Geography environment
Project description
1. Read carefully about the real motives of the 9/11 highjackers on pages 147 and 162 of The 9/11 Commission Report at: http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report.pdf (follow the pagination appearing on the Report, NOT the pagination appearing on your computer screen).
2. Read carefully the three-paragraph section titled “Anti-American Attitudes” on pages 14 and 15 of the Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication: http://ftp.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/dsb/commun.pdf
3. Read carefully pages 1-4 of The Palestine-Israel Conflict and the United States presentation: http://faculty.indstate.edu/melyassini/Geography%20of%20the%20Palestine-Israel%20Conflict%20and%20the%20USA–Why%20Do%20They%20Hate%20Us.pdf .
4. Read carefully this quote: “perceptions of U.S. policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict feed anti-Americanism. A 2003 Pew Global Attitudes poll found that enormous majorities in Arab and Muslim countries (at least 90% in Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Morocco, and Lebanon) believed the U.S. favors Israel too much. Although our most recent survey did not ask this same question, it did find strongly negative views towards Jews in the Arab world. For example, no respondents in either Lebanon or Jordan had a favorable view of Jews (on the other hand, 91% of Lebanese and 58% of Jordanians had a favorable view of Christians)”–Testimony of Andrew Kohut, United States House of Representatives, International Relations Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations November 10, 2005, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/congress/koh111005.pdf
5. Watch the online video “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” (50 mn)
6. Based EXCLUSIVELY on the 8-page readings, the video, and the critical thinking tips (see course syllabus and PowerPoint slides), write a 100 to 150 word-essay in which you discuss concisely but thoughtfully the critical questions that seem to come to mind whenever we discuss U.S.-Middle East relations: (1) “Why do they hate us?” and ” why do we hate them?” and (2) Why do U.S. political elites appear so indifferent to the sufferings of the Palestinian people while so committed to Zionism and the State of Israel and so loud and clear about their commitment? In this context, the term “Zionism” refers to the international colonial movement designed to make Palestine an extraterritorial nation-state for world Jewry. To submit blogs in this course, you click on the link to the blog as it appears in one of the subheadings of Course Documents, create a blog entry, and post it. Do not submit blogs from course tools, as attachments, or as email messages. This is Blog 1 and it is worth 2 points (2 percent of your final grade).

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