They’ll try anything: Indoctrinating US children against Israel

by Phyllis Chesler

Golbarg Bashi is in the news for her children’s book “P is for Palestine,” which has been described an anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish screed addressed to children.

Believe it or not, Bashi and I go way back.

In August of 2013, a publicist was arranging interviews for me to discuss the issues raised in my just released book, “An American Bride in Kabul.”  CSPAN had tendered a special offer just for me.

“They want to give you a full hour, one on one, with an interviewer. You should grab this.”

“Who is the interviewer?” I asked.

“Golbarg Bashi.”

I had no idea who she was. And so I said:

“Ok, give me five minutes and I’ll get back to you.”

Within five minutes I had determined that Golbarg Bashi was an Iranian, married to Hamid Dabashi, another Iranian, and the professor who had stepped into Edward Said’s shoes at Columbia. Bashi was a professor at Rutgers, the very institution that has succored the likes of Puar Jabari whose book of Big Lies against Israel has just been published by Duke University Press 

Bashi herself was a protégée of American born “Palestinian” Lila Abu-Lughod, whose American-born mother and British Mandatory born father both enjoyed long academic careers in America, not in “Palestine.” 

Bashi’s mentors, both Gayatri Spivack, a leading feminist postmodernist and Lila Abu-Lughod, specialized in shaming white Western feminists into believing that their interest in “saving brown women from brown men” was imperial overreach. 

Both Bashi and Spivack are anti-Israel, pro-Palestine, and pro-Palestinian Jihad against Jewish Israel.

I had no idea who Bashi knew at CSPAN (or who at CSPAN had singled Bashi out) just so she might grill me on my view that anti-Zionism=anti-Semitism. I suspected that Bashi would use my book on another subject entirely as a way to challenge and shame my Zionism. I called my publicist back.

“Tell CSPAN that if they want an Iranian to interview me, why not try Azar Nafisi or an Iranian who will talk Ideas, not Ideology with me.”

CSPAN declined. Time moved on. Soon enough, CSPAN covered a lecture I delivered in a lovely bookstore in Coral Gables, Florida which they repeated on air four times.

And now, Bashi has managed to shut down an entire upper East Side Mommas FB group.

Bashi, a group member, used that membership to promote her book for children (!) a book that does not recognize the state of Israel. In blog posts, Bashi has reportedly written that “Israel is a racial and religious apartheid state.” The group’s of mothers exploded and FB has now locked them down for the time being.

According to one Mommy blogger: “I went through the book and it basically promotes hate towards those living in Israel, Jews and Christian Arabs.”

In Bashi’s book, “I is for Intifada.” The illustrations shows a father and child standing behind barbed wire and flashing Arafat-style peace signs.

This odd little occurrence confirms that pro-Palestine ideologues have infiltrated universities, the media, and Mommy blogs; that they may be found in the interstices of the American media; that they are in a position to indoctrinate young children and university-age students as well.

I now understand that Golbarg lives in my neighborhood.

Golbarg: Can you hear me? Are you listening? I am ready to debate you on the issues any time.

First published in Israel National News.