Ahmad Zuweil

Samar, a scientist at Columbia University, sent me this (I cite with her permission): "I am a big fan of yours and a regular viewer of your blog. Regarding your praise to Ahmed Zewail, I am not sure about the criterion that you used to praise him and based on what, if it is on his vision on the Arab world, I think he deserves your praise. I am not defending him since I don’t know him and I only heard him speaking once at AUB in 2004. I also read an interview with him on Aljazeera (), where he discussed the technological strength of Israel in Middle East and that peace resolutions will not solve the problem, for him it was through technology and science. (I agree with him on this but he forgot to mention power). One of the scientists was right that he went to Israel to receive the Wolf prize and he admits it, (), he does not deserve your praise for this. Also, I don’t know if it was you or one of the professors that read the independent article (August 2006, ) because he did not mention two state resolution in his article at all. I think he was referring to his article in the independent on October 2006 (). I liked his August 2006 article, where he mentioned solutions and his vision on how the Arabs can be powerful and respected by the West. In his article “The future of our world” (), he mentioned that Oslo resolution did not solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since the occupation still exists. I believe that to win a battle and a war you should know your enemy well and be ahead of him in the game, this is how the resistance in 2006 won the war in Lebanon, because they thought ahead of the enemy. I agree with him on one point, that Arabs always like to play the role of the victim and it is always the west conspiracy on the Arabs. But one thing, when there is a will, and despite difficulties, it will always win. Many controversial issues, I leave it to you to decide if he deserves your praise or not. I sent this email to be fair that this person is not as horrible as he was accused by the other people. He deserved the Noble prize and he worked hard for it."