The Volokh Conspiracy - Adding Insult to Injury:

In October 2004, I reported that Columbia University was planning to start a new Israel Studies Department, in a rather transparent attempt to deflect criticism of its extremely anti-Israel Middle East Studies Department [home of the infamous Joseph Massad, for example], an attitude that had allegedly caused some of the faculty to behave unpleasantly to Israeli and Jewish students. I objected that if the criticisms of one-sidedness and discrimination were valid, this was not likely the best way to deal with it. Moreover, if this was an appropriate response, Columbia should have spent its own money on the new program, rather than ask the Jewish community to foot the seven-figure bill.

The New York Sun reports on the results of the search for a director of the new "Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies." First, the "Columbia search committee responsible for hiring a director included one of academia's most outspoken critics of Israel, Rashid Khalidi [last seen on this blog condemning Columbia president Lee Bollinger for his sharp introduction of Ahmedinajed; see also "What Planet is Columbia Professor Rashid Khalidi on], as well as a professor who supported an anti-Israel divestment campaign on campus, Lila Abu-Lughod." And the upshot? The new director is Yinon Cohen, who during Operation Defensive Shield, when the Israeli Defense Forces were in the West Bank successfully fighting those who had been blowing up buses and pizzerias, signed a letter expressing "our appreciation and support for those of our students and lecturers who refuse to serve as soldiers in the occupied territories."

And Martin Kramer has dug up a letter signed by Cohen in 2001, when the wave of Palestininan terrorism was just ramping up:

"We, faculty and students of Israeli universities, extend our arms in solidarity with your just cause, against repression of the popular uprising by the Israeli military forces.... Academic faculty in the occupied territories! We wish to cooperate with you in opposing the brutal policy of siege, closure and curfew of the IDF."

Unfortunately, all utterly predictable.

	[David Bernstein, March 3, 2008 at 8:02pm] Trackbacks Adding Insult to Injury: In October 2004, I reported that Columbia University was planning to start a new Israel Studies Department, in a rather transparent attempt to deflect criticism of its extremely anti-Israel Middle East Studies Department [home of the infamous Joseph Massad, for example], an attitude that had allegedly caused some of the faculty to behave unpleasantly to Israeli and Jewish students. I objected that if the criticisms of one-sidedness and discrimination were valid, this was not likely the best way to deal with it. Moreover, if this was an appropriate response, Columbia should have spent its own money on the new program, rather than ask the Jewish community to foot the seven-figure bill. The New York Sun reports on the results of the search for a director of the new "Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies." First, the "Columbia search committee responsible for hiring a director included one of academia's most outspoken critics of Israel, Rashid Khalidi [last seen on this blog condemning Columbia president Lee Bollinger for his sharp introduction of Ahmedinajed; see also "What Planet is Columbia Professor Rashid Khalidi on], as well as a professor who supported an anti-Israel divestment campaign on campus, Lila Abu-Lughod." And the upshot? The new director is Yinon Cohen, who during Operation Defensive Shield, when the Israeli Defense Forces were in the West Bank successfully fighting those who had been blowing up buses and pizzerias, signed a letter expressing "our appreciation and support for those of our students and lecturers who refuse to serve as soldiers in the occupied territories." And Martin Kramer has dug up a letter signed by Cohen in 2001, when the wave of Palestininan terrorism was just ramping up: "We, faculty and students of Israeli universities, extend our arms in solidarity with your just cause, against repression of the popular uprising by the Israeli military forces.... Academic faculty in the occupied territories! We wish to cooperate with you in opposing the brutal policy of siege, closure and curfew of the IDF." Unfortunately, all utterly predictable.