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Total number of comments: 4 (since 2009-10-07 07:09:40)

AlexS

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• Israel's existential crisis comes to New York
  • AlexS March 10, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    People like the counter demonstrators at the Waldorf Astoria and other staunch Israel supporters have such a warped world view that they are way beyond being silenced by simple logical arguments and debate. I think that they are need of professional help as well as organized support groups that gradually lead them (and mainstream American society as a whole) out their current state. Here is a tentative program to help them (and ourselves):

    The Twelve Steps
    of Ziocain Anonymous

    1.We admitted we were powerless over the forces of history, that our ideology had become untenable and obsolete.
    2.We came to believe that an ideology (universalism, the equality of all human beings) greater than our dated tribalism could restore us to sanity.
    3.We made a decision to turn our political views and our sentiments over to the principles of Universalism as inspired by 21st century humanitarian values.
    4.We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and of the historical record of the state of Israel.
    5.We admitted to ourselves, to society and to our friends and family the exact nature of our mistakes and illusions as well as the crimes committed by the state of Israel.
    6.We were entirely ready to replace all these illusions with a clear view and realistic understanding of the middle east conflict.
    7.We humbly declared our change of views and ideology.
    8.We made a list of all persons harmed by the state of Israel (and indirectly harmed by our support for it), and became willing to make amends to them all.
    9.We made direct amends to such people wherever possible (By attending non violent pro-Palestinian events, supporting BDS), except when to do so would injure them or others (i.e not supporting Hamas, Al-Qaeda and similar organizations).
    10.We continued to take personal inventory and when we discovered an inconsistency or a fallacy in our opinions on the middle east conflict we promptly admitted it.
    11.We sought through reading and discussion to improve our knowledge, seeking only to learn about truly just solutions (i.e. secular/bi-national one state solutions) to the middle east conflict and the means to bring them about.
    12.Having had an ideological awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other Zionists, as well as our local media, congressmen and representatives, and to promote and spread these principles whenever debate on the middle east comes up.

• Yet another instance of 'fluent Hebrew and some knowledge of Arabic'
  • AlexS December 9, 2009 at 3:46 am

    AM,
    I am a native speaker (Tunisian), and I agree with the "mutually unintelligible" thesis to some degree. I am fairly certain that you would have a hard time with Maghrebi Arabic Dialects (and I have a hard time with Levantine Arabic). You have to remember that Arabs from different countries 'water down' their vocabulary when speaking with each other. I also think that Sudanese Arabic is a bad example (the exception that proves the rule), because for some reason (probably the fact that Arabic is more of a lingua franca for them than a true native language), their Arabic is really clear and close to MSA. It took you a few days to pick up the Sudanese dialect, but it also takes an Italian only a few days to pick up Spanish.

  • AlexS December 9, 2009 at 3:13 am

    "I know of classically trained students of Islamic Sacred Knowledge from the Indian subcontinent who are able to hold conversations with Arabs of any country almost without a hitch."

    Chinese people who speak very little English, but who have scientific or engineering training, hold conversations with Americans and Britons without a hitch, just as long as the conversation and vocabulary stay within their field of expertise. It doesn't mean that their English is fluent, and neither is the Arabic of Pakistani and Indian Islamic scholars fluent outside of religious discourse.

    "If the differences between the regional dialects of the Arab countries are as profound as the differences between Spanish and Italian, then Arabs would not be able to watch the same films, news channels, and T.V shows."

    Arabs from one country can understand media from other Arab countries through repeated exposure, not through mutual intelligibility of their respective dialects. Second generation Arabs in the west for example usually speak and understand their parents native dialect perfectly but are completely lost when hearing other dialects. On the other hand Spanish and Italian do have a certain level of mutual intelligibility, from the way I've seen Italians and Latin Americans interact.

    "Put simply, the differences between the Arabic dialects are more analogous to the English of the American South, Scotland, Ireland, and Australia. The differences are noticeable, but its still the same language."

    I disagree. Accents from within the same Arab country differ as much as American and Scottish English for example. If you consider dialects from different countries, then the Spanish/Italian/Portuguese analogy is more appropriate. The issue is confused first by the media exposure which makes people more familiar with other dialects, and the fact that native speakers of Arabic usually mix their own dialect with MSA with continuously varying proportion depending on the level of formality required. That means that when two Arabs from different countries meet, they will water down their native dialects with MSA, creating an illusion of speaking the same language.

• 'Israel will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion' Not
  • AlexS October 7, 2009 at 11:37 pm

    There is an interesting mirror situation among the secular and moderate Muslim Arab diaspora: They are perfectly willing to cheer Hamas and Hezballah from the sidelines, but would never want to live in a country rules by either of those parties.

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