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......
The audacity of critique
African Americans should pressure Senator and Democratic presidential nominee Barak Obama to change U.S. policy toward the occupation of Palestine. Despite the warm response Obama enjoys from American Muslim and Arab American voters, we should stand for the right of our Muslim and Arab brothers and sisters to critique Obama. We should in...Collapse of the Middle East peace process
Political turmoil and uncertainty in both Israel and the United States have now brought an end to the grim farce of Middle East peace-making. Under the faltering sponsorship of U.S. President George W. Bush, no discernable progress has been achieved since the Annapolis summit of November 2007, and no progress can be expected for...Rethinking Afghanistan
If elected, Senator Barack Obama has the possibility of reengaging a world which seeks an America not defined by Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo — but a familiar America that is defined by the democratic ideals to which we aspire. His election, allied with smart and humane policies, could help restore this country's global reputation — and...Imperialism, Islamophobia and the “war on terror”
The events of Sept. 11 have to be seen in two ways — as the predictable and inevitable consequence of our unchecked imperial policies and as the growth of Islamism as the only popular alternative to the status quo. The irony is that these aren't mutually exclusive forces; in fact, more than anything, they reinforce each other.......
Militance and defiance in the Middle East
WASHINGTON — One of the frightening lessons one learns from spending time in Washington, DC is that most of the men and women who make or influence American policy in the Middle East actually have little or no first-hand experience in the region. They know very little about its people, or its political trends at the grassroots level...Credit Card Fair Fee Act unfair to consumers
Americans hold nearly $1 trillion in credit-card debt, according to data just released by the Federal Reserve. Now Congress wants to make that burden even heavier. Some misguided lawmakers are pushing legislation that would saddle consumers with fees that retailers don't want to pay. Under the deceptively named "Credit Card Fair Fee......
Vertical ID makes underage drinking harder
Five years ago, Michigan began to approach the problem of underage drinking in a different way — vertically rather than horizontally. A law went into effect on July 1, 2003, requiring the issuance of vertical (portrait) style driver's licenses or personal identification cards to individuals under the age of 21. As a result...The alternative to an Israeli attack on Iran
Is war between Israel and Iran inevitable? To listen to Iran's radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Israel's Iranian-born transportation minister Shaul Mofaz, or even recent reports that Israel carried out a major military training mission over the Mediterranean to rehearse an attack on Iran, you might be left with that......