Criticizing Israel will be a taboo in United States

No funding if students cursed Israel

ASHINGTON: A new law being proposed by Republican senators will serve prohibit criticism of Israel on American college campuses.

The police-state-style "thought control" legislation is to be introduced by third-ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate, conservative Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

His so-called "ideological diversity" legislation suggests cutting federal funding for American colleges and universities if those institutions are found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel, which Santorum considers to be an act of "anti-Semitism."

Under the bill to be introduced by Santorum, the federal funding formula under Title IX of the Higher Education Act will include "ideological diversity" as well as sexual equality in education as a perquisite for federal funding, reveals Michael Collins Piper of the American Free Press on April 21.

Sen. Santorum has the support of another fellow conservative and GOP stalwart - who is a leading pro-Israel ideologue -- Kansas Senator Sam Brownback.

Brownback, who is reportedly living in church-sponsored luxury accommodation in Washington, has his own scheme to call for a federal commission to be established under Title IX to investigate allegedly anti-Semitic incidents on American campuses.

The news of the Santorum-Brownback scheme, appeared in the April 15 issue of the New York Sun, a vehemently pro-Israel neo-conservative daily published in Manhattan, through Wayne Firestone, director of the Center for Israel Affairs for the Hillel Foundation. Hillel has units on campuses across America.

According to the report, Santorum, along with several Republicans members of the Senate, had invited representatives of a number of powerful Jewish organizations to attend a private meeting on Capitol Hill in order to discuss the senators' concerns about growing criticism of Israel on American college campuses.

The meeting was attended by senators Santorum, Robert Bennett (Utah), Sam Brownback (Kansas) and Norm Coleman (Minnesota). Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tennessee), as senators Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) 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. Louis Goldstein, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, represented the U.S. President George Bush administration.

The report said that during the private Senate session - of which there are no transcripts available to the taxpayers who paid for the project - an ADL representative reportedly claimed to the gathering that the ADL's "annual audit" of anti-Semitic activity in America had detected an increase by 24% of anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses in the year 2002. That 24% increase -- even by the ADL's own admission --constituted only 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 happened to be framed in the particular parameters that the ADL determines to be acceptable.

The word about the Santorum-Brownback initiative is spreading among leaders of the educational community. However, spokesmen for universities and educational organizations are being shy about commenting, recognizing that they, too, could be accused of encouraging "anti-Semitism" if they dare to speak out against the control mechanism that Santorum, Brownback and their allies want to introduce.

Sen. Santorum is emerging as one of Israel's leading Senate spokesmen. He is one of the chief cosponsors of the ‘Syrian Accountability Act’ that accuses Syria of supporting ‘terrorism’ and developing weapons of mass destruction and demands that Syria withdraw from Lebanon. Those clamoring for war against Syria are using these allegations as the foundation for launching a war against the Arab republic.

Thursday, April 24, 2003