Prominent Editor-In-Chief Fired Over Posts Critical Of Israel
Criticism of Israel’s response to being attacked by Hamas terrorists led to the firing of a prominent journalist this week. Michael Eisen was the editor-in-chief of popular life science journal “eLife” until he shared a controversial post blasting the Jewish state.
The cancel culture that leftists gleefully support is catching up with some of them as they find themselves defending the indefensible.
Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Eisen announced that he was terminated for sharing the article. He also heaped praise on the position of the writing in criticizing Israel for defending itself from terrorist aggression.
The Onion’s satirical headline stated, “Dying Gazans Criticized For Not Using Last Words To Condemn Hamas.”
Eisen added his personal observation. “The Onion speaks with more courage, insight and moral clarity than the leaders of every academic institution put together.”
The Jewish former editor, who is a geneticist at the University of California, wrote on X that he was let go for retweeting an article that “calls out the indifference to the lives of Palestinian citizens.”
Social media erupted with comments disparaging Eisen’s stance, but he doubled down on his remarks. He claimed that while every right-thinking person is “horrified and traumatized” by the Hamas attack, he is also against the so-called collective punishment delivered in Gaza.
Eisen also defended The Onion, asserting the site was giving proper weight to the desperate situation unfolding in the Middle East.
The scientific community, however, reacted negatively to Eisen’s position on Israel. Many of his colleagues called for him to step down from eLife, including Israeli-American computer scientist Yaniv Erlich.
The CEO of Eleven Therapeutics criticized Eisen for failing to defend his scientific colleagues in Israel.
Others, however, rushed to Eisen’s defense. A petition was launched encouraging the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, eLife’s publisher, not to punish the editor-in-chief for his controversial position on the Israel-Hamas war.
The petition declared that the position of the signatories was not determined by “the merits of Eisen’s views.” Instead, it expressed concern that penalizing the now-fired editor “would establish a discouraging precedent for freedom of expression in academia.”
An ironic assertion considering the rampant suppression of conservative voices across the same academia.
