[NYTr] Chicago and dissent: Dersh v Finkelstein

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Francis Boyle - Sep 2, 2007

"I asked Prof. Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois Law School,
an authority on national politics, his reaction.  He said:  'Denial of
tenure to Prof. Finkelstein, an outstanding scholar, is a major
injustice because DePaul succumbed to political pressure.  Prof.
Dershowitz has publicly admitted he serves on an Israeli Mossad
committee that authorizes murder and assassination of Palestinians, a
grave violation of the Geneva Convention, and a serious war crime.' "


DISSENT UNDER FIRE AS CHICAGO TEACHERS AND LECTURERS FACE INTIMIDATION

By George H. Beres

Chicago often is centerpiece for happenings of national importance.

Seldom have they been as awkward as recent decisions by local
institutions to silence university voices on a subject of controversy.

Society may be tolerant when the Bush Administration tries to limit
free expression.  But shock waves were felt this summer when dissent
was quelled coast-to-coast for prominent professors, including those at
the University of Chicago and DePaul.  Targets were those accused of
criticizing Israel and its influence on U.S. foreign policy.

A professor at DePaul was denied tenure last June after Zionists and
Israeli sympathizers charged that what he wrote and what he said were
anti-Semitic.  An important national story, it got scant public
attention, or was marginalized by placement, as in the New York Times
where denial to Political Science Professor Norman Finkelstein was
placed in the Arts Section.

The school's action was fueled by influential Israeli-backers who
claimed Finkelstein, a Jew, was anti-Jewish and a hololcaust denier.
It was followed by reactionary behavior elsewhere based on similar
allegations.

Prominent among them was the decision of the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs.  It called off a talk by two significant authors/professors,
Stephen M. Walt of Harvard and John J. Mearsheimer of Chicago, critics
of Israeli influence on U.S. Middle East policy.

More recently, a Zionist campaign among alumni led to denial of tenure
at Barnard College for Nadia Abu El-Haj, assistant professor of
Anthropology.  She has written a book on Israeli archaeologists having
produced biased research to bolster the "origin myth" of the Jewish
State.

The pattern of Jewish extremists (I refer to them as Zionists) to
control U.S. views on the Middle East has been reinforced for me
personally.

As a retired faculty member of the University of Oregon, my newspaper
writings have resulted in fellow professors calling me anti-Semitic.

Editors who bypassed the Finkelstein story ignored the underlying issue
of Zionist influence-- which knows no geographic nor cultural
boundaries.

It is a warning to academia, whose faculty everywhere need be concerned
when a teacher is attacked by a colleague because of his views on
Israel.

Finkelstein, whose parents survived the Nazi death camps, wrote the
book, "The Holocaust Industry."  He suggests public image of the horror
has been manipulated in behalf of illegal Israeli expansion.  That got
an orchestrated response from a professor 1,000 miles east of DePaul,
Alan Dershowitz of Harvard, who urged denial of tenure because of
supposed inconsistencies in Finkelstein's research.

DePaul President Dennis Holtschneider went against Department and
Personnel Committee approval, and denied tenure.  So what's at play
here?

To those subjected to influence of Zionist groups, it seems their
spokespersons in academia-- in this case, Dershowitz-- are having an
ominous effect on open dialogue.

Dershowitz admits he wrote DePaul faculty members a year ago, urging
they oppose tenure for Finkelstein.  The letter accused him of a
conspiracy with noted Jewish scholar, Noam Chomsky, to attack 10 Jewish
scholars.

Differences between the campus protagonists surfaced with publication
of a Dershowitz book, "The Case for Israel," contradicted by
Finkelstein's later book, "Beyond Chutzpah."

My experiencee with behavior of three Dershowitz-styled professors at
the University of Oregon suggests the same verdict would have been
reached there.  Published letters from the three labeled me
anti-Semitic.  They reacted to my published letter calling for creation
of a Middle East Studies program to fill a serious vacuum in the
curriculum, and to offset imbalance for the Israeli perspective in a
new program of Judaic Studies.

It should be of no consequence that two are Jewish and one a convert to
Judaism.  What should be of concern is that their behavior reflects
policies of Zionists who urge, "Describe as anti-Semitic those who in
any way criticize Israel."

Also at Oregon, Sociology instuctor, Douglas Card, brought a million
dollar lawsuit against Daniel Pipes, columnist for the New York Post,
for falsely calling him anti-Semitic because of a classroom comment.
Pipes is leader of the national effort to label as anti-Semitic those
who criticize Israel.  The case was settled out of court.

An Oregon campus group, Pacifica Forum, has been hounded for several
years by Zionist attackers who charge it is anti-Semitic.  I belonged
to the group, and successfully rebutted such charges.  That did not
prevent Pacifica's longtime host for its weekly public lectures, the
Wesley Center, from evicting it without review after Zionist complaints
were voiced.

The second host, the Student Survival Center, also capitulated in
paranoia over false criticism.  

The actions suggest overreaction to Jewish-related groups that complain.

Rather than risk further intimidation, Pacifica now meets independently
on campus.

I asked Prof. Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois Law School,
an authority on national politics, his reaction.  He said:  "Denial of
tenure to Prof. Finkelstein, an outstanding scholar, is a major
injustice because DePaul succumbed to political pressure.  Prof.
Dershowitz has publicly admitted he serves on an Israeli Mossad
committee that authorizes murder and assassination of Palestinians, a
grave violation of the Geneva Convention, and a serious war crime."

Finkelstein decided to leave Chicago for New York, where he hopes to
continue teaching.  The "blacklist effect" of tenure denial, in his
words, "could bar me from having a college classroom."

In response to media attention, President Holtschneider said: "Academic
freedom is alive and well at DePaul."  It did not sound like it to a
preeminent Holocaust historian, Raul Hilberg, who weeks before his
death said of Finkelstein:  "He has the courage to speak the truth when
no one is there to support him."

Concern grows on college campuses where faculty members face attack by
Zionists whose aim is to halt dissent whenever it is critical of Israel.

An example is the belief I share with others that inflential Neocon
advisers to the Administration-- motivated by the agenda of Israel--
urged the U.S.

invasion of Iraq, as well as continued support of Israeli militarism in
Palestine.  Primary among them have been Richard Perle and Paul
Wolfowitz, both Zionists.

The Jewish backlash did not surprise Mearsheimer and Walt, whose
article last spring in the London Review of Books outlined their belief
that "a powerful Israeli lobby has a pernicious influence on American
policy." They write that "because the pro-Israel lobby has become so
powerful, no aspiring politician will even raise the issue in public."

Among the lobby's most vocal spokesmen is Abraham Foxman, national
director of the Anti-Defamation League.  His just-published book, "The
Israel Lobby and Myth of Jewish Control," attempts to camouflage the
lobby.

It succeeds only in making its goals more transparent.

A Mearsheimer-Walt book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,"
had its release embargoed until Sept. 4 because of complaints to the
publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Date for release of the Foxman book?  Sept. 4.

[The writer, retired in Eugene, Ore., was founding director of the
University of Oregon Speakers Bureau.]

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