Howler of the Month (archive) "The flaw in the west's case [for Iran to abandon its nuclear program] is that it is hypocritical as long as the Israelis have some 400 nuclear warheads. Asking Iran to surrender even a virtual nuclear capacity when its rival has a real one makes for difficult strategic calculations. . . . Iran doesn't even have the nukes to give up, and probably cannot have them for a good ten years even if they decided they wanted them, which Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei emphatically says they do not." Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan, in "China Hopeful Iran Will Compromise with the UNSC"; Informed Comment, April 14, 2012. (link to source) We Couldn't Have Said it Better (archive) "Middle Eastern studies in this country is dominated by the Saidians. The situation is very bad. Saidianism has become an orthodoxy that is enforced with a rigor unknown in the Western world since the Middle Ages. If you buck the Saidian orthodoxy, you're making life very difficult for yourself." Bernard Lewis, Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, lamenting the influence of the disciples of the late Edward Said, in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, April 22, 2012. (link to source)

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.

The Latest on Campus

Middle East Studies Group Blasts 'New York Times' [on Middle East Studies Association]
May 18, 2012 - Inside Higher Ed

Time For 'Israel Apartheid Week'! [incl. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin]
May 16, 2012 - FrontPage Magazine

In The Wall Street Journal, Michael Oren is Right: Israel's Enemies Seek Its Delegitimization
May 16, 2012 - Snapshots (Blog of CAMERA)

A Look Back: 2011-2012 in Campus Israel Advocacy [incl. Norman Finkelstein]
May 16, 2012 - The Jewish Press

BBC Promotes Anti-Semitic 'Jewish Power' Libel [on Norman Finkelstein]
May 15, 2012 - Arutz Sheva

At 96, Historian Bernard Lewis Reflects On 'A Century'
May 15, 2012 - National Public Radio

Liberation Week Comes to UCI [incl. Hatem Bazian]
May 15, 2012 - News of New University

BBC's Hardtalk Features Norman Finkelstein, Smears Israel
May 15, 2012 - Snapshots (Blog of CAMERA)

UCLA's 'One State or Two' Debate [incl. James Gelvin]
May 15, 2012 - The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

Arabic and Islamic Studies Professor Barbara Stowasser Passes Away
May 15, 2012 - Vox Populi (blog of the Georgetown Voice)

Blog

MEF Special Report: A Look Back at the 2012 'Palestine Liberation Week' at UCI

By Winfield Myers | Thu, 17 May 2012, 12:24 PM | Permalink

[Ed. note: the following report was submitted by Irvine resident and MEF correspondent Gary Fouse.]

Another University of California, Irvine (UCI) week of hate against the Jewish state of Israel has wrapped up, and I would like to add a few post-mortem thoughts.

Several of my friends have remarked that the steam seems to have gone out of the Muslim Student Union's (MSU) Israel Apartheid, aka "Palestine Liberation," week. Perhaps it was the suspension over their disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's UCI lecture in 2010; perhaps it was the fact that they seem to be bringing back pretty much the same list of speakers with the same tired old message year after year. Attendance appeared to be down, consisting as it did of about thirty to fifty MSU students, a few curious on-lookers, or other students getting extra credit from their liberal professors to soak in the propaganda. A few people from the community attend to show support for Israel and provide some sort of intellectual challenges to the lies and exaggerations proffered by the speakers.

Hopefully, the MSU is catching on to the fact that the student body pays hardly any attention to them as they pass by the flagpoles on their way to and from lunch or class. For most students at UCI, the week of events has become more an annoyance than anything else. That said, I am not yet ready to proclaim this annual event dead, since another flare-up in the Middle East involving Israel will undoubtedly spur the activists to return to what they do best—congregate at the flagpoles.

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MEF Special Report: Members of the 'Irvine 11' Speak at UCI's 'Palestine Liberation Week'

By Winfield Myers | Sat, 12 May 2012, 3:53 PM | Permalink

[Ed. note: the following report was submitted by Irvine resident and MEF correspondent Gary Fouse.]

On Thursday evening, the Muslim Student Union at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) wrapped up their week long anti-Israel extravaganza, "Palestine Liberation Week," with a panel featuring four former UCI students who were part of the so-called "Irvine 11." These and others repeatedly disrupted a speech by Israeli ambassador to America Michael Oren in 2010, for which they were convicted last year.

The four took turns describing their memories of the event, their arrest, and subsequent prosecution. Contrary to the claims of their supporters, these four young men have hardly been victims. They have continued with their studies at other institutions and enjoyed a celebrity status among their fellow activists. Case in point: Osama Shabaik, one of the "11" who spoke Thursday evening, is now a law student at Harvard and implied that his record was a plus in his acceptance.

All four are intelligent and articulate. Each spoke in a self-congratulatory manner, expressing no remorse for his actions and saying he would do it again. They claimed that shouting down an invited speaker was a legitimate form of protest, perfectly acceptable on an American college campus, and something that should not be criminalized. The audience of about fifty, mostly MSU members, applauded them as were heroes.

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MEF Special Report: Hatem Bazian at UCI's 'Palestine Liberation Week'

By Winfield Myers | Fri, 11 May 2012, 9:07 PM | Permalink

[Ed. note: the following report was submitted by Irvine resident and MEF correspondent Gary Fouse.]

Hatem Bazian

Of course, no data was given on the number of suicide attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, which have been drastically reduced in recent years by the wall that Bazian and other anti-Israel activists demonize. Similarly, he mentioned neither the massacre of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itimar in 2011, nor the number of rockets lobbed into southern Israel from Gaza.

Predictably, Bazian (as is his wont) took a couple of slaps at Congress and George W Bush. (Bazian doesn't like Republicans).

During the Q & A, I asked him if he presented his students with similar information in the classroom. Bazian replied that when he was giving the Palestinian narrative, he gives the Palestinian narrative. When he gives the Israeli narrative, he invites the Israeli consul to deliver it. I told him that, if this is how he teaches, his students receive a one-sided view.

The last "question" was from local activist Shaheel Syed, who apparently arrived with Bazian and asked him to comment on the amount of American aid given to the "Zionist Apartheid state of Israel." Bazian obviously knew the question was coming because he had his answer prepared in the form of a six-point response.

Hatem Bazian is a propagandist who takes his personal politics onto the UC Berkeley classrooms. He and his supporters cannot abide that America supports Israel.

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MEF Special Report: Amir Abdel Malik Ali Speaks at UCI's 'Palestine Liberation Week'

By Winfield Myers | Wed, 9 May 2012, 7:05 PM | Permalink

Amir Abdel Malik Ali

On Tuesday, May 8, Amir Abdel Malik Ali returned to the UC Irvine campus, courtesy of the Muslim Student Association, to spew his message of hate. On his previous visit in 2010, he acknowledged that he was a supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. He then closed by telling the Jewish audience members, "You Jews. Y'all the new Nazis!"

This day, Ali delivered a rambling, invective-filled speech. Although Ali is a dynamic and fiery speaker, his lectures are unstructured, with no introduction, body, or conclusion. He also accepts countless conspiracy theories.

Today, he tried to cover all the world's ills in forty minutes. Early on he referred to University of California president Mark Yudof as a "Zionist Jew," as he railed against Yudof for a recent letter he made public on a series of racially and religiously tainted incidents on UC campuses. Yudof"s sin was that he didn't mention any Islamophobic incidents. (Here's a secret; there weren't any.)

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