Washington Report - August/September 2016 - Vol. XXXV, No. 5

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114TH CONGRESS’ HALLS OF FAME AND SHAME

DISPLAY UNTIL 9/19/2016

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TELLING THE TRUTH FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS...

On Middle East Affairs

Volume XXXV, No. 5

INTERPRETING THE MIDDLE EAST FOR NORTH AMERICANS

August/September 2016

INTERPRETING NORTH AMERICA FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

✮

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE

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Under New Anti-Terrorism Law, Some Israelis Will Be Presumed More Guilty Than Others—Jonathan Cook

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Turkey and Israel Back Together Again—Three Views —Jonathan Gorvett, Mohammed Omer, Ramzy Baroud

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Countdown to the Next Chernobyl—Gaza —Jeffery Abood

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Brexit and Israel/Palestine—Two Views —Ramzy Baroud, Paul R. Pillar

The Chilcot Report: Send Our War Criminals to the Hague Court—Eric S. Margolis

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The Syria “Dissent” Memo—Gareth Porter Israel Wins Chairmanship of U.N. Legal Committee, Will Seek Security Council Seat—Ian Williams Obama’s New Executive Order Increases Drone Transparancy, Official Says—Dale Sprusansky

Congress and the 2016 Elections

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Democratic Party Platform Fight on Israel and Palestine—James J. Zogby

Ten Senators, 18 Representatives in 114th Congress’ “Hall of Fame”—Shirl McArthur

SPECIAL REPORTS

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47

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John Kerry, Angelina Jolie Speak at ADAMS on World Refugee Day—Delinda C. Hanley

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Syrian War Spills Over: Radical Salafis Attack Christian Village in Lebanon—Juan Cole

Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Delegation: Full of Confidence and Hope—Delinda C. Hanley

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Algeria’s Resilient Press—Marvine Howe

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

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Palestinian City Parched After Israel Cuts Water Supply—Amira Hass

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ON THE COVER: A Syrian girl drinks from a water pipe at a

In the lobby of the Willard Hotel, a DAR member from North Carolina (l) and Saudi Shura Council member Dr. Thuraya Al Arredh discover that they are fellow Tar Heels. See “A Chance Encounter,” p. 48.

Syrian refugee camp in the southern Lebanese town of Zahrani, May 3, 2016.

MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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(A Supplement to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs available by subscription at $15 per year. To subscribe, call toll-free 1-888-881-5861.)

Other Voices Israel Covets Golan’s Water and Now Oil, Jonathan Marshall, www.consortiumnews.com

Compiled by Janet McMahon

OV-1

Israel Considers Its Demographic Time Bomb, Jonathan Cook, The National OV-3 Is AIPAC a Toothless Tiger After Iran Deal Supporters Survive Unscathed?, Nathan Guttman, The Forward

OV-4

Israel-First McCarthyism: Andrew Cuomo’s Vow to Spy on and Punish BDS Activists, Juan Cole, www.juancole.com A Defeated Sanctions Vote in the U.S. Should Worry Israel, Rami G. Khouri, www.aljazeera.com

OV-5

OV-6

A Notable Legal Victory for Justice In Palestine, Rami G. Khouri, Agence Global OV-7 The One and Only Haneen Zoabi (May God Bless Her), Norman G. Finkelstein, www.normanfinkelstein.com

5 Publishers’ Page

6 letters to the editor

52 the World looks at the Middle east — CARtoons 53 other PeoPle’s Mail

56 MusliM aMerican activisM:

ICnA/MAs speakers talk About their

Muslim Faith

59 arab aMerican activisM: Racial and Religious Profiling at U.s. Airports

60 education: senate Proposes Cuts to Fulbright-Hays Funding

61 huMan rights:

B’tselem Rejects Israeli Whitewashing

64 Waging Peace: obama officials Discuss Iran Deal

OV-9

Liberty Survivors Say U.S. Still Downplays Israel’s Attack on Ship, Bryant Jordan, www.military.com

OV-10

Coverage of the Istanbul Bombing Proves Once Again That American Media Care Little About Muslim Lives, Dean Obeidallah, www.huffingtonpost.com

OV-11

What the FBI Was Doing Instead of Catching the Orlando Shooter, www.antimedia.com

OV-12

Russia Quietly Strips Emigrés of Dual Citizenship, Julie Masis, The Forward

OV-13

The Bookseller Saving Jerusalem’s Palestinian Identity, Urvashi Sarkar, www.aljazeera.com OV-14 The Intricacies of Language, James Abourezk, www.counterpunch.org

OV-16

73 Music & arts:

nabil al-Raee of Jenin Freedom theatre on “the siege”

77 diPloMatic doings:

Iraqi Ambassador on U.s.-Iraq Relations

78 book revieW:

shell-shocked: on the Ground Under Israel’s Gaza Assault

—Reviewed by Kevin A. Davis

79 Middle east books and More 80 obituaries

81 2016 aet choir oF angels 78 indeX to advertisers

“Olive Harvest” by Najat El Khairy, included in the exhibition “Forbidden Colors: Artists and Censorship,” on view at the Jerusalem Fund’s Gallery Al-Quds in Washington, DC through Aug. 12.

COURTESY JERUSALEM FUND

DEPARTMENTS

OV-8

Elie Wiesel: Poseur for Peace, Joseph Grosso, www.counterpunch.org

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American Educational Trust

As Part of Our Election Year Coverage…

This issue contains the voting records of every member of Congress, as well as the inductees into the latest Halls of Fame and Shame. The next issue will contain the final compilation of pro-Israel PAC contributions prior to the Nov. 8 election. By the time readers receive this issue, we all will no doubt be recovering from the spectacle of the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Given the twists and turns of the presidential race so far, we have prudently decided not to attempt to…

Predict the Unpredictable.

But we do believe that the times, they are a’changing. As Bernie Sanders appointee Dr. James Zogby eloquently told the executive committee drafting the Democratic party platform (see p. 15), “We do not often see the Arab-Israeli conflict through Palestinian eyes.” More and more Americans, however, are learning that there are two sides to that particular story, no matter how much the Israel lobby and its congressional flunkies want to pretend otherwise. Certainly one theme of this election year so far has been the establishment’s attempt to control the discussion on…

Israel’s Occupation of Palestine.

True, the Sanders appointees’ proposed platform language—including references to Israeli “occupation” and “settlements”—was rejected by the platform committee. But the discussion, and the heavy-handed attempts to suppress it, can no longer be confined to smoke-filled rooms. And that is…

At Least Half the Battle! Due to Popular Demand…

Another ground-breaking conference, again co-hosted with the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, is in the works. We’ll continue to examine the machinations of the Israel lobby right after the next president takes office and right AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

Publishers’ Page March 24, 2017 National Press Club 2016 ISRAEL’S INFLUENCE: Good or Bad for America? 2015 THE ISRAEL LOBBY: Is It Good for the US? Is It Good for Israel? 2014 National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel "Special Relationship" before AIPAC descends on Washington. Please plan to visit DC and meet with our speakers—it’s so much better than watching the proceedings from afar. We need your help to fund and advertise this major event and...

Shine a Light on the Lobby.

Not long ago, a woman named Joyce called our office to say a friend had given her a Washington Report subscription. Joyce said she loved the magazine and asked if we could send her three or four earlier issues she missed before her subscription began. (She paid for postage and handling.) Today she called again, saying she had read those cover-to-cover. “I came in late to this subject, and I need to learn more. I’m overwhelmed but I am going to do something.” She asked us to send all our 2015 issues. We will. And we ask you to…

Help Us Find More Joyces.

Thousands, hundreds, or even one Joyce can speak up at a party, at that town hall meeting, or write the hard-hitting letter to the editor or member of Congress that will provoke another “aha moment” like Joyce’s. Joining Joyces together—especially on election days to come—could produce real change in U.S. foreign policy and human rights at home. Please help us find and quench the thirst of new readers who

know they aren’t getting the whole story from corporate-owned news. The next president of the United States will need a vigorous re-education when it comes to the Middle East. And it won’t hurt to begin educating our future leaders as well, and preparing a president to take office…

In 2036 and 2048! Riding a Wave of Small Donations.

Just when the Washington Report and its Middle East Books and More bookstore were getting anxious about paying printing bills and ordering new books, readers started replying to our SOS in the May donation appeal and last issue’s publishers’ page. Many of you renewed your subscription—even before we sent a renewal notice, saving us postage costs—and rounded out your check, adding on a donation. These small-dollar donations from readers around the world kept us from falling off the brink, for which we are most grateful. Nevertheless, we’re still not sitting pretty, so we’ve decided to print seven issues this year instead of eight. We’re trying to cushion the blow by making each issue longer. We thank you for your continued support while we navigate these tricky waters. When people ask how this independent publication has survived for 34 years, we brag about our Angels, including retirees and students living on a fixed income, who come together every year to make this effort possible. Our Angels’ names, like those of our doctors, teachers and lawyers, represent all parts of the globe. So thanks to Khans and Khatibs…

MacDonalds and Makhloufs...

Schuberts and Shahs. Our readers are like you and your neighbors: they’re all passionate about peace and justice for their country and for others near and far. That’s why we know that, together, we can...

Make A Difference Today!

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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Publisher: Managing Editor: News Editor: Assistant Editor:

Middle East Books and More Director:

Finance & Admin. Dir.: Art Director: Executive Editor:

ANDREW I. KILLGORE JANET McMAHON DELINDA C. HANLEY DALE SPRUSANSKY NATHANIEL BAILEY CHARLES R. CARTER RALPH U. SCHERER RICHARD H. CURTISS (1927-2013)

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (ISSN 8755-4917) is published 7 times a year, monthly except Jan./Feb., March/April, June/July and Aug./Sept. combined, at 1902 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 200091707. Tel. (202) 939-6050. Subscription prices (United States and possessions): one year, $29; two years, $55; three years, $75. For Canadian and Mexican subscriptions, $35 per year; for other foreign subscriptions, $70 per year. Periodicals, postage paid at Washington, DC and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056. Published by the American Educational Trust (AET), a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC by retired U.S. foreign service officers to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states. AET’s Foreign Policy Committee has included former U.S. ambassadors, government officials, and members of Congress, including the late Democratic Sen. J. William Fulbright and Republican Sen. Charles Percy, both former chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Members of AET’s Board of Directors and advisory committees receive no fees for their services. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs does not take partisan domestic political positions. As a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, it endorses U.N. Security Council Resolution 242’s landfor-peace formula, supported by nine successive U.S. presidents. In general, it supports Middle East solutions which it judges to be consistent with the charter of the United Nations and traditional American support for human rights, self-determination, and fair play. Material from the Washington Report may be reprinted without charge with attribution to Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Bylined material must also be attributed to the author. This release does not apply to photographs, cartoons or reprints from other publications. Indexed by Ebsco Information Services, InfoTrac, LexisNexis, Public Affairs Information Service, Index to Jewish Periodicals, Ethnic News Watch, Periodica Islamica. CONTACT INFORMATION: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Editorial Office and Bookstore: P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009-9062 Phone: (202) 939-6050 • (800) 368-5788 Fax: (202) 265-4574 E-mail: wrmea@wrmea.org bookstore@wrmea.org circulation@wrmea.org advertising@wrmea.org Web sites: http://www.wrmea.org http://www.middleeastbooks.com Subscriptions, sample copies and donations: P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056. Phone: (888) 881-5861 • Fax: (714) 226-9733 Printed in the USA

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LetterstotheEditor FROM A POLITICAL PRISONER

Upon receiving the Washington Report I read it from cover to cover, and with every page I turn I wish I were able to assist with your unmatched effort to resuscitate the truth about the political reality in the U.S. as it pertains to the Middle East, especially Palestine. Unfortunately I can do little from behind the razor wire-topped walls I’m kept behind. However as a humanitarian/political prisoner and as an American citizen of an awakened conscience I find it incumbent upon myself to give it all I could. Please accept my gift of $125, which you should receive shortly after the prison administration has finished processing my request for a check made out to AET and mailed out to your office in California. Your work must continue, for it would be a disservice to this country and the world to allow the voice of the truth to go unheard. Shukri Abu-Baker, U.S. Penitentiary, Beaumont, TX We are honored to count you among our subscribers and to receive your generous support. Thank you. As fellow Americans, we consider your imprisonment—and that of too many other political prisoners (see <www.projectsalam. org>)—not only an outrage, but a betrayal of the principles on which our country was founded.

LAMENTED DISAPPEARANCES

I have valued reading your report for years but it has recently disappeared from local bookstores...of course, local bookstores are disappearing too. Thank you for all your good work. Andrew Allen, via email You might have success if you request that your bookstore carry the Washington Report. Of course, we would welcome you as a subscriber, and hence not subject to the vagaries of the commercial world!

A LIBRARY ROLE MODEL

Good news! I was over at the Wellesley Free Library on Friday and what did I see in their Reading Room but the Washington Report in the middle rack where everyone can see it. So, I picked it up and started reading in their comfortable chairs, hoping others would see the cover. I am thrilled. Persistence is key and paid off. Judith Howard, Norwood, MA

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Thank you for sharing your success, and for your longtime support!

“ISRAEL’S INFLUENCE” ISSUE

As a member of an informal committee, coordinating activities among organizations committed to promote peace between Israel and Palestine in The Netherlands, I proudly presented your special May 2016 issue of Israel's influence on the U.S. My friends are highly interested in the results, presented in the conference proceedings. They also wanted to have a personal copy of this issue. The conference may serve as a useful model for a similar conference in The Netherlands. Could you please forward 10 copies, as well as a receipt for the copies, handling cost and freight. Jan Wijenberg, The Hague, Netherlands We are happy to provide you the requested copies and thank you for helping spread the word.

REMEMBER THESE CHILDREN

I have a couple of copies of Remember These Children, old and dog eared. I will be attending the Presbyterian General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, where a conservative element in the denomination is trying to reverse the 2014 decision to divest from the occupation. I have been reading the materials they will be distributing, and I got the idea that it could be really helpful to distribute copies of Remember These Children. There will be more than 1,000 delegates there, and what I'm thinking is that we could put a copy here and there, in strategic places, for delegates to pick up and read. Plus, we could have a few at an information table. Do you still have lots and lots of copies of the booklet? Once upon a time, they were available at no charge, even a box full. I would love to make a donation, but I'm wondering if you even have them anymore. Lastly, I just had an additional idea while writing this: I'm wondering if you have a PowerPoint version that you could send as an e-mail attachment. Maybe we could have it running in a continuous loop at our information table. This could be great for those folks, not all that many in the scheme of the entire General Assembly, but nonetheless an interested demographic, who actually come to our booth. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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Sallie Shawl, via e-mail How could it come to this bold KEEP THOSE CARDS AND LETTERS We still have some copies of denunciation of an effort that COMING! the publication left, and were acts against tyranny, one so Send your letters to the editor to the Washington able to send you a box. We are much worse than the one AmeriReport, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009 also in the process of updating can colonies suffered under, a or e-mail <letters@wrmea.org>. the website <www.remember tyranny approaching what Amerthesechildren.org>. Tragically, ican slaves suffered, because that is a never-ending task. We were The group is run by volunteer mothers of Israel is the land of ten thousand very happy to hear, however, that the dabke kids, all of whom are Montgomery tyrants, where each and every Jewish Presbyterian General Assembly rejected County Public School students. Israeli can trample over the lives and the attempt to reverse its 2014 decision. Layali Eshqaidef, Kalimah Arabic Pro- property of any Palestinian, just as any grams, via e-mail white in the Old South was the master of REMEMBERING THE LIBERTY We invite readers to visit your website, every black. We fought the civil war to Well done, Washington Report. <www.ArabicKalimah.com>, where we end what is so much like what Hillary This is still the most disgraceful example know they will be impressed and inspired now praises, gushing over a country that of a perfidious act in my lifetime and still a by your innovative programs. proudly uses the iron fist on the helpblot on the U.S. and its ability to take action less. She pledges that Israeli PM Neagainst Israel for its crime. One questions A CONCERNED AMERICAN tanyahu will be invited to the White how many other “unsolved" crimes can be I have been avidly following the situation House in her first month in office. If this sheeted home to Israel as well, but with the in Israel/Palestine for over 10 years now, happens, we have become the antiownership of both of your houses by neo- though I am neither Jewish or Palestin- America, in exactly the same way that cons and the like, these are unlikely ever to ian, simply a very concerned American. Christians think of Satan as the AntiThe other day I wrote down my rea- Christ. It is the victory of the negation of be aired for analysis and even less chance in the event of a successful campaign by the soning for my constant attention to what started in 1776, and there is not Israel sycophant Clinton. A frightening something I’m sorry to say most Ameri- even a ripple in our “free” press. cans seem to ignore. What follows is my thought. I pound away on Israel in an attempt to How does this not appear on the front essay on motivation for this American, make the emotionally blinded see. I pages of every non-Zionist-owned news- addressed to those who read my Face- share Harriet Beecher Stowe's goal that paper in the USA, even today, assuming book page and may wonder why I am al- drove her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin— there are any independently managed ways posting items about Israel. I the understanding of a cruel injustice and owned publications in America these thought you might find it interesting. that cried out to be made right. I work to Why is Israel so important to me? Why undermine the automatic positive regard days? But I do commend you in your con- is it so frightening to me? It is because for Israel that keeps a warm spot in stancy in this matter. It does you great Israel is turning America inside out—it is American hearts for a terrible ethnic making us stand before the world repre- cleansing project—to eat away at the credit. Rex Williams, Australians for Justice, senting the exact opposite of what we myth of a downtrodden people moving to claim to value: liberty and justice for all. an empty land, of a people almost literCanberra, Australia Israel certainly took to heart the knowl- That Hillary calls BDS, a totally peaceful ally rising from the ashes of Auschwitz to edge it gained on June 8, 1967, that it can and increasingly successful action for prosperity. This myth denies every single kill Americans with impunity. Our June 6 the rights of the downtrodden, “evil,” fact about Israel, not just the history of action alert to which you refer included re- without even a catch in her voice—this the place, but the very foundation of the sources available from AET’s Middle East person who expects to be our next presi- society. Israel is a blatant taking from the Books and More about Israel’s attack on dent, horrifies me. innocent, punishing them daily for the USS Liberty, as well as a link to our decades with no end in sight, criminals USS Liberty Archive. Readers who wish for having lived in the place Zionism OTHER VOICES is to receive our action alerts can sign up on chose to take. an optional 16our website, <www.wrmea.org>. If you tire of seeing my posts about Ispage supplement rael, I suggest you not visit my FB page, available only to THE KUFIYAH DABKE TROUPE because they are going to continue to subscribers of the Dabke is an Arab folk line dance common appear until Israel either is a land for all Washington Report in the Levant region. It is usually perthe people or the United States reon Middle East formed at weddings and celebrations. The nounces the “special relationship.” I am Kufiyah Dabke Troupe, named by its child 65. That I may not live to see it is no Affairs. For an addimembers to honor the Kufiyah, the symreason to stop the effort. The president tional $15 per year bol of Palestinian identity and heritage, and Congress have capitulated, but we (see postcard insert aims to raise awareness about Arab culthe people can still keep the Idea of for Washington Report subscription rates), subture and Palestinian heritage. Kufiyah America alive and return it to power. scribers will receive Other Voices inside each Dabke Troupe is the first and only chilThat's what keeps me going, my hope issue of their Washington Report on Middle East dren's dabke group in Maryland and the that you will see the truth when conAffairs. metro DC region. It was founded in Februfronted with so much powerful evidence Back issues of both publications are available. To ary 2016 as part of Kalimah Arabic Proand will join me, for the love of what subscribe telephone 1 (888) 881-5861, fax (714) grams' efforts to introduce the Arabic lanAmerica once stood for in the world, but 226-9733, e-mail circulation@wrmea. org>, or write guage and culture to elementary school does no longer. to P.O. Box 91056, Long Beach, CA 90809-1056. students through after-school programs in Cliff Brown, Evanston, IL Rockville and Germantown, Maryland. Amen. ■ AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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The Nakba Continues

Under New Anti-Terrorism Law, Some Israelis Will Be Presumed More Guilty Than Others

By Jonathan Cook

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Adalah, a Palestinian legal organization in Israel, says the law would effectively import into Israel many of the draconian military orders currently used against Palestinians under Israeli occupation. According to Nadeem Shehadeh, an Adalah lawyer, the law’s vague definitions meant that waving a flag, sharing a Facebook post or being caught in clashes at a demonstration could result in prosecution as a terror offense and entail several years of jail. “Throwing a stone, jostling with police or chanting slogans could all be treated as violations of the law,” he said. In any future Israeli military operations in Gaza, he added, Palestinian citizens who make donations to humanitarian groups— Masked Palestinian protesters gesture during the third day of clashes with Israeli police at of clothing or food, for example—could risk Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound after Israeli authorities announced they were closing prosecution for aiding terror. the mosque for the remaining week of Ramadan, June 28, 2016. “If enforced harshly, this [law] could lead to lots of arrests and prosecutions,” he warned, “with those found guilty facing heavy punishments.” WEARING A T-SHIRT, chanting songs at a demonstration or doPalestinian members of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, denating clothing could be all it takes for Israel’s large Palestinian minounced the new measure as well, saying it was likely to have a nority to fall afoul of a newly passed anti-terrorism law, civil rights “chilling effect” on efforts by Israel’s Palestinian minority to show groups have warned. support for Palestinians under occupation. The legislation, applied in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, Haneen Zoabi of the Joint List, a coalition of mainly Palestinian has been condemned as a “dangerous” threat to civil liberties. It lawmakers, said: “It is this law that is the act of terror. dramatically broadens the range of offenses to include sympathiz“This law doesn’t just deal with actions in the past,” she noted, ing with, encouraging and failing to prevent terrorism. “but with what Israel thinks you might do in the future. It is deAccording to legal experts, it also gives Israeli police sweeping signed to terrorize and persecute citizens over their political benew powers to arrest suspects and deny them access to lawyers. liefs and sympathies.” Courts will be required to hand out long jail sentences. Such fears were heightened immediately after the vote when Leaders of Israel’s 1.7-million-strong Palestinian minority, which the police minister, Gilad Erdan, said he would ensure that local accounts for a fifth of the population, said the law was “anti-Arab” activists who support a boycott of Israel “pay a heavy price.” rather than “anti-terror.” They fear it will be readily exploited to jail He told a conference near Tel Aviv that the government had set Palestinian citizens and East Jerusalem residents for political activity up a legal team that would try to find links between activists bein showing solidarity with Palestinians under occupation. longing to the BDS movement—supporting boycott, divestment Palestinians in the West Bank will be largely unaffected because and sanctions—and terrorist organizations. they are subject to a separate system of Israeli military courts. “Is there any form of struggle against Israeli oppression more Jonathan Cook is a journalist based in Nazareth and a winner of the peaceful, more civil than BDS?” asked Zoabi. “It is clear the govMartha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He is the author of ernment’s real goal is silencing any criticism, any dissent.” Blood and Religion and Israel and the Clash of Civilisations (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). The Knesset passed the anti-terror bill with an overwhelming 8

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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majority on June 15. It was backed by all parties apart from the Joint List and the small, left-wing Meretz faction. Formally, the law applies equally to all Israeli citizens, whether Palestinians or Jews. However, Palestinian leaders said the law had been crafted to specifically target Palestinians in Israel and East Jerusalem. “Be sure, if Israeli Jews are affected by this law, it will be only the left-wing ones who identify with the Palestinian struggle for liberation,” said Zoabi. At a parliamentary committee hearing on the law late in May, Issawi Freij, a member of the Meretz party, observed: “A stone-throwing Arab will become a terrorist, while a stone-throwing ultra-Orthodox Jew will not.” Under the legislation, leaders of terror organizations face 25 years in jail. The tariff rises to a mandatory life sentence if a terror attack is carried out. The defense minister will be able to order the seizure of an organization’s assets even before it has been indicted as a terror group. Adalah noted that the law does not distinguish between attacks on civilians and soldiers enforcing the occupation. Under international law, the latter are considered legitimate targets. An advisory committee will be able to approve declaring a group a terror organization. Those under investigation for links to terror may find that they have no access to the secret evidence used against them, Shehadeh said. Most Palestinian political movements in the occupied territories are treated by Israel as terror organizations. Israeli officials, for example, make no legal distinction between Hamas’ military leadership and its politicians running Gaza. Shehadeh said the law would severely curtail freedom of expression. Threats to carry out a terror act—however improbable—could incur seven years in prison. Those inciting terror face five years, while those praising a terror organization risk three. Those aiding a terror organization or pro-

viding it with services face five years’ imprisonment. In many cases, he added, the burden of proof would shift to the accused to show that they had not aided or sympathized with a terror organization, or failed to stop a terror act. “That violates a basic principle of due process in criminal law,” Shehadeh said. Ayelet Shaked, the justice minister from the far-right Jewish Home party, welcomed

tion to cross-examine those providing such testimony. The habeas corpus principle would also not apply in some cases, meaning hearings could be conducted without the accused present. “These measures do not look like they are part of criminal law—how the state deals with its own citizens—but rather like a law that deals with the enemy,” Fuchs added. The anti-terrorism legislation underwent six years of drafting, but the process accelerated rapidly after a wave of socalled “lone-wolf attacks” began last year, many of them focused on Jerusalem. Although East Jerusalem is under occupation, Israeli law is applied there because Israel considers it part of its “eternal capital.” Fuchs said the new law’s provisions would be subject to judicial review by the supreme court. However, he said the court would probably be reluctant to intervene. After years of threats by the right to strip the court of its powers, he said, its judges were now “walking on eggshells.” The anti-terror law is best viewed within the context of general political repression in Israel. Legislation is expected to be passed soon cracking down on human rights groups and giving a majority of Knesset members the power to expel Palestinian lawmakers. Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Knesset member for the Joint List, said police were already treating as incitement social media posts by Palestinian citizens and residents of East Jerusalem that attacked the occupation. In the Knesset debate on the law, ToumaSuleiman raised the case of Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian poet from Reine, near Nazareth, who was arrested in October over Facebook posts. She spent three months in prison and is now under house arrest. “This shows how dangerous it is to give Israeli security services the power to ‘interpret’ our political behavior,” Touma-Suleiman said. “Israel wants us too frightened to hold an opinion or even share one.” ■

“A stone-throwing Arab will become a terrorist, while a stone-throwing ultra-Orthodox Jew will not.”

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

the new powers. “Terrorism can only be defeated with appropriate punishments and deterrents,” she said. “The 2016 model of terrorism will receive a 2016 response.” The law is designed to supersede previous anti-terror legislation and incorporates many of the dozens of emergency regulations introduced by the British in the 1940s. The Knesset adopted those powers upon Israel’s creation in 1948 over vehement opposition from some lawmakers. As leader of the Irgun terrorist group, Menachem Begin, who would later serve as Israel’s prime minister, called the British measures “Nazi, tyrannical and unethical” laws. Shehadeh warned that a whole raft of security regulations approved over the years by the Knesset on an emergency or temporary basis—and supposed to be of limited duration—had now been permanently added to Israel’s lawbooks. “Even if the security situation changes,” he said, “these measures—however extreme and however damaging to democratic rights—will continue to be available.” Amir Fuchs, a legal expert with the Israel Democracy Institute, said the legislation offered many troubling new tools to Israel’s prosecutorial system. The courts would be allowed to take into account “hearsay”—evidence from those who had not witnessed the events under investigation. The defense would not be in a posi-

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Special Report

Palestinian City Parched After Israel Cuts Water Supply

By Amira Hass

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

shekels ($1,800). Now he fears for the fate of the plant nursery. The squash gourds and zucchini seedlings have already shown signs of wilting. So far, he’s gotten by, barely, with water he brought from a cistern that collects and stores rainwater at his parents’ house, and with the water he bought—at 10 times the normal rate—from a tractor driver who travels a few dozen kilometers to fill his tank with water. The payment is for the diesel fuel, work and time. But he cannot use up all his parents’ water, and the driver, a local resident, can’t spend 24 hours a day hauling water. He doesn’t have a pump to raise the water into the plastic tanks on the roof, either. When Rayan washes his hands before prayer, he is careful to do so in the garden—above a small tree or the seedlings— so they can enjoy a little too. For the virtually all of June, the lives of Fatma Ali, 50, stands in her garden in the West Bank village of Salfit, north of Ramallah, as tens of thousands of Palestinians around she shows that there is no water coming out of the tap, June 23, 2016. Salfit and Nablus revolved around water. “On the morning of June 4, we discovered that our main water “I CAN FAST. My chickens and plants can’t. I can go without reservoir, with a capacity of 1,500 cubic meters, was completely drinking water for 18 hours during Ramadan. I understand. But empty,” Salfit Mayor Dr. Shaher Ishtayeh told Haaretz in late my plants and chickens, what do they know? What can I tell June. No one warned the local council in advance that Mekorot them—to make do, because Mekorot [the Israeli water company] was cutting off the supply for a day. is reducing the amount of water, and specifically now during the “If we had known, we could have prepared appropriately,” Ishsummer and Ramadan?” says Nizar Rayan, a resident of tayeh said. “Told people to fill bottles, to give up what was not Qarawat Bani Hassan in the Salfit District. urgent—for example, washing cars or floors. To warn the owner Rayan has an impressive plant nursery in front of his house of the cowshed. Close the taps in order to ensure that some and a large chicken coop down the road. At the beginning of water will remain in the reservoir, so that when we start [the June, when it became clear that the cuts in the water supply to water] flowing again, there will be enough pressure.” the towns and villages in the central West Bank district were not Ishtayeh gave his own small garden as an example: he temporary, he rushed out and sold almost all of his 700 chickplanted tomatoes, parsley and other vegetables before Raens. He thought he would have enough water for about 80 chickmadan. The work, money, pleasure watching the growing plants ens when the regular water supply was renewed, but 50 of them and the expectations for the bounty—all was lost. And the same died from dehydration last week. Another died on Sunday. When goes for many others in the area. he entered the almost empty coop to show me around, he discovered the dead body lying on the ground. That’s how, within PRICELESS DROPS GOING TO WASTE two to three weeks, Rayan calculates that he’s lost some 7,000 Salfit is a city with a tradition for rapid organization, and a muCopyright © Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All rights reserved. nicipality emergency committee was immediately convened. The 10

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mosques’ loudspeakers, Facebook and the local radio station all reported on the situation. The owner of the local cement factory was ordered to close temporarily: We’re sorry, he was told, drinking water is more important. The city’s sewage department has a truck with a split tank: One half for clean water (for flushing the pits) and the other for collecting sewage. They immediately filled the clean half with water from the spring well in the wadi, and drove between the houses so that at least the drinking and washing needs for that day could be met. Even though the water supply from Mekorot was eventually renewed (albeit at half the normal rate), a few hours and hundreds of priceless cubic meters of water were wasted in order to wash out the rust and sand from the system. Residents call city employees constantly: Why does my neighbor have water and I don’t? Why hasn’t water reached our neighborhood? When should I expect the water to start flowing—and when will it stop again? The municipality’s and village councils’ employees are not exaggerating when they say they’re working night and day, with barely time to sleep. They divided Salfit into three zones, and the water is distributed in rotation: When the water flows in one area, the central pipes’ taps to the other two are turned off. Because of the low water pressure, a pump has to be used for the higher areas. The city was prepared and bought two such pumps a few years ago. One now operates flat out, 24 hours a day, to supply water, generating a lot of heat. The second pump is ready to go for when the first needs to be rested. Hence, the water shortage also entails additional electricity expenses. Once in a while, engineer Ahmad Shahin receives a phone call from one of the workers: The water has reached all of the homes in a certain area, so you should close the valve and pump water to a different area. Sometimes, Hassan Afaneh—the engineer in charge of the city’s water and sewage department—orders that water AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

distribution be stopped in all areas for a few hours, in order to allow the reservoir’s water level to rise and increase water pressure. Such an order can be given at night, which is why city workers must always be on call. Article 40 of the 1995 interim agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization—better known as the Oslo accords—states that the division of water from the mountain aquifer to the Palestinians and Israelis—both settlers and those living inside the sovereign territory of Israel—will remain unchanged from what it was before the signing of the agreements, with an estimated growth in future Palestinian water needs of between 70 to 80 million cubic meters of water a year. Some 28.6 million cubic meters a year was to be provided by Israel, and the Palestinians could get the rest by drilling new wells. (The Jordan River is not included in this division. Even when water flowed in the river, after 1967 Israel did not allow the Palestinians to use it.)

INCREASED DEPENDENCE ON ISRAEL

This division of water saw 80 percent going to Israel, and 20 percent to the Palestinians. The “interim” period was meant to expire in 1999, with the end of negotiations on the permanent agreement. But the interim continues: The Palestinian population has grown, industrial and development needs have been added, while the amount of water available to the Palestinians has shrunk in practice because some of the new wells have failed or supply less than the expected amount, and some existing wells now produce less. Estimates say that the Palestinians now have access to only about 14 percent of the mountain aquifer’s water. That’s why the amount they buy from Mekorot, and their dependence on Israel, has grown. The mountain aquifer is the only source of water for the Palestinians. It’s also an important source of water for Israel, but not the only one.

The Salfit area, like the entire western basin of the mountain aquifer, has an abundance of water. The potential for pumping from the western basin is between 360 million to 405 million cubic meters of water a year. (The potential for extraction from the mountain aquifer in total is between 620 million to 700 million cubic meters of water a year.) The Palestinian water authority told Haaretz in late June that the Oslo accords allow the Palestinians to extract some 22 million cubic meters of water a year from the western basin, and that today they are pumping some 30 million. The rest—that is, between 330 to 380 million cubic meters—is for Israel. In winter and spring, nearly 100 small springs flow between the rocks and olive trees on the area’s hills. A few of them still flow even now, in the middle of the summer heat, with surprisingly clear and refreshing water just a kilometer or two from the homes and their dry taps. A young child, Shaher, was headed toward one of these springs from the village of Yasuf. The donkey he was riding had plastic bottles hanging off both sides of a makeshift saddle. “My mother sent me,” Shaher said. “We have no water at home.” Two of the springs—Al Mwatti and AsSika—flow throughout the year. They serve the farmers, and the city pumps some of their water to its central reservoir. This water is pumped to the Salfit reservoir through a red pipe, about 150 cubic meters a day. The blue pipe, the larger one, carries water sold by Mekorot—about 100 to 120 cubic meters an hour, on normal days. This means the spring provides about 6 percent of the area’s daily water supply. On June 21, the water meter on the blue pipe still spun at a painfully slow rate. Some three weeks after the supply was cut for a day, the water that Mekorot sends through is still only 40 percent to 60 percent of the normal amount. In other areas of the western West Bank, such as Tulkarm and Qalqilya, the Jordanian authorities drilled deep water wells before 1967. They’re included in the water infrastructure the Palestinian Au-

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thority was allowed to operate. The Salfit District was unlucky, though, and has no such wells. The springs, shallow water wells and cisterns for collecting rainwater in homes and fields met the needs of 60 years ago. “Who ever thought the day would come when we wouldn’t be able to use the water flowing under our feet based on our own needs,” says the mayor. The temporary-permanent Oslo accords forbid the Palestinians from drilling deep wells in the region richest in water—the western basin. Fully aware of the dependence on Mekorot, Ishtayeh has informed various Palestinian officials of city development plans that cannot be implemented: For example, it will be impossible to establish university branches there because of a lack of water for students and faculty. The Palestinian security services were also informed that their plans to build a training base in the area were unrealistic. The governor’s offices and headquarters of the security services are located in the city, which has increased the number of

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water consumers to 18,000 (two nearby villages, plus the 14,000 residents of Salfit). Two villages that used to receive their water from the Salfit reservoir were asked to find a new water source. The amount of water Israel allocated was inadequate for them all, too, as their needs changed.

“NOT IN OUR HANDS”

The water shortage has also caused internal tensions: Ishtayeh told the police not to allow a water broker from a different town to come in, since he sells water at excessive prices from his tanker. The three villages northwest of Salfit—Qarawat Bani Hassan, Biddya and Sarta—share a single pipe, so they must share the little they have among them and take turns. Some people have complained that the distribution was not done fairly and suspected the employees favored their own village. Aziz Assi, the mayor of Qarawat Bani Hassan, asked the district governor to appoint an employee from somewhere else (Advertisement)

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

to the post, who will therefore be above suspicion. On popular radio programs, the mayors are forced to appear time and again to answer citizens’ complaints about the water shortage. “It’s not in our hands,” they say in desperation. The radio show hosts then call the Palestinian water authority officials, who tell them, “It’s not in our hands.” They call the officials at Mekorot and are told about the water shortage, including in the settlements, and that the main reservoirs in the settlements must be filled first. Do the settlements in the area (Ariel, first of all) suffer from a similar problem? Palestinians who work there know full well that they do not. “On every roof here, there are tanks to collect water (for when the pipe is dry). Have you seen such tanks on the settlers’ roofs?” asks Rayan, as he tries to squeeze a few more drops out of one of the empty barrels in his garden for a geranium seedling. ■

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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Special Report

Countdown to the Next Chernobyl—Gaza

By Jeffery Abood

MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

GAZA IS HOME to 1.9 million people, over a million of whom are children. According to the CIA Factbook, only 19 other territories (out of 229) have a younger median age. Last year, a United Nations report warned that the Gaza Strip, the place these children call home, “could become uninhabitable by 2020, if current economic trends persist.” By the time we are inundated with the next round of presidential election ads, Gaza could very well have become uninhabitable, unable to support human life—thus joining the list of other uninhabitable areas of the world, including the Arctic, Death Valley and Chernobyl. Why will one of the most densely populated areas on earth soon to be designated, like the city of Chernobyl, as unable to sustain life? It will not be due to some nuclear accident or natural disaster. It will, A young boy eats corn wrapped in paper next to his house in Gaza City, May 25, 2016. instead, be uniquely by design. According to a June 2016 U.N. report, “Fragmented Lives,” of safe water has also led to farming land becoming desert, un“the major drivers of humanitarian vulnerability in the oPt [occusafe salt levels in the fresh water supply, lack of sewage treatpied Palestinian territories] were directly linked to Israel’s proment, increase in water-borne diseases, and depletion and contracted occupation.” In 2015, the United Nations Conference on tamination of underground water resources. The electricity Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned that “short of endneeded to pump water and to process waste water has also ing the [Israeli] blockade...[we cannot] reverse the ongoing debeen severely impacted. The CIA World Factbook places Gaza development and impoverishment in Gaza.” According to UNCdead last in the world in its ability to produce electricity. ReTAD, this “de-development” is a process by which development peated Israeli targeting of Gaza’s lone power plant has only is not merely hindered but reversed. A state of “de-development” worsened this. requires control of all the aspects that contribute to a normal life. FOOD Keeping a population captive, while never allowing their situation to improve, denies them the ability to live, grow and thrive. UNCTAD found that 72 percent of Gazan households suffer from food insecurity. Half the population of Gaza—868,000 people— WATER rely solely on food distribution from aid agencies. As with all imports to and exports from Gaza, food is tightly In Gaza, according to the U.N., 95 percent of the water is not controlled by Israel. The Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of safe to drink. Israel has repeatedly damaged Gaza’s already deMovement, an Israeli nonprofit organization, uncovered the Isficient water and waste water systems, affecting the population’s raeli Defense Ministry’s notorious “Red Lines” document, which access to running water. Some 120,000 people across the Strip established mathematical formulas for how many calories each now have no access to the municipal supply of water. This denial man, woman and child in Gaza would be permitted to consume to keep them just at the level of survival, setting out the minimum Jeffery Abood is the author of A Great Cloud of Witnesses: The Catholic Church's Experience in the Holy Land. calorie intake needed by Gaza’s nearly two million inhabitants, AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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according to their age and sex. BBC News has viewed documents submitted to an Israeli court which give details about how and why Israel maintains its blockade of Gaza. Israeli authorities confirm the existence of the four documents. According to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s former adviser, Dov Weissglass, “It’s like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won’t die.”

THE ECONOMY

The UNCTAD report also mentions that “in addition to eight years of economic blockade, Gaza has endured three military operations that have shattered its ability to produce for the domestic market, ravaged its already debilitated infrastructure, and left no time for reconstruction and economic recovery. The deteriorating situation is reportedly due almost entirely to a range of discriminatory economic policies imposed on it. These include Israel withholding almost $700 million of Palestinian clearance revenue, which comes from taxes on imports into the occupied Palestinian territory, compounding a fiscal crisis for the Palestinian National Authority, on whose behalf Israel collects the revenues.” The World Bank reports that Gaza has the highest unemployment rate in the world, reaching a staggering 60 percent among youth.

REBUILDING

Israel’s tight control of all Gaza’s borders has severely restricted the region’s ability to fix itself. According to “Fragmented Lives,” “an estimated 16,000 families (nearly 90,000 people) remained displaced during the second half of 2015, most of whom had moved multiple times, with almost a quarter living in the rubble of their damaged homes.” Israel has allowed into Gaza just 6.5 percent of the construction supplies needed to repair years of destruction and accumulated housing needs. The Shelter Cluster (a partnering reconstruction agency in Gaza) estimates it will take 19 years to rebuild just the 19,075 homes destroyed during the latest war and a total of 76 years to rebuild the entire Strip. Gisha compares the Israeli-controlled rationing of building supplies to the rationing of food supplies in the “Red Lines” formulas.

INTERNATIONAL AID

The latest U.N. report also stated that humanitarian organizations continue to face a range of obstacles from Israeli authorities regarding the access of personnel and materials needed for humanitarian projects. These include physical and administrative restrictions on the access and movement of humanitarian actors; restrictions on the delivery of materials needed for humani-

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

tarian projects; and limitations on the implementation of projects that involve building, expanding or rehabilitating infrastructure. Such obstacles have hampered the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide assistance and protection to Palestinians throughout the occupied territories. The access of national staff of humanitarian organizations to and from the Gaza Strip deteriorated in the first four months of 2016, following a decline in the Israeli authorities’ approval rate for permit applications, as well as a shortening of the duration of approved permits, which previously had been valid for three months.

SAFETY

Safety is a basic need for a people to develop. Gaza’s 139 square miles are enclosed by Israel’s barrier wall manned with automated gun towers, as well as a naval blockade along the sea coast. The citizens of Gaza suffer from frequent military incursions from ground, sea and air, the deafening sound of warplanes breaking the sound barrier in the middle of the night, and the constant buzz of military drones. Gaza has long been a testing ground for Israeli weapons and tactics for controlling a large civilian population (See “The Lab” by Jonathan Cook, September 2013 Washington Report, p. 16). These tactics of isolation, containment and controlled de-development are being finetuned and exported to the rest of the existing Palestinian “bantustans” or “reservations.” East Jerusalem and cities in the West Bank, like Bethlehem and Jericho, already have been contained and broken off from the world, as well as from each other, and are quickly becoming many more Gazas in the making. UNCTAD has warned that these conditions cannot be reversed “short of ending the blockade.” Unless that happens in the near future, nearly two million people will be contained in an area that can no longer sustain life. Still, there is hope and a reason for our motivation to action. The U.N. report qualifies that this will happen “if current economic trends continue.” It is up to all of us who still hold to a common humanity and a belief in the dignity and worth of people to stand up and make sure that they don’t. ■ AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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What They Said

Democratic Party Platform Fight on Israel and Palestine

By James J. Zogby

[AT THE DEMOCRATIC Party platform drafting meeting in late June, I introduced Bernie Sanders’ amendment to the Israel/Palestine section calling for an end to the occupation and settlements. What follows are my comments, speaking for the amendment:] During her opening comments, DNC Chairwoman [Debbie] Wasserman Schultz spoke about “putting ourselves in others’ shoes.” That’s what we’ve tried to do with our amendment. We do not often see the Arab-Israeli conflict through Palestinian eyes. As Senator Sanders has made clear, there are two peoples in this conflict—who need to be understood and whose pain needs to be recognized. While the platform calls for a “two-state solution,” just using language about two states doesn’t acknowledge the reality that the Palestinians are living under occupation. Palestinian land is being taken by settlements. Palestinians are enduring checkpoints that daily brings horrific humiliation—denying them freedom of movement, employment, and the opportunity to give their children free space in which to live. That’s the situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Gaza is another story entirely, with 60 percent unemployment and even higher youth unemployment. You must understand that in Gaza, if you’re a young man under 30, you most likely have never had a job, have no prospect of a job, and therefore no opportunity to have a family or build a decent future. And so death becomes a more desirable option for some. Suicide rates are up, mental illness is up, drug addiction is up. The situation is unsustainable and it must change.

James J. Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

If you review our party’s past platforms, they have lagged way behind reality. I remember being in this same debate in 1988, when we called for our party’s platform to include “mutual recognition, territorial compromise, and self-determination for both peoples.” Back then, people reacted as if the sky were going to fall. It didn’t, we survived. We did not recognize a Palestinian state in our platform until 2004, after George W. Bush said it. Now we have an opportunity to send a message to the world, to the Arabs, the Israelis, the Palestinians, and to all Americans that we hear the cries of both sides. That America wants to move toward a real peace (Advertisement)

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because it understands that there’s suffering here. Suffering that is unsustainable. The term occupation shouldn’t be controversial. George W. Bush said that there was an occupation. Ariel Sharon said that there was an occupation. Barack Obama has said there was an occupation. There is an occupation. It denies people freedom. Our president has said that. We have to be able to say in our politics what we say in our policy. We can’t think with two brains. If our policy says it’s an occupation and settlements are wrong and they inhibit peace, why can’t our politics say it? It doesn’t make sense. The next administration will behave just as the last one, but our politics won’t change. And so I urge you to consider passing this amendment because of the message it will send forcefully and clearly. A message of hope to Palestinians, a message of hope to peace forces in Israel, and a message to the American people—that this time we’re going to make a difference. And we are actually going to help the parties move toward peace. [The Clinton campaign spokespersons presented their rebuttal. Attempting to make the point that Israel was a tolerant democracy, one Clintonite said that she was proud as a Jewish, lesbian woman that Israel was the only country in the Middle East where she could walk down the streets of Tel Aviv holding hands with her wife. In my closing argument, I responded:] Now, you can walk down the street in Tel Aviv holding the hand of your wife, but I can’t get into the airport in Israel without hours of harassment because I’m of Arab descent. And I’m not even Palestinian, but because my father was born in Lebanon, I get stopped. When I was working with Vice President [Al] Gore, I almost missed a dinner at the Knesset to which he had invited Continued on p. 27

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Three Views

Turkey and Israel Back Together Again

Turkey’s Foreign Relations Thaw— Back to Basics? By Jonathan Gorvett

SOME SIX YEARS after Israeli commandos stormed aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, shooting dead nine of its peaceactivist crew and sending already frayed relations between Turkey and Israel into a nosedive, the two countries formally made up in June, signing a new rapprochement deal. The signing ceremony, held simultaneously in Ankara and Jerusalem, appears to bring to an end a lengthy period of official hostility between these two Eastern Mediterranean military and economic giants. The signing also heralds a “back to normal” approach for Turkish foreign policy. This had begun under the previous prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, with Ankara beginning talks with Israel as long ago as 2013. Yet Turkey now has also started mending fences with Russia—torn up by the shooting down of a Russian jet in November 2015—and has announced that it is negotiating a rapprochement with Egypt. The latter saw relations sour after strong support from Ankara for the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi and condemnation of the Sisi coup. These dramatic steps—all coming within a few days of each other, even though the Israeli rapprochement had been underway for some time—clearly indicate the abandonment of what might be described as a more “forward” Turkish policy within the region. Ironically, Ankara’s strategic goal had started out under then-Foreign Minister Davutoglu as “peace with all our neighbors,” yet had ended, at his resignation as prime minister back in May, with Turkey in conflict with almost all of them. The new prime minister, Binali Yildirim, is much more a servant of the real power in Turkish policy making, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Thus it seems likely that Erdogan is behind this fast-moving flip toward regional rapprochement. Clearly, then, much has changed between the Erdogan who famously stormed off the stage at Davos in 2009, accusing Israel of war crimes, and the Erdogan who wants reconciliation with Israel in 2016.

One major factor behind this is the economy—although trade between Israel and Turkey had never suffered in the way that trade with Russia suffered after the downing of the Su-24. Indeed, in 2014, bilateral trade between Turkey and Israel stood at $5.62 billion, more than twice what it had been in 2009. The Israeli port of Ashdod remained the funnel for Turkish exports to the wider Middle East, while most Israeli oil came in via the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Yet the rapprochement does offer the potential for further business in one sector in particular: energy. Israel has large natural gas reserves offshore. Turkey, on the other hand, has virtually no hydrocarbon reserves of its own and relies on imports, from Russia and Azerbaijan, but also increasingly from Iraq and Iran, with the former increasingly dominated by imports from Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government. Diversifying its supplies is thus of strategic importance to Turkey, while diversifying its export market is important to Israel. Turkey can also act as a major conduit for the gas into the European gas grid, to which it is connected. Yet there is a major snag in joining up these dots—the problem of getting Israeli gas to market. Several schemes for this are on the table. The first is for an undersea pipeline from the gas fields to Turkey’s southern coast. The obstacle to this is that, thanks to the interlocking territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the Eastern Mediterranean states, such a pipeline would have to pass through the Cypriot EEZ. This is itself disputed by Turkey, which does not recognize the largely-Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia and instead is alone in recognizing the breakaway “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC). A whole can of worms would thus be opened by any such pipeline project, unless there was a settlement to the decades-old Cyprus dispute. While recent times have seen increased optimism over the likelihood of this, there are now growing doubts on the island over whether such a deal is possible any time soon. Any deal would also have to go to a referendum on both sides of the de facto divided island before being implemented. A further issue here, however, is that Cyprus has its own gas reserve, the undeveloped Aphrodite field, which lies next to the

It seems likely that Erdogan is

behind this fast-moving flip toward regional rapprochement.

Jonathan Gorvett is a free-lance writer based in Istanbul. 16

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major, Israeli, Leviathan field. Cyprus is anxious to develop Aphrodite, but would likely only be able to do so in cooperation with Israel, due to geographical and size constraints. This has led to increasing Cypriot friendship with Israel recently, including the provision of Cypriot airspace for Israeli military exercises. Indeed, recent years have seen heightened cooperation among Israel, Cyprus and Greece, with another, yet highly unlikely, pipeline sometimes proposed running from Israel to Crete. Developing Aphrodite, however, brings Cyprus into conflict with Turkey and the “TRNC,” which claim that the field’s resources belong to Turkish as well as Greek Cypriots. It may be, however, that Israel could use its leverage over Aphrodite to pressure Cyprus into giving the go-ahead for an Israel-Turkey pipeline, although this would likely have serious domestic consequences for the Cypriot government. There is also some discussion as to whether Israel needs Nicosia’s permission to lay a pipeline through the Cypriot EEZ at all, even if it would prefer it, under the terms of the Energy Charter Treaty, which Cyprus and Turkey have signed and which does not consider EEZs sovereign territory. Given the highly complex nature of all these relationships, a second potential scheme might be to pipe the gas to Egypt, where it could be converted into Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) using surplus capacity at plants in the Nile Delta. From there, it could be shipped to the European, or indeed, Turkish, market. This could be one of the reasons why Turkey is now pursuing rapprochement with Cairo. Recent further Egyptian gas discoveries have, however, put a question mark over this spare capacity. Economics is not the only sphere in which the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement will have an effect, however. The two had previously been able to exercise pressure on a joint neighbor, Syria, and a joint Middle Eastern rival, Iran. Indeed, it is the advancement of Iranian influence in Syria and Iraq, along with the recent P5+1 nuclear deal with Tehran, that has likely also pushed Israel to seek a rapprochement with Turkey—despite significant internal opposition—while Turkey looks for alternatives to its largely unsuccessful policy in Syria. Iran, too, may be an important reason for Ankara’s pivot on relations with Cairo, where concerns are also high over spreading Iranian and Shi’i influence in the region. One question, of course, is where this now leaves the Palestinians, who had been cheered by Erdogan’s earlier shift against Israel. The rapprochement deal will not see the Israeli blockade of Gaza lifted—a longstanding Turkish requirement for a deal—but will see Turkish aid funnelled to the strip via Ashdod. In addition, Turkey will begin building a power plant and water distribution center in the Strip. This, some Palestinian observers have commented, is at least something, although others have condemned Turkey for its new accommodation. Certainly, the kind of “soft power” that Turkey had in the Middle East following its break with Israel and before the “Arab Spring” will not now return. Turkey has blotted its copybook far too much since, particularly with Davutoglu’s continuous neo-Ottoman rhetoric, which seemed oblivious to feelings throughout the Arab world about centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule. Closer AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

ties with Israel are also unpopular with radical Islamists, with some suggestion that the recent bloody attack on Istanbul airport, blamed on ISIS, may have been timed along with the rapprochement deal. Certainly, rapprochement with Russia pits Turkey more directly against Da’ish, with Ankara already announcing its willingness to cooperate with Moscow more closely in combatting this group. Summing up much of this new turn, President Erdogan used his Eid al-Fitr speech to the nation, at the ending of the Holy month of Ramadan. “We are removing the barriers in our path one by one,” he said, with the new policy dubbed a “circle of peace.” Currently surrounded by a circle of conflict, the success of such a policy might indeed be widely welcomed.

Gaza Impressions of the TurkishIsraeli Deal By Mohammed Omer

THERE MAY NOT be many customers lately, but Munir Akhras, 46, nevertheless stands at his shop door, trying to make a living selling light switches and bulbs in Israeli-blockaded Gaza. On this late June day, however, he also feels abandoned and frustrated on hearing of Turkey's renewal of ties with Israel, and its decision to drop demands that Israel end the siege of Gaza. “Turkey pretended to be an ally…but politics are immoral,” he observes. He adds, however, that hope persists that a possible reconciliation between Turkey and Egypt may put pressure on Cairo to open the Rafah crossing. Currently the crossing is opened only under exceptional circumstances—even though Gaza’s 1.9 million residents see the Israeli blockade, enforced also by Egypt, as constituting such circumstances, as well as violating international law. With few exceptions, the Rafah crossing has been shut for months. Egypt cites security in Sinai as justification for the closure, but Gazans feel it is Egypt’s way of punishing Gazans who in 2006, along with West Bank Palestinians, democratically voted for Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. In their much-anticipated June 26 announcement, Turkey and Israel said relations would thaw after six years of animosity over the Israeli boarding of the humanitarian aid ship Mavi Marmara in international waters off the coast of Gaza, when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish nationals and an American citizen. But hoped-for concessions from the Israelis—namely the easing of Gaza's siege and naval blockade—were unrealized. Instead, Israel agreed to allow 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza as well as the future construction of a much needed hospital and desalination and power plants. “In Gaza we were hoping for more—we want our children to

Award-winning journalist Mohammed Omer reports on the Gaza Strip. Follow him on Twitter: @MoGaza.

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wake up one day to no military or economic blockade,� Akhras says, to his friend Mustapha Tartouri’s statement that the deal brings some hope that Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza will gain attention in the international media. In the days before the deal was announced, Hamas officials had alternated between confirming and denying that it might mean an end to the siege, while stating all along that it appreciated Turkey’s "supportive stance" for the people of Gaza. Ahlam Abdeljawwad, a Gaza-based engineering student, says that one should view the deal as a case of Turkey following its own interests. “Turkey comes first here,� she states, arguing that “it is justified. The interest of 75 million Turkish inhabitants comes before almost 1.9 million inhabitants in Gaza.� At least now, however, she adds, Gaza will at least have more calm than in previous years: “It is hard to imagine Turkey allowing Israel to launch another war on Gaza.� Her friend Feda’a expects “to see openings for Turkish commercial activity in Gaza markets.� The hopes of other Gazans remain high that local job-creation schemes will at least somewhat ease the economic punishment inflicted by the Israeli siege. With nearly half—about 43 percent—of Gaza's 1.9 million residents unemployed, Gaza suffers the highest unemployment rate in the world. Gazans who are pro-Fatah, however, have been mocking Hamas on social media, showing a satirical cartoon depicting the deal as an empty donkey cart heading into the sea. Other Gazans, after doing some calculations, determined how much aid every Gazan might receive from the shipment of aid from Turkey: less than 6 kilos (13 pounds) per person. Hamed Daoud, an unemployed father of five, notes that the aid shipment to Gaza includes 10,000 toys. “So,� he asks, “toys will break the blockade?� (Advertisement)

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People Above Politics: Political Deal Will Not Hamper the TurkishPalestinian Bond By Ramzy Baroud

HYPED EMOTIONS, AND political opportunism aside, the Israel-Turkey normalization deal signed on June 27 is unfavorable for Palestinians—and for Gazans, in particular. There is much that is being said to blame Turkey or placate the damage of seeing Turkey—which has for years been one of the most visible backers of Palestinian Resistance—reaching out to Israel. Yet, no amount of text, statements and press releases can diminish the psychological defeat felt in Gaza following the announcement. Gazans are emotionally exhausted after 10 years of siege, dotted by devastating wars and the lack of any political horizon. Aside from their resistance, undying faith and legendary steadfastness, Palestinians in Gaza have looked up with much hope and anticipation to a few friends. One was Turkey. The relationship was cemented in May 2010, when Israeli commandos raided the “Freedom Flotilla� in international waters, killing nine Turkish humanitarian activists aboard the MV Mavi Marmara. A tenth activist died later from his wounds. Since then, many Palestinians, as well as many Turks, have felt that the relationship between Palestine and Turkey entered a new phase, not that of words, but deeds. They had more in common than sentimental gestures of friendship, now, blood and tears. There is no question that Turkey, an important NATO member and an American ally in the region, has been under much pressure since it demoted its diplomatic ties with Israel in 2011. But the fact is, normalizing ties with Israel without the latter lifting the suffocating and deadly siege on Gaza was not a criterion for Turkey. Neither the Turkish economy, political stability nor national security was exceedingly damaged by the Turkey-Israel rift. The little known fact is that the rift hardly affected trade between both countries. “Though political relations had hit rock bottom, both Turkey and Israel knew business must go on,� Turkey’s TRT World recently reported. “Business and politics were separated by a Chinese Wall-like efficiency. Trade

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Dr. Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include Searching Jenin, The Second Palestinian Intifada and his latest, My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). His website is <www.ramzybaroud.net>. aUGUST/SePTeMbeR 2016

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not only continued, but expanded by 26 percent compared to 2010.” Moreover, 2013 and 2014 were two of the busiest years for Turkish Airlines carrying passengers between Turkey and Israel and, in 2015, trade between both countries had risen to $5.6 billion, according to Turkish Statistics Institute, cited in TRT. Still, thanks to what seemed like a principled Turkish position on Gaza, Turkey’s status, at least among Muslim nations, has been elevated like never before. Perhaps, Turkey has felt embattled as a result of the war on Syria, the rise of militant violence, uncertain economic forecast, the flood of refugees, its conflict with Russia and the political crack within its ruling party. But Palestinians have played no part in that. If Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan felt the need to re-evaluate his political course as a result of whichever political calculation he found urgent and reasonable, what sin did Gazans commit to be disowned in such a fashion? It is a “stab in the back,” Gaza Prof. Haidar Eid wrote. It is a “cheap manipulation of the Palestinian cause,” complained Gaza journalist Ghada Albardawil. While others tried to maintain conciliatory language, the disappointment in Gaza—in fact, among most Palestinians—is unmistakable. Gaza-based Dr. Ahmad Yousef refused to blame Turkey for failing to lift the siege. Yousef, who is also the former political adviser to Hamas’ Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, told Al-Monitor that “Hamas believes that, under the Turkish-Israeli agreement, Turkey achieved as much as it can to ease the blockade on Gaza, which has been plagued by economic crises.” This reasoning, however well-intentioned, is off the mark. Turkey, of course, cannot be blamed for the failure to lift the siege. The siege is an Israeli one, and its deadly outcomes are the moral and legal responsibility of Israel, its regional partners and Western supporters. However, it is still incumbent on Turkey, as it is on every other country in the world, not to do business with a government accused of war crimes, including that of Crime of Apartheid, in addition to its continued violations of international and humanitarian law. With Israel illegally occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) and imposing a deadly siege on Gaza, what moral justifications can the Turkish government provide to justify its normalization of ties with Israel? Not only does the agreement ensure the families of the 10 Turkish victims (considered “martyrs” by Palestinians) will be denied the right to legally pursue criminal charges against their Israeli murderers, thousands of Palestinian families, too, will have no such chance. In other words, business as usual will return to the Turkish-Israeli relations, while Gazans are trapped behind fences, walls

and barbed wire. Those who wish to see the cup half full cite the fact that Gaza will be receiving tons of Turkish aid, a future hospital with the capacity to hold 200 beds, and a water desalination plant—especially when considering that only 3 percent of Gaza’s water is actually drinkable. But the supplies will be routed via an Israeli seaport—which is exactly what the Mavi Marmara activists refused to do. The political move would further validate the Israeli occupation, and the siege apparatus as well. Worse, this arrangement—if it is, indeed, fulfilled—would reduce the crisis in Gaza to that of a humanitarian one. But this is not the case. Gaza is not just suffering from an economic embargo, but a politically-motivated blockade following the 2006 democratic elections in Palestine, the result of which was rejected by Israel and its backers. Gazans are punished purely as a result of a political question and, later, for their resistance and refusal to succumb to pressure and bullying. Neither foodstuff, nor a hospital or cleaner water will resolve any of these dilemmas. When Israeli commandos violently raided the “Freedom Flotilla” in May 2010, something extraordinary happened in Gaza: a deep sense of loss, but also a sense of pride. It was the first time that this generation experienced real solidarity emanating from a Muslim country, exhibited with such resolution and willingness to sacrifice. For years, many in Gaza were partly sustained by the hope that Turkey would maintain its support (as Palestinians were promised repeatedly) until the siege is lifted. This has not been actualized. Moreover, Israel is expected to generate massive wealth as a result of the deal, especially when it is able to export its natural gas to Europe, via Turkey. But if this is not entirely about money, at least from the Turkish perspective, what is it, then? A Turkish foreign policy realignment? A return to the “zero problems with our neighbors” approach to foreign policy? Whatever it is, seeing the hopes in Gaza dashed under the crushing weight of realpolitik is disheartening. No matter that some are proposing to sugarcoat the IsraelTurkey rapprochement, the deal was a blow to Palestinian hopes that their siege was about to end, that they were no longer alone facing Israel’s military machine and its powerful Western benefactors. Perhaps the deal is also a wake-up call—that Palestinians must count on themselves first and foremost, achieve their elusive unity and seek solidarity the world over. Nevertheless, even this unfair deal cannot possibly break the bond between the Turkish and Palestinian people. “Blood is thicker than water,” they say. And they are right. ■

Perhaps the deal is also a wake-up

call—that Palestinians must count on themselves first and foremost.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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Two Views

Brexit and Israel/Palestine

Searching for a “Responsible Adult”: Is Brexit Good for Israel? By Ramzy Baroud

AFTER MONTHS OF anticipation, the United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union (EU). Although, the results were fairly close—51.9 percent voted to “Leave” vs. 48.1 percent elected to “Remain”—the consequences of the decision will be far-reaching. Not only will the Brits negotiate their exit from the EU (thus, the term “Brexit”) within the next two years, but the decision is likely to usher in an upheaval unwitnessed before in EU history. But is it good for Palestine? In the shadow of the so-called Brexit debate, a whole different discussion has been taking place: “is Brexit good for Israel,” or as an Israeli commentator, Carlo Strenger, phrased it in the Israeli daily Haaretz: “what does [Brexit] mean for the Jews?” In a last minute pandering for votes, British Prime Minister

Ramzy Baroud (<www.ramzybaroud.net>) is a media consultant, an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of Palestine Chronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). 20

David Cameron—who, to his credit, had the dignity to resign after the vote— made a passionate appeal before a Jewish audience on Monday, June 20. He told the Israel supporters in the charity “Jewish Care” that staying in the EU is actually good for Israel. He presented his country as if it is the safeguard of Israeli interests at the Union. The gist of his message was: Britain has kept a watchful eye on Brussels and has thwarted any discussion that may be seen as hostile towards the Jewish state. “When Europe is discussing its attitude towards Israel, do you want Britain—Israel’s greatest friend—in there opposing boycotts, opposing the campaign for divestment and sanctions, or do you want us outside the room, powerless to affect the discussion that takes place?” he told the largely Jewish audience. Predictably, Cameron brought Iran into his reasoning, vowing that, if Britain remained in the EU, his country would be in a stronger position to “stop Iran [from] getting nuclear weapons.” While the “Leave” campaign was strongly censured for unethically using fear-mongering to dissuade voters, Cameron’s comments before “Jewish Care”—which were an extreme and barefaced example of fear-mongering and manipulation of Israel’s so-called “existentialist threats”—received little coverage in the media. Indeed, Britain has played that dreadful role for decades, muting any serious discussion on Israel and Palestine, and ensuring more courageous voices like that of Sweden, for example, are offset with the ardently and unconditionally pro-Israel sentiment constantly radiating from Westminster. Who can forget Cameron’s impassionate defense of Israel’s last war on Gaza in 2014, which killed over 2,200 mostly Palestinian civilians? Unequivocally, Cameron, along with his Conservative Party, has been a “staunch ally of [Israeli] Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,” as described by Israeli commentator Raphael Ahren, writing in the Times of Israel. His love for Israel can also be more appreciated when compared to, also according to Ahren, “current head of the Labour party Jeremy Corbyn—who is a harsh

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critic of Israel and has called Israel’s arch-foes Hamas and Hezbollah ‘our friends.’” Since Corbyn was elected to the helm of the Labour Party with a landslide victory in September of last year, an apparently manufactured controversy alleging rampant anti-Semitism within Labour has taken away from the party’s attempt to refocus its energies on challenging the Conservative’s neoliberal policies, and slowing down the momentum of the ultra-right Independence Party of Nigel Farage. That contrived “crisis” was largely the work of the Israel lobby in the UK, per the assessment of investigative journalist Asa Winstanley. It was a “witch-hunt” that reached an unprecedented degree of incongruity. “It has reached such an absurd volume that any usage of the word ‘Zionist’ is deemed to be anti-Semitic,” he wrote, “although, tellingly, not when used by self-described Zionists.” Indeed, many members of Labour were either themselves involved in that “witch-hunt” or succumbed to its pressure, taking outrageous steps to defend against the unwarranted accusations. As a result, the embattled and disorganized Labour, too, urged its supporters to stay in the EU and they, too, lost the vote. As for Israel, Brexit meant uncertainty and also opportunity. The EU is Israel’s largest trade partner, and an economically weaker Union is destined to translate to less trade with Israel, thus financial losses. But Israel has also been sharply critical of the EU, with Israeli leaders making all sorts of accusations against supposed European anti-Semitism, and with Netanyahu himself calling for mass emigration of European Jewry to Israel. Part of the reason why Tel Aviv has been fuming at the EU is the nuclear agreement with Iran, in which the EU is a co-signatory. The other reason is a decision last November by the EU to impose new regulations on products made in Jewish settlements built illegally on Palestinian land. According to the new guidelines, goods produced in these settlements must be labeled “made in settlements,” a decision that further strengthened calls throughout Europe for boycotting Israel altogether. That decision, and others, increasingly made the EU appear as an untrustworthy ally to Israel; and precisely because of that, David Cameron desperately tried to sell himself at the last minute before the vote as the vanguard against other allegedly unruly EU members who refuse to play by the well-established rules. Yet, interestingly, one of the loudest, and also fear-mongering, groups that campaigned for Britain to exit the EU is “Regavim,” a right-wing NGO that advocates on behalf of the illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Unsurprisingly, “Regavim” used scare tactics by pushing a Palestinian bogeyman into the midst of Britain’s historical debate. Its campaign included a mock video of a masked Palestinian fighter “purportedly from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, urging UK citizens to remain in the European Union because it supports the Palestinians,” reported Al-Monitor. According to Regavim’s Meir Deutsch, the organization’s aim was to “harm the EU over ‘its intervention in the internal conflict AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

between Israel and the Palestinians.’” Now that, according to Deutsch’s ruthless logic, the EU is duly “harmed,” Israel is seeking another bulwark in the European Union to defend its interests. Israeli analyst Sharon Pardo, while regretting the loss of a “friend” in the Union, asserted that such a loss is not a “catastrophe,” for the likes of Germany and the Czech Republic are even friendlier than Britain. Israel is particularly concerned about its status within the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, now that the UK is leaving. “Germany has good chances of taking the lead here and the fact that Germany is a close ally of Israel will clearly have implications,” according to Pardo, who added, “Germany is the responsible adult here.” While Israel is likely to move fast to ensure its interests, both financial and political, are protected following Brexit, the Palestinian Authority is likely to move much slower and without a decisive, centralized strategy. The UK’s departure from the EU might not have an immediate impact on the conflict in Palestine, especially during the coming months of projected upheaval, negotiations and transition; however, it could still offer Palestinians an opportunity for the future. While pressure must continue to be applied on Westminster to end its unconditional backing of Israel, a possibly friendlier EU without the staunchly pro-Israel Britain may emerge. The UK’s support for Israel in the Union, and the backing of all American steps in the same direction, has seriously hampered the EU’s chances of being anything but a rubber-stamp to U.S.-UK policies not only in Palestine but also throughout the Middle East. While it is too early to make any significant political forecast following Brexit, one can only hope that the efforts of pro-peace countries such as Ireland and Sweden will be strengthened, and that more such friendly nations will join to rein in Israel for its military occupation and demand justice for Palestine. ■

Needed: An EU Push on Palestine Peace By Paul R. Pillar

A COMMON THEME in commentary about implications of the June 23 Brexit vote is that both the European Union and Britain will be so preoccupied with sorting out whatever will be Britain’s new relationship with Europe that they will have a deficit of energy and attention to devote to other matters. Paul Scham of the Middle East Institute applies this thought to diplomacy aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, writing that “it seems unlikely that the EU will be willing or able to focus on Israeli-Palestinian issues for the foreseeable future.” He

Paul R. Pillar was a CIA analyst for 28 years. He is currently a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonresident senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies, and a contributing editor to The National Interest. Copyright ©2016 The National Interest. All rights reserved.

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expects that members of the Israeli government are feeling relieved about that. He no doubt is right on that last point; the Israeli government does not want any diplomacy aimed at ending the occupation of Palestinian territory, and it has been fighting hard to defeat the recent initiative by the French on the subject. But although the general idea of limited time and attention is valid, there is more that the Europeans can, and should, do in making progress on other diplomatic matters, and on the IsraeliPalestinian matter in particular. Look beyond the discombobulation resulting from the British vote and one can see that the initial reactions to the shock of that Thursday probably have underestimated the ability of the Europeans to walk and chew gum at the same time. Moreover, it will sink in over the coming weeks that Britain might never actually leave the EU. Boris Johnson (the Conservative Party figure who was a lead supporter of the “Leave� campaign) has good reasons to be waffling the way he has since the vote. European statesmen also will be able to understand that it is in the best interests of the European project for them not just to sit and stew about the little Englanders. Now more than ever, with doubts being voiced about the future of that project, there is a need for activity that will restore a sense of commonality and momentum to Europe. The EU needs good projects that will show that Europe as a collective enterprise is robust enough that something like the

Brexit business will not screw up everything else. Vigorous diplomacy aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one such project. As a candidate for EU efforts it has several attractions. The need for progress on the subject is as evident as it has always been—on multiple grounds, including justice, human rights, stability, and the curbing of extremism. The United States is, despite some encouraging evolution of attitudes in recent years, still hamstrung by its internal politics and for that reason unlikely to function effectively as a fair-minded outsider. Looking ahead past the U.S. presidential election does not give basis for hope that the United States will play such a role any better than it is now. With the United States self-crippled on the issue, the European Union is the next best actor to step into the role. The EU already has been involved in diplomacy about the Israeli-Palestinian issue, including as a member of the so-called Quartet along with the United Nations, United States and Russia. And now with the initiative of France, one of the most important EU members, there is a ready-made current diplomatic vehicle for the EU as a whole to help drive. So get out of the funk about Brexit and get going on this, Europe; you have an opportunity to do yourself good when you especially need it, while also doing good about a problem on another continent that has caused grief for decades. â–

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Special Report

The Chilcot Report: Send Our War Criminals To the Hague Court

By Eric S. Margolis

THE CHILCOT REPORT on Britain’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, released July 6, was as polite and guarded as a proper English tea party. No direct accusations, no talk of war crimes by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair or his guiding light, President George W. Bush. But still pretty damning. Such government reports and commissions, as was wittily noted in the delightful program “Yes, Prime Minister,” are designed to obscure rather than reveal the truth and bury awkward facts in mountains of paper. And beneath mountains of lies. The biggest lie on both sides of the Atlantic was that the invasion and destruction of Iraq was the result of “faulty intelligence.” The Bush and Blair camps and the U.S. and British media keep pushing this absurd line. This writer, who had covered Iraq since 1976, was one of the first to assert that Baghdad had no so-called weapons of mass destruction, and no means of delivering them even if it did. For this I was dropped and blacklisted by the leading U.S. TV cable news network and leading U.S. newspapers. I had no love for the brutal Saddam Hussain, whose secret police threatened to hang me as a spy. But I could not abide the intense war propaganda coming from Washington and London, served up by the servile, mendacious U.S. and British media. The planned invasion of Iraq was not about nuclear weapons or democracy, as Bush claimed. Two powerful factions in Washington were beating the war drums: ardently pro-Israel neoconservatives who yearned to see an enemy of Israel destroyed, and a cabal of conservative oil men and imperialists around Vice President Dick Cheney who sought to grab Iraq’s huge oil reserves at a time they believed oil was running out. They engineered the Iraq war, as blatant and illegal an aggression as Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Britain’s smarmy Tony Blair tagged along with the war boosters in hopes that the UK could pick up the crumbs from the invasion and reassert its former economic and political power in the Arab world. Blair had long been a favorite of British neoconservatives. The silver-tongued Blair became point man for the

war in preference to the tongue-twisted, stumbling George Bush. But the real warlord was VP Dick Cheney. There was no “flawed intelligence.” There were intelligence agencies bullied into reporting a fake narrative to suit their political masters. And a lot of fake reports concocted by our Mideast allies like Israel and Kuwait. After the even mild Chilcot report, Blair’s reputation is in tatters, as it should be. How such an intelligent, worldly man could have allowed himself to be led around by the doltish, swaggering Bush is hard to fathom. Europe’s leaders and Canada refused to join the Anglo-American aggression. France, which warned Bush of the disaster he would inflict, was slandered and smeared by U.S. Republicans as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys.” In the event, the real monkeys were the Bush and Blair governments. Saddam Hussain, a former U.S. ally, was deposed and lynched. Iraq, the most advanced Arab nation, was almost totally destroyed. Up to one million Iraqis may have been killed, though the Chilcot report claimed only a risible 150,000. As Hussain had predicted, the Bush-Blair invasion opened the gates of hell, and out came al-Qaeda and then ISIS. The U.S. and British media, supposedly the bulwark of democracy, rolled over and became an organ of government war propaganda. Blair had the august BBC purged for failing to fully support his drive for war. BBC has never recovered. Interestingly, the news of the Chilcot investigation was buried deep inside The New York Times the following day. The Times was a key partisan of the war. So too The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and the big TV networks. Without their shameful connivance, the Iraq war might not have happened. Bush and Blair have the deaths of nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers on their heads, the devastation of Iraq, our $1 trillion war, the ever-expanding mess in the Mideast, and the violence that we wrongly blame on “terrorism” and so-called “radical Islam.” The men and women responsible for this biggest disaster in our era should be brought to account. As long as Bush and Blair swan around and collect speaking fees, we have no right to lecture other nations, including Russia and China, on how to run a democracy or rule of law. Bush and Blair should be facing trial for war crimes at the Hague Court. ■

The biggest lie was that the invasion and destruction of Iraq was the result of “faulty intelligence.”

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist, and author of American Raj: Liberation or Domination? (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2016. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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Special Report

The Syria “Dissent” Memo

By Gareth Porter

ARIS MESSINIS//AFP/GETTY IMAGES

cials are known to share their concerns.” The submission of the memo through the State Department’s “dissent channel” appears to have been a device to make it appear entirely independent of senior officials in the department. According to the State Department regulation on the “dissent channel,” it is to be used only when dissenting views “cannot be communicated in a full and timely manner through regular operating channels or procedures” or “in a manner which protects the author from any penalty, reprisal, or recrimination.” But there is no reason to believe that the officials in question had any problem in expressing their views on Obama’s Syria policy over the years. The names of the signatories were not included in the document published by The New York Times, but all 51 officials claimed to have been directly inA woman reacts as smoke rises from the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the volved in the making or implementation of Kurds, following a U.S.-led coalition strike, Oct. 13, 2014. Syria policy, according to the report. That would certainly encompass the vast majority of those who have THE JUNE MEMORANDUM by 51 State Department officials worked on Syria over the past five years. It is inconceivable that calling for U.S. military intervention in Syria has been treated in those officials have not participated in innumerable policy discusnews media coverage as a case of dissent from existing Syria sions on Syria in which their personal views were freely expressed. policy by individual officials involved in Syria policy. But the memo has all the earmarks of an initiative that had the THE KERRY LINE blessing of the most senior officials in the department—including Secretary of State John Kerry himself—rather than having The supposed dissenters knew very well, moreover, that Kerry been put together by individual officials entirely on their own. And has been advocating essentially the same policy they were articit may mark the beginning of an effort to take advantage of the ulating for years. Kerry began making the case for sending largepresidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. scale, heavy weapons to armed opposition groups and carrying The memo called for a “more militarily assertive U.S. role” in out cruise missile strikes against the Assad regime’s air force in the Syrian conflict in the form of “a judicious use of stand-off and 2013. He continued to advocate that military option in meetings air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused with the president, only to be rebuffed, according to the account and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.” That is precisely by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published in April. Obama bethe policy option that Secretary of State John Kerry has been came so irritated by Kerry’s recommendations for cruise missile widely reported to have championed privately for years. As the strikes in Syria that he decreed that only the secretary of defense story in The New York Times, which published the supposedly would be permitted to recommend the use of force. confidential memo, noted, “[H]igher-level State Department offiSince mid-2013, Kerry has been the leading figure in a politicalbureaucratic coalition favoring a more aggressive military and Gareth Porter, an independent investigative journalist, is winner of covert action role in Syria. The coalition also includes the CIA’s the 2012 Martha Gellhorn Prize and the author of Manufactured National Clandestine Services and civilian leaders in the PentaCrisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare (available from gon who are loath to see the United States cooperating with RusAET’s Middle East Books and More). Copyright © Middle East Eye 2016. All rights reserved. sia and relying on its military power in Syria. 24

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ISRAELI INTEL CHIEF: WE DON’T WANT ISIS DEFEATED IN SYRIA In a speech at the Herzliya Conference, Israel’s military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevy, took Israel’s long-standing position that it “prefers ISIS” over the Syrian government to a whole ’nother level, declaring openly that Israel does not want to see ISIS defeated in the war. Quoted in the Hebrew-language NRG site, linked to Maariv, Maj. Gen. Halevy expressed concern about the recent offensives against ISIS territory, saying that in the last three months the Islamist group was facing the “most difficult” situation since its inception and declaration of a caliphate. Israeli officials have regularly expressed comfort with the idea of ISIS conquering the whole of Syria, saying

The arguments made by the purported dissenters are in line with some of Kerry’s public talking points. Although he has not called for U.S. attacks on Assad’s forces explicitly, Kerry has strongly hinted that there is little or no hope for progress in the political talks on Syria without some U.S. leverage on Assad. The memo sounds the same theme: “While the regime maintains the advantage,” the authors aver, “an undeterred [Assad] will resist compromises sought by almost all opposition factions and regional actors.” Kerry frequently reiterates in public statements that the Islamic State (IS) cannot be defeated as long as Assad remains in power. The memo echoes his argument, asserting: “The prospects for rolling back Da’ish’s hold on territory are bleak without the Sunni Arabs, who the regime continues to bomb and starve.”

THE NUSRA QUESTION

The memo presents missile strikes as a way of responding to Assad’s “egregious violations of the cease-fire.” The idea that Assad is responsible for the breakdown of the cease-fire, which ignores the well-documented fact that many of the groups that Kerry calls the “legitimate opposition” openly sided with al-Nusra Front in deliberately and massively breaking the ceasefire, is also part of the Kerry State Department public posture. The memo never even mentions the problem of al-Nusra Front and the risk that the use of U.S. force AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

By Jason Ditz

they find it preferable to the Iran-allied government surviving the war. At the same time, they were never so overtly supportive of ISIS and its survival. Halevy went on to express concern that the defeat of ISIS might mean the “superpowers” leaving Syria, saying this would put Israel “in a hard position” after being so opposed to the survival of the Syrian government. He then said Israel will do “all we can so as to not find ourselves in such a situation,” suggesting that the Israeli military is looking at direct support for ISIS as a matter of policy, and not just rhetoric.

Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. Copyright © Antiwar.com 2016.

to change the military balance between the opposition and the regime would risk an ultimate victory by the jihadists. One point in the memo sounds very much like an argument intended to be leaked to the media in order to dramatize the case for war against the Assad regime. “None of us see or has seen merit in a large-scale U.S. invasion of Syria or the sudden collapse of existing Syrian institutions,” it says. Since no one in the administration is advocating a “large-scale U.S. invasion” or the “sudden collapse” of the Syrian state, that sentence was clearly calculated to influence public opinion rather than to convince anyone in the State Department of the need for the use of force. Kerry made no effort to hide his pleasure with the “Dissent Memo,” telling a reporter on June 20 that the memo was “good” and that he intended to meet with its authors. His spokesman John Kirby said he would not characterize Kerry’s comments as “indicative of a full-throated endorsement of his views” in the memo—an obvious hint that it was consistent with Kerry’s views. Kirby went on to say that the State Department is “discussing other alternatives, other options, mindful...that the current approach is, without question, struggling.” After Kerry’s meeting with 10 members of the group on June 21, Kirby refused to say whether Kerry agreed with the signatories, citing the need “to respect the confidentiality” of the “dissent channel” process.

CLINTON GROUP BACKS MEMO

The leak of the memo coincided with the advocacy of the same military option by a Washington think tank with ties to Hillary Clinton. On June 16, the very day The New York Times published the story of the leaked memo by State Department officials, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released a report on a study group on defeating the Islamic State that called for a U.S. policy to “threaten and execute limited strikes against the Assad regime,” to signal to Assad as well Russia and Iran that it is “willing to get more engaged.” The same report called for dispatching “several thousand” U.S. troops to Syria. The study group was co-chaired by CNAS co-founder Michele Flournoy, formerly third-ranked Defense Department official, although the report was written by lower-level CNAS staff members. Since leaving the Obama administration in 2009, Flournoy has been critical of its defense policy and is now regarded as the most likely choice for defense secretary in a Hillary Clinton administration. Clinton is clearly sympathetic to the military option in the leaked memo. The timing of the appearance of both documents immediately after Clinton had clinched the nomination suggests that the bureaucratic figures behind the push for a new war in Syria are seeking to take advantage of the Clinton presidential run to build public support for that option. ■

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Special Report

John Kerry, Angelina Jolie Speak at ADAMS On World Refugee Day

By Delinda C. Hanley

PHOTO COURTESY STATE DEPARTMENT

when we are the most respected and admired. That is when our word counts most internationally, and that is how we inspire others to work with us. “And when we are at our strongest, it is when we draw on our diversity as a people to find unity based on our common values and our larger identity. We are not strong despite our diversity; we are strong because of it,” Jolie declared. Special Representative to Muslim Communities Shaarik Zafar introduced Secretary of State John Kerry. Noting that ADAM’s Interfaith iftar is an annual event, this year it also coincided with World Refugee Day. “It also coincides with the humanitarian crisis of mammoth proportions that we are facing today,” Kerry pointed out. There are 65 million refugees today— “more than at any time in our history,” Kerry (Back row, l-r) Anne Richard, Shaarik Zafar, Angelina Jolie, John Kerry, Imam Mohamed said. “If you put them all together in one Magid and Rizwan Jaka welcome young Syrian refugees on World Refugee Day. place, one country, that would make up the 22nd largest country in the world.” SECRETARY OF STATE John Kerry and United Nations High In addition to the $5 billion of U.S. assistance to Syrian refugees Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy Angelina and annual contributions to refugees from other conflicts, Kerry said, Jolie attended an interfaith iftar along with 50 Syrian refugees to “The United States has pledged to increase the number of refugees mark World Refugee Day on June 20, at the All Dulles Area Musthat we resettle annually from 70,000 last year to 85,000 this year, lim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, VA. ADAMS serves more than Fiscal 2016, and aiming for 100,000 in the year from now.” 6,000 families (25,000 people) with 11 branches in Virginia and Kerry went on to say, “I am particularly focused on not just Washington, DC. writing checks every year, but on dealing with the crisis at its Anne Richard, assistant secretary of the State Department’s roots.” That means ending conflicts in Libya, Yemen and Syria. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, introduced An“Every war and every conflict actually reflects the failure of diplogelina Jolie, who has spent more than 15 years calling attention macy,” Kerry pointed out. “Every time we prevent a war or bring to the cause of refugees. “As citizens, we do not only want freean end to a conflict, we make it possible for people to live nordom and human rights for every single person in our society,” mally—not as a refugee, but in their own communities.” said the American actress, filmmaker and humanitarian. “We Turning to the controversy over admitting thoroughly vetted want that for every person in the world—upholding the ideal that Muslim refugees into the U.S., Kerry said, “There is absolutely all people are born equal and deserve equal rights and dignity.” no evidence, my friends—zero evidence—that refugees who Jolie reminded the audience, “It is how we treat the weakest or make it through this arduous process pose any greater threat to the most vulnerable among us that says the most about our comour society than the members of any other group. Let me be very mitment to human rights and equality and justice for all people. clear: Preventing any group from entering the United States “And when we are most clearly seen to truly stand for those solely because of their race or because of their nationality or bethings in the world, that is when we are safest as a nation. That is cause of a religious affiliation, is directly contrary to the very Delinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report. ideals on which our country was based.” 26

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Contribute to a “Welcome Wagon�

THE WASHINGTON REPORT urges readers to contribute to organizations helping refugees in the Middle East and others that are helping resettle refugees in the U.S., Canada or Europe. These organizations are providing vital shelter, food, health care and education. Members of mosques, churches, synagogues and other local organizations are gathering funds and volunteers to help our new arrivals, who need mentors, English classes, driving lessons, summer camps for kids, jobs and money. Not that long ago, in towns across America and in American communities abroad, a “Welcome Wagon� representative visited new neighbors and gave them information about their new community, household items to use until the movers arrived, and casseroles, cakes and cookies, and hugs. It’s up to us to help refugees settle into their new neighborhoods and show they are welcome here. If you’d like to bring some joy and comfort to refugee families, please mail or deliver in person loaded Metro cards, grocery and department store gift cards. Our bookstore and the Washington Report will collect your donations and deliver them directly to our social services contacts and volunAfter the applause, Kerry continued, “We believe in individual rights, not collective guilt. And we believe in judging people based on what they do, not the circumstances of their birth or their choice of sacred texts. Not only that, we need to remember that bigoted and hateful rhetoric toward Muslims plays right into the hands of the terrorist recruiters who propagate the lie that America is at war with Islam, when in fact there is no country on Earth where Muslims enjoy more freedom than in the United States of America.� After telling stories about individual refugees he’s met, Kerry continued, “The refugee story is about thousands and thousands of families who want their new neighbors to know that they are not the perpetrators of terror or violence, but rather people, people who yearn just like them only to live in security and peace. “Let me be clear: There is nothing ideological about coming to the aid of someone in need. In times of crisis, when the summons goes out, Americans have traditionally responded as one nation. Americans say, ‘Here we are. What can we do to help?’ That’s who we are. That is America at its best. And that is the America that AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

teers who are already helping refugees in the Washington metro area. There will be no administrative fees taken out of your donation. One Washington Report contributor told us she’d thrown a housewarming party for herself but asked friends to bring gifts for refugees instead of her! How about throwing a birthday or anniversary party and asking guests to bring new gifts for a “Welcome Wagonâ€?? Houses of worship are gathering new and used items (towels, bed linens, kitchenware, vacuums, bikes—for adults and kids—working TVs, iPads, computers [loaded with educational applications], car seats and toys) and delivering them to refugees. For now we ask you to send or deliver only gift cards or checks—not household items, although we may revisit that decision—to: Washington Report/Middle East Books and More• 1902 18th St. NW • Washington, DC 20009 (Checks should be made out to the American Educational Trust Library Endowment. You’ll receive a thank-you letter and a tax deduction. Write “refugeesâ€? on the memo line so we know it’s not for the magazine!)

we must restore and preserve in the years and months to come.â€? â–

Democratic Platform Continued from page 15

me because I sat in the airport for hours being grilled by people about why I was there and what I was doing. That was bad enough. But the treatment meted out to the people who live there is so much worse. They suffer horrific discrimination. We have to be able to call it what it is. It is an occupation that humiliates people; that breeds contempt; that breeds anger, and despair and hopelessness that leads to violence. All that we are asking you to do is accept the reality of the situation. There’s an Israel; the U.S. accepts it, supports it, wants to do everything for it. But there’s also a Palestinian people living under occupation, being drowned by settlements. And recognize what is happening to the people in Gaza. There is a dynamic going that we must understand. The Israelis may be insecure about the Palestinians but they are very secure about America. Palestinians are not

secure vis-à -vis Israel, and they are not secure vis-à -vis America either. We have never treated them fairly. In 1988 when we tried to call for mutual recognition, we could not get that done. We couldn’t even get the word Palestinians in the platform. Reality has moved way beyond just recognizing Palestinians are there. We need to hear their voices, understand their pain, and say that our Democratic Party understands that this is a conflict that must be resolved by respecting the rights of both peoples. [When the vote was taken, our amendment lost–8 to 5.] ■(Advertisement)

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Special Report

Syrian War Spills Over: Radical Salafis Attack Christian Village in Lebanon

By Juan Cole

JOSEPH EID/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

(ISIS, ISIL) to attack soft targets like noncombatants in a residential village. They also target nonSunni Muslims (as well as Sunni Muslims who don’t kowtow to them). Christians and Yezidis have been special targets, along with Shi’i Muslims. One of the bombs was set off near a church. Lebanon’s Shi’i militia, Hezbollah, condemned the attacks as the outgrowth of a hateful ideology that calls believers infidels, and pledged to combat terrorism. It condemned those Lebanese who secretly admired the Sunni Arab extremists. (Lebanon is probably about one-third Sunni Muslim.) Lebanese Shi’i and Christians at the moment tend to be politically aligned, both fearing the radical Salafi groups in Syria. Lebanon, with a population of about 4 million, hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees, though to date these displaced populations have been Lebanese Christians mourn over the coffin of a relative killed in a June 27 suicide attack peaceful. There are some 17,000 Syrian on the predominantly Christian village of al-Qaa, near the country’s border with Syria, refugees in the district of Mashari al-Qaa in June 29, 2016. which the village lies. Still, Beirut’s al-Nahar reports that locals are worried that the Syrian refugee camps near al-Qaa might be targeted A WAVE OF SUICIDE bombings was launched by four radical by the same terrorist groups that drove them from their homes. attackers in al-Qaa, a largely Christian Lebanese village on the Syrian refugees were banned from entering al-Qaa after the border with Syria, on June 27, killing 5 locals and wounding 15. attacks on Monday and were placed on curfew by Baalbak-HerThe first attacks came in the morning, but that evening a second mel Gov. Bashir Khidr. wave was launched, attacking the funeral for the victims of the The local population engaged in firefights with the invaders, morning bombing. Security forces were unable to prevent them. who blew themselves up and caused casualties among the resThe first of the bombers appears to have tried to infiltrate through idents. Their bodies were mangled beyond recognition, but the the Muslim quarter of the city, but local residents became suspicious bombs blew their heads off, which were all that remained of of him and opened fire on him, at which point he detonated his vest. them. Their features were still visible. Three of the four bombers This point is worth underlining. The first of the bombing attempts at were quickly identified as Syrians. a mostly Christian village was thwarted by Sunni Muslims. The evening attack on the funeral near the church did not kill The attack raised alarms in Lebanon about the Syrian civil war any locals but it is said that five were wounded. spilling over onto the country. This is not the first time a border Gen. Jean Kahwaji, commander of the Lebanese armed village has been attacked, though the Lebanese army and the forces, pledged that the army would deal with the terrorism threat Shi’i Hezbollah militia have had fair success, along with local poand would not be deterred from protecting Lebanon. lice, in keeping the terrorists out. The Lebanese military has deeply reduced the al-Qaeda and It is a typical way of operating, or modus operandi, of radical Da’ish presence at Arsal near the border with Syria, cutting it groups such as al-Qaeda in Syria (the Nusra Front) and Da’ish from 7,000 men to only 1,200 or so and much reducing the size Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History of the territory the guerrillas hold. at the University of Michigan. His latest book is the new arabs: Lebanon’s military was cut off from crucial Saudi aid in Februhow the Millenial generation is Changing the Middle east (availary because of its internal alliance with Hezbollah, but the U.S. able from AET’s Middle East Books and More).Copyright (c) 2016 informed Comment. All rights reserved. and other Western powers have rushed to prop it up. ■ 28

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Special Report

Ten Senators, 18 Representatives in 114th Congress’ “Hall of Fame” By Shirl McArthur WITH ELECTIONS approachHALL OF FAME ing, the Washington Report is Career Pro-Israel pleased to again present its Senate PAC Donations scorecard for the current Tammy (D-WI) $ 28,615 members of Congress. Issues Baldwin, Boxer, Barbara (D-CA) 279,044 60,400 were subjectively chosen to Carper, Thomas (D-DE) Franken, Al (D-MN) 52,180 demonstrate congressional King, Angus (I-ME) 17,000 145,911 support for, or harm to, U.S. Leahy, Patrick (D-VT)* Murphy, Chris (D-CT) 15,000 national interests in the Middle Sanders, Bernie (I-VT) 4,000 Tester, Jon (D-MT) 43,224 East. Warren, Elizabeth (D-MA) 7,500 Then-Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) in early 2015 invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address Congress, without informing the White House. In a blatant attack on President Barrack Obama, Netanyahu’s *Senators up for re-election in 2016 March 3, 2015 address was House an all-out effort to scuttle the Karen (D-CA) $ 3,500 Iran nuclear negotiations then Bass, Capps, Lois (D-CA) 40,723 12,000 under way. As a result, U.S.- Conyers, John (D-MI) DeFazio,Peter (D-OR) 18,600 Israel and U.S.-Iran relations Doggett, Lloyd (D-TX) 12,500 12,500 suddenly became strongly Edwards, Donna (D-MD) Ellison, Keith (D-MN) 11,000 p a r t i s a n i s s u e s . C o n s e - Grijalva, Raul (D-AZ) 15,500 40,561 quently, all members of this Gutierrez, Luis (D-IL) Johnson, Eddie Bernice (D-TX) 9,000 current Halls of Fame are De- Lee, Barbara (D-CA) 8,500 Jim (D-WA) 14,000 mocrats, and almost all mem- McDermott, McGovern, James (D-MA) 16,075 4,500 bers of the Halls of Shame are Moore, Gwen (D-WI) Pocan, Mark (D-WI) 8,000 Republicans. Price, David (D-NC) 69,327 16,500 For the House, five positive Welch, Peter (D-VT) Yarmuth, John (D-KY) 24,020 and five negative issues were chosen. Eighteen members registered in all five positive columns with no more than one negative mark, and they are shown in the “Hall of Fame.” The “Hall of Shame” lists the 23 House members who registered in four or five negative columns with no more than one positive mark. For the Senate, five positive and five negative issues were chosen. Ten senators registered in four or five positive columns with no more than one negative mark, and they are shown in the “Hall of Fame.” The “Hall of Shame” lists those 21 senators who registered in four or five negative columns with no positive mark.

Shirl McArthur is a retired U.S. foreign service officer based in the Washington, DC area. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

THE ISSUES

HOUSE: The Positives 1. Netanyahu Speech. Senate 51 Democratic and 1 Ayotte, Kelly (R-NH)* $ 49,555 Boozman, John (R-AR)* 16,000 Republican representaCardin, Benjamin (D-MD) 148,695 tives boycotted NetanCrapo, Mike (R-ID)* 56,500 Cruz, Ted (R-TX) 18,500 yahu’s address to ConFlake, Jeff (R-AZ) 23,250 gress, and 23 DemoGardner, Cory (R-CO) 6,000 Grassley, Chuck (R-IA)* 183,523 cratic representatives Hatch, Orrin (R-UT) 75,200 s i g n e d a l e t t e r t o Heller, Dean (R-NV) 23,000 Inhofe, James (R-OK) 135,800 Boehner urging him to Isakson, Johnny (R-GA)* 68,000 cancel the address. Kirk, Mark (R-IL)* 380,436 Moran, Jerry (R-KS)* 20,700 Those members are Murkowski, Lisa (R-AK)* 88,800 Portman, Rob (R-OH)* 37,500 recognized in Column Roberts, Pat (R-KS) 93,300 1. Rubio, Marco (R-FL)* 15,600 2. Pro-Diplomacy Schumer, Charles (D-NY)* 132,285 Scott, Tim (R-SC)* 34,800 L e t t e r . R e p . J a n Toomey, Patrick (R-PA)* 45,950 Schakowsky (D-IL) initiated a letter to Obama House urging him to “stay on Bishop, Mike (R-MI) $ 12,750 Curbelo, Carlos (R-FL) 27,000 c o u r s e ” t o w a r d a n DeSantis, Ron (R-FL) 8,500 agreement with Iran. Deutch, Ted (D-FL) 110,550 Dold, Robert (R-IL) 30,700 The 151 signers are Franks, Trent (R-AZ) 7,600 shown in Column 2. Johnson, Bill (R-OH) 1,000 3. No to Israel MOU. Lamborn, Doug (R-CO) 10,500 Lance, Leonard (R-NJ) 11,000 A resolution, H.Res. Lowey, Nita (D-NY) 235,623 McCaul, Michael (R-TX) 13,000 729, urging a new longMcSally, Martha (R-AZ) 2,500 term and “robust” memMeadows, Mark (R-NC) 1,000 Miller, Jeff (R-FL) 23,500 orandum of understandPerry, Scott (R-PA) 0 Poe, Ted (R-TX) 25,000 ing (MOU) regarding Roe, Phil (R-TN) 0 military aid to Israel was Roskam, Peter (R-IL) 33,200 Schweikert, David (R-AZ) 1,000 strongly pushed by Sherman, Brad (D-CA) 115,930 AIPAC, resulting in 270 Walorski, Jackie (R-IN) 13,700 Weber, Randy (R-TX) 0 co-sponsors. Those Zeldin, Lee (R-NY) 27,500 who resisted AIPAC’s pressure and have NOT co-sponsored the measure are recognized in Column 3. 4. Two-State Solution Letter. After Netanyahu said in an interview that no Palestinian state would be established while he is prime minister, 79 representatives, led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), signed a letter to Obama urging him to reaffirm longstanding U.S. policy of support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Signers of the letter are recognized in Column 4. 5. Two-State Solution Measure. Similarly, 48 representatives have co-sponsored H.Res. 686, supporting “a negotiated twostate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Co-sponsors of this measure are shown in Column 5.

HALL OF SHAME

Career Pro-Israel PAC Donations

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HOUSE: The Negatives 6. Iran Missile Tests. After Iran’s late2015 tests of medium-range ballistic missiles, congressional Iran-bashers produced at least one letter and three bills condemning the tests and urging punitive action against Iran. Signers and co-sponsors are shown in Column 6. 7. Iran Sanctions. Opponents of the Iran nuclear agreement continue to introduce sanctions measures, vainly hoping to derail the agreement. Two that seem to have gained the most support are H.Con.Res. 100 and H.R. 4448, both affirming the right of states to impose economic sanctions on Iran. Co-sponsors of at least one of these measures are shown in Column 7. 8. Anti-Israel Incitement. Another measure strongly promoted by AIPAC was H.Res. 293, introduced by leading Israelfirster Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). It expresses “concern over anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement within the Palestinian Authority.” In spite of AIPAC’s pressure, when passed the measure had only 71 co-sponsors. They are identified in Column 8. 9. Anti-Palestinian Measures. Several anti-Palestinian measures were introduced, including measures to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, to cut Palestinian aid, and to close the PLO office in the U.S. Co-sponsors of at least one of these measures are named in Column 9. 10. Anti-BDS Measures. At least five measures were introduced aimed at the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS) movement in Europe, but actually all are worded so as to effectively equate

SENATE: The Negatives F. Review Iran Agreement. In February 2015, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) introduced S. 615, the “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.” This comprehensive bill provides for extensive congressional oversight over the implementation of the Iran agreement. After being renamed as H.R. 1191, it was signed into law by Obama on May 22, 2015. When passed it had 67 cosponsors, shown in Column F. G. Iran Missile Tests. After the Iran missile tests in late 2015, at least four letters were sent to Obama expressing “concern,” and one bill was introduced to impose sanctions on Iran. Signers of at least one of these are named in Column G. H. Veto Anti-Israel Resolutions. S.Con.Res. 35 was introduced in April 2016 by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), saying that the U.S. should continue to veto antiIsrael resolutions of the U.N. Security Council. Its 15 co-sponsors are identified in Column H. I. Anti-BDS Measures. At least three measures were introduced aimed at the BDS movement in Europe. As with the House measures, all are worded so as to effectively equate Israel’s colonies on the West Bank with Israel. Co-sponsors of at least one of these measures are named in Column I. J. Cruz BDS Letter. In November 2015, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) initiated a remarkable letter to a vice president of the European Union urging the EU not to implement product-labeling rules regarding products made in Israel’s colonies in the West Bank. The letter says the rules would amount to “a de facto boycott of Israel,” which they do not. The letter’s 36 signers are shown in column J.

Israel’s colonies on the West Bank with Israel. Co-sponsors of at least one of these measures are named in Column 10.

SENATE: The Positives A. Netanyahu Speech. Eight senators boycotted Netanyahu’s speech. They are recognized in Column A. B. Pro-Diplomacy Measures. Two relatively moderate measures, S.Res. 40 and S. 669, were introduced regarding the Iran nuclear negotiations. Co-sponsors are recognized in Column B. C. Resolution of Disapproval. After the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action implementing the Iran nuclear agreement was submitted to Congress, the Senate acted on a Resolution of Disapproval. The resolution failed when 60 senators did not vote to close debate. All but four Democrats voted against the motion to close debate, and they are recognized in Column C. D. No to Israel MOU Letter. A Senate letter, originated by Sens. Chris Coons (DDE) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), urging a “substantially enhanced” new long-term MOU regarding military aid to Israel was sent to Obama in April 2016. After being strongly supported by AIPAC, the letter was signed by 83 senators. Those who resisted AIPAC’s pressure are recognized in Column D. E. Condemn Palestinians. In November 2015, the Senate passed S.Res. 302 expressing “support of Israel” and condemning “Palestinian terror attacks.” When passed it had 69 co-sponsors. Those NOT among its co-sponsors are recognized in Column E.

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8

Lieu, Ted (D) Lofgren, Zoe (D) X Lowenthal, Alan (D) Matsui, Doris (D) McCarthy, Kevin (R) McClintock, Tom (R) McNerney, Jerry (D) X Napolitano, Grace (D) Nunes, Devin (R) Pelosi, Nancy (D) Peters, Scott (D) Rohrabacher, Dana (R) Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D) Royce, Edward (R) Ruiz, Raul (D) Sanchez, Linda (D) Sanchez, Loretta (D) Schiff, Adam (D) Sherman, Brad (D) Speier, Jackie (D) Swalwell, Eric (D) Takano, Mark (D) X Thompson, Mike (D) X Torres, Norma (D) Valadao, David (R) Vargas, Juan (D) Walters, Mimi (R) Waters, Maxine (D) X Buck, Ken (R) Coffman, Mike (R) DeGette, Diana (D) X Lamborn, Doug (R) Perlmutter, Ed (D) Polis, Jared (D) Tipton, Scott (R) Courtney, Joe (D) DeLauro, Rosa (D) X Esty, Elizabeth (D) Himes, James (D) Larson, John (D) Norton, Eleanor Holmes (D) X Carney, John (D) Bilirakis, Gus (R) Brown, Corrine (D) X Buchanan, Vern (R) Castor, Kathy (D)

X X X X

Ant

Ant

i-Isr ael Inc

Iran

San ctio ns

Iran

tion 2-St ate Solu

Mis sile Tes ts

Let ter tion 2-St ate Solu

Isra el M OU

No to

1

-Dip Pro

lom acy Let ter

NEGATIVES

Net an

yah u Sp eec h

POSITIVES

Mea sure

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 5:28 PM Page 32

9

10

REPRESENTATIVES

California

Colorado

Connecticut

DC Delaware Florida

32

X X

X X X

X X X X X

X

X

X X X

X X X

X

X

X

X

X X X X X

X X X

X X X

X X X X X

X X

X

X

X

X X

X X

X

X

X

X X X

X X X

X

X X X

X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X X X X

X X

X X

X

X X X

X X X

X X

X X X

X

X

X X

X X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 7:59 PM Page 33

2-St ate Solu tion Let ter 2-St ate Solu tion Mea sure

Iran Mis sile Tes ts Iran San ctio ns

Ant i-Isr ael Inci tem ent Ant i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

HALL OF FAME. Appears in five positive columns with no more than one negative column. HALL OF SHAME. Appears in four or five negative columns with no more than one positive column.

NEGATIVES

Net any ahu Spe ech Pro -Dip lom acy Let ter No to I srae l MO U

POSITIVES HOUSE KEY:

1

4

6

8

2

3

5

7

X

X

X X X X X

9

10

X X X

X X X X X

REPRESENTATIVES

Florida

Georgia

Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois

Clawson, Curt (R) Crenshaw, Ander (R) Curbelo, Carlos (R) DeSantis, Ron (R) Deutch, Ted (D) Diaz-Balart, Mario (R) Frankel, Lois (D) Graham, Gwen (D) Grayson, Alan (D) Hastings, Alcee (D) Jolly, David (R) Mica, John (R) Miller, Jeff (R) Murphy, Patrick (D) Nugent, Rich (R) Posey, Bill (R) Rooney, Thomas (R) Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R) Ross, Dennis (R) Wasserman Schultz, Debbie (D) Webster, Daniel (R) Wilson, Frederica (D) Yoho, Ted (R) Allen, Rick (R) Bishop, Sanford (D) Carter, Earl (R) Collins, Doug (R) Graves, Tom (R) Hice, Jody (R) Johnson, Hank (D) X Lewis, John (D) X Loudermilk, Barry (R) Price, Tom (R) Scott, Austin (R) Scott, David (D) Westmoreland, Lynn (R) Woodall, Rob (R) Bordallo, Madeleine (D) Gabbard, Tulsi (D) Takai, Mark (D) Labrador, Raul (R) Simpson, Michael (R) Bost, Mike (R) Bustos, Cheri (D) Davis, Danny (D) X Davis, Rodney (R)

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

X X

X

X X X X X

X

X X X

X X

X X X

X X

X X

X X X

X

X

X X

X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X

X X

X X

X X

X X

X X X X

X

X X

X

X X

X

X X

X X

X X X

X

X

X

X X X

X X

X X X

X X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

X 33

ent i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

item i-Isr ael Inc

6

7

8

9

10

X

X

X

X

X

X

Ant

X

X X X

Ant

5

San ctio ns

4

Iran

3

Mis sile Tes ts

tion 2-St ate Solu

2

NEGATIVES

Iran

Let ter tion 2-St ate Solu

Isra el M OU

No to

lom acy Let ter Pro

1

-Dip

Net an

yah u Sp eec h

POSITIVES

Mea sure

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 5:28 PM Page 34

REPRESENTATIVES

Illinois

Dold, Robert (R) Duckworth, Tammy (D) Foster, Bill (D) Gutierrez, Luis (D) Hultgren, Randy (R) Kelly, Robin (D) Kinzinger, Adam (R) LaHood, Darin (R) Lipinski, Daniel (D) Quigley, Mike (D) Roskam, Peter (R) Rush, Bobby (D) Schakowsky, Janice (D) Shimkus, John (R) Indiana Brooks, Susan (R) Bucshon, Larry (R) Carson, Andre (D) Messer, Luke (R) Rokita, Todd (R) Stutzman, Marlin (R) Visclosky, Peter (D) Walorski, Jackie (R) Young, Todd (R) Iowa Blum, Rod (R) King, Steve (R) Loebsack, David (D) Young, David (R) Kansas Huelskamp, Tim (R) Jenkins, Lynn (R) Pompeo, Mike (R) Yoder, Kevin (R) Kentucky Barr, Andy (R) Guthrie, Brett (R) Massie, Thomas (R) Rogers, Harold (R) Whitfield, Ed (R) Yarmuth, John (D) Louisiana Abraham, Ralph (R) Boustany, Charles (R) Fleming, John (R) Graves, Garret (R) Richmond, Cedric (D) Scalise, Steve (R) Maine Pingree, Chellie (D) Poliquin, Bruce (R) Mariana IslandsSablan, Gregorio (D) 34

X

X

X X

X X X X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X X

X

X X X

X

X X

X X X X

X X X X

X

X X X

X

X X

X X

X X

X

X

X X

X

X

X X X X

X

X X

X X

X X X X X X

X X

X

X X

X

X X X X

X

X

X

X X

X

X

X X X

X X

X

X

X X X

X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 6:24 PM Page 35

2-St ate Solu tion Let ter 2-St ate Solu tion Mea sure

Iran Mis sile Tes ts Iran San ctio ns

Ant i-Isr ael Inci tem ent Ant i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

HALL OF FAME. Appears in five positive columns with no more than one negative column. HALL OF SHAME. Appears in four or five negative columns with no more than one positive column.

NEGATIVES

Net any ahu Spe ech Pro -Dip lom acy Let ter No to I srae l MO U

POSITIVES HOUSE KEY:

1

2

3

4

6

8

X

X X X

X

5

7

9

10

REPRESENTATIVES

Maryland

Cummings, Elijah (D) Delaney, John (D) Edwards, Donna (D) Harris, Andy (R) Hoyer, Steny (D) Ruppersberger, Dutch (D) Sarbanes, John (D) Van Hollen, Chris (D) MassachusettsCapuano, Michael (D) Clark, Katherine (D) Keating, William (D) Kennedy, Joseph (D) Lynch, Stephen (D) McGovern, James (D) Moulton, Seth (D) Neal, Richard (D) Tsongas, Niki (D) Michigan Amash, Justin (R) Benishek, Dan (R) Bishop, Mike (R) Conyers, John (D) Dingell, Debbie (D) Huizenga, Bill (R) Kildee, Daniel (D) Lawrence, Brenda (D) Levin, Sander (D) Miller, Candice (R) Moolenaar, John (R) Trott, David (R) Upton, Fred (R) Walberg, Tim (R) Minnesota Ellison, Keith (D) Emmer, Tom (R) Kline, John (R) McCollum, Betty (D) Nolan, Richard (D) Paulsen, Erik (R) Peterson, Collin (D) Walz, Timothy (D) Mississippi Harper, Gregg (R) Kelly, Trent (R) Palazzo, Steven (R) Thompson, Bennie (D) Missouri Clay, Wm. Lacy (D) Cleaver, Emanuel (D) Graves, Sam (R) AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X X X X X X X X X X

X

X X X X

X X X X

X X

X

X

X X X X

X

X X X X

X X X

X

X

X

X

X X X

X

X X X X X

X X

X X X

X X

X

X

X X

X X X

X

X X

X X X

X

X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X X X X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

35

ent i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

item

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Ant

Ant

i-Isr ael Inc

Iran

San ctio ns

Iran

tion 2-St ate Solu

Mis sile Tes ts

Let ter tion 2-St ate Solu

Isra el M OU

No to

1

-Dip Pro

lom acy Let ter

NEGATIVES

Net an

yah u Sp eec h

POSITIVES

Mea sure

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 5:28 PM Page 36

9

10

REPRESENTATIVES

Missouri

Hartzler, Vicky (R) Long, Billy (R) Luetkemeyer, Blaine (R) Smith, Jason (R) Wagner, Ann (R) Montana Zinke, Ryan (R) Nebraska Ashford, Brad (D) Fortenberry, Jeff (R) Smith, Adrian (R) Nevada Amodei, Mark (R) Hardy, Cresent (R) Heck, Joe (R) Titus, Dina (D) New Hampshire Guinta, Frank (R) Kuster, Ann (D) New Jersey Frelinghuysen, Rodney (R) Garrett, Scott (R) Lance, Leonard (R) LoBiondo, Frank (R) MacArthur, Tom (R) Norcross, Donald (D) Pallone, Frank (D) Pascrell, Bill (D) Payne, Donald (D) X Sires, Albio (D) Smith, Christopher (R) Watson Coleman, Bonnie (D) X New Mexico Lujan Grisham, Michelle (D) Lujan, Ben Ray (D) Pearce, Steve (R) New York Clarke, Yvette (D) Collins, Chris (R) Crowley, Joseph (D) Donovan, Dan (R) Engel, Eliot (D) Gibson, Chris (R) Hanna, Richard (R) Higgins, Brian (D) Israel, Steve (D) Jeffries, Hakeem (D) Katko, John (R) King, Peter (R) Lowey, Nita (D) Maloney, Carolyn (D) Maloney, Sean (D) Meeks, Gregory (D) X 36

X

X

X X

X X X X

X X

X

X

X

X X X X

X X

X X

X X

X X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

X

X

X X X

X X

X

X

X X

X X

X X

X X X X

X X X

X

X X

X

X

X X X

X X

X

X X

X X X X

X X

X

X X

X X X

X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 6:24 PM Page 37

2-St ate Solu tion Let ter 2-St ate Solu tion Mea sure

Iran Mis sile Tes ts Iran San ctio ns

Ant i-Isr ael Inci tem ent Ant i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

HALL OF FAME. Appears in five positive columns with no more than one negative column. HALL OF SHAME. Appears in four or five negative columns with no more than one positive column.

NEGATIVES

Net any ahu Spe ech Pro -Dip lom acy Let ter No to I srae l MO U

POSITIVES HOUSE KEY:

1

3

4

6

8

X

X X

2

5

7

9

10

REPRESENTATIVES

New York

Meng, Grace (D) Nadler, Jerrold (D) Rangel, Charles (D) Reed, Tom (R) Rice, Kathleen (D) Serrano, Jose (D) Slaughter, Louise (D) Stefanik, Elise (R) Tonko, Paul (D) Velazquez, Nydia (D) Zeldin, Lee (R) North Carolina Adams, Alma (D) Butterfield, G.K. (D) Ellmers, Renee (R) Foxx, Virginia (R) Holding, George (R) Hudson, Richard (R) Jones, Walter (R) McHenry, Patrick (R) Meadows, Mark (R) Pittenger, Robert (R) Price, David (D) Rouzer, David (R) Walker, Mark (R) North Dakota Cramer, Kevin (R) Ohio Beatty, Joyce (D) Chabot, Steve (R) Davidson, Warren (R) Fudge, Marcia (D) Gibbs, Bob (R) Johnson, Bill (R) Jordan, Jim (R) Joyce, David (R) Kaptur, Marcy (D) Latta, Robert (R) Renacci, James (R) Ryan, Tim (D) Stivers, Steve (R) Tiberi, Patrick (R) Turner, Michael (R) Wenstrup, Brad (R) Oklahoma Bridenstine, Jim (R) Cole, Tom (R) Lucas, Frank (R) Mullin, Markwayne (R) Russell, Steve (R) AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

X X

X X

X X

X

X

X X

X X

X X

X X

X X

X

X X

X X

X X X

X X

X X

X

X

X

X

X X X

X

X X X

X

X

X

X X X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X X

X X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X X X X X X

X X X

X

X X X X

X X X X

X X X

X X X

X

X X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X X X X

X

X WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

X X X

X X 37

ent i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

item

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

X

X X X

X

X X X

X

Ant

Ant

i-Isr ael Inc

Iran

San ctio ns

Iran

tion 2-St ate Solu

Mis sile Tes ts

Let ter tion 2-St ate Solu

Isra el M OU

No to

1

-Dip Pro

lom acy Let ter

NEGATIVES

Net an

yah u Sp eec h

POSITIVES

Mea sure

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 5:28 PM Page 38

9

10

X

X X

REPRESENTATIVES

Oregon

Blumenauer, Earl (D) Bonamici, Suzanne (D) DeFazio, Peter (D) Schrader, Kurt (D) Walden, Greg (R) Pennsylvania Barletta, Lou (R) Boyle, Brendan (D) Brady, Robert (D) Cartwright, Matt (D) Costello, Ryan (R) Dent, Charles (R) Doyle, Michael (D) Fattah, Chaka (D) Fitzpatrick, Michael (R) Kelly, Mike (R) Marino, Tom (R) Meehan, Patrick (R) Murphy, Tim (R) Perry, Scott (R) Pitts, Joseph (R) Rothfus, Keith (R) Shuster, Bill (R) Thompson, Glenn (R) Puerto Rico Pierluisi, Pedro (D) Rhode Island Cicilline, David (D) Langevin, James (D) South Carolina Clyburn, James (D) Duncan, Jeff (R) Gowdy, Trey (R) Mulvaney, Mick (R) Rice, Tom (R) Sanford, Mark (R) Wilson, Joe (R) South Dakota Noem, Kristi (R) Tennessee Black, Diane (R) Blackburn, Marsha (R) Cohen, Steve (D) Cooper, Jim (D) DesJarlais, Scott (R) Duncan, John (R) Fincher, Stephan (R) Fleischmann, Chuck (R) Roe, Phil (R) Texas Babin, Brian (R) Barton, Joe (R) Brady, Kevin (R) 38

X

X X

X X

X X

X

X X

X X X

X X X X

X X

X X

X

X X

X

X X

X X X

X X

X

X X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X X X

X

X

X X X X

X X X

X

X X X

X X

X

X X X X

X

X

X

X X

X X X X X X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

X

X X X X

X X

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 6:24 PM Page 39

2-St ate Solu tion Let ter 2-St ate Solu tion Mea sure

Iran Mis sile Tes ts Iran San ctio ns

Ant i-Isr ael Inci tem ent Ant i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

HALL OF FAME. Appears in five positive columns with no more than one negative column. HALL OF SHAME. Appears in four or five negative columns with no more than one positive column.

NEGATIVES

Net any ahu Spe ech Pro -Dip lom acy Let ter No to I srae l MO U

POSITIVES HOUSE KEY:

1

4

6

8

2

3

5

7

9

10

REPRESENTATIVES

Texas

Burgess, Michael (R) Carter, John (R) Castro, Joaquin (D) Conaway, K. Michael (R) Cuellar, Henry (D) Culberson, John (R) Doggett, Lloyd (D) Farenthold, Blake (R) Flores, Bill (R) Gohmert, Louie (R) Granger, Kay (R) Green, Al (D) Green, Gene (D) Hensarling, Jeb (R) Hinojosa, Ruben (D) Hurd, Will (R) Jackson Lee, Sheila (D) Johnson, Eddie Bernice (D) Johnson, Sam (R) Marchant, Kenny (R) McCaul, Michael (R) Neugebauer, Randy (R) Olson, Pete (R) O'Rourke, Beto (D) Poe, Ted (R) Ratcliffe, John (R) Sessions, Pete (R) Smith, Lamar (R) Thornberry, Mac (R) Veasey, Marc (D) Vela, Filemon (D) Weber, Randy (R) Williams, Roger (R) Utah Bishop, Rob (R) Chaffetz, Jason (R) Love, Mia (R) Stewart, Chris (R) Vermont Welch, Peter (D) Virgin Islands Plaskett, Stacey (D) Virginia Beyer, Don (D) Brat, Dave (R) Comstock, Barbara (R) Connolly, Gerald (D) Forbes, Randy (R) Goodlatte, Bob (R) Griffith, Morgan (R) AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

X X X

X X

X X

X

X

X X

X

X X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X X X

X

X

X

X X

X X X X X

X X

X X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X X

X X

X

X X X X X

X

X X X X

X X

X X

X

X X

X X X X X

X X X

X X X

X X

X X X

X

X

X X

X X X

X

X X

X

X X X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

X X 39

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 7:59 PM Page 40

ent i-Pa lest inia nM eas ure s Ant i-BD SM eas ure s

item

Iran

Ant

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Ant

Iran

i-Isr ael Inc

2-St ate Solu

San ctio ns

2-St ate Solu

tion

Mis sile Tes ts

Mea sure

Let ter tion

No to

1

-Dip Pro

Isra el M OU

lom acy Let ter

NEGATIVES

Net an

yah u Sp eec h

POSITIVES

9

10

REPRESENTATIVES

Virginia

Hurt, Robert (R) Rigell, Scott (R) Scott, Bobby (D) Wittman, Rob (R) Washington DelBene, Suzan (D) Heck, Denny (D) X Herrera Beutler, Jaime (R) Kilmer, Derek (D) Larsen, Rick (D) X McDermott, Jim (D) X McMorris Rodgers, Cathy (R) Newhouse, Dan (R) Reichert, David (R) Smith, Adam (D) X West Virginia McKinley, David (R) Mooney, Alex (R) Wisconsin Duffy, Sean (R) Grothman, Glenn (R) Kind, Ron (D) Moore, Gwen (D) X Pocan, Mark (D) X Ribble, Reid (R) Ryan, Paul (R) Sensenbrenner, James (R) Wyoming Lummis, Cynthia (R)

X X X

X X

X X

X

X X

X X

X X X

X

X X X X

X X X

X X

X X X X

X X X X

X X

X X

X X X

X X

sure

s

Res olut ions Ant i-

Cru

F

G

H

I

J

S Le z BD

BDS

iew

dem n

l MO

Mea

Veto Ant i-Isr ael

E

issi Iran M

D

Iran Rev

le T ests

Agr eem ent

ns tini a Con

Pale s

tter

Isra e

C

U Le

Res olut ion of

B

lom -Dip Pro

A

ahu Net any

acy

Disa ppr ova l

s sure Mea

ech Spe

NEGATIVES

tter

X X X

SENATE KEY:

HALL OF SHAME. Appears in four or five negative columns and no positive columns.

X

X

POSITIVES HALL OF FAME. Appears in four or five positive columns and no more than one negative column.

X

SENATORS

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California 40

Sessions, Jeff (R) Shelby, Richard (R) Murkowski, Lisa (R) Sullivan, Dan (R) Flake, Jeff (R) McCain, John (R) Boozman, John (R) Cotton, Tom (R) Boxer, Barbara (D) Feinstein, Dianne (D)

X

X

X X X X X X

X X

X X

X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

X X

X X X X X X X

X X X

X X X

X X X X

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 7:59 PM Page 41

Res olut ions

A

F

G

X X X

X X X X

X X X X X

X X X X X

X X X

X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

X X X X

B

C

D

E

Ant i-BD SM eas ure s Cru z BD S Le tter

HALL OF SHAME. Appears in four or five negative columns and no positive columns.

Veto Ant i-Isr ael

HALL OF FAME. Appears in four or five positive columns and no more than one negative column.

Rev iew Iran Agr eem ent Iran Mis sile Tes ts

SENATE KEY:

NEGATIVES

Net any ahu Spe ech Pro -Dip lom acy Mea sure s Res olut ion of D isap pro val Isra el M OU Let ter Con dem n Pa lest inia ns

POSITIVES

H

I

J

X X X

X X X

X X X

X X

SENATORS

Colorado

Bennet, Michael (D) Gardner, Cory (R) Connecticut Blumenthal, Richard (D) Murphy, Christopher (D) Delaware Carper, Thomas (D) Coons, Chris (D) Florida Nelson, Bill (D) Rubio, Marco (R) Georgia Isakson, Johnny (R) Perdue, David (R) Hawaii Hirono, Mazie (D) Schatz, Brian (D) X Idaho Crapo, Mike (R) Risch, James (R) Illinois Durbin, Richard (D) Kirk, Mark (R) Indiana Coats, Dan (R) Donnelly, Joe (D) Iowa Ernst, Joni (R) Grassley, Chuck (R) Kansas Moran, Jerry (R) Roberts, Pat (R) Kentucky McConnell, Mitch (R) Paul, Rand (R) Louisiana Cassidy, Bill (R) Vitter, David (R) Maine Collins, Susan (R) King, Angus (I) Maryland Cardin, Benjamin (D) Mikulski, Barbara (D) Massachusetts Markey, Edward (D) Warren, Elizabeth (D) X Michigan Peters, Gary (D) Stabenow, Debbie (D) Minnesota Franken, Al (D) X Klobuchar, Amy (D) Mississippi Cochran, Thad (R) Wicker, Roger (R) Missouri Blunt, Roy (R) McCaskill, Claire (D) Montana Daines, Steve (R) Tester, Jon (D) Nebraska Fischer, Deb (R) Sasse, Ben (R) Nevada Heller, Dean (R) Reid, Harry (D)

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

X X X

X X

X X X X X

X X

X X

X X

X

X

X X

X

X X

X

X

X X X X X X X X

X

X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X

X X X X X

X

X

X

X X

X X

X X

X X X

X

X

X

X X

X X X

X X

X

X

X

X X X X

X X X X

X X X X

X

X X

X

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

41

mcarthur_halls_29-42_Special Report 7/14/16 5:28 PM Page 42

Ant

Cru z

BDS Let ter

Veto Ant i-Isr ael

i-BD SM eas ure s

Res olut ions

t Iran

Mis sile Tes ts

Rev iew Iran A

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mondoweiss-ad_43 August/September 2016 Mondoweiss Ad 7/14/16 3:48 PM Page 43

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williams_44-45_United Nations Report 7/14/16 5:34 PM Page 44

United Nations Report

Israel Wins Chairmanship of U.N. Legal Committee, Will Seek Security Council Seat

By Ian Williams

U.N. PHOTO/ESKINDER DEBEBE

ple—not wanting to be associated with Israeli crimes—but it was also professional jealousy, so they insisted that Israel would not actually get nominated for important positions. Hard work and the adoption of pro-Israel positions by conservatives all over Europe bore fruit this year, when Israel secured WEOG’s nomination for chair of the U.N.’s Sixth Committee, the Legal Committee. It then went on to win the position in a secret ballot. It was well managed. WEOG usually has contested positions, and so it put up stalking horse candidates to make it look like a contest. Clearly the fix was in, however, and so Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon became chairman of the U.N.’s Legal Committee. His opposition to the U.N.’s mandated two-state solution and his support for Israel’s continued U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits an UNRWA school in Gaza, June 28, 2016. occupation of most of the West Bank, not to mention illegal settlements, might make that anomalous anywhere else, but in this EVEN THOUGH, ON one level, Israeli contempt for the U.N. and political atmosphere King Herod could become director general international law knows no bounds, we have written before about of UNICEF with the right backing. their desperate deep psychological need for the organization’s To pile it on, forthcoming will be Israel’s bid for a seat in the approval and to abuse the body’s prestige. Security Council. The election will take place in 2018, and conAt the end of May, the Israeli Mission chose the U.N. General tending already for two WEOG seats are Germany and BelAssembly Hall as the venue for a daylong “Building Bridges Not gium. Needless to say, Tel Aviv’s message to Germany has Boycotts conference,” which was essentially a rally of pro-Israel been, “Thanks for all the submarines and the cash. But how organizations on how to stop the Boycott, Divestment and Sancdare you stand against Israel with your record!” The Germans tions (BDS) movement. It is somewhat odd that the U.N. would are not, so far, going quietly into that good night. After all, they host a rally against efforts to enforce its decisions on the illegal(and many other countries) think they deserve a permanent seat ity of occupation and settlements, but one has to appreciate the there, and residual guilt will not hold up against realpolitik in the inexorable pressure on officials from the U.S. and other allies. country that invented it. In fact, WEOG often breaks out of the For example, several years ago, when Israel secured tempocozy rotation system for U.N. offices and has contested elecrary admission to the “West European and Other Group” tions, and Israel’s behavior is not such as to inspire European (WEOG), many of the Europeans were very upset, and only acsentimentality on the issue! quiesced because of American pressure. Partly it was princiBut once again, the odd scofflaw complementarity works. Security Council members often have included countries like InIan Williams is a free-lance journalist based at the United Nations who blogs at <www.deadlinepundit.blogspot.com>. donesia, occupying East Timor, and Morocco, occupying Western 44

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

williams_44-45_United Nations Report 7/14/16 5:34 PM Page 45

Sahara. In one sense, it is only fair to let Israel share in the breathtaking hypocrisy. Perhaps that ability was rarely so well shown as with the Middle East Quartet. While the Quartet has been much improved since former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was squeezed out from the special representative sinecure that his grateful chums in Washington had secured for him, on the other hand it still has all the marks of its origins—which were an attempt to defang Russia, the EU and the U.N. on the Palestinian question by binding them into a consensus with the U.S., which is of course bound in that strange masochistic relationship with Israel. However, considering how toothless Russia, the U.N. and the EU had become on the question, one did wonder why all the effort and showmanship was necessary. A critical part of the equation is the Israeli and American need to buffer and neutralize the clear statements of international and binding resolutions of the United Nations that are explicitly accepted and supported by all but one and a half nations in the world. And even the U.S. and Israel nominally accept them—they just do not accept their enforcement. The U.S., as a founder of the United Nations, knows that the resolutions are binding but finds it politically inexpedient, for domestic reasons, to try to enforce them on the U.S. So the effort is to browbeat the Palestinians into voluntarily abandoning their rights in bilateral negotiations with Israel in an unbalanced settlement that would then be ratified by the U.N. So far, there is enough of a residual sense of legality and anti-colonial solidarity in the U.N. to ensure that it would not ratify a settlement without the assent of the Palestinians. In a sense, the Palestinians are lucky they don’t have a fully recognized and functioning state, because if they did someone would have arranged a coup and a complaisant regime to put its seal on the surrender. Nevertheless, the basic pattern remains. The Quartet allegedly monitors progress on the famous Road Map that got lost in the glove compartment almost immediately, while the Israelis do their own thing and AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

continually complain about the Palestinians’ inability to respond positively, indeed rhapsodically, to land grabs, demolitions, killings and imprisonment. History has many examples of heavily armed bullies vilifying those they persecute, but Israel and its supporters are surely unique in complaining about the ingratitude of the Palestinians for their treatment. Long overdue, a certain tone of exasperation is appearing in the statements of the various Quartet components.

EXASPERATED QUARTET MEMBERS

Ban Ki-moon’s exasperation was evident in his statement on the Quartet’s report in July, but he at least upheld the U.N.’s legitimacy and cited the Quartet’s pledge “to actively support an end to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict on the basis of United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).� He also reiterated that “a negotiated two-state outcome that meets Israeli security needs and creates a sovereign Palestinian state, ends the occupation that began in 1967, and resolves all permanent status issues is the only way to achieve an enduring peace.� And we can see how chastened Israel was after the Quartet had wagged three and half fingers at it. Ban immediately had to criticize Israel’s announcement of 560 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, as well as moves to build 240 housing units in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. “This raises legitimate questions about Israel’s long-term intentions, which are compounded by continuing statements of some Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank,� which of course have included demands by the current Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon. A frustrated Ban in his statement reiterated “that settlements are illegal under international law and urges the Government of Israel to halt and reverse such decisions in the interest of peace and a just final status agreement.� He was “deeply disappointed that this announcement comes only four days after the Middle East Quartet called on Israel to cease its policy of settlement construction and expansion.�

But at least Ban is not out on a limb: even Russia was upset by Israel’s indecorous finger to the Quartet, saying, "Moscow is seriously worried over new settlement projects in occupied Palestinian territories." The Foreign Ministry added that "Such settlements are illegal under the international law and are not recognized by the international community." The plans "run counter to the report of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators that was made public on July 1," the Russian statement complained, "Along with inadmissibility of violence and incitement to violence, the report strongly recommends to stop construction and expansion of settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.� So what will be done about it? As we go to press, the current U.S. president is haggling about how big the next arms aid deal for Israel will be, and the two contenders for his position will be seeing by how much they can inflate it. Rule of Law, anyone? ■(Advertisement)

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

45

sprusansky_46_Special Report 7/14/16 5:36 PM Page 46

Special Report

Obama’s New Executive Order Increases Drone Transparency, Official Says

Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. ON JULY 1, PRESIDENT Barack Obama signed an executive order that aims to lower the number of civilian casualties caused by U.S. military operations and provide greater transparency as to how the U.S. government is exerting its military power abroad. Under the executive order, all government departments and agencies will have to sustain and implement “best practices” designed to protect civilians living in areas where U.S. force is being used. Among the practices this order institutionalizes are: seeking the assistance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross, that can help distinguish between combatants and civilians; acknowledging U.S. government responsibility for civilian casualties; and offering condolences and ex gratia payments to civilians who have been injured, or to the families of those who have been killed. Perhaps more interestingly, the executive order also—for the first time—requires the director of national intelligence (DNI) to release an annual summary of counter-terrorism strikes conducted by the government outside areas of active combat (such as drone strikes in Yemen and Libya). This report will also share how many combatants and non-combatants were killed as a re-

Dale Sprusansky is assistant editor of the Washington Report. 46

STAFF PHOTO D. SPRUSANSKY

By Dale Sprusansky

sult of these strikes. In conjunction with the executive order, the Obama administration made public government figures on counter-terrorism strikes (most of which were carried out by drones). According to the DNI, 473 strikes have taken place outside areas of hostile activities between Jan. 20, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2015. These strikes, the government says, killed 2,372 to 2,581 combatants and 64 to 116 non-combatants. This range of civilian deaths is significantly lower than those released by independent reports, which have found that 200 to 1,000 innocent civilians have been killed by U.S. strikes. Speaking at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC on July 6, Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, acknowledged and explained this discrepancy. “I think it’s very important to stress that we are not trying to get into an argument with conscientious people who have come out with different estimates,” Malinowski said. “We feel that we, the U.S. government, have a unique vantage point on these strikes. There are things we see because we are the ones conducting the strikes that people outside the U.S. government do not see. “At the same time,” Malinowski continued, “we know that NGOs that have access to the places where these strikes take place—where we often do not have access—also have a unique vantage point, and they also sometimes see things that we do not see. So it’s not surprising that people looking at the same event from two different vantage points would come to different conclusions.” Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), also spoke at the Stimson event and said she believes the government could have been more transparent in its release of civilian casualty figures. In particular, she asked why the administration released an aggregate number of casualties from 2009-2015 instead of listing the number of casualties by year. “It’s hard to see why those numbers couldn’t have been broken down further, at least on an annualized basis,” she said. The lack of basic details such as year and location makes it hard for independent groups to verify or crosscheck the government’s figures, Shamsi noted. The government, she lamented, is basically asking the public to simply accept its numbers. “It is presented as, ‘we have more information, we can’t tell you that information, but trust us,’” she said. Continued on p. 48

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

hanley-saudidelegates_47-48_Special Report 7/14/16 5:40 PM Page 47

Special Report

Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Delegation: Full of Confidence and Hope

By Delinda C. Hanley

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

SAUDI ARABIA’S DEPUTY Crown Prince/Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman visited Washington, DC, the Silicon Valley and New York in June, accompanied by a high-level delegation. The 30year-old prince is the son of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and third in line for the throne after his cousin, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. The purpose of Mohammed bin Salman’s official U.S. visit was to hold talks and explore investment opportunities, according to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, the Kingdom’s former ambassador to the U.S. The prince is also the head of the new Council of Economic and Development Affairs, which recently published a 112-page National Transformation Program proposing sweeping changes in the Saudi gov(L-r) Tawfiq Alkhalifa, Lina K. Almaeena, Dr. Thuraya Al-Areedh, Dr. Ghadah Alghunaim and ernment. As he traveled across the U.S., Abdullah Alakeel, information officer for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. the confident young prince talked about nology to help push the National Transformation Program forthe Saudi Vision 2030, an economic diversification and reform ward. The plan will train and employ tech-savvy young Saudis plan designed to reduce the Kingdom’s reliance on fluctuating who already are some of the most impressive users of social oil revenue and establish a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. media in the world. The prince met with State Department officials including Sec“The young dynamic prince represents 70 percent of our popretary of State John Kerry, defense, security and intelligence ofulation—the youth,” said delegation member Lina Almaeena, the ficers, members of Congress, and President Barack Obama at young co-founder and CEO of Jeddah United Sports, the first the White House. They discussed joint military, economic and local sports company in Jeddah. “We believe in him and his new security issues, including the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, as sophisticated vision to transform our nation and steer it away well as the campaign against Da’ish, or ISIS. from oil dependency. The true engine of our country is manIn New York, Prince Mohammed met with United Nations Secpower—as well as employed women,” she said. Just look at the retary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss a recent U.N. report which delegation he chose to accompany him. It includes a lot of young blamed the Saudi-led coalition’s air campaigns for 60 percent of people and women, Almaeena pointed out: “This is evidence that child deaths and injuries in Yemen. According to an official U.N. he intends the inclusion of all ages and both genders.” statement, the two discussed “putting into place concrete meaDr. Ghadah Alghunaim, general director in charge of Internasures that could improve the situation on the ground” to better tional Cooperation for the Educational Evaluation Commission, protect children and civilians in Yemen. The prince also met with told the Washington Report, “I believe we are entering into a new Six Flags CEO John Duffey, which may indicate entertainment era fueled by a new generation.” Remarking on the prince’s new facilities are in the works for families and children in the Kingdom. plans, Dr. Alghunaim reckoned: “I am living the vision.” When AlOn the West Coast, Prince Mohammed met with CEOs of tech ghunaim returned home with her Ph.D. in 2014, she discovered companies, hoping to attract investment capital and new techshe was overqualified for most jobs and was unemployed. Then she was hired to help evaluate and reform her country’s educaDelinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. tion system. “My country asked me to be part of the change,” she AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

WAShinGTon REPoRT on MiddlE EAST AffAiRS

47

hanley-saudidelegates_47-48_Special Report 7/14/16 5:40 PM Page 48

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

As the female delegates waited in the lobby of the Willard Hotel for the bus to take them on to their next meeting, several women attending a Daughters of the American Revolution function approached to chat. Only days after the Orlando nightclub shooting, this writer worried about an encounter between hijab-wearing Muslims and conservative Americans bedecked with flowered hats, pins and medals. I should have had more faith in my countrywomen. The said. “It’s a gift—and 80 percent of the others in our commission are my age.” Asked if there is pushback from older, more conservative Saudis, she admitted that around 30 percent of the population does not want change. “But we make more noise,” she said, with a grin. Thanks to Saudi Arabia’s generous scholarship programs, huge numbers of young people have been exposed to many cultures around the world. They’ve returned with different points of view. Many, like Alghunaim, discover that their greatest supporters are their own parents. “My father says I can do anything,” Alghunaim mused. “He thanks God our government supports his vision for me.” When Alghunaim and the rest of the 60member delegation met the prince, who is only three years older than she is, she said, “I felt he was speaking directly to me. He has the same thoughts and ideas I’ve dreamed about. He’s the real deal. He

DAR ladies welcomed the Saudis to America. Al-Areedh got into a fascinating discussion on genealogy, mentioning that it is simpler in Saudi Arabia because married women don’t change their names. One DAR member said she was from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Al-Areedh joyfully cried, “I’m a Tar Heel, too!” and explained to this bewildered reporter that she’d received her Ph.D. from Chapel Hill. —D.C.H.

asked for our opinions and said we should brainstorm. We’ll either succeed or fail. He asked for help to succeed. I’m very optimistic now.” The Washington Report asked another delegate, Tawfiq Alkhalifa, editor-in-chief of Exclusive, a Saudi Arabian online newspaper, what headline he’d choose for the prince’s official U.S. visit. “The Beginning of Hope,” he replied with alacrity, adding he’d illustrate his article with the face of a young Saudi girl. “We are very proud of our daughters,” Alkhalifa said. “There are a million young women like Ghadah [Alghunaim].” Another delegate, poet, writer and member of the Shura Council Dr. Thuraya AlAreedh, noted, “Every society needs to feel hope for the future. Some older people may feel skeptical or pessimistic but they, too, want to embrace and support the young leader. He has tied every sector to his vision for a healthy future. Every aspect of society has to shift.” ■

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A PProject roject of Middle East Children’s Children’s Alliance

48

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Drone Transparency Continued from page 46

Shamsi also pointed out that these figures appear to use the government’s broad definition of who constitutes a combatant. Under international law, only those who are directly participating in hostilities may be targeted, she noted. However, the U.S. has unilaterally expanded the definition of combatant to include people who are members of an armed group or are “targetable in the exercise of national self-defense.” Washington’s nebulous definition of who constitutes a combatant is emblematic of the secretive and legally questionable manner in which the country has conducted its drone war, Shamsi said. Thus, while she views the July 1 executive order as a positive step, she stressed that much more progress needs to be made, and that broader questions about the legality and morality of the U.S. drone campaign remain. Malinowski sought to alleviate the concerns of Shamsi and other observers by conveying that the president is not resting on the laurels of this executive order. “All of this is a work in progress,” he said. “This is a step forward for transparency; I think there will be more steps forward.” Malinowski also urged critics to appreciate the historical importance and the breadth of this executive order. “It represents the first national policy we’ve ever had for the prevention and mitigation of civilian casualties,” he said. “The executive order applies to all of our military operations around the world, with drone programs only being a very small subset of that.” ■ AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

howe_49-50_Special Report 7/14/16 7:25 PM Page 49

Special Report

PHOTOS M. HOWE

Algeria’s Resilient Press

By Marvine Howe

Algerian entrepreneur Issad Rebrab (l) and Communications Minister Hamid Grine.

WHAT STARTED OUT this spring as a business deal to save a financially strapped newspaper group has escalated into a national movement to defend freedom of the press in Algeria. While most of the media are generally pro-government, even the acquiescent press is often critical of official failings. Despite severe financial constraints, a handful of newspapers and television stations remain steadfastly independent. As a result, the press is remarkably open and vibrant in this secretive, authoritarian state. Despite official assurances of press freedom, an Algiers court on July 13 blocked the $45 million purchase of El Khabar, the leading independent Arabic newspaper, and its KBCTV channel by the country’s wealthiest private entrepreneur. El Khabar’s lawyers, who withdrew earlier in protest against “the parody of justice,” said they would appeal the decision to the Council of State. The current showdown between the authorities and the independent press comes at a particularly sensitive juncture. This oiland gas-producing country faces serious financial problems because of low prices, increased security threats at its borders, and political uncertainty with behind-the-scene jockeying for the succession to gravely ill four-term President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (see June/July 2014 Washington Report, p. 30).

Marvine Howe, former New York Times bureau chief in Ankara, is the author of Al Andalus Rediscovered: Iberia’s New Muslims and Other Minorities. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

The El Khabar (“The News”) Affaire has stirred nationwide protests, sit-ins and denunciations. Thousands of people have signed petitions of solidarity with the embattled newspaper group, and their names appeared daily in the independent press. Any infringement on the freedom of a news organ tends to stir an emotional response in Algeria, where more than a hundred journalists died in the struggle against terrorism during “the black years,” from the early 1990s to The Reconciliation in 2005. Cherif Rezki, director general of El Khabar, describes the newspaper’s policy as “democratic, republican and very independent vis à vis politics, religion and money.” During a recent interview in his office in the Algiers suburb of Hydra, the stocky, veteran journalist said El Khabar had been boycotted by the government since 1998, but had thrived in early 2004-05 with a daily circulation of about 600,000, reaching a peak of 1.5 million during the 2009 AlgerianEgyptian World Cup soccer match. Since then, the press has suffered a gradual decline in readership and private advertising, but El Khabar held its own. In 2014, Rezki continued, El Khabar had higher losses than expected with its new TV venture, because the communications minister pressured private companies to withdraw advertising from the independent media. Thus, the owners of the El Khabar group (18 journalists) solicited financial help from Issad Rebrab, the very independent chief of Cevital, a vast conglomerate encompassing agribusinesses, household appliances, automobile and other industries, which publishes the outspoken Frenchlanguage daily Liberté. Agreement was reached in April, with an af-

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

49

howe_49-50_Special Report 7/14/16 7:25 PM Page 50

filiate of Cevital purchasing 85 percent of the shares of El Khabar. “It was all settled, registered, notarized and taxes paid,” Rezki recalls, emphasizing that there was no opposition. Nevertheless, several weeks later the Communications Ministry announced it would go to court to seek the nullification of the El Khabar deal as a violation of the law on monopolies. Shortly afterward, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal announced the decision “to clean up the audio-visual sector,” with specific reference to 50 private offshore television channels authorized to open temporary bureaus in Algeria in 2013. While the two actions were apparently unrelated, together they were viewed as a clear threat to the unsubdued media. Communications Minister Hamid Grine denies that the authorities are engaged in a new clampdown on the media and accused “certain parties of politicizing the affair.” The minister, a former journalist, told the Washington Report that the El Khabar case was “purely a business matter.” Questioned about pro-government media groups, the minister said their titles were merely French translations of the Arabic, whereas Rebrab had purchased two different newspapers. As for what he called “pirate” television channels, Grine claimed many were engaged in “political or religious subversive activities.” He indicated that all the private channels would be closed and required to apply for accreditation from a regulatory agency to be set up shortly. “We have the freest press in Africa and the Arab world,” the minister boasted, specifying there were no journalists in jail and newspapers are not seized very often. “The only red lines the press cannot cross are: the defense of terrorism, disclosure of state secrets and an attack on the president.” In fact, it was the head of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), Amar Saadani, who politicized the El Khabar case with a ferocious attack against the popular daily and its new owner, Rebrab, charging they were part of a “lobby” aimed at restoring power to several generals recently forced into retirement. He also tar-

geted the independent French-language daily El Watan and its courageous reporter Salima Tlemcani, as well as an El Khabar journalist and the head of the small Workers’ Party, calling them all “tentacles of an octopus.” His troubling image was widely interpreted as a reference to the ousted head of Intelligence Services, Gen. Mohamed Mediene. “This octopus, who once named presidents, ministers, ambassadors and directors, today cannot appoint a petty chef de commune, but is laying the groundwork for presidential elections,” Saadani told a gathering of party militants. “It isn’t Issad Rebrab who wants to buy El Khabar, but

pressures on advertisers, Rabrab said he had seen it as “our duty to preserve the group’s independence.” Much of the interview with this self-made magnate was devoted to his industrial achievements and numerous investment plans blocked by the government, such as the ambitious Cap Djinet port project, including a petrochemical complex, power plant, steel mill and desalinization plant. Noting the depletion of oil and gas revenue and rapid population growth, Rebrab predicted “grave social problems” unless radical and profound economic and social reforms are undertaken immediately. In a new assault on the independent-minded businessman, the minister of mines and energy barred Rebrab from participating in the Algero-British Forum that he had co-sponsored, and prevented him from giving a news conference on an accord with the multinational firm Clarke Energy for the installation of two new power plants. Undaunted, the industrialist took to Facebook and Twitter to offer a way out of the El Khabar crisis. “To show I have no political ambition except the economic development of Algeria, my group Cevital is ready to place the majority of its shares in El Khabar on the Algiers stock market. All Algerians who defend freedom of expression will be able to become shareholders.” But the authorities were in no mood for an amicable solution. In a clear campaign of harassment against the independent media, two executives of KBCTV satirical talk shows were placed under pre-trial detention over filming permits, along with the official issuing them; a free-lance journalist was sentenced to two years in prison for posting a poem on Facebook considered “insulting to the president and state institutions”; and El Watan was barred from moving into its new premises because of alleged building code infractions. A score of international NGOs have denounced the increased attacks on the media, and the Algerian League for Human Rights issued a vibrant appeal to the president to ensure constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression. ■

Thousands of people have signed petitions of solidarity with the embattled newspaper group.

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the octopus under the cover of Rebrab.” The politician had a special message for the industrialist: “Now that Issad Rebrab has gotten rich, he wants to go into politics....Rebrab must choose between money and politics; if he chooses both, he’ll lose money.” In a signed editorial, El Watan publisher Omar Belhouchet responded to Saadani’s “grave accusations,” recalling the newspaper’s long history of public service. Belhouchet asserted that El Watan had “never made any concession” to the political police, and in return had “undergone a systematic lynching (prison, ban on advertising, seven shutdowns, nearly 200 lawsuits, and a campaign of disparagement.)” Finally, the publisher asked: “After the El Khabar Affaire, what have they got in store for El Watan?” Not easily intimidated, Rebrab defended his support of El Khabar in statements to the local and foreign press. “I’m a free electron and always defend liberty against dictatorship,” the industrialist declared in a lengthy interview with the Washington Report. For this reason, he had backed a group of journalists who founded Liberté in 1992 and has respected their “total independence on policy.” Naturally, when El Khabar asked for help to resist government

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right of Palestinians to return to their homeland. To deny them the right of return is analogous to barring Native Americans from their sacred land, something we would never expect the indigenous inhabitants here to accept because it would be tantamount to saying they had no right to exist in their homeland. Marcy Winograd, Santa Monica, CA

GOVERNOR CUOMO’S BOYCOTT HYPOCRISY

NETANYAHU IN HIS OWN WORDS

To the New Haven Register, June 17, 2016 How long and often have we heard about the two-state solution for Israel/Palestine? Here are some recent words of Binyamin Netanyahu: “There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish control of the territory west of the River Jordan.” Also: “At this time, we need to control all of the territory for the foreseeable future.” Can any rational person believe that these statements offer a realistic possibility of the two parties coming to agreement? A Palestinian state with Israeli control of all of the West Bank? Henry Clifford, Essex, CT

PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST ON THIER LAND

To the Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2016 I disagree that the anti-Israel boycott movement is a threat to peace. On the contrary, it is a nonviolent form of resistance to decades of Israeli occupation, theft of Palestinian land, and monopolization of water. As a non-Zionist Jew, I support equal rights for all in Israel, Palestine and the AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

To The Washington Post, June 15, 2016 I was dismayed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s June 12 op-ed, “If you boycott Israel, New York will boycott you,” justifying his blatantly unconstitutional executive order creating a blacklist of supporters of Palestinian rights. The Democratic governor compared the nonviolent boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to terrorism. The call for BDS was instituted by Palestinian civil society leaders in response to decades of human rights abuses that governments and leaders have not been able to abate. This was a hyperbolic attack on a constitutional right to boycott and a chilling attack on free speech. Criticizing and protesting a foreign government is not discrimination. Furthermore, Mr. Cuomo’s statements represented sheer hypocrisy, as he saw nothing wrong with “discriminating” against the state of North Carolina by instituting a state nonessential-travel ban after it enacted a law restricting public restroom use by transgender people. Mr. Cuomo should remember that he was elected to serve the people of New York, in the United States, where freedom of speech and protest are constitutional rights. Jenn Gorelik, Arlington, VA The writer is a member of the DC chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

BDS IS PROTECTED UNDER THE FIRST AMENDMENT

To the Daily Freeman, June 14, 2016 Whatever your views on Israel/Palestine, McCarthyism is wrong. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 157, which he signed June 5, should concern each and every one of us. This order threatens the rights of Americans to take collective action to address injustice by using boycott as a form of free expression and as a powerful means of protest. Furthermore, the creation of the related discriminatory “blacklist,” which the New

York Office of General Services will post on its website and update semiannually, is blatantly dangerous. Thankfully, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects our right to free speech. This means we are allowed to express, be exposed to and receive a wide range of facts, opinions and viewpoints, even when the ideas are unpopular. Under this umbrella of free speech, Americans have the right to boycott, and we have a long history of using boycott as a tactic to achieve justice. Let’s remember that, before the American Revolution, colonists boycotted British goods (think “no taxation without representation”) and that, since then, American citizens (and corporations) involved in social justice movements have used boycotts for issues such as: animal rights, testing and welfare; civil rights; environmental health/integrity; human rights; LGBTQ discrimination; and labor and worker rights. The list goes on. Cuomo’s shameful order against institutions and companies that support boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)—an international, grassroots nonviolent movement to gain freedom, equality and justice for Palestinians—goes against this history. Go to <palestinelegal.org/newyork> to learn more. The right to boycott is a constitutionally protected form of free speech. We will not be silent. Helaine Meisler, Shady, NY

DON’T CONFUSE ANTI-SEMITISM WITH ANTI-ZIONISM

To The Seattle Times, June 27, 2016 The writers of “Recognize and speak out against anti-Semitism” [Opinion, June 27] claim: “Both anti-Semitism and antiZionism are fueled by irrational hatred of the Jewish people.” They miss an important distinction in their condemnation of anti-Semitic acts. Many Jews, including Albert Einstein, thought that Zionism was unwise as a political movement—and Einstein was certainly not an anti-Semite. More important, many people have come to the conclusion that BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) has become the only peaceful means left in attempting to persuade the Israeli government to reverse its course of violence and oppression against Palestinians. Such activists are not anti-Semitic. They hope that the nation of Israel will succeed in a peaceful relationship with its neighbors. Americans, including many Jewish Americans, find the rhetorical accusation

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of anti-Semitism false and unhelpful in seeking a peaceful solution. Steve Paul Moen, Seattle, WA

ELIE WIESEL AND THE IRAQ WAR

To The Boston Globe, July 7, 2016 Joseph P. Kahn’s obituary of Elie Wiesel highlights Wiesel’s Holocaust experience, his lifelong work on remembering victims of atrocities, and his numerous writings on the moral responsibilities of bearing witness to objectionable acts (“Elie Wiesel, unblinking witness to horror, dies,” Page A1, July 3). However, it has a glaring omission: Wiesel’s part in the mobilization effort for invading Iraq in 2003. One of Wiesel’s various efforts was a private meeting with President George W. Bush in which he pushed for the war. It’s really ironic that a Nobel Peace laureate would go out of his way to engage in beating the drums for a highly questionable military action. It’s equally ironic that a report that celebrates the legacy of a public figure who devoted much of his life to remembering victims of genocides would fail to remind of Wiesel’s own failing and moral responsibility in a war effort whose carnage is far from over. As someone who hails from Iraq, I owe it to both Iraqi and American victims of the Iraq invasion to bear witness to the needless loss of lives. If I learned something from Wiesel’s legacy, it’s standing up and demanding accountability for what we say and do. Shakir Mustafa, Salem, NH

THE U.S. AND TERROR IN IRAQ

To The Seattle Times, July 10, 2016 The recent deadly attack in Baghdad, claimed by ISIS, killing more than 200 holiday-goers, is garnering sympathy worldwide [“Mass death in heart of Baghdad,” Page One, July 4]. Yet, here in the U.S., the larger context goes ignored. How many commentators are highlighting how today’s violence is a legacy of yesterday’s poor foreign policy choices? There has been no peace in Iraq since the first American bomb was dropped in 2003. American forces destroyed Iraq’s government and plunged the country into chaos. The first al-Qaeda cell in Iraqi history formed in response to the occupation, later merging with forces in Syria to partly form the terrorist group ISIS. The United States has inflicted monumental suffering on the people of Iraq through decades of sanctions, two catastrophic wars, and more than nine years of 54

occupation—the effects of which are still being felt, including in the form of brutal attacks. Iraqis deserve more than our thoughts and prayers. They deserve what’s long overdue: reparations for harm suffered and a human-rights tribunal to prosecute those guilty of war crimes, including Western leaders who waged war under false pretenses. Michelle Ryder, Lake Tapps, WA

DRONES AND TERRORISM

To The Dallas Morning News, June 16, 2016 If we want to curb terrorism in the United States, we must stop drone attacks in Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan; Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency; former national security czar Richard Clarke; and many respected military and civilian leaders have called President Barack Obama’s use of his favorite military weapon “ill-advised” and “counterproductive.” Every time we drop a drone bomb, we make terrorists out of ordinary people, who before their innocent family members were eviscerated bore no ill will toward the United States. “The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes,” according to Stanley McChrystal, “is much greater than the average American appreciates.” U.S. policy is creating more terrorists than it is killing. Hadi Jawad, Old East Dallas, TX

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

KUDOS TO CANADA ON REFUGEES

To The New York Times, July 5, 2016 I read your article about Canadian families opening their arms, homes and wallets to Syrian families with tears in my eyes: tears of joy for the expression of pure humanity, and tears of sadness that this isn’t happening in our own country. We seem to have strayed very far from the promise of Emma Lazarus’s famous words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” That a presumptive presidential nominee and all his supporters can think that “making America great again” means closing our borders, hearts and minds to the plight of millions of men, women and children is testimony to just how lost we have become. Kudos to Canada, shame on us. Susan Steinberg, Queens, NY

WAR IN AFGHANISTAN FUELED BY CORRUPTION

To The Washington Post, July 10, 2016 The July 7 editorial “A final commit ment in Afghanistan” viewed the war in Afghanistan primarily in military terms. The main reason the U.S.-backed Afghan government has been losing is the rampant corruption that undermines public support for the government and fuels the insurgency. Since 2001, the United States has spent more than $110 billion on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which, in current dollars, is more than we spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. This amount does not include the hundreds of billions the United States spent on the war in Afghanistan itself. In Kabul, it is hard to see where the money was spent. That is because so much of it has left Afghanistan, carried away by corrupt government officials to secret bank accounts in Dubai and Switzerland. But a lot of the money has also ended up in Maryland and Virginia, in the coffers of U.S. contractors operating in Afghanistan that have made out like bandits. The war goes on not only because the Taliban thinks it is winning, but also because it is a lucrative business for corrupt Afghan officials and for almost everyone else associated with the effort. William Goodfellow, Washington, DC. The writer is executive director of the Center for International Policy and cocoordinator of the Afghanistan Study Group. ■ AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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MUSLIM AMERICAN ACTIVISM Nearly 26,000 Muslims from across North America attended the 41st annual Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)/Muslim American Society (MAS) Convention held May 28-30 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland. ICNA President Naeem Baig said this year’s theme, “Qur’an: The Divine Guidance,” was chosen to explore the beauty of the Muslim holy book and dispel misinterpretations of the Islamic faith by mainstream media and some politicians. “We feel our duty as Muslim Americans [is] to talk about our faith, to talk about our being, to talk about the book of Allah,” Baig explained. Muslims discussed the challenges of living in North America, including Islamophobia, discrimination and other daily problems. Attendees spent Memorial Day weekend hearing from knowledgeable speakers, shopping in the incredible bazaar, and meeting friends. Children played on moon bounces and practiced rock climbing while their parents had their blood pressure checked or took a free blood test to find out their cholesterol levels. Then it was time to make some hard choices—selecting what to eat from cuisines originating around the world! —Delinda C. Hanley

People were invited to take a virtual tour of a Syrian refugee camp at the convention before deciding to give a “Helping Hand for Relief and Development.” her life as a “typical American Muslim teenager.” (She was president of her class, spoke at graduation, belonged to six honor societies, the debate club, bingewatches TV, and speaks four languages.) When she decided to cover her hair and wear hijab, Hannah said, she was called a terrorist, discriminated against, judged and became an outsider in her own hometown for a couple of months. Just as she was feeling safe again, Donald Trump called for a ban on Muslims. Hannah said she feels like she has to prove and re-prove herself, fighting stereotypes, every time “some lunatic” claiming to represent Muslims kills. “The actions of a few deranged people should not be put

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ICNA/MAS Speakers Talk About Their Muslim Faith

on students,” Hannah stated. Imam Rizwan Jaka, a board member of both ADAMS (All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling, VA) and the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (IFC), gave a convincing talk on building partnerships with faith-based communities. First, he noted that the U.S. was built not only by those professing Judeo-Christian values but also on the backs of enslaved African Americans, 30 percent of whom were Muslim. Muslim Americans love and protect their country, and several thousand have lost their lives serving their nation. “We’re all in this together,” he reminded his audience of Muslims, Christians and Jews. The day

The Islamic Center of Maryland (ICM) in Gaithersburg held its annual Ramadan interfaith iftar dinner on June 17, days after the June 12 Orlando nightclub shooting by Omar Mateen. As the guests waited for the sun to set, ICM outreach director Ahsun Dasti introduced Shaheer Saddiq, a second-grader, who gave an introduction to Islam and explained how Muslims celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. His Laytonsville teachers, who attend St. Luke’s Lutheran church in Derwood, MD, were there to cheer him on. Hannah Shareem, who graduated from high school earlier in the week, described 56

Imam Rizwan Jaka and his family—all of them involved in scouting programs—after the interfaith iftar.

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Gaithersburg Holds Interfaith Iftar

after the Orlando shooting, his group Loudoun Interfaith Bridges, founded in Sterling, VA in 2006, held a vigil to grieve together. Every month Bridges, which now includes 20 diverse congregations and community organizations, meets to discuss different topics, including healthcare, attend each other’s holiday events, or participate in a community service project. Syed also discussed the important work accomplished by IFC, which is made up of 11 historic faith communities and seeks to promote dialogue, understanding and a sense of community, and to work cooperatively for justice throughout the DC region. Many know about IFC’s annual 9/11 Unity Walk, but not its social services work, food bank or environmental efforts. IFC members have worked shoulder-toshoulder on healthcare reform, and fought payday lenders, gun violence and antishariah laws in Virginia. People of all faiths share our schools, workplaces, hospitals and roads in America, Syed pointed out, and more and more are also beginning to share their worship space. “This isn’t awkward,” he said. We’re putting our faith into action and working shoulder-to-shoulder to improve our communities, Syed concluded. —Delinda C. Hanley

Cardin Holds Roundtable With Muslim Community

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Maryland Muslims at the new Diyanet Center in Lanham, MD on June 20 for a roundtable discussion on how to foster a better sense of cultural understanding at home and abroad. After a tour of the Turkish government-funded, Ottoman-style Diyanet Center’s mosque, cultural center, conference and exhibition halls and sporting facilities, Cardin listened and commented on community concerns. “Following the tragedy in Orlando and the seemingly daily doses of inflammatory rhetoric from some Republican leaders, we need to take the time to build bridges with our Muslim brothers and sisters, AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) with Muslim community leaders after roundtable discussion.

rather than placing walls between us,” said Cardin, who also serves as the special representative on anti-Semitism, racism, and intolerance for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly. [A strong proponent of Israeli interests, Cardin broke with his Democratic president to oppose the Iran nuclear agreement.] Then community members accepted his invitation to break through the walls—and shared their concerns. They’re outraged by the language they’ve heard from candidates, including calls for a religious test for people who come to America. They want to end racial profiling, fix the criminal justice system, protect refugees from discrimination and keep their communities safe from terrorism. One community leader asked why even the Democrats in Congress are reluctant to call all perpetrators of mass violence “terrorists,” including Dylann Roof, who shot African-American worshippers in Charleston. “We need help making sure leaders and media stop equating our faith with terrorism,” he said. Lead by example, the leader urged. “Radical Islam” is an oxymoron, and words like “Islamic terrorist, Islamist and jihadist” are hurtful. A Baltimore Muslim worried that her community is “protecting our butts,” staying inside a bubble and not trying to address injustice at home or abroad. “Why

are our mosques being surveilled?” asked another Muslim constituent. Why are we spending millions fighting extremism using our armed forces instead of investing in mental health and education to prevent radicalization? “We’re feeling like the new Communists,” another Muslim said. There are calls to reactivate the House Un-American Activities Committee to investigate Muslims! “Our community is feeling vulnerable,” Dr. Zainab Chaudry, CAIR’s Maryland outreach director, told Cardin. “I’ve never been so horrified as now by some of the stories I’ve heard,” including physical assaults, bullying by teachers as well as students, and a Maryland Muslim woman being pulled off a Southwest Airlines plane. Students are reluctant to identify as Muslims and citizens who are making valuable contributions to society are feeling apologetic for being Muslim, she said. “Please introduce a resolution challenging Islamophobia. That would go a long way to symbolically support our community.” As the roundtable concluded and participants filed out the door, one Muslim asked this reporter why politicians and media only visited and asked his community about their concerns after a terrorist attack. “What about asking for our views on politics, health care, education, civil rights, crime and international affairs at other times?” —Delinda C. Hanley

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Shadi Hamid discusses his new book, Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World. tribute to Islam’s exceptionalism. The first centers on the historical circumstances under which Islam was born. In its founding moments Islam was quite different from Christianity. According to Hamid, “Jesus…was a dissident against a reigning state. The New Testament doesn’t have a lot to say about law or governance.” Since Jesus’ project did not revolve around state building, it seems logical that the New Testament would have a dearth of commentary as it pertains to effective governance. Muhammad, on the other hand, “was not only a clerical theologian and a prophet, but he was also a politician. He was a state builder.” Therefore, questions of both religious and political legitimacy were explicitly

More than 800 worshippers celebrated the end of Ramadan July 6 in the Burbank Islamic Center, the fastest growing mosque in Los Angeles County. 58

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Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, launched his new book, Islamic Exceptionalism: How The Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping The World, on June 9 at Brookings’ headquarters in Washington, DC. In his book, available from AET’s Middle East Books and More bookstore, Hamid attempts to answer whether Islam is “exceptional” as it pertains to its role in politics, and whether a country can “forge a reliably liberal political order in which Islamic political ideas and movements have a central place.” Following his introductory remarks, Hamid addressed the main arguments of his book that have already fomented controversy. In effect, Hamid’s argument is that “Islam is, in fact, exceptional in how it relates to politics, law and governance.” The focus here is on Islam’s aversion to and rebuffing of secularization. In this sense, Hamid argues, Islam diverges from other major religions. Hamid said he uses the term “exceptionalism” because “it’s as value-neutral as you can get.” That is, he explained, “exceptionalism doesn’t have to be good or bad. It can be both. It can be one or the other, depending on the context.” Hamid cited two main factors that con-

meant to be ascertained by Muhammad. In Hamid’s view, this has created a “prophetic model” that seemingly contradicts secularists’ and liberals’ agenda of depoliticizing and privatizing religion in Muslim-majority countries. “They can make those arguments,” Hamid said, “but it’s a harder sell. Because, in effect, they have to argue against the prophetic model. They have to deal with this fact of history that Muhammad intertwined both religious and political functions.” The second factor in Islam’s exceptionalism, Hamid argued, “is the issue of Qur’anic inerrancy.” Unlike the Bible, the Qur’an “is God’s actual speech.” Thus, “if it’s God’s actual speech, that means every letter and word is directly from God,” with no human intermediary. So, Hamid suggested, the application of Qur’anic interpretation may not be as nuanced as it is in other monotheistic religions. Hamid then applied his notion of “Islamic exceptionalism” to the contemporary political discourse. Ever since the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, he said, “there has been a struggle to establish a legitimate political order in the Middle East.” This struggle revolves around the legitimization of Islam in public life and its conspicuous relationship to the state. It would be naïve to try to apply Islamic law to our modern society, Hamid argued, because “Islamic law wasn’t designed for the modern era. Islamic law was designed for the pre-modern era.” Hamid proceeded to address a very AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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New Book Explores Islamic Exceptionalism

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Hamid concluded by recommending that the West “come to terms with the fact that Islam is going to continue to play a prominent, even central, role in public life in much of the Middle East and beyond.” —Anthony Hokayem

ARAB AMERICAN ACTIVISM Racial and Religious Profiling at U.S. Airports The Arab American Institute (AAI) on June 28 convened a panel of lawyers and civil rights advocates to discuss the discrimination many Arabs, Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities experience while attempting to use this country’s air transportation system. The event, attended by numerous congressional staff, took place at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Arjun Singh of the Sikh Coalition began by noting that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agencies are legally permitted to profile based on race, faith and national origin. This, he pointed out, is because the two agencies—which fall under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security—are exempted from a December 2014 Justice Department directive that prohibits federal law enforcement officials from engaging in profiling. Federal law also permits these agencies to profile passengers based on their behavior. Walking too fast or too slow, making too much or too little eye contact, speaking

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basic misconception about mainstream Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood. “They [Islamist movements] aren’t harkening back to the seventh century,” he argued. “They are inherently modern and modernist in the sense that they are a product of modernity.” Hamid sees mainstream Islamism as “the attempt to reconcile pre-modern Islamic law with the modern nation state.” In the pre-modern era, Islam pervaded all aspects of life and influenced everything from governance to societal and cultural norms; thus, there was no need for Islamist movements to reaffirm the legitimacy of Islam. However, with the dawn of the modern era and the rise of Western notions of secularism, Hamid explained, “for the first time Muslims, and Islamists in particular, felt a need, a desire to say we are different. We are affirming or reaffirming our Islamic identity.” Because of the subsequent debate in many countries about Islam’s degree of influence in governance, it became a politicized, polarizing concept. In Hamid’s opinion, there is a slim chance that Islamists and non-Islamists— i.e. secularists, liberals, nationalists, etc.— will ever reach “some kind of workable solution to the problem of the state.” Contrary to Western nations, where political debates revolve around tangible policy implications like tax rates and healthcare reform, political discourse in the Middle East is divided across convoluted notions of “the meaning, and nature, and purpose of the nation state.” These intangible notions are anathema to logical, lucid debate, Hamid asserted, and consequently contribute to the schism between Islamists and non-Islamists—which ultimately leads to violence between the opposing groups. As for how to move forward, Hamid believes that “people will continue to hate each other for the foreseeable future in the Middle East, for legitimate reasons, for understandable reasons.” The hope, though, is that any political antagonism between Islamists and non-Islamists can be channeled through a conduit of non-violent political action.

poor English, and wearing loose clothing are among the behaviors the TSA deems as suspicious, Singh noted. The technology the TSA uses at security checkpoints also indirectly targets minorities, Singh said, noting that, according to the TSA, the new body scanners used at most airports cannot see through five layers of cloth. This means that Sikh men wearing turbans and Muslim women donning hijabs often are pulled aside and forced to undergo secondary screening. “It creates the impression of second-class citizenship,” he explained, “and it stigmatizes us.” Singh’s organization and other groups have called on the TSA to investigate if its screening practices disproportionately impact Sikhs, Muslims and other minorities. The TSA, however, has declined to carry out such an audit, he said. Brenda Abdelall of Muslim Advocates noted that even after they clear security, Muslims are often the victims of discrimination. Indeed, in just the past year, Muslims have been removed from flights for speaking Arabic, “staring back” at a flight attendant, attempting to switch seats, and watching the news on a phone. “This has been happening with a disturbing level of frequency,” Abdelall stated. In order to prevent future incidents of profiling onboard aircraft, Muslim Advocates has urged the Department of Transportation (DOT) to take the following steps: investigate and issue detailed public reports on all incidents of profiling, require all airline

Arjun Singh (l) and Brenda Abdelall note the discrimination Arabs and Sikhs face at all stages of air travel. WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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ardizing the civil rights of Arabs and Muslims by giving unwarranted credibility to the list. —Dale Sprusansky

EDUCATION Senate Proposes Cuts to Fulbright-Hays Funding

$58.63 million cut, or 47 percent reduction, since the FY 2010 high point for Title VI/Fulbright-Hays.” This would mean no new competitions for Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRAs), Group Projects Abroad (GPAs) or Seminars Abroad (SA). Funds for CASA Fellows’ tuition, stipends and flights are also in jeopardy. The cuts

Qasid Arabic Institute students on a field trip in Wadi Rum, Jordan. Just as Americans need to rebuild bridges burned by recent Middle East wars, and ISIS propaganda kindles even more anti-U.S. hatred, Congress is considering severe cuts to Fulbright-Hays programs, including the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA). The National Coalition for History sent its members notices in June announcing: “House and Senate Appropriations Committees are in the process of finalizing fiscal year (FY) 2017 Department of Education funding bills. Severe cuts to Title VI/FulbrightHays international education programs are on the table. “The Labor, HHS and Education bill that recently cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee would fund Title VI (A&B) Domestic Programs at $65 million and Fulbright-Hays Overseas Programs at $2.1 million for FY 17. While this reflects level funding from FY 16 for Title VI, the Fulbright-Hays program would be reduced by $4.9 million, or a 69 percent cut. Perhaps even more important, the Senate bill, if enacted by Congress, would represent over a six-year period a

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would devastate the Fulbright-Hays program. Americans who are concerned about area studies education and language training in foreign countries for future diplomats, professors and other experts essential to national security and economic competitiveness are urged to contact their members of Congress. Tell them what professors like Prof. Christopher Stone, head of the Arabic program at Hunter College of the City University of New York, tell their students: “You can’t learn Arabic here—you have to go abroad; and you have to hang out with people who speak Arabic.” —Delinda C. Hanley

American Palestinian Women Hold Tea to Introduce LEO

The American Palestinian Women’s Association invited guests to learn about the Leonard Education Organization (LEO) at a traditional English tea party in Alexandria, VA on April 17. Deya’ Leonard Dresner— who baked the scones and other delightful cakes—founded LEO in August 2015. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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personnel to undergo discrimination training, and require airlines found to have engaged in discriminatory behavior to take appropriate remedial action. The DOT’s current method of reporting on discrimination is extremely vague, Abdelall noted. Each month the department issues its Monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, which simply states the total number of discrimination complaints filed. Specifics such as date, location, and whether someone was discriminated against based on their religion, race, national origin, etc., are not provided. The same report, however, provides detailed case-by-case summaries of every incident involving a pet. If the DOT can provide the minutiae of how pets were inconvenienced, it can do the same for humans, Abdelall argued. Edward Ayoob, a partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a member of AAI’s board of governors, highlighted the myriad issues surrounding the federal terrorist watch list. All these years after 9/11, it’s still not entirely clear why individuals are added to the list, he pointed out. What is clear, however, is that Arabs are disproportionately represented. Indeed, Dearborn, MI—a city of 96,000 that has the highest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country—has more individuals on the terrorist watch list than every city except New York City. It’s also clear that the government cannot concretely prove that many of the people on the list actually pose a threat. In 2014, The Intercept reported that roughly 40 percent of the 680,000 individuals on the watch list have “no recognized terrorist group affiliation,” but are nonetheless still deemed suspicious by the government. Given its many faults, Ayoob finds it disturbing that the terrorist watch list has gained an aura of credibility in the midst of the ongoing national gun control debate. Under their “No Fly, No Buy” proposal, Democrats in Congress are arguing that everyone on the terrorist watch list should be prohibited from purchasing a gun. The Democrats are playing smart politics, Ayoob said, but he fears they are also jeop-

Deya’ Leonard Dresner describes how LEO finds scholarships for Palestinian students. Dresner secures and manages scholarships to American colleges and universities which, she said, are eager for young Palestinian men and women from the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Jordan. Dresner locates the scholarships and then shepherds the development of Palestinian student scholars from the beginning to the end of their American educational experience. Dresner was inspired by both her Palestinian mother from Nazareth and her father, Dr. Graham Leonard, a Quaker academic who has devoted his life to the education of Palestinians. Guests at the tea party were also inspired by the stories of three Palestinian students who attended the tea. They’re learning a lot, getting involved in their local communities and teaching their classmates about their occupied country. For more information, or to make a donation to this 501(c)(3) charity, visit <www.leonardeducation.org> or mail a check, payable to Leonard Education Organization, to PO Box 504, Buena Vista, VA 24416. —Delinda C. Hanley

HUMAN RIGHTS B’Tselem Rejects Israeli WhiteWashing B’Tselem, Israel’s highly respected human rights organization, published a report in May entitled “The Occupation’s Fig Leaf: Israel’s Military Law Enforcement System AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

as a Whitewash Mechanism.” Executive director Hagai El-Ad discussed B’Tselem’s decision to no longer work with the Israeli military’s legal system at the New York City office of Human Rights Watch on June 14. For more than 25 years, B’Tselem has investigated Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied territories. It has collected evidence, interviewed victims and published reports. ElAd explained that, unlike Israelis or Americans, Palestinians cannot simply go to a military base or police station to file complaints because these are inside settlements, which are off-limits to the local population. In order to achieve accountability and prevent future harm, B’Tselem has filed complaints to the military’s law en-

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Hagai El-Ad says B’Tselem will continue its human rights work without acting as a “fig leaf” for Israel’s military law enforcement system.

forcement system on their behalf. Statistics in the report covering the years 2000 to 2015 reveal that of 739 complaints B’Tselem has referred to the Military Advocate General, only 3 percent have resulted in indictments—a percentage exceeded by the number of cases where the paperwork has been lost. The investigations, El-Ad reported, very seldom include any collection of evidence and are usually limited to interviews with soldiers, which are allowed to stand even when their testimonies contradict each other. The Israeli reports also are characterized by “inexplicable legal reasoning” designed to delay the process and avoid charges. It is not surprising, therefore, that the majority of cases are simply closed. Because B’Tselem only pursues cases where it finds credible evidence, Ed-Ad explained, the full picture is probably darker. El-Ad acknowledged a sense of bitterness over all the years of wasted efforts, which has led B’Tselem to the painful realization that it has served as unwilling middlemen or subcontractors for a whitewash program to further the credibility of the Israeli military. Therefore, in order to “remove the layer of legitimacy, the guise of legality,” B’Tselem no longer will refer Palestinian complaints to the military law enforcement system. The report states: “(T)here is no longer any point in pursuing justice and defending human rights by working with a system whose real function is measured by its ability to continue to successfully cover up unlawful acts and protect perpetrators….The fight for human rights will be better served by denouncing this system and exposing it for what it is.” El-Ad assured his audience that B’Tselem has not given up on accountability and justice and will continue its human rights work, but will increase its involvement in public information, especially at the international level, for both moral and pragmatic reasons. Within Israel, he noted, government propaganda has equated human rights work with treason, and the internal Israeli argument is not over one or two states but whether to maintain the sta-

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CPT Volunteer David Jones Speaks In Des Moines

Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) volunteer David Jones discussed his work in Israeli-occupied Palestine in December 2014 before an audience of about 40 at the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting House on June 23. “I call my presentation ‘The Burden of Knowing,’” the Vietnam veteran and bicycling enthusiast explained, “because when I was in Palestine I saw a lot of things, child abuse and all kinds of oppression. I can’t unsee what I saw and I can’t unfeel what I felt, and there is a certain burden associated with that. I could come back and do nothing, or I could choose to do something. I am not the kind of guy who sits on the sidelines.” Jones, along with fellow CPT volunteer Michael Himlie, whom he met in Palestine, devoted 40 days to their plan to bicycle 100 miles in every U.S. state. They have visited 40 states. Along the way the two men spoke to audiences about their experiences in Palestine. “Theology and politics I try to avoid as much as possible,” said Jones, who focused on his experiences as a CPT volunteer. “I tell people: if you don’t believe what I’m saying, get on a plane, fly to Tel Aviv, take a shuttle to Hebron, and spend some time. Go see for yourself.” Jones described a particular workday in Hebron as “probably the most surreal day of my life. In the morning we were at checkpoint 209 being subjected to flashbang [grenades] and tear gas [while] walking Palestinian children to school. In the afternoon we visited a kindergarten. It was like an oasis. We were blowing up balloons and tracing kids’ hands. One little girl, I traced her hands about 20 times. She just kept handing me paper and saying ‘again.’ She looked a lot like my daugh62

CPT volunteer David Jones speaks about his tour in Occupied Palestine at the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting House on June 23. ter at that age. “These kids are not unlike our children and grandchildren,” Jones continued. “Children around the world are all the same whether they’re in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, or America. We spend a lot of one-on-one time with children. All kids want to live a peaceful life,” he said. “The American media would have you believe that these kids’ parents are going to strap a bomb on them and send them out to kill Jews. That’s just crap,” Jones told his audience. “The narrative that the media puts forth in the United States is that this is a conflict between Jews and Muslims. But I don’t call it a conflict anymore, because that suggests some level of parity. This is a military occupation, plain and simple. Palestinians are kept on a short leash. They’re oppressed, period, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re Christians or Muslims,” he stated. While in Palestine, Jones also visited the Tent of Nations, the Nassar family farm located in the hills south of Bethlehem. The family has owned the farm for generations. “It is surrounded by Israeli settlements,” Jones recalled. “There is one narrow road in and out. They collect rainwater in cisterns for their crops. They are off the grid. These people are Christians, Palestinian Christians. Just a few months before Michael and I were there, Israeli settlers came in and cut down more than 1,500 of

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the Nassar family’s olive trees. “Were they violent in their response?” asked Jones. “No! They simply had people come from the far reaches of the earth to help plant olive trees. They responded nonviolently. They have used the court system to fight the encroachment on their property.” Jones described his work with CPT and the subsequent bicycle speaking tour as a learning experience. “It’s about the people,” he noted. Jones was invited to speak in Des Moines by Catholic Peace Ministry, Iowa Peace Network, and American Friends Service Committee. The bicycle tour was sponsored in part by The Honey Foundation of Goodyear, AZ. —Michael Gillespie

Women and the Syrian Conflict

The Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted three Syrian female journalists on June 29 to discuss their work and activism. “Media Activism Amid Civil War: The Role of Syrian Women Journalists” featured Rula Asad and Milia Eidmouni, co-founders of the nonprofit Syrian Female Journalists’ Network (SFJN), and radio journalist Caroline Ayoub. “Our guests understand profoundly the critical link between a free and powerful media, and its ability to shape a democratic future Syria,” said moderator Kate Seelye, senior vice president of MEI. Ayoub’s non-profit organization, Souria Li (Syria is Mine) Radio, focuses not only on evading government censorship to proAUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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tus quo or intensify the occupation. It is time, he concluded, for a new way of thinking about how to effect change so that we don’t “calmly usher in the next half-century of occupation.” —Jane Adas

(L-r) Caroline Ayoub, Milia Eidmouni and Rula Asad discuss the Syrian Female Journalists’ Network. vide Syrians objective news, but also on building a rich, unified society and providing hope. One of its most popular shows, for instance, is “Fattoush,” a cooking show featuring favorite recipes from different ethnicities and cultures, highlighting the beauty of diversity. “Food is something really important in our culture. We wanted to preserve this heritage, and we transformed it into a cooking show,” Ayoub explained. “Fear is a major issue now in Syria, but when you know more about each other’s background and culture—and we highlight our similarities— it bridges the gaps we’re having today.” However, bridging gaps among different cultures and ethnicities is not these journalists’ only goal. They are also working to bridge gender gaps and empower women. SFJN, for instance, trains Syrian female journalists and empowers their role in the media through collaboration with men as well as women. “Sometimes men are the decision-makers and we [SFJN] work in our own bubble,” Asad said. “We have to change our scope of focus—we’re not working on women’s rights, we’re working for gender justice in Syrian society.” —Massarah Mikati

Leaders Seek Local and Global Solutions to Refugee Crisis

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) hosted a June 2 forum to assess the recent World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) held in AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

Istanbul May 23-24, 2016, and to identify concrete steps that governments could implement going forward. President Barack Obama will host a summit on refugees the day after world leaders convene on Sept. 19 for the U.N. General Assembly HighLevel Summit on Refugees and Migrants. One of the remarkable aspects of the WHS was its inclusion not only of governments, but non-governmental organizations, private sector companies and local representatives. As pointed out by Ray Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, the “shift to more emphasis on local empowerment and local capacity building is a big mind shift for the community, particularly the big bureaucracies who have not given it much attention.” Despite the desire to increase the percentage of humanitarian funding that goes directly to local and national NGOs, such a

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shift will take time. “We want to go from 0.2 percent to 20 percent,” said Islamic Relief USA CEO Anwar Khan. Local NGOs are not ready to take over—they don’t have the capacity, Khan said. “We have to invest in their capacity.” Thomas Staal, acting assistant administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), focused on inter-governmental capacity building, using as a model the “New Deal” for Engagement in Fragile States. “The vast majority of these disasters, whether natural or conflict-related, happen in fragile states, and there is an initiative called the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States,” developed in 2011 at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea, Staal said. “We have a group of self-identified fragile states who agree with the international community to a set of standards they will try to meet.” Some of the other speakers focused on whether the problems with refugee and migration efforts lie with the host countries or existing systems of governance for international migration. Elizabeth Ferris, senior adviser to the upcoming UNGA summit and research professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, highlighted Europe’s inability to cope with the Syrian refugee crisis as an example of the inadequacies of the current system. “A million people arrived in Europe in the past year,” she noted. “This should not be a crisis. Europe has 550 million people. If our

(L-r) Thomas Staal, Anwar Khan, Anne Richard and Elizabeth Ferris describe local empowerment for refugees. WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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systems for sharing responsibility and being able and prepared to respond to this kind of influx were in place this should not be a crisis.” Yet even after the refugees and migrants have arrived safely, the greater question is how to improve their quality of life in their host countries, a problem addressed by Anne Richard, assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. “These situations can’t be resolved in the short term, they can’t be treated like short-term emergencies,” she emphasized. “What can we do to help people not just survive the initial flight, but then have fuller lives?” One major obstacle to better refugee integration is the “development-humanitarian divide,” Ferris explained. “There can be a short-term shock when support is needed to deal with the initial adjustment of receiving so many people.” But, she added, “worldwide refugees and migrants are a tremendous economic advantage.” The problem is that “it takes a mind shift to see refugees and displaced people not just as a humanitarian issue but as a development issue,” Ferris argued. —Gloria Cheung

Poll Examines Americans’ Attitudes Toward Refugees

The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC released a poll on June 13 revealing American attitudes toward refugees from the Middle East. The poll, conducted by University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami, found that “a majority [of Americans] support accepting refugees from the Middle East.” Of the 1,580 individuals polled, 59 percent supported the idea of absorbing Middle Eastern refugees, with 41 percent opposed to the idea. A partisan divide exists on this issue, the poll found. “Not surprisingly, again, Democrats are far more supportive than Republicans,” Telhami noted, with 77 percent of Democrats supporting the acceptance of refugees and 63 percent of Republicans in opposition. The poll also looked at reasons why Americans oppose the U.S. accepting 64

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more Middle Eastern refugees. It concluded that there is a divide between those who are worried about terrorism—46 percent—and those who are worried about the economic burden of accepting refugees—54 percent. Telhami noted that more people are worried about the economic strain of accepting refugees than about terrorism. Another major component the poll focused on was the United States’ moral obligation to accept refugees. The poll specifically asked respondents their opinions on accepting refugees from Libya, Iraq and Syria—49 percent of participants were willing to absorb refugees from Libya, 54 percent from Iraq, and 51 percent from Syria. Finally, in an open-ended question, the poll asked participants to state how many refugees they believe the U.S. should accept in 2017. Americans said that a total of 58,928 refugees ought to be settled within the United States, while officially Washington has said it plans to welcome 100,000 refugees next year. During the follow-up discussion, Indira Lakshmanan, a contributor to POLITICO and The Boston Globe, commented on what heartened her the most about the poll. “There was very little support for expelling people once they were already here,” she said, “and among the things

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that people thought were very important for refugees was K-12 education.” The American people are turning their focus toward the refugee children and how they will integrate into the education system, Lakshmanan argued, rather than on the negative connotation of Muslim refugees. In his closing remarks, Telhami urged the American public to do more to help alleviate the refugee problem. “We have a responsibility, it's an American responsibility in part because of our role in that [part of the] world. It's not all our fault, but it's partly our fault. And because we are also the greatest and richest nation on earth, we have a moral obligation.” —Meghan Blizinski

WAGING PEACE Obama Officials Discuss Iran Deal Two Obama administration officials appeared at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC on June 16 to share their assessments of the Iran nuclear agreement and the broader U.S.-Iran relationship. Their remarks came one year after Iran and the P5+1 officially agreed to terms on what is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Ben Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser for strategic comAUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

munications, described the agreement as a major triumph for diplomacy and nuclear non-proliferation. Iran’s nuclear program has been scaled-back, he noted, and its remaining nuclear facilities are under tight, 24/7 surveillance. While the U.S. is satisfied that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal, Rhodes noted that the two countries still have a very tenuous relationship. Washington, he said, remains deeply concerned about Iran’s testing of ballistic missiles, support for groups such as Hezbollah, and its commitment to the Assad regime in Syria. “Iran’s approach to its nuclear program has changed, but thus far its broader foreign policy and the nature of its regime has not,” Rhodes said. It is precisely because Iran remains engaged in activities the U.S. views as destabilizing that the nuclear deal is so vital, Rhodes emphasized. “Isn’t it better when a government with a ballistic missile program that supports terrorism doesn’t have a nuclear weapon?” he asked. Despite the deep nature of the U.S.-Iran fissure, Rhodes asserted that the JCPOA leaves open the possibility of broader cooperation between the two nations. “Engagement creates opportunities that we deny ourselves by insisting upon isolation,” he said. “If you keep that door to diplomacy and engagement closed, you’re not going to allow yourself to have the opportunity to solve the next problem, to make headway on issues where you do have serious differences.” Rhodes cited two incidents that occurred this January—the release of five Americans held by Iran and the quick resolution to Iran’s detainment of 10 American sailors who had entered Iranian territorial waters—as evidence that the nuclear deal has opened up beneficial channels of communication between the two countries. Rhodes was quick to play down the possibility of Iran and the U.S. agreeing to a rapprochement in the near term, however. While Washington has recently restored relations with Myanmar and Cuba, according to Rhodes these two examples AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, responds to claims he intentionally misled Americans about the Iran nuclear deal. are distinct from the Iranian case. The Myanmar opening was fueled by the country’s decision to transition from a military to a civilian government, he said, while the Cuban opening was a result of the two countries agreeing to change the nature of their relationship. Iran, on the other hand, more narrowly agreed to change the nature of its nuclear program. “The broader progress with Iran is more limited than these other countries,” Rhodes said. “As the supreme leader reminds us, Iran is not changing its inherent opposition to the United States.” Rhodes also used his appearance to address a controversy that arose in May when The New York Times Magazine published an article by David Samuels (who publically campaigned against the nuclear deal) claiming that Rhodes and the Obama administration intentionally misled the public about the deal. In the article, Samuels claims the administration deceptively spun the 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani as a turning point in nuclear negotiations. Such a suggestion is patently absurd, Rhodes stated. “It’s not hard to fact-check the notion that we weren’t getting anywhere in nuclear talks [with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad], and then all of a sudden we were [upon Rouhani’s elec-

tion],” he said. Rhodes also strongly objected to the notion that the White House duped think-tank experts and advocacy organizations into advocating for the deal. “The groups we worked with were groups that had advocated on this issue for years, so they did not need to be moved to the position of supporting the deal or disseminating specific information,” he said. “It is true, and I am proud of the fact, that there was very effective messaging and, in some cases, coordination,” Rhodes added. “That was essential given the fact that there were far more resources and a far more aggressive effort to disseminate and coordinate information on the other side of the deal.” John E. Smith, acting director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), used his appearance to address U.S. sanctions toward Iran. While nuclear-related sanctions were removed in conjunction with the JCPOA, Smith, whose office enforces U.S. sanction regimes, noted that sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program, human rights abuses and regional activities remain in place. The primary embargo also remains in place, he said, which means that U.S. individuals and businesses are restricted from engaging in transactions with Iran,

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except for four specific exceptions: Instead of fighting about where we’ll civilian aviation equipment, pistachios, each lunch with co-workers, we recaviar and carpets. And while multinamember that some people are fighting tional corporations are now free to do for a meal for their family, Sharaf exbusiness with Iran, they are still not plained. “We know that we’ll only be permitted to send any employees who thirsty and hungry for 14 hours. Others may be American citizens to Iran. are uncertain when their next meal will While OFAC is still working to make be. Gazans have no clean water to sure all proposed business transacdrink.” tions are permissible under U.S. law, After breaking the fast with a wonSmith said his office is not looking to derful meal, Palestinian comedian stand in the way of deals that are Amer Zahr entertained the crowd. within the scope of the JCPOA. Looking around, he remarked, “This is “OFAC will not be playing ‘gotcha’ Donald Trump’s worst nightmare: for companies that conducted the apPalestinians meeting in an Arab cultural propriate due diligence, collected the center in the nation’s capital. In fact,” he documentation, but despite their best mused, “Palestinians starred in sold-out efforts unwittingly found themselves performances at the Kennedy Center Amer Zahr describes the interrogation of a Palestindealing with an IRGC [Iran’s Islamic and Carnegie Hall. It turns out Palesian traveler at the Tel Aviv airport. Revolutionary Guard Corps] front tinians can be anywhere...but Palescompany,” he said. “That’s not the role can’t ignore the plight of Syrians in tine!” And that was only the beginning of his and that’s not even the legal standard that Lebanon,” Corcoran said. The average Syr- fabulous, sidesplitting performance. we have, which is a knowledge standard.” ian student has lost three to five years of —Delinda C. Hanley When OFAC determines a business has education. Ramzy Baroud Headlines ANERA’s Palestinian staff is finding unwittingly dealt with a restricted partner, KinderUSA Fund-raiser Smith says his office simply sends a pri- local solutions for local problems. In vate warning. Only those deemed to have Lebanon, where Palestinians are re- “There are many stories to be told about the purposely violated the law face legal stricted from working in many fields, they Palestinian people. Their national narrative are allowed to work as nurses, so ANERA that has been re-written by the Zionists. repercussions, he said. “Over 95 percent of our enforcement in- is helping Palestinians get nurses training. History is the story of every Palestinian,” vestigations result in what we call a no-ac- A Palestinian woman received the second Ramzy Baroud told an audience of more than 200 at KinderUSA’s annual fund-raiser tion or a cautionary letter,” Smith noted. highest nursing school score this year. The biggest challenge is trying to recon- May 15 at Glendale, CA’s Phoenicia “That means we go back to the company involved and we say, ‘OFAC is not taking struct Gaza, where only 35 percent of the Restaurant. Baroud, a Palestinian-American journalaction’ or ‘we’re going to caution you to be damage from Israel’s 2014 attack has more careful in the future.’ That is a private been repaired. ANERA is helping restore ist who edits the online publication Palesletter that goes between OFAC and that farms so Palestinians don’t have to buy tine Chronicle, signed his 2010 book, My food from Israel. Parents are especially Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s company, it’s not released publically.” —Dale Sprusansky concerned about teenagers who have no Untold Story (available from AET’s Middle hope for the future. ANERA is rebuilding East Books and More). He is working on ANERA Holds Benefit Iftar sports centers so kids can at least play. another book on the people’s history of American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) Corcoran described these efforts as vital Palestine. held a fast-breaking iftar fund-raiser on to “restore the psyche of Gaza.” “I wanted to tell my children, who live in June 23 at the Sultan Qaboos Cultural CenNabil Sharaf, a Palestinian who works at Seattle, who the Palestinians are,” he exter in Washington, DC. ANERA’s president the National Council on U.S.-Arab Rela- plained, noting that his father, Mohammed, & CEO Bill Corcoran gave a vivid descrip- tions, gave a powerful description of the was born in Beit Daras, Palestine and was tion of the organization’s challenges and spiritual side of Ramadan. Fasting for forced to flee to a refugee camp in Gaza successes. “This is not your grandmother’s Muslims is “like a training camp, an annual during the Nakba in 1948. There MoANERA,” he began. “It’s changing, because retreat,” he said. “We go back to our home hammed Baroud raised his family, includneeds are changing. First and foremost base and break our habits and routines” in ing Ramzy, while fighting the Israeli occuANERA is helping Palestinians, but we order to feel with the “poor and discarded.” pation. 66

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Ramzy Baroud speaks at a KinderUSA fundraiser in Seattle. Ayham Ahmad, one of Baroud’s subjects in his upcoming book, came from Yarmouk Camp in Syria and was a pianist until the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) destroyed his piano. Ahmad left Yarmouk and went to Izmir, Turkey, and later onward to Greece. Baroud entitled Ahmad’s story “The Last Earth.” Next Baroud described another Palestinian character he writes about—Ahmad alHaaj, 70, who wore slippers all the time, earning the nickname Abu Sandal (slippers). He also talked about Hana Shalabi, a young woman who was first arrested by the Palestinian Authority and then by the Israelis, who tortured her. Titling her story “Death Note,” Baroud says she went on a 47-day hunger strike, ending only upon her release from prison, and her subsequent deportation to Gaza. Baroud concluded his talk by reciting Mahmoud Darwish’s famous poem, “The Last Sky”: “The Earth is squeezing us. I wish we were its wheat. So we could die and live again.” KinderUSA, an acronym for Kids in Need of Development, Education, and Relief, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2002 by a group of American physicians and humanitarian relief workers. It is a leading American Muslim organization focusing on the health and wellbeing of Palestinian children. Its mission is to improve the lives of Palestinian children and other children in crisis through development and emergency relief. This AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

fundraiser was part of the largest Ramadan initiative in the history of KinderUSA because the needs of the “forgotten children of Palestine” are greater than ever before. —Samir Twair

Women’s Boat to Gaza Sets Sail in September

The latest Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) initiative is the Women's Boat to Gaza (WBG), an all-women mission. The female crew, activists—including a Nobel laureate, members of parliament from different countries, and other eminent women from more than a dozen countries, and journalists covering the voyage—will challenge the Israeli blockade and sail to Gaza in September. Cigdem Topcuoglu, whose husband was killed by Israel commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara in 2010, will be among those on board.

Sailors will have the opportunity to hear Palestinian women share their stories and tell Gazans that there are women around the world who support them. The trip’s aim is not only to break the physical barriers of the blockade, but also to break the media silence and help the voices of Palestinian women in Gaza be heard. The FFC is not affiliated with any government or political party. Many members of the European Parliament in Brussels support the flotilla.The coalition will continue to sail until Israel lifts its blockade, the port of Gaza is open, and Palestinians of Gaza have the ability to fish, to import and export freely, and to lead a normal life without daily fear and suffering. —WBG Steering Committee

Responding to Lebanon’s Syrian Refugee Crisis

On June 24, the Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) hosted Philippe Lazzarini, U.N. deputy special coordinator for Lebanon, for a discussion on “Responding to Lebanon’s Syrian Refugee Crisis.” Randa Slim, a member of both MEI and SAIS, introduced Lazzarini. Lazzarini began by describing Lebanon as “the last haven in a very troubled Middle East,” noting that the Lebanese people have shown an incredible ability to manage crises. At the same time, however, he cautioned that Lebanon’s relative stability should not be taken for granted. “Like in any situation, resilience [in the region] is eroding,” he said. One particularly troubling reality Lazzarini cited is Lebanon’s extraordinarily polarized political situation: the Lebanese people have had no president in over two years now, he observed. Also worrying is Lebanon’s economic decline, Lazzarini noted. The national debt is nearing 140 percent of the country’s GDP (the highest in the region), he pointed out, while unemployment is skyrocketing and the various sectors of the economy—agriculture, construction and

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U.N. Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon Philippe Lazzarini, (l) and MEI’s Randa Slim note the multiple challenges confronting Lebanon.

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More than 350 people attended the Ramadan dinner, under the theme of “HelpHope,” to benefit Syrian orphans. The fund-raiser chairman, Atlanta-based mechanical engineer Shahir Raslan, is originally from Homs, Syria, whose residents are known for their sense of humor. So Raslan made the fund-raising event fun and joyful, and encouraged people to donate more than ever. Sunrise USA, founded in 2011 by a group of Syrian-American professionals, is now considered to be a leading U.S. charity focused on providing humanitarian assistance to Syrians both inside Syria and in neighboring countries. —Samir Twair

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tourism—are collapsing. Lebanese ex- ing Syria. ports, primarily to the Gulf, also have deMore generally, Lazzarini encouraged Counter-terrorism and Saudi Arabia celerated, he noted, citing the Syrian civil the international community to support a war as the main factor in the decline. wholesome approach to the issues facing The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations Along with the country’s struggling econ- Lebanon and its people. This, he argued, (NCUSAR) hosted a June 9 event in Washomy and government, Lazzarini noted would be much more helpful than focusing ington, DC focusing on the counter-terrorism that Lebanon has welcomed 1.5 million on just one issue or regional strain, such efforts of Saudi Arabia and the United States. The event took place at the Rayburn Syrian refugees—equivalent to one-third as the Syrian refugee crisis. of the Lebanese population. Although the —Gabe Ghostine House Office Building on Capitol Hill and concentrated on the ongoing terrorism Lebanese people have shown much “hosSunrise USA Fund-raiser threats facing Saudi Arabia, as well as its pitality,” he said, the country is now facing a very real demographic threat—one that June brought dual natural catastrophes—fire role in the establishment of the United Nahas kept people in the region “existentially and floods—to Americans, and helped them tions Counter-Terrorism Center (UNCCT) in empathize with thousands of Syrians who New York. anxious.” It is difficult to create a successful and The demographic threat in Lebanon have lost their homes, businesses and famtoday is not unlike the demographic ilies due to catastrophies wrought by modern sustainable counter-terrorism strategy that threat—and subsequent catastrophe—the warfare. Sunrise USA and the Syrian Amer- can be easily implemented during conflicts, Lebanese people encountered during their ican Council-Los Angeles (SAC-LA) teamed stated NCUSAR CEO and president Dr. country’s 1975-1990 civil war, Lazzarini ar- up on June 11 for an annual fund-raiser at John Duke Anthony in his introductory regued. According to both Lazzarini and the Great Wolf Hotel in Garden Grove, CA to marks. “The strategy of this committee Slim, just as Palestinian refugees caused help Syrian orphans and homeless families. [UNCCT] is to try to respect and honor human rights and uphold internaan imbalance in the country’s tional law—eradicate that which is Christian-Muslim population, the conducive to terrorism,” he exLebanese people fear that plained. Syria’s primarily Sunni refugees The UNCCT was created in might have a similar effect on 2001 and comprises the 15 SecuLebanon’s delicate Sunni-Shi’i rity Council members. Its mission balance. is to promote international In Lazzarini’s opinion, the incounter-terrorism through the imternational community must work plementation of the United Nato promote a proactive conflicttions Global Counter-Terrorism prevention agenda in Lebanon. Strategy. The country is still “extraordinarNawaf Althari, the counterterily fragile and vulnerable,” he said, particularly with regard to Sunrise USA fund-raisers, computer science school teacher Has- rorism adviser at Saudi Arabia’s permanent mission to the United the sectarian conflict in neighbor- san Twiet (l) and Shahir Raslan. 68

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Nawaf Althari discusses Saudi Arabia's efforts at combatting terrorism. Nations, described his country’s efforts to combat terrorism. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been an integral part of this endeavor for over two decades,” he noted, “spearheading initiatives that have created enduring measures to overcome radicalized insurgents.” Most Westerners do not understand the important role Saudi Arabia plays in counter-terrorism, Althari added. “Washington insiders remain in the dark on the role that Saudi Arabia plays in the global fight against terror,” he said. Although Althari stressed the importance of his own country’s work, he also suggested that countering terror is an international effort. “The war on terror is not an American crusade, it is not a Middle Eastern problem—it a global conflict of epic proportions,” he stated. Althari went on to outline four ways the global community can focus their efforts to deal with terrorism: “a) address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, b) prevent and combat terrorism, c) build states’ capacity to prevent and combat terrorism, and d) ensure respect for human rights and the rule of law in countering terrorism.” —Meghan Blizinski

Understanding Civilian Harm in Afghanistan

The United States Institute of Peace hosted a June 8 event in Washington, DC to disAUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

cuss an Open Society Foundations (OSF) report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan titled, “The Strategic Costs of Civilian Harm.” The event’s objective was to demonstrate that reflecting and improving on military strategy does not have to wait until the end of current military missions, especially when there is growing popular sentiment that civilian harm is actually undermining the Afghanistan mission. “At the strategic level, too often we forget to pause and reflect, to digest and learn,” said Michèle Flournoy, CEO of the Center for a New American Security and former under secretary of defense for policy.

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The report focused in particular on findings from 2008 to 2012—which, according to OSF advocacy director Rachel Reid, was a “period of extremely positive lessons in many ways. The U.S. demonstrated it could put in place much improved civilian protection for a relatively low cost,” through the 2009 strategy rewrite by Gen. David Petraeus. Those years featured a series of reforms, such as the implementation of civilian casualty tracking cells, tactical directives to limit and control military attacks in civilian zones, and shifting prioritization by military leaders such as Gen. Stanley McChrystal. As a result, there was a dramatic fall in civilian fatalities attributed to the U.S. from 39 percent in 2008 to 9 percent in 2012. The report makes three main recommendations: a uniform policy to protect civilians, systems to collect and analyze data on civilian harm, called “civilian protection cells,” and, lastly, that “from the beginning, protection of civilians is built into partner training and support strategies,” as advocated by OSF senior program officer Chris Rogers. The focus of these recommendations on data, analytics and communication is to ultimately deepen U.S. understanding of the strategic impact of its forces in Afghanistan, and increase its analytical capability. This is due to the key takeaway that “civilian harm

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Reflecting on “Operation Provide Comfort”

The Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted a conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on June 6 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Operation Provide Comfort. OPC was the U.S.-led effort to provide protection and assistance to millions of Iraqi Kurds fleeing Saddam Hussain’s reprisals in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War. The conference’s two panels focused on OPC and how lessons learned from OPC can be applied to ongoing conflicts. Keynote speaker Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) representative to the U.S., opened the conference recounting her personal experiences with OPC. “Operation Provide Comfort saved thousands of lives and played a big part in our national history,” she said. Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations, read a statement from KRG President Masoud Barzani. U.N. Security Council Resolution 688 was adopted on April 5, 1991 after member states expressed concern about the repression of the Iraqi people, mainly Iraqi Kurds. The resolution called on the Iraqi government to stop the repression and uphold human rights for all people living in Iraq. The resolution also called on the government to allow humanitarian aid and assistance to repressed Iraqi citizens. Based on this resolution, France, the United States and the United Kingdom established a no-fly zone over Iraq in order to ensure the continuing efforts of humanitarian aid. “It was through that resolution that we were able to begin to form a new life here in the Kurdistan region,” declared Barzani in his statement. 70

(L-r) Ambassador (ret.) James Jeffrey of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Sarhang Hamasaeed with the U.S. Institute of Peace, MEI’s Paul Salem, and Denise Natali and Col. Richard H.M. Outzen with the National Defense University. Bakir ended his keynote speech with a final statement that summed up the outcome and overall success of OPC. “OPC did much more than just provide comfort,” he said. “It provided hope, opened new possibilities for freedom, democracy, and an overall safe and brighter future for the people of Kurdistan.” The first panel, moderated by Washington Post associate editor Karen DeYoung, focused on the military operations that took place in northern Iraq during OPC. “[OPC] is widely viewed as a success, however there were numerous problems and some lessons that were hopefully learned,” DeYoung explained. “But it saved hundreds of lives, reduced ethnic pressure on Turkey, and prevented Saddam Hussain from having a free hand.” OPC was a crucial military operation that allowed the Kurdish people to create their own governing system and infrastructure. Panelist Khaled Salih, a former senior adviser to the KRG prime minister, described the Kurdish government transition: “The Kurds went back to the community they were originating from, and that put pressure on the Kurdish leadership,” he noted. “It allowed the Kurdish leadership to set up its own transition into a civil and political system.” The second panel, titled “Lessons Learned for Today’s Crises,” concentrated on the success and end result of OPC.

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The panelists discussed the ways in which OPC could be applied to the ongoing crises in the MENA region, specifically in Iraq and Syria. “The conflict in Syria and Iraq is more complex than with Saddam—today ISIS has changed the game,” explained Sarhang Hamasaeed, MENA program officer for the U.S. Institute of Peace. “Enforcing a line against ISIS is extremely difficult.” In Syria today, there are many different “political actors,” making it difficult to distinguish between each group or work with them. —Meghan Blizinski

Authoritarian Regimes and the Media

The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) held a panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on June 8 entitled “The State of Journalism Globally: How Authoritarian Regimes Control Information.” CIPE executive director Andrew Wilson set the stage for the discussion by outlining the importance of a free and independent media. “If the press is limited in its ability to reach out and show a variety of viewpoints, democracy suffers,” he said. Deborah Amos, Middle East correspondent for NPR News, said that authoritarian regimes in the Arab world have gotten better at controlling information, despite the advancement of technology and social AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

PHOTO COURTESY MEI

is broader than the issue of just civilian casualties,” said Christopher Kolenda, who served four tours in Afghanistan and is now a senior military fellow at King’s College, London and president of Kolenda Strategic Leadership. Civilian harm, he argued, includes “the adverse effects of military operations on community and family life.” -—Gloria Cheung

(L-r) Gina Chon, Washington columnist for BreakingViews.com, NPR’s Deborah Amos and CNN’s Jim Sciutto discuss the role of media in authoritarian states. media. The regimes have “more tools” and are “more subtle” in how they exercise their power, she noted. “They want legitimacy, and to be a crusher of the free press is not a role they want to be in,” she said. “So, they use the law, they use subtle pressure.” According to Amos, journalists in authoritarian regimes “know what they’re supposed to do...toe the line.” In Jordan, for instance, she said it’s not uncommon for journalists to receive calls from the palace when the king doesn’t like what is being reported. Amos pointed out, however, that each Arab country has its own unique media environment. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, Twitter is extremely popular, she noted. “Saudi media is authoritarian…but it’s stodgy, and it’s old, and it’s old-fashioned, and it’s tribal,” Amos said. Therefore, she explained, few Saudis under the age of 30 watch state-controlled news channels; instead, they rely on social media platforms such as Twitter. News in Iraq is written through a sectarian lens, Amos said. As a result, news channels tend to have a sectarian (Sunni, Shi’i, Kurdish, etc.) bent. “The good news for them is they watch across the spectrum. The bad news is the spectrum is AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

there,” she said. “If you need to know how to get your kid to school in the morning,” Amos added, “you can’t depend on your sectarian media to tell you everything, and they know that.” The Iraqi media is not entirely unlike the highly partisan American media, which also distributes inflammatory and contradictory information, noted Jim Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent. “It’s remarkable that as you have this diversification of news outlets, you have less informed people to some degree,” he said. —Gabe Ghostine

sense of… ‘freedom is participation and power,’” Nader explained. “These four days are called breaking through power— not wealth, not income, not inequality of various sorts. Because when you break through power and redistribute it as befits a functioning democracy, you break through these inequalities of wealth, income and race.” The conference hosted 17 citizen advocacy groups and more than 80 speakers who addressed ways to fortify the effectiveness of citizens and civic groups in breaking through corporate power and securing democratic solutions. Speakers included former Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), public advocate Mark Green and media personality Phil Donahue. An overarching theme the speakers stressed was the role and responsibility of the media in regulating the government, affecting public opinion on war and enforcing a democratic society. “The many serious people in this country who are concerned about our present and future, and our impact on the world, have created the public airways—which the people own as abandoned property,” Nader stated. “The television and radio industries are the tenants…we’re the landlord…they control valuable public property, and we’ve abandoned it.”

Nader Conference Encourages Progressive Civic Mobilization

Activists and community members congregated at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC from May 23 to May 26 for a conference organized by former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. The “Breaking through Power” conference was a 50th anniversary celebration of the publication of Nader’s book on vehicle safety, Unsafe at any Speed. “We want to expand the

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Ralph Nader unveils his new organization,“Voices.”

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The second day of the conference focused on breaking through the media, and featured the launch of Nader’s new organization, “Voices”—a full-spectrum advocacy group to champion an open and democratic communication commons. Speakers including Mark Green, Jim Hightower, Phyllis Bennis and Chris Hedges argued that in order to reform the communications landscape of democracy, the American people must first understand that media is biased. An issue the conference addressed was that of corporations controlling mainstream media. According to public interest lawyer Green, large companies control what most people see in the media and are using media outlets to further push their own agenda. “Corporate media is an instrument of corporate power,” Green said. “Media is not a mirror of reality. It is a crisis affecting our democracy and economy.” Other speakers advocated that, upon breaking through corporate mainstream media, the establishment of an independent media is a vital component of a legitimate democracy. According to Hightower, a radio commentator and former Texas agriculture commissioner, media should be able to connect people with each other to share ideas about the democratic systems in America. He described the media as distant from the public and not relatable. “Media needs to connect more and cooperate more closely with people,” he said. “We need to create our own media. The presentation needs fewer statistics and more storytelling.” Hightower said he believes that this strategy would allow for a more open flow of discourse and communication between people, and foster a stronger sense of a democratic community. A second point articulated by the speakers was the media’s false portrayal of the narrative of war. Media and warfare have a strong relationship, argued Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She cited 72

as an example, the Libyan crisis in 2011, when the Obama administration was debating whether to engage in military action in the region. “The media was there cheerleading for war, due to a perceived imminent genocide,” Bennis recalled. In her opinion, however, the crisis was not imminent, and the media’s incorrect portrayal of urgency was never revisited. Bennis stressed that the media should express a narrative focused more on the people experiencing the impact of Paul Pillar says the U.S. continues to push a myth of might. U.S. foreign policy and military to Secretary of State Colin Powell (2002actions. “We need a media that doesn’t embed 2005), opened with an analysis of the dewith U.S. troops, but embeds with peo- velopment of war in America. Wilkerson sees the beginnings of Washple…on the ground who are the subjects ington’s progression of violations of the of U.S. policies,” she said. In addition to the media’s misleading pri- Constitution in Harry Truman’s presidency oritization of narratives, renowned journal- in 1950, when Truman introduced U.S. milist Hedges emphasized its frequent and bi- itary forces into the conflict between North and South Korea without notifying Conased glorification of U.S. wars. “When your own nation is not directly in- gress. The violations continued throughout volved in the war, it is possible to present his presidency, Wilkerson said, adding that a narrative that begins to describe the re- Truman’s socialist appeals for spending on ality of war,” he noted. “But as soon as universal healthcare were contradicted by your own nation undertakes war, the press increases in defense spending to build armaments for the Cold War. immediately signs on for the crusade.” These violations eventually were cePointing to media coverage of the Vietnam War, Hedges noted that in the war’s mented by the 1973 War Powers Act, first few years the media pushed narra- passed by the Congress during the presitives that embodied courage and generos- dency of Richard Nixon. “The Congress ity. Yet once the public began shifting its was absolutely adamant it was going to perception and opinion of the war, the abandon formally and statutorily its war power in the Constitution,” Wilkerson said. media’s coverage shifted as well. This relationship is worsened by the in“The idea that the press is somehow a leader or a truth teller before the public is clinations of U.S. presidents. Wilkerson able to figure out the truth is incorrect,” posited that the president, encumbered by the bureaucracy and subservient to other Hedges concluded. forces and officials, “has one way to America and Its Penchant for War demonstrate that he is the King of the Discussion on the third day revolved Hill… and that is war.” around war and America’s proclivity for war. Wilkerson calls this phenomenon the Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, professor of gov- “Presidential Predilection for Power,” ernment and public policy at the College of which leads to military build-ups even in William and Mary and former chief of staff times of relative peace, and defines AmerSTAFF PHOTO GLORIA CHEUNG

Dismantling Mainstream Media

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MUSIC & ARTS Nabil al-Raee of Jenin Freedom Theatre on “The Siege”

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ica’s penchant for war. According to Paul Pillar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, despite the increasing duration and poor results of America’s wars, the U.S. continues to push a myth of military success that defines modern discourse on the use of military force. “American successes have been so obvious, so longstanding and so deeply embedded in American culture and law that they still shape current discourse on the use of military force,” Pillar said. “What should have been sobering lessons from the more recent and less successful military interventions tends to get swept aside in favor of the historically based optimism about the use of force.” This optimism reinforces the rhetorical asymmetry between positive-sounding calls for U.S. intervention to solve conflicts, and negative-sounding calls for caution and diplomacy. “The public and political appetite for action usually means specifically visible, forceful action, and that generally means, in most minds, military responses,” Pillar argued. “They have greater appeal than less-visible policy tools like behind-thescenes diplomacy.” As a result of American politics and leaders’ need to win the popular vote, leadership is equated with toughness, which is correlated with the use of military force. This tendency continues to have a global and domestic impact today, as military force is commonly viewed as the only way to defeat ISIS. Pillar disagrees with this presumption, arguing that intervention will only fuel ISIS’ rhetoric and propaganda, and foster resentment that aids recruitment for terrorist groups. “The United States appears destined, for reasons related to what makes it exceptional, to continue using military force beyond what serves its interest,” Pillar concluded. “It is on us…to take greater insistence on opening up the deliberative process.” —Massarah Mikati, Gloria Cheung and Meghan Blizinski

Nabil al-Raee, artistic director of the Jenin Freedom Theatre, discusses “The Siege.”

If all had gone according to plan, The Jenin Freedom Theatre’s production of “The Siege” would have been staged at New York’s Public Theater this past spring. Of course, for people living under a punitive occupation where every form of resistance is put down with violence, life rarely goes according to plan. Definitely not planned was a masked gunman’s assassination of the Freedom Theatre’s cofounder Juliano Mer Khamis just outside the theater. Five years later, the murder is still “under investigation.” Nor was the middle-of-the-night arrest and detention by Israeli soldiers in June 2012 of Nabil al-Raee, Mer Khamis’ successor as artistic director. And he was one of six theater personnel arrested that year alone. The theater, situated in the Jenin Refugee Camp, also has been firebombed numerous times by persons unknown. In the face of these non-theatrical challenges, this year the Jenin Freedom Theatre celebrated its 10th anniversary. In that decade, it has produced 24 plays, performed all over the West Bank, published 3 photography books, established a 3-year theater training program, and

toured 15 countries, including the United States, where the company staged an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” in 2011 and Athol Fugard’s “The Island” in 2013. The Freedom Theatre’s biggest project thus far is “The Siege.” Al-Raee, passing through New York on his way home after participating on a panel appropriately entitled “Prevented Performances” at the Theater Communication Group’s (TCG) national conference in Washington, DC, spoke about the genesis of “The Siege,” calling it “our first complete project starting from zero.” The play is based on Israel’s 39-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during its 2002 invasion of the West Bank. Resistance fighters, including from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and members of the Palestinian Security Forces, along with some 300 civilians, monks and nuns, sought sanctuary in one of the most venerated sites in Christendom. They were without water, electricity or food and surrounded by Israeli tanks and troops. The siege ended when the 39 surviving fighters (eight were killed by Israeli sharpshooters in the course of the siege) agreed to self-exile. They were not allowed to say good-bye to their families, nor have they been allowed to return. Al-Raee and his colleagues spent a year and a half of research that included interviewing the deportees—the 26 sent to Gaza—by Skype, and in-person conversations with the 13 exiled to five countries in Europe. Al-Raee drew on the Palestinian fighters’ memories and testimonies to create a script from their point of view. This is especially important for Western audiences, whose politicians and media conflate Palestinian resistance with terrorism, and never ask what they are resisting and why. Audiences responded enthusiastically to the play when the Freedom Theatre toured Great Britain in 2015. A review in the May 21, 2015 Guardian deemed it a “compelling theatrical experience with a

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“Picture Kindness”

Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis and, of course, Americans was small, the donations were generous. We enjoyed wine, cheese and sweets while taking a tour of the gallery. The current exhibition features an artist from Ramallah. XOL provides young Middle Eastern artists an outlet to showcase their work in a lovely and unique space. Nematt offered three paintings for a “Refugee Benefit Auction.” Although none sold during the event, he will continue to keep them up for bidding, with 50 percent of their sale to benefit NISCVT. Donations are earmarked for NISCVT’s sponsorship program. Several people sponsored a child in kindergarten for $150 a year. This program provides some normalcy for children growing up in very difficult conditions in camps. Others sponsored an elderly woman or man under a program called “Our Elderly…Our Dignity,”

XOL art gallery holds a benefit for Beit Atfal Assamoud. The XOL art gallery in Baltimore, MD generously hosted an open house on Saturday, June 25 on behalf of the refugees in Lebanon. Salameh Nematt, founder and curator of the gallery located in the Mount Vernon cultural and historic district, wanted “to do something to raise funds and support the cause.” All funds will directly benefit the National Institution of Social Care and Vocational Training in Lebanon (NISCVT—also known as Beit Atfal Assamoud). Although the crowd of Palestinians, 74

which assists the older generation by providing activities and support. This sponsorship is $360 a year. For more information about the ongoing sponsorship programs, which always need funds, please visit <www.socialcare.org>. The XOL Gallery, located at 830 Park Ave., is housed in a renovated former warehouse built in 1860. XOL is short for the Latin “Ex Oriente Lux,” an ancient Roman slogan meaning “Light Comes From the East”—a recognition that civi-

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lization originated in the Middle East. The XOL website, <www.xolgallery.com>, displays a list of artists, their artist statements and images of their works, plus a schedule of upcoming exhibitions and events. For more information e-mail info@XOLGallery.com or call (443) 563-2481. —Ellen Siegel

Paris Photo Exhibit Gives Voice to Refugees

PHOTO COURTESY MAYSSA ZEIDAN, XOL GALLERY

rough and ready energy, and, in the very act of its telling, speaks for the voiceless and forgotten.” This, Al-Raee said, is the goal of art: to connect people rather than dividing them as a way of effecting change. Artists, he continued, should “not exclude ourselves as though we live on a different planet. We must make change with the people.” Al-Raee was encouraged by the amount of interest in the Freedom Theatre and in “The Siege” from fellow actors and directors he met at the TCG conference, which left him feeling that “artists can make it happen if politicians cannot.” Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre are doing their utmost to bring “The Siege” to the U.S. in the fall of 2017. —Jane Adas

“I Am With Them,” a heart-wrenching photo exhibition of refugees by photojournalist Anne A.R., was on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris May 10 through July 3, 2016. Presenting the harrowing stories of children, women and men who fled to Greece from war-torn Syria and Iraq, the photojournalist gives voice to their tragic plight. In the gallery, statements from her interviews hang next to oversized 2-ft. x 4-ft. photos of refugees. “Daddy is dead. He died in the war,” said 7-year-old Hamzi from Syria in his interview statement. “I want to learn how to read and become a doctor.” Following the refugees from their arrival in small boats on the Aegean Sea coast of Lesvos, to Germany, where they hoped to build new lives, A.R. shares their stories— their fears, courage and hope for the future— in order to restore their dignity and humanity. In January, the exhibition was well-received at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. —Elaine Pasquini

“Scent and the City” Delights Istanbul Visitors

A unique exhibit on the sense of smell, organized by Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, was on display from April through June at its Istiklal Avenue gallery in central Istanbul. Presenting the smellscapes of Istanbul and Anatolia over four millennia of civilizations, “Scent and the City” explored the aromas that permeate our lives and connect us with our deepest memories. Throughout history scents were used in AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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rosewater, camphor, exotic woods and resins—was a regular activity in the Ottoman era. Resembling a chemistry laboratory, one large gallery featured hands-on atomizers dispensing scents at the touch of a button. Among the 50 offerings from Turkey’s rich olfactory history were frankincense, saffron, rose, linden trees, burning coal and cannabis— which seemed to be the most popular, as it was empty at the time of our visit. Freshly ground coffee for Anne A.R.’s moving photos from her exhibit in France. the scent bar was prayers, funerary and healing rituals. provided by Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, Roman and Byzantine nobles used plants the oldest and one of the most popular cofto perfume their bodies, homes and public fee venders in Istanbul. spaces. In the 11th century Empress Zoe Lauren Nicole Davis, Ph.D. candidate created a fragrance workshop in her bed- and teaching assistant at Koç University’s room. Constantinople was a convergence Department of Archaeology and History, point for exotic herbs and spices coming curated the exhibition, which ranged from from the East. Blending scents—musk, the Hittite civilization through the Byzantine

“The scent bar in the “Scent and the City” exhibit at Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations Gallery in Istanbul.

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and Ottoman eras up to the present. A large map of modern Istanbul hung at the exhibition entrance featuring magnets with some 60 different smells written on them, which Davis derived from personal interviews and surveys as a part of her doctoral research. Visitors were encouraged to write scents not already mentioned on blank magnets to add to the map. The smells mentioned of today’s Istanbul—many of which also existed centuries ago—included coffee, rotten eggs, spices, fish, beer, sweat, vomit, urine, street cleaning and car exhaust. –Elaine Pasquini

Coffeehouses in the Ottoman Era

In Istanbul this summer selected items from the extensive Suna and Inan Kiraç Foundation’s Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics Collection were the centerpiece of the Pera Museum’s exhibition “Coffee Break.” The popular show explored the routines, rituals and relationships surrounding the Kahvehane (coffeehouse), which emerged as a popular hangout in Istanbul in the 16th century as an alternative to the traditional gathering spots of markets and mosques. News, politics and family events were topics debated in the coffeehouses—the social media of its time. Second only to Iznik in ceramics production in the Ottoman era, Kütahya was renowned for producing faience (fine tinglazed pottery) for mosques, churches and official buildings throughout the region. The town, located in western Turkey, continued to produce exquisite tiles and other items in the 18th and 19th centuries, from which time many of the pieces in the collection date. Since acquiring Kütahya ceramics in the 1980s, the Kiraçs’ collection has grown into one of the most outstanding of its kind, consisting of more than 1,000 objects which will be displayed in future exhibits. Cups, saucers, sugar bowls and pitchers with colorful images of people, animals and floral designs were displayed next to large informational panels on the history, importance and business of coffee throughout the Ottoman Empire. A signed

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One of the displays in the “Coffee Break” exhibition at Istanbul’s Pera Museum.

Yemen Peace Project Fundraiser

Marjorie Ransom invited guests to her Washington, DC home on May 31 for a private sale of antique and newly created jewelry from Kamal Rubaih and his World Friend shop in Sana’a, Yemen. Ransom

wrote the first English-language book on Yemeni silver jewelry, a masterpiece titled Silver Treasures from the Land of Sheba (available from AET’s Middle East Books and More). Invitees were asked to bring a check for the Yemen Peace Project to help fund three Yemeni charities. Even those who were unable to attend helped raise $7,400. The funds went to House of Light, run by Sahar Nuraddin, which delivers food and necessities to the needy in Aden; Yemen for Development Foundation (YDF), a local NGO based in Sa’ada focusing on the most vulnerable, especially children; and

Marjorie Ransom (c) models Kamal Rubaih’s Yemeni silver for shoppers and donors. 76

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the Hemmat Shabab Foundation for Development, in Taiz and Sana’a, which trains young Yemeni men and women to distribute desperately needed supplies through tunnels and on back roads. The conflict in Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest nation, has killed more than 3,500 civilians, including 1,000 children, since March 2015. Another 6,200 civilians have been wounded, including 1,500 children who have lost limbs or have been maimed, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Generous American donors try to help victims of wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and other countries in the Middle East, but Yemen is a challenge because the country is misunderstood by most foreigners. The Yemen Peace Project, founded in 2010, uses insightful commentary and artistic outreach, including an international Yemeni Film and Arts Festival, to encourage more understanding, as well as promoting a discussion of American policy toward Yemen. —Delinda C. Hanley

Event Showcases Gulf Poetry and Culture

STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY

handwritten agreement from 1766, when cup production flourished in Kütahya—recognized as the first collective agreement in the Ottoman era—was also on view, along with paintings and old photographs depicting the preparation, serving and drinking of coffee. —Elaine Pasquini

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

activisms_56-77_Activisms 7/13/16 2:43 PM Page 76

The Arab Gulf States Institute (AGSI) broke boundaries and stereotypes with a June 23 spoken word poetry event at Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, DC. The event, titled “RIWAYA: Spoken Word from the Gulf,” featured three renowned poets: Afra Atiq and Salem Shukri al Attas, both from the United Arab Emirates, and Fatima al Haddad from Kuwait. Their poems’ subjects ranged from love and relationships, to gender norms and cultural identities, to odes to the golden days of the ’90s. In one poem, Atiq playfully reflects on the video game system of her youth. “I miss Atari,” she says. “XBOX has nothing on it, iPad can’t compare with its worth, it was better than Sega, PS 2, 3, 4, Nintendo Cube and 64 all rolled into one.” Other poems were less light-hearted, such as Haddad’s poem titled “Cover Her,” which she elegantly recited against a background of graceful oud music. “Do not AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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DIPLOMATIC DOINGS

ABOVE: Salem Shukri al Attas; BELOW: Afra Atiq.

show those lips that make mountains fall, cover her,” Haddad said. “Let no thoughts with her bright mind make noise, let only miracles from her womb bear boys.” According to AGSI’s website, the goal of RIWAYA was to showcase elements of Gulf Arab culture and highlight the common humanity of us all. “Arabic poetry isn’t just about expression,” Shukri said during the Q&A. “It’s about bridging gaps and helping people understand your message, because poetry is supposed to be controversial and polarizing and necessary.” —Massarah Mikati AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

STAFF PHOTO M. MIKATI

STAFF PHOTOS M. MIKATI

Iraqi Ambassador on U.S.Iraq Relations

The World Affairs Council in Washington, DC hosted Lukman Faily, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S., on June 1 as part of its “Ambassador Series.” Faily, who has subsequently concluded his threeyear stint in Washington, addressed pressing issues facing Iraq and the world, Iraq-U.S. relations, and his vision for the future of his country. Ambassador Faily began by stressing the interconnectivity between the challenges facing the world—namely, refugees, human rights, nuclear issues and terrorism—and those facing the Middle East. “We as a region have had internal issues which have had ramifications across the globe,” he pointed out, “so unless the region is fixed, global challenges will always be there.” Given this reality, Faily challenged the U.S. and the international community to do more to proactively address these issues, particularly terrorism. The U.S., he said, must determine whether or not it is willing to invest in defeating the root causes of these

crises, or approach these issues with containment as its strategy. According to Faily, it is more beneficial for the U.S. to extensively invest in Iraq. “It is important that the stability of Iraq is seeded in the U.S.,” he argued: “A) because of the richness of resources, which means an unstable Iraq will significantly cause an issue for all production. B) The epicenter of the region has always been Iraq.” However, U.S. intervention has not always positively impacted Iraq. Faily raised the issue of the 2003 invasion multiple times, saying the U.S. “did not do their homework,” resulting in many of the serious issues Iraq faces today. Faily did indicate that there were some positive outcomes of the invasion, however, saying, “Iraqis now have the will to think and the will to act.” He replied to an audience member who asked if the U.S. should have ever invaded Iraq, “They did not have this [will] before 2003,” under the reign of Saddam Hussain. Faily also addressed the possibility of dividing Iraq along ethno-sectarian lines, a political solution proposed by some in the West. In his opinion, this would cause more harm than good, as determining fair borders would be nearly impossible, and sectarianism would not remain confined to any borders. “[You would be] destabilizing the region, as well as making sure that Iraq cannot function together,” Faily said. “Iraqis coexisted together long before Saddam Hussain.” —Massarah Mikati

Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. Lukman Faily discusses the future of his country with Jessica Ashooh of the Atlantic Council. WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

77

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B •O •O •K •S Shell-Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel’s Gaza Assault

by Mohammed Omer, O/R Books, 2015, paperback, 301 pp. List: $20; MEB: $20. Mohammed Omer begins his debut book by frankly describing the Israel-Palestine conflict as being “about economic and political power: who has the most clout financially and militarily in the Middle East.” This honest and clear assessment dictates his tone throughout the book, revealing his astute awareness of the conflict and his ability to reflect the experience of Gazans in the 2014 Israeli assault on the besieged enclave. Its endorsement by Noam Chom-

Kevin A. Davis is the former director of Middle East Books and More.

Reviewed by Kevin A. Davis sky, Roger Waters, Rashid Khalidi, Judith Butler, and Sara Roy is a testament to its utility. Shell-Shocked is a collection of short journalistic pieces during Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza by Omer, the Washington Report’s award-winning Gaza correspondent. The articles are presented chronologically, taking us through the main events of the war. (This reviewer would have preferred that the articles specified the dates written, and where they were originally published.) As a journalist, Omer’s notes reveal his critical attention to international representations of the war and the misleading language so often used to depict the conflict as a case of pure Israeli “self-defense.” Shell-Shocked also documents the personal stories of Gazans attempting to survive the war, told through Omer’s extensive and diverse interviews. His reporting takes him to all corners of the Gaza Strip, meeting with civilians of all backgrounds. The book’s uniqueness is its stark, almost detached reporting style—as a jour-

nalist, Omer does not inject himself into his stories, and the only real personal insight we get of him is in the book’s short introduction. Yet his articles still smartly capture the devastation that the war brings on Gaza. In the end, Shell-Shocked portrays the devastation, confusion and destruction left by the Israeli assault, from loss of infrastructure to civilian death tolls. One of the book’s greatest strengths is Omer’s documention of the chaos of the aftermath of war, including illness, loss of property, loss of life, and displacement. He makes it abundantly clear that the suffering of Gazans does not begin or end with Israeli violence, but continues in a vicious cycle long after the bombing has stopped. Nevertheless, Omer ends on a positive note, claiming, “The tide is turning towards justice and equitable peace. I know it is a slow process, and may take years, but it feels right. Change is coming. And that is a good thing.” ■

IndextoAdvertisers Alalusi Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 American Friends of Birzeit University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover Folk Art Mavens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Gaza Mental Health Foundation . . 14 Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Kinder USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Mashrabiya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Middle East Children’s Alliance. . . . 48 Mondoweiss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Muslim Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Palestinian Medical Relief Society . 80 United Palestinian Appeal (UPA) . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover 78

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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MIDDLE • EAST • BOOKS • AND • MORE

Literature

*

Films

*

Pottery

*

Solidarity Items

SUMMER 2016

*

More

The Killing of Osama Bin Laden by Seymour M. Hersh, Verso Books, 2016, hardcover, 132 pp. List: $19.95; MEB: $16. What began as a series of articles for the London Review of Books is now this award-winning journalist’s controversial new book investigating bin Laden’s death in 2011. Hersh goes on to examine other aspects of Barack Obama’s foreign policy, including the war in Syria and the rise of ISIS. The result is a damning condemnation of Obama’s foreign policy.

Guapa: A Novel by Saleem Haddad, Other Books, 2016, paperback, 358 pp. List: $16.95; MEB: $14. This debut novel by one of the Middle East’s most promising young writers is the moving comingof-age story of a young gay Arab man trying to come to grips with his identity in a country going through radical transformation. Rich with metaphors, the novel also speaks to larger ideas of political and social alienation confronting so many millions of youths in their daily lives.

The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency by Charles R. Lister, Oxford University Press, 2015, paperback, 500 pp. List: $24.95; MEB: $22. Analyst Lister attempts to clarify the confusion surrounding the war in Syria since 2011 by examining the complex network of insurgency groups currently fighting the Assad regime and, looking beyond just Syria, explicating the genealogies of these groups and how they fit into the history of the Syrian civil war.

The Turtle of Oman: A Novel by Naomi Shihab Nye, Greenwillow Books, 2016, paperback, 313 pp. List: $9.99; MEB: $8. The endearing story of a young boy from Muscat, Oman who reluctantly moves to Michigan, leaving behind everything in his life that he is familiar with. This great piece of young adult fiction is the winner of the Middle East Book Award and a relatable story for any child who is a transplant, as well as a great source for young readers of Arab customs and traditions.

The Fires of Spring: A PostArab Spring Journey Through the Turbulent New Middle East—Turkey, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, and Tunisia by Shelly Culbertson, St. Martin’s Press, 2016, hardcover, 368 pp. List: $29.99; MEB: $24. The author, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, conducted research not only in countries that experienced large-scale protests, but in a diverse group of countries in the region to explore some of the narratives and ideas that emerged during the Arab Spring.

Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah, Hoopoe Fiction, 2016, paperback, 652 pp. List: $18.95; MEB: $16. The noted Palestinian author’s latest epic traces three generations of a family from a Palestinian village. Beginning in the British Mandate, each generation struggles through a series of different colonizing forces that have lasting impacts on the family, their village, and the very fabric of tribal society. Nasrallah’s poetic writing and captivating story make for a truly beautiful read.

Saudi Arabia and Iran: Power and Rivalry in the Middle East by Simon Mabon, I.B. Tauris, 2016, paperback, 298 pp. List: $29.95; MEB: $26. Perhaps the most notable current rivalry in the Middle East is now between Saudi Arabia and Iran. From Syria to Yemen to Lebanon, this rivalry has had serious consequences and created new political and sectarian dimensions. Mabon’s new book is the first to thoroughly investigate this new dynamic from the 1979 Iranian Revolution to the present.

America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East by Chas Freeman, Just World Books, 2016, paperback, 253 pp. List: $19.99; MEB: $18. In a sequel to his 2012 America’s Misadventures in the Middle East (also available from MEB), Freeman details U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East since 2010, tracing America’s response to the Arab Spring, continued engagement with Israel, and the rise of new superpowers in the region such as China and Russia. Usefully, he also prescribes a set of policy solutions that the U.S. could adopt.

Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World by Shadi Hamid, St. Martin’s Press, 2016, hardcover, 306 pp. List: $26.99; MEB: $22. Never one to shy away from bold claims, analyst Hamid daringly explores the large question of political Islam, astutely arguing that Islam is unique in its relationship between religion and politics, giving voice to profound debates in the region over the basic concept of a state and how it should exist. Truly a must-read.

SHIPPING RATES Most items are discounted and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Orders accepted by mail, phone (800-368-5788 ext. 2), or Web (www.middleeastbooks.com). All payments in U.S. funds. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express accepted. Please send mail orders to Middle East Books and More, 1902 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009, with checks and money orders made out to “AET.” U.S. Shipping Rates: Please add $5 for the first item and $2.50 for each additional item. Canada & Mexico shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $3.50 for each additional item. International shipping charges: Please add $15 for the first item and $6 for each additional item. We ship by USPS Priority unless otherwise requested. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

Library packages (list value over $240) are available for $29 if donated to a library, or free if requested with a library’s paid subscription or renewal. Call Middle East Books and More at 800-368-5788 ext. 2 to order. Our policy is to identify donors unless anonymity is specifically requested.

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

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O• B • I • T • U • A • R • I • E • S Khalil Karjawally, 87, a Palestinian-American businessman and president of Ella Investment Corporation in McLean, VA, died Feb. 13, 2016. Born in Jerusalem, he, like many Palestinians, came to the U.S. for his university education. After graduating from Michigan State in Lansing, he earned a master’s degree in economics at George Washington and American University. He spent much of his career working in Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, but wherever he lived he never forgot his homeland. Admired for his intellect, integrity and kindness, throughout his life Karjawally generously supported Palestinian causes. He helped fund the education of countless Palestinian lawyers, doctors, pharmacists and economists, believing that knowledge would help build his homeland. A down-to-earth man, he always said he’d rather spend money on people in need than buy a fancy filet or other superfluous goods. He is survived by his wife, Gamila, three daughters, Kathy, Rana and Lina, and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mohamed Abdelaziz, 68, secretary-general of the Polisario Front, died May 31 after a long illness. He had led the Polis-

Compiled by Meghan Blizinski

ario Front since 1976, fighting for the independence of Morocco-controlled Western Sahara. He also served as the second president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the government-in-exile based in the Tindouf, Algeria refugee camp. His successor, Polisario co-founder Brahim Ghali, was elected unopposed July 9, following a 40-day mourning period. David Lamb, 76, a foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, died June 5 in Alexandria, VA of esophageal and lymphoma cancer. He was best known for his coverage of the Vietnam War, including the fall of Saigon in 1975. A critically acclaimed author, his books include The Arabs and The Africans, detailed accounts of his travels in those regions and his outlook on their cultures. He also served as Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Cairo, Nairobi, Hanoi and Sydney.

David Gilkey, 50, an NPR photojournalist, died June 5 in Afghanistan, when a rocketpropelled grenade struck the Afghan army Humvee in which he was traveling. Also killed was Zabihullah Tamanna, an Afghan interpreter for NPR. Gilkey had traveled to

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WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Afghanistan to cover an assignment with the Afghan National Guard. A well-known photojournalist, he received the George Polk Award in 2010, and was recognized as Still Photographer of the Year by the White House News Photographers Association in 2011. He covered conflicts in Gaza, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan. Amjad Sabri, 45, a well-known Pakistani qawwali singer, was shot and killed June 22 by a motorcycle gunman in Karachi. He came from a family of qawwali-singers, a type of Sufi devotional music that has existed for 700 years. Sabri’s uncle and father were both famous singers; his family is best known for singing different renditions of mystic poetry, also known as arifana kalam. Abbas Kiarostami, 76, considered by many to be Iran’s greatest filmmaker, died July 4 in Paris, where he had gone for cancer treatment following surgery in his native Tehran. After winning a painting contest at 18, he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts at Tehran University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1968. He began his film career in 1970 with the short work “Bread and Alley,” which he made for the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. He made his first full-length film, “Report,” in 1977, often working in a semidocumentary style and using nonprofessional actors. His “Koker Trilogy” was set in the northern Iranian village of that name, which had been struck by a devastating earthquake in 1990. “Taste of Cherry,” his 1997 film, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Unlike many of his fellow artists, Kiarostami chose to remain in Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. “When you take a tree that is rooted in the ground, and transfer it from one place to another, the tree will no longer bear fruit,” he told Britain’s The Guardian. “And if it does, the fruit will not be as good as it was in its original place. ■ AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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AET’s 2016 Choir of Angels

Following are individuals, organizations, companies and foundations whose help between Jan. 1, 2016 and July 5, 2016 is making possible activities of the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment (federal ID #52-1460362) and the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Some Angels helped us co-sponsor the March 18 conference, “Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?” We are deeply honored by their confidence and profoundly grateful for their generosity.

HUMMERS ($100 or more)

Anonymous, Dearborn Heights, MI Anonymous, Largo, FL Annonymous, Oyster Bay, NY Anonymous, San Diego, CA Anonymous, Somerset, NJ Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, Atlanta, GA Shukri Abu-Baker, Beaumont, TX Aglaia & Mumtaz Ahmed, Buda, TX Dr. & Mrs. Salah Al-Askari, Leonia, NJ Amin Almuti, Orinda, CA Arthur Alter, Goleta, CA Hamid & Kim Alwan, Milwaukee, WI Anace Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Robert Ashmore, Mequon, WI Sami Baraka, Wyandotte, MI Robert E. Barber, Parrish, FL Ellen Baugh, Vienna, VA Peter Beck, Accokeek, MD Syed & Rubia Bokhari, Bourbonnais, IL Dr. Andrew Borland, Seattle, WA Carole Brown, Stamford, CT William Cavness, Falls Church, VA Ouahib Chalbi, Coon Rapids, MN Robert & Joyce Covey, La Cañada, CA A.L. Cummings, Owings Mills, MD Tom D'Albani & Jane Killgore, Bemidji, MN Gregory De Sylva, Rhinebeck, NY David Dunning, Lake Oswego, OR Kassem Elkhalil, Arlington, TX Hassan Eltaher, Ottawa, Canada Albert E. Fairchild, Bethesda, MD Family Practice & Surgery LLC, Eatonton, GA Yusif Farsakh, Arlington, VA Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Nabil Haddad, North Wales, PA Delinda C. Hanley, Kensington, MD*,*** Walid Harb, Dearborn Heights, MI Robert & Helen Harold, West Salem, WI Brice Harris, Pasadena, CA Angelica Harter, N. Branford, CT Sameer Hassan, Quaker Hill, CT Mr. & Mrs. John Hendrickson, Albuquerque, NM AuGuST/SEpTEMBEr 2016

George High, Woodbridge, VA Jonathan Hill, Northfield, MN Dr. Marwan Hujeij, Cincinnati, OH William C. Hunt, Somerset, WI Zafer & Juhayna Husseini, Dallas, TX Ejaz Hyder, Somerset, NJ George Jabbour, Sterling Hts., MI Bilquis Jaweed, West Chester, OH Anthony Jones, Jasper, Canada Mohamad Kamal, North York, Canada Charles Kennedy, Newbury, NH Akbar Khan, Princeton, NJ M. Jamil Khan, Bloomfield Hills, MI Fouad Khatib, San Jose, CA Eugene Khorey, West Mifflin, PA Paul N. Kirk, Baton Rouge, LA Loretta Krause, Little Egg Harbor Twp., NJ Ronald Kunde, Skokie, IL Matt Labadie, Portland, OR Darryl Landis, Winston-Salem, NC

John Lankenau, Tivoli, NY William Lawand, Mount Royal, Canada J. Robert Lunney, Bronxville, NY Anthony Mabarak, Grosse Pointe Park, MI Allen J. MacDonald, Washington, DC Donald MacLay, Springfield, PA Ramy & Cynthia Mahmoud, Skillman, NJ Gabriel Makhlouf, Richmond, VA Tahera Mamdani, Fridley, MN Bill & Jean Mansour, Corvallis, OR Ted Marczak, Toms River, NJ Joseph A. Mark, Carmel, CA Amal Marks, Altadena, CA Rachelle Marshall, Mill Valley, CA Tom & Tess McAndrew, Oro Valley, AZ Shirl McArthur, Reston, VA William McAuley, Chicago, IL Stanley McGinley, The Woodlands, TX

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Gerald & Judith Merrill, Oakland, CA Tom Mickelson, Neshkoro, WI Yehia Mishriki, Emmaus, PA Joseph Najemy, Worcester, MA Sara Najjar-Wilson, Reston, VA Jacob Nammar, San Antonio, TX Kamal Obeid, Fremont, CA Dr. Bashar Pharoan, Timonium, MD Bill & Kay Plitt, Arlington, VA Jim Plourd, Monterey, CA Philip Portlock, Washington, DC Barry Preisler, Albany, CA Cheryl Quigley, Toms River, NJ Oostur Raza, Gilroy, CA Edward Reilly, Rocky Point, NY Paul Richards, Salem, OR Neil Richardson, Randolph, VT Sean Roach, Washington, DC Claude Ross, Washington, DC Edward & Alice Saad, Cheshire, CT Bryan Saario, Edmonds, WA Mohammed Sabbagh, Grand Blanc, MI Antone L. Sacker, Houston, TX Lisa Schiltz, Barbar, Bahrain Henry Schubert, Damascus, OR Tariq Shah, Mississauga, Canada Rifqa Shahin, Apple Valley, CA Richard Shaker, Annapolis, MD Thomas Shaker, Poughkeepsie, NY Kathy Sheridan, Mill Valley, CA Zac Sidawi, Costa Mesa, CA Yasser Soliman, Hamilton Township, NJ William R. Stanley, Lexington, SC Peter & Joyce Starks, Greensboro, NC Mushtaq Syed, Santa Clara, CA Ghada Talhmi, Evanston, IL Eddy Tamura, Moraga, CA Doris Taweel, Laurel, MD Charles Thomas, La Conner, WA Michael Tomlin, New York, NY Charles & Letitia Ufford, Hanover, NH John & Dariel Van Wagoner, Great Falls, VA Tom Veblen, Washington, DC V.R. Vitolins, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI Robin & Nancy Wainwright, Severna Park, MD Sally Wallace, Waverly, VA Hermann Weinlick, Minneapolis, MN Jeannie K. Williams, Minneapolis, MN Bernice Youtz, Tacoma, WA John Zacharia, Vienna, VA Mahmoud Zawawi, Amman, Jordan Mohammed Ziaullah, Montclair, CA Elia K. Zughaib, Alexandria, VA 82

Rose Foundations/Makdisi-Wheeler Fund, Berkeley, CA Franciscan Monastery of The Holy Land, Washington, DC

ACCOMPANISTS ($250 or more)

Robert Akras, North Bay Village, FL Mohamed Alwan, Chestnut Ridge, NY Michael Ameri, Calabasas, CA Dr. & Mrs. Roger Bagshaw, Big Sur, CA Joe Chamy, Colleyville, TX Duncan Clark, Rockville, MD Richard Curtiss, Boynton Beach, FL Joseph Daruty, Newport Beach, CA Mustafa Elayan, Decatur, AL Majed Faruki, Albuquerque, NM Dr. Jamil Fayez, Oakton, VA Eugene Fitzpatrick, Wheat Ridge, CO William Fuller, Valdosta, GA Ray Gordon, Bel Air, MD Fahd Jajeh, Lake Forest, IL Kendall Landis, Wallingford, PA Barbara LeClerq, Overland Park, KS Nidal Mahayni, Richmond, VA Dr. Charles W. McCutchen, Bethesda, MD William & Nancy Nadeau, San Diego, CA Mary Norton, Austin, TX Noel Sanborn & Virginia Lee, Palo Alto, CA Abid Shah, Sarasota, FL Dr. Ajazuddin Shaikh, Granger, IN Michel & Cathy Sultan, Eau Claire, WI James Wall, Elmhurst, IL

TENORS & CONTRALTOS ($500 or more)

Michael Ameri, Calabasas, CA Anace Aossey, Cedar Rapids, IA Dr. & Mrs. Issa J. Boullata, Montreal, Canada Mr. & Mrs. John Crawford, Boulder, CO Krista and Andrew Curtiss, Herndon, VA**, *** Dr. Jamil Fayez, Oakton, VA Claire Bradley Feder, Atherton, CA Ronald & Mary Forthofer, Longmont, CO Joseph & Angela Gauci, Whittier, CA Wasif Hafeez, W. Bloomfield, MI Sam Holland, North Eastham, MA Brigitte Jaensch, Carmichael, CA Tony Litwinko, Los Angeles, CA Georgianna McGuire, Silver Spring, MD

WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS

Henry Norr, Berkeley, CA Mary H. Regier, El Cerrito, CA Mr. & Mrs. Yasir Shallal, McLean, VA John Stanford, Santa Fe, NM Texas Cardiac Center, Lubbock, TX Lorie & Wilbur Wood, Vancouver, WA

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Anonymous, Washington, DC Zainab Abbas, London, UK Paula Allen, Naples, FL Asha A. Anand, Bethesda, MD Karen Ray Bossmeyer, Louisville, KY G. Edward, Jr. & Ruth Brooking, Wilmington, DE Rev. Ronald Chochol, St. Louis, MO Forrest Cioppa, Moraga, CA Linda Emmet, Paris, France Dr. & Mrs. Clyde Farris West Linn, OR** Evan & Leman Fotos, Istanbul, Turkey Dr. & Mrs. Hassan Fouda, Berkeley, CA John Gareeb, Atlanta, GA Hind Hamdan, Hagerstown, MD R. Jacob Hikmat, Columbia, MD Salman & Kate Hilmy, Silver Spring, MD Judith Howard, Norwood, MA Muhammad Khan & Fatimunnisa Begum, Jersey City, NJ William Lightfoot, Vienna, VA Jack Love, San Diego, CA John Mahoney, AMEU, New York, NY M.F. Shoukfeh, Lubbock, TX Dr. Robert Younes, Potomac, MD

CHOIRMASTERS ($5,000 or more)

Patricia Ann Abraham, Charleston, SC Henry Clifford, Essex, CT Donna B. Curtiss, Kensington, MD*, ** John & Henrietta Goelet, New York, NY Andrew I. Killgore, Washington, DC Vincent & Louise Larsen, Louvin Foundation, Billings, MT Ahmad Salhut, Englewood Cliffs, NJ *In Memory of Ambassador Clovis Maksoud **In Memory of Richard H. Curtiss ***In Memory of Joe Lill AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016

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American Educational Trust Washington Report on Middle East Affairs P.O. Box 53062 Washington, DC 20009

August/September 2016 Vol. XXXV, No. 5

Iraqis light candles at the site of a July 3 Islamic State suicide bombing in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood which killed 292 people. Prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, there had been no car bombings in that country. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images