Daniel Pipes: The Threat to Reason

I heard many things about the controversial figure Daniel Pipes before I became a student here at UC Berkeley. I even heard about his affiliation with "Islamofacist" awareness and pro-Zionist dealings. Upon hearing of his upcoming speech at UC Berkeley I was very interested in hearing firsthand what he had to say. After doing some research and listening to his speech last month at UC Berkeley, I finally got a decent understanding of his views. The only question going through my mind after all this was, "How can anyone take this man seriously?"

After having my bag searched and scanned with a metal detector I was allowed to enter his speech. On the list of threats to Israel's existence he names weapons of mass destruction from Iran and Syria, the Egyptian military, terrorism, economic boycotts, the right of return for dispersed Palestinians and anti-Zionism. He claims anti-Zionism stems from three main reasons: "Radical Islam," the left wing turning on Israel, and, his main focus, mistakes made by the United States and Israeli governments. He claims the mistakes are "changes in policy," and "misunderstanding of the nature of warfare".

When Daniel Pipes was criticizing changes in policies, he alluded to the peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis. According to Pipes, Israel became a powerful state through "toughness and deterrence." The process, he says, "is expensive, takes a long time and is boring." He then notes that Israelis became impatient and tried to "negotiate with the enemy," i.e. the Palestinians, who, he mentions "are under dictatorship, poverty and backwardness." According to Pipes, appeasing the Palestinians and compromising for peace is a mistake. "There can be no compromise," he says. At the end of the day, he leaves no room for peace talks or diplomacy.

Pipes also addresses what he likes to call "the true nature of war." Pipes did not express his views outright but rather tried to cleverly allude to this "true nature of war." He never fully explains what he means and avoids going into detail. Nevertheless, he uses it as a means to force Palestinians to succumb to Israeli occupation. Pipes says that Israel must realize "the true nature of war" to make Palestinians "cry uncle." He also mentions that the source of Palestinian resistance is exhilaration and hope and that these must be stripped away in order to force them to give up. Although he doesn't say this outright, he pushes for the use violence and force in order to achieve what he believes to be Israel's goals. What else can "the true nature of warfare" in this context mean?

Pipes's speech was enigmatic and never clearly expressed what his views were. He simply alluded to his views with ambiguous terms. He constantly labeled Islam as being the fundamental reason behind the Palestinian drive to destroy Israel, but yet he never quoted anything from the Quran, shared examples or supported anything he said with facts. Pipes is well known for spreading anti-Islamic propaganda around the country and tailors his speech to an audience with little knowledge of Islam. The event did not target open-minded students, but rather a select group of mostly non-students with preexisting notions of the Palestinian issue and of Islam. His speech was saturated with stereotypes about Muslims and full of circular reasoning. If he were to present Islam in an honest and truthful manner, it would hurt his case, which relies on ignorance and fallacies. With his constant reference to Muslim stereotypes and fallacious reasoning I am still unsure whether I found Daniel Pipes' speech more insulting as a Muslim or as a reasonable individual.