Mohamad Bazzi: Ajami wannabe

People don't understand that the US has room for one or two Ajami. There are many applicants, and the numbers have increased since Sep. 11. Mohamad Bazzi is an applicant. And Ajami had a flowery style: which was nice to read back in 1978 but it gets very old because he is not creative enough to be innovative, even in style, not to mention that what Hanna Batatu told me about him: that he has no insights. Just flowery language. Well, Bazzi does not even have flowery language: he has the style of a phone book. I don't recall meeting Mohamad: I remember he used to call me back in 1993: he was a local reporter in New York City and wanted to break with foreign news. So he saw his chance in the first World Center bombing. He did not know much about the Middle East, and I don't remember him knowing Arabic. He later traveled to the region and wrote articles that merely wrote what the white man was writing about the region. I remember how cautious and afraid he was back in 1993: and it still shows. He never deviates from Zionist wisdom about the Middle East. So I read this really lousy piece: it is basically an English language press release from the Hariri family or the March 14 Movement. And it contains the errors and fallacies of the propaganda of Hariri in Lebanon. He repeats this line: "The UN later determined the area to be Syrian, not Lebanese, territory." The Hariri camp repeats this line because they want to absolve Israel of responsibility. Let me explain this to Bazzi who is teaching journalism to students in New York: the UN does not have the power to determine whether a land is Chinese or Lebanese or Syrian. Border demarcations are bilateral matters determined between countries. The UN does not take a stand on this, and it has no power to do so anyway. When countries agree on border disputes, they deposit the agreement at the UN. That is the only power that the UN has on this. Did you get that? And Israeli is in occupation of the land, whether it is Syrian or Lebanese. And I can bring you people from this area who are Lebanese and who speak in Lebanese southern accent. Notice that he understated the Lebanese victims of the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 by 200. Who is counting when it comes to the native, right Mohamad? Especially when you need to pose as a mimic of the White Man. And notice that he gives detailed estimates of Israeli "victims" but give rough estimates for the Lebanese. He then said: "In recent weeks, Hezbollah officials have ratcheted up their rhetoric." Where have you been? I know that you can't read Arabic but you can read English and read daily threats from Israeli against Lebanon. Even Israeli media have reported that. He then said: "Some political leaders and analysts in Lebanon interpreted Netanyahu's comments as a signal that Israel would no longer distinguish between the Lebanese state and Hezbollah." Distinguished? When does Israel distinguish when it bombs? It bombs barracks and army positions of the Lebanese state? My aunt's house in Qulaylah was also bombed? Distinguish? Are you now memorizing the Arab Mind like people memorize the Qur'an to prove your loyalty? And then Mohamad Bazzi (who seems to applying for a job with the bulletin of AIPAC) said this: "This is a dangerous assumption on Nasrallah's part because the Israelis have shown that they are not willing to live indefinitely with a well-armed Hezbollah." And you think that Lebanon and the Arab world should live indefinitely with a nuclear-armed Israel? If I did not get bored reading this article, I would have said more about it. But I can guarantee you: you have nothing to add to what writers in the New Republic are saying about the Middle East, and your byline is only attractive to them because you have an Arab name, just as Khaled Abu Toameh of the Jerusalem Post has an Arabic name. Have you considered applying for a job at the Jerusalem Post? (thanks Talal)