The campaign to destroy Israel has many fronts, with information war a critical non-kinetic battlefield. Israel thrives on information, its science, technology, and business prowess strengthening Israel's survivability immeasurably. So the worldwide effort to cut Israeli universities and academics out of international knowledge-sharing ultimately aims to dry up Israel's ability to keep up with world science and technology.

The left has taken over the academy not only in America, but almost worldwide. Antonio Gramsci's teachings were acted-upon relatively late in the United States, after all.

Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun calls it Intellectual Racism:

Isn't this racism - and the kind of intellectual ghettoisation that creates division, not peace?

THE Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, which has thrown its support behind controversial Palestinian leaders, has cited its boycott of Israel for refusing to help an Israeli civics teacher who has designed programs for both Jewish and Arab children.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem academic Dan Avnon is credited with developing and implementing the only state program in civics written for joint Jewish-Arab high schools.

He approached the head of the Sydney University centre, Jake Lynch, for assistance with studying civics education in Australia under a fellowship agreement between the two institutions.

But Associate Professor Lynch rebuffed the request, citing the centre's support for the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The centre helped establish the Sydney Peace Foundation, which awards the Sydney Peace Prize.

Shameful. Utterly shameful. And that's leaving aside the sheer stupidity of the political analysis.

Fortunately, Lynch was overruled:

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence rejected a call from Associate Professor Lynch in 2009 to cut links with the Hebrew University and a second Israeli institution, the Technion, in the city of Haifa. "I do not consider it appropriate for the university to boycott academic institutions in a country with which Australia has diplomatic relations," he wrote in response at the time.

A spokesman for Dr Spence said ... Associate Professor Lynch was "entitled to express a public opinion where it falls under his area of expertise", but added, "on this particular matter he does not speak for the school, the faculty or for the university".

It is important to challenge those who seek to cut Israel off from academic contact on the fundamentals - that the free flow of ideas is the basis of the university. It is also not the prerogative of academics to insert their political beliefs into policy at state-sponsored institutions.

Right now, the balance of forces in American academia favors the left. But higher education is facing a bubble, as costs soar and delivery of education via the internet is beginning to eat the tuition pool which used to belong to the bricks and mortar crowd.

Hat tip: John McMahon