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Netanyahu deserves  

to speak, but where do we draw the line? 

Editor: 

It’s appropriate to take a somewhat detached viewpoint on the events of last Tuesday and the wider question of free speech. Personally, as a Jew I found Netanyahu’s politics and policies abhorrent. But, I do not think it is at all helpful to prevent him from speaking. If we only allow people with whom we agree to speak how can we have a dialogue or conscensus? 

However words do have some power to do harm. I would have supressed Hitler’s right to free speech at the Nurmeburg rallies. So where do you draw the line? There isn’t any exact formula for it. You have to form a judgement about it for each case that comes up. In my mind, equating Netanyahu’s policies with the Holocaust feeds a rather unproductive mixture of hysteria and panic, masked by “righteous indignation.” This heady cocktail of unmoderated emotion typically leads to the kind of injudicious action we saw last Tuesday. 

Philip Morton 

Berkeley