Baylor University Promotes Anti-Semitism

TruthNews Commentary, December 24, 2001

Has Baylor University in Waco, Texas, become a hotbed of anti-Semitism? It would appear so, based on a recent article in Continuum, a magazine of Baylor's College of Arts and Sciences. An article in the most recent edition of Continuum begins with the following:

Muna Hamzeh had traveled to Baylor University from Palestine (sic) to share her story of refugee camps and military checkpoints with the students in Dr. Marc Ellis' class, "Hitler and the Holocaust." As Hamzeh told her gripping tale of oppression and injustice, her words had a powerful effect on one young student in the class.

The Baylor magazine (and apparently Dr. Marc Ellis) did not feel necessary to clarify in their article that the reason for the military checkpoints is because certain radical elements of Palestinian society choose to blow up, shoot, and maim innocent Jews in order to demonstrate their displeasure with the existence of the nation of Israel. Since Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority actively aid and abet the terrorist activities, the roadblocks and other "oppression" is necessary to prevent the deaths of innocent people.

Furthermore, the reason that there are refuge camps is because during Israel's War of Independence in 1948, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt vowed to drive Israel into the sea. They called on the Arabs living within the Jewish areas to leave in order to allow the armies of these countries free reign in destroying the nascent Jewish State. The Arab leaders promised the Arabs living within Israel that once they had destroyed the Jewish state and killed the Jews, that the Arabs could have their homes back as well as the property once belonging to the Jews. Many Arabs believed these promises and fled the country. Others remained and became full-fledged Israeli citizens, enjoying greater democracy and freedom from the Israeli government than their Arab brethren enjoy in any Arab nation.

Since the Arabs did not succeed in destroying Israel, those who fled did not return, and their descendants remain in refugee camps until this day. The Arab countries hosting the refugees (Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon) have refused to resettle the refugees within their own countries. When Israel recaptured the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the refugee camps in these areas passed to Israeli control, and subsequently became part of the autonomous areas controlled by Arafat. Arafat, despite the building boom he embarked on using money donated by the European Union and other sympathizers, also refuses to resettle these refugees, preferring instead to promote misery to make the recruitment of suicide bombers easier.

But beyond the factual omissions in the article, by what twisted logic do the Palestinians, the killers of the Jews, become equated with Hitler's victims, and the Israelis, many of them Holocaust survivors or descendants of Holocaust survivors, become equated with Hitler, the most infamous mass-murderer of Jews in the history of the universe? By what grotesque reasoning does a nation of 5 million Jews, surrounded by a billion hostile Moslems whose greatest desire is to obliterate them, become equated with Nazi Germany?

So when Baylor conducts a class on Hitler and the Holocaust, who do they invite as guest speakers? Jewish holocaust survivors who lost their families and children to Hitler and his anti-Semitic thugs? No, they invite a Palestinian who complains about how mean the Jews are to the Arabs. What's the implication here - that the Jews deserved the Holocaust? One would assume that Baylor, in offering a class on "Hitler and the Holocaust" opposed the holocaust. After reading their magazine, it would appear that perhaps they support it.

Sadly, Baylor's anti-Semitic propaganda appears to have been effective, for one young lady in the class was quoted as saying, "My experience in the international law, international human rights, and 'Hitler and Holocaust' classes, and the research for my thesis, have created in me a strong desire to work to end apartheid in Israel/Palestine." There's no mention, of course, of working to end anti-Semitism, of course. Nor is there any mention of helping the Jews, of whom over a third were killed in the Holocaust, and many of whom even now live in lands with strong anti-Semitic tendencies. Nor is there any mention of helping Israel, which was founded in the wake of the Holocaust to provide a refuge to Jews threatened with persecution. No, the only lesson the young lady learned from her "Hitler and the Holocaust" studies was that she needs to work to keep the Jews under control so they don't persecute the Arabs.

Here again, the student's use of the word "apartheid" to describe Israel distorts the facts with no attempt by the Baylor editors to explain the situation. The word "apartheid" is an Afrikaans word, coined by white South Africans, to describe a political system that excluded the black majority from voting in order to keep the white minority in power. In Israel, the Jews are by far the majority, even if the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza were included in the total. Within the pre-1967 borders of Israel, the Arabs have full political rights and are represented in the Knesset. The only reason that the Arabs in the disputed territories do not vote in Knesset elections is because the status of the disputed territories is still in negotiation. In the U.S., citizens of the Philippines did not have representatives in Congress, even though the U.S. ruled the Philippines for nearly 50 years. The reason for lack of representation was simple -- because we did not intend to keep the Philippines.

Baylor would probably defend their article by arguing that the reason that Israel was singled out was because it's another case of the strong oppressing the weak, rather than because Israel is Jewish. But if this were the case, why not look at the persecution of Christians in China and Sudan? Why not single out China's occupation, oppression, and cultural destruction of Tibet? Why not look at Iraq's persecution and poison gassing of its Kurdish minority? Or Serbia's "ethnic cleansing" activities carried on against Croatians and Muslims. Or Russia's war with Chechnya? The reason that Israel is singled out is because Israel is Jewish.

This would be similar to Baylor’s presenting a class on slavery and the south and using the class to criticize Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe for seizing white-owned farms. Criticizing Mugabe is not by itself racist. But the situation in Zimbabwe has nothing to do with slavery in the south except that both situations involve black people. Thus, if Mugabe’s land seizures were presented in the context of a class on slavery, the inevitable conclusion would be that black people deserved slavery, and Baylor would rightfully be condemned as racist. Unfortunately, the situation with Baylor and anti-Semitism is even worse. Mugabe can be rightfully condemned for seizing privately owned land without compensation. Israel’s situation is one of survival and saving lives, and complaining about military checkpoints without explaining the reason for the military checkpoints (to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel) stinks of one-sided journalism meant only to portray the Jewish state in the worst possible light.

Unfortunately, Baylor is probably not the worst among institutions of higher learning in promoting anti-Semitism. However, it's sad that Baylor, probably the best-known Baptist university in the country, is now promoting anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel. Like most church-supported universities, Baylor has become secular in its outlook. In the entire issue of Continuum in which the anti-Semitic article appeared, God was mentioned only once and Jesus not at all. So much for Baylor being a Christian university. But in maintaining its identity as a Baptist university while taking such an anti-Semitic stance, Baylor is smearing Christianity with anti-Semitism. So our message to Baylor is, if you want to hate the Jews, that's your business. But don't pretend to be Christian while you're doing it.

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