Norway’s second-largest university is considering boycotting Israeli academics. And if they do, here is what they will be boycotting:
Israeli scientists have identified a substance that can kill cancerous cells without harming healthy ones, paving the way for more effective cancer treatment.
The findings by researchers at Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, were published in the current issue of the international peer-reviewed journal Breast Cancer Research.
“We actually found the Achilles heel of the cancer cell,” said Prof. Malka Cohen-Armon from Tel Aviv University, who headed the research team. “As soon as you can target cancerous cells without killing healthy ones, you can produce medications that would cause a lot less suffering to the patient. We can even give a much more aggressive treatment without worrying about harming healthy tissues.”
Feel free, Norway, to boycott the possible cure for cancer. Perhaps in turn, Israel will find it hard to ship this medicine to Norway, and to all of the other nations that boycott Israel.
Of course not. Because that’s not what Jews do. That’s what the enemies of Jews do. And I count among the enemies of Jews those nations, companies, and groups that take part in boycotting the Jewish state. It’s not anti-Zionism.
The letter claims that Israeli universities and other institutions of higher education “have played a key role in the policy of oppression” that the signatories claim exists in Israel. It goes on to say that “Israel goes against all the ideals of open universities and academic freedom.”
Really? In Saudi Arabia, men and women are unable to take classes together. In Iran and Egypt, students are arrested and imprisoned for speaking their minds about the current governments. In Israel, Arabs and Israelis work side by side in universities all over the country. It isn’t Israel that goes against the ideals of open universities and academic freedom.
But sure, Norwegians, go ahead—boycott Israeli universities. It’s not like they’re coming up with a cure for cancer or anything like that.
Oh. Wait.
Hmmm, wonder if all that snow and cold has caused a genetic mutation in the common sense area of Norwegian gray matter?
I’m pretty sure it’s a case of environment, not genetics. In this case, the same cultural tradition of authoritarianism, so deeply ingrained that socialism actually works reasonably well there, also results in a deep superstitious mistrust of cultures that accept an individual right and responsibility to see to ones’ own defense (such as Israelis doing whatever it takes to defend themselves against Palestinian agression, with rapidly declining concern for what Norwegians think of their actions).
Have you ever asked a Scandinavian why Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland aren’t a single country? After all they are
all the same ethnicity. And all nominally Christian.
Ask one sometime.
You will receive an interesting answer.
Something like “You just don’t understand the way those Swedes|Norwegians|Finns|Danes|Icelanders REALLY are. You Simply can’t
trust them. And they don’t take enough baths. And they breed like pigs. And they have no culture”
Yet they almost always the first people to lecture Israelis on how to behave.
I live in Minnesota, and know first hand how the Swedes/Norwegian deal with each other! Most of it is just harmless joking, but there is a thread of animosity between the two groups that surfaces periodically.
Anti-Israel sentiment–and outright anti-Semitism–is, in the Western world, largely a
product of the universities. It’s not the Rotary Club or the Chamber of Commerce or
the Plumber’s Union that are passing resolutions against Israel.
I know someone who grew up in the heart of blonde-hair-blue-eyed-land—with the misfortune of having black hair. She was teased mercilessly by her fellow students for that, and other reasons.
Nice people.
That’s not entirely true. There was plenty of anti-Semitism in the west before the university crowd made the Palestinian cause fashionable. And there was plenty of anti-Semitism on universities before the late sixties, too.
True, there was plenty of anti-Semitism in the West, but it was generally on the decline.
The universities, especially the Ivy League, had indeed often discriminated against
Jews, but by the mid-1960s had moved more toward meritocracy in their admissions policies.
I think the hostility toward Israel that emanatesh from today’s “progressive” movement
is part & parcel of the generally counter-Enlightenment orientation of that movement.