Rounding up support the breadth of our land to oppose a Jewish policy in Israel is as slickly easy as convincing President Obama to lie about his pre-White House days, about his place of birth, about his upbringing, about his religion, about his education, about his social life as a young man, about his political philosophy at any stage, about his family, about his political activism in school days, about his relationship with 12 of the most disgusting Americans of the last hundred years, about his most recent version of any truth, about his views on gay marriage, about his views on gays in the military, about his evolving views on work welfare, on food stamps, on compulsory insurance policies, on legal exceptions for significant donors, on whether he ever has read a book with fewer pictures than words, on his abysmal record at the University of Chicago, on his grades in college, on Benghazi, on the IRS, on Fast and Furious, on chemical weapons and red lines in Syria, on leading from behind, on the Iran deal that John (Sometimes I Am Honest) Kerry struck last month, on whether “syntax” is spelled with an “i” or a “y,” what it means, why he grammatically mangles three of every four sentences longer than one word, his racial views, the pronunciation of “corps,” even a postage-stamp-sized grasp of American history, the name of Clinton’s White House predecessor or successor, which day follows Thursday in even-numbered months and what day of the month Christmas falls this year.
Muddy-minded professors, which covers no more than 97 percent of academics, bounced, you will forgive the imagery, back into the news yesterday. It is so typical of the routinely confused hard left that a group of 4,000 professors would abstractly call itself the American Studies Assn., an intentionally meaningless phrase to all normal Americans. Following the lead of its board, 20 percent of association members voted yesterday to “boycott Israeli academics and institutions,” whatever that means.
Only in the pretend world of academia – and Obamacare – would 20 percent rule the 80 percent. I digress.
Heavily seasoned with inspecificity and me-too’ness typical of leading-from-behind educators, they are protesting (at no pain to themselves) alleged Israeli discrimination against Palestinians. How is that for originality? Next they will protest the uniqueness of the Torah.
Will it be effective? Hard to say. Occasionally anti-Semites strike gold.
Hoisting themselves up to their full 5-foot-2 inches, leaders of this wonderful association of untethered educators, represented by a gentile genius named Davey (My Goal Is to Be Astute) Lloyd, a prof from U.C. Riverside who helped launch this campaign, we learn why the boys are aroused.
Said the Chronicle of High Education today:
Mr. Lloyd and other boycott supporters have worked to keep the debate alive in academe. In the fall Mr. Lloyd participated in a panel on academic boycotts of Israel at the annual conference of the American Anthropological Assn. In January he will sit on a similarly focused panel at the annual convention of the Modern Language Assn. As a member of the American Studies Assn, he also helped promote the resolution there.
The American campaign supports a variety of organizational efforts, such as student-led, campus-based groups calling for a boycott, but Mr. Lloyd thinks bringing the debate into academic associations offers something different.
“These are organizations with professors from many institutions and covering many disciplines,” he said, suggesting that the discussions indicate a “larger, nationwide shift” in the conversation about Israel. “It's beginning to become something people recognize as an issue of justice and ceases to be something held by a vocal minority.”
