Author: Alyssa A. Lappen and Jonathan
Calt Harris
Publication: FrontPageMagazine.com
Date: March 18, 2003
URL: http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6691
A Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning
composer might seem an unlikely critic of Columbia Univeristy's Middle
East studies department. But last week, when John Corigliano was honored
as a distinguished Columbia College alumnus, the composer took it upon
himself to criticize the bias in that Columbia department.
"There has been an enormous, enormous
amount of publicity about the various departments of Middle Eastern Studies,"
he said in his acceptance speech. "And about the fact that the anti-Israeli
policy in these [departments] is enormous. And one can say that of the
department of Middle Eastern languages and cultures at Columbia, that that's
true here."
Corigliano's critique of Columbia's
department of Middle Eastern languages and cultures (MEALAC), is should
put the university on notice that it has a problem. Unfortunately, that
problem is about to get worse, with the arrival of Rashid Khalidi next
fall as MEALAC's inaugural (anonymously funded) "Edward Said Professor
of Middle East Studies" and head of the university's Middle East Institute.
A glance at Khalidi's work shows
why this is a step in the wrong direction for Columbia University. His
writings and statements routinely cross the line from education into a
political advocacy that is not just extremist but often factually wrong.
Four examples:
On American foreign policy. Following
Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Khalidi called the widespread resistance
to this act of aggression an "idiots' consensus" and called on his colleagues
to combat it.[i] After 9/11, he admonished Washington to drop what he called
its "hysteria about suicide bombers."[ii]
Khalidi asserts that the U.S. government
has "yet to support the independence of Arab Palestine,"[iii] despite open
endorsement by President George W. Bush of a Palestinian state[iv], and
nearly $1 billion in direct U.S. aid to the West Bank and Gaza since 1993.[v]
And beware anyone who disagrees
with Khalidi! He throws reckless accusations out against them, such as
calling Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz "a fanatical, extreme
right-wing Zionist."[vi]
On Palestinian violence. Khalidi
glorifies anti-Israel violence as contributing to "political enlightenment"[vii]
and unsurprisingly admires those who carry it out. His loyalty to Palestinian
terrorist groups run so deep that he actually dedicated his 1986 valentine
to the PLO, Under Siege, to "those who gave their lives . . . in defense
of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon."[viii] The book
whitewashes PLO violence against Israelis and Lebanese, as well as the
Syrian occupation.
On media coverage. When Palestinian
violence garners unfavorable publicity, Khalidi's response it to blame
the messenger, not the murderers. Thus, in response to Palestinians lynched
two off-duty Israeli officers on October 12, 2000, Khalidi did not critique
the perpetrators of this crime, but railed against the "prostitute" and
"cynical" media that dared to show Palestinians triumphantly displaying
bloodied hands after the killings. In like spirit, he faults not those
Palestinians who erupted in joyous street celebrations at the murders of
3,000 Americans on 9/11, but the media for having the temerity to report
these occurrences.[ix]
On Israel as a U.S. ally. In Khalidi's
fevered imagination, Israel is not a democratic ally but an "apartheid
system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state. In his efforts to
indict the Jewish state, Khalidi is quite prepared to make up accusations,
such as his claim that Israel's army has "awful weapons of mass destruction
(many supplied by the U.S.) that it has used in cities, villages and refugee
camps."[x] This is a plain lie. That so few Americans agree with his bizarre
reading of Israel's democracy as a menacing enemy state causes him to dismiss
them as "brainwashed."[xi]
In short, Khalidi's scholarship
is laced with a vicious political radicalism. That Khalidi holds such views
is, of course, his right. What is worrisome is that Khalidi advocates his
political views at a leading research university under the auspices of
scholarship. "He is a dangerously powerful academic," says a former student
of his, Talia Magnas, speaking to "hundreds at a time of his virulently
anti-Israel sentiments."[xii]
To make matters worse, Khalidi is
joining at Columbia a university already brimming with politicized scholarship
by Middle East specialists, including Nadia Abu El-Haj, Hamid Dabashi,
Joseph Massad, Edward Said, and George Saliba.
In short, Khalidi's move to Columbia
involves a biased scholar accepting an anonymously endowed chair named
for a biased scholar to head a biased department. It's fair to say that
the arrival of Khalidi at Columbia will give this university the largest,
most politicized Middle East studies roster in North America.
Corigliano's remarks reportedly
drew sustained applause at the gala awards ceremony. This is a sign, we
expect, that the stakeholders in a great university are beginning to realize
the problems in its study of the Middle East.
Alyssa A. Lappen is a writer in
New York and Jonathan Calt Harris is managing editor at Campus Watch, a
project of the Middle East Forum.
==========================================
[i] Norton, Augustus Richard, "Breaking
the Gulf Stalemate Strategy," Los
Angeles Times, Nov. 18, 1990.
[ii] Khalidi, Rashid, "Challenges
and Opportunities," American Committee for Jerusalem, June 2002.
[iii] Khalidi, Rashid, "American
Anointed," American Prospect, Nov. 19, 2001.
[iv] Bush, Pres. George W., "President
Bush Addresses U.N.," Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2001. http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/631/82/PDF/
N0163182.pdf?OpenElement
[v] http://www.usaid.gov/wbg/budget.htm
[vi] "Bush Winds Back U.S. Policy,"
Australian Financial Review, Feb. 8, 2001.
[vii] Elgrably, Jordan, "Crisis
of Our Times: Nationalism, Identity and the Future of Israel/ Palestine,
an Interview with Rashid Khalidi" Oct. 2000, http://www.opentent.org/essays/
khalidi.html www.opentent.org; Solomon, Alisa, "Fuels for the Fire," Village
Voice, Sept. 19-25, 2001.Elgrably, Jordan, ibid.
[viii] Khalidi, Rashid, Under Siege,
pp. ix.
[ix] Elgrably, Jordan, "Crisis of
Our Times: Nationalism, Identity and the Future of Israel/ Palestine, an
Interview with Rashid Khalidi" Oct. 2000, http://www.opentent.org/essays/
khalidi.html www.opentent.org; Solomon, Alisa, "Fuels for the Fire," Village
Voice, Sept. 19-25, 2001.
[x] Khalidi, Rashid, "Basic Truths
from Both Sides of the Conflict," Chicago Tribune, Apr. 3, 2002; Elgrably,
Jordan, ibid.
[xi] Tasker, Fred, "U.S. Policy
is a Source of Mistrust," Miami Herald, Sept. 23, 2001, Elgrably, Jordan,
ibid.,former Khalidi colleague.
[xii] Magnas, Talia, Dec.
17, 2002 email and interview, former colleague.
