The American Studies Association (ASA) is suddenly grabbing headlines for voting to support an academic boycott of Israel.  Why a boycott?  Because ASA wants to be known as a paragon of human rights and views Israel as a gross violator of same.  ASA believes the worst about Israel's treatment of Palestinians - whether it's actually so or not. But aren't there somewhere on this planet other countries that are far more egregious human-rights violators, including some in close vicinity of Israel?  Well, that may be so, concedes Curtis Marez, ASA's president and associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego, "but one has to start somewhere."  So why start by flogging Israel?  Marez explains that the reason ASA decided to blacken only Israel is that Palestinian groups asked that it join the anti-Israel boycott, but no such request came from any other country. This is what parades as logic and fairness in academe today. ...(Read Full Post)