Brandeis University entered a special relationship with the Arab Palestinian Al-Quds University that it says will "make the world a better place." (See http://www.brandeis.edu/aqu.) This is another example of Jewish efforts at co-existence with those who do not want Jews to exist.



Al-Quds University honors the murderers of Israelis and Americans while Brandeis continues working towards "bridging cultural divides." What kind of bridge is that, when the murderous intent seething on the Al-Quds side continues long after the relationship of these sister universities began?



Al-Quds University is a breeding ground for terrorists whose goal is to murder and maim as many Jews as possible. It is also a place where those who achieve this goal are honored not only by the students, but officially, by the university administration, as heroes.



Pro-Israel advocates critical of Brandeis?s evil twin have focused on Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds and longtime friend of Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz. It is unclear whether Nusseibeh no longer publicly praises homicide bombers or calls Israel a "racist, Zionist entity," or whether he will again help another country direct its SCUD missiles at Israel (clear evidence exists that Nusseibeh has done all these things), but it is the malevolent atmosphere at Al-Quds that renders Brandeis?s continued relationship with it a form of assisted suicide for the Jewish people.



A wall-sized poster of the recent Tel Aviv homicide bomber in his shahid outfit, the Al-Quds dropout who killed himself and eleven others, hangs in one of the Al-Quds buildings. An American teenager, Daniel Wultz, was murdered by that Al-Quds poster child. Perhaps only students hung this recent shrine to Jewish deaths, but not only Al-Quds students glorify the homicide bombers.



The leaders of Brandeis University pretend that their partnership is narrowing the enmity between Arab Palestinians and Jews - whether Israeli or otherwise. But even now, Al-Quds formally honors and glorifies murderers. It is the university itself, not the students, who name courses and whole "academic" centers after mass murderers.



For example, Al-Quds offers a "human rights and democracy" course named in honor of Wafa Idriss, the first Arab Palestinian female homicide bomber. Would Brandeis affiliate with a Christian university offering a course named after someone who killed himself and others while bombing an abortion clinic? No.



But most damning is the Al-Quds Abu-Jihad Center for Political Prisoners. Arab Palestinian political prisoners are terrorists who have been caught. The official university website explains that the center is named for Khalel Al-Wazir. His nickname, Abu-Jihad, means "father of the holy war".



Who is this man, honored by Al-Quds the way Brandeis honors the scholars and philanthropists whose names grace buildings and research centers on its own campus?



Abu-Jihad, a co-founder of Fatah, was its military strategist and second-in-command to Yasser Arafat. Abu-Jihad helped form the Shabibah - the Fatah Youth Movement. The Shabibah formed the nucleus for the first intifada.



In his role as head of commando (i.e., terror) operations in Israel, Abu-Jihad was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis. Abu-Jihad had ties to the 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Ironically, there is another Brandeis connection to the Munich massacre. Playwright Tony Kushner, vituperative critic of the Jewish state, was awarded an honorary degree at this year's Brandeis commencement. Kushner wrote the screenplay for the movie Munich. Neither Abu-Jihad's role in those murders, nor that of everyone's favorite moderate, Mahmoud Abbas, is included in his screenplay - though both were involved.



Abu-Jihad, the Al-Quds University Center namesake, murdered more than Israelis. In March of 1973, Abu-Jihad helped kidnap and murder US Ambassador Cleo Noel and Charge d'Affaires George Curtis Moore, in Khartoum, Sudan.



Just a few hours on the Internet revealed the Al-Quds University connection with the murder and maiming of Jews and Americans, and the glorification of those endeavors. Al-Quds's support for terror appears on its website in sections printed in English. Just imagine what is hidden in those sections that are only in Arabic.



Why did the Brandeis administration fail to conduct just a little research before committing itself to marrying this monster? And what if it did do that research?



An explicit and existential threat hangs over Israel and the rest of the civilized world. But Brandeis stumbles along, with reverence for the "Jewish traditions of scholarship, community service and social justice," while ignoring the paramount, and heretofore obvious, Jewish tradition - that of Jewish survival.