Comments on: Saree Makdisi: Obama won’t solve the Middle East crisis

By: Saree Makdisi speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem | Antony Loewenstein

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:57:34 +0000

[...] At the end of September, I introduced in Sydney the leading Palestinian-American intellectual Saree Makdisi (my speech is here and a report is here.) [...]

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:57:12 +0000

Obama can say what he likes but the rest of the world can take anyone in Israel to the ICC if they are dual citizens in countries that are members of the ICC.

And they should put Blair, Bush and Howard with them.

By: ej

ej — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:12:14 +0000

Is Shaun claiming that people of Jewish ethnicity are incapable of committing crimes, especially crimes against humanity, or that people of Jewish ethnicity have privileged status in a unique right to commit such crimes?

By: Shaun

Shaun — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:49:31 +0000

“Even worse, Obama’s ignoring the Goldstone report”

Maybe there is hope for Obama yet. Any person with even a limited knowledge of the arab-Israeli conflict will see the Goldstone report for the vile piece of anti-Semitic propaganda that it is.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:22:41 +0000

Even worse, Obama’s ignoring the Goldstone report: http://jta.org/news/article/2009/09/23/1008097/us-pledges-to-quash-goldstone

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:54:30 +0000

In which nanosecond did the Israeli’s ever offer peace? I would be interested if old hypocrite Vic could tell us all.

By: Just wondering

Just wondering — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:37:14 +0000

“A democracy like any other Western state, such as America or Australia, that theoretically thrives on its multicultural mix, rather than Israel that wants ethnic and racial purity.”
Well, the Middle East isn’t in the West, Israelis and Palestinians aren’t Americans and Australians. America and Australia, countries of immigration (which decimated their indigenous populations) are exceptions in history, not the norm, which is the nation-state based on peoples who claim a privileged connection to a piece of territory. Forcibley transforming Middle Eastern states into our-style democracies… well, that was the Iraq project, wasn’t it?
I notice that Makdisi is Lebanese too (his father, quite distinguished). So why doesn’t he call for Lebanon to become a democracy like any Western state, and give Palestinians born there full citizenship? I suspect he’d be dropped by a lot of his Arab admirers–like a hot potato.