Abbas’s loss is Palestinians’ gain
There is a famous Arabic expression, "la yokarrem nafsaho la yokarram," which means "he who doesn't respect himself shall not be respected." Palestinians take part in a Fatah rally in support of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah October 8, 2009. Palestinian leaders on Thursday called for a one-day general...Answering critics of the boycott movement
Over the last three years, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel has been gaining stride. Individuals around the world have been joining this call, from organizing actions in supermarkets in France and Great Britain protesting Israeli products made in settlements, to filmmakers withdrawing movies from film...The lying game goes on
The current drum-beating for war against Iran is based on a fake "nuclear threat" with the manufacture of a sense of false crisis which is what led to our invasion of Iraq and the deaths of 1.3 million people. In 2001, the Observer in London published a series of reports that claimed an Iraqi connection to al-Qaeda, even describing the...CIA report presents historic moral leadership opportunity
With the release of the CIA report detailing torture methods in secret prisons, we are at a critical juncture with an opportunity to regain our nation's credibility in the world. The acts described in the report are morally reprehensible and a direct affront to our American values and international human rights. CIA Director...Michigan residents deserve fair and affordable insurance
The national average annual car insurance is $949. Take a stab at what the average is in Detroit. $1,500? $2,000? $3,000? Try more than $5,000. These are the highest rates in the nation, in one of its poorest cities. In fact, in the next most expensive city to insure a car – Philadelphia – the average is $3,700, 25 percent...
This Ramadan, give without fear
September 5th, 20090 American Muslims face unique and troubling challenges in trying to fulfill their religious obligations to give charity or zakat. The laws meant to serve the legitimate purpose of preventing the diversion of humanitarian aid to terrorist groups are, instead, overly broad, ambiguous and constitutionally suspect. Sweeping powers granted to...
Why Israel will thwart Obama on settlements
August 29th, 20090 The idea that the Obama administration can advance the Middle East peace process by having Israel freeze its construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank stretches credulity. A Palestinian laborer walks near an Israeli settlement. Does any serious observer of the region believe that Israel's appetite for land –...Why is development evading the Arabs?
Arabs face stubborn obstacles to social change. They recognize their problems but do not settle on alternatives; and they are worried about replacing their autocratic political regimes. Change, they fear, may lead to even worse circumstances. Responding to the challenge, Arab scholars have collaborated over the past seven years in...
Nader was right: Liberals are going nowhere with Obama
August 15th, 20090 The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or...The 2010 Census: What’s in it for Arab Americans?
In less than a year, the nation will conduct its once-a-decade census of the U.S. population. The 2010 Census will ask just ten basic questions about each household — like the name, age, gender, and race of each person living there. Arab Americans, who are not a legally recognized racial or ethnic minority, have no "box" to check and...
Our excuses outnumber our votes
August 7th, 20090 It's hard times for Arab American candidates for public office in Dearborn. From the incumbents to the first-timers, they have found it next to impossible to break through the stigma and hesitation that many of the city's majority-white electorate have displayed in historical voting patterns. Thus, they greatly underperform amongst the...
Palestinians are on their own
July 25th, 20090 I will never forget the image of the elderly woman whose son was dying in a hospital in Egypt. She only wanted to be with him. Crying, her hand touching the glass window of the office of the Egyptian intelligence services, she pleaded, "Please, please. I beg you, show mercy, let me go in." Another woman sat by the State Security office,...
Take your census form and shove it
July 18th, 20090 The first question I always get from "Americans" is 'Why do you keep calling yourself Arab American? You are American!'" It represents the rock and the hard place Arab Americans have been pushed in to by a lack of education among most non-ethnic Americans. It's aggravated by what I call the U.S. government's split personality when...
Can America succeed in Afghanistan?
July 10th, 20090 After more than seven and a half years in Afghanistan, the United States is mired in a seemingly impossible war. The country has only seen more violence, the political will of American allies is weak, and the Afghan government has failed to gain widespread legitimacy. As disastrous as the outcome is so far, the government thinks staying...
The uprising in Iran will live
July 4th, 20090 The struggle will continue in Iran. This great country is on a political fault line, and its people know it. A woman supporter demonstrator shows stones used for throwing during clashes with police in Tehran June 13, 2009. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadalla The wise words of Khaled Mohammad Khaled, an Islamist scholar, are relevant to the......
Subsidies for Israel, sanctions for Iran
President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel is proceeding smoothly through the Congress. On June 17 the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a markup session on the budget. The subcommittee came under pressure from an antiwar...
Democratic principles selectively applied
June 27th, 20090 Knowing things with metaphysical certainty when most of the world is operating under carefully constructed myths is painful. Why? Knowing things that others do not fosters a sense of existential loneliness and makes polite conversation about many important things all but impossible. Supporters of Iranian protesters hold a......
Netanyahu offers a state and a half
Could Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu become the Richard Nixon of the Middle East, as Barack Obama invited him to do? Could he break with his hard-line past and reach out to the Palestinians the way Nixon did with the Chinese? Or will he pay lip service to peace even as he does everything he can to keep the Palestinians from...AIPAC wall beginning to crack
For years, AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has helped to stonewall the Middle East peace process by building a solid wall around the Israeli government, protecting it from criticism in the U.S. Senators and representatives have feared the wrath of AIPAC come Election Day, even in states and districts where the...ACLU seeks reports of electronic device searches at borders, airports
In an effort to gather information about possible civil liberties abuses at U.S. borders, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is looking to speak with individuals who have had a laptop, PDA, BlackBerry, iPod or other electronic device holding large amounts of data taken or searched by agents at any of the state's borders...The lesson of the housekeeper
It is well known that for the past several months, ADC Michigan has been coping with tremendous financial challenges. Similar to other non-profit organizations serving the community, ADC Michigan continues to struggle to survive amidst a frail economy. ADC Michigan is one of the few organizations that does not receive government......
The day of the dead
Cindy Sheehan I was on an airplane flying to Orange County from Sacramento to attend the al-Awda Conference, which is a Palestinian Right's Conference (al-Awda translates to "The Returning"), when the pilot's voice filled the cabin to make an announcement that I think went unnoticed by most of my fellow passengers, but I...
Obama defends Guantanamo closure, Cheney defends torture
May 23rd, 20090 NEW YORK — President Barack Obama cautiously minced his way Thursday through a political minefield filled with imminent explosions from human rights advocates, national security hawks, and a Congress terrified by the potential political backlash of any move to bring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the U.S. for trial or......
Yemen on the brink of war?
On May 3, the US Embassy in Sana'a issued a statement on the political violence in South Yemen that claimed eight lives last week. The United States stressed that "Yemen's unity depends on its ability to guarantee every citizen equal treatment under the law." What the Yemeni government calls unity, the protesters call...
The question of our time
May 9th, 20090 Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn't? A Palestinian protester runs from incoming tear gas fired by Israeli security forces during a protest against the construction of the controversial Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah May 8, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside This is......