I want you either to provide PROOF that all “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists” do all the nefarious things you claim, or to retract your claims

I seem to have hit a raw nerve. I didn’t say ALL right wing pro israel nationalists demand that I write according to their agenda. Such a statement would be absurd because many, if not most of them don’t even know I exist. I meant that most of those fitting that description who comment here at this blog at one time or another berate me for not writing about some Arab outrage or another and use this as evidence that I’m either an Arab lover or hater of my own people. Sorry for hitting that nerve & hope this clarifies my thinking.

And let’s be clear about what an ad hominem attack IS. It’s not what you say it is. It’s an attack against a person rather than their argument. And what I wrote was not a personal attack therefore not ad hominem.

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What I do love about right wing pro-Israel nationalists is that they are actually insulted when you don’t address their own agenda in your writing.

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I want you either to provide PROOF that all “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists” do all the nefarious things you claim, or to retract your claims. As a matter of fact, I have enountered “progressives” who are liars , cheats, dishonest and all the other epithets you have used against “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists. On the other hand, I know “progressives” who are honest, upright people. Again, either you provide PROOF that ALL “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists” have all the bad characteristics you mention or retract your ad hominem attacks.

I DO value and give importance to the dozen or so experts who have commented on El Haj’s shoddy work.

NO, you give “value & importance” only to those “experts” who have savaged her work. Many other scholars have spoken highly favorably of her work. You have ignored them as inconvenient to yr ideological agenda.

As for her knowing Hebrew - the book is riddled with mistakes in Hebrew - simple, basic words she got wrong.

I’m waiting…what are they. One review that trashed her mentioned that she mistook nachal for neve. I haven’t even researched this to validate that the charge is correct. But that’s one possible mistake. What are the others? And DO pls quote fr. her text & provide page numbers to allow us to judge for ourselves whether your judgement is valid or not.

She makes no mention of the momentous damage done by the bulldozers on the Temple Mount

What I do love about right wing pro-Israel nationalists is that they are actually insulted when you don’t address their own agenda in your writing. Who says Abu El-Haj’s has to take into account yr obssessions? Who says she has to address what you find important? She addresses what she finds important. You have yr own megaphone at IsraelInsider. Go scream bloody murder about Arab perfidy there all you want. But don’t expect Abu El-Haj to kowtow to you or yr concerns.

The more they look, the more they will, indeed, see and read and smell something rotten.

Actually, the more one looks at your work and petition the more rotten it smells.

I first heard about Abu El Haj from a Barnard graduate

Please DO tell us where SHE first heard of Abu El Haj. I’m waiting for the answer…

What shocked the author was that in the correspondence from the scholar to the embassy the genocide WAS treated as a historical fact! So they knew they were promoting a lie. Of course the author publicized the scholar’s letter, which indicated that he was prostituting his expertise in order to promote a lie. Needless to say, his name was MUD among his peers from then on.

The same tactic is being used here–if you throw enough manure against the wall some of it will stick.

Not that there’s not lots of conservation problems with other periods.

Languages: Israeli archaeologists publish both in Hebrew and English. Probably French and German as well.

As for the tenure problems, I’m glad I live in China now. I don’t get tenure, but I don’t face a political inquisition, either.

Zhu Bajie, going up and down and to and fro in the world

You wrote: “And while you’re at it ask Paula Stern how she first heard of Abu El-Haj and if she doesn’t say from a Frontpagemagazine or Campus Watch story I’ll eat my hat. And then ask her where the actual content of her petition was lifted from. If it wasn’t from material in either of those publications I’ll eat another hat.”

Please post pictures of the two hats you will eat. I first heard about Abu El Haj from a Barnard graduate who was horrified about the possibility that she might reach tenure. She posted a note to all Barnard graduates on a list in Israel and I saw it, contacted her and …that’s your first hat. You might want to get a glass of water while you chew.

I consulted neither FrontPage nor Campus Watch for the petition content. There was no reason - all that is there…and much more…has been posted in a large and complete section on my website: http://www.paulasays.com. I combined that with notes I took while researching and reading El Haj’s book - and that’s the second hat. I challenge you to post pictures on this site because you most definitely own me an apology - and perhaps a video of the hat-eating ceremony!

As for her knowing Hebrew - the book is riddled with mistakes in Hebrew - simple, basic words she got wrong. She spent virtually no time consulting the real experts in the field, ignores common and acceptable Israeli archeological working methods and assumes to know what is proper and what is not. She makes no mention of the momentous damage done by the bulldozers on the Temple Mount - being employed by the Islamic WAKF as they attempt to do physically what El Haj attempted to do on paper…that is, deny and destroy the Jewish connection to Israel.

As for a counter petition, I am not concerned, and am even grateful. The more controversy this issue kicks up, hopefully the harder and deeper Columbia will look into what Nadia Abu El Haj has written. The more they look, the more they will, indeed, see and read and smell something rotten. Abu El Haj should be denied tenure - not because she is anti-Israel and from her comments on Jews and Jewish genetics, most likely an anti-Semite as well. No, she should be denied tenure for one simple reason - she lacks credibility. She lacks the credentials worthy of a professor at one of the most prestigious universities in the country.

Surely you had figured this out before this.

And while you’re at it ask Paula Stern how she first heard of Abu El-Haj and if she doesn’t say from a Frontpagemagazine or Campus Watch story I’ll eat my hat. And then ask her where the actual content of her petition was lifted from. If it wasn’t from material in either of those publications I’ll eat another hat.

That is a very serious charge indeed. Potentially libelous. Proof, please?