But just because I am a critic of Israeli policy…

But just because I am a critic of Israeli policy — and in particular the occupation, simply because it is untenable, it creates a border that cannot be defended — that does not mean I believe the U.S. has brought this terrorism on itself because it supports Israel. I believe bin Laden and his supporters are using this as a pretext. If we were to change our support for Israel overnight, we would not stop these attacks.
I don’t think this is what it’s really about. I think it truly is a jihad, I think there is such a thing. There are many levels to Islamic rage. But what we’re dealing with here is a view of the U.S. as a secular, sinful society that must be humbled, and this has nothing to do with any particular aspect of American policy. In my view, there can be no compromise with such a vision. And, no, I don’t think we have brought this upon ourselves, which is of course a view that has been attributed to me.

Sourced

Interview, “The ‘Traitor’ Fires Back” by David Talbot, Salon.com (2001-10-16 )

Other Susan Sontag Quotes

I’m sickened by the way that the delivery of so-called humanitarian aid is once again being used as a justification — or cover — for war. - View Quote Details on I’m sickened by the way that the delivery of so-called…
Not surprisingly, the Serbs are presenting themselves as the victims. (Clinton equals Hitler, etc.) But it is grotesque to equate the casualties inflicted by the NATO bombing with the mayhem inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people in the last eight years by the Serb programs of ethnic cleansing.
Not all violence is equally reprehensible; not all wars are equally unjust.
No forceful response to the violence of a state against peoples who are nominally its own citizens? (Which is what most “wars” are today. Not wars between states.) The principal instances of mass violence in the world today are those committed by governments within their own legally recognized borders. Can we really say there is no response to this? - View Quote Details on Not surprisingly, the Serbs are presenting themselves as the victims…
The destiny of photography has taken it far beyond the role to which it was originally thought to be limited: to give more accurate reports on reality (including works of art). Photography is the reality; the real object is often experienced as a letdown. - View Quote Details on The destiny of photography has taken it far beyond the…
Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place. - View Quote Details on Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship…
The particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend to be swallowed up in the generalized pathos of time past. - View Quote Details on The particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend to be…
The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie. - View Quote Details on The need for truth is not constant; no more than…
There is a peculiarly modern predilection for psychological explanations of disease, as of everything else. Psychologizing seems to provide control over the experiences and events (like grave illnesses) over which people have in fact little or no control. Psychological understanding undermines the “reality” of a disease. That reality has to be explained. (It really means; or is a symbol of; or must be interpreted so.) For those who live neither with religious consolations about death nor with a sense of death (or of anything else) as natural, death is the obscene mystery, the ultimate affront, the thing that cannot be controlled. It can only be denied. A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of “spirit” over matter. - View Quote Details on There is a peculiarly modern predilection for psychological explanations of…
From “old” Europe’s point of view, America seems bent on squandering the admiration — and gratitude — felt by most Europeans. The immense sympathy for the United States in the aftermath of the attack on September 11, 2001 was genuine. (I can testify to its resounding ardor and sincerity in Germany; I was in Berlin at the time.) But what has followed is an increasing estrangement on both sides. The citizens of the richest and most powerful nation in history have to know that America is loved, and envied… and resented. - View Quote Details on From “old” Europe’s point of view, America seems bent on…
I’ll take the American empire any day over the empire of what my pal Chris Hitchens calls “Islamic fascism.” I’m not against fighting this enemy — it is an enemy and I’m not a pacifist.
I think what happened on Sept. 11 was an appalling crime, and I’m astonished that I even have to say that, to reassure people that I feel that way. But I do feel that the Gulf War revisited is not the way to fight this enemy. - View Quote Details on I’ll take the American empire any day over the empire…
Americans have it right. Europeans are not in an evangelical — or a bellicose — mood.
Indeed, sometimes I have to pinch myself to be sure I am not dreaming: that what many people in my own country now hold against Germany, which wreaked such horrors on the world for nearly a century — the new “German problem,” as it were — is that Germans are repelled by war; that much of German public opinion is now virtually… pacifist! - View Quote Details on Americans have it right. Europeans are not in an evangelical…