A Letter from 2005
April 6, 2005 Dear Andrew, I recently finished a small book by Edward Said, Humanism and Democratic Criticism, and it made me think of many conversations we’ve had over the past couple of years. So…
Category: Power and Ideology
An Honest Man: Smedley Butler
Marine General Smedley Butler, in a 1933 speech: “I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in…
Making an Impression
Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Oneworld Publications, 2007 This is a profound meditation on truth, unpalatable as it will be for many supporters of an expansionist Israel. Pappe cuts through the decades of Nakba…
This, That, and the Other
1. An excerpt from my 2015 novel, Dear Layla/Welcome to Palestine: Corporate Citizen/1 (Products/2) Some things changed and some didn’t on September 11 It shocked and angered us To see products we had built to…
Prevailing in This Epic Struggle: A Finkelstein Collage
Regarding [Israel’s] methodical breaking of Palestinian bones, Wiesel courageously chose silence: ‘I refuse to see myself in the role of judge over Israel. The role of the Jew is to bear witness; not pass judgment.’ …
Finkelstein/Chomsky
The Caribbean poet Aimé Césaire once wrote, “There’s room for everyone at the rendezvous of victory.” Late in life, when his political horizons broadened out, Edward Said would often quote this line. We should make…
Plus Ça Change, Plus C’est la Même Chose
The following is from a 1983 interview with MIT professor Noam Chomsky… Interviewer: If you were to wake up tomorrow morning, and find yourself at the State Department, not MIT, and you were Secretary, what…
The Battle of the Gods
Zainab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh: Memoir in Nasir’s Prison Translated by Mokrane Guezzou Our goal is reformation and not sabotage, edification not destruction. Zainab al-Ghazali Nawal el-Saadawi may have met her match in Zainab…
The Prophetic, the Socratic, and the Democratic
Cornel West, Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight against Imperialism Pat Geier, a dear friend in Louisville, once told me of one of her favorite adages that dated back to the civil right movement: “If you see…
Countering Chaos
Alexander Cockburn, A Colossal Wreck: A Road Trip through Political Scandal, Corruption, and American Culture Verso, 2013 Daisy Cockburn: When I was a teenager my father used to suggest I read the dictionary when I…