Farouk Hosni Is Tying Himself in Knots
Mr. Farouk Hosni is making his case worse.
Backed by the Arab League, the African Union, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Egyptian candidate for Director General of UNESCO has just responded (May 27, 2009 in Le Monde) to a piece by Claude Lanzmann, Elie Wiesel, and myself that recalled the array of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic remarks that punctuate his long political career.
Of course, he does not deny any of the statements in his op-ed.
He does not deny, and for good reason, his pernicious denunciation in Ruz Al-Yusuf of the "infiltration of Jews in the international media" and of their diabolical ability to "spread" their "lies."
He does not deny his response last year to a deputy of the Egyptian Parliament who had reproached him for having allowed Israeli books to spread their poison in the revivified Alexandria Library: "Let's burn these books; if there are any there, I will myself burn them in front of you."
He does not even try to downplay the determination with which he, a minister of the first Arab country credited with having established, under Anwar Al Sadat, quasi-normal relations with the Jewish State, is attempting to curb this normalization, to prevent it, to sabotage it.
He contents himself, he says, with simply "regretting" these horrible remarks.
And for him, "regretting" them, in concrete terms, would mean doing three things.
First, humbly asking that we should truly "take into consideration" and "put in the right context" these calls for hate and book burning.
Second, specifying that these incendiary statements, made quite literally to inflame hearts and minds, were advanced by him "without intention or premeditation."
Third, attributing them to the legitimate indignation of a man of "conscience" confronted by the unbearable sight of the "suffering undergone" by a Palestinian people "deprived of its land and its rights"--and who is occasionally given to rather "harsh" words.
We have read carefully.
The Palestinians suffer--therefore burning books written in Hebrew is proposed.
The Palestinians demand, quite rightly, a land and rights--therefore the opening of a museum of Jewish culture in Cairo is blocked.
The Palestinians want and have a right to their own State--therefore, not content to advocate the sabotage of the only successful peace initiative that, if used as a template, would result in the creation of this State, the Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy is invited to express his views on Egyptian television and in other media.
That Mr. Netanyahu, in the name of whatever obscure realpolitik calculation, is satisfied with this logic, that's his business.
To me, this logic seems barely worthy of a vandal in the outskirts of Paris who, when he is questioned after tagging a synagogue or a Jewish community center, responds in the same way: "You have to forgive me... It's not my fault... It's the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that incited me..."
In the mouth of a man of culture--doesn't Mr. Farouk Hosni take pride in opening thousands of libraries in disadvantaged villages in his country during his twenty-year tenure as Moubarak's minister?--this is the exact rehearsal of the notorious discourse of excuse that we attribute to real incendiaries: "They burn? They kill? They throw themselves headlong into the insane logic of terrorism? We shouldn't hold it against them... It was unintentional and unpremeditated... It is Palestine, always and forever Palestine, that went to their heads..."
And finally, this logic seems to me incompatible with the spirit of prudence and wisdom required of a man aspiring to the helm of a body that, even if it hasn't always been a shining example of its core ideals, remains dedicated to the diversity of cultures, to their dialogue, to the development of a spirit of tolerance and peace.
Mr. Farouk Hosni, in apologizing, is tying himself in knots.
Mr. Farouk Hosni discredits himself even more in "standing by" (in his own words) the "profound emotion" that imposes on him, since his debut in public office, his annual flight into rage.
The mediocre rhetoric of Mr. Farouk Hosni is not worthy of the homeland of Naguib Mahfouz--nor, of course, of a world more than ever summoned to banish the specter of the clash of civilizations and cultures.
The Europeans are beginning to understand this: just last week, the German parliament almost unanimously expressed its dissent about the nomination.
Arab intellectuals are beginning to worry about the deleterious effects of this affair: Abdelwahab Al-Effendi just published a thunderous piece in Al-Quds Al-Arabi, "Do Not Elect Farouk Hosni as the Head of UNESCO."
An open call to Barack Obama (slated to arrive in Cairo Thursday morning), to Nicolas Sarkozy (UNESCO headquarters are in Paris), and to others (the eminent dignity of the post should make this controversy a concern for the entire international community): before October, the date of his already claimed victory, we must block Mr. Farouk Hosni.
Translated from the French by Sara Phenix
Previously: UNESCO: The Shame of a Disaster Foretold
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The point is, Hosni has been the culture minister for decades of a country with a very strong and important cultural heritage. He has had to work closely with UNESCO for the entirety of his tenure, and has developed a strong familiarity with that organization and strong relationships with the people running it. He is the foremost crusader for cultural progress in Egypt and the Middle East. He is a cosmopolitan, educated man, fluent and well-versed in Arabic, English, and French. He is the face of UNESCO. Accept it, as the Israeli government has. A few misguided (and misconstrued) quotes intended to save his job and placate a few ignorant, extremist opposition MPs in Egypt, is no reason to prevent this man of eminent qualification from becoming Secretary-General of UNESCO.
Bernard, for a man as intelligent as you have shown yourself to be, your obsession with preventing Farouk Hosni from being director of UNESCO has led you to become rather intellectually dishonest on this issue. To begin with, Hosni's quote about "burning all Israeli books in Egypt" was not literal at all, but rather an idiomatic Egyptian statement that clearly was lost in translation. It is intended to convey a strong denial, which Hosni needed to convey to placate the opposition Muslim Brotherhood MPs who were questioning him in Parliament. Normalization is still a very thorny subject in Egypt, and it became an even thornier subject after the Egyptian government's complicity in Israel's Gaza campaign. Just a few weeks ago, Israeli composer Daniel Barenboim and his orchestra performed to a sellout crowd, including Mr. Hosni, at the Cairo Opera House. Hosni has done a lot to earn the ire of extremists in the Middle East, and he deserves recognition for having done a lot more to further culture and cooperation than any other prominent candidate for the post. Hosni had his life, and job, threatened when he called the Muslim veil, or hijab, "backwards
Well then I guess the white phosphorus was justified.
Exactly.
I think peace can be achieved but compromise is needed. Greater conflicts than this have been resolved. How long were Britain and France at war? Both parties have to be willing to put something on the table. In addition, both parties must be willing to apologize in my opinion as both feel aggrieved. Im sure any good psychologist here can tell you that parties feeling aggrieved are less inclined to make peace unless they feel some appeasement for the perceived wrong doing against them. Stubborn abstinence on either side will never lead to anything but further hatred and blood shed.
Obnoxious and hateful words are no friend of peace.
Bernard-Henri Levy, I believe you are a profound thinker. Ive watched your talk about Tocqueville on CSpan Booktv at least 10 times, so I know you are thoughtful in your opinions and would therefore give you credence.
Mr. Hosni apologized; Israel now supports his candidacy. You must be psychic, except it happened before Mr. Levi published this.
http://www
Mr. Levi, however, does not accept the apology, as he made clear in this post, calling on the United States to try to block Mr. Hosni despite that Israel itself announced its support before Mr. Levi published this.
Thank you for the good and informative reply. Levy seems to argue a pattern of such statements and what he seems to be indicating are insincere apologies. I do not have enough information to judge this, but you are right, I think Israel did the right thing in the step towards peace. It has to begin somewhere and maybe by accepting the apolgoy, the Palestinians can see a sincere effort towards peace and so on..
P.S I do tend to be a bit psychic about these things :)
It saddens me that the world seems pretty much fully divided into two camps - pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian.
People seem to be intent on fully dismissing a lot of critical facts in stating the case for either side. Treating it as though it's a black-and-white issue. It's not. Neither side is blameless in the conflict, and until this is acknowledged by both the Israelis and their supporters, and those of the Palestinians, the chances for peace are slim to none.
Exactly what, in your opinion, did the Palestinians do to deserve being driven off of their land? What part of that story don't we know?
I think Tzimicse is correct. The Palestinians did nothing to be driven out of their homeland but they reacted to it with terroism, thus as Tzi says at this point blame needs to be put on the back burner and a solution for peace sought.
All the blame game is doing is causing innocent people on both sides to be killed and the conflict to be perpetual.
As men of peace, I would think that your first responsibility would be to call for the end of all settlements and occupation in the west bank and east Jerusalem. Clearly, you must see that anti Israeli sentiments such as those voiced by this man and a few people like him are fueled by the actions of violent, racist settlers who are happy to explain to anyone who asks that they are superior to Arabs and that, regardless of any peace efforts, will continue to take land in the west bank and east Jerusalem until they control all of it, which is by definition, ethnic cleansing performed on land which you must agree already rightfully belongs to Arabs.
Lets work to end all settlements, and the occupation, and thereby rob this person of any credibility that he may be given by the mistakes that Israel is making in the settlements and the occupation that support and protect them.
I'm not sure peace has anything to do with 'settlements' when looking at this conflict in the light of history: http://www
CONT
Nonetheless, if his words are forgiven and his work is looked at in the context of his whole career, is it not right to ask if there another candidate of equal record somewhere else in the world, who has never joked about burning books, even out of passion? All other things being equal, why not choose a more inoffensive culture minister from elsewhere to represent the very sensitive position of head of UNESCO? I believe that is the argument Henry-Levy puts forth, and I don't think it's refuted by pointing out that Hosni has been quoted in the context of a heated discussion.
Hi Soral,
If you hit "reply" to my comment it will show up in the proper place in this thread, rather than starting a new thread addressing me, you will stand a higher chance of my reading your reply.
I provided the link so you could make up your own mind, so I'm not exactly disappointed that you have, even if your mind has made up that it has disagreed with me, I do not recall supporting or decrying Mr. Hosni.
Other people might read the same link and really notice that Mr. Hosni did not exactly confess to saying what these authors said he said in the HP, in their previous post.
All other things being equal, at the United Nations, you would be laughed at and called terrible names for suggesting that United Nations posts go only to nationals deemed inoffensive. If there is a living, resident, Egyptian artist that Israel or yourself would support, do tell. Otherwise, don't expect your argument that Egyptians cannot serve at the United Nations to go very far at the United Nations.
I responded to these authors and their hogwash, transparent propaganda because it was such an example of the high art of demonology, often in fact used against Israel and Jewish people. If you publish bunk, I might just try to debunk it.
I do not recall taking a side.
GrahamInCanada writes,
"Mr. Hosni admits that in passion, out of context, he said some rude things, which he now apologizes for."
Taking Hosni at his word from the link GrahamInCanada provided, he writes:
"I clearly regret the words said and which I could have justified as being uttered under the tension and provocation of the discussion at the time. However, I will not take that as an excuse."
He makes sure to point out that really, he could have justified his words as being uttered under tension, because they were really justified, but of course, he is more noble than that. He also writes soon after,
"These words were uttered with no intention. As I do not deny responsibility for them, I say out to complete freedom and away from any pressure, that I am duty-bound to leave no room for doubt by rejecting any form of resentment or arrogance. This is out of esteem of those who may have been offended..
So, he refuses to excuse his words as being uttered in the heat of the moment, but also insists that they were said with no intention. And in the end he rejects this indeterminate "resentment or arrogance", while not directly referring to the words he spoke as 'resentful' or 'arrogant'. He does not specifically apologize here.
CONT
You must remember that Mr. Hosni is Egyptian.
In Egypt, if you are asked if things exists, it is an idiom to reply that the person must show you such things, if they exist they will be burned, by the person asked, as answer saying that they do not exist.
Mr. Hosni was asked in Parliament in Egyptian if certain Israeli books existed at the Alexandria library. He replied in idiomatic Egyptian, so that when translated and shocking to English or French speakers, he can honestly say, "These words were uttered with no intention. As I do not deny responsibility for them, I say out to complete freedom and away from any pressure, that I am duty-bound to leave no room for doubt by rejecting any form of resentment or arrogance. This is out of esteem of those who may have been offended..
There are many offensive idioms in English that translate to shock in other languages.
Since when are Israel-firsters concerned about the credibility of the UN? I'll take Henri-Levy seriously when he calls for the implementation of resolution 242.
I will take you seriously when you stop calling for the destruction of Israel.
Israel is doing a fine job of self-destructing, no thanks to "defenders" of its policies such as yourself. When you resort to calling everyone with whom you disagree an anti-semite, you lose.
Hahaha... For those who are surprised by this article... Bernard Henri-Levy, French philosophe
Clearly, the huffpost and GPS (Global Public Square on CNN) do not know him well. I never understood why he gets all these tribunes and air times on this side of the Atlantic.
So let me see if I understand your argument:
This guy is an unfathomably rich Jew who both uses his money to distort information through the use of the mass media and is despised by all of his countrymen. Even though he states in this article that the Palestinians are suffering, that they deserve land, justice and their own state that he, Henri-Levy, is an Israel apologist. And, because of these things, his comments regarding Hosni need not be addressed.
Is that what you are passing off as useful commentary? It seems to me to be a sorry excuse, through the use of tired stereotypes to avoid discussing the content of his essay.
Correct he is hiding behind comments of stereotypical and undertones of anti-semitism to make his point. "apologist" love it when the anti-semites and arab supporters flip terms around and use it on their enemies.
I don't know what you are talking about fella. I wanted to bring people's attention to who the author is in order for them to understand the context of and motivation for his article. I never mentioned his ethnicity, but pointed out the side where his ideology falls. The fact that he threw a few bones to the Palestinians about their grievances in this article does not negate the underlining reality of his total lack of credibility to speak about these issues. Do your research about the man and his views on those issues, then come back and let talk. But, again as I mentioned before, Mr. Henri-Levy has no credibility in the French intellectual milieu.
'Nuff said!
What you say doesnt exactly pan out in the below: It appears more that he has his critics and some people dont like him, which is normal. He is also thought to be narcissistic but generally it seems his philosphical thought is taken seriously.
http://en.
Hahaha... For those who are surprised by this article... Bernard Henri-Levy, French philosophe
Clearly, the huffpost and GPS (Global Public Square on CNN) do not know him well. I never understood why he gets all these tribunes and air times on this side of the Atlantic.
2 time vinny--we got your first post.
This frenzied campaign by Israeli partisans claiming that disaster would strike the World if Farouk Hosni was head of sleepy UNISCO shows a certain contempt for the sensibilities of the reader.
The certain contempt, je ne sais quoi, is reflected in the coldly crafted arrogance of complaining in English to English speakers, but providing only French language sources that they distort in English as evidence of the complaint. Here is Mr. Hosni's words, in English:
http://www
This contempt is also shown by the authors towards the Palestinians, equating harsh words spoken against Israel to the violent illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Perhaps they fear that without an Israeli partisan in charge of UNESCO, the cultural battles between Israel and the Palestinians, like Israel holding Palestinian cultural relics illegally, might not be resolved in Israel's favour.
Mr. Hosni admits that in passion, out of context, he said some rude things, which he now apologizes for.
Israeli cultural figures have been know to do the same thing and much worse, except for apologizing.
For example, Benzi Lieberman, an Israeli writer, refers to the Palestinians as Amalekites, ““The Palestinians are Amalek!” Lieberman said, http://www
(An Israeli calling a Palestinian an Amelek is a threat of genocide, see http://en.
Dont see any calls for book burning in Israel. Dont see calls for no peace. Dont see indoctrination of children to to murder. Do see love of life and desire to live peacefully.
As I noted in the disjointed comments on this thread above from Soral, Mr. Hosni did not call for the burning of books, except in a literal translation of the idiomatic Egyptian he used. I won't repeat the whole thing here.
If you do hear calls for war in Israel, if you do not see little children being indoctrinated into extrajudicial killings, you are being willful in your ignorance, such war calls from Israel are heard around the world, and Israel is in its own league of fame for the effectiveness, brazenness, and sheer arrogant illegality of its state mandated extrajudicial killings, inside and outside of Israel and Palestine.
The desire to live peacefully is not encompassed in an illegally nuclear armed state that has refused all international inspection to insist that a non-nuclear armed neighbor be annihilated on the grounds that the neighbor has not respected every single last one of many, many international inspections.
Don't get confused : bernard-henri lévy is not considered as a philosopher by French intellectu
At best he is considered as a novelist coupled with a reporter/journalist activity .
It is like if you asked Jean-luc Goddard to consider the same Lévy as a cineast (he has tried also to become) .....i let you imagine his reaction !!
Why do you attack him personally instead of confronting his ideas?
This is the lowest possible argument, if it can be called that way.
Well said jefffG
June 8, 1967 - USS Liberty
Bernard-Henri Levy may be a French philosopher and writer but first and foremost he is an apologist for Israel, covering up the murder of Palestinian women and children under Israeli occupation. His attacks on an critisim of Farouk Hosni, the Egyptian candidate for Director Gerneral of UNESCO, are a smoke screen while an Israeli extremist government hangs on to illegal settlements and opposes a two-state solution. Farouk Hosni has never burned any books in his life and never will. In the heat of argument with a radical Egyptian parliamentarian he said he would burn anti-Islamic Jewish books at the Alexandria Library because he knew perfectly well that there were no such books to burn. A most cursory research into Farouk Hosni's life and work would show that he is a moderate painter who has fought battles with religious and political radicals seaking his outster from the Egyptian government. Levy has now joined ranks with the radicals against the UNESCO candidate.
I bet you are an arab muslim who can't get over your childhood indoctrination. Mr. Henry Levi called for solutions to the issues not one sided divisiveness.
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