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Jonathan Marks

Jonathan Marks

Jonathan Marks is a Professor of Politics at Ursinus College and publishes in modern and contemporary political philosophy in journals like the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, the Journal of American Political Science, and the Review of Politics. He is the author of Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Marks also has written on higher education for InsideHigherEd, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Weekly Standard, and the Wall Street Journal. He blogs occasionally at Commentary Magazine.

All stories by: Jonathan Marks

How BDS Is Undermining Academic Freedom

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) was officially launched in 2005 in a statement whose author was identified as “Palestinian civil society.” Among the statement’s demands were these: that Israel end “its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands,”…

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When BDS Wins, the University Loses

In 2016, the University of Minnesota Student Association amended a bill that targeted Israel and passed a more general bill on socially responsible investing. Not surprisingly, this bill, which did not single out Israel among all the nations of the world for…

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Democrats Go Soft on Anti-Semitism

I don’t always agree with Kenneth L. Marcus, the founder and president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. But he is without question the kind of person who might have been nominated in any Republican administration to…

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The Bumbling Boycott Machiavellians of Academe

On January 5, Modern Language Association Members for Justice in Palestine hosted a meeting at New York University entitled “Palestine and the Future of Academia.” COMMENTARY readers may remember that supporters of a resolution to boycott Israel so soiled themselves last year that the MLA not…

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You Say Free Speech, They Say White Nationalism

William Jacobson, founder of the blog Legal Insurrection, is among the best reporters I know on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel. Of late, his blog has been more concerned with denouncing the excesses of President Trump’s critics…

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Professors Stand Up to BDS

A new academic year has begun and, with it, we can expect new attempts to demonize Israel on our college campuses. As ever, the immoderation of those who support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement should help. The most recent…

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It’s All Right to Enjoy a Good BDS Fail

It is tricky to assess the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. On the one hand, one does not want to underestimate the damage to Israel’s reputation done by even unsuccessful campaigns. The campus boycott movement, about which…

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Salaita, Out

I have written before about Steven Salaita. Once a tenured professor of English at Virginia Tech, he resigned from that position on the strength of an offer from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign to serve in the American Indian Studies program. But…

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The Mennonites Divest

The 75,000 strong Mennonite Church-USA has joined a few other church organizations in voting to divest from companies “profiting from the occupation.” They seem rather proud of themselves for having chosen a “third way.” What this means in the resolution’s terms is…

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