Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - Vol. XXXIII, No. 3 | May 2014

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NATIONAL SUMMIT REACHES LARGE AUDIENCE

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On Middle East Affairs

Volume XXXIII, No. 3

May 2014

Telling the Truth for More Than 30 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 Abbas Faces Israeli Power With Peace Offensive —Rachelle Marshall 14 It Helps to Have Moral Authority When Criticizing Perpetrators, Passive Onlookers—Ian Williams 16 Israel Takes Still More Land From Bedouin Village of Ramya for Ever-Expanding City—Jonathan Cook 18 The Death of Mutaz Washaha—Jamal Najjab 19 Some Animals Are More Caged Than Others…

But Why?—Mohammed Omer 21 Hunger Strike: Still an Effective Mode of Resistance For Palestinian Prisoners?

36 Netanyahu’s AIPAC Speech: 5 Lies —Dale Sprusansky 38 National Summit Reaches Large Audience Despite Media Silence—Delinda C. Hanley and Dale Sprusansky CONGRESS AND THE 2014 ELECTIONS 23 Take the Money and Run—or Retire —Janet McMahon 23 Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2014 Congressional Candidates—Compiled by Hugh Galford 26 FY ’14 “Omnibus” Appropriations Bill Includes Middle East Funds, Conditions—Shirl McArthur

—Pam Bailey

SPECIAL REPORTS 11 Another Anschluss in Crimea—Eric S. Margolis 12 God Bless Putin—Uri Avnery 29 Bosnia-Herzegovina Protests a Response to Post-War Corruption, Impoverishment

PHOTO PHIL PORTLOCK

—Peter Lippman

Prof. John Quigley addresses the National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship,” March 7, 2014. See story p. 38.

ON THE COVER: A female Palestinian football (soccer) player takes part in a training session in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, March 9, 2014.

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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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 1-888-881-5861.)

Other Voices

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Neocons Have Weathered the Storm, Robert Parry, http://consortiumnews.com

OV-1

Haaretz

If We Can Sanction Russia Over Crimea, We Can Sanction Israel Over Palestine, Robert Naiman, www.huffingtonpost.com

OV-3

AIPAC Lost Iran Sanctions Battle—Not War, Brent E. Sasley, The Forward

OV-3

U.S. Adopts Israeli Demand to Bring Iran’s Missiles into Nuclear Talks, Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service

OV-4

Why Israelis Are Content to Live in a Bubble of Denial, Jonathan Cook, The National

OV-6

Al-Aqsa vs. Israel, Ramzy Baroud, www.counterpunch.org

OV-7

Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel, By Alison Weir, Gilad Atzmon, www.gilad.co.uk

Close the EU to Israeli Settlement Products, Willem-Gert Aldershoff & Michel Waelbroeck, OV-8

Want to Boycott Israel? There Will Soon Be an App for That, Abbas Naqvi, http://mondoweiss.net OV-9 Israel’s Future in FIFA Is Uncertain, Dave Zirin, www.thenation.com

OV-10

Camel Bones and Jerusalem: Archeology Shows Bible Written Late, Full of Errors, Juan Cole, www.juancole.com

OV-11

How to Get Away With Spying on Muslims, Christopher Brauchli, www.counterpunch.org

OV-11

Helping Themselves to the Fish, Phosphates And Tomatoes of Western Sahara, Olivier Quarante, Le Monde diplomatique

OV-12

Ordinary Spaniards Lend Sahrawi People A Helping Hand, Ines Benitez, Inter Press Service OV-14 OV-8

South-South Cooperation Takes Off in Arab World, Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service

OV-15

DEPARTMENTS 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 7 PUBLISHERS’ PAGE 31 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

47 CHRISTIANITY AND THE MIDDLE EAST: Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide

—Carole Monica Burnett

CHRONICLE: CIA and U.S. Middle East Policy Explored

—Pat and Samir Twair 33 NEW YORK CITY AND

50 MUSLIM AMERICAN ACTIVISM: Major Muslim Groups Launch New Council at DC News Conference

TRI-STATE NEWS: Max Blumenthal’s Goliath Ignored by Liberal Zionists,

50 MUSIC & ARTS: MESTO Performs

68 BOOK REVIEW: Against Our Better Judgment: How the U.S. was Used to Create Israel

—Reviewed by James Abourezk 69 NEW ARRIVALS FROM THE AET BOOKSTORE 70 THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST — CARTOONS 71 OTHER PEOPLE’S MAIL

Mainstream Media—Jane Adas 51 HUMAN RIGHTS: 43 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Iraqi Shot by U.S.

73 BULLETIN BOARD

Tackling Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis

74 2014 AET CHOIR OF ANGELS

Sniper Receives Care, Compassion in San Francisco Bay Area

—Elaine Pasquini

56 DIPLOMATIC DOINGS: Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani on Pakistan-U.S. Relations

46 ISRAEL AND JUDAISM: Confronted With Criticism,

56 WAGING PEACE:

Israel’s Response Is Always the

Prospects of Reaching a Nuclear

Same: “Anti-Semitism”

Deal, Restoring Diplomatic Ties

—Allan C. Brownfeld

With Iran

30 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

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Publisher: Managing Editor: News Editor: Assistant Editor: Book Club Director: Finance & Admin.

Director: Art Director: Executive Editor:

ANDREW I. KILLGORE JANET McMAHON DELINDA C. HANLEY DALE SPRUSANSKY ANDREW STIMSON CHARLES R. CARTER RALPH U. SCHERER RICHARD H. CURTISS (1927-2013)

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (ISSN 8755-4917) is published 8 times a year, monthly except Jan./Feb., March/April and June/July 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.

Periodicals, postage paid at Washington, DC and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056.

Published by the American Educational Trust (AET), a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC by retired U.S. foreign service officers to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states. AET’s Foreign Policy Committee has included former U.S. ambassadors, government officials, and members of Congress, including the late Democratic Sen. J. William Fulbright and Republican Sen. Charles Percy, both former chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Members of AET’s Board of Directors and advisory committees receive no fees for their services.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs does not take partisan domestic political positions. As a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, it endorses U.N. Security Council Resolution 242’s land-for-peace formula, supported by nine 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.

Material from the Washington Report may be reprinted without charge with attribution to Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Bylined material must also be attributed to the author. This release does not apply to photographs, cartoons or reprints from other publications.

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CONTACT INFORMATION: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Editorial Office and Bookstore: P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009-9062 Phone: (202) 939-6050 • (800) 368-5788 Fax: (202) 265-4574 E-mail: wrmea@wrmea.org bookclub@wrmea.org circulation@wrmea.org advertising@wrmea.org Web sites: http://www.wrmea.org http://www.middleeastbooks.com Subscriptions, sample copies and donations: P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056.

Phone: (888) 881-5861 • Fax: (714) 226-9733 Printed in the USA

MAY 2014

LetterstotheEditor A Core American Value Please find enclosed my contribution to your work and once again accept my thanks for the tremendous work you do.

Wisely, our forefathers separated church from state. That being said, does it bother anyone else in this country that billions of dollars of American tax money is given each year to a country that insists on calling itself a “Jewish state”? I am a firm believer in religious liberty and do not think it is appropriate to dole out billions of dollars to a “Christian state,” a “Muslim state,” a “Jewish state,” or any country that discriminates on the basis of religion.

Is it even constitutional?

Clyde Ferris, West Linn, OR We are very grateful for your support over the years, and believe you will agree with many of the speakers at the March 7 National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship.” See our coverage beginning on page 38 of this issue, or visit the Summit website, <www.NatSummit.org>, for transcripts and audio and video footage.

An Angel’s Tribute Thank you for your letter acknowledging a 2013 contribution to the Washington Report.

Your publisher, Ambassador Andrew Killgore, and I have exchanged a few words in the past, but I cannot resist the urge of expressing my respect and admiration for his wonderful dedication over the years. There is no yardstick that can measure what he has done and what he continues to do. The superlatives that we commonly use will certainly not suffice to cover what he deserves.

There is no doubt that he has been a guiding light to the many, many people that have known him and there is, also, no doubt that he will always be a shining example to our future generations.

Dr. Joseph W. Tamari, Chicago, IL The editors heartily agree—and hence have overridden our publisher’s modesty by ignoring his preference to avoid public accolades. Without him and co-founder Richard H. Curtiss, our late executive editor, we would not be writing these words today!

Friendly Only to Some Children Again our profound thanks to those at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs who courageously tell people everywhere about the tragedy of the Palestinian people.

A brutal decades-long tragedy that Israel is imposing on innocent people with the supTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

port of U.S. taxpayers.

Note: In the Feb. 5, 2014 issue of The Christian Century, in the section “Briefly noted” under Century News, was the following: “Israel, a famously child-friendly country…” I could not believe the Christian Century would print such an outrageous lie. Less than a month before Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States, “Our only friend and ally in the Middle East—Israel” brutally attacked the unarmed 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza. In 22 days they murdered 1,400 Palestinians, of whom 397 were children.

So Israel, this “child-friendly” country

killed 397 children in 22 days and we said and did nothing. Oh, by the way 13 Israelis were killed, six by friendly fire.

Please accept our, The LouVin Foundation check for $5,000.00 in honor of Richard H. Curtiss, Ambassador Andrew Killgore and the many others who have tried to tell the story of Israel’s theft of another people’s land and the murder of the innocents.

Vince and Louise Larsen, Billings, MT We also would not be writing these words today without the generous support of angels such as yourselves. As we like to say, we’re all in this together!

The Achille Lauro and Alex Odeh I have become aware of an article in your December 2013 issue written by news editor Delinda C. Hanley about renewed interest in solving the murder of Alex Odeh. I am an author and journalist living in Alexandria and I wrote a book in 2004 about the Achille Lauro hijacking. I devoted a good bit of that book to Odeh, his death, and the people that my investigation identified as his killers.

If I can be help, please contact me.

Michael K. Bohn, Alexandria, VA As you note on your website, <www.bohn books.com>, “Palestinians killed [Achille Lauro passenger Leon] Klinghoffer because he 5

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Responses to the National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israeli “Special Relationship”* How do I get a transcript or video of the presentations?

Watched the entire meeting on C-SPAN3 and was very impressed by the LACK of spin, propaganda and heated rhetoric— a historical event. Would be a historical document if published.

Russell Olson, via e-mail Indeed, it was very refreshing to be at a conference where the main topic of discussion was not a solution for Israel nor even for the Palestinians, but for the U.S. We need to protect our country from all sorts of foreign invasions, including the political kinds.

Looking forward to an expanded meeting next year with more opportunity for networking and discussion, and more time for the speakers (in parallel sessions) over a two-day period.

Paul Larudee, via e-mail Thank you for an exceptional event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, yesterday, March 7. I happened upon it on CSPAN during the evening session and later viewed the entire eight hours (-plus).

As a 20-year subscriber to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, I enjoyed and learned from the excellent speakers’ direct, blunt remarks on the issues and facts involved in the “Special Relationship”—that turns out to be special for Israel but not so special for its reflexive, obedient U.S. benefactor.

It was also a privilege to see Paul Findley again, still sharp, incisive, and in the Illinois tradition of Abraham Lincoln always ready to confront the powerful forces that massed to silence him more than 30 years ago.

was Jewish; Jews killed Odeh because he was an Arab.” Most Americans above a certain age can immediately identify Klinghoffer, while very few know who Alex Odeh was or that he was murdered by Jewish terrorists.

We applaud you for telling the complete story.

An Israeli Is Shocked, Shocked!

I’ve just come across your magazine and I must say that I’m shocked. How is it possible that a magazine published in the capital of the USA to print such distortions of

It would be wonderful if you could arrange to have a DVD available of the entire day-long National Summit as seen on CSPAN. Thank you again, and I wish you and the Washington Report well in your important work.

Paul Thomas, via e-mail It was wonderful. Here at home in my little Nova Scotia fishing village, I plugged in my iPhone and listened to the entire thing while cleaning.

All the speakers did a fantastic job! What a refreshing few hours. I learned a LOT. I laughed out loud and shed some tears.

Powerful stuff.

We can only hope some powerful *people* were listening......

Themis Frieden, If Americans Knew Facebook page Thank you for an eye-opening program on C-SPAN, shown on the weekend. I have been trying to tell this story to my grownup children for years. All I have got back was that I was antiSemitic.…This is the very first time I have ever heard criticism against Zionists ever in a public forum. Yesterday I watched on C-SPAN3 some more revelations. Though I must say I was a bit perturbed by the reaction of four of the panelists to a question from the audience about the teaching of the Holocaust in schools. I couldn’t help think they were Zionists in sheeps’ clothing. Thanks again.

Peter Gill, via e-mail. *See story p. 38.

the truth? Some of your articles are downright lies. You must surely know the truth.

So why do you publish such incriminations and calumnies, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

N. Halfteck (a proud Israeli and Jew), Atlit, Israel We find your letter a little short on specifics. Not only do we print letters from Israelis, however, we also publish articles by them (see “God Bless Putin” by Uri Avnery, on p. 12 of this issue).

Other Voices is an optional 16-page 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 with each issue of their Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Back issues of both publications are avail able. To subscribe telephone 1 (888) 881-5861, fax (714) 226-9733, e-mail <circulation@wrmea.org>, or write to P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056.

6

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The Bigger Picture At least 136,000 Syrians have been killed

by Syrians, yet your latest and every issue deals mainly with “the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Tell me, where is this “balance” Washington Report has that it touts on page 5 of every issue?

Also, if the U.S. and Russia were to duke it out clearly destroying all life, would your final issue still mainly feature “the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” and would it be mentioned in your last issue?

By the way, aren’t you a bit curious as to why Israel is being subject to BDS and Syria isn’t? Has Assad killed too many to qualify?

Jerry Axelrod (faithful subscriber), via e-mail We would very much like to receive copies of the letters you write to The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and other mainstream American media asking why they fail to cover Israel’s illegal occupation only from an Israeli perspective. See Eric Margolis’ article on p. 11 of this issue for a discussion of the current U.S.-Russian standoff. Finally, we are not aware that Washington is providing Damascus $3 billion-plus a year in U.S. tax dollars, vetoing U.N. resolutions critical of Syria, or otherwise putting itself at the service of a foreign government. ❑ MAY 2014

publishers_7_May 2014 Publishers page 3/20/14 5:15 PM Page 7

American Educational Trust

Publishers’ Page

FrontPage Magazine Thinks We’re a Joke

U.S. Politicians Work for Israel!

JOEL SAGET/AF/GETTY IMAGES

Daniel Greenfield doesn’t like the fact that—unlike just about every other American publication—this magazine shines a spotlight on Israeli blemishes.

He writes: “If space aliens read the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, they would assume that the Middle East consists entirely of Israel.”

But we’re sure that if space aliens did land in our nation’s capital they, too, would think that…

Beitar Jerusalem Club.

Racist Israeli fans are apt to chant “Death to Arabs” when Muslim players take the field. In 2012 some of these fans ran amok through a Jerusalem shopping mall, attacking Arab workers. The following February they torched the offices of the Beitar Jerusalem football club after the team signed two Muslim players from Chechnya. Throughout the club’s history fans have vociferously opposed the signing of Arab or Muslim players.

Sign the Petition to FIFA.

It’s time to demand that FIFA and the InAs we went to press, with no pages left ternational Olympic Committee suspend to devote to this story, Florida bankthe Israeli Football Association (IFA) ruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol was plug- Palestinian football player Mahmoud Sarsak, who until Israel respects the human rights of ging yet another incarnation of his has- was released from an Israel prison after going on a all players and observes international bara (Israeli propaganda) book, The hunger strike to protest his being held for three years law. Add your name to—and tell your Liberty Incident Revealed. He calls eye- without charges. f r i e n d s ab o u t — a p e t i t i o n a t witness survivor testimony “conspiracy <www.change.org>. Join the nearly theories” and rearranges, concocts or 8,300 people who have signed the petiomits facts in such a way as to lead a reader Sadistic or Incompetent. tion as we went to press. After all… to a completely false conclusion: that Israel’s This is but the latest instance of the system1967 attack on the USS Liberty was an un- atic targeting of Palestinian football players It Worked in South Africa! fortunate accident. (We’ll have more on by the Israeli army and security forces. Over Cristol’s book tour in the June/July issue.) the past five years Israel has jailed, shot or As You Can See, We’re Fired Up! killed Palestinian football players in the West After more than a year of planning The NaIn Order Not to Disappoint…

Bank and Gaza. In an occupied territory tional Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel Mr. Greenfield (who apparently believes where sports provide one of the few sources “Special Relationship,” along with the InPalestinians do not exist), we’ve decided to of pride and entertainment for young people, stitute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, devote much of this “Publishers’ Page” to Palestinian athletes are fair game. Israel not the Council for the National Interest and If some pretty nasty stories you may have only prevents them from participating in in- Americans Knew—we had quite a day (see missed in your morning paper or evening ternational competitions, but even limits im- pp. 38-41). Despite the studied silence of news broadcast. These events take place in ports of vital sporting equipment. the mainstream media (who were contacted the “only democracy in the Middle East”— repeatedly), many Americans watched the the nation that gets $9.3 million U.S. tax Then There Are the Hunger Games. entire summit live on C-SPAN3, and more dollars per day—and in the land it illegally Mahmoud Sarsak, a member of the Pales- caught repeat segments later in the week. tinian national football team, was arrested (According to C-SPAN, an estimated 47 miloccupies: Palestine. in July 2009 and held without charges for lion adults watch C-SPAN once a week.) If Israel Targets Soccer Players. three years. His crime? He was trying to you missed it, visit <NatSummit.org> to Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd leave Gaza and cross through Israel on his watch the panel discussions, listen to audio al-Raouf Halabiya, 17, will never again way to a football match in the West Bank. recordings, or read the transcripts. play football (that’s soccer to Americans) After a 90-day hunger strike Sarsak, 25, or any sport, according to The Nation’s was released from prison after losing almost Help Us Spread the Information.

Dave Zirin (see this issue’s “Other Voices” half his weight. (See article on Palestinian Contact our Bookstore, <www.middleeast books.com>, to pre-order the National supplement). The cousins were on their hunger strikers on p. 21 of this issue.)

Summit DVD. Take it to your local public way home from the Faisal al-Husseini Stabroadcasting service and ask them to show it. dium in Al-Ram, West Bank, on Jan. 31. Stadium Bombed.

As they walked near a checkpoint, Israeli Israel first bombed the Palestine Sports Sta- Help us reach even more viewers next year by soldiers fired on them without warning, dium in Gaza City in 2006. Football’s gov- sending a check with “Summit” in the memo shooting seven bullets into Jawhar’s left erning body, the Fédération Internationale line. We’ll put your hard-earned dollars to foot, three in his right and one in his left de Football Association (FIFA), helped re- work now. (As always, we could also use some hand. They shot Halabiya once in each build it—only to have Israel destroy it again greenbacks ourselves to pay a few hefty bills foot. As is so often the case with Israeli (along with the Palestinian Paralympic Com- of our own!) So please dig as deep as you can, shootings, bombings and other acts of ag- mittee headquarters) on Nov. 19, 2012, so we can all build on the momentum and… gression, one can only conclude that its during Operation Pillar of Cloud. To its Make a Difference Today! credit, FIFA again rebuilt the stadium! military is either…

MAY 2014

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

7

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Abbas Faces Israeli Power With Peace Offensive SpecialReport

MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Rachelle Marshall

A 12-year-old Palestinian named Rula with her grandmother in their family home in the Gaza Strip’s Nusseirat refugee camp, after the young girl was denied entry into Israel to receive medical treatment, Feb. 13, 2014. from Gaza who must use the Erez crossing since the new Egyptian government has much bigger bully. In real life the stronger virtually closed the Rafah crossing.

Most of the Gazans who refiled their side usually wins, especially when strength is measured in military power. When Israel travel applications using stationery acceptdemands that the Palestinians recognize Is- able to Israel were eventually admitted, so rael as a “Jewish state” despite its large pop- Salah is likely to receive the chemotherapy ulation of Palestinians and other ethnic and he needs—at least for the time being. But religious groups, all the Palestinians can do he will do so knowing that his life depends is refuse. When Palestinians use official sta- on an Israeli government that is willing to tionery bearing the words “State of Pales- use any means possible to reinforce its contine,” in conformance with the U.N.’s recog- trol over Palestinian territory regardless of nition of Palestine as an observer state in the human costs.

It is this disparity of power that has November 2012, the Israelis can threaten made a travesty of the so-called peace nethe lives of hundreds of Palestinians.

Seldom has the disparity of power be- gotiations that have dragged on for 23 tween the two sides been as evident as in years and allowed Israel to build more and the case of 13-year-old Salah Abu Assi, more settlements on Palestinian land. The who travels to Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospi- current peace talks are “talks” in name tal several times a month for treatment of a only, since representatives of the two sides tumor behind his eye. Israel recently de- seldom meet face to face. President Barack nied Salah permission to enter Israel be- Obama in effect acknowledged the futility cause his application was on official sta- of the talks at his White House meeting tionery that contained the outlawed words with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Ne“State of Palestine.” The refusal could have tanyahu on March 3. He did not mention been a death sentence for Salah and more - Israel’s accelerated settlement construction than a thousand other medical patients but reminded Netanyahu that with the Palestinian population growing, Israel will Rachelle Marshall is a free-lance editor liv- sooner or later have to accept a two-state ing in Mill Valley, CA. A member of Jewish solution if it wishes to remain a democracy.

Voice for Peace, she writes frequently on the The president did ask that Netanyahu acMiddle East. cept a “framework for peace” that contains nly in children’s stories does the brave

Obut spindly hero win out over the

8

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

a set of general principles regarding borders and other issues as a basis for negotiation.

Peace talks would be extended for another eight months. The meeting between the two leaders carefully avoided controversy, and the next day Netanyahu even gave a nod to Obama’s plea for a peace when he spoke to thousands of AIPAC members at the organization’s annual convention.

“We all have so much to gain from peace,” he told the audience, and expressed hope that “the Palestinian leadership will stand with Israel and the United States on the right side of the moral divide, the side of peace, reconciliation and hope.” (The applause following this statement was “muted,” according to The New York Times.) Despite his words, the Israeli leader has not himself made any move toward reconciliation. After countless separate meetings with Secretary of State John Kerry, Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are still as far apart as ever.

Details of the framework have not yet been made public, but reports say it calls for the creation of a security zone along the Jordan River designed to protect Israel, and gives the Palestinians only a small neighborhood in East Jerusalem as their capital.

Israel would keep the large settlement blocs but give land in Israel in exchange. Palestinian officials say the framework also calls for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state,” a designation they firmly reject. Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi, who is long experienced in negotiating with Israel, asked, “Why have it? Is it just to maintain a semblance of progress?

Is it meant to buy more time? Or is it not to admit that we have failed?”

The Palestinians, however, are not counting solely on help from Washington.

They are increasing their reliance on nonviolent resistance, with the aim of gaining international support and eventually proving that the weak can overcome if their cause is just. Villagers in the West Bank continue to protest peacefully despite increasingly violent attacks by the army, and Abbas is responding to Israel’s intransigence with positive peace proposals.

He has suggested that a U.S.-led NATO force be stationed indefinitely in the West Bank, with Israeli troops remaining for five years before being phased out. The State of Palestine would not have an army but only a police force, to protect both sides’ security. “I hope the Israeli people will underMAY 2014

stand what it means to live in a vicinity of peace rather than the current situation,” Abbas said. It is so far a distant hope. Netanyahu rejected the idea of a NATO security force and continues to insist on “security arrangements that are embedded in the hands of Israel so we will be able to secure ourselves.”

Abbas reinforced his peace efforts in mid-February by meeting with 300 Israeli students and youth leaders in Ramallah.

The students were given pamphlets describing the Palestinians’ negotiating positions, which included land swaps across the 1967 borders and a solution to the refugee problem that is “fair and acceptable to Israel.” When the Israelis asked how Abbas would integrate Gaza into a peace deal, he assured them that most Gazans want peace and said Hamas had signed an agreement supporting the negotiating process.

As the meeting ended, the man Netanyahu recently accused of inciting hatred of Israel among Palestinian children told the audience that his grandchildren had attended the Seeds of Peace summer camp in Maine with Israeli children.

A major obstacle to any peace plan is Israel’s insistence on annexing a large portion of the Jordan Valley, the West Bank’s most productive agricultural area. Whether or not the framework deals with the issue, home demolitions to make way for Israeli military bases and settlements are proceeding so rapidly that the Palestinian population already has been reduced from 300,000 to 50,000. According to the U.N., the number of demolitions in the Jordan Valley doubled in 2013, with 665 homes destroyed between July and Jan. 1, 2014.

Such statistics don’t reveal the intense human misery that results whenever a home is destroyed. When soldiers descended before dawn on the village of Ein Hijleh in early February they had to beat and kick the inhabitants to force them to leave their homes. Thirty-two of the evacuees had to be hospitalized. Many others were left at the mercy of the weather. The Red Cross was forced to stop delivering tents to homeless Palestinians because Israel either destroyed or confiscated them.

Any peace plan involving the return of Palestinian land faces stiff opposition in Israel. Several members of Netanyahu’s coalition have threatened to leave the government if Netanyahu gives up any land to the Palestinians. Among them are cabinet members Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home Party, and Danny Danon, head of the Likud party’s central committee, and others are certain to join them. After Kerry warned that Israel could face a growing international boycott if the current peace talks fail, a group of rabbis accused him of “making a MAY 2014

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Palestinian residents of the besieged Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus wait in line to receive food aid distributed by UNRWA, Jan. 31, 2014. declaration of war against the Creator and Ruler of the Universe...for God awarded the Entire Land of Israel to our ancestors.”

The rabbis were at least clear in their demand for the “entire land,” which some nationalists have defined as stretching from the Jordan River to the Litani in southern Lebanon. Netanyahu has yet to define the boundaries of what he calls “the state of the Jewish people.” In a Jan. 24 speech in Davos, Switzerland he said, “I have said in the past and I repeat today: I do not intend to remove a single settlement [and] I do not intend to displace a single Israeli.” If this remains the prime minister’s negotiating position, there can be no two-state solution.

Kerry was only stating a fact when he said Israelis face the choice of either accepting the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state on their border, or bearing the blame for a failed peace process. Consequently the boycott campaign, or BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions), is potentially the Palestinians’ most effective weapon. Netanyahu all but acknowledged this fact when he devoted a considerable part of his AIPAC speech to condemning BDS, calling it a return to the “darkest days of anti-Semitism.”

Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, which strongly backs the boycott, dismissed the accusation as a scare tactic, and Omar Barghouti, one of the boycott’s founders, said, “It’s like a Jim Crow leader calling Martin Luther King racist.” But Thomas Friedman pointed out in his New York Times column of Feb. 5 that the Israelis have reason to worry. He quotes Finance Minister Yair Lapid as saying that if THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

a two-state solution is not reached with the Palestinians, “it will hit the pocket of every Israeli.” According to Lapid, if Israeli exports of technology and agricultural products to Europe are reduced by 20 percent, Israel would lose more than $5 billion a year.

The boycott is already showing its effect.

The Netherlands’ largest pension fund management company, PGGM, has withdrawn its investments in Israel’s five largest banks because they have branches in the West Bank or help finance settlement construction. Denmark’s Danske Bank is boycotting Israel’s largest bank, Hapoalim, for “legal and ethical reasons” because of its activities in the West Bank. Several European supermarket chains have stopped selling Israeli produce.

The boycott campaign received a publicity boost when the distinguished actress Scarlett Johansson became a target of protests by taking a job as spokeswoman for SodaStream, a company located in the West Bank that manufactures carbonation equipment. Johansson credited the company with “building a bridge between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights.”

Critics pointed out that the Palestinian workers are not “equal”; unlike Israelis, they must pass through numerous checkpoints to get to work and are barred from using major West Bank roads. Like all Palestinians, they live in constant fear of bulldozers with demolition orders and midnight raids by soldiers. Johansson was forced to resign as global ambassador for Oxfam, which issued a statement saying, 9

marshall_8-10_Special Report 3/20/14 6:41 PM Page 10

AIPAC Loses a Few Rounds But Comes Back Swinging AIPAC’s convention in Washington on March 2-4 was as usual the occasion for claiming solid grass roots support for Israel among Jewish Americans, and for making sure that Congress will keep billions in aid flowing to the self-proclaimed Jewish state.

The three-day meeting included “advocacy day,” on which the 14,000 attendees visited the offices of their representatives armed with instructions on how to secure support for AIPAC’s legislative agenda. This year the assignment proved more difficult.

In a news story on Feb. 4, The New York Times speculated on whether AIPAC has lost some of its clout. A Senate bill strongly backed by AIPAC to impose harsher sanctions on Iran failed after Obama opposed it, and 70 House Democrats sent a letter to the White House backing the president’s diplomatic efforts with Iran.

AIPAC also failed to win congressional support for a military strike on Syria, and the Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as defense secretary over AIPAC’s opposition. Another telling challenge to AIPAC came from 700 Jewish New Yorkers in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio in February criticizing him for saying at a closed-door meeting of AIPAC, “Part of my job is to be a defender of Israel.” Earlier, 58 prominent Jewish Americans had sent the mayor a message saying, “No, your job is not to do AIPAC’s bidding.”

Undaunted by such events, AIPAC came back in mid-February with an op-ed column by Seth M. Siegel in The New York Times that described Israel as the one Middle East country that has mastered the problem of water scarcity and is helping its neighbors cope with the problem. Siegel, who was identified by the Times as an investment banker, blamed Hamas for polluting Gaza’s water supply and asserted that “The Palestinians in “Oxfam believes that businesses such as SodaStream that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities we work to support.”

The boycott movement is directed at a military occupation that is not only illegal but brutally enforced, with Palestinians subject to physical attacks and vandalism by encroaching settlers, and to the casual cruelty of Israeli soldiers and police. On Feb. 28, shortly after soldiers shot to death 25-yearold Mutaz Washaha in his home in Bir Zeit, calling him a “suspected” terrorist (see story p. 18), Amnesty International accused the Israelis of being “trigger happy” in their use of excessive force. As if to illustrate Amnesty’s charge, a few days later soldiers at the Allenby Bridge shot and killed Raed Zeitar, a Jordanian judge of Palestinian ancestry who was traveling to the West Bank to visit his critically ill 6-year-old daughter.

The organization documented the killings of 22 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2013, and said in no case did the victim pose a threat to the Israelis. Two more Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the first two months of this year, and more than 60 wounded. Amnesty called the killings “unlawful” and urged the suspension of all transfers of weapons and equipment to Israel. The day after Netanyahu spoke about peace and reconciliation in Washington an Israeli air strike on Gaza killed another two 10

the West Bank already receive much of their water from Israel’s national water utility.”

Neither of those statements is true. Siegel, it turns out, is a member of AIPAC and chairman of its board of directors.

Gaza’s water is polluted because Israel’s bombing of the territory’s power plants and sewage lines in its 2008-2009 air and land assault on Gaza, and the scarcity of diesel fuel caused by Israel’s seven-year blockade, have crippled its sanitation system.

Far from supplying water to West Bank Palestinians, Israel takes most of their water. Israel controls the West Bank aquifers and appropriates 80 percent of their water for use by Israelis. According to Amnesty International, Israel also blocks infrastructure projects that would improve the Palestinians’ water supplies. Almost a million families do not receive the minimum of 60 liters a day advised by the World Health Organization.

At least 70 West Bank villages are not connected to any water network, and others find that their water runs short in a dry period. The result is that many Palestinians are forced to rely on buying expensive water from tanker trucks while settlers enjoy watered lawns and swimming pools. In an interview published in Haaretz on Feb. 18, Nasser Nawajeh said, “Water is not something I take for granted. It is a daily existential struggle.”

This information would not come as a surprise to Israelis who read newspapers such as Haaretz, and columnists such as Amira Hass, but in the U.S. news articles and editorial columns critical of Israel are hard to come by. Siegel’s column was just one example of the misinformation campaign that for so long has enabled AIPAC to keep so many members of Congress on a tight leash. The leash is finally showing signs of fraying, but the task of exposing the truth will remain a challenge. —R.M.

Palestinians and wounded a 7-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.

On Feb. 25 Palestinians had commemorated the 20th anniversary of a crime that cast an even harsher light on Israel’s occupation policy. On that day in 1994 Baruch Goldstein, an American-born settler from the right-wing settlement of Kiryat Arba walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, and shot to death 29 Palestinians as they knelt in prayer, and wounded more than 125. Although a settler was responsible for the massive bloodshed, it was the Palestinians who were punished.

At the direction of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Palestinian population of Hebron was put under round-the-clock curfew and the city’s main commercial thoroughfare, Shuhada Street, was closed to them. The Jewish settlers, who later put up a shrine to Goldstein, continued to move about freely, protected by the Israeli army. Two months later Palestinian militants carried out their first suicide bombing, an event that virtually ended the Oslo peace process.

Today the Palestinian resistance, including Hamas, is largely nonviolent, despite being up against an Israeli army that routinely fires tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition at peaceful protesters. Israeli air strikes and fatal shootings in Gaza have lately increased, violating a 16-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that Hamas THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

has adhered to but more militant groups feel no obligation to observe. As Gazans suffer from scarcity and unemployment, the militants are taking advantage of the situation, hoping to challenge Hamas’ leadership. Israel apparently finds it preferable to defend against groups that employ violence rather than deal with Hamas as a political faction.

A similar situation exists in Egypt, where after ousting President Mohamed Morsi, the new rulers outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and arrested thousands of its members, along with journalists, students, liberals and academics. All dissent has been silenced. Instead of the Muslim Brotherhood, which publicly denounced violence years ago, Egypt now faces a growing jihadist movement.

Militants from across the region called on Muslims to take up arms against the government, and groups such al-Qaeda and Ansar Beit al-Maqdis responded, setting off a wave of violence aimed at government officials, security forces and tourists. With the growth of extremism in Egypt, and the fighting in Syria edging closer to Israel, the Israelis’ best hope for security lies more than ever in peace with the Palestinians. Abbas’ proposal of an independent but demilitarized Palestinian state with a permanent NATO presence offers them an opportunity to achieve both peace and security. Given the current turmoil taking place on their borders, they may never have a better chance. ❑ MAY 2014

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Another Anschluss in Crimea SpecialReport

By Eric S. Margolis any Americans have trouble under-

Vladimir Putin. That’s in good part because they have little or no understanding of Russia’s history or geopolitics.

“The Soviet Union will return,” I wrote in 1991 after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. deprived the Russian imperium of a third of its territory, almost half its people and much of its world power.

A similar disaster for Russia occurred in 1918 at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Defeated by the German-Austrian-BulgarianTurkish Central Powers in World War I and racked by revolution, Lenin’s new Bolshevik regime bowed to German demands to hand over the Baltic states and allow Ukraine to become independent.

As soon as Josef Stalin consolidated power, he began undoing the Brest-Litovsk surrender. The Baltic states, Ukraine, the southern Caucasus and parts of “Greater Romania” were reoccupied. Half of Poland again fell under Russian control. Stalin restored his nation to its pre-war 1914 borders, killing millions in the process.

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler was tearing down the equally cruel Versailles Treaty that left millions of ethnic Germans stranded in hostile nations and deprived Germany of its historic eastern regions.

Hitler claimed his invasion of Russia was motivated by Germany’s strategic imperative to acquire farm lands so it could attain food security.

The Central Powers—notably Germany and Austro-Hungary—could not produce enough food to feed their growing populations. Imports were essential.

A major cause of the defeat of the Central Powers was mass civilian starvation caused by Britain’s naval blockade that cut off grain imports, a crime under international law. Hitler said he had to acquire Ukraine’s rich farmlands for national security—a term we often hear today. Like America today with oil, Germany insisted it had to be food independent.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist and author of American Raj: America and the Muslim World (available from the AET Bookstore).

This article was first posted on <http://eric margolis.com>, March 15, 2014. Copyright EricMargolis.com.

MAY 2014

VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Mstanding modern Russia or leader

A woman walks past a statue of Lenin in Yalta, Crimea, March 19, 2014.

Germany’s march east began in 1938 by Anschluss (reunification) with Austria—76 years ago this month.

Czechoslovakia’s ethnic German majority in the province of Sudetenland soon followed.

Today, we are seeing another Anschluss with the reunification of Ukrainian-ruled Crimea with Russia.

Crimea was detached from the Russian Republic in 1954 by Nikita Khrushchev after a drunken dinner and given as a grand (but then-empty) gesture to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. Khrushchev was a Ukrainian Communist party boss who had participated in Stalin’s murder of 6-7 million Ukrainian farmers.

This is the first step in President Vladimir Putin’s slow, patient rebuilding of some of the former Soviet Union. What triggered his move was Washington’s engineering of a coup against Ukraine’s corrupt but elected pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovich.

The minute Ukraine fell under Western influence, Putin began moving to detach THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Crimea and rejoin it to historic Russian rule. Or misrule: Crimea and the Caucasus was the site of the holocaust of up to three million Muslims of the Soviet Union who were ordered destroyed by Stalin, among them most of Crimea’s Muslim Tatars.

No Western leaders should have been surprised by Crimea. Nations still have strategic spheres of influence. In 1991, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev refused to use force to keep the union together and allowed Germany to peacefully reunify. In exchange, U.S. President George H.W. Bush agreed not to expand NATO’s borders east, and certainly not to Russia’s borders.

But at the time, Washington regarded Russia as a broken-down, Third World nation beneath contempt. Bush senior and his successor, Bill Clinton, reneged on the deal with Moscow and began pushing Western influence east—to the Baltic, Romania and Bulgaria, Kosovo and Albania, then Georgia, across Central Asia. NATO offered membership to Ukraine. Moscow saw encirclement.

Continued on page 15 11

avnery_12-13_Special Report 3/20/14 5:18 PM Page 12

God Bless Putin SpecialReport

SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

By Uri Avnery

Patrons in a cafe in the Crimean capital of Simferopol watch as Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrates the referendum four days earlier in which 96 percent of voters in Crimea voted to rejoin Russia, March 18, 2014. inyamin Netanyahu is very good at mak-

Bing speeches, especially to Jews, neocons

and such, who jump up and applaud wildly at everything he says, including that tomorrow the sun will rise in the west.

The question is: is he good at anything else?

His father, an ultra-ultra-Rightist, once said about him that he is quite unfit to be prime minister, but that he could be a good foreign minister. What he meant was that Binyamin does not have the depth of understanding needed to guide the nation, but that he is good at selling any policy decided upon by a real leader.

(Reminding us of the characterization of Abba Eban by David Ben-Gurion: “He is very good at explaining, but you must tell him what to explain.”)

In early March Netanyahu was summoned to Washington. He was supposed to approve John Kerry’s new “framework” agreement, which would serve as a basis for restarting the peace negotiations, which so far have come to naught.

Uri Avnery, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, is a founder of Gush Shalom, <www.gush-shalom.org>.

12

On the eve of the event, President Barack Obama gave an interview to a Jewish journalist, blaming Netanyahu for the stalling of the “peace process”—as if there had ever been a peace process.

Netanyahu arrived with an empty bag— meaning a bag full of empty slogans. The Israeli leadership had striven mightily for peace, but could not progress at all because of the Palestinians. It is Mahmoud Abbas who is to blame, because he refuses to recognize Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People.

What…hmm…about the settlements, which have been expanding during the last year at a hectic pace? Why should the Palestinians negotiate endlessly, while at the same time the Israeli government takes more and more of the land which is the substance of the negotiations? (As the classic Palestinian argument goes: “We negotiate about dividing a pizza, and in the meantime Israel is eating the pizza.”)

Obama steeled himself to confront Netanyahu, AIPAC and their congressional stooges. He was about to twist the arms of Netanyahu until he cried “uncle”—the uncle being Kerry’s “framework,” which by now has been watered down to look alTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

most like a Zionist manifesto. Kerry is frantic for an achievement, whatever its contents and discontents.

Netanyahu, looking for an instrument to rebuff the onslaught, was ready to cry as usual “Iran! Iran! Iran!”—when something unforeseen happened.

Napoleon famously exclaimed: ”Give me generals who are lucky!” He would have loved General Bibi.

Because, on the way to confront a newly invigorated Obama, there was an explosion that shook the world: Ukraine.

It was like the shots that rang out in Sarajevo a hundred years ago. The international tranquility was suddenly shattered. The possibility of a major war was in the air.

Netanyahu’s visit disappeared from the news. Obama, occupied with a historic crisis, just wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible. Instead of the severe admonition of the Israeli leader, he got away with some hollow compliments. All the wonderful speeches Netanyahu had prepared were left unspeeched. Even his usual triumphant speech at AIPAC evoked no interest.

All because of the upheaval in Kiev.

By now, innumerable articles have been written about the crisis. Historical associations abound.

Though Ukraine means “borderland,” it was often at the center of European events.

One must pity Ukrainian schoolchildren.

The changes in the history of their country were constant and extreme. At different times Ukraine was a European power and a poor downtrodden territory, extremely rich (“the breadbasket of Europe”) or abjectly poor, attacked by neighbors who captured their people to sell them as slaves or attacking their neighbors to enlarge their country.

The Ukraine’s relationship with Russia is even more complex. In a way, the Ukraine is the heartland of Russian culture, religion and orthography. Kiev was far more important than Moscow, before becoming the centerpiece of Muscovite imperialism.

In the Crimean War of the 1850s, Russia fought valiantly against a coalition of Great Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia, and eventually lost. The war broke out over Christian rights in Jerusalem, and MAY 2014

avnery_12-13_Special Report 3/20/14 5:18 PM Page 13

included a long siege of Sevastopol. The world remembers the charge of the Light Brigade. A British woman called Florence Nightingale established the first organization to tend the wounded on the battlefield.

In my lifetime, Stalin murdered millions of Ukrainians by deliberate starvation. As a result, most Ukrainians welcomed the German Wehrmacht in 1941 as liberators. It could have been the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but unfortunately Hitler was determined to eradicate the Ukrainian “Untermenschen,” in order to integrate the Ukraine into the German Lebensraum.

The Crimea suffered terribly. The Tatar people, who had ruled the peninsula in the past, were deported to Central Asia, then allowed to return decades later. Now they are a small minority, seemingly unsure of where their loyalties lie.

The relationship between Ukraine and the Jews is no less complicated.

Some Jewish writers, like Arthur Koestler and Shlomo Sand, believe that the Khazar empire that ruled the Crimea and neighboring territory a thousand years ago converted to Judaism, and that most Ashkenazi Jews are descended from them.

This would turn us all into Ukrainians.

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(Many early Zionist leaders indeed came from Ukraine.)

When Ukraine was a part of the extensive Polish empire, many Polish noblemen took hold of large estates there. They employed Jews as their managers. Thus the Ukrainian peasants came to look upon the Jews as the agents of their oppressors, and anti-Semitism became part of the national culture of Ukraine.

As we learned in school, at every turn of Ukrainian history, the Jews were slaughtered. The names of most Ukrainian folkheroes, leaders and rebels who are revered in their homeland are, in Jewish consciousness, connected with awful pogroms.

Cossack Hetman (leader) Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who liberated Ukraine from the Polish yoke, and who is considered by Ukrainians as the father of their nation, was one of the worst mass-murderers in Jewish history.

Symon Petliura, who led the Ukrainian war against the Bolsheviks after World War I, was assassinated by a Jewish avenger.

Some elderly Jewish immigrants in Israel must find it hard to decide whom to hate more, the Ukrainians or the Russians (or the Poles, for that matter).

People around the world find it also hard to choose sides.

The usual Cold-War zealots have it easy—they either hate the Americans or the Russians, out of habit.

As for me, the more I try to study the situation, the more unsure I become. This is not a black-or-white situation.

The first sympathy goes to the Maidan rebels. (Maidan is an Arab word meaning town square. Curious how it traveled to Kiev. Probably via Istanbul.)

They want to join the West, enjoy independence and democracy. What’s wrong with that?

Nothing, except that they have dubious bedfellows. Neo-Nazis in their copycat Nazi uniforms, giving the Hitler salute and mouthing anti-Semitic slogans, are not very attractive. The encouragement they receive from Western allies, including the odious neocons, is off-putting.

On the other side, Vladimir Putin is also not very prepossessing. It’s the old Russian imperialism all over again.

The slogan used by the Russians—the need to protect Russian-speaking people in a neighboring country—sounds eerily familiar. It is an exact copy of Adolf Hitler’s claim in 1938 to protect the Sudeten Germans from the Czech monsters.

But Putin has some logic on his side. Sevastopol—the scene of heroic sieges both in the Crimean War and in World War II—is THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

essential for his naval forces. The association with Ukraine is an important part of Russian world power aspirations.

A cold-blooded, calculating operator, of a kind now rare in the world, Putin uses the strong cards he has, but is very careful not to take too many risks. He is managing the crisis astutely, using Russia’s obvious advantages. Europe needs his oil and gas, he needs Europe’s capital and trade. Russia has a leading role in Syria and Iran. The U.S. suddenly looks like a bystander.

I assume that in the end there will be a compromise. Russia will retain a footing in the coming Ukrainian leadership. Both sides will proclaim victory, as they should.

(By the way, for those here who believe in the “One-State Solution”: Another multicultural state seems to be breaking apart.)

Where will this leave Netanyahu?

He has gained some months or years without any movement toward peace, and in the meantime can continue with the occupation and build settlements at a frantic pace.

That is the traditional Zionist strategy.

Time is everything. Every postponement provides opportunities to create more facts on the ground.

Netanyahu’s prayers have been answered.

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13

williams_14-15_United Nations Report 3/20/14 7:41 PM Page 14

It Helps to Have Moral Authority When Criticizing Perpetrators, Passive Onlookers

By Ian Williams yria poses a classic dilemma for the

SUnited Nations. It cannot do anything

opposed by a permanent member of the Security Council, in this case Russia. But there is another dimension, as former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali eloquently complained: the U.N. has no army, no police force of its own. It cannot act unless member states provide the wherewithal for it to do so.

The countries who are prepared, or able, to commit substantial forces are not necessarily those best politically or ethically suited to operations. While Moscow, with help from Iran, has actively provided support for Syria’s military and Bashar alAssad’s morale, we have to ask about the failings of the rest of the world, and in particular the West.

Diplomacy is interconnected. Washington’s tacit continuation of the Cold War after Glasnost exacts a price, fueling Russian revanchism, and a desire to tweak the Eagle’s feathers. Hardly an occasion has been missed to humiliate Moscow. It is true that Russian rulers have often behaved stupidly and reflexively, playing to populist resentment at home, but they have surely been provoked—and the rewards for being sensible have not been so great.

It began with Russian support for Desert Storm, which was a huge breakthrough.

(Indeed it is worth remembering that Syrian troops also played a role in that first Iraq war.) Sergei Lavrov was Russia’s permanent representative to the U.N. at that time, and he smarted under the combined humiliations of the West’s insistence on taking Iraq resolutions farther than their clear intent, and the maintenance of brutal sanctions when they had lost international support.

Russia’s invention of an Orthodox International to be the ghost of the Comintern has certainly trapped it into a geopolitical tangle from which it sometimes has difficulty extricating itself. It went along with sanctions against Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic because it was clear to all but a coterie of leftists and nationalists that Belgrade’s actions were beyond the pale of internaIan Williams is a free-lance journalist based at the United Nations who blogs at <www. deadlinepundit.blogspot.com>.

14

tional law. But then it ended up supporting him in ways that persuaded him, like Assad, to continue in his course of action.

The West’s reaction was equally shortsighted and presaged Syria. Secretary of State James Baker thought the U.S. did not have a dog in the fight. Britain and France assumed that the Bosnians would lie down and die, expeditiously, so if it were done, it were best done quickly. They feinted, providing U.N. peacekeepers who did not keep the peace but collaborated in the Serb siege of Sarajevo, while monitoring and counting how many shells were rained down on civilians.

ardly an occasion has H been missed to humiliate Moscow.

While we deservedly point the finger at Russia, in Rwanda the only dog in the fight barked in French. Paris supported the murderous regime and nobody else cared enough to intervene. Countries withdrew their forces and left the few behind isolated and at risk, doing their best to protect the victims.

It is in fact difficult to see a way out of the Syrian crisis in the absence of any credible actors with any moral authority. There are so many double standards that observers could easily grow cross-eyed. The U.S. is hopelessly compromised by the military, financial and diplomatic support it provides for lawless behavior by Israel, whose intervention in turn would possibly have only one positive outcome—uniting Syrians against it. The U.S., if not hampered by the Israel lobby, could make up to Iran and break the spurious unity of Alawite and Shi’i, but under the influence of the same lobby the U.S. was putting distance between itself and Turkey, which could have taken action—except, perhaps, for its lessthan-exemplary behavior toward the Kurds, who straddle the regional boundaries.

In the end, where there has been action, it is because world public opinion turned against both the perpetrators and the passivity of the onlookers. That did not work too well in the case of Darfur, of course.

However, it seems to be at least one of the THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

United Nations Report principles behind Ban Ki-moon’s increasingly strong statements.

When he was running for the office, U.N. Secretary-General Ban pledged full support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and for the concept of “Responsibility to Protect,” steered through the U.N. by his predecessor, Kofi Annan.

Ban was sincere to the point of career suicide, since the temporary U.S. “permanent representative” at the time was none other than John Bolton, the paleocon who had made it his life work to destroy the ICC— and, for that matter, the United Nations.

Ban’s restrained delivery, sadly, means that his statements are not always taken as strongly as intended. In some ways this is a diplomatic plus. He can tell the truth without being mortally insulting to those he tells the truth about, which is indispensable in offering the U.N.’s intermediary services.

His statement in March went far beyond what most previous U.N. officials would have dared to say about a sovereign state.

“Three years ago, the Syrian people stood up in peaceful protest to demand their universal rights and freedoms. In response came brutal force, escalating bloodshed and the devastation of civil war,” he declared, putting the blame clearly on the Assad regime.

“Syria is now the biggest humanitarian and peace and security crisis facing the world,” he went on, “with violence reaching unthinkable levels. Syria’s neighbors are bearing the increasingly unbearable humanitarian, security, political and socioeconomic effects of this conflict.”

Ban said he “deeply regrets the inability of the international community, the region and the Syrians themselves to put a stop to this appalling conflict,” and appealed “to the region and the international community, and in particular to the Russian Federation and the United States as the initiating states of the Geneva Conference on Syria, to take clear steps to re-energize the Geneva process.”

So the secretary-general was not just pointing the finger at the parties in the conflict, but also at the other United Nations members who have failed the Syrian people. Valerie Amos, the U.N. under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was even more forthright, adding, “Our MAY 2014

williams_14-15_United Nations Report 3/20/14 6:47 PM Page 15

collective voice should be raised in protest at the flagrant violations of international humanitarian and human rights lawâ&#x20AC;ŚThe international community needs to show the courage and determination to do all that is necessary to reach a political solution. Without that, we will see years more of destruction and continued brutality meted out to the people of Syria.â&#x20AC;?

It would, of course, be easy to dismiss this as empty rhetoric. But it is in fact more substantial rhetoric than the U.N. exhibited in the past, when under the shield of sovereignty and cowardice it kept its peace about the Balkans and Rwanda.

Ban has been equally forthright on the Palestinian question, calling out Israeli breaches of resolutions, the embargo on Gaza, etc.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;at a time, one might add, when Egypt, a member of the Arab League, has been colluding in keeping the Strip isolated.

Some naming and shaming is certainly called for. In this benighted age, there are few independent moral figures. One could not even be sure that the late Nelson Mandela, whose gratitude for support against apartheid sometimes over-rode his ethical sense, as in his support for Libyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Muammar Qaddafi, would get this right.

That makes it even more important for a figure like Ban Ki-moon, backed perhaps by the â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Elders,â&#x20AC;? the group of statespeople set up by Mandela and Kofi Annan, to call on the various capitalsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;beginning with Moscow and Tehranâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; to act, to tell Assad that his time is up.

But that will only be the beginning. If there is a post-regime period, it will need international support. That would be a good time to call Moscowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bluffâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and invite the Russian army to send contingents of peacekeepers to the force that will be needed to maintain security in Syria.

Of course, Crimea does not assist.

Moscow denies the right of Kosovars, after ethnic cleansing and massacres, to secede from the state that tried to drive them out.

Washington tacitly supports the right of Israel to annex Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights and displace the indigenous inhabitants.

American negotiators back Israel in its attempt to redraw the internationally accepted 1967 line, but Washington condemns Moscowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (rather clumsy) attempt to redress arbitrary borders drawn up by a Communist-ruled Kremlin. There are even echoes of Palestine in the Crimea: who should vote in a referendum? The Crimeans, who were driven out en masse by Stalin, or the settlers who came in afterward?

And that brings us to the birth of the MAY 2014

United Nations. Following World War II, the key principleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;evoked in the Middle East resolutions, surviving in East Timor and Western Sahara and invoked in Kuwaitâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force. By moving in troops in large quantities and staging a dubious referendum in Crimea, Putin is breaking a cardinal principle on which the shaky post-war peace has depended.

Boundaries are not sacred: they can be renegotiated, they can be arbitrated and litigatedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and, in truth, the Crimean boundary is far less sacred than many others.

But the prospect of changing them by force, or with the threat of force, is what united the Security Council against Russia, which was forced to use its veto on March 14.

Putin united the world against Moscow.

Yes, the U.S. invaded Panama, Grenada, Vietnam and more, but it pulled out afterward. If Saddam Hussain had just installed a friendly regime in Kuwait and pulled out, he would not have united the world against him.

Russia might not suffer military consequences from its actions, but it has orchestrated diplomatic disaster for itself and others. Watch out for a referendum in the settlement zone, citing the Putin prece(Advertisement)

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

dent. But it will make no difference. Like Morocco and Israel, Russia might have possession, but the overwhelming majority of U.N. members will not recognize it.

Ban should wait to talk to an elected Ukrainian government that one hopes will blunt the influence of the nationalists whose rhetoric and actions have done so much to foment separatism in Crimea. â?&#x2018;

Anschluss in Crimeaâ&#x20AC;Ś Continued from page 11

Having serially violated Russiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traditional sphere of influence, it was inevitable Moscow would riposte. This writer, who extensively covered the Soviet Union, strongly advised NATO in the early 1990s not to push east but to leave a strategic buffer zone in Eastern Europe to maintain peace with nuclear-armed Russia. The opposite occurred.

The Western allies have committed the same error over Ukraine that they did over Czechoslovakia in the mid-1930s: extending security guarantees they could not possibly fulfill. As of now, it looks like Putinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gambit over Crimea will work and there is nothing the West can do about it but huff, puff and impose mutually negative economic sanctions.

By moving 12 F-16 fighters to Poland and warships to the Black Sea, a Russian â&#x20AC;&#x153;lake,â&#x20AC;? Washington has provided enough military forces to spark a war but not to win it. Anyway, the very clever Putin knows itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all bluff. He holds the high cards. Germanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Angela Merkel, the smartest, most skillful Western leader, is responding firmly, but with caution, unlike the childish U.S. Republicans who appear to be yearning for a head-on clash with nuclear-armed Russia.

Washingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pot-calls-kettle-black denunciations of the Crimea referendum ring hollow given the blatantly rigged votes coming up in U.S.-dominated Egypt and Afghanistan.

Moreover, too few in Washington are asking what earthly interests the U.S. has in Ukraine? About as much as Russia has in Nebraska. Yet the bankrupt U.S. is to lend $1 billion to the anti-Russian Kiev leadership and risk war in a foolish challenge to Russia in a region where it has nothing to be gained.

Except, of course, for the U.S. neocons who have played a key role in engineering the coup in Kiev and this crisis. They want to see Russia punished for supporting Syria and the Palestinians. â?&#x2018; 15

cook_16-17_The Nakba Continues 3/20/14 5:20 PM Page 16

Israel Takes Still More Land From Bedouin Village of Ramya for Ever-Expanding City TheNakbaContinues

By Jonathan Cook

PHOTO JONATHAN COOK

breeze-block huts. Anything else would be certain to be demolished, said Sawaid.

And yet the village’s purchase of the land was registered in the 1930s—before either Israel’s founding in 1948 or Karmiel’s creation 16 years later.

“We have the tabu [title deeds] for this land,” said Sawaid. “And yet Israel refuses to recognize our right to live here. They have made us criminals. They say we are squatters. It is nonsense.”

Karmiel, today with a population of nearly 50,000, was built in 1964 on agricultural lands Israel confiscated from several communities, including Ramya, that belong to Israel’s Palestinian minority—those who avoided expulsion during the 1948 war.

Today, one in five Israeli citizens belong to this minority, a group that the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has described as “the forgotten Palestinians.”

The official aim in establishing Karmiel was to “Judaize the Galilee,” a government campaign to reverse the Palestinian minority’s demographic hold on Israel’s north by encouraging Jews to migrate and settle there. They were offered incentives of subsidized land and housing.

Palestinian citizens of Israel long have claimed that they suffer systematic discrimination and are denied basic rights.

Suhad Bishara, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal center for the Palestinian-Arab minority, said the discrimination was especially acute in relation to land.

Israel has nationalized 93 percent of the country’s territory for the benefit of the country’s Jewish population, taking much of it from the Palestinian minority through mass confiscations, she said. Palestinian communities are left on slivers of privately owned land.

In addition, dozens of Palestinian communities inside Israel, such as Ramya, are not recognized by the state, and the inhabitants’ “presence in their homes has been made illegal,” according to Bishara.

Salah Sawaid stands on the last area of arable land available to the village of Ramya. nce the tiny Bedouin village of Ramya

Oenjoyed uninterrupted views of the

grassy uplands of the central Galilee.

Today the huddle of shacks and tents is surrounded on all sides by luxury apartments—a new neighborhood of the everexpanding city of Karmiel, here in northern Israel.

“We are being choked to death,” said Salah Sawaid, Ramya’s village leader.

“They are building on top of us as though we don’t exist. Are we invisible to them?”

His fears for the future have grown rapidly in the past few months, after a court ruled that the Bedouin village must be bulldozed to make way for Karmiel’s further expansion. The decision, the culmination of what Sawaid called “betrayals” by successive Israeli governments, ended a decades-old legal battle by the villagers to remain on their land.

Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His most recent book is Disappearing Palestine.

16

Salim Wakim, the lawyer who represents Ramya’s 45 families, said the only avenue left was “popular struggle.”

Yoav Bar, an activist from the nearby city of Haifa, is among a small group of Jews who have supported the families.

“The apartheid here could not be more apparent. You look at Ramya and the homes in Karmiel and you see how democratic Israel really is if you are not Jewish.

“Ramya is living under a siege, little different from the one against Gaza,” Bar added.

“It is designed to force them to leave.”

The contrast between the lives of the 180 inhabitants of Ramya and their neighbors in Karmiel is stark indeed.

Although the modern apartment buildings are now only meters away, the people of Ramya are living in a different era. They are denied connection to the electricity and water grids and other public services.

Generators provide power for a few hours a day, and makeshift, above-ground pipes channel in a trickle of water.

Their homes, classified as illegal by the Israeli authorities, are tin shacks or modest THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MAY 2014

cook_16-17_The Nakba Continues 3/20/14 5:21 PM Page 17

Bar and other activists joined the struggle to save Ramya after Israel’s high court ruled last year that the Bedouin must leave within 90 days. The group staged its first demonstration in December in front of Karmiel’s municipal building, followed by weekly protests in the city’s main shopping area.

The villagers have been handing out leaflets in Karmiel explaining their story to passers-by, hoping to win public opinion to their side.

But Dov Koller, a Jewish resident of Karmiel who helped set up a solidarity forum for Ramya, said most people in the city either did not care about Ramya’s plight or were opposed to living with the Bedouin villagers: “The difficulty is that most of Karmiel’s residents don’t think equality is important for Arabs,” he explained. “Most of them are racist.”

The families in Ramya are being evicted so that a new neighborhood of Karmiel— named for the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin—can be expanded. Apartments marketed to the Jewish population will be built over Ramya’s homes, as well as some goat sheds and a small plot of arable land the villagers so far have managed to cling on to.

Wakim said the racist policy of the municipality and the Israel Lands Administration, the government agency in charge of state land, was especially apparent in this case.

“Often Israel enforces demolitions against unrecognized villages on the grounds that it has refused to zone the land for development,” he said. “But here the motive is not even hidden. This land is zoned for development. It is just that the government wants Moshe to live here, not Mohammed.”

Palestinian activists have noted a wider pattern of recent evictions enforced against Palestinian citizens still living in close proximity to Jews.

In the half-dozen so-called “mixed cities” in Israel—rare communities where residence is not segregated based on ethnicity—Palestinian citizens are being forced out under cover of gentrification programs, said Bishara.

For example, the homes of some 30 Palestinian families living in al-Mahatta, a neighborhood of Haifa whose population has been declining for decades under pressure from official bodies, are to be demolished so the city’s port can be expanded.

The last families in the nearby historic Wadi al-Siyah area also are facing eviction.

Similar stories are emerging in the cities of Acre and Jaffa.

MAY 2014

Documents leaked to the Israeli media in December showed plans by the World Zionist Organization—an international umbrella organization of Zionist groups—to step up the Judaization program in the Galilee. The aim is to bring in 100,000 Jews over the next few years in what WZO officials termed “preserving our hold” on the region and creating a “demographic balance”—code, said Bishara, for trying to enforce a Jewish majority.

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper objected: “A state that encourages members of one people to settle in any region, while at the same time imposing harsh restrictions on the growth of the other, is acting in a racist manner.”

A History of Secret Confiscations Ramya’s land was secretly confiscated in 1976, when the government of the day, led

by Rabin, ordered the expropriation of much of the remaining agricultural land held

by Palestinian communities in the Galilee.

Large protests led to Rabin sending in the army, which shot dead six unarmed demonstrators, an event still commemorated by Palestinians around the world each year as Land Day. Although the general confiscation order was eventually rescinded, Wakim said the secret expropriation of Ramya’s lands remained in place.

According to Sawaid, the villagers first learned that there was an eviction order against them 15 years later, in the 1990s, when the late Ariel Sharon, then housing minister, wanted to rapidly expand Karmiel.

He had decided to launch another wave of “Judaizing the Galilee,” using Karmiel to house some of the hundreds of thousands of Jews migrating to Israel following the fall of the Soviet Union. The residents of Ramya were ordered to leave to make room for the new arrivals.

At the time, Adi Eldar, the city’s mayor since 1989, dismissed the villagers’ claims, suggesting that, even though they had settled in Ramya decades ago, they were still nomads at heart. They were, he said, “used to wandering. They are here today and there tomorrow.”

Leviah Shalev, a spokeswoman for the municipality, said neither Karmiel nor Eldar were responsible for the government’s Judaization policy.

“The official policy was to bring Jews to the Galilee. But we do not take a view about who lives in our city. Jew or Arab can buy a home here,” she said. According to the municipality, about 3 percent of residents are “Arab.”

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Koller, however, said Karmiel’s claim of treating Jewish and Palestinian residents equally was a lie. “If that is true, where are the Arabic-language schools, where are the traffic signs in Arabic, why is there no mosque here?” he asked.

“The truth is that Karmiel officials cannot legally stop Arab families from buying a home here. But they do everything possible both to make sure they feel unwelcome and to prevent Jews from selling to them.”

In a sign of the growing opposition in Karmiel to Palestinian citizens buying homes, the issue took center stage in recent local elections, with the main candidates raising fears of an Arab “takeover” of the city.

In 2010, Eldar’s deputy, Oren Milstein, set up an email “hotline” on which residents could inform on Jewish neighbors who were intending to sell to a Palestinian family. Milstein claimed he had managed to stop 30 such sales.

In the same year, Milstein also established a group of 150 volunteers called “the City Guard,” supported by the local police, that was authorized to demand that anyone entering Karmiel present their ID. Left-wing activists described the group as a “racist militia” trying to keep Palestinian citizens out.

Shalev, Karmiel’s spokeswoman, added that the Bedouin of Ramya had been offered a solution in 1995, when land was set aside for them in a special area near Karmiel. “The problem is not caused by us,” she said, “but by disagreements between themselves about how much land each family owns.”

Wakim described the municipality’s claims as a “distortion of the truth.”

“The offer was not implemented at the time and is now totally unsuitable for the community’s needs,” he said. “Twenty years on, there is another generation of villagers and they need a housing solution too. Where are they supposed to live?

“The real problem is that Karmiel won’t let them live where they already are,” he added, “as a recognized neighborhood of the city and with the chance to build proper homes without the threat of demolition.”

Koller said that Karmiel had tried to create what he called a “ghetto” for the families. “It is described as ‘a special neighborhood for minorities.’ No Jewish families in Karmiel would agree to live in those conditions.”

The Israel Lands Administration was unavailable for comment. ❑ 17

najjab_18_Special Report 3/20/14 5:23 PM Page 18

The Death of Mutaz Washaha SpecialReport

PHOTO MUNEEB AL HAMOURI

By Jamal Najjab

A banner remembering Mutaz Washaha hangs on the ruins of his home following the deadly IDF assault. n Feb. 27, a man from the small West

OBank town of Bir Zeit was shot dead

during a standoff with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to an IDF statement, Mutaz Washaha, 25, was “suspected of terror activity,” and the IDF attempted to capture Washaha “under the premise that he had weapons in his possession.”

The statement said the Israeli military “shelled the house, destroying a part of it, and then stormed it and killed Washaha,” and claimed to have discovered an assault rifle once the troops entered the house.

Jamal Najjab is a free-lance writer based in Washington, DC, where he is assistant to the vice provost of undergraduate studies at American University.

18

The New York Times reported that “there was no indication that Mr. Washaha had used it to fire at the Israeli forces.”

Witnesses to the shooting stated that the IDF used excessive force in their pursuit of Washaha. According to the family’s neighbor, Muneeb al Hamouri, the Israelis used a machine gun to shoot Washaha. After they determined he was dead, al Hamouri reported, the Israeli soldiers continued to fire shots into his chest. Medics later reported that they removed 45 bullets from Washaha’s body, photos of which show the nose missing from his face, with brain tissue protruding from the skull cavity.

Al Hamouri added that Washaha had no gun with him at his home. “He was only sleeping. They killed him without mercy.”

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The Israelis then seized Washaha’s two brothers and a cousin, tied their hands behind their backs and repeatedly threw them against large stones until they sustained broken legs and arms. Then they arrested the young men and took them away.

The attack on the Washaha home left it unfit for human habitation.

Bir Zeit business owners in the city’s commercial section said the Israeli soldiers surrounded an intersection leading to the Washaha home prior to their attempted arrest of the young man. When children on their way to school heard the attack on the house they ran back half a mile and began throwing stones at the soldiers. The soldiers responded with tear gas and bullets, both rubber and live. Al Hamouri said his 18-year-old son, Majid, was shot in his leg near the Washaha home. Empty shells were found after the soldiers had left.

The soldiers also threw a sound bomb into an empty car. When the owner rushed to his vehicle to put out the resulting fire, the soldiers shot him with a rubber bullet. One soldier also shot a camera out of the hands of a Bir Zeit University student who was taking pictures of these events, causing severe nerve damage to two of her fingers.

Friends of the dead man stated that Washaha earlier had fired shots at a bridge between Bir Zeit and El Terra, an illegal Israeli settlement which was rumored to have cameras and other surveillance gear attached to it. He did not target or harm anyone, however. Witnesses refused to be quoted directly or to give their names for this report, for fear of retribution by the Israeli military.

Everything that happened in Bir Zeit on Feb. 27 seemed to substantiate the human rights organization Amnesty International’s 87-page report released the same day. The report, entitled “Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank,” documents the gross abuse by the Israeli occupying forces of Palestinians living in the West Bank. In a statement from Amnesty International released along with their report, the organization stated that “Israeli forces have displayed a callous disregard for human life by killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, including children, in Continued on page 20 MAY 2014

omer_19-20_Gaza on the Ground 3/20/14 5:25 PM Page 19

Some Animals Are More Caged Than Others…But Why? Gazaon the Ground

By Mohammed Omer drag our suitcases, mine and my preg-

penetrable Rafah Crossing, at the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. It’s a ritual carried out by thousands whenever it is announced that the border will be open. Even so, would-be travelers wonder whether they will in fact be permitted to cross into Egypt, or if they will end up waiting all day, only to have to return home and try again tomorrow.

We’ve been trying to cross for two months. Now eight months pregnant, Lina is nearing her due date, and each day it becomes more difficult and dangerous for her and our unborn child. I am lucky: I have citizenship in another country, so we have options. Most of the 1.7 million people living in Gaza do not. Like parents the world over, we want our child born where he or she will be safe. Not under apartheid. Not under siege. Somewhere opportunities exist, where laws aren’t passed and human rights doled out based on religion, race and ethnicity. We seek somewhere where it is safe, with a future and, above all, free.

There are only two crossings through which, if allowed, Gazans can reach the outside world. Gaza does have a seaport and airport, but Israel has blockaded the seaport and bombed the airport, rendering it useless since 2000. That leaves the Rafah Crossing in the south, guarded by Egypt with Israeli overseers, and the Erez crossing to the north, into Israel. Israel requires that all Palestinians enter and leave through the same crossing. Rafah tends to be slightly easier and doesn’t require traveling through hostile and dangerous settler territory.

Today our journey began at 7 a.m. We made our way to the Rafah crossing, carrying luggage and other necessities for an extended stay abroad. We sat at the gate, surrounded by our luggage, waiting for Egyptian border patrol officers to call our names. Three hours pass. Coffee and conversation help pick up the slack. Another 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>. Follow him on Twitter: @MoGaza.

MAY 2014

PHOTO M. OMER

Inant wife Lina’s, through the often im-

A young Palestinian girl waits with her family at the Rafah border to cross into Egypt. hour goes by. Still nothing. We wait. There are now thousands with us: men, women, children, elderly and sick milling about, all clutching tight to belongings. We all wait for a moment of empathy, for a border policeman to be in a good mood and decide that today he’ll let us through.

High noon. I smile at my wife and gently touch her swollen belly carrying a life inside, wondering if we will have to return home and wait for the border to be opened again in a few days, or weeks. No one ever knows.

Suddenly a border policeman on the Palestinian side approaches us, his walkietalkie crackles out our names. He gestures for us to hurry onto the bus that we’ve been looking at for hours. The bus is hot and crowded, but preferable to sitting outside. In the seat in front of us I recognize the president of my university as we settle in. Our passports have already been stamped at the Palestinian side. Again we wait. The bus will take us to the gate at the border with Egypt.

The Egyptian Terminal It’s a short drive. The lines, security checks and buses are used to control access and crowds, rather than territory or security.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

When we arrive at the Egyptian terminal more lines confront us. More waiting.

There are hundreds of people everywhere, some sitting on suitcases, others standing looking quizzically at signs forbidding photographs. Obviously, the authorities do not want these conditions publicized. I am reminded of Animal Farm and wouldn’t be surprised to see George Orwell somewhere in the crowd taking notes. If it weren’t real life, the absurdity of the situation would be funny.

We wait for our names to be called.

More hours pass. Lina is hungry and tired.

Now it’s 5 o’clock. Finally Egyptian security calls out our names: “Yes sir, that’s us.”

I reply quickly, rushing up to the kiosk with our belongings. “My wife is traveling with me to give birth abroad; here are our visas and papers. Thank you.”

He orders us to sit and wait a “few minutes.” I smile at him. But he is right. A few minutes later, we proceed through the border and to another 20-minute walk. We are among the last to pass through. Those behind us are sent back to Gaza due to a collapse in the computer system—a common occurrence. Sadly, they will have to start the whole procedure all over again.

Outside the bus we hear the tat-tat-tat of 19

omer_19-20_Gaza on the Ground 3/20/14 5:25 PM Page 20

gunfire and the ping of bullets hitting metal. Egyptian soldiers a few kilometers away in El Arish impose a curfew, which they announce by shooting at the legs of Bedouin youths refusing to comply with orders. They continue to announce it by firing at birds, trees and moving vehicles—including buses. I glance at my wife and am reminded that bullets and babies are not compatible. I wonder if she regrets leaving our families. This must be so frightening to her—it’s her first time leaving Gaza.

The Taxi We have to walk another few kilometers to reach the taxi stand. Our driver on the Egyptian side has been waiting patiently for our arrival—since 10 a.m. I had originally estimated that it would take us a couple of hours to reach him; I didn’t anticipate that the Egyptian regime would revamp its travel restrictions. Thankfully, he understands.

We climb into the taxi. I see an elderly man and woman walking behind us, burdened with heavy boxes. Both their daughters are studying in Cairo, and the parents are bringing supplies to replace belongings recently lost in a fire. Others struggling with luggage can be seen behind them. Around us the sound of rifle fire continues as we drive on. We’re nervous. The curfew is now in effect in Rafah and El Arish.

Our taxi driver does his best to find alternate routes to the main highway, which normally would take two minutes to reach.

Under curfew, however, it takes 45. All the while curfew warning shots continue to ring about us. A few bounce off the rims of our tires as our driver pushes through.

Lina and I have three options at this point: stop where we are; keep driving through toward Cairo; or return to the crossing. But none of these choices will protect us from the bullets. Having gone this far, through so many delays, we decide to press on through the Sinai. We have two priorities: our safety and catching our flight out of Cairo.

Thankfully, the KLM customer relations director had given us flexible tickets in case of unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances, starting at the Rafah border. That’s assuming, of course, we reached the airport at all!

Checkpoints Traveling through the Sinai Desert requires passing through nine military checkpoints.

At every stop all luggage must be opened 20

and rechecked. If one is Palestinian, the searches take longer, with soldiers going through laptops, cameras and personal belongings. It’s humiliating—but better than dodging bullets on the street during curfew. The final checkpoint, the Al Salam Bridge over the Suez Canal, is closed when we arrive. This means we must take a boat to complete our journey.

It’s dark and cold now. Lina waits huddled in the taxi. I wonder why it is I must feel lucky to be able to travel from Rafah to Cairo in 19 hours. Normally, this is a fivehour trip. Of course, for travelers not carrying a Palestinian passport, it still is.

Palestinians are the only Arab people without a state. We are required to recognize the rights of others to live in safety, freedom and security, but no one recognizes our right to do so. Instead we’re forced to live like caged animals, contained and trapped inside reservations and bantustans, segregated, alienated from our land and heritage, treated as lesser humans, herded by armed guards through crammed, narrow, metal checkpoints. And not just by Israelis, but by Egyptians as well. Not that long ago, Gaza was under Egyptian rule. We’re still the same people—yet we’re disrespected and subjected to endless cold questions and looks of suspicion.

Why is it that some people are treated like animals, while others are deemed human beings worthy of respect? Which humans have the right to determine who is human and who a lesser mortal or animal?

Did the world not learn the lessons of the 1930s and 1940s, the danger that comes when race or faith are used to determine an individual’s humanity? How do I explain this to my son or daughter?

Fortunately, my child will be born in a free country in Europe. His or her faith, skin color, ancestry, language and accent will not be used to determine whether this child is a human being, where he or she can live and travel. One day I’ll tell my child about the trip we took so he or she could begin life in freedom.

My child is a human being—as is every child. In a civilized world, no human being should ever have to go through what we go through in Gaza. ❑

Death of Mutaz Washaha…

Continued from page 18

the occupied West Bank over the past three years with near total impunity.”

The report documents that in 2013 Israeli forces killed 22 Palestinian civilians in THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the West Bank, at least four of whom were children. The majority of the victims were under the age of 25. Citing U.N. figures that the IDF killed more West Bank Palestinians last year than in 2011 and 2012 combined, the report goes on to state that in the last three years at least 261 Palestinians in the West Bank have been injured by live bullets fired by the Israeli military.

Since January 2011, more than 8,000 West Bank Palestinians, including 1,500 children, have been wounded by rubbercoated steel bullets and by the Israeli military’s careless use of tear gas.

The report gives evidence that Israeli soldiers are killing Palestinian civilians who pose no direct or immediate danger to the soldiers. In some cases, there is evidence of willful killing of Palestinians in the West Bank. According to international law, these acts amount to war crimes. “The report presents a body of evidence that shows a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the West Bank,” stated Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director, in the organization’s press release.

Amnesty International goes on to note that during the time period covered in the report, only one Israeli soldier had been convicted of the wrongful death of a Palestinian. Sentenced by an Israeli military court to one year in prison, his sentence was suspended by five months and he was allowed to remain in the army at a lower rank.

“The current Israeli system has proved woefully inadequate,” Luther said. “It is neither independent nor impartial and completely lacks transparency. The authorities must conduct prompt, thorough and independent investigations into all suspected instances of arbitrary and abusive use of force, especially when resulting in loss of life or serious injury.”

For its part, the IDF denies the report’s claims, decrying the report as a “public relations stunt” “removed from reality” and “unverifiable” and stating that it is the Israeli military that is in danger from a “substantial increase” in Palestinian violence. It accuses Amnesty International of a “complete lack of understanding” of what Israeli soldiers in the West Bank face on a daily basis.

But, as Luther concludes, “A strong message must be sent to Israeli soldiers and police officers that abuses will not go unpunished. Unless those who commit violations are held to account unlawful killings and injuries are bound to continue.” ❑ MAY 2014

bailey_21-22_Special Report 3/20/14 5:32 PM Page 21

Hunger Strike: Still an Effective Mode of Resistance for Palestinian Prisoners?

SpecialReport

By Pam Bailey risoners are perhaps the most power-

at the mercy of their captors—deprived of freedom of movement, stripped of virtually all personal resources, limited in communication with the outside to rationed, supervised moments.

But the human spirit is not easily extinguished and, particularly when people are imprisoned for their belief in a cause, the natural leaders among them fight back with what little they have: their brains and their bodies.

On just one day recently, news accounts documented prisoners from around the world—including individuals held in a federal “supermax” prison in Colorado and in detention centers in Guantanamo Bay, Greece and Egypt—engaging in one of the oldest tactics of resistance: the hunger strike.

However, the most constant presence among hunger strikers today is that of the Palestinians. As of this writing, at least six Palestinians held in Israeli jails have been on hunger strike since January. Four are protesting their “administrative detention”—a bureaucratic term for imprisonment without charge or trial—while the other two are striking against their solitary confinement, along with medical neglect.

The Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association has joined the World Organization Against Torture to express concern about their health and harsh treatment, as well as call on international activists to protest to Israeli authorities.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is considering a new rule that would allow the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners whose lives are in danger. Israel had previously stopped the practice after three prisoners died as a result.

According to Jonathan Hafetz, an associate professor of law at New Jersey’s Seton Hall University School of Law, who focuses his work on the prisoners in Guantanamo, Pam Bailey is a freelance journalist and activist who has lived and worked in the Gaza Strip. She blogs at <paminprogress.tumblr. com>. Special thanks to the UFree Media Centre and Sinead MacLochlainn for coordinating several of the interviews, and to both UFree and Mohammed Alhammami for their assistance with translation.

MAY 2014

PHOTO P. BAILEY

Pless individuals in the world. They are

Supporters of hunger-striking prisoner Khader Adnan in Gaza City react upon hearing the news that he had reached a deal with Israeli authorities for his release, Feb. 21, 2012.

“The reality is that hunger strikes…have an unparalleled ability to focus the world’s attention on the ongoing plight of men whose situation is so desperate they would rather starve themselves than go on living in legal limbo.

Addameer agrees, noting that, “Due to Israel’s use of administrative detention, and the lack of due process afforded to Palestinians in the military court system, a hunger strike represents the single-most nonviolent tool available to fight for their basic human rights.”

Since Israel seized control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967, imprisonment has become a tragic rite of passage for an estimated one in five Palestinians living in the occupied territories, and 40 percent of Palestinian males. Today, Addameer reports, 5,023 Palestinians are being held as political prisoners in Israeli jails—including 155 without charge or trial.

Repeated collective hunger strikes have been documented since 1968, occurring at least every several years. However, a trend began building in 2012 in which hunger strikes increasingly are launched by individual prisoners seeking their own release, rather than the traditional collective push THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

for improved conditions for all. The pattern began with Khader Adnan, a 33-yearold baker and member of the Islamic Jihad movement. He was arrested without charge on Dec. 17, 2011, and on the following day began what at the time was the longest hunger strike in Palestinian history—66 days.

His protest captured media attention, inspired solidarity actions around the world and triggered a rash of other strikes—culminating in a mass action by an estimated 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. On Feb. 21, 2012, a deal was announced between Adnan and the Israeli authorities in which they agreed to release him the following April. Adnan announced victory and ended his hunger strike.

Since then, a virtual stampede of other prisoners have followed in Adnan’s footsteps, launching their own strikes for individual freedom. Increasingly, however, they are receiving attention only from a few activist websites. And while some of the strikes have been successful in satisfying at least a few demands, most others have not—depending on how one defines a “win.” Hana Shalaby, for instance, ended her 43-day hunger strike not too long after 21

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Adnan—by agreeing to be deported to the Gaza Strip for three years, unreachable from her West Bank hometown of Jenin.

Unique Challenges The evolving Palestinian situation has some unique challenges, both imposed and self-induced: • Powerful enemies. In contrast to the Irish hunger strikers of 1981, who had powerful allies in the United States, one of the strongest U.S. lobbies today (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC) supports Israeli policy. That lobby is so strong that, according to Mourad Jadallah, a researcher and spokesman for Addameer, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to refrain from honoring a request from the Higher Council of Administrative Detainees to take their case to the International Criminal Court. And Abbas agreed.

• Media fatigue and skepticism. When a movement lacks powerful allies, media coverage becomes especially important—and much of the American mainstream media function virtually as an arm of the Israel lobby. In addition, uncoordinated on-andoff actions by individual Palestinian prisoners—with many resorting to consuming glucose, vitamins and even juice or milk when their health begins to wane—has induced a sense of fatigue among both activists and the media, as well as doubts in some quarters about the prisoners’ commitment.

As the most recent individual strikes have illustrated, such “halfway strikes” can backfire—especially when there are so many and some participants simply give up.

“Sadly, a condition for widespread support for hunger strikers is that they must be perceived as willing to pursue the strike to death,” says Patrick Sheehan, a former prisoner who participated in the Irish

hunger strike of 1981. For 55 days he lived on only water and salt, and would surely have been the 11th Irish prisoner to die if the strike had not been halted. “And if prisoners abandon the hunger strike without a settlement, it becomes harder for the next striker to be taken seriously.”

• Limited strategy. A related challenge is the “why” and “for what” motivating the

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22

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

hunger strikes. In the case of the individual hunger strikers, the demand is typically the release of a single prisoner.

“There is an ongoing debate among those who work on behalf of prisoners on this subject, but there is general consensus that group strikes with collective demands are the most productive,” according to Addameer’s Jadallah.

“Demands to release prisoners do not have a great history of success,” agrees Gerry MacLochlainn, who represented the nationalist Irish party, Sinn Féin, in Great Britain for 14 years. While the Irish prisoners embarked on their strikes one by one, he adds, they were planned collectively. “Basically, the authorities have a number of ways of dealing with such demands. One way is to allow the pressure to build until it reaches a crescendo and then release the prisoner. But then the pressure subsides and has to be built up again for the next prisoner. If a prisoner breaks his or her fast, then the state is off the hook, the campaign deflates again and the state is able to relax until another prisoner reaches the critical point.”

That, in fact, is exactly what has occurred among the Palestinians.

Sometimes, however, what seems like individual wins can carry larger symbolism—as in the case of Samer Issawi. Over the course of a partial hunger strike of 266 days, Issawi lost half his body weight and suffered numerous health problems—yet rejected offers to release him if he agreed to be deported someplace other than East Jerusalem. By insisting on going home, he captured the hearts of activists and caught the fickle media’s attention—and won.

“My victory was a Palestinian victory that proves nothing is impossible in the face of our will,” he says now. “If I had to do it over again, I would, because nothing is more valuable than freedom.”

These are difficult, contentious issues.

No one wants to tell individuals facing years in prison under harsh conditions not to do everything possible to win their freedom—or to be prepared to starve themselves to death. Yet in light of the fitful progress of the peace negotiations (if one could call it progress at all), the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails likely will continue to grow. It’s time, says Khaled Waleed, operations coordinator for UFree, a UK-based prisoner-support group, for oppressed populations and their supporters to re-examine resistance past and present, learning from what has worked and what hasn’t. Palestinian prisoners would be among the first to benefit. ❑ MAY 2014

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ELECTION WATCH

By Janet McMahon

Take the Money and Run—or Retire ertain names are conspicuous

Cby their absence this election

TOP TEN 2014 AND CAREER RECIPIENTS OF P -I PAC F

year. Three of the top 10 Senate RO SRAEL UNDS heavy hitters in career pro-Israel PAC contributions—Carl Levin, Compiled by Hugh Galford Tom Harkin and Max Baucus—are retiring. Will we never learn what HOUSE: CURRENT RACES SENATE: CURRENT RACES Levin, for example, did to deserve nearly three-quarters of a million Royce, Edward R. (R-CA) $32,700 Begich, Mark (D-AK) $45,798 dollars from pro-Israel PACs? Engel, Eliot L. (D-NY) 22,500 Hagan, Kay R. (D-NC) 45,000 Their departure will undoubtedly Deutch, Theodore E. (D-FL) 21,000 Landrieu, Mary L. (D-LA) 38,700 leave Senate Minority Leader Mitch Hoyer, Steny H. (D-MD) 19,000 Udall, Mark E. (D-CO) 36,500 McConnell—up for re-election this Boehner, John A. (R-OH) 18,000 Shaheen, Jeanne (D-NH) 27,500 year—at the top of the career heap.

Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA) 16,350 Franken, Al (D-MN) 26,000 He may well be joined, or even surCantor, Eric (R-VA) 15,875 Booker, Cory A. (D-NJ) 25,000 passed, in 2016 by fellow RepubliLowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 12,650 McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) 22,000 can Mark Kirk of Illinois, who Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) 12,000 Graham, Lindsey O. (R-SC) 21,500 earned a spot in the top 10 before Chabot, Steve (R-OH) 10,000 Roberts, Pat (R-KS) 21,000 he even took the oath of office for Granger, Kay (R-TX) 10,000 Udall, Tom (D-NM) 21,000 his first Senate term. As an initiator of the Kirk-Menendez bill designed House: Career Totals Senate: Career Totals to sabotage diplomatic talks with Iran, Kirk has left no doubt about Engel, Eliot L. (D-NY) 331,918 Levin, Carl (D-MI) $729,937 his true Israeli-blue colors.

Hoyer, Steny H. (D-MD) 286,025 Harkin, Thomas R. (D-IA) 552,950 The House counterpart to the Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) 285,470 McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) 520,141 Kirk-Menendez bill proved probCantor, Eric (R-VA) 240,605 Reid, Harry (D-NV) 394,001 lematic to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Lowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 215,888 Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL) 386,421 Schultz (D-FL), chair of the DemocPelosi, Nancy (D-CA) 149,150 Baucus, Max (D-MT) 360,148 ratic National Committee. She Burton, Danny L. (R-IN) 146,836 Wyden, Ronald L. (D-OR) 349,462 found herself caught between Levin, Sander M. (D-MI) 134,827 Kirk, Mark S. (R-IL) 338,386 AIPAC, which lobbied hard for the Boehner, John A. (R-OH) 118,500 Boxer, Barbara (D-CA) 279,044 bill, and President Barack Obama, Andrews, Robert E. (D-NJ) 112,025 Landrieu, Mary L. (D-LA) 246,589 who has committed his administration to pursuing a diplomatic apFrankel. (Full disclosure: Frankel and the Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Sen. proach before resorting to war.

This may be why, as of the end of author were high school classmates.) Rep. Sam Nunn (D-GA), whose support so far 2013, Wasserman Schultz’s take from Ted Deutch took home the most in is quite tepid for a Senate candidate. Inpro-Israel PACs was less than that of her Florida in 2013, with Israel-firster Rep. terestingly, by his last Senate race in fellow Floridian, first-term Rep. Lois Ileana Ros-Lehtinen coming in a rela- 1990, Sam Nunn had a career total of only $19,500 in pro-Israel PAC contributively distant second.

Among the races we’ll be keeping an tions—by which time Carl Levin had alJanet McMahon is managing editor of the eye on this year is that of Georgia’s ready amassed a total of $422,038. ❑ Washington Report.

PRO-ISRAEL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS TO 2014 CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES State Alabama Alaska Arizona

Arkansas California

MAY 2014

Office District H S H H H H H H S H H H

1

1 2 3 5 8 9

7 12 15

Candidate Byrne, Bradley R. Begich, Mark* Kirkpatrick, Ann Barber, Ronald Grijalva, Raúl M. Salmon, Matt Franks, Trent Sinema, Kyrsten Pryor, Mark L.* Bera, Amerish (Ami) Pelosi, Nancy Swalwell, Eric M.

Party

Status

2013-2014 Contributions

Career

Committees

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

I I I I I I I I I I I I

2,500 45,798 1,000 2,000 2,500 2,500 3,600 2,000 10,000 150 16,350 5,000

2,500 52,298 8,000 4,000 12,500 9,000 4,600 2,000 68,000 13,850 149,150 19,500

AS A(FO, HS), C, HS

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

HS

FR AS

A(D), HS FR Min. Leader HS 23

paccharts_23-25_Pac Charts for May 2014 3/20/14 5:36 PM Page 24

PRO-ISRAEL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS TO 2014 CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES State California

Colorado Delaware Florida

Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois

Indiana

Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana

Maine

Office District H H H H H H H H H H H H H S H S H H H H H H H H H H H H S H S H H S S S H H H H H H H H H S S H H H H S H S S H S H H H H S

17 23 24 28 30 31 34 38 39 41 46 47 52 2

6 6 9 10 14 18 19 21 22 23 26 27 1

1 2

2 8 9 10 11 13 14 17 18 2 4 6 1

4 5

1 2 4 5

Candidate Honda, Mike McCarthy, Kevin Capps, Lois G. Schiff, Adam Sherman, Brad Aguilar, Pete Becerra, Xavier Sanchez, Linda Royce, Edward R. Takano, Mark Sanchez, Loretta Lowenthal, Alan Peters, Scott Udall, Mark E.* Polis, Jared Coons, Christopher A.* DeSantis, Ronald D. Stearns, Clifford B. Grayson, Alan M. Demings, Valdez (Val) Castor, Kathy Murphy, Patrick Radel, Henry J. (Trey), III Deutch, Theodore E. Frankel, Lois J. Wasserman Schultz, Debbie Garcia, Jose A. (Joe) Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana Nunn, Mary Michelle* Kingston, John H., Sr. (Jack) Schatz, Brian*† Hanabusa, Colleen Wakako#† Gabbard, Tulsi Risch, James E.* Durbin, Richard J.* Kirk, Mark S. Kelly, Robin L. Duckworth, L. Tammy Schakowsky, Janice D. Schneider, Bradley S. Foster, G. William (Bill) Callis, Ann Hultgren, Randy Bustos, Cheri Schock, Aaron J. Coats, Daniel R. Donnelly, Joseph S. Walorski Swihart, Jackie Rokita, Theodore E. (Todd) Messer, Allen L. (Luke) Braley, Bruce L. Roberts, Pat* Pompeo, Michael R. Grimes, Alison Lundergan* McConnell, Mitch* Rogers, Harold D. Landrieu, Mary L.* Scalise, Steve Richmond, Cedric L. Fleming, John C., Jr. Riser, Hartwell N., Jr. (Neil)† Collins, Susan M.*

Party

Status

2013-2014 Contributions

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

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

2,000 5,000 -194 2,000 2,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 32,700 1,000 1,000 2,000 1,000 36,500 1,000 13,500 1,000 1,500 500 1,000 2,500 9,500 5,500 21,000 5,500 3,000 9,945 12,000 2,500 1,000 19,700 2,500 1,000 3,500 11,000 1,000 1,350 1,000 1,500 6,000 3,700 2,000 1,000 2,000 3,000 1,000 500 500 2,000 1,000 8,500 21,000 500 2,500 22,000 4,600 38,700 2,500 3,500 2,000 2,000 20,500

Career

Committees

15,500 A 14,000 35,223 C 82,917 A(FO), I 92,430 FR 4,500 5,000 W 23,950 W 42,200 FR 6,000 67,450 AS, HS 12,200 FR 1,400 AS 84,750 AS, I 1,000 32,500 A(FO,HS), B, FR(NE) 1,000 FR(NE) 21,500 8,000 FR(NE) 3,000 24,900 B, C 17,000 8,000 78,850 FR(NE) 12,000 FR(NE) 77,300 A(FO) 28,945 285,740 FR(NE) 2,500 6,500 A(D, HS) 19,700 C 7,500 AS 1,500 FR, HS 17,000 FR(NE), I 386,421 A(D, FO), FR(NE) 338,386 A(FO) 1,350 18,474 AS 35,645 C, I 8,600 FR(NE) 22,700 2,000 3,000 7,000 23,000 W 70,060 A(D, FO, HS), C, I 25,000 AS 500 AS, B 6,500 B 1,000 B, FR(NE) 25,500 C 72,000 500 C, I 2,500 520,141 A(D, FO) 20,600 A 246,589 A(FO, HS), HS 33,000 C 6,000 HS 14,000 AS 2,000 133,500 A(D), I

KEY: The “Career Total” column represents the total amount of pro-Israel PAC money received from Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2013. S=Senate, H=House of Representatives. Party affiliation: D=Democrat, R=Republican. Status: C=Challenger, I=Incumbent, N=Not Running, O=Open Seat (no incumbent), P=Defeated in primary election. *=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.

24

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MAY 2014

paccharts_23-25_Pac Charts for May 2014 3/20/14 5:36 PM Page 25

PRO-ISRAEL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS TO 2014 CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES State

Office District

S H H Massachusetts S S Michigan H H H Minnesota S H Montana S Nevada S H New Hampshire S S New Jersey S H H H H H New Mexico S S H New York H H H H H H H North Carolina S H Ohio H H H H Oklahoma S Oregon S S Pennsylvania H H Rhode Island S H South Carolina S S H South Carolina H South Dakota S Tennessee S Texas S S H H H Vermont H Virginia S H H Wisconsin H Wyoming S Maryland

1 5 8 9 14 2

1 1 6 8 9 11 1 8 11 12 14 16 17 18

11 1 8 11 14 4 8

2

1 1

12 25 35 At-L. 6 7 1

Candidate

Mikulski, Barbara Harris, Andrew P. Hoyer, Steny H. Gomez, Gabriel† Markey, Edward J.* Rogers, Michael J. Levin, Sander M. Peters, Gary Franken, Al* Kline, John P., Jr. Baucus, Max* Reid, Harry Titus, Alice C. (Dina) Ayotte, Kelly A. Shaheen, Jeanne* Booker, Cory A.* Andrews, Robert E. Pallone, Frank, Jr. Sires, Albio Pascrell, William J., Jr. Frelinghuysen, Rodney P. Udall, Tom* Wilson, Heather A. Grisham, Michelle Lujan Jeffries, Hakeem Grimm, Michael Maloney, Carolyn B. Crowley, Joseph Engel, Eliot L. Lowey, Nita M. Hayworth, Nan Hagan, Kay R.* Shuler, Joseph H. (Heath) Chabot, Steve Boehner, John A. Fudge, Marcia L. Joyce, David P. Inhofe, James M.* Merkley, Jeffrey A.* Wyden, Ronald L. Perry, Scott Fitzpatrick, Michael G. Reed, Jack F.* Langevin, James R. Graham, Lindsey O.* Scott, Timothy E.† Colbert Busch, Elizabeth Sanford, Marshall C., Jr. (Mark) Rounds, Marion M. (Mike)* Alexander, Lamar* Cornyn, John* Cruz, Rafael E. (Ted) Granger, Kay Perry, Brent Clark Doggett, Lloyd Welch, Peter Warner, Mark R.* Goodlatte, Robert W. Cantor, Eric Ryan, Paul D. Enzi, Michael B.*

Party D R D R D R D D D R D D D R D D D D D D R D R D D R D D D D R D D R R D R R D D R R D D R R D R R R R R R R D D D R R R R

Status I I I O I I I I I I N I I I I I N I I I I I N I I I I I I I C I N I I I I I I I I I I I I I P I O I I I I C I I I I I I I

2013-2014 Contributions 1,000 2,500 19,000 2,500 14,000 5,000 1,000 4,000 26,000 1,000 7,500 1,000 1,000 1,000 27,500 25,000 5,000 7,500 7,000 2,000 1,000 21,000 -2,000 1,000 2,100 2,000 1,000 300 22,500 12,650 -7,000 45,000 4,000 10,000 18,000 6,700 2,500 2,000 10,000 1,000 2,000 3,500 7,000 6,000 21,500 18,100 2,000 750 5,000 5,000 6,000 2,500 10,000 2,000 1,000 2,000 9,000 1,000 15,875 1,000 15,000

2013 Total Contributions: Total Contributions (1978-2013): Total No. of Recipients (1978-2013): MAY 2014

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Career

214,099 8,500 286,025 2,500 26,250 11,000 134,827 42,500 31,680 24,000 360,148 394,001 15,100 17,500 69,600 25,000 112,025 96,050 8,000 17,853 13,350 62,500 49,750 2,000 22,400 2,000 30,970 109,457 331,918 215,888 -4,000 53,000 13,250 30,000 118,500 9,700 3,500 130,800 31,600 349,462 2,000 23,500 165,850 39,000 84,000 22,100 2,000 750 5,000 13,000 73,480 18,500 31,500 2,000 6,500 11,000 50,500 5,500 240,605 22,750 41,250

Committees A(D, FO), I A Min. Whip

C C, I W AS

A(D)

AS, B, HS A(FO), FR C

C FR B, W A(D, HS) B B W C, FR A(FO) AS

FR(NE) House Spkr.

A AS A, B B, I

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

A(D)

AS, C A(D, FO) W C B, C, I

Maj. Leader B, W B, HS

975,374 54,744,432 2,421 25

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FY ’14 “Omnibus” Appropriations Bill Includes Middle East Funds, Conditions CongressWatch

By Shirl McArthur

AFY 2014 appropriations bills, Con-

fter again failing to pass individual

gress lumped them all into H.R. 3547, the “Consolidated Appropriations” (“omnibus”) bill. The House passed it on Jan. 15, the Senate the following day, and President Barack Obama signed it on Jan. 17, as P.L. 113-76.

As passed, the bill contains few surprises. As reported in the June/July 2013 Washington Report, the FY ’13 Continuing Appropriations Act continued foreign affairs funding at the FY ’12 level, reduced by the 5 percent “sequestration.” This year’s bill does not “sequester” any funds, and provides funding similar to the FY ’12 level. One significant change is the addition of $1.284 billion, under Title VIII Overseas Contingency Operations, “for Migration and Refugee Assistance for the extraordinary costs of the U.S. response to humanitarian crises resulting from conflict.” The provision notes “particularly the large number of individuals and families who have fled Syria to neighboring countries, such as Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon,” without specifying amounts for those countries.

Amounts for Middle East countries, other than Egypt, either earmarked in the bill or specified in the accompanying “statement” are: Israel—$3.399 billion: $3.1 billion in military aid, to be disbursed within 30 days, of which $815.3 million can be spent in Israel, and $15 million for “refugees settling in Israel.” Plus, as described in the previous issue, $284 million from the Defense Department.

Jordan—$1 billion: $360 million in economic aid, $300 million in military aid, and $340 million for “extraordinary costs related to instability in the region, including for security requirements along the border with Iraq.” Plus unspecified amounts for “migration and refugee assistance,” as described in paragraph two above.

Shirl McArthur is a retired U.S. foreign service officer based in the Washington, DC area.

26

Bahrain—$3 million in economic aid.

Lebanon—$12 million for scholarships, plus unspecified amounts for “migration and refugee assistance,” as described in paragraph two above.

Morocco—$20.896 million in economic aid, also available for Western Sahara.

Tunisia—$30 million in economic aid.

Yemen—$45 million in economic aid.

Plus unspecified assistance for the Yemen armed forces “only if such forces are cooperating with the U.S. on counterterrorism efforts.”

Palestinian Authority—No funds are specifically earmarked for the PA, and the bill includes all the previous restrictions on aid.

The bill also includes a provision that unspecified funds “may be made available to establish and operate one or more enterprise funds for Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan.”

os-Lehtinen ranted R against the possibility that UNESCO funding might be restored.

No funds are provided to UNESCO, in accordance with previous laws barring funding to organizations that admit the PA to membership. On Jan. 9, and again on Jan. 13, before the full contents of the omnibus were known, leading Israelfirster Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) took to the floor of the House to rant against the possibility that UNESCO funding might be restored. Then on Jan. 15 she again took the floor to crow that, indeed, no funds for UNESCO were included.

$1.568 Billion in Aid to Egypt, With Conditions Reflecting developments in Egypt following last summer’s military overthrow of the elected government of President Mohamed Morsi, the bill includes provisions that will enable aid to Egypt to continue, “notwithstanding any other provisions of THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

law restricting assistance for Egypt” (referring to earlier provisions that prohibited aid to governments that came to power through a “coup”). As reported in the previous issue, Senate Foreign Relations committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) on Dec. 18 introduced S. 1857, the “Egypt Assistance Reform Act,” which would allow Washington to maintain ties with strategically important countries like Egypt while imposing strict restrictions on any financial or military aid to them. Section 7041(a) of the omnibus will allow Egypt aid to continue with conditions that are a bit less strict than under the Menendez bill. The first, general conditions are that Egypt is “(A) sustaining the strategic relation with the U.S.; and (B) meeting its obligations under the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.”

Subject to the further conditions described below, the bill provides “up to” $250 million for economic aid, of which $35 million should be for higher education programs; “up to” $1.3 billion for military aid “which may be transferred to an interest bearing account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York”; and $1.8 million for military training.

Of these amounts for Egypt, “(A) up to $975 million may be made available if the Secretary of State certifies to the committees on appropriations that the Government of Egypt has held a constitutional referendum, and is taking steps to support a democratic transition in Egypt; and (B) up to $576.8 million may be made available if the Secretary of State certifies…that the Government of Egypt has held parliamentary and presidential elections, and that a newly elected Government of Egypt is taking steps to govern democratically.”

The bill also provides exceptions to the above conditions (whether or not the secretary of state can make the described certifications) “for education and economic growth programs” and “for counterterrorism, border security, and nonproliferation programs in Egypt, and for development activities in the Sinai.”

MAY 2014

mcarthur_26-28_Congress Watch 3/20/14 5:39 PM Page 27

AIPAC Conference Fails to Press for More Iran Sanctions Every year AIPAC’S annual “Policy Conference” draws thousands of Zionists to Washington, DC to hear pro-Israel speeches and lobby Congress for pro-Israel legislation.

This year’s March 2-4 conference was widely expected to feature a push for more punitive Iran sanctions, possibly in the form of pressure to pass the previously described far-reaching and problematic S. 1881, introduced in December by Sens.

Menendez and Mark Kirk (R-IL). However, that didn’t happen. AIPAC likes to consider itself a nonpartisan organization, and the question of Iran sanctions at this time has become a strongly partisan issue, with nearly all Democrats supporting Obama’s diplomatic efforts with Iran, and most Republicans supporting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s efforts to scuttle the negotiations, even to the point of introducing new Iran sanctions amendments to non-related measures. However, with Democrats in control of the Senate, it appears no new sanctions will be imposed, at least for the next few months.

Rather than enacting new sanctions, efforts to scuttle negotiations may be turning to placing stringent, deal-breaking conditions on any final agreement that might be reached. At a late February news conference Netanyahu said, “Zero enrichment, zero centrifuges, zero plutonium,” giving an indication of what those conditions might look like—and to which Iran will never agree.

S. 1881, which would impose a long list of additional sanctions on Iran unless the president certifies to Congress that a list of 10 conditions has been met, has gained no new co-sponsors and still has 59, including Menendez and Kirk.

The only previously described Iran measure to gain co-sponsors was the non-binding H.Res. 431, introduced in December by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), plaintively “calling on the U.S. Senate to increase sanctions against Iran.” It has gained two co-sponsors and now has 64, all but one Republicans, including Scalise.

Meanwhile, dueling letters were sent opposing and supporting the negotiations with Iran. On Feb. 4, 42 Republican senators signed a letter to Majority Leader Harry

Reid (D-NV) urging him to permit a vote on S. 1881. In the House on Feb. 12, 104 representatives, mostly Democrats, signed a letter to Obama saying that “we believe that Congress must give diplomacy a chance,” and that “we must not imperil the possibility of a diplomatic success before we even have a chance to pursue it.”

House Passes U.S.-Israel Partnership Bill One result of AIPAC’s conference was the March 5 passage by the full House, under “suspension of the rules,” of H.R. 938, as amended, the “U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership” bill introduced last March by Ros-Lehtinen and described in previous issues. This bill, along with the Senate’s companion bill, S. 462, introduced last March by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), were a major effort at last year’s AIPAC conference, so it is not surprising that they were able to get the House version passed this year. A major change is that the bill as passed includes the text of H.R. 1992, the “Israel QME Enhancement” bill, introduced in May by Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) and passed by the full House in December,

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MAY 2014

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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which would update the criteria for maintaining Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;qualitative military edgeâ&#x20AC;? to include cyber warfare. Among other things, H.R. 938 would still authorize increased U.S. â&#x20AC;&#x153;cooperative activitiesâ&#x20AC;? in various fields, expand U.S.-Israel cyber-security cooperation, and extend authority to add to â&#x20AC;&#x153;foreign-basedâ&#x20AC;? defense stockpiles and transfer â&#x20AC;&#x153;obsolete or surplusâ&#x20AC;? Department of Defense items to Israel.

There had been some speculation that Ros-Lehtinen would modify the provision urging that Israel be included in the visa waiver program, along the lines of S. 462, which would water down the key requirement of granting full reciprocity to U.S. citizens by saying that Israel would only have to make â&#x20AC;&#x153;every reasonable effort, without jeopardizing the security of the State of Israel, to ensure that reciprocal travel privileges are extended to all U.S. citizens.â&#x20AC;?

However, as passed H.R. 938 only says that â&#x20AC;&#x153;it shall be the policy of the U.S. to include Israel in the list of countries that participate in the visa waiver programâ&#x20AC;Śwhen Israel satisfies, and as long as Israel continues to satisfy, the requirements for inclusion in such program.â&#x20AC;?

H.R. 938 was passed on a roll call vote of 410-1 with 19 absent, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) the lone â&#x20AC;&#x153;nayâ&#x20AC;? vote. When passed it had 356 co-sponsors, including Ros-Lehtinen. S. 462 now has 56, including Boxer.

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Of the previously described measures urging continued U.S. efforts to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict through a negotiated two-state solution, H.Res. 365, introduced in September by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), continues to gain co-sponsors. It now has 119, including Schakowsky.

Of the various previously described measures to transfer to Jerusalem the U.S. Embassy located in Tel Aviv, only H.R. 3629, introduced by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) in December has gained co-sponsors. It would express the â&#x20AC;&#x153;sense of Congressâ&#x20AC;? not only that the U.S. should move its embassy to Jerusalem, but also that the U.S. â&#x20AC;&#x153;should recognize Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sovereignty and legal rights to its lands, including the Golan Heights and Jerusalem as Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital.â&#x20AC;? It would also eliminate the presidential waiver authority included in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. It now has 12 co-sponsors, including Franks.

Also, H.R. 3683, to amend the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to improve U.S.-Israel energy cooperation, introduced in December by Rep. Fred Upton (RMI), was reported out of the House Energy and Commerce committee on Feb. 5. It now has eight co-sponsors, including Upton.

One new Israel-related bill was introduced. On Jan. 29 Rep. Alan Grayson (DFL) introduced H.R. 3961, which would call for discussions with Israel to identify the steps necessary to include Israel within the list of countries eligible for the Strategic Trade Authorization exception to the requirement for a license for the export, re-export, or in-country transfer of an item subject to certain export controls.

New Bills Introduced Limiting PA Aid, Punishing Academic Institutions

Buy A Better Soda Maker & Fight Occupation $34.95 Proudly Made Outside the Occupied Territories For more information visit: <www.fizzgiz.com> or e-mail: MrFizz@FizzGiz.com 28

On Jan. 14 House Foreign Affairs committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) introduced H.R. 3868, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Palestinian Peace Promotion and Anti-Incitementâ&#x20AC;? bill. It would make aid funds available to the PA only if the president certifies that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the PA: (1) no longer engages in a pattern of incitement against the U.S. or Israel, and (2) is engaged in activities aimed at promoting peace with the Jewish State of Israel.â&#x20AC;?

On Feb. 6 Reps. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL) introduced H.R. 4009, the contrarily named â&#x20AC;&#x153;Protect Academic Freedomâ&#x20AC;? bill, even though its purpose is to restrict academic freedom. It would THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;prohibit an institution that participates in a boycott of Israeli academic institutions or scholars from being eligible for certain fundsâ&#x20AC;? under the Higher Education Act. Earlier, on Jan. 17, Roskam led 134 representatives in signing a letter to American Studies Association (ASA) President Curtis Marez â&#x20AC;&#x153;in strong opposition to ASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent decision to boycott Israeli universities and academic institutionsâ&#x20AC;? (see March/April 2014 Washington Report, p. 19).

Bills to Repeal Authorization of Force Against Iraq, War Powers Resolution Companion bills in the House and Senate would â&#x20AC;&#x153;repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.â&#x20AC;? On Jan. 10 Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), with 10 co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 3852, and on Jan. 14 Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), with eight co-sponsors, introduced S. 1919.

More comprehensively, on Jan. 16 Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and two co-sponsors introduced S. 1939, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;War Powers Consultationâ&#x20AC;? bill. It would repeal the War Powers Resolution of 1973, as amended, replacing it with a consultation process between the legislative and executive branches of government. The billâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stated purpose is â&#x20AC;&#x153;to establish a constructive and practical means by which the judgment of both the President and Congress can be brought to bear when deciding whether the U.S. should engage in a significant armed conflict. This Act is not meant to define, circumscribe, or enhance the constitutional war powers of either the executive or legislative branch of government, and neither branch by supporting or complying with this Act shall in any way limit or prejudice its right or ability to assert its constitutional war powers or its right or ability to question or challenge the constitutional war powers of the other branch.â&#x20AC;? â?&#x2018; (Advertisement)

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lippman_29-30_Special Report 3/20/14 5:42 PM Page 29

Bosnia-Herzegovina Protests a Response To Post-War Corruption, Impoverishment SpecialReport

By Peter Lippman or 18 post-war years, Bosnia-Herzegov-

nomic wreckage within the framework of the “Dayton straitjacket” that has encouraged pervasive corruption and the enrichment of an ethno-nationalist elite. With massive unemployment, paltry pensions, a high cost of living, and chaos in government, one might well ask why it took so long for February’s turbulent street protests to erupt.

And now, after the torching of several government buildings and the resignation of a number of officials, a more urgent question is how to transform and channel the anger expressed on the street into concrete social change.

The demonstrations began in the northeast industrial city of Tuzla as a protest against a standard postwar pattern of economic devolution: managers run stateowned industries into the ground, then they and their cronies purchase them on the cheap, sell off valuable assets, declare bankruptcy, and lay off workers. This pattern was repeated in the Tuzla region with several formerly thriving factories. After several months of hunger strikes and small demonstrations, workers announced another protest on Feb. 5.

On that occasion, dissatisfied students and other young people joined the workers, multiplying their numbers. Within a day, violence between demonstrators and police erupted and, at the end of the week, protesters had torched Tuzla canton’s government building and the municipal building as well. By that time the number of demonstrators in Tuzla had grown from a few thousand to some ten thousand.

The unrest was quick to spread throughout the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of Bosnia’s two entities (together with the Serb-controlled Republika Srpska, or RS). The first demonstration in solidarity with Tuzla—and in protest of the same difficult conditions that exist throughout the country—took place in Sarajevo, then spread quickly to such other cities such as Zenica, Mostar, Bugojno, Brčko, and Bihać, and ultimately even to smaller, peripheral Peter Lippman is an independent human rights activist based in Seattle.

MAY 2014

ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Fina has progressively sunk into eco-

Bosnian activists tie yellow ribbons on the arms of protesters in Sarajevo, Feb. 15, 2014. towns such as Srebrenik and Kalesija.

While the demonstrations in Sarajevo never reached the size of those in Tuzla, similar violence took place in the first days, as protesters torched the state-level presidency building and the Sarajevo canton government building. Torchings followed in Zenica and Mostar, where demonstrators not only set several cantonal and municipal buildings on fire, but also targeted the headquarters of the SDA and the HDZ, respectively the offices of the Muslim and Croat nationalist parties in power in that divided city.

For a few days popular anger thus brought street unrest out of control throughout the Federation, primarily in localities where the Muslim population was predominant—although Croats have participated to some extent in Mostar. By the first weekend, however, the street fighting was over and demonstrators themselves were cleaning up the broken glass and rubble.

More peaceful demonstrations continued, however, and for the first time since the war, ordinary people managed to get the atTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tention of the politician-profiteers who for so long had been plundering their country.

Now the recriminations and spin began.

It is notable that during this period there was virtually no protest activity recorded in the RS; a solidarity demonstration of several hundred was held in the RS capital, Banja Luka, and a smaller protest took place in nearby Prijedor. But the autocratic president of that entity, Milorad Dodik, was quick to warn that the protests in the Federation were part of a “plot to destabilize the RS” and that there was a serious threat of invasion across entity lines. Representative Aleksandra Pandurević from the SDS, a Serb nationalist party, called for the arrest of demonstrators who had blocked the parliament building in Sarajevo, asserting that local police agencies in that city were guilty of collaborating with the demonstrators in “holding RS representatives hostage.”

Meanwhile entrenched politicians in the Federation were voicing similarly opportunistic and spurious conspiracy theories.

One of the SDA’s high functionaries asserted that the violence in Sarajevo had 29

lippman_29-30_Special Report 3/20/14 5:42 PM Page 30

object of desultory negotiations with been instigated by “football fans” For a list of demands generated by the plenums, varying results. The mayor of Bugowho had infiltrated from neighboring visit <www.jasminmujanovic.com/1/post/2014/ jno accepted all demands of that East Sarajevo, a Serb-controlled area.

02/the-demands-of-the-people-of-tuzla-sarajevocity’s demonstrators. The Sarajevo In Mostar, Croat nationalist politienglish.html>. canton parliament consented to a recians characterized the unrest there For a website with informative articles transview of payments and benefits of as the result of Bosniak (Bosnian lated into English about the unrest, see <http:// public officials and for an audit of Muslim) plans to overthrow Croat the privatization of all state compaleadership. bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com>.

—P.L. nies. The Unsko-Sanski canton parHowever, the widespread protests liament accepted all 13 demands of a were in fact notable for consistently targeting Bosnia’s corrupt leadership rather ences with each other. Within days the group of activists calling itself “Bosnian than harking back to worn-out tales of eth- plenums had drawn up lists of demands Spring.”

By mid-March participation both in nic enmity. This time protesters, regardless that they were presenting to their respecstreet demonstrations and attendance at of ethnicity, were uniting around what one tive canton governments.

Early on, these demands were developed the plenums had dwindled to the point might go so far as to call class issues. While politicians were, practically in unison, call- in several categories. One dealt with rights where some commentators were stating ing those who committed violence “hooli- of the protesters, calling for canton gov- that the wind was gone from the movegans,” the demonstrators were likewise ernments to ensure their right to protest ment’s sails. But the unrest had stirred up unanimously calling for the dismissal of peacefully, for the release of randomly ar- the country and the dust has not settled. It corrupt politicians whom they termed a rested protesters, and for an impartial in- is worth remembering that after last sumvestigation into the violence on both sides. mer’s short but turbulent demonstrations “band of thieves.”

Response among ordinary people to the Another pertained to the responsibilities of regarding the standardized identification unrest was fairly united. Especially in the political authorities, calling on them to number (see Oct./Nov. 2013 Washington Federation, support for the demonstrations quickly create caretaker governments com- Report, p. 34), people commented peswas nearly unanimous. At the same time, posed of “non-partisan, non-corrupt ex- simistically that nothing had been the violence in the streets and the sight perts.” A third category of demands dealt achieved. Grassroots uprisings are and smell of burning buildings terrified with corruption and other fundamental episodic; it is quite possible that they will many—especially those with any memory causes of the unrest, calling for recognition become more frequent and build in intenof the “seniority and secure health insur- sity with each episode. of the war two decades ago.

As one demonstrator said, “If it is not Regardless of their overall support for ance of the workers”; confiscation of illethe protests, nearly everyone condemned gally obtained property; annulment of pri- clear to them now that they must listen to the violence. But it was difficult to disagree vatization agreements (referring, for exam- the voice of the people, everything that with the point that the unrest was the only ple, to Tuzla’s bankrupt factories); and re- happened on Feb. 7 will look like a picnic thing since the war that had actually turn of the factories to the workers so that compared to what happens when that anger explodes again.” ❑ caused politicians to pay attention to the production could be resumed.

An additional, crucial category of deconcerns of ordinary people. As it happened, within the first 10 days or so of the mands pertained to the inordinate privilege protests, the entire governments of Sara- that Bosnia’s legislators at municipal, canton jevo, Tuzla, Zenica, and Unsko-Sanski and state levels had granted themselves over Alalusi Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 (Bihać) cantons resigned. The prime min- the years, with regular increases in salary American Friends of Birzeit ister of that canton, Hamdija Lipovača, even while per capita income was stagnatUniversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 long under fire for corruption, temporarily ing or falling. Plenum demands in this realm American Near East Refugee Aid included the call for equalizing pay of govfled the country.

(ANERA) . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover By the second week of demonstrations it ernment and ordinary workers; various Americans for Middle East was obvious that the spontaneous events caps were mentioned, such as limiting the Understanding (AMEU) . . . . . . . . 22 needed more formal expression, and ac- pay of a politician to three times the average tivists in at least a half-dozen cities formed of a worker. Additional payouts to politiArab American Voice. . . . . . . . . . . . 13 citizen assemblies that they called cians for membership on subcommittees Folk Art Mavens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 plenums. The plenums, notably in Tuzla, and task forces, as well as fat budgets for Holy Land Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Sarajevo, Bihać, Mostar and Zenica, were mobile phones, lodgings away from home, Insight Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 open to all who could take the time to par- family visits and official cars also were tarIslamic Circle of North America ticipate. In Sarajevo and Tuzla, initially as geted. One prominent benefit cited was (ICNA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 many as a thousand came to tell their sto- what Bosnians call the “white bread” payKinder USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 ries of frustration, impoverishment, anger ment, equivalent to the “golden parachute,” and hope. The very opportunity to speak that grants retiring politicians a year’s pay Mashrabiya, Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 one’s personal story and be heard was sig- after they leave office.

Mr. FizzGiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 As the plenums got under way, local nificant to many participants.

Muslim Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Some respected independent intellectu- governments met with representatives of United Palestinian Appeal als helped give form to the plenums’ these assemblies to discuss their demands.

(UPA) . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover process of developing demands. Represen- The “white bread” cancellation demand Zakat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 tatives of the plenums traveled among par- was quickly accepted in Tuzla and several ticipating cities and shared their experi- other cantons; other demands became the

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30

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MAY 2014

twair_31-32_Southern California Chronicle 3/20/14 5:48 PM Page 31

CIA and U.S. Middle East Policy Explored

By Pat and Samir Twair

Southern California Chronicle

merica’s Great Game: The CIA and

theme of a March 6 program sponsored by Los Angeles Jews for Peace and organized by the Levantine Cultural Center. The dynamite roster of speakers featured historian Hugh Wilford and former CIA case worker and best-selling author Robert Baer.

Robert Scheer, editor-in-chief of Truthdig, was the moderator.

Wilford, a professor at California State University, Long Beach, has garnered critical acclaim for his new book, America’s Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East.

Scheer introduced Baer as the real life character played by George Clooney in the movie, “Syriana,” based on Baer’s novels See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism, Sleeping With the Devil and The Devil We Know.

In his research into the formative years of the CIA after World War II, Wilford said he was surprised to read about the American Friends of the Middle East which tried to scale down U.S. support of Israel. Key CIA figures in this group, who were referred to as Arabists because of their skills in speaking Arabic, were Kermit and Archie Roosevelt, grandsons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland.

Wilford pointed out that many of the “sympathetic Arabists“ were descendants of Christian missionaries to the Middle East and founders of the American University of Beirut. Kermit Roosevelt held Orientalist views and glorified the adventurism in the works of T.E. Lawrence and Rudyard Kipling—hence his nickname of Kim, in honor of Kipling’s boy hero.

The overriding interest of the fledgling CIA was to ensure that the region would not fall into the U.S.S.R.’s embrace. According to Wilford, Arabists in the CIA tried to help former colonies shed their past ties, support Arab nationalism and forge relations with Washington. The decline of CIA Arabism occurred in 1958, when Secretary of State John Foster Dulles’ suspicion of Nasserism caused Arabs to view Washington as an enemy.

In Wilford’s opinion, it was the internal flaw of covert CIA actions that led to Arab Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.

MAY 2014

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

“AU.S. Middle East Policy” was the

Authors Hugh Wilford (l) and Robert Baer. disenchantment with the U.S. Disillusionment, disdain and disgust peppered Baer’s remarks, as he repeatedly said “I’m sorry” for misadventures attributed to the CIA in Chile, Nicaragua, Iraq and Afghanistan, to name a few. In 1982, he said, CIA operatives advised that sending U.S. Marines to Lebanon was a bad idea, but they were overruled.

Baer, who was in the CIA from 1976 to 1997, said his most effective years were in the 1980s and ’90s. He considers the agency’s policy of no longer studying the languages of an agent’s area of specialization a tragedy. “The neocons didn’t want Arabists,” stated Baer, who is fluent in Arabic, Persian, French and German and conversant in Russian, Tajik and Baluch.

“Instead they sent Hispanic specialists to the Middle East.”

Baer continued: “In Iraq, the Americans stayed inside the Green Zone, in Afghanistan, they were more isolated— not one American spoke Pashtu. Now they rely on intelligence from drones. They’ve lost touch. There’s a disconnect with fact.”

Baer’s frequent statements on the neocons’ hatred of Arabists seemed to mirror his loathing for the neocons’ love of covert actions—which, he asserted, don’t succeed THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

in overthrowing targeted regimes. Instead of investigating what’s causing social unrest in a given country, an agent is handed an operational directive telling him the information he’s to collect. So, Baer said, if he wants to collect his paycheck every two weeks the investigator writes a brief that will make the White House happy.

Serious war crimes were committed by Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, Baer charged, but the government doesn’t want to talk about it, just as it chose to ignore Israel’s deliberate and extended attack on the USS Liberty in 1967.

In answer to a query about the Arab Spring, Baer said there was an initial euphoria, but the military power lurking in the background was ignored. The Egyptian army’s ouster of Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013 was a coup d’état, he said, but Washington looked the other way. “We weren’t going to invade Egypt over it,” he quipped.

The veteran CIA operative said he expected 9/11 to be America’s wakeup call (to our misguided policy of supporting Israel without question), but all it did was create the Department of Homeland Security, which opened the door for the government to snoop on its own citizens.

31

“Omar” director Hany Abu-Assad (second from left) with cast members (l-r) Adam Bakri, Leem Lubany and Eyad Hourani.

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

STAFF PHOTOM S. TWAIR

twair_31-32_Southern California Chronicle 3/20/14 5:48 PM Page 32

Dr. Laila Al-Marayati.

Director, Cast Discuss “Omar” Hany Abu-Assad has achieved what many never thought possible for a Palestinian movie director and writer: he’s created two feature films, “Paradise Now” (2005) and “Omar” (2013), nominated for the Academy Award’s best foreign language category.

Days before the Oscar ceremonies, a special screening took place at the Sundance Sunset Theater, where Abu-Assad and four of the actors answered questions from the audience. The director said he started writing the script at 4 a.m. and completed the first draft four days later. Leem Lubany was 16 years old when she read for the role of Nadia and was selected over 44 others who made screen tests for the part.

“Omar,” shot on location in Nazareth, Abu-Assad’s hometown, is the first feature film wholly financed by Palestinians. The four lead actors are virtual newcomers.

Adam Bakri commented that while study-

ing at the Lee Strasberg Institute, he’d dreamed how wonderful it would be to act in a Hany Abu-Assad film, and felt as if he were still dreaming when he was cast as Omar.

“The movie isn’t solely about the occupation,” Abu-Assad said. “It looks closely at love, friendship and paranoia.”

Sadly, Abu-Assad didn’t win the Oscar for Palestine, but he can take consolation in the knowledge his “Omar” beat out “Bethlehem,” Israel’s film about a Palestinian teenager coerced to collaborate with his Israeli handlers, for consideration in the best foreign language category.

Beijing Reunion Dr. Laila Al-Marayati took time out from her medical practice and work as chairperson of KinderUSA on the last weekend of February to fly to Washington, DC to attend a Feb. 25 reunion of the U.S. delega-

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tion to the U.N.’s 4th World Conference on Women which convened in 1995 in Beijing.

At the Beijing event, Dr. Al-Marayati, then a young gynecologist, was a private sector adviser to the delegation headed by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and First Lady Hillary Clinton, who were joined by Donna Shalala and the late Geraldine Ferraro.

Georgetown University was the venue for the reunion, where Al-Marayati reported that the Internet has become a valuable tool for Muslim women to discuss such taboo topics in their societies as domestic violence. She noted that computers also have improved literacy among Muslim women, who now can study in a safe home environment. At the same time, the Los Angeles physician stressed, many Muslim women face persistent poverty, illiteracy and violence, adding that maternal mortality must be reduced in the poorest countries. Rep. Frederica Wilson (DFL) pointed out that the U.S. also has much to do for its women citizens, especially in reproductive health and equal pay for equal work.

Now that she’s returned to L.A., the busy doctor is finalizing plans for KinderUSA’s annual fund-raiser, slated for April 19 in Pasadena’s Eden Garden and Grill. Featured speakers will be the Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah and Laila el-Haddad, the author of Gaza Kitchen (available from the AET Bookstore) who was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s CNN program “Parts Unknown” episode on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. ❑ MAY 2014

adas_33-34_New York City and Tri-State News 3/20/14 6:49 PM Page 33

Max Blumenthal’s Goliath Ignored by Liberal Zionists, Mainstream Media

By Jane Adas

on a book tour promoting his highly successful Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, an examination of right-wing activism in America. Five years later, speaking at Alwan for The Arts this past Jan. 19, Blumenthal recalled how he had been enraged to read about picnicking Israelis watching and cheering from a hill near the Gaza border as F16s and drones bombed the densely populated strip, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni’s expressed pride that Israeli soldiers “behaved like hooligans.” Even the leftish Meretz party supported Operation Cast Lead. In May 2009, Blumenthal went to Israel on an extended reporting trip to gather material for a book on contemporary Israeli society: Goliath: Fear and Loathing in Greater Israel (available from the AET Bookstore).

Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel was published at about the same time. As Blumenthal observed, both books make the same point: it’s not only about the 1967 occupation, Jewish Israelis are deeply threatened by any discussion of the Nakba. For Shavit, what happened in 1948 was unfortunately necessary for the creation of Israel. For Blumenthal, the Nakba was a crime and is ongoing. Quoting Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, he said, “not a day goes by in Israel without some form of ethnic cleansing,”— an eviction, a permit denied, a home demolition, settler violence.

The two books have had very different receptions. Shavit’s has been heavily promoted, extensively reviewed, and praised by liberal Zionists like David Brooks and Thomas Friedman. Other than Eric Alterman, who in The Nation dubbed Goliath the “I hate Israel Handbook,” Blumenthal said, “the liberal Jewish establishment won’t even discuss Goliath.” Rather than review it, the mainstream press mostly ignores it.

People like Terry Gross of PBS’s “Fresh Air” who were eager to interview Blumenthal about Gomorrah now shun him. Further to Jane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the New York City metropolitan area.

MAY 2014

the right, John Podhoretz, the neocon editor of Commentary, called Goliath “the year’s most disgusting book,” and it garnered Blumenthal ninth place on the Wiesenthal Center’s annual list of top ten anti-Semites. Blumenthal quipped that, being an ambitious Jew, he aspires to displace the Ayatollah in the number one spot.

Blumenthal warned that repressing discussion leads to actual anti-Semites wearing antiSemitism as a badge of honor, and argued that Israel is the real beneficiary of anti-Semitism.

Moreover, on his nationwide book tour, in spite of pressure to cancel about a quarter of his talks, Blumenthal has had large audiences eager to learn, which Author Max Blumenthal. has taught him that there is more political space than people think.

Rami Khouri is director of the Issam Fares Goliath details how Israelis, especially Institute for Public Policy and Internayounger ones, are becoming more national- tional Affairs at the American University istic and more committed to Jewish racial of Beirut. Under the auspices of Churches purity. This is translated for the American for Middle East Peace–New Jersey, he prepublic as concern for Israel’s security, which sented two talks at Nassau Church in shapes the decades-long U.S.-led peace Princeton. In the first he discussed “Three process in which the real goal is to avoid a years of Arab revolutions and counter-revjust resolution. Blumenthal concluded by olutions.” Because of the mediocre nature describing the recently deceased Ariel of the mainstream media, Khouri began, Sharon on a feeding tube as the perfect Americans see the region only as chaotic metaphor for Israel. The U.S. is the feeding and violent. The reality, he said, is more tube, he said, preserving the status quo. complicated and optimistic. Khouri sees a major historical development underway, Rami Khouri Discusses Arab where for the first time 350 million ordiRevolutions, Failed Peace Process nary Arab citizens are insisting on their rights, defining the limits of power, writing their own constitutions, and demanding accountability from their governments.

There has been a wide range of outcomes so far. Tunisians and Egyptians overthrew dictators, and then democratically elected Islamist governments. Neither succeeded in addressing underlying grievances. Tunisians opted for an orderly transition of power, the Egyptian military for a coup, albeit with wide popular support.

Khouri considers Syria the most troubling, calling it the “biggest proxy war of modern history.” What began as aggrieved citizens seeking reform has devolved into IsJournalist Rami Khouri. lamists vs. secularists; Shi’i vs. Sunnis; a STAFF PHOTOS J. ADAS

n 2009—during Israel’s “Cast Lead” as-

Isault on Gaza—Max Blumenthal was

New York City and Tri-StateNews

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

33

adas_33-34_New York City and Tri-State News 3/20/14 6:49 PM Page 34

global cold war with the U.S. vs. Russia; a regional cold war of Iran vs. Saudi Arabia; and Salafi (a word Khouri prefers to “jihadist”) vs. everybody. Khouri believes the situation will calm down only when external forces back off.

The U.S., Khouri continued, now knows what ordinary Arabs want: government legitimacy, not through military power but through the consent of the governed— something we should applaud and support. Khouri also urged Washington to be more consistent, for example, not going to war for regime change in Libya while putting down dissent in Bahrain. Finally, the U.S. should be clear what it stands for: is it stability for the sake of oil and Israel’s security, or is it democracy?

Khouri’s second talk was on Israel/Palestine. For the past 20 years, the U.S. has led a peace process that Khouri believes has failed because it is based on the principle that the U.S. must guarantee Israel’s security, therefore giving more priority to Israeli demands than Palestinian. Khouri asked why the Obama administration under Secretary of State Kerry suddenly is playing such an active role in what is likely to continue to fail. He believes it is because of what Gen. David Petraeus and others have been saying for the past three years: the continuation of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict has led to public opinion in the region, and even in the world, that is detrimental to U.S. interests. Resolving the situation is now a top national priority.

One other new element in the process is Israel’s demand that Palestine recognize Israel as a Jewish state. However, Khouri added, because this concept is not well defined, there is skepticism in the Arab world. Within Israel, public opinion has shifted to the right, and Palestine is scarcely on the radar. Palestinians living outside the West Bank—under siege in Gaza, in refugee camps, or the diaspora— are not represented in the negotiations, which confers less legitimacy on President Mahmoud Abbas. Khouri assured his audience that Hamas is not a stumbling block, because if Fatah negotiates an agreement with Israel that is approved by referendum, Hamas has promised to accept it.

A real obstacle is the refugee issue, of paramount importance for Palestinians. Under U.N. resolutions and international law, they should be allowed to return to their homes, but Israel does not accept this.

Khouri views popular sentiment in the global context as more problematical for Israel than for Palestine. The EU supports Israel, but is putting pressure and legal con34

straint on its colonies, which Khouri noted are clearly illegal. He emphasized that BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) is not about delegitimizing Israel, but about ending the occupation. Khouri added that the Palestinian exile has now lasted longer than the Babylonian exile, which was what led to the idea of a Jewish people with a homeland in the first place. Nobody should therefore be surprised when a similar situation and the denial of rights have led to a heightened national consciousness among Palestinians.

Richard Falk Gives Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton

Prof. Richard Falk.

Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law, gave Princeton University’s 11th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture on Feb. 18. Falk is the first American to have been the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in occupied Palestine. Despite the U.N. mandate, Israel not only denied Falk access to the occupied territories, but in 2008 detained the then-77-year-old Falk for 15 hours at Ben-Gurion airport in prison-like conditions, then expelled him.

Falk responded at the time, “Israel wanted to teach the U.N. a lesson.”

Falk cited three key incidents that shaped Edward Said’s stance toward the Palestinian predicament. The 1967 war spurred Said to activism. He recognized that Palestinians could not rely on the militarism of Arab states, but instead must take responsibility for their own self-empowerment.

Second, Falk continued, Said supported the Palestinian National Council’s “stunning decision” in 1988 to recognize Israel within the Green Line in conformity with U.N. Resolution 242, which called for unconditional Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied in 1967 and a just resolution THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

for Palestinian refugees. Noting that this meant a Palestinian state on less than half the territory offered by the 1947 partition resolution, which itself was unfair to Palestinians, Falk pointed out how unusual it is for the weaker side to offer significant territorial concessions in advance of negotiations. However, Israel ignored the PNC decision and chose instead to accelerate settlement expansion.

Third, Said viewed the 1993 Oslo process as “a humbling defeat, worse than 1967, with delusionary expectations.”

From that point, Falk explained, Said broke with the PNC and shifted toward advocating a single state as the only outcome that would allow a just solution for all.

Throughout, Falk added, Said was consistent in his belief that one dispossession never justifies a second. Therefore, Said never refused to accept Israel, but by the same reasoning did not believe that the Holocaust justified Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

In the decade since Said’s death, Falk observed that the occupation has intensified, Israel’s control of East Jerusalem has become a form of annexation, and Secretary of State Kerry’s peace brokering seems to be an all-or-nothing final chance to have a two-state outcome on terms favorable to Israel. In Falk’s opinion, it is too late for a just two-state solution and too early for one state. “How then,” he asked, “to envision getting from an oppressed here to a liberated there, and with no happy political ending ensured?”

The Palestinians themselves, in restructuring their movement, have provided a possible answer. Seeing that the Oslo process is based on the existing power structure, no longer believing that the U.S. is a credible mediator, and losing confidence in their official leadership, Palestinians have turned to rights-based, nonviolent popular mobilization, which Falk described as a “legitimacy war strategy” that deploys “soft power.” It worked in South Africa once the white elite recognized that they were better served by compromise than by paying the rising costs of racism.

Falk hopes it might transform Israelis’ view of what is in their own self-interest.

He concluded by reading from the poem Mahmoud Darwish wrote upon the death of his friend, Edward Said: My dream leads my steps.

And my vision places my dream on my knees like a pet cat.

It’s the imaginary real, the child of will: We can change the inevitability of the abyss. ❑ MAY 2014

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sprusansky_36-37_Special Report 3/20/14 5:51 PM Page 36

Netanyahu’s AIPAC Speech: 5 Lies SpecialReport

JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Dale Sprusansky

African asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally via Egypt stage a protest outside the Holot detention center in Israel’s southern Negev desert, Feb. 17, 2014. hroughout his March 4 speech before

Tthe American Israel Public Affairs

Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made lofty assertions about Israel’s moral standing. At the end of his remarks, he confidently stated that “anybody can verify” the claims he made.

Taking the prime minister up on this challenge, below are five easily refutable claims Netanyahu made in his speech: 1) “In the Middle East bludgeoned by butchery and barbarism, Israel is humane; Israel is compassionate. Israel is a force for good.”

If you are facing persecution in your homeland, Israel cares deeply about your plight and wants you to seek refuge within its borders—assuming, of course, you are a Jew. The 50,000 to 60,000 non-Jewish African migrants who have come to Israel fleeing violence in Sudan and Eritrea since 2006 have learned the painful lesson that they are not welcome in Netanyahu’s “humane” and “compassionate” Israel.

Netanyahu has called the beleaguered asylum-seeking Africans “infiltrators” and warned that they threaten Israel’s Jewish identity.

Dale Sprusansky is assistant editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

36

This tough rhetoric has been backed up with harsh laws. In December, the Knesset passed a law that allows asylum-seeking migrants to be detained indefinitely at the new Holot detention center in the Negev Desert. Africans sent to the center, which Israel describes as a “halfway house,” are free to leave the facility during the day, but are not permitted to work, must check in at the center (which is an hour’s bus ride from the nearest city) three times a day, and are required to spend the night there.

Thus, the center—which lacks such basic services as heat and medication—is essentially a glorified prison.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concerns about the facility, stating it might violate international law. “‘Warehousing’ refugees in Holot is not a solution in line with the 1951 Refugee Convention [to which Israel is a signatory],” the agency said in a statement.

While Israel’s harsh treatment of Africans is a relatively new development, the country’s inhumane treatment of its Palestinian population has been well documented. The construction of illegal Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land, the destruction of Palestinian homes and olive trees, the existence of roads for Jews only, the construction of a separation wall THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

that cuts deep into Palestinian territory, the denial of adequate water to Palestinian towns, the imprisoning of thousands of Palestinians (including children) without charges, the blockade of Gaza and aggressive military incursions that have killed thousands, top the list of Israel’s human rights violations.

Ignoring these facts, Netanyahu attempted to bolster Israel’s compassionate image at AIPAC by noting that his country has treated injured Syrian civilians at field hospitals in the occupied Golan Heights.

While this is true, Israel sends these individuals back to war-torn Syria once they recover. The prime minister also negates the fact that thousands of Palestinians are suffering in Syria solely because they were forced to flee their homes in Palestine during the 1948 Nakba.

While Netanyahu claims Israel is the “dividing line between decency and depravity,” neighboring Lebanon and Jordan, countries with far fewer resources than Israel, have done far more to assist Syrians.

Writing in Haaretz in January, Gideon Levy described Netanyahu’s humanitarian claims vis-à-vis Syria as little more than “nauseating self-congratulations.”

2) “[Israel has] values that move us to treat sick Palestinians, thousands of them from Gaza. They come to our hospitals. We treat them despite the fact that terrorists from Gaza hurl thousands of rockets at our cities.”

Netanyahu is quick to point out what Hamas militants have done to Israel, but ignores the devastation his country’s military has caused Gaza. Yousef Munayyer, executive director of The Jerusalem Fund, recently provided figures that put the prime minister’s remarks in perspective.

An estimated 9,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza in the last seven years, he noted, while in 2005 and 2006 alone, Israel fired more than 15,000 shells at Gaza—one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza has had predictable results. Since 2008, Israel has killed 1,867 Gazans. During the same time period, 30 Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian attacks.

Moreover, those who have survived Israel’s assaults face serious health risks. Cancer rates in Gaza have risen astronomically since Israel’s 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead, MAY 2014

sprusansky_36-37_Special Report 3/20/14 5:51 PM Page 37

during which French experts say Israel likely attacked the area with uranium. Local doctors have told Al-Monitor they expect the cancer rate in Gaza to double by 2018.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza also severely limits medical options there. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem recently reported that many diagnostic centers and ambulances have had to stop operating due to lack of fuel, and that the supply of medical equipment and medicines is steadily declining. Additionally, access to clean drinking water is quickly disappearing, as are trucks that pick up trash.

Even though Gazans often have no recourse other than to seek medical help in Israel, the country frequently is not eager to assist them. “Israel has cut back on issuing permits to enter the country for the hundreds of patients each month who need immediate life-saving treatment and urgent, advanced treatment unavailable in Gaza,” B’Tselem noted. “Since Hamas took over control of the Gaza Strip, the number of patients forbidden to leave Gaza ‘for security reasons’ has steadily increased.”

Indeed, B’Tselem pointed out, some people who live in Gaza have died after being denied access to Israeli hospitals. “It is clear that these patients’ right to optimal and rapid treatment was infringed, and that delay in the permit, or refusal to grant it, impaired their quality of life, their chances to be cured, and their possibility to live a longer life,” the January 2014 report said.

Bottom line: offering medical care to a small number of the people you have bombed, blockaded and poisoned makes you no hero.

3) “Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, where the civil rights of all citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike, are guaranteed.”

Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, offers ample evidence on its website to refute this claim.

The organization has documented more than 50 Israeli laws that “discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel in all areas of life, including their rights to political participation, access to land, education, state budget resources and criminal procedures.”

One such law is the “Protection of Holy Sites Law,” enacted in 1967, which empowers the Ministry of Religious Affairs to designate the names of the holy sites in Israel. Notes Adalah: “To date, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has declared 135 Jewish sites as holy sites and has not declared any Muslim, Christian or Druze MAY 2014

holy places as recognized holy sites.”

Another law, the “Nakba Law,” enacted in 2011, “authorizes the finance minister to reduce state funding or support to an institution if it holds an activity that rejects the existence of Israel as a ‘Jewish and democratic state’ or commemorates ‘Israel’s Independence Day’ [known as the Nakba, or catastrophe, by Palestinians]…as a day of mourning.”

Meanwhile, the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) has found that Israeli government resources “are disproportionately directed to Jews and not to Arabs, one factor in causing the Palestinians of Israel to suffer the lowest living standards in Israeli society by all economic indicators.” Added IMEU: “As many as 100 Palestinian villages in Israel, many of which pre-date the founding of the state, are not recognized by the Israeli government, and are not listed on maps and receive no services (water, electricity, sanitation, roads, etc.) from the government.”

Separate and Unequal In July 2013, Haaretz reported on the disparities in funds distributed to Arab and Jewish schools in Israel. The report found that in 2012, each Arab high school student was allocated an average of about $6,000 per student, while religious Jewish high schools received an average of about $7,700 per student.

The above is just the tip of the iceberg.

Countless additional examples of Israeli discrimination, such as Israel banning nonJews from marrying Jews, can be cited.

4) “Israel, the one country in the Middle East that protects Christians and protects the right of worship for everyone.”

This statement would have been more accurate if Netanyahu ended it with “except Palestinians.” Both Muslim and Christian residents of the West Bank cannot travel to holy sites in Jerusalem unless they receive a permit from Israeli authorities.

Even if they are successful, they must endure humiliation and long lines at the separation wall. Invasive Israeli security measures turn a Palestinian pilgrim’s sevenmile journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem into a seven-hour trip.

In April 2012, CBS’ “60 Minutes” dedicated a segment to the plight of Christians in the Holy Land. Correspondent Bob Simon spoke with Palestinian Christians who said their fellow believers are leaving the Holy Land due to the brutalities of the Israeli occupation.

Then-Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren dismissed the report as a THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

“hatchet job” and attempted to prevent it from airing. Asked by Simon why Palestinian Christians are leaving their native land, Oren blamed Islamic extremism. When reminded of Israel’s draconian occupation by Simon, Oren replied, “Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to survive.” This is perhaps the closest an Israeli official will come to admitting its policies are driving away Palestinian Christians.

5) “[Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon] would open up a Pandora’s box of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and around the world.”

Israel has long been the sole nuclear power in the Middle East. Israeli-American scholar Avner Cohen has described Israel’s nuclear weapons program as “the worstkept secret.”

Even though Israel’s program has been known to its neighbors for decades, none of these nations, most of whom have poor relations with Israel, have decided to pursue their own nuclear program in response.

This is enough evidence to question Netanyahu’s claim.

It must also be noted that—unlike Iran— Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities. This further delegitimizes its ability to criticize other nations’ nuclear programs.

There is also the issue of Netanyahu’s presumption that Iran has decided to pursue a military nuclear program. This has not been verified. “According to the U.S. intelligence community, Iran has not decided to build a nuclear weapon, and any of their weapons design work was ended over a decade ago,” Paul Pillar, former CIA intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, reminded the audience at the March 7 National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship.”

Perhaps Netanyahu is afraid that another Pandora’s box—Israel’s occupation of Palestine—will be opened unless he keeps his American ally preoccupied with Iran.

According to Pillar, the Iran nuclear crisis “serves as the best kind of distraction you possibly could have from things that the prime minister perhaps would rather not talk about.”

Indeed, the passion with which Netanyahu ridiculed Israel’s neighbors, admonished Iran and dismissed the BDS movement as “anti-Semitic” during his AIPAC address reveals just how much he stands to lose if actual facts are discussed.

The time is coming when lies no longer will suffice. ❑ 37

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National Summit Reaches Large Audience Despite Media Silence SpecialReport

PHOTO BY PHIL PORTLOCK

By Delinda Hanley and Dale Sprusansky

The National Press Club audience listens to speakers, including Mark Perry (at podium), address the question, “Does the ‘special relationship’ transcend the rule of law?”

he National Summit to Reassess the

TU.S.-Israel “Special Relationship,” held

March 7, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, was a stunning achievement. Sandwiched between two headlinegrabbing annual conferences—those of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC)—the nonpartisan National Summit examined the impact of U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israel.

More than 300 attendees gathered from all over the country, and as far away as Japan. Extra chairs had to be provided to accommodate an overflow audience, which exceeded all expectations. For more than a year, Washington Report staff worked alongside the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep), the Council for the National Interest (CNI) and If Americans Knew (IAK) to assemble an array of experts who have been unsparing critics of the Israel lobby’s influence over U.S. poliDelinda Hanley and Dale Sprusansky are news editor and assistant editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

38

cymaking. Even seasoned U.S.-Middle East foreign policy experts were startled to learn the extent of the damage the U.S. “special relationship” with Israel has caused to American security and prestige.

“The Summit was groundbreaking for two reasons,” CNI executive director Philip Giraldi remarked. “First, it brought together respected authorities from all across the political spectrum and from a wide range of disciplines to challenge directly the value of the U.S.-Israel special relationship. This was the first time that the relationship has been subjected to such a politically inclusive and exhaustive examination.

“Second,” added Giraldi, a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist, “this was the first time that any event critiquing the relationship broke through the media blackout normally in place on the issue of U.S. ties to Israel. It was broadcast live on CSPAN, enabling it to reach a much larger audience than the 300-plus enthusiastic attendees at the National Press Club ballroom.”

“Israel and its diverse apologists have tried to convince Americans that Israel is THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

an important U.S. ally and that American support for Israel benefits Americans,” IAK founder Alison Weir pointed out.

Weir, who is also CNI president, introduced her new book, Against Our Better Judgment (see review p. 68), at the summit.

“The Summit resoundingly rebutted those false claims. Also, Americans heard live on C-SPAN top experts detailing the Israel connection to the Iraq war and to the push for war against Iran. One person told us that in 30 years of attending conferences in Washington, DC he had never before seen anything like this.”

Many attendees told us they left with a sense of camraderie and purpose. “Before, during and after the summit, speakers, activists and supporters alike were able to come together and talk face to face—many for the first time,” IRmep director Grant Smith remarked. “In a digital age where many of us collaborate on projects digitally over vast distances, the value and longterm effects of that direct contact is priceless.”

Almost as important as the groundbreaking event itself was the realization among organizers that writers, historians, MAY 2014

PHOTOS BY PHIL PORTLOCK

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Grant Smith (r) holds the microphone for Congressman Paul Findley as he answers audience questions.

Some Words We’ll Remember Panel 1: “How does the Israel lobby influence Congress?”

When asked about the lobby’s influence on Congress, former Congressman Paul Findley (R-IL) stated, “I know that a lot of members of Congress are bought and paid for—you might as well face it—and they’re not going to change....The influence of Israel as of today is so great on Capitol Hill that they see dangers of not MAY 2014

surviving the next election if they chalPanel 2: “Does Israel and its lobby exlenge what Israel is doing.” ercise too much influence on U.S. deciFindley presented his plan of action for sions to wage war in the Middle East?”

Israel, Palestine and the U.S.—a plan he Author Stephen Sniegoski began by dispromised would transform President cussing the relationship between neocons Obama into an “all-time hero.” Findley and Israel as it relates to the Iraq war. “The said, “Obama must issue an executive order background for many—if not most—of suspending all aid to Israel and Palestine, the neocons shows a close personal identiuntil Israel and Palestine conclude a peace fication with the state of Israel,” he stated. treaty that creates a two-state solution.”

“It’s reasonable to say—I think—that the In a well-received video address, former neoconservatives viewed American foreign Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) described policy in the Middle East through the lens the Israel lobby’s successful efforts to de- of Israeli interests.” feat her, noting that “the pro-Israel lobby Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Karen usually has a whole lot of money and those Kwiatkowski captivated audience memof us who act of conscience generally bers by recalling her experience working don’t.” She urged listeners to know “who’s inside the Pentagon’s Near East and South who in the zoo—we have to understand Asia directorate. “One of the first things who is our friend and who is in opposition that was said to me [upon accepting the to us.” job],” she recalled, “was, if you have anyJanet McMahon, managing editor of the thing nice to say about the Palestinians, Washington Report, described how the Is- don’t say it here.” rael lobby network coordinates PACs that Investigative journalist Gareth Porter arfinance U.S. elections and get around FEC gued that Israel’s threats to attack Iran are regulations. If 30 “unaffiliated” pro-Israel insincere and nothing more than a ploy to PACs are all giving to the same candidate, have leverage over U.S. policy. “This has alMcMahon warned, “that’s a potential haul ways been a political ruse,” he said. “It has of $300,000—not $10,000—per candi- been used by the Israelis to manipulate the date.” policy of the United States in particular.”

Washington Report news editor D e l i n d a H a n l ey spoke about U.S. taxpayers giving military aid, more than $9 million a day, to a country with the world’s sixth most powerful military. “Does Israel really need our handouts?” she asked. “Cutting off aid to Israel is the logical, economical and ethical thing for Prof. John Quigley (l) describes the cost of U.S. support for Israel’s Americans to do,” occupation as Jeffrey Blankfort, who addressed lobby gatekeepers and damage control squads on the Left, listens.

Hanley concluded.

PHOTO BY PHIL PORTLOCK

speakers and activists—so often shut out by corporate media—can work together to get our messages out to our fellow Americans. Working alone, each organization could never have pulled off this summit, but by pooling our resources and expertise we can really make a difference.

“The Summit has sparked an explosion in this country,” said Ambassador Andrew Killgore, publisher of the Washington Report. “It revealed the true nature of Israel and Zionism.”

Organizers hope the Summit has opened the door for an informed and inclusive national discussion about whether the U.S. should continue its “special relationship” with Israel. It is long past time for this critical national conversation to occur and for the American public to have a voice in U.S. foreign policies. Until now American Middle East policies have been dominated by the Israel lobby, at great detriment to the citizens of this country. It is time for U.S. policies to be based on what the American public determines would be best for our nation and for the world.

Please spend some time on the National Summit’s Web site, <www.NatSummit. org>. There you will find video and audio recordings of every presenter, as well as transcripts of their talks. You can also purchase DVDs of the summit, or books by speakers (see ad p. 35) by contacting AET’s Middle East Bookstore. Order a second copy for your library or local TV station and help spread the word!

Dr. Stephen Sniegoski (l) and Lt. Col. (ret.) Karen Kwiatkowski address Israel’s influence on U.S. decisions to wage war in the Middle East.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

39

PHOTO BY BILL HUGHES

PHOTO BY PHIL PORTLOCK

summit_38-41_Special Report 3/27/14 11:51 AM Page 40

lard spy case, which he had played an ac- and not strategic. “We give this aid uncontive role in investigating. Recalled Bow- ditionally,” he noted. “There’s no hint we man, Pollard “took so much information to might reduce our assistance to get Israel to the Israelis, that they had to install two stop building settlements or to allow crehigh speed copiers in an apartment to take care of everything that he brought them.”

Ernie Gallo, president of the USS Liberty Veterans Association, described his experience on the USS Liberty as it came under Israeli attack in June 1967, and lamented the ensuing cover-up. “It is appalling the length Israeli supporters will go to ensure you are silenced and harassed,” he said. “However, the USS Liberty story is very important and it must be told truthfully and accurately.”

Military and foreign affairs author Mark Perry pointed out that individuals within the U.S. government understand that Israel is a strategic li- M.E. “Spike” Bowman discusses the Pollard affair. ability to the U.S. He cited an exchange between ation of a viable Palestinian state.”

Gen. David Petraeus and Sen. University of North Texas history profesJohn McCain as an example. sor Geoffrey Wawro gave a history lesson on Petraeus “was asked by Sena- the tense debate within the Harry Truman tor McCain whether he be- administration over whether or not the U.S. lieved that the Israeli-Palestin- should recognize Israel as a country. Thenian conflict was the primary Secretary of State George Marshall warned obstacle to American national Truman that he was “weakening the U.S. security interests in the Mid- globally by his uncritical support for the dle East, and [Petraeus] said, Zionists,” Wawro said, while “Marshall’s deputy called the emerging state of Israel ‘a ‘Yes, I do,’” Perry noted.

Panel 4: “History: How pig in a poke, a state with high strategic did the ‘special relation- costs and few apparent benefits.’”

According to Prof. John Quigley, who ship’ come to be?”

Harvard University profes- teaches law at the Moritz College of Law at sor Stephen Walt began by Ohio State University, support for Israel is noting that U.S. support for Is- harming America’s global reputation. “I rael is in many ways irrational think one can say that our positions are out PHOTO BY PHIL PORTLOCK

Brig. Gen. (ret.) James J. David questioned whether the U.S. benefits from its overwhelming military support of Israel.

“When you look at the enormous amount of U.S. weapons that we provide Israel each and every year and see the kind of results that it’s achieving, you’ve got to ask yourself, what good is it?” he opined. “We’re giving so much weapons that she keeps invading her neighbors, keeps the Palestinians in Gaza locked up in a prison pen.”

Panel 3: “Does the ‘special relationship’ transcend the rule of law?”

IRmep director Grant Smith provided a brief history of unprosecuted Israeli foreign agent, smuggling and espionage cases.

His conclusion: “There is no U.S. law—if it stands in the way of Israel and its U.S. lobby—that cannot be thwarted [or] overcome…well before any warranted prosecutions take place.”

Former Deputy National Counterintelligence Executive M.E. “Spike” Bowman discussed the specifics of the Jonathan Pol-

Harvard University Prof. Stephen M. Walt.

40

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MAY 2014

PHOTO BY PHIL PORTLOCK

Investigative journalist Gareth Porter (seated above) and USS Liberty survivor Ernie Gallo (right) signed copies of their books at the AET Middle East Bookstore booth.

PHOTO BY BILL HUGHES

PHOTOS BY PHIL PORTLOCK

summit_38-41_Special Report 3/20/14 9:06 PM Page 41

From left to right: Dr. Geoffrey Wawro; Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew and Washington Report columnist Allan Brownfeld.

MAY 2014

GOP and in the conservative movement on security matters has been more of a liagenerally,” he maintained. “Opposition to bility than an asset.”

U.S. intervention overseas, embraced as a Retired CIA officer Ray McGovern deprincipled position by the increasingly in- scribed an occasion when he sparked a fluential libertarian wing of the Republi- mini-controversy simply for questioning can Party, will tend to distance the GOP the U.S.-Israel relationship in front of memfrom a pro-Israel lobby that is perpetually bers of Congress. He recalled wanting to trying to draw us into Israel’s wars.” tell his critics, “You know, you ought to Scott McConnell, co-founder of The realize that not only is Israel not our ally, American Conservative, explained that for- but...Ariel Sharon has our president mer mainstream conservatives such as Pat wrapped around his little finger and that Buchanan were ostracized for questioning the U.S.-Israel relationship. “ T h e re a f t e r,” h e pointed out, “any young conservative knew the rules— you’d best be sufficiently pro-Israel.”

P h i l i p We i s s , founder and co-editor of the blog Mondoweiss, expressed his belief that as more Jews begin to openly question Israeli policies, the Scott McConnell (l) and Philip Weiss. general public will fell more comfortable discussing the issue. he’s got our president mesmerized.”

CNI executive director Philip Giraldi “There’s deference to the Jewish community inside the American establish- said that in addition to not being an ally, ment,” Weiss said. “And because that Jew- Israel “is not actually a friend, because it ish community is now beginning to frac- does actual damage to the United States ture openly, that is giving people permis- through using its considerable access to Congress and the media to promote policies sion to talk about it.”

Panel 6: “Is Israel really a U.S. ally?” that are neither good for the United States Paul Pillar, who recently retired from a nor for Israel.”

Added Giraldi: “The GAO [Government long career in the U.S. intelligence community, noted that the U.S. could spend the Accountability Office] has concluded that money it sends to Israel on such vital pro- Israel conducts the most aggressive espijects at home as infrastructure and educa- onage operation against the United States tion. Concluded Pillar, “The relationship of any U.S. ally.” ❑ PHOTO BY PHIL PORTLOCK

of step with the positions of most of the world community,” he said, “and that it’s one of the major reasons for the negative perception of the United States in the region.”

Turning to the media coverage of Israel’s special relationship with the U.S., IAK founder Alison Weir said, “While we are repeatedly told that rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel, we seem never to be told that over 10 years of largely home-made rocket fire has killed a total of 29 Israelis— nor do we learn that during this same period Israeli forces have killed 4,000 Gazans.”

Panel 5: “Has the lobby captured political parties and the news media?”

Radio programmer Jeffrey Blankfort opened this panel by lamenting that many liberals don’t push elected representatives to speak up on the topic of Israel. “The Left has allowed members of Congress who publicly support Israel, particularly Democrats, to go unchallenged if they are considered good on other issues,” he observed.

Washington Report columnist Allan Brownfeld, editor of The Lincoln Review, charged that Zionism has “had a terribly negative impact upon Jewish life in the United States and throughout the world.”

Most American Jews, draw a distinction between Israel and their religion, he said, meaning that “the vast majority of American Jews believe they are Americans, believe that Judaism is their religion, do not believe that Israel is their homeland.”

Justin Raimondo, editorial director of Antiwar.com, noted that conservative outlets such as the National Review were at one time highly critical of Israel. While times have changed, Raimondo said there is reason to believe a more open debate will re-emerge on the Right. “There is a resurgence of foreign policy realism in the

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

41

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MAY 2014

pasquini_43-44_Northern California Chronicle 3/20/14 5:53 PM Page 43

Iraqi Shot by U.S. Sniper Receives Care, Compassion in San Francisco Bay Area

Northern California Chronicle

STAFF PHOTOS PHIL PASQUINI

By Elaine Pasquini

Guest of honor Ahmed Al-Kubaisi enjoys his dinner and dance fund-raiser at Sausalito’s Seahorse Restaurant.

hosted a Jan. 16 fund-raiser at Sausalito’s Seahorse Restaurant, which raised $3,500 toward the purchase of a new wheelchair.

“In the work that we do at Citizens Reach Out, we meet extraordinary people who have lived through incredible tragedy and still have tremendous resilience and courage to actually end up here in the United States, where we finally meet them as refugees,” CRO president Ruth Friend told attendees at the benefit dinner. “And when we met Ahmed we thought he personifies these qualities of courage and resilience. We were so impressed with him, as I think everyone who has met him has been.”

Friend went on to describe how moved she was from the first day she met AlKubaisi by his positive and happy nature.

“I have never seen him look back and complain about what happened to him— he was shot and is now a paraplegic,” she said. “He is always looking forward to what he needs to do to make his life work here.”

“Wars begin, but wars don’t end,” antiwar activist and author David Harris told

hanks to the Hayward-based Alalusi

International Organization for Migration and International Rescue Committee, 22year-old Iraqi Ahmed Al-Kubaisi is receiving medical treatment for wounds inflicted by an American military sniper in his hometown of Fallujah on June 3, 2007. As he was leaving his home across from a U.S. military base, the then 16-year-old was hit by a sniper’s bullet in his spine, leaving him severely bleeding and paralyzed from the waist down. Rescued by neighbors, AlKubaisi was driven to a local medical center for treatment, then transferred to two different hospitals in Baghdad, returned to Fallujah and ultimately driven to Amman, Jordan. All of these life-saving attempts were solely at his family’s expense.

After running out of money for treatment, the wheelchair-bound teenager eventually was forced to return to Fallujah, where he asked for assistance at the American military base there and was told by the officer in charge: “We’re sorry. We shot you by accident, but we can’t compensate you for anything.” Al-Kubaisi’s experience Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

MAY 2014

STAFF PHOTOS PHIL PASQUINI

TFoundation, in partnership with the

Alalusi Foundation founder and director Dr. Hesham R. Alalusi (l) and Ruth Friend, president of Citizens Reach Out. is being documented by the Mill Valleybased Citizens Reach Out (CRO) as part of its “What Happened” project to archive the lives of innocent Iraqis displaced by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation of their country.

To help the injured Iraqi paraplegic, CRO and the James Moseley Band coTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the crowd. “They keep living themselves out in the lives of all the people who were terrorized, who were crushed, destroyed, who had enormous loss, whose homes have been destroyed, whose lives have been ripped up. That war lives on in them, in the next generation, and the next generation after that. Rescuing Ahmed is really 43

pasquini_43-44_Northern California Chronicle 3/20/14 5:53 PM Page 44

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

an investment in us and in our need to have a record, so the next country. It gives us an opportunity, time someone in Washington despite so many failings, to finally comes up with the bright idea that be the people that we really want to they want to install a government be. We need to welcome him with that they like better than another open arms, and give him the help one halfway around the world we that he needs. We will all be better will have something that isn’t bulloff for it.” shit to talk about.”

After dinner and the speeches Through video and digital concluded, guests enjoyed the recordings, CRO documents and music of the James Moseley Band. archives firsthand stories of what Being wheelchair-bound failed to happened to war refugees. These prevent the young Iraqi from enaccounts are preserved in the Unijoying the evening’s activities. Alversity of California at Berkeley’s Kubaisi was an inspiration to all Merritt System and made public when he simply maneuvered himthrough the Berkeley Library Cataself onto the crowded dance floor log and OskiCat. to boogie—swingPre-Trial Rally for ing his outstretched arms in the air— Anti-Drone along with the lively Defendants crowd.

Activists opposed Al-Kubaisi’s jourto the United States’ ney from Fallujah drone warfare prohas been a long one. gram rallied Feb. 3 Arriving in Califoroutside Sacramen nia last July, he to’s federal courtstayed for a few house in support weeks in Oakland’s of Martha Hubert, Highland Hospital.

Robin Ryan, Bill Presently, he is in D o u b a n d To b y Fairmont Hospital, a Blomé, who were nursing facility in on trial that day for San Leandro. Plans are in the works to TOP: Author and activist David Harris speaks at Ahmed Al-Kubaisi’s fund-raiser. attempting to defind Al-Kubaisi an ABOVE: A child drone victim memorial created by members of Radical Art for These l i ve r a l e t t e r t o apartment or house Times displayed on the sidewalk in front of Sacramento’s federal building during a Feb. 3 the Beale Air Force Base commander equipped for wheel- anti-drone protest. d u r i n g a n Ap r i l chair access, proba2013 nonviolent bly to be shared with others. In the long run, after the of CRO. “The first purpose was simply the protest against drone warfare.

CODEPINK and other peace groups, inyoung Iraqi recovers from his severe bed- integration of a new set of Americans into sores, the Alalusi Foundation and CRO are the America that already exists,” the war cluding the Peace Center of Nevada trying to find a surgeon who can specifi- resister explained. “We have new neigh- County, protest peacefully each month at cally address his partially damaged spinal bors, new friends about whom we know the military base. Col. Ann Wright joined nothing, and they need to have their sto- the Feb. 22 protest there. During these ralcord.

Al-Kubaisi’s family remains in Fallujah, ries heard. We went out to collect those lies many individuals have been arrested and charged with criminal trespassing on where heavy fighting between Iraqi gov- stories.”

The second purpose, Harris noted, was federal property. ernment forces and al-Qaeda militants conA child drone victim memorial created tinues. This makes Ahmed’s ultimate goal to to create memories. “America has some bring his family to California an urgent one. great ideas, but one of the things it is re- by members of Radical Art for These For the millions of Americans who al- ally short on is memory,” he told the au- Times was displayed on the sidewalk in ways opposed the U.S.-led invasion and oc- dience. “Once something is no longer front of the federal building. Since March cupation of Iraq, this is an opportunity to new, we abandon it and pay no atten- 8, 2013, artists have been creating illusassist one of the many casualties of that tion.” One such case is the Iraq war. “We trated fabric panels dedicated to children war. To help Al-Kubaisi lead an indepen- dropped 10 years of war on people who have been killed by U.S. drone atdent and successful life here in the U.S., halfway around the world that disrupted tacks. Through use of paint, pens and fabtax-deductible donations may be made their society completely and have yet to ric each child is identified by name, age payable to the Alalusi Foundation/Ahmed take a good look at exactly what we did,” and homeland. Tragically, the project is Fund and mailed to Alalusi Foundation, he pointed out. “We fool ourselves when ongoing, as more than 200 children are we start thinking that we can turn a war among the estimated 3,000 killed by the 1975 National Ave., Hayward, CA 94545. on and off like a faucet. It doesn’t work continuing drone strikes. To read firstCitizens Reach Out like that, and instead we have to pick up hand testimonies of victims of U.S. drone At the Jan. 16 fund-raiser David Harris the pieces and make the best of it. The attacks see the December 2013 Washington also discussed the founding and purpose Iraq war is not over, and that’s why we Report, p. 21. ❑ 44

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MAY 2014

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

45

brownfeld_46_Israel and Judaism 3/20/14 5:55 PM Page 46

Confronted With Criticism, Israel’s Response Is Always the Same: “Anti-Semitism” Israel andJudaism

By Allan C. Brownfeld

riticism of Israel’s continued occupa-

Ction of the West Bank and its denial of

equal citizenship to non-Jews, along with the peace initiative by Secretary of State John Kerry, the growth of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and the Presbyterian Church’s study guide “Zionism Unsettled” (see facing page), all have received the same response from Israel and many of its American friends: charges of “anti-Semitism.”

This, of course, is nothing new. “AntiSemitism,” traditionally having meant hostility to Jews and Judaism—despite the fact that Arabs themselves are Semites— was long ago recast by the organized Jewish community to mean criticism of Israel.

When that criticism comes from Jews, as it increasingly does, such critics are dismissed as “self-hating Jews.”

This tactic not only trivializes genuine anti-Semitism, which all people of good will vigorously oppose, but it clearly doesn’t work—since criticism of Israel and its ever-expanding occupation is growing.

Consider some recent examples of this tactic. On Feb. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, called the BDS movement “anti-Semitic.”

He declared: “There is a new campaign against us. Having failed to dislodge us with weapons, with armies, with terrorists, with rockets, with missiles, they now think that they will dislodge us with boycotts.…and I think the most eerie thing, the most disgraceful thing, is to have people on the soil of Europe talking about the boycott of Jews. I think that’s an outrage.…In the past anti-Semites boycotted Jewish businesses and today they call for the boycott of the Jewish state.”

Netanyahu, who repeatedly confuses “Jews” and “Israelis”—and who is not content to speak for his own citizens but, with no mandate to do so, speaks on behalf of “the Jewish people,” the majority of whom are citizens of other countries—reAllan 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.

46

peatedly evokes the horror of Nazi Germany. He told the American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem: “It’s time to delegitimize the delegitimizers. And it’s time that we fight back. I know all of you participate in this.”

Knesset member Motl Yogev said that Kerry’s efforts had “an undertone of anti-Semitism.”

While American Jewish leaders may be prepared to take their marching orders from Netanyahu, however, many in Israel who oppose the occupation and the mistreatment of Palestinians are not. In fact, many Israelis who object to the occupation have long boycotted products from West Bank settlements. The leader of the Israeli party Meretz said she practices a boycott of settlement products and supports an EU policy to not invest over the Green Line. “I haven’t bought products from the settlements for years,” said Zehava Gal-On. “For many years, nobody succeeded in convincing the Israeli public that the occupation had a price,” she noted, “and I think that the occupation—which is a moral issue also—has a financial price that the state is paying. The country’s leaders need to understand that it has a price.”

According to New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, however, the BDS movement harbors “anti-Semitism” because it would deny “the core of the Zionist idea that Jews have a national home.” And Times reporter Jodi Rudoren wrote a piece quoting rightwing Israelis saying BDS is immoral and anti-Semitic and reminiscent of Nazi tactics. The reaction of New York Times readers was overwhelmingly critical of attaching the “anti-Semitic” label to the BDS movement, which includes many Jews and Israelis in its ranks.

Writing in Politico last Dec. 20, Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., an American who abandoned his U.S. citizenship and emigrated to Israel, refers to the president of the American Studies Association, an academic body which voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions, as “anti-Semitic.” ASA president Prof. Curtis Marez declared in response to criticism that “Americans have a particular THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

responsibility to answer the call for boycott because the U.S. is the largest supplier of military aid to the state of Israel.” Any evidence of bigotry on the part of Professor Marez appears to be non-existent.

Secretary of State John Kerry has come under withering attack in Israel for pursuing the peace process. Some Orthodox rabbis have suggested that he would suffer divine retribution for his efforts to achieve a two-state solution. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was quoted in Yediot Ahronot on Jan. 14 as saying that Kerry’s diplomatic efforts stemmed from an “incomprehensible obsession” and a “messianic feeling,” adding that Kerry should “take his Nobel Prize and leave us alone.”

He described the U.S. security plan that retired U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen put together as “not worth the paper it was written on.”

Obsessed With Economics?

In the Feb. 7-13 edition of the International Jerusalem Post, columnist Caroline Glick made it clear that, in her view, Kerry is simply “anti-Semitic.” According to Glick, “Kerry is obsessed with Israel’s economic success...The anti-Semitic undertones of Kerry’s constant chatter about Jews and money are obvious. But beyond their inherent bigotry, Kerry’s statements legitimize the radical Left’s economic war against the Jewish state.”

At the same time, Moti Yogev, a Knesset member in the governing coalition, said that Kerry’s efforts at achieving a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians had “an undertone of anti-Semitism.”

Writing in Yediot Ahronot on Feb. 15, Cameron Kerry, a brother of the secretary of state and until last year general counsel to the U.S. Department of Commerce, declared that charges of “anti-Semitism” against his brother “would be ridiculous if they were not so vile.” Cameron Kerry, a convert to Judaism, recalled relatives who died in the Holocaust. The Kerrys’ paternal grandparents were Jewish.

The reaction to the Presbyterian study guide, “Zionism Unsettled,” issued in January by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was vitriolic. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claimed the study guide “may be Continued on page 48 MAY 2014

burnett_47-48_Special Report 3/20/14 5:59 PM Page 47

Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide SpecialReport

By Carole Monica Burnett he Israel/Palestine Mission Net-

Twork (IPMN) of the Presbyterian

Church (USA) has generated a tsunami of controversy with the recent publication of Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide (available from the AET Bookstore), a lavishly illustrated 74-page book accompanied by a DVD, which provides a wealth of information and provocative questions for discussion in book clubs and church and synagogue groups. Among the savage condemnations of this book is the review by Rabbis Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein on the Fox News website which bears the title “Why is U.S. church sending Jews to the trash-heap of history?” It accuses the authors of “poisoning attitudes among its members toward their Jewish neighbors,” and exhorts members of PCUSA to abandon their church.

By contrast, Jewish-American psychologist Mark Braverman, in a post on the Mondoweiss blog, applauds the book as a “jewel” and “an urgently needed tool for a church that is poised to fulfill its social justice calling,” and the acclaimed Protestant Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has endorsed it as “an effective vehicle for helping to mobilize public opinion so that both attitudes and policies can be transformed in the face of an imperious and exploitative ideology.”

Others have joined the fray, including a staff columnist of The Economist magazine.

An intriguing exchange of conflicting views has erupted between the Rev. Chris Leighton, a Presbyterian opponent of the book, and Rabbi Brant Rosen, author of Wrestling in the Daylight (also available from the AET Bookstore), who is featured in the book and DVD. In the reverend’s open letter rebuking Zionism Unsettled on the website of Baltimore’s Institute of Christian and Jewish Studies, where he Carole Monica Burnett serves on the Leadership Council of Sabeel DC Metro. She is the editor of, and a contributor to, the book Zionism through Christian Lenses (available from the AET Bookstore).

MAY 2014

serves as executive director, he undertakes to instruct his readers on the indispensable centrality of a homeland in the Jewish faith. Rabbi Rosen responds on his blog by distinguishing clearly between Judaism and Zionism, pointing out the broad diversity in the Jewish community. Reverend Leighton’s response, hosted on Rabbi Rosen’s website, promotes political sovereignty for Jews in the Holy Land and accuses the authors of Zionism Unsettled of “dishonesty” and “an unwillingness to come clean” about their agenda. Rabbi Rosen’s lengthy rejoinder offers a point-bypoint refutation, among which is the rabbi’s unequivocal rejection of the use of the Bible to undergird claims to political power. Rosen’s coup de grâce in this piece is a moving quotation about God’s omnipresence from the rabbinical literature of his own Jewish tradition.

What is the agenda of Zionism Unsettled?

The authors present it forthrightly—and, yes, honestly—in the first chapter: it is a clarion call to repudiate exceptionalism of all sorts and to understand Zionist exceptionalism as the cause of the present tragedy in the Holy Land. The authors THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

state explicitly that adherents of all three Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) have indulged in the exceptionalist belief that their own community enjoys God’s special favor, and they proceed throughout the book to reject exceptionalism, citing as deplorable examples the ideology of white supremacy and the Christian theology of supersessionism (the belief that the Church has replaced Israel as the Chosen People).

Thus the book’s criticism is obviously not confined to Zionists. Nevertheless, it is the exceptionalism of Zionism that is under the microscope here.

The second and third chapters, together with a detailed timeline, trace the development of Zionist thought and leadership until 2013. This lively history describes the varieties of Zionism: political, cultural, Revisionist, Labor and religious. It identifies the root of Zionism as the necessity to escape from anti-Semitic persecution in the historically Christian countries of Europe.

This shameful culpability of Christendom is probed in Chapter 4 and in one of the DVD’s segments, which features James Carroll, author of Constantine’s Sword. The Catholic Church’s initial disapproval of Zionism was based on its distrust of nonChristians, but the insights of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) on interfaith relations have encouraged religious tolerance and refocused the Church’s attention to address the sufferings of Palestinians.

This chapter concludes with the ruminations of Walt Davis (one of the book’s authors) on the dilemma faced by all religious believers: how to embrace one’s own faith as divine truth while at the same time sincerely extending equal respect to other traditions.

Protestant readers will be looking for a discussion of their own tradition vis-à-vis Zionism, and Zionism Unsettled does not disappoint, with one chapter devoted to evangelical Protestants, and another to the mainline.

Christian Zionism arose among evangelicals and has attained a powerful position 47

burnett_47-48_Special Report 3/20/14 5:59 PM Page 48

in the American landscape under the leadership of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and John Hagee. Its theological basis is a dispensationalist view of history that advocates the mass relocation of Jews to the Holy Land as a precondition for the return of Christ and the end of time. Another feature of this theology is the belief that two concurrent covenants are fully operative in today’s world: for Jews, the Old Testament covenant with its divine promise of land; and for non-Jews, the New Testament promise of salvation. On this issue we are given an enlightening glimpse into the thinking of evangelical theologian Gary Burge, a firm opponent of Christian Zionism, who has pondered the question of covenants and the problem of how to uphold the cosmic significance of Christ without slipping into supersessionism.

The Holocaust jolted mainline Protestant leaders, driving them to pour strenuous efforts into Jewish-Christian relations, but consuming their attention at the expense of Western-Arab relations. The 20th-century theologians Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich and Krister Stendhal boldly condemned the genocidal policies of the Third Reich, yet they enthusiastically supported Zionism, turning a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing inflicted on Palestinians. This paradox is ironic in light of the fact that Niebuhr’s “Christian Realism” urged vigilance toward the ubiquitous nature of societal sin.

Another chapter presents Rabbi Brant Rosen’s journey from an unquestioning embrace of Zionism to his current activism on behalf of justice in the Holy Land—a fascinating story. Rosen’s “Jewish theology of liberation” rejects “Constantinian Judaism,” the alliance of Jewish religion with the politics of power (as occurred in fourth-century Christianity). He wrestles with the biblical texts that sequentially follow the narrative of the Exodus from Egypt; these comprise the story of the Eisodus, the violent entry into Canaan and extermination of its indigenous people, which has been heartlessly applied to the Palestinians.

The book would not be complete without the voices of those who have experienced Zionism first-hand. In two chapters we hear respectively the voices of a Palestinian Muslim and a Palestinian Christian.

Mustafa Abu Sway, a professor at Al Quds University, laments the exclusivist nature of Zionism, which is responsible for the “hard ethnic cleansing” that occurred in 1947-1948, the “soft ethnic cleansing” that underlies the ongoing revocation of Pales48

tinian residency permits, and the “ethnic cleansing by stealth” that attempts to erase Palestinian cultural identity. A Palestinian Anglican priest, Naim Ateek, points to the 2009 Kairos Palestine document as an exposé of the theological heterodoxy of Zionism and of its life-negating implications.

A segment of the DVD spotlights a group of West Bank settlers, converts to Judaism, who believe that one cannot live as a Jew outside the Holy Land and that the Palestinians have no right whatsoever to their ancestral lands. The rigidity and zeal of their beliefs are eye-opening. Settler violence is also a focus of this segment.

Interspersed among the book’s chapters are mustard-colored “Focus” pages that investigate in depth various aspects of Israeli and Palestinian life, such as Jewish attitudes toward the Diaspora and Israel’s cultivation of its public image, or hasbara.

Throughout the entire book, the plentiful photographs, maps and charts, in combination with the DVD, produce a visual feast. The entire package is an unforgettable voyage of discovery. Order it from <www.middleeastbooks.com>. ❑

Israel and Judaism…

Continued from page 46

the most anti-Semitic document to come out of a mainline church in recent memory.” J Street, which promotes itself as a more moderate pro-Israel lobbying group than AIPAC, was almost as harsh. It said that the church document promotes “polarization” and “intolerance.” Saying it was “deeply offended,” J Street asserted that “one has to question the...motives in publishing this ‘resource.’”

In fact, the church document, which examines the role of Zionism and Christian Zionism in shaping attitudes and events in Palestine and the region, devotes extensive space to a discussion—and harsh criticism—of anti-Semitism within Christianity and its influence in the rise of Nazism. It rejects racism and religious bigotry in all its forms. And it has many strong Jewish supporters. Rabbi Brant Rosen, author of Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi’s Path to Palestinian Solidarity (available from the AET Bookstore), notes that, “As a Jew, I’m especially appreciative that while [Zionism Unsettled] is strongly critical of Zionism, it doesn’t flinch from extensive Christian self-criticism.”

Discussing the Presbyterian study guide, the respected Israeli political scientist Neve Gordon said, “I welcome the efTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

fort to emphasize a conception of Judaism and Christianity that espouses universalistic ethics—whereby all humans are imago dei—and to use it to expose injustices carried out in my homeland.”

Perhaps the organized Jewish community is so exercised by this Presbyterian study guide because it asks a question they cannot—or will not—answer: “Given the liberal values shared by many American Jews and the long, proud tradition of Jewish participation in the struggle for human rights worldwide, why has there been so little outrage expressed at Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians in the decades since Israel’s founding?”

One need not agree with the BDS movement, Secretary Kerry’s peace plan or the Presbyterian study to recognize that false charges of “anti-Semitism” are simply a way to silence and intimidate criticism.

Ironically, as such false charges proliferate, so does the growth of racism and intolerance in Israel, where non-Orthodox Jews have no right to perform weddings, funerals or conversions. Recently, Knesset member David Rotem declared that Reform Judaism “is not Jewish.”

Jewish and other critics of Zionism have shown that false charges of “anti-Semitism” will hardly stop the growing debate.

As Prof. Judith Butler of the University of California, Berkeley, an outspoken Jewish critic, wrote in the Aug. 21, 2003 issue of the London Review of Books: “If one can’t voice an objection to violence done by Israel without attracting a charge of antiSemitism, then that charge works to circumscribe the publicly acceptable domain of speech, and to immunize Israeli violence against criticism. One is threatened with the label ‘anti-Semite’ in the same way one is threatened with being called a ‘traitor’ if one opposes the most recent U.S. war [on Iraq]. Such threats aim to define the limits of the public sphere by setting limits on the speakable. The world of public discourse would then be one from which critical perspective would be excluded, and the public would come to understand itself as one that does not speak out in the face of obvious and illegitimate violence.”

Efforts to intimidate free speech with false charges of “anti-Semitism” have grown since Dr. Butler wrote those words.

But this tactic of intimidation has clearly failed. Real problems must be addressed with real discussion and debate. Only those who have something to lose by open debate would use the tactics we have seen deployed by Israel and its most fervent American supporters. ❑ MAY 2014

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Ten major national American Muslim organizations held a March 12 news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, to announce the formation of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), an umbrella group that will serve as a representative voice for Muslims as that faith community seeks to enhance its positive impact on society.

USCMO Secretary-General Oussama Jammal told reporters that the formation of the national council has long been a dream. Its goal, he said, “is to help strengthen relationships Organizers participating in the U.S. Council of Muslim among member organizations Organization’s initial launch included (l-r) Mazen in order to better serve mem- Mokhtar (Muslim American Society-MAS), Mahtab bers of the Muslim community Uddin Ahmed (Muslim Ummah of North Americaand all America.” USCMO’s MUNA), Nihad Awad (Council on American-Islamic Refirst priority will be to conduct lations-CAIR), Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid (American Musa census of American Muslims lims for Palestine-AMP), Imam Mahdi Bray (American and create a database that will Muslim Alliance-AMA), Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid be used to enhance civic and (Muslim Alliance in North America-MANA), Oussama political participation in up- Jammal (secretary-general of USCMO), Khalil Meek (Muslim Legal Fund of America-MLFA), W. Deen Mocoming elections.

Nihad Awad, founder of the hammed II (The Mosque Cares) and Naeem Baig (Islamic Council on American-Islamic Circle of North America-ICNA).

Relations (CAIR), said organizers have been meeting for a year and a half growing demographic, numbering in the to create a broad, unifying platform. millions, and it is time to organize ourAmerica’s vibrant Muslim community is selves so that we can fully participate progrowing, and numbers 7 to 8 million. Op- ductively and efficiently in the political ponents of the Muslim community shot process.” American Muslims’ purchasing down those figures, claiming Muslims only power exceeds $170 billion, Dr. Abu Irnumber 2 and a half million. That’s why shaid concluded, “but we want to be more we need this census, Awad said, to know than consumers in this country. We also ourselves and tell our own story. Engaged want to engage in the political process and Muslim citizens can be swing voters in up- ward off bigotry and Islamophobia.”

—Delinda C. Hanley coming elections, he added, and Muslims will work for civil rights, dignity and Sheikh Al-Nabulsi Speaks equal rights for all Americans.

Mazen Mokhtar, a member of the Mus- More than 660 Muslim Americans from lim American Society (MAS) board of Syria, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon gathtrustees, agreed, adding that USCMO will ered Feb. 1 for a fund-raiser at the Hilton empower all American Muslims to reach Irvine to hear Sheikh Dr. Mohammad out to elected officials.

Rateb Al-Nabulsi of Damascus speak durW. Deen Mohammed II, president of The ing a program entitled “A Nation in Need.”

Mosque Cares and grandson of Elijah and Sheikh Al-Nabulsi is a well-known scholar Clara Muhammad, who built the Nation of who gives sermons throughout the world.

Islam, said American Muslims will con- The fund-raiser was sponsored by the Syrtinue to play an active grassroots role in ian American Council-Los Angeles and community life in America.

Shaam Relief Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonThe Muslim Legal Fund of America’s profit humanitarian organization recogKhalil Meek said that Muslims, who have nized by the U.S. State Department, which the most diverse religious community in helps Syrian refugees. Sheikh Al-Nabulsi 50

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Major Muslim Groups Launch New Council at DC News Conference

America, can participate in our nation’s dialogue. “We want to contribute to this great country,” he explained. American Muslim Alliance’s Imam Mahdi Bray emphasized that Muslims work for social and economic justice for all.

Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid of American Muslims for Palestine said Muslims “are a

Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Rateb Al-Nabulsi raises funds for food in Syria.

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Muslim American Activism

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

and Shaam fund-raisers did not talk about politics in Syria, but they raised $100,000 to buy food for starving Syrians.

—Samir Twair

Music & Arts MESTO Performs Connoisseurs of classical Middle Eastern music eagerly anticipate a performance of the Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra (MESTO) because its founder-conductor Dr. Nabil Azzam always introduces his new compositions and original arrangements of traditional works. When the curtain rose on the stage of the Downey Civic Theater on Feb. 22, the Nazareth-born maestro offered four world premieres.

Apropos of MESTO’s mission to perform music of all cultures, the program opened with “Samba al-Qahira (The Cairo Samba), with Azzam’s new orchestration of Muhammed ‘Abd al-Wahhab’s interpretation of a Latin instrumental piece. Another world premiere was of the conductor’s new work “El-Mallah” (The Sailor), dedicated to his friend Prof. Issam El-Mallah, now of Oman.

The audience broke into applause as renowned Libyan singer-guitarist-composer Nasser el-Mezdawi casually walked onstage carrying his guitar. Backed by the 50-piece MESTO orchestra, El-Mezdawi sang his ”Nour El-Ayn” (Light of the Eye), one of the most popular hits in the Middle East. His music employs a mixture of Berber, Arab, African and contemporary European rhythms while he sings in darja, the Arabic dialect of North Africa.

The conductor offered the world premiere of his “Azzam violin suite”—in nahawand mutlaq (A minor)—consisting of four movements. The work opened in a moderate tempo, followed by taqasim (improvisation), then broke into an instruMAY 2014

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Karima Skalli sings at MESTO “Hear ‘n Now” concert.

COURTESY JERUSALEM FUND

mental “song,” evolving into a faster tempo or mutlaq, a name derived from the Arabic verb to be quickly discharged (as an arrow).

Karima Skalli, elegant in a black velvet gown, paid tribute to Egypt’s late Laila Mourad by singing two of her signature songs, “Ana Albi Dalili” (My Heart Is Telling Me) and ”Is’al ‘Alayyah” (Ask About Me). The Moroccan singer closed with Fairouz’s “Nassam ‘Alayna” (The Breeze of Wind). —Pat McDonnell Twair

Obeidallah and Kader at USC

“Abu Ghazi” Krayem Kanj, and images from Nahr El Bared Refugee Camp in Lebanon, 2013. © John Halaka.

Dean Obeidallah and Aron Kader appeared Feb. 11 following a special screening at the University of Southern California of the comedy documentary “The Muslims Are Coming.” The 80-minute film, directed by Negin Farsad and Obeidallah, follows Arab-American comedians as they perform in large and small U.S. cities, often staging public gags on unsuspecting citizens as they set up booths named “Ask a Muslim” or “Name That Religion.”

The production, designed to combat Islamophobia, won the audience award at the 2012 Austin film festival. It features Maysoon Zayid, Preacher Moss, Obeidallah, Kader and Farsad, with commentary

by Jon Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, Rachel Maddow and Ali Velshi.

One USC student asked Obeidallah what religious beliefs his parents observe and what they think of his career choice in

comedy. His father is Muslim and his mother is Christian, Obeidallah replied, and they would have preferred him to be an attorney as he studied to be.

The audience of film students learned that it took four years to complete the production, which is in digital distribution and will be picked up by Netflix.

—Samir Twair

John Halaka’s “Portraits of Denial and Desire”

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Aron Kader (l) and Dean Obeidallah.

MAY 2014

continue to be reduced to an absence in their native homeland, the continuity of their stories and images ensures their presence and survival.

“Portraits of Denial & Desire” is a multidisciplinary project that attempts to make the images and narratives of Palestinian refugees indelible, and their personal experiences in exile unforgettable. No one will forget the story “Abu Ghazi” told Professor Halaka about his 1948 escape from his beloved homeland. —Dagmar Painter

The Jerusalem Fund Gallery exhibition “Portraits of Denial and Desire,” photographs by John Halaka, are on view from March 21 to April 25. Halaka, a visual artist, documentary filmmaker and professor of visual arts at the University of San Diego (see Jan./Feb. 2014 Washington Report, p. 50), preserves seldom-heard personal narratives from three generations of men and women displaced from their homeland or born in exile. The oral history archive, drawings, photographs and documentary film that comprise this work creatively present the testimonies of forgotten Palestinian survivors to global audiences.

“Palestinian refugees have become the forgotten survivors of the world,” Halaka notes. “Their experiences in exile have been deliberately ignored and their voices repeatedly silenced. While Palestinians THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Human Rights Tackling Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis After the latest round of lackluster peace talks in Geneva, many observers are pessimistic that a Syrian peace deal will be reached anytime soon. Tragically, this means that innocent Syrian men, women and children will continue to suffer inside their devastated country. At the same time, more and more Syrians are likely to seek refuge in neighboring countries, pushing these weak nations to their breaking point.

Over the past two months, several Washington, DC-based organizations have held events to discuss the Syrian humanitarian crisis and its regional implications.

Speakers included top U.N. officials, ambassadors, U.S. government officials, humanitarian workers and analysts.

Reaching Refugees Within Syria At a Jan. 31 Middle East Institute (MEI) event, several speakers expressed frustration that the Syrian government and some rebel groups have made it difficult for humanitarian assistance to reach internally displaced individuals.

According to Amin Awad, director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Middle East and North 51

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ploying the sort of surrender have been forced to beg on the streets, or starve tactics that are ap- work as laborers and engage in prostitupalling.” tion. Only 30 percent of refugee children Without access to basic sup- attend school, he added, and violence and plies, Qaddour said, Syrians uncertainty are now a way of life for have become desperate. Syria’s children.

“Many people in Homs, as USAID’s Shah put the scope of the crisis well as other places in Damas- facing Syria’s children into perspective. “It cus, have been eating grass, is as if every student in the 25 largest U.S. shrubs, roots, dogs, cats and school districts—including New York, LA, otherwise,” she noted. “A lot of Chicago, Miami and 21 others—had all them are uprooting trees com- been affected by violence, homelessness, pletely just to be able to access hunger, disease, or malnutrition all at the roots, so that they could ei- once,” he said.

This is why tremendous energy must be (L-r) Jomana Qaddour, Uma Kandalayeva, Amin Awad, ther burn them or also cook extended toward protecting Syria’s Abdallah Al-Dardari and moderator Kate Seelye discuss them.”

Dr. Uma Kandalayeva of In- youngest generation, Shah emphasized.

Syria’s humanitarian crisis. ternational Relief and Develop- “The future of what we hope is a democraAfrica Bureau, about two million of Syria’s ment pointed out the psychological impact tic, stable Syria depends precisely on these six million displaced individuals are in of the war on Syrians. “Their psychosocial kids returning with the skills and capacity areas that are besieged by either the gov- and mental conditions as victims of war, as to be part of a positive future,” he said.

SRD’s Qaddour, however, offered a sober ernment or a rebel group. “Some of these people who just yesterday saw their house populations are malnourished. They don’t blown up or their family member killed in assessment of Syria’s children. “They feel have access to services,” he noted. “Some front of them, they are really under very hopeless,” she said. “A lot of them are telling us, ‘we wish we were never born.’” of them have pending operations or health serious psychosocial stress,” she said.

UNHCR High Commissioner António needs, and they need to get out of these Guterres told his audience at the United Syria’s Burdened Neighbors besieged areas to really seek support.”

Jomana Qaddour of Syria Relief and De- States Institute of Peace (USIP) on March 12 What began as a civil war has quickly bevelopment, Inc. (SRD) reported that her or- that the Syrian crisis is “probably the worst come a regional crisis. Lebanon, Jordan, ganization has struggled to reach individ- humanitarian crisis in the world since the Turkey, Iraq and Egypt are now home to a uals due to the presence of the Islamic Rwandan genocide.” Saying, “I’ve never significant number of Syrian refugees.

State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). “The ISIS seen a people as generous as the Syrians,” After more than three years of war, these checkpoints that are placed all over he lamented that individuals who gra- nations, particularly neighboring Lebanon Aleppo have really threatened the popula- ciously hosted numerous Palestinian and and Jordan, are beginning to collapse tion,” she stated. “Many times our doctors Iraqi refugees are now themselves deci- under the weight of refugees. Making matand our physicians and our nurses have mated by war. ters worse, violence has spread across been unable to go to work, because there Syria’s borders and impacted the already are checkpoints in their neighborhoods Saving Syria’s Children fragile nations of Iraq and Lebanon. and because ISIS has been executing peo- Many speakers noted the horrific impact High Commissioner Guterres expressed ple in a very ad hoc fashion.” the Syrian crisis has had on the country’s his frustration that more has not been done USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah used his children. to assist Syria’s neighbors. “The support of remarks to criticize the Assad regime for reAssistant Secretary Richard said the the international community is out of prostricting access to aid. “As Secretary [of State global community has developed the “No portion with the needs,” he stated. “They John] Kerry recently noted, ‘If the regime Lost Generation” initiative to make sure cannot do it alone. It is absolutely essential can allow access to United Nations and in- sufficient attention is given to ternational weapons inspectors, surely it can the needs of Syria’s children. do the same for neutral, international hu- “The idea is to be alert to the manitarian assistance,’” Shah said. fact that half of the refugees While more money is needed to assist are children, that children are Syrians, Encho Gospodinov of the EU displaced,” she explained.

Commission for International Cooperation, Dr. Kandalayeva added that Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response said Syria’s displaced children need that access is the critical concern. “With- both physical and mental care. out access, money means nothing,” he “They are the faces of this cripointed out. sis,” she said. “They really reAnne Richard, assistant secretary of quire multi-level assistance, not state for the Bureau of Population, only addressing their basic Refugees and Migration, agreed with his needs of food, clothing, water, assessment. “All of the humanitarian aid in shelter, but they need very, very the world won’t make a difference unless serious psychosocial support.”

Ambassadors Lukman Faily of Iraq (l) and Antoine Chethere can be access to the people who need High Commissioner Guter- did of Lebanon discuss the impact of the Syrian war on that help,” she said. “The regime is em- res said that some children their countries.

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Richard noted another benefit of to support them.” Guterres called it the cash program: “By shifting to “totally unacceptable” that such a cash-based assistance,” she said, “we large burden has been placed on Jorare injecting hundreds of millions of dan and Lebanon. dollars in 2014 into all small commuDiscussing Lebanon’s plight, nities, and that will also have a spinGuterres noted that there are now off of creating employment and stim964,000 Syrian refugees in the counulating these communities that were try, making up one-fourth of its total depressed or restrained by the prespopulation. In addition, he pointed ence of the refugees.” out, Lebanon’s economy has taken a $7.5 billion hit due to the refugee criPlanning for the Future sis, and the country’s unemployment rate is expected to double by the end At the MEI event, Abdallah Al-DarUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees An- dari of the United Nations Economic of the year.

At a Feb. 21 Brookings Institution tónio Guterres (l) tells moderator Steve Heydemann that and Social Commission for Western event, Lebanon’s Ambassador to the it’s “totally unacceptable” the international community Asia (UN-ESCWA) said the internahas not done more to assist Syria’s neighbors.

United States Antoine Chedid tional community should not wait warned that his country is facing an exis- ing a system that is operating with the until there is a peace agreement in place to tential crisis that “threatens to unravel the same limited resources it had before the begin thinking about Syria’s future. In country economically, politically and so- war began, Kandalayeva said. order for displaced Syrians to return home, Kemal Kirisci, director of Brookings’ roads, health services, clean water, educacially.” In addition to overwhelming Lebanon’s infrastructure, healthcare and Turkey Project, praised Turkey’s treatment tion and many other basics must be availeducational systems, the Syrian civil war of Syrian refugees. “They did build perfect able, he noted. “We need to think about has destabilized the country’s security, he camps. I’ve seen it. I don’t want to sound these issues now,” he stressed. “It is not said, noting that Lebanon suffers from al- like a government spokesman, but they de- too early. It is already too late.” most daily terror incidents. “What matters serve the credit for the way in which they Al-Dardari expressed confidence that is how to stop this hemorrhaging,” he are housing now about 210,000 refugees in once they return, Syrians will be able to rethese camps,” he said. opined. build their country. “The brilliant people Nonetheless, he said, many refugees of Syria and their entrepreneurial spirit Ambassador Chedid also expressed fear that Lebanese citizens are beginning to be- want the independence that comes from and their ability to produce something out come frustrated with Syrians in their living outside of the camps, even though of nothing….This is what we are counting country. “Their presence is causing in- this means a tougher life. Many, he noted, on for Syria in the future,” he said. Before creased tensions,” he explained. “The com- refer to the camps as “five-star prisons.” this can happen, however, Al-Dardari beSyrians have trouble finding jobs in lieves that Syrians must agree to a new soing of the displaced Syrian families aggravated the misery and the suffering of both Turkey, as the country’s laws do not allow cial contract. “To achieve that, the country for easy access to work permits for Syrians, today needs to have a common agenda and Syrian and Lebanese.”

Dina Sabbagh, deputy chief of Mercy Kirisci continued. “More and more Syrians a common middle ground,” he stated.

Corps Jordan, told the Brookings audience are working in the black market,” he exNot all speakers shared Al-Dardari’s opthat similar tensions exist in Jordan. In plained. “They work for pittances, and timism for post-war Syria. particular, she said, some Jordanians have with no doubt also get exploited.”

Brookings’ Kirisci expressed his belief Iraq’s Ambassador to the United States that many refugees, particularly those in begun to blame Syrians for their country’s Lukman Faily reported to the Brookings au- Turkey, might not return to their native water crisis.

Jordanians receive a limited supply of dience that Iraq is not struggling to cope country. “When we look at the refugee water once a week that must be carefully with its 220,000 refugees. Ninety-eight per- scene, not just in the Middle East, but rationed, Sabbagh noted. Given that Syri- cent of these refugees are Syrian Kurds, he around the world, most refugees end up ans come from “a water-wealthy country,” explained, most of whom are fleeing to Iraqi staying where they are,” he noted. Given Sabbagh said, many have had difficulty Kurdistan, thereby making it easier for the this reality, Kirisci said, a long-term plan refugee population to peacefully assimilate. for how to integrate Syrians into Turkey limiting their water use.

According to Ambassador Faily, the must be developed.

Regardless of the cause, it’s undisputable that Jordan’s water supply is lagging, Sab- main challenge Iraq faces is coordinating Several speakers also addressed the imbagh said. “The government of Jordan es- refugee assistance between NGOs, the in- portance of resettlement. High Commistimates the standard of 100 liters per per- ternational community, local governments sioner Guterres said a “robust” resettleson per day,” she noted. “After the crisis, and the central government. Given that it ment program must be developed to take this has tremendously dropped. In some is not overwhelmed with refugees, he the pressure off Syria’s neighbors. Added added, Iraq is mainly concerned about the Kirisci, “The international community will areas it’s more like 30 liters.”

Dr. Kandalayeva described the impact of spillover of violence from Syria. have to come forward with a more realistic High Commissioner Guterres said possibility of resettlement, at least for the the refugee crisis on Jordan’s healthcare system, which provides free care to Syrian refugees are now being given cash so they most vulnerable amongst those refugees in refugees. “Ordinary healthcare providers can purchase their own supplies. While the neighboring countries.” now are seeing three times more patients some have questioned this decision, he was Kelly Clements, deputy assistant secreper day versus what they were seeing two confident that refugees understand their tary of state for the Bureau of Population, years ago,” she noted. This is overwhelm- own priorities better than outside groups. Refugees and Migration, told the BrookMAY 2014

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ings audience that the U.S. would play a major role in the resettlement program.

“The United States is the largest resettlement country of all other countries combined,” she said. “We’ll be taking significant numbers of Syrians before this crisis is over, there’s no doubt.”

In addition to endorsing resettlement, Ambassador Chedid said, the international community must consider creating safe zones within Syria. In the meantime, he urged the world to provide Lebanon with the funds it needs to assist the refugees within its borders.

Ambassador Faily said Iraq wants to ensure there is no delay in developing a longterm plan for Syrian refugees. “Within the very near future these refugees will want to have a permanent solution, whether it’s in Iraq or Lebanon or whether they want to go overseas,” he cautioned. “How long will this be? What is the day-after scenario?”

—Dale Sprusansky

Dr. Morad Elsana Describes Israel’s Prawer Plan Legal scholar Dr. Morad Elsana discussed “The Prawer Plan: Implications for Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab” on Jan. 29 at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC. Elsana, who served as a lawyer and director of Adala, the Legal Center of Arab Minority Rights, in the Naqab (Negev), described Israel’s five-year plan devised by Ehud Prawer, the head of policy planning in the prime minister’s office, and approved by the Knesset in June 2013.

The Prawer Plan is Israel’s “final solution” for Bedouin in the Negev. Once implemented, Dr. Elsana said, the plan will forcibly move 30,000 to 40,000 Negev Bedouin away from their historic villages and communities in the southern part of the country and destroy more than 40 unrecognized villages near Beersheba. Israel will demolish 4,000 to 5,000 houses, confiscate Bedouin land, and destroy their traditional economy.

Following charges of ethnic cleansing, in December 2013 the Israeli government suspended the controversial plan—also known as the Prawer-Begin Plan—which was first approved by the cabinet in September 2011.

The Prawer Plan may be temporarily shelved, but it may reappear if peace talks collapse, Elsana warned. Meanwhile, Bedouins who thought the plan’s suspension would mean their confiscated lands would be returned are disappointed, he said, “as we know the Israeli government never gives up taking Palestinian land.”

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Dr. Morad Elsana describes Israel’s “final solution” for Bedouin in the Naqab.

The state of Israel has been confiscating Bedouin lands for 60 years. Before 1948, Bedouin owned about 11 million dunams [2.7 million acres] in the Negev. After the creation of Israel, 90 percent of Bedouins were evicted and left for Jordan, the West Bank or Gaza. The 10 percent who remained, about 10,000 Bedouins, submitted land claims on one and a half million dunams. Half a million dunams were confiscated for military reasons; and of the remaining million, not one Bedouin land claim has been successful in Israeli courts.

In the past 60 years Israel has also tried to “disconnect” Bedouins from Palestinians in Israel and make the Bedouin a nationality in itself, Elsana said. But that is wrong—they are Palestinians. Bedouins usually hate the government, he added.

They don’t like the Israeli government, and they disliked the British and Ottomans— they simply don’t like governments at all, Elsana explained. They want to live freely in the desert.

Until recently Bedouins did not protest government policies, but when they launched massive demonstrations calling on Israel to suspend the Prawer Plan, they succeeded.

There are no official Israeli maps that show the Bedouin villages, Elsana said.

Even the big city Rahat is not on Israeli maps. For 60 years, Israelis have made Bedouin invisible. They do not appear in Israel’s national census, which show numbers for Jewish cities, towns, and some of the recognized villages. But the Bedouins in the unrecognized villages do not appear on the census. It’s as if they do not exist.

Many Bedouin do not have IDs or addresses. That makes it hard to get telephone, electrical and water services, let alone voting rights, in “the only democratic state in the Middle East,” Elsana said.

Israel claims to want to resettle Bedouin in modern villages, giving them access to THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

healthcare, schools, electricity, running water, Internet and other services. “I want to make it clear to you that Bedouins do not oppose modernity,” Elsana stated.

They’d love to enjoy these benefits. The problem is that the Prawer Plan is part of Israel’s strategic National Development Plan for the Negev, which develops the Negev for Jews, not Arabs. Jewish organizations claim Bedouins, who have lived on their traditional land for centuries, are occupying state land and preventing state projects. The state wants to concentrate Bedouins in a limited number of villages and towns and open up their land to Jewish settlement. Dr. Elsana concluded by asking his audience to add their voices to support Bedouin rights.

—Delinda C. Hanley

African Refugees in Israel: The Plight Of Non-Jews in the Zionist State The Palestine Center in Washington, DC hosted independent journalist and filmmaker David Sheen, who on Feb. 26 gave one of the best talks this reporter has ever heard. Sheen—who is from Toronto, Canada and now lives in Dimona, Israel— discussed the striking parallels between Israel’s current efforts to deport all African refugees and its marginalization of nonJewish populations, including Palestinians, throughout its history.

Right off the bat, Sheen put Israeli racism into an American context in order to show how unacceptable and outrageous Israeli behavior would be here in the U.S. Imagine an America, Sheen said, in which: “the director of the largest hospital in Philadelphia announces that he regrets the Jews are having babies and bans Jews from entering the hospital unless it’s an emergency. In which the largest preacher in Palm Beach County organizes preachers across the nation to issue a religious edict banning Christians from renting apartments to Jews. In which a Philadelphia city counselor proposes that there be new municipal bus lines only for Jews because they smell and spread diseases. In which the Brooklyn city counselor evicts Jews from their apartments in the middle of the winter. In which the mayor of Charlotte simply rounds all the Jews in town onto buses and kicks them out of town. In which the mayor of Sacramento puts flags up all around the city and declares that the city is now at war with Jewish people. In which Jews living in Los Angeles are cornered into just one living section of town, a ghetto for Jews only. In which the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Jeh MAY 2014

MAY 2014

David Sheen describes Israel’s treatment of African asylum seekers.

During an investigation into Israel’s historical archives Sheen discovered that this group, which began with only 1,500 African Americans, had the same hatred directed to them that asylum seekers are now facing.

African Americans and other audience members surrounded Sheen after his talk, asking him to visit their churches to tell about Israel’s treatment of African asylum seekers. Please visit <www.thejerusalem fund.org> to watch the video or read the transcripts from Sheen’s shocking presentation. You can also visit his Web site, <www.davidsheen.com>.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Status of Reforms in Bahrain The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain held an event at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC on Feb. 12 to assess Bahrain’s tumultuous political situation.

The panel discussion was titled “Can Bahrain’s New Talks Spur Reform?”

Dwight Bashir, deputy director of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, began by assessing how well the Bahraini government has implemented recommendations made by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI)—an independent panel commissioned by King

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to look into the human rights abuses that occurred during protests in 2011.

While Manama has made some efforts to engage protesters, it has failed to implement key BICI recommendations, Bashir said. “There are areas where there’s not sufficient progress,” he stated. “I would characterize the situation as one step forward and two steps back.”

In particular, Bashir expressed concern that arrests of political activists continue.

Additionally, he noted, only low-level police officers have been prosecuted for human rights abuses. “No high-level officials have been held to account,” Bashir pointed out.

Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, shared some human rights abuses her organization has documented since the beginning of the year 2014.

According to al-Khawaja, many individuals are being tortured and forced to make false confessions. These same people are often denied access to lawyers, she said, and are held in secret facilities for extended periods of time.

Al-Khawaja noted that one man was recently held for more than six months without a trial, a clear violation of Bahraini law.

Another man was held in contempt of court for accusing the public prosecutor of being involved in his torture, she added.

Bahrain’s prisons are overcrowded and some inmates are forced to sleep outside or in corridors, al-Khawaja complained. Prisoners are also frequently denied access to doctors, warm clothing, clean drinking water and proper ventilation, she said.

Sayed Radhi al-Moosawi, acting secretary-general of the National Democratic Action Society (Waad) political party, argued that the Bahraini royal family needs to play a more active role in peace talks. Instead of remaining on the sidelines, he urged the country’s leaders to put a clear vision on the table.

Sarah Margon, acting Washington director of Human Rights Watch, offered rec-

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Johnson, announces that ‘Why can’t Jews just accept that the United States is a Christian nation,’ calling them disease bearers and saying that he will make their lives miserable until they leave. In which Attorney General Eric Holder revises the legal status of Jews and henceforth they can be arrested, prosecuted and jailed, even without having the right to a fair trial.”

Everything Sheen described is actually happening in America’s sister cities in Israel—so it’s not in Philadelphia, but in its sister city of Tel Aviv, where the director of the largest hospital complained that Africans were having babies and banned Africans from entering the hospital, etc.

African asylum seekers in Israel today have no recourse to the courts, Sheen continued. For example, an African riding a bike may be confronted by the police and asked to prove that his bike is his. He may be asked on the spot to show a receipt, and if he can’t he is hauled off to jail on suspicion of stealing that bicycle. That’s the legal status of African asylum seekers in Israel today.

Sheen acknowledged he is talking about non-Jewish asylum seekers, including refugees from Sudan and Eritrea, not the Jewish Ethiopian Africans who were airlifted by the Israeli government in the late ’80s and ’90s, and who serve in the army or win beauty pageants in Israel. To be sure, Sheen admitted, Ethiopian Israelis and other Jews of color do experience racism in Israel, but they have more privileges in the state of Israel than people who are not Jewish.

Sheen pointed out that 80 percent of the refugees in the world are living in developing nations. “It’s the poorest people of the world who are taking on the burden of sheltering most of the world’s refugees,” he said. Israel’s neighbors have taken in millions of refugees. There are approximately 55,000 asylum seekers in Israel, and last year Israel actually accepted one African refugee—she happened to be a white person, an albino from the Ivory Coast.

Sheen mentioned that there is a community in Dimona made up of several thousand African Americans who moved to Israel starting 40 years ago. They do not have status, do not have the right to work, do not have health care. His friend Dahlia just had a baby boy and cannot get health care for him “because she doesn’t have J-positive blood—that’s the only reason. She was born in Israel, she speaks perfect Hebrew.

In every sense of the word she’s Israeli, but because she hasn’t Jewish blood she doesn’t have access.“

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(L-r) Dwight Bashir, Maryam al-Khawaja, Sayed Radhi al-Moosawi and Sarah Margon critique the Bahraini government’s human rights record.

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Diplomatic Doings Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani on Pakistan-U.S. Relations The Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted a Feb. 27 discussion with Jalil Abbas Jilani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. The ambassador’s speech was titled “U.S.-Pakistan Relations in 2014.”

Ambassador Jilani expressed confidence that, after years of tension and mistrust, the U.S. and Pakistan are progressing toward a more stable and respectable bilateral relationship. He attributed this to both countries practicing patient diplomacy and internal reflection. Both sides, he added, are now more candid and honest with each other.

Pakistan and the U.S. also have come to the realization that they share common goals, such as regional stability, the fight against terrorism, the safety and security of nuclear assets and greater regional cooperation, Jilani explained. “Despite the lows, we both need each other,” he emphasized.

At the same time, the ambassador acknowledged the two nations diverge on issues such as U.S. drone strikes and Pakistan’s relationship with the Haqqani network.

Jilani expressed his hope that specific areas of disagreement will not derail the overall relationship. “We should stop looking at this relationship through single issues,” he said. This approach proved problematic in the past, he noted, when the two nations sparred over policy toward Afghanistan.

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topic, several think tanks held events in the nation’s capital in February and March.

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ommendations to U.S. policy makers.

“U.S. policy toward Bahrain has been particularly broken for a long time,” Margon said. She criticized Washington for believing that it can steer Bahrain toward stability by backing the current government.

Such an approach will actually lead to greater instability in the country, Margon warned, because it ignores the desires of the people. By emphasizing governmentto-government relations, “the U.S. is squandering its leverage with the people of Bahrain,” she said.

Bashir urged Washington to push Bahrain’s leaders to fully implement the BICI’s recommendations. He also called on high-level U.S. officials to call for the release of prisoners of conscience.

—Dale Sprusansky

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jalil Abbas Jilani is optimistic about the future of U.S.-Pakistan relations.

In Ambassador Jilani’s opinion, expanded economic ties between Pakistan and the U.S. would benefit both countries and “further strengthen [their] relationship.” In addition, the ambassador said, an economically strong Pakistan would help bring stability to Afghanistan, since the neighboring nations have closely linked economies. Jilani added that increased trade and economic cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan would convey to Islamabad that Washington desires a longterm relationship between the two countries.

Ambassador Jilani also used his remarks to comment on Pakistan’s domestic situation. He proudly noted that his country recently completed a successful democratic transfer of power, has a free and vibrant media, has invested in improvements to its infrastructure and energy supply, and is expanding its economy. The ambassador added that the country’s comprehensive strategy to combat extremism enjoys the overwhelming support of the Pakistani people. Jilani also optimistically pointed out that polls show that the perception of the U.S. among the Pakistani people has risen in recent months. —Dale Sprusansky

Waging Peace Prospects of Reaching a Nuclear Deal, Restoring Diplomatic Ties With Iran Washington continues to be abuzz over the ongoing nuclear talks between the West and Iran. Over the objections of many in Congress, President Barack Obama appears to have convinced his fellow Democrats in the Senate to allow him to pursue diplomacy with Iran. Some believe these talks will prove successful, while others are highly skeptical. Most are cautiously optimistic. To discuss and debate this critical THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

While many were hopeful following the signing of a temporary nuclear deal in November, some experts are now cautioning that reaching a final deal will be much more challenging. “The next round of talks…will be infinitely more difficult,” commented Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state for political affairs, at a Feb. 7 Partnership for a Secure America event at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

“The differences are very wide,” cautioned Robert Einhorn, former State Department special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control. “I think 50-50 might be optimistic,” he said, assessing odds on successfully reaching a final deal.

At a March 5 event at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Michael Adler, a public policy scholar at the center, noted that the recent round of negotiations in Vienna shed light on how far apart Iran and the West are on key issues. “There was zero agreement” on core issues, he said. “There seems to be an irreconcilable gap between the two sides.”

Einhorn listed several issues he believes are a critical part of the ongoing talks.

First, he said, the two sides must agree on the appropriate size of Iran’s uranium enrichment program. “Iran has given every indication it’s going to resist deep cuts to its nuclear infrastructure,” he said.

The future of the Arak heavy water plutonium reactor and the Fordo nuclear facility will also be hotly debated, Einhorn continued. While Iran insists Arak is designed for medical isotopes, Einhorn questioned Tehran’s honesty, noting that lightnot heavy-water reactors are generally used for this purpose. Regarding the Fordo facility, Einhorn said, “It has no logical role to play in a future Iranian civil program.”

Finally, Einhorn said, the two sides must agree on a monitoring and verification regime. The international community, he insisted, needs long-term access to Iran’s nuclear facilities to make sure it is not conducting a secret program. In Einhorn’s opinion, the West should insist on access for at least the next 20 years.

While Adler agreed with Einhorn’s assessment, he said he believes there is still reason for optimism. In his opinion, the November deal suggests that the two sides are capable of settling their differences and reaching an agreement.

At the Wilson Center event, Reza MAY 2014

can’t have 535 people negotiating with Tehran.

While some in Congress have complained that the temporary nuclear deal gives Iran a degree of sanctions relief, Burns noted that Iran needed to benefit in some way from the deal in order for it to be possible.

Adler said critics of the temporary deal must remember that sanctions were designed Former U.S. nuclear negotiators Nicholas Burns (l) and to bring Iran to the negotiatRobert Einhorn say Iran must concede elements of its nu- ing table, not to force them into an unconditional surrenclear program. der. Sanctions have achieved Marashi, research director at the National their purpose, he stated, adding, “I think Iranian American Council, shared Adler’s it is indisputable that sanctions have optimism. “We have to believe this process brought Iran to the negotiating table.”

Marashi was much more skeptical about will succeed,” he said. “Otherwise, what’s the degree to which sanctions influenced the point?”

Marashi considers it a positive sign that Tehran’s decision making. “We should difboth sides are “finally playing the long ferentiate between what we wish to be true game” and have come to realize the impor- and what we know is true,” he stressed. tance of patience and process. Predicting “You can just as easily say 19,000 centhat the two sides eventually will realize trifuges brought the United States to the they are not as strong as they think they table.”

Instead of focusing on the alleged posiare, Marashi also sought to downplay talk of “red lines” being broken. Such barriers tive impact of sanctions, Marashi argued are made to be broken, he stated, adding, that experts should ponder the possibili“They have to, otherwise there would be ties presented by diplomacy. Persistent diplomacy is just as, if not more, likely nothing to negotiate.”

Burns argued that most of the pressure than sanctions to help the U.S. achieve its is on Iran at this stage of the negotiations. strategic goals, he said.

In recent weeks, business leaders from “They’re going to have to prove to us…that they are ready to become a peace- several European nations, such as France ful country,” he said. “Dismantlement has and Turkey, have visited Iran to discuss possible future commercial ties, raising to be part of this.”

It’s an “open question” as to how the ay- some concerns in Washington.

Burns expressed disappointment with atollah and other conservative forces within Iran will view the deal when and if this development, calling it an “embarthey are presented with it, Burns said, ex- rassing spectacle.” He stressed that the U.S. pressing his belief that Iran’s domestic pol- and its allies must send a strong and uniitics could complicate nuclear talks. How- fied message to Tehran that it has not yet ever, he noted that Iran does strongly de- done enough to warrant warm relations sire to be reintegrated with the world. with the West. “It’s the wrong message to “They don’t want to live in isolation,” he send to Iran to make them think they are said.

Debating Sanctions Addressing his congressional audience, Burns said that Congress must cooperate with President Obama’s desire not to place new sanctions on Iran. The president, he argued, must be given the space and leeway he needs to execute his foreign policy agenda. “If that’s what the negotiator thinks, I think we should support him,” said Burns, adding that the U.S. MAY 2014

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90 percent there,” he said. “They are not.”

Einhorn shared Burns’ concern, warning that Iran’s leadership might experience a psychological shift due to the presence of the business delegations and change their expectations for negotiations.

Nonetheless, Einhorn conceded that no business deals have been reached thus far and that no Western nation or company has violated the international sanctions in place. “While there is a lot of smoke, so far we see no signs of fire,” he said. Furthermore, Einhorn reminded his audience, Iran desires the full lifting of sanctions and will likely not lose focus on this end goal.

Tehran still has “plenty of incentive to negotiate,” he said.

Marashi argued that the presence of business delegations in Iran is actually a positive thing for nuclear talks, as it gives Tehran a taste of what life would be like without sanctions. “It actually incentivizes going all the way toward a final deal and signing on the dotted line,” he said.

Resuming Diplomatic Relations

At a Feb. 19 Atlantic Council event, speakers discussed the possibility of the U.S. reestablishing a diplomatic presence in Iran.

Ramin Asgard, former director of the State Department’s Iran office in Dubai, advocated for the opening of a U.S. interests section in Tehran. Since U.S. diplomats left Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he noted, the U.S. has had a poor understanding of realities on the ground. This, Asgard pointed out, has resulted in an ineffective U.S. policy toward Iran and the greater Middle East.

In Asgard’s opinion, the U.S. stands to benefit in several ways from the opening of a U.S. interests section in Iran. First, he said, the diplomatic presence would provide Washington with an increased level of engagement with the Iranian government on bilateral issues. Even though this interaction would likely be minimal, Asgard nonetheless said he believes it “would help advance our policy quite considerably.”

Asgard also noted that the U.S. would benefit from the establishment of a public affairs section that would allow Americans to explain their policy directly to Iranians through local media. Furthermore, he noted, a politicaleconomic section would allow decision makers in Washington to act based on information coming (L-r) Reza Marashi, Haleh Esfandiari and Michael Adler dis- directly from Iran. Finally, Asgard cuss Iran’s nuclear program. said, the interests section would THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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than the status quo,” he argued.

Finally, Asgard noted that many believe it is not safe for American diplomats to return to Tehran. While diplomats serving in Iran would face security issues, he said, the potential dilemmas pale in comparison to those faced by Americans in war zones over the past decade. Furthermore, (L-r) Ramin Asgard, Morad Ghorban and John Limbert he pointed out, diplomats undiscuss the merits of the U.S. re-establishing a diplomatic derstand the risks and hardpresence in Iran. ships involved when they accept an assignment.

In order to ease American concerns, Asbenefit U.S. citizens who visit Iran, particularly Iranian Americans, by re-establish- gard believes Iran must affirm its commitment under international law to protect ing consular services.

Morad Ghorban, director for govern- diplomatic facilities. Furthermore, he said, ment affairs and policy at the Public Af- the country’s leaders should no longer fairs Alliance of Iranian Americans commemorate the Nov. 4, 1979 seizure of (PAAIA), noted that 73 percent of Iranian the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Americans support the opening of a U.S. interests section in Iran. These individu- State for Iran John Limbert, who was one als—who Ghorban described as affluent, of the 52 Americans held hostage in well-educated and secular—do not, how- Tehran, said he endorses a U.S. diplomatic ever, support the resumption of full diplo- presence in Iran—with a caveat. “Yes we matic relations. At the same time, Ghorban should,” he stated, “but maybe not now.”

Limbert expressed concern that Tehran noted, two-thirds of Iranian Americans oppose military intervention in Iran, while is not yet a secure location for U.S. diploless than a third support the U.S. actively mats. “There’s a very delicate balancing act going on in Iranian politics and I would pursuing regime change.

During his presentation, Asgard cited— hesitate to put our people into the middle and refuted—four common arguments of it, because if you do they become pawns against opening an interests section in in a very tough contact sport,” he said.

Iran. First, he said, critics believe a U.S. Limbert added that he fears any negative diplomatic presence would reward Iran for swing in the U.S.-Iran relationship could bad behavior. Asgard noted that even dur- put diplomats at risk. “An upset could ing the Cold War, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. mean a repeat of 1979,” he stated.

Nevertheless, Limbert said he believes in never broke diplomatic ties, because both sides realized such relations were impor- the importance of eventually resuming tant to national security. Furthermore, he diplomatic relations with Iran.

“It’s news to me that talking to somepointed out, no one ever argued that diplomatic relations were a reward for Soviet body is rewarding them,” Limbert stated.

He also reiterated the importance of the good behavior.

Second, Asgard noted, many believe the U.S. having eyes and ears on the ground in Iranian government would not allow the Iran, noting that the lack of verifiable inU.S. to return to Tehran. “Under the right formation has turned everyone into an conditions they would welcome a resumed “expert” on the country. “When everyU.S. presence,” he contended, adding that body’s somebody,” he cautioned, “then no —Dale Sprusansky such an arrangement would allow Iran to one’s anybody.” open its own diplomatic facility in Washington.

“The ‘Manufactured Crisis’ and Drive Third, Asgard said, some view resumed for U.S./Israel Military Actions Against relations as a betrayal of Iranian opposition Iran,” Gareth Porter’s talk at the members and human rights advocates. He March 7 National Summit to Reassess responded to this argument by noting that the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship,” the last 35 years of severed relations has is available online at <www.natsum done nothing to improve human rights in mit.org/program.htm>.

Iran. A U.S. presence in the country “will arguably do more to advance those goals 58

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Helping the Arab World’s Rural Poor The Brookings Institution held an event at its Washington, DC headquarters on Feb. 11 to discuss the economic plight of Tunisians, Egyptians and Yemenis living in rural areas. The discussion was titled “Achieving Greater Inclusion in Post-Arab Spring Countries.”

Brookings senior fellow Hafez Ghanem began by noting that, since 2011, GDP growth has slowed considerably in postArab Spring countries. This, he pointed out, has made it difficult for those living in rural areas to find employment and remain above the poverty line. Many ruraldwelling individuals are so frustrated with their economic situations that they regret having supported the uprisings that toppled the region’s long-ruling autocrats, Ghanem added.

Ghanem cited statistics from Egypt— where 57 percent of the population lives in rural areas—to illustrate why ruraldwelling individuals are so displeased.

While Upper Egypt comprises half of the country’s population, he noted, it is home to 83 percent of Egypt’s extreme poor. This disparity is in part a result of the central government’s disproportionate distribution of resources, Ghanem said. Indeed, he pointed out, Upper Egypt receives only 25 percent of the country’s public investment funds.

Similar disparities in access to resources can be found in Tunisia and Yemen, he added.

Ghanem argued that Arab countries and the West must work harder to improve the lives of the rural poor and increase their access to beneficial social and economic programs. “We ignore small farmers and rural poverty at our own peril,” he cautioned. Ghanem also warned that stability would not come to the region until the needs of long-marginalized individuals are met.

Deputy director for the Middle East and Central Asia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Daniela Gressani stressed the importance of private-sector job growth in the Arab world. “Helping the private sector create good jobs should be very high on everyone’s agenda,” she said, noting that too many individuals in the region rely on unsustainable government jobs for their income.

For this reason, Gressani said, the IMF is urging Arab countries to allocate money to areas such as infrastructure. This, she argued, would encourage private businesses to expand their presence in the region and create new jobs. Fiscal responsibility MAY 2014

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Georgetown Conference Examines Egypt’s Struggle for Democracy

for assistance, consolidate power, or kill more individuals. In his opinion, a broad coalition is needed to stop or at least slow down the military’s seizure of power.

Mohammad Fadel, a law professor at the University of Toronto, argued that Sisi’s government has committed crimes against humanity and thus violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Fadel predicated that Sisi would not easily cede power because he is aware that he and other senior officials could be held responsible. “There’s no way that the current leadership of Egypt will risk democracy,” he predicted.

Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, a former parliamentarian for the Muslim Brotherhoodbacked Freedom and Justice Party, complained that Morsi was never given the opportunity to transform Egypt. “The forces of the old regime were still there,” he said of Morsi’s year in office. “The old state was blocking any changes in the country.”

Dardery specifically criticized the military,

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Egyptians have died since the July 3 coup than during the 30 years of Mubarak’s rule. Haddara described the current level of violence as “previously unknown and unheard of in Egypt.”

According to Emad Shahin, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is leading a “watchful, fierce counterrevolu(L-r) Hafez Ghanem, Daniela Gressani and Akihiko tion” and is bent on killing Koenuma stress the importance of private-sector job growth dissenting Egyptians into submission. However, he in the Arab world. contended, this strategy is would allow the countries to allocate more not working, and the field marshal evenresources to the vulnerable in rural areas, tually will be forced to unclench his fist.

Shahin, a well-respected Egyptian acadshe concluded.

All panelists agreed that the political emic who has been charged with espionage compromise that helped facilitate Tunisia’s by the Egyptian government, said Sisi now new constitution bodes well for the coun- has three options: rely on Mubarak’s men try’s poor. According to Akihiko Koenuma, director-general of the Middle East and Europe department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency, it is significant that Tunisia was able to reach political compromise without the intervention of either an external actor or the country’s military.

This, he added, shows that Tunisia is capable of tackling its pressing issues.

—Dale Sprusansky

(L-r) Michele Dunne, Wael Haddara and Mohamad Elmasry discuss the impact of the July 3 Egyptian military coup.

Georgetown University’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding hosted a day-long conference in Washington, DC on Jan. 29 to discuss “Egypt and the Struggle for Democracy.”

Throughout the day, panelists had harsh words for Egypt’s military-backed government, critiqued the international community’s response to the July 3 coup, and lamented the polarization that is currently crippling Egyptian society.

A Planned Coup?

Wael Haddara, a former adviser to deposed President Mohamed Morsi, accused individuals loyal to former President Hosni Mubarak of orchestrating a counterrevolution to oust Egypt’s first democratically elected president and return Egypt to the pre-January 2011 status quo.

Members of the “deep state” have made it clear in the past few months that they are willing to use violence and repression to destroy Egypt’s revolution, Haddara stated. As evidence, he noted that more MAY 2014

(L-r) Dalia Fahmy, Maha Azzam and Mohammad Fadel say the military-backed government in Cairo is using nationalist rhetoric to divide the country.

(L-r) Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, Nathan Brown, Dalia Mogahed and Emad Shahin express fear that Egyptian society is becoming increasingly polarized.

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police and judiciary for refusing to cooperate with Morsi’s government.

Dalia Fahmy, a professor of political science at Long Island University Brooklyn, speculated that the Egyptian government has decided to hold presidential elections ahead of parliamentary elections in order to allow Sisi to consolidate power. If, as expected, Sisi wins the presidential race, he would oversee the legislative elections and ensure his new party’s success, she said.

This, Fahmy added, would allow parliament to become the executive’s rubber stamp.

Combating Polarization Dalia Mogahed, CEO of Mogahed Consulting, expressed concern that some Egyptians have begun to question the humanity of their fellow countrymen. This, she said, shows that the country is in need of deep societal reconciliation at the popular level.

State-sanctioned violence, she added, is “a result of a moral and spiritual crisis in Egyptian society.”

Maryam Jamshidi, founder of Muftah magazine, accused the military-backed government of intentionally dividing the Egyptian public by using xenophobic and ultra-nationalist rhetoric. The Muslim Brotherhood has been portrayed as an organization working to destroy the country, she said, while anyone critical of the state is accused of not being a real Egyptian.

Added Maha Azzam, an associate fellow at the Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program, “There is no room in Egypt for an alternative view.”

Mohamad Elmasry, a professor in the department of mass communication at the American University in Cairo, noted that the Egyptian media is helping the military spread its nationalist narrative. Allegedly independent networks have reported that the military’s forceful tactics against the Brotherhood are necessary to cleanse and purify the country from a treasonous terrorist organization, he said.

While the media had plenty to criticize Morsi about, Elmasry continued, many news outlets invented or fabricated stories to spread the myth that the Brotherhood was taking over the country. Writers who were told by their superiors they had to create negative news about the Brotherhood reported satire-worthy news—such as Morsi wanting to sell the pyramids and the Suez Canal—as fact, he noted. “None of these things were based on any reality, but they were taken seriously,” he stated.

George Washington University professor Nathan Brown ascribed Egypt’s current 60

polarization in part to a legacy of decades of authoritarian rule. Given that pluralism was not previously tolerated, he explained, many Egyptians are not accustomed to sorting out their political differences. Instead rival groups talk past one another and put most of their focus on riling up their own constituencies, Brown said.

Michele Dunne, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Middle East Program, opined that much of Egypt’s present unrest is due to the fact that a clear transition plan was never created following Mubarak’s ouster.

“It all comes down to a failure to build consensus about where Egypt was going after the fall of Mubarak,” she said, adding that the opposition relied on such vague themes as bread, freedom, social justice and dignity to propel their movement forward.

When it assumed power, Dunne said, the Brotherhood acted with the confidence that it had the support of the military and a wide segment of society—a premise that caused it to decline to work with other political forces. As a result, Dunne believes the Brotherhood squandered the good will it had built up. “There was an opportunity to reach across the aisle and build a broader coalition, but it didn’t happen,” she said.

Mohammed Abbas, a leading member of the Revolution Youth Alliance, recalled that many in his organization lost faith in Morsi when he issued a constitutional declaration in November 2012 granting himself farreaching powers. This move, he said, was a betrayal of an agreement between the youth and the Brotherhood to fight the old regime. As a result, Abbas pointed out, many youths collaborated with the old regime to depose the Brotherhood.

Islam Lotfy Shalaby, a member of the Revolution Youth Alliance, expressed his belief that there is a deep generation gap in Egypt. While the older generation believes only limited reforms can be achieved, the youth believes there is no limit to the revolution, he said. Shalaby cited lack of experience, lack of funding, and marginalization from influential roles in policy circles as other obstacles faced by Egypt’s youth.

Nevertheless, Shalaby is confident young Egyptians can bring about a better future. The older generation, he argued, read the historical moment incorrectly by discounting the youth.

Criticizing the U.S. Response Several speakers used their remarks to voice their displeasure with Washington’s THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

response to the July 3 coup. “The international community needs to withdraw its support,” Maha Azzam stated, expressing her disapproval with the U.S. decision to continue to supply Egypt with $1.5 billion in annual aid. Most of this aid goes to the Egyptian military.

Wael Haddara also took aim at the “silence, if not collusion, of the international community.” Supporting the coup government will not help restore stability in Egypt, he warned, saying that there are a significant number of young Egyptians who “would rather die than go back to the [pre-January 2011] status quo.”

Washington’s silence is “stunning to the youth,” Abbas added, and seen as a form of support for the military government.

Asked Dardery, “How come Europe and the United States betray the wishes of the Egyptian people?”

—Dale Sprusansky

The Role of Entrepreneurship in Building a Better Egypt The Middle East Institute in Washington, DC hosted a discussion on Egypt’s growing start-up sector at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Jan. 22. Christopher M. Schroeder, author of Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East, opened the conversation by pointing out that Americans typically focus on Egypt’s very real problems while ignoring the country’s real opportunities.

Dina Sherif, co-founder of Ahead of the Curve and senior adviser for engagement at Silatech, said she regards Egyptians, especially youths, as assets who will solve the nation’s economic problems. Tahrir Square was not just about ideology and politics— protesters were concerned about economic injustice, Sherif opined. Today there is a growing community of young entrepreneurs launching start-ups. She cited Flat 6 Labs as an example of an organization that encourages entrepreneurs to support each other. Sawari Ventures and Flat 6 Labs are turning American University in Cairo into a “mini-Silicon Valley,” where Egyptians are creating the jobs they need.

Another entrepreneur, Mona Mowafi, co-founded Rise Egypt, an organization that is mobilizing the global Egyptian diaspora to invest in social entrepreneurship for development in Egypt. Rise Egypt finds and supports social enterprises that create positive social impact. The organization asks Egyptians what they need and provides mentorships, advice and capital.

Yumna Madi, co-founder and chief business development officer of KarmSolar, discussed the possibilities of commercially viMAY 2014

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(L-r) Christopher M. Schroeder, Dina Sherif, Mona Mowafi, James A. Harmon and Yumna Madi discuss the need for angel investors to support Egyptian entrepreneurs. able solar energy projects, including highcapacity solar water pumping stations.

After a career as an investment banker, James A. Harmon said he decided to “get re-potted” and do something meaningful for the public sector. In 2004 Harmon launched Caravel Management LLC, an emerging and frontier markets fund.

Harmon emphasized the need for more international support for innovative job creation and development plans in Egypt, and other countries undergoing the Arab spring. Egyptians don’t need charity, they want investors, Harmon added, but neither banks nor fellow Arabs are willing to take the investment risks necessary to fund entrepreneurs.

Harmon urged Americans to invest private funds in the Middle East, which he called the “new frontier.” Egypt is an excellent source of human capital, Harmon concluded. And the sky is the limit for potential infrastructure projects, including improving traffic flow, recycling, education and health care, and creating alternative energy projects. —Delinda C. Hanley

tional issues.

Christopher Isham, Washington bureau chief for CBS News, accepted the Global Communications Award on behalf of Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer of “60 Minutes.” While the tight economy has forced most U.S. media to turn inward, Isham noted, CBS has deployed an increasing number of reporters overseas because of its commitment to covering international events. CBS has more foreign headline stories than the other two networks combined, Isham stated. As the U.S. winds down two foreign wars, Isham concluded, “It is essential for our viewers to know what is going on there. It has a direct impact upon what is going on here.”

The Council presented the Educator of the Year Award to Dr. John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. The Distinguished Diplomatic Service Award was accepted by Ambassador of Brazil to the U.S. Mauro Vieira.

The Global Education award went to Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, co-founder of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, for extraordinary worldwide contributions to the promotion of education, human development and social and economic prosper-

ity. Qatar Foundation vice president Dr. Abdulla bin Ali al-Thani, who is also president of Hamad bin Khalifa University, accepted the award on her behalf. “Guided

by HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the Qatar Foundation has since 1995 been spearheading Qatar’s transition to a knowledge-based society by fostering innovation and excellence in education, research and community development,” Dr. Al-Thani said. Education City in Doha is home to some of the world’s leading universities and researchers.

Marillyn A. Hewson, chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation, described the importance of “turning innovation into a renewable resource.”

This can be accomplished by taking three actions, Hewson elaborated. Innovation starts with education, so she stressed the need for global classrooms and learning.

The second action is global collaboration or cooperation. Innovation doesn’t happen in a lab but in a cafeteria, she said, where people start conversations and share ideas.

Finally, Hewson called for smart investment, taking a chance on breakthrough ideas. She concluded by urging the audience to support the great thinkers of the future.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Ennahda President Ghannouchi Praises Tunisia’s Transition

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Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi, co-founder and president of Tunisia’s Ennahda party, appeared at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC on Feb. 26 to discuss his country’s democratic transition.

Ghannouchi said that Tunisia’s inclusive World Affairs Council Presents and widely praised new constitution, Annual Awards which was adopted this past January, highlights the importance of moderation The World Affairs Council in Washington, and cooperation. As the dominant DC held its Global Education Gala on party in the constituent assembly, he March 13 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. noted, Ennahda understood it With the help of master of cereneeded to make concessions to premonies Bill Plante, CBS News senior serve the revolution and reach a conWhite House correspondent, gala atstitutional consensus. The ruling tendees recognized the Council’s party also realized the important staachievements over the previous year, bilizing impact of ceding power to an which included more than 60 educainterim caretaker government once tional forums and a weekly TV prothe constitution was implemented, gram, “World Affairs TODAY,” broadhe added. cast Sunday mornings on Going forward, Ghannouchi be<www.mhznetworks.org>.

The lieves Tunisia should continue down Council’s board of directors chairthe centrist path. He expressed his woman Edie Fraser thanked execuhope that a coalition government will tive director Heidi Shoup and others be formed following the country’s for their tireless work, and reminded guests that it is ever more vital for Qatar Foundation’s Dr. Abdulla bin Ali al-Thani (l) ac- upcoming elections. Ghannouchi said youths, senior citizens (and everyone cepts the Global Education Award on behalf of Sheikha he would insist on this arrangement even if Ennahda wins a majority of in between) to learn about interna- Moza bint Nasser from Gala chair Leo A Daly III. MAY 2014

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Rached Ghannouchi considers Tunisia a model for the Arab world.

believes true democracy will inevitably reach the Arab world’s largest country.

“The regime of [Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-] Sisi has no future,” he stated. “The fear has collapsed, the people have discovered that despots are not strong enough….It’s only a matter of time when these people will reach their democracy.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Tunisia: The Way Forward The Maghreb Center and the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations discussed the latest developments in Tunisia at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC on Feb. 19.

Moderator Néjib Ayachi, founding president of The Maghreb Center, said the program was designed to assess Tunisia’s economic challenges as the country where “the Arab Spring” began moves forward on the path of democratization and political stability. Secretary of State John Kerry had stopped in Tunis the previous day to praise Tunisia for its democratic progress, its new constitution and its pursuit of dialogue and compromise. Tunisia is a model in the region, Ayachi said, and U.S.-Tunisia relations are excellent, including in the areas of trade and economic development.

Tunisia’s Ambassador to the U.S. M’Hamed Ezzine Chelaifa described in more detail Tunisia’s new liberal, secular constitution. Ambassador Chelaifa said his country needs to address three major challenges: political, security and socio-economic problems. It was Tunisia’s high unemployment and poor economic conditions that sparked the uprising. The economy is recovering, the ambassador said, and is just now reaching its pre-revolution levels.

He urged that free trade agreements between the U.S. and Tunisia be explored.

Andrew Haviland, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for economic affairs for international finance and development, concurred that U.S. trade agreements and increased international investment would be a win/win for both the U.S. and Tunisia.

Caroline Freund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former chief economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, gave a lively summary of steps Tunisia could take to improve its economy.

She said Tunisia had become a family-run corrupt business under President Zine elAbidine Ben Ali. In addition, Tunisia’s government provided government jobs and subsidies instead of fostering economic growth and competition. Tunisia is on the right path now, Freund concluded, especially if it can improve security.

—Delinda C. Hanley

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seats in parliament.

Ennahda’s role in Tunisia’s transition proves that there is no contradiction between Islam and democracy, Ghannouchi emphasized. The Islamist party has acted Afghanistan Development Goals and democratically and has stood at the foreChallenges front of the fight for freedom and equality in Tunisia, he said.

The New America Foundation in WashMembers of Ennahda believe in moderington, DC hosted a Feb. 10 discussion on ate Islam, democracy and nonviolence and the upcoming elections in Afghanistan, the are not homogeneous in their beliefs, drawdown of American troops, and the Ghannouchi stated. He described Ennahda current and future challenges of delivering as “a modern party where there are many assistance to Afghanistan. What are the wings” and as “the most unified party in challenges, and how will the U.S. Agency the country.” for International Development (USAID) apGhannouchi called on the world to supproach them? port Tunisia’s new government, saying, Donald “Larry” Sampler, Jr., assistant to “Its success will be a success for democthe administrator for USAID’s Office of racy.” Neither Tunisians nor the world can Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs, warned afford for the country’s democratic experlisteners not to believe everything the iment to fail, he cautioned. press is saying about Afghanistan. AmerTunisia’s new constitution is an imporica isn’t just shoveling money out the door tant step toward “ending the era of represinto a crumbling, corrupt Afghan governsion in the Arab world,” Ghannouchi ment, he said. Over the past 12 years, stated. “There is no reason for despotism USAID has helped Afghanistan move toanywhere in the Arab world,” he argued, ward a stable, prosperous future. That’s adding that “Tunisia can posiimportant to Americans, who tively affect other Arab counwant to ensure the country will tries.” never be a safe haven for terrorGhannouchi was particularly ists. It’s also important to critical of the Egyptian military Afghans for their country to and the manner in which it has succeed—they have skin in the managed Egypt’s transition. Vigame. olence and coups “only lead to Life expectancy has increased chaos and destruction,” he from 42 years in 2002 to more stated. While deposed Egyptian than 62 years—an increase of 20 President Mohamed Morsi made years in just a decade! Maternal mistakes, Ghannouchi said, his mortality rates have declined by overthrow was unwarranted.

80 percent, and child mortality “In democracy,” he reminded rates by almost 50 percent. his audience, “mistakes cannot In 2002 only 6 percent of justify coups d’état.”

Afghans had access to electricWhile the Egyptian coup rep- (L-r) Néjib Ayachi, Ambassador M’Hamed Ezzine Chelaifa, Car- ity, and almost none owned a resents a negative moment in oline Freund and Andrew Haviland discuss challenges facing mobile phone. Now, 18 percent Egypt’s transition, Ghannouchi Tunisia. have electricity and phone net62

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the Lebanese armed forces.

Lawrence Silverman, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, testified that the Feb. 15 formation of a new national unity government by Prime Minister Tammam Salam, which (L-r) Moderator Omar Samad, Larry Sampler and Jarrett Blanc ended 10 months of political tension and discuss the future of U.S. aid to Afghanistan. gridlock, “is a welworks cover more than 90 percent of the come development for the Lebanese people.” The new government “is in a sense an country.

Almost 20 percent of Afghans enrolled improvement over its predecessor,” he in higher education are women, and there said. “Nearly all political factions are repare over 3,000 women-owned businesses, resented in a careful balance.”

Paul Salem, vice president of the Middle Sampler noted.

Polls reveal that 70 percent of Afghans East Institute (MEI), predicted that the feel more economically secure than they new government will prove to be “an imdid five years ago, and a majority feel their portant step in easing sectarian and factional tensions, consolidating precarious country is headed in the right direction.

Only a few weeks after a deadly bomb national stability, and helping the country attack on a popular Lebanese restaurant in ride out the oncoming waves of instability Kabul, Sampler asked some rhetorical emanating from Syria.”

As Lebanon struggles to deal with the questions, including: Is it dangerous in Afghanistan? Yes. Can we do better? Sure. impact of the Syrian crisis, Silverman There is much to be done in this period of stressed the importance of strengthening the Lebanese armed forces (LAF), which he transition.

Jarrett Blanc, the U.S. State Department’s described as “a beacon of cross-confesdeputy special representative for sional integration for the entire country. It Afghanistan and Pakistan, who works on remains one of the most respected national international partnership, reconciliation institutions in Lebanon,” he said, “because and political transition issues, described it reflects the diversity of the country: It is the various creative ways the U.S. supports in fact the sole national institution able to Afghanistan. Blanc made it clear that in- counter destabilizing influences from ternational assistance to Afghanistan will within Lebanon and without. Supporting decline, but normal U.S. aid will continue the LAF strengthens its ability to serve as for years to come.

—Delinda C. Hanley a model for other Lebanese institutions.”

Maj. Gen. Michael T. Plehn, principal Senate Holds Hearing on Lebanon director for Middle East policy at the DeThe Senate Committee on Foreign Rela- partment of Defense, noted that the U.S. tions’ Subcommittee on Near Eastern and has given the LAF nearly $1 billion worth South and Central Asian Affairs held a Feb. of assistance since 2005. He said the U.S. 25 hearing entitled “Lebanon at a Cross- “fully supports” Saudi Arabia’s decision to roads” at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) presided over the hearing.

The senator began by reflecting on his recent trip to Lebanon. Noting that he witnessed a terrorist attack during his visit, Kaine lamented that such acts have become common in the country. “It was a little heartbreaking to see the normality of the situation,” he said. In order for Lebanon to persevere through the ongoing regional instability, the senator stressed the importance of solving the Syrian civil war and strength- Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) reflects on his recent ening both the Lebanese government and trip to Lebanon.

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grant the LAF $3 billion to purchase defense items from France.

Silverman criticized Hezbollah for its role in the Syrian civil war, saying that the group has threatened Lebanon’s national security. “Hezbollah is dragging the Lebanese people into a war in defense of an Assad regime whose continuation can only result in more conflict, more terrorism, and more instability for Lebanon,” he said. He accused Hezbollah of entering the war solely for “its own narrow interests and on behalf of its foreign sponsors.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Friends of UNRWA Bid Farewell to Filippo Grandi The Embassy of Saudi Arabia hosted a farewell reception for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi on Feb. 12, hours ahead of a major snowstorm.

Guests chose to gather together to thank Grandi for nearly nine years of dedication and commitment to the refugees of Palestine instead of stocking up on groceries or heading straight home from work.

Nail A. Al-Jubeir, director of the information office of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, and UNRWA-USA board member Maggie Mitchell Salem welcomed guests.

Anne Richard, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, reminded guests that the United States is a top funder of vital UNRWA programs. The U.S. responded to UNRWA’s emergency appeal for Syria in January 2014 by pledging $28.1 million, of which $20.9 million will support UNRWA’s emergency services to Palestinians inside Syria. The remainder will be spent helping 80,000 Palestinian refugees who have fled to neighboring countries, including Lebanon and Jordan. The U.S. has contributed more than $100 million to UNRWA emergency appeals for Syria since the start of the crisis, Richard said, and provided over $294 million to support the Agency in 2013.

In his remarks, Grandi thanked the Saudi Embassy for hosting the event and noted that Saudi Arabia, “one of our best donors,” has launched a group of reconstruction projects in West Bank refugee camps. The Saudi Fund for Development will rehabilitate homes for 930 Palestine refugee families and reconstruct three schools, as well as the Hebron Health Center.

As the largest bilateral donor to UNRWA, the U.S. has helped ensure that Palestinian 63

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(L-r) Christopher McGrath, acting head of UNRWA’s Washington, DC office, UNRWAUSA communications officer Laila Mokhiber, UNRWA-USA outreach officer John Sakakini, outgoing Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi, UNRWA-USA executive director Abby Smardon and Matthew Reynolds, UNRWA’s acting chief of staff. refugees affected by ongoing conflicts receive lifesaving assistance, including access to clean water, medicine, food and other critical needs. American support for UNRWA is not always easy “in the political context we work in,” Grandi acknowledged. Thanks to the “spectacular” efforts of American Friends of UNRWA, who have made UNRWA’s work better known in America, Grandi said it’s becoming easier to make a pitch for badly needed funds.

Americans are learning that UNRWA is one of the largest educational organizations in the world, and has provided services in the midst of incredible challenges, including two wars in Gaza, a war in Lebanon, the destruction of a camp in northern Lebanon, and now a war in Syria. The global economic downturn has made it difficult for governments to meet their financial obligations during the current crisis in Syria, Grandi observed. He urged Americans not to forget Gaza, saying, “Gaza is still in crisis.

It seems media can only focus on one crisis at a time. You don’t hear about Gaza.”

The future of refugees will depend on the peace process, whatever happens, Grandi emphasized. “If it fails we will need to care for refugees. If it succeeds, in the transitional period, UNRWA will need to continue to care for refugees.” He told UNRWA supporters, “Our work is important—it’s an investment in the future of Palestinians.”

The evening ended with a silent auction of striking UNRWA Archive photo prints.

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Since the agency’s creation in 1949, UNRWA photographers (and their predecessors) have recorded the life and history of Palestinian refugees. There are more than half a million photos and videos of families forced to flee their homes in 1948, the establishment of camps in 1950s, the second flight in 1967 and the lives of present-day refugees. (You can see these gripping photos at <www.unrwa.org>.) Palestinians in the private sector raised funds to preserve and digitize these photos, which they recognize as the community’s priceless collective memory over the past six decades. ”We are proud to have helped preserve the heritage of Palestinians,” Grandi concluded.

Pierre Krähenbühl, previously of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has been appointed the new head of UNRWA. Grandi and UNRWA-USA staff reminded attendees that UNRWA’s funding needs are immense. Visit <www.unrwausa.org> to make a U.S. tax-deductible contribution to UNRWA’s life-saving work for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and join UNRWAUSA’s third annual Gaza Solidarity 5K Walk/Run on Saturday, May 17, 2014.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Palestinian Refugees in Syria: The Crisis in Yarmouk The Palestine Center in Washington, DC hosted a Feb. 6 talk on the condition of the THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Palestinian community in Syria, particularly in the Yarmouk camp in Damascus.

Executive director Yousef Munayyer introduced Syrian-Palestinian journalist Nidal Bitari, a former resident of Yarmouk and founder of the Palestinian Association for Human Rights in Syria. The Institute for Palestine Studies USA published Bitari’s detailed study on the Palestinians in Syria in the Fall 2013 issue of the Journal of Palestine Studies.

Bitari began his remarks by asking panelists to refrain from calling Syria’s revolution a “civil war.” He reminded the standing-room-only audience that the conflict started as a “really peaceful and very beautiful uprising.” Bitari, who left Syria in December 2011, said he is in almost daily contact with his friends and colleagues who remain there.

Yarmouk, established in 1957 at the southern edge of Damascus, was the largest of 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. For decades Yarmouk has been at the center of Palestinian political movements, with organizers working for Palestinian human rights, including the right of return. Many Palestinian leaders were born and grew up in this camp, which housed 165,000 refugees, almost a third of those who lived in Syria.

Palestinians in Syria had a very privileged situation, enjoying economic, cultural and social rights, including the right to work and obtain education. Syrians and Palestinians are integrated in Syria, Bitari emphasized. “It’s not like Lebanon,” he said. You don’t see checkpoints at the gates of the camp. You can’t tell where the camp begins and the Syrian neighborhood ends—in fact, Palestinians are the minority in Yarmouk. Some of the leaders of the peaceful Syrian revolution were born and grew up inside the camp.

Palestinians decided to remain neutral in Syria. Just as Syrians are divided between pro- and anti-regime, the Palestinians also are divided. Some Palestinians, including the Popular Front General Command, began supporting the regime’s military and attacked the Free Syrian Army, which believed Yarmouk was their gateway to Damascus. The Free Syrian Army started stealing houses and hospital equipment inside the camp, Bitari said. Then the regime attacked the camp by air in December 2012, killing at least 20 people. Residents who had money and travel documents started to flee.

People are starving inside the camp because the Syrian regime is preventing most food and assistance from entering, Bitari charged. Finally on Jan. 18, UNRWA food parcels were allowed in. [The following MAY 2014

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(L-r) Yousef Munayyer, Christopher McGrath and Nidal Bitari discuss the Palestinian community in Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp.

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more important than ever to reach a peace agreement that will provide Palestinians a sustainable future. —Delinda C. Hanley

Twenty Years After Oslo: Peace for Israel and Palestine?

The New America Foundation and the Arab American Institute (AAI) co-hosted a Jan. 31 discussion of a Zogby Research Services public opinion poll on Israeli and Palestinian attitudes toward the peace process. AAI president Dr. James Zogby said pollsters wondered whether Israelis and Palestinians are ready to support a peace agreement, and what kind of agreement they actually want. Pollsters held inhome personal interviews in August 2013 of 1,000 Israeli and 1,000 Palestinian adults.

Pollsters discovered Palestinians are content with the role their leaders are playing, while Israelis give their leaders low ratings.

A majority of Palestinians see the role of every U.S. president since Oslo as destructive, and majorities of Israelis see the role of U.S. presidents as constructive.

Fifty percent of Palestinians are confident that their society is committed to a two-state solution, but only 26 percent believe that Israelis are committed to this

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night, however, aid distribution was suspended.]

The Syrian government has been proud to support Palestinian rights for decades, Bitari said, so he can’t understand why Assad’s soldiers are now killing Palestinians inside Syria’s camps.

Christopher McGrath, acting head of the Washington Representative Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said six of the twelve camps have become theaters of war, including Yarmouk. As of now, about 51,000 Palestinian refugees have fled to Lebanon, about 11,000 to Jordan, 6,000 to Egypt, 1,100 to Libya and 1,000 to Gaza. Others have fled to Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. In addition to those who have fled, about half of those who stayed, 280,000 Palestinian refugees, have been internally displaced, many of them multiple times.

Eleven of 23 UNRWA health clinics in Syria now are not functioning, McGrath stated, and only 42 of UNRWA’s 118 schools remain operational. Ten UNRWA staff members have been killed in Syria, 21 are missing, and about 16 have been injured. This is from a staff of about 3,700, almost all of them Palestinian refugees themselves. It’s estimated that more than 46,000 refugee homes have been destroyed.

Inside Syria UNRWA is moving from a facility-based approach to a beneficiarybased approach, that is, UNRWA is bringing services to the refugees. UNRWA is introducing new approaches, including providing self-learning materials students can use at home to keep up with their studies.

UNRWA will need about $417 million in 2014, including $310 million for programs inside Syria, $90 million in Lebanon and $15 million in Jordan. Palestinian refugees are particularly vulnerable throughout the region, McGrath concluded, making it

goal. On the other hand, 57 percent of Israelis say they are committed to a two-state solution, but only 28 percent believe that Palestinians share this goal.

Only one-third of Israelis (34 percent) and Palestinians (36 percent) still believe that a two-state solution is feasible, however. And, while the two-state solution remains the most popular option among both peoples, that support is much stronger among Israelis (74 percent) than among Palestinians (47 percent). [The entire poll can be downloaded at <www. aaiusa.org>.]

The two-state solution has been defined

by Israeli needs, not Palestinian needs, Zogby reminded his audience. “If I had added details to the question of a two-state solution such as the 1967 borders and a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, Israelis would have been less supportive.

“Israelis always poll in favor of negotiations, but are less favorable regarding specific outcomes,” Zogby elaborated. “Palestinians support outcomes more but support negotiations less, because they don’t trust the process. But when you’re in the dominant position, as Israel is, your attitudes are framed by the fact that you’re in control.”

The poll showed that young Israelis have harder-line positions than their elders, while Palestinians of all ages hold similar views. Zogby believes there are several reasons for this split between younger and older Israelis, including the disproportionately large number of children born to Orthodox and settler families. “Israel is the only country where we poll that younger people’s attitudes are less progressive than the older,” he said.

Lara Friedman, director of policy and government relations for Americans for Peace Now, said she was not surprised that young Israelis are more ideologically opposed to normalization. Past generations of

(L-r) Khaled Elgindy, New America Foundation moderator Leila Hilal, Lara Friedman and Dr. James Zogby discuss Israeli and Palestinian attitudes toward a potential agreement.

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Israelis knew Palestinians because they shopped in Ramallah and there was no separation barrier. At the end of the day, when both sides are presented with the possibility of peace, Friedman said peoples’ opinions could shift quickly.

According to Khaled Elgindy, a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, the Zogby poll supports Secretary of State John Kerry’s view that if current efforts fail, the two-state solution is in serious jeopardy.

Both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have stated that they would put any peace agreement to a referendum.

When asked if they held out hope for an agreement, only 11 percent of Palestinians and 39 percent of Israelis said they did. But when asked if they would support an agreement if their respective leaders endorsed it, 55 percent of Israelis and 49 percent of Palestinians said they would do so, while only 19 percent of Israelis and 28 percent of Palestinians said they would not.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Josh Ruebner Riles Pro-Israel Crowd In Des Moines When Josh Ruebner, national advocacy director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, spoke to an audience of about 50 who gathered in Drake University’s Sussman Theater on March 4, the Washington, DC-based political analyst, activist and author of Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace (available from the AET Bookstore) drew the ire of several hecklers.

After thanking the crowd for coming out on a very cold night, Ruebner described the US Campaign as “a national coalition of more than 400 organizations that have joined together to work to change our country’s policies toward Israel and the Palestinian people; to support a policy that is based on human rights, international law and equality; and to change those aspects of our country’s policy that are supportive of Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestinian land and Israel’s apartheid policies toward the Palestinian people.”

Ruebner spoke for about 40 minutes, delivering a memorably cogent overview of the history and politics of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. Though he was interrupted by one of a noisy group of proIsrael members of his audience, Ruebner persuaded the group to hold their questions until he completed his formal remarks. He continued, ignoring occasional 66

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Josh Ruebner speaking in Sussman Theater at Drake University in Des Moines on March 4. laughter and rude remarks.

Opening the question-and-answer period, the former Congressional Research Service analyst and founder of Jews for Peace in Palestine, which later merged with Jewish Voice for Peace, invited the young man who had earlier interrupted him to pose the first question. It quickly became apparent that his critic, who charged Ruebner with speaking “untruths” and “complete falsehood,” was ill-prepared for debate with a policy analyst who holds a BA in political science and Near Eastern studies from the University of Michigan and a graduate degree in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Ruebner, sparring with another questioner who suggested that neighboring Arab countries should absorb Palestinian refugees, offered an analogy. If the USA, which in the 19th century invaded Spanish-held lands in what is now the southwestern and western United States, decided in 2014 to invade and ethnically cleanse modern-day Mexico, should then the USA say to Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, “because you speak the same language as the people who we ethnically cleansed, why don’t you absorb them?…That’s what you’re asking when you ask other countries to bear the responsibility for Israel’s ethnic cleansing.”

Interrupted again, Ruebner refused to be shouted down by a critic who disagreed with his analogy and then stormed out of the auditorium.

This reporter asked Ruebner to discuss the relationship of the “neoconservatives” and the “Israel Lobby,” and how they influence events on the ground in Palestine and policy in Washington.

“It’s no secret that certain neoconservative ideologies ruled the Bush administration’s foreign policy,” replied Ruebner, “and of course it’s no secret that that ideological THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

movement was heavily influenced by and interconnected with right-wing Israeli ideological circles as well. That really played itself out during the [Bush] administration.

The neocons are sort of licking their wounds right now, waiting for another opportunity to be a more fundamental part of the government.

“I don’t think that the neocons exercise any form of influence over the Obama administration whatsoever,” opined Ruebner.

[This despite the fact that assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, an Obama administration official who served during the Bush administration as Vice President Dick Cheney’s principal deputy foreign policy adviser, also served under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as State Department spokesperson from mid-2011 until February 2013. Nuland is viewed by many observers of official Washington as a neoconservative.]

Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace has drawn praise from Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies and Nadia Hijab of Al Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network, among others.

The Des Moines event was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee’s Middle East Peace Education Project, Middle East Peace and Prosperity Alliance of Drake University, and Methodist Federation for Social Action–Iowa.

—Michael Gillespie

Jerry Ebner Returns From Prison Omaha Catholic Worker Gerald A. “Jerry” Ebner, arrested during a Dec. 28, 2012 nonviolent direct action line crossing at Offutt AFB, home of the Strategic Air Command, celebrated the end of a six-month federal prison term on Feb. 28. Friends and colleagues gathered at the Des Moines Catholic Worker’s Dingman House to welcome home Ebner, 63, from the Federal Medical Center at Lexington, KY and hear him speak about the experience.

“I had a blast,” declared Ebner, who laughed about having had to explain, again and again, to guards monitoring the facility’s metal detectors that it was his pacemaker that always set off the alarms.

In response to questions from this reporter, Ebner spoke at some length about the reactions of other prisoners who became aware of the nature of the offense that caused Judge Thomas Thalken, also a Catholic, to sentence him to six months in a federal prison.

Several other prisoners, said Ebner, “told it to me this way: They have a hard time unMAY 2014

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STAFF PHOTO M. GILLESPIE

cility in Oak Ridge, TN. Catholic derstanding courage. They think I nun Megan Rice, 84, received a have a lot of courage to do what I did. sentence of 35 months in prison, Not that I think I’m holier than they while Michael Walli, 65, and Greare. I’m not.” gory Boertje-Obed, 58, each reThey just don’t understand that ceived sentences of five years and particular kind of courage, Ebner two months in prison. The three said. “They’ve never experienced served eight and a half months that in their lives, with other peowhile awaiting sentencing. ple. And we all know, Catholic or Ebner told his audience that otherwise, they’ve never been news of the sentencing of the octotaught about nonviolence. Most of genarian Rice to almost three years us are more angry that our religious in prison came to him from other leaders and church leaders don’t inmates, who were surprised and teach people nonviolence.” shocked, even before members of Ebner explained that prison life his own Catholic Worker commuallows inmates time to get to know one another. “There’s a lot of dis- Jerry Ebner (front row, c) with friends and colleagues in Des nity could inform him.

Ebner, who opened the event cussion and a lot of disbelief,” Moines after his return from the Federal Medical Center: noted Ebner, who smiled as he re- (back row, l-r) Frank Cordaro, Jim Kelly, Mike Bender, Ed with a Christian prayer, closed it called that some of the inmates Bloomer, Al Birney; (front row, l-r) Gilbert Landolt, Ebner, with a Jewish prayer from the Sabbath service, which begins with thought he was crazy to engage in and Michael Sprong. the words: “Disturb us, Adonai, nonviolent actions that he expected system, or they’ve lost their wives, or fam- ruffle us from our complacency; Make us to result in prison time.

“The question of effectiveness comes up. ily members who don’t write anymore,” dissatisfied. Dissatisfied with the peace of ignorance, the quietude which arises from ‘You’re never going to be effective and explained Ebner.

While Ebner was incarcerated in Ken- a shunning of the horror, the defeat, the you’re never going to win.’ So we have these discussions, don’t we always, about tucky, three Transform Now Plowshares bitterness and the poverty, physical and effectiveness and faithfulness,” said Ebner. activists were sentenced to prison for non- spiritual, of humans. Shock us, Adonai, “I’m not there to preach to them, the in- violent direct action trespassing in July deny to us the false Shabbat which gives us mates. They’ve been preached at and hu- 2012 at the Y-12 National Security Com- the delusions of satisfaction amid a world miliated by people in the [criminal justice] plex, a nuclear weapons manufacturing fa- of war and hatred.” —Michael Gillespie (Advertisement)

MAY 2014

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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bookreview_68_Book Review 3/20/14 6:01 AM Page 68

Books

Against Our Better Judgment: How the U.S. was Used to Create Israel

By Alison Weir, ifamericansknew.org, 2014, paperback, 240 pp. List: $9.93; AET: $8.

Reviewed by James Abourezk Having studied enough American Indian tribes over the years, I have grown accustomed to creation myths that each tribe assigns itself as its reason for being.

And the definition of “chutzpah” that I’ve been taught is that of a young man on trial for murdering his parents, who throws himself on the mercy of the court on grounds that he is an orphan.

That, as Alison Weir has made clear, is Israel’s situation. In Against Our Better Judgment, Weir writes with great clarity how the Zionist movement was able to move politicians, both in America and in England, to legalize a most illegal act—that of stealing an entire nation—and crying foul when those from whom it was stolen complained, then tried to retake the land.

Weir’s in-depth research to expose

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Zionist actions in earlier times provides a solid basis for her conclusions about creating Israel from a land called Palestine.

And she documents the intense lobbying done by Israel’s Zionist creators and their American and British fellow travelers.

We are now living with the consequences of that bit of grand theft, i.e., the continuing violence in the Middle East, affecting everything America might want to do in the region. We only recently witnessed Bibi Netanyahu’s sofar-failed effort to have America invade and conquer Iran, a country that obviously is too much of a mouthful for Israel to bite off itself. Suddenly, even Barack Obama recognizes the danger in following Israel’s advice on how to conduct itself in the Middle East. The president tiptoed to the edge of the abyss but backed away when Israel’s trained seals in the U.S. Congress tried to push the nation over the edge.

We saw congressional supporters of Israel shamefully initiating the dozens of standing ovations when a Joint Session of Congress entertained Prime Minister Netanyahu, who obliged the assembled mass with aggressive applause lines designed to favor those who have a penchant for violence and to show how Israel is “America’s staunchest ally” in the Middle East.

During the 1970s, when I was a member of the U.S. Senate, I was waiting my turn to testify on the Middle East situation before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As is the custom, the administration witness was testifying ahead of me.

I do not recall his name, but I felt very sorry for him when New York Sen. Jacob Javits asked from the dais, “Please explain why Israel is our most important ally in the Middle East.”

The poor fellow did not have an answer.

Granted, he was a lower level State Department official, but his lack of an answer was indicative of the lack of a story provided to him by his seniors in the State Department.

So Senator Javits asked him again, and again, and again, trying to have a statement THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

from some government official which Israel’s Lobby could use in its propaganda campaign to maintain Israel’s lofty position in the American mind. But the State Department official was unable to come up with an answer, which left Senator Javits and his cohorts to try some other avenue. The Israel-is-a-vital-ally shibboleth has since been made into an overused slogan by supporters of Israel.

But each time I hear that phrase, “staunchest ally,” I think of the American sailors on the U.S.S. Liberty, who, during the 1967 Israeli-Arab War, died when the Israeli military was ordered to destroy its “ally’s” intelligence ship.

During that act of friendship, America’s staunchest ally killed some 34 American sailors, and wounded another 170.

I also think of Jonathan Pollard, an American employee of our Pentagon, who sold what has been described as “a truckload” of the Pentagon’s secrets to Israel. I say “sold,” because Israel paid Pollard for the secrets, which Israel then traded to the Soviet Union for that country’s relaxation of rules with respect to Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union to Israel.

With Weir’s well-researched history in mind, I am forced to think of the cadre of American journalists who lately have assigned “oil” as the reason for George Bush’s folly—the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. They say nothing of the well known fact that George Bush had a number of Israel’s supporters giving him advice on the issue of Iraq. I’ve lost count of the billions of American dollars that were sucked up by that war, as well as the precious American lives that were lost to satisfy Israel’s agents in the Bush administration, those who convinced President Bush to do something that Israel wanted, but knowing it was better if “America did it.” President Obama should be applauded for refusing to fall into the same trap with respect to Syria.

This provocative book documents a history that is essential in understanding today’s world. Scholarly, yet readable, it is a must for all Americans. We all need to know what we have spent by coddling Israel and its aggressions, and why the cost has become more than we bargained for. ❑ James Abourezk is a former U.S. senator from South Dakota who plunged into the Middle East morass when he saw the cost to our country of Israel’s efforts to connive to have our country do Israel’s dirty work.

MAY 2014

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AET Bookstore Catalog Literature

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Spring 2014 The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, by Ilan Pappé, Verso, 2014, hardcover, 288 pp. List: $26.95; AET: $22. Acclaimed author Ilan Pappé charts the development of Zionist discourse, paying special attention to the early 20th Century scholars tasked with establishing historical “proof” for the ideology’s fundamental assumptions. This eyeopening multidimensional look at Zionism and its challengers explores the movement’s core myths, the evolution of post-Zionism, and the impact of recent events in Israel and the Middle East.

A Riffian’s Tune, by Joseph M. Labaki, Clunett Press, 2013, paperback, 435 pp. AET: $15. Jusef dreams of a future beyond the hardscrabble life of his tribal home in Morocco’s Rif mountains.

This autobiographical novel follows Jusef on his journey from rural sheepherder to student making his way through the chaotic streets of Fez. Labaki’s captivating story reveals the complexities of Moroccan culture, the legacies of colonial rule, the hope of a newly independent country, and the forces that pushed many tribal youths out of the hills and into the labyrinth of urban life.

Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iranian Nuclear Scare, by Gareth Porter, Just World Books, 2014, paperback, 312 pp. List: $28; AET: $26. Award-winning investigative journalist Gareth Porter delves into the history of Iran’s nuclear program and the false intelligence engineered by the U.S. and Israel to spread fear about Iranian intentions. The product of many years of research, interviews with negotiators and other involved officials, Manufactured Crisis is a groundbreaking work that exposes the political machinations behind the blockade of Iran’s rightful interest in nuclear technology.

Above the Din of War: Afghans Speak About Their Lives, Their Country, and Their Future—and Why America Should Listen, by Peter Eichstaedt, Lawrence Hill Books, 2013, hardcover, 280 pp. List: $26.95; AET: $20. What will happen to everyday Afghan citizens when U.S.-led international forces finally leave the country?

To answer this question, veteran human rights journalist Peter Eichstaedt traveled across Afghanistan interviewing warlords, Taliban members, female parliamentarians, farmers, shopkeepers and villagers. His well-crafted writing gives us a compelling glimpse into the lives of ordinary people confronting extraordinary circumstances.

Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide, by Israel/ Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church, 2014, paperback with DVD, 72 pp. AET: $10.

This first-of-a-kind resource for community leaders in any religious or educational context provides an invaluable framework for exploring the nature of Jewish and Christian Zionism and the Palestinian struggle for statehood, dignity and justice. Published to immediate acclaim and controversy, Zionism Unsettled respectfully questions the theological and ethical exceptionalism that enables continued injustice and prevents true peace and reconciliation in the Middle East.

Against Our Better Judgment: How the U.S. was Used to Create Israel, by Alison Weir, ifamericansknew.org, 2014, paperback, 240 pp.

List: $9.93; AET: $8. Journalist Alison Weir, founder and executive director of If Americans Knew, documents the origins of the Zionist movement in the United States and how these organizations formed a lobbying effort to pressure U.S. politicians to support the creation of Israel. Including extensive endnotes, Against is the result of significant primary and secondarysource research, adding valuable depth to the work of Donald Neff, Grant F. Smith, Paul Findley, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, and others.

The Disinherited, by Ibrahim Fawal, NewSouth Books, 2012, hardcover, 300 pp. List $28.95; AET: $25. In this sequel to the critically acclaimed On the Hills of God, Yousif Safi’s journey continues as he searches for Salwa, his bride, lost amid the destitute Palestinian refugee camps of Jordan in 1948.

Their tearful reunion is the start of their life together as part of a nascent Palestinian Diaspora. As hopeful as it is heartbreaking, The Disinherited unflinchingly connects readers to the courage of the Palestinians who began the ongoing quest to reclaim their homeland.

The Ultimate Choice: Armageddon or Awakening, by Rosemarie Carnarius, CreateSpace Publishing, 2013, paperback, 328 pp. AET: $17. Drawing on her experience as a Unitarian Universalist minister and childhood surrounded by war and corruption in the former East Germany, Rosemarie Carnarius urges readers to act for change in the Middle East and a wider world on the brink. With chapters exploring current events including the siege of Gaza and Israel’s threats to Iran, Carnarius calls on humanity to acknowledge its shared nature in order to avoid extinction.

A Kid's Guide to Arab American History: More Than 50 Activities, by Yvonne Wakim Dennis & Maha Addasi, Chicago Review Press, 2013, paperback, 224 pp. List: $16.95; AET: $13. Through engaging prose and fun activities, authors Dennis and Addasi help dispel many stereotypes about Arab Americans in this important guide for educators and children ages 79. Each chapter focuses on different Arab immigrant communities, including those of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi and Yemeni descent, as well as exploring the contributions of famous Arab Americans like Ralph Nader, Paula Abdul and Danny Thomas.

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THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST

The Economist, London Ad-Dustour, Amman

NY Times Syndicate, NY

The Muslim Observer, Farmington, MI

Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

NY Times Syndicate, NY

MAY 2014

opm_71-72_Other People's Mail 3/20/14 6:04 AM Page 71

Other People’s Mail Compiled by Dale Sprusansky South Africa and Israel To The Wichita Eagle, Jan. 29, 2014 “Not apartheid” (Jan. 22 Letters to the Editor) revealed ignorance about how South African apartheid operated. A very small number of black Africans were permitted to achieve. Most were confined to menial jobs, while professional jobs were reserved for whites.

By the 1960s, “separate development” was the strategy—divide people into ethnic groups and assign them to parcels of woefully inferior land with white settler communities interspersed. This separated those ethnic group “homelands” into small nonviable areas, keeping the urban industrial areas that produce jobs, the better roads, and the water within the white settlements.

Thirteen percent of the people—white settlers—received 87 percent of land.

How similar is this to hundreds of Israeli settlements breaking up the West Bank’s Arab communities—Christian and Muslim—into small, isolated areas, separated from one another by highways only Israelis can use. The settler boundaries were drawn to include the water and prime land, and jobs were reserved for the residents of Israeli settlements.

This is government policy in Israel, and the U.S. government has not effectively challenged it, as it continues sending billions of dollars to Israel every year. This is apartheid.

Gretchen Eick, Wichita, KS

Jews Support Israeli Boycott To The New York Times, Feb. 3, 2014 I grew up in a Zionist home. Until Israel began settling the territory conquered in the 1967 war, I believed that Israel was justifiably holding the land to trade it for peace. The settlement activity over the last decades, promoted and subsidized by Israeli governments, both of the right and of the left, should disabuse any rational observer of any idealistic belief about Israel’s eagerness to trade land for peace.

I do not support violence against Israel, from any quarter—both on the moral ground that such violence is wrong and on the practical ground that anti-Israel violence has never prompted Israel to change its policies.

Like a growing number of American Jews, I support a boycott of products from MAY 2014

the occupied territories as the most effective and moral way to affect the facts on the ground.

Alan Wagman, Albuquerque, NM

Resorting to Anti-Semitism To The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2014 Ms. [Jodi] Rudoren notes that Mark Regev, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman, believes the BDS movement is holding Israel to a higher standard than any other country in the world.

Actually, the opposite is true. Israel itself likes to portray itself as having higher standards than most, while at the same time violating these standards with apparent impunity. Israel is a signatory to the Declaration of Human Rights, yet has violated almost all of its articles. Israel, in its Declaration of Independence, promised to provide equal rights and justice to all residents of Palestine-Israel, but apparently never had any intention of doing so. Israel promised, as a provision of the United Nations recognition of their state, to adopt a Constitution, but has never done so.

In view of the massive unquestioned support of Israel by the American government, one might assume that Israel would be more cooperative in the search for peace and justice. This has obviously not happened. Resorting to proclaiming anti-Semitism every time there are questions as to the policies of the Israeli government is the fallback position when all else fails. This should not be allowed.

Doris Rausch, Columbia, MD

Preserving a Jewish State To The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2014 What Mr. Roger Cohen’s argument boils down to is a belief that civil equality and human rights are less lofty ideals than the perseverance of a Jewish majority state. I wonder, would you ever publish an opinion article voicing concern over the end of America as a white state? What would Mr. Cohen make of the demographic realities within Israel’s 1967 borders: the 20-percentand-growing population of Arab-Palestinian citizens in Israel? What does that reality suggest for the sustainability of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state? To preserve a Jewish majority, would Mr. Cohen push THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

his argument further to call for the removal of Israel’s Palestinian population?

Bayann Hamid, New York, NY

Water Wars?

To The [Santa Rosa, CA] Press Democrat, March 13, 2014 Your article about California’s pact with Israel (“Netanyahu, Brown sign pro-business pact,” March 6) contained some serious irony. Gov. Jerry Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were quoted extolling Israel’s approach to water management, suggesting it could be a model for California. Netanyahu was quoted as saying “Israel has no water problems.” Is this his tacit acknowledgment that the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights are not part of Israel even though they’re occupied by it?

It would appear so, because Palestinians, who make up the vast majority of people living in those areas, are subject to extreme water deprivation and water pollution due to Israeli government policies.

If California were actually to pursue the Israeli model of water management, it would behoove Oregon and Nevada to prepare to defend their borders. Arizona and Mexico, not having any water left to steal, would not have to worry.

Wesley Silverthorne, Santa Rosa, CA

Israel’s Christian Exodus To The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 27, 2014 I was shocked but not surprised that the Dec. 16 cover story, “A Middle East without Christians?” didn’t connect the “political and economic strife” Christians in Israeli-occupied Bethlehem “have faced over the past few decades” to the Israeli occupation under which all Palestinians in the occupied territories have lived, Muslims and Christians alike, since 1967.

If looking at the removal of Christians from the Middle East, one could look as far back as 1948 when Jewish forces expelled 85 percent of the Palestinians—Muslim and Christian—who lived in the territory that became Israel.

Until decent publications like the Monitor are willing to discuss fully the actualities of the Middle East, Americans will continue to be served what amounts to 71

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knee-jerk, pro-Israel pablum or coverage of the region that misleads from a political bent rather than tells the truth.

Peter Belmont, Brooklyn, NY

Wrong on Egypt To the Calgary Sun, Feb. 9, 2014 [Canadian] Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued a statement on Jan. 16, stating that the constitutional referendum in Egypt on Jan. 14 and 15 “marks an important step in the country’s road map forward.” Unfortunately, I am not sure why Mr. Baird considered the referendum an “important step”: is it due to its one-sided result, 98.1 percent, which reminds us of the results of Mubarak’s referendums, or is it due to the fact that 12 were killed in protests on the first day of the referendum, or that people in Egypt were arrested for possessing posters calling for a “no” vote. The statement also mentioned hopes that the interim government “strives to meet its ambitious timetable” while “ensuring adherence to the fundamentals of democratic values.” But few in Egypt, either those who opposed or previously backed the July 3 military coup, have much hope in any democratic values under the ruling military regime. There is not much hope when about 50 protesters were killed on the Egypt Revolution’s third anniversary, with liberal activists arrested and sentenced to jail, and when we know there are 20 journalists facing criminal charges in Egypt, four of them foreigners, and one of them Canadian.

Mostafa Elhoushi, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Comparing Press Freedoms To The Washington Post, Feb. 10, 2014 The Feb. 5 editorial “No friend of freedom” condemned the jailing of journalists in Egypt, noting that the State Department has also condemned such prosecutions as “egregious disregard for the protection of basic rights and freedoms.” Now consider the views of journalistic freedom offered by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), running the same day in the Style article “Reporters ‘fencing stolen material’?”

Mr. Clapper and Mr. Rogers advocate the prosecution of journalists who reported on the documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Are these men blind to how similar their approach is to that of the Egyptian military in seeking any flimsy rational to ignore the First Amendment in “egregious 72

disregard for the protection of basic rights and freedoms”?

Gene Hilborn, Gainesville, VA

U.S. Role in Afghan Vote To The New York Times, March 7, 2014 “Warlords With Dark Pasts Battle in Afghan Election” (front page, Feb. 27), about the April 5 Afghan presidential election, says American officials “have taken pains to avoid expressing any preference for a particular candidate, sensitive to accusations from Mr. Karzai that they interfered in the 2009 vote.”

Let the record show that these “accusations” from President Hamid Karzai are not a figment of his imagination. As Robert Gates, the former defense secretary, confirmed in his memoir, Duty, some American officials were trying “to bring about the defeat of Karzai in the August 20 elections.”

And the result, according to Mr. Gates: “Our future dealings with Karzai, always hugely problematic, and his criticisms of us, are at least more understandable in the context of our clumsy and failed putsch.”

I hope that we have learned a lesson.

Karl F. Inderfurth, McLean, VA

Defending Eviction Notices To The Huntington News, March 13, 2014 Two weeks ago, [Northeastern University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)] activists slipped mock eviction notices under the doors of students’ dorm rooms, highlighting the ongoing epidemic of home demolitions in occupied Palestine. The notices began by telling students that their dorm WRITE, TELEPHONE OR E-MAIL THOSE WORKING FOR YOU President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20500 Switchboard: (202) 456-1414 Comment Line: (202) 456-1111 Fax: (202) 456-2461 E-mail: <president@whitehouse.gov> Vice President Joe Biden <vice.president@whitehouse.gov> Secretary of State John Kerry Department of State Washington, DC 20520 (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: visit <www.congress.org> for contact information.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

was scheduled for demolition, and continued on to explain that every year thousands of Palestinians have demolition orders applied to their homes solely because of their ethnicity. The notices clearly stated that they were not real and invited students to join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #BostonMockEviction.

Citing data from the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, the notices point out that 160,000 indigenous Palestinians have been displaced since 1967. In fact, according to data from the United Nations, 862 Palestinians were made homeless by Israeli demolitions in the first nine months of 2013 alone. The Palestinian population in the occupied territories, including illegally annexed East Jerusalem, continues to endure violence, displacement, dispossession and deprivation as a result of prolonged Israeli occupation, in violation of their rights under international law. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, demolitions are a major cause of the destruction of property, including residential and livelihood-related structures and displacement.

Mock eviction notices have been used at many other campuses nationwide and have usually succeeded in inspiring debate on campus about Israeli policies and the conditions under which Palestinians live. Most notably, last year at Harvard when students implemented a similar campaign, Zionist organizations made unsubstantiated claims that Jewish students had been targeted or that the notices forced students into having uncomfortable political conversations. Student activists on many campuses have responded that the question of Israel-Palestine has for too long been the “third-rail” on college campuses, a subject that you were not supposed to talk about, but that direct actions are important in engaging students in a critical debate about a serious issue impacting people’s lives, which the mainstream media talks about too little or in a biased way.

The timing of this distribution of mock eviction notices coincided with the start of the 10th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week, which seeks to raise awareness of the unequal treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the conditions of those people living under Israeli military occupation, as well as build support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. Throughout the week activists on campuses nationwide hosted events, such as movie screenings, lectures and creative actions, which raise awareness about these conditions.

Tori Porell, SJP member, Boston, MA ❑ MAY 2014

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Upcoming Events, Announcements & —Compiled by Andrew Stimson Obituaries Upcoming Events The Jerusalem Fund Gallery will host a first-of-its-kind event: the launch of NooshTube, a free mobile application showcasing Middle Eastern food and culture, on May 3, 2 to 4 p.m., at 2425 Virginia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20037.

Creators Pooya Rezai and Sherean Azarmi will demonstrate how NooshTube enables users to collaborate on humanitarian projects, find recipes, shop at (or “browse around”) a virtual pantry, and source Middle Eastern vendors or restaurants in the U.S. and worldwide. For more information visit <www.thejerusalemfund.org> or call (202) 338-1958.

Join United Palestinian Appeal (UPA) on May 3 for its Spring Walk for Palestine at Carderock Park in Bethesda, MD, 9 to 11:30 a.m. Support Palestine by helping raise critical funds for health, education and development programs while walking along the historic C&O Canal. For more information, visit <http://www.help upa.org> or call (202) 659-5007.

American Friends of UNRWA will hold its 3rd annual Washington, DC Gaza Solidarity 5K Walk/Run, May 17 at 8 a.m. in Rock Creek Park. Proceeds from the event will benefit UNRWA’s mental health program for children in Gaza suffering from psychological trauma and PTSD. For more information, visit <www.unrwausa.org/ gaza5k> or call (202) 223-3767.

The Islamic Circle of North America and the Muslim American Society will host the 39th Annual ICNA-MAS Convention, May 24 to 26 at the Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St, Baltimore, MD 21201. The event will feature speakers, competitions, a youth conference, entertainment, and a large bazaar. For more information visit <www.icna.org> or call (718) 658-1199.

Announcements In an effort to help the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People connect with civil society organizations active on the Palestinian cause, the U.N. Platform for Palestine MAY 2014

(UNPfP) has launched a new website and Facebook page, which supporters are encouraged to visit and help them make their online presence an important resource.

Visit these pages at <www.unpfp.un.org> and <www.facebook.com/UNPfP>.

The Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies (YCMES) will host its annual Summer Term Arabic Language & Area Studies Program in Sana’a from June 8 to July 10, July 13 to Aug. 21, and Aug. 24 to Sept. 25. Students can study at YCMES for 5, 10, 15 or more weeks, in one of the world’s few remaining places where Arabic is spoken exclusively. The program accepts applicants on a rolling basis, and payments must be received a month before classes begin. To learn more visit <http:// ncusar.org/study-abroad/ycmes>.

The Summer Institute for Intensive Arabic Language and Culture, hosted each year at the Lebanese American University (Beirut campus), is currently accepting applications for its six-week summer program, June 23 to Aug. 1. Courses include introductory through advanced Arabic and Lebanese dialect. Applications are due by May 16. For more information visit <www.lau.edu.lb/centers-institutes/ sinarc/index.html>.

Obituaries Hunein Maassab, 87, a Syrian American scientist and developer of a groundbreaking flu vaccine, died Feb. 1 in North Carolina.

Born in Damascus, Maassab enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1947 and earned a doctorate in epidemiology in 1956 from the University of Michigan, joining its School of Public Health faculty in 1957 and becoming a full professor of epidemiology in 1973. Inspired by the success of the polio vaccine, Maassab first isolated a strain of flu virus in 1960, then spent nearly 50 years developing a nasal spray version of the flu vaccine, during which he and a team of researchers conducted more than 70 studies and trials.

In 2002 the FDA approved his FluMist for general use, and it has since become an internationally used alternative to injected vaccines. By the late 1990s, the vaccine was shown to successfully prevent flu infections 85 percent of the time, and later tests have THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

BulletinBoard

revealed that the spray is more effective than comparable injected vaccines.

Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh, 83, the revolutionary Palestinian poet and folkloric songwriter popularly known as “Abu Arab,” died March 2 in the Syrian city of Homs after a long illness. Born in al-Shajara village in British Mandate Palestine in 1931, his family was forced to flee their ancestral home after his father was killed while fighting Israeli forces in 1948. The family cycled through several refugee camps until settling in Homs. Saleh, who formed his first music ensemble in 1980, lost one of his sons in Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. During his 63 years of exile, he wrote poetry about his home and the struggle of the Palestinian people. He began singing on radio programs in 1959 and is considered by some to be the grandfather of Palestinian revolutionary song. He was allowed to briefly return to Palestine to participate in a 2011 cultural festival, and played to a full house in Ramallah.

Shulamit Aloni, 85, Israeli politician, cofounder of the dovish Meretz party and frequent critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, died Jan. 24 at her home near Tel Aviv. Born in Tel Aviv to Polish immigrants, she fought as part of the underground Palmach militia in Jerusalem and was captured

by Jordanian forces in 1948. She was first elected to the Knesset in 1965, and started her own party, the Citizens’ Rights Movement, in 1973. Initially focused on the separation of religion and state, the party later became critical of Israeli actions in Lebanon, human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and the construction of settlements on Palestinian land. She helped found Meretz in 1992 and served briefly as education minister, but was forced to resign after speaking out against Jewish religious leaders. She retired from party politics in 1996. In 2005 Aloni joined the board of Yesh Din, which provides legal assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank. She publicly defended President Jimmy Carter’s use of the word Apartheid in his book about the Palestine-Israel conflict. At the age of 80, Aloni wrote her sixth book, Israel: Democracy or Ethnocracy? a stern assessment of the Jewish fundamentalist movement in Israeli politics. ❑ 73

angels_74_May 2014 Choir of Angels 3/20/14 6:09 AM Page 74

AET’s 2014 Choir of Angels Following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1, 2014 and March 4, 2014 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. Some Angels helped us co-sponsor the March 7 National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship.” We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

HUMMERS ($100 or more) Jeffrey M. Abood, Silver Lake, OH Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA Mike & Pat Ameen, Kingwood, TX Edwin Amidon, Charlotte, VT Sylvia Anderson de Freitas, Phoenix, AZ Mr. & Mrs. Sultan Aslam, Plainsboro, NJ Nabil Bahu, Athens, Greece Jamil Barhoum, San Diego, CA Allen & Jerrie Bartlett, Philadelphia, PA John Carley, Pointe-Claire, Quebec Richard Curtiss, Boynton Beach, FL Tareck Elass, Washington, DC M.R. Eucalyptus, Kansas City, MO Renee Farmer, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Majed Faruki, Albuquerque, NM Douglas A. Field, Kihei, HI Eileen Fleming, Clermont, FL

Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Shirley Hannah, Argyle, NY Mrs. Frances Hasenyager, Carmel, CA Joan & Edward Hazbun, Media, PA Dr. Colbert & Mildred Held, Waco, TX Mohamad Kamal, North York, Ont. Edwin Kennedy, Bethesda, MD Alfred & Dina Khoury, McLean, VA Joseph Korey, Reading, PA Mary Lou Levin, Mill Valley, CA Stanley McGinley, The Woodlands, TX Colleen Mitchell, Fresno, CA Bassam Rammaha, Corona, CA Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT Ms. Brynhild Rowberg, Northfield, MN Betty Sams, Washington, DC Russell Scardaci, Cairo, NY * John V. Whitbeck, Paris, France Darrell & Sue Yeaney, Scotts Valley, CA Nadim & Alicia Zacharia, San Diego, CA

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ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more) Dr. Majid Azzedine, Lakewood, WA Paul N. Kirk, Baton Rouge, LA Kendall Landis, Media, PA Rachelle Marshall, Mill Valley, CA Yasir Shallal, McLean, VA

TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more) Dr. Abdullah Arar, Amman, Jordan Graf Herman Bender, North Palm Beach, FL Rev. Ronald C. Chochol, St. Louis, MO Rafeek Farah, New Boston, MI Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO Hind Hamdan, Hagerstown, MD Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Gerald & Judith Merrill, Oakland, CA Mary Norton, Austin, TX Gabrielle Saad, Oakland, CA Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD*

BARITONES & MEZZO SOPRANOS ($1,000 or more) Asha A. Anand, Bethesda, MD Thomas D’Albani & Dr. Jane Killgore, Bemidji, MN Linda Emmet, Paris, France Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey* Judith Howard, Norwood, MA Shafiq Kombargi, Houston, TX Jack Love, San Diego, CA John Mahoney, AMEU, New York, NY Bob Norberg, Lake City, MN John Van Wagoner, McLean, VA

CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more)

Bequests of any size are honored with membership in the American Educational Trust’s “Choirmasters,” named for angels whose foresight and dedication ensured the future of the Washington Report and AET Book Club.

For more information visit www.wrmea.com/donate/bequests.pdf, contact us at circulation@wrmea.com, write: American Educational Trust, PO Box 91056 • Long Beach, CA 90809-1056, or telephone our new toll-free circulation number 888-881-5861 • Fax: 714-226-9733 74

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Henry Clifford, Essex, CT Donna B. Curtiss, Kensington, MD John & Henrietta Goelet, New York, NY Andrew I. Killgore, Washington, DC Vincent & Louise Larsen, Billings, MT*, ** Mahmud Shaikhaly, Hollywood, CA *In Memory of Richard H. Curtiss **In Honor of Andrew I. Killgore ❑ MAY 2014

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American Educational Trust The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs P.O. Box 53062 Washington, DC 20009

May 2014 Vol. XXXIII, No. 3

Syrian refugee children pose for a photo during the “Light Against Darkness” exhibition of art by Syrian refugee children in Beirut, Feb. 21, 2014. The exhibit was the culmination of a three-month workshop supervised by artists to provide psychological support for Syrian refugees.

ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images