Strawser | On the Israel Studies Program and fostering a stronger culture of inquiry
Conventional political wisdom in this country suggests that one must never criticize the U.S.-Israel partnership and never rein in the State of Israel. Capitol Police and a U.S. Senator, for instance, broke the arm of a U.S. veteran who peacefully protested military action in Iran alongside Israel. President Trump has repeatedly detained international students over the threats that their pro-Palestine dissent allegedly poses to his U.S.-Israel foreign policy. His ambassador to Israel declared that “It would be fine if they took it all” — an endorsement of Israel occupying land in the Middle East from the Nile River to the Euphrates River.
This is the lens through which I view the recently endowed Israel Studies Program. The program’s website prominently features Israeli President Isaac Herzog — who has denied the very concept of innocent civilians in Gaza and signed bombs that would be dropped on said Gazans — celebrating “the courage, conviction, and moral power that the launch of this program speaks [to].” The Jan Koum Family Foundation, which endowed the program, is a major donor to a U.S.-based nonprofit that financially backs active-duty members of the Israel Defense Forces. Jan Koum has donated millions of dollars to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — the U.S.-Israel partnership’s top lobbyist.
Given the close financial relationship between the academic program and American politics, and between universities and government in general, it is unsurprising that I, among others, are critical of the program’s mission — “to advance student, faculty, and public knowledge of modern Israel” — and its benefit to balanced discourse in light of the surrounding political circumstances. Federal hostility toward humanitarian critics of the U.S.-Israel partnership, the White House’s endorsement of Israeli conquest and the obvious leanings of the program’s biggest backers set a tone that is not conducive to robust questioning of official government narratives. While program affiliates have argued that there is no such chilling effect, their words fall flat in light of the political realities that are hard to ignore. For the Israel Studies Program to be the truly open, rigorous and fair academic endeavor that the Stanford community deserves, we must remember what this great university actually stands for.
University president Jonathan Levin ’94 eloquently characterized Stanford’s academic tradition in calling for “a stronger culture of inquiry” on campus. Such inquiry, as Levin would go on to say at his inauguration, bolsters our academic pursuits “with a sense of openness, possibility and hope that are fundamental to who we are” and motivates us to “wrestle with social and political issues.” Exploring the unknown, debating the taboo and interrogating the conventional are core pillars of the “spirit of openness and possibility” that Stanford prides itself on. That tradition is part of Stanford’s identity as a university. All of its academic endeavors should accordingly go out of their way to follow that tradition, and the Israel Studies Program cannot be an exception.
Contrary to what the branding and associations of the program suggest, honest discussions of Israel’s legal, political and military supremacy over Palestinians is an academic necessity. We ought to follow the example of the American Studies Program, which includes courses that cultivate critical thinking towards America’s racist legal system and the place of gender and sexuality in the nation’s socioeconomic and political power structures. American Studies is a prime example of how the advancement of serious scholarship leaves plenty of room for dissenting approaches. It would be a disservice to the Israel Studies Program’s academic potential if it continued strengthening the conventional line on understanding Israeli society.
To be clear, I welcome the endowment of the program to the extent that it represents a step forward in advancing scholarship and discussion on land that fits into a millennia-spanning story, including but not limited to Jewish religious practice, exile, liberation and genocide — topics critical for all students, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, to understand. At the same time, Stanford’s academic tradition calls for another lens for bold discussion: open inquiry into the challenging, modern-day realities of that story.
By following Stanford’s core academic tradition, the Israel Studies Program can prove to the campus community that it is capable of advancing knowledge of Israel free from the shackles of U.S.-Israel political orthodoxy.
The program should go so far, with a commitment equalling its feature of Israel’s president on its website, as to host public events with Israeli figures who have consistently opposed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and broader Israeli policies. This could include voices against Netanyahu obstructing Palestinian statehood at the cost of propping up the eventual Oct. 7 attackers, or Israel’s death penalty for alleged Palestinian terrorists that excludes Israel’s violent settler-colonists. Such action would elevate bold visions for democracy in the land while highlighting a broader array of opinions from the people living there. It would also be a clear step against the program’s financial and political associations — signalling to the Stanford community that its inquiry tradition can indeed survive while Israeli scholarship flourishes.
Just as I have called for a wholesale defiance of the conventional wisdom surrounding terrorism, free speech and student success, I am calling for a wholesale defiance of the anti-inquiry impression that the Israel Studies Program has given thus far. The U.S. partnership with the State of Israel has, thus far, constituted a free pass for an array of human rights abuses. For the sake of Stanford’s academic tradition and sparking the best engagement possible, the program must prove to us that there is more to Israel than what U.S.-Israel political orthodoxy permits.
The post Strawser | On the Israel Studies Program and fostering a stronger culture of inquiry appeared first on The Stanford Daily.