Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - December 2011 Vol. XXX No. 9

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NEOCONS BLAME OBAMA FOR IRAQ DISASTER

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On Middle East Affairs Volume XXX, No. 9

December 2011

Telling the Truth for 29 Years…

Interpreting the Middle East for North Americans

■

Interpreting North America for the Middle East

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE 8 Obama’s Speech to the U.N.: In Distorting the Facts He Revealed the Truth—Rachelle Marshall 12 28 Years: One Palestinian Prisoner’s Story —Mohammed Omer 13 Inside the Mideast Prisoner Swap—Ali Abunimah 14 “Price Tag” or Pogrom? West Bank Settlers Now Running Amok in Israel as Well—Jonathan Cook 17 Washington Impaling Itself on the Horns of a Diplomatic Dilemma—Ian Williams 19 Neocons Blame Obama for Iraq Disaster —Robert Parry

24 Afghanistan: Ten Years of Aimless War —Eric S. Margolis 25 What Lay Behind the Libya Intervention?

—William Pfaff 26 The Assassination of Anwar Al-Awlaki—Two Views —Patrick Seale, Rep. Ron Paul 28 Republican Frontrunner Mitt Romney Touts Neoconservative Foreign Policy—Jim Lobe 30 Congress Echoes Israel’s Near Hysteria Over Palestinians’ U.N. Bid—Shirl McArthur 38 Go Palestine: An Extraordinary Summer Camp Behind the Wall—Ramsey Langley

20 How Plausible Is the Alleged Iranian “Terror Plot”?—Two Views

—Gareth Porter, Patrick Seale

SPECIAL REPORTS 32 The Sins of Liam Fox—Justin Raimondo

40 Canadian War-Crimes Profiteering—Sean F. McMahon

STAFF PHOTO DELINDA HANLEY

34 The Political Uses of Islamophobia in Europe —John Gee

Nearly three weeks after demonstrators gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 6, anti-war protesters determined to “dismantle the war machine” remain camped out at Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington, DC, Oct. 25, 2011.

ON THE COVER: An armed Jewish settler from the illegal West Bank settlement of Elon More mans a barrier on a main road near Nablus which Palestinians are allowed to cross only at specific hours to reach their olive groves just outside the village of Salem and harvest their crop.

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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

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

Other Voices

Compiled by Janet McMahon

The “Terrorist” Who Couldn’t Think Straight, Justin Raimondo, www.antiwar.com

OV-1

Gilad Atzmon on Jewish Identity Politics, Kathleen Christison, www.counterpunch.com

OV-10

Why I Published U.S. Intelligence Secrets About Israel’s Anti-Iran Campaign, Richard Silverstein, www.truthout.org

OV-3

Ruling for Yoram Kaniuk Hailed as Major Victory for Separation of State and Religion, Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz

OV-12

The Never-ending Terror Threat, Ivan Eland, www.consortiumnews.com

OV-6

A Mixture of Feelings as Prisoners Near Freedom, Shahd Abusalama, www.palestinefrommyeyes.blogspot.com

OV-12

OV-13

Why the Drone Wars Threaten Us All, Conn Hallinan, www.dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com

OV-7

Tunisia: Social Media Lifts the Silence, Simba Russeau, IPS-Inter Press Service

Last Week at the U.N., Israel Lost America, Larry Derfner, www.972mag.com

OV-8

Who Murdered My Old Friend Prof. Rabbani?, Eric S. Margolis, www.ericmargolis.com OV-14

Israel’s Jewishness: Precondition for Palestinian Statehood, Jonathan Cook, Al-Akhbar English OV-9

Why Did the United States Invade Afghanistan?, Tim Kelly, www.fff.org

OV-15

DEPARTMENTS 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 7 PUBLISHERS’ PAGE 23 THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE

49 ISRAEL AND JUDAISM: The Myth of an Israel-Centered “Jewish Vote”—and its Negative Consequences for Mideast Peace

—Allan C. Brownfeld

MIDDLE EAST — CARTOONS 52 ARAB-AMERICAN ACTIVISM: 36 OTHER PEOPLE’S MAIL

Comedian Discusses U.S. Islam-

59 WAGING PEACE: Panel Explores Egypt’s Changing Religious Climate 68 DIPLOMATIC DOINGS: Saudi Arabia Celebrates 80th Anniversary

ophobia, Comedy in Arab World 42 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Gaza Kids’ Art Show a Smashing Success Despite Museum’s Attempt at Censorship—Elaine Pasquini

69 BULLETIN BOARD 52 MUSLIM-AMERICAN ACTIVISM: CAIR’s Annual Fund-raiser a Huge Success

46 NEW YORK CITY AND TRISTATE NEWS: Longtime Journalist Describes Iranians as Most Pro-American People in Middle East—Jane Adas

Israeli Rejectionism: A Hidden Agenda in the Middle East Peace

54 HUMAN RIGHTS: 44 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE: Diana Buttu Addresses Palestine Children’s Relief Fund “Healing Hands” Benefit—Pat and Samir Twair

70 BOOK REVIEWS:

Process

Share the Water, Build the Peace Zahra’s Paradise 56 MUSIC AND ARTS:

—Reviewed by Andrew Stimson

Chamy’s “Of Refuge, Of Home” Explores Family Myth and History 58 EDUCATION:

71 NEW ARRIVALS FROM THE AET BOOK CLUB 72 2011 AET CHOIR OF ANGELS

Mideast Universities Face Challenge of Unemployed Graduates

22 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

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ANDREW I. KILLGORE Executive Editor: RICHARD H. CURTISS Managing Editor: JANET McMAHON News Editor: DELINDA C. HANLEY Book Club Director: ANDREW STIMSON Circulation Director: ANNE O’ROURKE Administrative Director: ALEX BEGLEY Art Director: RALPH U. SCHERER

LetterstotheEditor

Publisher:

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

Periodicals, postage paid at Washington, DC and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009-9062.

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

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

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

DECEMBER 2011

U.S. “Outrage” at the U.N. Laughable Russia and China on Oct. 4 vetoed a proposed U.N. resolution targeting the unacceptable treatment of protesters by the Syrian regime. The United States— rightly—expressed “outrage” at this veto.

However, the inappropriately childish behavior of the U.S. permanent representative, Ambassador Susan Rice (again), actually embarrassed the U.N. more than the veto did! Remember, in February, Ambassador Rice vetoed a draft resolution condemning Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory while all other 14 members of the Security Council unanimously voted in favor of the resolution, making the U.S. seem disturbingly out of touch with events on the ground, and horribly disinterested in the desperate plight of the Palestinian people. It seems she continues the downhill slide, by petulantly walking out during an address by the Syrian ambassador, who himself has respectfully faced a tirade of criticism by Ambassador Rice. Ambassador Rice makes the U.S. look like a spoiled, bullying child who sulks when it doesn’t have its way. Ambassador Rice’s petulant behavior echoes back to the dark days of the Bush administration, when John Bolton, then acting U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, was renowned for his tirades. His term did not last. I suspect that if Ambassador Rice continues to embarrass the U.S. on the international stage, neither will hers.

Dr. Rory E. Morty, Giessen, Germany We suspect the decision to veto the settlement resolution—and, presumably, the application of Palestine for admission to the U.N. as a member state—was made not by Rice, but by a head of state (and not necessarily her own). We were embarrassed in February by Rice’s attempt to explain that even though she vetoed the settlement resolution, the U.S. opposes Israel’s illegal settlements. But her walking out on the Syrian ambassador as he was speaking is beyond intellectual obfuscation—it’s flat-out rudeness.

Terror Plot or Distraction?

More and more Iran experts are debunking the Obama’s administration claim that Mansour Arbabsiar, a whiskey drinking used car salesman, was behind the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Adel al-Jubeir.

The planned crime scene seems to have THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

been lifted from the “Godfather I” movie script, in which a bomb was supposed to have been detonated in a prominent restaurant. Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University, warned that Israel and the U.S. are launching an aggressive propaganda campaign to justify economic and possibly military attacks on Iran. The murder of several of Iran’s nuclear scientists has increased tensions between Iran and Israel, which has been accused of committing the crimes. Reza Aslan, a prominent Iran expert, also debunked the alleged plot, warning that such incendiary rhetoric could drag the U.S. into yet another dangerous conflict.

The alleged plot seems to be a deliberate attempt to distract a restive public from its economic woes and to cozy up to Israel to gain the Jewish vote. The Obama administration would be wise to heed the words of Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who advised the Obama administration to replace the bellicose rhetoric with Iran with meaningful dialogue.

Jagjit Singh, Los Altos, CA For more views on the alleged terror plot, see p. 20 of this issue.

Voters Take Note The U.S. economy is in serious trouble, yet the pro-Israel lobby continues to expect and accept $3-plus billion yearly plus $2 billion to Egypt to not wage war against Israel. I have not heard one word from the pro-Israel lobby to deny this award to Israel. Why? The economy in Israel is used primarily to wage war against the Palestinians. Our Congress is a weapon against the Palestinians. More and more U.S. citizens are becoming aware of this situation and will react accordingly.

Vern H. Wecler, Bay City, MI Not only does the Israel lobby not suggest 5

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an end to U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel— all of which is designated for military purposes—but in the midst of severe budget cuts, Israel-firsters such as House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) are reassuring Israel—not their American constituents— that its annual take is sacrosanct. In the runup to next November’s election we’ll be compiling pro-Israel PAC contributions and congressional voting records for the benefit of our readers and their fellow Americans. It only makes sense that voters want to elect leaders who represent their interests, not those of a foreign country.

Sept./Oct. postcards regarding Palestine’s bid for U.N. membership, I learned for the first time that 18 foreign ambassadors had been given the “free trip” treatment toward advancement of the Zionists’ agenda against any furtherance of the Palestinians’ aspirations. I was angry enough at the photo of Zionist Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and numerous “The Israel Project” (TIP) posters and signs on display in the room; then I went to your “Publishers’ Page” and learned that 22 House and 15 Senate members sit on TIP’s board of advisers.

Connecting the dots, my outrage was complete. Surely—surely—these 37 miscre“Can We Afford $30 Billion in ants are skirting, if not trampling upon, Aid to Israel?” ethics and American-security violations This is the wording of a billboard ad I which some intrepid, patriotic organizaplaced with CBS Outdoor, a division of tion should bring to glaring scrutiny and CBS Corporation. When I opted to extend resolution! the time period for the ad the response How many of the 37, I wonder, would from CBS was that they would not “con- stampede to be on the board of “The tinue to be a vehicle for this cause” be- America Project” or an equivalent body cause of “feedback” from the community. dedicated to pursuit of America-first core CBS obviously does not subscribe to national interests? Oh, right—they are Thomas Paine’s dictum, “When opinions “board members” of the U.S. Congress, are free, truth will prevail.” which should guide their actions every Henry Clifford, Essex, CT waking moment. But alas, their body While free speech ostensibly is an Ameri- would be better termed the USrael Concan value, questioning U.S. aid to Israel can gress: avidly serving the best interests of be very costly. As recipients of our “Action one side of an entangled alliance from Alerts” learned, however, the Washington which I envision no extrication.

Post’s Walter Pincus did just that in an Oct. Robert H. Stiver, Pearl City, Hawaii 18 “Fine Print” column titled “U.S. Must We hope that you will raise this matter Reevaluate Its Assistance to Israel.” Read- directly with your senators and representaers interested in receiving alerts of future tive at public gatherings they are likely to media breakthroughs can sign up on our Web have during the upcoming campaign season. site, <www.wrmea.com>.

You might ask Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), for example, who is up for re-election next Connecting the Dots year, what he has done to “earn” $122,000 When I was getting ready to send the in pro-Israel PAC contributions throughout his career. In addition to holding your elected offiOther Voices is an optional 16cial accountable, page supplement available only you will also be to subscribers of the Washington getting the word out to your fellow Report on Middle East Affairs. constituents. We’ll For an additional $15 per year begin printing our (see postcard insert for Wash compilations of pro-Israel PAC ington Re port subscription contributions next rates), subscribers will receive year, with updates Other Voices bound into each through November. In the meanissue of their Washington Report time, voting on Middle East Affairs. records and total Back issues of both publications are available. To subpro-Israel PAC contributions scribe telephone 1 (800) 368-5788 (press 1), fax (202) through the 2010 265-4574, e-mail <circulation@wrmea.com>, or write to election can be P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009. found on our Web s i t e, < w w w.

6

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

wrmea.com>, under “Activist Resources: Congress & U.S. Aid to Israel.”

Downloading Postcards We have always appreciated the “postcards” feature of your magazine. We routinely take the text and use it for a letter to our legislators.

However, while the magazine states, “…you can download these postcards into an e-mail message,” the “Postcards Index” page at <www.wrmea.com/component/ content/article/376-postcards/10795-postcards-index.html> does not show the current issue’s card text, which makes it necessary to transcribe the whole card by retyping it.

There is no reason the current issue’s postcard text should not be available along with the rest of the current issue.

(Also—make the postcards easier to find on your Web site!)

Rashid Patch, Oakland, CA Thank you for taking the time to write us with your suggestions, which we have taken to heart. While we do not post our latest issue on our Web site (in order to encourage subscriptions and hence survive), we agree that the current postcard should be immediately available to all. We’ve also given “Postcards to Your Legislators” its own link under “Activist Resources.”

Salve on a Wound First, thank you. Thank you for your bravery in taking up the cause of justice and sanity, when so many are apathetic or aggressively opposed to it.

I am currently incarcerated and am using my time constructively. Because of the massacre in Gaza (aka Operation Cast Lead) I refocused my life on calling for, and working toward, a sane approach and just resolution to Israel’s conquest of Palestine.

Now that I am incarcerated I am working on a book that I hope will add to these ends.

In so doing, I am taking on a topic that is aggressively marketed, from a place where I am aggressively manipulated. My point is your heroic attempts at bringing truth to light are salve on my wound. I don’t have a subscription yet, or the financial wherewithal right now for a full subscription, but am including $15 for a subscription to “Other Voices.”

Raphael McNamara, Cumberland, MD We read about your case at <http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2010/04/no nviolent-american-peace-activist.html>.

Thanks to one of our many angels, we are able to send you “Other Voices” as part of a full subscription to the magazine. We know you will put both to good use! ❑ DECEMBER 2011

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American Educational Trust Our Special Message to You. For 30 years—as of next year!—the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has brought you both the fascinating and the infuriating news our mainstream media don’t want you to know about U.S. and Mideast relations and the efforts by both elected government officials and ordinary Americans to influence these relations. We’d like to extend a warm greeting to first-time newsstand browsers, longtime subscribers, and the thousands of librarians who found this one-time sample copy in their mailboxes.

We Hope You’ll Decide That…

In today’s increasingly interconnected and diverse world, your public or university library patrons should have the opportunity to read the Washington Report and the superb selection of books we carry in both our streetfront bookstore in Washington, DC and our Internet store at <www.middleeastbooks.com>.

If your library cannot afford the $29 subscription, our generous donors (see p. 72) to the AET Library Endowment will help you out. In fact, we just mailed our biannual fund-raising letter to regular readers who, despite any private economic fears, continue to fund this magazine through thick and thin.

Normal People Living Normal Lives.

In this special holiday issue, in which subscribers will find our bonus 2012 calendar, you’ll see images of Palestinians trying to go about their daily lives—picking olives, tending their fields, working in stores, businesses and schools just like citizens of every other country in the world.

Unlike them, however, Palestinians have been waiting 63 years for the world to recognize their country—despite the fact that U.N. Resolution 194, passed on Dec. 11, 1948, upholds the right of return to their homes and property for Palestinians driven out as a result of Zionist military operations in 1948 that culminated in declaring the State of Israel. Instead…

Life Is Becoming Increasingly Hard…

As those who remain are forced to cope with growing violence by settlers, who are beating up both Palestinian and Jewish activists and torching orchards and mosques. While DECEMBER 2011

Publishers’ Page

mainstream media focused on the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit—who was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom had never had a fair trial—there is no mention of Palestinians who remain political prisoners or who still are being picked up in nightly raids. But for millions of refugees…

The Situation Remains Unchanged.

that our readers work to help Palestinians, and our friends throughout the Middle East and North Africa, find real peace and prosperity. That will take writing more letters, speaking out at public events—including candidate forums, since next year’s elections are almost upon us as well—and educating friends and family at every opportunity. If you haven’t already, add your e-mail address to our action alert list so that you, too, can join worldwide campaigns to “Support Palestine’s U.N. Bid,” “Halt Construction of a ‘Museum of Tolerance’” on the site of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, “Reevaluate Aid to Israel,” or encourage brave columnists who speak out, like Walter Pincus in (of all places) The Washington Post.

In 1973, 1992 and 2011, Ghada Karmi and Ellen Siegel protested at an Israeli embassy (see back cover photo and story by managing editor Janet McMahon on p. 35 of the Aug./Sept. 1992 Washington Report). As she recounts in her acclaimed memoir In Search of Fatima (available from the AET Book Club), Karmi is a displaced Palestinian who fled her home in West Jerusalem with her parents when she was only 8 and has never been allowed to return. Ellen Siegel, an American Jew who was working as a nurse in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982 when Lebanese Phalangists, protected by Israeli troops, massacred hundreds of Palestinian civilians, can make Aliyah and “return” to Israel anytime. The longtime friends have spent the intervening years—Karmi in London and Siegel in Washington, DC—working to challenge Israel’s repression and violation of Palestinians’ human rights. Their efforts, along with those of other heroes, including longtime peace activists living in Israel and the occupied territories, have made a difference. It’s certainly true that, here in America....

Another way you can help is to buy your holiday gifts from the AET Book Club, which is ready to meet your gift-giving needs. Visit our Web site, <www.middleeastbooks.com> to peruse the latest books, music, greeting cards and DVDs, or come to our Adams Morgan store in Washington, DC. We also carry Palestinian products, including embroidery, olive oil soap, and organic fair trade olive oil. Your purchases provide a market for Palestinian products in the U.S. and help empower and sustain these communities. Give our books, goods—and, of course, subscriptions to the Washington Report—as gifts and use them to educate your friends and family. Let’s work together to inform our fellow Americans and…

The Times They are a Changin’.

Make a Difference Today!

We know it’s true because our interns and readers are finding passionate, well-written letters and editorials in newspapers across the United States in support of Palestinians who deserve to live freely in their own land. These letters, op-eds and editorials were published in a wide spectrum of newspapers from Boston to Los Angeles, Chicago to Corpus Christi, Palm Beach to Portland—you get the idea. Despite the relentless efforts of American Christian and Jewish Zionists, public opinion in this country increasingly is in agreement with the international worldview in support of Palestinian statehood.

The Holiday Season…

Shine a Light on Palestine.

Deadline for Holiday Gift Orders Books from the AET Book Club Catalog or subscriptions to the Washington Report make ideal holiday gifts. To ensure delivery of books or magazines to addresses within the U.S. and Canada by Saturday, Dec. 24, telephone orders must be placed and mail and Web orders received no later than Friday, Dec. 9 by 6 p.m. EST.

Is almost upon us, and we’d like to suggest THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

7

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Obama’s Speech to the U.N.: In Distorting The Facts He Revealed the Truth SpecialReport

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Rachelle Marshall

A family from the West Bank village of Al-Jania harvests olive trees in their grove located outside the illegal Jewish settlement ot Talmon, north of Ramallah, Oct. 25, 2011. n Nov. 13, 1974, Yasser Arafat, chair-

Oman of the Palestine Liberation Organi-

zation, spoke before the U.N. General Assembly and described his dream of a “Palestine of tomorrow,” a democratic state in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims would live together in peace. He invited Israelis to share his dream, and declared, “I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.” The Israeli ambassador refused to attend, calling the PLO a band of “murderers and cutthroats,” and accusing the international community of “degradation and disgrace” for allowing Arafat a platform.

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

8

On Sept. 23, 2011, another Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, appeared before the General Assembly, this time to appeal for U.N. recognition of an independent Palestinian state to exist side by side with Israel. Long before Arafat’s death the Palestinians had agreed to relinquish 78 percent of original Palestine in return for an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Abbas asked for international endorsement of such a state.

Unlike Arafat, Abbas did not wear a keffiyeh and holster (Arafat’s was empty), but a conservative business suit. The bespectacled 69-year-old repeatedly stressed the Palestinians’ commitment to peace, and received a standing ovation as he declared, “The time is now for the Palestinian spring, the spring of a peaceful struggle that will reach its goal.” The request was more than symbolic.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Recognition by the U.N. would allow the Palestinians to bring action against Israel at the International Criminal Court for its illegal occupation of a sovereign state, as well as its other violations of international law.

A favorable vote at the U.N. would also put the weight of the world community behind the Palestinians as they deal with its far more powerful occupier. The asymmetry between the two sides was illustrated in October by the exchange of a young Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2006, was the only prisoner held

by Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, and their numbers are being constantly added to.

Israel’s agreement with Hamas, which left Abbas out of the loop, undoubtedly was aimed at undercutting the Palestinian presiDECEMBER 2011

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MUSA AL SHAER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

dent’s standing at home and abroad and weakening his ability to gain Security Council support for Palestinian statehood. Israel has long done its best to silence or discredit Palestinian moderates and potential leaders. During the early 1980s, it deported Mubarak Awad, the founder of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence who was known as the “Palestinian Gandhi.” Israel also imprisoned the distinguished elder Faisal Husseini for advocating a twostate solution at a Peace Now rally in Jerusalem.

It was not surprising, therefore, that Israeli negotiators of the recent prisoner exchange agreed to release a number of convicted murderers but adamantly refused to include the widely respected Marwan Barghouti, an early advocate of a two-state solution who for years was considered the most promising leader of a future Palestinian state.

An American-made Israeli Caterpillar bulldozer uproots trees on Palestinian land as it cuts a path for Reference to the Palestinians’ will- an extension of Israel’s illegal separation wall near the West Bank village of Walajah, a few miles ingness to accept peaceful coexistence from Bethlehem, Oct. 3, 2011. was entirely missing from President In fact, of course, it is the Palestinians who Barack Obama’s Sept. 21 speech to the U.N. pretense that Washington was committed to He praised the liberation movements in achieving justice for the Palestinians. Suc- are in desperate need of protection. A surge Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Libya, but insisted cessive administrations since 1991 have sent of settler violence has for months been that the Palestinians make peace with Israel billions of dollars in aid to Israel every year, spreading terror in the West Bank and Arab before seeking statehood. He portrayed Is- and vetoed every U.N. Security Council res- areas of Israel as armed vigilantes attack rael as a victim of repeated wars of aggres- olution calling on Israel to abide by inter- Palestinian farmers, uproot trees and set fires. sion, and under constant threat from those national law, while at the same time claim- Nearly a thousand olive trees were destroyed who would “wipe it off the map.” But he ing to be an even-handed peacemaker. That in September and early October, and at least made no mention of Israel’s repeated refusal masquerade ended with Obama’s speech to eight mosques were damaged, including a large mosque in the village of Tuba-Zanof Arab peace offers, of its blockade of Gaza, the General Assembly.

In saying “there are no short cuts to gariya in the Galilee. Two suspected attackers or of the hundreds of West Bank checkpoints and Jewish-only roads that for West peace,” Obama was ignoring 20 years of were arrested but quickly released.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Bank Palestinians can turn 10-minute trips fruitless negotiations. The most cringe-ininto 3-hour ordeals. As Hanan Ashrawi ob- ducing moment came with his call for Rights warned Israel that it had “a legal served, “Listening to Obama you would Palestinians and Israelis “to sit down, to lis- obligation” to help curb the attacks, but think it was the Palestinians who occupy Is- ten to each other, and to understand each Abdul Hakim Ahmed, a teacher whose vilother’s hopes and fears,” as if group therapy lage is attacked by settlers several times a rael.”

Given its omissions and distortions was a way to end 44 years of Israeli occu- week, said complaining to the army does Obama’s speech might have been churned pation. Obama’s real message was that no good. “They come, they take notes, they out by an Israeli propaganda mill. Israel’s Palestinians could expect no help from an leave,” he said.

The Obama administration is asking the racist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman America whose elected officials take their Palestinians to endure such crimes indefisaid he would sign it “with both hands,” marching orders from Israel.

Congress reinforced that message when it nitely while the two sides talk on and Israeli and Obama’s popularity in Israel rose by nearly 50 points.But those who believed blocked nearly $200 million in U.S. aid to settlements proliferate. Israeli Prime MinisObama in 2010, when he spoke of “an inde- the Palestinian Authority despite a warning ter Binyamin Netanyahu says he will not pendent sovereign state of Palestine” within by Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon, commander of budge from his demands that Palestinians a year, were brought back to earth. Daniel Israel’s occupation forces, that stability in recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” and that Levy of the New America Foundation called the region required that the Authority be Jerusalem remain the undivided capital of the speech “farcical,” saying that Obama’s able to pay its salaries. The legislators elim- Israel. He ‘claims that a Palestinian state on position was that “Palestinian freedoms, inated aid that was earmarked for nutrition the 1967 borders would endanger Israel’s serights, and self-determination are somehow programs, health care and other humanitar- curity, but is presumably willing to risk the supposed to be attained without recourse to ian services, but made sure that Israeli set- lives of 600,000 Israelis in illegal colonies loleverage, international law, or meaningful tlers will be protected. Funding will con- cated far inside the West Bank.

Obama’s opposition to Palestinian memtinue for the Palestinian security forces that international support.”

Obama’s naked appeal to Israel’s support- work with the Israeli army in keeping order bership in the U.N. can only be explained by an election-year need to improve his ers had one virtue, however. It ended the in the West Bank.

DECEMBER 2011

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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marshall_8-10_Special Report 10/27/11 1:18 PM Page 10

for the umpteenth time, standing with pro-Israel “We are deeply disapvoters. Recognition by the The Anniversary No One Wanted to Celebrate pointed.”

U.N. would in no way inOn Oct. 6, exactly 10 years after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan, and In early October the terfere with the resumpapproximately 8 years after Operation Shock and Awe launched the U.S. Palestinian petition for tion of peace negotiations. war in Iraq, it seemed increasingly likely that a generation of American chilU.N. membership was It would, however, endren will enter high school without ever having lived in a country at peace. sent to a Security Council hance the Palestinians’ The U.S. troop withdrawal scheduled for December under an agreecommittee, where represtatus in those negotiament with Iraq will be a withdrawal in name only. Iraq’s rulers have agreed sentatives of the 15 memtions, and this is what Isto let 5,000 soldiers remain in the country as “trainers,” and those troops ber nations are studying rael is determined to prewill be augmented by tens of thousands of additional embassy employees it. If nine of the members vent. A similar concern and private contractors. As car bombings and assassinations continue to approve it, the measure undoubtedly prompted kill Iraqis, the war to overthrow Saddam Hussain has turned into a proxy will go to the full Security the U.S. to vote against war between the U.S. and Iran. According to the U.S. military, Iranian Council, where it faces a Palestinian membership forces train and equip the Shi’i militias that attack American soldiers and certain U.S. veto. Washin the U.N. Educational, assassinate members of the Iraqi government in an effort to weaken Iraq ington’s veto would come Scientific, and Cultural and make it more dependent on Iran. Washington is not likely to let that at some cost, however. In Organization (UNESCO) happen. a Sept. 12 New York on Oct. 5. Only Germany, There is even less probability of a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Times op-ed, former Latvia and Romania Taliban are able to strike at will in large areas of the country, the Afghan Saudi ambassador to the joined with the U.S. in the police and army are weak and ineffectual, and the government of PresiU.S. Turki al-Faisal said it 40-4 vote. dent Hamid Karzai can’t begin to pay the $10 billion a year it takes to mainwould cause “an uproar Once again, administratain them. Even if Obama removes 33,000 troops by the summer of 2012 among Muslims worldtion spokesmen were as he has promised to do, more than double the number of U.S. soldiers wide” and warned of forced to defend the indewho were there when he took office will remain, along with some 100,000 “profound negative confensible by resorting to private contractors. sequences” to U.S.-Saudi inanities. “We do not beMeanwhile, U.S. relations with Pakistan are steadily worsening. Military relations. lieve the objective we all officials accuse Pakistan’s security forces of tolerating and even cooperating Al-Faisal urged the U.S. have—two states, Paleswith insurgent groups that attack American troops, and the Pakistanis reto heed “the vast majortine and Israel—can be sent U.S. drone attacks and incursions into its territory by U.S. forces. ity of Arabs and Muslims achieved through a culKarzai has heightened the tensions by moving closer to India, Pakistan’s who demand justice for ture and science organizafeared adversary. the Palestinian people” tion in Paris,” a U.S. offiTo cope with these problems the U.S. and Afghanistan are expected to and not stand in the way cial said. But nobody sign an agreement known as the Strategic Partnership Declaration, which of their long overdue claimed it would. But would guarantee a permanent American presence in the country. The U.S. recognition.

Obama, what it would do is allow will continue to “train, equip, and sustain” Afghan security forces, continue however reluctantly, is the Palestinians to seek incounterterrorism operations, and strengthen Afghan ties to NATO. certain to reject such adternational protection of Afghanistan in turn will be committed to creating a legal framework and envice. Like his predecestheir historic sites in East vironment “favorable to private sector and international investment.” sors, he is locked in a Jerusalem, for centuries Robert Koehler, author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound, points out damaging alliance with the center of Arab and that the agreement gives the U.S. “a permanent, enduring military presIsrael that too often forces Muslim culture. Israeli ence in Central Asia.” Above all, he writes, it would “so likely enrage the the U.S. to act contrary to bulldozers are now busy Taliban that they wouldn’t come to the negotiating table, keeping the preits own interests and inobliterating signs of that text for war—and the Afghan government’s catastrophic security needs, creases the likelihood of culture, along with the alive in perpetuity.” It would also keep alive the hatred of America that led terrorist attacks. homes of thousands of to 9/11 and the decade of death and suffering that has followed. —R.M. The pitfalls of the alArabs. liance were again made Soon the issue of Palesevident when it was retinian membership will go to UNESCO’s 193-member General Confer- that the government illegally annexed in vealed that since 2009 the Obama adminisence for approval. If the Palestinians are 1967. According to Khalil Toufakji, a Pales- tration has been sending 5,000-pound granted membership, existing legislation tinian housing expert who follows Israeli set- “bunker buster” bombs to Israel. Since the and bills pending before Congress will tlement policy, Israel also has plans to house bombs were designed to penetrate Iran’s unoblige the U.S. to cut off all contributions to thousands of additional settlers on land derground nuclear facilities, the Bush administration had refrained from sending the U.N. and its agencies. Israel meanwhile is northwest of Bethlehem.

The timing of Israel’s announcement made them for fear the U.S. would be seen as enpunishing the Palestinians by lengthening waits at checkpoints and refusing to turn a mockery of the statement issued a week dorsing an Israeli attack. A Pentagon over the millions of dollars in tax revenues it earlier by the Quartet—the U.S., European spokesman refused to comment on that posUnion, Russia and the U.N.—urging the two sibility but said, “Make no mistake about it; collects for the Palestinian Authority.

On Sept. 27, less than a week after the sides to “refrain from provocative actions” the United States is committed to the secuPalestinians applied for U.N. membership, Is- and return to the negotiating table “without rity of Israel and Israel’s ability to maintain rael announced it would build 1,100 new preconditions.” State Department spokes- its qualitative edge.” The problem is that rehousing units in an area south of Jerusalem woman Victoria Nuland was forced to say Continued on page 74 10

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

DECEMBER 2011

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28 Years: One Palestinian Prisoner’s Story Gazaon the Ground

PHOTO MAHMOUD OMER

By Mohammed Omer

Newly released prisoner Salim Al-Kayyali kisses the hand of his 100-year-old mother, Roqayya. uman rights activists refer to Salim Al-

HKayyali as “the dean of detainees.”

One of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners Israel agreed to release in return for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he has been incarcerated in an Israeli prison—without trial—longer than any imprisoned Palestinian. Even before his latest incarceration, for his affiliation with the military wing of the Fatah party, Al-Kayyali had been arrested and jailed multiple times for that affiliation and his political activities. The last time he saw freedom was on May 30, 1983, 28 years ago—and exactly half his life.

Al-Kayyali has been in prison since before the first intifada broke out; before the massacre perpetrated by Barnard Goldstein on a Hebron mosque, killing dozens and wounding hundreds of worshippers, and opening the door to retaliatory bombings; since well before Oslo, before the 2000 Camp David summit, before Sept. 11, 2001, before hundreds of checkpoints made travel nearly imAward-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports on the Gaza Strip, and maintains the Web site <www.rafahtoday.org>. He can be reached at <gazanews@yahoo.com>.

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possible, and before a single concrete slab of Israel’s wall was pounded into the earth, tearing apart entire Palestinian communities. The world the 56-year-old Al-Kayyali returned to on Oct. 18 barely resembles the one he last saw. Things are far worse—but he’ll have plenty of time to absorb all the changes in the weeks ahead. The day of his release was about joy and reuniting with his family members—many of whom he’s never met.

Al-Kayyali’s wife has waited nearly three decades for her husband’s return. She has not seen him since 1996, when the Israeli Prison Service began denying her visitation with her husband. “Not a moment passed when Salim was not on my mind,” she explains. “Now my husband is back,” she says with delight. “I have no further reason to feel the weight of the seconds, minutes, passing by on the clock hanging in the hallway next to his photograph.”

Recalling the moment she heard the good news that her husband was to be released, her eyes well up with joy: “When I heard the words of the radio news presenter announcing my husband’s name, I cried, and knelt down on the floor to thank God for this gift.”

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

In addition to his wife, Al-Kayyali has a daughter he’s never seen. Douwaa AlKayyali is now 28 years old, married and with a newborn baby of her own. All she knows of her father comes from family stories and the poster of him hanging in the family’s hallway. “Hope came back to me after 2006 when Gilad Shalit was captured,” the young mother explains. Her hope was based on the fact that over the years Israel has traded Palestinian prisoners for captured Israeli soldiers or the bodies of those killed in action.

Al-Kayyali’s mother, Roqayya, who was 43 when he was born, just celebrated her 100th birthday. This is a day she never thought she’d see. Speaking from her wheelchair, she eagerly anticipates the son she hasn’t seen in years, as the “Israeli occupation denied my visits to him for the past years.”

For all these years her faith sustained her, as she prayed that her son would be freed.

Today that moment has arrived. “Son, I miss you so much,” the grateful mother exclaims. “I want to hold you tight, before I die.” In celebration, she dons a special white Palestinian dress that she made for the occasion.

In front of the Al-Kayyali family home in Al Zaytoun, an area southeast of Gaza City, hangs a banner emblazoned with the words: “Welcome to the heroic leader.” The family has erected a tent to accommodate the hundreds of anticipated guests.

The prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas was brokered with the assistance of Egypt and Germany. A member of the Egyptian team told the Washington Report with relief that “after 65 months of negotiations…thousands of hours, we made it!” Egypt “placed the screws” on the deal, he added proudly, but “Germany came afterward to make sure they are not too loose.”

Of the 477 prisoners released in the initial round, 297 were released to Gaza, even though only 133 are originally from there. Israel exiled the others there, denying them access to their homes and families in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The second group of 550 detainees awaits release within the next two months. ❑ DECEMBER 2011

Abunimah-prisoners_13_Special Report 10/26/11 8:03 PM Page 13

Inside the Mideast Prisoner Swap SpecialReport

By Ali Abunimah n recent days, we’ve witnessed the rare

ebrating at the same time. Ironically, this was the result of negotiations between the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian resistance organization Hamas, which Israel and the United States describe as “terrorists.” It was a moment that revealed what it would take for negotiations between seemingly irreconcilable foes to result in a credible agreement and why the current “peace process” has gone nowhere.

But in the wake of the Israel-Hamas agreement under which 1,027 Palestinians held by Israel are being released in exchange for one Israeli soldier held in Gaza, the editors of The New York Times expressed a good deal of frustration.

“If Mr. Netanyahu can negotiate with Hamas—which shoots rockets at Israel, refuses to recognize Israel’s existence,” they wondered in an Oct. 18 editorial, “why won’t he negotiate seriously with the Palestinian Authority, which Israel relies on to help keep the peace in the West Bank?”

What are the chances of this happening?

The Times was referring to the supposedly “moderate” Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, whose U.S.-backed security forces collaborate with Israel to keep any form of armed or unarmed Palestinian resistance in check.

The Times noted that Netanyahu had defied Israeli families whose loved ones had been killed in armed attacks by some of the Palestinian prisoners: Why can’t Netanyahu also buck the wishes of Israeli settlers in the West Bank in a similar way and put in place a settlement freeze?

Abbas insists he won’t return to negotiations until Israel stops building Jewishonly colonies in the West Bank, especially in and around eastern occupied Jerusalem.

The blame lay squarely with Netanyahu, according to The Times: “The problem is not that he can’t compromise and make tough choices. It’s that he won’t.”

In calling for a return to negotiations between Israel and the PA, The Times was echoing others—including the Obama administration—who are incapable of seeing Five irascible trailers telephoned the ticket.

But two mats extremely cleverly bought the subway downtown.

DECEMBER 2011

ALESSIO ROMENZI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Ispectacle of Israelis and Palestinians cel-

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya (c) hugs newly released Palestinian prisoners during a celebration following their arrival in Gaza Oct. 18 after a swap of more than 1,000 Palestinians for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. alternatives to the failed U.S.-backed “peace process.”

But this is terribly unfair to the Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu has done absolutely nothing that his supposedly more “dovish” predecessors, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, did not do. Olmert and Livni did negotiate with Abbas without ever stopping settlement construction and without advancing proposals that would meet even Abbas’ minimalist demands. Netanyahu says he’s willing to do the same and constantly begs Abbas to meet him at the negotiating table.

And the Olmert government, like Netanyahu’s, negotiated with Hamas. The Palestine Papers—a trove of documents and minutes related to the peace process that was leaked to Al Jazeera in January— shed light on what happened.

In 2008, Israel and Hamas were very close to reaching the deal that Netanyahu eventually struck: about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the Israeli prisoner of war. But it was Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, the leaked documents unambiguously show, that lobbied hard and successfully for Israel not to do the deal. PA officials argued—as The Times now does—that handing a victory to Hamas would damage Abbas, who THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

has nothing to show for all his cooperation with the occupation.

Instead, PA officials wanted Israel to negotiate with them over a prisoner exchange.

But as Livni explained to senior Abbas aides at a March 31, 2008 meeting in Jerusalem, “We wanted to talk with Abu Mazen [Abbas] but he cannot release Gilad Shalit.”

And that in a nutshell is the answer to The Times’ question. Israel did not negotiate with Hamas because Hamas is “moderate,” any more than the U.S. has negotiated with the Taliban in Afghanistan because it is “moderate,” or the U.K. negotiated with representatives of the Irish Republican Army because they were “moderate.”

In all those cases, enemies who had previously been declared off limits (“we don’t negotiate with terrorists”) were brought into the fold because they were in a position of strength.

Similarly, the reason Israel has been willing to limit its military assaults on the Gaza Strip recently is in part because Hamas and other Palestinian factions have been able to exercise limited deterrence with their rockets.

Netanyahu will not impose a settlement freeze in response to Abbas’ demands simContinued on page 16 13

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“Price Tag” or Pogrom? West Bank Settlers Now Running Amok in Israel as Well The NakbaContinues

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Jonathan Cook

Muslim Israeli citizens inspect a burned mosque after it was torched overnight in the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangariya in the northern Galilee, Oct. 3, 2011. he interior of the mosque in the

TBedouin village of Tuba Zangariya in

northern Israel was left charred and blackened in early October, its stacks of Qur’ans burned beyond recognition. On the outside walls, scrawled in charcoal, were the words “Revenge” and “Price tag.” The extremist wing of the settler movement had left its calling card.

As part of their “price tag” policy—a euphemism for a campaign of terror—the settlers have for the past two years been intermittently setting fire to mosques in the West Bank. For much of the past decade, they have been mounting regular pogromstyle attacks against isolated Palestinian villages, beating the inhabitants, setting fire to fields, uprooting olive trees, killing livestock and poisoning wells. At this time of year, during the olive season, armed gangs of settlers roam the West Bank assaulting Palestinians trying to harvest their crops.

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

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But this was the first time the settlers had torched a mosque in Israel. A few days later, two cemeteries—one Muslim, one Christian—were vandalized in Jaffa, a mixed Jewish-Arab town next to Tel Aviv.

The phrases “Price tag” and “Death to the Arabs” were sprayed on the headstones.

The “price tag” policy originally was devised as a way both to punish Palestinians for attacks on the settlements and to deter Israel from enforcing the rule of law on the settlers. On the rare occasions when the Israeli authorities have done so—by, for instance, removing a caravan from one of the more than 100 unauthorized settlement outposts dotted across the West Bank, or by arresting a lawbreaker—Palestinian villages have suffered the consequences.

More recently, however, the settlers’ attacks have been intended to penalize Palestinians for the smallest political developments in peace talks. The hard-liners, in particular, are so blinkered by their religiousnationalist fundamentalism that they have failed to grasp the reality that Israel’s leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, voided the peace process long ago.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

It was almost certainly not a coincidence that the two attacks inside Israel came a short time after Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application for statehood to the United Nations, in defiance of both Israel and the U.S. The Palestinian Authority president raised the stakes on Palestinian statehood—and so did the settlers.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a recent campaign by Jewish extremists to expand their low-intensity war against West Bank Palestinians to include Israel’s 1.5 million-strong Palestinian minority. These latter Palestinians, descendants of those who remained on their land during the 1948 war, have Israeli citizenship—even if of a very inferior kind—and comprise a fifth of Israel’s population (a higher percentage than that of African Americans in the U.S.).

The settlers’ goal, according to analysts, is to generate a civil war, creating the momentum toward an apocalyptic confrontation that unites the Jewish population behind the settlers’ vision of a Greater Israel by pitting Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line against the “Chosen people.”

According to Jafar Farah, director of Mossawa, an Arab advocacy organization inside Israel, “They [the settlers] want us to react. Then they can claim that the Arabs are trying to drive the Jews into the sea, and that no political solution is possible.”

Since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005, disillusionment has grown among the extremist settlers, many of whom are convinced that they must intensify their struggle to stop further concessions in the peace process. The settlements, armed by the Israeli army for decades, are in a position to wreak havoc.

In recent years the most militant elements among the settlers have been increasingly focusing their energies on Palestinian Arab communities in Israel, with the intention of stoking tensions and provoking conflict. They have used a two-fold approach.

In Israel’s half a dozen so-called mixed cities, where Jews and Arabs live in close proximity, even if usually in separate neighborhoods, religious extremists have been DECEMBER 2011

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taking over areas within traditional Arab enclaves. Typically, they have begun by setting up a hesder yeshiva, a seminary where young Jewish men combine religious studies with military service. Effectively, the yeshivas are armed encampments within Arab neighborhoods. The settlers then seek to intimidate and drive out Arab residents so they can take over nearby buildings and gradually spread out, in a variation of the established Zionist tactic of the tower-andstockade used by the first European Jewish immigrants to take over land in Palestine during the British Mandate.

But the settlers also have targeted some of the largest and most independent Arab towns in Israel. In recent years Baruch Marzel, one of the leaders of an ultra-nationalist group of settlers based in and around the West Bank Palestinian city of Hebron, has been leading provocative settler marches—with Israeli police protection—into Arab communities such as Sakhnin and Umm al-Fahm.

Sakhnin has a reputation as one of the most nationalist Arab communities in Israel, famous for its role in resisting a large state-organized land grab in the Galilee in 1976. In clashes the army killed six protesters, an event commemorated every year

by Palestinians as Land Day. Umm al-Fahm, meanwhile, is notorious among Israeli Jews as the hometown of Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the increasingly influential Islamic Movement. For similar reasons, the city is the primary target of a plan put forward by Israel’s far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, to swap Arab areas of Israel for the settlements in the West Bank under a future peace deal.

In this regard, the Jewish extremists chose the locations of their latest attacks carefully. They selected two PalestinianArab communities in Israel that have the opportunity and possible incentive to respond to the settlers’ provocation with violence. Both communities are also distinctive for being surrounded by Jewish populations that have recently become rabidly anti-Arab.

Militant settlers hoped they were throwing a lit match on to a bonfire.

By contrast, Tuba Zangariya is one of a few fervently “loyal” Arab communities in Israel. While many Bedouin were expelled during the 1948 war that created Israel, the tribes of Tuba and Zangariya were given an area next to Jewish communities as a reward for fighting alongside Israel’s armed forces.

Deprived of jobs and facing the same discrimination suffered by the rest of the DECEMBER 2011

country’s Arab minority, many young men there still serve, like their grandfathers and fathers, in the Israeli army. After the mosque attack, a community leader boasted to an Israeli reporter: “We were among the founders of the state of Israel.”

But as news of the mosque’s desecration spread, enraged youths burned government buildings, fired their army-issue rifles into the air and clashed with police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. The police claimed their tough approach was needed to stop the youths of Tuba from marching on to Rosh Pina and Safed, two Jewish towns only a few kilometers away.

Anti-Arab sentiments in Safed, in particular, have reached a boiling point under the town’s chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, a municipal employee who has been leading a campaign to expel Safed’s small Arab population, mostly students attending the local college. He has accused young Arab men of seeking to “corrupt” the town’s Jewish women, and along with dozens of other rabbis signed a letter last year threatening reprisals against Jews who rented properties to non-Jews. There have been sporadic assaults on Arabs in Safed ever since.

The despoiling of the graves in Jaffa could have triggered a spiral of violence as well. A day after the attack, Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in the town.

Jaffa, once the commercial hub of Palestine, is now little more than a seaside suburb of Tel Aviv containing one of the most deprived Arab communities in the country.

Most of the residents are descendants either of Palestinians forced out of their Jaffa homes at gunpoint in 1948 and corralled into a small neighborhood named Ajami, or of poor Palestinian laborers brought from the rest of the country to help build Tel Aviv.

Jaffa’s Arab population, still penned up in Ajami and living precariously as tenants in neglected properties confiscated by the state decades ago, were brought to global attention in 2009 in an Oscar-nominated film called simply “Ajami.” It portrayed the neighborhood as a breeding ground for crime and violence.

However, it did not show two further indignities currently being suffered by Ajami’s Arab residents: a gentrification program that is demolishing areas of the neighborhood to attract wealthy Jews who prefer a beachfront residence to overcrowded Tel Aviv (see July 2008 Washington Report, p. 24); and the gradual infiltraTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tion of Jewish religious extremists, who have switched location from the settlements to Jaffa and other mixed cities.

In this pressure-cooker atmosphere, the graves’ vandals presumably hoped they could fuel the mounting antagonisms on both sides of Jaffa’s ethnic divide.

Fueling Antagonisms Significantly, the attacks inside Israel suggested that militant factions among the settlers are now committed to a strategy that blurs the Green Line—the pre-1967 border between Israel and the occupied territories—in a way designed to make the citizenship status of Palestinians inside Israel irrelevant. More terror attacks on the minority can be expected.

An editorial in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper noted that the settlers were exploiting the prevailing anti-Arab mood that has been generated both by two years of overtly discriminatory legislation from the Israeli parliament and by growing numbers of rabbis espousing trenchantly racist views. Reports of the arson attack on the mosque in Tuba Zangariya spawned antiArab graffiti across Israel.

The editorial also pointed out that such incitement and violence posed a severe challenge to Israel’s professed democratic credentials and its image internationally.

That is why Israel’s political leaders, including Netanyahu, and its chief rabbis condemned the attacks with a haste and vehemence entirely missing from their reactions to Jewish terror aimed at Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The gauntlet thrown down by the settlers is directed mainly toward the security services, especially the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency. The police and Shin Bet have a woeful track record of solving crimes against Palestinians committed by the settlers, despite the increasing use of video cameras by Palestinians to record the attacks. The price tag campaign of recent years has come at almost no cost to the settlers.

The burning of the mosque in Tuba Zangariya neatly illustrated the double standards. A Jewish youth from a West Bank settlement was arrested a few hours after the attack, but released days later for lack of evidence. Meanwhile, the police arrested more than 20 youths from Tuba for firing their weapons into the air, and vowed they would be making many further arrests.

In September the Shin Bet claimed it was struggling to track down those responsible for the price tag attacks because they were religious zealots who had organized into a 15

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network of discrete terror cells to avoid infiltration and surveillance.

Yossi Melman, Haaretz’s security correspondent, was dismissive of the reasoning: “The Islamic Hezbollah [in Lebanon] and Hamas organizations are also religious zealots. They, too, study their enemy, but nonetheless the Shin Bet and the intelligence agencies manage to infiltrate them and obtain accurate intelligence information about them.”

The few Jewish extremists who had been arrested for attacks, Melman added, benefited from “the lenience of judges” and from “incompetence that appears to have been deliberate on the part of the police and the army.”

A more probable explanation for the Shin Bet’s failure is that its much-neglected “Jewish section,” which investigates the settlers’ security crimes and is overshadowed by a larger and better-funded “Arab section,” draws many of its officers from among the ranks of the settlers.

The impunity granted the settlers is having serious consequences inside Israel, as even the Shin Bet has begun to notice. It has emboldened the extremists to widen their operations of late to include not only the Palestinian minority but also Israeli Jewish peace activists and, on a few occasions, Israeli soldiers.

A few days before the attack on Tuba Zangariya’s mosque, a large group of West Bank settlers from Anatot, close to Jerusalem, assaulted and terrorized a group of left-wing Jews who had come to support a Palestinian couple trying to work their land. Many of Anatot’s settlers work in the security services, and video shows police officers who were called to the scene standing by as the peace activists are beaten and some of the women sexually abused.

Despite its failure to trace the culprits of such crimes, the Shin Bet has warned that the most fanatical elements in the settler movement need restraining if there is not to be a rapid escalation of violence on both sides of the Green Line. In August it ordered 12 youths from Yitzhar, a notorious settlement close to Nablus, barred from the West Bank. A month later the government ignored the Shin Bet’s advice to the Education Ministry to cut funding to Yitzhar’s yeshiva, whose rabbis recently published a book advocating the murder of non-Jews, including children.

Because Israel’s politicians so far have shown great reluctance to act against the militant settlers, their campaign of violence against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line is sure to intensify. ❑ 16

Mideast Prisoner Swap…

Continued from page 13

ply because Netanyahu believes in and supports the colonization of the West Bank, and Abbas does not have the power to make him.

Israel only negotiates seriously when it feels it has no other choice and when its adversary has enough power to impose an outcome it cannot prevent by other means.

Does this mean that Hamas and Israel could potentially do a deal over the broader issues? The answer is no, but not because of the conventional wisdom that Hamas doesn’t recognize Israel, espouses violence, and refuses to accept signed agreements.

In fact, Hamas has said repeatedly—including in a New York Times interview with its leader Khaled Meshal—that the movement is willing to accept a Palestinian state in only the West Bank and Gaza Strip, provided all Israeli settlements are removed and the rights of Palestinian refugees are respected.

But while Hamas was strong in the specific context of negotiations over prisoners, the movement by itself or even in combination with other Palestinian factions is not strong enough to compel Israel to meet broader demands.

The power balance remains too lopsided against Palestinians for negotiations to be anything more than what they have been for two decades: a cover for Israel to continue colonization.

For this reason in 2005, Palestinian civil society, independently of all political factions, issued its unified call to supporters around the world for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel. It urges that these “punitive measures” be maintained until Israel recognizes the Palestinian people’s rights and respects international law in three ways: an end to the occupation and colonization of Arab lands conquered in 1967; recognizing the fundamental rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respecting the rights of Palestinian refugees, including the right of return.

These are goals that unify all Palestinians, whether they support the fast-fading twostate solution, or a single democratic state incorporating Israelis and Palestinians throughout historic Palestine (Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip together).

Modeled on the successful campaign that helped isolate apartheid South Africa, the logic is straightforward: As long as Israel enjoys an overwhelming power advantage it will never respect Palestinian rights nor THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

dismantle its racist, colonial and apartheidlike policies. Why should it when it pays no price for doing what it pleases?

The BDS campaign was prompted in part by the response—or rather the lack of it—to the 2004 International Court of Justice ruling that Israel’s West Bank wall is illegal. When no governments took any measures to enforce the decision, Palestinians realized that global civil society would have to act.

Power Not Held Accountable Similarly, Israel remains in violation of countless U.N. resolutions, and has faced no accountability whatsoever for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed over many years, but most recently in Gaza in 2009 and detailed in the U.N.commissioned Goldstone report.

Could the BDS shift the balance of power such that Israel would be forced to concede Palestinian rights? The international movement’s rapid growth has convinced some influential Israelis that it can.

Last year, the Reut Institute, a think tank with close ties to the Israeli government, called for an all-out campaign of “sabotage” and “attack” on the“delegitimization” of Israel. It especially focused on BDS, and warned that the movement’s “momentum is gaining.”

In response to the Reut report, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs launched a multimillion-dollar initiative to “combat anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns.”

And in his May speech to the Israel lobby (AIPAC), President Obama vowed that the U.S. would help Israel fight “delegitimization.”

But he warned nonetheless that “the march to isolate Israel internationally— and the impulse of the Palestinians to abandon negotiations—will continue to gain momentum in the absence of a credible peace process and alternative.”

Israel’s isolation is growing not only because of BDS, but because of regional developments including the uprising that toppled Egypt’s pro-Israel Mubarak regime, and Turkey’s break with Israel over the Gaza siege and the attack on the Mavi Marmara.

While this might dismay Obama, those who yearn for negotiations leading to peace and justice should do all they can to hasten the erosion of Israel’s power advantage over the Palestinians. After all, as recent events demonstrate, Israel only negotiates seriously with the strong. ❑ DECEMBER 2011

williams_17-18_United Nations Report 10/26/11 1:05 PM Page 17

Washington Impaling Itself on the Horns of a Diplomatic Dilemma

By Ian Williams

United Nations Report

n the twisted chains of events

Iin the Middle East, one set of

SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

links is clear. Almost 500 Palestinian prisoners—and Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit—released on Oct. 12, with a second group of 555 Palestinian prisoners to be released later, owe their freedom to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ determination to push the U.N. membership issue. Binyamin Netanyahu could have freed Shalit any time on these same terms—but the Palestinian statehood issue, for psychopathological reasons we have discussed earlier in these columns, rattles the Israeli prime minister and his supporters so much that he was prepared to give Hamas a boost against Fatah with the release.

Those of us who savor fine hypocrisies will also relish the irony of long negotiations resulting in a political boost for a movement with which Israel Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (l) formally submits papers for admission to the U.N. says the rest of the world should as a member state to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting in have no contact. One almost New York City, Sept. 23, 2011. looks forward to the arrest, indictment and trial of Israeli leaders on their Council. If the resolution accepting Pales- resolution that even mildly criticizes Israel next visit to the U.S., where people are serv- tinian membership does not garner nine for documented repression in the occupied ing long sentences for much less substantial positive votes, then—in the spirit of the territories—as listed by the State Departcontact and support for Hamas related orga- toddler who hides behind the drapes and ment’s own annual reports on human can’t understand that everyone can see his rights and religious freedom! nizations!

And more Israel Lobby-induced mayhem However, back to the main issue, Pales- feet sticking out—the U.S. hopes to escape tine’s application for U.N. membership is the contumely it richly merits for vetoing a was heading down the turnpike toward now languishing in a Security Council sub- resolution fulfilling the wishes expressed Washington, with UNESCO’s scheduled late fall vote on its board’s recommendation committee, few of whose members seem by the president just a year earlier.

Twenty years ago, the U.S. scarcely felt for Palestine’s full membership status in the eager to bring the issue to a head. No matter what the Obama administration does the need to justify what it wanted. Now, agency’s general council. Forty of the 58 now, it is cruising for a diplomatic bruising. over-extended militarily, wobbling finan- board members backed a Palestinian draft While U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice is not cially, its carrots are stringy and its stick de- resolution proposing membership, with the as pugnacious as her predecessor John tumescent, so it has to explain why Russia U.S. among four voting against, and 14 abBolton, or indeed James Baker, in rounding is being unreasonable in blocking the mem- stentions—countries which do not really up votes in the U.N., the Obama adminis- bership of Kosovo, recognized by about half oppose it but don’t want to upset the U.S. tration has been trying hard—despite of the U.N., while a White House-threatWashington’s weakened clout—to per- ened veto of membership for Palestine, rec- The Vatican Precedent suade vulnerable states that it is in their ognized by more than two-thirds of U.N. This has a double significance. Firstly, the best interests not to vote yes in the Security members, is statesmanship of a high order. Vatican’s convoluted route to acceptance as Indeed, inquiring minds might well a non-member observer state at the U.N. Ian Williams is a free-lance journalist based compare the Russian and Chinese vetoes began with it being “smuggled” into memat the United Nations and has a blog at against action in Syria to prevent repres- bership of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) <www.deadlinepundit.blogspot.com>. sion, with those by the U.S. against any by the devotee who headed the organizaDECEMBER 2011

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

17

williams_17-18_United Nations Report 10/26/11 1:05 PM Page 18

tion at the time. After all, the Vatican had its own stamps—a nice little earner—and its own radio station, which got it into the International Telecommunications (then Telegraph) Union. It was never allowed to join the League of Nations, nor for many decades would Washington countenance U.N. membership—but the Vatican had a long-term strategy, as one would expect, on how a postage stamp state with a population of a few hundred celibates could get more recognition.

The U.N. invited members of the specialized agencies to participate, but not vote, in the General Assembly and, nudged along, gave such entities, which included Switzerland for half a century, a vote in conferences.

Echoing the issue of whether President Abbas represents the PLO, Palestine, or the Palestinian Authority, it is the Vatican City which is a member of the two U.N. agencies. Half a century ago, however, it switched the name of its U.N. observer mission to the Holy See—then separated the Holy See as the Catholic Church from the Holy See as the entity holding sovereignty over the Vatican City!

In a little noticed move in 2004, the General Assembly upgraded the Vatican’s status from an entity—Palestine’s current designation—to a non-member state. The U.S., which opposes such status for the several million Palestinians, did not object.

So, under existing rules, membership in UNESCO would take Palestinian participation out of the special case situation it currently occupies as a result of 20 years of diplomatic war by attrition, and bring it under general rules that the U.S. and Israel would have no chance of overturning.

Renewed Assaults on the U.N. But there is, of course, more. After some years of the puzzling sound of silence regarding the U.N., some of the Republican right and their Democratic allies whose hearts beat as one with the Likudnik pacemaker have been building up for a renewed assault on the U.N. and all its works. They have passed legislation that would require the U.S. to pull its funding—and membership—from any body that gives “full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.” The legislation is of course weaselly worded to mean Palestine—but not the Vatican—while interestingly leaving Taiwan in limbo.

That would present an interesting quandary for Hillary Clinton, who, visiting UNESCO headquarters in Paris this 18

year, declared, “I am proud to be the first secretary of state from the United States ever to come to UNESCO, and I come because I believe strongly in your mission.”

That dilemma could be resolved immediately, of course, if the president and the State Department determined that in fact Palestine does have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood. After all, Kosovo, under U.S. sponsorship, has joined the World Bank and IMF—which should, if U.N. membership were the determinant, have the U.S. pulling out and defunding those organizations as well. Looking at the damage they have done worldwide, that might not be such a bad idea—but in any case, no one has brought it up hitherto.

The diplomatic dilemma on the horns of which the administration is impaling itself becomes more barbed with each passing denial of reality.

By U.N. custom, once one agency has accepted a member, all other U.N. agencies also accord it full rights, as the Vatican demonstrates. Since the World Bank and IMF are quantum U.N. agencies—in and out at the same time, depending on what suits them—Kosovo cannot yet lever membership there into other U.N. agencies. UNESCO membership, however, like the UPU, opens the doors to all the others.

So the U.S. can either pull out of all the U.N. agencies this administration holds dear—including the U.N. itself—if the General Assembly accepts the Holy See way to Palestinian participation, or it can accept Palestine as a state under international law. Washington could, of course, suggest that the case be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for an advisory opinion. That, however, would then imply accepting other ICJ judgements, such as the one against the U.S. mining of Nicaragua’s harbors—and on Israel’s occupation wall.

acts against Palestinians and their properties during the reporting period and the discriminatory treatment of Israeli settlers and Palestinians in law enforcement. The involvement of Israel Defense Forces in acts of violence, either through their participation or inaction to prevent the acts, is discussed as a growing concern.”

But perhaps most timely for those expressing shock and horror at the Palestinians undertaking due process to secure the rights as a state that most nations grant them is the report’s conclusion: “The General Assembly and the international community should more actively seek the implementation of their decisions, resolutions and recommendations, as well as those of the Security Council, the International Court of Justice and the United Nations human rights mechanisms, including treaty bodies and special procedure mandate holders, in relation to the situation of human rights and international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

It puts in perspective the U.S. threat to defund all Palestinian activities in retaliation for the statehood bid—as, indeed, does the promise to increase aid to the state that is defying not only the U.N., but U.S. pleas, and continuing to build settlements. ❑ (Advertisement)

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A Hard-Hitting Report The latter, of course, is long overdue. On Sept. 16, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submitted the report requested by the General Assembly on Israeli settlement activities. Citing instance after instance of violent discriminatory behavior, the hard-hitting report “seeks to underscore the discriminatory nature of the Israeli policy and practice of promoting settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. While illegal settlement expansion continues to take place in the West Bank, restrictions on Palestinian construction and the demolition of Palestinian homes have been on the rise.

The report also addresses settlers’ violent THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

!

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!"#$% %&&'()*+$,-.(/$0123$4-5/-$6-&78$ 9993:.55)//;<=+&&'<3(&7$ DECEMBER 2011

parry_19_Neocon Corner 10/27/11 1:15 PM Page 19

Neocons Blame Obama for Iraq Disaster NeoconCorner

By Robert Parry

vative editors of The Washington Post immediately got to work rewriting the narrative of the Iraq war, shifting the blame for the eight-year strategic disaster onto him.

That is the message of Oct. 23’s lead editorial in which The Post joins with the neocon-advised Republican presidential candidates in setting Obama up for the fall in the likely event that the horrendous political violence in Iraq gets even worse.

The solution favored by The Post’s editors and the Republicans is to continue the U.S. military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, just as they want a similar open-ended war in Afghanistan and sought a more aggressive U.S. military role in Libya. Simply put: Spare no expense in the blood of U.S. soldiers and the dollars of U.S. taxpayers.

And, since the neocons retain enormous influence in the opinion circles of Official Washington, they will likely have a great deal of success in rewriting the history of the Iraq War into one that depicts a brilliant neocon “victory” squandered by the reckless “peaceniks” surrounding Obama.

The neocon message is this: If only Obama had listened to us—like George W. Bush did—everything would have worked out just wonderfully. However, since he didn’t, Obama will have to shoulder the blame for what the world will see as a humiliating U.S. retreat from Iraq.

The neocon corollary is that only a Republican president—most likely Mitt Romney or Rick Perry—can restore American grandeur in the world. Both Romney and Perry have surrounded themselves with neocon advisers, such as Eliot Cohen and Robert Kagan, who are guiding Romney’s foreign policy.

Romney essentially contracted out his foreign policy to the neocons who produced his campaign manifesto, “An American Century.” The title is an homage to the neocon Project for the New American Century, which in the 1990s built the ideological framework for the Iraq war and other violent “regime change” strategies pursued by Bush.

Robert Parry is founder and editor of <www. consortiumnews.com>, where this article was first posted Oct. 23, 2011.Copyright © 2011 Consortiumnews. All rights reserved.

DECEMBER 2011

Cohen, who wrote the manifesto’s foreword, was a founding member of the Project for the New American Century and a protégé of prominent neocons Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle.

Upbraiding Romney On the campaign trail, Romney briefly deviated from the prescribed neocon path—with comments that U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be withdrawn “as soon as we possibly can” and that the war showed Americans “cannot fight another nation’s war of independence.” He was promptly upbraided by the Post’s editors and quickly fell back into line.

So, after Obama’s announcement on Oct. 21 that the remaining U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year, Romney lashed out with a harsh denunciation fashioned by his neocon team.

He said Obama let his decision be driven either by “naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government.”

Also toeing the neocon line, Perry charged that Obama had put “political expediency ahead of sound military and security judgment” in agreeing to leave Iraq.

Then, on Oct. 21, the Post’s neocon editors joined the furor, portraying Obama’s withdrawal as shortsighted and foolhardy.

The editorial noted that the war will end for U.S. soldiers, but “Iraqi insurgents, including al-Qaeda, continue to wage war against the country’s fragile democratic government; Iran sponsors its own militias and has been accelerating its effort to dominate its neighbor.…

“Mr. Obama’s decision to carry out a complete withdrawal sharply increases the risk that painfully won security gains in Iraq will come undone; that Iran will be handed a crucial strategic advantage in its regional cold war with the United States; and that a potentially invaluable U.S. alliance with an emerging Iraqi democracy will wither.”

The Post’s editors claimed that Obama had given in to political advisers who wanted him to fulfill his campaign pledge of a complete U.S. military withdrawal, rather than heed the advice of military commanders who wanted to extend the U.S. occupation with 18,000 or so troops.

The Post wrote: “The next year or two will show whether that calculation is corContinued on page 74 THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

SABAH ARAR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

ith President Barack Obama’s announcement of a complete U.S. milW itary withdrawal from Iraq, the neoconser-

An Iraqi worker repairs the wires on an electricity pylon in Baghdad, Oct. 10, 2011. Electric power has been intermittent since March 2003, when the U.S. “Shock and Awe” bombing campaign attacked Iraq’s electrical infrastructure and other civilian targets.

19

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Two Views

SHIRLEY SHEPARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

How Plausible Is the Alleged Iranian “Terror Plot”?

A courtroom drawing of Mansour Arbabsiar (second from right) appearing before U.S. Southern District Court Judge Michael H. Dolinger (at bench) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Glen Kopp (l) during his arraignment at Federal Court in New York, Oct. 11, 2011.

FBI Account of “Terror Plot” Suggests Sting Operation

By Gareth Porter

hile the administration of Barack W Obama vows to hold the Iranian government “accountable” for the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the legal document describing evidence in the case provides multiple indications that it was mainly the result of an FBI “sting” operation.

Although the legal document, called an amended criminal complaint, implicates Iranian-American Mansour Arbabsiar and his cousin Ali Gholam Shakuri, an officer in the Iranian Quds Force, in a plan to assassinate Saudi Arabian Ambassador Adel Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006. Copyright © 2011 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.

20

al-Jubeir, it also suggests that the idea originated with and was strongly pushed by an undercover DEA informant, at the direction of the FBI. On May 24, when Arbabsiar first met with the DEA informant he thought was part of a Mexican drug cartel, it was not to hire a hit squad to kill the ambassador.

Rather, there is reason to believe that the main purpose was to arrange a deal to sell large amounts of opium from Afghanistan.

In the complaint, the closest to a semblance of evidence that Arbabsiar sought help during that first meeting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador is the allegation, attributed to the DEA informant, that Arbabsiar said he was “interested in, among other things, attacking an embassy of Saudi Arabia.”

Among the “other things” was almost certainly a deal on heroin controlled by officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Three Bloomberg reporters, citing a “federal law enforcement official,” wrote that Arbabsiar told the DEA informant he represented Iranians who “conTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

trolled drug smuggling and could provide tons of opium.”

Because of opium entering Iran from Afghanistan, Iranian authorities hold 85 percent of the world’s opium seizures, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency. Iranian security personnel, including those in the IRGC and its Quds Force, then have the opportunity to sell the opium to traffickers in the Middle East, Europe and now Mexico.

Mexican drug cartels have begun connecting with Middle Eastern drug traffickers, in many cases stationing operatives in Middle East locations to facilitate heroin production and sales, according to a report last January in Borderland Beat.

But the FBI account of the contacts between Arbabsiar and the DEA informant does not reference any discussions of drugs.

The criminal complaint refers to an unspecified number of meetings between Arbabsiar and the DEA informant in late June and the first two weeks of July.

What transpired in those meetings remains the central mystery surrounding the case.

The official account of the investigation cites the testimony of the informant (referred to in the document as “CS-1”) in stating, “Over the course of a series of meetings, ARBABSIAR explained to CS-1 that his associates in Iran had discussed a number of violent missions for CS-1 and CIS-1’s purported criminal associates to perform.”

The account claims that the mission discussed included murdering the ambassador.

But no specific statement proposing or agreeing to the act is attributed to Arbabsiar. “Prior to the July 14 meeting, CS-1 had reported that he and Arbabsiar had discussed the possibility of attacks on a number of other targets,” the account states.

The targets are described as involving “foreign government facilities associated with Saudi Arabia and with another country…located either in or outside the United States,” without mentioning any discussion of the Saudi ambassador.

Both that language and the absence of any statement attributed to Arbabsiar imply that the Iranian American said nothing about assassinating the Saudi ambassador except in response to suggestions by the informant, who was already part of an FBI undercover operation.

The DEA informant, as the FBI account DECEMBER 2011

views_sting_20-22_Two Views 10/26/11 1:13 PM Page 21

acknowledges in a footnote, had previously been charged with a narcotics offense by a state in the U.S. and had been cooperating in narcotics investigationsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; apparently posing as a drug cartel operativeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in return for dropping the charges.

The document is notably silent on whether the conversation was recorded.

A former FBI official familiar with procedures in such cases, who spoke to IPS anonymously, said the FBI would normally have recorded all such conversations touching on the possibility of terrorism.

The absence of quotes from any of those meetings suggests that they do not support the case being made by the FBI and the Obama administration.

The account is quite explicit, on the other hand, that the July 14 and July 17 meetings were recorded at FBI direction.

Statements quoted from those transcripts show the DEA informant trying to induce Arbabsiar to indicate agreement to assassinating the Saudi ambassador.

The informant is quoted as saying he would need â&#x20AC;&#x153;at least four guysâ&#x20AC;? and would â&#x20AC;&#x153;take the one point five for the Saudi Arabia.â&#x20AC;? He declared that he would â&#x20AC;&#x153;go ahead and work on the Saudi Arabia, get all the information we can.â&#x20AC;?

At one point the informant says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;You just want the, the main guy.â&#x20AC;? And at the end of the meeting, he declares, â&#x20AC;&#x153;[W]eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re gonna start doing the guy.â&#x20AC;?

The fact that not a single quote from Arbabsiar shows that he agreed to assassinating the ambassador, much less proposed it, suggests that he was either noncommittal or linking the issue to something else, such as the prospect of a major drug deal with the cartel.

Arbabsiarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quotes from a Sept. 2 phone conversation referring to the cartel as â&#x20AC;&#x153;having the number for the safeâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;once you open the door thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s itâ&#x20AC;? could refer to a drug transaction that had been discussed, while the FBI account suggests those quotes refer to the assassination and â&#x20AC;&#x153;other projectsâ&#x20AC;? with the Iranian group.

At the July 17 meeting, the DEA informant presented a plan to blow up a restaurant to kill the ambassador, with the possible deaths of 100-150 people, eliciting a lack of concern on the part of Arbabsiar about such deaths.

During a visit to Iran in August, Arbabsiar wired two equal payments totaling $100,000 to a bank account in New York.

But he was still under the impression that he was about to cash in on a deal with the cartel.

The Washington Post reported on Oct. 13 that Arbabsiar had told an Iranian-AmeriDECEMBER 2011

can friend from Corpus Christie, Texas, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to make good money.â&#x20AC;?

There is also circumstantial evidence that Arbabsiar may have even been brought into the sting operation to help further implicate his cousin Gholam Shakuri in the terrorist plot.

Arbabsiar met with his cousin Shakuri in late September and told him that the cartel was demanding that he, Arbabsiar, go to Mexico personally to guarantee payment. That demand from the DEA was an obvious device by the FBI to get Shakuri and his associates in Tehran to demonstrate their commitment to the assassination.

The FBI account indicates that Shakuri told Arbabsiar that he was responsible for himself if he went to Mexico. That statement would have been a warning sign for Arbabsiar, if he still believed he was dealing with one of the most murderous drug cartels in Mexico, that he would be risking his own life for a group that was no longer taking responsibility for him.

Yet Arbabsiar flew to Mexico as if unconcerned about that risk.

After his arrest on Sept. 29 Arbabsiar waived the right to a lawyer and proceeded to provide a complete confession.

A few days later, he placed a phone call to Shakuri which was recorded â&#x20AC;&#x153;at the direction of federal enforcement agents,â&#x20AC;? according to the FBI. â?&#x2018;

Destabilizing the Middle East

By Patrick Seale

he U.S. governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excitable accusaT tion that Iran paid a Mexican drug dealer to blow up the Saudi ambassador in a Washington restaurant adds a further destabilizing factor to an already dangerously unstable Middle East. It moves the interminable U.S.-Iranian quarrel one step closer to an armed conflict and it fans into flame the latent antagonism between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

A U.S.-Iranian war would have potentially devastating consequences for the region, for the United States and the world.

The smaller Gulf states, several of them home to large U.S. military bases, would find themselves in the line of fire. Their spectacular accomplishments of recent Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle for Arab Independence: Riad elSolh and the Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press). Copyright Š 2011 Patrick Seale. Distributed by Agence Global.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

decades could be turned to rubble. Attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere would undoubtedly multiply.

The Arab worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;i, already greatly exacerbated by Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s war in Iraq, would be further increased. For the industrial world, a regional war would immediately disrupt oil supplies, further worsening the current economic crisis.

Not surprisingly, world opinion has reacted with widespread scepticism, even derision, to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holderâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s announcement on Oct. 13 of the alleged Iranian plot. Tehran has vigorously denied any connection whatsoever with it.

It is, indeed, inherently implausible that Iran would, by means of a terrorist act of no strategic value, risk provoking the U.S. into military retaliation. Most experts agree that the very last thing Iran wants is a war with the United States. The story makes no sense.

If the U.S. government is not to be laughed out of court, it must now produce hard evidence of high-level Iranian implication in the alleged conspiracy. If the plot is no more than an FBI/DEA sting operation which overreached and went wrong, that, too, will need to be candidly examined and explained. If, as some would argue, it is the work of rogue elements in Iranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Quds Force (a wing of the Islamic Republic Guard Corps which, like U.S. Special Forces, specializes in foreign operations), that, too, will need to be convincingly demonstrated.

In any event, Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accusations are bound to increase Iranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paranoid fear that the United States and Israel are planning to attack it, and will therefore drive it to seek deterrence and protection by acquiring a nuclear capability. This is hardly the way to prevent nuclear proliferation. President Barack Obama thus presents the sad spectacle of siding with the war-mongers. He (Advertisement)

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22

has called for the “toughest sanctions” possible against Iran, as well as repeating the old mantra that “all options remain on the table,” a threadbare reference to military action.

His campaign for re-election has already caused him to woo the Jewish vote by opposing the Palestinians’ bid for U.N. membership while turning a blind eye to the “Greater Israel” ambitions of Israel’s fanatical settlers. The United States guarantees Israel’s military supremacy over all its neighbors yet is clearly unable to exercise the slightest influence over Israeli policies, even the most extreme. Now—once again perhaps for electoral reasons—Obama has gone a step further by echoing, and seeming to endorse, Israeli threats of military action against Iran.

News of the so-called plot comes at the very time when top Iranian officials—including President Ahmadinejad himself— have called for fresh talks with the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany) on Iran’s nuclear program. That in itself presents a striking contradiction. How could Iran seek talks and yet, at the same time, act in such a way as to make them impossible?

The obvious conclusion would seem to be that the plot was contrived by someone anxious to sabotage the possibility of a U.S.-Iranian dialogue, let alone a compromise over Iran’s nuclear activities. Indeed, the so-called plot reeks of a “false flag” operation—that is to say an operation by a third party deliberately designed to push the United States into conflict with the Islamic Republic.

There are many potential candidates for such a role, all anxious to see the Iranian regime punished. They include Iranian exiles longing to see the mullahs ousted; Lebanese enemies of Hezbollah, whether Sunni or Maronite, many of whom have Latin American connections; opponents of the Iran-backed Syrian regime who believe that Bashar al-Assad would be gravely weakened if the Iranian regime were to fall; American neocons itching for war against Iran, the very same people who conned America into war against Iraq; and of course Israel’s Mossad which, by all accounts, is a master at intelligence coups. It is thought to have been responsible for the recent murder of several Iranian nuclear scientists as well as for infecting the computers at Iran’s nuclear power station with toxic viruses such as Stuxnet.

Israel’s right-wing government has spared no effort to demonize Iran’s nuclear program as a deadly threat to mankind and has been eager to push the United States into destroying it. Israel’s motive is clear. If Iran were to acquire a nuclear capability, however rudimentary, it would checkmate THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Israel’s own large arsenal of nuclear weapons, and greatly restrict Israel’s ability to strike its neighbors at will.

Rather than fueling tensions as Obama is doing, rather than pandering to America’s worst instincts, the wise leader of a superpower should seek to pacify the region, resolve conflicts and cool tempers. Improbable as it may seem, Obama should talk to Iran rather than demonize it; he should devote himself again and again—and this time with more muscle and conviction—to settling the Arab-Israeli conflict, thereby removing a major factor of instability and opening the way for Israel’s peaceful integration into the region; he should seek to calm, rather than inflame, sectarian antagonisms; he should disengage the United States militarily, and as soon as possible, from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf region; and he should halt the counter-productive drone attacks which create more terrorists than they kill and which, under his watch, have brought death and destruction to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

The Middle East needs an end to the imperial ambitions and machinations which have plagued the region since the First World War. Urgently required instead is a massive coordinated international effort to revive the shattered economies of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Syria and the Palestinian territories—and, above all, create jobs. Without jobs, there will be no peace.

The United States is said to be redirecting its efforts to the Far East in order to contain the rising power of China. The sooner it gives the Middle East a break by turning its attention elsewhere, the better. ❑

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cartoons_23_December 2011 Cartoons 10/27/11 9:54 AM Page 23

THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST

Al Balad, Beirut

The Muslim Observer, Livonia

New York Times Syndicate, New York

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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margolis_24_Special Report 10/27/11 12:55 PM Page 24

Afghanistan: Ten Years of Aimless War SpecialReport

SHAH MARAI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Eric S. Margolis

Afghan relatives cry over the coffins of victims of a fuel tanker blast near Bagram air base, north of Kabul, Oct. 26, 2001. At least 10 people were killed and two dozen wounded in the attack on the civilian-operated tanker bound for the NATO military base. he renowned military strategist Maj.

TGen. J.F.C. Fuller defined war’s true

objective as achieving desired political results, not killing enemies.

But this is just what the U.S. has been doing in Afghanistan. After 10 years of war costing at least $450 billion, 1,600 dead and 15,000 seriously wounded soldiers, the U.S. has achieved none of its strategic or political goals.

Each U.S. soldier in Afghanistan costs $1 million per annum. CIA employs 80,000 mercenaries there, cost unknown. The U.S. spends a staggering $20.2 billion alone annually air conditioning troop quarters in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The most damning assessment comes from the U.S.-installed Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai: America’s war has been “ineffective, apart from causing civilian casualties.”

Washington’s goal was a favorable political settlement producing a pacified Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist and author of American Raj: Liberation or Domination (available from the AET Book Club). Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2011.

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Afghan state run by a regime totally responsive to U.S. political, economic and strategic interests; a native sepoy army led by white officers; and U.S. bases that threaten Iran, watch China, and control the energy-rich Caspian Basin.

All the claims made about fighting “terrorism and al-Qaeda,” liberating Afghan women and bringing democracy are prowar window dressing. CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted there were no more than 25 to 50 al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan.

Why are there 150,000 U.S. and NATO troops there?

Washington’s real objective was clearly defined in 2007 by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher: to “stabilize Afghanistan so it can become a conduit and hub between South and Central Asia—so energy can flow south.”

The Turkmenistan-Afghan-Pakistan TAPI gas pipeline that the U.S. has sought since 1998 is finally nearing completion. But whether it can operate in the face of sabotage remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Washington has been unable to create a stable government in Kabul.

The primary reason: ethnic politics. Over THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

half the population is Pashtun (or Pathan), from whose ranks come the Taliban. Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities fiercely oppose the Pashtun. All three collaborated with the Soviet occupation from 19791989; today they collaborate with the U.S. and NATO occupation.

Most of the Afghan army and police, on which the U.S. spends $6 billion annually, are Tajiks and Uzbek, many members of the old Afghan Communist Party. To Pashtun, they are bitter enemies. In Afghanistan, the U.S. has built its political house on ethnic quicksands.

Worse, U.S.-run Afghanistan now produces 93 percent of the world’s most dangerous narcotic, heroin. Under the Taliban, drug production virtually ended, according to the U.N. Today, the Afghan drug business is booming. The U.S. tries to blame the Taliban; but the real culprits are high government officials in Kabul and U.S.-backed warlords.

A senior U.N. drug official recently asserted that Afghan heroin killed 10,000 people in NATO countries last year. And this does not include Russia, a primary destination for Afghan heroin.

So the United States is now the proud owner of the world’s leading narco-state and deeply involved with the Afghan Tajik drug mafia.

The U.S. is bleeding billions in Afghanistan. Forty-four cents of every dollar spent by Washington is borrowed from China and Japan. While the U.S. has wasted $1.283 trillion on the so-called “war on terror,” China has been busy buying up resources and making new friends and markets. The ghost of Osama bin Laden must be smiling.

The U.S. can’t afford this endless war against the fierce Pashtun people, renowned for making Afghanistan “the Graveyard of Empires.” But the imperial establishment in Washington wants to hold on to strategic Afghanistan, particularly the ex-Soviet air bases at Bagram and Kandahar. The U.S. is building its biggest embassy in the world in Kabul, an $800 milContinued on page 74 DECEMBER 2011

pfaff_25_Special Report 10/27/11 1:30 PM Page 25

What Lay Behind the Libya Intervention?

SpecialReport

By William Pfaff ince the start of the Franco-British inter-

American insistence last March was turned into a NATO affair, some commentaries on the left have interpreted the action as Western imperialism. It was called an effort to seize control of Libya’s enormous oil reserves, in the guise of humanitarian intervention.

Although I am willing—more willing than most—to think the worst of the motivations of states, I find it hard to see why the Western countries would want an expensive war to seize the oil to which they already had ample access through purchase on the international market.

Barack Obama, already taking punishment on other issues from the Republican presidential primary Punch and Judy Show, had the sense to tell NATO that he preferred to lead from behind. That way he was able to take credit for Victory (as his flacks and the more gullible sector of the U.S. press have already done), while allowing the French and British to conduct the principal combat operations, without unduly troubling the Pentagon.

Since the late Col. Muammar Qaddafi decided in 2003 that re-establishing friendly relations with the Western powers was to his advantage—handing over the Bulgarian nurses and naming the alleged authors of attacks on American and French airliners, even producing a scapegoat for Scottish jailing—the colonel has been the best of friends with Western governments, pitching his tent near the Elysée Palace in Paris, staying as a guest at the White House, and diligently participating in the CIA pursuit of real or fancied Arab terrorists.

The CIA had already prepared the way for this friendly cooperation. For example, the man who led the rebel assault on Tripoli earlier this month was a Libyan dissident and Islamist veteran of the Afghanistan war against the Russians.

He was subsequently handed over to Colonel Qadaffi by the CIA and the British, then tortured and imprisoned for seven years. As the Middle East expert Patrick Seale writes, “his attachment to Western interests should not be counted upon.”

William Pfaff is the author of The Irony of Manifest Destiny. Copyright © 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

DECEMBER 2011

MARCO LONGARI/AFP/GETTI IMAGES

Svention in Libya, which on British and

Two Libyans, one draped in his new national flag, visit during celebrations in the streets of Tripoli following news of the capture and death of Muammar Qaddafi, Oct. 20, 2011.

The Western intervention this year, initiated by France, was ideological in origin, deriving from the liberal interventionism Westerners espoused after the NATO Kosovo victory. Subsequent experience has cooled this enthusiasm, one reason President Obama has just decided to let the Iraqis defend themselves without help from uniformed U.S. forces, who will be gone from that country by January 2012, and why the Pentagon now is preoccupied with how to get out of Afghanistan and Pakistan without leaving disaster behind.

The 2011 Arab Awakening has put the United States in a situation of extreme difficulty, far from solution. After years of democracy promotion in the Middle East, and two wars and other interventions ostensibly producing it—while actually forced to collaborate with the most reactionary Arab regimes to promote Israeli interests—Washington in the past year has found itself saddled with one dilemma after another.

Democratic reform in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain? Support for Palestinian freedom and autonomy? Well, actually no. The United States is for democracy in theory THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

but finds tyranny and obscurantist government easier to deal with in practice.

That is why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks so wan and distraught these days, flying from one country to the next, trying to parse these dilemmas and assure conservative and pro-American friends that all will be well, while she is intelligent enough to understand that their days may be numbered, and they may not meet again this side of the Styx—or its Islamic equivalent.

She rushes about—when does she sleep?—because the United States simply does not know how to disentangle itself from this menacing situation. She surely understands that Pakistan and Afghanistan may separately, or under changed leaders, cooperatively turn upon the U.S., militarily bogged down in one of the most inaccessible places on earth. That conflict, with Americans the target, is possible in Iraq/Iran. That Israel may start a war with Iran which it will expect the United States to finish.

Perhaps it is time to come home. That’s what a lot of people seem to be saying. But the Obama administration doesn’t know how. ❑ 25

views_awlaki_26-27_Two Views 10/27/11 12:19 PM Page 26

Two Views The Assassination of Anwar Al-Awlaki

GO COMICS ©UNIVERSALUCLICK.COM

ternational Herald Tribune on Oct. 3 that “Killing people does not make their ideas go away.”

Awlaki’s killing has inevitably been compared to that of Osama bin Laden, shot down last May in his home in Pakistan by a hit-team of U.S. Special Forces.

The clandestine mission was seen by many Pakistanis as an intolerable infringement of their country’s sovereignty.

The assassination precipitated a grave crisis in U.S.-Pakistan relations.

It played into the hands of hard-liners in the Pakistani army and military intelligence service, no doubt causing them to tighten still further their links with jihadi groups, such as the Haqqani network. America’s 10-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan will thus have been made more perilous and any outcome favorable to the United States more uncertain than ever.

In much the same way as he cheered bin Laden’s death, U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed Awlaki’s murder as a major blow to al-Qaeda. Many Muslims, however, will see the killing as further evidence that the American president, much like his belligerent predecessor George Bush, is at war with Islam. His slavish support for Israel as it seizes Palestinian land and denies statehood to the Palestinians has aroused great anger.

His standing is already close to rockbottom in the Arab and Muslim world.

The killing of Awlaki will drive another nail in the coffin of what little remains of his reputation.

In an ironic twist of fortune, Dick Cheney, Bush’s war-mongering defense secretary, said last weekend that Obama should apologize to Bush for criticizing the “enhanced interrogation techniques”—such as water-boarding—inflicted on al-Qaeda suspects, since Obama was himself now resorting to even more robust methods!

Anwar al-Awlaki, Yemen and Obama’s War

By Patrick Seale

n Friday, Sept. 30, Yemen announced O that a Hellfire missile fired from a CIA-operated drone had killed Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki, in the north of the country. His grief-stricken father, once a minister of agriculture in a Yemeni government, went to the scene to collect and bury the pieces of what remained of Anwar’s body.

It was the seventh U.S. strike in Yemen this year.

Anwar al-Awlaki was a virulent critic of American foreign policy in the Arab world, and a passionate advocate of alQaeda’s form of Islamic jihad. He was also a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico, with an engineering degree from Colorado State University. His Internet sermons, delivered in fluent English, had a devoted following, especially among young Muslims in the West.

Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle for Arab Independence: Riad elSolh and the Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press). Copyright © 2011 Patrick Seale. Distributed by Agence Global.

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His killing inevitably aroused a storm of controversy in the United States about its legality. In an article in The National Interest, Paul R. Pillar, a former senior CIA officer now a university professor, described it as “essentially a long-range execution without judge, jury or publicly presented evidence.” This is a subject which must be left to the Americans to debate.

What are its probable consequences?

The most obvious is that it is likely further to inflame some Muslims against the United States, drawing fresh recruits into the jihadist struggle. “Why kill him in this brutal, ugly way?” a member of his Awalik tribe was quoted as saying.

“Killing him will not solve the Americans’ problem with al-Qaeda. It will just increase its strength and sympathy in this region.”

A key question, therefore, is whether alQaeda—including its Yemen-based offshoot, “Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula”—is an organization or a cause. If it is an organization, killing its leaders must eventually drive it out of business. But if it is a cause, assassinations may have the contrary effect. A “martyred” Awlaki may prove a more effective recruiting sergeant than he was alive. A young American Muslim cleric, Yasir Qadhi, wrote in the In-

DECEMBER 2011

views_awlaki_26-27_Two Views 10/27/11 12:19 PM Page 27

The United States is deeply unpopular in Yemen. The divide can be traced to the American-sponsored war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It will be recalled that, with the help of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the United States recruited, trained and armed tens of thousands of young Muslims from several Arab countries to fight the “godless” Russians in Afghanistan. Some 25,000 of these mujahideen—volunteer fighters in the cause of Islam—came from Yemen alone. Many thousands more came from Algeria, Egypt and elsewhere.

But when the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, the United States callously dropped the mujahideen. Funding for them dried up. A number of these battle-hardened and radicalized “Afghan Arabs” joined bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. Thousands made their way home to Yemen, where they were treated as heroes—at least at first. Some were given jobs in the civil service and the army.

A year later, in 1990, Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait. To dislodge him, the U.S. dispatched half a million men to Saudi Arabia in what was to become the First Gulf War. Since Yemen had long had close ties with Saddam’s Iraq, President Ali Abdallah Saleh refused to join the American-led coalition. Instead, he advocated an “Arab solution” to the Kuwait crisis.

This angered Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states who saw Saddam as a dangerous bully who had to be cut down to size—a task they believed only the United States could do.

Saudi Arabia’s response to Ali Abdallah Saleh’s pro-Iraqi policies was to expel close to a million Yemeni migrant workers. Their return home deprived Yemen of indispensable remittances and added to already severe unemployment. Yemen became a failing state. This was the beginning of a long dispute between Yemen and Saudi Arabia—and also of a battle between jihadists and the United States, which continues to this day.

At first, the “Afghan Arabs” were useful to Yemen’s president as he battled former Marxists in South Yemen. But when the jihadists started attacking American targets, they got him into trouble with the United States. The former heroes became terrorists.

In December 1992, jihadists bombed the Goldmur Hotel in Aden where U.S. military personnel were staying. In June 1996 they bombed the Khubar Towers in the eastern Saudi town of Dhahran, killing 19 American soldiers. In August 1998, they attacked U.S. embassies in DECEMBER 2011

Kenya and Tanzania. In October 2000, they blew a hole in the side of the USS Cole in Aden harbor, killing 17 U.S. sailors. In November 2002, a missile from a CIA-operated drone killed Sheikh Salim al-Harithi, one of the men involved in the Cole bombing.

By this time, the exploits of these local jihadis had been overshadowed by the devastating assault mounted by their mother organization on the U.S. heartland—the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.The U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq followed.

Meanwhile, the bitter struggle continues in Yemen, a country now on the verge of collapse. U.S. Special Forces are being sucked further into what looks increasingly like a civil war. The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki must be seen in this context.

But is it not obvious that external force is a blunt instrument in dealing with what is essentially an internal Yemeni contest? Is it not time for Washington to rethink its policy toward the Arab and Muslim world—as the unfortunate Obama had indeed intended to do, before he was defeated by America’s gung-ho militarists, rabid conservatives, pro-Israeli lobbyists and other assorted Islam-haters?

A Dangerous Precedent

By Rep. Ron Paul

ccording to the Fifth Amendment to A the U.S. Constitution, Americans are never to be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The Constitution is not some aspirational statement of values, allowing exceptions when convenient; rather, it is the law of the land.

It is the basis of our Republic and our principal bulwark against tyranny.

The Sept. 30 assassination of two American citizens, Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, is an outrage and a criminal act carried out by the president and his administration. If the law protecting us against government-sanctioned assassination can be voided when there is a “really bad American,” is there any meaning left to the rule of law in the United States? If, as we learned in early October, a secret government committee, not subject to congressional oversight or judicial review, can now target certain Americans for assassination, under what moral authority do we presume to lecture the rest of the world about protecting human rights? Didn’t we Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

just bomb Libya into oblivion under the auspices of protecting the civilians from being targeted by their government? Timothy McVeigh was certainly a threat, as were Nidal Hasan and Jared Lee Loughner.

They killed people in front of many witnesses. They took up arms against their government in a literal way yet were still afforded trials. These constitutional protections are in place because our Founders realized it is a very serious matter to deprive any individual of life or liberty. Our outrage against even the obviously guilty is not worth the sacrifice of the rule of law.

Awlaki had been outspoken against the United States, and we are told he encouraged violence against Americans. We do not know that he actually committed any acts of violence. Ironically, he was once invited to the Pentagon as part of an outreach to moderate Muslims after 9/11. As the U.S. attacks against Muslims in the Middle East and Central Asia expanded, it is said that he became more fervent and radical in his opposition to U.S. foreign policy.

Many cheer this killing because they believe that in a time of war, due process is not necessary—not even for citizens, and especially not for those overseas. However, there has been no formal declaration of war and certainly not one against Yemen. The post-9/11 authorization for force would not have covered these two Americans because no one is claiming they had any connection to that attack. Awlaki was on a kill list compiled by a secret panel within President Obama’s National Security Council and Justice Department. How many more American citizens are on that list? They won’t tell us. What are the criteria? They won’t tell us. Where is the evidence? They won’t tell us.

Awlaki’s father tried desperately to get the administration to at least allow his son to have legal representation to challenge the “kill” order. He was denied. Rather than give him his day in court, the administration, behind closed doors, served as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.

The most worrisome aspect of this is that any new powers this administration accrues will serve as precedents for future administrations. Even those who completely trust this administration must understand that if this usurpation of power and denial of due process is allowed to stand, these powers will remain to be expanded on by the next administration and then the next. Will you trust them? History shows that once a population gives up its rights, they are not easily won back.

Beware. ❑ 27

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Republican Frontrunner Mitt Romney Touts Neoconservative Foreign Policy ElectionWatch

RICHARD ELLIS/GETTY IMAGES

By Jim Lobe

Former Massachusetts Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gives a foreign policy address at the Citadel on in Charleston, SC, Oct. 7, 2011. n his first major foreign policy address of the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney on Oct. 7 presented a largely neoconservative platform similar to that pursued by George W. Bush, although he never mentioned the former president by name.

Speaking at The Citadel military academy in South Carolina, Romney promised to increase defense spending—and the size of the U.S. Navy—as part of a strategy designed to ensure that the United States remain the world’s dominant military power and that the 21st century be “an American century.”

“The United States should always retain military supremacy to deter would-be aggressors and to defend our allies and ourselves,” he told the Citadel cadets. “And know this: If America is the undisputed leader of the world, it reduces our need to police a more chaotic world.

“And if you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not

I

Jim Lobe is Washington, DC bureau chief for Inter Press Service. His blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at <www.lobelog.com>.

Copyright © 2011 IPS-Inter Press Service.

All rights reserved.

28

your president,” he said. “You have that president today,” he said of Barack Obama, whose policies of the last three years he characterized as “feckless.”

“Know this,” Romney went on in an implicit assertion of the kind of unilateralism which Bush extolled but which alienated even some of Washington’s closest allies.

“While America should work with other nations, we always reserve the right to act alone to protect our vital national interests.”

Critical to those interests, he made clear, was the greater Middle East. He suggested that Washington should align itself even more closely to Israel—whose existence as a “Jewish state” he characterized as a “vital national interest”—and pursue a more confrontational policy toward Iran, including the regular deployment in the region of two aircraft carrier task forces as a “deterrent.”

“I will again reiterate that Iran obtaining nuclear weapons is unacceptable,” he stressed, asserting also that “in the hands of the ayatollahs, a nuclear Iran is nothing less than an existential threat to Israel. Iran’s suicidal fanatics could blackmail the world.”

He listed as the greatest threats to the U.S. interests “Islamic fundamentalism”; the ongoing struggle in the greater Middle East “between those who yearn for freeTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

dom and those who seek to crush it”; the “ripple effects of failed and failing states from [sic] which terrorists may find safe haven;” the “anti-American visions of regimes in Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, [and] Cuba”; and “rising nations with hidden and emerging aspirations like China, determined to be a world superpower, and a resurgent Russia.”

Romney spoke at the end of a week which saw two potential Republican rivals—New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie [who has since endorsed him] and the party’s 2008 vice-presidential candidate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin—take their names out of consideration. The rapid decline— due to a series of poor debate performances—of far-right Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the polls since he entered the race last month has made Romney the clear favorite for the party’s nomination.

Romney’s Neocon Advisers His speech also followed the release earlier in the week of a list of his top foreign policy advisers, many, if not most, of whom are known for their neoconservative and strongly pro-Israel views.

Remarkably, three of the top advisers— Eric Edelman, Robert Kagan [who is married to State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland], and Dan Senor—serve on the four-man board of directors of the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), the ideological successor to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which may help to explain why Romney evoked the phrase “American Century” no less than five times in his speech. Both FPI and PNAC were cofounded by Kagan and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.

PNAC played a leading role in mobilizing support for “regime change” in Iraq beginning in the late 1990s and spearheading the public post- 9/11 campaign for invading the country. Among the 27 people who signed its 1997 charter were some of the most hawkish members of the Bush administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney and his deputy, I. Lewis Libby; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz; and Bush’s top Mideast aide, Elliott Abrams.

While those names were absent from the DECEMBER 2011

lobe_28-29_Election Watch 10/26/11 1:20 PM Page 29

list of advisers released by the Romney campaign, many of their trusted aides or ideological fellow-travellers in the Bush administration figured prominently.

These include Edelman and Senor, who served under Rumsfeld; former State Department counter-terrorism chief and Blackwater director Cofer Black; former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff; former CIA director Michael Hayden; and former high-ranking State Department officials Paula Dobriansky, Mitchell Riess, Robert Joseph, Stephen Rademaker, Kim Holmes and Eliot Cohen. Dobriansky, Friedberg, Cohen and another Romney adviser, Vin Weber, also signed the 1997 PNAC charter.

Other key advisers are associated more with the realist wing of the Republican Party, notably Dov Zakheim, who also served under Rumsfeld, and Mitchell Reiss, former State Department policy planning chief who, however, has joined several neoconservatives in a campaign to remove the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iraq-based Iranian rebel group, from the State Department’s terrorism list.

Yet another adviser, Walid Phares of the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of

Democracies, is controversial for his past ties to the militant Phalange movement in Lebanon.

The neoconservative influence was, in any event, made clear in Romney’s speech, which, in addition to its often messianic tone, repeatedly celebrated U.S. “exceptionalism” and the necessity for a new “American Century.”

“I’m here today to tell you that I am guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion,” he told cadets in the audience. “This century must be an American Century.”

“God did not create this country to be a nation of followers,” he declared. “America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers. America must lead the world, or someone else will.”

While Romney gave lip service to the importance of “soft power,” particularly in regard to dealing with the so-called “Arab Spring,” his most specific proposal was to increase shipbuilding from 9 to 15 ships a year and to keep at least 11 aircraft carrier groups deployed year round, as well as increase spending on a “multi-layered national ballistic missile defense system.”

In other speeches, Romney has proposed

devoting at least four percent of U.S. GDP to the Pentagon’s base budget, a proposal that would, according to some estimates, increase defense spending by about 14 percent.

That drew strong criticism from Steve Clemons, founder of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, who called the speech “depressingly conventional in the sense that he looks at the Pentagon as the source of the country’s strength and talks about the economy almost as an afterthought.”

“Thirty years ago, the U.S. had a third of the world’s GDP and a third of what the world spent on defense,” he told IPS. “Now we have just over 20 percent of the world’s GDP and we account for about half of global military expenditures. This kind of approach not only fails to secure America’s long-term security interest, but also undermines our economic solvency.”

Aaron David Miller, a former diplomat and Mideast specialist at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, compared the speech to Bush’s first term. “He can get America into a lot of trouble with tough talk, no strategy, and a failure to understand the world in which we live,” Miller said. “We saw that movie in 2003. No sequels please.” ❑

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DECEMBER 2011

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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mcarthur_30-31_Congress Watch 10/27/11 1:21 PM Page 30

Congress Echoes Israel’s Near Hysteria Over Palestinians’ U.N. Bid CongressWatch

By Shirl McArthur hroughout the summer many Israeli politicians seemed to be in a state of T near hysteria over the possibility that the Palestinians would seek to gain recognition of a state through the U.N. It is unclear why this was considered such a threat to Israel, except that it might hinder Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apparent strategy of pretending to want to negotiate while relentlessly expanding Israeli colonies in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

On cue, AIPAC and other far-right Jewish-American groups and individuals began whipping Congress to forcefully respond with anti-Palestinian measures, including cutting off aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA). It was no surprise that Israel’s boughtand-paid-for members of Congress were eager to take up the cry. No fewer than 10 senators and 35 House members spoke out in one forum or another denouncing the Palestinians and praising Israel. As reported in the Washington Report’s September/October issue, under AIPAC pressure Congress passed non-binding resolutions—S.Res. 185 in the Senate and H.Res. 268 in the House—threatening, among other things, to cut off aid to the Palestinians if they persist in their statehood efforts. In July, House foreign aid appropriations subcommittee chair Kay Granger (R-TX) and ranking Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY) wrote to PA President Mahmoud Abbas making the same threat, and on Sept. 15, 58 House Democrats, led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), wrote to 40 European heads of state urging them to “stand with the United States” in opposing “unilateral” action by the PA at the U.N. On Sept. 20, just before President Barack Obama’s speech to the U.N., 14 senators wrote to him urging that he use his speech to restate strong U.S. support for Israel, which is just what he did.

Legislatively, the previously described measures supporting Israel’s Likud-led government’s intransigence made no progress.

However, three new measures were introduced. On Sept. 8, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) joined by 42 of his Republican colleagues, introduced H.Res. 394 “supporting Israel’s

right to annex Judea and Samaria in the event that the Palestinian Authority continues to press for unilateral recognition” of statehood at the U.N. And on Sept. 12 Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), with three co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 2893 “to prohibit Foreign Military Financing program assistance to countries that vote in the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of a negotiated border agreement” between Israel and the PA. In the Senate, Orrin Hatch (R-UT), with 18 Republican co-sponsors, on Sept. 21 introduced S. 1595 prohibiting funding for the U.N. if the Security Council or UNGA grants Palestine a change in status in the absence of a comprehensive peace agreement.

srael’s bought-and-paid-for Imembers of Congress were eager to take up the cry.

Then, on Oct. 1, Agence France Presse reported that a coalition of Israel-backing Democrats and conservative Republicans in both the House and Senate were blocking about $200 million of aid to the Palestinians “until the Palestinian statehood issue is sorted out.” However, on Oct. 3 Reuters quoted State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland as saying the administration is in “intensive” discussions with key members to unblock the money.

And Congress’ most reliable Israel-firster, House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), held a Sept. 14 hearing on “Re-examining Aid to the Palestinians,” packed with pro-Israel witnesses. Ros-Lehtinen’s opening statement was predictably harsh, saying that Washington not only should cut off aid to the Palestinians, but should withhold funding to any U.N. entity that granted membership, or any upgraded status, to the PA.

But Israel May Be Having Second Thoughts

Ros-Lehtinen was probably disappointed in some of her witnesses’ statements, especially those of neocons Eliot Abrams of the Shirl McArthur, a retired U.S. foreign service Council on Foreign Relations and David officer, is a consultant based in the Wash- Makovsky of the AIPAC-created Washingington, DC area. ton Institute of Near East Policy. Both said 30

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

that cutting off Palestinian aid could be harmful to Israel by, among other things, ending U.S.-Palestinian security cooperation and possibly causing the collapse of the PA. Indeed, the Israeli government may have begun to realize that continuing aid to the Palestinians is indeed in Israel’s interest. Reuters on Sept. 16 reported that Israel on Sept. 18 would submit a report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee coordinating assistance to the Palestinians urging the international community to continue aid to the Palestinians.

Record 81 House Members on AIPACSponsored Boondoggle to Israel During August a record 81 House members—26 Democrats led by Minority Whip Hoyer and 55 Republicans led by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), visited Israel courtesy of the “American Israel Education Foundation” (AIEF), a sham AIPAC spin-off. The Capitol Hill publication Roll Call estimated that the cost to the AIEF could total more than $1 million. Roll Call also pointed out that the AIEF and AIPAC share the same address, employees and board members, and the AIEF’s executive director and its other employees all receive their salaries from AIPAC. (See this issue’s postcard insert.)

In 2007 Congress passed a law banning lobbying groups from paying for House members to take long trips. However, the law included a provision exempting nonprofit groups. Roll Call quoted the watchdog group Public Citizen’s Craig Holman as saying “I call it the ‘AIPAC loophole.’”

“Palestinian Accountability” Bill Makes Some Progress While the anti-Palestinian measures described in previous issues have made no progress, H.R. 2457, the “Palestinian Accountability Act,” introduced in July by Walsh, has gained six co-sponsors, and now has 39, all Republicans. Its stated purpose is “to restrict funds for the Palestinian Authority.” Unless certain unlikely conditions are met, it would prohibit U.S. government documents from referring to areas controlled by the PA as Palestine; would prohibit U.S. funds to the PA; would prohibit U.S. funds to the U.N. or any U.N. enDECEMBER 2011

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tity if it declares or recognizes statehood for the Palestinian territories, and would bar U.S. funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which aids Palestinian refugees, unless it meets the same conditions imposed on the Palestinians.

Jerusalem Embassy, Anti-Boycott Bills The AIPAC-promoted, previously described H.R. 1006, introduced in March by Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), continues to make slow progress. It would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, cut off some State Department funding unless the U.S. Embassy in Israel is established in Jerusalem no later than Jan. 1, 2013, and remove the presidential waiver authority included in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. It has gained eight co-sponsors and now has 51, including Burton.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced two measures opposing the Arab boycott of Israel. In May he introduced, with three cosponsors, H.R. 2004, whose primary focus is to prohibit or control technology transfer to any country supporting acts of terrorism.

However, it also includes a provision directing the president to issue regulations prohibiting any U.S. citizen from taking any actions supporting “any foreign-imposed or fostered boycott against a country that is friendly to the U.S.” Then, on July 19 he introduced H.R. 2589, whose only provisions are “to prohibit certain activities in support of the Arab League boycott of Israel.”

U.N. Reform Bill Finally Introduced Ros-Lehtinen, with 112 Republican cosponsors, on Aug. 30 introduced H.R. 2829, her long-awaited “U.N. Transparency, Accountability, and Reform” bill. To say it is extreme would be an understatement. It is clear that Ros-Lehtinen’s objective is to make U.S. funding of the U.N. conditional on its treatment of Israel and the Palestinians. Among the bill’s many harsh measures are those that would “withhold U.S. contributions from any U.N. agency or program that upgrades the status of the PLO Palestinian observer mission;” withhold funding for UNRWA; call for the U.S. to lead a highlevel U.N. effort for “the revocation and repudiation of the Goldstone Report;” shift U.S. contributions to the U.N. to a voluntary basis; and halt new U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping missions until reforms are implemented.

“Even before I was a Democrat, I was a Zionist” Berman, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it would “eviscerate” the U.N. and called it radical, ill-advised and probably dead on DECEMBER 2011

arrival. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Esther Brimmer said the bill’s measures were “backward” and would seriously undermine America’s role as a world leader. U.N. Foundation vice-president Peter Yeo said that not only was the bill unwise and would undermine the U.S. position at the U.N., but that it also has no chance of becoming law.

It is not clear why Ros-Lehtinen continues to introduce such extreme measures as this bill and the Foreign Affairs Authorization bill, described in the September/October issue, that have no chance of being enacted. Perhaps it is part of a broader, Republican 2012-election strategy to compel Democrats to oppose them so as to somehow paint them as being “soft” on Israel.

Or perhaps she wants to beat her 2010 record as second-highest House recipient of pro-Israel PAC contributions ($45,000, for a career total of $208,740).

Iran, Syria Sanctions Bills Continue to Gain Support The two comprehensive Iran sanctions bills being pushed by AIPAC continue to gain co-sponsors. H.R. 1905, introduced in May by Ros-Lehtinen, titled the “Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011,” has gained 91 co-sponsors and now has 298, including Ros-Lehtinen. S. 1048, introduced in May

by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) “to expand sanctions with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, and Syria,” has gained 22 co-sponsors and now has 75, including Menendez. However, neither bill has been brought to the floor of the House or Senate.

On Aug. 9, 92 senators, led by Sens.

Mark Kirk (R-IL)—who received more proIsrael PAC contributions ($115,304) than any 2010 candidate—and Charles Schumer (D-NY), wrote to Obama urging him to impose sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank to help thwart Iran’s nuclear programs.

On Aug. 2 Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and two co-sponsors introduced S. 1496, “to prohibit the delegation by the U.S. of inspection, certification, and related services to a foreign classification society that provides comparable services to Iran, North Korea, North Sudan, or Syria.”

H.R. 2105, introduced by Ros-Lehtinen in June to expand sanctions on “foreign persons who transfer to Iran, North Korea, and Syria certain goods, services or technology,” has gained two co-sponsors and now has five, including Ros-Lehtinen.

H.R. 2106, also introduced by Ros-Lehtinen in June, has gained 33 co-sponsors and now has 35, including Ros-Lehtinen. It THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

would “strengthen sanctions against the government of Syria, enhance multilateral commitment to address the government of Syria’s threatening policies, and establish a program to support a transition to a democratic government in Syria.” It would also restrict Obama’s authority to waive sanctions on Syria. And H.Res. 296, introduced in June by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) has gained two co-sponsors and now has 34, including Lamborn.

On Aug. 9 Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (DNY), with 10 co-sponsors, introduced S. 1472. It would direct the president to impose a wide range of sanctions aimed at Syria’s petroleum sector, including sanctions against a person who invests at least $20 million that contributes to Syria’s ability to develop petroleum resources; sells goods or services to Syria that could facilitate Syria’s domestic production of refined petroleum products; or purchases Syriandeveloped petroleum resources.

On Aug. 3, 68 senators signed a letter to Obama urging him to impose tougher sanctions on Syria, including stringent sanctions on Syria’s banking sector and a ban on U.S. businesses operating or investing in Syria.

Some Attention Paid to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Even Libya and Iraq Most of the previously described measures concerning Afghanistan have received no further support. However, H.R. 1735, the “Afghanistan Exit and Accountability” bill introduced in May by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) has gained two co-sponsors and now has 75, including McGovern. It would require the president to submit to Congress “a plan with a timeframe and completion date for the accelerated transition of U.S. military and security operations in Afghanistan to the government of Afghanistan” within 60 days. On Oct. 5 Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), with one co-sponsor, introduced H.Res. 423 urging the U.S. to “empower and recognize Afghanistan’s ethnic diversity through free local and provincial elections and replace the present failed centralized system of government with a federal political structure.”

Regarding Pakistan, H.R. 1790, introduced May 5 by Rohrabacher, which would prohibit assistance to Pakistan, still has no co-sponsors. Similarly, H.R. 3013, introduced Sept. 22 by Rep. Ted Poe (RTX), which also would prohibit aid to Pakistan, also has no co-sponsors. On Oct. 6 Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) introduced H.R. 3115 “to prohibit non-security assistance to Pakistan.”

Continued on page 74 31

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The Sins of Liam Fox SpecialReport

By Justin Raimondo

DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES

of an important “adviser” to Fox, Werritty had access to all sorts of classified information, including details of sophisticated weapons and other systems utilized by MoD, and there is concern that this may have been compromised. The Daily Mail has the scoop: “Adam Werritty used his relationship with Liam Fox to obtain highly sensitive, technical details of a military communications system used by Coalition special forces in Afghanistan.

“Dubai-based venture capitalist Harvey Boulter said last night he only disclosed the information about the system because Mr. Werritty had told him he was an official Ministry of Defense adviser. Mr. Boulter said: ‘I assumed he must have been security-vetted.’”

Britain’s then-Defense Minister Liam Fox is interviewed as he arrives at the Ministry of Defense buildBoulter is a venture capitalist ing in London, Oct. 13, 2011. and chief executive of the Porton Group, which specializes in he forced resignation of Britain’s de- problem for the former defense minister is funding companies developing new applifense minister, Liam Fox, has opened that the tab for Werritty’s high-flying cations of technologies discovered in govup a window into the way foreign policy lifestyle (luxury hotels, expensive meals, ernment labs. The meeting between Werin the “free world” is made—and a very drinks all ‘round) was picked up by a ritty and Boulter was set up by Lee Petar, group of businessmen, lobbyists, and oth- who heads up a lobbying firm known as revealing window it is.

At the center of the scandal that led to ers with a keen interest in influencing the Tetra Strategy. Petar is BICOM’s former director of communications.

Fox’s ouster is his “best man,” and “very Ministry of Defense (MoD). “’I am speaking hypothetically,’ Mr. BoulThe influence of lobbyists is hardly an good friend” Adam Werritty, a 33-year-old man-about-town who went around hand- unknown danger to the integrity of demo- ter said, ‘but the Israelis are known to be ing out business cards informing recipients cratic institutions, but in this case there is good at reverse engineering other people’s that the bearer was an “adviser” to Fox, al- also a national security angle, one which technology. What would we do if an Israeli though he held no such official title. In re- made it imperative that Fox step down. As firm started pirating our technology or selling it to our enemies?’” ality, however, Werritty was (and is) far the Daily Mail reports: Complain to Bicom? Ask Werritty for a “A web of overt and covert backers, some closer to Fox than any of his official advisers: they met, apparently, when Werritty with close links to Israel, are revealed in the refund? Cry? All these are options, with was a mere teenager in the Young Conserv- bank records of Pargav Ltd., a company that only the last one a real possibility.

With this much money, and this much ative organization, and have been virtually did little else than fork out more than inseparable ever since. So inseparable that £150,000 in a year to pay for Mr. Werritty’s access to national security secrets, in the young Werritty met Fox at dozens of loca- first-class flights, hotels and nights out at mix, talk that Werritty has been—consciously or otherwise—acting as an agent tions throughout the world, from Dubai to New York strip clubs.

“Backers include tycoon Poju Zabludow- for Israeli intelligence is more than mere Israel, when the defense minister was on official business: they traveled together, as icz, chairman of the pro-Israel lobby group speculation. Two top officials of BICOM, if they were a married couple (not that Britain Israeli Communication Research the Britain Israeli Communication Research there’s anything wrong with that). The Center (BICOM), and millionaire Michael Center, contributed to the Werritty slush Lewis, BICOM’s former deputy chairman.” fund: BICOM’s chairman, the billionaire In addition, Werritty’s company, Pargav, Poju Zabludowicz, and Michael Lewis, CEO Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, where this article was first received donations of “nearly £13,000 of fashion retailer Foschini, formerly posted Oct. 19, 2011. Copyright © Anti- anonymously in cash deposits.” In the BICOM’s deputy chairman. A third donor is war.com 2011. Reprinted with permission. course of his longstanding impersonation Mick “the miner” Davis, founder of Xstrata,

T

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DECEMBER 2011

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a close friend of Zabludowicz and Lewis, and also a fervent pro-Israel advocate.

Also listed as donors to the various companies and front groups set up by Werritty to finance his world-spanning trips and luxury lifestyle: the G3 (Good Governance Group), with extensive interests in Sri Lanka, where the diplomatic duo traveled often, and Jon Moulton, a British venture capitalist “keen to establish strong ties to Washington,” as the London Times puts it.

Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan—and someone with excellent contacts inside the Foreign Office— wrote: “My source told me that what really was worrying senior officials in the MOD, FCO [Foreign & Commonwealth Office] and Cabinet Office was the possibility that Fox could be being used as a ‘useful idiot’ by Mossad, Israel’s far-reaching and extremely effective intelligence service.

“Key funding sources for Werritty were from the Israeli lobby and a rather obscure commercial intelligence agency. Might Mossad be pulling Werritty’s strings, with or without his knowledge?

“On Friday, two senior Fleet Street journalists also reported hearing similar concerns from other Whitehall officials about possible Israeli intelligence service involvement with Fox and Werritty.”

To top it off, apparently Werritty made several trips to Iran and environs, where he met with various opposition activists and discussed plans for “regime change.”

Although the official British policy toward Iran is pursuit of a diplomatic solution to its problems with the West, there are indications Werrity and Fox were conducting their own “freelance” foreign policy, centered on effecting “regime change,” in collusion with Israeli officials. The Israelis considered Werritty to be an official adviser to Fox, as well as an “Iran expert,” which accounts for Werritty’s presence at two sessions of the famed Herzliya conference, where Israel’s national security officials congregate to discuss how best to pursue Israel’s interests. Unfortunately for Fox, and Werritty, the job of a British minister of defense is to pursue Britain’s interests first and foremost.

What it boils down to is this: a private “company” that handled a lush slush fund for the benefit of the defense minister’s boyfriend, who traveled around the world handing out his business cards and advertising his services as fixer for whatever business or foreign interests wanted a piece of the action. That’s how British policy has been made ever since the ConDECEMBER 2011

servative-led coalition government came to power.

This isn’t just about money, however.

The strong pro-Israel/interventionist theme of Werritty’s jet-setting antics illustrates—once again—how the Jewish state and its supporters inveigle themselves into every possible crevice, taking the opportunity to extract what benefit they can from the foibles and fortunes of both friends and foes. The technique—setting up parallel institutions existing alongside official government agencies—was successfully applied in the United States during the run up to the invasion of Iraq.

You’ll recall that the “Office of Special Plans,” and other ad hoc groups set up inside the national security bureaucracy, did an end run around the CIA and the mainstream intelligence community, and packed the pipeline with biased and—as it turned out—utterly false “intelligence,” effectively lying us into war. As Julian Borger reported in the Guardian at the time: “The OSP was an open and largely unfiltered conduit to the White House not only for the Iraqi opposition. It also forged close ties to a parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation inside Ariel Sharon’s office in Israel specifically to bypass Mossad and provide the Bush administration with more alarmist reports on Saddam’s Iraq than Mossad was prepared to authorize. ‘None of the Israelis who came were cleared into the Pentagon through normal channels,” said one source familiar with the visits. Instead, they were waved in on Mr. Feith’s authority without having to fill in the usual forms.

“The exchange of information continued a long-standing relationship Mr. [Douglas] Feith [then director of policy at the Pentagon] and other Washington neoconservatives had with Israel’s Likud party.”

A Familiar Pattern In America and Britain, the pattern is a familiar one: Israel’s partisans use every means available to penetrate government agencies, extract information, and utilize their allies inside the system to Israel’s advantage. This involves not only activities that might be characterized as espionage, but also creating a parallel policy-making apparatus that operates in the dark, handing out large sums to its sock puppets, and running agents of influence at the highest levels of government.

Fox resigned his seat, in his words, because he “blurred the line” between his public and personal responsibilities, but another line has been blurred, if not nearly erased, and that is the one between advoTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

cacy on behalf of Israel and undermining Britain’s national security. The lesson for America could not be clearer. The Israel lobby in America is similarly aggressive in pursuing Israeli interests over and above those of their own country, as demonstrated—to cite one recent example—by the case of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, two top AIPAC officials accused of espionage against the United States.

Israel is our friend, we are often told: our “best friend,” as some would have it. Yet friends don’t act the way Israel and its more fervent supporters do when it comes to breaching the security of alleged “allies” such as Britain and the U.S. The same forces that set up Werritty’s covert operation are hard at work, here in America, extending their tentacles as far as they can reach. It’s time to sever those tentacles and make Israel’s agents in this country do what every other foreign lobbyist is required to do by law, and that is register under the requirements of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. AIPAC, the premier organization of the Israel lobby, has gotten around this by a series of legal maneuvers, and—let’s face it—on account of having friends in high places. As the Werritty scandal shows, this situation has to end.

The sins of Liam Fox are his own concern: rumors of his homosexuality have been rife ever since a “young man” was found to have stayed overnight at Fox’s flat the night it was burgled. Fox’s wife has “gone to ground,” as the British tabloids put it, and hasn’t been seen in weeks, the poor dear. When the rumors arose, Fox and his friends rightly said that his private life is none of anyone’s business as long as he’s doing a good job. Fox’s problem, however, is that his sins—if sins they be— were also committed against the nation he was pledged to serve. ❑ (Advertisement)

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The Political Uses of Islamophobia in Europe SpecialReport

LEON NEAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By John Gee

Members of the right-wing English Defense League listen to founder Stephen Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) during a Feb. 5, 2011 rally in Luton, a working-class town north of London with a history of racial tension. Orthodox Rabbi Nachum Shifren also spoke at the rally. or half a century after the end of the

FSecond World War, the far right in Eu-

rope was typically anti-Semitic and worshipful of the Third Reich. Realizing that their association with Nazism alienated the vast majority of the public, those who ran for office tried to distance themselves from it to some extent, but rarely succeeded for long. They seemed to find it impossible to avoid letting slip their real views, giving Nazi salutes and selling anti-Semitic writings by individuals whose pro-Nazi sympathies were well known.

Those groups still exist, but they have been partially displaced on the extreme edges of European politics by organizations that have made Islam the primary object of their hatred. In some cases, this may be tactical: the British National Party, for example, has concentrated on campaigning against the Muslim presence in Britain in the past decade, but among its core leaders are men with a track record of antiSemitic, pro-Nazi sympathies. In others, the focus on Islam is genuine: they don't have a secret agenda—or at least, not a neo-Nazi one.

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

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As a result, they have been able to capitalize on the fears of some sectors of the public concerning Islam and migrants from Muslim countries in ways that the old farright organizations could not. Inflammatory language and the blanket labeling of an entire religious group comprising people of widely varied national origins, values, and degrees of religious practice was acceptable in a way that similar expressions of hostility toward Jewish, Asian or Black people would not be.

It has to be said that Muslim extremism is not merely a figment of their imagination, as it has brought death and suffering to many people. But to project the values of a small segment of the world’s Muslims onto all has no justification in the beliefs and conduct of the vast majority of Islam's adherents. Political leaders and opinion-makers have played upon and amplified real anxieties felt in some non-Muslim communities as a way to build political support.

In Britain, the English Defense League (EDL) was launched in May 2009, shortly after eight Muslim extremists stood shouting abuse during a march past them by the Royal Anglian Regiment, returning from service in Afghanistan. Although it presented itself as a movement of “ordinary people,” the EDL relied heavily on football hooligans THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

for support, and, as its leadership became better known, it emerged that some of them had been activists with far-right organizations. It received favorable publicity from the tabloid Daily Star and financial support from Alan Lake, a North London businessman. Lake also helped the EDL to build up international contacts. These include the Sweden Democrats, Pastor Terry Jones, who attracted publicity with his threat to burn Qur’ans, and Pam Geller, director of Stop Islamization of America. (EDL members attended Geller’s September 2010 protest against the establishment of an Islamic Center near the site of the World Trade Center.)

Lake arranged for Nachum Shifren, an Orthodox rabbi, to speak at an EDL rally in Luton on Feb. 5, 2011. Referring to Muslims as “dogs,” the rabbi said: “History will be recorded that on this day, read by our children for eternity, one group lit the spark to liberate us from the oppressors of our two governments and the leftist, fifth column, quisling press, and that it was the EDL which started the liberation of England from evil.” Shifren emigrated from the USA to Israel in 1977, served in the Israeli army, and, while studying, lived in the Kfar Tepuah settlement in the West Bank, later returning to California and standing as a Republican candidate for the state senate in 2010.

In the Netherlands, Islamophobia was made respectable by the 2002 electoral success of Pim Fortuyn. A former leftist and openly gay, Fortuyn always rejected any association with the established parties of the European far right—which meant that when he referred to Islam as “a backward culture” and sounded the alarm over the alleged danger posed by Muslim immigration, he was not hindered in putting his message over by Nazi baggage. With the Liveable Rotterdam party, he won 36 percent of the seats in the formerly staunchly socialist city. He formed a new party, the List Pim Fortuyn, which won 26 parliamentary seats in the 2002 general election, helped rather than hindered by Fortuyn’s assassination during the campaign. It was very much a personal vehicle, however, and lost its last parliamentary seats in 2006.

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Geert Wilders has stepped into Fortuyn’s shoes. Unlike Fortuyn, Wilders’ background was conservative and he was a member of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy until 2004, when he fell out with it over Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union. This was a rallying point for Islamophobes across Europe. Wilders wanted the Turkish application to be rejected, not negotiated. He established the Freedom Party, now the third largest in the Dutch parliament.

Wilders claims that Islam is a fascist ideology and compares the Qur’an to Hitler’s Mein Kampf; in this he is more strident and extreme than Fortuyn. He was reportedly influenced as a young man by his travels in Israel and the neighboring Arab states.

Indeed, Wilders is strongly supportive of Zionism of a far-right variety. In December 2008, he participated in the “Facing Jihad” conference in Jerusalem, organized by National Union Knesset member Aryeh Eldad.

Eldad, whose party favors the expulsion of all Palestinians from Israeli-controlled territory, said that the conference was “to plan practical steps in the struggle against the spread of Islam in Europe.” Eldad told the Jerusalem Post that the Arab-Israeli conflict was between Islam and Western civilization, not a dispute over territory.

So rabid was Wilders’ contribution that fellow participant Daniel Pipes was moved to challenge him on his assertion that there was no such thing as “moderate Islam” and on his rejection of the Qur’an in its entirety. (Other conference participants included Itamar Marcus, of the highly selective Palestinian Media Watch, and Robert Spencer, director of the U.S.-based Jihad Watch.) Wilders’ anti-Islam film, “Fitna,” was shown.

Prior to the conference, Wilders told an audience at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, “We are organizing this event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the same boat together.” In December 2010, Wilders met in Jerusalem with Avigdor Lieber, the Israeli interior minister and leader of the Russian immigrant-based farright party, Yisrael Beitenu. Wilders was a member of the Swiss-based European Freedom Alliance delegation to Israel that also included two members of the European Parliament from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), two members of Flemish Interest (VB), based in the Flemish part of Belgium, and an MP from the Sweden Democrats.

The mindset of these organizations and individuals was reflected in the manifesto issued by Anders Breivik, who murdered 76 people in Norway on July 22. They all DECEMBER 2011

rushed to dissociate themselves from Breivik’s actions, but he had drawn inspiration and justification for what he did from their writings—just as Yigal Amir, the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, drew encouragement from the violent incitement of the Israeli right and the settler leadership, which also tried to distance itself from the consequences of their words. Without themselves laying hands on guns or explosives, they created an atmosphere in which individuals such as Breivik and Amir could muster a sense of self-righteous legitimacy that left them feeling entitled and impelled to kill.

Nowhere in Europe do Islamophobic parties and movements have majority support, but they have managed to achieve electoral gains in some countries and have broken to some extent with the obsessions of the post-World War II extreme right that contributed greatly to its relative political isolation. Typically, they cherry pick the liberal and leftist values that they reject for elements that can serve them: claiming to oppose “Islamization” because it would mean the oppression of women, the persecution of gay people and the suppression of democratic liberties, and comparing Islam to Nazism and fascism. They should be seen instead as playing a complementary role to the Muslim extremists

they denounce: each feeds upon the rage and inflammatory words and deeds of the other. Especially in these times of economic woe, people who want a decent society must take a stand and reject demonization of any community on the basis of its religion, as well as nationality or color.

Marriage of Convenience?

Trips to Israel by right-wing politicians have been used by them to shrug off the taint of anti-Semitism and fascism.

Alessandra Mussolini visited shortly before launching her own political career.

The Italian Social Movement (MSI) was founded by Giorgio Almirante, a former member of Benito Mussolini’s Nazi puppet regime, the Social Republic, after the Second World War, but his successor, Gianfranco Fini, re-established it in 1995 as the National Alliance. He visited Israel in November 2003 as Italy’s deputy prime minister. Israeli radio commented that Fini believed that the road to the Italian premiership passes through Jerusalem. In 2008, Fini came in for a torrent of criticism after he said on a talk show that the burning of Israeli flags by left-wing protesters on May 1st was “much more serious” than the brutal beating in Verona the same day of 29year-old Nicola Tommasoli by neo-Nazis.

Tommasoli later died of his injuries. ❑

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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opm_36-37_Other People's Mail 10/27/11 12:27 PM Page 36

Other People’s Mail Compiled by Jean-Pascal Deillon and Dale Sprusansky

Palestinian State Is Right

Walk in Palestinians’ Shoes

To the Charleston Gazette (WV), Oct. 12, 2011

To The Tennessean, Sept. 24, 2011 The article “Abbas could gain from U.N. gambit” fails to consider the dangerous gambit the U.S. will make if it vetoes Palestine’s bid for recognition by the U.N. Our government might, in effect, be painting targets on the backs of American citizens because many people in the Muslim world strongly disagree that the U.S. has the “right” to deny Palestinians equal rights and representative government. Our own Declaration of Independence says that if people are denied equal rights and representative government, they have the right to resist their oppressors. So our government takes a terrible risk when it denies rights we cherish to other people.

What would American men do if a foreign oppressor interfered with the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of millions of our children? Well, other men love their children, too, and will never agree that hypocritical Americans have any business forcing them to be serfs.

Mike Burch, Nashville, TN

I’m sure you’ll take some flak for your editorial about Palestine. I’d like to applaud it. Backing Palestinian statehood is the right thing for Palestinians, the right thing for America, and, well, it’s just the right thing to do.

David N. Ryan, Spencer, WV

Uneven Strength Unfair To The Minnesota Daily, Sept. 25, 2011 For a two-party negotiation to succeed, the two sides need to be approximately equal. When one side is totally dominant, as Israel is over Palestine, you get dictation, not negotiation. That is why Obama’s absurd comment at the U.N., “Ultimately, it is the Israelis and Palestinians, not us, who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them,” was met with stony silence.

Support for Palestinian statehood by the leaders of countries such as France and Brazil received standing ovations.

Meanwhile, the world watches as a helpless American president fawns over the small country that holds his electoral mortgage. I can’t believe that this president is the man I voted for.

Rolf Westgard, St. Paul, MN

Pushing on for Mideast Peace To The New York Times, Sept. 30, 2011 When President Harry S. Truman recognized Israel, he defied his secretary of state, resisted “logic” and opposed many of his “experts.” Some believe Truman was right; some believe that we are still paying for a premature decision. Subsequent presidents have launched peace initiatives, peace missions, peace plans, peace accords, peace conferences, peace summits, peace talks, peace solutions and peace proposals. Has this worked for anyone?

Perhaps it is time for President Obama to defy his experts and recognize Palestine.

Can things be worse than the Middle East wars, occupations, assassinations, massacres, suicide bombs, refugee camps and security barriers of the past 63 years?

This might be the wrong time, this might be the right time, but if we incline to hope, it might be the perfect time to defy logic and the experts—and try something different.

Felicity O. Yost, New York, NY 36

Settlements Are a Big Problem To the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 2, 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls the Israeli government’s approval of 1,100 new housing units in East Jerusalem counterproductive. I would say this is part of Israel’s repeated, unmitigated and arrogant slaps in the face to the United States, the United Nations and to the entire Arab world. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu acts with impunity.

What I have the most trouble accepting is why our nation continues to stand with Netanyahu—and how we can consider the Palestinians’ attempts at self-determination to be less valuable than those of Egypt’s, Tunisia’s or Libya’s.

Netanyahu ignores the fact that building new settlements, whether in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem, violates international law. Is Israel above the law?

Marilyn Goodman, Santa Monica, CA

U.S. Should Cut Aid to Israel To The Washington Post, Oct. 23, 2011 Walter Pincus’ Oct. 18 Fine Print column, “U.S. must reevaluate its assisTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tance to Israel,” was courageous and correct. As the United States struggles with its budget and as Israel acts to increase taxes and reduce its military spending, we should cut back on the huge sum we provide to Israel for its military.

But there is another reason for a cutback: The money is being used for bad purposes that damage U.S. standing throughout the Mideast.

We have lived and taught in Palestine.

We know what the occupation does to young people. We have witnessed Israel’s theft of land for settlements, its theft of water for its profligate uses and its denial of freedom to an indigenous population.

The United States has stood with Israel as it denies basic rights to Palestinians. Of course the United States is not seen as a friendly nation in the Middle East. If there was any problem with Mr. Pincus’ article, it was that he did not go far enough.

Gordon K. Davies and Elizabeth S. Brinson, Richmond, VA

Palestinian Statehood To The Oregonian, Sept. 22, 2011 In his Sept. 20 column, Thomas Friedman skewers Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for his “strategy” of suffocating any U.S. condemnation of Israel’s human rights abuses by having the Israel lobby “force the administration” to ignore its own national interest (“Israel’s intransigence: A security crisis blooms in isolation, stubbornness”). Friedman also speaks frankly of the lobby “hammering” Congress, and threatening politicians with “losing the Jewish vote.”

Never mind Netanyahu’s mistakes; why does any lobby have this kind of power and control over a government that is supposed to be “of the people, by the people and for the people” and that has previously been a strong advocate of freedom and equal rights for all peoples?

How can the Israel lobby force Congress to do an Israeli leader’s bidding when it overrides American values and interests?

Shouldn’t AIPAC and other members of the Israel lobby have to register as agents of a foreign country?

Why is our Congress representing Netanyahu and Israel instead of us?

June Forsyth-Kenagy, Albany, OR DECEMBER 2011

opm_36-37_Other People's Mail 10/27/11 12:27 PM Page 37

Palestinians Victims, Too To The Australian, Oct. 14, 2011 It should be remembered that Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier to be released, was stationed inside his armored tank on the Gaza-Israeli border when he was captured.

Tal Ellinson (Letters, 13/10) neglects the truth and perpetuates the myth that Israel is the victim in this torrid saga. Let us not forget that it is Israel that is occupying the Palestinians and not the other way around.

Since 2000, Israeli military courts have detained and prosecuted about 7,000 Palestinian children, with 87 percent of them being beaten or tortured, according to Defense for Children International. Almost every one of these children is denied access to their parents, a guardian or legal representation—an obvious abuse of international law.

Further, the entire court proceedings and list of criminal charges are in Hebrew, thereby not allowing the child, without representation, any ability to understand why they’re incarcerated. Why is there no outrage on this front? Where is the indignation over human rights abuse here?

Moammar Mashni, Melbourne, Australia

Killing of a Cleric in Yemen To The New York Times, Oct. 1, 2011 Regardless of whether Anwar al-Awlaki was a serious loss for al-Qaeda, killing him adds up to a serious loss for us.

The action fuels a growing perception that we, like al-Qaeda, are violent and lawless. In Mr. Awlaki’s case, it cheapens American citizenship. And using drones to take down human targets looks more like computer gaming, with other people’s lives at stake, than responsible international behavior. For all these reasons, attacks of this kind strengthen our adversaries.

Our strongest suit as a nation is our tradition of respect for the rule of law and for the rights of our fellow human beings. The cost of this attack is far higher than any return it could possibly offer.

Mary R. Holbrow, Cambridge, MA

Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki To The Denver Post, Oct. 9, 2011 President Obama campaigned on a pledge to restore the rule of law after the awful abuses by the executive branch under George W. Bush. Instead, Obama has now endorsed the mind-boggling premise that the executive can unilaterally authorize extrajudicial execution of a U.S. citizen.

I suspect there is ample evidence to have DECEMBER 2011

sustained a conviction and death sentence for Anwar al-Awlaki. But that determination cannot be made by the very branch of government that generated the evidence.

An independent judiciary is indispensable for preventing abuse of authority by the executive. It is universally recognized that no system of justice is legitimate in which a single authority serves as police, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner.

Chris van den Honert, Boulder, CO

When U.S. Kills an American To The New York Times, Oct. 12, 2011 Anwar al-Awlaki was an American citizen, with constitutional guarantees of due process of law. Indeed, if our courts were empowered to strip any of us of citizenship, all our “rights” would be merely boons granted at the courts’ pleasure.

Unless he walked into a United States courthouse or embassy to renounce his citizenship, American law permits only one scenario in which he would not be entitled to a full trial (whether in person or in absentia).

Our law provides that we can infer that one has renounced American citizenship

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

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

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

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

by “serving in the armed forces of a foreign state if such armed forces are engaged in hostilities against the United States.”

Name that state and show that Mr. Awlaki served in armed forces, and you have a case for denying him a trial. Until then, he’s a murder victim.

Barry Haskell Levine, Lafayette, CA

Apply Iraq’s Lessons to Libya To the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 24, 2011 I agree with the Times about rebuilding Libya. But I would like to remind the Times that much of the turmoil in Iraq was a result of how the U.S. handled things once Saddam Hussain was overthrown.

Instead of being liberators, we were occupiers. We disbanded the Iraqi armed forces and lost the trust of the Iraqi people.

This time, let’s help the people by building bridges between tribes and fostering education and public works projects. No Halliburtons. No U.S. soldiers. Build bridges, literal and otherwise.

Paul L. Hovsepian, Sierra Madre, CA

Wrong About Wars To [Louisville] Courier-Journal, Sept. 26, 2011 Nearly a decade ago, I wrote to the C-J to voice my support for both the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. Today, with our nation bankrupt and falling behind in a fast-paced and competitive world, where we cut firefighters and educators, and where we discuss with straight faces sending octogenarians out to shop for medical coverage with a discount coupon, I have changed my opinion and believe now is long past the time to reconsider.

Early in the wars, the Bush administration fired the chairman of the National Economic Council, Lawrence Lindsey, for suggesting that the war in Iraq could cost as much as $200 billion (more than three times the administration number). Today, with costs in the thousands of billions of dollars, we continue to spend money that we don’t have, and we continue to sacrifice the lives of young Americans who have heeded the call to volunteer.

As Ron Paul and others have said, it’s time to bring the troops home. Our country has suffered serious damage to its prosperity and to its future. Our limited resources are needed to keep our elderly out of the streets, to maintain what’s left of our once grand infrastructure, to fund the advancement of science, etc.

As much as I hate to say it, Code Pink, you were right. I was wrong.

Gerald Patrick O’Bryan, Louisville, KY ❑ 37

langley_38-39_Special Report 10/26/11 8:12 PM Page 38

Go Palestine: An Extraordinary Summer Camp Behind the Wall Story and photos by Ramsey Langley

SpecialReport

was never a big fan of summer camps.

ILearning how to carve a miniature canoe

out of soap wasn’t my idea of fun. So when my mother first suggested I apply to the Go Palestine Camp this summer, I thought, “Here we go again.” But as much as I hate to admit that my mom might have been right, it turned out to be one of the best summers I’ve ever had.

Organized and sponsored by the Ramallah Friends School, the camp brought together 40 high school students aged 14 to 17 from around the world for a chance to learn more about Palestinian culture and heritage. Approximately half the campers were from the West Bank. The other half came from the United States, Europe, Asia and other countries in the Middle East, including Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. The camp was staffed by local and international counselors from many different backgrounds. Their training and experience were excellent.

The program spanned three weeks full of trips and activities, leaving no time for boredom. Even Fridays, which were free days, were filled with getting together with new friends to explore Ramallah. The language of the camp was English, but many of the campers were knowledgeable, if not fluent, in Arabic. Families of local campers in Ramallah hosted the international students, providing a home, meals and transportation to and from the camp.

My situation was a little different, since I was able to stay with my uncle and his family in Ramallah.

The camp kept us on the go, with some days devoted to traveling to locations in the West Bank and Israel and other days doing activities in and around Ramallah.

The Ramallah activities included playing sports, going to movies, visiting local businesses, learning traditional arts, and engaging in spirited discussions about culture and politics.

Besides visiting such large and familiar cities as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and Haifa, we also got a chance to go to places Ramsey Langley is a sophomore at James Madison High School in Vienna, VA, where his favorite subject is history. Of Palestinian descent, he still has family living in the occupied West Bank.

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Go Palestine campers in front of a Banksy mural on Israel’s apartheid wall near Bethlehem (top), and walking through Haifa’s Old City (above). tourists usually don’t have the opportunity to visit on their own. We went to Bil’in, one of the many villages in the West Bank that Israel’s wall transects. We learned from the villagers how, through peaceful protests every Friday, they were able to get the wall partially relocated. We also visited the Tent of Nations in Beit Jala, where local and international activists nonviolently challenge the expropriation of Palestinian land.

Some of the most memorable and satisfying activities were the community serTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

vice days. We worked with the Inspire Dreams Program, whose mission centers on nonviolence, conflict resolution, education and community development for Palestinian refugees. Along with local children in the camps, we helped with cleaning, planting and painting projects. We also worked with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, a nonviolent, direct-action organization to resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the occupied territories. We helped to rebuild a demolished house in a village near Jerusalem.

DECEMBER 2011

langley_38-39_Special Report 10/26/11 8:12 PM Page 39

major city you’d find in California. From the seemingly normal activities of its residents you’d think you were a world away from Palestine, not just a few short miles.

Most of us in America take a lot of things for granted. And while many Palestinians have to cross a physical wall every day, a wall that stands as a symbol of occupation and oppression, most of us in the United States pursue our normal daily activities not having to fear how life would be if we had our basic human rights taken away. We have yet to cross over the emotional and intellectual wall that shields us Working alongside the villagers and the volunteers taught us about the starker realities of life in Palestine. It also allowed us to give back to the Palestinian community.

Though the conditions in the refugee camps could be horrifying, I was astounded that neither the refugees nor the family whose house was demolished seemed bitter or angry. I also learned how sometimes the most downtrodden or oppressed people are the most hopeful. I guess that shows the resilience of the people.

The camp did a great job of balancing activities that allowed us to understand both the political situation and the culture in Palestine. In part this was done using movie nights with films that captured various aspects of life in Palestine. We watched documentaries, such as “Occupation 101” (available from the AET Book Club), a history and analysis of the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We also watched cultural movies like “Amreeka” (also available from the Book Club), which humorously chronicles a Palestinian family’s immigration to the U.S. The similarities between local and international campers were revealing—and not just limited to wearing the red camp Tshirts that made us look like a communist brigade when we were out and about in the West Bank. Even though we were born and raised in different countries, I was surprised to discover that the differences among us were superficial, and that we had much more in common with one another than I had expected. In part that’s globalization for you, as we all shared some common pop culture likes and dislikes.

The other real unifying aspect was that those of us coming from outside brought with us a familiarity with things Palestinian that we had garnered from our families.

This helped reduce the cultural gap among the campers that might otherwise have existed, and allowed us to immediately get DECEMBER 2011

Go Palestine campers pose in front of Jerusalem’s Old City (top) and help ICAHD rebuild a demolished house in Anata (above). along and “know” one another.

Overall, I found the camp a very worthwhile experience. I learned first hand about the difficulties that Palestinians confront in daily life, not the least of which is Israel’s illegal separation wall, the sole purpose of which is to confiscate more land and to isolate and fragment Palestinians even further than they already are.

The wall’s impact hits you from the moment you first see it. Just try to get into Jerusalem with a Palestinian ID, as I had to.

Crossing through the checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem feels like passing into a prison as you are herded through iron gates and inspections. What should be a 15-minute commute can take hours.

I found, too, that traveling to the different parts of Palestine brings forth a wealth of contradictions. Walk through Hebron, for example, and you’ll notice low-hanging makeshift tarps above you in the old market. No, it’s not to catch rainwater, but to shield you from the garbage that the settlers living above throw down. By contrast, the Israeli city of Haifa looks like any THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

from the lives and experiences of people in other countries. We need to always remember the most basic principle on which this country was founded: freedom. If we and other world powers want to assert ourselves as role models, then we cannot compromise our own principles. Instead we must demand for others that which we demand for ourselves.

We youth of Palestinian background coming from abroad tend to know Palestine only through the lens of politics, occupation, repression and loss. We often hear about things Palestinian in a language of struggle and despair that drowns out other voices. The truth, though, is more vital and textured. Camp showed us that what lies beyond the physical wall—and the one we carry inside us—is a Palestine that is as much a people as a place and that it is made of so many facets to be explored and cherished.

For more information on the Go Palestine program visit: <www.summerinpalestine.org> or contact the Ramallah Friends School, PO Box 66, Ramallah, Palestine. ❑ 39

mcmahon_40_Canada Calling 10/27/11 12:30 PM Page 40

Canadian War-Crimes Profiteering CanadaCalling

By Sean F. McMahon anada’s unconditional diplomatic sup-

Cport and enabling of Israeli belliger-

ence and intransigence vis-à-vis Palestinians is increasingly garnering critical attention. Largely escaping scrutiny, however, has been Ottawa’s economic relationship with Israel. Canadian economic policy plays at least as large a role as foreign policy in the oppression and exploitation of Palestinians, as it encourages Canadian companies to build the infrastructure of Israeli apartheid and to profit from Israel’s occupation industry. It promotes war crimes profiteering.

Economic relations between Canada and Israel are structured by the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA). As intended, CIFTA has increased economic exchanges between the two countries.

“Canada’s bilateral trade with Israel more than doubled since implementation of CIFTA, from $567 million in 1997 to a record high of $1.4 billion in 2007 (an increase of 219 percent),” according to a March 2009 report by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT), “Economic Profile–Israel.” But at least part of this increased trade is produced in the occupied West Bank. CIFTA defines the territory of Israel as “the territory where its customs laws are applied”—in other words, pre-1967 Israel as well as the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Through this agreement Canada implicitly legalizes Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians and allows it to exploit Palestinian labor and resources in its production processes. This is in stark contrast to the European Union’s free trade agreement with Israel, which does not recognize Israeli control of the occupied Palestinian territories.

CIFTA, on the other hand, structures economic relations in such a way that Canadian corporations are encouraged to provide succor to Israel’s system of apartheid and commission of war crimes and profit from the suffering and exploitation of Palestinians. Canadian construction Sean F. McMahon is assistant professor of political science at the American University in Cairo. He is the author of The Discourse of Palestinian-Israeli Relations (London: Routledge Press, 2010).

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companies, including the Canadian Highway Infrastructure Corporation (CHIC) and Green Park International Inc., are building the infrastructure of Israeli apartheid, namely roads and settlements.

CHIC and Canadian finance helped to build the Trans-Israel Highway, the major electronic toll road in Israel. Its technology is modeled on the 407 toll highway north of Toronto, which Canadian Highway Infrastructure Corporation also built. Microscopically and immediately, construction of the Trans-Israel Highway meant that “[a]pproximately 75 mostly poor communities [had] their land taken by the highway, including over 6,000 Arab families within Israel who [were] uprooted,” according to an article by David Block, “Fighting the Trans-Israeli Highway,” in the May/June 2000 issue of Tikkun magazine. Macroscopically–and this is the salient point made by Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions—the Trans-Israel Highway is the “central spine” of the matrix of control and dispossession Israel is laying over

Palestine. This means that CHIC built a technology which ensures ongoing Israeli control of the occupied West Bank and the imprisonment of Palestinians living there.

Roads do not lead to nowhere, of course.

They connect places. Israel’s matrix of control connects illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, with each other and with pre-1967 Israel.

Green Park International Inc., along with Green Mount International Inc. are involved in the construction of the nodes in the matrix: Israel’s illegal settlements.

These two Canadian corporations are constructing, marketing and selling units in the colony of Modi’in Illit on land stolen from the Palestinian village of Bil’in, and hence are deeply implicated in Israel’s illegal colonization enterprise.

Ottawa has long encouraged Canadian corporations to serve as builders of Israeli apartheid. In 1998, after completion of a Continued on page 48

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

DECEMBER 2011

model_arab_league_ad_41_National Council on U.S. Arab Relations AD -- December 2011 10/26/11 9:52 AM Page 41

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pasquini_42-43_Northern California Chronicle 10/26/11 1:25 PM Page 42

STAFF PHOTOS PHIL PASQUINI

By Elaine Pasquini

began Dec. 22, 2008—three days before Americans celebrated Christmas—and ended Jan. 17, 2009— three days before the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama. The Israeli bombardment killed 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 300 children, and injured 5,000. In the aftermath, one of MECA’s projects, Let the Children Play & Heal, gave children the chance to cope with their suffering and express their feelings by making drawings and paintings.

Caving to pressure from Bay Area pro-Israel groups, the museum’s board of directors cancelled the exhibit on Sept. 8 (see November 2011 Washington Report, p. 43). The board then offered to host the exhibit on condition that it select the works to be shown.

Unwilling to allow the children’s artwork to be censored, MECA rejected the last-minute offer. Instead, volunteers stood in the museum’s courtyard holding the children’s drawings for

ABOVE: MECA supporters carry children’s artwork from the courtyard of Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art to the new gallery.

RIGHT: A child’s drawing depicts children crying and the sun, birds and palm trees also weeping. he long-planned opening reception for

Tthe exhibit of Palestinian children’s art-

work organized by the Berkeley-based Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) took place Sept. 24 in the courtyard of Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA), rather than inside, as originally intended when the project was launched months ago. “A Child’s View From Gaza” featured drawings created by Gazan children who lived through Operation Cast Lead. Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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visitors to view before walking around the corner to 917 Washington St., where a new venue for the exhibit had been secured. On the sidewalk, The Great Tortilla Conspiracy—which describes itself as “the world’s most dangerous tortilla art collective”— served the crowd delicious hot tortillas with the words “The Great Tortilla Conspiracy Loves and Respects ALL Children’s Art” silkscreened on them, using chocolate for ink.

“We’ve had an enormous amount of support from the local community,” MECA executive director Barbara Lubin told the several hundred people attending the opening THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Northern California Chronicle

reception. “And because of MOCHA’s actions, the whole world knows about this. People from Denmark, Turkey and all over the world have been asking for this exhibit. I will be traveling to Gaza next month and bringing back a second exhibit which shows the children’s feelings after being told their work isn’t good enough for the museum.”

Some drawings featured images of Israeli planes dropping bombs on apartment houses. Others showed soldiers, tanks and ambulances in the streets. One picture depicted children crying and the sun, birds and palm trees also weeping.

“We went into Gaza with paintbrushes and crayons and asked elementary school children to draw their reality,” said Nancy Hernandez, a member of a delegation of artists who traveled to Gaza last summer as part of the Maia Mural Project, a campaign focusing on everyone’s right to clean water. “When the children drew pictures of water they drew black tanks on top of their houses.” Unlike Jewish Israelis, who have unlimited access to fresh water, Hernandez explained, Palestinians’ water supply is limited.

“A Child’s View From Gaza” runs through Nov. 30 at its new venue in Oakland. For gallery hours visit <www.mecaforpeace. org> or call (510) 548-0542.

OEA Admonishes Museum For Canceling Gaza Exhibit The Oakland Education Association (OEA), which represents Oakland’s 2,600 public school teachers, was one of MECA’s strongest supporters in its struggle to stage the Gaza children’s art exhibit. At a Sept. 23 rally outside MOCHA, OEA president Betty OlsonJones read a letter that the executive board sent to Hilmon Sorey, chair of MOCHA’s board of directors.

In the Sept. 21 letter, the OEA expressed “our deep disappointment over your deciDECEMBER 2011

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

Gaza Kids’ Art Show a Smashing Success Despite Museum’s Attempt at Censorship

STAFF PHOTOS E. PASQUINI

pasquini_42-43_Northern California Chronicle 10/26/11 1:25 PM Page 43

(L-r) The Oakland Education Association’s Betty Olson-Jones, and MECA’s Ziad Abbas and Barbara Lubin. died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While there were no recorded U.S. deaths in Iraq in August, 70 soldiers died that month in Afghanistan, the highest for a single month since the war began in 2001. In September, 31 U.S. troops died in Afghanistan.

Marchers carried signs demanding “Bring the Troops Home” and “No More Wars.” Ac-

cuse to go to war against the rest of the world,” Stephanie Tang of The World Can’t Wait told the crowd. “Today we remember every person killed by our government. American lives are not more important than other people on this planet.”

Norman Solomon, a candidate for the sixth district congressional seat to be vacated next year by Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey, was greeted enthusiastically when he took the microphone. “A license for war is unacceptable,” the author and media critic stated. “We’re determined to organize so that the warfare gives way to a country and a world where all children have a future, where the madness of militarism—a term used by Martin Luther King, Jr.—is set aside in favor of nurturing life instead of destroying it.”

Arab Cultural Festival

STAFF PHOTOS PHIL PASQUINI

sion to cancel ‘A Child’s View From Gaza’ and deny the children of Gaza the right to share their experiences through artwork.”

The letter further stated: “MOCHA has always been a place where all subjects are open to artistic expression…As past artwork has included many examples of the violence in children’s lives, the only conclusion we can draw to explain your decision to engage in such obvious censorship is the pressure being exerted by powerful organizations and individuals seeking to silence the voices of the Palestinian people. We are well aware of such pressure, having received our share of it when we condemned the murderous Israeli assault on Gaza several years ago…That you have chosen not to allow a safe place for the often-ignored children of Gaza to share their art is a decision that will unfortunately scar your reputation and remain a deep disappointment to the many teachers who have supported you throughout your existence.”

San Francisco’s Arab Cultural and Community Center held its 17th annual Arab Cultural Festival in Union Square on Oct. 1.

The largest celebration of Arab Activists March Across culture in Northern California, Bridge in Memory of 9/11 TOP: Human rights activists on the Golden Gate Bridge on 9/11. the festival featured entertainSeveral hundred activists ABOVE: The crowd at the Arab Cultural Festival enjoys the singing of ers, including hip hop artist Omar Offendum, the traditional marched across San Francisco’s Salma Habib (clapping).

Palestinian debka troupe AlGolden Gate Bridge on Sept. 11 to protest the war in Afghanistan, the con- tivists from The World Can’t Wait made an Juthoor, classical oud virtuoso and singer tinued U.S. presence in Iraq, and NATO’s in- impressive statement by dressing as prisoners Naser Musa, Palestinian singer Salma Habib, in orange jumpsuits and carrying signs that the musical group Al-Sarah and the Nubavolvement in Libya. tones and Faisal Zedan. Jewelry, textiles and After gathering at opposite ends of the read “9/11 No License for War or Torture.”

“We’ve been told to think about Ameri- crafts from the Arab world were for sale in famed suspension bridge, peace advocates simultaneously marched to meet in the middle can lives lost on 9/11, but not to care about the booth bazaar. Visitors also enjoyed deliof the span to honor those who died on 9/11 the loss of any other life in the 10 years cious Middle Eastern cuisine and dancing in and the soldiers and civilians who have since that the government used 9/11 as an ex- the open-air plaza. ❑ DECEMBER 2011

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Diana Buttu Addresses Palestine Children’s Relief Fund “Healing Hands” Benefit

By Pat and Samir Twair

STAFF PHOTOS S. TWAIR

experienced a dramatic turn-around?”

“If statehood won’t be significant, why these pleas to Abbas to negotiate?” she added.

“Israel reaps all the benefits from pretending to negotiate.”

Buttu went on to note how the Oslo peace process brought Israel recognition from 34 countries, its greatest economic boost, and the PA’s collaboration in policing the Palestinians—all while it built new settlements on Palestinian land.

While statehood would bring the Palestinians the right to seek redress of illegal Israeli settlements on their land, Buttu said, Abbas excluded Palestinians in the diaspora from his statehood bid. Concluding that “the negative outweighs the positive for statehood,” Buttu argued that the solution is to demand better representation in municipal and parliamentary elections and within the PLO. The last time the PA parliament met was in 2007, she pointed out. “We need to bring life to a lifeless system. Reconciliation [with Hamas] has been on hold. We need a genuine reconciliation.”

PCRF/Southern California President Lily Karam announced that since its foundation in 1991, the organization has brought 1,000 injured children to the West for medical treatment and cared for more than 7,000 ill youngsters in the Middle East, sends medical teams to Palestine, and has recently opened a pediatric cancer ward in Beit Jala hospital and a cardiac ICU in East Jerusalem’s Makassat Hospital.

She then introduced three children newly arrived from Gaza who will receive treatment in the U.S.: Ahmad Bassem al-Saloul, 8, who suffers from a congenital hip deformity, and burn victims Hala, 11, and Fatma alNajjar, 10.

ABOVE: PCRF secretary Randa Issa introduced the three children from Gaza who will receive treatment in the U.S. this year: (l-r) Hala and Fatma al-Najjar and Ahmad Bassem al-Saloul. INSET: Keynote speaker Diana Buttu. arvard University Law School Fellow

HDiana Buttu was the keynote speaker at

the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund’s (PCRF) annual Southern California chapter’s “Healing Hands” benefit dinner Sept. 24 in the Anaheim Hilton Hotel. Before an audience of more than 450 people, she discussed the significance of the Palestinian bid for admission to the United Nations as a member state.

In the third week of September, Buttu noted, the Palestinians took center stage in the world media without a massacre or invasion of their shrinking land by one single act: a simple request for recognition by the U.N. as a member state.

In response, U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rushed to insist statehood can only be achieved through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“Isn’t it odd that Israel, who has a stockpile of nuclear weapons and the lion’s share of U.S. aid, suddenly begs PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to sit down and negotiate?” Buttu asked rhetorically. “Could it be Netanyahu Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Southern California Chronicle Irvine 11 Found Guilty There was an emotional reaction by Muslims and Zionists alike in the Santa Ana courthouse Sept. 23 when Judge Peter J. Wilson announced that, after two days of deliberation, a jury had found the Irvine 11 guilty of criminal charges for disrupting a February 2010 speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California at Irvine.

The judge did not sentence the students—some of whom are headed to medical school and graduate studies at prestigious institutions—to jail time, however. Instead, each was fined about $200, ordered to perform 56 hours of community service before Jan. 21, 2012, and put on probation for three years.

Their crime? The Muslim students each nonviolently interrupted the speech of the American-born Israeli ambassador in an auditorium full of Israel supporters. As each student voiced his objection to Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians, video cameras recorded the ranting of Israel-firsters who threatened mayhem against the dignified dissenters as they were handcuffed.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has never prosecuted students who interrupted classes or destroyed UCI property during other protests, but, mindful of the political power of affluent Zionists, did press charges against the Muslim students. The litigation gave rise to a national debate on free speech rights that will last for decades and be the topic of future books, films and documentaries.

UCI law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky described the charges as draconian and said it was a shame that the students now have misdemeanor convictions on their records.

Others accused Rackauckas of political grandstanding.

“You can heckle the U.S. president [or] high-ranking government officials,” commented Salam al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, “but if you heckle an Israeli diplomat you will be prosecuted.”

U.S. Diplomat Optimistic About PostAssad Syrian Government According to Frederic C. Hof, a senior State Department adviser on U.S. policy toward Syria,“The challenge now for the opposiDECEMBER 2011

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STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

STAFF PHOTO P. TWAIR

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

by nonviolent means, recognize tion is to convince millions of all Syrians on an equal footing, Syrians of what a post-Bashar and reject all foreign military inSyria will look like so they’ll tervention. get off the fence.” Hof was During the question-and-anspeaking at a Sept. 24 Syrian swer period, an audience memAmerican Council meeting in ber complained that Washingthe Anaheim Hilton. ton has been too soft on Syria “I’m here to help,” he said, for killing its citizens who explaining that his lifelong atdemonstrate against the regime. tachment to Syria began as a “There has been no secret 17-year-old foreign exchange handshake,” Hof responded, “or student who was welcomed I wouldn’t be here in the service into the Damascus home of Issa of the U.S. government. I fully and Rose Lutfi. expect Bashar will soon be an The diplomat emphasized ex-president. There is a crying President Barack Obama’s comneed for international protecmitment to a democratic Syrian tion of civilians and,” he emgovernment ruled by the conphasized, “the revolution must sent of the people as cemented continue to be nonviolent. The in the president’s Sept. 18 call for regime wants to do its crimes in the Bashar Assad to “step down.” dead of night—that’s why we must “Who and how Syria will be have international witnesses and governed will be decided by the the press inside Syria.”

Syrian people,” Hof stated. “They will devise their own formula taiAAJA Focuses on Middle East lored to their needs.”

He declined to predict how long Munira Syeda of the Council on it will be before the Assad regime American Islamic Relations (CAIR) falls, but added that, despite the and Washington Report Southern fact that his security forces remain California correspondent Samir intact, the Syrian leader is living in Twair joined Asian journalists Linh a bubble, unaware that the revoluVan Nguyen and Gwen Muranaka tion is beyond his control. as panelists at a Sept. 10 ethnic Hof concluded by remarking community roundtable sponsored that the cost in deaths and injuries by the Asian American Association has been unconscionably high for in a Los Angeles Korean restaurant. the opposition.

TOP: Syrian American Council townhall speakers (l-r) Dr. The emcee was Henry Fuhrman, Poet and University of Arkansas Najib Ghadban, Hussam Ayloush and Frederic J. Hof. ABOVE: assistant managing editor of the professor AAJA ethnic community roundtable speakers (l-r) Munira Los Angeles Times.

Mohja According to Syeda, who is comSyeda of CAIR, Los Angeles Times assistant managing editor Kahf gave Henry Fuhrmann, and Samir Twair. munications manager of CAIR/LA, a stirring there are an estimated 7 to 10 mil“It was in January and February that lion Muslims in the U.S. She described 9/11 description of Syrian women’s role in women concerned over the imprisoned stu- as a double tragedy for the Muslim commuthe movement to dents pre-heated the revolution,” Kahf told nity, which mourned the loss of 3,000 Amerachieve freedom. the audience of 200 Syrian exiles. On March icans in the terrorist attack but also was cast “This is a revolu- 16, she noted, mothers staged a rally de- as the enemy. It was the Japanese-American tion born of love manding the return of their children. Eigh- leadership who immediately called mosques and nonviolence,” teen women were arrested and jailed, and and offered support during tense times folshe averred. “The the Syrian revolution of nonviolence began. lowing 9/11, she noted.

“Women rock the Syrian revolution!” armed effort to reAsked to assess Arab-American newspaKahf shouted to cheers. sist Hafez Assad pers, Twair said each reflects the political Mohja Kahf.

Dr. Najib Ghadban, who teaches political stance of the country its publisher is from. failed in the 1980s.

This revolution has a nonviolent morality science at the University of Arkansas, dis- The Internet is replacing these papers as a born among women in Daraa, Daraiya and cussed the Syrian National Council (SNC) of- source of news from the Arab world, he ficially formed Sept.15 in Istanbul, which is added, and since most of the new generation Homs.”

In December 2010, Kahf explained, an umbrella for all Syrian opposition blocs don’t read Arabic, these publications likely schoolchildren in the southern Syrian city of inside and out of the country. Its 140 mem- will die out. On the other hand, Twair said, Daraa, inspired by the uprising in Tunisia, bers represent all sects, religions and tribes, the Washington Report covers political wrote anti-Assad graffiti on walls. Govern- women and men, regardless of social status, events related to the Middle East which genment police arrested 35 students and jailed he said, and described its three principles as erally are ignored by the American estabbeing to overthrow the Assad dictatorship lishment media. ❑ them in Damascus.

DECEMBER 2011

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Longtime Journalist Describes Iranians as Most Pro-American People in Middle East

STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

By Jane Adas

Christian Science Monitor bureau chief Scott Peterson. cott Peterson, who has covered the

SMiddle East for The Christian Science

Monitor for more than 15 years, currently is the newspaper’s bureau chief in Istanbul. He is also a photographer for Getty Images and author of Let the Swords Encircle Me: Iran—a Journey Behind the Headlines, and in a Sept. 28 appearance at Princeton University he discussed “Iran and the Arab Spring.”

Through his photographs of people in a variety of situations, Peterson sought to provide a fuller view of life in Iran than what he described as the one-dimensional, demonizing image that bipartisan politicians and the mainstream media serve up in the U.S. Although Americans imagine Iranians to be screaming “Death to America” at every opportunity, Peterson said he has found Iranians to be the most pro-American people in the Middle East. He was in Tehran the night in 1998 when Iran deJane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the New York City metropolitan area.

46

feated the U.S. to win soccer’s World Cup. The street erupted with joy, he recalled.

When a small group of men approached with American flags to burn, people in the crowd pushed them away—but took the flags and waved them as well.

For three decades, Iran’s 1979 revolution that deposed the shah was the only example in the region of people power overthrowing a regime, Peterson noted.

He described Iranians as “proud of their template” and dismissive of their Sunni Arab neighbors still living under dictatorships—even though many Iranians have since viewed their revolution as hijacked by neoconservative elements within the country. Then came the 2009 election when, in spite of an 85 percent turnout—the only statistic that can be trusted, according to Peterson—President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of a second term by two to one.

Millions took to the streets, but this time people power “was crushed and put on ice.” Since then, Peterson has not been allowed to return to Iran.

Although it did not succeed, Iran’s experience in 2009 was instructive for Arabs. Peterson cited two lessons: the democracy activists’ use of social media, and what can happen when a regime is ruthless and not afraid to kill its own people. Official Iran’s reaction to the nonviolent revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia was to celebrate them as an “Islamic Awakening.” Peterson depicted the popular attitude among Iranians as both consternation and certainty that the pro-democracy movement will eventually get to their country. He told of a cartoon that shows Ayatollah Khamenei pushing a row of dominoes—the first labeled Tunisia, then Egypt, and so on—but the dominoes are arranged in a circle. Giving the example of an interview with a soldier confessing great shame over his actions in 2009, Peterson noted that the government’s brutality that year created such internal problems that it no longer can count on its security forces to crush the next movement.

Palestinian Statehood? Implications Of a U.N. Resolution The Ralph Bunche Institute held an Oct. THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

New York City and Tri-StateNews 4 forum at the CUNY Graduate Center on “Palestine Statehood? Implications of a U.N. Resolution.” Center director Thomas Weiss posed the question, “Why, at this time, did President Abbas present an application for membership in the U.N.?” to a panel comprising a Palestinian, an Israeli, and a career U.N. diplomat.

Prof. Ghassan Shabaneh, whose research is on building Palestinian statehood, posited the goal of a global forum in which Israel no longer can act with impunity and will be held accountable for its actions. He views the U.N. bid as Abbas’ apology to the Palestinian people for the failure of Oslo.

Prof. Dov Waxman, co-author of Israel’s Palestinians: The Crisis Within, described Israel’s fears, which he considers exaggerated: legal accountabity, which Israelis call lawfare, and increased diplomatic isolation. Now that Palestine’s application is “in committee” at the Security Council, Waxman added, Israelis feel they have dodged a bullet because the delay will take away any momentum.

Waxman acknowledged that the Quartet has outlived its usefulness, the Road Map is defunct, and the peace process has been a charade. What is needed, he concluded, is an alternative framework—but he thinks nothing is likely to happen until after the American elections.

Alvaro de Soto recently ended a 25-year career at the United Nations during which he led negotiations that brought an end to the war in El Salvador. He then turned to Cyprus and the Middle East. His 2007 End of Mission Report condemning the U.S. for Middle East failures caused a stir when it was leaked to the press.

De Soto views Abbas as a negotiator by nature rather than a man of confrontation, and suspects he went to the U.N. with great reluctance, compelled by a confluence of three circumstances. To debunk the argument that Palestinians are not fit to have their own state, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad began building institutions, which have now been certified by the World Bank. Second, the Obama administration demanded that Israel freeze settlement construction as a precondition to negotiations, something the DECEMBER 2011

STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

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(L-r) Professors Dov Waxman and Ghassan Shabaneh, and retired U.N. diplomat Alvaro de Soto. est broker. Asked if Washington should impose a solution with sticks and carrots, Bishara responded that it is geopolitically not acceptable for Israel’s best ally to impose anything. He recommended that the best role for Washington would be to admit failure and back off. At the least, it should stop throwing wrenches in the international movement, such as using its veto in the Security Council on Israel’s orders.

Palestinians had never done. The Palestinians couldn’t be less pro-Palestinian than the U.S. president, De Soto reasoned, so Abbas had no choice but to insist on the same. Then Obama backed down, leaving Abbas hanging. Third, the Arab Spring could not bypass Palestine.

De Soto characterized the Israeli and U.S. argument that Palestine going to the U.N. is incompatible with negotiations as completely illogical. Even if Palestine becomes a member state, he pointed out, the situation will still require negotiations. According to De Soto, a rule of diplomacy is that when a problem seems intractable, change the context. This may already be happening with the Arab Spring, where Israel’s neighbors will now take public opinion into account. In this changed context, De Soto concluded, creating conditions that make negotiations almost impossible is suicidal, driving off a cliff with the U.S. playing Thelma to Israel’s Louise.

Marwan Bishara, Al-Jazeera’s senior political analyst and author of the upcoming book The Invisible Arab, presented “an analytical journey” of the 20-year peace process at Princeton on Oct. 6. Bishara identified problematical aspects built into the process. Neither side thought the timing was advantageous, he noted—Palestine, with the Cold War ended and the PLO discredited during Bush, Sr.’s Gulf war, felt too weak; Israel, “not convinced by the limits of its victory,” believed that with more time it could extract even more gains. For both, Bishara said, “the peace process was a continuation of the conflict by means of negotiations.” Therefore, with neither side willing to commit to an end game, the process remained transitional, proceeding by steps with seven interim agreements that achieved very little.

The U.S. exacerbated the situation because, as Israel’s closest ally, it is not an honDECEMBER 2011

“A Separation” Screened at New York Film Festival STAFF PHOTO J. ADAS

Marwan Bishara at Princeton

gone radicalization, with the political center having moved rightward. Settlers are now part of the political establishment, Bishara pointed out, with 16 members of the Knesset and 4 cabinet ministers living in illegal settlements. The settlements have expanded so massively—from a population of 75,000 in 1991 to more than 300,000 in the West Bank alone, not counting East Jerusalem—that Bishara considers separation in two separate, contiguous states impossible without serious ethnic cleansing.

Nor does he think it likely that settlers will agree either to be evacuated or to become citizens of a Palestinian state. Therefore Bishara sees no way out any time soon.

“We will need all the help we can get from peace-loving people,” he concluded, “and also some miracles.”

Al-Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara.

Bishara views the Arab Spring as the “Palestinization of the Arab world.” He acknowledged that Arab dictators have exploited the question of Palestine for their own legitimacy, but argued they were able to do so successfully because Palestine is a central concern in the Arab world; with more democracy, the people will be even more pro-Palestinian. This is why, Bishara explained, those who formerly preached democracy, such as Natan Sharansky who so influenced George W. Bush, are now in a state of panic, and why Palestinian hopes and imagination are higher than ever in both the Islamist and nationalist trends.

Meanwhile, Israeli society has underTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s outstanding film “A Separation” was screened at this year’s New York Film Festival. Voted Best Film at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival, where Best Actress and Best Actor awards went to the entire female and male ensembles, it is Iran’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In introducing “A Separation,” Farhadi asked the audience to put aside any preconceptions and to forget what country the film is coming from. Critics have described it as a marital drama, a film about morality, a legal thriller, a comingof-age film; Farhadi calls it “a detective story without any detectives.”

The film depicts an urban, middle-class couple on the point of separating. When the wife moves to her parents’ house, their 11-year-old daughter remains with her father. He must then find someone to take care of his Alzheimer-stricken father while he is at work in a bank. Razieh, a pregnant working-class woman, takes the position, bringing her young daughter to 47

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Canadian War Crimes…

Continued from page 40

portion of the Trans-Israel Highway, Ontario’s then-Premier Mike Harris visited Israel to “ensure that Ontario would be considered for the designing and building of Israel’s mass transit system, which might include an underground complex in Tel Aviv.”

Even now, Canada’s Trade Commissioner advertises that “[t]here are also a growing number of initiatives for major infrastructure programs (rail and urban transit, water, ports) [in space over which Israel exercises sovereignty] which are open to foreign companies in the tendering process” (DFAIT).

Not content with violating the Geneva Conventions by facilitating the building of Israel’s matrix of control, the Canadian government wants Canadian corporations to help construct, presumably, the Jerusalem light rail system intended to further the de facto annexation of that occupied city.

Profiting From Occupation CIFTA’s reduction and elimination of tariffs encourages Canadian corporations to participate profitably in what Israel’s Coalition of Women for Peace calls the occupation industry. At the forefront of this war crimes profiteering is Canada’s military-industrial complex, many of whose members export directly to Israel. Ottawa’s AllenVanguard Corporation provides “counterterrorist” equipment and training. iMPath Networks Ltd. of Ottawa and Halifax designs solutions for real-time video surveillance and intrusion detection technology.

Mecachrome Technologies, based in Montreal and Toronto, provides components for military aircraft. And MPB Technologies Ltd. of Point Claire, Edmonton, Airdrie and Calgary manufactures, among other things, communications equipment 48

drudge who “gets no respect and is oppressed by her own religious sense.” An-

other decides the film is a “depiction of national alienation in Iran.” When asked if European responses were different from Iranian ones, however, Farhadi responded that they were not—that similarities between people of different cultures were greater than their differences. “It’s politicians who try to present people as different from each other,” he added.

Already a huge success in Iran and Europe, “A Separation” will be released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics on Dec. 30. ❑

and robotics for military use.

Also profiting from Israel’s occupation industry are Canadian subsidiaries of Israeli corporations. One of these is Nes Pan Ltd., which builds on expropriated Palestinian land and provides engineering, technology and construction services to residential real estate projects in, among other places, Toronto. Like CHIC and Green Park International, Nes Pan also builds the infrastructure of Israel’s occupation, including a section of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem fast train line and a bridge that connects an illegal Israeli settlement to Israel behind the Green Line. Senstar, a company headquartered in Carp, Ontario, is a subsidiary of Magal Security Services, which profits by selling equipment to maintain Israel’s apartheid wall and checkpoints in the West Bank.

Senstar’s participation in the occupation industry is encouraged by the Canadian government, which lists the corporation in Industry Canada’s company directory. Similarly, Amphitech Systems Inc. of Laval Quebec, Canada and the Victoria, British Columbia-based company 360 Surveillance sell technology for Israel’s apartheid wall and checkpoints, and the latter is similarly supported by a listing in Industry Canada’s company directory. Both are subsidiaries of ICx Technologies, a company that sells surveillance technology to the Israeli state and illegal Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank.

Finally, Canadian economic policy also enables Canadian companies not directly implicated in the military-industrial complex to profit from and/or support the occupation industry. Mountain Equipment Co-op, for example, sources a number of products from Israeli companies, including its house brand. Some of these products are developed by a contractor to Israel’s army of occupation. RCR International,

headquartered in Boucherville, Quebec, sells products, ranging from weather stripping to squeegees, to Unikowsky Maoz, an Israeli company located in an illegal settlement that imports, markets and distributes home building supplies to, among other places, illegal Israeli settlements throughout the occupied West Bank.

Finally, the majority shareholders of Indigo-Chapters, Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz established and support Heseg– Foundation for Lone Soldiers. Not only does its board include officers retired from Israel’s occupation army but, according to the Global BDS Movement, Heseg “has no charitable function. In fact, its sole purpose is to provide financial support to mercenaries [foreign-born Jews] who wish to settle in Israel after serving in occupied Palestine.”

Israel, of course, is deeply embedded in the global political economy. So, too, is its occupation of Palestinians. The globalized nature of Israel’s occupation means that it has connections and supports political and economic interests that reach far beyond the borders of Israel/Palestine. Some of these interests are—unsurprisingly, given the country’s long and close relationship with Israel—Canadian.

Canadian economic interests have profited from Israel’s occupation industry.

Some have built the infrastructure of the occupation, namely roads and settlements, and others have sold Israel’s occupying army knowledge, technology and products designed to perpetuate the occupation.

They have done so because Canadian economic policy promotes war crimes profiteering. This policy encourages Canadian corporations to be complicit in the oppression and hyper-exploitation of Palestinians; it enables Canadians to get rich off the dispossession, suffering and immiseration of Palestinians. ❑

WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM/ASEPARATION

work with her and not telling her out-of-work husband.

Troubles ensue, of the sort familiar to humanity everywhere. Pride leads to mistakes of words said and unsaid.

Most remarkable is how Farhadi treats each of these honorable but flawed characters with empathy. The wise viewer will neither presume, nor be quick to judge.

Those bringing an agenda to the film will interpret it through their particular lens. One critic, an evident feminist, sees Razieh as a

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

DECEMBER 2011

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The Myth of an Israel-Centered “Jewish Vote”— And Its Negative Consequences for Mideast Peace Israel andJudaism

By Allan C. Brownfeld s the 2012 presidential election cam-

and Democrats alike are doing their best to appeal to what many perceive to be an Israel-centered “Jewish vote”—as if millions of Americans of the Jewish faith cast their ballots on the basis of criteria different from those of their Protestant, Catholic or Muslim fellow citizens.

In August, the Obama campaign appointed veteran political strategist Ira Forman, a former legislative liaison at AIPAC, as its director of Jewish outreach. Forman is a former Clinton administration official who managed the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) for nearly 15 years. “The fact that Ira is one of the first employees hired by the re-election effort speaks to the importance the campaign places on Jewish outreach,” said William Daroff, the Jewish Federations of North America’s chief lobbyist and a former Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) official.

The New York Times reported in September that, “It is no surprise that the Democratic National Committee meeting in Chicago...included briefings on jobs and health care, issues critical to President Obama’s re-election. But the third topic presented to top party donors and fund-raisers was perhaps more surprising: ‘Jewish messaging’...Matthew Brooks, the executive director of the RJC, said that the need to focus a discussion on Jewish outreach, alongside major national issues like jobs and health care, suggested the depth of skepticism Mr. Obama faced among some Jewish donors.”

According to The Forward, “The potency of Israel as a wedge issue for Republicans going into 2012 was on full display when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu invited a small group of Democrats and Republicans to a first-ever joint meeting at Blair House one day before his May 24 speech to Congress...what was meant to be a show of bipartisanship ended as a war of words between heads of the NJDC and the RJC...Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman 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.

DECEMBER 2011

MICHAEL NAGLE/GETTY IMAGES

Apaign gets under way, Republicans

Texas Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry (r) shakes hands with newly elected Rep. Bob Turner (R-NY) at a Sept. 20 press conference with American and Israeli Jewish leaders and supporters of Israel in the Great Room at the W Hotel Union Square in New York City, where Perry attacked President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

Schultz, the newly appointed head of the Democratic National Committee, suggested at the meeting that both parties pledge not to raise the issue of Israel in a partisan manner. But an angry Matt Brooks, executive director of the RJC, responded the following day in a letter to Wasserman Schultz that her request, made in front of a foreign leader, was politically motivated.”

Both Democrats and Republicans seem to consider Jews not as members of a religious community but as a special interest group to be appealed to on the basis of U.S. policy toward a foreign country, Israel. While there is a National Jewish Democratic Coalition and a Republican Jewish Coalition, we do not see similar groups aimed at other religious denominations. There is, for example, no Republican Presbyterian Coalition or Democratic Roman Catholic Forum.

National Jewish organizations, from the American Jewish Committee to the AntiDefamation League to AIPAC, encourage the view that the dominant interest of Americans of Jewish faith in the political arena is Israel and U.S. Middle East policy. In a sense, Republicans and Democrats cannot THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

be blamed for taking these Jewish groups at their word and appealing for Jewish votes on the basis presented to them.

The reality, of course, is that these Jewish organizations which pretend to speak for millions of American Jews, in fact speak only for their own small membership—if that. All available evidence indicates that there is no such thing as a “Jewish vote,” and that Jewish voters cast their ballots on the basis of precisely the same issues as other voters.

A recent Gallup Poll indicates that Jewish voters are less happy with President Obama because of the nation’s economic decline, not his policy toward Israel. Washington Jewish Week reported that “Gallup’s monthly trend in Jewish approval of Obama continues to roughly follow the path of Americans’ approval of the president, more generally as it has since Obama took office in January 2009.” Gallup found that “The 14-percentage point difference in the two groups’ approval ratings in June—60 percent among U.S. Jews vs. 46 percent among all U.S. adults—is identical to the average gap seen over the past two and a half years.”

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This tracks with polling done by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) for a number of years which has shown that Jewish voters consistently prioritize the economy over Israel when they enter the polling booth. A poll in the fall of 2010 showed Obama with an approval rating of just 51 percent. Those who approved of his Middle East policy slightly outnumbered those who disapproved, 49 percent to 45 percent, while disapproval of his handling of the economy was at 51 percent, as opposed to 45 percent who approved.

The AJC polls also show that Jewish voters consistently list Israel as fifth among their priorities, outranked by issues such as the economy, health care and broader foreign policy concerns.

In his book A New Voice For Israel, J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami notes that although AIPAC claims to represent the traditional Jewish voice in American politics, surveys reveal that only 8 percent of American Jewish voters support its political positions. He goes on to argue that Israel’s occupation over another people is a threat to both American and Israeli long-term interests and also violates the very letter of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which promises equality to all, regardless of race, religion or gender. According to Ben-Ami, Israel is on the brink of becoming an “apartheid state” and losing its status as a moral beacon to Jews and as the safe and democratic haven its pioneers sought to create.

In mid-September, voters in New York elected a conservative Republican to represent a Democratic district that has not been in Republican hands since the 1920s. Bob Turner, the winner, cast the election as a referendum on President Obama’s stewardship of the economy and, in the state’s Ninth Congressional District, which has a large proportion of Orthodox Jewish voters, the president’s position on Israel. Turner, who is Roman Catholic, defeated David Weprin, an Orthodox Jew and strong supporter of Israel.

In this election, which has been discussed in terms of the president’s growing difficulties with Jewish voters, many factors were involved. The Democratic candidate got into trouble with Orthodox Jewish voters as well as Roman Catholics because of his support of a same-sex marriage bill while serving in the state legislature. Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said that general voter frustration over the slumping economy, a poor get-outthe-vote campaign and Weprin’s ill-advised spending of campaign money on TV ads had at least as much to do wih the election’s outcome as issues related to Israel.

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Whatever the results in New York really mean in political terms, the fact is that policy toward Israel and the alleged “Jewish vote” have become subjects of widespread discussion. According to The New York Times, “Republican groups are determined to make Israel a wedge issue...Billboards went up around New York City showing Mr. Obama smiling and shaking hands with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and declaring that the president is ‘not pro-Israel.’”

Just as President Obama arrived at the U.N. in September to try to persuade Palestinian President Abbas not to proceed with his plan to seek admission to the U.N. as a member state, Republicans, sensing that the alleged “Jewish vote” could be influenced, harshly attacked Mr. Obama. Texas Gov. Rick Perry accused him of “appeasement” of the Palestinians and Mitt Romney charged the president with “repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus...” Republican members of the House even introduced legislation to support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank which The Forward described as “a move contrary to both American and Israeli official policy and an absolute affront to international law and democratic rights.”

The politicization of Middle East policy is complicating the president’s role, declared The New York Times: “The relationship between the Israeli government and the Republican Party has...complicated the administration’s diplomatic efforts to avert a confrontation at the U.N....over the Palestinian bid for full membership as a state, limiting President Obama’s ability to exert pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to make concessions that could restart negotations...”

The quest for a mythical Israel-centered “Jewish vote” is causing this dangerous politicization of U.S. Middle East policy, and the government of Israel appears to be involving itself in internal American politics.

A close Netanyahu ally, Knesset member Danny Danon, stood beside Rick Perry when he launched his attack on U.S. Middle East policy. TIME’s Joe Klein declared that Netanyahu “has now overtly tossed his support to the Republicans.”

One result may be that the U.S. loses influence throughout the Middle East and, because it is unable or unwilling to move the Israeli government toward a genuine two-state solution, will cede any ability to work as a mediator trusted by both parties.

The fact is that there is no Jewish vote— only the votes of millions of individual Jewish Americans. Those ballots are cast on the same basis as are those of Americans of other faiths. It is a dangerous challenge to THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

our democracy to try to separate voters on the basis of religion, and to do so on the basis of a false picture of the nature of U.S. Middle East policy is harmful to all—to Israel, to the Palestinians, to American interests in the region and, perhaps most important, to the truth itself. ❑ United States Postal Service Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (required by 39 USC 6985 (1) Publication Title: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs; (2) Publication No: 015505; (3) Filing Date: 10/28/11; (4) Issue Frequency: Every six weeks in Jan/Feb, March, July, Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov and Dec and five weeks in April and May/June; (5) No. of issues published annually: 9; (6) Annual subscription price: $29; (7) Complete mailing address of known office of publication: American Educational Trust, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707; (8) Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office: American Educational Trust, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707; (9) Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor and managing editor: Publisher: Andrew Killgore, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 200091707, Executive Editor: Richard Curtiss, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707, News Editor: Delinda Hanley, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707, Managing Editor: Janet McMahon, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707; (10) Owner: American Educational Trust, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 200091707; (11) Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: none; (12) The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during preceding 12 months; (13) Publication title: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs; (14) Issue date for circulation data below: XXX-9, December 2011`; (15) Extent and nature of circulation: (a) total no. copies (net press run): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 11,900 No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 19,500; (b) Paid and/or requested circulation: (1) Paid/requested Outside-County mail subscriptions stated on Form 5,136 (include advertiser’s proof and exchange copies): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 5,751, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 5,281; (2) Paid In-County subscriptions stated on Form 3541 (include advertiser’s proof and exchange copies): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date,0; (3) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,000. 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I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties). Failure to file or publish a statement of ownership may lead to suspension of second-class authorization. PS Form 3526 October 1999 (Facsimile).

DECEMBER 2011

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Describing his recent tour as an “eyeopening” experience for both himself and the local audiences, Obeidallah observed Comedian Discusses U.S. Islamopho- that he “met so many people who have bia, Comedy in Arab World never met a Muslim in their life.” As he engaged audience members before and after shows, Obeidallah recalled, he fielded an array of questions and comments from individuals who were both curious and critical of Islam. The most frequent comments he receives, Obeidallah said, are from individuals who say that they “do not think Muslims are denouncing terrorists and radicals enough.” Shocked by the number of times he heard this, Obeidallah blamed such views on those “peddling hate” in the Comedian Dean Obeidallah said his life changed on media, and strongly urged that such voices be marginalized.

Sept. 11.

Nevertheless, Obeidallah deDean Obeidallah, who performs regularly scribed the tour as “a lot of fun” and optiat comedy clubs in New York City, spoke mistically commented that he “really feels on Sept. 23 at Georgetown University’s like something [positive] is happening.”

Perhaps the most intriguing work ObeiMortara Center for International Studies.

The award-winning comedian, who has dallah has done post-9/11 has been in the appeared on television’s Comedy Central Arab world. As a member of the Axis of and CNN networks, explained how he uses Evil Comedy Tour, which has performed in comedy to spread peace and freedom in countries such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia since 2005, Obeidallah has been a leader in both the U.S. and the Arab world.

Born and raised in northern New Jersey, bringing stand-up comedy to the Arab Obeidallah is the son of a Sicilian mother world. In addition to performing in these and a Palestinian father. Growing up in a countries, Obeidallah and other comedians predominantly Italian-American commu- offer free workshops in stand-up comedy. nity, he always self-identified as a white While that new form of expression did not American, he said, and was not in touch come naturally for Arabs at first, Obeidalwith his Arab heritage. However, like lah said, the progress it has made in the remany other Americans, Obeidallah’s life gion has far surpassed his expectations. In changed dramatically on Sept. 11, 2001. analyzing comedic skills, Obeidallah clasDespite the fact that he spoke with a dis- sified Egyptians as “by far the funniest” tinct New Jersey accent and lived a typical and Omani comedians as “not funny” at American lifestyle, Obeidallah’s Arab her- first. Surprisingly, Obeidallah described itage suddenly became his distinctive fea- Saudi Arabia as “by far the most vibrant” ture in a hypersensitive post-9/11 America. comedy scene in the region.

—Dale Sprusansky Rather than running away from his heritage, Obeidallah, who described September 2001 as a converting experience, emMuslim-American Activism braced his Arab roots.

The post-9/11 Obeidallah has used his platform as a comedian to promote a CAIR’s Annual Fundraiser a Huge greater understanding of Islam in America. Success Citing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, he The Council on American-Islamic Relations noted that America has a tradition of using (CAIR) invited Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) to comedy to address social and racial issues. give the keynote speech [see box] at its Seeking to continue this tradition, Obei- 17th annual banquet on Oct. 15, at the dallah has organized comedy events such Crystal Gateway Marriott, in Arlington, as his recent tour of the southern U.S., ti- VA. Some 800 community members, leadtled “The Muslims are Coming,” to edu- ers, diplomats and public officials attended cate, and in many cases introduce individ- the dinner, emceed by CAIR board memuals to Islam. ber Ahmed Bedier.

STAFF PHOTO D. SPRUSANSKY

Arab-American Activism

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Jim Moran Headlines CAIR’s Annual Fund-raiser Congressman Moran began his speech on Muslim-American civil rights by wishing Muslims throughout the United States a blessed Eid Al-Adha celebration.

“I am here because I want to help educate the Muslim community on the importance of civic activism while joining the struggle against Islamophobia,” the Virginia Democrat said. “Politicians today use anti-Muslim rhetoric as a platform for their campaigns.”

When economic, social and political troubles face this country, Moran explained, some Americans lose their generosity. Politicians are targeting the Muslim community and using it as a scapegoat for their problems.

“If I were to pose the question ‘What is Islam?’ many non-Muslims would give an answer that portrays their ignorance and bias,” Moran said. Refering to “Go Home” graffiti scrawled on an Islamic Center in Dearborn, MI the congressman urged the Muslim-American community not to give up on this country, because “This is your own country. It will be A small group of anti-CAIR protesters demonstrated outside the hotel, waving signs saying, ”The U.S. Constitution gives us free speech.” Bedier said he was bewildered by the protest because “CAIR defends this right everyday. We’re in the forefront in defending the Constitution.”

Attendees agreed and, inspired by Imam Siraj Wahhaj, leader of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), donated more than $400,000 in one night to support CAIR’s civil rights and advocacy work.

Referring to recent efforts to enact “antishariah” legislation and constitutional amendments that seek to ban Islamic law in 24 states, Imam Wahhaj told the gathering, “People are people, good and bad.”

This wave of anti-Islamic sentiment, often led by state legislators, is sending a clear message of governmental disapproval of Islam. “Americans have the best Constitution in the world,” the imam opined, and CAIR is fighting legal battles to protect it for the next group of Americans who are targeted by bigotry. “Since people are people, some bad people can change it,” he warned listeners.

CAIR board chairman state Sen. Larry Shaw (D-NC) and CAIR national legislative director Corey Saylor presented the first of DECEMBER 2011

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CAIR’s annual awards, the Rosa Parks Civil Rights scholarship, to Jeania Ree Moore, a senior at Yale who has been involved in interfaith initiatives.

CAIR’s American Hero Award was presented to the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, whose plan to build a mosque near Nashville, TN was met by protests, Islamophobic sentiment, spray paint and arson while the Park51 controversy was raging in New York near Ground Zero. The town of Bridgewater, NJ, which boasts 17 churches, a convent, synagogues, and one Sikh and two Hindu temples, changed its DECEMBER 2011

He called on the Muslim community to play an important role in diminishing the barriers created by fear, as he encouraged them to prove their loyalty and patriotism by working hard, paying taxes, raising their children to be model citizens, volunteering at charities and participating in the parent-teachers’ association at their

children’s schools. A good education and understanding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is extremely important in becoming integrated in society, he said, adding that it is important for Muslims to know their rights because that can protect them from discrimination. “Defend the U.S. Constitution and stand up for the rights of others,” he urged, whether it is African Americans, Asian Americans or Hispanic Americans. “Ask yourselves, ‘Who is suffering?’”

We should all come together and unite, he said. “There is no other, we are all one community.

“Muslim Americans should stand up directly to those who preach and practice violence,” he continued. “It is Haram!—forbidden by Islamic law.”

Saying that Muslim Americans should play a major role in the future of U.S.-Arab relations, especially after the recent events of the Arab Spring, Congressman Moran concluded his inspiring remarks by saying that “The United States of America will become the nation it’s meant to be, the true beacon of hope for all mankind, if you make it so.“ —Lama Al-Arian

zoning laws when Muslims tried to build a mosque there. CAIR has taken on that legal battle as well.

There are also happier stories, banquet attendees learned. When Muslims in Memphis, TN bought 20 acres next to Steve Stone’s church, that Christian pastor built a 6-foot-tall sign welcoming the Memphis Islamic Center to the neighborhood.

Another awardee was the Muslim Community Center (MCC) Medical Clinic in Maryland (see November 2009 Washington Report, p. 44), which treats thousands of

patients—many without medical insurance—regardless of their faith. PakistaniAmerican Olympic weightlifter Kulsoom Abdullah, a computer engineer, received the John Hancock Award for her fight to amend the dress requirements of the International Weightlifting Federation.

Dr. Iqbal Unus received the Lifetime Service Award for his work leading the Muslim Students Association and transitioning the MSA to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Bangladeshi-American Rais Bhuiyan received the Peace and Justice Award for founding a campaign called World Without Hate. Bhuiyan was shot in the face by Mark Stroman, a white supremacist who killed three people who looked Arab after 9/11, and was sentenced to death. Bhuiyan’s unsuccessful efforts to save his shooter’s life reached the Supreme Court, and Bhuiyan’s story, especially his strong Islamic belief in forgiveness, continues to touch people around the world.

CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad described the Center for American Progress’ report “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” published Aug. 26, 2011 (see November 2011 Washington Report, p. 18). Seven foundations have invested $42 million to defame American Muslims and work

PHOTOS MOHAMED SADEK, COURTESY CAIR

stronger for your values. Our country desperately needs you,” he emphasized.

Refering to the “Fear, Inc.” report, Moran said many organizations are running fear campaigns to promote the distortion of Islam. Describing himself as neither a “conspiracy theorist” nor an “alarmist,” the congressman said he only deals with facts. He proceeded to list the seven right-wing organizations that have donated money to craft anti-Muslim laws in America and foment anti-Islam rhetoric on Capitol Hill.

Donors who are determined to turn people against the Muslim community include the Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Newton D. & Rochelle F. Becker Foundations, the Russell Berrie Foundation and the William Rosenwald Family Fund. Their campaign uses fear and insecurity and funds “so-called” Islamic experts such as Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Steven Emerson, among others, who appear regularly on networks such as Fox News.

“Many people weren’t happy about me spending time with CAIR this evening,” Moran said. ”They accused me of consorting with the enemy—but we can’t be intimidated.”

Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) gives the keynote speech at the CAIR banquet (see below).

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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against Islamic organizations like CAIR, Awad said. “Fear is a mushrooming business, but CAIR is working to put it out of business,” he promised. “Now is the time for American Muslims to stand up and help future generations...failure is not an option.”

On Oct. 3 CAIR filed the first brief by a Muslim organization to the Supreme Court, Awad added. It calls for law enforcement authorities to obtain a warrant before placing a GPS tracking device on any individual’s vehicle. CAIR is litigating a lawsuit on behalf of Yasir Afifi, a Santa Clara, CA resident who discovered a GPS tracking device placed on his vehicle in October 2010.

Award-winning comedian Dean Obeidallah, who uses comedy to both entertain and dispel negative stereotypes of Middle Eastern-Americans, left the audience in stitches. There’s a little-known advantage to being Muslim, he said. Muslims are immune from identity theft: “If your name is Ossama, you can leave your credit card in a crack house and no one will touch it!”

—Delinda C. Hanley

Omar ibn Sayyid: From Islamic Scholar to Slave and Back Again

The Islamic Center of Maryland in Gaithersburg hosted a food festival and bazaar on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 1. Muslims from Argentina to Indonesia showcased the richness of their diverse cultures, and provided information as well as free samples of their food. Vendors sold jewelry, clothing and perfumes. Maryland peace activist Samira Hussein (above r) tells festivalgoers about her country-in-waiting, Palestine.

After escaping from a cruel master, Ibn Sayyid was captured and jailed. While in captivity he wrote pages of the Qur’an from memory, fasted during Ramadan and taught curious North Carolinians, including his new kinder master James Owenabout Islam. Ibn Sayyid’s story, written and powerfully performed by Ahmad Kenya, is unforgettable. Audience members said they hoped the actor will someday turn the spotlight on Muslim Americans’ heritage at the Freer Gallery, Kennedy Center or even the White House.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Human Rights Share the Water, Build the Peace

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

A spellbound audience celebrated Islamic Heritage Month by watching a one-man play about “The Life and Times of Omar ibn Sayyid” at America’s Islamic Heritage Museum and Cultural Center in southeast Washington, DC on Oct. 8. Ahmad Kenya’s dramatic performance brought to life the great African Muslim scholar from Futa Torro in West Africa. After making a life-changing pilgrimage to Mecca, ibn Sayyid was captured and enslaved in North Carolina.

PHOTO COURTESY AHSAN DASTI

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Ahmad Kenya re-enacts the life of Omar ibn Sayyid.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Washington, DC’s World Affairs Council hosted an Oct. 3 forum featuring Gidon Bromberg, co-director of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), to talk about the ecological, political and social implications of water resources in the region.

Moderator Steven Solomon, author of Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization, opened the forum by explaining that water in the region is a “powerful political weapon.” Evidence of this, he says, can be seen during the Six-Day war, where “by gaining control of the headwater streams of the Jordan that rise in the Golan Heights and the aquifers that lie under the West Bank, Israel effectively tripled its water supply overnight.” This has been a major source of grievance for Palestinians, where Israel rations just enough water in the West Bank to drink, but not enough to “extensively irrigate their cropland.”

According to Bromberg, FoEME is the only organization in the region where Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians cooperate at a community level for a common purpose. The reason this type of interdependence is necessary, he explained, is because “almost all water resources [in the region] cross political boundaries.” The lack of major cooperation, as a result of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, has lead to poor DECEMBER 2011

from the shared aquifer on its side of the border. This leads to Israel extracting 80 percent of the shared water resources, leaving only 20 percent for Palestinians. As a result, Bromberg said, “When you turn on the tap anywhere in the West Bank you can never have any guarantee there’s going to be water flow because water is provided in a rationing fashion.”

In response, FoEME created a program called “Good Water Neighbors,” where Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli communities that share the water of the Jordan River and the Mountain Aquifer work together on water Gidon Bromberg, co-director of Friends of the Earth and sanitation issues. The previMiddle East, says the unbalanced allocation of water ous top-down arrangement reis a major political problem. garding water issues does not allow for local community input, management of the already scarce re- something that is necessary to build lastsource—and, consequently, widespread ing partnerships. Today the program has 29 communities on board which, by workenvironmental pollution.

Israel and the Palestinian West Bank ing together, learn about how each other’s share the same fresh water aquifer, actions affect other communities. Also inBromberg noted, but the “current water- volved are community youth who work tosharing agreement has really permitted Is- gether to build “grey water re-use sysrael to dominate the shared water re- tems” and at the same time learn that there source.” The only limits the Joint Water is always something they can do despite Committee is allowed to discuss is water the conflict.

While the cooperative action has been usage limits in the West Bank, allowing Israel to pump as much water as it wants difficult because of strong animosities, ur-

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

STAFF PHOTO J. DEILLON

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Egyptians living abroad in capitals and cities around the world, including London, New York and Washington, DC (above), protested at Egyptian embassies and consulates on Oct. 8, demanding the right to vote in Egypt’s upcoming elections. More than 120 countries grant expatriates the right to vote, including countries like Sudan and Algeria. When it was pointed out they were protesting in Washington, DC—whose American residents have no voting representation in Congress—one activist, who just moved to DC from Boston, laughed and said, “Just wait. Give me some time, I’ll change things here, too.”

DECEMBER 2011

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

gently needed projects—such as the construction of sewage treatment plants, improving water networks, eco-facilities, and waste water collection facilities—are being undertaken, Bromberg said. The West Bank today has only one functioning waste water treatment plant, evidence of the lack of necessary facilities.

Bromberg urged that grassroots movements in the region, not just ones concerning water, “need much greater attention, and much greater support,” because the work on the ground is the best way to change the situation. He concluded by noting that Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians have a shared identity as residents of the Jordan Valley, and need to work together for ecological, political and social reasons.

—Jean-Pascal Deillon

Protest at L.A. Chinese Consulate The chants broke through the hot morning air: “China, China you can’t hide, stop supporting genocide.” Then another slogan was shouted: “China, China don’t you care? Syrian blood is everywhere,” followed by another: “China, China you will see, Syria’s people will be free.”

Nearly 100 men, women and children carrying American and Syrian flags and placards were gathered Oct. 14 across Shatto Place from the Los Angeles Chinese Consulate. They were protesting China’s and Russia’s Security Council veto earlier that month of a U.S.-sponsored resolution to reprimand Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his violent crackdown on peaceful citizens demonstrating against his regime.

About 30 sign-carrying members of the Syrian American Council (SAC) crossed the street and marched to the consulate. Susan Misto, chair of SAC’s L.A. chapter, and board member Samir Twair requested permission to present a formal letter in person to Consul General Qiu Shaofang.

Two U.S. State Department representatives emerged from the consulate and rejected Misto’s and Twair’s request. They were told instead to send the letter by certified mail to the consulate.

In part, the letter read: “It is unconscionable that China rejected a U.N. resolution that condemns the human rights violations being perpetrated by the Syrian government, demands an immediate end to the use of force against Syrian civilians peacefully demonstrating for their fundamental rights, and calls for a Syrian-led political process to address the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people.”

The singing, chanting throng continued its calls for freedom for another two hours.

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Music & Arts

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

Chamy’s “Of Refuge, Of Home” Explores Family Myth and History

Syrian Americans demonstrate Oct. 14 in front of the Los Angeles Chinese Consulate. for hours on her sign. It was written in English: “China stop supporting the killing machine in Syria” and in Chinese characters which her Chinese neighbors had taught her.

—Pat McDonnell Twair

STAFF PHOTO D. SPRUSANSKY

Lubana Adi of Diamond Bar, who was an 8-year-old when Bashar’s autocratic father, Hafez Assad, destroyed her hometown of Hama in 1982 for an earlier uprising against the dynastic dictatorship, worked

In response to the Oct. 9 killing of 27 Coptic Christians in Cairo, several hundred Egyptian Americans held an Oct. 19 demonstration in front of the White House and the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC. Chanting “Christian blood is not free,” the demonstrators demanded an end to violence and discrimination against Christians in Egypt. Additionally, the protesters urged both the U.S. and the global community to hold Egypt’s military council (SCAF) accountable for the role activists say it played in the Oct. 9 killings.

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THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The Jerusalem Fund Gallery in Washington, DC held a Sept. 30 opening reception for artist Adam Chamy’s month-long exhibit, “Of Refuge, Of Home.” Chamy’s collection of family portraits and installation works explore the stories of his Palestinian-Texan family with deep roots in the American frontier south as well as a deep love for a distant homeland suffering colonization and catastrophe. Guests viewed the art and discussed it with Chamy, former director of the AET Book Club.

The portraits depict family members Chamy either knew as a child or merely through photographs, stories and old diary entries. The faces of Texan farmers hang side by side with Jerusalem merchants.

“I was interested in the idea of myth and legend, particularly in one’s own family,” explained Chamy. “I weaved through the clutter and picked out a few stories and memories that really spoke to me.”

The subjects of the portraits include his great-grandfather Nicolas deSimini, a Palestinian merchant of Italian origin, his Texan grandmother “Gran,” and his Catholic Palestinian grandmother, whose face is depicted in “Sitti” through an old frame and illuminated by the orange glow of candles that line the edges of the piece.

“An exploration of family history speaks to the audience,” noted Jerusalem Gallery curator Dagmar Painter. “It resonates with everybody because everyone has immigrant ancestors and everyone has a family story.”

The artist shared bits and pieces of his stories through poetic descriptions that accompanied each piece, and while each is distinct, the collection is unified by a sense of antiquity. Chamy created shadows and drew heavily from a palette of gold, ochre and shades of brown to invoke the feel of “something old.” Other works incorporated found objects like a door, an old suitcase or a frame.

“Each object has worn edges and a past and a story that is already in the piece,” said Chamy. “More often than not, I found the object and the story came out of it.”

In “Diptych 1952 (Mom and Dad),” Chamy’s parents, Joe and Judy, are depicted through two-paneled childhood portraits, painted on the inside of an old suitcase, which represents their unification through travel. Joe immigrated to the U.S. from East Jerusalem, and Judy moved from DECEMBER 2011

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STAFF PHOTO D. ZARU

(L-r) Joe, Adam and Judy Chamy stand by Adam’s painting of great-grandfather Nicolas deSimini.

“Diptych 1952 (Mom and Dad)” by Adam Chamy. a small town in Texas to Fort Worth, where they met.

“The portraits brought tears to my eyes because Adam put his heart and soul into his work,” said Judy Chamy, “and his writing is almost as moving as the art itself.”

For more information visit: <www.thejerusalemfund.org>.

—Deena Zaru

Arabs and Jewish immigrants. Khalidi, 29, shows that the British used the same brutal tactics against Arab rebels that they’d used to smash popular revolts in India, Ireland and elsewhere. According to director Laura Margolis, “Ismail calls his play a ‘tragipoliticomedy.’ I just call it brilliant.”

Prior to its East Coast premiere this fall, “Tennis in Nablus” had earned its author the 2009 Kendeda Playwriting Prize, the Quest for Peace Award from the Kennedy Center (ACTF), and a second-place prize for the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting (ACTF). Khalidi, who lives in Brooklyn, NY, says he wants to debunk the stereotype of Palestinians as “violent, barbaric, and inherently anti-Semitic opponents of modernity.”

“Tennis in Nablus” takes place in the spring of 1939 as Arab nationalists make a dying attempt to drive the British out.

They are being shot in the street or arrested and tortured while their rulers plan their next costume ball. Lieutenant Duff models his tennis whites; General Falbour can’t decide between Zulu war paint or a Nazi uniform.

As the play begins, we see how this conflict is tearing apart the Al Qudsi family.

Yusef is fighting for independence, his nephew for the best business deal he can get from the Brits or Zionists. But when the two are forced to share a jail cell, Tariq, the “rational nationalist,” quickly realizes that to his governors he’s just a dirty Arab who can be ordered to fetch their tennis balls.

This shock brings him closer to his uncle, who has blamed Tariq for wanting to sell the family land. “We’ll be the foreigners soon enough in Palestine,” Yusef warns his nephew. “I was forced to steal an orange from my own orange grove.”

A second theme Khalidi brings to light— with hilarious effect—is the natural empathy the British soldiers O’Donegal and Rajib have for their Arab prisoners. In an early scene O’Donegal and his captive Yusef trade ethnic slurs, then laugh and say “touché.” Equally revealing is a scene in which Samuel Hirsch, an idealistic Jew, overhears General Falbour and his subordinate Duff eviscerating Jews. Undeterred, Hirsch presses them to act quickly to stop Hitler’s aggression.

In the end Tariq’s real estate deal goes up in smoke, but before he escapes to Beirut, he gives his Aunt Anbara keys to the family house. The play closes on a somber note as Yusef’s wife faces an uncertain future.

Stageworks’ production starred Nasser Faris—a veteran of TV, stage and film—as the oud player turned rebel Yusef Al Qudsi.

“As a Palestinian-American playwright,” says Ismail Khalidi, “I am deeply committed to challenging the myths and distortions about Palestinians that abound in American discourse.” That’s just one of Khalidi’s goals in his award-winning play “Tennis in Nablus,” which enjoyed a successful run Sept. 7 to 25 at Stageworks Hudson, in New York’s mid-Hudson Valley. He also dramatizes a Palestinian cry for independence that never recovered from its defeat in the 1936-’39 Arab Revolt.

In the crucial years from 1917 to 1947 that preceded the birth of Israel, British colonialists fueled ethnic hatred by promising the land to both indigenous DECEMBER 2011

PHOTO COURTESY ROB SHANNON

“Tennis in Nablus” Revives the Arab Revolt

(L-r) Nasser Faris and Fajer Al-Kaisi (foreground) and Matt Falber and Chet Carlin (background) in Stageworks/Hudson’s 2011 production of “Tennis in Nablus.”

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Turkish Film “Three Monkeys” Screened in Washington, DC An acclaimed Turkish artist chose an award-winning Turkish movie to be shown on Sept. 18 as part of the “Moving Perspectives” program at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, DC. Carol Huh, assistant curator of contemporary Asian art, gave a brief overview of multimedia artist Hale Tenger and director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the 2008 Best Director award at

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the Cannes Film Festival for “Three Monkeys.”

Both Tenger and Ceylan treat violence with subtlety and emphasize the personal meaning of space. Tenger’s current installation at the Sackler evokes the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon, by filming the flapping curtains and shifting light on the façade of Beirut’s St. Georges Hotel. Hariri was assassinated in front of the hotel on Feb. 14, 2005, when his motorcade Dr. Judith Tucker (l) and Dr. Joseph Jabbra discuss eduwas blown up in a massive cational challenges in the Middle East. explosion. While the film was made later during the renovation of sity in Cairo, and the LAU—which provide the hotel, the tragic moment is represented a much desired American education to by the sudden interruption of the musical young Arabs, and also help serve and meet score and jerking camera movements. the challenges of society in their respective Similarly, much of the violence takes countries. place out of sight in “Three Monkeys” but The number of American-style instituits repercussions are still keenly felt. Cey- tions and branches of U.S. universities in lan’s movie is more memorable for the op- the Middle East is mushrooming, Dr. pressive feeling created by its menacing Tucker noted. Their popularity stems from skies and cramped apartments than for its a universal desire of all parents: the best edplot about a politician who kills a pedes- ucation for their children. Often parents trian with his car and bribes an employee will insist on an American higher educato take the rap. The main characters see, tion for their children despite their perhear and speak all kinds of evil as one mur- sonal opinions about U.S. policies, Jabbra der and cover-up leads to another. Kevin added. They’re looking for inclusive instiThomas of the Los Angeles Times calls it “a tutions that do not discriminate against mordant cautionary tale on the conta- gender, religion, politics or ethnicity. These giousness of corruption.” schools offer a well-rounded education for The exhibition of Hale Tenger’s work the “whole person,” along with a notion of was on view in the lobby of the Sackler service and a strong ethical compass. from July 30 through Nov. 6, 2011. “Three Lately college graduates in the Arab Monkeys” is available on DVD with op- world cannot find jobs—just like their tional English and Turkish subtitles and American counterparts. “The focus inimore than three hours of commentary, in- tially was to educate people to have jobs in terviews and other special features. the government,” Jabbra explained, “but —Anne O’Rourke things have changed and governments are saturated with graduates…institutions have not changed to grapple with the Education changes in society.”

Jabbra went on to list some of the chalMideast Universities Face Challenge lenges institutions need to address, includOf Unemployed Graduates ing the number of uneducated women, Georgetown University’s Center for Con- how to get schools to meet the needs of sotemporary Arab Studies hosted Dr. Joseph ciety and, most importantly, how students Jabbra, president of Lebanese American will face future changes. He then asked University (LAU), for a Sept. 21 discussion himself the very question that every colon “The State of Higher Education in the lege president should: “How can we make Middle East.” Moderator Dr. Judith Tucker sure the quality of our education meets the guided a conversation that focused on the needs of the young people?”

One challenge the Middle East faces in role of American universities in the region.

Dr. Jabbra began by outlining what he the coming 15 years will be to provide 100 called the three “true American institu- million jobs for the 60 percent of the poptions” in place right now—the American ulation which is under 25 right now. AcUniversity of Beirut, the American Univer- cording to Dr. Jabbra, the top three AmerSTAFF PHOTO A. BEGLEY

Maria Silverman played his wife, Anbara, a journalist and freedom fighter modeled on feminist organizer Tarab Abdul Hadi.

Yusef’s nephew and British collaborator Tariq Al Qudsi was played by Fajer AlKaisi. Chet Carlin took on the roles of both the goose-stepping general and vegetable peddler Hajj Waleed, whose eggplants conceal rifles. Matt Falber mimed a flawless British accent as the priggish Lieutenant Duff, while Christopher Smith unpacked the complexities of Samuel Hirsch.

“Tennis in Nablus” draws on a history in which Khalidi’s family has a very personal stake. “The Khalidis are an old Jerusalem family,” explains the playwright. “Records of their presence in the city date to the 12th or 13th century.” Ismail himself was named for his paternal grandfather, a U.N. official. His father is Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University’s Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies. Khalidi said he hopes to see a New York City production in the near future. For information see <www.stageworkshudson.org>.

—Lisa Mullenneaux

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DECEMBER 2011

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the changes occurring within Egypt’s religious institutions.

George Washington University professor Nathan Brown began by emphasizing the importance of analyzing what is happening in Egypt at the micro level. Explaining that “mini-revolutions” are occurring within such institutions as the press, labor unions, and religious organizations, Brown stressed that the outcomes of these institutional conflicts will significantly impact Egypt’s future.

Focusing on Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Brown noted that Sunni Islam’s highest institution of learning is undergoing an internal California State University Middle East Studies Conference process of determining its role in participants (l-r) Hend Gilli-Elewy, Mahmood Ibrahim, Egypt’s future. Under state control CSU Middle East Studies chair, and Elabe Amani. since 1961, he pointed out, AlConfab at Cal Poly Pomona Azhar has long been co-opted by An impressive slate of 10 academic panels he said, Gazans barred from fleeing the Egypt’s authoritarian regimes. Now free capped by a keynote address by Hastings coastal enclave when Israel announced it from previous restraints, many voices School of Law Prof. George Bisharat was would drop bombs on them were inter- within the institution are fighting for Althe extensive menu for the 4th annual Cal- preted by Israel as “voluntary human Azhar to win greater independent authorifornia State University Conference on shields” and therefore combatants subject ity over Egypt’s religious matters. Many within the institution, which Brown deMiddle East Studies Oct. 14 and 15 at Cal- to lawful attack.

Israel’s interpretation, Bisharat theo- scribed as having a “strong sense of instiifornia State Polytechnic University, rized, is designed to put it on the “cutting tutional pride,” would like to see all of Pomona.

Cal Poly history professor Mahmood edge” of new law in the so-called “War on Egypt’s religious organizations, such as the Ibraham was chair of the conference fea- Terror.” This turns the purpose of IHL— Ministry of Religious Affairs, brought turing panel topics ranging from “The which is to limit suffering even in war— within Al-Azhar’s sphere.

Explaining that the “stakes are fairly Arab Spring and Palestine” and ”Shah on its head, thus enacting the theory that high” in the battle for Al-Azhar’s future, ‘Abas I: Achaemenid or Turkish Despot?” “might makes right.”

—Pat McDonnell Twair Brown noted that most Egyptians agree to “Iran: Tensions Within and Without.” that Al-Azhar should assume greater auA memorable reception and dinner took thority over Egypt’s religious affairs. Nevplace Oct. 14 in the historic Kellogg House Waging Peace ertheless, Brown stressed that there is both on campus, where actress-singer-dancer internal and external disagreement as to Cynthia Sophiea performed from her the degree of power Al-Azhar should as“Everyone Has Tears” show. The Turath Panel Explores Egypt’s Changing sume. Some within the institution, such as Ensemble and S.K. Near East Ensemble en- Religious Climate tertained with “Romancing the Arab The Washington, DC-based Carnegie En- Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, a Mubarak Spring: Romantic Songs of Gibran Khalil dowment for International Peace hosted an appointee, have proposed a modest expanGibran and Mahmoud Darwish.”

Oct. 6 panel discussion titled “Post-Revo- sion of Al-Azhar’s powers. Those outside “Violence’s Law” was the title of lutionary Egypt: New Trends in Islam.” Al-Azhar, most notably Salafi Islamists, Bisharat’s thought-provoking address on Moderated by Marina Ottaway, senior as- have expressed unease with the idea of AlOct. 15. The Harvard University-educated sociate at the Carnegie Middle East Pro- Azhar having a monopoly over Egypt’s rescholar pointed out Israel’s distortions of gram, the panel focused its attention on ligious affairs. international humanitarian law (IHL) in which it uses violence to enforce new concepts of IHL (which governs behaviors of parties at war).

“There is considerable evidence that Israel is deliberately trying to rewrite international law through violence,” stated the former trial lawyer for the San Francisco Office of Public Defender.

Israeli military lawyers are well aware of the limits of IHL, he stressed, but they consciously encourage military commanders to violate these limits. As an example, (L-r) Marina Ottaway, Prof. Nathan Brown, Khaled Elgindy and Prof. Jonathan Brown. ican institutions are meeting that challenge, and their graduates are getting jobs and going on to “make an impact on the education question.”

Another challenge is societal pressure for young people to become doctors and engineers, which creates a glut in those areas and leaves a deficit in such critical fields as political science, government and international relations. The top schools put quotas on class sizes for degrees that are oversaturated, Dr. Jabbra said, although he admitted this does little to sway the demand that society, and parents, have for those particular professions.

—Alex Begley

DECEMBER 2011

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Khaled Elgindy, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, was critical of the Western interpretation of Egypt’s changing political and religious climates. Describing the discourse on Egypt as “limited and narrow and also a little bit behind,” Elgindy argued that the potential role of the Muslim Brotherhood has been over-analyzed, while the changing role of Al-Azhar and the growing power of the Salafists and other groups has been overlooked.

Addressing the “chaotic political atmosphere in the country,” Elgindy noted that the division of Egyptian society into hundreds of political groups has made it difficult to monitor the country’s political climate. This proliferation is “not necessarily constructive or conducive toward their goals of advancing a democratic program,” he added.

Given the dramatic surge in the popularity of Salafism over the past few months, Jonathan Brown, a professor at George Washington University, spent the majority of his time discussing that religious group.

Noting that Salafism had a “very precarious existence during the Mubarak years,” Brown explained that it nevertheless has managed to spread from its base in Alexandria to Cairo and cities along the Nile Delta, such as Tanta.

While the Salafis, who have no hierarchical power structure, had “severe problems with discipline” after the revolution, Brown noted, they have since increased their political savvy and restraint. There currently are four known Salafi parties in Egypt, he said, and Salafis have shown “incredible solidarity” in uniting around Hazem Salah Abu Ismail as their presidential candidate. The big question going forward, Brown concluded, is “who is able to get more votes, the non-Salafi Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafi groups?”

—Dale Sprusansky

The State of the Egyptian Revolution George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs hosted a Sept. 21 panel of leading political scientists to discuss and offer their perspectives on the revolution in Egypt and its new political situation.

Rabab El-Mahdi, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, began by explaining that the revolution in Egypt is far from being over.

While it took only 18 days to depose President Hosni Mubarak, the same elites, including those from Egypt’s media and universities, are still running the country today. This, according to El-Mahdi, is be60

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(L-r) Mona El-Ghobashy, Joshua Stacher and Rabab El-Mahdi. cause Egypt is a politicized state “where there is no real distinction between the state institutions and those who rule.”

Those who hold positions in different government bureaucracies and ministries are interrelated with certain institutions, meaning that restructuring the political apparatus would extend to other sectors of society—making it very difficult for meaningful change to occur.

Joshua Stacher, professor of political science at Kent State University, elaborated on the inherent continuity of Egypt’s government after the overthrow of Mubarak by examining the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the power and privilege it has retained since Mubarak’s fall. According to Stacher, “SCAF is disproportionately in charge, and therefore they are disproportionately to blame” for the current state of the revolution seven months in. Moreover, he added, “their actions and their practices leave no doubt to their culpability.”

Although Mubarak is gone, the parallel executive structures have remained, allowing the former regime’s same repressive rule to operate. One important element of this is that SCAF maintains veto power over political structures, such as who gets appointed as a member of the constitutional delegation. SCAF has also pushed for November elections—knowing that, as an incumbent with an unorganized opposition, it will win the stability vote and retain its power. In addition to maintaining its power while remaining in the shadows, “SCAF will get the legitimacy vote for holding the elections,” Stacher observed.

In contrast to her fellow panelists, Mona El-Ghobashy, political science professor at Barnard College, explained that for the first time since the 1900s—right before the WAFD party took control of the political system—Egypt is experiencing a “free movement” that consists of fragmented political groups. Since the revolution, she went on to explain, there are four vehicles of interest represented in Egypt. The first are political parties which are “a dime a dozen” THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

and still in the early stages of development.

Associations, who “have a set membership base and don’t have to do the leg work that political parties have to do,” constitute the second group. Because political parties faced repression under Mubarak, El-Ghobashy elaborated, associations were the main channel for interest representation and, she predicted, will remain that way for the next five to ten years. Other important channels for interest representation in Egypt are independent trade unions—whose struggles and demonstrations in Cairo were a preview of the revolution. The inherent variety of these groups, as well as the previous distrust and ineffectiveness of political parties, creates a natural tendency for them to avoid uniting into major federations and possibly being controlled by executive powers such as the SCAF. The fourth influential channel, according to El-Ghobashy, is localized street politics. The daily actions by small groups who organize on street corners for specific demands are the base of Egyptian politics, she said, and will also be around for several years.

As the revolution continues, ElGhobashy argued, the presence of diverse fragmented groups in political society will work to remove the personalization of power in Egypt. This will also prevent a corrupt and unresponsive executive from reconstituting its power.

Egypt’s upcoming elections have also brought the role of Islamists to the forefront of discussions. In El-Mahdi’s opinion, there is too much media focus on the dividing line between the secular and religious. In reality, she said, the issues that launched the revolution, such as economic justice and corruption, are not being focused on. Indeed, she noted, the division between Islamist groups can sometimes be greater than that between the secular and religious groups. While Mubarak’s rule artificially consolidated these groups, ElGhobashy added, today they are “naturally fragmenting into their natural tendencies” no longer kept together by “the glue of repression.”

—Jean-Pascal Deillon DECEMBER 2011

Hezbollah in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings

sisting domestic regimes. According to the MEI scholar, this recent regional shift toward domestic politics is increasingly making Hezbollah appear “out-of-sync with the passions and interests of the Arab public.”

Slim explained that Hezbollah’s growing image problem is only compounded by its relationship with the repressive Iranian and Syrian regimes. For instance, Slim said, “Hezbollah’s Iranian ally will become more of a liability than an asset.” Furthermore, she argued, Hezbollah’s support of the Assad regime “puts them in the camp of countries opposed to the values and aspirations of the people for freedom and good governance.”

Despite the many dilemmas Hezbollah is currently confronting, the group maintains that its future is stable, Slim pointed out.

In fact, she explained, Hezbollah still believes that Assad will survive the Syrian uprising. Given this confidence that its Syrian ally will remain in power, Slim noted that, in terms of scenario building, there has been a “lack of real deliberation going on inside Hezbollah’s ranks.”

Slim concluded by giving her personal assessment regarding Hezbollah’s future, saying she believes that Hezbollah will be “seriously weakened” by the ongoing regional events, but that it ultimately “won’t collapse.”

—Dale Sprusansky

Seeking to better understand how Hezbollah will respond to the changing political landscape in the Middle East, the Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted an Oct. 11 discussion titled “Hezbollah in the Wake of the Arab Spring.” Randa Slim, a LebaneseAmerican scholar at MEI, led the discussion.

Given that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah maintain a strong regional alliance, the potential overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad presents a major geopolitical challenge for the three. As Slim explained, “Syria is the crucial linchpin that connects Hezbollah and Iran, serves as a conduit for transfer of weapons into Lebanon, provides strategic depth for Hezbollah, and grants Iran a toehold on Israel’s northern border.” Thus, without the presence of a valuable ally in Assad, Hezbollah’s ability to efficiently operate and project strength diminishes greatly.

Aside from potential damage to its alliances, Hezbollah also is concerned that the Syrian uprising will create instability within Lebanon. Slim noted that Hezbollah is now being forced to devote more resources to domestic causes in an effort to avoid a spill-over of violence into Lebanon.

The Arab uprisings are also threatening the relevance of Hezbollah’s message, Slim said, noting that Hezbollah’s “principal claim to leadership in the Arab region” is its “unwavering commitment to resisting Israeli occupation of Arab lands and standing up to U.S. policies in the Middle East.”

While this message was central to Arab unity before the revolts, Slim added, Arabs now are increasingly concerned with re-

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The Role of Youth in Ending the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

MEI scholar Randa Slim discusses the challenges facing Hezbollah.

DECEMBER 2011

Two OneVoice youth activists, one Israeli and the other Palestinian, spoke on Sept.

22 at the Case Foundation Washington, DC offices of Buxton Initiative, an organization of Muslims, Christians and Jews who are dedicated to building understanding and dialogue among their communities.

OneVoice is an international grassroots movement that amplifies the voices of mainstream 18- to 34-year-old Israelis and Palestinians who are demanding a twostate solution.

Eyal Shapira, a student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a youth leader from OneVoice Israel (OVI), first spoke about his experience growing up in Mevaseret Tsiyon, a small town west of Jerusalem. When he was 15 years old, he recalled, the second intifada broke out, following Ariel Sharon’s trip to Haram alSharif, also known as the Temple Mount.

Shapira said two major attacks affected his community and “put fear in all of Israeli citizens.” Eyal explained that “every household had the same dilemma, which was whether we should stop our life waitTHE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Obada Shtaya (l) and Eyal Shapira. ing for the attacks to pass or whether we should keep on living our lives.”After having seen the effects these attacks had on his community, Eyal said he believes that “we cannot keep on counting the victims on both sides” but instead “we should take things into our own hands.” The government is not affected, but the people on the ground, the civilians, are the victims. This became his primary motivation to work for OneVoice.

His views about the effects of this conflict were reinforced when he served with the Israel Defense Forces for three years as a soldier in the West Bank and Lebanon.

He explained that his experience as a soldier, where he went “into Palestinian villages, seeing how the situation affects the lives of the Palestinians, only served to strengthen the feeling that we are all the victims of this conflict.”

Eyal has been working with OneVoice on several events to spread the word about border agreements between Israel and Palestine, as well as the Palestinian bid for U.N. admission as a state and the reactions of the Israeli government. He said he feels that “the audience that came to these types of conferences left the event much more optimistic, and got a much more complex look about the situation.”

His fellow panelist, Obada Shtaya, a 20year-old with OneVoice Palestine studying at An-Najah National University in Nablus, shared his experience as a Palestinian.

When he was only a few years old, he explained, many Palestinians were arrested, including his father, who spent a year and a half in jail. “This was a series of imprisonments,” he added, “because he was arrested nine times up until 2007.” Every time his father was arrested, Obada said, 61

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ments services, such as educa“we moved to live with my tion, they urged the country’s grandmother in another city.” leaders to invest and spend in This occurred during the secAmerica rather than Israel. Inond intifada, during which time deed, at one point, the protesters Israeli soldiers invaded his city, began repeatedly demanding Nablus, and occupied it for three “more money for police,” earnmonths. “For two months contining them smiles from the suruously,” Obada recalled, “we rounding police officers. could not leave our houses—neiChanting “we want democther to [go to] schools, church, or racy, no more hypocrisy,” the ralanywhere.” While the intifada liers also maintained that Amerended in 2006, he explained, ica’s current Middle East foreign “the wounds of the intifada, the policy does not serve the counscars and effects of the intifada try’s best interests. Describing did not end in 2006.” The people U.S. aid to Israel as “extremely still imprisoned by Israel and the The September 15 Organization holds a rally at the White harmful to Palestinians, to Isdestruction “remind the PalesHouse. raelis themselves, and to Ameritinians that they are still humiliated.”

White House, where they arrived around cans,” Weatherbee emphasized that WashWhen Obada began his university stud- 7:30 chanting, “Free, free Palestine.” The ington’s strong support of Israel is deeply ies in 2008, he “understood that armed in- 50 demonstrators spent about an hour de- harming its image abroad. “We want justifada and violence is not the way to end livering various chants and speeches in tice, we want peace,” the demonstrators shouted, urging the U.S. to engage in a forthe conflict”—even though he said he un- front of the White House. derstands that Palestinians were reacting to While the rally took place several days eign policy genuinely centered on the valIsraeli pressure. He joined OneVoice, he before Palestine applied for statehood with ues of justice, peace, and freedom.

—Dale Sprusansky said, when he realized that “the two-state the United Nations, rally participants for solution would be the best, most achiev- the most part did not address the topic of able and pragmatic solution to end the con- statehood for Palestine. Explaining the de- U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli flict.” Before joining OneVoice, Obada had cision to take a neutral position on the Occupation: Looking Back, Moving never met Jews except for the Israeli sol- issue, rally organizer Sarah Weatherbee Forward diers occupying Nablus. said the group advocates “for a rights- Washington, DC’s Thurgood Marshall CenDuring Imagine Palestine 2018, where based solution, whether it’s one state, two ter hosted the U.S. Campaign to End the IsOneVoice asked Palestinians what they states, or no state.” Elaborating, she raeli Occupation’s 10th Annual National imagined Palestine would be like in 2018, stressed that the organization is concerned Organizers’ Conference, from Sept. 16 to many had a difficult time imagining a state with ensuring that Palestinians “enjoy the 18. Approximately 250 activists gathered by then. Obada believes that projects like same rights as everyone else, regardless of for this year’s conference, themed “Lookthese are important to “keep the conversa- their race, regardless of their religion, re- ing Back, Moving Forward: How to Align tion alive about a two-state solution.” gardless of whatever background they U.S. Policy with Freedom, Justice, and When asked how they do see the situa- come from.”

Equality.” tion in 2018, Obada said he hopes to see a Given the focus on this theme, ralliers The weekend’s various well-attended free and economically prosperous Pales- opted to emphasize the $3 billion in annual panels and plenary sessions addressed a tine, while Eyal asked, “Why wait until U.S. aid to Israel. Arguing that U.S. aid to number of topics, notably boycott, divest2018, let’s make it 2013?” Both remain very Israel funds human rights abuses and sup- ment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns, apoptimistic about the situation, even though ports an illegal occupation, those gathered proaches to challenging Zionist organizanegotiations have not re-started due to Is- at the White House urged Washington to tions in the U.S., and the Israel lobby. rael’s refusal to halt its illegal settlement- reconsider its current monetary support of building.

Israel. Lamenting that President Barack Connecting the Arab Spring to To learn more about OneVoice, visit Obama “has not taken a strong enough Palestine <www.onevoicemovement.org>, and the stand for the Palestinians, for human Kicking off the weekend’s activities was a Buxton Initiative, <www.buxtoninitia- rights,” Weatherbee explained that the Friday night panel discussion on “What tive.org>.

—Jean-Pascal Deillon rally participants could not understand the Arab Spring and Palestinian Statehood why “the Israelis are prioritized above the Mean for Our Work.” Moderated by Nadia D.C. Rally Calls for End to U.S. Aid to Palestinians” and why Palestinians are Hijab, interim director of the U.S. CamIsrael made out to be “lesser human beings.” paign to End the Israeli Occupation, the While primarily motivated by what they panel featured political analyst and author Offering both a public display of support for Palestinians and a public renunciation allege are Israel’s human rights violations, Omar Barghouti, publisher and journalist of U.S. aid to Israel, organizers with the the demonstrators also expressed their out- Helena Cobban and syndicated columnist September15 Organization, a group named rage as American taxpayers, claiming that Rami Khouri. The panelists examined how for the International Day of Democracy, led it is not good economic policy for the U.S. the recent Arab uprisings will influence a rally that day in Washington, DC. Meet- to be financially supporting Israel, espe- the future approach toward Palestine by ing in front of the State Department at 6 cially given the current debt crisis. Citing activists and states alike.

Barghouti began by emphasizing Washp.m., protesters proceeded to march to the the many cuts to federal and local govern62

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

DECEMBER 2011

the two themes that all fit the specifications of their local commuthe Arab uprisings share, nities. “This is how we can educate peohe noted that all Arabs ple,” Baum explained, and make them rewant to be “citizens with alize that “the entire Israeli economy is inrights.” All three pan- volved in the Palestinian occupation.” elists agreed that PalesBaum cited Veolia, a French water and tinians are no different waste management company that has been from their fellow Arabs, involved in several Israeli projects, as a and that the success of good target for local organizing because the the uprisings in other company has facilities throughout the U.S. countries will only fuel Rebecca Subar, a professor of peace and the burgeoning Palestin- conflict studies at West Chester University ian desire for freedom and a board member of Jewish Voice for and justice.

Peace, focused on the TIAA-CREF divestKhouri further empha- ment campaign. TIAA-CREF, a Fortune (L-r) Omar Barghouti, Helena Cobban and Rami Khouri dissized that supporting Is- 100 investment group that is the leading cuss the Arab Spring and Palestinian statehood. rael and repressive Arab retirement provider for academic and medington’s declining influence in the Arab leaders is resulting in the “self-marginal- ical employees, is “known for being a soworld. Commenting that the Arab upris- ization” of the U.S. He concluded by stress- cially-responsible company,” she exings have had a “devastating effect” on the ing the importance of Palestinians devel- plained. However, it invests heavily in ability of the U.S. and Israel to be the hege- oping a “clear and unified consensus” on Caterpillar (CAT), the world’s largest manmonic powers in the region, Barghouti how to deal with Israel, and warned that if ufacturer of construction and mining made it a point to emphasize that Israel the Palestinian approach remains vague, it equipment, which provides bulldozers to must come to the realization that a new era will leave Israel with an effective propa- the Israeli army. According to Amnesty In—Dale Sprusansky ternational, these have been used to comof Middle East politics is emerging. Noting ganda tool. mit human rights violations, including the that Israel “has not yet realized that things death of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old have indeed changed,” Barghouti argued Panel on Crafting and Sharpening American peace activist who was killed that it is against Israel’s best interests to not Effective BDS Campaigns recognize that the status quo no longer ap- Boycott and divestment activism, initiated under a CAT bulldozer operated by an Isplies. in 2005 by 171 Palestinian non-govern- raeli Defense Officer in 2003.

Panelist Tory Smith, a member of EarlWhile many in the West point to the mental organizations in support of the Arab uprisings as a sign that al-Qaeda’s Palestinian cause, continues to build mo- ham College’s BDS and Students for Justice ideology has been rejected by the Arab mentum in the United States. Panel moder- in Palestine groups, discussed BDS acstreet, Barghouti stressed that the upris- ator Omar Barghouti, political analyst and tivism from the perspective of a college ings also demonstrate that the U.S., too, has author of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: student. He explained that “one of the inbecome “irrelevant” in the region. The up- The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights teresting things about being a college risings “happened despite U.S. policy, not (available from the AET Book Store), group is that there’s a built-in resistance because of it,” he elaborated. opened the panel with the observation that [on campus]—Jewish student groups.” In Cobban discussed the importance of “just three years ago, BDS was still on the Smith’s opinion, engaging in dialogue with these groups is the first step in creating a changing the discourse that surrounds the fringe…but look where we are now.”

Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Explaining that Panelist Dalit Baum, an activist in resi- successful BDS campaign.

Nancy Kricorian of Code Pink: Women “discourse is how people get an idea of dence with Global Exchange and a cowhat is acceptable to think,” she stressed founder of Who Profits from the Occupa- for Peace, a grassroots peace and social justhat it is critical for Palestinian activists to tion, <www.whoprofits.org>, explained tice group, concentrated on her role in the challenge the current “discourse distor- that although BDS campaigns call for local Ahava “stolen beauty” boycott campaign. tion” taking place in the American media. accountability, the BDS movement has yet Ahava, an Israeli cosmetics company that On a more positive note, Cobban said to realize its local potential. She urged au- manufactures skin care products from the that on her recent June 2011 trip to Gaza, dience members to adapt BDS, “which is Dead Sea, “sources its mud product line she noticed that those living in the terri- not [simply] a list of proscribed actions,” to from illegal settlements in occupied territory felt a deep sense of connectedness with Palestinians across the globe. She attributed much of this increased communication to the Internet, explaining that the “Internet has allowed Palestinians to overcome their fragmentation,” providing a place where they can meet and exchange ideas.

Khouri pointed out that the world is now seeing the birth of the Arab citizen, “true Arab sovereignty,” and “legitimate [Arab] governance.” Citing the demand for (L-r) Dalit Baum, Rebecca Subar, Tory Smith, Nancy Kricorian, Andrew Kadi and David social justice and constitutional reform as Wildman describe BDS progress.

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tory,” Kricorian told the assembled activists, and hired “Sex and the City” star Kristin Davis as a spokesperson to help the company’s image. According to Kricorian, “We were able to get people to contact Oxfam, which has an explicit policy against settlement products, and asked, ‘How can you be against settlement products, and have a goodwill ambassador who is selling settlement products?’” Thanks to Code Pink’s activism, Davis lost both her position as an Oxfam goodwill ambassador and her contract with Ahava.

Andrew Kati, a steering committee member with the U.S. Campaign, discussed cultural boycotts, noting that they “have a very significant role in overturning the psyche of normality and invisibility that Israel has.” Cultural boycotts against Israel should follow the same model as the sports boycotts imposed upon apartheid South Africa, Kati said, and listed a number of artists and pop culture icons, including Elvis Costello, Oprah, Bono and Snoop Dogg, who have canceled planned appearances in Israel. For these artists, he explained, “it’s a political statement to go and perform somewhere as much as it is not to.”

The final panelist, David Wildman, a member of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church and a U.S. Campaign steering committee member, addressed the role of churches in the BDS movement. “Churches first started boycotting 2,000 years ago,” he pointed out, “when the Apostle Paul advocated a boycott as an expression of solidarity.”

Since 2005, when the United Methodist Church passed a resolution to divest from companies supporting the Israeli occupation, the church has compiled lists of such companies. Wildman concluded with a call to action: “At what point do you stop saying ‘this is wrong,’ and start doing something?”—Sara Birkenthal

support the state of Israel and to falsely equate Judaism with Zionism, Kershnar explained. Noting that Zionist groups “stand in opposition to the goals of the Palestinian liberation and the Palestinian solidarity movement,” she contended that Zionist organizations are ideal targets for BDS work.

“We can’t allow [Zionist groups] to claim Jewish interests or authority,” she emphasized.

Next, Szremski explained the concept of “creeping normalcy,” by which acceptance of Israeli human rights abuses has slowly become normal and unobjectionable. She described the movement to challenge the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)’s tax-exempt status based on the fact that this summer, 55 House Republicans and 26 House Democrats participated in “educational” trips funded by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a Zionist group affiliated with AIPAC. “In the United States we should not be giving non-profit status to organizations that racially discriminate,” she argued. —Sara Birkenthal

Exposing AIPAC: Delving into the Details of the Israel Lobby During the second workshop session, Alison Weir of the Council for the National Interest and of If Americans Knew moderated a discussion on the history of AIPAC and its “various quasi-legal activities.”

Weir opened the workshop by proposing that “supporting Israel is damaging to U.S. interests.” She explained that in the 1940s, the majority of U.S. government officials as well as oil company executives opposed Zionism and viewed U.S. support for Israel as damaging in the long-term. However, American support for Israel shifted with the creation of the American Zionist Emergency Committee, which had a budget of over $150 million in 1948.

Janet McMahon, managing editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, explained that because AIPAC is technically classified as a not-for-profit membership organization, it does not have to reveal its funding sources or expenditures. She then detailed the 30-50 smaller pro-Israel PACs that actually donate money to political campaigns.

Grant F. Smith of IRmep began his presentation by urging attending national activists to challenge the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He reviewed the organization’s emergence from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1951 and continuous clashes with law enforcement officials and regulators over Foreign Agent (FARA) registration, election law violations, money laundering, classified information trafficking and even theft of US government property!

AIPAC is vulnerable, asserted Smith, because it has imported not just harmful Israeli government policies, but its illegal tactics and disregard for rule of law into the U.S.—and growing numbers of Americans can see how costly this has been to the economy and security of the nation.

Smith urged activists to join three programs—AIPAC FARA registration, IRS exemption revocation, and suspension of illgotten trade preferences—to expose and challenge AIPAC’s corrupt practices in America and win peace in the Middle East.

—Sara Birkenthal

Workshop: Strategies on How to Counter AIPAC Alli McCraken, CODEPINK’s Washington, DC office coordinator, led one of several workshops on Sept. 20 during the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation’s National Organizers Conference. The workshop focused on strategies that can be implemented to counter the influence of the

The next morning began with a workshop on challenging Zionist organizations, presented by Kristin Szremski of American Muslims for Palestine and Sara Kershnar of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. The pair provided background information on leading Zionist organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Israel Advocacy Initiative, the Jewish Federation and the Zionist Organization of America.

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Legal and Popular Approaches to Challenging Zionist Organizations

CODEPINK’s Alli McCraken led a workshop on countering AIPAC. THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

DECEMBER 2011

American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), America’s pro-Israel lobby, by organizations working to change the narrative on the Israeli-Palestinian issue in the United States. The reason the group focused on the organization, with its $15 million budget and 158 employees, is because it considers AIPAC to be “the biggest obstacle to peace in the region” stemming from the fact that its financial wealth enables it to exert major political influence in Washington.

The workshop searched for ways to attract endorsement of CODEPINK’s cause and to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. One successful example of increasing involvement in this issue was the Move Over AIPAC conference held on May 21, 2011, during AIPAC’s annual meeting in Washington, DC. That conference succeeded in bringing attention to the influence AIPAC exerts on the U.S. government. The lack of resources of organizations working to counter AIPAC in comparison to AIPAC’s wealth makes it difficult to mobilize with the same capacity. Fortunately, the resources necessary for organizations to counter AIPAC’s influence in their communities is not only monetary.

Factual information, creatively engaging people, and providing information in a simple manner that maps out the cause and effect are effective tools for organizers.

The workshop also came up with initiatives geared toward a college- level audience, since AIPAC focuses on recruiting college and university students. Workshop participants discussed ideas about how to include an educational component in order to reach out to college students.

CODEPINK is a women’s anti-war and anti-militarism organization that fights to promote the reallocation of U.S. resources toward health care, education, green jobs and other efforts that benefit American communities. The name CODEPINK originated as a play on President George Bush’s color-coded terrorism threat level alert.

To learn more about CODEPINK, visit <http://www.codepink.org>.

—Jean-Pascal Deillon

ANERA’s Supporters Deliver American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), a leading provider of development, health, education and employment programs to Palestinian communities, held its annual dinner at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel on Sept. 30.

Guests contributed more than $400,000 to help ANERA continue to deliver medicines, health care supplies, school books, DECEMBER 2011

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(L-r) Dr. Alfred Khoury, Hani Khleif, Laurie Kassman, Ambassador Edward Gnehm and Dima Zayat ask donors to come to Palestine to see how their support is changing lives. educational materials and playground equipment to Palestinian camps and communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Jordan. In FY 2011, the relief and development agency sponsored more than $60 million of programs.

Board chair Ambassador Edward (Skip) Gnehm and ANERA president Bill Corcoran welcomed guests to the event and described some of ANERA’s new programs.

One of them, a home gardening project has provided training, greenhouses, tools, seedlings, water tanks, fertilizers and irrigation systems to help 35 families living in remote and marginalized areas, especially widows or women who are heads of households.

ANERA’s in-kind program delivers and distributes donations, including life-saving medicines, wheelchairs and other items gathered by other organizations. This year, among many of the gifts it delivered was a badly needed hydraulic bed for the intensive care unit run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Gaza.

Laurie Kassman, ANERA’s media relations officer, interviewed some of ANERA’s heroes—their staff working in the field— who described the challenges they face.

Hani Khleif supervises deliveries from ANERA’s in-kind warehouse in the West Bank town of Beitin. Mostafa Al Ghosain manages the arrival and distribution of medical supplies in Gaza. Dima Zayat trains clinics and pharmacies in Lebanon on how to store and dispense supplies.

After watching films showcasing ANERA’s work, <www.anera.org/inkindfilms>, Dr. THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Alfred Khoury, ANERA board vice chair, noted the dire situation in occupied Palestine, “where in the last 40 years it’s moved backward.” When Israel occupied Gaza and other parts of the West Bank in 1967, Khoury said, “there was poverty but nothing like what we see today. There has been de-development of large segments of Palestinian society,” he warned. “Education used to be our way forward but now educated Palestinians can’t make a living...” He promised that “ANERA can and has the will to continue—with your support.”

Dr. Vicken Kalbian, chair of ANERA’s medical committee from 1980 until his retirement this year, explained why he and others are so committed to the more than 40-year-old organization: “ANERA hasn’t wavered in its mission to improve lives in this volatile and politicized region. It’s always focused...I say it loudly, ANERA is the best show in town.”

To cap off the night, guests enjoyed another excellent show by comedian Palestinian-American Aron Kader, one of four members of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Dr. Saree Makdisi Delivers Palestine Center’s 2011 Edward Said Lecture UCLA Professor of Comparative Literature Dr. Saree Makdisi delivered the 2011 Edward Said memorial lecture, “Palestine: The Epicenter of Arab Revolutions,” at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC on Oct. 3.

Instead of settling for peace without justice in the name of being “realistic and pragmatic,” Makdisi said, Palestinians 65

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apartheid resistors that define such new Palestinian resistance movements as Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

During the questionand-answer session, South Africa’s Ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool stated that while the Palestinian narrative is powerful, it is “muddied” by such ideologies as Islamophobia, which vilifies Palestinians, and the narrative of Jews as Dr. Saree Makdisi reminds his audience at the Palestine Center “perpetual historical that the rights of Palestinian refugees must be part of the state- victims, most recently hood narrative. of the Holocaust” that is commonly used to lemust shift their strategy by operating out- gitimize Israeli existence and actions.

According to Makdisi, who is Said’s side the political realm “in which the deck is stacked against them,” and transforming nephew, while competing ideologies do their discussion to the literary and the exist, the balance has shifted in recent years because it requires “massive instituideal.

Referring to Said’s own “refusal to relin- tional organization and funding” to mainquish his attachment to ideas and ideals,” tain the Israeli narrative, whereas the Makdisi urged Palestinians to utilize the Palestinian narrative has an unshakable power of the Palestinian narrative as the basis in international law.

Regarding the recent Palestinian bid for backbone for action.

He cited lessons learned from the peace- admission to the U.N. as a member state, ful and proactive strategy of South African Makdisi argued that the bid fails to fully demand the rights of all Palestinians, as it speaks of a partial Palestine—one that is defined by the interests of those who have lived in the occupied West Bank since 1967. Palestinians inside Israel and refugees at home and abroad are left to fend for themselves, he said.

U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 call upon Israel to withdraw from areas occupied in 1967, and Resolution 181 guarantees a Palestinian state based on the 1947 partition plan. However, the current U.N. bid ignores the right of refugees to return and Palestinians’ right to freely access holy sites, as Americans who oppose a U.S. veto of Palestine’s U.N. outlined in U.N. Resolution bid, including a fan of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Dar194.“The only path to a just wish, rallied outside the White House on Sept. 24, the peace is to address the day after the Palestinian leadership submitted its Securights of all Palestinians, not rity Council application for U.N. membership to Secrejust those who suffered octary-General Ban Ki-moon. President Mahmoud Abbas quoted Darwish in his speech to the U.N. cupation after ‘67,” said Makdisi, insisting that the 66

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

rights of refugees must not be excluded from the narrative for statehood.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ Sept. 23 speech at the U.N. publically demonstrated the power of the Palestinian narrative, as he related stories of the Nakba and the plight of refugees to an applauding international audience. Yet despite his reference to the collective Palestinian plight, Makdisi said, Abbas was unable to fully utilize this power—and, like the bid itself, his speech lingered between “assertive and apologetic,” and “forthright and offensive.”

Criticizing Abbas’ unelected government, Makdisi said that the January 2011 release of the Palestine Papers detailing the almost unlimited concessions PA negotiators were willing to grant Israel, and what he described as the PA’s apologetic attitude toward its occupier have confirmed that the PA has become “a full-blown collaborationist apparatus whose main function is to facilitate the occupation and colonization of the West Bank—not to challenge it or end it.”

—Deena Zaru

Social Justice, Antiwar Activists Meet And “Occupy Iowa” Some 500 Iowans expressed their support of and solidarity with Occupy Wall Street protests nationwide by occupying a park near the state capitol building in Des Moines on Sunday, Oct. 9. The group, dubbed “Occupy Iowa” by its organizers, represents a wide variety of concerns, and many of the activists addressed more than one issue.

Kate Dirks, a student at Iowa State University in Ames, held a hand-lettered sign declaring on one side “Fox ‘News‘ Will Lie About This” and “I Am A Human Being Not A Student Loan Number” on the other.

“There is a lot of diversity in the messages,” Dirks acknowledged, “but the overarching theme that everyone can agree on is that we want the government to be “about the people” again, whether that be concerns about war or about finance or business, or about student loans.”

David Drake, a member of the Des Moines Human Rights Commission and a psychiatrist, wore his white lab coat to the protest. Many of the issues that most concern Iowans are related, he pointed out.

“As a physician, I‘m most concerned about health care. I see health care as a right not as a privilege, and I support a single-payer health care plan. I work with lots of people who‘ve had foreclosures, who‘ve lost their jobs, who lose their insurance. I‘m very concerned about that,” Drake said.

DECEMBER 2011

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Adam G. Krause (l, foreground) and Cora Metrick-Chen (r) facilitated Occupy Iowa‘s first general assembly.

DECEMBER 2011

Wilson Center Event Examines Iran’s Domestic and International Relations The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a Sept. 30 event titled “Iran: Turmoil at Home, Assertiveness Abroad?” The first of two panels addressed Iran’s economy, educational system and internal political struggles, while the second addressed Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its relations with the Gulf nations. The domestic panel was moderated by Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American director of the Wilson Center’s Middle East program who was imprisoned by the Iranian regime for more than 110 days in 2007.

Wilson Center scholar and journalist Robin Wright moderated the panel on Iran’s international relations.

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“I‘m impressed with the interconnections of all these issues with ongoing wars, with the billions, even a trillion dollars that we‘re spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places, it‘s just astounding to me,” he added.

According to Drake, the huge amounts of money our government is wasting on horrific wars abroad could be better spent here at home to address the pressing needs of Americans who are in need and in distress.

Phil Carlson, a Des Moines social studies teacher, came to the protest wearing a Tshirt that read, “Give Peace A Chance!”

He, too, spoke of a direct connection between the nation‘s economic problems and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The wars that have been dragging our country down for so long are certainly a factor that needs to be addressed in terms of the economic impact,” Carlson said. “We need to bring the troops home, and much of the money our government spends on defense would be better spent elsewhere.”

Added Carlson, “We need a public works program like FDR‘s for infrastructure and other things our country sorely needs.”

Cora Metrick-Chen, a University of Iowa student, and Adam G. Krause, who attends Ashford University, facilitated Occupy Iowa‘s first general assembly.

Krause was one of more than 30 protesters arrested by Iowa State Patrol officers who ejected the protesters from the park on the Capitol grounds after they refused to leave at 11 p.m. Also among those arrested were Des Moines Catholic Worker and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement community organizer David Goodner, and Des Moines WOW-FM radio host and former state representative Ed Fallon.

“Getting arrested only encourages me,” said Fallon.

—Michael Gillespie

Analyzing Iran’s domestic politics, Shaul Bakhash, professor of history at George Mason University—and an Iranian-born Jew who is married to Esfandiari—observed that Iran’s political leaders increasingly are resorting to authoritarian practices. In the wake of the contested 2009 presidential elections, he said, a growing number of individuals are being charged with partaking in conspiracies designed to destabilize the Tehran government. The Iranian regime is disparagingly referring to these reformers as the “seditionist current,” Bakhash added.

Moreover, he noted, there is growing conflict within Iran’s ruling elite. Some, such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have frequently been referred to as the “deviationist current” by the more conservative elements within Iran. Accusing these “deviationists” of “religious unorthodoxy” and financial corruption, Bakhash noted that figures such as Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accuse these individuals of straying from the principles of the Islamic revolution.

Bijan Khajehpour, managing partner of Atieh International, described the Iranian economy as being “sick.” Khajehpour, who was imprisoned for three months in 2009, in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election, noted that while Iran’s economy is experiencing 3 percent annual growth, unemployment and inflation are rising. He cited as the most significant factor contributing to inflation the govern-

(Above, l-r) Bijan Khajehpour, Shaul Bakhash, Haleh Esfandiari and Roberto Toscano.

(Below, l-r) Michael Adler, Robin Wright, Rouzbeh Parsi and Afshin Molavi.

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aged the U.S. to attack Iran. Rather than inflame already strained relations with the Gulf countries, Molavi pointed out, President Ahmadinejad instead quietly dismissed the news as a “Zionist plot to create regional conflict.” Molavi also described China’s relationship with Iran as purely “transactional,” which should not be seen as an alliance.

Concluding the discussion, Michael Adler, Wilson Center public policy scholar, commented that Iran has been successful at “maintaining a certain amount of ambiguity” surrounding its nuclear program. By denying the U.S. the smoking gun it seeks, he added, Iran has been able to win “tactical victory after tactical victory.” Adler predicted that Iran will continue to cultivate ambiguity surrounding its nuclear program in an effort to deny the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the damning evidence it seeks to implicate Iran. While Alder alluded to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate—representing the unanimous judgment of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies— that Iran has had no active nuclear weapons program since 2003, he suggested that the U.S. government is behind in its intelligence. The 2007 finding has yet to be revised.

—Dale Sprusansky

Diplomatic Doings Saudi Arabia Celebrates 80th Anniversary The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia celebrated its 81st national day on Sept. 23 with a re-

ception at its Washington, DC embassy hosted by Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir. (Days later, on Sept. 29, Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested at New York City’s JFK airport and charged with plotting to kill Ambassador AlJubeir.)

For years Saudi embassies around the world have celebrated the anniversary of the 1932 founding of the Saudi state by King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, but this year Saudis at home also enjoyed the national holiday. Crowds gathered to watch special events in cities and towns throughout the Kingdom. Judging by videos posted on YouTube, Saudi revellers danced in the streets and drove through the streets waving flags.

There are more than 50,000 Saudi students studying in the United States, and many of them hosted celebrations at their universities. The Saudi Student Association at Marymount University in Arlington, VA held a special event at the Verizon Gym, in the school’s Lee Center to mark national day, featuring Saudi food, dance and poetry. Hammad Albalawi, president of the Saudi Student Association at George Washington University, gave a remarkable speech at Marymount about national pride and read a poem about the founding of the Kingdom.

“I am very proud of every single young man and woman who is studying in the United States,” Ambassador Al-Jubeir said.

“They make my job easier. Instead of having one ambassador, we now have 50,000 ambassadors.”

—Delinda C. Hanley

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ment’s failed subsidy reforms. Rather than equally distributing money between the lowest income class, industries, and the treasury, Khajehpour explained, the subsidies have gone disproportionately to the lower class, causing the prices of commodities to rise. He also identified rampant corruption in the awarding of new business contracts as an important explanation as to why Iran’s economy is lagging.

Analyzing the impact that sanctions have had on the Iranian economy, Khajehpour noted that they have resulted in a lack of foreign investment in the country and in the annual loss of approximately $10 billion in imports. Additionally, Khajehpour noted that sanctions have made it increasingly difficult for Iran to receive funds from its oil exports.

In the opinion of Roberto Toscano, a former Italian ambassador to Iran, the Iranian regime is attempting to use the classroom to promote the ideals of the 1979 revolution. In so doing, Toscano elaborated, the regime is attempting to convey that “there is only one ideology that allows [individuals] to belong to [the Iranian] community.”

Toscano said the regime finds the humanities particularly objectionable, charging that the humanities promote secularism, “are not scientific, [and] can be the vehicle of Western influence.” Nevertheless, the ambassador observed, the regime has had difficulty preventing Western ideas from entering the country, and the Iranian people remain well informed.

Opening the panel on Iran’s international relations, Rouzbeh Parsi, research fellow with the European Union Institute for Security Studies, described the nuclear issue surrounding Iran as “quite impossible” to solve. Noting that talks between the West and Iran are stalled, he said that there is “really nothing to agree on.” Moreover, he added, it will be difficult for talks to be rescheduled, as negotiations have become so complicated that no one knows “what to reset it to.” Finally, Parsi criticized the West for lacking a cohesive plan for dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat, commenting that “there is no strategy for where all of this is supposed to end up.”

Diplomacy, he added, has become a reward rather than a means of communication.

While many view Iran as an aggressive actor on the world stage, Iranian-American Afshin Molavi, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, noted that Tehran has demonstrated restraint in recent months—citing its response to information leaked via WikiLeaks that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE have encour-

Standing before a portrait of King Abdullah, Saudi Ambassador Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir welcomes guests to the national day celebration.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

DECEMBER 2011

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Upcoming Events, Announcements & —Compiled by Andrew Stimson Obituaries Upcoming Events: The Middle East Children’s Alliance has found a new venue for the Child’s View from Gaza exhibit, previously censored by the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland (see p. 42). It will be on display through Nov. 27 on Fridays (10 a.m.-3 p.m.), Saturdays and Sundays (12 p.m.-6 p.m.) at 917 Washington St., Oakland, CA. For more information call (510) 548-0542, e-mail <josie@mecaforpeace.org>, or visit <www.mecaforpeace.org>.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Women’s Initiative will present Turath: Celebrating Arab Culture in America on Nov. 10, 8 p.m., at the historic Lincoln Theater, 1215 U St. NW, Washington, DC 20009. The event will include a fashion show featuring the work of designer Hana Sadiq, and a musical performance by the Michigan Arab Orchestra Takht Ensemble. For more information call (202) 244-2990 or visit <www.adc.org>.

Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding will be hosting an Executive Briefing on the Middle East: Middle East Christians in Light of the Arab Spring at the Centerville Presbyterian Church, 4360 Central Ave., Fremont, CA 94536, on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Registration fee for the all-day event is $75. For more information, call (480) 628-5420 or visit <www.emeu.net>.

The Middle East Institute (MEI) will present its 65th annual conference, Game Changer: Politics and Policy for a New Middle East, Nov. 16 and 17 at the Grand Hyatt Washington, 1000 H S. NW, Washington, DC 20001. Speakers will include prominent diplomats, academic experts, and policy analysts. For more information call (202) 785-1141.

The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California and The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) will host a benefit concert by ASWAT Bay Area Arabic Music Ensemble, featuring music from Palestine and singer/songwriter David Rovics. The event will raise funds for MECA’s Maia Project: Bringing Clean Water to the Children of Palestine, and will take place Nov. 20 from 3-6 p.m. at 1433 Madison St., Oakland, CA. For more information visit <www.mecaforpeace.org>.

DECEMBER 2011

The Middle East Studies Association will hold its 45th Annual MESA Meeting Dec. 1-4 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2660 Woodley Rd, NW, Washington, DC 20008. For more information call (560) 6215850 or visit <www.mesa.arizona.edu>.

The Palestine Center will host its Annual Souk and Olive Harvest Celebration on Dec. 11, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at The Jerusalem Fund, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, Washington, DC. Enjoy an afternoon of music, tea, food and the opportunity to buy holiday gifts of textiles, pottery, jewelry and gifts from North Africa and the Middle East.

Celebrate the annual olive harvest in Palestine and support Palestinian farmers by purchasing bottles of fair trade extra virgin olive oil imported from Palestine. This event is free and open to the public. For more information call (202) 338-1290 or visit <www.thejerusalemfund.org>.

The Muslim American Society (MAS) and Islamic Circles of North America (ICNA) will host their 10th annual MAS-ICNA Conference, Dec. 22-26 at the Downtown Sheraton in Chicago, IL. This year’s theme is “Muhammed: Model of Faith, Justice and Liberty,” and speakers will include Tariq Ramadan, Nihad Awad, Zaid Shakir and many others. For more information call (877) 627-1060 or visit <www.masicna.com>.

Announcements Applications for American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) 2012-13 fellowships are now being accepted from undergraduate and graduate students, and scholars. Deadline for all applications is Feb. 1, 2012. Located in Amman, Jordan, ACOR is a private, non-profit academic institution dedicated to promoting research and publication in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, history, languages, biblical studies, Arabic, Islamic studies and other aspects of Middle Eastern studies.

For more information about fellowship qualifications visit <www.acorjordan.org> or call (617) 353-6571.

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) Multi-Country Research Fellowships are open to U.S. doctoral candidates and scholars who have already earned their Ph.D. in fields in the humanities, social sciences, or allied natural sciences and wish to conduct research of regional or trans-regional significance.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

BulletinBoard

Fellowships require scholars to conduct research in more than one country, at least one of which hosts a participating American overseas research center. It is anticipated that approximately 10 fellowships of up to $9,000 each will be awarded. The deadline for applications is Jan. 17, 2012.

For more information and to download the application, visit <www.caorc.org/pro grams>. To contact CAORC, call (202) 6331599 or write to CAORC, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 178, Washington, DC 20013-7012.

Obituaries Said Jibrin, 91, died of natural causes Aug. 27, in Bethesda, MD. Born and raised in the Syrian mountain village of Nabaa Karkar, friends remembered him carrying his violin to school. He received his B.A. from the American University of Beirut in 1942, and his Master’s in journalism and creative writing from the University of Iowa, where he met his wife, Barbara, who was also a violinist. Jibrin joined the Voice of America in 1950 and helped establish the Arabic section, living in Egypt, Greece and Lebanon with Barbara and their children Janis and Richard. He retired in 1984 but continued to write poetry and fiction, in both Arabic and English. His work has appeared in journals and anthologies, and in 2009 his brother Sami published a collection of his poetry. The Jibrins have been longtime supporters of the Washington Report.

Philo Dibble, 60, died Oct. 1 of a heart attack at his home in McLean, VA. A career foreign service officer, he helped secure the release of two American hikers, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, detained in Iran for more than two years and who were freed just 10 days before his death. Born in Egypt, where his father was an American diplomat, Dibble was a graduate of St. John’s College and earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. He joined the foreign service in 1980 and held a variety of positions in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Pakistan, Syria and Lebanon. On Oct. 6, 200 State Department employees gathered to pay their respects, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Deputy Secretary Bill Burns and others from the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA).

President Barack Obama sent a letter to Dibble’s wife, Liz Dibble, which was read at the service, saying that Dibble’s “leadership proved indispensable” in U.S. relations with Iran. ❑ 69

book_review_70_Book Review 10/26/11 1:33 PM Page 70

Books Israeli Rejectionism: A Hidden Agenda in the Middle East Peace Process

By Zalman Amit & Daphna Levit, Pluto, 2011, paperback, 208 pp. List: $30; AET: $23.

Reviewed by Andrew Stimson In an all-too-familiar refrain, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently told the Jerusalem Post that renewed Palestinian calls for a settlement freeze were merely a “ruse to avoid direct negotiations.” Of course, he failed to acknowledge the fact that any future Palestinian state would be impossible to sustain with existing illegal settlements where only Jews are allowed to live. Statements such as the prime minister’s are themselves “ruses” used to distract attention from the truth of Israeli rejectionism. As authors Zalman Amit and Daphna Levit note, “Israel was never primarily interested in establishing peace with its neighbors unless such a peace was totally on its own terms.”

Amit, a behavioral neuroscientist and Levit, a financial analyst, grew up in the newly created state of Israel and were ardent Zionists and kibbutzim. Both eagerly served in the Israeli military and believed Andrew Stimson is director of the AET Book Club.

70

that Israel unwaveringly desired peace with its Arab neighbors. Their faith was shaken, however, by Israel’s actions in the aftermath of the 1967 war, as it demolished Arab neighborhoods near the Western Wall, annexed East Jerusalem, and supported the establishment of settlements in Hebron and Nablus. The authors ultimately became active members of the Israeli peace movement and in the early 2000s began discussing the need to write a book focused specifically on Israel’s long-standing rejection of the entire concept of peace with the Palestinians.

Amit and Levit expertly explore the motives behind many of Israel’s leaders, including its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who regularly blocked opportunities for compromise with Arab negotiators. Fast forward to the 1979 Camp David accords, in which Israel finally relinquished the Sinai. According to Amit and Levit the treaty with Egypt, which was imposed on Israel, taught Israeli elites that maintaining a state of hostility with its neighbors was preferable to territorial concessions and compromise regarding refugees.

Israeli Rejectionism provides ample historical evidence of Israeli expansionism at the cost of peace, as well as its strategy of stalling peace negotiations with the Palestinians to ensure their desired outcome. Particularly noteworthy is the authors’ dissection of Ariel Sharon’s decision to remove Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip. Sharon, they argue, implemented the disengagement program to deliberately avoid negotiations with the Palestinians while being able to claim that the Palestinians refused to make a comparable effort.

Amit and Levit conclusively demonstrate that peace has never been Israel’s top priority. Its military strength ensures that reciprocity with the Palestinians will never be possible.

Yet, Israelis have placed themselves in a “self-imposed ghetto,” reinforcing a sense of victimhood by keeping themselves in conflict with those around THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

them. Many of the arguments in Israeli Rejectionism have been featured in other works, yet this compact volume provides a concise summary of the problem at hand, and a series of excellent rebuttals to those who believe that Israel could have peace if the Arabs only were willing. ❑

Zahra’s Paradise

By Amir & Khalil, First Second, 2011, hardcover, 272 pp. List: $19.99; AET: $13.

The simple blackand-white drawings found in Zahra’s Paradise deliver an emotional impact that prose and non-fiction rarely achieves. This graphic novel artfully explores the hypocrisy of the Iranian religious elite and their basij enforcers, and the strength and resilience of the Iranian people. The book’s prologue sets the poetic narrative by depicting a grizzly scene in which a pious father mercilessly slaughters a bag full of puppies his son has just named. After performing an act of ablution, he throws the bag into a river to drown the survivors as their mother watches helplessly. As the story’s main character navigates a labyrinthine bureaucracy searching for his brother, missing since the post-election protests of 2009, these stark images reappear, punctuating the banal cruelty of contemporary Iran.

The authors, based in the United States, have chosen to remain anonymous, fearing for the safety of their families in Iran. The paradise at the center of their work is a huge cemetery in southern Tehran. Interred there not only are many of the Islamic Republic’s victims, such as Neda Aga Sultan, a protester made world-famous in 2009 through images of her death, but many of its flagbearers as well, including the father of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Kohmeini. This dichotomy becomes a theme that runs throughout Zahra’s Paradise. How could Iranian society, heir to a long tradition of poets, philosophers and miniaturists, produce such grotesque public displays as the large cranes festooned with corpses hanging amid a modern metropolitan backdrop?

Beautifully drawn and well written, Zahra’s Paradise is a worthy chronicle of a revolution that may have been delayed, but is not broken. ❑ DECEMBER 2011

book_catalog_71_December 2011 10/27/11 10:58 AM Page 71

AET Book Club Catalog Literature

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Music

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Film

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Monographs

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More

Winter 2011 The Wandering Who?: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics by Gilad Atzmon, O Books, 2011, paperback, 177 pp. List: $14.95; AET: $10.75. A piercing investigation of Jewish identity politics and Jewish contemporary ideology that uses both popular culture and scholarly texts. Atzmon examines the tribal aspects embedded in Jewish secular discourse, both Zionist and anti-Zionist; the “holocaust religion”; the meaning of history and time within the Jewish political discourse; and the anti-Gentile ideologies entangled within different forms of secular Jewish political discourse and even within the Jewish left.

Zahra’s Paradise by Amir and Khalil, First Second, 2011, hardcover, 266 pp.

List: $19.99; AET: $13. This graphic novel set in the aftermath of Iran’s contested 2009 elections follows the fictional story of a family’s search for Mehdi, a young protester who has vanished into an extrajudicial twilight zone. Beautifully drawn, well written, Zahra’s Paradise provides a sharp commentary on the hypocrisy of Iran’s religious elite, and stands as a worthy chronicle of a revolution that may have been delayed, but is not broken.

Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector by Sara Roy, Princeton University Press, 2011, hardcover, 336 pp. List: $35; AET: $29.15. The author of the groundbreaking work Failing Peace returns with a much needed comprehensive study of Hamas. Roy shows how the social service activities sponsored by the Islamist group fosters community development and civic restoration, not political violence. Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza argues for more enlightened policies that reflect Hamas’ proven record of nonviolent community building.

The Soul of Iran: A Nation’s Journey to Freedom

by Afshin Molavi, W.W. Norton, 2005, paperback, 352 pp.

List: $15.95; AET: $9. Like a master Persian carpetmaker, Molavi weaves together threads of rich historical insight, political analysis, cultural observation and the daily realities of life in the Islamic Republic to produce a colorful, intricate and mesmerizing narrative. Originally published in hardcover under the title Persian Pilgrimages, this paperback edition is revised, with a new introduction and epilogue.

Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia by Robert Lacey, Penguin Publishing, 2010, paperback, 448 pp. List: $17; AET: $7.

Based on hundreds of personal interviews with princes and paupers, this updated paperback version of Inside the Kingdom explores the previous turbulent three decades of Saudi experience. Lacey documents the paradoxical nature of a state in which the House of Saud attempts to reconcile life under religious law with the demands of a rapidly changing world.

The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers by Peter Tomsen, PublicAffairs Books, 2011, hardcover, 912 pp. List: $39.99; AET: $26. As ambassador and special envoy to Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, Peter Tomsen has had close relationships with Afghan leaders and has dealt with senior Taliban, warlords, and religious leaders involved in the region’s conflicts over the last two decades. In this detailed account, Tomsen draws on a rich trove of never-beforepublished material to shed new light on the American involvement in the long and continuing Afghan war.

Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East edited by William B. Quandt, Just World Books, 2011, paperback, 266 pp. AET: $18. Since early 2009, it has seemed that the once-warm relations between Turkey and Israel have reached a crisis point.

To complicate matters further, both countries are close partners of the United States.

In this timely book, a group of leading scholar-practitioners from all three countries jointly explore this crisis.

War Diary: Lebanon 2006

by Rami Zurayk, Just World Books, 2011, paperback, 60 pp. AET: $7. Lebanese agronomy professor and social activist Rami Zurayk was in Beirut with his family during Israel’s 2006 assault on Lebanon. War Diary is his record of the 33-day-long onslaught, capturing in vivid detail the horror and the emotional and political complexities of the period. Published

by Just World Books to mark the war's fifth anniversary in 2011, this brief account is a valuable personal telling of a war that should not be forgotten.

The Dark Side of Zionism: The Quest for Security through Dominance by Baylis Thomas, Lexington Books, 2011, paperback, 284 pp. List: $24.95; AET: $20. Author of How Israel was Won, Baylis Thomas argues that both the early Zionists and, later, the Israelis sought their security through the military domination of the indigenous Arab population of Palestine.

The Dark Side exposes the Israeli strategy of avoiding negotiations with the Palestinian-Arabs and provoking the weak Arab states—opposed to Israel’s takeover of Palestine—into entering wars they would lose.

Shipping Rates Most items are discounted and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Orders accepted by mail, phone (800-368-5788 ext. 2), or Web (www.middleeastbooks.com). All payments in U.S. funds. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express accepted. Please make checks and money orders out to “AET.”Contact the AET Book Club for complete shipping guidelines and options.

U . S . S h i p p i n g R a t e s : Please add $5 for the first item and $2.50 for each additional item. Canada & Mexico shipping charges: Please add $11 for the first item and $3 for each additional item. International shipping charges: Please add $13 for the first item and $3.50 for each additional item. We ship by USPS Priority unless otherwise requested.

DECEMBER 2011

L i b r a r y p a c k a g e s (list value over $240) are available for $29 if donated to a library, or free if requested with a library’s paid subscription or renewal. Call the Book Club at 800-368-5788 ext. 2 to order. AET policy is to identify donors unless anonymity is specifically requested.

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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angels_72-73_December 2011 Choir of Angels 10/26/11 8:17 PM Page 72

AETâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2011 Choir of Angels Following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1 and Oct. 19, 2011 is making possible activities of the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment (federal ID #52-1460362) and the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

HUMMERS ($100 or more) Americans For a Palestinian State, Oakland, CA Ahsen Abbasi, Leesburg, VA Catherine Abbott, Edina, MN Jeff Abood, Silver Lake, OH Diane Adkin, Camas, WA Dr. M.Y. Ahmed, Waterville, OH Emeel & Elizabeth Ajluni, Farmington Hills, MI Raji Akileh, Tampa, FL H.R. Alalusi, Moraga, CA Haroune Alameddine, Canton, MI Dr. & Mrs. Salah Al-Askari, Leonia, NJ Hamid & Kim Alwan, Milwaukee, WI Louise Anderson, Oakland, CA Dr. Nabih Ammari, Cleveland, OH Sylvia Anderson de Freitas, Paradise Valley, AZ Dr. Abdullah Arar, Amman, Jordan M. Arefi, West Bloomfield, MI David & Kathryn Asfour, Vallejo, CA Dr. Robert Ashmore, Jr., Mequon, WI Gilad Atzmon, London, UK Fuad Baali, Bowling Green, KY Alma Ball, Venice, FL Dr. Sami Baraka, Wyandotte, MI Rev. Robert Barber, Parrish, FL Jamil Barhoum, San Diego, CA Stanton Barrett, Ipswich, MA William Battistoni, Dickinson, TX Mohammed & Wendy Bendebba, Baltimore, MD Joseph Benedict, Mystic, CT John Carley, Pointe-Claire, Canada Ouahib Chalbi, Coon Rapids, MN Patricia Christensen, Poulsbo, WA Donald Clarke, Devon, PA Joan & Charles Collins, Willard, MO Dr. Robert Collmer, Waco, TX Mr. & Mrs. Rajie Cook, Washington Crossing, PA William Coughlin, Brookline, MA Walter Cox, Monroe, GA Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Curtiss, Herndon, VA Taher & Sheila Dajani, Alexandria, VA Dr. Hassan Dannawi, Macon, GA Glenn Davenport, Corvallis, OR Amb. John Gunther Dean, Paris, France Lee & Amelia Dinsmore, Elcho, WI Dr. George Doumani, Washington, DC Gloria El-Khouri, Scottsdale, AZ Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX 72

Osamah Elkhatib, Dubuque, IA M.R. Eucalyptus, Kansas City, MO Dr. & Mrs. Hossam Fadel, Augusta, GA Mr. & Mrs. Majed Faruki, Albuquerque, NM P. Michele Felton, Winton, NC Barbara Ferguson & Tim Kennedy, Arlington, VA Paul Findley, Jacksonville, IL Elisabeth Fitzhugh, Mitchellville, MD Patrick Flynn, Yorba Linda, CA Robert Gabe, Valatie, NY Ken Galal, San Francisco, CA Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Ahmad & Shirley Gazori, Mill Creek, WA Dr. & Mrs. Frederick Guenther, Newtown, PA Joyce Guinn, Germantown, WI Raymond Haddock, Spotsylvania, VA Dr. Wasif Hafeez, West Bloomfield, MI Dr. Marwan Hajj, Towson, MD Allen Hamood, Dearborn Heights, MI Erin Hankir, Ontario, Canada Shirley Hannah, Argyle, NY Robert & Helen Harold, West Salem, WI Prof. & Mrs. Brice Harris, Los Angeles, CA Masood Hassan, Calabasas, CA Albert Hazbun, El Dorado Hills, CA Alan Heil, Alexandria, VA Dr. Colbert & Mildred Held, Waco, TX Rich Hoban, Cleveland Heights, OH Veronica Hoke, Hillcrest Heights, MD Edmund Hopper, Hilton Head Island, SC Dr. Sami Husseini, Ithaca, NY The Said Jibrin Family, Bethesda, MD Anthony Jones, Alberta, Canada Omar & Nancy Kader, Vienna, VA Akram Karam, Charlotte, NC Mr. & Mrs. Basim Kattan, Washington, DC Martha Katz, Youngstown, OH Ambassador Robert Keeley, Washington, DC Gloria Keller, Santa Rosa, CA Rev. Charles Kennedy, Newbury, NH Susan Kerin, Gaithersburg, MD Dr. Mazen Khalidi, Grosse Point Farms, MI Akbar Khan, Princeton, NJ Dr. M. Jamil Khan, Bloomfield Hills, MI Majid Khan, Bloomfield Heights, MI Dr. & Mrs. Assad Khoury, Potomac, MD N. Khoury, Pasadena, CA Paul Kirk, Baton Rouge, LA

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS72

Donald Kouri, Quebec, Canada Ronald Kunde, Skokie, IL Kendall Landis, Media, PA William Lawand, Mount Royal, Canada Fran Lilleness, Seattle, WA J. Robert Lunney, Bronxville, NY Helen Mabarak, Ann Arbor, MI Robert Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI A. Kent MacDougall, Berkeley, CA Peter MacHarrie, Silver Spring, MD Farah Mahmood, Forsyth, IL Dr. Asad Malik, Rochester Hills, MI Joseph Mark, Carmel, CA Trini Marquez, Beach, ND Martha Martin, Paia, HI Tom & Tess McAndrew, Oro Valley, AZ Ken Megill, Washington, DC Ben Monk, St. Paul, MN John & Ruth Monson, La Crosse, WI Maury Keith Moore, Seattle, WA Robert Moran, Richmond, VA Ahmed Mousapha, Madinah, Saudi Arabia Liz Mulford, Cupertino, CA John & Gabriella Mulholland, Alpharetta, GA Charles Murphy, Upper Falls, MD Joseph Najemy, Worcester, MA Jacob Nammar, San Antonio, TX Neal & Donna Newby, Mancos, CO Mr. & Mrs. W. Eugene Notz, Charleston, SC Michio Oka, El Sobrante, CA Dr. Ibrahim Oweiss, Kensington, MD John Pallone, Rapallo, Italy Edmond & Lorraine Parker, Chicago, IL Jim Plourd, Monterey, CA Patricia & Herbert Pratt, Cambridge, MA Catherine Quigley, Annandale, VA Cheryl Quigley, Toms River, NJ Dr. Amani Ramahi, Lakewood, OH Mr. & Mrs. Duane Rames, Mesa, AZ Nayla Rathle, Belmont, MA Vivian & Doris Regidor, Pearl City, HI Frank & Mary Regier, Strongsville, OH Dr. William Reid, Glen Allen, VA Kyle Reynolds, Cypress, TX Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT Sean Roach, Washington, DC Rose Foundation/Wheeler and Makdisi Fund, Oakland, CA Dr. Wendell Rossman, Phoenix, AZ Brynhild Rowberg, Northfield, MN Edward & Alice Saad, Cheshire, CT Gabrielle & Jalal Saad, Oakland, CA Hameed Saba, Diamond Bar, CA DECEMBER 2011

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Denis Sabourin, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Ma-moun Sakkal, Bothell, WA Dr. Yahya Salah, Amman, Jordan Anis Salib, Huntsville, AL Betty Sams, Washington, DC Dr. H.I. Sayed, Charlottesville, VA Elizabeth Schiltz, Kokomo, IN Dr. Abid Shah, Sarasota, FL Rifqa Shahin, Apple Valley, CA Mahmud Shaikhaly, Hollywood, CA Richard Shaker, Annapolis, MD Theodore Shannon, Middleton, WI Lewis Shapiro, White Plains, NY Lt. Col. Alfred Shehab, Odenton, MD Kathy Sheridan, Mill Valley, CA Shahida Siddiqui, Trenton, NJ Lucy Skivens-Smith, Dinwiddie, VA James Smart, Keene, NH Glenn Smith, Santa Rosa, CA Edgar Snell Jr., Schenectady, NY David Snider, Airmont, NY John Soderberg, Foley, AL Gregory Stefanatos, Flushing, NY Mubadda Suidan, Atlanta, GA Beverly Swartz, Sarasota, FL Thomas & Carol Swepston, Englewood, FL Mr. & Mrs. Ayoub Talhami, Evanston, IL Dr. Joseph Tamari, Chicago, IL Dr. Yusuf Tamimi, Hilo, HI Joan Tanous, Boulder, CO Cheryl Tatum, Owensboro, KY John Theodosi, Lafayette, CA Charles Thomas, La Conner, WA Charles & Letitia Ufford, South Bristol, ME Paul Wagner, Bridgeville, PA Joseph Walsh, Adamsville, RI Carol Wells & Theodore Hajjar, Venice CA Arthur & Marianne Whitman, Auburn, ME Nabil Yakub, McLean, VA Raymond Younes, Oxnard, CA Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD Bernice Youtz, Tacoma, WA Munir Zacharia, La Mirada, CA Dr. Henry Zeiter, Lodi, CA Hugh Ziada, Garden Grove, CA

ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more) Michael & Jane Adas, Highland Park, NJ Khaled Al-Maeena, Jeddah, Saudia Arabia A.R. Armin, Troy, MI Heidi Beck, Cedarville, CA Elizabeth Boosahda, Worcester, MA Michael Boosahda, Worcester, MA Dr. & Mrs. Issa J. Boullata, Montreal, Canada DECEMBER 2011

Prof. & Mrs. George Wesley Buchanan, Gaithersburg, MD William Carey, Old Lyme, CT William Coughlin, Brookline, MA Mr. & Mrs. John Crawford, Boulder, CO Mohamed Dabbagh, Mahwah, NJ Ron Dudum, San Francisco, CA Dr. Rafeek Farah, New Boston, MI Eugene Fitzpatrick, Wheat Ridge, CO E. Patrick Flynn, Carmel, NY Bill Gartland, Rio, WI Ray Gordon, Venice, FL H. Clark Griswold, Woodbury, CT Fahd Jajeh, Lake Forest, IL Issa & Rose Kamar, Plano, TX Sandra La Framboise, Oakland, CA Matt Labadie, Portland, OR Barbara Leclerq, Overland Park, KS Joe & Lilli Lill, Arlington, VA Jack Love, Escondido, CA Anthony Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI John Malouf, Lubbock, TX Eric Margolis, Toronto, Canada Jean Mayer, Bethesda, MD Bill McGrath, Northfield, MN Alice Nashashibi, San Francisco, CA Howard & Mary Norton, Austin, TX John Parry, Chapel Hill, NC Amb. Ed Peck, Chevy Chase, MD*** Hertha Poje-Ammoumi, New York, NY Sam Rahman, Lincoln, CA Henry Schubert, Damascus, OR Yusef & Jennifer Sifri, Wilmington, NC Michel & Cathy Sultan, Eau Claire, WI Union of Arab American Journalists, Dearborn, MI John Van Wagoner, McLean, VA James Wall, Elmhurst, IL John V. Whitbeck, Paris, France Nigel Wright, Delmar, NY Ziyad & Cindi Zaitoun, Seattle, WA****

TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more) Mohamed Alwan, Chestnut Ridge, NY Drs. A.J. and M.T. Amirana, Las Vegas, NV Dr. Lois Aroian, Willow Lake, SD Kamel Ayoub, Hillsborough, CA Dr. Joseph Bailey, Valley Center, CA Graf Herman Bender, North Palm Beach, FL Rev. Ronald C. Chochol, St. Louis, MO Lois Critchfield, Williamsburg, VA Richard Curtiss, Boynton Beach, FL Douglas A. Field, Kihei, HI Michael Habermann, Hackettstown, NJ Hind Hamdan, Hagerstown, MD Amb. Holsey G. Handyside, Bedford, OH Salman & Kate Hilmy, Silver Spring, MD Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Amb. Clovis Maksoud, Washington, DC Paul Meyer, Iowa City, IA Bob Norberg, Lake City, MN William O’Grady, St. Petersburg, FL Gennaro Pasquale, Oyster Bay, NY Phil & Elaine Pasquini, Novato, CA Ruth Ramsey, Blairsville, GA Dr. Mohammed Sabbagh, Grand Blanc, MI Mae Stephen, Palo Alto, CA Mr. & Mrs. Donn Trautman, Evanston, IL David Willcox, Harrison, AR

BARITONES & MEZZO SOPRANOS ($1,000 or more) Asha Anand, Bethesda, MD The Estate of Pascal Biagini, Drexel Hill, PA G. Edward Brooking, Jr., Wilmington, DE Aston L. Bloom & Rev. Rosemarie Carnarius, Tucson, AZ Joe Chamy, Colleyville, TX Luella Crow, Eugene, OR Do Right Foundation, Las Vegas, NV Dr. & Mrs. Rod & Carole Driver, West Kingston, RI Linda Emmet, Paris, France Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR Gary Richard Feulner, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey Dr. & Mrs. Hassan Fouda, Berkeley, CA Mary Ann Hrankowski, Rochester, NY** Vincent & Louise Larsen, Billings, MT William Lightfoot, Vienna, VA Rachelle Marshall, Mill Valley, CA John McLaughlin, Gordonsville, VA Luella Moffett, Virginia Beach, VA Ghulam Qadir, MD & Huda Zenati, Ph.D., Dearborn, MI Mark Sheridan, Alexandria, VA

CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more) Caipirinha Foundation, San Francisco, CA Henry Clifford, Essex, CT Dick & Donna Curtiss, Kensington, MD*† John & Henrietta Goelet, Meru, France Andrew I. Killgore, Washington, DC* *In memory of Grace Perolio **In memory of John Hrankowski ***In honor of the marriage of Marianne Tralewski and Harry Dennis ****In memory of Rachel Corrie † In memory of Said Jibrin 73

jumps_74_Special Report 10/27/11 1:23 PM Page 74

Congress Watch…

Continued from page 31

With the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq more or less on schedule, most members seemed satisfied with occasional hearings to get status reports. However, Rep. Barbara Lee (DCA), with 43 co-sponsors, on Aug. 1 introduced another Iraq withdrawal measure, H.R 2757. It would “prohibit the use of funds to maintain U.S. Armed Forces and military contractors in Iraq after Dec. 31, 2011.” Similarly, regarding Libya, with the fall of the Qaddafi regime the previously described Libya-related measures have languished. One new one, H.J.Res. 74, was introduced July 26 by Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), with three cosponsors. It would authorize the limited use of U.S. Armed Forces in support of the NATO mission in Libya, but require the president to consult frequently with Congress regarding U.S. efforts in Libya. ❑

Neocon Corner…

the Iraq war narrative to pass the blame for the $1 trillion catastrophe and the deaths of nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers—and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis—onto Obama. ❑

Years of Aimless War… Continued from page 24

lion fortress with 1,000 personnel, protected by a small army of mercenary gunmen. So much for withdrawal plans.

The stumbling, confused U.S. war in Afghanistan has now lasted longer than the two world wars. The former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McCrystal, just said Washington’s view of that nation is “frighteningly simplistic.” That’s an understatement.

Facing the possibility of stalemate or even defeat in Afghanistan, Washington is trying to push India deeper into the conflict. This desperate ploy, and nurturing ethnic conflict, will ensure another decade of misery for Afghanistan. ❑

Continued from page 19

Obama’s Speech…

rect. In the meantime Mr. Obama will surely boast on the campaign trail, as he did Friday at the White House, that he has fulfilled his 2008 pledge ‘to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end.’ End it will, for Americans if not for Iraqis; as for ‘responsible,’ count us among the doubters.”

In other words, the Post’s editors, who propagandized for the Iraq invasion in 2002-03 by repeating the Bush administration’s false claims about Iraq’s WMD and links to al-Qaeda, have now distanced themselves from any responsibility for the strategic disaster that the Iraq war has created.

You see, by extending the U.S. occupation indefinitely—even in defiance of conditions set by the Iraqi government—Washington could presumably hold off the day when Americans will fully recognize what a catastrophe the Iraq war was. As long as that day could be postponed, the neocons could hold themselves out as worthy foreign policy experts.

But now the day is fast approaching when the U.S. occupation will end—and the full scope of the dismal failure will become apparent. So, the ever-clever neocons are shape-shifting

Continued from page 10

74

inforcing that “edge” with 5,000pound bombs could tempt Israel into launching yet another war.

Such dangers are inherent in the U.S.-Israel alliance, but thanks to a powerful lobby composed of the major Jewish organizations, an arms industry that profits handsomely from U.S. military aid to Israel, and members of the Christian far right, it is an alliance that no one who aspires to public office dares challenge. Republican candidates for president outdo one another in declaring their support for Israel.

Mitt Romney refers to Obama’s “repeated efforts to throw Israel under a bus.” Herman Cain claims God gave the land of Israel to the Jews and accuses Obama of “stabbing Israel in the back.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry urges the Israelis to retain control of all of Jerusalem and build more settlements. At a press conference in late September, he declared,“Tell the people of Israel: help is on the way.”

There is no question that the people of Israel and Palestine are in urgent need of help, but supporting Israel as an apartheid state is the last kind they

THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

need. The people of the Middle East will not tolerate indefinitely a colonial regime in their midst that oppresses its Arab population and commits blatant violations of international law. Israel faces what may be a greater danger from within, in the rise of powerful settler groups that insist all of Palestine belongs to the Jews, and the increasing number of those willing to attack anyone who disagrees.

One such incident took place on Sept. 30, when a group of Israelis and Palestinians were holding a peaceful demonstration outside the settlement of Anatot to protest the settlers’ seizure of land belonging to a nearby Palestinian village. Hundreds of men came running from Anatot and, according to one of the Israeli peace activists, charged the demonstrators with “their fists, their teeth, stones, pipes, and knives.” The attackers pursued the fleeing protesters and left many of them battered and bleeding. “And all of this,” according to the Israeli participant, “was taking place before the eyes of the police, who didn’t do a thing...Many of the attackers were policemen themselves.”

By ignoring such incidents and providing Israel’s uncompromising leadership with a steady flow of dollars and unwavering diplomatic support, the U.S. is not helping the Israeli people but delaying the achievement of a just peace. Meanwhile, the ultranationalist zealots who commit violence in the name of God are endangering the fabric that holds Israeli society together.

People on both sides desperately need an agreement that allows them to live together as equals, either in one state or two. Judging by Obama’s words at the U.N., they can expect no help from the White House. ❑

Deadline for Holiday Gift Orders Books from the AET Book Club Catalog or subscriptions to the Washington Report make ideal holiday gifts. To ensure delivery of books or magazines to addresses within the U.S. and Canada by Saturday, Dec. 24, telephone orders must be placed and mail and Web orders received no later than Friday, Dec. 9 by 6 p.m. EST.

DECEMBER 2011

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American Educational Trust The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs P.O. Box 53062 Washington, DC 20009

December 2011 Vol. XXX, No. 9

For the third time in nearly four decades, Ghada Karmi (l) and Ellen Siegel have stood outside an Israel embassy—in London in 1973 and 1992, and in Washington, DC on Oct. 25, 2011—holding identical signs telling the world of their respective dispossession and privilege. The longtime friends and activists were prohibited from having this year’s photograph taken in front of Israel’s Washington embassy, as they had in London, so went to the back of the building instead. Other than that, FRANCIS KHOO (London photos) and JEAN-PASCAL DEILLON their situations have not changed—as Karmi’s “still” notes.