The Arab American News
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Slow Sunni integration could derail Iraq successes
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Amid reports that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has launched a campaign to disband the so-called Awakening Movement, or Sahwa, concerns among analysts and policy makers here is growing that such an effort could result in a resumption of sectarian violence, if not civil war. Only a...Teachers trapped between Fatah and Hamas
GAZA CITY (IPS) - A strike call has trapped thousands of teachers between Fatah unions and the Hamas government. The strike in Gaza called by the Palestine Teachers' Union — a non-elected body supported by the government of Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank — continues into its third week. Of...
Obama advisor stresses carrots over sticks
September 19th, 20080 DETROIT (IPS) — Dr. Susan Rice, senior foreign policy advisor to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, says the U.S. would make every effort to avoid resorting to a military attack on Iran under an Obama administration. Tough diplomacy would be used to curtail Iran's reach for nuclear capability instead of rushing to...Michigan office sued over unlawful voter purging
DETROIT – Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging two statewide voter purge programs that could potentially disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Michigan voters in advance of the November 2008 presidential...
Noted anti-Zionist to make appearance in Dearborn
September 19th, 20080 Dearborn — Norman Finklestein, the resilient former Depaul University professor who resigned after an all out attack from the right-wing propagandist attorney Alan Dershowitz, will address the Metro Detroit community in an event open to the public and the media on Friday, Sept. 26. The speaking engagement was scheduled by local...
Obama campaign meets with Arab Americans
September 12th, 20080 Arab Americans listen to a group of high-level Barack Obama presidential campaign figures in a meeting at a Southfield banquet hall Tuesday. SOUTHFIELD – High-level Barack Obama campaign figures met with a group of Arab Americans on Tuesday to discuss foreign and domestic policy issues in an effort to shore up support from a...
Flint police chief revokes gag rule in response to ACLU lawsuit
September 12th, 20080 DETROIT — Flint Police Chief David Dicks will rescind his controversial gag rule on police officer speech to the press in response to a free speech lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan on behalf of three police union leaders. "We hope that Chief Dicks' announcement signals a change of heart and...
Group vows to continue vigils for peace
September 12th, 20080 Growing up in what he described as a "conservative Jewish home," Henry Herskovitz was oblivious to the happenings in Palestine. But a conversation with a stranger in 1985 on the holiday of Yom Kippur wound up as a life-changer for the current social activist. "I remember him telling me that Israel had the fourth-largest...
Arab Americans attend state convention
September 12th, 20080 It's become a yearly trip for local Arab American Democrats, but with one of the most important elections in recent memory looming, this year's Michigan Democratic Convention seemed a little more important. The September 6 event in Lansing was deemed successful by Taleb Salhab, who is a member of the executive committee of the...
New water meters put an end to estimated bills
September 12th, 20080 DETROIT—Estimated water bills for Detroit residents are becoming a thing of the past, a concept that east side resident Nicola Singal finds reassuring. Singal recently had new, high tech water meter equipment installed in her home as part of the Detroit Water Automated Meter Reading (AMR) program, an initiative of the Detroit...
Gregg Brighton named Dearborn deputy police chief
September 12th, 20080 DEARBORN — Dearborn Mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr., has selected Commander Gregg A. Brighton as deputy chief of the police department. In his new post, Brighton will oversee police department operations while the selection process continues to fill the post of Chief of Police, left vacant by Chief Michael Celeski's sudden passing on...Lebanese politician Sheik Saleh Aridi killed in car bombing
A Lebanese politician died when his booby-trapped car exploded in hills east of the capital, Beirut, yesterday. Sheik Saleh Aridi, a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic party, had been trying to reconcile rival factions within the Druze community, a minority Muslim sect split along pro- and anti-Syrian lines. Police said...
Remembering 9/11 and moving forward
September 12th, 20080 America must move from the errant, retributive justice of 9/11 to a healing, restorative process of truth and reconciliation. Before the Congress adjourns, I will bring forth a new proposal for the establishment of a National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, which will have the power to compel testimony and gather...Shame on The Oakland Press
In an editorial this week, The Oakland Press attacked The Arab American News for running an opinion piece by Michelle Kinnucan on the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's celebration at the Michigan State Fairgrounds of Israel's 60th anniversary. ("Detroit Jewish Federation: Celebrating racism and making money at it," The Arab...The Oakland Press tortures the truth
One of the gratifying things about the Fair of Shame protest on August 21st was the response of so many of the Israeli youth. As we stood outside the Jewish Federation's celebration of Israel's creation, dozens of big, yellow school buses passed by. Because traffic was backed up the teens inside had a chance to read our anti-Zionist,......
The Afghan tragedy
John W. Warnock. Creating a Failed State. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing, 2008. If you want just one book that gives you the story of the Afghan tragedy, this is it. Warnock, a retired professor of economics and sociology, covers all the essentials—a capsule history of the country up to the present,...Catering to Israel
James Petras. The Power of Israel in the United States. Atlanta: Clarity Press, 2006. This book is something of a mixed bag. There are many interesting, provocative observations and analyses, but there are also some occasions where Petras fails to make the case. Let's start with some of the more generally......
W. Deen Mohammed, 74, dies
September 12th, 20080 Imam W. Deen Mohammed, a son of the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who renounced the black nationalism of his father's movement to lead a more traditional and racially tolerant form of Islam for black Muslims, died on Tuesday in Chicago. He was 74. The death was confirmed on the blog of Dawud Walid, executive director of...Israel asks U.S. for arms, air corridor to attack Iran
The security aid package the United States has refused to give Israel for the past few months out of concern that Israel would use it to attack nuclear facilities in Iran included a large number of "bunker-buster" bombs, permission to use an air corridor to Iran, an advanced technological system and refueling planes. Officials...It’s the oil, stupid
American policy toward the Middle East has always been determined by the politics of oil and the politics of oil are determined by the oil companies. It would be difficult to find many who would argue that the invasion of Iraq was premised, not on seizing Iraq's oil, but rather to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons held by...
Nader pleads for change in two party system
September 12th, 20080 Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader during a Detroit campaign rally at First Unitarian-Universalist Church. PHOTO: Khalil AlHajal Presidential politics is a theater of the absurd, according to independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who said he recently had to participate in a debate with Triumph the Insult Comic......
Israel deliberately forgets its history
Every Israeli knows that he or she is the direct and exclusive descendant of a Jewish people which has existed since it received the Torah in Sinai. According to this myth, the Jews escaped from Egypt and settled in the Promised Land, where they built the glorious kingdom of David and Solomon, which subsequently split into the...‘Towelhead’ doesn’t deliver
When rapper Nas wanted to use the N-word as the title to his last album, it was clear that it was intended as a bold attempt to own the term in a context of militantly antiracist art that lets the listener know how it feels to be on the receiving end of the slur. Even then, the record company didn't let him do it. The album was......
Palestinian group considers end of two-state strategy
WASHINGTON — An informal group of prominent Palestinian academics, politicians, entrepreneurs and activists has published a report that raises questions and offers solutions regarding Palestinian national strategy. It follows a growing sense of doubt that two decades of negotiations will culminate in an outcome fair to...Lose your house, lose your vote
The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP's effort to challenge some voters on Election Day. "We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will......
