Washington Report - January/February 2019 - Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1

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MASSACRING WORSHIPPERS IN PITTSBURGH AND HEBRON

DISPLAY UNTIL 2/28/2019

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TELLING THE TRUTH SINCE 1982

Volume XXXVIII, No. 1

On Middle East Affairs

January/February 2019

INTERPRETING THE MIDDLE EAST FOR NORTH AMERICANS ✮ INTERPRETING NORTH AMERICA FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE

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Normalization with Israel: All Cost and No Benefit —Two Views — Sultan Barakat, Dr. James Zogby

The Tide Is Turning: Israel is Losing on Two War Fronts — Ramzy Baroud

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CNN Fires Marc Lamont Hill for Criticizing Israel —Two Views — Gideon Levy, David Palumbo-Liu

Massacring Worshippers in Pittsburgh and Hebron —Two Views — Allan C. Brownfeld, Lawrence Davidson President George H.W. Bush Stood up to the Israel Lobby—and Paid the Price— Richard H. Curtiss

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116th Congress to Include Seven Arab-American Representatives— Shirl McArthur On the 10th Anniversary of the Conviction of the Holy Land Five— Shukri Abu Baker Like Father, Unlike Son— Mohammed Omer Not Welcome in Hebron: Its Original Residents and Breaking the Silence— Jonathan Cook A Big Step for a Greater Israel— Eric S. Margolis Trump’s Appointment of Heather Nauert at U.N. Is a National Security Threat to the U.S.— Juan Cole Trump’s Jews: These Loyalists Have Changed American Politics (For Better or Worse)— Jane Eisner

SPECIAL REPORTS

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U.S.-Saudi Relations in the Era of Trump and Mohammed bin Salman—Two Views — Juan Cole, Thomas W. Lippman

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Unanswered Questions About Malaysian Cooperation With Saudi Arabia, Israel — John Gee

ON THE COVER: Artists gather at the Abu Nuwas Theater in Baghdad, which was destroyed in 2003 during the U.S.-led invasion, Nov. 17, 2018.

SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images

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(A Supplement to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs available by subscription at $15 per year. To subscribe, call toll-free 1-888-881-5861.)

Other Voices

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Netanyahu’s Vision for the Middle East Has

Snowden: Israeli Firm’s Spyware Was Used to Track Khashoggi, Hagar Shezaf, Haaretz

Come True, Anshel Pfeffer & Davide Lerner, Haaretz

OV-1

Israel Crushes Resistance at Home and Abroad, David Sheen, www.alaraby.co.uk

OV-7

$6 Billion of Iranian Money: Why Israeli Firm Black Cube Really Went After Obama’s Team, Chaim Levinson, Haaretz

OV-8

OV-2 FBI Data Shows Plenty of Vandalism, Little

History Suppressed: Censorship In Israel’s Archives, Tariq Nafi, www.aljazeera.com

Violence Against U.S. Jews, OV-3

Esfandyar Batmanghelid, www.lobelog.com

Arrives in Europe, Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo, www.aljazeera.com

OV-4

OV-12

This Country Doesn’t Want its Syrian Refugees to Leave, Laura Secoran,

Netanyahu’s Courting of Bolsonaro Is Just the

www.middleeasteye.net

Latest in a Long Line of Alliances With Far-Right Figures, Jonathan Cook,

DEPARTMENTS

OV-11

Helping Iranians Lead Normal Lives,

Israel’s $72 Million “War Chest” To Fight BDS

The National

Josh Nathan-Kazis, The Forward

OV-13

A Reckoning for Raqqa, OV-6

Laila Ujayli, www.lobelog.com

OV-15

5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 7 PUBLISHERS’ PAGE

56 mUSLIm AmERIcAn AcTIVISm: CAIR-LA’s 22nd Annual Banquet

57 HUmAn RIGHTS: Myanmar’s Blood Gems Help Fund Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing

58 LATEST ARRIVALS FROm mIDDLE EAST BOOkS AnD mORE 59 BOOk REVIEW:

Black Power and Palestine:

Transnational Countries of Color

—Reviewed by Amin Gharad

Shoppers gathered at Middle East Books & More to buy meaningful gifts at the annual holiday open house, Dec. 8.

60 THE WORLD LOOkS AT THE mIDDLE EAST —CARToonS

61 OTHER PEOPLE’S mAIL 63 OBITUARIES

64 2018 AET cHOIR OF AnGELS 34 InDEX TO ADVERTISERS

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

46 WAGInG PEAcE: Rev. Sizer Reveals Christian Zionism Preceded Jewish Zionism

ltejanfeb_5-6.qxp_January/February 2019 Letters to Editor 12/11/18 8:57 PM Page 5

LetterstotheEditor

A BINDING OBLIGATION

On Dec. 6 Al-Monitor reported on the potentially imminent implementation and launch of the much anticipated European Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) designed to bypass illegal American secondary sanctions and to keep the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, alive.

This initiative, if successful, would constitute a great leap forward in efforts to liberate Europe from American domination and to organize resistance by a New Free World, respecting the sovereignty and independence of all states, to the aspiring Global Dictatorship which claims the right to forbid anyone and everyone on the planet from having commercial relations with any country that Israel/America doesn’t like and to punish anyone who does not obey its unilateral dictates, even to arrest an extremely prominent Chinese citizen in transit through a Canadian airport for the “crime” of compliance with international law—specifically, U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted unanimously, which explicitly emphasized “promoting and facilitating the development of normal economic and trade contacts and cooperation with Iran” and which made compliance with the JCPOA a binding obligation under international law.

John V. Whitbeck, Paris, France Trump administration policies seem to be resulting in many unanticipated consequences—some of which may turn out to be salutory. Many of these policies, as you note, are causing other countries, whether U.S. allies or not, to stop basing their policies on Washington’s (and by extension Israel’s) desires and dictates.

It will be interesting to see what a “free world” actually looks like!

THE HYPOCRISY OF HISTORY

From 1945 to 1992, as part of the nuclear arms race, the U.S. conducted around 1,054 nuclear tests by official count, including 216 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests. The peak occurred between 1961-62, when 340 megatons were detonated in the atmosphere by the United States and Soviet Union. During the final stages of WWII, the U.S. detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.

Commenting on the unprecedented devastation, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury said: “After Hiroshima was bombed, I saw a photograph of the side of a house with the shadows of the people who had lived there burned into the wall from the intensity of the bomb. The people were gone, but their shadows remained.”

With Bradbury’s haunting words in mind, it would behoove the Trump administration to remember that the United States is the first and only nation to use a nuclear weapon on other humans.

As a political strategy, it is no mystery why the president ultimately abandoned the Iran nuclear deal: he wanted to assuage Israel, punish Iran, exert power in the Middle East, send a message to North Korea, Russia and Syria, embarrass Barack Obama, fulfill a campaign promise, renegotiate a deal that favors American interests, and more. But despite these justifications, Trump cannot erase the hypocrisy of history. Whereas Iran was at least willing to limit its nuclear program in return for a lifting of economic sanctions, the United States has more nukes than any other nation in the world; the U.S. has tested more nukes than any other nation; and the U.S. has actually used them on another country.

George Cassidy Payne, via e-mail And the U.S. was able to co-exist with the Soviet Union, but not an historically non-agressive state like Iran?

HISTORICAL CONTEXT ABSENT FROM GAZA COMMENTARY

Recent commentary on Hamas’ role in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reminds me that historical context is often missing from coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian issue.

Many pundits are correct in stating that Hamas’ hostility to Israel affects its involvement in UNRWA. However, it would be odd if Hamas, as the duly elected government of Gaza, played no role in the U.N. body responsible for the wellbeing of Gaza’s Palestinian residents.

Until Israel’s illegal blockade is lifted and Gazan residents are free to work and trade, UNRWA remains necessary.

Hamas’ leadership has been very hostile to the Israeli state, even going so far as to question its right to exist. However,

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Middle East Books and More Director:

Finance & Admin. Dir.: Art Director: Founding Publisher: Founding Exec. Editor:

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Printed in the USA

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this is no different from Binyamin tivity. Bethlehem also has the KEEP THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS Netanyahu’s March 2015 declaChristmas Lutheran Church that COMING! ration that there would be “no supports The International Center, Send your letters to the editor to the Washington Palestinian state on his watch…” a Wellness Center, and schools Report, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009 or the 2004 comments of a seserving the entire community. or e-mail <letters@wrmea.org>. nior Ariel Sharon adviser who Bethlehem is a holy city, beloved said that, “…when you freeze that Jerusalem. The truth is that many Ameri- by all. Such a choice would also be a nod [peace] process, you prevent the estab- cans are still ignorant of the suffering of the to Palestinian Christians, who have largely lishment of a Palestinian state, and you Palestinian people under Israel policies. been forgotten in the conflict. Could the The anti-Palestinian, pro-Israeli stance is people of Palestine be proud of Bethlehem prevent a discussion on the refugees, reflected by political leaders of both politi- for their capital city? When I traveled to the the borders and Jerusalem.”

While Israeli fears of Hamas violence cal parties and has resulted in the tragic Is- Holy Land, it was Bethlehem that I loved seem realistic, some scholars believe raeli foreign policy practiced by America most, not Jerusalem. that the Netanyahu government has a since 1948. President Trump is a businessBarbara Doll, Westerville, OH cynical understanding with Hamas lead- man and not knowledgeable about the Unfortunately, Palestinians did not ership to maintain a certain level of ten- Palestinian/Israeli conflict, plus is coun- choose East Jerusalem as their capital as sion and “tit for tat” violence. In this way, seled by friends of Israel. Furthermore, he an act of free will. Instead, it was the only Hamas’ leaders protect their privileged is heavily supported by the evangelical part of Jerusalem in which they were alpositions while Israel’s leadership uses Christian community, which is blind to Is- lowed to live from 1948 to 1967—and now regular military campaigns to impress raeli sins and no friend to Palestine. How- their historical presence in that part of the their own citizens. Politicians have done ever, the president is a shrewd negotiator city is in jeopardy. Moreover, according to who always presents the smallest offer, ex- the United Nations Partition Plan for Palesfar worse than this.

Of course, if a foreign state controls pecting to get a counter-offer. tine of 1947—approved by the General AsOf course Abu Dis lacks the qualities to sembly but not by the Security Council— your borders, air space, coastline and natural resources with overwhelming mili- ever become a capital. Abbas needs to Jerusalem was to be a corpus separatum, tary force, you are under occupation. Al- present a strong counter-offer. As Christ- an international city belonging to neither Isthough Gaza’s soil and water is badly mas nears, Christians around the world are rael nor Palestine. As explained by polluted by Israeli munitions, it could looking toward Bethlehem, the birthplace Wikipedia (forgive us): “The origins of the prosper if Israel and also Egypt were to of Jesus. There will always be tourists and concept of corpus separatum or an internarespect its borders, coast and air space. pilgrims clamoring to visit Manger Square tional city for Jerusalem has its origins in Israel claims Gaza’s offshore natural gas and the beautiful ancient Church of the Na- the Vatican’s long held position on and its navy harasses Palestinian fisherJerusalem and its concern for the protecmen. The tiny strip features beautiful tion of the Christian holy places in the Holy beaches, a potential fishery, offshore natLand, which predates the British Mandate. ural gas resources and residents eager The Vatican’s historic claims and interests, to work and engage with the world. as well as those of Italy and France were Peace is possible, but Netanyahu and based on the former Protectorate of the previous Israeli prime ministers have Holy See and the French Protectorate of consistently refused to heed the advice of Jerusalem.” Bethlehem, in other words, is Israeli security services on Gaza and the not the only Palestinian city with an historiWest Bank. I really fear that the Israeli cal Christian presence. Like Jerusalem, it, people will eventually pay a high price for too, is surrounded and divided by an Israeli the intransigence of their political class. separation wall. And we know from perMorgan Duchesney, Ottawa, Canada sonal experience, as you may as well, that Let’s not forget that Israel supported residents of Bethlehem, whose cars may Hamas in its early days, as a way to unnot bear the yellow license plates issued to dermine Yasser Arafat and the secular Israelis, cannot drive from their “little town” PLO. That’s just one reason that, for the to nearby Jerusalem. That’s like not being phrase “often missing,” we would substiallowed to drive into Columbus because tute “deliberately omitted.” you are a member of the wrong religion!

BETHLEHEM AS CAPITAL?

I read with great interest the article by Jonathan Cook in your Nov./Dec. issue, “No Dramatic Makeover Can Turn Abu Dis into the Capital of Palestine.” I was very surprised that Abu Dis is being offered as the capital. At the United Nations, Nikki Haley declared, “Every nation has a right to choose their own capital.” Somehow she neglected to remember that Palestine did make that choice, and picked East 6

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

PASSING IT ON

Enclosed is a pretty self-explanatory postcard [informing me of a gift subscription]. But because I had already sent you folks money for a three-year renewal, my wife, Suzanne, and I would like you to use Lee Dinsmore’s gift to us for a prisoner (or prisoners) instead.

Thank you very much.

Paul Gilk, Merrill, WI A trio of angels! ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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American Educational Trust

A Parting Gift for Israel?

Publishers’ Page

THOMAS COEX/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

“Team Tehran.” At the National Council on U.S.-Arab RelaAs we go to press, there are rutions’ (NCUSAR) annual conmors that the lame-duck Conference (p. 50), Arab Gulf leadgress is preparing to pass two ers defended Saudi Arabia in disturbing pieces of legislation via the wake of the murder of jourthe end-of-the-year omnibus nalist Jamal Khashoogi, and spending bill: the Israel Anti-Boyslammed Iran’s behavior in the cott Act and the Anti-Semitism region. A month later, CODEAwareness Act. These laws PINK held a summit on “Peace would criminalize free speech by, With Iran,” (p. 48) where respectively, making it illegal to speaker after speaker participate in the international slammed Saudi Arabia as the boycott movement against Israel region’s boogeyman and called and policing the ability of individuon the U.S. to reconsider its reals (particularly students) to critiTechnicians make a prosthesis mold at the Artificial Limbs and cize Israeli policies. We hope our Polio Center (ALPC) in Gaza City on Oct. 25, 2018. The ALPC has gional allegiances. There’s cerreaders have called and written treated 35 people whose legs were amputated after being shot by tainly no shortage of emotion on either side. We encourage their members of Congress to Israeli snipers during the 2018 Great March of Return protests. you to read both reports and share their objections to these bills, which have been discussed at length United Nations in which he called for a come to your own conclusions. in the pages of this magazine. free Palestine, “From the river to the sea.”

The lobby wasn’t satisfied, however, and It’s Never Too Early to Buy Your Change and Continuity. immediately launched a campaign to also Tickets!

The newly elected 116th Congress, which get him fired from Temple University. The Israel Lobby & American Policy Conconvenes on Jan. 3, 2019, will feature Thankfully, the university announced on ference will be here before you know it— some fresh and uplifting faces. For the first Dec. 11 that Hill’s job is not on the line, once again at the National Press Club time, there will be members of Congress— though in a statement, the school’s board March 22, 2019, right before AIPAC Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D- expressed their “disappointment, displea- comes to town. Not only will you hear exMI)—who openly support the BDS move- sure and disagreement” with his remarks. traordinary speakers but you’ll have the ment. There’s no question this congres- We have two views in this issue on the opportunity to meet them and get to know sional class contains some of the strongest backlash against Hill, starting on p. 14. others who seek to change U.S. foreign critics of Israeli policy in the history of the policy. If you can’t come yourself, you can institution. But rest assured, Israel and its Not the First Time. help fund a student or journalist. Use the lobby are maneuvering to make sure the In 2015, long-time CNN achor Jim Clancy registration form on p. 20 to purchase your incoming Congress will maintain its… “resigned” from the network after several discounted ticket or to make a donation. “controversial” tweets about Israel. He Israel-First Posture. may be off the air, but he’s not out of the Angels We Have Heard on High.

Incoming House majority leader Nancy news. Clancy spoke at the Palestine You know who you are—many of your Pelosi has chosen prominent supporters of Center’s annual conference in November names are listed on pp. 64-66. (Others Israel to chair the foreign affairs, appropria- and outlined how the lsrael lobby works asked to be nameless.) Thank you all for tions and judiciary committees. Sen. Chuck to pressure news networks (see p. 53). answering our year-end donation appeal, Schumer, the Senate minority leader, re- When reporters cover events in Israel in filling out the survey and giving your adcently sparred with President Donald an honest manner, he said, they know vice. You sent words of encouragement, Trump on live television over the border “they’re instantly going to be called on the great ideas and even lists of addresses we wall, but when it comes to Israel, he and carpet by various pro-Israel groups.” used to mail sample copies. If you want to the president are in total agreement—more send one more donation or gift subscripmoney, more moral support and no debate. Tension on the Conference Circuit. tions, please do it now so we can calculate The Washington Report attends a lot of your totals before the end of the year. If Media Crackdown. events in and around Washington, DC, you haven’t contributed, please send what Once again, CNN has cracked down on and sometimes that results in us mingling you can. We can’t keep publishing without one of its employees for daring to support with diametrically opposed camps. This your generosity. We are inspired by our Palestinians. Professor Marc Lamont Hill most certainly occurred this fall, when, in angels, who keep working to... was fired as a commentator from the net- the span of a few weeks, we embedded work after a speech he delivered at the for the day with both “Team Riyadh” and Make A Difference Today!

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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Two Views

Normalization with Israel: All Cost And No Benefit

GABRIEL PIKO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

If Israel were to agree to a full withdrawal from the occupied territories to the pre-June 1967 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and an agreed upon solution for the Palestinian refugee problem; in exchange, the Arab states will consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and will sign a comprehensive peace agreement and establish normal relations with the state of Israel.

Giving lie to their interest in finding a peaceful and just solution to the conflict, Israel has repeatedly rejected the API, insisting that the Arab states normalize without preconditions. Not only the Israelis have pushed this line, but key figures from various U.S. administrations have also encouraged Arab leaders to turn the API “upPalestinian negotiator and spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi flashes a peace sign from the bus side down” and move toward recognition that took the Palestinian delegation from Jerusalem to Amman, on its way to the 1991 and normalization first. In making their Madrid Peace Conference talks between Jordan, Syria, Israel and Lebanon. case, U.S. policy-makers have used the Israeli argument that if the Israelis felt more secure they would be more open to compromise with the Palestinians.

Time and again, however, we have seen clear evidence that this is simply not true—normalization with Israel doesn’t advance

By Dr. James Zogby peace. It merely emboldens them to consolidate their annexation of Palestinian land. Each time a concession has been made by FOR AS LONG AS I CAN RECALL, Israelis have sought recogthe Arabs, what the Israelis have done is “pocket it,” refuse to nition and acceptance from the Arab world without reciprocity. At reciprocate, and continue on their merry way, while demanding times, they have made the argument that if the Arab states simstill more concessions. ply recognized them as a normal state in the Middle East then they would feel secure enough to make accommodations with A FEW EXAMPLES COME TO MIND the Palestinians.

In 2002, in an effort to test Israel’s commitment to achieving a During the lead up to the Madrid Peace Conference, the Bush adcomprehensive peace that would result in its recognition and acministration proposed to the Arab states that they offer “sweetener” ceptance, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced an to the Israelis which they hoped might entice the Israelis to be Arab Peace Initiative. The API, which was later unanimously enmore accommodating. What they suggested was that if the Arabs dorsed by the Arab League, contained the following elements: agreed to end their secondary boycott of businesses that did business in Israel, then the administration would press the Israelis to accept a freeze on settlement construction in the occupied territoDr. James J. Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC. Posted on Nov. 3, 2018 in Washington Watch. ries. I know about this first hand, since I had discussions with sev-

Normalization Doesn’t Advance Peace

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eral Arab foreign ministers at that time. Several key Arab governments informed the U.S. administration that they would do so. The secondary boycott was ended. The Madrid Peace Conference happened. But the settlement freeze never materialized.

I remember, in 1994, making my first trip with a delegation of Arab-American and American Jewish business leaders to Israel/Palestine as co-chair of Builders for Peace, a project launched by Vice President Al Gore. On that visit, I saw visual evidence of the betrayal that had occurred at Madrid. As we passed Tel Aviv on our first night in the region, one of the Jewish members of our group marveled at the signs on buildings in the city advertising Korean and Japanese companies now doing business in Israel. He noted that just a few years earlier none of those companies had been there. Madrid and the end of the secondary boycott had brought them to Israel.

The next day as we left Jerusalem heading toward Ramallah, we could see on hill after hill settlement construction taking place at a feverish pace. When I commented on this, an American Jewish leader responded defensively that he had been told by the Israelis that this wasn’t settlement expansion, it was merely “natural growth” of existing settlements—even though the new construction was taking place on different hills and was completing a ring of “Jewish-only” housing that was circling East Jerusalem, severing it from the rest of the West Bank. The secondary boycott ended, the settlements had not.

Later that same year, I went to Casablanca to chair a session on the Palestinian economy at the first regionwide economic summit—one of the fruits of the Oslo accords. The Israeli business delegation was there in full force. They were so obviously delighted to be in an Arab country mingling with business leaders from across the Arab world. At times, it was almost embarrassing to watch, as they a little too eagerly sought to have their pictures taken with any Arab they saw dressed in a thobe and keffiyeh.

The following year’s summit took place in Amman. But there was a difference. Palestinian political leaders were there, as were the representatives of the American and Israeli governments and their business communities. But Palestinian businessmen and women from the occupied territories were not present. Israel had denied them exit permits, and so they were not allowed to cross the Allenby Bridge to attend the summit that had been only made possible by the Palestinian endorsement of the Oslo accords. It was as if the Palestinians had opened the door to the Arab world, allowing the Israelis to enter. The Israelis entered, and then promptly shut the door behind them.

While in Amman, I fought back and insisted that if the Palestinians couldn’t come to us, then we would bring our group of business leaders to them. We met a few days later in a hotel in Jerusalem. Present were representatives of our business delegation, and U.S. and Israeli government representatives. We waited for more than an hour and a half for the Palestinian business leaders to come. Finally, we received a call from the Palestinians, who informed us that they were stuck at a checkpoint because the occupation authorities were refusing them permisJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

sion to enter the city. The Israeli government officials who were present apologized. The planned meeting adjourned. And that was the end.

What comes through so clearly from these examples and others is that the Israelis have simply never operated in good faith vis-àvis their dealings with the Arab world, and most especially with the Palestinians. They take and they do not reciprocate. That is why I say, “Don’t be fooled. Normalization doesn’t advance peace, and it most certainly doesn’t advance Palestinian rights.” ■

Normalizing Relations with Israel Will Not Benefit Gulf States

By Sultan Barakat

THE NOVEMBER 11 Israeli raid on Gaza that resulted in the deaths of seven Palestinians, a senior Hamas commander and an Israeli officer was a spectacular failure. The botched covert operation caused embarrassment not just for Israel, but also for Egypt and the U.N., who have been attempting to broker a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel. The image of Qatar, which has been providing crucial aid to Gaza to stabilize the situation and give way to peace efforts, has also been damaged as a result of the debacle.

At first glance, the timing of the raid may have seemed odd, as it came in the wake of concerted efforts to normalize relations between Israel and the Gulf states. However, it did not surprise anyone familiar with Israel’s unreliability and unpredictability—it proved yet again that a leopard cannot change its spots.

IN RECENT WEEKS, ISRAELI ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN ON A GRAND CRUSADE FOR NORMALIZATION.

Binyamin Netanyahu’s surprise trip to Oman on Oct. 25 marked the first visit by an Israeli leader to the sultanate, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, in over two decades.

Meanwhile, Bahrain and Israel are believed to be holding secret talks in preparation for establishing diplomatic relations.

On Oct. 25, Qatari authorities broke with Arab sporting protocol and allowed Israeli flags to be displayed at the 48th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha. On Oct. 28, Miri Regev, Israel’s hardline Minister for Culture and Sports, attended a judo tournament in Abu Dhabi, at which the Israeli national anthem was played. Two days later, Israel’s Communications Minister Ayoub Kara gave a speech in Dubai.

Attempts at normalization between Israel and the Gulf states are not new. Many Arab states have long believed the road to American validation runs through Israel. This was the main driver behind Qatar’s decision to permit the opening of an Israeli trade office in Doha in the 1990s.

Sultan Barakat is professor of politics at the University of York. Copyright © Al Jazeera Media Network.

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MBS [reportedly] declared in April that the Palestinians should “accept Trump’s proposals or shut up”—implying the ongoing occupation is no longer seen by Riyadh as an impassable obstacle to normalization.

OMAN’S INTENTIONS

The fact that Oman—a Gulf country that takes pride in its ability to go against the Saudi tide when necessary—is driving the Gulf-Israeli normalization efforts, however, indicates that the Palestinian leadership may not be completely bypassed in the ongoing normalization process.

Oman is unlikely to have subIsraeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (l) meets with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said in mitted to Israeli and American Muscat, Oct. 26, 2018. pressure for unconditional normalization. The Sultanate, which is known for its willingness to What is new this time around is the momentum behind the offer a platform for constructive mediation in regional disputes, flurry of diplomatic activity, which signals the ratcheting up of probably hoped to achieve more than just normalizing its relaAmerican pressures for normalization between the Gulf states tions with Tel Aviv when it agreed to host Netanyahu in Musand Israel. The bold and uncompromising support for Israel cat. In fact, Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi travelled displayed by President Donald Trump, coupled with his clear to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud interest in mobilizing a grand coalition to oppose Iran, have Abbas only a day after Netanyahu’s visit, indicating that left little room for hesitation for Gulf states when it comes to Oman’s decision to officially welcome Netanyahu was not inaccepting a level of relationship with Israel. That space shrunk tended to be at the expense of the Palestinians. further when Saudi Arabia, with the support of Abu Dhabi, imStill, before attempting to serve as a bridge between Israel posed a blockade on Qatar in June 2017, fragmenting the and the Palestinian leadership, Oman should examine Neunity of the GCC. Riyadh put further pressure on other Gulf tanyahu and his government’s extreme right-wing politics critistates to normalize their relations with Israel this year when it cally and consider Israel’s well-established record of unreliabilformed a diplomatic alliance with Washington and Tel Aviv to ity and unpredictability. protect its beleaguered Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in the aftermath of the Khashoggi affair.

NORMALIZATION AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PALESTINIANS

It is evident that any progress in Gulf-Israel relations can only happen at the expense of the Palestinians.

Israel’s normalization drive aims to abort once and for all the Saudi-brokered Arab Peace Initiative—the ten-sentence proposal endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 calling for the normalization of relations between the Arab world and Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories (including East Jerusalem) and a “just settlement” of the Palestinian refugee problem.

Israel has already found some success in this strategy. It convinced Riyadh to show support for a peace deal that would completely bypass the issue of occupied Palestinian lands— something that until recently stood as the main barrier in front of Arab-Israeli normalization. Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader 10

LESSONS TO BEAR IN MIND BEFORE EDGING CLOSER TO NORMALIZATION

There are several lessons that Oman and other Gulf states should bear in mind before edging any closer to normalization with Israel: Firstly, Arab leaders need to understand what Netanyahu and his ministers are trying to achieve with their visits to their countries. Israel wants its statehood to be recognized across the world and Israeli officials’ visits to Arab states massively help these efforts. Since the 1991 Madrid Conference, Israel has managed to slowly widen its international network and gain recognition among states in Asia, Africa and elsewhere on the basis that it has already engaged the Palestinians in a peace process. By pretending to be eager for peace and normalization, it gained the recognition of several important states, including India and the Vatican, even though the peace process was stillborn. It has since perpetrated three wars on

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Gaza but did not lose much recognition, as most states find it hard to sever established bilateral relations.

Secondly, Netanyahu is no Yitzhak Rabin. He did not hesitate to slap the Omanis in the face by attacking Gaza only days after they rolled out the red carpet to welcome him in Muscat. And the Nov. 11 assassination raid followed a week in which Israel approved the building of 20,000 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Maâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ale Adumim and ordered a massively disproportionate retaliation in Gaza, bringing the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2018 to over 200. These actions send a message to any nascent allies in the Gulf that they must work with Israel according to its terms and conditions and that exchanging official visits should not be misunderstood as a softening in posture toward the Palestinians. In this sense, Arab states need to understand that any unconditional exchange of visits with Israel will inevitably strengthen the hand of dominant right-wing forces in the country and embolden them to do more.

Thirdly, being a populist leader, Netanyahu is fully conscious of the fact that, in the age of social media, global public opinion is rapidly shifting against Israel. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement had relative success in the U.S. and largely won the battle of public opinion in Europe, making him feel threatened. In this environment, normalization with Arab states would give much-needed leverage to the Israeli

prime minister and allow him to push forward his diplomatic efforts aimed at securing elite approval. The relationship between his administration and most Arab states would most likely be framed in the context of competition over public opinion. This means, if Oman and others continue their rapprochement with Israel, Netanyahu will make sure the world is watchingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Gulf states will need to brace themselves for unflattering leaks and media attention orchestrated by Israel.

Despite all this, some Gulf states, desperate for Western approval after being rocked by the fallout of the Khashoggi affair, are likely to go much further than the current spate of ministerial visits and sports diplomacy, without placing any condition for progress on the Palestinian front.

Normalization with Israel will always be a hard sell and the Arab Street will never buy into it. It is a dangerous game to play for the Gulfâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unelected rulers, especially so soon after the, albeit unsuccessful, Arab Spring which demonstrated what people power can do in the region. There is a lot to learn from the experiences of Egypt and Jordanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;their leaders may have signed peace treaties with Israel, yet decades later, Egyptian and Jordanian peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception of Israel remains the same. Ultimately, if normalization is not part of a bigger picture of peace and stability, it will not benefit anyone and can only discredit those who take the first steps toward dialogue with Israel. â&#x2013;

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From the Diaspora

The Tide Is Turning: Israel Is Losing on Two War Fronts

By Ramzy Baroud

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Israeli leaders are in a precarious situation. Untamed violence comes at a price of international condemnation and a Palestinian response that is bolder and more strategic each time.

However, failing to teach Gaza its proverbial “lesson” is viewed as an act of surrender by opportunistic Israeli politicians.

While Israel is experiencing such limitations on the traditional battlefield, which it once completely dominated, its war against the global Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is surely a lost battle.

Israel has a poor track record Nati Rom, the founder of Israel’s Lev Haolam organization which is active against the Palestinian-led in confronting civil society-based boycott movement, walks next to an Airbnb apartment in the Esh Kodesh outpost near the Jewish mobilization. Despite the vulnersettlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank, Nov. 20, 2018. ability of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, it took the Israeli government and military THE NOV. 11 BOTCHED Israeli military operation in the Gaza seven long years to pacify the popular intifada, the uprising of Strip is delineating Tel Aviv’s failure to utilize its army as a tool to 1987. Even then, the jury is still out on what truly ended the popachieve Palestinian political concessions. ular revolt.

Now that the Palestinian popular resistance has gone global It should be accepted that a global intifada is much more difficult through the exponential rise and growing success of the boycott to suppress, or even contain. movement, the Israeli government is fighting two desperate wars.

Yet, when Israel began sensing the growing danger of BDS— Following the Gaza attack, Palestinians responded by showerwhich was officially launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005–it ing the Israeli southern border with rockets and carried out a preresponded with the same superfluous and predictable pattern: arcise operation targeting an Israeli army bus. rests, violence and a torrent of laws that criminalize dissent at As Palestinians marched in celebration of pushing the Israeli home, while unleashing an international campaign of intimidation army out of their besieged region, the fragile political order in Isand smearing of boycott activists and organizations. rael, long managed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin That achieved little, aside from garnering BDS more attention Netanyahu, was quickly unraveling. and international solidarity.

Two days after the Israeli attack on Gaza, Defense Minister The war on the movement took a serious turn in 2017, when Avigdor Lieberman quit in protest of Netanyahu’s “surrender” to Netanyahu’s government dedicated a largesse of about $72 milthe Palestinian resistance. lion to defeat the civil society-led campaign.

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of palestine ChronUtilizing the ever-willing U.S. government to boost its anti-BDS icle. His latest book is the last earth: a palestinian story (available tactics, Tel Aviv feels assured that its counter-BDS efforts in the from AET’s Middle East Books and More). Baroud has a Ph.D. in U.S. is off to a promising start. However, it is only recently that IsPalestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a non-resident rael has begun to formulate the wider European component of its scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California. His website is <www.ramzybaroud.net>. global strategy.

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In a two-day conference in Brussels in November, Israeli officials and their European supporters unleashed their broader European anti-BDS campaign.

Organized by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Europe Israel Public Affairs group (EIPA), the Nov. 6-7 conference was fully supported by the Israeli government, featuring right-wing Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin.

Under the usual pretext of addressing the danger of anti-Semitism in Europe, attendees deliberately conflated racism and any criticism of Israel, of its military occupation and colonization of Palestinian land.

The EJA annual conference has raised Israel’s manipulation of the term “anti-Semitism” to a whole new level, as it drafted a text that will purportedly be presented to prospective members of the European Parliament (MEPs), demanding their signature before running in next May’s elections.

Those who decline to sign—or worse, repudiate the Israeli initiative—are likely to find themselves fending off accusations of racism and anti-Semitism.

This was certainly not the first conference of its kind.

The anti-BDS euphoria that has swept Israel in recent years yielded several

crowded and passionate conferences in luxurious hotels, where Israeli officials openly threatened BDS activists such as Omar Barghouti. Barghouti was warned by a top Israeli official in a 2016 conference in Jerusalem of “civil assassination” for his role in the organization of the movement.

In March 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed the Anti-BDS Travel Ban, which requires the Interior Minister to deny entry to the country to any foreign national who “knowingly issued a public call to boycott the state of Israel.”

Since the ban went into effect, many BDS supporters have been detained, deported and barred from entering the country.

While Israel has demonstrated its ability to galvanize self-serving U.S. and other European politicians to support its cause, there is no evidence that the BDS movement is being quelled or is in any way weakening.

On the contrary, the Israeli strategy has raised the ire of many activists, civil society and civil rights groups, angered by Israel’s attempt at subverting freedom of speech in Western countries.

Only recently, Leeds University in the UK has joined many other campuses around

the world in divesting from Israel.

The tide is, indeed, turning.

Decades of Zionist indoctrination also failed, not only in reversing the vastly changing public opinion on the Palestinian struggle for freedom and rights, but even in preserving the once solid pro-Israel sentiment among young Jews, most notably in the U.S. For BDS supporters, however, every Israeli strategy presents an opportunity to raise awareness of Palestinian rights and to mobilize civil society around the world against Israeli occupation and racism.

BDS’ success is attributed to the very reason why Israel is failing to counter its efforts: it is a disciplined model of a popular civil resistance that is based on engagement, open debate and democratic choices, while grounded in international and humanitarian law.

Israel’s “war chest” will run dry in the end, for no amount of money could have saved the racist, apartheid regime in South Africa when it came tumbling down decades ago.

Needless to say, $72 million will not turn the tide in favor of apartheid Israel, nor will it change the course of history that can only belong to the people who are unrelenting on achieving their long-coveted freedom. ■

ISRAEL CALLS ON U.S. GOVERNORS TO ACT AGAINST AIRBNB

airbnb announced on nov. 19 that it would “remove listings in israeli settlements in the West bank” from its short-term rentals site. the timing was not accidental. the next morning, human rights Watch and the israel organization Kerem navot published a joint report, “bed and breakfast on stolen land: tourist rental listings in West bank settlements.” that report stated: “settlement of civilians in occupied territory are unlawful under international humanitarian law,” and by handling listings in them, airbnb and its competitor booking.com help “make West bank settlements more profitable and therefore more sustainable.” the day after airbnb’s decision, according to Haaretz columnist noa landau, israel’s strategic affairs Minister gilad erdan wrote letters to five u.s. governors: new york governor andrew Cuomo, outgoing California governor jerry brown, outgoing illinois governor bruce rauner, Missouri governor Mike parson and newly elected florida governor ron desantis, to urge their help. “i would like to draw your attention to airbnb’ s announcement that it will remove from its site listings of israel-owned business in judea and samaria, thus adopting the anti-semitic practices and narrative of the boycott movement,” erdan wrote. “airbnb’s announced policy is especially disturbing when one understands that it is a policy directed only toward israel. such a january/february 2019

policy has not been applied by the company to any other country...this constitutes (one hopes unintentionally) the modern form of anti-semitic practice which applies a double standard to israel,” the minister continued. erdan asked that the governors “consider speaking out against the company’s decision, and taking any other relevant steps, including in relation to commercial dealings.” several days after the letter was sent, Haaretz continues, republican illinois governor bruce rauner recommended the illinois investment policy board stop investing in the home-renting company. rauner, who lost his midterm election, called airbnb’s decision “troubling” and promised to fight it in his remaining days in office. in 2015, his state passed a law that forbids working with companies that boycott israeli operations in territories controlled by israel. “More than 20 states are considering bills or have passed laws targeting companies that comply with the boycott, divestment and sanctions Movement against israel,” Haaretz continued.

“Most of these penalize only companies that boycott israel, although nine states, like illinois, have passed or are considering passing laws that extend the penalties to entities that boycott israeli businesses operating in the West bank.”

—Editor

Washington report on Middle east affairs

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CNN fires Marc Lamont Hill for Criticizing Israel

PHOTO BY BENNETT RAGLIN/GETTY IMAGES FOR BET NETWORKS

ical Palestine, situated between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean prior to the creation of Israel in 1948.

Zionist groups interpreted these words to mean that Hill advocates the destruction of the state of Israel.

Hill responded by saying that his use of the phrase “river to the sea” was “an invocation of a long history of political actors—liberal and radical, Palestinian and Israeli—who have called for their particular vision of justice in the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” He further explained that he believes “justice will come through a single bi-national democratic state that encompasses Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.” But Hill’s words clearly supporting a single bi-national state Marc Lamont Hill moderates “An Evening With ‘The Quad’’’ for Black Entertainment Television with equal rights for all was interpreted (BET) at The Paley Center for Media in New York City, Dec. 7, 2016.

by Zionist groups as a call for the destruction of Israel.

As many pointed out, this interpretation can only be founded on the notion that the state of Israel must be conceived as an ethno-national state for Jews only.

The debate over whether or not Israel is a democracy or a

By David Palumbo-Liu Jewish state has turned into a vicious battle at educational institutions which were founded on the principles of free speech MARC LAMONT HILL, a CNN commentator and professor of and academic freedom precisely in order to allow for the enermedia studies at Temple University, was fired by the U.S. getic sorting-out of truths and untruths. cable network shortly after delivering a speech at the United Conservative forces, especially those backing the state of Nations on the occasion of its International Day of Solidarity Israel, have a far more egregious and well-financed program with the Palestinian People. for making sure that debate on Palestine is not only silenced The network did not give a reason for his dismissal, but the but punished as well. And they do so with material and other move came amid strident criticism of Hill’s speech by various support from Israel. pro-Israel groups, including the Anti-Defamation League This is evident in Hill’s case. Patrick O’Connor, the president (ADL). The groups’ criticism focused mainly on one specific of Temple’s board of trustees has asked its legal office about part of the speech, where Hill advocated for a “free Palestine possible punishment. O’Connor declared: “I’m not happy. The from the river to the sea”—a reference to the territory of historboard’s not happy. The administration’s not happy. People wanted to fire him right away...We’re going to look at what David Palumbo-Liu is the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor at Stanford University. Copyright © Al Jazeera Media Network remedies we have.”

Marc Lamont Hill and the Israeli Lobby On U.S. Campuses

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In this case as well as many others, university administrators have sided with the Israel lobby. As Mint Press News recently reported, Leonard Barrack, a Temple alum, a trustee and a major donor, who said: “[Hill] called for the destruction of the State of Israel in code words,” is the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. The website of the group currently carries a banner denouncing Hill and advertises its connection to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

Another influential Temple alum, Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) president Morton A. Klein, also attacked Hill, saying: “As a Temple University alumnus from where I received two degrees, I am especially shocked, embarrassed and ashamed that Mr. Lamont Hill teaches at my alma mater and has a named Chair no less. His working at Temple can only hurt fundraising and support for the university. And it is immoral as well. There isn’t a safe space large enough to get away from Lamont Hill. Fire Marc Lamont Hill!!”

Now it is perfectly fine for both of these individuals to voice their opinions and, in fact, it would be unrealistic to imagine that anybody could set aside their political beliefs entirely when acting in another capacity. But when that other capacity is as a member of a board of trustees overseeing a university, and universities are charged with protecting free speech and academic freedom, and when the professor in question is being criticized for utterances he made outside the university, it is clear that several procedural lines have been crossed.

The American Association of University Professors has made it clear that a professor cannot be punished by the university for what they say outside the university.

Marc Lamont Hill joins the ranks of several other professors who have been targeted by Zionist and pro-Israel pressure groups demanding that universities “discipline” critics of Israel and those who work for Palestinian rights. These include John Cheney-Lippold and Lucy Peterson at the University of Michigan, Rabab Abdulhadi at the San Francisco State University and Steven Salaita.

As in Professor Abdulhadi’s case, these organizations often engage in “lawfare,” bringing frivolous and harassing lawsuits to tie up administrators, faculty and students. They also engage in “astroturf” campaigns on campuses that target proPalestinian student groups.

Apart from cracking down on the freedom of expression rights of faculty members, universities have also turned to hate sites such as Canary Mission for information on students, and in some cases have actually passed that information on to the FBI. All this attention to U.S. universities and colleges should not at all be surprising. Zionist groups see the campus as a battlefield and the faculty and students who refuse to accept Israel as an ethnic Jewish state as their enemy. This escalation is just another sign that they know they are losing the battle. ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

In U.S. Media, Israel is Untouchable

By Gideon Levy

MARC LAMONT HILL is an American writer and lecturer in communications at Temple University in Philadelphia, and also an analyst with CNN. In a speech at a Nov. 28 United Nations conference he called for “international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea.”

In a matter of hours, the skies collapsed into well-orchestrated hysteria. Seth Mandel, editor of the Washington Examiner, accused Hill of having called for Jewish genocide; Ben Shapiro, an analyst on Fox News, called it an anti-Semitic speech; Israeli Consul Dani Dayan tweeted that Hill’s remarks were like a “swastika painted in red.” The Anti-Defamation League said they were tantamount to calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. The inevitable outcome was not long in coming and CNN fired the rebel analyst on the very same day.

How dare he? What was he thinking? Where did he think he’s living, in a democracy with free speech or a country where dialogue about Israel is under the serious censorship of the Jewish establishment and Israeli propaganda? Hill tried to claim that he’s opposed to racism and anti-Semitism and his remarks were intended to support the establishment of a binational, secular and democratic state. But he didn’t stand a chance.

In the heavy-handed reality that has seized control over dialogue in the United States, there’s no room for expressions that may offend the Israeli occupation. On a liberal day it’s permissible to say “two states,” as long as you do it in a whisper.

What would have happened if Hill had called for the establishment of a Jewish state between the Jordan and the sea? He would have safely continued holding down his job. Rick Santorum, the former senator, said in 2012 that “no Palestinian” lives in the West Bank. Nobody thought of firing him. Even Hill’s critic, Shapiro, has called in the past for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the territories (he backtracked on it a few years later) and nothing happened to him.

You can attack the Palestinians in America uninterrupted, call to expel them and deny their existence. Only don’t dare to touch Israel, the holy of holies, the country that exists above suspicion. And the height of chutzpah? Israel and the Jewish establishment keep on accusing the media, including CNN, of being slanderers of Israel.

There’s no worse joke than that. Try to publish a critical article about Israel in a mainstream newspaper in the West—it’s getting more and more difficult, more often than not impossible. But nothing will satisfy the lion’s hunger: The more he complains, the stronger he gets.

The key word, of course, is anti-Semitism. A lot has been written about the use Israel and its supporters make of anti-Semitism. And it works wondrously, it’s a magic word that silences people. There has not yet been a single critique of occupation that isn’t tagged as anti-Semitism. Everything is anti-Semitism: Hill is anti-Semitic because he favors a one-state solution, Roger Waters is an antiSemite because that’s how Gilad Erdan described him at a NovemContinued on page 43

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Massacring Worshippers in Pittsburgh and Hebron

JALAA MAREY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The response by the Israeli government, quite to the contrary, was narrowly political, trying to advance its policy of attempting to silence criticism of Israel as being “anti-Semitic.” The fact that the shooter in Pittsburgh came from a farright, neo-Nazi perspective, and that his hatred of Jews had nothing to do with Israel or the Middle East, did not give pause to Israel’s representatives who rushed to the scene. They even criticized American Jews who suggested that the president’s harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric might have led the shooter to take action.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett visited Pittsburgh and, in addition to conveying condolences, appeared on American media arguing that criticism of Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett (c) arrives outside the Tree of Life synagogue President Donald Trump for helping stimulate intolerance and violence with his inin Pittsburgh, Oct. 28, the day after the mass shooting there. temperate rhetoric was unfair because he was the most “pro-Israel” president in memory and had moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, who accompanied President Trump on his visit to Pittsburgh, said in an MSNBC interview that peaceful anti-Israel activity on college campuses was as much a threat to Jews as the rise of white nationalism,

By Allan C. Brownfeld and said he was pleased with President Trump’s response. In Israel, the leader of the opposition, Avi Gabbay, said the attack THE TRAGIC KILLING of 11 Jews at prayer at the Tree of Life should inspire “the Jews of the United States to immigrate synagogue in Pittsburgh in October by a neo-Nazi extremist who more and more to Israel, because this is their home.” This was held Jews responsible for an “invasion” of immigrants from Cenreminiscent of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who, in the tral America brought condemnation from Americans of all reliwake of the 2015 terror attack in Paris, told the Jews of France gious backgrounds. Muslims raised more than $100,000 to aid that “The State of Israel is your home.” In discussing the attack victims in a single day. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published in Pittsburgh, Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, David Lau, and the the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, on its front page in ultra-Orthodox media declined to identify the Tree of Life synaHebrew. At the Rodef Shalom congregation in Pittsburgh, where gogue as a “synagogue,” because it was not Orthodox. three funerals for victims were held, Joanne Rogers, the widow Israel’s response was widely criticized by American Jews. In of Fred Rogers, the children’s television host and Presbyterian an article headlined, “The Tone-Deaf Reaction to the Pittsminister, attended services. Squirrel Hill, where the shootings ocburgh Synagogue Shooting,” Jay Michaelson, an ordained curred, was, in fact, Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Joanne Rogers rabbi, wrote in the Oct. 29 Daily Beast with regard to Israel’s told the congregation, “I love you.” intolerance of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism: “To AmeriAllan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist and associate editor of can Jews who care about Israel, that is a painful reminder that the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute for Reform, Conservative and other non-Orthodox Jewish denomResearch and Education, and editor of Issues, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism. inations are not recognized by the Jewish state.”

Israel’s Strange— Political—Response to Events in Pittsburgh

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With regard to Bennett’s appearance in Pittsburgh, Michaelson noted that, “Sending ultranationalist Bennett to ‘comfort’ mostly liberal American Jews rubs salt in the wound. Bennett, perhaps more than any other Israeli politician, has legitimized open racism against Arabs, sworn his opposition to a twostate solution with Palestinians and moved Israeli nationalism far to the right. Thanks to his party, Jewish Home, comments that would have been too racist for polite conversation a decade ago are now routinely made on the floor of the Knesset.” Nancy Bernstein, co-chair of J Street Pittsburgh, called Bennett’s presence a “blight.”

Abraham Foxman, the former national director of the AntiDefamation League (ADL) who is known for his close association with the Israeli establishment, was disturbed with the manner in which Israeli leaders defended President Trump and denied that his incendiary rhetoric had any connection with the Pittsburgh shooting. His message to Israelis: “Butt out.” He told the Nov. 2 Forward: “I think Israeli officials and Israeli representatives should come and stand in solidarity with the American Jewish community in a time of pain and anguish and tragedy. I don’t think they should come to the United States and stand in solidarity with the president...especially in an election period.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, in an article in the Oct. 31 Forward, recalled the many funerals he attended in Israel as ambassador and pointed out that, “There was one rule I always tried to observe. Don’t bring politics into the Shiva house. This week, as we mourn,…please remember, you are in our Shiva house.…Please don’t lecture us on how we should feel. We are days before highly contested midterm elections. Emotions were running high even before the violent events...Staying out of the internal politics of democratic allies is a principle that should always be upheld.”

The Israeli representatives, of course, did just the opposite, both exonerating President Trump of any responsibility for creating a divisive atmosphere in which extremism thrives, and also attempting to tie the neo-Nazi Pittsburgh shooter to liberal critics of Israel’s 51-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Some American Jewish leaders joined in this effort. Indeed, it did not take long after the Pittsburgh shooting for some American Jewish groups to begin using it to promote their own Israel-centric agenda. An article in the Nov. 5 Forward was headlined, “After Pittsburgh, Jewish Groups’ First Fight Is Against BDS—Not White Nationalism.” Reported author Josh Nathan-Kazis: “Just days after the most massive anti-Semitic massacre in U.S. history, American Jewish establishment groups got one step closer to achieving one of their longstanding policy goals: passage of a bill that would criminalize any boycott of Israel. The alleged murderer in the Pittsburgh killing, Robert Bowers, posted on social media his hatred of the progressive Jewish refugee aid group HIAS. His social media postings appear to mirror white supremacist beliefs about non-white immigrants to the U.S. and do not seem to mention Israel or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at all.”

Still, at a meeting called by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, executive vice chairman JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Malcolm Hoenlein said that, in the wake of Pittsburgh, Jewish leaders should push for the passage of laws outlawing boycotts of Israel and defining anti-Semitism in a manner to silence critics of Israel. Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, observed that, “An effort to now use the massacre to push legislation on the Hill that literally has nothing to do with the kind of anti-Semitism that was at play in the massacre, but is about trying to shut down criticism of Israel and activism related to Israel, seems opportunistic and cynical.”

Israel’s cynical effort to use the attack in Pittsburgh as part of its effort to silence criticism is a direct interference in American domestic political life. It is exacerbating Israel’s growing divide with the American Jewish community—most of whom know the difference between anti-Semitism and legitimate criticism of the policies of a sovereign state which, incidentally, is the recipient of more U.S. aid than any country in history. This effort is being recognized for what it is and brings further attention to Israel’s manipulative role in American political life.

A Tale of Two Massacres

By Lawrence Davidson

ON THE MORNING OF Oct. 27, 2018 Robert Bowers walked into a suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania synagogue filled with worshippers. He was armed with an assault rifle and several handguns. Bowers proceeded to kill 11 people and wound 6. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.

Bowers is a 46-year-old truck driver who lived alone in a small apartment in the Baldwin section of Pittsburgh. Though described by neighbors as “normal,” Bowers was clearly a loner. “He kept to himself and neighbors never saw him with visitors.” Posting an online picture of his three “glock”-brand handguns, he referred to them as “my glock family.”

His social life may have been largely restricted to social media, and there he freely expressed himself. He found his comfort zone on a right-wing websight entitled Gab. Gab promotes a concept of unfettered free speech. In theory this might sound like an admirable aim, but in practice it can just turn into an arena to vent hatred, conspiracy theories and incitement of oneself and/or others to violence. Apparently, that was the environment that attracted Robert Bowers.

Bowers used Gab to express classic anti-Semitic views. He wrote that “jews [sic] are the children of satan [sic],” and asserted that President Trump’s mantra of “making America great again” was impossible to realize as long as there is “a kike infestation.” Bowers hated Jews first and foremost because they were Jews. But he also hated them for what they were allegedly doing to “his people”—driving “white Americans,” and by extension “Western Civilization,” to extinction.

Specifically, the Jews were doing this by helping to bring immigrants into the U.S. Though he claimed that he did not like Donald Trump, there seems little doubt that Trump’s rabid

Lawrence Davidson is professor of history at West Chester University in West Chester, PA. Copyright © CounterPunch. All rights reserved.

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hostility to immigrants expressed in provocative language created the context for Bowers’ acting out as he did. Against this backdrop, Bowers became focused on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)—a not-for-profit group that aids refugees.

Bowers convinced himself that the HIAS “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people.” The Pittsburgh synagogue he attacked supported HIAS. It is worth repeating that Robert Bowers is an authentic antiSemite. He hates Jews because they are Jews. That understood, he then went looking for alleged Jewish behaviors to rationalize acting out his hatred. I emphasize this point because there are Zionists who are now trying to conflate Bowers with an artificially manufactured category of alleged anti-Semites— people who are simply critical of Israel. For instance, following the Pittsburgh massacre the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, took the opportunity to equate real antiSemites like Bowers with the ones the Zionists have simply manufactured. In a media interview he asserted that “to simply say that this [Bowers’ attack on Jews]…only comes on one side [the extreme right], is to not understand…the reality of anti-Semitism.” Dermer then asserted that “one of the big forces in college campuses today is anti-Semitism. And those anti-Semites are usually not neo-Nazis, on college campuses.

They’re coming from the radical left.” It is to be noted that this so-called anti-Semitism on the campuses is almost completely based on opposition to Israel’s own racist policies and practices. Describing such opposition as the same as the behavior of Robert Bowers is obscene.

A MASSACRE OF ARAB MUSLIMS

While anti-Semitism is very old, the sort of category-specific hatred it displays (in this case the category of all Jews) is not unique. Indeed, the same sort of irrational, violence-engendering hatred has been produced by homogeneous national groups that cultivate fear of stereotyped minority elements within their midst.

With this fact in mind we can identify another massacre similar to the one carried out by Robert Bowers. This one was perpetrated by the American-Israeli settler by the name of Baruch Goldstein.

On the morning of Feb. 25, 1994 Baruch Goldstein walked into the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the Palestinian West Bank town of Hebron. Like the synagogue in Pittsburgh some 24 years later, the mosque was full of worshippers. Goldstein was armed with an assault rifle and 140 rounds of ammunition. He proceeded to kill 29 people and injure over 100 others. [See April/May 1994 Washington Report, p. 7.]

Goldstein was a Zionist extremist and an active member of the anti-Arab Kach party. Goldstein hated all Arab Muslims in much of the same way Bowers hated all Jews. His hatred was racially based and independent of the political or social behavior of any particular Arab Muslim individual. For instance, serving as a physician with the Israeli army and later in a civilian capacity, Goldstein “refused to treat Arabs, even Arab soldiers serving in the IDF [Israeli Army].”

18

Mohammed Abu al-Halawa, a survivor who was left a paraplegic after the 1994 massacre of 29 praying Muslims by a Jewish extremist in Hebron, in his wheelchair on Feb. 5, 2014.

Goldstein’s social circle was the Kach party, an ultra-nationalist Orthodox religious organization founded by the AmericanIsraeli Meir Kahane. The party’s doctrine called for the expulsion or subordination of all Arabs in Israel, including the occupied territories. There was an unquestioned assumption that all such people opposed the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

This assumption also justified the party’s advocating violence against Arabs and Muslims. Given this worldview, Baruch Goldstein, like Robert Bowers, saw a specific, racially and religiously defined group of people as a mortal threat—they were “invaders” who would “kill our people.” And here, both individuals acted in the same murderous way.

THE VIOLENT CULTURE

The two men shared something else—cultures that encourage violence. In Bowers’ case, it is culture that has always valued guns as a symbol of liberty and individual potency. As such, unrestricted access to guns is, presently, more valuable than the lives of citizens. Isolated within the “virtual” social circle of Gab, and taking cues from President Trump’s anti-immigrant rants, Bowers, the anti-Semite, was simultaneously heavily armed and liberated from civil or moral inhibitions. The consequence was a massacre of Jews at prayer.

Baruch Goldstein’s cultural milieu also engendered violence.

His was a culture shaped by an ideology that convinced its adherents that they were in eternal danger from the non-Jewish world. This sense of danger focused Israelis on the Arab and Muslim minority caught within the borders of their expanding colonialist state. These unwanted residents, who dared to resist Israel’s racist pretensions, were consistently demonized.

This milieu liberated Goldstein of his civil and moral inhibitions.

His was also a culture where Israeli Jews are heavily armed.

The consequence was a massacre of Arab Muslims at prayer.

Continued on page 43

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From Our Archives

President George H.W. Bush Stood up to the Israel Lobby—and Paid the Price Editors’ Note: Among the many articles in the mainstream media on the late President George Herbert Walker Bush following his death on Nov. 30, 2018, we saw none on his challenging Israel and its American lobby by threatening to withhold U.S. loan guarantees (not even actual aid!) until Israel ceased its illegal settlement building in the occupied West Bank. For this important piece of history we turned to our own archives for articles by the Washington Report’s late executive editor, Richard H. Curtiss, written during Bush’s unsuccessful 1992 re-election campaign, when the media went all-out against President Bush, citing not his position on the Middle East but supposedly plummeting “consumer confidence” here at home.

FROM “A WAR ON FOUR FRONTS: THE BUSH-BAKER BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE (DEC. 1991/JAN. 1992 WASHINGTON REPORT, P. 9)

J. DAVID AKE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Richard H. Curtiss

In the White House Cabinet Room, President George H.W. Bush (c) discusses Operation Desert Storm with Secretary of State James Baker (l) and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, Jan. 17, 1991.

“To get Israel’s Likud government to make any kind of meaningful concession in regard to the West Bank and Gaza, the Bush administration eventually is going to have to go to the mat with Shamir. The president and the secretary of state wouldn’t dream of admitting this, but they know it very well. A few months or even a few weeks ago, when the president was still riding high in the polls, a tussle with Israel’s American backers must not have seemed such a daunting prospect…But with a weak U.S. economy threatening to send his popularity plummeting, things are different.”

—David Kornformer, State Department director for Israel and Arab-Israeli affairs, in The Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 14, 1991 President George Bush’s decision last August not to wait for a second term to begin applying economic pressure on Israel to secure a Middle East land-for-peace settlement put him on a col-

Richard H. Curtiss (1927-2013) was founding executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

lision course with…the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel’s powerful U.S. lobby. The latter, while operating visibly within Congress and invisibly within previous administrations, has always enjoyed remarkably effective and widespread media support.…

An uncertain element was the American Jewish community, made up of individuals who, according to polls, are almost as fed up with [Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Shamir’s intransigence as is much of the Israeli electorate, but who time and again have come down publicly on the side of Israel’s American lobbyists when they have confronted any U.S. president and his congressional supporters.

This was the starting lineup when Bush threw down the gauntlet in early September by asking Israel to defer its request for $10 billion in loan guarantees, payable in annual $2 billion installments, in addition to Israel’s annual $3 billion to $5.6 billion in U.S. foreign aid grants. Israel said it needed the extra funding to absorb Soviet Jews. In fact it already had inserted the anticipated extra $2 billion in a budget that included further rapid expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and increased military power to intimidate its Arab neighbors.

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Shamir correctly concluded that this was the Bush administration’s first step in linking U.S. economic aid to Israel’s performance in the peace process. Shamir declined to defer Israel’s request and ordered its lobby into action to support the request in Congress. Bush, meanwhile, asked congressional leaders to defer consideration of the request for 120 days. When AIPAC brought Jewish activists from all over the United States for a two-day Washington lobbying blitzkrieg, Bush went public. In a televised news conference he complained that as “one little guy” trying to postpone consideration of Israel’s financial demands, he was up against “a thousand lobbyists” on Capitol Hill.

Consideration of the loan guarantees was deferred for 120 days.

Needing the money, a reluctant Yitzhak Shamir had no choice but to come to the Madrid peace conference. There, his unwillingness, in his own words, to trade “one inch of territory for peace” was put on public view. Under even heavier pressure, his government accepted an invitation to participate in bilateral Washington talks with the Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors, which promised only more erosion of public opinion support for Israel.…

Observers might have concluded that nothing could stop the Bush administration timetable. Defined at Madrid by Baker, it called for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement within one year on the transitional stage that the Israelis call “autonomy” and the Palestinians call “stages of implementation.” The transition itself would last five years, with the final form of Palestinian self-determination to be agreed by the end of the first three years.

There are other obstacles Bush and Secretary of State James Baker must overcome, however, and the biggest by far is in the United States. That obstacle is barely concealed support for any government of Israel, even Shamir’s, in the U.S. media.

Much harder to define than AIPAC’s clout 22

in Congress, it also has much greater potential to upset the Bush administration’s plans. A demonstration of its power seemingly already is underway.…

The difference between the reality of current American economic problems and their handling by the media provides an instructive example of the media’s power to set the public opinion agenda.…

What about all those charts on the financial pages? Few have anything to do with economic statistics. They’re charts of consumer confidence as measured by media polls. They tell readers that Americans expect bad times. They also proclaim that President Bush’s overall approval ratings have dropped from the 70 or 80 percent range he achieved at the end of the Gulf war

to a 50 percent level (in the three months since he challenged the Israel lobby).…

The index of consumer confidence compiled by the Conference Board, a business research group, had dropped to 50.6 in November. Its 1990 low was 60. In the 1982 recession it dropped to 54.3 and in 1980 its low was 50.1.

But in a Nov. 27 New York Times article presenting those statistics, journalist Roger Cohen’s lead proclaimed: “American consumer confidence in the economy has fallen beneath the lowest level recorded during the 1982 recession.”…Manufacturers Hanover economist Irwin L. Kellner was quoted as saying, “We’re not as depressed statistically as in the 1930s, but we’re as depressed mentally, and you need pump priming to break that vicious cycle.”

All that is quite a contrast to the remark

by Sam Donaldson, a journalist frequently

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

criticized in the weekly Jewish press, on ABC’s David Brinkley program Dec. 1: “You can find any set of statistics that show the economy is not in such bad shape.” Or the comment of Brit Hume on the same program that “there is a case to be made that says the best thing to do right now is to do nothing.”

Most economists agree. “The fundamentals are okay,” Bear Stearns chief economist Lawrence Kudlow told Sylvia Nasar of The New York Times. “Low inflation and low interest rates provide the foundations for economic recovery.”

Journalist Nasar quotes Roger Grinner of DRI/McGraw Hill, Geoffrey H. Moor of the Center for International Business Research at Columbia University, and Blue Chip Economic Indicators of Sedona, AZ as all supporting “the president’s conviction that an anemic recovery has been underway since April or May and will continue at least through the end of next year.”

As for the political implications of the present polls, on Nov. 29 Washington Post staff writer Dan Balz quoted Republican pollster Bill McInturff as saying: “Despite a rough couple of weeks, when you pit Bush against Cuomo or any other Democrat, he’s up 20 points. When you make people choose between candidates, George Bush still looks fairly strong.”

With 1992 elections still 11 months away, none of this will affect results if, as the statistics indicate, a slow recovery really is underway. The problem is that irresponsible or biased journalists actually can talk the United States back into a recession, or a real depression, by convincing entrepreneurs and the public to withhold investments and purchases just when they are needed.…

SHAMIR’S TACTICS

In seeking to avoid substantive discussions in Madrid, Washington or anywhere else that would spotlight his unwillingness to trade land for peace, Shamir hopes to avoid JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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giving George Bush and James Baker an opportunity to link U.S. loan guarantees publicly to a freeze on Jewish settlement activity in Israeli-occupied territories.…

Peace Now co-founder Peter Edelman complains that American Jewish leaders who privately deplore the settlements “worry that if they break ranks and speak out, they could hurt Israel.” By not speaking out, however, they strengthen Shamir against peace activists at home.…

During the Gulf War, Bush indicated to King Fahd that, when it was over, he would expend the same zeal on ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese lands as he was expending on ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. Bush is keeping his promise, and U.S. prestige throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds is soaring.…

Yitzhak Shamir is betting on the dismal history of U.S. presidents caving in to Israeli prime ministers, especially during election years. Israel’s lobby is betting on its own hidden power in the American press to make that history repeat itself. If the American people and the rest of the world bet on George Bush defeating Shamir, however, that soon could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

FROM “THE MIDDLE EAST FACTOR IN NEGATIVE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE BUSH CAMPAIGN” (NOVEMBER 1992 WASHINGTON REPORT, P. 17)

“Annoy the media, re-elect Bush! They wouldn’t know good news if it hit them in the face. Have you heard this on television at night: That unemployment claims have gone down to the lowest in two years?

Have you heard that inflation is down, that interest rates are down, that total employment is 93 percent, inflation 2.5 to 3 percent, home mortgages are 8 percent?”

—President George Bush at Montgomery, AL election rally, Oct. 24, 1992 Never in the 15 presidential campaigns JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

I’ve watched closely has there been such an extraordinary media gang-up on a major party candidate as that against George Bush in 1992.

In the final two weeks of the campaign, when it was unlikely to make a difference, some of the media offenders expressed qualms about their performance. Host Ted Koppel on an Oct. 20 ABC “Nightline” program entitled “The Media: Reporting or Predicting?” noted: “You can understand why supporters of President Bush would be dismayed. The networks are continually citing polls suggesting, if not an unsurmountable, then certainly a daunting Clinton lead…Are the media reflecting reality or creating it?”

Ombudsman Joann Byrd, in an Oct. 25 response to a reader complaint that The Washington Post consistently selected photos that made Gov. William Clinton look presidential and President George Bush look like the village idiot…

The Post editorially endorsed the Clinton-Gore ticket on Oct. 11. America’s other “newspaper of record,” The New York Times, also endorsed Clinton. In fact, no New York newspaper endorsed the BushQuayle ticket.…

The president went public…in his Sept.

12, 1991 press conference, asking Congress to delay consideration of U.S. loan guarantees for 120 days until after the beginning of Middle East peace negotiations.

Bush added, quite accurately, that on that very day there were “a thousand lob-

byists” on Capitol Hill supporting the bill and only “one lonely little guy down here” opposing it. A poll right afterward showed he wasn’t as lonely as he feared. An unprecedented 86 percent of the American public supported his request.

Within days, however, he was called “anti-Semitic” by a member of Yitzhak Shamir’s Israeli cabinet, and there was virtually no protest against that viciously unfair remark from the highly organized and normally articulate “American Jewish community.” In fact, it had American echoes.

Both President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker were called “enemies of the Jews” on radio call-in shows. And from then right up to election day there were predictions in the political columns of America’s Jewish weeklies that Bush would get no more than 10 to 20 percent of the “Jewish vote.”… …[F]ew would deny that in 1992 the media was glaringly unfair and that most of those picking on the president concentrated on what they called his “failed economic policies.”…

As described by Washington Post television columnist John Carmody on Oct. 20, the media-watching group [the Center for Media and Public Affairs] reported that the economy had been the number one domestic news story on U.S. television networks over the previous two years. There were 2,531 stories and 63 hours and 36 minutes of air time on ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts alone devoted to the economy between October 1990 and September 1992. Since July 1992, 96 percent of the economic evaluations and 83 percent of the predictions about the economy had been negative.…

Yet, in an Oct. 16, 1992 New York Times article entitled “Economic Scare Stories,” Stanford University economists Robert E. Hall and John B. Taylor pointed out that while the U.S. economy was growing by 2 percent in the first half of 1992,

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;press reporting about the economy has become so pessimistic that it has completely lost touch with reality.â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;Ś Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s U.S. lobbyists say 80 percent of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jewish voteâ&#x20AC;? went to Clinton because of Israel. Below are statements that lead to similar conclusions about the motives of pro-Israel journalists, and those who follow their lead.â&#x20AC;Ś [B]ear in mind that it is de rigueur in proIsrael circles to depict George Bush and James Baker as small-minded critics of Israelâ&#x20AC;ŚOn the Democratic side, Bill and Hillary Clinton are considered â&#x20AC;&#x153;under control,â&#x20AC;? and Sen. Al Gore is so well-disposed to Israel that, as Gore Vidal recently wrote in the magazine GQ, if Al Gore became vice president, Israel would be able to move its American â&#x20AC;&#x153;command postâ&#x20AC;? from the Senate to Goreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office.

So keeping that media guide to the honestly perplexed in mind, read on: Columnist for Jewish weeklies and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) legislative director Douglas M. Bloomfield: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Israeli guarantees have been approved, but the man responsible for that and the turnaround in administration policy toward Israel is not George Bush or even

Yitzhak Rabin. It is Bill Clinton. Were it not for the Arkansas governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s support for Israel, his wide lead in the polls and George Bushâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desperate need for every vote, notwithstanding Jim Bakerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dismissal of Jewish voters, it is doubtful Bush ever would have signed the loan guarantee legislation.â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;Ś â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Washington Jewish Week, Oct. 22, 1992 Columnist William Safire, a former Nixon speechwriter and long-time personal friend of George Bush: â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;ŚHere am I, a lifelong Republican, a card-carrying conservative, a right-wing pundit with four-square opinions on anything you can nameâ&#x20AC;Śnot yet sure about which hole in the card to punch for presidentâ&#x20AC;ŚWeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re having a hard time this fall because this campaign centers on a decision about George Bush.â&#x20AC;ŚI wanted to know if he [Bush] planned to reappoint James Baker as secretary of stateâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which would be a sure sign of no change to comeâ&#x20AC;ŚAn alert Larry King popped that question to Bush, who said yes. The prospect of Baker and his crew at Foggy Bottom again was a real downer.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;The New York Times Magazine, Oct. 18, 1992 (Advertisement)

Vanity Fair writer Marjorie Williams: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Baker seems to feel no innate sympathy toward Israelâ&#x20AC;Śand it is possible that this coolness may be to some degree a function of his insular WASP background.â&#x20AC;?

Quoted in Detroit Jewish News, Sept.

25, 1992

RESTING THE CASE

The arrant racism in the final attack above demonstrates that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be Jewish to play this game. Nor do you have to be bothered by the facts. Confonted on Oct. 25 by â&#x20AC;&#x153;McLaughlin Groupâ&#x20AC;? moderator John McLaughlin with a perceptible uptick in virtually all U.S. economic indicators, three of the panelists on the NBC television show responded as follows: New Republic Editor Fred Barnes: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The economy is going up a little, but not enough to help George Bush.â&#x20AC;?

Newsweek Editor Eleanor Clift: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a faltering recovery.â&#x20AC;?

Roll Call Editor Morton Kondracke: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Next year we will have a recovering economyâ&#x20AC;ŚBut itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too late to help George Bush.â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;Śâ&#x2013;

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mcarthur_25-27.qxp_Congress Watch 12/11/18 6:37 PM Page 25

Congress Watch

116th Congress to Include Seven ArabAmerican Representatives AFTER THE NOVEMBER mid-term elections that swung control of the House from Republicans to Democrats, there will be seven Arab Americans in the House of Representatives, four Republicans and three Democrats, including two Muslim women, Somali-American Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and PalestinianAmerican Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). In addition, Arab-American Chris Sununu was re-elected governor of New Hampshire.

The new House will include 28 Jewish representatives, an increase of 5, and 8 Jewish senators, up from 7.

Omar and Tlaib, as well as newly elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have all been openly critical of Israel, especially Israel’s human rights record. But their voices will likely be overwhelmed by the continuing congressional support of Israel. Although it has been mostly Republicans who have been unquestioning supporters of Israel no matter what, Jewish Democrats will chair five important House committees: Eliot Engel (NY), Foreign Affairs; Nita Lowey (NY), Appropriations; Jerrold Nadler (NY), Judiciary; Adam Schiff (CA), Intelligence, and John Yarmuth (KY), Budget.

By Shirl McArthur

nized human rights against an individual exercising freedom of expression, and to report to the committee within 120 days with a determination and a decision on the imposition of sanctions on that person or persons.

The mild sanctions imposed on Nov. 15 did little to satisfy critics of the Trump administration’s response to Khashoggi’s murder. Corker said he hopes for more action. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said, “We are pretending to do something and doing nothing.”

Then, on Nov. 20, after it was widely reported that the CIA had concluded, “with high confidence,” that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder, Trump issued a statement undercutting the CIA’s conclusion. He said, “Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information,” then emphasized what “a great ally” Saudi Arabia has been. To this Corker said, “I never thought I’d see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.”

Jewish Democrats will chair five important House committees.

KHASHOGGI DISAPPEARANCE PROMPTS BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL OUTRAGE

The apparent murder of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 prompted at least 15 letters from members of Congress—from both parties and from both the House and the Senate—urging strong U.S. reaction against the government of Saudi Arabia. Since Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is widely suspected as being responsible for Khashoggi’s killing, perhaps the most important letter was that to President Donald Trump signed Oct. 10 by 22 senators, led by chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), respectively, which triggered an investigation under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The Global Magnitsky Act requires the president, upon receipt of a request from the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, to determine whether a foreign person is responsible for an extrajudicial killing, torture, or other gross violation of internationally recog-

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

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

NEW BILLS WOULD WITHHOLD MILITARY AID TO SAUDI ARABIA

On Oct. 16 Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) introduced H.R. 7070 to prohibit military aid to Saudi Arabia “pending a determination by the secretary of state regarding the status of Jamal Khashoggi.” Then, on Oct. 23 McGovern introduced the similar H.R. 7082, noting in a press release that the new bill is “stronger” than the previous one. H.R. 7082 has 31 co-sponsors, including McGovern. In the Senate, Paul on Oct. 11 introduced S. 3590 to prohibit military aid to Saudi Arabia until the secretary of state determines that Khashoggi is alive.

And on Oct. 31, five Republican senators, led by Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), signed a letter to Trump urging him to “suspend talks related to a potential civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.” Previously, on Sept. 25, Reps. Bradley Schneider (D-IL) and Mark Meadows (R-NC) introduced H.R. 6894 “to require a report on Saudi Arabia obtaining nuclear fuel enrichment capabilities.”

Reaction to the Khashoggi killing also extended to Saudi military actions in Yemen. On Oct. 4, more than 50 representatives, led by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Walter Jones (RNC) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking him to provide all documentation justifying his Sept. 12 certification, as required by law, that the

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STATUS UPDATES

S. 2497, Goodies for Israel. After the Senate passed its version of the “U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization” bill, encompassing a full wish list of goodies for Israel, on Aug. 1, the full House passed it on Sept. 12—after first replacing its text with the text of the House version, H.R. 5141, introduced in March by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (RFL), and renaming it the “Ileana Ros-Lehtinen U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization” bill, in recognition of Ros-Lehtinen’s status as the leading Israel-firster in Congress. Notice of the House action has been received in the Senate, but the Senate still has not taken any action.

S. 720, H.R. 1697, S. 170 and H.R. 2856, the Israel Anti-Boycott Bills. The unconstitutional “Israel Anti-Boycott” bills, strongly promoted by AIPAC and other hard-line pro-Israel groups, have made little progress. S. 720, introduced by Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) in March 2017, still has 57 cosponsors, including Cardin. H.R. 1697, introduced by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) the same month, now has 293 cosponsors, including Roskam. The bills that would encourage states to adopt anti-BDS measures also have gained little support. S. 170, introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in January 2017, still has 49 co-sponsors, including Rubio, and H.R. 2856, introduced in June by Rep. Patrick McHenry (RNC), now has 142 co-sponsors, including McHenry.

S. 2940 and H.R. 5924, “Anti-Semitism Awareness.” The bills have little to do with combatting anti-Semitism, but instead are an attempt to squelch criticism of Israel on U.S. campuses, because they would endorse an expansive definition Saudi and UAE governments are undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and making good faith efforts to support diplomacy to end the war in Yemen. On Nov. 15 Menendez, with five co-sponsors, introduced S. 3652 “to support the peaceful resolution to the civil war in Yemen, to address the resulting humanitarian crisis, and to hold the perpetrators responsible for murdering a Saudi dissident.”

And the previously described H.Con.Res. 138, introduced in September by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), which would require the president to “remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress” has gained new interest. It now has 97 co-sponsors, including Khanna.

26

of anti-Semitism that would define most anti-Israel speech and actions as being anti-Semitic. S. 2940, introduced May 23 by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) still has six co-sponsors, including Scott, and H.R. 5924, introduced by Roskam the same day, now has 51 co-sponsors, including Roskam.

S. 1595, Hezbollah Financing Prevention. On Oct. 25 President Trump signed S. 1595 as P.L. 115-272. Introduced by Rubio back in July 2017, it was passed by the Senate in October 2017, and by the House in September 2018.

H.R. 4591, Iran Sanctions. Introduced by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) in December 2017 “to impose sanctions with respect to Iranian persons that threaten the peace and stability of Iraq,” H.R. 4591 was suddenly taken up by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 27. The committee voted to seek consideration of the bill by the full House under “suspension of the rules.” It has 18 co-sponsors, including Kinzinger.

H.R. 5132, IRGC Sanctions. The AIPAC-pushed bill, introduced in March by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), which would expand sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, now has 222 co-sponsors, including Royce.

H.R. 1677, Protect Syrian Civilians. The “Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection” bill, introduced by Engel in March 2017, and passed by the House in May 2017, was taken up by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Oct. 3 and reported out to the full Senate.

—S.M.

“HUMAN SHIELDS” BILL ADVANCES, MINUS OFFENDING PASSAGES

As the previous “Congress Watch” noted, the real purpose of S. 3257, the “STOP Using Human Shields” bill introduced in July by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), appeared to be to establish that responsibility for Israel’s killing any civilians in Gaza or Lebanon would fall 100 percent on Hamas or Hezbollah. As expected, the measure was reported to the full Senate by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) on Oct. 3. But before being reported, the SFRC amended it by replacing its text with one not including the objectionable sections. The amended bill now would simply sanction “foreign persons that are responsible for the use of civilians as human shields.” However, the sanctions described are mostly redun-

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

dant, since the stated targets of the bill are members of Hamas and Hezbollah, and those organizations are already subject to U.S. sanctions. The bill has 52 cosponsors, including Cruz.

The SFRC then took up H.R. 3342, the Human Shields bill passed by the House back in October 2017, replaced its text with the amended text of S. 3257, and sent it to the full Senate on Oct. 11, where it was passed by unanimous consent the same day. The amended H.R. 3342 was returned to the House for action on Oct. 12.

NEW LAW MAKES IT EASIER TO SUE PALESTINIANS—OR OTHERS

As reported in the previous issue, on Oct. 3 Trump signed, as P.L. 115-253, S. 2946, the “Anti-Terrorism Clarification” bill, introduced in May by Sens. Chuck JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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Grassley (R-IA) and Cruz. The purpose of the law is to enable U.S. victims of alleged terrorism to sue in U.S. courts by establishing something called “personal jurisdiction.” According to the new law, “parties are deemed to have consented to personal jurisdiction” if they accept any form of U.S. economic aid, law enforcement aid, or non-proliferation aid. While the purpose of the law’s drafters was clearly to attack the PA or PLO, its wording could also apply to any country accepting any amount of the described aid (notice that the described aid does not include any aid provided to Israel). Effectively, then, this sacrifices, or at least limits, the use of aid as a foreign policy tool.

Positively, though, “Palestinian Partnership Fund” bills were introduced in the House and the Senate “to promote joint economic development and finance joint ventures between Palestinian entrepreneurs and companies in the U.S., Israel, and countries in the Middle East.” S. 3549 was introduced Oct. 4 by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), with three co-sponsors, and H.R. 7060 was introduced Oct. 12 by Reps. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Lowey.

EXPANDING U.S.-ISRAEL COOPERATION

On Sept. 26 Rep. Michael Conaway (RTX), with five co-sponsors, introduced H.Con.Res. 139 “expressing the policy of the U.S. to pursue and enter into a military treaty alliance” with Israel. And on Sept. 28 Meadows, with 10 co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 6998 “to support security and law enforcement training and cooperation between the U.S. and Israel.”

NEW BILL WOULD HOPE TO PREVENT WAR WITH IRAN

On Sept. 26 Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced S. 3517, titled “Prevention of Unconstitutional War with Iran.” It would “limit the use of funds for kinetic military operations in or against Iran.” The bill has 11 co-sponsors, including Udall, Only a couple of Iran sanctions bills have made any, limited, progress (see “Status Updates” box). H.R. 4238, the “Iranian Proxies Terrorist Sanctions” bill, introduced in November 2017 by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), still has 20 co-sponsors,

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including Poe. But a new one with the same title, S. 3431, was introduced Sept.

12 by Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) and two co-sponsors.

NO DEFENSE SALES TO BAHRAIN, NEW AUMF MEASURE

On Oct. 10 Sen. Paul introduced S.J.Res. 65 disapproving “the proposed export to the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain of certain defense articles and services.” On Nov. 15 on the Senate floor, Paul moved to discharge the measure from the Foreign Relations Committee to enable it to be voted on.

However, Corker moved to table Paul’s motion, sending it back to the Foreign Relations Committee, and Corker’s motion passed by a vote of 77-21.

The previously described measures authorizing the use of military force have made no progress, but a new one, H.Res. 1069, was introduced Sept. 13 by Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Jones. It would require “the President to seek congressional authorization prior to any engagement of the U.S. Armed Forces against any adversary.” ■

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

27

BakerIslam_28.qxp_Special Report 12/11/18 8:21 PM Page 28

Islam in America

On the 10th Anniversary of the Conviction of The Holy Land Five

By Shukri Abu Baker

COURTESY ABU BAKER FAMILY

to dedicate my life to the forsaken of the world. Exiled, my options were: Give chase to my ideals and arrive—or give over to the devils and forever be lost.

A decade later, what sickness I had in my stomach has turned into a deep-seated comfort in my heart.

Allah has picked me for a rigorous refinement. He has walked me safely through the psychological debris of injustice. Thus, I’m not today what my foes had wished upon me 3,650 days ago. I’m not a heap of flesh shriveling on a faltering skeleton, a melancholy progressive, dead weight, dead meat....or toast. No. Today I’m my Lord’s own The author during a visit with his grandson Zackaria repurposing for the while I’m behind on Dec. 25, 2015. Shukri Abu Baker doesn’t like to pose these bars and for when I’m in front for photos when his family visits him in prison because of the line, again, serving humanity. he says it’s too painful for him to look at the pictures.

Yet, what my foes dubbed as Victory on Nov. 24, 2008 was but SICK, IS ALL I’d been feeling on that cold an epic defeat for the very ideals they Monday night. Some hours earlier, the omi- were sworn to defend and uphold. It’s nous air in that courtroom, the timid ges- never fair and square to surrender the law tures, the awful anticipation, the dreadful to a political fondling, mostly foreign, and verdicts...all was too much to stomach. I dismantle innocent American families—all cringed every time the judge’s voice rang in the name of American Justice—and all “guilty” in my head; his gloating only ampli- under the pretext of saving the world? fied by the claustrophobic compactness in From what? Is the world, today, any less my prison cell. But it wasn’t until bedtime, uncivilized than it was when the “winning when, to discern the real from the unreal, I team” popped the Champagne 10 years called out to my wife and four daughters ago? Now that all fragments of the truth name-by-name and heard nothing back have coalesced, everyone realizes my imbut the hum of loneliness, that I finally re- prisonment was more the product of a alized my journey in the underworld had al- moral bankruptcy than it was the conseready begun. From that moment I decided quence of any wrongdoing on my part.

All over, people with a healthy conShukri Abu Baker, a co-founder of the Holy science reject the depraved ideology that Land Foundation charity (see Jan./Feb. 2013 stated: Not all lives are equal; thus, not all Washington Report, p. 17), is currently serving a 65-year prison term at the U.S. Peniten- lives are worth saving—only those of the tiary in Beaumont, TX. He blogs at <https:// privileged; hence, not all great acts of hunotesfromshukri.wordpress.com>. manity deserved public accolade—some 28

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

deserved nothing but years, if not life, behind the walls. Some lost their integrity on that tragic day; not I. All I lost was a mere trial in a kangaroo court. And some woke up with a broken spirit, today; not I. My spirit won’t come down shattering at the feet of some heartless moment. In truth, I feel great today because Allah is the Greatest. I’m ready to embody my higher self: Ready to shine another beam of healing hope into the broken hearts of the world. Ready to forgive. Ready to give.

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omer_29.qxp_Gaza on the Ground 12/11/18 9:52 PM Page 29

Like Father, Unlike Son

Gaza on the Ground

By Mohammed Omer

SAID KHATIB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

NOT A SINGLE family in Gaza does not discuss the future of their besieged enclave. The narrative has changed over time: the fathers, in their mid- to late 50s, continue to share good memories of traveling to Israel to work, and had good relations with Israeli business owners.

Their children, however, do not share those same memories. Instead Gaza’s younger generation speak of the recent border protests, and their daily experience of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, contaminated water and disease. Indeed, the United Nations has Palestinian children play in a courtyard between new Qatari-built residential units in Khan Younis in the southern warned that these condi- Gaza Strip, Nov. 20, 2018. The apartment complex is one of several projects funded by Qatar to rebuild Gaza. tions, the result of Israel’s his son agree on one point: “Gaza wants its life back—we just decade-long blockade, will make Gaza uninhabitable by 2020. need that human right of a chance to live a healthy, peaceful life.”

Tahseen Sadi, 51, sits and debates with his 22-year-old son Mo“Just give us the chance to exist and live in dignity,” Tahseen hammed, a photojournalist, who sees a totally different reality from says. “Either open the border with Israel or let us open up to the the picture painted by his father. Tahseen worked in Ashkelon world and have mobility and trade with our friends and neighbors. more than 18 years ago as a construction contractor, building We have been captives for too long.” some of the high-rises in the nearby Israeli city. Then Israel reNowadays, traveling outside Gaza requires a bribe of $6,000 to stricted the movement of Palestinians into the country, replacing $8,000 to obtain a transit visa via Egypt. Like most of Gaza’s 2 million them with workers from Asian and other countries. residents, neither Tahseen nor his children have that kind money.

“We should see the good people on the other side of the wall,” the But lifting the blockade and travel restrictions on Gaza would not father says. “You mean the ones shooting at children protesting their just restore human rights to the people of Gaza. Mohammed and imprisonment?” his son asks. other members of his generation would be more likely to change “You do not see the decent Jewish people at military checktheir negative views of Israel if granted the freedom to move, seek points,” Tahseen replies. “There are many ordinary Jews, decent an education abroad, and then return to improve and rebuild Gaza people who want mutual peace and to do business again with in peace. Unfortunately, Israel continues to fear a stronger, peacePalestinians. Just like many other nations enjoy, we all want good ful Gaza. health care, education, business opportunities and for everyone to However, cautions a Gaza doctor who prefers to remain anonybe happy again.” mous, “there are things you can’t undo.” He himself lost his clinic This discussion is not unusual—it is one that takes place daily in a 2014 Israeli attack, but still works at Shifa hospital, on a halfbetween parents and their children in Gaza. Yet, Tahseen Sadi and salary from the Palestinian Authority.

“We are seeing rises in marasmus, which is a disease of severe Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports regularly on the Gaza Strip. Follow him on Twitter: @MoGaza.

Continued on page 42 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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The Nakba Continues

Not Welcome in Hebron: Its Original Residents and Breaking the Silence

By Jonathan Cook

COPYRIGHT JONATHAN COOK

of the occupation. A handful of settlers moved here uninvited five decades ago, drawn in part to what Israelis call the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Palestinians the Ibrahimi Mosque.

The Herod-era building was erected over the putative burial site of Abraham, Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Since then, the settler community’s ranks have swollen to nearly 900—aided by the Israeli army.

Despite their relatively small number, however, their territorial footprint has been expanding relentlessly, and now covers some 2 sq. km. (.75 sq. mile).

The settlers and military, says EvenPaz, have worked hand-in-hand to hijack the freedoms of some 230,000 Palestinian Hebronites and turn the city’s once-vibrant commercial center into a ghost town. All this has happened with the blessing of the Israeli government.

The Breaking the Silence tour of Hebron passes Palestinian homes and shops with doors welded When Even-Paz arrived in Hebron as a shut and windows barred. Some have been taken over by Jewish settlers for their own use. An teen soldier at the height of the second inIsraeli military escort shadowed the tour. tifada, he was keen to distinguish himself as a combat soldier by fighting Palestinian “terrorists” and impress IDO EVEN-PAZ switched on his body camera as his tour group dehis father, a retired career officer. camped from the bus in Hebron. The former Israeli soldier wanted His political awakening did not begin until later, however, in 2008, to document any trouble we might encounter in this, the largest as Israel launched a massive assault on the Gaza Strip. Even-Paz Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank. would go on to discover the more than 1,000 testimonies recorded It was not Hebron’s Palestinian residents who concerned him,

by Breaking the Silence, in which Israelis acknowledge that they however. He was worried about fellow Israelis—Jewish religious have participated in or witnessed war crimes during their military extremists and the soldiers there to guard them—who have seized service. control of much of the city center.

“Those stories were exactly like mine. I thought I’d done nothing Even-Paz, 34, first served as a soldier in Hebron in the early significant during my military service, that it was boring,” he ex2000s. Today he belongs to Breaking the Silence, a group of former plained. “I started to realize it was the very mundanity of the occusoldiers turned whistleblowers who lead tours into the heart of Ispation—its round-the-clock oppression of Palestinians—that was rael’s settlement enterprise. After 14 years of operations, however, the core of the problem.”

Breaking the Silence is today facing ever more formidable chalEven-Paz believes the problem of the occupation is systemic lenges. rather than the result of misconduct by individual soldiers.

Hebron, 30 km. (19 miles) south of Jerusalem, is a microcosm “Whatever a soldier believes when they begin their military serJonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth and a winner of the vice, there is no way to behave ethically in the occupied territories,” Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He is the author of he says. “It’s a system in which Palestinians are always treated as Blood and Religion and Israel and the Clash of Civilisations (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). inferior, always viewed as the enemy, whoever they are.

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

“Every day the job is to inflict collective punishment. We were told explicitly that we were waging psychological war, that we were there to intimidate them.

“In the middle of the night we raided families’ homes, chosen randomly, waking up frightened children. We violently broke up Palestinian protests. I arrested Palestinians every day to ‘dry them out’—to teach them a lesson, to make them understand who is boss.”

Yet in Israel, the military is regarded as an almost sacred institution. Breaking the Silence casts a long, dark shadow over claims that Israel’s is the most moral army in the world.

Hebron is ground zero for much of the group’s work, where military service is a rite of passage for Israeli combat soldiers. The group’s tour attracts some back later in life, either after they grow troubled by their earlier experiences enforcing the occupation or because they want to show family members what their service was like.

Some go on to testify to the group, says Ori Givati, Even-Paz’s colleague on the tour.

“When they come with us to places like Hebron, the memories flood back. They recall things they did that they can now see in a different light.”

With the spread of phone cameras in recent years, the dark underbelly of the occupation in Hebron has been ever harder to conceal, confirming the soldiers’ testimonies.

Palestinians have captured on video everything from terrified small children being dragged off the street by soldiers into military Jeeps to an army medic, Elor Azaria, using his rifle to execute a prone Palestinian man by shooting him in the head from close range.

Israel has carved Hebron into two zones, part of its “separation policy.” H1, the city’s western side, is nominally under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority—except when Israel decides otherwise.

H2, a fifth of the city and home to somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 Palestinians (the number is contested), is where Israeli settlers and soldiers rule. They are supported by Kiryat Arba, a much larger neighboring settlement of 8,000 religious Jews, hemming in Hebron’s eastern flank.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

COPYRIGHT JONATHAN COOK

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Settlers and religious Jews use the Jewish entrance to Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque. Palestinians and their guests are forbidden from using this entrance.

The chain of settlements form a spear of territory thrusting into Hebron’s throat from the main body of H2 and Kiryat Arba.

In recent months, apparently buoyed by Donald Trump in the White House, Israel has begun expanding the settlements.

In October, Israeli officials dedicated a new archeological site in one of the Hebron settlements, at Tel Rumeida, claiming it dates from the First Temple period. At the same time Israel approved a $6 million plan to convert a former army base into 31 housing units, as well as kindergartens and public areas.

A month later it was announced that a new residential bloc would be built—the first substantial, newly constructed building for settlers in Hebron in more than a decade.

ANNEXATION IN THE AIR

These moves, and others, prompted Michael Lynk, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, to warn: “Annexation is in the air…Indeed, I think we're at a stage where occupation is becoming indistinguishable from annexation.”

“The idea is to make life so intolerable the Palestinians will choose to expel themselves,” Even-Paz says. “Unemployment among Palestinians is about 70 percent in

H2, so the pressure is on the residents to move into H1 or out of Hebron entirely.”

In their place, the settlers have taken over. Carefree-looking couples wander with babies in strollers, men and boys hurry to seminaries, bored Jewish teenagers study their phones on street corners, and families lounge at bus stops for the frequent services connecting them to Jerusalem and elsewhere.

Everything, says Even-Paz, from water and electricity to rents and public transport, is subsidized to encourage Jews to move here.

Amid the surrounding Palestinian homes, all of this “normality” takes place in a controlled environment that is anything but. It is enforced by heavily fortified checkpoints, razor wire, watchtowers, army patrols and rooftop sentries watching every move.

Many of the settlers have licenses to carry army-issue rifles and handguns.

As elsewhere in the occupied territories, Israel has imposed two systems of law.

Palestinians, including children, face summary arrest, military trial and draconian punishment, while Jewish settlers operate under an Israeli civil law that involves due process and a presumption of innocence—though even this is rarely enforced against them.

“They know they are untouchable,” says

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Even-Paz. “The army’s rules of engagement mean soldiers can’t enforce the law on Israeli civilians.

“Soldiers are not allowed to respond if the settlers commit a crime or assault a Palestinian. They are even under orders not to shoot back if a settler opens fire at them.”

Not that such a scenario has occurred often. Many soldiers are religious settlers themselves, and even the secular ones sympathize with Hebron’s settlers.

“When I served, they brought us hot drinks on a cold day, and iced drinks on a hot day,” Even-Paz said. “During Shabbat [the Sabbath], they invited us to come and eat in their homes. They became like family to us.”

But that welcome has turned sour since Even-Paz joined Breaking the Silence.

Settlers have thrown eggs, water bombs, coffee grounds and mud at him. In July, Yehuda Shaul, a founder of Breaking the Silence, was punched in the face during a tour of Hebron, and another guide had paint poured over her.

It’s not just settlers targeting the group.

Government ministers routinely accuse Breaking the Silence of treason and of aiding supposed efforts by Europe to damage the army and Israel’s image. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has in the past called for the group’s members to be investigated by the police.

In mid-October, two officials of Breaking the Silence and the group’s lawyer were questioned at a police station just outside Hebron following their arrest during a recent tour.

Netanyahu also refuses to meet any foreign dignitary who has dealings with Breaking the Silence. That policy resulted in a highly publicized 2017 snub to the German foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel.

In July, the parliament passed a law barring Breaking the Silence from schools, even though visits by “loyal” soldiers are a mainstay of the curriculum.

Now the army and settlers appear to be working hand-in-hand to stymie the group’s tours.

In fact, 10 years ago, the army issued an order banning the group’s trips to Hebron, though Breaking the Silence eventu32

ally won a costly legal battle to have them reinstated.

But in recent weeks the settlers have markedly intensified efforts to break up the tours. The army, meanwhile, appears to be exploiting the upsurge in settler violence to crack down on Breaking the Silence, on the pretext that restrictions are necessary to “prevent friction.”

The same rationale was originally used to implement the system of restricted access for Palestinians to areas of Hebron coveted by settlers. In 1994, shortly after the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships signed the Oslo peace accords, a fanatical Jewish American settler, Baruch Goldstein, opened fire in the Ibrahimi Mosque, killing and wounding some 150 worshipping Muslims (see p. 16).

It should have provided the moment for Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s then-prime minister, to remove the small settler community from Hebron. It was a necessary first step in proving that Israel was serious about the Oslo process and creating a Palestinian state in the occupied territories.

Instead, Even-Paz observes, Israel entrenched the settlers’ rule, crafting the situation visible on the ground today.

For more than 15 years, Israel has forbidden entry for Palestinians to what was once Hebron’s main throroughfare and central shopping area along Shuhada Street. Now it has been rebranded in Hebrew as King David Street, and declared what the army terms a “sterilized area.”

The closure severs the main transport routes for Palestinians between north and south Hebron.

Most of the Palestinian inhabitants have been driven from the city center by endless harassment and attacks by settlers, bolstered by arrests and night raids conducted by the army, says Even-Paz. The few Palestinians still residing in the area are literally caged into their own homes—their doors welded shut and their windows covered with bars. The bars are there for their own protection, because settlers throw stones, eggs and soiled diapers at their windows. The families are forced to enter and leave via the rooftops into back streets to shop, work and meet friends.

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

The dozens of stores that once drew shoppers from throughout the southern West Bank have been sealed up long ago.

The army, according to our guide, has turned a blind eye to the settlers requisitioning some for their own use.

And the settlers appear to be becoming ever more confident of their hold on the city.

In November they claimed that a record number of Jewish visitors—40,000—had attended a commemoration of Abraham’s supposed purchase of the cave in which the Patriarchs are reputedly buried.

As we moved into the settler-controlled heart of Hebron, we got a taste of the new official policy of intimidation and harassment against Breaking the Silence.

It started early on, when an officer approached to tell us we were not allowed to move without a military escort. Soldiers and Jeeps shadowed us closely.

Our group hardly looked combative. It included European staff from a human rights organization; curious tourists; a group of young friends brought along by an Israeli leftist they were visiting; and a young Jew from Brooklyn who was in Israel to understand the occupation and his Jewish identity more deeply.

The only crossing point on Shuhada Street still open to Palestinians, Bab alKhan, is littered with half a dozen checkpoints, which only Palestinian children returning from school appeared willing to pass.

Even that route is under threat. Settlers have occupied two Palestinian homes on either side of the road in an attempt to force the army to close the street to Palestinians entirely, says Even-Paz. But the settlers and their Jewish visitors have the run of the place, while our escort of heavily armed soldiers soon blocked the way ahead.

Half-way up Shuhada Street, before we could reach the last two, most extreme, illegal settlements, the military commander issued an order that we were denied further access to “prevent friction.”

“It seems there are only two kinds of people not allowed to walk through the center of Hebron,” Even-Paz observed.

“Palestinians and Breaking the Silence.” ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

margolis_33-34.qxp_Special Report 12/11/18 10:12 PM Page 33

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A Big Step for a Greater Israel

Special Report

By Eric S. Margolis

This picture taken from Syria shows the United Nations peacekeepers’ bunkers and Israeli-annexed Golan Heights part of the Quneitra border crossing as Syrian officials prepare for its reopening on Oct. 15, 2018, four years after closing due to the civil war on the Syrian side. The IDF announced that the strategic crossing would be opened exclusively to U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) troops.

HARDLY ANYONE NOTICED. The Trump administration quietly changed America’s long-held position on Syria’s strategic Golan Heights while attention was focused on the raucous political carnival in Washington. Though barely noticed, the policy change had enormous importance and will lead the United States into a lot of future Mideast misery.

The Golan Heights is a volcanic plateau that abuts Syria, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. The plateau rises abruptly from the plain of Galilee, providing dominance of the entire region. To the north, Mt. Hermon rises to over 9,000 feet (2,814 meters); the plateau slopes down at its southern extremity.

Golan provides the headwaters of the Jordan River and 15 to 20 percent of Israel’s water from its snow-capped north. Israeli artillery atop Golan can hit Damascus and its airport. Electronic

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist and the author of american raj: liberation or domination? resolving the Conflict between the West and the Muslim World (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). Copyright © 2018 ericMargolis.com. january/February 2019

intelligence systems on Golan look down onto southern Syria, intercepting all communications and detecting troop movements.

The plateau is quite fascinating. I have walked most of the Israeli-held side, observing dug-in tanks, artillery and small forts surrounded by anti-tank ditches. Burned out wrecks of Syrian tanks and armor litter the countryside. I’ve also walked the Syrian side and explored the wrecked Syrian town of Kuneitra that was leveled by the Israelis in 1967.

Israel seized Golan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and annexed the plateau in 1981. Almost all of Golan’s Arab population was driven out by the Israelis. The U.N. and U.S. demanded that Israel return Golan to its rightful owner, Syria. After 1981, Israel moved more than 20,000 settlers onto Golan to cement its control of the strategic heights and its water sources.

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Syrian forces came close to pushing Israeli forces off Golan. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. For still unknown reasons, the Syrian armored offensive abruptly halted just as it reached the western edge of the plateau overlooking northern Israel.

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My understanding is that Soviet recon satellites saw Israel deploying its nuclear bombs and missiles from their cave shelters. Moscow warned ally Syria that it risked nuclear attack by Israel unless its forces halted their advance so the Syrian offensive stopped on the verge of tactical success.

This allowed Israel to concentrate enough reserve armored divisions to successfully counter-attack and drive Syria from the heights.

Since 1973, America’s policy has been to demand Israel relinquish Golan while quietly allowing U.S. tax-deductible funds to expand Jewish settlements on the plateau. Israel even reportedly offered to return Golan in exchange for a peace deal with Syria, but the secret terms of the deal were too onerous for Damascus.

The Trump administration abruptly changed U.S. Mideast policy. First, it announced the U.S. Embassy would move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, meaning that it rejected the idea of a Palestinian state with its capital in the old city of Jerusalem.

Now, the White House has quietly accepted permanent Israeli control of Golan,

though it violates international law and past U.S. policy.

It’s clear that U.S. Mideast policy is firmly under the control of the neocons aligned to Israel’s expansionist far right parties. In fact, it is impossible to see any difference between the policies of Israel’s hard rightwing leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, and President Donald Trump.

They are joined at the hip. A coterie of proIsrael lawyers and property developers from New York City have completely taken control of Mideast policy.

More important, what the change in U.S. Golan policy means is that Trump & Co are giving a green light to further Israeli territorial expansion. Now that Washington, which decries Russia’s much more justified annexation of Crimea, has approved the illegal annexation of Golan, what could be next? Likely further chunks of southern Syria, an invasion of Lebanon and annexation of its water resources.

Saudi Arabia and its ally, the United Arab Emirates, have already been given a green light by Washington to carve out strongholds in Yemen and along the strategic

Red Sea coast. This is the Mideast “peace” settlement that candidate Trump promised; an increasingly close alliance with the Mideast’s most reactionary states. This bodes ill for the United States. ■

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coleUN_36-37.qxp_United Nations Report 12/11/18 10:06 PM Page 36

United Nations Report

Trump’s Appointment of Heather Nauert at U.N. Is a National Security Threat to the U.S.

By Juan Cole

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

tional affairs it would be necessary to deploy the Deepsea Challenger (DCV 1) that director James Cameron used to reach the deepest part of the Mariana Trench at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Notoriously, when speaking of the good relations between Germany and the United States, she not only (correctly) cited the Marshall Plan but went on to bring up D-Day, when U.S. troops landed at Normandy Beach in the face of German machine gun fire.

But while simple ignorance can be laughable, it can, after all, be repaired in someone who wants to put in the work of, like, cracking a book or doing some research.

What is truly worrisome is that Nauert has that same sadistic streak that runs Spokesperson Heather Nauert speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washing- through Trump and Trumpism, to the exton, DC, Nov. 30, 2017. tent of simply not caring if children are killed.

Take, for instance, her remarks about the Saudi droning to PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is making Heather Nauert his death of children in a schoolbus in Yemen: ambassador to the United Nations, the most empty-headed I just don’t get a sense that she was horrified at this killing of such appointment since George W. Bush tried to shoehorn the children, and she seems to have been much more interested in crazed John Bolton into that position. In recognition that Nauert running interference for Saudi Arabia’s total war on Yemeni is a lightweight, Trump is demoting U.N. ambassador from civilians. Some 85,000 children have died of starvation in being a cabinet-level position. This means Nauert won’t be Yemen. She actually excused the droning of a schoolbus on able to call principals’ meetings of people like the secretary of the grounds that the Houthis have fired some ineffectual rockstate or the secretary of defense when there is a global crisis ets toward Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have bombed Yemen inaffecting the welfare of the United States. tensively, whereas Houthis have no air force.

Nauert is Trump’s mini-me, aping his shell-shocked insouThen there was that time, which the Russian propaganda outciance at atrocities and struggling to understand the simplest fit Sputnik picked up on, when Nauert caused an international questions. incident by mixing up the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Nauert emerged as a Fox Cable News personality and was, the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, with the YPG, the predictably, picked up by Trump from there to be State DepartSyrian Kurdish militia that is America’s main ally on the ground ment spokesperson. Her main qualification was flattery of Trump. in Syria fighting ISIS. Nauert rightly protested the Turkish invaTo plumb the depths of Nauert’s ignorance about internasion of Afrin last winter, a Syrian Kurdish enclave. But she Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment and slipped up and said that Turkey went in after the PKK. That is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan. what Turkey would have said, since it does not recognize that He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of the YPG is a separate, Syrian organization which does not have Peace Amid the Clash of Empires. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole.

Copyright © 2018 Informed Comment. All rights reserved. a line of command to the PKK. The U.S. has made itself blue in 36

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the face defending the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia as good guys fighting extremism who have nothing to do with the (allegedly) terrorist PKK. And here comes Nauert, saying that the Afrin Kurds are PKK (which would have legitimated the very Turkish invasion she was condemning).

We live in a country where seasoned

diplomats like Chas Freeman cannot serve on the National Security Council because they object to Israel’s colonization of the Palestinian West Bank. But ignoramuses like Nauert who excuse Saudi massacres and don’t know which Kurds the Pentagon is supporting are easily appointed to high office where they can do a [lousy] job of representing the United

States to the world community. As the aftermath of crises like the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 or the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks showed, diplomacy is key to America’s ability to face global challenges.

Nauert isn’t capable of diplomacy, just of mouthing off in imitation of Trump’s Twitterhea.

SAD. ■

U.N. REJECTS U.S.-DRAFTED RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN HAMAS

The United Nations General Assembly has rejected a United States-sponsored resolution seeking to condemn Hamas, the Palestinian group administering the besieged Gaza Strip.

The resolution, which was backed strongly by Israel, needed a two-thirds majority to pass on Thursday, Dec. 6, following an earlier vote in the assembly.

The proposal failed to cross the threshold, with 87 nations voting in favor and 57 voting against, while 33 countries abstained.

The earlier vote to require a two-thirds majority, which followed a procedural move requested by Kuwait, was much closer: 7572, with 26 abstentions.

HAMAS THANKS U.N. MEMBER STATES

The resolution was one of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley’s final acts in the international body before she leaves her post at the end of the year.

The outgoing envoy, a staunch defender of Israel, had written to member states the preceding Monday to urge them to vote for the U.S.-drafted text, warning them: “The United States takes the outcome of this vote very seriously.”

“Before the General Assembly can credibly advocate compromise and reconciliation between the Palestinians and Israel, it must on record, unambiguously and unconditionally, condemn Hamas terrorism,” Haley told the body before the vote.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the U.N., said that it was a tense meeting, as the General Assembly first had to decide how the resolution would be voted on.

“It had a vote on whether it will be a simple majority or a twothirds majority. That result was very narrow but it went in favor of two-thirds, putting a much higher bar for Ambassador Haley’s resolution.

“When it was finally voted on, she got a majority but she didn’t get the two-thirds—a blow to the U.S. ambassador,” Bays said.

In an official statement, Hamas thanked U.N. member states “that stood by our people’s resistance and the justice of their cause” and attacked Haley who, it said, “is known for her extremism and her positions that support the Zionist terrorism in Palestine.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri described the vote as a “slap” to President Donald Trump’s administration, which has JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

taken a firm pro-Israeli stance in addressing the Middle East peace process.

“The failure of the American venture at the United Nations represents a slap to the U.S. administration and confirmation of the legitimacy of the resistance,” Zahri wrote on Twitter.

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, also welcomed the resolution’s defeat, saying: “The Palestinian presidency will not allow for the condemnation of the national Palestinian struggle.”

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said the countries that rejected the draft resolution should be ashamed. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commended those that voted in favor.

Ali Abunimah, a co-founder of Electronic Intifada, an independent online news publication, said the failure of the proposal was significant.

“This resolution was really just an attempt to weaponize the U.N. against the Palestinian people, against their legitimate rights,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The resolution itself was just transparently Israeli talking points—it didn’t mention the military occupation, the siege of Gaza, Israel’s daily attacks against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. I think the world saw through it and they rightly rejected it.”

CRIPPLING BLOCKADE

The Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians, has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for more than a decade.

In 2006, Hamas beat Fatah in parliamentary elections in the Gaza Strip and, a year later, fighting between the rival factions broke out.

When Hamas eventually took control, Israel responded by enforcing a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza and banning its residents from working in Israel.

Egypt followed suit, effectively sealing the Strip—often described as the world’s largest prison—from the outside world.

Gaza’s continued isolation has devastated its economy, impoverished its population and left 60 percent without jobs, adequate electricity and health services.

—<www.aljazeera.com>, Dec. 7, 2018

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Eisner-Jews_38-39.qxp_January-February 2019 Issue 12/11/18 9:49 PM Page 38

Special Report

Trump’s Jews: These Loyalists Have Changed American Politics (For Better or Worse)

By Jane Eisner

SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

that his administration is tone deaf—or much worse—to the anti-Semitism spread in its name. How could President Trump hate Jews when his own daughter is photographed shaking the lulav and etrog on Sukkot?

If the first daughter and her family are meant to represent Orthodox Jewish values in the White House, the third senior adviser, Stephen Miller, represents the opposite. When, in June, the administration decided to separate families seeking refuge at the southern border, Miller—architect of the president’s inhumane immigration Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, White House senior advisers, walk to Air Force One, Oct. 30, 2018, as they policy—offered a full-throated endorsement. By doing so, not travel to Pittsburgh, PA, following the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue. only did he distance himself from the majority of American Jews who obremoved politically, religiously and demoEVER SINCE JIMMY CARTER served in the White House, every presidential ad- graphically from the majority of American jected to the policy, he also distanced himself from his family’s immigrant history. His ministration has appointed a high-level of- Jews.

Start with the three Jewish senior advis- own relatives denounced him. ficial to serve as the authorized liaison with But Miller has had an impact. Even ers to the president. Two people who hold America’s organized Jewish community.

Until the Trump administration, where, that job title are Ivanka Trump and Jared though the courts ordered an end to the for nearly two years now, the position has Kushner, though they are, of course, so separation policy, months later many hunbeen left vacant. And why not? President much more and, paradoxically, so much dreds of migrant children still have not Trump probably believes he doesn’t need less. There was little progress this year in been reunited with their families.

Another high-profile Jew in Trump’s someone to tell him what the Jewish com- their respective portfolios—women and munity thinks and needs. He can just ask children for Trump, Middle East peace and White House, U.S. Treasury Secretary his daughter and son-in-law, his adminis- other sundries for Kushner—but they Steven Mnuchin, surprised everyone this tration officials, his (onetime) lawyer and clearly exercised power in other ways. year by simply holding on to his job. In an News reports said they shaped the presi- administration with an unusually high his biggest financial donor.

Never before have Jews enjoyed this dent’s response to the Pittsburgh mas- turnover of senior officials, Mnuchin has sort of access to raw political power in sacre (the scripted response anyway) and managed to avoid Trump’s wrath by keepWashington. But, as we saw in 2018, Kushner evidently had a hand in persuad- ing selectively silent and unendingly loyal. never before have the powerful been so ing his father-in-law to excuse the Crown If his moderate Wall Street predilections Prince of Saudi Arabia for the murder of are clashing with his boss’s unorthodox Jane Eisner is the editor-in-chief of the forapproach to tax, trade and fiscal policy, ward. Copyright © The Forward Association, journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Nonetheless, their very presence helped Mnuchin isn’t saying.

Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Instead, he seems to be surviving by to inoculate the president against charges 38

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doing what heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s told. Mnuchin displayed a smidgeon of backbone by skipping a conference in Riyadh designed to extol the virtues of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, shortly after the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But that profile in courage faded fast. The treasury secretary was photographed awkwardly talking to the crown prince just days later.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman relocated his office to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, a move with grand political and strategic implications. At a dedication ceremony in May, notable for who spoke (evangelical preachers) and who wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t invited (Democrats), Trump fulfilled his promise to move the U.S. Embassy to the contested city, solidifying Jewish claims and negating Palestinian ones. While American Jews were overwhelmingly wary of the unilateral move, Israelis and white evangelical Chris(Advertisement)

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

tians were thrilled.

So was Friedman. The mild-mannered former bankruptcy lawyer with no diplomatic experience has presided over a historic shift in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which the United States has dropped all pretense of neutrality and aligned itself closely with Binyamin Netanyahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s government. We have yet to see whether this will bring about an end to the conflictâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the long-awaited Trump peace plan for the region has yet to be seen.

Meanwhile, this year Michael D. Cohen went from the guy who would take a bullet for his boss to the one who snitched on him. In August, in an extraordinary admission in court, Cohen said that Trump had directed him to pay two women during the 2016 campaign to keep them from publicly speaking about affairs they had with the man now in the White House.

In all, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts, including tax fraud and campaign violations. A sentencing date is set for December; he faces up to 65 years in prison. Then on Friday Dec. 7, Cohen got into even more trouble when the special prosecutorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office revealed that he reached out to Russia to arrange a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in late 2015â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and that Trump knew about it beforehand.

Cohenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s downfall embodied not only the sordidness surrounding Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Cohen was, of course, not the only top official to face prison timeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but also the slipperiness of Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regard. Cohen once embodied the stereotypical streetsmart, aggressive personal lawyer whose loyalty appeared unquestioned. But once he turned on Trump, Trump turned on him with a vengeance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t retain the services of Michael Cohen!â&#x20AC;? the president wrote.

Oh, but Trump would never turn on Sheldon Adelson. The billionaire casino magnate, philanthropist and profligate Republican donor solidified his power this year on many fronts. His privileged seat at the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem was merely one illustration of

the force with which he has commandeered American foreign policy to align with the Netanyahu government.

But thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more: Adelson has used his political access to push his financial selfinterests, and the Trump administration is more than happy to oblige. While at first he was a reluctant supporter of the renegade presidential candidate, Adelson bet, and bet bigâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he was the biggest Republican donor in the midtermsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and he won, at least personally. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With Trump occupying the White House, Adelson has found the greatest political ally heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever had,â&#x20AC;? ProPublica reported.

Adelsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard-line views on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, and his promotion of domestic policies that favor the .001 percent, put him far to the political right of most American Jews.

No matter. He sits quite comfortably in the constellation of Jews who hold power and swat over the man in the Oval Office. â&#x2013; (Advertisement)

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Two Views

U.S.-Saudi Relations in the Era of Trump and Mohammed bin Salman

KEVIN DIETSCH-POOL/GETTY IMAGES

MbS not only knew about but orchestrated the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, what is the appropriate way for President Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and other senior officials to deal with him?

Can they just carry on as if the murder didn’t happen? Certainly they can’t be seen exchanging exuberant high-fives with MbS, as Russia’s Vladimir Putin did at the G-20 summit in Argentina, but given the closeness of the bilateral relationship they also can’t avoid him altogether.

It’s a safe bet that members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will ask this question of retired Gen. John Abizaid when they consider his nomination to be ambassador to the Kingdom.

Abizaid, who is of Lebanese descent, speaks Arabic, and has been steeped in President Donald Trump welcomes Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Middle East affairs for much of his adult life, but his post in Riyadh will test his Saudi Arabia to the Oval Office at the White House, March 20, 2018 in Washington, DC. diplomatic skill. Should he pose for smiling photos with MbS or not? Should he invite the crown prince to the embassy’s July 4 ceremonies?

These are not just matters of protocol. They go to the quesBy Thomas W. Lippman tion of what the United States stands for. What message does it want to send to the world?

NOTHING IN HISTORY is truly unprecedented, but the conunIn the decades since World War II, it has usually been easy drum the White House and U.S. policymakers now face in for American officials to put foreign leaders into one of three dealing with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) of categories.

Saudi Arabia is at least highly unusual.

There were clear-cut, highly regarded “good guys” such as It’s hard to recall a time when the United States maintained Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher and Anwar Sadat. Even close economic and strategic ties with a friendly country easier to identify were the undisputed “bad guys” like Fidel whose leader, as a person, was no longer an acceptable interCastro, Idi Amin, Manuel Noriega and Ho Chi Minh. And then locutor. there were leaders who might have been bad guys, but at In the face of substantial, credible evidence that the impetuous least they were our bad guys so Washington could overlook Thomas W. Lippman is a Washington, DC-based author and journaltheir flaws and excesses to work with them. These included ist who has written about Middle Eastern affairs and American forSyngman Rhee, the shah of Iran and assorted autocrats in eign policy for more than four decades, specializing in Saudi Arabian Latin America. affairs, U.S-Saudi relations, and relations between the West and The Trump administration has signaled that it intends to put Islam. He is a former Middle East bureau chief of The Washington MbS into that last category, calculating that the relationship Post, and also served as that newspaper’s oil and energy reporter.

Copyright © 2018 LobeLog. All rights reserved. with Saudi Arabia is too important to jeopardize by ostracizing

What Now for U.S. Foreign Policy and The Crown Prince?

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its ruler. The United States does not condone Khashoggi’s murder, Pompeo wrote in The Wall Street Journal, but “degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies.” He denounced the vociferous critics in Congress who have been calling for the United States to reconsider the entire relationship because of the killing and because of the CIA’s finding that the crown prince was directly involved. Deriding what he called “Capitol Hill caterwauling,” Pompeo wrote that: The Kingdom is a powerful force for stability in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is working to secure Iraq’s fragile democracy and keep Baghdad tethered to the West’s interests, not Tehran’s. Riyadh is helping manage the flood of refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war by working with host countries, cooperating closely with Egypt, and establishing stronger ties with Israel. Saudi Arabia has also contributed millions of dollars to the U.S.-led effort to fight Islamic State and other terrorist organizations. Saudi oil production and economic stability are keys to regional prosperity and global energy security.

All that may well be true. Such considerations have led every president since Harry S. Truman to overlook Saudi Arabia’s deplorable human rights record. But no previous Saudi ruler had a direct role in the murder of a prominent journalist.

And none of them had put so many blots on the royal copy book in such a short time as MbS, who disrupted U.S. military relationships around the Gulf with his boycott of Qatar, provoked a pointless split with Canada, and deployed mercenary veterans of Sudan’s campaign of atrocities in Darfur to do the ground fighting in the endless war in Yemen.

The crown prince is responsible for “one international disaster after another,” says Mehran Kamrava, a political scientist at Georgetown University’s branch in Qatar. No one else in the royal government can be blamed, because MbS has consolidated virtually all power in his own hands.

As long as his domestic rivals and critics remain cowed by his ruthless repression, Mohammed bin Salman will likely be king of Saudi Arabia for decades. Over time, the international furor over the death of Jamal Khashoggi will subside, just as the war in Yemen will eventually end. How long will it take for tempers to cool and memories to fade to the point where a U.S. president can in good conscience invite MbS to the White House?

Is Kushner Covering for Bin Salman Murder Charge so Israel can Usurp Palestinian West Bank?

By Juan Cole

THE NEW YORK TIMES (hat/tip Mother Jones) has reported from one Saudi source and several sources in U.S. intelligence that Jared Kushner has been corresponding over Whatsapp with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Kushner, the Times reporting concludes, has “offered the crown prince advice about how to weather JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

the storm, urging him to resolve his conflicts around the region and avoid further embarrassments.”

Weather the storm? Murdering a prominent Washington Post columnist in a Saudi consulate is not a storm. It is a crime, and whoever ordered it should be tried and if found guilty sent to prison for a few decades. (There isn’t any doubt that Mohammed bin Salman ordered the hit, though it is fair to say he hasn’t been convicted by a court of law.)

CNN’s Nic Robertson has been informed of the contents of a transcript of the Turkish intelligence recording of the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He was clearly kidnapped and then strangled. His last words were, “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.” The transcript shows that the leader of the assassination team made several phone calls, which Turkish intelligence says went to the Saudi royal court. It also recorded the sounds of a bone saw after the murder.

Jared Kushner doesn’t care.

Kushner famously made a relationship with bin Salman when he was still third in line to the throne, in spring of 2017, and may have tried to pull strings for his friend so as to slip him into the position of crown prince in the summer of 2017. Kushner has stood with bin Salman through a whole series of crimes, including extorting $100 billion from some 200 fellow princes and his Yemen war that has resulted in starving 85,000 Yemeni children to death. And now the advice to “weather the storm” of being caught red-handed murdering Khashoggi.

Journalism focuses on personalities and often depicts Kushner as a lonely young man eager to have a Saudi BFF. But Israeli journalist Michael Bachner at The Times of Israel has proposed a structural explanation for the link: bin Salman is using his willingness to throw the Palestinians under the bus as a way of bonding with Kushner and getting the latter’s support in the Trump White House. (Trump has his own reasons for supporting bin Salman, mainly petroleum and purchases from the U.S. arms industry.)

The Trump team has a vision of a “deal of the century” for the Palestinians and Israelis, which appears to simply be a rubber stamp on the Likud Party’s Colonization Project aimed at the Palestinian West Bank, and which is gradually illegally usurping the latter. The Palestinians are weak and relatively poor and helpless, and it is most often the case in history that such people are dealt with horrifically and with impunity.

Since Trump put Kushner in charge of Palestine policy, the administration has 1) moved the U.S. Embassy to the disputed city of Jerusalem, 2) cut off funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency that provides aid to millions of Palestinian refugees kicked out of their homes by the Israelis, 3) cut off $5 billion in funding for West Bank development to the U.S. Agency for International Development, and 4) permitted a tripling of Israeli squatter housing units on Palestinian land.

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment and Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole.

Copyright © 2018 Informed Comment. All rights reserved.

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This full court press to crush the Palestinians and leave them with nothing at all is intended to force their acquiescence to permanent Israeli apartheid rule over them and gradual expropriation of what is left of their land.

Bin Salman allegedly told a group of Jewish Americans in New York that he doesn’t care about the Palestinians. There is in fact no good evidence that he cares about anyone at all aside from himself and a couple of cronies. Bin Salman wants to do a deal with Israel whereby it is recognized by the Gulf Cooperation Council states, just as it was recognized by Egypt and Jordan. But as with Egypt, which negotiated a separate peace with Israel and the U.S. that left the Palestinians in the lurch, Bin Salman is perfectly willing to trade his own security as crown prince for the 5 million or so occupied and stateless Palestinians. Hence Kushner’s unwavering support for the crown prince, said to be the most vocal and steadfast in the White House.

Kushner is a big backer of Israeli apartheid and the Israeli squatter settlements, and for people with his commitments Muhammed Bin Salman is a godsend. His relationship to Bin Salman is now a threat to U.S. national security. ■

Like Father, Unlike Son Continued from page 29

malnutrition in infants and children,” he says. “Walk onto the wards of Shifa hospi-

tal, and you will be shocked. Our kids make no media headlines, as if ignored by all the squabbling political parties—Israel and the international community are blind to it all.

“We are seeing a huge increase in anemia, stunted growth and infant mortality,” he adds. “Gaza’s drinking water is a major problem: we drink contaminated water that kills us daily, that is not fit for healthy consumption.”

Gaza’s main aquifer has been increasingly contaminated over many decades by dumped raw sewage, agricultural pesticides and the intrusion of seawater from severe over-pumping.

According to Gaza Water Authority officials, 97 percent of Gaza’s drinking water wells are unfit for human consumption, and the U.N. cites the scarcity and pollution of water resources as being at the forefront of Gaza's scourges.

Yet Tahseen and his son continue their argument on another cold night without electricity, the father defending his hopes of renewed friendship with the Israelis he knew 18 years ago.

“The people of Gaza want to be peaceful human beings again,” he says. Whatever human needs are, he tells his son, they are equally the needs of Gazans, too. “Then we can get on with our lives, enjoy our identity and find new meaning in life,” he continues to hope, “after losing so much and being locked down for so long.” ■

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Marc Lamont Hill Continued from page 15

ber conference about propaganda in Germany, UNRWA is anti-Semitic, and of course, BDS. The whole world is against us.

That last week in November there was a lot of fuss over a world survey of antiSemitism conducted by CNN. It turns out that the Jews are not as hated as Israel would like: Only 10 percent said they had any negative feelings about them. Nearly four times as many people said they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like Muslims. Along with its worrisome aspects, the survey points out more than a few truths you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t deny. Twenty-eight percent of those questioned said that antiSemitism in their countries is a result of Israeli policy. A third believe that Israel takes advantage of the Holocaust to advance its positions. One in five thought the Jews have too much influence in the media.

Fire more analysts who dare to criticize Is-

rael or suggest just solutions to the occupationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and more people surveyed will say what everyone knows: The Jews and Israel have an incredible degree of influence in Western media. Now you can call me an anti-Semite, as well. â&#x2013;

Copyright Š Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Tale of Two Massacres Continued from page 18

No doubt Robert Bowers is a hero to some who knew him through Gab and through his turning racist theory into murderous practice. Baruch Goldstein is still a hero to the religious radicals he lived among. There are yearly pilgrimages to his well-kept gravesite.

Such people as Bowers and Goldstein are always with us. The question is, do we maintain a culture that empowers them? In both the case of Israel and the

United States the answer at present appears to be yesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;though there is a noticeable difference here.

In the case of Israel, given that the exclusionist ideology of Zionism is the very basis of national culture, the empowerment of racist hatred against Arabs and Muslims is almost inevitable.

In the case of the United States, there are still millions of citizens who stand against the racist and white nationalist sentiments that presently poison the culture. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a national effort to humanize the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s laws and behavior within the public sphere. This was largely the product of the civil rights movement. Today the U.S. is in the midst of a cultural civil war waged by those who would destroy that progress. In other words, here things are in flux and a culture infused with human and civil rights is still an option. Indeed, taking that option is the real way of â&#x20AC;&#x153;making America great again.â&#x20AC;? â&#x2013;

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Islam and the Near East in the Far East

Unanswered Questions About Malaysian Cooperation With Saudi Arabia, Israel

By John Gee

MOHD RASFAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Kashgari apologized and deleted the posts, but still felt himself to be in danger.

He fled Saudi Arabia, intending to seek political asylum in New Zealand, but an order for his arrest was issued by King Abdullah.

Kashgari’s journey to New Zealand took him via Malaysia, where he was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 9 by the Malaysian police. Although Malaysia did not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia, he was sent back and arrested upon his arrival on Feb. 12.

His lawyer had been denied access to Kashgari. Lawyers representing him obtained a High Court injunction against his deportation, but were told that he had been repatriated before the injunction was granted. However, the lawyers were not able to find any reliable record of the timStudents of Palestinian Professor Fadi al-Batsh, who was killed in a drive-by assassination ing of his departure. The Malaysian govon April 21, hug each other outside Selayang hospital in Kuala Lumpur. ernment’s action was strongly criticized by local NGOs and international human rights organizations. Kashgari spent nearly two years in prison on his AS THE LEGACY OF the Najib government is raked over, there return. are two Middle East-related incidents that took place under its One element of the whole affair that irked some Malaysians watch that ought to be re-examined. (whatever their attitude toward Kashgari’s actions) was their govThe first occurred in 2012. On Feb. 4 of that year, a young Saudi ernment’s ready accession to Riyadh’s wishes. It seemed undigjournalist and poet called Hamza Kashgari Mohamed Najeeb nified for a sovereign state to behave in this way, and there was a posted three messages to the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter as perception at the time that this was a case of the government actpart of an imagined meeting between the two of them. Among other ing out of fear of losing Saudi investment and business. The revthings, he portrayed himself saying, “I have loved things about you elation of the extent of corrupt practices in ex-Prime Minister and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t underNajib’s government may yet set some Malaysians wondering stand about you.” The overall thrust of his statements was to conwhether there were also personal financial interests at stake in test what Kashgari saw as the excessive exaltation of the Prophet; Kashgari’s case. they concluded, “I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

The second incident is the assassination of Dr. Fadi al-Batsh, a The posts met with a furious reaction, within Kashgari’s own Palestinian lecturer in electrical engineering, in Kuala Lumpur on country in particular. They were denounced as blasphemous and April 21, 2018. He was gunned down by two men riding on a moa Facebook petition calling for Kashgari’s execution collected more torcycle while walking to a mosque for morning prayers. The killers than 12,000 endorsements within a fortnight. A significantly smaller escaped. According to Malaysian authorities, immediately after ridnumber of people signed posts defending him, and a number of ing away from the murder scene, the gunmen had transferred to religious authorities spoke up and said that he should be forgiven a waiting van. Police Inspector-General Muhamad Fuzi Harun said providing that he apologized. that the suspected assassins had used passports from Serbia and Montenegro to enter Malaysia, and were believed to hold other John Gee is a free-lance journalist based in Singapore, and the passports as well. A security source was reported to have told author of Unequal Conflict: The Palestinians and Israel.

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local news media that the men had escaped into southern Thailand.

Dr. al-Batsh was from Jabalya in the Gaza Strip, but had been living with his immediate family in Malaysia for 10 years. He took his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza, and his Ph.D. at the University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Following his assassination, Hamas referred to him as one of its members. The lecturer’s family members in the Gaza Strip accused the Israeli espionage agency Mossad of killing him.

Israel’s then-Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio that Israel had not carried out the assassination, and suggested that it was the outcome of “a settling of accounts” between Palestinian organizations. However, he also claimed that al-Batsh had been involved in working on improving the accuracy of rockets fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Subsequent reports—as well as the fact that the way in which the attack was carried out matched Mossad’s modus operandi— strengthened the suspicion that Israel had indeed been responsible for the assassination. A New York Times report, subsequently cited in the Israeli media, said that al-Batsh was killed as part of a Mossad operation “to dismantle a Hamas project that sends Gaza’s most promising scientists and engineers overseas to gather know-how and weaponry to fight Israel.” It was also claimed that he had been involved in efforts to obtain North Korean weaponry for Hamas.

Citing foreign media reports on Israeli actions is one way in which the Israeli media has gotten around censorship by its government.

In Malaysia, media reports focused on Dr. al-Batsh as an academic and on his personal popularity with staff and students, as well as his religious devotion. It was reported that he had worked on plans to make Gaza’s power supply more efficient and published a number of academic papers in his field. He had won a prestigious scholarship (Yayasan-Khazanah-VPM) for his Ph.D. work and, later, a Special Mention and High Achiever Award.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

CHINA’S POLICY TOWARD UIGHURS STIRS UNEASE IN S.E. ASIA

In parallel with its repression of the Muslim Uighur nationality under its rule, the Chinese government has made demands of other countries for cooperation in dealing with Uighur oppositionists beyond its borders. It is a sensitive issue, particularly for the predominantly Muslim states in Southeast Asia, where public sympathies lean toward the Uighurs.

China has made demands on various Southeast Asian states for the return of Uighur refugees who had taken refuge there. In 2009, Cambodia sent back 20 Uighurs. Thailand sent back 109 in July 2015. Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam have also returned Uighurs to China.

In November 2017, 20 Uighurs being held in a Thai prison escaped, and 11 of them managed to reach Malaysia. They were detained and charged with illegally entering Malaysia, which came under pressure from China to repatriate them, and from Western countries and human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, not to forcibly deport them.

Finally, in October, the charges against them were dropped on “humanitarian grounds” and they left for Turkey, where other Uighurs have found refuge. In comments to reporters a week later, on Oct. 15, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said they had been released because “[t]hey have done nothing wrong in this country.”

This move, coming on top of Malaysia’s cancellation of projects awarded to Chinese companies worth $20 billion following the May elections, increased the strain in ties between Malaysia and China.

Despite sympathy with the Uighurs among sectors of the regional public, there is also disquiet about the involvement of some Uighurs in violent activities in their countries. These have included the 2015 bombing of a Buddhist shrine in Bangkok that was visited by many tourists, killing 27 of them, and Uighur participation in the Mujahidin Indonesia Timur terrorist group in Indonesia. ■

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: 11/14/18; (4) Issue Frequency: Monthly except Jan/Feb, Mar/April, June/July, Aug/Sept., Nov/Dec are combined; (5) No. of issues published annually: 7; (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 20009-1707, News Editor: Delinda Hanley, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707, Managing Editor: Janet McMahon, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 200091707; (10) Owner: American Educational Trust, 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-1707; (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: XXXVII-6, October 2018; (15) Extent and nature of circulation: (a) total no. copies (net press run): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 7,614 No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 7,500; (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, 2,044, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 1,974; (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, 1,058. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date,1,335; (4) Other classes mailed through the USPS: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 51 No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 53; (c) Total paid and/or requested circulation [sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4)]: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 3,153, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 3,362; (d) Free distribution by mail (samples, complimentary and other free): (1) Outside-County as stated on Form 3541: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 2,503, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,382; (2) In-County as stated on Form 3541, Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0; (3) Other classes mailed through the USPS, Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 80, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 72; (e) Free distribution outside the mail (carriers or other means): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,758, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 1,584 (f) Total free distribution (sum of 15d and e): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 4,341 No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 4,038 (g) Total distribution (sum of 15c and f): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 7,494, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 7,400; (h) Copies not distributed: Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months,120; No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 100; (i) Total (sum of 15g and h): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 7,614 No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 7,500; (j) percent paid and/or requested circulation (15c/15gX100): Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 42.07%, No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 45.43%; (16) This statement of ownership will be printed in the Jan/Feb 2019 issue of this publication; (17) Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner: Delinda Hanley, Executive Director, 11/14/18, I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. 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).

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WAGING PEACE Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer gave a powerful talk on the historical roots of Christian Zionism, its theological basis and political agenda at the Jerusalem Fund in Washington, DC on Oct. 24. Jerusalem Fund’s executive director Mohamed Mohamed introduced Sizer as the founder of Peacemaker Trust for Persecuted Minorities based in the U.K. and the author of Christian Zionism: Road Map to Armageddon?

With around 100 million devotees, Sizer argues that Christian Zionism is the most dominant and destructive expression of Zionism today, Mohamed said, adding, “An indication of Sizer’s effectiveness as an advocate for justice is how severely he’s been maligned by supporters of and apologists for Israeli apartheid.”

Sizer began by defining Christian Zionism and quoting another expert on this topic, Don Wagner, author of Anxious for Armageddon: “Christian Zionism is a movement within Protestant Christianity that views the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, thus deserving our unconditional economic, moral, political and theological support.”

The roots of Christian Zionism lie in the Puritan movement, Sizer continued, and the belief that the Jewish people would convert to Christianity, return to Palestine, and transform it into a Christian nation prior to the return of Christ.

This plan for Israel has been perpetuated by misguided Christians, and also explains why there is such a close relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

Understanding Christian Zionism is vital, Sizer emphasized, because the Arab/Israeli issue is the most pervasive religious conflict and the longest running and most dangerous military dispute in the world, with chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons on the loose.

Christian Zionism predates the birth of Israel, with notions of a Jewish state beginning in 1799, when Napoleon Bona46

Rev. Stephen Sizer.

parte became the first world leader in 2,000 years to promise Israel to the Jews. The French military leader believed if a compliant Jewish community returned to the land of Israel they would assist his expansionist plans for the world. Christian Zionism soon followed, beginning in 1808 with the establishment of the London Jewish Society, which sought to relieve the suffering of London Jews and aid their return to the land of Israel.

In the 1830s Anglo-Irish Bible teacher John Nelson Darby argued that if the Jewish people returned to Palestine, they would become God’s earthly people and Christians would be raptured to heaven to become God’s heavenly people. A politician who took this seriously was Lord Shaftesbury, who founded the Palestine Exploration Fund, which used British army officers to map Palestine to help prepare the way for Jews to return.

Shaftesbury lobbied for the Jews to return in 1839-’40, arguing that it would further British colonial plans for the Middle East.

Where Napoleon failed to deliver, Britain succeeded, a story Sizer meticulously recounted, from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to Britain’s rule of and exit from Palestine from 1917 to 1948.

Next Sizer traced Christian Zionism in the United States, where Jerry Falwell, an American Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist

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STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

Rev. Sizer Reveals Christian Zionism Preceded Jewish Zionism

bragged he could mobilize 70 million conservative Christians to support Israel.

Sizer described the efforts made by each U.S. president to retain that support, culminating in Falwell’s son’s declaration, in April 2017, that in Donald Trump, “I think evangelicals have found their dream president...reuniting Israel with America.”

“The Pew Forum for Religion says that we’re dealing with 20 to 40 million active members,” Sizer said. “My point is that Zionism is predominately a Christian political movement, not a Jewish one. I would argue that 9 out 10 Zionists today are Christians. The Unity Coalition for Israel claims to have 40 million active members and [televangelist] John Hagee has access to over 90 million Christian Americans on a weekly basis. The Pew Forum found that 25 percent of American Christians believe it’s their responsibility to support Israel, and when you look at white Evangelicals it’s over 60 percent.”

Sizer continued to describe the beliefs of three groups of Christian Zionists and their political agenda. For more information, watch his talk on the Jerusalem Fund’s web site <thejerusalemfund.org>.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Panel Explores Religious Diversity In The Middle East

“It’s very important for Americans to understand the role that all religious groups play in the Middle East,” said Patrick Theros, former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, in welcoming remarks at the Gulf International Forum’s Nov. 13 program titled “Religious Pluralism in the Gulf” at Washington, DC’s Cosmos Club.

“Pluralistic societies are much more robust and vigorous than non-pluralistic societies,” opined Ira Forman, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. “I think having not just Jewish minorities, but Christian, Zaydi and various minorities will ultimately, in the long run, make the Arab world and the Muslim world in general much stronger,” he said.

“Churches, mosques and synagogues can and should play important roles in bringing civil societies together.”

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they must feel safe and have hope for a brighter future.”

—Elaine Pasquini

(L-r) Anna Koulouris, Nabeel Al-Nowairah, Ira Forman and Pari Ibrahim discuss the state of religious diversity in the Middle East.

Forman noted that for more than 1,000 years the Babylonian and Persian Empires were central to Jewish life. “This was the center of Judaism, both population-wise and also religious authority-wise,” he explained.

Today, however, excluding Israel, there are at most 30,000 Jews in the entire Middle East, stretching from Morocco to Iran.

Anna Koulouris, communications adviser for the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, discussed religious pluralism in Qatar, where there is a large non-Muslim expatriate community.

“For a country that just a generation ago was almost completely Muslim-majority and had a tribal structure of social life, they have quickly adapted to their new reality,” she said. “While shariah forms the laws of the land, respecting the new religious diversity of Qatar’s population is a way to thrive.”

She cited the brand new Greek Orthodox Church, which serves Russians, Romanians, Serbians, Greeks, Lebanese, Jordanians and others, as an example of the country’s willingness to accommodate expatriate Christians. “Today the area designated to the churches has taken on a life of its own,” she noted.

Nabeel Al-Nowairah, a research associate at the Gulf International Forum, spoke on the Zaydism branch of Shi’i Islam. The Houthi rebels at the center of the ongoing war in Yemen are followers of Zaydism, and of Yemen’s 29 million people, an estimated 35 percent are followers of the religion.

“Some Muslim scholars believe Zaydis can be the bridge between all Muslim doctrines because they are open to all religious groups,” Al-Nowairah said. He pointed out, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

however, that Zaydis “have a problem with Wahhabism,” and that one of the tenets of Zaydism is the belief in revolting against any oppressors.

Pari Ibrahim, founder and executive director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, discussed ISIS’s 2014 “genocide campaign” against the Yezidis. “ISIS saw us as devil worshippers that they had to eradicate from the earth,” she explained. Men have been killed; women and girls have been sold as sex slaves; and young men were brainwashed to eventually become soldiers and suicide bombers. “I have lost 19 girls in my family, two have returned, but 17 are still missing,” Ibrahim lamented, noting that no one has been held accountable for the crimes.

“In addition, there is no trust in the security apparatus in Iraq or Kurdistan,” she said.

“We do not have fair political representation in the government in Iraq or Kurdistan. And when you do not give people a voice, people will not stay in that country because they do not feel safe. For a community to stay

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO E. PASQUINI

The Role of Non-Arab Countries in The Middle East

BBC foreign correspondent Suzanne Kianpour moderated a diverse panel on “New Powers, New Roles” at the Middle East Institute’s (MEI) 72nd annual conference at Washington, DC’s Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on Nov. 8.

MEI president Paul Salem began by outlining the new power structures in the Middle East, as China, Russia and Turkey angle for more influence. “I would say that the rise of new powers in the Middle East is the result of a collapse of the Arab order, resulting in a vacuum in the region,” he said.

“Between the end of World War II and 1990 there was an Arab order of sorts,” Salem noted. He cited three events that contributed to this breakdown: Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the 2011 Arab Spring.

These events, Salem argued, caused vacuums that were filled either by Iran, Russia or a combination of players. “The Arab world today has no common political vision, no common economic project and no agreement on cultural issues like the role of religion, and it has widely different foreign policies,” he said.

Salem stated that China does not want to get involved in Middle Eastern conflicts “because they need to get oil, particularly from both sides, and this means from the Iranians and the [Arab] Gulf.” Salem also said that China has been happy to have the U.S. protect its oil supplies in the Gulf and not have

(L-r) Paul Salem, Ariane Tabatabai, Suzanne Kianpour, Elena Suponina, Christina Lin and Gönül Tol speak at the Middle East Institute’s annual conference.

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ject power,” she noted.

Elena Suponina of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies discussed Russian involvement in Syria, starting from the end of Sept. 2015, which, she claimed, shifted the balance of power in the country. “Russia so far has not paid a heavy price in blood and treasure,” she said. “But now it is time [for Russia] to do something more in the political area.” The two options available to Moscow, according to Suponina, are "to either engage Syria and create stability by common support or allow Syria to go into further conflict which would lead to a larger regional conflict."

—Elaine Pasquini

Summit Calls for Peaceful and Reasonable Engagement with Iran

The Trump administration has worked hard to cast Iran as the world’s greatest boogeyman and the principle cause of division and war in the Middle East. In an effort to destigmatize Iran and explore pathways to peace rather than war, CODEPINK held a day-long “Summit on Peace with Iran” on Dec. 1 in Washington, DC. Throughout the day, speakers acknowledged the complex history of the U.S.-Iran relationship, as well as Iran’s troublesome human rights record.

However, all made clear their belief that more sanctions and war would only exacerbate human suffering in the country and

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson outlines the U.S.’ flawed Iran strategy.

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STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

to bear that expense themselves. “I do not see China today as a geosecurity or a geopolitical player [in the region],” he said.

Christina Lin of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS-Johns Hopkins University commented that China right now is just an economic player in the Middle East, not a security player. “I think China is a blank canvas and an opportunity for Middle East countries to project their aspirations for a different type of relationship,” she said. "Unlike the West, it has no historical or colonial baggage.” China imports more than half of its crude oil from this region and is the largest importer of crude oil in the world. The Middle East is also an emerging market for China, she said, although its largest export market is the EU. Ariane Tabatabai, associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation, shared her insights into the dynamic of how Iran sees itself in the region, especially in light of the recent re-imposition of sanctions by the Trump administration on Nov. 4. “I am very skeptical that those sanctions are going to be able to change Iran’s regional ambitions, which include changing the balance of power to make it favorable to Iran, power maximization and security, and the pursuit of regime and national interests,” she said.

For about the past 40 years Iran has become increasingly isolated, and as a way to overcome this isolation has formed relationships with Russia and China. “I believe that the economic factor is really the key driver here not so much the security or even the political considerations,” Tabatabai said. “On the economic front Iran needs a customer for its oil and some sort of trade partner, and China has provided exactly that for a number of years now.”

MEI’s director of Turkish Studies Gönül Tol discussed how the Arab uprisings changed Turkey’s role in the region. “Before the Arab uprisings Turkey was better placed to play a leadership role in the region and play a constructive role in the resolution of regional conflicts,” she noted. “Turkey pitched itself as the leader of the Muslim world and it used cultural, economic and diplomatic tools to enhance its power and influence in the region.”

After 2011, however, “Turkey found itself marginalized in the region and unable to pro-

perpetuate regional instability.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to former secretary of state Colin Powell, said U.S. leaders are able to pursue an aggressive policy toward Iran because the American people possess an “abysmal ignorance” about the country. Before the Iranian people overthrew a regime imposed on them by the West in 1979, there was minimal enmity between the U.S. and Iran, he noted. For instance, he pointed out that during World War II, vital supplies that assisted the Allied forces flowed through Iran. Despite the harsh rhetoric from both sides since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, there is no inherent reason for hostility between the U.S. and Iran, he said.

The Iran nuclear deal offered a precious opportunity to begin the slow process of détente, Wilkerson said. Hope of reconciliation has been dashed, however, by the Trump administration’s decision to violate the nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran.

In Wilkerson’s opinion, the White House’s aggressive stance toward Iran is being dictated by Israel and Saudi Arabia, who both want Washington to limit Iran’s ability to exert its influence in the region. “We’re staring at a stark situation constructed more or less by [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu and [Saudi Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman,” he said.

Instead of acting as a policeman on behalf of other countries, Wilkerson said the U.S. ought to seek a good relationship with Iran and come to terms with the fact that Iran’s history, geographic location and population size make it a natural regional hegemon.

Going to war with Iran would in no way enhance the security of the region or the U.S., Wilkerson added. “Do we really want to go to war with Iran?” he asked. “Would we win? You don’t win anymore, what you do is create innumerable enemies across the globe.”

Ultimately, though, Wilkerson believes President Trump is looking for a “Singapore moment” in which he can meet with the leaders of Iran, reach some sort of a deal and claim victory, similar to his 2018 meeting and negotiation with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The question, WilkerJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

son believes, is if Israel and Saudi Arabia, who are intent on real change in Iran, would let the president reach a vacuous agreement with Tehran.

Trita Parsi, founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said he believes the U.S. strategy toward Iran is failing. The recent crisis in U.S.-Saudi relations following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the prospect of early elections unseating Netanyahu in Israel and the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives will make it difficult to present a unified and effective front against Iran, Parsi surmises.

Jamal Abdi, the current president of NIAC, said the American people must not leave a U.S. war with Iran up to the whims of leaders, be they in Washington, Tel Aviv or Riyadh. Americans must pressure leaders to embrace diplomacy, he said, adding that all 2020 Democratic presidential candidates should be pushed to publicly support re-entering the nuclear deal. A logical place to begin the activism is with incoming House leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has a close relationship with the Mujahedine-Khalq (MEK), an extremist Iranian exile organization that supports U.S.-led regime change in Iran. “We have to make sure Pelosi hears from us on these kind of things and is held accountable,” Abdi said.

Tyler Cullis, a lawyer who specializes in sanctions law, said that while the Trump administration frequently expresses concern about the well-being of the Iranian people, it is in actuality doing very little to help Iranians. He noted that in October, the U.S. added Parsian Bank—one of the few financial institutions through which humanitarian aid was permitted to flow—to the list of sanctioned Iranian institutions because it was found to be eight layers removed from the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“This was a real shot across the bow,” Cullis noted, as it sends the message to financial institutions that any transaction with Iran could result in them facing U.S. sanctions. Cullis also noted that European officials have asked the U.S. for guidance as to how they can ensure humanitarian goods can enter Iran, to little avail. This, he JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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(L-r) Moderator Niki Akhavan, Jasmin Ramsey, Sussan Tahmasebi and Michael Page describe the human rights violations committed by the Iranian government. said, again signals that the administration is disinterested in ensuring that ordinary Iranians aren’t hurt by the re-imposition of sanctions.

Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies noted the trickle-down effect that U.S. sanctions have on ordinary people.

Using Hezbollah as an example, she noted that the U.S. considers any assistance that reaches any part of the group to be material support for terrorism. This means that individuals sending money to support hospitals in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is the de facto government, could find themselves facing terrorism charges in the U.S. This differs from the European Union, she noted, where Hezbollah’s military wing is designated as a terrorist group, but its other social and political branches are not.

This example epitomizes the degree to which the U.S. list of terrorist organizations is “politically driven,” Bennis said. A proxy of Iran and an enemy of Israel, the U.S. has no qualms about designating Hezbollah a terrorist organization, she noted, while similar groups operating in tandem with the U.S. or its allies are likely to avoid such a designation.

The U.S. approach to designating terrorist groups, Bennis said, is “devastating in its impact,” as it limits access to healthcare, educational and other vital services in places such as Iran and Lebanon where designated terrorist groups provide basic public services.

Sussan Tahmasebi, director of the human rights group FEMENA and an Iranian women’s rights activist, said outsiders ought to be gravely concerned about the human rights situation in Iran, but that foreign pressure in the form of wars and sanctions does not help those brave individuals in Iran fighting for their rights. Human rights, she cautioned, must not be politicized or militarized.

While those outside of Iran can and should advocate for human rights in the country, she said success will ultimately come as a result of the day in and day out work of activists inside of the country.

Jasmin Ramsey, deputy communications director at the Center for Human Rights in Iran, said activists must not ignore Iran’s human rights violations for fear of sounding like a warmonger. “There is nothing the hardliners in Iran want more than the leftists here in the U.S. to ignore these things for fear of war,” she said. “Criticizing the policies of the Iranian government doesn’t have to equal being a part of the conversation of war. If you leave that conversation untouched, guess who picks it up—the adversaries who may not have any desire to actually improve the situation in Iran.”

Ramsey outlined some of the common human rights abuses committed in Iran. Individuals engaging in civil disobedience, such as protesting the law that requires women to wear the hijab, are often arrested and charged with national security crimes

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GCC Leaders Discuss U.S.-Saudi Tension, Regional Turmoil

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) held its 27th annual ArabU.S. Policymakers Conference Oct. 31Nov. 1 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. The event featured several prominent business and political leaders from the Arabian Gulf who used their platform to assess the current status of the region.

Prince Turki Al Faisal Al-Saud, the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and former head of the Saudi intelligence service, discussed the Saudi-U.S. relationship in the wake of the October 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Al Faisal condemned the killing, and insisted that those responsible will be brought to justice. He was unwavering in his insistence that this incident, which intelligence agencies around the globe have since linked back to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, should not alter the future of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

“Subjecting the future of our relationship to this issue is not healthy at all,” he said.

“Our relationship is too big to fail. I believe that it will survive this crisis.” He decried the “onslaught and demonization of Saudi Arabia” and said that “reasoning together and sifting facts from fiction is the imperative, it is not a choice.”

The Saudi prince went on to accuse the Kingdom’s critics of hypocrisy. “People in glass houses should not cast stones,” he stated. Referring to the U.S., he said, “Countries that have tortured and incarcer50

Prince Turki Al Faisal Al-Saud urges the U.S. not to abandon its close relationship with Saudi Arabia following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

ated innocent people and that launched a war [the Iraq war] that killed many thousands of people based on fabricated information should be humble in their regard to others.”

He suggested that those concerned about human rights turn their attention to Israel’s violence against Palestinians. “Innocent unarmed Palestinian children are slaughtered everyday by the Israeli army,” he said. “And yet I don’t see the same media frenzy, the demand to bring the perpetrators and whoever ordered them to kill those children to justice.”

Despite his condemnation of the U.S. response to Khashoggi’s murder, Al Faisal said he hopes the U.S.-Saudi relationship remains strong. “My hope is that we will remain friends and seek to strengthen our relationship, not break it,” he said. “We still value our strategic partnership with the United States and hope to sustain it. I hope the United States reciprocates in kind.”

Khalaf Al Habtoor, founder and chairman of the UAE-based Al Habtoor Group, delivered an unflinching defense of Saudi Arabia, while slamming Iran’s regional activities.

Al Habtoor condemned the international response to Khashoggi’s killing, saying that he trusts the Saudi justice system to bring those accountable to justice. “I was shocked that even while the Saudi citizen’s disappearance was still under investigation,

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the international media, analysts and Washington lawmakers acted as prosecutors, judges and juries,” he said. Those responsible for his death should face the death penalty, he added.

Regarding Iran, the billionaire construction magnate called for direct action to unseat the regime in Tehran. “Sanctioning Iran has not changed its aggressive behavior toward its neighbors, just the opposite,” he said. Instead, he suggested that the U.S. and Arab states “support the [country’s] minority, training them, giving them arms.” Despite his call to foment civil war and regime change, Al Habtoor said he is against war with Iran. “Please don’t imagine that I am calling for war. Far from it,” he insisted.

Al Habtoor also called on the U.S. and its allies to target members of Hezbollah (an Iranian-backed militant group) in Lebanon.

“Israel can pinpoint their whereabouts,” he said. “What are you or us waiting for?”

Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), offered a more hopeful outlook for the region. He stressed the need for the counties of the Middle East to be interdependent and have a shared vision of the future.

“Achieving this aim of a peaceful, cooperative and interdependent region will be a momentous challenge, particularly from where we are today,” Al Zayani acknowledged. “It will involve political will, courage, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

PHOTO COURTESY C-SPAN

and denied access to due process, she noted.

Michael Page of Human Rights Watch noted that even environmental activists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation have been arrested on trumped-up charges of spying. He noted that famous environmentalists, such as Jane Goodall, have lead an international campaign calling for their release and encouraging the Iranian government to embrace activists attempting to save Iran from environmental disaster.

—Dale Sprusansky

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compromise, flexibility, pooling interests, and above all, vision.”

The foundations of an interdependent region must be so appealing that no country can legitimately dismiss participation in the endeavor, he said. “The answer lies in making the ultimate goal so attractive that to be outside it is to lose, to be marginalized,” he said. “The benefits must be there for all to see, especially for long-suffering citizens.”

In this time of division and chaos, Al Zayani believes only a bold vision for cohesiveness can solidify a brighter future. “If we truly want to renew our region, we must think ahead, we must think long-term, we must think big, and we must dare to think what in the past was the unthinkable,” he said.

—Dale Sprusansky

CPJ completed some “unfinished business” by presenting plaques to journalists who couldn’t collect their awards because they were behind bars at the time. Accepting his award, Ahmed Abba of Cameroon said, “The Cameroonian secret service chained me, tortured me, and sentenced me to 10 years imprisonment. But I was freed, and I am still a journalist.” Abba thanked applauding CPJ members, many of whom had sent postcards to him in prison.

CPJ director Kati Marton, the widow of diplomat Richard Holbrooke, welcomed Tibetan documentary filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, who’d also been in prison in 2012 when he won his CPJ award. His film “Leaving Fear Behind,” portraying life in Tibet, and released just before the 2008

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Meher Tatna, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

PHOTO COURTESY CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) held its 28th annual International Press Freedom Awards dinner on Nov. 20, 2018 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

The non-profit CPJ promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal. Journalists who report on corruption, organized crime, conflict and politics are often targeted for exposing vital truths. CPJ helps shield these courageous reporters from reprisals and fights for them when they’re slandered, imprisoned, beaten, bankrupted or “disappeared.”

A pre-dinner reception hosted by Reuters featured a slideshow of extraordinary images—including many taken by photojournalists during the weekly Gaza protest marches.

CBS news journalist and “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker hosted the gala and welcomed attendees. Whitaker began by mourning the shooting deaths of five colleagues on June 28, 2018 at The Capital Gazette offices in Annapolis, MD, as well as the murder of a music journalist in Chicago. These attacks make this nation the third deadliest country for journalists in 2018, behind only Afghanistan and Syria, Whitaker said—adding, who would have thought that American newsrooms needed panic buttons or active shooter drills?

PHOTO COURTESY CPJ

Committee to Protect Journalists Vows to Fight for Press Freedom

CPJ chair Kathleen Carroll.

Olympics in Beijing, cost him six years in prison and three years under tight surveillance.

Meher Tatna, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), and chair of the dinner, recounted actress Meryl Streep’s speech at the 2017 CPJ dinner. Streep described journalists as “intrepid, underpaid, over-extended, trolled, and un-extolled, young and old, battered, bought and sold, hyper-alert crack-caffeine fiends.” Their situation is still terrible, Tatna noted, with 50 killed this year, 262 incarcerated, and 60 missing. Tatna, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mumbai, India, and became a journalist, said even journalists in her adopted homeland are under threat, self-censoring for fear of retaliation.

Since 2002, Tatna has been a member of HFPA, which represents 56 countries from some of the world’s most respected publications. HFPA hosts the Golden Globe Awards, which raises funds for charities, humanitarian efforts and scholarships. The CPJ dinner raised over $2.2 million.

CPJ board chair Kathleen Carroll, who was the executive editor and senior vice president of the Associated Press from 2002 to 2016, gave a powerful presentation on CPJ’s work during these unprecedented times. Carroll warned, “for every journalist freed this year another was hauled away to jail.” While the number of journalists killed “looks like it’s going down,” she continued, “that’s because fewer are covering conflicts in war zones.”

The number of journalists murdered for their work is increasing, she observed: 28 this year, 10 more than last year,.

Carroll asked for a moment of silence for slain Saudi Arabian Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and other journalists murdered because “someone didn’t like their work.” CPJ launched a campaign seeking justice for Khashoggi.

Hundreds of guests filled out signs highlighting the importance of journalism and shared photos on social media with the hashtag #JusticeForJamal.

“The forces of press repression seem to be getting louder and more powerful by the minute. Bullies, despots and murderers think they are winning. They believe

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Palestinians at Historic Crossroads

The Jerusalem Fund in Washington, DC held its annual conference Nov. 16, just as Palestinians have reached an historic crossroad, a crisis that threatens their rights and future. This situation demands new actions, approaches and perspectives, and the speakers were asked to help navigate the road ahead.

Ambassador Dr. Riyad H. Mansour, permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, gave the keynote address. He noted that Palestinians are still waiting for the release of “President Donald Trump’s so-called deal of the century” for Middle East peace. Meanwhile, the government of Israel may collapse and face early elections, causing the postponement of any announced so-called deal until 2020.

In the meantime, Mansour said, Palestinians are working for a globally acceptable two-state solution. The first element of their strategy, he said, is steadfastness. Palestinians on the ground are determined to stay on their land. He noted that between the river and the sea there already are almost equal numbers of Jews and Arabs.

The second element is to put an end to the “illogical division” between Hamas and Fatah. Unity is not only a national requirement, Mansour said, but “the sharpest tool in our hand.” He reminded the audience

that when Israel tried to install metal detectors and barriers at the al-Aqsa Mosque during the summer of 2017, Christians and Muslims united for two weeks, praying together in the streets. Prayers and other nonviolent resistance versus continuous Israeli violence makes for very bad optics.

The third element for Palestinians is to work in the international arena, specifically at the U.N., to retain the massive international support for the right of Palestinian self-determination. “I often say, we are not orphans in the international arena,” the ambassador stated. “Countries that support justice and the rule of law will not abandon Palestinians.”

The fourth element is for Palestinians to work with their brothers and sisters who are Israeli citizens, Mansour continued.

Arab Israelis just won 13 seats in the Knesset, he pointed out, becoming the second largest opposition party.

Fifth, the younger generation is not afraid of Israeli institutions. They’re fighting for their rights and showing boldness and courage, the ambassador said.

Sixth, Jews can’t maintain Israel as a democratic nation while it destroys the rights of half its citizens.

Jewish settlements, the annexation of land by force, and any changes to the status of Jerusalem are all illegal, Mansour reminded his audience. Apartheid was defeated in South Africa just as segrega-

Ambassador Dr. Riyad H. Mansour describes Palestine’s international strategy.

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they can shut us up forever because no one cares about journalists,” Carroll said.

“But they are wrong. They won’t win. Because we will keep fighting them. It will take all of us, but we will keep fighting until journalists are free to report the news without being killed.”

CPJ’s 2018 awardees were Amal Khalifa Idris Habbani, a free-lance journalist and contributor to the Sudanese news outlet Al-Taghyeer; Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a prominent and independent Vietnamese blogger, known by her pen name Me Nam or “Mother Mushroom”; Venezuelan investigative reporter Luz Mely Reyes, who founded the independent news website Efecto Cocuyo; and Anastasiya “Nastya” Stanko, a broadcast journalist and a member of the Ukrainian “Stop Censorship” movement.

The 2018 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award was presented to Maria Ressa, a journalist in Asia for more than 30 years and the editor of Rappler, a Philippine news website. Rappler is fighting the Philippine government as well as Facebook, both of which “seed violence, fear, and lies that poison our democracy,” Ressa said. Social media lies form the basis of her government’s legal case against her website, including claims that Rappler is a “dealer in securities.”

Ressa told the audience, “Facebook connects more than 2.3 billion people around the world, and because of that, national boundaries have collapsed. There is a global playbook, and autocrats are learning from each other...When President Trump called CNN and The New York Times ‘fake news,’ a week later, President Duterte called Rappler fake news. When President Trump took away the accreditation of CNN’s Jim Acosta, he was following what President Duterte did earlier this year to our reporter, Pia Ranada.”

For more information about CPJ, including lists of journalists killed, imprisoned or missing, please visit <cpj.org>. CPJ cites Palestinian photojournalists Ahmed Abu Hussein and Yaser Murtaja, both wearing vests and helmets clearly marked “PRESS,” as 2 of the 50 journalists killed—so far—in 2018.

—Delinda C. Hanley

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tion finally ended in the U.S. Mansour promised that Israel’s efforts to legislate apartheid will also be defeated when Palestinians use all their legal tools and put their house in order.

refugees. She urged listeners to make politicians accountable to voters—not to Israelis, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and pro-Israel lobbyists.

—Delinda C. Hanley

Panelists Discuss Recent U.S. Crackdown

The Media, Congress and Israel: Opportunities and Shortcomings

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Israel’s relationship with the mainstream media and the U.S. Congress were two major themes of the final panel.

Jim Clancy, a former CNN anchor and correspondent, discussed the mainstream media’s failure to offer a truthful depiction of events happening in Israel and Palestine.

According to Clancy, members of the mainstream media know that powerful proIsrael groups will seek to undermine or delegitimize any piece of reporting that depicts Israel in a negative light. “When the mainstream media goes out to cover a story, everybody in the office knows they’re instantly going to be called on the carpet by various pro-Israel groups that are going to demand equal time, that are going to say that it was an unfair report,” he said.

This constant pressure often causes executives and editors to steer away from news items that they know will agitate Israel’s supporters. “The networks say, ‘Look, it’s not worth the trouble. If we get involved in this…we’re going to get so much pushback on our advertisers, on ourselves, we’re gonna face smears,’” Clancy explained. “These veiled threats, they’re very powerful…I’ve seen one media executive after another simply say, ‘It’s not worth it— we need to be reporting less on the Middle East, not more.’”

Pro-Israel groups are also constantly lobbying media outlets to share fluff pieces that portray Israel in a favorable light, Clancy added. One such group is The Israel Project

PHOTO COURTESY JERUSALEM FUND

Next came a panel discussion on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees, activism, legislation, and the Right of Return. Josh Ruebner, policy director for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, described the end to USAID programs for Palestinians, the closure of the PLO mission in Washington, DC, and the transfer of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The dissolution of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem is one of the most significant repressive U.S. moves against the Palestinian people, Ruebner stated. It marks a policy shift on how the U.S. thinks about its relationship with the Palestinian people. The consulate was the channel for Palestinians to use to report directly back to the U.S. Its demise is yet another heavy-handed attempt to weaken Palestinian leadership before revealing Trump’s so-called “deal of the century.” That deal, like all the past peace plans, has been pre-coordinated with Israel, Ruebner said, guessing that Palestinians will not have control of borders, land, airspace or water.

Ruebner also condemned the intense repression of people in the U.S. who advocate for Palestinian rights. Congress has three pieces of legislation, including the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act; the Combating BDS Act; and most draconian of them all, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. The fact that outright oppression and First Amendment rights abuses are being openly debated gives him hope, Ruebner said. No one wants to be on the losing side of history.

Human rights attorney Lamis Deek and Palestinian researcher Dr. Salman Abu Sitta spoke via Skype. Zena Agha, a U.S. policy fellow of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, described the effects of this administration’s cuts to UNRWA and the attempt to rebrand Palestinian

(TIP), whose efforts to plant favorable news about Israel were recently exposed by “The Lobby-USA” documentary produced by Al Jazeera and leaked by the Electronic Intifada. “They go to the assignment desks in Jerusalem of some of the major networks and they feed them stories that project Israel in a positive light,” Clancy said of TIP. “If there’s positive news going out in the mainstream media, they don’t have to worry about negative news surfacing.”

The media’s silence on Israel’s use of indiscriminate and lethal force against Gazans participating in 2018’s Great March of Return highlights the failure of the press to hold the country accountable, Clancy said. “We have war crimes being committed in broad daylight right in front of our eyes in Gaza, and the media is failing to cover it, and certainly failing to call it out,” he noted.

Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, called on pro-Palestine advocates to be unrelenting in their insistence that Palestinians receive their human rights.

“I really think we have to go on the offensive politically,” he said. “We have to really take seriously what we’re demanding and hold people accountable for it.”

Too often, Abunimah cautioned, activists fail to build on their victories. For example, instead of simply celebrating the electoral victory of a pro-Palestine member of Congress, activists must hold that individual’s feet to the fire and demand they act on their campaign promises, he insisted. “The pressure [from lobbyists] only increases after you’re elected,” he pointed out, and thus constituents and supporters must also continually pressure members of Congress to hold firm to their campaign pledges and boldly challenge the status quo.

Abunimah believes the results of the recent midterm elections show that politi-

(L-r) Dr. Osamah Khalil, Ali Abunimah, Miko Peled and Jim Clancy.

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cians don’t need to kowtow to the Israel lobby in order to succeed. He noted that none of the 31 members of Congress who support H.R. 4391, the “Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act” lost their election in November. Meanwhile, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), who introduced the antifree speech “Israel Anti-Boycott Act,” did lose. “Supporting Palestinian rights isn’t the killer of political careers people think it is, and supporting Israel to the hilt is no guarantee of success anymore,” Abunimah concluded.

—Dale Sprusansky

HCEF Conference Celebrates 20 Years, Contemplates Jerusalem

The 20th International Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) conference was convened on Nov. 2-Nov. 3 at the Jerusalem Fund in Washington, DC. The theme of this year’s conference, held in partnership with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Know Thy Heritage, Inc., was “Together in Faith—Jerusalem: Our Collective Home.”

The event began with remarks from three ambassadors.

Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev, permanent observer of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the United Nations, quoted Faisal Husseini, a renowned Palestinian statesman, who observed that Jerusalem could become “the black hole of the Middle East ” if injustice continues. Pointing to the ongoing, systematic Israeli effort to Judaize the entire city of Jerusalem, the ambassador remarked that this effort, if successful, would pervert the true character and significance of the Holy City.

Ambassador Dr. Riyad H. Mansour, permanent observer of the Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, stressed the paramount role of international law and U.N. resolutions in achieving a just peace.

The U.S. has removed the question of Jerusalem from the negotiating table in spite of its rightful place as part of final status negotiations, he said. Dina Kawar, Jordan’s ambassador to the U.S., agreed on the necessity to reserve Jerusalem for final status negotiations. She added that the role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is to serve as 54

(L-r) Fr. John Predmore, SJ, Imam Yahya Hendi and Saliba Sarsar share a conversation on the sidelines of the HCEF conference. guardian of the holy sites of Jerusalem, both Muslim and Christian.

The opening plenary session, “What Jerusalem Means to Us: Christian and Muslim Perspectives and Reflections,” featured the heartfelt views of religious leaders, Christian and Muslim, on the spiritual significance of the Holy City.

Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, set forth the powerful reasons why Al Quds (“the Holy,” the preferable term for the Holy City) is deeply sacred to all followers of Islam around the world. Muslims will accept nothing less than East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, he said. Rev. Dr. David A. Renwick, senior pastor at the National Presbyterian Church, said his Christian belief in an incarnational God is entwined with the Biblical truth that the divine presence is revealed to particular people in particular places—the foremost of these places being Jerusalem.

Father Drew Christiansen, SJ, HCEF cofounder and Georgetown University professor, called attention to a letter of protest recently sent by a joint task force of Lutheran, Episcopal and Catholic leaders strenuously objecting to the U.S. decision to terminate aid to Palestinian hospitals and clinics.

Bishop Richard A. Graham, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, observed that many Christians tend to focus on the

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Jerusalem of Biblical history and to envisage the heavenly Jerusalem of the future, but ignore the people living in Jerusalem today.

Their view of Jerusalem as a kind of theme park blinds them to the needs of the diverse inhabitants of the city, he said.

The afternoon roundtable, “Advocacy on and Solidarity with Jerusalem: The Crucial Role of Religious Leaders and Peace Organizations,” focused on activism and advocacy. Julia Pitner, executive director of the Institute for Palestine Studies, suggested that we must find new language to promote human rights and to reach out beyond our own circles of like-minded activists in order to engage others. We must integrate religious concepts of the ideal Jerusalem with discussion of the living Jerusalem, she said.

Rabbi Joseph Berman, government affairs manager at Jewish Voice for Peace, affirmed the need to integrate concepts of holiness and of justice, and he rejected the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Stephen France, Esq. of Episcopal Peace Fellowship speculated that because the embassy move has stimulated people to think about Jerusalem, perhaps a coalition of Christians, Muslims and Jews could work together. Mohamed Mohamed, executive director of the Jerusalem Fund, recalled his sadness at the abrupt departure of a Jewish family, whom he had welcomed into the office, when they noticed material about JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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Palestine. Just as he wants the Jerusalem Fund to be for everyone, likewise the city of Jerusalem should be for everyone, as U.N. Resolutions 181 and 194 have mandated.

The Nov. 3 meeting began with a panel titled, “Palestinian Geopolitical Status Under the Israeli Occupation, with a Special Focus on East Jerusalem.” Dr. Jad Elias Isaac, general director of the Applied Research Institute– Jerusalem, stated that the actions of the Trump administration have turned the U.S. Letter of Assurances to the Palestinians (Oct. 18, 1991) into a “joke.” In 1992, months after the Letter of Assurances was signed, there were 248,000 settlers in the West Bank. Now the official count is 816,192 settlers. “I believe that the outposts [settlements unauthorized by the Israeli government] are the most dangerous threat to the peace process,” he stated. Not only is Israel blocking Palestinians their legitimate access to the Supreme Court to file legal protests, their government is acquiring even more land in and around Jerusalem through gerrymandering tactics. Moreover, Jerusalem identity documents are being revoked, leaving Palestinian Jerusalemites in limbo, and meanwhile Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem are becoming “human warehouses” with increasing population density, he said.

Khaled Elgindy, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, displayed a map showing the isolation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank, its fragmentation, and its unequal status. “Every [settler] house built, every road built is part of a strategic plan by Israel to eventually acquire complete control of the area,” he stated. About 300,000 Palestinians live in Jerusalem, which represent 30 percent of the population, but they receive only 12 percent of the municipal budget. They live in walled ghettos and their cultural institutions are deliberately suppressed. Palestinian citizens, in and around Jerusalem, feel a complete sense of abandonment. Cultural, commercial and educational events and institutions are being shut down. The U.S.-led peace process actually made things worse. It was already dead before President Trump took office but the sitJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

PHOTO COURTESY HCEF

SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS

Stephen H. France, Esq.

uation is worse with him in power. We need new Palestinian leadership that is cohesive, more strategic, and less dependent on the United States, he said.

The second morning session was titled, “Enlivening Jerusalem: Christian and Muslim Contributions to the City’s Education, Culture and Social Advancement.” Father Michael McDonagh of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, “I think modern Israel does not know what it was chosen for. If we are not attuned to the divine voice, we will be miserably disappointed.” An example is the so-called peace process: year after year, we have been spinning our wheels. “Unless the Lord builds the house, in vain is the labor,” he said, quoting Psalm 127. Put your efforts in the hands of the Almighty and that will enliven Jerusalem, he implored.

John Schlageter, Esq., executive director of the Bethlehem University Foundation, described the university as a place where Christians can get to know each other and discover their Muslim fellow students—the place where they can all see each other as Palestinians. Forty percent of the students live in Jerusalem so they pass twice through the separation wall every day to attend classes in Bethlehem. Education, he concluded, is the way to build peace and justice in the Holy Land.

The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Abdullatif Abuhijleh, president of Birzeit University. Although access to education is a basic human right (according to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Israeli forces have closed Birzeit University 15 times. Checkpoints and roadblocks pose serious obstacles to students

traveling to classes. Israeli authorities are withdrawing the visas of international faculty members. Abuhijleh said it is his hope that the international community will put pressure on Israeli authorities to renew the visas of its foreign faculty members. “We had support during the first intifada and that support was essential,” he said. “We need it now more than ever.” Nevertheless, Birzeit University, which currently offers 111 academic programs, is continuing to expand and flourish. International partnerships are necessary in order to maintain the global scope of research and instruction, he said.

A session on “East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Religious Tourism Industry” featured Sir Rateb Rabie, founder and president of HCEF, and Marwan Ahmad, president of the Arab American Business Council. The best way to introduce American Christians to the situation in Palestine is to take them there, explained Rabie. His goal is to change tourist preconceptions and misconceptions. Ways to increase tourism, he suggested, are: 1) position East Jerusalem on regional and international maps; 2) network with local, regional and international organizations; 3) establish Palestinian tourism centers in cities worldwide; and 4) promote religious tourism in churches, mosques and Islamic Centers.

Ahmad said travel agents in the U.S. must be persuaded to offer new tour packages rather than simply directing clients to Israeli companies. Israeli maps that omit Palestinian sites must be replaced by accurate maps highlighting Christian and Muslim sites as well as Palestinian hotels, shops, restaurants and taxis—and these maps must be widely distributed, he added. The bottom lines for most tourists are the issues of uniqueness, safety and convenience. The question of security arose again during the ensuing question & answer session. “Keep in mind,” said Rabie, “that Israel is concerned about security, too, even for Muslim and Christian tourists.”

The final segment of the conference was titled “Jerusalem, Key to Palestinian-Israeli Peace.” Khalil E. Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC, identified four factors causing the desperate situation for Palestine today: (1) a crisis of

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leadership in Palestine, including a lack of public trust; (2) the indifference of leaders of other countries; (3) the moral and political bankruptcy of Israeli leaders, plus the apathy of the Israeli public toward Palestine; (4) the hostility toward Palestinians on the part of the inexperienced U.S. administration.

Dr. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, agreed and added his own emphasis on the Trump administration’s false perceptions of the Israeli government’s mindset, as well as the pressure that this administration exerts toward normalizing current Israeli policies. “I support the two-state solution” is a self-serving mantra mouthed by idle politicians, he said. The present reality on the ground is the existence of a single state that is an apartheid state.

Ambassador Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, deputy permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the U.N., concluded the session by elucidating the strategy employed by Palestine at the United Nations. The basis of the strategy resides in human rights and international law. By means of U.N. resolutions, the Palestine Mission is “safeguarding the rights of our people until justice can be achieved,” she said.

“We did not back down during the recent actions before the General Assembly of the United Nations nor with our resolutions to the Security Council,” she said. “Support for 56

our positions is echoed in capitals around the world. Our goal is to isolate the U.S. position for violating international law and to seek legal solutions that will safeguard the rights of our people,” she said. Although it seems that time is not on the Palestinians’ side, the ambassador concluded with a hopeful quote by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

—Saliba Sarsar

Dr. Mads Gilbert Headlines Kinder USA Event

"This is not a difficult conflict. This is a difficult occupation," said Dr. Mads Gilbert on

Oct. 26 at a Kinder USA fundraising event held at the Arab American Community Center in Anaheim, CA. “If anyone wants to see the medical effects of the Israeli attacks and siege, he or she can find them in the Shifa Hospital” in Gaza, commented Gilbert. “I dedicate this talk to the real heroes, the medical staff of Shifa Hospital.”

Gilbert shared a story of devastation and hope from the hospital. "Samar, who lived in a village in northern Gaza, was four years old in Operation Cast Lead in 2009,” he explained. “She lost her mother, grandmother and two sisters who were killed at the same time. Samar went to Shifa Hospital alone.

Samar was found two years later by a British journalist and her father, Khalid, recognized her from photo. Samar is growing and she is a symbol of resistance," explained Gilbert.

Gilbert concluded with the story of Ashour, who was wounded in 2006 and was again shot in the 2018 Great March of Return. Then, he said to the audience: "You are upset! But what are you going to do about it?" .

Kinder USA is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to improve the lives of Palestinian children and other children in crisis through development and emergency relief. For more information, visit <kinderusa.org>.

—Samir Twair

MUSLIM AMERICAN ACTIVISM CAIR-LA’s 22nd Annual Banquet

(L-r) Dr. Mads Gilbert, Dr. Basil Abdelkarim and Dr. Laila al-Marayati, Kinder USA chairwoman.

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STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

Ambassador Feda Abdelhady-Nasser (l) and Dr. James Zogby (r) offer final thoughts at the 20th annual HCEF conference.

PHOTO COURTESY HCEF

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More than 2,000 people attended the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations-Los Angeles’ (CAIR-LA) 22nd Annual Banquet on Nov. 17 at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel in Southern California.

The theme of the event was “Faith Led, Justice Driven.”

Dr. Asif Harsolia, C A I R - L A’ s b o a r d

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relationships around us. We have to know our surroundings.

You energize people, you organize people and then you act with your plans."

King concluded by encouraging people to support groups such as CAIR. “I love CAIR,” he said. “CAIR needs to be wellfunded, and it can do much more when it's well-funded. This room can change Southern California and the world.”

—Samir Twair

they have suffered brutal and inhumane conditions in refugee camps. Continued rain from monsoons and cyclones has contributed to the displaced’s misery and suffering. The camps do not provide even the most basic forms of shelter, security, electricity, clean water, education, employment or access to medical services.

Asking shoppers to not buy blood gems, activists from the International Campaign for the Rohingya (ICR) are conducting a bi-monthly action of pamphleteering outShaun King (l) and Hussam Ayloush, executive director side Bulgari, a high-end Italian jewelry of CAIR-LA. store at City Center in downtown Washington, DC. Simon Billenness, executive dipresident, kicked off the evening by reflectHUMAN RIGHTS rector for ICR, told the Washington Report ing on the event’s theme. “The concept of that other high-end jewelry stores such as justice in Islam is one of the central tenMyanmar’s Blood Gems Help Fund Tiffany’s, Chopard and Boucheron have ants of our faith, and as Muslims we are Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing adopted ethical source policies that exobligated both to be just in our own dealings and to promote justice in society,” he The Myanmar military dominates certain clude these stones in their creations.

ICR has also asked people in its multisaid. segments of the gemstone market through “This past year we have witnessed the its extraction and production of more than faceted campaign called “No Business unfortunate rise of injustice in our great 90 percent of the world’s finest jade and ru- With Genocide” (NBWG) to contact Bulgari country toward refugees, immigrants, the bies used in jewelry creation. This gem- directly and ask it to stop buying Burmese poor, people of color, minorities and even stone production directly assists the mili- gemstones. Individuals are also encouragainst those who speak out against such tary in funding their continued genocide aged to use social media to call on the injustices,” he continued. “This year's against the ethnic Muslim minority Ro- company to discontinue its purchases that support the Myanmar military. theme, ‘Faith Led, Justice Driven’ reflects hingya people.

One frequent question regarding the on CAIR's ongoing commitment to help Since government forces began their our community organize against such in- “clearance operations,” which include the gemstones and their relation to the ongojustices, as taught by our beautiful faith.” murder and rape of thousands of Ro- ing suffering is why Nobel Peace Prize lauAfter dinner, Congresswoman-elect hingya, an estimated 919,000 refugees reate and Myanmar civilian leader Aung Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was presented the have been forced into Bangladesh, where San Suu Kyi has refused to condemn the violence. Because of Trailblazer Award. She predicted her lack of ethical acthat her victory is just the begintion and continued ning of change, as there are still repression of free a plethora of ways for Muslims to speech, Amnesty Inmake an impact on American polternational recently itics. She encouraged young withdrew its highest Muslims to run for local and nahonor, the prestigious tional office.

Ambassador of ConShaun King, a prominent writer science Award, that it and a civil rights activist, was the had earlier bestowed evening’s keynote speaker. “Peoon her. The U.S. Holople think I'm a Muslim,” the Intercaust Museum also cept columnist quipped. “I'm not a recently withdrew its Muslim, but I feel connected to all Elie Wiesel Award beMuslims around the world.” cause of her refusal to King also reflected on the imhalt the ongoing ethnic portance of energetic organizing. cleansing of the Ro“In my opinion, energy is enthusiasm, energy is change, energy is Activists in Washington, DC ask passersby not to buy genocide gems from the hingya.

—Phil Pasquini life,” he said. “We need to see our Italian jewelry store Bulgari.

STAFF PHOTO P. PASQUINI

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

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• EAST • BOOKS • AND • MORE MIDDLE Literature Films Pottery Solidarity Items More *

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WINTER 2019 Zionism: A Very Short Introduction, by Michael Stanislawski, Oxford University Press, 2016, paperback, 152 pp. MEB: $10. An impartial and disinterested history of Zionist ideology from its origins to the present. Sharp and accessible, this book charts the crucial moments in the ideological development of Zionism. Stanislawski’s balanced analysis illuminates why—despite the undeniable success in its goal of creating a Jewish state—profound questions remain today about the long-term viability of Zionist ideology in a rapidly destabilizing Middle East.

Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East,

by David D. Kirkpatrick, Viking, 2018, hardcover, 384 pp. MEB: $25. A heartbreaking story with a simple message: The failings of decades of autocracy have caused the chaos we see today across the Arab world. Because autocracy is the problem, more autocracy is unlikely to provide a durable solution. Egypt, home to one in four Arabs, is always a bellwether. Understanding its recent history is essential to understanding events taking place across the region today.

Crude Strategy: Rethinking the U.S. Military Commitment to Defend Persian Gulf Oil, by Charles L. Glaser and Rosemary A. Kelanic, Georgetown University Press, 2016, paperback, 328 pp. MEB: $34. Should the United States ask its military to guarantee the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf? If the U.S. security commitment is in fact strategically sound, what posture should the military adopt to protect Persian Gulf oil? A collection of new essays from a multidisciplinary team of political scientists, historians, and economists provide answers to these questions.

Arabs Without God, by Brian Whitaker, CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014, paperback, 250 pp. MEB: $15. In Arab countries, openly declaring a disbelief in God is a shocking and sometimes dangerous thing to do. And yet, in a region where the influence of religion is almost inescapable, growing numbers are claiming a right to believe—or disbelieve—as they see fit. Whitaker looks at the factors that lead some Arabs to abandon religion and the challenges they pose for governments and societies that claim to be organized according to the will of God.

Arabic for Nerds 1: Fill the Gaps—270 Questions about Arabic Grammar, by Gerald Drißner, pochemuchka, 2015, paperback, 462 pp.

MEB: $22. This book explains how Arabic works and gives readers hints in using and understanding the language better. Since most of the Arabic words are given in translation, the reader should be able to read this book without a dictionary.

Baladi: A Celebration of Food from Land and Sea, by Joudie Kalla, Interlink Pub. Group, 2018, hardcover, 256 pp. MEB: $25. A follow-up to her debut cookbook, Palestine on a Plate, Joudie Kalla introduces readers to more of the Middle East’s best-kept secret— Palestinian cuisine. With stunning photographs to accompany each recipe, the book is interspersed with shots of the landscapes, streets, and people of Palestine, reflecting the rich culinary culture running through the whole country.

Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East, by Fawaz Gerges, Princeton University Press, 2018, hardcover, 528 pp. MEB: $26.

Gerges tells this story through an unprecedented dual biography of Nasser and another of the twentieth-century Arab world’s most influential figures—Sayyid Qutb, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and the father of many branches of radical political Islam. Their deeply intertwined lives embody and dramatize the divide between Arabism and Islamism.

Yet, as Gerges shows, beyond the ideological and existential rhetoric, this is a struggle over the state, its role, and its power.

Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo, by Seth Anziska, Princeton University Press, hardcover, 2018, 464 pp. MEB: $26. On the 40th anniversary of the Camp David Accords, a groundbreaking new history shows how Egyptian-Israeli peace ensured lasting Palestinian statelessness.Combining astute political analysis, extensive original research, and interviews with diplomats, military veterans, and communal leaders, Preventing Palestine offers a bold new interpretation of a highly charged struggle for self-determination.

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History, by Nur Masalha, Zed Books, hardcover, 2018, 304 pp. MEB: $32. This rich and authoritative work traces Palestine’s millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Masalha traces the evolution of Palestinian identity from the Bronze Age to the present day. Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past.

S H I P P I N G R AT E S 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 send mail orders to Middle East Books and More, 1902 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009, with checks and money orders made out to “AET.” U.S. Shipping Rates: Please add $2.50 for the first item and $2 for each additional item. Canada & Mexico shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $2.50 for each additional item. International shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $3.50 for each additional item.

We ship by USPS Priority unless otherwise requested.

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Library packages (list value over $240) are available for $29 if donated to a library, or free if requested with a library’s paid subscription or renewal. Call Middle East Books and More at 800-368-5788 ext. 2 to order. Our policy is to identify donors unless anonymity is specifically requested.

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B •O •O •K •S Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color

By Michael R. Fischbach, Stanford University Press, 2018, paperback, 296 pp.

MEB: $22.

Black Power and Palestine: Trans national Countries of Color could not have appeared at a more appropriate moment. On the heels of their recent electoral victories, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib—the first black Muslim woman and Palestinian woman, respectively, elected to Congress—came out in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Their stance is extraordinary among American politicians at the national level.

Black scholar and commentator Marc Lamont Hill is embroiled in controversy over his remarks on Palestine at the United Nations. After being immediately fired from his CNN post, powerful figures such as Patrick O’Connor, chairman of the board of trustees at Temple University, where Hill teaches, pushed for his firing, decrying his comments as having “unnecessarily blackened” the university’s name.

Most recently, two U.S. police departments have withdrawn from an ADLsponsored Israeli law enforcement junket. This is another unprecedented first in a long-standing tradition of meetings and joint-training between local police departments and Israeli forces.

As Michael R. Fischbach’s latest book makes clear, the convergence of Black America and Palestinian activism are not anomalies or merely recent trends, but instead are a half-century in the making,

Amin Gharad is director of Middle East Books and More, a project of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Reviewed by Amin Gharad the result of a rich, lively history of interaction.

The significance of the Arab-Israeli conflict to Black politics is a story little known and little told—even in the most probing discussions of the history of Black politics and struggle in America. Fischbach describes the sojourns of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Malcolm X to historic Palestine. He also relates the bitter disagreements touched off by the Arab-Israeli conflict within Black American activist circles.

Black Power and Palestine provides not only this needed historical retelling, but also lays bare the broader ideological contours of intra-Black debate around race, identity, political vision and action. Fischbach’s work is nothing short of an historical tour de force, shedding light on the interplay between Black activist spheres of the 1960s and ’70s and their wider world: A complicated tapestry of alliances and relationships between Black activists and white liberals, Black rights groups and Jewish allies, revolutionary Black Power and more traditional Black organizing.

It is a story of how Black positioning and political strategy on the issue has had profound effects across wider American society and politics, as well as around the globe.

Fischbach sheds light on connections of solidarity and mutual inspiration between America’s Black radicals and various other people of color—including not only Arabs in the Middle East and United States alike, but even segments of Jewish Israeli society.

For instance, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish youth—inspired by the original Black Panther Party—established the Israeli Black Panthers. The influence of Black Power on this group of Israelis went further than mere superficialities.

The Israeli Black Panthers borrowed the rhetoric and conceptualization of Black American subjugation to articulate their own struggles against Ashkenazi domination, and sought greater affinity with Palestinians than with their “white Jewish” compatriots and co-religionists. Fischbach provides examples of the way in which the Arab-Israeli conflict not only worked to reflect and accentuate Black American attitudes toward identity, but also influenced Middle Easterners’ views of both African Americans and themselves.

A masterpiece of investigative research, this book is the fruit of many years spent deep in the archives, chasing down government documents, and of extensive interviews with activists and key players. Black Power and Palestine is without doubt a fresh, invaluable addition to the canons of Black struggle and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

That this issue continues to animate and polarize makes Fischbach's contributions all the more worthy of our attention. ■

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CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST

The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Canada

El Tiempo, San Pedro Sula, Honduras

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, USA

Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore

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Kleine Zeitung, Graz, Austria JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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POLICE CHIEF RIGHT TO CANCEL TRAINING TRIP TO ISRAEL

To the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Dec. 10, 2018 I am writing in support of the recent decision to cancel Chief Kasper’s participation in a leadership counter-terrorism seminar in Israel.

This was a well-considered and ethical decision on the part of Northampton’s city leadership, and a decision that will help to keep our city truly safe. I am grateful to the community members who raised questions and concerns about this planned trip, and to Mayor Narkewicz and Chief Kasper for hearing those concerns and taking them seriously.

A little background about these exchange programs: According to materials, including a 2016 itinerary obtained by Jewish Voice for Peace and published on the website Deadly Exchange, past participants in the training program include former executives of ICE, as well as other high-ranking U.S. law enforcement officials. Past training trips have included meetings with high-ranking leaders of Shin Bet (an Israeli security organization known for torturing Palestinian detainees) and a senior researcher from the right-wing think tank International Institute for Counter-TerJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

rorism (ICT), which has been openly critical of the Geneva Conventions and other human rights laws. Past participants have also met with members of Yasam, a paramilitary arm of the police force with a documented history of brutality against minority ethnic groups. These are not models of law enforcement that will make Northampton a safer community.

Given this context and content, it is difficult to believe that this trip would help our local law enforcement improve their skills in effectively addressing and defusing hate crimes (the purported purpose of the trip).

As a Jewish queer person living in Northampton, I appreciate the fact that our police have expressed concern about the threat of hate crimes, and I absolutely want them to get training in this area—just not from a foreign military and police force that were recently criticized by the U.N. General Assembly for the use of excessive and indiscriminate force against a specific ethnic group.

Instead, I encourage Chief Kasper and others to deepen their learning about the historical and current manifestations of white supremacy and ethnonationalism in our own, uniquely American context, and to explore innovative and solidarity-based strategies (not rooted in militarism) for building true safety.

Sarah Field, Northampton, MA

ENDING POLICE TRAINING IN ISRAEL IS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC

To The Herald-Sun, Nov. 22, 2018 Josh Ravitch’s letter (“Words Do Matter,” Nov. 16) makes several unfounded allegations against Mayor Schewel and the Durham City Council. The issue, covered extensively by the Herald-Sun, is about the City Council’s statement passed unanimously on April 16 that limits the kind of training that Durham police officers might receive.

Ravitch says the mayor and the council acted to “single out, demonize and delegitimize Israel.” Not true. Israel was not singled out. Israel is mentioned in a preamble paragraph of the statement, but not in a way that singles it out. In the body of the statement Israel is not singled out in any way regarding council decisions about future Durham police officer training and Mayor Schewel has unambiguously confirmed that. When the Israeli government becomes part of a discussion, if the discussion is objective, it should address that government’s widespread and decadeslong human rights violations against Palestinians. Perhaps this is the reason

that Ravitch does not want the name of Israel to surface.

The words “demonize” and “delegitimize” are often used to attempt to silence legitimate criticism. In the antebellum South those wishing to perpetuate slavery likely accused abolitionists of demonizing and delegitimizing plantation owners. Ravitch notes that someone at the council meeting, during the open public forum, referred to the “synagogue of Satan” and blamed that on the mayor for “giving comfort” to such remarks. Not true. Far from giving comfort to such a statement, the mayor harshly condemned it, saying, “I am one of those Jews. I can’t describe that as anything but anti-Semitism. I don’t appreciate it. Don’t bring it here again!”

Mayor Schewel in his wrap-up remarks at the council meeting put it well when he said, “It doesn’t help to say things that aren’t true in order to whip up support for your side.” It would have been helpful if Mr. Ravitch had heeded the mayor’s advice.

Sam Bryan, Chapel Hill, NC

STUDENTS WISE TO LEAVE BIRTHRIGHT TRIP

To the Los Angeles Times, Dec. 8, 2018 Kudos to those young Jewish Americans who walked off their Birthright tours because of the program’s failure to fully address the Palestine-Israel conflict.

While Birthright might claim to be “apolitical,” its very name suggests that Jews around the world have a “birthright” to the Holy Land that the Palestinian Christians and Muslims who live there do not. It is inspiring that these young Jewish men and women refused to be spoon-fed a sanitized version of Israeli society and are determined not to ignore the harsher realities of the conflict.

If Birthright (and the Israeli government) truly want to encourage young American Jews to engage with Israeli society, the best way to do it is to present the unvarnished truth about the conflict and support policies (such as ending the occupation and illegal settlements, and promoting the two-state solution) that will lead to a just and equitable settlement of the conflict.

These young people are too smart to accept anything less.

David Saffan, Santa Barbara, CA

CONGRESSIONAL ASSAULT ON FREE SPEECH

To The World, Dec. 8, 2018 It hardly takes a sage or a scholar to figure out how deeds can be translated into messages, be those messages addressed

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to those closest to us or to the public at large. And I’m here to pass along a message from one of our Oregon senators, Ron Wyden, who has cosponsored Senate Bill 720. This bill makes it a crime to organize boycotts against Israel.

Whether you agree or disagree with such actions, and regardless of your opinions about Israel, or our government’s support of Israel, it is important to understand that anyone orchestrating such a thing has committed no crime. Like all forms of nonviolent political dissent, boycotts are constitutionally protected, whether Senator Wyden and his cronies like it or not.

I cannot over-emphasize the danger of such legislation. According to the draft law, anyone convicted of organizing a boycott against Israel faces 20 years in prison, and at minimum, a $250,000 fine. The message this translates to is quite clear: “Sit down and shut up, or we will ruin your life.”

Senator Wyden is sending that message to us, his constituents, so please be warned. If he and his colleagues succeed at passing this grotesque bill, they will have pounded the last nail in the coffin of our democracy.

I kid you not, this is bad news. The danger of such a law is something we cannot afford to overlook or ignore. Silence one segment of the population, like those of us opposed to Israeli atrocities, and it is only a matter of time before we all are silenced. And that spells fascism.

Shame on you, Senator Wyden! You just forfeited any entitlement to my vote. Hopefully others will be taking note of this outrageous assault on our democracy (what’s left of it) and our freedom.

Dorothy Reeves, Coos Bay, OR

YEMEN WAR MUST END

To The New York Times, Oct. 29, 2018 Re “Trump’s Hard Choices on Saudi Arabia” (Op-Ed, Oct. 23): James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, writes that Saudi Arabia presents challenges to the Trump administration in balancing United States ideals and interests. But on the critical issue—the war in Yemen—there is no fundamental conflict between our ideals and interests.

The war is already a humanitarian dis62

aster, rife with credible claims of crimes against humanity, and the United Nations warns of the extraordinary looming threat of starvation for millions, for which the Saudi blockade and war effort—with American support—bear substantial responsibility. All while few Americans could even identify the combatants or purported aims.

It neither serves our interests nor credits our ideals to fuel this war, inflaming extremism, authoritarianism and cross-gulf tensions while deepening our responsibility for humanitarian catastrophe. If, as seems likely, the president won’t act, then Congress must.

Steven Leovy, Boulder, CO

WILL NEXT CONGRESS PROMOTE HUMAN RIGHTS ABROAD?

To The Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 24, 2018 In the fervor and whiplash created by the 24-hour-news cycle, important policy decisions often go unnoticed by a distracted population. This week, obscured by the left’s elation of retaking Congress, there was a morally reprehensible move by the lame-duck House Republicans to block a vote renouncing U.S. support of the Saudi war in Yemen.

With tens of thousands killed and millions on the edge of what the U.N. Human Rights Council has called “mass deaths of starvation,” 13 million Yemenis will be subject to devastating famine if the international community fails to provide aid to the region. While the Saudi coalition in Yemen utilizes U.S. intelligence, arms and training to fight a drawn-out proxy war with Iran, millions of innocent civilians are in harm’s way, with only a trickle of humanitarian aid allowed to enter the country.

Abdicating their constitutional powers

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

to act, congressional Republicans have neglected the American ideals of human rights and protection in favor of shielding an unaccountable ally in Riyadh from responsibility. It is telling what the outgoing Congress doesn’t want brought to the floor of the House. Covering the eyes of serious oversight, the current Congress has removed any debate on American involvement in what is clearly an abhorrent conflict, allowing our nation’s military actions to remain unchecked.

However, there is hope. With fresh, progressive, and human rights-focused foreign policy, this new Congress can break from the ambivalent acceptance of American weapons and expertise being wielded by those who scoff at the basic foundations of human rights.

By exposing our complicity to scrutiny, this new Congress has the moral authority to redirect American foreign policy and fight for a new, humane American presence worldwide.

Bryan Lanning Hoechner, Salt Lake City, UT

IRAN AND U.S. ACCUSATIONS OF BELLIGERENCE

To The Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2018 The Nov. 8 editorial “What can the sanctions do? ” said there is a case to be made for tougher sanctions on Iran because of its regional “aggressions” despite Tehran stringently adhering to the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Among the reasons cited are Iran’s military support for the popular Ansar Allah (Houthi) movement in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Houthis are fighting against a sustained and brutal air campaign by the Saudis. Iran may be sending missiles to Lebanon, but Hezbollah hasn’t fired a rocket at Israel since the 2006 war, and its arsenal serves as a deterrent.

Iran, despite being denounced for cheating on the Non-Proliferation Treaty and for being a “bad actor,” has remained the faithful party to the JCPOA and all of its provisions. The United States, however, has been shown to have zero regard for political agreements it has signed.

Yousef Bozorgmehr, Wilmington, DE ■ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

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O• B • I • T • U • A • R • I • E • S Dr. Sulayman S. Nyang, 74, died on Nov. 12 following prolonged illness. A pioneer in the field of Muslim-American understanding, Dr. Nyang was one of America’s most influential Muslim academics.

His long, expansive career included a stint as deputy ambassador and head of chancery at the Gambian consulate in Saudi Arabia. He also served in advisory and consultant roles on boards of organizations, including the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, America’s Islamic Heritage Museum and the African Studies Association.

After receiving his Ph.D. in government from the University of Virginia, Dr. Nyang went on to pursue a prolific career in the academy credited for teaching and supervising hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students at Howard University and beyond. He was a celebrated professor and chair of Howard’s department of African Studies until his retirement in 2017.

Originally from The Gambia, Dr. Nyang devoted himself to spreading greater understanding of Islam and the Muslim world, writing and speaking extensively on issues relevant to the Middle East, Africa, Islam, and Muslims in the American public square. His bibliography boasts close to a dozen books including his seminal work, Islam in the United States of America. He also served as an advising scholar for the award-winning PBS documentaries, “Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet” (2002) and “Prince Among Slaves” (2007).

Beyond his scholarship, Nyang is remembered by colleagues and friends for his kindness and humility. He is survived by his wife, Eucharia Mbachu, and their children, Edna Nyang and Sulayman Nyang, Jr. Raed Fares, 46, was gunned down in Idlib, Syria in an attack suspected to have been carried out by a formerly al-Qaeda-linked Syrian militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

A prominent figure in the Syrian uprising against Bashar al-Assad, Fares was no stranger to danger. Only four years earlier, ISIS militants had shot him close to death.

In addition to several other attempts on his

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

life, Raed had also been kidnapped and tortured—although eventually released— by militants who took issue with broadcasting music and using female hosts on his radio program.

Fares was the founder of Radio Fresh FM—an independent radio station broadcast from opposition-controlled territories.

The station informed fellow Syrians and spotlighted the crimes of Assad and some of the militants fighting him, as well as providing key information concerning imminent Assad-led attacks and survival tips.

After ruthless Syrian bombing campaigns targeting civilians and even school children, Fares organized classes in basement and daycares where mothers could leave their children during the day. He also ran a program aimed at training aspiring journalists.

Jean Mohr, 93, died of cancer on Nov. 3 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Swiss photographer was famous for capturing the effects of war and calamity, and for his contributions to the efforts of some of the world's most important humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Born in Geneva in 1925, Mohr’s parents abandoned their native Germany with the rise of Hitler. After embarking on art studies in Paris several years after completing university studies in economics and the social sciences, Mohr began a career in photography at the age of 30.

His work—a great bulk of which focuses on the Middle East and especially Palestinians—includes 26 books of photography including collaborations with Edward Said and John Berger. His works have also found their way into film in the form of stills and cinematography.

Ara Güler, 90, died in Istanbul on Oct. 17 of a heart attack.

The photojournalist, nicknamed “the Eye of Istanbul,” was born to Christian Ar-

Compiled by Amin Gharad menian parents in Istanbul in 1928. He pursued a career in cinema before eventually switching paths and entering journalism. Boasting an archive of some 800,000 photographic slides, Güler traveled on assignment across the globe, with his works widely exhibited from New York to Paris to Cologne. He also photographed famous personalities ranging from Winston Churchill to Pablo Picasso.

On his 90th birthday, weeks before his death, his life’s work was honored with the grand opening of the Ara Güler Museum in Istanbul.

Gamil Ratib, 91, died on Sept. 19 in a Cairo hospital after suffering a long illness, according to his agent. His passing evoked an outpouring of tribute and condolence from stars from across the Arab world.

The award-winning Franco-Egyptian actor enjoyed a rich career spanning over six decades, performing in numerous stage shows, TV productions, and films. Perhaps his most famous role was that of Majid in the historical drama, “Lawrence of Arabia.”

Born and raised in Cairo in the 1920s, Ratib traveled to France to study law and economics at the University of France where he was introduced to the performing arts. He would later be awarded France’s Legion of Honor.

Tara Fares, 22, was shot dead while driving through the central Baghdad neighborhood of Camp Sarah on Sept. 27. Just days before Fares' assassination, human rights activist Suaad al-Ali was gunned down in an outdoor Basra market. In August, Rafeef al-Yaseri, a female plastic surgeon known as the “Barbie of Iraq” was killed in her Baghdad home. And a week after al-Yaseri’s murder, Rasha alHassan, the owner of a beauty center in Baghdad, was found dead in her home.

Fares, the former “Miss Baghdad” was Christian and of mixed Iraqi and Lebanese heritage, and resided in Kurdish-administered Erbil for the last few years. She had recently been recognized as one of Iraq’s most followed social media figures. ■

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AET’s 2018 Choir of Angels

following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between jan. 11, 2018 and nov. 20, 2018 is making possible activities of the tax-exempt aet library endowment (federal id #52-1460362) and the american educational trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. some angels helped us co-sponsor the conference “the israel lobby and american policy.” others donated to our “Capital building fund.” We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

HUMMERS ($100 or more)

Anonymous, San Francisco, CA Jeff Abood, Silver Lake, OH Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA Rizek & Alice Abusharr, Claremont, CA Miriam & Stephen Adams, Albuquerque, NM Michael & Jane Adas, Highland Park, NJ James C. Ahlstrom, Stirling, NJ Qamar Ahsan, Flint, MI Ahmad Al-Absy, Omaha, NE Saleh Al-Ashkar, Tucson, AZ Dr. Subhi Ali, Waverly, TN Joe & Siham Alfred, Fredericksburg, VA Arthur Alter, Santa Barbara, CA Hamid & Kim Alwan, Milwaukee, WI Nabil & Judy Amarah, Danbury, CT Ruby Amatulla, Dhaka, Bangladesh Edwin Amidon, Charlotte, VT Nazife Amrou, Sylvania, OH Louise Anderson, Oakland, CA Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Are, Stone Mountain, GA Dr. Robert Ashmore, Mequon, WI Mr. & Mrs. Sultan Aslam, Plainsboro, NJ Salim Bahloul, Blackburn South, Australia Rev. Robert E. Barber, Parrish, FL Elizabeth Barlow, Augusta, MI Allen & Jerrie Bartlett, Philadelphia, PA Mohammed & Wendy Bendebba, Baltimore, MD Dr. Ann Bragdon, Houston, TX John V. Brown, Los Altos, CA James Burkart, Bethesda, MD Liza Burr & John Landgraf, Saint Paul, MN Prof. Mireya Camurati, Williamsville, NY Patricia Christensen, Poulsbo, WA Carolyn Cicciu, Goffstown, NH James Cobey, Washington, DC John Cornwall, Palm Springs, CA John Dirlik, Pointe Claire, Canada Mr. & Mrs. L. F. Boker Doyle, New York, NY 64

Sarah L. Duncan, Vienna, OH Ibrahim Elkarra, San Francisco, CA Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX Ghassan Elkhatib, Belton, MO Albert E. Fairchild, Bethesda, MD Bill Freij, Plymouth, MI John Freitas, Fresno, CA Michael Gillespie, Maxwell, IA Sherif Gindy, Macomb, MI Sam Gousen, Arlington, VA Douglas Greene, Bowling Green, OH William Grimstad, Woodland Park, CO Iftekhar Hai, S. San Francisco, CA Dixiane Hallaj, Purcellville, VA Erin K. Hankir, Nepean, Canada Delinda C. Hanley, Kensington, MD Shirley Hannah, Queensbury, NY Susan Haragely, Livonia, MI Prof. & Mrs. Brice Harris, Pasadena, CA Angelica Harter, N. Branford, CT Mr. & Mrs. Sameer Hassan, Quaker Hill, CT Joan & Edward Hazbun, Media, PA Clement Henry, Moorestown, NJ James Hillen, North Vancouver, Canada Mr. & Mrs. Azmi Ideis, Deltona, FL Mustafa Issa, Montreal, Canada Mary Izett, Walnut Creek, CA Rafeeq Jaber, Palos Hills, IL Dr. Raymond Jallow, Los Angeles, CA Bilquis Jaweed, West Chester, OH Ronald Jaye, Watsonville, CA Zagloul & Muntaha Kadah, Los Gatos, CA Mark Kaidy, Westminster, MD Dr. Nadim Kassem, Roseland, NJ Stephen Kaye, New York, NY Brian J. Kelly, Albuquerque, NM Charles Kennedy, Concord, NH Susan Kerin, Rockville, MD Ismath J. Khan, Bloomfield Hills, MI M. Yousuf Khan, Scottsdale, AZ Abdalhakim Khirfan, Flint, MI Eugene Khorey, West Mifflin, PA Dr. Nabil Khoury, Bloomfield, MI Tony Khoury, Sedona, AZ Carl Kleinholz, Elyria, OH Loretta Krause, Southport, NC

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Kamal Obeid, Fremont, CA Rawhi Omar, Crestwood, KY Khaled Othman, Riverside, CA A. Karim Pathan, Cary, NC Ruth Persky, Los Angeles, CA Jim Plourd, Monterey, CA John Prugh, Long Beach, CA Cheryl Quigley, Toms River, NJ Mazin Qumsiyeh, Bethlehem, Palestine Doris Rausch, Columbia, MD Kenneth Reed, Bishop, CA Paul Richards, Salem, OR Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT Brynhild Rowberg, Northfield, MN Hameed Saba, Diamond Bar, CA Dr. Mohammed Sabbagh, Grand Blanc, MI Denis Sabourin, Pattaya, Thailand Walter & Halina Sasak, Northborough, MA Dr. Abid Shah, Sarasota, FL Bernice Shaheen, Hilton Head, SC# William Shaheen, III, Grosse Ile, ME Richard J. Shaker, Annapolis, MD George Shalabi, Prairie Du Sac, WI Lewis Shapiro, White Plains, NY Kathy Sheridan, Mill Valley, CA Dr. Mostafa Hashem Sherif, Tinton Falls, NJ Andy Sherman, Ardmore, OK Zac Sidawi, Costa Mesa, CA Sisters of St. Francis, Tiffin, OH David Skerry, Medford, MA William & Ursula Slavick, Portand, ME Edgar W. Snell, Jr., Schenectady, NY Jean Snyder, Greenbelt, MD Rev. John J. Sullivan, Maryknoll, NY McDonald Sullivan, Seattle, WA Thomas & Carol Swepston, Englewood, FL Monica Swift, Los Angeles, CA Sajid Syed, Closter, NJ Doris Taweel, Laurel, MD Dr. Paul E. Teschan, Nashville, TN Charles Thomas, La Conner, WA Edmund & Norma Tomey, Dorset, VT Bob Tripp, Reston, VA Tom Veblen, Washington, DC Paul H. Verduin, Silver Spring, MD V. R. Vitolins, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI James Wall, Elmhurst, IL Dr. Terry Waltz, Washington, DC Rev. Hermann Weinlick, Minneapolis, MN Carol Wells, Venice, CA Willard White, Phoenix, AZ Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Falls Church, VA JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Women Against Military Madness, Minneapolis, MN Nabil Yakub, McLean, VA Raymond Younes, Oxnard, CA Dr. & Mrs. Fathi S. Yousef, Irvine, CA Mashood Yunus, Eagan, MN John Zacharia, Vienna, VA Munir Zacharia, La Mirada, CA Mahmoud Zawawi, Amman, Jordan Fred Zuercher, Spring Grove, PA

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Bradley Bitar, Olympia, WA Dr. Ann Bragdon & Karim Al Kadi, Houston, TX Duncan Clark, Rockville, MD Larry Cooper, Plymouth, MI**** Mr. & Mrs. John Crawford, Boulder, CO Ron Dudum, San Francisco, CA Dr. David Dunning, Lake Oswego, OR Catherine Fararjeh, Santa Clara, CA Ken Galal, San Francisco, CA Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Raymond Gordon, Bel Air, MD Dr. Walid & Norma Harb, Dearborn Hts., MI Dr. Marwan Hujeij, Cincinnati, OH Fahd Jajeh, Lake Forest, IL Dr. Raymond Jallow Family Foundation, Los Angeles, CA* Dr. Jamil Jreisat, Temple Ter., FL Stephen Kaye, New York, NY Brian J. Kelly, Albuquerque, NM Sandra La Framboise, Oakland, CA William H. Lindberg, Edina, MN Nidal Mahayni, Richmond, VA Tom & Tess McAndrew, Oro Valley, AZ Ernest Miller IV, Phoenix, AZ

Ben Monk, Saint Paul, MN Sara Najjar-Wilson, Reston, VA Audrey Olson, Saint Paul, MN Hertha Poje-Ammoumi, New York, NY Phillip Portlock, Washington, DC Clarence Prince, Austin, TX Sam Rahman, Lincoln, CA Mr. & Mrs. Edward Reilly, Rocky Point, NY Amb. William Rugh, Hingham, MA Yusef & Jennifer Sifri, Wilmington, NC David J. Snider, Bolton, MA Darcy Sreebny, Issaquah, WA Mae Stephen, Palo Alto, CA Cathy & Michel Sultan, Eau Claire, WI

TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more)

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Calling All Angels!

Have you responded to our recent donation appeal? As an independent 100 percent reader-supported, non-profit magazine and bookstore, we depend on “angels” like you. Paper and mailing costs are skyrocketing, and now Barnes & Noble bookstores has “delisted” the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs without saying why. This means the bookstore with the largest number of retail outlets in the U.S.—which sold 80 percent of our newsstand copies—will no longer carry this magazine in their stores. The impact is devastating. As a result our long-time distributor stopped all their sales and marketing to other bookstores.

Start a subscription for your library or ask your local bookstore to carry the Washington Report. Please join our choir and help us print, mail and circulate your favorite magazine.

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Gerald & Judith Merrill, Oakland, CA William & Nancy Nadeau, San Diego, CA Mary Norton, Austin, TX Herbert & Patricia Pratt, Cambridge, MA Mary H. Regier, El Cerrito, CA Ramzy Salem, Monterey Park, CA Lisa Schiltz, Barber, Bahrain Yasir Shallal, McLean, VA Norman Tanber, Dana Point, CA Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD Dr. James Zogby, Washington, DC

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Help make sure that the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs will be here for the next generation.

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American Educational Trust Washington Report on Middle East Affairs P.O. Box 53062 Washington, DC 20009

January/February 2019 Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1

Palestinians prepare a 1,400 square meter (15,070 square feet) keffiyeh (traditional Arab headscarf) as they launch the process of applying for the 2019 Guinness Book of World Records’ largest keffiyeh, in Dura, near the West Bank town of Hebron, Nov. 14, 2018. The group plans to apply again in November 2019 with a 5,000 square meter keffiyeh.

HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images