CAAO delegation meets with State, Justice officials
CAAO leaders described their meetings with the State and Justice Departments as productive but added that there is much work to be done. PHOTO: TAAN DEARBORN — The Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO) sent delegates to Washington D.C. this past week to meet with senior officials from both the U.S. State Department...BRIDGES meeting discusses border patrol issues, paid informants
DEARBORN — Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO) representatives met on Thursday at a BRIDGES meeting to discuss with law enforcement officials new travel requirements and allegations of FBI agents sending informants into community mosques. Arab American community leaders meet with federal law enforcement officials on...Corruption in Lebanon elections?
BEIRUT — When Lebanon heads to the polls Jun. 7 to decide whether the Hizbullah-led opposition alliance will unseat the ruling Western-backed coalition, voter anonymity could be compromised by shortcomings in the 2008 parliamentary election law. A Lebanese woman shows her ink-stained finger after casting her vote at a polling...Saving Israel from itself
The United States and Israel fundamentally disagree about the need to establish a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. President Obama is committed to a two-state solution, while Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu is opposed and has been for many years. To avoid a direct confrontation with Washington, Netanyahu will...
Palestinian intern in Detroit to tackle homeland water crisis
May 30th, 20090 Despite a collective outcry from human rights groups, the humanitarian situation in Palestine remains on shaky ground. Manar Sami Shraideh And without adequate outside support, some Palestinians, like Manar Sami Shraideh, have begun to seek help for the problems that plague the country in the face of Israeli checkpoints...Aerial bombing makes terrorists
During the last thirty years of wars in Afghanistan, Afghan civilians have had one safe place to escape to: Pakistan. Men carry a victim of a bomb blast through the streets of Peshawar, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province May 28, 2009. Two bombs exploded on Thursday in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing...Bigger, badder jihad plot in ‘Obsession’ rebooted
WASHINGTON (IPS) — A new documentary from a shadowy non-profit, the Clarion Fund, has ties to groups widely accused of Islamophobia. "The Third Jihad" purports to educate U.S. citizens about the threat of a "cultural jihad" by the country's own American Muslim population. The film goes to great lengths to define itself as an expose...Holy Land Foundation, AIPAC cases are a travesty of justice
In case you happen to think that the "war on terror" is no more because the Obama administration won't use that Bushian phrase, think again. The legal and policy structures that made the war on terror so objectionable are still in place, and they are still trampling on Arab and Muslim rights. In this most recent case, an unfair...Arab American defensive tackle takes game to the NFL
He began his college career as the only Palestinian player to ever play Division-I football, and now former Ohio State defensive tackle Nader Abdallah is taking his game to the next level. Jacksonville Jaguar Nader Abdallah Abdallah, an undrafted free agent following last month's NFL Draft in New York, signed with the...NEWS BRIEFS: Senate bill builds momentum for immigration reform
Four Democrats have introduced a measure in U.S. Congress that ethnic community advocates say would help legal immigrants reunite with their families and end decade-long waiting times for legal immigrant visas. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, along with co-sponsoring Sens. Kristen Gellibrand, D-NY, Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Charles...
FILM REVIEW: Lemon Tree
May 29th, 20090 Starring Hiam Abbass, Doron Tavory, Ali Suliman and Rona Lipaz-Michael. Written by Suha Arraf and Eran Riklis. Directed by Eran Riklis. Not rated. Now playing at the Landmark Maple Art Theatre. Life often gives lemons to the Palestinians, and they don't always have the option of making lemonade. When an Israeli Defense...Red Wings four wins away from back-to-back Stanley Cups
After a 4-1 series win over the rival Chicago Blackhawks, there's just one team standing between the Detroit Red Wings and back-to-back Stanley Cups: the Pittsburgh Penguins, their finals opponent in 2008. Detroit Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood (L) and Tomas Holmstrom wave to the fans after the Red Wings defeated the...
UM-D officials meet with community leaders, discuss allegations of bias
May 23rd, 20090 DEARBORN — Top University of Michigan-Dearborn administrators are engaging American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and Congress of Arab American Organizations representatives in an ongoing dialogue addressing accusations of discrimination raised by members of the Arab Student Union on campus. Representatives of the...
New York “terror plot” a government set-up?
May 23rd, 20090 The corporate media and the authorities are having a field day lavishing saturation coverage on the so-called New York "terror plot" in which four men, three of them U.S. citizens, supposedly planned to blow up a Jewish temple and shoot down military planes, feverishly citing it as another example of why we should accept police state...AIPAC’s hidden persuaders
Despite the ballyhoo of the recent AIPAC national policy conference in Washington, when Israel-U.S. bonds were feted, relations between the two countries are currently more strained than at any time since 1991. That was when the elder George Bush, as U.S. president, fiercely lobbied Yitzhak Shamir to join in the Madrid peace conference.......
Community briefs: Memorial Day parade Monday in Dearborn
DEARBORN — The 85th annual Dearborn Memorial Parade is to be held Monday, May 25. Arab American military veterans with Dearborn youth during a past Memorial Day commemoration. The Parade will begin at 10 a.m. at Michigan Avenue and Firestone Street and will go to Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road. Following the parade will...Cousins killed in hit-and-run
DEARBORN — The bodies of two Dearborn men killed in a Detroit car crash on May 17 were on their way to Lebanon on Thursday to be buried in their family homeland. Mahmoud Bazzi, 20, L, and Hussien El-Zaghir, 26, were killed on May 17 when an SUV ran a yield sign and crashed into the side of their Chevrolet Malibu on Detroit's......
Support emerges for indicted attorney
May 23rd, 20090 DEARBORN — A group of Arab Americans has planned a June 5 event to show support for indicted attorney Tim Attalla. Tim Attalla The 49-year-old Miller-Canfield lawyer from Northville was recently accused of charges linked to a federal probe of the Michigan motorcycle gang the Highwaymen. Donations will be collected...Ohio woman seeks return of her kidnapped son
A Toledo woman is stepping up an international fight to get back her U.S.-born son, taken from her by her ex-husband in Oman in 2006. Mohamed Jaafar, allegedly taken away from his mother by his father in 2006. Mary Hariri, with the help of the U.S. State Department, the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited...Extraordinary school, extraordinary student
DEARBORN — Each year, countless high school students dream of earning the opportunity to attend an Ivy League school. Samantha Yassine But very few of them get the chance to do so as quickly as Samantha Yassine of Fordson High School. The 17-year-old junior will depart for Harvard's summer school program on June 21st...Group observes Nakba anniversary, newspaper honored for 25 years of service
DEARBORN — Commemorating the Nabka is never easy, but for the peace and justice activists who organize somber and rallying observances every year, the importance of marking the anniversary can't be overstated. Palestine Office Michigan head Hasan Newash The Palestine Office of Michigan commemorated......
Pope’s visit a political minefield
May 16th, 20090 This past week, Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Because he is a pope whose past comments have rankled Muslims and Jews alike, many scrutinized his every move. Given the context of a renewed American and European push for peace, which is seen as being at odds with the new Israeli...Some give, some take
When President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visit Washington this month they will bring to U.S. President Barack Obama "a comprehensive project for Middle East peace" that will cover "not just the Palestinian issue but all that is related to Israeli occupation of Arab territories," Abbas said in Cairo......
Israel knows that peace just doesn’t pay
Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace would involve serious damage to national interests. Israeli settlements Economic damage: The...How to make the neocons crazy over the Middle East: Tell them the truth
Old Charlie Krauthammer, the neocon who won't go away, is at it again. Charlie Krauthammer Now he's hammering at an old favorite target — the Hamas party and its political leader, Khaled Meshal — and its new accomplice, that scurrilously liberal newspaper, the New York Times. The Times' latest moral fault (according......
