Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Satloff lectures (or hectors?) Arabs, with `Amr Musa hosting: "Over three intense days, I spoke at such celebrated state institutions as Cairo University, al-Ahram newspaper and the Diplomatic Institute of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. I did four nationally televised interviews on networks ranging from Egyptian state TV to popular satellite channels. The most sensational event occurred at the headquarters of the Arab League, one of the last redoubts of Arab nationalism. There, Secretary-General Amr Moussa convened a meeting of Arab ambassadors and I delivered an address, in Arabic, on the Arab role in the Holocaust and the importance of including Holocaust education in Arab educational curricula. If Arabs learned more about Auschwitz, I said, perhaps their response to Darfur and Halabja -- mass killings of non-Arabs in Arab lands -- would have been different." Also, I don't buy the notion that education about the holocaust (which I do agree is important for all--not only Arabs) would deter people from committing atrocities and massacres. I mean, I am sure that Israelis are quite educated about the holocaust, no? (thanks Hannah)