How the Field of Middle Eastern Studies Made Itself Irrelevant

Sept. 17 2021

In his book Ivory Towers on the Sand—which, by coincidence, was published a few weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks—Martin Kramer pointed to the failures of academic experts on the Middle East, arguing that they routinely “disregarded or distorted . . . evidence” that ran contrary to their theories, and “poured scorn on anyone who dared to propose” alternatives. As a result, his name was booed at the plenary session of the Middle East Studies Association. In conversation with Winfield Myers, Kramer discusses the book at a twenty-year remove. To Kramer, little has gotten better within the academy, while the professors have rendered themselves far less relevant beyond its walls. (Video, 31 minutes.)

Read more at Middle East Forum

More about: Academia, Middle East Studies Association

Donald Trump’s Plan for Gaza Is No Worse Than Anyone Else’s—and Could Be Better

Reacting to the White House’s proposal for Gaza, John Podhoretz asks the question on everyone’s mind:

Is this all a fantasy? Maybe. But are any of the other ludicrous and cockamamie ideas being floated for the future of the area any less fantastical?

A Palestinian state in the wake of October 7—and in the wake of the scenes of Gazans mobbing the Jewish hostages with bloodlust in their eyes as they were being led to the vehicles to take them back into the bosom of their people? Biden foreign-policy domos Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken were still talking about this in the wake of their defeat in ludicrous lunchtime discussions with the Financial Times, thus reminding the world of what it means when fundamentally silly, unserious, and embarrassingly incompetent people are given the levers of power for a while. For they should know what I know and what I suspect you know too: there will be no Palestinian state if these residents of Gaza are the people who will form the political nucleus of such a state.

Some form of UN management/leadership in the wake of the hostilities? Well, that might sound good to people who have been paying no attention to the fact that United Nations officials have been, at the very best, complicit in hostage-taking and torture in facilities run by UNRWA, the agency responsible for administering Gaza.

And blubber not to me about the displacement of Gazans from their home. We’ve been told not that Gaza is their home but that it is a prison. Trump is offering Gazans a way out of prison; do they really want to stay in prison? Or does this mean it never really was a prison in the first place?

Read more at Commentary

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict