Maxwell's
Silver Hammer:
Syracuse University Enlists
In The Global War On Terror
By Linda Ford &
Ira Glunts
03 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Imagine
my surprise as I leafed through what is usually a fairly bland magazine
that, as an alumna (PhD. History ’84) , I periodically receive
from the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship, to find
that therein is a new ideal of citizenship. My alma mater now informs
me that to be a citizen of the Maxwell School is to support continual
and all-out war against a vaguely defined “terrorist” enemy,
to condone lethal collateral damage to civilians, and to team up with
Israeli military institutions in order to learn the methods that they
have found “successful” against the Palestinians, a people
they have occupied and suppressed for over 40 years.
Shouldn’t an institution
of higher learning stand for peace, diplomacy and understanding among
all nations? Why does my alma mater’s magazine feature photos
of men masked, armed, and in full combat gear? Paul McCartney said his
song “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” involved a story of
how bad things get much worse, and how senseless killing leads to more
senseless killing. Definitely not the ideal of the humanities.
What we may have here is
an indication of a very alarming trend. That trend is the continuing
and accelerating militarization of American society. It seems that Maxwell
has been militarized now—in an excess of patriotic fervor? Fear
of unknown assailants? Or desire for federal or patriotic alumni money?
Is the almighty dollar reigning supreme in academe, so that even though
a program is abhorrent to someone schooled in peace and the humanities,
if it brings money to the university, it is perfectly fine?
My husband and I met in Israel
while doing volunteer teaching there in 1972-73. Having just been influenced
by the peace movement of the 60s, it was always a bit uncomfortable
for me there with soldiers everywhere and tanks on the birthday cards.
I’ve taught and written history for years, and my husband has
frequently written about the Middle East on the Internet, so we decided
to try to find out more about what was behind this new unsettling Maxwell
program of law and policy. What we found disturbed us.
In 2003 Syracuse University
created an interdisciplinary program of the College of Law, which the
Maxwell School joined in 2004, called the Institute
for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) [1].
According to the Maxwell Perspective article mentioned above, “The
Old Rules No Longer Apply” by freelance writer Renee
Gearhart Levy [2], the program’s purpose is to “tackle”
questions of law and policy having to do with security and counterterrorism.
In 2005 INSCT formed a partnership
with the International Policy
Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) [3] of Herzliya,
Israel – a program of higher education and think tank concerned
with global terrorism and homeland security. The partnership purportedly
will help both institutions promote the vision of a generational US-led
war against Islamic terrorism (referred to as the “Long War”
by Washington insiders) which has been the core of the Bush administration’s
foreign policy. Officials from both INSCT and ICT have expressed great
enthusiasm about their joint venture. Maxwell Dean Mitchel B. Wallerstein,
former deputy assistant secretary of defense, calls it an “exciting
collaborative relationship.” [4] It is not, in our opinion, at
all clear that this effort is compatible with the greater educational
and humanistic mission of a leading American university.
The ICT, part of the broader
Interdisciplinary Institute (IDC), is one of the most influential Israeli
security institutes, one which has extremely close connections to the
Israeli government and military. The chairman of the board of directors
of ICT is Shabtai Shavit, who is a former head of the Mossad (the Israel
intelligence agency). The American zillionaire Ronald Lauder is one
of the main benefactors of the IDC, in fact the ICT is part of the Lauder
School of Government. Lauder is a powerful member of the pro-Israel
lobby. The ICT also contains a commercial security consulting business
called Counter Terrorism Solutions
Ltd. (CST). [5] Naomi Klein recently wrote in The Nation,
[on July 2, 2007] that Israel has turned the Long War into a “brand
asset, pitching its uprooting and occupation of the Palestinian people
as a half century head start in the ‘global war on terror.’”
The institute also operates an office in Washington which lobbies Congress
and other US government officials on behalf of Israel. [6]
The Israeli partnership makes
sense to Syracuse law professor William Banks, the founder and director
of Maxwell’s INSCT because, as he is quoted in the Perspective
article, “[m]ost of the world has learned about terrorism from
the experiences of the Israelis. . . . It’s a laboratory that
can’t be beat anywhere in the world for learning first-hand from
those who’ve experienced terrorism how to counter it.” It
cannot be denied that Israel has first hand experience with terrorism,
but its responses have not always been effective—to say nothing
of legal, ethical or humane. For example, American armed forces in Iraq
are presently emulating Israeli tactics in performing house-to-house
searches in densely populated urban areas for the purpose of arresting
terrorists and confiscating weapons. These operations routinely violate
the rights of many innocent civilians, while producing few weapons or
legitimate arrests. As in Israel, the searches also have the very deleterious
effect of creating future enemies and terrorists.
What else might Maxwell students
and faculty be imbibing from the partnership? The program in Herzliya
(according to the Maxwell School’s web site) offers courses providing
in-depth understanding of modern terrorism, gleaned by Israelis because
“[c]ircumstances have forced Israel to develop counterterrorism
techniques.” There are specific courses on strategy, psychology,
patterns, hostage-taking –and—“Handling Terrorists
in Correctional Systems and Prisons,” which of course includes
“balancing public security issues and human rights.” Along
with tactical expertise, the Israelis bring with them a political outlook
and worldview that has been forged by years of war and bitter conflict
with their Arab neighbors, as well as the experience of defending a
40-year-old occupation. It has become an article of faith within the
Bush administration that US and Israeli interests merged after the 9/11
attacks. Yet as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt point out in their
recent London Review of Books article, “The Israel Lobby,”
American and Israeli interests are greatly divergent, and any policy
based on the commonality of goals between the two could be harmful to
the US. It is doubtful that officials of an Israeli institute who have
close ties to their government’s military and political establishments
will have a beneficial effect upon the workings of an American institute
like Syracuse University, which has hopes of influencing US government
policy through sober and unbiased recommendations.
It certainly does not seem
all that sober, just, or even sane to try to change the rules of war
and international law in order for powerful countries like the US and
Israel to be able to occupy and subjugate Arab peoples with no accountability
on their part. One of the major undertakings of the INSCT is coming
out with recommendations for rewriting the laws of war. In the Maxwell
article, Professor Banks claims that the “rules of war no longer
apply.” He states that in order to currently fight terrorists
it is necessary “to respond in ways that inflict heavy civilian
casualties.” In one of the video-conferences sponsored by INSCT,
the example of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon last summer
was employed as an illustration of the outmoded notion of civilian casualties
being against international law. Although ICT faculty and students may
believe that criticism against Israel for not reacting “proportionately”
in killing so many civilians is not justified, the rest of the international
community was vociferous in its condemnation of the Israeli attacks.
Dean Wallerstein, in his
“message” in the Spring ’07 Perspective, says the
Israelis were left with “little alternative than to attack these
villages, both from the air and on the ground.” Obviously, the
pesky Hague Rules are not “adequate” to deal with the asymmetry
of a “strong national government” and a “well armed
non-state actor.” Asymmetrical indeed. The ICT’s Boaz Ganor,
a prominent member of the ICT/Syracuse partnership, wants an entire
rewriting of international law so that states
aren’t “limited by international norms” protecting
civilians. [7] And how about other gems of applying Israeli-style
justice: targeted assassinations, using soldiers illegally dressed as
Arabs to infiltrate Palestinian villages, long-term imprisonments without
cause/trial…? The ICT and INSCT have established teams to collaborate
on providing recommendations for reshaping the laws of war which they
will present at a conference in Washington this October.
Big money certainly seems
to be in the arena of counterterrorism and “security.” The
Israeli/Syracuse University partnership is the brainchild of alum Gerry
Cramer, former owner of a highly successful financial services firm,
and a major donor and trustee of the university. He funds numerous student
fellowship and faculty chairs. Mr. Cramer brings the silver to Maxwell’s
hammer. Cramer, whose wife is Israeli, lives part of the year in Israel,
and is also a major contributor to the Interdisciplinary Center, of
which ICT is part. IDC has had a strong American connection for years,
as with the aforementioned Robert Lauder, the wealthy American donor
to right-wing Israeli causes. The IDC is also the home of the Herzliya
Conference, which is a major event in the Israeli political year attended
by top Israeli politicians, including prime ministers. The conference
has hosted many speakers who are considered part of the powerful American
Israeli lobby such as Richard Perle, Alan Dershowitz and Abraham Foxman.
It is not unusual for high level American politicians—such as
John McCain and John Edwards —to speak at the conference, always
professing their unwavering support for all things Israeli.
Apparently, Syracuse is not
alone in creating counterterrorism and counterinsurgency majors. The
global security and counterterrorism field has become a growth industry
in higher education. Two other education-minded groups founded after
9/11 with a strong Israeli component, are the Institute for Global Security
Law and Policy and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
The Institute
for Global Security Law and Policy [8] is part of Case
Western University’s School of Law. Its director is Amos Guiora,
who is an Israeli/American. Professor Guiora, who grew up in the US
and holds a law degree from Case Western, spent 18 years in the Israeli
Defense Forces where he was involved with national security and counterterrorism.
He recently claimed, as
quoted in the Cleveland Jewish News, [9] that Israel is
fighting a 100-year war with the Islamic world and that it is a proxy
for the West in that war. As noted on its webpage, Case law students
are presently assisting the Defense Department analyze legal issues
relating to possible
prosecution of detainees at Guantanomo Bay, Cuba. [10]
Like Syracuse’s Banks, Professor Guiora and his assistant director
Gregory S. McNeal, are researching issues of applicability of current
international law to the “war on terrorism” with the aim
of rewriting some of the current rules. The Institute for Global Security
Law and Policy will participate in the October conference in Washington
sponsored by Syracuse University’s INSCT and Herzliya’s
ICT.
Another scary institution
is the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a powerful think
tank with a very strong pro-Israel neo-conservative character. Its board
of advisors include such conservative luminaries as William Kristol,
Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney and Charles Krauthammer. Influencing how
security and counterterrorism is taught in American universities and
colleges is a top priority. FDD
offers fellowships which include one and two week educational programs
in Israel on fighting terrorism for students and faculty.
[11] The activities include visits to Israeli military bases and briefings
with Israeli security experts and government officials. One of the student
programs included a paint-ball
war exercise against an elite army unit! [12] In addition
to these fellowships, FDD runs summer seminars for college faculty who
teach or plan to teach college courses on global security. The professors
are provided with “the tools they need to teach about the threat
of terrorism and the methods used to combat it.”
What should Syracuse University’s
relationship be to government agencies and think tanks and foreign institutes
who promote a particular neo-colonial, imperialist, “above-the-law”
mindset--? None.
Linda Ford
is an historian of US and women’s history. She most recently taught
at Colgate University and is the author of Iron-Jawed Angels: Suffrage
Militancy of the National Women’s Party.
Ira Glunts first
visited the Middle East in 1972, where he taught English and physical
education in a small rural community in Israel. He has worked as a technical
services and reference librarian.
They currently own Half Moon Books a used and rare bookstore in Madison,
NY.
References
1. Institute for National
Security & Counterterrorism (INSCT) web site, http://insct.syr.edu/
2. Renée Gearhart
Levy, “The Old Rules No Longer Apply,” Maxwell Perspective,
Spring 2007, http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/
perspective/Spr07_herz.asp/
3. International Policy Institute
for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) web site, http://www.ict.org.il/
4. Wallerstein , Mitchel
B, “Our Unofficial Motto: Dean’s Message,” Maxwell
Perspective, v. 17 no. 2, Spring 2007, inside cover.
5. Counter-Terrorism Solution
Ltd. web site, http://ctsltd.org/.
6. “The International
Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the [Interdisciplinary] Opens
A New Office in Washington,” in Hebrew, from the Interdisciplinary
Centers web site, http://www.ict.org.il/index.php?sid=119<=
en&act=page&id=12130&str=syracuse%20university
7. Rettig, Haviv, “Israeli,
US Intellectuals Chart New Rules of War For Insurgencies,” Jerusalem
Post, April 26, 2007, from the ICT web site,
http://www.ict.org.il/index.php?sid=119<=en&act=
page&id=12130&str=syracuse%20university
8. Institute For Global Security
Law and Policy web site, http://lawwww.case.edu/centers/igslp/
9. Karfeld, Marilyn H., “Patience,
Realism Urged in ‘New Hundred-Year War,’” Cleveland
Jewish News.com, no date,
http://clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/
2006/08/11/news/local/bcover0811.txt
10. DoD [Department of Defense]
Relationship, http://lawwww.case.edu/centers/igslp/content.asp?id=6/
11. Foundation for the Defense
of Democracies, “Programs,” http://www.defenddemocracy.org/programs/programs.htm
12. Baclayon, Jovie, “Defending
Democracy…,”
http://www.pepperdine.edu/pr/stories/mills.htm
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