Barry Rubin has heard the stories about one-sidedness and hostility toward Israel in the Middle Eastern studies departments at Columbia University and other U.S. college campuses.
It's akin to the education on the Middle East students might get at the University of Baghdad, and he says it's "not good for students" or for U.S. interests.
During the current school year, Rubin is doing his part on one local campus to combat that problem. He is the first Abensohn Visiting Professor in Israeli Studies at American University in the District.
The author of 20 books on the Middle East on topics ranging from the life of Yasser Arafat to the U.S. State Department's role in foreign policy to a volume scheduled for release next month on the possibility for democracy in the Arab world Rubin also directs the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
The 55-year-old is a Washington-area native. His family came to the city in 1907, and he grew up here and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in the District in 1967.
Rubin's visiting professorship comes as the center has, in the past year, raised half of the $2 million necessary to endow a permanent chair in Israel studies at the university.
The effort has been spearheaded by Bethesda resident Lillian Klein Abensohn, a former English professor at A.U. who convinced her husband, Seymour, a longtime Jewish community philanthropist, to start the process with a $250,000 donation just a few days before he died in June 2004.
Since then, 150 donors, as well at the United Jewish Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the American Israel Cooperative Enterprise, have contributed to the project.
Abensohn said she sees the A.U. Israeli studies chair as helping to combat what some pro-Israel observers have called a pro-Arab bias in the halls of academia.
"We need more balanced representation" on campuses, said Abensohn, who noted she is "thrilled" that Rubin was the first person selected for the job.
A.U. Center for Israeli Studies director and professor of economics Howard Wachtel said Rubin was always on his short list of scholars for such a position.
Unlike some academics who focus on one very specific area, Wachtel said that Rubin is "a big picture man who looks at the whole" region.
Rubin, who says there is a "great cross-fertilization in understanding things" across the Middle East, is teaching one class on Israeli society this semester and will be teaching two more in the spring, on Israeli foreign policy and Arab democracy.
He also will be giving talks around town and at the university with his formal introduction to the community on Nov. 2 at A.U.'s new Katzen Arts Center, where he will discuss "Is Democracy Possible in the Middle East?"
Observing the current situation in the Middle East, Rubin believes there is little hope of a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, because of the Palestinians' lack of a strong leadership and decision-making capability.
He also raises a caution flag about Hamas' vows to stop terrorism in order to run in Palestinian elections. He points out that "terrorism is a tactic of revolutionary movements," but one must pay attention to Hamas' goals.
"You didn't study the Nazi movement just from the basis of tactics," he said, and Hamas' goals have not changed, namely, the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamist state.
At a gathering last week to welcome Rubin and to thank donors, Kay Mussell, dean of A.U.'s College of Arts and Sciences, said there was "considerable interest in [Rubin's] presence" at the university and she looked forward to his sharing his insights around campus.
Beyond Rubin's presence, Wachtel said the center is also working on a curriculum proposal to the university for a major and minor in Israeli studies. Currently, the center offers a handful of classes, but Wachtel says there are about 20 professors in fields from political science to literature to dance who have the expertise to teach Israeli studies classes when a major is created.
He envisions the center as teaching about Israel not just as an "agent of conflict" in the Middle East, but as a country just like France or Italy, with a culture and politics of its own.
A.U. Students for Israel co-president Jeremy Rovinsky says the 7-year-old Center for Israeli Studies and the resources it provides have been extremely helpful to pro-Israel students on the Northwest D.C. campus.
He said his group is "really excited" about the arrival of Rubin and is planning an event with the visiting professor.
"It's groundbreaking" to have such a top-notch Israeli scholar at A.U., said Rovinsky. "He seems really respected by the entire faculty. We're really in the presence of greatness."