00:00:05.892 --> 00:00:24.059
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:24.560
Wait a minute.

00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:26.460
America, this is some
good opium, man.

00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:28.210
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:28.210 --> 00:00:29.460
Come over.

00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:33.850


00:00:33.850 --> 00:00:35.170
A lot of us have that
going, man.

00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:37.280
We have to worry about
a lot of stuff.

00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:38.260
You know?

00:00:38.260 --> 00:00:40.140
Like I've got to worry about
al-Qaeda, and I've got to be

00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:42.660
worried about being profiled
as al-Qaeda.

00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:43.290
We all do.

00:00:43.290 --> 00:00:44.760
I was at the airport
a little while ago.

00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:45.070
I had a beard going.

00:00:45.070 --> 00:00:46.770
I was doing a play.

00:00:46.770 --> 00:00:48.365
And you don't want to be from
the Middle East, have a beard,

00:00:48.365 --> 00:00:48.835
be at the airport.

00:00:48.835 --> 00:00:50.480
It's not a good idea, you
know what I'm saying?

00:00:50.480 --> 00:00:51.150
I was walking around.

00:00:51.150 --> 00:00:51.610
I felt paranoid.

00:00:51.610 --> 00:00:52.845
I was like, are these guys--
they're watching me.

00:00:52.845 --> 00:00:53.680
I feel like they're
watching me, man.

00:00:53.680 --> 00:00:55.260
And then I come up to
that metal detector.

00:00:55.260 --> 00:00:56.930
And that thing just makes
you feel guilty anyway.

00:00:56.930 --> 00:00:57.660
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:57.660 --> 00:00:59.560
Because no matter what you're
doing-- walking, I was like,

00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:00.530
am I packing a gun?

00:01:00.530 --> 00:01:01.500
I don't think so.

00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:01.985
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:01.985 --> 00:01:04.410
I don't own a gun, but let's
see what happens.

00:01:04.410 --> 00:01:06.350
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:06.350 --> 00:01:06.903
And I walked through it.

00:01:06.903 --> 00:01:07.880
It was like, [BUZZ NOISE].

00:01:07.880 --> 00:01:08.339
I'm like, damn it.

00:01:08.339 --> 00:01:08.798
I'm a terrorist.

00:01:08.798 --> 00:01:09.257
I knew it!

00:01:09.257 --> 00:01:09.716
I knew it!

00:01:09.716 --> 00:01:12.470
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:12.470 --> 00:01:13.845
They're like, sir, calm down.

00:01:13.845 --> 00:01:14.460
It's just your belt.

00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:14.925
I'm like, how do you know?

00:01:14.925 --> 00:01:15.880
Check my bags.

00:01:15.880 --> 00:01:17.293
Check my bags.

00:01:17.293 --> 00:01:19.360
I'm not getting on the
plane with me.

00:01:19.360 --> 00:01:20.325
And then I went to the
ticket counter.

00:01:20.325 --> 00:01:22.510
And I wanted the guy to know
who's side I was on.

00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:25.666
So I caught myself enunciating
English like never before.

00:01:25.666 --> 00:01:26.560
I wanted him to know.

00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:29.150
I was like, hello, my
fellow American.

00:01:29.150 --> 00:01:31.200
How are you?

00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:34.000
Yes, I'm here to board
the aero-plane.

00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.270
Carry-ons?

00:01:35.270 --> 00:01:36.790
Just this American flag.

00:01:36.790 --> 00:01:38.040
That's all I'm carrying on.

00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:52.612


00:01:52.612 --> 00:01:57.572
[CHANTING]

00:01:57.572 --> 00:01:59.060
[SHOUTING]

00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:01.070
What's wrong, Mommy?

00:02:01.070 --> 00:02:02.870
The people are upset about
some things, darling.

00:02:02.870 --> 00:02:07.316


00:02:07.316 --> 00:02:07.810
[EXPLOSION]

00:02:07.810 --> 00:02:09.292
Open fire!

00:02:09.292 --> 00:02:28.750
[GUNSHOTS]

00:02:28.750 --> 00:02:32.405
Media is so central to how
Americans think about things.

00:02:32.405 --> 00:02:35.000
It didn't happen if it
didn't come on TV.

00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.120
It didn't happen if we don't
have a picture of it.

00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:41.610


00:02:41.610 --> 00:02:44.020
Where do these images
come from?

00:02:44.020 --> 00:02:47.090
What is the relationship between
these images and

00:02:47.090 --> 00:02:49.250
American foreign policy
in the Middle East?

00:02:49.250 --> 00:02:50.120
What's their impact?

00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:51.370
Why do they matter?

00:02:51.370 --> 00:03:30.820


00:03:30.820 --> 00:03:34.510
America's love affair with
Arabia reached a frenzy with

00:03:34.510 --> 00:03:38.550
the 1920 British erotic
novel, The Sheik.

00:03:38.550 --> 00:03:41.150
And Hollywood immediately turned
it into a film starring

00:03:41.150 --> 00:03:43.960
Rudolph Valentino.

00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.440
The Sheik would create the most
popular male sex symbol

00:03:47.440 --> 00:03:48.963
in the history of
American cinema.

00:03:48.963 --> 00:04:10.500
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:13.800
Americans became interested in
Arab sheiks and the Middle

00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:17.029
East in general, because it
was represented as a place

00:04:17.029 --> 00:04:19.390
where there was a lot
of romance and

00:04:19.390 --> 00:04:20.675
excitement and adventure.

00:04:20.675 --> 00:04:24.610


00:04:24.610 --> 00:04:27.810
America had virtually no
economic stake in the region.

00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:30.480
The Middle East was like a blank
slate where Americans

00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:31.383
could project their fantasies.

00:04:31.383 --> 00:04:54.490
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:54.490 --> 00:04:57.410
Despite the enormous box office
success of the Sheik

00:04:57.410 --> 00:05:01.140
movies, in real life, America's
love affair with the

00:05:01.140 --> 00:05:02.600
Arab was already over.

00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:10.950


00:05:10.950 --> 00:05:19.315
God has endowed the British race
with a worldwide empire.

00:05:19.315 --> 00:05:23.780
The victories you will have
over the heathen are the

00:05:23.780 --> 00:05:28.230
victories of the nobler
soul in man.

00:05:28.230 --> 00:05:31.580
By the 1930s, France and England
were invading the

00:05:31.580 --> 00:05:33.242
Middle East, and the
Arabs were no

00:05:33.242 --> 00:05:34.777
longer seen as romantic.

00:05:34.777 --> 00:05:36.027
MUSIC PLAYING]

00:05:36.027 --> 00:06:05.870


00:06:05.870 --> 00:06:07.520
What ended America's
love affair with

00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:09.830
Arabia was actual contact.

00:06:09.830 --> 00:06:12.690
The West was invading the Arab's
land, and the meetings

00:06:12.690 --> 00:06:14.030
were violent and hate-filled
field.

00:06:14.030 --> 00:06:22.600
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.350
When the Dervishes catch a white
man, they cut his nose

00:06:25.350 --> 00:06:27.380
off and hang him
up by the toes.

00:06:27.380 --> 00:06:28.450
Ooh, disgusting business.

00:06:28.450 --> 00:06:30.320
All the money falling
out of your pocket.

00:06:30.320 --> 00:06:34.220
Would you march with
them, nurse them?

00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:36.460
I've even tracked them so
that the Arab could

00:06:36.460 --> 00:06:37.600
not take them alive.

00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:41.570
As with news headlines, most
movies depicted Arabs as

00:06:41.570 --> 00:06:44.605
assaulting the foreigners, not
defending their homeland.

00:06:44.605 --> 00:06:53.780


00:06:53.780 --> 00:06:55.780
In the media, the
Arabs, not the

00:06:55.780 --> 00:06:57.310
British, were the attackers.

00:06:57.310 --> 00:07:00.440


00:07:00.440 --> 00:07:03.000
In the movies, these treacherous
natives were like

00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:05.100
the Redskins of the Old West.

00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:06.830
They lived in tents
and galloped

00:07:06.830 --> 00:07:08.080
across lawless frontiers.

00:07:08.080 --> 00:07:15.820


00:07:15.820 --> 00:07:19.020
For an entire century after
Napoleon's invasion of Egypt

00:07:19.020 --> 00:07:23.790
in 1798, the Arab world did not
see even a five year span

00:07:23.790 --> 00:07:25.840
of relief from the assaults
of European countries.

00:07:25.840 --> 00:07:31.520


00:07:31.520 --> 00:07:34.930
The British empire waged war
with Iran, invaded and

00:07:34.930 --> 00:07:37.680
occupied Egypt and Palestine,
and conquered

00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:38.930
Iraq for its oil.

00:07:38.930 --> 00:07:42.390


00:07:42.390 --> 00:07:46.590
Spain invaded Morocco, Italy
attacked Libya repeatedly, and

00:07:46.590 --> 00:07:47.840
the French took over Algeria.

00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:50.910


00:07:50.910 --> 00:07:54.280
Arab bitterness rose steadily
against the apparently

00:07:54.280 --> 00:07:58.020
unstoppable march of
European expansion.

00:07:58.020 --> 00:08:01.140
As Western economic interests
increased in the area,

00:08:01.140 --> 00:08:03.070
America's image of
Arabs worsened.

00:08:03.070 --> 00:08:05.950


00:08:05.950 --> 00:08:06.770
War.

00:08:06.770 --> 00:08:08.480
A gruesome way to be clear.

00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:09.630
So that's their answer.

00:08:09.630 --> 00:08:11.965
Arab viewpoints rarely made
it into the movies.

00:08:11.965 --> 00:08:16.280


00:08:16.280 --> 00:08:19.549
The thing that gets me most
is being gunning by

00:08:19.549 --> 00:08:20.732
them stinking Arabs.

00:08:20.732 --> 00:08:24.516
[GUNFIRE]

00:08:24.516 --> 00:08:28.380
Many Arabs did not appreciate
the European invaders, and so

00:08:28.380 --> 00:08:32.980
they fought back, trying to
drive out the foreign rulers.

00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:35.840
The Arab desire to be
free was not always

00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.266
considered to be rational.

00:08:37.266 --> 00:08:40.364


00:08:40.364 --> 00:08:43.220
Arabs struggling to regain
their independence were

00:08:43.220 --> 00:08:46.720
described as fevered, lawless,
and ruthless by

00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:47.970
The New York Times.

00:08:47.970 --> 00:09:02.920


00:09:02.920 --> 00:09:05.920
The media portrayed Arabs as
barbaric savages needing

00:09:05.920 --> 00:09:07.170
Western salvation.

00:09:07.170 --> 00:09:16.420


00:09:16.420 --> 00:09:18.260
We're always claiming we're
liberating the Arabs.

00:09:18.260 --> 00:09:21.440
We claimed that in 1917 when
we arrived in Baghdad.

00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:23.960
And I've actually got the
proclamation from General

00:09:23.960 --> 00:09:25.620
Maude, the commander in chief
of the British army.

00:09:25.620 --> 00:09:28.330
"We come here, not as
conquerors, but as liberators

00:09:28.330 --> 00:09:30.870
to free you from generations of
tyranny." The British were

00:09:30.870 --> 00:09:32.330
interested in oil then,
by the way.

00:09:32.330 --> 00:09:35.110
In Kirkuk, in Basra, and
across the board

00:09:35.110 --> 00:09:36.360
around Abadan in Iran.

00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:44.670


00:09:44.670 --> 00:09:48.290
We come, not as conquerors,
but as liberators.

00:09:48.290 --> 00:09:51.450
So when American politicians
insisted in 2003 that they

00:09:51.450 --> 00:09:53.100
weren't interested in
conquering Iraq--

00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:55.860
perish the thought-- they had
come to liberate Iraq, is they

00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:58.970
were unwittingly repeating
a well

00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:00.530
established British trope.

00:10:00.530 --> 00:10:03.810
Which is, whenever you invade a
country, you must ensure the

00:10:03.810 --> 00:10:06.360
natives that you are there
to freed them, not

00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:07.340
to subjugate them.

00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:09.310
Movies were often careful
to show a group

00:10:09.310 --> 00:10:11.570
of cooperative natives.

00:10:11.570 --> 00:10:15.000
In the movies, so it must be
in real life, the only good

00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.290
Arab is an obedient Arab.

00:10:17.290 --> 00:10:19.460
Interpreter.

00:10:19.460 --> 00:10:22.360
Tell Chief Ben Hamidou that the
friendship between France

00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:25.510
and England continues, and
that they will mutually

00:10:25.510 --> 00:10:29.370
support one another in
suppressing any revolt against

00:10:29.370 --> 00:10:31.180
territorial authority.

00:10:31.180 --> 00:10:40.780
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

00:10:40.780 --> 00:10:44.490
Even when East and West met
peacefully, there was little

00:10:44.490 --> 00:10:47.550
doubt about which people were
cleaner and more decent.

00:10:47.550 --> 00:10:52.160
Their wealth and artistry
offered clear evidence of

00:10:52.160 --> 00:10:55.260
their supposed moral and
spiritual superiority.

00:10:55.260 --> 00:11:03.280


00:11:03.280 --> 00:11:05.870
Furthering the notion of the
inferior Arab was one of the

00:11:05.870 --> 00:11:07.510
world's most fascinating
celebrities.

00:11:07.510 --> 00:11:11.470


00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:14.100
Lowell Thomas, one of America's
most popular radio

00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:17.030
hosts, returned from the Middle
East with photos and

00:11:17.030 --> 00:11:19.840
film of a 28-year-old British
intelligence officer.

00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:24.360


00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:27.340
Thomas' wildly popular traveling
show played to an

00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:31.151
audience of four million
over seven years.

00:11:31.151 --> 00:11:36.660
The media appointed Lawrence
King of the Arabs.

00:11:36.660 --> 00:11:40.830
Lowell Thomas' vivid photos
and film created America's

00:11:40.830 --> 00:11:43.390
first mass media superstar.

00:11:43.390 --> 00:11:49.130
Lawrence's mythic status lives
on today in David Lean's 1962

00:11:49.130 --> 00:11:52.112
masterpiece, Lawrence
of Arabia.

00:11:52.112 --> 00:12:06.230
[CHANTING]

00:12:06.230 --> 00:12:09.300
Both the hugely popular
Hollywood film and T.E.

00:12:09.300 --> 00:12:12.730
Lawrence himself, blended
historical fact with an

00:12:12.730 --> 00:12:16.590
enduring myth of Lawrence
and of the Arabs.

00:12:16.590 --> 00:12:18.720
Distinguishing fact from
fiction becomes nearly

00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:20.050
impossible.

00:12:20.050 --> 00:12:24.040
But certain images and scenes
seem to reveal a premise still

00:12:24.040 --> 00:12:26.620
alive today: that the
Arabs needed a

00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:28.370
white man to lead them.

00:12:28.370 --> 00:12:29.700
Sharif Ali.

00:12:29.700 --> 00:12:33.840
So long as the Arabs fight tribe
against tribe, so long

00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:37.940
will they be a little people,
a silly people.

00:12:37.940 --> 00:12:41.970
Greedy, barbarous, and
cruel, as you are.

00:12:41.970 --> 00:12:50.240


00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:53.900
"The Arabs could be swung on
an idea, as on a cord.

00:12:53.900 --> 00:12:57.280
Their mind was strange and dark,
full of depressions and

00:12:57.280 --> 00:12:58.510
exaltations.

00:12:58.510 --> 00:13:03.490
A I drew these tides of men into
my hands, and wrote my

00:13:03.490 --> 00:13:07.210
will across the sky in stars.

00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:08.940
Blood was always on our hands.

00:13:08.940 --> 00:13:12.490
We were licensed to it.

00:13:12.490 --> 00:13:15.590
The desert did not afford the
refined, slow penalties of

00:13:15.590 --> 00:13:20.232
courts and gaols."

00:13:20.232 --> 00:13:26.550
[CRYING]

00:13:26.550 --> 00:13:28.424
[FAINTS]

00:13:28.424 --> 00:13:29.674
{GUNSHOTS]

00:13:29.674 --> 00:13:46.813


00:13:46.813 --> 00:13:49.560
The Arabs were depicted
as pawns.

00:13:49.560 --> 00:13:51.880
Their yearning for independence
was simply not

00:13:51.880 --> 00:13:54.200
legitimate.

00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:57.410
Are you really going to give
them artillery, sir?

00:13:57.410 --> 00:13:58.940
I was wondering that, sir.

00:13:58.940 --> 00:14:01.780
Might be too difficult
to get it back again.

00:14:01.780 --> 00:14:05.700
You give them artillery, and
you've made them independent.

00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:08.220
Then I can't give them
artillery, can I?

00:14:08.220 --> 00:14:10.900
Arab concerns about
English honesty

00:14:10.900 --> 00:14:12.650
were considered humorous.

00:14:12.650 --> 00:14:15.370
They have only one suspicion.

00:14:15.370 --> 00:14:18.090
We let them drive the Turks
out and then move in

00:14:18.090 --> 00:14:22.580
ourselves, I've told them that
that's false, that we have no

00:14:22.580 --> 00:14:24.812
ambitions in Arabia.

00:14:24.812 --> 00:14:26.270
Have we?

00:14:26.270 --> 00:14:28.355
I am not a politician,
thank God.

00:14:28.355 --> 00:14:30.230
Have we any ambition
in Arabia, Dryden?

00:14:30.230 --> 00:14:32.810


00:14:32.810 --> 00:14:34.060
Difficult question, sir.

00:14:34.060 --> 00:14:37.856


00:14:37.856 --> 00:14:40.838
Face the lens.

00:14:40.838 --> 00:14:41.832
Yes, sir.

00:14:41.832 --> 00:14:42.826
That's my baby.

00:14:42.826 --> 00:14:59.770
[CHANTING]

00:14:59.770 --> 00:15:01.595
Growing up too, they'd be like,
I grew up over here.

00:15:01.595 --> 00:15:02.805
They'd be like, what are you?

00:15:02.805 --> 00:15:04.140
Greek, Italian, Jewish?

00:15:04.140 --> 00:15:05.260
Palestinian.

00:15:05.260 --> 00:15:06.250
Pakastillian?

00:15:06.250 --> 00:15:07.630
[LAUGHTER]

00:15:07.630 --> 00:15:10.130
What's a Pakastillian?

00:15:10.130 --> 00:15:11.560
Where's Pakastillia?

00:15:11.560 --> 00:15:13.508
[LAUGHTER]

00:15:13.508 --> 00:15:16.917
We don't have a country.

00:15:16.917 --> 00:15:23.248
[APPLAUSE]

00:15:23.248 --> 00:15:24.240
That's what I'd tell them.

00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:24.670
We don't have a country.

00:15:24.670 --> 00:15:26.530
But basically, you know, it's
over there in Israel.

00:15:26.530 --> 00:15:30.270
[LAUGHTER]

00:15:30.270 --> 00:15:31.215
Oh, so you're Jewish?

00:15:31.215 --> 00:15:33.340
[LAUGHTER]

00:15:33.340 --> 00:15:35.386
How many fucking rocks do we
need to throw, motherfucker?

00:15:35.386 --> 00:15:39.040
[LAUGHTER]

00:15:39.040 --> 00:15:40.100
Palastine.

00:15:40.100 --> 00:15:42.600
A land of half a
million Arabs.

00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:45.570
Arab Muslims, Arab Christians,
and Arab Jews.

00:15:45.570 --> 00:15:52.840


00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:57.290
Each religion as never been a
factor in the coexistence

00:15:57.290 --> 00:15:58.800
between Jews and Muslims.

00:15:58.800 --> 00:16:01.720
For hundreds of years, we were
living up to the advent of

00:16:01.720 --> 00:16:05.730
Zionism, which occurred
around 100 years ago.

00:16:05.730 --> 00:16:07.880
And then all of the sudden,
we've discovered that there's

00:16:07.880 --> 00:16:09.620
a problem between these
two religions?

00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:10.740
I mean, that's ridiculous.

00:16:10.740 --> 00:16:15.800
Why till that day, nothing has
been a problem for the

00:16:15.800 --> 00:16:17.690
coexistence?

00:16:17.690 --> 00:16:20.800
This image of an immigrant to
Palestine looks nothing like

00:16:20.800 --> 00:16:23.095
Nazi caricatures of
hooked-nosed, greedy Jews.

00:16:23.095 --> 00:16:26.790


00:16:26.790 --> 00:16:29.100
If this young man looks
European, it's

00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:31.090
because he is European.

00:16:31.090 --> 00:16:33.350
It was his Jewish identity
that drove his

00:16:33.350 --> 00:16:34.600
family Hitler's Germany.

00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:37.396


00:16:37.396 --> 00:16:40.330
But it was his European identity
that upset the Arabs

00:16:40.330 --> 00:16:42.100
of Palestine.

00:16:42.100 --> 00:16:45.070
They remember droves of
Europeans invading their land

00:16:45.070 --> 00:16:47.240
before, murdering and looting
for centuries.

00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:49.970


00:16:49.970 --> 00:16:52.070
The European political
movement, which chose

00:16:52.070 --> 00:16:55.110
Palestine as a destination
for Jewish settlers,

00:16:55.110 --> 00:16:56.360
called itself Zionism.

00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:59.655


00:16:59.655 --> 00:17:03.330
And they decide to go to
the land of Palestine.

00:17:03.330 --> 00:17:05.810
And there was a technicality,
because there were Palestinian

00:17:05.810 --> 00:17:07.230
people living there.

00:17:07.230 --> 00:17:09.956
So they came up with this
mantra, that it's a land

00:17:09.956 --> 00:17:12.564
without a people for a people
without a land, which was

00:17:12.564 --> 00:17:15.319
totally false.

00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:18.140
Images of Jews fleeing the
horrors of the Holocaust are

00:17:18.140 --> 00:17:19.390
familiar to most Americans.

00:17:19.390 --> 00:17:26.030


00:17:26.030 --> 00:17:29.180
This photograph of Jewish
immigrants building new lives

00:17:29.180 --> 00:17:32.810
in Palestine resembles early
American settlers who also

00:17:32.810 --> 00:17:34.620
moved on to native
tribal lands.

00:17:34.620 --> 00:17:38.820


00:17:38.820 --> 00:17:41.040
Images of Palestinian
natives are not so

00:17:41.040 --> 00:17:42.290
familiar to most Americans.

00:17:42.290 --> 00:17:58.330


00:17:58.330 --> 00:18:00.635
The Palestinians were
not going to leave

00:18:00.635 --> 00:18:01.673
of their own volition.

00:18:01.673 --> 00:18:05.740
They were not going to give up
their homes and their land to

00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:07.790
the Zionists voluntarily.

00:18:07.790 --> 00:18:10.560
Many of these European Zionists
were sensitive to

00:18:10.560 --> 00:18:12.490
potential Palestinian
suffering.

00:18:12.490 --> 00:18:15.820
A group that included David
Ben Gurion, future Prime

00:18:15.820 --> 00:18:17.070
Minister of Israel.

00:18:17.070 --> 00:18:24.595


00:18:24.595 --> 00:18:40.120
[SPEAKING GERMAN]

00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:43.660
Two decades later however, the
widespread and relentless

00:18:43.660 --> 00:18:47.820
genocide of European Jews by the
Nazis left Ben Gurion and

00:18:47.820 --> 00:18:50.700
his colleagues desperate for
a safe homeland for the

00:18:50.700 --> 00:18:53.310
survivors, hardening
their attitude

00:18:53.310 --> 00:18:54.560
toward their Arab neighbors.

00:18:54.560 --> 00:19:02.750


00:19:02.750 --> 00:19:11.960
So what happened in 1948 was
that you had a fight between

00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:16.830
the Jews and the Palestinians,
and later between the Jews and

00:19:16.830 --> 00:19:21.470
the surrounding Arab armies
where the Jews created the

00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:25.130
state of Israel and ethnically
cleansed

00:19:25.130 --> 00:19:26.825
large parts of Palestine.

00:19:26.825 --> 00:19:37.688


00:19:37.688 --> 00:19:41.130
What many people forget is that
the Israelis themselves

00:19:41.130 --> 00:19:44.550
used terrorism as the principal
weapon for driving

00:19:44.550 --> 00:19:49.080
the British out of the Middle
East between 1945 and 1948,

00:19:49.080 --> 00:19:53.150
and garnering a state of their
own for the Jewish people.

00:19:53.150 --> 00:19:55.175
Terrorism was one of
the main weapons.

00:19:55.175 --> 00:20:08.620


00:20:08.620 --> 00:20:11.760
After a bomb explosion caused
by terrorists on the British

00:20:11.760 --> 00:20:14.540
Headquarters of Jerusalem, one
entire corner of the King

00:20:14.540 --> 00:20:17.515
David Hotel, a building of seven
stories, was razed to

00:20:17.515 --> 00:20:18.280
the ground.

00:20:18.280 --> 00:20:22.850
Here was terrorism,
but not by Arabs.

00:20:22.850 --> 00:20:26.560
Once more, the civilized world
has received a rude shock at

00:20:26.560 --> 00:20:29.140
the hands of fanatics whose
wanton act is country to the

00:20:29.140 --> 00:20:32.570
dictates of all creeds alike,
and imperils the best interest

00:20:32.570 --> 00:20:36.290
of the cause that it
strives to promote.

00:20:36.290 --> 00:20:40.080
The King David Hotel bombing and
others were carried out by

00:20:40.080 --> 00:20:43.180
the Irgun, a group that included
a young Polish man

00:20:43.180 --> 00:20:45.000
named Itzhak Yzernitsky.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:47.870


00:20:47.870 --> 00:20:51.170
Two former Israeli prime
ministers, Manacam Bagon and

00:20:51.170 --> 00:20:55.340
Utshak Samir, were first
order terrorists.

00:20:55.340 --> 00:20:58.630
Now, they were terrorists not
because they were evil people.

00:20:58.630 --> 00:21:02.330
They were terrorists because the
Jews in the Yishuv, right,

00:21:02.330 --> 00:21:04.900
before there was a state
of Israel, were weak.

00:21:04.900 --> 00:21:06.940
Especially vis a vis
the British army.

00:21:06.940 --> 00:21:16.710


00:21:16.710 --> 00:21:19.310
Everybody knows that terrorism
moves through stages.

00:21:19.310 --> 00:21:22.100
That sometimes when you can't
get the attention of the big

00:21:22.100 --> 00:21:24.700
guys, and you don't have the
equivalent weapon, you've got

00:21:24.700 --> 00:21:27.080
to start doing nasty
things to get them.

00:21:27.080 --> 00:21:30.070
And if you do it nastily enough
or long enough, they

00:21:30.070 --> 00:21:31.230
may think, ah, shit.

00:21:31.230 --> 00:21:32.260
We're out of here.

00:21:32.260 --> 00:21:34.682
And then you'll segue
into government.

00:21:34.682 --> 00:21:40.060
Cut a deal, and many of your
sins will be forgiven you.

00:21:40.060 --> 00:21:41.780
These faces hardly match

00:21:41.780 --> 00:21:43.150
America's image of a terrorist.

00:21:43.150 --> 00:21:59.970


00:21:59.970 --> 00:22:03.040
For a brief moment in history,
Americans did hear of the

00:22:03.040 --> 00:22:05.650
plight of the Palestinian
Arabs.

00:22:05.650 --> 00:22:10.010
This NBC report broadcast images
no longer seen of camps

00:22:10.010 --> 00:22:13.490
that still exist.

00:22:13.490 --> 00:22:16.560
These refugees must live in
camps like Baqu'a and make

00:22:16.560 --> 00:22:17.450
life go on.

00:22:17.450 --> 00:22:21.110
The life they live is squalid,
boiling in the summer, cold in

00:22:21.110 --> 00:22:21.860
the winter.

00:22:21.860 --> 00:22:24.365
Never enough food, always
too much disease.

00:22:24.365 --> 00:22:41.070


00:22:41.070 --> 00:22:43.420
When Truman recognizes the state
of Israel, and he gives

00:22:43.420 --> 00:22:45.410
a kind of unconditional American
guarantee to its

00:22:45.410 --> 00:22:48.530
security, that sets
a precedent.

00:22:48.530 --> 00:22:51.920
Which Americans have been
inclined to follow ever since.

00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:54.360
Not least because they've seen
Israel as being kind of

00:22:54.360 --> 00:22:57.570
American mini me.

00:22:57.570 --> 00:23:01.750
The colonial settlers with their
democratic politics up

00:23:01.750 --> 00:23:06.940
against a kind of generic red
Indian known as the Arabs.

00:23:06.940 --> 00:23:08.190
Hold it like this.

00:23:08.190 --> 00:23:11.248


00:23:11.248 --> 00:23:14.040
Watch out.

00:23:14.040 --> 00:23:15.450
There are Arabs out there.

00:23:15.450 --> 00:23:19.885


00:23:19.885 --> 00:23:33.970
[SCREAMS]

00:23:33.970 --> 00:23:35.490
When I was nineteen, the Mormons
pulled me aside,

00:23:35.490 --> 00:23:37.755
because they always wanted me to
be a Mormon and a Christian

00:23:37.755 --> 00:23:38.840
and all this.

00:23:38.840 --> 00:23:39.340
And I was like, eh.

00:23:39.340 --> 00:23:41.980
I got crazy Mormon relatives and
then I've got crazy Muslim

00:23:41.980 --> 00:23:43.210
relatives, right?

00:23:43.210 --> 00:23:44.480
You guys have seen Mormons when

00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:45.690
they go on their missions.

00:23:45.690 --> 00:23:46.620
Like, I'm a missionary.

00:23:46.620 --> 00:23:49.150
I ride around on a bike with a
name tag, part my hair on one

00:23:49.150 --> 00:23:52.260
side, sleep in a bunkbed with
another boy for two years.

00:23:52.260 --> 00:23:52.850
That's great.

00:23:52.850 --> 00:23:53.834
That's fantastic.

00:23:53.834 --> 00:23:55.310
They asked me to be that guy.

00:23:55.310 --> 00:23:58.241
They're like, have you thought
about going on a mission?

00:23:58.241 --> 00:23:58.870
Well, look.

00:23:58.870 --> 00:24:01.330
To an Arab, a mission's a whole
different deal, see?

00:24:01.330 --> 00:24:05.675
[LAUGHTER]

00:24:05.675 --> 00:24:07.480
Generally, we don't come
back from those.

00:24:07.480 --> 00:24:10.360
[LAUGHTER]

00:24:10.360 --> 00:24:13.670
The Israeli armour has sliced
through the Gaza Strip to the

00:24:13.670 --> 00:24:15.250
Mediterranean coast.

00:24:15.250 --> 00:24:17.120
And the Arab forces in
the Strip are no

00:24:17.120 --> 00:24:19.538
longer a fighting factor.

00:24:19.538 --> 00:24:22.442
Israel has today created the
nearest thing to instant

00:24:22.442 --> 00:24:25.550
victory the modern world
has ever seen.

00:24:25.550 --> 00:24:29.130
It was as if the west had
finally captured Jerusalem,

00:24:29.130 --> 00:24:33.570
1967 years after the birth
of the Messiah.

00:24:33.570 --> 00:24:37.550
I was watching the news and
Walter Cronkite said,

00:24:37.550 --> 00:24:39.430
Jerusalem has been liberated.

00:24:39.430 --> 00:24:44.740
And one of my relatives said,
well, they've just erased us.

00:24:44.740 --> 00:24:57.020


00:24:57.020 --> 00:25:01.600
There was that sense that it had
been liberated from whom?

00:25:01.600 --> 00:25:06.660
The question immediately came
up that, somehow the

00:25:06.660 --> 00:25:09.730
Palestinian or the
Arab presence was

00:25:09.730 --> 00:25:13.336
an obstacle to something.

00:25:13.336 --> 00:25:20.470
Otto Preminger presents Exodus,
the biggest bestseller

00:25:20.470 --> 00:25:23.827
since Gone with the Wind, read
by more than 50 million around

00:25:23.827 --> 00:25:25.790
the world, now on the screen.

00:25:25.790 --> 00:25:28.362
An epic of our time, the
birth of a nation.

00:25:28.362 --> 00:25:31.460


00:25:31.460 --> 00:25:35.220
Exodus was the most brilliant
piece of propaganda ever to

00:25:35.220 --> 00:25:37.890
come out of post
World War Two.

00:25:37.890 --> 00:25:42.240
It was commissioned by a PR
agent to get support for the

00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:43.060
state of Israel.

00:25:43.060 --> 00:25:47.040
They sent Leon Morris over to
Israel to write this book to

00:25:47.040 --> 00:25:48.850
give a flattering image
of Israelis.

00:25:48.850 --> 00:25:51.080
Now I just wanted you to
know that I am a Jew.

00:25:51.080 --> 00:25:54.195
This is my country.

00:25:54.195 --> 00:25:56.620
Israel was always understood
to be the little

00:25:56.620 --> 00:25:58.030
country that could.

00:25:58.030 --> 00:26:02.870
Founded in an Arab part of the
world, always the minority.

00:26:02.870 --> 00:26:05.950
The David and Goliath image
was very important in how

00:26:05.950 --> 00:26:07.500
people understood Israel.

00:26:07.500 --> 00:26:10.220
That image downplayed the
reality of a militarily

00:26:10.220 --> 00:26:13.810
superior Israel, gradually
occupying more and more

00:26:13.810 --> 00:26:16.280
Palestinian land.

00:26:16.280 --> 00:26:20.140
Few Americans can identify the
West Bank and Gaza on a map,

00:26:20.140 --> 00:26:23.330
possibly because maps of this
region are rarely published by

00:26:23.330 --> 00:26:24.580
the mainstream media.

00:26:24.580 --> 00:26:33.100


00:26:33.100 --> 00:26:35.610
In that context, the
representation of the

00:26:35.610 --> 00:26:40.150
Palestinians was as refugees,
as people who didn't have a

00:26:40.150 --> 00:26:42.275
national home but were somehow
just misplaced.

00:26:42.275 --> 00:26:56.380


00:26:56.380 --> 00:26:58.640
Nothing seems to be
moving over there.

00:26:58.640 --> 00:26:59.710
The [INAUDIBLE] hasn't
called for the

00:26:59.710 --> 00:27:00.960
morning prayers either.

00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:06.580


00:27:06.580 --> 00:27:09.870
For a quarter of a century, now
into the third generation,

00:27:09.870 --> 00:27:12.480
they have waited in caps for a
miracle that will take them

00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:14.650
back to their old
homes in Israel.

00:27:14.650 --> 00:27:16.580
The United Nations
and conventional

00:27:16.580 --> 00:27:17.930
diplomacy have failed.

00:27:17.930 --> 00:27:21.150
Guerrilla warfare failed too.

00:27:21.150 --> 00:27:25.120
The change of mood in the Baqa'a
Arab refugee camp was

00:27:25.120 --> 00:27:26.970
not a subtle change.

00:27:26.970 --> 00:27:31.050
It appeared a dramatic,
defiant change.

00:27:31.050 --> 00:27:33.760
One teacher said through an
interpreter, We no longer

00:27:33.760 --> 00:27:35.530
expect anyone to do
anything about

00:27:35.530 --> 00:27:37.630
giving us back our homes.

00:27:37.630 --> 00:27:40.490
We now have our commandos.

00:27:40.490 --> 00:27:43.510
They say they are not fighting
Jews, whom they would welcome

00:27:43.510 --> 00:27:44.620
in the future Palestine.

00:27:44.620 --> 00:27:48.300
They say they are fighting the
idea of an exclusive, racist,

00:27:48.300 --> 00:27:53.010
Jewish state, and their previous
homeland, Palestine.

00:27:53.010 --> 00:27:57.350
The commandos make the point
that they are not terrorists

00:27:57.350 --> 00:27:59.540
anymore than young Jews who
fought for the nation of

00:27:59.540 --> 00:28:01.910
Israel considered themselves
terrorists.

00:28:01.910 --> 00:28:05.310
The Palestinians actually began
to want to bring their

00:28:05.310 --> 00:28:08.620
own national plight to the
attention of the world.

00:28:08.620 --> 00:28:12.345
And they did so through a series
of plane hijackings in

00:28:12.345 --> 00:28:16.660
the 1970s and other terrorist
attacks that were designed to

00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:20.500
bring the attention of the
world onto Palestinians.

00:28:20.500 --> 00:28:23.491
Who are these people, and
why are they so angry?

00:28:23.491 --> 00:28:24.600
Good evening.

00:28:24.600 --> 00:28:28.140
A new hijacking has produced
high drama in the air and on

00:28:28.140 --> 00:28:31.250
the ground, and the potential
of serious international

00:28:31.250 --> 00:28:32.380
repercussions.

00:28:32.380 --> 00:28:35.740
At this point, even hijackers
are depicted with relative

00:28:35.740 --> 00:28:36.130
complexity.

00:28:36.130 --> 00:28:38.970
Flight from Rome to Athens,
forced it to land in the

00:28:38.970 --> 00:28:39.710
Syrian capital--

00:28:39.710 --> 00:28:42.380
This CBS news report
tells viewers what

00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:43.790
motivates the hijackers.

00:28:43.790 --> 00:28:47.270
Passengers were told that this
multiple hijacking is just

00:28:47.270 --> 00:28:50.620
what the world deserves for
ignoring the Palestinians, and

00:28:50.620 --> 00:28:54.136
for not realizing that 22 years
of misery in the refugee

00:28:54.136 --> 00:28:57.155
camps after being pushed out of
what is now Israel, would

00:28:57.155 --> 00:29:01.210
someday produce a hardcore of
desperate men and women.

00:29:01.210 --> 00:29:04.370
Many supporters of Israel like
to make the argument that the

00:29:04.370 --> 00:29:07.450
reason the Israelis are so heavy
handed, the reason they

00:29:07.450 --> 00:29:10.090
have to build a wall, the reason
they have to occupy

00:29:10.090 --> 00:29:13.190
huge amounts of Palestinian
territory, is that they have

00:29:13.190 --> 00:29:14.390
to cap the volcano.

00:29:14.390 --> 00:29:16.510
They have to keep these
Palestinian

00:29:16.510 --> 00:29:18.390
terrorists under control.

00:29:18.390 --> 00:29:21.570
This line of argument has the
causal arrow backwards.

00:29:21.570 --> 00:29:25.170
It is the occupation that
is causing terrorism.

00:29:25.170 --> 00:29:27.850
It is not terrorism that is
causing the occupation.

00:29:27.850 --> 00:29:31.460


00:29:31.460 --> 00:29:33.910
America has to defend
its interests.

00:29:33.910 --> 00:29:34.890
How?

00:29:34.890 --> 00:29:39.300
By giving force, and blood
to this military

00:29:39.300 --> 00:29:41.651
base which is Israel.

00:29:41.651 --> 00:29:45.880
In order that Israel will crush
any Arab liberation

00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:49.250
movement, which would say
to the Americans, Out!

00:29:49.250 --> 00:29:51.120
This is our property.

00:29:51.120 --> 00:29:54.140
Therefore, our real enemy
is not only Israel.

00:29:54.140 --> 00:29:57.190
It is Israel totally
backed by America.

00:29:57.190 --> 00:30:01.360
So we are in a continuous
war with America.

00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:05.770
To us, America to give Phantoms
for Israel is very,

00:30:05.770 --> 00:30:06.990
very natural.

00:30:06.990 --> 00:30:08.400
It is very natural.

00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:09.580
We expect this.

00:30:09.580 --> 00:30:13.210
And we expect America to give
more Phantoms and more

00:30:13.210 --> 00:30:16.372
Phantoms, and more aids, and
more dollars, because it is

00:30:16.372 --> 00:30:17.248
her battle.

00:30:17.248 --> 00:30:19.340
It's the battle of America.

00:30:19.340 --> 00:30:22.236
But will you have any particular
reaction this time?

00:30:22.236 --> 00:30:24.920
Will you do any, take action
against Americans, and

00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:26.140
American interests?

00:30:26.140 --> 00:30:27.510
Suppose we have.

00:30:27.510 --> 00:30:28.880
Do you expect me to tell you?

00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:43.960


00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:47.370
Within two years, the portrait
of the articulate Palestinian

00:30:47.370 --> 00:30:51.630
commando disappeared almost
completely, as did media

00:30:51.630 --> 00:30:55.231
investigations into the root
cause of the violence.

00:30:55.231 --> 00:31:01.965
[MUSIC - "BUGLER'S DREAM"]

00:31:01.965 --> 00:31:05.340
[COMMENTATING]

00:31:05.340 --> 00:31:08.495
The joys of Olympic victory have
seemed to turn to ashes.

00:31:08.495 --> 00:31:11.890
The thousand disappointments of
defeat have been dwarfed by

00:31:11.890 --> 00:31:13.500
a nightmare in Munich.

00:31:13.500 --> 00:31:16.950
In the darkness before dawn
today, five Arab commandos

00:31:16.950 --> 00:31:20.510
carrying sub-machine guns
climbed the Olympic compound

00:31:20.510 --> 00:31:24.110
fence, broke into the Israeli
team's quarters, shot and

00:31:24.110 --> 00:31:28.720
killed two Israelis, and held
nine others hostages all day.

00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:32.880
The hostages were forced onto
buses and then helicopters as

00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:35.850
the Palestinian commandos
negotiated for the release of

00:31:35.850 --> 00:31:38.050
Palestinian prisoners
back in Israel.

00:31:38.050 --> 00:31:40.160
The negotiations failed.

00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:43.090
They've now said that there
were 11 hostages.

00:31:43.090 --> 00:31:45.610
Two were killed in
their rooms.

00:31:45.610 --> 00:31:50.110
Nine were killed at the
airport tonight.

00:31:50.110 --> 00:31:51.360
They're all gone.

00:31:51.360 --> 00:31:53.990


00:31:53.990 --> 00:31:57.660
Presenting Palestinians as
freedom fighters or even as

00:31:57.660 --> 00:32:01.110
terrorists for the human
dimension was gone in the

00:32:01.110 --> 00:32:02.360
blink of an eye.

00:32:02.360 --> 00:32:10.730


00:32:10.730 --> 00:32:14.890
Isolate the rabid Arab fanatics,
for may Arab mad men

00:32:14.890 --> 00:32:16.490
thrive on the Arab Israeli--

00:32:16.490 --> 00:32:20.410
They were now simply evil, the
motivation behind their

00:32:20.410 --> 00:32:22.130
attacks no longer relevant.

00:32:22.130 --> 00:32:30.640


00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:35.010
The image of Arabs as evil would
continue from then on,

00:32:35.010 --> 00:32:38.750
both in national policy
and in the media.

00:32:38.750 --> 00:32:44.430
The mainstream media presents
a rich diet of pictures of

00:32:44.430 --> 00:32:49.430
Palestinians blowing up targets
in Israel and in the

00:32:49.430 --> 00:32:52.770
occupied territories, which
leads many Americans to think

00:32:52.770 --> 00:32:54.960
that Palestinians are
terrorists, period.

00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:55.480
All right.

00:32:55.480 --> 00:32:58.260
Here we are in Ramallah
in the West Bank.

00:32:58.260 --> 00:32:59.570
This is a Palestinian.

00:32:59.570 --> 00:33:00.760
He's really angry.

00:33:00.760 --> 00:33:05.184
[LAUGHTER]

00:33:05.184 --> 00:33:08.868
He can make Molotov cocktails
in seconds, all right?

00:33:08.868 --> 00:33:12.660
He can throw rocks hundreds
of meters.

00:33:12.660 --> 00:33:14.220
They're really territorial.

00:33:14.220 --> 00:33:26.820
[LAUGHTER]

00:33:26.820 --> 00:33:49.500
[CHANTING]

00:33:49.500 --> 00:33:53.690
After 1967, there were a spade
of books, even movies, that

00:33:53.690 --> 00:33:55.730
said, the end times are near.

00:33:55.730 --> 00:33:56.920
Armageddon is going to come.

00:33:56.920 --> 00:33:58.040
Jesus is going to return.

00:33:58.040 --> 00:34:00.334
And Israel and the Middle
East are key to that.

00:34:00.334 --> 00:34:06.740


00:34:06.740 --> 00:34:10.420
Documentaries, nonfiction,
Christian interpretations of

00:34:10.420 --> 00:34:14.159
scripture were circulating
everywhere among evangelicals,

00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:16.600
and even into the
broader public.

00:34:16.600 --> 00:34:19.500
Hal Lindsey's Late Great
Planet Earth was the

00:34:19.500 --> 00:34:22.750
bestselling nonfiction
book of the 1970s.

00:34:22.750 --> 00:34:26.530
And it went on later
to become a movie.

00:34:26.530 --> 00:34:28.989
These images can be seen
as religious, or

00:34:28.989 --> 00:34:31.024
political, or both.

00:34:31.024 --> 00:34:33.550
Never until the events of
recent history could the

00:34:33.550 --> 00:34:38.739
biblical prophecies about the
end times have made sense.

00:34:38.739 --> 00:34:41.880
As the industrial nations are
brought to their knees by the

00:34:41.880 --> 00:34:46.620
power crisis, the Arabs will use
their political power to

00:34:46.620 --> 00:34:49.106
try and gain control
of Jerusalem,

00:34:49.106 --> 00:34:51.230
and the holy places.

00:34:51.230 --> 00:34:53.580
American evangelical Christians
were taken by the

00:34:53.580 --> 00:34:56.250
idea that the founding of
Israel would lead to the

00:34:56.250 --> 00:34:58.190
Second Coming of Jesus.

00:34:58.190 --> 00:35:00.760
In every case, it was said that
those who oppose Israel

00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:03.230
are against the forces of
goodness in the world.

00:35:03.230 --> 00:35:05.660
They're evil.

00:35:05.660 --> 00:35:08.630
This is a warning
not to disturb

00:35:08.630 --> 00:35:10.330
the Ark of the Covenant.

00:35:10.330 --> 00:35:15.340
And take back one khaddam
to honor the Hebrew God

00:35:15.340 --> 00:35:19.435
whose Ark this is.

00:35:19.435 --> 00:35:24.598
And so, Arabs come out very
badly in this scenario.

00:35:24.598 --> 00:35:26.590
[LAUGHS]

00:35:26.590 --> 00:35:32.068
[SWINGS SWORD]

00:35:32.068 --> 00:35:36.070
[GUNSHOT]

00:35:36.070 --> 00:35:38.460
Those who were in conflict
with Israel were in

00:35:38.460 --> 00:35:39.710
conflict with God.

00:35:39.710 --> 00:35:53.336


00:35:53.336 --> 00:35:58.490
Joel 3:2 says, any nation that
tries to get Israel to divide

00:35:58.490 --> 00:36:01.620
my land, I will bring
it into judgment.

00:36:01.620 --> 00:36:04.800
If America does not stop
pressuring Israel to give up

00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:08.360
land, I believe that God will
bring this nation into

00:36:08.360 --> 00:36:11.830
judgment, because I believe
what this book says.

00:36:11.830 --> 00:36:15.870
And this nation is going to go
through a bloodbath that you

00:36:15.870 --> 00:36:17.710
have permitted.

00:36:17.710 --> 00:36:21.230
All of these represented Israel
as the home of God's

00:36:21.230 --> 00:36:23.060
people on earth.

00:36:23.060 --> 00:36:23.990
All right.

00:36:23.990 --> 00:36:25.030
Muslims think they're
the chosen.

00:36:25.030 --> 00:36:26.550
Jews invented the whole
idea of being chosen.

00:36:26.550 --> 00:36:28.585
It's like, you know, I've
got Muslim cousins

00:36:28.585 --> 00:36:29.610
that, hello, listen.

00:36:29.610 --> 00:36:30.170
You don't understand.

00:36:30.170 --> 00:36:32.840
God chose us.

00:36:32.840 --> 00:36:34.340
No, God chose us, you see?

00:36:34.340 --> 00:36:36.545
And he promised us this land.

00:36:36.545 --> 00:36:37.030
You see?

00:36:37.030 --> 00:36:38.530
This uninhabitable desert
right there?

00:36:38.530 --> 00:36:39.656
God promised it to us.

00:36:39.656 --> 00:36:41.588
He gave it to us, OK?

00:36:41.588 --> 00:36:44.010
[LAUGHTER]

00:36:44.010 --> 00:36:46.630
The Christian tradition of
painting images denigrating

00:36:46.630 --> 00:36:48.690
Islam goes back 10 centuries.

00:36:48.690 --> 00:36:53.860


00:36:53.860 --> 00:36:57.430
Ever since Pope Urban called
for the First Crusade and

00:36:57.430 --> 00:37:00.690
condemned Muslims in his speech
in France, we've had a

00:37:00.690 --> 00:37:04.370
history of denigrating and
beastializing the Prophet

00:37:04.370 --> 00:37:06.600
Muhammad, Islam, and
Arabs as a people.

00:37:06.600 --> 00:37:26.580


00:37:26.580 --> 00:37:27.690
So you can see how

00:37:27.690 --> 00:37:29.430
historically Christian forces--

00:37:29.430 --> 00:37:31.430
we don't think there are many
Christians left in Europe now,

00:37:31.430 --> 00:37:33.130
but certainly in those days--

00:37:33.130 --> 00:37:35.880
constantly propagandized, often
because they wanted to

00:37:35.880 --> 00:37:39.700
drive Muslims out of certain
areas, along the lines that

00:37:39.700 --> 00:37:42.780
this was a wicked, evil,
malevolent religion.

00:37:42.780 --> 00:37:57.540


00:37:57.540 --> 00:37:59.754
Fringes of the scattered
hit-and-run demonstrations in

00:37:59.754 --> 00:38:00.740
the center of the capital.

00:38:00.740 --> 00:38:04.200
It narrows down to one on
one, or two on one.

00:38:04.200 --> 00:38:07.920


00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:11.220
And then in 1979, it all goes
catastrophically wrong,

00:38:11.220 --> 00:38:12.720
against expectation.

00:38:12.720 --> 00:38:17.526
Iran, which had seemed to be
stable politically, so to

00:38:17.526 --> 00:38:21.540
speak, in hand, under a
westward looking Shah,

00:38:21.540 --> 00:38:24.750
installed by Britain and the
United States, suddenly

00:38:24.750 --> 00:38:26.010
explodes into revolution.

00:38:26.010 --> 00:38:28.495
Confrontation for the fifth
straight day now

00:38:28.495 --> 00:38:29.305
in the center of--

00:38:29.305 --> 00:38:32.450
and anti-Shah demonstrators
armed with their newfound

00:38:32.450 --> 00:38:35.453
unity, their hopes of unseating
the Shah of Iran

00:38:35.453 --> 00:38:37.868
through continued troubles,
through their demonstration

00:38:37.868 --> 00:38:40.444
and to see who has the will
to go on defying the

00:38:40.444 --> 00:38:41.694
might of the Shah.

00:38:41.694 --> 00:38:44.940


00:38:44.940 --> 00:38:48.990
1979 is the great turning point
in the history of the

00:38:48.990 --> 00:38:51.680
20th century, and indeed in
the history of our times.

00:38:51.680 --> 00:38:56.080
Because the consequences of 1979
in Iran are comparable

00:38:56.080 --> 00:39:02.290
with the consequences
of 1789 in France.

00:39:02.290 --> 00:39:04.700
It's a revolution of world
historical importance, and its

00:39:04.700 --> 00:39:06.720
reverberations carry
on to the present.

00:39:06.720 --> 00:39:11.920


00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:15.580
And at that moment, the United
States realizes that it

00:39:15.580 --> 00:39:17.820
doesn't call the shots in the
region the way that it

00:39:17.820 --> 00:39:19.100
previously had.

00:39:19.100 --> 00:39:21.280
Who lost Iran?

00:39:21.280 --> 00:39:24.860
Our past mistakes and missed
calculations just as much as

00:39:24.860 --> 00:39:29.080
those of the Shah himself will
now cause us new and agonizing

00:39:29.080 --> 00:39:33.260
problems as far ahead as
any of us can foresee.

00:39:33.260 --> 00:39:34.712
This is Walter Cronkite.

00:39:34.712 --> 00:39:36.440
Goodnight.

00:39:36.440 --> 00:39:37.320
Good evening.

00:39:37.320 --> 00:39:40.320
The American embassy in Tehran
is in the hands of Muslim

00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:41.720
students tonight.

00:39:41.720 --> 00:39:44.500
Spurred on by an anti-American
speech by the Ayatollah

00:39:44.500 --> 00:39:47.440
Khomeini, they stormed the
embassy, fought the marine

00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:50.130
guards for three hours,
overpowered them, and took

00:39:50.130 --> 00:39:52.560
dozens of American hostages.

00:39:52.560 --> 00:39:54.400
The students want
the deposed Shah

00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:56.470
returned to Iran for trial.

00:39:56.470 --> 00:40:00.790
I think out of '79 came a new
xenophobic stereotype.

00:40:00.790 --> 00:40:02.940
And we live with the
consequences of that today.

00:40:02.940 --> 00:40:06.070
It's a very undifferentiating
kind of prejudice that lumps

00:40:06.070 --> 00:40:12.850
together Iranians, Kuwaitis,
Saudis, Iraqis.

00:40:12.850 --> 00:40:15.600
But I think it's nevertheless
a real one, and it informs

00:40:15.600 --> 00:40:18.672
much of the unease which
Americans feel

00:40:18.672 --> 00:40:19.650
towards that region.

00:40:19.650 --> 00:40:24.100
[CHANTING]

00:40:24.100 --> 00:40:30.340
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

00:40:30.340 --> 00:40:33.980
The new moral geography
represented the Middle East as

00:40:33.980 --> 00:40:37.736
a world of dangerous religious
fanaticism.

00:40:37.736 --> 00:40:39.740
You're in my country now.

00:40:39.740 --> 00:40:41.140
You're my wife.

00:40:41.140 --> 00:40:42.230
You do as I say.

00:40:42.230 --> 00:40:43.480
You understand me?

00:40:43.480 --> 00:40:52.900


00:40:52.900 --> 00:40:56.050
As a huge anti-American
demonstration surged through

00:40:56.050 --> 00:40:57.950
the streets of the city,
the students

00:40:57.950 --> 00:40:59.800
occupying the embassy warn--

00:40:59.800 --> 00:41:03.210
The women shouted triumphantly,
there is nothing

00:41:03.210 --> 00:41:04.580
America can do.

00:41:04.580 --> 00:41:07.300
We have the hostages.

00:41:07.300 --> 00:41:10.660
They were held there, most
of them, for 444 days.

00:41:10.660 --> 00:41:13.670
And every night, American
television screens were filled

00:41:13.670 --> 00:41:17.160
with images of Iranians burning
American flags,

00:41:17.160 --> 00:41:20.140
chanting, Yankee, go home,
bringing those images into

00:41:20.140 --> 00:41:22.270
every home.

00:41:22.270 --> 00:41:25.990
The television coverage of the
Iranian hostage crisis dwarfed

00:41:25.990 --> 00:41:27.260
the coverage of the
civil rights

00:41:27.260 --> 00:41:28.775
movement, and even Vietnam.

00:41:28.775 --> 00:41:31.280


00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:33.980
This is an a ABC News special.

00:41:33.980 --> 00:41:35.410
The Iran crisis.

00:41:35.410 --> 00:41:37.620
It was the obsession of American
television news for

00:41:37.620 --> 00:41:39.260
more than a year.

00:41:39.260 --> 00:41:43.080
ABC News had a nightly segment
on the crisis called "America

00:41:43.080 --> 00:41:47.431
Held Hostage." That's what
eventually became Nightline.

00:41:47.431 --> 00:41:48.800
America Held Hostage.

00:41:48.800 --> 00:41:51.740


00:41:51.740 --> 00:41:53.640
Day 13.

00:41:53.640 --> 00:41:55.350
Day 411.

00:41:55.350 --> 00:41:56.670
And here in Washington
tonight--

00:41:56.670 --> 00:41:59.350
Americans began to think about
the United States as somehow

00:41:59.350 --> 00:42:02.320
facing a new radical movement
that was political Islam.

00:42:02.320 --> 00:42:05.190


00:42:05.190 --> 00:42:06.855
On Sunday, communist university
students took to

00:42:06.855 --> 00:42:07.470
the streets.

00:42:07.470 --> 00:42:08.760
And that's not wrong.

00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:12.030
There was a rise of political
Islam all throughout the

00:42:12.030 --> 00:42:14.720
Middle East in this period,
and especially in Iran.

00:42:14.720 --> 00:42:17.860
But as is often the case, the
understandings of what that

00:42:17.860 --> 00:42:21.530
meant, the complexity of that,
the reasons for Muslims or

00:42:21.530 --> 00:42:24.140
anybody being opposed to
American policy in the Middle

00:42:24.140 --> 00:42:28.400
East, were not that readily
available to most Americans.

00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:31.490
I don't think you pay ransom
for people that have been

00:42:31.490 --> 00:42:34.010
kidnapped by barbarians.

00:42:34.010 --> 00:42:36.340
Who makes these masses move?

00:42:36.340 --> 00:42:38.460
Is he divine, or senile?

00:42:38.460 --> 00:42:40.480
A mystic, or a maniac?

00:42:40.480 --> 00:42:42.670
How can he be moved?

00:42:42.670 --> 00:42:45.660
They say he has little capacity
for compromise, and

00:42:45.660 --> 00:42:49.150
doesn't negotiate in any Western
sense, and does not

00:42:49.150 --> 00:42:51.100
care what the rest of
the world thinks.

00:42:51.100 --> 00:42:53.950
What lies beneath the image?

00:42:53.950 --> 00:42:57.080
Is it possible to understand
his anger without defending

00:42:57.080 --> 00:42:59.460
his actions?

00:42:59.460 --> 00:43:01.380
Where did this image
come from?

00:43:01.380 --> 00:43:04.760
And what was America's
role, if any?

00:43:04.760 --> 00:43:09.110
In 1953, Iranian Prime Minister
Mossadegh wanted to

00:43:09.110 --> 00:43:12.660
expel the British and American
oil companies so that Iranians

00:43:12.660 --> 00:43:15.740
could tap their own oil
fields themselves.

00:43:15.740 --> 00:43:18.077
But the CIA had other ideas.

00:43:18.077 --> 00:43:21.660


00:43:21.660 --> 00:43:24.940
Well, we got rid of Mossadegh
in Iran who was a democratic

00:43:24.940 --> 00:43:27.770
leader of the country, and we
brought back the Shah who was

00:43:27.770 --> 00:43:28.880
a dictator.

00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:31.510
We interfered in their
government.

00:43:31.510 --> 00:43:34.910
Why did we overthrow the only
democratic government the

00:43:34.910 --> 00:43:38.365
Iranians had, the postwar
government of Mossadegh?

00:43:38.365 --> 00:43:41.110
Because he nationalized the
British oil industry.

00:43:41.110 --> 00:43:43.780
We made a regime change
on our own because we

00:43:43.780 --> 00:43:45.710
were apt to the oil.

00:43:45.710 --> 00:43:48.840
And that is why Iran hates
us to this day.

00:43:48.840 --> 00:43:53.665
Islam became a signifier of
a new danger to Americans.

00:43:53.665 --> 00:43:56.710
The ministers began what was to
be an eight hour meeting,

00:43:56.710 --> 00:43:59.330
resulting in their decision to
reduce the flow of oil to

00:43:59.330 --> 00:44:02.510
America and other nations
supporting Israel.

00:44:02.510 --> 00:44:07.240
In 1973, OPEC staged an oil
boycott in response to

00:44:07.240 --> 00:44:11.690
America's support of Israel
during the Yom Kippur war.

00:44:11.690 --> 00:44:15.090
That message was buried,
however, in an avalanche of

00:44:15.090 --> 00:44:19.200
images of greedy oil sheiks.

00:44:19.200 --> 00:44:22.850
We are heading toward the most
acute shortages of energy

00:44:22.850 --> 00:44:24.260
since World War Two.

00:44:24.260 --> 00:44:26.360
It's time to buy plenty
of sweaters.

00:44:26.360 --> 00:44:28.640
It may get a little
cold this winter.

00:44:28.640 --> 00:44:32.360
They will reduce oil production
by 5% a month until

00:44:32.360 --> 00:44:35.350
the Israelis withdraw from
occupied territories.

00:44:35.350 --> 00:44:39.910
Since it is our tendency to go
in and bother people in other

00:44:39.910 --> 00:44:43.190
countries unilaterally,
countries weaker than we are,

00:44:43.190 --> 00:44:48.710
which have done us no
harm, then they are

00:44:48.710 --> 00:44:51.205
going to take revenge.

00:44:51.205 --> 00:44:52.010
Let's call America.

00:44:52.010 --> 00:44:52.705
Let's call America.

00:44:52.705 --> 00:44:55.370
[LAUGHTER]

00:44:55.370 --> 00:44:56.260
Give me the phone.

00:44:56.260 --> 00:44:56.695
Give me the phone.

00:44:56.695 --> 00:44:57.611
Give me the phone.

00:44:57.611 --> 00:44:59.054
Give me the phone.

00:44:59.054 --> 00:45:00.016
Give me the phone.

00:45:00.016 --> 00:45:02.421
Hello America?

00:45:02.421 --> 00:45:03.383
Fuck you!

00:45:03.383 --> 00:45:09.960
[LAUGHTER]

00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:11.890
Bring it on, bitch!

00:45:11.890 --> 00:45:14.154
We kick your ass.

00:45:14.154 --> 00:45:15.830
And they hang up, and they're
like, do they have a military?

00:45:15.830 --> 00:45:23.490
[LAUGHTER]

00:45:23.490 --> 00:45:26.360
We actually have a
huge debate about

00:45:26.360 --> 00:45:28.570
abortion in this country.

00:45:28.570 --> 00:45:30.980
We have a huge debate
in this country

00:45:30.980 --> 00:45:32.870
about affirmative action.

00:45:32.870 --> 00:45:36.360
We have a huge debate in this
country about race.

00:45:36.360 --> 00:45:39.930
We have a huge debate in this
country about gun control.

00:45:39.930 --> 00:45:44.380
But we do not have any debate,
any meaningful debate in this

00:45:44.380 --> 00:45:49.530
country, about Israeli policy
in the occupied territories,

00:45:49.530 --> 00:45:52.470
or about the US Israeli
relationship.

00:45:52.470 --> 00:45:55.580
It is just considered
to be out of bounds.

00:45:55.580 --> 00:45:57.630
If you were to go to Britain,
for example, and read The

00:45:57.630 --> 00:46:00.450
Independent, or read The
Guardian, or even read The

00:46:00.450 --> 00:46:04.210
Times and The Daily Telegraph,
you would see many pieces that

00:46:04.210 --> 00:46:07.440
are critical of Israel, and
critical of British policy

00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:08.690
towards Israel.

00:46:08.690 --> 00:46:13.560


00:46:13.560 --> 00:46:16.830
And of course, if you went to
Israel itself, you would find

00:46:16.830 --> 00:46:20.270
all sorts of people criticizing
the occupation,

00:46:20.270 --> 00:46:23.250
criticizing the Sharon
government or the Barack

00:46:23.250 --> 00:46:23.540
government.

00:46:23.540 --> 00:46:26.060
You'd have a much
richer debate.

00:46:26.060 --> 00:46:28.240
It's only in the United
States where you have

00:46:28.240 --> 00:46:29.490
virtually no debate.

00:46:29.490 --> 00:46:44.660


00:46:44.660 --> 00:46:45.910
[MUSIC - PINK FLOYD, "ANOTHER
BRICK IN THE WALL"]

00:46:45.910 --> 00:46:49.124


00:46:49.124 --> 00:46:53.420
It's been a rock anthem since
the 1970s, but this week it

00:46:53.420 --> 00:46:56.560
became a rallying call for
protest against the Israel

00:46:56.560 --> 00:46:58.710
government's treatment
of the Palestinians.

00:46:58.710 --> 00:47:05.150


00:47:05.150 --> 00:47:09.410
It fills me with horror, the
thought of being constrained

00:47:09.410 --> 00:47:10.370
by something like this.

00:47:10.370 --> 00:47:11.580
It's horrific.

00:47:11.580 --> 00:47:14.200
It's like living in
a giant prison.

00:47:14.200 --> 00:47:17.920
Why do British rock stars, film
stars, journalists, and

00:47:17.920 --> 00:47:21.610
other influential voices bring
images of Palestinians to the

00:47:21.610 --> 00:47:24.760
world while their American
counterparts remain silent.

00:47:24.760 --> 00:47:30.070


00:47:30.070 --> 00:47:32.750
What is called the Israel
Lobby has long battled

00:47:32.750 --> 00:47:35.630
accusations of pressuring and
even punishing those who would

00:47:35.630 --> 00:47:38.990
publicize such images.

00:47:38.990 --> 00:47:41.950
Can a political lobby have that
much power over America's

00:47:41.950 --> 00:47:43.630
cultural dialogue?

00:47:43.630 --> 00:47:46.270
Among the many organizations
that make up the Jewish Lobby

00:47:46.270 --> 00:47:48.570
is one that is registered
as an official lobby.

00:47:48.570 --> 00:47:51.660
It's in Washington called the
American Israel Public Affairs

00:47:51.660 --> 00:47:53.150
Committee, AIPAC.

00:47:53.150 --> 00:47:55.670
It employs several professional
lobbyists to push

00:47:55.670 --> 00:47:57.950
the Israeli cause
on Capitol Hill.

00:47:57.950 --> 00:48:01.490
This report is one of the few
American television broadcasts

00:48:01.490 --> 00:48:05.780
ever to investigate the highly
influential Israel lobby.

00:48:05.780 --> 00:48:08.740
It aired over 30 years ago.

00:48:08.740 --> 00:48:11.920
A surprisingly rare news event,
it gave Americans more

00:48:11.920 --> 00:48:14.510
information about the lobby
than anything found in the

00:48:14.510 --> 00:48:16.880
mainstream media since
that time.

00:48:16.880 --> 00:48:20.050
Perhaps it is more than a good,
if loose, organization.

00:48:20.050 --> 00:48:22.290
Some claim it is an instinctive,
collective

00:48:22.290 --> 00:48:25.210
reaction when danger
is perceived.

00:48:25.210 --> 00:48:28.390
Over the 29 years of Israel's
existence, American Jews have

00:48:28.390 --> 00:48:31.160
helped persuade the US
government to provide over $12

00:48:31.160 --> 00:48:34.210
billion in economic
and military aid.

00:48:34.210 --> 00:48:37.370
Israel's struggle
is our struggle.

00:48:37.370 --> 00:48:41.840
The United States will stand
with Israel now and forever.

00:48:41.840 --> 00:48:46.250
Israel is not alone in this
fight, nor will she ever be.

00:48:46.250 --> 00:48:50.730


00:48:50.730 --> 00:48:55.240
It is very difficult for
mainstream journalists to talk

00:48:55.240 --> 00:48:58.240
about Israel in a
critical way.

00:48:58.240 --> 00:49:01.040
And I've talked to a number
of journalists who fully

00:49:01.040 --> 00:49:03.780
understand this, and
who in private will

00:49:03.780 --> 00:49:05.640
say just what I said.

00:49:05.640 --> 00:49:07.130
You know, I was once
at a newspaper.

00:49:07.130 --> 00:49:09.500
Not the newspaper that
I work for now.

00:49:09.500 --> 00:49:13.730
And I was in the West Bank
working on a story.

00:49:13.730 --> 00:49:16.490
And the story was to illustrate
what travel had

00:49:16.490 --> 00:49:17.300
become at that point.

00:49:17.300 --> 00:49:20.080
Because checkpoint after
checkpoint, I think a 15 mile

00:49:20.080 --> 00:49:23.260
drive had become a five hour,
six hour odyssey.

00:49:23.260 --> 00:49:24.690
And I remember, I pitched
it to an editor.

00:49:24.690 --> 00:49:25.890
And the editor said, you know,
I really don't want

00:49:25.890 --> 00:49:26.730
to deal with this.

00:49:26.730 --> 00:49:29.370
We're going to get
a ton of letters.

00:49:29.370 --> 00:49:32.360
There's some a gutlessness, that
we don't want to push the

00:49:32.360 --> 00:49:34.560
boundaries of what
can be written or

00:49:34.560 --> 00:49:35.180
what can't be written.

00:49:35.180 --> 00:49:37.170
And to me, that's the problem.

00:49:37.170 --> 00:49:41.760
What's going on here is
definitely not a conspiracy.

00:49:41.760 --> 00:49:43.800
This is not a Kaba.

00:49:43.800 --> 00:49:46.940
What's going on here is
good old-fashioned,

00:49:46.940 --> 00:49:48.650
interest-group politics.

00:49:48.650 --> 00:49:52.200
I have to say here, because I
think the Arabs can be made

00:49:52.200 --> 00:49:56.030
victims to the point where
they are uncriticizable.

00:49:56.030 --> 00:49:58.670
Arab lobbyists have been so
split up by the different Arab

00:49:58.670 --> 00:50:01.890
nations which fund them, but
they've never been able to

00:50:01.890 --> 00:50:05.692
have a credible presence
upon the hill.

00:50:05.692 --> 00:50:08.450
There's pressure only one way.

00:50:08.450 --> 00:50:10.470
And that happens to come
from the Israeli side.

00:50:10.470 --> 00:50:11.570
And there's no counter
pressure.

00:50:11.570 --> 00:50:13.630
There is none from
the Arab's side.

00:50:13.630 --> 00:50:15.310
I think that makes it
much easier for

00:50:15.310 --> 00:50:16.930
politicians to go that way.

00:50:16.930 --> 00:50:19.750
It's the senator who explained
to me, it's much easier for me

00:50:19.750 --> 00:50:23.960
personally, as he said, to go
along with the Israeli side of

00:50:23.960 --> 00:50:25.100
the question, because
I don't have to

00:50:25.100 --> 00:50:26.500
explain myself to anybody.

00:50:26.500 --> 00:50:33.012
Anytime anyone, whether the
person is Jewish or not,

00:50:33.012 --> 00:50:38.540
criticizes Israel, or criticizes
Israeli policy, or

00:50:38.540 --> 00:50:42.540
criticizes the US Israeli
relationship, he or she is

00:50:42.540 --> 00:50:46.820
almost certain to be labeled
an anti-Semite or a

00:50:46.820 --> 00:50:51.370
self-hating Jew by
the Israel lobby.

00:50:51.370 --> 00:50:53.465
And of course, that's exactly
what happened to us.

00:50:53.465 --> 00:51:00.460


00:51:00.460 --> 00:51:04.770
We clearly understood from the
beginning that once the

00:51:04.770 --> 00:51:07.810
article appeared, that there
would be a firestorm.

00:51:07.810 --> 00:51:12.250
And we would be called
anti-Semites and liars and

00:51:12.250 --> 00:51:14.280
bigots and so forth and so on.

00:51:14.280 --> 00:51:17.605
So we fully anticipated the
firestorm that ensued.

00:51:17.605 --> 00:51:48.062


00:51:48.062 --> 00:51:49.970
Why isn't there a more
fundamental debate about the

00:51:49.970 --> 00:51:54.050
Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
about the conflict itself?

00:51:54.050 --> 00:51:54.500
I don't know.

00:51:54.500 --> 00:51:56.560
I ask myself the same
question, and I

00:51:56.560 --> 00:51:57.810
don't have the answer.

00:51:57.810 --> 00:51:59.740


00:51:59.740 --> 00:52:03.950
In the piece, we referred to the
charge of anti-Semitism as

00:52:03.950 --> 00:52:05.200
the great silencer.

00:52:05.200 --> 00:52:10.619


00:52:10.619 --> 00:52:16.880
Well, the idea that darkness
of skin is was supposed to

00:52:16.880 --> 00:52:25.410
represent darkness of soul and
character has been a kind of

00:52:25.410 --> 00:52:28.570
Anglo-Saxon hangup
for a long time.

00:52:28.570 --> 00:52:37.450
It begins on a dark night where
a dark man waits with a

00:52:37.450 --> 00:52:39.830
dark purpose.

00:52:39.830 --> 00:52:41.160
You have it then?

00:52:41.160 --> 00:52:44.349
I had to slit a few throats,
but I got it.

00:52:44.349 --> 00:53:12.310
[MUSIC - "ARABIAN NIGHTS"]

00:53:12.310 --> 00:53:15.620
We were shocked, because
this is a kids' film.

00:53:15.620 --> 00:53:17.830
We didn't think that it would
have anything that would

00:53:17.830 --> 00:53:22.150
vilify a people, or a
racist tone to it.

00:53:22.150 --> 00:53:24.480
And quite honestly,
didn't believe it.

00:53:24.480 --> 00:53:25.830
And sure enough, unfortunately,

00:53:25.830 --> 00:53:27.160
the lyrics were there.

00:53:27.160 --> 00:53:31.880
Where they had referred to
the Arabs as barbaric.

00:53:31.880 --> 00:53:34.590
And when you start drumming that
into the kids, the kids

00:53:34.590 --> 00:53:37.190
are going to grow up thinking
Arabs are barbaric.

00:53:37.190 --> 00:53:41.020
So we went and challenged
it with Disney.

00:53:41.020 --> 00:53:42.670
And, of course, they told
us that there was

00:53:42.670 --> 00:53:43.490
nothing they could do.

00:53:43.490 --> 00:53:45.600
It was set, and so
on and so forth.

00:53:45.600 --> 00:53:49.430
But what disturbed me most about
that meeting is that

00:53:49.430 --> 00:53:53.540
they had alternative
lyrics already.

00:53:53.540 --> 00:53:56.190
They were telling us because of
the artistic integrity of

00:53:56.190 --> 00:53:59.100
the poor fellow who had since
passed away, they didn't want

00:53:59.100 --> 00:54:00.490
to change the lyrics.

00:54:00.490 --> 00:54:02.850
But when push came to shove and
they decided that it was

00:54:02.850 --> 00:54:06.560
the right thing to do, there
were already lyrics there.

00:54:06.560 --> 00:54:09.910
And the lyrics were there in
case somebody were to argue or

00:54:09.910 --> 00:54:11.240
complain about it.

00:54:11.240 --> 00:54:25.730
[MUSIC - "ARABIAN NIGHTS"]

00:54:25.730 --> 00:54:28.760
Today, images of Arabs resemble
those of yet another

00:54:28.760 --> 00:54:30.010
ethnic group all together.

00:54:30.010 --> 00:54:34.230


00:54:34.230 --> 00:54:36.910
Lurie's cartoons, for example,
in Time magazine, have

00:54:36.910 --> 00:54:39.180
depicted Arabs in much the
same way as the German

00:54:39.180 --> 00:54:41.520
propaganda newspaper, Volkischer
Beobachter,

00:54:41.520 --> 00:54:49.800
depicted Jews in
1930s Germany.

00:54:49.800 --> 00:54:53.960
What were the politics behind
these images showing Jews

00:54:53.960 --> 00:54:55.210
controlling the world?

00:54:55.210 --> 00:54:59.710


00:54:59.710 --> 00:55:06.840
You saw a fair number of kind
of urban Jewish vultures in

00:55:06.840 --> 00:55:11.640
suits, praying and
things like that.

00:55:11.640 --> 00:55:14.680
Attentions were invariably
directed right after to the

00:55:14.680 --> 00:55:18.530
gathering up of guilt or
they getting of girls.

00:55:18.530 --> 00:55:19.780
You know?

00:55:19.780 --> 00:55:23.510
It was sex and money was their
primary areas of predation.

00:55:23.510 --> 00:55:35.198


00:55:35.198 --> 00:55:38.990
People often select these
negative images because it

00:55:38.990 --> 00:55:40.080
makes sense to them.

00:55:40.080 --> 00:55:43.340
They have this whole history of
racism and stereotyping in

00:55:43.340 --> 00:55:46.170
the media that is as real
to them as it is

00:55:46.170 --> 00:55:47.680
real to their audience.

00:55:47.680 --> 00:55:50.490
And they also get a lot of
positive reception for those

00:55:50.490 --> 00:55:53.730
representations in an audience
that believes they're true and

00:55:53.730 --> 00:55:57.180
believes they're the whole truth
when they're so limited.

00:55:57.180 --> 00:56:01.630
I don't accept the premise that
there's a kernel of truth

00:56:01.630 --> 00:56:04.170
in every stereotype.

00:56:04.170 --> 00:56:09.880
There is a kernel of truth in
humanity, that some people do

00:56:09.880 --> 00:56:11.270
evil things.

00:56:11.270 --> 00:56:16.630
What happens with stereotyping
is then we extract the evil

00:56:16.630 --> 00:56:20.660
that some do and apply
it to an entire

00:56:20.660 --> 00:56:23.330
race or ethnic group.

00:56:23.330 --> 00:56:29.050
Then we have a self-fulfilling
prophecy that see that group

00:56:29.050 --> 00:56:32.730
does, in fact, function in this
particular way, so that

00:56:32.730 --> 00:56:35.490
our stereotypes are
somehow justified.

00:56:35.490 --> 00:56:38.560
Listen to the sound
of [INAUDIBLE].

00:56:38.560 --> 00:56:45.280


00:56:45.280 --> 00:56:51.297
In the beginning of the 21st
century, government, the

00:56:51.297 --> 00:56:57.590
media, the public, and vast
numbers of people operate on

00:56:57.590 --> 00:57:03.610
that same process of
stereotyping and then

00:57:03.610 --> 00:57:06.185
demonizing the very group that
they have stereotyped.

00:57:06.185 --> 00:57:20.530


00:57:20.530 --> 00:57:24.240
Then they've got a flash
card icon bad guys.

00:57:24.240 --> 00:57:27.250
He's usually swarthy
and he's dark.

00:57:27.250 --> 00:57:30.670
And he frequently wears
a towel on his head.

00:57:30.670 --> 00:57:35.972
And if you see him, your fear
level should go up.

00:57:35.972 --> 00:57:40.040
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

00:57:40.040 --> 00:57:47.490
Somehow along the way there, we
had produced the image of

00:57:47.490 --> 00:57:50.050
the beast human in Arab form.

00:57:50.050 --> 00:57:53.660
Yesterday, as you know, pilots
of the Air and Naval forces of

00:57:53.660 --> 00:57:58.010
the United States spoke to the
outlaw Libyan regime in the

00:57:58.010 --> 00:58:02.330
only language that Colonel
Gaddafi seems to understand.

00:58:02.330 --> 00:58:03.110
Libyan?

00:58:03.110 --> 00:58:05.315
Hey, that's Gaddafi's
sand pile.

00:58:05.315 --> 00:58:07.520
He doesn't like us,
[INAUDIBLE].

00:58:07.520 --> 00:58:08.770
We don't like him either.

00:58:08.770 --> 00:58:16.160


00:58:16.160 --> 00:58:20.390
I want these pigs blown
out of the sky.

00:58:20.390 --> 00:58:23.540


00:58:23.540 --> 00:58:24.500
Oh my God.

00:58:24.500 --> 00:58:25.653
They found me.

00:58:25.653 --> 00:58:27.260
I don't know how, buy
they found me.

00:58:27.260 --> 00:58:28.060
Who?

00:58:28.060 --> 00:58:28.360
Who?

00:58:28.360 --> 00:58:29.606
Who do you think?

00:58:29.606 --> 00:58:31.599
They Libyans!

00:58:31.599 --> 00:58:36.589
[GUNSHOT]

00:58:36.589 --> 00:58:38.585
[GUNSHOTS]

00:58:38.585 --> 00:58:41.090
No!

00:58:41.090 --> 00:58:43.760
What are the politics behind
images created

00:58:43.760 --> 00:58:45.010
by Hollywood movies?

00:58:45.010 --> 00:58:50.400


00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:52.740
Allah has blessed us.

00:58:52.740 --> 00:58:54.790
A great destiny awaits
us both.

00:58:54.790 --> 00:58:58.790
Crimson jihad will rain
fire on one major

00:58:58.790 --> 00:59:01.000
US city each week.

00:59:01.000 --> 00:59:03.980
I will strike deep into the
heart of the infidel.

00:59:03.980 --> 00:59:09.640
[CHANTING]

00:59:09.640 --> 00:59:15.520
[GUNSHOTS AND FIGHTING]

00:59:15.520 --> 00:59:16.010
Get down!

00:59:16.010 --> 00:59:16.500
Get down!

00:59:16.500 --> 00:59:18.460
[GUNSHOTS]

00:59:18.460 --> 00:59:23.360
[PHONE RINGING]

00:59:23.360 --> 00:59:24.990
This is Lieutenant Ferraro.

00:59:24.990 --> 00:59:25.450
Listen.

00:59:25.450 --> 00:59:26.182
No.

00:59:26.182 --> 00:59:27.516
You listen to me.

00:59:27.516 --> 00:59:33.870
I played a well dressed,
dapper terrorist.

00:59:33.870 --> 00:59:37.950
[GUNSHOTS AND SCREAMING]

00:59:37.950 --> 00:59:42.410
It was a lot of running around,
shooting off Uzis and

00:59:42.410 --> 00:59:43.914
screaming at people.

00:59:43.914 --> 00:59:44.898
Get down!

00:59:44.898 --> 00:59:51.294
[GUNSHOTS]

00:59:51.294 --> 00:59:55.060
Secure the room.

00:59:55.060 --> 00:59:55.900
I don't know.

00:59:55.900 --> 01:00:00.810
I just didn't have the presence
of mind at time to--

01:00:00.810 --> 01:00:03.820
I was just so eager to do
something on television,

01:00:03.820 --> 01:00:06.710
because I had mostly done
theater at that time.

01:00:06.710 --> 01:00:07.952
Silence!

01:00:07.952 --> 01:00:10.140
I should kill you now.

01:00:10.140 --> 01:00:12.940
Having done it once
was plenty.

01:00:12.940 --> 01:00:15.326
More than enough.

01:00:15.326 --> 01:00:17.550
And my agent's like, just go
in and read for the part.

01:00:17.550 --> 01:00:18.410
So I go in.

01:00:18.410 --> 01:00:19.480
There was a casting director.

01:00:19.480 --> 01:00:21.360
And the director's sitting
in front of me.

01:00:21.360 --> 01:00:22.830
My lines were like, sit down!

01:00:22.830 --> 01:00:26.022
You will obey, or I'll kill
you in the name of Allah!

01:00:26.022 --> 01:00:28.330
The director was sitting
there like, OK.

01:00:28.330 --> 01:00:29.530
I want to see you do it again.

01:00:29.530 --> 01:00:31.025
But this time, give me
a little bit more

01:00:31.025 --> 01:00:34.890
of that Middle Eastern--

01:00:34.890 --> 01:00:36.240
I was like, uh, angry?

01:00:36.240 --> 01:00:37.060
Yes, yes.

01:00:37.060 --> 01:00:37.450
Exactly.

01:00:37.450 --> 01:00:38.020
Anger.

01:00:38.020 --> 01:00:42.310
Use that hidden Middle Eastern
anger your people possess.

01:00:42.310 --> 01:00:44.405
So I used it, and
I got the part.

01:00:44.405 --> 01:00:45.700
Because my agent called
me the next day.

01:00:45.700 --> 01:00:47.040
She said, they want to put
you in this movie.

01:00:47.040 --> 01:00:47.560
I said, look.

01:00:47.560 --> 01:00:48.950
Tell them I said thanks,
but no thanks.

01:00:48.950 --> 01:00:49.480
All right?

01:00:49.480 --> 01:00:50.650
Every time I take a part
like this it's

01:00:50.650 --> 01:00:52.190
like beating the beast.

01:00:52.190 --> 01:00:53.785
It's just perpetuating
the stereotype.

01:00:53.785 --> 01:00:54.930
It's like putting
fuel in flame.

01:00:54.930 --> 01:00:55.950
No way.

01:00:55.950 --> 01:00:58.890
She said, well, they want to
pay you $30,000 for three

01:00:58.890 --> 01:01:00.476
weeks of work.

01:01:00.476 --> 01:01:01.726
So I said--

01:01:01.726 --> 01:01:05.731


01:01:05.731 --> 01:01:10.630
[GUNSHOTS]

01:01:10.630 --> 01:01:12.080
There are news media accounts.

01:01:12.080 --> 01:01:13.490
There's television.

01:01:13.490 --> 01:01:16.110
There are the cover
of Newsweek, the

01:01:16.110 --> 01:01:17.360
spread in Life magazine.

01:01:17.360 --> 01:01:22.780


01:01:22.780 --> 01:01:23.810
There are novels.

01:01:23.810 --> 01:01:25.050
There are bestselling books.

01:01:25.050 --> 01:01:27.100
There are not bestselling
books.

01:01:27.100 --> 01:01:30.910
It's an enormously rich array of
places to go for people to

01:01:30.910 --> 01:01:33.950
get their understanding
of who Arabs are, or

01:01:33.950 --> 01:01:35.550
for anything else.

01:01:35.550 --> 01:01:37.390
Hollywood is part of that.

01:01:37.390 --> 01:01:40.380
And certainly a very
problematic part.

01:01:40.380 --> 01:01:42.970
The way that Arabs are
represented in Hollywood is

01:01:42.970 --> 01:01:45.230
dangerous in many ways.

01:01:45.230 --> 01:01:47.270
Those are made not just
because the people in

01:01:47.270 --> 01:01:51.430
Hollywood have particularly
racist views, but because they

01:01:51.430 --> 01:01:54.610
believe that the larger American
community will

01:01:54.610 --> 01:01:57.360
receive those images
positively.

01:01:57.360 --> 01:01:58.292
[GUNSHOT]

01:01:58.292 --> 01:01:59.224
[SCREAMS]

01:01:59.224 --> 01:01:59.690
Hey!

01:01:59.690 --> 01:02:00.622
Freeze!

01:02:00.622 --> 01:02:02.960
[GUNSHOTS]

01:02:02.960 --> 01:02:06.030
Powerful filmmakers in Hollywood
tell stories that

01:02:06.030 --> 01:02:09.130
they want to tell, that they
are interested in.

01:02:09.130 --> 01:02:13.500
They often don't tell stories
about Arabs, or Arab Americans

01:02:13.500 --> 01:02:16.030
that are complicated
and interesting.

01:02:16.030 --> 01:02:17.510
Maybe they don't know
about that.

01:02:17.510 --> 01:02:19.000
Maybe it's not their politics.

01:02:19.000 --> 01:02:23.645
But they don't choose
to do it.

01:02:23.645 --> 01:02:24.615
Hmm.

01:02:24.615 --> 01:02:25.865
Hey.

01:02:25.865 --> 01:02:28.980


01:02:28.980 --> 01:02:29.960
That's him.

01:02:29.960 --> 01:02:32.610
You can have a good Muslim
who's helping get the

01:02:32.610 --> 01:02:33.390
terrorists.

01:02:33.390 --> 01:02:35.000
And this is their way
of saying, see?

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:36.320
We're not racists.

01:02:36.320 --> 01:02:39.840
But then most of the Muslims in
the movie are terrorists?

01:02:39.840 --> 01:02:42.750
So the overall impact
is that the good

01:02:42.750 --> 01:02:44.952
Muslim is the exception.

01:02:44.952 --> 01:02:49.870
Do not speak to me of
the Koran, woman.

01:02:49.870 --> 01:02:52.610
Or, you can have a
representation that presents a

01:02:52.610 --> 01:02:55.050
more complicated world view.

01:02:55.050 --> 01:02:57.860
Three Kings, for example, does
something really interesting

01:02:57.860 --> 01:03:01.440
in that it has characters in the
Middle East who are shown

01:03:01.440 --> 01:03:04.780
as having real reason to be
angry at United States.

01:03:04.780 --> 01:03:08.250
They're shown as having rich
and complicated lives.

01:03:08.250 --> 01:03:11.670
It's not just about good
representations or good

01:03:11.670 --> 01:03:12.360
characters.

01:03:12.360 --> 01:03:15.870
It's about the overall
relationship that shows how

01:03:15.870 --> 01:03:18.810
Americans are relating to people
in the Middle East.

01:03:18.810 --> 01:03:22.590
And this kind of complicated
understanding is just the kind

01:03:22.590 --> 01:03:24.050
of thing we need.

01:03:24.050 --> 01:03:27.300
What good is it if you leave
us here to be slaughtered?

01:03:27.300 --> 01:03:28.160
Huh?

01:03:28.160 --> 01:03:31.170
The big army of democracy beats
the ugly dictator and

01:03:31.170 --> 01:03:32.215
saves the rich Kuwaitis.

01:03:32.215 --> 01:03:36.303
But you go to jail if you help
us escape the same dictator?

01:03:36.303 --> 01:03:40.045


01:03:40.045 --> 01:03:43.272
You saw what happened
to my wife.

01:03:43.272 --> 01:03:44.522
Look at my daughter.

01:03:44.522 --> 01:03:49.310


01:03:49.310 --> 01:03:50.560
Who's going?

01:03:50.560 --> 01:04:01.960


01:04:01.960 --> 01:04:05.000
This past winter, a group of
Palestinian protesters started

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.560
going to the Israeli security
wall or separation wall and

01:04:09.560 --> 01:04:13.310
dressing up as the Na'vi, the
people who are from Pandora

01:04:13.310 --> 01:04:16.490
who are the natives in James
Cameron's Avatar.

01:04:16.490 --> 01:04:19.480
And they present themselves to
the cameras saying, we are

01:04:19.480 --> 01:04:20.110
like the Na'vi.

01:04:20.110 --> 01:04:22.840
The Na'vi are a native
people whose way of

01:04:22.840 --> 01:04:24.750
life is being destroyed.

01:04:24.750 --> 01:04:27.820
This is a major corporation from
earth who's taking away

01:04:27.820 --> 01:04:28.730
their land.

01:04:28.730 --> 01:04:31.800
And it's really quite a
brilliant reversal.

01:04:31.800 --> 01:04:35.680
Hollywood has not often told
Palestinian stories.

01:04:35.680 --> 01:04:37.940
But here, they're using
Hollywood as a way of telling

01:04:37.940 --> 01:04:39.470
their own story.

01:04:39.470 --> 01:04:43.440
So Hollywood has often presented
Palestinians in

01:04:43.440 --> 01:04:45.620
stereotyped or stylist ways.

01:04:45.620 --> 01:04:47.660
And now, they're using
Hollywood as a

01:04:47.660 --> 01:04:49.565
way of being heard.

01:04:49.565 --> 01:04:53.070
We do not expect an Israeli
court will give us more than

01:04:53.070 --> 01:04:54.520
what we have got.

01:04:54.520 --> 01:04:57.160
This is a small achievement
and not enough.

01:04:57.160 --> 01:05:01.290
Today's idea is to embody the
film of Avatar, which is an

01:05:01.290 --> 01:05:03.970
imaginary film, but
won the sympathy

01:05:03.970 --> 01:05:05.520
of millions of people.

01:05:05.520 --> 01:05:09.400
While what is happening in
Berlin and in Palestine is

01:05:09.400 --> 01:05:11.800
real, as you can see.

01:05:11.800 --> 01:05:15.400
Many observers, myself included,
would argue that

01:05:15.400 --> 01:05:17.490
Americans have a strong
emotional

01:05:17.490 --> 01:05:19.300
attachment to Israel.

01:05:19.300 --> 01:05:23.500
And that in fact, the US
relationship to Israel is what

01:05:23.500 --> 01:05:27.120
it is because American
evangelical Christians

01:05:27.120 --> 01:05:28.500
wish it to be so.

01:05:28.500 --> 01:05:33.850
The problem is radical Islams
plot bloodthirsty embrace of a

01:05:33.850 --> 01:05:36.215
theocratic dictatorship
that beheaves.

01:05:36.215 --> 01:05:40.060
The have a mandate from God to
kill Christians and Jews.

01:05:40.060 --> 01:05:43.438
The problem is the failure of
the moderates in the Arab and

01:05:43.438 --> 01:05:47.850
Muslim world to stand up and
reign in these Islamic

01:05:47.850 --> 01:05:48.349
extremists.

01:05:48.349 --> 01:06:08.220
[APPLAUSE]

01:06:08.220 --> 01:06:12.680
During the 1990s, the United
States put very severe

01:06:12.680 --> 01:06:16.370
economic sanctions on Iraq, and
the end result is that by

01:06:16.370 --> 01:06:21.110
most accounts, a few hundred
thousands of Iraqis died.

01:06:21.110 --> 01:06:27.180
Mainly women, children, and
elderly dying of starvation,

01:06:27.180 --> 01:06:30.790
dying of disease that resulted
from the sanctions.

01:06:30.790 --> 01:06:35.050
Outstanding, strong for
American values, they

01:06:35.050 --> 01:06:37.760
liberated a nation abroad.

01:06:37.760 --> 01:06:41.670
The United States knew that
these people were dying, but

01:06:41.670 --> 01:06:46.300
nevertheless kept the
sanctions on.

01:06:46.300 --> 01:06:51.670
They conclude that since August
1990, 567,000 children

01:06:51.670 --> 01:06:55.140
in Iraq have died as a
consequence of the sanctions.

01:06:55.140 --> 01:06:56.470
We'll have more news
in just a moment.

01:06:56.470 --> 01:07:00.220
Sanctions were designed to
inflict massive amounts of

01:07:00.220 --> 01:07:02.770
pain on the civilian
population.

01:07:02.770 --> 01:07:06.460
In contrast to the 444 days that
Americans stayed riveted

01:07:06.460 --> 01:07:10.580
to the fate of 80 US hostages
in Iran, the death of over

01:07:10.580 --> 01:07:14.340
500,000 Iraqi children made
only sporadic news.

01:07:14.340 --> 01:07:17.060


01:07:17.060 --> 01:07:21.290
These uncomfortable images of
the Arab as victim are rarely

01:07:21.290 --> 01:07:23.220
remembered today.

01:07:23.220 --> 01:07:26.070
Under President Clinton,
these sanctions would

01:07:26.070 --> 01:07:27.320
continue full force.

01:07:27.320 --> 01:07:30.310


01:07:30.310 --> 01:07:36.620
The policymakers felt that
these sanctions made good

01:07:36.620 --> 01:07:42.840
strategic sense, and the moral
costs were not so great that

01:07:42.840 --> 01:07:45.770
the United States should
take off the sanctions.

01:07:45.770 --> 01:07:49.150
We have heard that a half a
million children have died.

01:07:49.150 --> 01:07:54.490
I mean, that's more children
than died in Hiroshima.

01:07:54.490 --> 01:07:58.540
And is the price worth it?

01:07:58.540 --> 01:08:01.630
I think this is a very
hard choice.

01:08:01.630 --> 01:08:03.432
We think the price
is worth it.

01:08:03.432 --> 01:08:06.550
Madeleine Allbright's quote had
a lot of currency in Iraq.

01:08:06.550 --> 01:08:08.490
People heard about
it in Baghdad.

01:08:08.490 --> 01:08:10.640
And I remember it was a
conversation along those lines

01:08:10.640 --> 01:08:12.370
I was having with a friend
of mine in Baghdad.

01:08:12.370 --> 01:08:14.840
Her point was that the Americans
always thought that

01:08:14.840 --> 01:08:17.800
it was Saddam versus
the Iraqi people.

01:08:17.800 --> 01:08:20.670
And her point was that it
was never that notion.

01:08:20.670 --> 01:08:23.700
Even in the 1990s under
sanctions when there was such

01:08:23.700 --> 01:08:25.240
a catastrophic impact
on Iraqi life.

01:08:25.240 --> 01:08:27.630
I mean, the middle class
was wiped out in

01:08:27.630 --> 01:08:29.850
Iraq over that decade.

01:08:29.850 --> 01:08:32.899
Her point was that Iraqis always
saw themselves as being

01:08:32.899 --> 01:08:35.359
victimized both by Saddam
and by the Americans.

01:08:35.359 --> 01:08:36.890
There were actually two
enemies they faced.

01:08:36.890 --> 01:08:40.370
Even though Saddam Hussein was
still standing at the end, he

01:08:40.370 --> 01:08:44.279
had been defeated unquestionably
and forced back

01:08:44.279 --> 01:08:45.859
out of Kuwait.

01:08:45.859 --> 01:08:50.080
And that was the beginning of
the events that in some sense

01:08:50.080 --> 01:08:51.330
lead to 9/11.

01:08:51.330 --> 01:09:15.100


01:09:15.100 --> 01:09:17.479
One of the consequences of the
first Gulf War had been to

01:09:17.479 --> 01:09:19.250
establish a permanent
US military

01:09:19.250 --> 01:09:21.410
presence in Saudi Arabia.

01:09:21.410 --> 01:09:25.460
That was one of the principal
grievances articulated by

01:09:25.460 --> 01:09:28.830
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

01:09:28.830 --> 01:09:31.420
And it was clearly from the
vantage point of the Saudis

01:09:31.420 --> 01:09:33.490
themselves, not sustainable.

01:09:33.490 --> 01:09:36.069
The anger at the United States
for its policies in the Middle

01:09:36.069 --> 01:09:38.490
East, for the utter failure
to resolve the

01:09:38.490 --> 01:09:42.029
Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
led to an increasing sense of

01:09:42.029 --> 01:09:44.810
hostility toward the
United States.

01:09:44.810 --> 01:09:48.420
The last time I saw him was in
one of his al-Qaeda camps in

01:09:48.420 --> 01:09:49.850
the mountains of Afghanistan.

01:09:49.850 --> 01:09:51.805
Built originally by the CIA,
of course, when he was

01:09:51.805 --> 01:09:52.990
fighting the Russians.

01:09:52.990 --> 01:09:54.520
Like Saddam, he was
on our side.

01:09:54.520 --> 01:09:55.880
Like [INAUDIBLE] he was
originally on our side.

01:09:55.880 --> 01:09:57.820
Like Gaddafi was originally
on our side.

01:09:57.820 --> 01:10:00.800
Most of our beast figures
originally were on our side.

01:10:00.800 --> 01:10:02.460
But we're supposed to forget
that later because the

01:10:02.460 --> 01:10:04.070
narrative changes.

01:10:04.070 --> 01:10:06.660
He entered a tent I was waiting
for him in, which was

01:10:06.660 --> 01:10:09.050
lit by a paraffin
lamp, I think.

01:10:09.050 --> 01:10:10.610
And a lot of al-Qaeda
people sitting

01:10:10.610 --> 01:10:11.710
around with their weapons.

01:10:11.710 --> 01:10:12.590
But very polite.

01:10:12.590 --> 01:10:15.070
I mean, there was no
coercion at all.

01:10:15.070 --> 01:10:18.070
And bin Laden entered the tent
and put his [INAUDIBLE]

01:10:18.070 --> 01:10:19.780
down beside him in
his white robes.

01:10:19.780 --> 01:10:22.140
You know, welcome Mr. Robert
to this place.

01:10:22.140 --> 01:10:23.070
It's good to see you again.

01:10:23.070 --> 01:10:24.000
Blah, blah, blah.

01:10:24.000 --> 01:10:27.525
His last words were to me, "I
pray to God, Mr. Robert, that

01:10:27.525 --> 01:10:58.750
he permits us to turn America
into a shadow of itself."

01:10:58.750 --> 01:11:03.340
This mass terrorism is the
new evil in our world.

01:11:03.340 --> 01:11:08.240
And we, the democracies of the
world, must come together to

01:11:08.240 --> 01:11:10.760
defeat it and eradicate it.

01:11:10.760 --> 01:11:13.950
It's worth repeating that most
of the world's Muslims are

01:11:13.950 --> 01:11:17.580
decent, peace loving people,
who mean no one any harm.

01:11:17.580 --> 01:11:20.440
But radical Islam wants
to kill us.

01:11:20.440 --> 01:11:22.560
There is no explaining
it away.

01:11:22.560 --> 01:11:25.380
Even the President of the
United States has been

01:11:25.380 --> 01:11:29.400
intimidated from using the term
Islamo-fascism, which is

01:11:29.400 --> 01:11:30.890
what this enemy is.

01:11:30.890 --> 01:11:33.780
It's not Islamo-fascism that
we're up against here.

01:11:33.780 --> 01:11:38.430
That's a completely misleading
term that's been coined to

01:11:38.430 --> 01:11:40.573
draw, I think, a false analogy
with World War Two.

01:11:40.573 --> 01:11:43.800


01:11:43.800 --> 01:11:47.860
Because we concentrate on the
beast figure, we don't listen

01:11:47.860 --> 01:11:50.230
to what he actually says, most
of which is for Arabs.

01:11:50.230 --> 01:11:52.700
But the Arabs who don't believe
in flying airplanes

01:11:52.700 --> 01:11:54.210
into buildings, not
most of them.

01:11:54.210 --> 01:11:56.080
They do listen to
what he says.

01:11:56.080 --> 01:11:59.180
And when he talks about
humiliation, the blanket of

01:11:59.180 --> 01:12:02.652
injustice, the blanket of
Western control over the

01:12:02.652 --> 01:12:03.260
Middle East.

01:12:03.260 --> 01:12:06.380
That there are American forces
in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,

01:12:06.380 --> 01:12:11.070
Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt,
Turkey, Israel, Algeria,

01:12:11.070 --> 01:12:14.540
Yemen, Oman, Qatar,
Bahrain, Kuwait.

01:12:14.540 --> 01:12:16.950
For Arabs, this is something
that they believe is correct.

01:12:16.950 --> 01:12:18.490
This is something
that is real.

01:12:18.490 --> 01:12:20.170
And it is something that
frightens them

01:12:20.170 --> 01:12:20.990
and humiliates them.

01:12:20.990 --> 01:12:24.120
What images does the Muslim
world use to depict the

01:12:24.120 --> 01:12:26.470
America that humiliates
and frightens them?

01:12:26.470 --> 01:12:29.210


01:12:29.210 --> 01:12:32.010
How do we feel about the
Iranian's portrait of us?

01:12:32.010 --> 01:13:04.206
[SPEAKING IRANIAN]

01:13:04.206 --> 01:13:21.110
[BOMB EXPLODING]

01:13:21.110 --> 01:13:25.050
The image of the Arab as a
victim of the American empire

01:13:25.050 --> 01:13:28.520
does not sit well with the US
self image as a country that

01:13:28.520 --> 01:13:31.580
was born by throwing off the
tyranny of another superpower.

01:13:31.580 --> 01:13:34.370


01:13:34.370 --> 01:13:37.730
The great difficulty that
Americans have with empire as

01:13:37.730 --> 01:13:41.950
a concept is that their own
nation is founded in

01:13:41.950 --> 01:13:43.580
anti-empirical struggle.

01:13:43.580 --> 01:13:47.020
And Americans continue to
identify themselves very

01:13:47.020 --> 01:13:49.310
closely with the founding
fathers.

01:13:49.310 --> 01:13:51.760
And yet today, they're the ones
who are patrolling the

01:13:51.760 --> 01:13:54.780
streets as an occupying power.

01:13:54.780 --> 01:13:57.630
And they're the ones who can
be identified as the

01:13:57.630 --> 01:13:59.857
oppressors.

01:13:59.857 --> 01:14:05.610
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

01:14:05.610 --> 01:14:07.790
The Arab world is the most
resistant, has been the most

01:14:07.790 --> 01:14:11.172
resistant to colonialism, for
instance, or imperialism, or

01:14:11.172 --> 01:14:12.100
however you want to define it.

01:14:12.100 --> 01:14:14.150
But I think in some ways it has
been the most resistant of

01:14:14.150 --> 01:14:15.400
any other region of the world.

01:14:15.400 --> 01:14:22.330


01:14:22.330 --> 01:14:25.000
You know, I was in
Cairo after 9/11.

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.055
I think Americans expected
people to share their grief,

01:14:29.055 --> 01:14:30.350
share their pain, their anguish

01:14:30.350 --> 01:14:31.130
over what had happened.

01:14:31.130 --> 01:14:33.220
And that was not what was
going on in Cairo.

01:14:33.220 --> 01:14:35.360
There was a lack of
understanding--

01:14:35.360 --> 01:14:36.710
Let me put this the right way.

01:14:36.710 --> 01:14:40.820


01:14:40.820 --> 01:14:46.106
Whatever injustice 9/11 might
have been, I don't know.

01:14:46.106 --> 01:14:48.800


01:14:48.800 --> 01:14:50.390
I want to be really
careful with this.

01:14:50.390 --> 01:15:00.000


01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:02.360
I think there was a notion,
maybe in Cairo, and I'm not

01:15:02.360 --> 01:15:04.030
saying it's right or wrong, but
I think there was a notion

01:15:04.030 --> 01:15:07.080
in Cairo that the injustice
that is such a part of the

01:15:07.080 --> 01:15:09.660
landscape in the Middle East,
that Americans had finally

01:15:09.660 --> 01:15:12.850
glimpsed the same injustice that
I think a lot of Arabs

01:15:12.850 --> 01:15:14.710
feel they have felt for a
generation, and even more at

01:15:14.710 --> 01:15:15.960
this point.

01:15:15.960 --> 01:15:18.030


01:15:18.030 --> 01:15:20.620
September 11 was a
television event.

01:15:20.620 --> 01:15:21.650
It happened there.

01:15:21.650 --> 01:15:22.810
The cameras were there.

01:15:22.810 --> 01:15:24.540
Especially for the
second plane.

01:15:24.540 --> 01:15:26.210
People saw it on television.

01:15:26.210 --> 01:15:28.260
They were glued to their
televisions.

01:15:28.260 --> 01:15:31.120
The fact that they could so
have brought about those

01:15:31.120 --> 01:15:35.140
attacks was the first plane
hitting the building, assuming

01:15:35.140 --> 01:15:35.930
no one was filming.

01:15:35.930 --> 01:15:39.190
By chance, of course, the two
French camera crew were.

01:15:39.190 --> 01:15:41.780
And the way in which the time
was just enough for every

01:15:41.780 --> 01:15:44.220
camera to be on that building
for the second aircraft to

01:15:44.220 --> 01:15:49.250
come in, I'm sure that part of
that operation, part of those

01:15:49.250 --> 01:15:52.830
grotesque and wicked attacks,
was staged in that way to make

01:15:52.830 --> 01:15:58.090
sure that it had a cinematic
power to cause horror.

01:15:58.090 --> 01:16:02.220
Indeed, when we analyze it, the
19 Arab hijackers seem to

01:16:02.220 --> 01:16:05.500
speak in a language we taught
them, the language of the

01:16:05.500 --> 01:16:07.310
Hollywood spectacle.

01:16:07.310 --> 01:16:10.610
But their message as to why
they attacked was not

01:16:10.610 --> 01:16:12.970
delivered to the vast majority
of the American public.

01:16:12.970 --> 01:16:20.720


01:16:20.720 --> 01:16:24.150
Instead, these very images were
used to mislead Americans

01:16:24.150 --> 01:16:27.000
into attacking Iraq's Saddam
Hussein, who had

01:16:27.000 --> 01:16:29.590
nothing to do with 9/11.

01:16:29.590 --> 01:16:32.450
First attack in the history
of this country.

01:16:32.450 --> 01:16:35.110
I don't know if all history
changed, but it certainly made

01:16:35.110 --> 01:16:38.580
the identification of
the alien others

01:16:38.580 --> 01:16:40.580
really, really simple.

01:16:40.580 --> 01:16:45.190
Because we got a really
spectacular terrorist event,

01:16:45.190 --> 01:16:50.080
and we got a very, very rapid
dramatis personae cast list.

01:16:50.080 --> 01:16:53.410
And lo and behold, they
were all them guys.

01:16:53.410 --> 01:16:56.490
So don't you think that they're
the guys we should be

01:16:56.490 --> 01:16:57.400
frightened of?

01:16:57.400 --> 01:17:00.650
The 9/11 Commission, you would
think, would have investigated

01:17:00.650 --> 01:17:02.910
the question of why they
hate us and why we

01:17:02.910 --> 01:17:04.790
were attacked on 9/11.

01:17:04.790 --> 01:17:08.100
But in fact, the 9/11 Commission
was not able to

01:17:08.100 --> 01:17:12.250
investigate that all important
question in

01:17:12.250 --> 01:17:14.050
any meaningful way.

01:17:14.050 --> 01:17:16.420
Mr. Hamilton, I had a quick
question for you, sir.

01:17:16.420 --> 01:17:19.160
I'd spoken with you on C-SPAN
about a month ago.

01:17:19.160 --> 01:17:19.945
I think we'd--

01:17:19.945 --> 01:17:21.780
We talked about Israeli
policy--

01:17:21.780 --> 01:17:23.100
We'd like to address our--

01:17:23.100 --> 01:17:24.400
Why aren't we addressing the
gorilla in the room?

01:17:24.400 --> 01:17:26.350
The gorilla in the room is
US support for Israel.

01:17:26.350 --> 01:17:28.410
You had made a mistake
earlier.

01:17:28.410 --> 01:17:30.690
You had said that the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute

01:17:30.690 --> 01:17:32.530
wasn't addressed in the 9/11
Commission Report.

01:17:32.530 --> 01:17:33.740
I beg differ with that.

01:17:33.740 --> 01:17:38.160
On page 147 it is stated that
the plotter of 9/11, Khalid

01:17:38.160 --> 01:17:41.090
Sheikh Mohammed, was driven to
attack us not because of

01:17:41.090 --> 01:17:45.690
radical ideologies, by Mr.
Blair, because of US support

01:17:45.690 --> 01:17:46.240
for Israel.

01:17:46.240 --> 01:17:47.620
Why aren't we addressing
that, sir?

01:17:47.620 --> 01:17:48.800
All right, sir.

01:17:48.800 --> 01:17:50.630
And then you have Mr. Ross
up here who's basically

01:17:50.630 --> 01:17:53.075
affiliated with the Israeli
Lobby AIPAC.

01:17:53.075 --> 01:17:55.620
The fact of the matter is, these
people were carrying out

01:17:55.620 --> 01:17:59.330
attacks against the United
States not because of Israel,

01:17:59.330 --> 01:18:02.800
not because of the peace issue,
but because they reject

01:18:02.800 --> 01:18:03.620
who we are.

01:18:03.620 --> 01:18:06.440
This is a conversation that you
and I ought to have, but

01:18:06.440 --> 01:18:08.550
let's not take the time of
our resource people.

01:18:08.550 --> 01:18:10.710
May we go to the next
question, please?

01:18:10.710 --> 01:18:12.680
Thank you very much.

01:18:12.680 --> 01:18:17.100
Because the answer would have
been that our relationship

01:18:17.100 --> 01:18:20.960
with Israel is one of the main
reasons that we have a

01:18:20.960 --> 01:18:22.390
terrorist problem.

01:18:22.390 --> 01:18:25.840
And the Israel Lobby does not
want that message to get out

01:18:25.840 --> 01:18:28.080
to the American people, because
it would then force

01:18:28.080 --> 01:18:31.670
Washington to change its
policies towards Israel.

01:18:31.670 --> 01:18:34.230
That message is no secret.

01:18:34.230 --> 01:18:38.430
Yeah, I'm interested in the
question of motivation of

01:18:38.430 --> 01:18:40.400
these hijackers.

01:18:40.400 --> 01:18:44.300
And my question is really
directed to the agents.

01:18:44.300 --> 01:18:50.140
What have you found out
about why these men

01:18:50.140 --> 01:18:51.840
did what they did?

01:18:51.840 --> 01:18:55.470
What motivated them to do it?

01:18:55.470 --> 01:18:58.880
The answer is unknown to most
Americans because the

01:18:58.880 --> 01:19:01.080
government and the media have
not made it available.

01:19:01.080 --> 01:19:03.830


01:19:03.830 --> 01:19:05.080
Here it is.

01:19:05.080 --> 01:19:09.540


01:19:09.540 --> 01:19:11.460
I believe they feel
a sense of outrage

01:19:11.460 --> 01:19:12.800
against the United States.

01:19:12.800 --> 01:19:16.450
They identify with the
Palestinian problem.

01:19:16.450 --> 01:19:22.680
They identify with people who
oppose repressive regimes.

01:19:22.680 --> 01:19:25.020
And I believe they tend to
focus their anger on the

01:19:25.020 --> 01:19:26.270
United States.

01:19:26.270 --> 01:19:32.120


01:19:32.120 --> 01:19:35.680
Images of Arabs as essentially
evil have fit comfortably into

01:19:35.680 --> 01:19:37.315
our national narrative so far.

01:19:37.315 --> 01:19:40.110
But what if the images change?

01:19:40.110 --> 01:19:42.620
What does it do to America's
story of who is

01:19:42.620 --> 01:19:44.510
good and who is not?

01:19:44.510 --> 01:19:45.760
How does it look to the world?

01:19:45.760 --> 01:19:59.925


01:19:59.925 --> 01:20:01.860
It's not that somebody
snuck in and

01:20:01.860 --> 01:20:03.560
captured them doing that.

01:20:03.560 --> 01:20:07.140
They were choosing to take
pictures and home movies of

01:20:07.140 --> 01:20:08.160
those things.

01:20:08.160 --> 01:20:11.640
They represented it for
themselves, to themselves, to

01:20:11.640 --> 01:20:15.150
their friends, as something
they wanted to show, they

01:20:15.150 --> 01:20:16.590
wanted to be seen doing.

01:20:16.590 --> 01:20:20.180


01:20:20.180 --> 01:20:22.710
The fact that the people who
were tortured at Abu Ghraib

01:20:22.710 --> 01:20:27.010
were Muslim Arabs is, I would
argue, part of what allowed

01:20:27.010 --> 01:20:29.690
them to be treated in the way
that they were treated.

01:20:29.690 --> 01:20:33.400
It was like a college fraternity
prank to stack up

01:20:33.400 --> 01:20:34.352
naked men--

01:20:34.352 --> 01:20:36.256
Exactly!

01:20:36.256 --> 01:20:38.440
Exactly my point!

01:20:38.440 --> 01:20:41.550
This is no different than what
happens at the Skull and Bones

01:20:41.550 --> 01:20:41.980
initiation.

01:20:41.980 --> 01:20:43.900
And we're going to ruin people's
lives over it.

01:20:43.900 --> 01:20:45.716
And we're going to hamper
our military effort.

01:20:45.716 --> 01:20:48.750
And then, we are going to really
hammer them because

01:20:48.750 --> 01:20:49.990
they had a good time.

01:20:49.990 --> 01:20:52.066
You ever heard a need to
blow some steam off?

01:20:52.066 --> 01:20:56.630


01:20:56.630 --> 01:21:01.900
I think if these people had been
young men from Kansas,

01:21:01.900 --> 01:21:03.930
the outcry would have
been very different.

01:21:03.930 --> 01:21:08.320
Even if they had been young
British people or Germans, the

01:21:08.320 --> 01:21:09.570
outcry would have been
very different.

01:21:09.570 --> 01:21:15.020


01:21:15.020 --> 01:21:17.690
When I see the kind of
discussion we're having in the

01:21:17.690 --> 01:21:22.070
United States today, about what
kinds of torture are OK,

01:21:22.070 --> 01:21:25.300
or whether people have a right
to a fair trial or to confront

01:21:25.300 --> 01:21:29.390
their accusers, it
breaks my heart.

01:21:29.390 --> 01:21:32.534


01:21:32.534 --> 01:21:35.830
Abu Ghraib was the symbol
of Saddam's shame.

01:21:35.830 --> 01:21:38.240
This was a prison in which women
were electrocuted to

01:21:38.240 --> 01:21:38.930
death slowly.

01:21:38.930 --> 01:21:39.720
Where they were tortured.

01:21:39.720 --> 01:21:41.590
Where they were gang raped in
front of their husbands.

01:21:41.590 --> 01:21:44.830
Where men were hanged like
thrushes, 70, 90 a night for

01:21:44.830 --> 01:21:47.030
political offenses against
the regime.

01:21:47.030 --> 01:21:51.130
Where we went off the rails was
when we started to say,

01:21:51.130 --> 01:21:54.320
we're not as bad as Saddam.

01:21:54.320 --> 01:21:58.640
The moment that we said, oh
yes, maybe we've done some

01:21:58.640 --> 01:22:02.780
things wrong in Iraq
and Afghanistan.

01:22:02.780 --> 01:22:04.490
But we're not as
bad as Saddam.

01:22:04.490 --> 01:22:05.970
We're much better than that.

01:22:05.970 --> 01:22:09.480
The moment we said that, it was
inevitable that Abu Ghraib

01:22:09.480 --> 01:22:13.060
prison would also become our
shame, as indeed it did.

01:22:13.060 --> 01:22:16.210
When we can say, we're not as
bad as Saddam, we allow

01:22:16.210 --> 01:22:19.810
ourselves to do all the wicked
things up to, but not quite as

01:22:19.810 --> 01:22:21.320
bad as Saddam.

01:22:21.320 --> 01:22:23.400
In other words, we could do
so many other things.

01:22:23.400 --> 01:22:24.290
We could torture prisoners.

01:22:24.290 --> 01:22:25.460
Sexually abuse prisoners.

01:22:25.460 --> 01:22:26.820
Kill prisoners in Bagram.

01:22:26.820 --> 01:22:28.840
Beat them to death, which
happened in Bagram.

01:22:28.840 --> 01:22:30.220
We can lock them up
in Guantanamo.

01:22:30.220 --> 01:22:31.880
We can break international
law.

01:22:31.880 --> 01:22:35.160
Through rendition we can send
prisoners we've captured to

01:22:35.160 --> 01:22:38.560
countries which will boil
them alive in fat.

01:22:38.560 --> 01:22:39.470
Uzbekistan.

01:22:39.470 --> 01:22:40.720
But we're not as
bad as Saddam.

01:22:40.720 --> 01:22:44.990


01:22:44.990 --> 01:22:49.220
You tend to look at other
creatures in a way that you

01:22:49.220 --> 01:22:51.450
want to be different from them,
and you always want to

01:22:51.450 --> 01:22:52.440
be better than them.

01:22:52.440 --> 01:22:55.930
You never look at people
willingly and say, oh, I'm

01:22:55.930 --> 01:22:57.170
less than them.

01:22:57.170 --> 01:23:01.040
Though clearly was Abu Ghraib
a low level and gratuitous

01:23:01.040 --> 01:23:03.210
humiliation of prisoners.

01:23:03.210 --> 01:23:05.840
Whereas at Guantanamo Bay
and at other undisclosed

01:23:05.840 --> 01:23:11.850
locations, we know that the CIA
and other agencies have

01:23:11.850 --> 01:23:15.350
been encouraged to use what I
would regard as torture to

01:23:15.350 --> 01:23:19.940
elicit information
from suspects.

01:23:19.940 --> 01:23:23.460
And we know that the White
House, from an early stage,

01:23:23.460 --> 01:23:27.590
resolved that the legal status
of these detainees should be

01:23:27.590 --> 01:23:30.750
ambiguous, that they should not
be covered by the Geneva

01:23:30.750 --> 01:23:35.020
Conventions that are designed to
protect both civilians and

01:23:35.020 --> 01:23:36.920
military personnel in warfare.

01:23:36.920 --> 01:23:38.320
That's a different kind
of corruption.

01:23:38.320 --> 01:23:41.360
That is a much more troubling
corruption, because that's

01:23:41.360 --> 01:23:42.935
corruption at the very top.

01:23:42.935 --> 01:23:44.890
Not as it were at the
very bottom of

01:23:44.890 --> 01:23:46.340
the imperial machine.

01:23:46.340 --> 01:23:48.676
Would you agree, a dunk in water
is a no-brainer if it

01:23:48.676 --> 01:23:49.900
can save lives?

01:23:49.900 --> 01:23:53.580
Well, it's a no-brainer
for me.

01:23:53.580 --> 01:23:57.750
But I know for a while there I
was criticized as being the

01:23:57.750 --> 01:23:59.130
vice president for torture.

01:23:59.130 --> 01:24:00.060
We don't torture.

01:24:00.060 --> 01:24:03.130
One of the techniques was called
waterboarding in which

01:24:03.130 --> 01:24:06.240
a prisoner is strapped to a
board, placed upside down with

01:24:06.240 --> 01:24:08.020
a cloth over his face.

01:24:08.020 --> 01:24:11.180
Water is poured over the cloth,
producing the sensation

01:24:11.180 --> 01:24:12.300
of drowning.

01:24:12.300 --> 01:24:15.240
Are you at all concerned that at
some point, even if you get

01:24:15.240 --> 01:24:19.880
results, there's a blurring the
lines of between ourselves

01:24:19.880 --> 01:24:21.773
and the people we're trying
to protect us against?

01:24:21.773 --> 01:24:24.990
Uh, Matt, I'm just
telling you.

01:24:24.990 --> 01:24:28.670
What this government has done is
to take steps necessary to

01:24:28.670 --> 01:24:29.750
protect you and your family.

01:24:29.750 --> 01:24:32.130
You asked me about
your family.

01:24:32.130 --> 01:24:33.045
We're at war.

01:24:33.045 --> 01:24:35.810
This is people that want to come
and kill your families.

01:24:35.810 --> 01:24:38.150
The United States goes into
the country promising

01:24:38.150 --> 01:24:40.520
democracy, freedom, liberation,
all these notions.

01:24:40.520 --> 01:24:43.070
And then we see these very
graphic images of what the

01:24:43.070 --> 01:24:45.140
American experience had come
to, that often you hear in

01:24:45.140 --> 01:24:46.300
conversations.

01:24:46.300 --> 01:24:49.410
In Iraq, they say, well, of
course they're doing this.

01:24:49.410 --> 01:24:50.355
We knew they were doing this.

01:24:50.355 --> 01:24:52.030
The Iraqis know all
about this.

01:24:52.030 --> 01:24:53.540
Firstly, they've suffered
from it.

01:24:53.540 --> 01:24:55.300
Secondly, they've met the
survivors and heard the

01:24:55.300 --> 01:24:56.390
stories and believed them.

01:24:56.390 --> 01:24:59.160
And thirdly, that's how
we westerners behave.

01:24:59.160 --> 01:25:01.410
And it is how we westerners
behave now.

01:25:01.410 --> 01:25:05.685
We have become the reality
of their nightmares.

01:25:05.685 --> 01:25:09.460
To imagine that the United
States can bring democracy to

01:25:09.460 --> 01:25:13.040
the Middle East at the end of a
gun is only possible if you

01:25:13.040 --> 01:25:16.660
have a very limited and narrow
perception of who the people

01:25:16.660 --> 01:25:18.360
are on the other end
of that weapon.

01:25:18.360 --> 01:25:24.168


01:25:24.168 --> 01:25:26.670
And it gets second guessed all
the time by people who don't

01:25:26.670 --> 01:25:27.950
live in the United States.

01:25:27.950 --> 01:25:29.230
But let me remind you.

01:25:29.230 --> 01:25:31.760
September the 11th for
them was a bad day.

01:25:31.760 --> 01:25:34.010
For us, it was a change
of attitude.

01:25:34.010 --> 01:25:36.730
I don't feel bad for those 300
killers we got down in

01:25:36.730 --> 01:25:39.500
Guantanamo Bay, always crabbing
about how we don't

01:25:39.500 --> 01:25:41.490
respect their religious
practices.

01:25:41.490 --> 01:25:42.390
You know what?

01:25:42.390 --> 01:25:43.170
You lost.

01:25:43.170 --> 01:25:45.160
Eat what we eat.

01:25:45.160 --> 01:25:47.841
Here's a cheese-filled
Snausage, enjoy.

01:25:47.841 --> 01:25:48.950
You don't like that?

01:25:48.950 --> 01:25:49.880
Just eat the bun.

01:25:49.880 --> 01:25:50.570
You don't like that?

01:25:50.570 --> 01:25:51.230
Don't eat anything.

01:25:51.230 --> 01:25:52.480
You won't be missed.

01:25:52.480 --> 01:25:54.610


01:25:54.610 --> 01:25:59.320
The great paradox of an American
drive to export

01:25:59.320 --> 01:26:03.160
freedom to the rest
of the world--

01:26:03.160 --> 01:26:06.870
the terminology is President
Bush's own--

01:26:06.870 --> 01:26:11.940
is that, in trying to achieve
this by military means, the

01:26:11.940 --> 01:26:14.950
United States has undermined
freedom.

01:26:14.950 --> 01:26:18.480
Not only at home,
but abroad too.

01:26:18.480 --> 01:26:21.850
This is what turns republics
into empires.

01:26:21.850 --> 01:26:24.970
Fundamental transition from the
Republic to the Empire is

01:26:24.970 --> 01:26:29.440
a moment when the rights of the
individual, under law, are

01:26:29.440 --> 01:26:33.500
subordinated to the exigencies
of imperial domination.

01:26:33.500 --> 01:26:37.430
America stands closer to the
Rubicon than many people

01:26:37.430 --> 01:26:41.030
realize when this kind
of decision is taken.

01:26:41.030 --> 01:26:46.740
Decisions systematically to
suspend the rule of law in the

01:26:46.740 --> 01:26:48.340
name of a military emergency.

01:26:48.340 --> 01:26:52.074
This kind of thing comes with
the territory, literally.

01:26:52.074 --> 01:26:54.544
[GUNSHOTS]

01:26:54.544 --> 01:26:55.794
Waste the mother-fuckers.

01:26:55.794 --> 01:27:02.450


01:27:02.450 --> 01:27:04.960
Our overarching goal
remains the same.

01:27:04.960 --> 01:27:08.290
To disrupt, dismantle, and
defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan

01:27:08.290 --> 01:27:11.550
and Pakistan, and to prevent
its capacity to threaten

01:27:11.550 --> 01:27:13.590
America and our allies
in the future.

01:27:13.590 --> 01:27:18.100
Imperial powers who occupy
foreign countries, who

01:27:18.100 --> 01:27:22.630
exercise power over foreign
peoples, very rarely indeed

01:27:22.630 --> 01:27:26.630
are able to do so without some
measure of that kind of

01:27:26.630 --> 01:27:28.390
abusive power.

01:27:28.390 --> 01:27:31.110
These terms are not subject
to negotiation.

01:27:31.110 --> 01:27:33.700
If Gaddafi does not comply
with the resolution, the

01:27:33.700 --> 01:27:37.020
international community will
impose consequences.

01:27:37.020 --> 01:27:39.150
And the resolution
will be enforced

01:27:39.150 --> 01:27:41.350
through military action.

01:27:41.350 --> 01:27:45.820
To be an emperor is
paradoxically to be in some

01:27:45.820 --> 01:27:50.300
measure tainted by the very
barbarism you say that you're

01:27:50.300 --> 01:27:52.340
in the business of abolishing.

01:27:52.340 --> 01:27:56.420


01:27:56.420 --> 01:27:58.670
As America becomes increasingly
involved in the

01:27:58.670 --> 01:28:02.240
Middle East, from supporting the
1982 Israeli invasion of

01:28:02.240 --> 01:28:05.690
Lebanon, to developing a
stronger and stronger alliance

01:28:05.690 --> 01:28:08.310
with Saudi Arabia, there
are more attacks

01:28:08.310 --> 01:28:10.670
on the United States.

01:28:10.670 --> 01:28:12.960
These were events and activities
designed to get the

01:28:12.960 --> 01:28:14.720
attention of the news media.

01:28:14.720 --> 01:28:17.710
That's what the taking of the
embassy in Tehran was.

01:28:17.710 --> 01:28:19.300
Every night you saw
those banners in

01:28:19.300 --> 01:28:20.880
English outside the embassy.

01:28:20.880 --> 01:28:22.680
That wasn't for the benefit
of Iranians.

01:28:22.680 --> 01:28:26.950
That was for the benefit of
the American news cameras.

01:28:26.950 --> 01:28:30.280
But the attention the media
paid rarely dealt with why

01:28:30.280 --> 01:28:31.790
Arabs were angry.

01:28:31.790 --> 01:29:00.210
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

01:29:00.210 --> 01:29:08.030
[CHANTING]

01:29:08.030 --> 01:29:11.210
We only come to information
through an editing process.

01:29:11.210 --> 01:29:14.530
None of us have given or have
the capacity to look at all

01:29:14.530 --> 01:29:16.990
information and synthesize it.

01:29:16.990 --> 01:29:20.565
So it's not really possible to
argue about oh, well, remember

01:29:20.565 --> 01:29:23.070
when you assisted Saddam
Hussein and maybe even

01:29:23.070 --> 01:29:25.140
encouraged him?

01:29:25.140 --> 01:29:26.620
That's like old news.

01:29:26.620 --> 01:29:28.150
And we don't deal
with old news.

01:29:28.150 --> 01:29:30.180
We want to deal with new news.

01:29:30.180 --> 01:29:32.030
I will tell you what the new
news is, and then you'll know

01:29:32.030 --> 01:29:32.850
how to deal with it.

01:29:32.850 --> 01:29:36.040
As soon as Colin Powell, the
Secretary of State, told US

01:29:36.040 --> 01:29:39.680
embassies in the Middle East
to refer to the occupied

01:29:39.680 --> 01:29:42.710
territories as disputed
territories, within a few

01:29:42.710 --> 01:29:44.170
months most American newspapers

01:29:44.170 --> 01:29:45.800
went along with this.

01:29:45.800 --> 01:29:48.780
So over and over again, you see
what you do is you change

01:29:48.780 --> 01:29:51.600
and diminish the language
of the conflict.

01:29:51.600 --> 01:29:53.840
The wall becomes the fence
or the barrier.

01:29:53.840 --> 01:29:56.770
The occupation zone becomes
the security zone.

01:29:56.770 --> 01:30:00.680
The occupied territories becomes
disputed territories.

01:30:00.680 --> 01:30:02.420
Settlements become
neighborhoods.

01:30:02.420 --> 01:30:05.020
The Palestinian who throws a
stone or fires a rifle to

01:30:05.020 --> 01:30:07.830
protest this, well, why would
he ever do such a thing?

01:30:07.830 --> 01:30:11.620
A property that's in dispute can
surely be settled in the

01:30:11.620 --> 01:30:14.390
courts or over a cup of
tea with neighbors.

01:30:14.390 --> 01:30:17.280
If it's a neighborhood, why
would anyone attack it?

01:30:17.280 --> 01:30:19.520
If it's just a fence, well,
there are fences all over the

01:30:19.520 --> 01:30:22.290
world between farming
land and roads.

01:30:22.290 --> 01:30:25.410
And so, the Palestinian who
throws a stone or fires a gun,

01:30:25.410 --> 01:30:28.610
becomes a generically violent
person, a mindless terrorist.

01:30:28.610 --> 01:30:30.910
Because there's no reason
to use violence.

01:30:30.910 --> 01:30:34.540
And so we make the Middle East
unintelligible for people who

01:30:34.540 --> 01:30:36.480
don't live there
or visit there.

01:30:36.480 --> 01:30:40.470
The result is that even if you
want to know more about Arabs

01:30:40.470 --> 01:30:43.290
or Muslims, and you want to find
out through maybe more

01:30:43.290 --> 01:30:46.400
complicated media images or
seeing complex films, those

01:30:46.400 --> 01:30:47.870
are very hard to find.

01:30:47.870 --> 01:30:52.450
Those kinds of images are rare
and difficult to access in the

01:30:52.450 --> 01:30:54.910
United States.

01:30:54.910 --> 01:30:56.870
Miral, you are late.

01:30:56.870 --> 01:31:00.000
Some of you might have heard
that there is an uprising,

01:31:00.000 --> 01:31:02.363
what has been called
the intifada.

01:31:02.363 --> 01:31:05.858
Kamil, stand up straight.

01:31:05.858 --> 01:31:22.290
[MUSIC PLAYING]

01:31:22.290 --> 01:31:25.870
I've seen a real change
in some positive way.

01:31:25.870 --> 01:31:29.510
Many people, my students, people
out the community, are

01:31:29.510 --> 01:31:31.750
more interested in learning
about the Middle East.

01:31:31.750 --> 01:31:34.710
They know that they don't
know enough about Islam.

01:31:34.710 --> 01:31:37.310
They know they've been
fed media images.

01:31:37.310 --> 01:31:40.990
So we see, for example, Arabic
classes filling up, courses on

01:31:40.990 --> 01:31:43.320
Middle East history jammed
with students.

01:31:43.320 --> 01:31:46.110
You see people very consciously
trying to

01:31:46.110 --> 01:31:49.150
understand what has been the
US role in the Middle East,

01:31:49.150 --> 01:31:51.910
how has this happened, and how
it could be different.

01:31:51.910 --> 01:31:55.490
So I really see the possibility
in this moment

01:31:55.490 --> 01:31:58.370
where so many awful things have
happened, for people to

01:31:58.370 --> 01:32:01.710
begin to ask questions and to
come up with different answers

01:32:01.710 --> 01:32:05.800
to challenge this history of
media images and political

01:32:05.800 --> 01:32:07.130
intervention.

01:32:07.130 --> 01:32:09.840
[SHOUTING]

01:32:09.840 --> 01:32:12.760
This video, exclusive to Al
Jazeera shows crowds running

01:32:12.760 --> 01:32:13.790
away from gunfire.

01:32:13.790 --> 01:32:16.180
The revolutions sweeping the
Middle East are changing the

01:32:16.180 --> 01:32:18.100
imagery yet again.

01:32:18.100 --> 01:32:21.330
Cell phone videos, social
networking, and the spread of

01:32:21.330 --> 01:32:24.340
Al Jazeera in the United States
all point to less

01:32:24.340 --> 01:32:27.520
filtered, more direct images
on America's media.

01:32:27.520 --> 01:32:31.890
Images of Arabs and Muslims
produced by Arabs and Muslims.

01:32:31.890 --> 01:32:34.430


01:32:34.430 --> 01:32:37.250
For the first time in history,
Arabs are painting their own

01:32:37.250 --> 01:32:40.360
portraits for American
consumption.

01:32:40.360 --> 01:32:44.130
As we face the unknown future,
how will these new portrayals

01:32:44.130 --> 01:32:47.460
affect American attitudes at
home and American foreign

01:32:47.460 --> 01:32:49.776
policy in the Middle East?

01:32:49.776 --> 01:32:52.850
And in fact, viewership of Al
Jazeera is going up in the

01:32:52.850 --> 01:32:55.360
United States, because
it's real news.

01:32:55.360 --> 01:32:57.780
You may not agree with it, but
you feel like you're getting

01:32:57.780 --> 01:33:00.400
real news around the clock
instead of a million

01:33:00.400 --> 01:33:04.330
commercials and arguments
between talking heads, and the

01:33:04.330 --> 01:33:06.000
kind of stuff that we
do on our news.

01:33:06.000 --> 01:33:09.090
Which is not particularly
informative to us, let alone

01:33:09.090 --> 01:33:10.340
foreigners.

01:33:10.340 --> 01:33:12.444


01:33:12.444 --> 01:33:15.730
Hello, I'm Shiulie Ghosh with
the headlines on Al Jazeera.

01:33:15.730 --> 01:34:35.213