Road to hell. An American myth is the existence of one Archimedean point, from which the US might transform the Middle East. In the 1990s, it was the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. When that failed, it became regime change in Iraq. Now Gen. (ret.) Anthony Zinni swings back: “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing… that the road to Jerusalem led through Baghdad, when just the opposite is true, the road to Baghdad led through Jerusalem. You solve the Middle East peace process, you’d be surprised what kinds of other things will work out.” If only. Carter brought peace to Egypt and Israel, and got Khomeini. Clinton shepherded Israelis and Palestinians, and Al-Qaeda emerged. There’s no Archimedean point, just Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Mon, May 31 2004 6:00 am

Looting retrospective. Victor Davis Hanson writes: “Shooting looters to restore order and save the Iraqi infrastructure would have saved lives and enraged the world for [only] a day.” He’s right, but when it mattered he took a nonchalant view. “Much of the looting was no more indiscriminate than what we saw in Los Angeles after the Rodney King Verdict,” he wrote in the midst of it. I urged pulling the trigger when it might have turned the tide, the day the looting began in Basra: “Basrans would have been grateful had the British fired warning shots over the heads of looters—and then made an example of a few of them by shooting a tad low. It’s a bad start, and reflects too dogmatic an adherence to the ‘Iraqi freedom’ mantra.” The US and Iraq are still paying the price for that ill-timed restraint. Sun, May 30 2004 6:56 pm

Democracy as AstroTurf. George F. Will writes about the looming retreat from the “Jeffersonian poetry” that’s been dominating US foreign policy. En route, he quotes Kansas Republican Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee: “We need to restrain what are growing US messianic instincts—a sort of global social engineering where the United States feels it is both entitled and obligated to promote democracy—by force if necessary… Liberty cannot be laid down like so much AstroTurf.” Hear, hear. I’ve been on the outs with many of my friends since late 2002, for this pointed speech I gave on the perils of democracy promotion. And I dissented again last fall, when Bush delivered his democracy-or-bust address. Now the skeptics’ time has come. Sun, May 30 2004 5:01 am

Hommage à Rodinson. Of the obits for French scholar Maxime Rodinson, I recommend two: Michael Young’s in the Beirut Daily Star, and Jean Daniel’s in the Nouvel Observateur. Young correctly notes that Rodinson, in his long evolution, didn’t end up as a neocon, but Daniel points out, just as correctly, that Rodinson came to affirm the primacy of religious sentiment over nationalism, and the salience of civilizational conflict. An interviewer once asked him the proverbial “Why do they hate us?” question. Rodinson immediately cited the legacy of ancient religious rivalry, and when asked in a follow-up whether it might be due to colonialism, he answered: “It began well before that.” Fri, May 28 2004 4:42 pm

Spring MEQ. It’s late, but it’s out: the spring issue of the Middle East Quarterly. The table of contents is up on the web, as well as one of the articles, by Patrick Clawson, on the transition in Iraq. Fri, May 28 2004 4:40 am

Admittedly paranoid. A couple of weeks ago, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran an op-ed by the president of the Modern Language Association (MLA), Robert Scholes, against HR3077. He suggests the law might lead to the government’s “bugging a classroom or a faculty office,” or “hacking into a faculty member’s computer.” After all, he tells us, “we live in a world in which paranoia begins to seem almost like a healthy response to certain possibilities.” Wrong: that’s the world he lives in. If you’re paranoid about government, you really shouldn’t be taking federal subsidies. Improve your mental health by getting off the dole, and let people with a sense of proportion forge a more productive partnership under Title VI. (For the record: Edward Said served as elected president of the MLA in 1999.) Thu, May 27 2004 4:16 pm

Sighting in Philly. Traveling friends sent me this photo of my book Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies, displayed with commentary in a bookshop window in Philadelphia. Take a peek. (Thanks, Amy and David.) Thu, May 27 2004 1:14 pm

Turkey-Israel. The Israeli press today reports on the flap in Israeli-Turkish relations; Turkey may even recall its envoy for consultations. One of the tougher calls in editing the Middle East Quarterly was our decision last fall to publish a piece pointing to weaknesses in the Turkish-Israeli entente. Many friends who helped to build this relationship think that divergences shouldn’t be aired. But we did publish the article, and it’s the only available guide to the forces that are sending the pendulum back. (At the main link.) Thu, May 27 2004 5:47 am

The unknown Lewis. The Scotsman runs a profile of Bernard Lewis. “Now 87, Lewis may just be the most important and influential historian in the US and, consequently, in the world.” (Actually, Lewis just turned 88.) British treatments of Lewis, a Londoner for his first sixty years, are a rarity. We are told that “he remains comparatively unknown in his native land outside the realm of Middle Eastern specialists and devotees of academic feuds,” and that “to British ears, his voice is a reminder of a distant imperial age.” But the same tones, to Americans, “signify an old-style English charm and elegance.” The Anglo-American aspect deserves deeper analysis, but this isn’t bad for a start. Thu, May 27 2004 4:07 am

Shaming Arabs. Seymour Hersh on Abu Ghraib: “The notion that Arabs are particularly vulnerable to sexual humiliation became a talking point among pro-war Washington conservatives.” Here’s a possible source: “A principal technique of child-rearing in the middle-class Arab family is shaming…. The child’s physical functions, particularly his sexual functions, become the instruments of control. The child becomes ashamed of his body and its functions…. In the more traditional families, emphasis on ritualistic purity only strengthens the awareness of physical impurity and heightens the feeling of embarrassment associated with the body…. The child’s experience of sex is chaotic, painful, and humiliating.” Raphael Patai? (See right below.) No, it’s Palestinian thinker Hisham Sharabi, here. Wed, May 26 2004 3:14 pm

The Arab Mind. Is the late Raphael Patai’s archaic tome The Arab Mind really the inspiration for an alleged master plan to sexually humiliate detainees at Abu Ghraib prison? So claims Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. I’m skeptical: The Arab Mind has been an easy and favorite target ever since Edward Said marked it in Orientalism. Alas, many who refuse any generalization about “the Arab mind” don’t hesitate to generalize about “the Arab street.” Example: “The ‘Arab street’, proclaimed dormant by Beltway pundits ignorant of the Arab world, is angrier than ever about what is being done to the Palestinians” (Rashid Khalidi). “Arab mind” and “Arab street” rest on the identical premise, even if the first is deemed racist and the second trips off tongues in academe and the media. Wed, May 26 2004 8:13 am

Rodinson vs. Said. The late Maxime Rodinson (see right below), although a defender of the Palestinian cause, strongly disapproved of Edward Said’s attack on Orientalist scholarship. He called Said’s Orientalism “a polemic written in a style that was a bit Stalinist,” and described Said as “inadequately versed in the practical work of the Orientalists.” Said’s reply: “The remarks of Maxime Rodinson concerning my work are completely scandalous. But that hardly surprises me from an ex-Stalinist, incapable as he is of understanding the nature of criticism and more generally the critical method.” Said had praised Rodinson elsewhere, and the rejection must have stung. Tue, May 25 2004 12:19 pm

Rodinson no more. Maxime Rodinson, the French scholar of Islam, passed away on Sunday at the age of 89. I briefly profiled him in my introduction to The Jewish Discovery of Islam (scroll down about two-thirds; there is also a photograph of him). I never met Rodinson, and I disliked his politics. But I did invite him to the 1996 Tel Aviv conference marking the 80th birthday of Bernard Lewis, for whom he had an immense respect. He sent me a very kind note explaining that he was too ill to travel, expressing his admiration for Lewis, and adding that he was sorry as he hadn’t seen Tel Aviv since the 1940s. He will be cremated in Paris tomorrow. Tue, May 25 2004 12:15 pm

Bollinger admits. Columbia’s president Lee Bollinger, in a newspaper interview, has admitted what I’ve claimed all along. First: “Everybody in the academy knows Middle Eastern studies have had trouble over the years developing great scholars and teachers.” Second: Rashid Khalidi, Columbia’s latest hire in the field, “has a particular point of view, pro-Palestinian nationalism.” Third, regarding Middle Eastern studies at Columbia, “within the mix of people who are teaching about this area, we are not as comprehensive as we should be.” So he’s said it: Middle Eastern studies are generally weak, his university’s star in the field has a bias, and the overall teaching at Columbia is unbalanced. What’s the solution? More to come. Mon, May 24 2004 7:33 am

Beinin’s new buddies. Stanford’s Joel Beinin never passes up a demonstration against Israel’s alleged misdeeds. At the main link, you’ll find a photo of him speaking at a rally held about ten days ago, as published in the Stanford Daily. I haven’t seen a report of what Beinin said, but I do notice that he’s speaking next to a large Palestinian flag. Well, not exactly: this is an Islamized version of the Palestinian flag, with the inscription: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet.” It’s not exactly the Hamas flag, but it’s a variation used by Hamas sympathizers. Beinin seems to have found some new bedfellows. (Hope that isn’t a Quran in his hands…) Sun, May 23 2004 1:21 pm

Sandbox is back. My travels are over, and I’m back at the keyboard. This was a personal trip, so I’ve nothing to report, except these two things. First, I did get to see four of the Moroccan masterpieces by Matisse at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg—thankfully, they weren’t on loan. Second, if you’re in Copenhagen, stop by the Royal Library and see its “Treasures,” which include fascinating manuscripts and early books from and about the Middle East. Second-best: explore the exhibit’s comprehensive website. Through the end of this year. Sun, May 23 2004 1:19 pm

Gone fishing. Visitors to Sandbox may have noted that postings got a bit thin over the past month. That’s what happens when you edit a quarterly journal: at some point, it takes over. And now that another issue of the Middle East Quarterly has been put to bed, I’m outta here on a trip to Scandinavia and Russia. I’ll be looking for Matisse’s Moroccan masterpieces, swept by revolution into the Hermitage. Expect new postings from May 23. Until then, explore the site and rely on the news feeds. Wed, May 05 2004 7:29 pm

Truth about HR3077. Jonathan Calt Harris skewers academics for misrepresenting HR3077, over at National Review Online. Academic disinformation about the bill has been challenged time and again at Sandstorm and Sandbox, but the truth always bears repeating. Wed, May 05 2004 5:53 pm

Edward Said wannabe. Asaf Romirowsky, writing in the New York Sun, takes aim at Joseph Massad, the Edward Said Imitator at Columbia. Massad’s project (and best shot at tenure) is to pose as the true heir of the departed icon. The following may be the most self-serving opening of an obituary ever written (by Massad on Said): “‘Joseph, are you still sleeping, it’s 8am already?’ These are the first words I would hear upon picking up the phone three, four times a week. Edward’s powerful teasing voice on the other side goading me to emulate his work regimen: ‘I have been up since 5:30.'” Got that? Said’s first act, most working days, was to phone Joseph Massad. Will this stuff get him tenure at Columbia? We’ll see. Wed, May 05 2004 5:49 pm

Khalidi drives nails. Columbia’s Rashid Khalidi is quoted on the impact of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal: “I’m afraid that this is, in a sense, the last nail in the coffin in the raft of arguments for the Iraq war.” Sandbox quoted Khalidi back on March 26: “I really think that the killing of [Sheikh Yasin] may well be the last nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.” (That was to Newsweek.) These don’t sound like the guarded judgments of a distinguished historian who’s taking the long view. They sound like the rushed judgments of a partisan hack who’s feeding journalists with sound-bites. Don’t be surprised if some of the coffin lids nailed shut by Khalidi pop open. The ideas inside ain’t dead yet. Wed, May 05 2004 6:01 am

Kramer, follower. Eyal Press in The Nation profiles Daniel Pipes. It’s a smear, and I hope Pipes doesn’t let it pass. Along the way, Press says that my book Ivory Towers on Sand blamed Edward Said’s Orientalism for “leading an entire generation of scholars to look for Western causes of the Middle East’s problems rather than confront unsettling internal developments.” True. But then Press writes that I was “actually following Pipes himself,” who in a 1983 book had defended the traditional Orientalist approach. Not true. If I followed anyone, it was my own teacher, Bernard Lewis. In the Middle East, people don’t tolerate sloppiness in genealogy. Neither do I. Tue, May 04 2004 6:44 am

Vintage Lewis. Bernard Lewis is interviewed in Atlantic Online, on the occasion of publication of yet another book, this one under the title From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East. Vintage stuff. One of his complaints: “When I listen to the broadcasts from the media people who are in Iraq at the present time, they almost always mispronounce the names of Iraqi towns…It makes people like me wonder how much we can rely on what we are being told when they don’t even know how to pronounce the name of the place.” Fri, Apr 30 2004 6:08 am

Zisser on Syria. The star of Syrian studies in Israel is my colleague Eyal Zisser. Here’s a detailed review (in English) of his latest (Hebrew) book on the subject. (This new one, written from a post-Hafez Asad perspective, will eventually appear in English.) The reviewer writes that Israeli scholars of Syria face an “oppressive obstacle—the giant shadow cast by Patrick Seale, a British journalist who had close ties with the late Hafez Assad. Seale’s writing on Syria is based on sources that Israeli scholars will never get to see, even if they are someday permitted to eat hummus on the banks of Abana and Pharpar.” Ah, but what Seale sacrificed, by way of credibility, to gain that access. Fri, Apr 30 2004 6:05 am

Whereabouts of HR3077. Some readers have written to ask whether HR3077 is stuck in the Senate committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions). The short answer is yes. The long answer is that the entire Higher Education Act reauthorization (of which HR3077 is part) is stuck in committee. College affordability, student loans, and federal aid for low-income students are ongoing big-ticket battles. The present authorization can be extended for one year, and the sense is that the Senate side would just as soon put off controversial decisions until after the November elections. Nevertheless, all the lobbies are waging their campaigns as though this is the year. So will I, especially when I return to Washington in September. (At the main link: Heritage Foundation on the big issues.) Thu, Apr 29 2004 6:38 pm

Who’s driving? Last month, the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) convened a workshop at Wilton Park (UK) on the Middle East in the year 2020. The NIC is the U.S. intelligence community’s center for midterm and long-term strategic thinking. It’s doing this futuristic project in consultation with academics; I published excerpts from an earlier paper it issued on the subject in the Middle East Quarterly. At the main link, you’ll find the report from the conference. (No, I wasn’t there—couldn’t make it.) One key conclusion: “On balance, the workshop felt that, whatever the outcome, the Israel-Palestine conflict would not be the dominant driver in the region over the next 15-20 years that it is currently.” Thu, Apr 29 2004 5:55 pm

MEQ hand-off. I’ll be leaving the editorship of the Middle East Quarterly in June. I look back at three years of editing and look ahead to the journal’s future in a new Sandstorm entry. If you’ve got editorial talent, now’s the time to contact Daniel Pipes. Wed, Apr 28 2004 5:50 am

Confused Clio. Perspectives, the newsletter of the American Historical Association, runs a piece on HR3077 by one Bruce Craig. It’s alarmist nonsense. If HR3077 did what he claims it might do, even I wouldn’t support it. “In theory,” he writes, “the board could be a major force over university staffing and in hiring of guest lecturers, making curriculum decisions, approving books for classes, and recommending approaches to be taken when teaching a specific subject.” Since universities don’t get Title VI support to hire faculty, and since HR3077 specifically disallows board intervention in curriculum, you’re left wondering what in the world Craig is babbling about. Well, it’s in theory. And when historians substitute theory for evidence, anything’s possible. Tue, Apr 27 2004 6:46 pm

Khalidi on Said. On radio last year, Columbia’s Rashid Khalidi discounted Edward Said: “He has nothing like the influence that the wild-eyed advocates of this bill [HR3077] claim. Quite the contrary. People can take him or people can leave him. He’s actually, I think, had much more influence in fields like literary studies, anthropology, and other areas than he’s had in the Middle East field.” But here’s Khalidi in his new MESA obit for Said: “This book [Orientalism] has deeply affected the field of Middle East studies—who in the field can forget the debate between [Said] and Bernard Lewis at the MESA conference in Boston in 1986.” (That event is remembered in MESA lore as the tipping point in Said’s favor.) As usual, Khalidi tunes the message to the audience. (Radio comment at minute 28:45.) Tue, Apr 27 2004 2:16 pm

Hamas gets leader? Press reports today indicate that Dr. Mahmud al-Zahhar has (reluctantly) assumed the mantle of the late Sheikh Ahmad Yasin and the late Dr. Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, to become the leader of Hamas in Gaza. (Hamas continues to claim that its choice of a leader is a secret, and will not confirm the reports, which originated with Israeli sources.) Last May, Tim Sebastian interviewed Zahhar for his BBC program Hardtalk, and demolished him (without a missile). You can view the program at the link, if you’ve got the software. Mon, Apr 26 2004 3:26 pm

Pseudo-historical trash. Follow-up to the entry just below: The collaborator of Audrey Shabbas in her Arab World Studies Notebook, in the section about Muslim exploration, is one Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick, a South African convert to Islam. Here’s his own bizarre take on “Muslims in the Caribbean Before Columbus.” The possibility that pseudo-historical trash may have entered the mainstream of K-12 education with the complicity of some Title VI centers should be investigated by the Department of Education. Should Title VI centers be allowed to sub-contract dilettantes to do their “outreach”? Isn’t the whole point of university-based “outreach” to get the profs to do it? Sun, Apr 25 2004 6:10 am

Subsidized myths. Audrey Shabbas specializes in “outreach” workshops for school teachers. She’s claimed that early Muslim explorers married into the Algonquin tribe long before Columbus. This fantasy appears in her Arab World Studies Notebook, which the Middle East Policy Council has distributed to 10,000 teachers. The Algonquin Nation have rightly been in a rage about it, and now the section is being removed. My question: have Title VI programs been using this rubbish for their own “outreach”? Earlier this month, Georgetown’s Title VI center farmed out a big teacher “festival” to Shabbas, and it’s not the first time. Are Title VI centers employing amateurs to peddle dubious materials to school teachers, under academic auspices and with taxpayer subsidies? More work for a future Title VI board. Sun, Apr 25 2004 5:01 am

Bernard Lewis in TIME. In case you missed it, here is the brief sketch of Bernard Lewis in Time Magazine, which this week elevated him to its list of the 100 most influential persons. “For Lewis and the neoconservatives,” it reads, “the failure of Islam to reconcile itself to modernity is now too dangerous to leave alone. Moreover, they believe, the application of external force can be a catalyst for reform and peace. No scholar has had more influence than Lewis on the decision to wage war in Iraq. To what end, we don’t yet know.” That’s an awfully short summation of a complex subject. Wed, Apr 21 2004 9:03 am

Down with Title VI! Over the last month, this website has run a poll on Title VI funding, in partnership with Campus-Watch.org. In a new Sandstorm entry, I analyze the (admittedly unscientific) results. Bottom line: there’s a large constituency for killing off Title VI, and if HR3077 doesn’t pass, someone may be smart enough to tap into it. Wed, Apr 21 2004 7:01 am

Columbia cover-up? I’ve mentioned that Columbia has created a panel to look into allegations of bias in teaching, especially of the Middle East. The New York Sun now provides more details, and it’s clear the panel has been tasked so as to miss the point. The problem at Columbia isn’t what professors teach. (In any case, they are sovereign in the classroom.) It’s how they’re appointed. I once called it “friend-brings-a-friend,” and added this: “Middle Eastern studies at Columbia, across all the departments, have functioned like a private club for more than a decade. Until the administration breaks it up, nothing will change.” Yet the chair of the panel says: “It’s not within our jurisdiction to assess whether a department is biased or has any particular kind of slant.” I smell a cover-up in the making. Tue, Apr 20 2004 7:30 am

Khalidi, dissident? The New York Times (local New York supplement) runs a flattering portrait of Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor at Columbia. HR3077 and the proposed advisory board are mentioned. “Dr. Khalidi expects that the board’s composition will not be favorable to dissidents.” Dissidents? I’m amazed at how commanders of academic power still pose as the oppressed of the earth. Khalidi is a chaired professor at Columbia, and director of a National Resource Center for the Middle East. He personifies the establishment in Middle Eastern studies; I’m a dissident. Khalidi adds that Edward Said “provided the role model for us…. We are here because of his example.” How true: Said remade Middle Eastern studies in his image. Tue, Apr 20 2004 6:47 am

News feeds! I’m experimenting with news feeds on the Sandbox/News page of this website. The Internet is awash in news, but I don’t know of any site that provides a wide array of feeds devoted exclusively to the Middle East. News feeds can be unpredictable when it comes to content and refresh rates. So I’ll keep watching them and striving for perfection. Do send suggestions. Mon, Apr 19 2004 7:51 pm

Leo=lion=Asad. Franklin Foer at The New Republic has a well-executed essay on Muhammad Asad (or Leopold Weiss), the most famous modern Jewish convert to Islam. Asad is a subject I tackled at greater length; Foer’s piece is a perfect miniature. Mon, Apr 19 2004 7:19 pm

The emirate of Columbia. Zev Chafets, writing in the New York Daily News, takes Columbia University to task for accepting a gift from the United Arab Emirates. The money ($200,000) went to help fund the Edward Said Professorship (incumbent: Rashid Khalidi). Chafets: “By accepting the beneficence of the UAE—a nation that discriminates against women, gays, Indians, Jews and other minorities, prohibits free speech and intellectual inquiry and rules by armed tribal feudalism—the university provides a rare example of academic fearlessness as well as a fitting memorial to the life and thought of Edward Said himself.” Mon, Apr 19 2004 5:53 pm

Can’t read English? A Florida paper runs an anti-HR3077 op-ed by Malini Johar Schueller, professor of (post-colonial) English at the U. of Florida. She writes that the advisory board proposed by HR3077 would “advise faculty on course syllabi and the hiring of faculty. If an institution refuses to be advised, it will lose its share of Title VI funding.” What? The board, says HR3077, “shall provide advice, counsel and recommendations to the Congress and to the Secretary [of Education].” The board won’t advise academics (who are beyond advice anyway). And syllabi? The bill says the board can’t “mandate, direct, or control an institution of higher education’s specific instructional content.” Professor Schueller either didn’t read the bill, or she’s lying. Sun, Apr 18 2004 5:39 pm

Bernard Lewis, influential. Time Magazine names Bernard Lewis to its list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Such lists are meant to be taken with a grain of salt. Even so, Time‘s choice underlines the astonishing omission of Lewis from the honor roll of ten major contributors to Middle Eastern studies, as compiled by the mandarins of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). I’ve pointed out this blot on MESA’s record before, but I plan to revisit it whenever Lewis crops up on other lists of the great and noteworthy. Sat, Apr 17 2004 8:55 pm

Columbia panel investigates. The NY Jewish Week reports that a Columbia University panel is investigating allegations of faculty bias and intimidation in Middle Eastern studies. The panel is chaired by law professor Vincent Blasi, who offers this quote: “We want to make sure that classroom time is not devoted to politics or preaching by professors.” Columbia provost Alan Brinkley confirms: “We are, of course, concerned about charges of bias and intimidation in the classroom, and the president has appointed a committee to consider, among other things, how we might respond to such problems within the framework of our strong commitment to free speech.” The panel has met seven or eight times over the past year, and has heard testimony. Worth watching. Fri, Apr 16 2004 10:44 am

Did I sign that? Another signatory of the boycott letter, Cornell government professor Susan Buck-Morss, tells a Cornell Review columnist that she doesn’t recall signing and doesn’t support the boycott. But then she admits she has signed “at least 40 petitions sent around by email in the last few years,” thus suggesting she might have signed anyway. For good measure, she adds that she is “surely more in support of anyone who took the liberty to use my name than I am of the policy of Israel of the settlements and the oppression of the Palestinians.” This intellectual dereliction is appalling, and is well worth remembering the next time you read one of these “open letters” put out by academics. Many of the signatories are habitual poseurs. Fri, Apr 16 2004 10:34 am

Lockman scolded. Monday’s Washington Square News, NYU’s campus newspaper, ran a story and editorial on Prof. Zachary Lockman’s signing of the boycott-Israel “open letter.” (The controversy began with my March 31 Sandstorm entry.) Lockman, in yet another lapse of professorial judgment, dismisses the controversy as “a bunch of crap.” He also admits he has no idea who drafted the letter he signed, or to whom it was intended. It’s pretty damning stuff, and the accompanying editorial scolds him: “It is clear that [Lockman] did not put enough effort into weighing the possible meanings of the letter before attaching his—and NYU’s—name to it. In the future, it would be very wise for NYU professors to seriously consider the ramifications of any academic petition they sign.” Fri, Apr 16 2004 9:29 am

Southeast Asian haven? I’ve spent the better part of the week in Singapore, at a conference on terrorism co-convened by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) of the Nanyang Technological University, and Tel Aviv University’s Hartog School of Government and Policy. The IDSS, created six years ago and directed by Amb. (ret.) Barry Desker, is already making its mark in terrorism studies. Its best-known expert is the field is Rohan Gunaratna, whose book Inside Al Qaeda (Columbia) sold 70,000 copies. The IDSS has just published a wide-ranging collection, After Bali: The Threat of Terrorism in Southeast Asia. Read the introduction, “Is Southeast Asia a ‘Terrorist Haven’?” Fri, Apr 16 2004 8:47 am

Up and away. I’ll be off to Southeast Asia from Saturday, April 10 through Friday, April 16. While I’m away, please explore other parts of this site, or leave a comment on a Sandstorm entry. Sat, Apr 10 2004 7:55 am

Is Iraq like Lebanon? I’m quoted by James Bennet in this interesting New York Times piece on whether the situation faced by the U.S. in Iraq is analogous to the dilemma that Israel faced in Lebanon. The comparison is especially relevant to the role of the Shiites. Sat, Apr 10 2004 7:53 am

More NYU. Zachary Lockman, director of the Kevorkian Center at NYU, writes to the New York Sun with assurances that he doesn’t support the academic boycott of Israel. (He’s responding to my March 31 Sandstorm entry, which the Sun republished on April 1.) Lockman had signed an open letter to Israeli academics from self-described “defenders of Palestinian academic freedom and supporters of the academic boycott against Israel.” The open letter ended thus: “We are prepared to join you and other parties in public debate of the academic boycott of your institutions at any time and in any neutral venue.” Now Lockman claims that the open letter “never calls for or endorses a boycott.” Pure academic sophistry. Go to the link, and scroll down to “Further update: Lockman obfuscates.” Fri, Apr 09 2004 8:52pm

NYU boycott assurances. A reader has posted the full texts of letters from NYU’s provost David McLaughlin and Kevorkian Center director Zachary Lockman, repudiating the academic boycott of Israel. (Prompted by this Sandstorm entry.) Wed, Apr 07 2004 8:22 am

Unzip academe’s lips. The Electronic Intifada saw fit to reprint a piece by Beshara Doumani on HR3077 (critiqued below) with this illustration. I like it, because it can be read as the slight, tentative unzipping of academic lips, until now sealed shut by ferocious pressures of conformity. Countless academics have told me they want to speak out, but fear retribution from Saidians, Beininites, Khalidians, and other bands of ideological zealots. HR3077 could help to unzip these lips. That’s why the establishment fears it. Wed, Apr 07 2004 6:45 am

Cashing in on 9/11. An article in the LA Weekly looks at the Department of Homeland Security on campuses. Toward the end, the piece swerves into HR3077. “The changes to Title VI were not, it should be pointed out, initiated by DHS,” admits the writer, but he suggests that DHS might be represented on the seven-person advisory board. So what? Same could be said of Defense or Treasury; I’ve seen no special attention paid to DHS. Title VI, we read, “has been turned into a political punching bag by hard-right ideologues cashing in on 9/11 paranoia.” In fact, academe literally cashed in on 9/11, when Congress rashly voted Title VI a 26-percent increase—to meet “urgent need.” That’s not mentioned here. Indeed, I’ve yet to see any critic of HR3077 note the windfall, even in passing. The profs take public largesse for granted. Wed, Apr 07 2004 5:25 am

No debate allowed. Beshara Doumani, professor of Middle Eastern history at Berkeley, writes in an op-ed that HR3077 would “rob our society of the open exchange of ideas on college campuses.” His byline calls him organizer of a national conference on “Academic Freedom After September 11th,” recently held at Berkeley. That event, cosponsored by the Middle East center, was more like a rally againt HR3077, featuring Stanford’s Joel Beinin, MESA’s Amy Newhall, and even Snehal Shingavi, who once warned conservatives to stay out of his classroom. Contrast with a comparable event at the University of Chicago, featuring speakers from opposing sides. Doumani is for “open exchange”—as long as that doesn’t include debate. Mon, Apr 05 2004 9:46 am

Boycott repudiated. You’ve read the Sandstorm entry on “Boycotting Israel at NYU?” Zachary Lockman, the director of NYU’s Middle East center and signatory of the boycotters’ letter, now says he didn’t mean it. NYU’s provost has also given assurances that NYU “stands firm against any such boycott.” For full details, scroll down to the update at the entry. A small victory for Sandstorm, and a much larger one for academic freedom at NYU. Fri, Apr 02 2004 8:49 pm

Harder to ignore. The current Sandstorm entry, “Boycotting Israel at NYU?” appears prominently in today’s New York Sun, on page nine. Thu, Apr 01 2004 11:51 am

“There is no let-up.” Sara Roy, a perpetual “senior research scholar” at Harvard’s Middle East center, writes for the London Review of Books about the “virulent attacks” on Middle Eastern studies in benighted America. (I get a paragraph.) This looks to have been cobbled together from somebody’s talking points against HR3077. Roy, who uses Harvard’s name relentlessly, has a quasi-academic sinecure. Her current project is the whitewashing of Hamas, but she’s best known for invidious comparisons she drew in April 2002 between the Israeli occupation and the Holocaust. (She thinks being the child of Holocaust survivors gives her a license.) “There is no let-up,” Roy moans about the criticisms of Middle Eastern studies. She’s right about that. Permanent contention: get used to it. Thu, Apr 01 2004 10:30 am

Africanist Title VI. Some people ask: why do we need HR3077, if the problem is specific to Middle Eastern studies? Answer: the problem runs throughout area studies. Stanley Kurtz writes in National Review Online about directors of Title VI African studies centers who launched a sordid boycott against the National Security Education Program. Kurtz exposed the boycott two years ago, prompting leading Africanists to try to cover it up. Technique? Intimidation. Kurtz has found a courageous whistleblower to tell the tale: Eyamba Bokamba, professor of linguistics and African languages, and coordinator of the Title VI program in African languages at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The story is now resonating on Capitol Hill. Thu, Apr 01 2004 10:11 am

At the end of June, I will no longer edit the Middle East Quarterly. My departure is my decision, and the date on which I began the job tells it all: September 1, 2001. I came to the task just before 9/11, in very different circumstances. Today the Middle East is central to U.S. policy and world politics in ways I couldn’t have imagined when I became editor.

In the Middle East Quarterly, I worked with many authors to give our readers the most accurate assessments of tumultuous changes. While I have had plenty to say myself, I’d like to say still more, and there’s no getting around it: more writing demands more time. A journal also benefits when new eyes look in new directions. Daniel Pipes, publisher of the Quarterly, has announced the search for my replacement.

The need for the Middle East Quarterly is greater than ever. The journal was founded by Pipes to promote diversity of views. His objective, as he told me when I took over, was to publish outstanding pieces that might not be published elsewhere because they cut against the grain of conventional thinking in Middle East studies. The Quarterly has indeed become the foremost alternative voice for specialist information on Middle Eastern affairs. I’ve needed that platform—I wrote for the Quarterly before I became its editor, and again while I was editor—and so have hundreds of expert writers on the Middle East who have something different to say. So it is vital that the journal continue its mission, and I’m delighted it will.

Pipes set a high standard in eight years of editorial work prior to my coming on board. Having edited the journal myself, I stand in awe at the achievement of his doing this work for that long. I tried mightily to maintain the standard, and I like to think that during my stewardship of the journal, I didn’t fall too far short. If I didn’t, I owe it to two people.

First, Pipes himself. Although I’ve known Daniel for almost thirty years, I didn’t know this one thing about him: he is gifted with editorial judgment. He and I have long had lively debates over politics and people. But I can’t think of one instance since I became editor that I didn’t eventually agree with his fine editorial discretion. Even when I thought I had achieved a pinnacle of perfection in tweaking (or, sometimes, truth be admitted, rewriting) a piece, he would make it a little bit better. He did not impose his own views but sharpened the author’s own ideas. Editorial acumen of this caliber combines arts and skills that have to be learned and acquired. I was editor, he was publisher and book review editor, but we really worked as a team.

Second, Judy Goodrobb, managing editor. Each issue of the Quarterly involves back-and-forth with at least six authors, maybe ten book reviewers, finalizing 43,000 words of text, laying out 98 pages with illustrations, and getting it all off to the printer in a timely way. We called it the “miracle on Walnut Street,” and Judy Goodrobb is the miracle-worker. Her skills saved me from countless errors, and since I tend to miss deadlines, she gracefully and quickly made up the lost time. The amazing thing is that during these three years, we never spent more than a few hours in the same room together. We did it all by Internet. If I have any regret, it’s that I can’t take her with me to my next projects.

As for our content, there is a lot in which to take collective pride. The Quarterly has run outstanding pieces again and again, on militant Islam, terrorism, Iraq, Palestinians and Israelis—the entire gamut of difficult issues that face the United States. Looking back, I derived my greatest satisfaction from editing the work of young and hitherto unpublished authors. In these instances, I tried not just to edit but to educate. No author ever forgets a first publication, and I hope I’ve left a lasting and positive mark on these younger scholars, whose importance I expect will grow with time.

I’m pleased to report that I’ll remain on the Quarterly team. Daniel Pipes has invited me to join Patrick Clawson as a senior editor. That’s no sinecure: I’ll continue to be involved in the assessment of manuscripts and to beat the bushes for the finest submissions. And my byline will also appear in the journal from time to time. After all, I’ve got to earn my gratis subscription.