I’m at a stopover on my way to Houston, where I’m speaking at the Baker Institute tomorrow night at 7pm (see below for details). I’ve just noticed that there is a long article about this event at the Jewish Herald-Voice, “Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast’s Jewish Community Newspaper Since 1908.”
It’s filled with the usual offensive nonsense, mostly drawn from the ADL’s defamation of me. The point, of course, is to scare people away from coming to my talk. Hopefully, however, it will pique people’s interest and help to publicize it.
That would be good, since the Baker Institute seems to be doing nothing to promote it. In fact, there’s not even any mention of it on their website, and is on none of their events calendars, even though local people have been trying to get it posted for several days.
The Jewish Herald-Voice article claims that a student allegedly finds my views “appalling” and “reprehensible,” but doesn’t name the student nor report what specifically in the many facts about Israel-Palestine I have reported that are so “appalling.”
Quite likely, if this anonymous student really does exist, s/he is either (1) an Israel partisan or (2) has not actually read my articles for him or herself.
I remember once being interviewed by an NPR host who claimed that I sometimes used “anti-Semitic imagery.” I asked him what specifically he could possibly be referring to. He, of course, couldn’t answer; this had been fed to him by someone else — somewhat embarrassing for an interviewer. Needless to say, this didn’t air.
On the other hand, the Jewish Herald may have gotten it wrong and the student was actually referring to Israeli actions, which are frequently both appalling and reprehensible.
UPDATE:
I’ve just gotten off the phone with another person from the Baker Institute and was told that the lack of a listing on the website is because the event is not being held in the institute itself and does not have webcast capabilities. Such events they don’t list. I’m not sure how or why that location was chosen.
Odder still, according to the Jewish Herald report, after my event was already scheduled, the Baker Institute Student Forum then “worked with the Consulate General of Israel” to schedule an Israeli spokesperson to give a talk the day after mine. That event is being held in the institute itself and has webcasting capability.
EVENT DETAILS:
“Israel-Palestine: Beyond the Headlines” — lecture by Alison Weir
February 9, 7pm — Sewall Hall Room 307.
It is building 65 on this map: http://www.rice.edu/maps/colormap.pdf. Parking is available in Founder’s Court visitor lot which is directly across from the building.
For information: contact@ifamericansknew.org / 202.631.4060
Hosted by the Baker Institute Student Forum James Baker Institute for Public Policy/Rice University