Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies claims to take “a balanced and dispassionate approach to the Modern Middle East.” But Benjamin Baird reports for Campus Watch that the textbook scholars at the center co-authored, Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacekeeping in the Middle East, is heavily biased against Israel. His article appears in the April issue of the New English Review.
“Arabs and Israelis” is the product of two groups of scholars. Shai Feldman, Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center, wrote the Israeli narrative in the book, while Goldman Senior Fellow Khalil Shikaki and senior fellow Abdel Monem Said Aly recount the respective Palestinian and Arab roles, respectively. Feldman calls this team the “nucleus” of the Crown Center. Arabs and Israelis is organized around narratives. Each of the thirteen chapters (designed for a semester of equal length) begins with fundamental facts on which the coauthors have reached a consensus, followed by the Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian narratives. The book’s “uncontested” facts consistently portray Zionists negatively while validating Arab claims.
