May 22, 2003

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY VS. AMERICA (CONTINUED)

5/22/03 Columbia University announces appointment of the first Edward Said Professor of Anti-American and Anti-Jewish studies. Joseph Massad narrowly defeated Nicholas De Genova for the prestigious position. Columbia cited its commitment to a multicultural, inclusive faculty, especially welcoming those who despise the very liberal arts tradition it once exemplified.

        While the above has not actually occurred, if and when it does it will be no surprise to those who have followed the decline of a great liberal arts university. Once the home of Lionel Trilling, Columbia is now represented by the renowned Prof. of Comparative Literature Edward Said who recently described our liberation of Iraq as follows: "I am convinced this was a rigged, unnecessary and unpopular war. The reactionary Washington institutions that spawned Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams and Feith provide an unhealthy intellectual and moral atmosphere.." He vitriolically 'explained' that America, in league with Israel, poses the greatest threat to the world, while warding off any criticism of his position by claiming the mantle of victim to a new wave of Mc'Carthyite criticism by what he so delicately refers to as "failed academics". Edward Alexander has written devastatingly of Said's hatred for America, Israel and scholars, like Bernard Lewis and others, who dare
to question his 'blame the West' version of Arab history. Alexander notes that Said recently spoke of Operation Iraqi Freedom as the crusade of an "avenging Judeo-Christian god of war," fitting into the pattern of America" "reducing whole peoples, countries and even continents to ruin by nothing short of holocaust." He went on to blame the Jews for what he dislikes: "The Perles and Wolfowitzes of this country" have led America into a war "planned by a docile professionalized staff in...Washington and Tel Aviv" and publicly defended by "Ari Fleischer (who I believe is an Israeli citizen)." Said apparently wants his libels to go unchallenged and present his calumnies as simply expressions of a wish to restore the democracy he claims has been usurped by a neoconservative cabal.

        Joseph Massad is currently assistant professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University. He is very troubled by the appearance of voices in the Arab world daring to question the wide spread Arab scapegoating and hatred of Israel and pushing for modernization. His animus towards Jews is palpable. His view of America, Israel, and Iraq's pro-democracy leaders appeared in the Egyptian government's official newspaper Al Ahram. According to Massad, liberated Iraqis are insufficiently sensitive to their Palestinian brethren, merely because they were such eager allies of Saddam. Massad notes that Saddam rhetorically supported their noble cause, although he neglects to mention that it was more than "rhetoric"; it was rhetoric plus $25,000 bounties to families of suicide bombers. The following representative passage suggests why Professor Massad qualifies for the putative Edward Said chair in Middle Eastern Studies.

        "...Now that America has invaded Iraq, work is underway to convince Iraqis that the tens of thousands of Palestinians in Iraq are collaborators with the regime and are responsible for the oppression of Iraqis. This has led some Iraqis to evict Palestinians living in Iraq from their homes and to call for their deportation. Such accusations are levelled when millions of Iraqis, like the Palestinians living among them, had little choice but to collaborate in their daily living with many aspects of Ba'athist rule. Members of the Iraqi opposition spoke openly of their resentment that the Palestinians have allegedly been made primary when the Iraqis should have been, and fostered much hatred against the Palestinians and their cause among Iraqi exiles. The Palestinians, especially in the occupied territories, thirsty for any Arab regime that would espouse their cause against a collaborating Palestinian Authority and a savage occupation, hailed Saddam whenever he addressed them with florid rhetoric about liberation -- rhetoric that cost him little but cost them much. This was propagated by the Iraqi opposition as evidence of collaboration with Saddam. This is tantamount to accusing those Iraqis who look to the United States to liberate them from Saddam as collaborators with US wars which killed millions across the globe since World War II(emphasis added). As for actual collaboration, major members of the Iraqi opposition like Ahmad Chalabi, and insignificant ones, like Kanan Makiyya, have been conspiring with the Israelis while on visits to Tel Aviv, and with the Zionist lobby in the US, for the last decade. Indeed, many in the Iraqi opposition worked for and/or made money off Saddam in their previous incarnations. This is aside from their collaboration with the US in its invasion of their country. That, however, is acceptable collaboration..."

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