The AAUP's Continuing Failure to Recognize Antisemitism

In its investigation of Maura Finkelstein's dismissal by Muhlenberg College, the AAUP has taken it upon itself to determine "whether expressions of opposition to Zionism or the government of Israel can be tantamount to antisemitism." Note the phrasing. It isn't whether Finkelstein's anti-Zionism was in fact tantamount to antisemitism, which would be a legitimate subject of investigation (although ultimately irrelevant to her discipline, in my opinion). Rather, the AAUP asks whether anti-Zionism can be tantamount to antisemitism, as though that is an open question. Would any reasonable person argue the opposite proposition, that anti-Zionism cannot be tantamount to antisemitism?

As if there were any need to establish the connection, the following arrived in my inbox shortly after my recent essay was posted in The Hill:

It boggles my mind how Jews think they should be protected from prejudice when one only has to read the English-language Jewish press and watch rabbis on YouTube to view some of the most virulent hate toward the majority of humanity, because they are NOT Jewish. You can't spew hate, and not expect it to come back to you. All Zionist have to do if they want people NOT to attack them is leave humanity alone, there is enough here for all of us! Humanity is not here to be the slaves of Jews as far too many modern rabbis claim. Zionists have made themselves the enemy of humanity by working behind the scenes to create a super state of Israel for a minimum of five hundred years! (Boldface original.)

It would be great if the AAUP would actually investigate the extent to which anti-Zionism is tantamount to antisemitism, but I don't think they would like what they find.

Finkelstein, as I explained in The Hill, has endorsed shaming Zionist students and not normalizing Zionists "taking up space," presumably in her classes, which she justifies by saying "Judaism is a religion" and "Zionism is a political ideology." But even if her contested distinction is correct, the shaming of Zionist students would still be political discrimination, which is misconduct for a college professor. 

The AAUP letter, of course, says nothing at all about anti-Zionism as political discrimination. Perhaps the actual investigation will do better.

(And before anyone rationalizes the AAUP letter as just poorly drafted, let's say (1) it was written by university professors who presumably know how to write, and (2) the drafting reveals their underlying assumptions, if nothing else.