FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

By Vic Rosenthal

The older and farther removed from the academic world that I get, the more I am astonished by the irresponsibility, bias, and sheer ignorance that categorizes it.

Take Brandeis University (please).

Counting Albert Einstein as one of its founders and Abbie Hoffman, Angela Davis, and Jack Abramoff as alumni, Brandeis has

…incurred a sorry record when it comes to Israel in recent years – staging [the] “Voices of Palestine” exhibit, hiring [Natana] DeLong-Bas and [Khalil] Shikaki, granting an honorary degree to the anti-Zionist playwright Tony Kushner, appointing the muddled Prof. Shai Feldman (POL) to head the Crown Center, permitting an Islamist (Qumar-ul Huda) to serve as its Muslim chaplain and setting up the Brandeis-Al-Quds University study-abroad connection. — Daniel Pipes

Now Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz has displayed his ignorance, bias, or both by calling both Pipes and Norman Finkelstein “weapons of mass destruction”. Poor Pipes is justifiably insulted (read his whole article here) by being lumped together with the disreputable Finkelstein, and irritated by Brandeis’ action in suspending Pipes’ planned appearance there.

Having read both Pipes and Finkelstein and heard Pipes speak, I must agree that Reinharz is far off-base. I do find the visceral negative response to Pipes in academic, left-wing, and Muslim circles to be interesting. The guy is a careful scholar, very competent in his field, and not at all a wild-eyed radical. He has never, as far as I know, written anything in praise of Baruch Goldstein or suggested forced transfer as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I do expect that he votes Republican, but even that doesn’t justify the reception he receives.

I’m afraid that it’s simply his message, which often uncovers the “unclothed emperors” in the academic world, and which exposes radical Islam for the aggressive Jihadism that it is.

Technorati Tags: Daniel Pipes, Jehuda Reinharz, Brandeis

The phenomenon of extreme anti-Zionism among some Jewish academics is puzzling. Now Ami Isseroff has come up with a case study to explain it. It doesn’t quite work for Jacqueline Rose, but otherwise it’s as good an explanation as any.

I recall sitting in a local Interfaith Alliance meeting a couple of years ago. Pipes’ name came up, and he was immediately dismissed scornfully as an ‘islamophobe’.

Nothing I’ve read by Pipes or heard him say indicates that he hates Muslims or despises Islam. On the contrary, he is knowledgeable about Islam and obviously wishes that radical Islamism had not become its public face. And unlike most who write and speak about the Mideast conflict, Pipes uses logic and reason.

Logic and reason, however, are not on the side of the Palestinians and their supporters. So he gets on their nerves.

In any event, he spoke recently at UC Irvine, where his talk was disrupted by anti-Israel student barbarians. You can read about it and link to videos of the event on Pipes’ own blog.

I especially recommend the shorter video that includes the protestors’ leader talking to his group at the very end. It’s chilling.

Update [4 Feb. 1456 PST]: LGF has excerpted the interesting part of the video and also provided a printed transcript.

Technorati Tags: Daniel Pipes, UC Irvine