The Ted Letters

As you all know, I am a member of NU's United Nations Association. Part of the group's infrastructure is a list-serve, which is generally used for announcements, updates and reminders. Occasionally someone will post a plug for an event that might interest members - the "Meet the Candidates" series for the upcoming Mass gubernatorial, or a documentary at the Coolidge Corner theatre - or a news analysis about important current events. With the group's focus on the Middle East, it's not uncommon to see a talk by "Jews for Peace" announced, or have someone send a collection of emails from Palestine and elsewhere urging pressure on the Sharon government. That last, in fact, happened, and thus began <'cue galaxy theme music> the saga of the Ted Letters.

The President of the UNA, Dan, sent out the collection of emails in question. I personally deleted it, which is my general policy with forwarded emails. It was obviously pro-Palestinian, and that's OK, since it's not the opinion of the UNA per se, and dialogue on issues has been tolerated as long as the raw number of emails is kept down, since every email goes into 115 inboxes.

Dan's introduction to the forward read: "This article is long, but it's worth it -- emails from the Occupied Palestinian Territories from regular people over the past few days. -Dan".

That was sent on April 1st, at 6:30pm. By 7:15, two emails had been generated in response: a member asking to be removed from the list, and another member - Ted - replying to the content. I credit Ted with keeping it brief: I don't believe two ounces of these emails and I hope most of you won't buy into this propaganda until you check the facts yourselves. The only sympathy I have is for the poor Israeli civilians who are massacred every day by these deranged Palestinian terrorists. -Ted

Dan replied within minutes, and was fairly diplomatic, though his opening line, "I’d think that you might want to meet 1 or 2 Palestinians before you go off with a comment like that", raised Ted's ire, though his response was still generally diplomatic. However, his opening line would get him in trouble as well. His email began, with no introduction:

Dan wrote: "I'd think that you might want to meet 1 or 2 Palestinians before you go off with a comment like that."
A comment like what Dan? Are you saying that the terrorists are not deranged? Maybe you don't think I'm being politically correct here but I thought someone who straps explosives to themselves and blows up innocent men, women, and children would fall into the deranged category.

To the well-trained, racially-sensitive, modern student, this quote contains a grave error: Ted's train of thought jumps over the "Palestinian" part to the "terrorist/comment" part, and we're left wondering if Ted equates Palestinians to terrorists, or if he's just being hasty. I'm sure the latter is the case, but in the tension surrounding the issue of late it's should have come as no surprise that this statement (which I, for one, did not know how to interpret at the time), along with the "only sympathy" phrase in Ted's first email, would prove a sufficient spark to cause a firestorm of email, anger, and recrimination.


I read the above emails with increasing consternation. I knew that there were plenty of people in the group trigger-happy enough to write a nasty, ad hominem note to Ted without taking the time to consider what they were doing. So, after really thinking it over, I decided that as a well-respected member of the group, an acquaintance of Ted's, and a part-Jew part-Arab, I could diplomatically respond, hopefully short-circuiting an inflammatory reaction. Two more people had asked to be removed from the group, one saying "[remove] me as well Dan, I am tired of Ted." I guess it should be stated that Ted was the most frequent poster non grata on the list, often plugging College Republican events and membership, and always coming across a bit arrogantly. Anyway, I wrote a piece to refute Ted and to try and close the debate. I hadn't read an earlier email of Dan's basically saying "let's stop this now", and the rest has become history. Here's my piece, in all its glory:

Folks - Having read Ted's two emails, I'm somewhat disturbed. I hope nobody associates Ted's opinions and attitudes with conservatives, Jews, or Americans. Being all 3, I like to think I take a much more balanced view of the situation, deploring all civilian deaths, supporting sovereignty for both sides, and having a low opinion of both leaders. Ted has stated that the "only sympathy" he has is for Israeli victims; I'm not scolding him for his sympathy, but rather for his "only". Secondly, he decided that the Jewish woman from Minnesota misrepresented her own people's opinion. To my knowledge Ted is not Jewish, and even if he is it doesn't give him a license to decide the "proper" Jewish opinion. Lastly, I don't disagree that suicide bombers are deranged. It's just that to most of us, Palestinian is not a synonym for terrorist, and while political incorrectness can be refreshing at times, but Ted's comment came across as straight-up racism to at least one reader. Salim Furth (Ted - I agree that we shouldn't overload inboxes, but since you spoke publically, I felt the need to say this publically. Please write me personally if you want to debate this. Also, since you and Dan each felt it necessary to give yours, here are my credentials: I have lived in Israel proper, the West Bank, Jordan, and Egypt. I'm one quarter Jewish and one quarter Arabic. I've eaten with friends in a Palestinian refugee camp and a Jewish Tel Aviv apartment inside the same week. My major is IAF with a focus in the Middle East. I really don't want to boast, but it seems entering this debate without first stating my "credentials" could be hazardous.)

Make what you will of my email. I was told by at least four people that the above was "professional", "very diplomatic", etc., and no third party has criticized me in any way for it, so I'm fairly confident that the amount of thought and re-writing I put into making my email say exactly what I meant paid off.

However, Ted had offended people other than me, and they wanted their say as well. I'll stop quoting at length for now, but one more person chimed in - again quite diplomatically - refuting Ted. One more person asked to leave the group, and two people - including the Professor - demanded that the debate cease. The demands were unheeded, and another somewhat matronizing refutation of Ted came out soon after. My Ukrainian Jewish friend Michael, the only NU student to win 2 awards (in as many models!), a good friend of Ted's, and a young man of supreme talent and confidence chimed in next. He supports the state of Israel more than most in the group, but his view is probably the most balanced. His email was a gem, and I'm going to post it as an annex in another post; it's only marginally related to the saga, but I think it deserves exposure.

An Iranian student, Pars, picked up the next day, writing in opposition to Israel, with no mention of Ted or Dan. Professor Sullivan, passionate himself about this issue, nevertheless sent out a terse "What part of "enough" do people not understand?" This was followed by 3 emails (two from a person who had already made the request once) asking to be taken off the list, and an email bemoaning the exodus of members. The fire swelled to new heights when an Israeli student, Alon, posted a factually ludicrous, one-sided, and mercifully brief response to Pars' email. Next on the play-by-play was a humorous query as to whether people had confused the group with the Crossfire Bulletin-board.

But enough of this - now things came to a head. Dan, I, Professor Sullivan, two of the others who had refuted Ted, as well as Michael, were all in D.C. for the Model Arab League. Ted logged into Michael's account and sent out another email. This one was not brief, and it was not focused on the issues. I won't post it all, only the part addressed to me. Ted defended himself, eloquently but with an overdose of emotion, and made a few valid points which were all but invalidated by their inflamatory context. This paragraph was addressed to yours truly:

Salim, your comments are the most hurtful considering you’re the source. You should be ashamed of yourself. You know damn well how terrible it is to call someone a racist and yet you decided to characterize me as one in a public forum. You have some nerve Salim. Don’t EVER consider conversing with me again until you apologize to me and publicly recant your statements. You should think a little more next time before you attack someone’s character in public. Moreover, I never said I was speaking on behalf of any group or religion, so don’t accuse me of doing so. And lastly, don’t try and characterize my stances on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict for me since you don’t have the slightest clue what I think and believe.

I won't get into apologetics here except to say that his last statement isn't quite accurate. While I'm certainly no expert in "What Ted Believes", I have not had the choice of remaining ignorant on the matter: he has a history of expressing himself in all and sundry fora, and his thoughts and beliefs are as well known as any student's at N.U. And, looking over my email, I don't see where I refer to anything that he didn't say in previous posts, so I have to assume he was guided by emotion more than reason in composing this. To his credit, he earlier in this last email recanted the controversial "only sympathy" statement, which was his #1 offense in my book.

Mercifully, I haven't run into Ted on campus, and I'm hoping I don't until enough time is elapsed that we can both pretend this didn't happen. I've never seen him much anyway, so it's not a real change or anything, and though I know some might say I'm not following the Biblical prescription for conflict resolution, all the good sense of which I am possessed tells me that dealing with this straight-up, which is my preference 99 times out of 100, would only worsen matters in this case.

I'm not sure why I wrote this saga, but it was interesting, and I managed to waste a good long time doing it. Which means I have to run and do homework now, so a good night to all.