Edward Said as a Defeatist Mouthpiece

Let me make it clear from the onset that we have to distinguish
between Edward Said the intellectual and Edward Said's political
line on Palestine and Arab issues. If someone is a great musician,
that doesn't necessarily make them a great general. And if someone
is a great social scientist, that doesn't necessarily make them
a great social engineer.

So cutting through all the exaggerated hype about Edward Said's
alleged role in the Palestinian struggle, I would like to get
right down to the issues that make him in effect a mouthpiece
of the present state of Palestinian defeat:

1) Terminology: Said refers to the Arab-Zionist struggle as the
"Palestinian-Israeli" conflict. This reduces the struggle between
us and Zionists into a mere territorial one, therefore a resolvable
one, but on the basis of recognizing the legitimacy of the Zionist
colonial presence in Palestine. Said forgets that "Israel" is not
just a racist state, but a settler-invader state. "Israel's"
racism is the outward manifestation of that. In the process
negating the identity of Palestine as Arab, and turning the
cause into a matter of obtaining Palestinians the rights due
a minority group. Of course, Said is also vehmently opposed
to Arab nationalism, but that's a different issue.

2) The Holocaust: Said demands of us not to ever question the
Holocaust. He buys into and sells wholeheartedly the Zionist
argument about the necessary linkage between the Holocaust and
the rape of Palestine. (The World Zionist Conference took place
in 1897! The Balfour Declaration in 1917! The Holocaust ???) Roger
Garaudy, one of the very few intellectuals in the West who dared
to stand up courageously to the overwhelming predominance of Zionist
propaganda worldwide, is badmouthed by Said in solidarity with the
mainstream media.

3) Human Bombs: Said wants Palestinians to give up and condemn this
form of legitimate struggle against colonialists as "terrorism". He
equates Hamas with Zionists (as he did again in his most fervent article
in Le Monde Diplomatique August/September 1998). He wants us to believe
that we could fight the COLONIALISTS with non-violence. Said ignores
the fact that if it wasn't for the Intifada, and for Hamas (whether you
like it or hate it), "Israel" would have never talked to Arafat.

4) The Siege on Iraq: In one of his more insolent articles about a year
ago, Said demanded that Iraq abide by all U.N resolutions just as the
U.S. government was amassing hardware and troops to strike Iraq. Said
thinks that Iraq should have permanent monitoring lest it develops
"weapons of mass destruction"!! The Arab imbalance of power with
"Israel" notwithstanding. His priority to overthrow the Iraqi regime
seems to override the urgent need to lift the siege on Iraq NOW.

5) History: After promoting peace with Zionists throughout the
seventies and early eighties in numerous writings, Said now presents
himself as an oppositionist. In fact, sources close to Arafat relayed
a few years ago that Said tried to play a role in the negotiations
bringing an alleged U.S.-sponsored "peace plan" with him but Arafat
turned him down because a) he doesn't trust intellectuals, and
b) he likes to recruit his own pawns!! REGARDLESS OF THE TRUTH OF
THIS ANECDOTE however, we can safely say that Said may oppose Oslo,
but he's surely no radical oppositionist..

Anyone who operates within the received parameters of recognizing
the legitimacy of "Israel", the sanctity of the Jewish holocaust,
the adoption of the Zionist notion of Palestinian "terrorism",
regurgitating furthermore the official CNN line on the need to
contain Iraq's military threat to the region in the long-run,
cannot possibly be our long-lost Salahiddin. Edward Said by
religiously accepting and promoting these limits as sacred, has
effectively become an enforcer of the status quo and a mouthpiece
of defeatism under the New World Order. Otherwise, any human rights
organization can give you all the relevant statistics about house
demolitions, administrative detention, land confiscation, and what
have you, IF YOU CHOOSE TO DE-LINK THOSE PRACTICES FROM THE MERE
EXISTENCE OF "ISRAEL" AND ITS COLONIALIST, RACIST, AND MILITARISTIC
NATURE and whole history.

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