Reading stories such as this one, brings pain in me. Many non Jews in the West, especially in America sympathize with Jews and Israel, and they’re hurt when a Jew is singled out and harrassed simply because (s)he is a Jew; or when Israel, our ONLY real friend and democracy in the troubled Middle East is attacked; and we strongly react, when islam attacks the West, Israel and the Jews.
Many among us will wholeheartedly agree that there isn’t any excuse for such behavior by the Norwegian academy towards Dershovitz. As a former academic I find the three Norwegian Universities’ response to Dershovitz indefensible.
However, let me point out what is currently (I don’t know much about the early 1800s Norway to address the now errased Article of the Norwegian Constitution, and in my humble view any way) at issue here in America and in Europe and it isn’t just political correctness and Western islamophilia. Even though academics recognize that blanket statements are vacuous and morally wrong, whether addressing Jews, Norwegian or Germans or any other social, ethnic, religious (with the possible exception of islam – due to its own unique internal structure) or any other group, they also recognize that many individuals who have written and/or acted in World affairs and brought significant costs to societies, happened to be Jews. I won’t give an extensive list of names, but individuals such as Lenin, Trotsky, Maddoff can serve the purpose at hand. Now, there have been other Jews (Einstein, Spinoza, Wiesel for example) who have brought considerable benefits to humanity, too. And there of course have been other non-Jews who have brought great misery to the World as well (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot are examples in that).
Here’s my point: It would be helpful to the Jewish cause if Jews would do two things: first, drop the use of the term “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Semitic” when criticizing others’s views of certain Jewish or Israeli actions. Second, show some self-criticism, and above all have the Jews take ownership of actions/writings by Jews that have caused grief to this World – Karl Marx (and please, don’t tell me he was a “Lutheran”) his work and his ideology come to mind among some Jewish luminaries who have caused a lot of trouble.
Such actions will take the Jewish cause a long way towards a mutual understanding between Jews and non-Jews in this troubled World. Just my two cents.
