Two anti-Israel activists are touting an academic survey as proof that Middle East academics overwhelmingly favor boycotting Israel. Given the leftist tilt of academia today, some bias against Israel would not be surprising, but the survey cherry-picked its respondents among the anti-Israel community. The survey questions themselves also reveal an anti-Israel bias. The results are hardly surprising.
The survey was directed by Palestinian-American activist Shibley Telhami, a professor at University of Maryland (ironically, Telhami holds the Anwar Sadat professorship for peace and development), and the reliably anti-Israel Marc Lynch, a political science professor at George Washington University.
The survey was reportedly distributed to 1,584 recipients. LIF has previously reported on the hijacking of Middle East Studies by anti-Israel partisans. Even so, Telhami and Lynch left little to chance in ensuring they had an anti-Israel echo chamber. They distributed the survey only to four groups, all of which have proven to be reliable anti-Israel advocates.