Time to Drain the University Swamps

I remember the days, not so long ago, when a biased university lecturer poisoning the minds of our youth made the news. Many would rise in rage, wring their hands and bemoan the sad reality of today’s academic institutions. Though names after names of such culprits keep popping up, what was then a cause for concern has, unfortunately, become the norm. Many simply seem to have gotten used to it.

I encountered such bias. It was quite an eye opener.

The year was 2000, more precisely, the fall of 2000. Let me take you back to that time and introduce you to a name that has run a familiar and blood pressure raising note in my mind. Meet Dr. Ron Macintyre, a senior lecturer in Political science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Though I was myself a lecturer at that University, I had never met Macintyre. Unfortunately, his name was brought to my attention under some dismal and disturbing circumstances.

I happened one bright morning when I received a telephone call from a young student by the name of David B..

“Your name was given to me by the Yisraeli Embassy in Wellington,” he told me after he introduced himself. He was a freshman at the university and attended one of Dr. Macintyre’s classes. “I am in his POL 101,” he added.

Later, I discovered that many refer to Macintyre’s class as “PLO 101” due to his staunch pro-Palestinian stance.

“It started with him entering class on the first day wearing a Kaffiya while boasting that it was given to him by no other than Yassir Arafat,” David told me. “A visit to his office,” he added, “revealed walls adorned by photos with leaders from the Arab/Muslim world, ruthless leaders like Khaddaffi and others.”

No one should have a problem with such a display. Anyone can befriend and be photographed with whoever they wish. We could not, however, allow such alliances to interfere and affect the line of teaching in an academic institution.

Being a young and rather uninformed kiwi youngster, David was appalled at the anti Yisraeli and biased message delivered by Dr. Macintyre from the university podium. His strong sense of justice compelled him to contact the Yisraeli Embassy in Wellington in an effort to develop a more balanced view about the middle eastern conflict. They directed him to me.

David did not waste any time and called me promptly.

“Surely, we cannot let such antics go on,” he voiced his concern when we met for coffee a day later. “No, definitely not,” I thought to myself. “This is where I will need your help, though,” I added as I looked David straight into the eyes. “Are you ready?”

Both David and I established a strategy whereby we could monitor what information or rather disinformation Dr. Macintyre was feeding his students and, if and when necessary, report him to the university’s board.

We did not have to wait very long. During his last lecture before breaking away for the Christmas holiday in 2000, Dr. Macintyre showed his students a documentary entitled: “The Final Solution,” about the Nazi extermination of the Jews and other undesirables during WWII. At the end of the film, timed and perfectly synchronized with the end of the lecture, Dr. Macintyre asked his students to go home and “over the holidays” ponder whether that was not what the Jews were “currently” doing to the Palestinians.

How about that for twisting, toying with and tainting the brains of those who need to learn how to think instead of what to think?

David called me as soon as he came out of that lecture.

That afternoon, David and another justice seeking fellow student lodged, with my help, a formal complaint against Dr. Macintyre with the University Chancellor. I also sent a stern letter to all that were concerned expressing my dismay at such “academic conduct” as demonstrated by a member of the university staff.

A week later, I ran into the head of the Political Science Department of the University. “Dr. Macintyre showed me a copy of the letter you sent to us and asked if you were ‘for real,’” he told me. We had a good laugh.

You bet, Dr. Macintyre, you and all the “Dr. Macintyres” of this world, we are very much “for real” and we will chase you and your dirty tricks out of our campuses and drain the University swamps of you and your ilk!

 May we all have a Joyous Holidays Season full of honesty, truth and unbiased perspectives.

Is the Duma “guess- timation” the next Al Dura narrative?

                                                

                                          

I am not going to discuss the painful issue of the recent Duma tragedy. We have had enough of that, enough of self flagellation, breast beating and guilt ridden national conscience. The incidence has been debated, written about, discussed and analyzed ad nauseaum to the point of exhaustion.

It is time to heal and move on.

Herein, however, is where our problem rests. Any doctor will tell you that no healing process can commence until the problem has been fully diagnosed and the source of it has been identified. How can we, Israelis, prescribe a cure for the malignancies in our midst if so many of us refuse to confront them?  How can we stop a small but loud segment of our society from breast beating and projecting upon the rest of us their dysfunctionalities by pointing a blaming finger at us and declaring us as the “usual suspects?”

These questions seem legitimate following another very well publicized example; one that continues to resurface; one we had allowed to remain an open wound for too long, a wound that still comes to haunt us probably because we took too long to address and cure it. I am referring to the Al Dura case of September 30, 2000.

The image of the twelve year old Gazan boy hiding behind his father who was allegedly killed by Israeli fire, is still a symbol of “martyrdom” in some parts of the world, mainly the Arab world. It appears on posters, stamps and is still fuels hatred and violence towards Israel.

Following the incident, France 2 T.V. station aired a clip of the alleged killing and distributed it for free to other networks that broadcasted it, inspiring further violence directed at Jews and Israelis.

My dear friend, Philippe Karsenty, the founder and president of Media-Ratings (www.M-R.fr) claimed  that the footage was staged. He was ready to defend his claim in court. Karsenty was sued for defamation by the French-Israeli journalist of the France 2 T.V. station. Karsenty lost in court.

On May 21, 2008, justice briefly prevailed and Karsenty won his appeal. In 2012, however, the French Supreme Court overturned the Appeals Court‘s decision on procedural grounds. According to it, Karsenty had no legal right to show the footage during the proceedings at the Court of Appeals.

It was not until May 2013, though, that a victory for Israel took place. Following the recommendation of an investigative committee set by the Israeli government, Israel formulated its official position that there is no evidence to support France 2’s claim that the young Al Dura was killed by Israeli fire, if at all.

Clearly, only some of pieces of the Duma firebombing puzzle are strewn around. These include, a dead baby, a wounded family and two burnt houses in the middle of a small Arab village. All the other details are circumstantial.

Uncertainties and unsolved issues are a nightmare. No one deserves to live with them for too long, if at all. Hopefully, the relevant Israeli authorities would, like in the Al Dura case, initiate their own probe into this case and hopefully sooner.  Otherwise, in the words of my dear friend and fellow blogger, Varda Meyers Epstein, “Duma might become the next Al-Dura case.”