The Nation.

Repress U

By Michael Gould-Wartofsky

This article appeared in the January 28, 2008 edition of The Nation.

January 10, 2008

Write a web Letter!

  • Dexter, Mich.

    I appreciate some of the points that Michael Gould-Wartofsky made in his article but I also think that much of his essay could have been written by the Bush Administration. He is using fear to make his point just as others in this country have in the past. He talks of how "City University of New York bought dozens of semiautomatic handguns." Almost every police officer in the nation, except those throwbacks that still use a revolver, carry semi-automatic handguns. I recently graduated from Eastern Michigan University. EMU is not located in the middle of a major city but campus police all carried semi-automatic weapons; they are police officers, after all.

    I just have a couple of questions on the issue of tracking foreign-born students. How many of the 9/11 hijackers entered our country on student visas? How many stayed after the visa expired? Is it really so evil to keep track of people who are here on a temporary visa? I realize that this is the so-called "slippery slope," but some accountability is necessary.

    Many of the things that Gould-Wartofsky wrote about shine a light on abuse of fear; please do not drop to the neocons' level.

    Tim Raquet
    02/08/2008 @ 1:20pm


  • Wichita , Kans.

    No mention of targeting university campuses by civil society organizations working for the Olmert administration in Israel? A colleague of mine was informed that his Rabbi spoke of "Jewish anti-Israeli professors," after returning from a free junket to Israel. In addition, the ADL is apparently offering training in coordination with our Jewish Federation on public relations for Israel. Think that my local university will be left out of this organizing? It hasn't been the past.

    If The Nation is going to publish analysis as thoughtful as in "Repress U," it seems odd to overlook the role of surveillance of universities by pro-Israeli interests in the US. And it is not good enough to respond, "We've done that story," because that story is not over. Especially now that there is some "talk," although clearly only talk and hideous talk at that, by the Bush Administration re a resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, we can count on two things. The first already happened. The Israeli military killed twenty Palestinians over the past few days in Gaza. The second will be the organizational flurry on behalf of the demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a "Jewish" state, that large Israeli settlements remain, and that UN Resolution 194 no longer exists.

    Where in the US are you likely to hear common sense that counters that agenda on a regular basis? One place is the academy. So, yes, unfortunately the elephant in the room at Repress U. remains--pressure on faculty to buckle to Israeli propaganda by that sector of the politically organized pro-Israeli community that is racist against Palestinians without ever having to be accountable for that racism.

    Deborah A. Gordon
    01/17/2008 @ 2:32pm


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