The Times They Are a-Changin'

Philip Weiss, a journalist interested in ethnicity in America and Jewish power, believes that the narrative on Israel is changing in the corridors of the elite and even in the mainstream press. Today he points us to a Max Rodenbeck review in the NY Times as evidence:

'A Path Out of the Desert,' by Kenneth M. Pollack - Review by Max Rodenbeck.

"Pollack seems oddly unaware of history’s motivating forces. To assert that “what triggers revolutions, civil wars and other internal unrest is psychological factors, particularly feelings of extreme despair,” is plain silly. The Boston Tea Party could not have been prevented by Prozac. Similarly, he ascribes feelings to broad categories of Middle Easterners, devoid of any context or explanation. They are “angry populations” who suffer “inchoate frustration” and “a pathological hatred of the status quo.” We repeatedly hear of “Arab rage at Israel” and “Arab venom for Israel.” Nowhere is there a hint that such attitudes might bear some relation to the plight of the Palestinians, the agony of military defeat or the humiliation of life under Israeli occupation.

"In fact, the book’s most salient distortions stem from Pollack’s protectiveness toward Israel. He makes some absurdly cockeyed assertions, like, “America’s support for Israel over the years has even been a critical element in winning and securing Arab allies.” He offers misleading false alternatives, declaring, for instance, that there is “absolutely no reason to believe that ending American support for Israel would somehow eliminate” the risk of Islamist zealots taking power and cutting oil exports. How about making aid to Israel, and not just to Arabs, conditional, or aiming at mitigating, rather than eliminating, such risks? Pollack makes a peculiarly acrobatic effort to prove that hostility to Israel is not a prime motivating factor behind militant jihadism, repeating this assertion no fewer than four times in two paragraphs. Has he not bothered to listen to Osama bin Laden’s addresses to the American people, where he said that what converted him from dreamer to murderous activist was Israeli bombs falling on Beirut in 1982?"

Go get 'em, Max.

Rodenbeck grew up in Cairo, is fluent in written and spoken Arabic, and is the son of the man who brought Naguib Mahfouz's books into English (professor and former American University in Cairo Press publisher). I knew Rodenbeck in Cairo 25 years ago and still hear tell of him through mutual friends. No other journalist in English has his contacts and his depth of experience in Egypt and the larger Middle East.

What's significant here is that the New York Times had the guts to run the Rodenbeck piece with these acerbic, typically Rodenbeckian skewers. Perhaps the Times notices the shift in sentiment, and feels safe enough to print such comments. Philip Weiss has been predicting a sea change, saying that the book by Walt and Mearsheimer caused a shift in what is acceptable in American discourse on the Middle East. He sees this Rodenbeck piece in the Times as more evidence of that shift. I think he's right.

Max's book on Cairo is probably no longer in print but is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand that city, its history and its present. You also get a good whiff of Max's personality, that sheesha-smoking, dart-throwing cynic in love with Egypt in spite of himself. Rodenbeck, the Middle East bureau correspondent for the Economist, doesn't need the New York publishing world so he can't be shut out or intimidated.

A profile of Rodenbeck's father, a colorful character and Arabist in his own right.

Comments

[Diamond Jim]

Max Rodenbeck is one of the reasons I keep buying the New York Review of Books in spite of its lack of a copyeditor. Good to see him in the Times.

[Donald Johnson]

Yeah, that was a big surprise, seeing those comments in the NYT. Though in the past few years the Book Review has been letting a few writers stray off the neoliberal reservation. I'm waiting for someone with those views to have a regular column on the op-ed page--so far only Kristof has come anywhere close to saying stuff like this.

[LeaNder]

boooo, it's dangerous here, you link up to man interesting blogs and books ... time time time.

Thanks. Interesting. Hoping you are fine.