Washington Report on Middle East Affairs — March 2013

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THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS BORDER—KASHMIR

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On Middle East Affairs Volume XXXII, No. 2

March 2013

Telling the Truth for 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 Netanyahu Abandons the Pretense of a Two-State Solution—Rachelle Marshall 10 The State of Palestine’s Decree No. 1 and the Two-State Solution—John V. Whitbeck 12 Israel Still Hung Up on Its Love-Hate Relationship With International Law—Ian Williams 13 Two Slaps in Netanyahu’s Face—George S. Hishmeh

14 The Baker’s Child—Mohammed Omer 16 International Conference Demands Freedom for Prisoners of War Held by Israel—Delinda C. Hanley 18 Welcome, Chuck—Uri Avnery 20 Protest Voices in the West Bank—George Meek 22 Congressional Reaction to Successful Palestinian Bid Limited, but Harsh—Shirl McArthur

Works by Syrian/Kurdish artist Lukman Ahmad were on display at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery in Washington, DC through Feb. 1. See story p. 58.

SPECIAL REPORTS 24 Yemen Seeks to Talk Its Way Out of Chaos —Patrick Seale

28 U.S. Invasion of Iraq Fueling Anti-Shi’i Violence in Pakistan—Hamzah Saif

25 Al-Qaeda in the Heart of Africa —Patrick J. Buchanan

30 Will Egypt Follow the Turkish or the Algerian Path Toward Democracy?—Amer Araim

26 The World’s Most Dangerous Border—Kashmir —Eric S. Margolis

34 Istanbul: An Affordable Food Lover’s Paradise —Elaine Pasquini

ON THE COVER: Palestinians, along with Israeli and international activists, gather near tents they set up in an “outpost” named Bab al-Shams (“Gate of the Sun”) on Palestinian-owned land between Jerusalem and the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where Israel has vowed to build new settler homes, Jan. 12, 2013. Israeli troops evicted the activists the following day and demolished Bab al-Shams on Jan. 16.

ABBAS MOMANI/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

AJC Turns Toward Israel, Global Advocacy,

Hagel Is Definitely in the Mainstream, Jim Lobe, www.lobelog.com

OV-1

A Chronology of the War Against Chuck Hagel, Marsha B. Cohen, www.lobelog.com OV-2 Grim Prospects for the Middle East in 2013, Patrick Seale, Agence Global

OV-10

Consensus: Right-wing Government Minister Says Israel Is not a State of all its Citizens; Liberal Zionist Icon Calls for Cantons to Avoid Bi-Nationalism,

OV-3

Nima Shirazi, http://mondoweiss.net

Jordan at a Crossroads, Rami G. Khouri, Agence Global

OV-4

The Gatekeepers?, Gideon Levy, Haaretz

OV-6

OV-12

New Jerusalem Highway to Cut Arab Neighborhood in Half, Nir Hasson, Haaretz

OV-13

Arabic, a “Language of France,”

Who Bombed Ben-Menashe’s House?, Robert Parry, www.consortiumnews.com

Emmanuelle Talon, Le Monde diplomatique

OV-7

Syria Indiegogo Fund-raiser Shut Down Citing Strict U.S. Sanctions, Zoe Mintz, www.huffingtonpost.com The End of Justice In America, John Pilger, New Statesman

Josh Nathan Kazis, The Forward

OV-13

Tunisia Gears up to Host World Social Forum, Justin Hyatt, Inter Press Service

OV-9

OV-15

Who Murdered Benazir Bhutto?, OV-9

Eric Margolis, http://ericmargolis.com

OV-16

DEPARTMENTS 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 7 PUBLISHERS’ PAGE 31 OTHER PEOPLE’S MAIL

42 ISRAEL AND JUDAISM: Same

Qatar Hosts National Day

Assault on Hagel: Character

Reception

Assassination, Charges of AntiSemitism—Allan C. Brownfeld

33 THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST — CARTOONS 36 NEW YORK CITY AND TRISTATE NEWS: Hebron Mayor

44 ARAB-AMERICAN ACTIVISM: Celebrating Arab Culture in

Academic—Jane Adas 38 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Congressman

45 MUSLIM-AMERICAN ACTIVISM: American Muslims for Palestine Hosts Fifth Annual Conference

Honda, Abdullah Brothers at MPAC’s History-Making 12th Convention—Pat and Samir Twair 40 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

61 BULLETIN BOARD 62 BOOK REVIEWS: Solving 9-11: The Deception That Changed the World

—Reviewed by James G. Smart 63 NEW ARRIVALS FROM THE AET BOOK CLUB

47 HUMAN RIGHTS: Panel Marks 11th Anniversary of Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility

CHRONICLE: U.S. Needs Better Middle East Policy, Rep. Keith

58 MUSIC & ARTS: Lukman Ahmad’s Paintings Exude Kurdish Symbolism

America

Addresses Concerns of Dutch U.N. Ambassador, Israeli

57 DIPLOMATIC DOINGS:

Old Tactics in Israel Lobby

47 WAGING PEACE:

Ellison Tells CAIR Audience

Is an Iranian Nuclear Deal

—Elaine Pasquini

Possible?

11 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

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ANDREW I. KILLGORE RICHARD H. CURTISS Managing Editor: JANET McMAHON News Editor: DELINDA C. HANLEY Book Club Director: ANDREW STIMSON Administrative Director: ALEX BEGLEY Art Director: RALPH U. SCHERER Assistant Editor: DALE SPRUSANSKY

LetterstotheEditor

Publisher:

Executive Editor:

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (ISSN 8755-4917) is published 9 times a year, monthly except Jan./Feb., June/July and Oct./Nov. 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.com bookclub@wrmea.com circulation@wrmea.com advertising@wrmea.com 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

MARCH 2013

Christians in Gaza Some of the Christmas cards I received in December arrived with the stamp that shows the Holy Family fleeing toward Egypt and away from the wrath of Herod.

The land route the Holy Family traveled took them right through Gaza. Yes, that Gaza.

The one Americans know only as the Land of Hamas, where rockets leave daily for Israel and where Israel “righteously” fights back with pinpoint air strikes.

Gaza is one of the most populated lands in the world. It is mostly peopled with Palestinians whose families fled as Israel was created in 1948 and after it launched the 1967 conflict.

Among those fleeing families were Christian Palestinians who continue to live in Gaza.

They welcome visitors, as they did me, with a visit to a church where tradition says the weary Holy Family took rest.

On Nov. 14, the day of the pinpoint Israeli strike that killed Hamas leader Ahmed al-Jabari, five other people were killed.

One of the images published in connection with the news story was a picture of a group of mourning women whose family member was killed in the Israeli strike. In the background was an icon of St. George.

This was a Christian family. Their traditions go back 2,000 years to that other family who found peace and safety in this land—a long, mournful cry from today’s Gaza.

Marilyn Raschka, via e-mail Thank you for your reminder that many Palestinians are descendants of the original Christians. If only this country’s mainstream media would inform Americans of this fact.

Certainly Christmas provides the perfect opportunity to describe what the lives of Christians are like in the “little town” of Bethlehem, now surrounded and bifurcated by Israel’s illegal separation wall, complete with military checkpoints. Just as Israel denies Muslim Palestinians the right to visit Jerusalem to worship at the Dome of the Rock, so Palestinian Christians may not travel to pray at their holy sites in Jerusalem just a few miles away.

It’s clear that freedom of religion is not a value Israel “shares” with Americans.

No Blank Check for Israel I don’t believe President Obama is the problem [regarding the Jan. 2 action alert announcing the “No Blank Check for Israel” rally on Inauguration weekend].

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The letter should go to every member of Congress, who for years have been shamelessly in the pocket of the Israeli lobby.

Ricardo Abuabara, via e-mail Since we’ve been tracking pro-Israel PAC contributions to congressional candidates for some three decades, we certainly know whereof you speak! Now that he probably has run his last campaign, however, President Obama could do this country a great service by publicly speaking out against the transfer of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to a foreign country with its own nuclear arsenal and a GDP higher than that of Spain, Greece, Oman, Portugal and Saudi Arabia—not to mention one which flouts international law,

attacks its neighbors with impunity, and occupies the U.N.-recognized State of Palestine.

(His second inaugural address, for example, could include the words, “Ask not what your country can do for Israel...”)

Blank Check Needed Here!

I am amazed that nowhere on your home page is there any information as to how to donate money to your cause (although I have been a donor for several years and an avid reader of your publication).

Imad Tabry, MD, via e-mail Thanks to your prompting, we have now made it easier to donate to either AET or the (tax-exempt) AET Library Endowment on our Web site, <www.wrmea.org>. We hope it will become one of our most popular features. Our next project will be to try and figure out a way for a Daddy or Mommy Warbucks to send us a blank check electronically!

In the meantime, please accept our heartfelt thanks for your continued support and encouragement.

Killgore Connections Recently I received the enclosed letter from Catching the Dream [which tells the story of Navajo college graduate Racheal Killgore], as I am a regular supporter-contribu5

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tor to various Native American Indian tribes/nations/groups throughout the country. Since I am also a strong supporter of the Washington Report I immediately saw the similarity with your publisher’s name—KILLGORE—which is uncommon; thus this note of “connection.”

Also I learned a year or so ago of my dear friends’ daughter’s appointment as ambassador to Qatar—Susan L. Ziadeh.

When I learned of her appointment through her parents, Farhat and Susan Ziadeh, it was indeed a joyous occasion, as through 25 years of friendship I am familiar with Susan’s hard work, commitment and dedication. And subsequently I learned that your publisher, Andrew I. Killgore, had been ambassador to Qatar at an earlier time.

I also wish to highly commend you for publishing the Washington Report—it is such a critical resource to provide some balance to Middle East resources.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Erna I. Lund, Seattle, WA Thank you for alerting us to these wonderful connections. Publisher Killgore is honored to be associated with such accomplished individuals, and looks forward to someday meeting Ambassador Ziadeh at a Qatar National Day celebration such as the one pictured on p. 57 of this issue.

Healing Content I am the present imam on this correctional campus and am humbly appealing to you for assistance. Recently, we’ve had the pleasure and privilege of viewing several issues of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. After devouring them as a

community, we are left longing for more insightful content.

Most members in our community are exposed exclusively to only two extremes regarding influences which shape their world-view and Islam. Both the filtered mainstream media and the ultra-conservative Islamic media so pervasive in prison leave many well-intentioned but resourceless Muslims ignorant, shallow and prone to exploitation and manipulation—a vulnerability which has ominous implications.

Thus, if feasible, would you please extend to us a subscription by way of charity? If that is beyond your capability, then please share with us any old, outdated, used or unsent publications. If even that is beyond your reach, do you have a special subscription price for inmates? If you are unable to help us broaden our world-view in any way then at least please forward to us a sample copy and we will explore other options in our struggle to expose ourselves to your informative, thought-provoking, and healing content.

In advance, Thank you, and may you all be rewarded for your efforts.

Aquil Talley, Mt. Sterling, IL We are more than happy to provide you and the members of your community with a complimentary subscription to the Washington Report. We thank our Choir of Angels and other supporters for making it possible to reach a wide variety of readers in prisons, schools, libraries and other centers of intelligent inquiry and thoughtful discourse.

Recommended DVDs Thank you for having granted my request for a complimentary subscription.

Perhaps in an upcoming issue a DV D c o u l d b e Other Voices is an optional suggested which 16-page supplement available clearly demonstrates the uncivonly to subscribers of the ilized nature of IsWashington Report on rael’s colonization of the West Bank.

Middle East Affairs. For an adI’m thinking of ditional $15 per year (see footage which reveals the brutality postcard insert for Wash of both the Israeli ington Re port subscriparmed forces and settlers. I wish to tion rates), subscribers will enlighten some in receive Other Voices bound into each issue of their my family who are not presently Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. open to well-reaBack issues of both publications are available. To subsoned discussions scribe telephone 1 (888) 881-5861, fax (714) 226-9733, regarding the occupation. They e-mail <circulation@wrmea.org>, or write to P.O. Box are moral people 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056. too long under the influence of

6

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

American journalism and Zionist Christian teachings. Something visually for the uninformed, in other words.

Thank you again.

Brian Vidrine, Youngstown, OH AET Book Club director Andrew Stimson recommends the documentaries “Budrus” and “Little Town of Bethlehem” and the dramas “The Time that Remains” and “Private.” While noting that there are ”more traditional introductions to the subject like ‘Occupation 101’ or ‘The Iron Wall,’” he thinks the above titles have a wider appeal, “especially in cases where someone might be starting from a oppositional viewpoint.” (All titles are available from the AET Book Club, of course, at <www.middleeastbooks.com>) A reader recommends another film below:

Roadmap to Apartheid A new film, “Roadmap to Apartheid,” depicts the stark parallels between apartheid South Africa and Israel. The filmmakers, Ana Nogueira, a white South African, and Eron Davidson, a Jewish American-Israeli, trace the early stages of the birth of Israel, which used the South African model to establish dominance over the indigenous Palestinians. The film covers all aspects of the colonial occupation—forced displacements, establishment of onerous checkpoints, bulldozing homes and Bantustans.

Surprisingly, the film highlights a much harsher apartheid existing in Israel than in former apartheid South Africa.

One scene juxtaposed a Boer laager and Israel’s infamous wall in the West Bank.

The film is perhaps the first effort to explore the psychological aspects of the victims and victimizers of Israel’s occupation. In perhaps the most moving moments of the film, famous South African poet Don Mattera laments that “there is no pain quite like being unloved, unwanted in one’s own land, among one’s own kind.”

The voices of many Israelis have been included to maintain a balanced depiction of how many feel their humanity and faith have been hijacked. Many expressed profound concern that physical and psychological barriers had been erected to insulate them from the suffering and dehumanization of the indigenous Palestinians.

Jagjit Singh, Los Altos, CA Perhaps the major difference between South African apartheid and its Israeli counterpart is that, while both were established in 1948, apartheid ended nearly two decades ago, without the bloodbath so widely feared. Meanwhile Israel continues its racist aggression against the Palestinians, whose land it confiscated and still covets. South Africa is now a respected member of the community of nations, while Israel remains an increasingly isolated rogue state. ❑ MARCH 2013

publishers_7_March 2013 Publishers page 1/18/13 2:43 PM Page 7

American Educational Trust

Publishers’ Page

Bab al-Shams, Gate of the Sun

And a Rogue State at That.

We are convinced that Americans Some 200 Palestinians camped out will stand firmly behind him, espein the cold in 20 tents on Palestincially at a time when the country ian-owned land claimed by Israel faces such daunting challenges located between Jerusalem and the right here at home. We believe illegal settlement of Ma’ale AduPresident Obama understands what mim in the Israeli-occupied West needs to be done; now he must Bank. On that hilltop they prosummon the courage to actually… claimed on Jan. 11 the establishDo the Right Thing. ment of the “countersettlement” Bab al-Shams, or Gate of the Sun Israeli soldiers evict Palestinians from Bab al-Shams, a tent city Thanks to Last Year’s Angels. (pictured on front cover). Borrow- built on Palestinian-owned land, at 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 13. ing a tactic from West Bank settlers This issue of the Washington to create “facts on the ground,” they de- Retaliation, Israeli-Style.

Report includes the names of our many clared that “The land is ours, as is the right Immediately after the United Nations Gen- Choir of Angels members (see pp. 64-66). to build on it.” Two days later, on Jan. 13, at eral Assembly voted on Nov. 29, 2012 to They helped this magazine and bookstore 2:30 a.m., the nonviolent activists were admit Palestine as a non-member observer survive our own fiscal cliff in 2012, when to forcibly evicted by 500 Israeli soldiers and state, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cut expenses we printed only eight issues police officers. declared his intention to build 3,000 addi- instead of nine. Thanks to their generostional settler units in the area of the West ity—and to our readers, friends and supBab al-Karama, Gate of Dignity Bank it calls E1. Those units would block porters who contribute in so many The following Friday, Jan. 18, Palestinians Arab access to East Jerusalem and make it ways—we were able to step up the pace erected another protest village which they impossible for Palestinians to establish a state before last November’s elections and provide called Bab al-Karama, or Gate of Dignity, with viable borders. Currently about 500,000 the vital information you’ve grown to northwest of Jerusalem, near Beit Iksa, a Jews live in the 120 settlements—all illegal depend on…

West Bank village sandwiched between under international law—built since Israel three illegal Israeli settlements: Givat Shaul conquered and occupied East Jerusalem and For More Than 31 Years. (built over Deir Yassin), Ramot and Har the West Bank following the…

The Washington Report has been proud to Samuel. Already surrounded by Israeli setinform and fire up activists in every Arab-, tlements, Beit Iksa is set to be entirely encir- “War of Choice” It Launched in 1967. Muslim-, Christian- and Jewish-American cled by Israel’s separation wall…

According to Peace Now, four new Israeli organization working for Middle East outposts were established in the West Bank peace. We’ve reported brave words and acCutting It off From Jerusalem. in 2012 alone (bringing to 99 the number of tions affecting the Middle East when no Village resident Saed Yakrina described the unofficial outposts built since 1967). Last other mainstream media outlet dared to countersettlements as “a message to Israel year the Netanyahu government established offend hard-line, Israel-first readers and adand all democratic societies that we are 10 new settlements by legalizing formerly il- vertisers. For this some have falsely accused human, and we want peace....We are look- legal—even to Israel!—outposts. Under the the Washington Report of being anti-Seing for a life without checkpoints, walls and Quartet’s Road Map, to which Israel is inter- mitic. The latest to do so is Alana Goodsettlements.” Palestinians have been defend- nationally committed, Israel must evict all man, who writes for the neoconservative Commentary, founded in 1945 by the ing their land and villages for years against outposts built since March 2001.

American Jewish Committee. Railing Israeli encroachment and theft. Now they Elections and Inaugurations. against President Obama’s nomination of are using nonviolence as a way to…

This issue went to press just days before Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense, she Claim What Is Already Theirs.

President Barack Obama’s second inaugu- called the former Nebraska senator, “one of At a Jan. 18 rally held in Izbat al-Tabib in ration on Jan. 21 and Israeli parliamentary the most anti-Israel senators who ever the Qalqiliya district of the northern West elections the following day. Netanyahu was walked the halls of the Capitol—a man who Bank to protest Israeli plans to demolish a expected to win the latter, despite polls routinely made the anti-Semitic Washington village school, Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa showing that his support was dwindling. Report of [sic] Middle East Affairs’ annual Barghouthi said Bab al-Shams and al-Karama Over the course of his first term, President Congressional Hall of Fame List.” represented a new dimension in the Pales- Obama’s popularity slipped as well. Now tinian struggle and that more protest villages that he is expected to face an even more She Went on to Lament That… would be established. “The spirit of popular entrenched right-wing Israeli government, “The ranks of the pro-Israel Democrats in resistance which Bab al-Shams disseminated we fervently hope that the American pres- Congress are shrinking.” Guess we’re doing is being strengthened today in other areas ident who spoke so eloquently to the Arab something right! Help us continue to be an including Izbat al-Tabib and Beit Iksa,” the world after he first took office will resolve outlet for voices of peace and reason and… secretary-general of the Palestinian National to put the interests of his own country and citizens above those of a foreign nation— Make a Difference Today!

Initiative said in a statement.

MARCH 2013

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

7

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Netanyahu Abandons the Pretense of a Two-State Solution SpecialReport

URIEL SINAI/GETTY IMAGES

By Rachelle Marshall

The illegal Jewish settlement of Ariel on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Dec. 4, 2012. omika Zion, a resident of the Israeli

Nborder town of Sderot and a member

of the Israeli peace group Other Voice, recently asked in an open letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, “How has a nation that has occupied other people’s territory for 45 years continued to tell itself, with such deep conviction, that we are the single and ultimate victim in this story?”

One answer is that Israel is a nation that from the beginning has justified its actions with myths.

First there was the myth of an empty land, a Palestine without Palestinians, where the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust found a desert and made it bloom.

The people who had inhabited that land for centuries were erased from the record, along with their age-old olive trees and citrus orchards, their shops and businesses, villages and towns.

The founding myth, reinforced by the expulsion of nearly half a million Arabs, was followed by another: that Israel’s neighbors were bent on driving the tiny state into the sea. Since Israel’s survival is Rachelle Marshall is a free-lance editor living in Mill Valley, CA. A member of Jewish Voice for Peace, she writes frequently on the Middle East.

8

at stake, any action it takes to defend itself is therefore justified.

In 1967 the Israelis used the pretext of an imminent attack by Egypt to launch a war with that country, and proceeded to defeat three Arab armies and capture the West Bank, Gaza, and Syria’s Golan Heights, acquiring valuable water sources as a result.

Yet the myth of Israel’s vulnerability lived on. Today, with Palestinians locked behind barriers and checkpoints, deprived of their freedom and at the mercy of the Israeli army, Israel remains the victim.That image, carefully nurtured by the Israel lobby, is reflected in Washington’s pledge to assure Israel’s military dominance in the region—regardless of the cost.

Every year Congress appropriates without debate at least $4 billion in U.S. aid to a country with an annual per capita income comparable to many countries in Europe.

The Israelis have shown their gratitude by ignoring pleas for restraint by a succession of U.S. presidents and colonizing the West Bank as rapidly as possible. Israel’s participation in the “peace process” has been a long-running act of deception.

The first Jewish settlements were built under a Labor government shortly after 1967. After Menachem Begin of the rightwing Likud party became prime minister THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

in 1977, the number grew steadily, along with a network of highways intended to connect the new settlements with Jerusalem and serve the settlements yet to be built. Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister Bill Clinton called “a man of peace,” doubled the number of settlers after signing the Oslo peace accords in 1993.

Nevertheless the notion that Israel would willingly accept a Palestinian state on its borders was not put to rest until last December, when Netanyahu announced plans to build 6,000 new apartments in the West Bank, and develop an area known as E1.When E1 is completed, Israeli housing will stretch from East Jerusalem to the giant settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, cutting the West Bank permanently in half and putting an end to the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Netanyahu also reaffirmed his refusal to return any part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Israel recently began construction of 5,000 apartments in East Jerusalem, which, along with the 4,000 apartments already underway, will add 20 percent more housing to the 50,000 units built for Jews only in the Arab section of Jerusalem since Israel annexed the city. Israel also refused to turn over the $125 million in Palestinian tax money that helps pay the salaries of Palestine’s 150,000 employees and their dependents.

Finally, as Christians gathered in Bethlehem on Dec. 24 to spread the Christmas message of peace and goodwill, Defense Minister Ehud Barak underscored Israel’s intent to retain permanent control of the West Bank by announcing that a college located in the settlement of Ariel would be upgraded to university status. The new university is located deep inside the West Bank, but will be closed to Palestinians.

According to Netanyahu, these actions were in “retaliation” for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ successful request to the U.N. General Assembly on Nov. 29 for an upgrade to the status of nonmember observer state. In calling Israel’s response retaliation for a legal and peaceful act by Abbas that in no way threatened Israel, Netanyahu was hardly being candid. The settlement projects he announced have long been planned and will eliminate any possibility of a negotiated peace. The new colonies will sever any remaining connection between MARCH 2013

Jerusalem and Palestinian communities, and deprive Muslims throughout the region of access to one of their holiest cities.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the additional settlements “an almost fatal blow to a two-state solution,” and on Dec. 19 every member of the U.N. Security Council except the U.S. voted to condemn the new construction. The Council’s statement said, “Settlements are illegal under international law and detrimental to any international efforts to restart peace negotiations and secure a two-state solution.” It declared that “All settlement activity, including in East Jerusalem, must cease immediately.” The State Department said only that the settlement project put peace “further at risk.”

Netanyahu responded to the international condemnation with yet another myth, saying that Jerusalem “has been the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years,” and that Israel would continue to build in that city. He could well afford to be defiant, knowing that whatever slap he delivered to the Obama administration, it would continue to back him. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured him of that support in a Nov. 30 speech to the Saban Forum in Washington, DC. She used the occasion to criticize the Palestinians for passing up opportunities to make peace, she referred to her close friendship with several Israeli officials, and she not once used the word “settlements.”

Referring to Israel’s Operation Pillar of Cloud in which the Israeli army killed 178 Gazans in an exchange of violence provoked by Israel’s assassination of a Hamas official, Clinton charged Hamas with “hiding behind civilians.”

While accusing Iran of fostering “global terrorism,” she had only praise for Israel.

“We share bedrock beliefs in freedom, equality, democracy, and the right to live without fear,” Clinton said, callously ignoring the plight of Gazans, who endure the constant roar of Israeli warplanes overhead, never knowing when one will strike, and of West Bank Palestinians who wait hours at checkpoints, never knowing when, or whether, they will be let through.

Clinton’s speech was undoubtedly directed at potential donors to her 2016 presidential campaign, but such expressions of one-sided support for Israel can’t help but have repercussions in the rest of the world, where as recent U.N. votes have shown, sympathy for the Palestinians has increased and the U.S. stands alone with Israel.

Unconditional support for Israel may become increasingly difficult for the U.S. to sustain after the Israeli elections on Jan. 22, when a group of far-right settler activists and religious Zionists, with views to MARCH 2013

HAZEM BADER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

marshall_8-9_Special Report 1/17/13 8:07 PM Page 9

An Israeli soldier forces Palestinian farmers off their land near the illegal Jewish settlement of Sosia, in the West Bank village of Yatta, south of Hebron, Dec. 29, 2012. the right of Netanyahu, was predicted to win a majority of seats in the Knesset. The opposition Labor party has abandoned the peace issue and is concentrating on domestic issues, so there will no longer be any pressure on the government to come to terms with the Palestinians.

The aptly named Jewish Home party is expected to become the third largest party in the Knesset after Likud and Labor. Its chairman, Naftali Bennett, once vowed that as an army reserve officer he would refuse orders to evacuate a Jewish settlement. Saying he does not believe a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is achievable in his lifetime, he instead calls for Israel’s annexation of two-thirds of the West Bank. “Forget whether it’s right or wrong,” he said. “We’re here to stay.”

But the Palestinians are also there to stay, and it is doubtful that Israel will be any more successful than nations in the past at ruling over people who aspire to be free. The army’s intensified hunt for Hamas members and suspected “terrorists” in the West Bank, and the absence of hope for a negotiated peace, have led to increasing acts of resistance by young Palestinians in the form of stone-throwing and the burning of tires. A giant rally by Fatah supporters in Hamasruled Gaza on Jan. 4 indicated a renewed effort at unity between the two Palestinian parties, a move that could greatly strengthen the struggle for statehood.

Recognition of their statehood by the U.N. last November has strengthened the legitimacy of the Palestinians’ struggle, and although Israel has a powerful ally in the U.S. it has few others, and could be in a precarious position if it adopts even more extreme policies toward the Palestinians.

Henry Siegman, a former Orthodox rabbi and head of the American Jewish Committee, warned in a recent interview with the Forward, “If Israel believes that in this THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

part of the world it can permanently deprive millions of Palestinians of their rights, that is absurd. Israel is signing its own death warrant.”

Israel exists in a region that for two years has been rocked by demands for democracy and respect for human rights, as well as by the rise of militant religious groups similar to al-Qaeda. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has managed to persuade Netanyahu to loosen some of the border restrictions imposed on Gaza, but his government’s legitimacy is being challenged from both the left and the right, and he can hardly afford to be seen as Israel’s ally.

Obama has wisely maintained rapport with Morsi, urging only that he take a more flexible approach to his secular opponents, who fear the imposition of religious law.

On Israel’s other border, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is fighting a losing battle with rebel factions, including alQaeda fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, but he is adamantly refusing to leave office. Dimitri Simes and Paul J. Saunders of the Center for the National Interest urge that instead of demanding that Assad step down, the U.S. accept Russia’s proposal that members of the government and representatives of non-extremist rebel groups hold immediate negotiations to create a coalition government that can maintain order until elections can be held.

The jihadists are not likely to stand aside while others arrange peace terms, however, and meanwhile the death toll has climbed to more than 60,000 and continues to rise.

Whatever the outcome, either in Egypt or Syria, Israel can no longer be sure that the ruling regime will continue to tolerate its treatment of the Palestinians—or keep under control their militant sympathizers.

What early Zionists envisioned as a homeland for all Jews is now seen by most of the world as a brutal oppressor. ❑ 9

whitbeck_10-11_Special Report 1/17/13 8:09 PM Page 10

The State of Palestine’s Decree No. 1 and The Two-State Solution SpecialReport

COURTESY STATE OF PALESTINE

By John V. Whitbeck

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signs “Decree No. 1 for the year 2013,” Jan. 3, 2013. n Jan. 3, Mahmoud Abbas, acting in

Ohis capacities as president of the State

of Palestine and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, signed “Decree No. 1 for the year 2013.” While he did so with minimal ceremony or fanfare, and while the change formalized by this decree should surprise no one after the U.N. General Assembly’s overwhelming vote on Nov. 29 to upgrade Palestine’s status at the United Nations to “observer state,” this change is potentially historic.

By this decree, the “Palestinian Authority,” created for a five-year “interim” period pursuant to the “Oslo” Declaration of Principles signed on the White House lawn in September 1993, has been absorbed and replaced by the State of Palestine, proclaimed in November 1988, recognized diplomatically by 131 of the 193 U.N. member states, and supported in the recent General Assembly vote by an additional 28 John V. Whitbeck is an international lawyer who has served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel.

10

states which have not yet formally recognized it diplomatically.

After citing the Nov. 29 General Assembly Resolution, Article 1 of the decree states: “Official documents, seals, signs and letterheads of the Palestinian National Authority official and national institutions shall be amended by replacing the name ‘Palestinian National Authority’ whenever it appears by the name ‘State of Palestine’ and by adopting the emblem of the State of Palestine.” Concluding Article 4 states: “All competent authorities, each in their respective area, shall implement this Decree starting from its date.”

In his correspondence, Yasser Arafat used to list all three of his titles under his signature—”President of the State of Palestine,” “Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization,” and “President of the Palestinian National Authority” (in that order of precedence). It is both legally and politically noteworthy that, in signing this decree, Mahmoud Abbas has listed only the first two titles. The Trojan horse called the “Palestinian Authority” in accordance with the “Oslo” interim agreements and THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the “Palestinian National Authority” by Palestinians, having served its purpose by introducing the institutions of the State of Palestine on the soil of Palestine, has now ceased to exist.

There is no further need for a Palestinian leader to be three-headed or three-hatted.

While the Palestine Liberation Organization will continue to represent all Palestinians everywhere, those Palestinians who live in the State of Palestine (whose territory is defined by the Nov. 29 General Assembly Resolution as “the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967”) or who, living elsewhere, will be the proud holders of new State of Palestine passports will now also be represented by the State of Palestine.

Perhaps due, at least in part, to the lowkey manner in which this change has been effected, it has attracted remarkably little attention from the international media or reaction from other governments, even the Israeli and American governments. This is not necessarily disappointing, since passive acceptance is clearly preferable to furious rejection.

The relatively few and brief media reports of the change have tended to characterize it as “symbolic.” It could—and should—be much more than that. If the Palestinian leadership plays its cards wisely, it could—and should—represent a turning point toward a better future.

The State of Palestine now exists on the soil of Palestine—albeit still, in varying degrees and circumstances, under belligerent occupation by the State of Israel.

In its Nov. 29 resolution, the General Assembly “Affirms its determination to contribute to the achievement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the attainment of a peaceful settlement in the Middle East that ends the occupation that began in 1967 and fulfills the vision of two States, an independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable State of Palestine, living side by side in peace and security with Israel, on the basis of the pre-1967 borders.”

The members of the international community must now show their determination MARCH 2013

whitbeck_10-11_Special Report 1/17/13 8:09 PM Page 11

not simply in words but also in deeds and actions. In a world which professes to take human rights and international law, including the U.N. Charter, seriously, the perpetual belligerent occupation of one state by another state is inconceivable. The fact that Israel’s occupation of Palestine has been permitted to endure, expand and entrench itself for more than 45 years represents an appalling black mark against mankind.

Two-State Implications The words “two-state solution” have been recited together for so long that it is widely assumed that they are inseparable and that one cannot have one without the other. Indeed, Israel and the United States argue relentlessly that a Palestinian state can only exist as the result of a negotiated “solution” acceptable to Israel. Were this the case, the occupying power, which has never shown any genuine enthusiasm for a Palestinian state and has barely feigned any pretense of interest in recent years, would enjoy an absolute and perpetual veto power over Palestinian statehood.

During Kuwait’s seven-month-long occupation by Iraq, Kuwait did not cease to exist as a state under international law, and no one argued that it could exist as a state only as the result of a negotiated “solution” acceptable to Iraq. Similarly, Iraq did not cease to be a state while under American occupation. It was simply an occupied state, like Palestine today.

Furthermore, the U.S. government might usefully recall that, during the 50 years prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, (Advertisement)

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MARCH 2013

the United States continued to recognize the three Baltic states which had been effectively absorbed into the Soviet Union by the end of World War II and permitted the prewar flags of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to fly at fully accredited embassies in Washington.

In fact, “two states” are separable from any “solution.” Two states now exist. A “solution” which ends the 45-year-long occupation of the Palestinian state and permits Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace and security—with, ideally, a significant degree of openness, cooperation and mutual respect—does not yet exist.

The existence of two states certainly does not guarantee the achievement of such a solution. However, the near-universal recognition and acceptance that two states, with defined and internationally recognized borders, do already exist should greatly facilitate—eventually if not immediately—the achievement of such a solution.

The near-universality of international acceptance that Palestine already exists as a state may be appreciated by a close examination of diplomatic recognitions and votes on Nov. 29. Only 34 states have not yet pronounced themselves, either by diplomatic recognition or by voting for the U.N. resolution, in favor of Palestine’s state status.

It is instructive to take a close look at these 34 states. They are Andorra, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Estonia, Fiji, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Israel, Kiribati, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Nauru, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.

With a few notable exceptions, the members of this group are most impressive for their insignificance. Only 12 of the 34 states (Israel among them) have populations over 5,000,000, while nine have populations below 120,000. By contrast, of the world’s 20 most populous states, 16 have extended diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine and two others (Japan and Mexico) voted to accord it state status.

Friends of justice, peace and the Palestinian people—and, indeed, true friends of the Israeli people—must now revise their language when speaking and writing about Palestine. The only legally, politically and diplomatically correct ways to refer to the 22 percent portion of historical Palestine occupied in 1967 are now “the State of THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Palestine,” “Palestine” and “occupied Palestine.” “Palestinian Authority,” “occupied territories” and “occupied Palestinian territories” are no longer acceptable.

If governments and international media—including, most importantly, those in North America and Europe—can be convinced or shamed into using the correct terminology, the long-term impact on public perceptions and understanding should be profound and constructive.

The issue is no longer whether and how a Palestinian state will ever come into existence—or even whether it is still possible.

It exists. The issue is when and how the occupation of the State of Palestine will come to an end. Describing this challenge properly is essential to understanding it, and this understanding is essential if Israelis are to turn back from the suicidal cliff toward which their metastasizing illegal settlement project has been driving them in recent years.

Israelis, Palestinians and the true friends of both must now see clearly, raise their sights and pursue a compelling vision of a society so much better than the status quo that both Israelis and Palestinians are inspired to accept in their hearts and minds that peace is both desirable and attainable, that the Holy Land can be shared, that a winner-take-all approach produces only losers, that both Israelis and Palestinians must be winners or both will continue to be losers, and that there is a common destination at which both peoples would be satisfied to arrive and to live together. ❑

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williams_12_United Nations Report 1/17/13 8:10 PM Page 12

Israel Still Hung Up on Its Love-Hate Relationship With International Law

United Nations Report

JOSEPH EID/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Ian Williams

A Palestinian fleeing violence in the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus shows his officially stamped entry card prior to crossing into Lebanon at the border at Masnaa, Dec. 19, 2012. he occupiers of Palestine are, in their

Town peculiar way, obsessed by the no-

tion of law. But just as there used to be an institution in a settlement in Gaza devoted to technological end runs around the finicky details of Jewish religious law on Sabbath observance, so the state of Israel wants to claim adherence to international law even as it defies it in both spirit and effect.

That ambivalence came to mind with the reported offer the Israelis made to President Mahmoud Abbas through U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, that they would allow Palestinian refugees from the fighting in Syria into the Palestinian territories, as long as they previously signed away their rights ever to return to their original homes in Israel.

Those, ahem, would be the rights that Israel now denies, despite their being enshrined in Israeli promises and U.N. resolutions—unlike, of course, the “Right to Ian Williams is a free-lance journalist based at the United Nations who blogs at <www. deadlinepundit.blogspot.com>.

12

Return” for anyone who can provide a half-way plausible claim to Jewish ancestry, or even recent conversion.

Holding the safety of refugees hostage to a promise not to exercise a right that Israel has consistently denied seems a callous stretch. But then President Abbas’ statement that they would die in Syria rather than give away their rights—which, sadly, they do not look like they are likely to exercise anytime soon—is, perhaps, ill-considered.

But the Israeli reaction demonstrates once again that even as they continue to flout international law, they keep a tangential eye on it—which accounts for the intemperate reaction to the U.N. vote on Palestine’s non-member statehood and President Abbas’ conversion of the Palestinian Authority to the Palestinian State (see article on p. 10).

Consistency is the enemy of the unprincipled, as seen by the fact that the U.S. and Israel, which claim that the new Palestinian state does not control its territory and does not have recognized boundaries, overlook the State of Israel, for example, which THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

itself has no fixed borders, and managed to support U.N. representation for the Khmer Rouge “Democratic People’s Republic of Kampuchea” when it was reduced to a few hunted genocidaires hiding in the Thai jungle.

For years, Washington has not objected to another non-member state—the Holy See—signing and blocking international conventions on abortion rights. Thus it is not in a very good position to argue that the new state of Palestine cannot accede to such international conventions as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns wiggled on this one, but for once for a good reason. Faced with the baying of congresspeople to close down the PLO delegation in Washington in reprisal for declaring a state, Burns declared on Jan. 8 that the Palestinians had not “obtained in the U.N. or any specialized agency thereof the same standing as member states or full membership as a state outside an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.” So they had not broken the U.S. law AIPAC had railroaded through Congress, and the office could stay open!

However, the furious reaction from Israel was not just groundless hysteria.

Palestinian approaches to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court pose a real threat to Israeli perpetrators, which is of course why their willing tools in Washington blustered so much over the move.

Set against that, it would be easy to dismiss as an empty, grandstanding gesture the decision to change the name and logo on the stationery of the “Palestinian Authority” to the State of Palestine. However, Abbas’ proposal for the new state to begin issuing identity documents to its citizens could have much greater impact than the more showy change of crests.

Currently the “Authority” can issue documents only to residents of the occupied territories, and even then not to those in East Jerusalem. Abbas’ decree is offering all Palestinians citizenship in the new state, with passports. Frankly, such documents probably are of dubious practical use for individuals, not least since Israel still conContinued on page 15 MARCH 2013

hishmeh_13_Special Report 1/17/13 8:11 PM Page 13

Two Slaps in Netanyahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Face SpecialReport

By George S. Hishmeh elieve it or not, Israel, led by its arro-

Bgant leader Prime Minister Binyamin

Netanyahu, has recently been dealt two American slaps in the faceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a blow it has not experienced since President Dwight Eisenhower compelled Israel and its two European allies, Britain and France, to withdraw their occupation forces from the Suez Canal during their 1956 war against Egypt.

This time around, Israel and its influential allies in the U.S. Congress and some lobbyists in the American Jewish community were shocked to learn that the popular Al Jazeera TV network has managed to buy, at a reported cost of $500 million, Current TV, former Vice President Al Goreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s network, allowing it access to 46 million American homes in the near future.

This hoopla underlines how important and praiseworthy has been the success of the widely popular Al Jazeera, a Qatarbased international television network, in penetrating the American audience. Al Jazeera America, as the new network will be known, will have to tread softly here, since all eyes will be watching every utterance. As an early indication of the obstacles it faces, shortly after Al Jazeera announced its purchase of Current TV, Time Warner Cable, which â&#x20AC;&#x153;servesâ&#x20AC;? 12 million American homes, announced that it no longer would carry the network.

Nevertheless this is a much-needed effort, since the American media have by and large been remiss in their coverage of the region and hardly eager to explain the complexities of the Middle East. There is no doubt that this triumphant step will draw appreciation from all sides, just as Al Jazeeraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s award-winning record has elsewhere in the world. Its director general, Ahmed bin Jassim al-Thani, reports that â&#x20AC;&#x153;over 40 percent of the 150 million visits received by Al Jazeera English Web site in 2012 came from the United States.â&#x20AC;?

Will Youmans, an assistant professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University who is writing a book on Al Jazeera English, which is seen in the U.S. on only a few stations (including one in the Washington, DC area), suggests that since few Americans are interested in internaGeorge S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He was the former editor-in-chief of The Daily Star of Lebanon.

MARCH 2013

tional news â&#x20AC;&#x153;one alternative [for Al Jazeera America] is that it serve a small, but influential, cosmopolitan elite, much like The Economist [of London] does in print.â&#x20AC;?

The second slap in the face came when President Barack Obama surprised many by nominating Chuck Hagel, an independent-minded former two-time senator from Nebraska and respected war veteran, and John Brennan, a 25-year veteran intelligence official and counterterrorism adviser at the White House, as secretary of defense and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) respectively.

he popular Al Jazeera T TV network has managed to buy Current TV. The uproar that ensued focused primarily on Hagel, who after retiring from the Senate in 2009, is now a member of the faculty at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Hagel is described as one who believes in â&#x20AC;&#x153;the need for global answers to regional conflicts and an emphasis on so-called soft power, including economic and political aid, to bolster weak nations.â&#x20AC;?

The anticipated tough confirmation process is reportedly due to his criticism of the Iraq war launched during the George W. Bush regime, his support for talks with Iran, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and its Lebanese counterpart, known as Hezbollah, and, most importantly, his critical stance vis-Ă -vis Israel.

The decorated war veteran, who still has shrapnel in his body, was once quoted as saying that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here [in Congress]. But Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a United States senator. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not an Israeli senator.â&#x20AC;? His reference to the Israel lobby as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jewishâ&#x20AC;? was surprisingly decried since it was said to border on anti-Semitism.

Whether Obama can overcome this uproar remains to be seen. The record so far has not been very encouraging, much as many think he will succeed in winning Senate support for Hagel. Obama dropped U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who can only be described as a friend to Israel, as his nominee for secretary of state after a successful Republican campaign against her.

The newly nominated Sen. John Kerry (DMA) has been applauded by most.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Obama backtracked on an earlier controversial nomination in 2009, that of Ambassador Chas Freeman, who was named to chair the National Intelligence Council.

After Freeman, a well-known critic of Israel, drew fire from supporters of Israel on both sides of the aisle he withdrew his name from consideration.

Perhaps there will be less heat in the confirmation process this time. In an article he recently wrote for The Huffington Post , M.J. Rosenberg, who had worked for 15 years for various U.S. congressmen, noted with surprise that â&#x20AC;&#x153;few Americans are paying attention to the Israeli election [set for Jan. 22],â&#x20AC;? which he saw as â&#x20AC;&#x153;a sign that even the pro-Israel community is losing interest in and hope for Israelâ&#x20AC;Śnow a source of pain.â&#x20AC;? In other words, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the prevailing [American] attitude seems to be to just look away and hope that things will improve the next time they pay attention.â&#x20AC;?

Zbigniew Brzezinski, in turn, believes that â&#x20AC;&#x153;there is no implicit obligation for the United States to follow like a stupid mule whatever the Israelis do.â&#x20AC;? The former national security adviser was talking recently to a group of Iranian Americans about reported Israeli plans to launch war against Iran this spring.

Meanwhile a prominent U.S. senator visiting Israel has called for a gradual reduction in U.S. aid to Israel, which is more than $3 billion a year. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), whose father was a presidential candidate last year, explained that the U.S. canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford to keep borrowing money and then handing it out to others, even to allies like Israel. â?&#x2018; (Advertisement)

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omer_14-15_Gaza on the Ground 1/17/13 8:13 PM Page 14

The Baker’s Child Gazaon the Ground

PHOTOS M. OMER

By Mohammed Omer

LEFT: Siblings and cousins Hedaia, Bara’a, Farah and Noor Al Qatati walk by the demolished home of the Al Kholi family on their way to school. RIGHT: Cousins Mohammed (l) and Mujahid search for clothes in the rubble of their family home, destroyed in an Israeli air strike. alking by the ruins of the baker’s

Wdemolished home on Salah El Din

Street, four schoolgirls—sisters and cousins Hedaia, 7, Bara’a, 8, and 6-year-old Farah and Noor Al Qatati —pick up their pace. Even though they survived Operation Pillar of Cloud, Israel’s latest assault on Gaza, they are still terrified, and bombedout buildings are daily reminders of that nightmare. The girls don’t smile, but hurry on, eyes averted. “When I pass here on my way to school,” Hedaia explains, “I remember the jets bombing in the dark.”

Standing atop the ruins, 10-year-old Mohammed Al Kholi watches all the students passing by, lamenting that he—the baker’s son—is not one of them. He misses going to school and seeing his friends—but both shall have to wait. The Al Kholi family is still digging through the rubble of what was once their home and livelihood. Their home were destroyed by Israeli F-16s just after 2 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 20, the seventh day of Israel’s eight-day attack on Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports from the Gaza Strip, where he maintains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>.

He can be reached at <gazanews@yahoo. com>. Follow him on Twitter: @MoGaza.

14

Gaza. Mohammed doesn’t understand the politics of or reasons behind Operation Pillar of Cloud. All he knows is that, without his books and clothing, he cannot go to school. Somewhere buried in the remnants of his home are his clothes and schoolbooks—hopefully, intact.

At the moment, however, not only does he have no bookbag, Mohammed doesn’t even have a clean T-shirt to wear to class.

Determined to return to a sense of normalcy, he and his 9-year-old cousin Mujahid scrounge through the wreckage, hoping they’ll eventually find something they can use.

“Keep it up,” Mohammed encourages the younger boy. Together they lift up a large wooden beam and look below. They find a pair of torn blue jeans belonging to Mohammed’s older brother, but no school bag.

The boys continue rummaging through the rubble. “I still did not find my clothes,” a disappointed Mohammed says while watching Mujahid move more bits and pieces before finally resting on a cinder block.

Just before the Israeli attack on the Al Kholi family home, Mujahid’s father, Ayman, received a phone call from the Israeli military saying that the family had THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

less then five minutes to leave their home.

The baker’s house is one of the most wellconstructed and well-known in the Al Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. In fact, locals refer to the four-story house as the “Bride of Al Zaytoun.” It housed 45 family members, six of whom, brothers, worked in the family bakery, Gaza’s most famous. Their breads fed most of Gaza and their baked goods ranged from sesame bread to cookies, cakes and shawarma wraps.

Ayman tried to reason with the Israeli soldier, but to no avail. Mahmoud, his older son, remembers being woken up that night by his mother’s frantic screaming.

The Israeli missiles erased the family’s home and income, but not their lives.

“I live in despair,” Mujahid says, watching Mohammed lift a light blue plastic bag and put it on his shoulder. “I was crying when the Israeli F-16 missile hit our house.

At first I could not find my mom and did not know where to run.”

Fortunately for the family, the first missile struck near the family home, awakening the rest of the neighborhood. A few minutes after all the Al Kholis had managed to escape, a second missile leveled their home. A few houses away, another MARCH 2013

omer_14-15_Gaza on the Ground 1/17/13 8:13 PM Page 15

missile hit several shops and a home, injuring a woman.

In addition to their parents, Mujahid has 5 brothers and sisters, and Mohammed has 10. Now they and their uncles, who live with them are homeless. With the home destroyed, Ayman has sent his kids to stay with relatives elsewhere in Gaza City while he bunks with a friend.

A Neighbor’s Story Osman Al Serhi, a neighbor of the family, sits atop the ruins of his vehicle repair shop. He says that after his neighbor Ayman Al Kholi “received a call at 2 a.m. from an Israeli officer telling him the house would be bombed…he came screaming to warn us.”

As Al Serhi, his brothers and others reached the other side of the street, “the first missile struck the area and everyone just ran.”

To an outsider, the area resembles the aftermath of an earthquake. Shops are closed and homes demolished. Al Serhi estimates the cost of the damage to his and his brothers’ business at approximately $100,000.

“I am broken now,” he sighs. “There’s nothing left. We are neither resistance members, nor wanted people. We are no threat to Israel, except that we are here.

The targeted building was the home of a baker just making bread to feed people.”

By 6:30 a.m.—hours after the Israeli attack—the residents had returned to survey the damage. But the Israeli warplanes were not done. “Suddenly, two more rockets hit,” Al Serhi recalls, “and then a third one followed.”

The reason for the strikes, which demolished not only Al Serhi’s shop and the Al Kholi house, but also other shops and other homes in the neighborhood, remains a mystery. None of the families or businesses were involved in the resistance, and no militia members were anywhere near the Al Kholi home when it was targeted, local residents at the scene confirmed. Moreover, most of the families in the heavily populated neighborhood include small children.

Though the reason may never be known, a neighbor of the baker wryly puts forth a theory: it must be because Al Kholi’s bread feeds the people of Gaza. For committing such a crime, it is no wonder Israel considers the baker’s home and workplace a security threat.

Perhaps this is not such an improbable theory after all. Of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, 80 percent are registered refugees, making them dependent upon aid provided by U.N. agencies. During Operation MARCH 2013

Pillar of Cloud Israel also targeted or destroyed many of the distribution centers for this aid.

These are not mere statistics, however.

When Mohammed is asked what he’d want if he could be granted one wish, the baker’s child replied that he “just wants my family home back, as it was before.” ❑

United Nations Report…

Continued from page 12

trols the exit and entrance to the occupied territories, and many Palestinians elsewhere will not want to risk whatever security they have achieved in their current host countries with their varied regulations on shared citizenship—a contingency actually recognized in the decree.

However, the issuance of identity numbers envisaged in the decree could provide an up-to-date register of just how many Palestinians there are in the world—and details of how many could claim the right to return, whether they ever choose to exercise that right or not. The U.N. has in its archives a register of displaced refugees and their claims from 1948 which could well be dusted off in whatever New York warehouse they are stored.

Despite their denials, that is why Israelis have shown recent interest in compiling claims from Jews who fled Arab countries in 1948 and later. But inadvertently, their claims are based on accepting the principle that, under U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194, passed on Dec. 11, 1948, and international law, the Palestinians have a claim for return or compensation. Indeed, it took someone as stupidly tunnel-visioned as Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon to hold a meeting at the U.N. at the beginning of the current session to discuss the “plight of Jewish refugees from the Arab world.”

Any attempt to set off the millions of individual claims of the different parties against each other goes against the whole grain of humanitarian conventions, which are about individual rights and treatment rather than group rights. It does also rather overlook the zealous attempts of devoted Zionists to seduce Jews into immigrating into Israel—and the attempts of the Israeli state to stage incidents designed to provoke anti-Jewish action in Arab countries!

It is entirely feasible that some of those Jews have claims against Arab governments for property confiscated and forced expulsions—but that has nothing to do with the internationally recognized claims THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

of individual Palestinians against the state that dispossessed them.

Security Council Tested on Syria?

Being accused of bias against Bashar alAssad and his regime is far from being a slur, so the Syrian regime’s accusation against U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is no bad thing for the latter’s moral standing.

Nor is it likely to affect his position as an interlocutor. There are few other people, or organizations, who can help the regime climb down from the tree in which they have marooned themselves. But Brahimi’s mission epitomizes the role of the U.N. in Syria: standing by to wait. No matter how inglorious, however, it is an essential role.

What is missing is R2P, “the Responsibility to Protect.” It is under that euphemism that the U.N. General Assembly accepted the principle of humanitarian intervention, even when it seemingly contradicts the doctrine of inviolable national sovereignty enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

On the face of it, Syria ticks all the boxes that demand intervention. But in the real world, it is in the wrong place. The French can intervene in Central Africa with the world’s blessings because it has few geopolitical complications. Syria, on the other hand, is a frontline state with Israel and the fulcrum of leverage from regional powers Iran and Turkey. It has Kurds, Lebanon and implicit backing from Russia and China, not to mention a heavily armed military. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are no volunteers, either regional or international, to intervene.

So far, the Assad regime has basked in an impunity seemingly guaranteed by Russia and Iran, and to a lesser extent, perhaps, China. That could be tested now.

More than 50 countries have demanded that Syria be referred to the International Criminal Court, but Moscow and Beijing will almost certainly oppose such a move in the Security Council. Other countries can be condemned for inaction, but Russia and China are more actively guilty in sending what one hopes are false signals of security to the regime. A condemnation, a deadline to get serious about power sharing, could concentrate the mind of Assad and his coterie, but otherwise the bleeding continues, along with the threat of sectarian strife to make Lebanon’s civil war look like a love-in.

The U.N. agencies will pick up some of the pieces, but without a united Security Council, sadly, the U.N. is doing all that it can, acting as intermediary for the various parties. ❑ 15

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International Conference Demands Freedom for Prisoners of War Held by Israel SpecialReport

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

By Delinda C. Hanley

As Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Nouri al-Maliki (l) looks on, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby (c) takes a model of the Dome of the Rock from Arab League’s Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine Mohamed Sobeih (third from right) and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (second from right).

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ”Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963 ore than 250 participants from 70

Mcountries, including doctors, repre-

sentatives from Arab and international human rights organizations, politicians and former prisoners, gathered in Baghdad, Iraq on Dec. 11 to attend the “International Conference for Solidarity with the Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli Prisons.” The League of Arab States and the Republic of Iraq co-sponsored the twoday conference, held in the Republican Palace inside Baghdad’s International Green Zone.

It was hard not to gawk at the palace’s soaring ceilings, marble floors and inlaid woodwork. A provocative exhibition of prisoners’ deeply moving artwork, letters and poetry, as well as striking posters, helped attendees focus on prisoners.

Delinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report. She and her family lived in Baghdad from 1963 to 1965.

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Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Nouri al-Maliki opened the conference by praising the “historic Palestinian achievement” of upgrading Palestine to a U.N. non-member observer state, and condemning Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza in November. It’s no longer acceptable for the international community to stand by and passively watch Israel’s gross violations of international law and the suffering of prisoners and detainees, al-Maliki declared. He urged Israel “to abide by international conventions and instruments related to prisoners, including the Geneva Convention.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad agreed, adding, “The acceptance of the State of Palestine as an observer in the U.N. enhances the legal position of our prisoners.

This opens the door so that Palestine will be one of the signatories on the Geneva Convention, with all the rights this involves.”

Fayyad emphasized his country’s “national agreement” when it comes to prisoners. Their cause is vital to every Palestinian, Fayyad explained, because “every house in the occupied State of Palestine has had someone arrested by Israeli authorities over the long and tough years of occupation.” Israel has arrested some 800,000 THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Palestinians since the June 1967 war, including about 10,000 women and 12,000 children, in a flagrant violation of the Child Protection Convention, Fayyad pointed out. In fact, 40 percent of Palestinian males have been arrested at least once by occupation forces. More than 2,000 have died in prison, many of them denied medical treatment.

“You are not alone in your battle for freedom,” Fayyad said, addressing from afar the 4,700 prisoners Israel is now holding, including an estimated 200 children, 8 women, 14 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the sick, as well as those on hunger strikes. These numbers don’t include prisoners in administrative detention, who have never been formally charged or tried. “Your people are united behind your cause,” Fayyad emphasized.

He listed the names of some of Israel’s 33 prisons and detention facilities, noting that Israel has more prisons than universities.

Fayyad said the prisoners are not mere numbers, as Israel would like them to turn into, but human beings. They have dreams and aspirations. They want to live with their families and build a better future for their society. Some have been imprisoned for 19 or even 25 years. Fayyad called for the immediate release of Ayman alSharawna and Samer al-Eissawi, who have been on hunger strikes in Israeli jails since July 1 and Aug. 1, respectively.

One young boy sat listening quietly to the panel discussions that followed, including talks about international law and human rights, reports on Israel’s systematic use of solitary confinement and torture, as well as medical negligence in its prisons. Why had his parents brought the little fellow to such a meeting, many wondered. The shocking answer came when We’aam Ettammimy, 12, addressed the conference: “I was taking part in my village’s weekly protest march with my cousin. Israeli settlers and occupation forces grabbed us and put us into a military vehicle for an hour, insulting and interrogating us.” We’aam and his cousin were held in prison for a week while interrogators “tried to break our will. But we resisted,” he concluded.

“You’re a very brave boy,” I told We’aam MARCH 2013

We’aam Ettammimy, 12, former prisoner, holds his new briefcase presented by U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck, another conference attendee. in Arabic later. His family corrected me, saying, “He’s a brave man.” I whispered to myself in English: “But he’s just a little boy.”

Israel prosecutes approximately 500 to 700 Palestinian children every year, many of them under the age of 16. Children are taken to military detention centers for interrogation, sometimes in settlements or, more often, outside of occupied Palestine.

The family is rarely informed of the child’s location. Once in detention children are held for up to eight days without being brought before a judge.

According to “Palestinian Detainees: No Security in Injustice,” a report published by the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) in September 2012, “The forms of abuse most commonly reported by children during detention include sleep deprivation, beatings, slapping, kicking, denial of food and water, prolonged periods in uncomfortable positions, exposure to extreme heat or cold and denial of access to toilets and washing facilities.”

Interrogations are not videotaped, and neither lawyers nor family members are allowed to be present. Defense for Children International (DCI) and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Adalah, found that, between 2000 and 2012, 90 percent of these children reported being blindfolded during their arrest and transMARCH 2013

port to a military center; 95 percent had their hands cuffed; 75 percent reported being subjected to physical violence; 29 percent were forced to sign confessions or shown documents written in Hebrew; and 12 percent were held in solitary confinement.

Most children (and adults) are arrested between midnight and 5 a.m., awakened

by Israeli soldiers and dragged out of their homes wearing their nightclothes. Some children are accused of throwing stones, but others are arrested indiscriminately and pumped for information about their friends or neighbors.

Long after their release, prisoners suffer from PTSD and other disorders. Dr. Yusim Zawi warned of the dire psychological consequences of incarcerating children. “This is a pivotal time for a child,” the doctor advised, “when their character is developing.” A child should not be exposed to such a shocking experience. “These are the future players who will steer Palestine— that’s why Israel is doing it—to break our resistance,” he charged.

Fatma Ezzaq told attendees about her two-and-a-half-year ordeal in a “grave-like” cell in Ashkelon, enduring insects, sewage smells, constant bright lights and cold temperatures. “Even today,” she said, “my bones ache from the cold.” Fatma was interrogated while sitting on an iron seat, nearly 24 hours a day for 7 days, with her feet and hands shackled. Her son Yousef was born in prison. “He opened his eyes in jail and lived with me for one year and 9 months. His only crime was being Palestinian.” Fatma said she won’t forget the prisoners she left behind, vowing, “My freedom will never be complete until all are released.”

Nagat El Falougy, from Gaza, said she’d tried for three years to get permission to visit her two sons, aged 21 and 24, one of whom has been sentenced to life in prison.

When she finally managed to get to Israel Israeli authorities claimed her permit was invalid. “Am I, a 61-year-old mother, a security threat to Israelis? It’s been seven years. I only want to see my sons,” the widow lamented. “Am I not entitled to hug my sons? Is there any woman who can’t understand this?

“When Gilad Shalit was a prisoner of war the whole world stood by his family,” she continued. “But as a Palestinian no one hears me. I am just one case. Every mother has a story maybe sadder than mine. I appeal to everyone with a conscience. Press Israel to give our prisoners dignity.”

International experts discussed the treatTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

hanley_16-17_Special Report 1/18/13 1:15 PM Page 17

Fatma Ezzaq (l) and Nagat El Falougy holding a photo of El Falougy’s two imprisoned sons. ment of other political prisoners, including Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners, especially hunger-strikers, in Northern Ireland. Political prisoners disappeared in Argentina’s clandestine torture and detention centers during that country’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. More than 3,000 political prisoners were beaten and tortured during their incarceration on Robben Island in apartheid South Africa.

The ill treatment of political prisoners constitutes a deep wound in every conflict.

During the conference Iraq’s cabinet agreed to provide $2 million to help released prisoners resume ordinary life, continue their education and obtain counseling services. Ambassador Mohamed Sobeih, the Arab League’s assistant secretary-general for Palestine, thanked Iraq for hosting the conference. “After hearing these testimonies about what takes place in what we’re told is the valley of democracy in our region, it’s difficult to speak,” he confessed. Attendees agreed that Palestinian freedom fighters should be treated as prisoners of war, and repatriated. The Arab League will demand the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees in Israeli prisons, especially children. ❑ 17

avnery_18-19_Special Report 1/17/13 8:18 PM Page 18

Welcome, Chuck SpecialReport

ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

By Uri Avnery

President Barack Obama shakes hands with former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) after announcing in the East Room of the White House that Hagel was his nominee to succced Leon Panetta as secretary of defense, Jan. 7, 2013. find Chuck Hagel eminently likeable. I

Iam not quite certain why.

Perhaps it’s his war record. He was decorated for valor in the Vietnam War (which I detested). He was a mere sergeant. Since I was a mere corporal in our 1948 war, I find it elating to see a non-commissioned officer become secretary of defense.

Like so many veterans who have seen war from close up (myself included), he has become an enemy of war. Wonderful.

Now Hagel is violently attacked by all the neocon warmongers, almost none of whom has ever heard a bullet whistle in the wars to which they sent others, and the combined political regiments of the American Jewish establishment.

His main sin seems to be that he objects to war against Iran. To be against an attack on Iran means to be anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, indeed to wish for the destruction of Israel if not all Jews. Never mind that almost all present and past chiefs of the Israeli army and intelligence community obUri Avnery, a former member of the Israeli Knessset, is a founder of Gush Shalom <www.gush-shalom.org>.

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ject to an attack on Iran, too. But Binyamin Netanyahu knows better.

In early January the former much-lauded chief of the Shin Bet painted a frightening picture of Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak at a security meeting to discuss the bombing of Iran some time ago. The two were in high spirits, puffing on cigars and drinking whiskey, much to the disgust of the assembled security chiefs. In Israel, cigars are considered an ostentatious luxury and drinking at work is taboo.

Netanyahu’s spin doctors retorted that Winston Churchill, too, was a brandy drinker and smoked cigars. Seems that spirits and cigars are not enough to make a Churchill.

Actually, I think that the appointment of Hagel may come as a relief to Netanyahu.

After years of depicting the Iranian nuclear bomb as the end of the world, or at least of Israel, the bomb is mysteriously absent from Netanyahu’s election campaign.

Hagel’s appointment may allow Netanyahu to climb down from this tree altogether.

But the catalogue of Hagel’s crimes is much more extensive.

Many years ago he called the pro-Israeli THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

lobby in Washington (would you believe it?) the “Jewish lobby.” Until then, it was understood that AIPAC is mainly composed of Buddhists and financed by Arab billionaires like Abu Sheldon and Abel al-Adelson.

However, Hagel’s most heinous sin is not often mentioned. While serving as the Republican senator for Nebraska, he once uttered the unspeakable words: “I am an American senator, not an Israeli senator!”

That is really the crux of the matter.

U.S. senators are nearly all Israeli senators. Ditto for U.S. congressmen. Hardly any of them would dare to criticize the Israeli government on any issue, negligible as it may be. Criticizing Israel is political suicide. Not only does the Jewish lobby use its huge resources to get loyal pro-Israelis elected and re-elected, but it openly employs these resources to unseat the few elected officials who dare to criticize Israel.

They almost always succeed.

In the present Israeli election campaign, the Likud is showing again and again (and again) the scene of Netanyahu addressing the U.S. Congress. The senators and congressmen are seen wildly applauding after every single sentence, jumping up and down like children in gymnastics class.

The text of the clip says: “When Netanyahu speaks, the world listens!”

(A curiosity: right after this shameful scene, the clip shows Netanyahu addressing the U.N. General Assembly. Since the applause there was sparse—hardly anyone, other than Avigdor Lieberman and the other members of the Israeli delegation in the half-empty hall, did applaud—the editors of the clip used a little trick: they took the applause from the U.S. Congress and transferred it to the U.N. General Assembly hall.)

Somebody sent me a satirical piece saying that if Hagel’s appointment is not cancelled by the U.S. Senate, Israel will have to use its veto power to block it. In such a case, the Senate would have to muster a 90 percent majority to overcome the veto. If this fails, President Barack Obama would have to choose another defense secretary from a list of three names provided by Netanyahu.

Jokes aside, the Israeli defense establishment is not worried by the Hagel appointMARCH 2013

avnery_18-19_Special Report 1/17/13 8:18 PM Page 19

ment. They seem to know him as quite receptive to Israeli requests. Several Israeli generals have already come to his defense.

This whole episode might be considered trivial, or even funny, were it not for the question: Why did President Obama put forward this controversial figure in the first place?

An obvious answer is: Revenge. Obama is a master of controlling his emotions.

During all the months of Netanyahu supporting Mitt Romney, Obama did not react. But his anger must have been building up inside.

Now the time has come. Appointing Hagel and openly humiliating the pro-Israel lobby was one way. More of this can be expected to come. Any slight nudge from America is bound to be felt by Israel as a heavy blow.

By the way, this blow could be used by the opposition parties here to to expose Netanyahu’s rank incompetence. Supporting Romney was plain stupid. All the more so as Netanyahu, who was raised in the U.S., depicts himself as an expert on U.S. affairs. But no party dares to raise this subject in our election campaign, for fear of being considered less than super-patriotic.

I don’t expect President Obama to change the U.S. treatment of Israel in the near future, beyond some small punitive acts like this one. But when we raise our eyes toward the horizon, the picture looks different.

There is already a marked difference between Obama I and Obama II. When he was elected the first time, he chose Chas Freeman, a highly respected diplomat, to head the National Intelligence Council.

The pro-Israel lobby raised a storm, and Freeman withdrew his name. Obama then preferred public humiliation to a confrontation with the lobby. How different this time!

This change may well become more marked in Obama’s second term and far beyond. The lobby’s stranglehold on Washington, DC is loosening, slightly, slowly, but significantly.

Why? I believe that one of the reasons is that the perception of the American Jewish community is changing. American politicians are beginning to realize that Jewish voters are far from unanimously behind the lobby. American Jewish “leaders,” almost all of them self-appointed and representing nobody but a small clique of professional representatives, as well as the Israeli Embassy and some right-wing billionaires, do not control the Jewish vote.

MARCH 2013

This became clear when Netanyahu supported Romney. The great majority of Jewish voters continued to support Obama and the Democratic Party.

This is not a sudden development. For years now, American Jews—especially young Jews—have distanced themselves from the Zionist establishment. Becoming more and more disillusioned with official Israeli policy, alienated by the occupation, disgusted with the pictures of Israeli soldiers beating up helpless Palestinians, they have quietly dropped away. Quietly, because they fear an anti-Semitic backlash.

Jews are indoctrinated from early childhood that “we Jews have to stick together” in face of the anti-Semites.

Only a few brave American Jews are ready to openly—though ever so timidly—criticize Israel. But U.S. politics are slowly adjusting to the fact that much of the lobby’s strength is bluff, and that most American Jews don’t let Israel determine their voting pattern.

Americans must be a race of angels— how else to explain the incredible patience with which they suffer the fact that in a vital sphere of U.S. interests, American policy, is dictated by a foreign country?

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policy has been decided in Jerusalem. Almost all American officials dealing with this area are, well, Jewish. The Hebrew-speaking American ambassador in Tel Aviv could easily be the Israeli ambassador in Washington. Sometimes I wonder if in meetings of American and Israeli diplomats, they don’t sometimes drop into Yiddish.

I have warned many times that this can’t go on forever. Sooner or later real antiSemites—a disgusting breed—will exploit this situation to gain legitimacy. The hubris of AIPAC bears poisonous fruit.

Since Israel is dependent on U.S. support in almost every sphere – from the U.N. Security Council to the battlefields of future wars—this is a real existential danger.

Perhaps the lobby is becoming alert to this danger. In the present affair, their voice is remarkably subdued. They don’t want to stand out.

The saddest part of the story is that all these false “friends of Israel” in the U.S. Congress and media are not really embracing “Israel.” They are embracing the Israeli right wing, including the extreme and even fascist right wing. They are, thereby, helping the right wing to tighten their control over our country.

American policy plays a major role in the agony of the Israeli peace camp, which is so manifest in the Israeli election campaign.

Just one example: the huge settlement effort now in process, which makes the two-state peace solution more and more difficult to implement, is financed by American Jews who funnel their donations through taxfree organizations. Thus the U.S. government in practice finances the settlements, which it officially condemns as illegal.

Since the 19th century, newspapers have gotten used to abbreviating their reports by saying “France protests” and “Germany declares” when they mean “the French government protests” and “the German government declares.” Thus the media today write that “Israel” promotes the settlements, when in actual fact it is the Israeli government which does so. Several respected recent polls prove that most Israelis want peace based on the two-state solution, which is undermined by our government on a daily basis.

Back to Senator Hagel: the Israeli government and the “friends of Israel” will do anything to undermine his appointment.

Speaking for myself, I hope that his appointment will herald a new American policy—a policy of support for a sober, rational, liberal, secular, democratic Israel, striving for peace with the Palestinian people. ❑ 19

meek_20-21_Special Report 1/17/13 8:20 PM Page 20

Protest Voices in the West Bank SpecialReport

By George Meek

Jahalin, a beleaguered community of nomadic Bedouins harassed by settlers. With international aid, the told me how they suffer under the Jahalin community has built a Israeli occupation. beautiful and functional school In the village of Nabi Saleh north from mud and old tires for its 95 of Ramallah, scene of a weekly children, and has installed solar protest demonstration, Manal panels for lighting in the tents that Tamini said that “the Israeli solare their homes. Jahalin leaders diers shoot tear gas into my home said that the community’s 160 peoevery morning before breakfast.” ple (along with their 140 sheep Every Friday about 70 men, and goats) face forced relocation. women and children, accompanied The High Court has temporarily

by Israeli and international obblocked an army order to relocate servers and media, walk nonviothe Jahalin to Jericho, but it could lently down the street in Nabi Saleh be reinstated and executed any singing, chanting and waving flags. time. The Bedouins told us that Invariably their peaceful effort prosettlers killed and maimed their vokes a reaction of tear gas, sound children by luring them with toys bombs, rubber bullets and skunk attached to booby traps, then water from the Israeli soldiers. made the parents pay fines for Tamini showed us a video with trespassing. “Settlers are above the horrifying and heartrending imlaw, and have no restrictions,” the ages of soldiers beating women and Bedouin leaders said. children, a boy screaming after The immediately visible signs of being shot in the eyes with pepper settler harassment in Hebron inspray, and an observer being dragged into custody. We saw a Protester Manal Tamimi in Nabi Saleh, with illegal Israeli clude a main street on which Palestinians cannot ever travel, hunpicture of the bloody wound of her settlement in the background. dreds of Palestinian shops that own 12-year-old son, who sustained liver damage when an Israeli soldier south of Hebron called At-Tuwani, com- have been closed, and huge nets erected by shot him in the side with a high-velocity munity leader Hafez Huraini said that Palestinian merchants to catch the trash tear gas canister. According to Tamini, every family experiences violence and ha- and garbage thrown down on the shopmore than half of the village’s 550 residents rassment from nearby Jewish settlers. ping street by the Jewish families in the have been injured—160 of them under the Every day the settlers harass village chil- apartments above. A young woman in Heage of 17, with one boy paralyzed. Tamini dren on their way to school, and every bron said she knows at least one person spent 10 days in jail; her husband has been week there is a house or cistern demolition wounded by acid thrown down by the setarrested four times and had his camera bro- and cutting of olive trees. Settlers have poi- tlers. She also said that a settler tried to run ken. But despite the daily violence, she soned more than 100 village sheep. These her brother down, then beat him, and says, they have power from within to keep settlers are the most violent and aggressive falsely told police she and her brother had resisting until the occupation ends. Tamini of all, Huraini says, and physically assault attacked him. She was arrested and held believes the harsh military reaction to their men, women and children alike, trying to for five hours.

“When settlers destroy one of my olive peaceful protests reflects Israel’s fear that make their life intolerable so they will the virus of non-violent resistance will leave. In his first experience with them, trees, I plant 10 to replace it,” said Daher when he was 12, Huraini ran to escape Nassar at Daher’s Vineyard, near Bethlehem. spread, and spark a third intifada.

In a sheep-raising village in the hills when settlers beat up his brother. His com- Last year he planted 1,000 trees. For decades munity’s nonviolent demonstrations, legal he has been fighting court battles to hold on George Meek, a retired American journalist, work, and international pressure have paid to the farm, purchased by his grandfather in spent four weeks in Israel/Palestine late last off: the building of the illegal separation 1916. The hilltop site is a prime target for year listening and learning with D.C.-based wall was stopped, and the Israeli High settlement expansion, but Nassar has reInterfaith Peace Builders and the Interna- Court allowed residents of 13 forcibly evac- fused offers to sell it at any price. “The farm tional Solidarity Movement. He currently uated villages to return. Huraini has been is like my mother, and I won’t sell my volunteers in the West Bank with the World held under arrest for a month at a time mother,” he explained. The family’s motto is Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompa- after demonstrations, but he remains com- “refusing to be enemies,” and it hosts hundreds of visitors annually in its Tent of Naniment Program. For more on his impres- mitted to the nonviolent path.

East of Jerusalem, expansion of Israeli tions project, which brings people of various sions, see his “Palestine Journal” at <http:// settlements threatens the survival of the cultures together to build bridges of underseekpeaceinpalestine.blogspot.com>. hen I visited the West Bank

PHOTO G. MEEK

Wlate last year, Palestinians

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MARCH 2013

meek_20-21_Special Report 1/17/13 8:20 PM Page 21

PHOTO G. MEEK

standing, reconciliation and peace.

I observed a protest demonstration at the village of Bil’in, west of Ramallah, and was nearly overcome by tear gas. Although I was 50 yards away, I felt blinded, disoriented, and suffocated for a few minutes. A tear gas canister struck my shoe and left a mark on it, but did not injure my foot. Bil’in has been protesting for eight years against the separation wall, which took about half the town’s land. First the demonstrations took place daily, then weekly. As a result of the demonstrations, as well as litigation, Israel moved its wall, but it still deprives the Palestinian residents of 250 acres of town land.

Leaders say the weekly protests will continue, because their goal is to end the occupation.

Tear gas at protest demonstration at Israel’s illegal separation wall in Bil'in.

These are but a few of the voices I heard. I concluded that there is widespread trary searches and seizures, and the right to human rights abuses. What I heard convinced me that there can be no balance or violation of Palestinians’ human rights: the family unification.

Palestinians I met throughout the West middle ground between the oppressor and right of self-determination, the right of return, the right of assembly, freedom of Bank were sharply critical of Washington’s the oppressed. As Bishop Desmond Tutu movement, the right to property, freedom unconditional military and diplomatic sup- put it, “If you are neutral in situations of from collective punishment, the right to due port for Israel, which perpetuates the oc- injustice, you have chosen the side of the process in civil courts, freedom from arbi- cupation, expansion of settlements, and oppressor.” ❑ (Advertisement)

MARCH 2013

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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mcarthur_22-23_Congress Watch 1/17/13 8:21 PM Page 22

Congressional Reaction to Successful Palestinian U.N. Bid Limited, but Harsh CongressWatch

By Shirl McArthur

f the 535 members of Congress, AIPAC could find only 24—2 senaO tors and 22 representatives—to speak out in opposition to the successful Palestinian effort at the U.N. General Assembly to upgrade the PLO’s status to that of non-voting observer state. (Choosing Nov. 29 for the vote was particularly galling to Israelis, because that was the date in 1947 that the U.N. partitioned Palestine, thereby creating the state of Israel.)

Many of those who reacted on Capitol Hill called for harsh sanctions or punishment against the Palestinians. Only Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) responded positively.

The “vote should be seen as an opportunity, not an obstacle, for peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said, adding that “it would be a mistake for the U.S. to punish the Palestinian Authority. Punitive measures against the PA will strengthen extremists and diminish U.S. influence in the region.”

Predictably, leading Israel-firster Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (R-FL) reactions were among the most extreme. In a statement titled “U.S. Must Impose Severe Economic Consequences for U.N.’s Irresponsible Support for Palestinian Statehood Scheme,” she said, “the U.S. must stand with our ally Israel and offer no U.S. taxpayer dollars and no political support for the PLO.” (This despite the fact that taxpayer money for the PLO is already banned by previous laws. The U.S. provides money to the PA, not the PLO.) Ros-Lehtinen said that Congress should refuse to allow existing laws to be changed to allow funding to U.N. agencies that grant membership to a Palestinian state.

She then originated a letter, sent Dec. 21 and signed by 58 other representatives, to the heads of the seven states, besides the U.S. and Israel, that voted against upgrading the PLO’s status, expressing appreciation for their “courageous opposition” to the decision. At the same time, she, along with Reps. Howard Berman (D-CA), Ed Royce (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), originated a letter to President Barack Obama, Shirl McArthur, a retired U.S. foreign service officer, is a consultant based in the Washington, DC area.

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also sent Dec. 21 and signed by 231 other representatives, calling on him to, among other things, close the PLO mission in Washington and recall the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, who works with the PA. And 23 senators, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), wrote to U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon expressing their “profound disappointment with the vote,” although it was not clear what they expected him to do about it. Prior to the vote, Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) sent a Nov. 21 letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him not to pursue observer status at the U.N. During the Senate debate on S. 3254, the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), three amendments were proposed that would punish the Palestinians, the U.N., or both, but they were not among the amendments considered for a vote.

Defense Authorization Act Includes Extra $479 Million to Israel As reported in the August 2012 “Congress Watch,” the House passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), H.R. 4310, on May 18. On Dec. 4 the Senate passed its version, S. 3254, and inserted its text into H.R. 4310. A conference committee to iron out the differences issued its report, H.Rept. 112-705, on Dec. 18, and the House agreed to the Conference Report on Dec. 20. The Senate passed the report the next day, and Obama signed H.R. 4310 on Jan. 2.

The final measure authorizes $268 million for so-called “Israel Cooperative Programs,” as provided in the House version.

(The Obama administration had requested $100 million, and the Senate version doubled that, to $200 million.) In addition, the measure authorizes $211 million for Israel’s Iron Dome short-range missile defense system, bringing the total authorized for Israel to $479 million (this in addition to the $3.1 billion in cash aid provided in the foreign aid appropriations bill).

(Note: an authorization bill only authorizes the funding, which is actually made available in the relevant appropriations bill, which could provide less than the amount authorized. Washington Report THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

readers will not be surprised to learn that money for Israel is always appropriated at the full amount authorized.)

In addition to the monetary allotments, the NDAA bill includes numerous provisions calling for or prohibiting certain actions, some of which are Middle East-related. The most far-reaching of these come under the heading “Iran Sanctions,” incorporating an amendment from the Senate version submitted by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). These sections place additional sanctions on Iran’s energy, shipping and shipbuilding sectors by naming them “entities of proliferation concern,” while also placing new restrictions on Iran’s ability to obtain insurance for these industries and sanctioning financial institutions giving certain support to these industries. A separate section sanctions Iranian broadcasting, and another penalizes anyone supplying precious metals to Iran. As a minor concession to White House wishes, the conferees extended the effective date of these provisions to 180 days from the enactment of the NDAA. Most of these sections also include presidential waiver provisions.

Another section requires the Pentagon to prepare a detailed report on options for using U.S. military assets “to deny or significantly degrade the ability of President Bashar al-Assad, and forces loyal to him, to use air power against civilians and opposition groups in Syria.”

One positive section is Section 1234, an amendment from the House version submitted by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), which says that “nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of force against Iran.”

New House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Not so Moderate After All The previous issue’s “Congress Watch” stated that Royce, who replaces Ros-Lehtinen as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has not been active on Middle East issues. However, while not as pugnacious and confrontational as RosLehtinen, he apparently is not as moderate as thought. Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now pointed out that Royce was the lead sponsor of H.R. 5303, introduced MARCH 2013

mcarthur_22-23_Congress Watch 1/17/13 8:21 PM Page 23

in April (and described in the August 2012 Washington Report), the “Palestinian Peace Promotion and Anti-Incitement” bill. Despite the fact that Tel Aviv considers U.S. aid to the PA to be in Israel’s interest, the bill says that no funds may be provided to the PA unless the secretary of state certifies that certain accounting provisions have been met, and “the PA no longer engages in a pattern of incitement against the U.S. or Israel and is engaged in peace preparation activities aimed at promoting peace with the Jewish State of Israel.” The bill then defines “peace preparation activities” as including several unlikely steps, including “public acknowledgments of the State of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.”

The bill never made it out of the Foreign Affairs Committee. In a Nov. 16 interview with the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call, Royce said he shares Ros-Lehtinen’s goal of “clamping down on Iran” and “tightening the economic noose,” and he shares her skepticism about the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt.

In committee news not reported in the previous “Congress Watch,” with the retirement of Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), who is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel, becomes the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.

Iran, Egypt, Hezbollah Get Congressional Attention On Dec. 19, 73 senators, led by war-hawk Sens. Menendez, Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), signed a letter to Obama urging him “to put in place the most stringent sanctions ever against Iran,” and “to reiterate your readiness to take military action against Iran if it continues its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

[Note: if Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is confirmed as secretary of state, Menendez likely will be the next chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.]

As noted in the Nov./Dec. Washington Report, in September the House passed H.R. 3783, the “Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere” bill introduced by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) in January 2012, which would direct the secretary of state to submit “a strategy to address Iran’s growing presence and hostile activity in the Western Hemisphere.” On Dec. 12 the Senate passed the bill, with a minor amendment, by voice vote. On Dec. 18 the House agreed to the Senate amendment, and Obama signed the bill on Dec. 28.

While the various, previously reported measures suspending aid to Egypt have made no significant progress and died MARCH 2013

with the end of the 112th Congress, three new bills were introduced that met the same fate. On Dec. 11 Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and 11 Republican co-sponsors introduced H.R. 6646 to simply prohibit all U.S. aid to “the country of Egypt.” On Dec. 12 Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) introduced S. 3670 “to prohibit the use of FY ’13 funds for U.S. participation in joint military exercises with Egypt if the Government of Egypt abrogates, terminates, or withdraws from the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.” And on Dec. 13 Ros-Lehtinen introduced H.R. 6657 “to condition security assistance and economic assistance to the Government of Egypt in order to advance U.S. national security interests in Egypt, including encouraging the advancement of political, economic, and religious freedom in Egypt.”

As the previous “Congress Watch” reported, House foreign aid appropriations subcommittee chair Kay Granger (R-TX) and Ros-Lehtinen had put “holds” on the proposed transfer of $450 million to the Egyptian government. Those holds have not been lifted, and in the Roll Call interview referred to above, Royce said, “I don’t see that hold coming off any time soon.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that the delivery of 20 previously ordered F-16 fighters to Egypt would begin on Jan. 22.

Regarding Hezbollah, in the Senate Lieberman on Dec. 11 introduced S.Res. 613 “urging the governments of Europe and the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and impose sanctions, and urging the president to provide information about Hezbollah to the European allies of the U.S. and to support the Government of Bulgaria in investigating the July 18, 2012, terrorist attack in Burgas.” On Dec. 17 Rep. Mike Kelly (RPA) introduced the identical H.Res. 834 in the House. The Senate passed S.Res. 613

on Dec. 21 by voice vote with 66 co-sponsors, including Lieberman, and on Jan. 1 the House passed H.Res. 834, under “suspension of the rules,” with 86 co-sponsors, including Kelly.

Assault in Benghazi Continues to Draw Congressional Attention After the Republicans, led by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ayotte, shamefully pilloried U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, forcing her to withdraw her name from consideration as secretary of state, Congress settled into a more responsible mode of seeking answers to how the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya was able to happen. The independent Accountability Review Board, established by the State Department to investigate the incident, released its report on Dec. 18. It faulted “systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department,” but did not cite any instances of administration “cover-up.” It was the subject of subsequent closed hearings by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Legislatively, the previously described S.Res. 594, introduced in November by McCain, Graham and Ayotte to establish “a select committee of the Senate to make thorough and complete investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding, and the response of the U.S. Government to, the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks against the U.S. Consulate and personnel in Benghazi, Libya, and to make recommendations to prevent similar attacks in the future,” made no progress. A similar but less confrontational measure, H.Res. 824, was introduced in the House on Dec. 4 by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and 32 cosponsors. ❑

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Yemen Seeks to Talk Its Way Out of Chaos SpecialReport

MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Patrick Seale

Yemeni children sweep a street during the “Sharik [participate], My contribution builds Yemen” cleaning campaign in the capital, Sana’a, Dec. 12, 2012. lthough politically divided, suffering

Aeconomic hardship, rent by bitter

grievances and burdened by a history of civil conflict, Yemen has chosen to resolve its difficulties by means of a great National Dialogue. It has chosen to talk rather than to fight—a decision of great wisdom. The date for the Dialogue has not yet been announced but it could begin as early as February and last several months, bringing to the capital, Sana‘a, five or six hundred key personalities from all parts of the country.

Huge hopes rest on the success of this democratic experiment.

A major incentive which has focused Yemeni minds is a pledge by the international community to provide $8 billion in aid—if, and only if, the National Dialogue is successful in settling the most glaring inter-Yemeni disputes. The funds are intended to help the government create a climate of security and stability, provide jobs Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle for Arab Independence: Riad elSolh and the Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press).

Copyright © 2013 Patrick Seale. Distributed

by Agence Global.

24

and services, launch economic growth, bring home some at least of the six million Yemenis abroad, and nurture the right conditions to attract much-needed inward investment. But for any of this to happen, Yemen must stay united.

Can Syria learn from the Yemeni experience? One cannot help wondering whether a promise of substantial aid by the international community to rebuild Syria after the colossal devastation of the civil war might not encourage the regime and its opponents to end the horrendous killing and give dialogue a chance.

In Yemen, the principal architect of the National Dialogue is President Abd Raboo Mansur Hadi, who came to power on Feb. 27, 2012 with powerful backing from the Gulf Cooperation Council. He replaced President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled, one way or another, for 33 years— first as president of North Yemen from 1978 to unity with the South in 1990, and then as president of a united Yemen from 1990 to 2012. Although he no longer sits in the presidential palace, Ali Abdullah Saleh remains head of his political party, the General People’s Congress. His sons, halfbrothers and nephews have retained powerful positions in the military. It was only THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

very recently, in late December 2012, that President Mansur Hadi issued decrees merging units commanded by Saleh’s relatives and some of their rivals, such as Gen. Ali Muhsin’s 1st armored division, into a new unified military structure. These commanders have had their wings clipped. But they still remain powerful, if under somewhat tighter control.

The ambitious aim of the National Dialogue is nothing less than to decide what sort of a state Yemen is to be. Should it be a unified country (as was attempted by the 1990 unity agreement) or a federation of North and South—or even a decentralized con-federal state, which might give a measure of autonomy to the many different pieces of the Yemeni puzzle? Should Yemen’s system of government be parliamentary or presidential? Will the army and security services—all too often divided into rival power centers—continue to play a central role, and often a corrupt one, in the affairs of the country? Or will they be tamed and controlled by a civil state?

What relations should Yemen have with its powerful northern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, the hegemonic power in the Arabian Peninsula? Over the years, Yemen has greatly depended on Saudi financial help. In return, the Saudi Kingdom has felt the need to have a say in Yemeni affairs, if only to prevent Yemeni violence and instability spilling across its border. In the last couple of years, after a brief war in 2009, the Saudis have greatly strengthened their border defenses.

Nevertheless, one way or another, Saudi Arabia and Yemen need each other. Their relations will require very careful handling.

Another major concern of the Yemenis is that the United States has designated their country as a frontline state in the battle against al-Qaeda. Primarily concerned with protecting its own homeland from terrorist attack, the United States has carried out muscular interventions against alleged Islamist terrorists in Yemen and other countries, notably by means of strikes by pilotless drones. As these strikes inevitably kill innocent civilians as well, they have aroused bitter anti-American feeling in parts of the population—a hostility often directed against the Yemeni government, accused of complicity with Washington. To carry the war to al-Qaeda, the United States Continued on page 27 MARCH 2013

buchanan_25_March 2013 Special Report 1/18/13 1:17 PM Page 25

Al-Qaeda in the Heart of Africa SpecialReport

By Patrick J. Buchanan or every action, there is an equal

“Fand opposite reaction” is Newton’s

third law of physics.

Its counterpart in geopolitics is “blowback,” when military action in one sphere produces an unintended and undesirable consequence in another.

Sept. 11, 2001 was blowback.

George H.W. Bush had sent an army of half a million to hurl Saddam Hussain out of Kuwait, a triumph. He proceeded to impose severe sanctions on the Iraqis and to build U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia.

“Infidel” soldiers on sacred Islamic soil and the suffering of the Iraqi people under American sanctions were two of the causes Osama bin Laden listed in his declaration of war on the United States.

Our 3,000 dead on 9/11 were blowback for having established a neo-imperial presence in the Arabian Peninsula after Desert Storm.

In the African nation of Mali today, where al-Qaeda and allies have seized the northern half of the country, Azawad, as large as Texas, we are witnessing blowback for President Barack Obama’s intervention in Libya.

How so? Due almost entirely to U.S.backed NATO bombing, which prevented Muammar Qaddafi from crushing the uprising of 2011, the colonel was overthrown and murdered by rebels.

Tuaregs from Mali, whom Qaddafi had brought into his army, fled or were expelled from Libya. Taking their heavy weapons, they returned to a country where their people had been mistreated and seized its northern half, to secede and create their own nation.

But the jihadists who fought alongside them to capture the north turned on them and drove them from power. Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)—like the Taliban in Afghanistan who blew up the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas—then blew up all non-Islamic shrines and imposed a brutal form of shariah law. Adulterers are subject to stonings. Thieves have their hands amputated.

This is but part of the strategic disaster, however. The U.S.-trained Malian army collapsed in the face of the rebellion. U.S.trained Malian troops defected to the jihadists. A Malian captain trained at Ft. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? Copyright 2013 Creators.com.

MARCH 2013

Benning overthrew the democratic government in Bamako and seized power.

This situation had festered for 10 months. Then, in January, the jihadists occupied Konna and threatened Mopti, south of the dividing line, and Islamists entering Mali from Mauritania seized Diabaly, only 250 miles from Bamako. The whole of Mali seemed about to fall to al-Qaeda.

France, whose colony Mali was, reacted.

n Mali today, we are Iwitnessing blowback for President Obama’s intervention in Libya.

President François Hollande sent planes to bomb the Islamists and 2,500 French soldiers to recapture Diabaly. That battle is now underway.

The 16-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has talked of raising an army to recapture the north.

Thus far it has been just that, talk. While the United States has provided logistical and intelligence support to the French, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says there will be no U.S. boots on the ground.

French troops and air power can probably clear and hold the south, but who is going to march north to drive AQIM and its allies out?

Twenty-five hundred French soldiers could not both invade and hold Azawad.

Even should they recapture northern towns like Timbuktu, they could not hold the region against a determined guerrilla war that al-Qaeda and its allies could mount.

Yet Hollande says he will restore the territorial integrity of Mali.

French bombing is already causing civilian casualties. This could produce blowback in France, where thousands of Malians have emigrated. Many French yet remember the homeland terrorism as they fought their eight-year war from 1954 to 1962 to hold Algeria.

The Jan. 16 seizure of Western hostages in Algeria is Islamist retaliation for Algeria’s having allowed France to use its airspace in the attacks in Mali. And as Syria’s civil war has brought jihadis on the run, an Islamist war against France in the Sahel region of Africa could do the same.

And how would Muslims of an inflamed Middle East accept another Western war against soldiers of the Prophet?

While Mali is of little geostrategic value, a huge and secure base camp for al-Qaeda in northern Mali presents serious problems for the United States.

Al-Qaeda in Mali is reportedly in contact with the terrorists of Boko Haram, who have been murdering Christians and burning their churches in Nigeria. And the reports that Islamists entered Mali from Mauritania suggest this cancer is metastasizing.

What should be done?

The United States cannot fight Mali’s war. No vital interest is imperiled there, and this could lead to an Afghanistan in the heart of Africa. But if America is not going to take the lead in recapturing the Azawad for Mali, who is? France?

ECOWAS? NATO? Algeria?

Without America, the will is not there, the weapons are not there, the troops are not there.

As we consider our options, however, let us hear no more from President Obama about al-Qaeda being “on the run” and “on the path to defeat.” ❑

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The World’s Most Dangerous Border— Kashmir SpecialReport

SAJJAD QAYYUM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Eric S. Margolis

Shamira Begum, a villager in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, holds mortar shrapnel at a home in Parla Mohrra, Jan. 17, 2013. A cease-fire took hold that day after Indian and Pakistani armies agreed to halt a recent spike in deadly cross-border firing. eports of fighting along Kashmir’s

Rcease-fire line don’t normally receive

much attention in the Western media. The new year, for example, saw a series of clashes on Jan. 8 and 10 that killed both Pakistani and Indian troops.

One of the Indian soldiers was decapitated, provoking fury across India and calls from its extremist Shiv Sena Hindu party for a nuclear attack on Pakistan.

Gunfire is common on the 1947 ceasefire line known as the Line of Control (LOC) that divided the beautiful mountain kingdom of Kashmir into Indian- and Pakistani-controlled portions. Fighting in that tense region always has the potential to quickly escalate into a major war—or even nuclear conflict.

Having been under fire numerous times on the LOC, I used the experience in my first book, War at the Top of the World, to Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist and author of American Raj: America and the Muslim World (available from the AET Book Club).

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2013.

26

illustrate just how dangerous the simmering Kashmir dispute remains—a dispute that went from bad to critical after India and then Pakistan acquired and deployed nuclear weapons. This, I wrote, was the most dangerous strategic threat facing the globe.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars and some very large battles over Kashmir. Both claim the entire mountain state. Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, has waged a long covert campaign to insert guerrillas into Indian Kashmir to aid a series of spontaneous rebellions against Indian rule by the state’s Muslim majority.

This writer has joined mujahideen fighting their way across the lethal LOC, which is defended by Israeli-constructed fences, electronic sensors, minefields and Israelisupplied drones. Losses run very high among those trying to cross the line.

Muslim Kashmiris have been in almost constant revolt against Indian rule since 1947, when the British divided India. Today, 500,000 Indian troops and paramilitary police garrison rebellious Kashmir. Some 40,000 to 50,000 Kashmiris are believed to have died over the past decade in uprising.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

India blames the violence in Kashmir on “cross-border terrorism” engineered by Pakistani intelligence. Human rights groups accuse Indian forces of executions, torture and reprisals against civilians.

Large numbers of Hindus and Sikhs have fled strife-torn Kashmir after attacks by Muslim Kashmiri guerrillas. It’s a very bloody, dirty war.

The Kashmir conflict poses multiple dangers. First is the very likely chance that local skirmishing can quickly surge into major fighting involving air power and heavy artillery. In 1999, a surprise attack

by Pakistani commandos into the Indianruled Kargil region provoked heavy fighting. The two nations, with more than one million troops facing one another, came very close to an all-out war. I have on good authority that both sides put their tactical nuclear weapons on red alert. Angry Indian generals called on Delhi to use its powerful armored corps to cut Pakistan in half. India’s cautious civilian leadership said no.

Second, the Kashmir conflict also involves India’s strategic rival, China. Beijing claims the entire eastern end of the Himalayan border separating India and China, which Chinese troops occupied in a brief 1963 war. China also occupied, with Pakistan’s help, a high strategic plateau on the western end of the Himalayas known as Aksai Chin that was part of historic Tibet.

China is Pakistan’s closest political and military ally. Any major Indian attack on Pakistan would risk intervention by Chinese air, ground and missiles forces in neighboring Tibet.

Third, in the midst of all these serious tensions, India and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons—delivered by air and missile—are on hair-trigger alert. This means that during a severe crisis, both sides are faced with a “use it, or lose” decision in minutes to use their nuclear arsenals.

The strategic command and control systems of India and Pakistan are said to be riddled with problems and often unreliable, though much improvement has been made in recent years.

A false report, a flight of birds, an offMARCH 2013

margolis_26-27_Special Report 1/17/13 8:03 PM Page 27

course aircraft could provoke a nuclear exchange. By the time Islamabad could call Delhi, war might be on. A U.S. Rand Corp study estimated an Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange would kill two million people immediately, injure or kill 100 million later, pollute the Indus River and send clouds of radioactive dust around the globe.

That is the excellent reason why we should keep a weather eye on Kashmir and press India and Pakistan to make a fair settlement of this exceptionally dangerous 66year dispute. â?&#x2018;

Yemen Dialogueâ&#x20AC;Ś Continued from page 24

has also sought to create a local Yemeni counter-terrorist force, separate from the rest of the armed services. But this has deepened divisions within the Yemeni military and within Yemeni society as a whole.

The extent to which Yemen should cooperate with the United States in counter-terrorism poses a tricky dilemma for the

Yemen government. It needs American aid, but it cannot ignore the hostility of much of its population to American policies.

These are only some of the difficult subjects which the National Dialogue is expected to discuss. The problems are so great that the Dialogue might fail. But the fact that Yemenis have decided to resort to dialogue rather than to violence is very much a step in the right directionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and an example to others.

Perhaps the greatest of all problems facing Yemen is the clashing identities of different parts of the country. Aden and the Southâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;shaped by the British presence from 1839 until 1967 and then by two decades of Marxist ruleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were greatly disillusioned by union with the North in 1990.

In 1994, the South tried to break loose but was defeated. Today, a powerful southern movement known as al-Hirak, embittered by the corruption, land grabs and aggression of northern tribes, is campaigning for autonomy or even outright secession.

The Hadhramaut, with its capital at Mukalla, is also seething with anger at the

central government, which it feels has abandoned it. Law and order has broken down, the cost of living has spiralled out of control, while U.S. drone attacks enrage the population. Many Hadhramis want to break away from Yemen and form their own independent state.

In the north of Yemen, around the city of Saâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;dah, a Zaydi revivalist movement, the Huthis, rose in rebellion against the central government in 2004 and, in the following years, fought several rounds against the government. It remains untamed. Indeed it seems to have expanded its control over the whole Saâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;dah governorate.

Can a National Dialogue reconcile these profoundly different regions? Can it win over the local populations, deal seriously with their legitimate grievances and mold them into a unitary state? This is the huge challenge facing President Mansur Hadi and his colleagues. They will need the support of the international community and of their rich Gulf neighbors because a â&#x20AC;&#x153;failed stateâ&#x20AC;? in Yemen could threaten the stability of much of the surrounding Arab world. â?&#x2018;

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U.S. Invasion of Iraq Fueling Anti-Shi’i Violence in Pakistan SpecialReport

BANARAS KHAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Hamzah Saif

Pakistani Shi’i Muslims, including relatives of recent bomb blast victims, demonstrate in Quetta against rising sectarian violence, Jan. 13, 2013. Three days earlier at least 92 people were killed and 121 wounded in twin suicide bombings for which the Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed credit. ond largest national Shi’i population after Iran’s, Pakistan’s Shi’i community has not alsented a grotesque conclusion to a bloody ways found peace elusive. Indeed, at one year that claimed the lives of more than point it was a central player in the country’s 600 people in the country’s Shi’i commu- cultural and political movement: Pakistan’s nity. The latest tragedy, delivered via car founder, its first governor general and its bomb, came on the heels of six murders the first prime minister all were Shi’i. SunniShi’i harmony prevailed in Pakistan’s early previous week.

Pakistan having become, in the words of decades, with intermarriages and cross atpolitical analyst Khaled Ahmed, the “relo- tendance at religious ceremonies common.

The first rifts appeared in the mid-1960s, cated battlefield” of the sectarian conflict unleashed by the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the and were characterized by infrequent viofallout of the War on Terror on Pakistan’s lent episodes. Communitarian tensions eased Shi’i community seldom attracts interna- with the 1971 ascension to power of Presitional attention. It is violence that the dent Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a left-leaning Shi’i country, ravaged by a separatist movement whose socialist rhetoric found resonance and an insurgency and faced with a hostile among Pakistan’s disproportionately proneighbor, can ill afford. Should it fall from gressive Shi’i youth. Unfortunately, the hope this precarious precipice, it “will see more engendered by Bhutto was extinguished a bloodshed than it can take and survive,” few years later when he was deposed in a warned the English-language Daily Times. military coup and then executed. Bhutto’s Numbering more than 30 million, the sec- successor, the now-notorious Gen. Zia ulHaq, initiated an “Islamization” program Hamzah Saif is a researcher with the World heavily influenced by the Hanafi school of Bank. He has previously worked with the Sunni Islam. Zia’s marginalization of Shi’i USAID-funded FAIDA project in Afghani - Pakistanis contrasted with the new political stan, and has written on and advocated for life injected in Iran’s Shi’i community with improved human security conditions in Pak- the 1979 Islamic revolution. Not only did the istan and Afghanistan with the Muslim new regime in Tehran begin courting its Public Affairs Council. eastern Shi’i’ neighbors with alacrity, but a he massacre of 19 Shi’i pilgrims in Pak-

Tistan in the final week of 2012 repre-

28

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

new, politically active crop of Shi’i youth trained in Iran’s holy city of Qom soon returned to Pakistan, with posters of Ayatollah Khomeini adorning their mosques and his rhetoric blaring from loudspeakers.

Pakistan’s military junta, meanwhile, prompted by its participation in the U.S.-led development of the Taliban to fight the Russians in neighboring Afghanistan, became increasingly exclusionary. Finding the Deobandi sect of Sunni Islam most expedient for it ends, Pakistan, backed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, began to install Deobandi madrassas in the country’s North-West Frontier Province, and also set up more in the tribal agencies further west of the province, home to a significant Shi’i population. The influx of militarily trained and state-favored Deobandis displaced local Shi’i from their positions of socio-economic power, resulting in popular protests. To suppress this dissent, the Zia regime officially sanctioned anti-Shi’i militias in the community’s burgeoning intellectual hub of Punjab. Deobandi militias went on to unleash murderous campaigns unprecedented in sectarian strife in South Asia. Sectarian conflict plagued the country for the next two decades, with the victims overwhelmingly Shi’i.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s 1999 coup, with its ban on sectarian militancies, brought respite from the massacres. However, the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq a few years later introduced new shocks to the nascent calm.

The American war in Afghanistan resulted in the rapid arrival of the Taliban into Pakistan’s tribal northwest in the early 2000s.

Seeking access to Kabul along routes controlled by local Shi’i tribes on the Pakistani side of the border, the Taliban exploited the sectarian divides created in the 1980s by General Zia and the U.S. in order to galvanize Sunni opposition against local Shi’i. The latter responded by organizing local retaliatory militias, exacerbating the conflict.

Meanwhile, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq—the intellectual compass for Pakistani Shi’i prior to the Iranian revolution—further exacerbated Sunni-Shi’i tensions. Deobandi protests rocked the streets of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar in support of Middle-Eastern Sunnis. Pakistani Shi’i, initially supportive of the ouster of Saddam Hussain, whose oppression of their fellow MARCH 2013

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Shi’i they had been protesting since the 1970s, recoiled from the sectarian carnage unleashed by American ineptitude. In response to perceived Sunni persecution in their holy lands, Pakistani Shi’i increasingly asserted their political identity through greater participation in religious processions and ceremonies—activities that inevitably attracted the violent attention of Deobandi militants.

Buffeted by these international winds, communitarian conflict in Pakistan has been worsening since 2001. As of 2007, Pakistan became the only country besides Iraq where a majority of suicide bombings are driven by sectarian strife.

This past year proved to be a particularly harsh one for Pakistan’s Shi’i community. In the country’s tribal northwest, the Taliban imposed an economic blockade on Shi’i tribes as a way to wrest control of routes to Kabul. Car bombs, bus attacks and targeted assassinations claimed more than 80 Shi’i lives in the tribal regions of Pakistan.

In urban centers, sectarian outfits dating back to the Zia regime continued their killing spree. Karachi saw the violent murder of more than 150 Shi’i, among them such prominent leaders as Allama Aftab Ahmed Jaffery, head of the Palestine Foundation of Pakistan. The garrison town of Rawalpindi saw the killing of 24 Shi’i when a procession was attacked by unidentified gunmen. In the western province of Balochistan, Hazara Shi’i have faced unrelenting violence, losing more than 100 community members in 2012.

According to the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, “there are significantly more Shi’i in Pakistan than Iraq, giving a rationale for the continuation of both outside Sunni and Shi’i involvement in sectarianism in Pakistan.” With Iraq in sectarian turmoil and Syria’s pro-Shi’i strongman Bashar al-Assad battling a Saudiand Sunni-backed insurgency, developments in the Middle East indicate an exacerbation of the Sunni-Shi’i conflict in Pakistan. Trans-national and extra-national movements will be quick to exploit these developments by arming and deploying sectarian militias in the country—the consequences of which could be disastrous.

Until now the response of Pakistan’s Shi’i community has been overwhelmingly pacifist, but attacks like the one on Dec. 30 raise the specter of retaliatory violence— which the community increasingly sees as its only available option. As a Hazara woman warned in a recent speech: “When hope is lost, all is lost. We are reaching that point where we lose hope permanently.

Save us before that day comes.” ❑ MARCH 2013

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Will Egypt Follow the Turkish or the Algerian Path Toward Democracy?

SpecialReport

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Amer Araim

An Egyptian opposition protester demonstrates in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo prior to a ruling on the validity of the Islamist-dominated panel that drafted the country’s new constitution. The court subsequently postponed its ruling to Feb. 3. here is no doubt that democracy in the

TArab and Muslim worlds is facing

major challenges—even though their people are eager to have a democratic system of government.

Several factors explain the current attention being given to the ongoing transformation of Egypt into a democratic state.

Egypt, home to the League of Arab States, is the most populous Arab state and a catalyst for change in the region. The tension and conflict between political groups, as well as between the presidency and the judiciary, and the challenges to President Mohamed Morsi’s decrees and the new constitution, represent the difficulties in delivering a new democratic system. The Egyptian people, the Arab world and the international community all desire peaceful and true democratic change in Egypt.

Two earlier democratic experiments in the region bear consideration. For more than 20 years Turkey has struggled to ensure a true transformation to real democAmer Araim is an adjunct professor at Diablo Valley College in Walnut Creek, CA. 30

racy. The forces that employed fear as a tool against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that under its rule Turkey would abandon its secular system and Islamists would restrain Turks’ freedoms and prosperity, which the country enjoyed. The military leadership, the judiciary and politicians who failed to gain voters’ trust, as well as certain Kurdish groups, were the main opponents of the AKP. The same arguments are used today against the Islamists in Egypt. Fortunately, the armed forces—so far—have refused to take part in the conflict between secularists and the Islamists. Egypt’s continued advancement toward democratization will require extra efforts by President Mohamed Morsi to ensure a successful dialogue with the opposition, and to proceed with elections to the lower house of parliament. Since the constitution was approved by 63.6 percent of the voters—although voter turnout was less than 40 percent— the opposition should accept the verdict.

As for members of the opposition, they should respond positively to calls for a diTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

alogue to amend the constitution and agree to a new election law, as suggested by President Morsi. If these conditions are met— including the continued non-involvement of the armed forces—the judiciary, partisan toward the secularists, will be forced to abandon its current position of boycotting the democratization process.

The controversial presidential decrees have now expired, and new parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in April.

The fact that opposition parties are organizing themselves to contest the elections is an encouraging sign. It would behoove them to engage in a dialogue with the government to ensure that the election law represents the aspirations of all political parties, and to adopt platforms designed to win voters’ trust.

Everyone concerned about democracy in Egypt should recall that in the early 1990s Algeria held its first democratic elections since independence, the first round of which was decisively won by the Islamic Salvation Front. In response the Algerian military, representing the old guard of politicians who had failed to solve the country’s problems, and even certain foreign powers which feared an Islamist victory, cancelled the remaining rounds. As a result the country suffered a terrible and costly civil war.

One can only hope, therefore, that Egypt’s political parties, Islamist and secular alike, as well as its armed forces and judiciary—and aided by its concerned neighbors and outside powers—will help the Egyptian people complete the country’s ongoing democratic transformation, because the dividends would be great to all. Every effort must be made to avoid another costly civil war in the region. Washington has played a positive role by encouraging all political parties to avoid confrontation and violence, to engage in dialogue, and to respect the will of the people.

Beyond that, Egypt is in desperate need of financial and other forms of assistance, because millions of ordinary Egyptians must see an improvement in their living standards. In addition to assistance from international financial institutions and developed countries, that requires that chaos be avoided and Egypt’s democratic institutions strengthened. ❑ MARCH 2013

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Other People’s Mail Compiled by Dale Sprusansky

Hagel Nomination To the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Jan. 11, 2013 It is remarkable to me that the nominee for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, is considered unqualified by virtue of such statements as “... my first interest is I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States. Not to a president. Not to a party. Not to Israel.”

Those statements seem perfectly suited for someone aspiring to this office. Can the pro-Israel advocates now challenging this nomination make the same statement?

Recollect the words of George Washington in his farewell address: “The nation which indulges toward another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”

Donald M. Mulcare, Corpus Christi, TX

Palestinian Child Prisoners To The Guardian, Dec. 9, 2012 Today, on U.N. Human Rights Day, we will hand in to Downing Street a petition signed by 4,883 people calling for action from our government on Palestinian child prisoners held by Israel. In June 2012 a group of senior UK lawyers published an FCO-funded independent report, Children in Military Custody, on the plight of Palestinian children detained by Israel. The report concluded that the treatment of these children was in breach of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and several articles of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report made 40 recommendations. The FCO accepted the findings and promised to take them up with Israel. Six months later, not one of these recommendations has been implemented.

That is not good enough. Since the government of Israel refuses to uphold international law, we call on the British government to do so. Our government must show courage and take all appropriate action, including sanctions against Israel, rather than be complicit in the continuing impunity with which Israel acts against Palestinian human rights.

Geoffrey Bindman QC, Action for Palestinian Children; Haya Al Farra, Palestinian MARCH 2013

Mission; Betty Hunter and Sara Apps, Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Jenny Tonge

Israeli Collective Punishment To the [Kingston, NY] Daily Freeman, Jan. 5, 2013 Of course, Israel has the right to defend itself.

But Israel does not have the right to block food and medicine to Palestinian men, women and children.

Israel does not have the right to steal Palestinian land to build thousands of illegal homes in illegal settlements.

Israel does not have the right to confiscate or demolish Palestinian homes.

Israel does not have the right to steal Palestinian water and resources.

Israel does not have the right to imprison over 1.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and then bomb them from F-16 fighter jets, shell them from battleships, or assassinate them with drones.

In short, Israel does not have the right to inflict collective punishment on innocent Palestinians.

As long as Israel continues to oppress, humiliate and brutalize Palestinians, there is little hope for a lasting and just peace Perhaps, during this festival of lights, Israel will see the light.

Until Israel’s military occupation ends, until displaced Palestinians can return to their stolen homes and farms, until there is justice and equality for all (Israelis and Palestinians), the light of peace will not shine on Israel.

Eli Kassirer, New Paltz, NY

Downplaying Settlements To The Washington Post, Jan. 6, 2013 The [Jan. 1 Post editorial “Rash rhetoric”] equated the Palestinians’ initiative to seek statehood recognition from the United Nations with the Israeli government’s construction of ever more settlements in the West Bank, saying that both moves “complicate the negotiations that are the only realistic route to a Middle East peace.”

That is absurd. Settlement-building is clearly an obstacle to any two-state solution, because it deprives the Palestinians of more and more land and water resources for their already drastically reduced future state. It is also illegal under international THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

law. Virtually every international entity (e.g., the United Nations) and government in the world opposes it. It is the continued theft of Palestinian land, period.

The Palestinians’ initiative to gain statehood recognition deprives no one—including Israel—of anything. It is a peaceful and internationally recognized attempt to gain what is rightfully theirs. It is also one of the very few means left to the Palestinians, given that 20-plus years of negotiations have done absolutely nothing for their cause.

Joanne Heisel, Columbia, MD

U.S. Support of Apartheid To The [Takoma, WA] News Tribune, Dec. 31, 2012 That extra $1 billion in military aid to Israel that Congress came together to earmark in the midst of a budget crisis did indeed happen, contrary to the assertion by a letter writer (TNT, 12/7) that it was mere pre-election grandstanding that wouldn’t pass. The U.S.-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act became law in July; $70 million was immediately disbursed, with hundreds of millions more pledged for Israel’s “Iron Dome.”

This is atop $3 billion in annual military aid we already give to Israel, whose economy has grown handsomely since 2001 due in part to Israel’s export of its “security industry.”

If all this aid was actually helping, it might be justifiable. Instead it’s hurting Americans, Palestinians and Israelis. U.S. support prolongs Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and lives, and abets Israel’s ongoing building of illegal settlements that render a contiguous Palestinian state impossible. It also enabled Israel’s descent into apartheid, characterized by favorable designations in law and living conditions for Jewish Israelis only.

The film “Roadmap to Apartheid,” narrated by Alice Walker, is useful for understanding this hard-to-digest fact of Israeli apartheid. So is the report “Is Israel an Apartheid State?” available on the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Web site.

Citizens globally are employing BDS— boycott, divestment, sanctions—to help end Israeli apartheid. The South African 31

opm_31-32_Other People's Mail 1/17/13 8:25 PM Page 32

government recently made support for BDS its official policy.

Apartheid is a crime against humanity.

U.S. billions and bipartisan political accord that support Israeli apartheid should be reallocated for use here at home—for good.

Linda Frank, Tacoma, WA

Israel’s War on Christmas To The Santa Fe New Mexican, Jan. 1, 2013 The war on Christmas rages on—in Israel, that is.

Under threat of losing kashrut (kosher) certification, hotels are prohibited from displaying Christmas decorations. Upper Nazareth’s chief rabbi claims they would be “offensive to Jewish eyes.” The mayor insists, “As long as I hold office, no nonJewish symbol will be presented in the city.” It’s not only Christmas at risk. Haifa’s hotels can be denied kashrut licenses for hosting New Year’s Eve parties. Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is in the fall, hence, “It is seriously forbidden to hold any event at the end of the calendar year that is connected with or displays anything from the non-Jewish festivals.”

Try to get your head around what would happen if Hanukkah celebrations were prohibited in New York City. To avoid offending Israel’s rabbinate, I’ll just say, “Merry ‘blank,’ Happy ‘blank, blank.’”

Joe Mowrey, Santa Fe, NM

Remember Drone Deaths To the Bradenton [FL] Herald, Dec. 18, 2012 The nation agonizes over the deaths of the innocents and their teachers in Newtown, CT. We find the horror of these murders to be all but incomprehensible, and we see our president tearfully attempt to console their parents, friends and the nation in our moment of grief.

Elsewhere in the world there are parents who scream in agony over the indiscriminate murders of their children. Who among us mourns with the parents of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Palestine and Yemen whose children have been murdered by drones manufactured by the United States and their use sanctioned by President Barack Obama?

It is not sufficient to be appalled by mass murder here and in the Middle East. We must do all within our power to put an end to it.

Alvin Levie, Bradenton, FL

Make Offer to Iran To The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2013 With President Obama’s re-election, it is time to drop the pose of toughness and make a realistic nuclear offer to Iran. Only a negotiated settlement can both deter an 32

Iranian nuclear weapons program and avoid another war that the United States cannot afford, a war that would plunge the region into further chaos and only stiffen Tehran’s resolve to build a bomb.

We must acknowledge Iran’s right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium for nuclear power, a point of Iranian national pride shared by much of the Iranian opposition. And in return for verifiable curbs on weaponization, Washington should offer to lift broad sanctions that hurt the Iranian people far more than the regime.

We should work toward a Middle East free of nuclear weapons—including Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal.

David Keppel, Bloomington, IN

will be at risk in the coming years.

Today, with an epidemic of birth defects appearing in many Iraqi cities, the country is still grappling with the aftermath of warrelated and sanctions-related public health issues.

Iran is a country of 80 million people.

Over 19 million Iranians are under 14 years of age and most vulnerable to the effects of sanctions.

Have we learned anything from the death of half a million Iraqi children? If we have, then the University of Michigan should raise its voice, as it has for other issues, to demand that the U.S. government halt all sanctions on Iran.

Mozhgan Savabieasfahani and Azadeh Shahshahani, University of Michigan

Halt Sanctions

Let Egyptians Decide

To The Michigan Daily, Jan. 10, 2013 Sanctions on Iraq may have killed as many as 576,000 children, according to a 1995 report by two scientists who surveyed the country for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. They also found sharply rising malnutrition among the young, suggesting that more children

To The Denver Post, Dec. 8, 2012 Re: “Obama must condemn Egypt constitution plan,” Dec. 4 letter to the editor.

Letter-writer Anthony T. Accetta writes, “We allowed the Islamic Brotherhood to take power…” This is arrogance at its best, Mr. Accetta: We may not like the outcome of that election, but the Brotherhood was elected democratically! Let the people of Egypt decide for themselves.

Wahab Baouchi, Louisville, CO

WRITE OR TELEPHONE THOSE WORKING FOR YOU IN WASHINGTON. President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20500 (202) 456-1414 White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111 Fax: (202) 456-2461 Secretary of State Department of State Washington, DC 20520 State Department Public Information Line: (202) 647-6575 Any Senator U.S. Senate Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-3121 Any Representative U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-3121

E-MAIL CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE E-mail Congress: visit the Web site <www.congress.org> for contact information.

E-mail President Obama: <president@whitehouse.gov> E-mail Vice President Joe Biden: <vice.president@whitehouse.gov>

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Al-Jazeera Real News To The Washington Post, Jan. 11, 2013 Regarding Dominic Basulto’s commentary, “Al Gore, Al-Jazeera and the American audience”: About two years ago, whoever was masquerading as a news person on whichever network broadcast I happened to be watching at that moment said the words “Charlie Sheen” one time too many. I fled, surfed channels in desperation and stumbled upon Al-Jazeera English. I’ve never left.

By concentrating on and reporting news, Al-Jazeera English provides blissful relief from the info-pap that prevails on our so-called news shows. The reporters seem to be everywhere, including ducking incoming fire in Libya and on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The televised discussion groups bring diverse viewpoints and informed exchanges—but not once, since I have been watching, has one of the panelists giggled. Or even chuckled.

Mr. Basulto suggested Al-Jazeera has been “locked out of the U.S. cable TV market.” Not where I live. I tune in and I find actual, serious news and analysis 24 hours a day. No Charlie Sheen. No Lindsay Lohan. Oh, what a relief it is.

Shannon Sollinger, Hamilton, VA ❑ MARCH 2013

cartoons_33_March 2013 Cartoons 1/17/13 8:29 PM Page 33

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST

Morning Herald, Sydney

KHALIL BENDIB

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

National Post, Toronto

The Economist, London

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

Muslim Observer, Livonia

Morning Herald, Sydney

MARCH 2013

The New York Times Syndicate, New York

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Istanbul: An Affordable Food Lover’s Paradise SpecialReport

By Elaine Pasquini

stanbul, renowned for being a city both Asian and European, a melding of powerful civilizations, and home to monumental mosques

Idesigned by architects of unequaled talent, is also a gastronomical paradise for everyone, regardless of age or budget.

Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

Mouth-watering displays of salads tempt passersby on Divanyolu Street, a busy thoroughfare that was once the imperial road to Rome.

In this detail of a floating fish kitchen, the words “Bismillahirrahmanirrahim” on the front read “In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful” and are said as a blessing before meals.

Colorful floating fish kitchens located at the foot of the Galata Bridge on the Eminonu waterfront serve fast food sandwiches Turkishstyle. In the background is the Yeni Cami (New Mosque).

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

Watermelon (karpuz), the ultimate refreshment for visitors out and about on a hot summer day, is available from enterprising young men who push their carts through the tourist areas to keep up with the large demand.

Tempting desserts in a display window.

The confectionery known as Turkish delight (lokum) is the favorite candy of Turkey dating from the Ottoman era. Created from sugar, sugar syrup, rosewater, nuts and dried fruit, it is frequently packaged in cubes,although at one time the sweets were wrapped in silk handkerchiefs and exchanged as gifts.

A cook hands a customer a balik ekmek (fish bread)—a grilled fish fillet stuffed in a half-loaf of bread along with salata (lettuce, tomato and onions)—which is wildly popular with tourists and locals alike and costs 2.5 Turkish lira ($1.39).

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

On the edge of Sultanahmet Square, this delightful brass stand—with a tughra (official signature) of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent embossed in its roof—sells baklava, the popular filo pastry filled with nuts and honey, and Turkish delight (lokum), the iconic sweet of Turkey from Ottoman times.

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

Savory street food abounds in every part of the city, including both sides of the Golden Horn and the Asian and European sides of the Bosphorus. The variety of delicious offerings would fill many books, and tasting them all would require a long stay in the Jewel of the Bosphorus, but here is a small sample of what awaits the lucky traveler to Istanbul.

Drinks on the terrace of the famed Pera Palace hotel are a pleasant respite from the hustle and bustle of nearby Istiklal Street.

MARCH 2013

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

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One of the friendly waiters on the rooftop terrace of the Seven Hills Restaurant in Sultanahmet displays the “catch of the day” against the dramatic backdrop of Hagia Sophia.

MARCH 2013

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

Few breads compare to fresh out-of-the-oven “bubble” bread—sometimes called “balloon” bread—which is simply a mixture of water, yeast and flour baked to form the distinctive bubble. Many establishments display the loaves to entice customers to their cafes or restaurants.

Corn on the cob (misir), grilled in an open cart and sold for 1.50 Turkish lira (83 cents), is a healthy fast food available in Istanbul’s streets and squares. This vendor shows his artistic side with an eye-catching sculptural arrangement of corn on the front of his cart.

Colorful, gooey, sugary Osmanli Macunu, a traditional Ottoman candy, is cooked in a deep metal pot, twirled around a thin stick before handed to an eagerly awaiting customer. This sweet is so popular that the candy makers have been known to run out of sticks!

This splendid array of dried fruits and nuts is a visual delight for photographers, as well as a healthy snack in a moment of fatigue. Fruits and vegetables throughout the bazaars are typically displayed in this tidy fashion.

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

This hardworking chef attracts an audience, especially around lunchtime.

Sweet, fruity apple tea (elma cay) is served everywhere, almost always in a small tulipshaped glass, and offered to prospective carpet buyers by hospitable shop owners.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Simits, chewy, elongated bread rings crusted with sesame seeds, are the cornerstone of street food found in the squares of Istanbul.

Some simit salesmen carry the bread on platters on their heads, but more often they are sold from carts or kiosks.

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Hebron Mayor Addresses Concerns of Dutch U.N. Ambassador, Israeli Academic

STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

By Jane Adas

New York City and Tri-StateNews

(L-r) Dutch Ambassador Herman Schaper, Hebron Mayor Khaled Osaily and NYU Prof. Alon Ben-Meir on the eve of Palestine’s successful Nov. 29 bid for U.N. recognition as a non-member observer state. n Nov. 28, the eve of the U.N. General

OAssembly vote on upgrading Pales-

tine’s status to non-member observer state, New York University’s Center for Global Affairs hosted a conversation between a Dutch diplomat and a Palestinian mayor, moderated by an Israeli academic. Former member of the Dutch Parliament Herman Schaper has been the Netherlands’ permanent representative to the United Nations since 2009. Khaled Osaily is a businessman who was appointed mayor of Hebron in 2007. In addition to his position as professor of international relations at NYU, Alon Ben-Meir has long been involved in negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

In the course of the discussion, it became clear that the two New York-based observers had different perspectives and concerns than the mayor who lives under Israeli occupation. Schaper observed that the Arab Spring and the frozen “peace process” had sidelined the question of Palestine at the U.N., thus motivating President Mahmoud Abbas to make an unsuccessful bid for U.N. membership to the Security Council in 2011 as a means of returning the focus Jane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the New York City metropolitan area.

36

to Palestine. The only real way out is to resume the “peace process,” Schaper maintained, adding that there is general agreement the U.S. should play a central role.

From Osaily’s point of view, 18 years after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, with a leadership that has renounced violence and believes in peace, and with very difficult conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, the outcome of the “peace process” has been zero. In addition, he noted, for 10 years the Israelis have ignored the Arab Peace Initiative. Palestinians therefore are justified in looking for other options.

All three expected a large majority to adopt the resolution accepting non-member statehood for Palestine. Ben-Meir predicted that, due to Hamas’ rise in popularity after Israel’s latest “Gaza war” that month, more countries might vote yes in order to strengthen Abbas’ position, and that the total could be as high as 115 to 130. (The actual vote was 138 for, 9 against and 41 abstaining.) Asked how European countries would vote, Schaper replied there is no common position in the EU and quipped, “One victim of the resolution is European unity.” In fact only the Czech Republic voted no.

As to the implications of the vote, Osaily THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

said that from the following day, with its new legal status, instead of “disputed territories” there will be the occupied state of Palestine based on the 1967 borders.

Schaper acknowledged that a positive vote would be a psychological boost to Palestinians, but said that the real concern is that it would allow Palestine to join international bodies, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC). For Palestine to appeal to the ICC, he cautioned, would be unhelpful and willfully create problems. Ben-Meir pointed out that while the ICC can make judgments, enforcement requires a Security Council vote, with a U.S. veto guaranteed.

Schaper agreed, but warned that any Israelis condemned by the ICC would be subject to arrest in any country that is a signatory to the ICC. Osaily responded that the Palestinian aim is not to punish Israel and arrest criminals, but to end the occupation.

To Ben-Meir’s concern that Israel is under threat from Hamas, which it and Washington still view as a terrorist organization, Osaily replied that Hamas too wants to see results and supported Abbas’ position at the U.N. He expects U.N. acceptance of Palestinian statehood will make all Palestinians, including Hamas, more moderate, and cautioned that it will never work to MARCH 2013

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Lebanon and Palestine where refugee women are re-creating old masterpieces, which are then sold through a network of volunteers. Truly, as Hanan said, textiles are a living, universal language.

leave Gaza out. “We are the same Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza,” he affirmed. Asked where Palestine stands on the Sunni/Shi’i issue, Osaily replied, “We don’t worry about that.

We are opposed to President Bashar alAssad not because he is Alawite [a Shi’i sect], but because of how he governs.”

Nor is Osaily adamant about a two-state or one-state solution. What Palestinians want, he reiterated more than once, is a normal life, one without military checkpoints and metal detectors.

Mahmood Mamdani Gives Annual Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture

Hanan and Farah Munayyer founded the Palestine Heritage Foundation more than 20 years ago as a modest effort to counter the pervasively negative image of Palestinian culture, and even its denial.

Today it has grown to a collection of more than 2,000 embroidered pieces; turned the Munayyers, who are both scientists, into leading experts on Middle Eastern textiles; and culminated in Hanan’s magnificent book, Traditional Palestinian Costume: Origins and Evolution (available from the AET Book Club and reviewed by Clovis Maksoud in this magazine’s October 2012 issue), which won the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year for 2011. The Munayyers have displayed and spoken about their collection at the U.N., the Kennedy Center, the Los Angeles Arts and Crafts Museum, and more recently at the Library of Congress, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the Fair Trade Craft Fair in White Plains, New York.

The Munayyers discovered that the style of dress in the Middle East, especially in Palestine, is ancient. They have found examples of traditional patterns on statues and jewelry dating back to 1200 BC. Elements of Middle Eastern motifs found their way to Medieval Europe. Hanan described how, during the Crusades, European armies copied the blazons and emblems on Arab headdresses. While these have disappeared from the Arab world, they are preserved in European heraldic symbols. She showed a slide of a 15th-century Italian nativity scene with pseudo-Arabic letters in gold, presumably meant to depict the Holy Land.

The Munayyers have expanded their efforts in two ways. They have broadened their research to other countries with the aim of documenting the textiles of the entire Middle East. And they have helped to establish embroidery workshops all over MARCH 2013

STAFF PHOTOS J. ADAS

Hanan Karaman Munayyer on the Living, Universal Language of Textiles

TOP: Hanan Karaman Munayyer with a traditional dress from the Palestine Heritage Foundation collection. MIDDLE: Prof. Mahmood Mamdani at Princeton University; ABOVE: Former U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Mahmood Mamdani is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. In 2008 he was voted the ninth “top public intellectual” in the world by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (U.S.). His most recent book is Define and Rule: Native as Political Identity. On Dec. 6 he gave Princeton University’s 10th annual Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture on “Settler Colonialism: Then and Now.” Mamdani’s thesis is that U.S. settler colonialism is a more illuminating parallel for Israel’s occupation of Palestine than South African apartheid. Mamdani traced trends over time in writing the history of the United States, from De Toqueville to the present, and found that America’s Eurocentric self-image as a nation of immigrants fails to take into account non-immigrant natives. If at all present, as in Theodore Roosevelt’s The Winning of the West, Indians were portrayed as savages just beyond the ever-expanding borders who needed to be pacified or exterminated.

It took the Civil War to acknowledge the presence of “non-volunteer immigrant slaves,” but Mamdani pointed out that Indians were specifically excluded as non-taxpayers from the 14th Amendment granting full personhood to former slaves. For American settlers, he explained, African Americans represented labor while Indians represented land. The former were considered “dogs” that could be tamed, or they could return to Africa. The latter were “cats” who could not be tamed and had nowhere to return.

Immediately after the Civil War, Indians were herded into reservations, which, Mamdani observed, proved an inspiration to South African reserves and tribal homelands. In 1924, Indians were declared “naturalized citizens” rather than “nativeborn,” yet were still considered wards under federal tutelage. They are thus, Mamdani noted, the only U.S. citizens subject to decrees by Congress, where they are not represented even symbolically.

Race and gender have been at the cutting edge of American reform, Mamdani said. The feminist movement grew out of the abolition movement in the 19th century and the Civil Rights movement of the Continued on page 60 37

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Congressman Honda, Abdullah Brothers at MPAC’s History-Making 12th Convention

Southern California Chronicle

STAFF PHOTOS S. TWAIR

By Pat and Samir Twair

(L-r) Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) and NFL players Hamza and Husain Abdullah at the 2012 MPAC Convention. t seemed like a beautiful example of in-

Iterfaith harmony when All Saints Church

of Pasadena offered its premises for the 12th annual convention of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Southern California (MPAC).

But even before the convention opened on Dec. 15, it had gained national notoriety.

No sooner had MPAC announced the venue for the daytime portion of its conference than All Saints began to receive irate e-mails accusing it of harboring Hezbollah lovers. The barrage of insults and objections was described by All Saints rector Ed Bacon as “some of the most vile, mean-spirited [messages] I’ve ever read in my life.”

The source of the Islamophobic diatribe is attributed to the Washington, DC-based Institute of Religion and Democracy, whose Web site accused MPAC of having connections with the Muslim Brotherhood and of refusing to denounce Hezbollah or Hamas.

At a Dec. 6 press conference called by All Saints and MPAC, the Rev. Bacon resolutely stated that his church would host the convention. By now, the controversy had received national media coverage.

A heavy police presence was obvious the night of Dec. 15 outside the Pasadena Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.

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Convention Center, the venue for the convention’s banquet. Nearly 1,000 friends were drawn to the program featuring Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) and National Football League players Husain and Hamza Abdullah, who took a leave of absence from the 2012 season to make the hajj to Mecca.

The Japanese-American congressman praised MPAC for its work of informing Americans who Muslims are. “What happened to Japanese Americans won’t happen to American Muslims,” he said, “because the public is aware of the positive identity of Muslims, who are the fastest growing community in the U.S.” Even though the government knew it was wrong to lock up Japanese Americans in 1942, war hysteria, racism and the fact that the Japanese-American community wasn’t large led it to order the relocation of 100,000 U.S.-born citizens, including Honda as a child, to 10 grim internment camps.

Were Islamophobia to grow to the hysterical levels experienced by Japanese Americans in World War II, Honda told the audience, more than 100 members of Congress belong to minority caucuses and, he pledged, “we will be on your side.” He noted that there now are two Muslim congressmen, Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN).

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Voicing regret that MPAC hadn’t invited him to participate in the workshops conducted earlier in the day at All Saints, Honda expressed the desire to do so at next year’s convention.

MPAC operates on a $1.5 million annual budget raised from the community, executive director Salam Al-Marayati noted. By comparison, he said, Islamophobic zealots have a purse of $43 million to support their efforts to demonize Islam. MPAC has been exposing anti-Muslim hate films, lobbying for the right for mosques to be built in the U.S., placing peace ads in buses to counteract anti-Muslim ads, and publishing policy papers and a book identifying 24 anti-Muslim bigots which U.S. government authorities use.

In introducing the Abdullah brothers, AlMarayati stressed that, while only 1,500 athletes are selected annually to play in the NFL, in 2012 the two decided to dedicate the year to God by making the hajj to Mecca.

As he stood at the podium, Husain made reference to the Newtown massacre, in which a gunman killed 20 kindergarteners the previous day. “When I boarded the plane for California, I was thinking of my 5-year-old son and my 3-year-old daughter,” said the Minnesota Vikings player.

Husain said he received e-mails from all MARCH 2013

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No Friends of the IDF

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It was ballyhooed for weeks as an extravaganza by the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, but just days before the Dec. 6 fund-raiser in the swank Century City Hyatt Hotel, Stevie Wonder declined to appear as the featured entertainer. This could be attributed to a vigorous international email campaign imploring the black super star not to appear on behalf of the armed forces of Israel that practices apartheid against Palestinians.

Encouraged by Wonder’s last-minute pull out, progressives called for a protest at the entrance to the Century City hotel shortly before the gala was to begin. This required some courage, as most of Los Angeles’ well-heeled hard-line supporters of Israel were expected to attend the annual fund-raiser, which in 2011 collected $26 million for the IDF. This year’s chairman

Miko Peled at IDF fund-raiser protest.

MARCH 2013

was Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban who has gone on record as stating that his sole interest is Israel.

Stand With Us, the militant successor to the Jewish Defense League, announced online it would gather en masse to confront protesters. So it was no surprise to see many black-and-white police cars and dozens of uniformed peace officers on the scene by 4 p.m.

A crowd of about 250 demonstrators gathered to hear featured speaker Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (available from the AET Book Club), and Shakeel Sayed of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. James Lafferty, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, emceed the rally. Nary a hostile Stand With Us supporter materialized.

The sound of hovering helicopters nearly drowned out Peled’s words: “Where does one begin to explain why we’re here, why we protest this event to raise funds for the IDF? Do we speak about 10-year-old Abir Aramin, shot in the head by a sniper? Do we speak of Mustafa Tamimi, a 28-year-old from Nabi Saleh? Or do we begin by describing decades of assaults against the civilian population of Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions in the world, a population that never had a tank or a warplane yet has been the target of massive assaults, including hundreds and hundreds of tons of bombs dropped from the air?”

The son of Israeli Gen. Mattiyahu Peled noted that his father helped establish the IDF militia, which forced nearly one million Palestinians from their homes in 194748 and continued ethnic cleansing in the so-called Six-Day War of 1967. Miko also served in the IDF, which he called a terrorist organization to which people inside the hotel would be giving their money.

“But more than protest,” concluded Peled, “we are here to demand that the U.S. immediately stop all funding to the IDF and end all weapons shipments to Israel until such time as they can guarantee it will respect the lives, rights and property of the millions of Palestinians they so brutally govern.”

Thanking Wonder for not performing at the IDF fund-raiser, Sayed said Palestinians today are the black South Africans of yesterday. Many demonstrators wore placards hanging from their necks reading R.I.P. and bearing the names of some of the 170 Palestinians killed in November during Israel’s five-day Operation Pillar of Cloud.

After the sun had set, many demonstrators lighted candles and carried children’s THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

coffins. As limousines pulled up to the hotel entrance protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted, “Free, Free Palestine.”

SAC/LA Hosts Volunteer

STAFF PHOTOS S. TWAIR

over the world praising him for making the hajj, but that it was a mission he had to make. “A Muslim is of the best of character, he/she is honest, loyal and doesn’t cheat in business,” he explained. “We can always look in the mirror because we live up to our values.”

Hamza said his wife delivered their third child only the Wednesday before. During her latest pregnancy, he said, she often was ill and he had to care for his daughter, aged 5, and son, 3. The experience made him admire the work mothers handle.

The Arizona Cardinals star said the hajj made him a better Muslim and that, despite the rigors of the pilgrimage, seeing elderly men making the strenuous walk around the Kaaba Stone invigorated him to push himself. Five times a day he contemplates death, he said, and wants to answer positively when his maker asks him what he did with his time on Earth.

Sama al-Wareh.

Sama al-Wareh, a Syrian American who delivered $10,000 of relief supplies to refugee families outside camps in Turkey, was the guest speaker at a Dec. 1 program of the Syrian American Council of Greater Los Angeles at the Sahara Café in Pomona.

Concerned with the plight of Syrians who fled warfare in their homeland only to find camps inside Turkey’s southern border too full to accept growing numbers of displaced people, al-Wareh decided to raise money for the victims and personally deliver needed goods to them. The artist and environmental educator started her fund-raising by selling her motorcycle and putting the proceeds into the pot. She then sold her paintings (www.warehart.com) and sought contributions from friends and family.

When she reached her goal of $10,000, alWareh bought a plane ticket to Turkey and embarked on her relief mission, which lasted from Oct. 30 to Nov. 21 (see <www.theroadtotherefugees.weebly.com>). A humanitarian agency near the Turkey/Syria border directed her to refugee families not sheltered by camps. Al-Wareh then rented a truck, which she loaded with blankets, diapers, food and clothing. She talked with refugees, learned their stories and allocated goods according to their needs. Often she stayed overnight in their meager quarters, recalling that the icy air made it difficult to sleep.

Instead of hearing nature—birds, the wind rustling trees—at the border, all she heard were the sirens of ambulances rushing wounded arriving refugees to medical care. ❑ 39

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U.S. Needs Better Middle East Policy, Rep. Keith Ellison Tells CAIR Audience

Northern California Chronicle

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

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By Elaine Pasquini

After his well-received speech at the CAIR-SV banquet, Congressman Keith Ellison (wearing glasses) listens to his exuberant supporters as Imam Siraj Wahhaj (l) looks on.

AIR signals to the Muslim commu-

“Cnity and to the whole country that

moral pursuit of people’s rights through peaceful means works,” Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) told the 1,000 attendees at the 10th annual banquet of the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR-SV). “The most effective way to make our country the best it can be is through legal means, by appealing to our nation’s conscience, and appealing to the highest ideals that this country stands for.”

Ellison, the first Muslim American ever elected to Congress, drew tumultuous applause when he deplored the U.S. vote against upgraded status for the Palestinians at the United Nations. “If 138 other countries in the General Assembly say that Palestine should be able to be a country, then we should be able to say it, too. Our nation needs a better foreign policy relative to the Middle East. There are things that our country has been doing that I don’t think are even in its own best interest, but it has been going down a certain path for so long that it is almost stuck in those tracks.”

Other speakers, including CAIR-SV president Wazhma Mojaddidi and CAIR-CA Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

40

chairman Masoud Nassimi, spoke about advancing the American principles of equality, freedom and pluralism. California State Assembly member Roger Dickinson honored the group’s 10th anniversary by presenting a resolution to the CAIR-SV executive committee.

“Tonight represents 10 years of commitment, growth, success and integrity,” CAIR-SV executive director Basim Elkarra noted. “Any time there is an issue, CAIR is there to make sure that our perspective on where our community stands is shown to the public.”

Fund-raising efforts were led by Siraj Wahhaj, the incomparable and always-inspiring imam of New York’s Masjid AlTaqwa. Wahhaj, who also is chairman of the Muslim Alliance in North America, travels around the U.S. in support of Islamic causes and in an effort to improve Muslim communities and society at large.

Awards for excellence were presented to the following: Lifetime Achievement Award to Rashid Ahmad; Courage and Inspiration Award to Mariko Yamada; Distinguished Service Award to the Muslim American Society-Social Services Foundation; Fairness and Integrity in Media Award to Scott Syphax of KVIE Studio Sacramento; and Outstanding Youth Service Award to Feriel Chebouli and Maheen Ahmed.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

CAIR-CA chairman Masoud Nassimi (l) with CAIR-SV executive director Basim Elkarra.

For the second year, the Muslim Student Association of California State University, Sacramento, hosted the Dec. 2 evening event.

Center for Islamic Studies Celebrates Fifth Anniversary The Center for Islamic Studies (CIS) at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) celebrated its fifth anniversary with a Dec. 5 reception and program at Berkeley’s Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

“This is truly a glorious occasion, and this Center for Islamic Studies is my proudest achievement,” James A. Donahue, president of the GTU for the past 10 years, told the group of colleagues, students and supporters gathered together for the celebration. “The CIS represents the coming together of the right idea, the right leadership and the right support.” Created to inspire inquiry into Islam from the perspective of interfaith dialogue, “the center was not to be isolated unto itself, but to work in the context of engaging with other faith traditions, disciplines and academic modes of inquiry,” Donahue explained. “We wanted the CIS to be a model for pluralism in practice and, inMARCH 2013

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graphic works, which have been displayed around the world, including in the National Museum of Scotland, the British Museum, Harvard University Art Museum and San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum.

In 2008, he became the first Chinese student to study traditional Arabic calligraphy under the direction of Sheikh Hassan Jalabi and artist/calligrapher Dawood Bektash in Istanbul.

Listed in the “Top 500 Influential Muslims of 2009,” Noor Deen recently published a book titled Arabic Calligraphy in the Chinese Tradition. For information visit <www.hajinoordeen.com/about.html>.

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

deed, I believe that is exactly what we have created.”

Donahue described the core elements of the CIS as “ideas, inquiry, exploring the intellectual, communal, and historical dimensions that make Islam such a powerful tradition.” In addition, the program serves as a resource for all of the GTU member schools, including the Christian schools, Center for Jewish Studies and Institute of Buddhist Studies.

“Bringing so many people of faith or non-faith or questioning faith together in scholarly inquiry that is respectful of our differences is our proudest achievement,” founding and current director Munir Jiwa told the audience. “We are in a place where ideas and issues can be questioned and understood in the context of many traditions.”

The CIS offers study areas as diverse as the works of Imam Al-Ghazali, Islamic education in East Africa, mysticism, spirituality, race, gender, political mobilization of Islam, social media, aesthetics, inter-religious, intra-religious dialogue and Islamic art.

Farah El-Sharif, who currently is working on her Master’s thesis, thanked Dr. Jiwa for inspiring her to continue her studies at the doctoral level. “I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of this beautiful family of scholars and people with passion and faith in the world,” she said. “GTU pushes forward understanding, respecting and even loving ‘the other,’ so that there won’t be ‘the other’ any more.”

M.A. student James Whipple explained that “growth” was the one word that encapsulated his time at the GTU. “Not only intellectual growth, but spiritual growth,” he added, “which is why I wanted to come here.”

Salon for Oriental Strings

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

Amorfia Productions co-founder Jeanette Cool hosted a “Salon for Oriental Strings” at Pacifica’s Mazza Castle on Nov. 24. Guests enjoyed an evening of music from the heart of Arabia and Spain featuring violinist Georges Lammam, flamenco guitarist Gabriel Navia, acoustic bass guitarist Miles Jay and special guest Ali Amr on the qanun, an ancient 72tone string instrument. Amr, a 21-year-old musician from Ramallah, graduated in December from Boston’s Berklee College of Music with a degree in musical performance. Donations from the concert go toward the young performer’s further education in New York City.

While “Malaga”—Lammam’s original composition from his latest CD, “Oriental Occidental”—was an unabashed audience favorite, the quartet also delighted the guests with brilliant improvisation employing several genres.

Haji Noor Deen, eminent master of Arabic calligraphy, gave a lively and fascinating demonstration of Chinese Islamic calligraphy, known as “sini,” at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum on Nov. 28.

Noor Deen’s devout spiritualism and immense knowledge of Islamic thought and art brings a depth and unparalleled precision and beauty to his unique calliMARCH 2013

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

Haji Noor Deen at Asian Art Museum

Women in Black Vigil

TOP TO BOTTOM: (L-r) Arthur G. Holder, James A. Donahue, Munir Jiwa and Som Pourfarzaneh; Haji Noor Deen demonstrates Chinese Islamic calligraphy at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum; (l-r) Georges Lammam, Ali Amr, Gabriel Navia perform in Pacifica; (l-r) Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Nabil Wahbeh and Dorothy Wonder.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

This year’s annual Women in Black anti-war vigil in San Francisco on Black Friday held special meaning as it came following Israeli airstrikes which killed 165 Palestinians in Gaza, 45 of whom were children. Their names and ages can be found at <www.rememberthesechildren.org>.

In Union Square the activists handed out flyers encouraging s h o p p e rs o n t h e d ay a f t e r Thanksgiving not to buy products which are made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. ❑ 41

brownfeld_42-43_Israel and Judaism 1/17/13 8:35 PM Page 42

Same Old Tactics in Israel Lobby Assault on Hagel: Character Assassination, Charges of Anti-Semitism Israel andJudaism

By Allan C. Brownfeld hen Chuck Hagel, the former Re-

Wpublican senator from Nebraska,

emerged as a front-runner to be President Barack Obama’s next secretary of defense, the pro-Israel lobby rushed to the barricades to oppose his nomination. Its tactics—and arguments against Hagel—are the ones it usually employs against anyone who challenges the policies of the Israeli government: charges of being “anti-Israel” and, far worse, “anti-Semitic.”

In the Dec. 18 Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens wrote a column with the headline, “Chuck Hagel’s Jewish Problem.” Stephens, a strong supporter of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government and a former Jerusalem Post staff member, said that Hagel is unacceptable because he had noted in the past that “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.” Beyond this, Stephens wrote, “it suggests that legislators who adopt positions friendly to that lobby are doing so not from political conviction but out of personal fear.”

Senator Hagel is hardly alone in pointing out the malevolent influence upon U.S. Middle East policy of AIPAC and other organizations—such as the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League—which repeatedly present themselves as speaking for all Jewish Americans when, in reality, they have no mandate to do so. Members of Congress who in any way criticize Israeli policy have been targeted by AIPAC and similar groups, often successfully. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman noted, the standing ovation Prime Minister Netanyahu received from Congress did not represent genuine support for his policies but was, instead, “bought and paid for” by the pro-Israel lobby. This, in turn, serves to silence those who would in any way differ from the position the Israeli government pursues.

The fact is that blind support for the policies of any foreign government, even a close ally, can be destructive if that country is

pursuing questionable policies—or those that are not in the U.S. national interest.

Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and an Orthodox Jew, urged the U.S. not to “reward” Israel’s continuing policy of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

any Jewish voices have M risen in Hagel’s defense.

Another reason for the Israel lobby’s strenuous opposition to Hagel is his general foreign policy perspective. He raised serious concerns about the war in Iraq, and is opposed to pre-emptive war with Iran.

Rather than debate such policy differences, the lobby prefers to pursue personal attacks, such as charging those with whom they disagree of “anti-Semitism.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Stephens wrote that “prejudice—like cooking, wine-tasting and other consummations—has an olfactory element” and that when it comes to Hagel “the odor is especially ripe.” Abe Foxman, executive director of the ADL, stated that Hagel’s views about the Israel lobby “border on anti-Semitism.” The neoconservative Weekly Standard quotes an unnamed Senate aide as calling Hagel an “anti-Semite.”

This tactic is hardly new. In 2009, Charles W. (“Chas”) Freeman, Jr., a distinguished diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992, was named by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair to chair the National Intelligence Council in the first

Obama administration. After weeks of bitter attacks from pro-Israel groups, Freeman withdrew his name from consideration, charging that he had been the victim of a concerted campaign by “the Israel lobby.”

This time, however, in the current campaign against Chuck Hagel, many Jewish voices have risen in his defense.

Writing in The Daily Beast, Peter Beinart, author of the The Crisis of Zionism, asks what evidence those who charge Hagel with “anti-Semitism” can produce: “The first is Hagel’s statement four years ago, that ‘the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here’....Aaron Miller, the well-respected former peace processor from a distinguished Jewish Cleveland family who quotes Hagel as saying that, also calls him ‘a strong supporter of Israel and a believer in shared values.’...Miller himself writes that ‘political pressures have taken a serious toll by conditioning a key branch of the American government [Congress] to be reflexively pro-Israel.’ Maybe Miller has a Jewish problem too.”

John Judis of the strongly pro-Israel New Republic, pointed out that Hagel opposed the Iraq war and pushed for the two-state solution and an end to settlements, the reason for the heated opposition to him: “Hagel’s critics include the Republican Jewish Coalition, which is funded by gambling mogul and greater-Israel proponent Sheldon Adelson; the Zionist Organization of America, which is also opposed to a two-state solution, and a sundry collection of fellow travelers, including The

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Allan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist and associate editor of the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute for Research and Education, and editor of Issues, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Weekly Standard, Commentary, and The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin. ‘Hagel made clear he believes in the existence of a nefarious Jewish lobby that secretly controls U.S. foreign policy,’ one Republican aide told The Weekly Standard. ‘This is the worst kind of anti-Semitism there is.’”

Reported Judis: “I know something about Hagel. I spent several months talking to him and to people who know him for a profile I wrote for The New Republic in 2007 when he was considering running for president. I can’t confidently say he would make a good or great secretary of defense, but I can say with confidence that he is an honorable man who served with distinction as a senator and that his foreign policy views, including his positions on Israel and its American lobby are, if anything, a reason to support rather than oppose his nomination...He has energetically backed ‘the peace process’ and a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine. This last position is what is now causing Hagel trouble. He stands accused of recommending that the U.S. talk to individuals, groups and countries that are seen as enemies of Israel.”

M.J. Rosenberg, a long time observer of the Israel lobby, describes the assault upon Hagel as “unprecedented.” He declared, “Never before has virtually the entire organized Jewish community combined to stop a presidential cabinet appointment because it deems the potential nominee insufficiently devoted to Israel. Of course, below the cabinet level, the lobby has been manning the barricades against critics of any Israeli government policies for decades. The onslaught against Hagel is unique, however, because the reason for it is not merely that he opposes the rush to war with Iran and favors negotiating an end to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. The reason is because he dared to refer to the existence of the Israel lobby...In short, Hagel is an anti-Semite because he stated that the ‘Jewish lobby’ both exists and ‘intimidates.’ It is true that it was impolitic to use the term ‘Jewish lobby’ rather than ‘Israel lobby’ although the very same people criticizing Hagel for using the former term objected just as vehemently when Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer used the latter in their book on the subject...In any case, the term Jewish lobby is accurate when one refers to organizations like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, etc. They are Jewish organizations and not AIPAC, the registered Israeli lobby.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of J Street, lamented that, “There is a very systematic effort going on...It is simply beMARCH 2013

yond disturbing to think that somebody of Chuck Hagel’s stature and significant record of national service is being slandered in this way.”

Senator Hagel still has shards from a Viet Cong mine embedded in his chest, 44 years after his infantry squad walked into a booby trap in the Vietnam jungle. “I remember thinking to myself, you know, if I ever got out of all of this, I am going to do everything I can to assume that war is the last resort that we, a nation, a people, calls upon to settle a dispute,” he told an interviewer for the Library of Congress’s Vietnam History Project in 2002. “The horror of it, the pain of it, the suffering of it. People just don’t understand it unless they’ve been through it.”

To charge a man such as Hagel with “anti-Semitism” in an effort to silence public debate about U.S. Middle East policy tells us far more about his critics than it does about Hagel. Indeed, it is an indication of their growing desperation.

“The Israel lobby is bad for the Jews,” Rosenberg argues. “It suggests that Jewish Americans put the interests of a foreign country first which is a damnable lie. As every poll shows, Jewish Americans not only don’t vote based on Israel, they are not overly Israel centered at all...”

According to Beinart, “The Hagel fight is about more than just the Obama admin-

istration’s reputation for political acumen.

It will shape the climate of foreign policy nominees for years to come.…By leaking Hagel’s name but not [initially] defending him, the White House has...encouraged major ‘pro-Israel’ groups to pick a fight they might otherwise have ducked.”

Following weeks of lobby attacks on the potential nominee—in which Hagel’s accusers attempted to downplay the Israelcentric nature of their opposition —President Obama on Jan. 7 officially nominated Hagel to be secretary of defense. Two stories in the following day’s Forward indicated the Israel lobby’s seeming change of heart: in “Clearing the Path,” Nathan Guttman described “most Jewish groups [as] backing away from criticism.” Read another headline: “Israeli Officials Warm to Chuck Hagel.”

So apparently everything is hunky-dory after all. Still, common wisdom has it that “sparks could fly” at Hagel’s Senate confirmation hearing. Although the mainstream media like to ascribe opposition to Hagel primarily to the Republicans, it is the Democrats who control the Senate, where the Armed Services Committee will conduct the hearing. Maybe now we’ll find out why committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has received more money from pro-Israel PACs than any other member of Congress.

Stay tuned. ❑

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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activisms_44-60_March 2013 Activisms 1/16/13 2:10 PM Page 44

Arab-American Activism

The historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC was packed on Dec. 1, 2012, as 1,200 people from up and down the East Coast gathered to attend the second annual “Turaath: Celebrating Arab Culture in America” event, sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s (ADC) Women’s Initiative. Turaath (an Arabic word that means heritage, folklore and tradition) featured a virtual who’s who of Arab-American singers, musicians and dancers.

Iraqi-American jazz and classical trumpeter and composer Amir ElSaffar and his Two Rivers Arab Jazz Ensemble took the audience on an emotional journey through Iraq’s glorious past and tragic present. ElSaffar blends Iraqi musical traditions and modern jazz to capture his feelings as an Iraqi American watching his father’s homeland in turmoil.

Carrie Ahern and Ramzi Edlibi performed their original choreography, both traditional and modern Arab dance, to the music.

The Alwan Arab Music Ensemble played classical, folk and popular Arab music featuring vocalists George Ziadeh and Lubana Al Quntar. Many members of the audience sang along, as the music evoked memories of Cairo, Baghdad, Jerusalem and Aleppo.

For others, the music drew them to the beauty of Arab culture connecting them to this rich heritage for the very first time.

Dr. Amal David, founder of the Women’s Initiative and wife of ADC president Warren David, said that the success of the Turaath proves that both Arabs and nonArabs are interested in learning about Arabic cultural heritage. —Delinda C. Hanley

PHOTO COURTESY ADC

Celebrating Arab Culture in America

Vocalist Lubana Al Quntar accompanied by the Alwan Arab Music Ensemble.

Arab and Muslim worlds were credited with great civilization while Europe was in the Dark Ages.”

The Arab League ambassador went on to praise Arab Americans “who have successfully participated in all aspects of American life. Their achievements are reflected in assuming important positions from cabinet posts to congressmen to ambassadors to four-star generals to mayors to aerospace scientists, you name it, and they have an important role to play as a bridge between the Arab world and the United States.”

Arab Americans can preserve the rich and complex traditions and values the guests had just seen in the “1001 Inventions” exhibition, he noted. “Your presence enriches your community. You have every reason to be proud of your country.”

Ambassador of Lebanon to the U.S. Antoine Chedid remarked, “The aim of this

event is to create a space free from religious and political influence, a space that welcomes and encourages Arab Americans and Americans to meet, to socialize, and to share the Arabs’ unique culture and heritage.”

NGS executive vice president Terry Garcia said he was pleased that his organization had been selected as the location for the first annual Arab-American Day celebration. “Our goal at NGS is to help people to understand the world and inspire people to care about our planet,” Garcia said.

“Exhibitions like ‘1001 Inventions’ are one important way we speak to our audience and members.” The exhibition fills in the gaps of history and provides an educational tool for all our children to learn about civilization, Garcia concluded.

Ambassador Richard Schmierer, deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplo-

More than 400 guests gathered at the National Geographic Society (NGS) in Washington, DC to celebrate the first annual Arab-American Day on Dec. 4. The Arab League’s Ambassador to the United States Mohammed Al-Hussaini Al-Sharif and the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Washington, DC honored Arab immigrants to the U.S. with a reception following a private viewing of the award-winning exhibition “1001 Inventions.”

Ambassador Al-Sharif welcomed guests saying, “Our event tonight pays tribute to our culture and heritage and to the unique legacy of our ancestors. For centuries, the 44

PHOTO COURTESY ARAB LEAGUE

Celebrating the First ArabAmerican Day in America

(L-r) Dr. John Duke Anthony, founder of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, Lebanon’s Ambassador Antoine Chedid, Qatar’s Ambassador Mohamed Al-Rumaihi and Arab League Ambassador Mohammed Al-Sharif at the first annual Arab-American Day on Dec. 4.

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offensive and racist Hebrew macy and former U.S. ambasgraffiti on the campus’ outer sador to Oman, remarked, walls, threatening retaliation “Tonight’s event is a well-deagainst the students if Palestinserved celebration, not only of ian leaders asked for full mempast achievements, but of the bership in the United Nations. current and future contribuIt was a natural fit for NAAP tions of Arab- and Muslimto join AFBU to try to raise Americans to this country, and funds for Birzeit. In the late to the global community.”

1990s Arab-American students David Hamod, president and formed a national network of CEO of the National U.S.-Arab Arab Student Associations Chamber of Commerce, com(ASAs) based in Washington, mented, “Our Chamber is DC. As these students graduated proud to support the work of the Arab League and this first- Revellers dance on New Year’s Eve and raise funds for Birzeit Uni- and entered the workforce they decided to form NAAP to help of-its-kind celebration of Arab versity scholarships. graduates continue their comAmericans. The Arab-American community is an integral part of America’s and the subsequent interview with Home- munity activism and involvement. Both NAAP and AFBU value academic freedom social fabric, and Americans of Arab de- land Security officials.

A vigorous line of dabke dancers, young and support the right to education and edscent will continue to serve as leaders in the United States at the national, state, and and old, stomped and kicked in the New ucation’s role in the wider development of local levels in a wide range of capacities.” Year. Proceeds from the dinner event raised society.

As economic troubles add to the political Dr. James Zogby said, “I’m bringing my funds for scholarships for Palestinian stuobstacles facing Birzeit students, donations grandkids to see ‘1001 Inventions’ during dents to attend Birzeit University.

Despite relentless interference and pres- for scholarships are badly needed. To help Christmas vacation. I want them to see what we did not learn in school.” [“1001 sure from Israeli occupation forces, Birzeit provide an opportunity for an excellent edUniversity has more than 4,000 students ucation to a Palestinian student, please send Inventions” runs until Feb. 3, 2013.]

The Dec. 4 celebration begins a tradition and more than 650 faculty members and a check payable to American Friends of for an annual event to gather distinguished staff. The university has proudly prepared Birzeit University to 1416 N. Utah St., Artrailblazing Arab-Americans together and young Palestinians for responsible and fruit- lington, VA 22201. —Delinda C. Hanley promote badly needed dialogue among ful leadership in the community since it communities and cultures in the United began as a private girls’ school founded in Muslim-American Activism States.

—Delinda C. Hanley 1924 by Nabiha Nasser, a member of a pioneering family of Palestinian educators. By A New Year’s Eve Hafleh Raises 1961 it had evolved into Birzeit College, American Muslims for Palestine Funds for Birzeit University where male and female students could earn Hosts Fifth Annual Conference The American Friends of Birzeit University associate degrees in arts and science. In More than 2,000 people attended the ener(AFBU) and the Network of Arab American 1972 Birzeit introduced a four-year B.A. de- getic and information-packed “Conference Professionals (NAAP) co-hosted a 2013 New gree program, and in 1975 the college be- for Palestine in the U.S.: A Movement Year’s Eve celebration at the Fairfax Marriott came Birzeit University, the first Arab uni- United,” from Nov. 22 to 25 in Oak Brook, Hotel in Fair Oaks, VA. Birzeit-born Yusif versity to be established in Palestine. The IL. The fifth annual American Muslims for Farsakh, AFBU’s president, and Said Dur- following year work started on a new cam- Palestine (AMP) conference brought torah, head of the NAAP’s Washington, DC pus outside the town of Birzeit. gether the diverse elements within the Today students can study journalism, movement to bring justice to Palestinians chapter, welcomed revellers, and thanked Jerusalem Restaurant owner Yousef Abutaa, commerce, economics, law, public adminis- around the world, including such nationPaul Noursi, Fady Joudah, Amal Jaradah, tration, engineering, nursing, public health, ally and internationally renowned speakDina Kennedy, Nora Burgan, Riham Saah education, information technology and ers as Miko Peled, the son of an elite Zionand Dr. Hanna Hanania, a driving force of other subjects, and obtain graduate degrees. ist military family and author of the book Even before the first intifada began, Is- The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in NAAP for more than a decade, for helping raeli authorities routinely imprisoned, tor- Palestine (available from the AET Book organize the event.

Washington, DC’s most well-known oud tured and imposed travel restrictions on Club); Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the player, Ramallah-born Fuad Foty, and his Birzeit students and faculty. Between 1979 Palestine Boycott National Committee; son Ziyad played songs, including one and 1992, the university was closed 60 per- Sheikh Jamal Said, imam and director of about yearning to return to their homeland, cent of the time—not including indirect clo- the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, IL; sures caused by checkpoints or curfews. and Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, noted political for the rapt audience.

Next to take the stage was NAAP’s Dur- Despite this, the university kept going by analyst and AMP national board member. rah, a standup comedian. Durrah, whose holding “underground” classes in the One key session, “A Movement United,” parents came from Amman and Gaza, homes of professors and students or in the offered representatives from primarily proudly performs with his keffiyeh on offices of local organizations. By 1993, 80 Muslim organizations the opportunity to Broadway. His hilarious performance in- percent of male students at Birzeit had been discuss how the Muslim community can cluded a description of traveling with olive imprisoned and tortured. get more engaged in Palestine social justice In September 2011 Israeli settlers sprayed work. Another important session, “Meet oil dripping from an airplane’s overhead bin MARCH 2013

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PHOTO COURTESY AMP

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Speakers during “A Movement United” session spontaneously join hands in solidarity and victory as they pledge continued cooperation on Palestinian social justice work during the fifth annual AMP conference. our Partners,” was a panel discussion comprising representatives of Palestinian organizations, including U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Al-Shabaka (the Palestinian Policy Network) and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which addressed the ways in which Palestinians are leading the movement in the United States.

“The ‘Movement United’ session highlighted the growth of the Palestine solidarity movement as well as the unity among the largest Islamic and Palestine solidarity organizations in the U.S.,” said Awad Hamdan, AMP national programs director.

“The success of the conference will reverberate throughout the activist community and will help strengthen and empower individuals throughout the U.S. to do more for Palestine.”

AMP conference planners did not stop at educational lectures. They also provided hands-on workshops where attendees could learn how to become actively involved in specific campaigns, such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) “Dump Veolia” and “We Divest”; and the Stop U.S. Military Aid to Israel effort, sponsored by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and led by advocacy director Josh Ruebner. Other sessions included media activism and know your rights workshops.

People were heartened to learn more about the global BDS movement, including efforts targeting Veolia, a French multinational company that runs a segregated busing and light rail system in Israel and the occupied territories. Veolia lost $14 billion worth of contracts due to the efforts of BDS activists, according to Barghouti, who came to the conference from Ramallah. He inspired the audience with a quote that 46

Desmond Tutu used to encourage active protest during the South Africa antiApartheid era: “We don’t want our chains made more comfortable, we want our chains removed.” In other words, Barghouti said, BDS has had its victories but there is still much work to do before freedom will be achieved.

Throughout the weekend, the message was clear, as AMP vice chairman Munjed Ahmad said in the opening ceremony: “We are confident that victory is near.”

The Palestinian cause is a “responsibility on our shoulders,” he added, “and we don’t take responsibility lightly.”

Sheikh Abdelfattah Mourou, a Tunisian lawyer and cofounder of the Tunisian Islamic Tendency Movement, encouraged the audience: “My dear U.S.! Wake up. If you want to lead the world, you have to support the truth…and I know that Palestine and the truth will prevail.” He added, “As long as there are men behind truth, this truth will never be wasted.”

Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, a former presidential candidate in Egypt’s first democratic elections, described his country’s support for Palestine. Dr. Fotouh told the audience that the Zionist occupation is a “threat to all humanity.” Both Dr. Fotouh and Sheikh Mourou described the Arab revolutions’ connections to the Palestinians, because all the movements defend the human rights of people who are oppressed.

AMP knows the importance of educating youths because they represent future activists. The Campus Activism Track held workshops and lectures on BDS and other forms of activism, focusing on strategy and organizing—but not ignoring resistance through art and poetry. In addition to campus involvement, the Youth Program proTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

vided fun and educational sessions for all age groups. Students interacted with experienced peace activists and gained the knowledge and skills they need to become conscious leaders in the community.

By the end of the conference it was apparent that AMP brought together people from a vibrant array of backgrounds, organizations, states and countries who share a common goal of achieving justice for Palestine. AMP, whose mission is to educate the public and media about Palestine, is a platform to help unite the movement. As AMP vice chairman Ahmad said, “We are committed to making a difference for Palestine.”

For more information about the conference or to view pictures and videos, please visit <www.conference.ampalestine.org>.

—Tasneem Odeh

Muslim Charity Provides Disaster Relief to Hurricane Sandy Victims The Islamic Circle of North America’s charitable arm, ICNA Relief USA, has provided disaster response services in 21 disasters in 15 states over the last decade, including most recently during Hurricane Sandy.

Charity is a central component of the Muslim faith, so when Sandy struck, 500 volunteers rushed to provide food, shelter and medical care for dozens of communities throughout New York and New Jersey.

ICNA Relief established food and basic supply distribution centers throughout the stricken states, including Somerset/Piscataway and Atlantic City in New Jersey and, in New York, Long Beach, Valley Stream and Far Rockaway on Long Island, Staten Island, and Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. ICNA Relief volunteers gutted damaged homes, cut up fallen trees and handed out everything from diapers and heaters to hot meals and canned goods.

They also set up free medical clinics in New York and New Jersey where survivors were able to receive free health check-ups and free over-the-counter medications.

Leaders from FEMA, officials from the White House’s faith-based initiative, and elected officials including Mayor Langford of Atlantic City and Mayor Hameeduddin of Teaneck, NJ have applauded ICNA Relief’s response to disasters and extraordinary work on the ground during times of crisis, including during Superstorm Sandy.

In addition to disaster services, ICNA Relief’s 40 national chapters provide a number of charity services which are offered across the country to people of all faiths. These programs include women’s shelters in seven states, food pantries in 10 states, hunger MARCH 2013

PHOTO COURTESY ICNA RELIEF

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Volunteers cut up fallen trees after Hurricane Sandy. prevention programs, free family counseling services, disaster recovery and case management, and a national school supply drive that last year provided more than 20,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to needy children.

—Muna Howard

Human Rights Panel Marks 11th Anniversary of Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility

2004.

Worthington explained that Washington refuses to release some of the prisoners approved for transfer (such as the Syrians and Chinese Uyghurs) because it believes they would be treated inhumanely by their governments. Davis noted that others are still being held solely because the U.S.—fearing that released detainees will join terrorist groups—does not trust other governments (particularly Yemen) to safely monitor transferred detainees. According to Worthington, however, the commonly cited statistics showing that up to onefourth of released detainees return to the battlefield are “wild exaggerations” by proponents of the Guantanamo facility.

By placing “onerous restrictions on the release of prisoners,” Congress has made it difficult for President Barack Obama to achieve his goal of closing the facility, Worthington noted. Despite these congressional roadblocks, however, the panelists agreed that President Obama, who signed an executive order in 2009 saying that Guantanamo must be closed within one year, has not done nearly enough to

STAFF PHOTO D. SPRUSANSKY

The New America Foundation (NAF) held its annual event on the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Jan. 11, the 11th anniversary of the detention center’s opening. The discussion, titled “America’s Indefinitely Detained,” was held at NAF’s Washington, DC offices.

Retired Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for the U.S. Military Commissions at Guantanamo, began by lamenting that little has been done to close the facility over the past year. “It seems like groundhog day, we keep on coming here [to the annual NAF event] and repeating the same story over and over again,” he

said. The colonel also expressed concern that indefinite detention at Guantanamo has become an accepted fact of post-9/11 America.

Despite the popular perception that Guantanamo is home to the world’s deadliest terrorists, Davis noted that 86 of the center’s 166 detainees were cleared for transfer more than three years ago by a conservative interagency government task force of security experts. British author Andy Worthington noted that some of the still-detained individuals have been cleared for release since

(L-r) Thomas Wilner, Andy Worthington and Col. (Ret.) Morris Davis urge President Obama to follow through on his 2009 pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

fight indefinite detention.

Davis was especially critical of the president, saying Obama has “failed to live up to his words” and has lacked moral courage in not using the bully pulpit to rally support for the facility’s closure. Instead of being a leader on the issue, Davis said, President Obama has “let the other side [congressional zealots] carry the narrative.”

Thomas Wilner, a Washington, DCbased lawyer who has represented Guantanamo detainees, said the White House is not making a strong enough effort to work out the gritty details of the facility’s closure. While many people like to cite reasons against closure—such as the fact that there is no place in the U.S. willing to accept detainees—he reminded the audience that nothing is set in stone and that negotiations could resolve the difficult issues.

The problem, he said, is that no one is willing to have these tough conversations.

All three panelists agreed that the continued American practice of indefinite detention at Guantanamo is in conflict with the country’s values. “What makes us [America] different is our belief in the law,” Davis said—noting that the U.S. “chose Guantanamo because it’s outside of the law.” Over the past decade, Davis concluded, the U.S. has become a “warning light, not a guiding light” for the world.

—Dale Sprusansky

Waging Peace Is an Iranian Nuclear Deal Possible?

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a Dec. 17 event at its Washington, DC headquarters to explore the question: “Iran: Is a Nuclear Deal Possible?” Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, moderated the panel discussion.

George Mason University professor Shaul Bakhash began by stating that some individuals within the Iranian regime are warming up to the idea of resuming talks with the international community. “There is discussion within the ruling elite about the desirability of Iran re-engaging with the P5+1,” he noted, “and perhaps directly with the United States.”

Despite these suggestions, Bakhash added, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei remains opposed to direct talks with the U.S. The ayatollah takes pride in the fact that Iran is the only country in the region “that has refused to bend to American pressure,” he explained, and fears that sitting down with the U.S. is an acknowledgment of 47

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(L-r) Prof. Shaul Bakhash, Haleh Esfandiari, Robert Litwak and Trita Parsi discuss the likelihood of Iran and the U.S. engaging in talks.

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The Human Cost of Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Khosrow B. Semnani presented sobering findings from his ground-breaking report, “The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble: The Human Cost of Military Strikes Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities,” at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC on Oct. 12, 2012. His report takes on a largely overlooked issue in the public debate in the U.S. and Israel over the wisdom of using military force to try to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Semnani, an Iranian-American physicist and engineer who lives in Utah, has extensive experience in the industrial management of nuclear waste and chemicals. He was horrified, he said, when he heard about a possible military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, especially in Isfahan, Natanz, Bushehr and Arak. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified an inventory of at least 371 metric tons of highly toxic uranium hexafluoride stored at Iran’s nuclear facilities. Semnani believes the release of this material at sites that are only a few miles from major population centers warrants a careful assessment. He set out to calculate the civilian casualties and environmental consequences of a military strike on each of the Iranian nuclear facilities.

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weakness. Furthermore, according to Bakhash, Khamenei “believes Iran can ride through the present set of sanctions,” and thus does not need to make potentially humiliating concessions to the U.S. If the Obama administration hopes to strike a deal with the Islamic Republic, Bakhash said it must be willing to make concessions of its own. Iran will not surrender enrichment, allow more intrusive inspections to take place and close its Fordo uranium enrichment plant unless Washington is willing to compromise, he stated.

“The prospects of the United States meeting these high expectations on Iran’s part are very dim,” Bakhash concluded.

Robert Litwak, vice president for scholars and academic relations at the Wilson Center, noted that the Obama administration’s support for the 2011 NATO mission that ousted former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi validated Tehran’s view that appeasing the U.S. is futile. Following 9/11, Litwak pointed out, Qaddafi surrendered his WMDs after the U.S. promised not to pursue regime change in Libya.

While President Barack Obama has offered Iran the same deal President George W. Bush offered Qaddafi, Litwak added, the ayatollah does not view U.S. security assurances as having any credibility.

“With its regime takedowns in Iraq and Libya,” he said, “Washington has essentially priced itself out of the security assurance market.”

Trita Parsi, president of the Iranian American Council, noted that Washington and Tehran both distrust each other and doubt that the other is capable of reaching a deal. He also pointed out that Tehran does not believe that President Obama has the political capital needed to effectively negotiate a solution. The fact that the president is struggling with Congress on domestic matters has the Iranians questioning that he could convince lawmakers to ease sanctions as part of any nuclear deal, Parsi said.

—Dale Sprusansky

Khosrow Semnani provides a chilling look at the human cost of an attack on Iran.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Using projections based on the effect of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, Semnani estimated that scores of innocent people in Iran and neighboring Persian Gulf countries would be exposed to highly toxic chemical plumes. In the case of operational reactors, radioactive fallout would be far more devastating than the worst nuclear accidents in history.

Immediate casualties of an attack would be close to 100 percent of the 10,000 scientists, soldiers and others working at the facilities. Tens, and quite possibly hundreds, of thousands of civilians would also be exposed to highly toxic chemical plumes.

These plumes would destroy their lungs, blind them, and severely burn their skin, and damage other tissues and vital organs.

Semnani analyzed the effects of attacks on Isfahan, one of the world’s most beautiful cities. In one hour many of the 352,000 residents living in or near Isfahan would be exposed to the toxic plume. “If we assume a conservative casualty rate of 5 to 20 percent of those people,” he said, “we can expect casualties between 12,000 and 70,000 people.” Airborne uranium compounds would also enter into water, soil and the food chain, he warned.

Semnani said he wondered why no one is focused on the effects of a military attack—including Iranians, who are not well informed about how their government could defend these facilities or what their emergency response would be in the case of an attack. Iranian leaders have not provided their people with an assessment of the grave implications of their government’s nuclear policies, Semnani opined, not to mention the economic toll that has already devastated the Iranian people. “The Iranian people lack an effective role in the nuclear debate,” Semnani added. They need to be informed of the dangers of having “hot” nuclear facilities nearby.

Semnani also warned that a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would implicate the two countries in the man-made nuclear disaster that would follow. Winds would carry radioactive material across the Persian Gulf to contaminate Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and other countries along the southern coast. Attacks could have catastrophic regional consequences, including the contamination of water in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, as well as desalination plants in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Semnani’s study can be downloaded for free at <http://nucleargamble.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/AyatolMARCH 2013

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“Perhaps you have heard or read that [outside of the U.S.] in proportional and absolute terms, the highest number of billionaires is in Russia and China. That’s why the decision-making powers and hierarchies are not as unified and as anti-Western as they once were. Those millionaires and billionaires who build up fat bank accounts in Western banks—they love a neo-liberal economy like that in the West,” Hosseinzadeh concluded.

—Michael Gillespie

Economist Speaks at Iowa Peace Network Open House

New Poll: What Palestinians, Israelis Really Think About Peace Prospects

Ismael Hossein-zadeh, professor emeritus of economics at Drake University in Des Moines, discussed U.S. and Israeli policy and posturing toward Iran at a Dec. 16 open house sponsored by the Iowa Peace Network at the Stover Memorial Church of the Brethren in Des Moines. Author of The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism (Palgrave–Macmillan, 2007), Hossein-zadeh is also a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press, 2012).

“Iran is subjected to crushing sanctions,” said the Iranian native, a U.S. citizen who has traveled to Iran in recent years. Iran cannot sell oil on the open market, Hosseinzadeh noted, and banking transactions are severely limited by the sanctions. “As a result, many essential goods cannot get into the country. There are reliable reports that many Iranians, children and the elderly, are suffering because they cannot get the medications they need. They have begun to perish—to die—as a result,” he said.

“Unfortunately, this is almost exactly the same thing that happened in Iraq during the sanctions regime in that country [from 1990 to 2003]. The United Nations reported that 500,000 children under the age of 5 years died as a result of those sanctions.

And now we see a similar situation developing in Iran,” said Hossein-zadeh, whose family of origin still lives in Iran.

“Although the apparent rationale is to sanction government or government-related entities or military-related items, in practice the sanctions are affecting the food supply, medicines, and other necessities,” the political economist declared.

The purpose of the sanctions is to make people so miserable that they will rise up and change the government, he continued—something that never happened in Iraq. Instead there are indications that the sanctions against Iran are having an opposite effect, increasing popular support for and mobilizing people behind the government, said Hossein-zadeh.

MARCH 2013

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lahs-Nuclear-Gamble-Full.pdf>.

His subsequent article, “The Next Chernobyl?,” published in the Jan. 2 New York Times, describes another “nuclear wild card.” Bushehr, which experts agree isn’t weaponizing nuclear energy but just producing electricity, sits on an active fault line and has experienced ongoing technical problems. A meltdown there could inflict severe damage in southern Iran and also on its Gulf neighbors. —Delinda C. Hanley

Ismael Hossein-zadeh signs books following his presentation at the Iowa Peace Network’s open house in Des Moines.

“I’m afraid that if the sanctions do not bring down the government, the Western powers may engage in military action, but that depends on what may happen in Syria.

If the Syrian regime falls, the next target for regime change would be Iran,” he warned.

Those who benefit from war economically and geopolitically, as Israel does, unfortunately don’t look at the terrible damage and casualties of war. They look at the profits involved and the perceived political advantages that result, Hossein-zadeh observed.

“For a wealthy country such as the United States, where a huge segment of the economy has become dependent on military spending, as the late [American writer] Gore Vidal noted, ‘permanent war has become a sad necessity,’” lamented Hossein-zadeh.

“Furthermore, smaller countries, including Iran, no matter how anti-imperialist, antiinterventionist they are and how valiantly they may fight—and they will—eventually they get tired and run out of resources, whereas for Western powers, for them war is good business and can go on for many years.”

According to Hossein-zadeh, Russia and China have not been as decisive in preventing regime-changing conflicts in Libya, Syria and Iraq (unlike the U.S. and the Western powers, which are determined to overthrow various regimes). Part of the reason for Moscow’s and Beijing’s ambivalence is a lack of unity in the leadership regarding opposition to the policies of Western powers. This is because the ruling powers in both Russia and China are divided between pro-Western millionaires and billionaires and anti-imperialist nationalists.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The Arab American Institute (AAI) and the New America Foundation’s Middle East Task Force held a Dec. 19 panel discussion at the foundation’s Washington, DC headquarters to discuss a new public opinion survey on what Palestinians and Israelis want in a peace deal and their thoughts about the prospects for achieving it.

During the month of September 2012, a time of relative calm, and before Israel’s November attacks on Gaza, Zogby Research Services conducted a comprehensive survey of Israeli Jews and Arabs; Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem; Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan; and the American Jewish community. More than 4,200 participants took part in the poll conducted for the Sir Bani Yas Forum, a joint effort of the UAE and Chatham House.

While wide gaps separate Israelis and Palestinians on such fundamental issues as borders, settlements, refugees and the status of Jerusalem, AAI president Dr. James Zogby emphasized the fact that there was some consensus, suggesting there are ways to “move the needle forward.”

For one thing, according to the poll, despite serious obstacles the two-state solution remains the only viable option acceptable to all parties. Everyone, including Palestinian refugees, rejected the one-state solution. Both Israelis and Palestinians want separation from each other, the poll results showed. Israelis want security and Palestinians want security, independence and sovereignty. Both sides agree that security arrangements are important and that a Palestinian state should control its borders and freely trade with other countries.

Both sides also agree that mutual trust has been broken. Israelis want Palestinians to renounce violence and recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians want Israel to remove roadblocks, end the blockade of Gaza and acknowledge responsibility for the refugee problem.

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<http://newamerica.net/events/2012/is_pea ce_possible>. The poll can be examined at <www.aaiusa.org/reports/is-peace-possible>.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi Blasts U.S. and Israel Heidi Shoup, president of the World Affairs Council of Washington, DC, introduced Dr. Hanan Ashrawi as one of the most influential women in the Arab world, as she invited the renowned Palestinian legislator, activist and scholar to speak at a Nov. 14 luncheon at the City Club of Washington.

That day Israel had launched a full-fledged military assault on Gaza, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed al-Jabri, a 7-year-old child and an 11-month old baby girl.

Ashrawi’s talk was filmed for World Affairs TODAY, a public information program shown on Sundays at 8 a.m. EST. The weekly program focuses on a major global issue and foreign policy topic.

Gaza was already under siege before the latest attack, Dr. Ashrawi pointed out—a geographic, military, political, legal and economic siege. If Palestinians try to break the siege they are subjected to sanctions, she observed.

Palestinians have been told not to do anything serious or substantive, and violence often fills a vacuum, Ashrawi commented.

“Israel has been given time and space to steal the land of the future Palestinian state,” she stated. “Israel has the most hard-line racist coalition in history,” Ashrawi added, and is unilaterally creating facts on the ground, expanding in Jerusalem and ethnically cleansing Area C in the West Bank.

Israel has turned Palestine into a domestic issue that it can take care of while engaging in more military adventurism, Ashrawi continued. Israel is dragging the whole region into a disastrous war, she warned, ramping up fears of Iran and hoping the world ig-

One-half of Israeli Jews claim that it is their right to build settlements wherever they want, while three-quarters of Palestinians say all Israeli construction in their occupied lands is illegal and settlements should be evacuated.

A huge majority of Palestinians (especially Israeli citizens) support the right of return, while two-thirds of Israeli Jews strongly oppose it. While there are deep differences in attitudes on individual “final status” issues, the parties demonstrate greater flexibility when presented with comprehensive peace plans. When options are presented, “trade-offs” offered or issues paired, both Israelis and Palestinians display greater flexibility.

Zogby said the poll showed huge gaps between the views held by secular and Orthodox Israeli Jews. Secular Jews are ready to take risks for peace and to acknowledge Palestinian rights, while Orthodox Jews and settlers who live beyond the Green Line are not.

Interestingly enough, unlike Israelis, Palestinians do not display major differences in opinion between the young and old, university-educated and those who are not, religious versus secular, men and women, supporters of Fatah and those who support Hamas.

The polling of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan indicated that while refugees still cling to their rights and desires to return home, when they are confronted with the possibility that they may not be able to return and given concrete options for the future, they are pragmatic.

Israeli Arabs, who comprise 20 percent of Israel’s population, are more moderate and forward-looking than either Israeli Jews or Palestinians living under occupation. They are more supportive of the Arab Peace Initiative and the Clinton Plan than any other group, and open to Jerusalem becoming the capital for both Israelis and Palestinians.

On most issues, American Jews are less hard-line than Israeli Jews, and they are not a single-issue constituency. If they agree 50

with a candidate for public office on most issues but disagree with that candidate’s view on Israel/Palestine, 49 percent say they would still vote for that candidate, while only 33 percent would not. In fact, when asked which organization they most support, only 23 percent of American Jews name the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); 33 percent identify with American Jewish groups that support Israel’s peace camp; and 32 percent say “this is not a matter of great concern to me.”

There are deep divisions between Israelis and Palestinians, given the lack of progress on peace. Many Palestinians have lost hope and become cynical, just as many Israelis have hardened their views. Zogby said the poll shows there is common ground, or at least that impediments to consensus can be identified. “In this nexus between potential agreement and likely barriers, we find ideas that can advance peacemaking efforts and, as such, a potential framework for renewed negotiations,” he concluded.

Following Zogby’s summary of the poll results, New American Foundation fellow Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism (available from the AET Book Club), Lara Friedman, director of policy and government relations for Americans for Peace Now, and Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the Palestine Center, held a heated discussion. One issue they raised is because media shape public opinion, respondents were influenced by the media where they lived. The panelists lamented that leaders make or prevent peace, regardless of their people’s attitudes.

Munayyer pointed out that the discourse is dominated by the two-state narrative.

Neither Israelis nor Palestinians have a clue how power-sharing would work in a onestate solution. Panelists agreed there has been no cost to Israelis after 20 years of failure to move forward on peace so there’s no reason for them to come back to the table.

Perpetual occupation is a viable option to many Israelis.

This discussion can be viewed at THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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(L-r) Yousef Munayyer, Peter Beinart, Lara Friedman and Dr. James Zogby discuss the poll.

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi.

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HCEF International Conference Promotes Peace, Prosperity, Dialogue The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF)’s 14th International Conference, titled “Continuing Our Commitment to Peace, Prosperity, and Dialogue,” was convened on Nov. 9 and 10, 2012 in Chevy Chase, MD. In his introductory remarks, HCEF president and CEO Sir Rateb Rabie, KCHS, explained that “continuing our commitment to peace, prosperity, and dialogue is what HCEF has been doing for years. It is what HCEF is all about. Peace, prosperity, and dialogue are what we all want to take place in Palestine and the Holy Land.”

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(L-r) Rev. Dr. William Turner from St. Mary Parish in Chelsea, MI and HCEF founder Rateb Rabie present the 2012 Living Stones Solidarity Award to Mary Jane and Deacon Tom Fox, co-founders of the Pilgrim Center of Hope in San Antonio, Texas.

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nores the region’s core issue—Palestine.

Turning to Palestine’s internal crisis, including the “self-inflicted rift between Gaza and the West Bank,” Ashrawi stated that the only way to heal is through elections.

“Hamas should be part of Palestinian democracy, not an alternative to it,” she argued. Elections are long overdue, and will revitalize and legitimize Palestinian leaders.

During Ashrawi’s U.S. visit she planned to speak to Americans determined to vote against Palestinian U.N. membership, and then hurry to Europe where her talks might actually change some minds before the Nov. 29 vote. Palestinians are the only people who are living under occupation who are asked to negotiate with their occupier, she noted angrily. According to the U.S. narrative, “We must get our occupier’s permission to be free and to build our own state.

We should not have to get Israel’s permission to take our right to self-determination.

It’s our right under international law. We didn’t invent it!” she fumed.

“You’d think we were violating a principle of international law. We are going to the U.N. It’s our right to go to the U.N. and seek a solution based on international law. Our rights are basic, positive, moral, human and legal. This is a constructive way to get our rights,” she insisted.

The U.S. has threatened to cut off aid for Palestinians, and sent letters to the rest of the world urging a vote against Palestine.

“Think what could have happened if they had used so much effort to stop settlement activity,” Ashrawi marvelled. “Americans are waxing hysterically about something positive. They say we should negotiate, as if negotiations are an objective in themselves.

What we need to do is put the peace train on a track that actually leads somewhere,” Ashrawi concluded, before taking questions from her enthusiastic audience.

—Delinda C. Hanley

PHOTO COURTESY MICHAEL KEATING

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Jeffrey Abood describes the challenges facing Palestinian Christians.

Friday’s events included HCEF’s third Business, Investments and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Conference, which focused on how “Doing Business in Palestine is Investing in Peace.” It addressed the current state of the Palestinian economy and workforce, as well as a multitude of business and investment opportunities in Palestine. Among the issues discussed were banking services, the Palestine stock market, ICT and Call Centers, and the hospitality and tourism industry.

Dr. Asad Abdul Rahman, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and executive chairman of the Palestine International Institute, gave the keynote address at the HCEF annual awards banquet Friday night.

While he expressed his admiration for the United States and its principles, he questioned Washington’s policies as they relate to the Middle East and Palestine. He urged better understanding of the plight of the Palestinians, and balance in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The HCEF conference’s second day was moderated by Dr. Saliba Sarsar, secretary of the HCEF Board of Directors and professor of political science at Monmouth University, and Dr. Hugh M. Dempsey, K.M. Ob., KHS. In addition to addressing issues surrounding the Holy Land Christians and their role in peace, it examined the Palestinian geopolitical status under Israeli occupation, and implications and prospects for peace under President Barack Obama’s second term.

A panel moderated by Rev. Dr. William Turner, KCHS, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Chelsea, MI and a member of the HCEF Board of Directors, discussed how religious leaders and institutions can be engaged in peace building. Panelists Rev. Dr. Canon Trond Bakkevig, Convener of the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land and dean of Vestre Aker, Oslo-Church of Norway; Bishop Richard Graham with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Washington Metro DC Synod; and Mark Mohseni, host of the San Francisco radio 51

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reported on their dwindling numbers, major challenges and general aspirations. He urged those present to remain updated on and stand in solidarity with the “Living Stones.”

On the following panel, retired Ambassador Warren Clark, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), and Dr. Jad Isaac, general di(L-r) Dr. Asad Abdul Rahman, Saba L. Shami and Dr. James rector of the Applied Zogby make predictions on President Obama’s peacemaking efforts Research Institute of in his second term.

Jerusalem (ARIJ), focused on the “Palestinshow “Building Bridges,” emphasized the ian Geopolitical Status under the Israeli Ocessence of religion: to worship God and to cupation.” Ambassador Clark explained respect life and the dignity of all human be- that while it is very difficult for Israel and ings, regardless of religion, nationality and the Palestinians to arrive at an agreement, gender. The role of religious institutions is there is hope that there can and will be progress. “No American administration, no to put those values into practice.

Rev. Trond Bakkevig discussed his medi- American president, can ignore this conating role and extensive contacts with reli- flict,” he said, “because of its enormous pogious leaders, including the Chief Rabbinate litical ramifications and the enormous of Israel, Bishops and Bishoprics of human suffering that it is causing. We live Jerusalem, and Muslims appointed by the in ‘the golden age of advocacy’ and, at president of the Palestinian Authority. Rev- CMEP, we try to exploit it as best we can.” erend Bakkevig said his goal is to enable re- He described the goal as “to actively proligious leaders to work together in order to mote a just, lasting, and comprehensive resdevelop trust and move them from simple olution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ensure security, human rights, and religious dialogue to cooperative action.

Bishop Graham explained that while po- freedom for all peoples of the region.”

Dr. Isaac gave a PowerPoint presentation litical leaders deal with issues of power, politics, and territory, religious leaders can on the geopolitical status of the occupied show the way by practicing interfaith dia- Palestinian territory. Noting that “Palestinilogue and ecumenism in daily life. “By ans stopped believing in what politicians building bridges and by being more en- are saying,” he proceeded to provide a degaged with the people around them,” he tailed analysis of the Israeli segregation plan stated, “religious leaders and others can in the territories (now state) it occupies, and strengthen their faith and achieve a moral how its implementation will cause severe adversities to the thousands of Palestinians standing.”

Mohseni said he viewed himself as a who will be subjugated to Israeli army polipeacemaker. In this current turbulent social cies and control and eventually cut off from and political environment, he said, “it is their natural environment. In Isaac’s opinvery important to educate people about the ion, “if Israel wants to be an apartheid state, dangers of condoning extremist ideologies, then Palestinians must seek their civil and hateful propaganda, and divisive policies.” political rights.”

Jewish storyteller Noa Baum followed In his radio shows he stresses what is common among us, rather than what divides us. with her presentation on how to promote Mohseni views his show “Building Bridges” peace through the art and practice of storyas “a solution provider to the problems we telling. For Baum, storytelling is “at the are challenged with today around the heart of the human experience. It is humanity’s oldest tool for influence, commuglobe.”

Jeff Abood, KHS, Education Master of nication, and education.” Born and raised in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher Jerusalem, she started a heartfelt dialogue of Jerusalem, Cleveland Section, next gave with a Palestinian woman while living in a PowerPoint presentation on the Christians the United States. In her performance, of the Holy Land. With much empathy, he Baum “weaved together their memories, 52

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

and their mothers’ stories, to create a moving testimony that illuminates the complex and contradictory history and emotions surrounding Jerusalem, for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

HCEF president Rabie chaired a panel on Religious Tourism, Investments, and Business Opportunities in Palestine. Panelist Sami Khoury, tourism consultant with “Visit Palestine,” stated that Palestine is a tourism destination. It cannot be separated from Israel when it comes to tourism. The tourism industry has always been a barometer of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, the Israeli occupation presents major challenges. Many of the historic and religious sites in Area C of the West Bank, for example, are under Israeli control. Even though a substantial number of sites are located on the West Bank, the Palestinian tourism industry is marginalized and cannot compete with an Israeli tourism industry that is “highly resourced, highly funded, and highly organized.”

Panelist Mary Jane Fox (who, with her husband, Deacon Tom Fox, is co-founder and co-director of the Pilgrim Center of Hope, San Antonio, TX) spoke passionately about the 42 pilgrimages they’ve led to the Holy Land, calling them “journeys of faith, prayer, and acts of solidarity.” Each pilgrimage is designed to put faith into action and promote social justice for the Palestinians and the other peoples of the Holy Land.

According to panelist Sami Abu Dayyeh, chair of The Holy Land Incoming Tour Operators Association and president of Netours Co, “tourism contributes 15 percent of Palestine’s GDP. The potential is great to raise it to 30 percent by investing heavily in infrastructure, including the building of hotels.” In 1967, there were 2,000 rooms; today, there are barely 800 rooms. No hotels have been added in East Jerusalem, Abu Dayyeh said. While not everything can be blamed on the occupation, Palestinian tour operators have witnessed a constant flight of capital out of Jerusalem. Everyone will benefit from an enlivened tourism industry, he concluded. The return on investment will be positive, and that will also help the local people.

In responding to the panel, Hashim Shawa, Bank of Palestine general manager, made it clear that tourism is a game changer for Palestine: “It is Palestine’s oil.” Investing in the banking sector is a good entry into any market, he argued, and investing in Palestine is safe. Rabie urged conference participants to invest in Palestine. “Doing so will contribute to both prosperity and peace.”

MARCH 2013

The conference culminated with a panel on the “U.S. Presidential Election Results: Implications and Prospects for Peace in the Middle East.” Moderated by Saba L. Shami, principal of Washington Works, LLC, the panel included Dr. Asad Abdul Rahman, the previous evening’s keynote speaker, and Dr. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute (AAI). Two main questions were considered: Will President Barack Obama do anything different during his second term? And just because he is in his second term, does that make him less vulnerable?

Dr. Abdul Rahman argued that it is “a mistake to treat the U.S. as a minor power.”

It is a superpower, he said. Israel is a regional power because of its military prowess, world Jewry, and influence in the U.S. In his opinion, all U.S. presidents act only marginally different in their first and second terms. If Obama decides to follow his own original positions or what he almost began during his first term, Abdul Rahman said, “he could make a difference, but it is not going to be a major difference. There will be limitations on the U.S. role.”

Dr. Zogby noted that the most pressing issue in the Middle East, historically, has been the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, he said, this is not the case right now. Israel is emboldened, and its politics have moved to the right. The Palestinian side is dysfunctional and split in two, with each dependent on outside patrons. The Palestinian question is not on the U.S. president’s agenda, Zogby opined. Perhaps it is “on his mind, morally and intellectually,” he added, “but he is reluctant to do anything about it.”

In the meantime, the U.S. needs to restructure its aid program and focus it on “economic development projects that support private sector growth,” Zogby stated.

Congress needs to be challenged. The U.S. aid must be demand driven: “redirect the aid programs where it matters.” This is a must as a complement to peace. Priorities are jobs, investments, and giving people a better future.

—Dr. Saliba Sarsar

Egyptians Approve Constitution: So What Comes Next?

Egypt’s December national referendum yielded a favorable outcome for President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. By nearly a two-to-one margin, Egyptian voters approved the draft constitution put forward by the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly. The content of this new constitution and the process through which it was drafted was the topic of a Dec. 17 event held at the Brookings InMARCH 2013

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Khaled Elgindy (l) and moderator Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, discuss the drafting and subsequent vote on Egypt’s constitution with Shadi Hamid (not shown) via video conference from Doha. stitution’s Washington, DC offices titled “Egypt’s Constitutional Referendum: What Comes Next?”

Khaled Elgindy, a fellow at Brookings’ Saban Center for Middle East Policy, funded

by Israel-firster Haim Saban, began by discussing his issues with the constitution. According to Elgindy, the document does not establish civilian oversight over the military and does not install a set of checks and balances between the parliament and the president. Furthermore, Elgindy said, while the constitution does not establish a religious state, it “opens the door” to such a state emerging in the future due to the fact that the document does not concretely guarantee many individual rights.

“At each stage, the [drafting] process was fundamentally flawed,” Elgindy continued, predicting that the constitution will “be of very weak legitimacy” due to the fact that it was rushed, drafted by an Islamist-dominated body and approved in a referendum with a low voter turnout. Indeed, only 31.6 percent of Egypt’s 51.3 million registered voters participated in the vote—meaning that just 19.3 percent of the country’s 83.6 million citizens voted and just 12.3 percent of Egyptians cast votes in favor of the document. [To put these figures in context, 40 percent of U.S. citizens voted in the November 2012 elections, so only 21 percent of Americans voted for President Obama.]

Shadi Hamid, director of research at Brookings’ Doha Center, explained that the constitution-writing process was complicated by the fact that the Brotherhood had to make overtures to both the Salafis and the liberals. Because the two sides have opposing views on a wide array of matters, this often put the Brotherhood in a tremendous bind, he pointed out. While there is an “undercurrent of distrust” between Salafis and the Brotherhood, Hamid added, President Morsi’s controversial decree has created an Islamist/non-Islamist divide in THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Egypt.

Despite the fact that liberals were able to unite in opposition to the constitution, Hamid said he doubts they will be able to form a united front in the upcoming parliamentary elections. He noted that Amr Moussa (a “neo-feloul” part of the past regime), Mohamed ElBaradei (a “liberals’ liberal”) and Hamdeen Sabahi (a “neoNasserist socialist”)—the most popular liberal leaders—have little in common except their opposition to the Brotherhood. Moreover, Hamid noted, liberals are hindered by the fact that they don’t have a significant presence outside of Cairo.

The fact that Cairo and the Nile Delta governorates of Gharbiya and Menoufiya were the only 3 governorates (of 27) to vote in opposition to the document highlights the limits of the liberals’ reach. The constitution was viewed much more favorably in Upper Egypt, where over three-fourths of Egyptian voters supported the document.

—Dale Sprusansky

Political Reform in Jordan A wide array of political actors in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are peacefully but persistently urging King Abdullah II’s government to enact meaningful political reforms. To discuss the government’s response to these demands, George Washington University’s Middle East Policy Forum held an Oct. 23 event at its Washington, DC campus titled “Jordan in the Crosshairs.” Ambassador Edward “Skip” Gnehm, director of the Middle East Policy Forum, moderated.

Jordan’s former Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher began by stating his belief that the Jordanian government has not done enough to genuinely embrace reform.

“I think the country has lacked the political will to move toward serious political reform,” he said.

In particular, Muasher doubted that the 53

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he explained. Ryan added that both the opposition and the government want “evolution, not revolution.”

In mid-November, some increasingly agitated protesters took the unprecedented step of publicly calling for King Abdullah to step down.

The king has to Curtis Ryan (l) and Marwan Muasher describe Jordan’s uneven carefully balance the desires of two key efforts at top-down reforms. constituencies: the country’s revised electoral law of April old elite and the youth, Muasher said.

2012—which seeks to increase the inde- While the elite feel threatened by reform, pendence of parliament and encourage the he elaborated, the youth “are no longer development of political parties through willing to accept what their parents did” the creation of party lists—will result in and are becoming increasingly vocal in significant change. Only 27 of 150 seats in their criticism of the king.

Ryan believes that the upcoming Jan. 23 parliament will be determined by the new party list system, he pointed out, while the parliamentary election will be a crucial remaining will be selected via the old one- “turning point” in Jordan. Since the Arab Awakening began in December 2010, he person one-vote system.

Curtis Ryan, associate professor of polit- pointed out, Jordan has gone through five ical science at Appalachian State Univer- governments. If the one that emerges after sity, questioned the purpose of the new Jan. 23 is unable to take Jordan on the September 2012 media law, which extends slow path of meaningful reform, Ryan preexisting laws regulating the print media to dicted that the opposition will lose hope in online media. The government “took a rel- the top-down reform process.

—Dale Sprusansky atively bad law and extended it to the other half of the media,” he said. The law has sparked outrage among the opposition, Failure of U.S. Drone Strategy in who claim that the government will use it Yemen to censor online speech.

The Brookings Institution sponsored a Ryan noted that Jordan’s political oppo- Nov. 13 discussion of “Yemen and the sition comprises a diverse group of actors, Fight Against a Resurgent al-Qaeda” at its with the Muslim Brotherhood, left-leaning Washington, DC offices. Panelists Ibrahim parties, the National Front for Reform (a Sharqieh, deputy director of Brookings’ group that is attempting to unify the op- Doha Center, and Gregory Johnsen, a Ph.D. position), professional associations and candidate at Princeton University, adtrade unions as the main opposition dressed the counterproductive U.S. drone groups. Muasher pointed out that the re- war in Yemen. Daniel Byman, deputy diform movement also is divided along the rector of Brookings’ Saban Center for Midlines of geography, age, and nationality dle East Policy, moderated.

(Palestinian/non-Palestinian). The common According to Sharqieh, who spoke via thread uniting the opposition, according to video link from Qatar, the Yemeni people Muasher, is the belief that corruption is have been “left in limbo” as a result of the out of control and must be stopped.

U.S. drone war. “No one seems to support Despite the tepid reforms the govern- al-Qaeda in Yemen,” he said, “but no one ment has made to date, Muasher said he supports drone attacks either.” While believes Jordan can set the standard for Yemenis do not have a hatred of the U.S., top-down reform in the region. In order for he added, the death and destruction it to do so, he said, King Abdullah must re- caused by U.S. drone strikes has “led to main in power and act as a conduit be- more…people joining al-Qaeda” in the tween the government and the opposition. country.

Indeed, Muasher noted, the Jordanian In order to defeat the threat of terrorism people want reform—not the demise of the in Yemen, Sharqieh believes that the interking. “The monarchy is a unifying factor,” national community should adopt a three54

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pillar approach that does not focus solely on the issue of security.

The first pillar, Sharqieh said, is making sure that a political settlement is reached in the divided country. The GCC-brokered Yemeni transfer agreement of November 2011, which granted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity in exchange for stepping down, “provided a framework for a settlement in Yemen,” but is “facing serious challenges,” he noted. A successful political settlement will provide hope for Yemenis, he explained, warning that “the alternative is a disaster.”

Sharqieh cited as the second pillar the fostering of development in the Arab world’s poorest nation. Starvation and malnutrition are widespread in Yemen, he noted, and illegal immigration from Africa, and Somalia in particular, is “contributing to the devastation of the country.” Sharqieh’s third pillar is that Yemenis must take ownership of the terrorism threat. “The Yemenis need to feel that this problem is theirs,” he urged.

Gregory Johnsen charged that the Obama administration’s claim that drones are dismantling al-Qaeda in Yemen is false, and described such assertions as “either incredibly naïve or deliberately misleading.” Johnsen also pointed to curious statistics regarding U.S. drone strikes in Yemen. According to Johnsen, 37 to 50 airstrikes targeting 10 to 15 individuals were carried out between January and mid-November 2012. The fact that so many attacks have been carried out to kill so few people means that drones are either not as accurate as reported or that “the U.S. is doing something other than what it says it is doing.”

Johnsen shared with the audience a conversation he had with a Yemeni who was inspecting the aftermath of a village destroyed by drones as an example of how drones can radicalize moderate civilians.

“The destruction [in the village] was grotesque and horrible,” he recalled the man saying. The man reported to Johnsen that those sifting through the aftermath could not distinguish human flesh from animal flesh. Such remnants are “a very powerful recruiting tool [for extremists],” Johnsen said.

The fact that Yemeni President Raboo Mansur al-Hadi endorsed U.S. drone strikes in his country during his visit to Washington in September did not play well among the Yemeni people, Johnsen said. He noted that Hadi, who served as former President Saleh’s vice president, is reliant on U.S. and international support MARCH 2013

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Gregory Johnsen (l) and Daniel Byman discuss the harmful impact U.S. drones have had in Yemen. tions has been a boon, he added, offering divergent opinions a new and welcome platform. Noting that identities in the Middle East are complex, Abu Sarah recalled the region’s heritage of peaceful coexistence and urged that it be reclaimed. He also implicated mainstream Western media in the deepening rifts in the Arab world, by portraying particular factions in a more favorable light than others, and impeding coalition-building and compromise.

Maynard highlighted a similar problem in media coverage of domestic issues, which continues to cast minority communities in stereotyped roles. As a result, she observed, mainstream media outlets are losing minority viewership to niche news providers “that accurately reflect their reality.” The layoff of roughly 13,000 journalists of color by newspapers in the last four years of the current economic downturn has meant a further loss of “windows into a community that we otherwise don’t have.”

Although strongly progressive on domestic issues, Birch displayed egregious lapses into ugly Orientalist stereotypes when discussing the Middle East. Providing a histor-

due to the lack of legitimacy he has at home. The U.S. and Yemeni governments, Johnsen concluded, have a “mutually dependent relationship.” —Dale Sprusansky

The British Council, in cooperation with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the University of Missouri and the Reynolds Foundation, sponsored a Dec. 5 panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on “Journeys of Belonging: A Conversation About Diversity in the Media.” Moderated by Time magazine editor-at-large Joe Klein, the conversation featured Dori J. Maynard, president of Maynard Institute for Journalism Education; Alicia Stewart, editor of CNN’s “In America” blog; Aziz Abu Sarah, executive director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University; and Elizabeth Birch, president of Birch and Company and former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign.

The hyper-qualified panel unfortunately lacked coherence, provided little constructive insight and perpetuated ugly stereotypes. An early flag was raised by Klein, whose opening question marked a singularly inauspicious beginning. Have we achieved enough diversity, he wondered, and is it now time to seriously address the concerns of those white men who are disturbed by the growing presence of ethnic minorities and the gay and transgendered community?

Regarding media coverage of the Middle East, Abu Sarah stressed that “the journey is very long.” Despite gains, he said, dissenting Arab voices continue to be marginalized in the U.S. media, which frequently repeats negative stereotypes in order to boost ratings. The proliferation of TV staMARCH 2013

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Diversity Panel Peddles Muslim Stereotypes

ically inaccurate assessment of the Arab Spring, she argued that Mubarak’s autocracy was preferable to the current situation because of its perceived better treatment of women. Unfortunately, such statements do not withstand factual scrutiny. Birch also revealed an exceptional obsession with the misogyny of Arab and Muslim men, but assigned no culpability to America in eroding women’s rights in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such unfortunate portrayals of Arabs were abundant with Klein as well, who casually asserted that Arab youth not enrolled in university turn into stone-throwing hooligans, a statement that remarkably went unchallenged by Palestinian activist Abu Sarah. Nor were Klein’s egregious comments limited to Arabs, as he off-handedly disparaged Han Chinese as “as xenophobic a people as any I have ever met.”

While Maynard and Abu Sarah did provide some dissent, their most insightful comments were frequently skirted by Klein, who chose to focus instead on trivial tangentials. Responding to Maynard’s observation that the loss of journalists of color has diminished the access of mainstream news outlets to minority communities, Klein bafflingly asserted his disapproval of the term “people of color.” As the only white male on the panel, the response was particularly illchosen. Similarly, reacting to Abu Sarah’s comment about having Israeli friends despite being Palestinian himself, Klein chose to ask the panel the unintelligible question of how one might transcend identity. Predictably, answers were neither easily elicited nor coherent.

Despite being a panel on diversity in the media, its monochromatic treatment of Arabs—save some resistance from Abu Sarah—served to underscore the challenges that Arab and Muslim Americans continue to face in dispelling stereotypes about them.

—Hamzah Saif

(L-r) Alicia Stewart, Aziz Abu Sarah, Joe Klein, Elizabeth Birch and Dori J. Maynard.

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Woodrow Wilson Center scholar Hanin Ghaddar is managing editor of NOW News, Lebanon. footing to supporting anti-regime insurgents in Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The change is concomitant with an overall shift from a national policy of general neutrality to more aggressive support for particular elements: a transition “from soft power to hard power,” according to Ghaddar.

—Hamzah Saif

Next Administration’s Foreign Policy The Middle East Policy Council held an Oct. 17 event at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill titled “Policy Choices for the New Administration.”

Speakers discussed how the now re-elected President Barack Obama should approach the Israel-Palestine conflict, transitioning Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran.

Scott McConnell, founding editor of The American Conservative, began with a dire assessment of the “special relationship” between the U.S. and Israel, noting that countless American presidents have failed to stop the construction of illegal Israeli

settlements. “The reason for these failures is obvious,” the former neocon opined. “Israel…wanted to build settlements on the West Bank more than the United States was committed to stopping them.” The Israel lobby, he continued, “was able to generate enough political pressure to thwart serious American diplomacy to stop settlement building.”

McConnell went on to predict, however, that the Israel lobby will lose its grip over U.S. policy. “The Israel lobby is beginning to exhibit cracks and weaknesses,” he noted, citing as an example the fact that a significant number of delegates at the Democratic National Convention in September vocally opposed a resolution stating that Jerusalem is Israel’s undivided capital. McConnell also cited the increased criticism of Israel by several mainline churches and the Obama administration’s refusal to allow Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to dictate U.S. policy toward Iran.

Despite these positive trends, McConnell said he believes that it will be decades before Washington abandons its Israel-first foreign policy. “For a major political party to become devoted to fairness between Israel and Palestine will take at least that long,” he lamented.

McConnell also doubted that a two-state resolution is still achievable. “There’s no political majority in Israel in favor of withdrawing from settlements, [which] Israel would have to do to allow a genuinely economically viable Palestinian state,” he explained. Given this reality, McConnell argued, a one-state approach must now be pursued. In order for this to become a reality, he said, the U.S. must staunchly inform Israel that it cannot support an apartheid state. “I don’t think anything

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The Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center held the first of two “Who Leads the Arab World?” panels Nov. 30 at its Washington, DC headquarters. The discussion featured journalist Robin Wright, U.S. Institute of Peace-Wilson Center distinguished scholar; David Ottaway, senior scholar at the Wilson Center; and Hanin Ghaddar, Wilson Center public policy scholar and managing editor of NOW News, an online news and opinion portal based in Beirut, Lebanon. Haleh Esfandiari, the Wilson Center’s Middle East program director, moderated the event, and former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), now director, president, and CEO of the Wilson Center, gave introductory remarks.

Harman, who as an elected official ranked among the top 10 House recipients of proIsrael PAC funds, opened the conversation by sharing observations from her recent trip to Egypt. She expressed the hope for a new Middle East that would harness “the intellectual capital in Egypt, Israel and Jordan” that would bring peace to a region that has witnessed violence for too long.

Underscoring the centrality of Egypt, Wright commented that the latest evolution of political Islam unfolding in Cairo represents a boon for the Arab world. Highlighting the rich diversity now found in the Muslim Brotherhood, Wright noted that despite media portrayals, the Brotherhood has been commendably accommodating of dissent and respectful of the democratic process, thereby setting an excellent precedent for other Arab countries in transition.

Strongly rejecting the notion that Islam and democracy are incompatible, Wright instead stressed that the two “cannot grow without each other in the Arab world.” She reminded the audience that observers ought to focus not on individuals but on laws and regulations being implemented. Citing positive inclusions in Egypt’s new constitution, she argued that the presidency of Mohamed Morsi offers substantial hope for the Arab world.

Discussing Saudi Arabia, Ottaway argued that while the country is “absolutely key” in the Arabian Gulf, its post Arab Spring influence remains limited, even among its immediate neighbors. Its efforts to establish unity across all GCC members, and to include Jordan and Morocco in the Council have floundered, according to Ottaway.

Ghaddar highlighted Qatar’s changing role in the region as the country has switched from a pro-Iran and pro-Assad

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The Wilson Center Discusses the Future of the Middle East

(L-r) Jocelyne Cesari, Thomas Mattair, Paul Pillar and Scott McConnell describe the challenges facing President Obama in his second term.

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the table as an offer, except for the sole minor exception of airplane spare parts.”

In his second term, Pillar believes Obama “would do just about anything [he] could to avoid [war with Iran].”

With regard to Syria, Pillar argued that there is “very little, if anything, the U.S. could do right now that would shorten rather than intensify the war.”

—Dale Sprusansky

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to compromise is sequencing, as both sides do not want to be the first to make a concession.

Pillar also believes that the West is failing to use existing sanctions as leverage.

“We should bear in mind that sanctions relief is the main reason that the Iranians have to negotiate,” he said. “The main problem so far,” he continued, “is the P5+1 has not put any sanctions relief on

(L-r) United Palestinian Appeal executive director Saleem F. Zaru, Nazih Kiblawil, friend and supporter of UPA, and UPA treasurer George Salem at UPA’s open house in its Washington, DC office on Dec. 1, 2012.

Diplomatic Doings

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less dramatic and less forceful has any chance of success,” he said.

McConnell said he has no illusions that a one-state approach will be adopted any time soon, despite the fact that President Barack Obama “clearly wants a Palestinian state.” However, McConnell predicted that in his second term, President Obama will “have more pressing priorities beside the viable state in Palestine.”

Harvard University Professor Jocelyne Cesari addressed the U.S. approach toward post-uprising Arab countries. She stressed that the U.S. should not expect the region’s new governments to become Western-style democracies. “Democratic values are shared now beyond the West, but it does not mean that everywhere we’re going to witness [the] duplication of the American model of democracy,” she opined. In particular, Cesari said, the West must come to understand the important role of Islam in the public sphere throughout the region.

Nathaniel Kern, president of Foreign Reports, a consulting firm for the oil industry, predicted stable Saudi-U.S. relations over the course of the next four years. “I don’t think the next administration is going to have a terribly difficult time with Saudi Arabia one way or the other,” he said.

In Kern’s opinion, the Iranian nuclear crisis and the Syrian civil war are the two issues that will most likely impact SaudiU.S. relations for the foreseeable future.

“The imposition of the current set of sanctions [on Iran] by the U.S. and the EU would not have been possible without preagreement with Saudi Arabia,” he noted.

Regarding Syria, Kern pointed out that, at the request of the Obama administration, the Saudis have held off on providing highly effective shoulder-fired missiles to the Syrian rebels.

On the Iranian nuclear issue, former national intelligence officer Paul Pillar noted that President Obama will be constrained in his ability to negotiate with Tehran.

First, he explained, he is “boxed in” by his comments “that an Iranian nuclear weapon would be unacceptable.” Furthermore, he added, the domestic political climate will hinder Obama’s ability to reach a nuclear agreement.

In Pillar’s opinion, reaching an agreement with the Islamic Republic should not be an overwhelmingly daunting task. “The outlines of an agreement are pretty clear,” he said, noting that an agreement would involve trading severe restrictions on uranium enrichment in return for sanctions relief. In Pillar’s opinion, the main obstacle

Ambassador Mohamed Abdulla Al-Rumaihi (c) and his son welcome guests, including Washington Report publisher and former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Andrew Killgore, to Qatar’s national day reception on Dec. 5, 2012 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC. THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Music & Arts

“Freedom” by Lukman Ahmad.

The Jerusalem Fund Gallery in Washington, DC started off 2013 with Syrian/Kurdish artist Lukman Ahmad’s solo show “A Small Hope and a Bullet,” on view until Feb. 1.

Ahmad, who has exhibited widely in Turkey and Syria, and on the East Coast after coming to the U.S. in 2010, creates colorful mosaic-like paintings in acrylic on canvas, depicting his themes of “Hope,” “Freedom” and “Harmony,” as well as “Conflict.”

Using abstract shapes as well as Kurdish symbolism in the figures of horses, dancers and rams, Ahmad’s paintings dissolve into swirls of motion. His images at first engender pleasure in their almost playful composition, but further careful examination offers the viewer far more serious imagery and thought-provoking content.

—Dagmar Painter

Bud Hensgen’s Show Captures “Palestine Interrupted” The work of Bud Hensgen will be exhibited at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery from Feb. 8 to March 1. Hensgen’s past life has fully informed his work. He studied nine years to become a Jesuit priest, then spent 23 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, working with artists and journalists for U.S.I.S. while working on his own painting. Upon retirement, he started painting professionally. In the fall of 2011 he participated in a tour of Palestine sponsored by Interfaith Peace Builders, a non-denominational organization dedicated to increasing under58

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

PHOTO COURTESY JERUSALEM FUND

PHOTO COURTESY JERUSALEM FUND

Lukman Ahmad’s Paintings Exude Kurdish Symbolism

“Free Palestine” by Bud Hensgen.

Author Ernest Rosenthal.

standing of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S. political, military and economic role in it. Upon his return Hensgen felt compelled to express his impressions in charcoal and paint.

The result is the exhibit “Palestine Interrupted.” The series of 14 paintings stand on their own graphically, but can also be viewed in the context of paired quotations from a variety of sources, from the Seattle Times and the The Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights to a segment from Raymonda Hawa Tawil’s autobiography, My Home, My Prison.

Hensgen’s painting technique, layering acrylics, charcoals and oil pastels to create depth and build tension in color and form, provides a strong medium for his depictions of the Palestinian landscape, scarred by destruction and occupation.

—Dagmar Painter

Bookstore, 453 S. Spring St. The poems reflect the author’s unique life experiences, which began in Vienna, Austria, from which he fled in 1938, then served in the U.S. military during World War II. He and his wife live in the Hollywood Hills, where, he says, they have reached the combined age of 188 years.

That makes her 96, which may explain why we haven’t seen Mrs. Rosenthal marching beside her husband at peace demonstrations.

Not for Drones comprises five sections, each with a pithy subtitle. “Creed and Credulity” contains nine poems, including “I bomb, therefore I am...American!” “Confessions of an Acidic Jew” offers nine poetic works, as does ”On The White House Lawn,” whose poems include “Déjà Voodoo Dodo,” “End Ron” and “Condoleezza.”

“Creatures” showcases seven poems, followed by “To Whom it May Concern,” totaling 12 thought-provoking works. The cover is a drawing by the author combining two images that have haunted him over his long lifetime. The first is of two U.S. Army ordinance men he observed carrying a case of ammunitions in World War II Iceland; the second is of a couple in Mexico carrying a child’s casket.

Not For Drones can be purchased online at <www.vagabondbooks.net>.

—Pat McDonnell Twair

Not For Drones At age 92, Holocaust survivor Ernest Rosenthal has published a book of political poetry entitled Not For Drones (Vagabond Books, 2012). The professor emeritus at California State University Dominguez Hills is a familiar face to Los Angeles-area peace activists because he’s a regular at anti-war demonstrations no matter what the weather conditions.

A series of February book signings will launch Rosenthal’s entrance into the literary world. The first is scheduled for Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. in Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Blvd, Venice, followed by two signings in L.A.: Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. in Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., and Feb. 23 at 3 p.m. at The Last THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Israeli Militarism Discussed at New America Foundation New America Foundation invited awardwinning journalist and author Patrick Tyler to discuss his new book, Fortress Israel, at its offices in Washington, DC on MARCH 2013

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

activisms_44-60_March 2013 Activisms 1/16/13 2:10 PM Page 59

The Jerusalem Fund’s annual souk and olive harvest celebration, held on Dec. 8, 2012, recreated the ambiance of a colorful Middle East bazaar in its Washington, DC offices.

Shoppers lingered to admire jewelry, glass, embroidery, textiles and art. They purchased the finest organic made-in-Palestine olive oil at the Jerusalem Fund, as well as keffiyehs from the Herbawi factory in Hebron, the only remaining keffiyeh factory in Palestine.

They sampled cosmetics and skin care products made from olive and black seed oils available from <www.holyzaytona.com>. The Washington Report’s popular booth (above, lr, staffed by assistant editor Dale Sprusansky, interns Elisa Frost, Awrad Saleh, Marwan Ayad and AET Book Club director Andrew Stimson) offered Palestinian pottery, soaps, books and DVDs—all of which are always available at <www.middleeastbooks.com>.

Tyler observed that Israel’s great cultural and economic achievements have meant that young Israelis are divorced from the realities around them: Tel Aviv is a great Mediterranean city that lives in isolation from the squalor that exists around it, and “young Israelis have long ceased to care about what goes on over the hills.” Yet, there is deep mistrust of Netanyahu and former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak as leaders. That, Tyler said, gives hope for change. Although Israel “is a state that has failed to build up a strong enough institution to balance the military zeitgeist with imaginative and engaging diplomacy,” Tyler stressed that “the peace movement is not dead in Israel,” and the possibility remains that a peace coalition, such as the one assembled under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, might once again take root. He likes to remind people of the Cold War, Tyler said: we may wake up one day to a world without conflict.

Militarism can never be the basis of peace, Tyler concluded. He urged Americans to push the Jewish lobby and fundamentalist Christians to advocate peace, instead of blindly exhorting a military solution to the conflict.

—Hamzah Saif

STAFF PHOTO H. SAIF

Nov. 28, 2012. Described by moderator mented, remains “enthralled by that origiand renowned journalist Peter Bergen as nal martial impulse.”

Connecting this history to the pre“an excellent account of the last several decades,” Fortress Israel traces the milita- sent—a time when, Tyler noted, “we are Exposing America’s Islamophobes rization of Israeli politics that has stunted on the knife’s edge of going to war with Georgetown University’s Center for Conthe country’s diplomatic culture and ren- Iran”—Tyler recalled a speech by former temporary Arab Studies and the Alwaleed dered an elite “that finds it very difficult Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan explicat- Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Uning Israel’s foreign policy. Dayan said that derstanding hosted Nathan Lean, author of to engage in the processes of peace.”

Characterizing Israel’s history as “the Israel should be ”capable of developing a the recent book The Islamophobia Industry: story of modern Sparta,” Tyler described his crisis beyond its borders,” explaining that How the Right Manufactures Fear of Musbook as “a biography of Israeli political cul- “if anyone tries to harm us, the explosion lims (available from the AET Book Club), at ture” shaped and driven by a handful of in- will do damage to others.” Dubbed “the a Nov. 27 event at Georgetown University. fluential, hawkish elites. The author begins detonator strategy,” it is this strategy, Tyler Introduced as “an extremely talented rewith an examination of Israel’s incipient suggested, that today is employed by Prime searcher” by eminent professor of Islamic years, when the politics of diplomacy prac- Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s administra- studies John Esposito, Lean began his reticed by the country’s second prime minis- tion in its demand that “red lines” be marks with the story of Michael Enright, ter, Moshe Sharett, were scuttled in favor of drawn regarding Iran’s nuclear program. whose virulent anti-Muslim views drove the militarism of Israel’s first and third him to stab his Bangladeshi cab driver prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. in New York City in August 2010. “IsAccording to Tyler, Ben-Gurion’s lamophobia is the racism du jour,” decade was instrumental in establishLean said, and is promoted and escaing the dominance of the Israeli mililated by a few prominent Islamotary in shaping the country’s social phobes and their financial backers. and political outlook.

Identifying neoconservative Frank With “the pioneer spirit flagging in Gaffney, founder of the Center for Sethe malarial coast of Israel,” Ben-Gucurity Policy, as the “grandfather of rion realized that “accentuating naIslamophobia” in this country, Lean tional peril was good politics” to galtraced the development of the Islamvanize a citizenry and shore up politophobic project through Robert ical dominance. He thus fostered the Spencer, a self-professed Islam expert, notion of a nation beset by foes, in to newer anti-Muslim crusaders such constant need of martial vigilance, for as blogger Pamela Geller and activist whom “negotiation and diplomacy Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese-born Maare a kind of appeasement or surren- Patrick Tyler (r) discusses his new book, Fortress Israel, ronite Christian. Spencer and Geller der.” Contemporary Israel, Tyler com- with Peter Bergen. co-founded the Freedom Defense IniMARCH 2013

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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New York City…

Continued from page 37

20th. But the 1964 Civil Rights Act did not extend to Indians, he pointed out. There has been a continuous debate within the Indian community about whether to accommodate or resist—but in fact, he said, neither has worked. Mamdani described Indians as isolated, defeated, demonized, and in despair. For Americans, Indians are virtual; our children play cowboys and Indians and we give our weapons and sports teams Indian names. But, he continued, times are changing. America was colonized at a time of rising powers, whereas we are now reaching the end of five centuries of white male domination. That the U.S. was the world’s first settler colonial state remains a blind spot to Americans. The task now, Mamdani concluded, is to decolonize America, which will require rethinking U.S. history to include Native Americans.

Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer Discusses “Up to the Minute” Mideast Issues Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt Daniel Kurtzer is now a distinguished professor in Middle Eastern Policy Studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and In60

ing shariah,” their funder, David Yerushalmi, is the lawyer responsible for pushing antishariah bills across the United States.

Newer opportunists, including former political heavyweights such as Newt Gingrich, also have been joining the Islamophobic cacophony. Lean contrasted Gingrich’s 1994 stance of allowing Muslims working in Washington, DC’s Capitol Building to pray within the building, with his post-9/11 reversal of issuing highly pernicious anti-Islam statements.

Lean also cited Fox News for creating and sustaining this anti-Islamic sentiment by reinforcing negative stereotypes of Muslims and shariah, and reaching those audiences who do not visit anti-Muslim blogs.

Linking the campaign against Muslims in the United States to events in the Middle East, Lean noted that the notorious movie “Innocence of Muslims” received funding and support from both Geller and Spencer, whose blogs asked visitors to donate to the media house responsible for the movie. The two also maintained connections with the movie’s producer, Joseph Abdelmasih, who was a featured speaker at their rally against the proposed Park 51 community center in New York City. Many of these players, he noted, are “ardent supporters of Israel.”

Lean rejected the notion that Islamophobia is a fringe movement, pointing to changes in the Republican platform that now specifically indicate the party’s commitment to countering “creeping shariah.”

Among those in attendance was a 9/11 survivor who encouraged others to consider Lean’s characterization with skepticism, and to not reject the notion that Islam is a uniquely violent religion. —Hamzah Saif

ternational Affairs. He spoke there Dec. 11 about “Up to the Minute” issues in the Middle East.

Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first civilian president, “displayed unexpected agility” in his first five months in office, Kurtzer said. Then, when he temporarily assumed all powers on Nov. 22, he “began to look like Mubarak” and demonstrations ensued.

Kurtzer argued that Morsi’s concerns were not unreasonable: Egypt’s Mubarak-appointed Supreme Court seemed ready to disband the Constituent Assembly that was then drafting the Constitution. Morsi believed his actions averted a counterrevolution, Kurtzer explained, but they also galvanized and unified a fragmented opposition. In Kurtzer’s view, each side has some legitimacy, and this may lead to the most violent phase of the revolution. Washington has no role in the current constitutional struggle, the ambassador argued.

In Syria Kurtzer sees great uncertainty, noting that “Stuff is going on with chemical weapons, but we are not sure what it is.” In addition, the opposition seems to be coalescing around Islamists with ties to alQaeda, leading to the question of whether there is a legitimate opposition the U.S. can support. Moreover, Kurtzer is concerned that once President Bashar al-Assad is re-

moved, he will be replaced by a new coercive stabilizing regime.

As for Iran, Kurtzer posed the question of what happens when negotiations resume. Washington, he noted, is trying to create a bilateral channel alongside the “P5 +1” (the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany). The question then becomes how to coordinate the two channels.

Unlike these three issues of fast-moving “complexities and perplexities,” the Israel/Palestine issue “is as it was, only worse,” Kurtzer said. He ascribes this to a failure of leadership on all sides. After the “Gaza war” in November, all sides declared victory: Israel for degrading Gaza’s supply of rockets, Hamas for still standing, Egypt for leading the cease-fire. Only the [former] Palestinian Authority was a loser, Kurtzer said. But then President Mahmoud Abbas achieved a symbolic victory at the U.N. Kurtzer views Israel‘s charge that Palestine violated the “no unilateral action” clause of the Oslo agreements as specious, in view of Israel’s unilateral settlement policy. Abbas, he noted, might have been persuaded to wait until after Israel’s January elections.

Instead the U.S. and Israel lobbied hard to defeat the statehood resolution and, Kurtzer concluded, “lost big time.” ❑

STAFF PHOTO H. SAIF

tiative and Stop Islamization of America, the latter an organization labeled as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Lean also cited such organizations as the Clarion Fund, the Becker Family Foundation and Fox News for perpetuating the bigotry, underwritten by wealthy Islamophobes.

Highlighting the tenuous scholastic foundations of American Islamophobia, Lean pointed out that Spencer, who claims to be an expert on Islam, has no formal training in the religion, and that his views are widely rejected by established scholars.

Spencer’s obsession with “creeping shariah,” Lean added, is founded on such absurd evidence as the Obama administration’s Supreme Court appointee Elena Kagan’s alleged proclivity for shariah law, and Campbell Soup’s newly launched Halal soup line.

Mutual partnerships and endorsements among Islamophobes are essential for the spread of their agenda, Lean observed. For instance, Spencer’s pedantic style found a greatly expanded audience once Geller’s antiIslam blog, Atlas Shrugs, began serving as its populist bullhorn. Moreover, Lean noted, just as Geller and Spencer emphasize “creep-

Nathan Lean discusses his book The Islamophobia Industry.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MARCH 2013

bulletin_board_61_March 2013 Bulletin Board 1/16/13 3:12 PM Page 61

Upcoming Events, Announcements & —Compiled by Andrew Stimson Obituaries

Upcoming Events Artisphere and Saidsworld Entertainment present “Arab is Me”—starring comedian Said Durrah, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m., at The Dome, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209. The show, to be held in an IMAX theater, is a fusion of imagery, video and comedy. For more information visit <http:// arabisme.eventbrite.com/>.

The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) will host a screening of “Tears of Gaza,” Feb. 28 at 7 p.m., at the Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St., Berkeley, CA. The documentary captures the events of Israel’s three-week bombing of Gaza in 2008-2009. MECA associate director Ziad Abbas will host a panel discussion following the film, and proceeds from ticket sales will benefit MECA’s work with children in Gaza. For more information e-mail <meca@ mecaforpeace.org> or call (510) 548-0542.

The Arab American National Museum’s “Concert of Color” series will feature Syrianborn, Pennsylvania-raised performer Saadi, April 5 at 7:30 p.m., at AANM’s Lower Level Auditorium, 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI. For tickets and more information, visit <www.arabamericanmuseum.org/> or call (313) 582-2266.

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum will host the exhibition “Light from the Middle East: New Photography” through April 7 in the Porter Gallery, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. The exhibit features photographs by 30 artists from 13 different countries from North Africa through Central Asia, and is free to the general public. For more information, visit <www. vam.ac.uk>.

The Arab American Institute will hold its 15th Annual Khalil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity” Awards April 16 at the JW Marriott Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC. For information on tickets and hotel reservations, contact Jane Kaddouri at <jkaddouri@aaiusa.org>, call (202) 429-9210, or visit <http://aaiusa.org/>.

The Association of Middle East Women’s Studies, the Council on Middle East Studies, MARCH 2013

BulletinBoard

ships@cfr.org> or call (212) 434-9740. Application deadline is March 1.

and the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, will present the 2013 Distinguished Lecture and Research Workshop: Gender and Activism in the Middle East, Friday, April 19, at Yale University’s Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, CT. The workshop will include a lecture by Nadje AlAli, professor of gender studies at the University of London. The lecture, lunch and workshop are open to the public and free of charge.

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations’ Washington, DC Summer Internship Program offers undergraduate and graduate students a 10-week professional, academic and career opportunity internship in the nation’s capital. For information on eligibility and housing, contact Megan Geissler at <Megan@ncusar.org> or call (202) 2936466. Application deadline is March 1.

Announcements

Obituaries:

The Community Church of Boston on Jan. 6 honored Tarek Mehanna with the 36th Annual Sacco & Vanzetti Social Justice Award. A pharmacist and devout Muslim from Sudbury, MA, Mehanna was threatened with criminal charges after refusing to be an FBI informant. He was subsequently arrested twice, in the fall of 2008 and again on Oct. 21, 2009, and is now serving a 17-1/2-year sentence on terrorism-related charges— a case criticized by many, including the American Civil Liberties Union. (See June/July 2012 Washington Report, p. 29, for Mehanna’s sentencing statement to the judge.) Mehanna’s father, mother, brother and sister-in-law accepted the award on his behalf.

Richard Undeland, 82, a retired U.S. foreign service officer who served in positions throughout the Middle East, died Dec. 21.

Born in Omaha, NE, he was a graduate of Harvard and Stanford University. He then traveled to Egypt to attend Cairo University, where he studied Arabic, subsequently joining the U.S. Information Agency. During his 35-year diplomatic career, Undeland served in 11 Arab countries, as an information officer, field operations officer and public affairs officer, before retiring in 1992. He was remembered at a Dec. 29 ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

The Turkish Cultural Foundation Cultural Exchange Fellowship awards between $1,000 and $2,000 to Turkish and/or non-Turkish artists and professionals who work in culture and arts. For more information on eligibility and program details, visit <www.turkishculturalfoundation.org/> or e-mail <info@turkishculturalfoundation. org>. Application deadline is Feb. 15.

The 2013–2014 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship, available through the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), seeks to promote the quality of responsible and discerning journalism and is awarded to one distinguished foreign correspondent or editor a year. The Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow spends nine months full time in residence at CFR’s New York headquarters and includes a stipend of $65,000 as well as a modest travel grant. For more information e-mail <fellow THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Ethel Mae Hunt, 85, wife of Council for the National Interest board member Joe Hunt, died Dec. 22, and will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. She was outspoken on U.S. foreign policy alternatives in the Middle East.

Marianna Kay Siblani, 64, executive editor of Arab American News and co-founder of the Muslim Observer, died Jan. 4, following a two-year battle with breast cancer.

She had been with the Dearborn-based newspaper for 28 years and was instrumental in establishing a local office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Ms. Siblani helped see the Arab American News through difficult financial times, even copy-editing for the paper while she recovered from earlier battles with cancer and other health issues. Her tireless devotion to improving relations between the U.S. and its Arab and Muslim citizens was even more notable as she was not of Arab descent herself. ❑ 61

bookreview_62_Book Review 1/17/13 9:52 AM Page 62

Books Solving 9-11: The Deception That Changed the World

By Christopher Bollyn, 2012, paperback, 325 pp. List: $24.99; AET: $22.

Reviewed by James G. Smart As terrified workers jumped from the burning towers on 9/11, five Mossad agents celebrated the event across the river in New Jersey. They highfived each other, danced and took photos of themselves in obvious delight.

Notified, the police apprehended them.

They had Palestinian clothing in their truck. They failed lie detector tests, but were released. Back home they admitted on Israeli television they had come to New York “to record the event.”

Two hours before the first plane struck James G. Smart is professor emeritus, Keene State College, and a member of PEN (Palestine Education Network), a project of NH Peace Action.

62

the World Trade Center, the Mossadowned Odigo messaging system advised its members “to the precise minute” the time of the attack.

These events in particular caused Christopher Bollyn, an independent journalist, to suspect that Israel was a key player behind 9/11.

In his book Bollyn proposes that “9-11 was an elaborate false-flag deception carried out by Israeli military intelligence and Zionist agents” in the United States.

He states the “Israeli nationals or dedicated Zionists [can be found] at every key point of the 9-11 matrix.”

The author begins with a short review of Israel’s successful false flag operations.

He then traces the germ of the 9/11 project to Mossad head Isser Harel, who informed an American visitor in 1979 that “your tallest building will be the…symbol they [the terrorists] will hit.”

The next step was getting control of security for the World Trade Center, which the Mossad actually did—briefly—in 1987, under the name of Atwell Security.

This company soon lost its contract due to the criminal past of one of its officers.

Thereafter, according to Bollyn, the Mossad worked through dual-allegiance Americans like Jeremy Kroll and Maurice Greenberg. Indeed, Kroll Associates was in charge of security at the World Trade Center from the early 1990s until after

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

9/11. The first plane hit the security rooms of a Greenberg company in the North Tower. This truly was, says Bollyn, “an amazing coincidence.”

At this crucial point, however, Bollyn’s storyline breaks down. He may infer, but does not even suggest, that Kroll Associates allowed Mossad agents into the buildings to rig them for demolition. He merely states that the residue of the detonating material thermite was scientifically proved to be in the dust. He does not speculate how it got there.

The author makes a very strong case in identifying numerous private companies in America dealing in information and technology with roots either directly to Mossad-founded companies or companies officered by committed partisans of Israel. These companies proved to be the “Achilles’ heel” of U.S. defense.

Companies, often small, such as Ptech, Mitre, and U.S. Aviation, provided or had access to highly important defense information. Such companies helped develop the software to control hijacking— and well before 9/11. Passenger planes, like drones, could, and can, be controlled by “ground pilots.” Obviously this software alone could have stopped the airplanes of 9/11.

Further, facility with this new software was used to foil “a military response to the emergency as it developed.”

The author concludes with the issues of the hasty clean-up of the crime scene and appointments to the Justice Department. Again committed Israelists turn up in these areas.

Hugo Neu-Schnitzer Corporation and one of Israeli Marc Rich’s companies took part in shipping off the crime scene evidence from Ground Zero. An interesting aspect of the clean-up was the dredging of the two-mile long Claremont Channel in August 2001—the month before the attacks—from shallows of only 10 feet deep to a depth of 35 feet so that ocean-going vessels could quickly haul the steel away.

The appointments of Michael Chertoff, Michael Mukasey and Alvin Hellerstein to the Justice Department were keys in preventing court cases of the 76 victim families who refused to take the government’s compensation money from proceeding to trial.

Bollyn is often meandering and difficult to follow; nonetheless, he opens a path that needs to be pursued. The author is to be complimented for pursuing an idea that many people have long suspected but have wished to avoid. ❑ MARCH 2013

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AET Book Club Catalog Literature

*

Music

*

Film

*

Monographs

*

More

Winter 2013 Fast Times in Palestine: A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland, by Pamela J. Olson, Seal Press, 2013, paperback, 302 pp. List: $16; AET: $11. Olson’s powerful account of her two years in Palestine spans the breadth of her experience from the mundane (house parties, concerts, barbecues and weddings) to the violence, trauma and political tensions resulting from the Israeli occupation. Readers will find Olson’s narrative both suspenseful and discerning. This highly accessible story offers a multi-faceted understanding of the Palestinian perspective on the Israel–Palestine conflict.

The Six-Day War and Israeli Self-Defense, by John Quigley, Cambridge University Press, 2013, paperback, 266 pp. List: $29.99; AET: $24.

Quigley’s impeccable research dispels the long-held belief that the 1967 war was a just use of pre-emptive force, with Israel acting to prevent the imminent annihilation of its people by Arab armies hovering on its borders. Through analysis of recently declassified documents, Quigley chronicles Israel’s manipulation of facts it used to justify an attack on Egypt, and calls into question the use of this war as a legal precedent in international law.

A is for Arab: Archiving Stereotypes in U.S. Popular Culture,

by Jack G. Shaheen, Asian/Pacific/American Institute of NYU, 2012, paperback, 280 pp. List: $22; AET: $15. Based on the powerful exhibition of the Jack G. Shaheen Archive, A Is for Arab reveals and critiques the stereotypical portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in American popular culture. The book’s images and essays are drawn from a collection that represents Shaheen’s lifetime of working to reveal the mainstream American media’s racism against Arabs.

The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey, by Laila El-Haddad & Maggie Schmitt, Just World Books, 2012, paperback, 135 pp. List: $29; AET: $24. In the summer of 2010, the authors traveled the length and breadth of the Gaza Strip hunting for the recipes presented in this richly illustrated cookbook. Yet, their work is more than just a collection of recipes. Gaza Kitchen includes precious insights into Gaza’s ecology and economy, as well as the personal stories of Gazans involved with the cultivation and preparation of food.

Will & Skill, by Mowahid Hussain Shah, Jumhoori Publications, 2012, hardcover, 696 pp.

List: $24.95; AET: $22. Will & Skill delves into the issues that define and divide the West and the Muslim world, exploring the gulf between the two and identifies the imbalance that fuels mutual misunderstanding and anger. Attorney-at-law, author, and policy analyst Shah highlights how narrowly focused interests exercised by Western governments have resulted in abuse of the democratic processes in the Muslim world, ultimately harming the West’s standing among Muslims worldwide.

Jerusalem: Arab Social Life, Traditions and Everyday Pleasures in the 20th Century, by Subhi S. Ghosheh, Olive Branch Press, 2012, paperback, 186 pp. List: $20; AET: $17. An invaluable guide to Palestinian life in a city that has more culture and history than perhaps anywhere else in the world. In this unique collection of personal stories and well-researched history, native Jerusalemite Dr. Subhi Ghosheh documents and preserves Jerusalem’s Arab customs and traditions, including festivals, folk medicine, cuisine and simple everyday pleasures.

Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home, edited by Penny Johnson & Raja Shehadeh, Olive Branch Press, 2012, paperback, 202 pp. List: $16; AET: $12. In this volume of new writing, 15 innovative Palestinian writers, including AET favorites Mourid Barghouti, Raja Shehadeh, Adania Shibli and Jean Said Makdisi, offer their reflections, experiences, memories and polemics. This important anthology explores how Palestinians live, imagine and reflect on home and exile in this transitory period of Palestine’s history.

Freedom Sailors, edited by Greta Berlin & William L. Dienst, MD, Free Gaza Press, 2012, paperback, 252 pp. AET: $15. Freedom Sailors is the riveting account of how a small group of activists came together to plan, raise money, and successfully pull off the 2008 voyage of the Free Gaza humanitarian aid ship. Along the way the group encountered Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, as well as legal and technical hurdles. Editors Berlin and Dienst have compiled an authoritative account of an audacious citizen-led attempt to break Israel’s illegal military blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland, by Shlomo Sand, Verso Press, 2012, hardcover, 304 pp. List: $26.95; AET: $20. Sand’s latest title deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and dissects the concept of “historical right.” His research uncovers the 19th century origins of the concept of the “Land of Israel, which helped facilitate the colonization of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel. Sand provocatively argues that the historical myths inherent in Zionism threaten the very existence of the Jewish state today.

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AET’s 2012 Choir of Angels Following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012 is making possible activities of the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment (federal ID #52-1460362) and the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

Lee & Amelia Dinsmore, Elcho,WI Ahmad Juma, Astoria, NY HUMMERS ($100 or more) Ghazy Kader, Shoreline, WA Dr. George Doumani, Washington, DC Omar & Nancy Kader, Vienna, VA L.F. Boker Doyle, New York, NY Richard Abdoo, Milwaukee, WI Mohamad Kamal, North York, ON Louise G. Dunham, Lawrenceville, NJ Sami Abed, South Lyon, MI Dr. David Dunning, Lake Oswego, OR Fred Karlson, Ferndale, WA Robert Abel, Wilmington, DE Mervat Eid, Henrietta, NY Riad Kash, Niles, IL Catherine S. Aborjaily, Westfield, MA Stephen Kaye, New York, NY Bassam M.A. El-Borno, Lilitz, PA Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA Mary Keath, Dayton, MD Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX Rizek Abusharr, Claremont, CA Louise & Bob Keeley, Washington, DC Gloria El-Khouri, Scottsdale, AZ Robert L. Ackerman, New Sister Elaine Kelley, Portland, OR Dr. Mohamed Elsamahi, Marion, IL Alexandria, PA Elizabeth Kelsey, Ree Heights, SD Barbara Erickson, Berkeley, CA Diane Adkin, Camas, WA Edwin Kennedy, Bethesda, MD M.R. Eucalyptus, Kansas City, MO Hafiz Ahmad, Acworth, GA*** Dr. & Mrs. Hossam Fadel, Augusta, GA Susan Kerin, Gaithersburg, MD Christopher Ake, San Diego, CA Albert E. Fairchild, Bethesda, MD Dr. Mazen Khalidi, Dr. & Mrs. Salah Al-Askari, Leonia, NJ Mr. & Mrs. Majed Faruki, Grosse Point Farms, MI Janet Al-Hussaini, Great Falls, VA Albuquerque, NM Akbar Khan, Princeton, NJ Mazen Alsatie, Fishers, IN Dr. M. Jamil Khan, Bloomfield, MI Dr. Ibrahim Fawal, Birmingham, AL Arthur Alter, Goleta, CA Dr. Mohayya Khilfeh, Chicago, IL Barbara Ferguson, Arlington, VA Hamid & Kim Alwan, Milwaukee, WI Eugene Khorey, West Mifflin, PA Friends of Sabeel, Portland, OR Dr. Abdul Amine, Oak Lawn, IL Dr. & Mrs. Assad Khoury, Potomac, MD Robert Gabe, Valatie, NY Dr. Nabih Ammari, Cleveland, OH Tony & Anne Khoury, Danville, CA Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Nadir K. Amra, Rochester, MN N. Khoury, Pasadena, CA William Gefell, Turnbridge, VT Louise Anderson, Oakland, CA Andrew N. Killgore, McLean, VA Linda George, Louisville, KY Sylvia Anderson de Freitas, Phoenix, AZ Gail Kirkpatrick, Pittsburgh, PA Anace & Polly Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Lewrene Glaser, Alexandria, VA Mr. & Mrs. Khalil Kishawi, Chicago, IL David Glick, Fairfax, CA Muhammad Ashiq, Paramount, CA Shafiq Kombargi, Houston, TX Graeme Goodsir, Mechanicsburg, PA Dr. Robert Ashmore, Jr., Mequon, WI Joseph Korey, Reading, PA Marilyn Grindley, Wheeling, WV Mr. & Mrs. Sultan Aslam, Plainsboro, NJ Ronald Kunde, Skokie, IL Joyce F. Guinn, Germantown, WI Prof. & Mrs. Bilal Ayyub, Potomac, MD Raymond Joseph Kyriakos, Hatfield, PA Abdool Hack, Union, NJ Fuad Baali, Bowling Green, KY Matt Labadie, Portland, OR Dr. Wasif Hafeez, W. Bloomfield, MI Joyce Bacon, Corona, CA Dr. Iqbal Lalani, Colleyville, TX Dixiane Hallaj, Purcellville, VA Alma Ball, Venice, FL Kendall Landis, Media, PA Omar & Carolyn Barrani, Salt Lake City, UT Ibrahim Hamide, Eugene, OR Laurel Family Eyecare, Laurel, MD Erin K. Hankir, Ottawa, Canada Stanton Barrett, Ipswich, MA William Lawand, Mount Royal, Quebec Shirley Hannah, Argyle, NY Heidi Beck, Cedarville, CA Miles Learned, Burlington, WA Katharina Harlow, Pacific Grove, CA Mohammed Bendebba, Baltimore, MD Robert & Helen Harold, West Salem, WI Mary Lou Levin, Mill Valley, CA Robert Bethem, Kentfield, CA Prof. & Mrs. Brice Harris, Fran Lilleness, Seattle, WA Michael K. Boosahda, Worcester, MA Los Angeles, CA George & Karen Longstreth, Karen Ray Bossmeyer, Louisville, KY Mr. David C. Harrison, San Antonio, TX San Diego, CA John Boveri, Bethesda, MD Angelica Harter, Cambridge, MA Marilyn Sutton Loos, Haverford, PA Robert & Ada Boyd, Binghamton, NY Frances Hasenyager, Carmel, CA M. Sherif Lotfi, New York, NY Dr. Carole Burnett, Silver Spring, MD Joan & Edward Hazbun, Media, PA J. Robert Lunney, Bronxville, NY John Carley, Pointe-Claire, Quebec Dennis Heatherley, San Antonio, TX Robert L. Mabarak, Dr. H. Cho, Morris, IL Alan Heil, Alexandria, VA Grosse Pointe Park, MI Patricia Christensen, Poulsbo, WA Dr. James Cobey, Washington, DC Mr. & Mrs. John Hendrickson, Tulsa, OK A. Kent MacDougal, Berkeley, CA Dr. Robert G. Collmer, Waco, TX Nidal Mahayni, Richmond, VA† Robert Herrmann, Rancho Santa Fe, CA Bob & Joyce Covey, La Canada, CA Dr. & Mrs. Sam Holland, North Dr. & Mrs. Abdul H. Majid, San Jose, CA Mrs. Walter Cox, Monroe, GA Eastham, MA Richard Makdisi & Lindsay Wheeler, Lois Critchfield, Williamsburg, VA Helen Holman, Litchfield, ME Berkeley, CA Jay R. Crook, Tucson, AZ William C. Hunt, Somerset, WI Amb. Clovis Maksoud, Washington, DC Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Curtiss, Herndon, VA Ismail Husseini, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Dr. Asad Malik, Rochester Hills, MI Taher & Sheila Dajani, Alexandria, VA Mr. & Mrs. Azmi Ideis, Deltona, FL John B. Malouf, Lubbock, TX Hanna Danfoura, San Francisco, CA Hala Jabbour, Herndon, VA Tahera Mamdani, Fridley, MN Dr. Hassan Dannawi, Macon, GA Ted Marczak, Toms River, NJ Rafeeq Jaber, Oak Lawn, IL Glenn Davenport, Corvallis, OR Dennis James, Brooklyn, NY Martha Martin, Paia, HI Amb. John Gunther Dean, Paris, France Bilquis Jaweed, West Chester, OH Shirl McArthur, Reston, VA Sharlene de Hertel, San Jose, CA Janis Jibrin, Washington, DC Bill McGrath, Northfield, MN Mr. & Mrs. Gregory Desylva, Fred Jimeian, Satellite Beach, FL Ken Megill, Washington, DC Rhinebeck, NY Dr. Jamil Jreisat, Temple Terrace, FL Gerald & Judith Merrill, Oakland, CA 64

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Robert Anton Mertz, Bethesda, MD Robert Michael, Sun Lakes, AZ Tom Mickelson, Madison, WI Maury Keith Moore, Seattle, WA Mr. & Mrs. Jan Moreb, Gainesville, FL Louie Mughannam, Sebastopol, CA Liz Mulford, Cupertino, CA Charles Murphy, Upper Falls, MD Raymond & Joan Musallam, Wilton, CA Mohamad Nabi, Union, KY William Nadeau, San Diego, CA A.F. Nahas, Danbury, CT Lama Najjar, Montreal, QC Sara Najjar-Wilson, Reston, VA Mr. & Mrs. David Nalle, Washington, DC Jacob Nammar, San Antonio, TX Neal & Donna Newby, Mancos, CO Mary Neznek, Washington, DC Fred Nureddine, Ontario, CA Anne Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Leary, Arlington, VA Edmund Ord, Oakland, CA Khaled Othman, Riverside, CA John Pallone, Rapallo, Italy Edmond & Lorraine Parker, Chicago, IL James & Claranne Parker, Farmington, CT Elaine & Phil Pasquini, Novato, CA Dr. Bashar Pharoan, Timonium, MD Jim Plourd, Monterey, CA Muhammad Quereshi, Brampton, ON Dr. Amani Ramahi, Lakewood, OH Marjorie Ransom, Washington, DC Nayla Rathle, Belmont, MA Doris Rausch, Columbia, MD Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT John Roche, Arlington, VA Brynhild Rowberg, Northfield, MN Amb. William Rugh, Garrett Park, MD Edward & Alice Saad, Cheshire, CT Nadia M. Saad, Chevy Chase, MD Hameed Saba, Diamond Bar, CA Fehmey Saddy, Severn Park, MD Dr. Ahmed M. Sakkal, Charleston, WV Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Salem, Laurel, MD Anis & Rhonda Salib, Huntsville, AL Walter & Halina Sasak, Northborough, MA Russell Scardaci, Cairo, NY Robert M. Schaible, Buxton, ME Irmgard Scherer, Fairfax, VA Carl Schieren, New York, NY Leyla Schimmel, Andover, MA Genevieve Scott Bell, Davis, CA Mona Serageldin, Cambridge, MA Dr. Abid Shah, Sarasota, FL William A. Shaheen, Grosse Ile, MI Andrew Shahin, Victorville, CA Richard J. Shaker, Annapolis, MD Thomas Shaker, Poughkeepsie, NY Theodore Shannon, Green Valley, AZ Lewis Shapiro, White Plains, NY Kathy Sheridan, Mill Valley, CA Dr. Mostafa Hashem Sherif, Tinton Falls, NJ Zac Sidawi, Costa Mesa, CA Yousuf Siddiqui, Bloomfield, MI David Skerry, Medford, MA Laura Smiley, Jacksonville, FL Deborah Ann Smith, Durham, NC MARCH 2013

Edgar W. Snell, Schenectady, NY David J. Snider, Airmont, NY John Soderberg, Foley, AL Peter & Joyce Starks, Greensboro, NC Robert Stiver, Pearl City, HI Dr. William Strange, Fort Garland, CO Ghulam Suhrawardi, Parlin, NJ Mubadda Suidan, Atlanta, GA Corrine Sutila, Los Angeles, CA Beverly Swartz, Sarasota, FL Thomas & Carol Swepston, Englewood, FL Mushtaq Syed, Santa Clara, CA Dr. Joseph Tamari, Chicago, IL Doris Taweel, Laurel, MD J. Tayeb, Shelby Twp, MI Janice Terry, Marietta, OH Charles Thomas, La Conner, WA Edmund & Norma Tomey, Dorset, VT Joan Toole, Albany, GA Ned Toomey, Bishop, CA Thomas Trueblood, Chapel Hill, NC Gertraud Turpen, Edmond, OK Unitarian Universalists for Justice, Cambridge, MA Tom Veblen, Washington, DC Mr. & Mrs. Peter Viering, Stonington, CT V.R. Vitolins, Grosse Point, MI Paul Wagner, Bridgeville, PA Dale Walker, Hoboken, NJ Joseph Walsh, Adamsville, RI Rev. Hermann Weinlick, Minneapolis, MN Dr. Harry Wendt, Minneapolis, MN John V. Whitbeck, Paris, France Arthur & Marianne Whitman, Auburn, ME David Williams, Madison, WI Raymond Younes, Oxnard, CA Bernice Youtz, Tacoma, WA Mahood Yunus, Eagan, MN Mr. & Mrs. Amin Zacharia, Huntingdon Valley, PA Dr. & Mrs. John Zacharia, McLean, VA John Zacharia, Vienna, VA Munir Zacharia, La Mirada, CA William Zartman, Silver Spring, MD Vivian Zelaya, Berkeley, CA Hugh Ziada, Garden Grove, CA ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more) James Abourezk, Sioux Falls, SD Janet Acord, Wimberley, TX Richard Adamiak, Ph.D., Chicago, IL* Dr. M.Y. Ahmed, Waterville, OH Rashda Albibi, Panama City, FL Mohamed Alwan, Chestnut Rdg., NY Nabil & Judy Amarah, Danbury, CT Rev. Dr. Lois Aroian, Willow Lake, SD Donna Baer, Grand Junction, CO Dr. Sami Baraka, Wyandotte, MI Rev. Robert E. Barber, Parrish, FL Robert Beckmann and Rachel Levy, Seattle, WA Syed & Rubia Bokhari, Bourbonna, IL Elizabeth Boosahda, Worcester, MA Dr. & Mrs. Issa J. Boullata, Montreal, THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Quebec William Canady, Mobile, AL Rev. Ronald C. Chochol, St. Louis, MO Jean & Donald Clarke, Devon, PA Mr. & Mrs. Rajie Cook, Washington Crossing, PA Carole Courey, Cataumet, MA Mr. & Mrs. John Crawford, Boulder, CO Richard Curtiss, Boynton Beach, FL Joseph Daruty, Newport Beach, CA Robert & Tanis Diedrichs, Cedar Falls, IA Dr. Rafeek Farah, New Boston, MI Douglas A. Field, Kihei, HI Elisabeth Fitzhugh, Mitchellville, MD Eugene Fitzpatrick, Wheat Ridge, CO Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO Ken Galal, San Francisco, CA Bill Gartland, Rio, WI Marvin & Shirley Gluck, Topanga, CA Ray Gordon, Bel Air, MD Sam Gousen, Arlington, VA H. Clark Griswold, Woodbury, CT Dr. Steven Harvey, Manchester, NH Masood Hassan, Calabasas, CA Mr. & Mrs. Sameer Hassan, Quaker Hill, CT Dr. Colbert & Mildred Held, Waco, TX Issa & Rose Kamar, Plano, TX Michael Keating, Olney, MD Gloria Keller, Santa Rosa, CA Mr. & Mrs. Osman Khan, Gladstone, MO Omar Khwaja, Irvine, CA Paul Kirk, Baton Rouge, LA Sandra La Framboise, Oakland, CA Joe & Lilli Lill, Arlington, VA Anthony Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI Jean Mayer, Bethesda, MD Tom & Tess McAndrew, Oro Valley, AZ George Mendenhall, Ann Arbor, MI Paul Meyer, Iowa City, IA Dr. Yehia Mishriki, Emmaus, PA Ben Monk, St. Paul, MN John & Ruth Monson, La Crosse, WI Joseph Najemy, Worcester, MA Kamal Obeid, Fremont, CA John Parry, Chapel Hill, NC Sam Rahman, Lincoln, CA Frank & Mary Regier, Strongsville, OH Mr. & Mrs. Edward Reilly, Rocky Point, NY Paul Richards, Salem, OR Denis Sabourin, Dubai, UAE Asha Samad, New York, NY James & Lisa Sams, Bethesda, MD Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Salem, Laurel, MD Henry Schubert, Damascus, OR Mowahid Shah, Potomac, MD Aziz Shalaby, Vancouver, WA Yusef & Jennifer Sifri, Wilmington, NC Grant Smith, Washington, DC Norman Smith, Exton, PA Gregory Stefanatos, Flushing, NY Michel & Cathy Sultan, Eau Claire, WI Dina Tamimi, Dubai, UAE Zuhair Thalji, Willow Spgs., IL Charles & Letitia Ufford, Princeton, NJ 65

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Joseph Walsh, Adamsville, RI Ziyad & Cindi Zaitoun, Seattle, WA* I. William Zartman, Silver Spring, MD Hugh Ziada, Garden Grove, CA Rafi Ziauddin, West Chester, PA Fred Zuercher, Spring Grove, PA TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more) Patricia Ann Abraham, Charleston, SC Michael Ameri, Calabasas, CA Drs. A.J. and M.T. Amirana, Las Vegas, NV Kamel Ayoub, Hillsborough, CA Donna Baer, Grand Junction, CO Graf Herman Bender, North Palm Beach, FL Prof. & Mrs. George Wesley Buchanan, Gaithersburg, MD Joe Chamy, Colleyville, TX William G. Coughlin, Brookline, MA Shuja El-Asad, Amman, Jordan Dr. Rafeek Farah, New Boston, MI Sophia Farooq, Smyrna, GA Glenn Glover, Birmingham, AL Michael Habermann, Hackettstown, NJ Salman & Kate Hilmy, Silver Spring, MD Islamic Center of Long Island, Westbury, NY Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Fahd Jajeh, Lake Forest, IL Les Janka, Arlington, VA Jack Love, Escondido, CA Nabeel Mansour, Corvallis, OR Mr. & Mrs. Hani Marar, Delmar, NY Dr. Charles McCutchen, Bethesda, MD Estate of Rita A. McGaughey, La Crosse, WI Anees Mughannam, Petaluma, CA Thomas Muller, Arcadia, FL Mr. & Mrs. David Nalle, Washington, DC Alice Nashashibi, San Francisco, CA Howard & Mary Norton, Austin, TX Audrey Olson, Saint Paul, MN Oriental Bakery & Grocery, Miami, FL Dr. Ahmad Osman, Parkland, FL Jane Power, Vancouver, Canada M. Habib Quader, Harrisburg, PA Dr. Amani Ramahi, Lakewood, OH Gabrielle & Jalal Saad, Oakland, CA Dr. Mohammed Sabbagh, Grand Blanc, MI Mae Stephen, Palo Alto, CA John Van Wagoner, McLean, VA David R. Willcox, Harrison, AR Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD BARITONES & MEZZO SOPRANOS ($1,000 or more) James C. Ahlstrom, Stirling, NJ Asha A. Anand, Bethesda, MD Dr. Joseph Bailey, Valley Center, CA Harvie Branscomb, Basalt, CO G. Edward & Ruth Brooking, Wilmington, DE 66

Rev. Rosemarie Carnarius & Aston Bloom, Tucson, AZ Luella Crow, Eugene, OR Thomas L. D’Albani & Dr. Jane Killgore, Bemidji, MN Dr. & Mrs. Rod & Carole Driver, West Kingston, RI Linda Emmet, Paris, France Gary Richard Feulner, Dubai, UAE Paul Findley, Jacksonville, IL Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey Dr. & Mrs. Hassan Fouda, Berkeley, CA Oliver Hall, Washington, DC Hind Hamdan, Hagerstown, MD Amb. Holsey G. Handyside, Bedford, OH*** George Hanna, Santa Ana, CA Judith Howard, Norwood, MA Mary Ann Hrankowski, Rochester, NY Sufian & Barbara Husseini, Salem, OR Zagloul Kadah, Seattle, WA Wendy Kaufmyn, Berkeley, CA Vincent & Louise Larsen, Billings, MT William Lightfoot, Vienna, VA Rachelle Marshall, Mill Valley, CA Joan McConnell, Saltspring Island, BC William & Flora McCormick, Austin, TX

John McGillion, Asbury Park, NJ John McLaughlin, Gordonsville, VA Ralph Nader, Washington, DC Robert & Sharon Norberg, Lake City, MN Ruth Ramsey, Blairsville, GA Mahmud Shaikhaly, Hollywood, CA Dr. Imad Tabry, Fort Lauderdale, FL Linda Thain-Ali, Kesap, Turkey CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more) Henry Clifford, Essex, CT Richard & Donna Curtiss, Kensington, MD**, **** Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR John & Henrietta Goelet, Meru, France Andrew I. Killgore, Washington, DC** Neurology Pain & Headache Associates, Jasper, AL Mark R. Sheridan, Alexandria, VA *In memory of Rachel Corrie **In memory of Anthony Shadid ***Happy 30th Birthday, Washington Report! ****In memory of Georgia Whalen Pratt † In memory of Leila Meehan Goodman

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March 2013 Vol. XXXII, No. 2

Syrian refugees in al-Marj, in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, sweep snow off a tent supplied by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees during the region’s worst snowstorm in 20 years, Jan. 9, 2013. The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000.

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