Bernie Farber blasts Sid Ryan

I'm surprised Farber didnt liken the proposed boycott of academics to the Nazis firing Jews from civil service and academy in 1930's Germany.

But overall I think Ryan and others should tread carefully. This thing could escalate around the world into something hideous as opposed to a normal state of hostilities. The western world is in a bind right now economically and politically. War has typically been a favoured contingency plan in wiping the slate clean. Is it happening again?

I wonder why Sid Ryan never proposed that there be a boycott of all American academics and trade unionists to protest the invasion of Iraq?

Yes! Why not?

Because as Naomi Klien so succinctly poinited out. Boycott's are strategies, not political dogmas. In other words, one boycotts in a way that might be effective. In the case of Israel, it is a sufficiently small economic unit that even a small slow down in economic fortunes, will have an impact on policy.

This type of bellyaching about "double standards" was routine fair of what supremacists seeking to protect South Africa from sanctions under Apartheid. Is that the club you want to be part of?

Boycotts were an effective strategy - Castro would have lost power in Cuba long ago.

That is a matter of opinion. The point is, that wether you think it is an effective strategy, something that people like Nelson Mandella disagree with you about, the fact is that your attempt to imply that Ryan is anti-semitic falls flat in the face of the reasoning behind boycotts, as I outlined.

I see that now the daily and ongoing slaughter of Palestinians, is has now dropped out of the front pages, the slime is rising to the surface again. 

thread drift/

The Destruction of Iraq’s Educational System under US Occupation

Crimes against Humanity: Iraqi academics assassinated during the US-led occupation [8]  and it's a long list

Where exactly did i "imply that Ryan was anti-semitic"??? I'm simply asking why out of all the inter-ethnic conflicts in the world - this is the only one where he has called for an academic boycott. Sri Lanka can kill thousands of Tamils a day and no one gives a hoot. Last year, it was estimated that two million people died in the civil war in Congo - and how many people could even find Congo on a map.

Some say that the reason why we are so obsessed with the Israel/Palestine conflict is because it involves land that is "holy" to three major religions. As an atheist, i fail to see why that should make me care more about what happens there than i care about what happens in Chechnya, Tibet or Sri Lanka.

Interesting riddle that. Of course it begs the question; why did you bother posting if its no more relevant than anything else?

Perhaps when you get back with an answer to that you will have solved your own cunundrum.

I'm with Stockholmer on this one. Of all the brutal US frontline states to choose to boycott, what is so special about Israel other than their ethnicity? Why is Sid up in arms over this particular U.S.-backed atrocity? Was he comatose for the other 99 percent of the cold war to now?

Not sure where this belongs but he's now accusing the protests of violating Canadian law.

Gaza protests violate Canadian laws: Jewish Congress

Well, the racist and fascistic basis of Zionism is coming to a head, and as you can see they just banned half of the Arab MK's sitting in the Knesset in Israel, so its not a suprise that they should try and ban free speech here.

I wonder if Bernie thinks the JDL might have broken some of Canada's hate laws as well.

Yes, we should nip fascism in the bud before it gets out of hand, because we wouldnt want that to happen and spoil things as good as they are 

The widespread ignorance of the Tamils, the Kurds, and others, is proof only that we need to pay more attention to those peoples and their struggles, not that we need to pay less to the Israel/Palestine question.

The reason that we do not pay more attention to Kurds and Tamils and so forth, is that Israel is a direct creation of European foreign policy, and integrated deeply into the social, political and economic relations of the "european" political axis. It is that simple.

One might as well ask, why we spend so much time reading and talking about the UK, as if that is indicative of some kind of special bias. Well it is a bias, and it comes directly from our mutual responsibility for helping to create Israel, and our continued deep integration with it politically, socially and economically.

Just like our special relationship to South Africa was forged in the colonial period, and its ongoing participation in the Commonwealth, of which Canada is a member.

There is nothing odd about this at all.

Sharredmunkey, we're saying that Kurds, Israelis, Sri Lankans, Rwandans, Ugandans, Colombians, etc all have one sponsor-enabler nation in common.

And so why would it be better to embargo and protest against the imperial master nation's minions of doom? Wouldnt it be more effective to target the source country and largest supporter and exporter of terrorism?

Because if you took 1 jelly bean from 10 it would be noticed, whereas if you took 1 Jellybean (or even 10) from 100 it would not be. 

it amazes me that people on babble still want to give farber publicity.

Here's what US academic Edward Herman, co-author of Manufacturing Consent, had to say about it in 2007:

Anti-Semitism as a Function of Israeli State Terrorism

This intellectual says, essentially, that this is what the real terrorists anticipate from lefties - that we should condemn Israelis and fall into the trap of being labelled anti-semites. Meanwhile Israel is being used to set up a larger front in the Middle East for a probable attack on yet another oil-rich nation, Iran. And actually, Iran and Iraq are part of the larger picture for the grand chess game, "the great game" as it was referred to by Zbignew Brzezinski during the cold war era. Herman said about 28 years ago that his country is heading up the real terror network. Does the left wish to abate the problem of terror and war on democracy at the source, or wage some long and drawn out battle of body blows over 20 or 30 rounds? I really dont think it will pay off to repeatedly ignore the largest source of global terror to focus on its frontline states waging war on democracy. The left needs a plan b to harass the quarterback and flatten him before he squeezes off another long bomb.

Gladio – Death Plan For Democracy [22]