On the 10th anniversary of the death of the principled Edward Said, Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm (the person who used to accuse Arab intellectuals of being agents of Mossad and CIA for daring to meet with a Harvard Professor, Roger Fisher, and a person who considered all Arab intellectuals to be his inferior because they are not as radical as he is, tell a Kuwaiti tabloid that he has reached the conclusion that "Edward Said is wrong, and that the Orientalists are right". For that, I wish to apologize to Edward Said because I tried in 1993 to make peace between the two men. I sincerely apologize to Said and to his admirers for that sin, and I will for the first time reveal what Said told me about Al-Azm (when he learned that I was seeing him in DC that year when he was at the Wilson Center) that the Zionist devotees of Bernard Lewis had invited Al-Azm only to annoy Said and told me that Al-Azm is specializing in "licking Zionist asses". Said was so right about this man and I was so wrong. This is a man who justified his transformation to me back in 1993 by saying meekly on the phone: "We lost ya As`ad. The Jews have won". These are his exact words. In this same interview Al-Azm also said that the sectarian violence in Syria is not worrisome because the attacks are only directed by the rebels against the Alawites. (thanks Hanane)
PS For clarification. Al-Azm used to urge me to intercede with Said to end the latter's boycott of him.
PS For clarification. Al-Azm used to urge me to intercede with Said to end the latter's boycott of him.
