Controversial tenure case of academic Finkelstein and alleged anti‑Israel/holocaust denial rhetoric

4.2.12 WC: 191694 failed academic who had been fired from several universities, to obtain tenure at De Paul University. Finkelstein had never published any scholarship. Moreover, he had been dismissed by Brooklyn College for abusing students who disagreed with his extremist views and had engaged in sexist behavior at DePaul. Not exactly a strong record for tenure. But he had something going for him. He was so vitriolically anti-Israel, that he had many radical supporters who cared more about his politics than his scholarship. He also argued that most people who claim to be victims of the Holocaust—including Elie Wiesel—were “frauds” and “liars” and that the Holocaust itself was being exaggerated for political and financial reasons. By falsely claiming that those opposed to his tenure were motivated by his political views on Israel and the Holocaust, rather than his lack of scholarship, he hoped to bestow on himself the mantle of victimhood to a conspiracy of Zionist-McCarthyites. I exposed his tactic in the Wall Street Journal by comparing it to the ploy used by Mary McCarthy’ fictionalized failed academic who, realizing he wouldn’t get tenure, became a communist so that he could claim that he was being denied tenure because he was a Red rather than a lousy scholar: “Facing tenure denial, Mr. Finkelstein opted for a tactic that fit the times. He expressed views so ad hominem, unscholarly and extreme that he could claim the decision was being made not on the basis of his scholarship, but rather on his politics.”** °> Mr. Finkelstein is supported by hard-leftists like Noam Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn. They regard him as a scholar in a class with Ward Churchill. He’s the Colorado professor who called the 9/11 victims “little Eichmanns” comparing Finkelstein to Churchill is a characterization with which I would not quarrel. Mr. Finkelstein does not do “scholarship” in any meaningful sense. Although his writings center on Israel (which he compares to Nazi Germany) and the Holocaust, he has never visited Israel and cannot read or speak German — precluding the possibility of original scholarship. Prof. Bartov characterized his work as an irrational Jewish “conspiracy theory.” The conspirators include Steven Spielberg, NBC and Leon Uris. The film “Schindler’s List,” Mr. Finkelstein argues, was designed to divert attention from our Mideast policy. “Give me a better reason! .. . Who profits? Basically, there are two beneficiaries from the dogmas [of Schindler's List]: American Jews and American administration.” NBC, he says, broadcast “Holocaust” to strengthen Israel’s position: “In 1978, NBC produced the series Holocaust. Do you believe, it was a coincidence, 1978? Just at this time, when peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt took place in Camp David?” He argues that Leon Uris, the author of “Exodus,” named his character “Ari” in order to promote Israel’s “Nazi” ideology: “[B]ecause Ari is the diminutive for Aryan. It is the whole admiration for this blond haired, blue eyed type.” (Ari is a traditional Hebrew name dating back to the Bible.) He has blamed Sept. 11 on the U.S., claiming that we “deserve the problem on our hands because some things Bin Laden says are true.”) He says that most alleged Holocaust survivors — including Elie Wiesel — have fabricated their past. Like other anti-Semites, Mr. Finkelstein generalizes about “the Jews”; for example: “Just as Israelis . . . courageously put unruly Palestinians in their place, so American Jews 147 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017234