Edward Said died some 20 years ago, but his brand of populist charlatanism is alive and kicking. Said was so radical that he opposed the global consensus war to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s forces. He opposed Palestinian-Israeli Oslo Peace Accord. Said was the English version of radical Islam — Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iran regime. He’s now succeeded by his three nephews, professors at top US universities. Like Said, the Makdisis are strangers to the Arab world. They grew up in elite circles, in mostly English-speaking households.
I listened to their most recent podcast.
One of them opened by accusing the West of dehumanizing Palestinians. How? He said that while the world knows every Israeli hostage by name, no one knows the names of 15k Palestinians killed in Gaza. Here’s a quick rebuttal: How many names does the world know of the 1,200 Israelis that Hamas massacred on October 7 (or of 9/11)? Whenever the number of deaths is as big, it becomes a number. I know that Israeli TV broadcasts their names (usually with a video of a lite candle). Does Arab media play a roll of the names of dead Palestinians? I haven’t seen any.
Second, the three professors claim that Israel could not impose its will on Hezbollah in 2006, and in frustration, killed Lebanese civilians, now doing the same with Hamas (this is exactly what Nasrallh said in his first speech commenting on 10/7). Here’s a hint: Before 2006, Hezbollah refused to let the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) deploy in southern Lebanon. After 2006 War, Hezbollah agreed. Before 2006, Lebanon refused to demarcate Shebaa Farms, after 2006, it agreed. Now the world never followed up on UNSC resolution 1701 that demanded these Hezbollah concessions (that Hezbollah agreed to with an Israeli gun to its head). The failure in implementing 1701 doesn’t mean that Hezbollah did not concede.
Similarly, Hamas is trying to replicate Hezbollah’s bravado. But look closely. After 10/7, Israel has put a chokehold on Gaza. Palestinians cannot survive a single week without the world impressing on Israel to let aid in. Hamas has already declared that Israel has killed half a dozen of its top leadership. Since Hezbollah launched war on Israel on 10/8, Hezbollah has lost 83 fighters, a dozen of which among the top leaders of its elite Radwan Forces. But the Makdisi bros teach their students that they haven’t seen in their lives a war that targeted hospitals. Here is a one: “Physicians for Human Rights, an NGO, says it has corroborated reports of 566 separate attacks on a total of 348 medical facilities in Syria from March 2011 through May 2019. Nearly 900 medical workers are reported to have lost their lives in these attacks.” But the Makdisi professors haven’t seen hospitals attacked in war before. And they are teaching our kids at the most prestigious American universities.
Of course I can go on and on, but you get the idea. Like their maternal uncle before them, the Makdisi bros can be debunked, effortlessly. They continue to spew spin and radical propaganda.
I listened to their most recent podcast.
One of them opened by accusing the West of dehumanizing Palestinians. How? He said that while the world knows every Israeli hostage by name, no one knows the names of 15k Palestinians killed in Gaza. Here’s a quick rebuttal: How many names does the world know of the 1,200 Israelis that Hamas massacred on October 7 (or of 9/11)? Whenever the number of deaths is as big, it becomes a number. I know that Israeli TV broadcasts their names (usually with a video of a lite candle). Does Arab media play a roll of the names of dead Palestinians? I haven’t seen any.
Second, the three professors claim that Israel could not impose its will on Hezbollah in 2006, and in frustration, killed Lebanese civilians, now doing the same with Hamas (this is exactly what Nasrallh said in his first speech commenting on 10/7). Here’s a hint: Before 2006, Hezbollah refused to let the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) deploy in southern Lebanon. After 2006 War, Hezbollah agreed. Before 2006, Lebanon refused to demarcate Shebaa Farms, after 2006, it agreed. Now the world never followed up on UNSC resolution 1701 that demanded these Hezbollah concessions (that Hezbollah agreed to with an Israeli gun to its head). The failure in implementing 1701 doesn’t mean that Hezbollah did not concede.
Similarly, Hamas is trying to replicate Hezbollah’s bravado. But look closely. After 10/7, Israel has put a chokehold on Gaza. Palestinians cannot survive a single week without the world impressing on Israel to let aid in. Hamas has already declared that Israel has killed half a dozen of its top leadership. Since Hezbollah launched war on Israel on 10/8, Hezbollah has lost 83 fighters, a dozen of which among the top leaders of its elite Radwan Forces. But the Makdisi bros teach their students that they haven’t seen in their lives a war that targeted hospitals. Here is a one: “Physicians for Human Rights, an NGO, says it has corroborated reports of 566 separate attacks on a total of 348 medical facilities in Syria from March 2011 through May 2019. Nearly 900 medical workers are reported to have lost their lives in these attacks.” But the Makdisi professors haven’t seen hospitals attacked in war before. And they are teaching our kids at the most prestigious American universities.
Of course I can go on and on, but you get the idea. Like their maternal uncle before them, the Makdisi bros can be debunked, effortlessly. They continue to spew spin and radical propaganda.
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