“Stephen Hawking’s decision to join the academic boycott of Israel is worse than a mistake: it is a crime. By humiliating President Peres, who had invited him as an honoured guest, the world’s most renowned scientist has delighted anti-Semites everywhere and boosted a campaign that aims to eradicate the Jewish state.

Professor Hawking’s intellectual achievements, his lifelong struggle with motor neurone disease, above all his indomitable courage in the face of unimaginable adversity, have won him universal admiration. HisBrief History of Time introduced millions to the mysteries of modern cosmology. Such fame brings with it power and responsibility. Scientists, like other public intellectuals, cannot plead naiveté when they put their reputations on the line for a political cause.”

Read more…