Imagine My Surprise

Okay, so I don't know anything about the Middle East Studies Association. But I do know Michael Rubin and I do know the corner, so when I saw Rubin slam MESA for being worried about Israeli human rights violations but ignoring problems in other countries, I was 99.98 percent sure he was full of crap. And, indeed, just a week before the "Broad assault on the education system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip" letter that so annoyed Rubin, we find MESA standing up for Iranian-American scholars arrested as part of Teheran's recent crackdown. On May 29 they had a different letter about Iran clamping down. Here's an April 17 letter about academic freedom in Saudi Arabia. Just another day in National Review reading.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/06/imagine-my-surprise/42837/