Plan Aims to Ban Criticism of Israel at Universities

Republican members of the Senate are planning to introduce police-state-style “thought control” legislation designed to prohibit criticism of Israel on American college campuses.

 

Exclusive to American Free Press

By Michael Collins Piper

 

The third-ranking Republican member of the Senate, “conservative” Rick Santorum (Pa.), plans to introduce so-called “ideological diversity” legislation that would cut federal funding for American colleges and universities found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel, which he considers to be an act of “anti-Semitism.”

Santorum wants to rewrite the federal funding formula under Title IX of the Higher Education Act to include “ideological diversity” as well as sexual equality in education as a perquisite for federal funding.

Joining Santorum is another Senate “conservative” GOP stalwart—and a leading pro-Israel ideologue—Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) who has his own scheme to call for a federal commission—critics call it a “tribunal”—to be established under Title IX to “investigate” anti-Semitic incidents on American campuses.

Although most students and teachers have not heard of the Santorum-Brownback scheme, Wayne Firestone, director of the Center for Israel Affairs for the Hillel Foundation, says that “Everywhere I go, this is the lead topic. This is drawing a lot of interest.”

It was Firestone’s organization, Hillel—which has units on campuses across America—that first leaked word of Santorum’s scheme. Further details appeared in a circumspect report on April 15 in the small-circulation New York Sun, a stridently pro-Israel “neo-conservative” daily published in Manhattan.

Hillel told its supporters that Santorum, along with several other senators, had invited representatives of a number of powerful Jewish organizations to attend a private meeting on Capitol Hill in order to discuss the growing criticism of Israel on college campuses.

The senators—all Republicans—were: Santorum, Robert Bennett (Utah), Sam Brownback (Kan.), and newly elected Norm Coleman (Minn.). Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.), and his GOP colleagues, Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and George Voinovich (Ohio) sent staff representatives.

Jewish organizations represented at the private meeting were the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B’nai B’rith, the Zionist Organization of America, the American Jewish Committee and Hillel, represented by Firestone and Jay Rubin, Hillel’s executive vice president.

Louis Goldstein, deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, represented the Bush administration.

An ADL representative reportedly told the gathering that the ADL’s “annual audit” of anti-Semitic activity in America had detected an increase by 24 percent of anti-Semitism on college campuses in 2002. That 24 percent increase—by the ADL’s own admission—constituted 21 actions.

However, the ADL definition of “anti-Semitism” is so broad that it largely includes even the mildest criticism of Israel that doesn’t happen to be framed in the particular parameters that the ADL determines to be acceptable.

In the meantime, word of the Santorum-Brownback initiative is spreading among leaders of the educational community.

Spokesmen for universities and educational organizations are being circumspect about commenting too quickly or too loudly, recognizing that they, too, could be accused of encouraging “anti-Semitism” if they dare to speak out against the thought control mechanism that Santorum, Brownback and their allies want to put in place.

Santorum is rapidly emerging as one of Israel’s leading Senate spokesmen. He is one of the chief co-sponsors of the so-called Syrian Accountability Act that accuses Syria of supporting terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction and demands that Syria withdraw from Lebanon.

Forces now clamoring for war against Syria are using these allegations as the foundation for launching a war against the Arab republic.