A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Love at the New York Times

Am I the only one who senses romance in the air after reading Robin Finn's glowing, heartwarming tribute to Columbia professor Joseph Massad in today's New York Times?

Massad is the Columbia professor charged with verbally abusing and intimidating students who dared to challenge his stridently anti-Israel classroom statements.

Ms. Finn helpfully tells us that Massad is a "Christian fellow who began holding Seders as an undergraduate in Albuquerque (he had a Jewish roommate)."

At that point, Finn takes us to another world, the world of the Times' Sunday Styles section, which celebrates the marriages (and commitment ceremonies) of our elite. Finn writes:

He seems, if anything, ingratiating, not intimidating. The perfect host, perfectly attired, right down to the opalescent links binding his French cuffs. The reading material on his coffee table is decorative propaganda, apolitical: "The World Atlas of Wine"; a pictorial of a favored destination, Amberley Castle in Sussex, England; and a catalog in which he excitedly points out the brass chandelier, a handmade reproduction of 18th-century Islamic/Egyptian design, he recently purchased in Cairo. What a novelty: a politically pugnacious professor - he insists he won't stand for anti-Semitism or anti-Palestinianism in his classroom and packs scholarship to combat both - with a metrosexual gloss.

Forgive me, I don't know what a "metrosexual gloss" is. But I am nevertheless transfixed.

Getting back to those bad Jews who are bothering Massad, the article continues:

"I am simply an entry point for right-wing forces that want to destroy academic freedom," says Professor Massad, his eyes telegraphing hurt and anger behind black-framed glasses. "My crime is not only that I'm Palestinian. What galls them most is that I'm a pro-Jewish Palestinian critic of Zionism."

Such sad eyes to go along with his black-framed glasses and french cuffs. And I know just how Massad feels, being a pro-Arab Jewish critic of terrorism.

Massad is such a great guy that though his class is "crashed by hecklers", since "Professor Massad is a fan of free speech, [the hecklers] are allowed to have their say."

Getting back to Finn's infatuation with Massad, we are told that "in Jordan, he attended a French-run school - he is multilingual" and that "his demibeard is neatly sculptured. His Continental accent is more soothing than strident. His elaborate freestanding Egyptian water pipe is stoked with apple-flavored tobacco as a weekend indulgence, accompanied by Cognac, after dinner parties. Only legal substances are imbibed."

Finn could hardly be blamed. Who could avoid becoming infatuated with such a Renaissance man?
posted on 4/08/2005