By ROBERT KORNFELD Jewish Press December 8, 2004

..Fortress Israel,. as we call it, is by necessity based
on a culture of strength, violence and crudity. In the final
analysis, it will be the bulldozer that razes the structure that
once was Israel..

. .Israel’s Nazification needs no dictatorship since
plenty of sturdy little Hitlers seem to be securely ensconced
in a great many number of hearts..

. .Israel wants to do more than keep the suicide
bombers out. . . . It wants to erase the Palestinian nation
once and for all..

. .This unarmed uprising was turned into an armed
revolt by harsh Israeli retaliation to demonstrations and
street protests.

. .There is an entire sector in the Jewish public which
I unhesitatingly define as a copy of the German Nazis.

. .STOP ISRAEL! The Israeli army has been
terrorizing cities and villages in the West Bank . . . there is
one simple thing that anybody can do: Boycott Israel!…
Israel is not the U.S. It is a small country with hardly any
economy, and with a self-image completely detached from
reality. It can be stopped.

Statements by European leftists in hate marches against
Israel? By Berkeley activists for .solidarity. with Palestinian
terror? By radical Islamic preachers in mosques in Paris, London,
or Dearborn, Michigan?

No; every one of those statements was made by an Israeli
academic employed by an Israeli university. People entrusted with
teaching history, political science, sociology, and the like to young
Israelis. People whose seditious writings, declarations, and
activities against the state of Israel are underwritten by the Israeli
taxpayer and by those who make donations to these institutions out
of a desire to help the Jewish state.

And, of course, are used by anti-Semites all over the globe
as prime ammunition against Jews and Israel.

The scandal of anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist, and sometimes
anti-Semitic radicalism among Israeli academics is now
highlighted on a new website. Modeled after Campus Watch,
Daniel Pipes.s site for monitoring Middle East studies on North
American campuses, Israel Academia Monitor (israel-academia-monitor.com) was created by a group of academics, journalists,
donors, students, and others with the aim of monitoring abuses of
academic freedom in Israel.s universities.

These abuses include not only writings and statements that
deny Israel.s legitimacy, advocate its destruction, or compare it
with the Nazi and other worst regimes in history, but also calls for
widespread insurrection and mutiny by Israeli soldiers and support
for international efforts at boycotting Israel and ostracizing the
teachers and students of these universities themselves.

Although most Israeli academics are not radicals, spanning
a wide political spectrum within the bounds of loyalty to the state,
the radicals are hardly a tiny fringe:

. An open letter by Israeli faculty members .wish[ing] to
express our appreciation and support for those of our students and
lecturers who refuse to serve as soldiers in the occupied territories.
has so far been signed by 287 faculty members. Such .service in
the occupied territories,. of course, is the only thing that stops
Palestinian suicide bombings and over the past year has drastically
reduced their number. That didn.t prevent one Hebrew University
professor from excusing all students from exams if they were in
jail for refusal to serve, while not excusing students who were on
reserve duty.

. American supporters of Israel have fought hard to stop the
divestment drive on American campuses. Yet a group of influential
Israeli professors openly supports divestment. There is, of course,
no push for divesting from countries like Iran, Sudan, or North
Korea; of all the countries in the world, only democratic Israel has
the .honor. . and the professors who try to gain that honor for it.

. A 2002 statement declared: .We, members of Israeli
academe, are horrified by the U.S. buildup of aggression toward
Iraq and by the Israeli political leadership.s enthusiastic support
for it. . . . We are deeply worried by indications that the .fog of
war. could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit
further crimes against the Palestinian people, up to
FULL-FLEDGED ETHNIC CLEANSING. . . . Escalating racist
demagoguery concerning the Palestinian citizens of Israel may
indicate the scope of the crimes that are possibly being
contemplated. . . .”

It was signed by sixty Israeli academics. Needless to say,
Israel did not take the actions they fantasized.

Important as Campus Watch and other sites monitoring
abuses on North American campuses undoubtedly are, Israel.s
situation as a lone democracy amid a sea of Arab and Muslim
hatred, and a target of growing anti-Semitic movements in Europe
and all over the globe, is especially precarious. Having its young
minds poisoned is a luxury Israel cannot afford.

The ideas taught by the radicals . that Israel is a criminal
.colonial. entity responsible for the Arab violence against it, that
the Arabs are the victims, and that Israel can end the violence by
satisfying Arab demands . have already penetrated Israel.s more
mainstream Left as represented by the Labor and Yahad parties. It
was such ideas that led to the disastrous Oslo accords, which
glorified Yasir Arafat as a peacemaker and brought a rain of death
and destruction on Israel that continues to this day.

Israel.s academic institutions are, indeed, a crucial resource
for the state, but if they become nests for people who identify with
Israel.s enemies and promote their causes, they risk harming the
Jewish state more than they benefit it and, ultimately, contributing
to its destruction. These universities are highly dependent on
overseas donors and contributors. The IAM site seeks to bring to
these people.s attention some of the atrocious things being done
with their money, hoping they will condition their future
contributions more carefully.

Israel Academia Monitor . IAM . for its part, will
continue to expose, monitor, and counter Israel.s tenured
insurgents.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 21st, 2004 and is filed under opinion.