Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - June/July 2020 - Vol. XXXIX, No. 4

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PRO-ISRAEL PAC FUNDS KEEP CANDIDATES IN LINE

DISPLAY UNTIL 7/31/2020

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S y up to date on Anerra’s work Sta in Palestine and Lebanon. o anera.org/ /rresponse-log

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TELLING THE TRUTH SINCE 1982

Volume XXXIX, No. 4

On Middle East Affairs

June/July 2020

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

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Israel’s Annexation of Jordan Valley—Two Views —Juan Cole and Paul R. Pillar

Poll: Americans Oppose U.S. Recognition of Israeli Annexation—Grant F. Smith

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If Israel Proceeds with Annexation, Its “Special Relationship” May Come to an End —Allan C. Brownfeld

Will U.N. Members Sanction Israeli Annexations and Apartheid?—Ian Williams

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Happy Anniversary U.N.! Washington and Tel Aviv Send Their Usual Contempt—Walter L. Hixson

Arabs, U.N. Must Move to Swiftly Protect the Status of Palestinian Refugees—Ramzy Baroud

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’48 Palestinians Believe The Moment Has Arrived: One Democratic State—Steve France

Israel Fails the Coronavirus Test—Jonathan Cook

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Pro-Israel PAC Funds Keep Candidates in Line —Delinda C. Hanley and Dale Sprusansky

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What an Exceptional Verdict in Palestinian Family’s Murder Proves About Israel’s Judiciary—Gideon Levy

Tufts University Students Targeted by Pro-Israel Groups Are Not Backing Down—Dale Sprusansky

Rep. Ilhan Omar is Challenged by the Israel Lobby —Sanna Towns

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2019 Congressional Candidates—Compiled by Hugh Galford

Congress Fails to Override Trump’s Veto of Measure Limiting His Actions on Iran—Shirl McArthur The U.S. in Afghanistan: Graveyard for Another Empire?—M. Reza Behnam

SPECIAL REPORTS

Amid Trump’s Immigration Ban, Muslim-Americans Step Up to Fight COVID-19—Juan Cole

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Israeli Demolitions Leave Palestinians Homeless During the Pandemic—Delinda C. Hanley

Walid al-Hattab, Chef for the Poor, Makes Soup for Gazans—Mohammed Omer

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South East Asian Muslims Respond to COVID-19 Outbreak—John Gee

Cyprus Missing COVID-19 Opportunity —Jonathan Gorvett

Art is Not Optional: The 100th Exhibition At Gallery Al-Quds—Dagmar Painter

ON THE COVER: An Afghan man and child are seen in their tent in a makeshift camp in Balkh, Afghanistan, May 7, 2020, during the holy month of Ramadan. Many people in Afghanistan have lost their homes and livelihoods due to the ongoing war.

PHOTO BY SAYED KHODAIBERDI SADAT/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA 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

Israel’s New Government Is Being Lauded Despite Apartheid and Annexation, Prof. Kamel Hawwash, www.middleeastmonitor.com OV-1

100 Years of Shame: Annexation Of Palestine Began in San Remo, Ramzy Baroud, www.ramzybaroud.net

Mike Flynn Ran Interference for Israel—But That Angle Goes Unmentioned by Press, Philip Weiss, http://mondoweiss.net OV-3

Time to Partition the “Fake” Country of Libya, Ted Galen Carpenter, www.theamericanconservative.com OV-10

U.S. and Israel Team up to Thwart War Crimes Probe, Maureen Clare Murphy, http://electronicintifada.net OV-4

Muslim Women Who Cover Their Faces Find Greater Acceptance Among Coronavirus Masks, Anna Piela, www.theconversation.com

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Coronavirus Masks Reveal Hypocrisy of Islamophobic Anti-Veil Laws, Katherine Bullock, www.theconversation.com

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A Palestinian Guide to Surviving a Quarantine: On Faith, Humor and “Dutch Candy,” Ramzy Baroud, www.ramzybaroud.net

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Liberal Jewish Organizations Stay in Islamophobic Umbrella Group, for the Sake of Israel, Philip Weiss, http://mondoweiss.net

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ISM Statement on Reported FBI Probe, International Solidarity Movement

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How Imprisoned Palestinians Gain Rights From Everyday Resistance, Julie Norman, www.wagingnonviolence.org OV-8

5 Publishers’ Page

6 letters to the editor 54 MusiC aNd arts:

Arts in the Time of Coronavirus:

Solidarity, Innovation and Change

55 WagiNg PeaCe:

Former Member of UK Parliament

Discusses Relentless Israel Lobby

Smear Campaign

63 huMaN rights:

Refugees and the Displaced Left

Vulnerable Amid Health Crisis

65 the World looks at the Middle east —CARToonS 66 Middle east books revieW

72 other PeoPle’s Mail 73 obituaries

74 2020 aet Choir oF aNgels

73 iNdeX to advertisers

COURTESY GALLERY AL QUDS

DEPARTMENTS

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Star Street, Bethlehem by Katie Archibald-Woodward. See p. 52 for Art is Not Optional: The 100th Exhibition at Gallery Al-Quds.

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Endurance and Persistence

Whether we’re overwhelmed medical workers, mourning the loss of a loved one, suddenly unemployed and struggling to provide for our families, exhausted parents stuck at home with the kids, or simply suffering from cabin fever, the past few months have forced each of us, in some way, to learn the value of endurance.

Needing to dig deep to find the motivation to go on and fight another day in the midst of relentless adversity is nothing new, however, for Palestinians. In fact, they have a word for it: sumud. For generations, their sumud has allowed them to keep their dignity and hope in the face of ceaseless adversity. As we struggle to find our own sumud to survive this time of pandemic, we also need to continually search for the strength to fight a well-funded and relentless Israel lobby.

So Much Wrong

This magazine is filled with facts that could leave one easily dismayed. Anti-boycott legislation is spreading from state to state; college students are being relentlessly bullied by powerful Israel lobby groups; politicians from the U.S. to the UK are being systematically targeted for their support for Palestinian human rights; spurious and damaging allegations of anti-Semitism are being hurled from every direction; and Joe Biden is making it clear there will be no candidate that supports peace and justice in the Middle East on the presidential ballot this year. So what do we do?

Don’t Back Down

This topic is always filled with powerful messages of sumud, reminding us the only way to defeat powerful status quo forces is to bring the fight to them. “Our defensive narrative hasn’t really worked for us,” author Ramzy Baroud said on a recent webinar with the Washington Report. “If anything, it has…put Israel behind the wheel driving the historical narrative.” Chris Williamson, a former member of UK parliament targeted by proIsrael forces recently shared a similar insight. “Every time you apologize you give JUNE/JULY 2020

Publishers’ Page PHOTO BY ROBERT NICKELSBERG/GETTY IMAGESBAY RIDGE, BROOKLYN, NY

American Educational Trust

victims of the sudden economic destruction of the pandemic as well as the slow deaths of many other glossy magazines and catalogues. They printed the Washington Report for decades, meeting our four-day-turn-around requirements and treating us like gold. We’re confident that our next printer will be just as helpful. Next we’d like to offer a...

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Palestinian American Dr. Ahmad Jaber has delivered over 5,000 babies in New York’s Bay Ridge, while staying active in his city’s Muslim and Arab-American community. ground to the people attacking you, it’s simply feeding the beast,” he said. On another webinar hosted by this magazine, a Tufts University student targeted by proIsrael groups acknowledged the unsettling reality students face, but assured us such attacks “don’t really stop us from doing anything.” The relentless attacks may be dispiriting, but with steadfastness, these sufferings will give way to justice when they inevitably crack the weakening walls of Israeli apartheid.

Shout Out to Our Heroes

During this pandemic grateful citizens around the world are thanking first responders, nurses, doctors, nursing home and grocery store workers on the front lines.

We all appreciate police officers, mail deliverers, truck drivers, trash collectors, cleaners, public transport workers and others. But today we’d like to take this opportunity to thank the heroes unique to the Washington Report and Middle East Books and More.

First a Goodbye to Our Printer

We are sad to say goodbye and thank you to our printer and its hard-working staff,

It’s the loss of ad revenue that has shuttered newspapers and laid-off journalists.

First to feel the pinch were small-town newspapers and then corporate media was swept up. Now even during a pandemic, digital media is laying off reporters because businesses struggling to survive have no advertising budget. That’s why we have to thank our loyal advertisers, who truly believe we are all in this together.

Thanks to Our Writers and Staff

They kept plugging away at the articles you’ll read in this magazine. Many of them watched, reported and even hosted a slew of webinars that took the place of panel discussions. Others kept the lights on, answered your mail and paid the bills.

Thank You Online Shoppers

While Middle East Books and More was forced to close its physical store due to the coronavirus, you shoppers came through placing online orders. We encourage you to continue to order from MiddleEastBooks.com, and come back in person soon to buy books, pottery, olive oil, spices and Yemeni coffee. But our most...

Heartfelt Thanks Go to Our Angels

You’ve come through to help publish this magazine for nearly 40 years! We’re confident that your replies to our recent donation appeal will be the answer to our prayers. We’ve always offered Middle Eastern hospitality in our bookstore and soon, with your support, we’ll be able to whip up some coffee so you’ll stay a while.

Thank you for helping us...

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Executive Editor: Managing Editor: Contributing Editor: Contributing Editor: Other Voices Editor: Middle East Books and More Director: Assistant Bookstore Dir.: Finance & Admin. Dir.: Art Director: Founding Publisher: Founding Exec. Editor: Board of Directors:

DELINDA C. HANLEY DALE SPRUSANSKY WALTER HIXSON JULIA PITNER JANET McMAHON SAMI TAYEB ELENI ZARAS CHARLES R. CARTER RALPH-UWE SCHERER ANDREW I. KILLGORE (1919-2016) RICHARD H. CURTISS (1927-2013) HENRIETTA FANNER JANET McMAHON JANE KILLGORE

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (ISSN 87554917) is published 7 times a year, monthly except Jan./Feb., March/April, June/July and Aug./Sept. combined, at 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707. Tel. (202) 9396050. 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.

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LetterstotheEditor U.S. HUMAN RIGHTS FAILURES BEGIN AT HOME

Having read the January/February 2020 issue of the Washington Report, I am especially eager to comment on your headline article, “Does the U.S. Care About Human Rights in the Middle East?”

As a U.S. citizen who spent 23 months in an American prison, I can assure you that Washington has little interest in “human rights,” when it supports the abuse of its own citizens.

If you only knew of the abuses committed within the American prison system and its hundreds of jails, you may have a greater understanding of how it commits human rights abuses abroad.

See the Abu Ghraib atrocities, for instance. The guards described as the ringleaders in the Iraqi prison scandal, Charles Graner, et al., worked before the war… where? In an American prison. They didn’t learn to torture from the CIA or Special Ops; they picked up their abuse skills right here and took them to Iraq—outsourcing at its worst!

“Unless Washington first acknowledges and corrects its own human rights violations…its sanctimonious stand for human rights will have no credibility or impact” anywhere in the world.

R.L. Creager, Toledo, OH Thank you for providing a perspective very often ignored in mainstream discussions about U.S. domestic and foreign policy. You are right in stating that a country that incarcerates far more of its citizens than any other nation ought to take a hard look at its own practices and values before it begins lecturing other countries. You are also right to implore the American public to show greater solidarity with the oppressed—be they individuals snared by the prison-industrial complex here at home, or victimized by our foreign policy abroad.

ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LIBERTY IS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC

In a recent letter to Slate, a parent wrote they were “disturbed to find that [their child’s] class was talking about the USS

TELL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS WHAT YOU THINK PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. NW WASHINGTON, DC 20500 COMMENT LINE: (202) 456-1111 WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/CONTACT ANY SENATOR U.S. SENATE WASHINGTON, DC 20510 (202) 224-3121

The U.S. government continues to overlook and downplay the abuses within our own country, with the aid of the American media and the support of the wealthy comfortable pretending that anyone who winds up having their rights abused and losing their freedom somehow deserves it.

The response of most Americans to this is “not my problem,” until they suffer abuse or a human rights violation—then it becomes personal.

Indeed, Sarah Leah Whitson was correct to say in the aforementioned article,

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 2201 C ST. NW WASHINGTON, DC 20520 PHONE: (202) 647-6575 VISIT WWW.STATE.GOV TO E-MAIL ANY REPRESENTATIVE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WASHINGTON, DC 20515 (202) 225-3121

Liberty. I expected the teacher to calmly but firmly explain to the students that the USS Liberty attack was accidental, to ensure that the students don’t develop any anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. But instead, I actually heard this teacher say that Secretary of State Dean Rusk believed the attack to be intentional.”

As a survivor of this horrific Israeli attack on a U.S. Naval ship 53 years ago, I can tell you that it does my heart good to hear that a teacher is trying to encourage his students to explore the truth and not just

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believe everything you read or hear. more influence with Powell to have KEEP THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS Ask why our government never persuaded him to speak out COMING! conducted a full and impartial invesagainst his appearance before the Send your letters to the editor to the Washington Report, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009 tigation into this attack. Ask why our U.N. Here it is 2020, and the U.S. or e-mail <letters@wrmea.org>. government told us survivors to still does what Israel tells it to do in never talk about it, or we would be the Middle East. put in prison and/or fined. Ask why no nizations exposing Israeli violations of inAnd now Joe Biden is the presumptive major media outlets will conduct interviews ternational law, university students holding Democratic candidate for president. The with us survivors about this attack, beteach-ins about Palestine, U.S. Navy vetDNC’s platform is biased for Israel. Biden cause the story is still being covered up 53 erans seeking justice for fallen sailors, or voted for the Iraq War, strongly opposes years after it happened. even Jews questioning the merits of Zionthe BDS movement and even though he We are not anti-Semitic. We simply ism, the unsophisticated rebuttal of Israel has a strong foreign policy background, he want the American public to know the truth and its supporters is increasingly: “They is not even- handed, but strongly supports before we are all dead and unable to exare anti-Semites.”

Israel. So, what difference does it make plain why our government is still keeping This dishonest and desperate tactic is who is president? Either way, Israel wins a lid on this 53 years later and counting. a sign that Israel’s supporters increasingly and gets everything it wants militarily, ecoGod bless the teacher for trying to teach realize the facts are not on their side. As nomically and politically. Israel has both his students how to research material. you said, demanding truth and justice is parties covered. Neither the Palestinians Larry Bowen, USS Liberty survivor, via absolutely not anti-Semitic, and it’s impornor the United States benefit. email tant that we do not let such smears preI wish there was some strong PalestinBe it Palestinians telling their own stovent us from continuing the vital work of ian leadership, but alas, I think they all are ries of displacement, human rights orgaorganizing and educating our fellow citiin jail on "trumped” up charges. zens. Smears cannot silence the Who in America is listening to the innotruth. cents in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Saudi? Saudi Arabia has unbeFROM BUSH TO BIDEN: lievable purchasing power to influence for WILL THINGS EVER good but doesn't. Anyway, we keep plugCHANGE? ging along and doing our best.

PBS recently featured “American Judith Howard, Norwood, MA Experience,” and the two segWe’re sure Col. Lawrence Wilkerson ments were on President George himself wishes he had taken a bolder W. Bush. While I voted for him stance against the bogus case the Bush the first time, I did not vote for his administration presented in favor of the reelection because he ordered Iraq War. the invasion of Iraq. His reason As you mentioned, the presumptive Dewas weapons of mass destrucmocratic presidential nominee is anything tion. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson but a principled and wise voice when it was included in the documencomes to the Middle East. In a recent post tary; he was chief of staff to Secon his campaign website outlining his retary of State Colin Powell. commitment to the Jewish community, Joe When Secretary Powell went Biden reiterated his “record of unstinting before the United Nations giving support for Israel.” As you suggested, it is WMDs as the reason to invade, exceedingly difficult to get excited about OTHER VOICES is an optional 16-page supple one easily became skeptical. the possibility of Biden overseeing U.S. ment available only to subscribers of the WashingWhat Powell was offering just Middle East policy. didn't ring true. I recall thinking at Unsurprisingly, Biden also used his post ton Report on Middle East Affairs. For an additional the time, wouldn’t it have been to defame supporters of Palestinian rights. $15 per year (see postcard insert for Washington great if Colin Powell protested The statement said he, “rejects the BDS Report subscription rates), subscribers will receive and rejected the plan to invade movement, which singles out Israel— Other Voices inside each issue of their Washington Iraq? home to millions of Jews—and too often Report on Middle East Affairs.

I remember seeing and hearveers into anti-Semitism, while letting Back issues of both publications are available. ing Col. Wilkerson at the Israel Palestinians off the hook for their choices.”

To subscribe telephone 1 (888) 881-5861, fax lobby conference sponsored by But this not the time to give up. As the (714) 226-9733, e-mail circulation@wrmea. org>, the Washington Report and the late British trade union leader Bob Crow Institute for Research: Middle once said, “If you fight you won’t always or write to P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809Eastern Policy a few years ago. win, but if you don’t fight you’ll always 1056.

I think he gets it, but wish he had lose.” ■ JUNE/JULY 2020

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Two Views

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Israel’s Annexation of Jordan Valley

Israeli soldiers take aim as Palestinian demonstrators take part in a protest against the annexation of the Jordan Valley, in the village of Tammun, east of the West Bank village of Tubas, near the Jordan Valley, on Feb. 29, 2020.

Top Five Ways Netanyahu’s Annexation of 30 Percent of Palestinian West Bank will Devastate Israel

By Juan Cole THE ISRAELI SUPREME COURT has ruled that, despite being indicted for corruption and press manipulation, Binyamin Netanyahu can take office as prime minister in a government of national unity

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and an adjunct professor, Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University. He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page.

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that has him rotating the office with rival Benny Gantz of the Blue and White coalition after 18 months.

Netanyahu’s first order of business is to annex vast swathes of Palestinian territory, including much of the Jordan Valley.

Arab48.com summarizes the argument of the Hebrew University’s Professor Elie Podeh for why Netanyahu’s Likud Party thinks they can get away with this move if they take it soon. First, the gaze of the world’s countries has turned inward over the coronavirus issue, so there isn’t as much focus on Israel and the Palestinians.

Second, Trump is in the White House and supports unilateral actions by allies, and is unbothered by a lack of international consensus. (The European Union and China have both warned Netanyahu against annexation). Third, the Arab world is also focused on internal problems and is paralyzed by the pandemic.

It is an astute analysis and, in the world of political Realism, Netanyahu’s calculation is correct. He can get away with it in the short to medium term without suffering any immediate undue

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harm. Egypt is not going to turn hostile; Syria and Iraq are basket cases; Jordan and Lebanon are tiny and weak. Turkey has never ceased trading with Israel, including the arms trade, despite President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pro-Palestinian stance. Iran’s economy has been devastated by the Trump administration’s financial and economic blockade and now by the coronavirus.

Europe has no will or means to get involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the shadow of the Holocaust prohibits most of its major countries from condemning Israel or taking any practical steps to punish it.

Here are some longer-term downsides, though.

1. The Israelis had been hoping for a new wave of normalizations, this time with the conservative Gulf monarchies, most of which are wary of Iran. The common enemy was driving Saudi Arabia and some others toward some form, de facto or de jure, of peace treaty with Israel. Oman hosted Netanyahu to this end, and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman seems enthusiastic for this step. However, the momentum toward it will grind to a halt if Israel gobbles up a third of the Palestinian West Bank.

The publics in most Gulf countries are substantially more committed to the Palestinian cause than the governments, and the latter are at least a little afraid of the former.

2. For Israel, to annex the Jordan Valley allows it completely to encircle the Palestinians living in the West Bank, who will no longer have a border with Jordan. But this step also puts them in the center of Greater Israel, rather as though they had been swallowed. Netanyahu intends to keep them as an internal colony, but annexation will make this apartheid, Jim Crow strategy, which already exists, glaringly obvious and difficult for the world community to ignore. I was at an event in DC years ago with David Makovsky, and he tried to schmooze me with the line that the Israeli settlers had only settled on 5 percent of the West Bank, so things were not so dire for a two-state solution. But that sort of kick-the-ball-down-the-road argument fails, even more obviously, if Israel has taken 30 percent of the West Bank. There is no more fig leaf.

3. Pressure on Israel over the coming decades to redress the statelessness of the Palestinians will grow and, since Netanyahu has forestalled a two-state solution by annexing all the land where a Palestinian state might exist, there are now only two futures for Palestinians: a) Apartheid and permanent statelessness or b) Israeli citizenship (a third of Palestinians already say that they would welcome it). For Israel, to grant citizenship to the Palestinians will make it a binational state like Belgium. Netanyahu and his far-right cronies seem to believe that, at some point, they will be able simply to expel the Palestinians to Jordan or that they can keep apartheid going virtually forever. Neither of those hopes is very realistic and both bring, in their train, dire dangers.

4. The international movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel (BDS) will be given enormous new energy. Netanyahu established a cabinet position to fight this movement, going so far as to attempt to abolish the U.S. First Amendment June/July 2020 august/septeMbeR 2019

Other Voices is an optional 16-page supplement available only to subscribers of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

For an additional $15 per year (see postcard insert for Washington Report subscription rates), subscribers will receive Other Voices inside each issue of their Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Back issues of both publications are available.

To subscribe, telephone 1 (888) 881-5861, e-mail circulation@wrmea.org, or write to P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056. to ensure Americans can be sanctioned for adopting it. It is already the case in 28 states that state contracts are denied to people who boycott Israel or to people who refuse to pledge to the state that they won’t boycott Israel. At the moment, BDS advocates, who are professors or journalists, who speak on the campus of a public university in states like Georgia, cannot be paid an honorarium. It is just that bad. But the courts are striking down these provisions whenever they are challenged, and this sort of state legislation is a stop gap measure doomed to fail.

BDS is a plank in the growing Democratic Socialists of America, which is becoming an important component of the Democratic Party.

5. And that brings me to the fifth danger, which is that Israel will become, in the terms of U.S. politics, a project solely of the Republican right wing. The Democratic Party faithful are done with Netanyahu.

I mean, we live in a country where progressive people increasingly start their events by honoring America’s original inhabitants on whose land we stand. Anagha Srikanth, at The Hill, wrote of this year’s Oscars: “’The academy would like to acknowledge that tonight we have gathered on the ancestral lands of the Tongva, the Tataviam and the Chumash. We acknowledge them as the first peoples of this land on which the motion picture community lives and works,’ New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi said before introducing the winners of the academy’s honorary prizes.”

For people who go out of their way to remember the displacement and the land grabs inflicted on American Indians (that’s what most of them prefer to be called), turning around and saying nice things about an Israeli government that is, at this very moment, plotting a Trail of Tears for the Palestinians is a pretty big piece of cognitive dissonance. I mean, any pro-Israel meeting

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would have to begin, “We would like to acknowledge that we are supporting a state that has incorporated into itself lands of the Palestinians of the Jordan Valley.”

Since the right wing of the Republican Party is actually a small minority, they can’t depend on being in power all the time (they were reduced to having a few states in the Deep South in 2008) and, if they are the only ones firmly supporting Israel, then U.S. government backing for the latter could become pretty feeble at some point in the near future.

So, Netanyahu is plotting out the eating of a very rich cornucopia. Whether Israel will be able to digest it in the coming two decades is the big question.

Annexation in the West Bank: Dropping Pretenses

By Paul R. Pillar

THE NEW ISRAELI government led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu probably will, in a matter of months if not weeks, formally annex large portions of the occupied West Bank. The coalition agreement Netanyahu reached with his rival Benny Gantz explicitly provides for this move. This development is bad news for peace and for anyone who cares about democracy and human rights.

Annexation will be another step in Israel’s formalization of swallowing the territory it conquered militarily, following similar moves regarding the Syrian Golan Heights, and the expanded boundaries of what Israel defines as Jerusalem. The impending new step in the West Bank is a violation of international law and a unilateral rejection of the whole concept of a negotiated peace. Palestinian aspirations for self-determination will not die and will fuel future violence, with Israel continuing to live by the sword. The move will spell trouble for Arab governments—especially that of Jordan’s King Abdullah—that want to live in peace with Israel.

One might ask what difference annexation will make, given that Israel already has de facto control over all of the West Bank, with the obsolete Palestinian Authority reduced to functioning as a kind of security auxiliary for Israel. That question leads to a much different line of concern about the impending annexation, among those who have no problem with, and indeed applaud, that de facto Israeli control. An example of such concern is a recent New York Times oped by Daniel Pipes.

Pipes’ depiction of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—ignoring the decades-long history of the conflict, the direction of Israeli policy over most of that history, and the highly disproportionate number of Palestinian casualties as compared to Israeli ones—is contained in his assertion that “Palestinians long ago would have enjoyed selfrule had they stopped murdering Israelis.” That’s what Pipes says when he is not dismissing the Palestinians as an “invented people” or wishing even worse things upon them.

In his piece, Pipes raises some of the same prospective troubles following annexation that other concerned observers would raise, including destabilization of Jordan and the chance of a new Palestinian uprising or intifada. But his basic concern is not that annexation 10

per se would be bad, but rather that it would stoke opposition to the Israeli government’s policies.

President Trump wouldn’t like annexation in the absence of negotiations, he says. American Democrats wouldn’t like it. European governments wouldn’t like it. Sunni Arab states that have cooperated with Israel wouldn’t like it. What’s left of the Israeli left wouldn’t like it, leading “probably to a contingent of Israeli Zionists turning antiZionist.”

In short, Pipes’ only real interest is in the Israeli government not losing the sufferance and support that have enabled it to get what it wants. He says not a word about the issues of injustice, human suffering, and absence of peace that are intrinsic to the conflict and the occupation.

A DEPARTURE IN ISRAELI POLICY

Pipes’ posture is basically the same as what has been the core of Israeli government policy for years; to sustain that international sufferance by maintaining the fiction of interest in a negotiated two-state solution, while unilaterally creating facts on the ground that make any such solution ever more difficult to achieve. That Netanyahu’s new government may soon depart from that policy with unilateral annexation of a substantial portion of the West Bank reflects several factors, including the drift of Israeli politics ever farther to the right and the hubris that comes from repeatedly getting away with all sorts of things without having to pay any significant price.

Trump’s policies toward Israel clearly have fed that hubris with a series of gifts including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, closing the principal U.S. diplomatic channels to the Palestinians, and recognition of the Golan annexation. The “peace plan” that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner produced is another gift, tilting heavily toward Israel on all the major issues in the conflict.

The Kushner plan openly invites the sort of annexation that may be about to take place, even though it ostensibly is conditioned on Israel agreeing to negotiate with the Palestinians—a condition that Netanyahu can ignore while he pockets the parts of the latest gift that he likes. In this respect, the Kushner plan upsets what had heretofore been the Israeli strategy of disguising the reality of annexationist ambitions with the fiction of interest in negotiation. If Trump, as Pipes fears, gets upset about this combination of events, it will be another example of Trump not having bothered to think through the broader implications of a step he takes to curry immediate favor with his political base; in this case, a base that includes many evangelical Christians.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES

All this is bad for peace, human rights, and U.S. interests, but in searching for a silver lining to the bad news, there is something to be said for the dropping of pretenses. Annexation will force many

Paul R. Pillar is non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Security Studies of Georgetown University and an associate fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy. This article was published in Responble Statecraft. Reprinted with permission.

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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who have been part of that international sufferance to move out of the realm of fiction and confront more directly the reality of what Israel has been doing in the occupied territories. The resulting reactions may force some rethinking within Israel. Because Israel is the side of the conflict that has the guns, the power, and the land, it is the side where rethinking is most necessary if there is to be any hope of peace and a resolution of the conflict.

No such stimulus to rethinking will come from the United States as long as Trump is in office. If a President Joe Biden is in office next year, he can be expected to take a more balanced and peaceoriented approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as a recent statement from former national security officials urges be made part of the Democratic Party platform. This prospect may be one reason why Netanyahu seems determined to hurry up and annex land before next January. But Biden canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t or wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reverse all the damage the current administration has inflicted on this subject. Considering the size of the larger mess from that administration that he will have to clean up, as a matter of limited political resources and bandwidth, he probably will avoid steps that would lead the Israel lobby to go into full attack mode.

Given the magnitude, however, of the continued U.S. gift-giving to Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;$3.8 billion annually from U.S. taxpayers, with no strings attachedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;there is latitude for some progress without taking any steps that would make such an attack credible. Attaching some strings regarding Israeli conduct in the occupied territories would be only an adjustment to a policy that still revolves around enormous U.S. support to Israel and Israeli security.

SEND A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION OR SAMPLE COPY Please help us market the Washington Report and Middle East and More Bookstore. Ask us to send a sample copy of the magazine to your coworker, relative, friend, teacher, favorite talk-show host or columnist. Or better yet, send a gift subscription! To subscribe visit wrmea.org/subscribe, or email circulation@wrmea.org or call (888) 881-5861. To send a sample copy email the address to samplecopy@wrmea.org.

Any chance of movement toward the sort of sanctions that Israeli conduct in the occupied territories warrants, probably rests with the Europeans. In this regard, annexation of a chunk of the West Bank may cross some unstated red lines in European chancelleries. European governments could use, as a model, the sanctions that were effectively applied against the South African version of apartheid. If this were to happen and does bring about needed rethinking in Israel, it would mean some good might come out of even the brazen step that Netanyahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s government is about to take. â&#x2013;

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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smithr_12.qxp_IRmep Polls 5/21/20 12:59 PM Page 12

IRmep Polls, Telling Hard Truths Since 2014

Poll: Americans Oppose U.S. Recognition of Israeli Annexation

By Grant F. Smith

IRmep Poll: “Israel has said it will annex the West Bank, which has a population of 3 million Palestinians and 300,000 illegal Israeli settlers. Should the U.S. formally recognize this move?”

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER Binyamin Netanyahu campaigned promising to annex large swaths of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Annexation is included in the new unity agreement between the governing coalition—Likud and Blue and White—in the Israeli parliament. Netanyahu, battling serious corruption charges and due to hand over power to his unity government partner Benny Gantz in October of 2021, plans to bring up the initiative in parliament this summer. The Trump administration, which has tilted toward Israel in all major issues since taking office, has indicated it will support Israeli territorial designs.

Much of the rest of the world views Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian lands and imminent annexation plans as violations of United Nations resolutions and international law.

A plurality of Americans oppose any formal U.S. recognition.

When asked, 37.3 percent responded that the U.S. should not recognize Israeli annexation, while 34.2 percent said that it should.

Other responses were offered by the remaining 28.5 percent, with

Grant F. Smith is the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, DC. For more IRmep polls, visit https://IRmep.org/Polls. Smith’s latest book, the israel lobby enters state government, is now on sale at Middle East Books and More.

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many responding they had insufficient information to state an opinion.

Israel and many nodes of its enormous U.S. lobby refer to imminent annexation with the same euphemism: “application of sovereignty.” However, even longtime operatives at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s think tank appear to believe that unilateral annexation may finally kill the American goose that has laid golden eggs for Israel since its founding. David Makovsky and Dennis Ross cautioned that “we think that all unilateral annexation is a mistake and hope the prime minister refrains from doing so.”

Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, Saeb Erakat, urged world leaders to take concrete action against Israel. “What we’re telling them is that Netanyahu can survive statements of condemnation, but he needs to hear that there will be backlash and consequences as well.”

Additional poll question and editorial input provided by Janet McMahon and Jeffrey Blankfort.

Source: IRmep representative poll of 1,639 American adults fielded through Google Surveys on May 10-12, 2020. Answer order randomly reversed.

RMSE score sample bias 3.7 percent.

Washington RepoRt on Middle east affaiRs

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Israel and Judaism

If Israel Proceeds with Annexation, Its “Special Relationship” May Come to an End

By Allan C. Brownfeld IN THE RECENT Israeli election, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu campaigned aggressively on annexing portions of the occupied West Bank while his opponent, Benny Gantz, opposed unilateral annexation. Now, with a “unity” government and Netanyahu remaining prime minister, to be followed by Gantz, the agreement between Netanyahu and Gantz says that annexation should proceed in a way that does not harm Israel’s interests.

The Economist notes that, “Mr. Netanyahu will probably have the final say…Annexation of territory that the Palestinians regard as part of their future state would probably kill any hope of a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict and could ignite violence. Mr. Netanyahu will obviously want to avoid that, but he may feel he needs to move before November, when his chum Mr. Trump may be voted out of office.”

In an historic reversal of U.S. policy, the Trump administration announced in November 2019 that it does not view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. The policy change was announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He declared, “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.” Netanyahu hailed the change in U.S. policy, saying, “this policy reflects an historical truth—that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in Judaea and Samaria. In fact, we are exiled Jews because we are the people of Judaea.”

The dramatic change in U.S. policy was challenged by 106 House Democrats in a letter to Pompeo, organized by Rep. Sandy Levin (D-MI), who is Jewish. They called upon him to “immediately” reverse his position. The letter was signed by 12 committee chairs, including veteran Reps. John Lewis (D-GA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA).

If Israel proceeds with annexation, it may bring an end to its “special relationship” with the U.S. and with the American Jewish community. It would also challenge the idea that Israel has bipartisan support and confine its embrace to right-wing Republicans.

For Israel’s right-wing, annexation has long been a key part of its agenda. This has been the case since the area was captured and occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War. East Jerusalem was the first part of the West Bank to be annexed following the 1980 Jerusalem Law. Israeli law has been applied to Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank leading to a system of “enclave law” and claims of “creeping annexation.” Netanyahu first announced that the Jordan Valley was “off the table” for negotiation with the Pales-

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

JUNE/JULY 2020

tinians in November 2013. Israel also began to apply their Labor Laws in Area C that same year.

In 2009, Netanyahu endorsed the two-state solution. But, ahead of the April 2019 election, he stated his intention of unilaterally annexing Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Failing to form a government, Netanyahu called for snap Knesset elections to be held in September. Annexation of the Jordan Valley, first proposed in the 1967 Allon Plan, was announced by Netanyahu in September 2019 as his own plan. Targeted to win over support, on Sept. 16, 2019, in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, Netanyahu said, “I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the settlement blocs including sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage.” He said he had received a green light from the Trump administration. The area Netanyahu outlined to be annexed is roughly 22 percent of the West Bank.

The next day there was international condemnation of the proposal from Palestinians, the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Kingdom, among others. The U.N. declared that any Israeli move to impose its administration over the Palestinian territory would “be illegal under international law.” The EU said there would be a “strong response” if annexation proceeds.

Liberal Zionists emphasized the damage to Israel’s international reputation if annexation takes place. Americans for Peace Now warned that Israel will become a “pariah” and J Street’s Dylan Williams said, “U.S. leaders should make clear that it’d be nearly impossible to maintain the same special relationship with an Israel that abandons a commitment to democracy.” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (DIL) condemned the annexation plan as the “death-knell of the twostate solution,” and an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind.-VT) called annexation “recklessness that goes against U.S. interest in peace.”

According to the New Israel Fund, “Annexation would be an existential threat to—and perhaps even a death-knell for Israeli democracy.” Yair Lapid, the opposition leader in the Knesset, said that if annexation takes place, “...the peace agreement with Jordan will be canceled. There will be irreversible damage to the relationship with the Democratic National Committee and Jewish communities in the U.S.” Yael Patir of J Street said that Lapid’s warning that annexation will damage Israel’s relationship to the Democratic Party and American Jewry “is not a notion that is understood in Israel.” She and Jeremy Ben-Ami, who leads J Street, called for a campaign to convince Israelis that annexation will threaten these most valuable assets. J Street is “publicly and privately” urging Joe Biden, whom it has endorsed for president, to “reiterate” and “repackage” his opposition to annexation and to make it clear that he won’t accept an-

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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nexation as president. Biden has said, “Israel, I think, has to stop the threats of annexation and settlement activity” because they will undermine “support for Israel in the U.S., especially among young people of both political parties.”

Ben-Ami also called on right-wing elements of the pro-Israel lobby to speak out against annexation. In a Zoom briefing, he addressed the question of AIPAC’s stance on this question. “For anyone who is watching us, who belongs to AIPAC or supports AIPAC, I ask you to ask them. It is notable, the silence of AIPAC and many other rightof-center organizations, on the question of annexation—when they have tried to say through the years that they support two states.” He said it is time to end a policy of “Israel, right or wrong.”

In Ben-Ami’s view, Democrats might be able to convince Israelis by threatening to rule out any U.S. aid for annexation. He said, “We do not think that the U.S. should foot the bill for anything that has to do with annexation” and suggested Israel might lose the “diplomatic immunity” the U.S. provides for its human rights violations at the U.N. and elsewhere if annexation goes through.

Israel promotes itself as a “democracy,” but by Western standards this is hardly the case. Palestinians in the occupied territories have almost no legal rights and Palestinians within Israel are second-class citizens.

Israel does not believe in genuine religious freedom, even for Jews. There is an official state religion and government-paid chief rabbis are ultra-Orthodox. Reform Rabbis cannot perform weddings, conduct funerals, or preside over conversions. There is more religious freedom for Jews in any Western country than in Israel. In the view of some observers, annexation would simply make clear to the world that Israel is not the kind of democratic society it proclaims itself to be, and which many Americans of all religions think it is.

Professor Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania, in his new book Paradigm Lost, calls for policymakers to give up the “false belief” in the two-state solution and acknowledge the struggle for equal rights in a one-state reality. In his view, annexation would create a single state, which already exists on the ground. The effort of those 14

who believe in democracy would then properly turn to calling for equal rights for all of the state’s inhabitants. The alternative would be apartheid.

In his talk at the Middle East Institute in December 2019, Lustick explained that he was “an avid and early supporter” of the Zionist state for nearly 50 years. But, in the last decade, he came to believe that he and other two-state advocates were being misled as Israel took over the West Bank and Jerusalem, “territories no Israeli government will ever withdraw from...Netanyahu has used liberal Zionists to proclaim that a two-state solution is possible, when it is a delusion. Entertaining that possibility is actually playing a sucker’s game into what the right wants, which is a constant feeling of that carrot, that maybe we get two states, and meanwhile you send the whole thing into decades and decades and decades of apartheid.”

You Send the Whole

Thing Into Decades and Decades and Decades of Apartheid.

“What I want in Palestine,” Lustick said, “is something that Jews and Arabs can live with and that honors the principles of democracy and equality...The demographic argument is ‘racism’ that goes to the heart of Zionism.

Guess what folks, there are more Arabs than Jews west of the Jordan...Where a state dominates Arabs for the sake of Jews, you are going to subsidize the domination of the country by the clerical right.”

Some have argued for years that Israeli plans for annexation merely publicize the fact that there is only one state in Israel and Palestine, with vastly different rights for Jews and Palestinians, and it’s been that way for 50 years. The struggle should be for the equal rights of all the inhabitants of a single state, according to this view. As former White House aid Dennis Ross declared on Twitter, “It’s one state. Democracy and equal rights for all—or apartheid.”

Many Israelis, concerned about their country’s direction and treatment of Palestinians, lament its departure from Jewish

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

moral and ethical values. Prof. David Shulman of the Hebrew University, notes that, “No matter how you look at it, unless our minds have been poisoned by the ideologies of the religious right, the occupation is a crime. It is, first of all, based on the permanent disenfranchisement of a huge population...In the end, it is the ongoing moral failure of the country as a whole that is most consequential, most dangerous, most unacceptable. The failure weighs heavily...on our humanity. We are, so we claim, the children of the prophets. Once, they say, we were slaves in Egypt. We know all that can be known about slavery, suffering, prejudice, ghettos, hate, expulsion, exile. I find it astonishing that we, of all people, have reinvented apartheid in the West Bank.”

Within the American Jewish community, Israel and Zionism have become increasingly divisive issues. In his book, Trouble In The Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict Over Israel, Prof. Dov Waxman of Northeastern University, writes, “A historic change has been taking place in the American Jewish relationship with Israel...Israel is fast becoming a source of division rather than unity for American Jewry...A new era of American Jewish conflict over Israel is replacing the old era of solidarity...This echoes earlier debates about Zionism that occurred before 1948. Then, as now, there were fierce disagreements...Classical Zionism has never had much relevance or appeal to American Jewry. Indeed, the vast majority of American Jews reject the basic elements of classical Zionism—that Diaspora Jews live in exile, that Jewish life in Israel is superior to life in the Diaspora...American Jews do not think that they live in exile and they do not regard Israel as their homeland..Zionism has never succeeded in winning over the majority of American Jews.”

Since 1948, Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, now topping $3.8 billion annually in military aid. By annexing portions of the West Bank, not only would Israel be asking American taxpayers to subsidize an action which is clearly in violation of international law but it is unlikely to be supported by very many American Jews. It could well bring its “special relationship” with both the U.S. government and with American Jews to an end. ■ JUNE/JULY 2020

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United Nations Report

Will U.N. Members Sanction Israeli Annexations and Apartheid?

THERE IS THE OLD TALE about the young man found guilty of killing his parents who, at the sentencing hearing, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is now a bereft orphan.

The Trump administration could vie for the role with Israel. Having pulled out of the Iranian disarmament agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) unilaterally, the U.S. is now trying to claim that Iran is still bound by it, and as such the U.S. can interpret that to mean the previous sanctions on Tehran are “snapped back” and thus, automatically re-imposed.

Of course, the White House now finds that if decades are spent blunting an international instrument, it will not cut the way you want when you do decide to pick it up. And, sanctions only work if everyone respects them. Amazingly, since the original signatories and pretty much every other major country except Israel disagrees with what the U.S. has done, there is little appetite to jump to attention when the U.S. begins to evoke the sanctity of U.N. sanctions!

But, in the end, law is about power. The No Fly Zones over the northern and southern parts of Iraq were never mandated by the U.N. Security Council, but because Saddam Hussain had repelled almost everyone, no one challenged them. Who was going to get into a dogfight with the USAF when no one else had a dog in the fight? The Zone, which began as a laudable measure to stop Saddam from launching his air force on his own Kurdish and Shi’a civilian populations, was extended to include civil aviation.

But, as it was clear that the sanctions were past their sell-by date and were kept in place only by American vindictiveness, support for them eroded. The Oil for Food program created by the U.N. (1995-2005) was the safety valve for most countries. It allowed them to salve their consciences about starving Iraqis while private companies made out like bandits on kickbacks and bribes from corrupt oil for food deals, which they would later blame on the U.N. The air blockade eroded a little more gradually. In the end, it was the French who flew humanitarian aid into Iraq, posing an acute dilemma for the U.S. in maintaining the sanctions. And, like when the little boy pointed out the emperor was naked, everyone who had previously complied remembered that there had, in fact, been no legal embargo on civilian flights at all.

Which brings us, inevitably, to Israel. While the U.S. wants “snap back” imposition of sanctions on Iran, for alleged breaches of the JCPOA, on which the U.S. has reneged, it has promised to

U.N. correspondent Ian Williams is the author of UNtold: the Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War (available from Middle East Books and More).

JUNE/JULY 2020

By Ian Williams

support Israeli annexation of the Occupied Territories and settlements; in defiance of international law and its own previously expressed policies.

And, so we come to back to the U.N., where the U.S. will veto any suggestion of condemnation, let alone any sanctions action, against the country which has refused to accept the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” or the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.”

It is now half a century of refusal since that “recent conflict.”

In the face of a veto, what can be done? Actually, if one looks back to the days when the U.N. was fighting South African apartheid, as opposed to Israeli apartheid—quite a lot. The South African apartheid and racial discussion was brought up early in the U.N.’s history and involved both sanctions and the withdrawal of recognition, even though the Afrikaner republic was an existing member.

It is worth remembering that before apartheid itself fell, the U.N. forced the independence of then occupied South West Africa, which became Namibia. In an uncanny foreshadowing of events with the West Bank settlers, the white settlers from the South West Africa territory had representatives in the apartheid government’s parliament, just as the settlers are represented in the Knesset. In fact it is worth remembering that, again echoing their chums in Israel, apartheid South Africa had some claims to being the only democracy in Africa—as long as you were white.

The difference was that apartheid had few friends. At the time, the Portuguese, under their colonialist Second Republic regime, the British, French and Americans would not go so far as to defend the South Africans but would not officiously strive to sanction it. Ironically, Israel voted to denounce apartheid, even as it armed the South African settler state, and almost certainly used South African assets to develop the nuclear weapons of both states.

Hence, Israel’s keen interest in the BDS movements across the world. As it looks at its erstwhile allies in South Africa, it knows what can be done, not least to morale in the settler state, when it is isolated.

Sadly, the Palestinians have fewer allies and certainly less resolute ones. While all (except the Trump administration) will condemn Israeli annexations, the real question is, what will they do about it? Not a lot, one fears. In particular Europe, whose economic heft could make all the difference.

The upcoming U.N. Security Council elections for the European seats show some of the pitfalls. The candidates for the two “West European and Other States” are Canada, Ireland and Norway. On many issues they are all equal, but the Middle East Continued on page 29

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History’s Shadows

Happy Anniversary U.N.! Washington and Tel Aviv Send Their Usual Contempt By Walter L. Hixson

JOSEPH BARRAK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

pride in the preeminent role that it played. As many Americans of the time were keenly aware, the failure of the League of Nations to keep the peace after the First World War had been due in part to the U.S. refusal to join the League, even though its creation had been the brainchild of the American President Woodrow Wilson. The same mistake would not be made in 1945.

However, today, the country that did the most to bring the U.N. into being is the country that is doing the most to undermine it. President Donald Trump’s de-funding of the World Health Organization (WHO), on the heels of Fijian U.N. soldiers retrieve the remains of 106 Lebanese refugees burned in the Israeli artillery shelling of the his defunding of the United United Nations compound in Qana, Lebanon, April 18, 1996, where hundreds of civilians had taken refuge Nations Relief and Works during Israel’s “Grapes of Wrath” offensive.

Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and officially withdrawing from UNESCO and the U.N. Human Rights Council THE UNITED NATIONS is marking its 75th anniversary this year, (2017 and 2018 respectively), marks the low point in the history of though the global pandemic will no doubt produce a muted celebrathe U.S. relationship with the international agency that it did so much tion. It was a far more hopeful time 75 years ago, as survivors of the to spawn. most widespread and destructive war in human history created a When we turn to the history of the Palestine issue, it becomes new international organization to keep the future peace. The new apparent that the United States has betrayed the U.N. and its misorganization went on to define and decry the crime of genocide and sion from the outset. By appeasing Israel rather than backing U.N. to lay out a vision for the expansion of human rights and human efforts to resolve the Palestine issue, the United States for decades freedoms. has undermined the U.N. and sabotaged its international peaceThe country that played the dominant role in forging the U.N., supkeeping role. plied it with the most funding and prestige, and the country where it was located—the United States of America—could take justifiable

History’s Shadows, a regular column by contributing editor Walter L. Hixson, seeks to place various aspects of Middle East politics and diplomacy in historical perspective. Hixson is the author of Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict (available from Middle East Books and More), along with several other books and journal articles. He has been a professor of history for 36 years, achieving the rank of distinguished professor.

16

A HISTORY OF REJECTIONISM

While the Zionist movement welcomed the partition of Palestine in 1947, and Israel readily joined the U.N. the following year, from that point forward Israel has shown nothing but contempt for the international peace and human rights organization. Few, if any, countries in the world have been more defiant and contemptuous of the U.N. than the Zionist state.

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The virulence was vividly displayed within months of Israel’s creation when Zionist extremists, led by a future Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, assassinated the U.N. mediator, Sweden’s Count Folke Bernadotte—a man who had worked during the war to rescue Jewish refugees from the Nazis. As mediator, Bernadotte was again working on behalf of displaced and starving refugees, but this time they were Palestinians, evoking the ire of the Zionist zealots who shot him to death, along with a French official, at a Jerusalem roadblock on September 17, 1948.

No one was ever charged over the political assassination of an international mediator, a murder from which Israel benefited, as the Bernadotte Plan, which offered a framework for a reasoned settlement over borders and refugees, crashed into the iron wall of Israeli rejectionism. Already under the influence of the Zionist lobby, the Truman administration appeased Israel’s rejection of the U.N. plan amid the 1948 presidential election campaign.

One of Bernadotte’s unforgiveable sins, as far as the militant Zionists were concerned, was his desire to carry out the U.N. policy of establishing Jerusalem as an international city. Under the partition agreement as well as U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 (December 1948), Israel had agreed to a “permanent international regime for the Jerusalem area,” but David Ben-Gurion and his colleagues had no intention of abiding by the U.N. resolutions.

Initiating an aggressive war in June 1967, Israel seized control of East Jerusalem and made it clear that it had no intention of ever leaving. On July 4, the U.N. General Assembly voted 99-0 with 20 abstentions—the latter including the United States—in favor of a resolution that condemned Israel for actions designed to “alter the status of Jerusalem.” Today, in the era of wholesale appeasement of Israel and the Israel lobby under Trump, the United States has recognized occupied-Jeru salem as Israel’s capital.

In the wake of the June 1967 war Israel labored tenaciously—just as it had done in the wake of the Sinai war a decade earJUNE/JULY 2020

lier—to preclude a reasoned U.N.-brokered settlement of the Middle East conflict. In 1968, with the ardent Zionist Arthur Goldberg orchestrating U.S. policy from his post as ambassador to the U.N., the Johnson administration sided with the Israeli argument that U.N. Security Council Resolution 242—under which Israel was to withdraw from the territories occupied in the war in return for peace—did not apply to all of “the” territory seized by aggression.

From that point forward, Israel began to flood the occupied territories with illegal Jewish-only settlements in blatant violation of international law and myriad U.N. resolutions. The U.S. sided with Israel—sometimes against all of the other nations of the world—as it almost invariably opposed and vetoed resolutions attempting to restrain Israel’s illegal settlements.

THE ISRAELI WARFARE STATE

One of the primary purposes of creating the U.N., of course, was to prevent war and to contain the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Rather than use its considerable financial leverage over Israel to force the Zionist state to sign the U.N.-sponsored Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968), the United States rewarded Israel’s introduction of nuclear weapons into the Middle East, in violation of international law, by increasing its massive annual military assistance to Israel (far exceeding that to any other nation). While in recent years Iran proved amenable to a negotiated agreement to contain its nuclear research program, Israel has shown such contempt for

international nuclear non-proliferation that it does not even admit to possessing the weapons of mass destruction.

As Israel is, at its essence, an aggressive warfare state—armed and aided throughout its history by the United States—it has hardly worked to keep the peace. Israel launched wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1982, 2006, 2009 and 2014.

These are only the major wars, to say nothing of myriad borderland conflicts, state-orchestrated assassinations (the most by any country in the world), and routine police-state repression against Palestinians of all ages. In addition to the wars, Israel has committed countless atrocities, including targeting the U.N. compound at Qana, Lebanon, on April 18, 1996, killing 106 Lebanese civilians, nearly half of them children, and injuring 120, including four U.N. peacekeepers.

By appeasing Israel throughout this prolonged history of aggression, the United States has badly compromised the United Nations and the cause of universal human rights that Americans originally championed in the wake of World War II. With the Middle East and many other international conflicts unresolved, and with the desperate need, underscored by the current pandemic, to strengthen rather than weaken the WHO, there has never been a more important time to support the U.N. Unfortunately, the U.S. consistently has chosen instead to side with the militant little Zionist state and against the cause for which the U.N. was created—the pursuit of a more just and peaceful world. ■

Buy Keffiyeh Masks Made in Palestine Middle East Books and More is partnering with Keffiyeh Masks <www. keffiyehmasks.com> to stop the spread of COVID-19. The bookstore will receive 20% of all sales when you use MEB2020 for the coupon code at checkout. Support the bookstore, Palestinian workers and culture during this difficult time!

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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From the Diaspora

Arabs, U.N. Must Move to Swiftly Protect the Status of Palestinian Refugees

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, 90 percent of all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have lost their jobs. A volunteer from the Palestinian Association for Human Rights sprays disinfectant in a home in the Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees, on the southern outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, March 24.

“HEINOUS RACISM,” is how the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor described a recent decision by Lebanese authorities to bar Palestinian refugee expats from returning to Lebanon.

Lebanon’s restrictions on its ever-diminishing population of Palestinian refugees is nothing new. However, this event is particularly alarming as it may be linked to a long-term official policy regarding the residency status of Palestinian refugees in this Arab country.

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is these Chains Will Be Broken: palestinian stories of struggle and defiance in israeli prisons (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a non-resident scholar at the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California. His website is <www.ramzybaroud.net>.

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Many were taken aback by a recent Lebanese government order to its embassy in the United Arab Emirates, instructing it to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes in Lebanon.

Tariq Hajjar, a legal adviser to the Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement that “the circular includes heinous racial discrimination against Palestinian refugees holding Lebanese travel documents.” Hajjar rightly insisted that “the holder of this document should receive similar treatment to the Lebanese citizen.”

Indeed, they should, as has been the practice for many years. Otherwise, there is no other place where these refugees can possibly go, considering that Lebanon has been their home for decades, starting in 1948 when Israel forcefully expelled nearly a million Palestinians from their historic homeland.

Refugees, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or religion, should be treated with respect and dignity, no matter the political complexity of

Washington RepoRt on Middle east affaiRs

June/July 2020

ANWAR AMRO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

By Ramzy Baroud

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their host countries. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon cannot be made an exception.

In April, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights called on the United Nations to provide financial assistance to Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees, indicating that due to the coronavirus pandemic, a whopping 90 percent of all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have lost their jobs.

Under discriminatory Lebanese laws, Palestinian refugees are not allowed to practice 72 types of jobs that are available to Lebanese nationals. This is merely one of many other such restrictions. Thus, employed Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (the vast majority of whom are now unemployed) have been competing within a very limited work market.

MANY EDUCATED PALESTINIANS LEFT IF THEY COULD

A large number of those refugees have been employed at the various projects operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Many of those, who were lucky enough to receive university degrees, opted to leave the country altogether, mostly working in the teaching, engineering, banking, and medical sectors in Arab Gulf countries.

However, due to the coronavirus, the severe financial hardship suffered by UNRWA, and new Lebanese government regulations, all doors are now being shut in the face of Palestinian refugees.

For thousands of those refugees, the only remaining option is sailing the high seas in search of a better refugee status in Europe.

Yet, sadly, tens of thousands of those refugees are now living a miserable life in European camps or stranded in Turkey.

Hundreds drowned while undertaking these perilous journeys.

According to a recent survey by the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics, conducted jointly with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, only 175,000 (from nearly half a million) Palestinian refugees still reside in Lebanon.

That said, the Palestinian refugee tragedy in Lebanon is only a facet in a much larger ailment that is unique to the Palestinian refugee experience.

JUNE/JULY 2020

SYRIA’S SAFE HAVEN FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEES RUPTURED

Syria’s Palestinian refugees arrived in the country in waves, starting with the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine during the Nakba, or Catastrophe. Others fled the Golan Heights after the Israeli invasion in 1967. Many more fled Lebanon during the Israeli 1982 invasion.

The relatively safe Syrian haven was ruptured during the ongoing Syria war started in 2011. UNRWA’s mission, which allowed it to provide the nearly half a million Palestinian refugees in Syria with direct support, was made nearly impossible because of the destructive war, and the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled the country or became internally displaced.

The devastating impact of the Syrian war on Palestinian refugees was almost an exact copy of what had transpired earlier during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In the case of Iraq, where most of Syria’s 35,000 Palestinian refugees fled, the refugee crisis was particularly compounded.

While Palestinians enjoyed a permanent residence status (though no ownership rights) in Iraq before the war, they were still not recognized as refugees, as per international standards, since UNRWA does not operate in Iraq. Post-2003 Iraqi governments exploited this fact to the fullest, leading to the displacement of the country’s Palestinian population.

Since its advent, the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump has waged a financial war on the Palestinians, including the cutting of all aid to UNRWA. This infamous act has added layers of suffering to the existing hardships of refugees. On May 5, UNRWA somberly declared that it only has enough cash to sustain its operations until the end of the month.

The truth is that, long before Trump targeted the U.N. agency, UNRWA has functioned, for over 70 years, with an inherent vulnerability. UNRWA was established exclusively with a U.N. mandate that provided the organization with a “separate and special status” to assist Palestinian refugees.

Arab governments, at the time, were keen for UNRWA to maintain this “special status” based on their belief that lumping Palestinian refugees with the burgeoning world refugee crisis (resulting mostly from War World II) would downgrade the urgency of the Palestinian plight.

However, while that logic may have applied successfully in the immediate years following the Nakba, it proved costly in later years, as the status and definition of what constitutes a Palestinian refugee remained historically linked to UNRWA’s scope of operations. This became clear during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, but, especially since the start of political upheavals and subsequent wars in the Middle East in the last decade.

This is precisely why the U.S. and Israel are keen on dismantling UNRWA, because, according to their logic, if UNRWA ceases to operate, the Palestinian refugee ceases to exist with any status that makes him/her unique.

This precarious reality calls for an urgent and creative solution that should be spearheaded by Arab countries, U.N.-registered NGOs and friends of Palestine everywhere.

What is needed today is an U.N.adopted formula that would allow the legal status of Palestinian refugees, under international law, to remain active regardless of UNRWA’s scope of operation while providing Palestinian refugees with the material and financial support required for them to live with dignity until the Right of Return, in accordance to U.N. Resolution 194 of 1948, is finally enforced.

For the rights of Palestinian refugees to be maintained, and for the Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria scenarios not to be repeated, the Arab League must work within the framework of international law—as determined by the U.N. General Assembly—to safeguard the Palestinian refugees’ legal status, which is currently under an unprecedented attack.

Palestinian refugees must not have to choose between forfeiting their legal and unalienable right to their own homeland and accepting a life of perpetual degradation and uncertainty. ■

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Special Report

‘48 Palestinians Believe The Moment Has Arrived: One Democratic State

By Steve France

PHOTO COURTESY TERRY DOUGHERTY

for all the people, and they are beginning to be heard.

However, ODS is still not a movement, according to Awad Abdelfattah, coordinator of the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC), one of several groups sharing the ODS vision. His ODSC colleague, Dr. Jeff Halper, an American-Israeli Jew and founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, agreed. The two were interviewed online in April by Mike Spath, director of the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace in Fort Wayne, IN. (Clockwise) Awad Abdelfattah, Jeff Halper and Dr. Michael Spath discuss the One Democratic State Campaign Both men are veteran opvia Zoom. ponents of Israeli government policy and believe that ODS is now clearly “the only solution, imperative ZIONISTS HAVE LONG ENJOYED the disunity of the Palestinians, for everyone,” in Abdelfattah’s words. Halper said ODS is “inevitable” which they have stoked and highlighted over the decades. One of because it is the only viable decolonization option, and decolonization their greatest successes has been to isolate Palestinian citizens of is the only solution to Israel’s whole, ongoing settler-colonial enterprise.

Israel from other Palestinians, while concealing the oppression of In a sign of accelerating momentum, even during the global pan“Israeli Arabs” under Israel’s settler-colonial regime. demic, all of the ODS groups held their first meeting May 11, by That isolation is waning, however, key leaders of resistance to the Zoom, to form a united front and coordinate their efforts more closely.

Israeli policies say. With the demise of Oslo’s long-moribund two“We reached agreement on the importance of forming the umbrella state solution, soon to be formally interred by Israel’s U.S.-endorsed group and agreed to work hard toward that end,” Abdelfattah told annexation plan for the West Bank, the situation for the Palestinians the Washington Report. may have “returned to its [pre-1948] existential roots,” when all faced “The fact is the Zionist victory has not been decisive,” Abdelfattah the same threat of exile or subjugation. That was the response, in said. “The Palestinians are still there.” They include 1.5 million PalesFebruary, of more than 80 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank tinian citizens of Israel, whose lives “show that Israel has not been and Gaza in a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey normal, ever. We expose the inherent apartheid nature of Israel.”

Research (PSR).

The Palestinians living inside Israel never had much hope for Oslo, To be “disappeared” and dispossessed has been the reality of the he said. Abnaa al-Balad, the “Marxist Nationalist” group, of which ’48 Palestinians for 72 years, living as a despised non-Jewish mihe was deputy secretary-general from 1986 to ’96, “always wanted nority in the Jewish State. Perhaps this experience accounts for the one democratic state.” It helped form the National Democratic Party strength of their political vision in this moment. They, along with Israeli (Balad) in 1995, of which he was secretary-general from 1997 to Jews of conscience, are calling for “One Democratic State” (ODS) 2016. “We always viewed Oslo’s two-state program as a catastrophe,” Abdelfattah said. Aside from being “a big illusion,” it left out “inSteve France is a DC-based activist and writer, affiliated with ternally colonized Palestinians inside the Green Line,” like himself, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, Palestine-Israel Network.

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and marginalized refugees in camps outside Palestine. “Every family inside the Green Line, including mine, has relatives who are refugees and cannot come home,” he said. His point is that ’48 Palestinians connect intimately to all segments of the Palestinian people.

It has been galling that “the ’48 Palestinians have always been considered an internal domestic issue for Israel to deal with,” he told Spath. “In fact, we have been marginalized three ways, first, by the Israelis; then, by other Palestinians, who have seen us as forgetting our Palestinian identity; and finally, by the larger Arab world. But we never forgot our identity.”

All this explains why Abdelfattah’s comrade, Halper, believes, “It’s natural for those [’48] Palestinians to take the lead. Plus, they have more space to move around and organize. They don’t get interference from the Palestinian Authority.” Abdelfattah emphasized that other Palestinians seem inclined to agree. Recently, he heard from groups in Gaza and Ramallah that his group, inside the Green Line, should lead the One Democratic State Campaign.

The February PSR poll showed 38 percent of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians now favor ODS, Abdelfattah added. The support for one democratic state has been growing over the last decade among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as Palestinians are giving up on the idea of two states becoming reality. Many have yet to decide on the best remaining path. But, according to Abdelfattah, “things are changing. The mindset is changing.”

Palestinians must all reunite to become a powerful force, Abdelfattah said. “If Hamas and Fatah can’t work together, we should start from below at the grassroots for mass mobilization.” Many groups see that, he said. “I call this rebuilding the Palestinian liberation project from below, outside the structures of the leadership. This is the only way out.” Moreover, united support for the democratic vision “can capture the imagination of certain sections of Israeli society, as well as freedom partners and civil society around the world.”

Although he and Halper did not discuss JUNE/JULY 2020

the kind of resistance that those in power might put up, they allowed that the ODS mobilization effort could take a long time, perhaps many years.

HISTORICAL OBFUSCATION

To see why they are so sure of success, one needs to unpack the layers of obfuscation that historically have been essential to causing fragmentation of the Palestinians and befuddling outsiders. In a nutshell, before 1948, the Zionist movement refused to clarify exactly how Palestinians would fit in to their plans. Political Zionism’s founder, Theodor Herzl, depicted his vision of the Jewish State in a Utopian novel Altneuland (The Old New Land). It featured happy Arabs, whose presence had been mysteriously reduced to a tiny, docile minority.

Israel’s founder, David Ben-Gurion, mostly avoided talking about the Palestinians.

Rather, Zionism’s opponents were portrayed as the Arab states. So, the conflict with the indigenous people was redefined as between two sides where the Zionists were the only side willing to “accept“ the partition plan in 1947.

Halper explained how that false perception has always been profoundly damaging to the Palestinians, because it obscured the fact that the Zionist idea “has always been to transform an Arab country into a Jewish country.”

“Our whole [ODS] plan...is based on a settler-colonial analysis,” Halper said. In that analysis, “the Palestinians never really were a side.” In that sense “this really isn’t a conflict with two sides arguing over something they could compromise about,” Halper said.

“With settler-colonialism there’s really only one side and that’s the way Israel has always seen it...this country belongs to the Jews exclusively.” The upshot is that “conflict resolution doesn’t get to the problem.

The only way you can resolve this is through decolonization.”

From 1948 through Carter’s Camp David and beyond, the “conflict”—and any possible peace—continued to be treated as between Israel and the Arab states. With the First Intifada, the Palestinians finally took center stage, but the resulting Oslo Accord

divided them into West Bank and Gaza Palestinians, East Jerusalem Palestinians, Israeli Palestinians and external refugees, and recognized only the PLO as the voice of Palestinians.

Still, Oslo, with its trappings of Palestinian statehood and promises of substantive negotiation of all issues, with the exception of the status of Palestinian citizens of Israel, was hard to reject outright. “In a way we supported the two-state idea,” Halper admitted. “Arafat supported it. I’m not going to be more Catholic than the pope.”

Abdelfattah said, “We never supported two states for two people but we didn’t oppose the idea of a Palestinian state.” As his Balad Party tried to “counter the consequences of the [Oslo] agreement,” he was put under constant surveillance, arrested several times, and beaten during interrogations and elsewhere. Six of his brothers served years in prison.

Alluding to Israel’s recent bold moves, the Trump “Deal of the Century” and, in particular, the landmark annexation of large areas of the West Bank set for this summer, Halper said, “Today, we’re right on the cusp of completion of the settler-colonial project.”

Consulting with other ODS groups, the ODS Campaign has formulated a 10-point outline of the ODS political program. Over time, they see it as able to create “a whole new civil society that’s shared” by all Palestinians and Israeli Jews. “It’s a good plan, detailed, logical, just,” Halper said.

In light of Israel’s revelation of its goals, along with the manifest impotence of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as of the surrounding Arab nations, ODS supporters see the potential for a massive reorientation of the Palestinian struggle in their direction.

“We can’t just stay on BDS and protests all the time,” Halper said, although ODS leaders strongly support BDS. Abdelfattah noted that BDS pulled its three key “slogans” from the Balad Party platform. In fact, the ODS leaders are eager for the BDS leadership to formally endorse One Democratic State. “We’ve got to have a political program,” Halper said. “And the Palestinians have to lead.” ■

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Israel Fails the Coronavirus Test

The Nakba Continues

By Jonathan Cook

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

lation to their national ambitions.

That lack of cooperation has been starkly evident with the fifth of Israel’s population who belong to its Palestinian minority. These 1.8 million second-class citizens are descended from Palestinians who managed to avoid Israel’s ethnic cleansing operations in 1948, when Israel was established on the Palestinians’ homeland.

Israel has created a strange hybrid apartheid system inside Israel, in which Jewish citizens live almost entirely separate from Palestinian citizens. The two populations are educated sepaIsraeli Arab doctor Khitam Hussein, head of the COVID-19 response division at the Rambam Hospital near rately, they reside in different Haifa in northern Israel, April 16, 2020. Hussein has emerged as a prominent member of Israel's often communities, and many marginalized Arab community as she works 12-hour days heading the outbreak response at the largest areas of the economy are hospital in northern Israel. segregated too.

But one of the few areas where Palestinian and Jewish citizens are highly integrated, coming THE CORONAVIRUS outbreak in Israel and the Palestinian terriinto regular contact, is in the health sector. In fact, Palestinian citizens tories has underlined how inextricably intertwined are the two popare over-represented in the medical professions, in large part beulations’ lives and the extreme differentials of power between them. cause it is one of the few significant areas of the economy that is For once, Israel has been forced to reckon with the region’s Palesnot defined in security terms and is therefore relatively open to the tinians—both the large minority in Israel and those under occupaPalestinian minority. They account for one in five doctors, a quarter tion—aside from its usual, simplistic security paradigm, even if of the country’s nurses, and half of all pharmacists. But, despite the largely out of fear that an epidemic among Palestinians will spread strong showing of Palestinian citizens in the health services, the Isback to the Jewish population. As a result, some observers have raeli government’s apartheid instincts have won out. mistakenly assumed that there are hopeful signs of a newly emergIn February, Israel established an emergency team under the ing cooperation among the Israeli authorities and Palestinians. There remit of the National Security Council to handle the pandemic. It deis very little evidence for this, however. vised a national strategy for testing, quarantines, hospitalizations, Israel’s model is not one of partnership but continues to be a coloawareness-raising, and the lockdown policy. However, although the nial one of dominating and controlling Palestinian life. Israel has team comprises 31 members, not one expert from the Palestinian simply been forced to accept that the COVID-19 threat is not one it minority—or from the occupied territories—was included on the can deal with solely by repressing Palestinians, as it has done in recommittee. That left it entirely ignorant of the special conditions relJonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth and a winner of the evant to Palestinian society, in either Israel or the occupied territories.

Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He is the author of The Israeli health ministry also refused to meet with the minority’s Blood and Religion and Israel and the Clash of Civilisations (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). own national health committee, established by Palestinian doctors 22

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JACK GUEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

and researchers in Israel to help tackle the virus in the Palestinian community.

The National Security Council has continued to refuse to appoint a Palestinian adviser to the committee even after a legal challenge was mounted against its policy. Instead, the Council stated that excluded groups could send in proposals to be “examined by professionals”— suggesting that Palestinians were not considered to be professionals.

These failures explain the long delay in Israel producing any information on the virus in Arabic, and a similar delay in setting up testing stations in Palestinian communities in Israel. Even when an ad cam- Israeli soldiers deliver food and other essential supplies to elderly Jewish people under isolation in the paign in Arabic finally appeared in Israeli coastal city of Bat Yam, April 7, 2020. Vulnerable Palestinian families weren’t so lucky except in time for Ramadan, explaining how East Jerusalem, where the mayor organized food delivery to the poor. to prevent COVID-19 transmission, receive only 1.7 percent of the aid; proporafter decades in which Israel has refused it was illustrated with figures who bore no tionally less than a tenth of what Jewish new building permits for Palestinians. resemblance to Palestinians. Instead they local authorities are receiving.

In addition, health services are poor or wore traditional garb from the Gulf region.

That is largely because local councils are non-existent in many Palestinian commuIt seems even local Palestinian ad agencies being compensated for loss of income from nities, especially in dozens of Bedouin vilwere not trusted to communicate with the businesses after much of the economy was lages Israel has refused to recognize. In local population. shut down through March and April. But these communities, Bedouin are also After a very low initial infection rate, by Israel has historically deprived Palestinian denied water and electricity. Further, Israel’s early May Palestinian citizens had become towns and villages of industrial and commain ambulance service, Magen David the fastest growing group in Israel testing mercial areas precisely to keep them ecoAdom, rarely operates in Palestinian compositive for the virus—despite low levels of nomically weak. munities. The staff of private companies testing in the community.

As Palestinian Knesset member Ahmad serving Palestinian communities have not Research indicates that infections of Tibi noted, at a finance committee meeting been trained to deal with the coronavirus.

Palestinian citizens—as well as Palestiniin early May, Palestinian communities have And, as is the case in the occupied terrians in the occupied territories—have mostly been “punished twice over.” Deprived of tories, Palestinian families in Israel have originated in contacts with Israeli Jews, income to begin with, they are now being been particularly exposed to the economic where more than 16,500 had tested posileft to fend for themselves as they face the consequences of lockdown. Many Palestive by mid-May. Israel is much further adadded burden of dealing with the virus. tinian citizens of Israel work as casual lavanced along the contagion curve because Warning that they were on the brink of shutborers and have lost their work. In early its Jewish population has access to interting down refuse collection, street cleaning May, local authorities sent a letter to Prime national travel, is more exposed to western and the maintenance of school buildings, Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, warning that visitors through tourism and family connecPalestinian local authorities launched a unemployment in their communities had tions, and more deeply integrated into the campaign of strikes in early May. surpassed 40 percent. global economy.

The 330,000 Palestinians in occupied In a further sign of a colonial mindset that As in the West Bank and Jerusalem, East Jerusalem face their own set of probhas been little dented by the pandemic, Palestinian citizens of Israel are among the lems. Despite claiming that all of Jerusalem, Israel has skewed its system of financial asmost vulnerable to the virus and its effects. including the Palestinian parts of the city, sistance to local authorities to cope with Two-thirds of families live below the poverty are Israel’s “united capital,” Israeli officials COVID-19. Although the interior ministry line; more than three times the rate of have continued an apartheid-like approach has budgeted more than $800 million, Jewish families. There is also massive in the city that treats Palestinians, who are Palestinian local authorities in Israel are to overcrowding in Palestinian communities, JUNE/JULY 2020

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in the past 25 years. For [Palestinians in] more to help the three Palestinian hospitals classified by Israel simply as “residents,” East Jerusalem? Nothing! What did I do? in East Jerusalem. He insisted that the Isvery differently from Jews, who are Israeli Nothing! Sidewalks? Nothing! Cultural inraeli air force include one of them, St. “citizens.” stitutions? Not one! Yes, we installed a Joseph’s in Sheikh Jarrah, in a flyover to Many Palestinian areas have not been sewage system for them and improved the salute medical staff dealing with COVID-19. sanitized by cleaning crews, as Jewish water supply. Do you know why? Do you He also organized deliveries, by armed solareas have been, nor has there been sigthink it was for their good, for their welfare? diers, of food packages to the city’s Palesnificant enforcement by Israeli police of Forget it! There were some cases of tinian neighborhoods, saying, “Not even one lockdown measures or mask-wearing regcholera there and the Jews were afraid they person in East Jerusalem will go hungry.” ulations—a surprise given that Israeli police would catch it.”

Municipal staff have been meeting local are usually very diligent in patrolling PalesSimilarly, Leon appears concerned that, Palestinian activists. tinian areas and making fines and arrests. if an epidemic takes off among Palestinians But, although Leon’s response has been Israeli municipal authorities are continuin East Jerusalem, and if their hospitals are better than many other Jewish politicians, ing to be slow putting out information in overwhelmed, the burden will fall on West it would be wrong to imagine he is doing Arabic about the virus and safety meaJerusalem’s hospitals, risking lives among this in a new-found spirit of solidarity with sures. Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem the Jewish population of the city.

Palestinian residents. His approach echoes have tried to fill the void by disseminating More precarious still is the situation of that of a more famous, long-time mayor of information, organizing sanitization operaPalestinian neighborhoods, like Kfar Aqab, Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, who candidly extions and helping to set up testing clinics. part of the expanded Jerusalem municipal plained to an interviewer in 1990 why he Israel has cracked down on any such acboundaries, which were effectively split had installed sewage and water systems in tivities, including the violent arrest of the from East Jerusalem after Israel built a wall Palestinian neighborhoods: Palestinian governor of Jerusalem and the putting them on the West Bank side. That “For Jewish Jerusalem I did something PA’s Jerusalem affairs minister. Instead has made city services difficult to Palestinian charities and non-govern(Advertisement) access for some 100,000 Palestinian mental organizations (NGOs) have residents of the city. Israel has been formed into a “Jerusalem Alliance” to progressively abandoning responsitry to pick up the slack left by Israel. bility for these areas to artificially raise Palestinians in East Jerusalem are the Jewish majority in the rest of likely to be especially vulnerable to Jerusalem. disease. Three-quarters live below Nonetheless, it has been reluctant the poverty line, and less than half to allow the PA to fill the void. The are formally connected to the water COVID-19 crisis is gradually revealing network. Planning restrictions mean Israel’s intention toward these “outthere is widespread overcrowding. side” neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In East Jerusalem’s three Palestinian late April, Israel sent in the army to pull hospitals are also in poor shape, bedown coronavirus information notices deviled by large debts courtesy of that had been put up by the PA. The U.S. President Donald Trump, who Israeli army has no role in annexed cut $25 million in financial aid in 2018.

Jerusalem but does operate in the The Israeli health ministry has also Playgrounds for Palestine is a project to build playgrounds for our children.

It is a minimal recognition of their right to childhood and West Bank. The new action is yet furfailed to provide protective equipment creative expression. It is an act of love. ther evidence that Israel is preparing and funds to these hospitals to deal Playgrounds for Palestine (PfP) is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit to formally reclassify areas, like Kfar with the coronavirus crisis. organization, established in 2001. We’re an all-volunteer organization (no paid staff) that raises money throughout the year to conAqab, as no longer part of Jerusalem.

Much has been made of the supstruct playgrounds and fund programs for Palestinians from the West Bank port for East Jerusalem from an unchildren in Palestine. have also been exposed to the virus likely source: Jerusalem’s rightwing Selling Organic, Fair Trade Palestinian olive chiefly through their interactions with mayor, Moshe Leon. His efforts even oil is PfP’s principle source of fundraising. is year, PfP launched AIDA, a private Israelis. In recent years about 80,000 earned a glowing headline in the liblabel olive oil from Palestinian farmers.

Palestinians—from a West Bank eral Haaretz newspaper, titled: “Dawn Please come by and taste it at our table. population of nearly 3 million—have of a new era? Jerusalem and its We hope you’ll love it and make it a staple in your pantry. received permits to work either in Palestinian residents joining forces to For more information or to make a donation visit: Israel or in Israeli settlements, with battle coronavirus.” Leon has berated https://playgroundsforpalestine.org • P.O. Box 559 • Yardley, PA 19067 tens of thousands more entering “ilthe Israeli government for not doing 24

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legally” through missing sections of the wall.

For most families, such work is the only hope they have of earning a living.

The Palestinian economy is entirely dependent on Israel. Palestinians cannot leave the West Bank without permission from Israel, which is often hard to get. And Israel imposes costly and lengthy bureaucratic controls on Palestinian exports, making it nearly impossible for Palestinian firms to compete in the global market place.

And, as World Bank studies show, Israel has plundered most of the West Bank’s key resources, making it impossible for Palestinians themselves to benefit from them.

Israel even controls the flow of tourists into Palestinian areas.

But Palestinian workers’ dependence on Israel is now placing them in harm’s way.

Although many are at risk of catching the virus in Israel while working, Israel is refusing to take responsibility for their welfare.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) can do little itself because many of the workers are from Area C, the two-thirds of the West Bank that Israel fully controls under the long-expired

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Oslo Accords. The PA has no access to these areas.

The Israeli government has supposedly put in place regulations to keep Palestinian workers safe in Israel: firms must take their temperatures daily, ensure social distancing is maintained on production sites, properly house workers and make sure no more than four sleep to a room. But the government has left it to the firms to comply. There are no inspectors.

Media investigations show that the rules are being widely flouted, leading to the spread of the virus among Palestinian workers. Any who have sought to leave Israel to avoid catching COVID-19 have been threatened by their employers that their work permits will be revoked, leaving them without work long term. These workers and their families not only face a potential health crisis that Palestinian medical services are in no shape to withstand. They are also being hit harshly in the pocket by Israel’s lockdown policies.

Palestinians who work in Israel are often the only breadwinner, providing for an ex(Advertisement)

tended family that lives close to the poverty line. For the foreseeable future, there will be no income for the tens of thousands of workers in the West Bank who have been laid off.

Israel is also taking no responsibility for their welfare, even though many have worked for years in Israel and have had to pay a substantial proportion of their wages each month into a sick fund run by the Israeli government. The fund amounts to more than $140 million and has grown so large because Israel makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to make a claim. Israeli human rights groups have pressed Israel to release the funds to Palestinians who are not able to work to help them through this health and economic emergency. So far the Israeli government has done nothing.

The coronavirus outbreak was a test of Israel’s ability to put aside its security and demographic obsessions and deal with the Palestinians not just as fellow human beings but also as allies in a struggle for the health of both peoples. In that test, Israel has failed dismally. ■

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Special Report

What an Exceptional Verdict in Palestinian Family’s Murder Proves About Israel’s Judiciary

Relatives gathered some remains from the Dawabsheh family home, torched with young parents, Reham and Saad, and their sons, Ahmed (4) and Ali (18 months), sleeping inside, July 31, 2015 in the West Bank Palestinian village of Duma. Only Ahmed, severely injured, survived.

The son of a prominent West Bank rabbi was convicted of murder for the firebombing nearly five years later.

AT THE ONLY SCHOOL in the world named for a toddler, the funeral was held for the child’s mother, who had died six weeks after her son.

The burned body of Reham Dawabsheh was laid at the center of the schoolyard, surrounded by residents of her remote village sitting in a silent circle. Only her face remained peaceful and whole, the rest of her body had been torched. Reham died on her 27th

Gideon Levy is the Haaretz correspondent for the occupied territories. He is also a speaker at the upcoming “Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home and Abroad” conference on March 5, 2021.

Copyright © Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved.

26

birthday; four weeks earlier, her husband, Saad, had died on their wedding anniversary. Ali, their son, only a year and a half old, had died first. They had all gone to sleep on the night of July 31, 2015 in their small home in the West Bank village of Duma and were burned to death. Only Ahmed, 4, survived in serious condition, the lone remnant.

On May 18, Amiram Ben-Uliel was convicted of three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of arson, and of conspiring to commit a racially motivated crime. The young man who did renovations and was described as having “golden hands,” a follower of Rabbi Eliezer Berland and a “hilltop youth,” was found guilty and will be sentenced soon.

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By Gideon Levy

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The verdict portrays him as the scum of the earth; scum with a large skullcap and ritual fringes. The Lod District Court did not dismiss the possibility that he was covering up for another murderer who roams free; one Duma resident had testified that he’d seen two figures in the dark that night.

When I visited the house in Duma that Ben-Uliel had torched with the family inside, you could still smell the smoke. The TV set was melted, the microwave charred. Ali’s stroller stood in the center of the small house, covered in a Palestinian flag as a memorial to him. On it someone had hung a family photo of the type that hangs on the refrigerator of almost every home, except everyone in the photo was dead.

Serious Crime Case 932-01-16: The State of Israel vs. A. Ben-Uliel. In theory, one could sigh with relief and even feel some satisfaction and pride. Justice was done, the murderer was convicted, and the legal system worked, even though the victims were Palestinians and the murderer was a Jew. Indeed, even a broken clock gets the time right twice a day. May 18 was one of those times—the other one, if you will, was when the murderers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir were convicted.

In both these murders, Israel acted as if its law enforcement system was equitable and just. But the clock was and still is broken, even if in this instance it showed the right time with Swiss precision. It’s no coincidence that both BenUliel and Yosef Haim Ben David, Abu Khdeir’s murderer, came from the margins of the nationalist camp, nor is it a coincidence that, in both cases, there were minors involved. These are the dregs of the settlement-harassment enterprise, the wild weeds that render the rest of it supposedly kosher.

Nor is it a coincidence that both these solved crimes were especially shocking and thus, got exceptional coverage in the Israeli media, despite the national origin of the victims. When a teenager is burned alive, or when a firebomb is thrown into the home of an innocent, sleeping family, JUNE/JULY 2020

one can no longer cover up, obscure, suppress or deny, even if the victims are Palestinians, even in Israel. These weren’t soldiers shooting a girl with scissors, a brigade commander shooting a fleeing teenager, or settlers who burn fields and attack shepherds. In these instances, there was no choice. There had to be an investigation, a trial and even a punishment.

In this case, everyone clucked their tongues in artificial shock, including the president and the prime minister, so the Shin Bet security service and the police had no choice but to take vigorous action, al-

though not quite as vigorous as usual in such cases. They tortured Ben-Uliel almost as badly as they routinely torture Palestinians (which shouldn’t have happened), and they, of course, did not demolish his home, as they would have long ago done to the family of a Palestinian terrorist (and it’s good that they didn’t). Nor were there any calls for the death penalty—this was a Jew, after all.

The blood of the Dawabsheh family cried out from their torched home far louder than the blood from the houses of other Palestinian victims, which is why, this time, it couldn’t be covered up. ■

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Special Report

Tufts University Students Targeted by ProIsrael Groups Are Not Backing Down

Members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Tufts University demand that U.S. police departments stop sending their officers to Israel to receive militarized training.

IN LATE APRIL, Tufts University President Anthony Monaco and other administrators publicly condemned the decision of the Office of Campus Life to present the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter with its Collaboration Award for forming a diverse coalition committed to preventing the university’s police department from engaging in foreign military trainings.

On May 7, University of California, Berkeley professor Dr. Hatem Bazian and two members of the Tufts SJP chapter joined the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs for a webinar to discuss efforts to suppress Palestine activism on U.S. college campuses.

The two students, Hasan and Paolo, declined to speak using their full names for fear of being targeted by Canary Mission, a pro-Israel blacklist website dedicated to harming the reputation and future job prospects of college students who are critical of Israel.

Paolo noted how quickly their group became the target of a national smear campaign led by prominent pro-Israel groups. “Immediately after the administration released their statement, newspapers had published articles about the situation, with quotes from organizations like the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] and StandWithUs,” he said.

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

28

It’s believed that the campus’ Hillel student group raised the initial concern with the administration and alerted national pro-Israel organizations to the issue. Paolo said the university never approached the SJP group before issuing a statement accusing them of antiSemitism.

The April 24 statement from university administrators said, in part, “We strongly disapprove of this award in light of SJP’s concerning policy positions, including its association with the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement, elements of which we view as anti-Semitic…The award has caused a great deal of pain and concern for Jewish members of our community.”

Dr. Bazian said it’s not unusual for campus administrators to act reflexively in the face of a smear campaign by pro-Israel groups, or even to cooperate directly with the Israeli government. “Most administrators take their cues from pro-Israel organizations because there is constant contact taking place,” he said.

At his own university in California, he noted that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealed that in 2013 the school’s chancellor coordinated his statements with the Israeli Consulate after the student senate passed a pro-BDS measure.

“Many of these university presidents act as if they are a foreign desk in the Israeli Embassy,” Bazian said. President Monaco of Tufts

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PHOTO COURTESY TUFTS SJP

By Dale Sprusansky

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and other university leaders need to be reminded who they represent, he urged. “He doesn’t work for [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu; he is not a representative of the Israeli Consulate. He represents, and should look at the best interests of, the students who are paying tuition and he should not be defending the interests of a foreign country at the expense of his own students.”

Bazian said pro-Palestine campus groups make administrators uncomfortable by challenging a status quo, which is often supported by wealthy university donors or wellfunded national pro-Israel groups willing to create a public relations crisis, and perhaps even legal issues, for the university. University administrators “are all trying to maintain the boat without anyone rocking the boat, because it impacts their possible funding from the state, their communication with corporate partners, their donors,” he explained. “Palestine activists become that ingredient on campus that asks the difficult questions.”

The result, Bazian said, is that SJP groups are often “the last group whose interests they [university leaders] are looking out for,” and consequently often face relentless smears and vile allegations.

Paolo noted the absurdity of Palestinians being labeled as anti-Semites for challenging Israel’s clearly documented human rights violations against their own people, and the country’s brazen defiance of international law. “What does that mean for a Palestinian student on campus, for their identity, to be called anti-Semitic?” he asked.

Hasan, a Palestinian American, said attacks by groups like the Canary Mission, while scary, won’t stop his advocacy. “Not being able to advocate for my people, not being able to stand up for who I am and my identity without being called anti-Semitic or without being put on this website that could restrict me from finding a future job, sucks,” he said. “But I still want to advocate for my people, I still want to advocate for myself and for all the people constantly going through this in Palestine.”

Paolo echoed this sentiment. “I don’t want to give Canary Mission too much credit,” he emphasized. “They really don’t JUNE/JULY 2020

stop us from doing anything. We know how to organize ourselves and we know how to protect ourselves. They may make us scared, but it doesn’t really stop us.”

It appears many Tufts students are standing in solidarity with the targeted SJP group. More than 45 campus organizations co-signed a Facebook statement, released

by SJP, following the university’s official statement. Many of these organizations worked with SJP on their award-winning Deadly Exchange initiative, which was launched after Tufts University Police Department Chief Kevin Maguire attended a 2017 counter-terrorism seminar in Israel.

Deadly Exchange is a national movement to raise awareness about U.S. police departments sending personnel to Israel to receive military training. That the national Deadly Exchange movement is led by Jewish Voice for Peace makes the accusations of anti-Semitism leveled against Tufts SJP in response to their campaign all the more absurd.

Dr. Bazian noted the hypocrisy of accusing the BDS movement of anti-Semitism when boycotts have been a staple of activism on college campuses and society at large for generations. “We divested from South Africa, rightly so; we divested from Sudan, rightly so,” he noted. “But when it comes to Palestine, now Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions is a form of anti-Semitism.”

To advance knowledge about the situation in Palestine on campuses, Bazian suggested several initiatives, such as creating study abroad programs to Palestine, generating SJP endowments that allow the groups to be less reliant on university resources, and advocating for the creation of Palestine Studies programs.

While many universities offer Middle East Studies programs, he noted such programs often use Israel as the frame of reference for studying the conflict, leading to a dearth of knowledge about the Palestinian narrative. Brown and Columbia are the only two universities in the U.S. that currently offer Palestine Studies programs, he noted.

More immediately, Hasan encouraged those outraged about Tufts treatment of SJP to contact the university. “Send emails to these administrators, because I think it’s

very important—the more email, the more support we have, the more pressure the university will feel to respond to this,” he concluded.

The webinar is available on the Washington Report’s YouTube channel. ■

United Nations Report Continued from page 15

issue is likely to sink Canada; while its official stated position has stayed pretty much the same, its voting and rhetoric have pandered fairly consistently to Israel and its friends. It is likely that the rest of the world will send a message by electing Norway and Ireland with their much more principled and independent positions.

However gratifying that result might be, especially if it is tied explicitly to Middle East positions, there is a long way to go.

The EU is a diplomatic gelding at the best of times with its search for consensus, but with the dangerously authoritarian regimes of Eastern Europe and the affinity for Netanyahu, it is even more difficult.

Yet, at the very least, if Europe and international law are to have any integrity then serious economic and diplomatic sanctions should follow any Israeli annexation.

If sanctions were levied on Russia for annexing Crimea, where a significant proportion of the people (don’t ask the Tartars) support Moscow, then one cannot countenance a flagrant denial of international law in the West Bank. One hopes that someone, somewhere has a plan—maybe to deny Israeli credentials in the General Assembly. But, if so, they are keeping quiet about it.

However, now is not the time to be bullied out of making the comparisons with apartheid and South West Africa. At the very least, one would hope that the officials of the United Nations, above all the secretary general, would raise their voices loudly in condemnation instead of sotto voce invocations of legalities and platitudes whispered from behind the “altar” of the Meditation Room at the U.N. in New York. But heaven knows, it is forlorn hope. ■

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Special Report

Rep. Ilhan Omar is Challenged by the Israel Lobby

By Sanna Towns

TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES

Congressional history is replete with examples of members who have been condemned by pro-Israel groups because of their criticisms of Israel and their support of human rights for Palestinians. Some have seen their legislative careers under threat and even ended with the help of proIsrael entities. Past legislators who suffered from the ire of these groups are Adlai Stevenson III, Paul Findley, Charles Percy, Earl Hilliard (the first African American representing Alabama since Reconstruction), Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich and, more recently, Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum.

In 2002, four-term Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the first African-AmerRep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) attends the Pathway To Peace Policy panel, Feb. 12, at the U.S. ican woman to represent Georgia, found Capitol in Washington, DC. Her “Pathway to Peace” initiative would stress a multilateral and herself in a tight Democratic primary diplomatic approach over military action. against a newcomer to electoral politics.

McKinney’s outspokenness in calling “for real debate on the Middle WARNING TO U.S. Congress members: Deviate from mainstream East” provoked backlash from pro-Israel groups who sought to orthodoxy vis-à-vis Israel and soon discover that you will be the defeat her by backing an African-American challenger. Huge fitarget of accusations and sustained attacks. This, Rep. Ilhan Omar nancial support from these groups was one factor leading to her (D-MN) earned early in her first term in Congress. She and Rep. defeat; however, she was re-elected to Congress the following Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who are both Muslim, became the targets term. of Republican accusations of anti-Semitism because of their critIn 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s mere presence as the first Somali icisms of Israel’s brutal violations of Palestinian human rights and American, former refugee, hijab-wearing Muslim in Congress, has the congresswomen’s support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Dievoked some visceral levels of enmity—Islamophobia, racism and vestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. xenophobia. Within this context, the Court of Public Opinion was Another warning to U.S. Congress members: Deviate from “the prey to a deceptive narrative that was hijacked with lightning party line” and be prepared for members to orchestrate challenges speed, passing judgment on Omar as someone who harbored for your seat. As early as March 2019, several Minnesotan Deanti-Semitic beliefs and opinions. mocrats, e.g., State Senator Ron Latz (D) and Steve Hunegs of Here are the facts, some of which were misconstrued in the narthe Jewish Community Relations Council, sought to find a chalrative. GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) threatened punishlenger to Omar for this year’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) priment of Omar and Tlaib. Prominent journalist Glenn Greenwald mary. Two African-American legislators were approached as potweeted, “It’s stunning how much time U.S. political leaders spend tential candidates, but neither took the bait. defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans.” Omar then tweeted that McCarthy’s tactics Sanna Nimtz Towns, a St. Paul, MN resident, is a two-time Fulbright are “all about the Benjamins baby.”

Scholar and semi-retired educator. Having grown up in America’s Batya Ungar-Sargon, opinion editor for The Forward (a proapartheid South, Towns has identified with and worked in solidarity Israel Jewish publication), entered the exchange, challenging with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and freedom.

This article was reprinted with permission from Mondoweiss.net.

Omar, who does she think “is paying American politicians to be 30

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pro-Israel,” and immediately accusing Omar of tweeting an “anti-Semitic trope.”

Thus, the “anti-Semitic” accusation effectively took the narrative on an ominous path. Surely unaware of the road she’d soon travel, Omar succinctly replied, “AIPAC!” (Cited as an influential voice, Ungar-Sargon was later criticized by Jewish and Palestinian activists for contributing to “the conflation of Israel critics with anti-Semitic hate groups” and serving as a source to tarnish Omar’s reputation.)

And then the pile-on began with voices and actions from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Reminiscent of the McKinney saga, a political newcomer has now become a leading challenger to unseat incumbent Rep. Omar.

Antone Melton-Meaux’s debut on the local and national political stage has earned him endorsements by several prominent, establishment DFL Minnesotans, and he has already received donations of nearly $500K. (Omar has raised more than $3 million, but she is incumbent.)

On his website the challenger describes himself as “a progressive,” but in discussing the issues, Melton-Meaux has not adopted the progressive Democratic policies of Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, cancellation of all student debt, policies at the core of Omar’s work in Congress.

The challenger’s policy perspectives under the broad topic “Global Affairs” are limited to the single focus and title, “Israel/ Palestine.” Phrases like “Israel...a beacon of liberal democracy;” Israel “recognize(s) the rights of every citizen regardless of race...;” Israel “believe(s) in...the rule of law” pop from the page. But in expressing the requisite opposition to BDS, he does not acknowledge the context and reason for this Palestinian-led, South African-inspired movement.

In finally discussing Palestinians, Melton-Meaux spouts support for the nearly defunct twostate solution, rejected by a JUNE/JULY 2020

majority of Jewish Israelis. He believes America is capable of “acting as an honest broker,” a role it hasn’t played in decades.

And in responding to the oppressive, brutal occupation forced upon millions of Palestinians, he speaks of easing “the pressure of occupation on Palestinians,” but never advocates for its end. Hence, here is a so-called “progressive” African American, who surely knows the history of American apartheid, if not lived it, but who condones policies that reinforce a secondclass, subordinate, unequal existence for Palestinians.

For anyone who has paid attention to how politicians speak about Israel/Palestine in advancing legislation that favors Israel, it is clear that Omar’s challenger is repeating the talking points of pro-Israel lobbyists. Thus, his willingness to promote a pro-Israel position has earned him a potentially lucrative endorsement from ProIsrael America. This influential PAC, run by two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),

steers donations from its nationwide network of members to candidates who adopt pro-Israel positions.

Absent from Melton-Meaux’s website is Pro-Israel America’s endorsement, but the PAC’s endorsement is based on its opposition to Rep. Omar—her foreign policy positions and backing of pro-Palestinian policies designed to free Palestinians by ending the Israeli occupation. But for ProIsrael America these policies are projected as anti-Israel (it says Omar “voted against condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that seeks to cripple the Jewish state of Israel”).

Attention Court of Public Opinion: Now you have the accurate narrative. When Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she knew she was right and her congressional colleagues did too.

History told them so. Ungar-Sargon’s question is answered: Omar’s challenger is a breathing, living example of the problem of “paying American politicians to be pro-Israel.” ■

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Election Watch

Pro-Israel PAC Funds Go to Democrats To Keep Them in Line

By Delinda C. Hanley and Dale Sprusansky

It’s ironic that despite the Trump administration showerOP EN AND AREER ECIPIENTS OF ing gifts on Israel (moving the RO SRAEL UNDS embassy to Jerusalem, accepting the annexation of the Compiled by Hugh Galford Golan Heights and giving a HOUSE: CURRENT RACES SENATE: CURRENT RACES green light to annexing even more of the West Bank), the Lipinski, Daniel W. (D-IL) $24,000 Peters, Gary (D-MI) $43,500 pro-Israel Political Action Zeldin, Lee M. (R-NY) 17,000 Jones, Doug (D-AL) 26,000 Committees (PACs) gave Gottheimer, Josh (D-NJ) 16,500 Perdue, David (R-GA) 26,000 most of their cash to DemocLowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 15,500 McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) 23,500 rats. And we don’t even count Engel, Eliot L. (D-NY) 14,000 Smith, Tina Flint (DFL-MN) 22,000 Boyle, Brendan F. (D-PA) 12,500 Graham, Lindsey O. (R-SC) 19,000 Super PACs, which can raise Sires, Albio B. (D-NJ) 12,500 Sasse, Benjamin E. (R-NE) 18,000 funds from individuals, corpoChabot, Steve (R-OH) 11,000 Cassidy, William M. (R-LA) 17,000 rations, unions, and other Kinzinger, Adam D. (R-IL) 11,000 Coons, Christopher A. (D-DE) 17,000 groups without any legal limit Kustoff, David (R-TN) 11,000 Rosen, Jacky (D-NV) 16,000 on donation size. For those Schneider, Bradley S. (D-IL) 11,000 pay a visit to www.OpenSeSherman, Brad (D-CA) 11,000 Senate: Career McCaul, Michael (R-TX) 11,000 crets.org. Even with so many McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) $620,892 Israeli dreams coming true House: Career Durbin, Richard J. (D-IL) 408,921 under a Republican president, Reed, Jack F. (D-RI) 181,850 the lobby remained staunch Engel, Eliot L. (D-NY) $454,418 Collins, Susan M. (R-ME) 160,900 Democratic contributors.

Hoyer, Steny (D-MD) 328,025 Inhofe, James M. (R-OK) 142,800 As presidential candidate Lowey, Nita M. (D-NY) 277,623 Graham, Lindsey O. (R-SC) 140,000 Deutch, Theodore E. (D-FL) 156,750 Peters, Gary (D-MI) 107,600 Bernie Sanders surged ahead Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA) 149,150 Cornyn, John (R-TX) 102,080 in the polls, a pro-Israel super Hastings, Alcee L. (D-FL) 138,550 Shaheen, Jeanne (D-NH) 97,725 PAC called Democratic MajorSherman, Brad (D-CA) 137,630 Warner, Mark (D-VA) 80,000 ity for Israel, went after him, Schiff, Adam (D-CA) 120,917 airing TV attack ads on the Pallone, Frank, Jr. (D-NJ) 116,550 man who would have been Schneider, Bradley S. (D-IL) 101,950 the first Jewish president. His crime? Sanders called Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu a “reactionary racist” and than his support for Israel, Lipinski was nevertheless a deblasted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for propendable pro-Israel vote. In 2014, Lipinski co-sponsored the viding a platform “for leaders who express bigotry and oppose Protect Academic Freedom Act, which would have denied fedbasic Palestinian rights.” Sanders also said, if elected presieral funding to academic institutions supporting a boycott of Isdent, he would leverage the $3.8 in U.S. military aid to push Israel. rael to change its policies toward the Palestinians. Enough Newman, endorsed by the liberal Zionist group, J Street, issaid. sued a lengthy 12-point explainer in 2019, describing her But other candidates won their fights with the pro-Israel rather mainstream views on Israel/Palestine. She expressed lobby. Despite receiving more money from pro-Israel PACs her support for U.S. aid to Israel, a two-state solution, and the than any other candidate running for a House seat this election right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. Notably, she did vow cycle, Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) lost his March primary to a to oppose anti-boycott laws that threaten the rights of Americhallenger from the left, entrepreneur Marie Newman. Better cans to boycott Israel. known for being the last pro-life Democrat to hold federal office Lipinski had held his reliably Democratic northern Illinois seat since 2005. He lost the primary to Newman by less than 3,000 votes. Every vote counts, but not every dollar guaranDale Sprusansky is managing editor and Delinda Hanley is executive tees a win. editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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2019 P -I

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PRO-ISRAEL PAC CONTRIBUTIONS TO 2019 CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES State Alabama Alaska Arizona

Arkansas California

Colorado

Connecticut

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

6

1 3 7 8 9 2 3 5 6 7 9 10 11 13 14 15 18 19 21 23 24 25 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 33 33 37 38 39 45 47 47 48 49 51 52 53 1 2 5 6 7 2 3

Candidate Jones, Doug* Palmer, Gary Sullivan, Daniel S.* Kelly, Mark*† McSally, Martha E.*† O’Halleran, Tom Grijalva, Raul M. Gallego, Ruben Lesko, Debbie Stanton, Greg Cotton, Thomas* Huffman, Jared Garamendi, John Thompson, Mike Matsui, Doris Bera, Amerish McNerney, Jerry Harder, Josh DeSaulnier, Mark Lee, Barbara Speier, Jackie Swalwell, Eric M. Eshoo, Anna Lofgren, Zoe Cox, Terrance J. (TJ) McCarthy, Kevin Carbajal, Salud Hill, Katherine Lauren Smith, Christy Brownley, Julia Chu, Judy Schiff, Adam Cardenas, Tony Sherman, Brad Aguilar, Pete Lieu, Ted Waxman, Henry Bass, Karen Sanchez, Linda Cisneros, Gilbert Porter, Katherine Lowenthal, Alan Sanchez, Loretta Rouda, Harley E., Jr. Levin, Michael T. (Mike) Vargas, Juan C. Peters, Scott Gomez, Georgette Gardner, Cory* DeGette, Diana L. Neguse, Joseph Lamborn, Douglas L. Crow, Jason Perlmutter, Edwin G. Courtney, Joseph D. DeLauro, Rosa L.

Party

Status

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

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

2019 Contributions 26,000 1,300 15,000 10,000 5,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,000 2,000 500 1,000 1,000 2,000 2,000 3,000 2,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 3,000 1,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 11,000 1,000 1,000 7,385 3,000 3,000 2,000 3,000 2,000 (1,000) 3,000 3,000 3,500 2,000 1,000 9,000 2,000 1,000 3,500 2,000 1,000 1,000 2,000

Committees Career (at Time of Election) 28,500 7,300 20,000 10,000 23,500 3,000 24,550 1,000 1,500 3,000 12,000 18,500 27,500 21,500 500 25,160 38,100 3,000 12,010 14,400 18,500 34,500 17,760 16,250 3,000 33,500 3,660 6,350 1,000 26,237 7,500 120,917 17,600 137,630 14,685 17,100 94,780 12,060 43,450 2,100 10,500 26,700 67,950 9,500 7,500 23,600 18,250 1,000 15,000 14,510 1,000 44,000 5,000 16,724 11,500 59,400

HS AS, C AS C AS HS AS, I AS W C FR C A (FO), B AS, I I C Min. Ldr. AS

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

FR (NE) B, C C, FR (NE) C AS AS AS A, B

KEY: The Career Total column represents the total amount of pro-Israel PAC money received from Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2019. S=Senate, H=House of Representatives. Party affiliation: D=Democrat, R=Republican, Ref=Reform, DFL=Democratic Farmer Labor, Ind=Independent, Lib=Libertarian, WFP=Working Families Party. Status: C=Challenger, I=Incumbent, N=Not Running, O=Open Seat (no incumbent), P=Defeated in primary election. *=Senate election year, #=House member running for Senate seat, †=Special Election. Committees (at time of election): A=Appropriations (D=Defense subcommittee, FO=Foreign Operations subcommittee, HS=Homeland Security, NS=National Security subcommittee), AS=Armed Services, B=Budget, C=Commerce, FR=Foreign Relations (NE=Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs subcommittee), HS=Homeland Security, I=Intelligence, IR=International Relations, NS=National Security, W=Ways and Means.

– indicates money returned by candidate, 0 that all money received was returned.

JUNE/JULY 2020

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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pacchartsr_32-36.qxp_Special Report 5/21/20 11:08 PM Page 34

State Delaware Florida

Georgia

Idaho Illinois

Indiana Iowa

Kansas Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine Maryland

34

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

At-L. 1 3 6 7 9 12 13 17 18 20 21 22 23 25 26 26 27 2 4 5 6 7 12 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 8 10 13 13 16 17 3 7 9 1 3 3 3 6 1 2 3 4 1 2 5 7 7 8

Candidate Coons, Christopher A.* Blunt Rochester, Lisa Gaetz, Matt Yoho, Theodre S. (Ted) Waltz, Michael Murphy, Stephanie Soto, Darren Bilirakis, Gus M. Crist, Charlie Steube, W. Greg Mast, Brian Hastings, Alcee L. Frankel, Lois J. Deutch, Theodore E. (Ted) Wasserman Schultz, Debbie Diaz-Balart, Mario Mucarsel-Powell, Debbie Vilarino, Irina Shalala, Donna Lieberman, Matt*† Perdue, David* Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. Johnson, Henry C., Jr. (Hank) Lewis, John R. McBath, Lucia Kay (Lucy) Eaves, John Allen, Richard W. Risch, James E.* Durbin, Richard J.* Kelly, Robin L. Lipinski, Daniel W. Garcia, Jesus G. (Chuy) Quigley, Mike Casten, Sean Davis, Danny K. Schanbacher, Kristine Krishnamoorthi, S. Raja Schneider, Bradley S. Davis, Rodney L. Londrigan, Betsy Dirksen Kinzinger, Adam D. Bustos, Cheri Banks, James E. Carson, Andre Watson, Liz Ernst, Joni* Grassley, Charles E. Finkenauer, Abby Axne, Cynthia L. (Cindy) Davids, Sharice McConnell, Mitch* McGrath, Amy* Yarmuth, John A. Barr, Garland (Andy) Cassidy, William M.* Scalise, Steve Richmond, Cedric L. Higgins, Clay Johnson, James M. (Mike) Collins, Susan M.* Pingree, Chellie Golden, Jared Hoyer, Steny Cummings, Elijah E. Mfume, Kweisi† Raskin, Jamie

Party

Status

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

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

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

2019 Contributions 17,000 1,000 1,500 1,500 5,000 1,000 4,000 6,000 4,800 1,500 10,700 4,300 6,000 2,000 3,500 10,500 4,000 1,500 9,000 4,500 26,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 3,250 1,000 500 8,000 5,500 2,000 24,000 1,000 2,500 2,000 1,000 2,500 8,000 11,000 1,000 1,000 11,000 1,000 500 1,000 6,250 11,000 2,000 3,000 4,500 3,000 23,500 1,000 2,000 6,500 17,000 8,200 1,000 300 500 7,000 1,000 2,000 8,000 1,000 5,000 1,000

Committees Career (at Time of Election) 67,000 8,000 2,000 17,000 13,500 12,000 41,500 58,816 11,300 7,500 34,200 138,550 56,300 156,750 94,300 93,250 8,000 1,500 19,000 4,500 49,000 13,510 57,200 85,500 5,250 1,000 1,000 61,000 408,921 15,450 72,550 1,000 27,150 9,000 30,010 2,500 13,250 101,950 5,300 3,000 35,500 27,860 4,000 14,110 6,250 39,500 195,523 9,000 6,500 3,000 620,892 1,000 33,020 23,000 39,000 61,200 17,000 3,350 6,000 160,900 19,676 5,000 328,025 34,192 21,750 9,550

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

AS, B, FR A W

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

A (D, FO), I B C HS HS A (D), I A AS Maj. Ldr.

JUNE/JULY 2020

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State

Office District

Massachusetts

S S H H H Michigan S S H H H H H H Minnesota S H H H Mississippi H Missouri H H H Montana S Nebraska S H Nevada S H H New Hampshire S H H New Jersey H H H H H H H H H H New Mexico S H H New York H H H H H H H H H H H H North Carolina S S H H H H H H H Ohio H H JUNE/JULY 2020

1 2 6 5 8 9 11 12 14 2 4 6 3 1 5 6 2 3 4 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1 2 1 5 6 8 9 11 16 17 19 20 21 22 1 3 4 7 8 12 13 1 2

Candidate

Party

Markey, Edward J.* Kennedy, Joseph P., III*# Neal, Richard E. McGovern, James P. Moulton, Seth Peters, Gary* James, John* Kildee, Daniel T. Slotkin, Elissa Levin, Andy Stevens, Haley Dingell, Debbie Lawrence, Brenda Lulenar Smith, Tina Flint* Craig, Angela Dawn McCollum, Betty Emmer, Tom Guest, Michael P. Clay, William L., Jr. (Lacy) Cleaver, Emanuel, II Graves, Samuel B., Jr. Daines, Steven* Sasse, Benjamin E.* Bacon, Donald J. Rosen, Jacklyn S. (Jacky) Lee, Susie Horsford, Steven A. Shaheen, Jeanne* Pappas, Christopher C. Kuster, Ann McLane Van Drew, Jefferson Kim, Andy Smith, Christopher H. Gottheimer, Josh Pallone, Frank, Jr. Malinowski, Tom Sires, Albio B. Pascrell, William Payne, Donald M., Jr. Sherrill, Rebecca M. (Mikie) Lujan, Ben R.*# Haaland, Debra Torres Small, Xochitl Zeldin, Lee M. Meeks, Gregory W. Meng, Grace Jeffries, Hakeem Clarke, Yvette Rose, Max Engel, Eliot L. Lowey, Nita M. Delgado, Antonio Tonko, Paul D. Stefanik, Elise M. Brindisi, Anthony Cunningham, Cal* Tillis, Thom R.* Butterfield, George K., Jr. Murphy, Gregory F. Price, David E. Rouzer, David C. Hudson, Richard L., Jr. Adams, Alma Shealey Budd, Theodore P. (Ted) Chabot, Steve Wenstrup, Brad R.

D D D D D D R D D D D D D DFL D DFL R R D D R R R R D D D D D D R D R D D D D D D D D D D R D D D D D D D D D R D D R D R D R R D R R R

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

2019 Contributions 9,500 2,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 43,500 1,000 2,000 6,000 1,000 4,000 1,000 1,000 22,000 1,000 1,000 3,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 500 9,500 18,000 1,000 16,000 1,000 1,000 3,500 6,000 4,000 1,000 2,667 1,000 16,500 3,000 1,666 12,500 2,000 1,000 4,000 10,500 1,000 1,000 17,000 1,000 7,000 5,000 1,000 2,000 14,000 15,500 6,167 1,000 5,000 3,000 1,000 5,000 1,000 500 2,000 500 500 1,000 750 11,000 500

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Committees Career (at Time of Election) 44,250 C, FR 8,600 C 28,750 W 23,725 8,850 AS, B 107,600 AS, C, HS 1,000 40,675 B, W 10,250 AS, HS 7,000 FR 7,000 11,510 C 11,500 A 35,500 14,000 23,750 A (D) 3,000 1,000 FR, HS 33,010 24,010 HS 9,000 AS 27,000 A (FO) 45,000 I 9,000 AS 51,500 C, HS 5,000 7,000 B, W 97,725 A(FO,HS),AS,FR(NE) 6,000 19,877 C 1,000 HS 9,667 AS 83,750 FR 46,000 116,550 C 3,666 FR (NE) 25,000 B, FR 21,853 W 47,250 HS 10,500 AS 28,000 C 3,250 AS 2,000 AS, HS 84,572 FR (NE) 4,000 FR 29,100 A (FO, HS) 24,600 B 6,510 C, HS 4,000 HS 454,418 C, FR 277,623 A (FO) 8,167 19,500 C 10,000 AS, I 3,000 AS 1,000 14,500 AS 13,000 C 500 77,327 A (FO, HS), B 500 500 C 4,510 6,000 61,170 FR (NE) 500 W, I 35

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State Ohio

Office District

H H H H H Oklahoma S H H Oregon H H H Pennsylvania H H H H H H H H H H H Rhode Island S H H South Carolina S H H H Tennessee H H Texas S S H H H H H H H H H H H H Vermont H Virginia S H H H H Washington H H H H H West Virginia S Wisconsin H H H H H Wyoming H

4 8 9 14 16 4 5 1 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 17 18 1 2 2 3 6 8 9 7 9 10 12 16 20 23 23 28 30 32 35 At-L. 2 4 5 7 1 6 8 9 10 2 3 4 6 8 At-L.

Candidate

Jordan, James D. Davidson, Warren Kaptur, Marcy C. Joyce, David P. Gonzalez, Anthony E. Inhofe, James M.* Cole, Thomas J. Horn, Kendra Bonamici, Suzanne Blumenauer, Earl DeFazio, Peter A. Fitzpatrick, Brian Boyle, Brendan F. Evans, Dwight Dean, Madeleine Scanlon, Mary Gay Houlahan, Christina M. (Chrissy) Wild, Susan Cartwright, Matthew A. Perry, Scott Lamb, Conor Doyle, Michael F. Reed, Jack F.* Cicilline, David N. Langevin, James R. Graham, Lindsey O.* Wilson, Joe Duncan, Jeffrey D. Clyburn, James E. Kustoff, David Cohen, Stephen I. Cornyn, John* Cruz, Rafael Edward (Ted) Fletcher, Elizabeth Pannill Green, Alexander McCaul, Michael T., Sr. Granger, Kay Escobar, Veronica Castro, Joaquin Hurd, William Jones, Gina Ortiz Cuellar, Henry R. Johnson, Eddie Bernice Allred, Colin Doggett, Lloyd Welch, Peter Warner, Mark R.* Luria, Elaine McEachin, Aston D. Riggleman, Denver Lee, III Spanberger, Abigail DelBene, Suzan K. Kilmer, Derek Schrier, Kim Smith, D. Adam Heck, Dennis Capito, Shelley Moore* Pocan, Mark Kind, Ronald J. Moore, Gwendolynne S. Grothman, Glenn S. Gallagher, Michael J. Cheney, Elizabeth

2019 Total PAC Contributions: Total PAC Contributions (1978-2019): Total No. of Recipients (1978-2019): 36

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

Status I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I N O I I I I I I I I I I I I I I N I I I I I I I

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

2019 Contributions 2,000 500 2,000 2,500 2,500 2,000 3,000 250 1,000 1,000 2,000 6,000 12,500 1,000 2,500 2,500 2,000 6,000 2,000 1,000 2,000 2,000 6,000 2,000 1,000 19,000 3,500 3,000 1,000 11,000 2,000 10,500 (3,000) 2,000 1,000 11,000 1,000 1,000 2,000 1,000 2,000 6,500 1,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 4,500 8,000 1,000 (4,500) 2,000 2,000 2,000 4,500 2,000 2,000 6,500 2,000 2,000 1,000 500 2,300 10,500 $ 1,018,285 $64,166,088 2,683

Committees Career (at Time of Election) 3,500 500 14,300 19,500 5,000 142,800 9,000 250 21,760 29,860 29,710 25,500 47,000 4,000 4,500 4,500 5,000 8,000 12,510 4,500 2,000 12,510 181,850 41,500 59,000 140,000 30,250 20,750 40,610 22,000 42,510 102,080 106,705 4,000 14,000 29,000 52,000 1,000 7,000 17,000 6,000 12,000 18,500 6,000 18,310 22,500 80,000 11,000 6,000 37,200 8,000 14,010 16,000 4,500 56,925 10,500 28,250 18,500 13,000 10,500 22,000 14,500 23,000

A (D) A AS, I A (D) AS W FR (NE) B, W W AS, FR FR A FR C A (D), AS, I FR (NE) AS, HS A (D, FO), B, FR (NE) AS, FR (NE) C Maj. Whip I C, FR (NE) HS FR, HS A AS FR, I A, I A (D, HS) FR (NE) B, W C, I B, I AS C FR W A (D) AS I A (HS), C A W W AS AS

JUNE/JULY 2020

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Congress Watch

Congress Fails to Override Trump’s Veto of Measure Limiting His Actions on Iran

ATTA KENARE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

By Shirl McArthur

Iranians, some wearing face masks against the COVID-19 coronavirus, attend Laylat al-Qadr prayers, one of the holiest nights during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, outside a mosque in the Tehran, May 13, 2020.

AS EXPECTED, on May 6, President Donald Trump vetoed S.J.Res. 68, “to direct the removal of U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress,” calling it “insulting” and a plot by Democrats to defeat him in November. The joint resolution, introduced in January

by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), was passed by the Senate in February by a vote of 55-45, with eight Republicans voting in favor, and by the House, in March, by a vote of 227-186, with six Republicans voting yes. In his formal veto message, Trump said, “this indefinite prohibition is unnecessary and dangerous. It would weaken the President’s authority in violation of Article II of the Constitution, and endanger the lives of American citizens and service members.”

The next day, Senate Majority Leader and reliable Trump ally Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), knowing that it would not have the necessary 60 votes, moved to override the veto. Although seven Republi-

Shirl McArthur is a retired foreign service officer. He lives in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

JUNE/JULY 2020

cans joined with Democrats in voting to override, as expected, the effort failed by a vote of 49-44, with seven not voting.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC FREEZES MOST CONGRESSIONAL ACTIONS REGARDING THE MIDDLE EAST

With Congress concentrating on combating the social and economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, most other Middle East-related legislative matters received little attention. However, several members of Congress signed letters urging the Trump administration to take steps to ease the effects of the pandemic in the Middle East.

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS URGE EASING OF COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT AGAINST THE IRANIAN PEOPLE

In the false belief that this might somehow put greater pressure on Iran’s leaders to change Iran’s policies in the Middle East, Trump and his senior administration officials do not appear ready to relax the policy of collective punishment against the Iranian people. They seem unable, or unwilling, to see that, as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said

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in a press release, “It hurts our nation’s security and our moral standing in the world when our sanctions policy results in innocent people dying.”

Murphy was one of 10 senators signing a March 26 letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, that urged easing sanctions against Iran and Venezuela. The letter pointed out that “helping these nations save lives during this crisis is the right thing to do from a moral perspective, but it is also the right thing to do from a national security perspective.”

On March 31, 34 senators and representatives signed a letter to Pompeo and Mnuchin, initiated by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DNY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), urging them to “substantially suspend sanctions against Iran during this global public health emergency in a humanitarian gesture to the Iranian people.” The letter notes that just two weeks previously the Trump administration levied additional sanctions against Iran.

On April 1, Rep. David Trone (D-MD) wrote to Pompeo calling for the State Department to provide humanitarian relief to the Iranian people. And, on April 9, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote to Trump urging him to support Iran’s request for $5 billion in humanitarian aid from the IMF to combat the pandemic.

But on April 10, five senators and representatives, led by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), signed a letter to Pompeo and Mnuchin urging them to clarify humanitarian exemptions to the sanctions on Iran, but not to lift the sanctions, because it “would likely benefit corrupt components of the Iranian government.”

For more reporting about the pandemic’s and sanctions’ impact on Iran, see the May 2020 issue of the Washington Report, pp.

14-17.

While the above described humanitarianrelated Iran measures have made little progress, three new anti-Iran bills were introduced. On Feb. 28, Rep. Bryan Steil (RWI), with five cosponsors, introduced H.R. 6015 “to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to require special measures for domestic financial institutions” to stop evasion of 38

Iran sanctions. On March 4, Rep. French Hill (R-AR) and two cosponsors introduced H.R. 6081 “to require the president to report on financial institutions’ involvement with officials of the Iranian government.” And, on March 12, Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) introduced H.R. 6243, the “Block Iranian Access to U.S. Banks” bill.

health care needs of millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, and surrounding countries.” On April 10, seven senators, led by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), signed a letter to Trump urging the release of the $75 million appropriated for humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.

LETTERS URGE HUMANITARIAN AID TO YEMENIS, PALESTINIANS

CONGRESS MEMBERS OPPOSE ISRAELI HOME DEMOLITIONS, UNILATERAL WEST BANK ANNEXATION

While no legislative measures regarding Yemen or the West Bank and Gaza have progressed, several letters urging humanitarian aid were sent. Following reports that the Trump administration was considering cutting or limiting humanitarian assistance to Yemen, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Adam Smith (D-WA) initiated a March 26 letter to Pompeo and USAID Administrator Mark Green urging the administration to keep humanitarian assistance flowing to Yemen. The letter, also signed by five other representatives, pointed out that “abruptly ceasing aid would exacerbate an already tragic humanitarian crisis.”

At least three letters were sent urging the administration to release the humanitarian aid to the Palestinians that has been appropriated by Congress. On Feb. 20, 33 representatives, led by Reps.

Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), signed a letter to Pompeo urging the administration to immediately restore all funding for humanitarian aid in Gaza, including USAID and UNRWA funding.

The letter also calls on the administration to urge the Israeli government to end the blockade on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza.

On March 27, eight senators, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), wrote to Pompeo urging the State Department to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people. The letter notes that, in spite of the $75 million in aid appropriated by Congress for FY ’20, “the Trump administration has not reconsidered its policy of ceasing all bilateral assistance to the Palestinians and all contributions to [UNRWA], which supports the basic

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Led by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA), 64 representatives signed a March 16 letter to Pompeo urging immediate action to oppose the Israeli government’s acceleration of home demolitions in the West Bank. The letter also asks the State Department to examine whether Israel is complying with the Arms Export Control Act to ensure that U.S.-supplied equipment is not being used to destroy Palestinian homes.

On April 8, following reports that a new coalition government being formed in Israel agreed to move forward with unilateral annexation of West Bank territory, 11 members of Congress, led by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), issued a statement opposing such a move. The statement says unilateral annexation “runs counter to decades of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy and to the will of the House of Representatives as recently expressed in H.Res. 326, which opposes unilateral annexation” and “which reaffirmed the longstanding support of the House for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Meanwhile, S.Res. 234 and H.Res. 138, supporting a two-state solution, have made no progress. S.Res. 234, introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) last June, which notes “that Israeli annexation of territory in the West Bank would undermine peace and Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state,” still has 14 cosponsors, and H.Res. 138, introduced by Rep. Alcee Hastings (DFL) in February, which basically endorses Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin JUNE/JULY 2020

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STATUS UPDATES

H.Con.Res. 83, No U.S. Hostilities in Iran. H.Con.Res. 83, intro-

duced in January by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) after the ill-considered

assassination of Iran’s Quds Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim

Soleimani, was passed by the House in January. It would direct the president “to terminate the use of U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran.” It was forwarded to the Senate, where it still is held at the Senate Foreign Relations committee (SFRC).

H.R. 550, No War Against Iran. H.R. 550 now includes the text of

H.R. 5543, introduced in January by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), “to pro-

hibit the use of funds for unauthorized military force against Iran,” as well as the text of H.R. 2456, introduced last May by Rep. Barbara Lee

(D-CA), “to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq Resolution of 2002” [to assure that the previously enacted autho-

rization for the use of military force (AUMF) against Iraq cannot be used to authorize the use of force against Iran]. The full House passed the

amended text in January and it was sent to the Senate, where it rests.

Even if it is passed by the Senate, it probably will not have enough Republican support to overcome a certain presidential veto.

S. 3314 and S.Res. 509, Other Iran Measures. S. 3314, intro-

duced in February by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), “to seek a diplomatic

resolution to Iran’s Nuclear program,” still has five cosponsors, but S.Res. 509, introduced in February by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), to

urge the U.N. Security Council to renew the soon to expire restrictions on Iran, now has 39 cosponsors.

Netanyahu’s “regional” approach, still has 37 cosponsors.

BILL TO PROVIDE MORE GOODIES FOR ISRAEL GAINS SOME SUPPORT

Introduced in January by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), S. 3176, now has 37 bipartisan cosponsors. The bill is a grab bag of goodies for Israel, similar to H.R. 1837, which was passed by the House last July.

After passage in the House, H.R. 1837 was sent to the Senate, where it still rests with the SFRC. Similarly, H.R. 5595, the “Israel AntiBoycott” bill, introduced on Jan. 13 by dependable Israel-firster Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), still has 63 cosponsors. The previously described bills opposing the BDS movement, S.1, H.R. 336, and S.Res.

JUNE/JULY 2020

H.R. 2407, Human Rights for Palestinian Children. Introduced

in April 2019, by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), this bill still has 23 cosponsors.

H.R. 3104 and S. 1727, “Partnership Fund for Peace.” The

measures to promote joint economic development and finance ven-

tures between Palestinian companies and those in Israel and the U.S., H.R. 3104, introduced in June 2019 by Rep. Nita Lowey (DNY), and S. 1727, introduced the same month by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), still have 47 and seven cosponsors, respectively.

H.Res. 458, S.Res. 506, and H.R. 4862, Tunisia, Jordan. H.Res.

458, introduced last June by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), which reaffirms

“the strong partnership between Tunisia and the U.S. and supporting the people of Tunisia in their continued pursuit of democratic reforms,” with 30 cosponsors, still has not been reported by the Foreign Affairs committee. S.Res. 506, introduced in February by Sens. Chris

Murphy (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), “expressing the sense

of the Senate that the U.S. should initiate negotiations to enter into a

free trade agreement with the Republic of Tunisia,” has no further cosponsors. And, H.R. 4862, introduced in October by Rep. Ted

Deutch (D-FL), “to reauthorize the U.S.-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015,” still has not been reported to the full House.

H.R. 1850 and S. 2680, Hamas. These bills would sanction about

anyone who has anything to do with Hamas. H.R. 1850, introduced

by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) in March 2019 and passed by the House

in July, is still stuck in the SFRC. But its companion bill in the Senate, S. 2680, introduced in October 2019 by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL),

—S.M.

now has 26 cosponsors.

120, have also made no progress. All these measures are intended to equate Israel’s colonies with Israel. And, H.R. 4009, the “Anti-Semitism Awareness” bill, which would implicitly include criticism of Israel in the definition of anti-Semitism, introduced in July by Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), still has 25 cosponsors.

NEW BILL WOULD REMOVE U.S. TROOPS FROM SAUDI ARABIA

While the previously described measures reacting to the murder of U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi have gained no further support, a new bill, S. 3572, the “strained partnership” bill, was introduced March 24 by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK). It would “require the removal of U.S. Armed Forces from Saudi Arabia.” ■

SEARCH OUR ARCHIVES! Doing research for a report or talk? Decades of Washington Report archives are at your fingertips! Do your search on our home page wrmea.org or visit wrmea.org/archives to read every back issue.

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Special Report

The U.S. in Afghanistan: Graveyard for Another Empire?

By M. Reza Behnam

HAROON SABAWOON/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

tized and ecologically damaged. History has shown that imperial powers know little about the countries they invade, although the repercussions of their interventions shape the destinies of both.

To understand why the U.S. military operation was destined to fail, it is essential to reflect on Afghanistan’s resistance to foreign domination throughout its history.

Afghanistan has been rightly spoken of as the “graveyard of empires.” At the crossroads of Asia—connecting the Middle East with Central Asia and India—it was caught in the Anglo-Russian power struggle of the 19th An Afghan mother feeds a newborn baby at the Ataturk Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. They survived the century, known by historians May 12 attack by gunmen disguised as police who stormed a Doctors Without Borders maternity ward, killing as the “Great Game” period.

24, including two newborns, 10 mothers, pregnant women, nurses and a security guard, and wounding 16.

The same day a suicide bomber targeted the funeral of a local police commander on the outskirts of Jalalabad, The U.S. is the latest great power to become mired in Afghanistan, killing 32 and wounding 133. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. that graveyard.

Competition for dominance by the British and Russian empires in THE UNITED STATES has been in a state of perpetual war in the 19th century fostered an abiding xenophobia and hostility to outAfghanistan since Oct. 7, 2001. In the minds of most Americans, side powers, especially among the Pashtuns, who ruled Afghanistan, Afghanistan did not exist until 9/11. The American public is rarely off and on, for more than 300 years. Today, they make up over 40 asked to reflect on its elusive, distant and destructive war in a country percent of the population; the Taliban are predominantly Pashtun. they know little or nothing about, but are financing to the tune of The British imperium left a legacy of conflict and hostilities that lives roughly $4 billion a month. The absence of debate, evaluation and on in Central Asian countries today. Particularly consequential, was a coherent policy in Afghanistan has contributed to the quagmire the the British decision in 1893 to arbitrarily fix a border between British United States finds itself in today.

India and Afghanistan.

Since the U.S. invasion, Afghanistan has been portrayed as a The boundary, which came to be known as the Durand Line, efchaotic country in need of improvement and order, which only the fectively divided the Pashtun population between Afghanistan and United States can provide. But more than 18 years of U.S. occuBritish India (now Pakistan). The division destroyed tribal strucpation has left the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan poor, traumatures and Pashtun demographic superiority in Afghanistan. By establishing the border, Britain made permanent its control over M. Reza Behnam, Ph.D., is a political scientist whose specialities Afghan territory, gained through three wars, including the Northinclude American foreign policy and the history, politics and west Territories and Baluchistan; whose loss meant that landgovernments of the Middle East.

40

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locked Afghanistan was cut off from its vital access to the Arabian Sea. The line was used to finalize Pakistan’s boundaries during the partitioning of India in 1947. Angry over Britain’s action, the government in Kabul shifted its foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. Since then, successive Afghan governments have refused to accept the legitimacy of the Durand Line, arguing that the Pashtun territories in Pakistan should be part of Afghanistan. Many Pashtun nationalists, on both the Afghan and Pakistan sides of the mountainous border, have called for an independent state of Pashtunistan.

Afghanistan only became significant to Washington during the Cold War, when the government in Kabul turned to the USSR for diplomatic and military support. Like the British, America’s main concern was the Soviet presence. Washington was determined to keep the Kremlin out of the oil rich Persian Gulf, especially after the overthrow of its ally, the Shah of Iran, in January 1979.

To counter Soviet influence, the United States allied with conservative Islamists to undermine the pro-Soviet government in Kabul. Little thought was given to the longterm consequences when the CIA plotted, in 1979, to lure the Russians into invading; to give, in the words of Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser, “the USSR its Vietnam.”

American and Saudi money and weapons were funneled through Pakistan to support the anti-Soviet resistance. Initially known as the Mujaheddin, the fighters came mainly from the Pashtun tribal area in the Northwest Territories of Pakistan. Later, others, who were known as the Afghan Arabs, would join in their fight.

With U.S. and Saudi funding, Pakistan set up thousands of fundamentalist Islamic madrassas (religious schools) for Afghan refugee children on the PakistanAfghanistan border. Many future Taliban fighters were former madrassa students, well tutored in the extremist version of political Islam and war.

The Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989) created the mayhem in the USSR that Washington had hoped for, even hastening the JUNE/JULY2020

demise of the Soviet system. But it would, with time, also create tumult for the United States. The war left over one million Afghans dead, over four million injured, five million refugees, and two million internally displaced, and thousands of radicalized well-trained fighters. Under the Taliban regime (1996-2001), Afghanistan became a sanctuary for al-Qaeda and international terrorism.

Since 9/11, the United States has spent $6.4 trillion on wars

Twenty years later, Washington found itself fighting the same forces it had helped create. America’s earlier proxy war prepared the ground for al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, 1993; Khobar Towers, U.S. military housing in Saudi Arabia, 1996; U.S. embassies in Africa, 1998; USS Cole in Yemen, 2000; and the World Trade Center and Pentagon, 2001. After 9/11, the United States invaded Afghanistan to eliminate al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban regime. Taliban leaders, who escaped across the border to Pakistan, have been fighting a prolonged insurgency against the latest foreign intruder.

Since 9/11, the United States has spent $6.4 trillion on wars and military actions in the Middle East and Central Asia fighting its “war on terrorism.” Although the military tries to keep the figures secret, there are roughly 800 U.S. military bases around the world in other people’s countries.

As with the prolonged war itself, little attention was paid to the December 2019 publication by The Washington Post of the “Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War,” which disclosed the enormous destruction and cost of a war constructed on Washington’s ignorance of Afghan political culture and on muddled, counterproductive policies. Also ignored, was the March 2020 decision by the International Criminal Court to investigate American officials for war crimes committed in Afghanistan. The ICC announced that it had enough information to prove that U.S. military and intelligence

personnel had committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, and other acts of violence in 2003, 2004 and later in clandestine CIA facilities. As concluded by the ICC chief prosecutor, in 2016, “The gravity of the alleged crimes is increased by the fact that they were reportedly committed pursuant to plans or policies approved at senior levels of the U.S. government, following careful and extensive deliberations.”

America’s war and occupation in Afghanistan have produced very little.

Opium production, almost eliminated under the Taliban regime, has quadrupled.

The country has grown more unstable, government corruption is rampant, most Afghans live in poverty, refugees number in the millions, land mines abound, infrastructure has crumbled and the Taliban continues to gain strength. American military power has not ended terrorism. Instead, terrorism has grown in direct proportion to U.S. military action following 9/11. Simply, America’s reliance on military power to “build a nation” in Afghanistan continues to be an abysmal failure.

In February 2020, the Trump administration signed a conditional peace agreement with Taliban leaders. However, President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, were left out of the talks; a clear indication that Washington has begun to move closer to the Taliban.

The administration’s threat to withhold up to $2 billion in aid unless Afghan’s leaders put aside their differences and begin negotiations with the Taliban is further evidence of how expendable they are to Washington.

Since the peace agreement, violence has increased throughout the country, with nearly 55 attacks a day. The attacks on May 12, in two parts of the country, one on a maternity hospital and the other on a funeral ceremony, are just two examples of the relentless and continued violence. In a sign that the U.S.brokered peace is coming apart, President Ghani ordered his security forces to discontinue operating in a defensive posture and to begin attacking Taliban insurgents.

Washington’s seemingly endless war in Afghanistan has become the scrim of American Continued on page 51

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cole_42-43.qxp_The Nakba Continues 5/21/20 10:31 PM Page 42

The Nakba Continues

Amid Trump’s Immigration Ban, MuslimAmericans Step Up to Fight COVID-19

By Juan Cole

PAUL HENNESSY/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

American doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are working to save Americans from the coronavirus and are risking their lives to do so. The first three physicians to die of COVID-19 in the UK were Muslims.

Aysha Khan at Religion News reports that by the beginning of April, “A Muslim-led crowdfunding campaign has raised nearly $500,000 to offer micro-grants to low-income American families whose livelihoods have been hurt by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.” She says that in three weeks the campaign had already sent “assistance checks of between $250 to $1,000 to more than 660 households across the country, benefitting about 2,100 individuals of all and no faiths.”

Khan says that the initiative began March 14 with a MuslimAmerican crowdfunding platform, Volunteers at the Islamic Society of Central Florida’s Masjid al-Raheem distribute food from the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida to needy families during a drive-through event on April 9, in LaunchGood. The organizations Orlando, FL. The food bank has seen record demand for assistance in the Orlando area due to job behind it include CelebrateMercy, Penny Appeal USA and the Islamic losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Center at New York University. She quotes CelebrateMercy’s Tarek El-Messidi as saying, “We want the MUSLIM-AMERICANS have stepped up to help in the fight against country to know that we are a vital organ to society.” He noted sarthe novel coronavirus in ways that may not be apparent from watching donically that they are more often thought of as a tumor. cable television. They are disproportionately a first- and second-genBrad Townsend at the Dallas Morning News reports that Muslimeration American community who have faced discrimination at PresiAmericans in the Dallas area delivered to Parkland Memorial Hosdent Donald Trump’s hands, and are among the targets of his twopital 1,500 meals, 1,000 face shields and 1,000 N95 surgical masks, month ban on issuing new green cards. Nevertheless, they are and then threw in 1,000 boxes of sweets to hospital staff. Only somedemonstrating their love for their country and for their fellow Americans. one with personal experience of the generosity and kindness of Nearly one-third of American physicians are immigrants, and Muslim communities would have known that last bit was coming.

Muslim-Americans in medicine are certainly proportional to their perI’m sure that the staff, however, appreciated the N95 surgical masks centage of the population, if not more. So thousands of Muslimmost of all, since medics need them to avoid becoming infected themselves as they help others. They also handed out 900 face proJuan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He tectors to Baylor Scott & White in Irving and Sunnyvale, Dallas Reis Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigional Medical Center in Mesquite and the Mesquite Police Departgan and an adjunct professor, Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University. ment, Townsend reports. And they say this is only the beginning.

He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Townsend quotes Omar Suleiman as saying, “I think what’s beauPeace amid the Clash of Empires. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page. tiful about this is it’s not one of our many Muslim community non42

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PHOTO BY SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

profits that are out there right now, serving the elderly and the vulnerable and doing all sorts of dropoffs in the community. This is just a group of people who started coming together on a regular basis and have been overwhelming hospitals with kindness.”

In other words, this is all being done spontaneously by a group of individuals who came together for the purpose, at the insistence of businessman Marwan Nafal and his friends, who initially had a goal of providing 5,000 face masks to frontline health and other workers.

Nikki Gaskins at Patch.com reports that American Muslims of Syosset, Long Island, donated “$6,000 to support local healthcare workers and first respon- Volunteers with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Relief put together food boxes at the Islamic ders...The money was then used Center of Wheaton to distribute to those in need, April 11, in Wheaton, Illinois.The relief organization said demands for food have spiked tenfold as millions of Americans have lost their jobs due to the to purchase 7,000 gloves as well coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. as 2,000 surgical masks and 100 (Advertisement) feeding the homeless in NYC for years, and bottles of hand sanitizer and disinfectants. now young volunteers have stepped up to The items were delivered directly to hospikeep the program going, as their elders are tals, including Good Samaritan Medical told to self-quantine. On April 18 alone they Center and Catholic Health Services.” made 100 meals available for pick up at Hassan Sheikh of the organization pledged their community center food pantry. to do more. These are desperate and unMaking up only a little over one percent certain times, in which donating money may of the U.S. population at about 3.5 million, not come easily to people, but the Long Muslim-Americans have been in North Island Muslims stepped up.

America for two-plus centuries. Perhaps 20 Umar A Farooq at the London-based percent of the 600,000 African slaves online outlet Middle East Eye reports that brought here were likely Muslims, and in Rhode Island, Dr. Noreen Shaffi, presiFor over 50 years, Birzeit University guess who built the White House? As late dent of Americans Helping Others Prosper has provided an excellent education for as the 1930s, older African-Americans born (AHOPE), used her contacts to donate dedicated Palestinian men and women. as slaves said in interviews that they re4,500 KN95 masks from China to Rhode membered their mothers bowing toward the Island Hospital. Muslim-American physiGifted Palestinian students east at dawn. cians are a prominent and numerous can reach their potential with Beginning in the 1880s, Lebanese and group, and they are well connected to inyour generous donation.

Syrian Muslims began coming to the U.S. ternational supply chains. They have been (Tax Exemption is Applied for) I spoke to one Lebanese-American man using their connections to help their fellow whose grandfather had been a cowboy in Americans.

Please make your check payable to: the West. We don’t usually take the Shi’i Penn Live, a digital news site, reports that AFBU cowboys into account. From the 1930s the the Muslims of central Pennsylvania are Please mail to: Nation of Islam grew up among African“delivering food and medication to sick and American Friends of Birzeit University Americans, and in the 1970s most of them the elderly during the coronavirus pan1416 N. Utah Street converted to Sunni Islam. From 1965, large demic.” Many mosques are also offering Arlington, VA 22201 numbers of Indian and Pakistani Muslims pick up soup kitchens.

Thank you in advance for came to the U.S., the wealthiest and bestZaynab Iqbal at Bklyner (Brooklyner, a your kind contribution educated of any immigrants in the past few daily online news site) reports that Brookdecades. Many of them are physicians. ■ lyn’s Muslims Giving Back (MGB) has been

American Friends of Birzeit University

JUNE/JULY2020

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Special Report

Israeli Demolitions Leave Palestinians Homeless During the Pandemic

A view of the wreckage of the home belonging to Palestinian Qassam Barghouti, who is detained in an Israeli jail on charges of taking part in the alleged killing of an Israeli settler last year. A large Israeli army force demolished the home in the Kobar village of Ramallah, in the West Bank at dawn on May 11, 2020. Following the demolition, crowds gathered at the site to protest. Soldiers attacked the protesters with rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades, wounding at least one protester in his face.

HOME IS A SPECIAL SANCTUARY now for people around the world returning from work, a trip to the store or even a walk down a crowded street. Many of us have a new ritual: Rip off our facemask, wash our hands and, if we’re feeling extra vulnerable, take a shower and launder our clothes. For weeks world leaders told us, “Stay home, stay safe.” Staying home, especially for the elderly and immunocompromised, would flatten the curve and help crowded hospitals and overworked healthcare workers.

Even in the midst of the pandemic as Israelis and Palestinians were urged to stay in their houses, Israeli authorities continued to demolish Palestinian homes and even water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. World leaders were silent but international humanitarian aid agencies were not.

“It is Israel’s legal obligation to protect the health and life of Palestinians under occupation,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). “We urge Israeli authorities to immediately cease the unlawful destruction and seizure of property in the West Bank, including humanitarian relief items. This is not the time to undermine global efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.”

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

44

On April 15 the Norwegians urged action. “The international community must act to ensure Israel abides by international law and joins the global call to end political conflicts to fight the pandemic, rather than escalate the vulnerability of Palestinians under occupation,” said Egeland. “Since Israel confirmed its first case of COVID19 on Feb. 21, the U.N. reported that the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) demolished 69 structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This forcibly displaced 63 people and affected 417 others. The structures included 28 residential properties and seven water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. Donor states had provided a third of the destroyed or seized structures as humanitarian relief.”

Israel issues demolition orders that restrict house construction in most of the Palestinian neighborhoods, especially in East Jerusalem. Israel denies building permits to Palestinians so many are forced to build homes on their land despite restrictions. The authorities either end up demolishing the home or pressure the families to self-demolish under the threat of imprisonment or heavy fines.

A home belonging to a disabled Palestinian, Hatem Huseyin Halil, was demolished on Dec. 17, 2019 in East Jerusalem, for the second time, by Israeli forces for allegedly being unauthorized.

On December 23, 2019, Palestinians wearing Christmas costumes protested atop the rubble of another house demolished by

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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ISSAM RIMAWI/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

By Delinda C. Hanley

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Israel reportedly for being built without official permits in the village of al-Khader, west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

World leaders and Israeli authorities ignored that protest.

Israel also has a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of deadly attacks against Israelis, saying it acts as a deterrent. Critics and homeless families say it amounts to collective punishment.

Israeli troops demolished four homes belonging to Palestinian prisoners at dawn on Nov. 28, in Hebron (Al-Khalil), in the southern occupied West Bank. The homeowners were suspected of killing an Israeli soldier in the Gush Etzion settlement, north of Hebron.

Jailed Palestinian Ahmad Qunbu's house was demolished by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Jenin, on Feb. 6, 2020.

The home of Yezen Megamis, another Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jail, was demolished by Israeli forces in the Birzeit town north of Ramallah, West Bank, March 5, 2020.

B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reports that in the period between 2006 and April 30, 2020, Israel demolished

at least 1,552 Palestinian residential units in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem—causing 6,780 people, including at least 3,403 minors, to lose their homes. In East Jerusalem alone, Israel has demolished 1,007 housing units since 2004, leaving 3,277 people homeless.

Families are left with extensive psychological trauma, in addition to the loss of shelter and personal belongings. “In light of the often precarious economic situation of Palestine refugees to begin with, pivotal incidents like demolitions often have the potential to set off a spiral into poverty,” according to UNRWA’s Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU). UNRWA tries to help these victims find shelter in the same community where they lived before their homes were demolished. “This both helps them through a difficult time and gives them dignity in their living situation,” says UNRWA staffmember Osama Tamimi.

Stay-at-home orders during the pandemic didn’t prevent settlers from attacking Palestinians. In fact, the U.N. reported a surge in settler attacks since the outbreak of COVID19. During the first three weeks of the pan-

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Two brothers from al-Jalazun Refugee Camp walking on their family’s land were attacked by settlers. The brothers were beaten so severely that they required medical attention. The settlers also spat on one brother, which forced him to enter isolation for fear of COVID-19. Five of eight attacks on Palestinian homes in March occurred in the presence of soldiers, who not only allowed the settlers to do as they pleased but took action against Palestinians trying to protect their homes, according to B’Tselem. In some cases, soldiers arrested the residents!

International humanitarian law requires Israel, as the occupying power, to protect the population of the territory that it occupies and ensure the welfare and wellbeing of Palestinians, as well as respect for their human rights. While Israel confined residents to their homes and closed businesses during the pandemic, soldiers and settlers ramped up their assaults on Palestinians, trampling on their human rights. ■

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Gaza on the Ground

Walid al-Hattab, Chef for the Poor, Makes Soup for Gazans

Palestinian Walid al-Hattab prepares soup for the poor during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Gaza City, April 24, amid the COVID19 coronavirus pandemic.

SCORES OF TEENAGERS and children gathered around a woodstove where soup was boiling, as Gazans faced a very harsh Ramadan month, with an ongoing blockade worsening an already collapsed economy. In addition, with the COVID-19 situation, the mosques and banks were shut and many transactions from abroad were halted. Some families and even charities facing distress and uncertainty themselves in Europe, North and South America could not send Ramadan funds to Gaza to feed the poor. Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people had no money to celebrate their holy month.

Despite the closure and COVID-19, Walid al-Hattab, 55, insisted that he would at least make some soup for the poor, to mark the holy month of Ramadan. Every afternoon, he cooked a traditional Palestinian soup to deliver, free of charge, to poor families in his neighborhood, Shejaiya, east of Gaza City, that was decimated

Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports regularly on the Gaza Strip.

46

during Israel’s 2014 assault.

Al-Hattab knows the pain of families who stay silent even when they have only slices of bread to break their fast. As he started cooking Jreshseh soup, on his neighborhood street, he added wheat flour, onions, herbs, water and a slice of meat for flavor, knowing that the difficult times will pass.

“I felt something deep inside myself, that I had to do something to help hungry people,” he said, adding, “I kept it simple by bringing a small pan to feed a few families.”

He realized the soaring numbers of families in his area do not have enough to eat due to the economic and travel blockades of the past 14 years, and now COVID-19.

So, this was his way to send a message of solidarity and re-enforce the historical Palestinian traditions. Simple is better than nothing at all. He started by feeding 10 families per day and, finding ever growing demands, he had to cook in a bigger pot, so as not to turn away hungry families. He ended up feeding 130 families each day, giving the soup to families coming to him with empty dishes to break

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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MOHAMMED ABED/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

By Mohammed Omer

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their fast. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even that simple soup, we can no longer afford,â&#x20AC;? a woman in her mid 60s told him, tears escaping her eyes as he filled her old dish.

The reality in Gaza is grim. Food insecurity is on the rise throughout Palestine, affecting one third of the population and it is worst in Gaza where nearly 70 percent of people are food insecure, according figures released in 2018 by the United Nations World Food Program. The figures are set to deepen as unemployment also continues to rise.

The UNWFP announced that it needs around U.S. $65 million in 2020 to carry forward its food interventions in support of 360,000 of the most vulnerable people across Gaza and the West Bank. But some families in Gaza still cannot access even soup.

THE NEW NORMAL

Since her husband died six years ago, Umm Ramzi, in Rafah, awaits the month

of Ramadan each year with the hope that she can taste meat and chicken through charity organizations that donate food to the poorest families. Umm Ramziâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s husband, who worked in a butcher shop before he died, used to bring pieces of meat to the house. But now, she has no one to bring her food.

COVID-19 keeps Umm Ramzi and her family inside and keeps everyone else out.

The borders are closed and bank transactions shut. The only thing that moves around is COVID-19, and that is no-oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s benefactor. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mosques are closed, markets and shops are closed; the kind people who used to feed us every year, are no longer there,â&#x20AC;? says 53-year-old Umm Ramzi.

Cramped inside a three-bedroom house, she said the Zakat moneyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;usually received as donations during Ramadanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; would normally be enough to cover her familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basic needs for the entire year. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the past, I could buy essential foods and

run basic errands,â&#x20AC;? she said. But that is not an option now. The closure of mosques for the month of Ramadan, by the Gaza authorities to contain spread of COVID-19, meant donations were no longer collected to feed the poor.

Her neighbor, Kholoud Abdelwahab, also relies on Zakat funding, after losing her husband during the 2014 assault. She admits that people who used to send money from abroad, are also living under stress, because of COVID-19. With the Zakat, she could buy food, and pay pharmacy debts, Abdelwahab said. The pharmacy gives her leeway throughout the year to get medication for her old mother. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Coronavirus and closures have brought a new normal everywhere. Yet, we decorate our homes with Ramadan lanterns, to help our children celebrate the holy month,â&#x20AC;? said Umm Ramzi. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I feel it deep in my heart, Ramadan will be here next year, long after COVID-19 has gone,â&#x20AC;? she added. â&#x2013;

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Special Report

By John Gee

Family members give a haircut to a man during the movement control order imposed by the Malaysian government to stop the spread of COVID-19, in Selayang, a town in Gombak district outskirt of Kuala Lumpur, April 2.

A CONSERVATIVE MISSIONARY movement, Tablighi Jamaat, held a rally at the Sri Petaling mosque complex on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, from Feb. 27 to March 1. Although the first COVID-19 cases had appeared over a month before, the Malaysian government did not ban the gathering. Some 16,000 people attended, not only from Malaysia, but also from Singapore, Brunei and other countries. A week or so later, two-thirds of the COVID-19 cases in Malaysia were ascribed to infection at the rally. Singapore conducted vigorous contact tracing to identify, test and isolate everyone who had come in contact with around 40 of its nationals who had attended and, on March 9, Brunei identified its first case as an attendee.

Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam all

John Gee is a free-lance journalist based in Singapore and the author of Unequal Conflict: The Palestinians and Israel.

48

identified nationals who took part in the rally and became infected.

As the COVID-19 outbreak began to spread across Southeast Asia in January, Indonesia had remained officially untouched. Health Minister Terawan Agus Purwanto had an explanation. At a Jan. 26 press conference, he said, “Medically, [it’s thanks] to doa [prayer].

It’s all because of doa.” In fact, there were deep suspicions inside and outside Indonesia that the coronavirus was already well established within the 260-million strong nation, and that one major reason why no cases had been discovered was that there was a very low level of testing for infection. By the time the first case was officially confirmed on March 2, a mere 141 tests had been conducted. It seemed like playing hide and seek with one’s eyes shut. Two months later, infections in Indonesia had surpassed 14,000.

As infection spread and the death toll mounted, other attitudes began to prevail in response to public alarm: most Muslims across

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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ZAHIM MOHD/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

South East Asian Muslims Respond to COVID-19 Outbreak

gee_48-49.qxp_Special Report 5/21/20 9:55 PM Page 49

South East Asia clearly saw that COVID19 did not discriminate between the most devout and others, and adopted practices of safe distancing, where possible, to protect themselves. Across the region, governments went from inaction or denial into action, albeit with different approaches.

Malaysia’s slow initial reaction to the infection was likely due in large part to the fact that its first cases were among Chinese nationals, and it was not clear how infectious the disease might be. The first Malaysian cases were identified on Feb. 4, 11 days after the first Chinese national case. However, it wasn’t until March 15 that the Movement Control Order was introduced implementing sweeping closures of institutions, workplaces and places of worship, leaving open only services deemed to be essential and shops supplying necessities.

The Indonesian government at first stuck to issuing guidelines on safe distancing and limiting social interactions, but adopted a tougher approach when it seemed that many citizens were not following its advice.

Normally, at the end of Ramadan, millions

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of Indonesians go back to their hometowns in what is known as the mudik, but there were fears that this could hasten the spread of COVID-19 from its epicenter in Jakarta to all regions of the country. President Joko Widodo first issued an appeal to citizens not to travel then, but after it turned out that many were already doing so before Ramadan even began, he banned the mudik and deferred the public holiday for that period until the end of December.

Brunei sought to contain the virus with restrictions on movement into and out of the country, contact tracing and isolation, a ban on mass gatherings including at football matches and weddings and some limited closures of institutions.

In Singapore, as leading bodies of other religions closed places of worship amidst a general closure of non-essential businesses and institutions, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) closed all 70 mosques in the country for cleaning, but then the closure was maintained. As elsewhere, Muslims were advised to pray in their homes.

Singapore’s measures against the virus seemed to be very effective until it took hold among its migrant workers, who live in crowded accommodations, particularly dormitories, where men can sleep 12 to 20 to a room. Cases soared in April, and most of those infected were Bangladeshis and Indians employed in the construction sector.

This meant that the main infection among Muslims in Singapore, by far, was located not among locals, but among this large temporary workforce.

The big expansion of infections in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore took off shortly before the beginning of Ramadan.

Anti-COVID-19 measures meant that some of the customary practices of the fasting month could not take place. The breaking of the fast each evening is normally an occasion for big gatherings of friends and family, but now people generally observed advice to stay home and only break fast with their immediate relatives who live in the same household. There could be no going to mosques for special prayers in Malaysia and Singapore, as the mosques were closed—although in Indonesia, practice

varied from region to region and many remained open.

Charities in Singapore worked to provide food to the neediest families during Ramadan and deliver it to their homes, since many, once deprived of daily work, had few or no reserves to fall back upon to feed themselves. NGOs working with migrant workers received requests from Bangladeshi Muslim workers confined to temporary accommodations for dates, since they were used to breaking their fast with them. They managed to purchase and deliver at least some.

The COVID-19 outbreak has also had a political impact. Governments have generally benefitted from the public mood at a time when national solidarity was needed. The burning issues of the months before the outbreak have been sidelined.

In Indonesia Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who had twice stood unsuccessfully for the presidency against Joko Widodo, called on his party members not to find fault with the government, but to give it their full support. In Malaysia, arguments around the installation of the government of Muhyiddin Yassin through a parliamentary coup rather than an election faded from public attention. While hopes are expressed for an early return to normal, there is uncertainty over what “normal” may look like, as new patterns of daily life take shape and the inadequacies of what came before the containment measures are brought into focus. ■

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Cyprus Missing COVID-19 Opportunity

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez (r) views Turkey's drillship Yavuz operating in the Mediterranean Sea from a helicopter, Aug. 7, 2019.

AFTER MONTHS of heightening tension on and around the de facto divided Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, the arrival of coronavirus in March froze some flashpoints, yet also deepened some divides.

COVID-19 has provided an umbrella for a partial drawdown in an increasingly threatening maritime boundary dispute, while also seeing the closure of crossings between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides for the first time since 2003.

It has also led to the postponement of an increasingly rancorous election campaign in the Turkish Cypriot north of the island, while underscoring the geostrategic nature of neighboring Turkey’s interests in the wider Eastern Mediterranean.

The pandemic has created opportunities while also heightening divisions and leaving many on the island pessimistic for the future.

“I think we’ve missed the opportunity to turn this challenge into an opportunity,” says Harry Tzimitras, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in the island’s divided capital, Nicosia. “There’s been mistrust between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaderships

Jonathan Gorvett is a free-lance writer specializing on European and Middle Eastern affairs.

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and wider publics for a long time—and now, unfortunately, coronavirus fear is building on that.”

OFFSHORE TANGO

Since 2011, when Noble Energy discovered the Aphrodite natural gas field 160 km (100 miles) south of the island, offshore energy has been a flashpoint for Cyprus.

The field is within the 200 km (124 mile) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claimed by the Greek Cypriot-dominated Republic of Cyprus (ROC), the internationally recognized government of the whole island.

Yet, since 1974, when a Greek-backed coup attempted to join Cyprus to Greece, triggering a Turkish invasion and occupation of its northern third, Turkey has not recognized the ROC’s legitimacy.

Instead, it recognizes only the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), established in 1983 on the territory Turkey, and the Turkish Cypriots, then occupied.

Turkey therefore does not recognize the legitimacy of the EEZ either or, indeed, the claim of any island to such a zone. Ankara argues instead that only continental nations can have such benefits; a claim that is also very much about conditions in the nearby Aegean

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CELAL GUNES/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA

By Jonathan Gorvett

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Sea, where Greek islands often lie just off the Turkish coast. Therefore, Ankara argues that the ROC’s claims to Aphrodite, and to the many other offshore oil and gas exploration blocks around Cyprus, are illegitimate.

The ROC has, unsurprisingly, ignored this argument and continued with a program of offshore exploration. Since the discovery of Aphrodite, other international outfits such as ExxonMobil, France’s Total and Italy’s ENI have been awarded licenses by the ROC to explore offshore blocks within the EEZ and have started working.

This has led to major tension, with Turkish warships threatening to ram ENI-chartered research ships back in 2017. Turkey then despatched its own survey and drill ships, the Barbaros, Fatih and Yavuz, to explore blocks assigned by the ROC to international oil majors, leading to cat-andmouse confrontations between Turkish, Cypriot and Greek warships in the region.

Tensions had been running high, then, when both coronavirus and the spectacular collapse of global oil and gas prices began in early 2020. Indeed, the latter has further highlighted long-standing questions over the economic viability of exploiting relatively expensive Eastern Mediterranean natural gas and getting it to market, most likely in Europe.

“With the global economy stalling and prices collapsing, oil and gas companies have had to prioritize,” adds Tzimitras.

“Cyprus, which doesn’t even have considerable documented reserves yet, just isn’t a priority.”

Consequently, in mid-April, ExxonMobil, which had been due to commence verification drilling that month, postponed operations until September 2021, citing “operational difficulties” resulting from coronavirus.

Total and ENI followed suit in early May. This took some of the heat out of the offshore dispute, effectively putting efforts on the ROC side to exploit these finds into the deep freeze.

Yet, on the Turkish side, there has been no such refrigeration. Turkish research and drilling vessels have continued activity in what the ROC claims is its EEZ. “This is not JUNE/JULY 2020

economically viable,” says Professor Erol Kaymak, from the Political Science and International Relations Department at Eastern Mediterranean University in Famagusta. “It shows that on the Turkish side, it’s never really been about resources. Rather, it is about power—Turkey extending its national sovereignty over the sea and establishing that it has the ability and right to intervene in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

ISLAND TROUBLE

These capacities and rights have also long been issues on Cyprus itself. Yet, while this has generally been a bone of contention between Ankara and the Greek Cypriots, recent times have seen an increasing division on this within the TRNC, too.

This had been highlighted by campaigning in the elections for president of the TRNC, initially scheduled for April. In these, the incumbent, Mustafa Akinci, had been running against the prime minister, Ersin Tatar, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Kudret Ozersay, and a former prime minister, Tufan Erhurman.

Akinci, known for being in favor of the reunification of the island as a federal, bi-communal state, has increasingly been at odds with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for giving voice to widespread concerns among native Turkish Cypriots that Turkey’s influence over the TRNC has recently grown far too strong.

Tatar and Ozersay, meanwhile, represent more pro-Ankara positions. Tatar has frequently voiced his opposition to re-unification of the island, preferring a two-state solution; a position shared by the more diplomatic Ozersay.

The presidential election was therefore “like a referendum,” Kaymak says, “with the future of the TRNC very much in the balance” and opinion polls showing voters split down the middle, pre-coronavirus, in the event of a likely run-off between Akinci and Tatar.

The decision to postpone the vote until October 11, due to concerns over COVID19, also froze this clash of world views, although it has by no means removed it.

DIVIDED ISLAND

Meanwhile, the pandemic has added an extra layer of frost to the already frozen U.N.-sponsored peace process. The attempt to restart talks had been on-going since they collapsed in 2017, at CransMontana in Switzerland.

Prospects for such a restart have been further hampered by the fact that, “COVID19 has deconstructed all the mechanisms that had been put in place to bring people together,” says Tzimitras. “The minute the crisis began, things returned to a mode of confrontation, not cooperation.”

The crossings between the ROC and TRNC thus remain closed, even as the authorities on each side discuss re-opening ports and airports to the wider world. Bicommunal U.N. bodies have also been side-lined by “national’’ responses by both the north and south, with no prospect of a return to U.N. talks any time soon.

As in many places around the world, then, 2020 “will be a lost year,” says Tzimitras. “A year lived in limbo.” ■

The U.S. in Afghanistan Continued from page 41

life. Incredibly, in the throes of a global pandemic, the Trump administration prevented a vote in the United Nations Security Council on a resolution calling for the cessation of hostilities around the world during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The economic impact of the war, financed through debt and fought by an allvolunteer army, has been largely invisible to most Americans. But the protective shield that has kept the public from comprehending the destructive effects of an economy built on war and conflict may be eroding as the country faces its own internal crisis; a crisis that requires building rather than destroying.

American invincibility has been shaken and its priorities exposed by the global pandemic. Washington’s inordinate investment in warfare, rather than the health and welfare of its citizens, has left Americans feeling wary and defenseless. ■

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JUST BEFORE the global pandemic changed our ability to view art in person, in January-February 2020, Gallery Al-Quds in Washington, DC celebrated its 100th exhibition under my leadership. Fifty-nine artists and poets, who had exhibited in one of those shows over the past 18 years, were invited to create original work to address the theme, “Art is Not Optional.”

In the introduction to the exhibition catalog, I explained that “art, the making of it, the viewing of it, the dissemination of it, the interaction with it, is not optional in this world. It is of paramount importance, an essential, overriding raison d'être. It is not an optional activity; it is the definition of activity.”

It is hard to summarize the previous 100 shows, but I’ll try. The artists who have shown their work at Gallery Al-Quds in Washington, DC over the years, have addressed concepts of social justice, identity, love, longing, beauty, history and truth. Together we explored the power of words, as poetry, as song, and as the word made flesh in posters and wooden boxes. We rebelled against censorship in all its forms, whether in graffitied walls during the Arab Spring, or in art proclaiming Palestine’s forbidden colors of black, white, green and red. We have explored the concept of country for those who have one and those longing for one.

The exhibits have redefined the meaning of maps at the intersection of seemingly disparate cultures that are bound together by oppression and violence and the search for liberty. We have

Dagmar Painter is curator emerita of Gallery Al-Quds, a gallery featuring contemporary works by Palestinian, Arab American and Middle Eastern artists.

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ALL PHOTOS COURTESY GALLERY AL QUDS

Art is Not Optional: The 100th Exhibition At Gallery Al-Quds

By Dagmar Painter

(Clockwise from top left) Doris Bittar’s “To Be Free,” Yasmine Dabbous’ “Bullet Holes,” Helen Zughaib’s “Art Therapy,” Meriem Elatra’s “ L'Envolee II,” Adam Chamy’s “When the Sky is Bigger Than Us,” and Amr Mounib’s “Space Traveler.” breached walls of separation, rejoiced in the tenderness of flowers, memorialized suffering, honored immigrants, stood with farmers in their fields, looked into the eyes of the dead, and virtually flown kites in occupied lands. We have told the tales of our ancestors and gazed into the future of our successors. And, in the making and the showing, we have beheld beauty, and truth.

The response to my invitation to submit work for the 100th show garnered paintings, prints, sculpture, photographs, collages, video and poetry. A few examples highlight the diversity of work on exhibit.

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Doris Bittar’s “To Be Free” was a relief print installation inspired by the halts and starts of the Arab Spring in 2011 and the current one begun in 2019. As viewers move back and forth in front of it, the image of the Arabic words “To Be Free” as a zoomorphic horse, alternates with an image of the French Romantic Eugène Delacroix’s lithograph, “Lion Devouring a Horse.”

Amr Mounib’s digital photograph “Space Traveler” showed our world from space, encircled by barbed wire (particularly poignant and prescient in this pandemic era), with the warning, “approach Earth with caution; what you witness might be shocking…”

Ammanda Seelye Salzman dug into her family’s archives to transform old maps of Palestine into the painting “Three Jerusalems” contrasting an open monochromatic map circa 1840 with newer ones, vibrant in color but full of boundaries.

Stained glass artist Corinne Whitlatch offered “Middle East Peace Process Carousel,” whose porcelain horses and Hebron glass fish circle in a cycle that has no end, while Rajie Cook presented his signature “boxes” in a series called “Cover Ups” of historical atrocities.

A video by Andrew Courtney compared JUNE/JULY2020

ordinary lives in social justice movements in six countries from Palestine to Nicaragua to Vietnam. Another by Shaun Rabah, detailed how disparate people’s micro expressions are similar when thinking of the same things.

Berlin photographer Daniel Sonnentag, who specializes in photographing refugees, showed the beautiful black and white portrait of Elbenita Kajtazi, former child refugee from Kosovo, who became a renowned opera singer.

Artists painted the sky (Vian Shamounki Borchert, Adam Chamy), honored their

grandmothers (Meriem Elatra, Sarra Hennigan). The act of embroidering brought beauty and healing to the pain of bullet holes on Beirut walls (Yasmine Dabbous).

Zahi Khamis depicted “The Pressure of Art” while Qais Al Sindy was inspired by Mahmoud Darwish’s poem “Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?”

Helen Zughaib gave us a chuckle as we saw her on the therapist’s couch in “Art Therapy,” worried about her dream of turning into a lawyer. Tory Cowles constructed a happy accident of a sculpture made from cardboard, wire and a fragment of her pallet plate, while Adnan Charara made us laugh at art world scams with his butcher shop poster of a divided “fine art” cow in “Estimate on Request.”

There were many evocations of Palestine (Mohammad Sabaaneh, Ahmad Alkharkhi, Katie Archibald-Woodward).

There was “Art to Wear,” by Samar Hussaini and Annemarie Feld, and calming abstractions by Lori Katz, Mouchid Kheir and Hani Hourani. Moving original poetry

by Zeina Azzam and Kim Jensen were accompanied, on opening night, by three hours of Arabic music performed by qanun artist Kylie Hilali and her trio.

Twenty-five artists—local, national and from abroad—braved the January cold to attend the opening.

No one at the celebratory evening could have predicted that this was to be the last exhibition at Gallery Al-Quds for the foreseeable future. But now, more than ever, as the world struggles to regain health and happiness, “Art is Not Optional.” ■

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MUSIC & ARTS Springtime is normally the busiest season in the Middle East art world, with galleries gearing up for openings and fairs, such as Art Dubai, the largest annual fair dedicated to art in the Middle East. However by March, galleries started to close due to COVID-19, with Art Dubai announcing it would go entirely digital.

Both the Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, DC (AGSIW) hosted webinars this spring to speak with artists and leaders of cultural institutions in the region about how to adapt to the digital sphere, the future of their institutions and how to financially support artists.

On March 26, MEI’s podcast “Middle East Focus” hosted Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, director of the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit; Saleh Barakat, owner of Agial Gallery in Beirut; and Berlin-based Syrian artist Khaled Barakeh, founder of the non-profit CoCulture. On April 3, they also held a webinar with French-Tunisian street artist eL Seed, Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki and the director of the UAE’s Sharjah Art Foundation, Hoor Al Qasimi.

AGSIW’s April 29 webinar included Antonia Carver, director of Art Jameel, Dubai and Alia Alghanim, deputy director of the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center (JACC), a performing arts center in Kuwait.

The demand for free content sharing is not a new challenge for galleries and artists, but many of these guests repeated that the COVID-19 lockdowns have “accelerated” these trends. As Laïdi-Hanieh articulated, the question facing her staff is not simply about the need for digital content, but rather how to think “about digital outreach as the key part and not as a subsidiary part” of the museum’s programs.

The Palestinian Museum in Birzeit was perhaps better poised to take on this challenge than most because of its “transnational” nature. A crucial component of its model and mission has been to reach global audiences and it has therefore 54

PHOTO COURTESY EL SEED STUDIO

Arts in the Time of Coronavirus: Solidarity, Innovation and Change

French-Tunisian artist eL Seed’s digital “mural” is made from the screens of 49 individuals on a Zoom call. The calligraphy is a quote from the French novelist André Malraux: “Art is the shortest path from one human being to another human being.” The Zoom participants called in from around the world: Nigeria, Portugal, Italy, China, Canada, UAE, Qatar, France, UK, Netherlands, Pakistan, Tunisia, Rwanda, Egypt, Romania and the U.S. been developing digital materials in parallel to onsite programs since its inauguration four years ago. “Intellectually and practically the infrastructure is there,” Laïdi-Hanieh confirmed.

The shift has been slower and more challenging for the performing arts, which Alghanim voiced from her theater in Kuwait, and for independent galleries like those owned by Barakat in Beirut.

For Barakat though, the protest movements that started in Oct. 2019 actually helped him jumpstart these programs.

When protests broke out, dozens of arts and cultural institutions collectively closed in solidarity and encouraged employees to participate. “Business as usual” in Lebanon thus ceased long before the coronavirus was on anyone’s radar and pushed Barakat to develop the technology necessary to digitize artworks, archives and databases.

While the participants of each respective panel agreed that their online participation has gone up, they stopped short of encouraging a dramatic digital shift as a long-term trend. “I’m convinced we need something really in front of us. We need to stay in reality,” street artist eL Seed asserted.

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Al Qasimi also stated bluntly that we have been “bombarded” with content and need to slow down to better appreciate artists’ work. “I’m not a fan of virtual exhibitions,” she said. “It’s not the same artwork that you see in front of you, it’s not the same experience.” She more positively conceded that online platforms do offer “different ways to interact—through texts, through videos, through screenings.”

The closures have also offered opportunities to move forward with online innovation. For instance, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is sharing “Art From Home,” in-depth videos focusing on a single artwork, and eL Seed created a digital, calligraphic “mural” with 49 participants in a Zoom call, each one displaying as their virtual background a piece of the mural.

The ample availability of free content, however, does not signal the sudden “democratization” of art, as it does not alleviate the sudden suspension of income for their creators and for art institutions.

Efforts to support artists are underway in some cases, though. At Art Jameel, they “went into 24/7 brainstorming mode” and “ripped up the rule book,” Carver emphaJUNE/JULY 2020

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WAGING PEACE Former Member of UK Parliament Discusses Relentless Israel Lobby Smear Campaign

he once said, “I support Zionism without qualification.”

Williamson said the allegations against him and many other Labour officials are completely unsubstantiated and part of a purely nihilistic attempt to silence critics of Israel. He noted that a recent Al Jazeera investigation revealed the direct role of the Israeli Embassy in London in leading efforts to smear members of parliament.

The sad irony, Williamson said, is that many targeted with accusations of antiSemitism have a track record of fighting bigotry—and several are even Jewish.

Williamson noted that as a member of the Anti-Nazi League in his youth, he regularly jeopardized his safety in defense of targeted minorities. “I regularly confronted anti-Semites, bigots, racists on the streets,” he said. “So it’s particularly hurtful to then be accused of being a bigot.”

He noted that other Labour members accused of anti-Semitism include Jackie Walker, a black Jewish woman; Cyril Chilson, who was born in Israel, served in the Israel Defense Forces, and whose parents survived Auschwitz; and Tony Greenstein, the son of a rabbi.

“It’s so grotesque, it’s so despicable,” he said. “It illustrates the power that the lobby has, because not one other Labour MP…

In May, activist and author Miko Peled hosted a two-part webinar titled, “From Corbyn to Sanders: Are Zionist Organizations Targeting Progressive Politicians?”

The discussions revealed the various ways the Israeli government and its lobbying groups are targeting progressive movements in the UK and the U.S. The May 6 panel featured an enthralling and disconcerting testimonial from Chris Williamson, a former member of parliament in the UK, who has been systematically targeted by pro-Israel forces.

Elected as a member of the Labour Party in 2017, Williamson said his decision to defend then-Labour chairman Jeremy Corbyn against charges of antiSemitism opened the doors to a wave of attacks. “I was targeted, almost from the very first couple of weeks of being elected,” he recalled.

Williamson noted that the Labour Party has been devastated by a relentless campaign by the Jewish Labour Movement and other pro-Israel groups, alleging systematic anti-Semitism within the party. Following Corbyn’s recent electoral defeat, Labour has given into the smear campaign and begun targeting members of its party who are critical of Israel, accusing them of anti-Semitism.

Williamson alone has been suspended from the Labour Party three times amid a series of investigations and court cases. He is now out of office and identifies as an independent.

This dystopian environment within Labour is Chris Williamson on the campaign trail in 2019. He launched an endorsed by Corbyn’s independent bid to represent Derby North in parliament after successor, Keir Starmer. being ostracized from the Labour Party over spurious allegations An unabashed Zionist, of anti-Semitism.

PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS WILLIAMSON’S TWITTER ACCOUNT

sized. For example, they are offering microgrants to artists from the region that the UAE Ministry of Culture agreed to underwrite. The UAE also notably purchased $400,000 worth of local artists’ work when Art Dubai was cancelled.

Dubai’s art district, Alserkal, is waiving three months of rent for all its businesses and galleries in their district, in addition to taking other measures, including a move by their restaurants to prepare and donate 300 meals per day. “I feel the support of the management of Alserkal,” praised eL Seed, who has a studio in there, as well as the “message of hope” for the creative community from the UAE minister of culture.

Despite these efforts, the disparities are clear and felt acutely in Lebanon, due to the paralyzing economic crisis that predated COVID-19. “No government is helping, we have no funding, the country is nearly bankrupt, there are capital controls over our money,” Barakat explained. “But I think in these very special situations, this is how we end up being creative.”

This optimism emanated from all three discussions. Institutions are collaborating and communicating more regularly in order to collectively brainstorm new models for how to welcome guests when they reopen.

If that means fewer guests in the performance hall or gallery at once, then perhaps that will allow for more intimate experiences. With less movement and travel of people and objects, perhaps exhibitions will run longer and there will be more of an effort to take advantage of local artists and share resources within their communities.

Finally, all the participating artists and leaders in these discussions asked of each other and themselves what their civic duty is to support their communities. The “mission and power of art is to change,” Labaki asserted, “and even if it doesn’t ignite change, it ignites debate.”

“Nature is reminding us of how beautiful it is,” she mused. While this might just be the “death of a certain kind of world,” it may usher in “the birth of a new world, an alternative system.”

“If we really want to use art and creativity for social change, it’s the time, and it should start now,” Barakeh added. —Eleni Zaras

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Jeremy Corbyn Calls for Strong Response to Annexation

Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Britain’s Labour Party, joined Deep Dive Palestine for a virtual conversation on May 17. A long-time advocate for Palestinian political and human rights, Corbyn discussed Israel’s plans to annex much of the West Bank, and Europe’s role in the ongoing conflict.

Corbyn said studying history, and multiple visits to Palestine and refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, convinced him to adopt the Palestinian cause. “I’ve always felt that the Palestinian people have been treated very badly, rolled by history,” Corbyn said.

He acknowledged his country’s extensive and destructive colonial history in Palestine and the broader Middle East, and expressed his belief that the UK has a particular obligation to ensure Palestinians are not deprived of their own state. “Britain does have a very special historical role in this, and therefore a British government fully recognizing Palestine would be, I think, a huge step forward, and it was one that I was looking forward to taking,” he said.

Corbyn noted that European countries have been quick to take bold measures in 56

Jeremy Corbyn (center) at a 2014 London rally in support of Palestine. response to illegal annexations in the past, such as Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The EU, he reasoned, should similarly penalize Israel if it proceeds with its plans to illegally annex large swaths of Palestinian land.

“When annexations have happened elsewhere, the EU and the U.N. have taken a very strong view,” he said. “This is a massive injustice, we have to campaign to support people when they’re suffering under occupation.”

Often accused of anti-Semitism for his advocacy on behalf of Palestine, Corbyn dismissed the idea that he’s shown courage by taking on the powerful pro-Israel lobby.

“Yes, there are a lot of pressures,” he said.

“But I’ll tell you what, the pressures on a

politician in a Western European country are nothing compared to the pressures on a family living under occupation not knowing when the next bomb is going to fall, not knowing if they’ve got food coming, not knowing if there’s a hospital around the corner. Those are real pressures.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Gideon Levy on Annexation, New Israeli Government

On a May 3 webinar, Code Pink national co-director Ariel Gold spoke with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy about the latest Israeli election and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plans to formally annex much of the occupied West Bank.

“Annexation started many years ago,”

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

felt able to speak out in my defense, or in anybody else’s defense.”

Williamson believes Corbyn made a mistake by attempting to appease those leading the defamatory campaigns. “The more that Jeremy sought to try and placate his assailants, the stronger they became,” he said. “I said to Jeremy on a number of occasions, please stop apologizing…every time you apologize you give ground to the people that are attacking you, it’s simply feeding the beast.” The only way to defeat the Israel lobby is to confront it “head on,” Williamson added.

While the Israel lobby has successfully silenced large swaths of Labour, Williamson said this is not the moment to bend over in defeat. “On this issue, I think we are gaining ground and we are winning hearts and minds in the wider general public, and we have to keep going because it’s the right thing to do,” he said. —Dale Sprusansky

PHOTO COURTESY PALESTINE SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE

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Gideon Levy speaking at the 2018 Israel Lobby and American Policy conference in Washington, DC.

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PHOTO COURTESY KINDER USA

Levy pointed out. Netanyahu’s declaration of annexation “will make it public, formal, but will not change much on the ground.

It will have some symbolic meaning—a legal meaning.”

The reality is Palestinians in the Israelicontrolled West Bank are living side by side with 700,000 illegal settlers without the same privileges and rights. While annexation could “promise civil rights to the Palestinians as it should, no one has this intention,” he said. “The idea is to do what Israel has done in East Jerusalem, or worse, and give them some kind of limited rights—but no one talks about equal rights.”

One point of “hope,” Levy stated, is that once Israel formally annexes the West Bank without giving the Palestinians equal rights, Israel will be seen as an apartheid state. “Maybe this will be a call for the world to wake up from the illusion that Israel is a democracy and this belief that you can keep 4.5 million people in those unbelievable circumstances forever.”

Yet, Levy believes nothing will change for the better with the new governing coalition formed between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White opposition political alliance.

“What is really a reason of concern is the situation of the Israeli society. I cannot

recall one society in the world that lives in such denial,” he said. “If all of Israel would be pro-occupation or pro-apartheid it would have been better than this situation of denying the fact that there is an occupation. If there is no discussion I’m afraid this will become a permanent reality for many, many more years.”

The occupation was not a topic in the recent election because Israelis are not interested in the subject, Levy said. But “one hour from my home is the biggest cage in the world, Gaza, and even Gaza is not on the table. It is off the discourse.”

Levy did express optimism regarding the changes he has seen in the United States.

“When I come to the campuses, I see the young people, even the new Jewish generation, who are not ready to buy into all of the lies that Israel and the Jewish lobby is selling them and they are really asking questions,” he concluded. “So you are really a source of hope.” —Elaine Pasquini

Ilan Pappe Talks at Kinder USA Virtual Ramadan Fundraiser

On May 2, Kinder USA, a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian support to Palestinians and other needy individuals in the Middle East, held a virtual conversation with Israel historian Ilan Pappe as part

Children in Gaza enjoy a laugh while receiving food assistance from Kinder USA during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

JUNE/JULY 2020

of its Ramadan webinar series.

Pappe warned that Israel is using the coronavirus pandemic to expedite its appropriation of Palestinian land. “They use the fact that the Palestinians cannot demonstrate, cannot object, and that the international community is distracted by this international crisis,” he said, noting that home demolitions and the confiscation of water resources in the West Bank have increased in recent weeks. In Gaza, he noted that Israel has recently escalated its spraying of pesticides on Palestinian fields and its harassment of fishermen.

The scholar also cautioned that the thinking guiding Israel’s plans to annex much of the West Bank is reminiscent of the ideology that led to the 1948 Nakba, when Jewish militias forcefully removed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. Like 1948, he said, “the intent is to depoliticize the Palestine issue,” by treating the Palestinians as paupers in need of economic development, rather than an occupied and besieged people in need of a dignified homeland. “The whole idea is to say there is no political issue in Palestine anymore, there is only the humanitarian, an issue that can be solved with a businesslike approach, by injecting some money into Palestine,” Pappe said.

The webinar was part of an effort to raise awareness about Kinder USA’s work. Last Ramadan alone, the nonprofit contributed food to 3,200 families in Gaza. Kinder USA’s Maha Awad said their assistance program tackles multiple issues at once.

For instance, they provide seeds to Palestinian farmers, and then purchase crops from those farmers, giving the produce to individuals in need. The organization is thus able to facilitate employment and ensure nutritional food for the needy all at once.

Awad noted that just $130 can feed a family for an entire month. For more information, and to learn how to support their work, visit <kinderusa.org>.

Kinder USA’s Ramadan video series also included professor Juan Cole and Norwegian physician Mads Gilbert. Both interviews, as well as Pappe’s, can be found at <Facebook.com/KinderUSA>.

—Samir Twair

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A total of 28 states have adopted legislation targeting the rights of Americans to boycott Israel. While the laws vary from state to state, they tend to penalize individuals who engage in a boycott of Israel and define criticism of Israel as a form of anti-Semitism.

On April 14, the Foundation for Middle East Peace held a webinar to delve into these relentless efforts to quash and criminalize open debate about Israeli policies.

Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace said supporters of Israel, unable to defend its policies toward Palestinians, have turned to legislation to stifle discussion in the U.S. “When its policies and behavior get harder to defend, the only answer, increasingly, is to shut down the criticism, shut down the debate,” she observed.

Dima Khalidi of Palestine Legal pointed out that the Israeli government is overtly promoting these U.S. laws. “We know that, for example, [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu actually asked the governor of Kentucky to issue an anti-BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] executive order, and he said ‘yeah, of course, sure, I’ll do it for you,’” she noted. “It’s quite fascinating the leverage that Israel has here with our elected officials, and they are pushing this legislation actively.”

Khalidi noted that the right to boycott has been affirmed time and again by the Supreme Court, though she is concerned the current conservative-leaning court could reverse that right if it takes up a case involving criticism of Israel. “The effects could be really widespread,” resulting in an affront on a basic right cherished by all Americans, she said. “We’re talking about the right to be able to boycott, it’s dangerous.”

Both Friedman and Khalidi condemned proponents of anti-boycott legislation for cynically and disingenuously using charges of anti-Semitism to silence debate. “This is a political project to define criticism of Israel, to define Palestinian advocacy as anti-Semitic and discriminatory,” Khalidi said.

Friedman noted that many of the laws adopt the International Holocaust Remem58

Twenty-eight states (shown in red) have adopted anti-boycott legislation. Fourteen (in dark blue) have introduced anti-boycott legislation. Only 8 states (in light blue) have not considered such legislation. brance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antiSemitism, which states that individuals or organizations focused on criticizing Israeli policies are engaging in anti-Semitism because they are not also targeting other countries. She said such a definition is akin to accusing someone focused on protecting one particular animal species of not caring about other species, or suggesting that an individual committed to fighting one particular disease does not care about the fight to eradicate other illnesses. “You have to care about everything, or you can’t care about anything when it comes to Israel,” she pointed out.

Friedman said the effort to equate critics of Israel with anti-Semitism at a time when clear, indisputable acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise is indefensible. Since President Donald Trump signed an executive order in Dec. 2019 allowing the Department of Education to adopt the IHRA definition of antiSemitism, 15 or so complaints about antiSemitism on college campuses have been filed. “In an era of surging white supremacist Nazi anti-Semitism, every one of those complaints is about criticism of Israel,” she noted. “To me that suggests that there is something else going on here other than worrying about anti-Semitism.”

Despite the abundance of troubling state legislation, Friedman said there is reason for hope. She noted that grassroots action

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has stalled anti-boycott legislation in the Senate. “The fundamental reason it hasn’t passed is because the grassroots actually got involved,” she said. “People realized what this was and said ‘holy crap, no way.’

You can watch online videos of activists getting up at town hall meetings and saying to members of Congress, ‘you can’t support this.’ What’s happening at the grassroots is real and it’s vibrant, and it’s not going away.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Russia, China and the U.S.: Who Has the Best Middle East Policy?

The Middle East Institute held an online discussion with two renowned scholars of international affairs on April 16 to assess the role of the U.S., China and Russia in the Middle East.

Harvard University Professor Stephen Walt began by arguing that China and Russia have played limited roles in the region. “China has been willing to have a rather detached relationship toward the Middle East, quite possibly because they realize its strategic importance might actually be going down,” he said.

It’s also likely “they’ve watched the American experience there for the last 20 plus years, and have seen this as an enormous quagmire where the United States has actually weakened its overall position by trying to manage, run and transform the JUNE/JULY 2020

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State-Level Efforts to Stifle Free Speech on Israel Continue

entire region,” he added. “One could even argue that Beijing is playing a very sensible game here, which is to let the United States continue to expend resources in the Middle East to no good purpose, while it stays out.”

MIT Professor Barry Posen added that China sees value in being flexible and not bogged down in any part of the world. “The last thing they want to be a part of is any kind of architectural thinking about the Middle East or Persian Gulf,” he said.

As for Russia, Walt dismissed the significance of their ability to prevent the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Syria is not a major strategic asset for anybody, and it’s especially not much of an asset now that they’ve had a punishing, devastating civil war,” he said. “If you put that in the Russian win column, it’s not much of a win from any sort of larger strategic perspective.”

Posen concurred that Moscow’s military operations in Syria are not a sign that it’s gaining significant sway over the region.

Rather, he believes Russia is pushing the envelope in Syria. “They seem to want even more influence over events than maybe their actual power should allow,” he said.

Russia’s insistence on projecting strength in the region does limit the potential for Moscow and Washington to work together to bring about peaceful solutions to conflicts, Posen reasoned. “The only card the Russians have to play is the destructive card,” he said. “It’s hard to be in a cooperative venture if the main card you have to play is a wrecking crew card.”

Walt interjected that observers must refrain from describing Russia as the principal impediment to peace. “I think we ought to recognize that the United States has not been trying to stabilize the Middle East,” he said. “Step one would be to get the United States to decide it wants to stabilize the region, and then see if you can get China and Russia to agree with that.”

However, he acknowledged that the numerous and overlapping divisions among regional actors makes it unlikely that the outside powers could bring about peace, even if they were somehow unified.

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China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (r) shakes hands with Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif during a meeting in Beijing on Dec. 31, 2019.

Posen concurred with this assessment and argued that it would be wise for the U.S. to stop thinking it can manufacture outcomes in the region. “This is a pretty fissiparous part of the world, and the idea of trying to generate an architecture for such a fissiparous area is kind of, to me, quixotic on the face of it,” he said. “I don’t think anything especially ambitious is really possible.”

One important strategic adjustment the U.S. could make is rethinking its foolish insistence on playing favorites in the region, Walt said. “Stop having special relations with some countries and no relations with some other countries [notably Iran],” he implored. “Right now we have strategic relationships with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, maybe Jordan—and these are countries that can do pretty much whatever they want without facing a whole lot of pressure from the United States.”

He juxtaposed this with the more diplomatic Russian and Chinese approaches.

“One of the differences is Russia and China talk to everybody…and that’s how you get influence,” he noted. “We do the exact opposite. We talk to some countries, back them to the hilt, and don’t talk to the others, which means the former take us for granted, and we have no influence with the latter.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Trump’s “Maximum Pressure” Campaign on Iran Debated

Washington, DC’s Atlantic Council hosted a May 11 webcast on the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign and re-imposition of economic sanctions two years after it withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran.

The effects of the “maximum pressure” campaign have not increased stability in the Middle East but, rather, “instability has been the result, particularly in the last year since the U.S. decided to try to prevent Iran from exporting any oil,” said Barbara Slavin, director of the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative. “We’ve seen the United States and Iran come the closest I have ever seen them come to direct conflict since the hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq War. The world is much more dangerous; the Middle East is much more dangerous as a result of the administration’s policy.”

Slavin stressed her concern over the deepening of the divide between the United States and its closest allies in Europe. “The Europeans tried to work on a better deal,” she said. “They have made many offers but, unfortunately, the U.S. is still trying to push the Europeans into positions that they don’t want to take. This is very damaging.”

The impact of the sanctions on ordinary Iranians, combined with COVID-19, have been “catastrophic,” Slavin added. “This

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was an opportunity for the U.S. to show some mercy and, although we say the words, we have not really made it easier for humanitarian supplies to go to Iran.”

Eric Lorber of the hawkish, Israel-linked Foundation for Defense of Democracies voiced his opinion that economic pressure must be linked to a specific set of policy objectives. “I think that the administration’s conclusion is that the strategy itself is working, but that it needs more time to work.”

David Mortlock, Atlantic Council senior fellow and member of the think tank’s Sanctions Initiative, explained that the “maximum pressure” campaign has made it more difficult for the U.S. to accomplish its goals, such as hindering Iran’s advancement of its ballistic missile program and preventing human rights abuses.

“It has made it more difficult to accomplish those goals by fracturing the international coalition that previous administrations had built to pressure Iran,” he said. “We need that coalition because sanctions work better when there is a multilateral approach led by the U.S.—not imposed by the U.S. and contrary to the rest of the world—because sanctions by themselves are not going to be enough to achieve those outcomes from Iran. One way or another, through this administration or another, we need to reorient in order to improve the situation with Iran.”

—Elaine Pasquini

Reflections on American and European Policy in Syria

On April 4, Just World Educational held an online discussion with Mona Yacoubian of the United States Institute of Peace titled, “U.S. Policy Toward Syria.” The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft hosted a similar webinar on May 6 titled, “Rethinking U.S. and European Policy Towards Syria,” featuring Dr. Rim Turkmani of the London School of Economics, Julien Barnes-Dacey of the European Council on Foreign Relations and Steven Simon of the Quincy Institute.

Yacoubian argued that a different Syria policy during the Obama administration would have made a positive difference in the number of civilian casualties in the country’s civil war. The decision by Presi60

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Iranians line up outside a money exchange office in Tehran on May 9. dent Barack Obama in August 2011 to demand that Syrian President Bashar alAssad step down was “the most consequential decision the Obama administration took with regard to Syria,” she argued.

Obama believed, she continued, that “it was a moral statement, it was a statement about being on the right side of history. It was less about regime change…”

This statement, however, was perceived as a call for regime change and also raised the expectations of the Syrian opposition, Yacoubian observed. But Obama, she argued, was ambivalent about using military force in Syria from the beginning, believing there “were no clear U.S. national security interests implicated at that time.”

The U.S. goal, Yacoubian explained, was to pressure Assad to the negotiating table, not to forcibly remove him from power. After the U.S. intervention against ISIS began in 2014, the Obama administration shifted its attention in Syria from the Assad regime to defeating the militant group, she noted.

Rather than being influenced by the U.S. experience in Iraq, Yacoubian’s research indicates that events in Syria were viewed through the lens of the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya. “This decision in Libya, it impacted every one of the key protagonists in Syria,” she said. Assad was es-

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pecially mindful of Libya, and he wanted to prevent a similar Responsibility to Protect mission from going through the U.N. Security Council.

“Western policy is still focused on a transition agenda and the U.S. in particular is looking at how it can use its tools of pressure to further that goal,” Barnes-Dacey said. He also opined that a political transition is unattainable and that focusing on it will contribute to Syria’s decline.

The U.S. needs to shift away from the transition agenda and acknowledge that Assad will remain in power, while helping Syrian civil society. Only Syrian society, he said, can make the desired changes to the country in the long term.

He advocated for assisting groups that are non-political and that focus on localized small projects to rebuild core infrastructure. “There is no societal support mechanism underlying the American and European approach to Syria today,” he lamented.

Turkmani observed that the humanitarian situation in Syria continues to deteriorate despite the decline in violence. “As a result of the war, the failing policies of the regime, and the [Western] economic sanctions, more than 85 percent of the Syrian people live under the poverty line,” she said.

Sanctions, she continued, have an impact on exchange rates, the ability to JUNE/JULY 2020

A Russian military vehicle drives past a U.S. military truck near the village of Tannuriyah, in northeast Syria, on May 2.

import and export, and international banks refusing to work with Syria. She added that sanctions have contributed to the shift from a largely formal economy to a largely informal economy, which means that there is now a much higher level of corruption.

Regarding the possibility of a ceasefire, Turkmani said that a major obstacle is geopolitics—specifically the competition between the U.S. and Russia, the U.S. and Iran, and Saudi Arabia and Iran. She also argued that the sanctions have actually weakened the West’s leverage, as Syrian exports to Europe have dropped to almost zero and the country is consequentially completely dependent on Russia, Iran and China.

Despite an unclear level of interest from President Donald Trump that has resulted in Syria policy being put on “autopilot,” Simon argued that U.S. policy in Syria is still focused on regime change. For supporters of this policy, any signs of regime weakness indicate that U.S. pressure is working and therefore there is resistance to the idea of easing pressure and focusing on reconstruction.

There are two perceptions about the nature of Assad’s power in Syria, he explained. On the one hand, there are those who think Assad is a puppet of Russia and Iran, on the other hand are those who think that Assad is the true power in Syria. Simon falls in the latter camp.

—Alex Shanahan JUNE/JULY 2020

Negotiating Peace in War-Torn, Coronavirus-Stricken Yemen

COVID-19 has spread throughout the country, particularly in the STC-controlled coastal city of Aden.

Dr. Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi, Yemen’s former minister of foreign affairs, pointed out in an April 28 webcast hosted by the Washington, DC-based Gulf International Forum that the virus’ spread is just another crisis for the country. Yemen is already confronting war-induced malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and cholera.

“People have been dying not from COVID-19 but from malnutrition, lack of medical care and medications,” he said.

“Ending the war will resolve many of the sufferings of the Yemenis.”

Conducting the online interview, Barbara K. Bodine, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, asked Al-Qirbi his assessment of the challenges U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths faces in attempting to broker a peace agreement.

He said Yemenis do not want a piecemeal plan. “People are not interested in an interim solution,” Al-Qirbi stated. “They want a comprehensive solution to the conflict and the suffering of the Yemeni people.”

Previous attempts at negotiations between the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, cur-

Five years after Yemen’s devastating war began, a comprehensive peace agreement has still not been negotiated between the parties.

The situation was further complicated in April when the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), part of the Saudi Arabia and UAE-backed anti-Houthi coalition, declared self-rule in areas of the country under its control. Alkhader Sulaiman, a spokesperson for the STC in the U.S., described the decision as one born of necessity.

“This is not an event that just sprung out of nowhere,” he told Al Jazeera. “This is a pile-up of mismanagement, misgovernance, especially in south Yemen, which has been Houthi-less for four years now. Unfortunately, things have deteriorated humanitarian wise. The situation, in terms of basic services, is minimal.”

The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic has further complicated the already dire situation in Yemen.

Even though adequate testing does not exist to measure Dr. Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi, former Yemeni minister of foreign its prevalence, the World affairs, at the Gulf International Forum conference in Health Organization believes Washington, DC on Oct. 17, 2019.

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Corps. “The health system has collapsed and is unready for this challenge….Make no mistake, it will be impossible to contain this pandemic amidst an active conflict.”

Thousands of refugees and migrants remain in abysmal detention centers, where they face grave risk of human rights abuses, she explained. “Not only do the camps and detention centers make it very hard to provide safe treatment, they offer the exact conditions that will allow this virus to flourish, such as cholera, TB, dirty water and poor sanitation.”

The fastest way to save lives in Libya is to end the conflict by “enforcing an arms embargo and putting diplomatic pressure on the warring parties and their backers,” Doherty stated. “In the near term, negotiating a cease-fire, humanitarian truces and funding a strong COVID-19 humanitarian response are necessary.”

Jason Pack, MEI nonresident fellow and founder of Libya-Analysis, LLC, outlined the economic dimensions of the war.

One focal point of the civil war, he noted, is control of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL). Slightly over one year ago, Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-proclaimed eastern-based Libyan National Army, attempted an unsuccessful takeover of the CBL in Tripoli. “Now the fight over the CBL has gone to another dimension, and that is the court of international public opinion, and

rently in exile in Saudi Arabia, and the rebel Houthis who control northern Yemen, have failed to end the crisis, which soon, according to the United Nations, will make Yemen the world’s poorest country per capita.

The issues to be renegotiated include territory, the constitution, disarmament of militias, control of government institutions and the type of democratic system Yemen will have, Al-Qirbi said.

“The special envoy has the challenge of how to put together all of these documents from Kuwait [negotiations] that are in his hands which address all of these issues, and go with this to the United Nations Security Council to be approved,” Al-Qirbi stated. “This would give them the guarantees that may be needed because of the mistrust once the process of implementation takes place.”

Bodine suggested it was time to “place focus back on the Yemenis to find a resolution to the issues, work through the agreement and come up with a solution that fits Yemen and what it needs and wants.”

Looking toward his country’s future, AlQirbi stressed the need for Yemen to manage and use its own resources, restore the economy and “put a halt to corruption that has existed in the past.”

—Elaine Pasquini

Washington, DC’s Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted an April 7 virtual roundtable on the recently published Chatham House research paper, “Community Dynamics and Economic Interests of Libyan Armed Groups.”

While the United Nations and several countries have called for a global cease-fire during the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Libya continues unabated. On March 31, an artillery shell hit a Tripoli hospital forcing the evacuation of patients and staff. Pipelines to a Tripoli water facility were also hit, leaving faucets dry at a time when hand washing is a critical defense against the coronavirus.

“All of this is occurring against the backdrop of a conflict that has killed more than 2,000 and displaced more than 150,000 people,” said Megan Doherty, senior director for policy and advocacy for Mercy 62

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Libyan Civil War Hinders Virus Response

not just Libyan public opinion,” Pack stated.

“And that is going to lead to all of these fights going into a legal battle.”

The social legitimacy of the armed groups was the focus of Abdul Rahman AlAgeli, associate fellow in the MENA program and co-author of the Chatham House paper. “Maintaining security in Libya…is based on the central management of socially legitimate armed groups who have the power on the ground, rather than traditional military or security institutions that run a particular area regardless of social legitimacy,” Al-Ageli maintained. “The armed groups reflect the social reality, whether it’s cosmopolitan in major cities, or whether they represent a family or a group of families, or whether it’s a broader clan or tribe.”

Every region of Libya has its own armed groups. “In Misrata, it is not a coincidence that the number of armed groups are the same as the number of families—around 280 armed groups and around 280 families,” he pointed out.

—Elaine Pasquini

Football as Politics: The Cases of Iraq, Egypt and the GCC

The intersection of soccer (henceforth referred to as football) and Middle East politics was the subject of a May 4 webinar led

by Dr. Abdullah Al-Arian, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar. The talk was sponsored by the Is-

Young Libyans at the beach in Tripoli enjoy a break from the heat and the coronavirus lockdown, on May 3.

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tanbul-based Center for Islam and Global Affairs.

Al-Arian argued that leaders have always used football as a political tool. “This is really a practice that I would argue is as old as the sport itself,” he said.

This was the case, he explained, in 1957, when Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Africa formed the Confederation of African Football. Al-Arian said Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser viewed it as “an act of decolonization” that symbolized the continent’s determination to be autonomous.

Nasser and other leaders also saw it as a way to make a strong statement against apartheid, as South Africa was quickly expelled from the organization in 1958 for insisting on fielding segregated teams.

“Domestically, Gamal Abdel Nasser understood the power of football to mobilize people in Egypt,” Al-Arian added. The leader launched massive construction projects to build football facilities and, among other moves, bestowed military honors on players to tie the state to the beloved sport.

Nasser’s successors also capitalized on the sport’s popularity in attempts to legitimize their rule and maintain authoritarian control over the country, Al-Arian said.

After Egypt’s devastating loss to its archrival Algeria in a 2009 World Cup qualifying match, Al-Arian noted that President Hosni Mubarak “fired up the flames of jingoistic nationalism to serve his own ends” by using popular anger to stoke a diplomatic crisis with Algiers. Mubarak gave his son Gamal a prominent role in the anti-Algeria media campaign launched by government-owned outlets, hoping it would boost his popularity and legitimize his eventual takeover of the country.

Al-Arian said the move ultimately backfired, as the resulting upheaval gave rise to voices questioning government failures and its use of violence against citizens.

Current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi similarly appropriated the national football team ahead of the 2018 World Cup, Al-Arian said. Notably, the Egyptian Football Association endorsed Sisi in the 2018 presidential election. While the endorsement was a direct violation of FIFA rules, the international governing body never penalized Egypt.

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Members of Iraq’s national football team prepare for the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Bush administration used the team’s unexpected success to legitimize its invasion of the country.

Sisi’s regime has also capitalized on the popularity of star player Mohamed Salah by, among other things, using his image without authorization in several ad campaigns and selling access to him and other players. AlArian pointed out that many believe this exploitation put a mental and physical toll on the team and hindered their performance on the field. “The Egyptian regime’s overzealous attempts to exploit football ended up being a spectacular failure,” he stated.

A decade earlier, Al-Arian said President George W. Bush used the unexpected success of the Iraqi national team in the 2004 Athens Olympics to legitimize the United States’ occupation of the country. With the active assistance of the U.S. corporate media, the White House depicted the team’s success as a result of the freedom and prosperity made possible by Washington’s toppling of Saddam Hussain.

Saddam’s son, Uday, was infamous for his tyrannical control over the national football team, which included torturing players for poor performance.

Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries, meanwhile, have used football as a means to take geopolitical stands, build their soft power influence and counteract negative publicity, Al-Arian said.

Qatar’s winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup punctuated its ongoing efforts to

improve its image via cultural, educational and media initiatives. Beyond hosting the tournament, the country boosted its sports profile by purchasing the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) football club in 2011. After the Saudi Arabia and UAE-backed blockade against Qatar was launched in 2017, AlArian said these soft power victories became a way to project strength and independence in the face of attempts to isolate the country.

In 2008, a member of the UAE’s ruling family purchased the popular Manchester City football club, a move that Al-Arian said was also meant to boost the country’s global image. According to Al-Arian, the country used the opportunity to make powerful connections in the United Kingdom, which they leveraged, in part, to plant antiQatar news items in the press.

—Dale Sprusansky

HUMAN RIGHTS Refugees and the Displaced Left Vulnerable Amid Health Crisis

On April 17, Washington, DC’s Middle East Institute (MEI) held an online discussion on the challenges facing humanitarian groups helping refugees and displaced communities in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Yemen during the COVID-19 crisis.

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Moderator Randa Slim, director of MEI’s Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Initiative, reminded viewers that among the world’s 70 million displaced people a disproportionate number reside in the Middle East, with Lebanon hosting the largest number of refugees per capita. Historically, “the Lebanese government’s response to deal with the refugee community, especially the Syrian refugee community, has suffered from a lot of inadequacies and weaknesses, and now adding to it is the COVID crisis,” she said.

Unlike in Jordan, the majority of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are not in camps, but live either in formal settlements or communities, prompting Slim to ask if they face scapegoating or discrimination.

“Already we have been noticing increased tensions between host communities and Syrian refugees as both communities struggle economically,” said Aya Majzoub, Human Rights Watch researcher for Lebanon and Bahrain. “It is not helped by xenophobic rhetoric from politicians who need a scapegoat for their horrendous failure in containing the coronavirus outbreak and providing economic assistance to people.”

One major concern is the issue of legal residency, she said, “because more than

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A worker sprays disinfectant in the streets of Shatila refugee camp, home to displaced Palestinians, in southern Beirut, on March 24.

three-quarters of Syrian refugees don’t have residency in Lebanon.” This means “they are vulnerable to arrest, especially at checkpoints. With so many security forces around the country monitoring the lockdown, Syrians are understandably scared to travel to seek medical treatment as they fear arrest and even deportation.”

An additional fear, she said, is that there will be less funding from the international community after the crisis ends.

In Syria, some people have been displaced multiple times, Kieren Barnes, Syrian country director for Mercy Corps, said, noting that people are living in camps, under olive trees and renting space in fields, and are relying on organizations to bring food and water on a daily basis.

With the lockdowns that have been put in place in the region, one key concern is access to medical supplies, particularly those slated to enter northeast Syria through Iraq. “The movement of commercial goods is vital to organizations accessing PPE [personal protective equipment] and food supplies,” Barnes said. “For us who are providing regular life-sustaining services to communities, we need authorities to allow movement as they try and control population groups.”

The long-term economic impact of the crisis is also of great concern. “We are

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thinking about day-to-day assistance at the moment,” Barnes said, “but we are also starting to think about what comes later this year and next year as the greater economic impact hits, which will have a direct impact on displaced populations.”

Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a critical care specialist and president and founder of MedGlobal, focused on the situation in Syria, specifically in Idlib where the community has been displaced several times.

“I was in Idlib in January…where there are now about 3.5 million civilians,” the doctor said. “Some 1.2 million live in camps which could have anywhere from 50 to 500 tents. The situation is very difficult and there are limited resources.”

Sahloul said this crisis should be used to reflect on the horrors people voluntarily inflict on one another: “I hope that all parties—be they in Yemen or Syria, use this to make peace and stop fighting and stop the displacement and bombing of hospitals. We have seen in Syria in the last [year] the bombing of 67 hospitals by the Syrian government and the Russians in Idlib.”

He urged all parties to “use this [crisis] to open a new page and start a peace process that will be translated into benefits, well-being and health care to all parties. I hope this situation will change mindsets.”

—Elaine Pasquini JUNE/JULY 2020

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AlAraby Jadeed, Amman, Jordan MARCH/APRIL JUNE/JULY 2020 2016

The Khaleej Times, Dubai, UAE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Middle East Books Review All books featured in this section are available from Middle East Books and More, the nation’s preeminent bookstore on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy. www.MiddleEastBooks.com • (202) 939-6050 ext. 1

Promoting Democracy: The Force of Political Settlements in Uncertain Times

By Manal A. Jamal, New York University Press, 2019, paperback, 319 pp. MEB: $34

Reviewed by Sami Tayeb

Have you ever wondered why Western funded democracy promotion efforts are successful in some countries but fail in others? Associate Professor Manal Jamal at James Madison University explores this phenomenon in her new book, Promoting Democracy. Primarily focusing on the cases of Palestine and El Salvador, she analyzes how international aid programs in each country have led to strikingly different outcomes. Composed of seven chapters, Promoting Democracy is an in-depth study of Western development aid programs and their successes and failures. The book is the result of years of research, multiple fieldwork visits and over 150 interviews with actors from all spectrums of society who are involved with international aid programs.

While many authors and critics cite the failure of Western sponsored democracy promotion efforts with the problems often associated with the professionalization of NGOs and the emergence of an NGO elite class that often results with the influx of foreign aid money, Jamal contends that the failure is linked to the very political settlement that prevailed after years of conflict.

Sami Tayeb is director of Middle East Books and More and an independent researcher who frequently writes about the political economy of the Middle East, Palestine and urban development in the region.

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She argues that the type of settlement that was agreed upon and whether it was inclusive or exclusive to the majority of societal actors is what determines the success of democracy promotion efforts. That is, if a political settlement is more inclusive then the chance for success is higher, and if it is not, then the opposite will be true.

Jamal notes that the political settlement itself does not ensure the success of democracy promotion efforts, but it does determine who gets funding from Western donors that support the political settlement.

This uneven distribution of funds from Western donors creates schisms within society often exacerbating preexisting tensions already present among different political groups, grassroots organizations and NGOs, as can be witnessed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS). In Palestine, the way funds are distributed works to give a greater voice to organizations that support the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority and marginalize those that are in opposition. The book dedicates an entire chapter on Western aid after Hamas won

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

the 2006 elections. A different, successful outcome was achieved in El Salvador mainly because most parties were represented when their peace accords were signed in 1992.

Remarkably, El Salvador was a more successful case than Palestine, despite massive amounts of aid being spent in the WBGS by Western donors. To a certain extent, the projects that aid money prioritized also played a role in each country’s success or failure. Western aid to El Salvador was in line with the aid that was being directed to other countries in South America, which focused on developing liberal free-market economies and local governance, while in Palestine aid was distributed to advance democratic reforms and civil society.

Jamal gives a fascinating and detailed account of the history of mass-based grassroots organizations both before political settlements in each country were reached and how these organizations were transformed as a result of the settlement, with additional chapters focusing on specific issues related to donor aid and (non)inclusive settlements.

Her engagement with the available literature on development studies demonstrates her mastery of this subject.

This book has more than just carved a niche for itself among this literature. It raises questions that many practitioners in development programs fail to consider or incorporate into their programs—they may find it problematic to rethink their entire programs. Academics and students of development studies alike would also be well served in reading this book. A closer look at how Palestinian development aid is not only restricted by the Israeli occupation but also how it circulates back into the Israeli economy would be a welcome discussion in the book. While oriented toward academics and perhaps practitioners, Promoting Democracy is a timely book that any reader of the Washington Report would find fascinating as well as informative.

New Waw, Saharan Oasis

By Ibrahim Al-Koni, translated by William M. Hutchins, University of Texas Press, 2014, paperback, 166 pp. MEB: $18

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Reviewed by Eleni Zaras

“You’re no bird, bird. Winged people, you are us.”

In New Waw: Saharan Oasis, it is said that the birds are disturbing to the sedentary communities, but are good-omened messengers to the nomads, bearing secrets of the Spirit World.

Migration, common to the birds and the nomads, dictated the patterns and ways of life of the Tuareg tribes in the rocky, barren Hammada. The birds migrate north, then back south again, and the nomads “migrate in search of Waw,” or, the “lost oasis” that may never be found. Nevertheless, just as the birds “don’t stop migrating, we [the nomads] don’t stop searching.”

But what if they do stop searching? What if they believe they have found Waw? New Waw: Saharan Oasis by Ibrahim AlKoni immerses the reader in the realm of a desert tribe at what seems to be the end of this search. Although the Law says to migrate, the Leader, a poet who sacrificed everything for the tribe, becomes entranced by a bird’s song and resists, despite the council of elders’ disapproval. When the Leader suddenly passes, the once-skeptical council decides to respect his wish and settle.

As the tribe transitions into sedentary life, they grapple with questions of how to survive, how to adapt, and how to live in concert with the forces of nature.

The people of the desert, or the “waste-

Eleni Zaras is the assistant director at Middle East Books and More. She has a BA in the History of Art from the University of Michigan and a masters degree in History at the Universite Paris Diderot.

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land” as it is often called in New Waw, lack due representation in literature, especially in translation. Born in 1948, Ibrahim Al-Koni is originally from a Libyan Tuareg tribe, but studied in Moscow and writes in Arabic, although his native language is Tamasheq.

He strives to fill this gap in literature, speaking not only for the Tuareg people, but for the desert itself. Translator William Hutchins’ introduction also aptly situates the novel not just within Tuareg or Arabic literature, but within “literature of landscape.”

The power of nature is revealed early on, as the Leader hears and is altered by the bird’s song in the retem grove. “Indeed, the tune became more sorrowful and increasingly sweet and delightful. Then all the jinn in his breast awoke. They listened, reveled, and entered ecstatic trances, carrying him off through time to return to him what time had taken...He saw what the desert had hidden from him. He saw what time had snatched from him. So he wept.”

The animals, land, and forces of nature play equally important roles in the tribe’s community as the people themselves. The Spirit World, too, interjects through symbols and avatars, or by inciting mind-altering, frenzied passions. Human characters are labeled more often by their role or symbolic type, than by a personalizing name. This lack of specificity in characterization also goes beyond the people: “The desert I am talking about,” Al-Koni acknowledges, “is a metaphor for the world, an allegory for the world.”

Defying linear plot lines and timelines, we wander through space and time with the nomads in the “labyrinth of the wasteland.”

The short chapters shuffle through events and perspectives, revealing various facets of the story through often enigmatic language. Time, too, passes mysteriously, discerned through changes to the land or in nature and light, or signs of aging in the few characters we know by name.

New Waw raises concrete and timeless questions, even if at times cloaked in poetry and symbolism. How should a society transition from nomadic to sedentary life? How should the community physically delimit, plan and structure their space? How should they manage relations with outsiders? Can

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they preserve their customs and heritage despite their new way of life?

Philosophically, the tribesmen ask, “How can we hope to preserve anything that we, who are an evanescent people, have brought into existence? How can vanishing offspring knead something transitory with their hands and shape it into immortal dough? All existing things, Master, fade away, and everyone who is born dies.”

Oscillating between fatalism and idealism, myth and reality, New Waw: Saharan Oasis is at once disconcerting and enlightening. Reading it is intoxicating, and setting the book down is like a rude awakening from a fantastical dream that had not yet reached its end.

New Waw: Saharan Oasis was published in Arabic in 1999 and Hutchins’ 2014 translation won the National Translation Award. It is the first of a trilogy, followed by The Puppet and The Scarecrow, also translated by Hutchins and available at Middle East Books and More.

Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century

By Johnny Farraj and Sami Abu Shumays, Oxford University Press, 2019, paperback, 480 pp. MEB: $40

Reviewed by AJ Goldstein

Through their new book, Inside Arabic Music, authors Johnny Farraj and Sami Abu Shumays offer a rich investigation into the practice, history and theory of Arabic music. The book is a remarkable and significant contribution to the scholarship and performance to the field of Arabic music.

Their accessible language and methodical 67

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structuring allow readers to build a common vocabulary and deepen their understanding of the music. This contrasts with most of the literature written in English in this field, which often contains obtuse academic language that many readers find difficult to comprehend. In the same note, the book also circumvents the language barrier that is often present in theory books written in Arabic that have their own problems of using outdated theories about the fundamentals of musical function as a basis for their theorizing. While the book is oriented toward musicians, avid listeners of Arabic music can also benefit from reading this book. Although, it should be noted that much of the book assumes a basic level of musical literacy for the reader, specifically that they can read a time signature and notes written on a treble clef.

Farraj and Abu Shumays are performers in the tradition of Arabic maqam (pl. maqamat), an intricate system of musical modes practiced in the Arab world. Beginning with tangible aspects of Arabic music perfor-

mance (instruments, performance settings, song forms, etc.), they move methodically into the development of a novel theoretical framework for the interpretation and application of Arabic maqam. They also grapple with the expansiveness of the term “Arabic music” by focusing on their collective area of expertise, the period of music referred to as the “Golden Era” of Arabic music (music between the 1930s-’60s performed along the Mediterranean from Egypt to Syria).

This era included monolithic figures such as Umm Kulthum, Fairuz, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, and Farid al-Atrash. These artists and others sang, performed and distributed their music to audiences through the mass media for the first time in history.

In addition to the authors having a background in music from this era, this music is also widely popular across the Arab world, making it an excellent starting point to connect with Arab musicians from other regions and musical traditions.

This accessibility bridges the gap between musicians without a personal or cul-

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tural background in Arabic music and musicians who do have this background. By arming both groups with the same vernacular, it facilitates communication between the one group with little theory or intuitive understanding, and the other who will often understand why music is the way it is, but not always know how to precisely articulate this in terms of the theory.

Abu Shumays is the main author for the chapters that pertain to theory in the book, and his novel theory on the functioning of Arabic maqamat is undoubtedly the most flexible available for musicians. The authors also dissect many different metaphors, which have been used by masters of maqam throughout history in teaching the art to their students, and take the strengths of each to present a theory that is most faithful to the actual performance of maqam itself. This theory will likely become a hallmark of Arabic music education for many years to come.

The book also serves readers well with its inclusion of listening suggestions throughout the book. Keeping true to the dominance of oral tradition in Arabic music, readers will find recommendations (often in lists) of famous pieces given in the description of every instrument, song form, rhythm, performance practice, etc. throughout the book. Most theoretical points are also reinforced with examples within the music itself, making the book an ideal reference for readers; one which they are bound to return to in order to expand their repertoire in a structured and meaningful way.

Overall, Inside Arabic Music is a landmark piece of literature for countless students of Arabic music such as myself, and I cannot recommend this work highly enough to those who wish to become more immersed in Arabic music. I have no doubt that Inside Arabic Music will become a cornerstone of education for lovers and performers of Arabic music, and it deserves a prized place in every enthusiast’s collection.

AJ (Haroun) Goldstein holds a B.A. in music from the College of William and Mary, where he performed oud in the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble and dedicated his thesis to a tradition of Moroccan sung poetry called malhoun.

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We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love and Resistance

By Linda Sarsour, 37 Ink, 2020, hardcover, 272 pp. MEB: $24

Reviewed by Delinda C. Hanley

In the interests of full disclosure, this reviewer has been star-struck by community organizer Linda Sarsour since April 19, 2012. That’s when I heard her speak at a Capitol Hill briefing about the direct impact of racial profiling and NYPD surveillance on her community in Brooklyn, NY. The entire world became acquainted with the Palestinian-American-Muslim activist for racial justice and civil rights when she co-organized the Jan. 21, 2017 Women’s March on Washington, the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Her inspiring speech urged marchers to find causes in their local communities to be a part of. “We have no choice,” she said. “We can no longer be complacent in this country. We can't be apathetic. We cannot stay unengaged.”

Sarsour’s riveting memoir, We are Not Here to Be Bystanders, traces how she first learned this lesson, watching her immigrant father treat all his diverse customers like family in his small market in Crown Heights. She also witnessed injustice in her high school as police hauled away scuffling black students and ignored similar infractions by white students.

Sarsour described the horrible 9/11 attacks, and the aftermath for her community: “In a matter of weeks, we all had been transformed from ordinary, everyday New Yorkers who happened to worship as Muslims to a suspect class.” Unmarked cars JUNE/JULY 2020

N E W A R R I VA L S How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs: The Syrian Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of its Historic Liberal-Islamic Alliance, by Elizabeth F. Thompson, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020, hardcover, 496 pp.

MEB $27. How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs is the story of a pivotal moment in modern world history, when Arabs established a representative democracy―and how the West crushed it. When Europe’s Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied with the British on the promise of an independent Arab state. In October 1918, the Arabs’ military leader, Prince Faisal, victoriously entered Damascus and proclaimed a constitutional government in an independent Greater Syria. France and Britain refused to recognize the Damascus government and instead imposed a system of mandates on the pretext that Arabs were not yet ready for self-government. Using previously untapped primary sources, Thompson presents a groundbreaking account of an extraordinary, brief moment of unity and hope―and of its destruction.

Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula, by Laleh Khalili, Verso, 2020, hardcover, 368 pp. MEB $28. On the map of global trade, China is now the factory of the world. A parade of ships full of raw commodities arrive in its ports, and fleets of container ships leave with manufactured goods in all directions. The oil that fuels China’s manufacturing comes primarily from the Arabian peninsula. Sinews of War and Trade is the story of what the making of new ports and shipping infrastructure has meant, not only for the Arabian Peninsula itself, but for the region and the world beyond. It presents how maritime transportation is not simply an enabling companion of trade, but central to the very fabric of global capitalism. The ports that serve maritime trade, logistics, and hydrocarbon transport create racialized hierarchies of labor, engineer the lived environment, aid the accumulation of capital regionally and globally, and carry forward colonial regimes of profit, law and administration.

The Quarter, by Naguib Mahfouz, translated by Roger Allen, Saqi Books, 2019, hardcover, 128 pp. MEB $15.

Meet the people of Cairo’s Gamaliya quarter. There is Nabqa, son of Adam the water seller who can only speak truths; the beautiful and talented Tawhida who does not age with time; Ali Zaidan, the gambler, late to love; and Boss Saqr who stashes his money above the bath. A neighborhood of demons, dancing and sweet halva, the quarter keeps quiet vigil over the secrets of all who live there. This collection by pre-eminent Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz was recently discovered among his old papers. Found with a slip of paper titled “or publishing 1994,” they are published here for the first time. These stories are resplendent with Mahfouz’s delicate and poignant observations of everyday Cairene life.

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watched mosques and Muslim men started disappearing, rounded up for questioning by authorities. Sarsour began working for the Arab American Association of New York, locating and advocating for the missing men. She translated for the Muslim men over the age of 16, from 25 countries (all but one Muslim-majority), who were forced to check in with the National Security Entry-Exit Registry System (NSEERS) or face deportation.

“I understood my place perfectly now. In the shadow of unimaginable tragedy, and the fear and suspicion of Muslims that had followed in its wake, a new flame was ignited inside me, and is burning still.”

Sarsour also began to speak out for the black and brown men killed every day in acts that are never called terror if the shooter is a white man. The recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man jogging on a residential street near his home in Georgia, brings home Sarsour’s message that it is the obligation of all Americans to be outraged at every shooting and insist that “Black Lives Matter.”

Sarsour recounts the highs of her advocacy work, including looking out at the Women’s March and seeing the sea of Shepard Fairey posters of the Muslim woman in an American-flag hijab with the message “We the people are greater than fear.” She recalled, “My skin tingled at the sight of her, because in my country, on this day, a Muslim woman in a hijab had become a potent symbol of American freedom.” Sarsour truly believed that “together we would change the world.”

Then came the backlash, as “far-right Islamophobes” claimed Sarsour was a radical anti-Semitic terrorist in order, she said, to “neutralize any influence I might have gained through my visibility as a cochair of the Women’s March...and to make me so radioactive that no one would have anything to do with me.” In fact, all the constituencies she’d worked with encircled and protected her, raising her national profile. Ultimately the smear campaign failed and, in fact, Sarsour was

Delinda C. Hanley is executive director of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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asked to be a campaign surrogate for Jewish presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

The Women’s March, she is proud to say, “helped to harness the collective power of women to elect public servants who were guided by the values that seven million people across the globe had marched for two years before.” As a result there was “an unprecedented number of women and people of color elected on Nov. 6, 2018.”

This is a book to encourage every person fighting for justice who may be facing threats, slander and alternative facts. In fact, this book should be in every public library and required reading in schools to ensure that no one is here on earth today to be bystanders.

B O O K TA L K S These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons

by Ramzy Baroud

Middle East Books and More launched its first coronavirus-era zoom book talk on April 16, inviting Dr. Ramzy Baroud to discuss his latest book, These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons. The U.S.Palestinian internationally syndicated columnist explained why he wrote the book and then introduced YouTube viewers to some of the men, women and children who stood up for their rights, or just happened to be in the wrong place and ended up spending months or decades awaiting justice in Israeli prisons.

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Baroud said about one million Palestinians have been arrested since 1967, but in some way all Palestinians are prisoners of Israel. “The 5,000 prisoners or so [in Israel today] are actually a microcosm of a much larger collective and protracted experience of imprisonment by Israel over the last 50 plus years,” he said.

In this book, as with his others, Baroud challenges the historical narrative found in mainstream media, not by offering a defensive reaction to claims that Palestinians are violent terrorists, etc. “Our defensive narrative hasn’t really worked for us. If anything, it has further validated the Israeli narrative...and put Israel behind the wheel driving the historical narrative,” Baroud acknowledged. Baroud and other Palestinian new historians seek not just to be the middleman, conveying their people’s stories, but to create a platform for others to tell their stories with a minimal amount of intervention. They spent nearly a year training prisoners in how to tell their own stories.

Baroud told prisoners to forget about politics and to tell the most compelling experience of their story as if they were in their own living room telling their children. He asked them, “What story is relevant to you as a human being?” No one is arguing about Zionism, Hamas or Fatah, one-state or two states, Baroud observed. Instead, the prisoners share their stories about hanging onto their own core of humanity that we can all relate to—whether we live in Gaza, Washington or Paris, Baroud noted. We would all react in the same way to the kind of oppression that Palestinians are living through.

Readers will agree with Baroud that, “the outcome is really astounding.” Israeli prison guards try to isolate and break down Palestinian prisoners, but instead “a whole new chapter of their resistance starts in prison” and continues as they serve society after their release.

In the webinar Baroud also described the sham trials of Israeli military courts, where due process is denied and “military testimony is the one that matters, the armed settlers are the only witnesses that are taken seriously and Palestinian eyewitnesses are never brought to court to testify.”

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Baroud describes some of the unforgettable prisoners, or reads excerpts from their stories. One is a leading Palestinian intellectual, a lawyer community activist, Khalida Jarrar, who wrote the introduction to Baroud’s book and shared her story. She has been in and out of Israeli jails, held without trial or rights in administrative detention just to keep her off the streets in hopes of curtailing her impact. She was rearrested right after completing her work for the book. A quote from Jarrar sums up, to my mind, another message from this book: “Hope in prison is like a flower that grows out of a stone. For us Palestinians, education is our greatest weapon. With it, we will always be victorious.”

Watch this interview with Baroud, or better yet read his important book. This reader was moved and uplifted by nearly every chapter.

—Delinda C. Hanley (Advertisement)

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N E W A R R I VA L S MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman,

by Ben Hubbard, Tim Duggan Books, 2020, hardcover, 384 pp. MEB $27. MBS is the untold story of how a mysterious young prince emerged from Saudi Arabia’s sprawling royal family to overhaul the economy and society of one of the richest countries in the Middle East—and gather as much power as possible into his own hands. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, MBS reveals the machinations behind the kingdom’s catastrophic military intervention in Yemen, the bizarre detention of princes and businessmen in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, and the shifting Saudi relationships with Israel and the United States. It also sheds new light on the greatest scandal of the young autocrat’s rise: the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, a crime that shook Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Washington and left the world wondering whether MBS could get away with murder.

Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World, by Todd Miller, Verso, 2019, hardcover, 304 pp. MEB $25. The twenty-first century has witnessed the rapid hardening of international borders. Security, surveillance and militarization are widening the chasm between those who travel where they please and those whose movements are restricted. But that is only part of the story.

As journalist Todd Miller reveals, the nature of U.S. borders has changed. These boundaries have effectively expanded thousands of miles outside of the U.S. to encircle not only American land but also Washington’s interests. Resources, training and agents from the U.S. infiltrate the Caribbean and Central America; they reach across the Canadian border; and they go even farther afield, enforcing the division between Global South and North.

Empire of Borders is a tremendous work of narrative investigative journalism that traces the rise of this border regime. It delves into the practices of “extreme vetting,” which raise the possibility of “ideological” tests and cyber-policing for migrants and visitors, a level of scrutiny that threatens fundamental freedoms and allows, once again, for America’s security concerns to infringe upon the sovereign rights of other nations.

The Ralph Nader and Family Cookbook: Classic Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond, by Ralph Nader, Akashic Books, 2020, hardcover, 104 pp.

MEB $25. Ralph Nader is best-known for his social critiques and his efforts to increase government and corporate accountability, but what some might not know about him is his lifelong commitment to healthy eating. The Ralph Nader and Family Cookbook shares the cuisine of Nader's upbringing, presenting Lebanese dishes inspired by his mother’s recipes that will be both known to many, including hummus and baba ghanoush, as well as others that may be lesser known, such as kibbe, the extremely versatile national dish of Lebanon, and sheikh al-mahshi—”the ’king’ of stuffed foods.”

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Other People’s Mail Compiled by Dale Sprusansky ISRAEL FAILED TO PROPERLY HELP PALESTINIANS ADDRESS COVID-19

To The Guardian [of Prince Edward Island], May 5, 2020 In response to the letters that attacked Richard Deaton for writing about Palestinians not getting assistance from Israel to address the coronavirus pandemic (“Palestinians not getting help,” April 20), I would like to bring some facts to the debate.

According to Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel as an occupying power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining public health services to the Palestinian population under its rule, “with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventative measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.”

Israel is far from meeting its obligations.

Israel has a widely documented history of attacking Palestinian paramedics, depriving hospitals of fuel and even bombing hospitals.

Also, Richard Deaton was right, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon did in fact accuse the Israeli Health Ministry of ignoring the needs of Palestinian hospitals in the eastern side of that city (Haaretz, April 8).

Israel’s behavior will certainly contribute to making COVID-19 a death sentence for many Palestinians. As to accusing Israel of apartheid, the facts speak for themselves. Israeli Arabs do not enjoy the same rights as their Jewish compatriots.

Over 65 discriminatory laws affect the lives of Israeli Arabs.

These laws limit their rights in all areas of life, according to Adalah.org. These include citizenship, political participation, land and housing, education, cultural, language, and religious rights and due process.

The Israel lobby should be ashamed of itself for inciting against Richard Deaton.

I hope The Guardian will not be intimated and will not allow the lobby to dictate what it publishes.

Zain Esseghaier, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada 72

ANNEXATION WOULD DEEPLY HARM U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP

To The Washington Post, May 1, 2020 Jackson Diehl’s April 27 op-ed (“Will Trump save Israel from Netanyahu’s reckless land grab?”) stated that there’s reason to suppose that President Trump will greenlight the annexation of parts of the West Bank because Mr. Trump has already granted Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “a string of unprecedented concessions, including recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, without regard for the geopolitical consequences.”

Though the international community has expressed only mild condemnation of that move, the consequences of a further onesided United States intervention are likely to be far more severe.

With U.S. power and international standing declining, Israel cannot expect to be shielded from international opprobrium, especially when it becomes clear, as Mr. Diehl noted, that Mr. Trump’s motivation is transparent—namely his election-year push to galvanize evangelical Christians and a minority of U.S. Jews.

Israelis would be well advised to look beyond 2020 and consider the unavoidable loss of critical support from the United States and the international community at large.

Engaging the Palestinians in seeking a just and peaceful solution to the conflict is likely to pay much higher long-term dividends for everyone.

Martin Karcher, Washington, DC

INSISTING ON REMEMBERING THE IGNORED NAKBA

To the Daily Herald, May 18, 2020 May 15 was Nakba Day in Palestine. It commemorates the “Catastrophe” when roughly 750,000 of 1,900,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland before and after Israel’s 1948 declaration of statehood. In addition to those 750,000 Palestinians, over 500 Palestinian villages disappeared. Over 15,000 Palestinians were killed. Israel claimed 78 percent of Palestine

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and since 1967, has militarily controlled the remaining 22 percent.

The U.S. has long advocated for a “two state” solution to create a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. However our policies supporting Israel’s inexorable annexation of Palestinian land for Israeli settlements has made that worthy goal largely impossible.

Back in 1952 our second-grade class learned current events from “My Weekly Reader,” a small version of our parents’ newspaper geared to U.S. newbie readers. The title of the one such edition that May intrigued me: “Israel celebrates 4th birthday.” I was stunned. How could a country be three years younger than me?

I assumed every country was a natural geographic entity that existed since the beginning of time.

The article began to answer that question with discussion of European Jews setting up a new country following the Holocaust in World War II. There was no mention of the 750,000 expelled Palestinians, the 500 villages that vanished or the 15,000 dead Palestinians.

Today, as Palestinians worldwide commemorate the Nakba, there is still virtually no mention of that catastrophe in today’s “My Weekly Reader” for adults.

But every May 15, I’ll pause and think about what should have been taught to me 68 years ago.

Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn, IL

HOW VALUABLE IS THE U.S. RELATIONSHIP TO IRAQ?

To the Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2020 Re: the May 15 op-ed, “Iraq and the U.S., after years of conflict, still need each other.”

What reader, having any familiarity with nearly two decades of the U.S. “relationship” with Iraq, can take seriously Sara Allawi’s and Michael O’Hanlon’s formulations for what is needed in order for Iraq’s new prime minister to succeed?

The authors conveniently omit any mention of the dictates imposed on Iraq by the U.S. since the 2003 invasion. Accordingly, they attribute none of Iraq’s pervasive institutional and governing failures to its greatest source of foreign influence, the United States.

After this many years of engagement and no end in sight, does anyone still buy into the concept of the U.S. being most able to identify Iraq’s “problems”?

Ted Rosenblatt, Pacific Palisades, CA ■ JUNE/JULY 2020

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O• B • I • T • U • A • R • I • E • S Yusif Farsakh, 93, long time Washington, DC area Palestinian-American activist, died April 6 of COVID-19. Born in the West Bank town of Birzeit, Farsakh came to the U.S. in the 1960s. Upon his arrival in the U.S., Farsakh became heavily involved with the Arab-American community, and was an advocate for Palestinian rights. He could be found at nearly every pro-Palestinian or anti-war demonstration in DC. When the Palestinian Authority was created after the Oslo Accords were signed, Farsakh helped establish the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. He was also very much involved in Democratic Party politics in northern Virginia and was a precinct captain. Middle East Books and More sold and continues to sell traditional Palestinian embroidery from his family’s company, Mashrabiya.

Farsakh’s passing is mourned by so many in the DC community.

Eileen Patricia McMahon Zogby, 73, activist and wife of Arab American Institute (AAI) president and co-founder James Zogby, died on March 11. She had an “insatiable curiosity and a passion for justice.”

Her activism included work around abolishing the death penalty, supporting refugees and the poor, LGBTQ rights, and advocacy for those with Down Syndrome. Mrs. Zogby also cared deeply about the plight of Palestinians. She played a pivotal role in the founding of AAI and worked extensively with the Palestine Human Rights Campaign and Save Lebanon campaign. She also had a great attachment to her Irish roots and often traveled to Ireland to learn more about the country and its history.

A fund has been created by the Zogby family in her name at both Zogbys’ alma mater, Le Moyne College, which is where they met and began their work for social justice. An announcement on the AAI website states that, “In creating this fund, work in support of teaching about Ireland's history, including the creation of an Irish Lecture Series and student educational travel to Ireland, will be done. While Mrs. Zogby had many passions, the ability to honor her memory by focusing on her native Ireland is something she would have loved.

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In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Eileen Patricia McMahon Zogby Irish Education Fund.

Hosni Mubarak, 91, deposed Egyptian president, died February 25. After a nearly 30-year rule of Egypt (1981-2011), Mubarak was forced to step down in February 2011 during the Arab Spring protests. Born in the governate of Monufia, he joined the Egyptian Air Force in the 1950s and obtained the rank of Air Chief Marshall and Deputy Minister of Defense. He was later appointed Vice President of Egypt by President Anwar Sadat in 1975. After Sadat’s assassination in 1981, he became the fourth president of Egypt when he was 53 years old.

During his tenure as president, the country embarked on a path to regional stability by honoring the peace accord signed by his predecessor with Israel, often running counter to the opinion of the general Egyptian public. Domestically, Mubarak’s presidency was characterized by corruption, political repression and taking half measures to address social and economic inequality in the country. Later in 2011, Mubarak was charged with embezzlement, corruption and the unlawful killing of protesters during the uprising against him. In 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, but it was later overturned in 2017 after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi overthrew democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi.

William Polk, 91, Middle East historian, author and foreign policy consultant, died April 6 of leukemia at his home in Vence, France. After receiving his graduate degrees from Harvard and Oxford, Polk worked in the State Department during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He also taught at Harvard and at the University of Chicago, establishing the Center for Middle East Studies at the latter. His career in the Middle East spanned over six decades, and during that time he published two dozen books and numerous articles on the region. In 1971, he made a 1,200-mile journey from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Amman, Jordan by camel to “capture the vanishing way of life of the Bedouin and to

By Sami Tayeb

better understand an ancient poem” by Labid Ibn Rabiah.

Jerry Levin, 87, Middle East Bureau Chief for CNN, died February 6. Born in Michigan, Levin joined the Navy before embarking on his career in television news. Starting out as news director for WBRC news in Birmingham, Alabama, he later worked for CNN taking positions in Chicago and Washington, DC before he became the Middle East Bureau Chief for the company in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1984, he was kidnapped by Hezbollah and held in captivity for one year before he escaped by lowering himself out of a second-story window.

Levin and his wife later published two books on his captivity and escape. During his captivity he converted to Christianity, and afterwards he and his wife both worked tirelessly for peace in the Middle East. They became involved with Christian Peacemaker Teams in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to document Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. In 2003, they went to Baghdad to stand with civilians that opposed a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Levin is survived by his wife and six children. ■

IndextoAdvertisers Al-Mokha Coffee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA). . . . . . Inside Front Cover Barefoot to Palestine . . . . . . . . . . 71 Friends of Birzeit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Israel Lobby Conference . . . . . . . . 31 Keffiyeh Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Kinder USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Land of Canaan Foundation. . . . . 45 Middle East Children’s Alliance . . 27 Palestinian Medical Relief Society 27 Persian Heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Playgrounds for Palestine . . . . . . . 24 The Israel Lobby Enters State Government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 United Palestinian Appeal (UPA) . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover

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AET’s 2020 Choir of Angels

the following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1, 2020 and May 6, 2020 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 are helping us co-sponsor the conference “transcending the israel lobby.” others are donating to our “Capital Building fund,” which will help us expand the Middle east Books and More bookstore. thank you all for helping us survive the turmoil caused by the pandemic. We are deeply honored by your confidence and profoundly grateful for your generosity.

HUMMERS ($100 or more)

Catherine Abbott, Edina, MN Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA Edwin Amidon, Charlotte, VT Anace Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Dr. Robert Ashmore Jr., Mequon, WI Ahmed Ayish, Arlington, VA Rick Bakry, New York, NY Sam Burgan, Falls Church, VA Gregory DeSylva, Rhinebeck, NY Sarah L. Duncan, Vienna, OH Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Doug Greene, Bowling Green, OH Susan Haragely, Livonia, MI Mr. & Mrs. Sameer Hassan, Quaker Hill, CT Julester Haste, Oxford, IA M. Al Hussaini, Great Falls, VA Mr. & Mrs. Azmi Ideis, Deltona, FL Mr. & Mrs. Basim Kattan, Washington, DC Tony Khoury, Sedona, AZ Edward Lesoon. Jr., Pittsburgh, PA Edwin Lindgren, Overland Park, KS Robert Michael, Sun Lakes, AZ Tom Mickelson, Cottage Grove, WI Museum of the Palestinian People, Washington, DC Claire Nader, Winsted, CT Stephen L. Naman, Atlanta, GA Mary Neznek, Washington, DC W. Eugene Notz, Charleston, SC Amani Ramahi, Lakewood, OH Ambassador William Rugh, Hingham, MA Dr. Mohammed Sabbagh, Grand Blanc, MI

Ramzy Salem, Monterey Park, CA Irmgard Scherer, Fairfax, VA Yasser Soliman, Hamilton Township, NJ Darcy Sreebny, Issaquah, WA Mushtaq Syed, Santa Clara, CA V. R. Vitolins, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI Michael Wilke, St. Charles, IL David Williams, Golden, CO Mashood Yunus, New Brighton, MN

ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more)

William G. Coughlin, Brookline, MA Andrew & Krista Curtiss, Herndon, VA Bilquis Jaweed, West Chester, OH Killgore Family, Washington, DC * Dr. Muhammad M. Kudaimi, Munster, IN Sedigheh Kunkel, Santa Monica, CA Tony Litwinko, Los Angeles, CA Richard Makdisi & Lindsay Wheeler, Berkeley, CA Dr. Charles W. McCutchen, Bethesda, MD Hertha Poje-Ammoumi, New York, NY Jeanne Riha, Brooklyn, NY Bernice Shaheen, Palm Desert, CA**** William R. Stanley, Lexington, SC Benjamin Wade, Saratoga, CA Dr. James Zogby, Washington, DC***

TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more)

Sylvia Anderson de Freitas, Duluth, MN Dr. & Mrs. Roger Bagshaw, Big Sur, CA Raymond Gordon, Venice, FL Alfred R. Greve, Holmes, NY

Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Tom & Tess McAndrew, Oro Valley, AZ Lisa Schiltz, Houston, TX James G. Smart, Keene, NH Anver Tayob, Saint Louis, MO Tom Veblen, Washington, DC

BARITONES & MEZZO SOPRANOS ($1,000 or more)

Asha A. Anand, Bethesda, MD Paula Davidson, Naples, FL Nabila Eltaji, Amman, Jordan Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR*,** Mohammed Jokhdar, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Ghazy Kader, Shoreline, WA Jack Love, Kailua Kona, HI Mary Norton, Austin, TX Dr. Imad Tabry, Fort Lauderdale, FL

CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more)

American Council for Judaism, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR*,**

John & Henrietta Goelet, Washington, DC William Lightfoot, Vienna, VA Estate of Jean Elizabeth Mayer, Bethesda, MD

* In Memory of Andrew I. Killgore ** In Memory of Richard H. Curtiss *** In Memory of Eileen Zogby **** In Memory of Dr. Jack Shaheen

Help make sure that the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs will be here for the next generation.

By remembering the Washington Report in your will, you can: • Make a significant gift without affecting your current cash flow; • Direct your bequest to a vital purpose—educating readers about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East; • Receive a charitable estate tax deduction & Leave a legacy for future generations.

Bequests of any size are honored with membership in the American Educational Trust’s “Choirmasters,” named for angels whose foresight and dedication ensured the future of the Washington Report and Middle East Books and More. For more information visit www.wrmea.org/donate/bequests.pdf, contact us at circulation@wrmea.org, write: American Educational Trust, PO Box 91056 • Long Beach, CA 90809-1056, or telephone our new toll-free circulation number 888-881-5861 • Fax: 714-226-9733

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American Educational Trust Washington Report on Middle East Affairs P.O. Box 53062 Washington, DC 20009

June/July 2020

Vol. XXXIX, No. 4

Palestinian Muslim women worshippers, distanced from each other due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, pray outside the closed gate of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, as they mark Lailat al-Qadr, the night Muslims believe the first verses of the Qurâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;an were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through the Archangel Gabriel.

(PHOTO BY AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP vIA GeTTY IMAGes)