The American Left and the Middle East: The Case of Marc Cooper, II. (Anti-Israel). Marc Cooper replies to my critique (see below) of his post on the carnage in Lebanon. I shall reply to his reply. Well, at least Cooper is honest to admit that he is opposed to attacks on Israeli troops at any time. So he made my point for me: my suspicion was that he was not sincere when he argued against the "timing" of an attack on an Israeli military target. So the entire argument about timing was bogus. But Cooper may not have noticed that Israel leisurely and regularly "comes" to Lebanon--or "enters" Lebanon to use the language of the US media these days, and kidnaps civilians, especially fishermen (regularly) and some of them--like one fisherman from my home town of Tyre--never come back again. Shepherds in South Lebanon get killed by Israeli gunfire, but I don't see Cooper even noticing those kidnappings and those murders. But then again; I know that we Arabs are not as prestigious a race. Point well taken, here. It is interesting that Cooper casually refers to Hizbullah attacks on Israeli civilians as "terrorist" while he would not call Israeli massive and regular killing of Arab civilians as terrorist. So it all depends on the race, religion, and nationality of the victims and the race, religion, and nationality of the killers, no? And Mr. Cooper did not notice that the shelling of civilians was started by Israel and not by Hizbullah, at least in this round, but then again, he may find Israeli terrorism to be cute and adorable. Point well taken, here too. Cooper then explains to us that he has no sympathy for Hizbullah's ideology: that I understand. As a leftist--a consistent leftist at that--I also have no sympathy for Hizbullah's ideology, but Israel--in case you have not noticed Mr. Cooper--is not bombing Hizbullah's ideology, but is bombing the whole of Lebanon. But nice try here to rationalize Israeli bombing campaigns. Point well taken, here too. But Cooper does not seem informed about the politics of Lebanon or of that party--it is not true for example that Hizbullah is anti-Sunni. But as a leftist, should Cooper not also be willing to express his strong opposition to ruling Israeli ideologies which also have been, to use his own language, quasi-fascist and the rest? But again, his omission is again confirming my point about his bias, and confirms my larger point about the American left. He talks about a coup d'etat against the Lebanese government: I here have no idea what he is talking about here, perhaps because he does not know that Hizbullah has two ministers in the Lebanese cabinet, and has a large bloc in the parliament. But as a leftist, Cooper should not be sympathetic to a government in Lebanon that is following the recipe of the World Bank and IMF, and which has only one female minister--and an anti-Feminist one at that--unlike the last two Lebanese cabinets, assuming Cooper cares about that. And he should criticize Hizbullah, as I do, for even participating in a government that has no sympathy for the needs of the poor and needy in Lebanon. And then Cooper does what every Zionist does: blame the Israeli killing of Arabs on Arabs. The victims are always guilty for inviting their Israeli killers to kill them. I used to read that in Midstream magazine all the time. Cooper should revive that militant Zionist magazine. Also, I don't know if Cooper knows what I know. That Israel has inflicted this level of damage and destruction on Lebanon before, when I was growing up, for example: that was when Hizbullah did not even exist, o Marc Cooper. As Nixon would have said: Hizbullah did not exist to kick around back then, Mr. Cooper. And that was when the dominant parties in South Lebanon were LEFTIST parties. In the 1960s and 1970s, Israel was also perpetrating regular massacres in Lebanon against Lebanese and Palestinian civilians and you would not be able to blame that on Hizbullah. So what about that, Marc Cooper?