Egyptian sociologist and human-rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, who is teaching in the U.S. rather than doing jail time in Egypt, spoke at Harvard, where he is a visiting fellow, the other day. I'm told:
Saad said that the Israel lobby was working against the Egyptian democracy movement. The lobby is fearful of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and hence a strangled democracy is a more desirable outcome.
Still: a bit breathtaking. At one time, Saad was popular with pro-Israel supporters. He supported normalization with Israel. He met Israelis and wrote critically about Islamist violence. Now he's on the wrong side.
Here's his picture, in the lineup for April 28, at the bottom, pink tie, gray beard.
O, swell; anything but peace, please.
They will lose their specail status of the "only democracy" in the sea of heathen Ay-rabs, if Ay-rabs start electing their leaders democratically.
If they lose that status then they will have to come up with another excuse for Americans to keep supporting their policy of land grabs and apartheid. To think of another excuse will divert away a few resources which are busy selling hummun and pita bread as Israeli inventions.
that's hummus.
i don't know about the pink tie, though. he also needs to lose that shaggy beard. I see a lot of Arab/Paki/Indian men with pink ties. Big fashion no-no.
It only looks good on the tie rack at Macys, or hanging in your closet.
Saleema:
"They will lose their specail status of the "only democracy" in the sea of heathen Ay-rabs, if Ay-rabs start electing their leaders democratically."
Unfortunately there does not appear to be much for Israel to worry about. I have several Coptic friends and their lives in
Egypt is no picnic.
I thought that Palestinians have democratic elections?
Uncle Sam also supports dictators, no matter how they oppress their people and may conduct sham elections–until the favorite dictator decides to nationalize the country's resources rather then to simple sell them off for dictatorship gain at the expense of the natives. Ditto Israel. The only difference in tradition here is due to the greater military alliance, de facto or de jure, stress
by Israel since it is geographically not in the same position as Uncle Sam. I don't like it as an American, nor enabler of Israel.
egypt is a dictatorship.. the usa supports it… is someone surprised israel might not want democracy for the arab world??? another example where usa and israels interests, however painful to look at, coincide…
Hmmm what's wrong with the comment section?
Conspiracy alert: the comments have disappeared! Are we doing that good a job supporting Phil in his exposure of lobby abuse, and arguing the case against ethnocracy? Who is hiding behind those nefarious sites in China?
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/04/29/the_... Last Jewish Republican in congress
pink & gray was a popular color combination–in the 1950's.
Whoa! The comments seem to be straightening themselves out. Vast numbers of little balls labeled 1 and 0 have to go clicking down the semi-conducter Pachinko board and end up in the right spots for it all to work. Takes time.
Yeah, you got a point, Mooser. It's starting to look a little better but there's a lot of comments that vanished, though lately new ones seem to be sticking.