Roger Cohen and the Islamists
It's Monday, and that's the day of the week that the New York Times gives a platform to the despicable Roger Cohen to pound Israel. In today's column, he relates how he Not surprisingly, Erdogan wants the World to talk to Hamas without preconditions, and calls for a 'new balance' in the American approach to the Middle East. But what's astounding is the extent to which Cohen adopts the Islamist agenda.
Dreams aside, I see Obama moving methodically to dismantle the Manichean Bush paradigm — with us or against us in a global battle of good against evil called the war on terror — in favor of a new realism that places improved relations with the Muslim world at its fulcrum. Hence the early visit to Turkey, gestures toward Iran, and other forms of outreach.Phew. Aren't we lucky that Obama considers Israel an ally? And aren't we lucky that the Times provides so much balance on its opinion pages?
This will lead to tensions with Israel, which had conveniently conflated its long national struggle with the Palestinians within the war on terror, but is an inevitable result of a rational reassessment of U.S. interests.
I asked Erdogan if Islam and modernity were compatible. “Islam is a religion,” he said, “It is not an ideology. For a Muslim, there is no such thing as to be against modernity. Why should a Muslim not be a modern person? I, as a Muslim, fulfill all the requirements of my religion and I live in a democratic, social state. Can there be difficulties? Yes. But they will be resolved at the end of a maturity period so long as there is mutual trust.”
The problem is, of course, that Islam has been deployed as an ideology in the anti-modern, murderous, death-to-the-West campaign of Al-Qaeda. But Erdogan is right: Islam is one of the great world religions. Obama’s steps to reassert that truth, and so bridge the most dangerous division in the world, are of fundamental strategic importance.
Synthesis begins with understanding, which is precisely what never interested his predecessor.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:49 AM
4 Comments:
Carl - the irony of Roger Cohen's view I'm sure as you've noticed, is that Cohen urges no such appreciation and respect for Judaism and Israel. Obama wants to treat every one as equals and not dictate to any one. The only exception to that pattern is Israel. There is going to be a major rift between the US and Israel on a range of issues but not because Israel wants it to happen but because the US wants to seek street cred in the Muslim and Arab World and the fastest way towards that goal is to be the bully beating up Israel.
Its going to be a long and hard decade for Israel and the Roger Cohens of the world have signaled the "good times" for the Jewish State - as if there ever were any - are over.
Besides publishing this junk by the Kappo Cohen, the "Global" edition of the Times published this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07iht-edtibi.html
today.
Ron,
If the late Yasser Arafat's poodle defines himself as a "Palestinian", he has no right to be in Israel. I find it amusing he complains of second-class citizenship and Israeli racism but he refuses to move along with his fellow Arabs to the PA. I guess that life under the hated Jews is better than being under the rule of his fellow Arabs. Don't let his hypocrisy detain you - or the sight of an Arab who is an Israeli citizen denounce the Jewish State.
Roger Cohen did not have an interview with Erdrogan. He had a blind date and Cohen sure as heck is fond of his date. Cohen could not be bothered asking Erdrogan about Turkey's savage bombing of kurdish villages in Iraq. The dead children of Kurdistan don't seem to bother Cohen too much, at least not enough to ask Erdrogan about it. Instead, Cohen lavished praise on Erdrogan for Erdrogan's "courage" in berating Shimon Peres at Davos. Cohen's seeming enjoyment of watching an Islamic leader lambast the 85 year old president of the Jewish State can only be seen as a form of selfloathing.
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