Renting
a Publisher's
Good Name

By Bob Datz

I have read a book on Hamas that I borrowed from the library to learn more about the organization's various facets, and the title is deceptively appealing: "Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad." It's published by Yale University Press "in cooperation with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy."

After a thorough exposure to the tone and tilt of the book, it was clear it uses the cover of an academic approach to gloss over any arguable reason why Palestinians might be moved to give Hamas an electoral majority, muchless years of support despite its violent tendencies. I became curious about this "in cooperation ... message and looked up the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Using the same logic as the book's author, Washington Institute researcher Matthew Levitt, applies to various Islamic organizations, one could conclude that the Institute is a front organization for the Israel lobby in the form of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or at least does its bidding in the academic sphere.

I have broached the question of what this "cooperation" consists of to Yale University Press and I don't expect an answer. I would like to ask the same of the Institute, and as a longtime newsperson I am sure I won't get a straight answer.

I am curious as to whether the publishing industry is essentially being bought off: Whether Yale University Press is being "sponsored" by the Institute to put its nameplate on a very questionable book. The New York Times reviewer, with a balanced opinion of the book by Institute staff researcher Matthew Levitt, put it well:

"He largely ignores Hamas's religious proselytizing. He does little to explain why Hamas became the only political alternative to Fatah. He appears to have conducted very few interviews with Palestinians or even to have examined Palestinian attitudes through opinion polls. This is a book written by an expert in financial counterterrorism, and it depends almost entirely on American and Israeli sources, including Palestinian documents captured by the Israelis. Most damaging of all, Levitt does not discuss (and never even seems to entertain) the premise that Palestinians have a right to resist a 40-year Israeli occupation and partial annexation of their land. Part of Hamas's popularity among Palestinians stems from its commitment to the resistance. The Jewish settlements on the West Bank, the separation barrier the government is constructing, restrictions on movement by Palestinians, the failure of the Israelis to support those in Fatah committed to nonviolence, like President Mahmoud Abbas, do not enter Levitt's analytical universe. Levitt researched and wrote this book while working at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Yale University Press is publishing it in cooperation with that organization. The institute has expert scholars, but is considered friendly to Israel. Similarly, to judge from his acknowledgements and his notes, Levitt depends heavily on analyses from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center of the Center for Special Studies — an Israeli nongovernmental organization created "in memory of the fallen of the Israeli intelligence community" and staffed by its former employees. (When I asked, a spokesman for the center told me that it receives some Israeli government financing.)"

At worst, this may be a new form of vanity press, compatible with planting fake news stories and other spin devices that are currently in vogue. This one affects one of the most esteemed publishing companies.

Basically, what if someone with enough money influences the decision to publish and how to edit (or not) the manuscript? If the book distribution is subsidized, or if Yale paid the author nothing, then its standards of acceptance are skewed. This form of publishing manipulation bears further examination.