OxBlog

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

# Posted 9:36 PM by Ariel David Adesnik  

CONFIRMING THE WORST: I was in the library today and ran across on article on post-9/11 political cartoons in Middle Eastern newspapers. They ranged from standard anti-war criticism to outright anti-Semitic propaganda. No surprises there. But what I found interesting was they ways in which mindless conspiratorial thinking produces dilemmas which may have serious policy implications for Arab states. Rather than having a coherent view of Western policy, the cartoonists found themselves totally unable to decide whether America is run by the Jews or whether America uses Israel to advance its imperialist interests. Since there is considerable evidence that Arab policymakers are confounded by the same "dilemmas", we should not be surprised that their policies seem absurd from our perpsective.

(Apologies for not providing a link to the full text of the article. I myself had to submit to the shameful practice of reading a paper-and-ink version of it.)
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