The Mother of All Internet Smack-Downs

This may be a bit inside baseball-ish, but those who follow Middle Eastern studies have long been buying popcorn and watching the latest Martin Kramer-Juan Cole dust-up. Martin Kramer, author of Ivory Towers on Sand has been contending that US Middle Eastern studies has been so corrupted by naked partisanship (mostly pro-Palestinian and anti-US and Israel) and the Orientalism thesis of Edward Said that it is essentially useless in understanding the contemporary Middle East. Juan Cole, former head of the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) , the academic mainstream, has countercharged that in effect Martin Kramer's just a Zionist neo-con drawing water for Ariel Sharon.

Well, when Juan Cole called on the leftist blog Daily Kos to ask people to do "oppo research" on Martin Kramer (scroll down to the PS) he was ready. He posted his own secret report on the insidious neo-con Kramer, complete with some hilarious links. For connoisseurs of academic combat this must not be missed.

Originally posted at Here We Stand