Internecine warfare intensifies.
I strenuously object to being lumped in with Finkelstein in any fashion whatsoever. Finkelstein denies the Holocaust as a uniquely evil deed, equates Israel with the Nazis, compares persons he disagrees with to Nazis, justifies Hamas and excuses Muslim anti-Semitism. For good measure, he adds, “I do not think there is very much genuine grief among Jewish leaders about the Nazi holocaust,” for they gained from what he calls “the Holocaust reparations racket.” They “blackmailed Europe, got billions of dollars and then stuffed their pockets, bank accounts and organizations with the money.” Yoking me to Finkelstein betrays Reinharz’s profound moral confusion-something especially regrettable in the case of the president of a major university whose moral judgment is in steady demand.
The statements by Reinharz and Hose also prompt several questions:
1. How am I, exactly, a weapon of mass destruction, Mr. Reinharz? And what do you mean by this phrase?
2. And Mr. Hose, have you taken a look at just who gets inflamed by my speeches? On Jan. 31, for example, it was a bunch of Islamist goons, and you can see them yourself on the three videos listed on my Web site (www.DanielPipes.org), at “My Disrupted Talk at the University of California-Irvine.” After preventing me from speaking, the leader of this group called for the state of Israel to be “wiped off the face of the earth.” Your statement makes me wonder whose side you are on-theirs or mine?
3. What, precisely, are those scholarly resources available at Brandeis? Might Hose be referring to the University’s leading specialist on “contemporary Islamic thought and practice” (the title of her course), Prof. Natana DeLong-Bas (NEJS), an apologist for Al-Qaeda whose depraved thinking was exposed in several recent articles (including “Natana DeLong-Bas: American Professor, Wahhabi Apologist” and “Sympathy for the Devil at Brandeis,” from frontpagemag.com)? Or is he referring to Khalil Shikaki, a Crown Center fellow who has been credibly accused of terrorist links and has a second-to-none record in getting it wrong in his chosen field of Palestinian public opinion?
I’m sure there will be more on this, as the Pipes lecture has not been okayed by the newly-formed committee that will now vet talks on Middle East subjects.