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July 4, 2003/Tamuz 4 5763, Vol. 55, No. 45
Letters to the EditorJuly 4, 2003
Keep mind open on Middle EastEditor:Professor Jack Kugelmass, chairman of Arizona State University's Jewish Studies Program, is away at University of Pennsylvania Institute for Advanced Jewish Study followed by a stay at Hebrew University. Professor Shai Ginsberg has won the prestigious Lady Davis fellowship for a year's research at Hebrew University and also will not return until next year. Thus, as a former director of ASU Jewish Studies, I feel compelled to respond to the letter to the editor criticizing the After Oslo program as "pro-Arab" and "anti-Israel." ("Beware of 'bait and switch' coverage," Jewish News, June 20) To my mind this illustrates a mindset that is a major part of the problem in Israeli-Palestinian relations. When Binyamin Netanyahu gives a talk, we do not demand a "balanced presentation." We listen to his views with dignity and respect and either accept or reject his subjective approaches. At this stage of the controversy in the Middle East there is very little "objectivity" left. Rather, we tend to label something as "balanced" or "objective" if it agrees with our predetermined position. I came to ASU in 1967 and can attest that the overwhelming majority of Israeli programming (probably approaching 95 percent) has been tilted politically from the center to the right. To finally get a program that is a bit "leftish" in its Israeli political orientation and to receive this sort of criticism reflects a level of intolerance. To further claim that this represents a "bait and switch" operation is off base. The seminar was subtitled "New Strategies for Middle East Peace." The writer of the letter to the editor must have heard new approaches that displeased him. I do not necessarily agree with the views presented by programs and speakers brought into town by various Jewish agencies; however, I have the derech eretz not to insult them. Gordon M. Weiner Professor Emeritus Arizona State University Tempe State Bar did not violate First AmendmentEditor:In her letter to the editor, Eleanor Eisenberg said that if the Arizona State Bar is a governmental organization, it had a First Amendment obligation to allow a one-sided presentation of the Arab-Israeli conflict to be presented as a State Bar sponsored Continuing Legal Education program. ("State Bar should honor First Amendment," Jewish News, June 27) This is wrong. Assuming that the State Bar is a governmental agency, the First Amendment does not require it to sponsor any CLE program that any Bar member wishes to present. The Bar did not prohibit any of the scheduled speakers from presenting their views. In fact, seminar organizers did so at the same hotel. The State Bar only refused to make this an official CLE program unless both sides of a hotly disputed position could speak. When the organizers refused, the State Bar withdrew its support and sponsorship. A First Amendment issue only would have arisen if the Bar had proceeded with the program as originally planned and refused to provide a sponsored forum for those speakers who wanted to present the other side of the issue. The Bar and Paul Eckstein were right. Sandor Shuch Phoenix Editor: Arizona Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Eleanor Eisenberg offers an odd interpretation of First Amendment free speech rights in her defense of the canceled anti-Israel State Bar Association seminar. ("State Bar should honor First Amendment," Jewish News, June 27) Our Constitution says: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." Nowhere does it say that governmental bodies are obligated to provide a forum for anti-Semites or anyone else. The Arab extremists who were going to conduct the legal seminar are perfectly free to propagate their hatred elsewhere without fear of breaking the law, and the State Bar, whether private or quasi-governmental, has the right to choose the subject matter for its seminars without fear of breaching the Constitution's guarantee of free speech. Would Eisenberg have opposed canceling the seminar on free speech grounds if the speakers had been white racists preaching hatred of blacks and Hispanics? I doubt it. Carl Goldberg Tempe
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