Monday, April 11, 2005
Columbia: The Home of the 'Palestinianist' Orthodox Faithful
I read the Paul de Rooij story after I wrote what follows. His brilliant analysis puts everything in perspective. This is just a brief excerpt from a must read story
It is instructive to read Prof. Joseph Massad's statement to the Columbia Univ. ad hoc committee examining the complaints against him [21]. Massad describes in detail the ordeal he has been through and the attacks seeking to destroy his academic career. In his description, it is clear that the smears ratchet in virulence; they build on one another. The right-wing New York Sun may produce a smear that is then regurgitated with further elaborations in other newspapers and so on. If all the defamations appeared in one article or in a few accusations, then it would be easy for Prof. Massad to obtain legal redress. However, how can one sue for libel if the accusations ratchet over time and are attributable to various sources? FrontPage, Campus-Watch, and New York Sun just regurgitate smears, elaborate them and compound what amounts to libel. Prof. Massad documents one case where the New York Sun misquoted him, and while he asked for a correction at the Sun, Jonathan Calt Harris (associated with Campus-Watch) wrote an article amplifying the offending smear [22]. Steven Plaut quotes Calt Harris and the pernicious cycle continues. When nefarious organizations work in tandem, it is difficult for anyone who has been libeled or smeared to defend themselves. FrontPage contributes to undermining one of the key assumptions of a civil society, the basic respect for the opinion of others.
One may scroll down to see the pictures of the dead boys who were killed while they were playing soccer in their own neighborhood by an occupying army. How do these unfortunate souls relate to Joseph Massad, Columbia University assistant professor? Why do Zionists seek to destroy everyone and everything that is Palestinian: academics, kids, poets, olive trees, mosques? Rashid Kahlidi, who hails from one of the oldest scholarly families in Jerusalem, is dismissed from teaching New York City school teachers about the geography and culture of the Middle East. The late Edward Said, one of the finest minds of the century, is vilified even after death; Charles Jacobs has coined the term "Saidist," as a put down. Palestinian professors may not speak of documented human rights abuses unless equal time is provided for the abuser. Palestinian children are killed while playing, in their schools, while hanging out in front of church, on their balconies, on their roofs, in their cars, but no headlines blaze that the "calm" has been broken; in fact, Bush called again today for Mahmud Abbas to crack down on Palestinian terrorism. It is indeed a surreal world when someone as warped as Alan Dershowitz, who advocates collective punishment for villages and thinks that Israel should be exempt from international law, calls the Chinese head of the World Court a thug, is given the opportunity to pontificate on the front page of a college newspaper about the intolerance of the college in which he doesn't even work. Now if you want your blood pressure to go down after reading the stories below, go to counterpunch. It has some thoughtful stories about the situation at Columbia.
I've not seen the term "Palestinianist" before. Also haven't seen the word "faiths" encompass "radical and Palestinianist orthodoxies" before. I think that Dr. Charles Jacobs might want to consider William Wordsworth's advice to writers: "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquillity.
Dr. Charles Jacobs in April 11 Columbia Spectator And it is the domination of Middle Eastern studies by radical and Palestinianist orthodoxies that prevents people not of these faiths from getting jobs, regardless of the quality of their scholarship. Blackballing. Closed shops. Threats. Intimidation. Rigid orthodoxies. That’s their action. Not ours. And that is McCarthyism. [ Only those of the Palestinianist Orthodox Persuasion Need Apply]
If you thought it couldn't get worse, Alan Dershowitz, the law professor who, in the spirit of Hilary Clinton, thinks that it's O.K. to collectively punish a village for the act of one (how is it that this man still can find an audience in a college newspaper), is the subject of a news story in today's Columbia Spectator.
Responding to the recently convened ad hoc grievance committee's report, released on March 31, 2005, Dershowitz said that Columbia's campus is pervaded by a climate of intolerance and extremism.
And this from the New York Daily News "Front Page."
And its editorial which is entitled "Fire this Professor, Columbia"
The academic year is ending, and with it should close the Columbia University career of Joseph Massad - bully, propagandist and perpetrator of deeply offensive teachings about Jews. Columbia must let him go.
So, there you have it. Kids are murdered, but they're "smugglers," the cirumstances are "disputed"; they were "looking at our military patrol." A respected academic, who was mentored by Edward Said, is smeared as an "anti-Semite," a "bully, and a "propagandist." Zionists just can't leave anything Palestinian alone. Just like they plowed under Palestinian villages, just like they snuff out Palestinians lives, they continue to destroy reputations and careers of anyone who doesn't follow the Zionist script.
It is instructive to read Prof. Joseph Massad's statement to the Columbia Univ. ad hoc committee examining the complaints against him [21]. Massad describes in detail the ordeal he has been through and the attacks seeking to destroy his academic career. In his description, it is clear that the smears ratchet in virulence; they build on one another. The right-wing New York Sun may produce a smear that is then regurgitated with further elaborations in other newspapers and so on. If all the defamations appeared in one article or in a few accusations, then it would be easy for Prof. Massad to obtain legal redress. However, how can one sue for libel if the accusations ratchet over time and are attributable to various sources? FrontPage, Campus-Watch, and New York Sun just regurgitate smears, elaborate them and compound what amounts to libel. Prof. Massad documents one case where the New York Sun misquoted him, and while he asked for a correction at the Sun, Jonathan Calt Harris (associated with Campus-Watch) wrote an article amplifying the offending smear [22]. Steven Plaut quotes Calt Harris and the pernicious cycle continues. When nefarious organizations work in tandem, it is difficult for anyone who has been libeled or smeared to defend themselves. FrontPage contributes to undermining one of the key assumptions of a civil society, the basic respect for the opinion of others.
One may scroll down to see the pictures of the dead boys who were killed while they were playing soccer in their own neighborhood by an occupying army. How do these unfortunate souls relate to Joseph Massad, Columbia University assistant professor? Why do Zionists seek to destroy everyone and everything that is Palestinian: academics, kids, poets, olive trees, mosques? Rashid Kahlidi, who hails from one of the oldest scholarly families in Jerusalem, is dismissed from teaching New York City school teachers about the geography and culture of the Middle East. The late Edward Said, one of the finest minds of the century, is vilified even after death; Charles Jacobs has coined the term "Saidist," as a put down. Palestinian professors may not speak of documented human rights abuses unless equal time is provided for the abuser. Palestinian children are killed while playing, in their schools, while hanging out in front of church, on their balconies, on their roofs, in their cars, but no headlines blaze that the "calm" has been broken; in fact, Bush called again today for Mahmud Abbas to crack down on Palestinian terrorism. It is indeed a surreal world when someone as warped as Alan Dershowitz, who advocates collective punishment for villages and thinks that Israel should be exempt from international law, calls the Chinese head of the World Court a thug, is given the opportunity to pontificate on the front page of a college newspaper about the intolerance of the college in which he doesn't even work. Now if you want your blood pressure to go down after reading the stories below, go to counterpunch. It has some thoughtful stories about the situation at Columbia.
I've not seen the term "Palestinianist" before. Also haven't seen the word "faiths" encompass "radical and Palestinianist orthodoxies" before. I think that Dr. Charles Jacobs might want to consider William Wordsworth's advice to writers: "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquillity.
Dr. Charles Jacobs in April 11 Columbia Spectator And it is the domination of Middle Eastern studies by radical and Palestinianist orthodoxies that prevents people not of these faiths from getting jobs, regardless of the quality of their scholarship. Blackballing. Closed shops. Threats. Intimidation. Rigid orthodoxies. That’s their action. Not ours. And that is McCarthyism. [ Only those of the Palestinianist Orthodox Persuasion Need Apply]
If you thought it couldn't get worse, Alan Dershowitz, the law professor who, in the spirit of Hilary Clinton, thinks that it's O.K. to collectively punish a village for the act of one (how is it that this man still can find an audience in a college newspaper), is the subject of a news story in today's Columbia Spectator.
Responding to the recently convened ad hoc grievance committee's report, released on March 31, 2005, Dershowitz said that Columbia's campus is pervaded by a climate of intolerance and extremism.
And this from the New York Daily News "Front Page."
And its editorial which is entitled "Fire this Professor, Columbia"
The academic year is ending, and with it should close the Columbia University career of Joseph Massad - bully, propagandist and perpetrator of deeply offensive teachings about Jews. Columbia must let him go.
So, there you have it. Kids are murdered, but they're "smugglers," the cirumstances are "disputed"; they were "looking at our military patrol." A respected academic, who was mentored by Edward Said, is smeared as an "anti-Semite," a "bully, and a "propagandist." Zionists just can't leave anything Palestinian alone. Just like they plowed under Palestinian villages, just like they snuff out Palestinians lives, they continue to destroy reputations and careers of anyone who doesn't follow the Zionist script.
