The clash of civilisations that George Bush and his minions are trying to fabricate as a cover for a preemptive oil and hegemony war against Iraq is supposed to result in a triumph of democratic nation-building, regime change and forcible modernisation a l’americaine. Meanwhile, the soul-and-body destroying situation in Palestine worsens all the time. Writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, Edward Said urges an Arab alternative to the wreckage that is about to engulf our world. Read more about An unacceptable helplessness