Yeshiva University condemns murder of R. Michael Marc - maybe Daniel Abraham can get Obama to do the same
In an earlier post, I reported that I used to spend Shabbatot in the home of the in-laws of Rabbi Michael Marc HY"D (May God Avenge his blood), who was murdered in a terror attack on Friday. I did not mention their names. Late last night, Yeshiva University in Israel issued the following statement:
'While many ... feel strongly about their Zionism, few have the courage to publicly express their opinions'
Caroline Glick explains how moral relativism is silencing American Jewish supporters of Israel.
It was not a coincidence that the Times failed to mention why
Morsi's castigation of Jews as apes and pigs was so familiar to Muslim
audiences.
The Islamic sources of Muslim
Brotherhood Jew hatred, and indeed, hatred of Jews by Islamic leaders
from both the Sunni and Shi'ite worlds, is largely overlooked by the
liberal ideological camp. And the overwhelming majority of the American
Jewish leadership is associated with the liberal ideological camp.
If
the Times acknowledged that the Jew hatred espoused by Morsi and his
colleagues in the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as by their Shi'ite
colleagues in the Iranian regime and Hezbollah is based on the Koran,
they would have to acknowledge that Islamic Jew hatred and other bigotry
is not necessarily antithetical to mainstream Islamic teaching. And
that is something that the Times, like its fellow liberal institutions,
is not capable of acknowledging.
They are
incapable of acknowledging this possibility because considering it would
implicitly require a critical study of jihadist doctrine. And a
critical study of jihadist doctrine would show that the doctrine of
jihad, or Islamic holy war, subscribed to by the Muslim Brotherhood and
its affiliates, as well as by the Iranian regime and Hezbollah and their
affiliates, is widely supported, violent, bigoted, evil and dangerous
to the free world.
And that isn't even the
biggest problem with studying the doctrine of jihad. The biggest problem
is that a critical study of the doctrine of jihad would force liberal
institutions like the New York Times and the institutional leadership of
the American Jewish community alike to abandon the reigning dogma of
the liberal ideological camp - moral relativism.
Moral
relativism is based on a refusal to call evil evil and a concomitant
willingness to denigrate truth if truth requires you to notice evil.
Since
pointing out the reality of the danger the jihadist doctrines
propagated by the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood involves the implicit
demand that people make distinctions between good and evil and side with
good against evil, moral relativists - that is most liberals - cannot
contend with jihad.
This is why the American
Jewish leadership refused to join Rand Paul and his conservative
Republican colleagues in the Senate and demand an immediate cessation of
US military aid to the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egyptian military
even after the evidence of the Brotherhood's genocidal Jew hatred was
splashed across the front page of the Times.
It
is the dominance of moral relativism in liberal institutions like the
New York Times that make even the most apologetic expose of the Muslim
Brotherhood a major event. And it is the dominance of liberal
orthodoxies in the mainstream Jewish community that makes it all but
impossible for Jewish leaders to speak up against the Muslim
Brotherhood, despite the manifest danger its genocidal hatred of Jews
poses not only for Israel, but for Jews everywhere.
It
is bad enough that liberal Jewish leaders won't speak out against the
Koranic-inspired evil that characterizes the ideology of the Muslim
Brotherhood. What is worse is what their own morally relative blindness
causes them to do.
Not one anti-Carter protester at Yeshiva? Not one????
Haaretz's Chemi Shalev is tweeting from Yeshiva University's Cardozo law school. These are self-explanatory:
Anti-Carter protestors are a no-show at Cardozo award scene. Not even one.
— Chemi Shalev (@ChemiShalev) April 10, 2013
Other than a few pro-Carterites and one foul- mouthed anti-Semite, all quiet as students file into Cardozo hall for Carter ceremony
— Chemi Shalev (@ChemiShalev) April 10, 2013
What happened guys? No one wanted pay for a ticket and you couldn't get in without paying?
Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s National Director, told The Algemeiner: “The
students were wrong – they are entitled to be wrong and inappropriate
and we are entitled to say that honoring former President Carter is
wrong, especially for a Jewish institution…and indeed for any
institution. Desmond Tutu, who is more problematic than Jimmy Carter
when it comes to issues relating to Israel, was also honored. I
wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t vote for it, I wouldn‘t support it. We
need to do a better job educating – wrongly stigmatizing Israel does
not help to resolve the problems. Hopefully if we instill those
values, future mistakes like this will not be made.”
Foxman added that “the University responded properly,” to the controversy.
Likewise Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, told The Algemeiner that the students did not “exercise due
diligence .”
“Had they done so,’ he added, “they would have discovered that Mr
Carter has never resolved his conflict with the Jewish state. His
serial bias against Israel is well-documented. That alone should have
led tomorrow’s lawyers, whatever their ethnicity or religion, to
conclude that President Carter should not receive such an honor.”
This award has likely been in the works for months. Why did no one hear about it until the last week?
I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear that evidence has emerged that the man to be honored by Yeshiva University's Cardozo law school later on Wednesday is a good, old-fashioned anti-Semite.
In a series of sermons Carter recorded
between 1999 and 2003 that were published as a CD set by Simon and
Schuster called “Sunday Mornings in Plains,” Carter attacks modern
Israel by retreading ancient anti-Semitic tropes that go back to the
early church fathers and the Judaism/Christianity schism that gave birth
to a millennia of Christian persecution of Jews.
...
Here are salient examples.
1. Jews hate and feel superior to
non-Jews: In the tapes, one hears -- in Southern drawl -- his ancient
animus: Jews hate non-Jews:
“…this
morning I’m gonna be trying to relate the assigned Bible lesson to us in
the Uniformed Series with how that affected Israel and how it affects
us through Christ personally… It’s hard for us to even visualize the
prejudice against gentiles when Christ came on earth. If a Jew married a
gentile, that person was considered to be dead. … How would you
characterize from a Jew’s point of view the uncircumcised? Non believer?
And what? Unclean, what? They called them DOGS! That’s true. … What was
Paul’s feeling toward gentiles in his early life as a Jewish leader?
[Paul was not a Jewish leader. Ed.] Anybody? Absolute commitment to
persecution! To the imprisonment and even the execution of non-Jews who
now professed faith in Jesus Christ. … We know the differences in the
Middle East. But the differences there are between Jews on the one hand
who comprise the dominating force both militarily and also politically
and the Palestinians who are both Muslim and Christians. …”
2. Jewish ritual sacrifice is a dodge that relieves one from taking care of one’s parents, while preserving one’s wealth:
“Corban was
a uh prayer that could be performed by usually a man in an endorsed
ceremony by the Pharisees that you could say in effect, ‘God, everything
that I own all these sheep all these goats this nice house and the
money that I have, I dedicate to you, to God.’ And from then on
according to the Pharisees law those riches didn’t belong to that person
anymore. They were whose? God’s! So as long as those riches were
belonged to the person, that person was supposed to share them with
needy parents right? But once it was God’s it wasn’t theirs and they
didn’t have anything to share with their parents. So with impunity, and
approved by the Pharisaic law, they could avoid taking care of their
needy parents by a trick that had been evolved by the incorrect and
improper interpretation of the law primarily designed by religious
leaders to benefit whom? The rich folks! The powerful people! Because
the poor man wouldn’t have all of this stuff to give to God. He would
probably, in fact he might very well have his parents in the house with
him or still be living with his own parents.”
3. Carter ties this Jewish feelings of superiority and religious malevolence to current Israeli policy:
“One reason
is that the Israeli government headed now by Netanyahu has to depend on
the ultra-right or fundamentalist Jews to give them a majority in the
parliament which they call the Knesset, and the recent resignation of
foreign minister Levy has left Netanyahu with only one vote margin in
the parliament. So the ultra-conservative Jewish leaders demand always
that they have total control over anything that relates to religion
inside Israel, in particular in Jerusalem. Well, I’m not here to condemn
anyone but to point out that even within ourselves, there is an
inclination for, I’d say, a feeling of superiority. Wouldn’t you think
so? Would you agree? I know I have it.”
[More on that here. CiJ] Carter’s beef with the Jews is not
simply a disagreement over how Israel should treat the Palestinians. His
is a deep theological hatred of the type that most Christians
(including the Vatican in the 1960s Nostra Aetate) have long disavowed.
This is not the “new anti-Semitism: it’s the old. All the more
indefensible for an orthodox Jewish religious institution to give this
man an award.
There's a more thorough treatment of Carter's sermons here. This is the sort of thing that ought to exercise people at groups like the Anti-Defamation League.
The fact that an institution with the name 'Yeshiva University' is honoring this anti-Semite is a desecration of God's name. No less.
In a huge victory for alumni of Yeshiva University's Cardozo law school, the New York Times has now named and shamed Jimmy Carter, making the controversy over Carter, rather than the award, into the main story.
Richard M. Joel, the president of Yeshiva University, issued a statement
explaining that the journal is run by students, and that it was they,
not the university’s administrators, who chose the recipient of the
award. However the event plays out, it casts a light on Cardozo’s
unusual position as a secular law school within a religious university —
one whose mission is in part to “bring wisdom to life by combining the
finest contemporary academic education with the timeless teachings of
Torah.”
The law school is closed on Friday evenings and Saturdays, in keeping
with the Jewish calendar, and for annual religious holidays throughout
the year. It serves only kosher food in its facilities. But it attracts
students and faculty from a variety of religions, and its curriculum has
no religious or political focus.
In 2010, when Dr. Joel condemned homosexual relationships, Cardozo’s dean, Matthew Diller, made a strong statement in favor of equal rights.
...
“Part of being a law school is being an open and diverse community with a
cacophony of ideas which people are free to express,” Dr. Diller said
Tuesday. But, he added, “we are part of a Jewish institution and we
stand for Jewish values and commitments, and part of that is support for
Israel.”
Brian Farkas, the editor in chief of The Cardozo Journal of Conflict
Resolution, said that the decision to honor Mr. Carter had been
mischaracterized.
He said he had spent the morning engaged in “respectful” discussion with members of the Jewish Law Students Association, and that plans were in the works for a future event that would offer differing perspectives on Mr. Carter’s work.
He added that Mr. Carter, who was not available for comment, had agreed
to take questions from students after his address on Wednesday
afternoon.
“We never want hurt feelings,” Mr. Farkas said. “I don’t think anyone
here knew the extent to which that would result. But that said, it’s
going to facilitate a lot of dialogue within the university that
wouldn’t otherwise have happened. If one of the top legal conflict
resolution programs in the U.S. is not trying to facilitate that
dialogue, then we’re wasting our time.”
Among alumni, however, the debate remains somewhat more heated. One graduate announced
his intention to try to bar Mr. Carter’s entrance into the school. And
the Coalition of Concerned Cardozo Alumni employed another means by
which to influence opinion: its Web site calls upon fellow graduates of
the school “to condition any continued support of Cardozo, be it
financial or otherwise, on the cancellation of this event.”
But Gary Emmanuel, speaking on behalf of the group, said he knew the
event would go forward. “They’ve invited a former president of the
United States. It would be extremely difficult for them to retract
that.” He added, “They’ve created for themselves a real P.R. mess.”
Dr. Diller, the dean, said he sympathized with their outrage. “I think a
number of President Carter’s statements and actions about Israel are
jarring to the values of the institution,” and to his personal values,
he said. But he would not stop the event. “I view this as a test of our
institution’s commitment to openness.”
One can only assume that by taking the time to serve on the Board,
you take great pride in your affiliation with such a reputable
institution and one whose mission is, in part, to “bring wisdom to life
by combining the finest contemporary academic education with the
timeless teachings of Torah.” While we all may interpret those words
slightly differently, Jimmy Carter is anathema to the aspirations of the
Jewish people and the survival of the State of Israel. Honoring him at a
bedrock of the American Jewish community does not bring wisdom to life
or combine a fine education with the teachings of Torah. Honoring Jimmy
Carter makes the statement that, notwithstanding the empty claims by the
administration that the Journal’s choice does not necessarily represent
the views of the institution, this individual is someone deserving of
recognition. Awarding this honor to someone with Carter’s anti-Israel
record that includes whitewashing the genocidal aims of Hamas,
mainstreaming the notion that Israel is a racist state, and validating a
nuclear Iran is quite simply abhorrent.
While the Yeshiva University and Cardozo administrators are hiding
behind the veil of First Amendment rights and academic freedom, as proud
members of the Cardozo community, we beseech you to do the right thing
and make your voices heard. The issue at hand is not one requiring
righteous people to worship the false idols of free speech at the
expense of Jewish values and principles. As we end our observance of
Yom HaShoah, we must face the lessons that well-intentioned European
Jews also respected the rights of their fellow citizens to voice ugly
thoughts and protest their very existence. But silence is complicity
and “Never Again” requires learning from the lessons of the tragedies
that befell the Jewish people. Antisemitism, whitewashing terrorists who
seek to destroy the Jewish homeland, and lies and distortions based on
personal and dangerous biases are all qualities that define the
post-presidential Jimmy Carter. Yeshiva University and Cardozo should
not give a platform to his slander while at the same time granting
credibility to his disingenuous and repugnant positions.
Along with the honor and pride that emanates from your role as Board
members it is your individual responsibilities to ensure that the
school’s faculty and administrators make decisions that represent the
values that you wish to not only endow to the student body but also
those that you wish to see reflected in the community. The extensive media attention
that this award has drawn has been entirely negative and the Board
bears the ultimate responsibility for any impact that this will have on
the school’s reputation both in the near future and the long-term.
Alumni will not continue to support an institution that so blatantly
ignores the principles on which it was founded and which so willingly
and callously slaps in the face the people who form the very foundation
of its future success.
The Zionist Organization of America has also issued a press release calling on Cardozo to cancel the event. I received it by email.
ZOA Calls On Cardozo Law School To Rescind Decision To Give Award To Israel-Bashing Jimmy Carter
April 9, NEW YORK --The
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon the Benjamin N.
Cardozo Law School to rescind its decision to bestow an award upon
former President Jimmy Carter. This Wednesday, April 10, the Cardozo Law
School, which is a part of New York City's Yeshiva University (YU), is
to bestow its International Advocate for Peace Award from the upon
Carter. The ZOA has pointed to President Carter's repellant,
decades-long record as an Israel-basher and promoter of Israel's most
vicious enemies, including Hamas, which calls in its Charter for the
destruction of Israel (Article 15) and the global murder of Jews
(Article 7), in calling upon Cardozo to rescind its decision to award
Carter.
In
a letter to YU Dean, Professor Matthew Diller, and YU President,
Professor Richard Joel, ZOA National President Morton A. Klein wrote:
"We
are deeply appalled that any institution, but especially a Jewish one
like Cardozo, would seek to honor an Israel-basher like Jimmy Carter.
Carter was the author in 2007 of a book, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid,
in which he wrote the following astounding and reprehensible passage:
'It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant
Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings
and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate
goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel' (p. 213). In the
words of the New York Post at the time, 'Carter isn't calling on
the Palestinians to give up terror and murder now as a way to convince
Israel they are serious about peace. Rather, he says they can wait until
they've achieved their goals at the bargaining table. No need, says
Carter, to give up terrorism until then... he flatly condones mass
murder' ('Jimmy for Terror,' New York Post, January 15, 2007).
"I would also like to draw your attention to the following:
The publication of Carter's book impelled 14 board members of the Carter Center to resign.
His
Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, once revealed that if Carter had
won a second term, he intended to sell Israel down the river.
In The Unfinished Presidency,
Douglas Brinkley wrote, 'There was no world leader Jimmy Carter
was more eager to know than Yasir Arafat,' whom he befriended
already in 1990, three years before Arafat supposedly accepted
Israel's right to exist and signed the Oslo Accords.
Carter
was awarded a prize from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan of the
United Arab Emirates, whose Zayed Center for Coordination and
Follow-Up has promoted Holocaust denial.
Carter
has met numerous times with leaders of the terror group Hamas
whitewashing their genocidal goals and undermining U.S. efforts to
isolate Hamas.
Last year, Carter blamed Israel for exodus of Christians from the region.
"It
would be unconscionable and grotesque if an honored Jewish university,
of all places, now gives a platform to Jimmy Carter, who has been
prominent in the campaign to demonize Israel and helps legitimize his
pro-violence and pro-terror views.
"Carter
should be shunned by universities, organizations, media, synagogues and
churches and not granted any sort of platform to peddle his lies and
hate propaganda.
The
ZOA has also applauded the Coalition of Concerned Cardozo Alumni
(CCCA)'s efforts to have Cardozo cancel the event and has also provided a
detailed list of Carter's infamous words and deeds regarding Israel and the Middle East.
The ZOA urges people to contact the Dean of Cardozo and President of YU to urge them to cancel the award to Jimmy Carter:
For Yeshiva University of all places to bestow an award on the anti-Semitic Jimmy Carter is a disgrace. At the very moment that Yeshiva will be honoring Carter, here in Israel, the 20th yahrtzeit (anniversary of the date of death) of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik zt"l will be observed. Here's how Rabbi Soloveichik reacted to another attempt to honor an anti-Semite at Yeshiva. It is highly unlikely that Rabbi Soloveichik would approve of honoring Carter.
Flashback: Noam Shalit meets with Jimmy Carter in 2009
The ostensible reason that former President Jimmy Carter is receiving an award at Yeshiva University's Cardozo law school is because Carter is a 'human rights activist.' But is that claim true?
Here's a video of a 'meeting' Carter had with Noam Shalit during the time when Noam's son Gilad was being held hostage by Carter's friends in Hamas. The meeting lasted all of three minutes, and it tells you all you need to know about Carter's 'human rights activism': It doesn't benefit Jews.
Dr. Denis MacEoin blasts Carter award in letter to Cardozo alumni
I trust that many of my readers will remember Dr. Denis MacEoin. In an open letter to alumni of Yeshiva University's Cardozo law school (received by email), Dr. MacEoin has blasted the school's choice to give an award to Jimmy Carter.
Dear Cardozo Alumni,
I am writing as someone concerned by the news that a journal of the Cardozo Law School is about to honour former president Jimmy Carter. I am not a lawyer (though I do have some expertise in Islamic law), but I have been an academic (in Persian, Arabic and Islamic Studies) and I have for a great many years been a vocal supporter of the state of Israel, a defender of most of its policies, and a strict opponent of the fictions and lies that follow Israel and Israelis everywhere. As you will know, and as every student at Yeshiva University must know, the most common charge against Israel is that it is an ‘apartheid state’. I have written about this at some length in a recently published book, written in reply to an anti-Israel activist who makes precisely that accusation.
Many of those who call for the end of Israel, most notably the international Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement, use the apartheid trope as justification for their egregious behaviour. Knowing, as I do, that the charge is completely without foundation and that there is not a trace of apartheid in Israel, I work to dispel the illusion that Israel is somehow like South Africa. As lawyers, you no doubt understand the differences between apartheid South African legislation and Israeli laws.
Someone who has done a lot to convince the general public that Israel deserves the apartheid slur is former USA president Jimmy Carter, who in 2007 published a book entitled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter does not say that Israel as such is an apartheid state, but argues that Israel imposes apartheid on Palestinians living in the West Bank. His book is replete with errors, is sloppy in argument, and is indefensible in terms of his understanding the legal arguments he dabbles in. He has never agreed to debate its arguments with anyone, including recognized experts on this subject. It is a book of poor quality, however sincere Carter’s motives may have been in writing it. CAMERA, Abraham Foxman and others have shown Carter’s book to be devoid of fact or rational argument, yet it remains a vital part of virulently anti-Semitic attacks on Israel and its citizens.
It seems indefensible to me that a law school journal of Yeshiva University (or any university, come to that) would want to honour someone who has wrought so much harm for Jews and Israelis, including Arab Israelis. No doubt the former president has done many things that deserve honour in his quest for peace and justice. But his outright defamation of a democratic and law-based state does not sit well with his other achievements, and certainly does not accord with the values of the Cardozo Law School, as I understand them, from the school’s Innocence Project to action taken on behalf of Holocaust victims. The accusation of apartheid against a country that is determinedly opposed to segregation and legalized discrimination is an inversion of justice. To honour a man in part responsible for the mainstreaming of that atrocious libel can only besmirch the name of an eminent school, cast shame on faculty and alumni alike, and endorse the use of falsehood in the political arena worldwide.
I call on you all to email Dean Diller and President Joel in an attempt to persuade the administration to cancel Carter’s visit. Perhaps Cardozo can honour someone else, someone like the Nobel Prize nominee, Malala Youssafzai, whose courage and determination stand heads above a man so consumed by hatred that he dishonours the values of honesty and sincerity he first brought to the presidency all those years ago.
What if Yeshiva University's deans are really happy that Jimmy Carter is coming to campus?
I've already reported that Jimmy Carter - America's most anti-Semitic former President - is to receive an award from Yeshiva University and its Cardozo Law School. I have also noted that the university administration has attempted to pass off the decision to honor the only American President to hug Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh as a decision made by the students in which Yeshiva's administration played little or no role.
The students have made this decision based on President Carter's achievements, and we support their right to do so."
One can only wonder whether Yeshiva and Cardozo would have supported the students' right to honor David Duke. Or to put it in a context that YU President Richard Joel might more easily understand, what if Cardozo's Journal of Conflict Resolution decided to honor Baruch Lanner?
The award is being presented by the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution.
The law school administration has insisted – through a statement issued
by a public relations firm – it was a choice made by the students.
Sources have suggested the opposite is the case.
In what appeared to be an effort to distance themselves from the
award and the event, at least to those complaining, some concerned
individuals were told “on good assurance” that neither Cardozo’s Dean
Diller nor YU’s President Joel would be present at the award ceremony,
and that they were completely uninvolved.
As a letter obtained by The Jewish Press that was sent by
Dean Diller to certain “high roller” alumni inviting them to the event
made clear, however, Diller plans to be front and center at the event.
“Today, I am particularly pleased and honored to invite you,” wrote
Dean Diller, “to a very special afternoon with President Jimmy Carter on
April 10, 2013 at 3:30 pm.” Diller closed the letter by telling the
big givers he hoped they would “plan to join me in welcoming the 39th
President of the United States to the law school.”
I am a proud graduate of the Cardozo School of Law, and I support the
right of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution to bestow the
International Advocate for Peace Award upon former US president Jimmy
Carter. And I do not agree with the so-called “Coalition of Concerned
Cardozo Alumni” who asked Cardozo
Alumni to “to condition any continued support of Cardozo, be it
financial or otherwise, on the cancellation of this event” (although I
respect their efforts).
The only way to make any Jewish institution understand anything is by hitting their pockets. Go to any Jewish institution, and anything that's not nailed down has a plaque on it that says who donated it. It is clear from Lori Lowenthal Marcus' report (above) that one of the motivations for inviting Jimmy Carter to Yeshiva is the prospect of donations from rich Jewish Leftists.
From the outset, a clarification is needed: the law school, as such, is
not granting Carter the peace prize. Nor is the administration. Rather,
it is the the Journal of Conflict Resolution — a student publication
with a long history of honoring problematic public figures. This is a
very important distinction: there are a lot of student-run journals
(think of it as a type of club) on the Cardozo campus, and they enjoy
the autonomy to run events such as this one.
As to who is granting the award, see Lori Lowenthal Marcus' report above. And as to student-run journals at a law school being a 'type of club'... as someone who was a member of one, they're not a club, at least not in law school. They're populated by the school's elites, their members get first crack at the best jobs the law firms have to offer at that particular school, and what the journal members write (or far more likely edit for Professors) becomes the supporting material for court cases for years to come (and no, I'm not a big fan - I dropped off after a year - but my description is reality as any big firm lawyer will tell you). This is not the Glee Club honoring Howdy Doody.
When I was at the law school, the very same journal awarded Desmond Tutu the very same prize.
Back then, there was this nice girl named Melissa, and she had formed
the first pro-Israel club in the 25 years of Cardozo history. It was
called CHAI: Cardozo Heightening Awareness for Israel – and she asked me
to be the Vice-President of the club.
Sorry Yishai (and yes, we have met and been on a panel or two together), but your head was on much straighter in 2003 than it is today.
Have you asked your wife what she thinks of this before you wrote that article?
And what do you make of the fact that (at least as far as I can tell), the protests are all coming from alumni and not from students? If the school honors Obama or Ahmadinejad ten years from now, will anyone even raise their voice?
I'm all in favor of a loud protest against Carter - and I am sure there will be one. But if there's still hope of canceling the event altogether, I'd try that first.
Cardozo alumni set up website to protest Carter appearance
A group of concerned alumni of Yeshiva University's Cardozo law school has set up a website to oppose Jimmy Carter's appearance there on Wednesday, and has sent out the following email to fellow alumni.
Dear Cardozo Alumni and Friends of the School:
On Wednesday April 10, 2013 - that is this Wednesday -, Jimmy Carter will be honored at Cardozo to receive
the International Advocate for Peace Award from the Cardozo Journal of
Conflict Resolution.
Jimmy Carter has an ignominious history
of anti-Israel bigotry. He is responsible for helping to mainstream the
antisemitic notion that Israel is an apartheid state with his
provocatively titled book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”, the
publication of which prompted mass resignations from the Carter Center.
He has met numerous times with leaders of the terror group Hamas
whitewashing their genocidal goals and undermining US efforts to isolate
Hamas. And Carter’s record of slandering Israel is so voluminous that
both CAMERA and Alan Dershowitz have written books refuting his lies.
While Carter may be credited for the role he played in the Camp David
Accords as President of the United States and the resultant cold peace
between Israel and Egypt that ensued, that event took place close to 30
years ago. Since the end of his presidency, Jimmy Carter has exhibited
extreme antipathy towards Israel – and by extension the Jewish people –
that places him firmly in the camp of the likes of Walt and Mearsheimer.
It is simply unconscionable for a Jewish affiliated school
to honor someone who has played such a high profile role in demonizing the Jewish state.
We therefore urge you to condition any continued support of
Cardozo, be it financial or otherwise, on the cancellation of this event.
Please also take 2 minutes out of your busy schedules to
contact the Dean of Cardozo and President of Yeshiva University to
express your outrage. Contact details are below.
Yeshiva University issues statement on Carter appearance at Cardozo law school
Here's a statement that was emailed to a friend of mine by John DeNatale, the Director of Communications and Public Affairs for Cardozo Law School, regarding the upcoming award being given to former President Jimmy Carter by the school's Journal of Conflict Resolution.
"This year student editors of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution have chosen to honor former President Jimmy Carter with the International Advocate for Peace Award in recognition of his lifetime of work, from the historic Camp David Peace Accord between Israel and Egypt, to monitoring some 90 elections around the world and supporting fledgling democracies to resolve conflicts without violence. The Journal is recognized as one of the premier publications in the field of dispute resolution, and previous Peace Award recipients have included President Bill Clinton, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Senator George Mitchell, John Wallach and Seeds of Peace, playwright Eve Ensler, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty Murungi, Ambassador Dennis Ross, and documentary filmmaker Abigail Disney, among others. The students have made this decision based on President Carter's achievements, and we support their right to do so."
Well, given that Tutu - another notorious anti-Semite - received the award, we can't really be surprised, can we? Did anyone speak up then?
Stupid Jews: Carodozo law school journal giving award to Jimmy Carter
Why are some Jews so dumb?
Yeshiva University's Cardozo law school is giving a 'peace award' to one of this generation's greatest anti-Semites: Jimmy the Dhimmi Carter.
The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution is honored to present President Jimmy Carter with its annual International Advocate for Peace Award. President Carter will speak on "America as Global Mediator." Jimmy
Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. During his time in
office, he oversaw significant foreign policy accomplishments, including
the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace
between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and
the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's
Republic of China.
In
1982, President Carter and his wife Rosalynn reinvented the American
"post-presidency" by founding the Carter Center. Actively guided by
President Carter, the nonpartisan and nonprofit Center addresses
national and international issues of public policy. Specifically, the
center works to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human
rights, and prevent disease and other afflictions. President Carter and
the Carter Center have engaged in conflict mediation in countless areas
around the world, including Ethiopia and Eritrea (1989), Bosnia (1994),
the Great Lakes region of Africa (1995-96), Sudan and Uganda (1999),
Venezuela (2002-2003), Nepal (2004-2008), and Ecuador and Colombia
(2008).
President
Carter's post-presidential peace-building efforts were recognized in
2002 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his decades of untiring
effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance
democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social
development." He is the only American president to receive the Nobel
Prize for work done primarily after his time in office.
Oy.... Elder of Ziyon has a list of some of Carter's 'achievements - read the whole thing.
A law professor at another university wrote to me that the university and even the law school likely have little control over this, and cannot stop the journal in question (known as the 'Cardozo Journal of International Conflict Resolution') from doing whatever they please. I disagree. They're using campus facilities and they can be stopped by the university from using campus facilities for such invidious purposes.
And yes, I know, not everyone at Cardozo is Jewish (as one of my friends put it, Cardozo represents Yeshiva about as much as Notre Dame represents the Catholic Church). Well, here's the Editor in Chief of the 'Journal of International Conflict Resolution.' Decide for yourselves.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
