WILMINGTON — I was startled to read Joel Doerfler's Viewpoint. It is good to have all kinds of views presented, and so I have to respectfully state my view: that this column is nothing but veiled anti-Semitism.
I cannot go on at length about this because of personal tragedy in my family. So, I would like to direct readers to “The Progressive Assault on Israel,” a column written by Bret Stephens, a conservative Republican, in The New York Times (Bret Stephens) on Feb. 8, which effectively and factually counters Doerfler's whole commentary.
However, I will try to explain why I think Doerfler's article is an antisemitic screed: He is not honest.
An honest academician interested in the field of history, and in one area of study in particular, certainly would be more cognizant of what is going on in the Middle East. Syria, Yemen - where are the letters of exhortation and indignation about mayhem there, or about Saudi Arabia, where a prince has been implicated in the brutal murder of a journalist?
Where are opinions studying Egyptian and Libyan foreign policy vis-à-vis the United States? Where is concern about how women are brutally treated in that part of the world? I am not even going to talk about Iran and Iraq.
I do believe that these nations are all actors in a volatile region that deserve questions as to why they have left their Palestinian brethren to hang in the wind. And, further, are these actors still interested in the destruction of the state of Israel as they vowed in 1948?
I pose these questions because events in the Middle East are complicated geopolitical issues, not a right-wing Zionist conspiracy.
And that leads me to one other point I would like to raise here. I am a flatlander - as I assume Doerfler might also be - so I know the New York City private school system, one that not too long ago had infamous “quotas."
Progress and diversification are now the norm, thanks to good scholarship programs. I find it laughable to believe that the administration of a preppy institution like the Riverdale School would bow to the pressure of right-wing Zionists. Give me a break.