Shalala has good reason not to say anything to embarrass Israel

by Philip Weiss on August 9, 2010 · 

It's no wonder that University of Miami president Donna Shalala has brushed off her "humiliation" at the Ben-Gurion airport (on account of her last name, which is Arab-American). Shalala is dependent on conservative Jews for programs at the University of Miami, notably including the Miller medical school, whose expansion to Israel was a big reason for Shalala's trip.

The Miller medical school is named for the late Leonard  Miller. He made his bucks in Florida real estate, heading the Lennar Corporation; Shalala is on the Lennar board. University of Miami obviously depends on Millers.

UM's Contemporary Judaic Studies program is also named after Leonard Miller and his wife Sue. The program has ties to the Likudnik Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and its director is an Israeli who is lauded by the pro-Israel group, Campus Watch. No wonder. Here is Haim Shaked:

Presently, there clearly is a mounting insidious, vituperative, consistent and forceful campaign, unleashed by mortal enemies of the State of Israel, to delegitimize Israel. This attack is not dissimilar to the systematic onslaught run by the Nazis in the 1930's against the Jews, but with similar objectives: to legitimize harming, even destroying Israel! This is a matter of grave strategic implications for Israel and the Jewish people!

The Miller medical school is crowing about Shalala's trip to Israel and saying not a word about her humiliation at the airport:

Led by UM President Donna E. Shalala, a delegation of Miller School officials recently concluded a successful week of high-level meetings in Israel aimed at identifying areas of collaboration and synergy with Bar-Ilan University as Israel’s largest and fastest growing university establishes the nation’s fifth medical school.
A research powerhouse with four regional campuses, BIU was chosen earlier this year by Israel’s Council for Higher Education to address Israel’s looming physician shortage...
In a series of July meetings with BIU’s leadership and Israeli President Shimon Peres, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, President Shalala, Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., and a delegation of prominent UM faculty expressed their eagerness to collaborate with BIU

This sort of connection typifies the new partly-Jewish establishment in the U.S. Shalala served on the Gannett board alongside Douglas McCorkindale, who after retiring as Gannet's CEO and Chair in 2006. has been on the Board of Lockheed Martin, one of the defense contractors that has profited from arms sales to Israel. 

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