Don’t look to the Democratic National Committee to change Middle East policy, that’s not what the party does.
October 9th, 20260 There’s compelling evidence that voter disaffection with the Biden administration’s failure to confront Israel’s war on Gaza played a role in the Harris presidential campaign’s devastating loss in 2024. Polling data establishes that groups central to the Democratic Party’s base — young voters, voters of color and...
Is Israel’s reign ending? Macklemore and the cultural war over Palestine
September 25th, 20260 Page Six Hollywood recently declared: “War of Open Letters Erupts Between Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine Factions in Hollywood.” Only a few years ago, a headline like this would have seemed unthinkable. The article described an increasingly open struggle between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel forces within the entertainment industry....
Improving Arab and African American relationships beyond responding to crises
September 25th, 20260 There was an unfortunate series of events which took place last week, which have renewed conversations in Metro Detroit regarding tensions between Arab American and African American communities. An incident in the Warrendale neighborhood in Detroit involving an Arab American woman involved in a hit and run car accident with an African...
This school year, one of the best things you can do for your children is listen
September 24th, 20260 Back-to-school season can present challenges and opportunities as a parent. Relaxed summer schedules are replaced with classes, homework and extracurriculars, and the transition to a new semester can be both exciting and stressful. Fortunately, the school year is full of everyday moments parents and caregivers can use to check in on...
Bachir Gemayel: 44 Years of mythology, not leadership
September 18th, 20260 Monday, September 14, marked 44 years since the assassination of Bachir Gemayel, and I have to admit I was amused sitting and listening to speaker after speaker praise his extraordinary “leadership”, “vision”, “courage” and supposed dream of a strong and sovereign Lebanon. Listening to these tributes, one might think Lebanon...
Is Europe restraining Israel, or merely protecting the two-state illusion?
September 18th, 20260 This time, Europe seems serious about holding Israel accountable — or at least that is what 11 European countries, together with Canada, want us to believe. On September 8, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. announced their intention to introduce national...
Netanyahu’s fatal illusion: You cannot occupy your way to security
September 11th, 20260 There comes a point when military strategy stops being strategy and becomes obsession. Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have reached that point. For years, Netanyahu has presented himself as the indispensable guardian of Israel’s security, insisting that overwhelming military force is the only language Israel’s enemies understand. Yet...
Beyond Iran: America’s long record of Middle East blunders
September 11th, 20260 The U.S. government continues to double down, even as its stubbornness costs it dearly — not only in material terms, but also in geopolitical influence. Washington is rapidly losing power and status in the Middle East, a decline that could produce a wider domino effect, reverberating around the world. The latest expression of this...
Where was the oversight? The American Arab Chamber of Commerce owes the community answers
August 28th, 20260 The unfolding controversy at the American Arab Chamber of Commerce is painful to watch, particularly for those of us who once invested time in the organization and believed deeply in what it could be. The Chamber announced last week that it had terminated its executive director, Bilal Hammoud, after discovering that organizational...
The siege of Qusra reveals Israel’s blueprint for the West Bank
August 28th, 20260 If you want to understand the bleak future awaiting the occupied West Bank, do not look away. Just pay attention to the events unfolding in the small Palestinian town of Qusra, south of Nablus. The story of the future of the West Bank begins here. While much of the media is treating reports emerging from the area as simply another...
El-Sayed defeats AIPAC, dark money and the Democratic establishment
August 28th, 20260 In what, I believe, will be seen as this year’s most significant election; Dr Abdul El-Sayed won a victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. It was a close contest — a nail-biter, as we say — but it was an important win that marks a watershed moment in U.S. politics. It was the first time that Israel’s genocidal war in...
One house, many doors: America’s choice between fear and hope
August 28th, 20260 There is a moment in every election cycle when the air grows thick with something other than debate. Not necessarily the clash of ideas that fills the room, but the murmur of suspicion, whispered warnings about the other, the outsider, the one who does not belong. This is the moment when democracy falters, not in its institutions but in...
Note to Rick Scott: Stop tweeting and cut up that government credit card
August 20th, 20260 "Our national debt just hit 40 TRILLION DOLLARS!" some guy tweeted on August 19. "This is bad. Congress needs to get spending under control and BALANCE THE BUDGET. Americans deserve better." That does sound like a good idea. But coming from U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), it's just hot air. A "Readers added context they thought...
No coming back from Genocide: Israel’s global counter-offensive has begun
August 20th, 20260 Colombia's decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights marks a dangerous turning point. By becoming only the second country in the world — after the United States — to endorse Israel's illegal annexation of Syrian territory, Bogotá has signaled a complete reversal of Gustavo Petro's foreign...
Does criticism of Netanyahu fuel anti-Semitism?
August 14th, 20260 Does criticizing actions of the Israeli government or its prime minister fuel anti-Semitism? Despite this argument’s stretch of logic and the danger its bizarre conflation presents to American Jews, some U.S. pro-Israel organizations are working overtime to establish the case that criticizing Israel puts American Jews at risk. Benjamin......
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 death count trap: Why tallying victims won’t stop Israel’s genocide
July 31st, 20261 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...
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......
