The recent article about Noam Chomsky’s recent on-campus appearance (“Chomsky joins Israel “apartheid’ debate,” Wednesday, p. 1) reflects the extent to which The Daily Free Press has departed from objective journalism and finds itself seduced by anti-Israel rhetoric and those who promote it. Equally troubling is Boston University’s willingness to provide a pulpit to Chomsky, whose hyperbolic characterizations and factual distortions about Israel and “Palestine” are nevertheless deemed gospel by those who blindly submit themselves to the product Chomsky peddles.
Chomsky’s refrain is a familiar one, having been overplayed for 35 years. In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, which determined that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” Of course, U.N. bias against Israel is well-documented and even predated its membership in the world body, so it is not surprising that the General Assembly outwardly attacked world Jewry and Israel in such a manner then and continues to do so today. The resolution was ultimately revoked in 1991, though its mere promulgation is disturbing and reinforces the extent to which the U.N. is neither an impartial arbiter in the Arab-Israeli conflict nor a willing partner in effectuating a peaceful resolution.
Yet The Free Press, by providing media coverage of this appearance, permitted Chomsky to reprise his tune with a different drum, burying in the middle of the article the fact that Students for Justice in Palestine organized Chomsky’s appearance to advance its own agenda. Of course, the gravamen of Chomsky’s inflammatory position is prominently positioned for The Free Press reader: “[Chomsky] listed the permit system required of Arabs . . . as examples of how Israel’s control has dominated Palestine.”
Although Chomsky is a prolific writer who frequently opines on the subject, it must be remembered that he possesses no formal legal training in matters of international law or history. To therefore claim that Chomsky provided his partisan audience with a “history” of the Arab-Israeli conflict is disingenuous. Mr. Chomsky proffers little more than the musings of a fierce Israel critic whose personal beliefs muddle any objective consideration of history, international law, foreign policy or diplomacy. One need only look to another recent lecture Chomsky held at BU during which he proclaimed that Iran was a peace-loving nation under imminent Israeli siege.
Ultimately, it is difficult to identify and to understand the “country” toward which SJP directs its advocacy. Chomsky and SJP ride an anti-Israel wave and intentionally ignore Palestinian terrorism that has, standing alone, precipitated the very atmosphere about which they complain. In so doing, they seek no dialogue, engagement or resolution. Rather, they seek transference of blame and responsibility toward Israel, a convenient demagogue that, for more than 60 years, has endured an unprecedented wrath of condemnation and scrutiny.
The time is long overdue to expose as fallacious and condemn the message with which Chomsky seeks to indoctrinate his audiences. The Free Press should resist the temptation to provide an imbalanced, biased medium through which Chomsky can convey his tragically flawed, repetitious message with impunity and without accountability.
Robert A. Caplen,
GRS 2001
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