10 | OCTOBER 10 • 2019
Views
commentary
Is Regulation of
Anti-Semitism on
Campus Censorship?
A
s far as President
Donald Trump’
s liberal
critics are concerned,
this is just the latest instance of
his administration’
s hostility to
free speech. The Department
of Education announced last
month that it
had ordered
the Middle
East Studies
Department run
jointly by Duke
University and
the University of
North Carolina
to revamp the curriculum it was
offering students. If the schools’
consortium that runs the pro-
gram doesn’
t comply, it will
lose the federal grant money it
gets under Title VI of the 1964
Higher Education Act.
As far as most academics are
concerned, the government’
s
unprecedented intervention in
course material is an outrage
and infringement on academic
freedom. Yet what really riled
up the critics are the reasons for
the demand. The Department
of Education (DOE) said the
course offering of the consor-
tium advanced an agenda that
glorified Islam and ignored
other faiths in the Mideast.
The program also promoted
BDS activities, including a
conference that was tainted by
anti-Semitic rhetoric on the part
of speakers.
Yet rather than being por-
trayed as a necessary action
in which the administration
sought to prevent taxpayer dol-
lars from being used to promote
a skewed view of the world and
promote hate, the Department
of Education’
s letter has received
scathing coverage.
In the current divisive polit-
ical atmosphere, anything that
the Trump administration
does — whether good, bad or
indifferent — is always going to
be shoehorned into a narrative
in which its work is denounced
as evidence of criminal behav-
ior and/or authoritarianism
by its liberal and Democratic
critics. Secretary of Education
Betsy DeVos has been a par-
ticular target of scorn from the
“resistance.
” Kenneth Marcus,
the head of the department’
s
civil-rights bureau, has gotten
similar treatment.
But the real problem is that
the government’
s action is based
on the recognition that Middle
East Studies in the United
States has become a safe space
for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic
coursework and programming
masquerading as scholarship.
Within these departments,
support for anti-Zionism and
anti-Semitic BDS campaigns
has become a form of ortho-
doxy that teachers and students
dare not challenge. This was
brilliantly exposed by Martin
Kramer in his 2001 book Ivory
Towers on Sand: The Failure of
Middle East Studies in America,
and the situation has only
grown worse since then.
Yet is it the government’
s
business to police this lamenta-
ble situation?
Small government conser-
vatives, as well as libertarians
Jonathan S.
Tobin
continued on page 12
Learn
al
l
about
seni
or
l
i
vi
ng
at
Fox
Run
13701934
Get
your
copy
today.
Cal
l1-800-917-8169
or
vi
si
t FoxRunNovi.com.
Our
FREE
brochure
i
s
packed
wi
th
i
mportant
detai
l
s
about:
• Fabul
ous
on-si
te
ameni
ti
es
l
i
ke
the
al
l
-season
pool
,
fi
tness
center
,
and
restaurants.
• Styl
i
sh
apartment
homes
boasti
ng
open
l
ayouts
and
qual
i
ty
fi
ni
shes.
• Heal
th
and
wel
l
ness
resources
i
ncl
udi
ng
an
on-si
te
medi
cal
center
and
advanced
l
evel
s
of
care,
shoul
d
your
heal
th
needs
change.
• Our
aff
ordabl
e
fi
nanci
al
structure,
whi
ch
makes
i
t
easy
for
reti
red
homeowners
to
comfortabl
y
l
i
ve
at
Fox
Run.
Novi
FoxRunNovi.com
Tickets are $10/person or free with
HMC membership
RSVP by October 18 to 248.556.3178 or
www.holocaustcenter.org/October
Light refreshments to follow
Coming to Terms with the Holocaust in
Poland: From Soul-Searching to Backlash
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER
ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS
28123 Orchard Lake Rd. Farmington Hills, MI 48334
Wednesday, October 23 7 pm
A 2018 Polish law penalizing
statements on the alleged
complicity of Poland in the
Nazi crimes caused a major
international controversy.
Learn how Poland’s Holocaust
history remains a key battlefield
in the culture war that divides
Poland today.