 |
|
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 6, 2006
/ 6 Adar, 5766
Ports and pitchforks
By
Diana West
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
One of the weirder sideshows to open alongside a main event — the proposed operational transfer of six major American ports to a firm owned by the United Arab Emirates — is the growing chorus of road-company Zolas, "J'accusing" everybody opposed to the sale of "xenophobia," "isolationist mass hysteria," "bigotry," "nativism," "panic," and "prejudice" against innocent Araby.
Such accusations are supposed to make you hang your head in shame. They make me shake mine in consternation — wondering how in tarnation a hefty chunk of the American elite has the chutzpah to castigate the American people (64 percent of whom, says a Rasmussen Poll, think the deal is a Bad Thing) for "xenophobia" and "prejudice" on behalf of a culture that is the embodiment of xenophobia and prejudice. The words precisely describe the official state of normal in the Arab-Islamic world since at least 1948, when the modern state of Israel was founded.
Nonetheless, we're the "pitchfork-wielding xenophobes" en route to the "Dark Ages," says The New York Times' Thomas Friedman. I'd say we're heading in the other direction, trying to escape the Dark Ages — as represented by the spreading influence of sharia (Islamic law), which, in terms of the sharia-compliant port deal, would make deep inroads into global financial markets. I would add, as Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen have suggested in The Washington Times, "It's time for the United States to limit financial transactions that involve American companies" — and the U.S. government — "to governance by secular laws."
Tut tut. Isn't that "Islamophobia"? — a subject National Review's Larry Kudlow denounces in his defense of the deal. "There is no room for prejudice and bigotry here," he writes. Here? What about there, in the UAE (a huge Hamas supporter, by the way)? As the Jerusalem Post reports, the UAE-owned firm Dubai Ports World "participates in the Arab boycott of Israel." And why not? The UAE doesn't even recognize Israel — although it did recognize the Taliban, which is about as prejudiced and bigoted as it gets. As a UAE customs employee told the paper, "If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel ... it would be a problem."
And we're the xenophobic pitchfork-wielding ones? No doubt my old pal David Brooks would think so. In a New York Times column unforgettably called, "Kicking Arabs in the Teeth," Brooks seethes about the "collective mania," the "xenophobic tsunami" that threatens to wash out the ports deal. "The oil-rich nations of the Middle East," he writes, "have plenty of places to invest their money and don't need to do favors for nations that kick them in the teeth." Favors? What are we — the United Supplicants of America? But I digress. Besides, he adds, "the United Arab Emirates is a modernizing, globalizing place."
This week, the UAE modernized and globalized by seizing 100 sixth-grade social studies textbooks at a private American school in Abu Dhabi. Why? Because, as the Khaleej Times Online put it, the books "promoted Israel as one of the few democracies in North Africa and the Middle East, and some Arab countries as sponsors of terrorism."
Horrors. Or perhaps I should say: xenophobes and nativists. In a pro-book-banning editorial called "What about damage that's already done?" the UAE newspaper said the books gave off the "smell of racism," adding: "The ministry might have withdrawn copies of the textbook ... but will it be possible to withdraw the information already fed into the minds of students?" Nobody will know for sure until the kids pick up their first pitchforks.
Of course, everybody gets carried away sometimes. After the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a UAE columnist named Hamed Salamin was moved to write that the death of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon was "enough to arouse joy in every heart that beats Arabism and Islam."
Then there's Ali Al-Hamadi, the founder of something in the UAE called "The Creative Thinking Center." According to a MEMRI translation, Al-Hamadi waxed rhapsodic in 2005 about mothers of Palestinian suicide bombers who, he maintained during an Iqra TV interview, actually listen in on their offspring's detonation via cell phone ("then she utters cries of joy ..."). Maybe it's nativist or tsunamist to mention this, but I found a Creative Thinking Center client list online that includes — can you guess? — our pals at the Dubai Ports.
If that's modern and global, I'm sharpening my pitchfork.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006, Diana West
|
