"This is not a matter of someone being justpro-Palestinian, a legitimate public position.When [Gore] saw this, he had to make a decision,"Peretz said.
Peretz maintained that several staffers ingore's office had heard about the 1992 controversyover Marius' review before Peretz had gotten windof it, and that this was not a case of exercisingany kind of undue influence over a personalfriend.
But Marius said Peretz had told Gore that thespeechwriter was an anti-Semite as early as1993--the year Marius helped the then-candidatewrite a speech Gore gave in New York about theWarsaw Ghetto uprising.
"Marty Peretz first came into my view when Iwrote the speech for the Madison Square Garden in1993 about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. It was thenthat he told Gore that I was an anti-Semite. Ithought 'this is so stupid,'" Marius recalled in atelephone interview from his summer retreat inTennessee.
"Everybody who knows me knows I'm not ananti-Semite," Marius said. "It [the allegation]galls me.... It is shocking."
Thought he said he is not angry with Peretz,Marius equated the lecturer to a Jewish version ofPat Robertson in the Wednesday Washington Postarticle that broke the story of his unhearing.
Voles, Gore's communications director, said shecould not discuss the decision.
"We consider this to be a private personnelmatter, and it's our policy not to talk aboutthose," Voles said.
Marries hiring and subsequent firing had beenrumored around Harvard during the past week. Thestory has now been reported by newspapers radiostation and wire services ranging from theAssociated Press to the Jerusalem Post.
"I thank God for Harvard's way of taking meback," said Marries, who has already cleared hisreturn through official channels in UniversityHall.
"Dr. Marius asked for and was granted leave andthen he asked for and was granted return. Hiscourses were simply unbracketed," Knowles said inan interview yesterday.
"Certainly I remember some expressed concern inthe magazine at the time. But it's not the firstand it won't be the last review in this magazineor another that will cause a flurry," Knowlessaid.
Marius a highly-visible campus figure who canbe seen reading in Memorial Church or chatting atNieman Fellow receptions said he stands by what hewrote and that he has a history of standing up forJews.
"I feel the Shin Bet is to Israel what the CIAis to America. If I could abolish it today Iwould. The crimes of the Shin Bet have beenthoroughly documented. Amnesty Internationalreports it all the time.... I stands by what Iwrote," said Marius who had been authoring thecolumn for Harvard Magazine since 1986.
Marius also defended himself by citing a 1974book he wrote about the Protestant reformer MartinLuther. In the book, he castigated scholars forfailing to acknowledge Luther's anti-Semitism.
"Luther scholars were mad at me, but I said itwas a crime to ignore it," Marius said.
Marius said he has no regrets, despite the lostopportunity.
"I always wanted to write [Gore's] inauguraladdress in 2001, but I wouldn't feel right writingfor him anymore, but maybe in time we'll see," hesaid." I'll probably still vote for him, though."
"My conscience is absolutely clear. I'm sorryto be misread by people but what I've said all mylife is down there in black and white.... I feelvery peaceful about the whole thing," he said.