> A far more significant consideration is Chomsky's sneering, wholesale
> dismissal of Palestinian aspirations, leadership, AND strategy en
> toto. Frankly, I'm not sure what aspect of the Palestinian cause that
> leaves him liking, other than the opportunities it affords him to
> publish books and make speeches on its ostensible behalf. Big-hearted
> American Zionists who are eager to denounce everything Palestinians
> are actually doing to further their own struggle are the kinds of
> "supporters" Palestinians will be better off without.
Are you really accusing Chomsky of supporting the Palestinian cause as a ploy to sell books?
Chomsky, as you probably know, was not only a close friend of Edward Said's but for many years they shared a political line that was sharply critical of the (pre-1987) Palestinian leadership inside and outside the territories. Is it only Chomsky who was a racist Palestinian-hater or was Said one too?
Here, if I understand right, is what Chomsky says that you object to so strongly:
> NC: If [let's say] organized Somalis authentically put forth a call
> to me which I can see is going to harm them, I'm not going to follow
> it. At least if I care about Somalis....
>
> Q: [But what if literally every Palestinian asked you to do something
> to support them?]
>
> NC: What I would do is exactly what I've done for years when I've
> talked to Palestinian groups, who've been pretty self-destructive I
> should say. This goes back to the 70's. The PLO was extremely
> self-destructive. And I met the leaderhsip and others, with Ed Said
> and Iqbal Ahmed and other people who cared about the Palestinians.
> What we tried to tell them was look, you're calling for this and
> you're acting this way, but you're harming the Palestinians. That's
> what we tried to explain to them. It didn't work very well with the
> PLO - that was Ed Said's despair and Eqbal Ahmed's. But that's exactly
> what you do in any case when you're dealing with oppressed people. I
> mean, if Black Panthers had said, okay let's go out and smash all the
> banks, I wouldn't have said, well okay you're the blacks, so therefore
> I'm gonna go smash all the banks. If they had said that -- which they
> didn't -- I would have said, look, you're making a mistake. The
> actions you're calling for are going to harm you. And you should
> rethink what you're doing. If we care about people that's the way we
> react to them. If there are BDS tactics that help the Pals. and
> educate Americans and Europeans so they will act in ways that matter,
> of course I'm in favor of them.