THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 2, January 5, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ON THE MEND?
By Jonathan Schanzer
THE MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION: A DEN OF POLITICAL PROPAGANDISTS & ACTIVISTS POSING AS
SCHOLARS -- A BASTION OF GROUPTHINK FOR RADICAL ACTIVISTS ENGAGED IN POLITICALLY BIASED RESEARCH,
ONE-SIDED TEACHING, & PEDDLING A PRO-ARAB, ANTI-WESTERN POLITICAL AGENDA -- A HIVE OF ACADEMIC
OPPOSITION TO ISRAEL & THE U.S.A. -- FAILURE TO PROVIDE USEFUL INFORMATION ON ISLAM, ISLAMISM, & THE MIDDLE
EAST -- DISREGARD OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY & NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS -- THE POLITICIZED, ANTI-WESTERN OLD
GUARD STILL IN CONTROL OF MESA
FULL STORY:
In recent years, Campus Watch (CW) analysts have leveled a barrage of criticism against the Middle East Studies
Association (MESA) as a bastion of groupthink for scholar-activists peddling a politicized agenda. CW's current
Director, Winfield Myers, noted that MESA's "reputation has been shattered by years of politicized scholarship,
one-sided teaching, and bullying students." Jonathan Calt Harris, formerly with CW, called MESA a "hive of academic
opposition to America, Israel, and, in the larger sense, rationalism itself." After years of responding to such criticism
with cries of "McCarthyism," MESA just might be owning up to a few of its failures.
The 2008 MESA conference, held in Washington, D.C., in November, consisted of 12 sessions over four days, with
more than 1,500 scholars and professionals in attendance.
In recent years, even after the 9/11 attacks, MESA has failed to offer useful information on the Middle East and Islam
and almost completely ignored American national security issues. Not surprisingly, critics charged that MESA was
increasingly irrelevant.
This year, MESA actually hosted several panels to correct the problem. Indeed, MESA's 2008 lineup reflected real
improvements from 2007. Though few in number, there are positive indications that MESA may grasp, at least in some
small way, why critics charge that the field has become a den of corruption and activism posing as scholarship.
One panel, titled "International Relations of the Middle East," featured a number of senior scholars -- including Gilles
Kepel of France's Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland -- who
conducted some soul-searching. In MESA's description of the panel, the organization admitted that "academic research
has not always prioritized" policy issues. The session was held to assess "the state of the field: what has gone right,
what has gone wrong, and the future of the field over the next decade." Former MESA President Lisa Anderson also
served on the panel. The willingness of MESA to engage in a bit of self-criticism is a welcome departure from its
traditional insistence that all is well in Middle East Studies.
While many panels covered arcane subjects (i.e., "The Diversity of Yemeni Poetry"), as is customary throughout academia,
there were a few earnest attempts to put the Middle East academic brain trust to work for the good of society. Ghada
Al-Madbouh of the University of Maryland addressed a critical policy topic in "Inquiry into the Struggle between the
Palestinian Authority Fatah's and Hamas over Governance." An entire panel was reserved for Iraqi scholars to provide
suggestions on the "Role of Academics in Building Civil Society in Iraq."
MESA even included the study of Israel and the participation of Zionist Israelis this year, although it seems that Zionists
seldom mixed with Arabists on panels. One homogenous panel, sponsored by the Association of Israel Studies,
examined "Israeli Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy after the Annapolis Conference." Chaired by veteran Johns
Hopkins Professor Robert O. Freedman, the panel also included Tel Aviv University's Eyal Zisser, a respected scholar of
Syria. The goal appeared to be a serious presentation of scholarship on Israel and its security needs, rather than MESA's
usual drubbing of the Jewish state.
These and other small improvements suggest that the efforts of off-campus groups that closely monitor and critique
Middle East studies have forced MESA to make some much-needed changes.
These changes are small, however. It must be noted that the politicized, anti-Western old guard still holds the reigns at
MESA. Extremist professors like Juan Cole and Joel Beinin made a joint appearance to discuss "solutions" to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The late Edward Said's dangerously anti-Western book, Orientalism, was celebrated,
and panelists predictably presented papers that vilified Israel (Ilan Pappé on "The Vicissitudes of Israeli Historiography
on 1948"). One University of California, San Diego, student was honored (not challenged) for a paper that downplays the
spiteful impact of Hamas' Al-Aqsa television channel.
A further sign that the old guard remains strong was a panel hosted by the Palestinian American Research Center
(PARC), a U.S. federally funded (Title VI recipient) organization that boasts some of the most politicized professors of the
field. Titled, "New Studies in Palestinian Society and Economy," the panel provided a soap box for Palestinian apologists
and Israel detractors to talk about "the Palestinian Economy after 40 Years of Occupation," the "Impact of Israeli
Movement Restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," and the "Survival Narratives of Internal Refugees under
Military Rule in Nazareth."
That taxpayers continue to fund PARC, via the U.S Departments of State and Education, so that it can peddle propaganda
at a scholarly conference is an outrage. Moreover, that MESA would host another PARC panel, as it has done in years
past, is a continued black eye for the discipline.
Ideological change within the field of Middle East Studies has only just begun. Professors continue to bully their students,
apologize for jihadists, and teach fringe ideas in the classroom.
It is therefore too early to know if MESA's small first steps toward long-needed improvement will continue, or whether next
year's annual meeting will be a return to the status quo.
MESA's change did not come easily. Six years of critique yielded just small improvements. Only continued external criticism
will ensure reform.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Education, Training, & America's Schools:
Institutions of Elementary, Secondary, & Higher Education
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Jonathan Schanzer, an adjunct scholar at Campus Watch, is Director of Policy for the Jewish Policy Center and author of
Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine (Palgrave, 2008).
The foregoing article by Schanzer was originally published in the American Thinker, January 4, 2009, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2041)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
January 5, 2009
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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