Solidarity is not enough: Why the world must force accountability on Gaza now
August 14th, 20260 It is now official: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected the core conditions of the Board of Peace framework, explicitly stating that Israel will neither adhere to a ceasefire nor withdraw its forces from Gaza. During a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu stated with unambiguous language: "Israel rejects the...
The meaning of Tell: Why the West Bank may be nearing a breaking point
August 7th, 20260 The events in Tell, southwest of Nablus, were not an isolated act of violence. They were a warning. For years, Israel has treated Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank as open spaces for military raids, settler invasions, land theft and collective punishment. The expectation was that Palestinians would endure the violence, bury...
The Arab American News endorsements for Michigan’s pivotal August 4 primary election
July 31st, 20260 Michigan’s primary election carries exceptional importance for shaping political representation and determining policies that will affect the future of our community and communities across the state. Strong, informed participation by Arab American voters in this election is more than a constitutional right; it is an urgent necessity...
The death count trap: Why tallying victims won’t stop Israel’s genocide
July 31st, 20260 The words "killed", "injured", "maimed" and the like often lose a great part of their meaning when they are repeated so relentlessly. Take, for example, a headline like: "13 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Others Wounded." Though many of us can still feel a deep sense of sadness over such a tragedy, the news itself becomes less shocking...
U.S. consensus on Israel is dead
July 31st, 20260 Evidence keeps piling up that the bipartisan consensus on U.S. support for Israel is dead. Signs appear almost daily that Israeli behavior and the pro-Israel lobby’s heavy-handed tactics for browbeating elected officials into unquestioning support for Israel are being rejected by both Democratic voters and elected officials. Events...
Is it just about AIPAC’s money, or does the U.S.-Israel rot run far deeper?
July 24th, 20260 Two major stories regarding the United States and Israel in recent days represent profound watershed moments in the history of the relationship between both countries. The first incident occurred on July 8 when U.S. Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) and his delegation were detained by armed, illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West...
Rahm Emanuel’s speech: Not all it was hyped to be
July 24th, 20260 Several observations can be made regarding Rahm Emanuel’s recent speech at Tel Aviv University: what he said and didn’t say, and what impact (if any) his words might have. Emanuel has been a fixture in U.S. politics for decades. After volunteering with the Israeli Defense Forces in 1991, he returned to the U.S. to work in the...
The Democratic establishment is panicking
July 17th, 20260 Watching elements of the Democratic Party establishment respond to insurgencies is fascinating. After Senator Bernie Sanders won several early contests in the 2020 presidential nominating process, the establishment panicked. In 2016, Sanders had almost beaten their favorite, Hillary Clinton, before they put their thumb on the scale,...
Defense of the Constitution summons reputation of James’ anti-Muslim bigotry
July 10th, 20260 United States House of Representative member John James’ recent attacks against Michigan Muslims are emblematic of ignorance that must be confronted if we wish to ensure the constitutional rights of all in Michigan. In a recent interview on NewsMax, James misrepresented an Ashura procession in Dearborn as being a gathering of...
Israel debated: Why Palestine is rewriting the rules of domestic U.S. politics
July 9th, 20260 A major showdown on the House floor seemed imminent. An amendment, advanced by the Rules Committee, was poised to force a rare and telling record vote on stripping Israel of $3.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid. Brought forward by Republican Representative Thomas Massie and drawing support from key progressive Democrats like...
John James’ comparison of Dearborn’s Muslims to “Iraqi extremists” is a political disgrace
July 3rd, 20260 U.S. Rep. John James' recent remarks on the conservative television network Newsmax were not merely an unfortunate slip of the tongue that can be brushed aside with a routine apology. They amount to a full-fledged political disgrace and reveal a profound disconnect from the social and demographic reality of Michigan, the very state he...
Israel Is out of control: Will Trump rein them in?
July 3rd, 20260 In today’s Middle East, it’s important to recognize that Israel is completely out of control, and no one has the will to rein them in. This should have been understood back in July 2024, in the waning days of the Biden administration, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington to address a joint session of...
Treason in the age of kleptocracy
July 3rd, 20260 A single social media post, amplified by the world's richest man, can in a matter of hours transform a dedicated public servant into a traitor in the court of public opinion, without a single shred of evidence to support the accusation. The recent comments by Elon Musk regarding Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin serve as a potent case...
The illusions of Western virtue: Ursula von der Leyen and Europe’s moral bankruptcy
July 2nd, 20260 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has every right to condition European relations with any other country or bloc on respect for human rights. That, of course, would hold true if she genuinely cared about such values herself. In response to the June 19 signing of the memorandum of understanding between the United...
A garden of resilience
July 2nd, 20260 Death, destruction, loss and grief in Lebanon The neighborhood bully is at it again. He tore up our garden— recently replanted, tender and bursting with color Why would he rip the deep roots of my sturdy Poppy? It brightened our community spring, the crimson foundation of this ancient land held by our family for......
Monsters playing victims: Danny Danon’s twisted war on the truth
July 2nd, 20260 Whether Israelis will ever comprehend the irreparable damage inflicted upon their country’s reputation by their U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, is a moot point. The damage Israel has done to itself through its barbaric practices in occupied Palestine is simply impossible to overcome. Danon, however, utilizes a peculiar approach to...
The Hezbollah excuse: Why Lebanon really collapsed
June 27th, 20260 Every time I listen to some Lebanese news programs, political commentators or popular podcasts, I keep hearing the same explanation repeated like a broken record: that Hezbollah's arms are what keeps Lebanon backward, paralyzed and economically bankrupt. According to this narrative, if Hezbollah simply disarmed, Lebanon would suddenly......
Arab Americans have invested in America. Why is citizenship becoming more expensive?
June 27th, 20260 Few communities better illustrate the immigrant story than Arab Americans. Across the United States — and especially in Metro Detroit, home to the nation's largest Arab American community — immigrants from Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere across the Middle East and North Africa have built...
Trump told Netanyahu everybody, including “all the Jews”, is sick of him
June 26th, 20260 Regime Change is a devastating new book from two New York Times reporters; an extraordinary account of American chaos and decline at the hands of a madman and his enablers. Read it and weep. By Martin Pengelly There are shocking headlines to be drawn from Regime Change, the new blockbuster by New York...
When the Iran war is over: Why the West Bank may be Netanyahu’s next front
June 19th, 20260 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing perhaps the most precarious moment of his political career. He knows it. His allies know it. And his rivals — both within his coalition and across Israel's political spectrum — are preparing to capitalize on his growing weakness. Former Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who also...
The Mladenov distraction: Behind the screen, Netanyahu is annexing Gaza “step-by-step”
June 12th, 20260 Gaza requires urgent international attention. What is happening in the besieged and devastated Strip at the moment by far exceeds an unfolding humanitarian disaster; it is a calculated geopolitical reshaping. Israel is actively executing a plan to permanently occupy the vast majority of Gaza, with consequences that require little......
An autopsy of the Democrats’ autopsy fiasco
June 12th, 20260 A number of sub-plots undergird the drama that erupted over the Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin’s release of an incomplete “autopsy” of the 2024 election. First, I’ll note that I don’t envy the dilemma in which Martin found himself. Martin had promised to deliver an in-depth examination of what went wrong in...
The Palestine industry: The rats of Gaza and the opportunists among us
June 4th, 20260 It all started with a call to my family in a displacement camp in northern Gaza. Since Internet lines rarely stay connected, I managed to send a message to the widow of my cousin — who was killed along with all of his sons during the ongoing Gaza genocide. I asked her a simple question: what do Gazans want? My purpose was to......
No war, no peace: The Middle East’s age of survival
June 4th, 20260 The Middle East is no longer drifting toward instability — it is now fully inside it. What once appeared to be a collection of separate conflicts has merged into a broader regional crisis. Across the Middle East — from Gaza to the Strait of Hormuz — the coming decade is no longer a quest for peace, but a struggle for...
Heading toward disaster in the Middle East
May 29th, 20260 U.S. policy in the Middle East has been so problematic because policymakers refuse to consider its impact on the Arab people. With Israel, it’s a different story. Over-attentiveness to Israeli concerns and a lack of sensitivity to Arab reaction to our actions has caused deep fractures between Arabs and the U.S. and within the Arab......
