He may be the most intelligent theoretical physicist in the known universe, but when it comes to Israel, Stephen Hawking is just as susceptible to Islamic propaganda as many lesser mortals.
 
Seems he’s fallen for the phoney “Palestinians are pathetic victims of the evil colonial Zionists” and “consequently, Israel must be boycotted,” narratives.
 
Hawking has declined an invitation to attend the Israeli Presidential Conference next month, a decision which has aroused dismay by his Israeli hosts and applause from the Palestinian academic community.
 
 

The Israeli Presidential Conference, now in its fifth year, brings together statesmen and leading experts in various disciplines to discuss ways to address the world’s problems. The goal, organizers say, is to identify challenges and propose solutions.

 
 
Perhaps Mr. Hawking needs to educate himself a bit on the facts behind the Israeli-PLO conflict. In reality, as CanadaFreePress reported last week, the current Israeli Government has reiterated that it stands ready to resume peace negotiations with the PLO without pre-conditions.
But, surprise(!), Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected this overture. Instead ~

Abbas has taken unilateral steps outside the negotiating processes laid down under the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap including:
 
1. Disbanding the Palestinian Authority – the party designated by the Oslo Accords to negotiate with Israel on a final peace treaty
 
2. Seeking and gaining admission of Palestine as a member state of UNESCO and a non-member State observer at the UN
 
3. Declaring himself President of the country of Palestine on 3 January this year and traversing the world’s capitals seeking recognition and the establishing of ambassadors and embassies in the world’s most recently created country.

Upon hearing of Hawking’s declination, Raheem Kassam (Executive Editor for The Commentator and director of the counter-extremism pressure group, ‘Student Rights’) penned an Open Letter to the scientist ~

… I must let you know that as someone whose upbringing was steeped in the dogma of groupthink and mysticism, it was in part your work that made me realise what more there was in life. What questions the universe raised, why we should be skeptical of over-simplified and lazy explanations, and importantly, to never stop asking these questions.
 
Your approach to rationality, as well as that of your contemporaries, has opened up new doors for millions of people. The way we think, the way we act, the way we go about our lives, have all been impacted by the work you have dedicated your life to.
 
Sadly, however, I now believe that you are the latest in a line of celebrities, academics and politicians who are being misled by the closed-minded, closed-shop style of debate that I know you to have rejected over the majority of your life.
 
You see, you taught people to question things – but your involvement with the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine reflects that you have either abdicated your commitment to the scientific method, or you simply have abdicated your sense of morality.

 
Yep, clearly very smart; not too wise.

Since he took a pass on the conference, Hawking must have gotten a lot of blow-back, because he’s now saying that he’s unable to attend due to health reasons. (Oddly enough, he had no trouble visiting Iran in 2007 for the International Physics Olympiad.) However, that’s more than a little inconsistent with his original declination ~

“I accepted the invitation to the Presidential Conference with the intention that this would not only allow me to express my opinion on the prospects for a peace settlement but also because it would allow me to lecture on the West Bank.
 
However, I have received a number of emails from Palestinian academics. They are unanimous that I should respect the boycott. In view of this, I must withdraw from the conference.
 
Had I attended, I would have stated my opinion that the policy of the present Israeli government is likely to lead to disaster.”

 
Here are a few facts for Mr. Hawking:
Palestine – the Reality
Hamas-Israel Conflict – a Primer for Slow Learners