As Natalie did, I want to give Said the benefit of the doubt. Surely he means well by trying to explain his dual cultures to each other. The problem isn't so much that Orientalism is a bad way to look at the world -- skepticism, especially of power, is a virtue -- as that it's bad when it becomes the Orthodoxy. And Said's views have become orthodox in the middle-eastern studies community.

I can't even blame him for stone-throwing. The first intifada was mainly made up of that, and it's hard for anyone to see stone-throwing as equivalent to deadly violence. Not as admirable as Gandhi or King non-violence, but not as heinous as murder by a long shot. If this second intifada were still just stone-throwing, the moral authority would probably have remained with the Palestinians.

To be fair, one should read the Commentary piece on Said on which Jacoby was riffing (in this terribly written piece; Front Page just isn't editorially close); and Christopher Hitchens's debunking of the debunking, both in the Nation and Salon. (Hopefully Hitchens's pro-war leanings are enough to give him the benefit of a reasonable airing.)

For more Said see edwardsaid.org, which links to several pieces (defending) from 1999.

I don't know, Dan, call me old-fashioned, but I don't think a "Professor" has any business being out in the street throwing rocks at Jews. Just doesn't sit right with me.

And Said's own admitted "infatuation with the catharsis of violence" has always troubled me too.

No, the stone throwing was definitely not lethal, but it was the epitome of cowardess. There he was, throwing rocks at soldiers knowing full well that they would not retaliate after Hezbollah did the dirty work. And what was this "intellectual", this scion of dissent against the West, doing while Hezbollah was putting their lives on the line, fighting the "evil Zionists" and their American backers? Oh just hobknobbing with the New York eilte, in the largest city of the country that he has spent his career (a career made by writing a tome that can be boiled down to "It's an Arab thing, you wouldn't understand") attacking.


In short, Said is not only a coward, but a hypocrite and an intellectual midget.

Said is not an intellectual midget, he is a great man well beyond Orientalism. I agree with Dan that the problem is the not the book itself, but its canonization. The book on its own merits is still very worthwhile, as are Said's other works.

The fact that he is so villified shows only the contempt some people (in the United States, only) have for an intelligent and prominent thinker who dares to criticize Israel. Said is an equal opponent of Arafat, it should be noted.

Said has not made a career out of attacking America, in fact he has enriched this country immeasurably. Only those blinded by a single issue will allow themselves to make this man an 'evildoer'.

Said creates a myth of his childhood home, as does Arafat. There is no doubt that there was an Arab presence in Palestine from "time immemorial" as there is no doubt that there was a Jewish presence. Palestine was for centuries a bakwoods town frequented by religious Jews and Christian clergy and pilgrims. there were also Arab inhabitants. However, the narrative of an indigenous Arab population throughiut an arid and swamp-filled land is empty. It is a myth formulated by the arabs as an excuse to keep their Palestinian cousins in refugee camps and to dent them basic human rights. Said and Arafat aren't interested in the emptiness of their myths;only in capitalizing on the plight of others.

Quote:
No, the stone throwing was definitely not lethal, but it was the epitome of cowardess.

I agree about the cowardice, but if you'd ever been on the receiving end of a baseball-sized rock thrown hard by a full-grown man, you might rethink how lethal it can be.

Merritt,

I haven't seen anyone call Said an 'evildoer.' What I see in that photo is an aging intellectual in nice clothes trying pathetically hard for some street cred.

Charles-- good point :) Probably feeling a lot of pressure to be 'one of the guys' when he's obviously a pencil-neck.

Mark,

The problem is that you are speaking as if the Palestinains are humans that deserve to be treated decently. They are savage animals and should be treated no better than that. My fear is that the Israeilis do not understand this and they will refrain from getting rid of the problem once and for all.