Tuesday, April 25, 2006

JINSA Press Release

SIXTY MINUTES SHAMEFULLY SELLS OUT THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

For immediate release Contact: Daniel V. Smith
April 25, 2006 (202) 667-3900

(Washington, DC, April 18) Tom Neumann, executive director of The Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs, today released the following
statements regarding CBS’s Sixty Minutes program in which the integrity
of the Office of the President of the United States was trashed without
challenge:

“This week CBS’s Sixty Minutes did a program on allegations that the
President and his men doctored up CIA analyses and other intelligence in
order to create a casus belli. Tyler Drumheller, CIA’s lead man in
Europe, argued that there was no evidence worth its weight in salt that
indicated Iraq was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.

“Absent from the program was the probing interrogative questioning that
Sixty Minutes normally does when interviewing an individual. In fact,
the program was less of an interview than a platform.

“The allegations went so far as to imply that the President went to war
frivolously, practically war for war’s sake.

“Argue the justification or the correctness of the President’s decision
all you want. History will judge. But shame on Sixty Minutes for selling
the integrity of the President of the United States without a challenge,
even without raising an eyebrow.”

For further commentary by Mr. Neumann, please contact the JINSA office
at 202-667-3900.

The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs is an independent,
non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian educational organization
established in 1976 to educate the public on national and international
security issues, including the importance of an effective U.S. defense
capability and the key role of strategic allies, including Israel, to
promote democratic values in the Middle East.

# # #

The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 515
Washington, DC. 20036
Tel: (202) 667-3900 Fax: (202) 667-0601 Email: info@jinsa.org
www.jinsa.org

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Monday, April 24, 2006

AJC Mideast Briefing




	As the Hush Falls: On the Eve of Yom HaShoah, Reflections on the Road We Are Traveling A Weekly Briefing on Israeli and Middle Eastern Affairs April 24, 2006 Dr. Eran Lerman Director Israel/Middle East Office Later today, a hush will fall upon most homes in Israel. Instead of the daily diet of inanities on television-with its surfeit of increasingly commercialized entertainment, unreal "reality" shows, and the prancing of celebrities-there will be somber documentaries, painful memories, ceremonies, and a powerful collective immersion into the culture of remembrance. The Holocaust is not yet a distant chapter: It is the deep scar just under the surface, the unspoken gaps in the lives of people, the little cousin my mother never had because she died in hiding in France in 1943. (Her parents were later caught; my mother's uncle, a violinist, survived Auschwitz. His wife did not.) It was my father's grandfather on his mother's side who was murdered-and I hail from a family most of which "left in time," or even much earlier. What of the thousands upon thousands in Israel and elsewhere who grew up never knowing a grandmotherly touch, or having to contemplate the thought that their siblings, parents, and grandparents were burned alive, gassed, shot? As our leaders and children join the March of the Living, a victory in itself over those who wanted us all dead (and those who still do), a long, grim line of irretrievable loss marches with them. It is almost inevitable, at this time, that we reflect not only on where we came from, but on how far we have gone. The helplessness of the Jews-which Rabbi "Yitz" Greenberg has defined as an immoral condition-in our time is a thing of the past; so much so that even so-called "serious" scholars (in a seriously flawed paper) saw fit to describe Israel and the Jews as over-powerful, at least in terms of their impact on U.S. policy. Apparently, Professors Stephen M. Walt and John Mearsheimer long for the bygone days when one Breckinridge Long was enough to ensure that the U.S. did not waste time and effort on saving Jews or on enabling Jews to save and defend themselves. Here in Israel, the reasons why we need to be what we are-a Jewish state, with a claim on Jewish solidarity; a democratic state; and yes, unapologetically, a strong state-are clear to us precisely as a negative copy of their reasoning. Yes, these blessings come with their own price tags. Next week we shall mark the most painful of all costs, at our military graveyards. There are other kinds of forfeits. The sadly politicized struggle to define what it is that we mean by a "Jewish" state is far from over, and perhaps we need to reconcile ourselves to the stubborn nature of this permanent feature of Israeli life. Our highly fragmented democratic process is about to give us a bloated cabinet (twice the number of U.S. cabinet-rank positions). Some of the most sensitive portfolios, certainly at a time of looming crises with Iran and Hamas, could be put in inexperienced hands-not that they might not yet prove themselves worthy of the challenge!-for reasons of political expediency. A sense of cynical frustration is coming into the public discourse, but voters who gave the two largest parties together only 40 percent of the vote can hardly blame others when the result is messy coalition bargaining. Meanwhile, the third attribute of what we have become-a powerful state, capable of deterring hostile neighbors in the region-is not without its pains and dilemmas. The IDF is able on short notice to inflict immense damage in Gaza. Those who hide behind Palestinian civilians, as they launch their rockets into Israel, know this: The only conclusion is that they are deliberately trying to provoke a massive retaliation. Thus, Israel faces again the challenge of doing neither too much nor too little-compounded further by the pressure of various NGOs to bring this issue before the courts (as if the only viable alternative to targeted strikes and artillery fire-namely, physical re-occupation-were not much more destructive than the practices that they now bemoan). And yet, and yet... Days like today remind us of the essentials: Having a state means that we are no longer to be tossed in other people's storms. Being democratic-we are reminded by watching our neighbors-is far superior to the sorry spectacle of totalitarian goons with guns vs. thieving thugs pretending to be a "movement," which is what the Hamas vs. Fatah confrontation amounts to. And given the neighborhood we live in, it helps if you carry a weapon for self-defense. It is not easy now, and we forget how difficult it was then, to wrap our minds around the proposition that there are people out there who actively seek our death. But it is easier to confront the reality of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's positions, or the appointment of a wanted murderer as inspector-general of the Palestinian "police," when you know you have some answers-and you know you are not alone.

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Memo from JINSA's Executive Director Tom Neumann

JINSA
1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Suite 515
Washington, DC 20036

202-667-3900
202-667-0601 Fax

April 24, 2006

Billy G. Goldberg

We do not customarily write about the passing of JINSA members and
supporters. We break with tradition to note the passing of Billy B.
Goldberg because with his passing we are witnessing the end of an era.
It is this event we commemorate.

You have likely never heard of Billy Goldberg. He is a figure from
another era and most of his admirers preceded him in death. "There was
a new generation that knew not Joseph." And that's the point; they may
not know Joseph because there are so few Josephs left to know.

When Ariel Sharon passed from the Israeli political scene, an era in
Israel's history came to an end. What follows will be dramatically
different; the product of a different experience. The same is true of
American Jewry with the passing of Billy Goldberg.

Most of us support Israel because it has a right to survive and a right
to live in peace. Billy supported Israel because he had a dream, a
vision. As our American forefathers saw this country, he saw Israel as
an experiment for a better world and a dream of what the future could
hold. To him Israel was a land of milk and honey and made the dessert
bloom – terms rarely used or even thought of by the current generation.

He was a giant of a man. At the age of seventy-two when most of us see
our future behind us, a then broke Billy Goldberg rebuilt his fortune.
That was his way.

Billy used to say that there were three kinds of people – those who talk
about other people; those who talk about events; and exceptional ones,
whom he admired, who talk about ideas. And then there was Billy
Goldberg who spoke of the impossible as if it was possible. And he was
right. The impossible is possible when your mission is noble and your
zeal for it is boundless.

His dream was the return of the people of the Bible to Zion to build a
Utopia after years of disenfranchisement; not only for the Jews, but one
that would be an example and catalyst for the world. A place and a
people that would be simultaneously close to the earth and the heaven,
and which would foster democracy and be a haven of morality. A land
that would blossom both in fruit from the earth and spirit ennobled and
educated by its suffering. A land where the victim had something to
give and teach his tormentor.

Billy dreamed the same dream for America and Israel. He was a lover of
both Zions, a toiler and tireless fighter for both. But tormentors have
tried to hijack the dream. Soon there may be no more dreamers and the
tormentors may have their way.

It is up to us, the successor generation, to remember the greatness of
both the American and Israeli dream. It is to remind us of that we
eulogize Billy B. Goldberg.

Tom Neumann
Executive Director, JINSA

___________________________________________________
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Sunday, April 23, 2006

Israel Campus Beat - April 23, 2006

Featured this week

Buffalo

Concordia

Cornell

Florida

George Washington

Georgetown

Harvard

Ohio State

Penn State

South Florida

Texas A & M

Tufts

Virginia Tech

Washington U., St. Louis

Weizmann Institute of Science

Yale

Olmert: Syria, Iran Involved in Tel Aviv Suicide Bombing

Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday accused the Syrian and Iranian governments of involvement in a suicide bombing that killed nine people in Tel Aviv this week. The Islamic Jihad militant group, which is based in the Syrian capital of Damascus, claimed responsibility for Monday's attack. "The order for the Tel Aviv suicide bombing came from Damascus and when the operation was complete the report went back to Damascus," Olmert told a visiting group of U.S. senators. (AP/ABC)
See also Wounded Florida Teen Has Leg Amputated (Sun-Sentinel)

Additional Headlines

Israel Warns of New 'Axis of Terror'

U.S. Looks to Israel for Anti-Terrorism Ideas

Penn State Censors Exhibit

Holocaust Memorial Day: April 25 - Holocaust Museum Sees New Use of "Protocols of Zion"

A century-old forgery used to justify ill-treatment of Jews in Czarist Russia and widely circulated by the Nazis is distributed even today in many languages to stoke hatred of Israel, an exhibit at the Holocaust Museum says. Colorfully bound editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion have appeared recently in Mexico and in Japan, where there are few Jews, says exhibit historian Daniel Greene. High school texts in Syria, Lebanon and schools run by the Palestinian authority use the book as history, he says. (AP/Canton Repository)

Hamas' Suicidal Answer
- Editorial

On Monday, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself outside a packed Tel Aviv fast-food restaurant in one of the deadliest bombings in Israel in more than a year. The reaction from Hamas leaders, who control the Palestinian parliament, was swift and resounding: They cheered. This is, simply, stunning. And sickening. Hamas is the Palestinian government. It speaks for the Palestinian people. And now it says that strolling into a falafel palace and blowing up innocent civilians is a legitimate way to air political grievances. (Chicago Tribune)

Concordia: Enhancing Student Life Reaps Rewards from Student Council
by Karen Herland

Bra Bessisso, Rawan Hadid and Danny Iny received awards for promoting dialogue groups and other projects by the Arab Student Association (ASA) and Concordia Hillel. Bessisso is the president of the ASA and Hadid is vice-president communications, while Iny is vice-president Israel Affairs at Concordia Hillel. In addition to the dialogue groups, the trio helped establish an essay contest on Israel/Palestinian historical narratives. They were involved in organizing a three-day symposium on Israeli and Palestinian Historical Narratives that was part of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Series. (Concordia Journal)

George Washington: University Unlikely to Divest
by Elizabeth Kamens

The University is unlikely to heed the call of two groups of campus activists calling for GW to divest from companies that do business with Sudan and Israel. The push for the University to divest from companies with ties to Israel, led by campus activists for Palestinian rights, is the second major divestment campaign on campus. (GW Hatchet)

Georgetown Visiting Prof Defying Stereotypes, Starting Center on Anti-Semitism in Germany
by Eric Fingerhut

When Ilka Schroeder, a non-Jew from Germany, starts talking about Israel and anti-Semitism, she says people in the United States are usually pretty astounded. The 28-year-old is starting a center in Berlin to fight anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and she spent much of her five-year term as a member of the European Union Parliament trying to get the organization to reconsider its financial support of the Palestinian Authority. She is in Washington this year, teaching a class this semester and next for Georgetown University's Center for Jewish Civilization on anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. (Washington Jewish Week)

Ohio State: Group Presents Plan for Israel, Palestine
by Laura DiGiulio

Two representatives from Cleveland's Ishmael & Isaac organization came to the Ohio Union last week to discuss their plan toward a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and to recruit new volunteers to aid in reaching their goals. Ishmael & Isaac, an organization comprised of Jewish-Americans, Palestinian-Americans and Christians, works with public officials and nongovernmental organizations in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and shares its vision of finding a resolution for the conflict. (Lantern)

Point-Counterpoint - How Should Israel Treat the Palestinian Authority in Light of the Passover Attack?

Salvage the Palestinian Authority
by Yossi Ben-Ari

After a long period of relative quiet, fears aroused that we are again at the edge of a new cycle of violence and blood that will not lead us anywhere, just like the previous cycles.
This consideration must make a distinction between the Palestinian Authority's presidency, which condemned the attack, and the Hamas movement, whose government indeed views the attack as a "legitimate" move, but which also steers clear of carrying out similar attacks.
The only way to stop this deterioration is to get the Palestinian Authority back on its feet, stabilize it, and give it a chance to turn into an independent entity in the future.
This is a clear Israeli interest: It would be well for our government to agree to any formula that would allow for the rehabilitation of the Palestinian people and its government institutions, even if Hamas is at the helm.
After all, even if we "converge" into permanent borders, we would certainly like to have law and order reinstated on the other side, so that the Qassam model in the south is not adopted along our eastern border as well. (Ynet News)

The Terrorist Palestinian Authority
- Editorial

This was the first suicide bombing carried out under the aegis of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, the terrorist PA.
While some in the international community seek extenuating circumstances for the Hamas regime and amplify every syllable that could remotely be interpreted as moderate, Hamas is refusing to expediently play along as the ostensible "good cop."
Its behavior further vindicates the consensus in the West that this is a government that must moderate or fall, and that must not be financially sustained in the interim.
The PA's highest echelons cannot and must not be absolved of responsibility for this latest massacre, even if it is Islamic Jihad's handiwork.
Israelis and other Westerners must exercise the inherent right of self-preservation - and seek, savvily and resolutely, to thwart the murderous ambitions of the bombers, the Qassam cells and the PA government that champions them. (Jerusalem Post)

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Friday, April 21, 2006

AJC Letter to Haaretz

Haaretz (Israel) April 21, 2006
Letters to the Editor

Regarding "American Jewish Committee celebrates its 100th anniversary in Berlin," April 10.

I am grateful for the extensive coverage you provided of the American Jewish Committee's diplomatic work against the backdrop of our centennial anniversary.

There is, however, one key point that needs clarification. The article refers to the non-Zionist character of the AJC in the years preceding Israel's establishment and suggests that while the AJC endorsed Israel's establishment, it was not until 1967 that the support was "solidified." Not quite.

To cite just a few historical examples: In November, 1945, AJC leaders urged U.S. secretary of state James Byrnes to press the British government to admit 100,000 European Jews into Palestine. This followed years of repeated AJC representations to the American and British governments for "removal of the barriers to Jewish immigration (to Palestine) erected by the British White Paper of 1939," which, as the AJC insisted, were "contrary to both the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, subscribed to by the United States and Great Britain, as well as to the dictates of humanity."

When the U.S. government appeared to be backing away from support for the partition plan in early 1948, AJC leaders vigorously pressed the Truman administration to stand by its previously announced position in favor and to reaffirm publicly its stance. This followed "almost daily communication with the high officials of our government in charge of policy formulation," said Jacob Blaustein, a former top AJC leader, "from the time that the Palestine question was first thrown into the General Assembly until the historic vote was taken on November 29, 1947." Later, there was a flurry of activity in the summer of 1948 to urge the American government to press the British to end the detention of Jews on Cyprus and permit them to resettle in Israel.

In 1954, as Abba Eban recounted, "The American aid program to Israel was stopped on political grounds. [Jacob] Blaustein had a very decisive effect on getting it resumed almost as soon as it had been stopped by his contacts with secretary of state John Foster Dulles ..."

And to jump ahead, the AJC was the first American Jewish organization, in 1962, to open a full-time office in Israel. Summing up the AJC's role, Eban said, "No one will ever forget how you stood in vigilant brotherhood at the cradle of our emergent statehood; and how you helped lay the foundations of our international status and of our crucial friendship with the government and people of the American Republic."

In other words, AJC's strong support for Israel was "solidified" long before 1967.

David A. Harris
Executive Director, American Jewish Committee
New York

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JINSA Report #565 "Hilton's Response to Your Response"

JINSA
1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Suite 515
Washington, DC 20036

202-667-3900
202-667-0601 Fax

April 21, 2006

JINSA Report #565

Hilton's Response to Your Response

Thank you for the literally thousands of e-mails generated to the
management of the Hilton Hotels Corporation on behalf of Fran O'Brien's
Stadium Steakhouse and the troops. You were so effective that they
closed the e-mail addresses we published. You can still reach them
through the Hilton Honors website - hhonors@hilton.com

In the meantime, Hilton has been hitting the "Reply" button. Some of you
received a note that comes partially from a message posted on the Hilton
website - "For strictly business reasons related solely to the inability
to reach a new lease agreement, the Capital Hilton has elected to
terminate the lease with the operator of Fran O'Brien's restaurant at
the hotel. This decision was not at all related to the Friday night
dinners for disabled veterans but rather a result of lease negotiations
that failed."

This requires illumination. As we pointed out, the restaurant is not ADA
compliant. JINSA talked to (for now anonymous) management at the Capital
Hilton (not the corporate people in Los Angeles, but in the actual
building). The manager said, "The (wheelchair) lift is in the 2007
budget. We've taken three bids for the elevator." Since Fran O'Brien's
lease was up in 2005, any agreement they could have reached would have
required the restaurant to agree that the elevator not be installed for
a minimum of 12 months.

The lawyers among us please enlighten us, but our understanding is that
since ADA was passed during the span of the previous lease it didn't
require immediate repairs, but a new lease would have kicked in the
upgrade. A "negotiation" predicated on the owners agreeing to maintain a
dangerous, and perhaps illegal, situation is a) not serious and b) bound
to fail. "We compromised on just about everything else, but we said,
‘You have to do the lift," owner Hal Koster told a journalist. It seems,
then, that Hilton decided to terminate the lease, leave the building
empty until 2007 and then find another tenant.

The Hilton's missive also said, "The hotel offered to host and sponsor
the May 5, 2006 dinner and expressed interest in working closely with
the veterans to continue the Friday night tradition." Illumination: The
original message on the Hilton's website said, "sponsor," and they had
talked about letting the soldiers use an upstairs room for a price. Only
after we pointed out that there are already "sponsors" that pay for the
dinners - including a great many of you - did Hilton add the word "host"
as in "pay for." And only once. And "working closely with the veterans"
doesn't mean much; the veterans are guests of the restaurant, not the
organizers of the event.

Fran O'Brien's isn't about food and Hilton doesn't get it. Italian
Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta gets it. As many of you know, the
Finmeccanica companies of Italy and North America have been among Fran
O'Brien's most important sponsors. The Ambassador has offered his
Embassy and his personal chef. Talk about good allies and good friends!

Hal and Marty have ensured that the soldier dinners will continue even
if the venue changes - but there is still (limited) time for the Hilton
to do the right thing.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3381

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AJC Letter in NYTimes

The Palestinians and Their Leaders

April 21, 2006

To the Editor:

Re "The Face of Hamas" (editorial, April 19):

Those who believe that Hamas can be bifurcated into political and military wings are naïve, and it is time for all to recognize that such distinctions are a dangerous illusion. Hamas's endorsement of the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Monday was yet another costly reminder that even as Hamas now runs the Palestinian government, violence remains a vital tool to achieve its political goals.

Israel is committed to completing the peace process with the Palestinians begun on the White House lawn nearly 13 years ago.

The burning question is what do the Palestinian people and their leaders really want: two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace or a radical Islamic state replacing Israel?

The world cannot desire a two-state solution to this conflict more than the Palestinians themselves.

E. Robert Goodkind

President

American Jewish Committee

New York, April 19, 2006

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JINSA Article Digest for April, 21st

Articles added to JINSA Online from April, 14th to April, 21st.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#564 Let All Who are Hungry Come and Eat - Help for Fran OBriens

(2006-04-17) For the past two-and-a-half years, the owners of Fran OBriens
Stadium Steakhouse every week invite wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army
Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital to a free dinner at the
restaurant, located in the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. Their
lease ran out in December. Hal and Marty had been asking for a new lease
since the fall and management had been assuring them it would be renewed.
Last week, they were given until 1 May to vacate. Two things to know: Hilton
admits it has no other tenant for the space. The restaurant has been a profit
center for the hotel and had no plans to close or move. Please help us make
the Hilton Hotels Corporation worry about something else: future business.
Take a moment to contact Hilton Hotels and let them know that a) ADA
non-compliance is illegal, but more importantly, it is shameful when the
chief victims are veterans; and b) you are appalled that a major American
corporation would turn its back on the young men and women who have been
injured in service to our country. Click to read the details and get the
contact info in JINSA Report #564.

Read more @ http://www.jinsa.org/articles/view.html?documentid=3379

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Thursday, April 20, 2006

FIRE News: Victory for Student Press Freedom at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Dear Mr. Levy:

The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UW–L) has restored student press freedom on its campus by renouncing its censorship of a student-run satirical magazine. The Second Supper Alternative News published an article in February that some students found offensive, leading the student government to pass a resolution decreasing the magazine’s press run from 2000 to only 60 copies per issue—a potentially fatal punishment for the advertising-supported publication. Less than a week after FIRE intervened by writing a letter to the president of UW–L and the members of student government, the resolution was withdrawn and all rights were restored to The Second Supper.

FIRE’s full press release on this case appears below, but if your e-mail client does not support HTML, you can view a link-rich version at http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/6986.html.

Sincerely,

Greg Lukianoff, President
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
601 Walnut Street, Suite 510
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: 215-717-3473; Fax: 215-717-3440
------------------------

Victory for Student Press Freedom at University of Wisconsin–La Crosse

LA CROSSE, Wis., April 20, 2006—The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UW-L) has reversed its decision to censor a satirical student magazine. UW-L’s student government had attempted to limit the printing of the magazine to just a few dozen copies in response to articles some deemed offensive. The magazine’s rights were restored less than a week after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) intervened on its behalf.

“Satire and parody are vital, effective, and very strongly protected forms of political speech. Unfortunately, they are under constant attack on today’s college campuses,” stated FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. “UW-L did the right thing by vindicating its students’ rights to express themselves in these time-honored ways.”

The Second Supper Alternative News, a recognized UW-L student publication, garnered attention when it ran an article in its February 28 issue entitled “Cheney Kills Five Crips in Inner-City Hunting Accident.” The article parodied Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent hunting accident by portraying him as a gang member. UW-L’s student government, the Student Association, responded by passing a resolution on March 29 asserting that The Second Supper’s “racist, sexist, homophobic, ablest (sic.), anti-Semitists (sic.) speech” would “threaten the recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented groups.” Sponsored by “the students silenced by privilege,” the resolution ordered the magazine to cut its distribution from 2000 copies per issue to only 60—a 97% reduction. (Second Supper editor Joe Gullo, fearing for the financial stability of the advertising-funded publication, eventually managed to bargain the student government up to allowing 900 copies per issue to be distributed.)

“No student governing body at a public university has the right to cut a publication’s distribution to a few dozen copies because it prints material that some consider offensive,” stated Lukianoff. “Publications like this one exist precisely to challenge, to amuse, to provoke, and indeed, even to offend. Censorship of such publications, no matter what form it takes, is unacceptable.”

The Second Supper consulted with FIRE, which on April 13 wrote a letter to UW-L Chancellor Douglas N. Hastad, advising him that the Student Association’s actions were inconsistent with the First Amendment and that “[t]he UW-L administration now has a moral and legal duty to intervene to ensure that the denial of The Second Supper’s First Amendment rights does not continue.” FIRE also sent the letter to the UW-L Student Association.

On April 18, the Student Association heeded FIRE’s advice and issued a statement withdrawing the resolution limiting the distribution of The Second Supper. That statement, however, went on to reiterate the offensiveness of the publication, saying that, “directly and indirectly students, faculty, and staff have been hurt by the language the paper publishes.”

“Again and again FIRE has stood up to schools in the UW System that have allowed a cry of offense to become the voice of the censor. We are pleased that this time, a UW university took our advice and quickly ended its unconstitutional regime of censorship,” noted Lukianoff.

Individual rights in the UW System have been under a microscope since last year, when FIRE intervened at UW–Eau Claire (UWEC), where the student government decided not to fund a publication called The Flip Side because it endorsed a partisan political viewpoint—a misinterpretation of the law that UWEC has yet to rectify. FIRE also interceded last fall when UWEC prohibited student resident-assistants from leading Bible studies in their dormitories because it might make them “unapproachable” to other students. A similar policy was in place at UW–Madison. After months of delay and the filing of a lawsuit, the UW System finally submitted to FIRE’s demands and terminated that policy.

FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.

CONTACT:

Greg Lukianoff, President, FIRE: 215-717-3473; greg_lukianoff@thefire.org

Douglas N. Hastad, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse: 608-785-8004; hastad.doug@uwlax.edu

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Wednesday, April 19, 2006

FIRE Update: April 19, 2006

Table of Contents

April 19, 2006


1.	‘USA Today’ on FIRE and the Mohammed Cartoons
2.	Recent Media Coverage
3.	Recent Posts to The Torch
4.	Upcoming Events

‘USA TODAY’ ON FIRE AND THE MOHAMMED CARTOONS

USA Today this morning features a piece by Nat Hentoff, noted columnist and member of FIRE’s Board of Advisors, discussing the Danish Mohammed cartoon controversy on America’s campuses. In the article, “‘Free speech’ cries ring hollow on college campuses and beyond,” Hentoff focuses on shameful instances of censorship at Minnesota’s Century College and at New York University—both cases in which FIRE was involved. The column is particularly timely in light of FIRE’s letter to NYU yesterday asking President John Sexton to publicly repudiate the university’s censorship of a discussion about the cartoons and to live up to the university’s promises of freedom of expression.

RECENT MEDIA COVERAGE

USA Today, April 19, "'Free speech' cries ring hollow on college campuses and beyond," by Nat Hentoff

Century College's administration — and indeed, all who wither amid such free speech controversies — should welcome a challenge from Oliver Wendell Holmes: "If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought that we hate."

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National Review, April 18, "Tools for School," by Anthony Dick

Although the authors do not attempt to provide a comprehensive program geared toward fighting the problem they identify, the Guide itself is an important part of that program. Silverglate and Lorence paint a clear and convincing portrait of the types of coercive indoctrination that are currently flourishing in our institutions of higher learning. In so doing, they arm students with an array of moral and legal arguments to fight back against those who seek to convert the academy into a tool for political conversion.

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The Appalachian (Appalachian State Univ.), April 13, "ACLU works toward harrassment policy change," by Nick Ianniello

FIRE has updated its national student rights Web site, “Spotlight: the Campus Freedom Resource,” to reflect the university’s changes, but Appalachian is still a “red light” school.

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The Villager (New York), April 12, "N.Y.U. bans Danish cartoons’ display at campus talk," by Chad Smith

“N.Y.U. is a university. A university is a place for free and unfettered discussion in the pursuit if knowledge,” said Jonathan Leaf, a speaker at Wednesday night’s event. Leaf, a former editor at New York Press, resigned from his post at the newspaper after its owners denied the editorial staff the right to reprint the Danish cartoons.

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The Daily Reveille (Louisiana State Univ.), April 6, "Speech codes choke off discourse, satire," by Jason Doré

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education currently gives LSU’s speech code a rating of red. According to the FIRE Web site, a red-light university has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech. The University’s harassment policies are singled out as a threat to speech on the FIRE rating Web site.

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The Spectator (Univ. of Wisconsin–Eau Claire), April 6, "National Library Week celebrated," by Adrian Northrup

Syverson chose "FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus" as the book he was photographed with. The book, which discusses freedom of speech and how the modern university should be a marketplace of ideas, is very different than some of the other selections, Syverson said.

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The Crimson White (Univ. of Alabama), April 5, "Resolution wrong way to fight against bias," by Patrick Samples

Of course, the notion that the exercise of free speech could be considered a federal crime is patently absurd. The issue here is that the attempt to regulate the press or the expression of opinions by individual students is wrong. And it is wrong whether liberals do it or conservatives do it.

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Cybercast News Service, April 3, "NYU on Mohammed Cartoons: Discuss, but Don't Look," by Nathan Burchfiel

But Greg Lukianoff, president of the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said the decision to ban the cartoons was wrong. The university's position that students could discuss the cartoons without seeing them was "one of the most frustrating and asinine arguments that I've heard," Lukianoff said.

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Washington Square News (New York Univ.), April 3, "Admin caves on cartoons," by Eric Moskowitz

But NYU is a private university, not a newspaper or a government agency. There are no trade-offs here. It is an enclave, a fortress — a sanctuary of intellectual freedom unbeholden to any intellectual hegemony (or should be). If you are a prospective student and you think you will study at this university (or any other for that matter) and not be offended by anything, you’ve got another thing coming. As Greg Lukianoff, a panelist and the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said, “No one has a right to not be offended.”

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New York Post, April 2, "NYU Knuckles"

As the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education noted, NYU's decision is "both chilling and absurd. The fact that expression might provoke a strong reaction is a reason to protect it—not an excuse to punish it."

More media coverage at thefire.org »

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