Controversial linguist rails at U.S. policies

Noam Chomsky, a leading political dissident and noted MIT linguist, criticized U.S. foreign policy yesterday before an audience of about 1,200 people at Irvine Auditorium.

Chomsky, who did his undergraduate and graduate work at Penn, is not unknown to controversy. His most recent book, 9-11, has proven to be controversial along with many of his views on U.S foreign policy and Israel.

During the lecture, Chomsky gave a detailed account of U.S actions over the course of the past few decades. He said that these actions caused great harm to many countries in terms of social and political damage and resulted in the deaths of millions of people. He talked about U.S. actions in countries such as Nicaragua, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran and Egypt among others, and how the populations of these countries suffered, in his opinion, because of U.S involvement.

He accused successive U.S. governments of having selective standards for themselves and the rest of the world and backed up his claims by giving numerous examples of what he called U.S. hypocrisy, and added that this was one of the biggest reasons for resentment against the U.S. throughout the world.

“The U.S. uses its veto to eliminate all resolutions it does not support. The U.S. veto in the U.N. Security Council is a double veto — the resolution not only gets vetoed in the Security Council, but also gets vetoed from history,” Chomsky said.

Accusing the U.S. and Israel of blocking a political solution to the Middle East conflict, Chomsky said that this was all part of a U.S-Israeli plan to make a new Middle East of their own liking — one that would have subservient leaders and whose geographical boundaries could be changed at will.

“There is an offshore U.S. military base in the Middle East called Israel,” he said.

Talking about the Israeli-Palestinian talks at Camp David in 2000, Chomsky dispelled the notion that the offer rejected by the Palestinians was as magnanimous as portrayed by the U.S. and Israel, although he admitted that much progress was made at that time by President Clinton and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

“Noam Chomsky is one of the most clear thinking people in our society, and a chance to hear him should not be missed,” said Jerry Silberman of the Jewish Mobilization for a Just Peace, a Philadelphia-based group that is in favor of Israel withdrawing from the occupied territories.

Following Chomsky’s speech, two University students spoke in favor of Penn’s Divestment Campaign, which is working on getting signatures for a petition condemning the University for investing in any country the group perceives as violating human rights — specifically Israel.

Chomsky was the first Penn alum to sign the petition.

This controversial petition has some critics at Penn.

“Taking American money out of Israel not only hurts the Israeli economy, but also the Palestinian economy,” said Hillel President Katie Jorgensen, who did not attend yesterday’s talk. The College senior added that “divestment is just going to make a bad situation even worse.”

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