A great day for true academics,not to be in the tenure crowd alongside Norman Finkelstein. Though I disagree with his ideals(?) his lack of scholarly merit is ultimately what was the reason for his denial of tenure. Placing him alongside true academics would have been a black mark on the legitimacy of tenure. Fnally Justice Prevails!

Lack of scholarly merit? That is laughable. He made academic mincemeat of Harvard law professor, self-described "civil liberties expert" and unabashed advocate of torture whose book purports to be scholarly but only recycles the same old lies. It just shows that DePaul is not immune from the pressures of war and its nefarious profiteers.

A great day for McCarthyism is more like it. Israel's human rights violations are well documented, though not in the US media. The decision is disappointing but not suprising.

Pietro, when you refer to war's nefarious profiteers, you wouldn't happen to mean "Jews," would you?

And anonymous, you seem to have been roped in by the silly idea that if Israel has committed human rights violations, then Finkelstein should get tenure; and if it doesn't, he shouldn't. What do the supposed rights violations have to do with anything? If American rights violations are well documented somewhere, does Haniyeh get tenure? What if the violations by the UK are documented somewhere? Should I get tenure then? And if I were to point out the outrageous violations by the Palestinians, who gets tenure in that case?

It's only a partial victory. Dr. Finkelstein can still speak and publish!

After hearing that comparison, it's a dark day for people who suffered under real McCarthyism. Unfortunately, most who make the comparison are unable to describe what McCarthyism was. A guy who I was debating this weekend at the rally used it. He wasn't sure of the decade in which it reached its peak. Yikes!

In re: Israel's human rights violations. You're half right. They are indeed documented, but not well.

Of course Finkelstein never stood a chance of getting tenure, what with the Zionist Industrial Complex controlling the levers of power in this country. *tee*hee*

True, Burton. We can all look forward to more childish insults and hate-filled rhetoric. Can't wait.

"Though I disagree with his ideals(?) his lack of scholarly merit is ultimately what was the reason for his denial of tenure. "

Wrong. Those best situated to judge Finkelstein's scholarship, his department, voted for tenure, while those most likely to be influenced by political and economic considertions, the Dean and the Universtity President, voted against.

Hey Jeremy,

Raul Hilberg, in case you don't know who he is- the founder of Holocaust studies, holds Finkelstein's work in high regard. So do many other Middle East scholars. Are they all co-conspirators?

Finkelstein's work is scholarly in the first order. I have read his work and have seen him reduce Dershowitz to a babbling fool in a debate. You have nothing to offer but personal attacks, unsubstantiated.

Personal attacks? You mean like "babbling fool"? That's about as scholarly as most of what Finkelstein says.

What do you mean when you as "are they all co-conspirators?"? You seem to be forgetting which positions are held by which side in this debate. It is my contention that there is no "conspiracy." Only an academic decision of the of made repeatedly every year. Those lobbying for Finkelstein are the ones who generally resort to accusations of "conspiracy."

As to Hilberg supporting Finkelstein -- for every Hilberg, there are a number of Peter Novicks, Omer Bartovs, Deborah Lipstadts and Benny Morrises who find Finkelstein's scholarship to be severely deficient.

If Finkelstein's scholarly work was not sufficient, why was it necessasry (and why in general did) Dershowitz mount a huge campagn to get Finkelstein fired? There are hundreds of thousands of professors who have mediocre scholarship - including Dershie himself - but who get tenure.

No, this is all about Israel and American Jews who don't tolerate one word of criticism about their ethnic cleansing of Palestine which has continue unabated from 1948 to today.