Two readers have already passed along Roger Cohen's startling account of participation in the Tehran protests yesterday, during which Cohen retreats to an alley to escape gassing and barely suppresses his thrill at being part of this democratic history-making. Two quick thoughts:
–Cohen is today vying to replace Jeffrey Goldberg as the most important Jewish journalist in the United States, and doing so from an oppositional stance. He is not competing on Goldberg's ground, the access-journalist, but as a universalist in the streets, awakened by Gaza to the bankrupt neocon/Zionist ideology about the Muslim world. And I would guess that Cohen has a solid following among Obama/J Street Jews.
–The thrill in reading Cohen is his complete identification with the brave, thoughtful resisters in the Tehran streets. This is a movement that draws on Obama's victory to imagine a radically-different future of global interaction. And very little separates Cohen's identification from Max Blumenthal's identification with the West Bank protesters. That's next.
Related posts:
- Game-changer: NYT’s Roger Cohen visits Iran and views Israeli and US militarism from the other side
- Reading the Roger Cohen-Marty Peretz exchange
- In a NY synagogue, Roger Cohen demolishes neoconservative Bret Stephens
- Neocon holdovers want NYT to fire Roger Cohen for uttering fair statements about Jews in Iran
- Roger Cohen, shamed by Gaza, is the realist heir to tribalist Tom Friedman’s chair
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The linkage between what is going on in the streets of Tehran and the changes Obama has made in US policy is a good one. I think Obama's speech to the Iranian people a few months back, his Cairo speech and his push for diplomacy and not war with Iran has contributed to Iranian people's willingness to resist their oppression by the reactionary Isamists. As long as Bush and Rice were continually threatening Iran with war Iranian patriots had to stand together in a united front against this external threat. Any movement by Iranian democrats for their civil liberties would make it appear they were lackeys for American imperialism. With this new international climate, the Iranians are now free to oppose the worse elements within the Islamic Republic without weakoning their nation against foreign aggression. This shows Obama's soaring speeches are so much more than just empty words. What a wonderfull change from the horrors of the previous 8 years.
How's Afghanistan coming along? Iraq? And we're making massive hay about Iran's disputed election? Iran's is not a story about democracy no matter how hard you try to spin it. Since Bush and Rice have gone what has really changed in U.S policy regarding Iran? Tone? And that's good enough to support forces that have made it well known that regime change has long been the goal in Iran(Wolfowitz has even found the nerve to come out of hiding to comment) – the only nation standing between U.S/Israeli hegemony in the middle east? Remember the neocon mantra -" Iraq was for show, real men go for Tehran"(or something equally stupid). Why don't we talk about the rising civilian casualities in Afghanistan that have coincided with Obama's revised policies there? Why don't we talk about the U.S withdrawal from Iraq? Why not talk about whether there has been any move to stop funding terror group inside Iran. Hey Phil – why not put your journalistic credentials to work and investigate what 'hundreds of millions' of American dollars given to destabilizing Iran has done for the Iranian political process? Has Obama made any comments regarding these? Until you lot start looking into that all of this sounds like neocon propaganda. I can't believe in light of what has happened in Iraq and Lebanon and Palestine that your going to throw your weight behind the skewed views of American Iranian diaspora and their new found zionist 'friends'. And I'm generally on your side – but this is getting silly…
Hey now you're on the side of the protesters? Weren't you just claiming that this was a Zionist plot against the democratic dictatorship of the mullahs? And wasn't Roger Cohen recently taken to task for claiming that Ahmedinebad's Iran wasn't such a bad place after all.
One simply has to love this man. He is amazing. Yes, absolutely: The same cry was heard in 1979, only for one form of absolutism to yield to another. Iran has waited long enough to be free.
The Pals need to learn about Twitter? Those Afghans in the western Farah province too?
[The Arab American News] Anger, arrogance cause quandary in Iran
It's not about principle, it's about publicity.
At what point does being Jewish become utterly irrelevant? Cohen's bearing witness to what's happening in Iran. He's not bearing witness as a Jew. If what he's writing is resonating with his readers, I'd hope that it has little to do with whether he or they are Jewish but simply because he's being honest.
Here's what stevieb is supporting – http://is.gd/18gYk – Naomi Klein on rape, torture & murder of photographer Zahra Kazemi
What do all the Iranians who post here think of this report? Pepe Escobar (ATimes roving reporter) on The Real News http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_con...
When Zahra Kazemi was killed, Musavi supporter reformer Muhamad Khatami was president of Iran.
No, here's what's silly: you're so blinded by your warped worldview that a struggle for rights which has engulfed a whole nation for more than a week now is just something concocted by "American Iranian diaspora and their new found zionist 'friends'. Are they the ones who killed this young woman? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjQxq5N--Kc
Once again, Phil is spot-on. Roger Cohen is the most important Jewish journalist covering the Middle East. His report from the streets of Tehran was breathtaking (I emailed him to tell him so, and received a prompt reply back). Let's hope the Likudniks don't pressure Pinch Sulzberger to go Fred Hiatt on him, and pull a Dan Froomkin, if you know what I mean.
What's your point, Thors? That Musavi is just as bad or worse than Ahmedinebad? You're talking about Musavi's supporter, not him tho Musavi has no history as a champion of individual rights either. All the same, the riots aren't about Musavi. They're about breaking free of the democratic dictatorship of the mullahs. As for stevieb, he supports any kind of Iran as long as it opposes the USA. He's not concerned about individual freedom. That's all I'm pointing out.
Right on.
I probably know vastly more about Iran than most Americans, and I am as baffled about the issues as Imam Elahi. We should stay out of this one. On the other hand, I worked in the OT on and off for about 10 years and know the whole history of ethnic Ashkenazi violence, racism, and genocidalism since the 1850s. Zionists routinely kill Palestinians because they believe Jews have the right to plunder and to kill non-Jews with impunity. They just rampaged through Gaza and they are plundering out economy: Christopher Bollyn: The Zionist Gang That Bankrupted General Motors. Tossing American Zionists into jail for giving material aid to Zionist terrorism would be good for our economy, help Palestinians and probably contribute to stabilization of Iran. How often does a win-win-win situation appear?
What do you mean, Laurie? That Mondo will promote any cause that allows him to grandstand as a liberator? If the popular will supports the Iranian regime as a bulwark against an oppressive USA he will go with that? But if the wind shifts toward the anti-government Iranian students, he's in with them like white on rice? Your comment was to short to be clear.
I listened to an Iranian pundit on NPR talk about the situation in Iran. He was clearly sympathetic to Musavi but could not explain any major differences between Ahmadinejad from the standpoint of US interests. The Iran election is not our battle. We do not understand it, and until we deal with the Israel Lobby that has rendered the USA an intimidated and dependent client state, our democracy is to say the least flawed. I suspect that Zionists in the media of using conflict in Iran to distract from the problem of Zionist subversion here: ACLU Misses Zionist Islamophobic Conspiracy. Activists should focus on forcing the US government to declare the IDF a terrorist organization.
I think Phil is about controlled opposition, a sort of J-street in the blogosphere, the good Jew. But make no mistake the bottom line is Jew and Phil makes no bones about it. If he and his side kicks can get publicity, then the value of his opinion goes up. As people trust him, he can be used to blunt any harsh but honest criticism of Jewish influence. He's a valuable asset in the war of ideas, anyone with a following is.
Roger Cohen is a buffoon who already admitted he was duped by the government of Iran.
" This is a movement that draws on Obama's victory to imagine a radically-different future of global interaction." My God! Those poor Iranian schmendricks! They do know that the entire essence of Obama is to imagine, but do nothing to change anything.
Hold on a second Joachim! Are you the same person as ThorsProvoni, above. I get all confused sometimnes by this. Are you willing to say that you, JoachimMartillo, are a completely seperate person than ThorsProvoni? You are not the same person? And you are still really down on Darwin, Joachim? See him as the font of all intellectual evil and all that?
Oooh! Ouch, Laurie! Right in the kishkas you got him. Phil, I mean. It's almost like you have Extra-Sensual Perception, like my first girlfriend. Yeow! She was something.
Seeing many of the comments in this thread really demonstrates how diificult it is to comprehend what is going on in Iran today. The main thing is that it is unexpected and it is big. Let's try to get a few things out of the way. What happened is not the result of a western, cia or neocon plot. Of course they will try to spin it to their benefit and may try to exploit events to achieve the war they lust after. They will likely fail but it is a danger. It doesn't have all that much to do with Israel and the Palestinian conflict though we can be sure that Israel is probably trying to figure out how they can benefit from this. Other than focusing world attention on Iran and away from Israel, there is likely to be no long term benefit for Israel. In fact in the long term when attention returns back to the Palestinians, zionists goals will likely be undermined by what is happening in Iran.
(continued) The Iraq and Afghanistan wars can complicate what is happening but they are also secondary to what is happening. At this point who got how many votes in last weeks election and the fact that maybe only a minority of the Iranians support the protest is now irrelevant. The election seems to have been a trigger for something bigger.
It is unfortunate Americans did not protest as energetically as the Iranians when their election was stolen in 2000. Since the outcome of the W. Bush administration was so terrible, in hindsight Americans should have violently protested his disputed election and fought with the pigs in the streets. They should have fought with the pigs in streets prior to the invasion of Iraq, and they should fight the pigs in the streets every time Israel uses US gifted weapons to kill Palestinian civilians. Yet Americans do not fight the pigs in the streets because they are cowards who fear the enormous, omnipotent power of their state, which would declare aggressive demonstrators terrorists and seek to imprison them for decades for their opposition to militant state aggression and the usurpation of popular rule. Cohen is happy to fight Iranian pigs in the streets of Tehran, but unwilling to do so in his own country, which has committed much more serious crimes than Iran. If you support the Iranian demonstrators, then you should be engaging in civil disobedience to prevent, disrupt and destroy America's militant aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine, even at the risk of your liberty and life. Americans do not do act out this way because of fear of their government. Americans fear their government more than Iranians fear theirs.
Ah, Christopher Bollyn, is he still around? I almost forgot him. It was heartrendering to watch his brave deliverance of the German neo-Nazi right's view directly from the court in Germany to the American audience. His brave stand for martyr Zündel. http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=38...
Speaking of fighting the government in the streets check out this video. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2009/06/090621_... The horro the people are throwing rocks. Imagine in that scene if the demonstrators were Westbank Palestinians and the police were the Israeli border patrol. The patrol would have responded by firing live ammo into that crowd. And every zionists in the world would have defended their action.
You just hit the ace in the hole tommy…. Capitalistic and Zionist minded (not freedom minded) Americans from both the Left and the Right want to see revolution everywhere there is a government that oppose U.S./Western interests in their region …They fear revolutions where the governments support U.S. interests, even though they are far worse than Iran where they call for meaningless reforms …And they would never support a revolution here in the U.S. or Israel, they would only support more meaningless reform…
I wonder what they would do here in the U.S. if demonstrators were throwing rocks at the riot police…? Use tear gas to disperse them?
"He's not concerned about individual freedom. That's all I'm pointing out. " And neither do you, since you only care about the freedom of those who you choose to believe are "breaking free of the democratic dictatorship of the mullahs" who support the USA. …..
So where was the Iranian reformist Khatami, ally of Moosavi, when this alleged rape, murder, torture was taking place…? At least Ahmadinejad manged to get Roxana released even though she was caught spying in Iran….
We see Mooser you are projecting, not that your finding is incorrect. Just remember, circumcision cuts off a boatload of erotic sensation.
Well in 1970 I was in a demostration here where rocks were thrown at police. They were armed with shotguns with buckshot loads. They killed one of us. I hid behind a telephone pole. It was ruled as a justifiable use of force. Then there was Kent State and Jacksonville. So we know what happens in the US.
LeaNder22, who are you having an orgasm over? And precisely why?
One could argue that his Cairo speech has already influenced what is going on in Iran. He is not the dictator, but the hedged component of a three branch government–four branches, including the mass media. It's too early to say he is not for real change, that is, let's watch over the rest of this year to see if he ever risks his political capital by actually opposing the Democratic Congress in any substantial manner.
Gosh, I'd like to see him actually oppose the Republicans, or stop covering for the Bush administration for a start. At the rate Obama is going you may achieve your dream of a ruling moderate Christian ethic junta before too long.
Green is one of my favorite colors. And the particular shade of green which has come to symbolise the ferment in Iran is a very, very attractive shade of green. Can you imagine what might happen if they made common cause with the Green Party in Europe and the eco-nuts here in the US? Enviroislamofacism!!!
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyranni...
Just wonder if the link have been corrupted by censorship, in case here we go http://tinyurl.com/mw6mzm
Honey, you said that I don't care about individual rights because…. I only care about those who are against the dictatorship. That statement has me stumped. Against dictatorship = against individual rights. That's a paradox isn't it? Let me put on my thinking cap.
You had a girlfriend moose? Even more than one? My perception must not be Extra because from reading your posts I thought you were gay.
Isn't this what has gotten Ahmadinejad into trouble with the certain people in Iranian government by opposing their corruption?
Cohen vs. Goldberg AIPAC vs. J-Street I fear it's more a "good cop, bad cop" thing.
Let me clarify my previous comment: I would trust a Jewish doctor with my life, but nowadays I no longer trust Jewish people around politics and mass communication. Israel has painted itself into a such a terminal corner that we are watching the death throes of a democratic Jewish state: either it becomes officially a totalitarian, apartheid state or it disappears. The Palestinian "state", which is supposed to solve this will only be a giant prison camp administered by the trustees. Like a drowning man pulling his rescuers down with him, the moral blackmail Israel asserts on Jewish people everywhere is impossible for any of them to totally escape. This pressure is warping the entire political and communications scene of the USA completely out of shape and this will eventually lead to a great cooling of the relationship: Jewish people and the USA, not exactly a rising of traditional antisemitism, but a cooling, a skepticism, a cynicism… Tragic.
Pathetic – truly pathetic GB. That has nothing to do with what I'm talking about anyway. But really – you must be a Zionist….
I retract the Zionist bit – it' s obvious you are a typically thick American liberal….
I'm not a Christian, as I've told you before. I am also not a Democrat or Republican. Keep pursuing your self-declared Jewish dream of open borders with Mexico for the reasons you've stated on this blog.
good for you Citizen. In regard to yours and Moosers' exchange the other day I noticed how moose replied with the race card to your economic argument. I wonder how many of these Thai workers Moose would like to see become non-Jewish Israeli citizens? Apparently there is work in Israel that Israelis won't do. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/906360.html
Americans who throw rocks at the police will be declared terrorists and enemy combatants. They will detained without charges, harshly interrogated, then given decades long prison terms. Americans correctly fear their government.
Thanks, Laurie. Mooser realizes that his brethren's treatment of the Palestinians is not ethical, nor even practical in the long run. That's a plus he gets credit for. OTH, his old head is filled with standard Jewish "Catskills" canards that omit the reality of diaspora jewish-goy socio-economic relationship over the course of world history. None of his attempts at being a hip Jewish satirist or simple joker along the lines of that stupid totally racist guy (Borak? Something like that–why doesn't he do a similar movie about Israel?) who recently swung down on a line and stuck his ass in MM's face is even superficially honest.
There's no question that Ahmadinejad and HAMAS are less corrupt than their opponents, and this why they have so many adherents–this is always downplayed in the USA MSM.
Bingo! Worse, the Iranians do not have a tradition of civil rights going back to our founding documents. Americans are less brave, less ethical than Iranians. Would there have been any real "street movement" in American colleges except for the Military Draft? No. Americans have not been what they use to be for a very long time. They are worse than any average German between WW1 & WW2, and with much less excuse. I am an American born and bred. I see this, and I am not the only one. We've gone steadily down hill in terms of our proclaimed values, starting with the tiny Truman.
And this fear has grown ever larger since the creation of "Homeland Security." This old hat device flew right past the average American. The commission investigating the 9/11 incident actually gave us the cause to stop more incidents, but the American people have not grasped it; instead they have been like little girls instilled with fear of the predator with lolipops–Goebbels, mentored in absentia by the jewish guy who taught Americans to smoke by showing shiksas with long legs smoking (Bernays) , would be proud of us American dupes.
We Americans cherish our civil liberties too much to use them.
Roger Cohen as revolutionary??? His role in a colour revolution. If Cohen is taking part gleefuly in the demo, then that confirms its not what weve been led to believe…this is an attempt to overturn the govt and restore the new shah…who is gleefully waiting in the wings: 'Shah's son in Washington: We won't let protest die Published: 06.22.09, 18:08 / Israel News Son of Persian Shah, Crown Prince Reza Shah Pahlavi, who fled Tehran with his family during the Islamic Revolution of 1979, said that on the 12 of June a new movement was born, with no ideology, and that Iranians will not let this new protest movement die. He noted, however, that it may not succeed without world support. ' http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3735417... Tell that to Cohen and all the left liberals who have been misled by events in Iran The same world that stands by while the palestinians are removed.
'Iran has waited long enough to be free. ' need i remind people the F word is beloved of neoliberals like Milton Friedman? Iran has not waited to to be neoliberalised..nor does it want any sign of americans or israelis pushing regime change. Ahmadinejad won the elections. But ironically democracy is being used as an opportunity to destroy the state…What proof is there he didnt win? Lets see it, and not just Juan Cole style conjecture.
Dethrone the Crown Prince with extreme prejudice.
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