HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017235.jpg
Extracted Text (OCR)
4.2.12
WC: 191694
The final part of Mr. Finkelstein’s quest for tenure is to blame his tenure problems on
“outsiders.” He claims that I intruded myself into the DePaul review process, neglecting to
mention that I was specifically asked by the former chairman of DePaul’s political science
department to “point [him] to the clearest and most egregious instances of dishonesty on
Finkelstein’s part.” I responded by providing hard evidence of made-up quotes and facts
— a pattern that should alone disqualify him from tenure...
Like the character in the “Groves of Academe,” Mr. Finkelstein generated protests by
students and outsiders. He has encouraged radical goons to email threatening messages;
“Look forward to a visit from me,” reads one. “Nazis like [you] need to be confronted
directly.” He has threatened to sue if he loses — while complaining about outside
interference. No university should be afraid of truth — regardless of its source —
especially when truth consists of Mr. Finkelstein’s own words.
He did not receive tenure. I’m proud of the small role I played in helping to maintain academic
standards at DePaul University by exposing Finkelstein’s lack of scholarship and the sordid tactic
he tried to use to capitalize on that failing. My actions in exposing Finkelstein were completely
consistent with my commitment to free speech and academic freedom. Finkelstein continues to
lecture at universities around the world—including some that have refused to invite me—but he
no longer has the academically undeserved imprimatur of DePaul University.
Academic freedom is not limited to faculty. It extends to students as well, and no professor has
the right to propagandize his captive classroom audience or to grade them down if they disagree
with his political opinions. But it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between acceptable teaching
and unacceptable prostheletizing. This too is an area where rights may be in conflict and a
delicate balance, always skewed in favor of speech, is required.
courageously put unruly Blacks in their place.” He says “the main fomenters of anti-
Semitism “are ‘American Jewish elites’ who need to be stopped.” Normally, no one would
take such claims seriously, but he boasts that he “can get away with things which nobody
else can” because his parents were Holocaust survivors.
And then, of course, there is me. In a recent article, “Should Alan Dershowitz Target
Himself for Assassination?” Mr. Finkelstein commissioned a cartoon by a man who placed
second in the Iranian Holocaust-denial cartoon contest. The Hustler-type cartoon
portrayed me as masturbating in joy while viewing images of dead Lebanese on a TV set
labeled “Israel peep show,” with a Star of David prominently featured.
Mr. Finkelstein has accused me of not having written “The Case For Israel” but when I
sent his publisher my handwritten draft, they made him remove that claim. He has accused
virtually every pro-Israel writer, including me, of “plagiarism.” I asked Harvard to conduct
an investigation of this absurd charge. Harvard rejected it, yet he persists.
148
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017235