ICC prosecution isn’t antisemitic
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three leaders of Hamas. The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include starvation of civilians, extermination and intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population. The charges against the Hamas leaders include extermination, murder, hostage taking and sexual violence.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hardline national security minister, called the ICC prosecutor “antisemitic.” In my opinion, antisemitism has nothing to do with these charges. To use antisemitism to defend against this solid evidence is laughable and will, unfortunately, make Israel appear even worse to its allies. The problem, as reported by the New York Times, is that Israeli extremists have targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace. Unfortunately, this radical ideology movement has gained control of the State of Israel itself and is now at the heart of Israeli political power.
George Z. Banks
San Leandro
State bill can’t fix DEI
The large DEI staff at educational institutions will not be affected by AB 2925’s proposed DEI antisemitism awareness training (“Bill would compel college DEI to include antisemitism” on page 6). Recall that even after Jewish students became officially eligible for Title VI protection, neither they nor a fight against antisemitism were incorporated into DEI, despite the increasingly hostile campus environment that Tabia Lee, with rare integrity, sought to address.
Lee, hired to head the DEI department at De Anza College in Cupertino, made the mistake of trying to create an authentically inclusive learning environment for everyone, including Jewish students. But Lee wrote in the New York Post in October that she was told “Jews are ‘white oppressors’ and our job as faculty and staff members was to ‘decenter whiteness.’” (J. covered Lee in April 2023 in “Did standing up for Jewish students cost a Black faculty member her job at De Anza College?”)
As Lee observed, DEI’s insistence that Jews are oppressors has been a driver of campus antisemitism, and DEI oppressor ideology is now so deeply ingrained in the academy that no legislatively mandated re-education or advisory committee is adequate to address it. Lee has noted, “When you stoke that kind of division and anger, you unleash fires you can’t control.”
We are a house divided and in serious danger of burning itself down. But journalist and commentator Bari Weiss understands what we need to do. Weiss, who is the founder and editor of the Free Press, wrote in December: “We must focus on returning American higher education to its original purposes: to seek the truth; to teach young adults the things they need to flourish; and to pass on the knowledge that is the basis of our exceptional civilization.”
Julia Lutch
Davis
A pernicious principle
Dany Bahar wrote May 9 in “Student protesters want universities to ‘divest’ from Israel. But how much have they actually invested?” that university divestment demands don’t mean much. That is technically correct financially but misses the larger point that the passing of divestment targeted only to Israel sets a pernicious principle that easily extends to boycotting Israeli professors, rejecting Israeli guest speakers and even eliminating Israel university exchange programs.
Students can make demands with little risk since they move on. However, faculty and administrators who cave in to such demands risk the blowback of alumni, donors and state legislators who will hold them accountable. Behar’s proposal that it would be better to invest in Gaza than punish Israel is naive at best as long as Hamas or jihadists continue to rule. Investment in Gaza could only come once Palestinians give up the dream of destroying Israel and commit to building their society in peace next to a sovereign Jewish state.
Jeffrey Saperstein
Mill Valley