2008 Woodie Awards
Anti-Semitism at Sonoma State
Mark D. Firestone, Guest Writer
Issue date: 2/15/06 Section: Editorial
It must be noted that there are tragic circumstances occurring in the Middle East. Too many innocent people, Israeli, Arab, and others of the global community, have died in this violence. In order to better understand how peace may be achieved in the Middle East, it is important to try to maintain proper perspective with regard to the problems inherent in the Middle East between different cultures.
On Thursday, February 2, I attended a lecture by Alison Weir at Sonoma State University. Weir's presentation was sponsored by Project Censored, whose web site proclaims that they present the "news that didn't make the news", a noble effort if the news you are presenting is based on facts.
Unfortunately, as many are finding, Weir's version of the facts are more than slightly skewed. Weir's presentation began with a glib statement that she does not take sides in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and that she is interested in human rights for all people, everywhere. What ensued were three hours of some of the vilest anti-Israeli propaganda that I have ever witnessed.
I attended the lecture with my father, a veteran of the War of Independence in 1948. There were a number of other Jews in attendance, most members of the student group Hillel. Not one question from a member of the audience not supportive of Weir's position was answered directly. In fact, several attempts by those of us to keep her on point immediately drew catcalls from Weir's supporters, activity from which we refrained.
The first part of her lecture consisted of a film presenting several official-sounding "experts" stating that the US should not fund Israel because she is a threat to the security of the United States and the world, that Israel is guilty of atrocities that are on a par with those committed by the Nazis against Jews, and included at least two mentions of the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, a website that is blatantly anti-Israel. The second part consisted of graphs allegedly representing media bias in favor of Israel. These graphs were created by Weir's own research, of which I am highly skeptical, as Weir presented no evidence that her conclusions were arrived at with the help of a qualified statistician.
On Thursday, February 2, I attended a lecture by Alison Weir at Sonoma State University. Weir's presentation was sponsored by Project Censored, whose web site proclaims that they present the "news that didn't make the news", a noble effort if the news you are presenting is based on facts.
Unfortunately, as many are finding, Weir's version of the facts are more than slightly skewed. Weir's presentation began with a glib statement that she does not take sides in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and that she is interested in human rights for all people, everywhere. What ensued were three hours of some of the vilest anti-Israeli propaganda that I have ever witnessed.
I attended the lecture with my father, a veteran of the War of Independence in 1948. There were a number of other Jews in attendance, most members of the student group Hillel. Not one question from a member of the audience not supportive of Weir's position was answered directly. In fact, several attempts by those of us to keep her on point immediately drew catcalls from Weir's supporters, activity from which we refrained.
The first part of her lecture consisted of a film presenting several official-sounding "experts" stating that the US should not fund Israel because she is a threat to the security of the United States and the world, that Israel is guilty of atrocities that are on a par with those committed by the Nazis against Jews, and included at least two mentions of the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, a website that is blatantly anti-Israel. The second part consisted of graphs allegedly representing media bias in favor of Israel. These graphs were created by Weir's own research, of which I am highly skeptical, as Weir presented no evidence that her conclusions were arrived at with the help of a qualified statistician.