This is an update to the note below about the talk I attended at BU the other day. I know I said I would post the audio, but after listening to it back, I don't think I'm going to bother. The recording has a strong echo and is not really very audible. If anyone is really interested, let me know and I'll upload it. It's not a big deal to do so, but I don't want to disappoint anyone by posting it, having them download it and then have them find they can't hear it.

To sum up, Pipes spent the evening sounding a cautionary note about the "Peace Process." He particularly noted that wars - and this is a war - have a tendency not to really end unless one side wins and one side loses - and really feels like they lost. See Germany after WW1 which was left with its army and cities intact and thus could delude itself into imagining they didn't really lose, leading directly to WW2. WW2 would be the opposite example, where Germany and Japan were unquestionably defeated and felt so, so that a further war was rendered highly unlikely.

He is skeptical that the Palestinians feel defeated, further that Abu Mazen's rhetoric is simply couching the same old "anti-Zionist" rhetoric and thus that it's still likely the war will continue despite the best intentions of outsiders. He made it clear that he could be wrong - he wasn't hoping this is the case, but merely trying to inject a realistic note to what's been a bit of potentially irrational exuberance.

Richard Landes did the "response." Landes is the BU Professor who's been pursuing the Muhhamad al-Dura hoax. His portion of the talk really focussed on the importance of listening to Pipes's viewpoint. Landes - who grew up with Pipes - considers himself a "man of the Left," and seemed to be there to speak in Pipes' defense to the predicted protesters that seem to follow Daniel Pipes from place to place. The only thing was, there were no protesters there.

That's the sad part. In a way, the "terrorists won." The talk was held in a large hall - Morse Auditorium - but it was no where near filled, and there were clearly very few students in attendance. The reason, I am told, is that the event was not very heavily publicized. Why? In order to "fly below the radar" of the people who have a tendency to show up and disrupt talks of this nature. Sadly, they did too good a job and almost no one - friend or foe - knew about it.

Which is too bad. Pipes can handle himself, and I predict Richard Landes would have done a good job in guiding the discussion. One of the best parts of the talk was Landes's closing remarks, in which he remarked on the Left's potential to have something important to contribute to the resolution of the conflict due to their emphasis on human rights and humanitarianism - if they would only remain true to their values and apply them to both sides equally instead of the rabid, myopic, hyper-critical way they only apply them to the West and Israel now. Maybe I'll extract that part of the talk from the audio and post it.