Parsing an Academic Boycott of Israel Re "Boycott by Academic Group Is a Symbolic Sting to Israel" (front page, Dec. 17): The vote by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli universities casts a long shadow on this academic community. After all, how else to explain the fact that no other country in the world - not Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Sudan or any other serial human rights violator - has been the object of such a boycott by the group? Only Israel, which happens to be the one truly democratic state in the Middle East and which is engaged in an intensive and complex peace process with the Palestinians, after successful efforts with Egypt and Jordan. Why the choice of Israel? The group's president, Curtis Marez, explained that "one has to start somewhere." But that hardly explains such a misguided action. If Israel is so anathema to the majority of the association's members, then presumably they will extend the boycott beyond Israeli universities to everything Israeli. If so, they may find themselves without computer laptops, cellphones and access to lifesaving medical technology and pharmaceuticals, among many Israeli contributions to advancing the frontiers of human knowledge and development. At least, let the association's members show consistency in their regrettable behavior. DAVID HARRIS Executive Director American Jewish Committee New York, Dec. 17, 2013 The American Studies Association's resolution to boycott Israeli universities, which was approved by more than 66 percent of the 1,252 members who voted, is a shameful assault on academic freedom and one that is based on a one-dimensional and biased perspective on Israel and the conflict. It is manifestly unjust to single out academic institutions because they are in Israel. Lawrence H. Summers, when president of Harvard, said it best when he was faced with a similar effort to wage an academic boycott against the Jewish state more than a decade ago: "Serious and thoughtful people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent." More recently with regard to the American Studies Association, Mr. Summers rightly questioned whether university funds should be used to finance faculty membership in an association that is being used not as a scholarly association but as a political tool. The group's resolution blacklisting Israeli universities damages the cause of academic freedom, unfairly demonizes Israel, and certainly does nothing to advance the cause of a lasting Palestinian-Israeli peace. MICHAEL A. SALBERG Director, International Affairs Anti-Defamation League New York, Dec. 17, 2013 You report that "the American Studies Association resolution bars official collaboration with Israeli institutions but not with Israeli scholars." Sounds more like a partial boycott and, yes, a "symbolic sting," as your headline has it. Israel's ambassador to the United States claims that Israel is "the sole democracy in the Middle East." But there is very little freedom or justice for the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine. A secular two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would go a long way toward eliminating the religious extremism, bigotry, injustice and refugee crises created by the conflict. I have a suggestion for the American Studies Association: Why not boycott China? There, unlike Israel, academics can end up imprisoned for their views. And the Muslim population in western China is also oppressed. Of course, boycotting a rising power might be detrimental to the careers of association members and the bottom lines of their schools and would require actual courage.