Linkage
These constantly-updated links come from sources selected by Martin Kramer.
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Ivory Towers on Sand
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Martin Kramer, Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America.
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U.S. Ambassador in London Hosts Hamas
posted Monday, 23 December 2002
Saturday's London Guardian reports that Azzam Tamimi, a Palestinian Hamas ideologue, attended the Ramadan reception of the U.S. ambassador in London. It was the first time the embassy had hosted an iftar dinner, and it's already made a big mistake.
An earlier entry in this weblog was devoted to Tamimi. To Islamists on both sides of the Atlantic, Tamimi is effectively an emissary of Hamas. As he put it to the Guardian: "There is a personal relationship with some of them. Because of that I am sometimes asked to advise them. I have been asked, 'what do you think of how we present ourselves to the world?' I can be of use both to Hamas and people in the West who know nothing of what Hamas is about." Actually, the benighted West does have a pretty good sense of what Hamas is about: suicide bombings and the elimination of Israel. As my previous entry shows, Tamimi has had no difficulty making the case for both.
Deep within the bowels of the State Department, there are people who still harbor the wacky idea that they can tell the good extremists from the bad ones, and who play games with Islamists that confuse the message coming from Washington. Hamas is a listed terrorist organization. Tamimi is its self-avowed adviser. He's been deliberately admitted to the American inner sanctum of Winfield House, residence of the American ambassador. E-mail Ambassador William S. Farish and let him know what you think.
An earlier entry in this weblog was devoted to Tamimi. To Islamists on both sides of the Atlantic, Tamimi is effectively an emissary of Hamas. As he put it to the Guardian: "There is a personal relationship with some of them. Because of that I am sometimes asked to advise them. I have been asked, 'what do you think of how we present ourselves to the world?' I can be of use both to Hamas and people in the West who know nothing of what Hamas is about." Actually, the benighted West does have a pretty good sense of what Hamas is about: suicide bombings and the elimination of Israel. As my previous entry shows, Tamimi has had no difficulty making the case for both.
Deep within the bowels of the State Department, there are people who still harbor the wacky idea that they can tell the good extremists from the bad ones, and who play games with Islamists that confuse the message coming from Washington. Hamas is a listed terrorist organization. Tamimi is its self-avowed adviser. He's been deliberately admitted to the American inner sanctum of Winfield House, residence of the American ambassador. E-mail Ambassador William S. Farish and let him know what you think.
