Contiguous ambiguous

by on January 27, 2009 8

In his Al Arabiya interview, Obama used the word "contiguous" to describe a functioning Palestinian state. Saif Ammous calls the plan, "a kidney shaped state with Gaza on the side." Doug Suisman has done a Rand study purporting to show how integrated the kidney and the Gaza can be in a way I find faintly unbelievable at this stage. Today Sandy Tolan has a great piece in TomDispatch raising this issue concretely: What is contiguity when there are 675 checkpoints in a territory the size of Delaware and you can't even reach the capital? One-state is crowding the discourse in ways Tony Judt never anticipated.                             (Phil Weiss)

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 8 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. LanceThruster says:
    January 27, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    As has been mentioned elsewhere here before;

    "One side cuts the cake, the other side chooses."

    Problem solved.
    ~

  2. A blogger from Lebanon says:
    January 27, 2009 at 1:42 pm

    Obama's snub to al-Jazeera and his choice of al-Arabiya for his interview is quite telling. al-Arabiya is owned by Saudi puppets of the U.S., and is pro-Israel. In fact, it has been SO pro-Israel that I, and just about everyone else in the region, suspects that it is a ring of informants working under the guise of being correspondents. al-Arabiya is now referred to by the majority of Arabs as "al-`Ibriya", the Hebrew one.. Certainly, the choice of which Arabic channel to give an interview to in his first appearance on Arab TV, is indicative of what Obama's policy is going to look like, not that there ever was any doubt about that in my mind.

  3. Dan Kelly says:
    January 27, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    Obama's snub to al-Jazeera and his choice of al-Arabiya for his interview is quite telling. al-Arabiya is owned by Saudi puppets of the U.S., and is pro-Israel. In fact, it has been SO pro-Israel that I, and just about everyone else in the region, suspects that it is a ring of informants working under the guise of being correspondents. al-Arabiya is now referred to by the majority of Arabs as "al-`Ibriya", the Hebrew one.. Certainly, the choice of which Arabic channel to give an interview to in his first appearance on Arab TV, is indicative of what Obama's policy is going to look like, not that there ever was any doubt about that in my mind.

    Thank you for that information, blogger. I was curious as to the politics of al-Arabiya (a network I was not familiar with until I saw Obama on it), and you've just given me the information I was looking for. This obviously explains why there were no decent follow-up questions to any of Obama's statements. The interview could just as well have been on CNN. That's what got me to thinking.

  4. A blogger from Lebanon says:
    January 27, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    By the way, in written Arabic, Ibriya is a pun on Arabiya. Arabiya and Ibriya have the same exact letters, the only thing that's different is the order of letters; basically by changing the location of one letter (moving the "b" in front of the "r"), you get Ibriya.

    العربية
    العبرية

  5. peters says:
    January 27, 2009 at 10:18 pm

    nice to read a thread without chris berel.

    what is the purpose of chris berel? his presence isn't to change anyone's mind, he is antagonizing everyone, he isn't gaining adherents. what's up with it?

    what do his israeli handlers have in mind?

  6. chris berel says:
    January 28, 2009 at 12:23 am

    Interesting to note that rather than comment on the article, you've chosen to expose your fascination with me. I'm quite flattered.

    However, Weiss may feel slighted in that you've expressed no mention of even noting him.

    In fact, had you not deliberately baited the hook, I'd never have posted on this topic as it doesn't really matter what news organization gets to talk to Barack.

  7. citizen says:
    January 28, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    Yeah, right. It doesn't matter what news organization gets to talk to Barack.

    LOL

    Your Israeli handlers need to get somebody with at least an IQ of 100 to spill their propaganda here, "chris berel."

  8. chris berel says:
    January 28, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    You want someone with a lower IQ?

    You need that to debate effectively?

    You think anyone with an IQ over 100 will show you up for what you are?

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