Peter Beinart to Speak at Brown This Week
The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Brown and its Center for Middle East Studies
On April 17, Brown’s Center for Middle East Studies (“CMES”) will be holding a program entitled “Zionism at the Crossroads: American Jewish Communities, the Destruction of Gaza and the Future of Israel-Palestine - A Conversation with Peter Beinart”. Brown faculty leading the “conversation” will be Nadje Al-Ali, Director of CMES, Katharina Galor, from Brown’s Judaic Studies Department and CMES and Paul E. Nahme, of Brown’s Religious Studies Department.
Al-Ali is well known not only for her longstanding support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (“BDS”) movement but for her wild-eyed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, e.g. her concern expressed in 2016 about the University of Birmingham’s “large Jewish Society” which she described as a “Zionist outpost in higher education”, comparisons of Zionism to white supremacy and more. Galor is a German-born Israeli archaeologist. She is an outspoken opponent of the Israeli government, author of various anti-Israel articles and signer of several anti-Israel petitions including one entitled “The Elephant in the Room” described by Israel Academia Monitor as “Anti-Israel Israeli Academics Blame Israel for Palestinian Failures.” (Ironically, the petition was circulated in August of 2023.) Nahme has no perceptible presence in the BDS, occupation, genocide, apartheid, etc, etc space frequented by Al-Ali and Galor.
The CMES “conversation” is co-sponsored by the stunning number of 14 additional academic departments/entities at Brown: American Studies (one of the first Brown departments to embrace BDS concerning which Brown president Paxson and I exchanged communications in 2013), Anthropology, German Studies, Institute for the Humanities, History, Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, Judaic Studies Program, Literary Art, John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study, Modern Culture and Media, Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Religious Studies, Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
Beinart is a controversial, once pro-Israel, academic. He has changed his views and achieved rock star status as one of the most articulate and outspoken opponents of Israel’s policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians. He is reviled by many but is a darling of “progressives”.
As I have written previously, CMES loves putting Jews out front for cover as it relentlessly pushes its narrative that Palestinians have been oppressed since the founding of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948 while ignoring or excusing decades of Palestinian anti-Semitism, rejection of peace proposals, affinity for Islamism and glorification of martyrdom. With Beinart, CMES hit the motherlode when it comes to the CMES argument that “even the Jews agree with us”. Not only is Beinart a Jew, but he is reported to observe the Jewish dietary laws, attend an Orthodox synagogue and send his children to a Jewish day school. That Brown faculty participants Galor, and perhaps Nahme, also are Jewish fits nicely within this transparent CMES strategy.
During the “conversation”, devoted BDSers Al-Ali and Galor will likely be genuflecting before Beinart, hopefully only metaphorically, while delivering rote incantations of Hamas/Palestinian talking points by way of leading questions. It is not entirely clear where Nahme, the third member of the Brown faculty on the program, sits on the Israel/Palestinians spectrum. It is reasonable to assume he was chosen for this role, or chose the role, to provide some balance in response to the predictable positions of Beinart, Al-Ali and Golar. Said otherwise, Nahme, who will be outnumbered three to one, may be the sacrificial lamb to allow CMES to falsely claim that differing points of view were presented in the Beinart “conversation”.
As is obvious, CMES and, incredibly, 14 university co-sponsors, are not putting on a “conversation” on April 17. What they are sponsoring is a monologue run by people sharing the same positions in furtherance of the CMES mission to indoctrinate rather than educate when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians. A CMES side benefit of the Beinart show will be that the “conversation” will cater and give comfort to the many Brown faculty and students who believe rape, torture and hostage taking is justifiable “resistance”. It also will provide the Brown Daily Herald yet another opportunity to give extensive coverage to the members of Brown’s Hamas caucus, e.g. Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, to mindlessly whine about occupation, genocide and apartheid.
Al-Ali, Golar and CMES faculty have no interest in education. Their game is political indoctrination. As a result they could not, or would not, grasp that Beinart’s appearance at Brown ought to have been structured to provide a thought-provoking, educational experience rather than what likely will be an echo chamber of like-minded people congratulating each other on how well they articulate Hamas/Palestinian agitprop.
To his credit, and in stark contrast to the professorial poseurs of the Brown faculty, Beinart has often debated - in actual debates - those who hold positions diametrically opposed to his with respect to Israel. He has, for example, debated professors Alan Dershowitz and Thane Rosenbaum and journalists/commentators Bret Stephens and Einat Wilf on the issue. With the Beinart invitation, CMES had the perfect opportunity to act responsibly and consistently with Brown’s supposed mission. Not surprisingly, it chose not to. For CMES, Brown President Paxson’s statement last year, that “college campuses are places for controversial issues and emerging ideas to be taught, discussed and debated” consistently with Brown’s “missions of advancing knowledge and understanding in a democratic society” has no application or relevance to the CMES mission of delegitimizing the Jewish state.
Of course it is reasonable to assume that if any of the aforementioned were to appear on a panel at Brown, certainly Dershowitz or Wilf, much of the Brown faculty and the student body would probably come down with fits of the vapors. Those not incapacitated by fainting spells would be signing petitions condemning their appearances and otherwise protesting. After all, Brown’s leading Hamas enabler, CMES professor Beshara Doumani, was upset merely by the 2014 appearance of an Israeli diplomat on a program sponsored by Brown’s Watson Institute that was advertised using the logo of CMES, along with the logos of the Watson Institute, Brown Students for Israel and Brown Hillel. Defending himself when called on the carpet by the Electronic Intifada, Doumani pointed out not only that CMES did not sponsor the event - it was an “institutional thing” - but that he was sorry for allowing Brown to use the CMES logo and that he did not attend the event. He went on to make an unintelligible statement that the Israeli diplomat’s position opposing BDS “constitutes a justification for not only actions against academic freedom and discussion on campus, but I believe it also constitutes a justification for violations of international law”. So much for what passes as education in the mind of the holder of an endowed chair at Brown.
Why did CMES choose to structure Beinart’s upcoming appearance as what will likely be a fawning “conversation” rather than a real debate? Because CMES isn’t in the business of provoking thought or advancing anything remotely educational about Israel/Palestinians. For many years CMES, with the support of the university, has steadfastly refused to allow any voices on its faculty or programs who do not toe the party line on CMES’ view of Israel/Palestinians - Israel always the oppressor, Palestinians always the helpless oppressed. That 14 Brown academic entities apparently have bought into CMES’ blinkered, illiberal, anti-intellectual approach in co-sponsoring the Beinart “conversation” is a sad and shameful commentary on the state of education, and academic freedom, at the university.
Notes:
(1) As of this writing, Israel has yet to respond to Iran’s April 13 failed drone, rocket and missile attack on Israel. No doubt CMES and many Brown faculty and students are already hard at work drafting their opposition to Israel’s response, whatever it might be and whenever it might happen, due to its “disproportionate” nature and the fear of “escalation” of tensions in the region. It also is likely that the preparation of the standard banners claiming “genocide” and describing Israel, the IDF and Israelis as the new nazis for use by Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine is well underway. Waiting for facts before arriving at conclusions is a bridge too far for CMES and its faculty and student acolytes.
(2) Last week the Anti-Defamation League issued report cards on campus anti-Semitism. Brown received a grade of “D”. The near failing grade for the university seems to have been based on at least one error. More specifically, in the category of anti-Semitic speakers or programs on campus, the ADL found “none” despite the comments and positions of CMES faculty and the outside speakers CMES regularly invites to campus.
Willis J. Goldsmith, Brown Class of 1969
Beinart is the go-to-Jew who the antisemites use to Jew-wash their Israel hatred. I watched his career over the past 20 years when he was tauted by the NYTimes book review as the new kind of antiAIPAC Jew. That book sold only 2500 copies (at most). Meanwhile, as he was rejected by the Jewish community more and more he has devolved into rabid narcissistic rage against Israel. He is beyond fringe in the Jewish community. I was watching ADL's Greenblatt shortly after Oct 7, and he won't even mention Beinart's name. He is so charem among his fellow Jews who actually care about the survival of the Jewish People. Beinart is the evil son of the Passover Seder. So of course, Brown University would love to host him.
How Beinart can lift his head up is beyond my understanding.