Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion
Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute
Cole on Democracy Now
Streaming video of my appearance on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" today, as well as a transcript, is now available. Thanks to Amy for provocative and highly informed questions! What would we do without her? Send money.
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/25/2006 10:31:00 AM
|Tip Jar for IC
|Cole @ Macmillan Speakers|
|Global Affairs Blog|
 Facebook |
| |  |
|---|
| | |  |
|---|
Muslim Denunciations of al-Qaeda and Terrorism
Suggested Books about the Middle East
Michigan War Studies Review. Many excellent resources.
Individual items can be linked to through the permalink in the time of posting at the end.
Write your political representatives via Congress.org.
ARCHIVES
The feed address is http://www.juancole.com/ rss.xml
Awards
Winner, October 5, 2007, Scott Nearing Award for Courageous Scholarship (Awarded by the Graduate Students of the Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania).
Winner, 2005 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, Hunter College.
Winner, 2004 Koufax Award for Best Expert Blog
Winner, 2004 Koufax Award for Best
Posting
5 Comments:
, coma?
Just a poetic thought about all those dead Iraqis and American GIs whom history will someday regard as merely commas:
Killed for a comma
Midway through his sentence
Some orders from a cipher
Put a period to the essay of his life.
The transcript discusses how Ahmadinejad is obsessed with Israel.
The West really is going to have to deal with this issue rather than call mainstream thought in the middle east "anti-semitic" "extreme" or now "obsessed".
First on the issue of breaking up Iraq, and Nasrallah's claims that that was the model outcome for Lebanon that Israel hoped to bring about in this war, common sense says that Israel prefers divided regional rivals to unified ones. France preferred Italy divided. Austria preferred Germany divided. British policy from before its rise to empire until today is to ensure that the continent remains divided and that there is no one dominant power there. Israel wants the same thing. To acknowledge that is not anti-semitic or obsessed. Even if there were no Israeli policy makers who had said so publicly, which there are, it is just common sense.
Most people in the Middle East oppose Zionism as a political ideal. The West, if it believes it is right (and that is actually doubtful) should engage the Middle East in debate. Tony Blair believes there is a war of ideas. He should say that the reason there has not been an injustice done to the Palestinians in the creation of Israel is ... The reason any injustice should not be corrected by allowing a Palestinian majority to be restored is ... The reason it is not acceptable for the Palestinian refugees to be put into a position to vote down Israel as a political state is ...
Instead of a political debate, the West cries "you're antisemitic" "you're obsessed". What happened to "I can demonstrate that you're wrong on the issue"?
The West chooses to starve Palestinians who vote for Hamas. Two thirds still do not believe they should permanently accept Israel.
The vast majority of Palestinians, are extreme by this definition, which kind of stands the concept of "extreme" on its head. They are not "moderate" like the tiny minority, including dictators, that wants to cooperate with Israel in the West.
The choice is to either permanently impose puppet dictatorships on most of the "obsessed" "anti-semitic" people of the Middle East, or coming to a reasoned accommodation, accepting that the people of the Middle East just might be right.
It is impossible to see how any state that is not already a pro-US/pro-Zionist dictatorship could plausibly become one. So that option is out. That includes Iraq, which is and will be just as anti-Zionist as Lebanon, Syria or Iran. You may be able to overthrow Syria and get, guess what, another anti-Zionist state. Less plausibly you can overthrow Iran and get, another anti-Zionist state.
So the United States, which is thousands of miles away but gives Israel more foreign aid than the entire much poorer continent of Africa - while half of aid to Africa is in the form of a bribe to Egypt to keep peace with Israel - can sit back and call Middle Easterners "obsessed" but eventually this is an issue that has to be dealt with on a more mature level than name calling.
And like a withdrawal from Iraq, putting off the day when it happens makes the situation worse, not better.
Dear Juan,
I saw the show with you yesterday. Nicely done. Would that shows like that got the distribution they deserve.
Speaking of which, Keith Olbermann's MSNBC Countdown editorial on Clinton's takedown of Chris Wallace made my jaw drop three or four times. It's almost surreal seeing and hearing someone speak the truth about Bush in a corporate media program. Even after watching it twice, it's hard to believe it really happened. I can't believe my own eyes and ears anymore. That's how bad the disinformation has gotten. Did you see it?
Mark Anderson
It's really unfortunate that Cheney/Bush won't become a footnote because their policies will go on killing for generations. Buchanan was bad, Hoover was bad, Grant was bad, and there's a reason we rate them that way: Their ineptness at facing the crises of their times made the future grim for millions. It is this legacy I see for the US and World. No future administration, no matter how well led, will be able to undo the gross crimes of Cheney/Bush.
Post a Comment
<< Home