Tag: France

• March 23, 2012

  French anti-Semitism must share the blame for the murders in Toulouse. – Slate Magazine

  French anti-Semitism must share the blame for the murders in Toulouse. – Slate Magazine.

   

  This is an excellent article. But it is not secularism that is at issue, it is simple intolerance and bigotry hiding behind an Enlightenment veil. I saw that same thing among Ba’athist secular anti-religious ‘enlightened’ elites in Damascus. Now we see the hatred they were covering up. Let’s not insult secularism and the Enlightenment, and the beautiful values espoused by Locke, Kant and so many others all the way to Rawls etc,  and instead indict hate and tribal intolerance, a perennial and universal human quality that we all need to struggle with in our souls every day. We can be victorious when we face things for what they are.…

• September 3, 2008

  A Last Chance for Bush to be Relevant to Middle East Diplomacy

  Sami Moubayed, one of the most important Syrian commentators, is proposing a last chance for the White House to come to the table of Syrian/Israeli peacemaking. Sami writes:

  Everybody is worried about progress on the indirect Syrian-Israeli talks, currently underway in Turkey. According to Syria commentator, Joshua Landis, they have either reached a breakthrough, or a dead end.

  Contrary to what some media sources are saying, however, the talks are going well. Already 85 per cent of critical issues had been solved since the 1990s. The talks are going too well in fact and there is worry on both sides that an agreement can be reached within what remains of 2008.

  The radical contrast between Washington’s attitude, and that of Iran, is striking. The Americans still refuse to endorse these talks, writing them off as a hoax by the Syrians to end the US-imposed isolation that started in 2003.

  …