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CAN'T SHAKE THE DEVIL'S HAND AND SAY YOU'RE ONLY KIDDING.
Demonstrating the aluminum bat-like subtlety which, combined with an enthusiasm for rehabilitating the paradigms of 19th century colonial discourse, has made him a foreign policy guru for wingnut racists everywhere, Ralph Peters offers his version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in today's New York Post:
"In the end, the problem's difficulty can be put in New York City terms: A shiftless, violent family that turned an apartment into a slum was evicted. The new tenants cleaned up the place and made the apartment a showcase. Now the former tenants hate them for it - and want the apartment back."
It would be a solid day's work unpacking the the desperate ignorance and defiant bigotry bound up in that statement, which, in any case, brays rather loudly for itself, so I'll just ask: Is there any other event in history of which it would be remotely acceptable to describe the violent displacement of 700,000 human beings in such a way?
--Matthew Duss
COMMENTS (8)
I'm not sure how good a job the Israelis did fixing up the place. I read somewhere once that there isn't a single stop light in the Palestinian parts of the West Bank.
Posted by: gfw | November 27, 2007 12:36 PM
TMBG meets Palestine. Nice.
Posted by: Ryan Fox | November 27, 2007 1:49 PM
Who's the landlord in Peters' story?
Posted by: K | November 27, 2007 2:05 PM
"Is there any other event in history of which it would be remotely acceptable to describe the violent displacement of 700,000 human beings in such a way?"
Though it's not the same, Peters's analogy kinda reminds me of the congressman from Florida who compared welfare to feeding alligators a few years back. Metaphor is a dangerous thing when in the hands of the stupid...
Posted by: winer | November 27, 2007 2:56 PM
"Is there any other event in history of which it would be remotely acceptable to describe the violent displacement of 700,000 human beings in such a way?"
Speaking of "aluminum-bat like subtlety"...
Posted by: weboy | November 27, 2007 3:17 PM
I mean, 50 points alone for the non-ironic use of the word "shiftless".
Posted by: DonBoy | November 27, 2007 9:23 PM
Is there any other event in history of which it would be remotely acceptable to describe the violent displacement of 700,000 human beings in such a way?
You're asking this a mere few days after Thanksgiving?
Posted by: ajay | November 28, 2007 7:08 AM
Ajay, that's a fair point, but my point is that anyone who used language like Peters' to describe the destruction and expulsion of Native Americans would be considered marginal, whereas downplaying, or outright denial of, the Palestinian catastrophe is a regular feature of the mainstream conversation over I-P in the US.
Posted by: Matt Duss | November 28, 2007 8:07 AM