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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNoam Chomsky on BDS and How the Israeli Occupation is "Much Worse Than Apartheid"
Democracy Now! (Fulll story at embedded link)**Disclaimer: Not endorsing. Not condemning. I'm sharing as a discussion point. **
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to get your response, Noam, to Nicholas Kristof on the issue of Palestinian nonviolence. Writing in The New York Times last month, Kristof wrote, quote, "Palestinian militancy has accomplished nothing but increasing the misery of the Palestinian people. If Palestinians instead turned more to huge Gandhi-style nonviolence resistance campaigns, the resulting videos would reverberate around the world and Palestine would achieve statehood and freedom." Noam Chomsky, your response?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, first of all, thats a total fabrication. Palestinian nonviolence has been going on for a long time, very significant nonviolent actions. I havent seen the reverberations in Kristofs columns, for example, or anywhere. I mean, there is among popular movements, but not what hes describing.
Theres also a good deal of cynicism in those comments. What he should be doing is preaching nonviolence to the United States, the leading perpetrator of violence in the world. Hasnt been reported here, but an international poll last DecemberGallup here and its counterpart in England, the leading polling agenciesit was an international poll of public opinion. One of the questions that was asked is: Which country is the greatest threat to world peace? Guess who was first. Nobody even close. The United States was way in the lead. Far behind was Pakistan, and that was probably because mostly of the Indian vote. Well, thats what Nicholas Kristof should be commenting on. He should be calling for nonviolence where he is, where we are, where you and I are. That would make a big difference in the world. And, of course, nonviolence in our client states, like Israel, where we provide directly the means for the violence, or Saudi Arabia, extreme, brutal, fundamentalist state, where we send them tens of billions of dollars of military aid, and on and on, in ways that are not discussed. That would make sense. Its easy to preach nonviolence to some victim somewhere, saying, "You shouldnt be violent. Well be as violent as we like, but you not be violent."
That aside, the recommendation is correct, and in fact its been a recommendation of people dedicated to Palestinian rights for many years. Eqbal Ahmad, who I mentioned, 40 yearsyou know, his background, he was active in the Algerian resistance, a long, long history of both very acute political analysis and direct engagement in Third World struggles, he was very close to the PLOconsistently urged this, as many, many people did, me included. And, in fact, theres been plenty of it. Not enough. But as I say, its very easy to recommend to victims, "You be nice guys." Thats cheap. Even if its correct, its cheap. What matters is what we say about ourselves. Are we going to be nice guys? Thats the important thing, particularly when its the United States, the country which, quite rightly, is regarded by theinternationally as the leading threat to world peace, and the decisive threat in the Israeli case.
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, first of all, thats a total fabrication. Palestinian nonviolence has been going on for a long time, very significant nonviolent actions. I havent seen the reverberations in Kristofs columns, for example, or anywhere. I mean, there is among popular movements, but not what hes describing.
Theres also a good deal of cynicism in those comments. What he should be doing is preaching nonviolence to the United States, the leading perpetrator of violence in the world. Hasnt been reported here, but an international poll last DecemberGallup here and its counterpart in England, the leading polling agenciesit was an international poll of public opinion. One of the questions that was asked is: Which country is the greatest threat to world peace? Guess who was first. Nobody even close. The United States was way in the lead. Far behind was Pakistan, and that was probably because mostly of the Indian vote. Well, thats what Nicholas Kristof should be commenting on. He should be calling for nonviolence where he is, where we are, where you and I are. That would make a big difference in the world. And, of course, nonviolence in our client states, like Israel, where we provide directly the means for the violence, or Saudi Arabia, extreme, brutal, fundamentalist state, where we send them tens of billions of dollars of military aid, and on and on, in ways that are not discussed. That would make sense. Its easy to preach nonviolence to some victim somewhere, saying, "You shouldnt be violent. Well be as violent as we like, but you not be violent."
That aside, the recommendation is correct, and in fact its been a recommendation of people dedicated to Palestinian rights for many years. Eqbal Ahmad, who I mentioned, 40 yearsyou know, his background, he was active in the Algerian resistance, a long, long history of both very acute political analysis and direct engagement in Third World struggles, he was very close to the PLOconsistently urged this, as many, many people did, me included. And, in fact, theres been plenty of it. Not enough. But as I say, its very easy to recommend to victims, "You be nice guys." Thats cheap. Even if its correct, its cheap. What matters is what we say about ourselves. Are we going to be nice guys? Thats the important thing, particularly when its the United States, the country which, quite rightly, is regarded by theinternationally as the leading threat to world peace, and the decisive threat in the Israeli case.
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