a cross between Ivan the
Terrible and Donald the Duck.
He couldn't have cared less what subor-
dinates thought and would fly into a rage
at the slightest provocation, or sometimes
at none at all. So much for that workshop.
I suppose there are other advantages
to being semi-retired. (Writers are never
completely retired, unless they run out of
things to say. Of course, there are people
still drawing a paycheck who encountered
that condition several years ago.)
I save a lot on gas. I can take naps. If I
want to go to a Thursday afternoon ball-
game, that's not a problem.
Of course, I'd have to put my pants
on then. But I'm willing to make some
compromises. __
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .
April 23 2009
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