26 February, 2003

Dear Yale Divest from Israel Campaign,

I  do not have time to formulate a well-motivated letter to send to the
editors of  the Yale Alumni Magazine (where I read about you), but I would like to offer my  support for your efforts. As an American national resident in Israel since 1969  I have watched with dismay and horror the aggressive behavior of the Israeli  government in the occupied Palestinian lands for over 30 years. I fear that  Israel will probably only end its illegal
occupation-cum-annexation by strong  international economic pressure. This is because of the strong support Israel  enjoys from America, which has an agenda for the Middle East which in itself is  a horrific menace to world peace and prosperity (as I fear we shall soon  witness). A boycott undeniably contributed to the demise of apartheid in south  Africa and can do wonders in Israel too, given the despair of most Israelis  (regardless of political preferences) at present and realization that their  country is on the wrong track and that their politicians are all enslaved by the  settler lobbies and their American supporters. I favor the boycott even though I  would be one of its immediate victims. Good luck in your efforts to save the  Jews and Israel from themselves.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Paul  Wexler
Dept. of Linguistics
Tel-Aviv University
Tel-Aviv, ISRAEL  69978

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7 March 2003

Here is a copy of the letter I  just e-mailed to the Yale Alumni Magazine:

Dear YAM,

Regarding  the campus debate on eliminating Yale's investments in Israel and
whether or not  Israel is an apartheid state: As an American who has lived in
Israel for 34  years, I have watched with horror the gradual transformation of
Israel into a  classic racist state with German Lebensraum goals. Israel
presently occupies all  of British-mandated Palestine; on this territory Jews
have full rights in  practice, Israeli Arabs have full right rights in theory and
Palestinian Arabs  have no rights. Is this not apartheid? The suggestion to
divest Yale of its  Israeli investments is, regretably, the only moral course of
action left,  though, at this stage, it may be an academic issue since the
Israeli economy is  rapidly self-destructing on its own. But divestment from
Israel is not enough.  The USA has bought into Sharon's line that Arafat = bin
Laden and both states  ignore, at their own peril, that Israeli state terrorism
(i.e. occupation)  begets Arab terrorist responses. America has long abandoned its own principles  and best interests in favor of support for Sharon and his predecessors, Arab  dictators such as Mubarak and the only 2 countries named after personal family  dynasties (the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Saudi Arabia) and (until  recently) Saddam Hussein. So, if one recommends divestment
from Israel, one must  sadly also recommend divestment from America to European and Asian investors. 

Sincerely,

Paul Wexler

(http://www.yaledivestmentnews.org/wexler.html)