Finkelstein resigns

The wuss. Chicago Tribune:

The long-running confrontation between embattled professor Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University ended today without the dramatics he had promised.

Instead, he read a statement announcing his resignation this morning on the university's main quadrangle before about 120 supporters announcing that he and DePaul had resolved the controversy. But the terms were kept confidential.

With any luck somebody will leak the settlement.

Finkelstein had vowed to present himself at his office door today and, if denied entrance, to perform an unspecified act of civil disobedience. He vowed to go on a hunder [sic] strike if he were jailed.

Finkelstein read both his statement and DePaul's today. No university official appeared.In its statement, the university wrote: "Professor Finkelstein is a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher."

Prolific. Not "excellent." Not "good," Not "competent." Prolific.

A colorful demonstration for Finkelstein on campus this morning included representatives of the National Lawyers Guild, the Socialist Workers Party, the Revolutionary Communist League and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Colorful clothes, maybe, colorful signs, but we know what socialists are like inside. Think they're happy with this sellout? A cynical soul (and commies are nothing if not cynical) might even wonder if Finkelstein didn't use them to pry a better deal out of DePaul.

(via Marathon Pundit)

Update: Peter "Don't Take The Brown Acid" Kirstein has the full text (amazingly, sans commentary) of Finkelstein and DePaul's joint communique. They agree to disagree. Best Finkelstein line:

DePaul students rose to dazzling spiritual heights in my defense that should be the envy of and an example for every university in the United States.

Dazzling spiritual heights. The man is an utter narcissist. Best DePaul line(s):

Professor Finkelstein has expressed the view that he should have been granted tenure and that third parties external to the University [pssssst, the Joooooos] influenced DePaul in denying tenure. That is not so. Over the past several months, there has been considerable outside interest about the tenure decision. This attention was unwelcome and inappropriate. In the end, however, it had absolutely no impact on either the process or the final outcome.

Unwelcome and inappropriate attention? It's not sexual harassment, ya weirdos.