The other day I did a post quoting a foreigner, an “Arabist,” commenting on Israel’s transformation of the Middle East and other matters. This was deceptive and I regret it. The man is an Arab. Yes he’s an Arabist but that was stupid of me. Apologies. I hope to say more about him down the road, because I find him so interesting.
The Arab said two other things I want to mention now. First, having studied himself in the U.S., he said that Arabs of his age chiefly studied engineering. To learn a useful skill, help their countries, etc. These days Arab-Americans have advanced, the way the Jews did, and their kids are often studying social science, and are daring to speak out more about the Situation. I have observed this trend myself. There are a lot of Ivy League Palestinians. A lot of them are privileged. They are going to play a more prominent role in this conversation. Compare to John Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, a Palestinian-American who studied nuclear engineering. Sununu has lately been eloquent on the subject of the lobby. In the old days he used to keep his head down more.
Something else. My Arab friend says I quoted the wrong JFK letter opposing Israeli nukes in 1963 that has become the fodder of theorists who say the JFK assassination was related to this stance. I quoted a mild August ’63 letter. The real deal is a much firmer letter from JFK to the Israeli PM in July where he says that the U.S. demands to know whether the program is for peaceful purposes and wants to send in nuclear investigators. Here’s that letter in 3 parts, 1 and 2, and 3, then in full on Maurice Epinay’s blog. What I take from this is that the U.S. tried to stop the nuclearization of the Middle East more than 40 years ago, but on that occasion did not threaten an attack. How are we doing?
