KILSON ON MIDEAST

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I was looking forward to attending last week's teach-in on the Arab states' attack on Israel, but if the Crimson reports of the meeting are accurate I do not regret missing the affair. After nearly a decade of highly emotional behavior at Harvard and other colleges around major domestic and foreign crises like the Vietnam war, black militancy, and women liberation, far too many of us now consider such behavior appropriate fo any issue of deep personal concern. I for one was astounded that a meeting called to describe and evaluate the current military round in the Arab-Israel conflict was transformed into a jingoistic exercise, with protestations by several Jewish members of faculty of their frustration in not being on the battlefield as the measure of the speakers' value to the discussion.

I happen to support Israel in the current crisis, but I simply fail to understand what service sensitive and intelligent intellectuals think they are performing for the life of the mind when behaving in this fashion. I should like to sound a warning: Unless this behavior is brought under control, we will make shambles of intellectual life at this great institution. Martin Kilson   Professor of Government