Month: January 2009

• January 10, 2009

  Blaming the Arab World Is Inappropriate Right Now

  Joel Suarez found fault with my previous posting on Shahids and Hayals, in that I come down hard on the rage in the Arab world at this time. Over the weekend I got many more reports of the atrocities occurring in Gaza at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces, and the fact that the Arab world, unlike Israel and the United States, sees the direct evidence of this regularly on their television screens. It occurred to me that Joel’s critique was a good one, even though I may disagree with some facts. I will regularly post guest writers and I think this piece has good merit. Joel is a graduate student at Columbia University and writes at joelsuarez.com .

  Joel Suarez writes:

  Dear Marc,

  I recently read your post on hatred in demonstrations. I’d have to agree that it is extremely disappointing to see bigotry injected into protests …

• January 9, 2009

  In the Land of Hayal’s and Shahids

  Writing from Jerusalem

  No one knows whether the Middle East is at the dawn of a new era with the accession of President Obama to leadership, whether between Obama, the new Saudi king’s very serious Peace Proposal, and President Assad’s keen interest in a peace process, that we are at the dawn of a strong consensus to finally resolve the central conflict of the region, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. We could also be at the beginning of a downward spiral of hatred, revenge, populist rage, military force, fanatical manipulation, and zero sum desperate final measures of power and destruction that will yield unprecedented human misery in the region. I cannot tell, honestly.

  But I do know that we are all responsible for this. We are responsible in everything we say and do, and in every action that we support. The nonsense that corrupt

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• January 4, 2009

  Friendship in a Mad World: The Art of the Possible in an Impossible Region

  This report in from Sami Moubayed in Damascus. Moubayed speaks with great authority for the official mood in Syria. This cancellation of negotiations by Syria has sent shock waves in an Israeli establishment that thought the talks with Syria were going well. My shock is at their shock:

  According to veteran British journalist and Syria expert Patrick Seale Israel’s ‘savage war’ brings home a number of truths:

  1) Syria’s fate is tied to the Palestinians. It cannot distance itself from the Palestine cause, whatever incentives Israel might in future be inclined to offer it.

  2) Only a comprehensive accord can bring peace to the Middle East – but of this there is at present no sign.

  3) Third, by its violence and its brutal indifference to human life, Israel has demonstrated yet again that it is not ready for peace. Its primal urge remains to expand and to dominate, as

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