Keeping Watch On Campus
Philadelphia
established the intellectual
premises for Campus Watch.
hat has Campus
If Campus Watch, headed by
Watch (www
Winfield Myers, has interrupted
campus-watch.
this charmed academic life by
org), a project to critique and
exposing what Martin Kramer
improve Middle East studies in
of the Washington Institute for
the United States and Canada,
Near East Policy has termed the
Daniel Pipes
achieved since it opened its
"failure of Middle Eastern stud-
Special
to the
doors this week in 2002?
ies in America," it is because we
Jewish News
Along with like-minded
consider the work of these spe-
organizations — the National
cialists too important to be left
Association of Scholars, the David Horowitz uncritiqued. We hover over their shoulders
Freedom Center, National Review and the
and remind them that their egregious
Manhattan Institute — it assesses what
statements might well end up ridiculed
professors are saying and doing, thereby
as our "quote of the month',' or even cause
helping to challenge academia's status quo.
them trouble when they try to win tenure
Critiquing professors is more revolu-
or get a new job.
tionary than it may sound, for academics
As Middle East specialists themselves
have long been spared public criticism
acknowledge, this new accountability
such as that directed toward politicians,
wrought by Campus Watch has overturned
business leaders, actors and athletes. Who
their once-insular world. Their back-
would judge them? Students suppress their handed endorsements in the form of testi-
views to protect their careers; peers are
monials of living in abject fear of Campus
reluctant to criticize each other lest they,
Watch offer one colorful example. Another
in turn, suffer attacks; and laymen lack the is the statement by Miriam Cooke of Duke
competence to judge arcane scholarship.
University that "Campus Watch is the
As a result, academics have long enjoyed a Trojan horse whose warriors are already
unique lack of accountability.
changing the rules of the game not only
Ivory Towers on Sand by Martin Kramer in Middle East studies but also in the U.S.
W
Sponsored Trips from page 30
isn't right."
Second, the assumption is — never
proven — that when the guests return
home, these officials will automatically
support Israel. Why this was considered
the expected outcome was never clear.
I don't know of any study that has mea-
sured the effectiveness of the trips by track-
ing the public record on Israel of those who
visited Israel on the organizations' dollars.
Is it possible that at times information
gathered on these educational trips only
proves the point for those who are anti-
Israel? Is it possible that some may not
like what they see?
A few years ago, when David Lawrence
was publisher of the Detroit Free Press,
he presided over, what at the time, argu-
ably, was the most anti-Israel paper in the
country.
He was invited on one of these trips
— as if the Free Press could not afford it
— and after he returned, of course, noth-
ing changed in the editorial pages. Indeed,
Lawrence continued to write anti-Israel
Sunday columns.
(One local Jewish organization even
tried appeasement: It, inexplicably, named
him its annual honoree, again, while his
paper continually castigated Israel).
Third, many of the trips invite state,
county and municipal politicians who
have absolutely no decision-making
authority or influence over U.S. foreign
policy. The indirect benefit of turning a
Detroit Council member, for instance, into
an ally for Israel is questionable at best.
Do Jewish community councils really
believe that when such issues as sell-
ing aircraft to Arab countries is before
Congress, state legislators, county com-
missioners or city council members will
use their limited power to attempt to
affect a vote on this issue?
Given this limited power it is doubtful
they would even be able to speak to the
decision makers. Even if the trips were
successful in turning some of these offi-
cials into supporters of Israel, the value of
this political friendship is debatable.
But, the organizational sponsors of the
trips respond, "We have had nothing but
favorable feedback!'
Indeed. What should the guests tell their
hosts other than they are grateful for the
trip, learned much about Israel and its his-
tory, now understand the complexity of the
issues much better and, if they have enough
chutzpah, add that they would not mind
doing it again some day — perhaps soon.
If trip sponsors have understood some
university as a whole."
More positively, the Taskforce on Middle
East Anthropology published a handbook
on professional responsibility in early
2007 that calls for the implementation of
steps long encouraged by Campus Watch.
That said, the field's basic problems
remain in place: analytical failures, the
mixing of politics with scholarship, intol-
erance of alternative views, apologetics
and the abuse of power over students.
Campus Watch's highest priority is to
help stimulate a diversity of opinion, so
that pro-American scholars — who today
make up perhaps 5 percent of Middle East
specialists — reach parity with the anti-
Americans. This goal has two implications:
• That professors today can no longer
be expected to engage in disinterested
scholarship and instruction, but must be
balanced by those who will promote an
alternative viewpoint. It is sad to see the
ideal of objectivity crumble, but this is a
reality one must adapt to.
• That the anti-Americans do not have
a monopoly on intelligence or skills, just
a near-monopoly on power. The 5 percent
figure does not mean that bright histori-
ans, political scientists, economists, soci-
ologists, anthropologists, literature and
of the weaknesses of the financed-trips to
Israel but, for whatever reason, were reluc-
tant to end the practice, the Montgomery
County Ethics Commission has given them
the opportunity without taking any blame.
If some officials who had planned to
join the next trip are asking for an infor-
mation package, the organizations can
now quote the ethical problem as defined
Legislators Tour Israel
In search of economic development
opportunities for Michigan, eight
state legislators, representatives
from the MEDC (Michigan Economic
Development Corporation) and the
Michigan Israel Business Bridge as
well as several Jewish communal pro-
fessionals and lay leaders traveled on
a legislators' mission to Israel Aug.
13-18.
The goal was to explore economic
development opportunities and
research collaborations between
Michigan and Israel. Participants
met with representatives from many
sectors including biotechnology incu-
bators in Nazareth and Haifa, Elbit
Industries, Phoenicia Glass, Hadassah
Hospital, the Israel-America Chamber
language specialists, et al., are 19 to 1 anti-
American, but that this faction has, since
the late 1960s, gained a near-stranglehold
over their departments.
Just as a great ocean vessel requires
time to turn, so does the university, where
career-tenured faculty rule. Tenure not
only guarantees them decades-long job
security, but it also inures professors to
the demands of the market place or the
wishes of students, donors, and other
stakeholders.
It will take time, but there are grounds
for optimism about Middle East studies,
which underwent a seismic shift in the
aftermath of the 9 11 atrocities. That event
led to a surge in enrollments and attracted
a new sort of student to the field, one less
marginal politically and more publicly
ambitious. As this post-9-11 cohort wends
its way through the system, expect to see
significant improvements.
Campus Watch will be there to wel-
come them. With luck, its mission will be
accomplished, and it can then close its
doors. LT]
-
Daniel Pipes is the founder of Campus Watch
and director of its parent organization, the
Middle East Forum.
by the Montgomery commission.
That should put an end to it because we
all understand that the first consideration
of any public official is ethics. I I
A former political reporter, Berl Falbaum, a
Farmington Hills-based author and public rela-
tions executive, teaches journalism part time
at Wayne State University in Detroit.
of Commerce, the American Embassy,
Israel Export and International
Cooperation Institute and Johnson
and Johnson.
The mission was sponsored by
the United Jewish Foundation.
Participating in the mission were
Sens. Ron Jelinek and Mark Schauer
and Reps. Pam Byrnes, George
Cushingberry, Kevin Elsenheimer,
Gabe Leland, Marty Knollenberg and
Steve Tobocman; Howard Edelson
from the MEDC; Chuck Newman from
the Michigan Israel Business Bridge;
Susan Herman, Michigan Jewish
Conference director; Linda Blumberg,
planning director, Jewish Federation;
and Greg Aronin and Beth Gotthelf
from Federation's government rela-
tions oversight committee.
September 27 • 2007
31