Don Feder Enters the Lion's Den

Akin to Daniel's foray into the lions den was Don Feder's visit to Hampshire College last week.

Speaking before a standing-room only crowd, Feder came at the invitation of the Hampshire College Republicans (all ten of them) and lectured on, "Why the Left Hates Israel."

Feder told them, "Today, Israel's enemies are found primarily on the left and in those insti-tutions most closely identified with American liberalism, including the news media, academia and the mainline Protestant churches."

Feder is a former Boston Herald columnist and author of A Jewish Conservative Looks at Pagan America. The school he visited, Hampshire Col-lege, is among the most liberal of the liberal arts colleges and is located in Amherst. (For in-stance, three months after 9-11, students, fac-ulty and staff at the college passed a resolution voting to condemn the "War on Terrorism.")

Beginning with the media, Feder noted, "What little support Israel has in the media comes almost exclusively from conservatives." He listed Fox News, the New York Post, the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and Rush Limbaugh among the supporters.

Former Boston Herald columnist, Don Feder

Conversely, he argued that, "The anti-Israel lynch mob is led by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, CNN, network news departments, talk show hosts like Phil Donohue and anchors like Peter Jennings.

"If they're [the media] angry with the Israeli army, then why aren't the victims of Palestinian terrorism primarily soldiers and not civilians? Why are most of their victims toddlers eating ice-cream cones, children sleeping in their beds, women boarding buses, and elderly Holocaust survivors attending Passover Seders?" asked Feder.

He complained about the terminology that is used by liberal news outlets to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that it's almost impossible to hear a news report about the violence in Israel without reference to the "occupied West Bank" or the "occupied territories."

"When was the last Palestinian nation? Who was its ruler? Where was its capital? What are its notable achievements? As my friend Joe Farah, an Arab-American, points out, 'Palestine is as real as Never-Never Land,'" Feder said, referring to the founder of WorldNetDaily.com.

When he finished with the media, he proceeded to chastise left-wing congregations, like the United Methodist Church. He called the liberal Protestant denomination to task for describing Israel's government as "an unjust political system."

"That 'unjust political system' happens to be the only democratic system in the Middle East," Feder retorted.

By the time the pundit got to academia, it was apparent, given the occasional snickering, that several audience members disagreed with his analysis. Yet, the largely youthful crowd remained attentive.

Feder said that the newest weapon for the anti-Israel academic left is divestiture. He explained that professors at many educational institutions are demanding that schools sell their stock in companies doing business with Israel.

"On more than 50 campuses, including Harvard, Columbia, and Yale, faculty petitions calling for divestiture are being circulated. The current campaign echoes that of the apartheid era and equates Israel with South Africa," he said. But Feder wondered why dictatorships, like the Sudan, aren't the focus of campus divestiture campaigns.

"In the Sudan more than 2 million Christians and animists have been killed and 4 million displaced, and slavery is rampant in a war being prosecuted by that country's Islamic government."

He concluded his presentation: "The left wouldn't mind Israel so much if it wasn't an American ally, if it wasn't a democracy with Western values, if it wasn't a Jewish state, if its opponents weren't an indigenous, third-world people, and if it was willing to give them [the Palestinians] whatever they wanted ..."

"Since the opposite is the case, the liberal Left's hostility will only deepen," predicted Feder.

After the presentation, many students remained to debate foreign policy and converse with Feder. The speech impacted listeners in different ways.

One Hampshire College student, who described himself as a "progressive," said he felt "caricatured" by the way that Feder described the Left. But Leathan Graves-Highsmith said it made him realize that he himself stereotypes opponents. "I had a certain realization of doing [the same] to the Right," said Graves-Highsmith.

Karuna Johnson, a Mount Holyoke student, praised Feder's ability to "use relevant, historical information."

Alex Cooley, a Hampshire College student, said he disagreed with most of what Feder said, but he was glad to hear the speech. "He's clearly a very intelligent man, and he made some very good points."