So What Does Dershowitz Think About Columbia?

Alan Dershowitz has weighed in on the controversy at Columbia University: At Columbia, fairness is job one

Thank goodness the Israelis don't have to make peace with Columbia University's department of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures. All the Israelis have to do is make peace with the Palestinian Authority. Several influential members of Columbia's Middle East faculty are so extreme that they regarded even the warmongering terrorist Yasser Arafat as too soft on Israel.

Uh oh.

The committee appointed to look into the charges includes, among others, at least two anti-Israel extremists. They signed a petition calling for Columbia to divest only from Israel, a democracy struggling to fight against terrorism.

By singling out Israel for economic capital punishment and ignoring such real violators of human rights as Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Libya, the Sudan and China, these committee members have demonstrated their own bigotry against the Jewish nation.

Asking pro-Israel Jewish students to present their grievances to the committee members who signed the divestiture petition would be like asking African-American students to present grievances to a committee that included the late Strom Thurmond and David Duke. Nonetheless, I have urged the students to present their evidence to the committee, and I have urged the committee to allow the students to maintain an accurate record of their testimony so as to avoid recriminations.

I also urge President Lee Bollinger to assure the students that there will be no recriminations against them as a result of what they may tell the committee.

It is amazing that in this day and age you need to have outside influence brought to bear in order to avoid a climate of recrimination and repression on an American university campus.

I'm afraid I'll remain amazed (and saddened) for some time to come.