THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 101, June 13, 2010
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 PROFESSORS USURP NEW ROLES
TO CENSURE ISRAEL OVER GAZA FLOTILLA
By Brendan Goldman
A TROUBLED ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE -- BIASED & DISTORTED ANALYSIS OF MAJOR NEWS EVENTS BY UNIVERSITY
PROFESSORS OF MIDDLE EAST STUDIES: LEADING MIDDLE EAST "SCHOLARS" PUT ON THEIR IDEOLOGICAL BLINDERS
& DENOUNCED THE STATE OF ISRAEL FOR ITS ACTION IN THE GAZA FLOTILLA INCIDENT. THE PROFESSORS IGNORED
OVERWHELMING VIDEO & DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE OF THE MERCENARIES' RADICAL AGENDA & AFFINITY FOR VIOLENCE.
THE PROFESSORS' SHOWED NO INTEREST IN THE BLOCKADE-RUNNERS TERRORIST CONNECTIONS. BASIC
BACKGROUND INFORMATION WAS MISSING FROM THE ACADEMICS' ANALYSES. UNSUBSTANTIATED CLAIMS
MADE BY THE PROFESSORS WERE NOT CHALLENGED BY THE MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS THAT INVITED THE PROFESSORS TO
SPEAK.
FULL STORY:
"The martyrs of the [Gaza flotilla] ships are heroes," writes Mark LeVine, Professor of History at the University of
California--Irvine. "They are warriors every bit as deserving of our tears and support as the soldiers of American wars
past and present."
In the aftermath of the death of nine mercenaries on the deck of the Gaza-bound Turkish vessel, the Mavi Marmara,
Professors of Middle East Studies lined up to denounce the Jewish state. Ignoring overwhelming video and documentary
evidence of the activists' radical agenda and affinity for violence, these professors asserted that the "Freedom Flotilla" of
the six Gaza-bound vessels were on a purely "humanitarian" mission.
"Those ships were just bringing aid to the impoverished Palestinians," said New York University Professor of Modern
Middle Eastern History, Zachary Lockman. "It's not [the Palestinians'] fault they are under Hamas rule." Has Lockman
already forgotten that Hamas was democratically elected by the Palestinians in January, 2006?
Even professors who managed to recall the Palestinian elections were determined to demonstrate that the terrorist group
has been falsely maligned. Georgetown University's John Esposito, Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for
Muslim Christian Understanding, tried to whitewash the terrorist group's reputation by declaring, "Hamas simply does
not steal ... thus any aid delivered to the UN will be respected." Yet, even traditionally anti-Israel institutions like the UN
and the Leftwing British Guardian have noted that Hamas has illegally seized aid intended for Gaza's poor.
Uninterested in the terrorist connections of the blockade-runners, many professors expressed concern that the U.S.A.
would lose "popular support" in the Islamic world as a result of siding with Israel in the flotilla crisis. Recalling President
Barack Obama's controversial Cairo address to the Muslim world last Spring, George Washington University's Mark
Lynch writes, "If [Obama] tries to ignore the issue [of the Gaza flotilla] or simply defend Israel's actions, then the first
anniversary of the Cairo speech will also be its epitaph."
Esposito warned that, according to a Gallup poll and his "own experience," "[the] window of opportunity in the Muslim
world" will close, unless the U.S.A. stops being "in lock-step stride with Israel."
Apparently shilling for Islamic terrorists doesn't close the "window of opportunity" to lecture American administrations
on foreign policy.
Rashid Khalidi, of Columbia University, suggested one way the U.S.A. could follow Esposito's advice: Confront Israel
militarily. He told WBEZ Chicago Radio that ideally, he sees "European or American ships physically breaking
the blockade or [the U.N. putting] sanctions on Israel."
Some academics who do not fancy themselves pollsters like Esposito or NATO admirals like Khalidi claimed the mantle
of the law, arguing that the flotilla ships were "illegally" boarded. Jennifer Loewenstein, Associate Director of the
Middle East Studies program at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, told the Islamic Republic of Iran's semi-official
Press TV that "[t]he fact is that legally [the Israelis] have no defense. They violated international laws by
attacking a non-violent humanitarian aid convoy to the Gaza Strip in International waters."
Fawaz Gerges, Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and
Sarah Lawrence College, also asserted his newly discovered legal expertise: "The killing of those activists, sad though
it is, could easily serve as a framework to ... force Israel to abide by international law."
In addition to condemning the Israelis, Stephen Zunes, Professor of International Relations and the Middle East at the
University of San Francisco, attempted to exonerate the militant passengers who attacked them.
"Certainly it would have been better if the largely
Turkish crew of the ship ... had not fought back.
But it was well within their legal right to do so."
Actual scholars of international law tend to reject these pronouncements. Ruth Wedgwood, who teaches International
Law and Diplomacy at Johns Hopkins University, convincingly debunks Zunes's, Gerges's, and Loewenstein's
arguments. "We had a blockade around Cuba in the Cuban Missile Crisis," Wedgwood explained, noting that during
that period, ships were boarded in international waters. "Under traditional law of the sea, you can visit and search
before a boat gets to port."
Reuters released an informative Question-&-Answer legal analysis of the incident that supports Wedgwood's
position by noting that "[l]egal experts say proportional force does not mean that guns cannot be used by forces when
being attacked with knives."
As for examining the region's history in order to better understand its present, Middle East Studies scholars were as
eager to avoid discussing that subject as they were to heap blame on Israel. For instance, the passengers of the Mavi
Marmara were recorded on Al-Jazeera chanting in Arabic, "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews! The army of
Mohammed will return!" They were referring to the Battle of Khaybar of 629 CE, in which Muslim forces under
Mohammed summarily executed, enslaved, and forced into economic servitude the Jews of the Khaybar Oasis. But you
needn't bother looking for commentary on such matters from Middle Eastern scholars -- with very few exceptions, they
don't exist.
Israeli-Turkish relations were another subject for which many Middle Eastern experts failed to provide context,
ascribing the breakdown in the nations' alliance to Israel and the singular event of the Gaza flotilla. Middle East scholar
Daniel Pipes has warned of Turkey's Islamization for many years, and Professor Henri J. Barkey, of Lehigh University,
recently outlined how Israeli-Turkish relations have deteriorated since Turkey's main Islamist party took power. Turkey's
current Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, has consistently expressed sympathy for Hamas and Iran's nuclear program.
Yet such basic background information was missing from many academics' analyses. "Historians may look back on the
[Mavi] Marmara raid as the moment a new order began emerging in the Middle East, grouping Turkey with Iran, Syria,
Iraq and Palestine, rather than with Washington and Tel Aviv," University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole writes.
Among Khalidi's saber-rattling; Zunes's, Loewenstein's and Gerges's claims to judicial authority; and Esposito's and
Lynch's popularity contest, it is easy to forget that these individuals are scholars who have spent decades studying
the history and politics of the Middle East. The media organizations that invited them to speak did not challenge their
unsubstantiated claims. Issues actually relevant to Middle Eastern expertise were either distorted or neglected
completely. These scholars' response to the Gaza flotilla incident demonstrates that America cannot expect an
objective analysis of major news events from the leaders of this troubled discipline.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
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
Brendan Goldman, a member of New York University's class of 2010, earned a B.A. in Middle Eastern and Islamic
Studies. This essay was sponsored by Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
The foregoing article by Brendan Goldman was originally published in American Thinker, June 13, 2010, 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.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2672/middle-east-studies-gaza-flotilla)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 13, 2010
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