Professors could learn from Israel
It is with amazement that I read of the UC professors that want
to force the university to divest itself of any company doing
business with Israel purportedly with the purpose of sending a
message to the “apartheid state” (“165 professors
petition for divestment from Israel,” News, June
24).Â
The so-called professors would do much to learn from that
“apartheid” state. Israel’s army and Supreme
Court are empowered to protect its Arab citizens. Compare this with
Lebanon where 182 Marines were massacred in the Beirut Barracks. Or
Syria which expelled its Jewish community in the 1970s to the
silence of your professors. Or Saudi Arabia where U.S. troops
protecting its dictators could not celebrate Christmas. Or of
course our so-called ally, Egypt, which in 1958 imprisoned all of
its Jewish citizens prior to expelling 99 percent of them (my wife
among them).
In Israel it is common for 50,000 people to march for peace.
IÂ suggest that when 50,000 Arabs march for peace, there will
be peace within a week.
Jeffrey Krantz, DDS
I find the recent report that so many faculty are petitioning
for a divestment from Israel as disgusting as the logic they use to
justify this immoral idea. Â Â
The Left’s wish to establish a Palestinian State inside the
western half of what was once British-mandated Palestine is the
biggest mistake the West could make in its war on terror. This will
strengthen the stranglehold terrorists have on Israel, the Middle
East’s only democracy and America’s only partner in the war on
terror.
This will reward 20 months of high-impact terrorism with
capitulation and fear on the part of the Americans and embolden
terrorists throughout the world, especially those already in the
US, to step-up attacks to obtain further concessions from the
West.
The only proper and likely success the US can hope to enjoy in
its war on terror is to fight an all-out, nasty war against
terrorists ““ particularly the countries that harbor them
(Syria, Iran, Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia). Brutal force against
dictatorships and the population centers that support terror is the
only way to bring it to an end. Â Â
The Arab world rejected peace with Israel at nearly every
opportunity these past 50 years. It is time to make them pay for
their obstinate desire to destroy Jews instead of building a
peaceful region. UC faculty seeking to further twist Israel’s arm
are misguided liberals who cringe at the thought of any violence
““ yet it is violence which has preserved the United States as
a fundamentally free and democratic nation.
It is time to grow up!
Mark Alan Los Angeles
It’s not difficult to figure out the purpose of Chris
Diaz’s goofy diatribe on the wonders of diversity (Diversity
fosters critical thinking, racial awareness). His argument is the
contention that “one can never have true diversity if there
is not a mixture of people coming from different races,
ethnicities, genders, sexualities, religions and classes.”
He’s wrong, though. How “diverse” is a group of
people of different races, genders and sexualities, if they all
hold the exact same leftist victim mindset? A group like that is
known as Student Empowerment! More to the point, few students learn
solely from a classmate’s differently colored skin, facial
features, or accent. They learn from the ideas that their
classmates hold. This means that any group of people, so long as
they hold different opinions and ideas, is inherently
“diverse.” Therefore, a group composed entirely of
white heterosexual men ““ so long as they, like almost any
group, hold differing ideas ““ is naturally
“diverse.”
Yet Diaz’s very argument ““ that only through
“different races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities,
religions and classes” can a group be “diverse”
contends that a group that looks the same, is the same. He implies
that any group composed of a single gender and race is not diverse,
and holds the same ideas. Taken apart carefully, we find that Diaz,
and the entire “diversity” argument, is based on a
racist premise, that all people of a given race are the same in
appearance and ideas, and only when properly mixed with people of
other racial, gender and sexual groups, will the physical and
intellectual mixture be altered.
Remember the racist nature of Diaz and the
“diversity” campaign the next time you see another
full-page ad produced by the USAC Academic Affairs Office
trumpeting their work for “diversity.”
Andrew Jones 4th Year Political Science
I recently was notifed of the campaign to call for divestment of
UCLA from Israeli companies because of the situation in Israel.
I believe it is logical, therefore, to begin by throwing out
every computer on campus, since much of the software and hardware
has been devleoped in Israel.
You must then, to be consistent, stop the use of all
petrochemical products–gasoline, diesel, plastics– since these
support the following forms of human rights abuse in countries
that produce or are allied and supported by oil producing
nations in the Middle East:Â
1) Racism- the continuation of genocidal warfare against the
black Christian population in Sudan by white skinned Arab
Moslems.
2) Oppression of women– prohibtion of women driving, working
freely, as in Saudi Arabia, being forced to wear veils,as in
Iran.
3) Anti-Semitism and oppression of religous
minorities”“prohibting Jews to live in Saudia Arabia, dating
back to the founding of Islam, the consistent persecution of Bahais
in Iran, the continued oppression and gradual expulsion of
Christian communites in existence befor the rise of
Islam, in Iraq, Syria, Egypt.
4) Genocide- mass murder against Kurds in Iraq.
5) Terrorism– the funding of terrorist groups by Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, Syria, Lybia.
In the meantime, UCLA should divest itself of everything else on
campus: stationary, pens and pencils, electric components ““
everything except perhaps the very buildings and trees, since in
all probability they are made in China, which has invaded Tibet and
persecutes democracy and forbids dissent.
No monetary deals should be allowed, either,
since the funds needed to purchase these supplies
probably go through Switzerland, which warehouses the blood money
made in all of these purchases. No Swiss Cheese!Â
Let’s be consistent. Any campaigns for divestment should be
consistent with the reality in the world at large, and if one
country is to be stigmatized, then all countries in which there is
abuse of human rights should be targeted as well.
Rabbi Norbert Weinberg