Saturday, June 06, 2009

Reckless journalism

I am going to Oslo next week. I am participating in a (closed) conference that is partly sponsored by the Norwegian foreign Ministry. It has several speakers and Joseph Massad, Ali Abunimah and I were separately invited. All three of us are opposed to Oslo so the hosts did not obviously invite only supporters of Oslo, although some supporters of Oslo were invited (like Martin Indyk) among others. This reporter in the Jordanian newspaper, Al-`Arab Al-Yawm, wrote this piece in which he claims that the conference is for "saving the peace process" and that the conference is for normalization between Arabs and Israelis. I need to ask the writer: are you nuts, really? If they want to hold a conference "to save the peace process" they would invite Angry Arab? I am suited to sabotage peace processes and not to "save them". And normalization? Me, of all people?
PS I hope that I made it clear that I am speaking on behalf of Joseph Massad and Ali Abunimah in the categorical rejection of Olso and all its consequences.