Friday, November 30, 2007
When Leftwing McCarthyists scream "McCarthyism" at critics of the Seditious Left
Monitor (IAM) for exposing academic anti-Israel extremists in Israel:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929723.html
IAM must be doing something right!
2. Israeli Academics among those calling for Israel's extermination in a
new final solution: http://counterpunch.com/onestate.html
3. Highly recommended:
"Rachel Golem" recently completed an online parody of Amy Goodman and her
anti-Israel far-leftist Democracy Now show. In the parody she interviews
Chomsky, Finkelstein, Pol Pot and a few other people. I think it's quite
funny and makes them all look like the hypocrites they are.
It is located at:
She am currently writing under a pseudonym because my Rachel Corrie
parody caused a few "peace activists" to threaten me with bodily harm.
4. Leftist Propaganda in Israeli school book:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922298.html
5. Have Academic Radicals gone Berserk?:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=06B0EDB7-6818-4E89-9D98-760EB1F9FAE2
6. Annapolis:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=BC34678D-B253-4917-A254-DFF67624AA3B
7. CLASSES TOO PRO-ISRAEL? GWU INSTRUCTOR QUITS AMID CHARGES OF BIAS
TOWARD
JEWISH STATE
By Eric Fingerhut
Published in: Washington Jewish Week
November 26, 2007
http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&
ArticleID=8016
For years, some pro-Israel activists have been troubled by university
professors who demonstrated bias against Israel in the classroom. But
last week was apparently a first: A George Washington University
instructor resigned after being accused of teaching a class that was
biased in favor of Israel.
Hanna Diskin told the students in her "Arab-Israeli Conflict" class on
Tuesday of last week that she would not be teaching the class for the
remainder of the semester - and would be leaving the D.C. university -
because she was upset that students in the class had complained about
her teaching to the head of the political science department.
Diskin, visiting from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told the class
that the course she had been scheduled to teach next semester had been
canceled due to the complaints. But a student in the class, senior Greg
Berlin, said that political science department head Christopher Deering
said that next semester's course merely had been deemed "inactive," or
on hold, pending a review of class evaluations from this term.
Calls to Deering and to Bernard Reich, who filled in for Diskin last
Thursday, were not returned.
Diskin declined to comment via e-mail. A GWU spokesperson also had no
comment.
Berlin and a classmate, senior Elizabeth Kamens, both said that the
problem with Diskin's teaching was that she focused only on Israel in a
course that was supposed to deal with the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.
"We would never cover the other side," said Kamens, who is Jewish.
"It became more of an Israeli politics class," said Berlin, noting that
while understanding Zionism is important to studying the Arab-Israeli
conflict, he wondered why they were they spending half of the semester
learning about it.
Berlin said that he and a number of other students had expressed their
"dissent" to Diskin in class about the way she was handling the course,
but became frustrated when they would ask for an Arab perspective on an
issue and Diskin would change the subject or talk over them. For
example, after Diskin cited the number of Israelis who died in a
particular military conflict, Berlin said, students asked for the number
of fatalities on the Palestinian side. Diskin, according to Berlin,
replied that only the Israeli figures were reliable, because only Israel
was a democracy.
"I'm Jewish myself, but I feel there's a line between objectivity and
teaching with a bias," said Berlin, who said he was one of a number of
students who expressed their concerns to leaders of the political
science department.
The students said they were assigned readings from only two books: the
scholarly A History of Israel by GWU professor emeritus Howard Sachar
and the book Myths & Facts.
Kamens said she was "a little surprised" that the latter book was
selected for an upper-level political science course because of the
book's structure. It outlines common "myths" about the Arab-Israeli
conflict and then provides evidence responding to those myths.
Myths & Facts originated as a American Israel Public Affairs Committee
publication decades ago and was updated by Mitchell Bard, executive
director of the Chevy Chase-based American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise, in recent years.
M.J. Rosenberg, who edited Myths & Facts when he worked at AIPAC in the
1980s, was surprised to hear it was being used in a college class.
"It's not a textbook," said Rosenberg, now the policy director at the
Israel Policy Forum. "It's counter-propaganda" that is "not designed to
show both sides," but to provide all the facts that support the
pro-Israel side.
Rosenberg said it was "hard to believe" the book would be used in any
college class other than one studying propaganda.
Bard said his book is "all based on facts" and is the "most concise
collection" of information on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Coincidentally, Bard's organization, AICE, provided the funding to hire
Diskin as a postdoc fellow at GWU. Bard said AICE - which will fund 26
professors and six postdoc fellows at universities around the country
this school year - has no input on whom the university hires or course
content, other than that the visiting instructors teach Israel studies.
He said professors who teach under AICE auspices are expected to be
professional.
"If we're perceived as advocates, that would be counter to the idea
we're promoting," he said.
Bard said he was still attempting to get further information about
Diskin's departure, but said he had never heard a complaint that a
university instructor was too pro-Israel and that it would be "ironic"
considering the number of complaints that have been made about
anti-Israel professors.
Daniel Pipes, whose Middle East Forum set up a Web site titled Campus
Watch to monitor the statements of Middle East Studies professors for
bias, also said that an accusation of pro-Israel bias in the classroom
was "something I can't think of having happened before."
Pipes argued Diskin's departure signaled "another step" in enforcing
attitudes throughout academia that are "anti-American and anti-America's
allies."
He also defended the use of Myths & Facts as a textbook. "So far as I
know, it is a reliable source, perfectly reputable," he said.
Berlin said Diskin's decision to resign appeared to be her own, since
the political science department did not know anything about it until
she announced it to her students.
8. What Occupation?
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=7DE6D5A0-F198-4EB5-9AB5-7A40D0254FB8
9. The real winner at Annapolis:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3476995,00.html
10. The Road Map of Criminality:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3477279,00.html
