Can’t Win for Losing

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Lebanon


[”Cease Fire” by Samuel Bek]

Wars are never won until they can be relegated safely to the history books. The recent Israel/Hizballah flare up is no exception. The spin masters are at work with both the main proponents claiming victory. Since Israel for the time being maintains 30,000 soldiers in southern Lebanon, continues to dominate the sky and has not yet ceased its sea blockade of Lebanon, the winner should be obvious. With the deployment of UNIFIL and Lebanese troops to replace the IDF, the goal of stopping Hizballah military muscle would seem to be on target. But Israel’s latest reaction is the kind that the term “Pyrrhic victory” (closely following the Bush administration’s ill-conceived invasion of Iraq) seems destined to define. The Katusha rockets will no longer thud aimlessly into northern Israel, but then there were hardly any being shot before Israel invaded. Continue reading Can’t Win for Losing →

For Whom the Toll Rings a Bell

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Literature, Malaysia


“Guernica” by Pablo Picasso, 1937, left; John Donne, right

In four weeks of fighting, since the Hizbollah raid of July 12 on an Israeli military outpost, what started out as an apparent effort to retrieve two captured Israeli soldiers has escalated into a nightmare for all involved. According to the BBC, as of August 8 the results are predictably ugly, with Lebanon taking the brunt but Israel also suffering greatly:

Deaths: 998 Lebanese, 102 Israeli
Injuries: 3,493 Lebanese, 690 Israeli
Displaced: 915,762 Lebanese, 500,000 Israeli

If this were a movie, it would be a smash hit, since it has killed more than twice as many in the nearby Iraq War during the past month. Of course, the death toll in the latest Israel-Lebanon war has a way to go until it reaches the estimated 40,000 plus Iraqi civilians who have died since the U.S. invasion. And there must be another 149,000 deaths to equal the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), which also had Israeli involvement. It is even a steeper climb to match the estimated 400,000 victims in Darfur.

So how should we read death tolls? What do such lists account for beyond the obvious fact of people not dying of natural causes (unless you think war is natural)? Here is an experiment you can try on your own. Check out the war death tolls posted at Wikipedia. What is your first reaction: to look for the largest losses or to count up the total losses? Of course I can’t find any information on the number of people who have died from peace, even on Google.

As John Donne told it awhile ago,

“Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Daniel Martin Varisco

The Tirade against Tyre

Bible and Holy Land, Israel, Lebanon


[Illustration: “Tyre, from the Isthmus” by David Roberts]

The Lebanese port city of Tyre has seen the wrath of the IDF. Many villagers fleeing the unrelenting bombing in the south fled to Tyre as a safe haven, only to find that the leaflets dropped from the sky lied. There is no peace in Tyre. Perhaps the message dropped should have been purely biblical, Psalm 83 for example. Most Christians in American can recite a line or two from the 23rd Psalm, the idyll of the good shepherd and a message of hope. It is oft read from the pulpit. But when was the last time you read Psalm 83. Continue reading The Tirade against Tyre →

“On the Eve of Modernity”

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Journalism and Media, Syria


[The Israel bombing of Qana yesterday was not the first such attack on this town. The horrendous picture above is from a similar bombing there in April, 1996, when as many as 300 villagers were killed.]

In a syndicated commentary on July 28, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman illustrated the journalistic malady that exemplifies biased reportage masquerading as informed analysis. While in Damascus he picked up a copy of the English-language Syria Times and noted an ad box that read “The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity.” He continues:

“I thought: What a perfect way to describe the Middle East today – going back to some pre-modern era? Alas, the Syria Times was not trying to be ironic. It turned out the headline was the title of a book about the 18th century. But had it been a news headline, it would have been apt. Continue reading “On the Eve of Modernity” →

In God We Strut

Humor and Satire, Iraq War

One of the major casualties of war is the opportunistic rise of God-talk. Before the American Civil War preachers north and south saw their political differences along religious lines. Slaveholding advocates below the Mason-Dixon line viewed blacks as the cursed children of Ham, forever branded to be servants to the Japhethetic spiritual (and plantation-owning) heirs of Noah and Abraham. Liberal abolitionists up north proposed the novel idea that Uncle Tom was the kind of man Jesus died for and who a nation should go to war over. World War I America road the crest of a revivalist movement leading to the current evangelical wing of conservative Protestantism and “death to Darwinism” bannerism. After World War II the pulpit not only was bullied to save wayward sinners but warned of the immanent takeover of America by godless Commies. Now we have the debacle in Iraq in which President Bush entered the fray on the apparent advice from a heavenly father (certainly not the logical assessment of Pentagon planners). Look out God, here come the self-righteous mantra bearers once again. Continue reading In God We Strut →

Football and Mouth Disease

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Humor and Satire

Is the fan base for the World Cup half full of it or half witted? Not unlike the competitive spirit of the Olympic Games, nationalistic fervor tends to run rampant every four years in pursuit of the top position in world football. This is not to be confused with the helmet and padding show that Americans tolerate between beer commercials, although some of us may be forgiven for comparing the two when American Budweiser reigns as the official beer of the World Cup.

In the games so far Middle Eastern countries have not fared well. None are expected to move along to the next stage. Ironically, this puts Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Iran on an equal footing with the United States, whose chances of moving on hinge upon an unlikely scenario with Team USA having to beat Ghana. Continue reading Football and Mouth Disease →

Post-Asabiyya: Ibn Khaldun and the Discourse of Reform: Part One

Bahrain, Islamic History

[left to right, Burhan Ghalioun, Muhammad ‘Abid al-Jabri, Ibrahim Gholum, Fahmy Jad’an and Abu-Ya’rab al- Marzouqi at University of Bahrain Ibn Khaldun conference in May]

The theme of “reform” in its socio-economic, political, religious, and ethical dimensions has been, for the last five years, a topic of greatest contention and debate in the Arab World. This theme was recently extensively deliberated in a conference entitled “Khaldunian Thought and the Discourse of Reform” in celebration of the 600th anniversary of Ibn Khaldun, the erudite Arab thinker, scholar, politician, and historian of the 14th century. Sponsored by the College of Arts at the University of Bahrain, it hosted renowned contemporary scholars including Muhammad ‘Abid al-Jabri, Burhan Ghalioun, Fahmy Jad’an and Abu-Ya’rab al- Marzouqi, among others. Continue reading Post-Asabiyya: Ibn Khaldun and the Discourse of Reform: Part One →

Is There a Middle East?

Archaeology and Antiquities, Bible and Holy Land

Is there a Middle East? At first glance we either have a very silly question or an occasion for an academic conference. In this case it was the latter at Yale University this past weekend. The Council for Middle East Studies of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies hosted a dozen scholars from various disciplines. Papers were given on the history of the term “Middle East,” its geographical borders in maps and mental templates, how the region implied has been imagined, colonially appropriated and the continuing relevance of the region in a world hooked on oil and stymied by regional terrorism. Continue reading Is There a Middle East? →