John Coyne

Today I was sent this powerful speech denouncing the Muslim world as primitive, by an avowedly-secular woman speaking Arabic. It aired purportedly on al-Jazeera. My friend John Coyne says, "The woman is Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from Los Angeles."

Watch it, it's fascinating, especially when she celebrates Jewish achievements of the 20th century to counter Arab antisemitism. And the cleric who briefly attempts to brand her as "a heretic" seems to fulfill her description of the Muslim world.

I believe it was provided by MEMRI, the pro-Israel thinktank that translates Arabic publications to show how good we are and how bad they are.

A couple rejoinders. I don't see why backwardness justifies decimation. There are tons of areas of the world that are not as techno-scientifically advanced as we are, and we haven't declared them fascists and bombed them. Also, isn't it a sign of progress that she can express herself on al-Jazeera?

So many of us, leftleaners, were confused through the first week of the Lebanon fighting. It was obvious that Nasrallah was provoking something, wrongly; it is obvious that Iran is not a good actor; those rockets were targeting civilians in Haifa. Still, I/we sensed that there was something awful about the Israeli reaction, the carnage, the indiscriminateness. Of course such statements divide the Democratic "base." The Lieberman/Berman/Clinton bloc, which answers to rightwing Jewish sentiment and money, thinks (as Bush does) that anything Israel does is O.K.

But the Lebanese horrors may actually serve to clarify our own political confusions, and help our antiwar movement get its feet out of the potato sack. Especially as Israel is now imitating us, after we imitated them in occupying Iraq. This is helping nobody.

What's my evidence? It's just in the air. Nicholas Kristof's beautiful column yesterday. Bob Herbert's great column the day before that. Tom Friedman appealing, in spite of himself, for an overture to Damascus today. The Nation's brave editorial condemning the bombing, and Izaz Haque's moving letter to the Times today describing two great Arab capitals laid to waste.

And here is an email from an Israeli that I got today via John Coyne, the writer and Returned Peace Corps leader. His friend lives in the north of Israel. He leaves her anonymous, though he says she was a hawk years ago.

Hi John,

We are fine, thanx. We stay at our home and try to lead normal life, as we hate shelters we never stay inside ours. It's very noisy, day and night, because of our cannons and aircrafts and because of their Katyushas and other rockets, and it's getting worse every day. A few rockets fell in ___, no casualties. Yet.

Needless to say that I am strongly against this war. Nothing can justify what Israel is doing to the Lebanese people, not to mention the Palestinians getting killed by us at the Gaza strip every day. The situation at the M.E. can't be solved by force. We should talk with anybody wiling to negotiate, including Chamas and Chizballa. Our government is both stupid and evil and your president isn't much better.

How is your family ???????

Love,