Saturday, February 25, 2017

Discourse of hate about Arabs

Back during the Cold War, Arabs were hated because they were seen as natural allies of communism, and that their Arab Nasserist passions were in synch with Soviet designs.  And Palestinian nationalism was seen as a mere branch of communism: do you remember the books about the PLO when I first came to the US (like books by Neil Lingstone and Jillian Becker) and how authors warned about the dangers of the PLO because it was (as was said about the ANC) under the dangerous influence and control of communists?  Only a decades later, we are now warned that the dangers of the Palestinian national movement is that it is too Islamic and non-secular.  So secularism if expressed in opposition to US/Israel is dangerous, just as anti-secularism if expressed in opposition to US/Israel is dangerous.  Just as anti-secularism if expressed in alliance with the interest of US/Israel (as in Saudi Arabia) is of no danger at all.