Haqqani versus Amalek

[CaptainHaplo]

Skybird - thanks for posting that.

As a man who has met Benny, and have taken the time to study him in part, I know the writer is correct in many of his assertions. Assuming the same regarding Iranian politics, its quite an interesting piece to the puzzle.

I do think that the writer forgets that the office of the president is subservient to the Supreme Leader in Iran, but the facts are that the current unrest could easily be used by a skillful politician (and A is one of those) to undercut that authority and solidify more of it in the presidency.

Good read. The future looks interesting.

[Fish]

Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu should both read 'The Bible Unearthed'.

From what I have seen from Spiegel in the past they probably have interjected their political bias and have it all wrong. They are further to the left than MSNBC.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by CastleBravo

From what I have seen from Spiegel in the past they probably have interjected their political bias and have it all wrong. They are further to the left than MSNBC.

One must only stand far enough on the right , then the rest of the world appears to be on the left. Mybe you think CaptainHaplo also is a left-biased man? I do not have that impression of him. Nor do I consider myself to be "left".

In my school days, in the 80s, I thought of Der Spiegel having a left bias, and today I cannot say if that was just my perpection, or if they really were more to the left back then. But I can say for sure that today they are anything but "left". Quite all political parties get their share of critical treatment by Der Spiegel. They are the geman newspaper with the best international internet presence, and the german original I would consider to be well-rooted in the political centre today. Almost all other German papers do not even see a need for an international appearance of theirs (that's why I rarely, if ever, link to English essays from other German newspapers or magazines).

But neither that nor your reply have anything to do with the article's content that I linked. If you think the author got something wrong, point at that detail and comment on it instead of trying to distract attention and generally criticising Der Spiegel because Mr. Follath expresses something you happen to dislike. Follath is no idiot, btw, but a promoted expert with degrees in his fields (politics, orient and china) that he happens to know quite well. Beat him on his arguments and descriptions - not by making vague accusations about the place where he got published: it is no lobby-organisation paying for his income.

I respect your opinion. But aren't there other agencies which represent the German people, which are coming from a different political POV? Die Welt, for instance.? By American standards it is still a leftist publication, but we cannot all be Germans.

[Skybird]

Die Welt has some articles in English, but most of it's articles are simply bad works of journalism, and the internet presence is even worse. Only occasionally they impress with a good essay.

And no, I can't say that Die Welt is a prime newspaper. And if you would compare the daily output by them with that of Der Spiegel, you would see that Die Welt is much, more more to the left than Der Spiegel. But the main argument is the inferior journalistic quality, and especially their populistic style in selecting and presenting their articles. I would not say the printed version is much better.

The FAZ (Frankfurter Allgeimene Zeitung) has an acceptable print edition and often is referred to as the German equivalent to the British Times, and Die Zeit often has good essays with deeper analsis as well, but it less actual , also both are german exclusively.

Some regional newapapers worth to be mentioned, but all of them play no role oin the itnernational internet market.

And you still have not specified your criticism of Follath's article. If you have background info and knowledge on the cultural background info that would correct him, I would be interested to hear that. As I said, for me these mystical background things especially on the Jewish part were somewhat new, I do not know much about Judaism that goes beyond popular knowledge. Maybe CaptainHaplo would be the more competent discussion partner for you then, since he apparently has a live personal impression of Netanjahu from having met with him.

Originally Posted by CastleBravo

By American standards it is still a leftist publication, but we cannot all be Germans.

That implies there is no diversity in america, and no wider spectrum of political opinions that goes beyond "this" and "that". If it is not far right, it is not American, that is. I think that scenario can - and must - be questioned - even when a certain kind of Republicans love to imply that they are the better Americans and thus should have a monopole for the presidency.

So what you are saying is the other media present in Germany is weak and they don't express your opinion in any case so they are not worth the trouble. OK I understand.