[lbo-talk] FW: Edward Said passed away yesterday

Brad DeLong jbdelong at uclink.berkeley.edu
Thu Sep 25 13:31:43 PDT 2003



> > Would that he had used his powers for good rather than for evil...
>>
>>
>> Brad DeLong
>
>Oh, you mean he *shouldn't* have been one of the leading Arab critics of
>Arab state corruption and Islamic nihilism? He *shouldn't* have denounced
>corruption in the PLO and the PA? He *shouldn't* have denounced
>suicide/homicide bombings?

He shouldn't have pretended that corruption in the PLO and the PA was a reason for denouncing Oslo, no. Corruption was not the result but the setting of Oslo. And denunciations of suicide bombings that take the form of saying that the suicide bombers were "consciously programmed" by Sharon or Mossad are not terribly helpful, no.


>He *shouldn't* have called for a secular
>democratic state for both Arabs and Jews?

Is a fine goal to work toward. But it's not a one-year or a ten-year or a twenty-year but a hundred-year goal.


>Or was it his principled
>resistance to Israeli aggression and expansionism that made him so evil in
>your book?

It's his belief that there were alternatives to Oslo--a good war--that would be better than Oslo, which would have been a bad peace, that makes him so misguided in my book.

Brad DeLong



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