From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Sun 24 Nov 2002 - 02:36:25 GMT
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> >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.
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> >I found the following one to be particularly revealing:
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> >http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR01002
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> >
> 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.
>
Arafat is only a sacred cow to some American and British leftists; he is
not widely respected by his fellow Palestinians, who have for years
seen him operate up close and personal. Edward Said, of course,
wrote ORIENTALISM, a work that is now widely recognized as one of
the prime pieces of ant-intellectual, questioning-closing-off propaganda
in recent history.
>
> 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_).
>
The USS Liberty incident is a shameful stain on Israel's history.
>
> 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.
>
Yeah, opinions and interpretations vary, but few of the facts are in
serious dispute. Didja notice, though, that when I indulged in a little
sacred cow-tipping of my own, that the anti-US, anti-Israel memeboids
on the list rose up on their hind limbs in self-righteous wrath to hurl
cowpies at me?
>
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>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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