Imagine for a moment you're a general about to embark on a decisive military campaign and your intelligence service secures a copy of your opponent's entire campaign strategy. You open it and you see his battle plans laid out before you, key forces, weaponry, lines of attack, points of weaknesses, etc. You suddenly understand just how weak his forces are and precisely how to mercilessly attack and eviscerate him. The plan makes you understand that his forces are largely based on artifice and sham. It gives you confidence that you are entirely on the right course and tells you how to stay on that course. Victory is assured, your enemy's defeat certain. Douglas Bloomfield and Newsweek have done pretty close to that against the Israel lobby. Specifically, they've exposed a secret hasbara handbook written for The Israel Project by star Republican marketer, Frank Luntz.
The oddly-named Global Language Dictionary is a veritable goldmine of arguments, strategy, tactics. At 116 pages, it's not for the faint of heart. But anyone who wants to get inside the head of the Israel lobby must read this document. I know my enthusiasm will mark me as a real I-P wonk, but this is the real deal and worth spending some time parsing and deconstructing.
The first thing to say is that the entire document is a pathetic piece of propaganda. While it ostensibly is addressed to TIP's leaders and advises them how to shape a pro-Israel message when they lobby Congress, the media and other critical power brokers, the entire thing reeks of desperation and a lost cause.
It goes without saying that the arguments offered are not only devoid of truth, they're devoid of rigor or credibility. There is literally no substance to the claims offered on Israel's behalf. It's an empty exercise in every sense of the word. Reading this makes you realize that the entire Israel lobby edifice is a house of cards.
Perhaps I'm letting my shock at the shabbiness of the Dictionary get the better of me and overstating the case it reveals against the Lobby. After all, any political network that exists for six decades and achieves as much as this one has doesn't topple overnight. But I'll just have to let you be the judge.
One aspect of this I find extraordinary and entirely dubious is the choice of the Republican campaign pollster Frank Luntz to write this report. This indicates, as I've always maintained, that the Lobby is totally tone deaf to the political environment. We have a democratic president and two Houses of Congress under Democratic control for the first time in a few decades. Pragmatic liberalism is ascendant. Neo-conservatism and Bushian Republicanism are in retreat. And who does TIP chose to make the case for Israel? A right-wing Republican spinmeister. Remarkable. But one thing I must say is that this is a good sign for our side. If our opponents are as wooden as they appear, then they will topple themselves without needing much help from us.
The tragic murder of Marwa SherbiniBy now many Muslims have heard of the tragic murder of Marwa el-Sherbini, mother, daughter, wife, pharmacist, who lived in Germany while her husband completed his Ph.D. May God give her peace and grant her paradise.
According to the BBC:
Marwa Sherbini, 31, was stabbed 18 times by Axel W, who is now under arrest in Dresden for suspected murder. Husband Elwi Okaz is also in a critical condition in hospital, after being injured as he tried to save his wife. Ms Sherbini had sued her killer after he called her a “terrorist” because of her headscarf.
Sherbini, who was pregnant at the time, had sued and won the case. At this point in time they had been in the courthouse to hear Axel/Alex’s appeal.
According to CNN:
The man, identified in German media as Alex A., 28, was convicted of calling Sherbini, who wore a headscarf, “terrorist,” “bitch” and “Islamist” when she asked him to leave a swing for her 3-year-old son Mustafa during an August 2008 visit to a children’s park.
Subsequently, Sherbini sued W. for his Islamophobic rant.
Christian Avenarius, the prosecutor in Dresden where the incident took place, described the killer as driven by a deep hatred of Muslims. “It was very clearly a xenophobic attack of a fanatical lone wolf.”
He added that the attacker was a Russian of German descent who had immigrated to Germany in 2003 and had expressed his contempt for Muslims at the start of the trial.
The Islamophobic and racist nature of the attack is clear. If one follows the events as reported by the media, it appears clear that this man was driven by a hate of Muslims. He initially referred to her in Islamophobic ways and was thus sued and lost. He then attacked her again, though the nature of the attack is unclear, which resulted in prosecutors seeking a jail term for W. He then murdered Sherbini in the courtroom, yelling “[y]ou have no right to live.”
Georgia State University stands behind a professor who discriminated against an Arab and Muslim womanBehind the tears she shed on CNN this past 4th of July weekend is a brilliant, brave and beautiful 25 year old woman by the name of Slma Shelbayah. A doctoral student in Journalism and guest professor at Georgia State University, it appears the system geared up against her in a most ill-mannered way. It seemed okay in 2008 for a University Professor to harass a Muslim student and get away with it.
You ask why? The answer is, because they could, and also because an Arab "girl" who wears a Hijab can't demand respect from a professor who is the Graduate Director in the Department of Communications. A woman committed to following Islam and the call by the Holy Qu'ran to dress modestly has to swallow the tenured Professor's constant queries if she is "wearing a bomb" in her hair underneath that scarf. After all, this professor is beyond reproach.
She penned eight books on presidential communication and rhetoric, including national identity, strategic failures and the pre-presidential and presidential rhetoric of Ronald Reagan. Her recent book Defining Americans puts Dr. Mary Stuckey in the position as "Commander In Chief" of what it is to be an American and a person like student Professor Slma Shelbayah does not fit because she covers her head.
When Dr. Stuckey who has appeared on CSPAN and active in the Women's Caucus was confronted by student Professor Shelbayah for these anti-Arab/Muslim comments, she just said, "sorry." However, to show how remorseful she was, with University approval she stripped Shelbayah of her guest professorship.
Additionally, she lost her position in the Department of Middle East Institute Exchange Program and worst of all she lost her financial support to complete her doctoral studies. Shelbayah has been reduced to nothing because she wants her freedom of religion and expression to be upheld.
In protest, tenured professor Dona Stewart stepped down as director of the University's Middle East Institute. She filed a discrimination complaint with the Justice Department. It is quite noble she is standing with Shelbayah. Stewart's job is safe. She received a promotion at Georgia State University and it will be interesting to see how hard she will continue to push to make sure that student Professor Shelbayah receives restitution for being treated as less-than for being Arab and Muslim. Professor Stewart should not be so naïve to think this issue is only about Civil Rights. Perhaps focusing on this aspect of it along gives her comfort to fight for justice. The Anti Arab/Muslim fight is perhaps too messy.
Georgia State University should be ashamed for allowing a woman who in 2004 completed her Bachelors degree at this institution in only two years become reduced to this level of humiliation. By the way, Shelbayah received her Masters at Georgia State as well. The retaliation she received is thanks for her loyalty to Georgia State University.
A determined young lady, when student Professor Shelbayah was 20-years old she pushed through her undergraduate education registering and completing between 16 to 18 hours worth of course work per semester while simultaneously holding a job at a bookstore and interning at CBS 46. She even taught religious and Arabic classes and interacted with youth groups.
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন