When the New York Times eulogizes the Mahmud Darwish. I have been waiting for this. An ignorant obituary of Mahmud Darwish in the New York Times. Ethan Bronner, who knows no Arabic, writes about the poetics of Mahmud Darwish. I should start writing about Russian poetics, not knowing any Russian. He says: "Mr. Darwish had the straight hair, wire-rim glasses and blue blazer of a European intellectual." Oh, yes. Arab intellectuals would never wear wrire-rim glasses or a blue blazer, especially a blue blazer. As is known, blue blazers are as offensive in Arab cultures as tossing shoes in people's faces. He then says: "And while he wrote in classical Arabic rather than in the language of the street." Can you ask Mr. Bronner what "the language of the street" is? Is that the language of tossing shoes? Then Bronner (or some Israeli military brochure) said: "During the war that led to Israel’s independence, Mr. Darwish and his family, from the Palestinian village of Al Barweh, left for Lebanon. The village was razed but the family sneaked back across the border into Israel, where Mr. Darwish spent his youth." First, notice that Mr. Darwish "left" for Lebanon. He must have went for a picnic with his family. Secondly, notice that "the village was razed" but we don't know by who. Who are the unknown criminals who razed the village? I am sure an investigation is undergoing to find out. And then this: "Politically active fairly early, he was arrested several times and was a member of the Israeli Communist Party." He was arrested for his poetry although Bronner makes sound as if he was arrested because he was active in some communist cell with Carlos the Jackal. Bronner also said: "But he quit in the early 1990s over differences with the leadership" but he does not say that he left to protest Oslo accords.