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ASA:
To Go From Unknown Group to Media Star, Bash Israel
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The American Studies Association - the organization which just voted
to boycott Israeli academics and cultural institutions - did so via a
grand total of 1,252 votes. Thus, two-thirds of the voters, or only 826
academics voted to boycott their Israeli counterparts - no, make that
their Israeli superiors. The vote represents 21% of all eligible voting
members and 17% of their total membership of 5,000.
This group launched no boycotts against Cuba, China, North Korea,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Iran, or Afghanistan - all places
where dissent is a capital crime and where gender and religious apartheid
are practiced; nor did they boycott Sudan, where anti-black slavery is
openly practiced.
This is a very small association. It has an Angela Davis Prize. (Who
could make this up?) It is also a far-left, "queer"-friendly
group.
President-elect Lisa Duggan, of New York University is also the
President-elect of the Council, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, the
Chair of the Finance Committee, and the Councilor ex officio of the
Women's Committee.
Duggan writes for The Nation, is a Professor of gender and
sexuality and of lesbian and gay studies at New York University.
Swimming ever-uphill against the tide, allow me to note that I
unequivocally oppose this focus as utterly diversionary at a time of
rising global misogyny.
Professor Duggan published "Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence, and
American Modernity", "Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political
Culture" and "The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural
Politics and the Attack on Democracy".
I have not read these works. Perhaps they are even better than Judith
Butler's oeuvre. Still, the overriding concern with a woman's right to
pleasure (which I fully support) will never open a single Iranian prison
cell, rescue even one girl who is being publicly gang-raped in Congo or Sudan,
or protect any girl or woman from being burned to death for her dowry in
India or honor murdered in the West.
Forgive me. I am so old-fashioned.
Pace. If Duggan did not already exist the university would have to
create someone just like her. A "queer studies" specialist
whose concerns are entirely unthreatening to the misogynists among us.
But why is she - and her cohort - picking on Israel? Well, is there a
better or quicker way of getting some attention? The media has been abuzz
with this newest boycott on the block, one of thousands. Is there a
better way of proving that one is politically correct and oh-so-brave by
safely joining the herd in singling out only one country to demonize,
isolate, and boycott?
As has been said before, this is pure racism. As I wrote in 2003:
Anti-Zionism is also part of what the "new Anti-Semitism" is
all about.
American Studies Association: You have just voted to endorse the
oldest form of racism on earth. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
The New York Times covered the American Studies Association
boycott vote yesterday on page A6. Today, the very same piece was
expanded and became a front page (A1) story. The title? "Boycott by
Academic Group Is a Symbolic Sting to Israel" and it is co-authored
by Richard Perez-Pena and Jodi Rudoren.
This is a clear example of how a newspaper with a bias against
Israel/for "Palestine," is trying to drive the news, keep a
story alive, a story based on the votes of 826 people (two-thirds of the
1252 who actually voted). While the article notes, in passing, that it is
a "small organization," it points out that "the vote is a
milestone for a Palestinian movement for BDS, which for the past decade
has found little traction in the United States."
This small academic organization is now on the same page with stories
about "A Political Deal in a Deeply Divided Tunisia,"
"Judge Questions Legality of N.S.A. Phone Records," 'Obama's
Library, Advisers' Dream," "Glaxo to Stop Paying Doctors To
Boost Drugs" and "Secret Bids Guide Hopi Indians' Spirits
Home." All these other stories concern many millions of people. Is
the Gray Lady hoping to inspire other academic organizations into voting
to boycott Israel in the hope that they, too, will make the front page?
Because the American Historical Assn (15,000 members) has no such vote
scheduled, but the Modern Language Association (35,000 ? members) does.
The writer, a Fellow at the Middle East Forum, is the author of
fifteen books.
Related
Topics: Arab-Israeli debate in the
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