Radical American Professors Line Up to Endorse Iran Deal

A plethora of radical American academics have signed onto a letter drafted by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) encouraging Congress to adopt the nuclear accord with Iran.

NIAC, a lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., which has been accused of engaging in activities on behalf of the theocracy in Tehran, has gathered “73 prominent International Relations and Middle East scholars” to endorse the Iran deal.

“Many of the signers of the letter publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003. History proved them right. Clearly they know a thing or two about international relations, the Middle East and Iran,” said Trita Parsi, the Swedish Iranian founder of the Iranian American group.

But quite a few of the “prominent” professors share radical views pertaining to issues of concern to everyday Americans. This list includes terror group sympathizers, Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers, Iranian regime apologists, Islamist supremacists, anti-Israel conspiracy theorists, overt anti-Semites, and other deplorable characters.

One of the most notable signatories is Noam Chomsky, who rose to fame as an MIT linguistics expert and now considers himself an international relations scholar. Chomsky, whom some believe is an anti-Semite, openly supports Iran-backed terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

Rashid Khalidi also appears on the list of pro-deal signatories. The Columbia University academic is “extremely radical in his views and his opposition to American foreign policy,” Dr. Stanley Kurtz has said in National Review. He has in the past alleged “bizarre (and anti-Semitic) conspiracies” concerning the war in Iraq, American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin has written. Khalidi was also the spokesman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) when it was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, according to reporting by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times.

Also on the list are Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, co-authors of The Israel Lobby, a book that racked up a 44-page rebuttal by famed Harvard law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who detailed its dozens of inaccuracies. In The Israel Lobby, Walt and Mearsheimer seek to establish that the America-Israel relationship is responsible for the wars in the Middle East and jihadi terrorism. Walt has even faulted Israel for the 9/11 attacks, saying that U.S. policy towards the Jewish state created an environment where people are “flying planes into buildings.” Scholar Walter Russell Mead has described the work as one that “calls up some of the ugliest stereotypes in anti-Semitic discourse.” Since its 2008 publication, the two academics have refused to account for their faulty scholarship or debate the book’s merits in public. Both Walt and Mearsheimer are now regulars on the speaking circuits of anti-Israel organizations and alleged Muslim Brotherhood front groups.

Trita Parsi, the director of NIAC, is also a signatory on the list of pro-deal “scholars.” Parsi made headlines last week when he alleged there was an Israeli conspiracy behind a report that presented the text of the “side deal” between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Additionally, several prominent Iranian dissidents have complained that Parsi’s agenda parallels that of the theocracy in Tehran.

Paul Pillar, who disgraced his career in the CIA by openly speaking out against a sitting president while serving under his command, also signed onto the NIAC list. Pillar endorses the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel, which seeks to isolate Israel from the world. In May, Pillar, along with Parsi, suggested that Israel may start an aggressive war against Lebanese terror group Hezbollah to thwart the nuclear agreement.

Professor John Esposito, another signatory, is often engaged with entities that have close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Like Pillar, he has openly embraced a comprehensive boycott of Israel. Dr. Esposito heads the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, which came to fruition thanks to a $20 million dollar donation from a Saudi prince, who then helped install Esposito as the center’s chair. Esposito serves on the board of several groups tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Another backer of the deal, professor Juan Cole, was described by former Time magazine writer and pro-Israel advocate Jonathan Calt Harris as “blindly anti-Israel to the point of being an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, an apologist for radical Islam, and someone who despises American public opinion.” Cole also supports the BDS campaign against Israel, and blames the faults of American foreign policy on the warmongering “Likudniks inside the U.S. government.”

Hamid Dabashi, another sponsor of the  letter, is an Iranian-American professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University. A passionate advocate for Palestine and against Israel, he once cancelled a class so he could participate in a pro-Palestinian rally. Another endorser of boycotts against Israel, he has written for anti-Semitic hate sites, including Electronic Intifada and Counterpunch.

The “scholars,” for the most part, reside in the ivory towers of academia as self-proclaimed experts of geopolitics. However, as proven in their aforementioned remarks, some share commonality with views that remain on the extreme fringes of the American political spectrum, and more closely represent the opinions espoused in tyrannical nations, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran.