Joseph Massad
 |
| Arafats Road to Olslo began in the 1970s with the large scale funding pouring in from the Gulf countries [EPA] |
Read more
Friday, November 18, 2011
Arabs have historically revolted every decade against rulers and the west has counter-revolted most attempts.
Arab revolts - past and present
Joseph Massad
New York, New York - The current popular challenges to the Western-sponsored Arab dictatorships are hardly a new occurrence in modern Arab history. We have seen such uprisings against European colonialism in the region since its advent in Algeria in 1830 and in Egypt in 1882. Revolts in Syria in the 1920s against French rule and especially in Palestine from 1936 to 1939 against British colonial rule and Zionist settler-colonialism were massive by global standards. Indeed the Palestinian Revolt would inspire others in the colonised world and would remain an inspiration to Arabs for the rest of the century and beyond. Anti-colonial resistance which also opposed the colonially-installed Arab regimes continued in Jordan, in Egypt, in Bahrain, Iraq, North and South Yemen, Oman, Morocco, and Sudan. The massive anti-colonial revolt in Algeria would finally bring about independence in 1962 from French settler colonialism. The liberation of Algeria meant that one of the two European settler-colonies in the Arab world was down, and only one remained: Palestine. On the territorial colonial front, much of the Arabian Gulf remained occupied by the British until the 1960s and early 1970s, and awaited liberation.
Read more
Joseph Massad
Read more
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
<span>As for the larger Arab context, those who call what has unfolded in the last year in the Arab World as an Arab "awakening" are not only ignorant of the history of the last century, but also deploy Orientalist arguments in their depiction of Arabs as a quiescent people who put up with dictatorship for decades and are finally waking up from their torpor.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think Massad does more to diminish Arabs than anything the Orientalists say or write. According to Massad, just about everything that goes wrong can be laid at the door of the U.S./Europe, in cahoots with the their dictators. This cannot help but present a demeaning image of a powerless people, incapable of standing up to empires and their own dictators of the day. Yet, other peoples successfuly challenged empires and dictators...and won.
It is Massad and the professor who constantly present Arabs as victims and whine about the past. It is one thing to do a historical survey of various revolts in the Arab world, but quite another when it descends into the usual anti-American pablum from Massad.
On the one hand,he's saying they have revolted in the past, BUT the Brits or the U.S. put a stop to it every tiime.
So the excuse is that the U.S./dictator alliance kept Mubabrak and others in power, but one day, suddently the U.S. wasn't looking, or amazingly, became weak for that period, and Mubabrak was toppled. Now that things are not going according to the Leftist manual for revolutions, suddenly the U.S. is powerful again, and spearheading the counter- revolution. Sure.</span>
I know, I know, the U.S. forced them to invest.
ReplyDeleteStudy: “Palestinian Businessmen Invested $2.5 B. In Settlements, Israel, In 2010”
http://www.imemc.org/article/62529
If they ever butt out we'll see if you were right or wrong, vza.
ReplyDeleteSo we'll never know.
There is nothing I would personally like more, guest. But, you overestimate U.S. ability to influence these things. The lack of unity among Arabs, and other INTERNAL factors, are primarily responsible for the inabilty to get rid of the dictators. And here we have news that Palestinian businessmen invest in Israeli settlements!!! Please. Meanwhile, among the BDS they are hounding poor musicians and artists.
ReplyDeleteLeftists like the professor and Massad NEVER put their lives where their supposed principles are, do they? Why aren't they teaching in Arab universities and helping their own people? Why aren't they in Tahir Square or the streets of Syria? Why are they, who claim the U.S. is so racist, sexist, and the source of all evil, SUPPORTING, the empire with their tax dollars? Why did they endeavor to get and win TENURE, a Western construct, in our alleged racist society? These characters should be ashamed of their pompous pronouncments about the goings on in the Arab world when they risk nothing, do nothing, but strike poses and feed off and prosper in, the very world they claim is so awful.
Guest was me, no subterfuge intended.
ReplyDeleteWhy should Palestinian businessmen be saddled with ethical considerations? They are no different from their kind worldwide, i.e., immoral opportunists (in the eyes of this dirty red).
That doesn't make the BDS movement stupid or self-defeating. As far as I can see, vza, you are advocating that the honest people give up because the crooks won't play ball. "Poor musicians and artists", yes poor Elton John. Or do you mean those "poor" Israeli artists and musicians whose role is to present an acceptable face of a racist society to a world that prefers to drown out the cries of mutilated children with entertainment subsidised by deprived Palestinian masses.
Let's see an end to the BDS that keeps medicines and clinical equipment out of Gaza.
<span> As far as I can see, vza, you are advocating that the honest people give up because the crooks won't play ball.</span>
ReplyDeleteNope, just go after the big fish first! The Palestinian businessmen's investments do more to maintain the staus quo than some artist or filmmaker. And you know quite well I am not talking about the likes of Elton John.
Also, all businessmen are not immoral opportunists.
Not to excuse them (they should be brought to account) but it's a matter of fact that Israel controls and owns every economic sector in the West Bank. It would be hard to do any significant business without collaborating with them. There is NO independent Palestinian economy and the Israelis make sure it's the case. That's the whole point of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen you see so many Palestinian workers forced, yes forced by the need to feed their families, to work as slaves in the building industry erecting those settlements that are strangulating them you understand the dilemma that they are facing. It's that or they die or simply leave. Israel leaves them little choice.
ReplyDeleteTgia, what do you think of this post by the professor?
ReplyDeletehttp://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/11/israeli-solidarity-
with-egyptian-nude.html
I think they and Westerners should stay out of it too, but only because the crazies will use ANY Israeli or Western support as a club with which to beat this woman.The professor's rant is rather creepy.