Juan Cole's take on the Israel-Hizbullah conflict

[blitzen]

This is interesting stuff


http://juancole.com/

Bush is aware that the "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon, of which he and the Wall Street Journal were so proud last year, is in danger of being undone. He politely asked the Israelis please not to bring down the Lebanese government, but that is probably as far as he dares go in an election year, given the support for Israel of his evangelical base.

But of course there was always a severe contradiction in the Bush position on the 2005 Lebanese elections, which were the freest and fairest in some time-- given the departure of Syria's military from the country. Those elections brought to power a government in which the hard line Shiite fundamentalist party, Hizbullah, had cabinet posts for the first time. The US under Clinton had consistently warned Beirut not to admit Hizbullah to the government, and even the Bush administration had adopted that position as recently as January of 2004.

A Lebanon with no Syrian troops and Hizbullah in the government was inherently unstable. All the other parties but Hizbullah had disarmed, so it alone had its own paramilitary. With Syria gone, Hizbullah filled a security vacuum and also was less restrained in its policies. While in the country, Syria supported the party, but also curbed its adventurism.

So this was Bush's big success in the Levant. It was as though a chef baked a lopsided wedding cake with a ticking bomb embedded in it, and declared it a culinary breakthrough. Now the bomb has gone off.

[chill_wind]

1. Thanks. Juan Cole is always a very valuable and informative read..

K&R

[enough]

2. Yes -- worth reading the whole thing.

k&r

[Little Star]

8. Good Read. Thanks.

[Jacobin]

3. Finally some actual news and information that's not sloganeering

Juan Cole was recently blackballed to keep him from being a professor at Yale, by a group of Likud Yale alumni. There is a serious interest in this country to promote blind allegiance to Israel, without regard to our own national interests, or the interests of the Middle East as a whole.

http://billmon.org/archives/002463.html

When Cole’s potential hiring became publicly known, several of his detractors, including the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Rubin and Washington Times columnist Joel Mowbray, took various steps to protest the decision. They wrote op-ed pieces in various publications and Mowbray went as far as to send a letter to a dozen of Yale’s major donors, many of whom are Jewish, urging them to call the university and protest Cole’s hiring.

In addition to Rubin and Mowbray, we’ve also had John Fund (the poor man’s Humbert Humbert) sliming Cole on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, David Horowitz doing his impersonation of Andrei Vyshinsky over at Planet Conspiracy, plus the usual blog wannabes, like the Powerlie bundists and the little green fascists, bringing up the rear – the tail end (in more ways than one) of the lynch mob.

Of course, the Likudniks (American branch) put out the contract on Juan Cole long ago. But until recently the hit men have consistently missed their target – or, like Jonah Goldberg, have staggered back to their hideouts with their guns wedged firmly in their own rectums. Mowbray has practically made Cole his pet journalistic obsessive compulsive disorder (on Rev. Moon's dime) but this had had only trivial effects – if even that – on Cole’s credibility and access to the mainstream media.

But with the Yale deal, the gang that couldn’t shoot straight finally found an opening – a way to use money and influence to achieve what lies and slander could not. And so one of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning (I use the term loosely) was given an offer it couldn’t refuse. Again, we turn to that scurrilous pro-terrorist propaganda rag, the Jewish Week, for the details

More at link

[Swamp Rat]

6. yep

[Onus]

11. Ouch!

"Again, we turn to that scurrilous pro-terrorist propaganda rag, the Jewish Week, for the details"

Tell us how you really feel. LOL

[stangoodwin]

17. Interesting

Juan is also a former member of the Baha'i faith and ran into trouble with the Baha'i Administrative Order, HQ ('Universal House of Justice') located in Haifa, Israel.
Juan, and other Baha'i academics, objected to the Baha'i A.O. 'review' policy under which any publication written by a Baha'i concerning the faith had to be submitted to the A.O. for prior review.
Juan (quite rightly) refused to submit his book "Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth Century Middle East" (Columbia University Press).

I cannot recall if the A.O. 'removed his voting rights' or if Juan simply quit.
It was a sad and unnecessary loss for the Baha'i community that likes to portray itself as liberal, progressive and just.

These days Juan is persona non grata within the Baha'i community and receives only oblique/veiled disdainful reference- i.e. "A certain former Baha'i academic".

While Juan's opinion is respected and consistently sought nobody is knocking on the Baha'i A.O. door to see what they think.

Stan, a lapsed inactive Baha'i.

PS. Here's David Horrorwitz's 'valuable' opinion-

"The war reveals the impossibility of a Palestinian state and the necessity of a civilized occupying force in a region that is populated by a people who have been terminally brainwashed into an ideology of hate, which makes their self-government a crime waiting to happen."

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23362

[Straight Shooter]

4. Juan Cole, one of the few voices of reason remaining. n/t

[meganmonkey]

5. Kick

[MamaBear]

7. Kick

[dave123williams]

9. self delete.

[Stardust]

10. But did you catch this: Bush, who is cleverer than most give him credit

for, knows all this and that is why he is afraid that Israeli aggression and over-reaction will reduce the Cedar Revolution to mere ashes.

As Randi Rhodes would say, Are ya kiddin' me, man?

Does this mean all of us out here who consider him the stupidest person in the world have been wrong all this time?????? Arrrrrrgh.

[The Bastard1]

12. Isn't Interesting

That the Israel lobby and the evangelical right are so closely tied. How does religion play into this I wonder?

[iamjoy]

15. Supposedly, Revelations

not that I've read it.

I've heard some evangelicals believe that in order for their Christ to return, Israel must be restored as it was in the days of Jesus. They would cheerfully support the El-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem so that the great third temple may be built and the prophecy can be fulfilled.

In any case, many evangelicals see this as part of the signs of the apocalypse, which they wish to hasten.

[Donna Zen]

18. Add to Revelations:

The Shi'ite belief that the 12th Imman will return under similar circumstances.

[me b zola]

13. k&r

[rabblerowzer]

14. Are you not entertained?

What did you make of George Bush's most recent performances as Commander and Chief, the Decider, and the War President of the United States?

Watch his face and body language. Didn't he strike you as a mischievous little boy gleefully enjoying a scam he'd pulled off with great cleverness? Rove was the director, but Bush stood all alone on the stage, the great actor playing to the mob. Were you touched by his concern that Israel show restraint and make every effort to limit the loss of life?

Isn’t this exciting? Watching war on TV is much better than watching gladiators fight to the death in the coliseum. War has become the ultimate spectator sport. Are you not entertained?

Israeli aggression in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza is a win-win situation for Bush. No matter how it turns out , he can't be blamed for widening the war. It wasn't his fault, the Israelis did it. His hands are tied.

Watch Bush’s ratings climb, the 2006 election is in the bag.

[Stardust]

19. "Watch Bush's ratings climb...." NOOOOOOOOO - Say it ain't so!!!

[iamjoy]

16. This Is Especially Interesting

"Israel is apparently hoping, by bombing the Beirut airport and other irrelevant targets, to put pressure on the rest of the Lebanese to turn against Hizbullah and curb it themselves."

yeah, like that's going to happen. They're only turning people against Israel.

[killbotfactory]

20. I'm guessing it will work as well as it did for Bin Laden

When Al-Qaeda struck the WTC in order to get us out of the Holy Lands and stop supporting Israel.