I have long maintained that when it comes to Israel, the distinction between right and left disappears in this country.
Check out this letter from Congressman Jerry Nadler, a West Side Manhattan Democrat, demanding that Brooklyn College not permit a campus group to discuss strategies for boycotting Israel to meet on campus. Nadler is joined by virtually every major “progressive” New York politician. Nadler and his cohorts make the case that they don’t mind the boycott group meeting but object to the political science department sponsoring an event that presents “only one side.” Of course, anyone who attended college knows that academic departments do that all the time because sponsoring a discussion does not mean the department is endorsing it, only that it favors airing of all sides.
Nadler himself was a major anti-Vietnam war activist during his years at Columbia, rightly opposing U.S. policy and participating in campus “teach-ins,” no different than the boycott session at Brooklyn. But Nadler was young then and, besides, he is a strong advocate of dissent against U.S. policies. He draws the line however when it comes to Israel. The same can be said of all the other “progressives” who signed his letter. Nadler, however, is a true believer; he is utterly devoted to supporting the Israeli government in all situations. The others are just courting support from donors or potential donors.
On other fronts. Alan Dershowitz is offering to lead the battle to subdue free speech at Brooklyn College and a City Councilman is now going after funding for the university.
You can read about it here, where Alex Kane is covering the story in all its ugliness for Mondoweiss.
Also here in the Daily Beast.
Also here: Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian.
Rightwing politicians are bad on this issue but they don’t care about it much so they do not do much damage. Israel First “progressives” like Jerry Nadler are the real problem.
It’s beyond me why the Brooklyn College political science dept. would lend this group any kind of official imprimatur. I understand their assertion that it is not endorsing, but I don’t buy it. There is nothing wrong with this group being allowed to meet on the campus without college sanction. But once the college lends its name in some way, it looks like an endorsement of BDS, which appears to most supporters of Israel as hate speech (not how I would see it, but an understandable reaction).
I know personally that Rep. Nadler believes in a negotiated two-state solution. He is not as open to Palestinian views and concerns as I am, or others are in the dovish pro-Israel camp. But his view should not be ridiculed as M.J. does here, with ironic quote marks around the fact that he is indeed, “progressive.”
Congressman Nadler has a long history of undermining the U.S. Constitution and our professed system of justice on issues of Free Speech, democracy and war making policies.
For years, members of groups like “Win Without War” called on him to publicly state his legal and moral justification for funding middle east wars without a Constitutional declaration of war, and he managed to dodge his Oath of Office with regard to this grave issue.
When occupiers sat in his office for him to support impeachment hearings of George W Bush and Dick Cheney’s alleged war crimes against humanity, he had his office managers arrest and jail them. He continued to resist calls to support impeachment hearings for high crimes and misdemeanors of our then President and Vice President.
He did not stand up for the U.S. Constitution to pursue hearings for election fraud investigations after the 2004 Presidential Election and did nothing when Karl Rove refused to testify, even after Rove’s key information technology expert mysteriously died in his private plane after he was called back to testify about his role in counting citizen votes.
For the past year, I’ve called his office numerous times asking his office to hold Congressional hearings on the veracity of “911 Explosive Evidence Reports”. His office continues to be silent on this terrible event that has resulted in the deaths and injuries of millions of innocent people.
I also have asked his office to publicly state his position on the recent signings of the National Defense Authorization Acts that call for the disappearance, torture and assassination of people without assumption of innocence and open juried trials. He has allowed such acts that completely trash the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that system of justice.
Such congressional representation needs to be held accountable for this kind of service.
I agree with you. I have met with him too, but only about the Israeli-Palestinian issue. He knows almost nothing about it other than than Israel is always right. Back in the day, NY Democrats actually fought primaries to remove the likes of Nadler. In fact, Bella Abzug defeated Nadleresque hack, Leonard Farbstein, for the seat now held by Nadler. Those days are over.
Sad. The man should not be in the United States Congress. Maybe the Knesset, representing the Likud party.