Everything should be taught

I love this sentence. Go on. "Yet the university should give pride of place to the humanities, social science and natural science, fields where knowledge is sought for its own sake, without any considerations of how that knowledge might be put to immediate use. And once this material is produced by a university, it is no longer available solely to the citizens of Israel, but to all human beings the world over. " 'Zionism with a humane face' is the way to go.

As I HAVE MENTIONED BEFORE, I RAN FROM GERMANY AS A CHILD. IT SEEMS THAT NOW IN MY OLD AGE I HAVE TO GO BACK TO THERE TO LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY. ZEEV F

since jewish majority in Eretz Israel is of the economically and socially positive delay marriage , despairing ideas emerge suggesting a capitulation of jewish sovereignity ( and secure existence ) in favor of the least unrealistic not to speak delirious binational state " ideas. Every nation needs its Appius Claudius Caecus in times of crisis.

Zionism is synonimous with mankind. Without the concept of Zionism which the Jewish people believe in and have been praying for the return to Zion since the " horban HaBayit" the re establishment of the state of Israel in the land of Israel would not have taken place.It is our belief in justice and mankind that our people have survived to this day only because of our Zionism

Shoudl pol. sci. / economics professors be forced to subscribe to the tea party?

....it's called suicide.

State policies can fluctuate or be abolished proportionally to political existential threats directed at the State but Zionism expresses an unrepealable right to assure security to the Jewish community in its ancestral lands and assumes the claim of Babylonian Jews as the historical governing body.

Advancing mankind is everything but advancing the anti-human Leftist ideology. Supporting Arab terror is advancing barbary and not mankind.

It is much better and good for the academia of any given country, and for the country itself, to be much more very scientific than very nationalistic. I do not know whether the utterly false statement on the flag in this comment is coming out of the sheer ignorance or presents the product of mendacious quasi-patriotic deliberation, but the fact is that the Israeli flags proudly fly upon all national institutions, INCLUDING its universities and colleges. And the statement that the people such the author of the article do not like the flag of the state is a poisonous insinuation.

Herein lies the ideological bankruptcy of the post-national and post-zionist left. I agree that there should be academic freedom. In Israel's case academics with pro-Zionism views are in fact discriminated against and marked by the major universities. The prevailing atmosphere is hostile to Zionism. But for the left this is OK, because mankind--meaning the welfare of non-Israelis-- comes before the welfare of Israel.

The whole point made is simple and straightforward is sociology in Israel infested with anti zionist elements? Does 9 out of 11 lecturers at the BG sociology department described as extreme left anti zionist mean there is a selection bias an no pluralism!? The answer is yes!1 So rather then defending so-called freedom of speech and all human kind for what that might be one should learn to look more critical at one self and not shoot the messenger and acccept that social studies in Israel have become single minded bastions of anti zionism!! Lecturers with great qualifications are not likely to be selected there if they are not anti zionist. This is what should be realized and corrected!! Bring in more mainstream and even rightist lecturers to offer a true pluralistic platform!!

Israeli wins 'Nobel' of Mathematics By LAHAV HARKOV 08/19/2010 11:01 Hebrew U Professor Elon Lindenstrauss is awarded the Fields Medal Israeli wins 'Nobel' of Mathematics

'In a university, it is permissible to write, and even to teach, that in the 19th century, the Jewish people had better options than establishing a national movement...' etc, etc., blah-blah. 'It is permissible to write and teach all these things, on condition that these ideas are founded upon concern for the welfare of Israel's citizens and their spiritual enrichment; and on condition that they meet the standards of the university's relevant research paradigms' . Is it permissible to write and teach the transfer of arabs from Judea and Samaria out of 'concern for the welfare of Israel's citizens' ? I would think that it is, but apparently no one allowed to do that. The problem is that all these theories have little academic value, they are nothing more than political views. And, there are no 'standards of the university's relevant research paradigms' because these are same people that establish these standards. Therefore, it should be unacceptable when one group of people has the monopoly on distributing their views in academia (with our tax money).

There is an ongoing debate both within and outside the academia for year now as to what constitutes human values and who is in a position to judge what's best for 'mankind', if such an entity even exists. Due to such skepticism, university departments which have for years taken one line about the Good, have turned around to take its opposite (the case of 'post-Zionism' is a good example of such a turnover). Today people teach that 'third world' values, including what I would call superstitions, are as valuable to the people practicing them as the value of science to the western world. It is called cultural relativism. Now the ground is beginning to shake under the feet of those very relativists, since if you can boycott an institution under one set of values, why not boycott it under another? And there is another point. For years it has been known that certain department have taken a political line such that only people promoting and publishing in that line were getting tenure. Suddenly, all anthropology and critical studies departments were dominated by leftists. How come: do leftists research better than anybody else? No. It was the same phenomenon which saw rightists dominate Land of Israel studies: people chose likeminded to their department. So the idea that universities promote the human good is a myth, especially in the humanities and social sciences. I say, leave politics out of the universities, left and right. And don't play 'surprised' when the right is doing exactly what the left is doing.

exactly Law at TA Uni "advances mankind" ?

obviously, the author, professor of law no less, thinks that he is entitled, by virtue of his position as university professor, to "teach" us, pure ignorants, what those "humanist criterion" are. the irony in the author's position is that he does not realise that all totalitarians have thought that they were able to descern some absolute truth that the ignorant masses are not able to discern. professor mautner's obvious claim that jews, the most persecuted people for two thousand years, have no right to self determination, is profoundly disturbing. such a claim contradicts his "humanist" claims. mautner's obvious ideology is to support one world government. people have the right to support such an ideology, however, they do not have the right to present their ideology as "history" or as "science." nor do they have the right to indoctrinate their students. "knowledge for its own sake" is by definition not a set of ideological principles. anyone who has ever studied philosophy or science knows that "truth" is not absolute.

and when the universities starting teaching for the betterment of humans of more than one gender we'll really be in a better place

Americans have the right to be proud of their nation, and to fly their flag with dignity. And doing this in an American University is as good a place as anywhere in which to do this. The same goes for the Bristish with their universities, the French, the Russians and so on. This differs from a totally different issue - that universities should have the freedom to examine and criticize policies being conducted by its own country. (This along with a sub-clause that limits such freedom to those who use their very freedom to sabotage the very institutions which support them as put very well by commentator #3). And the Americans, the British,French and Russian academic institutions are typically so very nationalistic, and good on them for being so. But when it comes to "Zionism" the legitimate expression of Israeli nationalism, i has somehow been translated from the dictates of international leftist propaganda into something evil and to be shunned upon. This poison has permeated to the Israeli left, and hence to Haaretz. And it is poison. I say that Israel should be proud of its national heritage, hold its head up high, proudly fly the Israeli flag upon all all national institutions, INCLUDING its universities and colleges, and if people like Menachem Mautner do not like this, they can keep their national flags out of their home.

of accademics who are often protected from the ravages of the real world. Tenure is a mixed blessing and open to abuse as Marxists have discovered. Outright lying as Pappe has done should not be protected even if he feels justified and admits he records history "as it should be" or uses his leftist contacts in blackmail Obviously lack of integrity is no problem for the "university" that hired him!

Huminaty should be a put above nationalism, not the other way around.

"The Yeshiva is an institution that the liberal state must fund without taking any interest in the content of the research it produces or the material it teaches, even if this content is unsavory in the eyes of the Leftist elite"

Mautner either missed the issue, or is totally avoiding it. The concern is that certain universities are coddling radical extremists who are calling for the suspension of academic freedom of the entire university system in Israel. These extremists (like BGU's Gordon and Berkovitch) are demanding a worldwide boycott of Israeli academia - meaning they want to end the academic freedom of all Israeli universities as a political move to empower the Palestinians. Mautner is showing either extreme ignorance or extreme indifference to this attempt by a few academics to deny academic freedoms to all Israelis.

BTW, as long as this university receives state funds as a major source of their budget, IT IS STATE OWNED. Ever heard of control package concept? I also disagree with you that Israel should not be Zionist state, but I suspect we differ in definition of Zionism.