Our New Middle Eastern 'Think Tank'

A newly formed "educational think tank," the International Council for Middle East Studies (ICMES), is poised to influence U.S. policy toward the Middle East in ways that could further harm American interests in the region.

It will be led by Norton Mezvinsky, a radical anti-Zionist who recently retired after a 42-year-career teaching Middle East history at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). If Mezvinsky remains true to form, ICMES will advocate for holding U.S. policy hostage to the fallacy that Israel is always at fault for the region's troubles.

For example, in 2002 Mezvinsky told an entire class of teachers that, contrary to historical fact, "‘the well-armed and well-funded Israelis' fought the Palestinians in 1948", but did not mention that armies of five Arab countries first invaded the U.N.-sanctioned Jewish state. [snip]

Mezvinsky's career and recent appointment illustrates one of the most serious weaknesses in contemporary Middle East Studies: the politicized writing and teaching that have displaced objective scholarship, and the redefinition of academic freedom as the liberty to dispense with academic standards.

All of the above should raise serious questions about the credibility and education Mezvinsky will disseminate to a much larger audience through his International Council for Middle East Studies.

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