To say that Israel
can have privileges no one else has is to try writing a one sided equation. It
is so absurd; you don't need a degree in science or math to figure that out.
But can someone who talks from both sides of the mouth
convince a group of scientists that he discovered something so freakishly
far-out, it can only be written into a one-sided equation? Maybe. After all,
scientists are trained never to dismiss an idea off-hand before giving
themselves the chance to look at it and determine if it has any merit at all.
When a subject like this comes up and the scientists look
into it, they need very little time to see through the quackery. They dismiss
it and go back to doing the things that consume them. But in their daily lives,
scientists are not confronted with scientific questions only. They often face
difficult social matters that burden them as much as any human being and they
respond to the challenges the way that any human does.
In America ,
the subject of Israel
– like everything Jewish – has been sucked into the cesspit of moral, political
and diplomatic dimensions. Like a quagmire with a black hole at its center, it
sucks into nothingness the massive galaxies that wander near it as easily as it
sucks a single grain of sand. Between the mass of the galaxy and that of sand,
there exist the scientists who are often approached by charlatans equipped with
a two-sided mouth. These characters try to suck the scientists into the belief
that Israel
has rights and no obligation such as can be written into a one-sided equation.
And true to form, the scientists reply: let's hear it.
Ruth R. Wisse says she has seen this phenomenon in action,
and so she wrote about it. Her article came under the title: “Scientists Take a
Stand Against Academic Boycotts of Israel” and the subtitle: “How can scholars
reconcile opposition to the Trump travel ban with blacklists aimed at the
Jewish state?” published on April 20, 2017 in the Wall Street Journal.
Wisse says that the movement to boycott Israel is
unfair to Israeli academics who seek to interact with their American
counterparts, which is why the practice must end. She is happy that this is
beginning to happen in some places, but says more needs be done because – as
some scientists put it: “collaboration of Israeli scientists in lifesaving
treatments is reason enough to protest the blacklist”.
It is obvious that some scientists have responded to Israel 's
dilemma in a manner that is typically theirs. When they heard the plea of
someone speaking like Ruth Wisse, they gave a typically positive response.
However, this being their initial reaction – motivated as it was by one side of
the story – it remains to be seen what they will do when they will be given the
full story.
To guess what they might do, we can only go by the examples
that were set during the apartheid regimes of Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe ) and South Africa .
At that time, the scientists of the world told their counterparts in those two
places, they can no longer interact with them knowing that they are succeeding
because others were robbed of the success that is due to them. This prompted
the scientists of Rhodesia
and South Africa
to tell their governments they must end apartheid or they will leave the
country and go live somewhere else. Thus ended the apartheid regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa .
Bear in mind also that neither Rhodesia
nor South Africa
prevented the indigenous inhabitants from traveling abroad to participate in
symposiums of any kind, in sports events or what have you. By contrast, this is
what happens in Israel
where the indigenous Palestinians are prohibited from traveling abroad where
they could participate in symposiums; in the Olympics or in gatherings that
would be happy to receive them.
When America 's
scientists become aware this is how Israel
treats the Palestinians, they cannot sit with an Israeli scientist and look him
in the eye knowing that a more deserving Palestinian was left behind because Israel closed
the door on him. Hell, he can't even travel from village to village to go see
his dying mother because Israel
closed the checkpoints which are strewn along the Palestinian roads … at a time
when the Palestinians are not allowed to use the “Jewish only” roads.
America's scientists who might have reasoned that the
“collaboration of Israeli scientists in lifesaving treatments is reason enough
to protest the blacklist,” have a quick change of heart when they learn that a
Palestinian cannot go see his dying mother because he is not a Jew. And they
develop a severe repugnance toward Israel 's scientists upon learning
that Palestinian women are forced to have their babies on the sidewalk because
the checkpoints leading to the hospital are closed to them.
Thus, when exposed to both sides of the equation, America 's scientists conclude it is morally
abhorrent to protest the blacklisting of Israel ; and by that allow the
continuation of the horror they leave behind when going abroad to attend a
gathering of civilized people.