In a segment of 103FM Radio on Thursday, Professor Aryeh Eldad slammed an Haaretz article attacking Minister of Higher Education Ze'ev Elkin (Likud).
Eldad pointed out that he was familiar with Elkin from previous stints as an MK and that "since Elkin's appointment as Minister of Higher Education, the radical Left have been fear-stricken for their share of the pie. Elkin hasn't even had a chance to name the members of his personal staff, and already Haaretz is coming up with an establishment piece attacking his behavior: 'Elkin is dangerous for [Israeli] Academia.' Why? Because he dared pay a visit to Ariel University upon taking office and ensure their representatives would also serve in the Council for Higher Education in charge of distributing university budgets.
"The Leftist academia had become accustomed to keeping 'the entire cake' for those within its ranks. If it were up to them, Ariel U. wouldn't even have a department of medicine. Who's Haaretz to accuse Elkin of politicizing the distribution of funds?" he wondered.
Eldad poked fun at Elkin's naysayers. "When money goes to anti-Zionist [university] departments calling to boycott Israel, it's done in the name of academic freedom, but when some of it actually funds activities at the university of Ariel, it's a political move. These leftists aren't even aware of their own hypocrisy. The time has come for the truth to come out, even from within Israeli academia," he pointed out.