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THE PATRIOT RETURNS |
Vol. 42, No.4 January 12, 2009
NEW CAUCUS: OF BASHING ISRAEL
Most public employees unions go out of their way not to alienate political allies on issues that have nothing to do with the union's central goals. But our Dear Leader, Barbara Bowen, and her followers in the New Caucus take a different approach. Their distaste for the foreign policy of Israel (alone, it appears, among the nations of the world) is so intense that they just can't get enough of condemning Israeli actions. The latest episode came last week. Hunter New Caucasian Ros Petchesky (last heard from complaining that she couldn't afford her posh Upper West Side townhouse on a distinguished professor's salary) took to the PSC Delegate Assembly listserv to urge her fellow union delegates to attend an "important demonstration" designed to "Stop the Massacre in Gaza." The event was sponsored by JATO, an organization committed to ending all U.S. aid to Israel. Adjunct New Caucasian Sandor John (last heard from complaining that the Dear Leader wasn't extreme enough ) gleefully reported back: "I was glad to see a number of our PSC sisters and brothers attending the protest today". Among the slogans: "YES, WE CAN! BOYCOTT ISRAEL!"; "ZIONISM = RACISM"; and "ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES = WAR CRIMINALS." When one lonely DA member had the temerity to question using union resources to recruit people for an anti-Israel gala, the New Caucasians rose up. Condemning Israel, said they, was good union business. City Tech New Caucasian Costas Panayotakis cited "academic freedom" to justify the PSC taking on Israel: "Israel has bombed a university in Gaza, surely a more extreme infringement of academic freedom than any boycott." For the last three years, Sapir College, in Sderot, Israel, has been subjected to almost daily rocket attacks from Hamas. Yet a search of both PSC archives and Lexis/Nexis reveals no sign that Professor Panayotakis had urged the PSC to condemn Hamas' bombing a university in Israel in the name of "academic freedom." Why do you think that is? Grad Center New Caucasian Stanley Aronowitz offered another justification for the union's attacking Israel: "The PSC has an international affairs committee, a women's committee, a committee against racism and a solidarity committee, all of which address issues that are quite far-flung. We want to be a ‘social union' that goes beyond the contract." Iran has an official policy of killing gay and lesbian citizens. China has a policy of forced abortions. Putin's Russia has repressed the political rights of the regime's opponents. Yet a search of both PSC archives and Lexis/Nexis reveals no sign that Professor Aronowitz had urged the PSC to condemn Iran, China, or Russia in the name of the PSC as a "social union." Why do you think that is? But logic has never deterred the New Caucasians. Emboldened, Petchesky promises to introduce a resolution condemning Israel, and the Delegate Assembly site is buzzing with talk of the Dear Leader's minions "reaching out to the campuses" to explain why the PSC should officially take an anti-Israel position. ---------- A SECRET POLITICAL AGENDA? Each month, the Clarion hails the Dear Leader's keen political abilities. So maybe the PSC's renewed anti-Israel activism is part of a plan to build support among politicians. But which politicians, exactly? As the New Caucus was rounding up people to "Stop the Massacre in Gaza," Mayor Bloomberg was showing solidarity with Israel by visiting Sderot. And does Battlin' Barb really believe that Governor Paterson, facing a possible challenge from Rudy Giuliani in 2010, will bestow favors on a union headed by anti-Israel zealots? And what about President-elect Obama? No luck there either for the Dear Leader. Obama has said that if a neighboring state was launching rockets on a house with his daughters inside, he'd do everything he could to protect his children. The New Caucus' emerging consensus does align with a few politicians. There's always the old standby Cynthia McKinney, who traveled to the region to spin her usual anti-Israel conspiracy theories. Or Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, who in an interview with Al Jazeera took a similar, if less extreme, position than Petchesky, Panayotakis, and Aronowitz. But since McKinney isn't in Congress any more, unless the Dear Leader is proposing to move CUNY to Minneapolis, it doesn't seem like Ellison's backing will do any of us much good. --------- CLOSER TO HOME If the New Caucasians just can't get enough of the Middle East, here's a suggestion. The Globe and Mail reports that the Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees has proposed "a ban on Israeli academics doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities," unless the Israeli academics explicitly condemn their nation's action in Gaza. Given the chatter in the New Caucus about condemning the Gaza incursion, shouldn't our Dear Leader reaffirm her "commitment" to academic freedom by publicly condemning the Ontario proposal? Canada is rather close to home, after all.
Stay tuned for further updates.
Sharad Karkhanis, Ph.D.
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