We have the potential for a second Holocaust here…

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… in Brooklyn, of all places, and Midwood, to be precise. Who knew?

Once more the Zionist thought police respond in force to a 911 (Constable Alan Dershowitz, shown above, was in the very first car on the scene, nightstick at the ready). This time it’s at Brooklyn College, part of the far-flung City University of New York empire — which used to employ me, and paid very badly, I must say.

Here’s the Times’ account of the backstory:

Next week, two leading voices of B.D.S., which stands for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,” are scheduled to speak at the college at an event cosponsored by a student group and the college’s political science department, prompting a furious response from pro-Israel groups on campus and others who say the department’s sponsorship amounts to tacit endorsement.

“You do not have a right, and should not put the name of Brooklyn College on hate,” said William C. Thompson Jr., the former city comptroller, who is running for mayor, at a news conference with more than a dozen elected officials, students and B.D.S. opponents outside the campus on Thursday.

A number of other City Council soup hounds have lent their hoarse barks to the music of the pack, perhaps most prominent among them Christine Quinn, a great liberal darling here in my adopted home town, and also a papabile for Gracie Mansion, or so one is told.

Needless to say — this being New York — most of the torches and pitchforks are being wielded by Democrats. They’re threatening to stop funding Brooklyn College, or CUNY in general, or something. As if the New York city council actually had the power to do anything except rename streets. Here’s an example of their work:

Some of my Lefty friends have been rather cheered by the response of the college’s president, one Karen Gould. She has not actually booked a flight to go and be flagellated at the Wailing Wall; she has not offered to expel or fire anybody whom Alan Dershowitz might not like. Credit where it’s due. One fellow Lefty burbles:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a leader of an educational institution take a more principled and courageous stand than this.

Indeed. But that’s setting the bar rather low, isn’t it?

Gould is better than the general run of college presidents. But not much better. Here are a few excerpts from her response to the Dershniks:

 While we appreciate the many voices of support for our stand on academic freedom, we cannot disregard the concerns raised by some of our students and alumni(*)….

Contrary to some reports, the Department of Political Science fully agrees and has reaffirmed its longstanding policy to give equal consideration to co-sponsoring speakers who represent any and all points of view.

Over the next two months, with the support of the Wolfe Institute for the Humanities and other campus units and community groups, we will provide multiple opportunities for discussion about the topics and related subject matter at the heart of this controversy.  In addition to Thursday evening’s event, at which I encourage those with opposing views to participate in the discussion and ask tough questions, other forums will present alternative perspectives for consideration….

Finally, to those who have voiced concern that our decision to uphold the rights of our students and faculty signals an endorsement of the speakers’ views, I say again that nothing could be further from the truth.  Moreover, I assure you that our college does not endorse the BDS movement nor support its call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel.

As the official host of the CUNY center for study abroad in Israel, our college has a proud history of engagement with Israel and Israeli universities… We deeply value our Israeli partners and would not endorse any action that would imperil the State of Israel…

I would call that taking sides, in no uncertain terms.


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(*) Constable Dershowtiz, as it happens, is himself an alum of Brooklyn College. Not their finest hour.

9 thoughts on “We have the potential for a second Holocaust here…”

  1. If I didn’t have such an aversion to crossing the border, I would’ve hopped on the next Greyhound to be there. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to put my loud and obnoxious voice to some good use.

  2. The “Netflix original series” House of Cards features a plot in episodes 1-2 in which a Democratic congressarin’s career is ruined, by rival played by Kevin Spacey, after it gets leaked that while editor of some lefty rag decades prior an op-ed may have been published in which the word “illegal” may have been used to describe the occupation.

    Hollywood writers apparently understand the political utility of Israel(tm)*–more valuable than communism, it sees to me–even if it’s beyond the computational framework of the average liberal. Though whether the writer in such cases is in fact a closeted pinko or more of a Howard W. Campbell Jr-type… I tend to lean toward the latter.

  3. The twilight of the empire and all I get is moldy bread and a flea circus. Did Caligula entertain his subjects with a slapfight in the academy?

    Maybe I can hope that The Dersh attacks the stage and is beaten with OJ’s Bruno Maglis and then stabbed in the ass with Sunny’s insulin syringe.

  5. Here is something I posted on the marxmail list, in reply to the posting of the NYT report on Mayor Bloomberg’s repudiation of attemts to stop the BDS event at Brooklyn College:

    “Naturally, it is better that the mayor defend the right of a public college to practice free speech. But his statement that NYC is the most free city in the world is preposterous. The city has paid tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits just in the last decade or so because the police routinely violate speech rights. And it would be interesting to ask black people how free the city is.

    The bar is set so low now in the United States for all manner of things that we should take for granted that the Brooklyn College BDS

    controversy seems a great victory for the people. The president of the college is seen as a steadfast champion of civil liberties and the voices of a few tenured professors are seen as heroic. It all kind of cheapens the actions of real champions of civil liberties and true heroes.

    No doubt we have to take what we can get. But read president Gould’s statement (let me add that I wrote her a letter, as asked by the sponsors of the event). It is pretty wishy washy. Same for the political science department’s statements. Everyone wants to be fair and balanced, like Fox News.

    During the Vietnam War, boatloads of professors came out publicly against it. Teach-ins, all kinds of events were held on campuses. Nobody gave a damn about balance or even bothered to consult administrations. We didn’t make statements saying how we respected all sides of the issue. It would have been a cold day in hell before my small department would have invited someone who favored the war to campus of sponsored an event of a group that did this. But president Gould wants to convene a committee to make sure that balance prevails.And she goes further, as Michael J. Smith notes on his blog. She says, “As the official host of the CUNY center for study abroad in Israel, our college has a proud history of engagement with Israel and Israeli universities… We deeply value our Israeli partners and would not endorse any action that would imperil the State of Israel…” Some balance.

    I remember our college president in a tenure meeting asking about a philosopher’s syllabus for an ethics class. Where were the pro war articles he wanted to know. We nearly hooted him out of the room. Now the definition of academic freedom is so pinched and constrained that we hail minor victories as akin to revolution.

    Let’s not be so foolish as to believe that this one small victory marks the beginning of a weakening of US support for the criminal Israeli state. And even if it did, Israel certainly won’t lose its atomic weapons or any or its other weapons of mass destruction.”

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