The politics of studying Israel

[Forums Moderator]

To counter what they see as a pro-Palestinian bias in Middle East studies, American Jewish philanthropists are financing the creation of chairs, programs, and centers in Israel studies at a growing number of colleges. Have Middle East-studies programs given short shrift to Israel's history and culture, teaching it primarily in terms of the Arab-Israeli conflict? Have Israel-studies programs been free of bias themselves, or used to shape students' views of the conflict? Read more...

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[Anne Selden Annab, homemaker]

I do not understand why Israeli studies and chairs are being established on our campuses when, unlike Jewish studies, the main point of Israeli studies is to intentionally ignore, dismiss or worse demonize the indigenous Palestinian perspective, in much the same way Palestinians are ignored, dismissed and/or demonized all through out world.

It used to just be the region, but America's global war on "terror" has enabled and encouraged our own government to formally charge Palestinian Americans with supporting terrorism.

For Israel's entire 57 year long existence Israel has refused to respect the Palestinian refugees inalienable right of return, it's a basic human right enshrined by international law...  Israeli propagandists went from insisting that there was no such thing as a Palestinian to firmly insisting that the Palestinians objecting to such flagrant injustice are extremists and terrorists.

Right now Prof. Sami al-Arian is on trial in Florida, charged with supporting terrorism. Our government's evidence against al-Arian includes the testimony of politically motivated Israeli survivors of terror attacks.  No mention is made of America's immense contributions to Israel's extensive state sponsored terrorism of the Palestinians which includes helicopter gunship attacks on impoverished refuge camps.

Establishing chairs to reinforce Israeli racism, seems rather misguided if not down right dangerous. It's not just the Palestinians that have to suffer the consequences of armed Israeli bigotry.  Our own democracy is being undermined by such misguided pro-Israel politicking.

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[John Garner - Ivy Tech]

Wouldn't it be nice if Politics and education could be separated?

[JT]

But recall the Nichomachean Ethics, Book I ii:

... for it is this [science of politics] that ordains  which of the sciences are to exist in states, and what branches of knowledge the various classes of the citizens are to learn, and up to what point ...

[Randy Stephens]

Yes, seems there are "philanthropic" foundations
being formed for Israel Studies and Holocaust
Studies as well.  One in particular which was
programmed to a middle school class for the day
I was engaged there as a substitute teacher.   The
supreme comander of the group that presented
film matter related to those studies was movie
mogul Stephen Spielberg.

Mr. Speilberg was reaching out to get leads on
actual individuals who could give 1st person accounts
of the 1930's to 1945 Jewish experience in Europe.
Modern technology is to allow compilation and
correlation of information gained.   Being skeptical
of Hollywoodish intentions, I ask.  "Could he get a
movie out of this?  Could court cases be pursued
which would involve "retrieval"  of the wealth of
survivors from Swiss Banks?  Will the actions of
this group become the template for actions by other
groups who were perhaps victimized or persecuted?"

Further questions are:   Are these philanthropies
(and any others) more than money laundering
mechanisms?   Are they protected from taxation
while pusuing gain from ulterior actions?  

At UGA there was a University Fund which was
characterized by the University's president as
being of a purpose to transfer money from the
wealthy to linked wealthy acquaintences.  Are
these mentioned charities doing this?  

Skeptically speaking, money does not seem to be
enlightening the public, solving problems, or bene-
fitting understanding in Israel or in many other
places around the globe.  To be fair though, I am
more trusting of philanthropic trusts than I am of
the concept of "corporations."

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[John Garner]

quote

Author: JT
Date:   06-26-05 11:11

But recall the Nichomachean Ethics, Book I ii:

... for it is this [science of politics] that ordains which of the sciences are to exist in states, and what branches of knowledge the various classes of the citizens are to learn, and up to what point ...

unquote

O.K.  I had hoped that I would not have to discuss this, but...

If it is (science of) politics that (determines) ordains which of the sciences are to exist in states and what branches of knowledge the various classes of citizens are to learn, are we to assume that since Israel has superior technology that it's technology demonstrates superior politics?

Or, is it the blowing up of buses, suicide bombers and the public decapitation of individuals with swords, dull knives and so forth that has a superior (science of) politics?

On the other hand...

Is it the domination of a sub-society with a different religion with the creation of a police state that bulldozes the homes of the families of criminals to deal with organized terror that demonstrates a superior (science of) politics?

I don't know, you decide for yourself, but choose wisley.


This is what I have decided.

When terrorism spills over into a country that are a half a world away, from organizations associated with the so-called 'underdog', necessitating that the country establish a military presence in the region just to remain secure, I find it increasingly hard to fault Israel or its people for much of anything.  

Neither of these groups were as trusting or as unsuspecting as American school children on a jet plane taking field trip. Israel was not responsible for the terrorism attacks in America. Neither are Americans.

[shiksa]

You say Israel was not responsible for September 11?  Neither was Palestine.  Using 9/11 as a rationale for supporting Israeli brutality makes exactly as much sense as if the people of Iraq were to respond to the destruction of Fallujah by blowing something up in Finland.  Hey, those Caucasians are all the same anyway.

[JT]

Keep reading a few paragraphs after the quoted.  The ideal is that politics, whose aim his the good of humans in society will develop the sciences to help realize that good.  Superior technology will be a sign of the the superior politics only in so far as that technology does indeed further that final good.  

Granted that the ideal is not going to be realized, we are left with the fact that  government uses the science of politics in support whatever will serve its self interest.  



Regarding  the statement:

"When terrorism spills over into a country that are a half a world away, from organizations associated with the so-called 'underdog', necessitating that the country establish a military presence in the region just to remain secure, I find it increasingly hard to fault Israel or its people for much of anything. "


Quoting the term 'underdog'   shows a lack of appreciatiion for   the issues in the Middle East situation.  It is easy for us who have not had to endure hardship and  humiliation to belittle, and to blame, those who have.  Compare the attitude who opposed the civil rights movement in the time of Martin Luther King.

The statement regarding faulting Irsrael cuts both ways.   Listen carefully, and you will see the same argument used by the Israel's  adversaries.

[John Garner]

shiksa says...
QUOTE
Date:   07-01-05 13:51

You say Israel was not responsible for September 11? Neither was Palestine. Using 9/11 as a rationale for supporting Israeli brutality makes exactly as much sense as if the people of Iraq were to respond to the destruction of Fallujah by blowing something up in Finland. Hey, those Caucasians are all the same anyway.
UNQUOTE

I don't support Israel brutality. However, neither do I support terrorism.

Just as Israel has to deal with the reactions to its actions, so do we all.

However, sitting back and doing nothing is no longer an option, especially in light of what has happened in London, England today.

I suppose that England now supports Israeli brutality because they have been targeted in a terror attack. Extending that logic to Russia and Spain, also victims of past terror attacks, do Russian and Spain now also support Israel because they are doing nothing against her? What about the Phillipines? India? Siri Lanka? Since they have been places of terror attacks does that mean that they are supporting Israel?

When will the folks who hope to blame terrorism on its victims see how illogical that they are being?

[JT]

When will the folks who hope to blame Israeli brutality on its victims see how illogical that they are being?

[JT]

My previous post of 07-07-05 was too glib:  Let me be more explicit:



Mr. Gardner ended his last post with:


When will the folks who hope to blame terrorism on its victims see how illogical that they are being?

That is expresses a nice sentiment, but consider the parallel sentiment that could well  be voiced by those the other side:

When will the folks who hope to blame Israeli brutality on its victims see how illogical that they are being?

This is serious business.  All of the usual reponses to terrorist acts do little but provoke further terrorist acts, perhaps, in large part, because of thought processes that produce such nice sentiments.

[shiksa]

John Garner writes:

I don't support Israel brutality. However, neither do I support terrorism.
(endquote)

I can agree with that except for one word:  "however."  I find it repulsive when civilians are attacked with bombs fired from attack helicopters, and also when civilians are attacked with bombs toted in duffel bags.  Indeed, I can find no logical rationale for loathing one while supporting the other, or even just giving it a pass.  To do so would be to suggest that the financial resources or lack thereof of the perpetrators, or even worse, the race/ethnicity/religion of the perpetrators or the victims, was what made all the difference between right and wrong.  

Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly what most Americans and all neocon pundits do.  And that's what worries me about Israel studies.  If you really intend to study a nation in great depth, you need to study it warts and all, and acknowledge its failings (like stealing its neighbors' drinking water to grow lettuce in the desert, or keeping them locked in bantustans under perpetual military occupation, or like having acquired much of its land in the first place through ethnic cleansing including the slaughter of whole villages such as Deir Yassin).  Israel's crimes are no worse than many others committed by allegedly civilized nations, but they are troubling enough that, for anyone who counts Arabs as humans rather than "two-legged dogs," the myth of beautiful Israel becomes pretty hard to sustain.  But most of the Israel-studies supporters want students to come away with an impression that Israel is wonderful, Palestinians are terrorists, full stop, and they will not teach those failings.  And if they did, some pro-Zionist student would just get pissy and call David Horowitz to pressure his state leg to fire them.

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[Bill Smith]

Shiksa, and others,  call what Israel is doing repulsive.  But why would self-defense by Jews be repulsive? Does she not get that not one Arab would have been killed in the conflict if the Arabs would just stop suicide bombing Israeli civilians (women and children) in pizza parlours, discos, and buses.  Yes, Israel isn't perfect but it is a democracy and still the only place in the Middle East where Arabs have free press, and free speech - there are even Arab members of the Israeli Parliament.  It is Middle Eastern studies that only tell the Palestinian story which is the concern - they miss exactly what "shiksa" missed- that Israel has a right to defend themselves.

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[Shiksa]

Bill Smith says:

Author: Bill Smith
Date:   07-10-05 21:36

Shiksa, and others, call what Israel is doing repulsive. But why would self-defense by Jews be repulsive? Does she not get that not one Arab would have been killed in the conflict if the Arabs would just stop suicide bombing Israeli civilians (women and children) in pizza parlours, discos, and buses. Yes, Israel isn't perfect but it is a democracy and still the only place in the Middle East where Arabs have free press, and free speech - there are even Arab members of the Israeli Parliament. It is Middle Eastern studies that only tell the Palestinian story which is the concern - they miss exactly what "shiksa" missed- that Israel has a right to defend themselves.

(endquote)

Self defense by Jews is fine, Bill -- that's why I commend organizations like Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.  But one simply cannot call it "self defense" when an Israeli bulldozes a well that provides water for thousands of Arabs, or snipes into a UNICEF school and kills an Arab schoolgirl at her desk, then turn around and call it "terrorism" when the schoolgirl's big brother throws a rock at an armed adult occupying what used to be his family's land.  One cannot say, when colonists go on rampages against Arab shopkeepers or attack small kids walking to school with bats and chains, that they are "just defending themselves."  The fact that you have tried to imply this tells me that you are deeply biased, and that any "Israel studies" course you might promulgate would likely be nothing but a propaganda tool.

You claim that not one Arab would have been killed in the conflict if not for the suicide bombings?  I presume you require that the conflict be defined as the last few years alone, so that Irgun and Stern Gang massacres, etc., can be excluded.  But before the first intifada, or between the intifadas, were things comfy for the Palestinians?  Did the years that passed without a suicide bombing cause Israel to return their land or liberty?  Did not one person die at the hands of a soldier or settler, or as a consequence of the economic stranglehold on them, in all those years?  Didn't the intifada really pick up steam AFTER a New Yorker machine-gunned dozens of unarmed Arabs at prayer (while Israeli soldiers stood by, because they were not supposed to use lethal force against Jews who were only killing Arabs)?

Israel may be a democracy within certain boundaries, but they also wish (against all international law) to keep the West Bank forever and to turn Gaza into an unsurvivable open-air prison camp.  (The serious Eretz Yisrael crowd also want large chunks of Lebanon, Jordan, the Sinai, etc.)  If the West Bank is and will forever be part of Greater Israel, then every Arab born there within the last 37 years should be an Israeli citizen, right?  Yet those people have no right to vote, no say in the government that keeps them under perpetual military occupation.  The colonists among them, though, can vote in Israeli elections the second they get off the plane from New York or Vladivostok.  

It is simply false to suggest that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country with free press, etc.; Lebanon was a pretty good place before Israel spent twenty years wrecking it, and still has moderate political freedom.  And although Israeli Arabs can vote, they cannot vote for a candidate who espouses legal equality for all races (that being an *illegal* platform that gets even Jewish candidates removed from the ballot), and right wingers concerned about the "Arab population bomb" have started to yammer for the "cleansing" of the Israeli Arab population.  A recent poll showed a large bloc of Israeli Jews would support depriving their Arab neighbors of the vote, or even the right to exist in Israel.

Sorry, Bill, but the facts are that Israel is a powerful, well-armed aggressor state, and the Palestinians are a poor and powerless people, who are by and large innocent (like every other large human group), and who have survived admirably under deliberately inflicted hardships that would have broken most peoples.  You don't really want unbiased and complete facts to be presented to the students of America, because if people were aware of the facts instead of the sloganeering, 80% of them would be on the Palestinian side.

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[Bill Smith]

Palestinian propagandists become easily uncovered when they minimize Palestinian Arab transgressions as someone throwing a rock – no mention of the pummeling of Jewish cities by hundreds of Qassam missles nor the thousands of bombing attempts against Jewish civilians – just an anecdotal incident or two out of context. A real history of Israel – not a revisionist one, is included in the below link called the myth and the reality:  

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=18543

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