The Rage of Oriana Fallaci

ny observer ^ | January 23, 2003|5:33 PM | by George Gurley

[dennisw]

Last April, she said, Ariel Sharon phoned her to praise an article she had written in the weekly Italian publication Panorama about the problem of European and Arab anti-Semitism.

She said she answered the phone and said, "‘Hey, Sharon! How are you? Are you as fat?’ Because I know him. Sharon said, ‘Oriana, I called you to say, "Damn, you have guts; damn, you are courageous; damn, do I thank you."’ I said, ‘Ariel, you thank me—I apologize with you. I was too tough to you 20 years ago.’ And he was, as usual, a gentleman."

The night before the phone call, there had been an attack on a kibbutz.

"I said, ‘Listen, dear, I know what happened last night in that kibbutz. Will you please permit me to express to you and to your people my condolences?’ Sharon started crying. I don’t know, I didn’t see the tears. But the voice was of a crying man, and he started to shout: ‘Oriana! You are the only one who says the word condolences! Do you know, these bloody heads of states, I just spoke with the British and the Americans’—meaning Blair and Bush—‘they did not say that word to me.’ And then with broken voice he said, ‘Do you know who were the dead last night? One was the grandmother who was in Dachau and who still had the number on her arm. The second one was her daughter, who was seven months pregnant. And the third one was the child of the daughter, who was 5 years old. And they are all dead! All dead! All dead!’ He was crying."

He told her he would be coming to America soon.

"I said, ‘Ariel, we’ve got a problem: How do we see each other in New York without the journalists knowing it?’ So we have organized 007 story—beautiful. And the night before—do you remember what happened, the great massacre in Jerusalem? I remember that his assistant, this woman, she called me. I answered the phone and she said, ‘We’re leaving, we must go back, we don’t come to New York, do you know what has happened?’ I said, ‘I know, I heard it, tell the Prime Minister I shall come to Jerusalem.’ I never went. I couldn’t."

 

[Man of the Right]

Fallaci is a member of the Chris Hitchens neo-conservative-but-doesn't-realize-it group, but is more insistent because she's dying. She's a prophet. Always a very keen intellect, now she has her head screwed on straight. Nobody in government circles is yet willing to say the obvious: the purpose of Cold War II is to smash the theocratic power of Islam. We're at a real disadvantage because we can't identify our enemey. Imagine the disadvantage of not being able to say the Commies were the bad guys in '48 or the Nazis in '40, because it wasn't PC. We have to pretend we oppose bin Laden because we don't like his wardrobe, or something.

[vikingcelt]

Thank you so much for posting this. Oriana Fallaci is a great woman. She has that passion and the anger and rage which accompanies it which so seems to be lacking in people these days. And can the woman write!!! I'll never forget reading the essay she wrote shortly after 9/11. Now I must read her book.

[CatoRenasci]

I admired La Fallaci back in the '60s, even when I disagreed with her politics - she was honest and courageous. I hadn't realized she was still alive until the Rage and Fury essay came out online in October 2001. I still admire her courage and honesty. She's dead right about Islam.

[litehaus]

bump 4 insight..............

[jocon307]

Fallacci - she is my hero since I first found The Rage & The Pride on the internet. Thanks SOOOOOO much for posting this piece. She is the kind of person who make NYC the great city that it is. I agree, anyone who does not believe what she is saying is a complete fool.

[Poohbah]

When she gets phone calls threatening her life, she said, she lets them talk. "Then I say, ‘Do you know where it is your mother and your wife and your sister and your daughter are right in this moment? They are in a brothel of Beirut. And do you know what they’re doing? They are giving away their’—I don’t tell it to you, but I tell it to them—‘and you know to whom? To an American..."

Ouch. Knows how to insert knife and twist.

[jdege]

The book—a passionate cry in which she accuses the West of being blind to the true threat of Islam—caused a scandal when it was published in Europe last year, but has raised barely a murmur in the U.S. [...] The relative silence with which Americans have greeted the book is somewhat puzzling: It is precisely Americans who have the most evidence, in downtown New York, of the danger which Ms. Fallaci lays out in her 187-page book.

In The Rage and the Pride, Ms. Fallaci compares Islam to a "mountain which in one thousand and four hundred years has not moved, has not risen from the abyss of its blindness, has not opened its doors to the conquests of civilization, has never wanted to know about freedom and democracy and progress. In short, has not changed."

Why should we make a fuss about the book?

It's not a revelation to us.

[vikingcelt]

Why should we make a fuss about the book???!!! Because it's not every day or every year or every decade that we are given such a gift. The gift of great writing from a woman with GUTS. No, it's not a revelation but could you write such a book? Perhaps you just can't relate to the passion...

[American Preservative]

Thanks for the ping archy.

Good read ping.

[dennisw]

pinggggggggggg!!!!

[kabar]

Having lived 9 years in Islamic countries--Iran, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia--and travelled in many others including Pakistan, Falacci has got it right. There is a clash of civilizations and cultures. Militant Islam is not confined to a small minority, but rather, it is representative of the majority of the world's Muslims. The ascendancy of Khomeni in Iran bolstered the fundamentalists who have imposed their own tyranny on the masses. The educational systems are inculcating this hatred of the West into the next generation--including the Islamic schools in Europe and the United States. Islam is more of a cult than a religion.

[jdege]

I'm not trying to slam the book, only to discuss the lack of hysteria with which it has been received, here.

The Europeans have been in deep denial, and the book is a direct attack on the foundations of that denial.

Of course, they find it upsetting.

[Nachum]

Great post. What a woman.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

excellent post, dennis.

"The point is not winning or losing," she said. "Of course, I want to win. The point is to fight well with dignity. The point is, if you die, to die on your feet, standing up. If you tell me, ‘Fallaci, why do you fight so much? The Muslims are going to win and they’re going to kill you,’ I answer to you, ‘Fuck you—I shall die on my feet.’"

This woman is a fighter. A kick-ass-and-take-names fighter. Tragic that, in our current state in the West, her attitude and delivery are anomolous.

[xJones]

If you tell me, ‘Fallaci, why do you fight so much? The Muslims are going to win and they’re going to kill you,’ I answer to you, ‘Fuck you—I shall die on my feet.’"

Damn, I admire her!

[Free Vulcan]

Awesome article.

[July 4th]

Then I say, ‘Do you know where it is your mother and your wife and your sister and your daughter are right in this moment? They are in a brothel of Beirut. And do you know what they’re doing? They are giving away their’—I don’t tell it to you, but I tell it to them—‘and you know to whom? To an American. Fuck you!’"

Man, that is a great line.

[reformedliberal]

Thank you for the post!

How I love this woman! May she live long enough to finish the book and to have it well received.

And thanks to the writer (whom I will email) for giving us this glimpse of the man, Arik. I worry about him because of the weight!

Let us all relearn our passion and not be cowed by this damned political correctness. It is for slaves, not for free human beings.