CAMPUS WATCH, a project of the Middle East Forum, reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students. Campus Watch fully respects the freedom of speech of those it debates while insisting on its own freedom to comment on their words and deeds.

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Quote of the Month (past quotes)

"What you have then is a clearly controversial highly emotional writing. The author has taken liberties with historical framework, she tried to present a historical novel, but it's a harlequin thing."

John Voll, associate director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, speaking to Fox News on August 19 about the historical novel "The Jewel of Medina" by Sherry Jones. A historical novel about A'isha, one of Muhammed's wives, the book's publication was canceled by Random House after UT-Austin prof. Denise Spellberg called it "soft core pornography" and warned that it might incite violence. (link to source)

Interview with Dr. Peter Golden, Academic Director of Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Rutgers
August 27, 2008 - Center for Middle Eastern Studies Newsletter (Rutgers)

Obama's Favorite Islamist [on Ingrid Mattson]
August 27, 2008 - Family Security Matters

Obama's Friend, America's Enemy [incl. Rashid Khalidi]
August 27, 2008 - National Review Online

How Is Our Civilization Headed For Defeat? [incl. Denise Spellberg]
August 27, 2008 - The Bulletin (Philadelphia)

Students Return from West Bank Trip [on Arabic instruction]
August 26, 2008 - Daily Herald (Provo, UT)

The 'Compassion' of 'Hope' and 'Change' [incl. Ingrid Mattson]
August 26, 2008 - Frontpage Magazine

Islamic Jihad Holds Kidnap Training [incl. former U. of South Florida prof. Ramadan Abdullah Shallah]
August 26, 2008 - Jihad Watch

Freedom's Gift to Religion [incl. Denise Spellberg]
August 26, 2008 - New York Sun

Interfaith Speakers Raise Questions [incl. Ingrid Mattson]
August 26, 2008 - Rocky Mountain News

Islamic School Hopes Sun Rises on Plans for Expansion [on Sunrise Academy in Hilliard, OH]
August 26, 2008 - The Columbus (OH) Local News

Blog

Letter Exchange: Robert Lieber and Asaf Romirowsky on "In Academia, Hiring Token Jews"

By Winfield Myers | Fri, 8 Aug 2008, 4:56 PM | Permalink

On Monday, August 4, Campus Watch Adjunct Scholar Asaf Romirowsky published an op-ed with the Washington Times titled, "In Academia, Hiring Token Jews."

On August 5, Robert Lieber, a professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University, wrote a letter objecting to Romirowsky's mention of Georgetown. Romirowsky replied on August 6. In the interest of airing both sides of this matter, Campus Watch has agreed to post both letters.

Robert Lieber's letter is immediately below; Romirowsky's letter appears at bottom.

Asaf Romirowsky's article points to a real problem which is part of a wider pattern of anti-Israel bias in Middle East studies departments, but he has used too broad a brush in naming universities. In doing so he fosters a misleading impression that Georgetown University is one of those institutions that hires Israeli or Jewish scholars in order to appear balanced but that instead is simply adding to the ranks of virulent critics and polemicists.

If Mr. Romirowsky had done his homework, he would not have included Georgetown in this list. In fact, our Program for Jewish Civilization, created five years ago within the School of Foreign Service, as well as – for the past three decades – the Department of Government, have hosted an impressive array of Israeli scholars and others with distinguished records of scholarship and teaching about Israel, not one of whom can be characterized as biased against Israel. The names speak for themselves. The PJC's roster now includes the eminent Israeli historian Michael Oren, diplomat and author Dennis Ross, Professor Yossi Shain, Dr. Avi Beker (former executive director of the World Jewish Congress and Goldman Professor 2007-09), and our Director, Professor Jacques Berlinerblau. Few, if any, American academic institutions can offer anything like this concentration of scholarly and experiential based knowledge concerning the relationship between U.S. foreign policy, the Middle East and the State of Israel.

In addition, the Government Department is home to the endowed Goldman Visiting Israeli Professorship. Among the outstanding scholars and teachers who have held this position over the past 28 years are such figures as Aharon Klieman, Eytan Gilboa, Moshe Ma'oz, Avner Yaniv, Dan Horowitz, Haggai Erlich, Amnon Sella, Yaacov Roi, Ehud Sprinzak, Efraim Inbar, Raymond Cohen, Martin Kramer, Avi Ben-Zvi, Rivka Yadlin, Yossi Kostiner, Amatzia Baram, Arie Kacowicz, Azar Gat, and Yossi Nevo.

Previous inquiries, for example Martin Kramer's IVORY TOWERS ON SAND, have delineated problems in Arab and Middle East Studies at Georgetown, but to carelessly assume that these characterize the Israeli scholars here is inexcusable. We urge Mr. Romirowsky and the readers of Campus Watch to get to know the Program for Jewish Civilization. They will be hearing a great deal about it in the coming years. In the meantime, your readers and these scholars deserve a correction and an apology.

Asaf Romirowsky's reply of August 6:

Dear Professor Lieber,

Thank you for your note and comments relating to my recent piece in the Washington Times, "In Academia, hiring Token Jews" at http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/5433. I am very much aware of your commendable efforts in bringing to Georgetown such pro-Israel Middle East Scholars as Michael Oren and Avi Beker, both of whom who I know and admire on a personal and professional level.

That said, nowhere in my piece do I accuse Georgetown of hiring Israeli scholars for cynical political gain. I only mention Georgetown in the last paragraph as an example to illustrate a larger trend in Middle East Studies:

In Middle East studies, politicized writing and teaching have displaced scholarship, and academic freedom has been redefined as the liberty to dispense with academic standards. Hence, Middle East departments at Columbia, University of Michigan, Georgetown, and elsewhere are populated or even run by individuals like Rashid Khalidi, Juan Cole, and John Esposito. Hiring token Israeli Jews who share their views eliminates debate while providing the illusion of balance.

This simply states that Georgetown, like Columbia and Michigan, has a Middle East Studies department that is "populated or even run by" the men listed, including Esposito. My point is clearly to illustrate that Middle East Studies in North America is a highly politicized, tendentious field.

Furthermore, although the steps taken by you and others in the Program for Jewish Civilization are certainly praiseworthy, the subject of my article is Middle East studies and not PJC. And Georgetown's Middle East studies program does indeed have serious problems: the amount of Saudi money that has gone to fund the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service has given Esposito, John Voll, and others effective megaphones from which to broadcast their apologias for Islamism and the Saudis. Moreover, the highly politicized scholarship of the individuals associated with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at http://views.georgetown.edu/?ViewID=623&CFID=4903721&CFTOKEN=16556710 (which I didn't mention) only strengthens my argument.

My article by no means diminishes what you have already accomplished; I hope you will be able to do much more. I would be more than happy to discuss the above in greater detail and even meet face-to-face when I am next in Washington.

Sincerely,

Asaf Romirowsky

‘Popular Palestinian Conference' Peddles Propaganda

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Fri, 8 Aug 2008, 12:14 PM | Permalink

My latest Campus Watch column - posted today at Frontpage Magazine - makes some predictions about a conference taking place this weekend featuring several Middle East studies academics. Among them are UC Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian, Wayne State University anthropologist Thomas Abowd, and associate director of the Middle East studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Jennifer Loewenstein. As usual, a skewed and inaccurate take on the Arab-Israeli conflict looks likely to come with the territory:

This weekend, the "Popular Palestinian Conference 2008" will be held in Chicago, and if past is prologue, a slew of anti-Israel propaganda will be part of the repertoire. The organizers make no effort to conceal their nefarious intentions, titling one of the workshops [emphasis added], "Inserting Palestine into High School Curricula in the US & Empowering Students to Challenge Dominant Narratives" and subtitling the conference, "Palestinians in the US: Reclaiming Our Voice, Asserting Our Narrative." Unfortunately, this "narrative" is a false one in which Israel is the oppressor, the Palestinians its perpetual victims, and the United States an accomplice in crime.
Various Middle East studies academics will be on hand to help propagate this fictitious narrative....

Continue reading "'Popular Palestinian Conference' Peddles Propaganda"

In Academia, Hiring Token Jews

By Winfield Myers | Mon, 4 Aug 2008, 8:13 AM | Permalink

In today's Washington Times, Campus Watch adjunct scholar Asaf Romirowsky exams the practice of some Middle East studies departments of hiring Israeli scholars who are anti-Israel in a cynical attempt to dodge charges that they are...anti-Israel.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict long ago spilled over into America's departments of Middle East studies. In an attempt to appear balanced in the face of charges of anti-Israel biases, some departments or programs of Middle East studies have added Israeli scholars to their ranks—a move that at first glance appears welcome.

Yet many of these Israeli academics have built their reputation on scholarship that is harshly critical not only of Israeli policy, but of Israel's very existence. Anti-Israel scholars who hail from Israel are cited favorably by the entire range of Israel's critics, from pro-Palestinian groups like PSM, the Committee to Stop Demolition of Houses in Palestine, the Committee to Stop Torture, and Breaking the Silence to Jewish anti-Zionist groups like the American Council for Judaism, from neo-Nazis to Islamists.

To read the rest, please click here.

PARC's Anti-Israel Polemics, or Your Tax Dollars at Work

By Winfield Myers | Fri, 11 Jul 2008, 10:46 AM | Permalink

Campus Watch adjunct scholar Jonathan Schanzer, writing at National Review Online, exposes the use of taxpayer dollars to support polemical "Palestinian studies" in "PARC's Anti-Israel Polemics." PARC is the Palestinian American Research Center.

For more than a decade, the allocation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. funded doctoral and post-doctoral grants on Palestinian issues has been decided by a group of Middle Eastern-studies professors that includes some of the most polarizing and radical figures in the field.

The Bethesda, Maryland–based Palestinian American Research Center (PARC), a registered nonprofit, receives controversial Title VI funding from the U.S. State Department and Department of Education for "Palestinian studies." Yet, the organization perpetuates the failures of Middle Eastern studies in America — namely, the admixture of polemics and academia.

The list of PARC members includes Stanford's Joel Beinin, who denounces American "imperialism" on al-Jazeera television; Columbia's Rashid Khalidi, reportedly a former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesman; NYU's Zachary Lockman, supporter of a proposed academic boycott of Israel; Penn's Ian Lustick, who blames the U.S. for the war on terror, rather than those who carry out violence in the name of Islam; and Boston University's Augustus Norton, an apologist for the Lebanese terrorist organization, Hezbollah.

To read the rest, please click here.

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