I should note that nothing you have said would make me consider you to be antisemitic. You seem to be thinking things through with good intentions. Nothing bad there at all.
I would gladly buy you a bacon-cheese burger some day.
There are other more benign options, but no one will know until he communicates about it.
But then, my sub-conscience must have been working, for, while I was listening to Otmar Liebert, my sub-conscience went āpsstā trying to get my attention. Much like some guy in a dark doorway wanting to sell you an āauthenticā Rolex watch. Anyway, it said āthereās an elephant in the room.ā So, I looked, and sure enough, it was right. There is an elephant standing there, in the room, chewing some grass. So, āwhat might that elephant be?ā I asked.
It is this, that was released in 2012, not long before this conference in Israel.
Now, in self-promotion, there is no such thing as bad publicity. So, I wonder if this whole scenario wasnāt his way of getting attention, for that is exactly what happened. Perhaps it had little to do with his views of what is happening in Israel and more of hoping that people will notice that āhey, I wrote a book.ā And, in looking at the many of the news stories of the event, this book would sometimes be mentioned.
My old and cynical mind likes it.
Edit: My old and cynical mind likes the theory. (sarcasm) If this is what he really did, I find it reprehensible.
Did he? Where is the evidence? Perhaps his refusal to set foot on Israelās soil, or at least go to a particular conference is a protest at what he sees as the illegitimacy of the current Israeli government due to their acts of terror inflicted on Palestinians,
All I am suggesting is he may have been approached and told you should boycott Israel because.
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It is a terror state: inflicting terror in the Gaza strip and elsewhere. Your attendance will be seen as tacit approval of the present government.
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All Jews should die
He may like me agree with the first point and find the second totally wrong and objectionable. I do not know: I have met the man, I got my degree at the university he now lectures, though he was not one of my teachers. But I do not know him well enough to guess his inner beliefs.
You may be correct in that he has failed to adequately express his reasons for the boycott but that does not necessarily indicate he is anti-Semitic.
And @oldgeek may be correct in suggesting that he wanted to generate some controversy so he could sell more copies of his new book.
Or you may be correct and he hates all Jews in which case I am happy to condemn him but as far as I am concerned this remains to be proved.
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@bryanlunduke, Please donāt think that Iām contending with you. It is just a matter that I am incurably one that gives a person the benefit of the doubt. Plus, I have learned the hard way the truthfulness of an ancient Jewish proverb that says āWhen anyone replies to a matter before he hears the facts, It is foolish and humiliating.ā So, I am reluctant to draw conclusions if I feel there is more to hear. Personally, I suspect that you are correct in your analysis.
Doing some more digging on the topic looking for facts. In reading the article Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel | Israel | The Guardian it says:
"Hawking has visited Israel four times in the past. Most recently, in 2006, he delivered public lectures at Israeli and Palestinian universities as the guest of the British embassy in Tel Aviv. At the time, he said he was ālooking forward to coming out to Israel and the Palestinian territories and excited about meeting both Israeli and Palestinian scientistsā.
Four trips to Israel. Delivered public lectures at Israeli universities. Does that sound antisemitic?
However, it also relates:
"Since then, his attitude to Israel appears to have hardened. In 2009, Hawking denounced Israelās three-week attack on Gaza, telling Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera that Israelās response to rocket fire from Gaza was āplain out of proportion ā¦ The situation is like that of South Africa before 1990 and cannot continue.ā
As regards his decision it says:
āIn the four weeks since Hawkingās participation in the Jerusalem event was announced, he has been bombarded with messages from Britain and abroad as part of an intense campaign by boycott supporters trying to persuade him to change his mind. In the end, Hawking told friends, he decided to follow the advice of Palestinian colleagues who unanimously agreed that he should not attend.ā
That, to my mind, seriously questions the charge of antisemitism. It looks more and more like an opposition to Israeli government policy. Now, if the man is truly not antisemitic, could there have been a better way to convey his views than to agree with the organizations (there were more than one) calling for a boycott? Undoubtedly. It may be, at most, a serious lack of judgement.
The article also mentioned something that made me think āJust leave it to government to be stupidā when it related:
"In 2011, the Israeli parliament passed a law making a boycott call by an individual or organisation a civil offence which can result in compensation liable to be paid regardless of actual damage caused. It defined a boycott as ādeliberately avoiding economic, cultural or academic ties with another person or another factor only because of his ties with the State of Israel, one of its institutions or an area under its control, in such a way that may cause economic, cultural or academic damageā.
So, in other words, if you oppose Israeli government policy, you had better not express it by means of a boycott.
What a convoluted mess.
It is entirely possible that you are right. Though, worth noting, the rise of the Nazi movement was considered (by many) to be antisemiticā¦ but large portions of the populace thought that, perhaps, they were just misunderstoodā¦ or conveying their thoughts in a weird way.
So Jews have learned to smell antisemitism (in all its forms) and react immediately. Might Hawking be a totally okay dude that thinks Jews rock? Perhaps. But it doesnāt smell, look or taste that way. And the longer he lets it go on without correcting that perceptionā¦ the more and more it looks to be the way he actually feels.
Yes. Most definitely. On that, I think, we can all agree.
Like Scotty said: āFool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!ā
Edit: It would be good for Mr. Hawking to make himself clear on the subject.
Out of curiosity, do you you believe that the USA, UK, Germany, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China and countless others are also terror states? All of those listed have cause far more death and suffering than Israel over the last few years alone.
Also, worth noting, the Palestinian ruling party in Gaza (and the West Bank) has the stated purpose of the complete and total annihilation (aka āmurderā) of every Jewish man, woman and child on the planet. That is a stated goal. And they have actively worked towards that goal. They have also shown that they are not only willing, but eager, to sacrifice the lives of their own children to kill even a single Jew. [Though, to be fair, itās not just Jews they hateā¦ they also have laws making homosexuality punishable by death.]
On the flip-side, Arabs live happily in Israel itself (side-by-side with Jews, Christians, etc.). Israel provides food, water, medical care, electricity, sewage treatment and jobs for the citizens of both Gaza and the West Bank. A large portion of Israeli taxes goes directly towards that cause. [Oh, and gay Israeliās serve openly in the IDF.]
To criticize Israel in this matter is fine. There are many policies (directly relating to the handling of Gaza and West Bank) that I disagree with. But to call Israel a terror state ā without somehow showing that the government of Gaza/West Bank (and the countries that put the majority of those people in place ā including Jordan) are exponentially worse in all regards and are pure evil ā is horrifying.
Bingo. I actually have a lot of respect for many things Hawking has done. So I would very much like for him to take one of the (many) outs people have given him to show that heās not an antisemitic jerk-bag. The moment he does so I will gladly, and happily, declare him a cool dude and recant my stance that he smells like an antisemite.
I think you are a riding a pretty delicate line here, pal.
Claiming someone is āanti-semiticā is a very serious charge. Anti-semitism is hostility, prejudice, and hatred towards jewish people and from what I can tell there is zero evidence to suggest Hawking is actually guilty of this.
I am more than open to be proven wrong if evidence can be presented, but it seems like you are assuming guilt where none may exist.
You seem to suggest that because he decided to not attend the conference that he supports the Palestinians and an anti-Jewish agenda. There is simply no hard evidence of this. This would be like saying that if Brendan Eich suggested I donāt go to a conference that I hate the gays.
This is delicate because using charged labels such as anti-semite (or similar labels such as racist, sexist, nazi, homophobe etc) without any hard evidence to back up that claim, only inflames the debate.
There is a pretty large gap between choosing not to attend a conference and hostility, prejudice, and hatred towards jewish people.
To be fair here I was suggesting what may have been said to mister Hawking by those suggesting he should boycott Israel.
But to answer your question, Yes I think George W Bush and Tony Blair should be tried for War Crimes.
The Iraq wars were in my and many other peoples opinion illegal.
There are a lot of countries that are more than willing to use violence and terror to promote their own economic interests, with little if any consideration for human rights of the individuals involved. I think itās fair to lay this charge to most if not all the countries you have listed here.
Itās certainly true of the USA and the UK.
Iām certainly not proud to be British.
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Okay, thatās what I was curious about. I donāt entirely agree with you on that stance (though I donāt entirely disagree, either). But stating that shows that you arenāt simply going after Israel.
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I think you are missing a huge pieceā¦
Hawking was sent a series of emails from an organization that is organized (in large part) by people that are seeking the death of all Jews. Everywhere. Myself. My wife. My daughter. All of us.
Those emails suggested that he shouldnāt step foot on Israeli soil.
Hawking agreed with that organization.
Your example would be more apt if it wereā¦
āEich emailed Jono suggesting he shouldnāt go to a tech conference that has gay men and women in attendanceā¦ and then Jono makes a public statement that Jono will not attend that conference because Eich makes a good point about gay people.ā
Would that make you appear to be anti-Gay? Yes. Yes, it absolutely would. But you wouldnāt do that. Because youāre a cool dude. No cool dude would do something like that.
Or, even more apt (and to make another example with Stuart, because it amuses me) ā¦
āRepresentatives from the Al Qaeda send Stuart Langridge an email suggesting that he shouldnāt step foot on USA soil. Stuart then releases an announcement stated that he agrees with what Al Qaeda said to him and he will now boycott the USA and events held in the USA.ā
In that exampleā¦ does it stand to reason that Stuart would agree with Al Qaeda? Yes. Of course. That is the clear message. Now, if Stuart comes out and talks about how he does not agree with Al Qaedaā¦ but heās boycotting the USA for different reasonsā¦ then that changes things considerably.
In the case of Hawking, he agreed with people who seek the death of my daughter. And then he acted according to his agreement with them (by making a statement and boycotting). Does that make him antisemitic? Probably. But, even if he isnāt, he did a bad (or, at the very least, profoundly stupid) thing.
The only information that I have dug up is stating that he received emails from Palestinian academics and, internationally, from others also calling for a boycott. Unless you have specific information, one would have to assume that these academics were in agreement with the ones calling for the death of all Jews.
I do completely understand the wariness and sensitivity of Jews on this matter, but there seems to be a real lack of reason as things get more and more polarized. And now, what is being risked is that, actually, the calls of antisemitism could be a result of prejudices in themselves. And it could result in a form of prejudice unintentional. How? Right now, after investigating this matter about Mr. Hawking, and seeing all the cries and blogs about how he is antisemitic, based on scant information and a lot of inference,speculation and assumptions, the next time I hear that someone is antisemitic, Iām going toā¦sigh and wonder if it is another instance just as this one is. And, then, after further investigation, I see that itās this story all over again, I may start ignoring such cries.That is not a good thing for me or anyone concerned. It might make me dismiss something that should have my attention.
This organization that you are referring to, is it BRICUP? As far as I am aware, they urged Hawking not to go to Israel and I see no evidence to suggest that they seek the death of all jews.
Again, I think you are drawing conclusions that donāt exist in evidence. If Hawking had publicly stated that I believes that Jews should be oppressed, restricted, or in the extreme case murdered, I would agree with youā¦but there is literally no evidence that this is the case.
BRICUP has a track record of hosting and supporting antisemitic individuals. Their stated goal is to isolate Israel from the rest of the world.
BRICUP is a (vocal) advocate for BDS. BDS is funded, directed and fueled by both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Both of which have a stated mission of murdering every Jewish child on the planet. Their goal is not adjusted borders. Their goal is not to help residents of the West Bank or Gaza. Their goal (evident in their mission statements, public announcement and actions) is the death of all Jews.
Are the people of BRICUP all Jew-haters? No idea. Iād like to think not. But one is judged by the company one keeps. If āBad Voltageā decided to become a chapter of the Nazi partyā¦ would people assume that we believe the things the Naziās believe? Yes. Duh. Because we joined and made a public announcement as such. By that very same measure, there is no reason to believe that BRICUP does not believe that all Jews should be murdered. The onus is on them to show the world that they are anything other than monsters.
I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt. I like to give folks second (and 3rd and 4th) chances. But when you join (or pledge support for) an organization that is undeniably evilā¦ it becomes up to those individuals to prove to me that they have good in them.
Tons of evidence. Oodles of it. So much evidence that it is astoundingly clear.
Some (more than enough) of which has been talked over in this thread already. Hawking expressed support for an organization that calls for the death of all Jews. Did he do so via one degree of separation (Hawking ā BDS ā Hamas/etc.)? Yes. And, because of that, I give the man the chance to redeem himself. Heās been called out on this numerous times and has yet to clarify or correct anything. Which makes it appear more and more likely that his personal beliefs are closer to that of Hamas than I would like.
Let me ask you thisā¦
If there were an organization that was dedicated to murdering your son. Specifically your son. They want him dead. And that organization emailed me suggesting that I make some sort of public display (even only a tangentially related one) that I support their cause. And I did so. What would you think of me?
Because that is exactly what is happening here. It gets wrapped in politicsā¦ but the issue is clear. My family, my peopleā¦ my daughterā¦ are being threatened. By evil people. When someone expresses support for those people (even in small doses) it makes my family less safe.
You are absolutely right on that. That is a very real problem.
ā¦ and that becomes a whole different topic. One that I find rather interesting (and applies to many organizations, peoples and events around the world).
Where is it?
I am still yet to see categorical evidence that Hawking had publicly stated that I believes that Jews should be oppressed, restricted, or in the extreme case murdered.
If you provide the tons and oodles of evidence I am sure we will all agree with you. 
I agree, but I donāt believe it is clear that BRICUP is specifically out to eradicate all jews and therefore kill your children. Where can I read that this is their stated mission and goal, as opposed to just assumption?
Other questions are: Were the Palestinian academics that emailed Mr Hawking acting in behalf of these groups? Could these people asking Mr. Hawking to participate in the boycott be acting in behalf of their own conscience? Do these academics agree with the call for killing Jews? Is the āHawking -> BDS -> Hamas/etc.ā known or assumed, inferred? I agree it raises questions, but absolutely does not provide answers.
There is so much focusing on what the activities of groups are and a lack of attention to Mr. Hawking himself. Again, I wish he would have made his position clear.
Starting to think youāre messing with me.
Thatās my enire reply for now. Shabbat is about to begin along with the 4th night of Hanukkah). Time for brisket and goofing off.