Israeli academic Orientalism openly serves military and intelligence institutions

Evidence

Furthermore, while the ties in Euro-American countries between an education in “Orientalism” (now mostly known as Middle Eastern or Islamic studies) and service in government or military institutions remain somewhat covert, in Israel it is a supremely normal and open state of affairs. “Oriental” research institutes publicly announce their political agenda, declaring the fruits of their academic work to be in the service of political ends. An education in Mizrahanut is a powerful ticket for rapid promotion in the army and an essential requirement for joining the Israel Intelligence Agency, the Mossad, the rough equivalent of the CIA. The flow between Mizrahanut and the IDF and intelligence is not unidirectional, to be sure, but largely dialectical. It is not uncommon for an army officer, a general, or a commander to serve, concurrently, as a professor. The militaristic overtness of the enterprise of Israeli academia is such that at times an army general appears in full military attire in the classroom. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 444

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Said’s core claim about knowledge serving power, and to the reader’s interest in how knowledge institutions are harnessed to state projects.
• SHARE: A Mizrahanut education being an essential requirement for Mossad entry is a specific detail for someone following Israeli academia-military ties.