Re: U. of Michigan pressured to halt publication of Joel Kovel book

[Bill Lear <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 11:28:53 (-0700) David B. Shemano writes:
>Of course they should.  I can say that because I believe in the state/private distinction and support the 1st Amendment as a restriction on state action but not private action.  I support the right of a Lefty dominated university department to decide not to hire a pro-Israel professor, and I support the right of pro-Israel supporters to make the decision public and try and convince alumni to withhold money from the university.   Of course, the fact that I support somebody's right to say something doesn't mean I support them saying it.

So, as long as you are repressed by private interests, it's ok?

>I did want to note the irony (if that's the right word) of Doug
>Henwood complaining when anti-Israel critics are accused of being
>Nazis, and Jim Devine contemporaneously calling Israel "one of the
>worst kinds of ethnic nationalist regimes currently on earth," which
>I think a reasonable reader would interpret as a Nazi analogy. ...

No, a reasonable reader would interpret it as a bland factual
statement about a currently existing, violent, and racist state.


Bill