The Observer, April 4, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 23
"Blind hatred" stifles intelligent debate
To the Editor:
In his recent editorial "Anti-Semitism strong at Case," Caleb Posner was surprisingly able to cram outrageous hate-speech, gross exaggerations, and blatant lies all into one piece of writing. Throughout his article, Posner attacks Case for permitting Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to hold its highly successful humanitarian awareness event, Liber18, on campus. For those who do not know, and were likely confused by the Posner editorial, the event was created to raise funds to provide medical care to Palestinian children who have become casualties of the ceaseless violence in the region. But for Posner, no low is too low, as he freely quotes pro-Israeli extremists such as Wendy Webb, who baselessly bash the SJP as a "dangerous…organization" with a "deadly agenda." Furthermore, Posner succumbs to his most disgraceful act yet: equating medical aid for Palestinian children with anti-Semitism.
Admittedly, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is rife with long-running suspicions and deep-seated emotions. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to blind hatred – a notion which is perfectly exemplified in several of Posner's editorials. He constantly insinuates that any person sympathizing with the Palestinian plight is "intellectually corrupt." He asserts that groups like SJP "create a poisonous fear of Israel," but is content to facilitate fear-mongering himself by branding any pro-Palestinian speakers "offensive" and "hostile" without actually listening to their speeches. Additionally, he incorrectly labels Alice Bach as SJP's faculty adviser and again makes the mistake of stating that SJP is a national organization. It is this campaign of misinformation and hypocrisy that compels this response.
Finally, on to the basest of Posner's wild allegations. To be clear, it is a terrible reality that racism and xenophobia still run rampant in America today. Even on college campuses, where intellectualism and tolerance are supposed to reign, many minority groups deal with prejudice daily. However, prejudice and politics must be properly separated if we are to have the "open debate" that Posner preaches. It cannot be emphasized enough that criticism of Israel and its policies is not synonymous with anti-Semitism, no matter what some would have you believe. Beginning with the title of his piece and ending with the final period, Posner clearly and despicably conflates a pro-Palestinian agenda with anti-Semitism. Even his beloved, viciously pro-Israel Alan Dershowitz made it clear when he said "[c]riticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile." How then could Posner dare label the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "one of the great contemporary political issues," while simultaneously branding any opponents racists? Doing so perverts the very idea of civil public discourse, and it should disgust those who are interested in the real issues.
In the end, the Liber18 event was a resounding success, and has even been nominated for the Dorothy M. Pijan Outstanding Program Award. Over $2800 will go directly to help injured Palestinian children. It is an unfortunate reality that this is unacceptable to Posner and other extremists. Sadly, it appears that they are content to embody that which he purports to hate so much: the "fringe" who are content "spending all of [their] energy misinforming the student body."
Zeyad Schwen
Undergraduate student
