Bernard Lewis Watch

Bernard Lewis, where are ye when we need ye?
(Irony alert)
At a time when nattering bloggers, columnists, traditional conservatives, and even neoconservatives are openly questioning our rightly guided President’s mental and psychic faculties, we need you, oh wise and venerable Princeton high priest of neoconservative orthodoxy, to really show us the true straight path to enlightenment, to rally our troops around the “doctrine” that bears your name and directed us so brilliantly in liberating and controlling Iraq.
We cannot think of anyone who has been so astonishingly consistent in his prediction accuracy about what would happen after the US invaded Iraq. Even as you now counsel patience, we can see that your vision of secular democracy, imposed forcefully and creatively from without, is now flourishing everywhere in the Middle East. It is simply miraculous that with a track record like yours, you retain such a bipartisan following among US political leaders.
We are of course most grateful that two weeks ago, you capped off your distinguished career by giving us clarity for today – August 22nd. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, you drew from your vast experience to declare that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad – indeed all of Islamic Iran – was the real crazy threat to the world and must never be permitted to have nuclear anything. Islamic Iranians are, well, just too, too, too…. Islamic, to be permitted the luxury of a MAD nuclear capacity.
In your essay, you selectively invoked a 25 year-old quote from Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to inform us that Islamic Iranians really can only think in terms of a cataclysmic choice between annihilating the rest of the world, or joining hands in martyrdom. Never mind that this quote came in the context of perceived global support for Iraq’ invasion of Iran, and no, you never mentioned that Khomeini himself interpreted his own model for Iran’s relations with the world, “neither East nor West,” as meaning ties between respectful equals, rather than the old “lion vs. lamb” patterns.
You instead keep it brilliantly simple for us – and especially for our much challenged President. Its either us, or them. Let’s not be confused with the quarter century of subsequent smokescreen meant to conceal Iran’s true intentions. So if they’re not with us, they must be against us.
From your ascended status, you specifically prophesied for us that today, August 22nd could “possibly” be the day the end of the world will be made manifest by Iran. You were suspicious that the Iranian President had chosen today for Iran’s response to the latest round of European proposals to rein in Iran’s nuclear program. Given that some Muslims commemorate this as the day of the Prophet Mohammad’s miraculous flight to Jerusalem, you warned that, “this might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world.”
You didn’t even need to cite any evidence of such actual thinking; your steadfast WSJ editors have such faith in your genius. Yahr!
So if you have not yet taken flight yourself, we beseech you now to help us mere mortals fathom how Iran’s announcements today simply comfirm your divinations of the end of the world. As such, how should we then live? How shall we respond in unison to any suggestions to the contrary? And which stocks of companies on the plains of Armageddon do you advise for us to sell short?

32 thoughts on “Bernard Lewis Watch”

  1. Bernard Lewis must be pretty old by now; he was a senior professor when I was doing ME studies more than thirty years ago. The article gave me the impression he is going gaga – a smaller or greater touch of Alzheimer’s.

  2. Scott– your best yet! Had me laughing out loud (though of course I know the old boy’s total effect on the world over the past 5 years has been incredibly dire.)
    I suppose that, true to longstanding JWN tradition, you should have put an “irony alert” in somewhere? What if someone really did think you held BL’s recent pronunciamentos (pronunciamenti?) in such esteem?

  3. I wonder whether Bernard Lewis is aware that in the Persian year 1332, on the 31st of Mordad (which also happened to fall on Aug. 22 in 1953), Mohammed Reza Pahlavi returned from his 5 day exile, following the CIA-assisted coup against Mohammad Mussadiq.
    Iran’s response to the ultimatrum that it forfeit its rights as a signatory of the NPT in order to “build trust,” in the absence of a security guarantee that the US will not seek to “promote democracy” by another coup, by dropping bombs (nuclear or otherwise) and/or by launching an invasion seems like a fitting way to mark the anniversary.

  4. Gee Scott, your reading of that Lewis piece certainly is creative. How on earth do you turn
    There must be many [who do not share these apocalyptic perceptions], probably even a majority in the lands of Islam
    into a broadside directed at “Islamic Iranians… too islamic?”
    It’s unfortunate that Ahmadinejad or Nasrallah’s workaday ravings have escaped your raypeer wit. “It is an open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth”—sidesplitting material, wouldn’t you say? Or “if they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide”, or :
    “I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed, and for 27 to 28 minutes the leaders did not blink,” he said. “They were astonished…. it had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic.”
    Then again, he’s only the president of Iran, whereas Lewis is a retired professor and occasional talk show guest…I think I get it.
    a smaller or greater touch of Alzheimer’s
    You’re all class.

  5. During summertime in NYC the lubavitchers often ride around town with their PA system, announcing “Moshiach is coming!!!” while sane passersby shrug them off & chuckle. Imagine if one of them became US president & built a “suitable route” for the anointed one through downtown Washington! As Mohammad Ali Ayazi says: “”You don’t expect such a thing from a leader, because it turns comic. You laugh, but you become sad, because it is not supposed to be funny.”

  6. It’s unfortunate that Ahmadinejad or Nasrallah’s workaday ravings have escaped your raypeer wit. “It is an open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth”—sidesplitting material, wouldn’t you say? Or “if they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide”
    Is there a cite for these quotes? Were they reported by someone credible, or are Zionists making up stuff again?

  7. “Is there a cite for these quotes?”
    Yeah, just check out the latest set of ultra-Zionist talking points. You’ll find that there along with all the usual nonsense.

  8. vadim:
    Iran has the second largest population of Jews in the Middle East (after Israel). If the Iranian President was truly committed to the genocide of Jews–and not just engaged in demogoguery against the state of Israel–then why aren’t Iran’s Jews being killed. In fact, they have representatives in Parlaiment and, compared with Iran’s Muslims, they are more or less left alone.

  10. In fact, they have representatives in Parlaiment and, compared with Iran’s Muslims, they are more or less left alone.
    Like you’d know. Correction: they have a sole powerless token regime-friendly “representative” & the Nazis also selected token Jews to represent their communities. But the genocidal remark above was attributed (by the Lebanese Daily Star in 2002) to Hassan Nasrallah. The messianic lunacy is Ahmadinejad’s.
    http://web.archive.org/web/20021024133755/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/23_10_02/art5.asp

  11. Thanks David for asking the same question of Vadim that I still have…. No now he says his quotes come from Nasrallah – vaguely – from a 2002 Daily Star source? Hmmmm…. He can do better than that?
    I am especially intrigued by our friend Professor Isadora’s observation about this date in history in 1953…. So instead of a chiliastic hook from Islam somehow influencing the date selection, it could have been ole fashioned nationalism – a concern for preserving Iran’s capacity for independence?
    Thanks for brilliantly connecting a few fun dots for us….

  12. Scott:
    Thanks for the eulogy for Lewis, scurrilous old pedant that he is.
    Will Shakespere said something like, “The good men do lies with their bones. So let it be with Bernard”
    Unfortunately, this evil old scholar, well versed in the arcane Sublime Porte, has made his repulation preaching anti-Muslim, patronizing propoganda to the innocent (such as our esteemed president)
    More — he has had progeny. Sam Huntingdon’s “Clash of Civilizations” is surface analysis scraped from the stables…despite it being a distorted plagarism of Toynbee, it nevertheless has currency in the theocracy of the United States.
    Perhaps you can direct your sights on Sam…or even Fouad Ajami next?

  13. Vadim,
    “Did not blink” is a Farsi expression. It does not mean that people’s eyes were open without blinking. It means they listened or watched with undivided attention.
    Best Regards,
    An Iranian

  14. Aug 22nd is simply the end of 5th month (31st of Mordad) of the year in iranian calandar. I don’t know how this Lewis guy can call himself a Middle East expert when he cannot even read a Middle Eastern calander.

  15. Aug 22nd is simply the end of 5th month (31st of Mordad) of the year in iranian calandar. I don’t know how this Lewis guy can call himself a Middle East expert when he cannot even read a Middle Eastern calander.

  16. Aug 22nd is simply the end of 5th month (31st of Mordad) of the year in iranian calandar. I don’t know how this Lewis guy can call himself a Middle East expert when he cannot even read a Middle Eastern calander.

  17. there was no armenian genocide, but aug 22 is d- day right bernard?
    C span ran one of his old interviews a while back. as a joke I guess. “you see the countries that are friendly to the US are the ones that have hostile populations, while the countries with hostile leaders have populations that are largely friendly to the US” famous last words!

  18. This article is a personal attack on
    Bernard Lewis and a very foul one.
    Shame on You.
    Mali – NY August 23, 2006

  19. Mali, Bernard Lewis has richly earned every bit of criticism and ridicule he receives for his lifetime of spouting frightfully bigotted, racist orientalist nonsense disguised as scholarly discourse.

  20. Mali, Bernard Lewis has richly earned every bit of criticism and ridicule he receives for his lifetime of spouting frightfully bigotted, racist orientalist nonsense disguised as scholarly discourse.

  21. Mali,
    I agree with you. Helena’s troll-in-training has beat up on a 90 yearold man in a shameful manner and without even touching on Lewis’ lifetime of scholarly work (whether he agrees with it or not).

  22. Scott I hope you didnt really hurt this old man, especially if he lurks here in his dotage, if so you will never hear the end of it!
    And don’t think words can’t hurt, even if not quite like 5000KG bombs can.
    Maybe just in case you could make a brief remark about scholarship he did while still credible, much like people do with Dershowitz.

  23. I want to echo the comments of those who pointed out that Iran’s Jews are left alone- I am not eager to support the stupid leaders of Iran, but it’s true: I lived in Iran and shopped from the Jewish bazaaris in Tehran and Esfahan and they were just like other Iranians if not better off for not having to fast during Ramadan etc. This is true of the Armenian Christians too, who can even drink alcohol in private.
    Suporters of Israel just love to twist statements and events to make Israel look pure and others look evil. The truth is that the real threat to peace in the Middle East is Israel. When I lived in Iran I never heard any Iranian saying Israel should be attacked, but in America I am frequently forced to listen at dinner parties to “progressive” educated Jews telling me Iran should be nuked to make Israel feel safer, even if it results in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. They always say to me: “they are responsible for their leaders- if they don’t want to be nuked, they need to change their government”. Iran has no history of invading its neighbors- Israel has plenty of such history.
    Why is it that the chief “experts” on the “threat” of Iran have never even visited the country (Michael Ledeen) or haven’t been in at least 30 years (Bernard Lewis)? What makes them experts? People who have been to the Middle East and have studied its history generally deride Bernard Lewis as a crackpot, and claiming he is going senile is actually being kind, as it absolves him of responsibility for the deaths of a hundred thousand innocent Iraqis and his presumed desire to see equal or greater numbers of Iranians dead.

  24. Kermit,
    You ask:
    Why is it that the chief “experts” on the “threat” of Iran have never even visited the country (Michael Ledeen) or haven’t been in at least 30 years (Bernard Lewis)?
    I suggest that you ask yourself what these two men have in common apart from some of their political views.

  26. “suggest that you ask yourself what these two men have in common apart from some of their political views.”
    ummmmm – let’s see if I have got it right. They have in common that they 1) present themselves as “experts” on the threat that Iran allegedly presents, and 2) have either never been to Iran, or have not been there in 30 years – in other words, have no direct experience or knowledge of present-day Iran.
    Did I get it right?

  27. All this compassion toward Bernard Lewis is badly misplaced. The harm this man has done throughout most of his career as an “expert” on the Middle East and Islam cannot be underestimated.
    As for the scholarship he did that was “credible”, as a scholar he was a good historian, but the overwhelming majority of his well-known work is not scholarly. It is clearly very seriously tainted with his orientalist (i.e. outmoded 19th century anti-Muslim, anti-Arab colonialist) ideology.
    If he was a very good historian, as a Middle East analyst he was and remains extremely dangerous.

  28. All this compassion toward Bernard Lewis is badly misplaced. The harm this man has done throughout most of his career as an “expert” on the Middle East and Islam cannot be underestimated.
    As for the scholarship he did that was “credible”, as a scholar he was a good historian, but the overwhelming majority of his well-known work is not scholarly. It is clearly very seriously tainted with his orientalist (i.e. outmoded 19th century anti-Muslim, anti-Arab colonialist) ideology.
    If he was a very good historian, as a Middle East analyst he was and remains extremely dangerous.

  30. Well, JES, I am not a mind reader, so I have no idea what is in YOUR mind, but I do believe I got it right as far as Kermit’s meaning is concerned.
    Am I right, Kermit?

  31. I apologise if I appeared to show compassion towards Bernard and must also withdraw my call for Scott to show any. I now accept that such an approach would be disproportionate. Anyway Shirin has ackowledged Bernard’s earlier status as a good historian, something none of Bernie’s supporters here seemed either able or motivated to do.

  32. Yes, Shirin, you nailed it in my opinion. JES, you are so mysterious. What dark secret are you alluding to? Are they both Freemasons? or just idiots with access to power because they reinforce comfortable racist stereotypes that make us feel good about “civilizing the savages”: It’s hard work, this democracy crusade, but it is our noble obligation. The main question is, are they capable of democracy?- they are so violent and hateful, you know. It is shameful how mean they are to glorious Israel, making up hurtful stories after Israel made the desert bloom. Why do they hate us?

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