Essays originally published in Al-Hayat (London), Al-Ahram weekly (Cairo), and the London review of books between Dec. 2000 and July 2003. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Foreword by Tony Judt -- Part one: The second intifada begins, Clinton's Failure -- 1 Palestinians under siege -- 2 The tragedy deepens -- 3 American elections: System or farce? -- 4 Trying again and again -- 5 Where is Israel going? -- 6 The only alternative -- 7 Freud, Zionism, and Vienna -- 8 Time to turn to the other front -- 9 These are the realities -- 10 Thinking about Israel -- 11 Defiance, dignity, and the rule of dogma -- 12 Enemies of the state -- 13 Sharpening the axe -- 14 The price of Camp David -- 15 Occupation is the atrocity -- 16 Propaganda and war -- Part two: September II, the war on terror, the West Bank and Gaza reinvaded -- 17 Collective passion -- 18 Backlash, backtrack -- 19 Adrift in similarity -- 20 A vision to lift the spirit -- 21 Suicidal ignorance -- 22 Israel's dead end -- 23 Emerging alternatives in Palestine -- 24 The screw turns, again -- 25 Thoughts about America -- 26 What price Oslo? -- 27 Thinking ahead -- 28 What has Israel done? -- 29 Crisis for American Jews -- 30 Palestinian elections now -- 31 One-way street -- 32 Slow death: Punishment by detail -- 33 Arab disunity and factionalism -- 34 Low point of powerlessness -- Part three: Israel, Iraq, and the United States -- 35 Israel, Iraq, and the United States -- 36 Europe versus America -- 37 Misinformation about Iraq -- 38 Immediate imperatives -- 39 An unacceptable helplessness -- 40 A monument to hypocrisy -- 41 Who is in charge? -- 42 A stupid war -- 43 What is happening to the United States? -- 44 The Arab condition -- 45 Archaeology of the road map -- 46 Dignity and solidarity -- Afterword by Wadie E. Said.
Summary:
In From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map, Said writes about the second intifada and about the so-called peace process, which he terms a kind of "fast-food peace" underscored by "malevolent sloppiness". He discusses the breach of democracy in the last American presidential election and describes the Bush administration as hopeless in its allegiance to the Christian right and to the big oil companies. He writes passionately against the war in Iraq and condemns the "road map" as a plan not for peace but for pacification of the Palestinians. He makes clear the ways in which the U.S. response to 9/11 has further destabilized the Middle East, but finds as well reasons for hope: the Palestinian National Initiative, an organization of grassroots activists who share a burgeoning idea of democracy "undreamed of by the [Palestinian] Authority". What has always set Said apart is his ability to state the uncensored truth about the realities of the Palestinian experience, from land expropriation, and dispossession, to assassinations, roadblocks, and house demolitions. In this book, Said reveals information that never finds its way into the American media, thus providing a real context for our understanding of the Middle East. Fiercely uncompromising, written with clarity and elegance, From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map gives us an essential and unique voice that is more important now than ever before.
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