Web Letters: Motzira-Making on the Right

Eric Alterman's article about Jane Kramer's article in The New Yorker contains a number of inaccuracies. Professor Alterman is refreshingly open about not having considered the possibility that Kramer's reporting was biased and not having obtained any other relevant information before writing his piece. But accusations of motzira have a tendency to ricochet. To correct just a few of the errors:

1. Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is an organization of academics from all parts of the political spectrum and all over the world who share the view that Israel has a right to exist as a democratic Jewish state, and who are committed to promoting excellence in scholarship, especially with reference to the Middle East. We are not "misnamed"; we believe that excellence in scholarship is a pathway to peace. In its online newsletter Faculty Forum, SPME reported on but did not take an official position on the Barnard alumnae's campaign against granting tenure to Professor Abu El-Haj. Despite numerous requests, SPME did not circulate the alumnae's petition precisely because SPME, as an organization of academics, supports "the time-honored tradition of politically disinterested tenure."

2. As an archaeologist, Dr. Alexander Joffe has standing to comment on the validity of Professor Abu El-Haj's criticisms of Israeli archaeologists. However, he has no official association with SPME, nor does Daniel Pipes.

3. Professor Alan Segal has an academic appointment in the Department of Religion at Barnard College, but he also has academic credentials and experience in both anthropology and archaeology. Although he publicly opposed the decision to grant tenure to Professor Abu El-Haj, his opposition focused on her scholarship, not her politics.

4. In the fall and winter of 2007-08, the Columbia chapter of SPME, of which I am co-coordinator, and LionPAC, a Columbia student organization, jointly sponsored a series of lectures on Israeli archaeology. Alan Segal spoke on the archaeology of the First Temple period; William Dever's topic was "Did God Have a Wife?" focusing on the evidence for worship, especially in rural areas distant from Jerusalem, of a female deity who was viewed as a consort of the male deity worshiped by Jews during the period when the Bible was written; Aren Maeir spoke about his finds in Gath (modern-day Tell es-Safi), described in the Bible as Goliath's home town; Jodi Magness's topic was Jerusalem and finds from the era of Herod. A web search on the names of the speakers will show that they are highly distinguished archaeologists. We called it the Underground Lecture Series because it was about archaeology. It was not about Professor Abu El-Haj.

Judith S. Jacobson

New York, NY