Crossword clues for arabist
arabist
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Arabist \Ar`a*bist\, n. [Cf. F. Arabiste.] One well versed in the Arabic language or literature; also, formerly, one who followed the Arabic system of surgery.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A scholar who studies Arab or Arabic culture, politics, or language. 2 (context historical English) One who followed the Arabic system of surgery. 3 (context political English) One that wants to spread Arabic culture.
Wikipedia
An Arabist is someone normally from outside the Arab World who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture (usually including Arabic literature).
As used in modern, mainly American, political discourse, the term Arabist generally refers to a non-Arab observer with experience or specialization in Arabic language and culture, who is perceived to be excessively sympathetic towards Arab political views in relation to the Arab–Israeli conflict. Accusations of bias, and the term's use as a pejorative arose in the United States where "Arabists" in public service, largely in the State Department, were perceived as being "pro-Arab" by pro- Zionist and Jewish organizations and commentators following World War II and in the run-up to the partition of Palestine.
Rafael Medoff, in describing how the Jewish American community emerged from obscurity to play a role in behind-the-scenes power politics before coming to center stage, writes of the period: "Much of the Jewish political struggle in the United States during the late 1940s was a battle between American Zionists and State Department Arabists, for the hearts and minds of the White House, Congress, and the American public. Through the press, the Zionists waged a critical battle to create a conventional wisdom." A similar time frame for the emergence of such a politically charged connotation was provided by Joseph Kraft in 1971, when he wrote that the term Arabist originally referred to anyone who was trained in the Arabic language and made the study of the Middle East his or her life's work. Over the last four decades, however, it has been used in a more specific and derogatory manner to refer to those government Middle East specialists, most with Arabic-language training, who have spent extensive time in the Middle East and are seen to identify with the Arab cause or generally be "pro-Arab."
State Department Arabists have long been a favorite target of Washington neoconservatives, precisely because the latter's support for the hawkish Likud line in Israeli politics makes them hostile to any effort in Washington to balance U.S. foreign policy between support for Israel and recognition of Arab interests.
More recently, in describing the development of American foreign policy in the Middle East, Matthew Jacobs avoids using the term Arabist altogether, "as it suggests language skills that few professional observers of the Middle East possessed prior to the mid-1950s and because it has become a contentious and even derogatory term, with significant political implications since the early 1970s."
Usage examples of "arabist".
Paul Devereaux handed his Middle East duties to a rising young Arabist he had taken under his wing and moved to Counter-Terrorism.
Only the legendary Arabist, Charles Whitaker, is always welcome in their camps.
Every major Arabist in Europe during the nineteenth century traced his intellectual authority back to him.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine, Zvi el-Peleg, an Israeli Arabist and former governor of the Gaza Strip, spots me from across the bar, walks over, and pulls up a chair next to me.
Before making his first tour of duty to the Near East he had read the works of the important Arabist, Wilfred Thesiger.
Elliott Wilkinson, the well-known Arabist and a vice-president of the Ryle Memorial Trust.
Many were old-school Arabists who abhorred the use of force against Iraq and generally disliked even the sanctions and inspections.
As can be imagined, there were serious debates among the Iraq hawks and the Arabists at lower levels of the government too.
Painstakingly, by mid-watch lantern light, when the manipulations of letters are most apt to produce other kinds of illumination, Tchitcherine transliterates the opening sura of the holy Koran into the proposed NTA, and causes it to be circulated among the Arabists at the session, over the name of Igor Blobadjian.
Blobadjian, accordingly, is pursued through the black end of Baku by a passel of screaming Arabists waving scimitars and grinning horribly.
Close behind, Arabists are ululating, shrill, merciless, among the red-orange stars over the crowds of derricks.
The legendary Arabists in the State Department warn of Arab plans to take over the world.
Fluent in Arabic and widely considered the most seasoned Middle East hand, Horan, 68, whose first foreign service assignment had been in Baghdad in the 1960s, was one of the first Arabists Bremer had recruited for the provisional authority.
So, it was no surprise that in the critical months of 2002 and 2003, while the Bush administration shunned deep thinking and banned State Department Arabists from its councils of power, Bernard Lewis was persona grata, delivering spine-stiffening lectures to Cheney over dinner in undisclosed locations.
Bulliet and other mainstream Arabists who had urged a softer, more nuanced view of Islam found themselves harassed into silence.