Tuesday, May 08, 2007

The way forward for the Middle East..

By John Cheeran
One of the few journalists I enjoy reading is Roger Cohen, Editor-at-large, with the International Herald Tribune.
Anyone with a shred of interest in the Middle East should read Cohen's column on Israel, published last week.
In India, and especially among left wing circles, appreciating the virtues of Israel, the nation, is considered a crime.
Only an O.V. Vijayan dared to make a case for Israel's existence in Kerala.
Cohen reminds us the importance of Israel in the Middle East. Let me quote him.
"One of the Israeli society's greatest sources of strength is its being free, open and creative.
To watch, in the Middles East, a commission excoriating the Prime Minister who appointed it is bracing and should be instructive.
How about a Saudi commission on how 15 of its citizens came to be among the 9/11 hijackers? Or a Lebanese commission on how Hezbollah has been able to operate as a quasi-independent armed entity within a state? Or an Iranian commission on how the hopes of its 1979 revolution led only to another form of dictatorship?
When those commissions convene, the Middle East will move forward."
If only India's leftist intellectuals could read Cohen we would have a sensible foreign policy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude!!I feel you should stick to your routine of writing cricket/sport blogs. International politics is not for you. Reading Cohen and reproducing some of his stuff in your blog is NOT 'The way forward for the Middle East'. You may be a media analyst or whatever but dude middle east is not your cup of tea.Israel may be hailed as a great,free society .Yes they may be free but the violence and bloodshed they instigate on the 'other' people is pernicious.

zen said...

There is no real democracy in Arab world. But how can this justify occupation? How about Mr.Cohen commenting on using Apache helicopters on refugee camps full of children or Israel's contempt for any international resolutions? Then there is a really big question - if Palestine/Arab countries had indeed been democracies, would Israel have withdrawn from illegally occupied lands? And well, there is nothing so special about Indian left wing opposing it. I live in Europe and see that there is a healthy dose of skepticism among European public about Israel based on what they are doing to Palestinian people.

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