a major portion of the Islamic world is on a mission to “subdue or kill the infidel” - a misison acquiesced to and excused by the vast majority of the rest.

How many unsubstantiated gross overgeneralizations can someone pack into a single sentence? You’ve possibly come close to the record. I won’t pretend to try to convince you of the gross ignorance that characterizes your views since that would be next to impossible. Suffice to say that your views find no echo here.

For every instance of Muslim hate I can find an instance of either Jewish or Christian hate of Muslims. What does it prove? Nothing, except that human beings are better haters than peacemakers.

Remember the affaire Carter-Dershowitz at Brandeis? Richard Silverstein reports that the evergreen McCarthyist Daniel Pipes has launched a campaign to ensure that guest speakers at this august, historically Jewish university don’t represent parts…

While I have no use for Finkelstein’s anti-Zionist rhetoric, I believe his research on Dershowitz’s plagiarism is sound. It is certainly unfair to say that Finkelstein’s research is poor merely because of the alleged use made of it by anti-Semites. And btw, the Holocaust is a phenomenon that is deeply misused by some Jews and I’m not entirely convinced that his critique of the Holocaust isn’t w/o some merit.

Richard wrote,
…Mideast studies faculty (and faculty candidates) being subjected to a pro-Israel smear campaign…

This is not entirely fair. The smear campaign was not “pro-Israel”–at least, it was no more so than the pro-choice rhetoric is necessarily “pro-abortion”, as the anti-choicers like to label it. Some of the criticism offered at Columbia and at Brandeis was fairly legitimate. And both sides have been guilty of excesses in the debate. But one should not apply the “enemy of my enemy” principle in academic discourse–opposition to a particular academic or academic position need not come from ideological allies.

To be fair, Daniel Pipes is one of the worst. It is difficult to describe his position as “academic” because most of his data (if one can even refer to it as “data”) are misinterpreted and conclusions extremely biased. Views of Pipes’s critics are usually distorted by his supporters in an attempt to portray Pipes as some kind of heroic figure. Pipes is not a hero–he’s a coward.

Norman Finkelstein is another matter. To describe Finkelstein as a “Dershowitz gadfly” is not fair to either Dershowitz or Finkelstein. For one, Dershowitz is no Pipes. Pipes revolves in extreme conservative circles and relishes the attention he’s getting from the Cristian Right. Dershowitz, in contrast, is liberal. He is, in fact, far more liberal in his views than some of the self-proclaimed progressives who routinely want to muzzle free speech. But Dershowitz is a supporter of Israel (if not quite a “Zionist” in the more traditional sense), and he likes to provoke his opponents.

Finkelstein, on the other hand, is not merely an critic of Israel. Finkelstein is the personification of a Jew who gives comfort to anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers and other assorted rabble. Every time an anti-Semitic polemicist wants to justify the myth of Jewish evil by citing a Jew, he can usually find support in Finkelstein’s statements. This is quite disturbing. Finkelstein is no Pipes, but his academic credentials are not much better. Critics of both Finkelstein and Pipes usually have far more data to back up their arguments than either one of these two.

Having said this, I find it deeply disturbing that Brandeis would find any wisdom in denying speech rights to either Pipes or Finkelstein. It is yet more distirbing that, following criticism, the Brandeis administration found it wise to relent on Pipes, but to continue to have Finkelstein muzzled. This is not representative of any plausible interpretation of free speech.

Hamas won the election by applying a cheap Iranian style populist propaganda, and holds to the rule by the dirty activity of its secret police, informants, assassins etc.

I’m no fan of Hamas, but I’m afraid that this is way over the top, Steven.