I am not going to even go into what I think of “Middle East experts” like Robert Satloff, but I do want to highlight that if he thinks anti-Semitism is a major problem in the Arab world, he has no idea what a real problem is. Real problems are when half of your country is illiterate, you’ve been under martial law as long as you remember, state failure is rife, massive unemployment has created a lost generation of people with no prospects, and as far as you can see there is little ground to be hopeful about your country for the foreseeable future. This drivel he is producing may achieve its goal, which is getting the support of American Jews and others for his agenda of supporting and legitimizing ethnic cleansing in Palestine (and you really wonder why Jews have a bad image in the region?), but it certainly won’t help understand anything about the region’s situation.
Puke? This guy is just hilarious! What he says about anti-semitic themes in popular culture has some truth to it, but that’s not what the article is primarily about. It’s the most glorious, shining example of Washington self-promotion and self-importance, he spends half the article talking about his Grand Tour of Egypt and the great reception he got, as if he’s the first person to ever talk about the holocaust here.
Where he really gets into delusional territory is with the nonsense about how Sunni countries want to distance themselves from Shia because of Ahmadinejad’s nuttiness, and this is a development the US should encourage. Now that sort of thinking is just too dangerous to laugh at.
1) You don’t quite seem to be denying the obvious fact that popular media and culture in the Arab world is disgustingly anti-semitic. You just don’t think it ranks as high a problem as illiteracy Fine. But I think the industry promoting hatred of jews is designed to focus people away from the failures of their own states.
2) “Ethnic Cleansing?” Ethnic cleansing is what Arab militias are doing in Baghdad, it’s what Saddam did in the Kurdish provinces during Anflal, it’s what the Arab regime is abetting in Darfur. If the Israelis were Arabs, I suppose they could have done this a long time ago. But they are Jews, so a deluded left accuses them of crimes they excuse and ignore from the Arabs. Disgusting.
1) Yes, obviously there is anti-Semitism in the Arab world. Mostly of the verbal kind, whether oral or written. I doubt however there is an elaborate plot to promote anti-Semitism to “distract” people from their own failures. People can focus on both at the same time, and it’s not only people defending these regimes that are anti-Semites.
2) Read Benny Morris, who acknowledges ethnic cleansing campaigns but endorses for them, or the new Ilan Pappe book, or the new Rashid Khalidi book. And then go over some of the Israeli newspapers, which frequently mention it taking place today (unlike US newspapers). Here’s a few to get you started:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/830764.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/829388.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=830963&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4
Finally, when you’re done with all that, please peruse through this site which I believe will show you that I am no apologist for the many horrors conducted by Arab regimes. And then maybe we can stop using diversionary tactics, start talking about the topic at hand and stop talking about Saddam Hussein’s treatment of the Kurds whenever discussing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
I rescind the remark that you apologize for the barbarism of other Arab regimes. You don’t. However, if the Israelis are ethnic cleansing they are doing a terrible job. This term connotes the going of house to house, and clearing the families one by one. In 2005 as you may have noticed, the Israelis removed settlements from Gaza and withdrew military bases. Linking to stories about rogue settlers siezing nature reserves, or erecting a security fence that has been rerouted after the Israeli supreme court ordered it, cannot be even slightly be compared to say Darfur or Kosovo. So I think it’s a slur, and largely absolves the kind of anti-Semitism, terrorism and martyr economy often justified by those who exagerate Israeli crimes.
I agree with vitamin here. I recall attending the International Book Fair in Cairo 2003 and being amazed that nearly every vendor had a DIFFERENT EDITION of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion for sale. As throughout modern history, anti-Semitism is a symptom of a general social malaise, though complicated of course by the political and national rivalries that characterize the contemporary Middle East, in which we are all clearly caught up.
At the Virgin Megastore today I saw the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on a shelf in the Middle East section – and above it, Raphael Patai’s The Arab Mind. Make of that what you will.
SP,
I must apologize for my inability to comprehend your point. Moral equivalency is a false road here. It shouldn’t require Osama el Baz to denounce the Protocols in Egypt. Changing the subject does not change that fact.
I wasn’t making a particular point, Himyari. It was an observation, and this isn’t a contest for the greatest victimhood. There’s a lot of bigotry going around, and none of it is particularly pleasing or productive.
it’s what the Arab regime is abetting in Darfur.
Ah, the old “Arab” militias canard about Darfur…