Washington Report - June/July 2015 - Vol. XXXIV, No. 4

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Volume XXXIV, No. 4

On Middle East Affairs

June/July 2015

Telling the Truth for More Than 30 Years…

Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans

■

Interpreting North America for the Middle East

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE 8 Obama Departs From His Own Principles —Rachelle Marshall 11 Netanyahu’s Coalition: Who’s In, Who’s Out —Allison Deger 12 Gazans Hope Joining ICC Will Bring Them Justice At Last—Mohammed Omer 13 MK Haneen Zoabi: Israel’s Racist System Is the Enemy—Jane Adas 14 Christian, Muslim Israelis Not Welcome in Upper Nazareth—Jonathan Cook 16 Congress, Israel and a Nuclear Agreement With

19 Killing in Gaza, Saving in Nepal: Israel’s Moral Hypocrisy—Gideon Levy 20 Getting Past the Optics of Resistance to Fight Racism in Baltimore and Israel—Delinda C. Hanley 22 Will Maryland’s Democratic Senate Primary Race Unmask the Israel Lobby?—Janet McMahon 24 “Framework” Nuclear Agreement With Iran Draws Predicted Reaction From Likudniks

—Shirl McArthur 27 U.S. Protects Israeli Occupation, U.N. Reinforces Morocco’s in Western Sahara—Ian Williams

Iran—Three Views

—Barak Ravid, Patrick J. Buchanan, William Pfaff

SPECIAL REPORTS 29 The World Needs a Better United States —Ebrahim Rasool 31 Hope Springs Eternal—for Now—on Cyprus —Jonathan Gorvett 65 In Memoriam: Robert V. Keeley (1929-2015) —Andrew I. Killgore

“Freedom,” by Palestinian political cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh (see p. 52).

ON THE COVER: A man watches from an open window in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya as Palestinian workers clear the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israel’s 51-day assault on Gaza last summer, which heavily targeted Gaza’s poorest and most crowded neighborhood. THOMAS COEX/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

The Grave Danger of Derailing the Iran Deal— An Interview With Chas Freeman, Philip Weiss, www.mondoweiss.net OV-1 Republicans’ Iran Meddling Is Treason, Editorial, The Skanner News

OV-4

Lindsey Graham’s “All-Jewish Cabinet,” Eli Clifton & Jim Lobe, www.lobelog.com

OV-5

Urgent “Musts” Needed for Palestinians, Ramzy Baroud, www.counterpunch.org

OV-6

Islamic State’s Conquest of a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Syria Refutes Israeli Propaganda, Juan Cole, www.juancole.com

OV-7

Gaza Fallout: “I Cannot Understand These Crimes,” Patrick Strickland, www.aljazeera.com

OV-8

Protesters, Police Clash at Ethiopian Israeli Demo Against Police Brutality, Nir Hasson, Haaretz

OV-9

Israeli Police Leave East Jerusalem Hotel After 13-Year Stay, Nir Hasson, Haaretz

OV-10

Lawfare, the Continuation of War by Other Means, Jonathan Cook, al-Araby al-Jadeed English

OV-10

U.S. Court Rejects Lawsuit Against Charity Funding of Settlements, Ma’an News Agency

OV-12

Using Pension Fund Money to Buy Israeli Bonds Is Both Wrong and Illegal, James Abourezk, www.counterpunch.org

OV-13

How a Secret Charity Helps Jewish Groups Feel Safe, Josh Nathan-Kazis, The Forward

OV-14

Yemen’s Houthis Are No Iran Proxy, Jason Ditz, www.antiwar.com

OV-16

DEPARTMENTS 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 7 PUBLISHERS’ PAGE 33 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Basim Elkarra Awarded Access Sacramento’s “Power of Voice” Commendation

—Elaine Pasquini 36 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Despite Phone Threats, Norman Finkelstein Is Keynote Speaker at Rotary Event—Pat and Samir Twair 38 NEW YORK CITY AND TRI-STATE NEWS: PLO Ambassador Areikat on Hamas, Palestinian Recognition of Israel—Jane Adas 41 ISRAEL AND JUDAISM: Neocons and the Israel Lobby Are Promoting War With Iran as They Once Did With Iraq

—Allan C. Brownfeld

44 ARAB AMERICAN ACTIVISM: First National Arab-American Cultural Festival a Huge Success

59 OTHER PEOPLE’S MAIL

61 THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST — CARTOONS

46 MUSLIM AMERICAN ACTIVISM: Inaugural Palestinian Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill

62 BOOK REVIEWS: Baddawi My House in Damascus: An

47 HUMAN RIGHTS: War-weary Libyans Fleeing to Tunisia

Inside View of the Syrian Revolution

—Reviewed by Kevin A. Davis

50 WAGING PEACE: Bethlehem’s First Female Mayor On Governing in Occupied Palestine

63 MIDDLE EAST BOOKS AND

57 MUSIC & ARTS: Chief Complaint: A Country Doctor’s Tales of Life in Galilee

66 2015 AET CHOIR OF ANGELS

57 DIPLOMATIC DOINGS: Ambassador Lukman Faily on The Future of Iraq

MORE

64 BULLETIN BOARD

37 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

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Publisher: Managing Editor: News Editor: Assistant Editor: Middle East Books and More Director: Finance & Admin.

Director: Art Director: Executive Editor:

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

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (ISSN 8755-4917) is published 8 times a year, monthly except Jan./Feb., March/April and June/July combined, at 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707. Tel. (202) 939-6050. Subscription prices (United States and possessions): one year, $29; two years, $55; three years, $75. For Canadian and Mexican subscriptions, $35 per year; for other foreign subscriptions, $70 per year. Periodicals, postage paid at Washington, DC and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056.

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

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs does not take partisan domestic political positions. As a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, it endorses U.N. Security Council Resolution 242’s land-for-peace formula, supported by nine successive U.S. presidents. In general, it supports Middle East solutions which it judges to be consistent with the charter of the United Nations and traditional American support for human rights, selfdetermination, and fair play.

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

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

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

JUNE/JULY 2015

LetterstotheEditor Israel Lobby Conference Resources Thank you for sponsoring The Israel Lobby conference and providing it live via YouTube. I watched it from start to finish and was thrilled to be able to do so here on the West Coast while it took place on the East Coast.

Has a date been established for when it will be posted on the Web? Richard Herman, Costa Mesa, CA We are so pleased you were able to watch the conference live on YouTube—and equally disappointed that C-SPAN declined to broadcast it on a day when Congress was not in session.

For a video of each panel and an audio and transcript of each speaker’s remarks visit the conference website, <www.IsraelLobbyUS.org>. We have also decided to publish a special issue of the Washington Report with photographs and transcripts of all the day’s presentations, and will be producing a DVD as well. So keep your eyes out and mailboxes open—it’s sure to become a collector’s item!

Occupied Poland In the March/April 2015 issue, the article by Uri Avnery entitled “Waving in the First Row,” stated: “In 1939, the Irgun underground planned an armed invasion of Palestine with the help of the profoundly anti-Semitic generals of the Polish army.”

Such a statement is judged as utter nonsense and indicates a lack of pre-World War II history or just another Jewish attempt to paint Poles as anti-Semitic. In 1939, with Austria and Czechoslovakia already invaded and conquered by the Nazi Germany army, Polish generals and their military forces were busy preparing for the invasion of their country. It is very unlikely that they had time to be anti-Semitic when their forces were composed of both Polish and Jewish citizens. Furthermore, it is unlikely these generals had financing to move Polish armed forces from Poland to Palestine.

Incidentally, when the Washington Report publishes such preposterous statements, they are joining the ranks of pro-Israeli proponents endeavoring to paint Poles as anti-Semitic. After the invasion of Poland in September of 1939 and its conquest, the German Nazis organized their concentration camps. These camps are frequently mislabeled by the media and propagandists as Polish concentration camps. They were German Nazis’ concentration camps strategically located on Polish soil to efficiently THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

imprison and kill both Poles and Jews.

As part of the German Nazis efficiency, one of their edicts proclaimed that any Pole caught protecting, hiding or attempting to save a Jew would be executed along with his entire family. Many Poles lost their lives in this activity. Rather than labeling Poles as anti-Semitic, they should be portrayed as one of the greatest benefactors of their Jewish citizens.

In conclusion, I request that my wife’s name be removed from the Washington Report roll of subscribers.

C. Norman Boehm Jr., Wilmington, DE We’re afraid we failed to focus on Avnery’s

comment about Polish generals, since it came in the middle of a discussion of French and Russian anti-Semitism. We certainly consider Poland to have been an occupied country during World War II, and do not believe that Poles are inherently anti-Semitic. Indeed, we know first-hand how that accusation is used to further a hidden agenda.

Not So Black-and-White Although I am a huge critic of Israel and a supporter of the Palestinians, I would not subscribe to your publication. Here is the reason: your simple-minded stance that liberalism is good, ethical, and leads to improved conditions in the Holy Land. And, conversely, conservatives are anti-Israel, reactionary, and the bad guys.

I am a political conservative who voted for Mitt Romney and John McCain, not Obama. If Obama were running tomorrow, I still wouldn’t vote for him. And yet, I am staunchly pro-Palestinian and aghast at what is going on in Israel.

I live in a very liberal area of the country. All of the liberals and progressives I know, particularly the Jewish ones, are big supporters of Israel.

How do you explain this?

Your black-and-white view that liberals support human justice and conservatives are cold and indifferent is erroneous and 5

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offensive. It doesn’t explain why, whatever Israel wants. I have also Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming! given that America is mostly a libbeen using the October 2014 “ProSend your letters to the editor to the Washington eral country, much of the populaIsrael PAC Contributions to 2014 Report, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009 tion supports Israel and has for Congressional Candidates” to or e-mail <letters@wrmea.org>. decades. Your viewpoint also doesquestion congressmen on why n’t explain why, when we have had a they gladly accept pro-Israel money Democratic Congress, they and the counWe thank you for writing, since it’s very impor- and vote with Israel. try still support Israel. tant to know how the Washington Report is perPreviously I had done no research on IsYou’d engender a lot more support if you ceived—and we hope you’ll read at least a few rael. I used to mistakenly assume they looked beyond simple explanations that more issues (including this response!). were the “good guys.” I had absolutely no put the blame on “conservatives” for the idea about all the despicable things that IsU.S.’s decades-long support of Israel. It Angelic Assistance Sought rael does. I am constantly shocked at all the wasn’t just the Republicans who ap- I do not want to seem as if I am begging things that the Washington Report reveals. plauded wildly for Netanyahu. The De- even though I am. I am an indigent inmate. I listen to NPR radio all day. I hear almost mocrats give the same standing ovations I used to have a pen pal who had pur- nothing coming close to the reality that the chased a subscription to the Washington Middle East faces every day. So much inwhen AIPAC comes to town.

You’d win more people to the cause if Report for me. I have not heard from her formation is left out of the mainstream you looked beyond the easy good guys anymore nor do I expect to hear from her. press. Keep up the great work.

Now my subscription to the Washington and bad guys. Let’s face it, in many ways, Cesar Hernandez, New Boston, TX Israel runs this country—Republicans and Report is expiring and I am saddened to see You certainly sound like a model citizen, it go. I have noticed occasionally that Angels putting many of us on the outside to shame!

Democrats alike. from time to time sponsor a subscription to We are happy to say that there is an Angel Beth Moore, Richmond, CA We couldn’t agree more with your final sen- indigent inmates. If at all possible, I would who is honored to sponsor your subscription— tence. In fact, we’ve spent years documenting and like to be sponsored by an Angel for a sub- as we are honored to have you as a reader. reporting that Democratic members of Congress scription renewal. I have a sense that nuwere the primary recipients of pro-Israel PAC merous inmates write in asking for a spon- Reciprocal Inspiration contributions. And we list every congressional sored subscription. I can completely under- I have always found pleasure in reading the candidate, Democratic and Republican alike, who stand if an Angel is unable to sponsor me. Washington Report because it gives me an I always anxiously await my copy of the additional inspiration to stay focused on takes lobby money. We don’t know how many issues of the Washington Report you’ve read, but Washington Report. Every time I receive an the truth.

I have been receiving the Washington obviously none of the many that carry articles by issue I take several hours to digest it. Then Patrick J. Buchanan (including this one, on p. 17) I go back a second and third time to re-read Report, but without “Other Voices”—the and Ron Paul, especially when Paul was in Con- and take notes. I pass my copy on to my supplement. Therefore I have made a check gress. In the 2000 presidential race we reported neighbor a few cells down. After he is done in the amount of $100 and it should be on that George W. Bush had specifically spoken out he sends it to four other Muslim brothers its way soon. Please add “Other Voices” to against the use of secret evidence, while Al Gore on a different wing. There used to be more my current subscription, and I would wish refused to do so. Through the years we’ve criticized Muslim brothers in our building but many that you accept the balance as a gift.

I am currently serving a 65-year senplenty of Democratic presidents, and praised ones have been transferred to other prisons.

Indigent inmates are allowed to send out tence for providing humanitarian aid to like Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush who have put the interests of five legal mail letters per week. Currently I the Palestinian population that lives under have written 70 members of Congress. I have the brutal and illegal Israeli occupation. their own country first. not gotten any re- Unfortunately, my financial resources are sponses, so I am limited, thus to save $100 I had to skip Other Voices is an optional unsure if the repre- commissary for an entire month. However, sentatives have ever my heart is filled with joy because being 16-page supplement availread my letters. I able to invest in your work, I know I’m inable only to subscribers of have a strong suspi- vesting in the truth. In fact, the entire team the Washington Report on cion that the assis- that gives us the Washington Report detants throw away serves all the respect in the world for Middle East Affairs. For an my unopened let- working so hard to save this nation from additional $15 per year (see ters as soon as they self-inflicted blindness. I see what you do see that it is and I love it. postcard insert for Wash Shukri Abu Baker, Beaumont, TX stamped as coming ington Re port subscripP.S. Please check out my blog, <http:// from a prison inmate. My neighbor notesfromshukri.wordpress.com>. tion rates), subscribers will As one of the Holy Land Five, your situation has also been writreceive Other Voices inside each issue of their is relevant to all Americans (see Jan./Feb. ing Congress.

I have been 2013 Washington Report, p. 17). Your experiWashington Report on Middle East Affairs. using the piece in ence is reminiscent of the show trials in the forBack issues of both publications are available. To the September mer Soviet Union. And we find your blog to be 2014 “Report Card a source of inspiration—may we all have the subscribe telephone 1 (888) 881-5861, fax (714) 226on the 113th Con- strength to respond to oppression with such 9733, e-mail <circulation@wrmea.org>, or write to gress” to question faith and such sumud (steadfastness). Thank P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056. congressmen on you so much for your continuing commitment why they vote for to justice, and for the example you set. ❑ 6

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

publishers_7_June-July 2015 Publishers page 5/7/15 9:49 PM Page 7

American Educational Trust

Publishers’ Page Republican Options Include…

Dissecting the Israel Lobby.

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A Groundbreaking Event.

It’s not often that the word “groundbreaking” can be used to describe an event focusing on the generations-old Israel-Palestine conflict. But that’s precisely the word we believe best describes the April 10 conference on the Israel Lobby that the Washington Report and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) cosponsored at the National Press Club.

Never before had nearly 20 speakers, 300 audience members and thousands of online viewers participated in an honest all-day discussion on the role of the Israel Lobby in shaping U.S. policy. Panelists addressed how the lobby works, its efforts to silence critics and suppress free speech on campus, its impact on Israelis (including Palestinian Israelis), its influence over Congress, and its efforts to promote war with Iran. The conference was at once eye-opening, inspirational and…

Thoroughly Informative.

As we began putting together this issue of the Washington Report, we quickly realized that we simply could not do justice to the abundance of essential information presented by conference speakers. We concluded there was only one solution: a special issue dedicated exclusively to the conference, so people who missed it can...

Read All About It! As you enjoy this issue, which provides updates on the Iran nuclear negotiations, the 2016 elections, Palestinian efforts to achieve justice, the humanitarian crises caused by wars in Syria, Gaza, Libya and Yemen, and more, keep your eyes peeled for our special issue on the Israel Lobby conference, which will be arriving in mailboxes shortly.

The special issue will include full transcripts of each speaker’s remarks, as well as photos and reflections on the event.

Can’t Wait Til Then?

Video, audio and transcripts of the conference can be found online at <IsraelLob byUS.org>. DVDs of the event will be available shortly and can be preordered by calling (202) 939-6050. Given the lobby’s influence over the corporate media, it’s hardly surprising that mainstream outlets—including C-SPAN—refused to cover the Israel Lobby conference.

JUNE/JULY 2015

But Even We Were Shocked...

By a picture that appeared in the April 21 edition of The Washington Post showing an Israeli woman watering a vast crop of colorful flowers that would soon be exported to Europe. The caption described the kibbutz, minutes from the Gaza border, as “the perfect setting for a spring photo shoot.” What the Post neglected to mention is that the same water being used for the flowers could have been used to quench the thirst of 1.8 million water-deprived Gazans. Far from livening up our day, the picture of the flowers reminded us of the...

Depravity of Israel’s Siege.

If the Post can’t be trusted to write an accurate caption, how can it be trusted to ask the 2016 presidential candidates the tough questions about Israel? The truth is, the mainstream media and the individuals battling to become Barack Obama’s successor all share the same affinity for—or at least subservience to—Israel.

The Presidential Field Looks Scary.

With elections still a year and a half away, it’s quickly becoming apparent that Israel is poised to be the big winner regardless of who becomes the 45th president. Thus far eight candidates, all of whom have strong pro-Israel credentials, have officially entered the race.

The Democrats Offer Americans…

Frontrunner Hillary Clinton, whose Zionist bankroller Haim Saban said in April, “everything that [Hillary] thinks and everything she has done and will do will always be for the good of Israel.” Then there’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, who last summer told a constituent complaining about Israel’s war on Gaza to “shut up.”

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Sen. Ted Cruz, who last year told an audience of persecuted Middle Eastern Christians that he doesn’t “stand with them” because of their criticism of Israel; Sen. Rand Paul, who has introduced a bill to cut aid to the Palestinians and signed Sen. Tom Cotton’s infamous letter to Iran in an effort to appease Zionist donors; Sen. Marco Rubio, who when not ranting against the repressive regimes in Havana and Tehran (ironically) boasts of his support for Israel; Dr. Ben Carson, who had never heard of the Knesset until he traveled to Israel in December to pledge his loyalty to the self-proclaimed Jewish state; Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP), the company that supplies the high-tech identification cards Israel uses to operate its checkpoints; and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who regularly leads Christian Zionist tours of Israel.

Other Republicans likely to enter the race—Sen. Rick Santorum and Govs. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Chris Christie— have equally dismal Middle East credentials. The options presented thus far by the two major parties are indeed bleak, but….

There Is Reason for Hope!

Polls show that Americans, especially young Democrats, do not favor strong U.S. support for Israel. Netanyahu’s recent antics have exposed Israel’s lack of a commitment to peace and have helped turn Israel into an increasingly partisan issue. AIPAC appears to be losing the battle to scuttle the Iranian nuclear talks, while the BDS movement is growing.

Defeating the Lobby Isn’t Easy...

But activism is slowly changing the proIsrael narrative in this country. Congress has not yet caught on, but eventually it, too, will be forced to acknowledge the reality: Americans won’t stand for occupation, war and discrimination. Republicans may latch on to Israel as a wedge issue, but in most congressional districts Democrats will soon no longer be able to be “progressive except for Palestine.” Until the occupation ends and American leaders adopt a sane and moral Middle East policy, we will all continue to work together to…

Make a Difference Today!

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Obama Departs From His Own Principles SpecialReport

By Rachelle Marshall

CARL DE SOUZAAFP/GETTY IMAGES

Equally lacking in coherence is U.S. military involvement in Syria. There, as in Iraq, the U.S. is fighting on the same side as Iran, even though Iran supports Syrian President Bashar alAssad and the U.S. wants him replaced. Again, both the U.S. and Iran are opposing ISIS, which has seized control of northern Syria, erased the border with Iraq, and moved into Damascus. The U.S. has carried out more than 5,700 air strikes against ISIS since August, but failed to stop its advance.

Meanwhile, the fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels opposed to Assad, has caused millions of Syrians to flee their ruined cities into overcrowded refugee camps in neighboring countries. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed.

Palestinian refugees are once again among the chief victims. In early Yemeni refugee Farah Abdallah, 7, sits in a hospital in Djibouti, May 5, 2015. Shot in the back of April, ISIS penetrated Yarmouk, a her head by a sniper in Aden, she was offered financial assistance by a Yemeni benefactor willing to refugee camp in Damascus where fly her abroad for critical brain surgery, but no country would accept her. Doctors said she could die more than 18,000 Palestinians live.

Since then, street fighting between any day.

ISIS and Palestinian defenders, and recent satirical cartoon by Tom Toles major cities in ISIS’ hands, the U.S. is con- shelling and bombing by the Syrian air in The Washington Post showed a tinuing to conduct air strikes against them, force, have created an inescapable nightpainting by Jackson Pollock of a dense but with only partial success. The com- mare for the inhabitants. Officials at tangle of multicolored lines completely bined U.S.-Shi’i operations have forced ISIS UNRWA, the U.N. agency that supports covering the canvas. The painting was la- to withdraw from the city of Tikrit, but Palestinian refugees, reported in early beled, “Middle East Politics.” The caption still to be liberated are Mosul and Ramadi, April that the people in Yarmouk had no read, “Who Knew He was a Realist?” which like Tikrit are predominantly Sunni. food, no water, and hardly any medicine.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambasAn unintended consequence of U.S. inThere could not be a more accurate illustration of the wars currently raging in volvement is that Shi’i militias have become sador to the U.N., appealed to the Security Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and the various al- increasingly powerful, despite Iraqi Prime Council and the international community for Minister Haider al-Abadi’s efforts to include aid to the besieged refugees, but there was liances they involve.

The U.S. military is active on one side or more Sunnis in the government’s offensive no way either to deliver the aid or evacuate the other in all three wars, either as arms and end the continuing sectarian violence. the inhabitants of Yarmouk to a safer place. supplier, by carrying out bombing raids, or After U.S. bombing attacks drove ISIS out Such circumstances cry out for intervention providing ground troops. As a result, of the town of Amerli last summer, Shi’i by the U.S. and the international community, Washington finds itself with allies from militias carried out mass executions and de- but what is needed are not more bombs but molished thousands of Sunni homes. Simi- strenuous efforts to achieve a cease-fire. both sides, depending on the war.

The situation for civilians in Yemen is Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge lar attacks have taken place in other Sunni to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq, ever areas liberated from ISIS. Many of the mili- equally bleak. The rivalry between northsince the Iraqi army collapsed in the face tiamen are hostile to the U.S. “We don’t ern and southern tribes again turned vioof invading ISIS forces the U.S. has been trust the Americans,” said Naseem al- lent in mid-March, when Houthi militias cooperating with Iran-backed Shi’i militias Aboudi, a spokesman for one of the militias. allied with former President Ali Abdullah The Obama administration has not ex- Saleh drove out his replacement, Abd in Iraq to recapture the territory ISIS seized. With several of northern Iraq’s plained what American interests are served Raboo Mansour al-Hadi. As battles took

by U.S. combat operations in Iraq, when place in the streets of Aden, Sana’a, and Rachelle Marshall is a free-lance editor liv- what is needed most is an end to Sunni- other cities, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf ing in Mill Valley, CA. A member of Jewish Shi’i violence, and economic aid and other states joined the fight against the Houthis Voice for Peace, she writes frequently on the measures aimed at boosting the economy by conducting what human rights agenMiddle East. cies called “reckless air strikes.” and slowing the flow of recruits to ISIS.

A

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The U.N. reported that homes, factories, hospitals, schools and power stations had been hit by bombs, along with a displaced persons camp filled with civilians.

Aid officials called what was happening a humanitarian catastrophe. “The situation in Yemen is extremely alarming,” said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, chief official of the U.N. human rights agency. “The killing of so many innocent civilians is simply unacceptable.” Sitara Jabeen of the International Red Cross said, “Every day is worse than the previous day.”

The Gulf coalition claimed the Houthis were acting as surrogates for Iran, which the Houthis and Iran denied. Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi said on his visit to the U.S. in mid-April, “There is no logic to the operation at all...Mainly the problem of Yemen is within Yemen.” Area experts and Western diplomats say that Iran provides financial support to the Houthis but does not influence them. Stephen Seche, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, agrees that the Houthis have their own domestic agenda.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and dialogue between the two rival Yemeni factions leading to a broad-based, inclusive government. But instead of supporting efforts to arrange a cease-fire, Obama announced on April 7 that the U.S. was speeding up weapons shipments to the Saudi coalition and increasing its intelligence and logistical support for its operations in Yemen.

Two weeks later a U.S. aircraft carrier and a guided missile carrier arrived to join 10 other American warships off Yemen’s coast.

“It is a message to our partners that we are in this and willing to [give] support,” a U.S. official said. “It is a message to the Iranians that we’re watching.”

Obama eventually modified his position and urged a halt to the bombing. At the same time, an international outcry against a campaign that had killed more than a thousand people, most of them civilians, prompted the Saudis on April 21 to announce an end to the bombing. The rebels’ military capabilities had been destroyed, the Saudi announcement said, and the focus instead would be on protecting civilians and rebuilding the country. Hours later, however, the air strikes resumed, and the embargo on food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid remained in place.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, in a television speech, had earlier asked the Saudis, “What does bombing the innocent mean?

Will killing children bring power to you?”

Similar questions could be asked of the Obama administration. What did the U.S. gain by supporting the Saudis’ intervention in Yemen and angering Tehran, after working so hard to achieve an agreement with JUNE/JULY 2015

ATTA KENARE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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Iranians on Valiasr St. in northern Tehran celebrate the announcement of a framework agreement on nuclear talks, April 2, 2015.

Iran to limit its nuclear production?

The most plausible explanation is that the Obama administration is trying to reassure the Gulf monarchies and Israel that, despite the nuclear agreement, the U.S. still regards Iran as a major adversary. But Israel, at least, will not be appeased. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has continued to associate Iran with Hitler as a threat to Jewish survival. On March 30 he had declared, “The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis must be stopped,” and accused Iran of “carrying out a pincer movement from the south to occupy the entire Middle East.” In mid-April he warned Israelis of Iran’s “plan to exterminate six million Jews here and elsewhere.”

New York Times columnist Roger Cohen responded to such fears in his column of April 8. “Blocking Iran’s path to a bomb, avoiding another war with a Muslim country, and re-establishing diplomatic contact with a stable power hostile to the Islamic State amount to a compelling case for an America facing a fragmenting world order,” he wrote. In a jab at Israel he added, “It is not a bad thing to remind allies that enjoying irrevocable support from the United States cannot mean exercising a veto on American actions.”

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy criticized Washington’s attachment to Israel more bluntly. In his talk to the conference on The Israel Lobby organized by the Washington Report and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep), the Haaretz columnist referred to the relationship as a “corrupting friendship…that contradicts U.S. interests,...international law, human THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

rights, [and] moral values, you name it.”

Criticism of Israel is conspicuously lacking on the part of Congress. Instead of accepting the compromise framework arduously worked out with Iran on April 2 after months of negotiations, some Democrats have joined Republicans in demanding changes certain to scuttle it. The agreement calls on Iran to limit enrichment of uranium to a level useful only for civilian purposes, drastically cut its nuclear stockpile, and reduce the number of centrifuges by two-thirds. In return, the U.S. and its allies would lift the sanctions—with the timing to be left until the final draft. Iran will be subject to “the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program,” Obama said.

On Sunday, April 5, Netanyahu appeared on ABC, NBC, and CNN and called the agreement “a historically bad deal,” and Republicans quickly made support for Israel’s position a partisan issue. Democrats were caught between keeping the support of pro-Israel donors, and maintaining loyalty to the administration. Among the exceptions was Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who had expressed deep resentment against Netanyahu when he appeared before Congress without previous consultation with the White House, to argue against Obama’s policy on Iran.

The deadline for the final agreement is June 30, with the issue of sanctions still to be settled. Iran is demanding that sanctions be lifted as soon as the final draft is signed, but on April 14 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously voted to 9

marshall_8-10_Special Report 5/15/15 9:39 AM Page 10

The Two-State Solution Is Dead. What Will Replace It? When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised Israeli voters just before the March elections that there would be no Palestinian state on his watch, he was stating a truth too long denied. Israel has no intention of giving up the economic advantages of occupation, including the prevention of competition from Palestinian produce, and control of the rich water aquifers in the West Bank.

There is even less possibility that Israel would uproot more than 700,000 settlers from their subsidized homes, or that the army would be willing to carry out such an action if ordered to do so. Evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, and the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian neighborhoods, have made a Palestinian capital in that part of the city all but impossible.

More than 25 years ago the PLO agreed to recognize Israel and accept the return of 22 percent of original Palestine in return for a sovereign Palestinian state, but no Israeli government, regardless of party, has accepted such a solution. As successive U.S. administrations insisted on going through the charade of negotiations, Israel, with the help of American aid, continued to seize Palestinian land for more settlements.

Yet the myth of a two-state solution lives on. In mid-April more than a dozen European foreign ministers asked the European Union to require products made in West Bank settlements to be clearly labeled as such. The letter called the settlements “illegal,” and said they “affected the possibility of preserving a two-state solution.” But Shawan Jabarin, head of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, said that without a ban on such products the labeling was an empty gesture. “Is it just to tell the customers that this is [a] stolen product, but you can buy it?”

Such measures in any case fail to deal with the more immediate problem of the worsening situation of Palestinians living under occupation. The army took Netanyahu’s victory in the recent election as a mandate to increase its brutal night raids in which soldiers roust families from their beds and drag children as well as adults off to prison. Home demolitions also are increasing as Israeli settlements spread throughout the West Bank. require Congress to review and approve the final text. The bill prohibits the president from lifting sanctions for at least 52 days following the review.

Iran’s President Rouhani, clearly ruffled, immediately reminded members of Congress that Iran’s agreement to the deal was with the P5+1, which includes China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, as well as the U.S. He refrained from reminding them that Israel was not a designated party to the negotiations. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said he would offer an amendment from the Senate floor requiring Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist and stop its support for “terrorists.” Both requirements are demanded by Israel.

In an interview with Obama New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman published on April 6, Obama contradicted his own recent policy decisions by suggesting that internal reforms, not military aid, are what the Arab states need most. “I think 10

Palestinians live with the daily threat of violence. Soldiers attack peaceful demonstrators with rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters fired as missiles directly at participants, and live ammunition. During the first 3 months of 2015, at least 30 children were wounded by live bullets. Several children in East Jerusalem lost an eye when they were hit by what are called “sponge bullets.” Violence-prone settlers also make life hazardous as their settlements move closer to Palestinian communities.

Israel is worsening the problems Palestinians already face by periodically withholding tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, leaving tens of thousands of PA employees with only partial pay at a time of growing economic hardship for all Palestinians. As restrictions on travel and and other activities continue to stifle the economy, ordinary Palestinians are now more concerned with earning a living than with politics. According to Zakaria al-Qaq of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, “It is no longer an issue of national aspirations; it is becoming a matter of survival.”

The extremism of Israel’s far right helps explain why Netanyahu was easily re-elected after saying he would never allow a Palestinian state on Israel’s border. After the election he recanted that statement, but few doubted he meant it, or that most Israelis agreed with him. The one positive result is that the Obama administration has openly abandoned the hope of a negotiated two-state solution while Netanyahu remains in office.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough spoke before J Street’s annual convention on March 23 and said of Netanyahu’s statement, “We cannot simply pretend those comments were never made.” He then declared, “An occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end.” Those words could serve for the time being as the primary focus of the Palestinians’ struggle for independence. Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 lines is the first essential. What happens after that, whether coexistence with Israel or a single democratic state, can be left to a free Palestinian people to decide.

—R.M.

the biggest threats they face may not be coming from Iran invading,” he said. “It’s going to be from dissatisfaction inside their own countries.” Arab states have “populations that, in some cases, are alienated, youth that are underemployed, [and have] an ideology that is destructive and nihilistic, and in some cases just a belief that there are no political outlets for grievances,” he told Friedman.

Obama’s words were especially relevant to Egypt, where 25 percent of the population is illiterate, youth unemployment is high, all opposition media have been shut down, tens of thousands of people have been arrested for peacefully protesting, and mass show trials lasting a few minutes result in death sentences. Yet when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi held an investors’ conference in mid-March, Secretary of State John Kerry was there to show support.

Shortly afterwards, Obama lifted an arms freeze on Egypt, clearing the way for THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Cairo to receive F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles and Abrams tanks. Egypt will continue to receive $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid. “Unsurprisingly, in this case you see that national security priorities broadly defined trump everything else,” said Sarah Margon of Human Rights Watch. The “national security priorities” in this case are clearly those of Israel, not the U.S. The generous military aid the U.S. gives to Egypt ensures that its leaders will continue to abide by the 1979 peace agreement with Israel.

The historic agreement with Iran was a step toward ending 36 years of antagonism between the Iran and the West, with the hope of enlisting Iran in a common effort to end the conflicts taking place in the region. But the benefits of that agreement are in danger of being cancelled out if the interests of Israel and other regimes in the region continue to be the determinants of U.S. Middle East policy. ❑ JUNE/JULY 2015

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Netanyahu’s Coalition: Who’s In, Who’s Out SpecialReport

By Allison Deger ate on the evening of May 6, before the

Binyamin Netanyahu needed to finalize a coalition of parties willing to endorse him in order to secure his fourth term as Israel’s leader. Two hours before his deadline, he cinched a deal with the hard-line pro-settler group Bayit Yehudi, headed by the charismatic Naftali Bennett. Even with the deal, Netanyahu now hangs by a thread.

His coalition includes a scant 61 out of 120 parliament members, down from the 67 votes he thought were in his pocket. The government will convene with a cabinet full of Netanyahu’s political rivals and a weak coalition—one of the weakest in Israel’s history. If Netanyahu cannot appease every member of his ruling government, he will need to seek support from his opposition, led by the Zionist Camp’s Isaac Herzog, in order to survive.

Netanyahu’s coalition-building process was thrown into disarray two days earlier, when his chief political ally, Avigdor Lieberman, announced his group and their six votes were out the door. The two split last year over social benefits that Lieberman wanted for his secular-nationalist constituents, but Netanyahu gave them to religious right-wing groups instead.

The deal Netanyahu cut with Bennett means the Likud party is headed even further to the right. The Likud negotiating team dispatched Ze’ev Elkin to lock in the last-minute agreement with Bennett’s camp that saved Netanyahu. Elkin is a settler and Knesset chair of the foreign affairs and defense committees. He comes from the farright strand of Likud. As an unabashed annexationist, he wants to formally incorporate the West Bank into Israel. He does not support any form of Palestinian sovereignty. Elkin’s leadership in bringing in Bennett signals an even steeper hard-line turn.

The full contents of the agreement were to be revealed the following week when the new cabinet members were scheduled to be announced and sworn in. Already Israeli correspondents are reporting on the Allison Deger is assistant editor of Mondoweiss.net, where this article was first posted May 7, 2015. Copyright © 2015 Mondoweiss.

JUNE/JULY 2015

GALI TIBBON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Lclock struck midnight, Prime Minister

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (r) shakes hands with Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Jewish Home party, as they arrive to give a press conference at the Knesset announcing the formation of a coalition government, May 6, 2015. horse trading that took place for Bennett’s votes. Haaretz wrote: “[T]he education budget will be raised by 630 million shekels ($163.4 million), 1 billion shekels ($250 million) will be allocated for raising the salaries of soldiers in their third year, and the Ariel University budget will be raised. In addition, the NGO bill [requiring ministerial and Knesset approval for NGOs seeking a tax exemption for a foreign contribution] will likely be passed, a focus will be made on improving accessibility for disabled in educational institutions, on security measures for transportation in the West Bank, and on strengthening missions in the periphery.”

Some cabinet positions were made public immediately. Although Bennett heads the fourth smallest party in the government (eight seats), he ruefully exploited Netanyahu’s desperation. A top minister position was reserved for Ayelet Shaked, who is most known outside of Israel for her frequent and repeated xenophobic remarks. Mondoweiss’ Ben Norton reported on here May 6, and her calls for a genocide on the Palestinian people.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Another leadership spot went to Bayit Yehudi’s Uri Ariel. The current housing minister was upgraded to run the Ministry of Agriculture, a powerful position because it presides over the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, a pool of millions of dollars of dark funds used to construct settlements. Haaretz also reported Bayit Yehudi will get the position of deputy defense minister.

Netanyahu and Likud have not made any statements on the coalition or the deal with Bennett other than a few ceremonial words to President Reuven Rivlin. “I am honored to inform you that I have been successful in forming a government, which I will request is brought before the Knesset for its approval as soon as possible,” he said.

Herzog, who came in second in the March 17 elections, winning 24 seats to Netanyahu’s 30, and Palestinian leaders have come out with full forced rejections of Israel’s nosedive to the right. Herzog wrote on Facebook that Shaked’s appointment “threatened the rule of law” and the deal with Bennett was a state-run “fire sale.”

Continued on page 30 11

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Gazans Hope Joining ICC Will Bring Them Justice at Last Gazaon the Ground

By Mohammed Omer

MAHMUD HAMSAFP/GETTY IMAGES

achieve what they have been unable to achieve over many decades,” said Hassan Abdo, a Gaza-based political analyst and researcher.

Meanwhile, public reaction in Gaza to the move seems divided between those who see international law as not putting food on the table, and families of victims, many homeless, who appear to welcome the move.

Yasser Al-Qassas, who lost his wife and four daughters in Operation Protective Edge, hopes that joining the ICC will be the first step in bringing war criminals to justice.

“Israel killed my pregnant wife and four daughters, together with another five members of my family,” Al-Qassas explained, “and now it’s time to be accountable and pay the price in the International Criminal Court.”

Following Israel’s most recent war on Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians logged and filed charges of war crimes with Gaza-based human rights groups, with the hope of taking jusThree boys from the Bakr family who survived the Israeli shelling of a beach in Gaza that killed tice to the international level. But four of their young relatives as they were playing soccer during Israel’s 51-day assault on Gaza those papers seemed to just sit and last summer visit the graves of their loved ones in Gaza City, March 31, 2015. Ahed Bakr, father collect dust.

Not anymore, according to Jamil of one of the victims, went to a Gaza human rights committee to file a complaint against Israel Sarhan, director of the Independent for the strike that killed his son, grandson and nephews.

Commission of Human Rights, a Palestinian NGO. he eyes of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents since July 8, 2014, when Israel launched “We still need years of work and presseem to be refocusing these days—not Operation Protective Edge, killing more sure to punish those who killed innocent so much on breaking the Israeli siege, or on than 2,200 Palestinians and injuring more people,” he said. “Palestine is facing the reconstruction efforts, as these goals seem than 11,000, the majority of them civilians, right direction toward integration into the to have faded away. Today Gazans are con- according to the United Nations Office for global justice system.” templating a new horizon: joining the In- the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Not only were his children killed before ternational Criminal Court (ICC). Analysts (UNOCHA). his eyes, said Abu Waseem of Khuza’a, but in Gaza consider this the only move which “The court won’t focus only on the last Israeli pilots could see through their vision will bring justice.

Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip,” he equipment that the victims were simply In Ramallah, Palestinian Authority For- added, “but would look into all it consid- children, and not military threats or tareign Affairs Minister Raid Al-Malki said in ers as a war crime, or a crime against hu- gets.

April that the PA leadership is now work- manity.”

“I spilled tears of sorrow when it haping on speeding up the process of filing Al-Malki seems well aware that a U.S. pened,” he said, “and now tears of hope, charges of war crimes against Israel at the veto of any Security Council resolution in because we are joining ICC.” ICC. favor of Palestine could be an obstacle.

Nevertheless, he added, “Nothing can Al-Malki went on to say that the ICC However, he said, in order to avoid that, compensate a father and mother whose prosecutor was looking into all “events” Palestinians have been talking to other per- children were killed in cold blood.” that took place in the Palestinian territories manent members of the Security Council, Yet, according to Sarhan, hundreds of such as Russia and China. human rights cases have been documented Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer Palestine became the 123rd country to and are ready to be coordinated with the reports from the Gaza Strip, where he main- join the ICC on April 1—seen by many in PA prior to being presented to the internatains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>. Gaza as an “historical moment.” tional court—and all documents contain Follow him on Twitter: @MoGaza.

Continued on page 40 “This is the moment for Palestinians to

T

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JUNE/JULY 2015

adas_13_Special Report 5/7/15 8:34 PM Page 13

MK Haneen Zoabi: Israel’s Racist System Is the Enemy SpecialReport

By Jane Adas o many people RSVPed to hear Ha-

Sneen Zoabi that Students for Jus-

STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

tice-NYU had to move the event to a larger auditorium—and even that was filled to capacity on April 24. Abed Awad, a leader of the PalestinianAmerican Community Center that is sponsoring her North American tour, introduced her as the first Palestinian woman member of the Israeli Knesset, to which she was initially elected in 2009 on the Balad list. The Central Elections Committee tried and failed to disqualify her from running in two subsequent elections, but the Knesset, affirmed by the High Court, succeeded in suspending her for six months in 2014. Zoabi has been attacked in the Knesset (see August 2010 Washington Report, p. 17) and received many death threats. Saying “to be provocative is a badge of honor,” Abed Awad compared her to Martin Luther King.

Zoabi began by saying she is not used to such a warm welcome, and went on to describe herself as “not an MK Haneen Zoabi at New York University. exception. That would be a catastrophe.” All Palestinians “lost their homeland, but not their sense of dignity as Israel is not Palestinians, but democracy ithuman beings,” she said, and that is what self, and how Israel is no democracy for leads them to seek justice and full equality. the 1.5 million of its citizens who are PalesThere were, however, not such warm el- tinian—the ones Israel failed to expel in ements in the audience. Before the lecture, the Nakba of 1947 and ’48 and their dean unsigned flyer was distributed attacking scendents. “We did not immigrate to IsZoabi as a “Friend of Hamas” and a “Sup- rael,” she pointed out, “it was Israel that porter of Terror,” and a small group dis- immigrated to us. We have the historical played a large Israeli flag in the back of the memory of the indigenous.”

In Europe and the United States, Zoabi room. Zoabi calmly read the flyer, correcting its authors, “I am not Hamas. I am Com- noted, it is usually the immigrants who munist.” Nevertheless, she does “not con- struggle for democracy and equality, but in sider Hamas as terrorist or racist, but as Israel it is the opposite. “We must perceive ourselves either as invaders or guests. I must part of our national struggle.”

Then, pointing to the flag, she asked, thank Israel for not expelling me.” Freedom “After so many killed, and siege, and ex- of speech for Israeli Palestinians is: “We stole pansion, and Jerusalem, and the racist your homeland, but allow you to scream.”

Even that freedom is compromised by Iswall, what makes those people so proud about Israel’s oppressing? It is their stupid rael’s legal system, Zoabi said. The Nakba belief that Israel is a democracy.” Israel de- law criminalizing public commemoration fines itself as a Jewish state. Therefore, of the loss of Palestine is but one of more Zoabi concluded, only Jews can be 100 than 50 laws that “discriminate against us percent Israeli. Israel, she insisted, must in every field of life.” According to the citchoose to be either Jewish or democratic. izenship law, any immigrant can become a citizen of Israel except a Palestinian—if Israel Threatened by Democracy Jewish, instantly, if Christian, gradually.

Zoabi then explained that what threatens But if an Israeli Palestinian marries a Palestinian from elsewhere, the spouse cannot Jane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the live in Israel. By law, Palestinians are not New York City metropolitan area. allowed to study their own history. By law, JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Jewish residents of 700 communities, which together control 60 percent of the land in Israel, can reject Palestinians for lack of social compatibility.

“What is this if not apartheid?” Zoabi asked, wishing American politicians were more aware of these discriminatory laws.

Palestinians are marginalized in every sector of Israel except poverty and prison, Zoabi reported. Sixty-four percent of Palestinian children live below the poverty line and only 2 percent of Palestinians are employed in the private sector. There are no Palestinian banks, insurance companies or universities, not even licenses to raise poultry. Israeli Palestinians live on only 3 percent of the land because they are denied permits to use even land they still own. Palestinians are not allowed to develop their own economy or to be equally involved in the Israeli economy.

In 2010, 50 rabbis published a letter saying “do not rent to Arabs,” which elicited little debate. “Close your eyes and imagine,” Zoabi urged, “if 50 priests urged people not to rent to Jews.” According to the Israeli Democracy Index, a third of the Jewish population agrees that during wartime Palestinians should be imprisoned in camps lest they be a fifth column, and just over half believe there should not be full equality.

The anonymous handout described Zoabi as “a personal testament to the freedom and opportunity Israel grants all its citizens.” She interpreted this as, “we, the masters, allow you to be elected.” Asked if serving in the Knesset is merely symbolic, Zoabi responded, to applause, that it is valuable to give the victim voice, to make their situation more visible to Palestinians both inside and outside Israel.

Zoabi said she is indifferent as to whether there are one or two states, as long as there is full national and civil equality and an end to Palestinian suffering. “Jews are not our enemy,” she concluded, rather it is the racist system, one in which “Israel is a tool in the hands of the Zionist project.”

“We must be very clear: we recognize the rights of Jews living in our homeland. We don’t want to throw anybody into the sea,” Zoabi stated. “When we ask for equality, it is equality with you. We have the human values to live equally with Jews in our homeland, in a state for all its citizens.” ❑ 13

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Christian, Muslim Israelis Not Welcome in Upper Nazareth TheNakbaContinues

By Jonathan Cook

PHOTO J. COOK

now risks being overrun by the region’s Arab population, especially as residents of Nazareth, many of them Christians, flee major land shortages and a near-bankrupt municipality.

Upper Nazareth’s mayor, Shimon Gapso, recently conceded that the proportion of Arabs in the city— once inhabited almost exclusively by Jews— has risen dramatically over the past 15 years.

One in five residents is now reported to be Arab, members of Israel’s large minority of 1.5 million Palestinian citizens.

According to human rights groups, fears of an Arab takeover stand behind a raft of controA giant Israeli flag flies outside the Upper Nazareth municipality versial municipal measures, from banning building.

Christmas trees and or nearly 60 years, the historic city of blocking the building of a school teaching Nazareth has been living with an un- in Arabic to the latest: refusing to stock Arabic books in local public libraries. welcome neighbor.

Unusually, Gapso is tight-lipped at the Upper Nazareth was built on Nazareth’s confiscated lands on the orders of Israel’s moment, after being found guilty of corfirst prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. It ruption, including bribery, in February. He was part of an official campaign to “Ju- has refused interviews until the court isdaize” the only Palestinian city to survive sues a sentence in the coming weeks that may see him barred from office. the 1948 war relatively unscathed.

But he stands behind earlier public But if Upper Nazareth and its Jewish residents were supposed to overwhelm statements about the need to keep the city the Galilee city that, according to the Jewish—even as the municipality faces Bible, was home to Jesus, it has largely being taken to court over what human rights groups describe as the city’s “racist” failed.

A far greater danger, admit Upper policies.

In a now-infamous response to what he Nazareth’s officials, is that their small city called “bleeding-heart” critics published Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in in 2013 in the Haaretz newspaper, Gapso Nazareth and a winner of the Martha Gell- wrote: “I’m not afraid to say it out loud… horn Special Prize for Journalism. His most Upper Nazareth is a Jewish city and it’s imrecent book is Disappearing Palestine (avail- portant that it remains so. If that makes me able from AET’s Middle East Books and a racist, then I’m the proud offshoot of a glorious dynasty of ‘racists.’”

More).

F

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

According to Mohammed Zeidan, director of the Human Rights Association in Nazareth, Upper Nazareth’s policies are not simply a reflection of the mayor’s personal initiatives, but part of a wider political culture found in both the city and Israel.

“It is bound up with the concepts of a ‘Jewish city’ and Israel’s Judaization program in the Galilee,” he said. “The racism was inherent in Upper Nazareth’s establishment as a way to neutralize the supposed threat posed by a large Arab population the state regarded as the ‘enemy.’”

Orna Yosef, Upper Nazareth’s spokeswoman, said the city welcomed all Israeli citizens but maintained that it could never have an Arab majority—or an Arab mayor.

“What Ben-Gurion wanted for the city, the municipality wants, too,” she said. “It was built for the Jewish people.”

Accusations of racism, while embarrassing city officials, appear to be relished by Gapso. In the last municipal election campaign, in 2013, he littered Upper Nazareth with posters denouncing himself in the words of his sternest critics, including a description of himself as “racist scum.”

It proved a winning formula. Even as corruption allegations swirled around him, Jewish residents re-elected him by a landslide majority.

Upper Nazareth’s officials can therefore hardly be surprised that they are again in the crosshairs of human rights organizations.

In the latest clash, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) announced in late March that it was launching a legal challenge over the city’s failure to stock a single book in Arabic in any of its three public libraries.

ACRI noted that those libraries have many books in other languages, including English, Russian, Spanish and French, even though—unlike Arabic—none are classed as an official language in Israel.

Auni Banna, a lawyer with ACRI, said they had sent a stream of letters over the past three years demanding that Upper Nazareth address the failure to provide library and cultural services to its Palestinian population.

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Yosef said the municipality would consider building a separate library for the Arab population next year, but added that it would need â&#x20AC;&#x153;time and money.â&#x20AC;?

Banna said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have yet to receive an answer from Upper Nazareth, but what they have discussed previously is creating a small separate libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;maybe just a few shelvesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;hidden away in an Arab neighborhood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That sends an implicit message that Arabs are not welcome in other areas, and especially not in the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main public spaces, such as the central library. That is not satisfactory.â&#x20AC;?

Banna added that city officials also needed to create a central database of books in Arabic and provide enrichment services, such as story time, lectures and homework assistance, as it does for the Jewish public.

Hani Salloum, a resident who joined ACRIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s petition, said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;As residents and citizens who pay taxes, it is our rightâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;both for adults and childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to receive budgets and resources that allow us to access books in our mother tongue.â&#x20AC;?

Tensions over the influx of Palestinian citizens have been growing since 2005, when the Israeli government quietly designated Upper Nazareth for the first time a â&#x20AC;&#x153;mixed city.â&#x20AC;?

In most of Israel, residency is strictly segregated on the basis of ethnicity. Admissions committees block non-Jews from living in hundreds of rural communities that have jurisdiction over most of Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s territory.

However, with successive governments refusing to approve a single new Arab community since Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founding, the Galileeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Judaization cities have come under growing pressure from Palestinian citizens who want to leave towns and villages that have become massively overcrowded.

Elected in 2009, Gapso ran on an overtly anti-Arab platformâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;later dropped on legal adviceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;of setting up a municipal fund designed to help Jews buy homes in the city.

He has refused to allow a mosque or church to be built, or to allot a section of the municipal cemetery for non-Jews. In 2010 he banned Christmas trees in public buildings.

His officials were also found in contempt by the supreme court in 2011 for failing to implement a 2002 ruling that road signs include Arabic as well as Hebrew.

After protests in Nazareth against Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attack on Gaza in late 2012, Gapso made JUNE/JULY 2015

headlines calling the neighboring city â&#x20AC;&#x153;a nest of terrorâ&#x20AC;? and demanding the government declare it â&#x20AC;&#x153;a city hostile to the state of Israel.â&#x20AC;?

But most controversially, he has refused to approve an Arabic-language school for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2,000 Palestinian children. Instead, given Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s segregated education system, pupils have been forced to scramble for places in heavily overcrowded schools in neighboring Nazareth.

Gapso characterized letters from ACRI demanding that the mayor honor his legal commitment to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arab children as â&#x20AC;&#x153;a provocative nationalist statement.â&#x20AC;? The Education Ministry so far has declined to intervene.

In 2013, as Gapso came under mounting pressure on the schools issue, he sent out a pamphlet to residents warning: â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is the time to guard our home!â&#x20AC;ŚAll requests for foreign characteristics in the city are refused.â&#x20AC;?

He explained that he had erected giant Israeli flags, bearing the Star of David, at every intersection between Nazareth and Upper Nazareth â&#x20AC;&#x153;so that people will know that [Upper Nazareth] is a Jewish city.â&#x20AC;?

Jewish Fears of an â&#x20AC;&#x153;Arab Takeoverâ&#x20AC;?

Gapsoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very public struggle against an â&#x20AC;&#x153;Arab takeoverâ&#x20AC;? has resonated more widely in Israel, where there are longstanding fears among Israeli Jews about the faster growth rate of the Palestinian population.

Other Judaization cities, faced with growing migration from Palestinian citizens living in surrounding communities, have tried to adopt similar policies.

Officials in Karmiel, in the central Galilee, set up a hotline in 2010 for Jewish residents to inform on neighbors planning to sell homes to Arabs. There have also been reports of vigilante-style patrols deterring Palestinian residents of neighboring villages from entering the city.

Nationalist politicians regularly refer to the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palestinian citizens, a fifth of the population, as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;demographic timebomb.â&#x20AC;?

The minority, which is increasingly highlighting its historic and emotional links to Palestinians in the occupied territories, has also been characterized as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;cancerâ&#x20AC;? and a â&#x20AC;&#x153;fifth column.â&#x20AC;?

Gapso rapidly became the darling of right-wing parties in Binyamin Netanyahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two previous governments for his outspoken stance. He found an especially close ally in Uri Ariel, a settler and THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the housing minister until elections in March.

Together, they devised a plan to quickly restore the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Judaization role. A new neighborhood of 3,000 homes is being built that will be available only to Jews. It is being marketed exclusively to the ultraOrthodox population.

The decision to bring fundamentalist religious Jews into a city that is currently dominated by secular immigrants from the former Soviet Union appears to have been guided chiefly by demographic considerations.

Typically, the ultra-Orthodox have large families of up to 10 children. Some 30,000 new Jews will boost the Jewish majority in a city that currently numbers only 50,000 residents.

Spokeswoman Yosef said the neighborhood would ensure â&#x20AC;&#x153;Arabs cannot be the majority.â&#x20AC;?

Raed Ghattas, an Arab councilor in Upper Nazareth, said such policies were part of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;continuum of racismâ&#x20AC;? in the city.

Local Arab residents feared that the municipalityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intention in bringing in religious Jews in such large numbers was to trigger ethnic and religious tensions, he added.

Across Israel, there have been reports of ultra-Orthodox communities clashing with secular populations, stoning cars that drive on the Sabbath and attacking women for being immodestly dressed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Looked at objectively, this obsession with demography, planning and classifying everything in terms of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Arabâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Jewishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is seriously abnormal behavior,â&#x20AC;? said Mohammed Zeidan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But it makes sense in a state whose goal is to dominate everything that is not Jewish. Then the smallest features of life, even the books in a library, become part of your national struggle.â&#x20AC;? â?&#x2018; (Advertisement)

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views_16-18_Three Views 5/7/15 9:54 PM Page 16

Three Views

CHIP SOMODEVILLA//GETTY IMAGES

Congress, Israel and a Nuclear Agreement With Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses AIPAC’s 2012 annual policy conference in Washington, DC, after having discussed Iran with President Barack Obama earlier in the day.

Israel to Push Congress to Pass Bill to Hamper Iran Deal

By Barak Ravid

srael will adopt two lines of attack as it

Itries to thwart—or at least modify—the

international nuclear agreement with Iran in the coming weeks, a senior official said.

Firstly, it will lobby the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would make it difficult, or even impossible, to approve a comprehensive deal with Iran if one is reached by the June 30 deadline.

At the same time, it will continue pressing the White House for the “improvements” Israel says must be made in the terms of the agreement, the official said.

Israel will try to persuade as many congressmen and senators as possible to support the bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill sets a 60-day period from the moment an overall agreement is reached with Iran, during which Congress and the Senate will check and review its every detail.

Copyright © Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved.

16

The bill obliges senior officials of the Obama administration to submit detailed reports to Congress and attend a series of hearings about the agreement. It also says that legislation of U.S. sanctions may be revoked only if the House and Senate foreign affairs committees make a joint decision supporting the agreement within those 60 days.

The current draft of Corker’s proposal cannot prevent the agreement, but only delay its implementation for some time and put bureaucratic obstacles in its path.

The Israeli official said Israel will try to persuade congressmen and senators to introduce a clause stipulating that the agreement with Iran should be seen as an international treaty. A U.S.-signed international treaty requires a Senate vote to go into effect.

“There’s a political struggle in Congress over Iran,” the official said. “Congress can make a decision that it’s a treaty and not an agreement. Those issues are being debated, so why don’t we make the most of it?”

The White House objects to Corker’s proposal and may veto it. It is also not at all clear whether Corker would want to include such a clause in his bill. The Israeli THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

official said that in view of all the Republican senators’ full support for Corker’s bill, Israel’s efforts will focus on persuading Democratic senators to support it. This would neutralize the presidential veto, he said.

The support of 67 senators is required to overturn a presidential veto. Since only 54 senators are Republican, Israel must obtain the support of 13 Democratic senators for the move. In the current situation, especially after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech in Congress, which brought Democratic senators closer to Obama, the passage of such a bill with such a substantive clause and the overturn of a presidential veto is a difficult, if not impossible, mission.

The official said that at the same time, Israel will continue its talks with the administration on the agreement’s various clauses. Since quite a few of the clauses have been left open and no agreement was reached on them, Israel believes they can be changed to improve the agreement.

What Israel Wants At a briefing to foreign journalists on April 6, Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz outlined the improvements Israel wishes to make in the agreement.

First of all, Israel seeks a significant reduction in the number of centrifuges Iran will continue to operate and could put to immediate use if it decides to produce a bomb. According to the framework agreement, Iran can continue to operate 6,000 centrifuges.

Secondly, it seeks the closing of the fortified uranium enrichment facility in Fordo. As per the framework, the facility would continue operating but would only be used for the purpose of nuclear research, and not uranium enrichment.

Thirdly, Israel wants the sanctions imposed on Iran to be lifted gradually and according to its progress in implementing the agreement. This remains a point of contention in the framework; Iran wants all the sanctions to be lifted at once, while the world powers demand that this be done gradually.

Fourthly, Israel wants the agreement to require Iran to expose the full details of its nuclear program’s potential military asJUNE/JULY 2015

views_16-18_Three Views 5/7/15 9:54 PM Page 17

pects. The framework addresses this issue, but only in general terms.

The fifth demand seeks to require Iran to get rid of its stockpile of 3.5-percent-enriched uranium. This issue is yet to be agreed upon; Iran is refusing to ship abroad the 10-ton stockpile, agreeing only to dilute the enriched uranium and convert it into oxide.

Finally, Israel wants International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to be able to access any site in Iran, at any point in time. The framework addresses this issue extensively, but Israel claims that the current wording allows Iran to prevent inspectors from accessing military facilities.

It’s unclear whether Israel’s dual strategy can succeed considering the contradiction between the two channels. One factor that has hurt Israel’s ability to influence the framework agreement was the working assumption at the White House that Netanyahu and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer colluded with senior Republicans in Congress to thwart the deal.

Netanyahu’s invitation to address Congress in March was viewed by the White House as unequivocal proof of this. Israel’s actions in Congress against the deal led the White House to decide a few weeks ago to limit the scope and quality of information that the U.S. gives Israel on the negotiations with Iran. This, in order to prevent Netanyahu and Dermer from using this information to thwart the agreement. As a result, Israel was surprised to learn of significant parts of the understandings reached between Iran and the world powers.

The Israeli official said he did not believe Israel’s lobbying in Congress would harm its ability to influence the White House about the agreement.

“There’s no contradiction between an attempt to thwart the agreement and an attempt to improve it,” he said.

“Imagine that in a few years we’ll have to make a harsh move [an Israeli military offensive against Iran]. Then people will ask why the prime minister didn’t act in every way possible ahead of time,” he said.

with flags flying,” President Reagan once told me.

Today, it is “Bibi” Netanyahu and the neocons howling “kill the deal” and “bomb Iran” who are shoving the Republican Party toward the cliff.

The question, which may decide 2016, may be framed thus: Should a Republican Congress meticulously point out the flaws and risks of this nuclear deal with Iran and, if the Iranians do cheat or attempt a breakout, be rewarded for their skepticism and statesmanship?

Or should the GOP sabotage and scuttle the deal and let itself be held politically liable for the diplomatic and strategic disaster that would follow?

Consider the consequences of successful Republican sabotage.

The U.S. coalition of France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China would be shattered. But the U.N. Security Council, China, Russia and the Europeans would still go ahead and lift sanctions on Iran.

Should Congress override a veto by President Obama, pile new sanctions on Iran, and demand new concessions, Tehran could ignore us or declare itself no longer bound to the concessions it has already made.

If Iran then began to restore its nuclear program to where it was 18 months ago, we would have one option left to stop it: war.

But Obama is not going to war with Iran.

Hence, goaded by the neocons, GOP candidates would spend 2015 and 2016 assuring the nation that war with Iran is still “on the table” should they win the White

House.

Is this a winning platform?

Yet this is the path Bibi and the neocons would put America on.

John Bolton, a possible presidential candidate, has already come out for bombing Iran. John McCain urges Israel to “go rogue,” prodding Bibi to launch a strike on Iran and drag us into his war.

Lindsey Graham supports “an authorization for the use of military force” against Iran and said in 2010 that we should launch an air war so massive that Iran would be unable to defend itself.

Sheldon Adelson, casino oligarch and Daddy Warbucks who put $100 million behind the party in 2012 and promises more this time, has advocated a nuclear strike to warn Iran to stop enriching and a follow-up nuclear strike on its capital if Iran defies us.

“Kill the Deal” is the headline on Bill Kristol’s editorial in the Weekly Standard.

Writes neocon Joshua Muravchik, war is “our only option.” Gov. Scott Walker has declared that his first act as president would be to kill the nuclear deal.

President Walker would thus put us, alone, without allies, on a road to war—to strip Iran of weapons of mass destruction it does not have.

Is this what America can look forward to if it votes Republican?

A new Middle East war with a nation three times the size of Iraq, and with Dover receiving again the coffins and Walter Reed the casualties?

Which brings us to Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who declined to sign Tom Cotton’s

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By Patrick J. Buchanan

at, sometimes it seems like our

“Pfriends want me to go over the cliff

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cate, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Patrick J. Buchanan and Creators Syndicate, Inc. JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

17

views_16-18_Three Views 5/7/15 9:54 PM Page 18

letter to Ayatollah Khamenei and is best positioned to plumb the depths of this nuclear deal to determine whether Iran’s concessions are real.

Iran has agreed to cut back its operating centrifuges to 5,000, to reconfigure its Arak reactor so it does not produce plutonium, to stop enriching underground at Fordo, to dilute all of its 20-percent enriched uranium, and to allow in more inspectors and inspections.

If true, the deal appears to do what Obama says it does: close off every known avenue to an Iranian bomb.

My own sense is that Iran decided some time ago not to test a nuclear device because it believes, as do we, this could mean the spread of nukes to Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia—which Iran does not want any more than we do.

Corker should schedule testimony from National Intelligence Director Adm. James Clapper and the directors of the CIA and DIA. The critical questions: Does the U.S. intelligence community stand by its declaration of three years ago that Iran does not have a bomb program?

How long would it take Iran, if it decided to go for a bomb, to build and test one? How long would it take us to discover a breakout?

Does Iran have an ICBM that can hit the United States, as Bibi claims? Is Iran testing intercontinental ballistic missiles?

The GOP should raise every legitimate question, but if the deal seems to do what Obama claims it does, let it go into effect.

Then, if Iran cheats, the nation will turn to the GOP. But if Iran abides by the deal and the deal accomplishes what Obama promises, the GOP can say: We did our due diligence. We did our duty.

Should the deal collapse, Republicans will be far better off if the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or some new ayatollah sabotaged it than if Congress is seen as the perpetrator.

Iran Deal Could Lead to an Isolated, Disempowered U.S.

By William Pfaff

he framework agreement reached in

Tearly April between the U.N. “5 plus

1” group and Iran has won general approval internationally, except in Israel and among Binyamin Netanyahu’s Republican William Pfaff, who died April 30, was an international affairs columnist and the author of eight books, the latest being The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy (Walker & Co.). Copyright © 2015 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 18

Party claque in Washington, where such was never expected. What this agreement also does is point the way toward an isolated and disempowered United States, depending on the choices it makes.

In my view, the importance of the Iran nuclear issue has always been vastly exaggerated. Even if Tehran possessed nuclear weapons, these would be of no strategic value other than that which Israel—possessor of land, sea and air nuclear deterrence— has attributed to them, in the hope that the United States would do to Iran what it did in 2003 to Iraq, invade and destroy it. That would leave Israel the only significant military power in the Middle East.

Washington did not take Israel’s bait, even though the Israeli government and its American friends have tried hard enough to convince the United States to go to war against Iran. Indeed, the chorus of congressional advocates of bombing other nations into the Stone Age is still singing, with Iraq still in ruins and with more ruins being created by the U.S.-led coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State.

I have sometimes thought that the simple solution to the Iran nuclear problem would have been for Washington to insist on Israel-Iran nuclear parity. Iran would be free to build up to a level of nuclear weapons to which Israel would build down. Hence mutually assured destruction in the Middle East—just like the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war. But a fanciful idea, I concede.

Yet even then, neither country would be in a position to intimidate its neighbors in the Middle East. Being the sixth (or is it fifth?) most powerful nuclear state in the world has got Israel nowhere, except for providing Israelis who are really afraid of Iran with a certain peace of mind, even if THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the Iranian nuclear threat for the past quarter-century has been a chimera.

Israel, despite its rockets, nuclear bombers and nuclear missile-launching submarines, has been harassed by persistent irregular acts of war, assassinations and civil uprisings by Palestinian guerrillas, and in its foreign conquests in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Syria by formidable Arab resistance movements like Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel’s nuclear weaponry has sat there gathering dust. The same thing would be true of Iran’s bomb, if it had one, although there would no longer be the same peace of mind in certain quarters.

What happens at the end of June? We may find ourselves in the same stalemate we faced on the eve of the Lausanne outline agreements. Nobody still agrees. Quite likely is that the Obama administration and its U.N. partners, the 5 plus 1, will agree with Tehran on the terms for a permanent settlement, but the Republican-controlled Senate of the United States will refuse to ratify a treaty embodying the agreement, or find another way to subvert acceptance.

That is what the Senate Republicans have promised, and there is no reason to doubt them. However, the president makes foreign policy decisions. Moreover, these negotiations have been between the United Nations permanent Security Council members and Germany, and none of them is subject to the whims of the United States Senate. Neither is any vote they take on the fate of the international sanctions against Iran.

Hence it is perfectly possible that a Security Council—in which the veto is not exercised—would agree to the outcome of the present negotiations and lift the sanctions now imposed upon Iran, leaving the United States to its national peculiarities and solitary solidarity with Israel.

This would certainly suit Tehran, which longs to be freed from the sanctions regime and to rejoin an international marketplace it would share with Europe and Asia, Canada and Latin America, and with the Russians and Chinese, probably joining the new international financial institutions being created by the latter two.

A new Republican administration in the United States in 2016 could use its weight in the existing Bretton Woods institutions, but to little purpose. A Republican-led American economy would find itself at a grave disadvantage in a new economic system that profits from the United States’ own Republican Party policy choices.

These choices would have led the U.S toward international isolation, and opened Russia, China, Europe and the Pacific economies to a novel international order in which the United States would no longer be No. 1. ❑ JUNE/JULY 2015

levy_19_Special Report 5/7/15 9:56 PM Page 19

Killing in Gaza, Saving in Nepal: Israel’s Moral Hypocrisy SpecialReport

By Gideon Levy he uniform is the same uniform. It’s the

dreds of homes and schools and clinics in Gaza last summer. It’s the uniform whose wearers periodically shoot teenagers and children throwing stones and peaceful demonstrators in the West Bank. It’s the uniform that every night invades homes and brutally pulls people out of bed, often for needless and politically motivated arrests. It’s the uniform that blocks people’s freedom of movement in their own land.

It’s the uniform that’s been abusing an entire people for decades.

Now its wearers are saving lives for the cameras. The evil army in Palestine has become the salvation army in Nepal.

The Israeli rescuers in Nepal are certainly infused with good intentions. The reserve soldiers among them told of dropping everything to join the effort. They are definitely good people who enlisted to help Israelis and Nepalese. It’s very moving to see a preemie being carried to safety by an IDF soldier.

But we cannot forget that wearing that same uniform, the IDF kills babies by the dozens; a B’Tselem report released last week listed 13 instances in which homes were blown up in Gaza, killing 31 babies and 39 children. He who did this to dozens of babies needs an intolerable measure of chutzpah to dare be photographed with a baby rescued from an earthquake and to boast of his humanitarianism.

Because after all, boasting is the name of the game. That’s a fact. Let’s show ourselves, and particularly the rest of the world, how wonderful we are, how the IDF is really the absolutely most moral army in the world.

“Have you seen any Iranian rescue planes?” asked a propagandist in disguise yesterday. “A model state,” “The beautiful Israel,” “The Israeli flag among the ruins,” “The pride.” “Our delegation of ministering angels represents the universal values of our people and our country,” the president said.

“These are the true faces of Israel—a country prepared to assist at any distance at such moments,” the prime minister said.

Gideon Levy is a columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz. Copyright © Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved.

JUNE/JULY 2015

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Tuniform whose wearers blew up hun-

Injured Nepalese women wait to be treated by IDF medics at the Israeli field hospital on the second day of their missin in Kathmandu, April 29, 2015.

Ministering angels? The country’s true face? Perhaps. But that angelic face also has a dark, satanic side, one that kills babies, not only saves them. When that’s the case, one cannot speak of “universal values.”

One cannot speak of values at all. There is simply no right to do so. To see Avigdor Lieberman, the bully who preaches at every turn to bomb, shell and destroy, speak of humanitarianism?

There are countries that aren’t providing as much generous aid as Israel, but there isn’t a single country behaving with such hypocrisy—killing in Gaza, saving in Nepal, and presenting itself as Mother Teresa. There is no other country that so exploits every opportunity to propagandize and shower itself with syrupy, embarrassing self-adulation ad nauseam.

Babies die in the child warehouses at the Tel Aviv central bus station not from some force majeure, but because of a cruel immigration policy. The IDF isn’t saving those babies. There was an earthquake in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge; the rubble has not been cleared to this day, and most of THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

those who lost their homes remain homeless.

No one has visited Gaza recently without being shocked to their very core. And that earthquake was manmade; it was the work of the IDF, the same IDF that’s in Nepal.

Israel doesn’t have to go all the way to Kathmandu to save lives; it would be enough to lift the siege it imposes an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv and let Gaza be rebuilt.

It would be enough to allow the two million people who live there a bit of freedom.

It would be enough to decide that during the next attack, which is inevitable, the IDF will act differently. That the same IDF now engaged in rescue will not commit more war crimes. That it will uphold international law, and perhaps even those “universal values” Israel is gloating about now.

That the same IDF now hugging babies will not bomb homes with babies inside them.

But all this is, of course, much harder than sending a 747 to Kathmandu and setting up the largest possible, best-equipped field hospital in front of the accompanying army of reporters, and applauding the beautiful, virtuous, moral Israel. ❑ 19

hanley_20-21_Special Report 5/7/15 10:02 PM Page 20

Getting Past the Optics of Resistance to Fight Racism in Baltimore and Israel SpecialReport

JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Delinda C. Hanley

LEFT: Protesters throw rocks during clashes with police on April 27, 2015 in Baltimore, MD.; RIGHT: Israeli security forces assault an Ethiopian-Israeli demonstrator during a May 3, 2015 protest in Tel Aviv. he sounds of sirens, surveillance

Tplanes, helicopters and armored mili-

tary vehicles filled the streets of Baltimore, MD on April 27 following the funeral for Freddie Gray, 25. Another young black man dead from wounds sustained in police custody. More nonstop news coverage, playing and replaying images of mayhem, looting, arson—and ignoring other scenes of peaceful protesters condemning yet another brutal police action committed in a black community in America.

Three days later, on April 30, a similar scene played out in Tel Aviv, when Israel’s Ethiopian community launched protests in Rabin Square following the release of damning video footage showing two Israeli police officers beating up Demas Fekadeh, an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian origin, in uniform on April 28. Israel is home to more than 135,000 Ethiopian Jews and, like blacks in America, they are disproportionately targeted by police. In fact, Israeli police gave black protesters “the Palestinian treatment,” firing tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades and “skunk water.”

Delinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

20

The timing, topic and speakers couldn’t have been more relevant for Sabeel DC Metro’s 4th annual spring program, “Palestine and Zion: The Journey for Civil Rights,” held May 2 at the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. Rev. Kenneth H. King, pastor of New Hope Baptist United Church of Christ in Laurel, MD, promised to explore ways for African Americans and churches to respond to suffering and discrimination experienced by Palestinians, blacks and others “who have been cast aside” in their communities.

After spending days helping his fellow citizens get through the crisis, Rev. Dr. Heber M. Brown, III, senior pastor at Baltimore’s Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, drove to DC to discuss the similarities of the civil right struggles facing Palestinians, Ethiopian Israelis and black Americans.

Freddie Gray’s controversial in-custody death was but the latest in a “receiving line of state violence” in Baltimore, Rev. Brown observed. In July 2013, Tyrone West was stopped for a broken tail light by police driving an unmarked car. West was dragged from his vehicle by his dreadlocks, beaten, maced and tased. The officers involved in West’s death remain on active duty today.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The American Civil Liberties Union recently reported that between 2010 and 2014, 109 people died after encounters with police in Maryland—31 in Baltimore, including Anthony Anderson, Trayvon Scott and George V. King. For decades African-American citizens have suffered from police brutality. “So don’t use the word riot,” Reverend Brown instructed his audience. “That’s for a senseless action.

Monday an uprising, a rebellion, began.”

That being said, Reverend Brown suggested that corporate news had sensationalized Baltimore’s uprising in much the same way it has treated protests by Palestinians—focusing on the “rage instead of the reasons.” Where were the cameras when rival Baltimore gang members— Bloods, Crips and Black Guerilla Family— joined men from the Nation of Islam and other clergy and street organizers to stand shoulder to shoulder to keep the peace and stop looting? Brown asked.

Social media described the troubles as Baltimore’s intifada, posting and tweeting a photo of a young black man throwing a rock beside another photo of a Palestinian brother with a rock in his hand, Reverend Brown said.

Why can’t Americans get behind and JUNE/JULY 2015

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

PHOTO COURTESY PHIL PORTLOCK

hanley_20-21_Special Report 5/7/15 10:02 PM Page 21

Rev. Graylan S. Hagler.

Rev. Dr. Heber M. Brown, III. support either rebellion by a besieged community calling for dignity? “Who threw rocks at a giant?” he asked, referring to the Biblical story of David and Goliath.

“I’m not saying you should go throw rocks, but you should see what is being expressed,” Brown emphasized.

It’s easy to be critical of those being oppressed by state violence, Brown said, but he urged people to look past the expression of pain and examine the oppression.

Then he painted a grim picture of Baltimore: It’s a “food desert—it really is.

There’s lead in our water system. Schools aren’t equipped: they close if it gets too cold or too hot. Brown, black and poor are moved out to make way for gentrification.

“Don’t just be concerned with how people are crying out but why they’re crying out,” Brown urged. “They want safe schools for their children, hospitals, jobs.

Are we different from one another? Don’t we want the same thing?”

Brown advised supporters to push past the “optics of resistance.” Recalling an Interfaith Peace-Builder trip he took to Israel and the occupied territories in 2010, Brown said he was impressed by the great creativity Palestinians use to express themselves, including murals on Israel’s apartheid wall and raps by hip hop artists.

Brown was in Ramallah when the Israeli military attacked the Gaza-bound flotilla.

“I jumped on the bus and joined in a march,” he recalled. “I met my cousins, my aunties and uncles. My fist was pumping along with everyone. You don’t have to know the language to recognize injustice.”

Reverend Brown said he was struck by an interview with “a sister” who told him, “I know you are good people in America. I know about Rachel Corrie [killed by a bulldozer operator as she tried to stop it from demolishing a home in Gaza]. Please look where your taxes are going.” Even though the U.S. acts like a neutral broker, Brown insisted, our money is supporting Israel’s military and backing oppression.

JUNE/JULY 2015

“It’s time to repurpose our privilege,” Brown suggested. “What do you do with what is given to you? Bend our privilege in the direction of justice. If we have a U.S. passport, it’s a symbol and sign of privilege; white males in this country are a symbol of privilege; heterosexuals are a symbol of privilege; Christians are a symbol of privilege. If you’ve had breakfast this morning, that’s a symbol of privilege.” Brown urged listeners to “Lean in and be sensitive to someone else’s story.

Show up when you don’t have to, when you have a choice not to.”

Jews use the excuse that they are the chosen people of God to justify occupation, Brown continued. It’s the same justification people used to enslave or hang our ancestors. Throughout history that’s the justification used to oppress others. Rev. Brown concluded: “God is bigger than one religion.” In that final meeting God will call together Bloods, Crips, Blacks, Jews, Christians, Palestinians, Muslims and others in the human family. “Until then,” he said, “we don’t have to agree on everything to work on something. We can agree on working against oppression wherever we see it rear its ugly head.”

Black Lives Matter, in Tel Aviv and Baltimore Rev. Graylan S. Hagler, senior pastor at Plymouth Congregational UCC in Washington, DC, was born and raised in Baltimore. In fact, his grandmother’s house was in the neighborhood where the protests erupted.

Blocks of boarded-up vacant homes, poverty and social inequity have little to do with the riots of 1968 [following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.], Reverend Hagler said. It was divestment by Bethlehem Steel and General Motors that crushed Baltimore. Then politicians built a stadium and developed the Inner Harbor, he said, but ignored the despair of neighborhoods with 60 percent unemployment.

“Monday it looked like the intifada to me,” Hagler commented. Young folks facing police cars and GLOCKs without fear.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Step into this situation and turn around the focus to the occupied territories, Hagler suggested. Young Palestinians feeling their leaders are misrepresenting them, and they lead—risking their own lives— and their leaders have to follow.

When political leadership fails, and law enforcement officers use military force in their communities, young people feel like they’re living under occupation, Hagler explained, and they respond. “God bless young folks,” he added, before reading a statement from Baltimore church leaders in response to protesters: “It is imperative that we understand that this situation is deeply imbedded in institutionalized racist practices that must stop. The lives and future of our families and communities are at stake.”

Condemning the use of words like “thugs and hooligans” to describe what may be the germination of an intifada or rebellion, he urged listeners to dig deeper.

As Hagler watched a sea of young people drained of hope pouring out to face police cars, he said, he realized they were making use of the only tools at their disposal.

“Who’s to say what tools people should use to gain their own freedom?” Hagler asked. “What tactics are justified while your oppressors are carrying out genocide?” If people are beaten and abused and there is no system in place to support them, who can presume to tell them how to liberate themselves?

This is looking like an intifada, Hagler reiterated. There are parallels between racism on the streets of Baltimore, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Americans are “mixed up biblically,” Hagler continued. He recently visited a church whose leaders proudly told him their congregation was “building a bomb shelter” to protect besieged Israelis. Americans are wanting to do good.

Reverend Hagler is also trying to do good in his own DC church. Responding to the ubiquitous signs on U.S. synagogues supporting Israel, Hagler says he has proposed putting a sign on the church lawn saying, “End the Occupation. Free Palestine,” like they did to protest apartheid in South Africa.

He said he tells his congregation, “You can’t pick or choose racism—if it exists in the U.S. or Palestine or South Africa. You’ve got to stand up against racism wherever it is.”

Hagler closed with a quote from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial promising that “we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. God bless the young people. Black lives matter.” ❑ 21

mcmahon_22-23_Special Report 5/7/15 10:41 PM Page 22

Will Maryland’s Democratic Senate Primary Race Unmask the Israel Lobby?

ElectionWatch

WWW.HOUSE.GOV

By Janet McMahon

Maryland Democratic Senate candidates Reps. Donna Edwards (l) and Chris Van Hollen. he announcement by Sen. Barbara

TMikulski (D-MD) that she would not

run for re-election in 2016 caused the Washington Jewish Week to lament in a headline, “With Mikulski’s Retirement, Community Loses Ally.” The article went on to note that “Jewish political organizations praised Mikulski’s championing of Jewish causes, both foreign and domestic.”

Within days of the Catholic PolishAmerican senator’s March 2 announcement, two Democratic House members from Maryland announced they would vie for her seat: Chris Van Hollen on March 4, and Donna Edwards on March 10.

Initially it seemed that their campaigns would be perceived as Van Hollen’s experience vs. Edwards’ progressivism. On Medicare and Social Security, for example, Edwards took jabs at Van Hollen for having said he would be “willing to consider” cuts to the two programs.

Another, perhaps more significant, issue is also at play, however: the candidates’ support for Israel. Former AIPAC employee M.J. Rosenberg addressed that at the April 10 conference on The Israel Lobby cosponsored by the Washington Report and Janet McMahon is managing editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

22

the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). Noting that Van Hollen “has raised a million dollars for his Senate campaign and has two million more in the bank,” Rosenberg explained: “That would not be the case had he not changed his tune on Israel. Back in 2006, Chris Van Hollen got into deep hot water with the lobby when he criticized Israel’s conduct of the war with Hezbollah. He expressed support for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement that Israel was not taking care to avoid civilian casualties.

“Poor Chris. He was new then; didn’t know that such an audacious stand—expressing support for his own secretary of state—would cause the lobby to go nuts.

But it did. He was summoned to explain himself to the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, the local branch of the lobby, which he did. And then he issued a statement which retracted his earlier statement, but his mea culpas were not accepted. They insisted that he go to Israel and do his repentance there. And he did.

“The lobby types still didn’t trust him, but now, a decade later, with Van Hollen demonstrating his devotion, he is the lobby’s candidate, with his opponent, Rep. Donna Edwards, assigned the former Chris Van Hollen role of Israel critic.” (A comTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

plete transcript and video of Rosenberg’s remarks are available at <www.IsraelLob byUS.org>.)

Edwards, too, got off to a bad start with the lobby, but she has not apologized. In January 2009, shortly after she took office and in the midst of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead attack on Gaza, Edwards joined 21 other House members in voting “present,” rather than for, a nonbinding resolution “recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza.” Five House members voted against the bill.

A June 1, 2009 article in Politico titled, “Should Edwards Be Shvitzing?” reports that Edwards said “she chose not to back the resolution because Congress ought to instead support the United Nations’ call for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East.”

The article continues: “Her explanation did little to quell the controversy, and in the weeks after Jewish leaders complained that an Edwards-sponsored forum on the Israel-Palestine conflict failed to include a hawkish, pro-Israel voice and that the firstterm congresswoman was unresponsive to requests to organize a meeting with suburban Washington Jewish leaders to discuss the vote.”

Following a 2009 trip to Israel and the occupied territories with her Democratic House colleagues Brian Baird of Washington state (among whose constituents was the family of Rachel Corrie) and Peter Welch of Vermont, Edwards said, “As an African-American woman, I really didn’t have a perception of a significant minority population in Israel, and there is.”

In February 2012 she was one of 6 congresswomen and 14 leading women philanthropists on a J Street-sponsored trip to Israel and the West Bank. “In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv it’s so easy not to see much of what we saw,” Edwards commented about the trip. “But what does it mean for democracy when you are willing to sacrifice so much in the name of security?”

Not surprisingly, there have been attempts to unseat Edwards. Former Prince George’s County prosecutor Glenn Ivey contemplated running against her in 2010 and 2012, but ultimately withdrew. And following the 2010 census, both Edwards’ and Van Hollen’s districts were drastically altered, with both representatives losing much of weathy, and heavily Jewish, Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, DC. JUNE/JULY 2015

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The question was, would the mainstream media—specifically, The Washington Post—report on this simmering controversy over Israel, or would only readers of the Jewish press—and the Washington Report—be in on the secret? It’s been apparent for years that the Post is loath to put the words “Israel lobby” next to each other. In its story about Edwards announcing her decision to run for the Senate, the Post described her as a “liberal hard-liner.”

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Mail your U.S. Tax-Deductible check to our American Foundation: But who should pop up amid the discussion of social welfare progressivism but enterFriends of UPMRC, Inc PO Box 450554 • Atlanta, GA 31145 tainer Barbra Streisand, who contributed $2,600 to the Edwards campaign. “The conFor more information call: (404) 441-2702 or e-mail: fabuakel@gmail.com tribution is a sign that Edwards is on the radar of deep-pocketed national liberals,” the Post noted. Then, taking a deep breath, other national organizations. Indeed, acAlluding to Streisand’s star power, the it continued, “It’s also noteworthy because cording to The Baltimore Sun, “Nearly 80 Sun’s John Fritze noted, “Perhaps the most Streisand, who is Jewish, is a longtime sup- percent of the money Rep. Donna F. Ed- interesting name on Van Hollen’s donor list porter of Israel, while Edwards has been wards raised for her Senate campaign [in was Judy Gross, wife of Alan Gross—the criticized by some as insufficiently so.”

March] came from out-of-state donors.… former Marylander who was imprisoned in Ten days later, on May 1, the Post ran an [while] Rep. Chris Van Hollen…raised 74 Cuba for five years.” (See May/June 2011 article headlined, “Edwards’s Israel Votes percent of his cash from Maryland—much Washington Report, p. 20.) As Gross’ repan Issue in Campaign,” by Rachel Weiner. of it from Montgomery County.” resentative, Van Hollen worked hard to se“As she campaigns for cure her husband’s rethe Democratic nominalease. tion,” Weiner wrote, Whoever wins the “Edwards is facing Democratic primary pushback over stances next April, MarylanDRONE VICTIMS TESTIFY IN CONGRESS she has taken in issues ders will lose an effecTHE L ESSON S IN HA PROPOSAL involving Israel that tive and knowledgeable GEL’S NUCLEAR ’S AN IR IN QUISIT IGNORING ION have some questioning representative, since her support for the Jewneither Edwards nor ish state. Whether that Van Hollen, as Senate record will stymie her candidates, can run for Senate bid reflects a re-election to their larger concern among House seats. (Ivey is Israel’s liberal critics: now running for the TOTAL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL: MORE THAN $130 BILLION SHIMON PERES: WHEN THE GODS LAUGH the extent to which seat Edwards is vacatTHE HOLY LAND FOUNDATION CASE candidates can question ing.)

Israel’s policies without As Rosenberg sumjeopardizing their politmarized the race at the ical futures.” recent Israel Lobby conPointing out that Jews ference: “This [is] going make up about 4.3 perto be one of the biggest cent of Maryland resiissues in Maryland, in dents, Weiner went on the primary, that Donna to note that “Edwards is Edwards is an enemy of not ignoring this conIsrael, the Jewish peoContact the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs stituency. She placed ple. None of it’s true.

P.O. Box 91056 • Long Beach, CA 90809-1056 Passover greetings in And Chris Van Hollen, Telephone: (888) 881-5861 • Fax (714) 226-9733 local Jewish newspapers who has the same views For further information call (202) 939-6050 last month, and visited as she does, he’s smartly e-mail:circulation@wrmea.org • Web site: www.wrmea.org Beth Am Synagogue in insulated against them Digital and Regular Subscriptions (U.S. Funds only, please) Baltimore recently.…But by making all his apolo1 year 2 years 3 years Jewish leaders are more gies.” concerned about what Let’s hope the voters U.S. Subscriptions $29 $ 55 $ 75 Edwards has done in of Maryland are given Canadian Subscriptions $35 $ 65 $ 85 Congress.” the information they Overseas Subscriptions $70 $125 $185 Edwards has the supneed to make a truly inDigital Subscriptions $10 $ 20 $ 30 port of Emily’s List and formed decision. ❑

30+

Years of Telling the Truth

JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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mcarthur_24-26_Congress Watch 5/7/15 10:09 PM Page 24

“Framework” Nuclear Agreement With Iran Draws Predicted Reaction From Likudniks CongressWatch

By Shirl McArthur he April 2 an-

Tnouncement

that a “framework” agreement had been reached between Iran and the “P5+1” group of countries (permanent Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S., plus Germany) drew predictable criticisms from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his Likudnik supporters in Congress, as well as from AIPAC (aka Likud-USA).

The final deal is to be concluded by the end of June. Apparently panicking over the prospect of losing the specter of Iran’s “existential threat” to Israel to frighten and distract the Israeli population, Netanyahu claimed the deal would threaten Israel’s survival.

Most of the congressional arguments said, basically, that the deal isn’t good enough— even though the majority of objective observers described it as better than expected.

For the most part, congressional critics argued that any agreement that would let the Iranians “keep their nuclear infrastructure in place,” in the words of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is unacceptable. Of course, totally dismantling Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is not going to happen, so these critics essentially are arguing for no agreement, returning to the situation before last year’s interim agreement. In addition, critics of the agreement seem to be conveniently forgetting that it is not just between the U.S. and Iran – five other nations are involved.

Senate Passes Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Bill After the framework agreement was announced, congressional attention turned to Shirl McArthur is a retired U.S. foreign service officer based in the Washington, DC area.

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gaining Senate passage of S. 615, the “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review” bill, introduced in February by Sen. Bob Corker (RTN). According to Corker and other supporters of S. 615, it is only reasonable to provide for congressional review and oversight of agreements relating to Iran’s nuclear program. However, as introduced, the bill would have gone well beyond providing for congressional review. It included a number of “poison pill” provisions that Tehran would certainly find unacceptable, and would probably walk away from the negotiations as a result.

Among other things, the bill would have required that a final agreement, along with an extensive “verification assessment,” be submitted to Congress within five calendar days of the agreement being signed, which would pose an administrative challenge.

Also, the agreement would not be implemented for 60 days following transmittal of the verification report, to give Congress time to review the agreement and, presumably, act on it. During this time Iran would receive no benefits from the agreement.

There was also a provision that would eliminate all presidential waiver provisions in existing sanctions legislation, and another that would impose an additional condition that Iran is not supporting or engaged in terrorism anywhere in the world.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

As reported in the May “Congress Watch,” Senate Majority Leader McConnell on March 3 reintroduced Corker’s bill as S. 625, announced that he was “fasttracking” it, and submitted a “cloture motion” to cut off debate, bypassing regular committee procedures. But leading Democrats told McConnell that t h ey wou l d n ot support the bill until after the framework agreement was concluded, so he withdrew action on his S. 625.

On April 14 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a “mark-up” session on S. 615. After negotiating with Democrats—including new ranking committee member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)—Corker submitted an amendment as a substitute text for the bill. The amended bill still requires that a final agreement, along with an extensive “verification assessment,” be submitted to Congress within five calendar days of the agreement being signed. The period for congressional review, however, is reduced from 60 to 30 days. During that period the president may not waive or suspend any legislated sanctions—but this does not include other sanctions against Iran, such as those imposed by executive action or by international bodies. Unrelated provisions, such as the condition that Iran is not supporting or engaged in terrorism, are not included. Congress can pass either a resolution of disapproval, which would be subject to a presidential veto, or a resolution of approval, in which case sanctions relief under the final agreement may go forward. If Congress passes neither resolution during the review period, sanctions relief under the final agreement can also go ahead.

The committee passed the amended measure unanimously, by a 19-0 vote, on April 14. The bill was approved by the full JUNE/JULY 2015

mcarthur_24-26_Congress Watch 5/7/15 10:09 PM Page 25

Status Updates S.Res. 40, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in January, “supports the diplomatic efforts of the U.S. and the members of the P5+1 countries to reach a comprehensive agreement with Iran that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon”: still has 14 co-sponsors, including Feinstein.

S. 669, introduced in March by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), would “provide for the consideration of legislation to respond to a violation by Iran of an arrangement relating to its nuclear program”: still has 7 co-sponsors, including Boxer.

H.R. 825, introduced in February by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), promoted by AIPAC, and misleadingly titled the “U.S.-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement” bill: has 27 new cosponsors, for a total of 53, including Roskam.

S. 619, introduced in March by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH), “to include among the principal trade negotiating objectives of the U.S. regarding commercial partnerships trade negotiating objectives with respect to discouraging activity that discourages, penalizes, or otherwise limits commercial relations with Israel”: still has 6 co-sponsors, including Cardin and Portman.

H.R. 114, introduced by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) in January, to Senate on May 7 by a vote of 98-1, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) casting the sole vote against the bill. In a statement, he objected to the fact that the nuclear deal will not be presented to Congress as a treaty.

Treaties require a higher bar—67 votes— in order to be passed.

It has been widely reported that a significant result of Corker’s negotiations with Democrats was an agreement (not included in the text of the amended S. 615) that, between now and the scheduled June 30 conclusion of final negotiations, Congress will enact no further Iran sanctions legislation.

This would seem to put S. 269, the “Nuclear Weapons Free Iran” bill on hold, at least until the summer (see below).

Understandably, Obama had threatened to veto the bill as introduced. But after the amended bill passed the committee, the White House spokesman said it was “the kind of compromise that the president would be willing to sign.” McConnell gave another bone to the White House on May 5 by filing a “cloture motion” to end debate on the bill. This was done to prevent Sens.

Cotton and Marco Rubio (R-FL) from forcing a vote on an amendment requiring Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist as part of a final deal. Rubio, perhaps alluding to the power of Israel’s lobby, accused his colleagues of being “terrified” to vote against his pro-Israel amendment.

Meanwhile, on March 12, Corker wrote to Obama complaining about the several reports that the administration planned to bypass Congress regarding a nuclear agreement with Iran. He said “there is signifiJUNE/JULY 2015

“recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocate to Jerusalem the U.S. Embassy in Israel”: now has 18 cosponsors, including Garrett.

S. 117, introduced by Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) in January, to “recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocate to Jerusalem the U.S. Embassy in Israel”: still has 8 co-sponsors, including Heller.

H.Res. 126, introduced in February by Rep. Barbara Lee (DCA), “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding U.S. efforts to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace”: has gained 3 co-sponsors and now has 4, including Lee. Bills to Cut U.S. Aid to the Palestinians S. 34, introduced in January by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): still no co-sponsors.

H.R. 277, introduced in January by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL): still has 3 co-sponsors, including Hastings.

H.R. 364, introduced in January by Rep. Curt Clawson (R-FL): still has 5 co-sponsors, including Clawson.

S. 633, introduced in March by Senator Paul: still has no cosponsors.

—S.M.

cant and growing bipartisan support for Congress to consider and, as appropriate, vote on any agreement that seeks to relieve the very statutory sanctions imposed by Congress that were instrumental in bringing Iran to the negotiating table.”

On March 16, five Democratic House members signed a letter to McConnell, originated by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), condemning the outrageous, widely reported “open letter” to Iranian leadership originated

by Senator Cotton and signed by 47 Republican senators, attempting to scuttle the negotiations with Iran. The House letter calls the Cotton letter “yet another action that appears politically motivated to subvert the Obama administration’s international diplomacy.” Citing several nuclear-related recent executive agreements executed by presidents of both parties, the letter notes that “negotiators of these agreements were not subjected to congressional attempts to obstruct them by introducing a resolution of disapproval or up-or-down vote, or by sending a warning letter incentivizing parties to walk away from the negotiating table.”

On March 19, 367 House members signed a letter to Obama originated by Foreign Affairs Committee chair Ed Royce (R-CA) and ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) that was widely touted as laying out “red lines” for any agreement. But, in fact, probably in an effort to get as many signers as possible, the letter is relatively moderate and comes close to the Obama administration’s position. Its key provision reads: “Should an agreement with Iran be reached, permanent sanctions relief from THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

congressionally mandated sanctions would require new legislation. In reviewing such an agreement, Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb, and only then will Congress be able to consider permanent sanctions relief.”

“Nuclear Weapons Free Iran” Bill Apparently on Hold—for Now Passage of the Corker bill would seem to put on hold—at least until after June 30—the long and complicated S. 269, the “Nuclear Weapons Free Iran” bill, introduced in January by leading Iran hawks Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL). Like S. 615, it would require the president to submit to Congress the text of any agreement and a “verification assessment” report. Even if there is an agreement, however, there is also a provision prohibiting the president from exercising any waiver or any other action to limit the application of sanctions “until the date that is 30 days of continuous session of Congress after the president transmits these comprehensive solution and assessment reports.” Since Congress seldom is in session for 30 continuous days, this would mean that, even with an agreement, no sanctions could be waived until at least mid-November.

If there is no final agreement by July 6, the sanctions imposed on Iran during the “interim agreement” would be reimposed, and an escalating series of new sanctions would be imposed each month for the remainder of 2015. The section includes a presidential waiver provision, but only 25

mcarthur_24-26_Congress Watch 5/7/15 10:09 PM Page 26

subject to a report and certification that it is in the national security interest of the U.S., or if the waiver would make a longterm agreement with Iran more likely. The bill, which has been strongly pushed—if not written—by AIPAC, has 53 co-sponsors, including Kirk and Menendez.

S. 269 was referred to both the Foreign Relations and Banking Committees. The former has not acted on it. But, perhaps reflecting an administrative mix-up, the bill being marked up in the Banking Committee was similar to, but different from, S. 269, and on March 18 committee chair Richard Shelby (R-AL) introduced it as S. 792, with no co-sponsors, and reported it out to the full Senate, where it was placed on the Senate calendar.

Two new bills were introduced to “terminate the authority to waive certain provisions of law requiring the imposition of sanctions with respect to Iran.” On March 19 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced S. 825, and on March 23 Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) introduced H.R. 1540. Neither bill has any co-sponsors.

Another Bill Targeting “BDS” Movement Against Israeli Colonies On March 24 Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO),

with one co-sponsor, introduced H.R. 1572, a thinly disguised measure aimed at the “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) movement by individuals and organizations in response to Israel’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. The bill is intended “to oppose restrictive trade practices or boycotts against other countries friendly to the U.S. or against any U.S. person.”

Two bills were introduced to authorize cooperation with Israel to develop and establish an anti-tunneling defense system.

H.R. 1349 was introduced March 10 by Rep. Gwen Graham (D-FL) and 8 co-sponsors, and H.R. 1649 was introduced March 26 by Lamborn with no co-sponsors. H.R. 1649 would also authorize such arrangements with other U.S. allies. And H.R. 825 and S. 619 (see “Status Updates” box), both targeting the BDS movement, have gained little support.

Following several unhelpful comments

by Netanyahu in the days leading up to the March 17 Israeli elections, the White House announced that it is “re-evaluating” the administration’s policy toward Israel and the Middle East peace process. Royce and Engel on March 25 wrote to U.S. Am-

bassador to the U.N. Samantha Power expressing their “concern,” and asking her to assure them “that the U.S. will veto resolutions at the U.N. that are biased and onesided against Israel.” Similar letters were sent to Obama by five senators, led by Cardin, on March 30, and by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on April 9.

New Bill Would Promote IsraeliPalestinian Peace On March 19 Reps. Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) introduced H.R. 1489, urging “the president to make every effort, in conjunction with the government of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the international community to establish an International Fund for Israeli Peace.” And H.Res. 126 (see “Status Updates” box) would, among other things, reaffirm the House’s commitment to supporting U.S. actions that promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians; call on Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist, denounce violence, abide by existing agreements, and stop firing missiles and rockets into Israel; and call on the Israeli government to “cease support for and to prevent further settlement expansion in the occupied territories.” ❑

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

williams_27-28_United Nations Report 5/7/15 8:40 PM Page 27

U.S. Protects Israeli Occupation, U.N. Reinforces Morocco’s in Western Sahara

By Ian Williams

United Nations Report

here is nothing like

U.S. on foreign affairs.

Even at the time, powers at work to that raised eyebrows, demonstrate just how since these are some of ephemeral “eternal” the crucial indicators of principles are, and how sovereignty. Nonetheexpedient their impleless, the General Asmentation. It is resembly accepted the ported that Washingnew micro states as full ton is trying to permembers, and they suade the French, in have consistently voted particular, to backwith the U.S. on Midpedal on their attempt dle Eastern issues. to lay down the acAmong the few sources cepted principles of a of revenue were annual two-state solution for grants from Congress, Israel and Palestine. so no wonder the isThis would essentially landers were so interemphasize the illegality ested in Middle Eastern of settlement activity affairs. One other revand the applicability of enue source was fees the 1967 boundaries as from the islands’ sideenshrined in numerous line as a flag of converepeated U.N. resolu- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (r) meets with Kim Bolduc, his Special Representative nience, where Ameritions over the years and Head of the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). can shipowners could and accepted by every escape domestic labor country in the world except Israel.

That raises the question of why President and safety regulations.

But for once, the Obama administration Barack Obama could not say that before the But at the end of April unforeseen conis not doing this simply as a favor to Israel. Israeli election. Netanyahu has gratuitously sequences cropped up when Iran arrested It is a different kind of pandering: Wash- interfered in domestic American politics all an American ship that was flagged out of ington is discreetly asking the other coun- his political career, and in particular over the Marshall Islands. Some Israeli comtries to hold back so that the White House the Iran issue. If Obama and Secretary of mentators immediately tried to get the U.S. can concentrate on the Iranian deal and get State Kerry had forcefully announced to the Navy to fulfill its defense obligations it through Congress in the teeth of Israeli world that should Netanyahu persist in dis- under international law—for them, of lobby opposition. It is demeaning, of avowing agreed terms for peace and refused course, it is always a good day to attack course, but over the decades not uncom- to stop settlement, there would be no guar- Iran. Interestingly, the Marshall Islands mon for American diplomats to plead for antee of a U.S. veto in the Security Council, would have recourse to the International forbearance with foreign colleagues so that it might well have cost him the election. Is- Tribunal for the Law of the Sea since it is a they can cope with geopolitically illiterate raeli voters see no downside in Netanyahu’s signatory—unlike the U.S., Israel and Iran!

American legislators. chutzpah, and clearly a majority of them Quite why the U.S. should risk World War In this case there is an extra twist, in agree with his hard-line stance—as long as III for a shipping company that expatriated that the U.S. is hinting that once the Iran he can get away with it. its ships to avoid U.S. taxation and reguladeal is done, it can get around to dealing In a chain of connections, the Marshall tion is a question that remains unanwith Binyamin Netanyahu’s recalcitrance, Islands is one of the few countries that fre- swered. with the further hint that Israel cannot quently supports the U.S. on Israel. Of While Arab states and others—such as take the American veto at the U.N. for course, it has to! It was one of the former France—are quick, and correct, to call atgranted.

U.N. strategic trust territories in the Pacific tention to how U.S.-drafted Security Countaken from Japan and administered by the cil resolutions bend over backward to Ian Williams is a free-lance journalist based U.S., and Washington only agreed to its cover for a certain state on the eastern end at the United Nations who blogs at <www. “independence” if it relinquished its right of the Mediterranean, they remain resdeadlinepundit.blogspot.com>. to its own defense and consulted with the olutely silent over France’s cover for anUN PHOTO/EVAN SCHNEIDER

Twatching the great

JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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williams_27-28_United Nations Report 5/7/15 10:34 PM Page 28

other state at the opposite end of the Mediterranean that flouts previous resolutions and international law.

A Free Pass for Morocco Moroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s continuing occupation of the Western Sahara, with its own separation wall, the Berm, snaking across the desert, continues to get a free pass in Resolution 2218 passed April 28 in New York.

The name of the U.N. operation that the resolution extends for yet another year says it all. MINURSO, in full, is the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, and it was set up in 1991 with a timetable of one year. Almost a quarter of a century has passed, with Morocco still impeding any attempt to implement the â&#x20AC;&#x153;self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nationsâ&#x20AC;? that the resolution breezily refers to in its preamble, even as its substance robs it of meaning.

Back in 1991, Johannes Mantz, the first head of the mission, promised the U.N. (Advertisement)

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press corps that the operation would be open within a year, since a Spanish census 18 years before had identified the voting roll and even the infants had now come of age. There is now an entirely new generation of Sahrawis born and come of voting age.

Many of these are young, unemployed and disaffected, and the secretary-generalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report gives evidence of unrest and demonstrations on both sides of the Berm, in Polisario- and Moroccan-controlled territories alike. After decades in which the world seemed happy to let the Sahrawis wallow in their misery as long as there was no spillover, there are now increasing worries at the possibilities of destabilization in the region. The possibilities for smuggling and cross-border crime are now joined by apprehension at the prospects of extremist recruitment of unemployed youth with few if any prospects and facing rampant injustice exacerbated by the â&#x20AC;&#x153;benign neglectâ&#x20AC;? of the world community.

The African Union, whose membership includes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), has taken a renewed interest in the issue and has been pushing for a referendum. After all, one of the founding principles of the Union was that the old colonial boundaries had to be respected, not so much because of their own inherent value but rather because the belligerent consequences of trying to redraw them would be so bloody. Morocco did not join the Union because of SADRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s membershipâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and objected in April when the Union tried to get the SADR delegate to speak on non-proliferation in Africa.

A veritable chorus of forked tongues speaks on the issue, with words getting new and Orwellian meanings. The U.N. reports praise Morocco for its progress on human rights in the territory, while Morocco and France, with active U.S. and British support and Russian connivance, fought to ensure that the resolution did not mandate an active human rights monitoring mission called for by the African Union.

The West often castigates Africa for its allegedly lackadaisical attitude to human rights violations. But in this case the great powers actively fought to keep MINURSO the only U.N. peacekeeping mission without a human rights component, and for the even more singular honor of being the Mission for the Referendum on self-deterTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

mination on the Western Sahara that is not allowed to carry out a referendum or mention that Rabat has repeatedly announced that it will not allow self-determination.

Polisario has raised Moroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sale of offshore oil rights to foreign oil companies and had the chutzpah to justify it by reference to the 2002 letter on the matter from Hans Corell, who was then U.N. undersecretary-general for legal affairs. As he has repeatedly said since then in several articles, the legal opinion he gave was that selling the oil contracts was in flagrant breach of the Geneva conventions on Occupied Territoriesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and that the companies accepting the contracts were in breach of international law.

While even the U.S. does not insist on praising Israel for its cooperation when it so clearly does not cooperate, the April U.N. resolution praises Morocco for its progress in the teeth of its flamboyant defiance.

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rasool_29-30_Special Report 5/7/15 10:20 PM Page 29

The World Needs a Better United States

By Ebrahim Rasool

SpecialReport n 2010 South African Presi-

Ident Jacob Zuma asked me to

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

serve as the country’s ambassador to the United States. Coming straight from Cape Town’s tough political battlefield, where I had most recently served as the governor of the Western Cape province, I had very little need for diplomacy. I suspect I was given the ambassadorship mostly because I had the foresight to engage the unknown visiting senator from Illinois in 2006, on issues ranging from HIV in Africa to the future of the Middle East, for almost two hours in my office. Two years later, he would be elected the first black president of the United States.

I arrived in Washington in 2010 amidst an outpouring of love for Nelson Mandela, whose frailty and mortality at the time created fears that he may soon be no more. At the same time, the hope and change on which President Barack Obama sailed to victory was being hobbled by a more pragmatic managerialism in the face of a persistent economic recession, declining approval ratings and a governance system that was divisive and The Hon. Ebrahim Rasool. gridlocked.

I soon realized that I represented more those familiar with my thinking, about the than South Africa’s interests. I was also a type of diplomacy I would bring. Would I representative of an heroic anti-apartheid be ideological, moralistic and strident, or struggle and the resulting transition that quiet, cautious and acquiescent?

Although I came to the United States as had inspired countless Americans. At the same time, I was also a Muslim representa- a representative, I left as an observer of tive arriving in the wake of the “war on America’s strengths and shortcomings. terrorism” and the rising tide of Islamo- Five years on, I look back at a fascinating phobia in the West. There was a palpable and enriching period of my life, and reflect curiosity by those in the anti-apartheid on five critical lessons.

First, I learned that diplomacy is the art movement, the Muslim community and of telling the truth intelligently and gently, Ebrahim Rasool was South Africa’s ambas- whether speaking about South African or sador to the United States until 2014, and is U.S. foreign policy, which I believe remains now a distinguished scholar in residence at inconsistent and historically reliant on milthe Al Waleed Center for Muslim-Christian itarism. Points of disagreement, I believed, Understanding at Georgetown University. He should be discussed and debated, without is also the founder of the World for All Foun- either diminishing the crucial role that the dation.

U.S. plays in the world or allowing any of JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

my own predispositions to reduce the ability to be heard or heeded.

Second, I learned the U.S. shifts by degrees and decades, not dramatically. For all its valorization of individualism, the U.S. is governed by a deeply embedded institutional system, resistant to change while constantly appearing to change. The players may be replaced, but the playbook endures. When the 2011 Arab Spring protests provided the U.S. with an opportunity to strike out a new path in the Muslim world toward the less predictable but more sustainable path of human rights, freedom and democracy, it blinked at the first signs of murkiness. Yet recent efforts at détente with Cuba and Iran show that we may be witnessing the assertion of a less militaristic and unilateral approach.

Third, Washington can’t help relating to Africa other than through the lens of aid, disaster relief and security, rather than as a continent of economic opportunity. To its credit, the U.S. has done great work on matters such as preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, and it has been vocal in supporting democracy and human rights in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. But Obama’s Africa policy is largely rooted in symbolic commitments. During his most recent trip to Africa and at last year’s first U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, Obama talked about $33 billion of U.S. investment in Africa, made up largely of precommitted private investments. Even the new initiative, Power Africa, is limited to advancing renewable energy and would be insufficient to help kick start Africa’s industrial revolution, which would require a significant base of energy sources. Trade provisions such as the African Growth and Opportunities Act and the Third Country Fabric laws need regular congressional renewal, and are renewed mostly as an afterthought at the eleventh hour, when cancellation of export orders are already looming.

29

rasool_29-30_Special Report 5/7/15 10:20 PM Page 30

Fourth, I learned that despite signs of shift from its rampant individualism to a Palestinian-Israeli conflict.” He said the anti-immigrant intolerance, the U.S. re- more balanced social solidarity to manage new government would cause deep rifts mains fundamentally attractive to foreign- and overcome the fault lines that continue between Palestinian and Jewish citizens of ers. The American dream promises free- to emerge in American society. The world Israel, promoting “racist laws which will dom and rewards initiative. As the world’s needs the U.S. to be at peace with itself. ❑ [most] harm…the Arab citizens in the country.” largest economy, it has a consumer base of With such a thin margin of support, Ne350 million people, all of which have made Netanyahu’s Coalition… tanyahu cannot afford any moves that the U.S. an attractive market for exporting Continued from page 11 would cause his coalition to crumble. Alcountries. Its huge educational and technological base often allows the country to “Netanyahu has once again proven sur- though in the wake of his silence on the invest in research and development, as well vival is more important than improving coalition deal, some commentators specuas provide the requisite development aid to the welfare and quality of life for all citi- lated it is Netanyahu who is playing Benextend the frontiers of science and access zens of Israel who are yearning for change nett.

“This is only round one,” wrote Aaron products and expertise to fight diseases and hope,” said Herzog. such as HIV and Ebola.

Head of Israel’s third largest party and David Miller for The Wall Street Journal.

The final lesson is evident in an obser- leader of the Joint Arab List Ayman Odeh Miller suggested Netanyahu accepted Benvation made by U.S. Supreme Court Justice told Mondoweiss, “The Netanyahu-Bennett nett’s terms in bad faith, writing the prime Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who during the coalition is a social disaster and danger for minister could have made the agreement 2011 Egyptian revolution recommended, democracy. This coalition buries down all with plans to later swap out Bennett’s amongst others, the South African consti- hope for a peace agreement and solving the party for the center-left Zionist Union (Advertisement) headed by opposition leader Isaac Hertution—and not the U.S. constitution— zog. as the model for post-Arab Spring There is logic to this ploy. By signsocieties. South Africa’s constitution, ing a truce with Bennett, even one approved in 1996, establishes equalthat leaves Netanyahu (temporarily) ity and dignity as cornerstones, and powerless, Netanyahu gets to keep includes such socio-economic rights his mandate as prime minister. If he as the rights to health, shelter and had dropped Bennett and forged a pensions. America’s founding documore stable coalition with Herzog ment, by contrast, excludes sociostraight out of the gate, Herzog was economic rights in favor of basic libthought to demand sharing the eral rights such as freedom of exprime minister position on a twopression and outmoded ones such as year rotation. “A national unity govthe right to bear arms. ernment with Mr. Herzog would Such fundamental limitations are solve some of Mr. Netanyahu’s probbeginning to reveal fault lines in U.S. lems and leave him in the center,” society with greater frequency. Alwrote Miller. “But Mr. Netanyahu though the public voices sympathy An unprecedented, frank and won’t agree to rotate.” for victims of brutal shootings, curbThis all means that in a matter of ing gun violence through robust overdue look at the power of the weeks Bennett could be out and policies remains impossible. The Israel Lobby in the United States, Herzog, or someone else, could be in. continuing police mistreatment of with must-see speeches, photos Although Herzog has not given any young black men sparks protests, and commentary. indication this might happen, Nebut not substantive reform. Resistanyahu does at least have an opportance by congressional Republicans tunity to surface with strength yet to the Affordable Care Act dramaPre-order extra copies of the again. When elections were called tizes the fragile commitment the U.S. Washington Report’s special for last year he was initially regarded has to the equality and well-being of a clear front-runner, although the its citizens, as more and more people “Israel Lobby” issue ($3.50, inrace proved tight. He did clear six will be excluded from basic rights cluding postage). All subscribers seats above Herzog in the final ballot and privileges as inequality widens. will receive this special issue. count. Then when the polls closed, For the U.S. to continue to become it was obvious that Netanyahu faced a better country and partner to the major hurdles in coalition building. world, it must make several transiTo pre-order your DVD ($19.95), He has political enemies. And his tions. It must go from militarism and visit <www.MiddleEastBooks.com> friends in his coalition are not unilateralism to engagement and déor call (202) 939-6050 for more friends with each other. Still, if Netente in solving global problems. It tanyahu can keep his government toshould move from Africa as an afterinformation. gether and complete his full fourthought and security problem to year term, he will surpass David Africa as the last economic frontier Multiple copies available while Ben-Gurion’s time in office and beto be developed in the mutual intercome Israel’s longest serving prime est of the U.S. and the world’s most supplies last. minister. ❑ youthful continent. And it must 30

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

gorvett_31-32_Special Report 5/7/15 5:17 PM Page 31

Hope Springs Eternal—for Now—on Cyprus SpecialReport

By Jonathan Gorvett fter a long period of al-

Aternately stalled, post-

PBARBARA LABORDE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

poned or abandoned peace talks, hope of a settlement to the decades-old division of Cyprus flickered back to life again in late April, with the election of a new Turkish Cypriot leader.

On April 26, Mustafa Akinci, a one-time mayor of the Turkish Cypriot side of Nicosia, the Eastern Mediterranean island’s de facto divided capital, won a landslide second round election victory over the incumbent, Dervis Eroglu, for the position of Turkish Cypriot “president.”

Akinci’s election also comes at a time when U.N.sponsored talks on the island’s future are due to resume after a Greek Cypriot walkout last September.

The new Turkish Cypriot Mustafa Akinci (c) celebrates in Nicosia with his wife, Meral (r) and relatives after being elected president leader is known for his com- of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), April 26, 2015. mitment to achieving a settlement, and for his ability to work with the That landing was mounted following a in the north but worked in the south subGreek Cypriots—thus sparking hopes that, coup by hard-line Greek nationalists, sequently lost their jobs, along with access finally, after many decades of division and backed by the then-military junta in to health care and other benefits. At the unsuccessful rounds of talks, a settlement Athens, who wanted to join the island to same time, Greek Cypriots have felt more reuniting the island may not be impossible Greece and who were known for their vio- economically threatened by lower-wage after all. lent hostility to the island’s Turkish Turkish Cypriot workers.

Meanwhile, the U.N. has grown increasAkinci’s election also casts light on some Cypriot minority. of the dynamics of current Turkish Cypriot Now, after 41 years of division, a peace ingly weary of negotiations. Its special repand Turkish politics, with the new Turk- that is mostly an absence of the previous resentative on the island, Espen Barth Eide, told reporters in March that “people ish Cypriot leader almost immediately violence prevails on Cyprus. falling into a war of words with Turkey’s Barbed wire, minefields and sandbags have to realize that we cannot go on year president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. remain, but since 2003 Greek and Turkish after year without any progress.”

In such an atmosphere, some have Cypriots have also been able to travel freely Talks About Talks across the U.N. Buffer Zone that separates largely despaired of any future reunificaAkinci comes to power on an island split Turkish and Greek Cypriot forces—al- tion.

“The whole U.N. idea of a bizonal, biapart by years of inter-communal violence, though a surprising number of Greek communal federation has become most foreign invasion and occupation. He is Cypriots still have never done so.

Indeed, a recent U.N.- and U.S.-spon- unlikely to work,” says Hugh Pope with “head of state” of the breakaway “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC), the sored survey conducted by the Center for the International Crisis Group. “The two northern third of the island that was occu- Sustainable Peace and Democratic Devel- sides have grown too far apart. It would pied by the Turkish army following its opment (SeeD) showed that relations have be much better for them and Turkey to recently soured further between the two work on two separate independent states 1974 invasion. communities, particularly since the 2013 on the island, free of Turkish occupation, Jonathan Gorvett is a free-lance writer based economic meltdown in the Greek Cypriot and with both states reunited within the in Istanbul. south. Many Turkish Cypriots who lived EU.” JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

31

gorvett_31-32_Special Report 5/7/15 5:17 PM Page 32

With Akinciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s election, however, hope appears to have been rekindled, at least for some. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think for the first time,â&#x20AC;? says activist Mertkan Hamit of the bi-communal group Famagusta Initiative, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Greek Cypriots traveled to the north to celebrate with the Turkish Cypriotsâ&#x20AC;? on hearing of Akinciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s election.

Radical Proposals Akinci inspires such a surge of optimism because he has long made no secret of his determination to reunite the island.

Serving as mayor of the Turkish Cypriot side of Nicosia from 1976, he worked with the Greek Cypriot mayor to restore services across the divided capital.

He has also long advocated a confidencebuilding peace process running in parallel with the talks.

This would involve the Turkish Cypriots reopening the closed and abandoned city of Varosha, a resort city whose 45,000 mainly Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled en masse in 1974. Surrounded by Turkish barbed wire, it is now one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest ghost towns.

In return, the Greek Cypriots would lift their EU- and internationally-backed embargo on ships using Famagusta harbor

and Ercan airport in the TRNC. This position was also advocated at one time by the Greek Cypriots, but rejected by Eroglu.

If this proposal were accepted, it would be by far the most radical change in the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s make up since 1974. That Turkish Cypriots united behind a candidate advocating such a change also shows their deep desire to move on. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Turkish Cypriots voted for change because they live in such an uncertain limbo here,â&#x20AC;? says Mete Hatay of the bi-communal research center PRIO in Nicosia.

The TRNC remains unrecognized by any country except Turkey, meaning Turkish Cypriot students leave school or college with internationally dubious qualifications, while dependency on Turkey grows ever deeper.

This last point triggered the post-election war of words. Akinci reacted to Erdoganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comparing the Turkish Cypriot-Turkey relationship to that of â&#x20AC;&#x153;a baby toward its mother.â&#x20AC;? Akinci said he wanted the relationship to be more like brother to brother.

Erdogan responded by reminding Akinci that the TRNC is largely bankrolled by Ankara, while claiming Turkish troops saved the Turkish Cypriots with their 1974 invasion.

Ankara does indeed send an annual $500 million grant to the breakaway state, while around 35,000-45,000 Turkish troops are still based on the island.

Akinciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popularity is due partly to his reputation for standing up to Ankara, however. This strikes more of a chord these days, as many Turkish Cypriots are more secular than many Turksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or indeed, Greek Cypriotsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and thus find themselves increasingly at odds with Erdoganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pro-Islamist government.

Many on the Greek Cypriot side also have long claimed that it is Ankara that really calls the shots when it comes to the Turkish Cypriot negotiating position. Akinciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independence might allay some of these concerns.

It takes two to tango at the talks, of course, but so far the Greek Cypriot government has responded positively to Akinciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s election, suggesting some confidence-building measures of its own.

This time, then, the U.N.-sponsored talks resume in a more positive atmosphere than they have had in years. For many of the surviving refugees from Varosha, in particular, this might just give them a moment to hope that, after four decades, they might soon be going home. â?&#x2018;

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

pasquini_33-34_Northern California Chronicle 5/7/15 8:06 PM Page 33

Basim Elkarra Awarded Access Sacramento’s “Power of Voice” Commendation

By Elaine Pasquini ommunity media nonprofit

Northern California Chronicle spoken-word artist Salvan Chahal placed third.

The fund-raising evening benefited Access Sacramento and its youth media journalism training program.

CAccess Sacramento hon-

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

ored Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Sacramento Valley Chapter, with its third annual “Power of San Francisco Activists Voice” (POV) award for his Call for Ending All Wars “outspoken support and leaderMarking the 12th anniversary ship in the area of free speech, of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, tolerance and civil liberties.” some 300 human rights acPresenting the award, tivists rallied in San Francisco’s JoAnn Fuller, chair of Access Hallidie Plaza on March 21.

Sacramento’s board of direcWith their chants of “money tors, noted, “As a visionary for jobs and education, not for leader in our community, war and occupation” and signs Basim Elkarra helped encourdemanding the end of all U.S. age and spread the opportumilitary actions, the protesters nity for reasoned thought and made clear their views that the power of our community wars are immoral, illegal and voice.” Particularly now, with need to end. the evening news reports of Passersby in the popular violence and conflict, “Elkarra Flanked by Access Sacramento executive director Gary Martin and helps us interpret that infor- Board of Directors chair JoAnn Fuller, Basim Elkarra holds his tourist area paid particular atmation and challenges us to “Power of Voice” award which, he exclaimed, was “the coolest look- tention to the World Can’t Wait’s large poster stating strive for understanding and ing award I’ve ever received.”

“War on Iraq Has Never an informed perspective on the intercultural misunderstandings in our well as protection of constitutional rights Helped the Iraqi People.” Placards with the world today,” she said. and workers’ rights, along with immigra- message to “Boycott Israeli Goods” were Citing the civil rights leader’s many ac- tion reform, continues. “CAIR can only do also in abundance. Members of the local complishments over the past 10 years—in- this work because of its partners,” he as- Filipino community showed their support cluding sponsoring informational rallies and serted, “and Access Sacramento has been for Palestinians with signs reading “Fila Muslim Youth Leadership program at the an amazing partner by sharing with others ipinos for a Free Palestine.”

Recently returned from a major antistate Capitol, coordinating other American what we are doing.”

Islamic events, creation of a job and career Access Sacramento has covered rallies drone protest at Nevada’s Creech Air Force fair at Sacramento State University, ongoing and information-sharing American-Is- Base sponsored by CODEPINK and Veterwork for the Los Rios Community College lamic events sponsored by CAIR and local ans for Peace, Father Louis Vitale was one District Bond Oversight Committee and the human rights groups. To honor this work, of several speakers at the rally. “We have California Democratic Party’s Affirmative Elkarra presented the group with a paint- to stop these crazy wars,” said the 82-yearAction Committee—she said, “All of these ing titled “The Marshes of Iraq” by mur- old Franciscan priest, who has been arthings speak to his dedication to empower- dered Sacramento resident Hassan Alawsi. rested more than 400 times for civil rights ing the many voices in our community. And The 46-year-old Baghdad-born artist was disobedience. “San Francisco is the city of we thank him for his voice and for helping fatally shot in the parking lot of a Home St. Francis and love, and we should be the others share theirs.”

Depot store one year ago. (See September leadership of the peace movement.”

Concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Former California Assembly member 2014 Washington Report, p. 48.)

Mariko Yamada shared her thoughts about The POV award was presented during Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments in his her longtime friend whom she mentored. the April 2 “Sacramento Has Talent” live March 3 speech to Congress—“Even if Is“With his demeanor, leadership skills and stage show at the city’s historic Crest The- rael has to stand alone, Israel will stand”— the strength of his character, Basim’s in- atre. Host Ahmed Hassan of HGTV’s were a prelude to Israel bombing Iran and tegrity is really unquestionable,” Yamada “Landscape Smart” entertained the audi- dragging the U.S. into another illegal and said. “In the countless hours that he spends ence while keeping the two-and-a-half- costly war, many in the crowd carried in advising community members who are in hour program of spectacular and diverse signs reading “No War On Iran.”

Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource and fear, he is a calming voice.” performances moving at a lively pace.

Taking to the podium, Elkarra empha- First place in the competition went to vi- Organizing Center (AROC) emphasized the sized that the struggle for civil liberties, as olinist and singer-songwriter Joe Kye for group’s support for those suffering in the his unique musical blend of classical, jazz, ongoing tragedy in the Middle East, inElaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist rock and hip-hop. Element Brass Band cluding Iraqis, Palestinians, Syrians, Kurds based in the San Francisco Bay Area. took second place, while Generation Y and Yemenis.

JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

33

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

pasquini_33-34_Northern California Chronicle 5/7/15 5:20 PM Page 34

LEFT: Father Louis Vitale speaks at anti-war rally. RIGHT: Members of the local Filipino community show their support for Palestinians.

Christians, Muslims Honor Victims of Mideast Violence As violence in the Middle East continues unabated, with civilians killed every day—Iraq Body Count estimates more than 17,000 Iraqi civilians were killed last year—Crossing Church of Natomas and the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) held a March 8 interfaith gathering to honor the many innocent victims of violence, especially in Iraq and Syria.

“We’re here to stand for those who cannot,” Crossing Church treasurer Nick Rodgers told the crowd on the north lawn of Sacramento’s state Capitol. “Though we might be from different faiths, beliefs and paths that have brought us here today, we are of one mind, one heart and one conviction on this issue—that all should have the respect of their humanity. As one of us suffers, so we all suffer.”

The small group listened closely as CAIRSV executive director Basim Elkarra, a Muslim, related fond memories of growing up with many friends—as well as family members—in San Francisco’s Christian community. “This issue of Christians, Muslims and others getting killed is personal for many reasons,” he said. “As forces of hate overseas are trying to divide Muslims and Christians and folks of other faiths, we say that this is a time when the message of love, peace and forgiveness taught by Jesus and accepted by all believers must be reinforced today more than ever.”

Andria Giorgi of the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group presented a Buddhist meditation on loving kindness. “I invite everyone to think about all of those who are suffering that we are remembering here today,” she said, “as well as those who suffer so deeply that they feel the need to hurt others to be heard.”

CAIR-SV president Dr. Irfan Haq delivered heartfelt words of sadness, support and hope. “This world has been created for

a purpose where we make it a better world every day by loving each other, by doing justice to one another, by being kind and fair and sharing the love that God has given us,” he averred. “God has prohibited us from taking human life. In the Qur’an God says very clearly: one who takes one life is as if he has killed all humanity.”

Directly addressing ISIS’ vicious killings of civilians, Haq unequivocally stated: “My faith has been hijacked by the people who call themselves ISIS. These are the actions of people who have no faith, who are simply thugs and criminals who practice savage butchery. They are not Muslim by any standard, no matter what they say or what they claim. They have contravened every rule, principle and law of Islam as all the Muslims in the world know it. The taking of human life is prohibited,” he emphasized. “We want to let you know that today the Muslim community is with you. Our prayers are with you and what is happening saddens us.”

The event ended with prayers, music, songs and informal conversation. ❑

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

World Can’t Wait and the ANSWER coalition sponsored the afternoon event.

Andria Giorgi of the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group offers a Buddhist meditation at a Sacramento interfaith gathering.

34

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

holy_land_principles_ad_35_Holy Land Principles Full Page Ad 5/7/15 5:26 PM Page 35

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twair_36-37_Southern California Chronicle 5/7/15 10:18 PM Page 36

Despite Phone Threats, Norman Finkelstein Is Keynote Speaker at Rotary Event

Southern California Chronicle

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

By Pat and Samir Twair

the Middle East could be achieved during the final term of the Barack Obama presidency. Finkelstein signed his new e-book, Method and Madness: The Hidden Story of Israel’s Assaults on Gaza.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Nearly half a century after Israel’s victorious war on neighboring Arab counRotary peace conference panelists (l-r) Dr. Richard Dekmejian, Dr. Ilai Saltzman, Chehab ElAwar, Dr. Nor- tries and its conquest and man Finkelstein and Dr. Laila Al-Marayati. occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank or 26 years, Rotary International Dis- and, in the most recent General Assembly and Gaza, the Israeli government has detrict 5300 has sponsored a peace con- vote, Canada—vote against the Palestini- vised a clever public relations ploy—an ference. This year, however, when it an- ans, while the overwhelming number of impressive archaeological exhibition supnounced that its keynote speaker would be member states vote for the Palestinian po- posedly documenting a Jewish presence in the Holy Land for two millennia.

Dr. Norman Finkelstein, author of the best- sition, whatever the issue may be.

In the recent Israeli elections, Finkelselling The Holocaust Industry (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More), stein said, Binyamin Netanyahu spoke all hell broke loose, with a barrage of vaguely about a Palestinian state as if it anonymous threatening phone calls. Com- were to be on the far side of the moon. Nemented chairman Dr. Garbis Der-Yeghian, tanyahu’s primary opponent called for the “I didn’t know people could be so nasty.” settlers to be allocated the West Bank’s But when the March 14 event on “The most arable land and water resources.

A fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls on view Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, chairman of at the California Science Center.

Middle East in Crises: Prospects for Peace” took place at Glendale High KinderUSA, discussed Gaza in the afterSchool’s John Wayne Performing Arts math of last summer’s Israeli aggression on So on March 10, the Dead Sea Scrolls Center, the vociferous opposition was the unprotected coastal strip, which killed exhibition opened at the California Scinowhere to be seen or heard. In addition 19 members of her family. She has been de- ence Center to much fanfare and expento Finkelstein, speakers were Chehab nied entry to Gaza even though her father sive advance TV and newspaper advertiseElAwar, Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, Dr. was born and raised in Khan Younis. If left ments. Portrayed as the most significant Richard Dekmejian and Dr. Ilai Saltzman. unaided, Al-Marayati said, Gaza will be no archaeological find of the past century, the Finkelstein, who was denied tenure at longer inhabitable in the year 2020. She exhibition showcases fragmentary secChicago’s DePaul University due to a cam- went on to note that the eastern edge of tions of the Dead Sea Scrolls in addition to paign led by Israel defender Alan Der- Gaza bordering Israel has been turned into a three-ton stone from Jerusalem’s Westshowitz, now teaches at Sakarya Univer- a no-man’s-land by Israeli bombs. ern Wall and 600 artifacts dating from the USC Prof. Richard Dekmejian prefaced Bronze Age to the Byzantine era. sity in Turkey. Even though world opinion favors a Palestinian state, he noted, his overview of the Middle East situation The famed scrolls were accidently the U.S. bias for Israel outweighs the con- with the statement that Israel’s over- found in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd in a sensus of the majority of United Nations whelming fear is of genocide—which cave near Khirbet Qumran on the shores member states. In United Nations Resolu- very nearly occurred in the early 20th of the Dead Sea in Palestine, then under tion 242 of 1967, he pointed out, the final century to the Armenians. He said Hitler the jurisdiction of Jordan. Excavations of status obligations of borders, right of re- replicated that earlier genocide attempt the caves continued to 1956 under Jorturn of refugees and Jerusalem were left on the Jews of Europe. The blowback to danian supervision. The texts date from blurry. Since then, Finkelstein continued, the Israeli takeover of the West Bank, 250 B.C. to 68 A.D. and are believed to the U.S. and Israel, traditionally joined by Gaza and East Jerusalem was Arab terror- have been recorded by Essenes or other Micronesia and the Marshall Islands— ism—Israeli violence against the Pales- Jewish sectarians on leather parchment tinians is the other side of the coin. and occasionally on papyrus. The manuDuring the question-and-answer ses- scripts are chiefly in Hebrew and rarely Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalsion, Dekmejian predicted that peace in in Aramaic and Greek. The more than 200 ists based in Los Angeles.

36

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

F

twair_36-37_Southern California Chronicle 5/7/15 10:18 PM Page 37

stern school teacher could. At the height of U.S. sanctions of Iraq, she took suitcases full of medications to Baghdad to alleviate the rising death toll of children.

An accomplished TV writer with credits for “Who’s the Boss?” Bustany was president and a board member of P.E.N. West and served as Los Angeles president of Americans for Democratic Action in 1994. Her last project was to co-write with the late Billy Barnes a musical play, “Murder at the Villa Ragacci.”

biblical texts are the oldest version of the Hebrew Bible. After the 1967 War, the scrolls fell under the custody of Israel.

For the ensuing year, public school classes will visit the exhibition, which gives the impression there was a state of Israel at the time the scrolls were written and that it and its people have prevailed ever since in the region. Reinforcing the notion is the movie “Jerusalem 3D,” showing at the adjacent IMAX Theater.

Judith (Judy) Bustany (1939-2015)

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

Israeli BDS Speaker “Israel no longer is a democracy. It never has been a democracy to begin with. It’s an apartheid system.” So said Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan, co-founder in 2008 of Boycott from Within, who spoke March 18 at the Levantine Cultural Center.

Referring to his organization, Barkan

Judy and Don Bustany.

News of the March 11 death of Judith Bustany surprised the many Los Angeles circles to which the vivacious writer, human rights activist, Democrat and humorist devoted her time. She is survived by her husband of 42 years, Donald, a daughter, Kristen Kessler, and a son, Geoffrey Kessler. She died of cancer.

At the age of 10, Bustany appeared in Broadway plays—a feat that impressed her classmates, noted one of many lifelong friends who traveled from the East Coast to speak at her March 21 funeral. A graduate of St. John’s University, Bustany initially taught high school.

Her activism to help the oppressed in the Middle East began in the late 1980s, when her husband became involved with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. She took supplies to the Palestinians on 16 trips, during which she coached young Palestinians to write for TV. In 2002, she lived in a West Bank village in a hut over a chicken coop, hoping her presence would ward off settler harassment. On one occasion, she grabbed stone-throwing settler hooligans and put the fear of God in them as only a JUNE/JULY 2015

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

COURTESY DON BUSTANY

Randy Heyn-Lamb marches in the forefront of Pasadena’s Palm Sunday Peace Parade.

Ronnie Barkan (r) and Electronic Intifada editor Nora Barrows-Friedman. explained that Israel had passed a law that people who boycott Israeli products could be incriminated, but AIPAC was against it for the poor image it would create. “The Israeli Left is declining and the peace camp barely exists,” he continued, “the society is explicitly fascist. Today you hear Israelis say ‘death to Arabs and leftists.’” He went on to note that 95 percent of Jewish Israelis supported last year’s crushing war on Gaza, and some regret that it didn’t use enough force.

Pasadena Peace March Pounding drums, singing voices, colorful banners and people carrying palm fronds drew crowds of observers to the 13th annual Palm Sunday Peace Parade at the busy Paseo Colorado shopping center March 29. Eleven local churches and progressive organizations sponsored this year’s event.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

As the procession completed its noisy one-mile parade, it heard brief speeches on ways to halt global warming and war, then burst into original songs to stop using fossil fuels and prevent new wars. A litany of resistance to violence capped the program. Marchers proceeded one more mile to offer prayers at the location where Kendrec McDade, an unarmed 19-year-old African American, was shot and killed by police in 2012. ❑

IndextoAdvertisers Abusharar & Associates . . . . . . . . . . 17 Alalusi Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 American-Arab AntiDiscrimination Committee (ADC) Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 American Friends of Birzeit University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover Holy Land Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Kinder USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Mashrabiya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Muslim Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Palestinian Medical Relief Society . 23 The Israel Lobby conference . . . . . . 30 United Palestinian Appeal (UPA) . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover

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PLO Ambassador Areikat on Hamas, Palestinian Recognition of Israel

By Jane Adas

STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

Asked if Hamas would accept an agreement signed by the PLO, Areikat replied that even when Hamas won elections in 2006, it agreed that the PLO would be in charge of negotiations and that it would accept any agreement ratified by a plebiscite of the Palestinian people, keeping in mind that any future agreement will affect 11 million people, not only those living under occupation. But now, after 22 years of a futile peace process in which the U.S. supports only what Israel is willing to accept, Areikat insisted that Palestinians are entitled to explore available venues, such as asking the Security Council to establish a limit to the period of negotiations.

In response to the question, “When will Palestine recognize Israel as a Jewish state?” Areikat said it was not his business what Israel calls itself, but he questioned whether it is a good idea—especially now, with attention focused on the violence of ISIS— for any state to define itself by its religion. The most important step, in the ambassador’s view, is that neither side demonize the other and thus make reconciliation impossible. Israel is in the Middle East. In order to be a natural country in that part of the world, Areikat observed, Israel needs to make peace with its neighbors and not pretend to be European. Asked if a Palestinian state would be able to guarantee Israel’s security, Areikat advised viewing the day after a treaty as a new era of peace, not a continuing threat.

PLO Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat. is Excellency Maen Rashid Areikat,

HChief Representative of the PLO Del-

egation to the United States, fielded questions from a skeptical audience in a March 9 discussion moderated by Alon Ben-Meir at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs.

Hamas was a major concern: Israel supposedly can’t deal with Hamas because it has never accepted Israel, has a violent charter, and is now part of a dysfunctional unity government. Areikat noted that Israel has cabinet ministers (and now a prime minister) who say they will never accept a Palestinian state. “We cannot say we won’t talk to them. Israel cannot dictate who is in the Palestinian cabinet.” He then urged his listeners to see the situation from Hamas’ point of view: the PLO recognized Israel in 1992 and revised its national charter in 1996. At Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s request, in 1998 the PA again recognized Israel. Yet the situation has only deteriorated.

Hamas asks, “why give up that card before Israel ends the occupation? Israel first withdraws, then we negotiate.”

Jane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the New York City metropolitan area.

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Eyal Weizman on Forensis Eyal Weizman discussed “forensis: the architecture of public truth” at Princeton University on March 23. The Israeli architect and author of many books, including Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More), is the director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. An important agency within the Centre is Forensic Architecture, which provides a THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

New York City and Tri-StateNews

different kind of evidence in cases involving urban conflict and human rights violations.

Since the 19th century, forensics has been seen as the use of science in the service of the state, a process familiar today to fans of “CSI” television programs.

Weizman prefers the term “forensis,” from the Latin for “those things pertaining to the forum,” which he sees as an inversion of forensics because the Centre’s investigations often concern state violence. Forensic Architecture has several ongoing investigations, including drone strikes, death camps in the former Yugoslavia, and acts of genocide in Guatemala (see <www. forensic-architecture.org>).

Weizman described in detail a completed case, “The Nakba Day Killings,” that led to the arrest and indictment of an unidentified Israeli border policeman.

Weizman explained that the case is important for two reasons: of some 400 Palestinian teens shot dead, this is the first that resulted in an investigation; and this incident set off a series of escalations that led to Israel’s assault on Gaza last summer.

Last May 15, 17-year-old Nadeem Nawara was walking alone and unarmed in the West Bank village of Beitunia when he was shot dead by live ammunition. Later that day 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Daher was killed in the same place, also with live ammunition. The Israeli military claimed that the shooter could not have been one of their soldiers because they did not use live fire in that place at that time. Defense for Children International, acting on behalf of the teenagers’ families, commissioned Forensic Architecture to take on the case.

Weizman was principal investigator.

May 15 is Nakba Day. Commemorating it is illegal, according to Israeli law. Nevertheless, every May 15 there are demonstrations that often lead to clashes, and media often are present. A CCTV camera in front of a shop captured both killings.

But CNN was also on the scene, filming Israeli soldiers when the first fatal shot was fired. Through video analysis, which involved syncing the two videos, coordiJUNE/JULY 2015

adas_38-40_New York City and Tri-State News 5/7/15 5:29 PM Page 39

STAFF PHOTOS J. ADAS

nating the distance and angles of the film, and calculating the trajectory of the bullet, the investigators were able to identify the shooter.

The soldier’s rifle had an extension on it, which the IDF claimed meant it could only shoot rubber bullets. Weizman asked the manufacturer if live ammunition could be shot through an extension: yes. Unlike a live bullet, when a rubber bullet is fired, there is not enough force to eject the spent cartridge. The soldier must cock the gun to eject the cartridge.

In the CNN footage, the cartridge can be seen flying out at the time of the shot.

This provided conclusive evidence for the first killing.

For the second killing, the CNN crew had left. A Palestinian crew was there, Weizman explained, but they could not, as CNN could, aim their camera at Israeli soldiers.

However, they caught the sound of the shot.

Through sound analysis of rubber and live bullets, the investigators were able to demonstrate that the second lethal shot also was a live bullet, and probably, but not certainly, fired through the same rifle with an extension.

Forensic Architecture TOP: Architect and author Eyal Weizman. ABOVE (l-r): has been accused of being Hedges and Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan. politically motivated and not neutral. Weizman said nobody neuIn Goliath Blumenthal examines the poltral would spend months on 20 seconds itics and structure of society in Israel— of film, and that “forensis is not about how education is militarized, how a maneutrality, but about the truth.” Truth by jority of young Israeli Jews favor coerced itself, he concluded, is only meaningful if removal of Palestinians, how the wall is a it leads to political action and account- demographic rather than a security barability. rier. His book, he said, “challenges the idea that good will emerge from within IsAmerican Media vs. Israeli Reality raeli society.” Blumenthal felt vindicated Because, other than attacks from liberal by the results of Israel’s recent election, in Zionists, the mainstream media has ignored which Netanyahu triumphed for reasons Max Blumenthal’s Goliath: Life and outlined in Goliath. Israel’s allies no longer Loathing in Greater Israel (available from are liberals, but the Republican Party, Middle East Books and More), the author backed by billionaire casino magnate Shelhas spent the year and a half since its pub- don Adelson, and CUFI (Christians United lication on an “unending book tour” for Israel), who “view Israel as the landing where he has found much energy on this pad for the messiah.”

Gaza, “where Israel virtually destroyed issue. Chris Hedges, a former New York Times foreign correspondent who is cur- 25 percent of the area,” is old news. Blurently with the progressive website menthal went to Gaza during last sumTruthdig, and Ronnie Barkan, an Israeli mer’s assault and wrote about what he conscientious objector and co-founder of found there in The 51-Day War (due out Boycott From Within, joined Blumenthal in July, along with a documentary film). in a discussion initiated by student organi- The first comment from an audience zations at Princeton Theological Seminary. member was by a Gazan who had lost JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

several family members. Blumenthal asked his family name: “Abadla.” Blumenthal knew of the family and related a particular incident eyewitnesses had told him about: an ambulance crew entered Khuza’a to collect the body of Mohamed Abadla, who had been tied to a tree and riddled with bullets. Israeli soldiers ordered one of the medical workers to exit the ambulance, walk forward, and light a cigarette lighter. They then shot him, killing him in front of his colleagues.

Chris Hedges deemed Goliath the best account of modern Israel. He spoke about “powerful forces within U.S. society seeking to obliterate what is happening to Palestinians,” beginning with the media. Hedges criticized “he said/she said” reporting, giving as an example Ethan Bronner’s reporting for The New

Author Max Blumenthal, journalist Chris

York Times after Israel’s Cast Lead assault, in which every interview with an eyewitness victim was followed by a comment from an IDF spokesman who was never at the scene. To write truthfully about the damage to Gaza, Hedges added, kills a journalist’s career in mainstream media, where the unwritten policy is, “Do not significantly alienate those who provide access and money. Do not drive away advertisers.”

Ronnie Barkan began by noting that he comes from a country that does not recognize its own Israeli nationality, has no borders, no real immigration policy other than more of us and fewer of them, and does not accept its own U.N.-sanctioned mandate. Because his country exists to privilege Jews at the expense of natives, he continued, anything that applies the same rights to all of its residents undermines Israel. Even liberal secular Zionists believe a Jewish majority state is essential, demonstrating that Israel is Jewish by ethnicity rather than by religion.

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At a demonstration in Bil’in in April 2009, an Israeli soldier fired a high-velocity tear gas canister at close range, killing Bassem Abu Rahmah. Barkan was standing right beside Abu Rahmah, yet he was never questioned. The investigation was closed for lack of evidence, even though three cameras filmed the incident, including the award-winning “5 Broken Cameras” (available from Middle East Books and More). The demonstrations continue, Barkan reported, but they are mostly symbolic and will not end the occupation.

All three speakers agreed that positive change will not come from within Israeli society or its legal system, nor through Palestinian efforts alone, but rather through international pressure on Israel.

Hedges views the U.S. as the epicenter of the struggle because the weapons, diplomatic cover, and billions of dollars come from here. He urged building a movement to impose economic and military sanctions on Israel. Blumenthal said Netanyahu’s re-election was like a shot of steroids for BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions), which is already achieving results faster than anyone expected.

Barkan hoped that Palestine’s signing of the Rome Statute of the ICC would lead to tribunals, adding “We know we are on the right path. Things are changing now, even at the White House.” ❑

which it had collected on behalf of the PA for the months of December, January and February. Israel withheld the monthly fee transfer to protest the PA’s decision at the end of December to formally apply for membership in the ICC. Now that the PA has officially joined the ICC, no one knows how Israel will react.

However, said Sarhan, “whatever the result is—justice has to take its trajectory, and war crimes should stop. For now, what we need is to work on solid files with clear evidence of war crimes.”

Israel transferred the revenues anyway, based on an understanding that the PA would not pursue war crimes complaints at the ICC after it joined. But it not only withheld the March fees, but used NIS 160,000 of the tax revenues to pay for outstanding

debts, particularly to the Israel Electric Company, to which the PA owes NIS 2 billion.

Angry that Israel had not returned all the funds, Abbas threatened to return the money and to turn to the ICC. Israel is obligated to transfer the money, he argued, and doing so was “not a favor and should not be conditional…Either they give it to us in full, or we go to arbitration or to the court [ICC]. We will not accept anything else.”

What remains to be seen, however, notes attorney Adel Abu-Jahel, is to what degree Israel will cooperate by allowing ICC investigators into the Gaza Strip.

“I fear the U.S. might pressure the PA to choose between going to the international court or losing its U.S. aid,” he said. ❑

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Gaza on the Ground…

Continued from page 12

sufficient grounds for allegations of war crimes, crimes against human rights and violations of international humanitarian law.

Among the cases Palestinian civil society is keen to submit to the ICC is that of a special needs facility which sustained three direct missile hits from Israeli F16s on July 12, killing two female patients, Suha Abu Sada, 47, and Ola Washahi, 30, who were being treated for physical and psychological disabilities. Three other patients, along with their caregiver, were seriously injured. (See September 2014 Washington Report, p. 13.)

Israel also accused Hamas of committing war crimes by firing rockets on Israeli cities. Nevertheless, Hamas supported PA President Mahmoud Abbas in the move to join the Rome Statute and the ICC, saying it fears nothing, as it is resisting an occupying power.

In March, Israel had decided to release NIS 1.37 million in tax revenues to the PA, 40

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Neocons and the Israel Lobby Are Promoting War With Iran, as They Once Did With Iraq Israel andJudaism

By Allan C. Brownfeld ogether with other ele-

Tments of the Israel lobby,

PHOTO BY ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

neoconservatives—the same people who successfully pushed the nation to war with Iraq, a country which never attacked us and never possessed “weapons of mass destruction”—are now promoting a war with Iran, a country more than three times the size of Iraq.

The war in Iraq, it should be noted, left a regional power vacuum that helped promote the growth of ISIS, helped increase the chaos in Syria and increased the regional importance of Iran.

Writing in The New York Times, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton had this advice: “To stop Iran’s bomb, bomb Iran...Force is the only option.” Posing the question “Is our only option war?” in The Washington Post, longtime neoconservative Joshua Surrounding Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), standing at podium, are (clockwise Muravchik with the Johns from top left) neocons Paul Wolfowitz (photo Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images), John Bolton (photo Darren Hopkins University’s School McCollester/Getty Images), William Kristol (photo Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) and Sen. John Mcof Advanced International Studies answered “Yes.” Cain (R-AZ) (photo Win McNamee/Getty Images).

William Kristol, whose Weekly Standard is a voice for neoconserv- and brutal truth is that if Iran is to be pre- Perle, Douglas Feith, James Colbert and atives, not only echoes these views, but vented from developing a nuclear arsenal, David and Meyrav Wurmser wrote a memo has even suggested that Dick Cheney there is no alternative to the actual use of to Netanyahu in 1997 entitled “A Clean Break,” which recommended the reorderwould be a worthy Republican presiden- military force.”

The panic about Iran seems in retrospect ing of the entire Middle East to the benefit tial candidate in 2016!

Evidently, these men and their fellow to have been mostly emotional hyper- of Israel.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was an unknown travelers have learned nothing from the bole—as it is today. In 2006, Princeton Iraq war, which they successfully pro- scholar Bernard Lewis, an adviser to Presi- before he prepared a letter signed by 47 Remoted. For Americans to follow their ad- dent George W. Bush and Vice President publicans to leaders in Iran warning against Cheney, predicted in a Wall Street Journal a nuclear agreement. He echoed all the vice again would be folly.

Neoconservatives have been obsessed op-ed that Iran’s then-President Mahmoud points made by Netanyahu and by Ameriwith Iran for years. Norman Podhoretz, for Ahmadinejad was going to end the world. can neoconservative spokesmen. The Emermany years editor of Commentary, wrote The date, he explained, “is the night when gency Committee for Israel, led by Kristol, an essay in 2009 depicting Iran’s president many Muslims commemorate the night spent $960,000 to support Cotton in his as a revolutionary “like Hitler...whose ob- flight of the Prophet Muhammad on the Senate race in Arkansas. In that same race, a jective is to overturn the going interna- winged horse Buraq, first to the farthest firm run by Paul Singer, a hedge fund biltional system and replace it...with a new mosque, usually identified with Jerusalem, lionaire from New York and a leading donor world order dominated by Iran...The plain and then to heaven and back. This might to pro-Israel causes, contributed $250,000 to well be deemed an appropriate date for the Arkansas Horizon, an independent expenAllan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated colum- apocalyptic ending of Israel and if neces- diture group. Seth Klarman, a Boston-based nist and associate editor of the Lincoln Re- sary the world.” pro-Israel billionaire, contributed $100,000 view, a journal published by the Lincoln InMany have pointed to the close ties of through his investment firm. stitute for Research and Education, and edi- many neoconservatives with Israeli Prime The political action committee run by tor of Issues, the quarterly journal of the Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel’s Bolton spent at least $825,000 to support American Council for Judaism. right wing. Prominent neocons Richard Cotton. That PAC is in part financed by JUNE/JULY 2015

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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other major pro-Israel donors, including “bingo king” Irving and Cherna Moskowitz of Miami, who fund illegal Jewish-only settlements in East Jerusalem.

Although Senator Cotton claims to have personally composed the letter to Iran’s leaders, this seems less than likely. After all, it is highly unusual for a freshman senator to take a bold step like the Iran letter and then persuade dozens of colleagues to endorse it. Kristol admits having had a conversation with Cotton about the letter.

There continues to be much speculation about who really composed it.

“It may be obvious, but it is worth emphasizing how deranged all of this is,” wrote political commentator Daniel Larison in The American Conservative. “It is already quite strange when anyone in this country has such a strong ideological attachment to another state, but to demand that all of a party’s candidates must share that attachment and share it to the same degree is madness. If the relationship with that other country were extremely useful to the U.S. it would still be absurd, but it might be a little easier to understand. When the relationship does virtually nothing for the U.S. and imposes significant costs on the U.S., as is the case with Israel, requiring all candidates to give reflexive support to the other state is bizarre and indefensible.”

While no Democrats signed Cotton’s letter, that doesn’t mean they are supporting their president. As Josh Nathan-Kazis noted in the April 8 Forward, “The path to a bill that would effectively scuttle President Obama’s deal with Iran on its nuclear development program runs through two Jewish senators: Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chuck Schumer of New York.”

Both men are Democrats who, before a compromise was reached with the White House, had indicated they might vote to override a threatened presidential veto of a bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) which, according to the Forward, would require that “any agreement with Iran be put on hold for two months after signing as Congress reviews its details. Congress could then pass a resolution against the deal, which would bar the president from lifting sanctions that Congress had previously imposed on Iran.”

Because overriding a veto requires 67 votes, and there are only 54 Republican senators, a veto by President Obama would stand unless at least 13 Democrats joined their Republican counterparts. Both Cardin and Schumer are in positions of influence— Cardin as the new ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Schumer as Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) anointed successor as minority leader—and presumably could lobby Senate Democrats to vote with the Republican opposition.

42

In Israel itself, there are many who oppose any march to war with Iran. Efraim Halevy, former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, said, “Even if the Iranians did obtain a nuclear weapon, they are deterrable, because for mullahs, survival and perpetuation of the regime is a holy obligation. We must be much more sophisticated and nuanced in our policies toward Iran.”

In fact, attacking Iran would have an effect opposite of what the neoconservatives and Netanyahu claim to seek. As Prof.

Stephen Crowley, chairman of peace and conflict studies at Oberlin College, explains, “Since nuclear weapons provide the ultimate deterrent, nothing could better persuade Iranian hard-liners to abandon negotiations and to develop such weapons full speed than calls to bomb Iran. Mr. Bolton speculates that bombing could set back Iran’s nuclear program ‘by three to five years.’ What then, Mr. Bolton? Where does it end?”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has a history of interfering in American political life. In 2002, he stated before a congressional hearing that Saddam Hussain was “pursuing with abandon, with every ounce of effort, weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons...Saddam is hell bent on achieving atomic bombs as fast as he can.”

Netanyahu went on to charge that Saddam had sprinkled Iraq with “nuclear centrifuges the size of washing machines” and that nothing short of an U.S. invasion or regime change would stop Saddam from passing out nuclear weapons to terrorist groups. According to Netanyahu, an invasion of Iraq would be a great success. “If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you it will have enormous positive reverberations around the region,” he concluded. Of course, as everyone now knows, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Inaccurate and Alarmist Netanyahu’s predictions about Iran also have been less than accurate—but always alarmist. In 1995, he wrote that Iran would have a nuclear weapon in “three to five years,” and in 1996, speaking before a joint session of Congress, he warned that the deadline for Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon was “getting extremely close.” In 2012, Netanyahu spoke at the U.N., warning that Iran was mere months away from producing a nuclear weapon.

Now, with the U.S. engaged in sensitive negotiations with Iran concerning its nuclear program, Netanyahu again has interfered in domestic American politics, criticizing the president and secretary of state as naive and about to enter into a dangerous agreement. No other foreign leader— much less the recipient of the largest amount of U.S. taxpayer dollars in our history—has ever acted in this way.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Mossad’s formal assessment of Iran’s nuclear capacity and intentions clearly contradict the scenario outlined by Netanyahu at the U.N. According to the Mossad report, Iran was “not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons,” declared The Guardian. “The report highlights the gulf between the public claims and rhetoric of top Israeli politicians and the assessments of Israel’s military and intelligence establishment.”

As Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan notes, “Iran does not have a nuclear bomb and is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...In contrast, Israel refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and has several hundred nuclear warheads, which it constructed stealthily, including through acts of espionage and smuggling in the U.S. and against the wishes of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson...Iran has not launched an aggressive war since 1775, when Karim Khan Zand sent an army against Omar Pasha in neighboring Iraq...Modern Iran has not occupied the territory of its neighbors.”

In Israel itself, many commentators argue that Netanyahu’s focus on Iran is simply a means to avoid dealing with the question of the continued occupation of the West Bank.

In its March 3 edition, the daily newspaper Haaretz editorialized: “Netanyahu and other Israeli candidates are ignoring the real existential threat to Israel...the unending occupation of the territories. Israel’s insistence on ruling over millions of Palestinians in the West Bank who lack civil rights, expanding the settlements and keeping residents of the Gaza Strip under siege is the danger threatening the future.”

The idea that either Netanyahu’s campaign against an agreement with Iran, or the machinations of the far-right Israel lobby and its associated neoconservatives, in any way represents American Jewish opinion—a view its advocates promote—is clearly untrue. Polls show that the majority of American Jews support efforts to achieve an agreement with Iran. The widely read Jewish newspaper The Forward has endorsed moving forward with an agreement, and groups such as J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace are seeing their memberships booming. Rabbi Brant Rosen, one of the founders of Jewish Voice for Peace, laments, “The State of Israel is now the living embodiment of Judaism as empire. It demonstrates all too tragically, the consequences of this quasi-Faustian bargain we have made with political nationalism.”

A decade ago the U.S. permitted neoconservatives and the Israel lobby to take us to war with Iraq on false premises and with disastrous results. To permit them to lead us down this path once again, this time with Iran, would be ruinous. ❑ JUNE/JULY 2015

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First National Arab-American Cultural Festival a Huge Success Staff photos by D. Hanley and Dale Sprusansky Every year, Middle East-related events in the nation’s capital multiply. With the region in turmoil, every think tank worth its salt holds an array of weighty panel discussions, impressive conferences and fundraising dinners. When the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) announced its inaugural National ArabAmerican Cultural Festival in the heart of DC and invited the Washington Report and our bookstore, Middle East Books and More, to join its day-long street festival on Saturday, April 25, we have to confess our tired staff groaned.

But we marvelled as, on a chilly day at Freedom Plaza, blocks from the White House and the Capitol dome, a bustling covered bazaar materialized. We soon joined in the day’s sheer light-hearted enjoyment, as out-of-town visitors joined long-time residents to explore and celebrate the culture, food and arts from the Middle East and North Africa. We also appreciated a priceless opportunity to introduce our magazine and bookstore to thousands of new readers.

The region’s diversity was on full display—our booth was sandwiched between Mrs. Al-Omari, a Syrian artist who handpaints glass (and makes a scrumptious hariseh, which she generously shared with her neighbors) and a booth selling elegant calligraphy.

There was also an NGO Pavilion informing passersby about tourism and travel opportunities, as well as charities and ArabAmerican cultural organizations. Other booths and food carts offered traditional Arabic food and even a hookah bar, where visitors smoked flavored pipes. The stage offered continuing entertainment, including a fashion show featuring colorful Arabic costumes. Talented musicians and singers performed contemporary and classic Arabic music—and enticed passersby from blocks away. An enthusiastic audience enjoyed folkloric dancers, and young and old joined in a rousing dabka in the street.

One DC resident paused at our booth with a wide grin. “Day after day Fox News tells us Arabs are a bunch of terrorists. I just knew the media was lying. It’s about time you guys showed up to say who you really are! Keep doing it.”

Our staff will be first in line next year to sign up for our booth!—Delinda C. Hanley

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Arab American Activism

American Task Force for Lebanon Gala Awards Night The American Task Force for Lebanon (ATFL) honored geneticist Dr. Huda Zoghbi 46

Students holding their certificates of appreciation and members of the Multicultural Affairs Committee celebrate Arab American heritage.

INSET: Hannah Shraim. and CNN correspondent Sara Ganim at their 17th annual fund-raising gala at the Fairmont Washington Hotel in Washington, DC on April 16. Members of Congress, diplomats and other dignitaries, including Gen. George Joulwan, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, and Dr. Charles Elachi, director of the U.S. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, joined their fellow Americans of Lebanese heritage for the evening’s celebrations.

Lebanese-born Dr. Zoghbi is a physician and Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher who founded the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. Sara Ganim is a CNN investigative news reporter based in New York. Her reports for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, PA exposed the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University and earned a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting in 2012.

Proceeds from the gala support the Cedar Project, which provides young LebaneseAmerican professionals with the opportu-

PHOTOS COURTESY ATFL

nity to receive hands-on work experience and also enrich their knowledge of Lebanese current events and culture.

—Delinda C. Hanley

CNN correspondent Sara Ganim received ATFL’s Philip C. Habib Award for Distinguished Public Service.

Muslim American Activism Inaugural Palestinian Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill PHOTOS COURTESY ATFL

Arab-American students were in the spotlight at this year’s celebration of Arab American Heritage Month at Bohrer Park in Montgomery County, MD on April 20. The city of Gaithersburg’s Multicultural Affairs Committee sponsored the event, organized by committee members Samira Hussein, parent May Shraim and Andi Rosati, the Multicultural Affairs Committee staff liaison. Art and calligraphy by Germantown artist Ouafae Taame adorned the room. Nearly the entire city government, including Mayor Jud Ashman, Vice Mayor Ryan Spiegel watched as Maryland students Majdal ElShawahin performed Arabic folk dances and Noorah Jaouni played the violin.

Other students selected a famous Arab American, created a poster about his or her remarkable achievements, and told the audience a little about them. Areej Ramadan talked about heart-pump inventor Dr. Michael DeBakey; Amani Idris chose actress Salma Hayek; Alaa Muhtaseb described Apple co-founder Steve Jobs; Rehab Abdullah Halim chose Nobel Prize winner for chemistry Dr. Elias Corey; Gyda Murrar described the inventor of the solar cell Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah; and Hassan Edwan described Dr. Ahmed H. Zewail, another Nobel Prize winner for chemistry.

Hannah Shraim, a Palestinian American 11th grader and the president of her Muslim Student Association at Northwest High School in Germantown, selected awardwinning poet and author Naomi Shihab Nye, who just happens to be one of my own favorite writers. After e-mailing Shraim’s photo [see inset above, right] to Nye, I received a reply from the poet, who was in Belfast, Northern Ireland: “So precious! Please give her my love!”

After the presentations, Catherine Provost, a representative from Congressman Chris Van Hollen’s office, said, ”This is a great sample of students as well as great Arab Americans who have done so much for our country.” Longtime member of the Multicultural Affairs Committee Kenneth Weiss told the students as the event concluded, “In a couple of years we’ll be talking about your achievements.”

—Delinda C. Hanley

STAFF PHOTOS D. HANLEY

Students Celebrate Arab American Heritage

Dr. Huda Zoghbi (l) accepts her Ray R. Irani Lifetime Achievement Award from Charif Souki, chairman of Cheniere Energy, Inc. THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Bringing Palestinian Americans to Capitol Hill on April 14 was one of the first orders of business for the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), after opening an office in Washington, DC in February.

About 20 delegates from several states participated in the first-ever Palestine Advocacy Day, holding nearly 50 meetings with House and Senate staffers over two days, which also included Muslim AdvoJUNE/JULY 2015

PHOTO COURTESY AMP

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Members of the New Jersey chapter of American Muslims for Palestine pose with their elected representative, Democrat Bill Pascrell, Jr., on Palestine Advocacy Day. cacy Day, organized by the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations. They asked their elected officials to hold specific Israeli military units, such as the Golani Brigades, accountable under the Leahy Law for human rights violations. They also highlighted a new resolution on Israeli settlements.

“Congress people are telling us that they do not hear from Palestinian Americans about Palestine in the same way they do from other social justice groups,” said AMP director of media and communications Kristin Szremski, who coordinated the special event. “Palestine Advocacy Day is meant to challenge this, and to get Palestinian Americans, especially young leaders, engaged in a process that hopefully will help shift U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East so that the occupation will end.”

AMP, a national education and advocacy organization based outside Chicago, has for six years been working to raise awareness of Israel’s occupation of Palestine and how U.S. taxpayers support these illegal and unjust Israeli policies. After years of getting the Palestinian narrative into the national dialogue through the use of advertising campaigns, educational materials, national conferences and more, AMP knew it was time to move to the nation’s capital to directly engage the national media and elected officials.

In its first six weeks in DC, in addition to Palestine Advocacy Day, AMP has run a bus ad campaign in advance of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress; participated in the #SkiptheSpeech coalition that prompted 60 members of Congress to boycott Netanyahu’s speech; the #ShutDownAIPAC events, created by CODEPINK, and other events. AMP also took part in the Jewish Voice for Peace annual conference held in Baltimore (see May 2015 Washington Report, pp. 57-59).

JUNE/JULY 2015

“In our decades here in the U.S. as Palestinian Muslims and Christians, and as activists, we won’t leave the advocacy arena solely to pro-Israel lobby groups anymore,” said Sayel Kayed, AMP-New Jersey Chapter chairman. “Our feedback from Capitol Hill was amazingly positive. Our representatives told us this was the first time they’d heard our voices. This empowers us to expand this work.”

“To be clear, AMP does not lobby elected officials. The organization’s strategy is to educate lawmakers about issues that not only will bring justice to Palestinians but also will benefit Americans as well,” said Osama Abu Irshaid, AMP national policy director. “The U.S.’s unconditional support of Israeli policies that contravene international laws and oppress Palestinians weakens the American stance throughout the world and also threatens our national security.”

While Palestine Advocacy Day 2015 was small in scale, it will become an AMP signature program, with plans for major expansion next year. For more information on AMP’s new DC office, or to inquire about Palestine Advocacy Day, e-mail AMP.DC@ampalestine.org.

—Muna Howard

Human Rights War-weary Libyans Fleeing to Tunisia As the Syrian refugee crisis enters its fourth year, another disturbing humanitarian crisis is taking place in the region.

Since Libya’s violent summer of 2014, an estimated 1.5 million of the country’s 6.5 million citizens have sought refuge in neighboring Tunisia. Another 700,000 or so have fled east to Egypt. An additional 400,000 are internally displaced within Libya. Making matters worse, smugglers THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

have capitalized on Libya’s instability and are increasingly using the country’s ports to traffic desperate migrants (most of whom are from Eretria and Somalia) across the Mediterranean. Many of these migrants end up dying at sea.

To discuss this emerging issue, the Brookings Institution held an event titled “An Overlooked Crisis: Humanitarian Consequences of the Conflict in Libya” at its Washington, DC offices on April 24.

Megan Bradley, a nonresident fellow at Brookings’ Project on Internal Displacement, noted that international relief agencies have been unable to reach most of Libya’s internally displaced persons because of the instability in the country.

This, she explained, has left this population vulnerable to violence and deeply impoverished.

The situation facing Libyans in Tunisia is less dire, according to Bradley. Most of these individuals are middle class and have been able to use their savings to live comfortably in Tunisia, she explained. This, however, is not sustainable over the longterm. “Reliance on the displaced persons’ own resources is just not tenable,” Bradley warned.

Despite their momentary economic wellbeing, many Libyans in Tunisia nonetheless live restless lives, Bradley noted, as they have ties to the deposed Qaddafi regime and fear retaliatory violence. She was quick to note that “this is more a case of guilt by association,” as most of these refugees did not carry out violence or human rights violations on behalf of Qaddafi.

Other refugees, while thankful for Tunisia’s hospitality, live in perpetual fear of a policy change that would force them to return home. Given this anxiety, “many Libyans in Tunisia are effectively trying to live under the radar,” Bradley said.

Kais Darragi, chargé d’affaires of the Tunisian Embassy in Washington, said the presence of relatively well-off Libyans has had a mixed impact on his country. On the one hand, Libyans have provided an economic boost by injecting about 1 billion Euros into the Tunisian economy. However, he added, Libyan refugees—who now comprise 10 percent of the country’s population—have caused rents to rise, strained schools, hospitals and transportation systems, and placed pressure on food and energy subsidies.

Darragi also noted that the flow of individuals from Libya has created security concerns. Because Libyans do not need a visa to enter Tunisia, he said, it is difficult 47

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STAFF PHOTO D. SPRUSANSKY

Women’s Initiative, which tackles issues confronting ArabAmerican women.

Last year women in the media discussed trials and successes, and passed on advice to others in their field.

ADC has also held discussions on sexual harassment and domestic violence.

Women’s Day for um speakers, starting Kais Darragi (l) and Shelly Pitterman argue that more attention with Ambassador must be paid to the Libyan humanitarian crisis.

Wendy Chamberlin, for government officials to keep track of president of the Middle East Institute since who and what is entering the country. The 2007, examined the plight of women in open Tunisia border has additionally made conflict zones. Chamberlin said she is disit difficult to monitor refugee flows, as mayed by the “sweeping generalities” she many Libyans have simply crossed the bor- hears about Arab women, with no differender without declaring their refugee status. tiations made for rural women or urban While their exact numbers are not women.

Ambassador Chamberlin condemned the known, Shelly Pitterman, regional representative of the U.N. High Commissioner extremists who have hijacked and reinterfor Refugees (UNHCR), said the interna- preted the Qur’an and created the conflicts tional community must think of creative convulsing the Middle East. She called for ways to support Libyan refugees and their the moms living inside the conflict zones host countries—particularly Tunisia—be- to become mediators.

Kurdish women have taken up arms to fore the situation becomes dire. Resources will eventually run dry for refugees, he defend their people, Chamberlin reminded warned, and “when that happens, those listeners, and Maj. Mariam al-Mansouri, a people will suffer more clearly and it will female UAE fighter pilot, took part in the first airstrikes against ISIS. On the other have a dramatic impact on Tunisia.”

For its part, Darragi said, the Tunisian hand, women have traveled from around government is preparing for the worst. the world to become “jihadi brides” in Tunis received a wake-up call, he said, Syria or suicide bombers. But most women when it was caught off-guard by the high are the vulnerable victims of conflict.

Melanie Greenberg, president and CEO number of refugees that entered the country following the February killing of Copts of Alliance for Peacebuilding, agreed that women’s voices should be amplified and by an ISIS-linked Libyan group.

Humanitarian measures aside, Bradley listened to. She pointed out that how a soemphasized the central importance of bringing peace to a conflict-plagued Libya.

This is the only way to end the humanitarian crisis and allow refugees to return home, she said. Stressing the importance of urgency, she noted that the longer the crisis drags on, the less likely it becomes that Libyan refugees will ever return home.

—Dale Sprusansky

ciety treats women is the litmus test for its capacity for peace. An unstable nation produces a stressed-out society, and the level of violence against women can serve as a barometer.

Moroccan-born Souleyma Haddaoui, a visiting researcher at Georgetown who is researching the status of American Muslims after 9/11, discussed why women are joining ISIS. Young girls are lured by “dollar scholars” they see on the Internet who glorify and justify violence. They may feel marginalized and rejected by the Islamophobic West, although Haddaoui cautioned that “there is no one-size-fits-all reason people join ISIS. Dania Korkor, a legal analyst at the Center for Voting and Democracy, urged gender balance in public offices in the United States—more women need to ”run, win and lead,” she said. Democracy should be more reflective of demography—and 51 percent of the population is underrepresented.

During the question-and-answer period, Ralph Nader couldn’t resist comparing our own “violent society” to “death cult ISIS.” It’s not only ISIS that has a propensity for violence. Why are we blowing up countries all over the world? Who has committed sociocide for more than 100 years? The audience erupted in cheers and applause.

Next came the award ceremony, with Egyptian TV media anchor Jihan Mansour receiving the Excellence in Media award.

Jordanian MP Hind Al-Fayez accepted ADC’s Excellence in Public Service Award.

She opined, “ISIS is a distraction from the major problem: Israel....Who is supporting and feeding ISIS? Who benefits from creating ethnic divisions?” she asked.

Nader, the consumer advocate, lawyer, author and former presidential candidate,

To celebrate 2015 International Women’s Day, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) held a panel discussion, awards ceremony and dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC on March 31. ADC president, attorney Samar Khalaf, described the re-focus of ADC’s 48

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

ADC Holds Forum on Women’s Empowerment

(L-r) Georgetown’s Osama Abi-Mershed (moderator), Melanie Greenberg, Dania Korkor, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, Women’s Forum chair Dr. Doaa Taha and Souleyma Haddaoui.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

received the Excellence in Defense of Women’s Rights and Civil Rights Advocacy award. Nader said that his parents had two boys and two girls, and it was taken for granted that each would be highly educated and succeed. He reminded the audience that all great advances and work for change starts with two people. “People get behind you if you’re passionate for justice,” he concluded.

May Rihani, a pioneer in girls’ education and an advocate for women’s rights, received the Leadership Excellence in Global Women’s Rights Award. She believes social justice is a pathway to peace, Rihani said, and Arab Americans must become major players on that path. She urged her audience to value their diversity and religions, work relentlessly to minimize poverty, illiteracy, domestic violence and improve health care, education and job opportunities. She concluded, “We need to make a difference and put ourselves on a path to peace.”

—Delinda C. Hanley

Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis: What Is To Be Done?

A group of human rights observers gathered at the Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill on April 21 to provide an update on Syria’s humanitarian crisis. The event, which challenged speakers to offer solutions, was sponsored by the Middle East Policy Council.

Karen AbuZayd, a member of the U.N.’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and former commissioner-general of UNRWA, began by providing the latest gut-wrenching figures on the crisis, which has displaced roughly half of the Syrian population. “Over 220,000 Syrians have been killed, 6.5 million are internally displaced, and at least 9 million more inside Syria are in need,” she noted. “Tens of thousands have been forcibly disappeared or tortured in detention, and 4 million refugees are hosted in neighboring countries.”

The refugee crisis exists, she said, because all sides of the conflict—especially Bashar al-Assad’s forces—have committed grave human rights abuses. AbuZayd said the Syrian government is “responsible for many more crimes than the opposition and many more types of crimes, particularly given its monopoly on air power and also its heavy use of indiscriminate weapons, including, more recently, barrel bombs.”

AbuZayd implored global powers to stop permitting weapons to enter Syria and suggested an arms embargo be established.

“Those states and individuals who reJUNE/JULY 2015

PHOTO COURTESY MIDDLE EAST POLICY COUNCIL

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(L-r) Karen AbuZayd, Thomas Mattair, Prof. Denis J. Sullivan (at podium), Susan Akram, Sara Roy and Ambassador Ford Fraker. source the various parties at the same time as they are proclaiming support for the negotiations…could be indicted for war crimes committed by those they are arming and training,” she warned.

The international community must also do more to provide assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons, AbuZayd continued. “U.N. appeals have garnered pledges for under half of the money requested. And of those pledges,” she noted, “only half have been paid.”

Prof. Denis J. Sullivan, director of Northeastern University’s Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies, urged governments to begin viewing the crisis as a protracted refugee situation. Accordingly, he said, ways to strengthen relations between host communities and refugees must be developed.

This can be accomplished, he said, by sending international aid directly to cities in Lebanon and Jordan that house a large number of refugees. “These are the people who are overwhelmed. These are the people who have to manage the schools, manage the health facilities, manage the clinics,” he explained. “So there’s a double benefit here… you’re hitting the refugees, but you’re also hitting and helping the local towns, the people of those cities and towns, as well as developing a long-term institutional development.”

Sullivan said Syrian immigrants also must be permitted to seek employment in their host countries, a privilege they are currently denied. “Providing work permits to Syrian refugees is fundamentally important. Also, business licenses,” he stated.

Humanitarian issues aside, Sullivan said Washington must do more politically and diplomatically to bring an end to the violence in Syria. “I think fundamentally the United States needs to mobilize our diplomatic and intelligence and economic and military might toward cease-fires, safety THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

zones, [and] humanitarian corridors,” he argued. “It won’t stop by itself. I’m not sure what we’re waiting for—a better time? We need to move in this direction.”

According to Susan M. Akram, a clinical professor at Boston University School of Law, countries such as Lebanon and Egypt are frustrated that Western nations have not accepted more Syrian refugees. Syria’s neighbors, she noted, have insisted on resettlement as a condition of agreeing to process refugees. This has yet to happen, however, as the U.S. and Canada have accepted only several hundred asylum seekers, with a low likelihood of that number increasing significantly.

Akram noted that Syria’s neighbors also are hosting a large number of refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Iraq—“some of whom have been waiting for years for resettlement.” These long-existing refugee populations are frustrated that their applications for resettlement are now being delayed due to the pressure the Syrian refugees have placed on the international system, she said.

Particular attention must be paid to Syrian refugees of Palestinian descent, Akram added, given the legal quagmires they are encountering across the region.

The situation facing Palestinians from Syria is particularly desperate in Egypt, Akram added. “Palestinian refugees in Egypt comprise one of the largest pre-existing refugee populations in the country, but Egypt excludes Palestinians from protection or assistance from UNHCR and does not recognize them as refugees,” she explained.

“Many are being detained and arrested for illegal presence,” Akram continued.

“There have been over a thousand Palestinians from Syria detained. And the government has made their release conditional on obtaining airline tickets out of Egypt.

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Since there’s nowhere most Palestinians can go, they’ve been trying to leave Egypt illegally by boats, heading to Italy, or getting out of Egypt any way they can through the use of smugglers. And they’re among the highest number of casualties in the drownings in the Mediterranean.”

Palestinians from Syria are not faring much better in Jordan, Akram noted.

“The Jordanian government early on [in the Syrian conflict] put a policy in place of not one more Palestinian in Jordan,” she explained. This has resulted in the deportation of hundreds of Palestinians back to Syria and the separation of mixed Palestinian-Syrian and Palestinian-Jordanian families.

In Lebanon, Palestinians fleeing Syria “have primarily gone to reside in the preexisting Palestinian camps, exacerbating a huge problem, because the poorest people in Lebanon are in the Palestinian refugee camps,” Akram noted. “So Syrian Palestinians who have been used to quite a high standard of living are now living in the most impoverished conditions.”

Matters are better in Turkey, which Akram described as “the only country [neighboring Syria] that makes no distinction between Syrian nationals and Palestinians from Syria in the granting of protection.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Sara Roy: How to Prevent Syria From Becoming the Next Gaza Harvard University professor Sara Roy concluded the April 21 Middle East Policy Council event by pointing to the failed history of humanitarian action in Gaza as an example of what the international community should avoid in its approach to the Syrian humanitarian crisis.

Israel has intentionally made Gaza dependent on humanitarian aid, Roy argued, in order to stifle its economic development and thus prevent the creation of a self-sustaining Palestinian state.

“In the mid-1980s I was [in Israel] conducting research for my doctoral dissertation,” she recalled. “I spent a good deal of time with Israeli government officials, all of whom make one point clear almost immediately, some more explicitly than others: There would be no economic development in the Palestinian territories, I was told. There were two reasons for this. The first, and relatively less important, was the need to eliminate any source of competition with the Israeli economy. The second and far more crucial reason was to preclude the establishment of any form of a Palestinian state.”

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Matters have gotten worse in recent years, Roy said, as Israel has moved from a policy of economic stagnation to one of economic destruction: Tel Aviv wants Gaza to be utterly helpless.

According to Roy, “Whereas prior to the first intifada Israel sought to control and dominate the Palestinian economy, shaping it to serve its own interests, current policy attacks Gaza’s economic structure with the aim of permanently disabling it—in the process, transforming the population from a people with national, political and economic rights into a humanitarian problem, charity cases in need of relief.”

Israel has been able to avoid responsibility for Gaza by using Hamas as an excuse for its economic and military assault on Gaza, Roy pointed out. “The West has largely come to accept Israel’s recasting of its relationship with Gaza from one between occupier and occupied to one between warring parties,” she added, “which has facilitated Israeli attacks on Gaza and rendered as illegitimate any notion of freedom or democracy for Palestinians.”

Noting the culpability of Western governments, Roy said they must no longer allow Israel to use the humanitarian crises it creates as a deflection from the central issue of its occupation. “Any discussion of humanitarian aid must confront and engage this political fact directly,” she insisted. “Without a political resolution, this [humanitarian] approach is as unsustainable as it is volatile.”

Given the unlikelihood of Western governments getting tough on Israel, Roy suggested that it might be time for humanitarian groups that work in Gaza to take a strong political stand. “Donor agencies need to hold Israel and their own host governments accountable for the very real and damaging cost of occupation,” she said.

“While humanitarian action cannot substitute for political intervention or compensate for the absence of a political process, it should not allow itself to become instrumentalized or weaponized by that process.”

Offering lessons for Syria, Roy stressed the importance of growth instead of rebuilding. “For too long the approach of foreign assistance providers has not been about moving Gaza forward into the future but at best about restoring Gaza to a lesscompromised position of the past,” she stated. “Will Syria’s displaced be similarly condemned to this approach—to relief instead of progress?”

Video and a transcript of Roy’s impressive remarks can be found at <mepc.org>.

—Dale Sprusansky THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Waging Peace Bethlehem’s First Female Mayor on Governing in Occupied Palestine Speaking at an April 30 event sponsored by the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, Vera Baboun, Bethlehem’s first female mayor, discussed the challenges facing municipal governments in the occupied West Bank.

Mayor Baboun began by lamenting the dual and incompatible identities of her city: Bethlehem the eternal symbol of peace, and Bethlehem the city under occupation. “This city that gave us the meaning of peace is walled...a pure irony,” she commented.

Baboun noted that the reality of the occupation and the presence of Jewish-only settlements limit her power as mayor.

Eighty-two percent of Bethlehem governorate is in Area C, she explained—meaning that it is under complete Israeli control.

This essentially means that, as mayor, she has virtually no authority over the administration of much of her city. “We can do nothing in these [Israeli-controlled] areas,” she noted.

Turning to the negative economic and social ramifications of the Israeli occupation, Baboun showed her audience pictures of the separation wall and checkpoints.

She decried that Palestinians are consistently humiliated by Israel’s policies. “One thing we lack is dignified living,” she said.

Economically, Bethlehem is crippled by the occupation, Baboun emphasized.

While the city’s residents are highly educated and capable workers, she said, the reality of the occupation is that very few skilled, high-paying jobs are sustainable.

Pointing out that 400,000 Bethlehemites live in Chile alone, she noted the detrimental impact that Israel’s immigration and citizenship policies have on her city’s ability to capitalize on the great wealth and innovation of its diaspora.

Even though Bethlehem welcomes two million visitors per year, Baboun noted that the city receives minimal economic benefits from their presence. This, she explained, is because many tourists bus in from Israel, visit the Church of the Nativity, pray, maybe visit a souvenir shop, then leave.

While the local economy suffers from visitors not booking hotel rooms, Baboun pointed out that there also are unfortunate social consequences of Israel-centric tourist itineraries. It’s a shame, she said, that outsiders do not get the opportunity JUNE/JULY 2015

the 800 or so mem- another 164 kids, Parker continued. bers of his city’s “There was no safe place for children.”

Using drones in highly urban settings is council work with government authori- a violation of international humanitarian ties in a number of law, Parker pointed out. “Drones have the areas, such as making technical capacity to identify targets, and public spaces accessi- yet you still have children out in the open, ble to the handi- 4 or 5 years old, during daylight hours capped and offering being directly struck with weaponized recommendations for drones.” The facts speak for themselves: Bethlehem’s master there was direct targeting of children, and “yet there’s still structural impunity for plan.

The councils, Abu- these violations.” For more information Hijleh concluded, are and documentation, read DCIP’s latest reMayor Vera Baboun (l) and Lana Abu-Hijleh share stories from “a populist move- port on its website <dci-palestine.org>.

Ben-Youssef cautioned listeners not to bement that reflect the occupied Bethlehem. real spirit of the come desensitized as they listen to these —Dale Sprusansky numbers. “I think that’s critical for human to walk Bethlehem’s streets and interact Palestinian youth.” rights advocates to keep in mind: these are with locals. Ultimately, she believes this lives,” she said. Ben-Youssef described what lack of engagement does little to promote Accountability for Gaza: Updates on understanding and peace. “Let the peace Domestic, International Legal Efforts her organization, Adalah, the Legal Center process start from Bethlehem,” she urged. Two lawyers, Nadia Ben-Youssef and Brad for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, does to —Dale Sprusansky Parker, who are working with the United expose the flaws in the Israeli legal system.

After Operation Cast Lead, the U.N. Nations’ Independent Commission of InBethlehem’s Youth Offer Reason for quiry on the 2014 Gaza war, spoke April Human Rights Council called for a factHope 16 at the Palestine Center in Washington, finding mission. The Goldstone CommisSeveral youth leaders from Bethlehem also DC. Palestine Center executive director sion concluded that there were serious spoke alongside their mayor, Vera Baboun, Zeina Azzam said both speakers were “in- doubts about the willingness of Israelis to at the April 30 Middle East Institute event. tensely involved in current international carry out investigations in accordance with Lana Abu-Hijleh, a Palestinian develop- efforts calling for justice and accountabil- international law.

A follow-up mechanism, led by New ment expert who has helped establish ity, and for the end of the impunity that IsYork Supreme Court Justice Mary Mcyouth programs throughout the West rael seems to enjoy.”

Since the beginning of the Israeli occu- Gowan-Davis, agreed that Israel opens only Bank, said the delegation from Bethlehem was in Washington to encourage legislators pation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem a small number of investigations. After Opon Capitol Hill to continue funding Pales- and Gaza, Palestinian children have borne eration Cast Lead and the killing of 1,400 the brunt of discrimination, violence and people, Israel examined 400 incidents, tinian youth counsels.

Official USAID-funded youth councils military offenses, noted Parker, a staff at- opened 52 investigations and ended up exist in 40 communities in the West Bank, torney and international advocacy officer with only 3 indictments. “The most severe Abu-Hijleh noted, and have influenced the at Defense for Children International Pales- punishment was for credit card theft,” creation of similar institutions in 20 other tine (DCIP). Invariably, both Israeli author- Ben-Youssef revealed. Investigators workities and the international community fail ing with McGowan-Davis (who is now Palestinian cities.

The youth councils provide an opportu- to investigate allegations of war crimes, leading the Commission of Inquiry on nity for young people to become involved human rights or child rights violations, Gaza) agree that “something is wrong.” in the social and political future of their Parker insisted, so Israel’s military enjoys After encountering difficulties obtaining cities, Abu-Hijleh told the audience, by “systematic impunity.”

Since 2006, there have promoting community engagement and ofbeen six military offensives fering leadership experience.

They also help lay the groundwork for on Gaza, Parker observed. strong local institutions and civil society Israel’s attacks during Operorganizations, all of which she considers ation Cast Lead targeted crucial to the prosperity of a future Pales- residential neighborhoods and civilian homes. Last tinian state.

Betty Ba’baish, a member of Bethlehem’s summer’s Operation ProtecYouth Council, credited the program with tive Edge “sort of set the helping her and other young Palestinians high water mark for the find a reason for hope. The council, she level of violence,” he said, said, encourages young people to realize killing 547 children: “225 of that in the midst of occupation their nat- those kids were killed in ural gifts and abilities can be put to good airstrikes, using bombs dropped on kids in their use in their community.

Jacob Qara’a, the current president of homes throughout Gaza.” Brad Parker and Nadia Ben-Youssef are working on a U.N. the Bethlehem Youth Council, noted that Weaponized drones killed Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza war.

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access to Israel and the Gaza Strip, McGowan-Davis has delayed the release of her latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council until this June.

—Delinda C. Hanley

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Nour Joudah describes Palestinians’ rights to eduction at the LEAP fund-raiser.

School in Ramallah until she was denied re-entry after a vacation in 2013. She focused on the vulnerability of Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and wherever else the stateless refugees are living. The evening ended with a marvelous performance by DC’s Foty Fusion, whose unique blend of traditional and modern Arabic music is a family enterprise.

For more information on LEAP, visit <www.leap-program.org>.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Land Day Commemoration Honors People Who Won’t Be Silenced The General Delegation of the PLO to the U.S. and the American Federation of Ramallah Palestine teamed up to host a special dinner to commemorate Prisoners’ Day as well as the 39th Palestinian Land Day on April 17 at the Westin Hotel in Arlington, VA. Following the playing of the Palestinian National Anthem, Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat told the audience that Land Day honors the six Israeli Palestinians who were killed and hundreds who were in-

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Two returned volunteers from Learning for the Empowerment and Advancement of Palestinians (LEAP) found their way into Middle East Books and More one weekend while this writer was manning the bookstore. I admitted I didn’t know a thing about LEAP, which sends young American volunteers to Palestinian camps in Lebanon for five to seven weeks each summer.

Volunteers often find sponsors at their schools, community centers or places of worship and pay their own airfare. Once in Lebanon they share housing with other volunteers and enjoy delicious food provided by Beit Atfal Assumoud, a Palestinian-run organization. Volunteers teach intensive summer courses to improve students’ English proficiency, and help motivate them to continue their academic studies. In return, they get to know Palestinian refugees and learn a lesson or two about life. That sounds like the Peace Corps, which changed me, so I decided to attend a fund-raiser for LEAP’s SHINE 2015 summer project, held April 15 at the 14th and V Sts. Busboys and Poets.

LEAP is a U.S.-based grassroots, volunteer-run program launched in 2010. This summer LEAP volunteers will provide an intensive summer experience to 600 refugees in Lebanon. LEAP is a program for concerned individuals who believe in American core values of peace, freedom, and equality for all people, as well as in human rights, international conventions, humanitarian law, and refugee rights.

Returned volunteers showed movies their students had made about their lives in the camps. They described staying in an apartment with other volunteers in Beirut’s Shatila camp, waking up early to teach their classes and going home to spend at least three hours preparing for classes the next day. Volunteers taught yoga, photography and social media skills, as well as English, and took kids to the beach on field trips. They talked about students they’d worked with, who want to be dentists, doctors, poets and filmmakers. It was obvious to me that those students had forever changed their teachers.

Next to speak was Nour Joudah, associate professor at American University, who used to teach 9th graders at the Friends

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Volunteers Describe LEAP’s Work in Lebanon

Political cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh.

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jured and arrested as they peacefully protested Israeli plans to steal tens of thousands of acres of land in the Galilee.

Turning to the dinner’s theme, “Your Silence Is Their Power,” Areikat decried efforts by U.S. colleges, mainstream media and community leaders who use Islamophobia, false charges of anti-Semitism and other tactics to silence criticism of Israeli policies. “Criticism of policies is legitimate and moral,” Areikat emphasized, urging Palestinians to use their votes, forge alliances and contribute to their communities. “We need you to be Palestinian Americans,” he concluded, “and not Palestinians living in America.”

Mohammad Saba’aneh, a political cartoonist from Jenin for Al Hayat newsletter, told attendees that he has been jailed by Israeli authorities for his art. He endured unbearable interrogations, Saba’aneh said, and resisted descending into madness by stealing a pen from his interrogators and drawing. He asked prisoners who were going home to smuggle out his drawings, which focus on the plight of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention.

“Only drawing saved me,” Saba’aneh said. “I will not drop my pencil. It’s my way to resist and protest...Palestinians are paying a heavy price living under occupation. We need you to work in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Without it, our voices will continue to be unheard. Please do not be silent.”

Palestinian organizers honored United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), United Palestinian Appeal (UPA) and Islamic Relief USA for their “heroic efforts” to provide services for Palestinians.

Also honored were Northeastern University students Sean Hansen, a senior anthropology major, and Zeina Abu-Hijleh, a Palestinian journalism and law student.

The students took turns describing the suspension of their university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter after posting mock eviction notices on dorms and other protests. After every setback and attack, more students, including the entire rugby team, joined their rallies to show solidarity, and eventually Northeastern reinstated SJP. Professor Iymen Chehade, who created an Israeli-Palestinian Conflict course at Columbia College in Chicago, described having his academic freedom violated when some students complained he made them uncomfortable by showing the Academy Award-nominated film “Five Broken CamJUNE/JULY 2015

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promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in U.N. Resolution 194.

Rosen noted the oppressive conditions Israel imposes on Palestinians, who live under a set of Jim Crow laws very different from the laws under which Jewish Israelis live. “We have a legally enforced separation between two people based on their ethnicity, and that is what we are talking about when we Northeastern University students Sean Hansen and talk about apartheid,” said Rosen.

Zeina Abu-Hijleh.

“There is structural racism in all eras.” After losing his course, he gathered societies,” he acknowledged, “but the kind 7,000 signatures in a grassroots national of structural racism that results from Zioncampaign, and his course was reinstated. ism is built into the very idea of Zionism it“If you see injustice anywhere, fight it,” self. It is painful to say that as a Jew, but it urged Chehade, who is now founder and is a reckoning that we have to seriously director of Uprising Theater, the first the- deal with. The issue is not simply the ocater that will prioritize Palestinian plays cupation…but goes to the heart of what it means to found an ethno-national state, a and art.

Comedian Amer Zahr, who also served as state that is predicated on the identity of master of ceremonies, concluded the one people.”

Rosen, who is based in Chicago, joined evening with a stand-up routine that left guests in stitches.

—Delinda C. Hanley AFSC in October 2014 after serving as a congregational rabbi for some 20 years. In Rabbi Brant Rosen Explains BDS in 2008 he was recognized by Newsweek magDes Moines azine as one of the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in Rabbi Brant Rosen, Midwest regional di- America. A former president of the Reconrector of the American Friends Service structionist Rabbinical Association, Rosen Committee (AFSC), discussed the Boycott, is a co-founder and co-chairperson of the Divestment and Sanctions Movement Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.

The BDS call is a way of appealing to the (BDS) before a standing-room-only audience at the Des Moines Social Club on international community for popular support the way other successful movements March 26.

“There is no equity in the so-called have done throughout history. There are peace process,” he declared, “and there ways for everybody out there to participate in this active nonviolent resistance never has been.”

Rosen summarized BDS’ three goals: movement, Rosen said.

“I look forward to working with you to ending Israel’s occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the wall; find new ways to create discomfort, to recognizing the fundamental rights of the leverage people power, to change the narArab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full rative,” he added, “so that Palestinians and equality; and respecting, protecting and Israelis can have the future together that they deserve.”

This writer asked Rosen about the context of an extremely inflammatory slur aimed at President Barack Obama by Caroline Glick, a Jerusalem Post editor, Chicago native, and former Netanyahu foreign policy adviser. On Feb. 13, under her blog headline “Mainstreaming Jew hatred in America,” Glick sought to smear the president as an anti-Semite who, she wrote, was “mainstreaming anti-Semitism in America.”

Rosen described Glick’s remarks as “crazy.”

“I think Caroline Glick is an Israeli version of Fox News,” he said. “Seriously, Rabbi Brant Rosen speaks at the Des that’s the context in which she exists. It’s a Moines Social Club. heavily politicized form of journalism that JUNE/JULY 2015

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focuses on ad hominem attacks. What she said isn’t all that different than what we hear people on Fox News saying about Obama. I think there is a racist undercurrent to it,” Rosen added.

“It is important to keep in mind that in Israel there is a very wide spectrum of journalistic attitudes,” he continued. “If you read Haaretz, for instance…they really write very passionately about a significant portion of the Israeli public that is mortified by what Netanyahu is doing.…

My concern is that in Israel it is the Caroline Glicks who are becoming ascendant, and many of the more progressive voices are throwing up their hands and literally leaving the country,” Rosen warned.

The event was sponsored by AFSC in conjunction with an art exhibit titled “Boycott: The Art of Economic Activism, Posters from Historical and Contemporary Boycott Movements.” —Michael Gillespie

Des Moines Christians March in Annual Palm Sunday Peace Procession Support for Palestinian Christians was strong among some 80 Iowans who turned out on a cool and blustery March 29 Palm Sunday afternoon to walk in the annual Peace Procession sponsored by the Des Moines Area Ecumenical Committee for Peace.

“I’m here today on behalf of my Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, many of whom were not able to go to Jerusalem to walk in the traditional parade today because of the occupation,” said Pastor Chris Cowan, an ELCA Lutheran pastor who has traveled to the Holy Land several times.

“I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of freedom of religion, so I support those who don’t,” she explained.

Cowan said the human rights abuses she witnessed during her first visit to Palestine in 2008 made an impression that led her to return to Palestine as a participant in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel sponsored by the World Council of Churches.

John Fairweather of First Christian Church in Des Moines said he has been marching for peace since he was a civil rights activist in the 1960s. A supporter of President Barack Obama’s efforts to avoid another war in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, Fairweather said, “I do think diplomacy can work.”

Fairweather said he would support an economic boycott of Israel if the Israeli government doesn’t halt settlement construction on Palestinian land and find a way to make a two-state solution possible.

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Geller, whose cartoon contest in Texas captured recent headlines. The ad Geller wanted to plaster on New York buses and subway walls shows a covered face next to a so-called quote from “Hamas MTV” saying: “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah,” followed by the words: “That’s his jihad. What’s yours?”

A blustery day did not discourage Palm Sunday Peace Proces- Geller ran the same offensive ads in San Francisco sion walkers in Des Moines. and Chicago in 2013.

According to Monica Klein, spokesgotten a bad deal,” said Fairweather.

According to Ryan Arnold, senior min- woman for New York City Mayor Bill de ister of First Christian Church, “Peace is Blasio, “these anti-Islamic ads are outrathe answer, not violence, or hatred, or big- geous, inflammatory and wrong, and have otry, or bullying. That is the radical, won- no place in New York City, or anywhere...”

Klein warned, “These hateful messages derful message of Palm Sunday.”

Retired ELCA Lutheran minister Russell serve only to divide and stigmatize when Melby said he was wearing a Palestinian we should be coming together as one keffiyeh “as a symbol, a way to be in soli- city...While those behind these ads only darity with our Palestinian brothers and display their irresponsible intolerance, the sisters who continue to suffer under op- rest of us who may be forced to view them pression.” The Palm Sunday walk pro- can take comfort in the knowledge that we claimed a message of peace and hope, not share a better, loftier and nobler view of only to Christians, Melby said, but to the humanity.” Even though Koeltl ruled the ad was protected speech, the MTA had wider world.

Erika McCrosky of the Catholic Peace had enough, and voted to halt all political Ministry said she was walking in solidar- ads. There was an immediate outcry that ity with all those who want to imagine a MTA was blocking New Yorkers’ First more peaceful world. “I believe in the mis- Amendment rights.

Philadelphia’s transit system accepted a sion of ending our perpetual war economy,” she said. “One day I hope we will be federal judge’s March 26 ruling that it must accept provocative ads that include a 1941 able to say we were successful in that.”

—Michael Gillespie photograph of Adolf Hitler with a former Palestinian leader. Those American FreeNew York’s MTA Board Tries to End dom Defense Initiative’s ads claimed: “Jew Israel-Palestine Ad War Hatred: It’s in the Qur’an.”

In 2010, the Seattle Mideast Awareness New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board passed a resolution Campaign submitted ads that criticized U.S. on April 29 banning all political advertising support for Israeli war crimes. After proteston its subways and buses. The cash- ers threatened to vandalize the buses, Seatstrapped transit system voted to eliminate tle’s transit system canceled the ads. Next, political ads because the previous week, on pro-Israel groups created ads charging PalesApril 21, federal Judge John Koeltl ruled in tinians with committing war crimes, illusfavor of a lawsuit filed by the ironically trated with a burning bus and bloody pasnamed “American Freedom Defense Initia- sengers. Seattle’s county executive decided tive,” led by Islamophobic blogger Pamela to bar any ads relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because they could lead to “harm to, disruption of, or interference with the transportation system.”

In March Judge Paul J. Watford’s Ninth Circuit federal appeals court agreed with that decision, adding that 54

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barring any ads relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict is acceptable under the First Amendment because it was “viewpoint neutral.” A transit agency isn’t required by the Constitution to sell advertising to proponents of various causes. We suspect that this controversy won’t end until the IsraelArab conflict is resolved.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Morocco’s Plan to Counter Violent Extremism Two representatives of the Moroccan government appeared at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC on April 8 to discuss their country’s efforts to combat and counter violent extremism. Mbarka Bouaida, Morocco’s minister-delegate for foreign affairs and cooperation, began by denouncing extremism and stressing the importance of not letting atrocities committed by terrorist groups go unpunished.

As Morocco and its neighbors work diligently to combat extremism they will need the assistance of the global community, Bouaida said. Countering Da’ish and other dangerous organizations, she emphasized, must be a universal effort. “The world has to be conscious that the responsibility is globally shared,” she said.

In partnering to fight terror, governments must rely on more than military might, Bouaida argued, saying, “It is necessary to complement this strategy with a global vision that includes economic growth and human development, one that is careful to preserve the cultural identity of each country.”

With this in mind, in October 2012 Morocco launched the thus-far-successful Rabat Plan of Action—an initiative that calls for the promotion of tolerance.

Bouaida noted that several countries in the region have asked Morocco to help them implement certain facets of this initiative, such as its imam training program.

Ahmed Abbadi, secretary-general of Morocco’s Rabita Muhammadia of ‘Ulamas, a council of religious scholars appointed

by King Mohammed VI, spoke next. He argued that in order to defeat Da’ish the world must understand why the group rose to prominence.

Da’ish is branding itself as a solution to the many disappointments and injustices experienced by the people of the region, Abbadi explained. He said many recipients of the group’s propaganda are, among other things, frustrated by the region’s wars, the issue of Israel, the perceived humiliation of Muslims in the media and online, the draining of the region’s wealth, JUNE/JULY 2015

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productive and dangerous ways.

In the end, Abbadi said, it is important to remember that Da’ish and other extremist groups are severely outnumbered in the world. With this in mind, individuals must not let themselves be paralyzed with fear. “The venom of fear,” he said, “just impedes your hope and stops you from taking initiatives.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Debating the War in Yemen Ahmed Abbadi (l) and the Stimson Center’s Geneive Abdo tout Morocco as a success story in the fight against extremism.

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colonialism, the destruction of traditional value systems, and the perceived conspiracy to scatter the Muslim world.

According to Abbadi, this smorgasbord of issues helps explain Da’ish’s appeal.

“This is why when you witness their ways of recruiting, and especially when this recruitment is directed to some frustrated, angry, high testosterone young males in the region, with all those disappointments, with all those angers that are internalized in themselves, they are very prone to respond to the appeals.”

Abbadi added that Da’ish’s lure is enhanced by the fact that it controls a significant swath of land—the so-called Islamic State—that it can present to recruits as a tangible realization of their dreams.

The utopian dreams of naïve individuals are precisely what Da’ish is capitalizing on, Abbadi said. The dreams of unity, dignity and (religious) purity, he noted, have all been hijacked by the group in order to facilitate its existence. Da’ish “is trying to collect all those energies, all those dreams, and brand them as being theirs,” he said To counter the duplicitous Da’ish narrative, Abbadi said it’s important that curricula and programs anchored in undistorted interpretations of the Qur’an be established for young people.

This alone, however, is not enough, he emphasized. Passionate and engaged young people who feel as though they have been given ownership over their future must lead such programs, he argued.

Addressing what must be done with former or returning Da’ish members, Abbadi encouraged reintegration over imprisonment. Rehabilitation programs led by recovered fighters can heal extremists, he believes. In making this argument, Abbadi said that instead of demonizing extremists, it is important to realize that most radicalized individuals are normal people who chose to respond to real problems in un-

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) hosted a high-profile event on April 2 called “Yemen in Chaos” at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Discussing the recent developments in Yemen, mainly the Saudi-led anti-Houthi military campaign, were panelists Jeremy M. Sharp of the Congressional Research Service, David Des Roches of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, Yemeni journalist Abbas Almosawa, and Sama’a Al-Hamdani, a Yemeni analyst and writer. Saudi Arabia’s new foreign minister, Adel A. AlJubeir, who at the time was serving as the Kingdom’s ambassador to the U.S., was the guest of honor, and undoubtedly the reason for much of the media’s interest.

The event began with an introduction

by NCUSAR founding president Dr. John Duke Anthony, who gave a detailed background of Yemeni history, with a special focus on regional differences. The program then moved to remarks from the four panelists, followed by a question-and-answer session. Al-Jubeir arrived about an hour into the event, taking questions for the remainder of the time.

The panelists offered two sets of perspectives, and the contrast of views could not have been greater. Des Roches and Sharp provided military-based analyses: how to define appropriate military targets, what type of equipment is being used, the threat of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and ISIS in Yemen, and how the Saudi campaign fit into those security concerns. Al-Hamdani and Almosawa provided their own perspectives as Yemenis.

Sharp had no doubt that the Houthis had crossed what he deemed a “red line” in Yemen, and considered it imperative that the U.S. support the Saudi campaign, although he offered no specifics on what that support entailed besides providing behind-the-scenes logistics. As the operation continues, he warned, there will be more chaos, and thus more space for al-Qaeda and other groups to exploit.

Sharp also explained that the Saudi military campaign aimed not just to force the Houthis back from their advancing positions, but to end the alliance between them and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh—an ironic position, given that Saudi Arabia has since 2011 preserved Saleh’s position in Yemen as a powerful political figure, providing him immunity from his crimes against the Yemeni people.

Acknowledging this irony, Des Roches said that, in retrospect, it was a mistake to grant Saleh immunity. He also conceded that the Houthis maintain popular legitimacy in many parts of Yemen, and that military operations alone may not be sufficient to eliminate their hold on Yemeni politics. Only a political solution along with the military campaign can bring about a lasting peace, he argued.

Des Roches expressed a measure of faith in the Saudi campaign, contrasting it with past campaigns against the Houthis, in which the Houthis were victorious. This time, he said, the Saudis were wellequipped and much better prepared to deal with the Houthi threat.

Almosawa’s remarks were less analytical and more condemning of the violence resulting from Saudi Arabia’s bombing. He was unequivocal in his disapproval of the airstrikes, and firmly believed that the war was unnecessary and that a peaceful, diplomatic solution was always on the table; the Saudis, he charged, just chose not to use it. Furthermore, he had no doubt that the violence of the Saudi airstrikes on Yemen has in fact emboldened the Houthis, whose strong anti-imperialist credentials have been bolstered by the sudden foreign attack on their country.

(L-r) Sama’a Al-Hamdani, Abbas Almosawa, Dr. John Duke Anthony, Jeremy Sharp and Prof. David Des Roches discuss the war in Yemen.

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The final panelist, Sama’a Al-Hamdani, ations while Yemeni civilians were dying in those oil subsidies that have been weighing down [the region] for the last 15 spoke passionately about her homeland. growing numbers.

Despite a fruitful panel discussion, the years...unemployment among MENA She began by explaining that she left Yemen to study and is now unable to re- highlight of the event was the entrance of [countries] is largest in [the] world,” exturn, then proceeded to list numerous facts then-Ambassador Al-Jubeir, who had unof- plained the World Bank’s chief economist and figures to help paint a picture of what ficially adopted the role of coalition for MENA, Shanta Devarajan.

He and other experts, including Merza is happening in Yemen. She pointed to the spokesperson to the Western media. As a 63,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) high-profile diplomat, his words were mea- Hussain Hasan, executive director of the as of April 2, the massive inflation, the lack sured. He did suggest that a milk factory World Bank Group, and Hafez Ghanem, of electricity and water, the expansion of that had been bombed a few days earlier World Bank vice president for MENA, AQAP, the environmental and heath dam- had been bombed not by the Saudis, but by urged governments and citizens to “reneage caused by the airstrikes, and the 40,000 the Houthis to rally support against the gotiate a social contract” and cut down on Yemeni Americans trapped in Yemen with airstrikes—a claim that has yet to be sub- oil subsidies. The World Bank and IMF stantiated. He also asserted that the Houthis recommendations are not new, speakers no help from the U.S. government.

As discussions continue in Riyadh and had committed terrorism, and that Saudi noted. Some oil-importing countries, like Washington, what about the 26 million Arabia had no choice but to respond to the Morocco and Egypt, have taken steps to Yemenis who are being bombarded with calls of the “legitimate” President Abd implement subsidy reform and better tarno way to leave? Al-Hamdani asked. She Raboo Mansour al-Hadi for intervention to get help for the poor.

This call for a new social contract is the criticized the Saudi-led coalition for claim- save Yemen. In the ambassador’s eyes, the ing to have an interest in saving people, airstrikes would protect the Yemeni people result of a 2015 World Bank survey that found “50 percent of Arab world citizens while so many Yemenis are stuck around and were the only option to take.

In the end, the event was very revealing are dissatisfied with public services in the world with no country giving them visas. Ironically, despite Yemen having an and indicative of the tension and passion their area.” Many of the comments tweeted open-door refugee policy, accepting hun- that the war in Yemen provokes. It also re- after the survey described daily life strugdreds of thousands of refugees over the flects a growing disconnect between U.S. gles by MENA citizens receiving public years, only Somalia is letting Yemenis ac- policymakers and Yemenis struggling to services. Others tweets complained about survive as a result of the actions these their country’s lagging education and pubquire refugee status.

Questioning the very basis of the Saudi power brokers make. One can only hope lic health services. Dozens shared over socampaign, Al-Hamdani asked how bombs that events like this slowly awaken the cial media the World Bank survey result could curb the Houthi ideology. She public to the consequences of foreign in- that “one-third of Arab world citizens paid lamented the lack of any true development terventions and the horror that Yemen is informal fees for a public service.” Such comments supported the call for a new soplan for Yemen. By destroying the military continuing to witness on a daily basis.

—Kevin A. Davis cial contract in the MENA region. institutions, she noted, Saudi Arabia was Asked one Egyptian respondent, “pubdestroying the one thing that had the abillic services? What does that mean?” In reity to hold her country together. How are Call for a New Social Contract Yemenis supposed to build a new state The decline in oil prices was a focal point sponse to the survey findings, Egypt’s with no ability to control it? she asked, at the annual spring meeting of the World Minister of Social Solidarity, Ghada Waly, and pointed to the targets of the airstrikes, Bank and the International Monetary Fund said that “We need to be humble....many including factories and food supplies. She April 17 to 19 in Washington, DC. The government officials think that they are spoke of a weapons depot in downtown World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa doing a favor for the citizen.”

When asked if Arab countries would Sana’a that was bombed, triggering mis- (MENA) office convened three panels to siles and projectiles which flew every- discuss how lower oil prices are affecting share a uniform social contract and provide where in a heavily civilian area. jobs, social services and social safety net accountability for government services, a Al-Hamdani called on Saudi Arabia to re- structures in the region. Because of lower difference of opinions surfaced. Hasan urged veal its targets so that civilians would know oil prices, oil-exporting countries are col- oil-exporting countries to review oil subsiwhich areas to avoid. She called on the in- lecting less revenue and finding it difficult dies, whereas Devarajan stated that the era is over for governments trying to quell cititernational community to support an im- to fund subsidies for their citizens. mediate cease-fire, which at the time of this “This is the moment for both oil im- zens’ concerns by offering those subsidies.

On that note, government is only one writing has not happened, and to allow porters and exporters to finally reform arena—albeit the slow one—where shipments of aid into the country to each country’s respective social conhelp stem the humanitarian disaster. tract will be renegotiated, Shanta The sharp contrast between AlmoDevarajan noted. The other two are sawa’s and Al-Hamdani’s remarks and the government agency responsible those of Sharp and Des Roches for delivering services and civil socaused John Duke Anthony to quesciety in its power to engage. tion if this was indicative of a lack of One example of a struggle to enempathy among Americans to suffergage surfaced in an earlier civil soing in the Middle East. While his ciety panel. Reem Barghouti reprequestion went unanswered, there was no doubt about the uncomfort- Moderator Ed Crooks, U.S. industry and energy editor of sented a Jordanian civil society orable atmosphere caused by analysts the Financial Times, and Egypt’s Minister of International ganization of female entrepreneurs. discussing the value of military oper- Cooperation Naglaa El Ehwany discuss falling oil prices. She argued that, once political re56

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STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

happens in the Middle East) know about Israel’s “big secret”—the existence of its Palestinian citizens. Dr. Kanaaneh realized the general public likes to read stories, so he spent a year at New York’s Writers’ Institute learning how to write “American-style”—which, it turns out, Music & Arts is not how people tell stories in his homeland. Arab storytellers Chief Complaint: A Country Doctor’s go off in tangents, he joked, citTales of Life in Galilee ing the example of The Thou- (L-r) Dagmar Painter interviews two generations of On March 20, a Jerusalem Fund audience sand and One Nights. artists, Besan and Zahi Khamis.

In fact Chief Complaint, a ficin Washington, DC listened—amused and amazed—as Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh, promot- tionalized collection of short stories featur- garage across the street. As sirens blared in ing composite personalities of the background visitors admired Zahi’s Dr. Kanaaneh’s patients but modernist paintings and the artwork of his very real incidents and conver- son Besan, a Maryland Institute College of sations, is full of humor. He Art (MICA) student, including multimedia shared a hilarious story about sculptures and looped film art. showering in his rural village, The opening was to be even more of a which involved traipsing family affair, including a poetry reading by across rooftops to his brother’s Baltimore poet Kim Jensen (who happens to shower with heated water and be Zahi’s wife). A flat tire prevented that the rumors that ensued (you’ll from happening, and Palestine Center’s exhave to read the book, available ecutive director, Zeina Azzam, read Jensen’s from Middle East Books and poems as well as poetry by Mahmoud DarMore, to get to the joke behind wish. Gallery director Dagmar Painter followed with a lively Q/A drawing out the Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh and his publisher, Helena Cobban that story).

All jokes aside, the doctor also Baltimore artists, who discussed generaof Just World Books. described caring for his patients tional differences, resistance, and politics ing his new book, Chief Complaint: A with no equipment save for his stethoscope, on campus (Baltimore was on everyone’s Country Doctor’s Tales of Life in Galilee, and sneaking blood and urine samples to minds), as well as the growing international spun the wonderous tale of his life. Dr. labs. He also talked about major sewage dis- interest in Arab artists living in America —Delinda C. Hanley Kanaaneh went to high school in Nazareth posal problems and the absence of clean and Europe. and taught for two years before coming to water in Arab villages, comparing them with new, planned Jewish communities—which the United States to study in the ‘60s.

Diplomatic Doings He returned to the Galilee with a Har- have electricity, water, telephone and sewage vard medical degree, a degree in public disposal services before the first (non-Mushealth, a Hawaiian wife and a VW camper. lim or Christian) resident moves in. The Ambassador Lukman Faily on the Dr. Kanaaneh became a public health doc- Galilee Society is working to rectify this, Future of Iraq tor in the sub-district of Acre in 1973, serv- providing sewage plans for local villages and Iraq’s Ambassador to the U.S. Lukman ing both Jewish and Palestinian population secure drinking water connections for un- Faily joined Johns Hopkins School of Adcenters, which were almost completely seg- recognized Arab villages in Israel. vanced International Studies (SAIS) proMeanwhile, Dr. Kanaaneh’s new book is fessors Abbas Kadhim and Daniel Serwer regated, with little intermixing except at work. Palestinians “provided the muscle rectifying another injustice. Readers will at the school’s Washington, DC campus on power” for construction and agricultural discover Israel’s best-kept secret: the exis- April 7 for a discussion on the future of work, Dr. Kanaaneh observed, and Arab tence of its underserved and ignored in- Iraq. The event was co-sponsored by SAIS digenous population. His unforgettable and the Middle East Institute. villages became “bedroom communities.”

When he came home from work each characters capture readers’ hearts as they Ambassador Faily began by dismissing night he started his second job as the sole convey the universal pain and joy of the notion that anyone can truly predict healthcare provider for thousands of Pales- everyday people struggling to live on their the future of Iraq. “If anybody can tell you —Delinda C. Hanley the future of Iraq within a decade or more, tinians in the Galilee. Eventually, in 1981, own land. he and three other health-care professionthen I’m afraid he will move more into the als founded the Galilee Society (the Arab Al Ab W’al Ibn (Father and Son) fiction than the reality,” he said. This, Faily National Society for Health Research and The Jerusalem Fund Gallery in Washing- explained, is because there is no way to deServices), the largest Arab NGO operating ton, DC features the art of Zahi and Besan finitively judge how the numerous domesin Israel.

Khamis, a unique father and son art ex- tic, regional and global factors impacting After retiring in 2005, Dr. Kanaaneh won- hibit, from May 1 to May 30. The opening the country’s future will play out. dered how he could help Europeans and reception was packed, despite the collapse With this caveat, Faily expressed optiAmericans (who he believes decide what of the storied Watergate building’s parking mism about Iraq’s future. The rise of ISIS forms are initiated, economic reforms would follow. From her group’s perspective, Barghouti said, political reform is needed to “actualize a new social contract”—which is why her organization is lobbying to raise the quota for women in parliament.

—Mehrunisa Qayyum

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lines of direct flights from San Francisco to Istanbul. Turkish Airlines already has direct flights from Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Washington, DC, and Boston.

Turkey exports food and textiles and imports hi-tech goods, as well as research, development and new energy concepts. “In 2013, we had $825 million in exports to California,” the young diplomat said, “and $428 million in imports from California.”

Turning to the challenge Turkey faces trying to absorb refugees fleeing from wartorn Syria, Gezer stated there are 735,884 registered refugees, 30 percent living in camps and 70 percent living with their families throughout Turkey.

“Aleppo is critical,” she continued.

“Aleppo must not fall. We took in 150,000 refugees only from the city of Kobani—this number equals all of Europe’s Syrian refugees. We have an open door policy for our Syrian brothers and sisters,” Gezer said.

“So far, Turkey has spent $5 billion on relief,” she added, “and other countries paid a half-billion dollars in aid. As for education, we have provided 2,900 Arabic-speaking teachers. We have 30,000 students in grades 1 to 12, and another 70,000 in kindergarten. There is no lost generation.”

Shortly after the Feb. 10 murder of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, NC, the consul general called representatives of nearly all Los Angeles Muslim organizations to her residence to get their reaction. Muslim Americans took positive steps to ensure the American public learned about this tragic incident, she added, which wasn’t just a fight over a parking space. “We should not let this happen again,” she insisted, noting that the local Muslim community are highly educated upstanding citizens.

“The U.S. is our ally and should remain so,” Gezer concluded. “We look for a comprehensive solution in Syria. The security issue is important to us and the whole world. The role of the U.S. is crucial and should support us.”

—Samir Twair

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

STAFF PHOTO D. SPRUSANSKY

“You cannot leave ungoverned, semi-governed, or weakly governed spaces in the country and then do any kind of governing from Baghdad,” he said.

Reconstruction must not be limited to restoring Iraq’s physical infrastructure, Kadhim said. Political, social and economic reconstruction are equally important, he argued, and vital to protecting against a future collapse of the Iraqi state.

Iraq must be humble as it purIraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily (l) and Prof. Abbas sues reconstruction, he continued, Kadhim. and realize it will need to learn has made the country’s different communi- from the experiences of other post-conflict ties and sects appreciate the importance of societies. International assistance also will national cohesion, he said, noting that, “As be vital for Iraq, added Kadhim, who becommunities, they have realized more and lieves the country simply does not have the expertise needed to carry out a successful more that they have interdependencies.”

Many Iraqis are now thinking together reconstruction effort.

When it comes to reconciliation, Iraq about the post-ISIS scenario, he added, and are asking how the government can be sta- must think out of the box, Kadhim said, bilized and strengthened. “I think that’s a meaning that reconciliation must take good healthy political position to be in,” place at not just the political level, but also at the popular level. “You need to reconcile Faily commented.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s inclu- the people with each other,” Kadhim exsive governing style has helped unify plained. “We have not done any reconciliIraqis, the ambassador said, as the prime ation at the popular level.”

According to Professor Serwer, the acadminister is careful not to make an important decision until he has consulted and re- emic literature shows that mutual acknowlceived positive feedback from a broad edgment of harm is a prerequisite for reconciliation. “That’s a very difficult thing to range of political officials.

Despite these encouraging signs, Faily do,” he conceded. “It’s not easy when you warned that Iraqi unity would not be feel you’ve been harmed to acknowledge the achieved overnight. Aware that they need harm that’s been done to others. But that’s each other, Iraq’s factious groups must now the step that gets you out of the downward slowly and cautiously begin rebuilding spiral of violence. I haven’t seen that haptrust, he said. Given the condition of Iraqi pening yet in Iraq, but I look forward to the politics, this time-consuming process will be day when it begins.” —Dale Sprusansky delicate and rely on a series of confidenceTurkish Consul in LA: A Woman With building measures, the ambassador noted.

Aside from the issue of unity, Faily said Many Goals al-Abadi’s government is committed to im- Raife Gülru Gezer has a daunting responsiplementing greater decentralization, re- bility as Turkish consul general in Los Anstructuring the military and police, fight- geles. She represents an estimated 70,000 ing corruption, promoting economic de- Turkish citizens living in Alaska, Arizona, velopment and implementing a zero toler- California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Monance policy for human rights abuses. tana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington Going forward, Faily hopes Iraq learns and Wyoming. Gezer, who holds a master’s from its mistakes. The country has not degree in political science from the College been reflective enough in the past, he ad- of Europe in Brugge, Belgium and is fluent mitted candidly. “That’s not something I in both English and Russian, joined the like,” he said, “but that’s the reality of it.” Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2002 after Professor Kadhim used his remarks to working as an international news editor for emphasize three “r’s” that he believes will Turkey’s NTV news channel. be essential to Iraq’s future: reclaiming, reWhen asked about her goals, Gezer said construction and reconciliation. she hopes “to improve cultural and trade Attempts to reconstruct Iraq and recon- ties between Turkey and California....I’d cile its citizens will be futile unless all of like to see more Californians traveling to Iraq’s territory has been reclaimed from ISIS Turkey.” Those numbers should increase and other extremist groups, Kadhim stated. after the April 13 launch by Turkish Air-

Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles Raife Gülru Gezer.

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more freely with the West. Because of that, they will see that the democracy they once had is again within reach. In other words, the dog may talk.

Laura Brown, Wichita, KS

The Effect of U.S., Israeli Wars

Let Peace with Iran Grow To The Sacramento Bee, April 6, 2015 Re “Iran nuclear deal reached”: Opponents of the nuclear agreement with Iran should consider two old quotations.

“They have a right to censure, that have a heart to help: The rest is cruelty, not justice.” (William Penn, 1644-1718) “Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900) The agreement can grow peace in one part of our violent world. Let’s not destroy it before it blooms.

Jim Eychaner, Carmichael, CA

A Fable Fitting for Iran To The Wichita Eagle, April 7, 2015 Remember the fable about an evil king who demanded his dog be taught to talk?

He would execute one man every day until someone could work this miracle. A brave man came forward and claimed he could do it, but it would take a year. The evil king granted him a year.

People asked the man how he planned to accomplish this impossible task. He replied: “Within a year, many things could happen.

I may die. The dog may die. The king may die. Or—the dog may talk.”

Any nuclear deal with Iran backed by President Obama will naturally be met with criticism from Republicans who say it’s a “bad deal” without offering an alternative.

The status quo is good enough. They don’t seem to realize that during the next decade, when Iran scales back its nuclear enrichment to an acceptable level and agrees to inspections, much additional progress will also be made.

The Iranians will get relief from crippling economic sanctions, be able to participate in the world economy, and communicate JUNE/JULY 2015

To the Asbury Park Press, April 1, 2015 Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the uprisings in Syria and Egypt, there was no ISIS. Before Israel’s invasion of Lebanon there was no Hezbollah, and before Israel’s 1967 war and continued occupation there was no Hamas.

There are consequences that come with invading, occupying and oppressing a population of people. With time, resisters rise up and fight back any way necessary.

Should radical responses to invasion really surprise anyone? With Iraq, proIsrael hawks in the Bush administration and AIPAC pushed for this invasion, and our puppet Congress happily climbed on board. Many in the U.S. have never heard of the Downing Street Memo—proof that information on Iraq was false and the war pre-planned.

The now defunct think tank, Project for the New American Century, had a list of signatories that reads like the Who’s Who of the Bush administration and includes Jeb Bush. Their policy involved destabilizing, then reshaping, the Middle East.

Israel benefits here by becoming the regional superpower, armed with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, but how dare any other country that thinks about going nuclear.

Israel has the longest-running conflict and occupation in [modern] history. This country snubs international law, defies more than 70 U.N. Security Council resolutions, and ignores decades of U.S. requests to stop taking Palestinian land. Israel listens to no one, and continues its aggression toward the Palestinians. The Israeli government gave up opportunities for security a long time ago, because land is more important than peace.

Cheryl Quigley, Toms River, NJ

Is the U.S. an Honest Broker?

To the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, April 14, 2015 For the last 20 years, the U.S. solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict has been the establishment of two states side-by-side, Israel and Palestine. Over and over it’s been claimed that Israel has had “no partner for peace,” that the Palestinians were the obstacle to this vision. Inexplicably, Palestinians were required to “recognize Israel’s THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

right to exist” although it was Palestine that, in fact, didn’t exist.

Indeed, the U.S. and Israel have punished the Palestinians economically for every single move they have made toward establishing just such a state (notice the asymmetry of power here—who has the ability to punish whom). Even as Israel has continued to transfer Jewish Israelis into settlements in a slow motion, macabre dance of conquest, it has been the Palestinians that have been held as the obstacle to peace.

Just last month, though, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in the midst of a tight electoral contest, unequivocally declared that he absolutely would not accept a Palestinian state. He obviously felt that that position reflected what a significant number of Israelis support (and that position has actually been part of his Likud party’s stated platform for years). Lo and behold, he was re-elected.

If the U.S. is an “honest broker” of peace and we’ve been serious about a two-state solution all these years, our response to this Israeli declaration should be immediate and unequivocal—make all aid to Israel conditional on their acceptance of a Palestine state and that aid should be immediately reduced to the same level as what the Palestinians receive, since it is abundantly clear that the Palestinians have no “partner for peace” either.

Tricia Saenger, Temple, NH

Israeli Culpability for Yarmouk To the Los Angeles Times, April 23, 2015 Tamar Sternthal from the pro-Israel media watchdog CAMERA says that Israel is not responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria or for any Palestinian suffering. (“Don’t blame Israel for Palestinian misery at Yarmouk,” Readers React, April 21).

In fact, Israel is directly to blame for the suffering of Palestinians in the diaspora.

By forcing Palestinians off their land, either by acts of terrorism (the Deir Yassin massacre in 1948 was the direct cause of them fleeing the war zone) or by actually evicting them at gunpoint and then not allowing them to return to their homes at the end of the war, Israel is absolutely the cause of what has happened to them.

Civilians are expected to flee a war zone; if they don’t, we think they’re idiots. Not allowing them to return to their homes is not only a violation of international law, it is also an act of profound immorality and cruelty.

Blain Brown, Alhambra, CA 59

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Recalling All Drone Victims To The Washington Post, April 24, 2015

President Obama acknowledged that the families of American and Italian hostages killed in January drone strikes by the CIA deserve to know the truth [“Obama: ‘Regret’ for hostages’ deaths”]. His demonstration of transparency was a welcome step, but U.S. acknowledgment of killings should not be limited to U.S. and European citizens. The Pakistani and Yemeni families who have lost their loved ones to U.S. drone strikes—including the grandchildren of a woman killed while she was picking vegetables in fall 2012—deserve to know the truth, too. With this double standard, the United States is creating the ugly appearance that it will meet the deaths of U.S. and European citizens with empathy and regret while meeting the deaths of non-Westerners with a stubborn, indifferent silence.

Naureen Shah, Washington, DC. The writer is director of Amnesty International USA’s security and human rights program.

Mediterranean Migrant Crisis To the London Evening Standard, April 23, 2015 Since the start of the year 1,727 migrants have died in the Mediterranean, and figures suggest the death toll by the end of the year could reach 30,000. Many of the dead are children, who make up half the population of refugees and displaced people. The leaders of the EU countries face a test of Europe’s commitment to save the lives of migrants.

Similarly, the next UK government has a legal and moral obligation to ensure that children seeking asylum have their rights

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protected, including access to education and healthcare, regardless of their country of origin.

Gavin Crowden, head of policy and public affairs, World Vision UK

Military Aid to Egypt Resumes To The New York Times, April 2, 2015 You report that President Obama removed the weapons freeze against Egypt (front page, April 1). This action was taken despite the increasing repression of all opposition throughout Egypt.

In January, a peaceful activist, Shaimaa el-Sabbagh, was shot dead by the Egyptian police. This week, witnesses who were prepared to testify were criminally charged in an effort to intimidate them.

It is another example of why Egypt now ranks high among the most restrictive regimes in the region.

Despite its increasing suppression of democratic expression, President Obama has elected to reward the government in Cairo with $1.3 billion in military assistance.

This support of yet another despotic regime not only undercuts aspirations of democracy but also creates an environment that encourages supporters of the Islamic State to open a new front in Egypt.

It is an ill-advised action by Mr. Obama.

David Schermerhorn, San Francisco, CA

Wrong Kind of Aid for Tunisia To The Washington Post, April 27, 2015 The April 10 World Digest item “U.S. to triple military aid in wake of attack” reported that the United States is increasing military aid to Tunisia threefold. Our solution to the problems in Tunisia is to pay for more guns so Tunisians can more effectively kill each other.

Tunisia’s problems don’t spring from a shortage of arms. They spring from a shortage of opportunities. Deposed dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali did many terrible things, but he did one thing right: He made education universal and free. If a Tunisian student could get into a university, the government picked up the tab. Unfortunately, the result was a huge number of educated, unemployed young people.

Guns won’t fix anything. But an aid package that provided investment opportunities, explored economic partnerships and sought to use the accumulated skills of a new generation of healthy, creative and ambitious Tunisians could reap benefits for generations to come.

When did we lose our vision? When did we lose our ability to think creatively, to act in benign self-interest? When did we conTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tent ourselves with simply being arms merchants?

Michael Keating, Olney, MD

Investing in Tunisia’s Future To The New York Times, April 7, 2015 Re “Tunisia’s hour of need”: Mustapha Tlili makes a number of compelling points on the importance of supporting Tunisia as a fledgling democracy in the Arab world.

His most salient argument is that Tunisia’s future political stability depends on inclusive economic growth. However, in proposing government-to-government assistance and a public-sector “donor conference,” Mr. Tlili undermines his argument by asserting that governments will drive economic opportunity in the Middle East.

Decades of stagnation in the region have shown that economies need foreign direct investment as much as governments need foreign support. While it is critical to ensure that the Tunisian government has full backing, sustainable and organic growth can only come from the private sector—and that’s where international investment should be directed.

This was the position taken by the United States commerce secretary, Penny Pritzker, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on March 5, when they demonstrated America’s ongoing commitment to Tunisia at the 2015 Investment and Entrepreneurship Conference hosted by the Partners for a New Beginning, a public-private partnership, in Tunis. They were joined by representatives from Amazon, Boeing, Cisco, Coca-Cola and Microsoft, among others, who also recognize the importance of foreign direct investment for stability in Tunisia.

President Obama’s Cairo speech in June 2009 articulated a framework for a “new beginning” with the Muslim world. Tunisia is one of the only countries left in the Middle East where that vision is still alive. We must do all we can to uphold it, especially by helping private sector growth and economic opportunity for all Tunisians, with a special focus on the youth. It is the youth in Tunisia who will drive this change over the next generation through entrepreneurship and translating ideas into realities on the ground. We must work alongside our Tunisian partners to create a framework to attract investment, aid those entrepreneurs and bridge the skills gap so young Tunisians are prepared and equipped for the work force of tomorrow.

Toni Verstandig, Washington, DC. The writer is chair of Middle East Programs at the Aspen Institute. ❑ JUNE/JULY 2015

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THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST

www.OtherWords.org

The Economist, London

The Irish Times, Dublin

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Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore

The New York Times Syndicate, New York

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Al Balad, Beirut

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bookreview_62_Book Review 5/7/15 10:04 PM Page 62

Books

Reviewed by Kevin A. Davis

Baddawi

By Leila Abdelrazaq, Just World Books, 2015, paperback, 125 pp. List: $20; MEB: $18.

Those of us who spend much of our time learning and reading about the Palestine issue often can feel overwhelmed, the historical tragedies are so great and the current reality so daunting.

We will surely be grateful for Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi—a breath of fresh air and a perfect companion for both veterans and newcomers to the Palestine issue.

The title takes its name from a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon where the story takes place. In fact, the book is a series of mini-stories depicting life growing up in the refugee camp, told in the form of a graphic novel.

Abdelrazaq’s first book is nothing short of a masterpiece, at once brilliantly narrated and beautifully illustrated by the Chicago-based writer and artist.

The book starts off strongly with the 1948 Nakba in the small Palestinian village of Safsaf. The residents are massacred, and the fictional character’s parents flee and find themselves in Baddawi. The stories follow Ahmed as he adjusts to life in the camp, progressing historically through the history of Palestine.

Ahmed moves to Beirut after his father gets a job there, but returns to Baddawi shortly afterward because of the start of the Lebanese civil war.

Moving continuously between Baddawi and Beirut, he experiences the difficulties facing Palestinian refugees in both locations. He is constantly motivated by his desire for an education, excelling in school despite the odds.

In the end, Ahmed is faced with difficult decisions about school, marriage, and work.

His choices are dictated by his refugee status, and through him readers learn about one example of the 62

Palestinian experience. Abdelrazaq’s stories personalize Palestine in a way that other books are not able to do.

While the stories are at times light and humorous, many are also very dark. The refugee camp goes through a lot over the years, including peace agreements, wars and massacres. Readers will appreciate personal insights into Palestinian history and culture throughout the book, which even includes a glossary of Arabic terms.

The black-and-white illustrations are stunning throughout and are the perfect medium for Abdelrazaq’s stories.

This book is ideal for anyone interested in Palestine, from those immersed in the issue to those who may be picking up a book for the first time. In fact, Baddawi would make an ideal introduction to Palestine for people of all ages. It is relatively short, easy to read, engaging, and introduces readers to the hardships of life for Palestinians in a tasteful but powerful way.

Baddawi is sure to become an instant classic, and is already grabbing headlines.

Fans of this, Abdelrazaq’s first full-length book, will be left yearning for more.

My House in Damascus: An Inside View Of the Syrian Revolution

By Diana Darke, Haus Publishing, 2014, paperback, 254 pp. List: $24.95; MEB: $18.

My House In Damascus is an account of a British woman in Syria and the product of the author’s decades of experience as a professional researcher in Syria. It is at

once a story of her own time there as well as the stories of the many close friends she made.

In the mid-2000s, Darke decided to look into buying property in the old city of Damascus, a decision rarely made by non-Syrians due to the formidable bureaucratic obstacles facing foreigners. But the seemingly mundane details of this process can provide great insight into Syrian life, and Darke’s account is a fascinating and gripping tale about a foreign woman in Syria who decides to create a home there.

It is Darke’s everyday stories of Syria that demand the attention of readers— from a short trip to Homs, to a café encounter to discuss a potential marriage, to seemingly endless meetings with lawyers and bankers. These colorful anecdotes provide a fascinating picture of contemporary Syrian society at a time when news from Syria rarely goes beyond the war.

It is not until past the book’s halfway mark that Darke begins to discuss the Syrian revolution in any real detail— and even then, the story is still heavily focused on her house. Readers wanting an in-depth examination of the politics of the civil war should look elsewhere.

As the protests of 2011 slowly transform into what we now describe as the Syrian civil war, Darke’s story grows increasingly dark. Eventually she is unable to return to Syria, as the embassy in London is now closed. The friends we have become so familiar with throughout her book gradually come to live in her house with their families as their villages are destroyed, her house becoming something of a sanctuary for her displaced friends.

A final bonus of the book is that a portion of the proceeds go to benefit a Higher Education Fund for Syrians—further evidence of Darke’s commitment to and love for Syria and its people, who have given her so much over the years. ❑ Kevin A. Davis is director of AET’s Middle East Books and More.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JUNE/JULY 2015

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Middle East Books and More Literature

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Films

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Pottery

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Solidarity Items

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Summer 2015 Zionism and Its Discontents: A Century of Radical Dissent in Israel/Palestine by Ran Greenstein, Pluto Press, 2014, 232 pp.

List: $30; MEB: $22. In this pivotal new book, Greenstein argues that stories of nationalism in Israel and Palestine have for too long focused on dominant narratives while doing little to show resistance within them. Instead, he offers the stories of different organizations and movements since the 1920s that have opposed the Zionist project, both within and outside Palestine, including the Palestinian Communist Party and the Matzpen group. This book is a much needed corrective to mainstream histories that do little to question Zionism as an overwhelmingly popular political movement.

The Bells of Memory: A Palestinian Boyhood in Jerusalem by Issa J. Boullata, Linda Leith Publishing, 2014, paperback, 87 pp. List: $12.95; MEB: $12. In this wonderful new memoir, Boullata tells of his childhood in Jerusalem in the 1930s and 1940s, when it was ruled under the British Mandate. His well-written, engaging, and incredibly descriptive account reveals his personal stories that beautifully narrate pre-Nakba Jerusalem and put the reader in the young author’s place. This book is strongly recommended for anyone interested in the history of Jerusalem and Palestine before 1948.

Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land by Sandy Tolan, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, hardcover, 453 pp. List: $28; MEB: $22. From the author of The Lemon Tree comes the refreshing story of Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, a young boy from a Palestinian refugee camp who, despite incredible odds, is able to achieve his dream of founding a music school to help Palestinian children become educated in music. Tolan follows Ramzi as he works toward this dream and comes into contact with numerous important characters, such as Daniel Barenboim of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. This is a rare uplifting Palestinian story that can inspire hope for a better future.

On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, Haymarket Books, 2015, paperback, 215 pp. List: $11.95; MEB: $11. This great new book by two heavyweight Palestinian advocates is the sequel to their 2010 book Gaza In Crisis (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). In an interview format, Chomsky and Pappé discuss Israel’s recent Operation Protective Edge and affirm why solidarity with Palestinians is more important now than ever. They also suggest a roadmap for the future and ways in which the international community can come together to help impose a better future for the Palestinians.

Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation by Vijay Prashad, Verso Books, 2015, paperback, 232 pp. List: $14.95; MEB: $13. This brilliant collection of essays features such numerous influential figures as Teju Cole, Junot Diaz, Najla Said, Mumia Abu-Jamal and many others on growing American solidarity for the Palestinian cause. This diverse group of writers presents a showcase of moral clarity and intellectual power, masterfully put together by scholar Vijay Prashad. Letters to Palestine is a testament to shifting American attitudes toward the Palestine issue, narrated by some of the greatest thinkers in contemporary America.

Revolution Is My Name: An Egyptian Woman’s Diary from Eighteen Days in Tahrir by Mona Prince, American University in Cairo Press, 2014, paperback, 191 pp. List: $16.95; MEB: $14. In this powerful memoir translated by Samia Mehrez, writer and professor Mona Prince documents her experience in the 2011 Egyptian uprising that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Both a story and an exploration of Egyptian society, Prince weaves among her personal background, judgments, and daily experiences to bring a unique and useful perspective to familiar events.

The War on Women in Israel: A Story of Religious Radicalism and the Women Fighting for Freedom by Elana Maryles Sztokman, Sourcebooks, 2015, paperback, 354 pp. List: $14.99; MEB: $14. This rare account of women in Israel reveals how ultra-Orthodox leaders are spearheading a movement to oppress Jewish women in social and political life within the state of Israel. In some parts of Israel, women are being more and more segregated, and Sztokman shows how different activist groups are now fighting back. Her book is an eye-opening account of women’s equality in a state that claims to be based on democratic principles.

Voices of the Arab Spring: Personal Stories from the Arab Revolutions by Asaad alSaleh, Columbia University Press, 2015, paperback, 244 pp. List: $22.95; MEB: $22. While most readers with an interest in the Middle East are well aware of the Arab Spring events of 2011 and beyond, some books continue to provide ground-breaking insight and perspective. Voices of the Arab Spring is one of those books, combining multiple stories from Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Syria to contrast various experiences that provide unique insight into the successes and tragedies of 2011.

Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn’t by Toby Matthiesen, Stanford University Press, 2013, paperback, 192 pp. List: $12.99; MEB: $12. In 2011, as waves of popular protests swept the region to overthrow authoritarian systems, less-covered uprisings took place in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. However, these mass protest movements in the Gulf did not result in regime change. Matthiesen investigates this fact and brilliantly explores the dynamics in the Gulf states to discuss the implications of these failed uprisings.

Shipping Rates Most items are discounted and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Orders accepted by mail, phone (800-368-5788 ext. 2), or Web (www.middleeast books.com). All payments in U.S. funds. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express accepted. Please send mail orders to Middle East Books and More, 1902 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009, with checks and money orders made out to “AET.” U . S . S h i p p i n g R a t e s : Please add $5 for the first item and $2.50 for each additional item. Canada & Mexico shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $3.50 for each additional item.

International shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $6 for each additional item. We ship by USPS Priority unless otherwise requested.

JUNE/JULY 2015

L i b r a r y p a c k a g e s (list value over $240) are available for $29 if donated to a library, or free if requested with a library’s paid subscription or renewal. Call Middle East Books and More at 800-368-5788 ext. 2 to order. Our policy is to identify donors unless anonymity is specifically requested.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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bulletin_board_64_June-July 2015 Bulletin Board 5/7/15 8:36 PM Page 64

Upcoming Events, Announcements —Compiled by Kevin A. Davis & Obituaries Upcoming Events The 5th Annual Orlando Arab Fest will take place May 17 at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, FL. The festival, hosted by the Arab American Community Center of Florida, will feature performances, vendors and food. Visit <www.aaccflorida.org> for information and tickets.

The 12th Annual Lebanese Festival will be held May 22 in El Cajon, CA and will feature rides, food, entertainment and more. Visit <www.stephremchurch.com> for more information.

Ali Deek and Joseph Attieh will perform at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel in Tysons Corner, VA on May 22. The event will also feature the Miss Lebanon Emigrant Pageant 2015. Visit <www.fusionee.com> for more information and tickets.

From May 23-25 the annual ICNA-MAS Convention will be held at the Baltimore, MD Convention Center. The event will feature such speakers as Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Naeem Baig, as well as a youth conference, Qur’an competition and a bazaar. To register, visit <www.icnaconvention.org>.

Team Palestine for PCRF will host Bike the Drive on May 24, a bicycle fund-raiser for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund along Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. Visit <www. bikethedrive.org> for more information and to register.

The Halal Food Festival of Toronto 2015 will be held May 30 and 31 at the International Centre in Toronto, Canada. The festival is the largest halal food show in North America. Visit <www.halalfoodfestto. com> for more information.

The Indiana Center for Middle East Peace will host its Arab Festival on June 6 and 7 at Headwaters Park in Fort Wayne, IN. The festival will feature food, music and activities for all ages. Visit <www.indianacmep.org> for information and tickets.

Islamic Relief will host a Walk for Water on June 7 in Ridgefield Park, NJ. Proceeds will benefit IR USA’s water and sanitation 64

BulletinBoard

programs around the world. Visit <www. irusa.org/walk> for registration information.

The 13th Annual Arab-American & North African Cultural Street Festival will be held June 13 on Great Jones St. in Manhattan’s East Village. The festival will feature live music, food, cultural activities and vendors. Visit <www.naaponline. org/ny> for more information.

Announcements At a March 20 celebration, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) inaugurated a new 4,700 square foot expansion to the museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The expansion reflects the growing influence of the AANM and the importance of its mission. At the ceremony, AANM also announced that its “Little Syria” exhibit would be on display at Ellis Island. Visit <www.arabamerican museum.org> for more information.

Obituaries Dinkha IV, 79, the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, died March 26 in Rochester, MN of unknown causes. Born in Iraq, he quickly rose through the ranks of the Assyrian Church, serving in both Iran and Iraq early in his career. As Patriarch, he announced the end of a 500-year-old hereditary bloodline, opening the post of his successor to anyone qualified through experience. During the Iran-Iraq war, Dinkha relocated to Chicago and established headquarters there, only returning to Iraq in September 2006 for a brief visit. In successive wars, he became a spokesperson for the growing Assyrian diaspora, both in the U.S. and worldwide.

Basil Soda, 47, a Lebanese fashion designer, died of cancer March 30 in Beirut.

He became well-known in the capitals of world fashion for his own clothing lines from his East Beirut design house. Soda’s outfits have been worn by such celebrities as Paris Hilton and Katy Perry.

Abdelhadi Tazi, 94, a Moroccan scholar and diplomat, died April 2 of unknown causes in Rabat. Born in Fez, Morocco, he studied at the University of Al Karaouine, THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the Moroccan Institute for High Studies, the Mohammed V University, the Language Institute of Baghdad and the University of Alexandria. Known for his translation of numerous texts from English and French into Arabic, Tazi was also a well-known diplomat, serving as his country’s ambassador to Iraq, Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. He was a founder of the Moroccan Diplomats Club and a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco. His publication on the works of Ibn Battuta was particularly celebrated among his peers.

Sid Ali Kouiret, 82, an Algerian actor, died April 5 at his home in Algiers of complications from diabetes. Born in Algiers to a poor family, as a child he stabbed his alcoholic father, a taxi driver, and was forced to live on the street at an early age. In late adolescence, he began acting in amateur troupes. Within the next few years, his acting engagements would take him to Berlin, Paris and Bucharest. In 1955, during Algeria’s struggle for independence, he was forced to flee to Marseille, France, after harassment from the DST, the French intelligence in Algeria. There, he performed for a troupe affiliated with the FLN, Algeria’s anti-colonial guerrilla organization. Kouiret returned to Algeria following its independence in 1962, and his acting career began to take off. From 1963 until 2007, he was featured in numerous TV shows and films, including 1971’s “L’Opium et le Bâton,” directed by Ahmed Rachedi.

Jehan Rajab, 81, a Kuwaiti author, died on April 5 in Jabriya, Kuwait of unknown causes. Born in 1934 in Brazil, she studied in both Gibraltar and Britain before settling down in Kuwait. She was famous for her book Invasion Kuwait: An English Woman’s Tale, about Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

She was married to Tareq Rajab, a prominent Kuwaiti artist, and founded the Tareq Rajab Museum as well as the New English School, both in Kuwait. ❑ JUNE/JULY 2015

killgore_65_In Memoriam 5/7/15 8:25 PM Page 65

Robert V. Keeley (1929-2015) InMemoriam

KEYSTONE-FRANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES

By Andrew I. Killgore

Ambassador to Cambodia John Gunther Dean (l) and Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Keeley (r) arrive at an air base in Thailand after evacuating the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, May 5, 1975. obert Keeley was born in Beirut,

RLebanon, where his father was a U.S.

diplomat. Following high school in Washington, DC, he enrolled at Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1951 with a B.A. degree in English. He was first in his class. Afterwards he did graduate work, led an importing company and served for two years as an officer (Lt. j.g.) in the U.S. Coast Guard.

In 1956 he was appointed a junior officer in the U.S. Foreign Service. Two years later he was assigned to Amman, Jordan as a political officer. In 1959 this writer was posted from Jerusalem to Amman as political counselor. Amman was Keeley’s first foreign service post and, I believe, one of his most satisfying—despite the fact that he went on to great honor as ambassador to three countries, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Greece.

Andrew I. Killgore, a retired foreign service officer and former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, is publisher of the Washington Report.

JUNE/JULY 2015

Bob Keeley and his wife, Louise (also a Princeton graduate), were stars in Amman.

They were well liked by the Jordanians, more than half of whom were Palestinians from the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, when Israel was established in 1948. He and Louise were invited—co-opted—into King Hussein’s “go-carting” group which raced once a week. Sometimes they bested the king—but being careful not to do so often.

Keeley and I became fast friends in Amman, and our friendship lasted all of his life. He made his home in Washington after his retirement from the Foreign Service. In retrospect, our reporting from Amman was honest and pulled no punches. The Zionists had not yet discovered us and they were less arrogant in those days. We knew that our efforts from Amman were considered superior by the State Department. Altogether those were the halcyon days.

Keeley thought poorly of Henry Kissinger, secretary of state, for many reasons, but especially for his judgment on Cambodia. Despite having escaped from the Nazis himself, THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Kissinger ordered the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh to be evacuated except for Ambassador John Gunther Dean and Keeley (number two at Phnom Penh) despite looming danger from the murderous Khmer Rouge. In an iconic photograph which appeared in many American newspapers, Dean was seen carrying the American flag, while Keeley bore a sack full of sensitive papers, after barely escaping the approaching danger.

The ambassadorship to Athens was enormously fulfilling to Keeley. His father had served there before, and Bob, who had learned Greek as a boy, later had served as political counselor in Athens. He also was fluent in French.

Bob Keeley had worked for a pollster after graduating from Princeton. He later wrote a good book called The Tode Poll about his experiences as an employee. He was generally dubious about polls, especially their accuracy on the basis of too few people questioned. He was especially leery of telephone polls.

Continued on page 66 65

angels_66_June-July 2015 Choir of Angels 5/15/15 10:54 AM Page 66

AET’s 2015 Choir of Angels

Following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1, 2015 and April 22, 2015 is making possible activities of the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment (federal ID #52-1460362) and the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Some Angels helped us co-sponsor the April 10 conference, “The Israel Lobby: Is It Good for the U.S.? Is It Good for Israel?” We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD Jean Snyder, Greenbelt, MD HUMMERS Robert Snyder, Greenbelt, MD ($100 or more) Edward Stick, Phoenix, MD BARITONES & MEZZO Fatima Abdulla, Oak Hills, CA Mahmoud Zawawi, Amman, Jordan SOPRANOS Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA ($1,000 or more) Shukri Abu Baker, Beaumont, TX Asha A. Anand, Bethesda, MD ACCOMPANISTS Dr. Bishr Al-Ujayli, Troy, MI Wilhelmine Bennett, Iowa City, IA ($250 or more) Hamid & Kim Alwan, Milwaukee, WI G. Edward & Ruth Brooking, Jr., Dr. Robert Ashmore, Jr., Mequon, WI Mohamed Alwan, Chestnut Ridge, NY Wilmington, DE Ahmed Ayish, Arlington, VA Anace & Polly Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Rev. Rosemarie Carnarius & Dr. & Mrs. Roger Bagshaw, Big Sur, CA Dr. & Mrs. Issa Boullata, Montreal, Canada Aston Bloom, Tucson, AZ Nader Barakat, Moorpark, CA John Dirlik, Pointe-Claire, Canada Forrest Cioppa, Moraga, CA John Carley, Pointe-Claire, Canada Eugene Fitzpatrick, Wheat Ridge, CO Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR Roger W. Carpenter, Denver, CO Indiana Center for Middle East Peace, Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey Andrew and Krista Curtiss, Herndon, VA Fort Wayne, IN Dr. & Mrs. Hassan Fouda, Berkeley, CA Lynn Ellen Dixon, Woodward, PA Stanley McGinley, The Woodlands, TX George Hanna, Santa Ana, CA Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX Maury Keith Moore, Seattle, WA Judith Howard, Norwood, MA M.R. Eucalyptus, Kansas City, MO Michel Nasser, Beirut, Lebanon Mr. & Mrs. W. Eugene Notz, Charleston, SC Jack Love, San Diego, CA Renee Farmer, New York, NY John Mahoney, AMEU, New York, NY Sam Rahman, Lincoln, CA Claire Bradley Feder, Atherton, CA Michel & Cathy Sultan, Eau Claire, WI Sahar Masud, Mill Valley, CA William Gefell, Turnbridge, VT Bob Norberg, Lake City, MN Dr. Fawwaz Habbal, Cambridge, MA TENORS & CONTRALTOS Delinda C. Hanley, Kensington, MD John Van Wagoner, McLean, VA Shirley Hannah, Argyle, NY ($500 or more) Loretta Krause, Little Egg Harbor Twp., NJ Mr. & Mrs. John P. Crawford, Boulder, CO CHOIRMASTERS Anthony Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI Richard H. Curtiss, Boynton Beach, FL* ($5,000 or more) Allen J. MacDonald, Washington, DC Gregory DeSylva, Rhinebeck, NY Amal Marks, Altadena, CA Donna B. Curtiss, Kensington, MD Mr. & Mrs. L.F. Boker Doyle, New York, NY Hadeel Naqib, Baltimore, MD John & Henrietta Goelet, New York, NY Edouard C. Emmet, Paris, France Neal & Donna Newby, Las Cruces, NM Andrew I. Killgore, Washington, DC Gary Richard Feulner, Dubai, UAE Shirley O’Neil, Cleveland Hts., OH Vince & Louise Larsen, Louvin Foundation, Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO Peter P. Pranis, Jr., McAllen, TX Billings, MT Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT Louise Keeley, Washington, DC** Dr. Wendell E. Rossman, Phoenix, AZ William Lightfoot, Vienna, VA Antone Sacker, Houston, TX William & Flora McCormick, Austin, TX *In Memory of Richard H. Curtiss Ramzy Salem, Monterey Park, CA Gerald & Judith Merrill, Oakland, CA Mary Norton, Austin, TX **In Loving Memory of Bob Keeley Henry & Irmgard Schubert, Damascus, OR

Robert V. Keeley…

Continued from page 65

After retirement he established a small independent publishing company called the Five and Ten Press, which produced 24 original paperbacks. He wrote for the Five and Ten Press himself and invited others to write as well. I remember one of his articles about poetry that he liked. Several of them were poems that I liked from the Oxford Book of English Verse.

Another creation of his was the Black Sheep Society. People wanted to join because of their affection for Keeley. There were no rules and only one officer, Bob 66

Keeley. A special necktie was a symbol of membership. Not wearing the tie where “black sheep” might be involved warranted some kind of severe putdown. In fact, there was no putdown, but the Society was simply an element of Bob’s sense of humor.

Keeley was president of Washington’s prestigious Middle East Institute from 1990 to 1995. Established in 1946, the Institute was a private place where the Arabs and the Israelis could be sensibly discussed. It was privately financed and the fund-raising part of his job as president was not something that Bob enjoyed. He was also chairman of the Council for the National Interest for a period.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The Keeleys kept an open house in Bob’s retirement years, literally helping dozens of practically destitute Cambodians find their way in America. Their large circle of friends were often welcomed at their home, where refreshments were plentiful. Their children, Michael and Christopher, were almost always present at their parties. Michael was a little girl in the Amman days, and Christopher was a baby.

Bob Keeley died Jan. 9 at an assisted-living center in Washington of an apparent stroke. A large party to say farewell to him and to remember the good days of his life was held at the Cosmos Club here on April 18. My family and I were all there. ❑ JUNE/JULY 2015

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American Educational Trust The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs P.O. Box 53062 Washington, DC 20009

June/July 2015 Vol. XXXIV, No. 4

Displaced Sunni Iraqis fleeing the violence in Ramadi arrive at the outskirts of Baghdad, April 19, 2015.

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images