PEN-L
mailing list archive
[ Other Periods  | Other mailing lists  | Search  ]
Date:  [ Previous  | Next  ]      Thread:  [ Previous  | Next  ]      Index:  [ Author  | Date  | Thread  ]

Zionism on the couch - Beirut edition

A Beirut blogger's entry, as forwarded by Juan Cole:
http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/no-more-infrastructure-to-destroy.html
.

These "siege notes" have been receiving a number of reponses from
Israelis. I have to say that most are of the annoying sort. First,
they always begin by noting that I am intelligent and I get commended
for my intelligence like Colin Powell gets commended for his English
language speaking skills and you wonder what those making these
observations expect from you and the world in the first place. Second,
they systematically mistake expression of dissent and critique of Arab
regimes and official discourse as some sort of favorable disposition
towards Israel. In other words there is, falsely, a tautology between
regarding Israel as an enemy country and endorsing radical ideologies
of Islamic fundamentalism or rabid nationalism. As if being a
democrat, an egalitarian and a feminist implied that one could not
have even more profound grounds for being critical of Israel and
regarding that country as an enemy country that has sponsored and
produced nothing but war, violence, wretched- ness, misery, banditry
and usurpation. And they [Israelis] are so heartened by my ambivalence
towards this war they recommend that more conversations should take
place between Israelis and myself. Of course, most propose that I make
the effort to seek those Israeli interlocutors out. This extreme form
of Habermas-mania, that assumes that deep conflicts can be "talked
through", is the sumum of hubris.

.
Furthermore, about that 'life/value' ratio:

The experience of the peace process is telling: it is clear that
Israelis cannot cannot cannot accept Palestinians as human beings
whose humanity is of equal value as their own. This is the bottom
line. And until that bottom line is changed, there is nothing that a
member of a society that builds walls around itself to shut itself off
from the world and shut the world from itself can tell me. Punto final.

One of my impromptu (Israeli) commentators, warned of my candor,
despaired at my position vis-a-vis Israel, and took generous time and
space to explain to me that Hezbollah must be crushed because if they
were to win, they would destroy Israel and me, because of my values
and lifestyle. This view, along with other views salient in western
media (particularly American) of Hezbollah betrays ignorance. It is
fatal ignorance. The most gross miscalculation Israeli strategists are
making is based on the assumption that Hezbollah is a) not a
legitimate political entity in this country, b) its base is made up of
extremists and c) its "elimination" would leave the Lebanese construct
unscathed. In point of fact, pushing the Lebanese population to "rise
up" against Hezbollah, or the scenario of a Lebanese implosion, is the
worst case scenario for all regional "parties",

.
*I want to point out and emphasize:*
"...for all _/* regional  */_"parties","


Leigh
http://leighm.net/

[ Other Periods  | Other mailing lists  | Search  ]