UCLA's Center for Near East Studies-An Academic Joke

Hat tip Campus Watch

Here is an article written by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith about UCLA's Center for Near East Studies for the LA Jewish Journal. It points out why this department is nothing more than an advocate for the pro-Palestinian movement against Israel rather than an entity devoted to serious scholarship-especially when it comes to such a complicated issue as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/programmers_at_cnes_saw_no_reason_to_counter_israel_criticism

I should note that it was the cited 2009 event at UCLA when Lisa Hajjar told a critical Jewish questioner in the audience (who was wearing a hat) that he "had his Zionist hat screwed on too tight".

That perfectly describes the kind of "scholarship" to be found in the Center for Near East Studies. It is made up of anti-Israel activists who care nothing for objective study-only for pushing their agenda.

In addition, I had the opportunity to see many of these same characters in action at UC Irvine during the same period when they held their freak show there. This time even Norman "Don't call me Norm" Finkelstein was there. He really had his game face on that day. When they weren't calling Israel a fascist, genocidal state, several of them were telling the audience that George W Bush was an idiot. I remember clearly that UCI Professor Mark "Don't call me anti-Israel" LeVine asked the audience of several hundred (mostly Arabs) if there was anybody in the audience who didn't think Bush was an idiot. (I was probably the only one who raised his hand.)

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-report-on-whither-levant-uncondensed.html

Serious scholarship, Folks.