Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, November 10, 2005
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■ Guest commentary
Narrow minds inhibit peace
On Nov. 11 attended a guest lecture
by a Dr. Mitchell Bard that was put on
by the Oregon Hillel in conjunction
with the Jewish Student Union. The
lecture was entitled “Eyewitness to
the Disengagement — Israel after
Gaza: The Next Step Towards Peace.”
1 attended this lecture expecting a
thoughtful and, I hoped, balanced ac
count of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
with a focus on the recent withdrawal
of Israeli settlements and troops from
the Gaza strip area of Israel/Palestine.
Instead, I was greeted with speaker
who quite preposterously blamed the
conflict entirely upon Palestinian
“Muslim Jihad extremists” (a phrase
that he went on to equate to some 1.2
million Muslims) and gave very little
mention of the Gaza pullout itself.
The Middle East peace process has
been a topic that I have a great inter
est in, and I have gone to great lengths
to read both sides of the argument,
and have come to realize that the con
flict is one that goes both ways. Dr.
Bard was clearly not of this opinion.
His lecture included great praise for
the staunchest of Israel’s hawks, such
as Ariel Sharon, and the harshest of
criticisms for Palestinians and their
late leader Yasser Arafat. Bard paint
ed Arafat as nothing more than “a cor
rupt war criminal,” while refusing to
answer a question posed to him im
mediately after the lecture as to cur
rent Israel prime minister Ariel
Sharon’s responsibility for the Qibya
massacre whilst serving as a com
mander in the Israel Defense Forces.
All the more troublesome was Dr.
Bard’s claim that he, like Israel,
“knew” and “understood” Arabs, and
he went on to falsely equate Iranians
to Arabs (most are in fact Persian in
ethnicity) and demonstrated a very
shallow knowledge of Arab history
and psychology as a whole, especially
in his dismissal of the Lebanese politi
cal organization Hezbollah. Hezbol
lah, while responsible for terrorist
acts, plays a much greater role in the
Middle East by building schools, hos
pitals and infrastructure for needy
Arabs, and operates as a political par
ty much like Sinn Fein effectively op
erates as the political wing of the IRA
in Northern Ireland.
Bard’s inability to see things out
side of black and white terms is truly
troubling and hardly makes him a
very sympathetic or informative
speaker; indeed, he came across as lit
tle more than an out-and-out Israel
advocate with a very one-sided un
derstanding of the overall conflict.
After listening to Dr. Bard, it came
as no surprise to me to discover that
Dr. Bard is affiliated with the Jewish
advocacy organization known as the
American Israel Public Affairs Com
mittee (AIPAC), which follows the
policy of advocacy for unlimited fi
nancial and political support for Israel
on the part of the United States re
gardless of the direction of policies
taken by the Israeli state. AIPAC goes
to great lengths to keep voting records
for and to politically attack and de
stroy any member of the U.S. Con
gress that deviates in any way from
AIPAC’s tightly held beliefs. AIPAC as
an organization has been dismissive
of any scholarship upon Israel that
equates the conflict with being in any
way multisided.
Dr. Bard expressed the official line
of rhetoric put forward by AIPAC
with absolutely no deviation. Inter
estingly, I have heard that in AIPAC’s
charter is a constraint placed upon
AIPAC members to not debate Is
rael’s policy, as doing so is “divi
sive.” Thus the underlying problem
with AIPAC is that it is an organiza
tion that would seek to exclude a
healthy debate upon the topic of
Middle East peace, a topic that re
quires a multitude of perspectives to
be expressed in order for a solution
to ever be reached.
There was an utter lack of any at
tempt at evenhandedness at any
time during the lecture and I feel this
in the end misses the point of hold
ing such a lecture, which is to seek a
peaceful solution to the Middle East
crisis. I believe that the fault with
this resides with Hillel and the JSU.
Both organizations should realize
the necessity for a balanced view
point upon the conflict if the conflict
is ever to be solved, and it is shock
ing that they would so actively put
forward so narrow-minded a speak
er. I would call upon both Hillel and
the JSU to be more thoughtful in se
lecting future speakers on a topic
that truly deserves a thoughtful and
evenhanded presentation.
Alexander Deley majors in history
and political science at the University.
CORRECTION
In "ASUO distributes Halloween safety bags," published Oct. 28, the Emerald reported that the ASUO distributed Halloween safety bags. Student
government was involved in the bag project, but the Peer Health Educators, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and other students distributed the
bags. The Emerald regrets the error.
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■ Editorial
Meditation
movement
lacks proper
credentials
A sold-out crowd packed into 150 Columbia
Ttiesday night to hear famous filmmaker David
Lynch speak. Perhaps they came to learn about
the meaning of his dark films, but Lynch primari
ly used his time to promote the controversial
practice of Transcendental Meditation.
A practitioner of TM for 32 years, Lynch wants
to raise billions of dollars to teach it to any child
in America who wants to learn it. Like many TM
proponents, Lynch, accompanied by two “ex
perts,” described TM as a way to usher in world
peace and achieve greater personal effectiveness.
Lynch and his comrades couched the practice in
scientific terms.
But they didn’t give the audience the
whole story.
Now famous as the Beatles’ one-time guru,
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi founded TM in India in
1958 as the outgrowth of a Hindu spiritual move
ment. Since then, more than 6 million people
have learned TM, according to the organization’s
Web site. Learning the technique costs $2,500.
At first, TM practitioners meditate for about
20 minutes twice daily with their eyes closed,
repeating a syllabic phrase or “mantra” to
reach “pure awareness” and rid themselves of
conscious thought.
We don’t dispute the fact that meditation in
general can be calming and beneficial. Yet we
raise questions consumers should seriously con
sider before purchasing this commodity as a
means to attain peace.
First, we question the high cost. During his
speech, Lynch said people who really want peace
will find the money to pay for TM classes. Some
advocates say the cost ensures the TM movement
will persevere and grow, and that the price
wouldn’t seem outrageous if we lived in a culture
that values meditation. Yet people can learn
many types of meditation for free from books and
classes. Proponents claim the TM mantras are
more effective than repeating secular sounds, but
some books on meditation say otherwise.
We also question the scientific merits of TM.
Advocates claim a multitude of scientific studies
validate the physiological benefits of TM. Many
of these studies, however, are conducted at the
organization’s own Maharishi University of Man
agement and they are not necessarily published
in peer-reviewed journals. Any scholars thinking
about trying TM should check out these scientific
claims, especially those that suggest TM is differ
ent from other forms of meditation. We also can
not find any credible evidence to support the
claim that TM creates peace by “radiating an in
fluence of harmony to your surroundings.” In
light of the recent heated debate over the scien
tific merit of Intelligent Design, TM should come
under equally rigorous investigation.
People with certain religious beliefs should
also investigate the religious roots of TM. Al
though advocates claim it is simply a “mental
technique” and not a religion or philosophy, his
torical facts clearly show TM is rooted in Hin
duism; the mantras people repeat during TM are
the names of Hindu gods. Moreover, the move
ment lost a 1979 suit after the New Jersey
Supreme Court ruled TM was based on religious
concepts and shouldn’t be taught in schools. TM
has been presented in a secular package to appeal
to Westerners.
Millions of people like Lynch have found TM
to be a satisfying and worthwhile purchase, as
demonstrated by their longtime commitments to
the practice. However, we hope listeners at
Lynch’s recent speech take the initiative to inves
tigate the statements made by this salesman of
pseudo-science and evaluate whether they be
long in an academic setting like this University.
We think they don’t.