RUTHFULLY YOURS

 

I am a Florida educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs, created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and have publicly debated many Arab and other anti-Israel spokesmen. My articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world.

As a doctoral student in the late ’70s, I had my academic career nipped in the bud because I believed in academic freedom (not to mention the fact that this was, after all, America). I naively expected that the same lenses of moral scrutiny–which were routinely used to critique and dissect Israel in the classroom–would be applied to the so-called “Arab”/Muslim World as well. As I learned the hard way, that was indeed far too much to expect. I asked too many of the wrong questions. I was the most advanced doctoral student in the program at Ohio State University at the time, was a T.A. (Teaching Assistant), and the department used me to secure additional funding.Somewhat earlier, I had received my M.A. and was an advanced doctoral student at the Kevorkian Center For Near Eastern Studies, a consortium of New York, Columbia, and Princeton Universities based at N.Y.U.’s Washington Square campus. A prolonged illness and financial matters led to an interruption in my studies, and I next found myself based in Columbus in a fulltime job. A professor subsequently heard one of my presentations and suggested that I resurrect my doctoral work at Ohio State. I reluctantly agreed to do this…and you’ll see why I had reservations shortly.

Unfortunately, Middle Eastern Studies was fast becoming the most politicized field in academia…even more so since my earlier years at the Kevorkian Center. Universities were receiving money and other support from Arab countries, their supporters, and the like.

I had already received information regarding the tenured chief honcho about this but was assured that there would be others I could work with when dissertation time came around. Like a fool, I believed…

I never received a dissertation advisor–the death sentence for an academic career at the university level. Readers may access my Mullah Morality:Tales Of Binx and Jahandir; Chutzpah–Arab Style; A La Alaa; and some other articles in my archives to gain further insights about this episode.

Despite this, the heavily Nobel Laureate-sponsored academic journal, the Fall 1982 Middle East Review, showcased an abbreviated version of an extensive doctoral research paper of mine, “British Petroleum Politics, Arab Nationalism, and The Kurdish Struggle For Independence.” It got into many of the same problems I mentioned above. And it was rare, indeed, for “just” a doctoral student to be honored this way. That article can be found on recommended reading lists of universities all over the world today–including Paris’ famed Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po).

While professors like Carter Findley were/are not shy to pick apart any real or fudged “sin” of the Jewish State, the far more real and extensive atrocities committed by Arabs against Kurds, Imazighen/”Berbers,” Black Africans, Copts, Jews, Assyrians, and so forth were/are virtually or totally ignored. The only time Findley ever mentioned 35 millionstateless Kurds, for example, was when he made a mockery of their dreams for independence in telling about his travels through southeastern Turkey. And all at the same time demanding a 22nd state for Arabs.

Throughout the ’70s (and occasionally afterwards), I was invited to guest lecture at dozens of universities, colleges, and elsewhere, often to balance a lecture by an Arab or pro-Arab spokesperson, to debate them, and so forth. I appeared on television several times during this period as well.

On April 14, 2005, Fox News’ star, Sean Hannity, selected my article from FrontPage Magazine as the focus of his ABC radio show. You can find it on my links. He found this on his own. I found out after the fact.

So, my objective is the same as it always has been.

There is rarely such thing as perfect justice among the realm of imperfect man. The most we can usually strive for is the relative variety. And the latter does not demand almost two dozen states for Arabs and none for scores of millions of other subjugated, stateless, non-Arab peoples who also live in the region. Yet, that is precisely what Arabs expect.

My work aims to provide a balance and broader perspective in an age when vilifying Israel–the Jew of the Nations–has become all too common.

Thanks for visiting my website…

Jerry