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WHO RULES: THE ISRAEL LOBBY
OR UNCLE SAM?
The answer
at last! Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, assesses the Lobby's
power. "If the Israeli government wanted a law tomorrow
annulling the 10 Commandments, 95 U.S. Senators (at least) would
sign the bill forthwith." But, yes, in the end the dog wags
the tail.Fifty
years ago Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" blew the cobwebs
out of millions of young minds and drove a stake through the
heart of Eisenhower's America. Lenni Brenner remembers Ginsberg
in the East Village.Dr Mengele died in exile, in disguise. Dr Ishii
died rich and recognized, in his own Tokyo home. Christopher
Reed on Japanese WW2 medical tortures and how the U.S. covered
them up.CounterPunch
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Being a Muslim today--in the middle
of America's 'war against global terrorism'--carries some new
hazards. But it is not without its bright side for a few Muslims
who are eager to profit from this war.
Muslims need little tutoring
in the hazards they now face. Many tens of thousands are already
dead in wars imposed by the United States--on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The death toll is expected to climb, perhaps steeply, as these
wars are carried to Iran, Syria or Pakistan. Iranians also face
the prospect--perhaps, imminent--of incineration in nuclear strikes.
Death or dislocation in wars
are not the only hazards that confront Muslims. In principle,
any Muslim can also become the object of 'extraordinary renditions.'
No matter where they happen to be, they could be kidnapped by
the CIA, hooded, and transported to secret offshore US prisons,
or delivered into the hands of US-friendly regimes with expertise
in the fine arts of interrogation. No one knows how many Muslims
have suffered this cruel fate--or how many of them are still
alive.
By comparison, Muslims who
are captured or bought, and imprisoned in Guantanamo as 'enemy
combatants,' are lucky. After facing down several legal challenges
to these detentions, the US now brings these prisoners before
military review boards. Although many of them have been cleared
of any terrorist connections, it is quite touching that the US
is now refusing to release them--it says--because they could
be tortured by their own governments. The prisoners can now thank
the US for offering sanctuary.
In fairness, America's 'war
against global terrorism' has also created a few hard-to-resist
opportunities. The chief beneficiaries of the new US posture
are the Muslim rulers eager to get the US more firmly behind
the wars they have been waging against their own people. They
are happy to torture Muslims 'rendered'
to them by the CIA, and, periodically, they capture their own
'terrorists' and put them on flights to Guantanamo.
The 'war against global terrorism'
is also a war of ideas. In order to defeat the 'terrorists' the
US must win the hearts and minds of Muslims. This is where Muslims
can help. The US needs a few 'good' Muslims to persuade the 'bad'
ones to reform their religion, to learn to appreciate the inestimable
benefits of Pax America and Pax Israelica.
In the heyday of the old colonialism,
the white man did not need any help from the natives in putting
down their religion and culture. Indeed, he preferred to do it
himself. Then, the opinion of the natives carried little weight
with the whites anyway. So why bother to recruit them to denounce
their own people. As a result, Orientalists wrote countless tomes
denigrating the cultures of the lesser breeds.
Today the West needs help in
putting down the uppity natives--especially the Muslims. One
reason for this is that with the death of the old colonialism,
some natives have begun to talk for themselves. A few
are even talking back at the Orientalists raising all sorts of
uncomfortable questions. This hasn't been good: and something
had to be done about it. In the 1970s the West began to patronize
'natives' who were deft at putting down their own people. Was
the West losing its confidence?
The demand for 'native' Orientalists
was strong. The pay for such turncoats was good too. Soon a whole
crop of native Orientalists arrived on the scene. Perhaps, the
most distinguished members of this coterie include Nirad Chaudhuri,
V. S. Naipaul, Fouad Ajami and Salman Rushdi. They are some of
the best loved natives in the West.
Then there came the 'war against
global terrorism' creating an instant boom in the market for
Orientalists of Muslim vintage. The West now demanded Muslims
who would diagnose their own problems as the West wanted to see
them--as the unavoidable failings of their religion and culture.
The West now demanded Muslims who would range themselves against
their own people--who would denounce the just struggles of their
own people as moral aberrations, as symptoms of a sick society.
So far these boom conditions
have not evoked a copious supply of Muslim Orientalists. Irshad
Manji has made herself the most visible na-tive Orientalist by
cravenly playing to Western and Zionist demands for demonizing
Muslims and Palestinians. I can think of a few others, but they
have little to recommend themselves other than their mediocrity.
This must be a bit disappointing for those who had pinned their
hopes on using Muslim defectors to win the battle for Muslim
hearts and minds.
There are some indications
that this disappointment is turning to desperation. On March
11 the New York Times published a front page story on
Dr. Wafa Sultan, "a largely unknown Syrian-American psychiatrist,
nursing a deep anger and despair about her fellow Muslims."
Deep anger and despair at fellow Muslims? Are these the new qualifications
for Muslims to gain visibility in America's most prestigious
newspaper?
If the only Muslims that the
United States can recruit in its battle for ideas are at best
mediocrities or worse--nobodies--what chance is there that it
can win the battle for Muslim hearts and minds? The short answer
is: very little. Muslims are not helpless children. You cannot
molest them and then expect to mollify them with trifles and
protestations of pure intentions. That may have worked for a
while. It will not work for ever.
Muslims are too large and too
dense a mass to be moved by wars. Military might could not break
the spirit of Palestinians, Afghans, Bosnians, Chechens, Lebanese,
Moros and Iraqis. What chance is there that wars will be more
effective if applied against larger masses of Muslims?
The United States cannot expect
to change Muslims unless it first thinks seriously about changing
its policies towards Muslims. Americans must stop deluding
themselves. Muslims do not hate their freedom: they only want
that freedom for themselves. The United States and Israel seek
to build their power over a mass of prostrate Muslim bodies.
Stop doing that and then you will have a chance to win Muslim
hearts and minds.
M. Shahid Alam is professor economics at a university
in Boston. He may be reached at alqalam02760@yahoo.com.
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