Exclusive | LA Review of Books spikes interview with pro-Israel professor Shai Davidai: Double standard

The Los Angeles Review of Books spiked an interview it commissioned with Shai Davidai — the Israel-born professor who called out antisemitism on Columbia University’s campus — with an editor calling the outspoken academic “a toxic figure,” The Post has learned.Senior editor Rob Latham pulled the rug out from under freelancer Melissa Uchiyama after hiring her to interview Davidai ahead of his new book, “American Intellectual Antisemitism: The Anti-Jewish Movement Tearing Through Our Universities,” emails showed.He had a stunning change of heart after reading the 2,000-word piece, telling Uchiyama in an email that Davidai is “a toxic figure who pretends to want respectful exchange.”The prof is a “controversial figure” whose views “need to be probed more rigorously” than a standard interview allows, Latham wrote Uchiyama in emails seen by The Post.Latham “should never have green lit the piece at all,” he added.When Uchiyama offered to rework the article to salvage publication, the LA Review — which recently ran a fawning piece on controversial anti-Israel agitator Mahmoud Khalil – told her, no dice.Latham wrote the dismayed scribe that her “best bet is to try and find a sympathetic venue” and offered her a $100 kill fee, which she declined.“There was simply no way to have a quiet chat with him, and if you had challenged him forcefully, I expect it would’ve gotten ugly very fast,” Latham wrote.Davidai said the spiking of the article looked like bitter proof of the kind of censorship he’s been fighting.“Ironically, part of the book concerns these exact distortions and erasures in the media,” he told The Post.“What’s most shocking is that they’re saying the quiet parts out loud,” he added, blasting “the double standard” at work.“It was clear to me it wasn’t about her not asking the right questions, but about her asking the wrong person.”Davidai’s new book, set for release Oct.6, is a “blistering ind...