Conspiratorial Anti-Semitism: From Juan Cole to Diane Rehm

Juan Cole

David Bernstein, writing for the Volokh Conspiracy at the Washington Post, points out that the brand of conspiratorial anti-Semitism underlying National Public Radio (NPR) host Diane Rehm’s questioning last week of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ nonexistent dual Israeli-American citizenship is exemplified by, among others, University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole:

Consider that in 2005, when he was perhaps the most influential progressive commenter on the Middle East, University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole wrote this of Bush Administration official Doug Feith: “Having a Likudnik as the number three man in the Pentagon is a nightmare for American national security, since Feith could never be trusted to put US interests over those of Ariel Sharon.” Feith, according to Cole, “played fast and loose with the truth . . . on behalf of a non-American political party, the Likud coalition of Israel.”

Campus Watch has addressed Cole’s penchant for conspiracy theories about “Likudniks,” Jewish “neocons,” and “pro-Likud” cabals on a number of occasions, including, in 2004, when he was elected president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). As we wrote at the time:

That the media turns to the strange mental world Juan Cole inhabits, a world filled with false facts, distortions, and sophism, with Jewish conspiracies and contempt for the American people, is a serious problem.

CW took note again in 2005 when Cole accused us and other “Zionist . . . shadowy organizations” of sharing “fascist point[s] of view” that influenced--here we go again--none other than then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

In reality, it’s the noxious influence of Cole and other conspiracy-mongers in the field of Middle East studies that have helped make anti-Semitism fashionable in academia and, by extension, the media.

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University of Michigan Juan Cole

Cinnamon Stillwell

Cinnamon Stillwell analyzes Middle East studies academia in West Coast colleges and universities for Campus Watch. A San Francisco Bay Area native and graduate of San Francisco State University, she is a columnist, blogger, and social media analyst. Ms. Stillwell, a former contributing political columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written on a wide variety of topics, including the political atmosphere in American higher education, and has appeared as a guest on television and talk radio.