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May 9, 2004
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 Sharon to Alter, Not Discard, Pullout Plan by Greg Myre and Elissa Gootman
A day after his own party dealt him a resounding defeat, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week that he would modify his plan for an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and would continue pressing for its approval. Sharon's Likud Party rejected the Gaza pullout proposal 60 percent to 40 percent in a referendum last Sunday, forcing the prime minister to re-evaluate the future of his main political initiative. (New York Times)
Bush Says Palestinian State by 2005 Not "Realistic" by Amil Khan
President George W. Bush says the establishment of a Palestinian state might be delayed as a 2005 deadline under an internationally backed pace roadmap is no longer realistic. Bush's comments in an Egyptian newspaper interview riled Palestinian leaders, who said the deadline was realistic if talks with Israel were accelerated. (Reuters)
U.S. Retreats from Bush Remarks on Sharon Plan; Effort is Intended to Placate Arabs by Glenn Kessler
The Bush administration last week joined in a high-level diplomatic statement that stressed that the key issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians must be negotiated by both sides, just weeks after President Bush pronounced that Israel could keep some West Bank settlements and Palestinian refugees should not resettle in Israel. U.S. officials and foreign diplomats described the statement as an effort by the Bush administration to repair the international damage from the president's remarks last month, which had drawn sharp criticism in the Arab world and from European allies. (Washington Post)
Foundations' Limits on Grants Draw Fire from Universities by Justin Pope
When evidence surfaced last year that Ford Foundation grants had funded a Palestinian group accused of anti-Israel activities, Jewish leaders called for new restrictions to prevent grant money from being used to support terrorism. But now, some top universities are protesting language the Ford Foundation has added to its grant conditions, saying the changes could threaten academic freedom. The provosts of nine prominent schools - including the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT - said they were not in a position to regulate everything said by students and faculty members. (AP/Philadelphia Inquirer)
Iran Backing Terror Attacks Targeting Israeli-Palestinian "Islands of Sanity" by Julie Stahl
There has been an escalation in attempts by terrorists during the last few months to strike at "islands of sanity" - the Erez crossing point and Industrial Zone in the Gaza Strip - where Israelis and Palestinians have continued to work together despite the troubles. In the last few months, 14 people have been killed at Erez, including four Israeli security guards who were killed by a female suicide bomber. "The terrorist organizations are aiming specifically at those points where...Israeli society and Palestinian society [are] meeting," IDF Army Spokesman Ruth Yaron said. (CNS News)
 No Withdrawal from the Withdrawal by Aluf Benn
Something interesting happened to the disengagement plan after its rejection by the Likud membership a week ago: From an initiative of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, it suddenly became an international plan led by the U.S. President Bush is trying to market the withdrawal as a move that will change the face of the Middle East. The American bear hug means one thing: Israel will no longer be able to withdraw from the withdrawal. From now on, it will be the starting point for all political initiatives. (Ha'aretz)
Abandoning Gaza Won't End Terrorism by Jeff Jacoby
If the past decade - the era of the "land for peace" delusion - has made anything clear, it is that the more Israel concedes to the Palestinians, the worse Palestinian terror becomes. Abandoning Gaza will not make the Arabs more peaceful. It will simply strengthen their conviction that Israelis can be defeated through terrorism. The only workable recipe for lasting Middle East peace is the difficult one of remaking Palestinian society from the bottom up. Of destroying its poisonous culture of violence, death-worship, and Jew-hatred. Of educating its people for democracy and tolerance. (Boston Globe)
Why the Likud Voted No to Sharon's Disengagement Plan by Ron Dermer
The main reason that Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan was overwhelmingly defeated in the Likud is that party members were not convinced that the plan would improve Israel's security situation. In fact, the majority of voters thought the plan was a reward for terrorism. Voters did not consider the referendum a vote of confidence in Ariel Sharon. Sharon remains extremely popular within the Likud. (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Diplomat of Democracy: Natan Sharansky, Interview by Lee Kaplan
Israel is the biggest champion of human rights in the Middle East and maybe the world. Those who demonstrate for human rights or freedom of speech, for the rights of women, for sexual minorities or the rights of gays should embrace Israel as the champion of human rights in all the Middle East. They should demonstrate every day against the Palestine Authority instead because it is one of the most awful, greatest violators of human rights. (FrontPageMagazine.com)
UC Santa Barbara: Jews, Muslims Sit Down to Talk by Dina Vainer
The Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Club met last week to explore Muslim and Jewish relations in its newly official and undergraduate format. Religious studies graduate students Aaron Tapper and Aysha Hidayatullah founded the club in January 2003 to provide a forum for discussion among graduate students. The largest meeting of the club was held after Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi came to campus to speak about the role of the intifada in Muslim culture, which had resulted in a conflict between several members of the audience. (Daily Nexus)
UCLA: For Some, Benefits Outweigh Dangers of Studying in Israel by Emily Inouye
Despite the attacks and security concerns, many study abroad programs in Israel continue to run, though they have seen their numbers depleted. "Our program has suffered over the past three years, but this current year, enrollment did go up, and there are early indications that '04 and '05 will grow substantially," said Amy Sugin, the director of academic affairs at Hebrew University. (Daily Bruin)
Harvard: Dershowitz Defends Israel's Name by Sarah E. F. Milov
In a well-attended speech at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum last week, Alan Dershowitz criticized the global portrayal of Israel as a "colonialist, apartheid, genocidal" state, arguing that the reputation does not line up with the country's actual policies. He emphasized that the Palestinian people bear responsibility for supporting a regime that advocates terrorism, which he called "the tactic of choice that has been used by Palestinians since 1929." Dershowitz said that negotiations can commence only when the "Palestinian leadership wants their own state more than they want the destruction of the Jewish, democratic state of Israel." (The Crimson)
See also The Palestinians' Genocide Campaign by Alan Dershowitz (Jewsweek)
Richmond: Ousted Student Leader Becomes Darling of Left by Nathaniel Popper
An irate e-mail to the Israeli Embassy may have cost Jilian Redford her job as the leader of Hillel at the University of Richmond, One day after receiving two copies of the same e-mail message from the Israeli Embassy, she responded, "Could you please stop sending me email after email about radical zionist propaganda." Two weeks later Redford was relieved of her duties. The director of the Israel on Campus Coalition at Hillel's national office, Wayne Firestone, says the matter should not be turned into a crusade for free speech or the right to criticize Israel. "All of her views are invited at Hillel," Firestone said. "The problem comes when you are expected to play a leadership role, and be respectful in correspondence, and instead you say, no I'll respond any way I want. That is pretty inconsistent with any type of organizational affiliation." (Forward)
Rutgers: Charges Remain Against Pie-Thrower
A U.S. judge declined to drop disorderly conduct charges against a Rutgers student who threw a pie in Natan Sharansky's face. Abe Greenhouse appealed to have the charges dropped, but Judge Mark Epstein said that Greenhouse was not engaging in peaceful protest when he threw the pie in the Israeli Cabinet minister's face last September. Epstein told Greenhouse that if he "wants to be a political activist, perhaps he might study the life of Natan Anatoly Sharansky, a man who was involved in the human rights movement in the former Soviet Union." (JTA)
York: Student Expelled for 3 Years by Louise Brown
York University has expelled a student activist for three years for taking part in unauthorized campus protests and using a bullhorn that disrupted classes. Daniel Freeman-Maloy - a Jewish student who is a vocal defender of Palestinian rights - had disrupted learning twice this year by holding protests inside Vari Hall, where classes take place, and using a megaphone. Freeman-Maloy was involved in a March 16 clash between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups on campus. (Toronto Star)
Commotion on Israel's Campus by Ben-Dror Yemini
Examining the anti-Israel comments of Israeli academicians is like entering a mine field. There are those who compare Israel to the Nazis and there are those who support the boycott of Israel. Others publish fantasies about plans for ethnic cleansing. Should Israel's public treasury fund and should universities provide a home for professors and articles that are not only critical or hostile but actually support solutions like transfer or genocide or deny the State's right to exist? (Ma'ariv International)
UC Santa Barbara: The Ruthlessness of Terrorism by Joey Tartakovsky
The argument used to justify Hamas' suicide terrorism explains that occupation leads to hopelessness, which leads to desperation which, somehow, ends in systematic terrorist slaughter. But how does this make sense, given than there are many oppressed peoples in the world, not all of whom have embarked on campaigns of suicide bombing? Only Palestinians have so diligently constructed an extravagant cult of martyrdom. Nothing "causes" terrorism except terrorists. It can never be understood as a symptom of something else, but only as a crime. (Daily Nexus)
Columbia: Rebalancing the Middle East by Ariel Beery
To fight the anti-Israel bias prevalent on many of America's college campuses, a major push has developed to establish Israel chairs. But, Israel chairs can further fuel anti-Israel propaganda in our classrooms and campuses. Instead, increased study of minorities in the Middle East could be effective in rebalancing the biases in Middle Eastern studies. By supporting chairs for the study of minorities in the Middle East, we will not only be putting the Israeli-Palestinian question into the proper context, but we will also bring justice to the numerous minorities in the region. (Israel Insider/Kol Columbia)
Cornell: Turn Out the Lightswitch by Elliott Marc Davis
After the World Trade Center I saw a brave mayor reject a 10 million dollar donation from a corrupt Saudi Prince who inferred that the U.S. stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provoked the attack, and that a "more balanced" (anti-Israel) position might be called for. I saw a nutjob Congresswoman unsuccessfully whore herself out to the Saudi prince for that money. I saw a corrupt faculty committee hire that Congresswoman as a visiting professor, who later expressed her support of Robert Mugabe's racist regime in Zimbabwe. The appointments of Cynthia McKinney and John Pilger have made me embarrassed of my soon-to-be alma mater. I will not hand over to Cornell even one cent more than is absolutely necessary as long as such despicable people are appointed to honorary positions. (Daily Sun)
Degree of Dishonour at McGill by Gil Troy
When McGill University announced it will grant an honorary doctorate to Mary Robinson, a "human rights leader," my first instinct was to be silent. I have no wish to politicize commencement, when we honour our students' achievements. But in a world of ever-coarsening anti-Semitism and despicable rationalizations for suicide bombings, in a city which just endured the burning of a Jewish children's school library, at a university in which vandals scratched "Heil Hitler" into the bathroom of the Bronfman Building and defaced the exterior of the Hillel Jewish Student Centre, honouring Mary Robinson sends a terrible message. (Montreal Gazette)
Texas A&M: A Policy Worth Backing by Nicholas Davis
The United States can no longer remain on the fence regarding the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict. The Bush administration's support of Sharon's withdrawal plan was an overdue move. Israel should be commended for its efforts to reach peace and Bush made the right decisions of breaking from the precedence set by past administrations of simply keeping quiet. A clear message must be sent, especially during the war on terror. (The Battalion)
Yale: Traveler's Check by Michael Rubin
When I visited New Haven last week, students ridiculed the arbitrariness of Yale's crackdown on travel. Students don't understand why they can't go to Tel Aviv, but can use Yale money to see Beirut or Damascus. Yale bans travel to eastern Turkey, a region which for several years has been safer than Morocco, Madrid, or rural China, none of which are banned. (The New Republic)
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 - Does the Likud Vote on Sharon's Plan Have Any Standing? | Sharon's Blunder: Referendum of No Legal or Moral Standing - Editorial
- Ariel Sharon figured he had a sure thing going when he announced his plan for a Likud party referendum on disengaging from Gaza. His assumption, it seems, was that his legendary rapport with the grass roots would yield a landslide endorsement, cowing his right-wing opponents and giving him a free hand to proceed with the tricky disengagement initiative.
- It was, we now know, a disastrous miscalculation. It was disastrous in its conception, in its execution and, we fear, in its consequences, though that last remains to be seen.
- Sharon's choice of a battlefield, the Likud party membership list, proved to be ideal for his opponents. It gave the right a home-court advantage and left Sharon unexpectedly fighting an uphill battle. Sharon's allies, astonishingly, failed to mount a serious counterattack, hampered by overconfidence, infighting and inadequate financing.
- The result of the referendum is a decision that has no legal standing, but carries enormous political weight. It has the appearance of democracy, though none of the content.
- Sharon is not technically bound to honor the voters' decision, but he will have a hard time ignoring it.
- What can Sharon do now? He could honor the results of the referendum and drop his plan for getting out of Gaza. But that way lies catastrophe.
- Sharon's plan offered a way for Israel to break the deadlock by taking a first step. Gaza was a logical place to start, if only because the Israeli stake there is so minimal.
- It would be a mistake of historic magnitude to let that glimmer of hope be snuffed out by the votes of 60,000 participants in a mock referendum of no legal or moral standing. Sharon owes it to his public and to the world to move forward. (The Forward)
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A Case of Moral Validity: Party Members Entitled to Decide Party Policy by Danny Dayan
- Since the results of the Likud referendum were published experts and defeated or disappointed politicians have been competing in trashing the process. One person says that "a small minority doesn't have the right to decide for all the country's citizens" and another immediately outdoes him by declaring that the referendum "has no legal validity."
- In this is case, however, it was neither a minority nor a majority that decided, but all the members of a particular party, who decided for the party and for it alone.
- Under the law, the 80 MKs who are not from the Likud party are entitled to unite and express a position that is contrary to the one the membership dictated to the Likud MKs, and the position of the 80 MKs will be recognized.
- Just as party members - and they alone - have the right to decide who their representatives will be and who will lead the party, they are equally entitled to decide the party's policy positions.
- Those who are urging the prime minister, whether explicitly or implicitly, to push the plan forward are asking him to adopt a moral criterion of the lowest order. Sharon stood on the dais of his party's convention and announced that he had decided to hold a referendum, the results of which would be binding on all the Likud's representatives in the government and the Knesset, and on him first of all.
- 120 representatives in the Knesset chose a government which is top-heavy with ministers. The prime minister put forward his disengagement plan in his speech at the Herzliya Conference late last year, but the ministers and representatives were silent and didn't ask for a discussion.
- They were totally preoccupied and they didn't fulfill their cardinal role in representational democracy. So why is a little Likudnik from Ofakim or Pardes Hannah to blame for the crisis in representational democracy? (Ha'aretz)
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