[Marxism] FWD: GWU instructor backed by propaganda organization quits because too ïpro-Israeli?ï from Tracking efforts to stifle open debate about US-Israeli foreign policy.

["dbachmozart" <dbachmozart@xxxxxxx>]

dbachmozart@xxxxxxx sent you this article, saying:The tide is turning against 
Zionism - even in the US!
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** "Tracking efforts to stifle open debate about US-Israeli foreign policy." - 
1 new article - http://www.muzzlewatch.com/?feed=rss2

* GWU instructor backed by propaganda organization quits because too 
ïpro-Israeli?ï - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Muzzlewatch/~3/191890318/

Here’s an excellent (if not also unintentionally humorous) article about 
a university instructor coming under fire– and quitting– because 
students found her overwhelmingly Israel-centric in her teaching of a course 
about the Arab-Israeli conflict. In what we are to believe is pure coincidence, 
one of the two texts she used is a relentlessly anti-Palestinian propaganda 
text, by-lined by the head of the organization which provided funding for her 
position.


Eric Fingerhut of Washington Jewish Week writes:


For years, some pro-Israel activists have been troubled by university


professors who demonstrated bias against Israel in the classroom. But


last week was apparently a first: A George Washington University


instructor resigned after being accused of teaching a class that was


biased in favor of Israel.


Hanna Diskin told the students in her “Arab-Israeli Conflict” class 
on


Tuesday of last week that she would not be teaching the class for the


remainder of the semester - and would be leaving the D.C. university -


because she was upset that students in the class had complained about


her teaching to the head of the political science department.


Diskin was on loan from Hebrew University. Her position was funded by the 
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), run by well known propagandist 
Mitchell Bard, which is paying to bring 26 professors and 6 post-docs to 
university campuses this year to teach about Israeli politics. Diskin was 
apparently unaware of the basic demands of students for a semblance of balance:


[Senior Greg]Berlin and a classmate, senior Elizabeth Kamens, both said that the


problem with Diskin’s teaching was that she focused only on Israel in a


course that was supposed to deal with the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.


“We would never cover the other side,” said Kamens, who is Jewish.


“It became more of an Israeli politics class,” said Berlin, noting 
that


while understanding Zionism is important to studying the Arab-Israeli


conflict, he wondered why they were they spending half of the semester


learning about it.


Berlin said that he and a number of other students had expressed their


“dissent” to Diskin in class about the way she was handling the 
course,


but became frustrated when they would ask for an Arab perspective on an


issue and Diskin would change the subject or talk over them. For


example, after Diskin cited the number of Israelis who died in a


particular military conflict, Berlin said, students asked for the number


of fatalities on the Palestinian side. Diskin, according to Berlin,


replied that only the Israeli figures were reliable, because only Israel


was a democracy.


“I’m Jewish myself, but I feel there’s a line between 
objectivity and


teaching with a bias,” said Berlin, who said he was one of a number of


students who expressed their concerns to leaders of the political


science department.


The two texts for the class? A History of Israel by GWU professor emeritus 
Howard Sachar, which one would expect to find in such a class, and “Myths 
& Facts,” a rather stunningly blatant piece of propaganda which 
started as an AIPAC publication and was later edited by former AIPAC staffer 
and AICE head Mitchell Bard. (But don’t trust us - read it for yourself.)


M.J. Rosenberg, who edited Myths & Facts when he worked at AIPAC in the


1980s, was surprised to hear it was being used in a college class.


“It’s not a textbook,” said Rosenberg, now the policy 
director at the


Israel Policy Forum. “It’s counter-propaganda” that is 
“not designed to


show both sides,” but to provide all the facts that support the


pro-Israel side.


Rosenberg said it was “hard to believe” the book would be used in 
any


college class other than one studying propaganda.


Bard defended the accuracy of his book. So did Daniel Pipes.


 


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