FBI losing partnership with Arab, Muslim communities
The revelation this week that the FBI used paid informants and agents provocateur in U.S. mosques who have participated in law enforcement outreach efforts undermines the decade-long relationship that Arab Americans and American Muslims have built with law enforcement. This news sends a devastating message to community leaders and imams...Why we must boycott Starbucks
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against apartheid Israel is gaining momentum around the world. The boycott of Starbucks is Michigan's modest contribution to the worldwide movement. Here are a few other examples: • South African dock workers refused to unload Israeli ships (Feb. 3rd 2009) • Church of...Please, no more charades
James AbourezkAbe Foxman, head of the "Anti-Defamation League," claims that George Mitchell is too fair to be a broker between Israel and the Palestinians. I guess that Foxman, in denouncing the choice of Mitchell for Middle East negotiator, shows that he is accustomed to such impartial mediators as Dennis Ross, who, when he...
The horror of Gaza witnessed
February 7th, 20090 A Palestinian girl carries her sister in front of a destroyed house in Jabalya, in the northern Gaza Strip, February 4, 2009. Thousands of Palestinians are living in tented camps after Israel's three-week assault on the Gaza Strip, hoping for a swift end to Israel's blockade so they can rebuild their homes. Reuters Over the...
After Gaza genocide, what next?
January 30th, 20090 Palestinian students study at the yard of al-Fadilah Islamic school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip January 26, 2009. The school was destroyed in an Israeli air strike during Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa The recent tentative ceasefire may have halted Israel's military thrashing of...Not to remain silent
I write simply not to remain silent in the face of U.S. and Israeli aggression against the Palestinian population in general, and the Gaza population in particular. A Palestinian woman sits amongst the ruins of her destroyed house in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip January 20, 2009. Israel planned to complete a troop pullout...Video: UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
...Children of Gaza, run to the angels
Loay Soboh, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy, waves at Shifa hospital in Gaza before his transfer to Saudi Arabia for treatment January 12, 2009. According to doctors, Soboh lost his eyes in an Israeli air strike. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah Ironically, it was in Palestine, 20 years ago, that I concluded that there is no God. For how...
The shoe heard round the world
December 20th, 20080 Donated shoes labeled with names of Iraqis who died during the war in Iraq are displayed during a protest in front of the White House in Washington December 17, 2008. REUTERS/Molly Riley It's not surprising that since the George W. Bush shoe-dodging incident the U.S. media has been recalling the infamous "shoeing" of the...Defeat for U.S. in Iraq?
Residents gather at the site of bomb attacks in Baghdad's Nahdha neighborhood December 17, 2008. Twin blasts killed 18 people and wounded 53 in central Baghdad on Wednesday as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an unannounced visit to Iraq, police said. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani On November 27, the Iraqi parliament voted by...End, don’t mend, the Transportation Security Administration
NEW YORK — Sometime in 2010, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will stop swiping airline passengers' bottled water and cups of coffee at security checkpoints. Instead, the agency will once again permit us to carry liquids and gels aboard planes. It's not that the TSA has finally realized mouthwash and moisturizer...
Situation in Gaza desperate, contact your elected officials
December 13th, 20080 A Palestinian boy waves a Palestinian flag as a boat carrying international activists arrives at Gaza's seaport December 9, 2008. A boat carrying international activists docked in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after sailing from Cyprus. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah Washington — The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)...Will Palestinians hit Hillary’s glass ceiling?
It is difficult to recall a U.S. secretary of state who embodied the ideals of the position: the promotion of dialogue and privileging of diplomacy. Unfortunately, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's nominee, Hillary Clinton, is not likely to restore these ideals to the office. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (L) announces...
My Palestinian wife
December 5th, 20080 Every now and then, the rumor arises that I have a Palestinian wife. Some of my kin were highly amused by a debate on that subject that was being conducted by letters to the editor in their local paper recently. Apparently, it does not occur to anyone simply to ask me. As a matter of fact, I don't have a wife. I'm a widower, and the...End counterproductive racial profiling
Racial or ethnic profiling is nothing new. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Arabs and Muslims in America are often the targets of ethnic profiling, despite the argument that racial and ethnic profiling runs contrary to American values. Counterterrorism strategists argue that targeting particular ethnicities or......
James Zogby and the politics of perception
James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a well known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East. U.S. Rep. Rahm...
A plea from Israel: Come, Obama, change my life
November 15th, 20080 Obama my dear, they tell me that you are going to change the world. Do me a favor, come and change my life personally. Come to Israel, grab its stupid leadership by the throat and take its foot off the neck of another people. Come and force us to do what is clear, and written, and fitting, and necessary, come and get us out of the......
Rahm Emanuel is no reason for hope or celebration
Election night tens of millions of us wept for joy. We sang the songs that we had sung as young men and women when we were fighting segregation in the south and then in the north, some of us being beaten, others jailed, some even killed. For the first time in three decades we could sing "Imagine" and "The Times They are a'Changing"...Sheriff says cyber bullying is a real concern
With school just getting back into session most parents will, at some level, worry a bit about their child's well being as it relates to his or her new classmates. No matter what school district your child is in, there always seems to be at least one troublemaker who causes them great anxiety through aggressive behavior....Why America should listen to Ahmadinejad
Although our Founding Fathers would have comprehended and endorsed Ahmadinejad's speech to the United Nations, present-day Americans would find it strange should they happen to hear about it. Unlike their forbears, Americans today live a material life, not a spiritual one. Americans are far too likely to dismiss Ahmadinejad's words...New FBI investigative powers deeply troubling
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is deeply troubled by new guidelines that will give federal law enforcement authorities carte blanche to conduct investigations of individuals on the mere suspicion of questionable activity or upon meeting the FBI's assessment of what it considers a threat. This change will......
Tzipi Livni needs three things
Here's one major difference between Tzipi Livni, the new leader of Israel's Kadima party, and her rivals for leadership: There are no war crime charges against her. In what must be a relief for some in Israel, Livni doesn't have to look over her shoulder in case she gets arrested when she gets off a plane overseas. Kadima...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,......
Neither respected nor feared
In an exalted phrase, the keynote speaker at the Republican convention reviewed the record of the administration, and asked, "When have we rested more secure in friendship with all mankind?" That wasn't in St. Paul, where the Republicans are gathered this week, but at the 1904 Republican convention in Chicago, when the speaker was Elihu...My response to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit
In a press release issued August 27, 2008, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit (JCRC) criticized my article "Detroit Jewish Federation: Celebrating racism and making money at it" as "despicable." The article was published in the August 9-15, 2008, edition of The Arab American News and is available on the......