Middle East Studies Profs Usurp New Roles to Censure Israel over Gaza Flotilla

Brendan Goldman
American Thinker
13 June '10

"The martyrs of the [Gaza flotilla] ships are heroes," writes Mark LeVine, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. "They are warriors every bit as deserving of our tears and support as the soldiers of American wars past and present."

In the aftermath of the death of nine mercenaries on the deck of the Gaza-bound Turkish vessel, the Mavi Marmara, professors of Middle East studies lined up to denounce the Jewish State. Ignoring overwhelming video and documentary evidence of the activists' radical agenda and affinity for violence, these professors asserted that the "Freedom Flotilla" of the six Gaza-bound vessels were on a purely "humanitarian" mission.

"Those ships were just bringing aid to the impoverished Palestinians," said New York University professor of modern Middle Eastern History Zachary Lockman. "It's not [the Palestinians'] fault they are under Hamas rule." Has Lockman already forgotten that Hamas was democratically elected by the Palestinians in January 2006?

Even professors who managed to recall the Palestinian elections were determined to demonstrate that the terrorist group has been falsely maligned. Georgetown University's John Esposito, director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, tried to whitewash the terrorist group's reputation by declaring, "Hamas simply does not steal ... thus any aid delivered to the UN will be respected." Yet even traditionally anti-Israel institutions like the U.N. and the left-wing British Guardian have noted that Hamas has illegally seized aid intended for Gaza's poor.

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