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Jewish World Review Sept. 22, 2003 / 25 Elul, 5763 The first job for Boudin By Zev Chafets
Back in the '70s, Boudin was a member of the radical Weather Underground. In 1981, after years on the run, she participated in the murder of a Brink's guard and two cops in pursuit of her revolutionary goals. Boudin now says she's sorry. She made a terrible mistake. As she told the Parole Board, "I had grown up wanting to be a doctor, and here I am and three people are dead, and I'm responsible for this." Boudin comes from a rich and influential family. In prison, she helped her sister inmates. As a result, she has more supporters than the average ex- con. Reportedly, she has received a number of job offers of the do-gooder variety. Older and wiser, she wants to make a difference in the lives of others. Having a serious talk with Abe Greenhouse would be a good way to start. Greenhouse is a Rutgers University student and a founding member of an outfit called Central Jersey Jews Against the [Israeli] Occupation. On Thursday night, in New Brunswick, N.J., he struck a blow for Palestine by hitting Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky in the face with a cream pie.
Worse things have happened to Sharansky. Before moving to Israel from the USSR in 1986, he was one of the world's best- known human-rights activists. The Soviets sent him to a Siberian gulag where he spent nine years, much of it in solitary confinement. At Rutgers, he wiped the cream off his face and delivered his speech. Greenhouse was arrested and booked for disorderly conduct. In addition, Rutgers is contemplating a disciplinary meeting. A dean will determine the charges. A spokeswoman for the university declined to say whether Rutgers considers it a serious offense. It should. Thursday's assault on Sharansky doesn't come in a vacuum. Lately, radicals have stepped up their agitation for the university to disinvest in companies that do business with Israel — a demand that Harvard President Lawrence Summers has labeled anti-Semitic. Rutgers recently blocked an attempt by a group called New Jersey Solidarity to convene a national conference on campus. New Jersey Solidarity advocates using "any means necessary" (read: violence) to liberate Palestine. Its stated goal is the elimination of Israel. Many of its members are open supporters of anti-American, anti-Israeli terror groups. Rutgers' pro-Israel student organizations have scheduled a series of rallies and lectures starting Oct. 9. The charged atmosphere in New Brunswick has prompted university security officials to reach out to the FBI. Presumably, Thursday's assault on Sharansky will heighten their concern. In August, while on a protest mission in the West Bank, Greenhouse told the East Brunswick Home News Tribune that he "staunchly oppose[s] violence." Doubtless, he regards hitting Sharansky in the face as a harmless prank. But Kathy Boudin knows better. Forty years ago, she and her comrades started out with pranks and stunts. But political violence has a way of escalating. Soon enough, the Weather Underground was planting bombs in government buildings and committing murder. All in the name of social justice, naturally. Today, Boudin claims to have been a misguided idealist, a confused young woman. She fell in with a vicious crowd of sociopaths that used her — and other dupes — for their own cynical purposes. Boudin's self-righteous blindness took the lives of three strangers — and the better part of her own. That's a message she ought to pass along to the Abe Greenhouses of this generation. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Zev Chafets is a columnist for The New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here. © 2003, New York Daily News | ||||||||||
