Labor MK: Boycott Obama's speech
Today, Shai is a Knesset member from the Leftist Labor party. That's why it's a bit of a surprise to hear him coming out with a call for a boycott of President Obama's speech on Thursday.
“Following the decision not to invite students from Ariel to the US President’s speech in Israel, I demand that the Student Union inform President Obama that they will not attend his lecture on Thursday,” Shai wrote on his Facebook wall.
The US Embassy said it was not boycotting Ariel University, located in the eponymous settlement deep inside the West Bank, but rather was only offering tickets to the speech to schools with which it has a partnership.
Ariel became a university last year after a highly contested political fight.
But Shai said the US was boycotting Ariel students because of where they study.
“It is shocking to think that you can disqualify students just because they learn in the West Bank. I do not understand how President Obama wants to conduct a dialogue with the Israeli public when he is consciously excluding part of it,” he said.Of course, he's right. We are constantly being lectured by our own Left and by the Obama administration about how one must make peace with enemies. I would not call the students of Ariel enemies of the US (although I'm sure many of them don't like Obama personally), but I have to wonder how the President plans to influence the Israeli public if he's going to exclude people whom he sees as likely to disagree with him.
I really hope that the speech has a question and answer period and that the students take the opportunity to nail him while they can. If you're a student at one of the universities and are going to the speech, I may be able to help you come up with some good questions.
Labels: Ariel University, Barack Hussein Obama, Nachman Shai
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:09 PM
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