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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Eric Golub</title>
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		<title>No Debate Allowed at Anti-Israel UCLA ‘Debate’</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/eric-golub/no-debate-allowed-at-anti-israel-ucla-debate/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=no-debate-allowed-at-anti-israel-ucla-debate</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2014 04:09:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Eric Golub]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anti-Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gabriel Piterberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jew-Hate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UCLA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=233965</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[More Jew-Hate on an American campus. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/piterberg.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-233968" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/piterberg.jpg" alt="piterberg" width="293" height="209" /></a>Outside of the United Nations, few institutions are as dedicated to anti-Israel rants as the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Near Eastern Studies (<a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&amp;cof=FORID%3A9&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=cnes&amp;sa=Search">CNES</a>). A recent CNES <a href="http://web.international.ucla.edu/cnes/event/10512">conference</a> titled “The Settler Colonial Paradigm: Debating Gershon Shafir’s ‘Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ on its 25th Anniversary,” was a case in point.</p>
<p>The mouthful of a title refers to University of California, San Diego sociology professor and director of the human rights minor <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&amp;cof=FORID%3A9&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=gershon+shafir&amp;sa=Search">Gershon Shafir’s</a> 1995 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Labor-Origins-Isr%C3%A6li-Palestinian-Conflict-1882-1914/dp/0520204018/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1399585732&amp;sr=1-1-fkmr0&amp;keywords=Gershon+Shafir+Land%2C+Labor+and+the+Origins+of+the+Israeli-Palestinian+Conflict%E2%80%99">book</a>, <em>Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict</em>. Ignoring 3,000 years of archeological evidence connecting Jews to what is now the land of Israel, Shafir’s unoriginal thesis was that carpet bagging Zionists bought up land and displaced indigenous Palestinians. Calling the conference a “debate” was a misnomer, for that typically requires at least two opposing views. In this case, the Israeli Gershon Shafir offered the Palestinian point of view and none of the speakers’ contested him.</p>
<p>Of the twenty-five or so attendees, at least half were middle-aged and half were presenters, moderators, and other faculty. About five people under thirty showed up, including Shafir’s daughter and her boyfriend, both of whom looked bored.</p>
<p>UCLA history professor and CNES director <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&amp;cof=FORID%3A9&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=gabriel+piterberg&amp;sa=Search">Gabriel Piterberg</a>, speaking on the second panel, declared that, “Zionism is a rupture from Judaism, and certainly a rupture from Rabbinic Judaism.” He managed to conclude that this uniquely Jewish movement could be considered “Protestant,” and described Karl Marx’s <em>Communist Manifesto</em> as “a classic in its own right.” Piterberg, who was born in Argentina and grew up in Israel, described himself as a “Palestinian historian”; despite consorting only with likeminded academics, he then castigated “self-designated New Israeli historians” as “insular.”</p>
<p>He offered the usual anti-Israel canards, including the “false Zionist narrative of the 1948 war,” the “Israeli plan to carry out an ethnic cleansing,” and, bizarrely, the “elitist, Marxist, feminist colonization.” He referred to Israel’s founding as the “Nakba,” the Arabic word for “catastrophe” and claimed the “Jewish National Fund” was responsible for “helping settlers buy up land” to “displace” Palestinians.</p>
<p>Next up was <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&amp;cof=FORID%3A9&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=Beshara+Doumani&amp;sa=Search">Beshara Doumani</a>, director of Middle East studies at Brown University, who coupled harsh criticism of Israel with environmental tropes. After accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and genocide, he suddenly lamented that “climate change is creating new forms of displacement,” although, he added, the “consequences are not clear.”</p>
<p>He described the two sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict as “one based on hard facts [and] one based on memories” and bemoaned the mythical “settler colonial nature of the Zionist project.” His incisive summation was, “I don’t have a conclusion.”</p>
<p>Doumani conceded that he was “not a historian,” and that “I’ve never done any research on the period after 1860 until now.” In what could have been the tagline for this very conference, he noted that “The more people study” this issue, “the less we know,” before asking rhetorically, “How do they know I am not making any of it up?” Doumani then made one of the more revealing statements of the day:</p>
<blockquote><p>If the world was black and white we would never have a job. Historians, what they really do is erase. That is their number one job.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&amp;cof=FORID%3A9&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=david+n.+myers&amp;sa=Search">David N. Myers</a>, chair of the history department at UCLA, showed up very late to deliver the keynote address. He briefly described honored guest Gershon Shafir as a man without “bombast,” “facile reductionism,” “sloganeering,” or “generalizations.” In his remarks, Shafir quickly disproved at least one of Myers’s assertions, as his voice was too quiet to offer bombast. He did, however, thrice reference the “occupied territories” rather than the “disputed territories.”</p>
<p>Shafir then got confused and briefly disagreed with his entire narrative, stating that, “The Hebrew language does not have a term for conquest” before reversing himself and adding, “It does not have a term for occupation, but does have a term for conquest.” His ramblings did little to enliven the audience, at least one member of which, Stanford University Middle East history professor <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/search.php?cx=015692155655874064424%3A-cjrsa07xqe&amp;cof=FORID%3A9&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=joel+beinin&amp;sa=Search">Joel Beinin</a>, appeared to be taking a nap.</p>
<p>While Shafir was supposed to be the focus, the speakers fawned over Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, a young Arab-Israeli woman who is project coordinator for the Mada al-Carmel Arab Center for Applied Social Research in Haifa and a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University. A key moment in the seminar came when she asked her fellow speakers when exactly the Palestinians became indigenous and none of them, despite basing their entire narrative on the “indigenous Palestinian” story, could answer the question.She had no idea herself, nor an idea how to find the answer.Perhaps that’s because the assertion that they’re indigenous is based not on historical research but on modern misinformation.</p>
<p>The conference was rife with such lapses, but an absent-minded, biased professor is no less damaging than an effective one. Spreading the false narrative of Jews as colonizers and Palestinians as victims, Middle East studies academics are able to corrupt generations of impressionable young minds. And taxpayers are left footing the bill for what amounts to anti-Israel propaganda.</p>
<p><em>Eric Golub is the publisher of the</em> <a href="http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/"><em>Tygrrrr Express</em></a><em> blog. He wrote this article for</em> <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/"><em>Campus Watch</em></a><em>, a project of the</em> <a href="http://www.meforum.org/"><em>Middle East Forum</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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		<title>Using the Holocaust to Bash Israel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/eric-golub/using-the-holocaust-to-bash-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=using-the-holocaust-to-bash-israel</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:03:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Eric Golub]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=87479</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome to academia’s Holocaust fetish.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="highslide" onclick="return vz.expand(this)" href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/jRosen.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-87482" title="jRosen" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/jRosen.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="337" /></a></p>
<p>In the never-ending quest amongst Middle East studies academics to demonize Israel, a trendy new approach has appeared: employing the Holocaust.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/podcasts/article.asp?parentid=119707">lecture</a> co-sponsored by UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies, “Traumatic Memory Discourses in Israel: Holocaust History, Territory and Self-Critique,” fit the pattern. It was delivered by <a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=8574">Joseph Rosen</a>, a postdoctoral fellow in Montreal at Concordia University’s department of history &amp; the Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence.</p>
<p>Rosen’s <a href="http://www.irmgard-coninx-stiftung.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Memory_Politics/Workshop_3/Rosen_Essay.pdf">emphasis</a> on the “cultural production of the memories of violence in relation to contemporary sites of suffering and oppression” was intended to explain the Arab-Israeli conflict from a psychological standpoint. Stated briefly, it holds that Israelis are so paranoid about a second Holocaust that they exaggerate the nature of threats and, in response, overreact. As a result, Israeli self-defense is conditioned not by facts on the ground, such as terrorism or openly genocidal enemies, but by irrational fear.</p>
<p>His audience consisted of 15 people, of whom only three appeared to be students. Rosen came across as a sincere, likable individual, which made his presentation all the more threatening. He spoke in a friendly manner and clearly believed what he said. But being well-intentioned did not make him any less wrong.</p>
<p>Rosen began by stating unambiguously that, “Israelis construct memories of violence for political purposes” and by providing examples from two groups: the “settlers” and the “refuseniks.”</p>
<p>As to what he described as the “territorialization of Holocaust memory,” Rosen claimed that at some point, “the memories become complicit.” As he put it, “fear of a second Holocaust leads to continued occupation.”</p>
<p>He bolstered his case with several examples of Israelis using inflammatory language against each. Citing the disengagement from Gaza under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Rosen stated that:</p>
<blockquote><p>The settlers were wearing armbands. They compared the Holocaust to the Gaza withdrawal. There were graffiti attacks on Sharon. He was called the [<em>sic</em>] Jewish word for ‘collaborator’ [kapo].</p></blockquote>
<p>Apparently, it was lost on Rosen that the Gaza pullout was relatively peaceful; even the most ardent settlers ended up hugging the soldiers who were removing them. Collaborators in Palestinian Gaza fare much worse: summary execution.</p>
<p>Rosen quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—incorrectly it turns out—as saying that “Withdrawing from the settlements was the equivalent of making Europe Jew-free.” He went on:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 1952, Israel refused to negotiate with Germany over reparations. Menachem Begin compared reparations to another Holocaust. Jews accusing each other of being Nazis goes way back.</p></blockquote>
<p>Rosen then contrasted the different time periods:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 1952 the armbands [yellow armbands worn by those protesting against reparations from Germany] were for a non-economical end. In 2005 they served a material end, that being territory.</p></blockquote>
<p>He claimed that, “During the 1967 War, fear of annihilation was disclosed as a second Holocaust. This is a result of the 1961 Adolf Eichmann trial.” Because of the horrible visuals of the Eichmann trial, “Holocaust ‘remembrance’ was repressed. . . . [This] then gave Israel a connection and they were able to identify with the survivors.”</p>
<p>Rosen’s theory fails the test of logic. The fear of annihilation in 1967 was based on not only the Holocaust two decades earlier, but on the creation of Israel in 1948, which was met with a very real attempt at annihilation on the part of the Arabs.</p>
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		<title>Excuses for Islamists</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/eric-golub/excuses-for-islamists/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=excuses-for-islamists</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/eric-golub/excuses-for-islamists/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Eric Golub]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[american civil liberties]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Jennifer Turner]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=59254</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[UCLA’s "see no evil" approach to terrorism financing.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/aclu.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59267" title="aclu" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/aclu.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="256" /></a></p>
<p>A conference at the University  of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on April 16,  2010, offered “<a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=8022">Critical Perspectives on the Criminalization of Islamic Philanthropy in the War on Terror</a>.” Co-sponsored by the UCLA International Institute, the Critical Race Studies Program, and the <em>UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law</em>—and including speakers from UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES)—the conference proffered the usual apologist fare.</p>
<p>It was also an echo chamber. Of the approximately 30 people in attendance, 20 of them were academics. Several students showed up, in addition to the usual assortment of aging leftist revolutionaries.</p>
<p>The thrust of the conference was simple: The war on terror has led to a crackdown on Muslim charities, which has had a chilling effect on Muslims by rendering them unable to engage in <em>Zakat </em>(charity), one of the five pillars of Islam.</p>
<p>Unmentioned throughout this eight-hour infomercial was that the majority of the charities that have been investigated for financially aiding terrorism were found guilty and that decent Muslims are capable of giving to charities that do not foment bombings and beheadings.</p>
<p>Asli Bali, acting professor of law at UCLA, organized the conference and acted as one of the principal moderators. She responded to challenging questions from the audience by stating: “We will take three questions from presenters; others will have to wait.”</p>
<p>Jennifer Turner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Human Rights Program was the speaker over whom everybody seemed to be fawning. Her presentation was titled, “Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity,” and, in typical ACLU fashion, she made excuses for Islamists’ bad behavior while bashing America.</p>
<p>She began by stating: “I’m not a social scientist. I am not here to offer any statistical analysis”—a fig leaf she employed to make wildly unsubstantiated claims, as when she announced that “the conviction in the Holy Land Foundation case was based on faulty evidence.” She didn’t bother to elaborate.</p>
<p>It turned out her “research” that had the entire room in a swoon consisted of the following:</p>
<blockquote><p>I did 120 interviews with American Muslims in Michigan and Texas. People reported that they were unable to give<em> Zakat</em>. Some had stopped giving entirely. Some felt fear of deportation or denial of citizenship.</p></blockquote>
<p>Turner excused her extremely small sample size with more platitudes about not being a statistician. She insisted that she did not ask leading questions, although the process was clearly an exercise in promoting victimhood. She did not verify the accuracy of her respondents or analyze any tax returns. In short, she relied on her own biased views to justify a predetermined conclusion.</p>
<p>University  of Michigan, Dearborn, history professor Sally Howell actually found oppression in increased giving. As she put it:</p>
<blockquote><p>Since 2001, there have been 14 new mosques, and 17 mosques have doubled in size. This is proof that people are not donating overseas.</p></blockquote>
<p>Howell followed this with more bizarre commentary:</p>
<p>“The Arab charity LIFE [Life for Relief and Development] had their board resign one year after Israel invaded Lebanon.”</p>
<p>Foiled again!</p>
<p>“As a result of restrictive policies” a board member of another charity, according to Howell, “embezzled $10,000.”</p>
<p>Yes: and as a result of inconvenient and restrictive securities laws, Bernie Madoff was forced to steal. It was all America’s fault.</p>
<p>“Does government get to decide what is good Islam and what is bad Islam?,” she asked.</p>
<p>No, but it does get to decide what constitutes funding terrorism.</p>
<p>Howell concluded, “The FBI has to show results or lose resources.”</p>
<p>Erica James, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) anthropology professor, offered proof—of nothing:</p>
<p>“I have an anthropology background. I am here to theorize what is happening.”</p>
<p>Her solution to the supposed problems faced by Muslim charities? “Defiant giving.”</p>
<p>During the question and answer period of this panel, an audience member—resorting to the usual name calling directed at critics of Middle East studies— proclaimed that “well-known bigot Daniel Pipes wrote an article about ‘stealth Islamists.’”</p>
<p>The panelists all nodded in agreement. There was no word on <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1841/stealth-islamist-khaled-abou-el-fadl">Pipes’s findings</a> regarding UCLA law professor—and moderator at this conference—Khaled Abou El Fadl’s status as, in fact, a stealth Islamist.</p>
<p>Laila Al-Marayati, the chairperson of KinderUSA—a charity that terrorism analyst Matthew Levitt <a href="http://www.nysun.com/national/charity-drops-suit-against-terrorism-analyst/60635/">included</a> in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hamas-Politics-Charity-Terrorism-Service/dp/0300122586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1268664162&amp;sr=1-1">his book</a> on funding Hamas—portrayed the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as harmless. As she put it, “Hamas helps Palestinian children in Gaza. I don’t consider Hamas and Hezbollah as threats to me and my family.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Benthall of University College, London, gave a talk that can be summed up in one quote: “The United States is the key to the problem.”</p>
<p>Mona Atia, assistant professor of geography and international affairs at George Washington University, claimed that “Egypt has been a model of fighting terrorism.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, McGill University political science and Islamic studies professor Khalid Medani demonstrated willful blindness by opining, “Somalia is a place where Islamic terrorism is not possible because they are not organized.”</p>
<p>When asked if the definition of a terrorist was hard to prove, Medani responded, “You’re right. I try to critique them based on their own terms. I’m not a lawyer.”</p>
<p>No UCLA conference would be complete without <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/6835">offensive</a> <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/8648">commentary</a> from a member of the Center for Near Eastern Studies faculty. This time, CNES director and anthropology professor Susan Slyomovics—speaking during a break with colleagues about a book she’s working on—said:</p>
<blockquote><p>If Jews can get reparations from Germany, then Palestinians should get reparations from Israel. After all, <em>what the Germans supposedly did to the Jews</em> [emphasis added] is what Israel is doing to the people of Palestine.</p></blockquote>
<p>All the while, she kept smiling and laughing. Nothing makes for a good academic sitcom like Holocaust denial from a prominent professor of Middle East studies.</p>
<p>Despite eight hours of groupthink, I was able to finally cut through the leftist clutter to determine why the U.S. is investigating Muslim charities: 9/11 actually did happen, and the majority of the charities accused of funding terrorism actually did.</p>
<p>Only a UCLA Middle East studies conference could deliberately fail to grasp this.</p>
<p><em>Eric Golub is the publisher of the <a href="http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/">Tygrrrr Express</a> blog. He wrote this article for <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/" target="_blank">Campus Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/" target="_blank">Middle East Forum</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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		<title>Joseph Massad at UCLA: Gay-Bashing 101</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/eric-golub/joseph-massad-at-ucla-gay-bashing-101/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=joseph-massad-at-ucla-gay-bashing-101</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/eric-golub/joseph-massad-at-ucla-gay-bashing-101/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:04:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Eric Golub]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[A Columbia professor claims that homosexuality is an imperialist plot against the Arab and Muslim worlds. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-48328" title="massad" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/massad.jpg" alt="massad" width="450" height="300" /></p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=7892">lecture</a> last week at the UCLA <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/4420">Center for Near Eastern Studies</a> (CNES) offered a mixture of intellectually deficient material mixed with a dash of bigotry. It was delivered by Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University.</p>
<p>The topic of Massad’s lecture was “<a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=7892">Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam</a>.” While <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/7386">past CNES lectures</a> resulted in <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/8648">Israel-bashing</a> and <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/6835">anti-Semitism</a>, UCLA finally decided to honor its commitment to diversity by attacking another minority group. This time, homosexuals had their turn in the multicultural bile wheel.</p>
<p>From inception to completion, Massad’s lecture was nothing more than gay-bashing. This was on par with the thesis of Massad’s 2007 book, <em>Desiring Arabs,</em> <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/4253">which posits</a> that gay sexuality among Muslims does not exist. Rather, it is a Western plot designed to undermine the Muslim world.</p>
<p>Massad echoed many of these bigoted themes in his lecture. He explained that “Queer is about resistance to Islam.” Similarly, he said that “There is no Arabic transliteration of queer. It is a judgmental notice of deviance.” In a particularly striking claim, Massad insisted that, for Muslims, concepts like “hate and sexuality are only translatable to English-speaking people.” Muslim honor killings, presumably, are only a figment of non-Muslims imagination.</p>
<p>Massad also used the occasion to present a novel – and decidedly homophobic – conspiracy theory. “Queer is an imperialist term,” he announced. “It is part of the Anglo-American gay agenda.” Indeed, according to Massad, “queer is an example of cultural imperialism.” It followed, by his perverse logic, that the “use of ‘gay’ in Iran is imperial politics.” The claim called to mind Mahmoud Ahmadinejad notorious speech at Columbia University, in which he assured the audience that there are no gay people in his country. It’s notable that the views of a theocratic despot should find such staunch backing in the hear of supposedly progressive academia.</p>
<p>Most bizarrely, Massad admitted he was “very interested in talking to people about their sexual experiences if they want to tell me.” Ostensibly, Arabs and Muslims would have been excluded from that discussion, since Massad also claimed that “there is no such thing as Iran/Arab/Muslim sexuality. Sexuality is an English notion.”</p>
<p>During a question and answer period, an audience member brought up Massad’s apparent discomfort behind the word “queer.” What word should be used instead, the questioner wanted to know? Challenged on his views, Massad offered up an answer that revealed much about the close-mindedness of modern academia. “I am not sure any discourse is necessary,” he said.</p>
<p><em>Eric Golub is the publisher of the <a href="http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/" target="_blank">Tygrrrr Express</a> blog. He wrote this article for <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/" target="_blank">Campus Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/" target="_blank">Middle East Forum</a>.</em></p>
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		<title>Israel-bashing at UCLA &#8211; by Eric Golub</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Eric Golub]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[The latest outrage from the debased field of Middle Eastern studies.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-35858" title="anti-israel1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/anti-israel1.jpg" alt="anti-israel1" width="360" height="270" /></p>
<p>Last week, the <a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/">Center for Near Eastern Studies</a> (CNES) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) co-sponsored a seminar with the ungainly title, “<a href="http://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/events/showevent.asp?eventid=7637">Invasion Is a Structure, Not an Event: Settler Colonialism Past and Present</a>.” It was billed as a “two-day event organized by <a href="http://www.history.ucla.edu/people/faculty?lid=996">Gabriel Piterberg</a>,” a <a href="http://www.uclaprofs.com/profs/piterberg.html">notoriously anti-Israel</a> UCLA history professor. True to form, the seminar featured some of the most <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/4420">politicized and biased academics</a> in the field of Middle East studies.</p>
<p>The audience of around 30 included perhaps 15 professors and a cadre of the aging hippie revolutionaries (not mutually exclusive groups) one grows accustomed to seeing at anti-Israel events.</p>
<p>Having covered earlier this year a “<a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/6835">Gaza and Human Rights</a>” symposium at UCLA that was widely <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/6892">criticized</a> for devolving into Israel-bashing and anti-Semitism, I attended this event with a watchful eye.</p>
<p>UCLA professors, perhaps aware that they are now being monitored, have become somewhat wary. The panel included Jewish and Israeli speakers in an attempt at “diversity,” but as is typical in academe, it was intellectually homogeneous. The “Jewish perspective” was represented by the far left of the political spectrum and differed little from the so-called pro-Palestinian perspective. To the extent any true debate existed, the seminar was an exercise in the indefensible vs. the incomprehensible.</p>
<p>New York University Middle Eastern studies and history professor <a href="http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/mideast/people/lockman.html">Zachary Lockman</a> introduced the indefensible by labeling Israel the “Zionist entity” and the “Zionist project,” while referring to Palestinians as the “indigenous people.” He claimed that “Israel can be compared to South Africa” because it “uses coercion” and concluded that “colonialism is Zionism.”</p>
<p>University of California, San Diego sociology professor <a href="http://weber.ucsd.edu/~gshafir/">Gershon Shafir</a> provided the incomprehensible as his “rebuttal.” His defense of Israel was as weak as his communication and organizational skills.</p>
<p>Shafir began by quipping, “I didn’t expect such a large crowd. I only brought five handouts.” In looking at his own notes, he said, “I can&#8217;t read this.”</p>
<p>He was self-deprecating and generous in his praise of his opponent Lockman, who was neither. As he put it, “I&#8217;m not from New York. I can’t speak as quickly.”</p>
<p>Shafir’s academic jargon rendered syntax worthy of a mathematics class:</p>
<blockquote><p>Antecedent conditions lead to a critical juncture which leads to structural persistence which leads to a reactive sequence which leads to an outcome.</p></blockquote>
<p>At one point, he almost managed to offer a pro-Israel sentiment, but then backed away:</p>
<blockquote><p>I have all kinds of things to say about [Palestinian] violence, but I would get some ugly looks if I do.</p></blockquote>
<p>He then looked at the other professors, who motioned for him to sit down. So much for intellectual diversity.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/history/staff/wolfe.htm">Patrick Wolfe</a>, a history professor at La Trobe University in Australia, spoke next. He said he had no stake in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which led me to wonder, “Then why are you here?”</p>
<p>It turns out he was there to offer the Marxist position, including the following:</p>
<blockquote><p>Black labor and red people’s land has been used for white people’s benefit.</p>
<p>The primary goal is not the exploitation of labor. It is the seizure of land.</p>
<p>Half of the Jews are Arabs, so the Jewish/Arab conflict makes no sense.</p></blockquote>
<p>As to the latter, it makes plenty of sense. Arabs are murdering Jews, and Jews are against this.</p>
<p>Making less sense was Stanford University history professor <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/">Joel Beinin</a>, who chaired the next panel. He began by praising Lockman and then claimed, against all evidence, “It is extraordinary to have such a rich discussion of the issues.”</p>
<p>Sticking to <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/7478">his usual biases</a>, Beinin juxtaposed current Israeli leadership with Israel’s founders, to the detriment of the former: “The young Turks are militarizing the conflict to advance themselves.”</p>
<p>At this point Piterberg opined that, “Increased settler movement is meant to spread Judeo supremacy at all costs.”</p>
<p>And Lockman chimed in:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 1948 Jews succeeded in getting rid of many indigenous Palestinians, but they can’t kill them all. This is the logic and contradiction of the Zionist project.</p></blockquote>
<p>University of Minnesota-Twin Cities history professor <a href="http://www.hist.umn.edu/people/profile.php?UID=plorcin">Patricia Lorcin</a> spoke about sexuality in colonial Algeria. She managed to unite Lockman and Shafir, both of whom desperately wanted her presentation to end: It was a distraction from bashing Israel.</p>
<p>Piterberg, who was slated to discuss leftwing Israeli writer <a href="http://www.jewishpress.com/content.cfm?contentid=31855">Amos Oz</a>, offered bizarre and at times, tactless thoughts instead. Here is a sampling:</p>
<blockquote><p>Israeli settlers are running around like R2D2. [I guess that would make C3PO a colonizer, since he was British.]</p>
<p>Israel looted Palestinian land after 1948. It was colonial sexual excitement.</p>
<p>Like an adulterous woman, the nomads moved forward.</p>
<p>Picture an Oriental Jewish woman fantasizing about a man with a mustache.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Likud policies are about exerting sexual power.</p></blockquote>
<p>And perhaps most outrageously:</p>
<blockquote><p>A proper white woman must become a Moroccan slut to experience true physical pleasure.</p></blockquote>
<p>Beinin emoted that:</p>
<blockquote><p>Amos Oz is the Israeli author I most love to hate. We need an extra five minutes to expose his racism and misogyny.</p></blockquote>
<p>While Lorcin noted helpfully:</p>
<blockquote><p>Sexual anxiety creates a fear of Arabs and Muslims.</p></blockquote>
<p>UCLA anthropology professor and chair of CNES’s Faculty Advisory Committee <a href="http://www.anthro.ucla.edu/people/faculty?lid=426&amp;display_one=1">Sondra Hale</a>, trying to reign in the discussion, asked, “How does that relate to settlers?”</p>
<p>Without missing a beat, Lorcin replied, “Demographic promiscuity.”</p>
<p>Rounding out the panel’s apparent preoccupation with sex, Lorcin added:</p>
<blockquote><p>Sexual anxiety leads to the politics of this moment. Periods of calm mean that there is no need for “Frenchness.”</p></blockquote>
<p>I’m not sure if this was intended as praise or an insult, but it was at least consistent with everything else she said.</p>
<p>Having had his fill of sex talk, Beinin moved on to implicitly accusing Israel of committing genocide:</p>
<blockquote><p>The logic of settler colonialism is “eliminationist.” [That is not an actual word, but why let that stand in the way of making a good point?]</p></blockquote>
<p>As “proof,” he cited the work of Columbia University Arab studies professor Rashid Khalidi:</p>
<blockquote><p>In 1884, violence occurred two years after Zionists arrived in Palestine.</p></blockquote>
<p>Beinin followed Khalidi’s incorrect assertions with his own:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Nakba [or catastrophe, used by radicals to describe Israel’s founding] occurred in July, 1948. Yitzchak Rabin expelled 50,000 Palestinians.</p></blockquote>
<p>Then he added, “I am not here making a pacifist solution,” which drew loud laughter from the professors, some of whom have a history of justifying violence against Israelis while decrying Israeli self-defense.</p>
<p>When somebody asked about problems with Palestinian leadership, Beinin replied, to more laughter, “Some things I don&#8217;t discuss in black and white.” Apparently, Beinin only applies this approach to discussions of Israel.</p>
<p>The conclusion of this bizarre conference was stunningly and unintentionally honest.</p>
<p>Piterberg stated:</p>
<blockquote><p>We all write about the settlers, but none of us write about the indigenous population. This could be for a variety of reasons.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/8357">To which Hale</a> replied:</p>
<blockquote><p>We are only interested in the settlers because we are careerists. That is unkind, but true. There is plenty of material on the indigenous people; we just ignore it.</p></blockquote>
<p>The question of which peoples can be declared “indigenous” aside, she is absolutely right in admitting that criticizing Israel on campuses is good for business, not to mention much easier than rigorous, objective research.</p>
<p>The lowest moment of the conference occurred during a break, when Sondra Hale conversed with two women in the audience. Speaking loud enough for everyone to hear, Hale, showing her true colors, made the following outlandish statements:</p>
<blockquote><p>Stand With Us [a pro-Israel organization] are the White Citizen’s Council without the sheets. They are McCarthyists.</p>
<p>The ZOA [Zionist Organization of America] are Nazis.</p></blockquote>
<p>Moreover, she agreed with the other two when they said that &#8220;Zionists are more despicable than Baathists. If we could just use the courts, we could make the Zionists feel the financial sting.&#8221;</p>
<p>Some portions of the seminar were less harmful than silly. For instance, a couple people were simply outraged that the coffee cups they were using were not biodegradable.</p>
<p>Yet beyond the oddball assortment of environmentalists, Marxists, and supporters of Algerian eroticism, the bulk of the seminar hewed tightly to its clear and harmful purpose: demonizing and delegitimizing Israel. It’s a further sign of the continued politicization of Middle East studies.</p>
<p><em>Eric Golub is the publisher of the <a href="http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/" target="_blank">Tygrrrr Express</a> blog. He wrote this article for <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/" target="_blank">Campus Watch</a>, a project of  the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/" target="_blank">Middle East Forum</a>.</em></p>
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