Benedict XVI's Comments on Islam

Gush Shalom founder and frequent Israeli government critic Uri Avnery writes a convincing explication of the Pope's comments on Islam last week (see comment 1 on this post for full text of the Avnery article). In it, he sharply criticizes Joseph Ratzinger's decision to cite a Byzantine Emperor on the Moslems, but he finds it consistent with what he regards as a historically significant rapprochement between Rome and Washington. George Bush, Avnery writes, is to Pope Benedict XVI what certain Byzantine Emperors of old were to the Church: a very powerful ally in the global political and economic struggle between the West and its designated Others. Avnery energetically contests the Pope's implied accusation that Islam is religion of violence and irrationality. Christianity, Avnery reminds us, historically has much more frequently resorted to the sword when faced with perceived religious and political antagonists. Avnery's historical overview of Islam's relatively benevolent relation to its Others may be somewhat reductionistic, but on balance he is correct that the historical record supports the old adage about those who live in glass houses. More importantly, Avnery cuts through the Pope's apologists' obfuscations to point out that we must keep our eyes on vested interests here as elsewhere: clash-of-civilizations neoconservatism -- and its mystification of the non-West -- is not the sole province of the American right.

Shale Oil Extraction at Bedouin Expense

Rebecca Manski, who is the communications director of Bustan, a partnership of Jewish and Arab eco-builders, architects, academics and farmers promoting social and environmental justice in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, wrote this op-ed (full text in comment 1 on this post) this spring. She points out that Israel's energy industry continues to serve the short term interests of the most powerful in Israel at the expense of the disenfranchised. Most recently, the Ministry of National Infrastructure has been considering whether to allow construction of a shale oil extraction facility in the Negev region. Shale oil extraction is not only highly polluting, it also requires vast amounts of fresh water, even as Israel is now consuming 25% more water than is environmentally sustainable, according to internal assessments. The irony here, as Manski indicates, is that Israel's vast solar energy potential continues to be ignored. That irony is compounded, moreover, when the plans for shale oil extraction in the Negev are juxtaposed against the fact that Israeli Beduin living in the Negev largely suffer from a lack of electrification in their towns. The Beduin, who are traditionally nomadic, have been fenced into these towns but have never been afforded even the most basic state benefits enjoyed by other Israeli citizens (and settlers, of course) -- electrification in particular. It is tempting, at a time of hot warfare, to forget about the dismal condition of the Beduin, as well as that of Palestinians who live in nearly two hundred officially unrecognized villages within Israel. Manski's comments remind us that the conflict over natural resources -- outside as well as within Israel -- is inextricable from the region's chronic political strife.