Alice Walker Says Israel and U.S. are Great Terrorist Organizations

At some point each day I find myself reading the new articles, interviews, and blogs available online at Foreign Policy.  There are usually some good ideas, thought provoking articles and blogs.  Today is no different, except in what almost immediately caught my eye:  Alice Walker on Why Israel and the U.S. Are Terrorist States

Now, I make no claim at literary expertise and grew up in the deep south, as such I do not believe anyone would want to read nor believe my comments on The Color Purple.  So my first thought is why should anyone care what Alice Walker thinks about Israel and the U.S.?  She won a Pulitizer for her literature, but does she have any real expertise in terrorism, foreign policy, the Middle East?  She married a Jewish law student during the late 1960s and became an advocate of the Palestinians in the 1970s.  Great, I am an advocate for removing watermelon and returning lime to the green lifesaver candy.  She is as qualified as an activist who advocates for any group.  So on my first question, I'll give it another so what?

But what really struck me as I read this interview were two points.  One, she admits that she does not know what is on board ships in a flotilla she will travel with to attempt to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.  Personally, I take no trip without having some clue what is on board the vessel of travel if that vessel is potentially traveling in harm's way.  Not very bright of a Pulitizer winner to not know if these ships are carrying items of concern for the safety of Gaza or Israel.  The second is her statement the U.S. and Israel are "great terrorist organizations themselves."  Again showing the naivety of many leftists still out there in our world, there is no cogent reasoning, just feeling and bluster to the statement.  At least most left leaning academics I know would make a cogent argument to support such a claim. 

If we are a terrorist organization here in the U.S., may I ask you a question Alice Walker?  Why do you continue to support this terrorist organization by claiming citizenship, paying taxes, and living here?  Ok, wait, I am being emotional about this now just like she is about the cause of the Palestinians.  So, I return to my first point, what qualified her to speak on the subject?  At least I am just blogging.

The First, "What?" Ending of the Year

Ok. I watch too much TV, I'll admit it.  But my TV watching is still low compared to most people outside of the Grove City College, Christians and intellectuals should not watch so much TV crowd.  So, I like many viewers in the world have tuned in at 10 pm (ET) for the last few months to watch season one of The Killing.  We have all watched and tried to guess, from at least episode three, who killed Rosie Larsen?  I pegged councilman/mayoral candidate Richmond from episode two (he was a little too smug and self-righteous for my taste, so I figured if he is guilty I get a little more pleasure from the show).  The last two episodes led everyone who was not already on my side against Richmond to believe he was the killer.  Then we find out detective Holder cooked the evidence and watch as Belko pulls the revolver out and puts it right up near Richmond (we are left to decide for ourselves whether Belko pulled the trigger, anyone believe he did not pull the trigger?).  So, was Richmond the killer?  Or, was I wrong from episode 2 to the end? 

Turkey or Ottoman Empire

Tayyap Erdogan's AKP won a sizable majority of the the seats in the Turkish parliamentary election on June 12, 2011.  Erdogan promptly proclaimed in his victory speech

"Believe me, Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, The West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir."

Sun-Tzu said that an empire once destroyed cannot be rebuilt (Art of War, Chp. 12).  Apparently Erdogan did not read this part of Sun-Tzu, or he did not read Sun-Tzu at all.  Of course with recent comments such as those by Tariq Ramadan (grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) that "democratic Turkey is the template for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood," and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Tayfur "We don't consider the Iranian model at all. For us, and other Arab countries, Turkey is the model," (Karmon, Longitude May 2011, p. 62), perhaps Erdogan does not need to remember his Sun-Tzu.  Clearly Erdogan is trying to establish a measure of leadership for Islamic solidarity, particularly in the Middle East, but also in areas that were part of the expansive Ottoman Empire of the 15th to 19th Centuries.

Of course, some will point out, and correctly so, that the political rhetoric used here is not new.  After all, Barrack Obama himself implied in his early speeches of a victory for the world as much as for Washington, DC.  But, Obama offered no exact and particular pairings of victory for X as much as Y.

One of the particulars of Erdogan's speech caught my attention (and that of some other bloggers out there like J.E. Dyer).  Erdogan's pairing of Diyarbakir with Ramallah and Jerusalem is interesting considering Diyarbakir is in the predominantly Kurdish area of Turkey and the site of great unrest leading up to the Turkish elections.  Several Kurdish leaders were jailed when they attempted to run for parliament in Turkey and I seriously doubt that Kurds consider the AKP victory as a positive occurrence in their lives.  Can you paint a similar picture in Ramallah and Jerusalem?  If so, who is in the role of the Kurds and who is in the role of the AKP?

Overall the list given names four modern national capitals that were once controlled by the Ottoman Empire.  So, is there an underlying message.  I think we should all watch and carefully weigh Turkish actions and words in the coming months.