The Fascist Left Targets Wiesenfeld

The fascist left is at it again, demanding Jeffery Wiesenfeld resign from the board of CUNY because he opposed Israel-hating playwright Tony Kushner being given an honorary degree. And as usual, the left inverts the situation by accusing Wiesenfeld of being a bully when it is THEY who attempt to bully into submission and censor anyone who is pro-Israel or conservative.

Jewish Umbrella Group Defends Wiesenfeld in CUNY/Kushner Saga
by Phyllis CheslerPosted on May 17 2011 6:12 pm Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York. For extended biography visit The Phyllis Chesler Organization.

On the evening of May 15, 2011, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) emailed a letter to the Board of Trustees at City University of New York about the Wiesenfeld/Kushner/CUNY scandal. SPME is an academic group which represents 55,000 professors, researchers and students on 3,500 campuses worldwide.

Thus far, no New York mainstream media has covered this truly significant event and unprecedented act of academic courage. I checked today’s New York Daily News, the New York Post, and New York Times (NYT). As we know, the NYT published more than 10 articles, blogs, and columns on the brouhaha.

With the exception of the article written by Stanley Fish, the articles essentially defended Tony Kushner as a Great Artist-victim and pilloried Jeffrey Wiesenfeld as a bully. Few articles dealt with the issues. Everyone avoided doing so by attacking Wiesenfeld personally. Wiesenfeld was depicted as a man “obsessed” with Israel who, for that reason, was no longer entitled to free speech or to academic freedom. Wiesenfeld was also demonized by the Forward and by the New York Observer.

In other words, if a Trustee of a university does not toe the political party line against Israel and in favor of “Palestine,” then he will be slimed and asked to resign.

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