Impeccable Scholarship Costs Norman Finkelstein Tenure at DePaul!

Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul University for one primary reason - his impeccable scholarship. While it's true that other scholars who defy the "conventional wisdom" on issues of importance suffer criticism and personal attack, the attack on Finkelstein is unprecedented, in several ways. Finkelstein, by all objective accounts, is a shoe-in for tenure but he dared to accurately and cohesively dismantle, question and expose the motives and methods undertaken by members of Israel Inc., like Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, who have as their primary life objective - working on behalf of The State of Israel.

Perhaps, the leading American apologist for Israeli state terrorism and American terrorist foreign policy (in so much as that foreign policy benefits Israel) is Dershowitz, a truly fanatical zealot who among other dubious distinctions, is a well-documented plagiarist and enemy of human rights, irrespective of his reflexive tantrums and pronouncements.

Dershowitz commandeered the campaign to negatively influence Finkelstein's bid for tenure, consisting of vitriolic op-ed pieces and communication with DePaul officials, seems to have been effective. Dershowitz has long been a key element of the pro-Israel chorus in America, so it was no surprise that Israel Inc. organs like the ADL "applaud the University for its actions," while slightly more attenuated Israel Inc. organs, like Campus Watch, were sufficiently pleased to publish the ADL's vision of “continuing the close relationship between DePaul and the Jewish community,” now enhanced with the denial of tenure to the Jewish Finkelstein, I suppose.

The measure of "legitimacy" for American politicians has long been their record in service of Israel Inc. aims, now it seems that criteria is being implemented in determining tenure for university professors, at least in DePaul’s Political Science department, and much to the detriment of the student body.

We can see at least two positive outcomes from this cowardly appeasement of Dershowitz as part of Israel Inc. The first is that Finkelstein, whose family suffered directly at the hands of the Nazi's, will enter the ever-growing pool of "anti-Semites" as pronounced by Israel Inc. Finkelstein joins other very notable, learned, and thus dangerous thinkers, who incidentally, include many Jews and other Semites, like: Noam Chomsky, Uri Avnery, Amira Hass, Ilan Pappe, Dr. Israel Shak, Ed Said, Tariq Ali, Ed Herman, Howard Zinn, Jonathan Cook, Michael Albert, Keith Harmon-Snow, Bill & Kathy Christison, Pres. Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Alex Odeh, Rep. Paul Findley, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Rep. Pete McCloskey, Sen. J. William Fulbright, Norman Solomon, Sam Husseini, Gary Leupp, Ralph Nader, Jeffrey St. Clair, Joshua Frank, Michael J. Smith, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Robert Fisk, Ali Abunimah, John Walsh, William Blum, Alexander Cockburn, Saul Landau, Lenni Brenner, Patrick Cockburn, Gideon Levy, Jennifer Lowenstein, Michael Neumann, you get the idea...anyone, anywhere, that in anyway opposes what is "good" for Israel is an "anti-Semite." In tightening their noose on speech and thought, Israel Inc. continues to expand the pool of "anti-Semites" such that soon, no one but themselves remain, exposing their agenda and hypocrisy, until it becomes indefensible.

The second positive outcome and about the best thing that can be said about the likes of Dershowitz, is that, ironically, his sordid track record and on-going campaign against Finkelstein thoroughly bolsters many of the arguments and premises that underlie Finkelstein's accurate analysis of him, as a despicable and transparent fraud, who reacts to critical exposure of himself as a member of Israel Inc. by launching campaigns of deceptive reprisal.

Noam Chomsky said it succinctly, when he observed "just how far Alan Dershowitz will go in his efforts to conceal the fact that Norman Finkelstein exposed him as a vulgar and fraudulent apologist for Israeli human rights violations -carefully, judiciously, with extensive documentation." And now we know.

Greg A.