ZenPundit
Thursday, April 14, 2005
 
A MEXICAN STANDOFF WITH THE FRENCH OVER SOME CHINESE [UPDATED]

A trio of blogfriends have been covering some important regions of the world:

Pundita has run a series on Mexico dealing with economy, remittances, migration and terroristas and then replied to Dave on the latter.

Marc Schulman had his third installment of The EU and the Arabs plus the desperation of French elites on the " anti-Anglo-Saxon" EU constitution.

Dave Schuyler on the underreported demographic time bomb " Graying China".

UPDATE: Jonathan Dresner, a Japan specialist at Cliopatria, gives us the historical perspective on Japan's bid for a seat on the Security Council and why other Asian states oppose it. Meanwhile, Jodi of The Asia Pages, has wrangled herself a presentation slot at the APEC summit ! You go girl !
 
Comments:
Color me unimpressed with the Shulman posturing.

Primo, he confuses anti-Israeli with anti-Semetism, a cheap and typical hyper-Zionist ploy.

Second, his argument presumes that somehow it was the Government that motivated a shift in sentiments and sympathy away from Israel, which is ridiculous on its face. Apologia of the rankest kind.
 
I'd add that I call anyone citing to Ye'or on Arab issues someone swilling bigotry.
 
Col-

Didn't catch the last part in the post, who is Ye'or - an Israeli ?

Anti-semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment are not the same, agreed. Previously, Schulman has argued that French movement toward the Arabs by DeGaulle was motivated by a strategic choice to triangulate between the Soviet bloc and the Anglo-Americans, not out of mere anti-Jewish feelings. i.e, a move directed more at the US than Israel per se to bolster French influence.
 
On the strategic analysis, I would agree. France has played a middle game in re the Arab world, to its advantage. Good realpolitik for them.

One can dislike that, its perhaps a bit amoral, but French FP has largely been amoral state interest driven. I like it for that, although its childishness re Anglo Sax powers is self limiting.

But the argument re anti-Israeli feeling he advances is utterly bankrupt.

Ye'or is an Israeli 'specialist' who I despise.

Daniel Pipes like.
 
Is Ye'or connected with Shin Bet/Mossad - i.e. a farmed out, ostensibly independent but not really, expert/shill ? Kind of like the Sovs used to do with Posner and Arbatov ? Or is he just an "anti-Arabist" ?

Also what do you think of Raphael Patai's work ? I've been reading through declassified back issues of the CIA journal Studies in Intelligence and he was praised highly back in the 70's. On that endorsement, I picked up a copy of the The Arab Mind and I'm about halfway finished. I'm seeing an awful lot of central European, early 20th century Germanocentric intellectual influence in his interpretation of Arabic mass psychology. Lot of Freud. Lot of Spengler abstractionism.
 
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