CUNY NOW LIKELY TO HONOR TONY KUSHNER AND WITHDRAW SLUR

May 7th, 2011 - by: danny

Al-Jazeera Runs My Commentary on the Raid To Kill Bin-Laden

A woman in Greece reads the article aloud. How cool is that?

LBN: The latest: Milking The Media

The world is expected to get its first glimpse at Osama bin Laden’s daily life as the world’s most wanted terrorist Saturday with the disclosure of home videos showing him strolling the grounds of the fortified compound that kept him safe for years. The footage shot at the terror leader’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and propaganda tapes made there, are expected to be released to the news media Saturday, U.S. officials said

GOOD NEWS ON DISTURBING ISSUE

Today the New York Times is reporting on page one that the City University of New York is reconsidering a decision by its board of trustees to strip Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America, and many major works) of an honorary degree because of his allegedly anti-Israel views. The CUNY Board will meet Monday on a freedom of thought issue which has stirred controversy, protests, and major media articles.

I wrote about the issue yesterday on a Reporter Gary’s new Jewish Reporter website.

JEWISH PLAYWRIGHT STRIPPED OF HONOR FOR QUESTIONING ISRAELI POLICY. IS TONY KUSHNER THE NEW HELEN THOMAS?

First, it was Helen Thomas.

After the veteran White House correspondent spoke inelegantly once about her feelings about Israel – she apologized but to no effect – she was blackballed at the instigation of strident Israeli supporters and long-standing journalism awards were stripped. She became persona non-grata with many media outlets joining in the denunciations of a colleague they honored for decades.

Many at the time suspected the wrath was especially severe because she is an Arab-American. Right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter even asked if “that Arab” should be allowed near the President.

But, now a new flap driven by some of the same issues threatens to become even bigger. But this time it involves a Jewish Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and a leading academic institution in New York.

His name is Tony Kushner, best known for the brilliant Angels in America plays that bravely took on AIDS and the hypocrisy if not criminality of a the prominent Jewish lawyer Roy Cohen, an aide to the late fanatically anti-communist symbol, Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Now McCarthy’s name has been introduced into a debate following a decision by the City University of New York to strip Kushner of an honorary degree after one conservative trustee took umbrage at his criticisms of the Israeli government and convinced his colleagues to take action.

Says progressive Philadelphia based Rabbi Arthur Waskow, ” McCarthyism is back — only now it attacks not Tail-Gunner Joe McCarthy’s maybe 205, or maybe 57, or maybe 81 alleged Communists, but Jews who dare criticize actions of the Israeli government. Middle East McCarthyism, I call it. Latest target: Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America, screenwriter for Munich — one of the most fruitful, bold, and prophetic artists that Jewish culture has had in our generation.

CUNY used to be a place for passionate debate by mostly Jewish radicals, but it also succumbed to the old-time Joe McCarthy version of McCarthyism when it fired the historian of American Jewish history and founding editor of Jewish Currents, Morris Schappes, from its faculty. John Jay College, a component of CUNY, recommended Tony for an honorary degree. But the CUNY Trustees, either ignorant or cowardly (or, come to think of it, both), turned him down

Reported Doug Chandler in the Jewish Week, “The action was taken presumably because of the author’s critical comments concerning the State of Israel. The move took place at a meeting of CUNY’s board of trustees Monday night after one of its members, Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld, raised objections to plans to honor Kushner by John Jay College, one of the system’s schools.

Ã¢â‚¬Â¦. Wiesenfeld, a board member of several Jewish organizations and an activist in conservative circles, spoke out against plans to honor Kushner, who, like others receiving honorary degrees, may have spoken at the graduation ceremony.

Wiesenfeld cited what he believed were some of Kushner’s antic-Israel statements, all of which he said he found on the website of Norman Finkelstein, another figure known for his vehemently anti-Israel views.

When people identify themselves with “these types of viewpoints,” Wiesenfeld told his fellow trustees, “it’s up to all of us to look at fairness and consider these things,” especially when Israel sits in such a hostile neighborhood. “There’s a lot of disingenuousness and noon-intellectual activity directed against the State of Israel on campuses across the country,” he said, adding that CUNY has had its share of such activity, although it’s far better than most universities.”

(Later, in an interview with the New York Times, Wiesenfeld said he believes that “Palestinians are not human.”)

Tony Kushner is outraged, firing back in a statement:

” Mr. Weisenfeld attempts to cast me as a marginal extremist, a familiar tactic on this particular issue. It’s a matter of public record that this is not the case. I’m co-editor of a volume of essays on the crisis in the middle east, which includes among its 58 contributing authors many rabbis, two US Poet Laureates and two recipients of the Jerusalem Prize

“I state this not to present credentials, but because I refuse to allow Mr. Weisenfeld or any other self-appointed spokesman/guardian to diminish the depth or meaningfulness of my connection to the Jewish community.

I decided long ago that my job as a playwright is to try to speak and write honestly about what I believe to be true. I am interested in history and politics, and long ago I realized that people uninterested in a meaningful exchange of opinion and ideas would selectively appropriate my words to suit their purposes. It’s been my experience that truth eventually triumphs over SoundBits spin and defamation, and that reason, honest inquiry, and courage, which are more appealing and more persuasive than demagoguery, will carry the day.”

And so, the gauntlet has been thrown down. A protest campaign is being organized with emails and perhaps an action at the School’s commencement.

Corey Roberts writes, “Despite the fact that Kushner is widely considered to be America’s playwright, the successor to Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill, the trustees have deemed him unworthy of an honorary degree at CUNY. Despite the fact that he is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, is a member of the American Academy, and has been granted honorary degrees from 15 other universities and colleges — including Columbia, Northwestern, and Brandeis — the Trustees have decided that he is not good enough for CUNY.”

The story has gone from the Jewish press to the pages of the New York Times, and it is only a mater of time before it becomes an international free speech issue.

Danny Schechter, “the News Dissector” edits Mediachannel.org and is a graduate of the Sholem Aleichem Workmen’s Circle Shul 3 in The Bronx, New York,

Jerusalem Post; US WANTS NAMES OF ISI DECISIONMAKERS

Officials in Pakistan say the Obama administration has asked for the identities of some of the country’s top intelligence officials as part of US efforts to verify whether any of them was in contact with Osama bin Laden in the years prior to the raid that led to his killing early this week, The New York Times reported on Friday.

According to the report, the officials provide details of growing suspicion by the US that somoeone in Palistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts and helped protect him.

Specifically, American officials have demanded information on the ISI’s directorate, which has maintained close contact with militants since they fought the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

“It’s hard to believe that Kayani and Pasha actually knew that Bin Laden was there,” a senior administration official was quoted by NYT a saying, referring to Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the ISI director-general, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha. However, the unnamed official said “there are degrees of knowing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we find out that someone close to Pasha knew.”

Guardian: Al-Qaeda vows revenge

Al-Qaeda has acknowledged that Osama bin Laden is dead, dispelling the doubts of some Muslims over whether the group’s leader had really been
killed.

Iran; President Denounced For “Sorcery”

Ahmadinejad Allies Charged With Sorcery

Iranian power struggle between president and supreme leader sees arrests and claims of undue influence of chief of staf

Close allies of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country’s supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have bee arrested in recent days and charged with being “magicians” and invoking djinns (spirits).

I was taking today off but since I wrote about Kushner, I wanted it to share it with blog readers.

This week’s radio show podcast is up and posted on the upper right corner of this page. Please listen. It was, if I say so myself, quite good.

Your comments welcome. We are still seeking a few volunteers/interns to help with the site and Plunder outreach.

Write:

Onward into the weekend. Thanks for being here.

The News Dissector