Thursday, February 21, 2013

"Zionists and their Arab travelers "

From Khelil: "
Some Arabs are just desperate to play nice with perfidious Zionists. Rummaging through news on Tunisia I came across this article at The National Interest written by a Ahmed Charai and Joseph Braude. the article 1) argues against US support for democracy in the Arab world (as if that was ever an issue) 2) praises the Moroccan king and other monarchies as gradualist democrats and in any case better off without the uprisings and 3) has this odd, throw-away line in defense of Morocco's regime: "Morocco also has a deep historical bond with the Jewish people: the king's grandfather Mohammed V protected 200,000 Moroccan Jews from the Nazis during World War II, and nearly one million Israelis have Moroccan roots. The inauguration this week, after restoration of Fez Alfassiyine Synagogue, is a "lesson from Morocco to the 21st century" according to the Islamist head of government of Morocco."

Why does this even matter here? The article is about political uprisings. But notice, on this point, that 1) apologists are always keen to use the Jewish people as pawns, arguably a form of anti-Semitism, akin to the Bahraini regime and its allies making a big fuss about a Bahraini-Jew ambassador to Washington 2) Arab regimes and societies must always prove their tolerance and respect for Jews, but never and no where are Israel and Zionists expected to prove that they, who fired the first rhetorical and physical blow against an indigenous Arab people, expected to prove their 'humanity', I mean you won't read praise about Israel restoring a mosque or church, for that matter 3) most importantly: as if Morocco rebuilding a synagogue for a non-extant Jewish community (Tunisia has more Jews), which is a PR ploy, overrides the rights and treatment of Muslim Moroccan when Jewish rights in Morocco should be seen as a whole with Muslim rights, and not a separate scheme. But the fact that such a silly, irrelevant note merits a paragraph in a short article is no surprise, after all such tribalism and opportunism is expected among Zionists.

So after some digging: Charai is a buffoonish Arab puppet who sits on the broad of Foreign Policy Research Institute, a right-wing, Zionist 'think tank' once run by Daniel Pipes; and runs pro-regime media in Morocco. As for Braude, an American of Iraqi-Jewish heritage, he possess as a Mideast "specialist" and a well-intentioned bridge to the region. Of course, he's a Zionist fanatic whose Twitter page is filled with MEMRI videos, he was covered by the NY Times for alleged theft of Iraqi antiquities (after lying to customs and saying he wasn't even in Iraq [he went unsuccessfully to work for the colonial regime], he pled guilty); but received a light sentence of house detention possibly due to the fact that he provided counter-terrorism aid to the government and got former CIA director and neo-con fanatic James Woolsey to vouch on his behalf; and here he intimates support for Western-backing of the Saudi scheme to promote an insurgence among Iranian Arabs in order to undercut the regime. My favorite line: "Elaph, a Saudi-backed online magazine, started educating its readers on the history of the “Ahwazi struggle” and covering news from the “front.”"

Saudi media are all about education, of course, especially on the 'Safavid' state. It's important we expose these hacks who claim to speak in the interest of Arabs. enjoy."