Washington Report on Middle East Affairs | August 2010

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NEOCONSERVATIVES LEAD CHARGE AGAINST TURKEY

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On Middle East Affairs Volume XXIX, No. 6

August 2010

Telling the Truth for 28 Years…

Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans

■

Interpreting North America for the Middle East

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE 8 Israeli Commandos Stop Peace Activists—But at What Cost?—Rachelle Marshall 11 Americans Protest the Israeli Attack—Photos 12 Another Israeli Attack on the High Seas— Five Views—Linda Brayer, Craig Murray, Patrick Seale, Patrick J. Buchanan, Uri Avnery 17 Israeli Democracy—Lost at Sea—Awatef Sheikh 18 Israel Tries to “Goldstone” International Investigation of Flotilla Attack

—Ian Williams

28 The Turkey-Brazil-Iran Agreement: Thanks, but No Thanks?—Four Views—Patrick Seale, Robert Dreyfuss, Patrick J. Buchanan, Robert Parry 41 Switch to Petraeus Betrays Afghan Policy Crisis— Gareth Porter 43 Erasing Iraq Author Mike Otterman: The U.S. Has Inflicted “Sociocide” on Iraq—Jeremy R. Hammond CONGRESS AND THE 2010 ELECTIONS

19 Peace Groups Slam High Court Ruling on “Terror Support”—William Fisher

32 Breaking the Siege on Capitol Hill—Susan Kerin

22 Bureaucracy vs. Occupation: Hamas Government

34 Money—But not Harman’s Own—Still Talks in California—Janet McMahon

Bulldozes Gazans’ Homes

—Mohammed Omer 24 The Campaign Against Helen Thomas— Three Views—Paul Findley, Ralph Nader, Saree Makdisi

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

27 Neoconservatives Lead Charge Against Turkey —Jim Lobe

35 Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2010 Congressional Candidates—Compiled by Hugh Galford 38 Israel’s Hijacking of Gaza Freedom Flotilla Draws Predictable Congressional Support—Shirl McArthur

A guest writes on artist Davi Barker’s “Painting through the Wall,” displayed at the Ninth Annual Palestinian Cultural Day celebration at the Santa Clara, CA County Government Center.

ON THE COVER: An Israeli soldier restrains an unarmed foreign protester during a June 13, 2010 demonstration by Palestinian, Israeli and foreign activists against Israel’s apartheid wall in the West Bank town of Beit Jala, near the biblical town of Bethlehem.

AFP PHOTO/MUSA AL-SHAER

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(A Supplement to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs available by subscription at $15 per year. To subscribe, call toll-free 1-800-368-5788, and press 1.

For other options, see page OV-3 in this issue.)

Other Voices

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Israel’s “Mad Dog” Diplomacy Doesn’t Make It OV-1 More Secure, Jonathan Cook, The National

Residency and Naturalization, Daoud Kuttab, Jordan Times

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The Flotilla Raid Was Not “Bungled.” The IDF Detailed Its Violent Strategy In Advance, Max Blumenthal, http://maxblumenthal.com

Muslim Courage In America, Stephan Salisbury, Agence Global

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OV-3

Israel—Fiasco at Sea, Eric S. Margolis, www.ericmargolis.com

OV-4

Obama’s New Security Strategy Looks Much Like The Old One, William Pfaff, www.antiwar.com

OV-12

Pakistan’s Challenge, Mosharraf Zaidi, The Nation

OV-13

More Questions About Drones, Joanne Mariner, http://writ.news.findlaw.com

OV-14

Pentagon Rushes to Block Release of Classified Files on WikiLeaks, Jerome Taylor,The Independent

OV-15

Pentagon “Hunting” WikiLeaks Founder, Jason Ditz, www.antiwar.com

OV-16

Revealed: How Israel Offered to Sell South Africa Nuclear Weapons, Chris McGreal, The Guardian

OV-5

The Turkey-Brazil-Iran Deal: Can Washington Take “Yes” for an Answer?, Dr. Trita Parsi, Foreign Policy Magazine Museum of Tolerance Special Report: Holes, Holiness and Hollywood, Nir Hasson, Le Monde diplomatique

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DEPARTMENTS 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

54 ARAB-AMERICAN

67 OTHER PEOPLE’S MAIL

ACTIVISM: ADC Celebrates Its 7 PUBLISHERS’ PAGE

30th Anniversary

69 THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST — CARTOONS

44 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Academic Boycott On Israel Flexes Its Muscles

56 HUMAN RIGHTS: USS Liberty Memorial Unveiled in Rochester

70 BOOK REVIEWS: The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s

—Pat and Samir Twair

Relationship With Apartheid South Africa

46 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Children’s Plea For Clean Water Inspires MECA’s “Maia Project” in Gaza

—Reviewed by Ian Williams 71 NEW ARRIVALS FROM THE AET BOOK CLUB

—Elaine Pasquini 48 NEW YORK CITY AND TRISTATE NEWS: Rabbi Lynne Gottlieb Describes Her Journey From Young Zionist to BDS Supporter—Jane Adas

72 2010 AET CHOIR OF ANGELS

73 IN MEMORIAM: Michael W. Suleiman 58 MUSIC & ARTS: MESTO Performs in Abu Dhabi

51 ISRAEL AND JUDAISM: Blind Support for Israeli Policies Increasingly Seen as Imperiling Judaism’s Moral Integrity

—Allan C. Brownfeld

59 WAGING PEACE:

(1934-2010)

—Andrew I. Killgore 74 BULLETIN BOARD

Ashrawi Charges Netanyahu With Stifling U.S. Peace Efforts

73 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

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Publisher: Executive Editor: Managing Editor: News Editor: Book Club Director: Circulation Director: Art Director: Editorial Assistant:

ANDREW I. KILLGORE RICHARD H. CURTISS JANET McMAHON DELINDA C. HANLEY ADAM CHAMY ANNE O’ROURKE RALPH U. SCHERER ANDREW BLAKELY

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (ISSN 8755-4917) is published 9 times a year, monthly except Jan./Feb., May/June and Sept./Oct. combined, at 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707. Tel. (202) 939-6050. Subscription prices (United States and possessions): one year, $29; two years, $55; three years, $75. For Canadian and Mexican subscriptions, $35 per year; for other foreign subscriptions, $70 per year.

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As a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, it endorses U.N. Security Council Resolution 242’s land-for-peace formula, supported by seven successive U.S. presidents. In general, it supports Middle East solutions which it judges to be consistent with the charter of the United Nations and traditional American support for human rights, selfdetermination, and fair play.

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AUGUST 2010

LetterstotheEditor Israel’s “Final Solution” Recent events on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara have again highlighted the brutal nature of the Israeli administration.

Once again, Israelis have murdered—in cold blood—innocent, defenseless people.

Once again, in response to international condemnation, Israel does little but point fingers and blame everybody else, and contrive fictional excuses: insinuating that the humanitarian organizations had links to terrorist organizations, and that humanitarian aid workers were sufficiently armed to assault Israeli defense force commandos.

The rest of the world has quickly seen through this farce. The overt heavy-handedness of the Israelis has once again demonstrated that they will stop at nothing to achieve the aims of Israel’s “final solution”: the systematic destruction of the Palestinian people.

Dr. Rory E. Morty, Giessen, Germany To paraphrase the title of Dr. Norman Finkelstein’s latest book (available from <www.middle eastbooks.com>), “This time they might have gone too far.”

Human Outrage in Turkey I am e-mailing from Turkey, where human outrage has reached a new height, and this time I totally agree. The Israeli attack on the aid convoy is a humanitarian outrage of enormous portions. It is time for the United States to call a halt to all aid of any kind and to ask the Israelis just who they think they are?

This latest action, which has absolutely no excuse, defensively or otherwise, has in my eyes forfeited all moral justification for the “do whatever you want, Israel”‘ attitude that has been prevalent in our country for many years. Now is the time to call a halt to our continual support with no questions asked. Every human being must express their outrage and demand and receive justice for all those concerned. I see in today’s Cumhuriyet newspaper that Turkey has cut all military, sport and other connections with Israel and called in their diplomatic officers. Let’s see what else happens here. Certainly the U.S. should be prompted to issue a similar strong statement.

Linda Thain-Ali, Giresun, Turkey Israel has demonstrated in the past— specifically, during the 1956 Suez crisis— that it responds to financial pressure. Since THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

this is an election year, voters should demand of every member of Congress up for re-election that he or she support an end to military aid to the outlaw state.

No End of Flotilla Ship Names I want to thank you and your organization for providing fiscal sponsorship to the Free Gaza Movement. I just made a contribution, and included this message: “I urge you to name your next ship the Exodus to call attention to the utter immorality of the blockade—especially Israel’s refusal to recognize the humanity of its captives in Gaza. You could name an-

other ship the Warsaw Ghetto Relief in case anyone didn’t get the first message.”

David Schonbrunn, San Rafael, CA As Patrick J. Buchanan notes on p. XX, the U.S. instituted an airlift to relieve an earlier siege.

No End to Vanunu’s Ordeal In the July 2010 Washington Report it was reported that Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu “must serve an additional three months for meeting with a foreign national.”

Israel is well aware that Vanunu and the foreign national—a Biblical scholar—have met many times since 2007, but they already had imprisoned Vanunu in December 2009 for the meeting to which you refer.

On April 30, 2007, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court convicted Vanunu on 14 (of 210) counts of violating a court order prohibiting him from speaking to foreign journalists in 2004. On July 2, 2007, he was sentenced to six months in jail for speaking to foreign media in 2004. On Sept. 23, 2008, the Jerusalem District Court reduced Vanunu’s six-month sentence to three months, “in light of his ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country’s security in jeopardy.”

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Vanunu appealed that sentence, offering to do three months of community service in Arab East Jerusalem, the only community he has known since April 21, 2004.

His offer was rejected by the Israeli Supreme Court, which insisted Vanunu could only serve in West Jerusalem— which is 99 percent populated by Jews, most of whom consider him a traitor. Fearing he would be attacked there by angry Israelis, Vanunu refused, and was returned to jail on May 23, 2010.

Eileen Fleming, producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu,” via e-mail

Spread the Blame While I appreciate the variety of subjects dealt with in the April 2010 issue of the Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, I feel you need to also frankly discuss the political relationships of the big powers, in the context of their economic and vested interests, all over the world. Powers like the U.S., the UK, Russia, China and France and monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Jordan, including dictatorial regime like that of Egypt, must equally share the blame of a topsy-turvy world!.

Expose them fully, whenever you can!

Jalaluddin S. Hussain, Quebec, Canada We certainly do not contend that, were it not for Israel, the world would consist only of benign major powers. Perhaps we might argue that unconditional U.S. support for Israel prevents Americans from learning what the vested interests of its and other govern-

ments really are.

Boycott Egypt?

Joseph Mayton’s “Egyptians View Construction of Gaza Wall As Evidence of Government’s ‘Hypocrisy’” (April 2010) underscores the Egyptian government’s complicity in the crimes against humanity that Israel, with U.S. support, is committing against the people of Gaza. It is sickening to see an Arab League member, which supposedly backs the Palestinian cause, collaborating in a relentless siege against its fellow Arabs. In addition to building that underground wall to cut off the vital Palestinian tunnels, Egypt has consistently obstructed the international groups trying to bring aid to the Gazans.

The only explanation I can see for Mubarak’s betrayal of his fellow Arabs is money: he doesn’t want to jeopardize the $2 billion Egypt gets annually from the US. Well, if it’s all about money, let’s hit Egypt there. So far the BDS campaign has focused on Israel and the U.S., but it should be extended to Egypt, which would be especially vulnerable to boycotts of its tourism industry. Until Egypt changes its policies toward Gaza, nobody should tour Egypt to see its famed antiquities. Hopefully, readers will suggest additional ways to boycott Egypt. I also have contacted the BDS movement to urge them also to target Egypt.

Gregory M. DeSylva, Rhinebeck, NY As Mayton pointed out in his article, most Egyptians oppose their government’s collu-

Other Voices is an optional 16page supplement available only to subscribers of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. For an additional $15 per year (see postcard insert for Washington Re port subscription rates), subscribers will receive Other Voices bound into each issue of their Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Back issues of both publications are available. To subscribe telephone 1 (800) 368-5788 (press 1), fax (202) 265-4574, e-mail <circulation@wrmea.com>, or write to P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009.

6

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

sion with the U.S. and Israel as much as you do. It is the latter, however, who are the “fat cats”—with Washington providing military aid and Israel using it profligately.

Doing What Needs to Be Done Please find my check for $100 enclosed.

Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you are doing. I think of the people in Gaza and the bitter injustice of the Israeli occupation every day, many times a day. It is the cause dearest to my heart. I would also like to volunteer for any activity you might think useful, including as a human shield.

I am a 68-year-old professor of American history and culture at Columbia University. Edward Said was my colleague and friend, but I didn’t need him to see that something must be done. You are doing it, and for that I thank you again and again.

Ann Douglas, New York, NY As we like to say, we’re all in this together!

Thank you for your support of us, and your commitment to justice for the Palestinians.

The Tide Is Turning I’ve just received my first issue of your magazine and am very impressed with the quality of the articles and the way you have put the publication together. I’m sorry I didn’t know of your organization sooner. I became aware of your work when listening to an interview with news editor Delinda Hanley on CNI’s “Jerusalem Calling” online.

I am optimistic that the tide is turning and increasing opposition to Israel’s occupation will result in long overdue change to the awful conditions under which the Palestinians live. I’m looking forward to upcoming issues in my subscription. Keep up the good work. By the way, it’s nice to read an an honest-to-goodness hard-copy magazine instead of squinting at a screen.

Clif Brown, Evanston, IL Welcome to the magazine. We’re grateful that you prefer to read hard copy and listen online, rather than the other way around!

RSS Feed?

Perhaps you have already considered this thoroughly and decided against it, but in case you haven’t, would there be a chance of you offering the content of your e-mail alerts as an RSS feed? I don’t like getting lots of newsletters with my e-mail, but I find it very convenient to browse the same content in Google Reader.

Robert Persson, via e-mail Your wish is our command. You can now subscribe to an RSS feed on our Web site, under “Action Alert Archives.” ❑ AUGUST 2010

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American Educational Trust From the World’s First Skyjacking…

On Dec. 12, 1954, when Israeli warplanes forced a Syrian passenger plane to land in Israel (see Donald Neff’s 50 Years of Israel, available from the AET Book Club), to its deadly May 31 attack in international waters on the Free Gaza Flotilla, Israel continues to behave as…

An Outlaw State.

Once again it has killed an American citizen—19-year-old Furkan Dogan—just as in 1967 it killed, also in international waters, 34 crewmembers of the USS Liberty. A survivor of that attack, Joe Meadors, was onboard a flotilla ship, the Sfendoni. The Irishflagged MV Rachel Corrie was named after the young American activist who was killed when a Caterpillar bulldozer driven by an IDF soldier ran over her as she tried to prevent it from demolishing the home of a Gaza pharmacist. Ordinary people…

Doing What Governments Should Do. In 1948 the Americans and British undertook an airlift to Berlin to feed starving Germans—who, a mere three years earlier, had been considered enemies. U.S. leaders decided to do the moral, humane thing: save the lives of people surrounded by a ruthless Russian army. But today’s pusillanimous politicians are silent when it comes to helping suffering Gazans cut off from the world

by Israel’s crippling blockade. This time it was civilians from some 50 countries who organized a relief flotilla to try to deliver food, water purification systems, wheelchairs, hospital and building supplies, cement, books and paper to a population living under siege for three years. And when Israeli commandos and naval ships captured the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, taking the goods and killing and grievously wounding some of the do-gooders, U.S. politicians justified Israel’s use of lethal force against unarmed civilians, and…

Once Again Blamed the Victims.

The flotilla attack triggered widespread criticism around the world and calls for a credible, impartial international investigation—unlike the so-called investigations on the attack on the USS Liberty—with no whitewash this time around. Comparing the Israeli commandos to “pirates off the coast of Somalia,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, “Now it is time to AUGUST 2010

Publishers’ Page

decide: Are we in a civilized world, or do some continue to have the law of the jungle? If it is the second, we know what to do.” The U.N. Security Council condemned the raid and called for the immediate release of goods and activists, and every country—except for the United States— called for an end to Israel’s siege. The U.S. media focused their rage on the BP oil spill instead of the flotilla disaster. Now…

Netanyahu Wants More Weapons.

Just before Israel launched its deadly attack on the humanitarian flotilla, Tel Aviv asked Washington to increase its emergency cache of arms stored in Israel—including rockets, bombs and armored vehicles—from $800 million to $1.2 billion. The U.S. permits Israel to use this stockpile in case of “emergency.”

Israel used the weapons in its 2006 war on Lebanon, killing 1,200-1,300 Lebanese, and during its 2008-09 attack on Gaza which killed 1,300 people, mainly civilians. Israel’s war gift registry includes more Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs, a sophisticated satellite-guided bomb used with deadly results in Lebanon and Gaza.

Shared Values? Not So Much.

Israel loves to describe itself as “the only democracy in the Middle East”—conveniently ignoring the “free and fair” 2006 elections in which Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza elected a Hamas government. While Israel demands that the world recognize its elected officials—even if they include former terrorists like Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, alleged war criminals like Gen. Ariel Sharon, and avowed racists like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman—not only does it refuse to acknowledge Palestinians’ elected leaders…

It Kidnaps and Imprisons Them.

Apparently not even all Israeli Jews are created equal. On June 17 tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi (European) Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem against a Supreme Court decision that they could not refuse to send their daughters to school with Sephardic (Middle Eastern) Jews. Sounds like the formerly segregated American South to us. Nevertheless, last year American taxpayers—whether they wanted to or not— gave Israel…

More Than $2.5 Billion.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

This at a time when millions of Gulf coast residents are facing the extinction of their way of life, states are facing bankruptcy, and teachers and other public service providers are being laid off. Not to mention the deaths of thousands of American troops and myriads of Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis and other Muslims in a “war on terror” that benefits only Israel. Even if we could afford the money, we can never afford the loss of…

So Many Innocent Lives.

Yet in this election year President Barack Obama reportedly is going soft on Israel so as not to jeopardize organized Jewish support for Democratic congressional candidates. But if the victorious Democrats continue to put the interests of a foreign country ahead of America’s, we’d call that a…

Pyrrhic Victory With a Vengeance.

Snazzy Digital Washington Report.

Now that you’ve had the chance to explore the July edition of our online flip-page Washington Report, subscribers to our print edition can access it for an additional $10 per year. This state-of-the art digital version is available to non-print subscribers for $29 per year. Visit our Web site at <www.wrmea.org> for complete details.

Messages Poured in From Readers…

Via phone and e-mail in response to Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and our action alert updates. (If you haven’t already, please visit our Web site and select “join our email list.”) Fortunately for our tiny staff, a new group of terrific summer interns had just begun working at our office. We put them to work helping write action alerts, covering protests and talks, and answering calls. You warmed our hearts and renewed our faith in the…

Good Sense of Our Readers.

We’re counting on that when you receive our bi-annual appeal. We’re late getting it in the mail, but the need for your help is more urgent than ever. We have only enough funds to keep us going until the end of summer. Please help us continue to provide information that is more essential than ever. Together, we can …

Make a Difference Today!

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Israeli Commandos Stop Peace Activists— But at What Cost?

SpecialReport

By Rachelle Marshall

AFP PHOTO/POOL/URIEL SINAI

As an Israeli warship lurks nearby in international waters, Israeli commandos raid the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, one of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, killing nine unarmed activists. The dead included eight Turkish citizens and 19-year-old Turkish-American Furkan Dogan.

Faced with state terrorism we cannot be calm and silent...Killing innocent people and treating civilians as if they were terrorists are nothing but a degradation of humanity.—Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, June 1, 2010. eterans of the Israel Defense Forces

Vwill someday be able to boast to their

grandchildren of their famous victory in the Mediterranean Sea, when they successfully defended their country from a group of unarmed peace activists and humanitarian aid workers traveling aboard a group of slow-moving cargo boats. The aid flotilla that sailed from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus was carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies intended for Gaza, one of the poorest places on earth.

Since the raid took place in international Rachelle Marshall is a free-lance editor living in Mill Valley, CA. A member of A Jewish Voice for Peace, she writes frequently on the Middle East.

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waters, it was by definition an act of criminal piracy.

At 4 a.m. on May 31, while the boats were still well out to sea, Israeli commandos dropped onto the boats from helicopters, firing sound grenades, plastic bullets and, by many reports, live ammunition. When passengers on the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara tried to resist, the attackers killed nine of them. All but one of the dead were Turkish members of Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), a charitable organization founded in 1992 to aid Bosnians and now active in 120 countries, including Haiti.

Dozens of those aboard were badly beaten by the Israelis, among them a cameraman who was clubbed in the eye with a rifle butt. Videos showed two of the soldiers repeatedly stomping on a man who was down, and then shooting him.The ship was turned into “a lake of blood,” one woman reported. Dr. Mahmut Koskun said the commandos did not allow him to help the wounded aboard, and let at least one of THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the victims bleed to death.

All of the passengers were handcuffed and forced to lie face down on the deck for several hours. When the boats arrived in Ashdod, Israeli authorities seized their cargoes and arrested those aboard, including 15 journalists. All were eventually released, but not before Israel confiscated their video equipment and footage, cell phones, computers and notebooks, and put its own version of events before the world. The Israelis also confiscated the wallets of at least two passengers, who found when they returned home that their credit cards had been used.

Iara Lee, co-founder of San Francisco’s Caipirinha Foundation and a passenger aboard the Mavi Marmara, pointed out in a June 5 op-ed column for the San Francisco Chronicle that the Israeli navy could easily have approached the convoy in broad daylight and used nonviolent ways to disable the ships and tow them to shore.

Less than a week later, the Israeli navy proved her point by intercepting the AUGUST 2010

AFP PHOTO/MASSOUD HOSSAINI

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Afghan community leaders debate during the second day of the “National Consultative Peace Jirga,” June 3, 2010. Some 1,600 delegates attended the three-day event in Kabul’s southeastern suburbs.

Rachel Corrie, an Irish vessel, and steering it to port at Ashdod.

A naval commander said anything that would serve Hamas for weapons would be confiscated, and the rest sent to Gaza. Israel’s definition of “weapons,” however, is broad enough to include such items as chocolate, jam, pasta, schoolbooks, and building materials. John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), has urged the world to join in sending relief ships to Gaza, where he said Israeli bombing destroyed 98 percent of the area’s industrial capacity, the sanitary system is not yet repaired, and 80 percent of the population is dependent on food aid.

The one-sided naval encounter was in fact hardly a victory for Israel, which is now more isolated than ever. Hamas remains in full control of Gaza, and international pressure on Israel to lift the blockade has grown stronger. Several diplomats accused Israel of violating international law, pointing to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1860, which in 2009 called on Israel to lift the blockade and allow unfettered access to humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Bradley Burston, a columnist for Haaretz, commented, “The siege is becoming Israel’s Vietnam.”

Greece, Sweden, Spain and Denmark summoned Israel’s ambassadors and demanded an explanation. French Ambassador Gerard Araud condemned Israel’s “disproportionate use of force and violence,” and British Prime Minister David Cameron called the raid “completely unacceptable” and called for an end to the blockade. Egypt, which along with the AUGUST 2010

U.S. had supported the blockade, quickly reopened the Rafah crossing and joined in the international criticism.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s response to the charge that Israel had used excessive force was to rail against Iran and call the passengers on the boats “thugs.”

He asserted that if there were no blockade “hundreds of ships” would bring “thousands of missiles” from Iran aimed at Israel, and there would be “an Iranian port in Gaza.“ That theme quickly became part of Israel’s propaganda arsenal, with Israel Consul General Akiva Tor warning in the San Francisco Chronicle that “If we allow unfettered aid to the Gaza Strip, Gaza will become an Iranian-armed missile base on our doorstep.”

Such statements bore no relation to reality, since inspectors can easily tell the difference between an Iranian missile and a box of spaghetti. In fact, as Israeli officials have repeatedly stated, the embargo was imposed for political reasons, to undermine popular support for Hamas. It is therefore an act of collective punishment and illegal under international law.

The U.S. alone refrained from criticizing Israel. President Barack Obama called the blockade “unsustainable” and pressed the need for peace, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Israel to allow more goods into Gaza and conduct a “credible and transparent investigation,” but neither condemned Israel’s latest use of force.

When Israel rejected international demands for an independent investigation and instead appointed a commission of inquiry composed of three Israelis and two foreign THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

observers, Washington hailed the announcement as “an important step forward.” According to the White House statement, the Israeli commission “can meet the standard of a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation.”

Haaretz, on the other hand, called the government effort to investigate itself “a farce.”

The angriest response came from Turkey, which recalled its ambassador to Israel and said it would not restore normal relations with Israel until the blockade was ended.

Tens of thousands of Turks marched through Istanbul on June 3 carrying coffins of the victims and shouting anti-Israel slogans and expressions of support for Hamas. The U.S. once again found itself in a difficult position because of its allegiance to Israel. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu bitterly reproached Washington for its failure to condemn the attack, saying, “It should not seem like a choice between Turkey and Israel. It should be a choice between right and wrong, between legal and illegal.”

Davutoglu also accused the U.S. of pressuring the U.N. Security Council to adopt a watered-down resolution that, instead of blaming Israel, condemned only “the acts” that led to the loss of life. In targeting a Turkish vessel, Israel showed no similar regard for U.S. interests. Turkey, as a democratic Muslim state, has been a reliable U.S. ally in that part of the world and is indispensable in providing a base near its southern border for delivery of U.S. supplies on their way to Iraq. Washington’s unstinting support for Israel—including the $1.9 billion recently given Israel for a 9

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new generation of naval assault ships—is clearly an irritant to the Turkish government, which on June 8 signaled its independence from the U.S. by welcoming Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Istanbul to discuss nuclear policy.

Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery described the commando raid as an act of “disgrace, madness, and stupidity.” Others called it a “blunder.” But sending 100 heavily armed soldiers to confront a group of humanitarians was by no means aberrant behavior on Israel’s part. The killing of unarmed civilians is an all-too-familiar occurrence in Israel’s history, which includes the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the massacres at Deir Yassin, Kafr Kassem, and Sabra and Shatila, and a missile attack on a U.N. post in Lebanon that killed 100 refugees.

Despite Israel’s excesses, ties between Israel and the U.S. have remained untouchable. The Johnson administration responded to Israel’s 1967 attack on the USS Liberty with a whitewash rather than an impartial investigation, even though dozens of American crewmen were killed.

As events unfolded off the coast of Gaza on May 31, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was in Israel celebrating his son’s bar mitzvah, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was preparing to go to Washington, where in the light of mended relations between the U.S. and Israel he could expect a warm welcome.

Obama’s plea last winter that Israel stop ousting Palestinians from East Jerusalem to make way for Jews so upset Nobel Laureate and professional Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel that he ran full-page ads in several American newspapers berating the president and calling Jerusalem “the heart of our heart, the soul of our soul.” Obama repaid the slap with what Wiesel called “a nice Kosher lunch” at the White House.

The ads, however, prompted a number of prominent Israelis to sign a letter to the New York Review of Books expressing “frustration, even outrage” at Wiesel’s distortion of the facts.

The signers described Jerusalem today not as the “sentimental abstraction” of Wiesel’s advertisement but as a sprawling city stretching from Ramallah to Bethlehem that Israel created after the 1967 war.

The city is now “an unwieldy behemoth encircling dozens of Palestinian villages that were never part of Jerusalem,” the letter said. “The government calls this artificial fabrication ‘Jerusalem’ in order to obviate any approaching chance for peace.”

Thanks to Israel’s vocal and well-heeled American allies, Israel can bar critics such as 82-year-old retired Prof. Noam Chomsky 10

from entering the country, and throw in jail scores of Palestinian nonviolent activists who speak out for human rights— and still be praised in Congress and the media as “the Middle East’s only democracy.” The power of Israel’s supporters has also forced a succession of American presidents to overlook Israel’s repeated sabotage of their peace efforts.

It may or may not be a coincidence that the violent confrontation at sea came just as the U.S.-brokered “proximity talks” were getting under way. Earlier this year Israel announced plans to build additional Jewish-only housing in East Jerusalem while Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel to discuss peace negotiations. That announcement prompted the Palestinians to withdraw from the talks. The fact that they did not do so after the recent violence may indicate a degree of hope on the part of President Mahmoud Abbas that Obama will make a serious effort to achieve an agreement the Palestinians can accept.

The June 3 statement by a U.S. official that “There is no question that we need a new approach to Gaza,” is a hopeful sign.

To be effective, however, a new approach would necessarily involve a major change in U.S. policy, one that involved recognizing Hamas as a legitimate negotiating partner, and a willingness to pressure Israel to accept a two-state solution based on its 1967 borders. The crucial question is whether Obama is willing to accept the political fallout such moves would incur.

The nature of the risk involved was indicated by the outpouring of support Israel received from pro-Israel Americans, who in editorial columns and letters to the editor found ways to justify an attack by armed commandos on boats carrying food and medicine to a desperately poor population.

Israel’s vocal supporters have successfully portrayed Israel as a tiny nation whose very existence is threatened, while the supposedly vulnerable Israelis proceed with impunity to seize more Palestinian land for settlements, demolish Palestinian homes, and impose hundreds of restrictions aimed at stifling the Palestinian economy and driving out the population. In the words of Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, “Not a day goes by without some threatening draft law, threatening declaration of deportation, political arrest, police violence, or incitement against would-be critics.”

These are the realities that concerned Palestinians as U.S. envoy George J. Mitchell began shuttling between the two sides in late May. Yasser Abed Rabbo, an adviser to Abbas, said he had been assured that the indirect talks would focus on core issues such as settlements, the future of THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, and final borders. Since the Israelis want to limit the talks to procedural matters there will be no quick solution.

As a gesture to Mitchell, Netanyahu pledged to freeze settlement construction in East Jerusalem for two years, but it was a promise not his to fulfill. The authority to approve building projects in Jerusalem belongs not to Netanyahu but to the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. Barkat already has approved construction of 50,000 new units sometime in the future, and when he visited Congress last spring he announced he would not stop construction in East Jerusalem regardless of whether it hurt U.S. peacemaking efforts. “There is no freeze,” Barkat said. “We’re building the city for the residents.”

The prospect is not hopeless, however.

Many Israelis are aware that Israeli policies have left the country with few friends, and there are signs that the Israeli peace movement is reviving. Large crowds gathered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on June 5, the 43rd anniversary of the occupation, to demand an end to the blockade and for the relief ship the Rachel Corrie to be allowed to land in Gaza. The demonstrations were organized by the peace organization Gush Shalom, which sent out a call saying, “The government is devouring us. It’s time to save our society from ruin.”

While Israelis were holding peace demonstrations, hundreds of Afghan men and women were meeting in Kabul to discuss ways of achieving peace. The gathering, called a jirga, called on the U.S. and NATO to release Afghan prisoners and stop house searches, arrests, and bombardments of civilian areas.The final document urged the Americans to remove Taliban leaders from their wanted list, and directed Afghan President Hamid Karzai to seek negotiations with the Taliban.

Delegates said the meeting was an important step toward peace, but they did so as thousands more American combat troops were pouring into Afghanistan to take part in a war that already has taken the lives of more than a thousand U.S. soldiers but has failed to defeat the Taliban.

The failure of current U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Israel leave Obama with a choice. He can keep America embroiled in endless overseas conflicts and as the enabler of an illegal occupation, or become an historic peacemaker. Choosing to confront Israel and withdraw U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan might mean giving up a second term as president, but if he is willing to risk other people’s lives in war he should surely be willing to risk his own political career for peace. ❑ AUGUST 2010

protest_11_Protest Page 6/23/10 10:19 PM Page 11

STAFF PHOTO DELINDA HANLEY

Protesters around the world gathered within hours of the Israeli navy’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which killed nine peace activists. For days protesters assembled outside the White House and in front of Israeli consulates across the United States.

Members of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) who had come to Washington, DC from around the country for ADC’s 30th anniversary convention, protested outside the Israeli Embassy on June 4. Protesters in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities waved Palestinian flags and carried signs reading “Jews Condemn Israeli Brutality,” “Gaza Flotilla: Another Israeli War Crime,” and “End Gaza Siege.”

PHOTO WILLIAM HUGHES

STAFF PHOTO IMAAN ALI

Ambassador Clovis Maksoud and friends at the ADC protest.

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

ABOVE LEFT: Protesters came from around the country for the ADC protest. ABOVE RIGHT: Activists placed a wreath at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, DC. BELOW LEFT AND RIGHT: Demonstrators in San Francisco.

AUGUST 2010

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Two Views

AFP PHOTO/POOL/URIEL SINAI

Another Israeli Attack on the High Seas

In international waters, a second Israeli military craft approaches one of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Why Israel’s Attack on the Freedom Flotilla Was Illegal And a Crime Against Humanity

By Lynda Brayer

uring the pre-dawn hours of May 31,

D2010, the Israeli navy attacked the six

civilian vessels of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The attack took place in international waters against ships flying under national flags of countries with which Israel is not at war, namely Turkey, Greece and the United States. The ships were carrying civilians from more than 16 countries.

Since no state of war existed at the time, the attack on these vessels constitutes an act of war against those governments under whose flags the vessels were sailing.

Lynda Brayer is an Israeli human rights lawyer who specializes in the laws of war and international law in representing Palestinians. A graduate of the Hebrew University Faculty of Law, she lives in Haifa and can be reached at <lyndabrayer@yahoo.com>.

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The attack falls within the purview of the ius ad bellum, those laws which govern the resort to armed conflict. Israel’s action does not fall into the category of the ius in bello, or the laws which govern the actual conduct of war.

Because this attack was carried out in international waters, the status of the relationship between Hamas, or any other Palestinian body, and the state of Israel is of no relevance whatsoever. Likewise, neither the blockade of Gaza nor Israel’s claims and legal interpretations regarding it has any bearing on its acts of aggression in international waters.

This is not an act of piracy. Piracy is an act of aggression carried out in international waters by individuals and not by states.

The following internationally binding treaties, charters, and agreements are relevant to the attack by Israel: 1. Article 6 of the Charter Provisions of the Nuremburg Trials (a) Crimes against Peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing; (3) Crimes against Humanity: namely murder…deportation, and any other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war...in execution of or in connection with any crime…whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

2. 1907 Hague Regulation Convention (XI) Relative to Certain Restrictions with Regard to the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Naval War Chapter II—The Exemption from Capture of Certain Vessels Article 4. Vessels charged with religious, scientific, or philanthropic missions are likewise exempt from capture.

Salient points The standard for judging the Israeli acts is objective and not subjective. It is irrelevant what Israeli ministers, generals, admirals, or soldiers thought or intended. The test is in what they did.

What they did was engage in acts of war using weapons of war in international waters against vessels that are protected not only in peacetime but also in times of war.

Israel has therefore committed both crimes against the peace and crimes against humanity.

These are crimes that have international jurisdiction. Israeli political and military personnel can be named in trials held in any and all countries of the world. If the Israelis do not attend the trials, they can be tried in abstentia, and those decisions in which the Israelis are found guilty can be executed anywhere in the world.

Because unarmed civilians were murdered by a preplanned military attack, capital crimes have been committed. While it would appear that the international community no longer finds capital punishment civilized, the punishments for these capital crimes can be multiple life sentences.

These crimes give rise to damage claims for huge sums of money and Israeli accounts can be blocked using decisions AUGUST 2010

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finding them guilty.

The unarmed vessels were on a philanthropic mission, carrying civilians and humanitarian supplies. Even if Israel were in a state of war with any of these countries, it would be prohibited from capturing the vessels according to the terms of the Hague Convention of 1907.

It follows, therefore, that Israel was first of all not allowed to attack these vessels militarily, and then not to board these vessels by force, capture these vessels, attack the passengers, imprison them on the vessels, forcibly remove them from the vessels, and steal their private property in the form of cameras, computers, clothes, etc.

Every single act carried out by the Israeli military forces in international waters on May 31, 2010, is unqualifiedly and absolutely a violation of international law.

Appendix The Gaza Freedom Flotilla included six vessels on May 31, 2010: 1.Mavi Marmara, passenger boat, Turkey 2. Sofia, cargo ship, Greece 3. Gaza I, cargo ship, Turkey 4. Gaza II, cargo ship, Turkey 5. Spendoni, passenger ship, Greece 6. Challenger I, passenger ship, United States At least nine passengers were killed, eight Turkish citizens and one U.S. citizen, Furkan Dogan, 19. The majority of the passengers aboard the ships were Turkish citizens. There were also nationals from Britain, Australia, Greece, Canada, Malaysia, Algeria, Serbia, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Kuwait and the United States.

Three German parliamentarians were aboard the Turkish boat that was stormed.

There were also two Palestinian members of the Knesset. Swedish author Henning Mankell was also on board the flotilla.

Israeli Murders, NATO and Afghanistan

By Craig Murray

was in the British Foreign and Common-

Iwealth Office (FCO) for over 20 years and

a member of its senior management structure for six years. I served in five countries Craig Murray is a human rights activist, writer, former British ambassador, and an honorary research fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law. Visit his blog at <www.craigmurray.org.uk>. This article was first posted on <www.informationclearinghouse.info> June 2, 2010.

AUGUST 2010

and took part in 13 formal international negotiations, including the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea and a whole series of maritime boundary treaties. I headed the FCO section of a multidepartmental organization monitoring the arms embargo on Iraq.

I am an instinctively friendly, open but unassuming person who always found it easy to get on with people, I think because I make fun of myself a lot. I have in consequence a great many friends among ex-colleagues in both British and foreign diplomatic services, security services and militaries.

I lost very few friends when I left the FCO over torture and rendition. In fact I seemed to gain several degrees of warmth with a great many acquantances still on the inside. And I have become known as a reliable outlet for grumbles, who as an ex-insider knows how to handle a discreet and unintercepted conversation.

What I was being told last night was very interesting indeed. NATO HQ in Brussels is today a very unhappy place. There is a strong understanding among the various national militaries that an attack by Israel on a NATO member-flagged ship in international waters is an event to which NATO is obliged—legally obliged, as a matter of treaty—to react.

I must be plain—nobody wants or expects military action against Israel. But there is an uneasy recognition that in theory that ought to be on the table, and that NATO is obliged to do something robust to defend Turkey.

Mutual military support of each other is the entire raison d’etre of NATO. You must also remember that to the NATO military the freedom of the high seas guaranteed by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea is a vital alliance interest which officers have been conditioned to uphold their whole career.

That is why Turkey was extremely shrewd in reacting immediately to the Israeli attack by calling an emergency NATO meeting. It is why, after the appalling U.S. reaction to the attack with its refusal to name Israel, President Obama has now made a point of phoning President Erdogan to condole.

But the unhappiness in NATO HQ runs much deeper than that. I spoke separately to two friends there, from two different nations. One of them said NATO HQ was “a very unhappy place.” The other described the situation as “Tense—much more strained than at the invasion of Iraq.”

Why? There is a tendency of outsiders to regard the senior workings of governTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

ments and international organizations as monolithic. In fact there are plenty of highly intelligent—and competitive— people and diverse interests involved.

There are already deep misgivings, especially among the military, over the Afghan mission. There is no sign of a diminution in Afghan resistance attacks and no evidence of a clear gameplan. The military are not stupid and they can see that the Karzai government is deeply corrupt and the Afghan “national” army comprised almost exclusively of tribal enemies of the Pashtuns.

You might be surprised by just how high in NATO skepticism runs at the line that in some way occupying Afghanistan helps protect the West, as opposed to stoking dangerous Islamic anger worldwide.

So this is what is causing frost and stress inside NATO. The organization is tied up in a massive, expensive and ill-defined mission in Afghanistan that many whisper is counter-productive in terms of the alliance aim of mutual defense. Every European military is facing financial problems as a public deficit financing crisis sweeps the continent. The only glue holding the Afghan mission together is loyalty to and support for the United States.

But what kind of mutual support organization is NATO when members must make decades-long commitments, at huge expense and some loss of life, to support the United States, but cannot make even a gesture to support Turkey when Turkey is attacked by a non-member?

Even the Eastern Europeans have not been backing the U.S. line on the Israeli attack. The atmosphere in NATO on the issue has been very much the U.S. against the rest, with the U.S. attitude inside NATO described to me by a senior NATO officer as “amazingly arrogant—they don't seem to think it matters what anybody else thinks.” Therefore what is troubling the hearts and souls of non-Americans in NATO HQ is this fundamental question. Is NATO genuinely a mutual defense organization, or is it just an instrument to carry out U.S. foreign policy? With its unthinking defense of Israel and military occupation of Afghanistan, is U.S. foreign policy really defending Europe, or is it making the world less safe by causing Islamic militancy?

I leave the last word to one of the senior NATO officers—who, incidentally, is not British: “Nobody but the Americans doubts the U.S. position on the Gaza attack is wrong and insensitve. But everyone already quietly thought the same about wider Ameri13

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can policy. This incident has allowed people to start saying that now privately to each other.”

Why Israel Chooses Violence

By Patrick Seale

srael’s deadly May 31 commando assault

Ion the Free Gaza flotilla has been vari-

ously denounced around the world as state terrorism, piracy, a war crime, and as the latest example of Israel’s arrogant contempt for international law and its criminal indifference for (non-Jewish) human life.

In view of the enormity of the act—and the toll of dead and wounded among unarmed activists seeking to break the threeyear Gaza siege—these charges appear justified. But they do not explain why Israel chooses to behave as it does. Its leaders, both civilian and military, are not fumbling, hysterical novices. Their actions are deliberate and carefully weighed. So what is the cold-eyed strategy behind them?

There would seem to be two distinct security doctrines at work, one directed at the Palestinians, the other at Israel’s adversaries in the wider Middle East—Iran, first and foremost, but also Tehran’s radical Arab allies, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.

There is no great mystery about Israel’s strategy toward the Palestinians. From the very beginning of the Zionist project, it has sought to defeat them and chase them off their land. Ever since the 1967 war, Jewish settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories has proceeded apace under Israeli governments of all political colorings. The longing for a Greater Israel extending from the sea to the Jordan River is not confined to messianic zealots and far-right nationalists. It is more widely shared in Israel today than at any time since the creation of the state.

To realize its expansionist ambitions, Israel has always sought to avoid serious negotiations with the Palestinians because, if negotiations were to succeed, they would inevitably mean ceding territory.

Israel detests Palestinian moderates, who want to negotiate—like Mahmoud Abbas, the luckless president of the Palestinian Authority—and far prefers Palestinian radicals, like Hamas, with whom no negotiation is possible. A familiar Israeli refrain gives the game away. “How can you negotiate with someone who wants to kill you?”

Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle for Arab Independence: Riad el-Solh and the Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press). Copyright © 2010 Patrick Seale. Distributed by Agence Global.

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The attack on the flotilla off the Gaza coast must be seen as Israel’s latest attempt to radicalize the Palestinians, and hence torpedo, even before they have properly started, the so-called “proximity talks,” which George Mitchell, President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, has laboriously set up. Mahmoud Abbas will now be under great pressure to withdraw from the talks or risk being denounced as a traitor by inflamed Palestinian and Arab opinion.

No doubt the Israeli calculation is that the storm will blow over and time will have been gained for more expansion.

Israel’s latest armed assault will soon be forgotten in much the same way as its murderous war on Gaza in December-January 2008-9 has itself been largely overtaken by events. The Gaza siege continues, the Palestinians remain divided, the international community huffs and puffs but does nothing, and Israel prepares to extend its settlements.

No doubt, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu believes Obama will not dare to get tough with Israel before the mid-term elections next November—or indeed after them, if the Democrats lose ground.

As for Israel’s security doctrine toward the wider Middle East, this was forged even before the creation of the state by David Ben-Gurion, its first prime minister: to guarantee its security and continued existence in a hostile environment, Israel must be the military master of the region, more powerful than any combination of its adversaries. Israel must never show weakness and must never fail to react with full force to any challenge—even one posed by unarmed pro-Palestinian peace activists.

“Never again!” is the slogan of a belligerently defiant Jewish state.

To retain its military mastery over the region, Israel and its American friends— well-placed at the time in the Pentagon and the vice president’s office—pushed America into war against Saddam Hussain’s Iraq in 2003, not hesitating to forge the evidence of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. From Israel’s point of view, if not from America’s, the war was a success since it set back any Iraqi threat to Israel for at least a generation.

Today, Israel sees Iran as its main challenger. If it decides to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, it wants to be sure the United States will join in to finish the job and protect it from any backlash. But to ensure America’s backing it must demonstrate its own utter resolve to confront—and defeat—any threat to its supremacy, however trivial.

The attack on the Gaza flotilla should perhaps be seen, therefore, as a show of force to prepare the ground, politically and psychologically, for an attack on Iran. In Ne-

tanyahu’s mind, and in Obama’s, Israel’s struggle with the Palestinians and its contest with Iran are linked together.

Netanyahu and his fellow ideologues are, of course, engaged in a high-risk and high-cost strategy. Israel now finds itself at odds with much of the world. Hatred of the Jewish state will become more intense, and not only among Muslims, with its inevitable accompaniment of anti-Semitism.

The “de-legitimization” of Israel—which already worries many Jewish intellectuals in the United States and Europe—will gather pace.

International pressure on Israel to lift the cruel three-year siege of Gaza may become irresistible. Egypt, formally at peace with Israel since 1979, will come under great pressure from its own angry public to break relations. Accused by many Arabs of complicity with Israel’s siege, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has already ordered the opening of the Rafah crossing into Gaza for the passage of humanitarian aid.

Jordan, close to Israel for many years, may also find it necessary to distance itself.

Turkey, once Israel’s ally, has now joined the ranks of its most bitter enemies. This is the heaviest price Israel will have to pay for its violent oppression of the Palestinians, its land hunger and its extravagant regional ambitions. The crisis has developed into a contest for regional supremacy between Israel and Turkey.

As a right-wing Israeli commentator, Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University, wrote on Ynet this week: “Who is the master of this region?...The forces of the Ottoman Empire, who aspire again to rule the Middle East...will be stopped at Gaza’s shore.”

The United States will itself pay a heavy price for Israel’s aggressive behavior. Its troublesome ally has become a burden.

This is Obama’s dilemma. If he confronts Israel firmly—as he would no doubt like to do—he will suffer politically at home; if he does not, his reputation will suffer abroad.

The key, so-far-unanswered question is whether the international crisis will lead to an internal crisis in Israel itself. There is just a possibility that Israeli opinion, alarmed at the hostility of the world and fearful of losing American support, may rebel against Netanyahu’s intransigent and dangerous policies. He may be forced to resign and face fresh elections.

This is perhaps the outcome Obama is praying for.

Lift the Siege of Gaza

By Patrick J. Buchanan

n June 1948, our wartime ally imposed a

Iblockade on Berlin, cutting off and conAUGUST 2010

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demning to death or Stalinist domination two million Germans, most of whom, not long before, had cheered Adolf Hitler.

Harry Truman responded with the Berlin airlift, in perhaps the most magnanimous act of the Cold War. For nine months, U.S. pilots flew into Tempelhof, carrying everything from candy to coal, saving a city and earning the eternal gratitude of the people of Berlin, and admiration everywhere that moral courage is admired.

That was an America that lived its values.

And today, President Obama should end his and his country’s shameful silence over the inhumane blockade of Gaza that is denying 1.5 million beleaguered people the basic necessities of a decent life.

Time to start acting like America again.

That bloody debacle in the Eastern Mediterranean on May 31 was an inevitable result of Israel doing what it always seems to do: going beyond what is essential to her security, to impose collective punishment upon any and all it regards as hostile to Israel.

Israel claims, and film confirms, that its commandos rappelling down onto the Turkish ship were attacked with sticks and metal rods. One was tossed off a deck, another tossed overboard into a lifeboat.

But that 2 a.m. boarding of an unarmed ship with an unarmed crew, carrying no munitions or weapons, 65 miles at sea, was an act of piracy. What the Israeli commandos got is what any armed hijacker should expect who tries to steal a car from a driver who keeps a tire iron under the front seat.

And the response of these highly trained naval commandos to the resistance they encountered? They shot and killed nine passengers, and wounded many more.

But we have a blockade of Gaza, say the Israelis, and this flotilla was a provocation.

Indeed, it was. And Selma was a provocation. The marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge were disobeying orders of the governor of Alabama and state police not to march.

Yet, today, liberal Democrats who regard Martin Luther King as a moral hero for championing nonviolent civil disobedience to protest injustice are cheering not the unarmed passengers trying to break the Gaza blockade, but the Israelis enforcing the blockade.

Where were these fellows when “Bull” Connor really needed them?

Comes the retort: Israel is a friend and ally, and we stand with our friends.

But is not Turkey a friend and ally of 50 Copyright 2010 Creators.com. Reprinted by permission of Patrick J. Buchanan and Creators Syndicate, Inc. AUGUST 2010

years, whose soldiers died alongside ours in Korea and who accepted Jupiter missiles targeted on Russia, even before the Cuban missile crisis? Was it not Turkey whose citizens were wounded and killed in the bloody debacle?

Why are we not at least even-handed between our friends?

On the trip to Israel where he was blindsided by news that Israel would build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, Joe Biden told Shimon Peres, “There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security.”

And that is the problem.

America is a superpower with interests in an Arab world of 300 million and an Islamic world of 1.5 billion—interests Israel treats with indifference if not contempt when it comes to doing what she regards as necessary for her security.

While Israel had a right to build a wall to protect her people from terror attack, did she have a right to build it on Palestinian land?

While Israel had a right to go after Hezbollah when her soldiers were shot on the border and several kidnapped, did Israel have a right to conduct a five-week bombing campaign that smashed Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians and creating upward of a million refugees?

While Israel had a right to go into Gaza to stop the firing of crude rockets on Sderot, did she have a right to smash utilities and public buildings and kill 1,400 people, most of them civilians?

Is whatever Israel decides to do in the name of her security fine with us, because there is “absolutely no space” between our interests and hers, our values and Israel’s values?

Even with Winston Churchill’s Britain, there was “space” between us on strategic goals and national policies.

Israel has a right to secure Gaza to deny Hamas access to weapons, especially rockets that could reach Israel. But that does not justify denying 1.5 million people what they need to live in decency.

According to The Washington Post, “80 percent of the population [of Gaza] depends on charity. Hospitals, schools, electricity systems and sewage treatment facilities are all in deep disrepair.”

With our silence, we support this. And we wonder why they hate us.

Obama should tell the Israelis that Joe got it wrong. There is space between us.

The Gaza siege must end. And America will herself be sending aid, but will also support Israel’s right to inspect trucks and ships to see to it no weapons get through to Gaza.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Let’s start behaving like who we once were.

A Flash of Lightning

By Uri Avnery

ight. Utter darkness. Heavy rain. Vis-

Nibility close to nil.

And suddenly—a flash of lightning. For a fraction of a second, the landscape is lit up. For this split second, the terrain surrounding us can be seen. It is not the way it used to be.

Our government’s action against the Gaza aid flotilla was such a lightning flash.

Israelis normally live in darkness as far as seeing the world is concerned. But for that instant, the real landscape around us could be seen, and it looked frightening.

Then the darkness settled down over us, Israel returned to its bubble, the world disappeared from view.

This split second was enough to reveal a dismal scene. On almost all fronts, the situation of the state of Israel has worsened since the last flash of lightning.

The flotilla and the attack on it did not create this landscape. It has been there since our present government was set up.

But the deterioration did not start even then. It began a long time before.

The action of Ehud Barak & Co. only lit up the situation as it is now, and gave it yet another push in the wrong direction.

How does the new landscape look in the light of Barak’s barak (“barak” means lightning in Hebrew)?

The list is headed by a fact that nobody seems to have noticed until now: the death of the Holocaust.

In all the tumult this affair has caused throughout the world, the Holocaust was not even mentioned. True, in Israel there were some who called Recep Tayyip Erdogan “a new Hitler,” and some Israel-haters talked about the “Nazi attack,” but the Holocaust has practically disappeared.

For two generations, our foreign policy used the Holocaust as its main instrument.

The bad conscience of the world determined its attitude toward Israel. The (justified) guilt feelings—either for atrocities committed or for looking the other way— caused Europe and America to treat Israel differently than any other nation—from nuclear armaments to the settlements. All criticism of our governments’ actions was branded automatically as anti-Semitism and silenced.

But time does its work. New tragedies have blunted the world’s senses. For a new Uri Avnery, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, is a founder of Gush Shalom, <www.gush-shalom.org>.

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generation, the Holocaust is a thing of the remote past, a chapter of history. The sense of guilt has disappeared in all countries, except Germany.

The Israeli public did not notice this, because in Israel itself the Shoah is alive and present. Many Israelis are children or grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and the Holocaust has been imprinted on their childhood. Moreover, a huge apparatus ensures that the Holocaust will not disappear from our memory, starting from kindergarten, through ceremonies and memorial days, to organized tours “there.”

Therefore, the Israeli public is shocked to see that the Holocaust has lost its power as a political instrument. Our most valuable weapon has become blunt.

The central pillar of our policy is our alliance with the United States. To use a phrase dear to Binyamin Netanyahu (in another context): it’s ‘the rock of our existence.”

For many years, this alliance has kept us safe from all trouble. We knew that we could always get from the U.S. all we needed: advanced arms to retain our superiority over all Arab armies combined, munitions in times of war, money for our economy, the veto on all U.N. Security Council resolutions against us, automatic support for all the actions of our successive governments. Every small and medium country in the world knew that in order to gain entrance to the palaces of Washington, the Israeli doorkeeper had to be bribed.

But during the last year, cracks have appeared in this pillar. Not the small scratches and chips of wear and tear, but cracks caused by shifts of the ground. The mutual aversion between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu is only one symptom of a much deeper problem, The chief of the Mossad told the Knesset in June: “For the U.S., we have ceased to be an asset and become a burden.”

This fact was put into incisive words by Gen. David Petraeus, when he said that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is endangering the lives of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The later soothing messages did not erase the significance of this warning. (When Petraeus later fainted at a Senate hearing, some religious Jews viewed it as divine punishment.)

Fateful Changes It is not only the Israeli-American relationship that has undergone a fateful change, but the standing of the U.S. itself is changing for the worse, a bad omen indeed for the future of Israeli policy.

The world is changing, slowly and quietly. The U.S. is still by far the most powerful country, but it is no longer the 16

almighty superpower it had been since 1989. China is flexing its muscles, countries like India and Brazil are getting stronger, countries like Turkey—yes, Turkey!—are beginning to play a role.

This is not a matter of one or two years, but anyone who is thinking about the future of Israel in 10, 20 years must understand that unless there is a basic change in our position, our position, too, will decline.

If our alliance with the U.S. is one central pillar of Israeli policy, the support of the vast majority of world Jewry is the second.

For 62 years, we could count on it with our eyes shut. Whatever we did—almost all the world’s Jews stood at attention and saluted. In fire and water, victory or defeat, glorious or dark chapters—the world’s Jews did support us, giving money, demonstrating, pressuring their governments. Without second thoughts, without criticism.

Not anymore. Quietly, almost silently, cracks have appeared in this pillar, too.

Opinion polls show that most American Jewish young people are turning away from Israel. Not shifting their loyalty from the Israeli establishment to Israel’s liberal camp—but turning away from Israel altogether.

This will not be felt immediately either.

AIPAC continues to strike fear into Washingtonian hearts, Congress will continue to dance to its tune. But when the new generation comes to man key positions, the support for Israel will erode, American politicians will stop crawling on their bellies and the U.S. administration will gradually change its relations with us.

In our immediate neighborhood, too, profound changes are underway, some of them beneath the surface. The flotilla incident has exposed them.

The influence of our allies is decreasing constantly. They are losing height, and an old-new power is on the rise: Turkey.

Hosni Mubarak is busy with his efforts to pass power to his son, Gamal. The Islamic opposition in Egypt is raising its head. Saudi money is trumped by the new attraction of Turkey. The Jordanian king is compelled to adapt himself. The axis of Turkey-Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas is the rising power, the axis of Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Fatah is in decline.

But the most important change is the one that is taking place in international public opinion. Any derision of this reminds one of Stalin’s famous sneer (“How many divisions has the pope?”)

Recently, an Israeli TV station showed a fascinating film about the German and Scandinavian female volunteers who THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

flooded Israel in the ‘50s and ‘60s to live and work (and sometimes marry) in the kibbutzim. Israel was then seen as a plucky little nation surrounded by hateful enemies, a state risen from the ashes of the Holocaust to become a haven of freedom, equality and democracy, which found their most sublime expression in that unique creation, the kibbutz.

The present generation of idealistic youngsters from all over the world, male and female, who would once have volunteered for the kibbutzim, can now be found on the decks of the ships sailing for downtrodden, choked and starved Gaza, which touches the hearts of many young people.

The pioneering Israeli David has turned into a brutish Israeli Goliath.

Even a genius of spin could not change this. For years, now, the world sees the state of Israel every day on the TV screen and on the front pages in the image of heavily armed soldiers shooting at stonethrowing children, guns firing phosphorus shells into residential quarters, helicopters executing “targeted eliminations,” and now pirates attacking civilian ships on the open seas. Terrified women with wounded babies in their arms, men with amputated limbs, demolished homes. When one sees a hundred pictures like that for every picture that shows another Israel, Israel becomes a monster. The more so since the Israeli propaganda machine is successfully suppressing any news about the Israeli peace camp.

Many years ago, when I wanted to ridicule the addiction of our leaders to the use of force, I paraphrased a saying that reflects much of Jewish wisdom: “if force does not work, use brains.” In order to show how far we, the Israelis, are different from the Jews, I changed the words: “If force doesn’t work, use more force.”

I thought of it as a joke. But, as happens to many jokes in our country, it has become reality. It is now the credo of many primitive Israelis, headed by Ehud Barak.

In practice, the security of a state depends on many factors, and military force is but one of them. In the long run, world public opinion is stronger. The pope has many divisions.

In many respects, Israel is still a strong country. But, as the sudden illumination of the flotilla affair has shown, time is not working in our favor. We should deepen our roots in the world and in the region— which means making peace with our neighbors—as long as we are as strong as we are now.

If force doesn’t work, more force will not necessarily work either.

If force doesn’t work, force doesn’t work.

Period. ❑ AUGUST 2010

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Israeli Democracy—Lost at Sea SpecialReport

By Awatef Sheikh ne assumes there is a general interna-

racy entails. If that includes freedom of speech and of political expression, however, then the majority of Israel’s Jewish citizens and members of the Knesset (MKs) disagree. In Israel, you are free to speak as long as what you say appeals to the Israeli political elite and media; if not, then you must be silenced and “vomited” from their “shrine of democracy”—as Reuven Revlin, the chair of the Knesset, proudly describes the Israeli parliament when hosting foreign officials. Indeed, Israel religiously protects its ‘shrine’; the question is, shrine to what?

Israel’s May 31 naval attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing nine peace activists and injuring dozens more, its kidnapping of the ships and passengers and subsequent jailing of the unarmed civilian activists—all in violation of international law—shocked the world.

The unprecedented international outrage and condemnation was embarrassing—and confusing—to the state’s political elite.

The scenes at the Knesset over the following days, however, only compounded the initial shock. For when National Democratic Assembly MK Haneen Zoabi, who took part in the flotilla that aimed to break the siege on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid long denied by Israel, was called to the podium to speak as part of a scheduled Knesset discussion on the flotilla events, her fellow parliamentarians from opposition and coalition parties alike tried to stop her from speaking, shouting at Zoabi and describing her in all sorts of disgraceful chauvinist and sexist terms, attacking her as an Arab and a woman.

Her crime, apparently, was that she was doing her job as an MK, expressing political views and taking part in political activity, all within the rule of law and exercises in democratic expression. But in the Knesset’s prevailing atmosphere of frustration and confusion she became the only flotilla participant her Israeli counterparts could “get their hands on” to vent their spleen—the rest having either been killed, injured, jailed or deported.

Awatef Sheikh, a former parliamentary aide to an Arab MK, is a free-lance consultant and journalist.

AUGUST 2010

AFP PHOTO/TOMER APPLEBAUM

Otional consensus about what democ-

Israeli Knesset members, including Yisrael Beiteinu’s Anastassia Michaeli (c, blonde hair), storm the podium in an attempt to prevent Arab Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi (r, at podium) from speaking about the Free Gaza Flotilla, in which she was a participant.

Interestingly, the most vitriolic attacks came from other female MKs. One, Anastassia Michaeli from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s racist Yisrael Beiteinu party, stormed the podium in an attempt to physically attack Zoabi. She was stopped

by Knesset guards just inches from reaching Zoabi, but managed to grab her arm to try to pull her from the podium. While being removed by security, Michaeli shouted: “We should not let a traitor talk in the Knesset. We are a democratic country, but there is a limit….”

Eli Aflalo from the “centrist” Kadima repeatedly called Zoabi a “traitor,” shouting, “We need to vomit her from this Knesset!”

MK David Rotem of Yisrael Beiteinu called Zoabi and other Arab MKs “bastards.” And when Zoabi asked Likud MK Yohanan Plessner not to touch her while arguing with him, he replied: “I will touch you like no other man ever has.”

Later, addressing Arab MKs, the National Union’s Arieh Eldad said, “The blueand-white flag is yours. You are in the Jewish state even if your bowels turn.”

When the Knesset House Committee was summoned to discuss a request to strip Zoabi of her parliamentary rights, the discussion sunk to an unprecedented vulgar THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

and abusive level, to such a degree that the chair ordered some of the expressions to be deleted from the record. The Knesset security assigned personal guards to accompany Zoabi 24/7—even inside the Knesset, among her fellow MKs. “I didn’t feel anger,” Zoabi told the Washington Report, “but rather contempt as MKs acted like a racist mob with no human values or the ability to conduct a political discussion with minimal levels of respect.”

A few days later, the Knesset House Committee voted 7-1 to strip Zoabi of some of her parliamentary rights for taking part in the flotilla. Almost all the MKs called for more extreme measures against her, including her dismissal from the Knesset, revocation of her citizenship, imprisonment, and expulsion from Israel. According to a Haaretz newspaper poll, 80 percent of the Israeli public thinks Zoabi should be punished for taking part in the flotilla; 38 percent regarded stripping her of Israeli citizenship as adequate punishment.

Of course, the assault on democracy in Israel is not breaking news. The torrent of violent, racist abuse by MKs and the Israeli public toward Zoabi and the more than 600 international civilians who participated in Continued on page 42 17

williams_18_United Nations Report 6/24/10 2:01 PM Page 18

Israel Tries to “Goldstone” International Investigation of Flotilla Attack

United Nations Report

AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI

By Ian Williams

In the West Bank village of Bil’in, where nonviolent protests against Israel’s apartheid wall are held every Friday, a foreign journalist wearing a gas mask throws an Israeli soldier to the ground near a model of a Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship, June 4, 2010. he first week in May saw a media storm

Tin Israel when the Hebrew tabloid

Yediot Ahronot broke the news that, while he was an appeals court judge in apartheid South Africa, Richard Goldstone was in some way linked to rejecting the appeals of 28 death sentences.

As one of Napoleon’s generals said of the emperor’s kidnapping and execution of a member of the royal family, “It’s worse than a crime—it’s a blunder.” Even more than the 2008-9 Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a self-inflicted diplomatic disaster, which it seems to be determined to exacerbate. One of the problems for the Israeli worldview is that it tends to use Capitol Hill as a mirror: if the suckers there will swallow the big lies, the reasoning goes, so will everyone else.

And it is true, the suckers did some impressive swallowing. To see so-called progressives like New York City Reps. Charles Rangel and Jerry Nadler standing in Times Ian Williams is a free-lance journalist based at the United Nations and has a blog at <www.deadlinepundit.blogspot.com>.

18

Square calling upon the State Department to deny entry to witnesses of the attack on the flotilla was almost as nauseating as the cold-blooded murder of the nine crew members. As Patrick Buchanan teasingly pointed out (see p. 14), it is as if they supported the gunning down of the Freedom Marchers in the South, or the summary execution of Rosa Parks for sitting in the wrong part of the bus.

At the U.N. itself, determined to give new depths to the meaning of chutzpah (gall), the Israeli mission officially complained to the U.N. Correspondents Association because the latter body had screened video footage of the attack that the IDF had failed to find and confiscate.

The mission insisted that it should be allowed to present its doctored video immediately afterward to rebut Iara Lee’s June 9 screening at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The U.N. Correspondents Association has never allowed real time “rebuttal” of its invited guests by governments or others, leaving that to the correspondents’ questions.

Israeli spokesperson Mirit Cohen called this “severely unethical”—in contrast, of

course, to the continuous screening by most American media of the heavily edited Israeli clips, or indeed in contrast to the highly ethical murder of nine people and the ethical slandering of them as al-Qaeda supporters afterward!

Indeed, the bullet hole in the head of Turkish news photographer Cevdet Kiliçlar could be considered somewhat “unethical” even by the “fair-minded journalists” Cohen brazenly invoked to back the Israeli mission’s complaint, not to mention the confiscation of cameras, recorders, notebooks and any other press materials on the boats.

But then perhaps the Israelis were encouraged by the anodyne response of the Security Council to the incident itself. To look on the cup-half-full side, the U.S. did join all the other Council members in supporting a statement that called for a credible international investigation and condemning the loss of life. But the price for U.S. support was that it was a statement—not a resolution.

In defense of the Obama administration, however, it can be no bad thing to be attacked by Elliott Abrams for exposing Israel to a virtual U.N. “lynch mob.” Added Abrams, “The White House did not wish to stand with Israel against this mob because it does not have a policy of solidarity with Israel. Rather, its policy is one of distancing and pressure.”

Sadly, it is a great big giant step for an American president to say “tut tut,” to mass murder by Israel, albeit only a tiny totter for the rest of mankind. In fact to be fair, it followed on another step, when the U.S. suggested at the U.N. nuclear non-proliferation treaty meeting that this included Israel as well—even though that was more of an “Ahem!” without the severity of a “tut tut.”

Admittedly, under the previous administration it would have been unthinkable for the U.S. to allow even so mild a reproof as that statement through. Requesting the immediate release of the ships and prisoners, the Security Council managed an extra level of caution by taking note “of the Continued on page 20 AUGUST 2010

fisher_19-20_Special Report 6/24/10 2:07 PM Page 19

Peace Groups Slam High Court Ruling on “Terror Support” SpecialReport

By William Fisher n the wake of the Supreme Court’s June

crime to provide any “material support” to an organization designated as “terrorist” by the U.S. government, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter charged that the law “actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence.”

Carter, whose organization, the Carter Center, filed a “friend of the court” brief in the case, said in a statement, “We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has upheld a law that inhibits the work of human rights and conflict resolution groups.”

“The vague language of the law leaves us wondering if we will be prosecuted for our work to promote peace and freedom,” he added.

Carter joined numerous civil and human rights advocates in attacking the court’s 63 ruling “to criminalize speech” in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. It was the first case to challenge the PATRIOT Act before the highest court in the land, and the first post-9/11 case to pit free speech guarantees against national security claims.

Attorneys say that under the court’s ruling, many groups and individuals providing peaceful advocacy could be prosecuted, including President Carter, for training all parties in fair election practices in Lebanon.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s majority, affirming in part, reversing in part, and remanding the case back to the lower court for review.

Justice Stephen Breyer dissented and read his dissent aloud before his fellow justices—always a sign of an opinion very deeply felt. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.

The court held that the statute’s prohibitions on “expert advice,” “training,” “service” and “personnel” were not vague, and did not violate speech or associational rights as applied to plaintiffs’ intended activities.

Plaintiffs sought to provide assistance and education on human rights advocacy Copyright © 2010 IPS-Interpress Service. All rights reserved.

AUGUST 2010

AFP PHOTO/MANDEL NGAN

I20 decision upholding a law making it a

Ruling on Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project were Supreme Court Justices (front row, lr) Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and (back row, l-r) Samuel Alito, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. and peacemaking to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey, a designated terrorist organization. Multiple lower court rulings had found the statute unconstitutionally vague.

The plaintiffs’ lead lawyer, Georgetown Law Center’s David Cole, a widely respected constitutional scholar, sees the “material support” paradigm of “pre-emptively weeding out threats to national security, guilt by association” resurrected from the McCarthy era.

He told IPS, “While it was illegal in the 1950s to be a member of the Communist Party, it is now a crime to support an individual or organization on a terror watch list, although the government can designate and freeze assets without a showing of actual ties to terrorism or illegal acts.”

Cole asserts that support for the lawful activities of a designated group should not be unlawful, and that the not-for-profit sector needs to insist that constitutional rights apply in the war on terror. He is calling for changes in the enabling legislation when Congress returns from its August recess.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

“While the House Un-American Activities Committee once relied on the private sector to mete out punishment through the destruction of reputations and careers, today measures such as the Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines have turned funders into the new enforcers. In this light, the nonprofit sector has an obligation to resist such a partnership with government,” he says.

The court rejected the government’s argument that the statute, when applied to plaintiffs’ proposed speech, regulated not speech but conduct, and therefore needed to meet only a low standard—“intermediate scrutiny”—to survive.

Instead, the court found that the statute did criminalize speech on the basis of its content, but then found that the government’s interest in delegitimizing groups on the designated “terrorist organization” list was sufficiently great to overcome the heightened level of scrutiny.

This is one of a very few times that the Supreme Court has upheld a criminal prohibition of speech under strict scrutiny, and the first time it has permitted the gov19

fisher_19-20_Special Report 6/24/10 2:08 PM Page 20

ernment to make it a crime to advocate lawful, nonviolent activity.

One constitutional authority, law professor Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois law school, told IPS that the decision upheld the government’s position as set out by the solicitor general, Elena Kagan, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Boyle said that Kagan “argued this case as solicitor general and maintained during oral argument that any lawyer who filed an amicus [friend of the court] brief in a U.S. court on behalf of a designated terrorist organization would be violating the material support statute and thus risk criminal prosecution.”

Boyle said Kagan’s arguments in this case “demonstrate emphatically why she must not be confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court. She has driven yet another nail into the coffin of the First Amendment and the U.S. Bill of Rights that was originally constructed by the [George W.] Bush administration with the USA PATRIOT Act.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the court’s ruling “thwarts the efforts of human rights organizations to persuade violent actors to renounce violence or cease their human rights abuses and jeopardizes the provision of aid and disaster relief in conflict zones controlled by designated groups.”

Under the law, individuals face up to 15 years in prison for providing “material support” to foreign terrorist organizlations, even if their work is intended to promote peaceful, lawful objectives. ❑

Flotilla Attack…

Continued from page 18

statement of the U.N. secretary-general on the need to have a full investigation into the matter and [calling] for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards.” It also stressed “the need for sustained and regular flow of goods and people to Gaza as well as unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian aid.”

However, just as Washington thwarted a full resolution on the Goldstone Report but the consequences live on, so does this demand. Ban Ki-moon crafted a credible set up for an international inquiry, but is still waiting to hear from Israel—which, of course, does not want an impartial inquiry.

The Israeli investigating body, to be headed by Supreme Court Justice Jacob 20

Turkel, includes two elderly Israelis: 93year-old international law professor Shabtai Rosen, and 86-year-old Maj. Gen. (res.)

Amos Horev, who, in his younger days, is reported to have carried out an extrajudicial castration of a Palestinian, and two international members. One is David Trimble, the former Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, who recently joined a pro-Israel group with Dore Gold and John Bolton, and anyway comes from a group that considers the Palestinians to be, if not positively Papist, at least the IRA in another form. For some people, the fact that Tony Blair may have proposed Trimble might detract even further from his credibility. Just in case that is not defense enough, however, he and his Canadian colleague, Ken Watkin, are only observers on a domestic, politically appointed inquiry that cannot call for evidence from the IDF, which actually perpetrated the deed. One can also suspect that Watkin was nominated, or supported, by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under whom Ottawa has abandoned any pretense of support for international law whenever Israel is involved.

But over at the U.N. Human Rights Council, the members voted to set up an independent inquiry—despite a high probability that its members would be thoroughly “goldstoned” in the U.S. and Israeli media—and Ban Ki-moon stubbornly continued to brandish his proposal to have a genuine impartial and international inquiry, with Israeli and Turkish representation, chaired by Geoffrey Palmer, the former New Zealand prime minister.

Despite the blandness of the U.S., and consequently the U.N., response, it is clear that Israel completely lost the propaganda war. Not only did it lose almost all the European support it had conjured up with constant repetition of the “terrorism” mantra, not only has it lost its only friend in the region, Turkey—it has also broken the siege of Gaza, since even Hosni Mubarak could not maintain the blockade after the barbarity of the flotilla attack.

Perhaps more pointedly, the Israelis have had to admit that they were maintaining a “quality of life” blockade, banning books, paper, coriander and hundreds of capriciously chosen goods with no conceivable military purpose—and they have promised to lift it.

That promise is almost certainly a function of cajoling from the Obama administration, trading a blockade relaxation against U.S. support for a U.N. inquiry or THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

support for the Israeli show trial in reverse.

(Show trials always find the prisoners guilty. The Israeli version always exonerates the IDF, whatever the evidence.).

The problem, of course, is that while Ban Ki-moon, schooled by his staff who have to deal with the Israelis, seems to have learned about Israeli obfuscation, Obama and his team have infinite reserves of either patience, stupidity or endless tolerance for expediency. Which is why UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness declared, “We need to have the blockade fully lifted.

The Israeli strategy is to make the international community talk about a bag of cement here, a project there. We need full unfettered access through all the crossings.” He told Reuters, “The list of restricted goods is a moving target. We are never told this is banned and that is banned”—stressing that he was referring to supplies for the U.N. that Israel publicly claims it has no qualms about.

So it is fitting that the Quartet’s statement on Israel’s offer “re-affirms that the current situation in Gaza, including the humanitarian and human rights situation of the civilian population, is unsustainable, unacceptable, and not in the interests of any of those concerned.” It reiterated its call for “the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza, consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1860 (2009).”

It then moves into diplo-speak: “The new policy toward Gaza just announced by the government of Israel is a welcome development. The Quartet notes that the elaboration of further details and modalities of implementation will be important in ensuring the effectiveness of the new policy. Full and effective implementation will comprise a significant shift in strategy toward meeting the needs of Gaza’s population for humanitarian and commercial goods, civilian reconstruction and infrastructure, and legitimate economic activity as well as the security needs of Israel.”

In other words, Israel will still arbitrarily hold up traffic on the borders, perhaps only refraining from doing so if it means Israeli businesses will lose custom to the Egyptians on the other end of Gaza. However, thanks to the flotilla, and the nine dead, there will be a lot more scrutiny of what Israel does and how it compares with what it says.

But we still wait for Washington to stop turning the other cheek, while hoping it will not take as long as it will for congressmen to stop swallowing sewage in public. ❑ AUGUST 2010

helping_hand_19_Helping Hand Ad 3/30/10 12:05 PM Page 19

omer_22-23_Gaza on the Ground 6/24/10 2:38 PM Page 22

Bureaucracy vs. Occupation: Hamas Government Bulldozes Gazans’ Homes

Gazaon the Ground

By Mohammed Omer

PHOTO IMAD OMER

A resident of Rafah stands in the ruins of her home after it was demolished by the Hamas government.

n a strange interpretation of eminent do-

Imain—the government’s right to take pri-

vate property for public use—on the morning of May 16 the Gaza Strip’s Hamas-led government, citing a lack of building permits and the need to requisition the land for public use—in this case, to build the Dawaa and Humanitarian Science College—dispatched bulldozers to the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza. The machines typically associated with Israeli occupation forces immediately began flattening the targeted homes, the residents of which insist they were given little or no notice, and that their claims to their homes are valid.

Many of the homes in the targeted district belonged to Gazans who had lost their houses during Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 attack on Gaza dubbed Operation Cast Lead. Following the murderous 22-day attack, the Hamas government announced it would allow the reconstruction of more than 1,000 housing units, many to be rebuilt with cement smuggled through tunnels between Rafah and Egypt. Prior to the assault, however, in November 2008, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports on the Gaza Strip, and maintains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>. He can be reached at <gazanews@yahoo.com>.

22

designated the land for the construction of a new university and sports field dedicated to science and humanitarian efforts. Unfortunately, the post-attack decree failed to cancel the earlier one. So the homeowners rebuilt. And on May 16, the bulldozers arrived.

From Homeowner to Homeless One of the victims is 41-year-old Issa Al Sududi. “I had no prior warning,” he said, staring at the remnants of his home in shock. When he tried to stop the demolition, police officers beat him, until a policeman who recognized Issa stopped the assault. Issa’s wife, overwhelmed, collapsed while resisting the police. She was transferred to the hospital with an injured left arm and leg.

Samir Zaquot, 46, lives in the Al Barahma residential area. Prior to 2005 it was impossible for Palestinians to live here because of its proximity to the Jewish-only colony at Rafiah Yam. When Israel withdrew the settlers and dismantled the colony, Samir built his home on a 150-meter plot, using cement smuggled into Gaza through the life-line tunnels. He, his wife and their five children have lived in the house since 2006. But on May 16, it was demolished.

Yet another victim is newlywed and father-to-be Attef Abu Azzoum. He and his

pregnant wife lost all their belongings when their home fell to the bulldozers.

Even though they have nowhere else to go, the government will not allow the couple to sleep on the ruins of their home.

Fahmi Al Ghazawi, his wife, Shadia, and their four children moved to Rafah from Gaza City’s Al Zaytoun neighborhood after their home was destroyed by Israel during Operation Cast Lead. Al Ghazawi built their new home as an act of civil disobedience, to challenge the Israeli siege and blockade of Gaza. Now it has been razed by Hamas. Determined to remain in the ruins of his home, he vows he will not give up, noting he has little choice.

Thirty-one families—190 people—are newly homeless in Gaza. In three hours, 12 residential structures were destroyed, according to the United Nations Officer for Humanitarian Affairs in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Residents who resisted the demolition of their homes, including Al Sududi and his wife, were beaten with sticks and guns. Adding insult to injury, Hamas government officials claim the homes were razed because “they were built on public land and with no permits.” For more than 40 years, tens of thousands of Palestinians living under occupation have had their homes demolished by Israeli forces on similar charges. Surely they never could have anticipated that their own government officials would resort to the same behavior.

The legality of demolishing the homes remains a major issue for many human rights groups, noted Rafah Mayor Issa Al Nashar.

In an interview with the Washington Report, however, he insisted that the demolished structures were built illegally and hence considered “aggressions on public properties.”

According to the mayor, building on public prosperity requires approval from the Lands Authority as well as a license from the municipality. His, he said, is committed to “stopping all those who are trying to gain money illegally by confiscating public property.” Informed that Atef Abu Azzoum had paid $4,500 for his 200 meters of land, the mayor responded that was too small an amount for a legal purchase. Mayor Al Nashar did not indicate, however, whether landlords who sold the land to the residents would be fully investigated, noting that “the man who sold the [land on which the houses were built] has died recently.”

AUGUST 2010

omer_22-23_Gaza on the Ground 6/24/10 2:39 PM Page 23

The affected families were given warning of the demolitions via the media and letters of notification, the mayor added, but Al Ghazawi disagreed. “No warnings were given,” he insisted, saying he was surprised to see the bulldozer demolishing the room he had added on to his house to accommodate his elderly mother.

De Facto Governments When Hamas won the January 2006 parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza, it generally praised any housing construction as a challenge to the Israeli siege.

Prior to 2005, families living close to Jewish-only colonies in Gaza endured near daily bombings by the Israeli military and attacks by settlers; after Israel dismantled the illegal settlements, these families were viewed as heroes. Now, suddenly, an internal threat to their existence has replaced the external one Dr. Ibrahim Ibrash, professor of political science at Gaza’s Al Azhar University, characterized Hamas’ house demoliton policy as “imposing power on the ground.” Not only was it “illegal,” he added, but “the timing is inappropriate…even if such demolitions of houses happened under a legitimate government and not de facto government, [it] is

still not acceptable at a time when people are suffering shortages of construction materials.”

The elected term of Hamas officials ended in January of this year, yet in the absence of new elections they remain in power. In Ramallah, the term of President Mahmoud Abbas expired on Jan. 9, 2009, but he unilaterally extended his term for one year. As a result, after the democratic elections of January 2006, described as free and fair by international observers including President Jimmy Carter, Palestinians living under Israeli occupation once again are governed by unelected officials.

Both locally and internationally, criticism of Hamas is increasing over the demolitions and the use of capital punishment. In April, two Palestinians were executed on suspicion of treason. On May 18, the Hamas Ministry of Interior announced the dawn execution by firing squad of three Palestinians found guilty of murder in 2005.

While the Ministry said the executions were carried out in accordance with Palestinian law, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) emphatically declared the executions “illegitimate and illegal” because they were not approved by the head of the PA, Abbas, as Palestinian law requires.

More Demolitions?

Hamas has scheduled approximately 200 more houses for demolition in the coming weeks. Families living in the areas wait apprehensively, unsure if tomorrow their homes may be gone. For the 31 Palestinian families whose homes were razed May 16, the irony of the date—coming one day after the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba, the day of mourning marking the initial ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the 1948 establishment of Israel—only rubbed salt in their wounds. Rafah Mayor Nashar refused comment on this during our interview, saying the timing had nothing to do with anything other than “implementing law and order.”

In another bitter irony, as the Hamas government presses forward with its plans to continue demolishing homes in the south of Gaza, it handed over the first of 1,000 houses to be rebuilt in East Jabalya to its new owner. That a Palestinian family received a home from Gaza’s ruling party is of little comfort to the families in Rafah who lost their homes to bulldozers on May 16, however. For them, many agree, it’s like reliving the Nakba—only this time at the hands of their own government. ❑

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AUGUST 2010

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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AFP PHOTO /FILES/LUKE FRAZZA

The Campaign Against Helen Thomas

At an April 30, 1998 White House press conference, President Bill Clinton answers a question from veteran reporter Helen Thomas.

Helen Thomas Deserves Praise

By Paul Findley

earless, decent seeker-of-truth Helen

FThomas, 89, the pre-eminent chal-

lenger of political power for a half-century as dean of White House correspondents, has resigned her position with Hearst Newspapers. She acted in the wake of controversy that erupted when she was asked by a rabbi, during Jewish Heritage Week, for any comments on Israel. “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.” While speaking plainly on behalf of the rule of law in occupied Palestine, her message was subPaul Findley, who resides in Jacksonville, IL, served 22 years as a U.S. representative from Illinois. He is the author of a highly praised biography, A. Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress, and four books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the latest being a memoir with the working title, Taking the High Road: Confronting Bias, Bigotry, War. It is scheduled for publication next spring by Lawrence Hill Books.

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merged when reporters gave it an anti-Semitic twist by quoting words out of context.

It is a sad finale to an unprecedented career in aggressive, constructive journalism. In her departure from the White House newsroom, America is the loser. The Washington press corps contains few with Thomas’ talent in challenging power closeup.

The fiasco started when Thomas was asked to comment on Israel after a White House briefing in late May. In an extemporaneous burst of passion she said, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied, and it’s their land.” When asked where they should go, Thomas said they should “go home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else.” Her intent was unmistakable: Jews are unlawfully residing in occupied Palestine and should leave. She made no reference to Jews in pre-1967 Israel, where all Jews can lawfully reside.

Out-of-context reports on her comments THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

stirred angry controversy. Several commentators failed to report the words “America and everywhere else.” This left Thomas’ quoted words suggesting only Poland and Germany, countries identified with extermination camps for Jews in World War II, as the only destinations for those Thomas would expel. The warped reports led Diane Nine, her longtime literary agent and friend, to cut ties. She was uninvited after agreeing to be commencement speaker at a Washington, DC-area high school, and was falsely smeared as a bigot and anti-Semite by leaders of Jewish organizations. Time columnist Joe Klein wanted her moved from her traditional front row seat to the back at future White House news briefings.

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who served President George W. Bush, told reporters she should be fired by employer Hearst Newspapers or at least lose her White House credentials.

Attempts to link Thomas’ outburst to Nazi crematories are contemptible. In denouncing Thomas, Klein and others mention only Poland and Germany as places Thomas wants Jews now in Palestine to go.

If they included “America and everywhere else,” as Thomas actually stated, the attempted linkage of past Holocaust crematories would be blurred if not lost.

True to her reputation, Thomas spoke up for human rights, the fundamental property rights of Palestinians that are violated at an ever-rising pace in occupied Palestine by the government of Israel, with no serious opposition from the United States, Israel’s main benefactor. Thanks to an intimidated U.S. media, most Americans are unaware of the plight of Palestinians, who are all Arab and mostly Muslim. Almost all Jews who live in what is left of Palestine are euphemistically called “settlers” by U.S. media, not as unlawful occupiers. By residing in Palestine, they violate international law, Geneva Accords, and clear stipulations of the U.N. Charter. The rare exceptions are a handful of Jews who belong to a peaceful, independent sect.

This dark, undeserved cloud over the reputation of an unrelenting grand champion of human rights will have a silver lining if it awakens the American people to their own quiet, complicit role in Israel’s sustained violation of Palestinian rights.

AUGUST 2010

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I offer unique credentials in defending Thomas. Although a lifelong admirer, I first met her in October 2009 at a dinner in Washington. When I greeted her, she addressed me as They Dare to Speak Out Findley, using the title of my bestseller book published in 1985. At my invitation she spoke this past April to a capacity, enthusiastic crowd at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. While hosting her at dinner the previous evening, I found her a delightful, warm, compassionate human being dedicated to equal justice for all.

For her edifying outburst, Helen Thomas should be congratulated, not condemned. It could prove to be one of her finest contributions in our nation’s oftenfaltering quest for justice.

Cashiering Helen Thomas

By Ralph Nader

he termination of Helen Thomas’ 62-

Tyear-long career as a pioneering, no-

nonsense newswoman was swift and intriguingly merciless.

The event leading to her termination began when she was sitting on a White House bench under oppressive summer heat. The 89-year-old hero of honest journalism and women’s rights, the scourge of dissembling presidents and White House press secretaries, answered a passing visitor’s question about Israel with a snappish comment worded in a way she didn’t mean; she promptly apologized in writing (see <http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/8 /veteran_white_house_reporter_helen_tho mas>). Recorded without permission on a hand video, the brief exchange, that included a defense of dispossessed Palestinians, went Internet viral on Friday, June 7.

By Monday, Helen Thomas was considered finished, even though she embodied a steadfast belief, in the praiseworthy words of Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, “that anybody standing on that podium [in the White House] should be regarded with skepticism.”

Over the weekend, her lecture agent dropped her. Her column syndicator, the Hearst company, pressed her to quit “effective immediately,” and, it was believed that the White House Correspondents Association, of which she was the first female president, was about to take away her coveted front row seat in the White House press Ralph Nader is an author, activist, consumer advocate and former presidential candidate.

This “In the Public Interest” column was first posted June 15, 2010 on <www.nader.org>.

Reprinted with permission.

AUGUST 2010

room.

Then, Helen Thomas announced her retirement on Monday, June 10. No doubt she’s had her fill of ethnic, sexist and ageist epithets hurled her way over the years— the very decades she was broadly challenging racism, sexism and, more recently, ageism.

Although the behind-the-scenes story has yet to come out, the evisceration was launched by two pro-Israeli war hawks, Ari Fleischer and Lanny Davis. Fleischer was George W. Bush’s press secretary who bridled under Helen Thomas’ questioning regarding the horrors of the Bush-Cheney war crimes and illegal torture. His job was not to answer this uppity woman but to deflect, avoid and cover up for his bosses.

Davis was the designated defender whenever Clinton got into hot water. As journalist Paul Jay pointed out, he is now a Washington lobbyist whose clients include the cruel corporate junta that overthrew the elected president of Honduras. Both men rustled up the baying pack of Thomas-haters during the weekend and filled the unanswered narrative on Fox and other facilitating media.

Then, belatedly, something remarkable occurred. People reacted against this grossly disproportionate punishment. Ellen Ratner, a Fox News contributor, wrote, “I’m Jewish and a supporter of Israel. Let’s face it: we all have said things—or thought things—about ‘other’ groups of people, things that we wouldn’t want to see in print or on video. Anyone who denies it is a liar. Give her [Helen] a break.”

Apparently, many people agree. In an Internet poll by The Washington Post, 92 percent of respondents said she should not be removed from the White House press room. As an NPR listener, R. Carey, e-mailed: “D.C. would be void of journalists if they all were to quit, get fired or retire after making potentially offensive comments.”

Listen to Michael Freedman, former managing editor for United Press International: “After seven decades of setting standards for quality journalism and demolishing barriers for women in the workplace, Helen Thomas has now shown that most dreaded of vulnerabilities—she is human….Who among us does not have strong feelings about the endless warfare in the Middle East? Who among us has said something we have come to regret?.... Let’s not destroy Ms. Thomas now.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, wrote: “Thomas was the only accredited White House correspondent with the guts to ask Bush the THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tough questions that define a free press….

Her remarks were offensive, but considering her journalistic moxie and courage over many decades—a sharp contrast to the despicable deeds committed by so many littering the Washington political scene—isn’t there room for someone who made a mistake, apologized for it and wants to continue speaking truth to power and asking tough questions?”

Last week, in front of the White House, people calling themselves “Jews for Helen Thomas” gathered in a small demonstration. Medea Benajmin, co-founder of Global Exchange, declared that “We are clear what Helen Thomas meant to say, which is that Israel should cease its occupation of Palestine and we agree with that.” While another demonstrator, Zool Zulkowitz, asserted that “by discrediting Helen Thomas, those who believe that Israel can do no wrong shift attention from the public relations debacle of the Gaza flotilla killings, and intimidate journalists who would ask hard questions about the Israeli occupation of Palestine and American foreign policy.”

Helen Thomas, who grew up in Detroit, is an American of Arab descent. She is understandably alert to the one-sided U.S. military and foreign policy in that region.

Her questions reflect concerns about U.S. policy in the Middle East by many Americans, including unmuzzled retired military, diplomatic and intelligence officials.

In 2006 when George W. Bush finally called on her, she started her questioning by saying, “Your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of Americans and Iraqis.

Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true.” Or when she challenged President Obama last month, asking “When are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse?”

Asking the “why” questions was a Thomas trademark. Many self-censoring journalists avoid controversial “why” questions, thereby allowing evasion, dissembling and just plain B.S. to dominate the White House press room. She rejected words that sugarcoated or camouflaged the grim deeds. She started with the grim deeds to expose the doubletalk and officialdom’s chronic illegalities.

What appalled Thomas most is the way the media rolls over and fails to hold officials accountable. (British reporters believe they are tougher on their prime ministers.)

This is a subject about which she has written books and articles—not exactly the way to endear herself to those reporters who go AWOL and look the other way, so 25

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that they can continue to be called upon or to be promoted by their superiors.

The abysmal record of The New York Times and The Washington Post in the months preceding the Iraq invasion filled with Bush-Cheney lies, deception, and cover-ups is a case in point. As usual, she was proven right, not the celebrated reporters and columnists deprecating her work, including the Post’s press critic, Howard Kurtz.

Thomas practiced her profession with a deep regard for the people’s right to know.

To her, as Aldous Huxley noted long ago, “facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

Lastly, there is the double standard. One off-hand “ill-conceived remark,” as NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard stated in praising Ms. Thomas, ended a groundbreaking career. While enhanced careers and fat lecture fees are the reward for ultra-right-wing radio and cable ranters, and others like columnist Ann Coulter, who regularly urge wars, mayhem and dragnets based on bigotry, stereotypes and falsehoods directed wholesale against Muslims, including a blatant anti-semitism against Arabs. (See <http://www.adc.org/education/education al-resources/> and Jack Shaheen’s book and companion documentary about cultural portrayal of Arab stereotypes, Reel Bad Arabs [available from the AET Book Club].)

Ms. Thomas’ desk at the Hearst office remains unattended a week after her eviction. One day she will return to pack up her materials. She can take with her the satisfaction of joining all those in our history who were cashiered ostensibly for a gaffe, but really for being too right, too early, too often.

Her many admirers hope that she continues to write, speak and motivate a generation of young journalists in the spirit of Joseph Pulitzer’s advice to his reporters a century ago—that their job was to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

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Don’t Single Out Helen Thomas

By Saree Makdisi

nconscionable. Offensive. Hurtful.

UBigoted. Terrible. Hateful.

These are the words being used to describe Helen Thomas’ recent comment about Israel and Palestine. Editorialists across the country have condemned her statement that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go back” to Europe.

Let’s agree that she should not have said those things, and that a just and lasting peace in the Middle East fundamentally requires reconciliation between Palestinians and Israeli Jews. We need also to agree on a formula that allows them both to be at home in the same land (I have long advocated the idea of a single democratic and secular state for both peoples; a state that treats all citizens as equals). Insisting that either people does not belong is not merely counterproductive; it lies at the very root of the conflict.

If, however, it is unacceptable to say that Israeli Jews don’t belong in Palestine, it is also unacceptable to say that the Palestinians don’t belong on their own land.

Yet that is said all the time in the United States, without sparking the kind of moral outrage generated by Thomas’ remark.

And while the nation’s editorialists worry about the offense she may have caused to Jews, no one seems particularly bothered by the offense felt every day by Palestinians when people—including those with far more power than Thomas—dismiss their rights, degrade their humanity and reject their claims to the most elementary forms of decency.

Are we seriously to accept the idea that some people have more rights than others?

Or that some people’s sensibilities should be respected while others’ are trampled with total indifference, if not outright contempt?

One does not have to agree with Thomas to note that her remark spoke to the ugly history of colonialism, racism, usurpation and denial that are at the heart of the question of Palestine. Part of that history involves vicious European anti-Semitism and the monumental crime of the Holocaust.

But the other part is that Palestinians were forcibly removed from their homeland in 1948 to clear space for the creation of a state with a Jewish identity.

Saree Makdisi is a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA. He is the author of, among other books, Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation (available from the AET Book Club). This op-ed first appeared in the Los Angeles Times, June 13, 2010. Reprinted with permission.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Europeans and Americans were, at the time, willing to ignore or simply dismiss the injustice inflicted on the Palestinians, who, by being forced from their land, were made to pay the price for a crime they did not commit.

But this callous carelessness, this dismissal of—and refusal even to acknowledge in human terms—the calamity that befell the Palestinians, and of course the attendant refusal to acknowledge their fundamental rights, did not end in the 1940s.

It continues to this very day.

Mainstream politicians, civic leaders, university presidents and others in this country routinely express their support for Israel as a Jewish state, despite the fact that such a state only could have been created in a multicultural land by ethnically cleansing it of as many non-Jews as possible. Today, Israel is only able to maintain its Jewish identity because it has established an apartheid regime, both in the occupied territories and within its own borders, and because it continues to reject the Palestinian right of return.

Where is the outrage about that?

Where was the outrage in 1983 when Israeli Gen. Rafael Eitan looked forward to the day that Jews had fully settled the land, because then “all the Arabs will be able to do about it is scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle”? Or when Alan Dershowitz suggested in 2002 that Israel summarily empty and then bulldoze an entire Palestinian village as a punitive measure each time it was attacked? Or when New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman claimed in 2006 to have discovered a “pathology” that caused some Arabs to “hate others more than they love their own kids”? Or when Avigdor Lieberman (who now serves as Israel’s foreign minister) said in 2004 that Palestinian citizens of Israel should “take their bundles and get lost”? Or when Israeli professor Arnon Sofer, one of the country’s leading demographic alarmists, said that to preserve the Jewish state, Israel should pull out of Gaza, though that would require Israel to remain at the border and “kill, and kill, and kill, all day, every day”?

An endless deluge of statements of support for the actual, calculated, methodical dehumanization of Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular goes without comment; whereas a single offhand comment by an 89-year-old journalist, whose long and distinguished record of principled commitment and challenges to state power entitles her to respect—and the benefit of the doubt—causes her to be publicly pilloried.

To accept this appalling hypocrisy is to be complicit in the racism of our age. ❑ AUGUST 2010

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Neoconservatives Lead Charge Against Turkey NeoconCorner

By Jim Lobe s the right-wing leadership of the or-

fends Israel against international condemnation for its deadly seizure of a flotilla bearing humanitarian supplies for Gaza, a familiar clutch of neoconservative hawks is going on the offensive against what they see as the flotilla’s chief defender, Turkey.

Outraged by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip’s Erdogan’s repeated denunciations of the May 31 Israeli raid, as well as his cosponsorship with Brazil of an agreement with Iran designed to promote renewed negotiations with the West on Tehran’s nuclear program, some neoconservatives are even demanding that the U.S. try to expel Ankara from NATO as one among several suggested actions aimed at punishing Erdogan’s AKP (Justice and Development Party) government.

“Turkey, as a member of NATO, is privy to intelligence information having to do with terrorism and with Iran,” noted the latest report by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a hard-line neoconservative group that promotes U.S.Israeli military ties and has historically cultivated close ties to Turkey’s military, as well.

“If Turkey finds its best friends to be Iran, Hamas, Syria and Brazil (look for Venezuela in the future), the security of that information (and Western technology in weapons in Turkey’s arsenal) is suspect.

The United States should seriously consider suspending military cooperation with Turkey as a prelude to removing it from the organization,” suggested the group.

Its board of advisers includes many prominent champions of the 2003 Iraq invasion, including former Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director James Woolsey, and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.

Neoconservative publications, notably the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard and the National Review, have also been firing away at the AKP government Jim Lobe is the Washington, DC bureau chief for Inter Press Service. His blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at <www.ips. org/blog/jimlobe>. Copyright © 2010 IPSInterpress Service. All rights reserved.

AUGUST 2010

AFP PHOTO/JACK GUEZ

Aganized U.S. Jewish community de-

French-born Israelis demonstrate outside the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv on June 17, 2010, as relations between the two countries deteriorated following Israel’s May 31 attack on a Turkish-flagged ship, killing eight Turkish citizens and a Turkish-American. since the raid.

“Turkey now represents a major element in the global panorama of radical Islam,” declared the Standard’s Stephen Schwartz, while Daniel Pipes, the controversial director of the Likudist Middle East Forum (MEF), echoed JINSA’s call for ousting Ankara from NATO and urged Washington to provide direct support for Turkey’s opposition parties in an article published by the National Review Online.

The Journal has been running editorials and op-eds attacking Turkey on virtually a daily basis since the raid, accusing its government, among other things, of having “an ingrained hostility toward the Jewish state, remarkable sympathies for nearby radical regimes, and an attitude toward extremist groups like the IHH (the Islamist group that sponsored the flotilla’s flagship, the Mavi Marmara) that borders on complicity.”

On June 7, it ran an op-ed by long-time hawk Victor Davis Hanson that labeled the IHH “a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda,” while an earlier op-ed, by Robert Pollock, its editorial features editor, called Erdogan and his foreign minister, THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Ahmet Davutoglu, “demagogues appealing to the worst elements in their own country and the broader Middle East.”

Meanwhile, in an op-ed published by The Forward, a Jewish weekly, Michael Rubin, a Perle protégé at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), accused Turkey of having “become a conduit for the smuggling of weapons to Israel’s enemies,” notably Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The onslaught is ironic both because of the neoconservatives’ long cultivation of Turkey and their avowed support for promoting democratic governance—of which they have singled out Turkey for special praise—in the Muslim world.

Neoconservatives were among the most important promoters of the military alliance between Israel and Turkey that began to take shape in the late 1980s and was consolidated by the mid-1990s.

In fact, Perle and another of his protégés, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, worked as paid lobbyists for Turkey during that period, in major part to persuade the powerful “Israel Lobby” on Capitol Hill to promote Ankara’s Continued on page 33 27

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Two Views The Turkey-Brazil-Iran Agreement: Thanks, but No Thanks?

AFP PHOTO /ATTA KENARE

that it intends to continue enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, as it is entitled to do under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of which it is a signatory. Both Lula and Erdogan have indicated that they believe Iran has a right to atomic energy.

It seems clear, therefore, that hopes of forcing Iran to abandon uranium enrichment altogether have so far not succeeded.

The deal has been greeted with skepticism and hostility in the United States and among some of America’s European countries, who tend to dismiss it as a delaying tactic. The New York Times quoted a senior administration official as saying that the agreement “is not a solution for the core of Iran’s (Standing, l-r) Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and enrichment program.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raise their hands together after the May 17, 2010 signing in Tehran Indeed, Washington has of a nuclear fuel swap deal by (seated, l-r) Foreign Ministers Celso Amorim of Brazil, Manouchehr Mottaki of interpreted the Tehran Iran, and Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey. agreement as an act of defiance of its global authority, The Consequences of Iran’s among those who resent American pres- an argument which carries weight with Nuclear Deal sures and detest Israel’s unashamed mili- other permanent members of the Security tarism, not least Iran itself and most of its Council. Reluctant to see the initiative in

By Patrick Seale Arab neighbors. Turkey’s activist Foreign important matters of international security he deal struck in Tehran on Monday, Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is understood slipping from its hands, the Obama adminMay 17, could largely defuse the inter- to have played a crucial role in the success- istration has persuaded the permanent national crisis over Iran’s nuclear activi- ful outcome. members of the Council to circulate a ties—if it is accepted by the international Hammered out in 18 hours of negotia- tough draft resolution demanding that Iran community. It must be counted a consider- tions with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ah- suspend uranium enrichment, and adding able contribution to the peace of the region madinejad, the agreement provides for Iran a long list of restrictions on Iranian miliand should be widely welcomed. to transfer 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched tary, commercial and financial activities. It The architects of the deal, Brazil’s Presi- uranium—some 58 percent of its stock—to remains to be seen whether this manoeudent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkey’s Turkey within one month, and to receive vre can succeed.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will in exchange 120 kilograms of higher-enIsrael’s hawkish leaders will be particuwin plaudits throughout the developing riched uranium for medical purposes larly enraged by the Tehran agreement. world for their mediation, particularly within one year. As Turkey itself is not With high drama and talk of another Holoequipped to enrich Iran’s uranium to the caust, they repeatedly portrayed Iran as a Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the required level, Russia and France are ex- threat to the entire world and pressed for Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle pected to do the job. “crippling sanctions” to put an end to its for Arab Independence: Riad el-Solh and the Iran has declared that it would submit uranium enrichment. They made no secret Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cam- the agreement formally to the International of their intention to resort to military bridge University Press). Copyright © 2010 Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) within a strikes if sanctions failed to have the dePatrick Seale. Distributed by Agence Global. week. Tehran has, however, left no doubt sired effect.

T

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST 2010

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On May 10, Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s deputy prime minister, said the Israeli air force had mastered the necessary techniques for an attack on Iranian nuclear sites—only the latest of Israel’s many explicit threats against the Islamic Republic.

As the Middle East’s only nuclear power, Israel is evidently determined to neutralize a potential regional rival and eliminate any challenge to its military hegemony. It is particularly anxious to prevent any restriction on its unrivalled freedom to strike its neighbors at will.

Israel could now be robbed of a pretext for military action. Its propaganda campaign, evidently intended to draw the United States into armed confrontation with Iran, may have to be reconsidered.

With the Afghan war on his hands, as well as unfinished business in Iraq, U.S. President Barack Obama has made it clear that he is against opening a front against Iran.

The sanctions route—led in shrill terms

by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton—was meant as an alternative to military action.

The aim was to dissuade Israel from any rash military initiative, which might risk drawing in the United States or exposing its troops, bases and Middle East interests to Iranian retaliation.

By putting pressure on Iran, Washington also hoped to soften Israel’s stance in the proximity talks with the Palestinians, which Obama’s envoy George Mitchell had managed, after persistent efforts, to get started. All these calculations have proved vain and will now have to be reviewed.

Obama’s foreign policy in these crucial areas has so far been a failure. But this has not yet been recognized in Washington, where the tendency is to dismiss the Tehran agreement and keep the emphasis on tough sanctions.

Several other significant consequences flow from the Tehran agreement. Iran has consolidated its relations with Turkey and Brazil, two rising global powers. It will feel far less isolated on the international scene.

Turkey, in turn, can claim a diplomatic triumph to add to its many foreign policy successes of the past year, engineered by Ahmet Davutoglu. He has vastly improved relations with Syria, Iraq and Iran, as well as with a score of other countries in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia, boosting political and trade ties. Relations with Israel, however, have turned distinctly sour.

Brazil’s Lula da Silva, very popular at home because of his promotion of reforms and economic growth, has irritated Washington by drawing close to such anti-American leaders in Latin America as Hugo AUGUST 2010

Chavez of Venezuela, and now to the Iranian president. Before arriving for the crucial talks in Tehran Lula declared: “I must now use everything I have learned over my long political career to convince my friend Ahmadinejad to come to an agreement with the international community.” Such sentiments will be hailed in the developing world but are likely to irritate Washington further.

What Lula and Erdogan have shown, however, is that, in dealing with proud and prickly nations like Iran, showing respect, friendship and a willingness to engage in dialogue, however difficult and time-consuming, can yield far better results than sanctions, threats and military confrontation. President Obama seemed to have understood this when he entered the White House in January 2009, but to have since reverted to more traditional American arm-twisting.

Meanwhile, Turkey is deepening and strengthening its relations with all its neighbors, emerging as a key player in the Greater Middle East. A straw in the wind was the launch in April of Turkey’s new Arabic-language TV channel—TRT Arabic—which is expected to do far better than its competitors: the American-backed Alhurra, BBC Arabic, France 24, Deutsche-Welle-Arabic and Arabic Russia Today The opening ceremony of the new Turkish channel was marked by an emotional speech by Prime Minister Erdogan in which he stressed the history, culture and religious faith shared by both Turks and Arabs. His use of Arabic idioms and poetic verses brought his audience cheering to their feet.

If the Tehran agreement sticks, it can only further enhance Turkey’s beneficent regional role as a mediator and peacemaker. The intractable Arab-Israeli dispute is in urgent need of its attention.

United States Slams Turkey, Brazil over Iran

By Robert Dreyfuss

hen the Obama administration de-

Wcided to move aggressively down the

path of more sanctions on Iran, it was not because they thought it would work— they don’t—but because they had no idea what to do when United States-Iran talks broke down in late 2009. According to U.S. Robert Dreyfuss is a contributing editor to The Nation magazine, and the author of Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (Metropolitan).

Copyright © 2010 The Nation. Distributed by Agence Global.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

officials, the United States was simply trying to buy time: By going to the U.N., they could make it look like they were doing something, and ease the pressure from hawks, neoconservatives, and the Israel lobby.

But as a direct result, the administration is now in deep conflict with two close allies, Turkey and Brazil. Those two countries, acting like adults when the United States began behaving like a petulant child, sought to continue the stalled diplomacy, to coax Iran back to the bargaining table. It worked. Brazil’s President Lula, visiting Tehran with Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan, won a commitment from Iran to ship about half of its enriched uranium to Turkey, restarting the diplomatic process that ended last year when Iran first accepted a similar deal and then backed off.

Amazingly, the deal that Turkey and Brazil achieved was almost exactly the same as the one that was worked out by the United States and other world powers in Geneva on Oct. 1. President Obama praised that accord, but now that he’s pushing for sanctions (that won’t work) his minions are denouncing the Brazil-Turkey agreement.

On May 27, at the Brookings Institution, Secretary of State Clinton slammed Brazil: “I don’t know that we agree with any nation on every issue. And certainly we have very serious disagreements with Brazil’s diplomacy vis-à-vis Iran. And we have told President Lula, and I’ve told my counterpart the foreign minister [Celso Amorim] that we think buying time for Iran, enabling Iran to avoid international unity with respect to their nuclear program, makes the world more dangerous, not less.

“They [Brazilians] have a theory of the case, they’re not just acting out of impulse.

We disagree with it. So we go at it. We say well, we don’t agree with that, we think that, that the Iranians are using you. And that we think it’s time to go to the Security Council, and that it is only after the Security Council acts that the Iranians will engage effectively on their nuclear program.”

Brazil and Turkey insisted that the deal with Iran is the right thing to do, defying Clinton’s criticism. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lula said: “All the deadlines and dates are being met. We carried out everything they asked for.”

And Erdogan added: “The accord with Tehran was a diplomatic victory and those countries that criticize us are merely envious.”

29

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They’re both right. That didn’t stop Thomas Friedman from writing earlier this week in The New York Times that the BrazilTurkey diplomacy was “as ugly as it gets.”

Friedman wrote: “I confess that when I first saw the May 17 picture of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, joining his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with raised arms— after their signing of a putative deal to defuse the crisis over Iran’s nuclear weapons program—all I could think of was: Is there anything uglier than watching democrats sell out other democrats to a Holocaust-denying, vote-stealing Iranian thug just to tweak the U.S. and show that they, too, can play at the big power table?”

What’s as ugly, Friedman, is arrogant, imperialist commentary like that.

Meanwhile, by insisting on useless sanctions with Iran, the Obama administration has deeply alienated two very important countries, making a mockery of Obama’s pledge to elevate diplomacy and bridgebuilding as the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. He’s also used up a lot of political capital to drag Russia and China to support the U.S.-led effort for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran. As Robert Kagan, a neoconservative thinker noted in late May in The Washington Post, President Bush managed to persuade Russia and China to vote for a U.N. sanctions resolution not once, but three times. Kagan is right, even if he’s right for the wrong reasons.

So Obama has alienated friends, given up political chips that could win over adversaries, and accomplished precisely nothing vis-à-vis Iran.

Take the Deal, Mr. President

By Patrick J. Buchanan

f Barack Obama is sincere in his policy of

I“no nukes in Iran—no war with Iran,”

he will halt this rude dismissal of the offer Tehran just made to ship half its stockpile of uranium to Turkey.

Consider what President Ahmadinejad and the ayatollah himself have just committed to do.

Iran will deliver 1,200 kilograms, well over a ton, of its 2-ton stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey. In return, Iran will receive, in a year, 120 kilograms of fuel rods for its U.S.-built reactor that produces medical isotopes for treating cancer patients.

Not only did Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Copyright 2010 Creators.com. Reprinted by permission of Patrick J. Buchanan and Creators Syndicate, Inc. 30

Lula da Silva of Brazil put their prestige on the line by flying to Tehran, the deal they got is a near-exact replica of the deal Obama offered Iran eight months ago.

Why is President Obama slapping it away? Does he not want a deal? Has he already decided on the sanctions road that leads to war?

Has the War Party captured the Obama presidency?

If Iran ships the LEU to Turkey, she would be left with only enough low-enriched uranium for one test explosion.

And as that LEU is under U.N. surveillance, America would have a long lead time to act if Iran began to convert the LEU to weapons grade.

How is the Iranian program then an “existential threat” to anyone?

Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons—America thousands.

Critics say Iran still refuses to shut down the centrifuges turning out low-grade uranium. But if Iran stops the centrifuges, she surrenders her last bargaining chip to get sanctions lifted.

Critics say Iran is trying to abort Hillary Clinton’s campaign to have the Security Council impose a fourth round of sanctions. Undeniably true.

But if the purpose of sanctions is to force Iran to negotiate its nuclear program, they are already working. Tehran’s latest offer represents real movement.

Critics say Iran will weasel out if we take up the deal. Perhaps. Internal opposition caused Ahmadinejad to back away from Obama’s original offer, after he had indicated initial acceptance.

But, if so, Iran will be seen as duplicitous

by Turkey and Brazil.

To the world today, the United States appears enraged that Iran is responding to America’s own offer, that it is we who do not want a peaceful resolution, that we and the Israelis are as hell-bent on war and “regime change” in Iran as George W. Bush was on war and regime change in Iraq.

While the Brazilians and Turks have surely complicated Hillary’s diplomacy, their motives are not necessarily sinister or malevolent.

Lula may be trying to one-up Obama and win a Nobel Prize as he leaves office. But what is wrong with that? Bill Clinton had a Nobel in mind when, in his final days, he went all-out for a Palestinian peace.

And Erdogan leads a country that cannot wish to see Iran acquire nuclear weapons. For Shi’i Iran shares a border with Sunni Turkey, and the two are rivals for influence in the Islamic world and Central Asia.

Moreover, an Iranian bomb would force Turkey to consider a Turkish bomb. ErdoTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

gan thus has every incentive to seek a resolution of this crisis, to keep Iran free of nuclear weapons, and avert a war between yet another neighbor and his NATO ally, the United States.

If Obama refuses to take the Iranian offer seriously, it would appear a sure sign that the War Party has taken him into camp and he is departing the negotiating track for the confrontation track that leads to war.

Months ago, Time’s Tony Karon asked the relevant question: “What if Ahmadinejad is serious?”

And there are obvious reasons why he might want a deal.

First, Iran runs out of fuel this year for its reactor that produces medical isotopes.

And despite Tehran’s braggadocio about making fuel rods itself out of its existing pile of uranium, there is no evidence Tehran is technically capable of this.

Iranians dying of cancer because Ahmadinejad failed to get those fuel rods would create enmity toward him, as well as hatred of us for denying them to Iranian cancer patients.

Second, as the U.S. intelligence community yet contends, there is no hard evidence Iran has decided to go nuclear. For this would instantly put Iran in the nuclear gun sights of the United States and Israel.

And what benefit would Shi’i and Persian Iran, half of whose population is non-Persian, gain by starting a nuclear arms race in a region that is predominantly Arab and Sunni?

Third, Ahmadinejad leads a nation that is united in insisting on all its rights under the Nonproliferation Treaty, including the right to enrich. But his nation is deeply divided over his regime’s legitimacy after last June’s flawed, if not fixed, election.

If the United States were to accept Iran’s counter-offer, it would be a diplomatic coup for Ahmadinejad.

Maybe that’s the problem. The powers that be don’t really want a deal with Iran.

They want Iran smashed.

Obama Goes with Neocon Flow on Iran

By Robert Parry

hether wittingly or witlessly, Presi-

Wdent Barack Obama is pursuing a neocon-charted path on Iran that parallels the one that George W. Bush took to war with Iraq—ratcheting up sanctions against Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. This commentary first appeared in <www.consortiumnews.com>, June 10, 2010. Reprinted with permission.

AUGUST 2010

views_28-31_Two Views 6/24/10 8:42 AM Page 31

the “enemy,” refusing to tolerate more peaceful options, and swaggering along with the propagandistic tough-guy-ism of the major U.S. news media.

The Obama administration is celebrating its victory in getting the U.N. Security Council on June 9 to approve a fourth round of economic sanctions against Iran. Obama also is expected to sign on to even more draconian penalties that should soon sail through Congress.

Obama may be thinking that his U.N. diplomatic achievement will buy him some credibility—and some time—with American neocons and Israel’s Likud government, which favor a showdown with Iran over its nuclear program.

However, the end result of the new sanctions may well be a greater likelihood that the debate within the Iranian government will tilt toward a decision to proceed with ever-higher-level enrichment of uranium and possibly construction of a nuclear bomb as the only means of self-defense.

That may be the opposite of what Obama seeks, but it is what the neocons and Likud would cite as justification for another Middle East war.

Just as the neocons and Israel wanted “regime change” in Iraq, they have long hungered for “regime change” in Iran, too.

A favorite neocon joke at the time of the Iraq war was to speculate on which direction to go next, to Syria or Iran, with the punch-line, “Real men to go Tehran!”

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has made clear that he considers the possibility of an Iranian nuclear weapon an “existential threat” to Israel, one that would justify a military strike.

While Israel’s powerful air force would likely inflict the first blows, national security analysts believe that the U.S. military would be pulled in to finish off Iran’s military capabilities.

The neocon/Likud hope would be that these military attacks would embolden Iran’s internal opposition to rise up and overthrow the Islamic system that has governed Iran since 1979, in other words, “regime change.” Much like the neocon/Likud thinking about Iraq, however, these grandiose plans often end up with unpredictable and bloody outcomes.

Many war-gamers believe the economic, geopolitical and military consequences of an attack on Iran are impossible to gauge, though some in the U.S. military fear that such a conflict could ignite a regional war and cause serious strategic damage to the United States. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “The Bomb-Bomb-Iran Parlor Game.”]

President Onboard?

Whether President Obama comprehends these risks—or may invite them—is unAUGUST 2010

clear. What is known is that he staffed his administration with a number of hardliners on Iran, from Hillary Clinton as secretary of state to Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff. Voices of moderation, if there are any, have been noticeably silent.

Some analysts believe that the president is a relative “dove” on Iran, citing his private letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that encouraged Brazil and Turkey to work out a deal to get Iran to transfer about half its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for more highly enriched uranium that could only be used for peaceful medical purposes.

However, after Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan got Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to agree to that deal, the arrangement was denounced by Secretary of State Clinton and was ridiculed by the major U.S. news media, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Even after Brazil released Obama’s supportive letter, the president would not publicly defend his position. Instead, his administration pressed ahead with the new round of sanctions.

What is also clear is that tough-guy-ism is running strong, much like it was in the months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

A New York Times editorial on June 10 praised the new round of anti-Iran sanctions, but complained they “do not go far enough.” Still, the Times took encouragement from the hope that the United States and European countries might impose much harsher sanctions on their own.

The Times also took another mocking swipe at Brazil and Turkey, which voted against the new sanctions from their temporary seats on the Security Council.

“The day’s most disturbing development was the two no votes in the Security Council from Turkey and Brazil,” the Times wrote. “Both are disappointed that their efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Iran didn’t go far. Like pretty much everyone else, they were played by Tehran.”

Though this Times point of view fits with neocon orthodoxy—that any reasonable move toward peace and away from confrontation is a sign of naïveté and weakness—the fact is that the IranTurkey-Brazil deal was torpedoed by the United States, after Obama had encouraged it. This wasn’t a case of the two countries being “played by Tehran.”

The Real Agenda The Times star columnist Thomas L. Friedman has more explicitly laid out the real goal regarding Iran, not nuclear safeguards, but “regime change.” In a May 26 THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

column, Friedman wrote that the United States should do whatever it can to help Iran’s internal opposition overthrow President Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Islamic-directed government.

“In my view, the ‘Green Revolution’ in Iran is the most important, self-generated, democracy movement to appear in the Middle East in decades,” Friedman wrote.

“It has been suppressed, but it is not going away, and, ultimately, its success— not any nuclear deal with the Iranian clerics—is the only sustainable source of security and stability. We have spent far too little time and energy nurturing that democratic trend and far too much chasing a nuclear deal.”

Friedman’s argument again tracks with the neocon case for war with Iran—as he earlier was onboard for war with Iraq— claiming that “regime change” was the only acceptable outcome.

As an institution, The New York Times also played a key role in making war with Iraq inevitable, with bogus reporting about Iraq getting aluminum tubes for nuclear centrifuges. Similarly, in the case of Iran, the Times and other leading U.S. news outlets have promoted the propaganda line that Iran’s presidential election last June was “fraudulent” or “rigged.”

However, an analysis by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes found that there was little evidence to support allegations of fraud or to conclude that most Iranians viewed Ahmadinejad’s re-election as illegitimate.

Not a single Iranian poll analyzed by PIPA—whether before or after the June 12 election, whether conducted inside or outside Iran—showed Ahmadinejad with less than majority support. None showed the much-touted Green Movement’s candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi ahead or even close.

“These findings do not prove that there were no irregularities in the election process,” said Steven Kull, director of PIPA. “But they do not support the belief that a majority rejected Ahmadinejad.” [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Ahmadinejad Won, Get Over It!”] Nevertheless, President Obama has refused to contest Washington’s conventional wisdom on the Iranian election or to buck the neocon-favored trend toward a heightened confrontation with Iran.

Having let his administration rebuff the Iran-Turkey-Brazil deal in favor of more U.N. sanctions and soon even tougher U.S. sanctions, Obama has let his foreign policy either drift—or be piloted—toward a worsening crisis. ❑ 31

kerin_32-33_Special Report 6/24/10 2:41 PM Page 32

Breaking the Siege on Capitol Hill SpecialReport

AFP PHOTO / TIM SLOAN

By Susan Kerin

Sen. Charles Schumer (l), the New York Democrat who is running for re-election this year, schmoozes (“to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection”) with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a March 23, 2010 photo op on Capitol Hill. hen Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin

WNetanyahu cancelled his trip to

Washington, DC the day after Israel’s May 31 attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, he came home to demonstrations by his own citizens protesting the attack.

The irony is that, had Netanyahu kept his June 1 appointment in Washington, DC, he may well have found a more receptive audience on Capitol Hill than anywhere else in the world. While to date President Barack Obama has made no reference to Israel’s culpability in the attack, and Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defense (implying that the attack on the flotilla was an example of that), many members of Congress have gone even further in their efforts to reaffirm their support for the Jewish State.

Extreme examples include Rep. Brad Sherman’s (D-CA) call to arrest and prosecute any U.S. citizen affiliated with the freedom flotilla and Sen. Charles Schumer’s (DNY) declaration that we need “to strangle” Susan Kerin is Eastern U.S. co-coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement.

32

the Palestinian people. Sherman’s declaration is particularly interesting because, in citing the specific legislation which criminalizes humanitarian relief to Gaza, he in effect reveals to the world that the U.S. is more than a bystander to the blockade, it actively contributes to it, albeit through legislative restrictions versus physical border restrictions like Israel’s and Egypt’s.

This time, however, what is even more disturbing than the usual saber-rattling of the more pro-Israel congressional representatives is the response of elected members of Congress who either had a constituent aboard the flotilla or serve on a committee which gives them the authority to request an investigation by the U.S. State Department.

The week prior to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla voyage, Free Gaza staff contacted approximately 50 legislative aides on the Hill to notify them of the upcoming voyage and request that they contact the Israeli Embassy and State Department to secure the safety of the passengers, including 14 American citizens. According to Andrew Kennedy, who hand-delivered some of the letters, “we specifically tarTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

geted representatives who either had constituents on board the ship, belonged to the Foreign Appropriations subcommittee that gives Israel its military aid, or are members of the Executive Committee for the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, because we thought they would be the ones most likely to respond and take action to protect the ships.”

While many never responded even after news reports of fatalities from the Israeli attack, others issued harshly worded statements favoring Israel over their own constituents.

For example, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who was contacted prior to the boat’s departure, had two constituents on board: Kathy Sheetz, a nurse, and Fiachra O’Luain, an Irishman whose father lives in Boston. During his detention in Israel, O’Luain was beaten to the point of torture.

While Kerry—who has visited Gaza—did intercede on his constituents’ behalf, he then issued a three-sentence statement which appeared on AIPAC’s Web site. Each sentence includes the phrase “Israel has the right.” It should be noted that Kerry chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving him the authority to schedule a hearing on the matter or mandate that the U.S. State Department conduct its own investigation.

Similarly, Maryland’s two Democratic senators, Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin, were contacted in advance and notified that one of their constituents, Ambassador Edward Peck, would be traveling with the flotilla on the Greek ship Sfendoni.

Even after the attack and several follow-up phone calls, none of their aides responded.

In fact, according to Ambassador Peck’s wife, she was never even contacted to see if she [he?] was alright or needed assistance.

The day after the attack on the boats, both senators were notified that another constituent of theirs, 21-year-old college student Emily Henochowicz of Potomac MD, had lost her eye in a West Bank demonstration when Israeli border police shot a high-velocity tear gas canister directly at her. What was particularly disturbing about the senators’ lack of reAUGUST 2010

kerin_32-33_Special Report 6/24/10 2:42 PM Page 33

sponse to Emily’s case was that in 2009, following the injurying of Tristan Anderson and the death of Basem Abu Ramhe due to the misuse of high-velocity tear gas canisters, constituents met face-to-face with aides from both senators’ offices to specifically request that they take actions to ensure that the misuse of these weapons would not continue.

As did Kerry, both Mikulski and Cardin provided validating statements on the AIPAC Web site regarding Israel’s attack on the freedom flotilla. Cardin cited Israel’s “right to...protect its citizens from terror” and calls for an internal investigation. Also like Kerry, Cardin, a member of the Foreign Relations subcommittee covering the Middle East, has the authority to call for a congressional hearing on the matter or mandate that the State Department conduct an investigation. Thus far he has done neither.

Mikulski’s statement implied that the contents of the ships could be used to make “dirty bombs.” In 2007, it should be noted, Mikulski sponsored a resolution calling for the release of Israeli POW Gilad Shalit. When asked to issue a similar resolution on behalf of her own constituent regarding the misuse of high-velocity tear gas canisters, however, her office refused.

During a June 10 protest against Sherman’s call for the arrest of human rights activists, Adam Shapiro, a member of Free Gaza’s interim board, noted the growing disparity between constituents and their representatives on this issue: “It’s clear that Congress’ policies, its votes, its positions on this conflict are so out of tune with the rest of the world, and even with the American public, that it’s beyond belief.”

Josh Ruebner, national advocacy director for the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation, agreed, but also stressed the importance of “civic activism”—the need for constituents to commit to a long-term, sustained grassroots advocacy effort in order to reconcile congressional response to constituent opinion.

“It would be naive to think that members of Congress will change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine out of the goodness of their hearts,” Ruebner said, “or that they will arrive at an epiphany that Palestinians are human beings who deserve to have their human rights respected. That’s not the way that Washington works. Policy gets created from organized interest groups, and policy changes occur when people organize to demand them. That is why it is imperative that people who are concerned about Palestinian human rights and a just and lasting peace between IsAUGUST 2010

raelis and Palestinians organize themselves in a way to generate sustained education and pressure on their members of Congress.

Constituents for progressive representatives such as Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Betty McCollum (D-MN) agree, noting that the positions these congresswomen have taken advocating an end to the blockade came about only after numerous visits and contacts by constituents.

To facilitate this effort, the U.S. Campaign has launched a “Legislative Project” which provides resources and enables advocacy chapters to coalesce at the local level in an effort to provide a sustained effort to break the siege on Capitol Hill. Kennedy reaffirms the importance of this project, noting that “the international waters on the Mediterranean Sea served as the frontline in terms of breaking the siege of Gaza, but it’s breaking the siege on Capitol Hill that will have the greatest impact on Israel’s actions. For the sake of those who died and were injured, we owe them that.”

For more information on the U.S. Campaign’s Legislative Project, visit <endthe occupation.org>. For more information on Free Gaza correspondences with Congress prior to the flotilla, visit <www.peaceactionmc.org>. ❑

Charge Against Turkey…

Continued from page 27

interests on Capitol Hill.

In 1996, the two men participated in a task force chaired by Perle that proposed to incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he work with Turkey and Jordan to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussain from power as part of an alliance designed to transform the strategic balance in the Middle East permanently in favor of Israel.

But the Turkey promoted by Perle and his fellow neocons in the 1980s and ‘90s was one that was dominated by a secular business and political elite carefully monitored by an all-powerful military institution that mounted three coup d’états between 1960 and 1980 and intervened a fourth time in 1997 to oust an Islamist-led government.

Despite its close links to both the U.S. and Israel, however, the Turkish military badly disappointed the neocons in the runup to Washington’s invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Instead of insisting that the civilian government at the time grant U.S. requests to THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

use Turkish territory as a major launching pad into northern Iraq, the armed forces decided to defer to overwhelming parliamentary and public opposition to the invasion.

“I think for whatever reason they did not play the strong leadership role on that issue that we would have expected,” complained then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, a long-time Perle friend and colleague who, despite his lavish praise of Turkey as a model Muslim democracy, headed repeated efforts by the George W. Bush administration to persuade Turkey’s national security council— where the military’s voice was dominant— to effectively overrule its parliament.

Erdogan, who became prime minister just a week before the invasion and whose political and economic reforms have been widely praised in the West, at first sought good relations with Israel. As late as 2007, he arranged for Shimon Peres to become the first Israeli president to address the Turkish parliament.

By then, however, many neocons had become concerned about Erdogan’s efforts to weaken the military’s power, his warm reception of a top Hamas leader in 2005, criticism of Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah in 2006, and rapprochement with Syria.

When the military not so subtly threatened to intervene against Erdogan and the AKP in 2007, some neocons, notably Perle, suggested that the U.S. should not try to discourage it. Others, including the Standard’s Schwartz and Pipes, encouraged it as the lesser of two evils, even as the Journal defended the AKP as “more democratic than the secularists.”

Since Erdogan’s furious denunciation of Israel, and Peres personally, at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) of Israel’s Cast Lead operation in Gaza in January 2009, however, neocons of virtually all stripes—including those, like the Journal’s editorial writers, who have praised the AKP as a democratizing force—have turned against Ankara. And the flotilla incident, combined with Erdogan’s perceived defense of Iran’s nuclear program, has raised their animus to new heights.

“A combination of Islamist rule, resentment at exclusion from Europe, and a neoOttomanist ideology that envisions Turkey as a great power in the Middle East have made Turkey a state that is often plainly hostile not only to Israel but to American aims and interests,” wrote Eliot Cohen, professor at Johns Hopkins University, in a June 7 Journal op-ed. ❑ 33

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ELECTION WATCH

By Janet McMahon

Money—But Not Harman’s Own—Still Talks in California ep. Jane Harman (D-CA), the

Rwealthiest woman in Congress,

TOP TEN 2010 AND CAREER RECIPIENTS OF P -I PAC F

beat back a primary challenge from RO SRAEL UNDS Marcy Winograd (see May/June 2010 Washington Report, p. 24) without Compiled by Hugh Galford spending a dime of her own money.

She had more than a little help from HOUSE: CURRENT SENATE: CURRENT her pro-Israel friends, however.

According to a May 29 report in Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) 39,000 Kirk, Mark S. (R-IL) 63,104 Politico, Harman “received $12,500 Skelton, Ike (D-MO) 35,500 Wyden, Ron (D-OR) 57,400 in late contributions from pro-Israel Deutch, Theodore (D-FL) 32,250 Inouye, Daniel K. (D-HI) 57,000 groups.” (This amount is not reHoyer, Steny H. (D-MD) 32,000 Reid, Harry (D-NV) 56,000 flected in the accompanying chart, Cantor, Eric (R-VA) 30,750 Specter, Arlen (D-PA) 50,500 which is based on FEC reports filed Lowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 8,000 Bennett, Robert (R-UT) 42,000

by April 15, 2010.) Ten days before Berman, Howard (D-CA) 27,000 Feingold, Russell D. (D-WI) 41,000 the June 8 primary, Harman released Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) 25,500 Thune, John (R-SD) 40,500 a television ad featuring her fellow Hastings, Alcee (D-FL) 21,000 Vitter, David (R-LA) 40,500 apologist for Israel Rep. Henry WaxReyes, Silvestre (D-TX) 21,000 Grayson, C.M. (Trey) (R-KY) 28,500 man (D-CA) charging that “in Marcy Winograd’s vision, Israel would House: Career Senate: Career cease to exist.” Winograd—who, like Harman and Waxman, is Jewish— Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) 315,555 Levin, Carl (D-MI) 728,737 favors a one-state solution to end IsEngel, Eliot (D-NY) 247,418 Specter, Arlen (D-PA) 553,973 rael’s occupation of Palestine.

Hoyer, Steny H. (D-MD) 225,275 Harkin, Thomas R. (D-IA) 552,950 The Center for Responsive Politics Cantor, Eric (R-VA) 206,980 Lautenberg, Frank R. (D-NJ) 503,578 (<www.opensecrets.org>) shows that, Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) 202,740 McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) 485,141 as of late June, 32 percent of Harman’s Lowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 177,238 Reid, Harry (D-NV) 376,301 $762,841 war chest came from politiObey, David R. (D-WI) 163,600 Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL) 373,421 cal action committees (PACs), and 68 Burton, Dan L. (R-IN) 135,500 Lieberman, Joseph (Ind.-CT) 367,851 percent from individuals.

Levin, Sander M. (D-MI) 129,727 Baucus, Max (D-MT) 349,648 Winograd, by contrast, raised 99 Skelton, Ike (D-MO) 123,950 Wyden, Ron (D-OR) 334,962 percent of her $338,670 total from Kirk, Mark S. (R-IL) 284,186 individuals and 1 percent from PACs—and even threw in $1,050 of her own money!

What the mainstream media won’t reThis past February he told CNN, “I have Her effort was not in vain, however. port, however, is the fact that for the past been a Democrat all my life, and quite Against a powerful incumbent, Winograd several years, pro-Israel PACs have been frankly I am disgusted with both parties. I won 41 percent of the votes—3 percentage pouring money into Kirk’s re-election cam- see the Democrats are completely controlled points more than in her 2008 challenge to paigns with an eye to seeing him in the by foreign interests and big lobbying money.

Harman. More significantly, perhaps, she Senate. We only wish it weren’t an exag- The Republicans are, too, but the Democrats made Washington’s unconditional support geration that, according to his House Web more so.” of Israel a campaign issue—one the main- site, “Congressman Kirk remains an acIn a September 2009 interview with Fox stream media won’t touch unless forced to. knowledged leader of bipartisan efforts to TV’s Greta Van Sustern upon his release from enhance the U.S.-Israel strategic partner- prison, Traficant was more explicit: “I beMark Kirk: No Exaggeration ship. Congressman Kirk traveled to Israel in lieve that Israel has a powerful stranglehold Until recently, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) was an official capacity many times before on the American government. They control known almost exclusively as a “moderate being elected to Congress and continues to both members of the House, the House and the Senate. They have us involved in wars in Republican” with a good chance to win actively lead on U.S.-Israel issues.”

Perhaps he’d have more luck in the Knesset. which we have little or no interest. Our chilthe Illinois Senate seat being vacated by dren are coming back in body bags. Our naRoland W. Burris and previously held by tion is bankrupt over these wars. And if you Barack Obama. Lately, however, he’s come James Traficant: Beam Him Up! under fire for overstating his military After serving a seven-year prison sen- open your mouth, you get targeted. And if record and teaching record. tence, former Rep James A. Traficant Jr. they don’t beat you at the poll, they’ll put (D-OH) has decided to run for his old you in prison.”

Somehow we suspect we won’t be finding Janet McMahon is managing editor of the House seat as an independent. The current James Traficant’s name on this chart. ❑ incumbent is Democrat Tim Ryan.

Washington Report.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST 2010

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2 3 5 6 1 5 8 1 8 11 20 27 28 29 31 32 33 36 45 45 47 47 51 3 4 6 7

At-L. 2 5 6 8 9 12 15 17 18 19 19 20 21 21 22 23 24 4 6 12 1 3

Candidate Shelby, Richard C.* Bright, Bobby N. Sr. Rogers, Michael Parker, Wayne Jr. Bachus, Spencer Murkowski, Lisa* McCain, John* Kirkpatrick, Ann Mitchell, Harry E. Giffords, Gabrielle Lincoln, Blanche* Causey, Chad Boxer, Barbara* Pelosi, Nancy McNerney, Jerry Costa, Jim Sherman, Brad Berman, Howard Schiff, Adam Becerra, Xavier Cedillo, Gilbert Watson, Diane E. Harman, Jane Bono Mack, Mary Pougnet, Stephen P. Sanchez, Loretta Tran, Van Filner, Bob Bennet, Michael F.* Udall, Mark E. Salazar, John T. Markey, Elizabeth H. Coffman, Mike Perlmutter, Edwin G. Dodd, Christopher* Lieberman, Joseph Carper, Thomas Carney, John Charles Jr. Meek, Kendrick*# Boyd, F. Allen Jr. Brown-Waite, Virginia Stearns, Clifford B. Grayson, Alan Mark Bilirakus, Gus M. Ross, Dennis Alan Posey, Bill Williams, Andre L. Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana Deutch, Theodore Wexler, Robert Wasserman Schultz, Debbie Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Klein, Ron Hastings, Alcee Kosmas, Suzanne Isakson, Johnny* Johnson, Henry C. (Hank), Jr. Price, Thomas E. Barrow, John J. Inouye, Daniel K.* Crapo, Michael D.* Minnick, Walter C. Durbin, Richard J. Kirk, Mark S.*# Lipinski, Daniel W.

Party

Status

2009-10 Contributions

R D R R R R R D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D R D D R D D D D D R D D Ind. D D D D R R D R R R D R D D D R R D D D R D R D D R D D R D

I I I I I I I I I I I O I I I I I I I I O N I I C I C I I I I I I I N I I C O I I I I I O I O I O N I N O I I I I I I I I I I I O I

5,000 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 8,500 2,000 2,000 2,000 12,500 19,500 1,000 17,000 19,500 6,000 7,000 5,000 27,000 3,500 1,000 2,000 1,000 6,000 1,000 1,000 5,000 1,000 1,000 3,000 1,000 1,500 3,000 250 2,000 8,000 1,500 1,000 2,000 8,500 5,000 7,500 3,000 5,500 2,500 3,000 1,000 250 39,000 32,250 500 15,500 500 1,000 11,500 21,000 2,000 16,000 1,000 1,000 500 57,000 2,000 500 1,000 63,104 -250

Career

Committees

199,825 A (D, HS) 8,500 AS 18,325 AS, HS, I 7,500 17,000 62,100 A (HS) 177,500 AS, HS, I 5,000 HS 8,000 43,224 AS, FR 63,027 1,000 245,794 C, FR (NE) 122,300 Speaker of the House 19,000 C 25,500 FR (NE) 64,930 FR (NE) 116,050 FR 62,917 A (FO), I 3,000 B, W 2,000 13,500 FR 109,771 C, HS 6,000 C 1,000 56,200 AS, HS 1,000 91,514 3,000 48,250 AS 28,100 A 10,100 250 9,224 242,178 FR (NE) 367,851 AS, HS 37,600 HS 2,000 30,000 W 14,700 A (D), B 15,800 W 13,500 C 7,500 38,816 FR (NE), I 3,000 1,000 250 202,740 FR 32,250 33,750 47,300 58,000 44,000 B 59,024 FR (NE) 91,850 I 4,000 41,500 C, FR (NE) 31,200 AS 2,000 49,074 C 262,425 A (D, FO, HS), C 44,000 B 3,500 373,421 A (D, FO) 284,186 A (FO, HS) 5,400

KEY: The “Career Total” column represents the total amount of pro-Israel PAC money received from Jan. 1, 2009 through April 15, 2010. S=Senate, H=House of Representatives. Party affiliation: D=Democrat, R=Republican, Ref=Reform, DFL=Democratic Farmers Labor, Ind=Independent, Lib=Libertarian. Status: C=Challenger, I=Incumbent, N=Not Running, O=Open Seat (no incumbent). *=Senate election year, #=House member running for Senate seat, †=Special Election. Committees: A=Appropriations (D=Defense subcommittee, FO=Foreign Operations subcommittee, HS=Homeland Security, NS=National Security subcommittee), AS=Armed Services, B=Budget, C=Commerce, FR=Foreign Relations (NE=Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs subcommittee), HS=Homeland Security, I=Intelligence, IR=International Relations, NS=National Security, W=Ways and Means. “–” indicates money returned by candidate, “0” that all money received was returned, “[]” = independent expenditures on behalf of candidate (not included in candidate totals).

AUGUST 2010

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

35

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PRO-ISRAEL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS TO 2010 CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES State

Office District

H H H H H H H H H H H H H Indiana S S H H H H H Iowa S Kansas S S H Kentucky S S Louisiana S S H H H H H Maine S H Maryland S S H H H Massachusetts S S Michigan H H H H Minnesota S H H H H Mississippi H Missouri S S H H H H Montana S S Nevada S H New Hampshire S S H H New Jersey S H H H H H H H Illinois

36

5 5 6 8 9 10 10 11 13 14 17 18 19 1 2 5 6 9

1

1 2 4 5 6 2 4 5 7 7 9 11 12 2 3 4 6 1 3 4 5 8

1 1 2 1 2 3 7 9 12 13

Candidate Feigenholtz, Sara Quigley, Mike Roskam, Peter J. Bean, Melissa Luburich Schakowsky, Janice D. Dold, Robert James Jr. Hamos, Julie Halvorson, Deborah Biggert, Judy Foster, G. William (Bill) Hare, Philip G. Schock, Aaron J. Shimkus, John M. Bayh, Evan* Ellsworth, Brad*# Visclosky, Peter J. Donnelly, Joseph S. Burton, Dan L. Pence, Mike Hill, Baron P. Grassley, Charles E.* Moran, Jerry*# Tiahrt, Todd*# Wasinger, Robert K. Bunning, Jim* Grayson, C.M. (Trey)* Landrieu, Mary Vitter, David* Scalise, Steve Cao, Anh (Joseph) Fleming, John C. Jr. Alexander, Rodney Cassidy, William Collins, Susan Michaud, Michael H. Cardin, Benjamin L. Mikulski, Barbara* Edwards, Donna Hoyer, Steny H. Cummings, Elijah Brown, Scott P.* † Coakley, Martha* † Schauer, Mark H. Peters, Gary McCotter, Thaddeus G. Levin, Sander M. Franken, Al Kline, John P. Paulsen, Erik P. McCollum, Betty Bachmann, Michele Childers, Travis W. Blunt, Roy*# Carnahan, Robin* Carnahan, Russ Skelton, Ike Cleaver, Emanuel, II Emerson, Jo Ann Baucus, Max Burns, Conrad Reid, Harry* Berkley, Shelley Ayotte, Kelly A.* Hodes, Paul W.*# Shea-Porter, Carol Swett, Katrina Lautenberg, Frank R. Andrews, Robert LoBiondo, Frank A. Adler, John H. Lance, Leonard Rothman, Steven R. Holt, Rush D. Sires, Albio

Party

Status

2009-10 Contributions

Career

D D R D D R D D R D D R R D D D D R R D R R R R R R D R R R R R R R D D D D D D R D D D R D D R R D R D R D D D D R D R D D R D D D D D R D R D D D

C I I I I O O I I I I I I N O I I I I I I O O O N O I I I I I I I I I I I I I I O O I I I I I I I I I I O O I I I I I N I I O O I O I I I I I I I I

2,000 1,000 3,500 2,000 2,145 500 500 3,000 3,000 3,500 2,500 7,500 2,000 26,000 3,500 1,000 1,000 15,000 17,000 5,500 13,500 6,600 16,100 1,000 10,940 28,500 -1,000 40,500 6,500 5,000 2,500 2,500 2,500 1,000 1,500 1,000 23,500 2,500 32,000 2,000 3,000 17,000 2,000 4,500 1,000 1,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 1,000 6,000 1,000 18,500 10,000 2,500 35,500 2,500 500 1,000 -1,000 56,000 25,500 5,000 19,400 2,000 8,500 1,000 15,500 2,000 9,000 2,000 3,500 1,000 1,000

2,000 1,000 12,750 53,529 32,145 500 500 13,500 13,227 8,500 13,650 14,000 14,500 110,250 83,750 16,700 8,000 135,500 74,750 39,465 154,823 6,600 16,100 1,000 100,690 28,500 205,389 82,000 16,500 5,000 5,000 13,500 2,500 109,000 11,750 93,015 201,099 3,500 225,275 22,500 3,000 17,000 6,500 11,500 13,500 129,727 5,680 17,500 7,500 5,750 25,000 6,000 64,350 10,000 18,600 123,950 5,500 3,500 349,648 210,210 376,301 315,555 5,000 41,037 4,000 73,500 503,578 78,525 24,750 12,000 7,000 77,003 16,741 1,000

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Committees

W C, I

C AS AS A (D) FR (NE) FR C B A (D) B A (FO, HS), HS AS, C C HS AS A A, AS, HS B, FR (NE) A (D, FO, HS), I House Majority Ldr.

W AS A (FO), B C, I FR (NE) AS HS A I; Senate Maj. Ldr. FR (NE), W AS A (FO, HS), C AS, B AS A (D, FO, HS) I FR AUGUST 2010

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PRO-ISRAEL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS TO 2010 CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES State

Office District

H H S New York S H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H North Carolina S North Dakota S S Ohio S H H H H H H H H H Oregon S S Pennsylvania S S S S H H H H H H South Carolina S H South Dakota S Tennessee H H Texas H H H H H H Utah S H Vermont S Virginia S H H H H Washington S Wisconsin S H H New Mexico

1 2 1 2 3 5 7 13 17 18 20 20 23 23 24 25 29

1 1 8 13 14 15 15 16 18

3 6 6 8 13 15 6 5 9 7 12 16 20 23 28 3 2 5 7 11 7 8

Candidate Heinrich, Martin Teague, Harry Gillibrand, Kirsten† Schumer, Charles* Altschuler, Randolph Israel, Steve King, Peter T. Ackerman, Gary L. Crowley, Joseph McMahon, Michael E. Engel, Eliot Lowey, Nita M. Murphy, Scott M. Tedisco, James† Owens, William Scozzafava, Dierdre K.† Arcuri, Michael A. Maffei, Daniel B. Massa, Eric J.J. Burr, Richard* Dorgan, Byron L.* Hoeven, John* Fisher, Lee Irwin* Chabot, Steve Driehaus, Steven L. Boehner, John A. Sutton, Betty S. LaTourette, Steven C. Kilroy, Mary Jo Stivers, Steve E. Boccieri, John A. Space, Zachary T. Merkley, Jeffrey Alan Wyden, Ron* Specter, Arlen* Sestak, Joseph A., Jr.*# Toomey, Patrick J.* Casey, Robert P., Jr. Dahlkemper, Kathleen Cohen, Howard A. Pike, Douglas A. Murphy, Patrick J. Schwartz, Allyson Y. Dent, Charles W. DeMint, Jim* Clyburn, James E. Thune, John* Cooper, James H.S. Cohen, Steve I. Culberson, John A. Granger, Kay Reyes, Silvestre Gonzalez, Charles A. Rodriguez, Ciro D. Cuellar, Henry R. Bennett, Robert* Chaffetz, Jason Leahy, Patrick* Warner, Mark R. Nye, Glenn Carlyle III Perriello, Thomas S. Cantor, Eric Connolly, Gerry Murray, Patty* Feingold, Russell D.* Obey, David R. Kagen, Steven L.

Party

Status

2009-10 Contributions

Career

Committees

D D D D R D R D D D D D D R D R D D D R D R D R D R D R D R D D D D D D R D D R D D D R R D R D D R R D D D D R R D D D D R D D D D D

I I I I C I I I I I I I I O I N I I N I N O O C I I I I I C I I I I I C C I I C C I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I N I

4,000 2,000 21,700 7,000 2,500 10,500 1,000 3,850 1,000 6,000 12,000 28,000 6,000 2,500 6,000 1,500 4,000 1,000 10 19,000 27,000 5,000 5,000 3,000 2,000 14,500 1,000 1,000 2,012 -1,000 1,000 6,000 12,500 57,400 50,500 500 2,500 1,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 5,000 1,500 1,000 3,970 12,500 40,500 1,000 4,500 10,000 13,000 21,000 1,000 3,500 1,500 42,000 3,000 25,711 -4,000 9,000 3,000 30,750 4,000 25,000 41,000 3,000 2,000

9,000 4,000 37,950 64,635 2,500 49,059 26,500 54,350 94,657 8,000 247,418 177,238 6,000 2,500 6,000 1,500 16,000 10,000 11,110 29,750 166,350 5,000 5,000 16,500 4,000 71,500 8,000 25,500 12,012 5,000 3,000 20,000 21,600 334,962 553,973 22,500 3,250 17,000 4,000 1,000 1,000 23,600 45,650 9,250 28,470 20,600 54,730 26,250 21,500 12,500 13,000 22,000 1,000 14,500 6,000 141,250 3,000 143,911 36,500 9,000 4,000 206,980 7,000 188,293 185,310 163,600 22,500

AS

2009-2010 Total Contributions: Total Contributions (1978-2010): Total No. of Recipients (1978-2010): AUGUST 2010

FR A (FO) HS, I FR (NE) FR (NE), W FR (NE) C, FR (NE) A (HS) AS AS, HS

AS, HS AS, I A (D), C

House Rep. Ldr. C A HS C B B, I A (D, FO, HS) AS FR (NE)

AS, I B, W HS C, FR AS, C AS A (HS) A (D, FO) AS, I A (HS) HS A (D, FO), HS A (D, FO, HS) B, C AS W B, FR (NE) A (D, HS), B B, FR (NE), I A $1,697,192 $49,547,035 2,215

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Israel’s Hijacking of Gaza Freedom Flotilla Draws Predictable Congressional Support CongressWatch

By Shirl McArthur ithin hours of Israel’s May 31 assault

Won the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Israel’s

congressional acolytes leapt to defend Israel’s actions. AIPAC reported that no fewer than 16 senators and 81 House members issued statements, most of which, in an incredible twist of the facts, strongly defended Israel’s “right of self-defense.” Typical was the statement of Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), which began with, “I strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself, and the right of Israel’s naval commandos, who were executing a legal mission, to defend themselves by using force when they were brutally attacked.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s more moderate statement said simply, “I regret the loss of life and look forward to learning the facts from a credible and transparent investigation. This event underscores the urgent need for negotiations designed to achieve an enduring and comprehensive regional peace.”

On June 9 Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced S.Res. 548 expressing “the sense of the Senate that Israel has an undeniable right to self-defense” and condemning the “actions by extremists aboard the ship Mavi Marmara.” Cornyn’s measure also condemns Hamas and urges Turkey to “recognize the importance of continued strong relations with Israel.” And on June 14 Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) introduced H.Res. 1440 supporting “Israel in its general right to defend itself and specifically for its actions on May 31, 2010, stopping a flotilla attempting to break the blockade of Gaza.”

But there were a few lone congressional voices criticizing Israel’s actions. On June 2 Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) began circulating for signatures a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama saying that Israel’s action requires the U.S. to “begin to redefine its relationship and to establish such boundaries and conditions which are sufficient for mutual respect and cooperation.” The letter also says the attack “requires consequences for the Netanyahu administration and for the state of Israel. Those consequences must be dealt by the United States. They must be diplomatic and they must be financial.” Also, on June 4 Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Keith Shirl McArthur is a retired U.S. foreign service officer living in the Washington, DC area.

38

Ellison (D-MN) wrote to Obama urging him to do “everything in your power” to support “a prompt, credible, impartial, and transparent investigation” of the incident, and to end the blockade on Gaza.

$205 Million Authorized for Israel’s “Iron Dome” Rocket Defense System Following Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s visit to Washington in mid-May, Obama announced that he would ask Congress to approve $205 million for Israel’s “Iron Dome” short-range missile and rocket defense system. Accordingly, on May 18 Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA), with 54 co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 5327 to authorize the funds. On May 20 it passed the full House, with 55 co-sponsors, under “suspension of the rules” and was forwarded to the Senate, where Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on May 27 introduced the companion S. 3451.

However, there apparently is some dispute within Israel over how effective the Iron Dome system is. Tests have shown that it is probably effective against Katyusha rockets, but its effectiveness against the shorter-range Qassams is questioned. The extreme right-wing Israeli news service Arutz quoted a Tel Aviv professor and military analyst as saying that the flight time of a Qassam is about 14 seconds, and the time for the Iron Dome system to identify a target and fire is at least 15 seconds.

Another Jerusalem Resolution; Other Pro-Israel Measures Make Progress The previously described H.R. 3412 and S. 2737, which would strip presidential waiver authority from the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and require the U.S. Embassy in Israel to be established in Jerusalem, and the non-binding H.Res. 1191, calling upon the president to fully implement the Jerusalem Embassy Act, have made scant progress. But on April 29 Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) tried a side-door approach by introducing H.Con.Res. 271, with the relatively innocent title of “commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.” But among the “resolved” clauses is one “urging” the president to discontinue using the waiver authority and begin the process of relocatTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

ing the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The resolution has 48 co-sponsors, including Wilson.

On May 25 Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (RFL) introduced H.Res. 1391 “congratulating Israel for its accession to membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.” It passed the full House under “suspension of the rules” on May 28, with 57 co-sponsors. Also, H.Res. 1241, introduced in April by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) “supporting the right of Israel to defend itself against terrorists and the Israeli construction of new security fences along the border of Egypt,” has gained 23 co-sponsors, and now has 61, including Garrett.

H.Con.Res. 260, introduced in April by Ros-Lehtinen, “recognizing the 62nd anniversary of the independence of the State of Israel, and reaffirming unequivocal support for the alliance and friendship between the U.S. and Israel,” continues to gain co-sponsors, even though the anniversary has passed. It has gained 55 cosponsors and now has 192, including RosLehtinen. The measure still has not been brought to the House floor and remains held in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, probably because of its implicit criticisms of the Obama administration’s dealings with Israel.

Also, on April 21 Rep. Eliot Engel (DNY) introduced H.Res. 1285 “condemning the government of Syria for transferring Scud missiles to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.” It has 17 co-sponsors, including Engel.

61 Representatives Urge Strong U.S. Leadership Toward Two-State Solution On May 27 61 House members, led by Reps. Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Ron Kind (DWI), David Price (D-NC) and Vic Snyder (D-AR), wrote to Obama urging him “to continue your strong efforts to bring U.S. leadership to bear in moving the parties to a negotiated two-state solution.” The letter quotes extensively from Gen. David Petraeus’ March testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that continued lack of resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian AUGUST 2010

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conflict threatens the security interests of both Israel and the U.S. The letter also quotes Israeli Defense Minister Barak as saying, “we have an interest in drawing a border line which includes a solid Jewish majority for generations, and beside it an economically and politically viable Palestinian state.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly is circulating a similar Senate letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applauding “the Obama administration’s commitment to re-start the stalled peace process and play a lead role in securing an agreement.”

As circulated, the letter includes a couple of statements likely to irritate Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. For example, it says an agreement can only be achieved by the U.S. “bringing the parties together and driving them to a settlement.”

Netanyahu, of course, doesn’t want the U.S. to “drive” him, preferring to drag out the negotiations for a few more years, while settlement expansion continues. The letter also says that “the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem” undermines confidence, whereas Netanyahu insists, in the face of international law and world opinion, that East Jerusalem is not a settlement.

Lee Resolution Urges Government to Investigate Tristan Anderson Case On April 28 Lee introduced H.Con.Res. 270 “calling on the U.S. government to investigate the case of Tristan Anderson, a U.S. citizen from Oakland, California, who was critically injured in the West Bank village of Ni’lin on March 13, 2009, and expressing sympathy to Tristan Anderson and his family, friends, and loved ones during this trying time.” In a press release, Lee said that, more than a year after Anderson was struck by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli Border Police while engaging in peaceful protest activities, “serious questions remain regarding the circumstances that led to this tragic event.” She said, “We must seek accountability in this matter, and most importantly, ensure that such an unfortunate event does not occur again.”

The resolution has five co-sponsors, including Lee.

Senate Passes “Emergency” Supplemental Appropriations Bill In March the House passed H.R. 4899, a relatively modest $6 billion disaster relief and summer jobs bill. Then, on May 27, the Senate took up the bill and loaded it with “emergency” funding for the troop “surge” in Afghanistan, plus money for AUGUST 2010

Haiti, veterans, and victims of hurricanes, floods, and oil disasters, bringing the total to about $59 billion. This includes $33.5 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and $1.6 billion for economic support for Afghanistan and Pakistan. It also includes $100 million in economic aid and $50 million in military aid for Jordan.

The measure now goes to conference, but the House is sharply divided over how large an “emergency” bill should be.

The previously described H.R. 5015, introduced in April by Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), has gained strong support. It would require that the president “submit to Congress a plan for the safe, orderly, and expeditious redeployment of U.S. Armed Forces from Afghanistan, including military and security-related contractors, together with a timetable for the completion of that redeployment and information regarding variables that could alter that

timetable” not later than Jan. 1, 2011 or 90 days after the enactment of the bill, whichever is earlier. The bill also includes recommendations on contractor oversight.

It has gained 62 co-sponsors, and now has 95, including McGovern. Even H.R. 3699, introduced in October by Lee, which has been overtaken by events, has gained three co-sponsors and now has 32, including Lee. It would “prohibit any increase in the numbers of members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan.”

On May 20 Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) tried a different approach in introducing HR. 5353, titled the “War is Making You Poor Act.” It would “reduce the $159.3 billion from the discretionary overseas contingency operations funds in the president’s fiscal year 2011 budget for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan,” and use the savings to “provide individuals a ‘War is Making You Poor’ tax credit.”

‘Nuff Said: The President’s Meeting With Jewish Members of the Democratic Caucuses, May 18, 2010 The president met with Jewish members of the Democratic caucuses for approximately an hour and a half this afternoon to discuss a range of issues important to U.S. foreign policy. The conversation included an update on proximity talks and administration efforts to strengthen Israel’s security, including the administration’s recent decision to provide Israel with an additional $205 million in funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system. They also discussed today’s announcement of a consensus P5+1 draft of an Iran sanctions resolution. The president and the members had a wide-ranging and productive exchange about their shared commitment to peace and security in Israel and the Middle East.

List of Members Attending the Meeting Eliot Engel (D-NY) Senators Barney Frank (D-MA) Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Jane Harman (D-CA) Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) Paul Hodes (D-NH) Al Franken (D-MN) Steve Israel (D-NY) Russ Feingold (D-WI) Steve Kagen (D-WI) Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Ron Klein (D-FL) Herb Kohl (D-WI) Sander Levin (D-MI) Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) Nita Lowey (D-NY) Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Charles Schumer (D-NY) Jared Polis (D-CO) Ron Wyden (D-OR) Steve Rothman (D-NJ) Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) Gary Ackerman (D-NY) Adam Schiff (D-CA) John Adler (D-NJ) Brad Sherman (D-CA) Shelley Berkley (D-NV) Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) Howard Berman (D-CA) Henry Waxman (D-CA) Stephen Cohen (D-TN) Anthony Weiner (D-NY) Ted Deutch (D-FL) John Yarmuth (D-KY) Susan Davis (D-CA) Source: White House Media Affairs Office press release

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An interesting approach, but it will never happen. The bill has 19 co-sponsors, including Grayson.

Action Postponed on Punitive Iran Sanctions Bill As reported in the July issue of this magazine, a conference committee was appointed to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of H.R. 2194, the irresponsible, punitive and counterproductive “Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment” bill. The committee’s stated goal was to complete its work and present a conference report no later than May 28. That didn’t happen. On May 25 the conference committee’s co-chairs, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Howard Berman (DCA), announced that further action would be put off until the end of June to allow the president time to pursue U.N. sanctions against Iran. “We have always said that tough multilateral sanctions are the most effective means to persuade Iran to cease its efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability,” their statement said.

Most of the other previously described Iran sanctions bills keep plodding along.

Of the three bills introduced in February with the short title of the “Iran Human Rights Sanctions Act,” S. 3022, introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), still has 15 co-sponsors, including McCain.

However, the identical H.R. 4647, introduced by Rep. Michael McMahon (DNY), has gained five co-sponsors and now has 30, including McMahon. The bills would require the public posting on the Web sites of the Treasury and State Departments the names of persons “who the president determines are complicit in human rights abuses committed against citizens of Iran or their family members on or after June 12, 2009” [the date of the Iranian elections]. Both bills include a presidential waiver provision and a provision that the president may authorize exceptions to comply with international agreements.

The other “Human Rights Sanctions Act,” H.R. 4649, introduced by Ros-Lehtinen, is very similar to S. 3022 and H.R. 4647, except it does not include the provisions authorizing presidential waivers and exceptions to comply with international agreements. It has gained four co-sponsors, and now has 47, including Ros-Lehtinen.

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H.R. 4807, introduced in March by Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), which would amend the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 (ISA) to require that the General Accountability Office publish a list of “potential ISA violators,” has gained two co-sponsors and now has 18, including Kirk. H.R. 4896—introduced in March by Ros-Lehtinen “to authorize the president to utilize the Proliferation Security Initiative and all other measures for the purpose of interdicting the import into or export from Iran by the government of Iran or any other country, entity, or person of all items, materials, equipment, goods and technology useful for any nuclear, biological, chemical, missile, or conventional arms program”—has gained one co-sponsor and now has 31, including Ros-Lehtinen.

Positive Iran Measures Continue to Languish Of the relatively positive measures previously described, H.R. 4301, the “Iran Digital Empowerment Act,” introduced in December by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), and H.R. 4303, the “Stand with the Iranian People Act,” introduced in December by Ellison, have each gained only one co-sponsor.

H.R. 4301, which would enhance the ability of the Iranian people to access the Internet and communications services, now has 12 co-sponsors, including Moran. H.R. 4303, which would impose restrictions against Iran’s human rights abusers, prohibit federal procurement contracts with persons who provide censorship or surveillance technology to the government of Iran, and authorize U.S. non-profit organizations to provide humanitarian and people-to-people assistance to the Iranian people, now has seven co-sponsors, including Ellison.

Ros-Lehtinen Introduces Perennial Anti-UNRWA Bill During every session of Congress either Ros-Lehtinen or Kirk launches an attack against the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). This year it was RosLehtinen’s turn as she, with Kirk and 22 other co-sponsors, on April 20 introduced H.R. 5065, the “UNRWA Humanitarian Accountability Act.” It essentially would gut UNRWA and place Palestinian refugees under the responsibility of the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees. This despite the fact that successive Israeli governments have called UNRWA’s work essential, and last spring Clinton strongly defended UNRWA during a House hearing. ❑ 40

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST 2010

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Switch to Petraeus Betrays Afghan Policy Crisis SpecialReport

AFP PHOTO/ED JONES

By Gareth Porter

A soldier with the U.S. Army 97th MP Battalion watches as Afghan civilians leave a street in Kandahar during an operation by a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to secure the area of a weapons cache, June 14, 2010. espite President Barack Obama’s de-

Dnial that his decision to fire Gen.

Stanley A. McChrystal as commander in Afghanistan and replace him with Gen. David Petraeus signified any differences with McChrystal over war strategy, the decision obviously reflects a desire by Obama to find a way out of a deepening policy crisis in Afghanistan.

Although the ostensible reason was indiscreet comments by McChrystal and his aides reported in Rolling Stone, the switch from McChrystal to Petraeus was clearly the result of White House unhappiness with McChrystal’s handling of the war.

It had become evident in recent weeks that McChrystal’s strategy is not working as he had promised, and Congress and the U.S. political elite had already become very Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006. Copyright © 2010 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.

AUGUST 2010

uneasy about whether the war was on the wrong track.

In calling on Petraeus, the Obama administration appears to be taking a page from the George W. Bush administration’s late 2006 decision to rescue a war in Iraq which was generally perceived in Washington as having become an embarrassing failure. But both Obama and Petraeus are acutely aware of the differences between the situation in Iraq at that moment and the situation in Afghanistan today.

In taking command in Iraq in 2007, Petraeus was being called upon to implement a dramatically new counterinsurgency strategy based on a major “surge” in U.S. troops.

Obama will certainly be put under pressure by the Republican Party, led by Sen. John McCain, to agree to eliminate the mid-2011 deadline for the beginning of a U.S. withdrawal and perhaps even for yet another troop surge in Afghanistan.

But accounts of Obama administration policymaking on the war last year make it clear that Obama caved in to military pressure in 2009 for the troop surge of 2010 THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

only as part of a compromise under which McChrystal and Petraeus agreed to a surge of 18 months’ duration. It was clearly understood by both civilian and military officials, moreover, that after the surge was completed, the administration would enter into negotiations on a settlement of the war.

Petraeus’ political skills and ability to sell a strategy involving a negotiated settlement offers Obama more flexibility than he has had with McChrystal in command.

Contrary to the generally accepted view that Petraeus mounted a successful counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq, his main accomplishment was to make the first formal accommodation with Sunni insurgents.

Petraeus demonstrated in his command in Iraq a willingness to adjust strategic objectives in light of realities he could not control. He had made it clear to his staff at the outset that they would make one last effort to show progress, but that he would tell Congress that it was time to withdraw if he found that it was not working.

As commander in Iraq, Petraeus chose 41

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staff officers who were skeptics and realists rather than true believers, according to accounts from members of his staff in Iraq.

When one aide proposed in a memorandum in the first weeks of his command coming to terms with the Shi’i insurgents led by Moqtada al Sadr, for example, Petraeus did not dismiss the idea.

That willingness to listen to viewpoints that may not support the existing strategy stands in sharp contrast to McChrystal’s command style in Afghanistan. McChrystal has relied heavily on a small circle of friends, mainly from his years as Special Operations Forces (SOF) commander, who have been deeply suspicious of the views of anyone from outside that SOF circle, according to sources who are familiar with the way his inner circle has operated.

In an interview with IPS, one military source who knows McChrystal and his staff described a “very tight” inner circle of about eight people which “does everything together, including getting drunk.”

“McChrystal surrounded himself with yes men,” said another source who has interacted with some of those in the inner circle. “When people have challenged the conventional wisdom, he’s had them booted out,” the source said.

The McChrystal inner circle has been accustomed to the insularity that Special Operations Forces have traditionally had in carrying out their operations, the source added.

The primary example of McChrystal’s rejection of outside expertise that challenged his beliefs cited by the sources is the case of David Kilcullen.

Kilcullen, a retired Australian army officer, is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable specialists on insurgency and was an adviser to Petraeus in Iraq in 2007-2008. Kilcullen is known for speaking his mind, even if it conflicts with existing policy.

After McChrystal took command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last year, Kilcullen was slated to become an adviser on his staff. But after some early interactions between Kilcullen and the McChrystal team that decision was reversed, the sources said.

Kilcullen’s views on targeted killings as wrongheaded clashed with the assumptions of McChrystal and his inner circle.

McChrystal’s staff was also supposed to create a “red team” of outside specialists on Afghanistan who could provide different perspectives and information, but after the inner circle around McChrystal tightened its control over outside information, 42

the idea was allowed to die, according to one source.

Several members of McChrystal’s inner circle are officers who worked for the general during his five-year stint as head of the Joint Special Operations Command, which carried out targeted raids aimed at killing or capturing insurgent leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2008, the sources say.

Two of the key officers on McChrystal’s staff who were part of his former JSOC inner circle are his intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, and his deputy chief of staff for operations, Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville.

Flynn was McChrystal’s director of intelligence at JSOC from 2004 to 2007 and then his director of intelligence at the Joint Staff in 2008-2008. Mayville also served under McChrystal at JSOC. McChrystal’s political adviser, retired Army Col. Jacob McFerren, is not a veteran of JSOC. But he is described by one source familiar with McChrystal’s team as one of the general’s old Army “drinking buddies.” ❑

Israeli Democracy…

Continued from page 17

the flotilla reflects the degree of Israelis’ denial to the reality they are responsible for creating, including 43 years of occupation.

It not only reflects hostility to non-Israeli Jews, but the degeneration of human, political and democratic values in Israel itself.

The attack against civilians in international waters was fully backed by the Israeli government and public, with many Israeli citizens travelling to Ashdod port to welcome the returning commandos as “heroes.” In fact, 74 percent of the Israeli public was satisfied with their conduct during the operation. There were some disapproving exceptions, of course—an Israeli bus driver transporting soldiers posted a banner on the front of his bus which read: “Squadron 13, shame on you. Why did you kill so few?”

By definition, no full democracy exists in Israel because Palestinian Israelis, who comprise 20 percent of the population, have never enjoyed full democratic rights in their country of birth, where they have always operated on the margins of democracy. Even this “narrow margin Israel is trying to eliminate,” argues Zoabi. “Democracy in Israel,” she adds, “means being and operating within the Zionist consensus; voices outside that consensus must be silenced and criminalized.” She describes THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

this consensus as follows: “You must not challenge the ‘morality’ of the Israeli army; you must not challenge Israel’s perception of itself as the victim, or its perception of Palestinians as terrorists; you must not challenge its founding ideology as the home for world Jewry; or its perception of Palestinians as guests, whose citizenship is possible due to Israel’s graciousness. If you challenge Israel’s self-evident Zionist principles, then you oppose and threaten Israel’s security and are de-legitimized.”

As long as the Palestinian MKs operate within the Zionist consensus, they are accepted. Once they appeal against Israel’s definition of itself and its definition of the “other,” however, they must be expelled from the “graciously” granted margin of democracy they are allowed to occupy.

This is echoed in a March 2007 letter sent by the director of Israel’s General Security Services (GSS) to Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel, which stated that the GSS is required to “thwart the subversive activity of entities” seeking to change the nature of the state of Israel as Jewish and democratic, “even if their activity is conducted through democratic means.” The content of the letter had the consent of the State Attorney General.

If Israel doesn’t like what its Arab constituents say and do, then it will use its “democratic tools” to limit their democratic rights. On June 9, 25 Knesset members from coalition and opposition parties alike introduced a bill seeking to criminalize boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) activities and advocacy by forcing Israeli citizens who initiate, encourage or aid a boycott against the state of Israel to compensate those affected by the embargo. As for foreign nationals involved in BDS, their right to enter Israel could be revoked for at least 10 years.

The aggressive, unrestrained hatred and racist expressions of anger from Israeli MKs and the Israeli public towards Zoabi derive also from their inability to accept her as an equal citizen—let alone an equal fellow MK whose freedom of expression is the basis of her political work as an elected legislator. As an Arab MK, she is inherently viewed as a lesser human being, and one who dared to upset her masters, stand and criticize them to their face, and fail to show any gratitude when conditionally granted some rights she would not have enjoyed in any Arab dictatorship—as Israeli MKs routinely inform Palestinian MKs when the latter criticize Israel’s policies.

Of course, Arab dictatorships never claimed to be democracies. Perhaps that’s a stance Israel should consider as well. ❑ AUGUST 2010

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Erasing Iraq Author Mike Otterman: The U.S. Has Inflicted “Sociocide” on Iraq SpecialReport

By Jeremy R. Hammond rasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Car-

Richard Hil, and Paul Wilson (available from the AET Book Club), sets out to deconstruct the narrative of the United States as the benign guardian of Iraqi interests by presenting an account of the tragedy of war from Iraqi perspectives.

When many people think about pre-invasion Iraq, it is the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussain that most comes to mind: his use of poison gas during the devastating Iran-Iraq war, his invasion of Kuwait, his brutal suppression of rebellions that erupted in the immediate aftermath of the 1991 Gulf war, his torture chambers. But what about Iraq’s history, its culture, its society?

“U.S. war in Iraq did not start in 2003—it started in 1991,” Otterman explained in an interview with the Washington Report.

Asked how Iraq today compares with the past, he pointed out that, prior to the first Gulf war, Iraq was a highly modernized society that “boasted the region’s best healthcare and education system. Literacy rates were high and there was a 100 percent gross enrollment rate on the primary school level.

The state’s free and universal healthcare was the envy of its neighbors. Women’s rights flourished—in 1989, for example, more than 10 percent of the seats in Iraq’s national assembly were held by women.

“But the first Gulf war changed everything,” he said. “It shattered the Iraqi state—and it has never recovered.” Quoting then-U.N. Under-Secretary General Martti Ahtisaari, Otterman described Iraq as having been “relegated to a pre-industrial age.”

What’s more, he added, U.N. sanctions prevented reconstruction. Medicines and medical equipment, machinery, and construction materials were embargoed. The sanctions toll “has been estimated at more than 1.2 million lives,” he noted. “According to UNICEF, more than 500,000 Iraqis Jeremy R. Hammond, an independent political analyst, is the founder and executive editor of Foreign Policy Journal (<www.foreignpolicyjournal.com>), an online source for news, analysis, and commentary from outside the standard framework offered by the mainstream corporate media. He was a recipient of the Project Censored 2010 Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

AUGUST 2010

AFP PHOTO/KHALIL AL-MURSHIDI

Enage, a new book by Mike Otterman,

A woman cries out following twin car bombs which, according to Baghdad operations command, killed mainly women and traffic police in the city’s Mansour district, June 20, 2010. under five years old died. And this is all before the 2003 invasion.”

When then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked on CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes” about the half million dead Iraqi children, she infamously replied, “We think the price is worth it.” Would Iraqis agree?

Would any human being?

“Since 2003, women’s rights, healthcare, and education have been degraded further,” Otterman continued. There have been reports of women being attacked with acid for not wearing veils, and non-Muslims now wear veils out of fear for their safety.

Citing statistics on the degradation of education in Iraq, Otterman noted that by late 2007, more than 760,000 Iraqi children were not in primary school, and only 28 percent of 17-year-olds had taken their final exams. In addition, teachers and university professors have been the target of attacks by Sunni and Shi’i fundamentalists, with roughly 300 academics having been assassinated since 2003. Thousands more have fled the country.

A similar tragedy has occurred with healthcare, with medicines still in short supply. “More than 120 doctors were killed and Iraq’s Ministry of Health has estimated at least 15,000 medical professionals have fled,” Otterman said. “During the peak of Iraq’s civil war, the ministry was THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

controlled by Shi’i militias. For many Sunnis, even going to a hospital for medical treatment was not an option—the risk of kidnapping was simply too great. Countless Iraqis died seeking medical attention—let alone the thousands who have expired in overcrowded, unsanitary and overburdened clinics and hospitals.”

Sometimes forgotten in the fog of war is Iraq’s rich history and culture. Once known as Mesopotamia, it is widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, and is a land that has seen the rise and fall of empires.

While Europe languished in the Dark Ages, Baghdad was the center of scholarship, helping preserve literature and many other priceless cultural gifts for posterity.

Yet when U.S. forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, despite warnings from analysts, they did not provide security. As a result, many ministry buildings were sacked and looted. The National Museum of Iraq, which arguably housed some of the most important collections of archaeological artifacts in the world, was looted.

This was a loss not only for Iraqis, but for humankind, Otterman pointed out, noting that “more than one million books have been destroyed since 2003. The National Archives, for example, lost at least 25 percent of its collection of important historical Continued on page 50 43

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Academic Boycott on Israel Flexes Its Muscles

By Pat and Samir Twair

Southern California Chronicle

ISIS protester Dr. Vida Samiian. ere it not for the eagle eyes of Nur

WMarsalha, a professor of religion and

politics in England, perusing the program for the biennial conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS), Israel might have won a small victory in its efforts to legitimize its military occupation of the West Bank.

The May 27-30 conference at the Doubletree Inn in Santa Monica featured 66 panels, but Marsalha questioned the institutional affiliation of one particular participant: Ronen Cohen, who stated he was from Ariel University in Samaria, Israel.

Not only is Ariel University situated in Israel’s fourth largest illegal West Bank settlement, but it originally was a satellite campus of Bar Ilan University—until Israel’s Minister of Defense Ehud Barak rushed through its accreditation, without evaluating its academic qualifications.

As a result, a total of 120 academics registered their objections in a letter to ISIS arguing that the Ariel settlement is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST 2010

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

states that an occupying power cannot populate a territory it occupies.

ISIS claimed that it was being vic- ISIS include a paper from a settler institutimized by the U.S. Campaign for the tion? Why did ISIS block the membership Academic and Cultural Boycott of Is- from reading Cohen’s abstract which deals rael. In response, ISIS member Vida with a so-called nuclear Iran and its ‘threat Samiian, dean of the College of Arts to the Middle East or maybe to the world?’” and Humanities at Fresno State UniThe picketing was a success, as Iranianversity, explained: “We tried to pre- American photographers and reporters left sent a resolution allowing the general the conference to interview dissenting membership to vote on the matter. scholars. Dr. Ahmad Karimi, a past ISIS ISIS leadership blocked this.” president, confronted the picketers and While ISIS did remove “Samaria” as voiced his objections to their accusations the site of the Ariel institution, it that ISIS supported apartheid. Agreeing blocked Internet access to Cohen’s that military occupation is wrong, he paper, titled “The Hojjatiyeh: The Real stated that the controversy will be reBringers of the Islamic Revolution of viewed at the Middle East Studies AssociIran.” Meanwhile, the chair and three ation convention in November.

The incident gives notice to Israel that other participants on the “Shi’ism, Clerics and Movements of Revolution and no trick to gain cultural or academic legitReform” panel dropped out, leaving imacy is too small for Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) activists to uncover and exCohen as the sole remaining member.

Finally, days before the conference, pose. For more information, visit <www. three new participants and a chair usacbi.org>. were announced—too late to review their abstracts for the session re- MPAC Media Awards named “Dialogues and Contentions.”

Incredibly, one of the new panelists was Judea Pearl, a UCLA computer science professor and father of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by extremists in Pakistan. The title of his paper, “Carving a Dialogue between Muslims and Jews,” was a misleading one for Pearl, who vociferously rants about Islamist violence. He is the polar opposite of Cindy and Craig Corrie, who have responded to Israel’s killing of their daughter Rachel with a message of reconciliation.

On the second day of the conference, when Cohen was scheduled to speak, about 20 concerned academics and activists handed (L-r) Steve Gilula, president of Fox Searchlight; “My fliers to people arriving at the Name Is Khan” director Karan Johar; and MPAC’s Doubletree Inn. Many stood be- Noor Khan. hind a cardboard apartheid wall and held signs stating that ISIS approves of What do best-selling author Dave Eggers, apartheid. the Emmy-award winning TV series “Grey’s “We don’t object to an Israeli participat- Anatomy,” and feature films “Amreeka” and ing in the conference,” stated economics “My Name Is Khan” have in common? All professor Sasan Faymazman during the in- are recipients of the Muslim Public Affairs formational May 28 picket. But “why did Council’s (MPAC) 2010 media awards, pre-

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STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

Munah, and her teenage son, Fadi. sented May 1 at the Westin BonavenDabis’ Palestinian parents emigrated ture in Downtown Los Angeles. More to Ohio shortly before her birth. Her than 600 members and guests gathfather was a highly respected physiered for the 19th annual event honorcian until the first Gulf war began. ing film, TV and literary projects that Soon, the Arab-American family was cast Muslims in realistic roles. treated like a pariah.

Eggers has been the hero of the Arab-American and Muslim-AmeriSAWA Fetes Syrian Stars can communities since July 2009, when he published his best selling The Syrian American Women’s Asbook, Zeitoun (available from the sociation (SAWA) has been providing AET Book Club), which chronicles medical assistance to hearing-imthe harrowing post-Hurricane Katpaired children in Syria for a decade. rina ordeals of Abdulrahman On May 1, it celebrated its 10th anZeitoun. Accepting the award, Egniversary with a gala dinner in the gers recalled how, when he began to Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Downinterview them, Abdulrahman and town Los Angeles. his wife, Kathy, protested “Who will Dr. Kamal Batniji, who has helped care about our story?” Instead they SAWA perform cochlear implants to became the first Muslim family many SAWA gala headliners (l-r) Dr. Hazem Chehabi, incom- deaf children in Syria, received the American readers came to know. ing SAWA president Salwa Chehabi, and outgoing SAWA group’s Golden Heart award. Also reMPAC selected an episode from president Ilham Kalioundji ceiving the award for their assistance “Grey’s Anatomy” for its media were Dr. Hatem and Salwa Chehabi, awards because it focused on the deep faith travels to the post-9/11 U.S. Dr. Abdallah and Daad Farrukh, and Jim In the U.S., Khan falls in love with and and Pricilla Khoury. of a Muslim lab technician (Faran Tahir) who insists on surgery for an inoperable marries a Hindu divorcee, helps a small A highlight of the charitable organizatumor. In the November 2009 episode, enti- town in Georgia cope with a Hurricane Kat- tion’s annual event is the presentation of altled “Give Peace a Chance,” the Muslim pa- rina-like flood, and launches a mission to tell Ataa awards to Syrian stage and screen tient makes du’a, and his faith enlightens newly elected President Barack Obama that stars. This year’s recipients were actress his name is Khan and he’s not a terrorist. the surgeon (Patrick Dempsey).

Sulaf Fawakheri and producer/director/ Cherien Dabis’ film “Amreeka” explores actor Jamal Soliman. Presenting the awards Accepting the award were PakistaniAmerican actor Tahir, executive producer how someone from the West Bank starts life were Farouk Ubaysi and SAWA president over in the Midwest. The screenwriter and Ilham Kalioundji.

Mark Wilding and writer Peter Nowak.

Bollywood director Karan Johar traveled director was applauded by MPAC for her Over the past year, SAWA provided from India to receive his MPAC award for tragicomedic view of a Palestinian divorcee’s eight cochlear implants to deaf children his film, “My Name Is Khan.”Inspired by rough awakening to life in post-9/11 America. and donated 250 hearing aids. It also Dabis used her own experience of coming spearheaded the development and implepolitical events in the U.S., the feature film tells the story of Rizvan Khan, a Muslim of age in the Midwest during the first Gulf mentation of a speech rehabilitation curafflicted with Asperger’s syndrome who war to tell the story of her fictional heroine, riculum at Damascus University. ❑

MSU Appeals UCI Suspension Recommendation The showdown for the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Orange County Jewish Federation and Israel’s Consul General in Los Angeles Jacob Dayan versus the Muslim Students Union (MSU) of the University of California at Irvine (UCI) took place June 14 when the Jewish Federation went public with a confidential UCI recommendation to suspend the MSU for one year.

At UCI, where Muslim and Arab students are equal in number to Jewish undergrads, creative MSU programs have outraged offcampus Zionist leaders. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Education Office on Civil Rights determined ZOA complaints of UCI campus anti-Semitism were unfounded.

The conflict came to a head Feb. 8, when Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren spoke at UCI and his speech was interrupted 10 times by 11 students—two of whom had lost relatives killed during Israel’s 22-day blitzkrieg of Gaza (see May/June 2010 Washington Report, p. 36).

A delegation from the Orange County Jewish Federation traveled to Oakland, CA to present their allegations to UC Chancellor Mark G. Yudorf.

With the June 14 release of the recommendation of the suspension of MSU for one year effective in September, and an ad-

AUGUST 2010

ditional one year of probation, attorney Reem Salahi filed an appeal on behalf of the MSU. “Even the fraternity at UC San Diego which hosted the racist ‘Compton Cookout’ wasn’t suspended,” she noted. “It appears UCI is applying a different standard of punishment against the MSU than any other campus organization.”

Emphasizing that MSU is primarily a religious organization that provides prayer services on campus, Salahi said as many as 250 Muslim students would be affected by the suspension, leaving them without a voice or means of association.

“UCI is clearly caving into the pressure of these external organizations who seek to silence dissent and criticism of the Israeli state,” Salahi concluded. “Collectively punishing the entire Muslim population is truly chilling.”

Stated UCLA anthropology professor Sondra Hale: “This ruling will be a major setback to activist students everywhere and a blow to academic freedom, not to mention underscoring the degree to which officials of the UC system cater to outside proponents of Israel’s government policy.”

—Pat McDonnell Twair

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pasquini_46-47_Northern California Chronicle 6/24/10 2:49 PM Page 46

Children’s Plea for Clean Water Inspires MECA’s “Maia Project” in Gaza

Northern California Chronicle

STAFF PHOTOS PHIL PASQUINI

By Elaine Pasquini

ganizations from Fresno, California to Portland, Maine have raised money, she said. A large purification unit for a U.N. school in a refugee camp costs $11,300, while a smaller unit for a preschool or kindergarten is $3,750. Students at the University of Massachusetts in Boston raised enough money for a large school and a kindergarten. Residents of Whitefish, Montana invited MECA founder and executive director Barbara Lubin to speak at the local library and formed a group specifically to raise funds for the water project, Shields-Stromsness said.

The Gaza City-based Abdul Salam Yaseen Company assembles the water purification and desalination units. Since 80 percent of the materials are local, the company does not rely heavily on foreign im-

INSET: STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

ABOVE: MECA program director Josie Shields-Stromsness and her husband, Hazem Al-Qassas, former acting director of Ibdaa Cultural Center, stand next to a display of The Maia Project prior to their talk on May 1. RIGHT (l-r): Suzie McLean, Mona Halaby and Cathy Shields discuss their organization, Joining Hands, which is dedicated to helping Palestinian families supplement their income through sales of their handmade art and crafts (inset). lean, safe drinking water is in ex-

Ctremely short supply in Gaza, one of

the most densely populated areas of the world. In a student election three years ago at the United Nations Bureij Refugee Camp school, the children chose clean drinking water as the one item they most wanted for their school. Responding to the students’ request, made through its partner Afaq Jadeeda Association, the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) raised funds to build a water purification and desalination unit for the school. The Berkeley-based nonprofit then created “The Maia [Arabic for ‘water’] Project” to bring life-saving water to Gaza’s children. According to the reports of human rights groups, at least 90 percent of the water in the 140-square-mile besieged Palestinian enclave is polluted and unfit for human consumption due to Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

46

Israel’s over-pumping of the common aquifer extending from Israel to Gaza. In one study, 90 percent of the water samples contained concentrations of nitrate between two and eight times higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization. High nitrate levels cause methaemoglobinaemia, known as “blue baby syndrome,” among other illnesses.

“Everyone embraced the Maia Project,” MECA program director Josie ShieldsStromsness told the Washington Report, “so we began a campaign to encourage people all over the U.S. to raise funds in their community to provide more schools with water purification systems and received a great response.” Individuals and community orTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

ports.

This is important since Israel controls all imports and exports, including water purification parts and supplies. “The units are assembled and installed by people in Gaza,” Shields-Stromsness said.

Dr. Mona El-Farra, MECA’s Gaza Citybased project manager, and the Afaq Jadeeda Association oversee the projects and the contracts between the schools and AUGUST 2010

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this order, which went into effect on April 14,” Shields-Stromsness said. “The language is so vague that no one knows what to expect and it is so broad the Israelis can use it however they want. Tens of thousands of people on the West Bank may be affected.”

the company. For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation visit <www.meca forpeace.org> or call (510) 548-0542.

Joining Hands, MECA Spring Bazaar

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

At MECA’s Berkeley offices on May 1, Joining Hands and MECA held San Franciscotheir spring sale of Amman Sister City olive oil, embroidery, Project arts, crafts and clothing handcrafted by PalesSan Francisco’s Jordantinians living in the ian community realized West Bank and Gaza. a long-awaited dream Sales of these items on April 23 when help to provide a liveli- (L-r) San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz addresses the au- Amman Mayor Omar hood for Palestinians dience at the San Francisco-Amman Sister City signing ceremony. Honorary Consul Maani and San Franliving under Israel’s of Jordan Kamel Ayoub greets Amman Mayor Omar Maani while Mayor Gavin cisco Mayor Gavin crippling occupation of Newsom applauds.

Newsom signed a their land. MECA imMemorandum of Unports the organic, first-press olive oil from tlements around Bethlehem in order to con- derstanding to become official sister cities. the Union of Agricultural Work Commit- nect Efrat with Ma’ale Adumim, the large The two mayors, along with Honorary tees, a Ramallah-based non-profit organi- settlement on the edge of East Jerusalem,” Consul of Jordan Kamel Ayoub and state zation that supports Palestinian farmers by she explained. This action would, in effect, and city protocol chief Charlotte Mailliard providing them with markets for their prevent any territorial continuity for a fu- Shultz, addressed a group of some 200 crops. ture Palestinian state. members of the Bay Area’s Arab commuAlso on display was a photographic exhi“When I look at a map of all of the set- nity gathered at City Hall for the celebrabition titled, “Views of Bethlehem, Then tlements, I don’t understand how anyone tion. “Our goals are to contribute to the deand Now,” which featured 19th century can talk about a two-state solution,” one velopment of good relations between the photos from Harvard College’s Fine Arts Li- audience member commented. Al-Qassas cities of San Francisco and Amman and to brary juxtaposed with contemporary im- agreed, expressing skepticism that the two- promote trade, tourism, arts and culture, ages of the same sites taken by children at state idea could be successful. “Vacating and develop mutual understanding bethe Al-Rowwad Cultural Center located in the settlements would be the only way for tween people,” Ayoub, chairman of the sisBethlehem’s Aida Refugee Camp. The a viable two-state solution, but Israel ter city committee, told the audience. “I unique exhibition was organized by the would still want to control the borders strongly believe that people-to-people proCambridge/Bethlehem People to People Pro- with armed checkpoints,” he pointed out. grams will result in mutual understanding ject, which provided copies of the old phoThe apartheid wall around Bethlehem is among nations and will create more cooptographs, along with cameras, to the chil- also a major problem, particularly for the eration and peace throughout the world, dren in Aida Refugee Camp and asked them residents of Al-Walajeh on the northwest the peace that is badly needed nowadays.” to photograph the sites as they look today. outskirts of Bethlehem. “Eventually they Noting that Amman was San Francisco’s will be completely encircled by the wall 17th sister city—and the first in a predomApartheid Wall, Illegal Settlements and unable to reach either Jerusalem or inately Arabic-speaking country—NewAffect Quality of Life in Bethlehem Bethlehem,” Shields-Stromsness said. “The som said, “Our sister city relationship with At the May 1 spring bazaar, MECA pro- villagers are very uncertain about what Amman will expand our relationships gram director Shields-Stromsness and her their future will be.” Extending over the throughout the world and forge new and husband, Hazem Al-Qassas, the former act- Green Line, the village lost 75 percent of its stronger cultural and economic ties across ing director of Dheisheh Refugee Camp’s land in 1948. “Some of its residents have peoples and borders.”

San Francisco is only the second AmeriIbdaa Cultural Center, spoke to guests been refugees for 62 years,” her husband about the current situation in Bethlehem, added. On April 22, 2010, Israeli army can city—after Chicago—to be a sister city bulldozers uprooted more than 100 olive with the Jordanian capital, however, and where they reside.

“I think things are consistently getting and other fruit trees owned by local resi- Mayor Maani thanked Mayor Newsom, worse at an alarming rate,” said Shields- dents in order to continue the construction committee chair Ayoub and the Jordanian Stromsness. The myriad problems—includ- of the apartheid wall in the area which community for making the sister city agreement a reality. Committee members ing the economy, lack of freedom of move- stretches through the village’s lands.

Israel’s new military order 1650, which include Mazen Fakhouri, Joel Haddad, ment, land confiscation, arrests, detentions, and settlements—are the direct result of the requires that anyone born in Gaza but liv- Foad Sweis, Majdi Alamat, Maher Soudi, Israeli occupation. For example, 22 illegal Is- ing in the West Bank must return to Gaza, Issa Sweidan, Mwafak Ibrahim and Jorraeli settlements now surround the biblical is a major concern of Palestinians on the danian American Association president city. “The Israelis are building a circle of set- West Bank. “Everyone is confused about Firas Sweidan. ❑ AUGUST 2010

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STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

By Jane Adas

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb. t an April 29 discussion sponsored by

ABrooklyn for Peace, Lynn Gottlieb de-

scribed her path from being a young Zionist to a rabbi who now supports Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, where she first spent a summer in 1966, when she was 17. Upon arrival, on the drive to the kibbutz where she would stay, Gottlieb recalled, she saw lights twinkling in the distance and was told, “Arabs live there.” Gottlieb was stunned, she said—nobody had told her Arabs live in Israel. She wanted to meet one and asked an Israeli friend if she knew any Arabs. “Sure.

Atallah Mansour. He lives in Nazareth.”

Mansour was a well-known Palestinian correspondent for Haaretz. Gottlieb explained that it would be like asking a white American if she knew any blacks, and to be told, “Sure, Michael Jordan.”

Dressed in her kibbutz hat and shorts, Gottlieb found Mansour’s home and knocked at the door. His wife hospitably invited her in and offered tea. When Mansour entered, he asked Gottlieb why she Jane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the New York City metropolitan area.

48

had come. She replied, “I want to know what it’s like to be an Israeli Arab.”

“Are you sure?” Mansour responded.

“Because once I tell you, you will no longer be a tourist.” He then described the Nakba and the erasure of Palestinians from the Israeli imagination.

From that day on, Gottlieb said, she has felt the need to do something about that injustice. She began with dialogue, and then moved to supporting a two-state solution.

She felt a brief euphoria during the Oslo era until she realized that the “peace process” was a means of diverting attention while something ugly, a rise in brutality, was happening. Israel’s Cast Lead assault on Gaza made that obvious, but “if it took Gaza to wake people up,” Gottlieb complained, “they haven’t been paying attention.”

Many people who had been indifferent became morally outraged at images of Palestinian children burned by white phosphorus. Now, Gottlieb insisted, that outrage must be channeled into something that will make a difference.

Gottlieb is convinced that boycott and divestment offer the most forceful, nonviolent tool for effecting change. It requires strategy, she cautioned, and research to identify effective targets: “Whatever you boycott,” she urged, “focus and do it as a group.” When a J Street supporter in the audience expressed opposition to BDS because “it leads to a siege mentality in Israel and only a confident Israel can make changes for peace,” Gottlieb replied, “It is in fact Palestinians who are under a very real siege and dying behind walls, whose homes are demolished and who are excluded from Jewish-only roads.”

Another audience member complained that his group experienced blowback after trying to pressure a local co-op into dropping products produced in Israeli settlements. Gottlieb’s response: “Any principled stand will lead to pushback from those happy with the status quo.” BDS, she stressed, is not a one-off demonstration, but a campaign that takes time and constant, persistent effort.

Lincoln Center Panel Discusses “A Musical Peace” In conjunction with renowned Catalan musician Jordi Savall’s three-day musical festiTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

New York City and Tri-StateNews

STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

Rabbi Lynne Gottlieb Describes Her Journey From Young Zionist to BDS Supporter

Author Karen Armstrong. val celebrating the music and cultures of Jerusalem at Lincoln Center, a May 2 panel discussion about “A Musical Peace” was held that included Savall and British author Karen Armstrong. Savall pointed to the 1492 expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain as an important part of the tragic situation today. “All the bridges were broken; we are trying to repair them with music.”

The idea, he explained, is not that Asian musicians play Bach or that Western musicians take on “exotic” instruments, but that each join together while preserving their own styles. “With music,” he added, “we cannot lie as we can with words.”

Armstrong, whose books include A History of God and Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, observed that the convivencia, or coexistence, in Andalusian Spain was normal in most of the Muslim world. Looking further back in time to the 11th-century Crusades, Armstrong noted that at that time Muslim culture was far superior to Western Europe’s; the Crusades were pivotal as “the first cooperative act of the ‘new Europe’ after centuries of Third World culture.”

When the Crusaders reached Jerusalem, Armstrong continued, they slaughtered 30,000 Muslims and Jews and set in motion persistent prejudices: that Islam is a violent religion spread by the sword and that Jews use blood for Passover bread. Again today, she lamented, “we seem intent on creating a clash of civilizations.” Armstrong agreed with Savall that music leads us past where words fail us and suggested that all religion should aspire to the condition of music.

AUGUST 2010

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STAFF PHOTOS J. ADAS

ple from as far away as Armstrong continIndonesia and Yemen, ued, they slaughtered although suspicious, 30,000 Muslims and offered to send him Jews and set in motion money. persistent prejudices: By dawn, informathat Islam is a violent tion began coming out religion spread by the from Europe and sword and that Jews Turkey to a shocked use blood for Passover world. Shapiro marbread. Again today, she veled at how fast the lamented, “we seem incondemnations of Istent on creating a clash rael’s actions came— of civilizations.” Armand not, he noted, from strong agreed with “the usual suspects,” Savall that music leads but from Sweden, Belus past where words gium, Spain, and othfail us and suggested ers. Busy with media that all religion should interviews since then, aspire to the condition Shapiro said he has reof music. peatedly been asked A man from the auwhether he considers dience asked, “Will an the flotilla a success. He anti-Semitic Arab terresponds by asking rorist listen to music how, with the massacre before going out to of an unknown numkill Jews?” “That is a ber of unknown peodemagogic question,” Savall responded. TOP: Adam Shapiro (l) and Chris Hedges. ABOVE (l-r): Alan Goodman, Joel Kovel ple, it could be called a success—then asserts “When everyone is and Abdeen Jabara. that Israel has dealt itgiven opportunities for decent and dignified lives, there will flotilla, Henochowitz was at the Kalandia self a defeat. Every U.S. channel he has spocheckpoint south of Ramallah observing a ken with, Shapiro revealed, has asked if not be a problem.” spontaneous demonstration when an Israeli they can have a reporter on the next ships.

Emergency Responses to Flotilla border guard fired a teargas canister di- He added that contacts in Washington told Assault rectly at her face. Doctors could not save him it was untrue that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took the initiative Within less than 24 hours of Israeli com- the young artist’s left eye.

Adam Shapiro, a co-founder of the Inter- in cancelling his White House visit schedmandos’ violent predawn seizure of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31, Memorial national Solidarity movement, opened the uled for the following day; it was because Day, a coalition of New York City activist forum with a moment of silence for the dead President Barack Obama did not want to be groups organized a protest in Times Square. and wounded on the flotilla and for the four seen just then with “Bibi.”

Shapiro asserted that Israel’s spin to conPolice at first said there could be no demon- Gazans killed by Israeli forces on that very stration without a permit, but as more and day. As of that moment, Israel had not re- trol its version of events has become so abmore people arrived, they stood back and leased the number or names of those killed surd—commandos armed with paintball allowed the protest to continue. One po- on the flotilla, nor revealed the location of guns and the mantra that there is no huliceman estimated the crowd to be well their bodies—“as if,” Shapiro said, “Israel manitarian crisis in Gaza—it is obvious that even the mainstream media, with the posover 1,000, adding, “Not bad on such short were trying to make them disappear.”

Shapiro’s wife, chairperson of the Free sible exception of Fox, is not buying it. As notice.” The following day, June 1, a protest rally opposite the Israeli Consulate Gaza Movement Huwaida Arraf, was for Israel’s suggestion that the flotilla ofdrew another large crowd. Remarkably— aboard the American-flagged Challenger 1. fload its humanitarian cargo in Ashdod for and for the first time at such events—this She had telephoned Shapiro around mid- Israel to transfer to Gaza, Shapiro said alreporter did not see or hear of a single in- night local time to report that Israeli boats most nothing the flotilla was bringing was stance of harassment from passersby. More had approached the flotilla, and then on Israel’s elusive list of goods allowed into backed off. Four hours later she phoned Gaza. He concluded by saying, “We will demonstrations are planned.

An Emergency Forum to “Condemn the again. She witnessed the attack on the sail again to Gaza,” before rushing off for Israeli Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla” Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara; Israeli more interviews.

Chris Hedges, whose most recent book is took place June 1 at Revolution Books in naval ships were chasing Challenger 1 and downtown Manhattan. Spokesperson those aboard expected to be rammed. A Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and Andy Zee described the forum as a tribute few hours later, Shapiro found that his e- the Triumph of Spectacle, agreed with not only to the flotilla participants, but also mail and Facebook accounts were hacked, Shapiro that the official Israeli line is flato Emily Henochowitz, a 21-year-old art and a message sent out that Adam is “in grantly dishonest and never matches reality student at Cooper Union in New York City. London on vacation and needs money.” He on the ground. Hedges, who first went to The morning after Israel’s raid on the considered it heartening that so many peo- the Middle East as a foreign correspondent AUGUST 2010

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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in 1988 to cover the Jordanian withdrawal from the West Bank, recalled that Israel considered Jordan’s departure a great coup.

It then set out to marginalize and discredit Jerusalem’s notable families, especially Faisal Husseini, thereby virtually ceding power to Yasser Arafat. Then, more than a decade later, during the al-Aqsa intifada, Israel broke the Palestinian Authority and, it is widely believed, poisoned Arafat, opening the way for Hamas. The pattern Hedges discerns is that Israel destroys all forms of Palestinian resistance and ends up every time with a more radical opposition. If it succeeds in destroying Hamas, he predicted, Israel will end up with al-Qaeda.

Israel has changed since 1988, Hedges observed. He accused today’s Israel of being less interested in maintaining a democratic façade, of making no pretense at working for a two-state solution, and of having a flagrant disregard for the niceties of public relations.

The scope of settlement building can no longer be reversed, he stated, leading to a deformed Jewish state that gives Jewish citizens full rights while subjecting Palestinians to ever more humiliating repression.

In 1988, Hedges said, the year the Knesset outlawed Meir Kahane’s Kach party, it would have been unthinkable for an Israeli politician to advocate ethnic cleansing and demand loyalty oaths. Today, however, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman embraces both ideas. Hedges described Lieberman as emblematic of contemporary Israel: a former nightclub bouncer and member of the banned Kach party, convicted for assaulting a 12-year-old boy in 2001, currently under investigation for receiving bribes and money laundering, and resident of an illegal West Bank settlement.

Hedges predicted that Israel, now in the process of committing collective suicide, would become increasingly isolated.

Author Alan Goodman posited that recent revelations about Israel having had closer military ties with apartheid South Africa than had been suspected are not a lone blemish on Israel, but rather part of Israel’s history of immoral bargains with superpowers. Citing examples in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Uganda and Iran, Goodman said whenever something was too obscene and blatantly immoral for the U.S. to do itself, it could count on Israel to carry things out.

This, he concluded, is the real meaning of “special strategic partnership” and “shared values.”

Joel Kovel, author of Overcoming Zionism (available from the AET Book Club), described Israel as the Macbeth of nations: 50

the logic of power means that it must keep upping the violence and “suck up” to a superpower to give it impunity, which feeds its grandiosity, leading to more criminality, which requires more impunity. The sickness in our own society, according to Kovel, is that we enable Israel to be a viper. Israel’s Cast Lead assault on Gaza and now on the Freedom Flotilla are steps on the path to free Israel of its impunity. Kovel expressed tremendous admiration for Hedges, but disagreed that “Israel has changed”—rather, Kovel said, it has emerged. And to say as Hedges did that Israel is becoming a deformed state, Kovel continued, suggests that it was once not deformed, whereas Kovel believes the possibility of a “soft, fuzzy Zionism” has never existed.

Attorney Abdeen Jabara held up a newspaper article about the BP fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico with the headline, “Gas Company Pumps Money into Politicians’ Coffers.” Can you imagine, Jabara asked, what would be the reaction if “Pro-Israel Groups” replaced “Gas Company”? Yet, he explained, there is a direct, symbiotic relationship between contributions from oil and gas companies, Wall Street firms, and pro-Israel organizations with policies made in Washington. Nobody writes about this, Jabara stressed, except the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs; it is the only publication that tracks pro-Israel PAC money to politicians. This is a factor in the impunity Kovel discussed, Jabara concluded, and because Israel feels under the penumbra of American protection, we Americans have a particular responsibility. ❑

Erasing Iraq…

Continued from page 43

documents. More than 9,000 items remain missing from the Baghdad Museum. And countless archeological sites—and Iraq has more than 100,000 registered sites—have been overrun by smugglers.

“Why was the looting unchecked by U.S. forces?” he asked. There are clues. Otterman cited Wall Street Journal correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov, according to whom U.S. commanders said that “looting was a good thing…looting undermines the old regime.” Otterman pointed out that “U.S. forces stationed only blocks away from the Baghdad Museum and National Archives were not ordered to protect these sites,” even though “U.S. forces did protect the Ministry of Oil and Interior Ministry—the location of Ba’athist records charting close U.S.-Iraqi ties” during the 1980s. That was THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

when Saddam Hussain committed his most atrocious human rights abuses, including his use of chemical weapons.

“While there are occasional reports of the odd artifact being recovered by INTERPOL, thousands of priceless items have simply disappeared forever,” Otterman lamented. “This is a central component of the claim in Erasing Iraq that sociocide has occurred in Iraq. Sociocide denotes the destruction of Iraqi culture and way of life.

In addition to the millions dead and displaced, Iraqi cultural treasures—true elements of an Iraqi national identity—were destroyed. The term sociocide is apt to describe this unique and deeply permanent level of destruction.”

There has been considerable controversy over the actual number of “excess deaths” in Iraq—deaths that would not have occurred had there been no war. According to Otterman, an absolute minimum figure is 100,000.

But this figure comes from Iraq Body Count (<www.iraqbodycount.org>), which counts only deaths reported in English-language media from direct acts of violence.

A study published in October 2006 by the prestigious medical journal Lancet provides the most reliable estimate to date. Their methodology, Otterman explained, “was the same the U.S. government uses to count the dead in conflict areas, including Kosovo.”

The study’s findings were that approximately 655,000 excess Iraqi deaths had occurred, including both militants and civilians.

But much violence has occurred since then, Otterman noted, and by extrapolating the data through to the present, a rough estimate of one million deaths can be made.

“When you combine this figure with the more than five million displaced since 2003,” he said, “you begin to get a sense of the deep, permanent level of destruction the United States has unleashed.”

Describing the level of trauma as “truly incalculable,” Otterman asked: “How do you quantify this human toll? The answer: Simply by reading and accessing the narratives of Iraqis that have lived through this very real sociocide. In Erasing Iraq, we quote dozens of refugees in Syria, Jordan, and Sweden, plus a slew of Iraqi bloggers who lived through the carnage in real time. These narratives exist in sharp contrast to the bland, misleading, or propagandistic accounts of war featured heavily in the mainstream news outlets. Only by engaging directly with Iraqi narratives can outsiders get a true sense of the human costs of war in Iraq.

“That was the chief aim of this book,” Otterman concluded, “to provide a platform for Iraqis’ voices to be heard.” ❑ AUGUST 2010

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Blind Support for Israeli Policies Increasingly Seen as Imperiling Judaism’s Moral Integrity Israel andJudaism

By Allan C. Brownfeld

t is becoming increasingly clear to more

that blind support for Israeli policies— whatever they may be—is imperiling Judaism’s moral integrity.

There can be little doubt that those organizations which claim to speak for American Jews in fact represent only themselves. American Jewish opinion is more sharply divided than ever before.

A front-page article in the May 6, 2010 New York Times carried the headline, “On Israel, U.S. Jews Have Divergent Views, Often Parting From Leaders.”

The article’s author, Paul Vitello, wrote that “...the recent tension between the Obama administration and the Israeli government over the stalled Middle East peace process...has raised serious questions about whether the traditional leadership of the American Jewish world is fully supported by the mass of American Jews.”

Establishment organizations such as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations criticized the Obama administration’s pressure on Israel and even accused the White House of sabotaging Israel’s very foundations. In a videotaped statement, former New York City Mayor Edward Koch addressed an angry crowd outside the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan, declaring that President Obama’s demand for a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem was nothing less than an orchestrated effort “to undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel.”

At the same time, however, other Jewish voices increasingly are being heard. “Most Jews have mixed feelings about Israel,” Rabbi Tamara Kelton of the Birmingham Temple, a secular humanistic congregation in Farmington Hills, Michigan, noted.

“They support Israel, but it’s complicated.

Until now, you never heard from those people. You heard only from the organized ones who are l00 percent certain: ‘we’re Allan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist and associate editor of the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute for Research and Education, and editor of Issues, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism.

AUGUST 2010

AFP PHOTO/AHMAD GHARABLI

Iand more thoughtful American Jews

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem on June 17 against a Supreme Court ruling ordering the jailing of a group of Ashkenazi (European) parents who refused to send their daughters to schools with Sephardic (Middle Eastern) Jewish girls. right, they’re wrong.’”

States Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of the Washington, DC lobby J Street, the latest of several organizations representing the voice of liberal Jews who support Israel but not all of its policies: “People are tired of being told that you are either with us or against us. The majority of American Jews support the president, support the twostate solution and do not feel that they have been well represented by the organizations that demand obedience to every wish of the Israeli government. If you had taken their word for it, Obama should have gotten 12 percent of the Jewish vote. But he got 80. That should say something.”

In an important article in the June 10, 2010 issue of the New York Review of Books titled “The Failure Of The American Jewish Establishment,” Peter Beinart, associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

York and a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, wrote: “Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world...And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generation, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens. For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are 51

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finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.”

Rather than fostering free and open discussion, Beinart pointed out, the organized American Jewish community has sought to stifle it: “In recent years, American Jewish organizations have waged a campaign to discredit the world’s most respected international human rights groups.…The Conference of Presidents has announced that ‘biased NGOs include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Christian Aid, and Save the Children.’ Last summer, an AIPAC spokesman declared that Human Rights Watch ‘has repeatedly demonstrated its anti-Israel bias’...Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are not infallible. But when groups like AIPAC and the Presidents Conference avoid virtually all public criticism of Israeli actions—directing their outrage solely at Israel’s neighbors—they leave themselves in a poor position to charge bias.”

Beinart, whose family attends an Orthodox synagogue, lamented that, “This obsession with victimhood lies at the heart of why Zionism is dying among America’s secular Jewish young. It simply bears no relationship to their lived experience or what they have seen of Israel’s. Yes, Israel faces threats from Hezbollah and Hamas.

Yes, Israelis understandably worry about a nuclear Iran. But the dilemma you face when you possess dozens or hundreds of nuclear weapons, and your adversary, however despicable, may acquire one, are not the dilemmas of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The year 2010 is not, as Binyamin Netanyahu has claimed, 1938. The drama of Jewish victimhood—a drama that feels natural to many Jews who lived through 1938, 1948, or even 1967—strikes most of today’s young American Jews as farce.”

Recently, leaders of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco learned that one of the film groups it supported had sponsored the screening of “Rachel,” an Israeli documentary about Rachel Corrie, an American woman killed in Gaza, and critical of Israel’s security forces. They adopted new rules early this year prohibiting any of the cultural organizations it supports from presenting programs that “undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel.”

This, in turn, produced a strong response, in the form of “An Open Letter To All Jewish Communities,” which appeared as an advertisement in the May 7, 2010 issue of The Forward. The letter declared: “...our usually liberal community has set a dangerous precedent that may affect the 52

range of American Jewish voices on issues concerning the Israel-Palestinian conflict...In the interest of human rights and civil liberties for all people, we strongly advocate unfettered freedom of speech, open-minded public education, respectful discussion, and willingness to engage in that time-honored Jewish tradition of fruitful debate and meaningful dialogue.

The Jewish community is riven by a fateful debate over the future of Israeli democracy and the occupation of Palestinian lands. Attempting to curtail that debate will only drive it into the shadows, where it will become ever more extreme.”

Among those signing this letter were Profs. Robert Alter of the University of California at Berkeley, Joel Beinin of Stanford University, David Biale of the University of California at Davis, and Naomi Seidman of the Graduate Theological Union, filmmaker Alan Snitow, author Paul Kivel, Rabbi Lavey Derby and a host of others.

Dueling Advertisements Dueling full-page ads concerning Jerusalem are another indication of the depth of division within the Jewish community.

In April, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel published an ad in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The International Herald Tribune calling upon the U.S. to stop pressuring Israel over Jerusalem in an effort to move Palestinians to the peace table. In response, J Street placed full page ads in Jewish weekly newspapers containing a statement by former Israeli cabinet minister and political commentator Yossi Sarid.

Addressing Wiesel, Sarid wrote: “I read the beautiful open letter you penned...

From it I learned that you know much more about heavenly Jerusalem, but less about its counterpart here on earth. An outsider reading your letter would probably have concluded that peace has already taken root in the City of Peace. He would learn that in Jerusalem, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship their gods unimpeded, that ‘all are allowed to build their homes anywhere in the city.’ Someone has deceived you, my dear friend. Not only may an Arab not build ‘anywhere,’ but he may thank his god if he is not evicted from his home and thrown onto the street with his family and property. Perhaps you’ve heard about Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah, having lived there since 1948, who are again being uprooted and made refugees because certain Jews are chafing from Jerusalem’s space restraints.”

Blind support for Israel’s policies of ocTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

cupation, argues Prof. Tony Judt of New York University, an active Zionist in his youth, has eroded Judaism’s moral position. Writing in the May/June 2010 issue of Tikkun, he declared that, “If there is one cast-iron law of history, it is probably that occupations and other forms of colonial rule are sooner or later resisted, and when that point comes, the occupier has a straight-forward choice between leaving and allowing the native population to exercise its independence and self-determination—or staying. When the time came, Israel made the disastrous decision to stay.

The rest was predictable.”

Referring to those American Jewish groups which have supported whatever Israeli governments have chosen to do, Judt asked: “How...does a reputedly intelligent people, with traditionally strong humanistic values, manage constantly to delude itself about what is going on, what lies in store and what needs to be done? And how has it allowed the Jewish Star of David, and by implication the Jewish religion and Jewish people, to become associated in the eyes of growing numbers of people with repression?”

As we move further into the 21st century, American Judaism stands at a crossroads. It must decide what it wants to be.

Shall it be a thoughtful religion, giving meaning and purpose to the lives of its adherents and having an influence for good upon our larger American society? Or will it become an inward-looking group focused upon the notion of Jewish “ethnicity” and dedicating itself to advancing the interests of the State of Israel, whatever that state may do? Is it to be part of our religious community, or is to be part of the foreign policy establishment?

The majority of American Jews appear increasingly alienated from the groups which speak in their name. They reject the Zionist idea and share the philosophy proclaimed as early as 1841 at the dedication ceremony of Temple Beth Olohim in Charleston, South Carolina, at which Rabbi Gustav Posnanski declared: “This country is our Palestine, this city our Jerusalem, this house of God our Temple.” In its 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, American Reform Judaism declared: “We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community.”

The growing politicization of Judaism has alienated increasing numbers of American Jews, in particular in the younger generation. Its moral integrity is under attack. Surely, now is the time to take stock and change course. ❑ AUGUST 2010

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Arab-American Activism

Contini’s work with the case and his attempts to bring justice to the Shehada family have sent a message about racial profiling throughout the United States, namely that neither the Arab-American community nor other ethnic communities will allow their rights as U.S. citizens to be violated in such a manner.

STAFF PHOTO K. KAINTH

U.S. Policy in the Middle East Panel

(L-r) ADC public affairs adviser Imad Hamad, boardmember Dr. Safa Rifka, Attorney General Eric Holder, ADC legal director Abed Ayoub, ADC president Sara Najjar-Wilson, and ADC legal adviser Fahed al-Rawaf.

STAFF PHOTO K. KAINTH

Civil Rights Luncheon “Security and liberty are partners,” said the Honorable Eric J. Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the United States and Keynote speaker at the Civil Rights Luncheon of the ADC convention, located at the Washington Marriot Wardman Park Hotel, on June 4th.

Holder described the U.S. Department of Justice’s focus on equality and religious freedom when protecting U.S. citizens.

He mentioned the department’s work regarding combating hate crimes, enforcing fair housing, and ensuring equal educational opportunities. He specifically referenced the department’s investigation of the pipe bomb that was set off in a Jacksonville, Florida mosque and its role in Oregon’s repeal of laws barring religious clothing in public schools.

In talks with many Arab Americans, Holder said he discovered a strong sentiment of “us versus them.”

“We are a nation of immigrants,” said Holder, emphasizing the importance of breaking down barriers along ethnic and religious lines.

tioned whether Shehada was “Arabic.” Similar accusations of race-based arrests have been directed at the Miami Beach Police in the past.

Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award

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Dr. Rima Khalaf, former assistant secretary-general for Arab States at the U.N.

STAFF PHOTO K. KAINTH

“Justice for Shehada” was the overarching message behind this year’s ADC Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award, which was received by John P. Contini, a criminal defense attorney based in Florida, at the Civil Rights Luncheon.

Contini has worked with the ADC and the Department of Justice to properly investigate the unexplained shooting of 29year-old Hussein Shehada by the Miami Beach Police Force.

On June 14, 2009 Shehada, who was unarmed, was shot by Officer Adam Tavss.

The case has been claimed by many, including the ADC, as an instance of racial profiling. The police were said to have ques-

Palestinian-American writer, editor, publisher and musician Michel Moushabeck, founder of Interlink Publishing, received the Alex Odeh Award.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Extremism on one side creates a ripple effect in which “the extremist us can only see the extremist other,” according to Dr. Rima Khalaf, a panelist at the discussion on U.S. Policy in the Middle East held on June 5 as part of the ADC convention.

This phenomenon has resulted in the stagnancy of negotiations and the perpetuation of Israel’s occupation, which is, according to Khalaf, a rarity in the post-colonial world. The extremism has been extrapolated so far that Israel now possesses the stigma of being “the only country who threatened to use nukes against Arabs,” said Khalaf, former Assistant SecretaryGeneral for Arab States at the United Nations Development Program.

When addressing the U.S.’s role in the conflict, Khalaf conceded that the U.S. policies under the Obama administration have been “more in line with international legitimacy” but affirmed that they “still have not addressed many grievances.”

Daniel Levy, another of the panelists and Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, expressed similar sentiments, but focused on the self-destructive nature of these actions and the necessity of U.S. help in ending them.

“The Israeli-Jewish community is under a siege of its own,” said Levy. He emphasized the need for an ally such as the U.S. to pull Israel out of this downward spiral. By indulging Israel, Levy expressed, the U.S. is encouraging an addiction to selfdestruction. The U.S. must also AUGUST 2010

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

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power of negotiations, emphasized that the U.S. must recognize its specific role in these negotiations in order to truly make progress.

These negotiations, according to Levy, rather than addressing events as far back as the 1948 Nakba, should address the conflict from 1967 onward.

Palestinian-American writer and performer Betty Shamieh discussed He did, however, Arab Americans in the performing arts. mention that the issue of the refugees, whether or not a return is agreed upon, should be “treated with sensitivity.”

Palestine Luncheon

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

Keynote speaker at ADC’s June 6th Palestine Luncheon Dr. Clovis Maksoud, Chief Representative of the League of Arab States in the U.S. in 1979, described Israel as “not an occupier but a claimant and a conqueror.”

Maksoud scrutinized the international community’s response to the conflict and the recent flotilla incident, calling on the Obama administration to utilize stronger verbiage in condemning Israel and for Egypt to break diplomatic relations with Israel.

In particular, Maksoud criticized Obama’s urge for Israel to “freeze settlements” in his famous Cairo speech, claiming that the U.S. should instead demand that settlements be “dismantled,” because using the term “freeze” acknowledges the legality of the settlements.

Peace and justice, according to Maksoud, are two goals that must be achieved simultaneously. In Maksoud’s view, Palestine is “the harbinger of our restored dignity and pride.” With 78 percent of the Palestinian territory having become Israel, Jerusalem is a symbol of hope and the highest point of contention for Palestinians. “Jerusalem cannot become the capital of Israel,” said Maksoud.

—Karina Kainth

undergo the difficult process of “weaning itself off of an addiction to doing U.S.-Israeli politics this way.”

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman agreed that “Palestine must be a real state,” garnering much applause from the audience. He espoused the belief that negotiations for a two-state solution will prove fruitful.

However, in response to a question from the audience about how a Palestinian state could be created if Israeli settlements were not stopped, Feltman answered that he did not believe the settlements would hinder a two-state solution. A few audience members called out for further information to which Feltman could not respond due to his early departure for another engagement.

Levy, in answer to Feltman’s trust in the AUGUST 2010

Heated arguments dominated the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s [ADC’s] June 6 panel on Palestine titled “17 years after Oslo, What’s Next?” Palestine’s Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat, Dr. Karen AbuZayd, retired U.N. under-secretary-general and commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and Haifa University political science professor Dr. Asa’d Ghanem discussed the current state of Palestinian affairs in a passionate discussion moderated

by Dr. Elizabeth Campbell, senior advocate at Refugees International. Among their rare points of agreement was the general consensus that the Oslo accords had failed, as well as their uncertainty of Israel’s commitment to finding a just solution to the ArabIsraeli dispute. The harmony ended there, however, reflecting the divided nature of Palestinian politics today.

Attempting to explain the Oslo agreement’s many shortcomings, Ambassador Areikat stated that one of the PLO’s major negotiating errors was the recognition of Israel in return for Israel recognizing the PLO— rather than an independent Palestinian state.

Offering advice for future peace talks, he said that new agreements should consist of “either all or nothing”; in other words, that no agreements should be signed until all issues are resolved. The ambassador underscored the need for a solution, however, stating that Palestinians are the ones paying the highest price for no peace in the region.

Focusing on the Oslo accord’s effect on Palestinian refugees, Dr. AbuZayd concluded that their condition had worsened steadily, due, among other factors, to the increased number of checkpoints and the infamous wall cutting through the occupied Palestinian territories. Reciting an excerpt from “Counterpoint,” poet Mahmoud Darwish’s homage to Edward Said, she summed up the dilemma of two incompatible narratives, which make the refugees’ future appear bleak: “Will they tell me that two dreams cannot share a bed?”

STAFF PHOTO I. ALI

Jennifer Loewenstein was awarded the Rachel Corrie Award for her activism, educational programs, expert testimony and journalism on behalf of Palestinian human rights.

Palestinians in Their “Deepest Crisis Since ‘48”

(L-r) Dr. Elizabeth Campbell, Ambassador Maen Areikat, Dr. Karen AbuZayd and Dr. Asa’d Ghanem.

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STAFF PHOTO K. KAINTH

The USS Liberty was stationed From describing the Oslo acoff the Sinai Peninsula when Iscords as “a lesson on how not to rael attacked Egypt in June sign an agreement,” to claiming 1967, launching the Six-Day that the two-state solution is an War. While steaming approxi“Israeli way to control Palesmately 17 miles off the coast of tine,” Dr. Ghanem delivered Gaza, flying the U.S. ensign, it many powerful jabs at the PLO, was suddenly attacked by Israeli to extended applause from the forces on June 8, 1967. Of a crew audience. Criticizing the PLO’s of 294, the USS Liberty lost 34 lack of democracy and charging men, with another 174 wounded that his and other Palestinian in action. Only 88 survived voices do “not count for Abu physically unscathed, but even Mazen” (President Mahmoud Abbas), he called for an alterna- Jack Shaheen applauds Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!” for they still retain lifelong emotional scars. The Liberty, with no tive, secular Palestinian leader- reporting “the why.” armament aboard, was not a ship, arguing that only a democratic leadership could lead Palestine for- plained. “We just have to ensure that the threat to anyone, yet Israel brutally and continuously attacked the vessel with rockward. According to Dr. Ghanem, the two- stories are told.”

The obstacles are numerous—and as ets, cannons and napalm for 11 hours. With state solution is “over,” and one should work toward a one-state solution, with proof Goodman related an experience she a 39-foot-wide gash in the ship’s starboard and two of her producers faced with riot side, and 821 shell holes, the ship was equal democratic rights for all citizens.

Interestingly, Ambassador Areikat met police during the 2008 Republican National miraculously saved by its crew. The USS Dr. Ghanem’s critique with a promise that Convention, during which they were ar- Liberty was the most decorated ship since the Palestinian Authority will present any rested for reporting on the anti-war protests WWII, and perhaps the most decorated for a single attack in the history of the U.S. deal with Israel to Palestinians within and being held outside the convention center.

Goodman emphasized the importance of Navy. outside the occupied territories. He conDignitaries were in Rochester to honor cluded by denouncing violent resistance, to hearing news “from the people themselves.” great applause, saying that the use of vio- Because fishermen assisting with the Gulf this day but to especially honor one of the lence only leads to Israel having the upper oil spill cleanup are required to sign a form USS Liberty crewmen, John Hrankowski, hand in the conflict. “They would like to in which they agree not to speak to the who has dedicated his life to asking Amerisee our efforts fail rather than succeed,” he press, she noted, reports on the spill cannot cans to investigate the Israeli attack and reminded the audience.

—Imaan Ali include individual perspectives from those subsequent coverup and remember those most affected, and are therefore largely one- who were killed. Everyone who spoke at Amy Goodman Discusses the podium thanked John for his sacrifices, sided.

Mainstream Media The demand for independent media that not only on the day of the infamous attack, The American people are good, if they deliver complete news is growing, accord- but for his continuous efforts to educate the know the truth, said Amy Goodman, host ing to Goodman, as evidenced by the fact country on the fate of the USS Liberty.

Many of the crew members and their of the independent news program “Democ- that “Democracy Now!” has been picked up families who were attending an annual reracy Now!,” speaking at a June 5 panel at by more than 800 stations.

Goodman’s latest book, Breaking the union in Long Island—including survivor the annual American-Arab Anti-DiscrimiSound Barrier, which explores the global im- Dennis Eikleberry and the family of CT nation Committee (ADC) convention.

Goodman cited several untruths dissemi- pact of independent reporting, is a New John Smith, who was killed in the at—Karina Kainth tack—came to pay tribute not only to the nated by popular news sources, such as the York Times best-seller. memorial, but to honor their comrade American media’s original claim that Israeli Hrankowski. forces attacked members of al-Qaeda, rather Human Rights Said keynote speaker Capt. Steven Mothan members of the Free Gaza Movement, mano, USN-Ret.: “For the ship’s survivors, on May 31. today is a day to remember, to mourn, and The mainstream media’s insufficient cov- USS Liberty Memorial Unveiled in to reflect on their lost shipmates who reerage of Israel’s 2003 killing of Rachel Cor- Rochester rie is evident today, Goodman added, as On June 12, 2010, people gathered in main to them eternally youthful and viginews reports regarding the Rachel Corrie, Rochester, NY to honor and dedicate a lant. This has not always been easy for them the Irish flotilla ship captured by the Is- memorial to the USS Liberty and pay tribute or for us, because there are no tombstones raelis, indicate the first time many have to the men who served in the United States in the sea, no markers or places for us to pay heard of Corrie’s death. “Is this the way Navy aboard the intelligence ship. Michael our respects or grieve for our lost friends Rachel’s story is being introduced to the Skowronski, commander of the Veterans of and loved ones. As the saying goes, we can public?” asked Goodman.

Foreign Wars, put it eloquently when he only visit them in our hearts and in our According to Goodman, few news reports said: “The sacrifices they made and the dreams. That is why this memorial is so iminclude “the why”—such as why the deeds they performed are written in history portant. If, in some small way, we can keep flotilla was going to Gaza. The aim of and shall remain alive in our memories for alive the memory of the men who perished “Democracy Now!” is to report the com- generations to come. We sincerely express on June 8, 1967, we will have kept faith plete stories, so that they gradually move our pride and gratitude for tasks they ful- with them and their loved ones, whose rallying cry, ‘Remember the Liberty,’ remains “from the edges to the center,” she ex- filled.”

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John Hrankowski (inset), at the unveiling of the USS Liberty monument in Rochester, NY. as strong as ever.”

With that, the unveiling took place, followed by the gun salute and then the taps.

“May God bless the men of the USS Liberty, and may God bless the United States of America,” attendees concluded.

This monument was dedicated by the Thomas F. Healy Post 16, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Rochester, New York.

—Nancy S. Switzer

raeli fighter jets, two attack aircraft and three torpedo boats. In response to an SOS from the Liberty, the nearby USS Saratoga launched fighter aircraft to assist the unarmed American ship. Incredibly, the planes were recalled by the White House and the Liberty was left on its own. The IDF even destroyed the life boats, but miraculously the Liberty did not sink. The attack ended when the Israelis intercepted a message that help for the Liberty was on its way, a message that was not true because the help had been recalled.

Help finally did arrive—18 hours later.

Surviving crewmembers were told never to discuss the attack with anyone—even family—under penalty of court martial. To further ensure silence, no two survivors were reassigned together. Some of the crew did talk about it, however, as far back as 1980.

Their demand has been consistent—they want an investigation of the incident, an investigation required by law, an investigation that never happened. They want to know why their government abandoned them— why this cover-up?

In his concluding comments, Gallo said, “Since 1967, there is something very diabolical about the U.S.-Israeli relationship...

The USS Liberty is a microcosm of a much bigger story as to what changed in 1967...

That is, Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy had a balanced Middle East policy.

The Israelis and Muslims were treated the same. However, President Kennedy became upset and suspicious about Israel developing nuclear weapons....With President Johnson, things changed. From that point on, a now nuclear-armed Israel could do no wrong, and we became the primary arms supplier. In January 1968 the arms embargo against Israel was lifted and the sale of American weapons began to flow. By 1971 Israel was buying $600 million worth of American-made weapons a year. Two years later, the purchase topped $3 billion...What did President Eisenhower warn us about?

The military-industrial lobby.

“Americans need to take back the halls of Congresss...I never want to see our military or citizenry attacked by the IDF ever again—ever again,” Gallo concluded.

—Melva Underbakke

Perspectives of Afghan Women Leaders

STAFF PHOTO K. KAINTH

At a June 17 event entitled “In the Midst of Milestones: Perspectives from Afghan What Happened to the USS Women Leaders,” held at the Woodrow WilLiberty? son International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, panelists Huria Samira On June 8, 1967, the Israel Defense Forces Hamidi and Najla Ayubi discussed their ef(IDF) deliberately attacked an American forts to ensure gender equality during ship, the USS Liberty, in international waAfghanistan’s recent National Consultative ters off the Egyptian coast. Seventy percent Peace Jirga (a traditional Pashtun mechanism of the crew became casualties, with 34 for resolving disputes). Exactly how women killed and 173 wounded. would receive better treatment under the Ernie Gallo, one of the survivors, spoke to Afghan government was “unclear to civil soa riveted audience at First United Church of ciety” at the beginning of the peace process, Tampa, FL. A graduate of Philadelphia according to Ayubi, a representative of the Wireless Technical Institute and underOrganization of Strategic Studies and Regraduate studies at the University of Marysearch and a former member of the Indepenland, he completed a 29-year career with dent Election Commission. Women’s rights the Central Intelligence Agency. groups originally were not conBut in 1967, Gallo was servsulted, she noted, but thanks ing in the Navy Reserve on the to international influence— USS Liberty when it was atnamely pressure from U.S. Sectacked by the IDF. Israeli planes retary of State Hillary Clinhad been flying over the ship ton—the government graduthroughout the morning, close ally began including more enough to the Liberty so that its women in the conference. crewmembers could see the pi“Why doesn’t President lots’ faces. Because of this, the [Hamid] Karzai listen to us, but sailors were very relaxed and he listened to Secretary Clincomfortable, since Israel supton?” asked Hamidi, a repreposedly was an ally. Many of sentative of the Afghan the men were sunbathing on the deck at the time of the en- (L-r) Huria Samira Hamidi, moderator Haleh Esfandiari, and Najla Women’s Network.

Women were chosen for insuing attack—first by three Is- Ayubi.

AUGUST 2010

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Music & Arts MESTO Performs in Abu Dhabi At the request of the Abu Dhabi Authority of Culture and Heritage, 45 musicians of the Multi Ethnic Star Orchestra (MESTO) and Maesto Nabil Azzam flew from Los Angeles to take part in the Gulf emirate’s 11-day “Rhythms from Arabia” festival.

The audience was astounded at the May 13 concert to hear non-Arab musicians flawlessly perform Dr. Azzam’s arrangements of classics by Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab and Farid al-Attrash. Moroccan singer Karima Skalli offered special renditions of “Inta ‘Umri,” “La Mush Ana” and “Ya Habibi Ta’ala.” An audience favorite was conductor Azzam’s violin solo in “Unshudat al-Fann.”

Dr. Azzam, who is from Nazareth, received his Ph.D. in music from UCLA, 58

Los Angeles’ MESTO performs in Abu Dhabi’s “Rhythms from Arabia” festival. where he wrote his dissertation on the compositions of Egypt’s al-Wahhab. He subsequently organized MESTO to preserve classical Arab music in the U.S. During his stay in the Gulf, Dr. Azzam was interviewed on numerous TV programs which praised him for bringing classical Arab music to U.S. concert halls.

—Pat McDonnell Twair

Leeza Ahmady Lectures on Contemporary Art in Central Asia

and galleries will participate with exhibits and symposia scheduled for March 24 through March 31. In addition to traditional participants from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, ACAW has helped broaden the notion of Asian art to bring in more of the continent, including Central Asia and the Middle East. International art forums also have been receptive. The Venice Biennale, the Olympics of the art world, welcomed its first official entries from Afghanistan and the former Soviet republics in 2005.

While Ahmady is primarily a curator, she

After decades of isolation and Soviet rule, vibrant artistic communities are re-emerging in Central Asia. Leeza Ahmady, an independent curator and director of New York’s Asian Contemporary Art Week (ACAW), visited the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery in Washington, DC on May 22 to give a special lecture called “The Taste of Others.”

Ahmady described her mission as using art as a tool to reconstruct the linguistic, spiritual and cultural ties that economic and political policies have broken down. Her curatorial work seeks to promote the largely unknown artists of her native Afghanistan and the former Soviet republics of Kazakh stan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. She began by addressing the widespread misconceptions about this region, which she describes as the “invisible inbetween.” Many art institutions still define Asian art as being mostly limited to Eastern Asia, with a recent extension to include India, and Ahmady said she often has to explain to people that Afghanistan shares a border with China.

While progress comes gradually, there are promising signs. ACAW is growing each year, even in these difficult economic times. Curator Leeza Ahmady In 2011, more than 30 New York museums [inset “Flighter” by Ulan Djaparov].

AUGUST 2010

PHOTOS COURTESY AHMADYARTS

clusion in the peace process based on lists of members from previous jirgas and the level of influence the women had in their provinces.

Ayubi was ousted from the jirga after speaking out publicly about abuses of women’s rights in Afghanistan. Her specific grievances included the fact that “women cannot get to the formal justice system.” Furthermore, she said, 80 percent of conflicts in rural areas are addressed through an informal justice system that excludes women.

Women are underrepresented in the police force, as well: of an 8,200-member police force, there are only 600 policewomen.

Hamidi drew attention to the successes of the jirga. One of its biggest achievements, she said, was that women sat and talked face-to-face with members of the Taliban.

Some men involved in the jirga explained to the other members that “from an Islamic and traditional point-of-view,” the women’s perspective is a valuable asset to reconciliation discussions. However, Hamidi added, “they [the Afghan government] have been using [increased rights for] women as a symbolic representation for the international community,” when in fact women still do not have access to real resources to improve their status.

Asked to elaborate on what Afghan women truly want from a cultural context, Ayubi explained the efforts underway to separate culture and religion. “We are trying to be flexible in accepting some of the positive social and cultural values,” she said.

However, women’s rights groups are also trying to separate religion from culture, and informing women about the differences between the two.

—Karina Kainth

PHOTO COURTESY OF MESTO

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said, “for the devolution of occupation and the evolution of statehood; however, what we got was the evolution of occupation and the devolution of statehood.”

Ashrawi emphasized in particular the immediate need for an end to all settlement activity, which “threatens the territorial viability and contiguity of a Palestinian state.”

She presented this as the first part of a triple-tiered approach. Along with a halt to all settlement construction, incursions, and siege by the Israelis, she recommended that state-building exercises be continued and advanced, and that a simultaneous political framework be developed. The latter, Ashrawi said, must focus on concrete issues and take place within a well-defined timeline.

The legislator went on to affirm the right of the Palestinians to resist Israeli occupation and to redefine resistance as the nature of the occupation changes. She highlighted the value of nonviolent methods, including a robust Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. “The occupation has to become costly [because] for all these years it has been very profitable for Israel,” Ashrawi reasoned.

Along with protest movements, civil disobedience and BDS, she remarked on the Waging Peace need for “carrying out a system of legal and judicial accountability.” If the political will Ashrawi Charges Netanyahu With to end the occupation is absent, she noted, Stifling U.S. Peace Efforts then it is the responsibility of the public to express the legal, judicial, and popular will On May 15 the Middle East Institute in to “hold the occupation accountable and to Washington, DC hosted consummate diploexpose it for what it is.” mat and activist Dr. Hanan Ashrawi. The Acknowledging that the Palestinians have first woman to be elected as a member of work to do as well, Ashrawi noted that the the PLO’s Executive Committee, Ashrawi Palestinian divide between Gaza and the presented a disturbing analysis of the curWest Bank,between Fatah and Hamas, is a rent state of affairs in Israel-Palestine. Demajor problem. However, she argued, the spite a surge in optimism and excitement divide is itself an outcome of the “abnormal following President Barack Obama’s Cairo and tainted situation under” occupation. speech, the prospects for peace on the one While the lack of unity between year anniversary of that historic the major Palestinian political event appear increasingly factions is problematic, she said, gloomy, Ashrawi said. it should not be used as an exThe reorientation of strategic cuse not to engage and take and foreign policy doctrines rapid, concrete steps to end the under Obama has unfortunately occupation. “We are for a Palescoincided with a reorientation of tinian cause that has not lost its the Israeli electorate to the right integrity and its substance. We of the political spectrum, she are yearning for freedom, for noted. The current parliamenself-determination—these are tary coalition follows the hardnoble causes and objectives and line ideological views of Likud, we have to pursue them with Yisrael Beitnu, and Shas. Acfull support—these are unifying cording to Ashrawi, the coalithemes,” she explained. tion is not “conducive to peace, Dr. Ashrawi concluded her to mutual trust, or to any kind The current lack of unity between Palestinians should not be used as of accommodation.” These par- an excuse for inaction, said Dr. Hanan Ashrawi. All Palestinians discussion with a stern warning.

Expediency was of the utmost ties, their representatives, and yearn for freedom and self-determination. their leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, have shown only a willingness to dig their heels in further regarding the occupation, she said.

Netanyahu and his stubborn adherence to the coalition’s views have stifled all efforts by the Obama administration to make progress. “Netanyahu somehow managed to hijack the public agenda…[and] the U.S. was seen to be helpless before Israeli violations and Israeli unilateral actions,” Ashrawi explained. Even significant changes in the American strategic perspective have failed to overpower Netanyahu, she pointed out.

Linkages between the resolution of the conflict and American national security interests have been highlighted by key officials in the administration and in the Pentagon, including Gen. David Petraeus and National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones.

These linkages were famously brushed aside

by Netanyahu, however, during Vice President Biden’s tour of Israel. Instead of responding like a true ally and grateful beneficiary, Ashrawi said, Netanyahu arrogantly and defiantly intimated that “[Israeli] avarice trumps [American] national interests.”

Ashrawi continued her sobering discussion by highlighting the unfortunate tendency to repeat the mistakes of the past.

“We ended up with a process for its own sake, totally abstracted with no relation to reality, no impact on behavior on the ground, and no credibility or legitimacy for those engaged in that process,” she said. In addition, there has been a preference for a “gradual, functional” approach that easily descends into technical, side issues rather than dealing with final status or core issues.

Neither of these trends, Ashrawi argued, is worth continuing; in fact, both are destined to derail prospects for peace. “We started the [peace] process for good reason,” she

PHOTO COURTESY MAWISH RAZA, MEI

punctuated her lecture with some interesting anecdotes about her brief foray into installing her own works at the 2005 show she organized at apexart in lower Manhattan. Also called “The Taste of Others,” the exhibit featured a performance work that raised the question of whether New Yorkers would be willing to eat from one plate with their hands with a bunch of strangers. As it turned out, the majority of visitors had no problem sharing the shohla e goshtee, an Afghan dish similar to risotto.

Born in Afghanistan and raised as a young teenager in the United States, the New York-based Ahmady travels widely in Central Asia as part of her ongoing curatorial projects. She performs and teaches a combination of Afghan and Indian dance practices and is a founding member of two nonprofit organizations: NURTURArt Non Profit (USA) and School of Hope (USA/Afghanistan). She is an adviser to arts organizations in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan, and the newly established Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA). Her writings have been published in Asia Art Archive, Art Asia Pacific and Flash Art Magazine.

—Anne O’Rourke

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who participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in San Jose, CA May 9 through 14.

All three projects were inspired by a need the students recognized in their respective communities. After observing the difficulties of a blind friend trying to maneuver over rough terrain or uneven roads or walkways, Asil Abu Lail, Asil Shaar, and Nour Al-Arda created an electronic wooden cane Gaza Holds Its Own equipped with a ground “France” wins Gaza World Cup in the final game against “Jordan.”

World Cup sensor to beep or vibrate when approaching an obstaA symbolic World Cup tournament was held at the Gaza Strip’s the enclave represented Ireland. Each team cle, hole, or even liquid. The three are classPalestine Sports Stadium for the besieged included two foreign players, drawn from mates at the Askar Refugee Camp girls’ Gazans, who were not permitted to send a aid workers and activists in the Gaza Strip. school in Nablus run by the United Nations In a thrilling match with Jordan (a foot- Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). team to South Africa. The two-week tourDisturbed by the number of children in nament kicked off May 3 with a match be- ball club from Khan Younis), France (also tween Italy and Palestine. Italy won 1-0. represented by a team from Rafah) won the her West Bank village of Beit Rima who The final match took place on May 15, as First Gaza World Cup—a trophy con- have been electrocuted by placing a finger Palestinians worldwide commemorated the structed out of melted shrapnel and iron in an electrical socket, Woroud Al-Rimawi, Nakba, or catastrophe, that befell them 62 recovered from the debris of homes de- a student at the Qassim Al-Rimawi Secstroyed during the Israeli attack. McGann ondary Girls School, designed an electrical years ago.

Organizers said the tournament was in- said he hoped the tournament would socket protector to prevent such accidents. tended to highlight the situation in the “show the world that Gaza is not a bad And Mahmoud Erekat’s idea for an impactGaza Strip, which has been under a tight place and...sealing it off behind walls is not absorbing automobile bumper won the stuIsraeli blockade for three years, and to the way to solve a problem...If the world dent at the Jerusalem Arab Institute High mark the 15 months since the end of Is- could see this side of Gaza—the beautiful School a place in the competition. The three rael’s three-week military offensive in side through the power of sport—then projects were selected out of 392 projects perhaps, just perhaps, the world could entered in Palestinian Science Fairs across 2008-09.

The idea for the Gaza World Cup came to start talking to the people here.” For more the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Although the young Palestinians failed to an American, Patrick McGann, and a information visit <www.gazaworldcup.

—Ali Mahmoud win Intel’s grand $75,000 prize, Abu Lail, Gazan, Ashraf Mohammed Hamad, who com>.

Shaar and Al-Arda received the Synaptics, both work for University College of ApInc. $750 second place special award for plied Sciences (UCAS) and started playing Palestinians Compete in Prestifootball together on campus. Their games gious California Youth Science Fair their electronic stick for the blind. “I’m grew into weekly matches between locals For the first time, five Palestinian teenagers proud to represent Palestine and hope I can and foreigners. were among the more than 1,500 students come back one day,” Shaar told the Wash“We wanted to tell the world that Gazans are playing their favorite game despite the siege and suffering,” said Ibrahim Abu Salim, deputy director of the Palestinian Football Union.

Sponsors included the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), Sharek Youth Forum, the Mashareq printing house, Pepsi, and the Bank of Palestine. Some 16 Gaza-based Palestinian soccer clubs, each representing a different country, took part in the tournament. Every player wore a uniform from the country he represented, bearing the name of one of the players in the international squad. England, for example, was represented by the Rafah Sports Club from the southern Strip, while (L-r) Following the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Nima Al-Rifaie, Woroud the al-Sadaqa (Friendship) Sports Club Al-Rimawi, Nour Al-Arda, Jameela Khaled, Asil Shaar and Asil Abu-Lail attend the Ninth from Jabalya refugee camp in the north of Annual Palestinian Cultural Day celebration at the Santa Clara County Government Center.

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STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

PHOTO COURTESY GAZA WORLD CUP

importance, she said, considering the rapidly disappearing opportunity for a viable two-state solution and the continuity of a leadership that is committed to a negotiated peace settlement.

The pairing of Abu Mazen (President Mahmoud Abbas) and Salam Fayyad and their deep-seated desire for a politically negotiated peace “is not an open ended proposition.”

—Andrew Blakely

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that the group forces a difficult ington Report. issue onto the agenda. The UnStudents from Egypt, Jordan, spoken Alliance is available from Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Pakthe AET Book Club. istan were also among the aspir—Imaan Ali ing scientists and engineers from 50 countries attending the Rabbi Arik Ascherman: fair.

There are “Limits to The high schoolers’ visit coHuman Rights” incided with the Ninth Annual Palestinian Cultural Day sponRabbi Arik Ascherman, selfsored by Supervisor Dave identified cultural Zionist and Cortese and the Palestinian Herleader of Rabbis for Human itage Committee held at the Rights in Israel, discussed Santa Clara County Government South Africa-born Tony Karon (l) and Sasha Polakow-Suransky, au- human rights and Zionism in Center. The teens and their del- thor of The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Israel at a June 10 event coegation, led by Palestine Min- Apartheid South Africa. hosted by the Foundation for istry of Education and Higher Middle East Peace, Americans Education director of information technol- strong ties to the apartheid government. By for Peace Now, Churches for Middle East ogy Amjad Al-Masri, were honored guests the 1970s, these ties had led to a degree of Peace, and the Middle East Institute. His orat the event and were proud to witness the ideological affinity. ganization, Ascherman explained, works Despite the book’s many revelations, it for human rights for Jewish and non-JewPalestinian flag being raised outside the building. Members of the delegation in- has not been covered well in the U.S. press. ish Israelis, but their “most famous—or included Aref Husseini, founder and director It has, however, received much attention in famous” work is for Palestinians’ rights. of Al-Nayzak, an NGO that supports educa- Israel, South Africa, Brazil, several Euro- Rabbis for Human Rights attempts to win tion and scientific innovation; Rula Habash, pean countries, and other “unusual places.” back lands from settlers, as well as preventIntel’s corporate affairs manager for Jordan, As Polakow-Suransky pointed out, an im- ing home demolitions (Ascherman himself Lebanon and Palestine; and teachers portant response to the book in the British is banned from the East Jerusalem neighnewspaper The Guardian focused only on borhood of Sheikh Jarrah as a result of his Jameela Khaled and Nima Al-Rifaie.

At their final event, the group enjoyed a one of several “shocking revelations”: a protesting). traditional Palestinian dinner provided by very narrow correspondence between offiOn reconciling Zionism with his struggle Dishdash Restaurant and held at Silicon Val- cials from both countries allegedly dis- for human rights, Ascherman described the cussing the transfer of nuclear weapons former as a liberation movement for the ley’s Arab American Community Center.

Before returning home, the three students from Israel to South Africa—weapons Jewish people to end their oppression, and from the UNRWA school flew to New York which Israel has never confirmed it pos- noted the many strands of Zionism; some he City for a personal meeting with U.N. Secre- sesses. Other points of interest include the called “racist” and “disgusting,” while othcontinued—even intensified—military co- ers conform to his views. On discussing the tary-General Ban Ki-moon.

—Elaine Pasquini operation between the two countries even compatibility of Zionism with any notion of after Israel officially joined the sanctions human rights, he claimed that human rights Speaking out on The Unspoken against the South African regime in 1987, as for the Palestinians as individuals are easy Alliance well as South Africa releasing the safeguard to agree on and compatible with the Zionist At a June 4 event in Washington, DC on 500 tons of yellowcake uranium supplied ideology, but that such rights for the Paleshosted by the New America Foundation to Israel between 1961 and 1976 for Israel’s tinians as a collective group is a different issue. While admitting that one can find and moderated by the foundation’s Daniel use in its nuclear program.

While growing up in South Africa, Karon “many types of discrimination and racism” Levy, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, senior editor of Foreign Affairs and author of The Un- explained, one was vaguely aware of “bits within Israel, he challenged the audience to spoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship and pieces” of the connection, but the full find a democracy without these challenges.

Ascherman considers the right of return with Apartheid South Africa, discussed the depth of the relationship between the two findings and implications of his new book states was surprising, especially considering an international right. Just as the Jews with South Africa-born Tony Karon, an ac- the anti-Semitic attitude held by the pre- prayed for the right of return for thousands tivist in the anti-apartheid struggle and cur- apartheid South African regime in the of years, he cannot deny Palestinians this rently senior editor of Time Magazine. Levy 1930s. Apartheid has become a “synonym hope. However, he believes, these two introduced the discussion by referring to a for that which is unacceptable,” Karon rights of return contradict each other. Berecent and very relevant issue: what he noted, and the link between the two gov- cause a Palestinian majority would chalcalled an aggressive vilification campaign in ernments thus is “very uncomfortable” for lenge Israel’s Jewish character, it will not Israel against Justice Richard Goldstone, a Israel. Karon compared the situation of the happen, Ascherman declared. He called for Jewish South African, following the release Palestinians to an apartheid one, in which a the parties to make compromises, and said of the Goldstone report on Israel’s 2008-’09 population lives under Israeli rule without that as a human rights activist he underassault on Gaza. Goldstone was attacked for the democratic rights of Jewish Israelis. The stands that “there are limits to human having worked within the system of South wider political significance of the book rights.” Accordingly, the Palestinians have Africa’s apartheid regime, even as Polakow- right now, he added, is highlighted by the to make a tough choice between peace and Suransky’s book reveals that, during the flotilla movement, which Karon saw as rem- claiming their aforementioned rights.

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Rabbi Arik Ascherman. have made in the conflict, Rabbi Ascherman argued that Israel has given up land rights since accepting the U.N. partition plan of 1947, in which a Jewish state was carved out of Arab Palestine, allowing the minority Jewish population the greater share of the land—although it is difficult to see how one could assert that this was a compromise, especially since Israel has seized even more land than it was allotted by the U.N. General Assembly. Ascherman calls himself the “last optimist” and hopes for a future where one can realize all rights—although he characterized the near future as “a conflict between right and right.”

—Imaan Ali

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The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP)/Tikkun held its annual conference at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, DC, from June 11-13. Speakers discussed the political and spiritual crisis facing the world today, and gave recommendations of what to do about it. NSP cochair Catholic Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister appealed for compassion and NSP co-

Rabbi Michael Lerner calls for a push to make President Obama do the right thing.

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Conference Calls for Creation of Caring Society

chair Rabbi Michael Lerner called for “Cre- behavior. Both congressmen made it clear to ating the Caring Society–Caring for Each attendees that these ideas are not just Other and Caring for the Earth,” the central utopian conceptions, but are essential to the survival of the human race. theme of the conference.

—Delinda Hanley Rabbi Lerner, as well as other speakers throughout the conference, urged the 500 attendees to push the Obama administration Outrage in L.A. Over Gaza Flotilla from a spiritual progressive perspective, and Attack to avoid the Obama-bashing coming from Scarcely more than 12 hours after Israeli Tea Party fundamentalists or other political armed commandos killed nine civilians groups whose only goal is to make Obama aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Mamara and fail. Yet Lerner also made clear that NSP had forcibly took 700 passengers to the Israeli no intention of accepting “anti-ideological” port of Ashdod, more than 1,000 angry acpolitics from the Obama administration, and tivists assembled in front of the Los Angesuggested aligning with other liberal and les Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard. progressive forces and coalitions struggling For the first time, large Turkish flags were for peace, social justice, environmental san- prominent among pro-Palestinian demonity and human rights. strators who march in protest at the midCNN filmed the June 13 memorial service in Lafayette Park, where Jewish, Christian and Muslim clergy offered prayers in memory of the nine activists killed in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Michael Lerner, Rev. James Winkler (chair of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodists of America), Rev. Ama Zenya of the United Church of Christ, and Sayyid Syeed of the Islamic Society of North America offered prayers, including ones for the freedom of Gilad Shalit and the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners.

A larger rally called for the president to “be the Obama most Americans thought we elected in 2008.”

Israel/Palestine was the subject of much debate, with multiple perspectives represented by Arik Ascherman, chair of Israeli Rabbis for Human Rights, a Washington representative of the Palestinian Authority, plus a debate on Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) spoke about mak- Outside the L.A. Israeli Consulate on May ing a difference. Ellison called on partici- 31, protesting Israel’s assault on a peace flotilla bound for Gaza. pants to ask their representatives to endorse and co-sponsor his House Resolution 1016, introduced Jan. 19, 2010, which endorses a Global Marshall Plan to demonstrate the commitment of the United States to peace and prosperity through poverty reduction in the United States and abroad. He emphasized his conviction that generosity rather than domination is the best path to homeland security. Congressman Kucinich discussed the importance of the Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment (ESRA), a proposed constitutional amendment to protect the planet from environ- Protesters at the May 31 demonstration at L.A. Ismentally and socially destructive raeli Consulate.

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Iowans Protest Gaza Aid Ship Massacre Iowans rallied at Nollen Plaza in downtown Des Moines on June 2 to protest Israel’s massacre of civilian aid workers and activists during the May 31 attack by Israeli military forces on the ships of the Free Gaza Flotilla in the eastern Mediterranean.

“It’s a travesty; it’s a blatant massacre; it’s a war crime,” said David Goodner, a community organizer and a Des Moines Catholic Worker.

“It’s the most recent in a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel has committed, the first being the 40year-old occupation. The second Lebanon war in 2006 was a war crime. The invasion of Gaza and the bombing of Gaza in 2008 was a war crime. The blockade of Gaza and the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza are war crimes and crimes against humanity.

And this massacre is a war crime. Enough is enough. It’s time to put an end to this,” declared Goodner.

“There’s a non-violent popular resistance movement in the Occupied Territories, a coalition of Palestinians, left-wing Israeli Jews, and International Solidarity Movement activists. They’re using non-violence as an effective means of ending the occupation. I’ve been there and I’ve seen it,” said Goodner.

“The nonviolent popular resistance movement is broad-based, it’s international, and it’s effective,” Goodner added, “and that’s why the Israelis are deliberately and violently trying to repress that movement, because they know it’s effective and they’re scared of the change that’s lapping up on their shores.”

“Sounds to me like [the Israeli military commandos] were super-aggressive,” said Gil Landolt, a member of the Des Moines chapter of Veterans for Peace. “They killed people, and they hurt a lot of people, and I

think that’s insane.”

“The Israeli government is no longer defending itself,” said Ismael Hossein-zadeh, a professor of economics at Drake University.

“They are defending an illegal siege, they are defending starvation. It seems to be a mad kind of policy.”

Israel’s attack on the aid ships will further isolate it from the international community of nations and increase international support for an end to the siege of Gaza, predicted Hossein-zadeh.

“I’m here today to help end the siege of Gaza,” said Sana Akili, a former lecturer in the College of Business at Iowa State University in Ames.

“We need to speak up, as Americans,” she urged. “The blockade, the suffering, is intolerable. I have children, and I understand what the children of Gaza are going through. To help the children of Gaza is my main cause today,” Akili concluded.

Kathleen McQuillen, coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee’s Iowa Program, organized the rally. “We are focused today on the attack by Israel on a relief convoy of civilians in international waters,” she told the crowd. “We are focused, too, on the siege of Gaza, which led to this tragedy.”

McQuillen read from a statement that she and other peace and social justice activists hand-delivered to the Des Moines offices of Iowa’s two senators—Democrat Tom Harkin and Republican Chuck Grassley—in the Federal Building across the street from Nollen Plaza following the rally. The statement calls upon the senators to work to “close the checkbook to Israel…to [be] an honest broker in the peace efforts between Palestine and Israel, or…for the U.S. to get out of the way and let the international community work for a just peace in that region.”

Catholic Worker leader Tom Cordaro, former Catholic Peace Ministry executive di-

STAFF PHOTO M. GILLESPIE

Wilshire building whenever Israel violates international laws by attacking Gazan or South Lebanese targets.

“Look at the person next to you,” shouted Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. “Today, we’re all Palestinians.”

Voicing outrage at Israel’s violent takeover of six vessels in international waters as they headed to besieged Gaza with much needed humanitarian aid, Syed remarked that Americans often ask him where is the Palestinian Martin Luther King.

“I always answer that all 9,000 of them are locked in Israeli prisons,” Syed said to the cheering throng.

USC Prof. David Lloyd of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement said that despite President Barack Obama’s decision to not utter a word against Israel’s violations of Gazans’ human rights, the struggle must continue for the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners of conscience. “We won’t be free if the Palestinians are not free,” he concluded.

Stated Dick Platkin of Los Angeles Jews for Peace: “Many Jews are totally disgusted with Israel’s policies and its siege of Gaza.

The U.S. government and Congress are responsible, they could lift the siege.”

Five TV stations and many other Los Angeles media representatives interviewed the huge crowd that continued to shout “Enough” to Israel’s mounting violations of the Geneva Conventions and other crimes against humanity.

Incredibly, the next day, several hundred members of StandWithUs, the successor of the Jewish Defense League, gathered in front of the Los Angeles Turkish Consulate to condemn Ankara’s support of the freedom flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In yet another effort to claim “self-defense,” when Israel was the aggressor attacking unarmed ships in international waters, killing and kidnapping passengers and illegally confiscating a convoy of vessels, L.A. Israeli Consul General Jacob Dayan called for a celebration of Israel on June 6.

A section of Wilshire Boulevard known as Ben-Gurion Square was blocked to traffic while local politicians swore their allegiance to the Zionist state. None other than California Gov. Arnold Schwarenegger stood on the dais and spoke by cell phone to the father of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is a prisoner of Hamas.

Nonetheless, large protests against Israel continued at the West Los Angeles Federal Building, the Israeli Consulate and in Orange County.

—Pat McDonnell Twair

AFSC Iowa Program coordinator Kathleen McQuillen addresses a June 2 rally in Des Moines.

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rector Brian Terrell, and 2007 Bishop Maurice J. Dingman Peace Award honoree Rev. Chet Guinn also addressed the crowd and accompanied McQuillen to their senators’ offices to meet with staff and present the statement to their elected representatives.

—Michael Gillespie

Free Gaza Protesters Dare Sherman to Arrest Them Activists from the Free Gaza Movement voluntarily offered themselves up for arrest in Congressman Brad Sherman’s (D-CA) office at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 10.

The demonstrators were reacting to Sherman’s public statement that those aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, attacked by Israel in international waters on May 31, should be prosecuted under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

“We are here to call his bluff,” said Ramzi Kysia, a leading Free Gaza activist. The demonstrators were not arrested, thereby proving that Sherman’s statements were mere publicity tactics.

During the demonstration, participant Tighe Barry held up a picture of a playground in Palestine. “I built these playgrounds in Gaza for the children,” he said.

In the midst of making these statements in the main entrance of the Rayburn House Office Building, the demonstrators were urged by security to relocate outside the building.

“There are press conferences here all the time,” pointed out Kysia, but the group complied.

Once outside, Medea Benjamin, activist and co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, drew attention to the positive impact Israel’s May 31 attack has had on U.S. policy. According to Benjamin, “the fact that the U.S. government realizes the siege is not sustainable” is a sign of hope for future pol-

icy changes.

“We cannot allow our country to become a place where human rights workers…fear for their government,” said Kysia.

Other demonstrators included activist Susan Kerin (see p. 32) and retired U.S. Army Col. and diplomat Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department in opposition to the war in Iraq, and participated in the flotilla.

CODEPINK is currently taking donations to fund a tour for activists who were on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla to tell the truth about the events off the coast of Gaza.

—Karina Kainth

Realigning America’s Relations in The Middle East

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There exists a paucity of original, creative thinking among U.S. foreign policymakers.

This is the message being propagated by Stephen Kinzer, author of Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future. Kinzer expressed his concerns regarding Washington’s outdated approach to Middle East foreign policymaking in a June 14 discussion at the New America Foundation.

Kinzer focused the bulk of his remarks on Washington’s inability or unwillingness to adapt to a changed Middle East context.

“The U.S.,” he said, “is still trying to deal with the Middle East as we [Americans] wish it were.” However, he argued, American foreign policy cannot continue to operate on the same assumptions. Hezbollah, Hamas and other organizations that have long been labeled terrorist and thus ignorable by Washington, for instance, are wellintegrated parts of a new context that must be acknowledged.

A re-evaluation of our strategic partners, Kinzer explained, is a crucial step for the future of a successful Middle East policy. For years, Washington has expressed a clear preference for Israel and Saudi Arabia. Generally, but not necessarily, he noted, “what Israel and Saudi Arabia want, they get.” In Kinzer’s opinion, however, those two countries are not the most logical partners for the U.S. as far as long-term strategic interests are concerned. Emphasizing America’s flawed short-term approach to policymaking, Kinzer stated that “we should be looking forward to the deep 21st century and (L-r) Medea Benjamin, Ramzi Kysia, Col. Ann Wright, and attempt to see what is the Susan Kerin risk arrest at Congressman Brad Sherman’s Capi- long-term configuration we want to see in the region.” tol Hill office.

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Stephen Kinzer, author of Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future.

Iran and Turkey, he elaborated, are actually the most logical partners with which the U.S. could align itself. Iran, for example, has immense influence and similar strategic interests in Iraq and Afghanistan. Being a Shi’i Muslim-majority country like Iraq, sharing the same linguistic heritage as Afghanistan, and bordering both, Iran has the ability to play either the positive facilitator or the spoiler depending on how the U.S. deals with it. For its part, Turkey is economically significant and is one of the few Muslim majority countries with ties to Israel. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the two non-Arab countries “are the only Muslim-majority states in the Middle East that have moved toward democracy.”

In sum, Kinzer argued, “we have much more in common [with Iran and Turkey] than Americans are led to believe.” Getting closer to the two nations, he acknowledged, is no small feat—one that will require the same type of creative policies which are so clearly lacking in Washington. Regarding Iran, Kinzer argued that the U.S. must step back from the one-track agenda and expand the focus beyond the nuclear issue. In Kinzer’s opinion, making an effort to understand the Iranian perspective would force us to recognize that Washington’s current agenda is essentially forcing Iran to “give up the best diplomatic card in its hand from the start.”

While widening the basis for conversation is not an absolute guarantee for an opening with Tehran, Kinzer cautioned, a failure to broaden the agenda will ensure an escalation of tensions. Embracing Turkey, while an easier task than rapprochement with Iran, is something the U.S. can benefit greatly from, but “only if we are smart.”

Turkey is willing to offer its unique position as a healthy democracy, a large economy, and respected member of the Islamic world to help the U.S. understand the region better in terms of strategic interests. The U.S., AUGUST 2010

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After weeks of debate and myriad dusk-todawn meetings, a bill by the Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley (ASUC) directing the UC Regents and the student government to divest from General Electric (GE) and United Technologies (UT) failed by one vote. GE provides Israel with propulsion systems for its Apache assault helicopters, while UT provides aircraft engines for F-16 fighter jets. Both weapons have been used in attacks against Palestinian civilians, according to Amnesty International.

On March 18 the UC Divestment from War Crimes bill, co-authored by Emiliano Huet-Vaughn and Tom Pessah, passed with a 16-4 vote, but was vetoed March 24 by ASUC president Will Smelko. With a tally of 13-5 at the April 28 ASUC Senate meeting, supporters of the resolution came one vote short of meeting the required twothirds majority vote to override the veto.

Despite their defeat, the UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) optimistically stated on the Cal Divest From Apartheid Web site, “It is an overwhelmingly positive sign that we have garnered a solid majority of student support both inside student government and amongst the student population in general. The kind of activism we choose to engage in is not only a matter of intervening to stop human rights violations, it is also a reflection of the kind of world we want to live in.”

SJP also urged students to “join us now to think critically and act effectively to stop Israel’s persecution of the Palestinian people.”

—Elaine Pasquini

U.S.-Iran At the Brink The ever-looming threat of an impasse among the U.S., Iran, and the international community over nuclear sanctions was the focus of a June 9 panel entitled “U.S.-Iran: At the Brink?“ and hosted by the World AUGUST 2010

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement has placed ads on bus stops in San Francisco.

Affairs Council at the University of California Washington Center.

The discussion opened with a comparison between previous U.S. attempts to curtail Iran’s nuclear capabilities to the handling of the issue by the Obama administration. Trita Parsi, author of Treacherous Alliance (available from the AET Book Club) and a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Scholar, addressed the latest set of sanctions passed by the U.N. Security Council. Calling it a “watered-down resolution,” he noted that more dissent was expressed this time around than in the past. “The sanctions have imposed a cost on Iranians,” Parsi said, but added that this did not mean Iran would change its behavior. The sanctions policy is “an end, not a means to an end,” according to Parsi, and “America has wasted one of its last cards.” This will cause Iran to feel more “emboldened,” he said. The per-

ceived decline of the U.S.’s status as a superpower does not help matters. Iran believes that “U.S. hegemony has an expiration date,” Parsi said, “so why would they [the Iranian government] want to put their eggs in that basket?”

James Robbins, a senior fellow in national security affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council and former special assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, echoed Parsi’s sentiment and said that “the international community keeps retreating from what’s acceptable [in nuclear enrichment levels].” He added, however, that the U.S. is not saving Iran from itself, since Iran’s security would benefit from the possession of nuclear weapons. “I doubt we would be as interested in sending fleets to the Persian Gulf,” said Robbins. If Iran possessed nuclear weapons, any U.S. invasion attempting regime change would be impossible—and, according to Robbins, the U.S. “wants that insurance card.” Robbins also addressed other incentives for the U.S. to impose sanctions on Iran, such as Israel and its readiness to engage in open conflict with Iran.

“Revolutionary guards are in charge of national security decision-making in Iran,” stated Alireza Nader, a RAND international affairs analyst, honing in on this influential force and its role in the context of power struggles between Iranian conservatives and reformists. The increasing radicalization of Iran under conservatives such as Khomeini and leaders such as Ahmadinejad has resulted in the fact that the Iranian government “is not the ideal partner for any sort of diplomacy,” Nader argued. However, he added, “We should not give up on engagement completely. We have a long-standing relationship with Iran as a country; we can’t lose sight of that.” There are many other long-term issues on which to collaborate, Nader concluded, such as Persian Gulf security and energy cooperation.

—Karina Kainth

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Students for Justice in Palestine Remain Upbeat at UC Berkeley

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

however, should recognize the potential benefits and not shun Turkey unnecessarily by questioning its motives and designs.

Addressing the notion that such a realignment of U.S. policy in the Middle East is an abandonment of our historic allies, namely Israel, Kinzer rejected the idea that the region is based on zero-sum relationships. “This is not about throwing any country under the bus,” he concluded. “It is about restructuring regional relations to best achieve our long term strategic interests—a stable Middle East.”

—Andrew Blakely

(L-r) Moderator Geneive Abdo, Dr. Trita Parsi, Alireza Nader and Dr. James Robbins.

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Bangladesh Facing Serious Challenges

vated violence. There’s been some progress on human trafficking of women and children, he said.

Independent media are struggling in a “Human Rights and Healing Through Diacountry which once had a vibrant free press, logue and Reconciliation in Bangladesh” was Trachina added. Mahmudur Rahman, editor the topic at the June 14 session of the Amerof the Bengali-language Amar Desh, remains ican Muslim Alliance Foundation’s monthly in jail after police stormed through a barripolicy forum, held at the Carnegie Endowcade set up by his newspament Center for Internaper’s journalists on June 2. tional Peace in WashingThe newspaper has reton, DC. Sharply divided opened after being closed speakers engaged with a for 12 days. large audience for an emoAfter lively questions tionally charged discussion. from worried immigrants, Muhammad Tajul Islam, panelists and audience assistant secretary-general of Asian Center For (L-r) Muhammad Tajul Islam, Anthony Dean Trachina, Dr. Shatul Islam, Prof. members all agreed to hold similar forums in the near Human Rights, provided a Agha Saeed, Ambassador Osman Siddiqui and Arshad Mahmud. future to help U.S. policy detailed description of the According to Advocate Dr. Shatul Islam, take a new road in South Asia. history of democracy in Bangladesh. “Polit—Delinda Hanley ical stability and economic prosperity is if Bangladesh is to succeed, its citizens must possible in Bangladesh,” he stated, “only if learn tolerance and how to listen to one anwe can bring about a change in our politi- other in a sincere and meaningful way. “If Kucinich Urges “Anti-War Teach-Ins our politicians are to learn anything from Across the Country cal culture and democratic practices.”

Currently Bangladesh is ruled by an history, it must be that the way to political Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) hosted a elected government headed by Shaikh stability and economic prosperity is “Teach-In” at the Rayburn House Office Hasina and the Awami League. The opposi- through unity, tolerance, dialogue, and rec- Building on Capitol Hill on April 29, 2010 to tion Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has onciliation,” he added. examine what Congress must do to end the Arshad Mahmud, a Washington, DC- U.S. wars and secure a peaceful Middle East. boycotted parliament on several occasions.

This, in fact, has become a habit in based journalist, who said he has been con- Kucinich urged citizens to hold “teach-ins Bangladesh, Islam said—whichever party is sistently blacklisted by each government, across the country,” in order to wake-up the in power, the opposition refuses to attend provided a more skeptical view of American people to the lethal and costly parliament. This acrimony prevents Bangladesh. He’d covered nearly all of the “consequences of the wars.” Panelists inBangladesh from functioning as a democ- elections in Bangladesh for 20 years, he cluded journalist Chris Hedges, senior fellow racy, Islam stated. He stressed the need for noted, and “before 1991 there was not a sin- at The Nation Institute; Jeremy Scahill, auBangladesh to learn from its history, because gle free and fair election.” The only free thor of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s any glorious achievements Bangladeshis elections have occurred during caretaker Most Powerful Mercenary Army; David have made were possible only after they had governments, he charged. If an election is Swanson, author of Daybreak: Undoing the set aside their differences and united toward held when either political party is in power Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perit is not fair, he added, and that’s “a terrible fect Union; Col. (ret.) Ann Wright, co-author a common goal.

Ambassador Osman Siddiqui, former U.S. thing for democracy.” When he talks to of Dissent: Voices of Conscience; and Josh ambassador to Fiji, urged the U.S. and other common people in Bangladesh, Mahmud Stieber, who became a conscientious objecnations to pay attention to the major issues said, “they are boiling and ready to ex- tor after serving in Iraq for 14 months. All plaguing Bangladesh, including human plode.” He called for Bangladesh to embrace the panelists have spent years challenging rights abuses, poverty alleviation, eradica- the rule of law, which he defined as “if you the belief that wars are inevitable. For more tion of illiteracy, and other socio-economical commit a crime, no matter who you are— details on this event and its sponsors, visit: goals. The promotion of human rights must you’ll be punished.” <www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/5159> Anthony Dean Trachina, State Depart- and watch the event on YouTube <http:// be the central U.S. foreign policy goal, the ambassador said, because “the existence of ment desk officer for Bangladesh, described vimeo.com/11357371>. —William Hughes democracy and human rights helps deter ag- four U.S. presidential foreign gression, promotes the rule of law, combats policy initiatives, and noted crime and corruption, strengthens good gov- that Bangladesh was the only ernance and prevents humanitarian crises.” country involved in all four: Amazingly, despite the inability of its global climate change, engageleaders to work together as a government, ment with Islamic countries, and extrajudicial killings, the people of global health, and food secuBangladesh continue to vote in masses. “Ap- rity initiatives. Trachina proximately 80 percent go to the polls...The agreed with the other speakers leadership of the country does not reflect the that there hadn’t been much maturity of its people,” Siddiqui stated. He progress on human rights is- (L-r) Col. Ann Wright; Rep. Dennis Kucinich; Herb Hoffalso pointed out that Bangladesh remains sues, especially extrajudicial man, (Maine anti-war activist); David Swanson and Jeone of the few democracies in the Muslim killing and politically moti- remy Scahill.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST 2010

PHOTO WILLIAM HUGHES

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

world and is a valued long-time participant in international peacekeeping roles around the world. Bangladesh’s economy is growing, partly due to an increase in educated women entering the workforce. Siddiqui concluded by expressing confidence that, with a little help from American policymakers, Bangladesh can overcome obstacles.

opm_67-68_Other People's Mail 6/23/10 10:41 PM Page 67

Other People’s Mail Compiled by Kate Hilmy and Andrew Blakely The Loss of Iraqi Culture

Right, Wrong and in Between

To The New York Times, May 25, 2010 Thank you for capturing the Baghdad of my teenage years, a city few Americans know. The architects of the invasion of Iraq deliberately conflated Iraq with Saddam Hussain. As a result, the quality of Baghdad’s intellectual life and culture and what their loss has meant to the Arab world were underappreciated by the American public.

I grew up in a home in Jordan with a library that had several of Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s books and translations. I was also familiar with many of the artists and writers you mentioned, because Iraq was one of the main cultural and intellectual centers of the Arab world. The destruction of Mr. Jabra’s home, books, art and music and the murder of his relatives symbolize what Iraq has become once the religious genie was unleashed.

Therefore, I continue to mourn the intellectually rich secular Iraqi and Arab world destroyed by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Orayb Najjar, Chicago, IL

To The Globe and Mail, June 2, 2010 I don’t understand: an Israeli military helicopter hovers over a ship in international waters and heavily armed Israeli combat troops debouch from the helicopter onto the ship’s deck, but according to the soldiers, the people on board the ship initiated the hostilities?

Neil Willoughby, Toronto, Canada

Turkish Ambassador Speaks To The New York Times, June 9, 2010 Turkey is shocked and outraged not only because of the killing and wounding of innocent activists, but also because this is the first such attack against civilian Turkish citizens by a foreign military force in our republic’s 87-year history.

The tragic irony is that this attack came not from a sworn enemy but from a friend, ever since Turkey became the first Muslimmajority nation to recognize Israel shortly after its founding.

The Turkish government did not initiate the Free Gaza flotilla, an international aid convoy of nationals from 32 countries bringing humanitarian aid to the deprived people of Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces’ attack on the humanitarian convoy is illegal, and by no means justifiable. Israel must apologize for these killings and for this gross violation of international law; compensate the families of the dead, wounded, nongovernmental organizations and shipping companies concerned; accept an inquiry by an independent, international entity; and end the unjust blockade of Gaza that was at the heart of this tragic dispute.

Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan, Washington, DC AUGUST 2010

Israel Is a Rogue State To The Independent, June 8, 2010 Although not an unqualified admirer of William Hague, I have to contradict Jeff Smith (letter, June 3). The foreign secretary did, in fact, condemn the “storming” of unarmed vessels in international waters and urged the lifting of the Gaza blockade—the basic cause of the whole problem.

The Israeli excuses for this blockade are unconvincing and either the result of a paranoid state of mind or a deliberate attempt to keep the population of Gaza povertystricken and desperate, so that they can be portrayed as uncivilized or terrorists.

In an adjacent article Adrian Hamilton portrays Israel as a U.S. client state, comparable with the relationship between North Korea and China. This may arouse derision in Israel and also in other places, but in geopolitical terms it is correct. Israel is now losing all support everywhere except the U.S.A. (on which it is ultimately dependent) and has, in fact, become a “rogue” state in the same way as Iran or North Korea.

The fact that it is a “free” and “democratic” country is irrelevant. It ignores international law and other international institutions, treats the U.N. with contempt and wages war on its neighbors at the slightest provocation. In addition to that it has illegally held nuclear weapons (which it refuses to acknowledge) and has become hated by all the states surrounding it. If the evidence of some of those “arrested” in the recent incident is correct, it is now going in for state robbery, having deprived these people of their money, credit cards and passports.

Peter Giles, Whitchurch, Shropshire, UK

A Deadly Raid by Israel To the Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2010 Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, said last week that the Free Gaza flotilla, which was delivering humanitarian THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

aid, was engaged in “violent propaganda” against Israel and would be met with all available force. Apparently he was not merely posturing. To consider the provision of humanitarian aid as a kind of violence—is this not a kind of insanity?

As an American Jew and a son of Holocaust refugees, I am deeply distressed by the depths to which the state of Israel has sunk. In light of this incident, the Obama administration should immediately suspend all military aid to Israel and join the rest of the international community in issuing a clear condemnation of Israel’s action.

Mark J. Kaswan, Sherman Oaks, CA

Commandos and the Flotilla To The New York Times, June 1, 2010 When I was 13 years old, in 1948, I won awards for collecting donations for the new state of Israel. Well, I’ve had it with Israel, and I want my money back.

Judith Resner, Berkeley, CA

Fallout from the Flotilla Raid To the Los Angeles Times, June 8, 2010 Doyle McManus hopes against hope that Israel can be coddled into doing the right thing.

But nations can sometimes behave like unruly children, getting into fights at school and acting out. When this happens, a parent shouldn’t encourage unsocial behavior by coddling the kid and preventing the school from disciplining the child.

Rather, effective parenting requires that disciplinary action sometimes includes grounding (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and cutting the kid’s allowance (cutting off military aid).

Apartheid ended in South Africa not by coddling but by strong international pressure. Israel needs some tough love from its only friend.

Paul McDermott, Los Angeles, CA

Pondering the Mideast Crises To The Washington Post, June 9, 2010 If Israel’s Gaza embargo were limited to weaponry, no one would complain. But according to a number of aid organizations, the embargo blocks almost everything except food, medical supplies and fuel, and it allows hopelessly inadequate amounts of those. These aid organizations estimate that the amount of humanitarian supplies allowed to enter Gaza is less than one-fourth 67

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of what it was before the embargo and that it is well below the amount needed to meet the needs of the population.

The purpose of the embargo appears to be not so much to intercept weapons as to wear down the morale of the Palestinians.

Gomer Thomas, Arlington, VA

The End of a Career To the Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2010 White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs should remember that the country for which he works protects free speech, even if he and his employers deem that speech to be “offensive and reprehensible.” What is truly offensive and reprehensible is that Helen Thomas, an iconic figure with a decades-long career, can be forced out of her position because she states her opinion about Israel.

As for the ageist remark by Talk News Radio bureau chief Ellen Ratner that, at 90, “people just don’t have the same filters”— if filtering is what we are doing when we refuse to stand up against oppression, maybe it’s time for those of all ages to turn off the filters.

Cathryn Roos, La Habra, CA

Neocons Oppose Iran Deal To The Toronto Star, May 19, 2010 The Iran-Turkey-Brazil accord is a possible breakthrough regarding Iran’s refining of nuclear material—its agreement to ship a substantial amount to Turkey in exchange for nuclear rods for medical research. But it was treated more as a negative than a positive, even though this new deal parallels a plan that the Obama administration favored last October.

The U.S. media’s annoyance at any rapprochement between Washington and Tehran has some history to it. Just as Iraq’s Saddam Hussain was the designated target of American hate in 2002 and 2003, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is playing that role now. Back then, any event in Iraq was cast in the harshest possible light; today, the same is done with Iran.

The neocons are frightened that the conflict with Iran might be delayed indefinitely and that—heaven forbid—cooler heads might prevail.

Javed Akbar, Markham, Canada

Iran Deal With Turkey and Brazil To The International Herald Tribune, May 24, 2010 Roger Cohen makes a balanced assessment of the deal on Iran brokered by Brazil and Turkey (“America moves the goalposts”). To disregard this agreement is 68

also to dismiss the possibility of creating an atmosphere for peace that can be further strengthened by the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the region.

César Chelala, Prague

were made?

It is time for this administration to be realistic and begin to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.

Wendy Geringer, Croton-on-Hudson, NY

The U.S. in Afghanistan

Why Burqa-Ban Is Wrong

To The New York Times, May 20, 2010 We read that the terrorized population in the district of Marjah in Afghanistan, where major American-led combat operations ended in late February with the declaration that the battle was won, is now fleeing as the Taliban restores its insurgency.

Our strategy of “clear and hold” appears ever elusive, as coalition troops are unable to protect the population. Still, we continue plans for the next major offensive in Kandahar.

President Obama deliberated at length before he decided to commit 30,000 additional troops to the region. As Afghan and coalition troop deaths mount, how long will it take the administration to admit that its strategy is not working? Even if there were more evidence of our success, can anyone believe that the Afghan leadership would be able to sustain whatever gains

To The Washington Post, May 22, 2010 French President Nicolas Sarkozy claims that banning burqas would uphold traditional European values. Unless he is referring to the values of a few infamous European dictators, he could not be more mistaken.

The bedrock of European cultural and political traditions is liberalism. A true liberal understands that the use of force, by which all government edicts are ultimately backed, is neither an effective nor moral means of promoting values. Banning an expression of religious conviction in the name of protecting a liberal culture is the stuff of satire.

Force is the tool of those who lack the competence or courage to peacefully persuade.

Isaac M. Morehouse, Falls Church, VA

WRITE OR TELEPHONE THOSE WORKING FOR YOU IN WASHINGTON. President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20500 (202) 456-1414 White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111 Fax: (202) 456-2461 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Department of State Washington, DC 20520 State Department Public Information Line: (202) 647-6575 Any Senator U.S. Senate Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-3121 Any Representative U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-3121

E-MAIL CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE E-mail Congress: visit the Web site <www.congress.org> for contact information.

E-mail President Obama: <president@whitehouse.gov> E-mail Vice President Joe Biden: <vice.president@whitehouse.gov>

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

New Look at Arab World To The Toronto Star, May 11, 2010 Re: Al Jazeera English on the air in Canada. Your article only cited initial “opposition by Canadian Jewish organizations.” However, it should have also mentioned the overwhelming support by several organizations and individuals for the CRTC to approve Al Jazeera English.

The CRTC received 2,600 comments in favor of approval compared to 40 comments in opposition.

Canadians now have access to Al Jazeera English’s quality news and discussion services, giving them useful and different perspectives on world events, which are not available on other Canadian or foreign channels found in Canada. That means better informed and engaged Canadian citizens who can benefit from freedom of expression that is essential for a free, pluralistic and democratic society. This means the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds subject only to necessary restriction provided by the law.

We believe that Al Jazeera English will significantly improve Canadians’ understanding of current events as well as economic and social developments in the Arab world. This will help promote better ties and co-operation between Canadians and the people of the Arab world—a goal that we actively support.

Rula Odeh, President, National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, Ottawa, Canada ❑ AUGUST 2010

cartoons_69_August 2010 Cartoons 6/24/10 11:20 AM Page 69

THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST

WWW.BENDIB.COM

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

National

The Muslim Observer, Livonia

WWW.BENDIB.COM

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

The Globe and Mail, Toronto

OtherWords.org

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

OLIPHANT (C) 2007 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. USED BY PERMISSION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Oliphant © Universal Press Syndicate, Reprinted with permission

AUGUST 2010

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The Plain Dealer, Cleveland

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Books

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Ian Williams is the Washington Report’s United Nations correspondent.

th h73656 A mer e 556 ica674-1-9 ’s mos erse sL eOREM selec l Mtition off PPalestinian aMle lestin nian ttr North Nor America’s most diverse selection traditional aditional pr products oducts 736 656-5 55674 1 st 9 div 73656-55674-1-9 LPSU LPSUM LOREM

lied about the size of the economic and mil- Shimon Peres wrote of a “common hatred itary connections, claimed that others were of injustice,” and “a close identity of aspiThe Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s doing it anyway, excoriated the ANC as ter- rations and interests.”

Relationship With Apartheid The book might dispel some residual ilrorists—and, of course, alleged that only lusions among Western apologists for anti-Semites would have an interest in South Africa bringing up such inconvenient facts. Po- Israel’s Labor party. Polakow-Suransky deBy Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Pantheon lakow-Suransky shows how, in fact, South picts David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Books, 2010, hardback, 336 pp. List: $27.95; Africa was Israel’s biggest arms customer, older Labor politicians as being ethically while the latter bought and resold the oth- opposed to apartheid, in contrast to cynical AET: $18.50. pragmatists like Yitzhak Rabin, Peres and erwise embargoed diamonds.

Reviewed by Ian Williams Since for decades, demonization of other more recent figures. The author Sasha Polakow- anyone who has had contact with an might be too kind to the older generation, Suransky’s book, enemy of Israel has been a standard media mistaking their geopolitical assessment of The Unspoken Al- and political tactic, it is always interesting the possibilities for Third World support liance, is sub - to see how previously interned Nazi sup- with ethics, but there is no doubt that their titled “Israel’s porters like B.J. Vorster could become hon- successors were not concerned about the Secret Alliance ored guests at Vad Yashem, quite apart ethics of dealing with apartheid, but rather With Apartheid from their devotion to apartheid. Particu- with the consequences of being found out.

Polakow-Suransky explores the confuSouth Africa”— larly sinister was Israel’s hosting of Dr. but it certainly Wouter Basson, whose hobbies included sion caused by the then-reflexive Ameriwas no secret to stockpiling the Ebola virus, dropping can liberal support for Israel against its anti-apartheid enemy soldiers out of planes over the sea, anti-apartheid instincts, but I have my own c a m p a i g n e r s and trying to develop a biological weapon addition. Before he died, I interviewed worldwide, nor to the African National that would target only blacks. He went to Rabbi Arthur Herzberg, who told me that he had agreed with Congressman Charles Congress (ANC), whose victory and pre- inspect Israeli military hospitals.

Polakow-Suransky interviewed many Rangel (D-NY) that in return for the Consent control of Pretoria’s archives has allowed the author to unveil some genuinely survivors on both sides of this relationship, gressional Black Caucus not raising the one of the most striking aspects of which issue of Israel’s sanctions busting, it was asshocking secrets.

Polakow-Suransky details the alliance is that it went beyond cynical realpolitik: sured of full support from the Jewish and the active part in fomenting it played the white South Africans and the Israeli caucus for its domestic agenda. This is by the “official” South African Jewish military really got on well together. They clearly an ethics-free zone, but Polakowcommunity, drawing out the various liked each other and what they stood for, Suransky maps out the moral dimension threads of a relationship which so many and the IDF and South African forces were dispassionately, readably and compellingly people from all sides of the political divide eager to learn from each other about main- in this revealing work. Sometimes, issues wanted to hide. For example, he shows taining control over hostile populations. really are black and white. ❑ how President Jimmy Carter, now ostracized for The W Waa s h i n g t o n R e p o r t ’’ss echoing domestic Israeli American A m i an Educational meric Educ d ational ional onal Trust Trust Book Book k Club Club concerns about apartheid, Solidarity Pottery, Organic Olive Oil, Literature, erature, DVDs DVDs.. E Embrodiery, Gifts ts S olida lid darity IItems, tems, P ott tter y, Or O ganic i Oli Olive Oi Oil, Lit Embrodier y, Gif effectively buried the details of Israel’s 1979 numiddleeastbooks.com clear test off the southern 1902 18th St. NW shores of South Africa.

Waa s h i n g t o n , D C 2 0 0 0 9 He did not want the 202.939.6050 x2 Lobby even more on his case than they already Tuu e s d a y - F r i d a y : 9 - 6 were.

Saturday: 10-7 Indeed, reading this book while looking at the current responses to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the Goldstone Report induces a certain sense of “déjà vu all over again.”

Apologists for Israel de nied the relationship with apartheid South Africa,

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST 2010

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AET Book Club Catalog Literature

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Music

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Film

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Monographs

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New Summer 2010 The Rise of Islamic Capitalism

by Vali Nasr, Free Press, 2010, paperback, 320 pp. List: $16; AET: $11.50. Nasr, a prominent IranianAmerican scholar and adviser to Obama’s Afghanistan envoy Richard Holbrook, explores the rise of a new capitalism-minded Muslim middle class and its effects on the future of the Middle East. Contrasting Dubai and Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, Naser makes a masterful argument that economics will drive social and political change in the Muslim world in the coming decades. Interested in social and economic changes in the Islamic world? Purchase this with The Crisis of Islamic Civilization by former Iraqi oil minister Ali Allawi for only $26.50 (a savings of $17!) plus shipping.

The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Relationship with Apartheid South Africa by Sasha PolakowSuransky, Pantheon Books, 2010, hardback, 336 pp. List: $27.95; AET: $18.50. This ground-breaking work by foreign affairs editor PalokowSuransky uncovers Israel’s secret clandestine alliance with apartheid South Africa. Throughout the 1980s, despite international sanctions, Israel maintained a close and covert military relationship—vital to Israel’s economy—that buttressed the faltering apartheid government.

Interested in other past Israeli foreign policy dealings? Purchase this along with Treacherous Alliances: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the U.S. for only $29.50 (a savings of $16!) plus shipping.

Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage by Michael Otterman, Pluto Press, 2010, paperback, 264 pp. List: $20; AET: $15. A comprehensive overview of the devastating human costs of two decades of the West’s war against and sanctions on the Iraqi people. Featuring in-depth interviews with Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan and from Western countries[?], Erasing Iraq is a comprehensive and moving account of the Iraqi people’s tragedy. Pair this with Iraq: A War, the Pulitzer Prize-winning series of photographs documenting the horrific first year of American troops in Iraq, for only $24 (a savings of $16!) plus shipping.

Faith Misplaced: The Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations: 1820-2001 by Ussama Makdisi, Public Affairs, 2010, hardcover, 432 pp. List: $28.95; AET: $19. Firmly rejecting the notion of a clash of Islamic and Western civilizations, Makdisi explores the constructive American influence in the Middle East in the 19th and early 20th century, bolstering a positive view of the United States across the Arab world. Drawing upon both American and Arab sources, Makdisi shows how the European colonial partition in the 1920s and the 1948 formation of Israel systematically alienated Arabs from America. Pair this with Nasser Aruri’s Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel & Palestine for only $30 (a savings of $17!) plus shipping.

Dining with al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East by Hugh Pope, Thomas Dunne Books, 2010, hardback, 352 pp. List: $26.99; AET: $19. Former Wall Street Journal correspondent Hugh Pope recounts his career in the Middle East from derring-do interviews with militants to his first assignments in the Lebanese civil war. In his humorous, lucid style Pope nonetheless criticizes American media, undue support for Israel, and misinformation about Islam in the West. For another take on the Middle East, pair this with The Unmaking of the Middle East by Jeremy Salt for only $36.50 (a savings of $20.50!) plus shipping.

Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds

by Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, Abbas Al-Tonsi, paperback textbook and 2 DVDs, Georgetown University Press, June 2010, 168 pp. List: $39.99; AET: $35. An essential introductory guide to learning to read and speak Arabic. Enhanced by visuals and audio materials on the DVDs and practical exercises, the book introduces a range of Arabic—from Levantine and Egyptian colloquial to the Modern Standard Arabic, understood across the Arab world. To learn the language and about the Arab people, pair this with Eugene Rogan’s Arabs: a History for only $56 (a savings of $19!) plus shipping.

Touch by Adania Shibli, translated by Paula Haydar, Clockroot Books, 2010, paperback, 72 pp. List: $13; AET: $9.50.

Hailed as the West Bank’s most talkedabout writer, Shibli crafts an existential novella exploring the world of an anonymous Palestinian girl attempting to make sense of life and her place in it. Part poetry, part prose, the work reads as a series of vignettes focusing on common everyday experiences—from a father shaving his face in the mirror, to learning to read and falling in love—with the shadowy questions of Palestinian politics lurking at the edges. Interested in modern Palestinian literature? Purchase this with Sahar Khalife’s The End of Spring, chronicling the 2002 siege of Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters for only $19.50 (a savings of $8.50!) plus shipping.

Vegetarian Dishes from Across the Middle East by Arto der Haroutunian, the Experiment Press, 2009, paperback, 288 pp. List: $18.95; AET: $13.

Aleppo-born Armenian chef Arto der Haroutunian introduces more than 200 mouthwatering vegetarian dishes from across the Middle East—from Iran to the Levant and Armenia. From everyday favorites like hummus to extravagant sweets and breads, this is a must-buy for any food lover. Makes a wonderful gift and addition to any cook’s collection. Love vegetarian cuisine? Order this with Classic Vegetarian Cuisine by Habeeb Salloum for only $32 plus shipping (a savings of $8) while supplies last!

The Pharaoh’s Kitchen: Recipes from Ancient Egypt’s Enduring Food Traditions by Magda Mehdawy and Amr Hussein, American University of Cairo Press, 2010, paperback, 240 pp.

List: $24.95; AET: $16.50. Drawing from depictions of life and historical texts of ancient Egypt, the authors have gathered together 100 modern Egyptian recipes that go back to ancient times. Accompanying the book are beautiful illustrations and descriptions of traditional feast and occasions throughout Egyptian history. Hungry for modern Egyptian history as much as its food? Purchase this cookbook along with Afaf Marscot’s guide to A History of Egypt for only $34.50 (a savings of $17.50!) plus shipping.

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AET’s 2010 Choir of Angels Following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1, 2010 and June 16, 2010 is making possible activities of the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment (federal ID #52-1460362) and the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

HUMMERS ($100 or more) Sami Abed, South Lyon, MI Jeff Abood, Silver Lake, OH Robert Ackerman, New Alexandria, PA Dr. & Mrs. Salah Al-Askari, Leonia, NJ A.M. Al-Shadhan, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Mohammad Alhatou, M.D., Orangeburg, SC Dr. Mohamad Alkhayat, Geneva, Switzerland Arthur Alter, Goleta, CA Hamid & Kim Alwan, Milwaukee, WI Michael Ameri, Calabasas, CA Dr. Nabih Ammari, Cleveland, OH Dr. Robert Ashmore Jr., Mequon, WI Khaled Bachour, Farrell, PA Donna Baer, Grand Junction, CO Jamil Barhoum, San Diego, CA Stanton Barrett, Ipswich, MA Peter Bentley, Sebastian, FL Antoine Boghossian, Belmont, MA Karen Ray Bossmeyer, Louisville, KY Abbey Bourghei, Van Nuys, CA Carole Brown, Branford, CT Prof. & Mrs. George Wesley Buchanan, Gaithersburg, MD Katherine Bullock, Mississauga, Canada William Carey, Old Lyme, CT John Carley, Pointe-Claire, Canada Ted Chauviere, Austin, TX Jean & Donald F. Clarke, Devon, PA Basil Collins, Holland, MI Carole Courey, Cataumet, MA Walter Cox, Monroe, GA David D’Antonio, Amityville, NY Taher & Sheila Dajani, Alexandria, VA Hon. John Gunther Dean, Paris, France Ambassador Francois M. Dickman, Laramie, WY Robert & Tanis Diedrichs, Cedar Falls, IA Lee & Amelia Dinsmore, Elcho, WI Dr. David Dunning, Lake Oswego, OR Lewis Elbinger, Tampa, FL Gloria El-Khouri, Scottsdale, AZ Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX Barbara Erickson, Berkeley, CA M.R. Eucalyptus, Kansas City, MO Dr. Richard Falk, Santa Barbara, CA Paul & Lucille Findley, Jacksonville, IL Dr. Ramzi Freij, Nottingham, UK Donald Frisco, Wilmington, DE Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Dr. Abdollah Gilani, W. Los Angeles, CA Carl Greeley, Barefoot Bay, FL Herbert Greider, Dauphin, PA Daniel Grunberg, Amsterdam, Netherlands Nabil Haddad, North Wales, PA Erin K. Hankir, Ottawa, Canada Delinda Hanley, Kensington, MD Shirley Hannah, Argyle, NY 72

Katharina Harlow, Pacific Grove, CA Dr. & Mrs. Sammy Hassan, Lake Oswego, OR Janice Hawwa, Gates Mills, OH Samir M. Hawwa, Prangins Vaud, Switzerland Alan Heil, Alexandria, VA Rich Hoban, Cleveland Heights, OH Zaghloul Kadah, Los Gatos, CA Issa & Rose Kamar, Plano, TX Elias Kawas, Madisonville, KY Dr. M. Jamil Khan, Bloomfield Hills, MI Eugene Khorey, West Mifflin, PA Lafayette Kirban, Philadelphia, PA Shafiq Kombargi, Houston, TX Donald Kouri, Westmount, Canada Raymond Joseph Kyriakos, Hatfield, PA Michael Ladah, Las Vegas, NV William Lawand, Mount Royal, Canada Edward Lesoon, Pittsburgh, PA Joseph Louis, Los Gatos, CA Jeanie Lucas, Thebarton, Australia A. Kent MacDougall, Berkeley, CA Farah Mahmood, Forsyth, IL Richard Makdisi & Lindsey Wheeler, Berkeley, CA Eric Margolis, Ontario, Canada John McGillion, Greenwich, CT Bill McGrath, Northfield, MN Charles Murphy, Upper Falls, MD Jacob Nammar, San Antonio, TX Elaine Pasquini, Novato, CA Sam Rahman, Lincoln, CA Mr. & Mrs. Duane Rames, Mesa, AZ Marilyn Raschka, Hartford, WI Howard A. Reed, W. Palm Beach, FL Paul Richards, Salem, OR Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT William Rives, Siler City, NC Denis Sabourin, Dubai, UAE Anthony Saidy, Los Angeles, CA Dr. Ahmed M. Sakkal, Charleston, WV Asha Samad, New York, NY Irmgard Scherer, Fairfax, VA Elizabeth Schiltz, Kokomo, IN Henry Schubert, Damascus, OR Richard Shaker, Annapolis, MD Kathy Sheridan, Mill Valley, CA David Shibley, Santa Monica, CA Glenn Smith, Santa Rosa, CA Mubadda Suidan, Atlanta, GA Gregory Stefanatos, Flushing, NY Mae Stephen, Palo Alto, CA Mubadda Suidan, Atlanta, GA Kristin Szremski, Plainfield, IL Dr. Joseph Tamari, Chicago, IL Dr. Yusuf Tamimi, Hilo, HI Charles Thomas, La Conner, WA Col. Lawrence Thompson, Arlington, VA Mary Abusharr Trolan, Dallas, OR Jane Voigt, Tucson, AZ THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Paul Wagner, Bridgeville, PA Carol Wells & Theodore Hajjar, Venice, CA Tina Wong, Sacramento, CA Nabil Yakub, McLean, VA Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD Vivian Zelaya, Berkeley, CA Hugh Ziada, Garden Grove, CA Fred Zuercher, Spring Grove, PA

ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more) The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund on behalf of Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO A.R. Armin, Troy, MI Kamel Ayoub, Hillsborough, Canada Elizabeth Boosahda, Worcester, MA Dr. & Mrs. Issa Boullata, Montreal, Canada Mr. & Mrs. A.L. Cummings, Owings Mill, MD Richard Curtiss, Boynton Beach, FL Mervat Eid, Henrietta, NY Eugene Fitzpatrick, Wheat Ridge, CO* E. Patrick Flynn, Carmel, NY Ray Gordon, Bel Air, MD H. Clark Griswold, Woodbury, CT Michael Habermann, Hackettstown, NJ Salman & Kate Hilmy, Silver Spring, MD Fahd Jajeh, Lake Forest, IL Michael Keating, Olney, MD Barbara LeClerq, Overland Park, KS Jack Love, Escondido, CA Anthony Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI Rachelle Marshall, Mill Valley, CA Jean Mayer, Bethesda, MD Alice Nashashibi, San Francisco, CA Rev. John O’Neill, Olema, CA** John Parry, Chapel Hill, NC Frank & Mary Regier, Strongsville, OH Dr. Mohammad H. Said, Ephrata, WA Theodore Shannon, Green Valley, AZ Michel & Cathy Sultan, Eau Claire, WI Linda Thain-Ali, Guneykoy, Turkey Charles & Letitia Ufford, Princeton, NJ John Van Wagoner, McLean, VA Ziyad & Cindi Zaitoun, Seattle, WA**

TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more) Mohamed Alwan, Chestnut Ridge, NY Dr. Joseph Bailey, Valley Center, CA Graf Herman Bender, North Palm Beach, FL Rev. Rosemarie Carnarius, Tucson, AZ Shuja El-Asad, Amman, Jordan Douglas A. Field, Kihei, HI** Grace Guthrie, Falls Church, VA Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Trini Marquez, Beach, ND Anees Mughannam, Petaluma, CA Robert Norberg, Lake City, MN AUGUST 2010

angels_killgore_72-73_Angels List and In Memoriam August 2010 6/24/10 2:55 PM Page 73

Michael W. Suleiman (1934-2010) InMemoriam

By Andrew I. Killgore r. Michael Wadie Suleiman, distin-

Dguished professor of political sci-

KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

ence at Kansas State University, died of cancer in Manhattan, Kansas on March 12, 2010. Dr. Suleiman’s lofty title reflected his eminence as a grand teacherscholar whose brainpower and energy enriched American intellectual and cultural life.

Born in Tiberias, Palestine three years before what the Palestinians called the “Great Strike”—really the first intifada—to halt the immigration of Jewish Europeans to Palestine, Suleiman graduated from the Bishop School in Amman, Jordan. He taught at the same school for two years while keeping the school’s books. His birthplace having become a part of Israel in 1948, he left for England in 1955. He taught physics, chemistry, and basketball at the Abbotsholme School in Derby for one year. In Dr. Michael Wadie Suleiman 1956, he left for the United States.

After earning a degree in political sci- spected book Arabs in America assembled ence at Bradley University in Peoria, Illi- the best research available on this increasnois, in 1960, Dr. Suleiman went on to earn ingly distinguished ethnicity and estabhis Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the lished Dr. Suleiman as a leader in Arab University of Wisconsin in Madison. In American ethnic studies and history. He 1965, he joined the faculty of Kansas State played a significant role in establishing the University as a political science professor. American Arab National Museum in DearHe became a full professor in 1972 and a born, Michigan and was a member of its University Distinguished Professor in National Advisory Board.

1990. The Michael W. Suleiman Chair in In 1987, he received the Distinguished Arab and Arab-American Studies was Graduate Faculty Member award, and in begun by John Hofmeister, one of Dr. 1986-1987 was selected as a Mid-America Suleiman’s former students.

State Universities Association Honor LecDr. Suleiman took a leading part in turer. He received several research awards, founding the Association of Arab Ameri- including one from the Institute of Adcan University Graduates (AAUG) and be- vanced Study Fellowship in Princeton Unicame its president in 1977. His highly re- versity (1994-1995) to write about Arabs in Andrew I. Killgore is publisher of the Wash- the United States; a National Endowment for the Humanities grant; and four Fulbrightington Report on Middle East Affairs.

William O’Grady, St. Petersburg, FL Patricia & Herbert Pratt, Cambridge, MA Gay Schroeder, Boston, MA Cheryl Tatum, Cincinnati, OH Donn Trautman, Evanston, IL

BARITONES & MEZZO SOPRANOS ($1,000 or more) A.J. & M.T. Amirana, Las Vegas, NV Asha Anand, Bethesda, MD Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR Gary Richard Feulner, Dubai, UAE Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey Hassan Fouda, Berkeley, CA AUGUST 2010

Hays Fellowships (summers 2003, 1993, 1991, and 1983-1984).

Dr. Suleiman’s latest endeavor was a national conference on Arab-American women which took place at Kansas State University in March 2009. The results of the conference are to be published by the Syracuse University Press. He was editing the paper into a book when he became ill. The groundbreaking nature of that conference will live on in its printed form, thanks to Dr. Suleiman’s love and passion for this subject.

According to one of his dearest friends, Prof. Jack Shaheen, Suleiman spent his life trying to create better understanding between Arabs and Americans. Suleiman, who was both an articulate speaker and writer, knew how the media depicts Arab Americans, and never stopped working to try to change those false stereotypes. ”He loved finding an unknown story about an Arab American who had served this country and then he set about documenting it,” Shaheen said.

“He cared, he was one of the very best; a kind, great human being. He will be missed.”

Americans should not forget that the United States is a beneficiary of the Palestine tragedy. Thousands of brilliant Palestinians filled the ranks of the faculties of American universities until, at one point, “the Palestinian professor” or “the Arab professor” became a commonly used expression in university circles.

Dr. Suleiman married Penelope Powers in 1963. She survives him, as do their two children, Suad Michelle Evans and Gibran Michael Suleiman. ❑

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American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) . . Inside Front Cover

CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more)

Casa del Rio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Richard & Donna Curtiss, Chevy Chase, MD* John & Henrietta Goelet, Meru, France Ambassador Andrew Killgore, Washington, DC John McLaughlin, Gordonsville, VA *In recognition of Rachelle Marshall **In memory of Rachel Corrie

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Helping Hand USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Kinder USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Peace Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Radio Baladi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 United Palestinian Appeal (UPA) . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover 73

bulletin_board_74_August 2010 Bulletin Board 6/23/10 10:44 PM Page 74

Upcoming Events, Announcements —Compiled by Adam Chamy & Obituaries Upcoming Events The St. Elias Maronite Church will host the 47th annual Maronite Convention at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel in Birmingham, AL from July 7 to 11. For more information call (914) 964-3070 or e-mail <nam@nam news.org>.

The Jerusalem Fund in Washington, DC will host an opening July 16 at 6:30 p.m. for “The Light Thread.

The Dark Thread,” an exhibit of works by Anna Kipervaser. For more information visit <www.thejerusalem fund.org>.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will hold its 9th Annual National Organizers’ Conference in Kansas City, MO from July 23 to 25. To register visit <www.endtheoccupation.org> or call (202) 332-0994.

The 39th Arab & Chaldean Festival—an outdoor festival featuring live music, entertainment, special exhibits, food and fashion reflecting Arab and Chaldean history—will take place at Detroit’s Hart Plaza July 24 and 25.

For more information visit <www.arab andchaldeanfestival.com>.

competition was won by Reema Tawil, 24, from Al Bireh (near Ramallah) in the West Bank. Her short film impressed the judges with its powerful simplicity and strong message of the decades-old conflict that remains unresolved. The film can be viewed at <www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQU YshU5mXc>.

American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) has announced the appointment of Dr. Kenneth Lizzio as ANERA’s Jerusalem-based country director. A veteran development professional with more than 25 years’ experience in project management and research in the Middle East, Africa and other regions, he will supervise 60 staff and volunteers and provide overall leadership in ANERA’s activities throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Dr. Lizzio, a specialist in Near East Studies and Islamic religious issues, is fluent in French and Arabic.

He replaces Robert Crothers, who has returned to Britain for medical treatment.

Obituaries

Osama Anwar Okasha, 69, one of Egypt’s most celebrated teledramatists, noted for his coverage of poliThe Kashmiri-American Council (KAC) tics, died May 28 at a Cairo hospital. and the Association of Humanitarian During the 1980s, he became a wellLawyers will hold the 11th Annual known fixture throughout the Arab International Kashmir Peace Con- world for his role in the six-part soap ference on Capital Hill in Washington, opera “Laili al Helamia” (The Nights DC on July 29 and 30, on the theme of al Halmia). Born in the Nile Delta “India-Pakistan Relations: Breaking city of Tanta, Egypt, Okasha studied the Deadlock over Kashmir.” For more sociology at Cairo’s Ain Shams Uniinformation e-mail <kashmirconfer- versity, graduating in 1962. With ence@yahoo.com> or call KAC at (202) more than 35 TV shows to his credit, Okasha was seen as having reshaped 607-6585 or (202) 628-6789. modern Arab TV drama. He also pubAnnouncements lished many screenplays and stage dramas focusing on such Egyptian The United Nations Relief and Works political issues as corruption, unemAgency for Palestine Refugees (UN - ployment, oppression, and abuse. In RWA) commemorated World Refugee recent years, Okasha was known for Day June 20 by holding a short-film an article brutally critiquing the competition for ambitious young Egyptian government. filmmakers. The theme of the competition was “Will We Meet?” a ques- Moishe Rosen, 78, the Jewish-born tion that makes us stop to think how Baptist minister and controversial and when we can achieve peace and founder of the evangelical group Jews justice for the 4.7 million Palestinian for Jesus, died May 19 of prostate refugees who continue to live in cancer in San Francisco. Born in camps and rely on the services pro- Kansas City to a practicing Orthodox vided to them by UNRWA some 62 Jewish family, he converted to Christianity with his Jewish-born wife in years after their dispossession. The 74

BulletinBoard 1953. Disowned by his family, he became involved in the Messianic Jewish community. By 1973 he founded Jews for Jesus, the largest and most well known Messianic Jewish movement, which holds that Jews can believe in Jesus as the messiah while still retaining their Jewish identity. Drawing inspiration from Vietnam-era protest movements, Rosen became famous for his catchy street theater performances, printed pamphlets, and unique street-side missionary efforts. The group grew quickly, with many converts found especially among Jews in the former Soviet Union, in Israel, and and among Russian immigrants in the U.S.. Today the movement has offices in 11 countries, including Israel, and employs more than 100 missionaries worldwide. However, the unconventional Rosen faced staunch criticism from many Jewish leaders, who saw his movement as an attempt to destroy Judaism at its core. Over the decades Jews for Jesus has faced numerous lawsuits and intense criticism from the Jewish community worldwide. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, two daughters, a brother, and two grandchildren.

Joseph Mahon, a former Aramco senior vice president, died April 19 in St. Petersburg, FL. After studying naval science and mechanical engineering at Villanova College he joined Aramco in 1951. The following year he moved to Saudi Arabia, where he worked for Aramco for three decades, beginning in Ras Tanura. In 1961 he transferred to Dhahran and was made coordinator of budget and programs.

After serving in a variety of positions throughout the Kingdom, he was named senior vice president of corporate services in 1978. Following his retirement in 1982 he moved with his wife, Ruth, to St. Petersburg, FL where he became actively involved in the community, being inducted into the Senior Hall of Fame by the mayor in 2009. He also worked on behalf of Tampa’s Muslim-American community, meeting with local editors regarding the cases of University of South Florida professors Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar and Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Survivors include his wife, Ruth Mahon, four children, two grandchildren, and a sister. ❑

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST 2010

upa_ad_c3:UPA Ad

3/30/10

11:56 AM

Page c3

The eternal olive tree, first cultivated in Palestine thousands of years ago, is a perfect metaphor for Palestinians today.

Even though Palestinians have been living under military occupation for almost 43 years, they continue to resist unjust violations to their human rights and civil liberties, cruel demolitions of their homes, and systematic confiscation of their land.

However, just like this tree, Palestinians continue to be strong.

Their roots run deep, even through the rubble of their current conditions.

Those of us who believe in justice, equality and the rule of law must do whatever we can to support Palestinians.

Visit our website to see how you can help UPA support Palestinians.

United Palestinian Appeal, Inc. www.helpupa.com

cover4_cover4 6/23/10 10:01 PM Page c4

American Educational Trust The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs P.O. Box 53062 Washington, DC 20009

August 2010 Vol. XXIX, No. 6

During a June 10, 2010 demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in Seoul, a protester stamps an Israeli flag with red palmprints, simulating blood. Israeli President Shimon Peres was visiting Seoul at the time to meet with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

AFP PHOTO/KIM JAE-HWAN