What does a powerful and unaccountable university do when the outcry of bias directed against it becomes so loud that it must respond? But, of course, it creates a committee or department designed to create a semblance of evenhandedness.
And who does it choose to preside over such entities? Well, more biased honchos. Thus, the New York Sun reports, officials at a Columbia University department established in 2005 to counter an anti-Israel slant in Middle Eastern scholarship on campus have named as its director a professor who, one, signed a letter labeling Israeli policy “the occupation and oppression of another people” and, two, backed a statement in support of Israelis who refused to serve in military operations in Gaza and the West Bank during a violent uprising by Palestinian Arabs.
Don’t look for Israel to get a fair shake in this “balanced” environment.