Re: [Marxism] Iranaphobia.

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 1/18/17 10:07 AM, Prashad, Vijay via Marxism wrote:

Dear Friends,

I have a report on the current trend of Iranaphobia, an unbalanced
and often factually challenged sentiment towards Iranian ambitions in
West Asia. You can find it here:
http://www.alternet.org/world/trump-iran.

Warm regards, Vijay.




"Certainly there are reports of ‘demographic transfers’ (as the UN says) 
of people from the Damascus suburbs of Daraya and Moadamiyah – but these 
have not been on sectarian lines, more on political lines (rebels have 
been moved to Idlib, as from Aleppo)."


This is a distinction without a difference. Assad never had problems 
with the Sunni rich. But it was the rural poor that was his nemesis. In 
places like Daraya, the revolt was mounted by Sunnis not in order to 
claim victory on a confessional basis as if which descendant of Muhammad 
represented true Islam. They revolted because life had become 
intolerable due to a withdrawal of support for Syria's countryside as I 
pointed out here:


https://louisproyect.org/2016/12/14/the-economic-roots-of-the-syrian-revolution/

Assad conducted ethnic cleansing the same way that Israel does, to 
banish insurgents to a remote region where they could cause no harm. If 
the Palestinians were reconciled to second class citizenship, there 
would have been no need for a Nabka. Since they weren't, they had to be 
driven out of Israel for the most part.


What Vijay obviously refuses to recognize is that in the name of 
secularism, diversity and enlightenment values, Assad is carrying out 
the same kind of ethnic cleansing as Israel. If the Sunni poor, the 
overwhelming majority of the country, had consented to live peacefully 
under a family dynasty that was driving down their standard of living 
mercilessly under a neoliberal regime, there never would have been a 
reason to force Syrians to go into Idlib, which is turning into the 
equivalent of the West Bank.


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[Marxism] Iranaphobia.

[Prashad, Vijay via Marxism]

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Dear Friends,

I have a report on the current trend of Iranaphobia, an unbalanced and often 
factually challenged sentiment towards Iranian ambitions in West Asia. You can 
find it here: http://www.alternet.org/world/trump-iran.

Warm regards,
Vijay.


Vijay Prashad
Professor of International Studies
Author: The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution 
(2016).
Co-Editor (with Karim Makdisi): Land of Blue Helmets: The United Nations and 
the Arab World (2016).
Columnist: Frontline, Alternet and BirGün.

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