May the Bard College students study and learn the truth

Thank you to Fred Nagel of Rhinebeck for his letter "Defending Racial Hatreds," outlining efforts by David Drimer to shut down the Bard College course on apartheid in Israel-Palestine. For me, the fascist takeover in Israel raises questions about what sort of person would not only support it but also try to silence anyone who speaks out against it. May the Bard College students study and learn the truth.

Naomi Allen

Defending racial hatreds by attacking higher education

 Florida has its Ron DeSantis, and the Hudson Valley has its David Drimer. Both seek to defend racial hatreds in their attacks on higher education. DeSantis wants to make it illegal for Advanced Placement courses to talk about the role of Black people in our society. Drimer wants Bard College to shut down a course on apartheid in Israel-Palestine.

These disputes are decades if not centuries old. The US has been subjugating its Black population since 1619, first as slaves and then as tormented minorities at the bottom of a rigid caste system. Israel has employed racism and ethnic cleansing since its very beginning. Both DeSantis and Drimer wrap themselves in their respective flags, the stars and stripes and the star of David, to protect the very worst in their societies. And rather than trying to cleanse their nations of this racism, they attack any manifestation of the truth.

Both DeSantis and Drimer present themselves as defenders of a racist status quo. DeSantis has worked hard to protect white people from the "discomfort" or the "guilt" they might feel when exposed to the history of Jim Crow discrimination or hate. Drimer has an equally difficult task. In an article he wrote for the "Jerusalem Post," he calls his lobby, the Zionist Organization of America, an "uncompromised voice for Israel's security." For Drimer, any study of ethnic cleansing or racism in the Holy Land must be rooted out, even if it is taught by a world renowned human rights scholar.

Fred Nagel

The course “Apartheid in Israel-Palestine”

 

The course “Apartheid in Israel-Palestine” recognizes a reality accepted by most of the world and opens it up to discussion. Isn’t that what we expect from institutions of higher learning? Fact #1: Israel has been condemned as an apartheid state by Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; Israel’s own human rights monitor, B’Tselem; members of the EU Parliament; and last year the Presbyterian Church (USA); among others. Fact #2: The International Criminal Court is investigating Israel for the crime of apartheid. 

What prevents more public outcry? Several myths—that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East,” that the Occupation is temporary (56 years and counting), and that a ”peace process” will soon bring an end to abuses. If Bard’s course allows reality to depose those dangerous myths it will be an educational landmark.

Prof. Lisa Mullenneaux

Collapse of our corrupted two party system

Political parties in the United States change over time. Sometimes the issues are so monumental that old parties die and new ones are born. The abolition of slavery is one example. The Whig Party disappeared before the Civil War and the Republican Party emerged.

We have overarching issues of the day in 2023. There is the enormous gap between the very rich and the rest of us that has plagued our nation for the last 40 years. Rich people buy politicians of both parties to make sure that our laws favor only the obscenely wealthy. Working people haven't had a break since Jimmy Carter.

Another issue is war. Both parties are enthusiastic supporters of our endless wars abroad. Both parties mouth the same platitudes about fighting for democracy, freedom and human rights, all the while shoveling enormous profits to the nation's major weapons makers. We have over 800 military bases around the world, and our soldiers and advisors are involved in wars in Africa, the Middle East, and now Eastern Europe. Both parties are fine with that, despite the fact that we are risking a nuclear annihilation.

A third issue is our unending support for tyrants and genocidal states. From Saudi Arabia to apartheid Israel, we reward the worst of human rights abuser, and both parties seem to like it that way, as long as the bribes keep coming. Most of our Congress is paid off by the Israel Lobby.

May the New Year bring the collapse of our corrupted two party system.

Fred Nagel

Marching off to that nuclear winter

Twenty years of war has cost the United States trillions of dollars, thousands of its young men and women, and the almost universal condemnation from the rest of the world. Afghanistan and Iraq are in ruins, joining Vietnam and Korea as victims of our military prowess and quest for world domination since World War II.

Perhaps these calamities visited on Third World countries will help us dig deeper into our own national psyche, starting with the myth of good intentions. For each invasion of foreign lands, the American people were offered noble reasons for the carnage. For Korea and Vietnam we were told that our country was fighting for freedom from Communism. For Afghanistan, it was freedom for women. For Iraq it was to punish a dictator who was "killing his own people." Of course, we also understood that the latter two invasions were in retribution for 9/11, a moral judgment that most American citizens accepted. Paying back these Islamist countries also became part of the honorable intentions that most citizens believed in.

To preserve this mythology, other aspects of our system need to be obscured. Like the staggering profits of our weapons makers. No matter who ultimately wins these wars or how many innocents get obliterated, the military industrial complex always comes out on top. We are told that wars break out, and that we must spend our national treasure defending ourselves and doing good in the world. We never conceive that it goes the other way around. That the weapons makers sit in the Pentagon strategizing how they can make billions starting new wars, and then our media comes up with the lies to make it all palatable.

Perhaps the war in Ukraine will be an end to all wars. A nuclear exchange with Russia would terminate most life on earth. But our media never dwells on the negatives of our war making. Perhaps we will go marching off to that nuclear winter with all our patriotic righteousness still intact.

Fred Nagel

Teaching the Palestinian side of what is happening

 I can't see what is wrong with teaching the Palestinian side of what is happening.
    

When Great Britain  decided  that the Jewish people  should be given Israel after World War 11 , it was much like settlers in what is now the USA  being  given settling homesteads in  Native American lands 

Here the  Native Americans were  promised, tricked , moved , killed and subjugated. Much the same thing is happening  now to the Palistinians under Israel's occupation.

To show the reality of how the Palestinian people also had rights to the land on which they are living  is a good thing. Palestinians  have been marginalized while their homeland is  taken away  piece by piece  by every illegal settlement is built in land outside of Israel's original borders.

Israel's boundaries have expanded, while  Palistin's have shrunk. When the Palistinians  rightfully  rebel against this occupation and theft of  their land and  Israel's  misuse of  military power against them  It is time the whole story is taught.

The United States sponsors  the Illegal settlements  and Israel's military build so as to have an ally in the Middle East..while continuing the myth that the Palistinians  don't really exist.

Three cheers for Bard for bringing this discussion into their school

-Antonia  Weidenacher