some constructive discussion with Mr. Reinharz about battlegrounds
Reader comment on item: [Brandeis University President Jehuda] Reinharz, Israel and Me

Submitted by Rivka (Canada), Feb 16, 2007 at 19:48

Dear Mr. Reinharz:

Thank you for your prompt and detailed answer to my letter and concerns.

Unfortunately, our campuses all over North America ARE a major battleground in this new kind of war. Your campus is not alone----and it is because Brandeis has had such a wonderful record of civil discourse that I and my many many friends and colleagues are so concerned.

The battleground you refer to, has already been established on almost all of our campuses, not by those like you who value morality and the goodness of humanity, but by those who value hate and the emotional destruction of all that is good.

The people promoting this war are preying on all ill-educated, and un-educated minds and hearts. Those minds and hearts are often some of the best young people we have---and despite our best efforts, they are also often lazy minds and hearts, which will happily join the parade of the most-dramatic, and best liars. They are often too busy putting out a campus newspaper, as well as attending classes, to properly check their facts and learn the truth. These young people are often captured by our enemies, who know them and their weaknesses well, and have developed sophisticated weapons and allies to further their cause--the cause of terror and hate.

If you do not already know the battleground to which you refer, you will be having a rude awakening. We in Vancouver have been fighting at UBC, Simon Fraser and Langara and other of our campuses, against the evil that is causing this war. Many of our young people, particularly at Hillel, have become expert warriors, with no wish to become so, but out of the necessity they recognize for survival.

Please let me introduce some of them to you, if you are not familiar with them and their peers already. They include the Executive Director of UBC Hillel, who has been acting as a general in our war.

You have, perhaps, been too busy with your legitimate purposes as a senior educator and president of a prestigious and powerful university, to have been lured personally into this war. If so, please avail yourself of the many excellent resources available to you and your students in fighting on your particular battleground, the world-war in which we are ALL now engaged. Professor Pipes, and Professor Landes are two of our best resources. Professor Finkelstein does not deserve the honorific, and is one of our enemies. All of your students, PARTICULARLY those at the student newspaper should know this and more.

There are many other resources available to you----such as Campus Watch, Americans for a Safe Israel, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. I am listing Jewish organizations particularly, as it is we Jews who are in the forefront of the world-war---and who have, so far, developed most of the best weapons. But our friends are catching up. Mrs. Noni Darwish, a Canadian Muslim, and Christians such as Joseph Farah, and others at Whistleblower, and WorldNetDaily.com.

Again, thank you for your very detailed response. I am copying our correspondence to those who can help you. If I can send more information or somehow be of further assistance, please let me know. I am also President of the B'nai B'rith Foundation of British Columbia, although it is not in this capacity that I now write, but as a private citizen.

My very best to you and everyone at Brandeis.

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