BGU's David Newman's (department of politics) McCarthyist Assault on Im Tirtzu

By Steven Plaut Recently I posted a comment about the politicized judges in Israel, their penchant for issuing partisan rulings in favor of the Left. In particular I focused on one of the worst judicial atrocities in Israel, the decision by a radical leftist judge to toss out the defamation suit by the Im Tirtzu Zionist student organization against some leftists who had smeared it by calling the group fascists. The judge tossed out their suit but not because the judge is a free speech absolutist. Instead, the judge ruled that indeed the Im Tirtzu organization had "some similarities" to fascist movements, proving that the judge has some similarities to the posterior end of a horse. The judge's evidence? The radical Marxist anti-democratic anti-Israel professor Zev Sternhell said so in testimony in the court. This is the same Sternhell who considers the children of settlers to be Hitler Youth and called upon terrorists to target settlers for murder. The judge in question has a long track record of issuing similar biased partisan rulings. In today's Jerusalem Post (October 1), the anti-democratic ruling by the partisan judge is celebrated by David Newman, who serves as Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben Gurion "University." Newman himself is a radical leftist anti-Israel hater of democracy and freedom of speech. A third-rate geographer who is not a political scientist at all, he single-handedly built the department of politics at Ben Gurion "University" into the worst anti-Israel indoctrination center in the country, a department in which no non-leftist is permitted to teach. The single pro-Israel faculty member of that department was fired years ago for incorrect thought. Newman himself has long defended the BDS (Boycott Israel) campaign of economic warfare against Israel. Newman helped make an anti-Semitic documentary about the Jewish cabal that aired on British television. Now Newman does not celebrate the judge's decision because Newman believes in freedom of speech absolutism. Much to the contrary, Newman was the accomplice of anti-Semite Neve Gordon in Gordon's anti-democratic SLAPP suit filed against me, in which Newman provided a false affidavit to the court to assist Gordon. Newman's celebration of the judicial atrocity against Im Tirtzu can be read here: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Borderline-Views-Hijacking-Zionism-327509. His diatribe is titled "Hijacking Zionism," by which he means that the Zionist student organization Im Tirtzu distorts Zionism when it criticizes radical anti-Israel leftists and anti-Semites. Newman has long advocated dealing with anti-Semites by adopting the policies they urge Israel to implement, meaning the PLO's agenda. Nearly every sentence in Newman's article is a gross distortion or outright falsehood, this coming from one of the senior officials at Ben Gurion "University" and the darling of BGU's president Rivka Carmi. Newman, who sits in the same department with some of the worst leftwing fascists in Israel and who opposes freedom of speech for critics of the Far Left, chants his praises for the partisan judge who defamed Im Tirtzu as fascists in the biased ruling in question. Writes Newman: "During the trial, various expert witnesses were called upon by the defense. These included Prof. Ze’ev Sternhell, emeritus professor of political science at the Hebrew University and who himself has been the subject of violent attacks by right-wing groups, including a letter bomb posted to his house." This is typical Newman. Sternhell, whom Newman says is a "an undisputed expert on European history," is a disputed expert on nothing at all and is an idiotic believer in communist. Sternhell was not attacked by any groups at all, but rather by the mentally deranged Jack Teitel, who also violently attacked homosexuals, missionaries, the police, and others. The only "groups" involved with Sternhell were some that criticized Sternhell's radical extremist political opinions, but Newman has been claiming for decades that criticizing leftwing extremists is McCarthyism and such critics must be suppressed. In the same breath, Newman attacks the NGO Monitor web site and organization, which is also guilty of exposing and criticizing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic leftist organizations. It too has no right to exercise freedom of speech, in the opinion of Komrad Newman! Newman adds: "The right wing, such as Im Tirtzu and similar organizations, are often termed 'fascist,' while they in turn define the left-wing, pro-peace and pro-human rights groups as 'traitors,' 'self-hating Jews' and 'quislings' in an ongoing attempt to delegitimize and silence the voice of anyone who thinks differently than they do." So radical anti-Israel propaganda groups propped up by funding from anti-Semitic sources are "pro-peace and pro-human rights," and never mind that none of these NGOs have condemned terrorist atrocities against Jews nor supported the right of Jews to defend themselves against such atrocities. But Im Tirtzu is fascist when it points out that traitors, self-hating Jews, and Quislings are in fact traitors, self-hating Jews, and Quislings. The Newman pontification about people who seek to suppress "those who think differently than they do" is the very same Newman who set up the Department of Politics at BGU in which no non-leftist or pro-Israel opinion may be expressed. That department is so biased and has such pathetically low standards of scholarship that an international panel of experts called for shutting it down altogether. Finally Newman denounces the Likud government for attempting to break the hegemony of the Left over the Council on Higher Education, which governs and funds Israeli universities, and for introducing school textbooks that give the Zionist, meaning the historically accurate, version of history and civics. The fellow who set up the department of politics at Ben Gurion "University" in which no non-leftist Zionist point of view may be expressed is suddenly concerned in his Jerusalem Post column that "alternative" (meaning leftist anti-Israel) points of view will be suppressed by the Israeli "Right."