http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=4275
“The Palestinian academics who are delighted to have such a renowned figure legitimize their cause have failed to mention that had Hawking hailed from their home towns, he likely would have died long ago from neglect, societal scorn, and inadequate medical assistance. It is this kind of black hole that Hawking ought to be contemplating these days.”
The blogosphere went wild this week trying to get to the bottom of British physicist Stephen Hawking’s cancellation of a trip to Israel next month. Though Hawking had decided not to attend the fifth annual Israeli Presidential Conference, where he was scheduled to be a key speaker, “based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the [academic and cultural] boycott [of Israel],” it was initially reported that he wasn’t coming due to ill health.
It was easy to believe the latter. First of all, Hawking, 71, has a degenerative motor neuron disease related to ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). He is virtually paralyzed and undoubtedly suffers from various related ailments. Secondly, Cambridge University’s communications department either hadn’t been informed of Hawking’s reason for backing out or was trying to cover it up. After all, it doesn’t reflect well on them that Hawking accepted the invitation and then changed his mind mere weeks before the scheduled event.
Once it became clear that Hawking has clearly and simply aligned himself with Israel’s enemies in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, all hell broke loose on Facebook, particularly among those who had apologized for jumping the gun and believing that the great, wheelchair-bound genius was anti-Israel. Feeling angry, then guilty, then betrayed, these people went on the attack. This is not to say — as Arab propagandists have been asserting since then — that all of them crossed the line into inappropriate comments. On the contrary, most of the criticism lodged at Hawking was political and ideological. Only a handful made nasty remarks about his physical disabilities.