Washington Report - March/April 2017 - Vol. XXXVI, No. 2

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ISRAEL TARGETS MINORITY VILLAGES

DISPLAY UNTIL 4/30/2017

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TELLING THE TRUTH FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS...

On Middle East Affairs

Volume XXXVI, No. 2

INTERPRETING THE MIDDLE EAST FOR NORTH AMERICANS

✮

March/April 2017

INTERPRETING NORTH AMERICA FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE Land Law Is Final Nail in the Two-State Solution Coffin —Jonathan Cook

12 14

9

2016 “Deadliest Year” for West Bank Children in a Decade—Zena Tahhan

10

A Ban on Muslims?—Two Views —Tom Regan, James J. Zogby

Paris and the End to a Western-Dominated Era in the Middle East—Ramzy Baroud

Unsolicited Advice to the New Trump Administration— Four Views—Ron Paul, Paul R. Pillar, Navid Hassibi, Amira Hass

28

18

Palestinian Israeli Math Teacher Killed as Israel Targets Minority Villages—Jonathan Cook

23 30 32 34 36

48

America and Gaza After the U.S. Elections —Mohammed Omer

Trump Could Have Done Much Worse Than Pick Nikki Haley for U.N. Ambassador—Ian Williams

Congressional Resolutions Slam Obama’s Non-Veto Of U.N. Resolution Criticizing Israel—Shirl McArthur

Handed a “Loaded Gun,” Donald Trump Inherits Gitmo and Permissive War Powers—Dale Sprusansky The Obama Administration’s Parting Action on and Words to Israel—Three Views —Patrick J. Buchanan, Gideon Levy, James J. Zogby

Frank Gaffney Is Behind New Anti-Muslim Interfaith Group—Eli Clifton

SPECIAL REPORTS

25

In Memoriam: Andrew I. Killgore (1919-2016) —Delinda C. Hanley

Although Media Coverage Has Dwindled, Refugees Continue to Flee for Their Lives—Sara R. Powell

42

40

Canada Not Immune From a Legacy of Fear-Mongering—Faisal Kutty

Death of Rafsanjani Leaves Iran in Grip of Power Struggle—Gareth Smyth

43

Rohingya Issue Creates More Waves in Region —John Gee

Proceeds from the sale of “Waiting for Spring,” painted by Lukman Ahmad, a Kurdish artist from Syria, during the American Arabesque festival benefited the Syrian American Medical Society Foundation. See story p. 52.

ON THE COVER: Lebanese immigrant and Muslim American Lody Zeitoun (r), with her daughter, Serena, during an

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

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Interfaith Rally for Muslims and Refugees at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, GA, Feb. 4, 2017. .

JESSICA MCGOWAN/GETTY IMAGES

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

Other Voices

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Israel Robs Land, But Only in Accordance With the Law, Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz

OV-1

The Zionist Record on Refugees, Lawrence Davidson, http://consortiumnews.com

OV-2

The Israel Lobby: All Bark but Little Bite, Hamid Dabashi, www.aljazeera.com

OV-3

Almost Famous: Israel Recruits D-list Celebrities to Counter BDS, Itamar Zohar, Haaretz

OV-4

Can TED Talks Sell 50 Years of Israeli Occupation?, Naomi Zeveloff, The Forward

OV-5

Donald Trump Is Wrong About Israel’s “Security” Wall, William Parry, www.aljazeera.com

6 letters to the editor

45 the World looks at the Middle east — CARtoons 46 other PeoPle’s Mail

50 israel and JudaisM: U.n. Resolution on settlements Reveals Growing Divide in American Jewish opinion—Allan C. Brownfeld

52 arab aMerican activisM: American Arabesque Festival Closes With Artists Reception 53 MusliM aMerican activisM: MPAC Convention Builds Bridges, Breaks Barriers

53 Music & arts: Hamzah Jamjoom Delves Into saudi Culture

Will Trump and Sisi Perpetuate, Or Avert, a Proven Disaster?, Rami G. Khouri, Agence Global

OV-10

Death of the Syrian “Moderate” Fantasy, Jonathan Marshall, http://consortiumnews.com

OV-11

Betsy DeVos Shows How Jews Are Failing Early Tests in Age of Trump, J.J. Goldberg, The Forward

OV-12

Chile: Palestinians Gather to Forge Unified Diaspora, Patricia Luna, www.aljazeera.com

OV-13

Iran Today, Richard Bulliet, Agence Global

OV-15

Two Great Empires, Mohammad-Reza Djalili & Thierry Kellner, Le Monde diplomatique

OV-7

OV-16

58 diPloMatic doings:

Ambassador Areikat Responds to U.n. Resolution, Kerry speech

58 Waging Peace: Will the Iran

nuclear Deal survive the trump Era?

68 book revieW:

What Have We Done: the Moral Injury of our Longest Wars

—Reviewed by Samuel Hazo 69 Middle east books and More 70 obituaries 72 2016 aet choir oF angels 51 indeX to advertisers

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

5 Publishers’ Page

OV-9

OV-6

Billionaires Behind Netanyahu Investigation Sought to Recruit Mossad Chief for Global Security Deals, Uri Blau & Judy Maltz, Haaretz

DEPARTMENTS

Playing Politics With Terrorism List, Paul R. Pillar, http://nationalinterest.org

Volunteer Drew Curtiss installs tile flooring in Middle East Books and More’s newly expanded space.

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American Educational Trust

Netanyahu Meets With Trump.

As we went to press, President Donald Trump was preparing to welcome Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Washington, DC on Feb. 15. Several weeks before his visit, Netanyahu again injected himself into American politics by tweeting his support for the president’s proposed wall along the U.S.Mexico border. “President Trump is right. I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great Success. Great idea,” Netanyahu tweeted. While Netanyahu’s words were inappropriate, what is truly outrageous is Israel’s frenetic…

Rapid Expansion of Settlements.

Since Trump took the oath of office on Jan. 20, Israel has moved with great fervor to expropriate more and more Palestinian land. In January it announced plans to build more than 6,000 new housing units in illegal West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements. Netanyahu also presented plans to build an entirely new settlement in the West Bank—for the first time in 20 years. Israeli authorities additionally demolished 137 Palestinian structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in January. Adding insult to injury, on Feb. 6, the Israeli Knesset passed legislation that retroactively legalizes 53 outposts built on private Palestinian land (see p. 8). These egregious violations of international law have been met with a…

Weak White House Response.

After issuing no formal response to Israel’s settlement announcements on Jan. 22 and Jan. 24, the White House issued a statement following Israel’s third settlement announcement on Jan. 31. “While we don’t believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal,” the statement read. Given that Trump has nominated settler advocate David Friedman to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Israel, it’s no MARCH/APRIL 2017

Publishers’ Page

Andrew I. Killgore (1919-2016)

surprise that his administration is refusing to delegitimize the settlement enterprise.

Despite this wave of bad news, it’s important to remember that we can still be…

Agents of Change.

From the Women’s March to the various rallies held in opposition to the Muslim ban, concerned Americans have shown they are not going to take Trump’s affront on the rule of law and civil liberties lightly. It’s essential for each one of us to choose an issue we care deeply about and find others who share our passions. Support organizations that are helping refugees and immigrants, as well as providing legal aid and educational support. Americans can show our leaders that we value diversity and…

Actually Do Mean Business.

knew that Americans desperately needed a source of accurate information about the Middle East. Although the media landscape has changed considerably since we first opened our doors in 1982, in an age of misinformation and uninformed commentary our presence remains more vital than ever.

As we mourn the loss of Andy Killgore, who died on Dec. 20 (see p. 25), and celebrate the magazine’s 35th birthday, we move forward determined to tell the truth for another 35 years. Help us empower each other with the information we need to be informed citizens. We can’t do it alone—we need your help to continue the…

Vision of our Founders.

In honor of Andy Killgore we encourage you to help the Washington Report by making a generous donation, sharing the magazine with friends and other potential subscribers, and attending our March 24 “Israel Lobby and American Policy” conference (see ad p. 21). Also be sure to spread the word about our...

Expanded Bookstore!

As we finished the last pages of this issue upstairs, volunteers and staff were enlarging Middle East Books and More’s bookstore downstairs. We hope to have more space for book talks, and maybe a little backgammon and coffee. Growing numbers of customers have been discovering the treasures in our soon-to-be-not-so-little DC bookstore. One night a woman who’d just moved here from Afghanistan came through our doors. As she looked around she started weeping. “I was beginning to think Americans hated Arabs and Muslims,” she said. “Now I’ve found a comfortable place to hang out.”

As the next four years play out, it is essential that we remain vigilant and relentlessly contact lawmakers and other decision makers. Be it plans to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, provoke Iran, marginalize Muslim Americans, or continue the reckless war on terror, we must be prepared and determined to have our voices heard. We cannot let fear and “alternative facts” dictate our country’s future. We must remain…

Sticking Together.

When Andrew Killgore, Richard Curtiss and Edward Firth Henderson founded the Washington Report 35 years ago, they

Make A Difference Today!

Dedicated to the Truth.

In these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever that we support one another as we work harder than ever to...

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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lte_6-7_March/April 2017 Letters to Editor 2/9/17 8:46 PM Page 6

Managing Editor: News Editor: Assistant Editor:

Middle East Books and More Director:

Finance & Admin. Dir.: Art Director: Publisher: Executive Editor:

JANET McMAHON DELINDA C. HANLEY DALE SPRUSANSKY NATHANIEL BAILEY CHARLES R. CARTER RALPH U. SCHERER ANDREW I. KILLGORE (1919-2016) RICHARD H. CURTISS (1927-2013)

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (ISSN 8755-4917) is published 7 times a year, monthly except Jan./Feb., March/April, June/July and Aug./Sept. combined, at 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 200091707. Tel. (202) 939-6050. Subscription prices (United States and possessions): one year, $29; two years, $55; three years, $75. For Canadian and Mexican subscriptions, $35 per year; for other foreign subscriptions, $70 per year. Periodicals, postage paid at Washington, DC and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056.

Published by the American Educational Trust (AET), a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC by retired U.S. foreign service officers to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states.

AET’s Foreign Policy Committee has included former U.S. ambassadors, government officials, and members of Congress, including the late Democratic Sen. J. William Fulbright and Republican Sen. Charles Percy, both former chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Members of AET’s Board of Directors and advisory committees receive no fees for their services.

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

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

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

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

6

LetterstotheEditor A NUCLEAR WEAPON-FREE MIDDLE EAST BY 2019

The Iran nuclear deal is an important political agreement reached in 2015 between the Republic of Iran and a group of world powers: the P5+1 (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and China— plus Germany) and the European Union.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu now wants to persuade President Donald Trump to overturn this important deal that was painstakingly negotiated over two years. Netanyahu’s objective being to retain Israel as the sole nuclear weapons state in the Middle East, notwithstanding that an abrogation of the Iran deal would eventually involve U.S. troops fighting a new Middle East war against Iran that would inevitably also involve Russia and Europe.

There is, therefore, only one viable, and necessary, solution: that is for President Trump to propose that the U.N. Security Council designate the entire Middle East—including both Israel and Iran—as a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) by, say, mid-2019. The dismantling and decommissioning of all existing nuclear facilities would be supervised by the IAEA inspection team reporting directly to the U.N. secretary-general.

Of course, Netanyahu, the nuclear Zionist, is intent on asking Trump to reimpose economic sanctions against Iran in order to further his party’s own political agenda. However, global responsibility must now be returned to the United Nations Security Council: the only international authority that legitimately represents the security of all of us, both here in Europe and around the world.

Anthony Bellchamber, via e-mail The Trump administration’s stance on the Iran nuclear agreement is very troubling. Your proposal just might give the president a way to do the right thing.

GOOD WORK IN CRITICAL TIMES

Please find enclosed our contribution to the American Educational Trust for $500, in support for the good work you do in providing accurate and effective information about the Middle East and especially about the Israeli/Palestinian situation.

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

We value the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and the many educational books and materials provided by the American Educational Trust.

Our best wishes as you continue this important work at a critical time for our country and the Middle East.

Nabeel and Jean Mansour, Corvallis, OR We are most grateful for your support, and will continue to do our best to earn it. The times are indeed critical!

AN ANNIVERSARY GIFT

Please accept this small but heartfelt gift in memory of two great heroes, Andy Killgore and Dick Curtiss, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of this fine publication. Dick was first and foremost a truth-teller and he used his voice to educate thousands of Americans. May we all be so courageous.

Vicki Tamoush, Tustin, CA Thank you for your thoughtful and meaningful gift—and for your support and encouragement for so many years.

The legacy of Dick Curtiss and publisher Andrew I. Killgore, who died in late December (see p. 25), is a source of inspiration to us all.

KUDOS FOR AND SHAME ON KERRY

Your December issue arrived before I left to spend the holidays in Baja, Mexico, and once more your reporting of news events is the type that, sadly, cannot be found in the mainstream media.

As I sat in my hotel room ready to depart for home on Dec. 28th, I listened to Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech in support of the U.S. failure to veto the recent U.N. resolution condemning further Israeli construction on the West Bank. In his address Kerry mentions Palestinian assaults upon Israeli Jews but said nothing about the daily humiliation, harassments and attacks committed by the IDF and Israeli settlers against Palestinians, nor the unscrupulous military arrests and confinement without trial for the most minor of offenses without benefit of democratic due process committed against Palestinian children by the IDF. Kudos to Kerry for his fine declaration in support of the U.S. action in the U.N., but for his lack of balance in what has been stressed herein, I say SHAME! MARCH/APRIL 2017

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Enclosed is my annual check in tion of Palestine on Rhodes’ KEEP THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS support of your fine publication. colonial project in Africa.

COMING! Jack Love, San Diego, CA In this light, we shouldn’t necSend your letters to the editor to the Washington We thank you for your generessarily see anything incongruReport, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009 ous contribution and for your ent, for example, in the fact of or e-mail <letters@wrmea.org>. longtime support. For Views on Trump appointing the Zionist fathe waning days of the Obama adminis- Noirs”), you said that you “consider Zion- natic David Friedman to be his ambastration, including Secretary Kerry’s ism to be a European/Western phenom- sador to Israel on the one hand, while on enon…not indigenous to the Arab world the other installing the White nationalist speech, see p. 36. or to the Jews living there.”

Steve Bannon as his chief strategist. It’s FOREVER GENEROUS Maybe I read too much into your use true that the better-known varieties of orAttached are 80 Forever stamps. Please of the passive voice there, but to me this ganized White racism tend to be antiaccept them as a donation since I am in- seems like an understatement. I don’t Jewish, but this has never been univercarcerated and don’t have the means to know who can consider Zionism any- sally so, as can be seen from the fact donate otherwise. thing but a European ideology, given that that long-time White supremacist Jared Yaser Albahri, Mayo, FL Theodor Herzl was a European in Eu- Taylor has more than once had racist We are so touched by your gift, please rope who wrote his famous book for and White Jews (including an Orthodox accept our sincerest thanks. about the ethnic and political aspirations rabbi) speak at his American Renaisof a group of his fellow Europeans. As sance conferences and write for his NOT WHAT THEY SEEM Shlomo Sand, Arthur Koestler and oth- magazine. Last month CNN reported The White Helmets are not what they ers have shown, the fact that these Eu- that Taylor had recently addressed one seem. They apparently only operate in ropeans happened to practice Judaism of Alt-Right luminary Richard Spencer’s the areas controlled by (supposedly tells us no more about their ancestral National Policy Institute meetings. moderate) al-Qaeda-affiliated proxy fight- land of origin than Americans practicing An even more fascinating illustration of ers backed by U.S. money and Christianity tells us about ours. We don’t the inherent relatedness of Zionism to weapons. They call themselves "Syria have Internet access in here, or I could other brands of White supremacy is a Civil Defense" when there is a real Syr- look up where it came from, but I’ve read political manifesto published recently by ian Civil Defense supported by the Syr- more than once before that Herzl de- Arthur Kemp, a South African neo-Nazi, ian government that operates in all areas scribed himself as a devotee of Cecil called “Nova Europa: European Survival and has been in existence for years.

Rhodes, and that he modeled his plan Strategy in a Darkening World.” In it, For a supposedly humanitarian organi- for the White (i.e., Ashkenazic) coloniza- Kemp holds up a detailed analysis of zation to come to the U.S. asking for modern Israel as an exemplar for how to money and then propose that we implecreate and run a racist, neo-fascist state. ment a no-fly zone puts the lie to their imWhat Jews are doing to Brown Palespartiality. For Mr. Rahmani to claim that, tinians in Palestine, the Alt-Right wants to "A no fly zone doesn’t choose between do to Black and Brown Americans in sides" apparently has no memory of the America. I agree completely with your no-fly zone we implemented in Libya with and John Finnessey’s analogy of Israeli disastrous results to the Libyan people.

Jews to the pieds noirs [“black feet”] in Howard Emerson, via e-mail Algeria. And like in Algeria and the rest of Our report on the visit to Washington Africa, in the end the White colonial proby White Helmets head Raed al-Salah, jects in Palestine and America will fail. sponsored by the Syria Campaign, repreBless you for your work. sented by Kenan Rahmani (see Leo Oladimu, U.S. Penitentiary, LewisNov./Dec. 2016 Washington Report, p. burg, PA 56) was not an endorsement of the Hmm, we didn’t think we used the pasgroup. We noted, in fact, that it was critisive voice in our reply—in fact, we’re quite cal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, suspicious whenever we encounter it, that many questioned the wisdom of a since it often signals an effort to cover OTHER VOICES is an optional 16-page supno-fly zone, and that the White Helmets something up (e.g., the 1967 war “broke plement available only to subscribers of the Washhad received $23 million in assistance out”)—so let’s go with “understatement.” ington Report on Middle East Affairs. For an addifrom the U.S. government—hardly a neuThe point we were trying to make, pertional $15 per year (see postcard insert for tral observer. We would similarly cover a haps too obliquely, is that Zionism likes to Washington Report subscription rates), subpresentation by Syrian government repportray itself as a movement of Jews from scribers will receive Other Voices inside each issue resentatives (unlikely as that is to occur!). all over the world, but Arab Jews were not of their Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Alas, it says a lot about our world today among its founders or early proponents.

Back issues of both publications are available. that humanitarianism often serves as a Hence, Israel is best seen as a European To subscribe telephone 1 (888) 881-5861, fax cover for deadly intervention. colonial state rather than a Jewish state.

(714) 226-9733, e-mail circulation@wrmea. org>, We are inspired by your non-computeror write to P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809AN UNDERSTATEMENT AT BEST dependent knowledge and by your graphic 1056.

In response to John Finnessey’s letter in abilities, as attested to by the “BDS” logo the Jan./Feb. issue (“West Bank Pieds on the outside of your envelope! ■ MARCH/APRIL 2017

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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The Nakba Continues

Land Law Is Final Nail in the Two-State Solution Coffin

By Jonathan Cook

THOMAS COEX/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

“outpost” called Amona. It was a rare and brief setback for the settlers, provoked by a court ruling that took three years to enforce.

The evacuation of 40 families was transformed into an expensive piece of political theater, costing $40 million. It was choreographed as a national trauma to ensure such an event is never repeated.

The uniforms worn by police at demolitions of Palestinian homes—guns, batons, black body armor and visors—were stored away. Instead officers, in friendly blue sweatshirts and baseball caps, handled the Jewish lawbreakers with kid gloves, even as they faced a hail of stones, bleach and bottles. By the end, dozens of officers needed hospital treatment.

As the clashes unfolded, Naftali Bennett, the education minister and leader of the settler party Jewish Home, called Amona’s families “heroes.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu empathized: “We all understand the extent of their pain.”

The settlers have been promised an enlarged replacement settlement, and will be richly compensated. In a more general reparation, plans have been unveiled for thousands of extra settler homes New prefabricated homes under construction in the occupied West Bank between the Israeli outpost of Amona and the Ofra settlement (background), north of Ramallah, Jan. in the West Bank.

But the main prize for Bennett and the far right 31, 2o17, a week before the Knesset passed the legalization law. was the legalization law itself. It reverses a restriction imposed in the 1970s—and later violated by dozens of settleTHE ISRAELI PARLIAMENT passed the legalization law on the ments like Amona—designed to prevent a free-for-all by the settlers. night of Feb. 6—a piece of legislation every bit as suspect as its International law is clear that an occupying power can take land title suggests. The law widens the powers of Israeli officials to seize only for military needs. Israel committed a war crime in transferring the last fragments of Palestinian land in the West Bank that were more than 600,000 Jewish civilians into the occupied territories. supposed to be off-limits. Now, almost nowhere will be out of the Successive governments ignored their legal obligations by presettlers’ reach. tending the territories were disputed, not occupied. But to end the Palestinian leaders warned that the law hammered the last nail Israeli courts’ discomfort, officials agreed to forbid settlers from in the coffin of a two-state solution. Government ministers gleefully building on land privately owned by Palestinians. agreed. For them, this is the extension of Israeli law into the West It was not much of a constraint. Under Ottoman, British and JorBank and the first step toward its formal annexation. danian rule, plenty of Palestinian land had never been formally regThe legalization law—also commonly translated from Hebrew as istered. Ownership derived chiefly from usage. Much of the rest the regulation or validation law—was the right’s forceful response to was common land. the eviction last week of a few dozen families from a settlement Israel seized these vast tracts that lacked title deeds, declaring Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth and a winner of the them “state land”—to be treated effectively as part of Israel and reMartha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He is the author of served exclusively for Jewish settlement. But even this giant land Blood and Religion and Israel and the Clash of Civilisations (availgrab was not enough. able from AET’s Middle East Books and More). Copyright © Abu Dhabi Media Company. All rights reserved.

Continued on p. 17 8

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MARCH/APRIL 2017

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Special Report

2016 “Deadliest Year” for West Bank Children in a Decade

By Zena Tahhan

MUSA AL SHAER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

ISRAELI FORCES have killed more Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2016 than any other year in the last decade, rights group Defense for Children International (DCI) has said.

The organization’s chapter in the occupied Palestinian territories recorded the killings of 32 Palestinian children (under 18), making 2016 “the deadliest year of the past decade” for them, the group said in a recent report.

Many of those killings happened during Israeli military raids on Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank, confrontations with the Israeli army, or during unarmed protests.

“Israeli soldiers employ a Relatives mourn over the body of Qusai Al-Amour, 17, shot and killed by Israeli soldiers during clashes shoot-to-kill policy. They have in the West Bank village of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem, Jan. 16, 2017. the green light to kill PalestiniPalestine. ans, and the fact that they can do so with impunity and no conIn 2015, the total number of civilians under the age of 18 killed in sequences builds the foundation for such shootings to take the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, stood at 28. In place,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at 2014, 13 Palestinian children were killed, while 4 were killed in 2013.

DCI-Palestine, told Al Jazeera.

“It is very rare that any investigations are opened on the Since October 2015, Israeli soldiers and settlers have been killings. There has only been one incident in 2014–that of Nadim responsible for the killing of at least 244 Palestinians, including Nuwara–in which a soldier was charged,” said Abu Eqtaish. unarmed demonstrators, bystanders and alleged attackers in On May 15, 2014, video footage showed Israeli forces firing what has been termed the “Jerusalem intifada,” or Jerusalem uplive bullets at two unarmed Palestinian boys, Nadim Nuwara, 17, rising. and Mahmoud Abu Thaher, 16, who were attending a protest Thirty-six Israelis have also been killed in stabbing and shootoutside Israel’s Ofer prison, killing them. ing incidents carried out by Palestinians.

The Israeli was charged with manslaughter, but his lawyers “Due to the political situation, especially the Jerusalem uprisrecently told Israeli media the charges may be dropped. ing since October 2015, the numbers have gone up, with tension Fifteen-year-old Faris al-Bayed from the Jalazone refugee and clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinians increascamp north of Ramallah in the West Bank was another victim of ing,” said Abu Eqtaish.

Israeli army aggression. Al-Bayed was killed on Oct. 15 last year Out of the 32, 19 were between the ages of 16 and 17, while when Israeli soldiers shot a rubber-coated metal bullet at his 13 were in the age group of 13 to 15 years old, according to DCIhead, which eventually resulted in his death.

Copyright © 2017 Al Jazeera Media Network.

Continued on p. 49 MARCH/APRIL 2017

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Two Views

A Ban on Muslims?

JOSHUA LOTT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

States and the world.

Thousands of Americans flooded airports across America to protest the ban and cheer those who were eventually allowed to enter the country. World leaders, even some senior members in Trump’s own Republican Party, condemned the move, saying it would lead to increased, not less, terrorism.

Yet the Trump administration, despite a bit of dancing around, stood firm and refused to back down.

There are two reasons for this, one legal and one political.

A 1952 immigration law Syrian refugee Baraa Haj Khalaf (l) shares a moment with her daughter, Sham, and brother Mohamed after a news conference following her arrival at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Feb. 7, 2017. Days earlier, a gives the president the Seattle federal judge had temporarily halted enforcement of President Donald Trump’s executive order ban- right to bar any class of ning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. On Feb. 9, a court of appeals upheld the ban’s sus- people considered “detripension. mental to the interests of the United States.” Politically, Trump knows his base loves it. While his overall popularity declined in a recent Gallup poll, it rose several points among Republicans. A recent Pew poll indicated that 48 percent of Americans questioned said they wanted tougher immiBy Tom Regan gration standards and 42 percent said they did not.

So, with the wind in his sails, why might Trump’s executive TO QUOTE FROM The Wizard of Oz: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re order be in trouble in the long run? not in Kansas anymore.” Or perhaps William Butler Yeats: “All One word—sloppiness. changed, changed utterly.” Recent weeks in American politics Several media outlets reported that the executive order was has been like a tornado destroying everything in its path. not vetted by White House counsel, the Department of Justice U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on Jan. 27 (whose lawyers usually go over every executive order), the that placed a 90-day ban on immigration and on refugees from Department of Homeland Security or the State Department, seven predominately Muslim countries and an indefinite ban and that lawyers for the National Security Council were preon Syrian refugees ignited a firestorm across the United vented from looking at it.

Tom Regan, a columnist at factsandopinion.com, previously worked It also turns out that officials at Customs and Border Protecfor the Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, the Boston tion and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were Globe and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He is the former not informed of the action until Trump was signing it. executive director of the Online News Association and was a Nieman This process led to mass confusion at airports across the Fellow at Harvard in 1992. Copyright © 2017 The Arab Weekly. Distributed by Agence Global.

United States, particularly after a series of judges issued in-

Why Trump’s Anti-Muslim Immigration Ban Is Ineffectual

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junctions against the executive order. Were Green Card holders, who had already been vetted by the government, going to be allowed in? In some places yes; in some places no. At Washington Dulles International Airport, Customs and Immigration agents deliberately ignored court orders, raising questions of contempt of court and a constitutional crisis.

As one top legal expert from the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, put it, the president has created a “litigation-rich environment.” The question is: Did Trump use his power to hide his true intent—to specifically ban Muslims?

Trump said the executive order is not meant to be a ban against Muslims, that he was only expanding on an initiative started by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

This has been shown to be an “alternative fact” and dismissed by legal and security experts. Also, there have been no deadly terrorist attacks in the United States committed by a refugee from any of the seven countries in the past 40 years.

Trump’s case was undermined by his own supporters, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said that the move was designed to ban Muslims. That is the point that will be argued in court, as U.S. law says it is illegal to ban people on religious grounds.

The person to look at here is not Trump but his top political strategist, Steve Bannon. Bannon is the former editor of the right-wing extremist Breitbart news site. Bannon wrote Trump’s inauguration speech and was said to be one of the main authors of all of Trump’s executive orders in his first week. It was no doubt Bannon, who hates government and the Washington power structure, who pushed Trump to scrap the normal vetting process.

In the end, however, it could be Bannon’s contempt for all things Washington that undermines Trump’s executive order.

Do not think this is the end, regardless of what happens.

Trump has shown his hand and Muslims around the world are in his sights. The question is whether the American people and the U.S. Constitution can stop his and his minions’ longterm plans.

It’s Not Just a Muslim Ban, It’s Much Worse

By James J. Zogby

WITH A STROKE of the pen on a misdirected and, I believe, malicious Executive Order (EO), President Donald Trump unleashed a dynamic that will, I fear, have consequences as farreaching and damaging to my country and my community as the Bush administration’s wrong-headed responses to the 9/11 terror attacks.

James J. Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the Arab American Institute.

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What the various provisions of the EO have done is deepen Arab popular anger at the United States, provide ISIS with a public relations gift, fuel Islamophobic fear here at home, while, at the same time, exacerbating sectarian tensions within the Arab community.

Suspending and placing restrictions on immigration and refugees from seven mostly Arab and Muslim-majority countries will not make America safer. The data are clear. Immigrants from the countries on the White House list have not posed a threat to the U.S. Those who have been excluded are largely either students, family members visiting their kin, or business people. And vulnerable refugees from these same countries who are now being denied admission are among the most rigorously vetted individuals coming to America—ensuring that they pose no danger to our country.

What the EO has, in fact, done is cancel the visas of between 60,000 to 100,000 individuals. It has also resulted in a nightmare situation for hundreds of innocents, caught on the cusp of the order’s implementation, who were detained at airports, interrogated for hours, and, in some instances, sent back to their countries of origin. This has produced deeply moving stories of separated families, broken promises, shattered dreams and personal hurt that have intensified anti-American sentiment across the Middle East.

After 9/11, in stark contrast to the widely held view that “Arabs hated our values,” our polling made clear that Arabs respected our people, our culture, our products, our country’s openness and tolerance, and the promise of our democracy. What they resented was our policy toward them. As one respondent noted—“I love America. I just feel that America doesn’t love me.” Despite our devastating war in Iraq, our anti-Palestinian bias, and our other failed policies across the region, what continued to hold hope for Arabs was that someday America would be true to its stated values. Trump’s Executive Order and the anti-Muslim rhetoric that accompanied it have shattered that hope. ISIS must be pleased.

Administration protests that the EO is not “a Muslim ban” don’t pass the smell test. Granted that the freeze only includes seven countries, but the rhetoric used to describe the intent of the order has been clearly inspired by the anti-Muslim animus of a White House populated by a group of individuals with a long record of Islamophobia. The language they have used to make the case for the order has been taken directly from the writings of wellknown Islamophobes. In any case, this is how Trump’s supporters have been encouraged to understand the EO’s intent. Added to this are stories circulating that the list will soon be expanded to include many more Muslim-majority countries, among them: Lebanon, Egypt and Pakistan.

Making matters worse, the administration has coupled its freeze of the refugee program with the caveat that, in the future, priority status will be given to “persecuted minorities”—by which they have meant Christians. Trump has justified this by arguing that during the Obama years it was “very difficult for Christians” Continued on p. 24

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Special Report

Paris and the End to a Western-Dominated Era in the Middle East

By Ramzy Baroud

PIERRE CONSTANT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

ian negotiations team led by the late Haidar Abdul-Shafi (since, as far as Israel was concerned, Palestinians did not exist), and even protesting that negotiator Saeb Erekat was wearing the traditional Palestinian headscarf (keffiyeh).

It has been 25 years since that initial meeting. Since then, several of the original Palestinian delegation members have passed away; others have aged while talking about peace, but with no peace in sight. The then-young Erekat became the “chief negotiator” of the PA, again, yet with nothing to talk about.

What is really left to be negotiated, when Israel has doubled its illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem? When the number of Jewish Pro-Israel protesters, including members of the Organization of European Jewry (holding banner) demonstrate in Paris against the Conference for Middle Eastern Peace being hosted by the settlers has grown from a negligible 250,000 (in 1993) to over 600,000; when French government, Jan. 15, 2017. the rate of Palestinian loss of land has accelerated like never before, since the war and occupation of NO, IT WAS NOT just “another Middle East peace conference,” 1967; when Gaza has been under lock and key for over 10 as a columnist in the Israeli Jerusalem Post attempted to depict years, suffering from war, polluted water and malnourishment? the Paris Peace Conference held on Jan. 15, with top official repYet, the Americans have persisted. They needed the peace resentations from 70 countries attending. If it was, indeed, just process. It is an American investment, first and foremost, be“another peace conference,” representatives from the Israeli govcause American reputation and leadership depended on it. ernment and the Palestinian Authority (PA) would have attended “We are joined at the hip with Israel,” said Prof. John as well.

Mearsheimer, co-author of The Israel Lobby, in a recent interInstead, it was a defining moment that we are likely to review. “What Israel does and how Israel evolves matters greatly member: as the one that has officially ended the peace process for America’s reputation.” charade after 25 years.

“This is why President Obama—and President George W. In fact, if the Madrid Conference of October 1991 was the viBush before him, and President Clinton before him—went to brant official start of peace talks between Israel and its Arab— great lengths to get a two-state solution.” including Palestinian—neighbors, the Paris talks of January Precisely. They persisted and failed, and they failed again and 2017 was the sad termination of it. again until the two-state solution (which was never a serious enAs soon as the Madrid talks began, the positive energy and deavor to begin with) became a distant and, eventually, an imexpectations that accompanied them began to fade. Even bepossible quest. fore the talks began, Israel had set political traps and erected obAs Israel’s political center moved sharply to the right under the stacles. For example, refusing to deal directly with the Palestinleadership of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the U.S. mainDr. Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a tained its position, as if oblivious to the fact that “facts on the media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of ground” have altered the political landscape beyond recognition.

PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My father Was a freeFormer President Barack Obama began his term in what some dom fighter: gaza’s Untold story (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). His website is <www.ramzybaroud.net>. saw as an earnest push for renewed talks, which were halted or 12

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stalled during the administration of George W. Bush. He dispatched Sen. George Mitchell, whose negotiations skills in 2010 to 2011 could not move Israel from its obstinate position on settlement expansion, and, again, dispatched his secretary of state, John Kerry, who tried unsuccessfully to revitalize talks between 2013 and 2014.

Obama must have, at one point, realized that the efforts were futile. For a start, Netanyahu seemed to have a greater influence on the U.S. Congress than the president himself. This is not an exaggeration.

When Netanyahu clashed with Obama over the Iran nuclear deal, he snubbed the U.S. president and gave a talk to a joint Congress in March 2015, in which he chastised Obama and the “bad deal” with Iran.

Obama appeared forlorn and irrelevant, as the representatives of the American people gave numerous standing ovations to a foreign leader who boasted, yelled, assigned blame and praise.

Kerry’s nostalgic last speech in late December was an indication of that epic failure, the gist of his plea being that it was all over. However, both Kerry and Obama have no one to blame but themselves.

Their administration had the political clout and the popular mandate to push Israel, and exact concessions that could have served as the basis of something substantial. They chose not to.

And now, an opportunistic real-estate mogul, Donald Trump, is the president of the United States. He comes with an eerie agenda that looks identical to that of the current Israeli government of right-wingers and ultra-nationalists.

“We have now reached the point where envoys from one country to the other could almost switch places,” wrote Palestinian Prof. Rashid Khalidi in The New Yorker: “The Israeli ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, who grew up in Florida, could just as easily be the U.S. ambassador to Israel, while Donald Trump’s ambassador-designate to Israel, David Friedman, who has intimate ties to the Israeli settler movement, would make a fine ambassador in Washington for the pro-settler government of Binyamin Netanyahu.”

So that’s it folks, the show is over. The MARCH/APRIL 2017

era of the peace process is behind us, and early signs indicate that Palestinians themselves are now realizing it, as they are clearly seeking alternatives to the various overbearing U.S. administrations.

Indeed, several administrations under George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama have all contributed to the idea that peace was at hand, that Israel was willing to compromise, that pressure has to be applied (mostly on Palestinians) to end the seemingly equal “conflict,” that the U.S. was a neutral party, an even-handed “honest broker,” even.

The Israelis did not mind playing along as long as the game did not jeopardize their colonialization scheme in the occupied territories; the (largely unelected) Palestinian leadership joined in, seeking funds and meaningless political recognition; and the rest of the world, including the United Nations, watched from afar or played their assigned, marginal role.

But, now, Israel does not need to accommodate the rules of the game anymore, simply because the American “broker” himself has lost interest. Trump understands that his country can no longer maintain policing a unipolar world, and has no interest in picking fights with regionally powerful Israel.

Although Trump began his presidential campaign promising to keep an equal distance from Palestinians and Israelis, only

to then head in an extremely alarming direction—with the promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thus possibly igniting another Palestinian uprising.

Knowing that the U.S. is no longer an ally, so-called “Palestinian moderates” are now seeking alternatives. On the day of Trump’s inauguration in an unprecedented lavish party seen as the most expensive in history, Palestinian factions were meeting, not in Washington, London or Paris, but in Moscow.

The news of an agreement that will see the admission of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the Palestine Liberation Origination (PLO) received little media coverage, but it was consequential, nonetheless. The timing (Trump’s inauguration) and the place (Moscow) were very telling of a changing political reality in the Middle East.

But what are we to make of the Paris Conference? It was a sad display of a final French-European-American attempt at showing relevance in a region that has vastly changed, in a “process” that existed on paper only, in a political landscape that has become too complicated and diverse for the likes of François Hollande (an ardent supporter of Israel, to begin with) to matter in the least.

No, it was not just “another Middle East peace conference,” but an end of an era.

The American era in the Middle East. ■

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Four Views

Unsolicited Advice to the New Trump Administration

SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

all nations to put their own interests first.”

He sounded even better when he said that under Trump the U.S. would “not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow.” That truly would be a first step toward peace and prosperity.

However, in the very next line he promised a worldwide war against not a country, but an ideology, when he said he would “unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate from the face of the Earth.” This inconsistent and dangerous hawkishess will not defeat “radical Islamic terrorism,” but rather it will increase it. Terrorism is not a place, it is a tactic in reaction to invasion and occupation by outsiders, as Prof. Robert Pape explained in his important book, Dying to Win. The neocons repeat the lie that ISIS was formed because the U.S. military pulled out President Donald Trump speaks at the Major Cities Chiefs Association and Major County Sherof Iraq instead of continuing its occupation. iffs Association Winter Meeting in Washington, DC, Feb. 8, 2017.

But where was ISIS before the U.S. attack on Iraq? Nowhere. ISIS was a reaction to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The same phenomenon has been repeated wherever U.S. interventionist actions have destabilized countries and societies.

By Ron Paul Radical Islamic terrorism is for the most part a reaction to foreign interventionism. It will never be defeated until this simple THROUGHOUT THE presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s truth is understood. foreign policy positions were anything but consistent. One day We also heard reassuring reports that President Trump was we heard that NATO was obsolete and the U.S. needs to purplanning a major shake-up of the U.S. intelligence community. sue better relations with Russia. But the next time he spoke, With a budget probably approaching $100 billion, the intelligence these sensible positions were abandoned or an opposite posicommunity is the secret arm of the U.S. empire. The CIA and tion was taken. Trump’s inconsistent rhetoric left us wondering other U.S. agencies subvert elections and overthrow governexactly what kind of foreign policy he would pursue if elected. ments overseas, while billions are spent spying on American citThe president’s inaugural speech was no different. On the one izens at home. Neither of these make us safer or more prosperhand it was very encouraging when he said that under his adous. ministration the U.S. would “seek friendship and goodwill with But all the talk about a major shake up at the CIA under Trump the nations of the world,” and that he understands the “right of was quickly dispelled when the president visited the CIA on his Ron Paul (R-TX) is a former member of Congress and a former Refirst full working day in office. Did he tell them a new sheriff was publican presidential candidate. Copyright © 2017 by RonPaul Institute (<http://ronpaulinstitute.org>). in town and that they would face a major and long-overdue re-

Trump’s Foreign Policy: An Unwise Inconsistency?

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form? No. He merely said he was with them “1,000 percent.”

One reason Trump sounds so inconsistent in his policy positions is that he does not have a governing philosophy. He is not philosophically opposed to a U.S. military empire, so sometimes he sounds in favor of more war and sometimes he sounds like he opposes it. Will President Trump in this case be more influenced by those he has chosen to serve him in senior positions?

We can hope not, judging from their hawkishness in recent Senate hearings. Trump cannot be for war and against war simultaneously. Let us hope that once the weight of the office settles on him he will understand that the prosperity he is promising can only come about through a consistently peaceful foreign policy.

The Big Lie and Foreign Policy

By Paul R. Pillar

WE ARE LESS than a week into the Trump presidency, and it is apparent that one of the more disturbing practices of Mr. Trump’s campaign he intends to continue while in office. The practice involves the president’s disdain for truth, but it is not just a matter of the volume of lies and how he has built his political career on falsehood, as disturbing as that is. Rather it is the more specific technique of unrelentingly repeating a lie so often and with such apparent conviction, while ignoring all contrary evidence and refutations, that through sheer repetition many people are led to believe it to be true. The technique has been demonstrated by authoritarian regimes elsewhere. Many results of modern opinion polling suggest that now, in the post-truth era, there is even greater potential for making the technique work than for dictatorships of the past. Even a fact-checking free press cannot stop it; the fact-checking gets shoved aside amid the repetition.

The early subjects of post-inaugural use of the big lie have been ones closest to the bruises the new president’s ego suffered from the nature of last year’s election and Mr. Trump’s status as the least popular incoming president since such polls began to be taken. These subjects have included the size of inaugural crowds and audiences and the president’s baseless accusation that widespread voter fraud accounted for much of the popular vote that went against him. As the administration is forced to make real public policy, there is good reason to expect that the same techniques being applied now to ego-driven questions will also be applied to substantive policy matters to bolster public support for them.

There is no limit to the range of policy questions on which such efforts may be made, but consider the chief implications for foreign relations of the United States.

The first consequence is a loss of trust among foreign governments and populations, who see how frequent and shame-

Paul R. Pillar is nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University and nonresident senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is a contributing editor to The National Interest, where he writes a blog. Copyright ©2017 The National Interest. All rights reserved.

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less is the lying and thereby become less inclined to believe the U.S. government even when it is telling the truth. Gideon Rachman addresses this effect in the Financial Times, asking, “When an international confrontation looms, the U.S. has traditionally looked to its allies for support—at the U.N. or even on the battlefield. But how will America be able to rally support, in the Trump era, if its allies no longer believe what the U.S. president and his aides have to say?”

A lesser ability to muster international support in pursuit of shared interests is one of the specific harms that flow from a loss of foreign trust. Another more general harm is the loss of one of the biggest advantages that the free world, and the United States as leader of the free world, have had over unfree countries—a loss that comes from stooping to use one of the favorite techniques of regimes that rule the unfree. As Rachman observes, “If the Trump administration now destroys American credibility, it will have handed the Russian and Chinese governments a victory of historic proportions. The Cold War was a battle not just about economics or military strength, but also about the truth.

The Soviet Union collapsed, in the end, partly because it was too obvious that it was a regime based on lies.”

Another consequence of directing the big lie to domestic audiences is that this audience will become that much worse of an illinformed constituency, incapable of engaging in the kind of well-informed debate that serves as a check against ill-advised foreign policies and can muster solid support for well-advised ones. The difficulty in generating that kind of well-informed discussion is hard enough amid fake news and post-truth nonchalance about accuracy. Willing and relentless use of lying by those in power makes the difficulty even greater. The problem is already great regarding domestic issues on which the people have some basis for making direct and independent observations. For example, two-thirds of Trump voters erroneously believe that unemployment increased during Barack Obama’s presidency, even though it significantly decreased. The problem will be at least as great on matters of foreign relations on which the public has less basis for direct observation and follows more what their leaders say.

A subtler but potentially significant consequence is that the leaders who propagate a big lie, by being so committed to sustaining the message contained in it, come to believe the lie themselves. And when this happens, foreign policy and its execution become based directly, not just indirectly by way of a duped public, on falsehood. We saw a bit of this with the more fanatical of the promoters of the Iraq war. One of the most fanatical of them, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (who, in the words of an anonymous official who worked with him, “has an unfortunate ability to delude himself because he believes so passionately in things”), came to believe that the mythical alliance between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaeda, manufactured as a propaganda point to gain public support for the invasion, actually existed, and even after the invasion he was wastefully directing resources to try to find evidence that it existed.

It is surely no coincidence that in this first week of Donald

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Trump’s presidency, George Orwell’s 1984 rose to the top of the Amazon bestseller list. We have not yet heard of any proposed government reorganization to create a Department of Truth. We already have, however, gag orders to keep truth-telling public servants (especially, it appears, those who might have facts related to climate change) from interfering with messages from the top, including any messages that take the form of big lies.

RT: Call Iran!

By Navid Hassibi

A LINK NEEDS to be urgently established between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and newly sworn-in Secretary of State Rex Tillerson amid the needless escalation in tension between the Trump administration and Iran. This week alone, the Trump White House imposed a blanket travel ban on Iranian nationals. Iran launched a provocative missile test and reciprocated with its own travel ban (since rescinded, at least for the U.S. wrestling team), which in turn led to Trump putting Iran “on notice” and imposing additional non-nuclear sanctions. The president has also been tweeting impulsively against Iran, possibly in response to remarks made by Iranian officials dismissing his bellicosity. At this rate, the president is on track to ignite a needless and catastrophic conflict against a country that had a functional rapport with the previous U.S. administration thanks to the historic nuclear deal.

A line of communication between the Trump administration and Iran’s leadership is desperately needed.

It would be a shame for the United States to throw away the channel that was developed between the Obama administration and Iran via former Secretary John Kerry and Foreign Minister Zarif. This channel was leveraged to secure a historic nuclear deal that peacefully removed the threat of war in an already volatile region of the world. It was also valuable for non-nuclear matters such as last year’s prisoner swap, the release of U.S. naval detainees by Iran, the settlement of a longstanding financial dispute, and some limited cooperation through the International Syria Support Group.

Thus far in the early stages of the Trump administration, Secretary Tillerson appears to be the most level-headed official on the issue of Iran. During his Senate confirmation hearing, he told the Foreign Affairs Committee that he did not reject the Iran nuclear deal outright but, rather, supported a full review as well as possibly renegotiating it or negotiating a follow-up agreement. Unlike Defense Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who are all ardent Iran hawks, Tillerson’s willingness to maintain the Iran deal and negotiate a follow-up arrangement reflects his openness to talk to Iran. Last year, while still CEO of ExxonMobil, he indicated that he would consider doing business in Iran. He said in a television

Navid Hassibi is with the Council on International Policy. He tweets @navidhassibi. The opinions here represent his own. Copyright © 2008-2017 LobeLog.com.

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interview that ExxonMobil would certainly take a look at investing in Iran “because it’s a huge resource-owning country.”

A call between Tillerson and Zarif is urgently advised, as a titfor-tat escalation in rhetoric and action can head only in one direction, confrontation. In this light, the deputy chief of staff of Iran’s president tweeted that the United States should de-escalate tensions and interact with Iran rather than challenge it. An introductory call would allow both foreign ministers to build a rapport. For the United States, this could add a voice of reason on U.S.-Iran relations within the White House. The risk exists that this may backfire as Trump marginalizes Tillerson in favor of the Iran hawks in the administration. There is also the risk that Tillerson will side with the Iran hawks. But, still, it is worth the effort.

On matters of war and peace, diplomacy is worth every bit of effort, even if that means picking up the phone and making a call.

How to Expel: Advice to Trump From An Israeli

By Amira Hass

BARELY A WEEK has passed and you’ve screwed things up, Donald Trump. The reason is simple: You didn’t consult Israel on how to deny entry into your country without rousing half the world against you. But when it comes to your other promise— actual expulsion—you still have time to consult us.

For a lack of patience and space only two types of expulsion will be discussed here—two of the many types we’ve become experts at: the expulsion of native Palestinian Jerusalemites from their city, and the expulsion of West Bank residents from their homes.

Rule 1: Quiet. Don’t publicize the expulsion policy. Let every person being expelled confront the decree alone and believe that the problem lies with him. Personally. At some point, starting in late 1995 (during the reign of the Labor Party and “Oslo”), the Palestinians realized they were losing their residency status in Jerusalem if they were living where they had already lived years earlier: outside the boundaries of annexed Jerusalem, or abroad.

Rule 2: Astonishment. Insist that after all nothing has changed and that these laws have been there since time immemorial.

That’s what the Interior Ministry claimed in 1996 when more and more Palestinians from Jerusalem discovered that their ID cards had suddenly been revoked and they had become illegal residents in the city and land of their birth.

Rule 3: Gradualism. Expulsion is built one step at a time, as if by chance. Annexation and the expropriation of land. Prohibitions against building in the area that remains. Recruiting God. Intolerable crowding in the houses and astronomical rents. Ignoring drug dealers. Neglecting infrastructure and schools. Increasing the tax burden. Few jobs. Planting professional molesters (aka settlers) in the heart of neighborhoods with security guards surrounding them.

Copyright © Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved.

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PATRICK BAZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

And the main thing: residency status based on the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law that can expire any moment.

As if the Palestinians from Jerusalem had entered Israel and chosen to live under its boot as non-Jewish immigrants.

As if Israel hadn’t violently burst into their lives in the city where their mothers’ mothers were born.

Rule 4: Legal support (A). ThenSupreme Court President Aharon Barak and his colleagues, Gabriel Bach and Shoshana Netanyahu, already gave the court’s approval for another mass but latent expulsion. In 1988 they ruled that it was legal to expel a Palestinian born in 1943 in Jerusalem because he also had Some of the 22 buses transporting more than 350 Palestinian members of Hamas wait at the foreign citizenship. (Mubarak Awad, who Israel-Lebanon border, Dec. 17, 1992, after the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the government’s accidently also advocated for Palestinian decision to expel most of the Palestinians to Lebanon. civil disobedience.)

Rule 5: Variety. Don’t stick to one excuse, Mr. President. We Very belatedly, the courts drew a line in Amona and demanded successfully rely on a raft of excuses for expelling Palestinians that the land be returned to its Palestinian owners. The legalization from their land, their homeland, their homes: political (opposition law overrules the judges, allowing private lands stolen from Palesto our rule), administrative (they missed the census or extended tinians to be laundered as Israeli state property. their stay abroad), a firing zone, a nature preserve, proximity to Israel’s attorney general has refused to defend the law. Will the the border, proximity to a highway, proximity to an outpost, an Supreme Court accept it? Possibly. The aim of the “traumatic” archaeological site, state land, rejection of master plans, the sepscenes at Amona was to depict the court as the villain of this drama aration barrier, building prohibitions, planting professional mofor ordering the evictions. lesters and security personnel, citations from the Bible.

Nonetheless, there could be silver linings to the legalization law.

Rule 6: Legal support (B). Our judges avoid ruling against the In practice, there has never been a serious limit on theft of Palespolicy of unequal zoning and construction for Jews and Arabs. tinian land. But now Israeli government support for the plunder will Rule 7: Scant water supply. Cut back on water, Trump. Rule be explicit in law. It will be impossible to blame the outposts on that every Muslim or Mexican will be eligible for only a quarter or “rogue” settlers, or claim that Israel is trying to safeguard Palestinless of the water consumed by an average WASP. Decide that ian property rights. wherever Mexicans or Muslims live will be cut off from the water Dan Meridor, a former government minister from Netanyahu’s supply grid. Look at the Jordan Valley. It’s an outstanding tool Likud party, called the law “evil and dangerous.” Israel, he pointed for thinning out an undesirable population. Trust us. out, can have jurisdiction over private Palestinian land only if PalesRule 8: The support of the elites. Send aides to Israel. They’ll tinians vote for Israel’s parliament—in short, this is annexation by get tips on how routine expulsion activities are greeted by the siother means. It shuts the door on any kind of Palestinian state. lence of most of the enlightened educated intelligentsia, the salt Over time, he added, it will bring unintended consequences. of the earth, graduates of the Israel Defense Forces, who nest Rather than make the outposts legal, it will highlight the criminal naat the universities and frequent the concert halls. Their compliture of all settlements, including those in East Jerusalem and the ance is absolutely fantastic. ■ so-called “settlement blocs”—areas previous U.S. administrations had hinted they might accept for annexation to Israel in a future peace deal.

The other major danger was noted by opposition leader Isaac Continued from page 8 Herzog. “The train departing from here has only one stop—at The Hague,” he said, in reference to the home of the International Criminal Court.

The settlers’ territorial hunger led to dozens of “outposts” being If ICC prosecutors take their duties seriously, the legalization law built across the West Bank, often on private Palestinian land. Designificantly raises the pressure on them to put Israeli officials— spite the fact they violated Israeli law, the outposts immediately reeven Netanyahu—on trial for complicity in the war crime of estabceived state services, from electricity and water to buses and lishing and nurturing the settlements. ■ schools.

The Nakba Continues

MARCH/APRIL 2017

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17

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The Nakba Continues

Palestinian Israeli Math Teacher Killed as Israel Targets Minority Villages

By Jonathan Cook

THEY CAME IN their thousands, from across Israel and from occupied East Jerusalem, for Yacoub Abu al-Qiyan’s funeral. In Muslim tradition, the dead should be buried as soon as possible. But Abu al-Qiyan’s family had to wait a week before the Israeli courts finally compelled the police to hand over the body.

Abu al-Qiyan was laid to rest on Jan. 24.

In the meantime, without offering a shred of evidence, government ministers and the Israeli police repeatedly claimed that Abu al-Qiyan was an “ISIS terrorist.”

The authorities similarly incited against the leaders of Israel’s 1.7 million Palestinian citizens, accusing them of having “blood on their hands,” supposedly for provoking Abu al-Qiyan to violence.

In the official version of events, Israeli police shot Abu al-Qiyan dead in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 18, after he rammed his car into a group of officers, killing one of them, Erez Levy. The police had been escorting bulldozers to demolish a dozen homes, including Abu al-Qiyan’s, in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, in the Negev in Israel’s south.

But that account soon crumbled in the face of the evidence. A police aerial video appeared to show not a terror attack, as the au-

Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He is the author of Blood and Religion and Israel and the Clash of Civilisations (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More).

18

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

COPYRIGHT JONATHAN COOK

Yacoub Abu al-Qiyan's widow, Raba, with two of the couple's children.

thorities claimed, but Abu al-Qiyan losing control of his car after the police opened fire, seriously wounding him at the wheel. He had been trying to leave the area rather than see his home destroyed, said relatives.

Next, an autopsy report the authorities had refused to pass on to the family was leaked. It revealed that Abu al-Qiyan had been hit in the torso and knee in the volley of fire, and then left to bleed to death for half an hour, while an ambulance was denied entry to the village.

The Palestinian leadership in Israel accused the police and government of “incitement, lies and cover-ups,” warning that the events in Umm alHiran were a prelude to a new campaign of home demolitions in Israel’s Palestinian communities.

Despite all the revelations, Police Minister Gilad Erdan was still calling Abu al-Qiyan a “terrorist” a week later. He demanded an investigation, not into the police behavior, but into the Palestinian minority’s leaders for “fanning the flames” against the authorities.

A sword has hung over the heads of Umm al-Hiran’s 1,000 inhabitants for many months, as the Israeli government has advanced plans to raze the village of 150 homes and replace it with a town for Israeli Jews.

Before the police released Abu al-Qiyan’s body, Raed Abu alQiyan, his 40-year-old nephew, expressed the anger in the village.

“Not only did the police kill him in cold blood, but now they are holding his body hostage to try to make more convincing their ridiculous story that he is a terrorist,” he said.

The claim that Abu al-Qiyan had committed a “car-ramming attack” had “rubbed salt deeper into the wound,” Najeh Abu al-Qiyan, a friend of Yacoub’s, added.

The villagers and Israeli Jewish activists who were in the village to protest the demolitions said Abu al-Qiyan had lost control of his car on the dusty hillside below his home after Israeli police shot at him in the early morning darkness.

The video showed Abu al-Qiyan driving slowly and cautiously until police fired bursts of gunfire. The car could then be seen accelerating and veering wildly down the steep slope.

A second video that surfaced on Feb. 2 refuted another police claim: that Abu al-Qiyan’s “terrorist” intent could be discerned from the fact that he drove in the dark toward them with his headlights off. The footage showed that he had his car lights on.

MARCH/APRIL 2017

cook_18-20_The Nakba Continues 2/9/17 8:55 PM Page 19

COPYRIGHT JONATHAN COOK

Raed Abu al-Qiyan rejected claims that his 50year-old uncle had ever intended to confront the police.

“He knew there was no way we could stop 500 armed police from bulldozing his home,” he said. “So he put everything valuable into the car and was leaving the area. He did not want to stay and see the destruction. It would have broken his heart.”

A math teacher, Abu alQiyan reportedly had his computer, TV, clothes and his pupils’ books in the back Thousands turn out for Jan. 20 Friday prayers in Umm al-Hiran after Yacoub Abu al-Qiyan's killing by police two days earlier. of the car when he died.

The Palestinian leadership in Israel said Hiran after Abu al-Qiyan’s killing, recalled for burial ultimately proved more successful.

The police had insisted that attendance at the minority had long and bitter experience the conclusions of a judicial-led inquiry into of police brutality. But they were enraged the police killing of 13 unarmed Palestinian the funeral be limited to 50 close family by the rapidly escalating rhetoric from the citizens in 2000, during protests in Israel at members, with no public figures from the Palestinian minority in attendance. It would government. As well as inciting against the start of the second intifada.

“The inquiry warned the police not to come also have to be held late at night.

Abu al-Qiyan and the minority’s leadership, The conditions mirrored the treatment of Erdan had referred to Umm al-Hiran’s res- to civil demonstrations with live ammunition,” he said, “and that they must not treat Pales- the bodies of Palestinians from the occupied idents as “violent thieves.”

Yacoub Abu al-Qiyan’s 24-year-old son, tinian citizens as an enemy. And yet they territories killed in lone-wolf attacks or conHussam, who is in his last year of medical brought live rounds to Umm al-Hiran. That frontations with the security forces.

But late on Jan. 23, the Israeli supreme studies in Ukraine and hurried back to Israel indicates that they came with an intent to kill.”

On Jan. 21, thousands turned out at Arara court ordered that the funeral be allowed to for the funeral, said that the description of his father as an ISIS supporter bore “no re- in central Israel to protest Abu al-Qiyan’s go ahead the next day. Even so, the police killing and a wave of further demolitions the set up roadblocks in the area, making it hard lationship to reality.”

“He worked hard to send me abroad and government has announced for Palestinian for Palestinian citizens to reach the village.

At the time of writing, the final patholomade sure I had the best opportunities in communities in Israel.

A week before the houses in Umm al- gist’s report still had not been released. life,” he said. “He wanted all his children to A statement from Adalah, a legal center be educated like him and to be positive role Hiran were destroyed, 11 homes in the Palestinian town of Qalansawe in central Is- for Israel’s Palestinian minority, observed models in our community.”

Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List fac- rael were razed. With tens of thousands of that denying the family the report “undertion in the Israeli Knesset, who was present Palestinian homes in Israel under threat of mines their right to know the circumstances in Umm al-Hiran on the morning of Abu al- demolition, fears are high that Netanyahu’s of his death, particularly given the baseless Qiyan’s death, was himself injured. Pho- far-right government intends to open a new allegations against the deceased.”

After the report was leaked to the Israeli tographs show him lying on the ground front against the minority.

There are widespread suspicions that Ne- media, liberal Jewish legislators started to dazed, his head bleeding, with Israeli police standing impassively over him. Odeh ac- tanyahu hopes to distract attention from his raise questions too about the police concused police of shooting him twice with own troubles, as he becomes more deeply duct.

Ksenia Svetlova of Zionist Union said enmeshed in a corruption scandal. sponge-tipped bullets.

Addressing the crowd, Odeh called for an that, if it was shown that Abu al-Qiyan was He added that police had used extreme levels of violence, firing sponge-tipped bul- independent inquiry “to uncover the lies of denied life-saving treatment, “then it’s Azaria lets, tear gas canisters and stun grenades Netanyahu, Erdan and the police.” A few case number two”—a reference to an army directly at the villagers and their supporters. days later, however, a Knesset vote on set- medic, Elor Azaria, who was filmed last year Basel Ghattas, another Palestinian legis- ting up an investigation was overwhelm- executing a wounded Palestinian in the West Bank city of Hebron. lator in the Israeli parliament who attended ingly defeated.

The fate of Umm al-Hiran, and Abu alThe battle to release Abu al-Qiyan’s body a large Friday prayers service in Umm alMARCH/APRIL 2017

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

19

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Qiyanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s killing, said Suhad Bishara, a lawyer with Adalah, were painful reminders to Palestinians in Israel of â&#x20AC;&#x153;the continuing Nakbaâ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the catastrophe that befell the Palestinians with the loss of their homeland in 1948 to create a Jewish state.

Although Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palestinian citizens avoided expulsion outside Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new borders, as many as a quarter were driven from their homes by the Israeli army, becoming internal refugees. They include the families now living in Umm al-Hiran.

Adalah, which has been representing the familiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; efforts to stop their expulsion, said military officials forced the al-Qiyan tribe to relocate to Umm al-Hiran in the 1950s.

Successive governments had refused to recognize Umm al-Hiran, Bishara said, as well as dozens of other Bedouin communities in the Negev. Decades later, and without a master plan to authorize building, Israeli officials have classified all Umm alHiranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s homes as illegal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For these families, it is like seeing the Nakba being replayed,â&#x20AC;? Bishara said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They were made homeless so Jews could live in their place in the 1950s, and now the same

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

thing is happening all over again.â&#x20AC;?

She added: â&#x20AC;&#x153;For decades, the government has said to villages like Umm al-Hiran, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;we cannot provide infrastructure in the remote corners of the desert where you live.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; And yet, time and again, we see that Israel can build a community in exactly the same place, if it is intended for Jewish citizens.â&#x20AC;?

Palestinian leaders believe the government is making an example of Umm alHiran as a prelude to expelling tens of thousands of other Bedouin who have been trying to hold on to a traditional rural way of life in their villages.

The government has been formulating a proposal to forcibly relocate many of them to a handful of overcrowded government â&#x20AC;&#x153;townshipsâ&#x20AC;? that are the most deprived communities in Israel. The inhabitants of Umm al-Hiran are supposed to relocate to the nearby township of Hura.

A previous version of the government proposal, known as the Prawer Plan, was abandoned in late 2013 following waves of protest.

Ghattas, the Joint List legislator, said the â&#x20AC;&#x153;escalating incitementâ&#x20AC;? against Abu alQiyanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including the accusation he belonged to ISISâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was part of a trend intended to justify further repressive policies against the Palestinian minority.

Few Palestinian citizens have forgotten that, only weeks earlier, the police and government accused the minority of being behind an â&#x20AC;&#x153;arson intifada,â&#x20AC;? when hundreds of fires broke out across Israel following a prolonged drought and fueled by high winds.

All of the dozens of Palestinian citizens arrested over the fires were later released without indictments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This kind of continual incitement just fuels the fires of hatred,â&#x20AC;? said Raed Abu al-Qiyan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And it will be used to encourage and justify more violence against us in the future.â&#x20AC;? â&#x2013; MARCH/APRIL 2017

conference-ad_21-22_March-April 2017 Conference Ad 2/9/17 8:35 PM Page 21

Experts to Reveal Israel Lobby’s Negative Impact on American Policy and Better Alternatives The March 24 all-day conference “ The Israel Lobby and American Policy” at the National Press Club will feature the following speakers: Wajahat Ali is a journalist, writer, lawyer, award-winning playwright, TV host, and consultant. Ali will discuss the intersection of Israel lobby organizations and donors and Islamophobia he uncovered as the lead author and researcher of the report “ Fear, Inc: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America.”

Hanan Ashrawi is a long-time Palestinian legislator, analyst and political leader. She will discuss the Israel lobby and the “ peace process” from a Palestinian perspective.

Katherine Franke is the Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where she also directs the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law and is the faculty director of the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project.

Franke will review the organizations pushing hardest for state laws criminalizing Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel and what is being done to push back.

Eric Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist and will present a discussion titled “ Looking forward, why does Israel need U.S. aid?”

John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. He will review what has changed in the decade since the book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy was published and what the new administration could do differently in the future that would better serve broader American interests.

Jim Moran is a former U.S. Representative for Virginia’ s 8th congressional district in Northern Virginia, including the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, all of Arlington County, and a portion of Fairfax County. Moran will discuss “ What it takes to beat the lobby” in Congress.

Ilan Pappé is Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK. He will discuss the utility of viewing Israel-Palestine through the lens of settler-colonialism.

Nick Rahall is a grandson of Lebanese immigrants and represented West Virginia in the U.S. Congress from 1977 to 2015. Rahall will advise on “ How to support the members of Congress who are beginning to listen to all their constituents” on Middle East policy issues.

Jack Shaheen is an acclaimed author and media critic. He will discuss strategies he used to successfully push back against harmful Hollywood stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims and the work new generations must now take on.

Grant Smith is the director of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) and the author of six books about the Israel lobby. He will discuss a series of stunning—but underreported— polls revealing true American attitudes about U.S. aid to Israel and other top AIPAC programs.

View more information at the conference website and register online at <IsraelLobbyAndAmericanPolicy.org>.

Complete the registration form on the back of this page, and mail it with your check or credit card information to: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009; or fax it to (202) 265-4574.

conference-ad_21-22_March-April 2017 Conference Ad 2/9/17 8:35 PM Page 22

National Press Club Ballroom & Holeman Lounge Exhibition Hall March 24, 2017 8AM-5PM²Reception follows immediately

The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference is solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep).

Attendees receive lunch, beverage ticket for the post-conference reception, and a FRPSOLPHQWDU\ '9' RI WKH FRQIHUHQFH ³,VUDHO¶V ,QIOXHQFH *RRG RU %DG IRU $PHULFD"´ 3XUFKDVHUV RI RU PRUH WLFNHWV UHFHLYH D FRPSOLPHQWDU\ WKUHH-DVD VHW RI WKH FRQIHUHQFH VHULHV 2QOLQH SXUFKDVHUV XVH FRXSRQ FRGH ³'9' 6HW ´ Same day registration is $199

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omer_23-24_Gaza on the Ground 2/9/17 11:08 PM Page 23

Gaza on the Ground

America and Gaza After the U.S. Elections

By Mohammed Omer

PHOTO M. OMER

gage in mealtime discussions I FLEW OUT of Boston’s with family in Mexico using Logan Airport two days after Facebook video chat. It has the Nov. 8 presidential elecbeen eight years since she tion. Airports are usually saw her sister, and she noisy, busy and exciting wanted to look nice on this mazes through which to navispecial day. She wore the gate. But on that day somewrong shoes because she didthing was different from the n’t know she would have to other days I had traveled from walk to the border.

Boston since being affiliated I think of the Palestinian with Harvard University. There families in Gaza who cannot was silence, a tension, a see or touch their loved ones sense of shock in the termia short distance away on the nals. I couldn’t put my finger other side of Israeli or Egypton why—until, boarding the ian walls, fences, and closed Southwest flight, I rememborder gates. Only on the rare bered that 60 percent of occasions when Gaza has Massachusetts voters had electric power can they chat or cast their ballot for Hillary share meals over the Internet.

Clinton.

On one leg of my recent Shortly after the election I speaking tour of the U.S., was walking along a 1.5 mile where people are warm and stretch of muddy road leading to Friendship Park on the A young woman visits with her niece through the border wall at welcoming, upon arriving in Arizona I drove by a massive U.S.-Mexico border, where Friendship Park. “I miss you, do you miss me?” she asked. prison—one of many huge the border fence is located prisons across America—and another memory was jogged. between San Diego and Tijuana. I was there to meet some The program coordinator of the American Friends Service Mexicans so I could see the impact of the separation wall beCommittee (AFSC), which organized my tour, described famitween the two countries on people living in the southwest. lies who must fly from Hawaii to Arizona in order to visit their This short trip triggered sharp memories of the injustice I live relatives incarcerated in private prisons. with in Gaza, Palestine. Palestinians are not able to touch, or Similarly, families of Gaza must obtain a permit for the long even see, one another behind Israel’s ever more encroaching trip of approximately 19 hours—even though, as the crow flies, high electrified fences of concrete or barbed wire that separate it’s not far away—through multiple Israeli military checkpoints, families and friends. At Friendship Park, families and friends to visit their sons and daughters held in Israeli prisons and jails. can at least “touch” through the wall and talk together—albeit On my U.S. speaking tour, I visited California, Arizona, New only between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekends.

Mexico, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois. As a Palestinian from “I am tired of having family dinner every day via Facebook,” Gaza, I made mental notes of similarities and differences besaid a young Mexican woman wearing her best clothes and tween our two societies. It was a pleasure to meet many intelcarrying her high-heel shoes across the road thick with mud. ligent and aware Americans of all professions, including memBecause she lives in the U.S., she explained, she can only enbers of Congress, professors, students and journalists, in uniAward-winning journalist Mohammed Omer is a research scholar at versities, churches, mosques and Islamic schools.

Harvard University’s Center for Middle East Studies. Thousands of peoThe journalism students at Arizona State University (ASU) ple watched the two videos about his AFSC tour. Following the tour, he proved not only to be more tolerant than I imagined, but very did a live Facebook briefing. Viewers in Gaza and the Middle East were eager to hear what Americans think. Twitter @MoGaza. aware, widely informed, and brighter than expected. In fact, MARCH/APRIL 2017

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

23

omer_23-24_Gaza on the Ground 2/9/17 11:08 PM Page 24

the ASU students I spoke to were by far among the best in the country. They engaged in all types of questions, were eager to learn, and open for discussions on all aspects of daily life in Gaza. So, the first stage of the tour was enjoyable, stimulating and full of interest.

The strange new silence I encountered when leaving Boston for the second part of my tour continued in Indianapolis, where I encountered diverse audiences and a hunger and passion among the American Muslim community to learn about present-day life in Gaza, the Israeli occupation and expanding Jewishonly colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. While speaking during Friday prayers, I noticed a lack of knowledge, breadth of conversation topics, or eagerness to ask questions. Some hours later, however, at El Iman school, I was encouraged by the curiosity of the American kids, who were eager to learn more and not afraid to ask questions.

This is where the hope lies, in these American young people, the future generation. It is they who will make America great again, by living by its values and principles of popular democracy, compassion, tolerance and honesty. This is the America that we all know and love, and the reality we seek.

Visiting the African-American community of Ferguson, MO was a new experience for me. My local AFSC coordinator took me to see the memorial for Mike Brown at the location where he was shot, and described the problem of armed police violence. It brought to mind similar images of heavily armed Israeli troops, their violence against hundreds of families and thousands of people in Gaza—mothers watching their children bleed to death from injuries inflicted by a military occupying army. In blockaded and occupied—by land, sea, and air— Gaza, this is everyday life. But it is strange to witness this in the streets of democratic America.

Nevertheless, the resilience I witnessed in Ferguson was inspiring—as is the resilience of the Palestinian people after seven decades of occupation and 24

oppression. In Ferguson, I was pleased to meet on Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, with many women leaders in the fight for black lives—and also with a group of young people in the city working to abolish institutional racism.

AMERICANS MORE ENGAGED

Following the recent presidential election, I find that the American people are now more engaged. They are more willing to listen, question and learn, using social media to interact with people in the Middle East, including Gaza, about America, politics and human rights, and apparently filling in those gaps in communication. This was clear in a number of occasions when young American Jews came up to me after I talked, telling me how distorted information about Gaza was, and expressing a willingness to raise awareness about the besieged enclave.

As opposed to traditional media, which has dominated communication for so long, often misrepresenting people— turning them into undeserved heroes, or demons who seek to “terrorize” us, social media is just a few clicks away. Gaza authors, artists, writers, students and regular people are all there, waiting to meet and speak with everyone—all it takes to bring a face to the faceless and a voice to the voiceless is to open a smartphone or computer —and share our life experiences. This is something AFSC will work on through the hashtag #Gazaunlocked.

Everywhere I visited and each event I spoke at, I met young, enthusiastic American Jews who told me how upset they are about what Israel is doing to Gaza. We all were united in believing that it is time for Gaza to be free of oppression and of the punishing Israeli/ Egyptian blockade—time for the people of Gaza to be free and self-determined, an inalienable human right.

The U.S. presidential election has produced a new type of American—one who is willing to take to the streets and demand an end to injustice, not only in America, but also overseas. Surely this is a most welcome outcome. ■

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

A Ban on Muslims?

Continued from page 11

to get refugee status to come to America.

This is a patently false case that has been frequently made by far-right ideologues. In reality, the number of Christian and Muslim refugees entering the U.S. each year is roughly the same. The percentage of Iraqis admitted in the refugee program already includes a very large number of Iraqi Christians. And while the numbers of Syrian Christians admitted as refugees were, in fact, quite low, it can be shown that this is due to the fact that most Syrian Christians are not refugees. Many, however, have come to America, either as asylees or under other visa programs.

Nevertheless, this administration’s stated preference for Christians has only served to reinforce the notion that the Executive Order was anti-Muslim, while exacerbating sectarian tensions within the Arab community. Having worked for decades to overcome religious divides, Arab Americans have had to face down multiple challenges to their unity. Recent immigrants still bearing wounds from their countries of origin have been the most vulnerable. In this context, an administrationled anti-Muslim bias has taken a toll.

Added to this, recent news articles quoting some immigrant Syrian Christians and some Arab-American Republicans expressing support for President Trump’s Executive Order have been hurtful.

The fallout of this Executive Order will continue to play out. The partisan and sectarian divide it has fostered, the extremism it has fueled, and the damage it has done to America’s image will be with us for a long time. Far from making us safer, this administration is putting us at greater risk.

ISIS is, no doubt, an evil movement that must be defeated. But, in reality, this group has never posed an existential threat to our country. It could never do as much damage to the very idea of America and to the values to which we aspire as the foolish and dangerous policies put forward by this administration. ■ MARCH/APRIL 2017

hanley_25-27_In Memoriam 2/9/17 9:22 PM Page 25

Andrew I. Killgore (1919-2016)

In Memoriam

By Delinda C. Hanley

PHOTO MICHAEL J. KEATING

RETIRED U.S. AMBASSADOR Andrew Ivy Killgore, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, died Dec. 20, 2016 in a Washington, DC hospice at the age of 97. He drove himself to work here every day—as dependable and beloved to his staff as a cherished grandfather’s clock—until a week before his death.

Killgore was born in rural west-central Alabama, where he attended a one-room school house. He enjoyed telling stories about his youth on his daddy’s farm, rising at dawn before school to milk and feed cows, and on summer days cutting and bailing hay, or picking cotton and vegetables. He adored his daddy, but he was determined not to stay on the farm. After receiving a B.A. in history from Livingston University (now University of West Al- During a 2004 visit to Palestine by American diplomats (see October 2004 Washington Report abama) in 1943, he joined the U.S. Navy, on Middle East Affairs), Palestinian President Yasser Arafat shows Amb. Andrew I. Killgore a serving in the 7th Fleet in the Southwest candle from then-President George W. Bush’s church.

Pacific (1943-1945) during World War II the term ‘Arabist,’ which is actually a euphemism employed by (where he acquired a lifelong taste for fried onion sandwiches the Zionists to signal, ‘Watch out for this guy.’” and a skill for cards). He returned, and thanks to the GI Bill, went The Middle East wasn’t well known, so Killgore and his fellow to the University of Alabama School of Law. There he met and, foreign service officers felt they were doing a vital job for their in 1948, married Marjorie, a sociology department faculty memcountry, reporting back on an important area of the world. He ber, and earned a J.D. the following year. served in Jerusalem, Amman, Baghdad, Dhaka, Tehran and After graduation, Killgore worked as a member of the U.S. DisBahrain. When then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger decided placed Persons Commission in Germany. In 1950 he joined the to get Arabists out of the Middle East, Killgore was “sort of shot Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer, serving as a off to New Zealand for three years.” visa officer in Frankfurt and London. In 1955, determined to beThere was no question that he’d been flagged for being outcome a political officer, to work in an embassy abroad, keep up spoken. You could kind of get by with it up until the 1967 war, with politics, and write reports, Killgore applied to study a very Killgore said, when Israelis and their lobby began to shoot down difficult language, spoken in 20-something countries—Arabic. people who were critical. Killgore had become a bit of a nuiIn an oral history project interview conducted by the Associasance, he admitted, and if he had gone along and gotten along, tion for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs in 1998, as they used to say, “it would have been far better for me, and Killgore said his fellow students and co-workers, who became my career would have gone probably a lot further.” He couldn’t known as “Arabists,” felt like they were a very special bunch. “We fathom why the Foreign Service should “try to select the best and were overwhelmingly veterans of World War II. There was a cathe brightest young boys and girls if they are instructed to ‘Keep maraderie...It is difficult to learn Arabic. You have to work like your mouth shut.’ Literally, some officers have been instructed, hell at it,” he said. “We were both amused and a bit put out by ‘Get out to your post and don’t talk so much about the Palestine problem,’” Killgore said.

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

He also worked as a desk officer in various Near East and MARCH/APRIL 2017

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South Asia regional bureau positions in the State Department in Washington, DC, before being named as U.S. ambassador to Qatar by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. He served in Doha until his retirement in 1980. He loved the Gulf state, which had not yet become wealthy from its yet-to-be discovered oil and natural gas reserves, and the special treatment he received in subsequent decades, whenever he traveled. He couldn’t believe the rapid changes he saw every time he returned to Qatar in subsequent years. He had close relationships with both Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad and his son Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Like many Arabs, Killgore’s love of poetry was nearly as great as his passion for history. He kept a solid stack of poetry and history books on his office desk and by his armchair at home. In 1988, after he began

publishing the Washington Report, he got to talking with an Irishman named Kiley, who was driving a United Nations vehicle from Jerusalem to Gaza—people could do that then! Killgore asked Kiley why so many great literary figures had come from Ireland—including his favorite, William Butler Yeats. After a mile or so, Kiley answered, “Maybe it’s the repression.”

Killgore decided he was probably right. It was that “deep ocean of repression against black people in this country”—as well as the repression of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories that has inspired great poetry and literature. As a Southerner, he immediately recognized the parallel suffering of the two peoples.

In that oral history, Killgore said he found Palestinians “a bit like the Southerners, very much family-oriented. They are absolutely enjoined to be generous. You’re

bound to be generous and hospitable, that’s part of the culture, and you’re bound to be polite—all the things that I learned as a boy down on the farm in Alabama...[and there is a] tremendous emphasis on food.

My God, you think we eat in this country?

You should go out there!”

He also noted that Palestinians were keenly interested in education, and would do anything and spend all their resources to educate their children. Coming from the South, Killgore immediately recognized and grasped the importance of family ties in the Middle East. He took great pride in remembering hundreds of names and relationships. “Everybody who’s anybody is interrelated by blood, marriage or certainly business,” he explained. In fact, he often mused that one of his own ancestors probably was an Arab, a name that likely came from the word Araby. At the memorial ser-

REMEMBERING ANDY KILLGORE

Bernice and I first met Andrew I. Killgore and his lovely wife, Marjorie, in the mid-’70s, in Doha, Qatar, during Andy’s tenure as the American ambassador. I was in Doha lecturing on Arab stereotypes, courtesy of the now defunct United States Information Agency (USIA). We bonded immediately.

During our stay, I met dozens of Qataris from all walks of life.

They loved and respected so very much our ambassador and his wife. Free evenings were spent listening to Andy educating us about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. We learned more from him than all the information we had ever gleaned from dozens of textbooks.

When it came to women’s rights in the region, he was also quite active. For example, one day Doha’s minister of information invited us to lunch, an all-men’s affair. But Andy and Marjorie insisted that Bernice attend, regardless of the fact that she would be the only woman in attendance. It worked out just fine— the Qataris embraced her.

After our time in Doha, we would occasionally see each other at the Washington Report’s office, where he continued to champion the rights of Palestinians, stimulating the young minds of young people with his knowledge.

I always believed Andy Killgore was a Palestinian. Others might disagree, arguing: “No, Andy’s a good ’ole Southern boy.”

Actually, Andy is both a Palestinian and a good ’ole Southern boy, a great man blessed with a humanitarian heart as huge as a watermelon. To my knowledge, no one individual has ever championed the cause of justice and human rights for the Palestinian people more than Andy. No one was more eloquent; no one was more persuasive.

Andy's quest, like Don Quixote’s, was to “fight the unbeatable 26

foe....to right the unrightable wrong [the Israeli occupation].”

We honor his memory by continuing his quest: Righting “the unrightable wrong.”

Memory Eternal, Andy!

—Dr. Jack Shaheen, author, Reel Bad Arabs It may be due to my own advancing age, but I’m getting the feeling that most of my longtime friends are dying. Many of them are no longer here on this earth, which means that even my own days are now numbered.

Most of those now passing are old drinking buddies, people who got together, had fun, and created memories that will last me what’s left of my lifetime.

I don’t remember, however, that Andy Killgore and I ever had a drink together, but that may be because I quit drinking a number of years ago. But if I could relive those years, I would force Andy to sit down with me and with a bottle in front of us.

Andy Killgore was a rare example of a human being who donated his life to making life for other people more enjoyable. He was one of a few people whom I’ve known in my life who was totally selfless, and who dedicated his life to others in this world.

What Andy and his partner, Dick Curtiss, did was something that few people on this earth were capable of doing. They started a magazine, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, that kept all of its readers educated on Middle East affairs, a magazine that both I and others studied profusely to learn what was really happening in the Middle East.

And what was more amazing was that Andy and Dick did it with their retirement money from the State Department, mostly

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vice in 2002 for his beloved wife, Marjorie, Killgore said that the only religion they believed in was justice for the Palestinians.

In January 1982, after they had retired, Killgore, Edward Firth Henderson, a British diplomat who also served in the Middle East, and my father, Richard H. Curtiss, a diplomat who became friends with Killgore in Baghdad, co-founded the American Educational Trust (AET) in Washington, DC. They realized there was a need for balanced and accurate information on the Middle East, and that Americans were not getting the whole story. They produced its first newsletter, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in April of that year, and it gradually evolved into this popular magazine. None of those retirees ever received a salary. In fact, my father and Killgore decided to purchase the condos the bookstore and magazine have called

home so that the landlord could never kick them out for not paying rent. They rarely collected rent, and spent their golden years working harder and longer hours than they would have staying put on the farm, in Killgore’s case.

Killgore spoke for many of the people who have worked and written for or supported the Washington Report over the years, as he concluded his interview with the oral history project, saying, it’s “the biggest thing I’ve done, the main thing I’m the proudest of.”

Killgore continued to write and discuss on national radio and television U.S. Middle East policy, the history of the IsraelPalestinian conflict, Iranian-Arab relations, and the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. He firmly believed Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted of the attack, was inno-

because the magazine was unintentionally non-profit. That meant that although it should have made a profit, it didn’t.

I went to bed many a night thanking God that Andy and Dick were doing what they did to keep things civilized in the Middle East, and to make certain we all knew what Israel was doing to block progress there.

I don’t know who God will put on this earth to replace Andy and Dick, but I’m hoping that it will be soon, because too many of us are missing them. I do know, however, that their legacy, the Washington Report, will continue the fight for justice that was so important to them both.

—Former Sen. James Abourezk (D-SD) Ambassador Killgore was an early and long supporter of the Palestinian cause. Many years before most of today's Palestine supporters became active (including yours truly), Ambassador Killgore was working to give Americans the facts on this issue.

He was the co-founder of the American Educational Trust, a nonprofit organization that published extremely valuable books and a superb magazine, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, of which he was publisher.

Ambassador Killgore has been a board member and supporter of If Americans Knew ever since our beginning. On my trips to Washington, DC I would often stop by the magazine to visit with Andy and hear his views on past and current events. He was a fount of information, a fascinating raconteur, and a valuable analyst. I will miss him deeply.

Ambassador Killgore and his small, dedicated staff created one of the world's top publications on the Middle East, and its archives are a treasure trove of information. Unlike some, they have reported fully and powerfully on the Israel lobby, exposing MARCH/APRIL 2017

cent, and was a member of the Britishbased Justice for Megrahi.

Killgore was active in AET until his death, and participated in the planning for this year’s conference, “The Israel Lobby and American Policy,” to be held March 24, 2017 at the National Press Club. The following day at 3 p.m., his staff, friends and family—including his children, Andrew N. Killgore, Dr. Jane Killgore and Roberta K. McInerney, and five grandchildren—will gather at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC to celebrate his life. The family requests that those who would like to attend sign up at <www.eventbrite.com> (search Killgore), so they will know how many people to expect.

Donations made to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs will help keep his magazine telling the truth for another 35 years. ■

in meticulous detail its actions and power.

—Alison Weir, founder and president, If Americans Knew

I have every issue of the Washington Report ever published— an unequalled compendium of events and politics related to the wide Middle East, a rare U.S. medium whose default position is not pro-Zionist. Anyone who wants to influence or lobby the U.S. government in the direction of justice for the Palestinians and of peace needs to be informed by the Washington Report.

—Anthony Saidy, M.D. and former International Chess Master We remember Ambassador Killgore very fondly here in Youngstown, Ohio when he was special guest speaker for the Youngstown Chapter of UNA-USA. In the preface to his remarks, he turned to me and apologized that he would not have any encouraging words regarding Palestine-Israel. Always the classic Southern gentleman. We are very sorry for your loss, which is a loss for all of us.

Ray Nakley, Jr., Youngstown, OH Andrew Killgore was a true American icon, a statesman, and a brave supporter of genuine Human Rights and Social Justice.

His legacy shall live for a long time. He will be dearly missed by the many people who admired him while he was alive.

I'm particularly grateful to our good friend Andy for his support of the just cause of the people of Iqrit, his deep understanding of this case, and its symbolic relationship to the plight of the southern Lebanese, millions of Palestinians, and other refugees worldwide.

May his soul Rest In Peace forever!

—Dr. Dirgham Sbait, Portland State University

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Special Report

Although Media Coverage Has Dwindled, Refugees Continue to Flee for Their Lives

By Sara R. Powell

ON A DAY in late January I heard that a young Syrian woman I knew slightly at Eleonas Refugee Camp in Athens, Greece, had gone missing. She and her family had finally made it to Germany in December, and just about a month later she was gone.

A young Afghan woman at the same camp faces the fact that even if the rest of her family is allowed reunification with her mother in Germany, she may not be allowed. Once she turns 18 in June she will no longer be eligible.

A young pregnant Afghan woman with a heartbreaking story of children killed in the war has used false papers eight times trying to get to Germany so her next child would be born there. She has been turned back each time, arrested once, and roughed up another time.

I got a message from another young pregnant Afghan woman who, with her husband and children, attempted to continue on.

They are now stuck in another camp in Serbia, following a 19-

Sara R. Powell is a former Washington Report staff member and a frequent volunteer.

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PHOTO S. POWELL

Hopelessness and despair are common among the refugees.

hour trek through a forest and the loss of their only suitcase, which held all their remaining possessions.

Another Afghan woman’s husband has Norwegian citizenship, but she and her two children are not allowed to join him because their marriage has been deemed one of convenience. Never mind that her husband joined her in camp for eight months and only left to go back to work. Never mind that they have children together. She is not being allowed to go to Norway.

A handful of young men told me they had paid smugglers a premium for the privilege of secreting themselves under a truck, holding on for their lives as the truck made the road and ferry journey to Italy. Most of them I never saw again. Did they make it? Were they arrested? Did they die?

There are so many tragic stories, so many nuances to the plight of each refugee—and the entire situation, now severely undercovered by the mainstream media, is worsening. Tens of thousands of people are stuck in Greece. The lucky ones have food and shelter at a camp or in a squat. Nevertheless, even those in the best camps suffer. The food supplied by the Greek navy at the camp where I worked was totally inadequate nutritionally, and uniformly tasteless. The housing units there are essentially shipping containers. A step up from the housing at Moria, once the official registration camp (now a detention center) on Lesvos, the units at Eleonas do have heat, electricity and bathrooms.

Furnished with bunk beds, each unit usually houses about eight people—one to two families, or single people. The only cooking facilities are the used hot plates and refrigerators the families have purchased with their meager monthly stipend of about $200 per month per family.

At Eleonas, considered a model camp, there is a nice playground and a football field, but Project Elea, the volunteer group I worked with, can really only offer diversion for the residents stuck waiting. They wait for permission for the much coveted but rare family reunification status. They wait for interviews. They wait for Skype appointments to determine their status. They meet with lawyers and wait some more. Some have resigned themselves to asylum in Greece as their only option, but worry about the economy and how they will live. Others try every avenue to move MARCH/APRIL 2017

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on, including using false papers or paying human smugglers for the extremely risky truck journey to Italy. Regardless of where they are stranded, the waiting is the same for all refugees.

The squats are a mixed bag. One of the larger ones, City Plaza, an old hotel in downtown Athens, offers en suite rooms to families, along with classes and a lounge.

But the elevator no longer works in the seven- or eight-story building, and children have only the halls to play in. Still, it’s better—far better—than living in the streets.

Other squats are worse. There is a squat for single men where, when I left in early December, about 140 single men share two toilets and one shower. Single men, who comprise a large percentage of refugees, are the hardest to place. People fight for space in the inadequate squat.

A few Syrians (the most favored national group among the refugees) have been provided with apartments. Outside of the camps, the squats and the few apartments, there are thousands of refugees,

MARCH/APRIL 2017

who arrived prior to the EU/Turkey deal, simply unaccounted for. Anecdotal evidence of where they are now has ranged from those who are homeless and surviving by theft, prostitution and begging, to those who have somehow managed to find a place working on some generous Greek family’s farm.

But on the islands, the refugees continue to arrive. Boats still land on Lesvos, Chios, Kos and Samos. The camps there hold many times the number they were designed to house. Moria, on Lesvos, has burned more than once. With an unusually cold winter this year, and snow covering the makeshift tents where most live, people have died from the cold. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 30,000 people a day are forced to flee their homelands. So the boats will not stop coming to the islands. And now, there are more and more boatloads of refugees attempting the trip by sea from North Africa to Italy. The crossing is about three times as far as the distance from (Advertisement)

Turkey to Greece, and the Mediterranean is rougher than the Aegean. The UNHCR estimates the chance of dying crossing from Libya to Italy as one in every 47 people.

And things could well get even worse.

Setting aside what the Trump presidency might do, the situations in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia (the top three nationalities of refugees according to the UNHCR), and elsewhere as well, continue to be unsafe. Turkey, which has more than three million refugees, has become far more unstable following last summer’s attempted coup, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to send 3,000 refugees a day to Greece because the EU/Turkey deal has not played out as he wished—most notably that Turks have not been granted Schengen zone visa privileges. Germany has begun rejecting asylum claims from Afghans and deporting them, with rumors of massive deportations to come.

Meanwhile, in Greece, refugees wait.

Relief is slow in coming. ■

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United Nations Report

Trump Could Have Done Much Worse Than Pick Nikki Haley for U.N. Ambassador

By Ian Williams

BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

of that by trying to put the brakes on the reflexive conservative moves in Congress to cut funds for the United Nations—even if she diplomatically restrained herself from pointing out the absurdity of punishing the U.N. for passing Resolution 2334 with the connivance of the U.S. administration last year.

Apart from the usual shibboleth of decrying U.N. bias against Israel—on which she could well be singing from the hymn sheets left over by previous Democratic ambassadors—Haley has directed attention to the costs and inefficiency of U.N. Peacekeeping Operations, which is, to some extent, fair game. But as one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. is an integral part of designing and mandating such operations—and, above all, helpUnited Nations Secretary-General António Guterres (l) welcomes new U.S. Ambassador to the ing to create the political and military condiU.N. Nikki Haley at U.N. headquarters in New York, Jan. 27, 2017. tions that made them necessary. Since the assassinations of Patrice Lumumba and U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, for example, WashTHE APPOINTMENT OF Nikki Haley as U.S. permanent repreington has been deeply implicated in the perennial morass of sentative to the U.N. almost counts as a reprieve—like a prisCongo—not least the long decades of kleptocracy under Mobutu oner’s flogging being commuted from 100 to a mere 80 lashes.

Sese Seko. Even in the current situation, it was President Bill ClinCompared with some of the other candidates touted—Rick ton’s refusal to allow international action in Rwanda that led the Grenell, Rudolph Giuliani or John Bolton—her record on the ingenocidal violence there to spin over to the murderous morass of ternational organization is nonexistent, as opposed to obseseastern Congo. sively deranged. In addition, she seems to have put only a pinch Similarly, if ever a country owed an historic debt to another, it of incense on the Israeli Lobby’s altar required of every candiis the U.S. to Haiti, with more than a century of pernicious interdate for office in the U.S., rather than being a diehard supporter. ference to account for the current need for a U.N. peacekeeping Additionally, from her record as governor of South Carolina, at force there. And of course, there is the Middle East, where least she is unlikely to be insisting the Confederate flag fly with UNIFIL and the other blue helmets are there to provide a blue the other flags in front of the U.N. building. fig leaf to Washington’s failure to rein in its demanding protégé.

It is unusual that as U.N. representative she is a member of It is worth scrutinizing for “nuance” the different approaches of Trump’s cabinet, since that generally has been the custom only the GOP and Democratic legislators in the votes and debates on for Democratic administrations—but she may well have made it a the United Nations. Both sides unite in decrying the alleged bias condition of giving up a governorship to take the job. One can against Israel, but take different angles. The Democrats see the hope that the globalized gestalt of the U.N. might osmose into a U.N. as useful for the U.S. in a broader sense, but also that a U.S. relatively inexperienced incumbent like her, and thus through her presence there can protect Israel. Many of the conservatives abhor into the rest of the cabinet. Indeed, she has already shown signs the U.N., in principle, anyway, and see the Israel issue as a useful way to browbeat the organization into submission, threatening U.N. correspondent Ian Williams’ book UNtold: the Real Story of the United Nations will be published by Just World Books in Spring 2017. countries who vote the wrong way with bilateral “consequences.”

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As we have seen, however, consistency in international affairs is not a recurring theme for legislators, particularly where the U.N. is concerned. They want to bully small countries like New Zealand, as Israel threatened, for voting to condemn the settlements, but keep a discreet silence about Britain and France, let alone Russia and China, when they deem settlements illegal.

And interestingly, when they wanted to beat up on Iraq in the past, and now on Iran, they have no hesitation in citing barely applicable U.N. resolutions such as were invoked about the Iranian missile testâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which no one at the U.N. is likely to consider a violation.

Throughout the wars on Iraq, one of the most telling drawbacks for Washingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case was its inability to explain why U.N. resolutions against Iraq were binding in every jot and title, but clear injunctions against Israel were discretionary. That same contradiction will be exacerbated by a Trump administration that only seems consistent in its inconsistency. There are minimal chances of a president building a coalition of the willing from U.N. members when he is prepared to insult close partners like Australia, Germany and Mexico, and strong rivals like China.

How unique that inconsistency is will be tested in the Middle East, on the issue of Jerusalem and the U.S. Embassy. Apart from a brief period in which a couple of Central American republics had been bribed into locating their embassies in West Jerusalem, not one embassy has been set up in Jerusalemâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which is an issue of the U.N.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prerogatives, not of the Palestinian Authority.

One hesitates to question Palestinian claims in general, but there is no legal authority for East Jerusalem being the capital of the Palestinian stateâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;although logic, history and recent demographics would certainly suggest it. Under the relevant resolutions, all of Jerusalem is international territory to be under United Nations supervision. All the binding Security Council resolutions on the occupied territories since 1947 have added â&#x20AC;&#x153;including East Jerusalemâ&#x20AC;? to the description, since no matter who had title, be it Jordanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;very few nations accepted the Hashemite claim MARCH/APRIL 2017

legallyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the putative Palestinian Arab state from the Partition resolution, or the United Nations, it was indubitable that the Israelis were occupying it!

THE ISSUE OF JERUSALEM

Recently the Palestinians have taken Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres to task for admitting that Judaism had connections to the remnants of the Temple, despite a UNESCO resolution that, without denying that, emphasized the Islamic connections of the Shrine. That, however, does not affect the status of the city. Think of the implications of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul being indisputably Greek and Christian in origins.

Looking over some of the recent solutions being proposed in a desperate attempt to keep the two-state solution afloat, I thought back: No less than 25 years ago, this column reported on the proposal of the then Jordanian Ambassador to the U.N. Adnan Abu Odeh (see October 1992 Washington Report, p. 33). Odeh distinguished between Jerusalemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s walled city, housing the shrines of the three Abrahamic religions, and the rest of the city. He pointed out that Jerusalemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s municipal limits had been extended by the British in 1933, the Arabs in 1955, and the Israelis in 1980.

The Jordanian ambassador suggested that the walled city should have no flags flying over it. Instead, it should be open to all, and governed by a council representing all of the concerned religious authorities.

The inhabitants of the walled city would hold Palestinian passports if they were Arabs, and Israeli passports if Israeli, and would vote accordingly in their respective elections. East Jerusalem would be Al-Quds, capital of the new Palestine, and West Jerusalem would be Yerushalayim, capital of Israel.

Asked the difference between his solution and U.N. resolutions on the issue, Odeh responded, â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is not internationalization! Arab intellectuals cite U.N. Resolution 194, because it talks about the repatriation and compensation of refugees, as one of the most important resolutions for the legitimacy of the Palestine question. But in 194 there is only one article on the refugee question, while there are two on the internationalization of Jerusalem.â&#x20AC;?

A quarter of a century ago, at the start of the Oslo process, he said with unintended foresight: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The challenge that is facing the Israelis now is whether they are prepared to accept any meaningful selfrule for the Palestinians. In my opinion that means, among other things, a complete freeze on settlements, including so-called security settlements around Jerusalem.

Only with that will there be hope for a real peace settlement.â&#x20AC;?

What was once a prophesy has now almost become an epitaph.

Whether the State Department and other more sophisticated foreign policy professionals manage to nudge policy back to its previous faltering opposition to scofflaw behavior by Israel is of more importance than just to the Lobby and its opponents. All those years ago, when the U.S. was at its military and economic peak, George W. Bush could not bully a majority of U.N. members into supporting its war on Iraq. Partly because of those wars, the U.S. is diminished militarily, financially and morally in international standing. If, to support Israel, the White House withdraws in any significant way from the U.N., it gives away a major point of diplomatic and legal leverage which it is unlikely to get back once abandoned. And China is willing to take up the White House burden, as its President Xi said in January: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If anyone were to say China is playing a leadership role in the world, I would say itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not China rushing to the front, but rather the frontrunners have stepped back, leaving the place to China.â&#x20AC;? â&#x2013; (Advertisement)

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Congress Watch

Congressional Resolutions Slam Obama’s Non-Veto of U.N. Resolution Criticizing Israel

By Shirl McArthur

ON DEC. 23, 2016 President Barack Obama’s administration took the unusual, but not unprecedented, step of abstaining on U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2334, which says that Israel’s continuing expansion of its colonies (“settlements”) is an obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians—a position consistent with long-standing U.S. policy, as followed by presidents of both parties. Critics of Obama’s action claim that it violates a long history of the U.S. preventing passage of UNSC resolutions critical of Israel. But every president during the past 50 years has abstained on or voted for resolutions critical of Israel.

Nevertheless, Israel’s members of Congress erupted with outrage over Obama’s placing U.S. national interests over those of Israel. At least five measures were introduced objecting to the UNSC resolution and Obama’s failure to stop it. The measure selected for quick action was the non-binding but symbolic H.Res. 11, “Objecting to UNSC Resolution 2334 as an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace.” Introduced Jan. 3 by Rep. Edward Royce (R-CA), it was approved Jan. 5 by the full House by a roll call vote of 342-80, with 4 abstentions. Of the 80 “no” votes, only 4 were Republicans, and one of those, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), voted no because he objected that the resolution expressed support for a two-state solution to the conflict. All four of the abstentions were Democrats.

The Senate version, S.Res. 6, was introduced Jan. 4 by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Cardin (D-MD). With 77 co-sponsors it was expected to get quick passage by the Senate, but instead has somehow hit a roadblock. It was marked up by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) Jan. 12 and placed on the Senate calendar the same day—but there it sits. Some observers have speculated that it is being held up by SFRC Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN), who is put out that it is a Rubio/Cardin bill rather than Corker/Cardin.

Also in the Senate, on Jan. 3 Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced S.Res. 5 “expressing the sense of the Senate in support of Israel.” The resolution’s fourth “resolved” clause specifically “objects to the December 2016 abstention and declination to

veto UNSC Resolution 2334 by delegates of the U.S. at the U.N.” It includes no mention of support for a two-state solution.

The resolution has only three co-sponsors, including Moran.

Two other measures were introduced in the House. H.Res. 14, “disapproving of President Obama and his administration’s refusal to veto the anti-Israel resolution adopted by the UNSC on Dec. 23, 2016,” was introduced Jan. 3 by Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL). It has 58 cosponsors, including Ross. And on Jan. 4 Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) introduced H.R. 263 “to render UNSC Resolution 2334 null and void as a matter of U.S. law.” It has 12 cosponsors, including Lamborn.

A few Republicans were prepared to

damage, if not destroy, the whole U.N. system for the sake of Israel’s colonies.

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

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SOME REPUBLICANS WANT TO TAKE OUR MARBLES AND GO HOME!

Following the passage of UNSC Resolution 2334, a few Republican members of Congress were prepared to damage, if not destroy, the whole U.N. system for the sake of Israel’s colonies.

Most of the measures introduced would withhold U.S. funding to the U.N., but one bill, H.R. 193, introduced Jan. 3 by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), would actually “end membership of the U.S. in the U.N.” It has nine co-sponsors, including Rogers.

Four bills were introduced in the House prohibiting U.S. contributions to the U.N. Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), with one cosponsor, introduced H.R. 249 on Jan. 4; Lamborn, with one co-sponsor, introduced H.R. 264 the same day, and Gohmert, with no co-sponsors, on Jan. 5 introduced H.R. 311, and again on Jan. 9 as H.R. 373. In the Senate Sen. Ted Cruz (RTX) on Jan. 12 introduced S. 107 to prohibit contributions to the U.N. until UNSC Resolution 2334 is repealed. It has 24 cosponsors, including Cruz.

DUELING RESOLUTIONS ABOUT A TWO-STATE SOLUTION, AND NEW JERUSALEM BILLS

While most members of Congress were falling over themselves to demonstrate their undying support for Israel’s national interest, one relatively moderate measure was gaining support in the House. Called the Democratic alternative to H.Res. 11, H.Res. 23, introduced Jan. 5 by Rep. David Price (D-NC), would express “the sense of the House of Represen-

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tatives and reaffirming long-standing U.S. policy in support of a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” It makes no mention of UNSC Res. 2334, but one “whereas” clause says it is “the historical position of the U.S. to oppose and, if necessary, veto one-sided or anti-Israel resolutionsat the UNSC.” It has 115 Democratic co-sponsors, including Price.

On the other hand, also on Jan. 5 Rep. Steve King (R-IA), with no co-sponsors, introduced H.Res. 27 “rejecting the ‘twostate solution’ as the U.S. diplomatic policy objective, and calls for the administration to advocate for a new approach that prioritizes the State of Israel’s sovereignty, security, and borders.”

With a new Congress comes a batch of new measures that would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and say that it should be U.S. policy to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, with no presidential waiver provision. In the Senate on Jan. 3 Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) with seven co-sponsors introduced S. 11. In the House, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), with 13 co-sponsors, on Jan. 4 introduced H.R. 257, and Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), with no co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 265 the same day.

Previously, members of Congress could safely grandstand over the question of Jerusalem, knowing that either more responsible congressional leadership would prevent passage of the bills, or, if passed, it would not get past the president, of either party, because of the Constitution’s granting foreign policy powers to the president. However, responsible congressional leadership cannot be assumed, nor can President Donald Trump be assumed to be much concerned about presidential prerogatives.

Later, on Jan. 11, 102 Republican House members signed a letter, initiated

by Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), to Trump urging him to live up to his campaign pledge to move the embassy. Previous presidents have said they would move the embassy, but once in office have more responsibly ignored that campaign pledge.

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However, Trump cannot necessarily be expected to follow that precedent.

NEW ANTI-IRAN BILLS INTRODUCED

On Jan. 3, the first day of the 115th Congress, Heller, with no co-sponsors, introduced S. 15. It would extend the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 through December 2031, and impose “sanctions on Iran and related entities and persons for actions to acquire or develop ballistic missiles and launch technology.”

Two measures were introduced on Jan. 9 to direct the secretary of state to submit a report on the designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. In the Senate, Sens. Cruz and James Inhofe (R-OK) introduced S. 67, and in the House, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), with 6 co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 380.

And on Jan. 12 Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) introduced H.R. 478 to impose sanctions on the IRGC. On Jan. 3 Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), with no co-sponsors, introduced H.J.Res. 10, which would authorize the use of military force against Iran if necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. And Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) apparently still is upset about Boeing’s sale of commercial aircraft to Iran. On Jan. 13 he, with two co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 566 to require a report “on the use by the government of Iran of commercial aircraft and related services for illicit military or other activities.”

A FEW OTHER MIDDLE EASTRELATED MEASURES INTRODUCED

Bills were introduced Jan. 9 in the House and Senate that would require the secretary of state to submit a report on “whether the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization,” and, if not, “a detailed justification as to which criteria have not been met.” S. 68 was introduced by Cruz, with four co-sponsors, and H.R. 377 was introduced by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, with 34 co-sponsors.

Similar measures have been introduced

in previous congresses, but none have been passed, or even acted on.

The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt about 90 years ago as a political organization. It has not engaged in terrorist acts against Americans or U.S. interests, which is one of the criteria for designation as a terrorist organization.

More positively, H.R. 489 was introduced on Jan. 12 by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and 61 co-sponsors. It would “prohibit the collection of information and the establishment or utilization of a registry for the purposes of classifying or surveilling certain U.S. persons and other individuals on the basis of religious affiliation.”

For more than a year there has been some congressional concern that the fight against the Islamic State has been on shaky legal grounds, and several bills authorizing the use of military force (AUMF) were introduced. None were passed, however, usually because members of Congress couldn’t agree on how restrictive to make the authorization. On Jan. 3 Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), with no co-sponsors, introduced a new, relatively clean AUMF. H.Con.Res. 2 would simply authorize “the president to use all necessary and appropriate force to defend U.S. national security against the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), its associated forces, organizations, and persons, and any successor organizations.”

114TH CONGRESS PASSED U.S.-ISRAEL CYBERSECURITY BILL

Of all the previously described congressional measures mentioned as candidates to be passed by the “lame duck” session of the 114th Congress, only one was passed by both houses and signed into law. H.R. 5877, introduced by Rep. John Ratcliffe and two co-sponsors on July 14, 2016, allows the Department of Homeland Security “to enter into cooperative programs with Israel to enhance capabilities in cybersecurity.” It was passed by the House on Nov. 29, by the Senate on Dec. 10, and signed into law

by President Obama as P.L. 114-304 on Dec. 16. ■

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Handed a “Loaded Gun,” Donald Trump Inherits Gitmo and Permissive War Powers

By Dale Sprusansky

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

of President Donald Trump.

During his first few weeks in office, President Trump has not directly addressed the issue of Gitmo, but it is safe to assume that closing the facility is not on his docket.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed not only to keep the facility open, but to detain more individuals there. “We’re gonna load it up with some bad dudes, believe me, we’re gonna load it up,” he told supporters at a campaign rally in Nevada last year.

The new president’s brash executive order banning travel from seven Muslimmajority countries, along with his obsession with keeping America “safe” and eagerness to continue the never-ending war on terror, are all strong indications that he intends to keep his hard-line promise on Gitmo. A draft executive order leaked in January outlining plans to expand Gitmo’s prisoner population and reopen CIA “black site” prisons is yet further evidence to sugA prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay maximum security detention center paces before evening gest that this administration has no plans prayers, Oct. 22, 2016. to close the facility.

The future indeed looks daunting for those passionate individuals who have spent the past 15 years AS THE JAN. 20 transfer of power from Barack Obama to Donworking tirelessly to close the prison. As some of these antiald Trump took place in Washington, DC, 41 men at the U.S. deGitmo activists gathered at New America in Washington, DC on tention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba knew their odds of exJan. 11 to commemorate the anniversary of the facility’s openperiencing a transfer from captivity had just greatly diminished. ing, they predicted a somber future under President Trump.

On his second day in office, President Obama signed an exAt the same time, many expressed their final words of disapecutive order directing that the prison be shut down within a year. pointment with the Obama administration.

Eight years later, knowing that his promise would go unfulfilled, “This will be the black mark on Obama’s legacy,” lamented Obama spent his last weeks in office scrambling to transfer as Andy Worthington, co-founder of Close Guantanamo and author many prisoners as possible from the facility. In total, the former of The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in president transferred 197 individuals from Guantanamo during America’s Illegal Prison. Though he faced strong opposition from his tenure.

Congress, Worthington believes Obama did not act urgently Obama’s failure to close the facility will remain a stain on his enough to close the facility. presidency. While he may now be liberated from the oppressive Co-founder Thomas Wilner, an attorney who has represented duties of the Oval Office, those 41 men who remain in Gitmo— Gitmo detainees, agreed with this sentiment. “I worked closely most of whom are being held without charge or trial—will likely with the Obama transition team on the order that they entered not taste freedom any time soon now that they are at the mercy on the [second] day in office to close Guantanamo within a year.

It was easy to do,” he said. “Obama didn’t do it.”

Dale Sprusansky is assistant editor of the Washington Report on Middle east affairs.

Wilner expressed particular frustration with the Obama ad34

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STAFF PHOTO D. SPRUSANSKY

Security that resisted ministration’s decision to him,” he said. “When the endorse the concept of permanent workforce, indefinite detention, the civil service, decides which in effect denied dethey’re going to stop tainees at Gitmo constitusomething, it’s going to tional rights and provided be stopped.” the legal basis for courts Regardless of who is to place roadblocks preto blame, an extralegal venting the release of detention center and prisoners. Obama “could unchecked war authorihave changed that with a ties are now at the disstroke of a pen,” Wilner posal of an unpresaid. “They have left that dictable and undiscernloaded gun for Trump to ing president. Donald use,” he added. “[Trump] Trump may or may not could use Guantanamo (L-r) Former Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Rosa Brooks and Thomas Wilner debate who use these powers in unas a place to put foreign- is to blame for the Guantanamo Bay detention facility remaining open. precedented ways, but ers outside the law.”

In the opinion of Rosa Brooks, a law for Gitmo remaining open. “It’s the fault of the legal precedent for him to do largely as professor and fellow at New America, the American people,” Moran said. “We tol- he pleases as it pertains to the “war on terror” has been codified by the decisions of Gitmo is a symptom of the Obama admin- erated it, we deliberately let it happen.”

Throughout Obama’s tenure, Moran the George W. Bush and Barack Obama istration’s troubling position on indefinite detention, and its willingness to carry out said, many on the left ignored the issue, administrations—as well as the permissive an ill-defined war on terror governed by while those on the far right constantly indifference of the American people. ■ raised public alarm by spreading misinforopaque and secretive policies.

“What we have ended up with as a re- mation about the prisoners at the facility (Advertisement) sult of legal theories developed during the and the president’s plan to close the deBush administration,” Brooks said, “but tention center. “It’s an indictment on our embraced and expanded under the country,” Moran stated.

He also took aim at his former fellow Obama administration, is essentially a Justice Department-approved doctrine that lawmakers, noting that few congressmen permits an administration to base deci- ever spoke up on the issue or supported sions on who to detain or who to kill on legislation he introduced to close the facilclassified information that is not examined ity. “Time and again, we’d bring it up and by any external judicial body, that is not re- we’d lose,” Moran recalled, “to the point vealed, [and] in the case of targeted where nobody really listened.”

Support for his efforts was so low, in fact, strikes, the strike itself is not acknowledged. So, we detain people and we kill Moran can name the handful of colleagues them in secret, based on secret evidence who joined him in the fight. “The fact that I evaluated during a secret process by un- can remember the names of the people Gifted Palestinian students who would speak up on Guantanamo, out named individuals.” can reach their potential with This broad authority to carry out a of 435 members of the House, says someyour generous donation. largely unchecked war on terror has now thing,” he noted. Members of Congress are (Tax ((T Tax Exemption p is Applied for) been handed to the Trump administration. able to stay silent on this issue, he said, Some on the left may spend the next four because their constituents simply didn’t years (rightfully) objecting to Trump’s care. “The president didn’t get any political AFBU drone strikes or detention of foreigners at support,” he added, “no political support.”

American Friends of Birzeit University Within the government, Moran accused Gitmo, but the reality is that Obama handed his successor these executive au- many bureaucrats of intentionally obstructing Obama’s plans to close the facilthorities on a gold platter.

Broad concerns about the war on terror ity. “With everything that the president tried Thank you in advance for aside, former congressman Jim Moran (D- to do, there were people in the Justice Deki d ib b i VA) doesn’t think Obama should be blamed partment, at the Pentagon, in Homeland

American Friends of Birzeit University

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Three Views

ican president as a backstabber and betrayer, while the White House calls Bibi a liar.

This is not an unserious matter.

“By standing with the sworn enemies of Israel to enable the passage of this destructive, one-sided anti-Israel rant and tirade,” writes the Washington Times, “Mr. Obama shows his colors.”

But unfortunately for Israel, the blow was delivered by friends as well as “sworn enemies.”

The U.S. abstained, but Britain, whose Balfour Declaration of Secretary of State John Kerry (l) delivers his Dec. 28 speech on Middle East peace; President Barack Obama delivers 1917 led to the Jewish his farewell speech in Chicago, Jan. 10, 2017. state in Palestine, voted for the resolution.

As did France, which allied with Israel in the Sinai-Suez campaign of 1956 to oust Egypt’s Colonel Nasser, and whose

By Patrick J. Buchanan Mystères were indispensable to Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War of 1967.

DID THE COMMUNITY organizer from Harvard Law just deliver Vladimir Putin, who has worked with Bibi and was rewarded some personal payback to the IDF commando? So it would seem. with Israel’s refusal to support sanctions on Russia for Crimea By abstaining on that Security Council resolution declaring and Ukraine, also voted for the resolution.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal Egypt, whose Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was welcomed by and invalid, raged Bibi Netanyahu, President Obama “failed to Bibi after his coup against the Muslim Brotherhood president, protect Israel in this gang-up at the U.N., and colluded with it.” and who has collaborated with Bibi against terrorists in Sinai Obama’s people, charged Bibi, “initiated this resolution, and Gaza, also voted yes. stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded China voted yes, as did Ukraine. New Zealand and Senegal, that it be passed.” both of which have embassies in Tel Aviv, introduced the resoWhite House aide Ben Rhodes calls the charges “falsehoods.” lution.

Hence, we have an Israeli leader all but castigating an AmerDespite Israel’s confidential but deepening ties with Sunni Arab states that share her fear and loathing of Iran, not a single Patrick J. Buchanan, who first described Congress as “Israeli-occupied Security Council member stood by her and voted against conterritory,” is the author of the new book The Greatest Comeback: demning Israel’s presence in Arab East Jerusalem and the Old How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.

City. Had the resolution gone before the General Assembly, Reprinted by permission of Patrick J. Buchanan and Creator’s Syndisupport would have been close to unanimous. cate, Inc. PHOTO DARREN HAUCK/GETTY IMAGES

PHOTO ZACH GIBSON/GETTY IMAGES

The Obama Administration’s Parting Action on and Words to Israel

Barack Backhands Bibi

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While this changes exactly nothing on the ground in the West Bank or East Jerusalem where 600,000 Israelis now reside, it will have consequences, and few of them will be positive for Israel.

The resolution will stimulate and strengthen the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, which has broad support among U.S. college students, Bernie Sanders Democrats and the international left.

If Israel does not cease expanding West Bank settlements, she could be hauled before the International Criminal Court and charged with war crimes.

Already, J Street, the liberal Jewish lobby that backs a twostate solution in Palestine—and has been denounced by Donald Trump’s new envoy to Israel David Friedman as “far worse than kapos,” the Jewish guards at Nazi concentration camps— has endorsed the resolution.

The successful resolution is also a reflection of eroding support for Israel at the top of the Democratic Party, as a two-term president and a presidential nominee, Secretary of State John Kerry, were both behind it.

Republicans are moving to exploit the opening by denouncing the resolution and the U.N. and showing solidarity with Israel. Goal: Replace the Democratic Party as the most reliable ally of Israel, and reap the rewards of an historic transfer of Jewish political allegiance.

That Sen. George McGovern was seen as pro-Palestinian enabled Richard Nixon to double his Jewish support between 1968 and 1972.

That Jimmy Carter was seen as cold to Israel enabled Ronald Reagan to capture more than a third of the Jewish vote in 1980, on his way to a 44-state landslide.

Moreover, U.S. acquiescence in this resolution puts Bibi in a box at home. Though seen here as a hawk on the settlements issue, the right wing of Bibi’s coalition is far more hawkish, pushing for outright annexation of West Bank settlements. Others call for a repudiation of Oslo and the idea of an independent Palestinian state.

If Bibi halts settlement building on the West Bank, he could cause a split in his cabinet with rightist rivals like Naftali Bennett who seek to replace him.

Here in the U.S., the U.N. resolution is seen by Democrats as a political debacle, and by many Trump Republicans as an opportunity.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has denounced Obama’s refusal to veto the resolution, echoing sentiments about the world body one used to hear on America’s far right.

“The U.N.” said Schumer, “has been a fervently anti-Israel body since the days [it said] ‘Zionism is racism’ and that fervor has never diminished.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says he will urge Congress to slash funding for the United Nations.

If the folks over at the John Birch Society still have some of those bumper stickers—“Get the U.S. out of the U.N., and the U.N. out of the U.S.!”—they might FedEx a batch over to Schumer and Graham.

May have some converts here.

Copyright © Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved.

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U.N. Resolution Is a Breath of Hope In a Sea of Darkness and Despair

By Gideon Levy

ON NOV. 29, 1947, the U.N. General Assembly voted to establish a Jewish state (alongside an Arab state) in the Land of Israel. Sixty-nine years later, on Dec. 23, 2016, the U.N. Security Council voted to try to save it. Resolution 2334 that was approved that Friday is a gust of good news, a breath of hope in the sea of darkness and despair of recent years.

Just when it seemed that everything was going downhill—the deepening occupation increasingly supported by America, with Europe galloping to the right—along came a Hanukkah resolution that lights a thin candle. When it seemed that the evil ones would remain victorious, along came New Zealand and three other countries and gave the world a Christmas gift.

So thanks to New Zealand, Venezuela and Malaysia. True, the Christmas tree they’ve supplied, with all its sparkling lights, will soon be removed; Donald Trump is already waiting at the gate. But the imprint will remain. Until then, this temporary rejoicing is a joy, despite the expected hangover.

We of course must ask U.S. President Barack Obama in fury: Now you’re doing something? And we must ask the world in frustration: What about actions? But it’s impossible to ignore the Security Council decision that rules that all the settlements are illegal by nature.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu can call back his ambassadors, while his right-hand minister Yuval Steinitz can shriek that the resolution is “unfair.” (He has a sense of humor.) And opposition leader Isaac Herzog can babble that “we need to fight the decision with all means.” But there isn’t a person in the world with a conscience who won’t rejoice over the resolution.

There also isn’t a decent Israeli who ought to fall for the propaganda that calls the resolution “anti-Israeli,” a definition that the Israeli media rushed to adopt—with its characteristic slavishness, of course.

This decision has brought Israel back to the solid ground of reality. All the settlements, including in the territories that have been annexed, including in East Jerusalem of course, are a violation of international law. In other words, they are a crime. No country in the world thinks otherwise. The entire world thinks so—all Israel’s so-called friends and all its so-called enemies—unanimously.

Most probably the tools of brainwashing in Israel, along with the mechanisms of repression and denial, will try to undermine the decision. But when the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia unite in such a clear statement, this will be difficult work.

So you can say “the entire world is against us.” You can scream “anti-Semitism!” You can ask “What about Syria?” In the end this clear-as-crystal truth will remain: The world thinks that the settlements are a crime. All the settlements and all the world.

True, the world doesn’t lift a finger to have the settlements removed, but maybe one day this will happen. Still, it will be too late by then, too late.

Resolution 2334 artificially distinguishes between Israel and the settlements in that it is aimed at the settlements, not the occupation. As if the guilt of Amona were on its settlers and not all Israelis. This deception proves how much the world continues to treat Israel with leniency and hesitates to takes steps against it,

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as it did with Russia’s conquest of Crimea, for example.

But Israelis who don’t live in Amona, who have never been there, who have no real interest in its fate—it seems most Israelis—have to ask themselves: Is it really worth it? All this for a few settlers they don’t know and don’t really want to know?

Resolution 2334 is meant above all for Israeli ears, like an alarm clock that makes sure to wake you up on time, like a siren that tells you to go down to the bomb shelter. True, the resolution has no concrete value; true, the new U.S. administration promises to erase it.

But two questions won’t let up: Why don’t the Palestinians deserve exactly the same thing that Israelis deserve, and how much can one country, with all its lobbying power, weapons and hightech, ignore the entire world? On this first day of both Hanukkah and Christmas, we can enjoy, if only for a moment, the sweet illusion that Resolution 2334 will rouse these questions in Israel.

What Kerry Did

By James J. Zogby

SECRETARY OF STATE John Kerry's valedictory speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unleashed a firestorm of criticism from the very same folks who had just finished hyperventilating over the U.S. abstention on a Security Council resolution a few days earlier.

The speech, itself, was divided into three parts. Kerry opened with an accounting of all that the Obama administration had done for Israel in the past eight years. And he closed with a list of principles he said should serve as the basis for a future Israeli-Palestinian peace. The largest part, the middle, was a passionate indictment of Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—the most comprehensive critique ever given by an American political leader.

During the past 50 years, successive U.S. administrations have done their best to avoid public criticism of Israel. There have been momentary outbursts of displeasure. But, for the most part, when U.S. officials wanted to challenge Israel's behavior, they prodded, cajoled, pleaded their case, or resorted to offering “incentives.”

They have never “taken Israel to the wood shed.” That's what Kerry did and that was what prompted the reaction.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered the political equivalent of a tantrum even before Kerry finished his remarks. President-elect Donald Trump tweeted his displeasure. And members of Congress, from both parties, rushed to issue statements pledging their full support for Israel and its leader, while roundly criticizing their own secretary of state.

Why the hysteria? As Kerry himself acknowledged, the speech was not going to change realities on the ground, nor would it force the Israelis to alter their behavior. And, as Donald Trump tweeted, with only a few weeks left before the end of the Obama administration, it is clear that Israel is not going to pay a price in terms of its relationship with Washington.

None of these reactions, of course, paid any attention to the opening or closing parts of Kerry's speech. Israel and its supporters have

James J. Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the Arab American Institute.

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made a habit of treating as their due the aid and support they have received from the Obama administration. And as for the “Kerry Principles,” they were bound to be ignored, since everyone knows what they are but sees no possibility that they will be realized.

What set off the firestorm was that Kerry dared to publicly and forcefully criticize Israeli policy. And that was what the overreaction intended to snuff out. The standard Israeli approach used in situations of this sort is to launch a campaign of intimidation designed to pummel the offender into submission and to discourage others from taking similar course.

I remember back in 2003, in the lead up to the 2004 presidential primaries, then-Senator Kerry addressed our Arab American Institute national conference, poignantly describing the daily hardships faced by Palestinians under occupation. He concluded his remarks by condemning the “separation wall” that Israel was constructing in the West Bank, calling it “a barrier to peace.” For weeks, Kerry was pummeled by pro-Israeli activists and donors until he finally relented and apologized for his remarks.

Much the same happened with Justice Richard Goldstone, one of the co-authors of the United Nations report on Israeli violations of human rights and international law in its 2008/9 onslaught of Gaza. I met the man and heard him describe how painful it had been for him to see what Israel had done and then feel compelled to condemn their behavior. The response from Israel and Congress was intense and unrelenting. Most critics denounced “Goldstone” without even reading the report. Facts didn't matter, snuffing out criticism and making the critic pay a price did.

After being shamefully battered and even denied entry to Israel to visit his family, Justice Goldstone relented and wrote a Washington Post op-ed apologizing for some of the language he had used to describe Israeli behavior. At that point Israel announced victory and called off the attack.

This past summer, my colleagues and I went through somewhat the same experience after being appointed by Bernie Sanders to serve on the Democratic Party platform drafting committee. There was an effort to discredit and silence us even before the platform deliberations began. They didn't need to turn the heat up too high, because the Clinton campaign made it clear that they would brook no criticism of Israel in the document. As a result, our efforts to add the words “occupation” and “settlements” were in vain.

And now comes Kerry's State Department speech in which he didn't just criticize Israel's occupation and settlement policy, he also demolished the arguments Israelis use to defend their actions. At the same time, he provided a tutorial on the damage done to peace by settlements. Kerry's speech will not change Israeli policy. And with Trump in the Oval Office in three weeks, the speech most certainly will not effect a change in U.S. policy. But what Kerry has done, if he doesn't relent, is shatter the taboo that has sheltered Israel from official criticism, while laying out the arguments needed to rebut Israeli efforts to justify their policies.

To some, especially Palestinians, this may seem like “too little, too late.” But as someone who has been a part of the effort to create an American debate on Israeli policies, Kerry's intervention is both welcome, validating and empowering. He laid down markers that should help liberals and progressives define a policy agenda on the Israel-Palestine conflict—exactly what we need as we enter the challenges of the Trump era. ■

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MARCH/APRIL 2017

mondoweiss-ad_39 March/April 2017 Mondoweiss Ad 2/9/17 3:48 PM Page 39

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kutty_40-41_Canada Calling 2/9/17 9:25 PM Page 40

Canada Calling

Canada Not Immune From a Legacy of Fear-Mongering

By Faisal Kutty

ALICE CHICHE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

story, because there is no central registry, and any national statistics depend on reports from local police which in turn rely on victims to report.

In fact, discriminatory actions and crimes driven by hate may not be properly captured. Many incidents are not reported because too many believe that nothing will come of it. Indeed, there is growing anecdotal evidence to suggest that reports are not being taken seriously by some authorities, or are classified as other than hate crimes. Some cases are summarily dismissed as parking or zoning issues, “flight safety issues” or simply free speech.

In the case of the mosque shooting, mosque attendee Zebida Bendjeddou told Reuters: “In June, they’d put a pig’s head in front of the mosque. But we thought: ‘Oh, they’re isolated events.’ We didFlowers at a makeshift memorial near the Islamic Cultural Center in Quebec City after n’t take it seriously. But tonight, those isolated terrorist Alexandre Bissonnette stormed the mosque during evening prayers on Jan. 29 events, they take on a different scope.”

In the days after the massacre there has been and opened fire on dozens of worshippers, killing 6 and wounding 19. much soul searching. Politicians and media pundits are now asking about the source of the hate.

ISLAMOPHOBIA IS REAL. President Donald Trump’s execuOne of the most eloquent statements came from Imam Hassan tive order banning entry to the U.S. from 7 Muslim-majority counGuillet, who eulogized the victims at one of two ceremonies. After tries, and the Jan. 29 terrorist attack on the Islamic Cultural Censpeaking about the 6 killed, the 17 children left without their fathers, ter in Quebec City, killing 6 and wounding 19 innocent worshipthe 6 widows and the 19 wounded, the Imam rhetorically asked: pers, should lay any doubts to rest.

Did I go through the complete list of victims? No. Right-wing nationalists were quick to re-victimize the mosque There is one victim. None of us want to talk about him. shooting victims by falsely propagating that one of the alleged perBut given my age, I have the courage to say it. This victim, his petrators was a Moroccan and that he had yelled, “Allahu Akbar.” name is Alexandre Bissonnette.

The fact that even some supposedly respectable media outlets reAlexandre, before being a killer he was a victim himself. Beported such speculative “facts” is telling. Police have now charged fore planting his bullets in the heads of his victims, somebody Alexandre Bissonnette, a white French Canadian who by some planted ideas more dangerous than the bullets in his head. accounts appears to be a rabid anti-immigrant nationalist, with six This little kid didn’t wake up in the morning and say, “Hey guys counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder. instead of going to have a picnic or watching the Canadiens, I will Sadly, the first Islamophobic killings in North America in the go kill some people in the mosque.” It doesn’t happen that way. wake of President Trump’s election may have been carried out in Day after day, week after week, month after month, certain multicultural, tolerant and welcoming Canada. politicians unfortunately, and certain reporters unfortunately, and The number of police-reported hate crimes against Muslim certain media, were poisoning our atmosphere.”

Canadians more than doubled over a three-year period (2012 to The killings and the spike in hate crimes in the immediate after2014), according to figures released by Statistics Canada last math reveals the underlying bigotry and provides evidence of how year. As alarming as these figures are, they don’t tell the full too many have been emboldened by rhetoric that has mainFaisal Kutty is counsel to KSM Law, an associate professor at Valstreamed anti-Muslim hate. Demonization of Muslims has a long paraiso University Law School in Indiana, and an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Twitter @faisalkutty. history in Western politics and popular culture, but it is now reach40

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

MARCH/APRIL 2017

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ing a fever pitch. A discourse initially fueled by a well-funded network of professional merchants of hate on the fringe infected a small segment of the Republican party in the U.S. and Harperites in Canada, but has now reached heights never before imagined by most analysts. Trump’s travel ban and anticipated Muslim registry did not rise out of thin air. They are rooted in the culture of fear and targeting of Muslims nurtured by too many in positions of authority on both sides of the border since the early 1990s, but most aggressively since 9/11 in the “war or terror.” This legacy of “othering” and dehumanization prepped the populace enough for Trump to tap into the bigotry and fear.

Canadian politicians and media are not blameless. Even before 9/11 some Canadian politicians had been fueling fear and distrust of Muslims as the West shifted from the “Red Scare” to the “Green Menace,” but the turning point came with the Anti-Terrorism Act passed in 2001 by the Liberal government.

This “PATRIOT Act lite” fanned the fear of Muslims to push along the “war on terror.”

The growing distrust and fear of Islam and Muslims was evident in the hysteria and moral panic created when a group of Muslims sought to use religious principles in resolving their personal disputes in 2003.

This was mischaracterized by the far-right as “Shariah coming to Canada.” Many, including well-intentioned but misguided feminists, uncritically bought into this narrative and helped legitimize Islamophobia.

Going against the advice of his own attorney general and the recommendations of former attorney general and women’s rights advocate Marion Boyd, who was asked to look into the issue, the Liberal government led by Dalton McGuinty “banned” the use of religious principles in arbitration. Disturbingly, it was the first time in Ontario history where a law was changed without any concrete evidence of harm, merely on speculation and without any resistance from two opposition parties. Many politicians conceded that they had never seen as much international opposition to a provincial law due to the fear of shariah.

The fact that Canada had its battle with the shariah law phantom long before any American states entered the fray is illustrative.

The fear mongering reached its peak MARCH/APRIL 2017

under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who, gearing up to the October 2015 elections, ratcheted up Islamophobia by pandering to public unease about Muslims. In addition to going after Muslim charities and organizations (defaming, for instance, the largest Muslim civil rights group, the National Council of Canadian Muslims [NCCM]), and even religious symbols, his jihad against “radical Islam” and search for terrorists under every Muslim bed profoundly altered the Canadian landscape.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK

Indeed, this bastion of multiculturalism and tolerance witnessed a slew of legislative and policy directives overtly or covertly targeting Muslims and Islam in the last few years. These include: A controversial provision of the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (which had become law back in June 2014) came into effect on May 29, 2015. It allowed the government to revoke Canadian citizenship from anyone who was born outside the country, or was born in Canada and holds another nationality or is eligible to obtain another nationality. This can now be done unilaterally, without any involvement of a judge or other independent arbiter, for fraud or national security reasons. The Liberal legislation to repeal these provisions is working its way through the legislature.

The Anti-terrorism Act, 2015 (known as Bill C51) was enacted on June 18, 2015 amid major controversy. The legislation amends existing legislation and raises a plethora of constitutional issues (including freedom of religion) and significantly alters the security landscape.

On June 18, 2015, Parliament also passed the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act. On its face the law appears neutral by raising the age of marriage, criminalizing forced marriages and banning “honor” killings. Indeed, as Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom opined, its provisions on “honor” killings, polygamy and the focus on immigrant “Muslim” practices clearly point to political pandering. It is all the more absurd given that forced marriages, “honor” killings and polygamy are already illegal under existing laws.

On June 19, 2015, the Conservatives also introduced another bill known as the Oath of Citizenship Act, which mandates that citizenship applicants must show their face during the Oath of Citizenship ceremony. The infamous “niqab ban” came a few days after the province of Quebec introduced Bill 62, known as the Religious Neutrality Bill, which seeks to ban face-covering religious garments for public servants and citizens who wish to use government services. The impetus for the federal legislation was the Federal Court of Canada ruling that it was “unlawful” for Ottawa to order new citizens to remove their face-covering veil or niqab when taking the oath of citizenship.

As if these were not enough, Prime Minister Harper also called for the banning of Syrian refugees.

Now playing into similar fears is Conservative-leadership contender Kellie Leitch with her problematic values test.

Quebec also has a long history of Islamophobic policies. The Parti Quebecois generated anxiety in 2013 by proposing a “Charter of Values” which targeted mostly Muslim religious symbols. Not to let an opportunity slip, conservative Quebec politician François Legault resurrected the issue last fall, feeding into this fear of Muslims.

In 2013, an Angus Reid poll revealed that 69 percent of Quebecois people held an unfavorable opinion of Muslims. In Englishspeaking Canada, this view rose from 46 percent unfavorable in 2009 to 54 percent unfavorable in 2013. A 2016 study by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation found only 24 percent of French Canadians and 49 percent of English Canadians had a positive view of Muslims. An Ipsos poll in 2016 also found that both Canadians and Americans thought that Muslims made up 17 percent of their populations. The reality is far lower, at 3 percent and 1 percent respectively. This perception partly drives the fear.

When Islamophobia becomes a socially acceptable form of bigotry as it has in some circles, we should not be surprised when it manifests in discrimination and even violence. While the shooting may be shrugged off by some as an isolated incident, hate does impact the lived realities of far too many Muslims in Canada. ■

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Special Report

Death of Rafsanjani Leaves Iran in Grip of Power Struggle

By Gareth Smyth

ATTA KENARE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

His given name Akbar someTHE DAY AFTER Akbar Hashemi times became Ali Akbar, still Rafsanjani lost the run-off presiwrongly used by some internadential ballot in 2005, he arrived tional media. early for work at the Expediency Mystery gave him aura, which Council, the state body he led. could work in his favor. People Rafsanjani knew politics had went to Rafsanjani—including ups and downs, and he was a Westerners in the 1980s seekgreat survivor. His death—due to ing the release of hostages held heart complications on Jan. 8 at

by Lebanese Shi’i militants—to the age of 82—leaves Iranians get things done. struggling to imagine their counAs late as 2005, Western try without him and marks an imdiplomats and news publications portant transition from the aging coveted Rafsanjani, seeking regeneration that led the 1979 Isspectively meaningful talks over lamic revolution.

Iran’s developing nuclear proRafsanjani has been at the gram or just an interview. For core of political power in Iran the latter, Rafsanjani’s aides insince then. sisted on positive coverage and He was a close confidante of were not short of takers. the revolutionary leader AyatolRafsanjani felt the nationalism lah Ruhollah Khomeini. He be- Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. common among Iranians, even came parliamentary speaker, revolutionaries, and published a book in 1968 lauding Amir war commander toward the end of the 1980-88 war with Iraq, Kabir, the 19th-century Qajar minister who was ruthless in poliand then president for two terms in 1989-97. tics while a reformer and educationalist.

From 1983 until his death, he sat on the Experts Assembly, In Tehran, the Arman-e Emruz newspaper mourned “the death the clerical body that selects Iran’s supreme leader. of the contemporary Amir Kabir.”

Rafsanjani was crucial in persuading Khomeini in October Pragmatism is double-edged. During Iran-Contra, when in 1988 to end the devastating war with Iraq, in which an estimated 1985-87 Tehran sought U.S. weapons to fight Iraq, many feared 1 million people on both sides were killed. contact with the “Great Satan” would pollute the revolution’s It was a decision that Khomeini called “more deadly than drinkideals. ing from a poisoned chalice.”

In the West, some balked at Rafsanjani’s citing by Argentinean In 1989, Rafsanjani orchestrated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s prosecutors for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos succession as leader and was central in both the country’s postAires, and by German prosecutors over assassinations of Iranian war development and an uneven thaw in relations with the opposition figures in Europe.

United States and Europe.

Reports of Rafsanjani’s growing wealth grew more fantastic Yet Rafsanjani, known in Iran as kuseh—“the shark”—reas Iran in the 1990s see-sawed between high growth and downmained mysterious. turns—an ideal environment for speculators.

Even his name was oblique. He became “Rafsanjani” during the Iranians in shared taxis fed the myths, detecting Rafsanjani’s struggle against the shah—when he was jailed several times— hand everywhere. Forbes magazine in 2003 put his wealth at after the city, Rafsanjan, nearest to the village, Bahraman, where more than $1 billion, and the New York Times obituary alleged he grew up before starting clerical studies in Qom at age 14. he “exercised a near monopoly on the lucrative pistachio trade.”

Gareth Smyth has covered Middle Eastern affairs for 20 years and Certainly, associates and family—including his son Mehdi, imwas chief correspondent for The Financial Times in Iran. Copyright © 2017 The Arab Weekly. Distributed by Agence Global.

Continued on p. 44 42

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Islam and the Near East in the Far East

Rohingya Issue Creates More Waves in Region

By John Gee

ALLISON JOYCE/GETTY IMAGES

VIOLENT ATTACKS ON the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2012 displaced many. The problem rumbled on, resulting in a refugee crisis in the region in 2015. Tens of thousands fled Myanmar and, in mid-2016, more than 100,000 Rohingya still lived in camps within Myanmar.

Some of those who fled were displaced to neighboring Bangladesh, while others headed south, by land and sea, reaching Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Two developments brought the problem back into the public eye in 2016: the installation of a government under the de facto leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, and a renewed wave of violence last October and November.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won 86 percent of the vote in Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims stand outside their shelters in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, 2015 general election, but she was barred Bangladesh, Feb. 8, 2017. from becoming president by a constitutional posts in Myanmar on Oct. 9, killing nine policemen. The army reclause that is widely believed to have been introduced by the forsponded by launching a major operation in northern Rakhine state mer military regime specifically to keep her out of the office: she is aimed at killing or capturing the militants. In the month following the excluded on the grounds that she was married to a foreigner (her initial attacks, 102 alleged attackers and 32 soldiers were killed. Relate husband was British) and her children are foreign nationals. ports emerged of rapes and burning of houses, as well as execuNevertheless, she took other government roles and was given the tions of suspected militants. The region was closed to foreign journewly created post of state counsellor in April 2016. nalists.

Human rights NGOs had hoped for a major change of policy toVisiting Japan at the beginning of November, Suu Kyi met Forward the Rohingya, but their expectations had already been eign Minister Fumio Kishida, who said that violence could not be dimmed. Suu Kyi didn’t raise the issue herself during the 2015 elecallowed in dealing with the crisis, to which Suu Kyi reportedly tion campaign, and when she was interviewed on the subject by replied, “The problem in Rakhine state is extremely delicate and foreign journalists, she was evasive, seeming to rationalize fear of care is needed in responding…The Myanmar government is reMuslims and suggesting that Muslim-Buddhist violence was the responding to the issue of Rakhine state based on the principles of sponsibility of both equally. Some thought that she might have the rule of law.” In her comment, Suu Kyi pointedly avoided using been avoiding alienating potential supporters who were hostile to the term “Rohingya,” which is objectionable to the Buddhist comthe Rohingya, at least until her party had won an election, but her munalists, who insist on calling the minority “Bengalis.” post-election moves were very cautious. She failed to condemn the Though human rights advocates have criticized her position, it destruction of two mosques by sectarian Buddhist mobs, appealmust be admitted that she is not a free agent. Despite her party’s ing for “space” to deal with the issue, and asked former U.N. Secoverwhelming electoral victory, she faces challenges from the voretary-General Kofi Annan to head an advisory commission on the ciferous nationalist Buddhist group Ma Ba Tha (the Burmese situation in Rakhine state. acronym of the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and RePressure on Suu Kyi to take a more forthright stand increased ligion), which is led by monks and has spearheaded anti-Muslim after armed militants believed to be Rohingyas attacked border actions over the last three years. It was only in September of last John Gee is a free-lance journalist based in Singapore, and the author of Unequal Conflict: The Palestinians and Israel. year that Myanmar’s Buddhist leadership, the Sangha Maha MARCH/APRIL 2017

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Nayaka Committee, finally came out to say that no meeting of the institution had ever “acknowledged or endorsed the Ma Ba Tha.” On the other hand, the military retains a strong position. The 2008 constitution that the former military regime imposed reserves control of the defense, home affairs and border affairs ministries to the military, with 25 percent of the seats in the legislative assembly also reserved for armed forces officers. The constitution allows the armed forces to re-impose military rule unilaterally, without the consent of the government or parliament, if it considers that the country is threatened by disorder. This certainly puts “restoration of democracy” in Myanmar into perspective.

An Inter-Faith Harmony Bill has been drafted for submission to parliament. It includes clauses banning hate speech, and crimes and discrimination on a racist or communalist basis. Leading work on the bill was Ko Ni, a Muslim legal adviser to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. He was shot dead on Jan. 29 while waiting with his grandson at Yangon airport, in what a leading NLD member described as a “wellplanned, fearless conspiracy,” although initial reports suggested that the murderer was a loner with a criminal background. Ko Ni had previously spoken out against attacks on Muslims and the military’s continuing grip on power in Myanmar.

The violence in Rakhine state escalated throughout November. Some 65,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, joining the more than 230,000 refugees already living there.

This latest round of conflict appears to have provoked sharper reactions in other countries in the region. Bangladesh increased patrols to prevent more refugees from crossing the border and threatened to send new refugees back into Myanmar. On Nov. 24, John McKissick, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees mission in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, near the Myanmar border, said that Myanmar soldiers were “killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river” into Bangladesh. The next day there were protests in the capitals of 44

Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. McKissick accused them of practicing ethnic cleansing.

In January, Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry announced that Myanmar and Bangladesh were to hold consultations “for verification and repatriation” of those who had fled to Bangladesh. This is likely to be a matter of political choices, since the refugees were not regarded as Myanmar citizens before they fled, and are likely to carry little or no documentation confirming their previous residency. The government also said that it would carry out an investigation into soldiers who were filmed beating Rohingya civilians—although an earlier official commission set up by Suu Kyi to look into the initial phase of the latest violence had reported on Dec. 14 that “Government authorities have followed the law and acted legally in their response to the attackers.”

One aggravating factor for Myanmar is that this crisis is occurring as Malaysia prepares for a general election, and has become an issue on which politicians can rally Muslim support. On Dec. 4, Prime Minister Najib Razak and Abdul Hadi Awang, president of PAS, the main Islamist party of Malaysia, both addressed a rally of some 10,000 people in Kuala Lumpur to protest against the “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingyas. Najib spoke out strongly, despite the convention that ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations, of which Malaysia and Myanmar are both members) states do not “interfere” in each other’s internal affairs. Critical observers noted that this was an opportunity for Najib to focus attention away from the 1MDB corruption scandal (see October 2016 Washington Report, p. 54), in which he is implicated. ■

Rafsanjani

Continued from page 42

prisoned in 2015 on corruption charges— undertook complex business dealings, including in real estate, that drew fire from fundamentalists during the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami (19972005).

As an establishment pillar, Rafsanjani

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

kept aloof from the reformists, but he was still targeted by fundamentalists, especially as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to win the 2005 presidential election by denouncing the wealthy few—a message so skillfully targeting Rafsanjani that it needed no spelling out.

Defeat to Ahmadinejad curbed Rafsanjani’s influence, although the lure of his brand of pragmatism increased for many in the political class, including Khamenei, once the reformist danger was routed, first

by Ahmadinejad in 2005 and then by riot police during the 2009 protests against Ahmadinejad’s fiercely disputed re-election.

The reformists’ demise helped facilitate an act Amir Kabir would have lauded, the 2015 nuclear agreement with U.S.-led world powers.

By 2013, with U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to engage Iran, Rafsanjani was barred from Iran’s presidential election on dubious grounds of age, but backed Hassan Rouhani, a long-time ally and once his deputy as war commander.

Rouhani’s victory led to the 2015 deal limiting the nuclear program and easing sanctions.

In the 2016 Experts Assembly election, Rafsanjani topped the Tehran constituency with 2.3 million votes (51 percent), confirming his continuing popularity in the capital.

Iran’s political class expected him to play some role in the developing intrigue over the succession to Khamenei, who is nearly 78.

That expectation is now dashed. A new generation of leaders—including Rouhani, aged 68; judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani, 55; head of the Imam Reza shrine Ebrahim Raeisi, 56; and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, 68, second deputy chairman of the Experts Assembly—will shape the Islamic Republic’s future.

This hinges on its ability to manage both internal differences and its relations with the outside world.

Iran’s factionalized political system goes on, but with Rafsanjani’s death the Islamic Republic he helped to shape has lost its canniest defender. ■ MARCH/APRIL 2017

cartoons_45_March/April 2017 Cartoons 2/9/17 2:04 PM Page 45

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Copyright @2016 Khalil Bendib www.bendib.com

THE WORLD LOOKS AT THE MIDDLE EAST

www.OtherWords.org

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The Dominion Post, Wellington

National Post, Toronto

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CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com

Otago Daily Times, Dunedin

Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington MARCH/APRIL 2017

Cartoon Movement, Amsterdam WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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opm_46-47_Other People's Mail 2/9/17 4:54 PM Page 46

Egypt, an act that saved the life of their infant son.

As Americans we should also remember that our ancestors had the courage to walk through open doors into this New World, and to close those doors, which we have done before, is always an act of fear.

Keith Townsend, Mt. Ulla, NC

NOT THE FIRST IMMIGRANT BAN

LEARNING FROM A 1797 TREATY

To the Salisbury Post, Feb. 5, 2017 At this moment in our nation’s history, it might be worthwhile to look at one of our country’s first foreign policy conflicts.

Commercial shipping in the Mediterranean Sea, during the last decade of the 18th century, was being targeted by the Barbary Pirates, who were primarily from the Muslim coast of North Africa.

President Washington decided to pursue diplomacy to protect American merchant ships. The result was the Treaty of Tripoli, drawn up during the Washington administration and signed into law by John Adams in 1797. The language in Article 11 of the document may surprise many Americans today.

It reads: “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen (Muslims)—and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

While circumstances obviously change over the course of 220 years, it is unfortunate that our new president, as opposed to President Washington, is leading us in the direction of international conflict. Even though Muslims may be the modern face of refugees, those of us who are Christians should remember that Jesus Christ was a refugee whose family was given political sanctuary in 46

To The Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2017 The Jan. 26 editorial “Mr. Trump’s politicized immigration acts” said “a blanket ban would compromise this nation’s long-standing position as a sanctuary for desperate and innocent people.”

The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, specifically placed immigration quotas on certain groups in an attempt to maintain a Protestant cultural identity in the United States.

According to the Office of the Historian at the State Department, “The new quota calculations included large numbers of people of British descent whose families had long resided in the United States. As a result, the percentage of visas available to individuals from the British Isles and Western Europe increased, but newer immigration from other areas like Southern and Eastern Europe was limited.”

Two groups who may have been deemed in a desperate need for sanctuary in the United States were Italian immigrants attempting to flee fascist Italy and Jewish people of various European nationalities.

According to the Office of the Historian, “The 1924 Immigration Act also included a provision excluding from entry any alien who by virtue of race or nationality was ineligible for citizenship. Existing nationality laws dating from 1790 and 1870 excluded people of Asian lineage from naturalizing.

As a result, the 1924 Act meant that even Asians not previously prevented from immigrating—the Japanese in particular— would no longer be admitted to the United States.”

Steve Amoia, Gaithersburg, MD

THE FACTS ABOUT REFUGEES

To The Beacon-News, Feb. 3, 2017 I’m deeply saddened and frustrated by President Trump’s decision to block refugee resettlement. I’ve met many refugees who have been resettled by World Relief DuPage/Aurora, and they have enriched my life.

I’ve worked with dozens of local churches for whom welcoming refugees has been a

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

transformative ministry for their congregations. The president’s decision has thwarted these churches’ ability to live out our faith by obeying the biblical call to welcome these vulnerable refugees.

So much of the fear of refugees is stoked by “alternative facts”—what we used to call lies. Here are some realities: •The plurality of refugees who came to the U.S. last year came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, almost all of them Christians.

•While Syrian asylum-seekers in Europe may be, on average, young men, the U.S. has a very different situation, and more than 70 percent of the carefully vetted refugees from Syria have been women or children under 14.

•Since the Refugee Act was signed in 1980, about 3 million refugees have entered the U.S. Not a single one of them has ever taken an American life in a terrorist attack.

Facts are our friends. We should welcome refugees.

Matthew Soerens, Aurora, IL

REFUGEES ENHANCE ACADEMIA

To The Gainesville Sun, Feb. 5, 2017 The ban on visitors and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries recalls past episodes of American xenophobia, such as the refusal of Jewish refugees and interning of Japanese Americans during World War II. These shameful episodes damage our image as a beacon of hope and freedom.

I want to address one side effect of this cruel and arbitrary order: Its chilling effect on American universities, international academic exchange, and ongoing research in fields including medicine, public health and engineering. Universities have worked for years to establish these international links.

For example, Iranian researchers are vital to studies of cancer, heart disease and hepatitis. Iranian graduate students were just blocked from starting in a new engineering program at Purdue University to which they had already been admitted.

Is this part of the new administration’s war on science, as seen in its climate change denial and muzzling of the Environmental Protection Agency? Such knownothing policies will only harm our health and security.

Andrew Gordon, Gainesville, FL

BAN TRAVEL FROM OKLAHOMA?

To The Seattle Times, Feb. 2, 2017 In order to be consistent in the approach MARCH/APRIL 2017

opm_46-47_Other People's Mail 2/9/17 4:54 PM Page 47

to terrorism, shouldn’t we ban travel to and from the site of the original mass U.S. terrorist attack—Oklahoma? It makes just as much sense as Trump’s plan.

Bob Melo, Newcastle, WA

OBAMA’S HISTORY WITH ISRAEL

To The Wichita Eagle, Jan. 11, 2017 Columnist Cal Thomas outdid himself in accusing President Obama of perpetrating an act of treason against Israel (“Obama has aided Israel’s enemies,” Jan. 4 Opinion). He was referring to the recent U.S. abstention from voting on U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, which, among other things, condemns the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Security Council was following decades of votes, based on the Fourth Geneva Convention, condemning the settlement movement that started after the 1967 war. Resolution 2334 passed 14-0.

Thomas, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and many pro-Israel groups have stated that the abstention by the U.S. was “an unprecedented and deeply disturbing break from the past.” However, since 1967, successive administrations allowed passage of 71 resolutions that Israel objected to. Obama’s abstention brings the total to 72.

The champions for allowing anti-Israel resolutions, according to Americans for Peace Now, are Presidents Ronald Reagan, 21, Richard Nixon, 15, and Jimmy Carter, 14.

The undisputed champion for fewest antiIsrael resolutions allowed through is Obama, who had zero until the Resolution 2334 abstention.

Under Obama, the United States also has—unfortunately, in my opinion—supported Israel’s status as a major military power with a $38 billion, 10-year military aid package; the Iron Dome missile defense system; the backing of three massacres in Gaza; and the continuation of an unprecedented $4 billion annual aid package.

Was Thomas just practicing poor and biased journalism or blatant fake news?

Michael Poage, Wichita, KS

OBAMA’S U.N. VOTE UPHELD INTERNATIONAL LAW

To the Oroville Mercury-Register, Jan. 9, 2017 Great powers, like individuals, have special friends and offer them privileges and support.

The United States, China and Russia offer special aid and support to particular MARCH/APRIL 2017

countries they favor. The United States gives Israel more foreign aid than any other country, though it is small and relatively wealthy. This choice is an internal political matter independent of international law. But, as is the case in personal relationships, when the law is broken, friends must be called to account, regardless of the special relationship.

It is this distinction, between offering general favors to friends, and sheltering them from their obligation to stand equally before the law, that is lost on those criticizing the United Nations vote condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. This was not a vote about who is Israel’s friend, this was a vote about the obligation of all countries to accept their responsibilities under international law.

Charles Krauthammer’s column Monday proposes this was a “knife in Israel’s back” and “ammunition for every boycotter, antiSemite and zealous European prosecutor.”

This is the all-too-common ploy of implying that every criticism, boycott or legal prosecution of Israel is an expression of antiSemitism. The U.N. resolution expresses our own American values of equality under the law, human rights and the protection of the innocent from harm—applied to all parties.

I only wish my country had voted to support it rather than only abstaining, to help call Israel back from illegal policies damaging to itself and to others.

Jim Anderson, Chico, CA

NETANYAHU HAS GONE TOO FAR

To The San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 30, 2016 This (admittedly lapsed) American Jew is growing very tired of the antics of Israel’s prime minister, and I am not alone.

Since its birth in 1948, the tiny state has had, and has needed, only one reliable ally in the world: The United States. Between our two nations there needs to be, and used to be, mutual respect.

But with his performance before Congress in 2015 (during which he meddled in American politics far more than Vladimir Putin ever did), and his current tantrum over a U.N. resolution, which we didn’t veto, Binyamin Netanyahu continues to treat the president of the United States like “the help.”

Netanyahu may think he’s got a better bet coming, but Donald Trump is far from the most stable individual who has ever occupied the White House.

When and if America finally has enough of Netanyahu, he will have put his nation

into mortal peril.

Ron Bonn, San Diego, CA

AMERICAN AID TO ISRAEL DOESN’T ADD UP

To The Dallas Morning News, Dec. 31, 2016 Are the money and aid sent to Israel investment or welfare? I ask this question in seriousness and hope for an informed response.

When President-elect Donald Trump was campaigning, he rattled off a list of countries that the U.S. regularly sends money, arms or some other kinds of aid and questioned what we receive in return.

Israel was notably missing from this list.

I am 73 and have voted in every presidential election since being old enough to vote. Most of these presidents have put great energy into trying to broker peace between Palestine and Israel. I have read a number of times during the Obama administration that the president had registered his objection to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decisions to build more houses in the West Bank. A typical Netanyahu response has been something to the effect that “this is all about Israel’s rights and security.”

One can only conclude that the American administration has no influence over unilateral Israeli decisions that affect peace negotiations in that region. While receiving the checks from the U.S., Netanyahu has publicly undermined our current president by interjecting himself into American politics.

He has done this on our dime. Please help me understand.

Kennard C. Brown, Richardson, TX ■

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Neocon Corner

Frank Gaffney Is Behind New Anti-Muslim Interfaith Group

By Eli Clifton

LOONWATCH.COM

knowledges on its website or press releases.

LobeLog reviewed domain name registration filings for the group and found that, despite an apparent effort to anonymize the registration, Center for Security Policy staff members Adam Savit and Christine Brim submitted the initial registration.

When contacted about CSP’s ownership of the group’s domain name and potential involvement in the interfaith coalition’s work, Gaffney acknowledged to LobeLog Islamophobe Frank Gaffney and organization, the Center for Security Policy, are advocating for the that his group was playing a beMuslim Brotherhood to be designated a terrorist organization. hind-the-scenes role in shaping the group’s work. Gaffney said: The Center for Security has provided some initial administraTHE DAY BEFORE Donald Trump’s inauguration, a new intertive support and counsel to the informal Faith Leaders for Amerfaith coalition of clergy announced their launch with a press conica coalition, and may continue to do so if asked by the Faith ference urging the new president to designate the Muslim BrothLeaders. erhood a terrorist organization. Such a designation might allow Indeed, the group’s positions have consistently fallen in line the government to expand its surveillance and targeting of Amerwith Gaffney’s laser focus on promoting conspiracy theories ican Muslims. Early the following week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. government reintroduced legislation calling on the State Department to report to framed in the context of an interfaith movement (the group inCongress on “the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a cludes one rabbi and no imams). In a prayer delivered at the foreign terrorist organization.” group’s press conference, Jerry Johnson, president of National Urging a crackdown on American Muslims seems more like Religious Broadcasters, said: the policy arena inhabited by anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist President-Elect Trump, tomorrow you will become the presiFrank Gaffney, who helped advise Cruz’s presidential campaign. dent of the United States. We, Faith Leaders for America, want Gaffney’s baseless accusations about the Muslim Brotherhood you to know you have our prayerful support as you begin to have included claims that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, anticounter jihad and protect Americans from Islamic terrorism. tax activist Grover Norquist, and former George W. Bush apWhen you label the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organizapointee Suhail Khan were part of a vast plot to infiltrate the U.S. tion, we support you. government.

When you call Islamic terrorism what it is, Islamic extremism, As it turns out, similarities to Gaffney’s brand of anti-Muslim we support you. advocacy aren’t just a coincidence. The group, Faith Leaders for When you stop the mass importation of unvetted immigrants America, was apparently started by Gaffney’s organization, the from areas that harbor, train, and send out jihadists, we support Center for Security Policy (CSP), a fact the coalition never acyou.

Eli Clifton reports for LobeLog.com on money in politics and U.S. forWhen you require appropriate extreme vetting for those who eign policy. He previously reported for the American Independent do enter the USA from these same areas, we support you.

News Network, ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service. Copyright © 2008-2017 LobeLog.com.

In other words, President-Elect Trump, we’ve got your back.

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Some religious leaders falsely contend that these actions would violate religious freedom. Actually, we know these steps are proper, legal, and necessary to protect our First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, press, and assembly.

Indeed, singling out a single religious group for scrutiny, as Trump appears to be doing with his executive order excluding refugees from Muslim-majority countries, has been challenged in court as a violation of religious freedom.

The American Civil Liberties Union responded to the Jan. 25 order, urging chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to cancel the pending committee vote on the confirmation of Trump’s pick for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). The ACLU called on Grassley to hold a second hearing at which “the Senate should vigorously question the role of Senator Sessions in developing [Trump’s executive orders] and proposals and his plans to implement and execute them.”

Gaffney’s formation of what appears to be an Astroturf interfaith group, which seems to exist exclusively to promote CSP’s anti-Muslim agenda to the new president and his supporters, seems like an odd strategy. But the group has gotten positive write ups, with no mention of Gaffney’s involvement, in right-wing publications, including: ConservativeHQ, Religion News Service, National Religious Broadcasters, and the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Gaffney even reported on the group, while failing to acknowledge his own role in their formation, in a column for Family Security Matters titled “Courageous Christian and Jewish clerics announce ‘Faith Leaders for America.’” He wrote: I wanted to share with you a most extraordinary experience I had today. At the National Press Club in Washington, nine courageous Christian and Jewish clerics announced the formation of a new group, Faith Leaders for America. The mission they have undertaken, together with more than 65 other influential clergy of different faiths and denominations, is to promote and protect our constitutional freedoms inMARCH/APRIL 2017

creasingly under assault—in this country, as well as overseas—from adherents to the totalitarian Islamic doctrine known as shariah.

Gaffney’s efforts to influence Trump would be hard to take seriously—he once claimed that the Missile Defense Agency logo “appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo”—if he had not already played a significant role in influencing Trump’s policy positions.

Over a year ago, Trump cited a CSPsponsored poll that allegedly showed that “25 percent of [American Muslims] agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad” and 51 percent “agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to shariah.”

The poll was an online opt-in survey of 600 Muslims, a fact that CSP had not initially disclosed. The American Association for Public Opinion Research, which sets ethical standards for pollsters, denounces opt-in surveys as misleading and inaccurate. “The pollster has no idea who is responding to the question,” it warned, noting that such surveys lack a “‘grounded statistical tie’ to the population. As a result, estimates from self-selected volunteers are subject to unknown error that cannot be measured.”

Trump referenced the poll to justify his campaign’s commitment to a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

On Jan. 25, Trump took the first steps to fulfill that campaign promise. ■

2016 “Deadliest Year” Continued from page 9

Regulations for the use of rubber-coated metal bullets, also known as “rubber bullets,” stipulate that the projectiles are meant for dispersing crowds, must be fired from at least 40 meters away at the lower body, and not at children.

Al-Bayed was attending a march near

the camp to commemorate the killing of 14-year-old Ahmad Sharaka when he was shot. He remained in intensive care for 67 days in a coma before he passed away.

“You cannot imagine the pain that his mother experienced,” al-Bayed’s uncle, Abu Mohammad, told Al Jazeera.

Abu Mohammad believes the upcoming generations are now more aware than their parents and are thus being increasingly targeted by Israeli forces.

“There are killings, raids and detentions every day. It never used to be like this.

With the coming of the Internet and more awareness, the children are becoming more nationalistic and are aware of what is happening,” said Abu Mohammad.

West Bank-based activist Hazem Abu Helal says the killings are “part of Israel’s policy.”

“This is the state’s racist culture that tells the Israeli army it is OK to kill Palestinians because they’re getting rid of ‘terrorists,’ whether it be a man, woman or child,” Abu Helal told Al Jazeera from his Ramallah home.

According to a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute in August, about 47 percent of Jewish Israelis said they supported the killing of Palestinians who carry out an attack on Israelis, even if he or she had been captured and no longer posed a threat.

A group of human rights NGOs including Amnesty International found that in at least 150 of the cases since October 2015, Israeli forces “killed Palestinians after they no longer posed a threat, killed Palestinians who did not appear to be carrying out an attack at all, or used lethal force to subdue attackers when non-lethal force would have sufficed.”

Rights organizations have repeatedly condemned such killings, which they describe as an “excessive use of force,” whereby Israeli forces violate international human rights law.

“We know that even if we tried to get the soldier to court, nothing will happen to him.

What’s the point? There have been thousands of Palestinians killed over the years, and no soldier has been punished,” said Abu Mohammad. ■

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Israel and Judaism

U.N. Resolution on Settlements Reveals Growing Divide in American Jewish Opinion

By Allan C. Brownfeld

NICHOLAS KAMMAFP/GETTY IMAGES

WHEN, IN DECEMBER, the U.N. SecuAccording to Samuel Heilman, a rity Council adopted a resolution that consociology professor at Queens Coldemned Israeli settlement building in the lege specializing in Jewish life, West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the “These days the right wing has a Obama administration chose to abstain louder voice in Israel and, in some from the vote rather than exercise its veto ways, it also has a louder voice in to block it, the response within the AmeriAmerica, because the people who can Jewish community was sharply diare most actively and publicly Jewish, vided. In fact, it seems that most Amerisectarian Jewish, share the rightcan Jews supported the resolution, indiwing point of view, and are very procating that support for Israel’s current settlement. But it’s not the maingovernment and its policies are in sharp stream point of view.” decline.

In Israel itself there was support for The usual establishment Jewish orgathe U.N. resolution. A headline in the nizations—the American Jewish CommitIsraeli newspaper Haaretz read, “A tee, the ADL, the Conference of Presivery Zionist, pro-Israel speech,” referdents of Major American Jewish Organiring to Secretary Kerry’s speech. And zations—condemned the U.N. resolution former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and were sharply critical of the Obama the most decorated soldier in Israel’s administration for not vetoing it. Some history, warned, “As long as in this right-wing groups went further. Morton territory west of the Jordan River Klein, president of the Zionist Organizathere is only one political entity called tion of America, declared that “Obama Israel, it is going to be either nonmade it clear that he’s a Jew-hating antiJewish or non-democratic. If the bloc Semite.” of millions of Palestinians cannot Who such groups actually represent is vote, this will be an apartheid state.” less than clear. The evidence that the Of Kerry’s speech, he tweeted, “Powmajority of American Jews disagree with Following the Obama administration’s failure to veto erful, lucid...World and majority of Isthem is abundant. Steven M. Cohen, a a U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israeli rael think the same.” settlements, members of a primarily Jewish country research professor at Hebrew Union ColHaaretz’s Chemi Shalev cited the club in suburban Washington, DC debated whether lege and a consultant to the recent Pew the former president should be allowed to join.

Israeli government’s lack of gratitude study of American Jews, said that Secretoward Washington, which had just tary of State John Kerry’s subsequent speech criticizing Israeli approved $38 billion in military aid to Israel over the coming settlement policy represents the thinking of most American decade—the largest U.S. grant of military aid to any foreign Jews. “On survey after survey,” Cohen notes, “American Jews country in American history. “Ingratitude, Jewish sages teach us, are opposed to Jewish settlement expansion. They tend to favor is the absolute worst of traits,” he wrote. “‘Whoever rewards evil a two-state solution and their political identities are liberal or for good, Evil will not depart from his house,’ as Proverbs puts it.” moderate.”

In response to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s sharp attack on the U.N. for singling Israel out for criticism, Peter Beinart, Allan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist and associate editor of a contributing editor to The Forward, wrote on Jan. 13: “The test the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute for Reof whether Israeli settlement policy deserves international consearch and Education, and editor of Issues, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism. demnation is whether Israeli settlement policy is morally wrong, 50

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not whether other governments deserve condemnation more...The U.N.’s action or inaction on Syria doesn’t excuse Israeli settlement policy. A lesser evil is still evil...”

Exactly how contentious the debate within the Jewish community has become can be seen in the case of David Friedman, who was chosen by Donald Trump to be U.S. ambassador to Israel. A supporter of settlement-building who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, Friedman referred to members of J Street, the Jewish organization which supports a two-state solution and welcomed the U.N. Security Council resolution, as “kapos.” When challenged for this reference, Friedman doubled down. With time to think about what he had said, he went even further, declaring: “Finally, are J Street supporters as bad as kapos? The answer is actually, no.

They are far worse than kapos—Jews who turned in their fellow Jews in the Nazi death camps. The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty and who knows what any of us would have done under those circumstances to save a loved one? But J Street?

They are just smug advocates of Israel’s destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas—it’s hard to imagine anyone worse.”

Divisions in the Jewish community were even manifested in a fight at a predominantly Jewish country club in the Washington suburbs over whether to accept President Obama as a member after he leaves office. According to the Jan. 14 Washington Post, “Some members of the Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland are furious about President Obama’s decision...not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that criticized Israeli settlements...a string of scorching emails to the club president... made available for the Washington Post’s review captured the anger at Obama.”

Other Woodmont members said they would welcome Obama’s membership. After threatening a mass membership-cancellation if the anti-Obama effort continued, Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin resigned from the club, saying, “I can no longer belong to a community where intolerance is acMARCH/APRIL 2017

cepted...and where the nation’s first black president is disrespected.” Simon Atlas, a former chairman of the club’s admissions committee, said he would be “honored” to have the former president as a member. At the time of the brouhaha, Obama had not even applied to join—but the club eventually invited him to join as a “special member,” a category used to welcome “very senior level government officials,” according to club president Barry Forman, by waiving the $80,000 initiation fee.

GROWING ALIENATION

Alienation from Israel and the policies of the Netanyahu government has been growing among American Jews for many years. Hebrew Union College’s Cohen says that “serious donors” to Jewish organizations have lately begun balking at giving money to Israel. This is fostered, he said, in part by the changing nature of the Jewish community, with widespread inter-faith marriage, and by being “deeply offended” by Israeli policies.

The response to Trump’s nomination of Friedman to be ambassador to Israel made the divisions in the Jewish community clear to all. While Friedman was embraced by right-wing groups, and establishment organizations largely remained silent, vigorous opposition emerged. Groups such as J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, Americans for Peace Now (APN), Ameinu and the New Israel Fund sent out a petition urging members to contact their senators with their concerns.

Ori Nir of APN said this was the first time the organization has petitioned against the nomination of a U.S. ambassador to Israel. Daniel Sokatch, who heads the New Israel Fund, which advocates for civil rights in Israel, said the same about his group. But, he explained, Friedman holds views directly in opposition to the organization’s values of tolerance and mutual respect. “Here’s a person with no diplomatic experience...and who holds extreme views. It’s like throwing a lighted match into a tinderbox.”

In October, Lara Friedman of APN spoke at the U.N. Security Council in a special discussion on Israeli settlements and described apartheid-like conditions in

the occupied territories. “I urge you here today to finally take action in the Security Council,” she said. A representative of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem also urged action against the occupation because, “The reality will not change if the world does not intervene...the administration of the territories is a legal guise for organized state violence.”

The idea that there was united support for Israel and its policies in the Jewish community was never true. Now this reality is clear to all. We may even be on the brink of a major alteration in Jewish thinking, in the U.S., Israel and throughout the world.

In a Jan. 5 article in Haaretz titled “Earthquake in the Jewish World,” Hebrew University sociologist Eva Illouz declared, “I don’t know if we are close to a Jewish Reformation, but I am sure that a part of the Jewish organizational world today resembles the state of the Church before it was challenged by Martin Luther. It displays the same mixture of fundamentalism, politics and money, a mixture that nowhere in the history of mankind has elicited respect or elevated the spirit. To disconnect the fight against anti-Semitism from human rights as the Israeli right and Orthodox Jews do, is tantamount to declaring that only Jews have human rights. Those of us, inside and outside Israel, who are committed to the memory of Jewish history and to the defense of the rights of Jews as human rights must shout, like Luther, ‘Here I Stand!’” ■

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ARAB AMERICAN ACTIVISM The month-long American Arabesque Festival concluded with a Jan. 8 “Meet the Artists Reception” at the Durant Arts Center in Alexandria, VA. Thirty-four local contemporary Arab-American and Arab artists had displayed and sold their work from Dec. 3, 2016 to Jan. 12, 2017. More than 1,000 people attended the opening festival (see festival organizer Rosemarie Esber’s article on p. 67 of the Jan./Feb. 2017 Washington Report)—the largest crowd ever to attend a ticketed event at the city’s Durant Arts Center. Thousands more visited throughout the month, including attendees at Alexandria’s First Night celebration, admiring the colorful paintings, Arabic calligraphy, photographs and framed poetry.

Mayor Allison Silberberg, who is committed to promoting the arts in Alexandria, home of the Torpedo Factory Art Center, told reception attendees that her city values diversity and admires the contributions of Arab Americans.

Local Arab-American artists included Amr Mounib, Nabil Makar, Manal Deeb, Mona El-Bayoumi, Hend Al-Mansour, Ahmed Alkharkh, Mo Shaban, Vian Shamounki, Jamal Sa‘d and Zainab Al Baghdadi. There

(L-r) Artists Zainab Al Baghdadi and Ahmed Alkharkh; Alexandria Mayor Allison Silberberg; Wendi R. Kaplan, Alexandria Poet Laureate; media publicist Najwa Saad; curator Amr Mounib; Cheryl Anne Colton, regional program director of Alexandria’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities; poet Samar Najia; festival organizer Rosemarie Esber; artist Mona ElBayoumi; Pat Miller, chair of the Alexandria Arts Alliance; Shirley Downs, Alexandria Commission for the Arts; and Alan Wile, membership chair of Alexandria Arts Alliance. were works from artists hopeful for a peaceful future in their homelands, including Lukman Ahmad, a Syrian Kurdish artist, and Ahmed Hmeedat, a Palestinian, as well as artists from the Bright Stars of Bethlehem, including Sliman Mansour, Yousef Al-Rajabi, Layla Hamdieh, Amar Ghattas, Mohammad Harb, Benji Boyadgian, Bashir Qonqar, Ihab Sacca, Mohammad Mohalwis, Yasser Sahme and Johnny Andonia.

The exhibit also showcased framed poetry by Palestinian American poet Samar Najia. Reception guests warmed up after the frigid temperatures outside and enjoyed delicious food supplied by Rose City

Petra Catering.

Exhibit curator Amr Mounib, an internationally known Egyptian-American photographer, said, “Seeing the works of so many talented Arab-American artists in one exhibition—including Egyptian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Lebanese, Palestinian, Saudi Arabian and Syrian—is a rare and wonderful opportunity to experience the artists’ passionate love of the land, and their striving for peace, freedom, and happiness expressed through a variety of artistic mediums. This unique collection reflects the diversity and richness of Arab culture. It was an honor to curate it.”—Delinda C. Hanley

Apply for Coveted Shaheen Mass Communications Scholarship

Winners of this year’s Jack G. Shaheen Mass Communications Scholarship will have the honor of celebrating the 20th anniversary of his award, and joining 67 previous winners who can be found working in newsrooms and studios across the country. Arab-American college students who are enrolled in the 2017-2018 academic year and who excel in Media Studies are eligible to receive a $2,500 scholarship. Juniors, seniors and graduate school students who are majoring in Journalism, Radio, Television, and/or Film should send an application by mail to: Attn: Nabil Mohamad American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee 1990 M St., NW, Suite 610 Washington, DC 20036 Your application should include: • A one-page statement explaining why you merit the scholarship, your goals, and a declaration that you are a U.S. citizen of Arab heritage.

52

• Two original signed letters of recommendation from professors of Mass Communications.

• Copies of your articles, DVDs, films, and so forth (Items will not be returned to you).

• Official academic transcripts (minimum 3.0 GPA).

• Your permanent home address and phone number, email address, and your phone number during the school year, if different.

Deadline: Wednesday, June 1, 2017 Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted; only hard copy applications are accepted. If you have any questions, call (202) 244-2990, or e-mail: organizing@ADC.org. If you’d like to help fund this vital scholarship program, please contact ADC. Awards will be presented at ADC’s 2017 National Convention in Washington, DC from Sept. 21-24. Award winners (and everyone else!) are encouraged to attend.

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

American Arabesque Festival Closes With Artists Reception

activisms_52-67_March 2017 Activisms 2/9/17 11:05 AM Page 53

MUSLIM AMERICAN ACTIVISM More than 1,000 Muslim Americans attended the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) Convention Dec. 11 at the Long Beach (CA) Convention Center. The theme of the convention, which featured two keynote speakers and five banquet speakers, was “Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers.” Also, the event introduced the musical group Young the Giant.

Van Jones, a CNN political commentator, attorney and environmental activist, gave an inspiring keynote speech. The author of two New York Times best-selling books, The Green Collar Economy (2008) and Rebuild the Dream (2012), Jones worked as the green jobs adviser to President Barack Obama and was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act—legislation that resulted in $500 million in national funding for green jobs training.

Jones shared his thoughts on the “responsibility and burden” placed upon the American Muslim community. “Sometimes God selects a people and puts a burden on them, not to destroy them but so they can do something magnificent,” Jones told attendees. “American Muslims have been called to save a great faith and a great nation at the same time…America cannot be America until your community has a place of dignity and honor and respect by every single American. We can’t be what we’re supposed to be until your place is honored.”

Jones concluded by urging the Muslim American community to stand up and speak out. “You are the best community, with your faith, traditions, customs and everything you have. Trump didn’t win with a mandate, he can’t do anything to you.

He created a little hate in our society and government. Just stand up and keep fighting for your rights,” Jones concluded.

In a letter to the convention, President Obama wrote: “As a country, we just emerged from a noisy and sometimes divisive campaign season. But despite the rancor, organizations like MPAC have worked to advance the notion that we will MARCH/APRIL 2017

STAFF PHOTO S. TWAIR

MPAC Convention Builds Bridges, Breaks Barriers

Gold Star father Khizr Khan.

always be bound to one another as fellow Americans—no matter who we are or what faith we practice.”

Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, now California’s attorney general, expressed his congratulations via Skype, saying, “For 28 years, MPAC has played an active role in being a trusted resource for government and policy institutions.”

Actor George Takei was one of the speakers who described the Japanese experience during World War II, starting with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and the subsequent imprisonment of thousands of Japanese American citizens.

“Trump’s era will bring the registry back,” he warned. “We know what it is and what will follow. That should never happen again!”

Mark Ridley-Thomas, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, assured attendees when he declared, “It’s our responsibility to protect you.”

The members of the Los Angeles alternative-rock, melting-pot quintet Young the Giant began by describing their travels around the country, “seeing the good and the not-so-good” the country has to offer, as well as the power of diversity. They urged their fellow Americans to stand up for one another, showing love and compassion, then performed songs from their latest album, “Home of the Strange,” which deals with the band’s immigrant history and American identity.

MPAC president Salam Al-Marayati, discussed MPAC’s journey—how it started with a budget of $30,000 which today has grown to $1.6 million. Once there were only 20 Muslim Americans working on Capitol

Hill, while today there are over 1,000. “We are here and will stay here and we are not going anywhere,” Al-Marayati emphasized.

“We’ve joined the interfaith community.

We’ve engaged with people we agree with, and people we don’t agree with.”

Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, shared his vision of the American-Muslim community. The father of fallen soldier Army Capt. Humayun Khan said, “Our role will be defined in history as being chosen to defend American values.

Wherever you go, you should say ‘I’m a patriotic American Muslim.’”

Today, he noted, there are more than 5,000 Muslims in the U.S. armed forces and 900 serving in the New York Police Department (NYPD). Emphasizing the need to support MPAC, Khan urged the audience to empty their pockets that night in order for MPAC to have 50 offices in the U.S. next year.

Khan also advised Muslims to start calling their local officials so that they get to know one another. Prepare your community, organize, raise money and prepare for the 2018 elections, he concluded.

Videos of the conference are available on the MPAC website: <http://convention. mpac.org/videos>.

—Samir Twair

MUSIC & ARTS Hamzah Jamjoom Delves Into Saudi Culture

“The biggest problem I see with Saudi culture is our ego—fear of self-image,” Jeddah-born filmmaker Hamzah Jamjoom said during a conversation with John Hanshaw, director of the Washington Film Institute, at the Carroll Street Busboys & Poets in Washington, DC. “And our biggest problem as content creators of films in the Middle East is our ego.”

Co-founder of the production company Digital Hydra, the filmmaker addressed this issue in the hit Arabic TV series “WaMayhaya” (The Ego). Audience members at the Jan. 9 event enjoyed a screening of the new English-language trailer of the show, which examines how humans are in

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John Hanshaw (l), director of the Washington Film Institute, and filmmaker Hamzah Jamjoom. a continuing battle between self and ego.

Following up on his interest in “the ego,” Jamjoom created the film “Balance,” in which he deals with two aspects of ego.

He described these as “extremism— blindly following a way of life and defending it and willing to die for it and killing someone without learning about the other side—and ignorance—not learning about other cultures and religions.”

“My goal is to bring people together,” he explained. “What I learned over the years is that stories are a way to find truth, preserve truth and share truth. It’s a way to bring people together and bridge gaps. But the only way for us to proceed forward with telling these stories is to let go of our egos and our fear of our own self-image.”

Armed with a Master in Fine Arts degree in film from DePaul University, the 30year-old Chicago-based writer, director and producer is part of the upcoming generation of Saudis who are confronting their past and are eager to define themselves as “both Arabian and Muslim,” Jamjoom told his audience. “As the young generation of Arabians, we see ourselves as more spiritual than conservative. Being religious doesn’t necessarily mean being conservative or closed-minded. My message is that we should celebrate who we are and be proud of who we are,” Jamjoom said.

Jamjoom’s previous works include the Arabic version of the IMAX film “ARABIA 3D,” “Factory of Lies,” “Ramadan,” and 54

“Ya Nabi” music videos featuring the popular Lebanese musician Maher Zain.

—Elaine Pasquini

Exploring the Relationship Between Religion and Politics

Everyone knows that two things one should never discuss in social settings are religion and politics. However, religion plays an important role in the decisions made by lead-

ers around the world. This often underappreciated relationship between religion and policymaking is explored by Georgetown University research professor Shireen Hunter in her latest book, God On Our Side: Religion in International Affairs. Hunter dis-

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cussed her findings at a Jan. 25 event hosted by Georgetown University.

While the idea of religion influencing politics is most commonly associated with non-Western nations, Hunter argued that religion plays a role in shaping the politics of all nations. Even in an increasingly nonbelieving Europe, religious traditions play a crucial role in the construction of culture and national identity. Traditions such as the sound of church bells ringing are a part of a “cultural religion,” she said, and are thus meaningful even if they have no deep theological gravitas. It is in part this phenomenon of “cultural religion” that leads to individuals developing deep ties to their native country, Hunter explained, and can foster a backlash to multiculturalism. This fear of losing their culture and traditions can in part explain the rise of populism and nationalistic movements in Europe, she said, and also helps explain why many in Europe are opposed to Turkey joining the European Union.

Religion is also a useful tool that can be used by governments to mobilize their citizens, Hunter noted. An estimated 84 percent of the world believes in some type of higher power, meaning that most people have certain moral values that can be manipulated by their leaders. “Power always needs ideas,” Hunter said, and any cause must have ideas to function. Exercising power often requires sacrifice, and sacrifices require something to believe in.

Since people obviously believe in religion, it is easy to get them to believe in sacrifices for the sake of their religion.

However, religion’s influence does have a limit, Hunter pointed out. For national leaders, vital state interests will almost always take precedence over matters of religion or culture, Hunter said.

Another main factor that comes into play when dealing with religion in international affairs is the role of non-state actors, such as ISIS or Hezbollah. Though much has been made of the rise of non-state actors, Hunter believes these groups don’t pose an existential threat to the nation-state system. Many non-state actors have a certain level of dependency on states, she pointed out. Hezbollah, for instance, reMARCH/APRIL 2017

ceives support from Iran, meaning that it’s in some way bound to a state actor.

Hunter also noted that some non-state actors came into being with the assistance of states—and now, ironically, pose a threat to those same states. As an example, she cited the Taliban, which she said was in part propped up by Pakistan. The lesson here, Hunter concluded, is that “creations can devour the master.”

—Mark Hamilton

Go-To Resource Maktabatee Helps Children Love the Arabic Language

It’s hard to teach a child Arabic while living in a non-Arabic speaking country like the United States, especially when they are using English at school, on play dates, and even at home. Non-native Arabic-speaking moms or dads have an especially tough time trying to raise multilingual children.

Two busy moms, Tuqa and Bushra Nusairat, wanted to share their love for the Arabic language struggled to find new Arabic books that appealed to their own kids.

Determined to raise children who love to read in Arabic as well as English, they sought to find the very best books relevant to the modern-day American child. The mothers formed their own company, Maktabatee (“my bookstore” or “my library” in Arabic), a curated boutique of Arabic-language children’s books, from pre-school board books to audio books and goods.

“We review and search for books from a variety of publishers around the world that meet our criteria and make them more accessible to you,” their website promises.

Co-founder Tuqa Nusairat says their simple objective is “to hand-select highquality, engaging, and relevant Arabic children’s books and make them accessible to parents (and aunts, uncles, and grandparents).” Maktabatee promises not to overwhelm readers with hundreds of questionable products in stock. “We’ve done the sifting and sorting for you,” Nusairat explains. “Our selection is limited to only quality books with modern graphics, interesting and relevant story lines, and ageappropriate reading levels.”

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Just before the festival doors open, the Maktabatee booth and co-founders Bushra (l) and Tuqa Nusairat are ready for customers. Tuqa Nusairat read stories in Arabic during the festival’s storybook hour.

booth at the recent American Arabesque festival in Alexandria, VA (see Jan./Feb. 2017 Washington Report, p. 67). Many of the adults who visit AET’s Middle East Books and More bookstore purchase books in Arabic, including children’s books to help them learn to read the language. Maktabatee’s books are a fun way for readers of any age to teach or learn the language.

The mothers who founded Maktabatee also realize that children learn to love the Arabic language through discovery, play and interaction, as well as books. Their website helps consumers communicate the beauty of Arabic to children “through every possible realm in their environment—books, toys, decor, and more.”

Their blog even includes recommended apps, YouTube videos, singalong songs and travel tips. For a toolbox to help bring the Arabic language to life in your home, visit <www.maktabatee.com>.

—Delinda C. Hanley

“Palestine: Unlimited”

Throughout the month of December, photographs from the first annual Karimeh Abboud Award Competition were on display in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco. The exhibition, “Palestine: Unlimited,” was presented by the charitable organization Bright Stars of Bethlehem.

Bright Stars is dedicated to the support of the Bethlehem-based Diyar Consortium,

which includes, among other Bethlehem institutions, Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture, which initiated the showing.

Hailing from across all of historical Palestine, the 10 finalists were Mohammed al-Kurd, Mohammad Shaloudi, Luay Sababa, May Hirbawi, Saleh Zghari, Waseem Ali, Majd Sanuri, Reem Awad, Alaa abu Salem and first prize winner Nihaya al-Haj Mahmoud. The exhibition was curated by filmmaker Mahasen NasserEldin, who teaches film studies and production at Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture.

In presenting their wide range of subjects, the artists utilized various styles of photography, including experimental, abstract, conceptual and documentary.

Luay Sababa’s wrenching photo “Checkpoint 300” captures Palestinian workers traversing the checkpoint in Bethlehem— where unemployment is high—to work in Israel.

“Our Mother is Palestinian” by Mohammad Shaloudi offers an oft-seen vignette in the Old City of Jerusalem of a mother selling her vegetables in the street.

May Hirbawi’s photo “Demolition Order” reveals a Bedouin learning his home will soon be confiscated and demolished.

“There’s been a lot of talk recently about the need for empathy and to take someone else’s point of view,” Randy Schieber,

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chair of St. Mark’s endowment fund, which helped sponsor the exhibition, told visitors at the Dec. 4 opening reception. “This exhibit really puts us in the eyes of these young adults in Palestine and offers us a glimpse into their lives.”

The award is named for photographer Karimeh Abboud (1893-1940), who shattered stereotypes by becoming the first professional female photographer in Palestine, where she had studios in Bethlehem, Nazareth, Haifa and Jerusalem.

—Elaine Pasquini

Palestine, on Dec. 9, 2016 at the Jerusalem Fund in Washington, DC. Ehrenreich is an

American journalist who lived in various cities in the West Bank from 2011 to 2013, and returned many times while working on his book.

Ehrenreich opened his presentation on a somber note as he reviewed current events in Israel and Palestine. Home demolitions, arrests, settler violence—headlines and statistics that briefly grab attention before falling out of sight despite their frequency and violent nature. In his book, Ehrenreich seeks to show the hidden side of life in Palestine, exposing events often ignored or suppressed by the mainstream American media.

Rather than chasing headlines, Ehrenreich spent his time in Palestine living with families in small villages that face the slow strangulation of Israeli occupation through land grabs, military checkpoints, and systemic abuse and racism. His December presentation centered around one main question: “what keeps Palestinians going in the face of no success?”

Ehrenreich cited examples of people he met in Palestine who come from different backgrounds yet face and live with similar struggles. Whether they are living in the south Hebron hills, or in the north around Nablus and Jenin, Ehrenreich portrays the thoughts and experiences of ordinary Palestinians with literary grace and style, conveying the humanity, dignity and sympathy that can only be found through taking the time to sit down and talk with people.

Toward the end of his presentation, Ehrenreich discussed what it has meant

Ben Ehrenreich on Life and Death in Palestine

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Author Ben Ehrenreich describes the slow strangulation caused by Israel’s occupation.

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[TOP] A visitor at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco views photographs from the first annual Karimeh Abboud Award Competition. [ABOVE] Luay Sababa’s photograph “Checkpoint 300” captures Palestinian workers at the main checkpoint in Bethlehem.

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but I learned much from the research in writing this book. I have tried to convey this learning to the book’s readers.”

The story that Viorst tells emerges out of the 18th century enlightenment movement, which offered Europe’s Jews the promise of emancipation, the right to be treated as equals in society. With Jews striving for assimilation, the movement reached its apex during the French revolution, when philosophers and armies spread the idea of freedom across the continent. But Napoleon’s endless wars sparked a reaction in favor of the old ways, including anti-Semitism.

Predictably, many Jews who preferred assimilation into European society were suspicious. One of Herzl’s close friends was Moritz Gudemann, Vienna’s chief rabbi, who accused him of exchanging the struggle against anti-Semitism in his homeland for growing tomatoes in Palestine.

This was a time when Germany, France, England, Russia and Austria were gearing up for what became the Great World War, and Gudemann warned that a state based on Jewish nationalism, relying on cannon and bayonets, might well turn out like the Christian states from which Jews needed refuge. We’re not like that, Herzl scoffed. But Gudemann was on to something to which Herzl was blind. In many ways, Viorst noted, Jews weren’t all that different from their oppressors.

for him to suddenly become a notable author on Palestinian affairs. Ehrenreich shared his hope that change is slowly coming, pointing to his book as an example. It is one of the first to be printed by a large publisher, Penguin Press, with the word Palestine on the cover—something that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago.

A recipient of the National Magazine Award, Ehrenreich currently lives in Los Angeles. To view his presentation, visit the Jerusalem Fund’s website, <www.the jerusalemfund.org>. Ehrenreich’s mother Barbara is a bestselling author and his sister Rosa Brooks wrote How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything (See Washington Report, Nov./Dec. 2016, pp. 53-54.) The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine is available from Middle East Books and More for $22 and his sister’s book is $24.

—Nathaniel Bailey

“At the 19th century’s end, Theodor Herzl, an assimilated Viennese writer, founded Zionism, a movement to provide Jews with a refuge from Europe’s abuse, in a land of their own,” began Milton Viorst, at a Nov. 13, 2016 book reading in the Brentwood, CA home of Dr. Joan Beerman. The author cited two reviews of his book. According to the first, “Viorst’s Zionism is a smart, analytical, engaging history of the people and ideals that built the state of Israel.” The second critic called Viorst “an octogenarian American polemicist who blamed two hawkish Zionists for the absence of Middle East peace.”

“This book is basically my effort to understand how Zionism evolved from Herzl’s noble desire to rescue a beleaguered people into a rationalization for wars and military occupation,” Viorst explained. “As a journalist and author, I’ve been studying the subject for most of my adult life. My aim has never been to examine how Zionism’s major thinkers... some known to you, others probably not...shaped and transformed the debate.

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Milton Viorst Discusses His Latest Book: Zionism

While Zionism’s rising militarism is the core of Viorst’s book, it wasn’t just militarism that divided the Jews, whom Zionism brought together from all over the world along with highly diverse ideas.

Jews disagreed over religion and culture, economics and politics. They also fought over treatment of the Arabs in a land both Arabs and Jews claimed as their own, Viorst said. The ensuing wars have cost both sides mightily in lives and resources.

Viorst concluded the evening by relating one episode that seems to sum up the dilemma. It concerned a late-night talk in 1955 between David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, whose political thought did so much to mold the Zionist state, and his old friend Nahum Goldmann, founder of the World Jewish Congress, and echoes Rabbi Gudemann’s warning to Herzl. Goldmann asked BenGurion, now retired, whether peace with the Arabs was possible.

“If I were an Arab leader, I would never make peace,” Ben-Gurion replied. “We have taken their country from them. So, we have to remain strong and maintain a powerful army. That is why I never shrank from giving orders I knew would mean the death of hundreds of young men. Otherwise, the Arabs would wipe us out.”

But can Israel survive wars without end, Goldmann asked. Ben-Gurion replied, “Ask me whether my son Amos, who will soon be 50, has a chance of dying and

The author Milton Viorst (c) at his book reading, flanked by his wife, Judith (l), and Dr. Joan Beerman.

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presidency, 100,000 Jewish settlers moved to illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, bringing the total today to 400,000 in the West Bank and 250,000 in East Jerusalem.

As for Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech regarding settlements and the two-state solution, “I think he was genuine and sincere,” Ambassador Areikat said. The PLO would have welcomed such a speech two or three years earlier, instead of weeks before Donald Trump became president. Nevertheless, Areikat said Kerry was brave to use the word Nakba and to say the occupation was against American values.

If the new administration doesn’t wish to be an honest peace broker, there are other states that can take the lead. Areikat said the PLO will wait until the new Trump administration is in place and then formulate a strategy. If Trump tries to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Areikat said, this will fly in the face of longstanding policy and will make the U.S. a violator of international law. Measures such as cutting aid to the Palestinians or bypassing or ignoring them in future negotiations and agreements, he warned, will not bring peace to the region.

—Delinda C. Hanley PHOTO COURTESY THE ARAB CENTER WASHINGTON

being buried in a Jewish state. I would answer 50-50.”

How can you sleep with such a prospect, Goldmann asked his friend. Ben-Gurion thought for a moment, then answered, “Who says I sleep?”

Viorst said he is not embarrassed to say he favors ending military occupation and supports two states, one for the Arabs, another for Jews.

In response to a question about the role of the U.S., Viorst said it wasn’t encouraging over Ambassador Maen Areikat (l) and Khalil Jahshan. the years. President Barack Obama wasn’t tough enough on Israel, he added, and missed an opportu- activities. Ronald Reagan’s administration abstained seven times on resolutions connity to make peace in the Middle East.

—Samir Twair demning settlements. The Obama abstention wasn’t a personal attack on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu—even DIPLOMATIC DOINGS though Israel tried to push that narrative, perhaps in an effort to gain favor with the Ambassador Areikat Responds to next administration.

U.N. Resolution, Kerry Speech The fact that the resolution passed Ambassador Maen Areikat, chief repre- serves two purposes, Areikat said: 1) it sentative of the PLO General Delegation to distinguishes between the occupied Palesthe U.S., spoke at a Jan. 10 luncheon tinian territories and the state of Israel, and hosted by the Arab Center Washington DC acknowledges that settlements are illegal, (ACW) at the National Press Club in Wash- which will buttress Palestinian and interington, DC. His talk, titled “Prospects for national efforts to boycott Israeli settlement Palestinian Statehood: U.N. Resolution products; and, 2) it sends a clear message 2334 and John Kerry’s Speech,” was mod- to the world that all Israeli measures and erated by ACW’s executive director, Khalil actions in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, are now null and void.

Jahshan.

The resolution contains no mechanism Areikat began by describing the “overreaction” of Israel and its supporters in this for implementing the principles that it lays country—including many members of out, Areikat noted. He hoped the Paris Congress—to the U.S. abstention to the summit would address this issue and forUnited Nations Security Council vote on mulate a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal Resolution 2334. That resolution reaf- from the West Bank. Such actions would firmed that Israeli settlements in the occu- show the extent of the seriousness of the pied Palestinian territories have no legal international community.

In 2011, Areikat pointed out, Obama validity and violate international law. “Keep in mind,” Areikat said, “the U.S. did not missed his chance to support a proposed vote for this resolution; they only ab- U.N. resolution that condemned Israeli settlements. After the U.S. veto of that Secustained, allowing it to pass.”

Nonetheless, Israel accused the U.S. of rity Council resolution, Obama abandoned “betraying” Israel—ignoring that previous efforts to press Israel to stop settlement Republican and Democratic administra- construction. “Things would be different tions have repeatedly abstained from res- today,” Areikat said, had the president olutions that condemn Israeli settlement backed that resolution. During Obama’s

WAGING PEACE Will the Iran Nuclear Deal Survive The Trump Era?

How the new administration of President Donald Trump will manage U.S. relations with Iran is one of the many questions confronting foreign policy experts in Washington. On the campaign trail, Trump criticized the multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), calling it “the worst deal ever negotiated.” Since taking office, however, the president has signaled that he will not abrogate the deal.

At a conference hosted by the Atlantic Council and the Iran Project on Jan. 30, speakers and panelists gathered to ponMARCH/APRIL 2017

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(L-r) Barbara Slavin, Caroline Vicini, Mark Dubowitz and Jim Walsh debate the merits of the Iran nuclear deal.

der the future of the JCPOA. Most agreed that the deal has thus far been a success, and that Iran—aside from some minor issues that have been quickly resolved— has fulfilled its commitments under the agreement.

Despite this broad consensus, some still insist that the nuclear agreement was a mistake. One such critic, Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the neocon-leaning, pro-Israel Foundation for Defense of Democracies, appeared at the Atlantic Council event.

Dubowitz insisted that the aforementioned minor violations were in fact Iran “testing the deal by incrementally violating it.” Iran could use the deal as a “patient pathway” to a dangerous nuclear program, Dubowitz asserted, despite having agreed to never obtain a nuclear weapon as part of the JCPOA. Jim Walsh, a senior research associate at MIT, described the JCPOA as the “strongest non-proliferation treaty ever negotiated” and said he sees no reason to believe that Iran has nefarious nuclear intentions. He noted that the Director of National Intelligence has stated that Iran’s weaponization efforts have been on hold since 2003, and that Tehran has not made the decision to obtain nuclear weapons.

Walsh also pointed out that Iran has largely shown good will on the nuclear front since signing an interim deal with global powers three years ago.

While he ardently campaigned against the deal, Dubowitz—whose organization works closely with lawmakers on Capitol MARCH/APRIL 2017

Hill—said he now favors a rigid implementation of the nuclear agreement. “I think the Trump administration is adopting the right posture early out of the gate, which is not to abrogate the deal,” he said.

Less assuring to supporters of the deal is the apparent forthcoming Republican strategy of aggressively placing additional non-nuclear sanctions on Iran. “If you were to predict where Congress and this new administration will go in the next 12 months, my guess would be that you’ll see non-nuclear sanctions being the centerpiece of any new sanctions effort,” Dubowitz said. “There’s much that can be done outside the JCPOA.” The Trump administration on Feb. 3 announced new sanctions targeting 25 individuals and entities connected to Iran’s ballistic missile program, and/or the country’s elite Quds Force.

Dubowitz also floated the idea of “followon negotiations to address fundamental flaws of the deal” that would result in a “JCPOA2.” While such follow-on deals are not unprecedented for nuclear accords, it remains unlikely that Tehran would be open to such talks, given that more than a decade remains on the JCPOA. Though Dubowitz claimed these plans do not represent a scheme to kill the deal by a thousand cuts, there are indications that this may indeed be the strategy of the new Republican-led government. “I’ve been hearing [from individuals on Capitol Hill] that, on the Republican side, the intention is to put so much pressure on Iran

that it walks away from the deal,” noted Barbara Slavin, acting director of the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative.

While the U.S. maintains the right to impose non-nuclear sanctions on Iran, Walsh warned of the consequences of flippantly hitting Iran with new sanctions. “I hope as we make choices about that, it’ll be a more reasoned and a particular set of judgments than I’ve seen discussed in the press and the public so far,” he said.

For the deal to succeed, all sides will need to feel as though the other parties are acting in good faith, Walsh added.

“The moment that we start to play at the edges and start to try to deny benefits promised under the agreement…then it will not be in the self-interest of those parties to stay in the agreement,” he warned.

“We may not like Iran. We did not like the Soviet Union. But in the real world of international diplomacy, what you have to have is a win-win.”

Walsh also noted that the evidence suggests that seeking to change behavior by implementing sanctions is not always a sound way to accomplish the desired results. “The academic literature on sanctions correcting human rights violations [is] not very good,” he noted. “In fact, evidence would suggest it makes them worse, not better.”

Caroline Vicini, deputy head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, noted the global nature of the nuclear deal. “The EU is not alone in this,” she said. “We have Russia, China, we have the other EU countries that are partners of this.”

Should the U.S. abandon the deal, Vicini said, Europe would do its best to keep its relationship with Iran from collapsing. “If this would happen, we would certainly look to try to keep the agreement going anyhow,” she stated, “if that would at all be possible.”

—Kailey Love and Dale Sprusansky

Sen. Chris Murphy Extols Importance of Diplomacy with Iran

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) used his Jan. 30 remarks at the Atlantic Council to caution the Trump administration against

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clarity regarding its Iran policy. Should a crisis arise, he said, it’s unclear how the Trump administration would respond. The president has frequently spoken out against reckless American wars, he noted, but at the same time has many hawkish advisers. “You have some people in that administration who I’m convinced would recommend military action, but then you have another sort of school of rhetoric from Trump himself that suggests otherwise,” he said. “It’s real hard to tell how it would play out.”

Poll: Iranians Distrust the U.S., Unhappy With Their Economy

A poll of Iranian attitudes conducted by the University of Maryland in December revealed that Iranians are frustrated with the state of their economy, don’t trust the U.S. to keep its side of the multilateral nuclear deal, and are increasingly less likely to voice strong support for President Hassan Rouhani.

Dr. Ebrahim Mohseni, research scholar at the Center for International and Security

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) cautions against rushing to impose new sanctions against Iran.

rashly imposing new sanctions against Iran. Iran’s recent testing of ballistic missiles warrants a reasoned discussion about the possibility of new non-nuclear sanctions, he said. “It should be a careful conversation that acknowledges the potential reciprocal actions taken by Tehran,” he stressed.

The senator said he fears that hardliners opposed to the deal within Iran will use President Trump’s diplomatic naïveté and penchant for drama to their advantage. “They see an opportunity to force Donald Trump to unwind this deal himself,” Murphy said. “They now have a new opportunity—a reckless, unplanned, unstrategic American administration who might fall for a tactic run by the hard-liners, forcing the international community to blame the United States, not Iran, for this deal being scuttled.”

Trump has already handed a strong card to the hard-liners by enacting a travel ban on ordinary Iranians, Murphy said.

“This ban on immigration from Iran to the United States is a gift to the hard-liners at a moment in which we should not be giving them gifts,” he stated, adding that the administration ought to do everything in its power to give credibility to Iran’s so-called moderates, such as President Hassan Rouhani.

Murphy also expressed broader concern at the new administration’s lack of 60

(L-r) Georgetown’s Dr. Paul Pillar, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, co-founder of the International Civil Society Action Network, and Dr. Ebrahim Mohseni.

Asked what the ordinary American can do to help preserve the nuclear deal, Murphy called for the creation of “a massive political movement around selling soft power.” Noting that former President Barack Obama frequently spoke of soft power but ultimately passed budgets that underfunded diplomacy, Murphy said it is time for this dynamic to change. “The Iran nuclear agreement was made real because of the work of diplomats, and yet diplomacy is woefully underresourced all around the world,” he said. “We have more members of military bands today than we do diplomats in the State Department.”

The senator said he plans to contribute to this movement by unveiling a budget that accentuates the importance of diplomacy.

—Dale Sprusansky

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Studies at the University of Maryland, appeared at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC on Jan. 25 to discuss the key findings of the poll, titled “Iranian Attitudes on Iranian-U.S. Relations in the Trump Era.” The poll found that Iranian support for the nuclear deal is waning—55 percent of those polled said they support the deal, down 20 percent from when the agreement was first signed. Only 19 percent of respondents said they believe Washington will live up to its obligations under the deal, while 82 percent believe the U.S. is actively obstructing sanctions relief. A majority of respondents also expressed their view that the U.S. is working behind the scenes to discourage European businesses from investing in Iran.

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Going forward, May is expected to be a that we can do so.” ans’ skepticism of the deal. Of those surAcknowledging the many failed efforts veyed, 73 percent said the deal has not critical month in Iran-U.S. relations. The improved the lives of ordinary Iranians. A Trump administration has until May 18 to over decades to bring peace to the region, majority, however, did express optimism waive a series of sanctions involving Iran’s Mitchell explained, “Alon and I believe that that the deal will eventually improve their oil exports. If Trump declines to do so, the there is no such thing as a conflict that U.S. would be in violation of the nuclear can’t be ended. Conflicts are created, conliving conditions.

Asked their general view of the economy, deal, and Iranian hard-liners would likely ducted and sustained by human beings, only 35 percent expressed a favorable be in a better position to oust Rouhani in and they can be ended by human beings.”

Sachar, a former adviser to both Mitchell opinion. Even more noteworthy, for the first the May 19 election. —Dale Sprusansky and Middle East envoy David Hale, extime since Rouhani took office, a majority Sen. George Mitchell plained why he and Mitchell believe the two(51 percent) thought the economy is getting state solution is the only viable one to bring worse. Asked to name the single most im- Describes U.S. Role in Talks as peace between Israelis and Palestinians. portant issue for the next president to ad- “Imperative” dress (presidential elections are scheduled for May 19), the top two responses were unemployment and youth unemployment, respectively.

Despite these economic anxieties, President Rouhani is still generally viewed favorably, though his popularity is decreasing. Immediately following the nuclear deal, 61 percent of Iranians said they have a “very favorable” view of their president, compared to 28 percent in the latest poll.

Though 40 percent said they view Rouhani “somewhat favorably,” (L-r) Alon Sachar, Sen. George Mitchell and Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich.

Mohseni noted that the “very fa“I believe that partition is inevitable bevorable” statistic has generally been the Retired Sen. George Mitchell (D-ME) and best indicator of Iranian attitudes toward Alon Sachar, former adviser to U.S. Am- cause of all the reasons that led the U.N. to their leaders. Though the poll shows bassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, spoke partition the land in 1947, which is that IsRouhani has no clear contender, it nonethe- Dec. 9 at San Francisco’s Commonwealth raeli and Palestinian national, economic less suggests there is room for a challenger Club in a noon program moderated by for- and political priorities are just totally incompatible and different, and that trying to reto make a move before the May election. mer U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich.

Asked their views on President Donald In addition to tackling the topic “How the solve those within one entity would lead to Trump, 71 percent said they believe he will Next U.S. President Should Handle Israel inter-communal violence and a ton of death not abide by the nuclear agreement. On & Palestine,” the two Middle East experts and destruction,” Sachar argued. “Both the campaign trail, Trump frequently discussed why they co-authored A Path to Palestinians and Israelis need a state,” he pledged to renegotiate the nuclear deal. Peace: A Brief History of Israeli-Palestin- added, “and it is a lose-lose proposition for The poll found that Iranians are opposed ian Negotiations and a Way Forward in the both sides if this conflict continues.”

While support for the two-state solution to a renegotiation of the agreement—and Middle East.

48 percent of those surveyed said Tehran “The book was completed prior to the is declining in the United States, Israel and should retaliate by restarting aspects of its election and we didn’t know who would be among Palestinians, Mitchell pointed out, nuclear agreement if the Trump adminis- elected when we wrote these words,” said “Frustration, even despair, leads people to tration violates the deal. Mohseni said Mitchell, who served as Middle East envoy believe that there must be some other most Iranians would likely respond with to two U.S. presidents. “We’ll see what magical solution, as yet undiscovered, that the following question if asked about rene- plans the new administration has, but we will bring the two sides together. We don’t gotiating the deal: “Without feeling the think it is very much in the interests of our think it exists.”

The United States, Mitchell said, “is the benefits of the current deal, why should we country that we seek to bring about peace go ahead and provide the new U.S. presi- between Israelis and Palestinians and sta- only entity in the world that has the capacdent any new concessions?” bility throughout that region to the extent ity to create the conditions within which MARCH/APRIL 2017

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however, the average wait peace can be achieved betime at each checkpoint is tween Israelis and Palestini90 minutes. In addition, the ans—and, of equal imporcheckpoints often experitance, to ensure its impleence rush hour floods of mentation.” workers, making the 90The former senator then minute wait even longer. described the demographics These wait times are a of the region. “There are major problem for East now 6.25 million Jews beJerusalem residents who tween the Jordan River and work in the West Bank or the Mediterranean Sea,” he West Jerusalem. Imagine told his audience, “and approximately an equal numMoien Odeh describes East Jerusalem, where Israel has ceased to provide waiting in line for 90 minutes or more to travel to and from ber of Arabs, including those services and the Palestinian Authority is forbidden to step in to help. work—it would make anyin Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.” The birth rates are such that by tions of East Jerusalemites in his Nov. 30, one go insane.

Many residents have tried to ask Israeli 2020, or perhaps sooner, there will be a 2016 presentation at the Jerusalem Fund, clear majority of Arabs. “It is in Israel’s in- “Living in Limbo: East Jerusalem’s Neigh- courts or officials for help, but their requests have been in vain. One might ask terest to establish normalized relations borhoods Behind the Separation Barrier.” with its neighbors and not to be in a conSince Israel seized East Jerusalem from why its residents don’t just move out of stant state of conflict,” he added.

Jordan in 1967, during the Six-Day War Is- East Jerusalem. (Israel, of course, would As stated in their book, 160 countries rael launched that June, its policy for the like nothing better!) The reason, Odeh now recognize Israel and 137 recognize East Jerusalem neighborhood has been said, is that many cannot afford to leave, Palestine. Although many parliaments in one of annexation and confiscation. The and thus have no way to better their lives.

So the next time you take something for Western democracies have passed reso- Palestinian Authority is not allowed to prolutions and other forms of statements ex- vide services, and the Israeli authorities granted in your life, remember how people pressing support for a Palestinian state, refuse to do so. Odeh believes that Israel’s in East Jerusalem are living.

—Mark Hamilton Mitchell noted, “We don’t believe it will be motive is to make the neighborhood so achieved other than nominally through bad that Palestinians have no other choice Activists Urge Boycott of Hewlett these declarations. There has to be nego- but to leave. So basically, Odeh explained, tiations between the parties in which they Palestinians have gone from being resi- Packard can reach an agreement in a way that can dents to refugees in their own country.

As part of the international week of action be implemented and is sustainable. And According to Odeh, the main problems against Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, no one can ensure implementation of an facing East Jerusalem are official govern- Inc., for engaging in human rights violaagreement other than the United States. It ment neglect, lack of law enforcement, ille- tions in the occupied Palestinian territories is imperative, therefore, that we take an gal settlements, and the various checkpoints called for by the Palestinian Boycott, Diactive role in the negotiations.” between East and West Jerusalem. By vestment and Sanctions National Commit—Elaine Pasquini 2004 Israel had ceased providing govern- tee and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian ment and municipal services—including Rights, activists from Jewish Voice for East Jerusalem Neighborhoods clean water, waste disposal and electricity— Peace and Queers Undermining Israeli Behind the Separation Barrier to East Jerusalem residents, so the area suf- Terrorism protested Dec. 3 in downtown San Francisco.

As Americans we take many things for fers from pollution and is in poor condition.

The lack of law enforcement means that The IT giant owns companies which granted. But imagine if you lived in a place where there is no proper garbage disposal, the situation in East Jerusalem is chaotic. provide imaging for the identification cards no real road infrastructure, and no clean With no regulations, the is city plagued by system that enables Israel to discriminate water supply—and that a few miles to the many gangs, making life dangerous and in housing, employment, healthcare, education, and checkpoints which restrict the west of you, people have better living con- difficult for its residents.

The last problem Odeh cited are the six free movement of Palestinians. ditions, with all the functions and services Some activists held banners and signs your community lacks. This is the reality for checkpoints dividing East Jerusalem from the estimated 120,000 Palestinian residents the rest of Jerusalem and the rest of the urging shoppers to not purchase HP prodof East Jerusalem. Moien Odeh, a member West Bank. According to Israel’s minister ucts, while others acted out a checkpoint of Al-Shabaka—the Palestinian Policy of defense, the average wait time at each experience in front of a mock apartheid Network, described the typical living condi- checkpoint should be 15 minutes. In fact, wall.

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STAFF PHOTO K. LOVE

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

democracy its citizens dream of, as the challenges they faced in the early postuprising era have not yet gone away.

Security remains one of Tunisia’s main concerns, especially after the terrorist attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis in March 2015, killing 22, and another targeting foreigners on the beach in Sousse in June of 2015, which resulted in 38 deaths. Problems with terrorist networks spilling over the border from Libya and Activists in San Francisco protest Hewlett Packard in a street theater scene targeting Tunisian youth still of a checkpoint and apartheid wall. plague the young democWill Tunisian Democracy, Labidi said. She emracy Survive And Thrive? that, compared to neighboring states, phasized that the government was in the process of developing a system to “underTunisia has emerged from the Arab Spring Tunisia has a high level of education.

“Since we have educated people, we stand this phenomenon, to prevent it, to as a model for what a democracy can look like in the Arab world. Despite facing cor- may have conflicts about the projects, the heal and to remedy its consequences on ruption, terrorism and economic hurdles, priorities, etc., but we discuss. Discussion the society, on youth, and on the image of the Tunisian people remain faithful to the is a national sport in Tunisia, everybody is our country.

“We will not let violence be the winner in always discussing,” Labidi explained. “But, idea of a democracy.

To reinforce this idea, Meherzia Labidi, a when it comes to confrontation, to violence, Tunisia,” Labidi continued. “We have firmly member of the Tunisian House of People’s we have the capacity to refrain…this is a decided to be the winner of this battle on Representatives (Tunisia’s equivalent of par- key character in Tunisian society. Tunisian terrorism.”

Labidi noted that the Tunisian governliament), spoke at a Feb. 2 National Press character loathes and rejects bloodshed.”

While Tunisia now has an established ment is also taking on the challenges of Club event hosted by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. As an influ- constitution and in 2014 held its first free economic and educational reform, which ential member of Tunisia’s new government and fair parliamentary and presidential she referred to as the “second transition” since its formation in 2011, Labidi has played elections since 1956, there is still a long in creating a viable democracy.

“A democracy that cannot deliver prosa significant role in reshaping the country into road ahead to becoming the established perity, jobs for the 31 percent a democratic republic, which [of] youth that are unemshe described as “transforming ployed, infrastructure for a dream into reality.” those isolated in the region, The process has not been better income for the poor easy, Labidi admitted. The difamilies…a democracy that vide between those who cannot have a rate of growth wanted a more Islamic identity more than two or three perand those who wanted a more cent is not sustainable,” secular one made the process Labidi said. polarizing, both inside and outJust as the country experiside of government, as protests enced difficulty in reaching a filled the streets. However, new constitution, Labidi cauTunisians overcame these diftioned the audience, the ecoferences and produced a colnomic transition will be a simlaborative social contract to serve as their constitution. Tunisian parliamentarian Meherzia Labidi offers an uplifting assessment ilar struggle, and Tunisians will need “solidarity and supLabidi credits this to the fact of Tunisia’s transition, while noting the critical challenges that remain.

Several religious organizations—most recently the Unitarian Universalist Association—have voted to divest from HP, Inc. in protest of Israel’s illegal and brutal policies toward Palestinians.

Contrary to HP’s statement on its website that it is “creating a brighter future through actions, solutions and technology that makes [sic] life better for everyone, everywhere,” in reality it is profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation and abuse of Palestinians’ human rights.

—Elaine Pasquini

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“We The People” Posters an Iconic Image at Protests

On Inauguration Day The Washington Post printed a full-page image from Shepard Fairey's “We the People” series, a woman wearing an American flag hijab. Many demonstrators cut out the page from the Post to use on their inauguration protest signs, and at the Women’s March the following day. Frank Shepard Fairey is the American contemporary street artist and graphic designer who created the unforgettable “Obama Hope” poster. His new series features Muslim, Latina and African-American women, many of whom feel targeted by the new U.S. administration.

As visitors streamed into AET’s Middle

Protesters hold Shepard Fairey posters during a demonstration against the immigration ban at Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 29.

East Books and More bookstore on Inauguration Day searching for a copy of the morning’s Washington Post, we partnered with our local print shop across the street, BaseCamp DC, to get as many of these posters into circulation as we could. Selling them at cost, Middle East Books and More sold more than 500 posters on Inauguration Day, running out and printing more three times, as word spread throughout our Adams Morgan neighborhood.

Fairey told PBS that each model was shot by a photographer who related to their identity, before they were immortal-

More than 500 protesters gathered Dec. 18 at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa,CA to urge America to help save Aleppo.

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STAFF PHOTO SAMIR TWAIR

port” from the rest of the world to help them succeed. However, if Tunisia can transform their economy with the help of the international community, Labidi believes that it would mean “democracy all over the world is the winner, not just in Tunisia.”

Tunisia remains a silver lining in a region constantly afflicted by terrorism and conflict. In late January, Tunisia passed a law that would allow local elections, taking them a step further in their democratic revolution. “We want…to reconcile once and for all Islam, democracy and modernity.

Maybe Tunisia is the right place. And believe me, it is,” Labidi said, to a round of applause and a standing ovation.

—Kailey Love

ized in his graphic style: “The Muslim woman was shot by Ridwan Adhami, who is an accomplished photographer and proud Muslim,” he said. “The Latina woman was shot by Arlene Mejorado, a San Antonio-based artist and photographer and proud first-generation American, and the African-American kid was shot by Delphine Diallo, a French and Senegalese photographer based in New York.”

Fairey posted on Instagram: “The turnout for the Women’s marches all over the globe on Sat. was absolutely phenomenal. I was blown away by the numbers, but mostly I was incredibly inspired by the positivity and creativity! There were lots of home-made WE THE PEOPLE signs as well as so many hand drawn signs with witty copy writing and great concepts....There were zero arrests at the two largest marches in LA and DC!…proof that civility and respect are possible on a large scale.”

Because Middle East Books and More customers are still asking for the posters— and still protesting—we keep printing more and selling them at cost. [OK, we admit some buyers are adding a donation to their purchase to support our non-profit bookstore.] We are also shipping them around the country. Visit MiddleEast Books.com to place your order for “images to disrupt the rising tide of hate and fear.”

—Nathaniel Bailey and Delinda Hanley MARCH/APRIL 2017

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

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STAFF PHOTO SAMIR TWAIR

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Women’s Marchers Say, “Love, Not Hate, Makes America Great”

Nearly a million protesters came by plane, train, chartered bus and car from across the country to attend the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Elsewhere in the U.S. and around the world, millions of men, women and children held solidarity protests or “sister marches” to support the rights of women (including reproductive rights), and civil rights for the African-American, Latino, immigrant, Muslim, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities.

They carried signs calling for peace in the Middle East, voicing concern for the environment and other issues that polarMARCH/APRIL 2017

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ized America during the elections. Begun as a Facebook post just after Trump’s election, organizers hope the marches become a sustained campaign.

Nationally recognized advocates and entertainers spoke in DC. Filmmaker Michael Moore urged people to call Congress and run for office: “This is not the time for shy people! Shy people, you have

two hours to get over it,” he said. Feminist Gloria Steinem told women marchers, “Make sure you introduce yourselves to each other and decide what we’re going to do tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow,” she said. “We’re never turning back!”

March co-organizer Linda Sarsour, a Brooklyn-born Palestinian-American-Muslim activist for racial justice and civil rights,

told marchers, “The whole world is watching us.” Sarsour said she hoped people were so inspired that they’d go back to their local communities and find causes to be a part of. “We have no choice,” she said. “We can no longer be complacent in this country. We can't be apathetic. We cannot stay unengaged.”

—Delinda C. Hanley

Jan. 29 outside the Trump Hotel on Penn. Ave. Jan. 29 at the White House.

Jan. 25 outside the White House, shortly after plans for the ban became public.

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Protesters Decry Trump’s Ban on Muslim Immigrants and Refugees

Jan. 29 outside the Capitol, where energized protesters chanted “See you next week.”

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STAFF PHOTOS D. HANLEY

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B •O •O •K •S What Have We Done: The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars

By David Wood, Little Brown and Company, 2016, hardcover, 304 pp. List: $28; MEB: $24.

It’s not often that a war correspondent reveals the darker consequences of military service. David Wood does just that in a new book called What Have We Done: The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars. Wood, a Quaker who conscientiously objected to the Vietnam War and rendered alternative service, subsequently became a war correspondent for four decades, earning a Pulitzer for his work. It was front-line reporting from Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East.

What Have We Done concentrates on Marines and others who were permanently damaged by what they were ordered to do.

A Marine named Nik was with his platoon invading Fallujah, Iraq when he saw a boy with something in his hand. Because there had been reports of children being used to attack Americans in the area, he trained his rifle on the boy, hesitated, waited, thought, re-thought and then fired, killing the boy.

The object in the boy’s hand turned out to be a toy. On returning to the States, Nik became obsessed with what he had done, even though his orders had been to shoot anything that moved. His obedience to that order ruined the rest of his life.

Another instance involved a corporal who stepped on a land mine and lost one leg. His sergeant, who came to rescue him while warning others of a second mine, since the enemy often planted bombs in pairs, stepped on the second mine himself and was blown to pieces. The corporal survived, but is still haunted by the sergeant’s death. Finally, Wood cites an incident where a Marine stabbed an Iraqi 68

Reviewed by Samuel Hazo civilian in the chest and never could forget the man’s slow death afterward.

According to Wood, incidents like these injure the survivors—whether victims or perpetrators—morally, just as war itself does, particularly wars begun by the fiat of presidents while impotent Congresses just watch. Soldiers returning with their memories from such wars often try to find relief in drugs, alcohol or—when counseling is unavailable, delayed or ignored—suicide.

The resulting statistics, which I’ve verified from other sources, are shocking.

In a definitive survey of suicides of men on duty from all services, the average number of such suicides from the JohnsonNixon phase of the Vietnam War to the Afghanistan-Iraq era is 22 per day. Wood suggests that the number is probably higher, since the military does not include suicides after discharge. Allowing for this, while including the current number of 300 suicides annually in Afghanistan and Iraq, means that there are 8,030 verifiable military suicides every year. Repeat: 8,030 suicides.

Wood claims that suicidal impulses arise when soldiers have to reconcile what they are ordered to do with a moral code by which they had lived prior to combat. He emphasizes that war reverses the moral order completely. Murder, individual or mass, is legalized on a grand scale to ensure victory, the Academy Award of military conflict. (The poet William Stafford, also a Quaker and a conscientious objector, claimed that all wars really have two losers.)

The effects of war on those obliged to carry out lethal orders, though deemed justifiable legally, are downplayed or dismissed. Discussing this is not involved in their military training but Wood thinks it should be, if only to prevent further psychological damage, which is sure to come, later. For example, the pilot of the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima was said to have suffered severe repercussions when he learned later of the

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

devastation and loss of life. During World War II Gen. George Patton once slapped a convalescing hospitalized soldier and called him a coward because the man broke down when Patton visited him.

Wood cities similar instances and puts the blame on those “deciders” who placed soldiers in situations where they would predictably be forced to deal with moral dilemmas afterward. And similar blame should be directed to those who, even with the best of intentions, “support the troops” and “thank them for their service.” This often simply relieves these civilians of the onus of finding out if the issues provoking the war were valid in the first place.

The Nuremberg trials established once and for all that no one is obliged to obey an unjust order, but added that those who do are not absolved from guilt. In the case of an illegal war, a similar stipulation should certainly apply. Leaving Vietnam aside for the moment, it is a matter of record that every religious denomination (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim) saw no legal basis for the invasion of Iraq. After the invasion, these same denominations were silent. Why? Did their silence not make them guilty of accepting in practice what they rightly condemned in theory? This was particularly applicable to the Catholic hierarchy. Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis opposed the war in Iraq, but the American hierarchy said little if anything.

They encouraged prayers for the military but avoided the moral issue altogether.

The same fate has befallen military forces other than our own. In a recent book called Our Harsh Logic by Breaking the Silence (available from AET’s Middle Continued on page 71

Samuel Hazo, the author of more than 30 books, is professor of English emeritus at Duquesne University and founder of the International Poetry Forum.

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

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WINTER 2017 The Oslo Accords: A Critical Assessment by Petter Bauck and Mohammed Omer (eds.), The American University in Cairo Press, 2017, paperback, 312 pp.

MEB: $35. Bauck, a senior conflict adviser, and Omer, the Washington Report’s Gaza correspondent, have compiled a collection of essays from such notable scholars and practitioners as Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé and Gideon Levy. The essays range in topic and opinion, critically examining the Oslo accords 20 years after they were signed, scrutinizing what happened, what went wrong, and exploring recommendations for the future.

The Shaykh of Shaykhs: Mithqal al-Fayiz and Tribal Leadership in Modern Jordan

by Yoav Alon, Stanford University Press, 2016, paperback, 240 pp. List: $24.95; MEB: $21. Born in the 1880s, Shaykh Mithqal alFayiz’s life spanned a period of dramatic global transformations, including rapid modernization, World War One, the fall of the Ottomans, and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Alon explores the roots and modern implications of tribal leadership in Jordan and the wider region which Fayiz was a leader and visionary in creating.

Arab Fall: How the Muslim Brotherhood Won and Lost Egypt in 891 Days by Eric Trager, Georgetown University Press, 2016, hardcover, 296 pp. List: $32.95; MEB: $30.

Years of research and unique interviews have produced a vibrant picture of the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood after Egypt’s 2011 revolution. Providing deep historical context as well as predictions for the future, Trager offers a timely analysis on the current state of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian politics.

I Stared at the Night of the City by Bakhtiyar Ali, Periscope, 2016, paperback, 422 pp. List: $14.99; MEB: $12. The first Kurdish novel translated into English weaves together politics, poetry and pop culture, giving readers a unique look into Kurdish culture. Ali tells the tale of a group of poets and friends who undertake to uncover a crime with potential political consequences.

Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World by Katherine Zoepf, Penguin Books, 2017, paperback, 272 pp. List: $17; MEB $14. Zoepf, who has been reporting on women in the Arab world for more than 10 years, takes readers from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon, giving voice to an incredible generation of women who are at the forefront of changing their world.

Muhammad in the Digital Age by Ruqayya Yasmine Khan, University of Texas Press, 2016, paperback, 256 pp. List: $26.95; MEB: $25. In this collection of essays, Khan explores the intersection between today’s ever growing and shifting digital age and how it interacts with and adapts to the Muslim and Arab worlds.

The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and the Rebirth of the Shi’a-Sunni Divide by Geneive Abdo, Oxford University Press, 2016, hardcover, 264 pp. List: $29.95; MEB: $25. Recent trends in media and politics have simplified sectarian divides in the Middle East as being primarily about geopolitics. Abdo brings religion back into the concept of sectarianism and shows that ideas, beliefs and doctrine are important, and matter, in these discussions.

The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer by Mustafa Khalifa, Interlink, 2016, paperback, 252 pp.

List: $16; MEB: $14. Considered by many to be a symbol of the Syrian civil war, this novel follows the story of a political prisoner mistaken as a radical Islamist and locked up for 13 years.

The tale is written in the form of a dairy, memories from his time in prison put into words upon his release.

Imperfect Strangers: Americans, Arabs, and U.S.-Middle East Relations in the 1970s

by Salim Yaqub, Cornell University Press, 2016, hardcover, 464 pp. List: $35; MEB: $32. A profound narrative about the relations between America and the Arab world during the 1970s. Weaving together all aspects of international relations from diplomatic to street-level encounters, Yaqub provides a unique look into a pivotal decade that shaped Middle East and U.S. affairs for the years that followed.

SHIPPING RATES Most items are discounted and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Orders accepted by mail, phone (800-368-5788 ext. 2), or Web (www.middleeastbooks.com). All payments in U.S. funds. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express accepted. Please 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 $5 for the first item and $2.50 for each additional item. Canada & Mexico shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $3.50 for each additional item. International shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $6 for each additional item. We ship by USPS Priority unless otherwise requested.

MARCH/APRIL 2017

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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O• B • I • T • U • A • R • I • E • S Col. Lawrence Doran Thompson, 95, died at a northern Virginia hospice Sept.

10, 2016. A native of Akron, OH, he enlisted in the Army in 1942 and was deployed to Saipan, winning a commission in 1948. After being seriously wounded in Korea, he was posted to occupied Japan, where he taught himself Japanese. A turning point in his career came in 1958, when he joined the Army’s Foreign Area Training Program, which required four years of training: language school, graduate degree from a civilian university, and two years overseas in, or near, the region of specialization. He learned Arabic and studied for two years at the American University of Beirut. He was later posted to Morocco and Saudi Arabia. In 1964, Thompson returned to the U.S., where he earned a BA from George Washington University. He advised the General Staff on Middle East affairs, and received three Legions of Merit awards. He went on to serve two years as defense attaché in Amman, Jordan, before retiring from the Army in 1979. He ran Hughes Aircraft International’s Riyadh office for 10 years before retiring again so he could enjoy his love of reading, traveling and music. Thompson is survived by his wife, five children, 12 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

Jamshid Amouzegar, 93, died Sept. 27, 2016 of sepsis at a hospice facility in Rockville, MD. He held several prominent ministerial positions in pre-revolutionary Iran, including prime minister. Born in Tehran, he studied at Tehran University before leaving in 1944 to study civil engineering in the United States. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1946 from Cornell University, a master’s degree from the University of Washington in 1948, and a doctorate from Cornell in 1950. Upon completing his education, he returned to Iran in the early 1950s, where he began his career in 70

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water resource development. He later held several positions in the Iranian government. From 1965 to 1974, he was the secretary of finance and represented Iran in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). At an OPEC meeting in Vienna in December 1975, he was among dozens taken hostage by the Venezuelan militant known as “Carlos the Jackal” and was flown to Algeria, where he was held for 72 hours before being released. Dr. Amouzegar served as Iran’s prime minister from August 1977 to September 1978, leaving Iran in December 1978, two months before the Iranian Revolution. He is survived by three brothers.

Tony Gauci, 75, died Oct. 29, 2016 of natural causes in Swieqi, Malta. His testimony helped convict Libyan national Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988. Documents and sources published years later revealed details about how Gauci had changed his mind over the years regarding crucial details, and how the lead investigator personally lobbied U.S. authorities to pay him and his brother at least $3 million for their part in securing the conviction of al-Megrahi.

Gauci’s death represents the loss of a key witness in the Lockerbie case, which is still being fought legally by victims’ relatives and others who believe that al-Megrahi was innocent. Al-Megrahi died in Libya of cancer in 2012 with the tag “the Lockerbie bomber” still attached to his name.

Irfan Shahid, 90, died Nov. 9, 2016 of pneumonia at a Washington, DC hospital.

Born in Nazareth, Palestine during the British mandate, he had lived in Washington since 1981. He taught Arabic and Islamic studies at Georgetown University, retiring in 2006 as Oman Professor of Arabic and Islamic Literature. He wrote and pub-

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

lished extensively, including the 10-volume work Byzantium and the Arabs.

Moeen Qureshi, 86, died Nov. 22, 2016 of Parkinson’s disease in Bethesda, MD. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, he began his career in finance with the International Monetary Fund, later working for the World Bank, from which he retired in 1991 as vice president for operations. He then cofounded and was chairman of Emerging Markets Partnership, a private equity fund.

In 1993, Qureshi served for three months as Pakistan’s interim prime minister.

Christian Chapman, 95, died Nov. 27, 2016 at his home in Washington, DC of dementia. He served with the Free French Forces in World War II before joining the U.S. foreign service in 1950. His first assignment was as a consular officer in Casablanca as French colonial rule in Morocco was declining. He later served as an economic officer in Beirut and as assistant to the U.S. ambassador to Iran.

Benjamin Gilman, 94, died Dec. 17, 2016 at Veterans Affairs hospital in Wappingers Falls, NY, where he had been hospitalized for more than three years following hip surgery. The future congressman was born in Poughkeepsie, NY and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He subsequently graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and from New York University Law School.

Elected to the House of Representatives as a moderate Republican in 1972, he focused on foreign affairs. From 1995 to 2000, he was chairman of the International Relations Committee, now the House Foreign Affairs Committee. A top 10 career recipient of pro-Israel PAC contributions and member of the Washington Report’s “Hall of Shame,” he was one of Israel’s most fervent congressional supporters.

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Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, 94, died Jan. 1, 2017, in Rome, Italy. Known as the Archbishop of the Arabs and the Champion of Palestine, the exiled Greek Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem dedicated his life to defending Palestine, where his deep Christian faith and search for justice played out throughout his life. Born in Aleppo, Syria, he was originally posted in Damascus, where he worked to start youth camps and programs for children of all faiths. He was appointed archbishop of Jerusalem in 1965. In 1974, he was arrested and accused by Israeli authorities of using his diplomatic status to smuggle weapons for Palestinian resistance. Maintaining his innocence, Archbishop Capucci was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but was released after 4 years due to significant pressure from the Vatican and other international voices. He played an active role during the Iran hostage crisis, and in 2010 participated in the Free Gaza Movement’s aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip, which resulted in his arrest and later deportation by Israeli authorities.

William Peter Blatty, 89, died Jan. 12, 2017, in Bethesda, MD of multiple myeloma. Among his many contributions as a novelist and screenwriter, including for the Pink Panther comedy “A Shot in the Dark,” he was best known for his novel The Exorcist. He went on to win an Oscar for best-adapted screenplay, and worked on the movie sequels as well, but lamented that, having become famous for that series, he was never asked to write comedy again.

Born in Manhattan to Lebanese immigrants Peter and Mary Blatty, he worked for the United States Information Agency in Beirut prior to embarking on his writing career. He was honored for his work by the American Task Force for Lebanon (ATFL).

Dr. George H. Haddad, 101, died Jan. 24, 2017. Born in Egypt, he graduated from the American University of Beirut Medical School. He then returned to Egypt, where he served poor farmers in a small village in the Nile Delta, an experience that would shape his life of service. He moved to New York City in 1947, and spent the rest of his MARCH/APRIL 2017

career as a notable surgeon in the city’s public hospitals. He advocated policies that put the patient first, volunteered to work on holidays and, one year, performed more surgeries than any other physician in New York City. Dr. Haddad was influential in introducing medical techniques that reduced the number of unnecessary operations, a development that has since been adapted around the world. He is remembered as a man of service, dedicated to his patients and the communities in which he worked.

Stephen Cohen, 71, died Jan. 25, 2017 of cancer at his home in Teaneck, NJ. The Canadian-born Jewish academic taught at Harvard, the City University of New York Graduate Center, and Yale. He spent decades working to broker peace between Israeli and Arab leaders, traveling to the Middle East more than 150 times over 40 years. A professor at Harvard when the 1973 Yom Kippur War broke out, he took a leave of absence to join the Israeli military and help boost morale at the front lines.

Cohen reflected in his most recent book, The Go-Between: Memoir of a Mideast Intermediary, that it was during this time that he decided to devote his life toward preventing another traumatic war. In 1978, he met with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Alexandria, Egypt to discuss how the Palestinian situation might play into an agreement between Israel and Egypt regarding the Sinai. These talks led to President Jimmy Carter inviting the Israeli and Egyptian leaders to Camp David, where they agreed on a peace agreement after years of conflict. In 1986, Cohen arranged a meeting between Israeli intelligence and PLO officials, reopening communications that had been cut off for years. Although these talks were eventually suspended with a change in Israel leadership, much of the content was used in formal agreements between the PLO and Israel in years to come. Cohen, who had close ties with the Obama administration, was reported to have contributed to Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo, where Obama reiterated a call for a two-state solution. ■

Book Review

Continued from page 68

East Books and More), a number of Israeli soldiers made known their protests over what they were ordered to do on the West Bank and particularly in Gaza after the last retaliation. More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, including upward of 600 children. This was in addition to home demolition, imprisonment of Palestinians without trial and other violent excesses of the Binyamin Netanyahu government. Many Israeli soldiers involved in such morally crucifying actions ended up taking their own lives, i.e., 237 suicides in the past decade or, approximately 24 annually.

When President Richard Nixon abolished the draft and created an all-volunteer military, he actually created military employees. He simply assumed that enlistees would do what they were ordered to do because they were volunteers. (This was the same Nixon who started the faux practice of equating love of country with wearing a $2.98 flag pin in one’s lapel, and who required his staff to view the film “Patton” on a weekly basis.) Encouraging such voluntary enlistments was a stagnant economy where young men who could not find employment were ripe for recruiters’ pitches. The result is that enlistees are seen as being able to provide soldiery for presidentially chosen wars indefinitely.

The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-WolfowitzPerle cabal that approved the illegal war in Iraq assumed it had the right to change regimes of any country of its choice simply because it had the power to do so. If people died as a result (Americans and inhabitants), then that simply was the price that had to be paid. The authors of such preventive wars (deemed immoral by all theologies) were never held to account, and subsequently lived in affluent retirement after they left government service.

David Wood has detailed the suffering and waste that has resulted from the criminal folly of these men in soul-numbing detail. Read his words and grieve. ■

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AET’s 2016 Choir of Angels

Following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1, 2016 and Dec. 31, 2016 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 “Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?” or the upcoming “The Israel Lobby.” We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

HUMMERS ($100 or more)

Anonymous, Dearborn Heights, MI Anonymous, Largo, FL Anonymous, San Diego, CA Anonymous, Somerset, NJ Jeff Abood, Silver Lake, OH Catherine Aborjaily, Westfied, MA Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA Shukri Abu-Baker, Beaumont, TX Rizek & Alice Abusharr, Claremont, CA Miriam & Stephen Adams, Albuquerque, NM Michael & Jane Adas, Highland Park, NJ Diane Adkin, Camas, WA Frank Afranji, Tigard, OR Dr. M.Y. Ahmed, Waterville, OH Sohail & Saba Ahmed, Orland Park, IL Emeel & Elizabeth Ajluni, Farmington Hills, MI Dr. & Mrs. Salah Al-Askari, Leonia, NJ Yaser Albahri, Mayo, FL Sakker Al-Joundi, Milton, ON Andrew Allen, Tiburon, CA Amin Almuti, Orinda, CA Arthur Alter, Goleta, CA Hamid & Kim Alwan, Milwaukee, WI Hanaa Al-Wardi, Alhambra, CA Nabil & Judy Amarah, Danbury, CT Edwin Amidon, Charlotte, VT Dr. Ali Antar, Bristol, CT Anace Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Muhammad Ashiq, Cypress, CA Robert Ashmore, Mequon, WI Mr. & Mrs. Sultan Aslam, Plainsboro, NJ Zaira Baker, Garland, TX Rick Bakry, New York, NY Sami Baraka, Wyandotte, MI Robert E. Barber, Parrish, FL Omar & Carolyn Barrani, Salt Lake City, UT Allen & Jerrie Bartlett, Philadelphia, PA Peter Beck, Accokeek, MD Mohammed & Wendy Bendebba, Baltimore, MD Linda Bergh, Syracuse, NY Bradley Bitar, Olympia, WA Syed & Rubia Bokhari, Bourbonnais, IL Dr. Andrew Borland, Seattle, WA Karen Ray Bossmeyer, Louisville, KY Kathy Brandt, Laurel, MD Edward Briody, Jackson Heights, NY Stephen Buck, Bethesda, MD Lynn & Aletha Carlton, Norwalk, CT Jean K. Cassill, Bellingham, WA 72

William Cavness, Falls Church, VA Ouahib Chalbi, Coon Rapids, MN Patricia Christensen, Poulsbo, WA Joyce Chumbley, Orlando, FL James Cobey, Washington, DC Robert Cooke, Gaithersburg, MD Jeff Cooper, Los Angeles, CA Robert & Joyce Covey, La Cañada, CA Mrs. Walter Cox, Monroe, GA A.L. Cummings, Owings Mills, MD M.O. Dagstani, Redington Beach, FL Khalid Darwish, San Jose, CA John Dirlik, Pointe Claire, QC Ray Doherty, Houston, TX John L. Doyle, Boston, MA David Dunning, Lake Oswego, OR Bernie Eisenberg, Los Angeles, CA Larry Ekin, Rockville, MD Ibrahim Elkarra, San Francisco, CA Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX Mansour El-Kikhia, San Antonio, TX Elizabeth Elliott, Birmingham, AL Richard & Maria Ellis, Ardmore, PA Dr. Mohamed Elsamahi, Marion, IL Hassan Eltaher, Ottawa, Canada Albert E. Fairchild, Bethesda, MD Family Practice & Surgery LLC, Eatonton, GA Yusif Farsakh, Arlington, VA Steven Feldman, Winston-Salem, NC Eileen Fleming, Clermont, FL E. Aracelis Francis, St. Thomas, VI Franciscan Monastery of The Holy Land, Washington, DC Ahmad & Shirley Gazori, Mill Creek, WA Michael Gillespie, Maxwell, IA Sherna Gluck, Topanga, CA Sam Gousen, Arlington, VA Barbara Gravesen, Lady Lake, FL Nabil Haddad, North Wales, PA Halal Transactions, Omaha, NE Delinda C. Hanley, Kensington, MD*,*** Shirley Hannah, Queensbury, NY Susan Haragely, Livonia, MI Walid Harb, Dearborn Heights, MI Robert & Helen Harold, West Salem, WI Brice Harris, Pasadena, CA Angelica Harter, N. Branford, CT Steven Harvey, Manchester, NH Sameer Hassan, Quaker Hill, CT Mr. & Mrs. John Hendrickson, Albuquerque, NM George High, Woodbridge, VA Jonathan Hill, Northfield, MN

WAShInGTon REpoRT on MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Dr. & Mrs. Sam Holland, N. Eastham, MA Emmett Holman, Fairfax, VA Horace Hone, West Palm Beach, FL Greta Hughes (Berlin), Orinda, CA Dr. Marwan Hujeij, Cincinnati, OH William C. Hunt, Somerset, WI Zafer & Juhayna Husseini, Dallas, TX Ejaz Hyder, Somerset, NJ George Jabbour, Sterling Hts., MI Rafeeq Jaber, Palos Hills, IL Bilquis Jaweed, West Chester, OH Janis Jibrin, Washington, DC Jeanne Johnston, Santa Ynez, CA Anthony Jones, Jasper, Canada Mohamad Kamal, North York, Canada Stephen Kaye, New York, NY Ghazala Kazi, Columbia, MD Michael J. Keating, Olney, MD Charles Kennedy, Newbury, NH Dr. Mazen Khalidi, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI Akbar Khan, Princeton, NJ M. Jamil Khan, Bloomfield Hills, MI M. Yousuf Khan, Scottsdale, AZ Fouad Khatib, San Jose, CA Dr. Mohayya Khilfeh, Chicago, IL Eugene Khorey, West Mifflin, PA Tony & Anne Khoury, Sedona, AZ Paul N. Kirk, Baton Rouge, LA Mr. & Mrs. Khalil Kishawi, Chicago, IL Loretta Krause, Little Egg Harbor Twp., NJ Ronald Kunde, Skokie, IL Matt Labadie, Portland, OR Sandra La Framboise, Oakland, CA Dennis Lamb, Fairfax, VA Darryl Landis, Winston-Salem, NC John Lankenau, Tivoli, NY William Lawand, Mount Royal, Canada Fran Lilleness, Seattle, WA Robert Listou, Falls Church, VA Marilyn Sutton Loos, Haverford, PA J. Robert Lunney, Bronxville, NY Anthony Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI Allen J. MacDonald, Washington, DC Donald MacLay, Springfield, PA Ramy & Cynthia Mahmoud, Skillman, NJ Gabriel Makhlouf, Richmond, VA Dr. Asad Malik, Bloomfield Hills, MI Tahera Mamdani, Fridley, MN Ted Marczak, Toms River, NJ Amal Marks, Altadena, CA Rachelle Marshall, Mill Valley, CA Carol Mazzia, Santa Rosa, CA Susan Kay Metcalfe, Beaverton, OR Shirl McArthur, Reston, VA

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William McAuley, Chicago, IL Kenneth McDonald, Houston, TX Gwendolyn McEwen, Bellingham, WA Bill McGrath, Northfield, MN Gerald & Judith Merrill, Oakland, CA Robert Anton Mertz, Bethesda, MD Robert Michael, Sun Lakes, AZ Tom Mickelson, Neshkoro, WI Lynn Miller, Amherst, MA Yehia Mishriki, Emmaus, PA Alawi Mohideen, Toronto, ON John & Ruth Monson, La Crosse, WI Maury Keith Moore, Seattle, WA Mr. & Mrs. Jan Moreb, Gainesville, FL Joseph Najemy, Worcester, MA Sara Najjar-Wilson, Reston, VA Steve L. Naman, Atlanta, GA Jacob Nammar, San Antonio, TX Doris Norrito, Largo, FL Kamal Obeid, Fremont, CA Edmund Ord, Oakland, CA Nancy Orr, Portland, OR Khaled Othman, Riverside, CA Edmond & Lorraine Parker, Chicago, IL Collier Perry, Rockdale, TX Dr. Bashar Pharoan, Timonium, MD Bill & Kay Plitt, Arlington, VA Jim Plourd, Monterey, CA James Posakony, Del Mar, CA Barry Preisler, Albany, CA Cheryl Quigley, Toms River, NJ Mirza Rab, Long Beach, CA Carol Rames, Warwick, RI Bassam Rammaha, Corona, CA Hasan Rammaha, Austin, TX Marjorie Ransom, Washington, DC**** Oostur Raza, Gilroy, CA Mr. & Mrs. Edward Reilly, Rocky Point, NY Paul Richards, Salem, OR Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT William Rives, Siler City, NC Markley Roberts, Chevy Chase, MD John Roche, Arlington, VA Ambassador Chris Ross, Washington, DC Brynhild Rowberg, Northfield, MN Nuhad Ruggiero, Bethesda, MD Amb. William Rugh, Hingham, MA Edward & Alice Saad, Cheshire, CT Bryan Saario, Edmonds, WA Mohammed Sabbagh, Grand Blanc, MI Denis Sabourin, Ste-Adele, Canada Antone L. Sacker, Houston, TX Dr. Ahmed M. Sakkal, Charleston, WV Ramzy Salem, Monterey Park, CA Babak Sani, Berkeley, CA Lisa Schiltz, Barbar, Bahrain Henry Schubert, Damascus, OR Tariq Shah, Mississauga, Canada Rifqa Shahin, Apple Valley, CA Richard Shaker, Annapolis, MD Thomas Shaker, Poughkeepsie, NY Aziz Shalaby, Vancouver, WA Qaiser & Tanseem Shamim, Somerset, NJ MARCH/APRIL 2017

Lewis Shapiro, White Plains, NY Kathy Sheridan, Mill Valley, CA Zac Sidawi, Costa Mesa, CA Teofilo Siman, Miami, FL Deborah Smith, Durham, NC Donald & Gretel Smith, Garrett, IN David J. Snider, Bolton, MA Yasser Soliman, Hamilton Township, NJ Eileen Sopanen, Abiquiu, NM Les Sosnowski, Lake Forest, IL Fathi Soueid, Bethesda, MD William R. Stanley, Lexington, SC Peter & Joyce Starks, Greensboro, NC Viola Stephan, Santa Barbara, CA Adlai E. Stevenson III, Chicago, IL Abdalla Suleiman, Denver, CO Mushtaq Syed, Santa Clara, CA Doris Taweel, Laurel, MD Anver Tayob, Saint Louis, MO William Thiessen, Bemidji, MN†† Charles Thomas, La Conner, WA Robert Thomas, Fredericksburg, VA Jerry & Jane Thompson, Bemidji, MN†† Michael Tomlin, New York, NY Thomas Trueblood, Chapel Hill, NC Charles & Letitia Ufford, Hanover, NH Unitarian Universalists for Justice, Cambridge, MA Voices for Justice in Palestine, Walnut Creek, CA Tom Veblen, Washington, DC V.R. Vitolins, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI Robin & Nancy Wainwright, Severna Park, MD Sally Wallace, Waverly, VA Hermann Weinlick, Minneapolis, MN Thomas C. Welch, Cambridge, MA Jeannie K. Williams, Minneapolis, MN Thomas Wunderlich, Cambridge, MA Darrell & Sue Yeaney, Scotts Valley, CA Raymond Younes, Oxnard, CA Dr. & Mrs. Fathi S. Yousef, Irvine, CA Bernice Youtz, Tacoma, WA John Zacharia, Vienna, VA Mohammed Ziaullah, Montclair, CA Elia K. Zughaib, Alexandria, VA

ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more)

Aglaia & Mumtaz Ahmed, Buda, TX Mohammed Ahmed, Long Beach, CA Robert Akras, North Bay Village, FL Hani & Raja Ali, Athens, Greece Mohamed Alwan, Chestnut Ridge, NY Louise Anderson, Oakland, CA Nader Barakat, Moorpark, CA Elizabeth Barlow, Augusta, MI Lisa Bean, Waukee, IA Joe Chamy, Colleyville, TX Ted Chauviere, Austin, TX Duncan Clark, Rockville, MD Mr. & Mrs. Rajie Cook, Washington Crossing, PA

Joseph Daruty, Newport Beach, CA Gregory De Sylva, Rhinebeck, NY Robert & Tanis Diedrichs, Cedar Falls, IA ††† Mr. & Mrs. L.F. Doyle, New York, NY Mustafa Elayan, Decatur, AL Catherine Fararjeh, Santa Clara, CA Majed Faruki, Albuquerque, NM Dr. Jamil Fayez, Oakton, VA Elisabeth Fitzhugh, Mitchellville, MD Eugene Fitzpatrick, Wheat Ridge, CO Dr. William Fuller, Valdosta, GA Khaled Galal, San Francisco, CA Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Ray Gordon, Bel Air, MD Alfred R. Greve, Holmes, NY Alice H. Hall, Duxbury, MA Dixiane Hallaj, Purcellville, VA Erin K. Hankir, Nepean, Canada Susan Haragely, Livona, MI Dr. Walid Harb, Dearborn Hts., MI Angelica Harter, N. Branford, CT “Hummer,” Oyster Bay, NY Zaghloul Kadah, Seattle, WA Azzam & Shadia Kanaan, Portage, MI Ms. Nazik Kazimi, Newton, MA Kendall Landis, Wallingford, PA Barbara LeClerq, Overland Park, KS Nidal Mahayni, Richmond, VA Joseph A. Mark, Carmel, CA Ms. Jean Mayer, Bethesda, MD Dr. Charles W. McCutchen, Bethesda, MD Stanley McGinley, The Woodlands, TX Mary Muir, Leesburg, VA Charles Murphy, Upper Falls, MD William & Nancy Nadeau, San Diego, CA Amb. Edward & Ann Peck, Chevy Chase, MD Philip Portlock, Washington, DC Sam Rahman, Lincoln, CA Sean P. Roach, Washington, DC Rose Foundation, Richard Makdisi & Lindsay Wheeler, Berkeley, CA Heidi & Elie Saikaly, Mukiltero, WA Noel Sanborn & Virginia Lee, Palo Alto, CA Irmgard Scherer, Fairfax, VA Dr. Abid Shah, Sarasota, FL John Stanford, Santa Fe, NM Michel & Cathy Sultan, Eau Claire, WI Thomas & Carol Swepston, Englewood, FL Eddy Tamura, Moraga, CA Zuhair Thalji, Willow Springs, IL Unitarian Universalists For Justice, Cambridge, MA John & Dariel Van Wagoner, McLane, VA James Wall, Elmhurst, IL Mahmoud Zawawi, Amman, Jordan

TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more)

Anace Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Lois Aroian, East Jordan, MI Dr. & Mrs. Roger Bagshaw, Big Sur, CA

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Dr. & Mrs. Issa J. Boullata, Montreal, Canada Mr. & Mrs. John Crawford, Boulder, CO Lois Critchfield, Williamsburg, VA Krista and Andrew, Herndon, VA**, *** Richard Curtiss, Boynton Beach, FL Edouard C. Emmet, Paris, France Dr. Jamil Fayez, Oakton, VA Claire Bradley Feder, Atherton, CA Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Wasif Hafeez, W. Bloomfield, MI George Hanna, Santa Ana, CA Masood Hassan, Calabasas, CA Sam Holland, North Eastham, MA Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Fahd Jajeh, Lake Forest, IL Gloria Keller, Santa Rosa, CA Bill & Jean Mansour, Corvallis, OR Tom & Tess McAndrew, Oro Valley, AZ Georgianna McGuire, Silver Spring, MD Anees Mughannam, Petaluma, CA Henry Norr, Berkeley, CA Hertha Poje-Ammoumi, New York, NY Nayla Rathe, Belmont, MA Fred Rogers, Northfield, MN Betty Sams, Washington, DC †† James & Lisa Sams, Bethesda, MD Henry Schubert, Damascus, OR Mr. & Mrs. Yasir Shallal, McLean, VA Yusef & Jennifer Sifri, Wilmington, NC Mae Stephen, Palo Alto, CA Dr. William Strange, Bandera, TX Texas Cardiac Center, Lubbock, TX Lorie & Wilbur Wood, Vancouver, WA

BARITONES & MEZZO SOPRANOS ($1,000 or more)

Anonymous, Washington, DC Zainab Abbas, London, UK Paula Allen, Naples, FL Michael Ameri, Calabasas, CA A.J. & M.T. Amirana, Las Vegas, NV Asha A. Anand, Bethesda, MD Graf Herman Bender, North Palm Beach, FL Majid Batterjee, Vienna, VA Karen Ray Bossmeyer, Louisville, KY Harvie Branscomb, Basalt, CO G. Edward, Jr. & Ruth Brooking, Wilmington, DE Carole Brown, Stamford, CT Rev. Ronald Chochol, St. Louis, MO Tom D'Albani & Dr. Jane Killgore, Bemidji, MN†† Linda Emmet, Paris, France Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR** Gary Feulner, East Meadow, NY Malcolm Fleming, Bloomington, IN Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey Dr. & Mrs. Hassan Fouda, Berkeley, CA John Gareeb, Atlanta, GA Hind Hamdan, Hagerstown, MD R. Jacob Hikmat, Columbia, MD Salman & Kate Hilmy, Silver Spring, MD Judith Howard, Norwood, MA **, †† Mary Ann Hrankowski, Rochester, NY† Sufian & Barbara Husseini, Salem, OR Paul Jamison, Mechanicsburg, PA

Muhammad Khan & Fatimunnisa Begum, Jersey City, NJ Damaris Koehler, Mannheim, Germany Tony Litwinko, Los Angeles, CA Dr. and Mrs. George Longstreth, San Diego, CA Jack Love, San Diego, CA John Mahoney, AMEU, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Hani Marar, Delmar, NY Ralph Nader, Public Citizen, Washington, DC Mary Norton, Austin, TX Audrey Olson, Saint Paul, MN Mary H. Regier, El Cerrito, CA M.F. Shoukfeh, Lubbock, TX Dr. Imad Tabry, Fort Lauderdale, FL Donn Trautman, Evanston, IL Jon B. Utley, Washington, DC Moon Wang, Georgetown Valet, Washington, DC Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD

CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more)

Patricia Ann Abraham, Charleston, SC Forrest Cioppa, Moraga, CA† Henry Clifford, Essex, CT Donna B. Curtiss, Kensington, MD*, ** Estate of Rafeek Farah, Trenton, MI John & Henrietta Goelet, New York, NY Andrew I. Killgore, Washington, DC Vincent & Louise Larsen, Louvin Foundation, Billings, MT William Lightfoot, Vienna, VA John McGillion, Ashbury Park, NJ Ahmad Salhut, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

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March/April 2017 Vol. XXXVI, No. 2

Knesset member Ayman Odeh in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran after he was wounded by Israeli troops during demonstrations against the killing of a math teacher accused by Israel of deliberately running his car into a group of police officers, despite evidence to the contrary. See story p. 18.

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