Editorial Article
Tel Aviv University - Philosophy Professor Anat Biletzki’s
“philosophy” is to smear Israel abroad
By Lee Kaplan
Professor
Anat Biletzki is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy
at the University of Tel Aviv, Israel. She grew up in the United
States and Canada where she was educated through her high school
years, then earned her college degrees in Political Science and
Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. She earned her Master’s degree
with a thesis on Aristotle’s logic and determinism and her PhD with
a dissertation on the history of the philosophy of language. An
instructor at Tel Aviv University since 1979, she has traveled
widely as a guest lecturer, a visiting fellow and scholar in the
Philosophy departments of such distinguished universities as
Cambridge and Harvard and in the Social Sciences division at
Princeton. She is considered an expert on the Philosophers Ludwig
Wittgenstein and Thomas Hobbes, on “analytic philosophy,” “political
thought” and “human rights.” She is also the former chairperson of
B’tselem. (to see original article, use the following link,
click here)
According
to her own profile, she “has been engaged for three decades now, in
bridging the two --philosophy and politics—by attempting to use
analytic philosophy in the investigation and study of human rights”
and by “investing her work in human rights organizations with
philosophical grounding.” In her own words: “Philosophy is my
profession, politics is my life.”
Sadly,
Professor Biletzki’s analytical philosophy is to smear Israel abroad
politically at anti-Israel symposiums and events on college campuses
and elsewhere that are fundamentally organized by Arab irredentist
groups that frequently use the words “human rights” and “peace” as a
deceptive cover to destroy the Jewish state. As an expert in the
philosophy of language, Professor Biletzki of all people should
understand how language is used to mask real intent, particularly
by Arab propagandists. Despite this, she speaks frequently to and is
quoted extensively by members of the International Solidarity
Movement (http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6233)
who claim to be “nonviolent human rights advocates” in one breath,
then endorse violence against Israelis as “legitimate resistance” in
the next as they act as human shields for terrorists. (http://home.comcast.net/~jat.action/ISM_info.htm)
Like the
ISM, that claims it merely seeks peace, but instead helps one side
wage war against Israel, Professor Biletzki claims she is working
for the human rights of the Palestinians but somehow never touches
on the Israeli need for self-defense. Hence, this expert in the
philosophy of language uses terms such as “Apartheid Wall” for a
Security Fence to keep out suicide bombers and terrorists and brands
almost any anti-terrorist activities by the Israeli government just
as in Arab propaganda as being violations of the human rights of
Palestinian Arabs. As an expert on Wittkenstein who postulated “the
limits of my language are the limits of my world,” Professor
Biletzki limits herself to Palestinian propaganda: demolishing a
house where a terrorist cell builds bombs is demolishing Arab homes
for no reason, checkpoints are merely there to “humiliate” the Arabs
who praise and encourage suicide bombers and terrorists, and Israel
is an “occupier” with no claims to the land, biblical or otherwise.
Wittkenstein
was a Jew who abandoned his faith for Christianity, then embraced
atheism and ultimately went back to Christianity. Perhaps Biletzki
is carrying through the same philosophy of the Jew who abandons
other Jews for Jew-killers and does so through her own
philosophical window of language that exists in her own world
separated from reality. Meanwhile, people get killed perpetually on
both sides, hardly a sustainable outcome promoting “human rights.”
Hobbes on
the other hand was someone who in some circles has been claimed to
ruin biblical studies (http://www.crisismagazine.com/november2004/w)
for Christianity. What better way for a philosopher like Biletzki to
make a new name for herself as a Jewess and philosopher who equally
discounts the right to exist of a Jewish state that many of its
inhabitants consider a biblical miracle and struggle to keep alive
against a massive Arab force out to destroy it?
While some
other Israeli academics may take a one-sided and almost passionate
stance against Israel on behalf of the Arab strategy of boycotting
and slandering Israel unconditionally at any price, Biletzky has
come out against the Academic Boycott of Israeli academics like
herself (to see original article, use the following link,
click here) (bad for business, you see) while still
endorsing an economic boycott of Israel. The Arab League boycott of
Israel of course sends 30% of Israel’s population to soup kitchens,
mainly the elderly and children, including Arab Israelis, but these
people do not fit into Biletzki’s “human rights” worldview (the
ability to tour the world, expenses paid, to speak at events paid
for indirectly by petrodollars to fund Middle East Studies Centers
and various anarchist communist groups against Israel on college
campuses with academic departments where Israel-bashing is the rule
is no doubt too good to pass up for personal principles). Biletzki
underscores her need to continue doing so in part to deny what she
does is anti-Semitism.
The French
writer-philosopher Voltaire summed up Biletzki’s type of
philosophical academic thinking and use of language best when he
wrote "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you
commit atrocities.” If one can be judged by the company one keeps
(and academics who travel the world keep a lot of company), then
Biletzki’s friends with whom she meets and uses propaganda language
in support of the Palestinians seeking the destruction of Israel are
very telling. Biletzki clearly is part of the
pro-communist/anarchist clique (to see original article, use the
following link,
click here) that is allied with Arab irredentists against
the Jews.
She has
spoken at symposiums given by Al Awda, (http://www.al-awda.org/)
the Palestine Right to Return Coalition that unequivocally calls
for the end of all of Israel by declaring the Arab right of return
“non-negotiable” (unconditionally allowing five million Arabs to
move inside Israel’s borders, thus spelling the end of the Jewish
state). Al Awda was founded by a former Yale geneticist, Mazen
Qumsaiyeh, who was fired for using the University’s email system to
send out an anti-Semitic missive and who has called Jews living in
Israel “a disease.” According to ex-PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat, Qumsiyeh
is a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine)
a designated terrorist group. Biletzki has no qualms about rubbing
elbows with or supporting Al Awda and its goals, even though the
organization has even been linked to the Aryan Nations (American
Nazi Party) (http://www.aryan-nations.org/about.htm)
due to equal antipathy against Jews and openly supports Hamas and
Hizballah. Its affiliated Radio Islam website even speaks of Jews as
“Satan’s Jewish soldiers” and lists all Al Awda events (scroll down
to the letter from Aryan Nations leader Pastor Redfeairn (http://www.radioislam.org/resistance/massacr.htm)
of the Aryan Nations, then the schedule of activism events for Al
Awda).
And
Biletzki certainly lives up to her statement that “politics is her
life” both inside and outside of Israel. In Israel she gathered
signatures for high school students to refuse to serve in the army
and became a close supporter of Asmi Bishara, the Arab Knesset
member who openly calls for the dismantling of Israel (Bishara has
called Biletzki one of his “brothers.”). (to see original article,
use the following link,
click here) She called for the release of Tali Fahima who
smuggled weapons for terrorists to kill Israelis. As an academic
with the ear of American (and some even Jewish) college students she
appears as an “educated voice” calling for the unconditional right
of return of any Arab to Israel as a means of dismantling Israel. (http://www.thestruggle.org/jr2r.htm)
She has done this from Boston University (to see original article,
use the following link,
click here) across the US to Santa Cruz, California.
Biletzski
even wrote a memorial to Edward Said (http://www.philosophynow.org/issue44/44biletzski.htm),
who reviled even Arafat for making any kind of peace or negotiations
with Israel and said the Arab scholar was born in Palestine (Said,
like Arafat, was born in Egypt to see original article, use the
following link,
click here). In doing so, she called Said the ultimate champion
of “Palestinian freedom.”
But what
is freedom in her philosophy of language? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language)
Is it the reality of the freedom to live under dictatorship and
Sharia Law (http://www.themiddleeastnow.com/news/hamassharia.htm)
that would be doubly bad for the Jews who were not murdered in the
takeover? Biletzki also conveniently classifies terrorists killed by
the IDF as " civilians” killed in violation of “international law”
(to see original article, use the following link,
click here ) on behalf of a movement that has no respect for
international law to stop terrorists or end terrorism against her
fellow Israelis. This isn’t the process of a human rights
philosopher as much as a sophist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism)
who discounts the value of the lives of her fellow citizens. It is
also a common tactic of Israel’s communist party and their allies
across the globe.
Like her
Marxist and anti-Zionist allies in the International Solidarity
Movement, Anat Biletzki says one thing but has another purpose and
meaning, and that meaning is to smear Israel and help its enemies
achieve their goals of domination over the Jewish people and
destruction of the Jewish state as a haven for all people.
------------------------
Upcoming
events with Anat Biletzki:
http://judaismandisrael.blogspot.com/2007/10/dr-jeff-halper-of-icahd-you-will.html
Monday
October 22, 2007 6:30 – 8:30 PM "Human Rights and Politics in
Israel-Palestine" Jeff Halper & Anat Biletzki (Professor of
Philosophy, Tel Aviv University and Former chairperson of B'Tselem -
The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories.) MIT building 66, room 110 (66-110) Sponsored by The
MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice and the MIT Center for
International Studies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.uua.org/events/44847.shtml
A
Conference: The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel: Issues of
Justice and Equality Friends of Sabeel - New England will be
presenting a conference entitled “The Apartheid Paradigm in
Palestine-Israel: Issues of Justice and Equality”
October 26
– 27, 2007 Old South Church, 645 Boylston St., Boston
Friday—2:30
PM—10:00 PM Saturday—8:00 AM—4:30 PM
Keynote
Address: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Panelists:
Naim Ateek * Anat Biletzki * Diana Buttu * Noam Chomsky * John
Dugard * Farid Esack * Noura Erekat * Jeff Halper Donald Wagner *
David Wildman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.yale.edu/caas/calendar.html
Wednesday,
November 7, 2007, Quinnipiac University, Hamden
"The
Rhetoric of Apartheid"
Anat
Biletzki, Albert Schweitzer Scholar in Residence, Quinnipiac
University Senior Lecturer, University of Tel Aviv Research Fellow
in the Program for Human Rights and Justice, M.I.T.
Reception
at 5:00 p.m. Lecture at 5:30 p.m. (FREE open to the public)
followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m. for members and guests ($40 pp.
reservations required) Mancheski Seminar Room, Lender School of
Business Quinnipac University, Hamden
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