48
PARTISAN REVIEW
The case of Edward Said, in the final analysis, is a sad one, for with
all his great success in the United States, there is no room for him in the
Arab East. He reminds one of Frantz Fanon, author of fire-eating books
about the psychological benefits of violence, but whom the Algerian mili–
tants nevertheless did not regard as one of their own. Had he lived, inde–
pendent Algeria would have imprisoned or shot him. Said might be a
success on American campuses, but in the Palestinian territories his
books have been banned. In a review some twenty years ago I compared
him with some of the New York radical Jewish intellectuals in the 1930s,
and I see no reason to modify this appraisal now. He is playing Trotsky
("no war and no peace") in an explosive situation in the age of weapons
of mass destruction. The leaders of the Palestinian movement have not
Said's sophistication; they have not heard of Adorno and Foucault, but
they do have elementary common sense. They have realized that they
need a state as the basis for any future political action, that the years that
pass do not work in their favor-they may not be in Israel's favor either,
but this is a different story. In brief, the sniping of the moralist of Morn–
ingside Heights is not needed at this time. Just as the young Said did not
see the Jews around him in Talbiyeh and Jerusalem in 1947, he does not
see the realities on the ground in Palestine/Israel in 1999.
No one can say with any assurance whether the peace process will
lead to any major advance. It is quite unrealistic to assume, as many
Israelis do, that Arab hostility in Palestine and throughout the Middle
East will give way to feelings of friendship. It is unrealistic to believe
that terrorism will cease.
It
could well be that the maximum the Israelis
are willing to offer is too far from the minimum expectation of the
Palestinians.
It
could well be that an accord reached will not hold. But
one does not know without at least having tried, and the alternative is
war, sooner or later. There is no unlimited time for negotiations: even in
five or ten years a disaster could occur in the Middle East a thousand
times worse than all the past wars taken together. And those trying to
sabotage-under whatever pretext-the attempt to defuse a potentially
very dangerous situation bear a very heavy responsibility. Seen in this
light, is there that much difference between the Jewish settlers in
Hebron, the other rejectionists in Israel, and the critical humanist from
Talbiyeh and Columbia?
