Wednesday, March 3, 2010
I have already said all that I have to in substance about Martin Kramer's remarks at the Herzliya Conference regarding overpopulation in the Gaza Strip (see: I Believe This Is the Foreign Affairs Version of Playing the Race Card (re: Martin Kramer)). Bringing the issue out once again is today's Boston Globe, which has published a truly despicable screed by Yousef Munayyer, 'executive director of The Palestine Center in Washington': Gaza's youth not 'superfluous'.
Munayyer's piece is as expected -- crying racism when in fact Kramer said nothing that hasn't been said 1000 times in discussions of welfare policy before, blaming the economic conditions in Gaza on Israeli defensive measures rather than the terrorists who were elected to run the strip, calling those defensive measures a siege when they aren't, blaming everyone but Gazans themselves for a lack of family planning and the economic hardships it entails while mentioning nothing of the massive welfare payouts the Gaza Arabs receive...you know the drill.
Here's the thing, and with all due respect to Martin Kramer, I doubt the average Globe reader has heard of either he or Harvard's Weatherhead Center. The controversy surrounding an academic and a policy speech no one's heard of and no one's heard, respectively, is hardly the type of thing to make an op-ed page. In fact, we've been gifted with the Globe's contribution to Israel apartheid week. It's all the calumny that's fit to print.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: The Boston Globe's Contribution to Israel Apartheid Week.
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[Martin Kramer answers his critics in the most devastating manner -- using their own words against them. Here he continues the response to the controversy started by his Herzliya Conference remarks. Previous: I Believe This Is the Foreign Affairs Versi... Read More
Perhaps the final word on this calumny has been expressed by The Weatherhead Center (Harvard) itself. It's worth reading:
The following statement has been issued by the directors of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) at Harvard:
Over the past several days, we have heard from several members of the public, and of the Harvard community, who object to the statements of Martin Kramer at a recent conference. Kramer is a Visiting Scholar at the National Security Studies Program, which is a program of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA). (Kramer is not, contrary to the understanding of some of our correspondents, an employee of the Center or of Harvard University.) Many of those who have written us have called upon the Center to dissociate itself from Kramer's remarks, or to end his affiliation with the Center.
The WCFIA has many hundreds of affiliates: faculty members, graduate students, undergraduates, post-docs, visiting scholars and others. They represent the widest possible range of opinion on almost every subject. The Center takes no position on any issue of scholarship or public policy, nor does it attempt to monitor or control the activities of its affiliates.
Accusations have been made that Martin Kramer's statements are genocidal. These accusations are baseless. Kramer's statements, available at http://www.martinkramer.org/sandbox/2010/02/superfluous-young-men/, express dismay with the policy of agencies that provide aid to Palestinian refugees, and that tie aid entitlements to the size of refugee families. Kramer argues that this policy encourages population growth among refugee communities. While these views may be controversial, there is no way they can be regarded as genocidal.
Those who have called upon the Weatherhead Center to dissociate itself from Kramer's views, or to end Kramer's affiliation with the Center, appear not to understand the role of controversy in an academic setting. It would be inappropriate for the Weatherhead Center to pass judgement on the personal political views of any of its affiliates, or to make affiliation contingent upon some political criterion. Exception may be made for statements that go beyond the boundaries of protected speech, but there is no sense in which Kramer's remarks could be considered to fall into this category. The Weatherhead Center's activities are based upon a firm belief that scholars must be free to state their views, and rejects any attempts to restrict this fundamental academic freedom.
Beth Simmons, Director, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (on leave 2009-2010)
Jeffry Frieden, Acting Director, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (Fall 2009)
The term 'surplus population' is common in economics, sociology and political philosophy. It refers to population not necessary for economic growth. It is neither racist nor inappropriate as used by Mr. Kramer.
And Kramer is completely right that UN and EU policies encourage Arab "refugee" families to have more children than they would otherwise have and certainly more than they can afford. Why would they not, with ever child guaranteed food, shelter, and education? While people in every other country have to support the children they produce, the so-called Palestinians do not. Why should the Western world encourage that, especially since they have vowed to kill us?
The sooner these people are made responsible for their own actions, the better.
Rather than discussing who is contributing to the problem let's focus on who can contribute to the solution which is peace.
There's a cardboard robot who is focusing completely on that.
Check him out on Facebook and Twitter at Pax_101