President Garber's role in this farce needs to be noted.
Donald Trump's worship of the Jewish money power is the closest that he comes to having a religion. He does their bidding taking the blame on himself, fool that he is.
Is George Soros the only non-Zionist Jewish ploutocrat?
I agree with you, Peter. And, the Trump maga-sphere has no regard for the truth. They are the clearest example of "Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it's the truth." Look at what they are doing with the "official" history of the United States. White-washing slavery - eg, demanding changes at the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History, as well as curriculum taught in our schools. Same thing with the history of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. None of them care what's true. Their view of making America great is to destroy what makes America America --our commitment to true equality and opportunity for all, and to share our riches with those countries in need (USAID). Trump is just throwing his weight around to see how far he can get. Who would decimate the IRS during tax season? Who would cut food aid and let food rot on the docks? Who would tear down America's premier scientific research endeavors, especially those for which significant money has already been spent and are close to success. Who would end medical research, putting everyone in America and the world at risk? Who would see the commitment to peace and dignity for the Palestinians as being pro-Hamas? I could go on.
The crude truth sounds more like: the Jewish lobby is right now more powerful than any other Jewish voices and will fight for absolute power as long as they can. Let’s hope it’s not too long.
Thank you for this Peter. I think Mr Trump is not interested in fairness of representation. He is interested in people and institutions doing what he wants at any given moment at all times.
This brings home to me in a personal way the reach of the cuts to Harvard, as I studied at the Divinity School there 1977-1979 and have kept up with alumni events. It's evolved into a place for inter-religious studies, very much at the margins of Harvard (physically and otherwise) and a weird target for "anti-dei" obsessions. I studied Jewish philosophy there, which is currently under the purview there of eminent Judaica scholar, Jon Levenson and visiting scholar Shaul Magid. Any charge of antisemitism against the school is ridiculous. As elsewhere, students upset over Israel's behavior include Jewish ones. The Religion, Conflict, and Peace program was pretty recent, I think. Here is a report on one of their recent events, focused on the role of the arts towards peace, which I hope can continue under another name: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/04/08/video-witnessing-unseen-reflecting-presence-and-absence-native-lands I hope they'll put up on the website a report/reflection on your own talk , Peter!
I agree, Peter, that governments should not interfere in university life in the way that we've seen in the US over the last few months. But I don't think that the analogies that you draw to Myanmar or to China work. Scholars question the actions of leaders in both countries but there is not a discourse on campus that questions the right of these countries to exist. I'm the chair of Jewish Studies at McGill and I can tell you that scholarly criticism of Israel on campus can be extreme, that it can ignore or distort key facts and, yes, in certain cases, involve a denial of Israel's right to exist. In such a contest, a measure of balance is essential. That balance doesn't have to include extreme voices but it should include learned, well-argued and plausible voices such as the one evident in Yehuda Kurtzer's response to your essay, Yavne. If that type of balance was absent at the Harvard institute it needed to be addressed, though not shut down, particularly by external forces.
Is not the fundamental problem Zionist figures in power, including at universities, who argue against Palestine's right to exist, including on the totality of the Palestinian people's unceded territory? There certainly is denial of China's right to exist ON TURKISTANI or TIBETAN territory, but Han people have unbroken culturally, if not always politically sovereign presence in East Asia while Zionist Jews, by their own admission have "returned", not innocently, seeking refuge, but at gunpoint with genocidal ideation and intent toward Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Certainly 75+ years of expulsionist and exterminationist praxis qualify the Zionist entity for dissolution. Only the question of a possible need for expulsion of Palestine's Zionist occupiers so as to permit safety and security for the Palestinian people remains ethically open for debate.
Kol haKavod for speaking up today with appropriate analogies that demonstrate the absurdity of their argument. Sadly, some will never understand it! Elaine P., a follower
Well said, Peter. Never stop speaking truth to power.
Peter. Thank you for standing your ground against the cowardly Universities who seem so afraid of
Trump that they (not all) bow in fear
of being caught teaching the truth!
Linda
Peter,
You are a breath of fresh air.
I would appeal to President Trump to honor free speech, it’s the free speech that got him elected. We all must fight for free speech.
Info about Israel and India is propaganda, shamelessly American media, no, American news propaganda will not present another point of you.
President Garber's role in this farce needs to be noted.
Donald Trump's worship of the Jewish money power is the closest that he comes to having a religion. He does their bidding taking the blame on himself, fool that he is.
Is George Soros the only non-Zionist Jewish ploutocrat?
I agree with you, Peter. And, the Trump maga-sphere has no regard for the truth. They are the clearest example of "Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it's the truth." Look at what they are doing with the "official" history of the United States. White-washing slavery - eg, demanding changes at the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History, as well as curriculum taught in our schools. Same thing with the history of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. None of them care what's true. Their view of making America great is to destroy what makes America America --our commitment to true equality and opportunity for all, and to share our riches with those countries in need (USAID). Trump is just throwing his weight around to see how far he can get. Who would decimate the IRS during tax season? Who would cut food aid and let food rot on the docks? Who would tear down America's premier scientific research endeavors, especially those for which significant money has already been spent and are close to success. Who would end medical research, putting everyone in America and the world at risk? Who would see the commitment to peace and dignity for the Palestinians as being pro-Hamas? I could go on.
The crude truth sounds more like: the Jewish lobby is right now more powerful than any other Jewish voices and will fight for absolute power as long as they can. Let’s hope it’s not too long.
100% exactly
Thank you for this Peter. I think Mr Trump is not interested in fairness of representation. He is interested in people and institutions doing what he wants at any given moment at all times.
So much for the narrative making the rounds currently that Harvard is resisting, unlike Columbia who caved.
Really well stated 👏
This brings home to me in a personal way the reach of the cuts to Harvard, as I studied at the Divinity School there 1977-1979 and have kept up with alumni events. It's evolved into a place for inter-religious studies, very much at the margins of Harvard (physically and otherwise) and a weird target for "anti-dei" obsessions. I studied Jewish philosophy there, which is currently under the purview there of eminent Judaica scholar, Jon Levenson and visiting scholar Shaul Magid. Any charge of antisemitism against the school is ridiculous. As elsewhere, students upset over Israel's behavior include Jewish ones. The Religion, Conflict, and Peace program was pretty recent, I think. Here is a report on one of their recent events, focused on the role of the arts towards peace, which I hope can continue under another name: https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/04/08/video-witnessing-unseen-reflecting-presence-and-absence-native-lands I hope they'll put up on the website a report/reflection on your own talk , Peter!
I agree, Peter, that governments should not interfere in university life in the way that we've seen in the US over the last few months. But I don't think that the analogies that you draw to Myanmar or to China work. Scholars question the actions of leaders in both countries but there is not a discourse on campus that questions the right of these countries to exist. I'm the chair of Jewish Studies at McGill and I can tell you that scholarly criticism of Israel on campus can be extreme, that it can ignore or distort key facts and, yes, in certain cases, involve a denial of Israel's right to exist. In such a contest, a measure of balance is essential. That balance doesn't have to include extreme voices but it should include learned, well-argued and plausible voices such as the one evident in Yehuda Kurtzer's response to your essay, Yavne. If that type of balance was absent at the Harvard institute it needed to be addressed, though not shut down, particularly by external forces.
Is not the fundamental problem Zionist figures in power, including at universities, who argue against Palestine's right to exist, including on the totality of the Palestinian people's unceded territory? There certainly is denial of China's right to exist ON TURKISTANI or TIBETAN territory, but Han people have unbroken culturally, if not always politically sovereign presence in East Asia while Zionist Jews, by their own admission have "returned", not innocently, seeking refuge, but at gunpoint with genocidal ideation and intent toward Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Certainly 75+ years of expulsionist and exterminationist praxis qualify the Zionist entity for dissolution. Only the question of a possible need for expulsion of Palestine's Zionist occupiers so as to permit safety and security for the Palestinian people remains ethically open for debate.
Peter:
Ultimately, were you able to give your talk?
Kol haKavod for speaking up today with appropriate analogies that demonstrate the absurdity of their argument. Sadly, some will never understand it! Elaine P., a follower