Ghettoizing Israel in Australia

Thomas Lifson

The left has taken over the academy not only in America, but almost worldwide. Antonio Gramsci's teachings were acted-upon relatively late in the United States, after all.

Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun calls it Intellectual Racism:

Isn't this racism - and the kind of intellectual ghettoisation that creates division, not peace?

THE Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, which has thrown its support behind controversial Palestinian leaders, has cited its boycott of Israel for refusing to help an Israeli civics teacher who has designed programs for both Jewish and Arab children.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem academic Dan Avnon is credited with developing and implementing the only state program in civics written for joint Jewish-Arab high schools.

He approached the head of the Sydney University centre, Jake Lynch, for assistance with studying civics education in Australia under a fellowship agreement between the two institutions.

But Associate Professor Lynch rebuffed the request, citing the centre's support for the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The centre helped establish the Sydney Peace Foundation, which awards the Sydney Peace Prize.

Shameful. Utterly shameful. And that's leaving aside the sheer stupidity of the political analysis.

Fortunately, Lynch was overruled:

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence rejected a call from Associate Professor Lynch in 2009 to cut links with the Hebrew University and a second Israeli institution, the Technion, in the city of Haifa. "I do not consider it appropriate for the university to boycott academic institutions in a country with which Australia has diplomatic relations," he wrote in response at the time.

A spokesman for Dr Spence said ... Associate Professor Lynch was "entitled to express a public opinion where it falls under his area of expertise", but added, "on this particular matter he does not speak for the school, the faculty or for the university".

It is important to challenge those who seek to cut Israel off from academic contact on the fundamentals - that the free flow of ideas is the basis of the university. It is also not the prerogative of academics to insert their political beliefs into policy at state-sponsored institutions.

Right now, the balance of forces in American academia favors the left. But higher education is facing a bubble, as costs soar and delivery of education via the internet is beginning to eat the tuition pool which used to belong to the bricks and mortar crowd.

Hat tip: John McMahon

Ghettoizing Israel in Australia

Thomas Lifson

The campaign to destroy Israel has many fronts, with information war a critical non-kinetic battlefield. Israel thrives on information, its science, technology, and business prowess strengthening Israel's survivability immeasurably. So the worldwide effort to cut Israeli universities and academics out of international knowledge-sharing ultimately aims to dry up Israel's ability to keep up with world science and technology. The left has taken over the academy not only in America, but almost worldwide. Antonio Gramsci's teachings were acted-upon relatively late in the United States, after all. Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun calls it Intellectual Racism: Isn't this racism - and the kind of intellectual ghettoisation that creates division, not peace? THE Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, which has thrown its support behind controversial Palestinian leaders, has cited its boycott of Israel for refusing to help an Israeli civics teacher who has designed programs for both Jewish and Arab children. Hebrew University of Jerusalem academic Dan Avnon is credited with developing and implementing the only state program in.... (Read Full Article)

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Standing+Wolf

...Associate Professor Lynch rebuffed the request, citing the centre's support for the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

He's actually taught a great deal about civics in Australia.

...the free flow of ideas is the basis of the university. It is also not the prerogative of academics to insert their political beliefs into policy at state-sponsored institutions.

Marxists discovered a long time ago their ideology is soundly rejected in the open market of ideas. They can drum up a measure of support from cracked pots and whiners and radical style poseurs, but the vast majority of normal people reject collectivism. The "progressive" reaction has been to infiltrate and stifle, dig deeper and silence, take over and pervert universities into moral and intellectual prison camps.

Stalin died 60 years ago. His twisted, psychotic spirit lives on in the halls of self-styled "higher education."
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tonymarini

I think it began when the elites, probably aided and abetted by the Progressives, "commoditized" higher education. It used to be that we as a society reserved education for the best and the brightest. The student brought something: IQ, ability, ingenuity, tenacity...to scholarship and there was an expectation that the person who gained the education would contribute to society in a meaningful way. Today higher ed. has been dumbed-down almost as far as it can be and still maintain the veneer of serious academia. Ask yourself, who DOESN'T get admitted to university? Are GPA's and SAT's really important anymore? Sure the Ivies are quite "selective" in who gets to go behind their ramparts, but there is such a tinge of PC associated with the present admissions process that one can only shake their heads wondering what the real motivation of "education" really is any more. On today's campuses, there is no room for non-conformance to the left line. They are 24/7/365 ideology meat grinders turning out pre-processed useful idiots, many educated beyond their ability to think and many equipped with a degree they will never use to support themselves or their family. I witnessed it first hand in my graduate studies...and I've seen it in countless younger folks that I mentor or tutor. Instructors have powerful weapons at their disposal...the power of shame and the power of the grade. They can make or break a kid's future career path with their KoolAid-stained advice or a single keystroke at then end of a term, and because of the aura of "kewlness" surrounding many of these shapers of young minds, they truly get to work the soft putty that is many of their student's minds to their own pleasing. And in more cases than not, it would be a leftist view that would make Marx seem like a craven capitalist. See, most of these academicians have bought into their position as campus demi-god. Because there really isn't any heavy lifting or endeavors for them (like getting fingernails dirty or breaking a sweat) that would change their minds already fossilized in stone. They profess to teach kids to question and to learn...yet they practice the most sclerotic thinking on the planet. This ranges from their politics to their international views. The academy has become the most intolerant venue on the planet. A redneck bar has nothing on the stilted and single-minded thinking that goes on inside the august halls of higher learning. It really has become a cult of personality...who's personality I'm not sure, but I tend to gravitate towards @Standing+Wolf's choice of Stalin.
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Syrin, Find your inner patriot before it's too late

American academia FAVORS the left

FAVORS ?!?!?!?

FAVORS ?!?!?!?!

I guess gravity FAVORS falling to the ground rather than floating off into space. FAVORS ?!?!?! I cannot think of ANY area of more extreme liberalism than college academia.

Stop pulling punches. America academia is DOMINATED by America hating Marxist leftists. Call them what they ARE !!
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Raymond-in-DC

"So the worldwide effort to cut Israeli universities and academics out of international knowledge-sharing ultimately aims to dry up Israel's ability to keep up with world science and technology."

It would appear by some measures Australia would be the loser in such a cut-off. Since 2000 Australia has earned just three Nobels - one each in Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and "Peace". In the same time period Israel has earned SIX - four in Chemistry, two in Economics. And in a ranking of top universities, six of Israel's seven universities placed in the top 200, three in the top 100. Finally, in a recent review of best places to establish a high-tech startup, #1 was Silicon Valley. #2 was ... Tel Aviv.
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SFLBIB

Perhaps they would prefer the University of Palestine http://en.wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/University_of_Palestine.

(Edited by a moderator)
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BrimmingUSpride

The so called "Progressives" are the first to decry "censorship" all the while perfecting it with their own collectivism. The one force that cannot be controlled by the twisted minds of those who would rule others is the Spirit of the Lord. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. This is why the panoply of evil (various stripes of so-called "isms") try to eliminate anything associated with the Spirit of the Lord and promote atheism.

Israel in its very name is anathema to anyone who rejects God, for its definition is "one who strives with God." This term has been connected with the people of God since the time of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel after he literally wrestled with God at Peniel, which means face of God. Jacob, now called Israel, said of this encounter, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." (Genesis 32:30)

Israel will never be "ghettoized" because it is engraved in the very hands of the One who created it, and it was out of Israel that God called forth His Son, who is the Ruler over all the nations. This is the glorious freedom that will never be lost and will one day break forth upon the earth from the heavens above. God continue to bless the world with this glorious freedom won by Jesus who is boundless in His love. God bless the U.S.A.
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