Links from my del.icio.us account for February 2nd:
- Mondoweiss: Mondo Exclusive: Google map of Israeli settlements from leaked database – Map shows spread of settlements in West Bank.
- Balancing the bias – Middle East Forum – I hate to link to the hate site that is Middle East Forum, but take a look at this: "Georgetown’s Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC) offers an alternative for students seeking to avoid the academic weaknesses that have so infected Middle East studies." Yes, that's right, let's learn about the Middle East in Jewish Studies programs.
- Renditions Buffoonery—By Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine) – A correction to the LAT article on Obama continuing rendition program, makes difference between GWB's "extraordinary rendition" program and Obama's wish to return to a normal rendition procedure that ultimately delivers abductees to a criminal justice system (although this was used in the 1990s with renditions to Egypt, it led to torture anyways and trial in exceptional courts.) I've mailed Scott Horton about this.
- National Union candidate: Kahane was right – Israel News, Ynetnews – Wants expulsion of Israel-Arabs to Turkey or Venezuela.
- بوابة جريدة الشروق – Website of the new Egyptian independent daily al-Shorouk, which appears to be positioning itself between al-Masri al-Youm and al-Ahram – journalistically conservative, in the tradition of the British broadsheets or the pan-Arab press. Also available in PDF!
I wouldn’t take the MEF’s interpretation of any academic program at face value. The Jewish Studies program at Georgetown actually has some good people (e.g. Jacques Berlinerblau) and puts out interesting papers (http://pjc.georgetown.edu/publications/papers/) and conferences/events (like this one on evangelical Christian support for Israel: http://events.georgetown.edu/events/index.cfm?Action=View&CalendarID=349&EventID=64784)
They also regularly participate in events with the Arab studies and Christian-Muslim relations programs at Georgetown, which produce some very sophisticated discussions on religion and politics. It’s not a nativist rah-rah program.
Yeah, despite Oren’s presence, it seems to be more of an inter-disciplinary center rather than one specifically about Israel and the Middle East.
That said…I study comparative religion and history of philosophy, and I regularly wish that fewer people boiled these kind of debates down to simplistic identity politics, wherein “but your last name is [Goldberg/Mohamed/]!” too easily becomes a comprehensive substitute for substantive critique of a scholar’s normative approach to his/her work. A “Jewish” center gives credence to those who do use think it’s justified to focus on someone’s private beliefs – or to infer their beliefs from the names on the donor roll of their institute – to judge the credibility of their academic work.
Fair enough – that’s the problem with all identity-based research centers though, and often it’s a function of getting a grant from a donor who wants a specifically Jewish/Muslim/Arab center in their name. Having said that, it’s not like all the Saudi-funded Arab studies initiatives at Georgetown are identitarian either. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised at the respectful (but critical and productive) exchanges between jesuit or catholic scholars of christian history and tradition and those who study Islam etc at the few Georgetown public seminars I’ve attended. Now if only the same could be said of respect and fruitful exchange between theoretical disciplines…
“Now if only the same could be said of respect and fruitful exchange between theoretical disciplines…”
Haha, yeah.
Also, I totally overlooked that Georgetown is officially Jesuit. At least superficially, that makes me think much differently about their new Jewish Civ center and its relation to identitarianism.
I love the fact that Arkansas’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies was long directed by Vincent Cornell, a scholar of Sufism.
I wasn’t questioning the Jewish Studies program’s excellence, but simply saying it’s ridiculous to think such a program is a substitute for Middle East Studies.
The argument was that a Jewish civ program would provide ‘balance,’ no? G’town does have an excellent Arab studies program.
Brian, I had no idea Arkansas had a Middle East studies program. WTF?