Free Republic

In the hope of shifting the debate on divestment from Israel to the real issue—the nature of the divestment campaign—and not the specious accusations regarding University President Lawrence H. Summers’ speech on the issue, I would like to suggest why I believe the campaign is properly characterized as “anti-Semitic in effect, if not in intent.” I would like to look carefully—if necessarily briefly—at the strategy of the campaign and the rhetoric of the petition, in order to show how it implicitly demonizes Jews. Supporters of the divestment campaign insist they seek to protest the policies of the Sharon government, and...

Pressure is growing within Germany's Left party to take decisive action against alleged anti-Semitic tendencies among the socialists. “If the basic values of the party are neglected, there must be consequences, up to separation,” the party’s parliamentary whip in the Bundestag, Dagmar Enkelmann, told the Wednesday edition of Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. The call comes as The Left faces continuing criticism that some members of the socialist party have anti-Semitic and anti-Israel leanings. The Left has also been embarrassed by a series of questionable incidents involving Israel and the Jewish community. In April, a flyer featuring a swastika and the Star...

The University of Haifa and the Italian Trento Center for Scientific and Technological Research (IRST) signed a $1.5 million three-year agreement on Thursday to cooperate on software and artificial intelligence research. The deal ensures that a concrete financial agreement will exist between the institutions which established an informal relationship two years ago, said Oliviero Stock, former director of IRST and current senior fellow. According to the details of the agreement, IRST will supply $1m. or two-thirds of the finances for the research and the University of Haifa will provide the remaining $500,000. Stock will coordinate details of the program along...