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NO FREEDOM IN ISRAEL FOR NON-ORTHODOX JEWS
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TELLING THE TRUTH FOR 35 YEARS...
Volume XXXVI, No. 6
On Middle East Affairs
INTERPRETING THE MIDDLE EAST FOR NORTH AMERICANS
✮
October 2017
INTERPRETING NORTH AMERICA FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE
7
Israel Seeks to Rid Itself of Palestinian Citizens of Northern “Little Triangle” Villages —Jonathan Cook
10
12 14
Abducted From Their Homeland by Israel’s Mustarebeen—Kate Daher
Europe Must Not Buy What Israel Is Selling to Combat Terror—Jeff Halper
Surrounded by the Mediterranean’s Water, but Nothing From the Faucets to Drink—Mohammed Omer Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters Helps Tear Down the Last Taboo—Delinda C. Hanley
Trump, Congress Target Iran—Two Views —Trita Parsi, Shireen T. Hunter Trump Pulls the Plug in Syria —Graham E. Fuller
The Conflict in Afghanistan Is Trump’s War Now —Andrew J. Bacevich
Ambassadors for Israel (One American) Do Their Thing at the U.N.—Ian Williams Senate Bill 720: Making It a Crime to Support Palestinian Human Rights—James J. Zogby
Congress Approves Sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea—Shirl McArthur
SPECIAL REPORTS
22 52
Turkey’s Refugee Camps at the Dawn of Summer —Javier Delgado Rivera
48
50
Kurdish Independence Prospect Cements a Turkish-Iranian Alliance —Yavuz Baydar
An aerial view of Turkey’s Kahramanmaraş temporary protection center, near the border with Syria. See story p. 22.
Year-Old Hirak Protest Movement Galvanizes Northern Morocco’s Neglected Rif Region —Marvine Howe COURTESY AFAD
16 18
Power to the People: Why Palestinian Victory in Jerusalem Is a Pivotal Moment—Ramzy Baroud
20 24 26 27 29 30
Netanyahu and Modi: “A Marriage Made in Heaven” —John Gee
ON THE COVER: A woman wearing a burqa makes her way through the old section of Herat, Afghanistan, May 21, 2017.
HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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(A Supplement to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs available by subscription at $15 per year. To subscribe, call toll-free 1-888-881-5861.)
Other Voices Neocons Enlist in Anti-Trump #Resistance, James W. Carden, http://consortiumnews.com Congress vs. the President; What Trump Can Learn From Obama, Andrew Spannaus, www.aspeninstitute.it
54 israel aNd JudaisM: Israel Rejects Freedom for Non-Orthodox Streams of Judaism —Allan C. Brownfeld
56 MusiC & arts: Celebrating Oman’s Seafaring Legacy
OV-9
The History Is Too Deep, the Pain Is Too Real, OV-2
James J. Zogby, www.aaiusa.org
Edward Hunt, http://lobelog.com
OV-11
OV-12
Muqtada al-Sadr’s Saudi Visit and Iraq’s Shifting Shi’i Politics, OV-5
The Curse of Mohammed Dahlan: Hamas Should Not Trade Resistance for Its Own Survival, Ramzy Baroud, www.ramzybaroud.net
6 letters to the editor
Deir Yassin, Ofer Aderet, Haaretz
OV-4
Is Gaza-Sinai State a Possibility for Palestinians?, Jonathan Cook, www.aljazeera.com
5 Publishers’ Page
Testimony From the Censored Massacre— OV-1
Killing Civilians in Iraq and Syria,
Capitol Hill Clash Pits Israel’s Army vs. Knesset, Sidelining AIPAC, J.J. Goldberg, The Forward
DEPARTMENTS
Compiled by Janet McMahon
Shireen Hunter, http://lobelog.com
OV-13
Hezbollah and the Simplistic School of Counterterrorism, OV-7
Paul R. Pillar, http://nationalinterest.org
72 diPloMatiC doiNgs: Lebanese Prime Minister Emphasizes National Unity 74 booK revieW: An Unlikely Audience: Al Jazeera’s Struggle in America —Reviewed by David DePriest
75 Middle east booKs aNd More
OV-14
76 the World looKs at the Middle east — CARtOONS 77 other PeoPle’s Mail 79 obituaries
81 2017 aet Choir oF aNgels 28 iNdeX to advertisers
59 arab aMeriCaN aCtivisM: How the Media Covers Israel and Palestine
62 WagiNg PeaCe: Muslims, Jews And Christians: All United for One Cause
72 huMaN rights: Plaque Commemorating USS Liberty Installed in Wilmington, DE
The Network of Arab American Professionals’ DC Chapter book club met at AET’s Middle East Books and More on Aug. 30 to discuss Asaad Almohammad’s An Ishmael of Syria.
STAFF PHOTO NATHANIEL BAILEY
57 MusliM aMeriCaN aCtivisM: Islamic Relief Helps Fuel Young Minds, Fight Childhood Hunger
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American Educational Trust
American Legion Calls for Investigation of Attack on USS Liberty.
The American Legion passed an historic resolution at its national convention in Reno, Nevada on Aug. 24, 2017. Resolution 40 calls for the first full U.S. government investigation of Israel’s deadly June 8, 1967 attack on the USS Liberty. The resolution, which originated earlier this year at Post 40 in Seattle, WA, calls for Congress “to publicly, impartially, and thoroughly investigate the attack on the USS Liberty and its aftermath and to commence its investigation before the end of 2017, the 50th anniversary year of the attack.” In 2013 the Veterans of Foreign Wars adopted Resolution 423 calling for the attack to be investigated “in order to determine the truth behind the attack, and to bring closure to the families and crew.”
No News not Good News.
As we went to press there has been only one news report—in Mondoweiss.net— about this important American Legion resolution, despite press releases from the Liberty Veterans Association. Many a Liberty survivor has said that he feels more angry about his government’s cover up than about the attack itself, so it’s also crucial to investigate the role of the U.S. government and media over the past 50 years. Former CIA director Richard Helms (1966-1973) stated in a 1984 CIA interview: “everything possible was done to keep from the American public really the enormity of this attack on an American naval vessel…I don’t think there can be any doubt that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing.”
War or Peace?
Since the earliest days of his presidential campaign, President Donald Trump has exhibited inconsistency in his foreign policy statements. On the one hand, he has regularly chastised President George W. Bush for his decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and questioned America’s never-ending foreign military entanglements. At the same time, the president has trashed the war-averting Iran nuclear deal and pushed for large increases in military spending—at a time when survivors of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana… OCTOBER 2017
Publishers’ Page
the sea. Washington might be well advised to take Netanyahu at his word…
And Move On.
Reason for Hope.
Washington Report summer interns (l-r) David DePriest, Oday Abdaljawwad, Kelly Fleming and Alex Shanahan.
Face Years of Recovery.
Amping up Afghanistan and Iran, De-escalating in Syria.
President Trump announced in August that he would be sending 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan (see p. 26), where, it was recently acknowledged, there are already 11,000 American forces. At the same time, Trump apparently is itching to decertify the Iran deal, overtly and unashamedly asking his national security team to produce a reason—any reason—to decertify Tehran’s compliance with the multilateral agreement (see p. 20). On the other hand, as Graham E. Fuller observes on p. 24, Trump has pulled the plug on U.S. covert assistance to the Syrian opposition. Seeing the writing on the wall, and appealing to his non-interventionist side, the president decided Washington’s tepid and unsuccessful intervention in the Syrian civil war was both unwise and unsuccessful.
Same Old, Same Old in Israel.
As is his wont, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after meeting with a visiting U.S. delegation—this time special representative Jason Greenblatt and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner—subsequently undermined the “peace process.” On Aug. 28, the prime minister told Jewish settlers in the West Bank, "There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel.” Yet again, a U.S. administration finds its peace efforts undermined by Tel Aviv’s goal to consolidate a Jewish state from the river to
In the midst of all this sturm und drang, we were uplifted by our bright and enthusiastic summer interns. Filled with passion for the region and a desire to change the world, they spent the summer engaged in the latest issues—attending events around Washington and writing articles, news roundups and book reviews. “I have ended my internship with experience that will change the way I view the world forever,” said Kelly Fleming upon her return to Rutgers University. We are glad to have provided these young people such a beneficial experience, and trust they will use the skills they honed here to forever change the way Americans see the Middle East!
Every Year or So…
We like to give Washington Report readers who don’t subscribe to our “Other Voices” supplement a chance to see what they’re missing. This year, this issue is that chance! We know you’ll appreciate the variety of topics and viewpoints you’ll find, and want to subscribe so that, for an extra $15 per year, you’ll get “Other Voices” with every issue. We had to let go of a page of “Letters to the Editor” to get all 16 pages in, but it’s a sacrifice we’re glad to make for the benefit of all our readers!
Thank You for Your Opinions and Support.
We appreciate your filling out our survey so we can learn your opinions about what we’re doing right and how we can improve this publication, our bookstore, our free weekly Internet newsletter and our redesigned website, <www.washington report.me>, in the years ahead. Your donations will help us as we plan next year’s informative and thought-provoking “Israel Lobby and American Policy” conference with our co-sponsor, the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. With your support and ideas, we are unstoppable. Together we will…
Make A Difference Today!
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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lte_6_October 2017 Letters to Editor 8/31/17 6:02 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. Indexed by ProQuest, Gale, Ebsco Information Services, InfoTrac, LexisNexis, Public Affairs Information Service, Index to Jewish Periodicals, Ethnic News Watch, Periodica Islamica. 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.washingtonreport.me 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 ISRAEL’S HARD RIGHT TURN
Runaway Jewish nationalism is threatening the very survival of the Jewish state. Buckling under pressure, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to grant more and more power to ultra-Orthodox Jews, alienating Palestinians and the Jewish diaspora alike and perpetuating the belief that Israeli Jews are more Jewish than the Jewish diaspora. Netanyahu’s recent actions have dealt a mortal blow to the 75 percent of the 10 million diaspora Jews who are Reform and Conservative. Men and women cannot pray together in the Western Wall of the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Caving in to pressure, Netanyahu endorsed a bill granting a virtual monopoly over conversions to ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Non-Israeli Jews have expressed outrage over Netanyahu’s heavy-handed policy rulings. The pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC demanded a policy reversal. Also, by refusing to end its brutal occupation, Israel is rapidly sliding into an apartheid, pariah state. A thoroughly exasperated former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned, “What are you going to do with 420,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank? How do you reverse this trend that will inevitably lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish democratic state?” No longer is the power of the American purse having much impact on Israeli policies. Give us your unconditional support, but don’t interfere in our domestic polices, seems be Netanyahu’s message. Reform and Conservative rabbis are rapidly becoming irrelevant. Jagjit Singh, Los Altos, CA See p. 54 for Allan Brownfeld’s discussion of the first issue you raise, which we see as an internal Jewish issue (just as a dispute between Catholics and Protestants would be an internal Christian issue). In our opinion, it is the issue of Israel’s military occupation of Palestine that is the higher priority, since it continues to kill so many innocent people—and violates international law.
MACRON'S EXTRAORDINARY ERROR IN JOINING THE ISRAEL LOBBY
French President Emmanuel Macron has showed his unfortunate inexperience as a politician by voluntarily joining the
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
American Israel lobby that supports and finances the illegal settlements in the occupied territories that now hold over 600,000 Israeli citizens on land belonging for over a thousand years to the indigenous Arabs of Palestine. Macron was absolutely right to acknowledge the criminal insanity of the wartime Vichy government that collaborated with the Nazis by voluntarily transporting a quarter of the Jews of France to death camps in Eastern Europe, but he is completely wrong to equate antiZionism with anti-Semitism. Zionism is a political, supremacist ideology that has led to the only neo-colonial regime of the 21st century—a regime that has violently dispossessed over five million indigenous Arabs and has turned the region into a flashpoint for a global nuclear war. Macron may have been an experienced investment banker and bond dealer, but he is an inexperienced and novice politician who has allowed himself to become part of the Political Zionist movement whose objective is a “Greater Israel” extending from the Nile to the Euphrates. That, of course, will never happen, but Macron has jumped feet first into a bloody river in which he will find it impossible to swim. Just another naïve, over-ambitious politician who has been easily inducted into Zionist ideology by very experienced, political manipulators. Quelle tragedie! Anthony Bellchambers, London, UK We note that Macron’s approval rating after four months in office has plummeted to a record low of 40 percent.
CORRECT ADDRESS FOR WILPF BOOKLET
I’m writing to call your attention to an error in the e-mail address of Barbara Nielsen in the ad for the booklet on p. 21 of the June/July 2017 Washington Report. The correct e-mail address to order hard copies of the booklet “Hamas at the Middle East Peace Table: Why?” published by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is <bln.sf.ca@gmail.com>. Note that the second letter should be an l, not an i. Libby Frank, WILPF, via e-mail Thank you, we certainly want our readers to be able to order this informative booklet! ■ OCTOBER 2017
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The Nakba Continues
Israel Seeks to Rid Itself of Palestinian Citizens Of Northern “Little Triangle” Villages
By Jonathan Cook
ISRAEL’S CRACKDOWN ON access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound after two Israeli policemen were killed there in July provoked an eruption of fury among Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem and rocked Israel’s relations with the Arab world (see p. 10). Weeks later, the metal detectors and security cameras have gone and—at the time of writing— Jerusalem is calmer. But the shockwaves are still reverberating, and being felt most keenly far away in northern Israel, in the town of Umm al-Fahm. The three young men who carried out the shootings were from the town’s large Jabareen clan. They were killed on the spot by police. Umm al-Fahm, one of the largest communities for Israel’s 1.7 million Palestinian citizens—a fifth of the population—had already gained a reputation among the Jewish majority for political and religious extremism and anti-Israel sentiment. In large part, that reflected its status as the home of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, led by Sheikh Raed Salah. In late 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu outlawed the Movement as a terror organization, despite his intelligence agencies failing to find evidence to support such a conclusion. (See Jan./Feb. 2016 Washington Report, p. 24.) More likely, Netanyahu’s antipathy toward Salah’s group, and Umm al-Fahm, derives from its trenchant efforts to ensure the strongest possible presence of Muslims at al-Aqsa. As Israel imposed ever tighter restrictions on Palestinians from the occupied territories reaching the mosque, Salah organized regular buses to bring residents to the compound from Umm al-Fahm and surrounding communities. Nonetheless, the three youths’ attack at al-Aqsa has served to
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). OCTOBER 2017
bolster suspicions that Umm alFahm is a hotbed of radicalism and potential terrorism. That impression was reinforced after the Israeli authorities belatedly handed over the three bodies, at judicial insistence, for burial. Although Israel wanted the funerals as low-key as possible, thousands attended the burials. Moshe Arens, a former minister from Netanyahu’s Likud party, expressed a common sentiment: “The gunmen evidently had the support of many in Umm al-Fahm, and others seem prepared to follow in their footsteps.” Yousef Jabareen, who belongs to the Umm al-Fahm extended family and is also a member of the Israeli Knesset, called such accusations unfair. “People in the town were angry that the bodies had been kept from burial in violation of Muslim custom for two weeks,” he said. “There are just a few extended families here, so many people wanted to show solidarity with their relatives, even though they reject the use of violence in our struggle for our civil rights.” Nonetheless, the backlash from Netanyahu was not long in coming. In a leak to Israeli TV, his office said Netanyahu had proposed to the Trump administration ridding Israel of a region known as the Little Triangle, which includes some 300,000 Palestinians citizens. Umm al-Fahm is its main city. The Triangle is a thin sliver of Israeli territory, densely packed with Palestinian citizens, bordering the northwest corner of the West Bank. As part of a future peace deal, Netanyahu reportedly told the Americans during a meeting in late June, Umm al-Fahm and its neighboring communities would be transferred to a future Palestinian state. In effect, Netanyahu was making public his adoption of the longstanding and highly controversial plan of his far-right defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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This would see borders redrawn to allow Israel to annex coveted Jewish settlements in the West Bank in exchange for stripping hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their Israeli citizenship and reassigning their communities to a highly circumscribed Palestinian state. Jamal Zahalka, another member of the Knesset, from Kafr Kara in the Triangle, said Netanyahu was supporting a double crime. “He wins twice over,” he noted. “He gets to annex the illegal settlements to Israel, while he also gets rid of Arab citizens he believes are a threat to his demographic majority.” Lieberman lost no time in congratulating Netanyahu for adopting his idea, tweeting: "Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to the club." With his leak, Netanyahu has given official backing to an aspiration that appears to be secretly harbored by many Israeli politicians—and one that, behind the scenes, they have been pushing increasingly hard with Washington and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority.
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A poll last year showed that nearly half of Israeli Jews want Palestinians expelled from Israel. With Netanyahu now publicly on board, it looks suspiciously like Lieberman’s role over many years has been to bring into the mainstream a policy the liberal newspaper Haaretz has compared to “ethnic cleansing.” Marzuq al-Halabi, a Palestinian-Israeli analyst and researcher at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, believes the move is designed with two aims in mind. It leaves a “constant threat” of expulsion hanging over the heads of the minority as a way to crush political activity and demands for reform, he wrote on the Hebrew website Local Call. And at the same time it casts Palestinian citizens out into a “territorial and governmental emptiness.” Inevitably, the plan revives fears among Palestinian citizens of the Nakba, the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” the mass expulsions that occurred during the 1948 war to create Israel on the ruins of the Palestinian homeland. (Advertisement)
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
The population swap implied that Palestinian citizens “are part of the enemy,” Jabareen observed. “It says we don’t belong in our homeland, that our future is elsewhere.” The idea of a populated land exchange was first formalized by Lieberman more than a decade ago, in 2004, when he unveiled what he grandly called a “Separation of the Nations” program. It quickly won supporters in the U.S., including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The idea of a land and population swap— sometimes termed “static transfer”—was alluded to by former prime ministers, including Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, at around the same time. But only Lieberman set out a clear plan. He suggested stripping as many as 300,000 Palestinians in the Triangle of their Israeli citizenship. Other Palestinian citizens would be expected to make a “loyalty oath” to Israel as a “Jewish Zionist state,” or face expulsion to a Palestinian state. The aim was to achieve two states that were as “ethnically pure” as possible.
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Jabareen noted that Lieberman’s populated land exchange falsely equated the status and fate of Palestinians who are legal citizens of Israel with Jewish settlers living in the West Bank in violation of international law. Lieberman exposed his plan to a bigger audience in 2010, when he addressed the United Nations as foreign minister in the first of Netanyahu’s series of recent governments. Notably, at that time, the prime minister’s advisers distanced him from the proposal. A month after Lieberman’s U.N. speech, it emerged that Israeli security services had carried out secret exercises based on his scenario. They practiced quelling massive civil disturbances following a peace deal that required redrawing the borders to expel large numbers of Palestinian citizens. Behind the scenes, other Israeli officials are known to have supported more limited populated land swaps. Documents leaked in 2011 revealed that, three years earlier, the centrist government of Ehud Olmert had advanced just such a population exchange during peace talks. Then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had proposed moving the border so that several villages in Israel would end up in a future Palestinian state. Notably, however, Umm al-Fahm and other large communities nearby were not mentioned. The political sympathies between Lieberman and Livni—the latter widely seen as a peacemaker by the international community—were nonetheless evident. In late 2007, as Israel prepared for the Annapolis peace conference, Livni described a future Palestinian state as “the answer” for Israel’s Palestinian citizens. She said it was illegitimate for them to seek political reforms aimed at ending Israel’s status as a “home unto the Jewish people.” The first hints that Netanyahu might have adopted Lieberman’s plan came in early 2014, when the Maariv newspaper reported that a population exchange that included the Triangle had been proposed in talks with the administration of President Barack Obama. The hope, according to the paper, was that the transfer would reduce the proportion of Palestinian citizens from a fifth of the population to 12 percent, shoring up the state’s Jewishness. OCTOBER 2017
Now Netanyahu has effectively confirmed that large-scale populated land swaps may become a new condition for any future peace agreement with the Palestinians, observed Jabareen. At Lieberman’s request in 2014, the Israeli Foreign Ministry produced a document outlining ways a land and population exchange could be portrayed as in accordance with international law. Most experts regarded the document’s arguments as specious. The Foreign Ministry concluded that the only hope of justifying the measure would be to show either that the affected citizens supported the move, or that it had the backing of the Palestinian Authority, currently headed by Mahmoud Abbas. Anything short of this would be a nonstarter, because it would either qualify as “forced transfer” of the Triangle’s inhabitants— a war crime—or render them stateless.
APPROVAL WITHHELD
The problem for Israel is that opinion polls have repeatedly shown that no more than a quarter of Palestinians in the Triangle area back being moved into a Palestinian state. Getting their approval is likely to prove formidably difficult. Zahalka rejected claims by Israeli politicians that this opposition was a vote of confidence from Palestinian citizens in Israeli democracy. “Israel has made the West Bank a living hell for Palestinians, and few would choose to inflict such suffering on their own families,” he said. “But it also is because we do not want to be severed from the rest of the Palestinian community in Israel—from our personal, social and economic life.” Jabareen agreed: “We are also connected to places like Nazareth, Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Lyd and Ramle.” He also noted that Netanyahu and Lieberman were talking about redrawing the borders to put only their homes, not their land, inside a future Palestinian state. “Umm alFahm had six times as much land before Israel confiscated it,” he stated. “We still consider those lands as ours, but they are not included in the plan.” It is in this context—one where Palestinian citizens will not consent to their communities
being moved outside Israel’s borders—that parallel political moves by Netanyahu should be understood, said Jabareen. Not least, it helps explain why Netanyahu has made recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by Abbas’ Palestinian Authority a precondition for talks. Aware of the trap being laid for it, the PA has so far refused to offer such recognition. But if it can be arm-twisted into agreement, Netanyahu will be in a much stronger position. He can then impose draconian measures on Palestinians in Israel, including loyalty oaths and an end to their demands for political reform—under threat that, if they refuse, they will be moved to a Palestinian state. At the same time, Netanyahu has been pushing ahead with a new basic law that would define Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, rather than of its entire population. The legislation’s intent is to further weaken the Palestinian minority’s claim to citizenship. Netanyahu’s decision to ban the Islamic Movement as a terror organization fits into the picture as well. In a 2012 report by the International Crisis Group, a Washington- and Brussels-based conflict resolution group, an official in Lieberman’s party explained that one of the covert goals of Lieberman’s plan was to rid Israel of “the heartland of the Islamic Movement.” Conversely, Netanyahu’s Likud allies and coalition partners have been pushing aggressively to annex settlements in the West Bank. Zahalka noted that the prime minister gave his backing in late July to legislation that would expand Jerusalem’s municipal borders to incorporate a number of large settlements—a move that would amount to annexation in all but name. “The deal is, Israel takes Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, and gives Umm al-Fahm and its surroundings to the PA,” he said. The pieces seem to be slowly falling into place for a populated land exchange that would strip hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their Israeli citizenship. Paradoxically, however, the biggest obstacle may prove to be Netanyahu himself— and his reluctance to concede any kind of meaningful state to the Palestinians. ■
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baroud_10-11_From the Diaspora 8/31/17 10:49 AM Page 10
From the Diaspora
Power to the People: Why Palestinian Victory In Jerusalem Is a Pivotal Moment
By Ramzy Baroud
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/GETY IMAGES
stallation, gates, cameras and metal detectors were installed. The people of Jerusalem immediately understood the implication of the Israeli action. In the name of added security measures, the Israeli government was exploiting the situation to change the status of al-Aqsa, as part of its efforts to further isolate Palestinians and Judaize the illegally occupied city. The Israeli army occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem in 1967, annexing it in 1981 in defiance of international law and despite strong U.N. objection. For 50 years, Jerusalem has endured daily battles. The Israelis fought to expand their influence in the city, increase the number of illegal Jewish settlers and cut off Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian territories; while Palestinians, MusMuslim Palestinians wave the national flag and flash the victory sign in front of the Dome of lim and Christians alike, fought back. the Rock, as they entered the Haram al-Sharif compound after ending a two-week strike when Israel removed controversial security barriers it had installed, July 27, 2017. Al-Aqsa compound—also known as Haram Al-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary—is the most symbolic element in the fight. It is a microcosm of the fate NEITHER FATAH NOR HAMAS has been of much relevance of the occupied city, in fact the fate of the entire Palestinian land. to the mass protests staged around al-Aqsa Mosque compound The compound has been administered by Islamic Waqf, in Jerusalem. Neither have American pressure, half-hearted Euthrough an Israeli-Jordanian understanding. Many Israeli politiropean “concern about the situation” or cliché Arab declarations cians in the Likud Party and the Netanyahu-led right-wing govmade one iota of difference. United Nations officials warned of ernment coalition have tried to change this. the grim scenarios of escalation, but their statements were mere Palestinians understand that the fate of their mosque and the words. future of their city are tightly linked. For them, if al-Aqsa is lost, The spontaneous mass movement in Jerusalem, which eventhen Jerusalem is truly conquered. tually defeated Israeli plans to change the status of al-Aqsa, was This fight between Palestinian worshippers and the Israeli army purely a people’s movement. Despite the hefty price of several happens every single day, usually escalating on Friday. It is on dead and hundreds wounded, it challenged both the Israeli govthis holy day for Muslims that tens of thousands of faithful flock ernment and the quisling Palestinian leadership. to al-Aqsa to pray, oftentimes to be met by new military gates and Israel shut down al-Aqsa compound on July 14, following a army regulations. Young Palestinians, in particular, have been shootout between three armed Palestinians and Israeli occupablocked from reaching al-Aqsa, also in the name of security. tion officers. The compound was reopened a few days later, but But the struggle for Jerusalem can rarely be expressed in Palestinian worshippers refused to enter, as massive security innumbers, death toll and televised reports. It is the ordinary PalesRamzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of palestine chronitinians’ constant fight for space, for identity and to preserve the cle. His forthcoming book is the last earth: a palestinian story. sanctity of their holy land. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter In the last two years, the fight escalated further, as Israel and is a non-resident scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and Interbegan expanding its illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and national Studies, University of California. Visit his website: <www.ramzybaroud.net>. right-wing parties issued a series of laws targeting Palestinians 10
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in the city. One such law is the call for prayer law, aimed at preventing mosques from making the call for prayers at dawn, as has been the practice for a millennium. Palestinian youth, many born after the failed Oslo accords, are fed up as the Israeli military controls every aspect of their lives and their corrupt leadership grows more irrelevant and self-serving. This frustration has been expressed in numerous ways: in nonviolent resistance, new political ideas, in art, music, on social media, but also through individual acts of violent resistance. Since the most recent al-Quds intifada—Jerusalem uprising—started in October 2015, “some 285 Palestinians have died in alleged attacks, protests and [Israeli] army raids,” reported Farah Najjar and Zena Tahhan. About 47 Israelis were killed in that same period. But the intifada was somehow contained and managed. Certainly, human rights groups protested many of the army killings of Palestinians as unnecessary or unprovoked, but little has changed on the ground. The Palestinian Authority has continued to operate almost entirely independent from the violent reality faced by its people on a daily basis. The shootout of July 14 could have registered as yet another violent episode of many that have been reported in Jerusalem in recent months. Following such events, the Israeli official discourse ignores the military occupation entirely and focuses instead on Israel’s security problem caused by “Palestinian terror.” Politicians then swoop in with new laws, proposals and radical ideas to exploit a tragic situation and remold the status quo. Considering the numerous odds faced by Palestinians, every rational political analysis would have rightly concluded that Palestinians were losing this battle as well. With the United States fully backing Israeli measures and the international community growing distant and disinterested, the people of Jerusalem could not stand a chance. But such understanding of conflict, however logical, often proves terribly wrong, since it casually overlooks the people. OCTOBER 2017
THOMAS COEX/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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Israeli security forces are seen next to newly installed metal detectors outside a main entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, July 18, 2017. In this latest confrontation, Palestinians of Jerusalem won, presenting an impressive model of mobilization and popular solidarity for all Palestinians. The Israeli army removed the barricades and the metal detectors, pushing Israel to the brink of a political crisis involving angry politicians, the army and internal intelligence, the Shin Bet. The people’s victory was a massive embarrassment for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. He tried to “piggyback off the protests” but failed, reported the Atlantic. Other factions, too, moved quickly to mobilize on the people’s victory, but their efforts have appeared staged and insincere. “Today is a joyful day, full of celebration and sorrow at the same time—sorrow for the people who lost their lives and were injured,” a protester told journalists, as thousands stormed the gates of Jerusalem armed with their prayer rugs, flags and voices hoarse from chanting for nearly two weeks. “This is very much a grassroots movement—this isn’t led by Hamas or Fatah, the traditional political leaders of the Palestinians,” journalist Imran Khan reported from outside the compound. This grassroots movement was made of thousands of women, men and children. They included Zeina Amro, who cooked daily for those who held steadfast outside the compound, was shot by a rubber bullet in the head, yet returned to urge
the men to stand their ground the following day. It also includes the child Yousef Sakafi, whose chores included splashing water over people as they sat endless hours under the unforgiving sun, refusing to move. It also includes many Palestinian Christians who came to pray with their Muslim brethren. Conveying the scene from Jerusalem, television news footage and newspaper photos showed massive crowds of people, standing, sitting, praying or running in disarray among bullets, sound bombs and gas canisters. But the crowds are made up of individuals, the likes of Zeina, Yousef and many more, all driven by their insistence to face injustice with their bare chests in an inspiring display of human tenacity. Of course, more violence will follow, as the Israeli occupation is enriched and relentless, but ordinary Palestinians will not quit the fight. They have held resolute for nearly 70 years. Rational political analysis cannot possibly fathom how a nation undergoing numerous odds can still mobilize against an army, and win. But the power of the people often exceeds what is seemingly rational. Almost leaderless, Palestinians remain a strong nation, united by an identity that is predicated on the pillars of human rights, resistance and steadfastness. ■
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Special Report
Abducted From Their Homeland by Israel’s Mustarebeen
By Kate Daher
ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
port, p. 11.) To this day, Israel refuses to compensate Ahmad Dawabsheh, a 4-yearold toddler at the time, who was badly burned and barely survived this unforgettable brutality. Nor did I think I would meet my friend’s family again, but two years later I am sitting on his deck with his visiting parents, whom I first met in that village near Duma when I spent an afternoon eating lunch in their home and touring their village. Tonight, as my friend translates, his father is smoking a tobacco-filled hookah pipe while his mother serves tea with fresh mint. Much has changed for them since our first meeting in the summer of 2015. Now, their 17-year-old son is in an Israeli prison, while their 27-year-old son is being held in a different prison inside Israel. In the fall of 2015—just two months after our A member of Israel’s undercover Mustarebeen arrests a Palestinian demonstrator near the Jewish West Bank settlement of Beit El, outside Ramallah, during protests against Israel’s “secu- visit—their younger son was playing with a rity measures” at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, July 28, 2017. friend on his mother’s iPad in the family store when the Internet suddenly went out. The boys thought this might be another electrical blackout, since For this article, unfortunately, I’m compelled to omit the names this occurs frequently in the occupied Palestinian territories. Inof those I am writing about in order to protect the innocent from stead, three men with guns drawn stormed the building and retribution—that is, the Palestinians who will suffer further under forced the two young men into a back room, threatening to kill Israel’s notorious collective punishment policy if the injured comthem if they made any noise. What the boys didn’t realize was plain too loudly. that parked outside was a minibus used to haul Palestinians away from their homes and into Israeli prisons. The unmarked vans are AS WE BATHED in the light of a stunning blue moon at Wadi used by Israeli special forces, who are backed by the Israeli army, Rum in Jordan, my traveling companion and I were unaware that, and bear white Palestinian license plates, instead of the yellow at almost that very hour, Israeli settlers were burning to death a ones reserved for Israelis. The special forces are called “MustarePalestinian baby boy in the village of Duma—not far from another been” in Arabic, “Duvdevan” in Hebrew, or “Arabized” in EngPalestinian village in the West Bank we had left just a few days lish—meaning “they look like Arabs.” This enables them to move earlier, after visiting a friend’s family and siblings. The Dawabmore freely in the land they occupy and where they do not besheh family was being tortured and torched by settlers who had long. graffitied their small house with the word, “REVENGE.” The setThat day in Palestine, the special forces unit kidnapped the tlers proceeded to throw firebombs into the open windows of the teenagers and beat them in the back of the van. When the older sleeping family’s home, killing 18-month-old Ali, his father, Saad, son discovered the destruction and damage to his shop, he asand his mother, Riham. (See September 2015 Washington Resumed a robbery had taken place, since multiple items were missing (and never returned). He quickly gathered some friends Kate Daher is a recently retired history/social studies teacher in Pittsand drove to the outskirts of the village to look for his younger burgh. She has been involved in Palestine solidarity work since the mid-1970s and has traveled to the region three times since 2003. brother. Soon enough, they came upon the security van. When 12
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chooses to see his parents. Traveling by bus between Bethlehem and Jerusalem during my last visit, I witnessed a similar event, though under less severe conditions. At one point, the bus was stopped by Israeli VIOLATING security, and all the PalestinINTERNATIONAL LAW ian passengers were required to get off and show Arresting Palestinians in the their papers to the soldiers at West Bank and transporting the checkpoint. The rest of us them to Israel is a violation of remained on the bus and international law. According waited quietly. I watched as to an article in the April 26 each Palestinian obeyed the Washington Post, “approxiorder to hand over their passmately 40 percent of Palestinbooks, and was surprised to ian males have been arrested see that one elderly woman or detained at some time.” In was not getting back on the the words of Amnesty Interbus. I asked the other pasnational, “Israel’s decadessengers what was happenlong policy of detaining Palesing, and they explained that tinians from the occupied she was detained because West Bank and Gaza, in pris“there was a small tear in her ons inside Israel, and deprivpassbook.” The guards did ing them of regular family visnot remove her belongings, its is not only cruel but also a blatant violation of interna- A Palestinian passenger who was not allowed to reboard the bus to including her purse, from the Jerusalem because of a “small tear in her passbook” is left stranded at the bus. They remained on an tional law…” empty seat near mine as the Indeed, the trip to visit fam- side of the road without her belongings. bus drove away. She stood ily members in prison is its own special nightmare—a long, arduous, might see him, for fear that his injuries would outside, her back straight, hands folded in and often unsuccessful, process. Israeli worsen if he was transported in this vehicle. front of her. The silence on the bus was deafening. When I realized that something authorities frequently deny families a visi- “A rough ride,” as his father described it. In the case of my friend’s family, because was terribly wrong, I quickly snapped her tation permit—the first step in the process. Family visitation rights were at the heart of his brothers are held in separate prisons, photo. All the sorrow, anguish and humiliation the recent 40-day hunger strike led by their parents are required to travel on difPalestinian political prisoner Marwan ferent days, doubling the arduous process: of several decades of occupation were visapplying for permits, leaving at 4 a.m. to ible on her pained face as she stood on Barghouti. Another issue in the strike was the use of catch the bus, passing through Israeli mili- the side of the road. As I continued our conversation with my vehicles called Postas to take prisoners tary checkpoints—and with no guarantee from the prisons to their military court hear- that they will see their son. Many visiting friend’s parents back here in the States, I ings. Unlike their Israeli settler “neighbors,” family members are denied entrance at the asked about the crimes allegedly committed by their sons. It seems that someone Palestinians living in the occupied territories prison gate, without explanation. To date, the older son remains in critical had fired a weapon close to an Israeli setare not entitled to civil trials. The Posta features small metal cells that increase the need of medical attention as a result of his tlement, and, while no one was injured, hand- and foot-cuffed prisoners’ pain and gunshot wounds. On at least two occa- several young people were made to apbruising when they are tossed around in the sions, the prison authorities scheduled his pear in front of military courts and then back of the vehicle (similar to the way Fred- surgery on the same day they scheduled sentenced to prison terms. Genuinely surprised by my question, die Gray suffered during his fatal ride in a his parental visits—undoubtedly another Baltimore police van). In the early days of use of collective punishment. Forced to “what was their crime?” the father took a his imprisonment, the elder brother missed choose between visiting with his parents minute to respond. “Their crime,” he said, scheduled court hearings, where his parents and taking care of his own health, he “is that they love their country.” ■ PHOTO K. DAHER
the elder son jumped out of his car, he was immediately fired upon: 10 shots, 4 of which penetrated his body. The parents had no idea this was happening until some time later.
OCTOBER 2017 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017
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Special Report
Europe Must Not Buy What Israel Is Selling To Combat Terror
By Jeff Halper
JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
take the necessary precautions, we are not going to forsake our freedoms and political openness to become copies of Israel. For they understand that Netanyahu’s government is peddling something far more insidious than mere precautions—even more than the weapons, surveillance and security systems and models of population control that is the bread-andbutter of Israeli exports. What Israel is urging onto the Europeans—and Americans, Canadians, Indians, Mexicans, Australians and anyone else who will listen—is nothing less than an entirely new concept of a state, the Security State. What is a Security State? Essentially, it is a state that places security SupervisIR, a ground-based infrared surveillance system made by the Israeli company Elbit Systems, above all else, certainly above is unveiled to journalists in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on June 8, 2016, a week before its pre- democracy, due process of law and sentation at the Eurosatory defense and security international exhibition. human rights, all of which it considers “liberal luxuries” in a world awash in terrorism. Israel presents itself as no less than the model for WHENEVER A TERRORIST attack happens such as the Aug. 17 countries of the future. You Europeans and others should not be one in Barcelona, Israeli politicians and security “experts” get on criticizing us, say Katz and Netanyahu, you should be imitating TV to criticize European naiveté. If only they understood terrorism us. For look at what we have done. We have created a vibrant as we do and took the preventive measures we do, they say, they democracy from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River that prowould suffer far fewer attacks. Most infamous in this regard were vides its citizens with a flourishing economy and personal secuthe remarks of Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz after the rity—even though half the population of that country are terrorists Brussels bombing in March 2016, in which 34 people died. (i.e., non-citizen Palestinians living in isolated enclaves of the Rather than convey his condolences in the name of the Israeli country). If we can achieve that, imagine what we can offer those government, he scolded the Belgians in the most patronizing of you threatened by terrorist attacks? way possible. “If in Belgium they continue to eat chocolate, enjoy In a brilliant shift in imaging, Israel has managed to turn 50 life and parade as great liberals and democrats while not taking years of Palestinian resistance to occupation into a cottage inaccount of the fact that some of the Muslims who are there are dustry. By labeling it “terrorism,” it has not only delegitimized the organizing acts of terror,” he pronounced, “they will not be able Palestinian struggle but has transformed the occupied territories to fight against them.” into a laboratory of counterinsurgency and population control, The Belgians reacted angrily, and asserted the position of most the cutting edges of both foreign wars and domestic repression. European governments: While we will continue to be vigilant and It has transformed tactics of control and their accompanying Jeff Halper is an American-born Israeli anthropologist, head of the Isweapons of surveillance systems into marketable products. No rael Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and author of wonder, as Netanyahu constantly reminds us, “the world” loves War against the people: israel, the palestinians and global pacifiIsrael. From China to Saudi Arabia, from India to Mexico, from cation (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). Copyright © haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved. Eritrea to Kazakhstan, Israel supplies the means by which re14
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pressive regimes control their restless peoples. Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vast military reach is well-documented. It extends to more than 130 countries and brought in $6.5 billion in sales in 2016. Less known but more corrosive to civil rights are Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s security exports. Three examples: 1. Israel harnesses foreign security agencies and police forces to lobby for Security State practices in their own countries. It scoffs at the unwillingness of Western democracies to employ ethnic and racial profiling, as Israeli security and police do at Ben-Gurion International Airport and throughout the country. In specific contexts like airports, profiling may indeed be efficientâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Ben-Gurion is certainly one of the safest airports in the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but it comes at the price of humiliating and delaying those targeted. When extended outward into society, however, it loses that effectiveness and almost invariably turns into a legalized method of intimidation against whatever populations a government seeks to control. 2. The Israeli national police holds dozens of training programs and conferences with police forces from around the world, with an emphasis not on domestic police tactics but rather on â&#x20AC;&#x153;internal counterinsurgencyâ&#x20AC;? and the pacification of troublesome populations. The Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Center in the U.S. claims to have had 24,000 American police trained by their Israeli counterparts. Unlike other Western countries that erect a wall between their militaries that conduct operations abroad and their domestic security and police agencies charged with ensuring the security but also the civil rights of their citizens, Israel has no such internal constraints. The IDF and the police are one interlocked unit, with paramilitary forcesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Shin Bet, the Border Police, Homefront Command, Yasam and othersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;further connecting them. Thus in Israel the distinction between citizens with civil rights and non-citizen â&#x20AC;&#x153;suspectsâ&#x20AC;? and targets gets lost, and that is a distinction Israeli police try to erase in their training of foreign police as well. 3. Israel is a world leader in securing cities, mega-events and â&#x20AC;&#x153;non-governableâ&#x20AC;? zones. There is a direct link between its OCTOBER 2017
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WWW -USLIMLINKPAPER COM lock-down of Palestinian neighborhoods, villages and refugee camps and the marketing of such tactics to local police to create sanitized â&#x20AC;&#x153;security zonesâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;perimeter defensesâ&#x20AC;? around financial cores, government districts, embassies, venues where the G-8 and NATO hold their summit meetings, oil platforms and fuel depots, conference centers in â&#x20AC;&#x153;insecureâ&#x20AC;? Third World settings, tourist destinations, malls, airports and seaports, sites of mega events and the homes and travel routes of the wealthy. So involved is Israel in Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s border wall that is nicknamed the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Palestine-Mexico border.â&#x20AC;? There the Israeli firm Magna BSP, which provides surveillance systems surrounding Gaza, has partnered with U.S. firms to enter the lucrative â&#x20AC;&#x153;border securityâ&#x20AC;? market. NICE Systems, whose technicians are graduates of the IDFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 8200 surveillance
unit. Privacy International investigated how the autocratic governments of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan managed to monitor human rights activists, journalists and other citizens within and outside their countries, revealing the most intimate details of their personal lives. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The biggest players,â&#x20AC;? concluded Human Rights Watch, â&#x20AC;&#x153;are multinationals with offices in Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; NICE Systems and Verint.â&#x20AC;? In its ultimate form the Security State peddled by Netanyahu and Katz is merely a form of police state whose populace is easily manipulated by an obsession with security. Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s model is especially invidious because it works; witness the pacification of the Palestinians. That seems like a potent selling point indeed. The problem is that it turns a countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own people into Palestinians without rights. It would seem that the Security State can be reconciled with democracyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;after all, Israel markets itself as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the only democracy in the Middle East.â&#x20AC;? But only the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s privileged few will enjoy the democratic protections of the Security State, as do Israeli Jews. The masses, those who resist repression and exclusion from the capitalist system, those who struggle for genuine democracy, are doomed to be global Palestinians. The Israelization of governments, militaries and security forces means the Palestinianization of most of the rest of us. â&#x2013;
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Gaza on the Ground
Surrounded by the Mediterranean’s Water, But Nothing From the Faucets to Drink
By Mohammed Omer
MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
wells—a risky project which not only costs $4,000 to $5,000, but further depletes the already scarce aquifer water reserves. This, however, is not an option for Abu Jaber, living as he does in a city filled with high-rise apartment buildings. And even if it were, without electricity, he couldn’t pump the water up to his apartment. Abu Jaber knows that, with his connection to the Ramallah-based PA, most Gazans view him as a member of the elite. While it’s true that he is able to occasionally enjoy a cold drink on the terrace of a famous hotel in Ramallah, the next evening finds him back in his Gaza apartment without water to flush the toilet. “We live in a mad world,” he told the Washington Report. “We are only 30 miles away from Israel, but observe a huge difference in quality of A barefoot boy drags a basket holding a container of water down a Gaza City street, Aug. 21, 2017. life and human rights. God never said we should endure such an inhumane life—I can no longer stand it!” “IN MY APARTMENT, I have no water to flush the toilet,” says Most Gazans buy water from water trucks that roam the 41-year-old Abu Jaber, a PA employee who lives in Gaza. “Can streets—but that water is for drinking and costs 15 to 20 times you believe this?” He goes on to describe how, for the past more than water from Gaza’s pipeline network. It would be unweek, in the unbearable heat of August, there has been no water heard of to purchase this drinking water for toilet use—but Abu supply to his residence. Jaber has no other option. Each 1,000 liters of drinking water He must buy all his drinking water, and carry it up to his ninthcosts Abu Jaber 25 NIS (about $7)—money that should be spent floor apartment overlooking the beach. Lots of southern Mediteron supplies for his children’s coming school year. ranean Sea water to look at through the window, but no clean At least he is lucky that he can afford it, since 80 percent of fresh water in his water tank for drinking and basic hygiene—the Gaza’s 2 million residents cannot, forced instead to rely on chariresult of ongoing power outages of up to 23 hours a day followties for their basic living expenses. ing PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ request that Israel cut its Already Gaza’s water supply is less than the World Health Orpower supply to Gaza from 120 megawatts to 48 megawatts a ganization daily average of 100 liters per person, and many thouday (see Aug./Sept. 2017 Washington Report, p. 10). sands of families are suffering as a result, according to the Some Gaza residents have tried to get around the problem by United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs. digging 30 to 40 meters underground to build their own water Residents of many Gaza villages have no option but to dig unlicensed wells for water that is often unhygienic and untreated. Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports regularly on the Gaza Strip. Follow him on Twitter: @MoGaza. The Palestinian Water Authority says there are around 10,000 16
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wells across the Gaza Strip, including 300 municipal wells, 2,700 agricultural wells and 7,000 unlicensed water wells. Before Israel imposed its punitive siege on Gaza, the local government used to fine these unauthorized wells, but now their number simply continues to increase. The choice, after all, is between life from water dug from underground aquifers—or death. “Gaza Ten Years Later,” a recent U.N. report on the effect of the Israeli siege, declared: “Despite the warnings issued by the U.N. in 2012, Gaza has continued on its trajectory of de-development, in many cases even faster than the U.N. had originally projected.” The report found that access to safe drinking water in Gaza through the public water network plummeted from 98.3 percent in 2000 to a mere 10.5 percent in 2014—compared to almost 97 percent in the West Bank. It’s no surprise then that, during the same period, Gazans’ reliance on water-tank trucks, containers and bottled water rose from 1.4 percent to 89.6 percent.
The resilience of Gazans seems to characterize a lot of stories one hears on a daily basis. Abu Hajjaj, for example, a farmer in Khan Younes, said, “It’s been tough with frequent water outages—but who will listen to our complaints—no one listens—all states are busy with their own affairs.” A related risk, rarely mentioned in the international media, is the amount of untreated or partially treated wastewater released into the Mediterranean Sea every day. That amount has increased from 90,000 cubic meters (CM) per day in 2012 to 100,000 CM per day in 2016. Due to the electricity crisis, the U.N. report documented an even further increase—to 108,000 CM per day. In July, Israel’s Ministry of Health instructed the country’s national water company, Mekorot, to close two piping stations near the border with Gaza, over fears that Gaza’s sewage dumping would pollute the water in Israeli aquifers. The PA pays Mekorot for about 5 mil-
lion CM of water it supplies to a small area of Gaza. Given Gaza’s growing population, however, this is nowhere near enough. Moreover, Israel’s continued ban on construction materials that allegedly could have “a dual use,” has also limited Gaza’s ability to rebuild damaged water stations and build new water desalination plants. Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) is currently prioritizing the operation of 55 sewage pumping stations to avoid massive localized flooding, which could pose a threat to human lives, particularly in winter. To Abu Jaber, however, this does not offer much hope of change for the better. “We are humans, and have basic rights and needs that should be kept into consideration,” he states. “Gaza Ten Years Later” forecast that by 2020 Gaza’s coastal aquifer will be irreversibly damaged. But, says Abu Jaber, “It is already 2020 in Gaza. Please tell the world!” ■
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The Nakba Continues
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters Helps Tear Down The Last Taboo
Musician Roger Waters (c) performs with children wearing T-shirts saying “Tear Down the Wall” in Spanish at an Oct. 16, 2016 concert in Indio, CA. IT’S A FACT THAT AMERICANS and the rest of the world are partial to our celebrities. So when a cultural icon speaks out or tweets a political opinion, it makes an impact that most politicians can only dream of (unless that politician happens to be a former celebrity). Over the years some larger-than-life heroes have spoken out in support of the Palestinian struggle for an independent state, but it used to cost them—until now. Movie stars and filmmakers used to get away with racist, anti-Arab or Islamophobic views, but now more often than not that prejudice costs at the box office. Criticizing Israel is no longer the last taboo in the entertainment business. Athletes, actors, artists, authors, musicians and others—many of them Jewish—have played a vital role in showing Americans that criticism of Israeli actions isn’t anti-Semitic. Roger Waters, the famous British singer and songwriter who co-founded the legendary rock band Pink Floyd in 1965, is one celebrity leading the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Delinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report on Middle east affairs. 18
KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES
By Delinda C. Hanley
(BDS). In an open letter he wrote in July 2013, Waters asked his fellow musicians to join him in refusing to perform in Israel. When he was subsequently attacked by the pro-Israel lobby, he responded, “To peacefully protest against Israel’s racist domestic and foreign policies is NOT ANTI-SEMITIC. For U.S. and most of EU governments, any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism and is not accepted. It’s the same in Hollywood: criticizing Israel is forbidden!” In the past few years, Waters has helped change that unwritten rule. Pink Floyd achieved international success, becoming one of the most successful groups in the history of popular music by the 1980s. Waters left the group in 1985. In 1990, he staged one of the largest and most extravagant rock concerts in history, “The Wall—Live in Berlin,” with an official attendance of 200,000. In 2010, he began “The Wall Live” tour. As of 2017, that tour is the highest grossing of all time by a
solo artist. This past June Waters released his first solo album in nearly 25 years, “Is This the Life We Really Want?” It’s full of songs protesting war, world leaders and the plight of refugees. Waters sings of homes “bulldozed to the ground,” of “Broken Bones” and “The Last Refugee.” This year’s “Us+Them” tour—54 shows across North America—is not without controversy for its provocative Trump-slamming imagery. For years his shows featured an inflatable floating pig emblazoned with a Jewish star, a Crucifix, the Crescent and Star, the Hammer and Sickle, the Shell Oil logo and the McDonald’s sign, a Dollar sign and a Mercedes sign... The Greater Miami Jewish Federation ran an ad in the Miami Herald protesting Waters’ July 23 concert there. As a result the Miami Beach Parks Department canceled plans for 12 teen club students to join him on stage. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington produced a social media video campaign criticizing Waters’ support for BDS before his concerts Aug. 4 and 5 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
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ENTERTAINERS DEFY INTIMIDATION—AND SURVIVE
Athletes, actors, artists, authors and musicians play a vital role in politics.The popular British actresses Emma Thompson and Vanessa Redgrave have supported Palestinian rights. Hollywood actors Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman cancelled plans to attend a Jerusalem film festival following Israel’s 2012 raid on the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla. Famous American comedian Whoopi Goldberg condemned the Israeli attacks on Gaza in a tweet. During Israel’s 2014 “Operation Protective Edge,” which killed 2,205 Palestinians, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, along with 100 other celebrities, signed an open letter condemning Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Far from facing a threatened Hollywood blacklist, the couple just finished filming "Murder on the Orient Express.” Selena Gomez received some backlash after posting a message that read, “It’s About Humanity. Pray for Gaza.” Today she has millions of likes on her Facebook page. Jon Stewart, the iconic, influential former host of the “The Daily Despite the controversies, Waters’ show’s message is that love conquers all. During the hit song, “Another Brick in the Wall,” local children rip off prison jumpsuits and dance in liberation. Waters’ creative director and show designer Sean Evans told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “If he was going to go and bring a show around the world at his age [73], he wanted it to be full of meaning and full of commentary.” Waters told CNN: “In life you have to make your choice as to whether you do the right thing or the thing that makes you the most money...It would be a lot easier to be on tour if I wasn’t doing any of this, if I didn’t have opinions.” Waters refuses to play in Israel and tries to convince famous performers, like the band Radiohead, not to hold concerts there, either. Waters and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu launched a BDS petition against Radiohead asking the British band to cancel a concert in response to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. In a Nov. 2, 2015 Rolling Stone interview, Waters stated: “If Israel works toward equality and actual, real, genuine democracy, with no apartheid or racism infecting the society, then I will go over there and play ‘The Wall’ again. [Waters relocated a concert from Tel Aviv to Neve Shalom, the Oasis of Peace Village, in 2006.] It’s not the Israeli people, OCTOBER 2017
Show,” never minced words in his harsh critiques of Israel, nor has his successor, Trevor Noah. It would be hard to find an American or international rapper who doesn’t support Palestinian rights, but Lupe Fiasco’s songs, which normally hit the number one spot on music charts worldwide, fearlessly criticizes the “War on Terror,” Islamophobia, and Israel’s occupation. The American hip-hop star has carried a Palestinian flag in his concerts and condemned Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese football celebrity, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, and Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon have all supported Palestinians. The most influential physicist in the world, Stephen Hawking, has shown his solidarity with Palestine by condemning Israeli actions and supporting an academic boycott of Israel. Celebrities’ voices matter and they gain new fans every time they choose peace and justice and defy intimidation. —D.C.H.
not Jews, not Judaism. I would never dream of attacking them. In fact, a lot of the Israelis are the people who are fighting the hardest because they believe it is the most effective tool for changing policies of their own government.” The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) hosted a Facebook Live conversation with Waters on July 15. When asked if he would perform “The Wall” show in Israel, Waters replied, “If Palestinians achieve self-determination I will go back. I’ll put the performance together myself and perform in celebration...While some performers think they can go, cross the picket line, and sit around the campfire and change from within, I’ve been there and it doesn’t work.” He tried to speak out to Israelis in 2006, Waters recalled, and “they look at you as if you’re mad...I faced a steel wall of incomprehension.” A Facebook fan in the West Bank city of Jenin asked Waters if the price he was paying is too steep and “if the campaign to smear you and demonize you is worth it.” Waters responded, “It’s simple. I can stand with the oppressed or the oppressor. I can’t stand with both. I am blessed—it’s not a burden—to have principles...It’s our responsibility to be human to each other and respect fundamental rules of law...I’d rather die than
roll over in front of an apartheid state.” Americans have been told their whole lives that Israel is a tiny David defeating Goliath, but the boot is entirely on the other foot, Rogers continued during the PACBI chat. We’re told this situation is terribly complicated. But as Waters said, “This isn’t that complicated. When someone steals your car, it’s still your car even if they paint it. One group stole the lives of others. They have to give the land back.” Asked if BDS works, Waters replied, “Would you want to live in a country where no one wants to play international soccer with you? That will happen, like it did in South Africa. It’s coming.” American Express withdrew its $4 million sponsorship of Waters’ tour, and Nassau County, NY lawmakers and Jewish leaders called on the Nassau Coliseum to cancel his performance. The Coliseum refused, saying Waters’ opinions are protected speech. “People are turned off” by this kind of attack, Waters said. “It sheds light on what we’re talking about. It tears up the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights.” During his performances, Waters said he can see the faces of his audience as he performs “Is this the Life We Really Want?” It’s clear to him that people don’t want to live in a state of constant war. ■
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Two Views
Trump, Congress Target Iran
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began on July 17, when he reluctantly had to certify that Iran indeed was in compliance. Both the U.S. intelligence as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency had confirmed Tehran’s fair play. But Trump threw a tantrum in the Oval Office and berated his national security team for not having found a way to claim Iran was cheating. According to Foreign Policy, the adults in the room—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster—eventually calmed Trump down, but only on the condition that they double down on finding a way for the president to blow up the deal by October. Prior to the revelation of Trump’s Iran certification meltdown, most analysts and diplomats believed that Trump’s rhetoric on Iran was just that—empty talk. His bark was worse than his bite, as demonstrated when he certified Iran’s compliActivists rally in front of the White House to commemorate the second anniversary of the nuance back in April and when he renewed clear deal with Iran, July 17, 2017. sanctions waivers in May. The distance between his rhetoric and actual policy was tangible. Rhetorically, Trump officials described Iran as the root of all problems in the Middle East and as the greatest state sponsor of terror. Trump even suggested he might quit the deal. By Trita Parsi In action, however, President Trump continued to waive sanctions and admitted that Iran was adhering to the deal. As a reSomething extraordinary has happened in Washington. Presisult, many concluded that Trump would continue to fulfill the dent Donald Trump has made it clear, in no uncertain terms and obligations of the deal while sticking to his harsh rhetoric in order with no effort to disguise his duplicity, that he will claim that to appease domestic opponents of the nuclear deal—as well as Tehran is cheating on the nuclear deal by October—the facts be Trump’s allies in Saudi Arabia and Israel. damned. In short, the fix is in. Trump will refuse to accept that But now, assessments are changing. The tangible danger of Iran is in compliance and thereby set the stage for a military conTrump’s malice on the Iran deal—as well as the danger of the frontation. His advisers have even been kind enough to explain advice of the “adults in the room”—became further clarified two how they will go about this. Rarely has a sinister plan to destroy weeks later as tidbits of the reality TV star’s plans began to leak. an arms control agreement and pave the way for war been so openly telegraphed. HOW TO WRECK A DEAL The unmasking of Trump’s plans to sabotage the nuclear deal Recognizing that refusing to certify Iran would isolate the United States, Trump’s advisers gave him another plan. Use the spot-inTrita Parsi is president of the National Iranian American Council and spections mechanism of the nuclear deal, they suggested, to dethe author of Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). mand access to a whole set of military sites in Iran. Once Iran
The Mask Is Off: Trump Is Seeking War With Iran
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balks—which it will, since the mechanism is only supposed to be used if tangible evidence exists that those sites are being used for illicit nuclear activities—Trump can claim that Iran is in violation, blowing up the nuclear deal while shifting the blame to Tehran. Thus, the advice of the adults in the room—those who are supposed to restrain Trump—was not to keep the highly successful nuclear deal that has taken both an Iranian bomb and war with Iran off the table. Rather, they recommended killing it in a manner that would conceal Trump’s malice and shift the cost to Iran. According to The New York Times, the groundwork for this strategy has already been laid. Senate Foreign Relations chair Bob Corker (R-TN) calls this strategy “radical enforcement” of the deal. “If they don’t let us in,” Corker told The Washington Post, “boom.” Then he added: “You want the breakup of this deal to be about Iran. You don’t want it to be about the U.S., because we want our allies with us.” This is a charade, a rerun of the machinations that resulted in the Iraq war. It doesn’t matter what Iran does or doesn’t do. If it were up to Trump, he’d never have accepted that Iran was in compliance in the first place. He admitted as much to the Wall Street Journal. “If it was up to me, I would have had them [the Iranians] non-compliant 180 days ago.” Sounding supremely confident of the “radical implementation” strategy, Trump added that “I think they’ll be noncompliant [in October].” In so doing, he further confirmed doubts that the process is about determining whether Iran is in compliance or not. The administration is committed to finding a way to claim Iran has violated the accord, regardless of the facts—just as George W. Bush did with Iraq.
POTENTIAL FOR BACKFIRE
But Trump’s confidence may be misplaced on two levels. First, abusing the inspection mechanisms of the deal may prove harder than Trump has been led to believe. The inspections are the cornerstone of the deal, and Iran’s ability to cheat on the deal is essentially non-existent as long as the integrity and efficiency of the inspections remain intact. But if Trump begins to abuse the mechanism to fabricate a conflict, he will end up undermining the inspections regime and actually enhance the ability of those in Iran who would like to pursue a covert nuclear program. Precisely because of the commitment of Europe and others to nonproliferation, they are likely to resist Trump’s efforts to tinker with the inspections. Second, by revealing his hand, Trump has displayed his duplicity for all to see. That includes the American public, whose anti-war sentiments remain strong and are a key reason they supported the nuclear deal in the first place. The American public knows the Iraq playbook quite well. Trump’s own supporters remain enraged by the disastrous war with Iraq. They know how they got played. It’s difficult to imagine why they would allow themselves to get played again by a president who has left little doubt about his intent to deceive. OCTOBER 2017
Sanctions: Can Iran Avoid Taking the Bait? By Shireen T. Hunter
THE U.S. HOUSE of Representatives has just imposed new sanctions on Iran as well as on Russia and North Korea. The Iran sanctions have been justified based on its missile development and its disregard of human rights, plus its so-called destabilizing activities in the Middle East. Because technically these sanctions are not new, they cannot be strictly speaking considered a violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). However, they will undoubtedly undermine the success of the nuclear deal. Already, the Trump administration’s hostile rhetoric and its constant attacks on the JCPOA, and even President Trump’s own statements to the effect that Iran has violated the spirit of the accord, have given new life to opponents of the deal in Iran. These opponents, meanwhile, have become emboldened in their attacks on President Hassan Rouhani, frequently pointing out the weakness of the JCPOA from Iran’s perspective and, in general, questioning the wisdom of trusting America. After the announcement of the congressional sanctions, some hard-liners have claimed that the Rouhani government’s passivity in the face of what they see as U.S. provocations has been responsible for new U.S. pressure and threats against Iran. For example, one commentator claimed that Washington can continue to pressure Tehran because it does not pay any price for such behavior. Such statements ignore the fact that Iran will suffer much more than the United States in any real confrontation. Nevertheless, if the JCPOA doesn’t deliver any concrete results, such arguments might become more popular among Iranians and thus weaken President Rouhani’s position. The JCPOA’s detractors in Congress and within the Trump administration would indeed like to see Iran jettison the agreement and thus provide a casus belli to those who favor a military strike on Iran, possibly as an initial step toward a change of the country’s political system and leadership. For instance, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reportedly believes that the United States should not be the first to exit the JCPOA because in doing so it will lose European backing. Instead, Corker maintains that, through increased pressures, the United States should force the Iranian government to initiate withdrawal from the agreement. Nor is this a very imaginative approach. It is a common practice both in individual interactions and among collectivities to force a competitor’s decision by testing its patience and forcing it to do something self-destructive. Continued on p. 25
Shireen T. Hunter is a Research Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Her latest publication is God On Our Side: Religion in International Affairs. Copyright © 2008-2017 Lobe Log.com.
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Special Report
Turkey’s Refugee Camps at the Dawn of By Javier Delgado Rivera Summer
ABOVE: Curious Syrian and Iraqi refugee children in the Kahramanmaraş refugee camp inspect this journalist while younger ones keep playing, unimpressed by the presence of the camera. The large banner at the back features a distressed child facing an image of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Note the solar panels installed at the top of each container block: they are used to heat water and provide electricity to the households. RIGHT: Women and children shelter in the shade between their container units while laundry dries in the scorching summer sun above a broken sofa sitting outside a container block.
Javier Delgado Rivera is a New York-based free-lance journalist whose articles have appeared in media outlets around the world, including the south china Morning post, Middle east eye and open democracy. He also runs @TheUNTimes, a leading Twitter feed on U.N. affairs, and can be reached at <editor@theuntimes.org>. 22
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PHOTOS JAVIER DELGADO RIVERA
IN LATE JUNE, I visited some of the 23 camps that Turkey operates to provide shelter to almost 250,000 refugees, mostly Syrians fleeing the brutal war next door. The Syrian conflict is one of the biggest tragedies of our time. Since the beginning of the fighting in March 2011, approximately half of the country’s population (estimated at 22 million) has been forced to flee their homes. More than 5 million live as refugees in neighboring countries, and another 6.3 million are displaced within Syria. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world, at 2.9 million (a figure that Ankara puts at 3.5 million), making it second only to the U.S. in contributions of humanitarian relief. Yet fewer than 10 percent of the refugees it hosts can be housed in camps. The vast majority of refugees are spread across Turkey’s cities and towns, mainly in the provinces bordering Syria and in Istanbul, where half a million Syrians live. These photos provide a glimpse of life in the two camps I visited, Kahramanmaraş and Osmaniye, located just a few kilometers from the border with war-torn Syria and home to some 24,000 and 10,000 people, respectively. ■
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ABOVE: Aerial views of the Kahramanmaraş temporary protection center in the morning and at night. Comprising 5,000 containers housing 18,519 Syrians and 5,368 Iraqis, this camp, one of 23 built and operated by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD), has four schools, two mosques, warehouses, sports areas, first aid centers and a water treatment plant. Photos Courtesy AFAD.
Students in the Osmaniye camp receive Turkish lessons during the summer, after the regular school year has ended. “We want to prevent a lost generation,” was the message frequently stated by the camp’s leaders. Photo Javier Delgado Rivera
BELOW LEFT: Sitting in the thin shade projected by a container block, children in the Kahramanmaraş refugee camp smile and wave. The tarpaulin covering the containers helps cool off the interior of the living units and provides a degree of intimacy in the area between lodgings, which is used as a socializing space during the hot summer months. BELOW RIGHT: A well-stocked supermarket in Osmaniye camp would not be out of place in any American or European city. Each refugee receives 100 Turkish lira (around $28) for food and personal items—not enough to include vegetables, meat or fish in their daily grocery shopping. Photos Javier Delgado Rivera
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Trump Pulls the Plug in Syria
Special Report By Graham E. Fuller
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because significant elements of the Syrian population—Alawis, Christians, Kurds, Druze, the elite Sunni business classes— may dislike Assad’s rule, but have far deeper grounds to fear whoever might succeed him. Given the way the war was going, Assad’s successor would very likely come out of the jihadi militias. Then, when things got tough for Assad, the Iranians and then the Russians decided to intervene to help the regime survive.That ended any realistic U.S. prospect of overthrowing Assad. Washington never had good choices. It has sought to overthrow the Assads—father and Buses in the Qara area of Syria’s Qalamoun region carry members of the Islamic State group (ISIS) and son—for decades as one of the their families as part of an unprecedented deal to end three years of jihadist presence, Aug. 28, 2017. Under few states resistant to Israeli the evacuation deal, several hundred jihadists and their families on both sides of the border are to be transhegemony and as a strong force ported to Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, the country’s only province still under ISIS control. of anti-Western Arab nationalism, especially when the West was trying to overthrow them. EVERY ONCE in a while President Trump manages to get There may have been a time early on when there were some something right. This time it is the decision to call off the broad anti-Assad forces that were moderate, secular and not hostile to U.S. covert assistance to the Syrian opposition forces fighting the West. But genuine moderate pro-Western democrats among against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. the overall opposition were few. And, as moderates, they simply Assad has been notoriously brutal in putting down the armed lacked the intestinal fortitude, or killer instinct, to match the radrebellion against his regime. Well over 300,000 Syrians have ical jihadis as a powerful fighting force. These radical jihadis died on all sides, at least a million made homeless. For the West, were additionally supported to varying degrees by Saudi Arabia, the flight of Syrian refugees has shaken the very core of the EU the UAE, Qatar and Turkey. There was no doubt that the radical political order, threatening to create a xenophobic backlash— jihadis, many even closely aligned with al-Qaeda, were a far which only by dint of good European political common-sense more effective fighting force. Even the U.S. itself seems to have they have so far largely avoided. been willing to dally with al-Qaeda-related forces in the interests But the administration’s choice makes every kind of political of dumping Assad. sense. If Assad was going to fall he would likely have fallen As the civil war dragged on it had increasingly become a strugwithin the first year of the Arab Spring in 2011. But he did not, gle among proxy forces of other powers—Saudi Arabia, Iran, partly because of his brutality in crushing the rebellion. But also Turkey, Russia, the U.S. The Syrian people themselves ended Graham E. Fuller is a former senior CIA official and the author of nuup the biggest losers as their homes, livelihoods and populations merous books on the Muslim world; his latest book is breaking faith: were destroyed by these competing proxy forces. And, in the a novel of espionage and an american’s crisis of conscience in pakend, even if the anti-Assad forces could have eventually overistan. His website is <http://grahamefuller.com>. Copyright © Graham E. Fuller 2017. thrown Assad, competing jihadis very likely would have contin24
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ued conducting their own savage internecine war for dominance for some time. The U.S. would have swapped out a secular Assad for a jihadi regime with no guarantee of peace. From a humanitarian point of view the war should have ended yesterday. It is simply unethical to fight on till the last Syrian, all in the increasingly vain hope of dumping Assad. More lives by far will be spared, and refugee flow diminished if Assad restores control and order over the country. For those who live in war zones almost any peace is better than almost any war. Yes, Russia will have a powerful voice in the future Syria. Guess what? They have had strong political influence and a naval base there going back to the late 1940s. CIA’s Mike Pompeo talks like this is a new thing. China, too, is likely to have a growing voice in Syrian affairs. This situation poses real heartburn mainly to Israel and its supporters in the U.S., as well as to neoconservatives for whom any Russian gain is an automatic U.S. setback and vice versa. The concept of a possible outcome that is a reasonably decent settlement for everybody seems alien to their thinking. The U.S. and Russia both want to see an end to ISIS and any jihadi allies that might emerge. Both the U.S. and Russia want stability in the region. Continued chaos, war and anarchy are guaranteed recipes for more radicalism, more rage, more jihadism, more misery. Whatever we may think of them, Assad father and son have been confirmed secularists from day one and do not play the ethnic card. Some will object that Iran will still retain an ally in Assad. Yes, that is true, but Tehran’s influence in Syria grows in direct proportion to the degree Assad is hanging from a thread and desperate. And the longer the U.S. and Israel proclaim Iran to be the greatest threat in the whole Middle East—a line pushed in particular by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and by CENTCOM chief Joseph Votel—the more it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The increasingly ambitious young Saudi ruler-to-be would also not regret watching a U.S.-Iran war. OCTOBER 2017
For better or for worse, Iran is destined by dint of geography to be a significant player in the Middle East till the end of time. It is probably as stable, if not more so, than most other regimes in the Middle East. Might it not be better to deal diplomatically with Iran on a regular basis rather than ensure that the relationship is permanently confrontational—which current U.S.-Israeli pronouncements promote? Meanwhile most of the rest of the world disagrees with the U.S.-Israeli position, leaving us seriously isolated and verging on international irrelevance on Iran—unless we choose to start a real war. The faster this brutal civil conflict comes to an end, the better for nearly everyone, and certainly for the Syrians above all. The last thing the U.S. needs is to be dragged into another Middle Eastern war. Obama understood that. Surprisingly, Trump seems to understand that now as well, and has gone one more step in undercutting U.S. subversive operations in Syria. U.S. undercover operations have not been successful, and most in Washington know it. The powerful Russophobe lobby in Washington will undoubtedly see this move to cut U.S. covert aid to “friendly jihadis” as another sign that Putin controls Trump. But then, who controls the neocons? ■
Targeting Iran Continued from page 21
Having by all accounts adhered to its JCPOA commitments, Iran understandably feels frustrated and dismayed at the hostile statements and actions emanating from various quarters in the United States, including the president himself. However, the worst thing Iran can do is to react impulsively to U.S. actions and statements. In particular, Iran should avoid any tit-for-tat response to America’s actions. Hard-liners in Iran will put enormous pressure on the Rouhani government to take retaliatory measures against America to safeguard the country’s national pride and dignity. However, such measures are more likely to hurt Iran than America. In
fact, the only result of such measures would be to strengthen the position of antiIran groups within U.S. political institutions and circles, potentially hastening some sort of U.S. military action against Iran. Needless to say, the material and human costs for Iran of even a limited military encounter with the U.S. would far outweigh the cost of sanctions. Under these circumstances, Iran’s leadership must resist calls for either withdrawal from the JCPOA or even symbolic retaliation against America. This will not be easy given the political line-up in Iran, but it is the only wise and safe option for the country. Of course, if the Trump administration and the U.S. Iran hawks are determined to wage a war against Iran, such Iranian caution would not be sufficient to dissuade them. But it might make it more difficult for the U.S. administration to move in that direction. For example, European countries and other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council would be reluctant to support such a venture if Iran exercised caution and restraint. In addition to exercising caution, Iran should try to open channels of communications if the U.S. shows a willingness to do so as well. Some reports claim that Oman has already been passing messages between the two countries. If true, Oman, as usual, would be a worthy mediator. However, for such efforts to succeed, both Iran and the United States should avoid excessive pride. The U.S. should not insist that Iran essentially admit defeat and repent, and Iran should not see compromise with America as against its national pride. Meanwhile, European states should also shoulder their responsibilities vis à vis the JCPOA and advise America to do so as well. In particular, they should try to dissuade the U.S. from engaging in another Middle East war that will exacerbate their economic and refugee problems. If the stars align in this fashion, some good might come out of a very bad situation. Otherwise, the clouds of war might again gather in a region that is already devastated by decades of strife. ■
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Special Report
The Conflict in Afghanistan Is Trump’s War Now
By Andrew J. Bacevich
NOORULLAH SHIRZADA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
field commander to send a few thousand additional U.S. troops into battle. Yet barring the prospect that a handful of reinforcements will suddenly turn the tide and “win”—an outcome that at this point only the naïve or the gullible will expect—America’s war in Afghanistan is almost certain to continue for the duration of Trump’s presidency. He will bequeath to his successor a conflict that is already the longest in our nation’s history. Trump’s supporters will likely applaud his move. So too will the foreign policy establishment he once ridiculed. The establishment’s success in turning Trump around on Afghanistan has implications that go far beyond that particular country. At least implicitly, Trump now endorses Afghan women and their children walk as they flee the area where U.S. air forces targeted a the twin assumptions that since 9/11 have civilian vehicle in Nangarhar province’s Haska Mina district, Aug. 12, 2017. formed the basis for the larger war on terrorism: First, that sustained U.S. military action provides the most effective means of defeating terrorism; WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP’S Aug. 21 speech, prospects for endsecond, that the physical presence of U.S. forces in vulnerable ing the Afghanistan war anytime soon have vanished. Whether Muslim-majority countries provides a means to render them inthat bodes well for U.S. national security is another matter. hospitable to terrorist entities. Nearly 16 years after U.S. forces first entered Afghanistan, In short, if we keep killing bad guys and persist in nation-buildthere they remain. Success, narrowly defined as creating Afghan ing (an effort Trump derides at the same time he implicitly eninstitutions capable of preventing that nation from once more bedorses it), the problem will eventually solve itself. coming a haven for terrorists, has proved elusive. Among those Little evidence exists to support those propositions. Indeed, noting that absence of success was Trump himself. Prior to bethe post-9/11 U.S. military experience not only in Afghanistan but coming president, he denounced the war as a “terrible mistake,” also in Iraq and elsewhere points to precisely the opposite cona “total disaster,” and a “complete waste.” In 2013, he tweeted clusion: The principal effect of the ongoing war on terrorism has that “We should leave Afghanistan immediately.” been to exacerbate the problem that it purports to solve. The enNow in the most important foreign policy decision of his presitire enterprise has been what Trump once understood it to be: a dency so far, he has chosen to perpetuate and to expand the war. terrible mistake, a total disaster and a complete waste. Now, in Acknowledging that Americans are “weary of war without victory,” effect, he has recanted. Trump promised to press on. “In the end,” he insisted, “we will win.” A decision to stay the course in Afghanistan tells us nothing His commitment to that goal is unambiguous, even if his strategy for about what Trump may do next week or next month with regard achieving it is devoid of specifics. Yet from this point forward, blamto China or North Korea or Russia, not to mention truly momening President Obama for whatever happens in Kabul or Kandahar or tous matters such as the threat posed by climate change. He rethe Hindu Kush won’t work. Afghanistan is Trump’s war now. mains utterly unpredictable. Yet his decision on Afghanistan Furthermore, given the president’s pronounced aversion to addoes tell us one thing: Trump has abandoned what once ostenmitting error, his embrace of the Afghanistan conflict is almost cersibly formed the foundation of his presidency—a commitment to tainly irreversible. Apparently, he will support a request from his “America first.” Andrew J. Bacevich is the author of America’s War for the Greater Whoever or whatever benefits by prolonging the war in Middle East: A Military History (available from AET’s Middle East Afghanistan, it certainly won’t be the United States. ■ Books and More). Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times. 26
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United Nations Report
Ambassadors for Israel (One American) Do Their Thing at the U.N.
By Ian Williams
DEBBIE HILL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Gaza as occupied territories might ONE ALMOST WONDERS why make a good aide-memoire for Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danon, not least in the light of his Danny Danon is necessary, since castigation of UNESCO for making U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley Hebron’s Old City a World Heritage seems to act as Israel’s de facto site. envoy. In the “good old days” of “This attempt to sever the ties beJohn Bolton, Washington had an tween Israel and Hebron is shameacting ambassador with all the ful and offensive, and eliminates diplomacy and sensitivity of Danon, UNESCO’s last remaining shred of but at least he represented what he credibility,” Danon fulminated. “To thought were U.S. interests—of disassociate Israel from the burial which Israel was just one, albeit imgrounds of the patriarchs and matriportant. Haley beats the drum for archs of our nation is an ugly disNetanyahu constantly, not least play of discrimination, and an act of with her attacks on the Human aggression against the Jewish peoRights Committee, which one must ple.” admit are not totally unfounded. Netanyahu’s response was to cut The human rights violators, includIsrael’s U.N. dues by a million doling some she never mentions, lars and to transfer it to the estabhave overcome the early attempts lishment of “The Museum of the to secure genuine elections that Heritage of the Jewish People in would keep offenders off the CounU.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at her cil. meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in his official Kiryat Arba and Hebron” and to additional heritage projects related to Never one to miss a headline, residence in Jerusalem, June 7, 2017. Hebron. Danon booked the Queens Museum, Danon considers “Nothing is more disgraceful than UNESCO which was the site of the U.N. at the time of the 1947 resolution pardeclaring the world’s only Jewish state the ‘occupier’ of the Westtitioning Palestine, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of that resoluern Wall and Jerusalem’s Old City.” tion. However, the Museum—presumably correctly assessing that Showing how sensitive Israel is to the wobbliness of its claim to this event had more to do with Danon and the Lobby than with the Jerusalem and the occupied territories, in June Danon took a delU.N.—cancelled, precipitating the usual flurry of protests and, of egation of nine ambassadors on a trip to East Jerusalem to show course, a climb-down by the Museum. Observers of Israel at the U.N. them the Old City and its Jewish (and, pandering to them, its could be forgiven for assuming that the only decision the body ever Christian) heritage. The interesting group of ambassadors intook that was in any way binding was the bitterly contested General cluded those from Australia, Estonia and Poland, with right-wing Assembly resolution mandating the partition of Palestine into Jewish pro-Israeli governments, along with Gabon, Kenya, Lesotho, and Arab states…although we tend to hear less about that second Malawi, Papua New Guinea and Togo. More will doubtless follow. part, of course, and it is now almost accepted wisdom that no other I would love to hear how Ambassador Danon explains away that General Assembly resolution is in any way binding. fetching building with the gold dome that dominates the city. Perhaps the Museum could have a display of all the other resoVacationing ambassadors apart, a fact check is due here. Helutions since passed by the U.N. General Assembly—and, indeed, bron and East Jerusalem, according to the U.N. Security Counthe Security Council—which are flouted and ignored by Israel. cil, the General Assembly and the International Court of Justice, Those establishing the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and is occupied territory, and building an Israeli museum there is certainly in breach of the Geneva Conventions on the behavior of Ian Williams is author of Untold: the Real story of the United nations, to be published in November by Just World Books. occupying powers! OCTOBER 2017
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And, as supporting evidence, SecretaryGeneral António Guterres, sometime regarded as the most pro-Israel secretarygeneral ever, issued a statement to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 war, in which he condemned the effects of Israel’s subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan. It has “fueled recurring cycles of violence and retribution,” he pointed out, adding, “This occupation has imposed a heavy humanitarian and development burden on the Palestinian people. Among them are generation after generation of Palestinians who have been compelled to grow up and live in ever more crowded refugee camps, many in abject poverty, and with little or no prospect of a better life for their children.”
FROTHING AT THE MOUTH
The inimitable Danon immediately accused the secretary-general of “spreading Palestinian misinformation,” and attacked U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein for opening a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council by lamenting Palestinian suffering. “It comes as no surprise that he chose to spread lies about Israel before he even mentioned the massacres in Syria. The commissioner has forgotten that it is his job to care for human rights throughout the world,” Danon alleged, “not to incite against Israel.” In fact, Zeid has been remarkably strong in his statements about all perpetrators of human rights violations, and U.N. insiders recount that the Saudis have been leaning on Jordan in an unavailing attempt to rein in his statements, for example about Yemen. But of course, for some reason, Israel no longer holds up Saudi Arabia as the epitome of Arab backwardness, just as it is prepared to overlook overt Hungarian anti-Semitism for the sake of the cause! At current rates, Netanyahu might leave Danon without a vote in the Assembly as he cuts Israel’s legally mandated dues payments to zero. In a huff, he has reduced Israel’s U.N. assessment payments no less than four times since December. When the Obama administration let the resolution on settlements 28
go through the Security Council, Netanyahu announced he would withhold $6 million of the country’s $11 million assessment. He reduced it by $2 million more when the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution that irked him, and another million when UNESCO made the Old City of Jerusalem a World Heritage Site—so the additional million-dollar reduction for Hebron suggests that Israel will not pay anything this year.
NO PAYMENTS, NO RECOURSE
This provides an incentive for the Palestinians to keep needling Israel with further resolutions, since Israeli payments toward its U.N. assessments must now be approaching zero. The assessments for Israel, as for any other country, are determined by the General Assembly and are a commitment under the U.N. Charter and international law. Of course, Congress has unilaterally reduced U.S. payments in the past, but it had no effect on what was due—and Ted Turner, a private citizen, saved the day by sending a large check for the outstanding balance. Somehow, one doesn’t see Sheldon Adelson stepping into the breach here. Which brings us back to UNESCO and World Heritage, and Tel Aviv’s tactic of os-
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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
tentatious tantrums every time someone tells the truth about Israel. Following the resolution in which UNESCO accepted Palestine’s request to make the Old City of Hebron and the tomb of the Patriarchs a World Heritage site, Danon and Netanyahu exploded in emulatory frothing fury.
A DEAFENING SILENCE
Perhaps the most deafening thing at the U.N. is the sound of silence. The breakdown of traditional alliances has been good for Israel’s creeping legitimization. The de facto Saudi-Israel axis, for example, seems to be reflected in small countries’ votes. They no longer have to worry about upsetting the Arab bloc, nor even the NonAligned, and can succumb to Israel’s charm offensive. The relentless attacks work. The Israeli mission has had public sessions on U.N. premises supporting the occupation the U.N. has declared illegal, and even had a pop concert there on June 7 celebrating the “Reunification” of Jerusalem. But when the General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held a two-day conference on the 50 years of occupation, the Israeli mission of course complained, and the secretary-general’s office evaded the issue by pointing out that it was organized by a General Assembly committee, not by the secretary-general. The complainant’s recidivist track record was not addressed. It is obviously not a strategic career move for U.N. staffers to point out the truth, no matter how many resolutions they can invoke. Interestingly, while Haley is doing her own Israeli thing, President Donald Trump has remained remarkably quiet about the U.N.—perhaps just seeing it as a reservoir of real estate clients for his properties. But no one dares risk getting him tweeting at the U.N. But even so, surely a stronger response is called for when a country that has defied U.N. resolutions for 50 years, denounced the secretary-general and his senior officials for telling the truth about the occupation, and just announced it will not pay its legally assessed dues, comes complaining. ■ OCTOBER 2017
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Special Report
Senate Bill 720: Making It a Crime to Support Palestinian Human Rights
By James J. Zogby
ZACH GIBSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
IT IS FASCINATING to watch some U.S. senators tripping over themselves as they attempt to defend their support for or opposition to proposed legislation that would make it a federal crime to support the international campaign to Boycott, Divest, or Sanction (BDS) Israel for its continued occupation of Palestinian lands. What ties these officials up in knots are their efforts to square the circle of their “love of Israel,” their opposition to BDS, their support for a “two-state solution,” and their commitment to free speech. The bill in question, S.720, was introduced on March 23, 2017 by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). S.720 opposes calls by the United Nations to boycott or “blacklist” companies that support Israeli activities in the territories occupied in the 1967 war. The bill further prohibits any U.S. person from sup- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Capitol Hill with (l-r) Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), porting this U.N. call to boycott and estab- Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Bob Menendez (D-NJ) lishes stiff fines and/or imprisonment for and John McCain (R-AZ), Feb. 15, 2017. Americans who violate this prohibition. Since S.720 quickly gained 48 co-sponsors (35 Republicans There are a number of problems with the legislation. In the first and 13 Democrats) and has been supported by AIPAC and the place, supporters of S.720 grossly mischaracterize the intent of the Anti-Defamation League, one might have expected it to sail efU.N. approach as “anti-Israel.” In fact, as S.720, itself, acknowlfortlessly through the Congress and be put on the president’s edges, the U.N. Human Rights Council specifically targets only desk for his signature. That, however, has not been the case, due businesses that engage in activities in “territories occupied [by Isto the efforts of many, including the American Civil Liberties Union rael] since 1967.” The U.N. target is not Israel, but Israeli actions (ACLU) and other progressive organizations led by MoveOn. that serve to consolidate its hold over the occupied territories. While the ACLU has based its opposition on the concern that Then there is the concern that by making illegal either the act the legislation violates the free speech rights of American citiof boycotting Israel, or advocating for such a boycott, S.720 is zens, MoveOn has taken a more expansive approach addresscriminalizing free speech and stifling legitimate peaceful protest. ing both the concern with free speech and the fact that S.720 Finally, the legislation continues to build on earlier congres“erases the distinction in U.S. law between Israel and Israeli setsional legislation using sleight-of-hand language in an attempt to tlements.” erase the distinction in U.S. law between Israel and illegal Israeli Given the capacity of both organizations to influence and orsettlements in occupied territories. While earlier legislation acganize liberal opinion, some Democratic senators have felt comcomplished this by referring to “Israel and areas under Israel’s pelled to either justify their support for the bill or to distance control,” S.720 notes that its boycott prohibition applies to “comthemselves from it. In too many instances, these efforts have mercial relations...with citizens or residents of Israel, entities orbeen awkward. ganized under the laws of Israel, or the Government of Israel.” Two sponsors, Sens. Cardin and Ron Wyden (D-OR), have gone to great, but unconvincing, lengths to explain that S.720 James J. Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC. Continued on p. 49 OCTOBER 2017
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Special Report
Congress Approves Sanctions on Iran, Russia And North Korea
By Shirl McArthur
AS REPORTED IN previous issues, AIPAC strongly promoted S. 722, introduced in March by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), a wide-ranging measure to impose sanctions “in relation to Iran’s ballistic missile program, support for acts of international terrorism, and violations of human rights.” But before the bill was brought to a vote by the full Senate, a Democratic amendment adding sanctions on Russia to the bill was agreed to by a vote of 97-2. The amendment also included a provision giving Congress the power to block any presidential effort to independently scale back existing Russian sanctions. On June 15, the Senate passed the amended bill by a vote of 98-2. The no votes were cast by Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Bernie Sanders (IVT). However, the bill could not be passed by the House in its Senate-passed form, because the House parliamentarian ruled that it violates the constitutional provision that revenue bills must originate in the House. So on July 24, after House leaders agreed to add the substance of a bill passed by the House in May to impose sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear and financial sectors, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) introduced a slightly modified version of S. 722 as H.R. 3364. The modified bill was quickly passed, by the House on July 25 by a vote of 419-3 (the no votes cast by Republicans Justin Amash of Michigan, John Duncan of Tennessee and Thomas Massie of Kentucky), and by the Senate on July 27, again by a vote of 98-2. It was signed by President Donald Trump on Aug. 2 as P.L. 115-44. Congressional Democrats quickly praised the bill’s congressional review requirement as a rebuke to Trump’s apparent attitude toward Russia. Previously Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), with two Democratic co-sponsors, on July 12 introduced H.R. 3203 imposing sanctions on Iran. In introducing it, Engel described it as a “House version of the Senate’s Russia-Iran Sanctions Bill.” However, the House Republican leadership chose to ignore it. Also, on July 26 Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) introduced H.R. 3425 to authorize state and local governments to adopt and enforce measures restricting investment in Iran. It has 21 co-sponsors, including DeSantis. The previously described Iran sanctions bill, H.R. 1698, introduced by Royce in March, continues to gain co-sponsors. It now has 318, including Royce.
At least five measures were introduced attacking Hezbollah and, directly or indirectly, Iran. The one receiving the most support is H.Res. 359, introduced by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) on May 25. It would urge “the European Union to designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.” It was marked up and ordered to be reported to the full House on July 27. It has 48 co-sponsors, including Deutch. On June 29 Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) with 10 co-sponsors introduced H.R. 3118 concerned about “Iran and Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere.” Identical bills were introduced on July 20 “to impose additional sanctions with respect to Hezbollah”: S. 1595 was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and eight co-sponsors, and H.R. 3329 was introduced in the House by Royce and 13 co-sponsors. And also on July 20 Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and four co-sponsors introduced H.R. 3342 to impose sanctions on persons responsible for human rights violations by Hezbollah’s use of civilians as human shields. The other previously described Iran-related measures have made little progress, as shown in the “Status Updates” box.
At least five measures were
introduced attacking Hezbollah and, directly or indirectly, Iran.
Shirl McArthur is a retired foreign service officer. He lives in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. 30
ACLU OBJECTS TO CRIMINALIZING SUPPORT FOR BDS
Of the previously described bills that claim to be pro-Israel but in fact are pro-settlements, S. 720, introduced by Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH) in March, and H.R. 1697, introduced by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) also in March, have received the most attention. On July 17 the ACLU published a letter to members of Congress opposing the bills because they would violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. The letter says, in part, “the government cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, punish U.S. persons based solely on their expressed political beliefs.” Then, on July 20, the ALCU published a post entitled, “The First Amendment Protects the Right to Boycott Israel.” So, on July 20, Cardin and Portman released a letter claiming that “nothing in [S. 720] restricts constitutionally protected free speech or limits criticism of Israel or its policies.” However, the text of the bill clearly prohibits U.S. persons from supporting any boycott fostered or imposed by an international organization, “or requesting the imposition of any such boycott, against Israel.” S. 720 now has 49 co-sponsors, including Cardin and Portman, and H.R. 1697 has 254, including Roskam.
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STATUS UPDATES
H.R. 380, to direct the secretary of state to submit a report on designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization, introduced in January by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), now has 23 co-sponsors, including McCaul.
H.R. 566, introduced in January by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) to require a report on the use by Iran of commercial aircraft for military activities, now has seven co-sponsors, including Roskam. H.R. 257, the Jerusalem Embassy bill introduced in January by Rep. The other two “Combating BDS” [“Boycott, Divest, and Sanction”] bills strongly promoted by AIPAC have also gained some support. According to both S. 170, introduced by Rubio in January, and H.R. 2856, introduced in June by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), “a State or local government may adopt and enforce measures” to divest state or local assets from, or prohibit investment of state or local assets in, an entity that knowingly engages in BDS activity targeting Israel, or “Israel-controlled territories.” S. 170 has 45 co-sponsors, including Rubio, and H.R. 2856 has 83 cosponsors, including McHenry.
JERUSALEM, ANTI-PALESTINIAN, ANTI-U.N. BILLS INTRODUCED
While most of the previously described measures saying the U.S. Embassy in Israel should be moved to Jerusalem have made little progress, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), with four co-sponsors, tried a different approach in introducing H.R. 3547 on July 28. It would “authorize the secretary of state to establish a permanent residence in Jerusalem, Israel, for the U.S. Ambassador to Israel.” Some of the previously introduced antiPalestinian bills have made some progress. H.R. 1164, called the “Taylor Force Act” (after a former U.S. army officer killed in a Palestinian attack), introduced in February by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), now has 111 co-sponsors, including Lamborn. Its companion bill, S. 1697, with the same title, was introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) with 19 co-sponsors on Aug. 1. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee marked up S. 1697 and ordered it reported OCTOBER 2017
Trent Franks (R-AZ), now has 34 co-sponsors, including Franks.
H.R. 1159, introduced in February by Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) encouraging U.S.-Israel space cooperation, now has 31 cosponsors, including Kilmer. H.R. 377, introduced in January by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (RFL) and aimed at designating the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization, now has 65 co-sponsors, including Diaz-Balart. —S.M.
to the full Senate by a vote of 17-4 on Aug. 3. Both bills would prohibit aid to the West Bank and Gaza unless, among other things, the PA is taking steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens by Palestinian individuals. H.R. 2712, introduced in May by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), which would impose sanctions on the PA, now has 22 co-sponsors, including Mast. And S. 474, introduced in February by Graham, which would limit aid to the West Bank and Gaza, now has 20 co-sponsors, including Graham. A new anti-U.N. measure is H.Res. 433, introduced July 11 by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) with three co-sponsors. It would “disapprove of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee Inscription of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage Site in Danger.” H.Res. 393, introduced June 20 by Hastings and four co-sponsors, would express “support for addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict in a concurrent track with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” rather than the previous strategy of solving the Palestinian conflict first before moving on to a regional peace. It also expresses support for a two-state solution.
HOUSE PASSES BILL TO PROTECT SYRIAN CIVILIANS
The full House on May 17 passed H.R. 1677, the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection” bill introduced by Engel in March. It would impose sanctions on persons responsible for committing human rights violations and hindering access to humanitarian relief in Syria. When passed it had 109 co-sponsors, including Engel. H.R. 1785, “to require
a comprehensive regional strategy to destroy ISIS and its affiliates,” introduced in March by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), still has 14 co-sponsors, including Kinzinger. H.Res. 252, expressing the sense of the House on “the challenges posed to longterm stability in Lebanon by the conflict in Syria and supporting the establishment of safe zones in Syria,” introduced in April by Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), now has 12 cosponsors, including LaHood. The similar S.Res. 196, introduced in June by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) still has three cosponsors, including Shaheen. S.J. Res. 43, introduced in May by Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Tim Kaine (DVA), urging the passage of a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS still has no additional co-sponsors. But a new, unusually broad AUMF measure, H.J.Res. 112, was introduced July 20 by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA). It would authorize the use of force “against Islamic Extremism.”
THREE MEASURES URGE BILATERAL COOPERATION
S.Res. 108, “reaffirming the commitment of the U.S. to the U.S.-Egypt partnership,” was introduced by Cardin on April 3, with six cosponsors. Also, on May 24 Rep. Ileana RosLehtinen (R-FL), with eight co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 2646, the “U.S.-Jordan Defense Cooperation” bill. It would extend Jordan’s inclusion among the countries eligible for certain streamlined defense sales. And on June 29 Rep. Alexander Mooney (R-WV) introduced H.R. 3146, urging the conclusion of a U.S.-Turkey Free Trade agreement. ■
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OTHER VOICES F R O M T H E M I D D L E E A S T C L I P B OA R D Compiled by Janet McMahon
Neocons Enlist in Anti-Trump #Resistance BY JAMES W. CARDEN
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n these summer dog days of the Trump presidency, good news is hard to come by, but in late June it was reported that the successor institution to William Kristol’s Project for a New American Century, the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), was shutting its doors for good. FPI was founded in 2009 to give the displaced neocons who had worked for President George W. Bush a platform from which to endlessly criticize the new Democratic administration and push for a continuation of Bush’s disastrous neocon foreign policy. (Some other neocons sheltered in place, mostly inside the State Department and the Pentagon.) FPI was generously subsidized by hedge fund manager Paul Singer. The Washington Post recently reported that “Those close to the organization said that in the new policy and political environment marked by the ascendency of Donald Trump, many donors, including Singer, are reassessing where to put their funds.” But does the demise of FPI mean the neoconservatives would be, at long last, going away for a while—perhaps to take stock of the immense damage they have caused the country and the world? The answer would seem to be: not on your life. And why would they? In Donald Trump’s Washington, the neocons are in high demand even O THER V OICES
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though a number of high-profile neocons (such as Elliott Abrams and John Bolton) were rebuffed for senior positions inside the new administration. But neocons are finding plenty of highprofile jobs elsewhere. In April, The New York Times announced that longtime climate change denier Bret Stephens was joining the
paper as an op-ed columnist. Stephens, who came to the Times from the Wall Street Journal, has been aptly described by The Nation’s Eric Alterman as a “deliberate purveyor of propaganda and misinformation.” Stephens’ past columns include such classics as “I Am Not Sorry the CIA Waterboarded.” For its part, the centrist Brookings In-
VOL. 20 ISSUE 6—OCTOBER 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS Neocons Enlist in Anti-Trump
Testimony From the Censored
#Resistance, James W. Carden,
Massacre—Deir Yassin,
http://consortiumnews.com
Ofer Aderet,
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Haaretz
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Congress vs. the President; What Trump Can Learn From Obama, Andrew Spannaus, www.aspeninstitute.it
The History Is Too Deep, the Pain Is Too Real,
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James J. Zogby, www.aaiusa.org
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Capitol Hill Clash Pits Israel’s Army vs. Knesset, Sidelining AIPAC, J.J. Goldberg, The Forward
Syria, Edward Hunt, OV-4
Is Gaza-Sinai State a Possibility For Palestinians?,
http://lobelog.com
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Muqtada al-Sadr’s Saudi Visit And Iraq’s Shifting Shi’i
Jonathan Cook, www.aljazeera.com
Killing Civilians in Iraq and
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Politics, Shireen Hunter, http://lobelog.com
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The Curse of Mohammed Dahlan: Hamas Should Not
Hezbollah and the Simplistic
Trade Resistance for Its Own
School of Counterterrorism,
Survival, Ramzy Baroud,
Paul R. Pillar,
www.ramzybaroud.net
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stitution announced last month that it was hiring neocon smear artist James Kirchick. Kirchick, who will serve as a Brookings Visiting Fellow, has used his platform at the Internet tabloid Daily Beast to smear proponents of détente as “Putin apologists” and “anti-Semites.” Kirchick, an outspoken NeverTrumper, also penned a hysterical (and discredited) screed accusing prominent liberals, without evidence, of supporting Donald Trump.
JOINING THE #RESISTANCE Neocons are also in demand at what had long been one of the more responsible foreign policy think tanks in Washington. The German Marshall Fund just announced the launch of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which, according to its mission statement, “will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions.” “The Alliance,” read the statement, “will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe.” The Alliance will be run by none other than former FPI executive director Jamie Fly and a former foreign policy adviser to the Clinton campaign, Laura Rosenberger. The Alliance’s board of advisers is a veritable who’s who of neocon royalty, including the ubiquitous Bill Kristol, along with David Kramer, Michael Morell and Kori Schake. This is not to imply that the neocons find themselves confined to the think tank world and lack representation inside the Trump administration. Far from it. Trump has appointed several neocons to key jobs, such as United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, and the new Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker. It is also rumored that Trump will appoint hard-liner A. Mitchell Weiss as assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, the post from which Victoria Nuland, a neocon OV-2 O CTOBER 2017
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holdover from the Bush years to the Obama administration, managed to do such lasting damage to U.S.-Russia relations. The neocon revival has been facilitated by #Resistance-friendly media like MSNBC, which frequently features David Frum and Willian Kristol, two early and outspoken members of the NeverTrump movement. But perhaps what the #Resisters at MSNBC are forgetting is that the neocon-dominated NeverTrump movement was driven by the fact that, for them, Trump was not militaristic enough, which is why they threw their support behind the likes of Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham in the Republican primaries and, in the cases of Robert Kagan and Max Boot, behind Hillary Clinton in the general election. The willingness of the pro-Hillary #Resistance to make common cause with the neocon NeverTrumpers is troubling and may explain why there has been so precious little “resistance” on their part to Trump’s plans to expand the wars in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Yemen. (Indeed, Trump’s April 6 missile strike on Syria won praise from Hillary Clinton, who only lamented that Trump had not done more militarily in Syria.) But perhaps all this isn’t so surprising; after all, the legions of embittered Clinton supporters never really objected all that strenuously (if at all) to their candidate’s record of support for endless war. In the end, perhaps the neocons and the pro-Hillary #Resistance are not such strange bedfellows after all. Indeed, the #Resistance’s newfound enthusiasm for many prominent NeverTrumpers like Kristol and Frum helps explain the neocon revival now underway.
James W. Carden served as an adviser on Russia policy at the U.S. State Department. Currently a contributing writer at The Nation magazine, his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Quartz, The American Conservative and The National Interest. This article was first posted on <www.consortium news.com>, July 15, 2017. Copyright © 2017
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Consortiumnews. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Congress vs. the President; What Trump Can Learn From Obama BY ANDREW SPANNAUS
P
resident Donald Trump was backed into a corner in late July, forced to sign a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia, despite opposing it on substance and form. Trump issued a signing statement, claiming that the new law impinges on “the president’s constitutional authority to recognize foreign governments” (referring to the case of Crimea and Ukraine), limits the president’s actions on sanctions, and violates “the president’s exclusive constitutional authority to determine the time, scope, and objectives of international negotiations,” among other things. The overwhelming vote on the sanctions bill in both the House and the Senate (419-3 and 98-2, respectively) was a clear indicator of how much of official Washington sees the White House’s attempts to improve relations with Russia: as a dangerous goal that needs to be stopped as soon as possible, lest the apparently bumbling, self-absorbed and ineffective president actually succeed in implementing a major change in U.S. foreign policy, one with repercussions on numerous areas of global geopolitics. Influential Republicans in the Senate such as John McCain and Lindsey Graham have never hidden their disdain for Trump’s anti-neocon positions, and now they find themselves with the almost unanimous support of their colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle as well. The constant churn of Russiagate scandals, although they have yet to turn up a smoking gun, has created an environment in which politicians and major press outlets have
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decided that Russia is Trump’s weak point, on which a strong defeat can neuter his effectiveness and potentially even lead to his impeachment. The White House’s isolation on a point of foreign policy that would represent a major strategic shift recalls another situation not too many years ago, that of Iran, when then-President Barack Obama found himself in a difficult battle with the overwhelming majority of Congress apparently opposed to his plan to shift gears in the Middle East. Obama ultimately won that battle, succeeding in reaching an historic deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program, after adopting a strategy of secret negotiations, clear goals, and an explicit definition of the choices to be made. Trump differs considerably from Obama on Iran, instead following the traditional Israeli-Saudi line to date, but the clash with Congress and the power of neoconservative foreign policy is an area where the two presidents definitely have something in common; in this case, Trump could draw on aspects of Obama’s strategy, although the circumstances are undoubtedly different, and the stakes possibly even higher today. President Obama’s first attempt at reaching an agreement with Iran, in 2009, failed miserably due to a series of circumstances, some under the White House’s responsibility, and others not. The events of the Green Revolution, the substantial opposition within his own administration—Hillary Clinton spoke openly of negotiations merely as an excuse to then slap more sanctions on Iran—and a lack of a solid strategy all doomed the first round of negotiations, making some believe Obama never really intended to go all the way. At the start of his second term, though, Obama began to lay the groundwork for a major shift in foreign policy. One of the key aspects was the renewed push for an agreement with Iran. Secret negotiations began in Oman in the spring of 2013, leading to the initial Joint Plan of Action adopted in November of that year. Over the subsequent two years negotiations continued with the other members of the P5+1 O THER V OICES
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(the permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, as well as the European Union), until the accord was finalized in July 2015. In order for the United States to fulfill its commitments, it was sufficient for the president to begin waiving sanctions, but the anti-Iran forces within the United States were determined to block the deal, and thus pushed for a congressional vote to prevent the president from moving forward. The attempt failed, as the Senate voted 58-42 to close debate on the resolution, just shy of the 60-vote threshold needed for final passage. Despite the widespread commentary about how the Democrats predictably handed their president a victory, success was far from assured in this case. As a matter of fact, by any historical standard, the failure of a vote against Iran, presented to members as a way to express support for Israel, was a startling achievement. Just consider the vote totals for similar bills in years past, or even on the same issue. In May 2015, as negotiations were ongoing, the Senate voted on the “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act,” which required the president to submit the agreement to congressional review, setting up the vote which Obama eventually won. That bill passed 98-1 in the Senate, and 400-25 in the House of Representatives. These are common numbers for legislation that is considered pro-Israel and has the backing of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), whose widespread influence on U.S. politicians has been well chronicled in recent years. AIPAC did everything it could to win the vote against the Iran deal, but failed spectacularly, in a defeat that not only tarnished the group’s invincible image, but also contributed to the rise of other pro-Israel groups on the U.S. political scene whose policies are not necessarily aligned with the right-wing governments led by Binyamin Netanyahu—who still happens to be in power. In addition to working behind the scenes to assure senators’ votes, Obama WASHINGTON R EPORT
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also made his case for the Iran deal publicly. His most effective intervention came in August 2015 when speaking at American University in Washington, DC. He put the choice in stark terms, rather than attempting to woo lawmakers with a soft approach: a vote against the Iran deal was a vote for war in the future. And he drew a clear parallel with the decision to invade Iraq in 2002, that in hindsight many congressmen have been forced to admit was wrong, and avoidable. Defining the Iran deal as a vote for or against conflict was obviously not what Obama’s opponents expected. Consider the response from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the time: “This goes way over the line of civil discourse…The president needs to retract his bizarre and preposterous comments.” Laying out the consequences so directly went against the normal rules of politics, but it was precisely what Obama needed to ensure that the stakes would be clear to everyone before the fact, not afterwards if the pro-war faction had won the day once again. At the time the initial understanding was reached with Iran, in the fall of 2013, Obama was beginning his attempt at a wholesale change in U.S. foreign policy. Not only did he work with Russia and China on the nuclear deal, but he decided not to bomb the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, accepting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of a deal to remove chemical weapons from Syria. Still today this decision is seen in the U.S. establishment as a disastrous capitulation after having drawn the infamous “red line” regarding chemical weapons attacks. Yet Obama, who pulled back after hearing doubts about the intelligence and recognizing that Congress was unlikely to support action, later defined that as one of the most important moments of his presidency, when he broke with the “Washington playbook” of automatic military response. The attempt to move away from the policies of “regime change,” drawing down support for extremist groups O CTOBER 2017 OV-3
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linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS while seeking different alliances, would ultimately be too little, and too late. In 2014 cooperation with Russia was derailed due to the crisis in Ukraine—a situation where the Washington playbook remains intact—and by the time Obama and Putin were able to begin working together in Syria again, through the activism of John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov, time had essentially run out. In 2016 the U.S. foreign policy establishment wasn’t willing to follow Obama toward cooperation with Russia, as most anticipated the more hawkish Hillary Clinton would win in November. Obama moved quickly to embrace the new Cold War posture permeating Washington in the final months of his presidency, but his original goal of rebalancing the U.S. presence in the Middle East and cooperating with Vladimir Putin’s Russia in the fight against terrorism provides a direct link to the challenges facing the Trump administration today. The current president has openly declared his intentions with respect to Russia, which Obama rarely did. Despite numerous setbacks—some of his own making, of course—Trump has continued to seek better relations with Putin; yet the overwhelming pressure from both inside and outside of the administration has heavily scaled back expectations of how far he can go, and thwarted cooperation on numerous fronts. If Donald Trump wants to truly reach his goal of better relations with Russia, he could look to the successful aspects of Obama’s victory on the Iran deal. Not only is it essential to work behind the scenes, through back channels that avoid sabotage from within his own administration, but the president could potentially go back on the offensive if he were to define the issue publicly on his own terms. It won’t be easy to convince the American people, and a considerable part of the institutions, given the current environment; however, a clear and honest accounting of our relations with Russia, including the unOV-4 O CTOBER 2017
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thinkable dangers of conflict, could go a long way toward inaugurating a more rational discussion of Trump’s desired foreign policy shift.
Andrew Spannaus is a free-lance journalist and strategic analyst based in Milan, Italy. He is the founder of Transatlantico.info, that provides news, analysis and consulting to Italian institutions and businesses.This article was first posted on <www.aspeninstitute.it>, Aug. 10, 2017. Copyright © Aspen Institute Italia. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Capitol Hill Clash Pits Israel’s Army Vs. Knesset, Sidelining AIPAC BY J.J. GOLDBERG
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he United States Senate is putting the last touches on an anti-terrorism bill that’s opened a new era in Washington’s pro-Israel politics. It’s a rare case of a pro-Israel bill that stirred intense partisan debate, at least in its initial version. Even more unusual, the fight over the bill didn’t pit Israel against its critics, nor was it between clashing Israeli and American interests. This was a fight between Israel’s political leadership and its military leadership. That’s something new in Washington. It’s probably going to alter the landscape and change the rules. It’s so new, in fact, that AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse, took the rare step of staying neutral and sitting out the fight. AIPAC said it didn’t want to get into a partisan Democratsvs.-Republicans fight, though that hasn’t stopped it before. Insiders said AIPAC was actually confused by “mixed messages” coming from Jerusalem, government leaders vs. military advisers. AIPAC’s withdrawal altered the usual rules of pro-Israel lobbying, leaving the field to strongly partisan groups on the right and left. The Likud and its partners quickly mustered support for the
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bill from a phalanx of passionate American supporters and surrogates with good ties to the GOP. Efforts were led by the Zionist Organization of America, the Orthodox Union and Christians United For Israel (CUFI), the Christian Zionist behemoth led by Texas preacher John Hagee. The task was more complicated for the bill’s critics. Under traditional Washington rules, opposing steps to strengthen Israel meant you were proPalestinian and anti-Israel, or at least looked that way. As one participant said this week, “Nobody in Washington wants to be seen standing up for the Palestinians.” But this bill’s main opposition came from Israel’s own defense and intelligence agencies. The generals had concluded that the bill as written would hurt more than help Israeli security. It’s a reflection of a growing rift between Israel’s political and security establishments—or, as some generals put it, between what the right believes and what the intelligence shows. The generals’ frustration has been mounting for about a decade, and each year has produced a crop of new retirees ready to go public. In 2014 a group was formed, now numbering close to three-fifths of all retired Israeli generals and spymasters, to say aloud what their uniformed brethren say in closed cabinet sessions. This spring the new group, Commanders for Israel’s Security, took the unprecedented step of bringing their beef to Washington to stop the new anti-terrorism bill. There they joined forces with normally controversial groups on the Jewish left, the Israel Policy Forum and J Street. That made it harder to paint the bill’s critics as anti-Israel, though some are still trying. What emerged may be the new reconfiguration of pro-Israel Washington politics: Republicans, backed by CUFI and ZOA, backed by Israel’s Likud government, versus Democrats, backed by J Street and the Israel Policy Forum, backed by the Israeli military, represented by its retirees. The bill that caused all the fuss is known as the Taylor Force Act, named
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for an American grad student killed last year in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist. Introduced in the Senate last February by South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, it calls for slashing U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority, with the goal of pressuring the authority to stop paying pensions to convicted terrorists and their families. Republicans, echoing the right flank of Israel’s elected government, argued that the pension payments amount to a reward for terrorism. What’s more, they said, the cash effectively encourages more terrorism by providing a financial incentive. Democrats, echoing concerns of the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service, countered that the planned aid cuts would actually hurt Israeli security by defunding critical social services, which would increase popular discontent and destabilize the already-weak Palestinian Authority. What’s more, it would sap the motivation of Palestinian security forces, which the military views as an important partner in fighting terrorism, something the right questions. Mostly left unsaid, but whispered by insiders, is that the Palestinian Authority is not going to halt the terrorists’ pensions, however repugnant they appear to Israelis. Most West Bank Palestinian families have had relatives imprisoned for security offenses. What’s more, the attackers seen by Israelis as common criminals or worse are viewed by most Palestinians as patriots. That clash of values is one reason Israel’s defense establishment is so eager to put a strong border between the two societies. The rancor continued from February until July 11, when the bill finally came before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Once in session, the two sides agreed on amendments that answered the worst of the critics’ objections. The initial version had cut nearly all Palestinian aid, preserving only a few essential programs like the Israeli-Palestinian security coordination. The compromise restored some critical social programs, targeting the cuts mainly at O THER V OICES
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funds “directly” aiding the Palestinian Authority’s own operations. That compromise enabled AIPAC to get on board, and it passed the committee Aug. 3 on a bipartisan 17-to-4 vote. The Democrats were split, six voting for, four against. Those four Democratic “no” votes illustrate how much harder it is to heal American Jewry’s rifts than Israel’s. The four based their objections on two main issues. One was the lack of a presidential national security waiver, a standard feature in measures like this. The other was the bill’s failure to define what constitutes “direct” aid to the Palestinian Authority, leaving it to Washington bureaucrats to decide how widely Palestinians are targeted— which means how much further to fuel Palestinian anger. And so the tale ends with a concerted campaign directed against the four holdouts, labeling them—and sometimes Democrats in general—as “antiIsrael” and “betrayers of Jews,” which is a short step shy of “anti-Semite.” Two of the four are from Northeastern states where that sort of rhetoric can have real electoral consequences: Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut. (The other two are Tom Udall of New Mexico and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.) And Murphy is up for re-election next year. Watch for a noisy campaign targeting him as an enemy of Israel. His crime: standing up for the Israeli army.
Jonathan Jeremy “J.J.” Goldberg is editor-atlarge of the Forward, where he served as editor in chief for seven years (2000-2007). This article was first published in the Forward, Aug. 12, 2017. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Reprinted with permission.
Is Gaza-Sinai State a Possibility For Palestinians? BY JONATHAN COOK WASHINGTON R EPORT
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aza has been the focus of intense talks behind closed doors in recent weeks as disquiet has risen among Arab states at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the coastal enclave. Palestinians there are enduring a scorching summer with barely a few hours of power a day, after Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) has refused to finance essential services. Abbas is trying to weaken his Hamas rivals who rule Gaza and assert his own authority. In the background, an ominous deadline is rapidly approaching. Gaza is expected to be “uninhabitable” within a few years, according to United Nations forecasts. Its economy has been broken by years of Israeli military attacks and a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade, its population is mostly destitute, and its aquifers are increasingly polluted with sea water. Gaza’s rapidly growing population of two million is already suffocating in a tiny patch of territory. In May, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that Gaza was on the brink of “systemic collapse.” Israel has good reason to fear the future. Another round of fighting with Hamas, and heavy casualties among ordinary Palestinians, will further damage its image. And sooner or later, ordinary Palestinians are likely to rise up and tear down the security fences that imprison them. For that reason, Israel and its patrons in Washington—as well as the Arab states—are desperately in search of a remedy. It is in this context that Palestinians have been pondering the significance of a series of recent secret meetings between Egypt, Hamas and Mohammed Dahlan, an exiled Fatah leader and enemy of Abbas. Are they paving the way to a permanent solution for Gaza—and one that will be largely on Israel’s terms? One possibility—known to be muchfavored by Israel—would be to engineer the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza and then pressure Egypt to O CTOBER 2017 OV-5
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allow it to expand into the neighboring territory of northern Sinai. According to this plan, not only would most of Gaza’s population end up in Sinai, but so too would potentially millions of Palestinian refugees. Atef Eisa, a journalist in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera that the meetings between Egypt, Hamas and Dahlan were the main topic of discussions in the enclave: “People understand that Israel wants Gaza permanently separated from the West Bank. They wonder whether Sinai might be a way to achieve it.” Suspicions of a Gaza-Sinai state are not new. In fact, there is strong evidence that Israel has been pushing aggressively, along with the United States, to create a Palestinian state in Sinai since it withdrew its soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip more than a decade ago. Now rumors are circulating that the Sinai plan is being revived. Are the stars aligned for Israel? The U.S. administration of Donald Trump is openly on its side, Hamas is at its weakest point ever, and Israel is increasingly close to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. “There is no doubt that this is what Israel would like to see happen,” Shawqi Issa, a Palestinian analyst and former government minister in the PA, told Al Jazeera. Issa believes Israel is now firmly set on turning Gaza into the Palestinian state, as part of a regional solution that might also see the Palestinian cities of the West Bank, currently in Abbas’ charge, ultimately falling under Jordanian responsibility. But such a regional solution—what Israel calls its “outside-in” strategy— hinges on Egyptian help. “The chief difficulty with the Sinai option is allaying Egyptian concerns,” said Issa. “Israel and the United States can manage it only as part of a dramatic reshaping of the entire Middle East.” The plan requires Cairo to accept a humiliating compromise of its sovereignty by surrendering territory in Sinai, possibly in a swap for Israeli land in the Negev. It would also undermine long-standing Arab demands that a OV-6 O CTOBER 2017
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Palestinian state be realized in historic Palestine. But most importantly, the military regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is concerned about an expansion of Hamas’ influence into Sinai, strengthening support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’ sister organization and the main opponents of Sisi’s rule. However, the extent of Egypt’s opposition is far from clear, especially given that it may be facing stiff pressure from the Trump administration and the Saudi-led Gulf states to alleviate Gaza’s problems. In fact, Israeli media reports in 2014 suggested that Sisi may have agreed to cede 1,600 sq. km. in Sinai to Gaza, expanding the enclave’s size fivefold. This would have realized Israel’s vision of a demilitarized Palestinian state it calls “Greater Gaza.” Abbas is reported to have rejected the plan outright. Not surprisingly, both Egyptian and Palestinian officials publicly denied the reports. Nonetheless, Abbas and his officials subsequently appeared to corroborate some aspects of the story. At a meeting of Fatah loyalists in August 2014, Abbas reportedly said that a “senior leader in Egypt” had told him: “A refuge must be found for the Palestinians and we have all this open land.” A week earlier, he told Egyptian TV that the Israeli plan had “unfortunately been accepted by some here [in Egypt]…Don’t ask me more about that. We abolished it.” Abbas was unclear about whether these were references to Sisi or his predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, who briefly headed a Muslim Brotherhood government before being removed by the Egyptian military. At the same time, a report in the London-based Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat indicated how long the Sinai plan may have been gestating. An aide to Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president until he was toppled in 2011, quoted the former leader as saying: “We are fighting both the U.S. and Israel…In a year or two, the issue of Palestinian refugee camps in Sinai will
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be internationalized.” Indications that the Sinai plan may have been revived at a high level have come from Ayoub Kara, a government minister and ally of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In February, shortly before Netanyahu and Trump met in Washington, Kara tweeted that the two leaders would “adopt the plan of Egypt’s Sisi. A Palestinian state in Gaza and Sinai.” Kara added that this would provide a regional solution of the kind Netanyahu and Trump officials have recently been talking up: “This is how we will pave a path to peace, including with the Sunni coalition [of Arab states].” Egyptian officials again issued hurried denials. But Kara’s statements prompted so much alarm that a group of prominent Egyptian lawyers filed a suit against any moves by Cairo to resettle Palestinians in Sinai. In what could be seen as a territorial precedent, the Egyptian parliament approved last month the transfer of two islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia in return for billions of dollars of investments in Egypt’s ailing economy. There are good reasons why Israel may believe all the pieces are falling into place to realize a Palestinian state mostly outside the borders of historic Palestine. Hamas is at its lowest ebb ever, with Israeli officials speaking of the movement “fighting for its life.” After Egyptian and Saudi-led moves to sideline Qatar and Turkey’s support, Hamas is now all but friendless. The carrot for Hamas of a Greater Gaza would be the chance to rule a much more substantial piece of territory, solving the enclave’s humanitarian crisis and rehabilitating the Islamic movement in the eyes of the international community. Naji Shurrab, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told the Jerusalem Post newspaper that the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza would be the first step. But he believed territory in Sinai would be included too, once Egyptian security concerns had been addressed.
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Israel has all but gone public with its close security ties with Egypt and the other key regional Arab state, Saudi Arabia. The two share Israel’s concern about curtailing Iran’s influence in the region and appear to be prioritizing that alliance over the Palestinian cause. Indications are that the White House is engaging in vigorous shuttle diplomacy with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to help with what Trump has called the “ultimate deal” for peace. What of Abbas, who has previously rejected the Greater Gaza plan? He is much weaker than he was a few years ago and has alienated Saudi Arabia and Egypt with his continuing bitter feud with Mohammed Dahlan, his key rival within the Fatah movement and the man the Arab states would like to see succeed him. Yoni Ben Menachem, a former Israeli intelligence officer, told Israel’s Channel 1 earlier this month that Sisi intends to bring down Abbas. Dahlan has been living in exile in Dubai, in the Gulf, reportedly channelling money from the United Arab Emirates into Gaza and the occupied West Bank to buy popularity and political influence. There are long-established suspicions that Dahlan is close to officials in Washington, too. In fact, Dahlan is rapidly emerging as a pivotal figure, promoted by Riyadh and Cairo. Could he be the key to unlocking the Greater Gaza plan? Over recent weeks, a series of secret, three-way meetings between Dahlan, Hamas and the Egyptian security figures have been trying to devise a new power-sharing arrangement in Gaza. Reports suggest that Egypt will agree to reopen Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Sinai if security is overseen by Dahlan loyalists rather than Hamas. According to some reports, Dahlan may even become prime minister of Gaza, with Hamas leaders serving under him. Hamas has been trying to prove its good faith by creating a buffer zone inside Gaza to prevent fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), who have targeted Egyptian soldiers in northern Sinai, O THER V OICES
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from using tunnels to find sanctuary in the enclave. “These measures serve as a message of assurance to the Egyptian side,” Tawfiq Abu Naeem, Gaza’s head of security services, told reporters. What is slowly emerging looks suspiciously like a “Gaza state” project. This arrangement could reassure Egypt and Israel that Hamas’ influence can be contained and that the movement may even be able to help in the fight against ISIL. A strong Dahlan would be expected to restrict Hamas efforts at arming, prevent rocket fire on Israel and block any alliance with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Assuming the model is successful, and with Abbas likely to be out of the picture soon, the Sinai plan could be properly unveiled with Dahlan and Hamas maintaining order in a Palestinian state in northern Sinai, sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. All of this could be sold to the watching world as a supremely humanitarian gesture—to end the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the region. The question remains, however, whether Israel and the U.S. can pull it off.
This article was first posted on <www.al jazeera.com>, July 24, 2017. Copyright © 2017 Al Jazeera Media Network. Reprinted with permission.
The Curse of Mohammed Dahlan: Hamas Should Not Trade Resistance for Its Own Survival BY RAMZY BAROUD
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e have made mutual efforts with our brothers in Hamas to restore hope for Gaza’s heroic people,” Mohammed Dahlan told Palestinian
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lawmakers gathering in Gaza on Thursday, July 27. He spoke via satellite from his current exile in the United Arab Emirates. The audience clapped. True, Gaza has been pushed to the brink of humiliation so that its truly heroic people may lose hope. But the fact that it was Dahlan who uttered these words appeared odd. More bizarre is the fact that his audience included top members of Hamas. Dahlan, who had once been praised by George W. Bush and was chosen by neoconservatives to lead a coup against the elected Hamas government in Gaza in 2007, seems to have finally managed to sneak his way back to Palestinian politics. Outrageous, however, is that Dahlan’s ominous return is facilitated by no other group than his arch enemy, Hamas. It is convenient to blame such dramatic changes of attitude on the nature of politics, ever selfish, “pragmatic” and often brutal. But it is far more complex, and tragic, than such a truism. Gaza has been under siege for over a decade. The Israeli siege in fact began in 2006, when Hamas won parliamentary elections in a decisive victory, leaving Fatah—the leading Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for the first time since its inception the 1960s—in the opposition. Proving incapable of understanding or accepting the democratic process, Fatah lashed out at its Hamas rival and worked hard to undermine its rise to power. But it was mostly Israel, backed by the United States, that vehemently rejected the choice of the Palestinian majority. Within months, Israel imposed a siege on Gaza, the center of Hamas’ popular support, while the U.S. withheld financial assistance to the Palestinians, urging its allies to do the same. Hamas was left with no other option but to form a government alone. To protect its political institutions, the movement also established its own interior ministry police force. Then, O CTOBER 2017 OV-7
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alarm bells rang even louder. It was Gaza-based Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan who was selected to lead the mission of overthrowing Hamas. The choice was made by George W. Bush’s own National Security Council Middle East adviser, Elliot Abrams. Then the neocons were leading a campaign to construct a “New Middle East,“ which was the culmination of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s aggressive “diplomacy” in the region. The U.S. government was eager to show that its violent military adventures in the Middle East region would eventually lead to political stability through a U.S.-sponsored democracy initiative. Hamas’ election victory was a devastating blow to the Bush administration’s efforts. The Islamic group that championed armed resistance and rejected the Washington consensus and its pro-Israeli vision in the Middle East presented Washington with an unprecedented dilemma. The man to thwart Palestinian democracy was Dahlan. It was the obvious choice since Dahlan, a warlord by any standards, had good ties with Israel, a strong position within Fatah and was deeply connected to various Arab intelligences. He also commanded 10 security branches in Gaza, dedicated mostly to cracking down on dissent. Many of those imprisoned and tortured by Dahlan’s forces, funded and trained under a program managed by U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, targeted Hamas fighters, political leaders and supporters. The plan was a massive failure. In the matter of a few days in the summer of 2007, Hamas routed Dahlan’s forces and, until this day, singlehandedly controls Gaza. Dahlan first sought sanctuary in the West Bank, yet soon had a fallout with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He fled Ramallah in 2010, after being accused by his own party of corruption and a coup atOV-8 O CTOBER 2017
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tempt. For the last seven years, Dahlan has lived in the United Arab Emirates and become very close to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammad bin Zayed. Although Dahlan began amassing wealth in Gaza before his exile in 2006, his fortune in the UAE grew exuberantly. When interviewed by The New York Times last November, Peter Baker couldn’t help but marvel at Dahlan’s wealth from the very first paragraph of his report. “His spacious home here in Abu Dhabi…features plush sofas, vaulted ceilings and chandeliers. The infinity pool in the back seems to spill into the glistening waterway beyond,” Baker wrote. At that time, and still until this day, tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza remained homeless following the Israeli war on the Strip in 2014. A few months earlier, the U.N. had rendered Gaza “uninhabitable” in 2020. None of this seemed to matter to Dahlan, who used Arab funds to further divide an already divided Palestinian ranks and to eventually exploit Hamas’ need to survive as Israel and Egypt worked to bring it to its knees. In a move engineered with the help and support of several Arab governments, including Egypt, Dahlan managed to exploit the rift between Hamas and Fatah while presenting himself as the savior of the dying Gaza Strip. With no room for him among the top Fatah leadership, he resolved to impose himself back on the Palestinians through an alliance with weakened Hamas. The resistance movement managed to withstand Israeli wars, but an Israeli-Egyptian siege proved nearly impossible to overcome. Two million Palestinians in Gaza suffered from lifethreatening cuts to electricity, food, clean water, medicine and fuel, not to mention denial of freedom of movement. Last May, the PA in Ramallah significantly reduced salaries of its employ-
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ees in the Strip, and withheld payments to the Israeli company that supplied Gaza with its limited supply of electricity. With Israel, Arabs and the Palestinian leadership all involved in breaking the will of Gaza, Dahlan arrived on the scene with a massive Arab-sponsored largesse, offering charity, electricity and supplies. Of course, he sought a political price in return: a power-sharing agreement. Last June, a Hamas delegation visited Cairo to meet with Dahlan under Egyptian supervision. The Hamas delegation was led by Hamas’ newly elected leader, Yahya Sinwar, who spent 20 years in Israeli jails and led the movement’s military wing’s resistance against Israel. Sinwar agreed with Dahlan on an “understanding” that would give the exiled warlord a leadership position in Gaza in exchange for an Egyptian decision to open the Rafah border that connects the Gaza Strip to the Sinai desert. Expectedly, the Gaza power-sharing deal is angering the Abbas leadership, which is betting on Hamas and Dahlan’s inability to generate enough funds to sustain the impoverished Strip. But considering the support of wealthy Arabs and the full involvement of Egypt, the agreement has a reasonable degree of success in the short run. The Rafah border is reportedly due to open next month, and an electric powerplant on the Egyptian side of the border will soon be constructed. Once completed in 18 months, Gaza’s 22hour-long blackouts could be significantly reduced. However, conflict will likely arise in the future. Confident in its strong support base in Gaza, Hamas thinks it is still able to out-maneuver Dahlan and his plans to end or at least silence the resistance in Gaza. A glance at the history of Fatah suggests otherwise. Indeed, the Oslo accords in 1993 was the culmination of years of pressure, financial manipulation and intimidation of Yasser Arafat and his supporters.
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In the final analysis, the Palestinian people gained nothing, and all that remains of Fatah today are empty slogans. Having been browbeaten and weakened by Israel and the Arabs, Hamas is now walking the same path. A few analysts are suggesting that the current political game is aimed at reviving an old formula that envisaged a Palestinian state in Gaza and parts of the Sinai desert, where many Palestinian refugees would be permanently settled. Although the Palestinian leadership and people rejected such plots in the past, Israel and its Arab allies might be hoping that Gaza is too weak and Palestinians are far too divided to reject such deals. However, it is likely that such a calculation will also backfire. Dahlan has failed repeatedly in the past at subduing Gaza, at controlling the PA, at ousting aging Abbas and at other plots. Why should this new gamble be any different? Moreover, in their weakest moments, the Palestinian people proved strong enough to defeat any initiative that would compromise on their rights, including their Right of Return. As for Hamas, it must not copy the failed Fatah experience. Palestine is bigger and more valuable than both movements, their political ambitions and calculations. True, the situation for Hamas and Gaza is dire. But there can be no moral justification to swap the rights, hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people with the arrogant ambitions of a self-obsessive warlord and his wealthy Arab benefactors.
Testimony From The Censored Massacre— Deir Yassin BY OFER ADERET
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or two years now a document that makes for difficult reading has been lying in the archives of the association to commemorate the heritage of Lehi—the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel pre-state underground militia. It was written by a member of the underground about 70 years ago. Reading it could reopen a bleeding wound from the days of the War of Independence that to this day stirs a great deal of emotion in Israeli society. “Last Friday together with Etzel”— the acronym for the National Military Organization, also known as the Irgun, another pre-state underground militia, led by Menachem Begin—“our movement carried out a tremendous operation to occupy the Arab village on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road—Deir Yassin. I participated in this operation in the most active way,” wrote Yehuda Feder, whose nom de guerre in Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang) was “Giora.” Further along in the letter, he describes in detail his part in the massacre that took place there. “This was the first time in my life that at my hands and before my eyes Arabs fell. In the village I killed an armed Arab man and two Arab girls of 16 or 17 who were helping the Arab who was shooting. I stood them against a wall and blasted Dr. Ramzy Baroud is an internationally syndi- them with two rounds from the cated columnist, a media consultant, an Tommy gun,” he wrote, describing author of several books and founder of how he carried out the execution of the PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My girls with a submachine gun. Along with that, he tells about lootFather Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (available from AET’s Middle ing in the village with his buddies after East Books and More). This article was first it was occupied. “We confiscated a lot posted on his website, <www.ramzybaroud. of money and silver and gold jewelry net>, Aug. 1, 2017. Copyright © 2010-2017 fell into our hands,” he wrote. He conRamzyBaroud.net. All rights reserved. Re - cludes the letter with the words: “This was a really tremendous operation and printed with permission.
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it is with reason that the left is vilifying us again.” This letter is one of the historical documents revealed in a new documentary film entitled “Born in Deir Yassin” by director Neta Shoshani, who devoted the past several years to comprehensive historical research on the Deir Yassin massacre, one of the constitutive incidents of the War of Independence, which has remained a blot on Israel to this day. In advance of the premiere screening of the film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Shoshani showed Haaretz the testimonies she has gathered about the incident, the result of extensive digging in archives along with in-depth interviews with the last living participants in the action. Some of them broke a silence of decades when they spoke to her, often for the first time in front of a camera. The assault on the village of Deir Yassin began on the morning of April 9, 1948, as part of Operation Nachshon to break through the blockaded road to Jerusalem, with the participation of about 130 Lehi and Irgun fighters who received aid from the Haganah—the pre-independence army. The fighters encountered stiff resistance and sniper fire and advanced slowly through the village lanes while throwing grenades and blowing up houses. Four of the fighters were killed and dozens were wounded. The number of Arab inhabitants who were killed there and the circumstances of their deaths has been disputed for many years, but most researchers state that 110 inhabitants of the village, among them women, children and elderly people, were killed there. “They ran like cats,” related the commander of the operation, Yehoshua Zettler, the Jerusalem commander of Lehi, as he described the Arabs fleeing from their homes. Shoshani interviewed him in 2009, a few weeks before his death. Zettler denied that his people carried out a massacre in the village but he spared no words to describe the way its inhabitants were killed. “I won’t tell you that we were there with O CTOBER 2017 OV-9
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kid gloves on. House after house...we’re putting in explosives and they are running away. An explosion and move on, an explosion and move on and within a few hours, half the village isn’t there any more,” he said. Zettler also provided a harsh account of the burning of the bodies of those who were killed, after the village was occupied. “Our guys made a number of mistakes there that made me angry. Why did they do that?” he said. “They took dead people, piled them up and burned them. There began to be a stink. This is not so simple.” Another harsh account was provided by Prof. Mordechai Gichon, a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces reserves, who was a Haganah intelligence officer sent to Deir Yassin when the battle ended. “To me it looked a bit like a pogrom,” said Gichon, who died about a year ago. “If you’re occupying an army position— it’s not a pogrom, even if a hundred people are killed. But if you are coming into a civilian locale and dead people are scattered around in it—then it looks like a pogrom. When the Cossacks burst into Jewish neighborhoods, then that should have looked something like this.” According to Gichon, “There was a feeling of considerable slaughter and it was hard for me to explain it to myself as having been done in self-defense. My impression was more of a massacre than anything else. If it is a matter of killing innocent civilians, then it can be called a massacre.” Yair Tsaban, a former Meretz MK and government minister, related in his interview with Shoshani that after the massacre, in which he did not participate, he was sent with fellow members of the Youth Brigades to bury the corpses of the dead. “The rationale was that the Red Cross was liable to show up at any moment and it was necessary to blur the traces [of the killings] because publication of pictures and testimonies about what had happened in the village would be very damaging to the image of our War of Independence,” he said. OV-10 O CTOBER 2017
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“I saw a fair number of corpses,” he added. “I don’t remember encountering the corpse of a fighting man. Not at all. I remember mostly women and old men.” Tsaban testified that he saw inhabitants shot in the back and dismissed the claims of some participants in the action that the locals had been hit in exchanges of fire. “An old man and a woman, sitting in the corner of a room with their faces to the wall, and they are shot in the back,” he recalled. “That cannot have been in the heat of battle. No way.” The massacre at Deir Yassin had many repercussions. The Jewish Agency, the chief rabbis and the heads of the Haganah condemned it. The left used it to denounce the right. Abroad, it was compared to the crimes of the Nazis. Additionally, as historian Benny Morris notes in his book Righteous Victims, “Deir Yassin had a profound demographic and political effect: It was followed by mass flight of Arabs from their locales.” Shoshani first became interested in the Deir Yassin story about a decade ago, while working on her final project at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, which focused on visual documentation of the Kfar Shaul state psychiatric hospital, which in turn was built on the lands of Deir Yassin after the war. Following her documentation of the place as it is today, with its buildings that had served the village’s inhabitants in the past and today are part of the hospital, she also wanted to find historical pictures of the massacre that took place there 70 years ago. To her surprise, she found that the task was not at all simple. “On the Internet are pictures of corpses that are captioned as having been photographed at Deir Yassin, but they are from Sabra and Shatila,” she says, referring to the 1982 massacre by Christian militiamen of hundreds of residents of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. “In the IDF Archive they released to me for publication pictures of the fighters from Deir Yassin themselves,” she continued and displayed a series of photos showing armed Irgun
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and Lehi members, but no trace of the Arabs who were killed. At the Haganah Archive, where Shoshani continued her search—“like a naive child,” as she said—another surprise awaited her. “An older man came up to me, very hush-hush, took me to a side room and told me that he had taken pictures immediately after the massacre,” she said. The man was Shraga Peled, 91, who at the time of the massacre was in the Haganah Information Service. He told Shoshani that after the battle he was sent to the village with a camera to document what he saw there. “When I got to Deir Yassin, the first thing I saw was a big tree to which a young Arab fellow was tied. And this tree was burnt in a fire. They had tied him to it and burned him. I photographed that,” he related. He also claims he photographed from afar what looked like a few dozen other corpses collected in a quarry adjacent to the village. He handed the film over to his superiors, he says, and since then he has not seen the photos. Possibly this is because the photos are part of the visual material that is hidden to this day in the Archive of the IDF and the Defense Ministry, of which the state is prohibiting publication even 70 years after the fact. Shoshani petitioned the High Court of Justice about this a decade ago as part of her final project at Bezalel. Haaretz joined her in the petition. The state explained that publication of the pictures was liable to damage the state’s foreign relations and the “respect for the dead.” In 2010, after viewing the pictures, the Supreme Court justices rejected the petition, leaving the material far from the public eye. In the meantime Shoshani managed to get hold of some other photos connected to the massacre, among them a series of pictures documenting orphaned children whose parents had been killed at Deir Yassin. The Deir Yassin massacre continues to upset everyone who deals with it, even at a distance of 70 years. Not everyone agrees with the characterization “massacre.” Historian Dr. Uri Mil-
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stein, who studies Israel’s wars, does a lot to propagate the thesis that there wasn’t any massacre in the village. In many articles he has written, he claims that this is “a mendacious myth” and “a blood libel” and that the Arab dead were killed in “a battle in a built-up area.” “I don’t think that anyone there had the intention of coming there and killing children,” says Shoshani in summing up the materials she has gathered about the incident. However, she says, “This was not a battle against fighters but rather the sudden occupation of a village, in confrontation with inhabitants who defended their homes with meager means. There were also cases, apparently isolated, of mowing down inhabitants, ‘executions,’ after the fighting was over, for the purpose of deterrence and out of fear.” The Deir Yassin massacre was the first of a number of incidents in which Jewish fighters were involved in killing civilians in the War of Independence and after it was over. Another infamous incident was the one at Kafr Qasem in 1956, on the day the fighting in the Sinai Campaign began. Forty-eight Israeli Arab citizens were killed by Border Police gunfire. As in the case of Deir Yassin, the state is still censoring the archival materials from Kafr Qasem.
This article was first published in Haaretz, July 16, 2107. Copyright © Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
The History Is Too Deep, the Pain Is Too Real BY JAMES J. ZOGBY
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week ago, a pro-Israel media monitoring group accused me of making “an unsubstantiated charge that Israel supporters are responsible” for discrimination, hate crimes, and the political exclusion of Arab Americans. Because this issue is O THER V OICES
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so important to Arab Americans and because some hard-line pro-Israel groups refuse to acknowledge their role in harming my community, I am obliged to respond with a few examples representing just the tip of the iceberg of painful acts of defamation, discrimination, exclusion, threats, and violence. From the moment Arab Americans began to organize and to advocate for causes we held dear, we were confronted by attacks from major Jewish community organizations. Our early efforts to bring our community into the mainstream of American political life were met with resistance and campaigns of pressure designed to make us “radioactive.” They used political pressure to have us excluded from government meetings, engagement with coalitions, and involvement in political campaigns. They defamed us in reports they circulated (I have copies of all of them), terming us “Arab propagandists,” “a made up community,” “a creation of petro dollars,” purveyors of anti-Semitism, or a “subversive plot” supporting Palestinian terror. My first direct encounter with this exclusion came in 1978. I was invited to the White House for an ethnic leaders’ roundtable with Vice President [Walter] Mondale. A few days after the meeting, I received a call from the White House informing me that because they had received complaints from Jewish groups that a pro-Palestinian Arab had been at the meeting, I wouldn’t be invited to follow-up discussions. The next year, my organization applied for membership in the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy— a grouping of 60 religious, and peace and justice organizations. We overwhelmingly won the vote for admission, but three members, led by a liberal Jewish group, objected to our entry and threatened to quit the coalition “if the Arabs were admitted.” The coalition leadership then asked us to withdraw our application. In late 1979, my Palestine Human Rights Campaign hosted a major national conference that featured seven WASHINGTON R EPORT
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members of Congress, major Black leaders, and many figures from peace and justice organizations. Despite receiving prominent and favorable national news coverage for three consecutive nights, a pro-Jewish Defense League newspaper in New York described the event with a huge frontfront page headline as a “SECRET PLO MEET” that “plots terror.” A few months later, after having received a number of threats, my office was firebombed. The JDL issued a statement which, while not claiming credit, said that they “approved of the act.” Months later, JDL head Meir Kahane showed up pounding on my office door, taunting us about the firebombing until the police arrived and removed him from the premises. In 1981, I was invited by a national Italian-American organization to head up a multi-ethnic meeting addressing issues of media stereotyping. Some Jewish groups objected to my role, accusing me of having “another agenda.” They refused to participate and convened their own meeting. In 1983, former Sen. James Abourezk [D-SD] was invited to serve on the Executive Committee of the 20th anniversary of Dr. King’s March on Washington (I was asked to serve on the National Steering Committee). Once again, major Jewish groups threatened to withdraw if Arab Americans were included. After a long and painful debate, the matter was resolved in our favor when Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rev. Jesse Jackson intervened on our behalf. The threats continued—by mail and phone—all of which were reported to authorities. Some came to us in Washington, others to Arab-American offices in other cities. Then, in 1985, Alex Odeh, the director of the California American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was murdered when a bomb exploded as he entered his office. Shortly after Alex’s murder, the House Judiciary Committee and, later, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, held hearings on violence against Arab Americans. In my testimony, I said: “These acts of violence and threats of O CTOBER 2017 OV-11
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violence against Arab-American organizations are but part of a larger picture of discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. We can document numerous instances of active political discrimination against Arab Americans, “blacklisting” of Arab-American political activists and spokespersons, and efforts to “bait” or taint Arab-American leaders and organizations as “terrorist supporters. “All of these actions and practices create a climate…[which] serve[s] to embolden the political opponents of Arab Americans to the point where, as we have seen, some have escalated their opposition to include acts of violence against Arab Americans and their organizations.” While our efforts to organize and normalize our involvement in civic life proved challenging, in the political arena Arab Americans faced even greater hurdles. Throughout the 1980s Arab Americans had contributions returned and endorsements rejected. A prominent group of St. Jude Hospital board members had their contributions to the Mondale campaign returned in 1984, and in 1988, presidential candidate Michael Dukakis rejected our endorsement. Two national political leaders, David Dinkins, running for mayor in New York City, and Ed Szchau, running for a Senate seat in California, both directly asked me to discourage Arab Americans from contributing to their campaigns, citing their fear of a backlash from the Jewish community. Whether their fears were real or imagined, the impact on my community was real and hurtful. In spite of these obstacles, we persisted, and with the help of courageous leaders like Jesse Jackson, Ron Brown and Bill Clinton we made our way into the mainstream. Jackson welcomed us into his two presidential campaigns. As chair of the Democratic Party, Brown, despite warnings by some Jewish donors that they would withdraw support for the party, came to our events, welcomed us, and gave us a seat at the table. OV-12 O CTOBER 2017
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But problems remained. In 1992, Arab Americans were being rebuffed by the Clinton campaign. At that year’s Democratic Convention, I was approached by AIPAC’s legal director, who also served as the Clinton campaign’s legal adviser. He said to me, “I know you’re trying to get into the campaign. Why the F___ should we let you in?...leave us alone.” I was shaken by the naked hostility of the encounter and went to Brown. Together we laid out a strategy. It ultimately led me to an unlikely place—a meeting with Sen. Joe Lieberman [DCT]. Despite our many disagreements, he was approachable and fair. He was so incensed that he called the Clinton campaign expressing his outrage over this behavior. The next day, we were invited to join the campaign. While the Clinton years, shaped as they were by the Oslo accords and the president’s own personal commitment to justice, changed the political dynamic for Arab Americans, problems persisted, with some Jewish groups still attempting to exclude Arab Americans and defame those who were in government posts. Now, however, the main threats came not from the mainstream groups, but from the fringes, and from a collection of entities funded by the likes of Sheldon Adelson and Robert Shillman. They assumed the role of smearing Arab Americans and, now, American Muslims. Their efforts have not been able to exclude us, but they have been able to incite against us— and the toll they continue to take on community leaders and activists is substantial. After 9/11, three men were arrested, tried, and convicted of making death threats against me, my family, and my office. Two of the three used, in their threats, material culled from these “hate sites”—citing their support for Israel as a reason for their hatred and death threats. The bottom line is the charge that supporters of Israel are, in part, responsible for instances of discrimination, hate crimes, and the political exclusion of Arab Americans cannot be dismissed as “unsubstantiated.” The history is too
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real and the pain is too deep. Shame on those who can’t acknowledge the history and the pain.
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 necessarily reflect the position of the Arab American Institute. This “Washington Watch” column was first posted on <www.aaiusa.org>, July 15, 2017. Copyright © 2009-2015 Arab American Institute. Reprinted with permission.
Killing Civilians in Iraq and Syria BY EDWARD HUNT
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he ongoing effort of the United States to eradicate the Islamic State by aggressively launching airstrikes against targets that include non-combatants is causing significant harm to civilians in Iraq and Syria. Estimates of civilian deaths from airstrikes range from the hundreds to the tens of thousands. Although the U.S. government says that it has killed 603 civilians in airstrikes since the start of military operations in 2014, the monitoring group Airwars estimates that airstrikes have killed at least 4,500 civilians, including nearly 1,000 children. Some of the strikes have been horrific. One attack in Mosul last March killed at least 100 civilians and injured countless more. “Dozens of Iraqi civilians, some of them still alive and calling out for help, were buried for days under the rubble of their homes in western Mosul after American-led airstrikes flattened almost an entire city block,” The New York Times reported. Officials in Washington deny any wrongdoing. They insist that they are taking every precaution to protect civilians. They also argue that they are not intentionally killing civilians, despite the fact that President Trump promised during his presidential campaign to go after civilians. When it comes to terrorists, “you have to take
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out their families,” Trump said. Others argue that civilian deaths cannot be avoided. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of coalition forces, said during a press conference last March that civilian deaths result from the fog of war. “And this is why it’s not a war crime to accidentally kill civilians,” Townsend said, in a misinterpretation of the law. Still, U.S. officials know that they are responsible for killing civilians in Iraq and Syria. For over the past year, at least, they have been deliberately striking targets that they know will result in civilian casualties. Clear evidence emerged in January 2016 after U.S. forces bombed a site in a civilian area of Mosul that the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) had been using to store money. “U.S. commanders had been willing to consider up to 50 civilian casualties from the airstrike due to the importance of the target,” CNN reported. Around the same time, officials in the Obama administration loosened restrictions designed to limit civilian casualties. According to a report by USA Today, administration officials granted military officials permission to strike targets that came with higher probabilities of civilian deaths. “Before the change,” USA Today reported, “there were some limited cases in which civilian casualties were allowed.” With the change, “there are several targeting areas in which the probability of 10 civilian casualties are permitted.” For others, U.S. military forces were still dealing with too many restrictions. Upon entering office, President Trump moved to implement a more aggressive military campaign. “We have not used the real abilities that we have,” Trump said. “We’ve been restrained.” Expanding the Obama administration’s program of exterminatory warfare, which by that point had already killed about 60,000 IS fighters, Trump decided to implement what administration officials call “annihilation tactics.” According to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Trump “directed a tactical shift from shoving O THER V OICES
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ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS.” The Trump administration’s tactical shift has had significant consequences for civilians. By surrounding targets to annihilate them, coalition forces have been killing far more civilians in Iraq and Syria. It “appears that the number of civilian casualties has risen in recent months,” The Los Angeles Times reported in April. The New York Times agreed, reporting in May that the “number of civilians killed in American-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria spiked this year.” Earlier this week, The Daily Beast provided additional confirmation, reporting that “all parties agree that casualty numbers are steeply up.” Military officials recognize the consequences of their actions. “We’re not perfect,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, commented during a press briefing last May, when asked about civilian casualties from airstrikes. Commander Townsend has even suggested that civilian casualties are inevitable. Undoubtedly, “civilians will get caught in the crossfire,” Townsend said earlier this month. “Civilians will get hurt. Civilians will get killed.” Still, U.S. officials continue to insist that they are not to blame. They characterize civilian deaths as accidents or mistakes. In other words, they keep shifting the blame elsewhere, just as Townsend did when he once again blamed the fog of war. The entire situation is “sad and it’s an unavoidable part of war,” he said. But civilian casualties are not unavoidable. They are not mistakes. For the past year, civilian casualties have been a direct result of U.S. policy. By embracing policies that allow for civilian casualties, officials in both the Obama and Trump administrations have permitted U.S. forces to kill civilians. Indeed, U.S. officials are ensuring through their actions and policies that civilians in Iraq and Syria will continue to die. WASHINGTON R EPORT
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Edward Hunt writes about war and empire. He has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary. This article was first posted on <http://lobelog.com>, July 19, 2017. Copyright © 2008-2017 LobeLog.com. Reprinted with permission.
Muqtada al-Sadr’s Saudi Visit and Iraq’s Shifting Shi’i Politics BY SHIREEN HUNTER
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ast week, the Iraqi Shi’i cleric and the leader of the Sadrist movement Muqtada al-Sadr paid an official visit to Saudi Arabia and met with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS), the power behind the throne. In view of the Saudi monarchy’s rather dark record of treating Shi’i both in the kingdom itself and elsewhere, including Iraq, this visit is rather unusual. Muqtada could not have forgotten how Saudi Arabia supported Saddam Hussain, who killed several members of his family, including his father, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, and the famed Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir alSadr, his uncle. As someone who represents Shi’i in Iraq, he cannot be oblivious to the fact that, while he was received by MBS, the Saudis had the entire Shi’i-inhabited city of Al Awamiah in a state of near siege and were planning to execute several Shi’i Saudi citizens. However, Muqtada is not merely the scion of a famed Shi’i clerical family. He is also a very ambitious man who believes, with some justification, that given his family’s sacrifices during Saddam’s rule, he has a claim to Iraq’s political and spiritual leadership. In fact, he has felt this way since the fall of Saddam Hussain in 2003. At the time, however, he was handicapped by his youth—he was only 30 years old in 2003—and by his lack of adequate religious training. Now at O CTOBER 2017 OV-13
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age 43 and after several years of extra training, some of it in Iran, he feels that the time has come to assert himself. In view of constitutional and other barriers to direct involvement of clerics in running the government, he is unlikely to seek any direct political role. But he certainly would want to be the kingmaker and exert decisive influence on the choice of Iraq’s political leaders. Despite his close family links with Iran, and the fact that he has sought refuge there at times of danger, Muqtada does not want Iran to be too influential in Iraq. Once Ayatollah Sistani, now 87 years old, passes on, Muqtada would certainly not be happy if Iran were to decide who should be the country’s next spiritual leader. He probably feels that Iraq and Iraqis have a greater claim to the mantle of Shi’i imams, most of whom are buried in Iraq, than the Iranians. Nor is he alone in feeling this way. While Muqtada was visiting MBS, Ammar Hakim left the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which has been closely identified with Iran. Hakim is the scion of another Iraqi Shi’i aristocratic family, whose father, Ayatollah Baqir Hakim, spent many years in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussain’s rule. Moreover, there was some speculation that Ammar Hakim would also be going to Riyadh soon. Two years older than Muqtada, Hakim might also be thinking about Iraq’s shifting politics, both clerical and governmental, especially in the aftermath of Ayatollah Sistani’s passing that is bound to happen before long. In that case, it would be interesting to see how the competition between a new generation of Sadrs and Hakims evolves. Both Sadr and Hakim must also have felt the changing winds of politics in America, especially the more confrontational U.S. policy toward Iran. Thus, they want to distance themselves from Iran and widen their political options both within Iraq and regionally. It was clear from the beginning that, once recovered from the trauma of the Saddam years and the 2003 war, Iraq’s OV-14 O CTOBER 2017
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Shi’i establishment would assert itself and try to reclaim Najaf’s position as the main Shi’i spiritual and educational center vis à vis Qom in Iran. Politically, too, Iraq’s relations with Iran have never been as close as the Western media has claimed. Iraqi governments, including during the time of Nouri al-Maliki’s premiership, have not been under Iran’s thumb by any means. Quite the opposite, they have not even accepted Iran’s most basic demands. That includes the 1975 Algiers agreement signed in 1975, which settled their dispute over the Shatt al-Arab river. Iraqi governments have ignored Iran’s pleas for more cooperation in fighting sand storms originating in Iraq, which are chocking Iranian cities, and have put hurdles in the way of Iranian merchants and tourists. On the contrary, it has been Iran that, because of its peculiar foreign policy priorities, has tolerated Iraq’s behavior and continued to offer help when it was threatened by extremist groups, notably the Islamic State. Then, there is the ethnic factor. Iraqi Shi’i are overwhelmingly Arab, or at least deeply Arabized. As such, they feel more at home with Arab countries than with Iran. If Iraq has not yet been completely integrated into the Arab political system, it’s because many Sunni Arab states had problems with a Shi’i-dominated Iraqi government. But it was only a matter of time before Iraq would turn to the Arab world. The Sadr visit to Saudi Arabia could be the beginning of Iraq’s real return to the Arab fold, given that Saudi Arabia has been in the forefront of opposition to Iraqi Shi’i. However, one swallow does not a summer make. There is too much baggage between Iraq’s Shi’i and other Arab states, most notably Saudi Arabia. The latter must do much more before it can gain the Shi’i’s confidence, first in the kingdom itself vis à vis its own disenfranchised Shi’i. It must also accept that the Shi’i will have a strong role in politics and government in an even moderately democratic and secular Iraq. Can Saudi Arabia stomach this? Or is Sadr’s visit just a
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ploy to play on the ambitions of a young and impatient leader and pave the way to the return of Sunni supremacy? Regardless of Saudi Arabia’s real reasons for reaching out to Sadr, there is a limit to how far he can go in befriending the Saudis and antagonizing Iran. Although by no means dominant, Iran does have supporters in Iraq. Cozying up too much to the Saudis could create another source of dispute in the country and further fragment its politics, this time among Shi’i themselves. Perhaps weakening Shi’i in Iraq is the real Saudi reason for its overture to Muqtada. But if Saudi Arabia is sincere in reaching out to Iraqi Shi’i without demanding that they sever their ties to Iran, this rapprochement could be very positive and even help defuse Saudi-Iranian tensions. But to discern the Saudis’ real objectives and nudge them in a constructive direction would require great sensitivity, diplomatic dexterity, and self-restraint. One can only hope that Muqtada al-Sadr possesses these qualities. If he doesn’t, not much good can come out of this visit.
Shireen T. Hunter is a research professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Her latest publication is God On Our Side: Religion, Foreign Policy and International Affairs. This article was first posted on <http://lobelog.com>, Aug. 8, 2017. Copyright © 2008-2017 LobeLog.com. Reprinted with permission.
Hezbollah and The Simplistic School of Counterterrorism BY PAUL R. PILLAR
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ast month, President Trump made a joint appearance at the White House with a visiting head of government, during which Trump spoke of the visitor’s country being “on the front lines in the fight
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against” an organization that is part of that same country’s governing coalition. The visitor was Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the organization was Hezbollah. Members of Hezbollah are ministers in Hariri’s cabinet. Hezbollah has the fourth largest bloc of seats among the two dozen parties that are represented in Lebanon’s parliament. Trump’s comment could be dismissed as an unsurprising gaffe from someone whose ignorance of the outside world is well known (and whose disorganized White House might have contributed to lousy staff work in preparing the president’s notes for the appearance with Hariri). Even if Trump had been better informed about current Lebanese politics, he might not have backed off from his comment. The United States does not have governing coalitions in the same sense as countries with parliamentary systems. But given the occasional bipartisan cooperation in Congress, imagine that a foreign visitor came to the White House and praised the United States for being “on the front line in the fight against Democrats.” Although most observers would consider this to be a ridiculous and outrageously inappropriate remark, Trump might accept it smilingly as a personal compliment. Where terrorism is involved, however, a simplistic approach often prevails that is broadly held and goes far beyond Trump. The problem arises in failing to recognize that terrorism is not some fixed set of people, groups, or states. It instead is a tactic that has been used by many different people and organizations in the pursuit of varying objectives. Yet the fixed-group attitude persists and frequently is visible in policy discussion and media coverage. The official U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) is treated as if it were a master roster of organizations that we should never countenance, even though it was created 20 years ago only as a legal necessity to add precision to legislation that criminalized material support to terrorism. O THER V OICES
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If the United States supposedly were never to do any business with anyone who had used terrorism, it would somehow have to explain away the extensive business it has done with leaders who had been up to their eyeballs in terrorism, including Gerry Adams, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir. The same is true not only of individual leaders but also some groups, such as the African National Congress. We decide which of the users of terrorism we will countenance and which ones we won’t according to criteria other than terrorism itself. Only we don’t admit that we’re doing that, so as to preserve the fiction of being steadfastly opposed to terrorism wherever it arises. And this inconsistency doesn’t even take account of the U.S. acceptance of other applications of political violence that, although they do not meet the formal definition of terrorism because they involve overt use of force by a state, are just as deadly to many innocent civilians (such as the force that Saudi Arabia uses in Yemen or that Israel regularly uses in the West Bank).
DIFFERENCES AMONG GROUPS The simplistic view of terrorism fails to distinguish among the vastly different interests and objectives of groups that have used terrorism and that may appear on the FTO list. This failure was prominent in Trump’s comment at his press conference with Hariri, in which the president listed as the groups that Lebanon supposedly was on the front lines against as “ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah.” There is no comparison between the first two of those and the third. The Islamic State (ISIS or IS) and al-Qaeda are transnational terrorist organizations that seek to overturn governing structures in the Muslim world and to impose an extreme form of rule throughout that world. Hezbollah, by contrast, is focused mainly on sectarian politics and the distribution of power in Lebanon and its environs. Hezbollah’s participation in a governing coalition with other parties in an existing nation-state is far beyond the WASHINGTON R EPORT
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realm of anything possible with IS or al-Qaeda. Hamas is another group that undeniably has used terrorism but otherwise has very little in common with the likes of IS and al-Qaeda. Like Hezbollah, it is focused primarily on more parochial political objectives—in Hamas’ case, on self-determination and political power in Palestine. It has demonstrated its ability and willingness to use peaceful means to pursue those objectives by winning a free and fair election among Palestinians. The simplistic view tends to disregard the circumstances leading to the use of terrorism and to the emergence of groups that have used the tactic. Hezbollah was born in the early 1980s in the midst of a civil war in Lebanon. A major cause of both the war and the birth of the group was strong sentiment within Lebanon’s growing Shi’i population that it was underprivileged and unfairly underrepresented in Lebanese politics. A more immediate circumstance underlying the emergence of Hezbollah was Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The invasion was intended to chase the Palestine Liberation Organization to the ends of the earth—or at least to Tunisia, to which it decamped. A salient episode in the Israeli military expedition was the Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which Israel’s army aided its Phalangist militia allies in the slaughter of hundreds and probably thousands of civilians, including Palestinian refugees and Lebanese Shi’i—Hezbollah’s constituency. Any reference to Hezbollah’s hostility toward Israel needs to recall these events for a full understanding. Hezbollah terrorism against U.S. interests consisted of opposition to a foreign military presence. This was the case with the anti-U.S. terrorism in Lebanon in the 1980s (following a U.S. military intervention there, which came after the Israeli intervention), as well as with the one later attack against U.S. forces in which Hezbollah played a role: the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996. These events O CTOBER 2017 OV-15
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are consistent with Robert Pape’s research finding that suicide bombings are motivated by opposition to the presence of foreign military forces. It is not consistent with any notion that Hezbollah is determined to kill Westerners or to attack U.S. interests in perpetuity.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS Failure to take into account the actual motivations, methods, objectives and standing of a group such as Hezbollah leads to poor policy on problems that involve such groups. It leads to a lack of awareness of how others perceive such groups and thus to what is or is not feasible as a U.S. policy objective. These patterns are reflected in much of what is said in the United States about Hezbollah’s most important ally, Iran. “Number one state sponsor of terrorism” is part of the litany of labels that routinely are affixed to Iran in American discourse. But consult the State Department’s official justification for continuing to designate Iran as a state sponsor, and the gruel one sees is thinner than the discourse would suggest. Most important, it is hard to imagine an Iranian regime that really did not want to be a state sponsor of terrorism making any feasible changes. Much of what is in the U.S. official statement reflects history, which cannot be changed. Much of it involves Iran’s support, along with Russia, for the incumbent regime in Syria against a rebellion in which terrorist groups have played prominent roles. And much of it involves nonstate groups with which Iran does business, and especially its most important nonstate ally, Lebanese Hezbollah. Whether we like it or not, Hezbollah is a well-established political actor in Lebanon, with its participation in Hariri’s government being part of that position. Most other political actors in Lebanon, even the group’s rivals, consider Hezbollah to be a legitimate and established actor that is here to stay, as do many other political actors elseOV-16 O CTOBER 2017
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where in the region. There is no way any Iranian regime would abandon its relationship with the group, which Iran sees as a major defender of Shi’i interests, let alone try to justify to its Iranian constituents such a move as necessary to fight terrorism. There cannot be, nor should there be, any forgiving or forgetting what Hezbollah did to Americans in the 1980s. The bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983 was, until 9/11, the deadliest terrorist attack ever against U.S. citizens. But not forgetting and not forgiving does not imply adopting the simplistic approach toward any group that is on our terrorist list. The current arrangements in Lebanon are probably the least bad way to keep that country from succumbing to full-scale civil war of the
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sort that afflicted it in the past and that afflicts Syria today. Prime Minister Hariri put it this way: My job and my task as prime minister of Lebanon is to shield Lebanon from any instability like in Syria or Iraq or any other country that surrounds us….The political positions between us and Hezbollah are very well known. They don’t agree on my policies, and I don’t agree on their policies. But when it comes for the sake of the country, for the economy, how to handle those 1.5 million refugees, how to handle the stability, how to handle the governing [of] our country, we have to have some kind of understanding, otherwise we would be like Syria. So, for the sake of the stability of Lebanon, we agree on certain things. Not seeing Lebanon fall into renewed civil war is in U.S. interests, so the arrangement Hariri describes is probably in U.S. interests as well. Many who find Hezbollah reprehensible are not aware that the United States provides financial assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces, which in turn has operational coordination with Hezbollah on some armed operations. Even some informed observers in quarters whose opposition to Hezbollah is unquestioned and usually don’t want to have anything to do with any ally of Iran see benefit in continuing that assistance. These complexities are beyond the comprehension of Donald Trump. But what is at stake is not just the avoidance of gauche presidential statements but also the designing of prudent policy toward troublesome groups in troublesome regions, without making the mistake of treating all such groups as the same.
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, <http://nationalinterest.org>, where he writes a blog. and where this article was first posted, Aug. 8, 2017. Copyright ©2017 The National Interest. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
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Special Report
Kurdish Independence Prospect Cements a Turkish-Iranian Alliance
By Yavuz Baydar
SAFIN HAMED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
He added that Ankara and Tehran had agreed on joint operations and intelligence sharing. This is very bad news, not only for Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani, who is banking on the referendum securing his future, but also for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the second most powerful player on the Iraqi Kurdish stage after Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is the engine behind the referendum. Reports have circulated that the Iranian military warned the KRG about severe consequences should the vote go on. Barzani in June announced plans for a referendum on independence on Sept. 25, with voting expected in Kirkuk and three other areas. Kurdish officials have said the vote wouldn’t lead to an automatic declaAn Iraqi Kurd in Erbil, capital of northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, decorates a car with ration of independence, but would improve the Kurdish flag and a poster bearing the image of Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani urging the Kurds’ position in talks with the govpeople to vote in the upcoming Sept. 25 referendum on independence for Iraqi Kurdistan, Aug. ernment in Baghdad regarding self-deter30, 2017. mination. It is apparent that Tehran is on the same page as Ankara about the anxiety of a declaration of Kurdish inAS THE CLOCK ticks toward the referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan’s dependence. Both countries have large Kurdish populations: independence, tensions mount rapidly in neighboring countries. There are about 8 million Kurds in Iran and more than 14 million Both Tehran and Ankara will do their utmost to have the Sepin Turkey. Both groups have, for decades, acted to carve a path tember vote blocked, annulled or at least postponed indefinitely. to independence or secession and have been watching with inThis joint stand became clear during a top-level Iranian militense attention how their brethren in Iraq and Syria push for what tary visit to Ankara by the chief of the general staff of the Iranian they have been dreaming of. armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, escorted by the comBoth Ankara and Tehran see Kurdish self-rule as a threat to manders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Bortheir foreign policy. Ankara is also concerned that a yes vote der Protection Troops. It was the first time since 1979 that an would trigger a new independence/secession push among its Iranian top general visited Turkey. The meeting exemplified how own Kurds. Tehran, however, might have even more to worry significantly the regional balances have been rattled. about. It was obviously irked by the Israeli government’s support “If such a thing happens, it will trigger a new tension and will for the Iraqi Kurdish intentions. A partition of Iraq through a vote affect the neighboring countries negatively,” Bagheri said about would weaken its hand by a diminished Baghdad and demolish the upcoming Kurdish vote. “Therefore, the two countries insist a new regional policy architecture it had built as the Syrian crithat it shall not be possible and should not be conducted.” sis deepened. Yavuz Baydar is a journalist based in Istanbul. A founding member of What will happen if Barzani does not blink? His administration the Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) and a news analyst, made it clear to Iranians that the vote was decided collectively he won the European Press Prize in 2014. He has been reporting on by the major political forces in Iraqi Kurdistan. The only exception Turkey and journalism issues since 1980. Copyright ©2017 The Arab Weekly. Distributed by Agence Global. was the Gorran Movement, which argued that the referendum 48
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must have a mandate from parliament, and Barzani can take new steps to put it in play, which could cause further trouble if the PUK were to pull out of the decision. Turkey, on the other hand, may be happy to build on the Iranian frustrations and wait a little more before intervening to call on Barzani to postpone the vote. This would leave Barzani to persuade Ankara and Tehran that the result is non-binding and that they both need a strong leader like him, with the promise that he would not take any drastic steps against their basic national interests. The more dramatic scenario is that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan goes along with “severe measures”—as Iranians expressed it to Iraqi KRG—simply because Kurdish advances in general in the region pose a much more serious threat to his political aims than keeping a distance from Syrian President Bashar Assad. Iran will continue to back Assad no matter what. There will be a lot of interesting manoeuvring related to the Kurdish referendum in the coming weeks. ■
Senate Bill 720 Continued from page 29
does not violate an individual’s right to free speech. They argue that the bill is only directed at businesses or individuals who boycott Israel in response to international entities (like the U.N. or the European Union). But what they cannot explain is how punishing an American citizen who advocates for a U.N. boycott would not violate that citizen’s right to free speech. Cardin, Wyden and other Democrats who support S.720 also go to great lengths to pledge their support for a “twostate solution.” But their pledges are hollow, since they fail to acknowledge that the provision of S.720 that protects Israel’s settlement enterprise (“entities organized under the laws of Israel”) makes realization of a “two-state solution” impossible— given the location, size and continued expansion of these illegal settlements. Even those who have come out against OCTOBER 2017
S.720 have had some difficulty explaining themselves. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (DNY), for example, was one of the bill’s early endorsers. She courageously removed her name as a sponsor after learning of the free speech concerns of constitutional lawyers, saying “I cannot support the bill in its current form if it can be interpreted as stifling or chilling free speech... So I took my name off the bill.” Gillibrand, nevertheless, felt the need to balance her free speech concern with her support for Israel and her opposition to BDS, adding, ”I cannot state this more clearly: I vehemently oppose the BDS movement.” It’s this last point that requires closer examination. While Israel and its supporters make a brave show of shrugging off the threat of BDS, they clearly feel threatened—otherwise why the hyper-activity to punish BDS? S.720 isn’t the first such effort in the Congress, and nearly one-half of the 50 states have been pressed to pass their own versions of anti-BDS resolutions. In order to build support for their effort, advocates for Israel have tried to portray BDS in the harshest of terms. They have made Israel the victim, while portraying advocates of BDS as “virulently anti-Semitic” aggressors. All of this has been done to obfuscate the reality that BDS is nothing more than a “strategic Palestinianled form of nonviolent resistance to the occupation and denial of human rights.”
Mandela in South Africa in the ’80s. For the Senate to oppose or to punish those who support this Palestinian call to individuals, businesses and governments to boycott, divest, or sanction Israel for its oppressive occupation would put the Senate in the position of saying that: they support Israeli practices; they don’t want Palestinians to use nonviolent means to protest their treatment; and/or they simply don’t believe that Palestinians are equal humans who deserve to have their rights protected. And so the messages we should send to senators are clear. To those who support S.720: “Shame on you.” To those who oppose S.720: “Thank you for your opposition, but think again about whether the problem is BDS or the occupation that gave birth to it.” And to all senators: “Stop hiding behind your hollow profession of support for ‘two states.’ If you are serious about peace, justice and equality, stop enabling the occupation that makes the realization of those goals impossible.” ■ (Advertisement)
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Special Report
Year-Old Hirak Protest Movement Galvanizes Northern Morocco’s Neglected Rif Region
Demonstrators defy a government ban by protesting government neglect in the northern Moroccan city of Al Hoceima, July 20, 2017. “EVERY YEAR the king would visit the Rif region and inaugurate two or three projects…and then nothing would happen,” one of the lead lawyers in the case of the latest Rif rebellion said, explaining the root cause of the protest movement in northern Morocco, now entering its eleventh month. The lawyer, Mohammed Ziane, emphasized that the leaders of the movement, known as Hirak, “are not separatists or extremists,” as has been alleged by pro-government sources. In an interview with the Washington Report, Ziane, whose family comes from the Rif, insisted that “Rifains will no longer accept marginalization, but demand justice.”
Marvine Howe, former New York Times bureau chief in Ankara, is the author of Al Andalus Rediscovered: Iberia’s New Muslims and Other Minorities. 50
The Rif question exploded on the national scene at the end of last October with the shocking death of a fish vendor crushed by a garbage truck compactor in the coastal town of Al Hoceima. Mouhcine Fikri, 30, had been trying to retrieve his precious stock of swordfish, confiscated by the police because it had been banned. Rifains were swift to demonstrate their anger over “the martyr Fikri,’’ and soon vented a backlog of other grievances. Located on a broad bay at the edge of the Rif Mountains, Al Hoceima is known for its historic resistance to Spanish colonialism a century ago. The population of 60,000, which is mostly Amazigh or Berber—in contrast to Morocco’s Arab majority—has long complained that the northern mountainous region has been neglected in national development plans. In fact, the late King Hassan II openly distrusted the independent spirit of the Rif and had used force to quell disturbances. Left to fend for itself, the
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YASSINE TOUMI/TELQUEL
By Marvine Howe
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region depended heavily on emigrants’ remittances and income from selling cannabis to smugglers. King Mohammed VI, who came to the throne upon his father’s death in 1999, has tried to make up for decades of neglect. He spends summer vacations on the Rif coast and has encouraged public and private investment in the area. The Rifains’ current complaints, however, are focused on unfulfilled promises—namely reconstruction aid following a 2004 earthquake that devastated the area, and a much publicized modernization program of 2015, called Al Hoceima Guiding Light of the Mediterranean, which has not materialized. From the nightly mass protests at Al Hoceima and neighboring towns emerged a new, young political organization determined to shake up what it views as a corrupt local and national bureaucracy. The undisputed leader of Hirak is Nasser Zefzafi, a 30-year-old unemployed Rifain, with a simple demand of justice through nonviolent protest. Unlike other political movements in Morocco’s conservative society, young women are included in Hirak’s leadership, like second-in-command Nawale Ben Aissa, 36, mother of four young children, and 23year-old Silya Ziani, a popular singer. Initially Hirak managed to keep the protests largely peaceful, and the response of security forces was likewise measured. Nevertheless, the authorities took the movement seriously and agreed something must be done to come to terms with it. Clearly on many peoples’ minds was the case of the Tunisian street hawker Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, who set himself on fire in December 2010 when his vegetable cart was seized by the police. It was Bouazizi’s desperation and futile death that launched the Arab Spring upheaval. Moroccans joined the broad protest movement, but the country escaped the ensuing chaos when the king called a national referendum on a new, more democratic constitution. The trouble is that while Morocco enjoys the trappings of democracy—multiple political parties, free elections and a representative parliament— real power remains in the hands of the king and his entourage. OCTOBER 2017
By last spring, the Rif crisis threatened to spread to other disinherited provinces. Hirak had captured the public imagination and won the support of civil society and critics on both the left and right. The opposition Islamist movement Al Adl Wal Ihsane organized a major rally for the Rif protesters, with thousands of activists filling the streets of the capital of Rabat. In Fez, Hamid Chabat, leader of the main conservative opposition Istiqlal Party, declared his support for Hirak and demanded freedom for its leadership. The main women’s movement, the left-wing Democratic Association of Moroccan Women (ADFM), strongly backed Hirak and its demands for socioeconomic reforms. In fact, a number of Hirak’s women activists were also members of ADFM. “The people of the Rif are angry because the government lied to them about all the projects supposedly underway,” commented writer Khadija Sebbar, a leader of ADFM’s Istanbul branch. But, she emphasized, the real problem which must be resolved is the huge disparity between the wealthy establishment around the palace and the majority of Moroccans, “who don’t feel like citizens of the same country.”
KING MOHAMMED VI RESPONDS
After months of swelling protests, the palace launched a two-pronged offensive, in an attempt to quell the movement through reform and security measures. Widespread publicity was given to a June cabinet meeting presided over by King Mohammed VI. The monarch reportedly expressed his “anger and concern” over the failure of the government and local authorities to implement projected development plans. The cabinet ministers involved in Al Hoceima’s program were ordered to get the job done, at the sacrifice of their summer vacations. Al Hoceima’s five-year plan now appears to be the authorities’ main blueprint for restoring peace to the Rif. It covers all the demands of Hirak and then some: a regional hospital, a fully equipped cancer center and five clinics, a university and several schools, a stadium and Olympic pool, marina and ocean museum, a theater and house of culture, improved roads,
drinking water and electricity in surrounding towns, construction of a new mosque and restoration of three regional mosques. At the same time, the security forces clamped down on Hirak’s demonstrations, detaining scores of activists. At the end of May, leader Zefzafi was arrested on the pretext that he interrupted prayers in a mosque and publicly challenged an imam who was preaching against Hirak. With its leadership decapitated, Hirak was left to young militants, who took to throwing stones at the forces of order. In early June, a group of human rights organizations investigated allegations of torture used against the prisoners based on 66 requests for medical exams. In their account to the Moroccan government, they reported “visible signs of the use of force.” Even medical experts from the National Commission for Human Rights considered “credible” testimony regarding “violent degrading treatment.” Naturally the Department of National Security rejected the accusations against the police officials. The most serious incident occurred July 20, over commemorations marking the Battle of Anoual in July 1921, when Rif fighters defeated the Spanish army. The march was banned for fear the crowd would escape control. The police cut off all entries to Al Hoceima, but some thousand demonstrators broke through the siege. In the ensuing clash between hails of stones and blasts of teargas, 88 members of the security forces were wounded and probably as many protesters. One activist received serious head wounds and, three weeks later, died in Rabat’s military hospital. The death of Imad El Attabi, 25, was the first fatality since the outset of the protests. Hirak prisoners called a 48-hour hunger strike in his memory, and human rights groups held sit-ins in Rabat and Casablanca. With nearly 200 protesters imprisoned, Hirak proclaimed its top priority to be the release of Zefzafi and the other prisoners, and a team of some 300 lawyers volunteered to defend the Rifains. In a move to discourage further protests, the courts tried 29 detainees accused of minor offenses, and they were given prison senContinued on p. 53
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Islam and the Near East in the Far East
Netanyahu and Modi: “A Marriage Made in Heaven”
By John Gee
GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
nationally respectable language of “anti-terrorism.” Following his latest talks with Netanyahu, Modi said: “India has suffered first hand the violence and hatred spread by terror. So has Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu and I agreed to do much more together to protect our strategic interests, and also cooperate to combat growing radicalization and terrorism, including in cyberspace.” The attitudes underlying his words were perIsraeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (r) greets his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at a meeting with the haps reflected in the fact Indian community at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, July 5, 2017. that Modi did not even make a token gesture of impartiality in the Palestine conflict by paying a visit to Palestinian AuNARENDRA MODI ARRIVED in Israel on July 4, the first visit by thority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah during his time in a serving Indian prime minister to the Zionist state. He was welJerusalem, despite India’s official support for the establishment of an comed warmly: here was a leader who could see eye to eye with independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. his Israeli counterpart and who did not share the qualms about A month after Modi’s visit, when Israel imposed a clampdown his policies that most other democratically elected leaders had on Palestinian access to the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Indian govexpressed. At the end of Modi’s three-day visit, Israeli Prime Minernment stayed silent. Palestinian Ambassador to India Adnan ister Binyamin Netanyahu exulted, “We are making history toAbu Alhaija called a press conference in which he expressed disgether…It is a marriage made in heaven, and we are implementappointment at the government’s position. “I did not hear any ofing it on Earth.” ficial response from India on the issue,” he said. “Many countries This was not their first meeting. If this one was a marriage, the reacted including Israel’s closest ally, the USA…We expect India engagement took place when the two men met on the sidelines to condemn Israeli violations [of Palestinian rights] in East of a U.N. General Assembly meeting in September 2014, a few Jerusalem and other places in occupied Palestine…we expect months after India’s May general election that brought Modi to the Government of India to play a positive role.” national leadership. Until the 1990s, the Palestinians could normally count on As right-wing nationalists who see Muslims (some more than India’s diplomatic support. others) as their enemies, the two have a lot in common—although, in their encounters, they cloak their beliefs in the inter-
John Gee is a free-lance journalist based in Singapore, and the author of Unequal Conflict: The Palestinians and Israel. 52
ARMS DEALS
During Modi’s visit to Israel, the two leaders were reported to have signed half a dozen agreements, including one on space
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cooperation. They announced that they planned, in the area of “defense,” to “focus on the joint development of defense products, including transfer of technology from Israel.” This is important to India, as its own arms industry is relatively underdeveloped and unable to meet its armed forces’ needs, so that it has become one of the world’s largest arms importers. Israel has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of India’s arms purchases. India is now the largest foreign buyer of Israeli weaponry, and Israel ranks second only to Russia as an arms supplier to India. According to a July 5 Bloomberg report on Modi’s visit to Israel: “Since April, India has inked three missile deals with Israel worth $2.6 billion, two senior defense officials said, declining to be identified as they are not approved to speak about the deals. India’s air force is now awaiting clearance to buy two Phalcon airborne surveillance radars from Israel at a cost of $1.16 billion, while the army is waiting for approval to buy 8,356 Spike anti-tank guided missiles from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, along with 321 launchers, for nearly $500 million, the two officials said.” Evidently the arms trade has suffered little disruption as a result of the corruption investigations that, in 2012, resulted in Israel Military Industries being one of six foreign companies blacklisted from bidding for Indian defense contracts for 10 years. IMI was accused of paying kickbacks after investigations into the dealings of Sudipta Ghosh, formerly the director general of India’s state Ordnance Factory Board. Suspicions had also fallen on Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. While Israel is no doubt delighted with its arms sales to India, its other big customer in Asia may not be so happy. Israel is the second largest exporter of weaponry to China, after Russia. Delhi and Beijing see each other as rivals, and tensions between them rose this year over their unsettled border disputes. India is also uncomfortable with China’s “One Belt, One Road” project (see June/July 2017 WashOCTOBER 2017
ington Report, p. 40), which includes massive Chinese investment in the Pakistani port of Gwadar. For its part, China recalls how its own bid to buy four Phalcon airborne surveillance radar systems from Israel in the 1990s was cancelled by Israel in 2000 under intense pressure from Washington. The U.S. government considered that China’s acquisition of the systems would further tilt the regional balance of power toward China, especially vis-à-vis Taiwan. Three years later, however, Washington approved the sale of the systems to India, fully aware of the rivalry between the two Asian giants. The value of trade between Israel and India rose from $200 million in 1992 to $4 billion in 2016, whereas the value of IsraelChina trade increased from $50 million in 1992 to $10 billion in 2013. ■
Hirak Protest Movement Continued from page 51
tences of 18 months. Zefzafi, however, has been charged with threatening the internal security of the state and inciting public insurrection, an attack on the territorial integrity of the state, attempted homicide and other crimes, which could mean life imprisonment or death row. In his busy office in downtown Rabat, attorney Ziane, who heads the small Moroccan Liberal Party, insisted that Hirak did not seek confrontation with the police. “Hirak wants to engage in dialogue with the authorities,” Ziane said, “but they refuse any negotiations.” The lawyer pointed out that in 8 months of protest, with 5 to 10 rallies daily, there had been no slogans against the king. “Rifains blame elected officials, political parties, the local authorities and the government for neglecting the region,” he stressed. In fact, Mohammed VI excoriated the political parties and their representatives for “incompetence” and “unprecedented irresponsibility” in his annual Throne Speech on July 30. He went on to warn that all authorities found negligent in their
duties should be relieved of their responsibilities. Addressing politicians, the king snapped: “Accomplish the mission you are charged with…or leave.” Nevertheless, in his traditional balanced approach, the monarch heaped praise on the security forces for their “enormous sacrifice under difficult conditions.” It looked like the torture allegations would disappear. At the same time, Mohammed VI pardoned a first contingent of 40 Hirak prisoners, including activist Silya Ziani—but not the leader, Zefzafi. Members of the defense team hoped this was a sign that the king had not been swayed by the accusations of separatism leveled at the movement, and that the remaining Rifains would also be pardoned. After the king’s stunning denunciation of “the political class,” the Islamist Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani hastily announced that 10 cabinet ministers involved in the 5-year Al Hoceima development plan would travel frequently to the region and otherwise remain at their posts on standby and “not even turn off their cell phones” until the delays were made up. He also announced the creation of national commissions to spur regional investments, reform the administration and review projects for decentralization. The first victim of the royal wrath was Ilyas El Omari, who resigned “for personal reasons” as head of the main opposition Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), archrival of the ruling Islamist Party of Justice and Development. El Omari is himself a Rifain and until now was president of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Region. Other heads are expected to fall in the near future, and there is talk of new elections. Whatever happens next, the Rif’s peaceful protest has shaken the democratic façade of the kingdom and demonstrated that power remains with the king and not the myriad of weak political parties previously encouraged by the palace. It has also been an important exercise in grassroots politics which could signal a new start for Moroccan democracy...if the lessons are heeded on all sides. ■
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Israel and Judaism
Israel Rejects Freedom for Non-Orthodox Streams of Judaism
By Allan C. Brownfeld
JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Even some commentators in Israel were sharply critical of the government’s decision to renege on the agreement to provide an area for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. Writing in The Jerusalem Post, editor Yaakov Katz declared that this “will go down in history as a shameful day for the State of Israel, another nail in the coffin of Israel’s failing relationship with Diaspora Jewry.” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, to which more American Jews belong than any other branch of Judaism, said: “We are not going to quietly accept this. It is so insulting. I know there will be a series of responses. The decision delegitimizes the Members of the liberal Jewish religious group Women of the Wall wear traditional Jewish prayer overwhelming majority of Jews on the shawls for men known as Tallit as they pray at the Western Wall July 24, 2017 to mark the Rosh Hodesh Av, the first day of the new Jewish month of Av. Women and men currently pray in sep- planet.” Charles Bronfman, the Canadian-Amerarate areas at the site in Jerusalem's Old City, where religious affairs are overseen by Israel's Orthodox establishment. ican billionaire and a major Jewish philanthropist, sent a letter to the Israeli prime ISRAEL’S GOVERNMENT backtracked in June on a decision to minister taking him to task and noting that, “To my knowledge, create a space at the Western Wall in Jerusalem where men no other country in the world denies any Jew based on denomiand women could pray together and perform non-Orthodox ritunation.” als. Israel’s holy Jewish sites are managed by the ultra-OrthoWriting in the June 25 Forward, editor Jane Eisner declared: dox, and the area for prayer at the Western Wall currently is di“Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu just gave the finger vided according to gender. The suspension of the plan by Israeli to a huge chunk of American Jews, and by doing so, dangerPrime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has deepened the divide ously upset the already precarious relationship between the Isbetween Israel and the majority of American Jews, who are affiliraeli government and the Diaspora. Netanyahu showed his true ated with non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. colors by essentially dismissing non-Orthodox Jews the world While many Americans assume that Israel embraces a philosoover...Netanyahu has turned his back on pluralistic Jews and phy of Western-style religious freedom, this is not the case—even that fundamentally changes the relationship between Israelis for Jews. There is no separation of temple and state in Israel. Inand the Diaspora.” stead, Orthodox Judaism is, in effect, the state religion. Reform, Eisner went on to point out that, “Israel asked Diaspora Jews Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis may not perform wedto ignore the half-century occupation of the Palestinians, to dings or funerals, and their conversions are not recognized. Morespend millions trying to defeat the Iran nuclear deal, to lobby for over, because Israel has no civil marriage, non-Orthodox and nonbillions of American taxpayer dollars for Israel’s military and to Jewish Israelis who wish to marry must leave the country to do so. send more billions of dollars its way to pay for every sort of charitable fund imaginable. And in return, the American Jewish leadAllan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist and associate editor of ership—and the Jewish Agency speaking for Diaspora Jews— the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute for Reasked that non-Orthodox Jews be recognized as Jews, too...We search and Education, and editor of Issues, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism. have to write new rules for this relationship, because the old 54
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ones were just merely tossed away...” According to United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York CEO Eric S. Goldstein, the decision to suspend the Western Wall agreement “would destroy the fundamental principle that Israel...is a place where all Jews can and must feel at home.” At the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu endorsed an Orthodox party bill that gave the ultra-Orthodox a monopoly over conversions to Judaism in Israel by ending government recognition of “private conversions” by rabbis not approved by the ultra-Orthodox. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Israel’s Orthodox parties and chief rabbinate control “all Jewish marriage in Israel.” In the opinion of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who is Jewish, “run-away Orthodox politics threatens to disconnect Israel from its most committed supporters.” It is not only non-Orthodox rabbis who are found lacking by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. In July, it was revealed that the Chief Rabbinate had compiled a list of overseas Orthodox rabbis whose authority it refuses to recognize when it comes to certifying as Jewish someone who wants to marry in Israel. The list names 160 rabbis in 24 countries, including a colleague of the rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump, a Canadian rabbi friendly with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and a New York rabbi who has advocated for greater rights for women. Also on the list is Rabbi Avi Weiss of New York, who calls for a “more open and inclusive Orthodoxy” and who said, “The whole thing seems to be nonsensical on every level.” Rabbi Gil Steinlauf of Congregation Adas Israel in Washington, DC wrote in the July 16 edition of The Washington Post: “I know the rabbis on the list with me aren’t the only rabbis blacklisted. The blacklist really encompasses all rabbis who don’t subscribe to the narrow worldview of the Rabbanut [Chief Rabbinate], which holds that the only valid form of Judaism is one that adheres solely to the strictest interpretation of Jewish law and the most traditionalist OCTOBER 2017
social values. Most of all, I feel sad because it is not just rabbis. All progressiveminded Jews have been rejected. The Rabbanut has shunned all of us who welcome open questioning, diversity, pluralism, and many paths to God and to holiness within our people and in the world.” The view of ultra-Orthodox Israelis toward non-Orthodox Jews can be seen in an editorial published in an ultra-Orthodox news site which described Reform Judaism as “perhaps a kind of religion, but a foreign religion like Christianity and Islam.” Some critics have pointed out that Jewish groups have been vocal in criticizing Israel for denying equal rights to non-Orthodox Jews, but have been silent when it comes to the denial of rights to Palestinians.
EQUAL RIGHTS FOR SOME
Rabbi Brant Rosen, who serves Tzedek Chicago Congregation and is also Midwest regional director for the American Friends Service Committee, wrote an article in the July 2 Forward headlined, “The Real Wall Problem: When Will Diaspora Jews Fight for Palestinians?” “The North American Jewish establishment is furious with Israel and has just let loose an astonishing fusillade of collective protests,” he wrote. “While Israel’s aggressive occupation now marks its 50th year and the cause of a just peace remains
more remote than ever, our Jewish leaders are still more concerned about the rights of Jews than the rights of all who live in the land...We will willingly violate our own values for you. Just give liberal Jews rights and we’ll remain silent on your unchecked militarism and oppression of the Palestinian people.” Rosen concludes: “I can’t help but ask: where is the moral outrage in liberal Jewish establishments over these cruel human abuses? While I certainly believe in the cause of religious freedom, I find it stunning that so many liberal-minded members of the Jewish community are more concerned with Jewish rights in a Jewish state than the basic human rights of non-Jewish children who live under its control. Such are the sorrows of Jewish political nationalism—even the more ‘liberal’ among us seem only to be able to express their tolerance selectively.” Many American Jews once believed they shared common values with Israel. Now, more and more of them are becoming alienated from Israel, a society which repeatedly proclaims itself “Jewish” but seems to be moving away from the Jewish moral and ethical tradition. In the opinion of Prof. Dov Waxman of Northeastern University, Israel’s movement in an “increasingly illiberal” direction has forced American Jews to “turn away in despair and disgust.” ■
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MUSIC & ARTS Known for its legendary hospitality, beautiful desert landscapes, tranquil oases and 1,000 miles of coastline along the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, the Sultanate of Oman’s seafaring history dates back millennia. Exploring its glorious maritime past—a defining part of its cultural identity—the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in Washington, DC is hosting the exhibition “From Sinbad to the Shabab Oman: A Seafaring Legacy” through Sept. 30, 2017. Sailing from the port cities of Sohar, Dhofar, Qalhat, Sur and Muscat in handbuilt dhows, Omani traders crossed the sea along the Maritime Silk Route with the help of the strong monsoon winds. The exhibition, located in the Cultural Center’s second floor gallery, features informational kiosks and large wall-mounted video screens offering information and history on these port cities. Also told are the stories of Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta and Ahmad Ibn Majid, Oman’s most famous sailor and navigator, hailed as the “Lion of the Sea.” Display cases contain the tools and materials for building the handsewn Omani dhows designed to transport cargo to Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Traditional Omani sea music playing in the background helps transport visitors to this exotic corner of the world, which continues to be an important trading port for worldwide shipping. Located on the Gulf of Oman, Sohar, the birthplace of the fictional Sinbad the Sailor, is still known as the “Gateway to China” and is one of the world’s fastest growing port and free zone developments. In 2008, Sultan Qaboos bin Said sponsored the establishment of the non-profit organization “Oman Sail” to make sailing accessible to the Omani public. In addition, the organization is rekindling Oman’s maritime heritage, promoting the Sultanate around the world through sailing, and providing long-term learning opportunities for Omani youth. 56
STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI
Celebrating Oman’s Seafaring Legacy
“From Sinbad to the Shabab Oman: A Seafaring Legacy” is on display through Sept. 30, 2017 at the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in Washington, DC. The sailing federation has helped turn Muscat into a regular sailing destination by hosting international races in Omani waters. Each year, professional sailors from around the world come to Oman to compete. In addition, two Omani Royal Navy ships, Shabab Oman I and Shabab Oman II, serve the dual purpose of training Oman’s navy while traveling the globe on goodwill missions. —Elaine Pasquini
“City of Ghosts”: Citizen Journalism in Da’ish-Held Raqqa
Directed, produced and filmed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman, the documentary “City of Ghosts” takes
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
viewers straight into the heart of Raqqa, briefly outlining events before Da’ish (ISIS) took over the Syrian city and made it the capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate. The film follows the rise of Da’ish as four brave journalists—Aziz, Hamoud, Hussam and Mohamad—escape Raqqa, leaving behind home and many loved ones who eventually fall victim to the atrocities of the city’s new rulers. In exile, these men establish Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a citizen journalist platform publishing reports from inside the city. Using their connections inside Raqqa, they continue to transmit news about public executions, poverty, and other dire living conditions that would otherwise go unnoticed by the outside world. With every new report, RBSS journalists inside and outside of Raqqa are at tremendous risk of being tracked down. When one RBSS member is assassinated in Turkey, where he had fled seeking safety, the men realize that they have no true refuge. They remain determined, however, to continue to bring Raqqa into the public eye, even if it leads to their own deaths. Da’ish made many unsuccessful attempts to hack RBSS. Aside from the deaths of friends and family members, the biggest blow to RBSS was the destruction of all satellite dishes inside Raqqa in an effort by Da’ish to prevent inside sources from providing information to the outside world. Yet, working cautiously, meticuOCTOBER 2017
lously and bravely, the citizen journalists continue to relay information, shooting videos and quickly erasing content from their devices, as any trace of RBSS on their electronics would mean certain torture and death. Living in exile outside Syria, the four founders of RBSS face struggles of their own. In Germany, Aziz, 25, encounters a culture that embraces his mission against Da’ish, but still regards him as an outsider and an “other.” Hamoud, 23, cannot be tracked down by Da’ish despite its vigorous efforts, and grows immune to their death threats. The film outlines his struggle when Da’ish assassinates his father— the only memento he has of him is the grotesque video he is sent of the assassination. His brother is assassinated as well. Hussam, 27, and 34-year-old Mohamad had the most hands-on experience with the revolution against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before Da’ish came to Raqqa. Hussam, who attended law school until fellow student-protesters began being arrested, returned to Raqqa to continue his activist work. Now in Germany, he continues to work with social media to bring about change. Mohamad was a member of the agricultural department and a math teacher before one of his students was arrested for criticizing the Assad regime. He then joined the revolution and began reporting for local media outlets before helping found RBSS. “City of Ghosts” captures not only the atrocities committed by Da’ish, but the pure angst and fear that these activists had to overcome to tell the story of a city under siege. As the film clearly depicts, each of the men has a different story. Love, loss, fatherhood and friendship means something different to every member of RBSS. And yet, for every one of the citizen journalists the story is in many ways the same: memories of a thriving city and the opportunity to prove that, when activism and journalism intertwine, they can start a movement that no bullet can destroy. As Hamoud said in response to death threats and his father’s assassination: “The only thing they killed was our fear.” —Kelly Fleming OCTOBER 2017
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Washington Report assistant editor Dale Sprusansky at the Middle East Books and More booth.
DC Visitors Experience the Culture and Life of the Holy Land
The Franciscan Monastery held its fourth annual Holy Land Festival on July 15 on its beautiful grounds in Washington, DC. Hundreds of people enjoyed traditional dancing by the Kufiyah Dabke Troupe and authentic food demonstrations. Shoppers admired handcrafted embroidery, olive wood, soaps and other Holy Land goods, including olive oil. Children tried their hand at Arabic calligraphy. Inside the monastery, audiences learned about life in the Holy Land from graduates of Bethlehem University. Another seminar described landmine removal at the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordan River. Seven churches at the site have been surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and 5,000 landmines for the past 50 years. In 2016 the HALO Trust, the world’s largest humanitarian landmine removal organization, received permission from the Israelis, Palestinians and churches to remove the landmines. After examining old military maps of the area, reviewing footage from the 1967 Six-Day War, and interviewing Israeli soldiers, the Trust began an 18-month clearing program. The final presentation, “Under Caesar’s Sword,” focused on the persecution of Christians. To cap off a day spent experiencing Palestinian culture and life without leaving home, visitors enjoyed a tour of the cata-
combs as well as the monastery’s peaceful gardens, at the height of their summer glory. —Muna Howard
MUSLIM AMERICAN ACTIVISM Islamic Relief Helps Fuel Young Minds, Fight Childhood Hunger
A nondescript storefront sits along 7th St., NW in Washington, DC, its windows peppered with bulletins and flyers, across from a far more ornate church. Despite its small and modest name, the storefront boasts an unusual amount of traffic, with teenagers and young adults flooding into the building at any given moment. What’s attracting these crowds is obvious to anyone who steps in to see dozens of young people working on computers, clustered in groups, eager to tease out the next puzzle and complete the next objective. This is Citiwide Computer School, a work-study program that emphasizes computer literacy and communication skills. The program, initiated more than 20 years ago, was created to “give low-income families a second chance,” says Tanisha Murden, executive assistant and outreach specialist for Citiwide. Founder Anthony Chuukwu “wanted to extend his arms, give people chances,” she continued. “Coming here it’s really down-toearth, it’s open-arms, and that’s where his mindset was at.”
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More than just extending arms across the community, the program has spanned cultural and political divides, partnering with Islamic Relief to provide food for students in the program. Through a grant program administered by Islamic Relief, the partnership aims to demonstrate the Muslim community’s commitment to the many communities it serves, as well as its dedication to combatting childhood hunger. For many in the community, Citiwide’s services have been a revelation. Terrance Bridgers, for example, who enthusiastically joined the program after his brother recommended it to him, said that the program helped him to clarify and pursue his life’s goals. “I want to do computer science in college, so I wanted to get related to computers and be around people who know that stuff,” he exclaimed, effusing praise for the program. He also spoke about the value of other skills that he learned in the program, like public speaking. “I’m gonna have to give speeches in high school, college, and so on,” he explained, “and computer skills will help me throughout everything because technology is important to everything in this generation.” But beyond the program’s practical benefits, many see it as a positive step toward broader cross-communal interaction between the Islamic faith and community programs aimed more squarely at African58
American and Hispanic youth, which tend to be either secular (such as Citiwide), or affiliated with Christian churches. By engaging in good faith with community programs and offering help to those in need, Islamic Relief is one of many Islamic humanitarian organizations looking to reshape the narrative surrounding Muslim organizations in the U.S. The change can already be seen in the faces of Citiwide’s attendees, full of wonder and excitement as they learn new and important skills preparing them for tomorrow’s world (and as they sample some tasty Middle Eastern dishes). —David DePriest
Baltimore County Executive Presents “Citation” to Khizr Khan
Gold-Star Father Khizr Khan.
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At a “Unity Day” rally in Towson, Maryland, on July 12, 2017, Khizr Khan was presented with a “Citation” for his work standing up for immigrants’ rights. Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz made the special award at a ceremony in Patriot Plaza, located in front of the county courthouse. Khizr and Ghazala Khan, who reside in Virginia, are the parents of 27-yearold U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in action in Baquabah, Iraq in 2004. Along with other “Gold Star” parents, the Khans were asked to address the Democratic National Convention held in Philadelphia in the summer of 2016. At the convention, Khan sharply criticized then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for “smearing Muslims.” At the “Call for Unity” rally in Towson, Khan recalled how Trump’s “bigoted words” during the presidential primary had motivated him to attend the convention. —Bill Hughes
Third Pillar Volunteers Prepare Students to Go Back-To-School
PHOTO COURTESY BILL HUGHES
Tanisha Murden looks over a student’s work.
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On Aug. 18, a hot, muggy Friday, Third Pillar held its 4th Annual Back-to-School Celebration at the Benning Terrace Community Center in Washington, DC’s Ward 7. Prior to the start of the school year, every child living in the low-income Benning Terrace housing community received a backpack with grade-appropriate supplies. Backpacks were provided to 78 pre-schoolers, 148 elementary/middle schoolers and 128 high schoolers. The event was coordinated with the DC Housing Authority and the Metropolitan Police Department’s District 6 headquarters, which organized water slides, a DJ, a BBQ, ice cream, a moon bounce, and other activities to celebrate the beginning of the school year. There was a lot of laughter, and more than a smidgen of competition between assembly lines. And, in less than 2 hours, 22 Third Pillar volunteers filled all the backpacks with supplies, purchased with donations. —Irene Stevenson OCTOBER 2017
Third Pillar volunteers filled backpacks with school supplies . degree is actually in psychology-pre-med.” Then, in her final semester, Wazwaz decided she could no longer deny herself the chance to pursue her passion. She ended her pursuit of medicine, took some time for reflection, and went back to school to receive her master’s degree at Northwestern University, where, as part of her program, she was able to travel to Jerusalem, the West Bank, and even Guantanamo Bay. Her travels shaped Wazwaz’s early experience in the field of journalism, and
ARAB AMERICAN ACTIVISM How the Media Covers Israel and Palestine
Noor Wazwaz, a producer for NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Up First” podcast, which regularly reels in around 14 million listeners, spoke on July 28 at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC. Noor, who has participated in many events as a speaker and panelist focusing on journalism, Muslim youth and Islamophobia, discussed how she navigates through the world of mainstream media and the challenges that she confronts while reporting on Palestine. Wazwaz described her childhood in Chicago, listening to her father’s frustration as he watched the news. “I grew up as a Palestinian, with a Palestinian father who was always watching Al Jazeera. When I would sit with him, I never understood why he was so passionate about the news and about journalism and politics,” she said. “The more that I sat with him the more I became passionate about it as well.” Even so, when Wazwaz first announced that journalism was the career she wanted to pursue, she was met with resistance from her family, who convinced her to study something they considered more practical. “I decided to go the safe route and get into something in the medical field,” she explained. “My undergraduate OCTOBER 2017
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PHOTO COURTESY THIRD PILLAR
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when she began to work around many large, competitive media outlets, she realized the flaws in the coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “One of the problems is that there isn’t context given. There isn’t historical or political context,” Wazwaz said. “That’s what a lot of the mainstream media outlets are missing.” When you don’t know the history of Palestine and you hear about violence there, “you lose the humanization of the story,” she said. She also explained how the most important context that is missing is the role of the United States in supporting Israel, citing the more than $100 billion in aid given by the U.S. since Israel’s creation in 1948. “Our news media does not really share the amount of influence the U.S. has had on this conflict,” Wazwaz said, explaining that the U.S. favors Israeli security over Palestinian security. Another important context that is missing is an explanation of international law, she continued. “Under international law, settlements are illegal,” Wazwaz noted, but the mainstream media is hesitant to state this fact. Under international law, she explained, Palestinians have a right to return home, which is powerfully symbolized by the thousands of refugees who left carrying the keys to their homes.
NPR producer Noor Wazwaz presents a slideshow titled “Patterns of reporting that exist in mainstream media.” WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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to civilians, but it is not unexpected when a small militia does not have an army or air force, so that is a natural outcome of the imbalance of power that you have when one side is operating in civilian areas.” The definition of “human shields” is very specific, Baddar noted. It is coercing civilians to be put in front of you in danger and preventing them from leaving in order to stop the enemy from shooting at you. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International Omar Baddar Confronts Antiand U.N. reports all have docuPalestinian Bias in the Media mented that the Israeli military actually deploys Palestinian civilians as Omar Baddar, political analyst, digital human shields. In 2005 the Israeli producer and human rights advocate, was the keynote speaker at the July Omar Baddar discusses media bias at the Palestine Center Supreme Court, aware that the Isin Washington, DC. raeli military uses Palestinian civil25 installment of the Jerusalem Fund’s 2017 Summer Intern Lecture Series set up metal detectors on Haram Al-Sharif ians frequently as human shields during at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC. which have since been dismantled, Bad- military operations, banned the practice. Addressing the subject “Fighting for Truth: dar argued that the question in the media While officially there is now a ban on the IsChallenging the Anti-Palestinian Bias in the should have been, “Why are illegal occu- raeli military using Palestinian civilians as Media,” Baddar offered a concise and in- piers setting up security checkpoints in human shields, nevertheless, Baddar lamented, the practice actually continues. sightful analysis of the mainstream media’s areas that do not belong to them?” To fight media bias, Baddar said it was Regarding how casualties are unequally biased and inaccurate reporting on Palesportrayed in the media, Baddar stated: important to know where to take the contine and Israel. “I think that watching the Israeli-Palestin- “Time and again Israeli casualties, which versation. “Get into different venues; reach ian conflict on television for anyone who is happen far less frequently, are far more hu- out to mainstream audiences and people informed about the subject can be a very manized—with photos, names, background who do not know about the issue,” he recfrustrating experience,” he began. “Frus- stories—in contrast to Palestinian deaths, ommended. “The American public is trating, first and foremost, for what is actu- which are very often just statistics that run largely uninformed about this issue.” He ally unfolding on the ground—there is oc- at the bottom of the screen, showing only also urged audience members to write letters to the editors, op-eds and their memcupation, apartheid, home demolitions, eth- the numbers of Palestinians killed.” —Elaine Pasquini The bias, he told his audience, is the re- bers of Congress. nic cleansing and a situation of injustice that is absolutely infuriating—and that frustration sult of the corporate media following AmerTareq Baconi on Media Misrepreis compounded when you look at how the ican political power. And in the U.S., where mainstream American media coverage of support for Israel is a bipartisan issue in sentation of Palestinian Issues this issue fails to convey to the average both the Republican and Democratic party Every summer, interns at the Palestine viewer what is actually going on.” Without establishments, “it only makes sense that Center in Washington, DC plan and exementioning Israel’s occupation of the Pales- the media would start adopting and inter- cute a summer intern lecture series. The tinian territories, he pointed out, “nothing in nalizing that bias,” he said. interns decide on a theme, book speakers, Direct Israeli government propaganda is and handle all planning logistics. The Aug. the conflict makes sense. So the story typically runs that Palestinian youths throw another contributing factor to the distorted 4 speaker was Al-Shabaka policy fellow rocks at Israeli soldiers; Israeli soldiers then media coverage. One Israeli talking point Tareq Baconi, author of the forthcoming open fire, killing a couple of them, and the Baddar cited is that the reason so many book, Hamas: The Politics of Resistance, entire debate is on whether the soldiers Palestinian civilians were killed in the Gaza Entrenchment in Gaza. Baconi, whose overreacted. But what is actually missing is war was because Hamas allegedly used work has been published in The Nation the fact that the soldiers do not belong in them as human shields. “The truth is there and The Guardian, discussed the misrepPalestinian towns in the first place. They is zero evidence for that,” he asserted. resentation of Palestinian issues by the “Human rights organizations say that mainstream media. He walked the audiare an illegal occupying force.” Regarding the recent situation in Hamas does operate in civilian areas and ence through some key issues associated Jerusalem’s Old City, where the Israelis that type of operation does increase the risk with the framing of Israel’s 2014 assault on
Wazwaz called on media consumers and journalists alike to “rethink the concept of journalistic objectivity” and not be afraid of sharing the truth and the full context. “We can get worried that we are going to be called biased or be attacked,” she concluded. “We should stop worrying about it, focus less on that, but actually focus on the criticism that has journalistic merit.” —Kelly Fleming
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Islamic Center of Southern Gaza, using a clip from Fox California to celebrate the life News to illustrate the difficulof Dr. Jack Shaheen, who ties of penetrating the Westdied July 9 (see Aug./Sept. ern narrative of the crisis. 2017 Washington Report, p. Baconi cited as one miscon16). Dr. Shaheen’s life-long ception the media’s portrayal of commitment to fighting Arab Gaza as “apocalyptic.” While and Muslim stereotyping true in some ways, he blamed helped change U.S. films and Western media for failing to TV shows. provide the full context of the Emcee Sue Obeidi, director Gaza conflict and neglecting to of MPAC’s Hollywood Buhumanize the situation of two reau, welcomed guests and million Gazans living under Isintroduced MPAC president raeli occupation. Electricity Salam Al-Marayati, who preblackouts do mean that hospisented an award to Dr. Shatals must depend on generaheen's daughter, Michele tors, he noted, but this is juxtaposed with the many cafés, Tareq Baconi discusses issues of misrepresentation in mainstream media. Shaheen Tasoff. Tasoff thanked MPAC. “My markets and other amenities found in any city of the world, Baconi said. founding, Baconi said, “It excuses and jus- father never met a stranger,” she said, notBecause media outlets continue to refrain tifies the marginalization of the Gaza Strip ing that he constantly fought against hate, from showing this side of Gaza, he explained, and its last democratically elected political bigotry and discrimination. “He felt the greatest disservice would be to stand back it is difficult to develop a sense of empathy, party...Gaza collectively is marginalized.” The third and final misrepresentation and say nothing...He was the one who thereby dehumanizing Palestinians because everything relatable about city life in Gaza that Baconi discussed was the media’s would say ‘This is not OK.’...My father was omission that Palestine has a legitimate, optimistic, yet pragmatic,” she recalled, has been eliminated from the narrative. Far more damaging is the media’s de- inherent right as a state to defend itself. “and always remained hopeful despite the piction of Gaza as a “terror-state” or “hos- “Gaza isn’t a neighboring state” to Israel, negative events happening around him and tile enemy,” Baconi said. The U.S. media he said, “it is an occupied territory.” Israel’s the world.” Other speakers included Samer use the word “terrorism” to describe orga- occupation and harmful policies are justinizations as diverse as al-Qaeda, Da’ish fied by the media because they are framed Badawi, who writes for +972 magazine, and Hamas, he pointed out, ignoring the as “self-defense.” Israel’s actions, its “self- and freelance producer and consultant complexity of the situation and eliminating defense” is not always reactive, Baconi Maha Awad of the Network of Arab Amernoted, sometimes it’s pre-emptive. ican Professionals. Awad urged attendees a discussion of political beliefs. Baconi concluded with some words of “to continue the work started by Dr. Sha“The fact that Hamas is an Islamic movement, the fact that Hamas has encouragement regarding the mainstream heen and others to fight stereotypes and adopted armed struggle, explicitly against media, citing the changes that have oc- discrimination.” Alfred Madian read a letter occupation, has allowed the representa- curred in the past five years, particularly in from Jordan Elgrably, co-founder of the tion of Hamas solely as a terrorist organi- the U.S. Because more Palestinians are Markaz, who opined that Dr. Shaheen zation,” he noted, and its resulting confla- present in various mainstream media out- comes second only to Dr. Edward Said in lets, he said, they are being heard more the academic world. tion with the Gaza Strip. Next came clips from the documentary In the Fox News clip he showed, com- frequently. Baconi also cited what he mentator Sean Hannity asked Yousef Mu- called the many “incredible grassroots “Valentino’s Ghost” (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More), which feanayyer, executive director of the US Cam- movements” that are emerging. —Kelly Fleming tures an interview with Dr. Shaheen, folpaign for Palestinian Rights, “Is Hamas a lowed by remarks from “Valentino’s” proterrorist organization?” As Munayyer atCelebrating the Life of Dr. Jack ducer, Michael Singh. Documentary filmtempted to provide some background inmaker Deana Nassar, MPAC’s Hollywood formation on the issue, he was shut down Shaheen by an irate Hannity, who was not inter- Two community organizations in Los Ange- Liaison, said she works with entertainment ested in the historical context necessary to les, the Muslim Public Affairs Council industry decision makers to promote and answer the question. (MPAC) Hollywood Bureau and The foster nuanced and accurate depictions of Discussing the clip and the U.S. media’s Markaz Arts Center for the Greater Middle Muslim Americans and Muslim societies. failure to explain Hamas’ history and East, co-sponsored an Aug. 23 event at the Then a friend of the Shaheens, LebaneseOCTOBER 2017
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(L-r) Salam Al-Marayati, Sue Obeidi, Dr. Shaheen's poster, Michele Shaheen Tasoff and Robert Tasoff.
American actor Haaz Sleiman, who played Jesus in the TV mini-series “Killing Jesus,” told the audience that 936 out of 1,000 films portray Arabs negatively in the U.S. Al-Marayati concluded the evening by remarking, as he looked at a poster of Dr. Shaheen: “This man’s smile will always give us hope and inspire us to pursue truth and justice in our society.” —Samir Twair
WAGING PEACE Muslims, Jews and Christians: All United for One Cause
Hundreds of Muslims, along with a number of Christian and Jewish supporters, gathered in front of the Israeli Embassy on July 28, a rainy Friday, to show solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem who had protested nonviolently for the past two weeks, praying outside the gates of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Both the DC event, organized by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and the Jerusalem protests were held in response to Israel’s installation of metal detectors, checkpoints and surveillance cameras at the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims. After Israel removed the metal detectors and Palestinians once again entered the al-Aqsa sanctuary, Israeli troops stormed the site, firing rubber-tipped steel bullets and injuring 100 Muslim worshippers. No men under the age of 50 were allowed to enter the com62
pound for Friday prayers. The heavy rain did not stop Muslims who came from DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland to pray outside the embassy. They were joined by Christians, Jews and others who wanted to add their voices in support of Palestinian brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine. The demonstrators called for an end to all of Israel’s violations against Palestinians in the Holy Land. AMP national policy director Osama Abu Irshaid began the Khutbah, or Friday prayer sermon, by thanking God for all the blessings He has given to human beings. He talked about the significance of the alAqsa Mosque to the Islamic world: The Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem is believed to be where the Prophet Muhammad began his ascent to heaven, and was the first Qiblah, the direction Muslims face when they pray, before it was changed to the Kaaba in Mecca. “We’re here to tell the embassy of Israel that if they want to deny our rights to worship as Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem, they can’t stop us here [in DC near the embassy],” Abu Irshaid declared. Although the metal detectors had been removed in Jerusalem, he added, Palestinians are still protesting the Israeli occupation. “The occupation is the root of all problems,” Abu Irshaid said, and it is in contravention of numerous international laws and U.N. Security Council resolutions.
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“We consider the turnout to be a huge success, especially because of the weather,” said Kristin Szremski, AMP’s national director of media and communications. “We’re here in an act of solidarity. We’re sending a message to Israeli authorities that American Muslims and their allies in the Jewish and Christian communities will continue to engage with our elected officials, and we’ll continue to promote the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as a peaceful means to pressure Israel to comply with international law and end the occupation.” Despite the removal of the metal detectors, the bitter reality on the ground has not changed, Szremski said, noting that Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party had voted on July 25 to oppose the creation of a Palestine state, reinforcing its May 2002 rejection of a two-state solution. Questioning the possibility of democracy in Jerusalem, Szremski shared quotes from two Knesset members made during a July 26 debate before the Knesset passed legislation that redraws Jerusalem’s borders and makes it impossible for the prime minister to agree to share Jerusalem with Palestinians. MK Mickey Rosenthal said, “I have a great love for Jerusalem, but when we dreamed of Jerusalem, we didn’t dream of a Sheikh Al-Jarrah,” which is a Palestinian neighborhood in the city. According to MK Michal Biran, “People can’t imagine that there could be an Arab mayor of Jerusalem.” “What kind of democracy redraws a city’s boundaries in order to significantly change its demographic makeup?” Abu Irshaid asked. “What kind of democracy publicly acknowledges a person with a different ethnicity or heritage could not be the mayor of Jerusalem?” At the protest, Rabbi Dovid Feldman of Neturei Karta International, Jews United Against Zionism, told the Washington Report that it is the obligation of the Jewish community—even more than others—to stand up against what is being done in their name. Asked if the metal detectors would have provided protection, Feldman answered, “I definitely disagree with the concept that the State of Israel is protectOCTOBER 2017
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Muslims pray outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. ing the Jewish people or anyone.” Referring to the State of Israel, he said, “It is that movement that has brought destruction, catastrophe, calamity, death and bloodshed to so many people involved.” At the end of the protest, one of the demonstrators reminded people that Gazans are suffering from the 10-year siege imposed by both Israel and Egypt. Taking the lead, the protester chanted, with everyone repeating after him: Free, Free Gaza! Free, Free Aqsa! Free, Free Palestine! —Oday Abdaljawwad
Gaza Approaching a Boiling Point?
The Washington, DC-based Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted an Aug. 3 panel discussion titled “Gaza Approaching a Boiling Point?” to examine the current political and humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Paul Salem, MEI vice president for policy and research, moderated the discussion focusing on Gaza’s latest crisis, caused by the ongoing Fatah-Hamas conflict and the recent boycott of Qatar, not to mention Israel’s and Egypt’s devastating blockade. Salem asked Christopher McGrath, acting director of UNRWA’s Washington, DC office, to describe the current humanitarian and economic situation on the ground in Gaza. McGrath cited the 2012 U.N. report “Gaza in 2020: A Liveable Place?” OCTOBER 2017
which included the following statement: “The population of the Gaza Strip will increase from 1.6 million people today to 2.1 million people in 2020. Infrastructure in electricity, water and sanitation, municipal and social services are not keeping pace with the needs of the growing population.” McGrath went on to describe Gaza’s significant “de-development” since 2012, especially following Israel’s 2014 “Operation Protective Edge,” which destroyed 86,000 refugee homes and displaced tens of thousands of Gazans. McGrath described the electricity crisis and how blackouts have been running continuously for 20 to 22 hours, affecting the daily life of Gazans. “The access needed for construction material that would allow the situation in Gaza to flourish has been highly restricted,” he added, noting that the U.N. has been asking Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), as well as the international community, to invest in sustainable development initiatives in Gaza. The alternative, he said, will be a more isolated and desperate Gaza. Prospects for an intraPalestinian reconciliation will dwindle, McGrath warned, as will the prospects of peace between Israel and Palestine. Tareq Baconi, a fellow at Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, explained the current political dynamics between Fatah and Hamas, and described what Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
has been doing and why. Baconi highlighted some of the decisions Abbas has taken which have affected the situation in Gaza. The severe electricity crisis that began about a month ago, Baconi said, is a result of such decisions Abbas has taken as freezing the salaries of PA’s Gaza employees’ salaries, restricting the import of medical supplies to the Strip, and deciding not to reimburse Israel for all the electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip. Apparently, this reporter concluded, decisions were intended to increase the isolation of the Strip as well as pressure on the Hamas government, especially when Hamas’ relations with other countries are on the rocks—and, ultimately, to weaken the de facto Hamas government in order for the PA to resume control over Gaza. Baconi characterized Abbas’ acts not only as a form of collective punishment to Hamas, but also to the two million people living in Gaza. Next, Natan Sachs, director of the Brookings Institution’s [formerly Saban] Center for Middle East Policy, addressed Israeli debates regarding the changing developments in Gaza and the risk of another war between Israel and Gaza. According to Sachs, the current status quo is damaging not only for people living in Gaza, but also for [Jewish] Israelis. From an Israeli perspective, Sachs said, the solution is to deal with one Palestinian state and government. Regarding the risk of another war, Sachs said, launching another war with Gaza is not in the interest of either Israel or Gaza. In Sachs’ opinion, Hamas and Israel have failed to reach a liveable solution because every time there has been a truce, Israel thinks Hamas is preparing for the next round. In Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, Sachs added, even though Hamas’ political arm did not want to continue the 2014 conflict, it had no control over the military wing that wanted to keep fighting Israel. Salem asked Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace who previously spent 16 years at the Israel-affiliated peace group Americans for Peace Now, if Israel has a long-term strategy toward Gaza and if Gaza appears on the radar
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(L-r) Natan Sachs, Tareq Baconi, Paul Salem, Christopher McGrath and Lara Friedman.
New Story Leaders Speak at DC Events
Students shared their powerful narratives as the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC hosted a New Story Leadership (NSL) event on July 10. Aia Khalaila, 24, described the discrimination she faces from both sides living in Jerusalem. On her way home from classes, she was attacked by a man who mistook her for an Israeli. Later she was questioned, pressed and threatened by the Israeli police who were supposed to be helping her. Khalaila feels like she is pinned between the two sides, and a victim of hatred from both Arabs and Jews. Katya Lipovetsky, who was raised by immigrants from the Soviet Union, recalled growing up in a mostly Russian-speaking neighborhood (see Aug./Sept. 2017 Washington Report, p. 54). She described her relationship with her new Palestinian friends at NSL and how she refuses to hate despite all the violence that she has 64
witnessed first-hand. Sapir Ifergan spoke about her Moroccan origins and her family’s life since moving to Israel. After serving in the IDF in 2009, she recalled one holiday when she saw a news report about a terrorist attack on the road on which she knew her family was travelling that day. After many stages of panic, she was relieved to find her family had not been targeted—but the people behind them on the highway were. She attributed her inability to hate to her upbringing and to her family’s ties to an old Palestinian friend. Hashem Sayed, another NSL student, detailed the day that cast a dark shadow over his childhood. An Israeli soldier pulled up in a car, stopped, and without any explanation, beat Sayed, who was a young boy at the time. “It felt as if that soldier wanted to teach me some sort of lesson. So many things died in my heart that day,” Sayed explained. “That day turned into two years of treatment and rehab—a cold hospital bed imprisoned me instead of a warm home.” He continued confidently, “But I am Hashem. I am a survivor....I don’t know how to hate,” he said. “I forgive my enemies before I forgive my friends.” On July 12, New Story leaders spoke at a congressional forum on Capitol Hill called
by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO). Polis, who had just announced he was running for governor, spoke about the importance of programs such as NSL, and his office’s commitment to the same principles that NSL stands for: people-to-people work and the use of narratives to combat political turmoil. Polis then introduced Rawan Odeh, who described growing up in Brooklyn, hearing stories of the Nakba from her relatives, and relocating to Palestine. People are shaped by different experiences they have throughout their lives, she said, “but what if your life has been shaped by events that occurred long before you were born?” She urged the audience to “stand together to protect…children from the bullets of war.” Daniel Torban, another NSL member, discussed his life as a Brazilian Jew living in Israel. He recalled an incident at a night club celebrating his graduation when he was confronted and judged for his religion and his representation by a regime that he did not even support. Khaled Al Ostath described his struggle to get out of Gaza, and the guilt he feels knowing so many students who can only dream of studying abroad in programs such as NSL. “I wonder if you know how nearly impossible it is to get in and out of Gaza,” he said. “I arrived here from Gaza two weeks ago, and I have experienced
Hashem Sayed (l) and Sapir Ifergan tell their stories.
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of the new U.S. administration. “This is the first panel discussion on Gaza in Washington, DC in a while,” Friedman replied, “which is a very telling fact.” Unlike in the West Bank and Jerusalem, she added, Israel doesn’t have strategic objectives in the Gaza Strip, simply because there are no more Jewishonly settlements in the Strip. According to Friedman, there are more pragmatic solutions possible in Gaza than in the West Bank, which should give a ray of hope to the international community. In terms of Gaza being on the radar of the new American administration, Friedman pointed out that neither the Trump administration nor the Obama administration have paid attention to Gaza. “Anything they will do is going to upset Israel,” she noted. —Oday Abdaljawwad
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many firsts. First time on an airplane, first time on an elevator. First time meeting an Israeli out of uniform.” He described coming home one day from the market in Gaza and finding his apartment building completely empty. An Israeli soldier yelled at him to step back, and he watched the demolition of his 10story building. —Kelly Fleming
On the lovely summer evening of July 20, Americans for Peace Now and New Story Leadership (NSL) co-hosted an event titled “The Dove: Stories of Hope Amidst Conflict” at the 5th Street Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC. Israeli storyteller Noa Baum introduced the group of young Palestinian and Israeli NSL leaders and changemakers who gathered to share more of their stories and insights about the conflict. Although their stories and settings were different, one theme united all the speakers: hope for a better future for the two peoples of Palestine and Israel. Each of the participants spoke about how the conflict has affected at least one aspect of Palestinian and Israeli lives alike. Yonatan Belik, born and raised in Israel to Jewish-Australian parents, opened the evening by sharing his personal story. He shed light on how the conflict is affecting interethnic and interrelations between the Palestinian/Arab Israeli community and the Jewish Israeli community. When he fell in love with a Palestinian girl, Belik said, they were each rejected by their families at first. The main problem, he explained, is that both Palestinian and Israeli parents continue to hold on to their past, making it hard for them to accept any progressive changes in the dynamics of the conflict. After his family got to know his partner, he continued, they grew to love her, and now they invite her to their Shabbat dinners even while he’s here in America. “Staying in our comfort zone brings us nowhere,” Belik concluded. Aia Khalaila is a 24-year-old PalestinianIsraeli who graduated from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She described what it means to be an Arab living in the OCTOBER 2017
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The Dove: Stories of Hope Amidst Conflict
Aia Khalaila. Old City of Jerusalem, where there is so much racism, hate and anti-Arab stereotyping. “I was the only Palestinian in my classroom at college,” Khalaila recalled. “I always used to get stereotypical questions about Arabs, like: do you have phones?” Besides her school studies, Khalaila used to work at a restaurant. Sadly, she explained, she was fired because the manager found out that she’s a Palestinian Israeli. “I used to fear speaking Arabic on the phone in public places,” she added, because she was concerned about being judged, harassed, or possibly attacked. All these depressing incidents failed to discourage Khalaila from trying to make a change, however. She began inviting her Israeli classmates to her home—and what’s better than food and music to unite Palestinians and Israelis? She would cook Palestinian food for them and dance to Arabic music with them. This, she said, has given her a sense of belonging. Hashem Sayed, a Palestinian living in Jerusalem, explained how post-traumatic stress experiences prevent Palestinians from having a normal life. When he was a kid, he said, he was detained by an Israeli
soldier. Every time he tries to draw, a ghost of an Israeli soldier chases him, preventing him from finishing his portrait. Sayed also spoke about inequalities between Palestinians and Israelis in terms of political and military power, not to mention access to clean water. “I was born to be a feminist,” said Sapir Ifergan, who was born in Be’er Sheva, Israel. Ever since she was a little girl, she said, she believed in equality between men and women. As a child, Ifergan had an Arab best friend. Unfortunately, her friend’s father passed away and Ifergan didn’t hear from her friend for awhile. Curious about what had happened to her, Sapir decided to pay her a visit. As soon as she got close to her friend’s house, however, her friend’s big brother threw stones at her. Yelling angrily at Ifergan, he told her that he no longer wanted his sister to hang out with a Jew. “And I’ve never seen her again since then,” Ifergan said sadly. This was my second time hearing the stories of those young Palestinians and Israelis. They were not the victims of their stories, but promising voices that gave hope to the audience, as well as to themselves, that change for a better future is possible. —Oday Abdaljawwad
Restoring Biodiversity to Palestine
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh gave a fascinating talk entitled, “Political Challenges to Diversity in Both Nature and Society in Palestine” at the Palestine Center in Washington, DC on June 30. The founding director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, Dr. Qumsiyeh discussed the challenges faced by Palestine’s ecosystem due to the Israeli occupation, and the efforts his organization is making to restore biodiversity to the area. “Palestine, as you know, is a very important location in the world, geographically and geopolitically,” noted Qumsiyeh, who taught at the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale before deciding to return to Palestine to teach in 2008. “It is part of the Fertile Crescent, the western part of the Fertile Crescent,” he reminded
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lying diagnosis as colonialism, “the idea that Jews from Europe can come to Palestine, clear it out of its population, and create a Jewish state in Palestine.” Qumsiyeh has studied the tangible effects of occupation, such as the effects of the dust from Israeli settlements on the health of Palestinians and on the health of the soil. Since the beginning of the occupation, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh describes the tangible effects on he said, rainfall has dropped by Palestine’s ecosystem of Israel’s occupation. between 20 to 25 percent. This is a problem that is intertwined his audience. “This is where we humans de- with climate change, but, he explained, it veloped agriculture, this is where we first is an even greater problem for Gaza and went from hunter-gatherers to agricultural other areas where the flow of electricity communities about 11 to 12,000 years ago,” and water has been cut drastically—a dihe continued. The first people to live in vil- rect result of occupation and siege. He also spoke of the Hula Valley wetlages in Palestine were the Canaanites, who lands in northern Israel, where migrating lived harmoniously with nature. Qumsiyeh acknowledged the political birds stop on their annual migration to challenges intertwined with environmental Africa. When the wetlands were dried up challenges, reaching as far back as 1880, by an Israeli project, 119 species disapwhen the first Zionist colony was estab- peared. Another Israeli project diverted lished in Palestine. His message was that water from the head rivers of the Jordan movements toward uniformity, such as Valley to the western coastal areas. This Zionism, have threatened the crucial di- had a devastating impact on biodiversity, and accelerated the shrinking of the Dead versity found in the landscape. As a doctor, Qumsiyeh compared treat- Sea, now visible even by satellite. To fix ing Palestine with how he would treat a that problem, Israel pushed for a canal patient—not just addressing the symptoms connecting the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, of environmental decay, but giving a which Qumsiyeh said will not bring water proper diagnosis and a prognosis that from the Red Sea, but will bring sludge could spur movements toward prosperity. from plants along the way and dump that “I taught at medical schools,” he ex- sludge into the sea, creating a situation plained, “and I told my medical students: that is “very catastrophic environmentally.” Qumsiyeh described Bethlehem Univeryou take a patient’s history. You make a proper diagnosis. Once you make the sity as an oasis of both biodiversity and proper diagnosis you offer a therapy that’s knowledge for Palestinians of all ages, congruent with that diagnosis. But also, who are welcome to go there and learn. then you can tell the patient…what’s the The Palestine Museum of Natural History, prognosis. What’s the likelihood of things which even has solar panels installed on its roof, hosts many students and visitors getting better? This is logical. “And in Palestine,” he continued, “unfor- who wish to conduct research on the local tunately, this kind of analysis is rarely environment—a difficult and slow-moving done...Some Palestinians, especially since effort, Qumsiyeh admitted, because there the Oslo accords, started confusing the are so few Palestinian researchers and the symptoms with the underlying diagnosis, funding for research is insufficient. Explaining the techniques used to study which leads us to a wrong therapy.” Qumsiyeh went on to identify the under- biodiversity in Palestine and in Israel, 66
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Qumsiyeh said that the decline in biodiversity is most clear upon examining owl pellets from decades ago and comparing them to owl pellets found today. His work in both the United States and Palestine, however, is best reflected in the museum’s motto, which he repeated frequently during his talk: “Respect for self. Respect for others. Respect for environment.” —Kelly Fleming
U.S. and Coalition Viewpoints on Post-ISIS Stabilization in Iraq
As ISIS is pushed further out of Iraq, coalition and Iraqi forces will increasingly turn their attention to stabilizing the country. To identify the challenges and opportunities of post-ISIS Iraq, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) hosted a July 14 discussion at its Washington, DC headquarters titled “How to Stabilize Iraq After ISIS—And Why It Matters.” The discussion was moderated by Sarhang Hamasaeed, USIP’s director of Middle East programs. In his opening remarks, Ambassador Ekkehard Brose, the German Foreign Office special envoy for crisis prevention and stabilization and co-chair of the Global Coalition Against Da’ish’s Stabilization Working Group, described the victory over ISIS in Mosul as “bittersweet.” He praised the fighting ability of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), their efforts to avoid civilian casualties, and the coalition’s support. However, he cited the “unimaginable” suffering and trauma inflicted on the Iraqi people, intra-Shi’i power struggles between former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and Sadrists (followers of Muqtada AlSadr, the Shi’i cleric, politician and militia leader), and the physical destruction wrought by the war. Brose then described the next steps. He noted the ongoing humanitarian aid being provided to the more than 900,000 inhabitants of Mosul who fled the fighting. Stabilization involves the government helping these internally displaced persons (IDPs) return home. The next steps include reconstruction, fighting corruption, and economic diversification—all critical to ensuring that stabilization is long-lasting. Additionally, Brose mentioned governmental OCTOBER 2017
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(L-r ) Ambassador Ekkehard Brose, Sarhang Hamasaeed and Joseph Pennington predict it will
take decades to rebuild Iraq.
decentralization, to which Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi is committed, as well as “transitional justice and…reconciliation.” Brose offered two conclusions. First, he said, “We need to do everything to strengthen Iraqi unity and strengthen Iraqi identity” in this current “existential struggle.” In this context, he argued, September’s Kurdish independence referendum is a bad idea, as is Iran’s overwhelming influence in Iraq. Brose’s second conclusion was that there is a “danger of Iraq fatigue,” especially in the U.S. It would be “irresponsible” and “a grave mistake,” he cautioned, for Washington to not remain committed to the country, since the U.S. has “a lot to answer for” in terms of Iraq’s current situation. “Mosul is a milestone in the military campaign, it’s not the end of the military campaign,” cautioned Joseph Pennington, deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq. “The work really lies ahead.” He noted that “stabilization, narrowly defined,” involves rebuilding basic infrastructure, restarting the economy, and “implementing forms of community reconciliation.” Iraqis are “driving the process” of stabilization, he stressed, while the coalition and the U.S. are in a supporting role. “Humanitarian work doesn’t stop with the Mosul victory,” Pennington added, because there are still three million Iraqis displaced, with more to come from the fights ahead. There is, however, a broader definition of stabilization, Pennington said. “The goal is not to bring Iraq back to 2013,” [before Da’ish OCTOBER 2017
overran the country, implying Iraq was not in good shape even before 2013] he explained, but “to use this moment to create a vision for a new Iraq.” He agreed with Brose that decentralization of the government is important, and stated that Washington supports this position as well. Political reconciliation is aided by the electoral process, by returning displaced Iraqis to their homes and registering them to vote so they can participate in elections, he elaborated. According to Pennington, the costs of reconstruction are “beyond the capacity of any one government or any group of governments.” He predicted it will take decades to rebuild Iraq and that it will need to bring in partners from the private sector. In order for this to happen, however, “the Iraqis need to create better conditions on the ground” and “create a better business environment.” He noted that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been clear that the U.S. “is not returning to a nation-building mode” but will “remain engaged in Iraq.” Seeking to “temper expectations,” Pennington warned that there will be no major increase in the U.S. role in Iraq, or a large increase in the number of U.S. soldiers there. “These are Iraqi challenges” that are “not going to be met by American solutions,” he declared. He stressed again, however, that the U.S. will not completely disengage from Iraq. The gap between the right path for Iraq and limited resources is a dangerous one, Brose warned. Since this gap cannot be
bridged instantly, it is important to give people hope and a “sense that things are moving in the right direction.” Pennington said that the U.S. will “remain engaged on economic reform” and that the American private sector will take advantage of opportunities in post-ISIS Iraq. It is also important, in Washington’s view, to “reintegrate Iraq back within its region,” both as a means of stabilization and to give it foreign policy options to “offset Iranian influence.” Similarly, he said, institution building is also important because “stronger Iraqi institutions mean less Iranian influence.” —Alex Shanahan
The Future of Iraq’s Minorities
With ISIS nearing closer to defeat in Iraq every day, many discussions are taking place about how to rebuild and stabilize the country so it does not fall back into the mass violence and chaos unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion. On Aug. 1, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) hosted a discussion at its Washington, DC headquarters specifically focusing on Iraq’s minority communities, titled “Stabilizing Iraq: What is the Future for Minorities?” “Iraq is not Iraq without its minorities,” declared Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Fareed Yasseen in his opening remarks prior to the panel discussion. The preservation and participation of minorities in Iraqi society is “vital,” he added, “and it is recognized by the constitution.” Describing minority integration, humanitarian work and stabilization as all interconnected, the ambassador said that stabilization, which will allow people to return to their homes, must be then followed by reconstruction. However, he continued, “Beyond all of this, I think one issue that is of prime importance for us to deal with is the issue of justice,” and preventing the taking of revenge by those harmed by ISIS. Finally, psychological help is needed to “heal the survivors.” Yasseen concluded by reading a list he wrote in 2003 of actions the international community could take to help Iraq. Remarkably, every item on the list still applies in the post-ISIS context. Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, representative of the Kurdistan Regional Govern-
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(L-r) Sarhang Hamasaeed, Knox Thames, moderator Naomi Kikoler and Vian Dakhil.
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Dakhil, a Yezidi member of the Iraqi parliament, asked the international community to provide relief so that Yezidis can begin a new life; guarantees these atrocities won’t happen again; and recognition of ISIS crimes as genocide. Yezidis also desperately need to rebuild both their cities and
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ment (KRG) in the U.S., also spoke. Before she could begin, however, a group of young people stood up holding signs and began chanting, “No justice, no peace, shame on KRG!” As the group was being escorted out by security, a young man yelled, “You left Assyrian Christians to die!” Rahman nonetheless listed several things she said the KRG has done to help minorities. These include: being the “first government to recognize ISIS crimes as genocide”; continuing to “encourage the United Nations, Iraq, and other member countries to open an investigation and create an international or hybrid tribunal”; helping rescue 3,092 Yezidis; opening a “rape victim center in Dohuk”; protecting and providing shelter to “hundreds of thousands” of people from different groups; the Peshmerga liberating ISIS-held territory; and its constitution and laws that “protect the rights of all people of all faiths and backgrounds.” She also mentioned the possibility of increasing the number of designated seats for minorities in the KRG parliament. Going forward, Rahman emphasized the centrality of reconciliation. “No one can deny that trust, if there was any, is now broken among the communities that used to live together” in Iraq, she said. “It’s our shared responsibility to make a coordinated effort to pursue justice and accountability.” However, she acknowledged, this will be very difficult, as “it’s immensely painful to be betrayed by your neighbor, to have your loved ones raped, enslaved, killed, purely for their faith or their language or their background.” Speaking through a translator, Vian
trust within communities, she added. Lastly, Dakhil implored that ISIS members be brought to justice and that “social peace” be a priority not only for Yezidis, but for every community targeted by ISIS. William Warda, chairman of the board of directors of the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities, participated by phone from Iraq. Most of Iraq’s minority communities, he pointed out, live in Nineveh, which is disputed between Baghdad and Erbil, capital of the KRG. It is important that these communities now have guarantees of protection, he emphasized, and that trust is built not only between and within communities, but also with the Iraqi government. Knox Thames, the State Department’s special adviser for religious minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia, discussed Washington’s view of how minorities can be protected in Iraq. The first
ABOVE: Hundreds of protesters gather on July 30 at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles to demand that the U.S. and the world “Save al-Aqsa” and “End the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” LEFT: (L-r) Estee Chandler of Jewish Voice for Peace (L.A.), Amani Barakat, national chairperson of Al-Awda (Palestinian Right for Return Coalition), and Karen Pomer of Jews for Palestinian Right for Return marching to the Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Blvd. OCTOBER 2017
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Rebuilding Iraq and Syria
The Middle East Policy Council welcomed a distinguished panel of speakers to its 89th Capitol Hill conference on July 14. Hosted by the council’s chairman, Richard J. Schmierer, and executive director Thomas R. Mattair, the conference touched on the impending effort to rebuild Iraq and Syria, especially following the liberation of Mosul from ISIS and the Syrian cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Russia. James Jeffrey, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Iraq, warned of the dangers of oversimplifying solutions, and inevitable failure if policymakers do not have a clear strategy for the region. Citing the Cold War, when the U.S. reflexively intervened in the region in order to impede the Soviet Union, he said Washington must now have an actual philosophy and objective guiding its regional policy. In Jeffrey’s opinion, the U.S. approach to Syria and Iraq should be to assist with rebuilding and to stave off Iranian attempts to expand their presence in these countries. Denise Natali, distinguished research fellow at the National Defense University, said it is crucial to understand the disparity between the reality of the conflicts and the U.S. perception of the conflicts, as they are very different based on her experience on the ground. Nationalism is very much alive in Iraq, Natali said, arguing that trying to explain the conflict through the lens of ethno-sectarianism will not help Iraq or Syria move forward.
STAFF PHOTO K. FLEMING
issue he posed was security, asking, “How do we empower minorities to play a role in providing their own security” and incorporate them into the police? A second priority he cited was “ensuring equal treatment and human rights of minorities.” With regard to stabilization, Thames stated that destroyed communities must be rebuilt physically and personally so people can go home. Lastly, ISIS must be held accountable for its crimes. Thames concluded by saying that the U.S. is working closely with the Iraqi government, the KRG, its regional allies, and European countries to promote religious freedom in minority communities. The final speaker, Sarhang Hamasaeed, USIP’s director of Middle East Programs, focused on reconciliation—which, he noted, means different things to different communities. It can’t be solely focused on ISIS, he argued, as ISIS is just one of many sources of minority suffering. There are two levels from which to analyze reconciliation, he continued. At the national level, he warned that focusing only on the issues of minorities, while important, will not prevent Iraq from slipping back into conflict. At the local level, he noted, there are many tensions between and within local communities. Hamasaeed emphasized the importance of turning the word “reconciliation” into practical solutions on the ground for minority communities, expressing the hope that, after displaced people return home, “nonviolent coexistence” can be translated to “peaceful coexistence.” During the question-and-answer session, emotions once again rose to the surface. An Assyrian Christian audience member got into a heated exchange with Rahman about the KRG’s relationship with Assyrian Christians. In answering a question about Yezidis in Syria, Dakhil said the KRG is helping to buy Yezidi girls from marketplaces in order to free them, but went on to accuse the Baghdad government of not helping, directly addressing Yasseen. The session ended on a high note, however, as Ambassador Yasseen gave a moving speech in response to a young Yezidi man who questioned why young Yezidis like him should return to Iraq. —Alex Shanahan
Responding to the common belief that sectarianism is the problem, she advised “look[ing] at Iraq and Syria as hyper-fragmented states, not regions.” Natali favored addressing the dynamics that instead should concern Washington: that people are fighting for territories, political relevance, resources, oil, and territorial borders. Despite what many may say, Natali continued, the issue of disputed territories is not over in Iraq. The main question she believes will become relevant is “Who is going to get what?” Natali noted the importance of the demographic changes that have occurred because of the conflicts in Iraq and Syria— with over a million internally displaced people within the Kurdistan region and 11 million Syrians in need of humanitarian aid. Natali sees Iraq’s impending fiscal crisis as the biggest concern, especially when it comes to rebuilding Mosul. She foresees the decline of oil prices, and oil coming from disputed territories as a source of conflict in Iraq. “Who is going to pay for all of this? Are there local power sharing and revenue sharing?” she asked. “Right now most of the Iraqis just want services,” Natali observed. “They want security, they want electricity, they want somebody to pay their salary….People are tired, they want to rebuild.” Natali explained the importance of “funding people who can get stuff done,” reiterating that people are just trying to rebuild their own governments and that “anything else that we do is continuing to un-
(L-r) Paul Salem, Thomas R. Mattair, Richard J. Schmierer and Wa’el Alzayat. WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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STAFF PHOTO M. GILLESPIE
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Pates [Roman Catholic Bishop dermine the institutions of the of Des Moines] was the head of state.” the study group that was asWhat we can do is provide signed to assess armed drone technical assistance,” she conwarfare in 2013,” explained forcluded. “Security is most impormer priest Frank Cordaro of the tant.” Des Moines Catholic Worker Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of the (DMCW). Emgage Foundation, a Muslim“In January 2014,” he noted, American organization working “they put out a statement in to increase civic engagement, which they clearly assessed had a broader message, stressthat the current armed drone ing the lack of basic human program of the United States is rights as a root cause of the conimmoral, unjust, and illegal flicts and of the rise of terrorist (L-r) Dr. Fadi Al-Halabi, SAC-LA’s president Monier Shukairy and based on Catholic teaching renetworks. Mazen Kassar. garding war and human rights.” Paul Salem, vice president of Cordaro quoted from the bishops’ statepolicy analysis, research and programs at train leaders in applied sciences and vothe Middle East Institute, advised the cur- cational workshops. Children are offered ment: “There exists...a right to defend onerent administration to “Stay the course in daily activities and many of them discover self from terrorism. However, this right cannot be exercised in the absence of defeating ISIS in Raqqa.” Regarding the new talents, noted Dr. Al-Halabi. MAPs started a robot contest at the moral and legal norms, because the strugcomplexities of Syria, he opined, “All of American University of Beirut, and called it gle against terrorists must be carried out this started because of politics.” “An Assad victory, even if it succeeds, “Robogee.” It was the world’s first robot with respect for human rights and for the will eventually fail,” he went on to say. “I’m competition especially for Syrian refugees. principles of a State ruled by law. The Some of its students participated in recent identification of the guilty party must be not sure a cease-fire is attainable.” —Kelly Fleming contests in the UAE and Washington, DC. duly proven, because criminal responsibil“In Arsal refugee camp there were 5,000 ity is always personal...” MAPs Aids Syrian Refugees in Cordaro summarized the findings thusly: students and only 20 were chosen [for the Lebanon competition],” Dr. Al-Halabi said, lament- “What the bishops are saying is that you Dr. Fadi Al-Halabi, director of the Multi Aid ing that his organization can only reach 1 can’t assassinate them from the sky withPrograms (MAPs), spoke to the Syrian Amer- percent of the Syrian refugee population. out due process.” That statement, crafted to address govican Council-Los Angeles (SAC-LA) in San For more information, please visit <www. —Samir Twair ernment policy, “never really left WashingDimas, CA on July 21. Dr. Al-Halabi, who multiaidprograms.org>. ton, DC,” Cordaro said, “and in the last was a neurosurgeon in Syria, now resides in Kathy Kelly Speaks at Des Moines three years, Des Moines got itself a drone Lebanon along with more than one million command center.” registered Syrian refugees—the highest rate Drone Warfare Vigil Catholic Workers are sitting and standin the world when compared to the total num- Kathy Kelly joined about 30 Catholic Workber of host community citizens. According to ers who took their UNHCR, half the refugees are school-age drone warfare protest children. Al-Halabi believes education is cru- to the steps of St. Amcial for displaced Syrian youths who will re- brose Cathedral in build their country when the war ends. Des Moines on Aug. Dr. Al-Halabi said his organization 5, calling on their “started in a garage in Lebanon” and grew bishop to take his offiuntil it today includes 125 doctors and 150 cially stated policy pomedical assistants. Al-Halabi’s mobile sitions on drone warschools serve 3,500 refugees and em- fare to Iowa Catholics. ploys 300 workers. They’ve now opened “What we are dealbranches in Turkey and Germany. ing with here is a way The MSPs project in Arsal, the biggest of making war that Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon, focuses U.S. Catholic bishops on schools and innovation. MSPs devel- have studied. Bishop Kathy Kelly (l) speaks outside St. Ambrose Cathedral in Des Moines oped a program to make robots and to [Richard Edmund] on Aug. 5.
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OCTOBER 2017
unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, which are increasingly used to combat terrorism around the globe. Drone warfare is widely criticized because targets are often misidentified, civilians are often mistaken for combatants, and civilian deaths, called “collateral damage,” are common. Bishop Pates has yet to respond to DMCW’s request that he take the message in his 2014 policy paper on drone warfare to Iowa Catholics. —Michael Gillespie
Poll: Iran Deal Helped Re-Elect President Rouhani
A recent spate of public opinion polling coming out of Iran has shed some light on the attitudes of Iranian citizens and their views about the direction of their country and its relationship with the West. Participants in a July 28 panel presented by the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC discussed the results of a recent poll that painted a picture of an evolving Iran torn between progressive attitudes toward international relations, but still gripped by conservative attitudes toward religion. A University of Maryland/IranPoll.com showed that supporters of President Hassan Rouhani, despite his more moderate stances, are more likely to support keeping religion in politics than are supporters of his chief rival, cleric Ebrahim Raisi. “People generally agree that Rouhani’s reelection means that people approve of his foreign policy, they approve of the JCPOA [the Iran nuclear deal] and, to a lesser extent, agree with Rouhani’s economic poli-
PHOTO COURTESY ATLANTIC COUNCIL
ing vigil on the sidewalk at the foot of the cathedral steps, asking that Bishop Pates “teach Des Moines Catholics what they tried to teach people in Washington, DC, in 2014. We want the bishop, based on that teaching, to test and grade the drone command center on the South Side,” Cordaro explained. Cordaro introduced Kelly, a former Nobel Peace Prize nominee who has worked in communities in the Middle East and Southwest Asia with civilians who live under the constant threat of death from the skies. Kelly told of her experience in Gaza during Israel’s 2009 assault it called “Operation Cast Lead,” during which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including 288 children and 103 women; 85 percent of the Palestinian casualties were civilians. “When I got into Gaza,” she recalled, “every 11 minutes, from 11 at night ’til 1 in the morning, and then from 3 in the morn’ing until 6 in the morning, a bomb exploded. I began to know the difference— even though I know nothing about weapons—between a Hellfire missile fired from an Apache helicopter and a 500 lb. bomb dropped from an F-15. The reason I was able to understand this was because the children explained it to me.” Kelly described the reaction of a Gaza parent after a cease-fire was announced: “A very young mother sank into a chair in her home and, with the back of her hand on her forehead, said, ‘This is the first time I breathe in all these 22 days, I am so afraid for my children.’ “One of the children grabbed my hand and took me outside. They were already collecting driftwood and twigs because it was cold and there was no electricity, and their parents would need fuel to cook. They placed the wood on tarps and then dragged the tarps to each home. A grandfather came up to me and said, ‘Maybe you think I am lazy because I don’t help these children, but you see up in the sky,’ and I looked up and there was a drone flying above. He said, ‘If the drone sees me pick up the firewood, he might think it’s a gun and we might all be killed,’” said Kelly. The United States and Israel are leaders in the development and production of
cies,” said Ebrahim Mohseni, a research associate at University of Maryland and one of the poll’s chief architects. “We see that there is no general agreement when it comes to whether or not people want to see religion play a lesser role,” he added. “People who voted for Rouhani are more likely to voice their opposition to this notion than people who voted for Raisi.” In addition to social issues, Rouhani’s reelection showed that Iranian voters were more focused on such campaign issues as economic growth and unemployment. Concerns about the latter spiked after June’s terrorist attack in Tehran, with 74 percent of those polled citing unemployment as a top priority—an indication of Iranians’ desire to escape the shackles of sanctions and isolationism. Sixty-three percent of respondents described the economy as bad, with more than half saying it is “very bad” and getting worse. However, a small plurality of Iranians agree with, or are at least somewhat satisfied with, Rouhani’s attempts to fix the economy, a factor that may have contributed to his re-election. Despite this relative pessimism about the strength of the country’s economy, Rouhani was able to win comfortably. On this point, Mohseni maintained that Rouhani’s signature achievement, the JCPOA, largely overcame concerns about his other policies. “The JCPOA continues to be that litmus test for the direction that Iran should take going forward,” Mohseni said. “We see that the people who say that the JCPOA is working, is making people’s lives better—they’re a lot more accommo-
(L-r) Barbara Slavin, Paul Pillar, Ebrahim Mohseni and Nadereh Chamlou discuss the ramifications of President Rouhani’s re-election. WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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dating in a wide range of areas. It’s this issue, this experiment, through the lens of which a lot of Iranians are evaluating how Iran should go forward in other areas.” Not surprisingly, the discussion turned to the strength of the JCPOA given U.S. reticence to fully embrace it in light of President Donald Trump’s more virulently anti-Iran foreign policy. Panelists expressed cautious optimism about the strength of the deal going forward. “President Rouhani and also, to some extent, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, have been going around telling the Iranian people, ‘don’t take…Trump’s objection to this deal personally, because Trump is abrogating on all commitments of the United States, be it against NATO, the Paris accords, even internally,’” noted former World Bank adviser Nadereh Chamlou, who has written extensively about Iran’s role in the global economy. “Iranians shouldn’t take this as being just against them—it’s against healthcare, against everything. It’s part of Trump’s personality rather than the specifics of the deal.” —David DePriest
HUMAN RIGHTS Plaque Commemorating USS Liberty Installed in Wilmington, DE
A memorial service for the servicemen of the USS Liberty, attacked in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea in June of 1967, was held Aug. 9 at the home of Nora and John Whisnant in Wilmington, Delaware. Twenty-five friends and peace advocates from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania gathered to honor the 34 killed, and the survivors of the Israeli attack, including 174 wounded. Rev. Bill Lane of Delaware Churches for Middle East Peace offered a prayer. A commemorative plaque was installed on the stone face of a small monument housing a liberty bell in the Whisnants’ front yard. A speech given by survivor Ernie Gallo, president of the USS Liberty Veterans Association at Arlington Cemetery on June 8 for the 50th anniversary of the attack was read. Gallo has been trying to get another 72
Peace advocates gathered in Delaware Aug. 9 to dedicate a plaque in honor of the USS Liberty. small memorial plaque put up in Hero’s Park in his home town of Palm Coast, FL. While initially approved, the approval was later rescinded. The American Legion National Convention in Reno, Nevada voted in favor of a resolution calling for an investigation of the Israeli attack, the first resolution to make it this far since 1967. Following refreshments, including a cake decorated with a U.S. Navy seal, survivor Senior Chief Terry McFarland of Rockland, MD gave an inspiring talk. Also present was acclaimed Palestinian artist Rajie Cook, who donated two posters commemorating the USS Liberty, “Under the Rug” and “Dead File.” We were honored by the attendance of the Delaware Veterans Commissioner Chaplain Myron Smith, who asked insightful questions. Mike Abel of Delaware Neighbors Against the Occupation (DelNATO) photographed the event. The USS Liberty is the most decorated ship in recent U.S. Naval history. For more information about Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty, its cover-up by the U.S. government, and the American Legion’s resolution, visit the USS Liberty Memorial website <www.gtr5.com>. —Muna Howard
DIPLOMATIC DOINGS Lebanese Prime Minister Emphasizes National Unity
As part of his official visit to Washington,
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
DC this summer, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri gave a public address at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on July 26. In his remarks, the prime minister noted the political, economic and social challenges facing his country. After years of political deadlock, Hariri believes, Lebanon has turned a corner and will see more prudent and proactive governance. “Lebanon is emerging from 10 years of political deadlock, which has polarized the country and led to economic inaction,” he said. “We have elected a president, putting an end to a three-year vacancy in power. We have formed a national unity government and adopted a new electoral law. In short, political life has been returned to normal.” Years of lackluster governance have taken their toll, particularly on the economy, and the prime minister acknowledged that the current government must prove itself adept at addressing the country’s challenges before next May’s elections. He outlined the four pillars of his government’s plan to revitalize the country: jumpstart economic growth, maintain fiscal responsibility, mitigate the impact of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon, and implement a capital investment program. In the face of these many challenges, it is vital that Lebanon maintain national unity, Hariri said. This, he argued, means accepting Hezbollah’s parliamentary presence and its regional military activities. “The differences that we have with Hezbollah are tremendous,” he stated. “But OCTOBER 2017
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tween Islam and Christianity is increasingly portrayed as impossible, Lebanon offers a model of coexistence, of dialogue and of political solution,” he said. —Dale Sprusansky
I have to make a decision. Do I inflict that difference on the people of Lebanon, on the economy of Lebanon, on the governing of Lebanon, on the legislation of Lebanon? My government has taken upon itself that we will [look past] those differences because we have so much in common. “My job as prime minister of Lebanon is to shield Lebanon from any instability,” Hariri continued. “If you look at our region today, whether it’s Syria or Iraq, all the countries around us, there is instability. This instability is due to not having a consensus within the country, for the safeguard of the country. For me, stability is the most essential part of my governing of Lebanon.” Despite his government’s deep disagreements with Hezbollah on issues such as Syria, Hariri explained that “the one thing we agree on is that the national interest of Lebanon is to have stability.” During his U.S. visit, Hariri met with President Donald Trump and members of Congress to discourage Washington from implementing additional sanctions on Hezbollah. Lebanon has been sanctioned enough, he told the Carnegie audience, and further sanctions would stifle his government’s economic and social aspirations. Nonetheless, Congress is still considering new sanctions that would increase pressure on banks that do business with Hezbollah. Despite Lebanon’s many challenges, Hariri boasted of the “resilience” and “moderation” characterizing his small country of six million people. “In a region fraught with religious and sectarian violence, in a world where coexistence beOCTOBER 2017
STAFF PHOTO ALEX SHANAHAN
Ambassador Husam Zomlot, the Chief Representative of the General Delegation of the PLO to the U.S., gave a press briefing on Aug. 17, a week before senior White House adviser Jared Kushner’s trip to the Middle East. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was about to meet with Kushner, who is also President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, special envoy for Middle East peace Jason Greenblatt, and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell on Aug. 24, at the end of their regional tour. In advance of the trip, Ambassador Zomlot told reporters, “It’s now or never. This is the time and this is the opportunity.” This “ultimate” deal requires a strong arbitrator, and Trump has said he wants to be fair, Zomlot pointed out. Palestinian leaders have asked the Trump administration to clearly, publicly endorse the two-state solution—not just say, as Trump stated in February, that he supports one-state or twostates, whatever “both parties like.” For the past three months, the mic has been with Palestinians and Israelis, Zomlot continued, with Greenblatt in “listening mode,” hearing what Palestinians and Israelis want. Now the Trump administration needs to get in “talking mode,” Zomlot said, and speak openly about the settlements and
STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with President Trump and members of Congress.
Ambassador Zomlot Briefs Press Ahead of Kushner Mideast Trip
Ambassador Husam Zomlot tells reporters it’s time for the Trump administration to publicly endorse the two-state solution.
the final destination for peace talks. So far, Trump’s advisers have not presented any detailed American vision for the peace process, Zomlot added. If that continues, he warned, the window for making Trump’s “ultimate deal” will close. “Do we have any other option?” Zomlot asked. If the political track Palestinians have taken fails there will be collective depression. The calamity in Gaza cannot continue. Zomlot described all other possible options as “Armageddonish.” If the meetings fail, Zomlot stated, Palestinian leaders will go “full monty” and work directly with the U.N. After all, he noted, Palestinians have both regional support and global international consensus for an independent state. Earlier that week, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro published an article in Foreign Policy saying that all three leaders—Trump, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu—are so mired in political problems they can’t pursue the ambitious policies needed to make peace. Netanyahu faces a corruption scandal, Trump has his own legal and political problems, and Palestinians are also deeply divided. When asked about the Taylor Force Act, which would restrict U.S. aid to Palestinians until the PLO ends funding for families of prisoners or accused “terrorists,” Zomlot noted that on his desk are 23 counterproductive congressional proposals to penalize Palestinians. He also wondered why Netanyahu is only now concerned about a Palestinian program that has been going on for 65 years. “This is a distraction,” Zomlot argued. Palestine is not Sweden, providing social welfare for all. We’re in the middle of a terrible conflict, with Palestinians losing their lives or being arrested daily and being convicted in Israeli military courts. We’re not paying dead martyrs or prisoners, we’re paying families who have lost their breadwinners. Palestinian leaders can’t abandon thousands of people, Zomlot continued, describing this program as “nonnegotiable.” The next week Kushner failed to publicly commit to a two-state solution, with Israel and an independent Palestine exist—Delinda C. Hanley ing side-by-side.
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B •O •O •K •S An Unlikely Audience: Al Jazeera’s Struggle in America
By William Lafi Youmans, Oxford University Press, 2017, hardcover, 240 pp. List: $29.95; MEB: $28.
An Unlikely Audience is, at heart, a coming-of-age story—a simple and universal tale of a nascent company trying, stumbling, and ultimately succeeding in finding its sea-legs in openly hostile waters. Author William Lafi Youmans follows the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network as it attempts to expand into the United States. From Al Jazeera English (AJE)’s awkward attempts to “land” in the U.S. through the surprise success of online-only AJ+, this oddly enthralling story of ambition, hubris and reconciliation makes a good argument for the importance of capital-P Place in the development, reception and reach of any venture. In emphasizing “ports of entry”— locations that lend specialized access to certain institutions or ventures—Youmans paints a portrait of modern American in-
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Reviewed by David DePriest dustry as overly insular, nepotistic and jingoistic. Al Jazeera English’s attempts to rub elbows with the Washington elite while creating buzz failed to make any of the cable companies grant it wider distribution. Offshoot Al Jazeera America (AJAM)’s attempt to play ball with cable providers and other media enterprises in New York made it look that much more desperate— especially as the vertically integrated American conglomerates began to view Al Jazeera as a formidable competitor. Only when AJ+ landed in San Francisco and embraced the ruthlessly competitive trappings of start-up culture did it experience success. It’s when the author details the network’s struggles for identity that An Unlikely Audience becomes more soulful. Introduced to most Americans through its coverage of the Arab Spring, the network began a campaign based solely on who was watching. “Al Jazeera English sought to take advantage of this ‘moment’ by publicizing it as such; an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Youmans writes. “The overt message…is one of endorsement—that AJE is being relied upon by leading figures in media-politics.…In short, AJE was validated politically.” Youmans goes on to describe Al Jazeera America’s acquiescence to almost every damand of U.S. cable providers—a move that ensured its failure. For in its mad rush to finally “make it,” it discarded most of its valuable attributes. The network was mandated to air “lighter fare,”
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
sublimate “Arabic viewpoints” to make American viewers more comfortable, and almost entirely neglect its Internet offerings in favor of “exclusivity.” The last two stipulations were particularly damning for a network hoping to capitalize on the worldwide success of Al Jazeera English. Limiting its reach and whitewashing its principles resulted in a pale imitation of the former AJ and AJE. New viewers couldn’t see the appeal, and went back to other networks. Following the demise of Al Jazeera America, AJ+’s attempt to appear local, to erase its foreign identity (it was the first Al Jazeera media endeavor to not use the full “Al Jazeera” name in it title), reveals the company’s desperate desire to succeed in the U.S. With AJ+, the Qatari network abandoned its attempt to reconcile its ethos with its ambition and the hope that its hard-edged approach to news would find an audience in an oversaturated ‘infotainment’-focused market. After having spent more than $1 billion, Al Jazeera’s investment finally paid off. AJ+ succeeded where AJE and AJAM could not—but at a high cost, which Youmans’ tightly wound prose effectively conveys. Al Jazeera’s many concessions also reveal some uncomfortable truths about mainstream American media. Nestled within Al Jazeera’s failure is the failure of American consumers to challenge themselves with unconventional viewpoints, of American conglomerates to cede some of their power for the public good, and of American cultural and political elites to accommodate and accept a foreign viewpoint that doesn’t entirely align with their vision. The implications of these failures are immense, and when An Unlikely Audience focuses on them, it soars. ■
David DePriest attends Howard University in Washington, DC and was a summer intern at the Washington Report this year.
OCTOBER 2017
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• EAST • BOOKS • AND • MORE MIDDLE Literature Films Pottery Solidarity Items More *
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FALL 2017 Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart by Scott Anderson, Anchor, 2016, paperback, 240 pp. List: $15; MEB $14. The New York Times bestselling author shows how seeds of turmoil in the Middle East were sown long before popular uprisings swept the region during the Arab Spring. Stretching back to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and before, Anderson examines the conflicts throughout the region through the eyes of six individuals coming from diverse backgrounds.
I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad by Souad Mekhennet, Henry Holt, 2017, hardcover, 368 pp. List: $30; MEB: $25. This seasoned Washington Post reporter has lived her whole life between the East and West, seeking to provide a mediating voice for people who often fundamentally misunderstand each other. In her new memoir, Mekhennet travels throughout the Arab world and Western countries engaging with and expanding the narratives of many different voices, many of whom rarely speak to Western journalists.
Ho w t o Be a Muslim: An A m e r i ca n S t o r y by Haroon Moghul, Beacon Press, 2017, paperback, 256 pp. List: $17; MEB: $15. After 9/11, Moghul became a prominent voice for American Muslims in the mainstream media, appearing on various TV outlets, community meetings and in print. His memoir portrays the struggles and triumphs of this young Muslim leader in the U.S. in the 21st century.
Taste of Persia: A Cook’s Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan by Naomi Duguid, Artisan, 2016, hardcover, 400 pp. List: $35; MEB: $30. Named one of the Best Cookbooks of the Year by many publications in 2016, Taste of Persia highlights foods and recipes from the Middle East that rarely make it into print. Coupled with stunning photographs, this new cookbook brings food traditions normally beyond our reach directly into our homes.
The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine by Nathan Thrall, Metropolitan, 2017, hardcover, 336 pp. List: $28; MEB: $26. After years of failed peace proposals, international summits, secret negotiations, U.N. resolutions and statebuilding efforts, groundbreaking critical thinking and fresh perspectives are rare. Nathan Thrall lays out the course of history in his new book, looking at what has been successful and what has not in finding compromise in Palestine and Israel.
Iran and Pakistan: Security, Diplomacy and American Influence by Alex Vatanka, I.B. Tauris, 2017, paperback, 328 pp. List: $20; MEB: $18. The regional powers of Iran and Pakistan have a long history, intertwined with each other while simultaneously vastly different. Alex Vatanka explores this relationship, including the effects of U.S. foreign policy, giving us a unique book on a topic that is rarely covered and explored in depth.
The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories by Ilan Pappé, One World, 2017, hardcover, 288 pp. List: $30; MEB: $25. Following fast on the heels of Ten Myths About Israel, in his latest work Pappé turns his attention to the annexation and occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Drawing from a wide array of sources, The Biggest Prison on Earth is a blunt look into the history of the occupation of Palestine and a glimpse into the daily lives of those who must endure it.
The Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History by Cemil Aydin, Harvard University Press, 2017, hardcover, 256 pp. List: $30; MEB: $28. Questioning the common perception that the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims constitute a unified entity, the author explores how these misconceptions were not only passed down on the Muslim world from the West, but also in some cases, embraced and transformed by the various communities themselves.
The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times by Christopher De Bellaigue, Liveright, 2017, hardcover, 432 pp. List: $35; MEB: $30. With a unique style, the author provides readers a new lens through which to view the history of the Islamic World since the end of the Napoleonic wars. Highlighting the embrace of modern ideals and practices, he goes on to show how, later, the violence of a small minority is in fact the tragic blowback from modernizing processes.
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CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com
The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland
CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com
CWS/CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL www.cartoonweb.com
Landsmeer, The Netherlands
Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, KY OCTOBER 2017
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GAZA’S GOT TALENT
To The Washington Post, Aug. 18, 2017 As indicated in the Aug. 7 front-page article “Trapped, jobless and bored: Gaza’s wasted generation,” Gaza has some of the region’s highest literacy rates juxtaposed against the highest unemployment. I can attest firsthand to the ambition of many Gazan youths looking for a way up or out. Gazans are not only violent or victims. The Post should feature Gazans who won U.S. college scholarships against all odds and achieved beyond all expectations. Readers may be amazed to learn of one family whose three Gazan-educated sons won scholarships to MIT, Harvard University and Stanford University, or of a Gazan refugee woman who recently gave the senior class commencement speech at Gettysburg College. Gaza’s got talent. It is being cynically sacrificed. Theodore H. Kattouf, Gaithersburg, MD. The writer is president and chief executive of AMIDEAST.
THE CONTINUING PROBLEM OF ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS
COMPARING ISRAELI AND RUSSIAN INFLUENCE ON THE U.S.
To the East Bay Times, July 26, 2017 Much has been written about Russia’s excessive influence on our government. Little has been written about Israel’s control of our government. Recently, the House passed a bill giving Israel $705 million for a rocket defense system. This in addition to the $10.5 million we give to Israel every day—365 days a year. Mind you, Israel is not an impoverished country. It has the fourth largest military in the world and its citizens enjoy free health care and subsidized college tuition. So, Israel is doing just fine, while we are $20 trillion in debt and many Americans are overwhelmed by health care expenses and college tuitions. Can we afford to give Israel whatever it asks for? Who dares call attention to the fact that we are being bled by a country accused of unspeakable human rights violations. Certainly, not our Congress. If President Donald Trump is serious about putting Americans first, he needs to look at our limitless spending on Israel and keep some of that money right here at home. Forrest J. Cioppa, Moraga, CA OCTOBER 2017
To The Baltimore Sun, Aug. 28, 2017 I don’t think I have ever seen a more inane pronouncement in my life than this: “Trump...has made clear that unrestrained settlement activity does not advance the prospect for peace.” Duh! (“White House tries again to revive Mideast talks,” Aug. 23.) This is like saying that stealing my land and resources, controlling my movements doesn’t contribute to being good neighbors. Who knew? Unrestricted settlement activity is, of course, the cause of the lack of peace. Israel’s consistent and persistent theft of Palestinian land can in no way contribute to peace. Doris Rausch, Columbia, MD
PROGRESSIVE LAWMAKERS AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF BDS
To The Oregonian, Aug. 12, 2017 Thank you for your coverage of Sen. Ron Wyden’s town hall (“Wyden pressed on Israeli anti-boycott legislation, talks health care at Wilson High,” Aug. 8). Sen. Wyden was questioned by several constituents about the contradiction between his strong stand in support of almost all civil liberties issues and his (misguided) co-sponsorship and support for Senate Bill 720, the “Anti-Israel Boycott Act.” This legislation has been called out by the ACLU and other legal and civil rights
groups as jeopardizing the First Amendment right to free speech by any American who supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a nonviolent means to gain Palestinian human rights. There is a term called “PEP,” which stands for “Progressive Except Palestine.” PEP refers to individuals who are generally progressive on many issues, but fail to call out violations of international law in the ongoing assault on Palestinians’ human rights by the Israeli government. Sen. Ron Wyden solidly fits in the group of PEPs. And with his current position in support of S.720, he also shows he only holds qualified support for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. S.720 would make it a felony to engage in certain boycotts against Israel—including boycotts against illegal Israeli settlements that exist on Palestinian land and that are a major obstacle to peace. In other words, these groups (including religious bodies) and individuals could be punished for exercising their political beliefs in supporting the nonviolent BDS movement. This is a chilling suppression of First Amendment rights. Senator Wyden cannot call himself progressive if his vision does not include Palestinian human rights and the U.S. Constitution. Maxine Fookson, Portland, OR
TRUMP DASHES HOPES FOR NEW AFGHANISTAN STRATEGY
To The Dallas Morning News, Aug. 23, 2017 President Donald Trump’s promise to handily defeat the Taliban and stabilize Afghanistan borders on the absurd. That he will prevail where two American presidents, Russia and the British Empire (twice) have been humbled is incredulous. When 100,000 U.S. troops could not pacify that country, can we reasonably expect 13,000 (after the Trump surge) to accomplish that goal? At one time 8,000 Marines were based in Afghanistan, now there are 300. Like his predecessor’s policies, the Trump Afghanistan strategy is tragically flawed and destined to fail. Frankly, those opposed to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan were pleasantly surprised when Trump boldly questioned the 16-year-old war and criticized what little there was to show for the loss of American life and treasure: more than 2,000 American casualties and $700 billion.
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We disagreed with the president on many issues but on this subject we thought he was clear-sighted. Our hopes were dashed when voices seeking unlimited war in Afghanistan prevailed. Now this president owns the debacle. Ironically, America’s enemies stand to win whether the U.S. cuts and runs or stays and bleeds. That’s a quagmire. Hadi Jawad, Old East Dallas, TX
NO PATH TO NEGOTIATED END IN AFGHANISTAN
To The Buffalo News, Aug. 28, 2017 President Trump was advised by generals and Cabinet members to continue the war in Afghanistan. My concern is a common-sense question, which is: Who comes to the surrender table? We are dealing with multiple pockets of terrorists throughout the country. They have no appointed leader, as in World War II, to come to a surrender table. I see no honorable end to this 16-yearold war. There has to be a withdrawal plan to leave the area, not an increase in “boots on the ground.” Chris Nasca, Kenmore, NY
NEW STRATEGY OR MORE OF THE SAME IN AFGHANISTAN?
To The Washington Post, Aug. 20, 2017 In his Aug. 17 op-ed, “Preventing a terrorist victory in Afghanistan,” Stephen J. Hadley declared that President Trump’s main goal in Afghanistan should be to “test” the Taliban’s interest in peace. Mr. Hadley suggested without explanation that insurgents and terrorists can be defeated in Afghanistan, just as the Islamic State was pushed out of Iraq, with a “modest increase” in U.S. forces. While he was right that it is a vital national interest to prevent terrorist attacks against the U.S. homeland, he was widely off the mark to imply that securing the territory of Afghanistan is necessary to produce that outcome. As I personally observed over the course of two combat deployments—in 2005 and 2010 to 2011—even at the height of President Barack Obama’s surge, there were vast tracts of Afghan territory wholly under control of insurgents. Today, according to the latest report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the Afghan government outright controls an astonishingly small part of its own territory, 78
23.8 percent, and only “influences” an additional 35.9 percent. And that is after Mr. Obama’s surge of 17,000 in 2009, his surge of 30,000 in 2010 and 16 years of total U.S. military operations. What Mr. Hadley called a “new strategy” is nothing more than advocacy for an extension of the failed status quo. Daniel L. Davis, Springfield, VA
LACK OF CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE ON AFGHANISTAN
To The News and Observer, Aug. 12, 2017 I would like to thank Ned Barnett for “Rep. Jones pushes for an end to America’s longest war” (Aug. 6) on my efforts to end the war in Afghanistan. America has lost 2,216 service members in Afghanistan and spent roughly $800 billion. Every year we lose more American lives and waste tens of billions of additional taxpayer dollars. All to continue the longest war in our nation’s history, with no strategic endpoint in sight, much less a clear plan for how to achieve it. Meanwhile, congressional leadership in Washington sits on the sidelines, refusing to allow a debate and a vote on the matter. The courageous men and women who put their lives on the line for this country, and the taxpayers who pay the bills, deserve better. As I stressed in a recent letter to President Donald Trump: Afghanistan is the graveyard of
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
empires. How many more men, women and tax dollars must we lose before we learn our lesson? Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-NC)
ALLOT RESOURCES TO ENDLESS WAR, OR THE HOMELAND?
To The San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 27, 2017 Regarding “President outlines new Afghan strategy” (Aug. 22): America’s occupation of Afghanistan has gone on for more than 16 years, longer than World War I, World War II and the Civil War. One conservative estimate is that more than $800 billion has been spent on this war. On MSNBC, Rex Tillerson said sending troops to Afghanistan was necessary to “restore their stability and economy.” I could only think, what about the U.S. economy and stability? Couldn’t some of these billions be better used right here at home to improve our health care, our infrastructure, provide housing and care for thousands of U.S. veterans and homeless? How can we concern ourselves with security and economic stability in Afghanistan when we are struggling to achieve these goals in the U.S.? Vivian Marlene Dunbar, San Ysidro, CA
LESS, NOT MORE NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE NEEDED
To The New York Times, Aug. 2, 2017 Proposals by the Trump administration and some in Congress to spend $1 trillion on a new generation of nuclear weapons are extremely dangerous. Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. The only conceivably justifiable nuclear arsenal is one that permits a secure second (retaliatory) strike. Instead, weapon designers and war planners have introduced ever more “usable” nuclear weapons. The proposed new nuclear cruise missile would shorten nuclear reaction times and risk miscalculation in a crisis. The Trump administration recently boycotted United Nations talks to abolish nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty requires existing nuclear powers to move in that direction in return for abstention by non-nuclear states. Spending a trillion dollars on new nuclear weapons will only buy global insecurity. David Keppel, Bloomington, IN ■ OCTOBER 2017
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O• B • I • T • U • A • R • I • E • S Boulos A. Malik, 89, died Dec. 21, 2016 in Chagrin Falls, OH of kidney failure associated with diabetes. An Egyptian Copt, he first worked as a stringer for Reuters covering the U.N., then became a broadcaster for the VOA Arabic Service, where he met his wife, fellow VOA broadcaster Madelyn Fay. Malik’s 37-year career as the first ArabAmerican U.S. Foreign Service Officer included working for the U.S. Information Service and VOA in Greece, Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Morocco, and serving as deputy director and acting director for USIA’s Near Eastern, North African and South Asian Bureau in Washington, DC. After retiring in 1989, he was asked to work as a U.N. elections monitor in Bosnia, Cambodia and Haiti, and to author U.S. State Department advisory opinions on asylum cases for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. He also taught a course on “The Media in National Security” at the U.S. National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, DC. In 2001 he was asked to serve as the counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen because of his regional expertise and native Arabic. Malik was pre-deceased by his wife and is survived by his sons, Paul, currently U.S. consul general in Dubai, and Peter, sports agent for PGA Tour players of Chagrin Falls, and three grandchildren. Dr. Landry Thomas Slade, 86, died April 7 in Kirkland, WA. After earning a Ph.D. in 1959 from the University of Virginia, Dr. Slade and his wife, Virginia, moved the following year to Beirut, Lebanon, where he taught chemistry at the American University of Beirut until 1975. He subsequently became associate dean of AUB, then acting dean of arts and sciences, and ultimately assistant to the AUB president. In 1985, after nearly 26 years in Lebanon, Slade worked at AUB’s New York office, where he continued OCTOBER 2017
Compiled by Nathaniel Bailey
to serve as assistant to the president of the university until his retirement in 1995. For many years, he also was a member of the board of trustees of the American Community School in Beirut, from which his children graduated. He felt a strong loyalty to both AUB and ACS, and served them during his time in Lebanon, including the hard years of the country’s civil war. Dr. Slade was predeceased by his wife Virgina, and is survived by his wife Gretchen, three children, Lyell, Lawrence and William, and four grandchildren.
Diane Rose Cooper, 74, of Plymouth, MI and Leesburg, FL, died May 3, 2017 after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Cooper volunteered and later taught at Headstart preschools, and also helped jailed mothers record books for their children to listen to. We asked her beloved husband of 50 years, Larry, how she became an activist for justice in Palestine-Israel, and this is what he wrote: We watched TV news coverage of what became known as the Six-Day War in June 1967. A few months later, a Palestinian named Mubadda Suidan (another long-time Washington Report subscriber and contributor) joined an engineering firm where I worked in Urbana, IL and we both attended UI graduate school. Suidan was born in Haifa, but as the Zionist militia approached Haifa in 1948, when he was 13 years old, his family fled to Beirut, expecting to be able to return in a couple of days. Diane worked with Suidan, typing up his Ph.D. thesis. Suidan was an avid reader and eager to share his knowledge with anyone who would listen. He frequently brought into the office news clippings written by John Cooley, Middle East correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor. He presented us with several books by Prof. Walid Khalidi. As president of the UI Organization of Arab Students, Suidan brought many
speakers to the campus, including the anti-Zionist Rabbi Elmer Berger. By the early ’70s Diane and I were well versed on the Palestinian perspective of the Palestine-Israel conflict. Over the following years we followed the issue, continued to read more books, attended many speaking events, supported various organizations, and subscribed to publications like the Washington Report. In 1990, we attended the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in Milwaukee, WI and met Rev. David Van Strien, president of UUs for Justice in the Middle East, and subsequently joined UUJME. In 2000, we joined the First UU Congregation of Ann Arbor. About a year later we attended a forum in which several members of our congregation shared what they had learned from a recent trip to Israel. It was obvious to us that they had been given a distorted view of the conditions Palestinians were forced to live with. We felt we needed to correct that distorted picture, and talked with several other members of our church who agreed to join us in forming a committee to work on informing the congregation on the realities of the Palestine-Israel issue. We also worked with other groups in Ann Arbor. In 2007 I joined UUJME’s Board of Directors and was president of the Board from 2011 through 2016. Over the years we worked with and supported many organizations and individuals working for peace with justice in Palestine. Diane had a bachelor’s degree in education and was especially passionate about children’s education. She was an active supporter of the “No Way to Treat a Child” campaign. Diane was an excellent non-judgmental listener, which resulted in others listening to her views on the Middle East with an open mind. Diane Cooper is survived by Larry, their son, David, and daughter, Jennifer Chichester, and grandchildren.
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Denys Johnson-Davies, 94, died May 22 in Cairo. Known as one of the first, and most prominent, translators of Arabic literature into the English language, he was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, but spent most of his childhood in Egypt and Sudan, with brief stints in Uganda and Kenya. It was during this period that he first learned Arabic, although he quickly forgot it when he returned to England at the age of 12, after contracting amoebic dysentery. He began to study Arabic again as a teenager. After graduating from Cambridge University at the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Arabic Section of the BBC, where he was exposed to Arabic as a living, spoken language. After the war ended, Johnson-Davies moved to Cairo, where he worked for the British Council teaching translation at the British Institute. It was during this period that he began socializing with Egyptian writers and developed a love of Arabic liter(Advertisement)
ature. Over the course of the next 50 years he published many English-language collections of Arabic literature, working with such prominent writers as Tayeb Salih, Zakaria Tamer and Naguib Mahfouz, who in 1988 won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To supplement his income Johnson-Davies held many other jobs as well, including first secretary of the British mission in Dubai in 1969, when he served as an interpreter in the negotiations leading to the creation of the United Arab Emirates from the seven former Trucial States. Maryam Mirzakhani, 40, died July 14 of cancer in Palo Alto, CA. The Stanford mathematics professor was the first and so far the only woman—or Iranian—to win the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics, often seen as equivalent to the Nobel Prize. As a young girl growing up in Iran, Mirzakhani dreamed of becoming a writer. In high school she realized her affinity for solving mathematical problems. She first gained international recognition as a teenager, winning gold medals at the International Math Olympics in Hong Kong in 1994 and in Toronto in 1995. After earning her bachelor’s degree from Sharif University of Technology in 1999, she began work on her doctorate at Harvard University, earning her Ph.D. in 2004. Until 2008, she was a Clay Mathematics Institute research fellow and an assistant professor at Princeton University. She then joined the mathematics faculty of Stanford University, where she taught until her death. Rula Quawas, 57, died July 25 in Amman, Jordan of complications during a biopsy that resulted in the rupturing of her aorta. A prominent academic and champion of women’s rights and advancement in Jordan, she was acutely aware growing up of the patriarchal society in which she lived. Not until 1974, when she was 14, were women given the right to vote in Jordan. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English language and literature from the Uni-
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versity of Jordan, she went on to receive a doctorate in American literature and feminist theory from the University of North Texas. She subsequently became an associate professor at the University of Jordan, where she was the first academic to introduce courses in feminism and, in 2006, founded the university’s Women’s Studies Center. In 2012, Quawas and her students launched a video project aimed at combating sexual abuse and harassment in Jordan. The video provoked a debate throughout the university. As a result of the negative publicity in the Jordanian news media, Quawas was removed from her post as a dean of the faculty of foreign languages, but was allowed to continue teaching. The Middle East Studies Association of North America sent a letter to high-ranking Jordanian government officials asking that she be reinstated, but the university stood behind its decision. Dr. Ruth Pfau, 87, died Aug. 10 in Karachi, Pakistan. A German nun who became known as the “Mother Teresa of Pakistan,” she spent more than 50 years serving Pakistan’s leprosy patients. A native of Leipzig, Germany, she and her family fled to West Germany after World War II to escape Soviet occupation and enable her to pursue a medical career. She studied medicine at the universities of Mainz and Marburg before joining the Catholic order of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, the organization that would send her to work in India in 1960. Due to visa issues, however, Pfau was delayed in Pakistan, where she visited a leprosy colony and treatment facility that so distressed her that she refused to leave. Under Pfau’s leadership, the facility that she first visited became the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, a national center of medical professionals who worked to house, treat and recuse victims of leprosy. Although she was not widely known in the West, Pfau was revered in Pakistan for her devotion and dedication to halting the spread of the disease. ■ OCTOBER 2017
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AET’s 2017 Choir of Angels
following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1, 2017 and aug. 15, 2017 is making possible activities of the tax-exempt aet library endowment (federal id #52-1460362) and the american educational trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. some angels helped us co-sponsor the conference “the israel lobby and american policy.” Others donated to our “capital building fund.” We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.
HUMMERS ($100 or more)
Catherine Abbott, Edina, MN Dr.& Mrs. Robert Abel, Wilmington, DE Jeff Abood, Silver Lake, OH Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA Rizek & Alice Abusharr, Claremont, CA Diane Adkin, Camas, WA James C. Ahlstrom, Stirling, NJ Qamar Ahsan, Flint, MI Bulus Paul Ajlouny, San Jose, CA Saleh Al-Ashkar, Tucson, AZ Dr. & Mrs. Salah Al-Askari, Leonia, NJ Joe & Siham Alfred, Fredericksburg, VA Tammam Aljoundi, Saint Louis, MO Jafar Almashat, Martinsburg, WV Mazen Alsatie, Carmel, IN Ali Al Shihabi, Long Beach, CA Nabil & Judy Amarah, Danbury, CT American Muslims for Palestine, Bridgeview, IL Abdulhamid Ammuss, Garland, TX Sylvia Anderson De Freitas, Duluth, MN Anace & Polly Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Julie Arnold, Bemidji, MN* Dr. Robert Ashmore, Jr., Mequon, WI Robin Assali, Cypress, CA Mostafa Aswad, Verborn, MI**** Robert E. Barber, Parrish, FL Stanton Barrett, Ipswich, MA Allen & Jerrie Bartlett, Philadelphia, PA Kate Bisharat, Carmichael, CA Heath Blackiston, Melbourne Beach, FL* Elizabeth Blakely, Cambria, CA Aston Bloom, Tucson, AZ †† Ed Brooks, Mount Airy, MD Gordon & Louise Brown, Washington, DC James Burkart, Bethesda, MD Barbara Candy, Loomis, CA William Cavness, Falls Church, VA Ouahib Chalbi, Coon Rapids, MN Dr. Robert G. Collmer, Waco, TX Robert Cooke, Faith Forum, Gaithersburg, MD OctOber 2017
A.L. Cummings, Owings Mills, MD Peter & Linda Dobrzeniecki, Wolverine Lake, MI**** Ron Dudum, San Francisco, CA Sarah L. Duncan, Vienna, OH Dr. David Dunning, Lake Oswego, OR Ibrahim Elkarra, San Francisco, CA Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX Dr. Mohamed Elsamahi, Marion, IL Dr. & Mrs. Hossam Fadel, Augusta, GA Family Practice & Surgery, Eatonton, GA Yusif Farsakh, Arlington, VA Zamin Farukhi, Orange, CA Gary R. Feulner, Dubai, UAE Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA William Gefell, Tunbridge, VT Barbara Germack, Brooklyn, NY Michael Gillespie, Maxwell, IA John & Alice Goodman, Bethesda, MD* Dr. Safei Hamed, Columbia, MD Delinda C. Hanley, Kensington, MD† Shirley Hannah, Queensbury, NY Dr. Walid Harb, Dearborn Hts., MI Prof. & Mrs. Brice Harris, Pasadena, CA Dr. Kamal Hasan, Davison, MI Mr. & Mrs. Sameer Hassan, Quaker Hill, CT Nicholas Heer, Seattle, WA John Hendrickson, Albuquerque, NM Clement Henry, Moorestown, NJ A.H.M. Hilmy, Kew Richman, Surrey, UK Mary Izett, Walnut Creek, VA Bilquis Jaweed, West Chester, OH Ronald Jaye, Watsonville, CA Jeanne Johnston, Santa Ynez, CA Dr. Jamil Jreisat, Temple Terrace, FL Omar & Nancy Kader, Vienna, VA James Kawakami, Los Angeles, CA Mazen Kawji, Burr Ridge, IL Ghazala Kazi, Columbia, MD Faizul & Maimun Khan, Silver Spring, MD Dr. M. Jamil Khan, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Fouad Khatib, San Jose, CA Dr. Mohayya Khilfeh, Chicago, IL Tony Khoury, Sedona, AZ Mary Lou Kostielney, Phoenix, AZ Loretta Krause, Southport, NC Ronald Kunde, Skokie, IL James A. Langley, Washington, DC* William Lawand, Mount Royal, QC, Canada Fran Lilleness, Seattle, WA Alice Ludvigsen, Oslo, Norway Anthony Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI A. Kent MacDougall, Berkeley, CA Ramy & Cynthia Mahmoud, Skillman, NJ Dr. & Mrs. Gabriel Makhlouf, Richmond, VA Dr. Asad Malik, Bloomfield Hills, MI Ted Marczak, Toms River, NJ Amal Marks, Altadena, CA Martha Martin, Paia, HI Tahsin Masud, Tucker, GA Shirl McArthur, Reston, VA Gwendolyn McEwen, Bellingham, WA Bill McGrath, Northfield, MN Caroline & John Merriam, Washington, DC* John & Ruth Monson, La Crosse, WI Maury Keith Moore, Seattle, WA Isa & Dalal Musa, Falls Church, VA John Najemy, Albany, NY Sara Najjar-Wilson, Reston, VA Jacob Nammar, San Antonio, TX Donald & Geraldine Ness, Leesburg, FL**** Susan Nye, Watertown, MA**** Tom O’Connell, Brooklyn, NY John L. Opperman, Ridgecrest, CA Khaled Othman, Riverside, CA Gennaro Pasquale, Oyster Bay, NY Amb. Edward & Ann Peck, Chevy Chase, MD Patricia & Michael Peterson, Washington, DC* Jim Plourd, Monterey, CA
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Barry Preisler, Albany, CA Brian & Colleen Price, Radnor, PA Cheryl Quigley, Toms River, NJ Robert Reynolds, Mill Valley, CA Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT Brynhild Rowberg, Northfield, MN Dr. Mohammed Sabbagh, Grand Blanc, MI Dr. Ahmed M. Sakkal, Charleston, WV Rafi M. Salem, Alamo, CA Betty Sams, Washington, DC* Irmgard Scherer, Fairfax, VA Dr. Abid A. Shah, Sarasota, FL Richard J. Shaker, Annapolis, MD Thomas Shaker, Poughkeepsie, NY Qaiser & Tanseem Shamim, Somerset, NJ Lewis Shapiro, White Plains, NY Lt. Col. Alfred Shehab, Odenton, MD Kathy Sheridan, Mill Valley, CA Dr. Mostafa Hashem Sherif, Tinton Falls, NJ Nancy Taylor Shivers, San Antonio, TX Teofilo Siman, Miami, FL Darcy Sreebny, Herndon, VA Gregory Stefanatos, Flushing, NY Dr. William Strange, Bandera, TX Mushtaq Syed, Santa Clara, CA Eddy Tamura, Morago, CA Joanie Tanous, Boulder, CO J. Tayeb, Shelby Twp., MI Charles Thomas, La Conner, WA Jerry & Jane Thompson, Bemidji, MN* Joan Toole, Albany, GA Thomas Trueblood, Chapel Hill, NC Paul H. Verduin, Silver Spring, MD Benjamin Wade, Saratoga, VA Robin & Nancy Wainwright, Severna Park, MD Lawrence Waldron, Berkeley, VA Rev. Hermann Weinlick, Minneapolis, MN Thomas C. Welch, Cambridge, MA Hugh Westwater, Columbus, OH Sarah & Robert Wilson, Reston, VA* Raymond Younes, Oxnard, CA Asma Yousef, Alexandria, VA Bernice Youtz, Tacoma, WA Mahmoud Zawawi, Amman, Jordan Vivian Zelaya, Berkeley, CA Fred Zuercher, Spring Grove, PA 82
ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more)
Mohamed Alwan, Chestnut Ridge, NY Dr. Isa Canavati, Fort Wayne, IN Joe Chamy, Colleyville, TX Joseph Daruty, Newport Beach, CA Robert & Tanis Diedrichs, Cedar Falls, IA*** Mr. & Mrs. Majed Faruki, Albuquerque, NM Raymond Gordon, Venice, FL Erin K. Hankir, Nepean, ON, Canada Ribhi Hazin, Dearborn, MI Fahd Jajeh, Lake Forest, IL Dr. Raymond Jallow, Los Angeles, CA Gloria Keller, Santa Rosa, CA Omar Khwaja, Mountain View, CA Sandra La Framboise, Oakland, CA David & Renee Lent, Hanover, NH Nidal Mahayni, Richmond, VA Tahera Mamdani, Fridley, MN Tom & Tess McAndrew, Oro Valley, AZ Donald & Jeannette McInnes, Cambridge, MA**** Darrel Meyers, Burbank, CA Ben Monk, Saint Paul, MN William & Nancy Nadeau, San Diego, CA W. Eugene Notz, Charleston, SC Nancy Orr, Portland, OR Hertha Poje-Ammoumi, New York, NY Phillip Portlock, Washington, DC Sam Rahman, Lincoln, CA Mary H. Regier, El Cerrito, CA Nuhad Ruggiero, Bethesda, MD Lisa Schiltz, Barbar, Bahrain Yasir Shallal, McLean, VA Mae Stephen, Palo Alto, CA Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD Dr. James Zogby, Washington, DC
TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more)
Michael Ameri, Calabasas, CA Colette Burghardt, Bethel Park, PA Forrest Cioppa, Moraga, CA Andrew and Krista Curtiss, Herndon, VA*,** Robert & Tanis Diedrichs, Cedar Falls, IA Dr. Wasif Hafeez, W. Bloomfield, MI Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Ghazy Kader, Shoreline, WA
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Issa & Rose Kamar, Plano, TX Bill & Jean Mansour, Corvallis, OR Mary Norton, Austin, TX Yusef & Jennifer Sifri, Wilmington, NC
BARITONES & MEZZO SOPRANOS ($1,000 or more)
Drs. A.J. & M.T. Amirana, Las Vegas, NV G. Edward & Ruth Brooking Jr., Wilmington, DE* Center for Arab American Philanthropy, Dearborn, MI Rev. Ronald C. Chochol, Saint Louis, MO Forrest Cioppa, Moraga, CA Henry Clifford, Essex, CT Rajie Cook, Washington Crossing, PA Edouard C. Emmet, Paris, France Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey Dr. Hassan Fouda, Berkeley, CA Salman & Kate Hilmy, Silver Spring, MD Hind Hamdan, Hagerstown, MD Julester Haste, Oxford, IA Ghazy Kader, Shoreline, WA Jack Love, San Diego, CA John Mahoney, New York, NY Roberta & John McInerney, Washington, DC* Dr. M. F. Shoukfeh, Lubbock, TX Donn Trautman, Evanston, IL
CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more)
Patricia Ann Abraham, Charleston, SC Donna B. Curtiss, Kensington, MD*,** Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris, West Linn, OR*,** John & Henrietta Goelet, New York, NY Estate of Andrew I. Killgore, Washington, DC John McGillion, Asbury Park, NJ *In Memory of Andrew I. Killgore **In Memory of Richard H. Curtiss ***In Honor of John F. Mahoney ****In Memory of Diane Cooper †In Memory of Prof. Jack Shaheen ††In Memory of Rosemarie Carnarius
OCTOBER 2017
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October 2017 Vol. XXXVI, No. 6
Palestinian fishermen in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, pull a net from the sea as Israeli bulldozers dig during the construction of its giant underground “defensive wall” along the Mediterranean beach between Gaza and Israel, Aug. 23, 2017. In the background are the chimneys of Israel’s Rutenberg power station. MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images