Countdown

Orientalism 101...

Vol. VIII, No. 5
Posted on Tuesday February 13, 2007

Orientalism 101

If anyone ever wondered why U.S. efforts to broker Middle East peace have come up short, look no further than the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Testifying on "Next Steps in [the] Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process" are the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's David Makovsky, the Brookings Institution's Martin Indyk, and noted anti-Arab, anti-peace demagogue Daniel Pipes. Nobody who is serious about peace would entertain the likes of Pipes. Unfortunately, things off the Hill are not much better.

The usually thoughtful Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently hosted a "conversation" with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman titled "Reaching Arab Audiences." Friedman is an odd choice considering his recent column, "Mideast Rules to Live By", in which he showed utter contempt for Arabs and Arab culture.

Among Friedman's more repugnant "rules": "What people tell you in private in the Middle East is irrelevant. All that matters is what they will defend in public in their own language. Anything said to you in English, in private, doesn’t count…If you can’t explain something to Middle Easterners with a conspiracy theory, then don’t try to explain it at all—they won’t believe it…The Israelis will always win, and the Palestinians will always make sure they never enjoy it. Everything else is just commentary."

CSIS also sponsored a "Congressional Forum on Islam" with Brandeis University professor Yitzhak Nakash.

Wow. There seems to be so much interest in Washington in learning more about Arabs and Islam. It's too bad there aren't any Arabs or Muslims here for people to learn from first-hand…oh, yeah, THERE ARE.

Time's Person of the Year (You) Takes on Edwards…

Countdown reported recently on Senator John Edwards' disappointing speech to the Herzliya conference on January 22, and we weren't the only ones to notice. Edwards' statements ("Iran must know that the world won’t back down…We have muddled along for far too long. To ensure that Iran never gets nuclear weapons, we need to keep ALL options on the table, Let me reiterate – ALL options must remain on the table") surprised some of his supporters and began an important debate on his blog with the first posting coming from a concerned veteran on January 26.

"In his remarks to the Herzliya Conference, Mr. Edwards refrained from any criticism of Israel's policies concerning the Palestinians, and made several remarks that seemed to indicate his support for Israel is unqualified and unlimited.  This is a little disturbing for me, as I'm of the opinion that a more balanced approach is required: one that calls upon Israel to make some serious adjustments in its methods and strategies for dealing with the Palestinian problem.  Don't get me wrong here, I strongly support Israel's right to defend itself, and condemn the terrorists who target innocent civilians, but also believe there are many things Israel could do to lighten the burden on their Palestinian neighbors and improve relations. I'd be most interested to hear a response from Senator Edwards that addresses my concerns."

It did not take the Democratic hopeful long to adjust his tone. Responding to a question from host Tim Russert about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Edwards said, "Now, what would strengthen him? A military strike by America against Iran would strengthen him. They would rally around this guy. On top of that, we would see retaliation. It’d be hard for them to get to us, except through terrorists, but they—we got 100,000-plus American men and women right next door, and there—a lot of us believe that there’s an infrastructure for retaliation if that were to happen. What—what’s much smarter for us to do, certainly now, for the time being—no American president should ever take any option off the table—but what’s smarter for us to do now is to continue to tap into this growing isolation between this radical leader and his own people."

For the Next Two Years, "All Options Will Remain on the Table"...

As the election season continues, there are certain talking points distributed by interest groups which will be constantly recycled and when it comes to Iran, it's becoming clear that no option can be taken off the table.We've already heard this line from Edwards and here's Democratic front-runner Senator Hillary Clinton to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on February 1: "U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal. We cannot, we should not, we must not, permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons. And in dealing with this threat as I have said for a very long time, no option can be taken off the table."

Look for that line in about a hundred more speeches from almost as many candidates.Clinton also promised to sponsor an event in Washington on the topic of Palestinian textbooks, a bewildering choice considering the current state of poverty and unemployment facing Palestinian society and the complete disintegration of a peace process.

California Here We Come…

Kudos to two principled California legislators who have introduced two of the 110^th Congress' more thoughtful pieces of legislation…Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA) and 10 cosponsors introduced H. Res. 143, a resolution "urging the President to appoint a Special Envoy for Middle East Peace," and, specifically, for the United States to support the creation of a lasting peace in Palestine and Israel…Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced plans to reintroduce legislation restricting federal funds for cluster bombs."Every year, hundreds of civilian are killed or maimed when they encountered the remnants of unexploded cluster bombs.From the fields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, through the streets of Kosovo and Iraq, to the arid hills of Afghanistan and the playgrounds of Lebanon, these lethal relics of war continue to endanger the lives and limbs of innocent men, women, and children long after conflict has ended," she said in a statement.