Saturday, July 30, 2016

Daniel Serwer: A professor at SAIS and a fellow at Middle East Institute calls on the US to bomb Hizbullah

This Daniel Serwer, whose relationship to Middle East studies is similar to my relationship to potato studies, wants the US to bomb Hizbullah.  And he thinks he has a simple plan without any repercussions.  I just have one question. Since when it becomes part of the job description of US professors to call on the government to bomb countries and organizations?  What would happen to the career of a professor if he/she were to call for bombing, say, of Israel?  Would that person retain his/her job?  And this guy who is pontificating about the Middle East, and who is a fellow at the new and improved Middle East Institute (which has no passing resemblance to the old Middle East Institute which used to boldly challenge the Israeli lobby), and yet he has no academic background in the study of the Middle East.  But wait: look at his language skills: "He speaks Italian, French, and Portuguese, as well as beginning Arabic."  Let me explains: when I see someone says that he speaks "beginning Arabic" it only means this: that person is able to say the following sentence (in English): May I have a sandwich of Shaweeermaaa?