I've criticized Bill Clinton forever, today I'm celebrating him. I saw him on Meet the Press yesterday, interviewed by Brokaw, and was stunned by his eloquence re Africa. I saw the statesman for once. I wonder if it has to do with his concentration on something completely outside his own field of self-interest. Get into that field and you're toast.
Here's what he said that I found so moving: That Central Africa is becoming a success story. That 14 years after Rwandans killed 10 percent of the country's population in 90 days, its economy is moving forward. That it is wrong to speak of "Africa," and Americans should get out of the habit. We should start to speak of the individual countries there by name, and get to know them. And most important, at a time when America is hated around the world (my word; he was softer), in Central Africa we are loved. In about 10 countries where George Bush's AIDS initiative has unfolded, people love America and are thankful for what we have done.
My heart moved on this one, I gotta say. The extension of spirit from Clinton, and the lesson. And yes, of course, I apply it to the Middle East. Do you understand how little it takes to change the face of America to the world? Do you see how easy it would be to transform Arab hearts by actually asking one time, What do Palestinians want? For once after 60 years of trashing their rights in every international forum? (And even Clinton, on the phone to Barak every other minute in the months leading up to Camp David, and then trying to throttle Arafat into a deal that would have left broad Israeli presence in the West Bank) If we were to try to be a fair broker for once in that little part of the world, it would be cathartic and politically shapeshifting. Because look how little it has taken in Africa--how many of us even think of Bush's splendid initiative there? Let's be American again.
I don't think that they are parallel, as I think the goodwill created by the welfare and development work is one the ground grassroots.
Typically whats presented as "the way to reach Palestinians' hearts and minds" is political, and through the "ANTI" litmus test.
Aside from the idiotic "anti-foreign aid" agitation, foreign aid to Palestine would be loved by Americans and Israelis.
Would Palestinians accept social aid from Israel? Or would they be too damn paranoid that they contained diseases, or political strings?
The US has been trashing the Palestinians in every international forum since 1919, which is almost a hundred years, not sixty.
And yes, Palestinians would probably accept aid from Israel as long as Israel wasn't pursuing other policies motivated by hate towards them. Black Africans wouldn't accept aid from South Africa while Apartheid continued.
neither you nor clinton know a word about what you speak. First, rwanda's success is a propped up myth. Like Israel, they've used their tragedy to cause many more.
The congo (WHICH CENTRAL AFRICA, not tiny rwanda) has suffered over 6 million dead (during all this economic and political success in central africa) and rwanda was the instigator . . . and immune from western criticism.
We pour aid (incl military) into rwanda and fueled Africa's World War, which has the highest death toll since WWII (and yet hasn't been reported anywhere, certainly nothing compared to Darfur).
Bill Clinton was responsible for the genocide in rwanda and all those in Congo, too. He's got one-sided guilt because his principles aren't based on anything universal.
And how that swine sold Arafat and the Palestinians to the slaughter because they wouldn't get him a nobel peace prize (after they were offered the moon or at least they were mooned).
Go to Africa and tell me how loved we are and how well Africans are doing.
Do you see how easy it would be to transform Arab hearts by actually asking one time, What do Palestinians want? … If we were to try to be a fair broker for once in that little part of the world…
It's actually a lot easier than that. All the US has to do is adopt a neutral, non-interventionist Middle East policy (which is impossible, of course, for domestic reasons). Let the Israelis and Arabs know that the US has no vital interest in their region other than as a buyer of oil. Palestinians and Muslims in general might not start loving America, but they'd stop hating it.
"I don't think that they are parallel, as I think the goodwill created by the welfare and development work is one the ground grassroots. Typically whats presented as "the way to reach Palestinians' hearts and minds" is political, and through the "ANTI" litmus test. Aside from the idiotic "anti-foreign aid" agitation, foreign aid to Palestine would be loved by Americans and Israelis.Would Palestinians accept social aid from Israel? Or would they be too damn paranoid that they contained diseases, or political strings?"
Helping AIDS victims and preventive education is not grassroots?
Anti-whom test? Idiotic foreign aid to Israel agitation? Foreign aid to Palestinians is always tied to AIPAC-Israel conditions, as juxtiposed with endless aid to Israel with no conditions attached. Who's paranoid?