Very Inventive

Sorry to be out of touch for a while. I am preparing to move to Europe this month and things are getting both hectic and stressful. Just got back from Morocco, namely Rabat and Fes. Rabat is very pleasant, and Fes is amazing. The old medina is beautiful, the food is delicious, and the people warm. In the next three weeks I will be in Damascus, Dhaka, and Marrakech. It is good to get back to Muslim countries, if only to realise that people are the same were ever you go. The only difference being that Muslims will blow you…

The Death of Arafat and the Myth of New Beginnings by Mark Levine in Juan Cole’s Blog Here is a graf: "In the weeks leading up to Palestinian President Yassir Arafat’s death American politicians and pundits have repeatedly called on the Palestinian people to use the opportunity of his passing to transform the intifada from a violent uprising into a non-violent, democratic and pragmatic program for achieving independence. This is very good advice, needless to say, except for one small problem: Palestinians have been trying to build such a movement for the last two decades, and the Israeli Government, IDF…

Updates: There’s a move to push Khalidi’s book, The Iron Cage, into the public consciousness. I haven’t read this particular book, but it’s en route. Get yours here. Juan Cole has some more information. Rosenberg at TPM Café (one of my favorite writers over there) [/end update] ———- Prof. Rashid Khalidi is under fire once more. Apparently John McCain gave him some money and some Republicans don’t like the fact that McCain is running a virulently xenophobic campaign, and borderline anti-Semitic one that treats Jews as mindless, sub-human, single-issue voters, while at the same time funding a xeno. Prof. Khalidi…