If anyone ever harbored doubts about the jaundiced, America-hating, knee-jerk anti-Semitic world view of higher academia in the U.S. today, they need look no farther than Columbia University in New York which, last year, feted the Diminutive Dictator of Tehran and Jew Hater Extraordinaire, Mahmoud Achmadinejad in the wake of the latter's visit to the U.N.
The latest outrage come to us courtesy of The New York Daily News by way of Mike J. Apparently, Columbia University has granted tenure to a Jordanian-born Palestinian named Joseph Massad who teaches in the department of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures.
In 2005 Prof. Massad threatened to banish from his classroom a student who challenged his assertion that Israel was committing atrocities against the Palestinians. Although a subsequent investigation determined that he "exceeded commonly accepted bound" of teaching, no further action was taken.
On another occasion he challenged a student who happened to be a former Israeli soldier to tell him how many Palestinians he had killed.
In one article, he proclaimed that Jews are infected by a mass psychosis that drives them to persecute Palestinians, put Israel's record on a par with Nazi mass murders and said Palestinians are the "real Jews" while Jews are the real anti-Semites.
In spite of all of this - and perhaps as a result of it - Columbia apparently granted tenure to this crackpot anti-Semite, if we are to believe the rantings of another Jew-hating crackpot.
In a message addressed "to all the Zionist hoodlums out there," As'ad AbuKhalil wrote that "dear Joseph Massad deservedly received his tenure." This happened, he went on, despite "dirty tricks" and "sinister propaganda" by said Zionist hoodlums.
Columbia would not confirm or deny AbuKhalil's report. If it is correct, President Lee Bollinger and board of trustees Chairman William Campbell have let the university down and owe an apology to New York, most especially its Jewish community.
I would say they certainly owe an apology to the segments of the Jewish community that aren't consumed with hatred for themselves and for Israel. Even then, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that apology.