DePaul University and beleaguered professor Norman Finkelstein have come to some settlement. Finkelstein, a pro-Palestinian advocate and prolific smasher of Zionut myths was astonishingly denied tenure by the university despite his excellent track record and support from the Poli Sci department and fellow staff. It seems some high-level administrators got the squeeze put on them by the pro-Israel lobby, yeah, the one that does not exist.

Naturally, they have not revealed the terms of the settlement, which is usually a stipulation of such agreements. I imagine that DePaul had to make up for a lot of shame. They not only broke the integrity of the tenure process by bowing to external pressure, then denying Finkelstein the customary one-year extension to faculty denied tenure, but they damaged the career of a courageous, widely-respected, and debate-provoking public intellectual (whose main crime was being honest).

This episode inspired me to further explore Finkelstein’s excellent website. In one of my favorite sections, a catalog of correspondence to him, I found this hilarious letter from a Russian-Israeli:

From: “Steve Kay” redex99@gmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Norman Finklestein
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 15:40:57 -0400

Norman;

I am Russian jew living in Israel. You look like man who want suicide, you want destroy israel, maybe you never have hate against you. If you are Russian jew, you understand why have Israel. Every person hate us, and even rich jew like you. FUCK YOU AND SHUT MOUTH

Okay, I admit I am laughing at the broken English. And I feel bad about that, especially since I could not even translate the first word into Russian or Hebrew. But I feel no worse about laughing at this e-mail than I do when I crack up at my Mom’s butchery of idioms (or “creative rendering” as I should call it). After all, this is how Sasha Cohen managed to rip ten bucks from my wallet.

On a more serious note, if I were a Russian Jew, I’d be happy to get the hell out of Russia, too. But picking a place founded on pogroms is a hypocritical choice. The Palestinians are clearly Israel’s Jews — unwanted, feared and despised, and ultimately marginalized by a marriage of equally discriminating secular and religious authorities.

But, his (“Steve Kay”) last line is classic. Isn’t it the perfect verbal expression of what Finkelstein’s opponents are doing?

Related posts:

1. Norman Finkelstein On The Six-Day War
2. The Case For Norman Finkelstein
3. Alan Dershowitz: Coming to a Court Near You.
4. FILE UNDER: Just who the fuck runs this country again?
5. Spotlight on the Right