On Monday, April 17, during the Jewish holiday of Passover, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself at a restaurant in Tel Aviv. Nine innocent civilians were killed and dozens more were injured. Many of the victims turned out to be hapless foreign workers, and it is hard to imagine any justification for such an indiscriminate and barbaric act of terrorism.
Yet, the newly and democratically elected Palestinian government, led by the Hamas party, called the suicide bombing legitimate self-defense. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, declared, "We assure our Palestinian people of the right to defend themselves, and this operation is surely a natural reaction to the continued Zionist crimes carried out against our Palestinian people." Islamic Jihad released a video and took responsibility for the attack and foretold of future attacks.
This brings me to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as portrayed on campus. The depiction has been overwhelmingly one sided, i.e., anti-Israeli. This has genuine implications for stoking the fires of anti-Semitism.
Recently, Viewpoints written by two students assert that being anti-Israeli is not the same as being anti-Semitic. This is a hollow argument. Hamas now represents the Palestinians, and it has adamantly refused to recognize Israel's right to exist, precisely because it is a Jewish state. To the dismay of most of the world's governments, Hamas continues to loudly vow to destroy the Jewish state.
Thus, Hamas is openly aligned with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, whose virulent anti-Semitism exceeds that of Herr Hitler. Anyone who favors the killing and maiming of innocent Jews in supports of the total destruction of the Jewish state is anti-Semitic. To argue otherwise is sophistry.
What is the University's responsibly when it sponsors an event titled "Jews of Conscience"? Does this not imply that Jews who support Israel have no conscience? The University must know that such events will be used by overt anti-Semites and will give an academic imprimatur to crass bigotry.
Ammar Askari denies that anti-Israeli speaker Norman Finkelstein is a "self-hating" Jew, seeing as both of Finkelstein's parents are Holocaust survivors. However, Professor Finkelstein vilifies and demonizes a Jewish state, whose historical necessity is amply demonstrated by the past 2000 years of history, culminating in the death of 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust.
The bottom line is that Professor Finkelstein is an apologist for terrorists, who has blamed the United States for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His logic follows similarly when he blames Jews for the suicide bombers in Israel. Only terrorists can be held liable for such attacks. He has the right to express his dogmatic views. But, the university needs to ensure that there is a fair and balanced presentation of the other side. Respectfully, there is no other moral side to the killing of innocent people, even if they are Jews. Zieneb Hamdan proclaims, "Taking an anti-Israeli stance or being critical of Israel does not equate with being anti-Semitic." This would sound more convincing if the Arab and Muslim Student Associations would condemn the suicide bombings that have killed scores of innocent Jews.