<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Isi Leibler</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/author/isi-leibler/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:56:08 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	
	<item>
		<title>Wistrich on ‘the Left, the Jews and Israel&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/isi-leibler/wistrich-on-%e2%80%98the-left-the-jews-and-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=wistrich-on-%25e2%2580%2598the-left-the-jews-and-israel</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/isi-leibler/wistrich-on-%e2%80%98the-left-the-jews-and-israel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Isi Leibler]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Robert Wistrich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Socialist]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=145883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Leading scholar of anti-Semitism delves into the history of the Left's abandonment of the Jewish people. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/FreePalestine18-1-09-email.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-145891" title="FreePalestine18-1-09-email" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/FreePalestine18-1-09-email.gif" alt="" width="375" height="273" /></a>Reprinted from the <em><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=280574">Jerusalem Post.</a> </em></strong></p>
<p>Robert Wistrich, Hebrew University professor of European and Jewish History and director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of anti-Semitism, has just published his 29th book titled <em>From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews and Israel.</em></p>
<p>It is an impressive tome of over 600 pages and follows his monumental seminal work <em>A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad</em>, published in 2010 and now recognized as the definitive work on the world’s oldest hatred, and an indispensable text for scholars.</p>
<p>In a fascinating preface to his new book, Wistrich provides a brief autobiographical sketch. His father had originally been a supporter of the illegal Polish Communist Party in pre-war Krakow but became alienated from Stalinist communism after being arrested by the NKVD. He and his wife, who had experienced bitter Polish anti-Semitism, survived the Holocaust by fleeing to Kazakhstan, where Wistrich was born.</p>
<p>He was educated in England, and to use his words, was “radicalized” in grammar school and later at Stanford University. He first visited Israel in 1961, returning in 1969 when he was appointed editor of the left-wing Israeli journal, <em>New Outlook</em>. However his passion for the Jewish state led to a parting of the ways with the Israeli far left.</p>
<p>Robert became increasingly engaged in academic scholarship related to anti- Semitism, received a senior appointment at the Hebrew University, and is now recognized as the world’s foremost scholar in the field.</p>
<p><em>From Ambivalence to Betrayal</em> is a historic review and analysis of the abandonment of the Jewish people by the left from the early 19th century until the present. It also relates to the extraordinarily disproportionate number of socialist thinkers and leaders who were of Jewish origin and seeks to explain what motivated so many of them, in the course of their utopian and futile efforts to “repair the world,” to abandon their people and their heritage and frenetically seek to deny their kinsmen the right to self-determination.</p>
<p>The introductory essay is a brilliant overview of the contemporary Jewish political arena viewed in the context of the concurrent rise of Zionism, Communism, anti-Semitism and Nazism. It focuses strongly on the hypocrisy of the existing left, which has become obsessed with demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish state.</p>
<p>Wistrich demonstrates the extent to which today’s radical anti- Zionists, despite purporting to represent the left, often share the identical obsessions and delusions concerning the alleged malignant influence of the Jews in the modern world as classical fascist anti-Semites.</p>
<p>Wistrich provides fascinating and innovative insights on left-wing revolutionaries.</p>
<p>He skillfully relates the connection of “the prefigured 19th century sea-bed of anti-Semitic socialism found in Marx, Fourier and Proudhon, extending through to the orthodox Communists and ‘non-conformist’ Trotskyites to the Islamo-leftist hybrids of today who systematically vilify the so called racist essence of the Jewish State.”</p>
<p>His analysis of the linkage of these revolutionaries with the left’s contemporary abandonment of Israel is a major intellectual and scholastic achievement and provides an intriguing insight into the sources of the far left’s current application of double standards and anti- Israel venom.</p>
<p>WISTRICH REVIEWS in depth the attitude towards the Jews adopted by many of the great socialist revolutionaries of Jewish origin like Karl Marx, Bernard Lazare, Moses Hess, Ferdinand LaSalle, Karl Kautsky, Victor Adler, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, Bruno Kreisky, Isaac Deutscher and others.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/isi-leibler/wistrich-on-%e2%80%98the-left-the-jews-and-israel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Treason of the Academics</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/isi-leibler/treason-of-the-academics/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=treason-of-the-academics</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/isi-leibler/treason-of-the-academics/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 May 2010 04:01:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Isi Leibler]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Academic Freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[academic titles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alan Dershowitz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Berkeley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[board of governors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boycott]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Col]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[country]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Department]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[israeli universities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[launching pads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[London]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marc Tanenbaum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[moslem nations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[political lexicon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[professor joseph]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professor Joseph Klaffter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rachel Giora]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TAU]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tel Aviv]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tel aviv university]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[University]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[university senate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[US]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=60597</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Degenerate Israeli professors on the rampage.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/academic.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60599" title="academic" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/academic.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="375" /></a><strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>This article is reprinted from <a href="http://wordfromjerusalem.com/">WordFromJerusalem.com</a>.</strong></p>
<p>In the politically correct world of infantile leftism, words like sedition and disloyalty have effectively been erased from the political lexicon. Indeed, those daring to employ such terms are automatically smeared as “McCarthyite” or fascist.</p>
<p>But despite Israel being surrounded by Moslem nations whose primary objective is to eliminate Jewish sovereignty from the region, a growing minority of Israeli academics, funded by Israeli taxpayers and Diaspora Zionist philanthropists, exploit their universities as launching pads to undermine and delegitimize their own country. Some even promote global boycott, divestment and sanctions of the very institutions which provide their salaries. They teach their students that the state in which they live was born in sin, that Israelis behave like Nazis and morally justify the campaigns by our enemies to demonize and delegitimize us.</p>
<p>What magnifies this obscenity is that university administrators feel obliged to maintain the continued tenure of such immoral and anti-social degenerates on the grounds of academic freedom. Can one conceivably visualize any other institution providing salaries to employees actively working towards its destruction?</p>
<p>The issue came to a head at the recent meeting of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University when Marc Tanenbaum, a long-standing American donor and supporter, submitted a resolution calling on the University Senate to review conditions governing the status of academics indulging in “inappropriate behavior” such as promoting academic boycotts of Israeli universities, and recommending that academics be prohibited from listing their affiliation or academic titles whilst engaged in domestic or international forums of a political nature.</p>
<p>The president, Professor Joseph Klaffter, intervened. Grasping the microphone from Tannenbaum, he railed against the resolution and proclaimed that under his watch such a resolution would never be carried and demanded that it be withdrawn. When the initiators called for a vote, he refused to submit the resolution and adjourned the meeting &#8211; ironically, on the spurious grounds of academic freedom. Tannenbaum resigned and pledged to mount a campaign to highlight the undemocratic manner in which the university authorities were protecting those who were actively undermining the university and the State.</p>
<p>Regrettably, the TAU scenario represents a microcosm of how the loony left have imposed a regime of madness in this country. It is noteworthy that Anat Kam, who exulted in stealing classified IDF military information in the name of freedom of expression and attempted to present herself as a heroic figure, was educated at TAU, in a  philosophy department in which professors called for a global boycott against Israel.</p>
<p>Examples of unacceptable behavior abound: the Chair of the Philosophy Department, Professor Anat Biletzki, is a close supporter of Asmi Bishari ,the Arab MK calling for the dismantling of Israel; Biletzki also gathered signatures for a high school student petition justifying  the right to refuse to serve in the army; Anat Matar, another lecturer at the philosophy department, initiated an (unsuccessful) campaign to deny the right of Col. Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, who headed the international IDF law division during the Gaza war, to lecture at its law school on the grounds that she would “justify the killing of civilians, including hundreds of children”; the Law School convened a conference on the subject of the alleged mistreatment of “political prisoners” at which one of the principal speakers was a former terrorist who had been sentenced to 27 years for throwing a bomb at Jews on a bus; Professor Adi Ophir campaigned to lobby   embassies in Tel Aviv to impose sanctions against Israel to prevent atrocities in Gaza; TAU academics were prominent signatories in a petition backing the US Berkeley  boycott against Israel; two professors, Anat Matar (who earlier participated in a London conference promoting a general and academic boycott of Israel) and Rachel Giora recently signed a petition denouncing The Boston Museum of Art for sponsoring an exhibit of Israeli medical and high tech achievements; etc etc.</p>
<p>Freedom of expression is a treasured feature of democracy but the dividing line must be drawn between academic freedom and breaching the law or indulging in subversive activity. Some liberals like Alan Dershowitz believe that students have “the right not to be propagandized by the classroom by teachers who seek to impose their ideology” and oppose the exploitation of universities by academics as anti-Israeli launching pads, but still insist that lecturers should never be limited even if they promote false narratives which poison the minds of the students and encourage them to hate their own country. Dershowitz believes that the danger of limiting such activity exceeds the damage that can be inflicted and is confident that ultimately truth will prevail.</p>
<p>But that does not justify those who delegitimize and demonize their country being provided tenure of employment. Setting aside the fact that in most societies under siege such behavior would be defined as subversive, I question whether for example such an approach would apply to an academic telling his students that Arabs are racially inferior or that Hitler’s genocidal policies were justified. Or for that matter would academics insisting that the world is flat still be assured tenure in the name of academic freedom? I vouch that such people would soon be out of their jobs and justifiably so.</p>
<p>But in this crazy environment it is only the mad left which claims to be victimized when their unconscionable behavior is exposed. For example, in a petition signed by over 80 TAU faculty members, Alan Dershowitz was denounced for indulging in “incitement” for having described as “hypocritical Stalinists”, academics like Rachel Giora and Anat Matar who support boycotts of Israel. Professor Hannah Wirth-Nesher went so far as to accuse Dershowitz of seeking to impose Teheran standards on Tel Aviv. Hebrew University Professor Shlomo Avineri observed that “the attempt to ‘protect’ those who belong to the left whilst employing McCarthy like methods against those associated with the right is nothing but hypocrisy, which has no place in academia”.</p>
<p>Regrettably the State has failed to act in this area because it has become intimidated by the term academic freedom. Likewise out of fear of being labeled McCarthyites or fascists, the Knesset has also been loath to do anything.</p>
<p>I have no doubt that opinion polls would confirm that the overwhelming majority of Israelis would vehemently agree that there are red lines beyond which academic freedom should not be permitted to justify antisocial or subversive behavior such as calling for the boycott of the state.</p>
<p>Universities are the incubators in which future leaders of society are nurtured. It is surely elementary common sense to ensure that such institutions lead the way for constructive participation in civil life. Academics should not be above the law or permitted to engage in anti-social activities on the grounds of academic freedom.</p>
<p>It is a disgrace that we have reached such a deplorable state of affairs under successive governments. Such activities would never have been tolerated under the social democratic Mapai hegemony and I have no doubt that our founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, a genuine Labor Zionist, would have turned the country upside down to bring an end to such outrageous behavior.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/isi-leibler/treason-of-the-academics/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>16</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/

Object Caching 441/444 objects using disk
Content Delivery Network via cdn.frontpagemag.com

 Served from: www.frontpagemag.com @ 2014-12-31 07:36:06 by W3 Total Cache -->