I'm certainly not left-wing, but I support the Palestinians struggle for freedom from occupation and the establishment of their own independent state.
I support them on the basis that it's the right position ethically, and not because they are primarily Islamic.
If it was a matter of religion I would not support them because I don't support Islam.
Normally I would oppose an academic boycott of any kind because I think it's pretty and childish; although I do support the right to a financial boycott of Israel or any state as a non-violent form of protest.
I support the democratic right of citizens to choose for themselves how they spend their money, but I do not like the idea of governments using sanctions that result in collective punishment against a nations citizens.

In this case though I don't really care what forms other countries choose to use to boycott Israel, because I believe Israel itself would freely use whatever means necessary to manipulate others nations politics.
If others do to you what you do to others, this is no more unfairness, than it is karma.

Let me give you an example. As you know, I am a Christian. As such I consider much of my heritage in my faith to be in the roots of Israeli and Israelite history within the bible. But by studying the bible I come to a harsh term. Though Israel is God's chosen people, promised great promises through God from Abraham to one of his sons and one of his grandsons; and though there are many great stories of faith and standing by God to be inspired by, there is a harsh reality to see too. These people in their history repeatedly walked away from God and even became a nation so full of sin they are rebuked as murders and thieves. Eventually expelled from their home by God.

These are the chosen people. If they can't be perfect what hope is there for the rest of us? Studying further in church history, and history of kings and my heritage from European heritages, the history has the same muddy water. Things to be proud of and things to be ashamed of. The lesson from the bible turning out to be real in the history recorded later.

In this way I think of history as a great equalizer. Showing strengths and wonders from any population of people, as well as horrible abuses from each of the same people, no matter who they are.

ttbn,

There you go. Now that you've vented your spleen
on me I hope that you feel better.
You've finally got that off your chest.

BTW: For your information.
You can check with the forum administrator -
but seeing as this is a public forum - and not a
private forum or an email site - whatever comments
anybody makes or addresses to anyone else - all people are
entitled to respond to.
Of course you may not like their comments
but you aren't obliged to read them. Just thought
you should know that.
And as you aren't the forum
administrator you can't stop people (me included)
from doing this - much
as you may want to. If you don't like this - you can
always start your own blog on the web - where you'll
be able to control things. You however, don't control
this forum.

Dear NNS,

I will repeat what I've written previously.
I certainly don't have the answers to the big questions in
life. I'm still on my own road to discovery. But everything
is relative, everything has its story, and everyone has
obstacles to overcome. Each of us goes through transitions
and transformations. The important thing is that we
acknowledge them and learn from them. Every relationship is
a gift and what great gifts I've been given by each of the
people I have encountered on my journey through life. How
they've helped shape me into the person I have become and
still hope to be.

Humans are the most extraordinary creatures and a big
part of me still wants to reach an even greater understanding
about who we are. Not because I need to know more necessarily,
but because I am drawn to the process of discovery. Of course
I have met some bad people along the way. But I have also met
some amazing souls and it is their light that fills me

Dear NNS,

Regarding history?

Always bear in mind there is more than one side to every
story. It is not wise to accept any one interpretation of
events as your only source of information. For example,
in TV westerns the Indians are nearly always the "baddies"
who attack the "settlers from Europe who are just trying
to "pioneer" a "new land."

We need to look at the other side of the story. If it were
re-written by an Indian. The whole situation would probably
be reversed and the European settlers would have been the
"baddies," who came and "stole" the Indian's land by settling
on it. It is therefore important to know who said what in
order to be able to detect the bias that the author may
probably have. Therefore it is probably best to go back
to what's called "primary sources", the original documents,
the original documents that historians are supposed to use to
compile a theory about the past.

We should also remember that historians are human beings
Their words are often wise but never "gospel." We need to
question the objectivity of what we study. We need to study
not only what's in the history books, but what's been left
out. For example when I was studying the history of Australia
I would pick up books that started with the European exploration
of the Pacific Ocean. I noticed that a significant group, the
original Australians, the Indigenous People, were overlooked.
Naturally no history book can cover everything that happened in
the past, I found the best thing to do was to pick out what
was worth learning about,and to try to find the source material
that gave the information required.

As I stated earlier - I'm still learning - and have a long way
to go.

Give me a natural bigot any day over a university produced one.

Dear Shadow Minister,

You wrote;

“Irrespective of Matthew Lesh's affiliations, the case of University academics boycotting a presentation by an expert on cybersecurity because of the speaker's race and nationality is petty and more than a little racist.”

Hogwash.

We boycotted white South African rugby players not because we were racist but because of the racism and brutality of their government and it bloody worked. For you to go the race card on this just reeks of you and your party's unethical, unedifying and unconscionable behaviour.

Stop it.