Monday, April 24, 2006
John Fund is on the verge of declaring victory in the Yale Taliban battle (though let's not count any chickens just yet) and now sets his sites on the potential Yale hiring of Juan Cole (see previous: Juan Cole to Yale?, Cole Sue? Cole Sue Who? and Cole to Yale? Not so fast, please.).
Cole Fire - Yale is set to ditch Taliban Man and may hire a notorious anti-Israel professor.
Mr. Cole's appointment would be problematic on several fronts. First, his scholarship is largely on the 19th-century Middle East, not on contemporary issues. "He has since abandoned scholarship in favor of blog commentary," says Michael Rubin, a Yale graduate and editor of the Middle East Quarterly. Mr. Cole's postings at his blog, Informed Comment, appear to be a far cry from scholarship. They feature highly polemical writing and dubious conspiracy theories.
In justifying all the time he spends on his blog, Mr. Cole told the Yale Herald that "when you become a public intellectual, it has the effect of dragging you into a lot of mud." Mr. Cole has done his share of splattering. He calls Israel "the most dangerous regime in the Middle East." That ties in with his recurring theme that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee effectively controls Congress and much of U.S. foreign policy. In an article titled "Dual Loyalties," he wrote, "I simply think that we deserve to have American public servants who are centrally commited [sic] to the interests of the United States, rather than to the interests of a foreign political party," namely Israel's right-wing Likud, which was the ruling party until Ariel Sharon formed the centrist Kadima Party. Mr. Cole claims that "pro-Likud intellectuals" routinely "use the Pentagon as Israel's Gurkha regiment, fighting elective wars on behalf of Tel Aviv."...
...Appointing someone as hotheaded and intolerant as Mr. Cole to a prestigious appointment at Yale wouldn't seem to make any sense. The drive to hire him can be explained in part by the same impulses that prompted Yale to admit Mr. Hashemi. "Perhaps the folks who still want to let Taliban Man into the degree program are also thinking Cole would make a great faculty advisor for him," jokes Mr. Taylor, the alumnus leading the NailYale protest.
But that might not be a joke. Many Yale faculty members are deadly serious about wanting Mr. Cole to become their newest colleague, and their views hold great sway. Unlike at Harvard, the university president at Yale has no power to veto the faculty's hiring choice. So even if the admissions department rejects Mr. Hashemi's application for the fall semester, Yale may jump out of the Taliban frying pan and into the Cole fire.
Update 8:41PM (original post 10:53AM): I'm bumping this up to the top of the page. Seems dear Juan is none-too-pleased with Yale-watching Fund. Appearing in the third person Cole headlines his piece, Fund Smears Cole with Barrage of Lies and says:
' He calls Israel "the most dangerous regime in the Middle East." '
This a lie. I never said that. Try googling it.
Here's the thing, Sissy Willis did, and...well...he said it. Remember Sharon's Murder of Yassin Endangers Americans in Iraq and Elsewhere?
It's hardly a stretch to read Cole as Fund has, especially with the quotation marks properly placed, and watching Cole try to gyrate his way out of it is like watching Bill Clinton gearing up to spin his way to freedom as he hears Hillary's car pull up in the driveway home early from a weekend in the Poconos. Fund lied? Fund got it right, and Cole can't stand being called on the clear implications of his polemics.
Uh oh, sounds like he'sa gettin' ready to sue someone! I'm not a lawyer, but I think you've got to do better than this.
Cole complains that Fund smears him as being "anti-Israel" -- no, really. This has become a commonplace on the left, from everyone from those who carp that Israel's elected representatives are murdering fascists and the biggest enemies to peace in the region, to those who simply admit outright that they think Israel ought to be dismantled -- that really, they only have Israel and the Jews' best interests at heart. It's Israel and her policies, after all, that cause anti-Semitism. That Israel is doing the best she can to respond to her neighbor's exterminationist impulses is never considered.
Cole says, "Mr. Fund goes on to attempt to link me in some way with the Taliban..." only Fund doesn't. He links very broadly Yale's hiring decisions to their recruiting decisions and makes an association in that mindset, a fairly obvious association to make (see the end).
Cole:
Fund didn't say that. Fund said:
I agree that Fund made an unadvisedly broad statement there, but it was qualified, something Cole leaves out. After all, who's "prominent?" The only example the defense Cole comes up with hardly helps to make his case...Mark who? Well, that doesn't mean anything, I'm sure Mazower is prominent and the fact that this blogger has never heard of him probably says something about me, but the trouble with the piece Cole links to is that it doesn't embrace the Mearsheimer and Walt piece anything like a jubilant Juan Cole did in his three page Salon piece, instead, what one finds on reading is a piece "defending their right to say it" and studiously avoiding the merits of the paper itself. Again, point to Fund.
"Mr Fund has clearly never read a word I've ever written." That's no crime, but plenty of people who've read quite a bit of what Cole has written would agree with Fund's essay. Next, Cole gets vicious:
Cyanide capsules all around! But seriously, if Cole had kept to scholarly work and away from polemics, would anyone care about him? Would Yale?
(With thanks (I think!) to Sissy for getting me going on this.)
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: John Fund Notices Yale's Interest in Cole -- Updated (and Bumped).
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I am not planning at the moment to blog about it . . . 'have to wait until things converge cosmically in the febrile blogging brain . . . At some point it might become a footnote to a future Read More
Trackback didn't seem to show up. Here's my post:
Until things converge cosmically in the febrile blogging brain
Mark Mazower if prominant. And vile. His recent book, Salonika, is a sort of rosy treatment of the Ottoman empire, all about how good the Jews and Christians had it under Islam. He accuses Greek Jews of voting in an important election in a way that caused the party Mazower favores to lose, which, in the context of the book, serves to excuse the murderous anti-Semitism of the Greeks. But Greek Jews were citizens, it was their country, too. Accusations of dual loyalty are an old form of anti-Semitism, revived by Mazower in "Salonika" and by Walt and Mearshimer in their paper.
He is at (surprise) Columbia.
He was on the committee that investigated the charges of bias in the Columbia Middle Eastern Studies department - and could find no problem.
In another article, Mazower likened Israel to Nazi Germany.
Columbia really knows how to pick 'em.
Juan Cole is wrong about a lot of things, but he is quite correct to say that prominant professors have backed Walt and Mearshimer. The list only starts with tony Judt and Mark Mazower.
David -
Can you provide the link or name of the article where Mazzower likened Israel to Nazi Germany?
Did Cole ever reply to Oren's documented charge or anti-semitism?
The more you hear about Judt the more revolting 'his person' becomes.
I think Kramer's point that there are no outstanding scholarrs anymore to even choose from in the Middle Eastern study only those who study the Saidian Arabist point of views. And often polemic attention seeking clowns like Cole.
Even Arab intellectuals that differ from this won't gain prominence.
(See my post on Arab Liberal Intellectuals from Barry Rubin's book)
It's not politically correct or desirable to get anything but a so-called Saidist 'point of view' which blames everything on the West and Israel. It's not even intelligent analysis simply cheap political brainwashing.
I have up some great posts today Solomon. Check them out.
Mike
Putting aside for a moment how you may feel about Cole, you really need to be clear about Fund's assertion that Cole said Israel was "the most dangerous regime in the Middle East". It is simply untrue: he never wrote the words that Fund places in quotes. The alternate quote that you do provide isn't really equivalent lexically or semantically, but that is beside the point: Fund wrote a blatant falsehood, and he is certain to be retracting and apologizing for it very soon.
the Mazower reference
www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1436
I have not tracked down the original quote
which would be truly useful
Sara,
The quote is problematic.
The quote Fund gives is not precise. His researcher should have checked the original source.
But Read the full paragraph, and it is clear that John Fund's sense of it is not unfair.
Cole was foolish to call it a "lie." If he had said "misquoted" he might have won the point.
it is one thing to argue the case against israel and quite another to do so while the gentlemen has been quite seduced by islamic culture.
mr juan cole has married a pakistani lady(i envy him) and given his son an islamic name.all very admirable but having thus given his all one may be a tad hesitant in accepting the merits of mr cole's case.
i do find mr cole somewhat over the top.he does not write in a scholarly manner.he is abusive and quickly offended.
Fund's quote isn't precise, and I should have noted that, but I disagree that the meaning is any different. To me it is a distinction without a difference. Cole doth protest too much.
There is so much abundant information available from people all over the internet... http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2006/04/juancolesmears.php scholarly and Across the Bay http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2004/06/across_the_bay.php people like Omar and Mohammed at Iraq the Model
http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2004/12/the_spirit_of_a.php that note Cole's consistent -
1) Conspiratorial http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2004_12_14.html#008665 un-professional paranoid accusations and tone.
2) Bufoonery and then arrogance when caught.
3) Persistent and blatant hypocrisy
4) Over the top and unprofessional defense of his strident and then defensive statements.
Needless to say this is "just the guy" I would want to make my school's dept more "professional and respectable academic institution".....
However, what occurs in some degree is that schools, even so-called Ivy Leagues... want 'famous controversial' people, because they get more attention to the school.
Schools are also run by noted left wing and the case of MEast studies far left wing academics who's main motivation is getting more of the same co-religionist fighters in their political/ideological war point of view....
NICE THAT THIS IS WHAT THE UNIVERSITY IS ABOUT THESE DAYS.....
Character wise/academically/ logically/professionally - Elie Kedourie or Bernard Lewis this clown sure as hell ain't.
Sorry but right now more than ever when it's true it's true.
Mike
There is so much abundant information available from people all over the internet... http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2006/04/juancolesmears.php scholarly and Across the Bay http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2004/06/across_the_bay.php people like Omar and Mohammed at Iraq the Model
http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2004/12/the_spirit_of_a.php that note Cole's consistent -
1) Conspiratorial http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2004_12_14.html#008665 un-professional paranoid accusations and tone.
2) Bufoonery and then arrogance when caught.
3) Persistent and blatant hypocrisy
4) Over the top and unprofessional defense of his strident and then defensive statements.
Needless to say this is "just the guy" I would want to make my school's dept more "professional and respectable academic institution".....
However, what occurs in some degree is that schools, even so-called Ivy Leagues... want 'famous controversial' people, because they get more attention to the school.
Schools are also run by noted left wing and the case of MEast studies far left wing academics who's main motivation is getting more of the same co-religionist fighters in their political/ideological war point of view....
NICE THAT THIS IS WHAT THE UNIVERSITY IS ABOUT THESE DAYS.....
Character wise/academically/ logically/professionally - Elie Kedourie or Bernard Lewis this clown sure as hell ain't.
"Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio our nation mourns our lonely eyes for you.... oooh oooh ooh"........
Sorry but right now more than ever when it's true it's true.
Mike
Sol,
Don't tell me the 2 detailed posts I posted each twice earlier today here and each time got a message -
Mike
Sol,
Don't tell me the 2 detailed posts I posted each twice earlier today here and each time got a message -
Don't tell me the message I put up with several links which took me 10-15 minutes ARE LOST.
Mike
They're up now. I saw them but didn't notice they needed approval. All is well.
Since Ariel Sharon and Israel are the same thing now, does Sharon's coma mean Israel is dead?
Come on, that's like saying criticizing Bush or Clinton's policies is being anti-America. Fund's quote is a lie. He utterly changes the meaning of the words as well as their content.
Fund's quote is a lie. He utterly changes the meaning of the words as well as their content.
Fund would have done better had his quote been exact, but his truncated version is hardly a lie. In some ways, the unredacted quote puts Cole in an even worse light. Just what, for example, does he mean by referring to the "regime" of Sharon? That Sharon is a fascist; that the "regime ... of Ariel Sharon" is distinct somehow from the state? That sort of bizarre, over-the-top assessment ought in and of itself to disqualify an appointment at any educational institution, let alone an elite one.
But even if Cole simply meant by "Sharon's regime" to refer to governmental policies, then Fund's truncated version stands up. Cole's very point is that Israel represents a more profound threat to us than any other country or group in the ME-- more than Syria; more than Iran; more than al Qaeda. Now, that is a lie.
Wm. Tyroler has it exactly right.