I would like to express my extreme displeasure with an article written by Kyle Szarzynski in Tuesday's Badger Herald ("Israel lobby censors academic honesty," Sept. 11). His article is filled with prodigious lies and false accusations.

First, I want to point out his lack of background information on Dr. Finkelstein. Mr. Szarzynski makes Dr. Finkelstein out to be a victim of "U.S. and Israeli Power." However, the author fails to inform the reader of Dr. Finkelstein's past comments regarding the Holocaust.

Dr. Finkelstein was quoted calling Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel a "resident clown of the Holocaust circus" and "a ridiculous character." I don't think a man who calls a Holocaust survivor a "clown" should be allowed tenure at any university. I also don't think a man who calls the Holocaust a "circus" should be teaching university students.

Academic freedom can only go so far. Once you start attacking an event in which six million people died, you have gone way too far.

Jon Leener

UW Student