Why, oh, why did I ever like Oxford more than Cambridge. Must have been because Cambridge wheels out a dead guy every year, or keeps his head in a box (like Senor Wences?) over a doorway, or something. Poor Jeremy Bentham.

Right. Well, now is a good time to switch allegiances. Naomi Ragen is publicizing the case of one Amit Duvshani, applied for a doctoral position at Oxford, and received the following reply from one Andrew Wilkie:

Dear Amit Duvshani,

Thank you for contacting me, but I don't think this
would work. I have a huge problem with the way that
the Israelis take the moral high ground from their
appalling treatment in the Holocaust, and then inflict
gross human rights abuses on the Palestinians because
the (the Palestinians) wish to live in their own
country.


I am sure that you are perfectly nice at a personal
level, but no way would I take on somebody who had
served in the Israeli army. As you may be aware,
I am not the only UK scientist with these views but
I'm sure you will find another suitable lab if you
look around.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Wilkie

Nuffield Professor of Pathology,

Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine,

The John Radcliffe,

Headington,

Oxford OX3 9DS,

UK.

Tel (44)-1865-222619

Fax (44)-1865-222500

I suggested that Mr. Wilkie send his reply to Wolfson College, founded by Isaiah Berlin, and see what sort of response he got there.