Reaction by Middle East studies professors to Israel's recent effort to destroy Hamas's terrorist infrastructure epitomizes their perennial pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, and anti-American biases. In lieu of reasoned, informed, and balanced assessments, they proffer extremist rhetoric that demonizes Israel and America while ignoring Hamas's misdeeds: rockets aimed at Israeli civilians, kidnappings and murder, disregard for ceasefires, and the cynical use of Palestinian civilians--including children--as human shields.

Two groups--Middle East Scholars and Librarians and Historians Against the War--signed letters advocating a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and accusing Israel of war crimes that demand the end to U.S. military aid, respectively.

Many, however, took their pro-Hamas, anti-Israel antipathies far beyond petitioning to spew forth hyperbolic and mendacious rhetoric that reveals far more about the fevered imaginations of the professoriate than about their intended target.

Ignoring that Hamas started the war, Juan Cole, a history professor at the University of Michigan, declared that, "Israel's only real strategy is causing war, not ending war." Despite the fact that no Israeli politician has advocated genocide and that none has been committed, Cole alleged that, "Israeli nationalists have been arguing for war crimes at an alarming rate. . . . Too many Israelis have justifications in their minds for genocide."

Similarly, Rashid Khalidi, who teaches modern Arab Studies at the Columbia University, maintained that, "By parroting deceitful Israeli talking points about 'self-defense' and 'human shields,' they--US and its allies--make themselves complicit in what may well amount to war crimes." ...