My Blog

I need to issue a disclaimer. I am highly critical of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. I believe that the Palestinians need their own state and the horrific conditions that they reside in the Gaza strip is 50 percent the fault of Israel’s failed policies, 30 percent the fault of their deceased leader Yasir Arafat, and 20 percent the responsibility of Islamic radical movements including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. As a teacher of Middle Eastern studies, I present to my students both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict and ask them to open their minds to the possibility that the Jewish State is fallible. We have heated, yet open discussions asking questions such as "Is Zionism racism?" and "Were the Jews involved in the early militias actually terrorists?"

I am a Jewish Zionist who loves the State of Israel and my ability to criticize her just as I frequently criticize my own nation.

This evening ends the commemoration of Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day, and marks the beginning of Yom Haatzmaut, Israeli Independence Day. Israelis and Jews throughout the world remember the soldiers who died not just for their country, but for a democratic state that honors the ideal of free speech. In honor of a day that celebrates the establishment of a land that is home to survivors of the 20th century’s biggest genocide, refugees from Pogroms and purges, and the defacto expulsion of Jews from Arab lands, I defend her against the irrational and hypocritical decision of the British Association of University Teachers to boycott two Israeli universities.

The goal of the boycott is to advance the plight of the Palestinians like the boycotts of the 1980s advanced the cause of ending apartheid in South Africa. The problem with this rationale is that, as an Israeli academic highly critical of his country’s policies in the West Bank told the Christian Science Monitor today, "One doesn’t dish out collective punishment on that scale against whole institutions, especially when most Israeli faculty members are against the occupation, at least passively. In South Africa, the university system, almost in its entirety, was a part of apartheid, with racist rules. Israeli universities don’t operate that way." 

Indeed, my friend who was injured in a suicide bombing was treated in Jerusalem by an Arab doctor - as was another girl from Chicago who was shot in Jerusalem by terrorists. Did that occur in apartheid South Africa?

The point of a university, the beauty if you will, is to encourage open and free debate. The boycott will prevent British professors from voicing their views against the occupation in Israel’s universities. British students will not be able to meet Israeli academics to address the plight of the Palestinians. In a time when the Europeans want the Israelis and Palestinians to continue on the path of negotiations, the AUT wants to cease dialog. How can that possibly make any sense? Unless British prime minister Tony Blair condemns the action of the AUT, if he wants to help negotiate a final status agreement, he will be laughed out of the room by the Israelis.

I spend a lot of time in class convincing my Jewish students that criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti semitism. This boycott weakens my argument. Do the British boycott China? Cuba? Saudi Arabia? All violators of major human rights abuses. Why Israel? Why now when the government is attempting to disengage from Gaza. This fuels the fire of right wing Israelis and Jews that the "world is against us no matter what we do" so we must disregard their criticisms because they will always be critical of any existence of a Jewish state.

The AUT must revoke its stance. The boycott is an insult to the beloved notion of academic freedom that we cherish in this country and in Israel.

Sign the online petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/isboy05/petition.html

Read the Christian Science Monitor article from where I quoted:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p06s01-wome.html

Read the statement by the AUT:

http://www.aut.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1201

Read an article in Haaretz which points out that 20 percent of Haifa University’s students are Arab

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=british+boycott&itemNo=574870

A health topic that is featured in the news at least weekly, and this week more frequently, is the obesity epidemic. However, unlike the flu pandemic which was caused by germs, what causes obesity is simply American values and American culture. 

Whenever an epidemic emerges, or any problem in our society, people want someone to blame (read: sue). The initial target was McDonald’s. I don’t blame McDonald’s for the obesity epidemic. To eat or not to eat McDonald’s is a choice. As Americans we have the freedom to choose what we want to eat, just as we have the choice to choose who our elected officials are.  If I were to sue someone for gross negligence in terms of causing the obesity epidemic it would be our politicians. They are to blame for the rising cost of health care due to complications from obesity leading to the decreasing age expectancy rates.

If I were to put politicians on trial, with the charge of making Americans fat, the witnesses for the prosecution would include educators, fruit growers, doctors, and environmentalists.

As funding for education declines from the Federal and State levels, programs are cut. Although most schools do have some sort of physical education program, much of it is underfunded and undersupported. Many schools do not have after school programs beyond basic varsity sport that would encourage active behavior. Instead at 3 p.m. (or earlier) students are let loose and typically go home, eat, and play video games or do homework which are sedentary activities. Increased funding for after school programs would allow intramural sports or other non-television related programming that would get students moving and help them value an active lifestyle. The well funded suburban schools have hiking, biking and running clubs. We need these clubs for all students, not just the rich ones.

The United States grossly under subsidizes fruit growers. The subsidies are appropriated to the makers of corn and soybeans. Typically this food is not used in grocery stores - we’re not talking corn on the cob or tofu - it is used as feed for animals. The very fatty animals that when eaten lead to obesity (although admittedly the cows need the food for milk, which allows the production of the healthy, but cholesterol filled dairy). It’s amazing that while the food pyramid is filled with fruit, growers can’t afford to provide it. Produce is a huge expense at the grocery store and why buy apples when Stuffed Pockets are cheaper.

When I would call a physician to the stand I would ask her about U.S. support of preventative medicine. While the FDA is busy putting on drugs that cause heart attacks and then taking them off the market, there is no funding or agency for increasing measures that would help people prevent obesity. For example, allowing gym memberships and yoga classes to be tax free would be a first step. Or even to allow the cost of the membership to be covered by flex plans would be a great benefit to workers who spend their days sedentary at the office. In addition, for the first time in human history the fattest people are the nation’s poorest, the ones without health insurance. If children do not receive regular health care, then how are parents supposed to be aware if their child is receiving good nutrition or is on track in terms of weight and height.

And lastly the environmentalists. Today’s tease from the Associated Press reads "The Bush administration, in one of its biggest decisions on environmental issues, moved Thursday to open up nearly a third of all remote national forest lands to road building, logging and other commercial ventures." What does this say about our nation’s values if we are planning to cut away at places where people hike and camp? It says we are not serious about promoting an active culture. The forests help maintain the air quality. I can’t tell you the number of times I became sick after exercising outside on an Ozone Action Day. But why shouldn’t I be able to utilize the beautiful Chicago lake path? Pollution as an answer is unacceptable.

It is up to us to elect politicians who will not be beholden to the agricultural and loggers lobby. We need to change our focus from Bextra to exercise. We need to stop complaining and start advocating for our children before insulin shots are sold in coffee shops and oxygen bars are not novelties but necessities.