Juan Cole's Jihad Against Israel

by Cinnamon Stillwell  •  Jul 9, 2008 at 1:01 pm

http://www.campus-watch.org/blog/2008/07/juan-coles-jihad-against-israel

The reaction to last week's horrendous bulldozer terrorist attack in Jerusalem has been telling. When emanating from those who refuse to see Israelis as victims, hollow condemnations have been the order of the day. Furthermore, many of these condemnations have been accompanied by barely stifled sympathy for the Palestinian perpetrator. And as usual, Israel has been made out to be the culprit.

Much of the mainstream media coverage has gone in that direction and so too has at least one Middle East studies professor, the University of Michigan's Juan Cole. In my latest Campus Watch article, which is posted today at Frontpage Magazine, I examine Cole's tortured, and often fact-challenged, logic:

One can always count on University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole to excuse violence and hatred directed at Israel. At his blog, Informed Comment (which, judging by the references to the mythical Jenin "massacre" and the USS Liberty canard in the comments section, is read avidly by anti-Israel conspiracy theorists), Cole takes pains to explain away last week's horrific bulldozer attack in Jerusalem.

Cole apparently sees no contradiction between his perfunctory admission that "Violence against innocent civilians is always condemnable and deplored by IC," and his claim to add "context" to the attack by trying to justify the alleged motivations of the perpetrator, Palestinian construction worker Husam Taysir Dwayat.

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