Monday, January 24, 2005

BBC Interview: Kanan Makiya

Heard a very interesting interview with Kanan Makiya on theBBC World Service yesterday morning. The hostess was hostile, quoting Edward Said's attacks, grilling Makiya about his ties to "Volfovitz", apparently trying to get Makiya to confess that his support for the Iraq war was wrong. He didn't give an inch, and didn't get upset (I might have lost some of my cool under her relentless grilling, I think), and in the end had a chance to explain the purpose of his Iraq Memory Foundation. It's well worth listening to at this link (could only find the audio, not a transcript)--especially for Makiya's analysis of how backing the Palestinian cause hurt Arab societies--something he realized after 10 years of his own work on behalf of the Palestinians!