Picture credit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8685930.stmNoam Chomsky is undoubtedly an original thinker. He is an internationally respected linguist at MIT, an independent and, within the confines of conventional labeling, a liberally inclined political activist whose views you may disagree with but you can ignore them only at your own risk. As you may expect from a master linguist, his true justice-seeking intentions are evident through his exceptionally clear arguments. Every audience should feel honored by being able to listen to him and if you disagree, feel free to test your opposition against one of the brightest minds of our times, as e.g. William F. Buckley Jr., a preeminent voice of American conservatism did it in a 1969 interview.
Mr. Chomsky was scheduled to give a lecture in a Palestinian University but was denied entry from Jordan into Palestine by Israeli authorities. – see link:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/noam-chomsky-american-left-wing-intellectual-denied-entry/story?id=10664920
This action of Israel, in head-on collision with the cherished American principle of right to free-speech, unmistakably demonstrates that democratic principles are far from being the primary concern of today’s Israeli government.
The action at the Jordanian-Palestinian border also provides us with a window at the humiliation the Palestinian people have to endure under Israeli occupation.
Don’t misread me: I am rooting for the success of Israel! No, not because Jews are the “chosen people of God”!... but because of their tenacity displayed throughout history and their undeniable smarts. However, fighting 1 billion Muslims while relying on military might alone, driven by misplaced religious prophecy and narrowly interpreted geopolitical interests, seems suicidal to me.
Mr. Chomsky may have been able to soften the hard path Israel needs to take to integrate herself into the Middle East and indeed into the World. Denying this opportunity from Mr. Chomsky is a short sighted and plain antidemocratic action that should be strongly opposed by the freedom-loving American public and politics!
Posts
Democracy is not necessarily what's best for every nation. Can you imagine the chaos of a democratic China or Russia? At the other end, is the US a democracy with a limited 2 party system where the differences between the two are merely in rhetoric but not policy. "Freedom loving" in referring to Americans has less and less significance as we continue to accept broader limitations on those freedoms, lemmings to the propaganda of the Bushes, Palins, and Obamas that define our political generation.
ReplyDelete