NBN - Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

The New Books Network (NBN) is an umbrella for the numerous "New Books in ..."-podcasts, among which I have been following New Books in History (feed) for ever and I always pick and choose from its endless offering. The podcast review below is about an interview with the author of a new book, that was not only published in the New Books in History feed, but also in New Books in Jewish Studies and New Books in Middle Eastern Studies: Hillel Cohen, "Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929″ (Brandeis UP, 2015). But first a digression.

Not in a neutral way I can tell where I am from. I was born in The Netherlands - that is not the dangerous statement. I can even say I originally come from Europe or the EU - you do not have to agree with the EU or like Europe to still find the statement perfectly acceptable, but how can I say where I live? I have to say I live in Israel, or I can say I live in Palestine and any which way this is a laden statement. Even the fact that I am an Israeli citizen, especially in the light of being also Dutch, is seemingly putting me in a certain camp. That is what the Arab-Israeli conflict does for you. I live in this conflict even in the language of it and there are no words you can use that will not push you to one side or the other.

Hillel Cohen explains that the conflict may have started before 1929, but his book "Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929" intends to show that the conflict as an historical entity, that is as a subject that is named such and written about started in 1929. And ever since we are not only living in the conflict, we are also not capable of talking, writing about it without getting trapped in the sides and consequently in only one perspective. During the interview on the podcast New Books in Jewish Studies he shows how he struggles with it and tells also how he encourages his students to make an effort to change perspectives.

I was very much taken in by the entire interview. Even though I am well familiar with the developments in the 1920s and also with the politicized nature of the historiography of the conflict - Hillel Cohen showed his dedication in a very candid way. What you get to see is how this historian, knowing he is part of one side and drawn into one perspective, puts in a tremendous effort to reveal the other perspectives, first of all to himself, but also to his students and his readers. It takes his academic work beyond academia, beyond politics to a realm of true soul searching. And this, as I can reveal about myself as well, is also what the conflict does for you.

Therefore this issue of the podcast is a must listen for anyone who is remotely interested in the conflict. In addition, this post is paving the way for an upcoming podcast review I am working on. This is about a podcast that is entirely dedicated to the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Lost in space - Anne is a Man tentatively renewed

I have just changed the title of this blog. No more podcast reviews you may ask - well you have not had any in two years, so what good would be an answer any which way? If I am to get back to posting, podcast reviews are likely to be among them. And recipes and I think I might write about language learning.

First of all I changed the title to take away the pretense that this is still and could ever be a hub for podcast finding. That is probably not going to be the case. And all those podcasters that were hoping I'd plug their work, should seek exposure elsewhere.

Yet, the blog still exists and I frequently feel the urge to write - something, anything. And so, the change of title is first of all an opening of the gates. It allows me to start posting again.

I have some backlog of posts. The podcast reviews in them are past their due date. There are recipes I have jotted down in notebooks lying about the house and I'd hate for them to get lost. I have been using my blog as reference while cooking. Like when I took my son to Holland for his Bar Mitzva and I promised my sister I would cook her a meal. The same happens at home when I can't find the notebook with the recipe I am looking for.

My Profile in Duolingo

Lastly, ever since I came to Israel and had to urgently learn Hebrew I am extremely conscious about language learning. While the blog was still active I used to write about learning languages with the help of podcasts, but there is so much more these days. For example I am heavily using the app Duolingo. Around this I find myself telling and writing so much that it seems much could be focused here.

So why "lost in space"? Well, this blog is lost in space. It exists on the Web and it still attracts traffic, whether helpful for finding podcasts or not (probably not any more). I myself feel lost in space - being a Dutchman in Israel, a legal professional in a computer job and generally feeling like a stranger in a strange land. The blog is inevitably about how I keep my sanity in this insane life.

The latest revolution

Sorry, yes, I have not been blogging for nearly a month. I have been listening to podcasts though and here is a handful around one theme: the wave of popular uprisings in North-Africa and the Middle East.

BBC Analysis (feed)
Rethinking the Middle East; Maha Azzam examines the long term implications of the recent uprisings in the Middle East. Get updated with some backgrounds within half an hour.

Rear Vision (feed)
The Arab world; As political unrest spreads across the Middle East and North Africa we take a look at the history of the Arab world, through the 20th century. Another mere half hour to get smart quicker. A very learned and concise introduction to the relevant history.

Africa Past and Present (feed)
Salah Hassan and Ken Harrow (Michigan State University) on the democratic revolutions in North Africa. Events in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are analyzed from below and above, with focus on the perspectives of youth, creative uses of technology, as well as the connections to, and relevance of, the events to Africa and the wider world.

CNES (feed)
Podcasts from the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. The Egyptian Intifada in Historical Perspective; A lecture by Joel Beinin, Stanford University. If you want to be more thorough and are ready to spend a couple of hours, start here. An in-depth expose of the Egyptian situation, with noted applicability to the other countries in uproar is given here. The shorter references in the other podcasts will then be less enigmatic.

LSE Podcast (feed)
A Perfect Storm in the Arab World?
Regardless of the outcome of events in Egypt, for Arabs, psychologically and symbolically, this is their Berlin Wall moment. They are on the brink of a democratic wave similar to the one that swept through Eastern Europe more than 20 years ago, hastening the Soviet Union's collapse. The Arab intifada has put to rest the claim that Islam and Muslims are incompatible with democracy. The democratic virus is mutating and will probably give birth to a new language - and a new era - of politics in the Arab world. Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds the Emirates Chair of the Contemporary Middle East and is the Director of the Middle East Centre at LSE.
Here also Israel and Iran are entering the equation.

And if you want more Israeli and Jewish perspective:
Radio Open Source (feed)
A Jewish Argument around the Arab Revolt
Philip Weiss, exulting in the glorious news from Egypt, says: “the handwriting on the wall is Arabic.” The 55-year-old meta-journalist dedicates his website MondoWeiss to “the war of ideas in the Middle East.” His project is more daring and difficult than that sounds. Really it’s to start something between a moral argument and a civil war over the big book of Jewish tradition and “spiritual wholeness” — over US national interests, the Palestinian condition, Israel and the whole modern idea of Zionism, by which he means the judgment from 19th and 20th Century European experience that Jews cannot be safe as a tiny minority in non-Jewish countries.

Palestinian perspectives - LSE and CNES

Here are two podcasts I heard in the past week which take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective.

At the London School of Economics (LSE Podcast) spoke Professor Yezid Sayigh about the Palestinian Authority. Much of what he relates confirms what has been said by others in other podcasts before: Palestine is a failed state. Sayigh however does more than just state this, he also elaborates and thus makes clear the lack of political strategy and coherence especially with Fatah. Hamas on the other hand, as it controls Gaza, it has a bit more of a consistent policy, yet remains isolated. In addition, he shows how the foreign policies towards the Palestinian Authority also fails to establish, support or even encourage a coherent polity. (feed)

As the conflict with Israel is fought on many fronts, it is interesting to listen in on the podcast of UCLA's Center for Near Eastern Studies where Basem Ra'ad takes on the conflict of narratives. As the Zionist side relies on main stream interpretations of the Bible and World History, in which God promised the land to the Jews and Arabs invaded as Islam spread. Ra'ad proposes that the Palestinians are not simply Arabs, but rather the descendants of the Canaanites. He connects the Canaanites to the Phoenicians as they are the inventors of the Alphabet that forms the basis for the Hebrew as well as the Arab script (and the Greek, by the way). He also makes a case that God is the god of the Canaanites and Yahweh is his son, who is the god of the Hebrews. It is a rather stretched lecture, but one simply must experience how the Israeli-Palestinian struggle extends as far as the making of narratives. (feed)

More LSE:
The impending war,
Quest for meaning,
The plundered planet,
China and India,
The China Hegemony.

More from the Center of Near Eastern Studies:
History, linguistics and the downside of society,
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer on Indus Valley Civilization.

The impending war - LSE podcast

At the London School of Economics there are always a lot of lectures to recommend. Just now, I heard one by Dana Allin, which I think is also very much worth listening to, yet I would like to send you on the road with some advanced knowledge. (feed)

Allin's lecture comes forth from the book he wrote with Steve Simon The Sixth Crisis: Iran, Israel, America, and the Rumors of War. The subject of the lecture is the American political and diplomatic conundrum of how to deal with Iran's nuclear program and its becoming a (potential) nuclear power. In Allin's view, the issue is closely linked to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and therefore the divergent policies of the US and its ally Israel towards Iran. That makes the crisis with Iran a sixth crisis for the US with Israel.

Unfortunately Allin does not enumerate the prior five crises and therefore leaps in the middle of the subject without framing it. That is a pity and I think it helps if I gave them here. The first crisis is the 1956 Suez Crisis. The second starts with the six-day war in 1967 and continues thruough the ensuing war of attrition and 1973 Yom Kippur War. Then the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran is a third crisis - wider than just a crisis with Israel and also a first indicator that the world is not entirely triggered by the Cold-War power balance. The fourth crisis, I would say begins with the Intifadah, but if that were no crisis for the US, it sure became one in 1991 with the Gulf War. Finally, the fifth crisis, also larger than just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is 9/11 terrorist attacks and the resulting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Barely this fifth crisis is over (if at all) and there is the crisis around Iran.

More LSE:
Quest for meaning,
The plundered planet,
China and India,
The China Hegemony,
The myth of work.

Kai Bird - Radio Open Source

Radio Open Source had a most fascinating conversation with Kai Bird, which I highly recommend. (feed) Before you go and listen it would be useful to know (what is left implicit on the show) that he is the son of a US foreign service employee and as a result of that spent most of his youth abroad. Among places such as Cairo and Beirut, he grew up in East Jerusalem and as such he experienced the Arab-Israeli conflict from nearby. He has written a book about it: Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978.

What I like especially in this show is that the Arab Israeli conflict was discussed with criticism, but without the righteousness that is so common when the subject comes up. I was especially pleased by that as I feel that this sense of righteousness, whether it lives on either side of the conflict or within the rest of the world has a devastating effect on the conflict. It somehow feeds the extremists on both sides, it compels more propaganda war and media attention that is also drawn to the outspoken.

The lesson Bird wants to teach with his book is that Jews and Arabs can and should be able to peacefully live together in one land. Among others, he gets his inspiration from an old zionist from the nationalist, revisionist flank: Hillel Kook. This came as a surprise to me as Kook stems from the same roots as the less peaceful political stream in current Israel.

More Open Source:
Amartya Sen on India,
Mustafa Barghouti,
Jackson Lears,
Two communities in one region,
We want Obama.

Israel's Nuclear Program - Rear Vision

Here is a quick recommendation to listen to Rear Vision. They have recently done a documentary about Israel and its, alleged, bomb. In 30 minutes you get to understand the ratio of its policy of ambiguity and the fundamental difference in what it means for Israel to have the bomb in comparison to what it means Iran, for example, has the bomb. As usual Rear Vision is very informative, but I felt that this time the program has exceeded itself in managing to be clear and concise and captivating in one fell swoop.

More Rear Vision:
Kashmir,
UK Elections - recommended podcasts,
Two podcast issues on the history of Haiti
History of Yemen,
Freemasons.

Mustafa Barghouti - Open Source

In the wide range of podcasts that address the Israeli/Palestinian ethnic conflict and possible roads to its resolve an interesting issue to pick up is the interview with Mustafa Barghouti conducted by Christopher Lydon on Open Source Radio. Right after I had picked it up from the feed and begun to listen, I also saw a recommendation by Bernard Avishai on his blog

Mustafa Barghouti (a distant cousin of Marwan Barghouti) tries to represent a third force in Palestinian politics, independent from Hamas and Fatah. His aim is to begin to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution and as to the Palestinian state in this constellation he drives for greater democracy, economic development and what is important to note, a strict policy of non-violence regarding Israel. He claims it is possible for Jews and Arabs to peacefully live together gives the pre-1917 situation as an example. I had wanted to know his opinion on the developments from the Balfour Declaration until 1947, but the podcast mostly speaks of the present.

Barghouti's tales of the horrors in Gaza are hard to listen to and while this litany is not at all bereft of righteous indignation towards Israel, the really interesting thing is what he has to say about Israeli society. His opinion is that the current policies are not only obviously bad for Palestinians, but are also hurting the Israelis. Even though one may want to disagree, he certainly knows the Israelis well and another point he makes is that Israelis hardly know the Palestinians at all and there it is my experience he has a point.

More Open Source:
Jackson Lears,
Two communities in one region,
We want Obama,
The end of Hegemony,
Go for a walk with Open Source.

Lea Dasberg - Het Marathon Interview

Zojuist verscheen in de nieuwe feed van VPRO's Het Marathoninterview een zeer memorabel gesprek dat Harmke Pijpers Galen in 1989 had met Lea Dasberg. Mijn recensie uit September 2007 daarover gaat als volgt:

Er is een boek van Lea Dasberg, dat ik niet gelezen heb, maar dat me aanspreekt alleen al om de titel: Grootbrengen door kleinhouden. Daar wordt het Nederlands maternalisme zo goed gevangen dat ik me door haar meteen begrepen voel. En dan hebben we ook nog iets gemeen: Nederland achter ons gelaten hebben en onze eindbestemming in Israel gevonden. Genoeg om op voorhand al te genieten van het marathoninterview uit 1989.

Interviewster Harmke Pijpers laat Dasberg lang vertellen over haar kindertijd. Daarna, langs een heel natuurlijke overgang komt ze te spreken over haar pedagogische principes. Daar zitten prachtige gedachtengangen tussen. Zoals bijvoorbeeld: het is te riskant om een toekomst te bouwen op de zelfontplooing. In haar optiek moeten kinderen gestimuleerd worden. Desnoods ook moeten ze hard aangepakt worden - Dasberg gelooft niet in zielig doen. Mensen moeten maar leren dat sommige tegenslagen er in het leven bijhoren. Pech hoeft niet weg, voor haar. Geen recht op een pechvrij bestaan.

Dat had ze zelf ook niet. En zo legt ze zich neer bij de afstand die haar invaliditeit noodzakelijkerwijs tot mannen schept. Maar ze geeft ook aan geboft te hebben, met datgene wat elk kind nodig heeft, maar niet altijd krijgt: ouders die je lief vinden. Die je mooi vinden en die hun verwachtingen en hoop over je koesteren. De mens moet met het basisgevoel opgroeien dat het kostbaar is. Waarna het ook nog over Israel gaat. Voor mij is dat niet minder fascinerend, maar ik kan me voorstellen dat dat gedeelte, juist doordat het zo gedateerd is, de gemiddelde luisteraar wat minder raakt. Het Israel van 1989 is niet meer het Israel van 2007, al kan je versteld staan over hoeveel er nog wel hetzelfde gebleven is.

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Rudi Kross,
Ina Muller van Ast,
Jan Wolkers,
Henk Hofland (o.a.),
Diepenhorst en andere politici.

Israeli at the London School of Economics

I do not usually write about podcasts I found a waste of time listening to. The Israeli deputy minister of foreign Affairs Dani Ayalon was invited to the London School of Economics to present Israel's view on the Israeli-Arab conflict and most of this resulted in a tedious repetition of the atmosphere and rhetoric that inevitably hangs around this issue. Not only did Ayalon's speech hold much that had not been said many times before, also the restless audience did not bring much news to make life really difficult for this spokesperson.

It seems, the more the atmosphere is heated, the fewer discourse there is. Especially on this podcast, one is presented with a lot of shouting - it takes the event about 15 minutes to actually manage to begin. The prickly retorts Ayalon has for the disruptive elements in the audience boil down to: when your argument is weak, you voice will go up. However, also his own talk was, in my ears, not particularly strong. I would rather have real powerful speakers really engage with each other in argument, not in a shouting match.

The reason I write is in the end that as a sample from the LSE lecture series, this was a very exceptional case. Contrary to the usual quiet academic hearings, this one was full of action and from that point of view, it was fascinating to witness how the action developed. Fascinating not only how Ayalon, but also how the mediator, the majority of the audience and the protesters dealt with the raucous affair.

More LSE
Michael Sandel,
Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung,
Natural Resource Management,
The Iran power struggle,
Justice.

Avi Shlaim on Israel and Palestine - The Economist

It is always good to hear a historian about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this case, The Economist podcast offered a short conversation with Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, who is considered as one of the revisionists among Israeli historians.



Shlaim repeats a position that can be seen as one example of what Henry Kissinger is supposed to have generally stipulated: The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The specific tactical mistake Shlaim has in mind is the Palestinian (and broad Arab) rejection of the 1947 UN division plan. Not only would they have been better off than today or at any time in the future if there is ever going to be a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders. He goes on to add that the Jewish state within the 1947 borders would not have been viable.

More from The Economist:
A crisis of authority in Iran,
Comfort with Obama,
Democracy in America - podcast review,
Issues of Race,
The primary system.

A history of the Israeli-Arab conflict - Rear Vision

The program Rear Vision of Australia's ABC which is also available as podcast, had three guests to speak on The Middle East conflict and the two-state solution. Giora Eiland; former head of the Israeli National Security Council and General in the Israel General Staff. Jeremy Pressman; Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, at the University of Connecticut in America. And Rashid Khalidi; Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University in America.

I especially liked the contribution of Rashid Khalidi, who we have recently heard also in several other excellent podcast appearances - see below. When discussing the Balfour Declaration Khalidi points out that although the provision was made that the Jews were to respect the rights of others, the Arabs are not mentioned here. This is to be a continuing problem in the history, the Arabs struggle with being a non-entity and one must in ones mind add to this that especially among Israelis, many consider the Palestinians, still, as a non-entity. And so, the rather refreshing light on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict Khalidi gives is that of the Arab population and a disenfranchised community, without sliding into the rhetoric of accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing or equaling Zionism with Imperialism.

Also Eiland's and Pressman's contributions are quite good, so that this is one of the very few podcasts that will give you a basic insight in the history of the conflict going as far back as 1917. The only thing I found missing in the program was how this two-state solution as an option has been losing ground recently. While it is still largely held as the one and only viable option for a cold peace, only Eiland mentions one of the fundamental problems with it: the most Israel is politically capable of offering is less than any Palestinian Authority can accept. Add to this the deep mistrust between the peoples that have risen over the last decade and the eternal problems of the Palestinians to forge a basis for a viable state, not only economically, but also politically. The two-state solution seems, more than ever, apart from being politically out of reach, practically not sustainable.

More Rear Vision:
Fish depletion,
Follow up on Iran and Versailles,
Versailles 1919,
Iran 1953,
Coffee.

More Rashid Khalidi:
Sowing crisis - Us and the Middle-East,
Empire.

Sowing Crisis - Rashid Khalidi

Last week I announced I was going to review a podcast with Rashid Khalidi again. Khalidi was a guest at the University of Chicago and held a lecture under the title Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East. The lecture was recorded and published (also) in the compiled feed of UChannel Podcast.

Khalidi gives a very convincing historic analysis of the dealings of the Cold War opponents in the Middle East, especially the US. The point he makes is that the powers have used the Middle East to wage their war by proxy and that the tragic consequence of the matter has been, and still is today, that in the region radical and extremist elements are enforced and moderates are at a loss. In most recent times, the USSR has been replaced by Iran and still the cold war with the US is waged in Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

If you choose to listen to the podcast (you must), be advised to also sit through the question and answer section. Among others there will be informative dialogs about the Israeli lobby in the US and about the democratic powers in the Arab world. Khalidi proves to be a very engaging, sharp and enlightening speaker.

More UChannel Podcast:
Taming Religion - Ian Buruma trilogy,
Averting the disasters of climate change,
Interfaith and Compassion,
Talent is overrated,
Ronald Reagan, a rebel.

Israel again on UChannel

Here is a quick recommendation from a blogger on vacation.

A good podcast with some insights on the Israeli-Arab conflict you do not hear to often - like the inability of the political systems to deal with the problem, is Wounds of Peace: The Arab-Israeli Conflict After Gaza.

More UChannel Podcast:
Interfaith and Compassion - Karen Armstrong on UChannel,
Talent is overrated,
Ronald Reagan, a rebel,
Disasters and Peace,
Enclosing the commons of the mind,
Middle East challenges.

Lawrence Freedman - Big Ideas

TVO's podcast Big Ideas had a lecture with Lawrence Freedman (audio) in which he comments on his book A choice of enemies; America confronts the Middle East. This is a lecture with a historical perspective on US foreign policy in the Middle East.

In many ways, Freedmans outstanding lecture was an echo of a point also made in the excellent history and political science series from Stanford: The History of the International System. 1979 is a year with a couple of occurrences in the geopolitcs of the Middle East that break away from the Cold War logic of the time and are the harbingers of a new world order that is to come and that we have become familiar with today. The Egypt-Israel peace initiative, The revolution in Iran and (of you wish) the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan.

What makes Freedman's lecture refreshing is the emphasis on history. It gives a much clearer perspective on the geopolitics of the Middle-East and makes many of its feature much less surprising. So much less so that Freedman hardly avoids scolding foreign policy makers for not knowing their history and rerun old policies with old failing over and over again. After the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan came the US variety, with equal problematic outcome. After the British failure to dictate state building in Iraq, the US ran into the same conundrum. This lecture is indispensable for the podcast listener who tries to get a grip on the Middle-East.

More Big Ideas:
New Learning - Don Tapscott on Big Ideas,
On Crime,
Why isn't the whole world developed?,
The role and place of the intellectual,
Disaster Capitalism.

More History of the International System:
The State in The International System,
A century of geopolitics,
History of the International System.

Naomi Klein on Media Matters

The podcast Media Matters with Bob McChesney is political commentary radio program with (frequently) listeners calling in. The most recent edition had Canadian writer and social critic Naomi Klein in the studio.

Klein gets the opportunity to voice her fierce criticism of modern free market criticism. As already pointed out in her book 'The shock doctrine' which describes what she terms 'Disaster Capitalism' - money making thrives with crises. In her book, the disaster caused by hurricane Katrina is used as an example. In the studio, she goes to show how the current financial disaster works just likewise. A private market crisis is being transformed into a public crisis with all the bail out programs.

What this boils down to is that the capitalists do not have to pay for their mistakes, but manage to pass the hot potato through to the government. That means the tax payer, the public budget and eventually the weakest pay the price. And rich speculators can go on taking huge risks. And thus, capitalism, this unrestrained capitalism, thrives by crises. The excitement and expectations about Obama, have obscured this fact in the US, but in other countries, she claims, the injustice is observed more clearly.

More Media Matters:
Noam Chomsky,
Juan Cole,
The Crisis.

More Naomi Klein:
Naomi Klein on Big Ideas.

Noam Chomsky on Media Matters

The news podcast Media Matters, with Bob McChesney featured Noam Chomsky and his views that are not exactly middle of the road in the US.

Even though I do not agree with all of what Chomsky says, I find it refreshing to hear him. His cynicism about Israel is something one needs to hear, I think. If one applies a similar kind of cynicism to the Arab world, or to Hamas and Hezbollah the conclusions may be different.

That is where Chomsky, I feel, derails himself. You cannot help but feel in his remarks a subtext of praise for the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela and so the strongest element in his words are those of self-criticism. He rips off the mask of the diplomacy jargon and regular terminology in which the US and Israeli positions are usually portrayed. His words are to be kept in mind as a balance.

More Media Matters:
Juan Cole,
The Crisis.

Vanuit Nederland over Israel - Flavius

Het radioprogramma en podcast Flavius van de Joodse Omroep ging in aflevering 9 ging voor een groot deel over Israël. Niet in zijn geheel; het gesprek met Philipp Blom over zijn boek - De duizelingwekkende jaren; Europa 1900-1914 - moet zeker ook vermeld worden. Dat was zeer de moeite waard.

Verder ging het over Tel Aviv, de Bauhaus architectuur, die niet uitsluitend Bauhaus is en de afgeblazen plannen van Hertzberger om in zee te bouwen. Hoewel het toch om een programma van de Joodse Omroep gaat, vond ik dat het perspectief wel erg Nederlands was. Vooral Hertzbergers teleurstelling in Israëls door hem verwachte vooruitstrevendheid kon nauwelijks meer relativering krijgen dan een korte opmerking van Tamarah Benima, dat Israëlische architecten ook wel wat op Nederland aan te merken hadden.

Ik vermoed dat ze wijselijk haar mond hield toen het over een eventueel optreden van Israël tegen Iran ging. De dreigende combinatie van Ahmedinijads antisemitisme en een Iraanse kernbom die in Israël bange herinneringen aan de holocaust oproepen worden door een van de presentatoren als abuis van de hand gedaan. Het gesprek met Marc Chavannes en Salomon Bouman behandelt dan een eventuele tegenaanval van Israël als de dreiging. Wat daar zo typisch Nederlands aan is, is die buitenstaandershouding die niet eens ingaat op de vraag: Is een kernbom in handen van Ahmedinijad gegarandeerd geen dreigende holocaust? Hoezeer de vergelijking met 1940 ook mank loopt, vond ik het onverklaarbaar dat die dimensie niet in het gesprek werd meegenomen, terwijl die fundementeel is in de strategische overwegingen van Israël.

Meer Flavius:
Joodse Geschiedenis en Cultuur,
Podcast Flavius bij de Joodse Omroep.

Disasters and Peace - UChannel Podcast

Some time ago, someone said to me: "The only thing that will give a good turn to the Arab-Israeli conflict will be a great natural disaster. It will show how the Israelis and Palestinians are in the same boat, it will force them to cooperate and this in turn will produce a basis of mutual trust and respect." I was surprised by this idea and at the same time not completely convinced. Besides why must we wait for disaster to strik?

Can disasters have such an unexpected good side-effect? On UChannel Podcast was a lecture by Michael Renner given at NYU Wagner that addressed exactly this phenomenon. Renner uses the 2004 Tsunami as the example disaster and looks at Aceh and at Sri Lanka to see the peace effects. The result is mixed. Somehow on Aceh, peace could be given a new impulse and this development looks sustainable. On Sri Lanka however, although also here the impulse was put in place, the peace process got stuck for lack of political commitment.

If political commitment is a prerequisite for the success, not only is a peace turn out of a disaster no easy result, neither is it one that can be achieved with the right amount of grass roots or external effort. The Sri Lanka case shows how the ruling elite somehow holds a power of veto. It is conceivable that also in the Middle East there are enough political streams that are so profoundly not interesting in peace that a disaster may not change this at all. And then they can sabotage whatever peace developments spring up.

More UChannel Podcast:
Enclosing the commons of the mind,
Middle East challenges,
Good climate for everyone (global warming),
Robots and War,
Sudan and the fallacy of nationhood.

Two communities in one region - Open Source on Israel and Palestine

I do not usually find podcasts about the Zionist-Arab conflict that take on an approach that goes a little beyond the diplomacy and evaluation of geopolitics between governments, international pressure and the dynamics of international policy. Open Source with Christopher Lydon did just that by talking with Henry Siegman and Meron Benvenisti.

The issue this time is not only how peace can be approached, but rather also what ultimate form should a peace solution get. Siegman, who gets the most air time, believes in the two-state solution and sees a fundamental role for Obama to pressure this goal out of the Middle-East cooker. Siegman emphasizes how important it will be that the Palestine state should be formed properly and not be a still-born with three separated parts. Again the new US administration must take a lead into wriggling this result out of the balking contestants.

Then there is little time left for a few remarks by Meron Benvenisti who actually does not support a two-state solution and thus is basically the most interesting guest. He argues there is a regional continuity between the Jordan and the sea and that the Arabs and the Jews must live in one country. It is not hard to see this urgency, but how does Benvenisti think this can be achieved? We'd need much more time on the podcast for that.

More Open Source:
We want Obama,
The end of Hegemony,
Go for a walk with Open Source.