Thursday, September 20, 2018

A Michigan professor supported a student’s study-abroad application — until he realized Israel was her destination



He sees his struggle in the tradition of the grass-roots fight for divestment from apartheid South Africa, as well as the American civil rights movement. Some critics see him as anti-Semitic, or else as allowing his political bias to undermine the education of his students.

6 comments :

  1. So one should ask him: does he similarly refuse to sign the papers of students who want to study in China, given its occupation of Tibet and destruction of its language, culture and historical record?
    Are students who want to study in Russia told that he won't be signing their forms because of their brutal occupation and destruction of Chechnya?
    What about Britain? Technically it still occupies part of Ireland. Will he refuse to sign forms for students going there?
    Or does only Israel merit his attention?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rabbi Dr. Eidensohn,

    What do you think? Do you agree with the compassionate, stable-mind professor?

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know, I think there's an element of nostalgia here.
    Not so long ago the world was full of amazing and important causes. Civil rights, desegregation, the war in Viet-nam, Biafra, nuclear disarmament, the Cold War, Apartheid.
    Nowadays what do we have? Gender-free bathrooms. Whoo!
    So maybe this professors wants, like his forbears, to be able to tell his students: hey, when there was a need to make a stand against 'x', well I was there! And this is the only politically correct cause he could think of.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Trying to engage a Leftist in a discussion like that is like trying to explain to a fan of one team why they shouldn't hate any another team.

    "But, you see, every team has a traditional rival within its league. Therefore, if we think about it, someone who wants to be a fan of all teams should therefore hate all the teams! But that leads to absurdity -- so why don't we just not hate any teams?"

    "I don't care. I hate THIS team."

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't know if that fits. If I hate another hockey team because they beat my team all the time then it fits.
    But that's not what's happening here. People don't say, "I have a special place in my heart for the supposedly oppressed so-called Palestinians so I hate Israel as a result." Instead they say, "I hate oppression and colonialism which means I support the so-called Palestinians and hate Israel." But when you point out that there are other cases of oppression and colonialism which are far less controversial, that's when they don't have an answer.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You are, of course, completely correct.

    The Left operates by "talking points" and this issue is the cause du jour.

    Also, BSD fits in with the whole concept of "social justice".

    ReplyDelete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE POSTED!
please use either your real name or a pseudonym.