Comrade Talal sent me this take on the Wolfensohn Affair (I cite with his permission): "This is an entertaining affair that manages to reveal several things. Fundamentally, Wolfensohn can be thought of representative of a moderate wing of the Zionist movement (I know you do not ascribe to such 'wings" theory, but suspend you disbelieve for a second). At another level, as the former head of the World Bank, he was/is an important interlocutor between international finance capital and Middle East governments and markets. In particular, he is important to a Lebanese such as the Hariri group and Riad Salameh, the Lebanese Central Bank president, for whom such relations with international funding agencies is vital to their policies and interests (remember the Basil Fuleihan worked at the World Bank before joining Hariri). Compared to the inane characters that followed him at the presidency of the world bank (Wolfowitz and Zoelick), his is more traditional. He opposed some of the more extreme likudnik policies of the Bush and Sharon governments, and championed a two state solution favored by the liberal consensus in the west. The latter would provide for an obvious role for the World Bank, among the other institutions, in providing monies for development in the West Bank and Gaza following the final status agreement. Those hopes and policies have been rendered moot by the entrenchment in power both in Washington and Tel Aviv of forces opposed to such a settlement (except in the Arab World, it seems, where the Friedman plan finds sustained favor!).
Now to the affair itself. I cannot fathom for the life of me how AUB can give an honorary degree to someone who is not looked favorably upon by a substantial segment of its students and faculty. This up-down management style of AUB has been a long present feature of the University, and has led to numerous clashes with its student and faculty constituencies, dating back to 1882 with the infamous Darwin affair. Clearly, these honorary degrees are not vetted well and/or enough with core constituencies within the University. Dorman is afraid that antagonizing personalities such as Wolfensohn will make it more difficult to obtain funding for AUB from USAID and other US agencies. Such have been the travails of a colonial instrument like AUB since I can remember. My quip is that if AUB has survived its link with the Palestinian and Arab left during the hey days of American imperialism, it can survive this episode too."
