Thursday, January 25, 2007

Brandeis Dissuaded Alisa Flatow's Father From Attending Carter's Talk

Candace de Russy quotes from a letter sent by Jay Bergman, a Central Connecticut State University professor and Brandeis alum to the Brandeis University’s president, Jehuda Reinharz:
As an alumnus of Brandeis, I was appalled to read in Seth Gitell's
article in yesterday's New York Sun that the father of Alisa Flatow '96,
who was murdered in Israel by Palestinian terrorists not long before she
was to graduate from Brandeis, was privately discouraged from attending
the talk at Brandeis by Jimmy Carter out of fear that he'd ask a
question that might embarrass the former President.

...as long as Brandeis students and faculty invited Carter to
speak on campus, nothing should have been done to stop them. However,
to discourage the father of a Brandeis student who was slain by
Palestinian terrorists from questioning Carter is to engage in
censorship. Whoever in your administration was responsible for this act
of moral cowardice should be dismissed or at least strongly reprimanded.

According to the New York Sun article
Had he attended, Mr. Flatow, who endows a scholarship in his daughter's name, would have asked Mr. Carter whether he supports Palestinian violence directed against civilians. "I would have liked to stand up there and say ‘My daughter would have been a Brandeis graduate in the class of 1996 had she not been murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Is it ok for Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation with murderous force?'"
Apparently Carter is an attentive student of his Saudi Arabian mentors. He too has learned how to stifle both free speech and open debate--all while whining on how he cannot catch a break.

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