by Dror Eydar
When I wrote last week
about my support for including the settlements in the list of "national
priority areas," I mentioned how Yediot Aharonot columnist Nahum Barnea
is one of the loudest inciters against the settlement enterprise. Barnea
didn't fail to disappoint in his column over the weekend. Barnea wrote
that the European Commission's decision to boycott Israeli activities
beyond the Green Line "reveals the price we have to pay for the
continued normalization of building in the settlements." Apparently,
even Arab and Bedouin communities, or the multitude of kibbutzim, also
included in that list, could also become the subject of contempt for
taking precedence over Kiryat Gat or Ashkelon. But only settlers were
lucky enough to be incited against in the headlines, because what
disturbs the Left most is the "normalization of settlements."
Barnea has dedicated a
large part of his life fighting against the Jewish state's right to
maintain its historic center in the Land of Israel. Calling Barnea
"dangerous" would be putting it mildly. It's a phrase that he reserves
for people he considers normal enough, albeit with different political
beliefs. We should call him dangerous because he signposts the road to
incitement for his followers. The Europeans aren't blind to the trend
they perceive among the Israeli elite, and a large part of that rarefied
clique engages with the Europeans against Israel. The result of such
collusion was the European directive.
And what hasn't the
Left done to escape Israel's heartland, flee the "apocalyptic sting"
that is our continued grasp of Samaria, Judea and of course the Old City
of Jerusalem. Political, economic, warlike tsunamis, apartheid,
boycotts, lobbying and incitement, the list goes on.
"Settlement instead of
neighborhood" isn't enough for Barnea; he babbled on about that for
years until the statement itself became a principal concept, like the
invented Palestinian narrative. From Barnea's perspective, the
settlement enterprise takes precedence "instead of research, instead of
high-tech and instead of industry." Israel is on the road to becoming a
third-world country if we continue to hold on to our land, our life. We
won't get research grants. A scientific tsunami.
Academia has
sophisticated mechanisms for acquiring grants for science, even some
means that aren't by the book. In any case, scientific grants are wholly
unrelated to working research relationships between scientists, which
will continue to flourish with or without funding. There are various
ways to struggle against such European McCarythyism, turning the EU
directive into a dead letter. We knew how to deal with the oil boycott
in the 1970s, despite the scare mongering. And even if we don't know
exactly what to do now, some values are higher than money. Such
financial grants are negligible sums by comparison. Israel can absorb
the cost, or just expand its scientific contacts around the globe.
Israel has connections in science today in China, Australia, India and
in other countries. Europe is sinking from a political and cultural
perspective. Israel's long-term intransigence over the right of Jews to
their land could end up shifting the position in Europe, which today is
grappling with similar territorial issues.
As part and parcel of
the Left's foundation, Barnea saw the decision to designate Ariel as
Israel's eighth university as total annihilation. Some might have called
it a historic decision of the utmost importance on the previous
government's behalf, and the beginning of the conservative Israeli
public's declaration of academic independence. The European directive
provided another opportunity to de-legitimize Ariel.
"The Europeans have for
years monitored with concern the leak of industry and academia across
the Green Line" (Barnea and his adherents also followed the "leak").
"This year, they were fed up with it. The straw that broke the camel's
back was the government's decision to turn the college in Ariel into a
university." Ah, so they loved the settlement enterprise until that
happened. What was the government's rationale for the decision --
expanding research institutions in Israel? Zionism? Breaking up the
leftist monopoly on academia? None of that can be true. A man's dreams
reflect his thoughts: "Former Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar was
obligated to the Likud settler base. Upgrading Ariel University was the
payout." How simple! Ariel University in Barnea's perspective was a
prostitute's fee, the price of a dog, a bribe to settlers -- as if Sa'ar
himself has no ideology or worldview. Barnea fails to point out that he
has a personal vendetta against Sa'ar, who revealed Barnea's charlatan
journalism, publishing several of his mistakes and errors. Barnea
finishes off with a righteous criticism: "It was an irresponsible
decision. Sa'ar created an ill wind for opportunism."
Dror Eydar
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=5363
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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