Comments on: Ink-Stained Arabist Detected on W. 43rd Street

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Rodenbeck: "the easiest and simplest and most available solution to the Middle East problem, and that's for the Israelis to pack up and go to the US."

Chomsky (paraphrased): the Israelis should by all logic get New Jersey before Palestine.

Yeah, right, great. Just transfer the Judeofascist tribe to America. Look how much its diaspora has done for this country in the last 20 years, since it ascended to the status of "elite." Why, in another 20, we'll all be living like Cossacks under the Jewish Bolsheviks (those that are left living, at least). But hey, at least the Arabian peninsula will be completely Islamic.

Wrong. Transfer the Judeofascists to Israel, and arm the Palestinians. There’s no other way.

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Rodenbeck: "the easiest and simplest and most available solution to the Middle East problem, and that's for the Israelis to pack up and go to the US."

No thanks! There has to be a time when Israel isn't my problem, and bringing Israel to America isn't a solution.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

“bringing Israel to America isn't a solution.”

Todd, Israel already is in America.

Some call it "the Israel Lobby" (Walt and Mearsheimer) ; some call it "Judonia" (Joachim Martillo); some call it “The Zionist Power Configuration” (Petras); some call it “the Diaspora” (Zionist Witty and SOG types); I call it “the nation within a nation of Zion.”

However you cut it, it’s already HERE, but it belongs THERE. And deep down, everyone knows it.

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Ed, I agree that Israel has set up camp in the United States, but I don't want the rest of the population of Israel on U.S. soil. If we could just send the U.S. faction packing, we might make some progress.

By: Leila Abu-Saba

Leila Abu-Saba — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Woah, Phil, John Rodenbeck reminds you of Simon Malley? But Rodenbeck is a WASP (or part German-Protestant? Not positive) and an old-school Anglo-establishment type. (Ph.D. English from Harvard) You should read his essay criticizing Edward Said's Orientalism. Simon Malley was a Communist I believe, and Sephardic. Very anti-American Politically Rodenbeck and Malley Sr. could not be further apart.

Is the connection that they both love Egypt? Hmmmm... Or that they both criticize Israel?

From my personal encounters with John and Max Rodenbeck I would say that Rodenbeck senior's critique of Israel arises from his fundamental and unswerving loyalty to the US and what he perceives as US interests. Rodenbeck jr., however, is not a US loyalist or partisan.

By: Leila Abu-Saba

Leila Abu-Saba — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Oh yes, and thanks so much for the nod.

By: Leila Abu-Saba

Leila Abu-Saba — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Have to add one last shot here:

Note that the Times won't publish an Arab making these kinds of remarks. Rodenbeck Jr. has these impeccably non-Arab credentials - The Economist, well-received book out with Random House, father a publisher and academic with Ford Foundation connections. God forbid they should publish critical remarks by some academic or journalist of high standing with an Arabic name, unless it's Fouad Ajami, who turned in his Arab card long ago and now trots after Leon Wieseltier hoping for pats on the head.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Max Rodenbeck (Jr): "What is troubling about Pollack’s view, which is fairly representative of his fellow liberal interventionists, who are likely to be in power soon, is its lack of clarity. Can’t we just admit that American support for Israel is strategically burdensome and is driven by the passion of several domestic constituencies rather than cold cost-benefit geopolitics?...No matter what good will America’s “policy community” proclaims toward the Middle East, this mix of blinkered indulgence of Israel and disdain for the rest of the region, as well as a predilection for Wilsonian dreams over achievable goals, suggests we will remain in the wilderness for some time to come."
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Leila Abu-Saba: "Rodenbeck senior's critique of Israel arises from his fundamental and unswerving loyalty to the US and what he perceives as US interests. Rodenbeck jr., however, is not a US loyalist or partisan."
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Based on the briefs above, Rodenbeck Jr. sounds more like a sensible anti-interventionist paleocon to me, whereas Sr, who wants to transfer Israel's Jews to America, sounds like a typical air-head WASP of a certain generation who thought the US could swallow the Jews whole with no ill effects, and wound up giving succeeding generations a terminal case of indigestion.

As my favorite prophet Jeremiah said: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and their children's teeth are set on edge'

These smug, greedy internationalist WASP airheads should be banished to Israel along with their Judeofascist brethren. Let them cannibalize each other in Israel instead of sucking blood from the rest of us.

Nothing sets my teeth on edge like colonial-minded parasites, who inevitably wind up feeding on the homefront, as well.

By: scorpio

scorpio — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Rodenbeck demolished Pollack and his world-view in few words, and certainly words i never thot i'd see in the NYT

By: James North

James North — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Max Rodenbeck's book Cairo: The City Victorious is excellent. I glanced at his review of Pollack, and nearly skipped over it because I thought at first he was Max Boot, the warmongering neoconservative. But I also agree with Leila; an Arab would rarely, if ever, get to comment in The Times like this.