After inviting former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to speak about leadership and peace just months after authorizing a brutal invasion of the Gaza Strip, it comes as no surprise that the administration at the University of Chicago welcomes Israeli ambassador Michael Oren with open hands.
At this university in particular, discourse concerning Israel’s occupation of Palestine is typically circumvented or distastefully kept under the radar. Instead, campus administrators feign objective neutrality and, for once afraid to challenge the status quo, make it a point to “show both sides” by presenting students with state-sponsored propaganda that virtually absolves Israel of any regional responsibility.
We saw this firsthand in October 2009 when the University invited Olmert to speak about moral leadership even though he faced indictments for criminal corruption charges. Asked about his idea of a lasting peace, he failed to mention that he had recently called for “disproportionate” assaults against the Palestinian people.
We saw this again earlier in the week when the University invited Oren to solicit American support in his campaign to whitewash Israel’s abuse of Palestinian rights.
Oren is currently on an extended tour of college campuses. His purpose at each campus is to draw parallel’s between U.S. democracy and Israel’s Jewish democracy and to stress the importance of the U.S. as a staunch ally and military financer. Organized by Israel’s Consulate General, his talks are blatant attempts to put Israel in a favorable light without ever considering its policies towards Palestinians under its occupation. [Read more...]
A Dark Moment for ‘Liberal’ Zionism
Guest contribution by Chase M.
Imagine, for a brief moment, that Israel treated the settlements in and around Hebron the same way it treats the Gaza Strip. After all, Kiryat Arba, like Gaza, has its share of dangerous, gun-toting extremists mingling amidst the civilian population. On a single day in 1994, the Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein mowed down twenty-nine civilians in Hebron during what became known as the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre; this is equal to the total number of fatalities to date from Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks since they commenced in 2001. So what would a Gaza policy imposed on Hebron look like?
First, a fence would be built around the settlements – not to keep Palestinians out, as with the current separation fence, but to keep settlers in. Near the fence, inside the settlements, a free-fire “buffer zone” would be unilaterally declared by the IDF, cutting right through residential neighborhoods and farmland. Armed IDF units patrolling the perimeter of the fence would be authorized to shoot at any Jewish settlers caught inside the buffer zone. Unmanned aerial drones carrying AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missiles would occasionally conduct sorties over the city, destroying any buildings that the IDF suspects contain weapons caches or assassinating high-profile figures who organize violence against the city’s Palestinian residents. Collateral damage would be unavoidable when operations are conducted in urban terrain. [Read more...]