Roberta Seid: Is Anti–Israel Bigotry Coming to Claremont MCKenna?

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The bias, questionable scholarship, and even anti-Semitism prevalent in many Middle Eastern Studies programs may have come to yet another American campus. Claremont McKenna [CMC], the highly ranked California liberal arts school, recently inaugurated a Middle East Studies department directed by Professor of Arabic Bassam Frangieh, and is trying to establish a related study abroad program that will include Frangieh’s wife, Aleta Wenger, Executive Director of International Programs at the school. The program is accessible to students in all the Claremont colleges, including Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pomona. In a series of meticulously researched articles, CMC senior Charles C. Johnson exposed Frangieh and Wenger’s extremist views, anti-Israel prejudices, and support for terrorist groups that make it unlikely this program can meet basic scholarly standards under their leadership.

It is disturbing that CMC would give its imprimatur to a program that would be inhospitable for Jewish and pro-Israel students, and infuse anti-Israel, anti-Semitic views on campus.

Frangieh’s expertise is Arabic language and literature, not Middle Eastern history and politics. Some of Frangieh’s statements raise serious concerns about his qualifications to teach these other fields. In a 2007 lecture, he made the dubious claim that ““From the beginning of Islam until the mid-13th century,” Islam was “very democratic” and had “customs” similar to “socialism.” [1] Though Frangieh railed against Arab dictators, he mentioned one exception. “The only leader of the Arab world ”who “really did something for his country” and who “wasn’t a thief” was Saddam Hussein. [2] Frangieh apparently discounted Hussein’s ruthless dictatorship, genocide of Iraqi Kurds, torture of opponents, and systematic siphoning of money from the Iraqi people in the UN Oil for Food scandal.

More disturbing is Frangieh’s open support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and how these views might taint his analysis of the Middle East. When Hezbollah launched the 2006 war with Israel, Frangieh signed a letter that praised Hezbollah’s attack on Israel as a “heroic operation….to safeguard the dignity of the Lebanese and Arab people,” and bitterly denounced the many Arab governments that opposed Hezbollah. [3] Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy whose goal is to establish an Islamist state across the Arab world, eliminate Israel, and fight “Western Imperialism.” It is blatantly anti-Semitic. Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has said that “If the [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them world wide.” Yet Professor Frangieh celebrates this violent group.

Frangieh is equally supportive of Hamas. He welcomed Hamas’ 2006 electoral victory, saying to an interviewer that “Hamas might be able to produce the beginning of salvation. I wonder what else would the Arabs have without Hamas and Hezbollah? Nothing. Except humiliation. I congratulate Hamas on its victory.” [4] Hamas is another Iranian-supported terrorist group. Its founding charter calls for the murder of Jews, the “obliteration” of Israel and its replacement with a Islamist theocracy, and liberally borrows from the anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Yet Frangieh regards this violent, dictatorial, anti-Semitic group as “the beginning of salvation.”

Apparently, Frangieh also sees wider Arab violence as a “salvation.” He lionized Arab poet Abd al-Rahim Mahmud as “a symbol of heroism and pride” though Mahmud’s poems glorify jihad and martyrs, and have inspired terrorists and their sympathizers. [5] Rather than condemn the self-destructiveness of terrorism and violence, Frangieh wrote in 2000 that “Even if the best one hundred Arab poets loaded themselves with dynamite and exploded in the streets of Arab capitals, it would not be enough. For real change to come about, thousands of people will have to die; thousands must martyr themselves.” [6]

Frangieh seems to share Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s distorted history of Israel. The 2006 pro-Hezbollah letter claimed that “the recent Israeli aggression is the latest in a long series extending back to the founding of the Zionist state and motivated by both historical ambition…and by a racist supremacist ideology that denigrates the indigenous population.” It also described the IDF as a “Zionist killing machine.” [7] Frangieh himself wrote that “the greatest blow to the Arab soul” was the creation of Israel. [8] Nor is Frangieh averse to traditional forms of anti-Semitism. He signed a 2007 petition that called Joseph Biden’s resolution to divide Iraq into three autonomous zones “a Zionist plot.” [9]

An apparently charismatic figure, Frangieh was an extremely popular professor at Yale [10] as he is at CMC, [11] which means students will likely be very receptive to his extremist ideas.

Frangieh’s wife seems to share many of his views. Among the facts that Johnson uncovered was that this former American diplomat has a sinister view of Israel and is an enthusiastic supporter of the radical “Free Gaza Campaign” which seeks to “break” Israel’s legal blockade of Gaza to give support to Hamas. She is dismissive of official Israeli reports, even when they are corroborated by other sources. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, she claimed in July, 2010, that “[1] do not believe for one minute that the Israelis are allowing in food and medicine, and other commodities, to the level needed by the civilian population.” [12] Yet, in this very period, journalists were reporting that “Shops all over Gaza are bursting with goods,” causing prices to fall, according to the Financial Times, [13] and the Washington Post noted that “Grocery stores are stocked wall-to-wall…..Pharmacies look as well-supplied as a typical Rite Aid in the United States.” [14]

The CMC administration’s response to Johnson’s exposes is disturbing. It defended Frangieh, comparing his support for terrorist organizations whose goal is to murder Jews with another faculty member’s analysis of the legal justifications for California’s controversial Proposition 8 on gay marriage as equal expressions of academic freedom. It also accepted Frangieh’s denial that he supported terrorist groups. [15] Johnson also found that CMC’s Vice-President of Public Affairs and Communications had edited Frangieh’s Wikipedia page to delete mention of his support for terrorist groups. [16] While Frangieh and Wenger certainly have the right to hold and publicize their views, reprehensible as they are, the wisdom of appointing them as directors of a Middle East Studies program should be questioned.

Another unsettling development raises further concerns about anti-Israel bias at CMC. The school’s Center for the Study of Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, founded in 2003, may not provide more informed or more sympathetic views of Israel. The current director, Professor Edward Haley, was instrumental in recruiting Frangieh to the faculty. [17] In 2009, as CMC President Pamela Gann and Frangieh tried to develop the international study component of the Middle East Studies Department, the Center for Holocaust Studies was suddenly renamed. It will now be called the Center for Human Rights Leadership to “reflect broader efforts in the field of human rights,” according to CMC’s press release. [18] Apparently, its primary focus will no longer be the historical, moral, and philosophical dimensions of the Holocaust.

CMC’s administration should choose other directors for its Middle East Studies program, and make every effort to ensure that the program offers an informed, responsible, and scholarly approach to Middle East issues. Given the anti-Israel bias and ideological extremism of Professor Frangieh and his wife, it would also be wise for CMC to adopt the U.S. Civil Rights Commission’s working definition of anti-Semitism, which recognizes that demonization of Israel is a new form of anti-Semitism, [19] and make sincere efforts to prevent its appearance on campus.

Roberta P. Seid, PhD, is a lecturer at UC Irvine, and is Education and Research Director for StandWithUs, an international Israel education organization.


[1] “Islam and Development,” University of Bridgeport, 2007 at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1680967234340437238#

[2] “Islam and Development,” University of Bridgeport, 2007 at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1680967234340437238#

[3] “Statement by Workers in the Public Cultural Sphere in Lebanon Collective,” July 25, 2006 at

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?page=article_impr&id_article=2978

[4] Charles C. Johnson, “Middle East Studies Director Believes “Zionist Plot” Behind Plan to Partition Iraq, Views Hamas ‘With Great Pleasure,’”Claremont Independent, Dec. 6, 2010 at http://www.claremontindependent.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=a216bf80-f3c8-4726-8c01-dd6b4481e8d9

[5] Charles C. Johnson, “Middle East Studies Director Believes “Zionist Plot” Behind Plan to Partition Iraq, Views Hamas ‘With Great Pleasure,’”Claremont Independent, Dec. 6, 2010 at http://www.claremontindependent.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=a216bf80-f3c8-4726-8c01-dd6b4481e8d9

[6] Charles C. Johnson, “Middle East Studies Director Believes “Zionist Plot” Behind Plan to Partition Iraq, Views Hamas ‘With Great Pleasure,’”Claremont Independent, Dec. 6, 2010 at http://www.claremontindependent.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=a216bf80-f3c8-4726-8c01-dd6b4481e8d9

[7] “Statement by Workers in the Public Cultural Sphere in Lebanon Collective,” July 25, 2006 at

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?page=article_impr&id_article=2978

[8] Charles C. Johnson, “Middle East Studies Director Believes “Zionist Plot” Behind Plan to Partition Iraq, Views Hamas ‘With Great Pleasure,’”Claremont Independent, Dec. 6, 2010 at http://www.claremontindependent.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=a216bf80-f3c8-4726-8c01-dd6b4481e8d9

[9] Charles C. Johnson, “Middle East Studies Director Believes “Zionist Plot” Behind Plan to Partition Iraq, Views Hamas ‘With Great Pleasure,’”Claremont Independent, Dec. 6, 2010 at http://www.claremontindependent.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=a216bf80-f3c8-4726-8c01-dd6b4481e8d9

[10] Julie Post, “Arabic Prof Frangieh Will Remain at Yale,” Yale Daily News, April 28, 2005 at http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2005/apr/28/arabic-prof-frangieh-will-remain-at-yale/

[11] http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/news/pressreleases/article.asp?article_id=1505

[12] Charles C. Johnson, “Claremont McKenna Cover-Up: Can’t Hide Prof’s Pro-Terrorist Loyalties-or His Wife’s,” Big Peace, Dec.12, 2010 at http://bigpeace.com/cjohnson/2010/12/15/Claremont McKenna-cover-up-cant-hide-bassam-frangiehs-loyalties-or-his-wifes/

[13] Tobias Buck, “Gaza looks beyond the tunnel economy,” Financial Times-UK, May 24, 2010 at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c51267a-66ca-11df-aeb1-00144feab49a.html

[14] Janine Zacharia, “In Gaza, a complex, dysfunctional way of life,” Washington Post, June 3, 2010 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/02/AR2010060204687.html

[15] Charles Johnson, “Dean of Faculty Hess Responds to Frangieh Work,” The Claremont Conservative, Dec. 16, 2010 at http://www.claremontconservative.com/2010/12/dean-of-faculty-hess-responds-to.html

[16] Charles C. Johnson, “Claremont McKenna Cover-Up: Can’t Hide Prof’s Pro-Terrorist Loyalties-or His Wife’s,” Big Peace, Dec.12, 2010 at http://bigpeace.com/cjohnson/2010/12/15/claremont-mckenna-cover-up-cant-hide-bassam-frangiehs-loyalties-or-his-wifes/

[17] http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/news/cmcmagazine/2009fall/crucial_experience.pdf

[18] “The Holocaust Center Has a New Name but its Focus on Human Rights and the Holocaust Won’t Change,” Claremont McKenna Press Release, May 15, 2009 at http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/news/pressreleases/article.asp?article_id=1249

[19] http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/102301.pdf

Roberta Seid: Is Anti–Israel Bigotry Coming to Claremont MCKenna?

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