Liberal Palestine

Taufiq Abu Bakr, a columnist for the PA newspaper, Al-Ayyam, wrote recently that this is "The Moment of Opportunity for Arab Liberalism." Abu Bakr regards Pan-Arabism as finished. "Anyone reading [the Pan-Arabists'] newspapers, listening to their media, or watching … [the Arab] satellite channels notices … the total collapse of their ideological structure…." Recent upheavals in the region, he writes, reflect the ideology's spectacular demise.

"[Lately], an opinion poll by Faisal Al-Qassem on his show on Al-Jazeera
television caught my attention? 80% [of respondents] said they preferred
[Western] imperialism to nationalist Arab regimes." According to Abu Bakr, this justifies "international humanitarian intervention."

"For half of a century, [Arab nationalists] rebuked their peoples with the well-known slogan, 'No voice may be louder than the voice of the battle' with Israel and imperialism ? as if victory could be attained with a bundle of explosives, and without democracy that would bring about the liberation of the human potential within [the people]." The Arab world has wasted 50 years, he argues. Liberalism, "stangled in its cradle" by Pan-Arabists, is now a necessity.

Comments

[Stu Reinfeld]

What a coincidence, "Stangled in the Cradle" is the name of my new pop band. See us Friday nights at 8 on channel 54.

[pdog]

Its too bad the ideas of liberalism aren't embraced by the palestenian leadership.

[Anonymous]

Fucking liberal whiny-ass Arab pussies. The "post-western" fucks are bad enough, now we have to hear it from these towel-heads. Give me a fucking fundamentalist Arab anytime who'll stand up and get shot between the eyes. I can't think of anything worse than faggoty-ass Arab fuckers. Someone please murder that Salam Pax shithead, btw.

[Lefty]

He writes, "Only the liberal trend can fight the idea [that some element] has a monopoly over truth, can revise old ideas, and can advance in confidence, stage by stage, without the skipping [of stages] for which the people pay the price in the form of barbarism and savagery?"

Ever since we figured out that oil can be burned and used for power and the Middle East has a lot of it, Europeans have been trying to occupy the place, impose its values and ideas of proper government and generally limit the locals from developing their own systems "stage by stage". Instead, their energy has gone into resisting the outsiders and repressing their citizens. Who knows, though, that maybe this is one of the stages they must go through.

[Anonymous]

" resisting the outsiders and repressing their citizens" says lefty while doing exactly what is the focus of his/her critque, mainly IMPOSING ones values on another culture.

what you call "repression" i call Allah's law.

[SM]

"Europeans have been trying to occupy the place, impose its values" etc
Lefty,

Really ? You seem to think that arabs have never been expansionist & have never tried to impose thier values on any body else ... ever. The only way to conclude as you did is to start reading history from, say, the 16th century on.

[Warren]

I'm betting Israel will keep the Pan-Arab thing going forever. Unless the US were to stop supporting it.

[Anonymous]

those damn jews are behind everything!

[Croesus]

Hmm, anyone who knows anything about Pan-Arabism knows that its early history is replete with calls for adopting Western practices.

[Anonymous]

Liberal....Palestine! Ha, Ha, Ha!!!
I just got that one. Hilarious. Soda came flying out of my nose. You guys are clever with the titles.

[Ms. Gillicuddy]

Fornicating liberal whiny-buttocked middle-eastern felines. As if the "post-western" love-fests weren't bad enough, now we have to also hear it from these turban wearers. Give me a fornicating fundamentalist Arab anytime who'll stand up and gets shot between the eyes. I can't think of anything worse than homosexual-buttocked Arab fornicaters. Someone please end the life of that Salam Pax feces-head.

(Why do I get the feeling that it doesn't quite come across the same in translation?)

Still, I wish the sailors who visit this site would express themselves in a bit more civilized manner. Just because you recently came off the ship, doesn't mean you have to maintain your habit of resorting to profanities.

There are ladies among us, you know.

(And my PC is blushing.)

[Tom]

Ms. Gillicuddy,

"There are ladies among us, you know."

A few years ago, when I worked at a local university, I was walking through the student center and passed a group female students and one male holding a conversation. For some forgotten reason, I had to pause right as I was abreast of them, so I got to hear one of the girls utter a sentence that used "fuck" or a variant as a noun, verb and adjective, all in a single sentence. Not one of her peers blinked an eye.

"Ladies"? Everywhere my wife has worked, from a bank to hospitals to her own office, she has come home and relayed to me co-worker conversations about cock sizes, clit-nibbling, toe sucking and rim jobs. Ya'll have the filthiest mouths around whenever it's just "between us girls".

[jacob]

^ man, i'm a guy myself but i object because you are makign a generalisation, which is probably not always true. anyway it is undeniable that the post was gratuitously vulgar, and not that funny either.

[Jim McArthur]

Jacob, I presume you're referring to the post at 3:06PM?

Trailer park girls have every right to work at banks and hospitals, as long as they have the skills, and as long as I don't have to be abreast of them.

[jacob]

Jim:
heh, you said "abreast."

the vulgar one., was the 3.06 one, yeah. maybe i'm slow but i didn't get what the trailer park thing came from.

[Jim]

Jacob:
(Heh) you said "abreast," too, heh-heh.

OK, maybe we should change "Trailer-park girls" to "Topless-bar girls," or "Ex-street walker girls."

[jacob]

^i should take the opportunity that, whatever cruel illusions the porn industry would like to put us under, there are very few bank workers/doctors by day, street walkers by night.

[jacob]

^re-reading his post, i realsie i've made a horrible mistake.

his generalisation was "Ya'll have the filthiest mouths around whenever it's just "between us girls"."
but for some odd reason i just completely missed the part about how his wife worked in banks and hospitals.

[Geotech]

Women wanted to be treated the same, but don't say naughty words around them.

[Douglas Fletcher]

What's going on, these hit and run posts seem especially stupid today. Is there a full moon or something?

[joe]

"...tell me again how Israel is "relevant to discussions of Middle Eastern politics"

You're f*%&ing kidding me, right? Do you own an atlas?

[joe]

Well Doug, some anonymous shithead threw out the anti-Semitism card as soon as someone suggested that Israel is relevant to discussions of Middle Eastern politics, which seems to have had its intended effect and shut down the discussion compeletely.

[SM]

Actually I don't own an atlas. But what does it matter. I thought Israel was part of the US.

Isn't it?

[SM]

Joe,

OK, tell me again how Israel is "relevant to discussions of Middle Eastern politics", reasonable call for a Palestinian state - FROM PALESTINIANS - excepted ? Are we talking about the "arab street" again ?

[NASHAT]

WHATS UP EVERY 1 I AM REPRESENTING THE FREE COUNTRY PALESTINE SO ALL YOU FUCKERS THAT ARE TRYING TO OCCUPY IT JUST FUCK OFF BCAUSE IF THEY CAN TAKE THEY WOULD OF TOOK IT 50 YEARZ AGO BUT YALL CANT SO GET THE HELL OUT OF IT YOU BITCHES PEACE ON PALESTINE P.L.O