Ensuring Tolerance and American Values in NYC Public Schools

Here's a copy of a letter that I sent to Joel Klein, Chancellor of the NYC Public School System. If he replies, I'll be glad to post it.

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April 25, 2007


Chancellor Klein,

I am writing to you in response to a matter that was brought to my attention recently, the proposed opening of the Khalil Gibran International Academy.

I agree with the need for creating additional Arabic speakers across different dimensions of society. It is disturbing that our military and intelligence community do not have enough Arabic speaking people to do their jobs as effectively as possible. Just as in the cold war we needed Russian linguists, so do we now need Arabic linguists. This need is not limited to the military or intelligence community and it spans many other important dimensions of American society. However, I am deeply concerned that such a school comes with some meaningful risk and that these risks have to be analyzed, discussed openly and addressed before such a school should be opened.

First, let me provide a bit of background on me and my family.

I am a first generation American, born in New York City. At 18, I volunteered to serve in the armed forces of our nation because I saw it as my way to give back to this great land that had given my family so much opportunity. Senator Moynihan of New York nominated me, and I entered West Point upon graduating from high school. After West Point, I served as an officer of the United States Army, in a wide range of places domestically and abroad. One such place was Mogadishu, Somalia, where we worked under severe and dangerous conditions to provide humanitarian assistance to a native Moslem population. Since leaving the Army, I attended graduate school and have been involved in a variety of initiatives in the security industry for almost 15 years. Others in my family have served in the US military as well and I even have a brother that is studying Arabic in college.

Clearly, the notion of training more people to speak Arabic is something that I support because I think that our nation needs more Arabic speaking people. However, as mentioned earlier, there are many questions that need to be answered before a school like Khalil is opened. Here are just a few:

What controls will be in place to monitor the content of what is taught and the manner of how it is taught? We want our public schools to teach American values and civics.

How do we keep religious ideology from permeating class discussions, study material, homework assignments and more? As you know, tenets of Islam make it very difficult (if not outright impossible) to separate ‘church and state’ and school books in all Arab countries (without a single exception) are filled with blatant anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli rhetoric.

How will we ensure that important lessons are not cast aside for political correctness or expediency? As you may well know, it has been announced that schools in the UK will no longer teach the Holocaust in history class for fear of offending Moslem students. It is disturbing that anyone would be offended by learning about one of the darkest moments in human history. Moreover, it is especially ironic in that Moslems had nothing to do with the Holocaust. However, it is indicative of the depth of the anti-Semitic ideology of even the “moderates”. Such action by UK schools is shocking and terrifying in its implications.

Will there be special curricula in place for students that are different from students at other NYC public schools? If so, who will determine it? Who will review and monitor it?

Will there be non-Moslem teachers? If the focus is Arabic-language, it seems reasonable that teachers of Jewish, Christian and other faiths should be not just allowed, but required at this school for obvious reasons.

Will non-Moslem students be enrolled? Will we take an “integration” approach to ensure that children of Christian, Jewish and other faiths be given the opportunity to study Arabic? A diverse staff, faculty and student population will help prevent radical ideologies from developing and becoming accepted.

As you can well imagine, these questions are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many others, some quite sensitive, that need to be discussed and answered aloud. These discussions should happen publicly and with the full participation of designated staff, faculty, administration and parents.

Failure to do so would be a great disservice to our city and our nation.

I would welcome a response and be happy to discuss the matter with you.

All the best,
Elad

Global Warming and Islamic-Nukes

I tend to believe the vast majority of scientists that assert that global warming is a man-made phenomenon. But, that is not the point I want to discuss.

The important point to me is that because of concerns about global warming, we may may finally have enough people interested in doing something that needed to be done a long time ago, namely finding alternative affordable sources of energy. Finding alternative energy sources is critical to our national security, and to me, national security imperatives are paramount.

I think that the threat of nuclear terrorism is real. We have no reason not to take Ahmadinejad seriously when he claims to want to "wipe Israel off the map." I believe that he is not just willing but eager to make a trade-off of many millions of his own citizens' lives that would be killed in the retaliation that followed in order to kill fewer millions of Americans or Israelis.

Detering Iran once they have a nuke will be almost impossible, let's not be naive and think otherwise. Therefore, we should do everything in our power to stop them from acquiring or developing one.

Hopefully, we can do so without military force. Economic sanctions are one approach. Isolating Iran dimplomatically is another. A naval blockade of Iran would be a third. However, perhaps the strongest weapon we have in the long run is to take away their only source of revenue, oil. If the option is still available, we should do so not temporarily through a blockade, but permanently by eliminating our need for it and causing the price of oil to plummet.

By solving our oil addiction, we cut off funds to Middle-Eastern countries with theological, genocidal, totalitarian governments. In turn, their ability to fund terrorists disappears and with it their nuclear threat to the free world. We have no choice. We must develop alternate energy sources. Not doing so is akin to digging our own graves.

Too many people do not seem to appreciate the magnitude of the threat. Perhaps to them, questions of an existential nature are not their cup of tea and they would rather watch news about Anna Nicole Smith than learn they may be vaporized by an Islamic-nuke one day in the not-too-distant future. But, some of these same people are motivated by global warming. So, if that is what it takes, so be it.

I am glad that many people are motivated by global warming. We need all the help we can get.
Then, hopefully, we will be around to enjoy living in an environmentally sound world.