What is true in that which D.H. and his "researcher" (and I use the term generously) Lee Kaplan cooked up on my activities? Not much. I do oppose the repression and denial of basic human rights visited upon the Palestinians, just as I oppose the attacks that some of their activists visit upon the people of Israel[1]. I also oppose the Wall being built in the West Bank, and have characterized it as a land-grab, a view which also has rather widespread support among educated observers.[2] Finally, I do oppose Zionism in its most expansionist incarnation, and while this might make me an anti-Zionist, I fail to see how this would make of me an anti-Semite. Though I am able to forgive Kaplan and Horowitz for their apparent inability to distinguish between the two.

Much of the rest of Horowitz's research is pure lunacy. While I do teach at Foothill, and seem to have a good following, the only course I have ever taught there, both online and in class, is Poli. 1: Introduction to American Government & Politics. Obviously, neither Horowitz, nor his "researcher" have ever taken my course. If they had taken the trouble to do so (in order to fact-check, if nothing else), they would know that Israel, the Wall Jews, Nazis, Palestinians, or Zionism are not taught in that course. The irrelevance of those topics to the teaching of American Government is staggering. In mentioning lobbying, AIPAC might come up, as does the AARP, the NRA or the China Lobby, with respect to their ability, as lobbies, to influence US government, but how would Israel, or the Wall figure in there? I challenge Horowitz and his cronies to find even one student who took my course with a C or better, who could or would be able to back his claim.

I have always been a follower of Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and am a proponent of international law, non-violence and tolerance. If those beliefs make one dangerous, then maybe I am a "dangerous academic." I must admit that it is a bit thrilling (if foolish) for an overweight, 40-something professor like myself to be termed "dangerous." I believe that my stance vis à vis racial diversity is better framed and illustrated by a chance encounter with a more honest and diligent reporter, who happened to meet my son and I at an internment remembrance ceremony[3] to which I was invited by a colleague who really does know me.

Thanks to Horowitz, my courses at Foothill will most probably be quite full for the foreseeable future, but his shoddy researching shows him to be little more than a bigoted fool.

Leighton D. Armitage, Ph.D.

[1] The Economist of February 11th-17th on page 79. For some background on that which I am referring to, the latest issue of The Economist contains an interesting review of a book (Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, which clearly outlines some of these themes, by former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.

[2] Same issue of The Economist, on page 45: Israel and the Palestinians: The Shape of Things to Come.

[3] http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_3528226