Setting The Record Straight

Campus Watch corrects false allegations made against it.

Campus Watch Responds:

In "Israel's 60th Anniversary: Why are some people partying like it's 1948?," Linda Mamoun uses the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary to tout the efforts of what she calls "the People-First Movement." Mamoun describes this movement as a "grassroots" alliance of activists and campus groups who feel that "the official Israeli story has to be outsold by a new narrative." In other words, they seek to replace historical facts with propaganda.

In the process, she accuses Campus Watch, and a host of other organizations, of attempting to squelch such efforts with an imagined alliance she dubs "the Project-First Movement." As she puts it: (emphasis added)

Even so, it has certain people worried, and they have mounted a Herculean effort to regain control -with support from the political and religious establishment, evangelical Christian groups like CUFI and the Joshua Fund, lobbies like AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee, and newer organizations like the Israel Project, the David Project, and the Solomon Project. You might well call this the Project-First Movement. And it has well-funded campus arms like Stand With Us, Campus Watch, and the Israel On Campus Coalition.

In fact, Campus Watch is not aligned with any of these organizations, nor do we seek to "regain control" of anything. As indicated in our mission statement, Campus Watch reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with the aim to improving them.

The implication that organizations sharing some common interests constitute a cabal is not only conspiratorial, but ridiculous. Maybe it's time for Mamoun to join the "Common Sense Movement"?

(Posted by Cinnamon Stillwell)