From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun 24 Nov 2002 - 02:09:20 GMT
>From: joedees@bellsouth.net
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Regarding MEMRI
>Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2002 19:11:26 -0600
>
>I respect Chomsky's opinions on these issues little more than I respect
>those of Robert Fisk or Edward Said. What might trouble such types
>about MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute) is that they
>present information and opinions that conflict with the schema which the
>above authors proffer, but which they cannot refute, for what they
>present are the horse's mouth messages of the Muslim government
>officials, media outlets and mullahs themselves, and although they
>might like to kill this translating messenger, the messages are
>authentic, authentically translated, and their sources are voluminously
>documented.
>
>I found the following one to be particularly revealing:
>
>http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR01002
>
>
Ed Said would be an example of a solid presentation of the Palestinian POV.
IIRC, from what I've read, he takes on the sacred cow of Arafat on too, so
nobody is safe from his tractor beams. Chomsky is, of course, an American
Leftist.
Like I said earlier, Joe, you might try picking up one of Avi Shlaim's
books. The recent _The Iron Wall_ is pretty good as is _War and Peace in the
Middle East_. Ahron Bregman brings, as Israeli soldier during Lebanon, an
unexpected perspective in his _Israel's Wars_. I had read the previous
edition where his new book apparently adds more material, including some on
the controversial USS Liberty incident (which has also received much new
coverage in books like Michael Oren's _Six Days of War_, A. Jay Cristol's
_The Liberty Incident_, and James Bamford's _Body of Secrets_).
After reading a bit of Shlaim's _Collusion across the Jordan_, I thought I'd
take an intermission to learn more about Saudi history to see how it squares
with his account wrt Jordan and Abdullah ibn Husayn. After realizing how the
Ikwhan warriors became like Frankensteinian beduin creations of Abdul Aziz
ibn Saud that went a tad too far in their frontier adventures against
British controlled Hashemite Iraq and Jordan, I realized there's more than
meets the eye. Robert Lacey's _The Kingdom_ portrays Abdul Aziz in a much
better light, though still with some foibles.
There's much room for POV in the Middle East.
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