Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

I agree with Richard Silverstein that Carla Cohen, the owner of the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., should not have canceled Saree Makdisi’s appearance at her store. But Silverstein is unduly critical of her assertion that Makdisi’s advocacy of a one-state solution would alienate many Jews sympathetic to a two-state solution. The reality is that the one-state solution advocated by many well-intentioned intellectuals is a delusion that diverts attention from efforts to bring about a two-state solution along the lines of “the Geneva initiative.” Virtually no Israeli Jew would accept the idea of living in a state in which Jews would be a minority and which could end up being governed by a party like Hamas. Instead of lamenting that “it is too late for a two-state solution,” intellectuals aware of the agony of the Palestinians should do everything they can to make sure that it is not too late. Advocating a one-state solution simply plays into the hands of right-wing Israelis who also advocate a one-state solution–a Jewish state in all of the Land of Israel minus the Palestinians who currently live there.

Richard Silverstein, D.C. Independent Bookstore Bans Palestinian-American Author, Tikun Olam, June 4, 2008

I don’t usually write about events that happen locally in Washington, D.C. But Helena Cobban informed me of a controversy brewing there that involved such a betrayal of Jewish liberal values that I thought it would be worthwhile covering it.

Saree Makdisi, is a professor of English at UCLA where I completed my M.A.. He has just written a powerful and heart-rending story in Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, of the impossibility of anything resembling “normal” Palestinian life under Israeli Occupation. He just happens to be the nephew of Edward Said.

Politics and Prose is a D.C. independent bookstore which agreed to an author appearance by Makdisi to promote his book. About the store, Helena writes, “in DC’s policy-intellectual circles and amongst all my liberal friends here, P&P is a HUGE deal.” So we’re not just talking about a mom and pop bookstore in a small town somewhere. We’re talking restricting the very policymakers who you’d want to hear Makdisi’s message from hearing it at the town’s pre-eminent literary showcase.

Apparently, Carla Cohen, the owner got cold feet about the event and cancelled it. But it’s her explanation provided to a local Palestinian-American who protested that boggles the mind. There is a class of intelligent American Jewish liberal who understands most of the issues involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet for some strange almost atavistic reason, they can’t bring themselves to have the courage of their convictions. When forthrightness is called for they waffle. When intestinal fortitude is needed, they cave.