Ahmad Chalabi and Ajami: In an interview on Al-Arabiyya, neo-con Fouad Ajami talked about his recent visit to Najaf in last July. He said that "he was honored" to have been given "the gift" of a meeting with Grand (not really) Ayatollah Sistani. He said that this meeting was arranged for him by his friend from years ago, Ahmad Chalabi. Ajami said that you cannot grant Iraq an "Arab identity" because that would exclude and kick out Kurds and Turkomens. But would he dare apply that standard to Israel? Would he ever dare say that the Jewish identity of Israel also excludes and kicks out Muslims and Christians? And there are three repugnant cliches that are still invoked in most American analysis of the Arab world: 1) that Islam is a way of life--what does that mean anyway? Ask Bernard Lewis; 2) that people in the region abide by the proverb me-and-my-brother-against-my-cousin, and me-and-my-cousin-against-the-stranger (Halim Barakat has a nice response to that in his book on Arab society and he talks about the contradictory proverbs in Arab society); 3) the notion of `Asabiyyah vulgarly applied (not the way Ibn Khaldun dealt with it about ruling dynasties). Ajami played with the 3rd cliches in his interview. And like Elie Keddourie, Ajami does not believe there is a really secular Arab. He believes that every secular Arab is deep down sectarian, especially if she/he supports Arab nationalism. But those who support Zionist nationalism like him are not sectarian, he assumes.