Someone passed me an email from the Brookings Institution in Doha, Qatar, hiring for two jobs:
Salaam all, Brookings-Doha, where I’m deputy director, is hiring for two positions, Research Assistant and Communications and Program Assistant. The job descriptions are below. Please pass along to anyone you know who might be interested.
The research job and communications job both include this requirement:
Keeps abreast of literature on the socio-economic and geo-political issues facing the Muslim-majority states and communities, including its relations with the U.S. and other issues as requested…
And fluency in Arabic is "highly prized" or "strongly desired."
Something I have noticed. Brookings will hire Arab or Muslims to study "democracy" and "Islam/West" relations at Brookings Doha.
The Arabs know the groundrules: as house Arabs they get fancy titles and are called experts who will transform the region. But they learn quickly not to criticize Israel or challenge American hegemony. Consider this breathtaking analysis:
"President Obama’s speech in Cairo was a resounding victory for the power of America’s character. President Obama evoked political truths, social truths and the word of God through Judaism, Christianity and Islam to speak in such a way that ordinary Arabs and Muslims welcomed the speech with open-hearts."
But leave the important stuff (Israel/Palestine) to neocon wannabes. Ken Pollack, or Martin S. Indyk Vice President and Director, Foreign Policy. Here’s more brilliant analysis, from Indyk:
What happened to Vice President Biden this week in Jerusalem was egregious but hardly new. Right-wing governments in Israel have regularly embarrassed high-level U.S. officials by making announcements about new settlement activity during or just after their visits. But it usually happens to secretaries of state. It infuriated James Baker, confounded Condoleezza Rice, and appalled Madeleine Albright.
Notice the turf of the Arabs. Tell us what is wrong with your society. Tell us they are primitive and need to be placed under the tutelage of America so we can help bring them into modernity. But please don’t tell us we are in any way responsbile for the mess in the region and certainly don’t tell us about the extremely low regard for American foreign policy. So that was left to Petraeus. Not to a beltway think-tank.
