Toward a Dialogue with Edward Said

Abstract

As critics, a vital part of our task is to examine the ways in which language mystifies and reveals, serves and disserves human desires and aspirations. In that spirit we feel that engaging the leading Palestinian intellectual in the United States in a critical dialogue is a vital task. Although this reply takes issue with several points in Edward Said's paper, An Ideology of Difference (Critical Inquiry 12 [Autumn 1985]: 38-58), our critique is intended as part of the struggle for increased mutual empathy. We in no way wish to deny Said's claims regarding the legitimacy of Palestinian aspirations, nor the validity of Said and other Palestinian intellectuals' efforts to counter the destructive military, political, and ideological forces that stand in the way of the Palestinians' achievement of self-determination. Said's critiques of the idea that Israel is somehow above criticism, and of the elimination of the Palestinians from Western discourse, are both valid.2