British Teachers Union Boycott of Israel

Martin Peretz on the vote of a British teachers’ union to boycott Israeli academics and schools:

But let's assume that these British teachers are really concerned about human rights. Have they declared a boycott against China or Cuba? (What was their policy towards Saddamite Iraq?) Have they placed their hex on the crazy doctor's Iran? All of these are such monstrous regimes when it comes to human rights ... and, lo, from these British academics, there is silence. In fact, my guess is that they are pushing cultural exchange with these outlaw states. As it happens, any state that opposes Western politics and Western values engages their sympathy and support. These are the cohorts, if not precisely the same people, that saw in Stalinism and in Maoism and in Castroism hope for mankind. They allied themselves with these brutal ideologies and brutal states. And now they find new comrades in the Palestinian revolution in its newest dispensation, a Muslim jihad against every idea they supposedly hold dear, freedom, tolerance, feminism, sexual equality. Think for a moment about what Palestinian universities are like, will be like in regard to intellectual freedom.