Monday, June 24, 2013
Ralph Peters and John Bolton on the Snowden Affair.
US vs. China, Russia over Snowden extradition. Video with Ralph Peters and John Bolton. America Live with Megyn Kelly. Fox News, June 24, 2013.
True Blue. By Eileen Drenick.
True Blue. By Eileen Drenick. New York Times Magazine, October 7, 1990.
Egypt Tightens Gaza Blockade, World Yawns. By Walter Russell Mead.
Egypt Tightens Gaza Blockade, World Yawns. By Walter Russell Mead. Via Meadia, June 24, 2013.
Egypt steps up Gaza tunnel crackdown, dismaying Palestinians. By Nidal al-Mughrabi. Reuters, June 24, 2013.
Mead:
In a move that would have the world awash in rage and grief had Israel done it, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has tightened the screws on his country’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Predictably, since it’s the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt and not Israel treating the Palestinians so pitilessly, nobody seems to care. Reuters reports:
Egypt steps up Gaza tunnel crackdown, dismaying Palestinians. By Nidal al-Mughrabi. Reuters, June 24, 2013.
Mead:
In a move that would have the world awash in rage and grief had Israel done it, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has tightened the screws on his country’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Predictably, since it’s the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt and not Israel treating the Palestinians so pitilessly, nobody seems to care. Reuters reports:
Egypt has intensified a crackdown on smuggling tunnels between its volatile Sinai desert and the Gaza Strip, causing a steep hike in petrol and cement prices in the Palestinian territory. […]
The moves against the tunnels have dashed the hopes of many Palestinians that Mursi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Hamas was born, would significantly ease Egyptian border restrictions on Gaza, which is also subjected to blockade by Israel.
“Business is clinically dead,” said Abu Bassam, who employs 40 workers in a Palestinian tunnel network in Rafah, a town on the border. “Tunnels are almost shut down completely.”
This
isn’t insignificant. Gaza’s problems stem much more from harsh treatment of
Palestinians by Egyptians than by anything Israel does or does not do. Without
an Egyptian blockade of Gaza, the Israeli blockade would be derisory. This has
been true for many years, though one could scan the world’s press in vain for
any recognition of this elementary geographical fact.
A suspicious person might be led to believe that this is yet another sign that Jew-hatred, rather than compassion for Palestinian suffering, motivates a lot of the Israel Outrage Industry.
Thankfully, not that many people are suspicious. We live in a thoughtful, beautiful world, where the motives of those who hate Israel are always clean and pure.
A suspicious person might be led to believe that this is yet another sign that Jew-hatred, rather than compassion for Palestinian suffering, motivates a lot of the Israel Outrage Industry.
Thankfully, not that many people are suspicious. We live in a thoughtful, beautiful world, where the motives of those who hate Israel are always clean and pure.
Capitalism, Democracy, and Elections. By Richard D. Wolff.
Capitalism, Democracy, and Elections. By Richard D. Wolff. MR Zine, June 21, 2013.
Another Marxist diatribe against capitalism and calling for its replacement . . . with what?
Another Marxist diatribe against capitalism and calling for its replacement . . . with what?
Syria Scorecard. By Thomas L. Friedman.
Syria Scorecard. By Thomas L. Friedman. New York Times, June 22, 2013.
The Disestablishment of Marriage. By Stephanie Coontz.
The Disestablishment of Marriage. By Stephanie Coontz. New York Times, June 22, 2013.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Peter Gabriel: Blood of Eden.
Peter Gabriel: Blood of Eden (Official Video feat. Sinéad O’Connor).
Peter Gabriel, August 29, 2013. YouTube. From the album Us. Geffen Records, 1992. Also here.
Peter Gabriel: Blood of Eden (Secret World Live Tour 1994, with Paula Cole). Video. Peter Gabriel, September 2, 2013. YouTube. Also here,
Peter Gabriel: Blood of Eden (Secret World Live Tour 1994, with Paula Cole). Video. Peter Gabriel, September 2, 2013. YouTube. Also here,
The Great Disconnect. By Ross Douthat.
The Great Disconnect. By Ross Douthat. New York Times, June 22, 2013.
Genesis: The Way We Walk Tour Live 1992
Genesis: The Way We Walk Tour Live 1992. Video. RockerRollin84, August 21, 2013. YouTube. Also here.
You Say You Want a Revolution? By Christopher Dickey.
You Say You Want a Revolution? By Christopher Dickey. The Daily Beast, June 23, 2013.
Protests and riots are spreading around the world. Where do they come from, and what do they signify?
The Revolt of the Global Middle Class. By David Rhode. The Atlantic, June 23, 2013.
Protests and riots are spreading around the world. Where do they come from, and what do they signify?
The Revolt of the Global Middle Class. By David Rhode. The Atlantic, June 23, 2013.
Why No City Can Afford to Forget About Seniors. By Richard Florida.
Why No City Can Afford to Forget About Seniors. By Richard Florida. The Atlantic, June 6, 2013.
Richard Florida: Seniors Want Vibrant, Livable Cities Too. By Katie Pearce. DC. Streets Blog, June 7, 2013.
Richard Florida Concedes the Limits of the Creative Class. By Joel Kotkin. NJBR, March 21, 2013. With response from Richard Florida.
Richard Florida website.
Generations: A Conversation with Richard Florida. Video. The Atlantic, June 6, 2013.
Richard Florida: Seniors Want Vibrant, Livable Cities Too. By Katie Pearce. DC. Streets Blog, June 7, 2013.
Richard Florida Concedes the Limits of the Creative Class. By Joel Kotkin. NJBR, March 21, 2013. With response from Richard Florida.
Richard Florida website.
Generations: A Conversation with Richard Florida. Video. The Atlantic, June 6, 2013.
Is It Possible That Democracy is Dying? By Max Hastings.
Tyrannies across the world are crushing dissent. In Britain contempt for the political class is growing. Is it possible that democracy is dying? By Max Hastings. Daily Mail, June 21, 2013.
When the democratic process isn’t enough. By Rami G. Khouri. The Daily Star (Lebanon), June 26, 2013.
Hastings:
Few modern prophets prove themselves wise enough to invite comparison with Moses, but Francis Fukuyama made more of an ass of himself than most.
Twenty years ago, the American academic wrote a book entitled The End of History. In it, he announced that with the end of the Cold War and collapse of Communism, liberal democracy had triumphed. It would become forever the dominant system around the world, “the final form of human government.”
Americans alternate bouts of flagellation about their country with orgies of self-congratulation. They loved Fukuyama’s book, which represented them as the winning side, and bought it in truckloads.
For five minutes, it seemed possible that the author’s thesis could be right. In the Nineties, even Mother Russia, cradle of tyranny, seemed to be embracing popular consent and freedom.
Communism was the last of the 20th century’s evil “isms” to suffer defeat, after two world wars in which the democracies battled against militarism, fascism and Nazism.
. . . .
A few surviving regimes, notably in China, Vietnam and Cuba, still professed themselves communist.
But the big beasts in Beijing were as greedy and materialistic as Wall Street bankers. Only a dwindling band of British university lecturers continued to fool themselves that Karl Marx was right about mankind’s destiny.
Yet today, barely a generation since the publication of The End of History, its thesis echoes hollow.
Even if communism is a dying duck, everywhere brutal dictatorships are flourishing as if their societies’ flirtations with democracy had never happened.
Naive Europeans hailed the 2010 “Arab Spring” as promising a new era in the Middle East. Yet it seems more likely that those nations – Tunisia, Egypt and Libya – will merely be ruled by new autocrats.
The truth is that democracy is ailing – not least here in Britain. Many people despise and distrust politicians. . . . Modern politics has become meaningless to most people. It has simply descended into a struggle for power among small and unrepresentative elites, devoid of convictions or integrity, who ignore or defy the views of the people who elect them.
. . . .
China may increasingly embrace capitalist economics, but President Xi Jinping and his politburo are implacable in denying their people liberty to do anything save make money.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is an unashamed Stalinist. His country is in the hands of a gangster elite, committed to suppressing dissent and bent upon personal enrichment. Putin himself is thought to have accrued billions in his personal bank accounts.
. . . .
In the U.S., sensible people talk and write openly about a democratic crisis. The bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats have created gridlock in both houses of Congress.
The old willingness to cut deals and make compromises to keep government moving has become a dead letter.
A large chunk of the U.S., and especially its old, white, mid-Western, Western and southern heartland, feels as disenfranchised as do UKIP supporters in Britain. It sees a host of things being done, or not done, in Washington, which inspires bitter hostility on religious, economic or social grounds.
The U.S. came closest to being a single nation in the Forties and Fifties, partly as a result of World War II. Today, though, it is profoundly divided, and likely to remain so, not least as a result of the rise of the Latino population.
Different sections of U.S. society want vastly different things for the country; their political leaders lack the will or gifts to reconcile them. And so too Britain.
When the democratic process isn’t enough. By Rami G. Khouri. The Daily Star (Lebanon), June 26, 2013.
Hastings:
Few modern prophets prove themselves wise enough to invite comparison with Moses, but Francis Fukuyama made more of an ass of himself than most.
Twenty years ago, the American academic wrote a book entitled The End of History. In it, he announced that with the end of the Cold War and collapse of Communism, liberal democracy had triumphed. It would become forever the dominant system around the world, “the final form of human government.”
Americans alternate bouts of flagellation about their country with orgies of self-congratulation. They loved Fukuyama’s book, which represented them as the winning side, and bought it in truckloads.
For five minutes, it seemed possible that the author’s thesis could be right. In the Nineties, even Mother Russia, cradle of tyranny, seemed to be embracing popular consent and freedom.
Communism was the last of the 20th century’s evil “isms” to suffer defeat, after two world wars in which the democracies battled against militarism, fascism and Nazism.
. . . .
A few surviving regimes, notably in China, Vietnam and Cuba, still professed themselves communist.
But the big beasts in Beijing were as greedy and materialistic as Wall Street bankers. Only a dwindling band of British university lecturers continued to fool themselves that Karl Marx was right about mankind’s destiny.
Yet today, barely a generation since the publication of The End of History, its thesis echoes hollow.
Even if communism is a dying duck, everywhere brutal dictatorships are flourishing as if their societies’ flirtations with democracy had never happened.
Naive Europeans hailed the 2010 “Arab Spring” as promising a new era in the Middle East. Yet it seems more likely that those nations – Tunisia, Egypt and Libya – will merely be ruled by new autocrats.
The truth is that democracy is ailing – not least here in Britain. Many people despise and distrust politicians. . . . Modern politics has become meaningless to most people. It has simply descended into a struggle for power among small and unrepresentative elites, devoid of convictions or integrity, who ignore or defy the views of the people who elect them.
. . . .
China may increasingly embrace capitalist economics, but President Xi Jinping and his politburo are implacable in denying their people liberty to do anything save make money.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is an unashamed Stalinist. His country is in the hands of a gangster elite, committed to suppressing dissent and bent upon personal enrichment. Putin himself is thought to have accrued billions in his personal bank accounts.
. . . .
In the U.S., sensible people talk and write openly about a democratic crisis. The bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats have created gridlock in both houses of Congress.
The old willingness to cut deals and make compromises to keep government moving has become a dead letter.
A large chunk of the U.S., and especially its old, white, mid-Western, Western and southern heartland, feels as disenfranchised as do UKIP supporters in Britain. It sees a host of things being done, or not done, in Washington, which inspires bitter hostility on religious, economic or social grounds.
The U.S. came closest to being a single nation in the Forties and Fifties, partly as a result of World War II. Today, though, it is profoundly divided, and likely to remain so, not least as a result of the rise of the Latino population.
Different sections of U.S. society want vastly different things for the country; their political leaders lack the will or gifts to reconcile them. And so too Britain.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill. Official Video. itspetergabriel, May 20, 2012. YouTube. Also here, and at Peter Gabriel website. Video with lyrics here.
Peter Gabriel website.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill (Secret World Live Tour 1994). Video. Laura Sosa, September 20, 2007. YouTube. Also here.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill (Growing Up Live). Video. itspetergabriel, May 11, 2013. YouTube. Also here, and at Peter Gabriel website.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill (Live on Letterman). Video. PeterGabrielVEVO, November 15, 2011. YouTube.
Lyrics:
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
Peter Gabriel website.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill (Secret World Live Tour 1994). Video. Laura Sosa, September 20, 2007. YouTube. Also here.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill (Growing Up Live). Video. itspetergabriel, May 11, 2013. YouTube. Also here, and at Peter Gabriel website.
Peter Gabriel: Solsbury Hill (Live on Letterman). Video. PeterGabrielVEVO, November 15, 2011. YouTube.
Lyrics:
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could
see the city light
Wind
was blowing, time stood still
Eagle
flew out of the night
He was
something to observe
Came in
close, I heard a voice
Standing
stretching every nerve
Had to
listen had no choice
I did
not believe the information
[I]
just had to trust imagination
My
heart going boom boom boom
“Son,”
he said “Grab your things,
I’ve
come to take you home.”
To keep
in silence I resigned
My
friends would think I was a nut
Turning
water into wine
Open
doors would soon be shut
So I
went from day to day
Tho’ my
life was in a rut
’Till I
thought of what I’d say
Which
connection I should cut
I was
feeling part of the scenery
I
walked right out of the machinery
My
heart going boom boom boom
“Hey”
he said “Grab your things
I’ve
come to take you home.”
When
illusion spin her net
I’m
never where I want to be
And
liberty she pirouette
When I
think that I am free
Watched
by empty silhouettes
Who
close their eyes but still can see
No one
taught them etiquette
I will
show another me
Today I
don’t need a replacement
I’ll
tell them what the smile on my face meant
My
heart going boom boom boom
“Hey” I
said “You can keep my things,
They’ve
come to take me home.”
Peter Gabriel’s first solo hit, “Solsbury
Hill” is an evocative and joyful ode to liberation, full of mythic symbolism. The genesis of the
song came out of Gabriel’s decision to leave his gig as lead singer of Genesis and strike off on his own. It
was also inspired by a spiritual experience Gabriel had on Solsbury Hill
(better known as Salisbury) in the countryside near his home in
Somerset, southwestern England. It was the site of a Celtic hill fort in the
third and second centuries BC
and may also have been Mount Badon, where King Arthur, according to legend, led the Britons to
victory against the Saxons around 496 AD. Solsbury takes its name from the Celtic
goddess Sulis, identified by the Romans with Minerva, and worshipped as a life-giving mother goddess at the springs in Bath. So given the hill’s mythic
and historical resonance that goes back to pagan Celtic Britain, Gabriel may
well have had a Druidic vision, a mystic encounter with Sulis. For me “Solsbury Hill” has been the theme song
of the mythopoetic journey in my own life; the quest to follow my bliss in
pursuit intellectual, spiritual, and ecstatic liberation, integration, and love.
The Temple of Sulis-Minerva at Bath. By I. A Richmond and J. M. C. Toynbee. Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 45, Pts. 1 and 2 (1955).
The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath. By Barry Cunliffe. Archaeology, Vol. 36, No. 6 (November/December 1983).
 |
|
Gilt
bronze head from the cult statue of Sulis Minerva from the Temple at Bath,
found in Stall Street in 1727 and now displayed at the Roman Baths (Bath).
|
 |
| A new age vision of Sulis |
Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer.
Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer. Video. itspetergabriel, September 24, 2012. YouTube. Also here and at Peter Gabriel website. From the album So. Geffen Records, 1986.
Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live Concert.
Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live. Complete Concert. Video. BLANKsPLANET4, December 16, 2012. YouTube. Also here. Original Release Virgin Records, 1994. Copy purchased from YouTube here.
Peter Gabriel: Red Rain. Secret World Live 2012 Blu-Ray Bonus Track. Video. andron544, August 19, 2012. YouTube.
Peter Gabriel: Mercy Street. Secret World Live EP. Audio. zbebzon, September 12, 2013. YouTube.
Peter Gabriel: Red Rain. Secret World Live 2012 Blu-Ray Bonus Track. Video. andron544, August 19, 2012. YouTube.
Peter Gabriel: Mercy Street. Secret World Live EP. Audio. zbebzon, September 12, 2013. YouTube.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Idealizing the Paleolithic. By Marlene Zuk.
The Problem with Evolutionary Psychology. By Marlene Zuk. History News Network, June 17, 2013.
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live. By Marlene Zuk. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2014. 336 pp.
How to Really Eat Like a Hunter-Gatherer: Why the Paleo Diet Is Half-Baked. By Ferris Jabr. Scientific American, June 3, 2013.
Who is Grok? By Mark Sisson. Mark’s Daily Apple.
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live. By Marlene Zuk. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2014. 336 pp.
How to Really Eat Like a Hunter-Gatherer: Why the Paleo Diet Is Half-Baked. By Ferris Jabr. Scientific American, June 3, 2013.
Who is Grok? By Mark Sisson. Mark’s Daily Apple.
The Twilight Zone: The Changing of the Guard.
The Twilight Zone: The Changing of the Guard. Season 3 Episode 37 (episode 102 in the complete series). Original airdate, June 3, 1962. Video. Hulu. Also at Daily Motion, CBS. Plot summary at Wikipedia.
Exploring The Twilight Zone, Episode #102: “The Changing of the Guard.” By Peter Martin. Twitch, November 8, 2011.
Exploring The Twilight Zone, Episode #102: “The Changing of the Guard.” By Peter Martin. Twitch, November 8, 2011.
Humanities Committee Sounds an Alarm. By Jennifer Schuessler.
Humanities Committee Sounds an Alarm. By Jennifer Schuessler. New York Times, June 18, 2013.
1964 Report: Humanities “Uniquely Equipped to Fill the ‘Abyss of Leisure’” Made Possible by Forty-Hour Workweek. By David Austin Walsh. History News Network, June 19, 2013.
Some long term perspective on the “crisis” in humanities enrollment. By Benjamin Schmidt. Sapping Attention, June 7, 2013.
The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a Vibrant, Competitive, and Secure Nation. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, June 2013. Also here. PDF.
Report of the Commission on the Humanities. American Council of Learned Societies, 1964.
The Humanities Project. Harvard University, June 2013.
Remarks by President Carol Quillen at Davidson College Commencement 2013. Davidson.edu, May 20, 2013.
The Humanist Vocation. By David Brooks. New York Times, June 20, 2013.
Why Study Humanities? What I Tell Engineering Freshmen. By John Horgan. Scientific American, June 20, 2013.
The Decline and Fall of the English Major. By Verlyn Klinkenborg. New York Times, June 22, 2013.
A Case for the Humanities Not Made. By Stanley Fish. New York Times, June 24, 2013.
As More Attend College, Majors Become More Career-Focused. By Nate Silver. New York Times, June 25, 2013.
The purpose of education for the individual is to guide, develop, and enhance his or her intellectual and spiritual capacities as a human being and a citizen. The purpose of education for the economy is to develop the human capital needed for the creation of wealth.
But Man does not live by STEM alone. The purpose of education in the humanities is to help you develop an appreciation, a passion and love for, the good, the true, the noble, the honorable, and the beautiful. It is to guide the young student on his or her first steps on the path to knowledge and wisdom. It is to open us to the full range of human emotions, to give us an understanding of the realities of human nature, including its dark and cruel side.
History, which straddles the humanities and social sciences, is the collective biography of humanity. It shows how human nature actually operated on the ground over thousands of years. History is the story of the societies we created, their rise and fall, their ideals and accomplishments, and their failures. It shows the disconnect between how people actually lived and the ideals they aspired to. History also records the deed of those individuals who have actually made a difference in the course of human events (admittedly a tiny, tiny, number), whose deeds great and terrible shaped and transformed the paths humanity would take. And, over the long term, history shows how we really have made progress from the Paleolithic to the Information Age. As the collective memory of our species, the story of our mythopoetic journey, history shows us where we have come from, which is the beginning of wisdom in figuring out where we are going.
1964 Report: Humanities “Uniquely Equipped to Fill the ‘Abyss of Leisure’” Made Possible by Forty-Hour Workweek. By David Austin Walsh. History News Network, June 19, 2013.
Some long term perspective on the “crisis” in humanities enrollment. By Benjamin Schmidt. Sapping Attention, June 7, 2013.
The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a Vibrant, Competitive, and Secure Nation. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, June 2013. Also here. PDF.
Report of the Commission on the Humanities. American Council of Learned Societies, 1964.
The Humanities Project. Harvard University, June 2013.
Remarks by President Carol Quillen at Davidson College Commencement 2013. Davidson.edu, May 20, 2013.
The Humanist Vocation. By David Brooks. New York Times, June 20, 2013.
Why Study Humanities? What I Tell Engineering Freshmen. By John Horgan. Scientific American, June 20, 2013.
The Decline and Fall of the English Major. By Verlyn Klinkenborg. New York Times, June 22, 2013.
A Case for the Humanities Not Made. By Stanley Fish. New York Times, June 24, 2013.
As More Attend College, Majors Become More Career-Focused. By Nate Silver. New York Times, June 25, 2013.
The purpose of education for the individual is to guide, develop, and enhance his or her intellectual and spiritual capacities as a human being and a citizen. The purpose of education for the economy is to develop the human capital needed for the creation of wealth.
But Man does not live by STEM alone. The purpose of education in the humanities is to help you develop an appreciation, a passion and love for, the good, the true, the noble, the honorable, and the beautiful. It is to guide the young student on his or her first steps on the path to knowledge and wisdom. It is to open us to the full range of human emotions, to give us an understanding of the realities of human nature, including its dark and cruel side.
History, which straddles the humanities and social sciences, is the collective biography of humanity. It shows how human nature actually operated on the ground over thousands of years. History is the story of the societies we created, their rise and fall, their ideals and accomplishments, and their failures. It shows the disconnect between how people actually lived and the ideals they aspired to. History also records the deed of those individuals who have actually made a difference in the course of human events (admittedly a tiny, tiny, number), whose deeds great and terrible shaped and transformed the paths humanity would take. And, over the long term, history shows how we really have made progress from the Paleolithic to the Information Age. As the collective memory of our species, the story of our mythopoetic journey, history shows us where we have come from, which is the beginning of wisdom in figuring out where we are going.
Alice Walker’s Undisguised Jew Hatred. By Jonathan S. Tobin.
Alice Walker’s Undisguised Jew Hatred. By Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary, June 19, 2013.
Pet Shop Boys vs. Alice Walker. By Evelyn Gordon. Commentary, June 20, 2013.
Alicia Keys, Israel and Civil Rights. By Richard Friedman. NJBR, June 12, 2013. With related articles on Alice Walker.
Pet Shop Boys vs. Alice Walker. By Evelyn Gordon. Commentary, June 20, 2013.
Alicia Keys, Israel and Civil Rights. By Richard Friedman. NJBR, June 12, 2013. With related articles on Alice Walker.
Rubio, Ryan and the Excommunication Impulse. By Peter Wehner.
Rubio, Ryan and the Excommunication Impulse. By Peter Wehner. Commentary, June 20, 2013.
The Anti-Rubio Rally. By Katrina Trinko. National Review Online, June 20, 2013.
The Anti-Rubio Rally. By Katrina Trinko. National Review Online, June 20, 2013.
How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby. By Jean M. Twenge.
How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby. By Jean M. Twenge. The Atlantic, July/August 2013. Also here.
Deep anxiety about the ability to have children later in life plagues many women. But the decline in fertility over the course of a woman’s 30s has been oversold. Here’s what the statistics really tell us—and what they don’t.
Deep anxiety about the ability to have children later in life plagues many women. But the decline in fertility over the course of a woman’s 30s has been oversold. Here’s what the statistics really tell us—and what they don’t.
China’s Atrocities Don’t Interest Americans. By Jonathan S. Tobin.
China’s Atrocities Don’t Interest Americans. By Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary, June 18, 2013.
Behind Cry for Help From China Labor Camp. By Andrew Jacobs. New York Times, June 11, 2013.
China Dissident Says He’s Being Forced From N.Y.U. By Andrew Jacobs. New York Times, June 16, 2013.
NYU booting blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng amid Shanghai expansion. By James Covert. New York Post, June 13, 2013.
N.Y.U., China, and Chen Guangcheng. By Evan Osnos. The New Yorker, June 17, 2013.
Behind Cry for Help From China Labor Camp. By Andrew Jacobs. New York Times, June 11, 2013.
China Dissident Says He’s Being Forced From N.Y.U. By Andrew Jacobs. New York Times, June 16, 2013.
NYU booting blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng amid Shanghai expansion. By James Covert. New York Post, June 13, 2013.
N.Y.U., China, and Chen Guangcheng. By Evan Osnos. The New Yorker, June 17, 2013.
Obama Looking for Love in Wrong Places. By Jonathan S. Tobin.
Obama Looking for Love in Wrong Places. By Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary, June 19, 2013.
Syria Spurs a Few Arabs to Rethink Israel. By Evelyn Gordon.
Syria Spurs A Few Arabs to Rethink Israel. By Evelyn Gordon. Commentary, June 19, 2013.
Syrian sent to Israeli hospital with note attached. By Judy Siegel-Itzkovitch. Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2013.
Gulf Shi’ites fear blame for Syrian conflict. Reuters. Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2013.
Gordon:
One surprising side effect of Syria’s civil war is that it’s causing a few people in the Arab world to question their society’s accepted view of Israel as evil incarnate. These people are still very much a minority: The majority’s attitude is exemplified by the Syrian rebel commander who, without batting an eyelash, last month espoused the delusional theory that “Iran and Hezbollah are cooperating with Israel” to support Syrian President Bashar Assad. Nevertheless, two notable examples of a rethink have surfaced recently.
One involved a seriously wounded Syrian treated at an Israeli hospital this month. He isn’t the first Syrian to be treated in Israel, but he was the first to arrive with a note from the Syrian doctor who treated him initially. “To the honorable doctor, hello,” it began, before launching into a description of his symptoms, his treatment to date and suggestions for further treatment. “Please do what you think needs to be done,” it concluded. “Thanks in advance.”
The Syrian doctor who wrote that note clearly didn’t view Israelis as enemies, but as colleagues who could be trusted to give his patient the care he himself couldn’t provide. It indicates that word has filtered out to at least parts of Syria: Good medical care is available in Israel, and patients who need it can safely be sent there.
Perhaps even more remarkable, however, was a Friday sermon given earlier this month by a cleric in Qatif, a Shi’ite-majority city in Saudi Arabia. Discussing the conflict in Syria, Sheikh Abdullah Ahmed al-Youssef informed his congregants that more Muslims have been killed by fellow Muslims than were ever killed by Israel.
That isn’t news to anyone familiar with the facts. As I noted last month, the Syrian conflict alone has killed more than five times as many people in just two years as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has in all of Israel’s 65 years of existence. And that’s without even mentioning the ongoing Muslim-on-Muslim carnage in places like Iraq (almost 2,000 killed in the last three months) or Pakistan, much less historical events like the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, which killed more than one million people.
But most Arabs aren’t familiar with the facts, having been fed delusional atrocity tales about Israel for decades by their media and their political, religious, cultural and intellectual leaders. Thus for a cleric to stand up in the mosque and tell his congregants this home truth borders on the revolutionary.
If this attitude spreads, it would benefit not just Israel, or even the elusive quest for Mideast peace, but above all, the Arabs themselves. This isn’t merely because Israel has much to offer Arab countries on a practical level (like water management technologies essential for agriculture in a drought-stricken region), but mainly because Arab society’s biggest problem has always been its habit of blaming outsiders–Israel and the West–for all its ills. By so doing, they not only absolve themselves of responsibility, but also nourish the belief that these ills are beyond their control, and hence beyond their own power to fix.
By recognizing that Israel is not the monster of their own imagining, Arabs can begin the process of recognizing that their problems are of their own making rather than the product of malign outside intervention. And only then can they begin the long, hard work of fixing them.
Syrian sent to Israeli hospital with note attached. By Judy Siegel-Itzkovitch. Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2013.
Gulf Shi’ites fear blame for Syrian conflict. Reuters. Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2013.
Gordon:
One surprising side effect of Syria’s civil war is that it’s causing a few people in the Arab world to question their society’s accepted view of Israel as evil incarnate. These people are still very much a minority: The majority’s attitude is exemplified by the Syrian rebel commander who, without batting an eyelash, last month espoused the delusional theory that “Iran and Hezbollah are cooperating with Israel” to support Syrian President Bashar Assad. Nevertheless, two notable examples of a rethink have surfaced recently.
One involved a seriously wounded Syrian treated at an Israeli hospital this month. He isn’t the first Syrian to be treated in Israel, but he was the first to arrive with a note from the Syrian doctor who treated him initially. “To the honorable doctor, hello,” it began, before launching into a description of his symptoms, his treatment to date and suggestions for further treatment. “Please do what you think needs to be done,” it concluded. “Thanks in advance.”
The Syrian doctor who wrote that note clearly didn’t view Israelis as enemies, but as colleagues who could be trusted to give his patient the care he himself couldn’t provide. It indicates that word has filtered out to at least parts of Syria: Good medical care is available in Israel, and patients who need it can safely be sent there.
Perhaps even more remarkable, however, was a Friday sermon given earlier this month by a cleric in Qatif, a Shi’ite-majority city in Saudi Arabia. Discussing the conflict in Syria, Sheikh Abdullah Ahmed al-Youssef informed his congregants that more Muslims have been killed by fellow Muslims than were ever killed by Israel.
That isn’t news to anyone familiar with the facts. As I noted last month, the Syrian conflict alone has killed more than five times as many people in just two years as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has in all of Israel’s 65 years of existence. And that’s without even mentioning the ongoing Muslim-on-Muslim carnage in places like Iraq (almost 2,000 killed in the last three months) or Pakistan, much less historical events like the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, which killed more than one million people.
But most Arabs aren’t familiar with the facts, having been fed delusional atrocity tales about Israel for decades by their media and their political, religious, cultural and intellectual leaders. Thus for a cleric to stand up in the mosque and tell his congregants this home truth borders on the revolutionary.
If this attitude spreads, it would benefit not just Israel, or even the elusive quest for Mideast peace, but above all, the Arabs themselves. This isn’t merely because Israel has much to offer Arab countries on a practical level (like water management technologies essential for agriculture in a drought-stricken region), but mainly because Arab society’s biggest problem has always been its habit of blaming outsiders–Israel and the West–for all its ills. By so doing, they not only absolve themselves of responsibility, but also nourish the belief that these ills are beyond their control, and hence beyond their own power to fix.
By recognizing that Israel is not the monster of their own imagining, Arabs can begin the process of recognizing that their problems are of their own making rather than the product of malign outside intervention. And only then can they begin the long, hard work of fixing them.
The Rise of Settler Terrorism: The West Bank’s Other Violent Extremists. By Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs.
The Rise of Settler Terrorism: The West Bank’s Other Violent Extremists. By Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs. Foreign Affairs, Vol. 91, No. 5 (September/October 2012).
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