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The NYT reports that “The main union representing 120,000 British college teachers voted Wednesday to endorse a Palestinian trades’ union call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.” I didn’t notice any similar resolutions concerning academics in China, or Iran, or in the old USSR, or in Syria, or in Cuba. Hmm. Yes, we're having a sale on Wagner this week. Wagner, Max! Anyway, let me save everyone a lot of time and trouble. Cue the script – Move 1: a commenter asks what’s the big deal. Move 2: I complain that this smacks of anti-semitism. Move 3: comments flood in reminding me that criticizing Israel isn’t identical with anti-semitism. Move 4: I reply that yes, I know that, but the plain double-standard evidenced here reveals a special animus. Move 5: some comments to the effect that since no state has the right to exist, Israel doesn’t either. Move 6: I reply that as long as any states can exist, Israel can too, and to say otherwise is anti-semitism. Move 7: Angry comments pour in about Israeli misdeeds. Move 8: I link to FLAME and AICE. Move 9: I express bewilderment that antipathy towards Israel is so prevalent on the left as well as in several wings of the libertarian world. Move 10: I get lectured on how I’m not really a libertarian at all, accompanied by some ad hominem. Move 11: I close the comments thread.

Seriously, though, and leaving the anti-Israel/anti-semitism thing alone, this seems like an amazingly anti-intellectual thing to do. "We don't like your government's policies, so we won't allow your chemists to co-author papers, etc." Absurd.

Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 9:21 AM | Comments (6) | Return

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