Ruth King

The Less Said, the Better

Thanks to the efforts of Justus Weiner in Commentary, and the chorus of journalists who are putting their own spin on the story, Edward Said is finally being exposed as a liar and scoundrel. In the service of an anti-Semitic and anti-western agenda, he invented his "biography." Said was one of the first Arab writers to promote the spurious concept of a "Palestinian Diaspora," depicting himself and his family as victims, deracinated and displaced from their home in Jerusalem by the "wicked" Israelis. It turns out that the whole story is just a big fat fib. Said spent a youth of luxury and privilege in Cairo, and his parents neither lived in nor owned homes in Jerusalem. In fact, if they were ever victims of expropriation, it was when Gamal Nasser seized his father's business.

The next order of business is exposing the sham

Edward Said was one of the first Arab writers to promote the spurious concept of a "Palestinian Diaspora."

He continues to be described as a literary and intellectual giant, a veritable Renaissance man. In fact, his writing is florid and rambles when it does not rant. His foolish thesis, in his oft-acclaimed book Orientalism, is that Western scholarship on Islam and Arab studies are by their very nature colonialist, and only Arabs can comprehend, study, and teach Middle Eastern studies. He has spent a good deal of time fulminating against outstanding scholars such as Bernard Lewis, formerly of Princeton University, whose research, scholarship and credentials as a teacher put Said to shame. Said ignores or deliberately diminishes over a century of studies by Westerners (many of them Jews) which are admiring, and punctilious in their portrayal of Arab history and culture.

Ironically, given his notion that only Arabs can understand Arabs, Said happily dabbles in Western culture, having even served as music critic of the magazine The Nation. His musical critiques, like everything he writes, are superficial, self-centered, often garbled, and show little real taste or understanding.

Said is a charlatan, but he is anti-American enough to have become the darling of lefty, trendy academics. In a nation that is so obsessed with legislating against "hate" it is mind boggling that his incitements to hatred and violence and bigotry, clothed in the title of "lectures" go unchallenged. On the contrary, he is inundated with honors (now serving as President of the Modern Languages Association) and invited to babble on any topic he pleasesmusic, literature, art, and culture. His fellow academics are terrified of being torn apart in print by Said's no holds barred venom toward anyone who makes the slightest criticism (see the article "Edward Alexander v. Edward Said" in the June 1999 Outpost), with the result that there have been very few prepared to point out that the emperor of deceit has no academic robes.

Summer Reading

Rainy days in the summer are welcomed by gardeners and readers. The Wall Street Journal is the staple (as well as the New York Post editorial page) but many other newspapers can bring one pleasure and information. For starters, The Forward deserves credit for being the first to expose and denounce the Holocaust Museum for promoting a book that accuses Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and other war-crimes, and New York's Jewish Museum for screening a viciously anti-Israel film. The Forward has also offered excellent columns by Hillel Halkin on Israel's long standing historic rights and strategic need for the Golan, and on the waning of real Zionism in Israel.

There have also been some wonderful editorials in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, published in Hartford. One, entitled "Who Speaks for the Reform Jew?" criticizes press releases by Rabbi David Saperstein and the Reform movement's Washington lobby claiming that "1.5 million Reform Jews and 1,800 Reform Rabbis in 875 congregations" agree on opposition to tax cuts, support public criticism of Israel and endorse Clinton's refusal to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem. Not only is this hubris, the editor notes, but he goes on to suggest that many Reform Jews would not want to "financially support political statements made in their names." He adds that Reform Jews do not subscribe in lock step to every position adopted by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party to which "Saperstein genuflects

(Continued on p.11)

Outpost               - 10 -               September 1999