Justin Elliott posted this a few weeks back, but it’s still divine. I believe this is a form of logorrhoea on the part of the most important columnist in the solar system (who advocated for war on Iraq).
“Thomas Friedman dreams of a Syrian/Arab/Sunni/Shiite/Egyptian/Tunisian/Libyan Mandela, a short history:”
Without an external midwife or a Syrian Mandela, the fires of conflict could burn for a long time. http://nyti.ms/OE8Iux
America midwifed that social contract-writing in Iraq, but Egypt will need a Nelson Mandela. http://nyti.ms/OE8T9j
These sectarian divisions have prevented national leaders from emerging — and no Arab Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr. has been able to rise above them to heal the rifts. http://nyti.ms/OE91FJ
We know, though, that there will be no impartial outside midwife to guide the transitions in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. Can they each make it without one? Only if they develop their own Nelson Mandelas … http://nyti.ms/OE9bwR
The Arab world desperately needs its versions of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela … http://nyti.ms/OE9qrN
They need to grow their own arbiters — their own Arab Nelson Mandelas. http://nyti.ms/OE9yrk
But it will be impossible without Iraqi Shiite and Sunni Mandelas ready to let the future bury the past. http://nyti.ms/OE9LuK
The ideal but least likely scenario is that we see the emergence of an Iraqi Shiite Nelson Mandela. http://nyti.ms/OE9VSR
There is nothing that you can’t do to someone in the Middle East today, and there is no leader or movement — no Nelson Mandela and no million-mom march — coming out of this region, or into this region, to put a stop to the madness. http://nyti.ms/OEa7l5
From what I understand Palestinian Mandela’s have been thrown in prison by Israel or killed over the decades. Mandela received world wide news coverage. Have Palestinian Mandela’s received world wide coverage?
Instead of a Mandela, Palestine has Handala
http://www.handala.org/
Friedman will be remembered as a nonsense monger
RE: “this is a form of logorrhoea” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: Nice word. Me likes!
Sounds a bit like an Italian veranda.
MERRIAM-WEBSTER:
The ridiculous thing is that Nelson Mandela and what he stood for is simply somewhat irrelevant to the issues involved in the Arab Spring. This isn’t about peacefully ending the rules of explicitly racial oligarchies — except of course in Israel, and it is precisely there that Friedman does not call for ‘a Mandela’.
I tend to suspect that behind calls such as Friedman’s lies an unspoken hope that the change can be averted — or at least miraculously transmogrified. That all these Muslims — finally rising up and trying to get what they want — can somehow be convinced to seek what we want.
…and it always gets back to Israel. Because, of course, a strong Muslim world that was reaching for what it wanted would, among other things, want an end to Israel.
…and for Friedman, such a thought is intolerable. It always gets back to Israel. She’s always in the room — even when no one says her name.
A new book about Friedman looks good: Thomas Friedman, The Imperial Messenger, by Belen Fernandez. Disclosure alert: I haven’t read it, but it looks good.
http://www.versobooks.com/books/1024-the-imperial-messenger
Friedman has a graduate degree from a prestigious British university, but still
gets the big picture wrong, often. For example, he saw the big demonstrations that toppled Mubarak, and Friedman proclaimed that the Egyptian movement had no interest in foreign policy. What’s that, you say? The demonstrations featured large banners proclaiming solidarity with the Palestinians. Why did Friedman ignore the banners? Because the banners were in Arabic (duh!) and Friedman (the “expert”) doesn’t understand Arabic.
As for the Arab Gandhi, I nominate the Iraqi journalist Zaiidi, who provoked an explosion of public support a few years ago when he threw his shoes at George W. Bush. Offers of gifts poured in from the Arab world. One man offered to give Zaiidi a camel! Another man offered a house (!!) One man offered his daughter’s hand in marriage (!!!) Several more liberated ladies offered their OWN hands in marriage (!!!!)