UCU: can the last one out, please turn out the lights

For the last few years, my trade union has been obsessed with boycotting Israeli (and only ever Israeli) academics. In the process, it has treated legitimate concerns about antisemitism with contempt, click here for a long list of evidence. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, UCU invited a man who has been charged with hate speech against Jews to strategise an anti-Israel boycott. As if that wasn't bad enough, senior figures within UCU have subsequently sought to justify this, here and here. Reasons to remain a member of UCU on a postcard, please.

The Independent still has Howard Jacobson - thank God

Here.

A world of walls

Execllent post from Harry's Place, here

EMEU: taking the ostrich approach towards antisemitism?

You can read about Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding here. I have no particular problem with their mission statement - at least in principle; though the fact that they appear to be either unaware of or indifferent towards Israeli Messianic Jews, and implicitly condemn Israeli counterterrorism measures without condemning (or even mentioning) Palestinian terrorism gives me little confidence that EMEU has much more than a one-sided anti-Israel agenda. Anyway, they've got an executive briefing coming up, which you can read about here. You'll note that one of the speakers is Sami Awad of Bethlehem Bible College, whose radical anti-Zionist stance you can read about here, and of course Reverend Dr Stephen Sizer PhD, whose antisemitic (there is no other word for it) output I have written about in detail here and here. (Sizer has yet to make any adequate response whatsoever.) Let's hope the other speakers are a sight better, or the chances of the Executive Briefing furthering Middle East "Understanding" are slim indeed.

If the Bible took place in Europre and the BNP were in power

Here

Future Israel conference

A Future Israel Conference, based on Barry Horner's book of the same title, was recently concluded at Twin Cities Bible Church, St. Paul, US. Here is a link to the audio files.

http://www.futureisraelministries.org/future_israel.html

I haven't yet listened to it but can thoroughly recommend Barry Horner's book of the same title, here and here.

Wonders never cease

A genuinely antiracist article on the Guardian's Comment is Free section that I actually agree with, here. (For why this is so amazing, see here)

Medieval style antisemitism in a modern European newspaper

Engage on the blood libel in the Swedish (leftish!) daily Aftonbladet, here - this just beggars belief.

Some typically astute reflections from PetraMB here