Hatred against Muslims and Arabs answered
By Ray Hanania — Below are two columns you should read both. The first reflects the growing racism and hatred among a growing number of uneducated and uninformed Americans. The second represents the facts, responding to the hatred and bigotry. As an American Arab military veteran from a family of American Arab military veterans, I am proud to present this debate that is the heart of America’s misguided conscience today.

MUSLIMS A PART OF OUR HERITAGE…..ALWAYS……I THINK NOT

[President] Obama said, in his Cairo speech: “I know, too,  that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.

Dear  Mr. Obama:

Were those Muslims that were in America when the  Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native  American Indians.

Were those Muslims that celebrated the  first Thanksgiving day? Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and  Native American Indians.

Can you show me one Muslim  signature on the United States Constitution? Declaration of  Independence? Bill of Rights? Didn’t think so.

Did Muslims  fight for this country’s freedom from England? No.

Did  Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in  America? No, they did not. In fact, Muslims to this day are still  the largest traffickers in human slavery. Your own ‘half brother’  a devout Muslim still advocates slavery himself, even though  muslims of Arabic descent refer to black muslims as “pug nosed  slaves.” Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of your  family’s “rich Islamic heritage” doesn’t it Mr.Obama?

Where  were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country?  Not present. There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims  walking side by side with Martin Luther King Jr., or helping to  advance the cause of Civil Rights.

Where were Muslims  during this country’s Woman’s Suffrage era? Again, not  present. In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient  to men in the Islamic culture. So much so that often they are  beaten for not wearing the ‘hajib’ or for talking to a man that is  not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are  all for women’s rights aren’t they?

Where were Muslims  during World War II? They were aligned with Adolf Hitler.  The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the  troops and accepted support from the Nazi’s in killing  Jews.

Finally   Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001? If  they weren’t flying planes into the World Trade Center, the  Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on  our own soil, they were rejoicing in the middle east. No one can  dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world  celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other news networks that  day. Strangely, the very “moderate” Muslims who’s asses you bent  over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th were stone cold  silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant  approval for the acts of that day.

And THAT,  Obama,  is the “rich heritage” Muslims have here in America.

And now we can  add November 5, 2009– the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort  Hood by a muslim major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist who was  supposed to be counselling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq  and Afghanistan.  That,  Obama is “muslim heritage” in  America.

THE RESPONSE WITH FACTS AMERICANS SIMPLE DO NOW KNOW

By Jamaal Badaani
President Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in the Military (www.APAAM.org)

I read your impassioned piece below to our President and Commander-in-Chief, President Barack Hussain Obama regarding Muslims in America titled “MUSLIMS A PART OF OUR HERITAGE…..ALWAYS……I THINK NOT”……., and as a Patriotic American who has fought for this country since June 1981 - your characterizations regarding Muslims in your writing needs to have some facts clarified.  I sent you attachments to you personally via email to support my point.

As a Muslim American Marine, I have lead Marines in combat on numerous occasions and since 9/11, I participated in counter-terrorism operations to pursue those terrorist bastards who attacked our country – I didn’t wait for my country to call, I asked to be deployed, and waited for six months with home and personal possessions in storage by moving out of my home, and waited by renting a room from a friend, so when my turn was called I would not waste valuable time preparing - I was prepared and deployed at a moments notice.

The terrorists used Islam to justify their horrific and cowardice acts on 9/11.   As Americans, Arabs and Muslims packed their bags, as I did, to get some pay back against the terrorists who struck our country.  The attack on our country was not a Christian thing, it was not a Muslim thing, it was not a Jewish thing, and surely it wasn’t a white, black, yellow, or brown thing.

It was terrorists who hated us for a multitude of reasons that struck our country on 9/11 - all which transcended color, race, religion, and nationality.  In doing so, the terrorist killed those who were from over 87 countries in the deaths at the World Trade Center, and my fellow brothers and sisters in Arms lost their lives in the Pentagon.  Muslims were among the dead both in the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

The first documented Arab American immigrant – Private Nathan Badeen - from Syria died in the revolutionary war on May 26th, 1776, Private Nathan Badeen was with the 18th Continental Army of Massachusets.  He died fighting for a cause of freedom – two months prior to seeing the Declaration of Independence issued to the British.  So yes, there were Arab Americans and Muslim Americans who also died in the revolutionary war, as documented in the attachments – in addition to Private Nathan Badeen.

Over 5,000 Muslim and Arab Americans fought on both sides of the civil war – can you imagine Arab and Muslim Americans who were rebels, and on the other side Arab and Muslim Americans with the Union fighting to end slavery.

Over 15,000 Arab Americans fought in WWII to help rid the world of a Tyrant.

Since 9/11 Muslim and Arab Americans have given their life serving in the US Military in Iraq and Afghanistan – Captain Khan saw the threat of a vehicle in Iraq approaching dangerously towards the check point manned by his fellow Army Soldiers – Captain Khan ran outside of the wire to a safe distance away from harms way to his soldiers and jumped in front of the vehicle so it could detonate before it got to his troops.  Captain Khan was months away from his Doctoral Degree when 9/11 happened, but held off getting his degree so he could join the US Army and serve his country in time of need.

end

My candidacy for president of Palestine is a campaign for peace
By Ray Hanania -- In 33 years of political journalism and election campaigning in America, I’ve learned that no one can predict an election outcome. Surprising things that people did not expect usually happens. And longshots with no hope of winning oftentimes do win. So with all that in mind, I am announcing my candidacy for President of Palestine.

It has several goals. The last of which is to actually become Palestine’s president. First and foremost is my declaration that peace based on compromise is the only future for Palestinians and Israelis.

There is no future for Palestinians or Israelis with today’s situation. The Israelis have turned to the hard conservative right, rejecting real peace and believing they can have everything while Palestinians remain driven by anger and emotion and very little logic.

Sometimes anger is soothed by revenge, but suffering is never avenged by violence. Rejecting peace is the foundation of violence and both Israelis and Palestinians are guilty of rejecting peace each for their own misguided, anger-driven reasons.

So someone has to step up to the plate and say what needs to be said if only to give the people an alternative.

Two states, one Israel and one Palestine is the only answer. It always was and always will be. It doesn’t matter that Palestinians rejected two-states in 1948 when they fought to destroy the Jews or that Israel rejected two-states in 1948 also when they fought but failed to take over the whole country.

Two states, based on land for peace. Israel abandons its hunger for Palestinian land and Palestinians abandon their own hunger for Israel.

Two states, based on the premise of building from ashes rather than turning what remains into ashes, which is where we are all headed at the moment. We just don’t see the end. Although continued suffering and continued fear is in fact an endless ending. There is no end to tragedy driven by vengeance, but tragedy can end when there is hope.

Two states with both sides accepting the inevitable. A sharing of Jerusalem, an end to the Israeli settlements, compromise on the Palestinian Right of Return, and both committed to non-violent and genuine negotiations.

Not easy, for sure. But the most valuable things in life are those that we have to fight the hardest to attain. And nothing is harder than achieving peace.

Even when there is peace, the fanatics on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, will continue to do what they have always done, undermined peace and blamed the other side.

The blame game has no victors, only generations of losers. Losers on both sides who continue to suffer.

Two states means Israel recognizes the rights of Palestinian refugees and apologizes to them for their role in creating their tragedy, and working with the United Nations, America and the Arab World to create a fund to help resettle them in a Palestinian State where they can live in dignity rather than in humiliation and squalor.

Two states means the Palestinians surrender what they have already lost in constant war and failed resistance and failed leadership, recognizing once and for all that Israel does exist. They must set aside the Palestinian Right of Return which is based on the Rule of Law, and instead apply the Rule of Reason.

Israelis must abandon the majority of the settlements and give Palestine land from Israel, one inch for each inch that they keep in settlements. They must freeze their settlement growth which has continued even during the peace process of the 1990s that Israelis wrongly blame on the late President Yasir Arafat.

Israel does nothing willingly. It’s time its people push their government to do the right thing, to recognize their own contributions to the continued conflict and stop blaming others, the Palestinians, for the failures.

Israel is as much at fault for the failure of peace as are the Palestinians.

Palestinians must reject the religious fanaticism of Hamas, a terrorist organization that is no different than the Israeli settler movement. They must stop cheering when Hamas or other terrorists attack Israel. And Israelis must stop justifying the unjustifiable. The murder of innocent men, women and children is a horrendous war crime that has occurred at the hands of both sides.

Two states can bring this to an end. We need a new attitude and a revival in hope. Hope for the future. Hope for peace. Hope for compromise. Hope that reason can prevail.

It’s not easy, but it can be done.

In the face of today’s conflict, I would rather support a reasoned dream than embrace an unreasoned status quo.

There are no innocent parties in this conflict. We can tell ourselves that there are but we will all be judged for the enabling of violence, the acts of violence and more importantly for refusing to support peace to save lives.

Palestine has no hope without compromise and Israel has no hope with a Palestine State.

It’s simple. Enough is enough. Yalla Peace! That’s the motto of my virtual campaign for office on the Internet for now and who knows, maybe a reality if enough people see the errors of their anger.

Support my campaign by visiting www.YallaPeace.com. It’s not about electing me to any office at all. It is about believing that the long shot can bring us great reward in the future and is far better to cheer than the tragedy that we call today.

# # #

Moderate J-Street Voices can help re-ignite moderate Palestinian Movement
By Ray Hanania — For years, APIAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby, has had Jewish American political thought in an extremist headlock, a new voice of Jewish American moderation is rising in strength called J Street. The organization, which is being pilloried by extremist pro-Israel conservatives, holds a major conference on Israel and Middle East next week in Washington D.C. I’ll be participating in a special blogging panel of Israelis and Palestinians who support compromise and peace based on two-states organized by Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam.

There is no doubt that Jewish American thought on peace between Palestinians and Israelis has been driven to the far, extremist right by AIPAC and its network of pro-Israel funding mechanisms. In fact, in part because of AIPACs powerful lobbying, many Jewish Americans who normally would support peace based on compromised have been pushed into a corner embracing a one-sided peace in which Israel retains all that it has taken over the years without making any sacrifices for peace while demanding that Palestinians do everything from surrendering some West Bank Lands, compromising on Jerusalem, accepting some of the illegal all-Jewish settlements and accepting a state that lacks the true power of sovereignty over its lands.

At the same time, many Palestinians are being pushed into the corner of extremism by the failure of the Palestinian leadership to achieve any real concessions from Israel. There is a growing movement of Palestinians who are now calling for a “one-state” solution which is not a solution at all but the end of the Palestinian Revolution and claim to nationhood. The one-state agenda basically abandons the occupation as the primary evil in the current relationship between Israel and Palestine, and instead naively proposes that the Arab population will grow at such a rate that eventually Israel and Palestine will become one Arab State, the original goal of the Arab World in the 1930s and 1940s that laid the groundwork for six decades of Palestinian failures.

Palestinians live in occupation and in the diaspora for the fundamental reason that they have allowed their emotions to lead them into believing the notion that nothing less than total Jewish surrender can compensate for their suffering and their failures and military losses. In other words, Palestinians have been taught that the shame of their failures can be compensated through rejection and emotion, and in many cases, unrestrained violence of vengeance that often targeted innocent civilians.

Every time that the Palestinian leadership sought to compromise with Israel and achieve a step forward towards the two-state solution, Hamas terrorists using a bastardized distortion of Islam as their standard intentionally targeted Israeli civilians in suicide bombings. This ongoing violence gave many Palestinians the only form of fulfillment, a macabre sense of justice.

This failing among the Palestinians to develop a reasoned strategy to support a compromise that would maximize their returns pushed many Israelis and American Jews into extremism themselves. They use Palestinian failure as a justification to reject true compromise and this formula has become the foundation of AIPAC’s political assaults. It has held American public opinion hostage through ignorance of facts, leading them to believe that it is the Palestinians who refuse to compromise when in fact it is the dominant Israeli government that, even during the peace process, continues to expand settlements, confiscate Palestinian lands and provoke hostilities through policies of confrontation and even violence.

Next week in Washington, Jewish Americans who still believe in two-states, and peace based on compromise will meet to discuss how to strategically move the two-state solution out of the margins. Their success can also motivate Palestinian moderates to reinvigorate their own support of two-states and peace based on compromise.

What is that compromise? Most Palestinians know what it is. Palestinians know that they cannot defeat Israel, but they can continue to make the lives of Israelis miserable and painful, at a cost of making their own lives miserable and painful too. That’s the Hamas option.

They also know that if Israel were to become serious in peace, and if moderate Jews and Israelis can reclaim control of their public opinion, they would reciprocate and support peace based on compromise. And that compromise entails very clearly defined concessions for both sides. Israel surrenders the majority of Palestinian lands it occupied in 1967 and end its provocative military attacks not just against Hamas but other Palestinians in the West Bank. It means that Israel stop expanding its settlements and instead begin dismantling the settlements. It also means Israel accepts that there must be a Palestinian presence in Jerusalem that would represent the capitol of a Palestinian State.

It also means that Palestinians accept the reality that the right of return may be a legal legitimate right, but that it is an unrealistic right that can never be achieved. Palestinians must accept the fact that refusing to compromise on the Right of Return is in fact a form of punishment on the Palestinian people living in the diaspora with no hope other than the empty promises made to them year after year by Palestinian fanatics who refuse to compromise. Those fanatics will fight to the very last refugee to prove their point.

But before Palestinian moderation can re-establish itself, the moderate Israeli and Jewish movement must re-assert itself. They Pace Now is dead and that the leftists in Israel no longer have a voice in Israeli policy. If Jewish and Israeli moderation is dead than the future is bleak for everyone. But if it can resurrect itself, it is very possible that might reignite the moderate Palestinian movement.

And that moderate Palestinian movement is the only hope Palestinians have for the future. We can remain interlocked in an unending conflict in which Palestinians sustain far more punishment than the Israelis, with no real hope of statehood, or we Palestinians can recognize the reality and replace emotion and hate with passion and reason. If we can, we might see a sovereign Palestinian State in our lifetime.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning Palestinian American columnist and former National President of the Palestinian American Congress. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com.)

President Obama’s genuine desire for peace earns Nobel Peace Prize
By Ray Hanania -- President Obama’s first call in coming to office was to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He then made an epoch speech to the Arab and Muslim world to repair the damage caused by his rightwing and narrow-minded predecessor President George W. Bush. Obama has pushed the Israelis to force them to accept peace based on returning Arab lands, even though the Israelis have surrounded the wagons and have allowed Israel’s most racist elected official, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman to become their spokesman. In fact, Israel’s Lieberman is the new face of hate in the world.

He is shifting from the illegal American war and occupation in Iraq to the genuine fight against terrorism and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

And Obama has vowed to the American people that despite this country having wasted hundreds of billions on politically motivated wars driven by oil money greed, he will fight to make their own country a place where every American will be guaranteed the right to adequate healthcare, something most Americans now lack.

You don’t even need to read the announcement from the Nobel Committee explaining why they have given this year’s Peace Prize to President Barack Hussein Obama.

Obama is more than just a president seeking justice. His name has come to symbolize a movement of change. Change from a past driven by racist bigotry and hatred to a future of justice where the Rule of Law actually has relevance and justice is based on issues of principle and fairness, not on partisan political influence.

Israel is not just a “Jewish State” in Obama’s eyes, but a nation that must also abide by the Rule of Law. Hypocrisy has no place in Obama’s administration, which is why his words have placed special notice on Israel which has more nuclear weapons than any other power outside of the United States and Russia. And yet Israel refuses, like Iran, to abide by the International rules seeking to limit and monitor and inspect nuclear weapons.

Although Obama has not achieved any of his mighty goals, the fact that he has set them is what earns him the special honor. It takes a real courageous man in this world to stand up to the forces of hatred and bias to advocate for fairness for all.

Obama’s policies may or may not achieve their stated goals, but they have already changed the dynamics of one important region of the world in the Middle East.

The Nobel Peace Prize award will put a special pressure on Israel to stop pretending that it supports peace. It throws cold water on the face of Israel’s arrogant and reticent society that it cannot pretend to seek peace and embrace politics and politics of racism, apartheid, bigotry and war.

Israel cannot pretend to support peace and continue to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and continue to imprison 1.4 million civilians in the world’s largest and most oppressive prison system called the Gaza Strip.

Israel cannot claim the right of defense when it is in offense against justice, the Rule of Law and peace, and it cannot hide behind lies it perpetrated through the manipulation of a friendly international media to assert that Hamas started the Nov. 2008 war. In fact, everyone knows that Israel started that war for one reason, to exact punishment on Hamas before Obama could be sworn in as president.

For the first time in World History, the facts are clear and all of the crimes in this world have been placed together shoulder-to-shoulder. Israel’s phony claims of being the victim when it is in fact the aggressor and oppressor are exposed.

Barack Hussein Obama is what the late great President John F. Kennedy is said to have been but could never become. He is the light of hope that might open the door to a world that is genuinely at peace and where all men and women are created equally and where the concerns of the poor are as important as the concerns of the wealthy.

As an American and a Palestinian Arab Christian, I am proud of this year’s choice for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in a way I feel a special part in that award as if the peace prize has been awarded not to just one man, but to an entire world of people who have not completely given up on hope.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist and Chicago radio talks how host. he can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com.)

Arab World has opportunity to confront bigotry in America
By Ray Hanania – This week, the Arab World will be participating in a vote that on its face may seem insignificant to the many problems that plague the Middle East but could begin a process of changing the United States. The vote will take place Friday in Copenhagen where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide which of four cities between Madrid, Tokyo, Rio and Chicago will win the right to host the Olympics in 2016.  Compared to the votes in the United Nations where the pro-Israel bloc continues to block peace, hold back the advances of the Arab World and continues to denigrate the rights of Islamic countries, the IOC vote Friday may seem insignificant.  In fact, though, the vote could begin a process not of changing the United Nations, but rather creating an opportunity to enact change in the United States, the one nation that holds the key to the future of the Middle East.

The IOC consists of 111 members, 12 of whom representative the Arab World  from Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Each country has one member on the IOC except Egypt and Morocco, which have participated the longest and most successful in past Olympic competitions, each have two members.

Those 12 Arab delegates can be the deciding factor in awarding the Olympics to Chicago.

Why is Chicago important? Unlike other nation’s competing for the Olympics, Chicago’s presentation is made by the city, not the country. Chicago officials beginning with its Mayor Richard M. Daley, have been lobbying to get President Barack Obama to make an appearance in Copenhagen to help swing the vote in Chicago’s favor.

As an American, I want the IOC to grant the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. But, as An American of Arab heritage, I also want the United States and Chicago to recognize their failure in respecting not only the principles of justice and fairness in the Middle East, but to end the practice and reality of the city’s discrimination against it’s citizens who are of Arab heritage.

In voting this week, the 12-member Arab delegation should use its power to condition their decision on how the winning city will respect its expatriate citizens.

That is a difficult thing to ask since none of the countries of the Arab World have ever recognized the real potential and the value that Americans of Arab heritage represent. The Arab World has always acted in a vacuum on Middle East issues believing that the decision-making process in American begins at the top levels of government.

The truth is, American power begins at the grassroots level. The “trenches” where American Arabs have been waging a long and difficult fight against discrimination for most of their existence in this nation.

Particularly in Chicago, one of three American cities with the largest population of Arabs, the American Arab community has been the most abused.

Local government officials like Mayor Daley have played a game with a double-edged sword. On the political level, Chicago has played a major role in strengthening the hand of the pro-Israel community in America giving them considerable voice in local and regional government.

At the same time, Chicago has gone out of its way to undermine the power of American Arabs who have been as much or even more American than their counterparts supporting Israel.

This vote Friday in Copenhagen can either permit the status quo where Arabs are disenfranchised in the American political system, or it can begin a new initiative to force American governments like Chicago to recognize and respect the rights of American Arabs.

Arabs in America have served in this nation’s military from the first day that they came to this country in the mid-19^th Century. They have been loyal American citizens and also loyal to their heritage.

Yet, they have been disrespected by this country and victimized by American racism, fueled by the politics of the Middle East.

Worse, they have been abandoned by the Arab World. Their ability to help the Arab World counter the discriminatory policies in the United States has never been recognized by the Arab World.

When Arab delegates vote this Friday, they should keep in mind that if they support awarding the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, they should view this as an opportunity to demand that Chicago’s Mayor Daley end his discriminatory practices against Chicago’s Arab citizens and treat them as equals.

That means that Chicago should empower American Arabs the same way Chicago has empowered other citizens of other ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds.

Chicago has been deficient in giving jobs to American Arabs. There are 230,000 Arabs living in Chicago – according to Mayor Daley speech to the Ruler of Dubai earlier this year. That is 7.6 percent of the city’s population. Yet, Arabs have less than 1 percent of the thousands of jobs in city government. They have been patronized disrespectfully by politicians like Mayor Daley who want our votes but do not want to jeopardize their ties to other groups like the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Chicago and America.

The Arab delegates at the IOC can force Mayor Daley to do what is right and put ethics and principle above partisan politics.

Mayor Daley should be told he must do more to empower American Arabs in his city. Mayor Daley must be told he must do more to empower American Arabs in Illinois, the state in Which Chicago resides which is a powerful state among the country’s 50 states.

Mayor Daley must be told that the campaign to undermine American Arabs in his city must end.

If that happens, we will see the voices and empowerment of American Arabs rise in the United States, and in turn give the Arab World a greater voice in helping this country develop foreign policies that are based on the rule of law, ethics, principle and morality, rather than on partisan politics driven by the pro-Israel lobby and its extremist leaders.

It’s an easy price to exact from the United States. The question is, do the Arab delegates and the Arab World recognize that influencing American foreign policy through Americans of Arab heritage is far more beneficial and rewarding than trying to lobby this country from their far away Arab capitols?

(Ray Hanania is an award winning American Arab journalist, author and Chicago radio talk show host. He can be reached at www.TheMediaOasis.com.)

Arab Americans must see the good when confronting bad in Hollywood movies
By Ray Hanania — A recent online post discussed the continued smearing of Arabs and Muslims by Hollywood, quoting one of the most authoritative analysts of the topic, Jack Shaheen.  The discussion was on New University by writer Daniel Johnson. We are seeing an unusual trend of change taking place in Hollywood, one where Arabs and Muslims post-Sept. 11, 2001, are being portrayed with more sensitivity and at least more accuracy. But at the same time, the hate-wing of the Hollywood and TV industry that has slandered Arabs and Muslims since the big screen and TV first appeared, seem to be overcompensating to off-set the positive portrayals by digging deeper into their own hatred to portray Arabs and Muslims even worse.

The New University article discussed one aspect of this, but offered two examples that I think symbolize this change that are not being properly accessed. One is the TV series 24 with Kiefer Sutherland, a despicable production that is fueleed not by talent and creativity but rather by pure hatred, playing on the fears and emotions of the TV public audience. It’s portrayals of Arabs and Muslims are so outrageous it is pure fantasy based not so much on reality but rather on stereotypes, hatred, and racism.

On the otherhand, many Arabs and Muslims have bashed The Kingdom. But the truth is The Kingdom, which portrays Muslims and Arabs in a negative light, also balances off that portrayal with positives of Arabs and Muslims.

Click here to read the New University post.

Here is what I wrote in response to the argument that was being discussed:

I disagree on the issue of the film The Kingdom. I think the American Arab community is too critical of this film, a criticism driven by years of anti-Arab hatred in Hollywood. Sometimes, we are pummeled so often in Hollywood movies we respond with a heightened sensitivity and anger.

The Kingdom was a phenomenal movie. And I think what is needed is a discussion about the new trend in movies to offer some balance. Clearly, “24″ is driven by a hate of Arabs and Muslims that is racist. That racist and hateful theme is embraced by many of the actors in the TV series including by Kiefer Sutherland, who is very rightwing and who seems to embrace extremists NeoCon views in this country.

But The Kingdom was a very balanced protrayal of a reality that there are some Islamicists, not really Arabs — the competing identity of Arabs and Muslims is growing in intensity. Although any terrorists today happen to be Arab, they are driven by bastardized distortions of Islam to fuel their fanaticism. The Kingdom did a great job of reflecting that reality pitting the religious fanatics against the more moderate religious Arabs who fought side by side to capture and kill the terrorists.

The Kingdom reflects a reality in today’s world. The TV Series 24 reflects a fanaticized expression of hatred in Hollywood that lingers from the early days of the silent screen when Arabs were portrayed as rapists of beautiful White Women — who by the way were far from beautiful : )

The point is this. The reality is that the Arab and Muslim World have a share of evil terrorists who dominate the conflicts in today’s world. It doesn’t mean they are the only ones, but in today’s day and age, they dominate the horizon. There are some terrorists out there — many in fact — who are Muslim and who are Arab and what makes them worse is that they commit their acts of terrorism by wrapping themselves tightly in their Arab and Islamic identity.

Although there are many terrorists and evil criminals out there who are not Arab or Muslim, they often do not wrap themselves in their identity or religion and that is a distinction worth debating and discussing.

But, we do not have a debate in the Arab and Muslim community today at all.

We remain victims of an era when Arabs and Muslims were turned in to victims by a society that used Hollywood and TV to portray us in the most obscene manner. As victims, we are over sensitive. We respond with knee-jerk reaction to every film that includes a negative stereotype. The Kingdom is a phenomenal film that accurately depicts the reality and sophisticated reality of Arabs and Muslims. There are some very bad Muslims who use terrorism and violence against civilians to advance their religious agenda.

They happen to be Arab but the fact that they are Arab is insignificant to them and to the challenges they pose.

If we Arabs and Muslims want to overcome the hatred, the racism, the bigotry and the stereotypes in society and change the misconduct and abuse by Hollywood and the TV industry, we need to first deal with our own problems. We need to recognize the reality and stop defending the indefensible by not speaking out against the extremists, fanatics and crazy activists who seem to dominate our Arab and Muslim communities in places like this country, the United States.

And we need to be smart about recognizing racism and hatred and stereotyping. Criticism is not always racism or hatred. What has been condemned as “stereotyping” in the film The Kingdom, for example, is in fact legitimate criticism. It reflects a reality in the Arab and Muslim World. We need to recognize that reality as well as be activists to confront the real hatred, racism and stereotypes we face.

Otherwise, we will not see a substantive change in either Hollywood or on Television which remain powerful forces of education for people in the Western World and especially in America where the two industries reside.

end

Israel’s government distorts truth in response to War Crimes report
By Ray Hanania –Renown South African Jurist Richard Goldstone has completed a comprehensive report on the war crimes committed during the Israeli war started against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 4, 2008 and the Israeli response has been to call Goldstone, a Jew who prosecuted war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia an “anti-Semite” with no basis in international law. While the war crimes in Gaza are a real crime, the outrageous slander that marks Israel’s government response to any form of criticism is an even bigger crime. They argue Israel did not start the war, Hamas did. But the facts prove Israel wrong. But does truth matter in today’s world? Not when it comes to Israel’s government.

I completed an exhaustive study of how the Gaza War started based on Israeli government and university sources that monitored the peace agreement that was in place between Israel and Hamas in 2008 that involved the firing of rockets and Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip.

The facts show Israel intentionally started the Gaza war mainly fearing that the election of Barack Obama as president — because he was raised in a Muslim background, has an Arab middle name, Hussein, was friend with many Palestinian activists in Chicago, and has an inherent sympathy for downtrodden people abused by demagogues and government dictatorship.

Here’s the link to the report:

www.TheMediaOasis.com/Hamasrockets.htm

What you might also notice if you research anything that has to do with Israeli atrocities and reports of this kind is that the Government of Israel has engaged in a strategic public relations campaign to counter the unveiling of the truth and to protect their lies.

For example, at the bottom of nearly every Google Web site reference to Israel’s war crimes in Gaza are ads purchased by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel’s Government, which leads individuals who red these few online reports to see an alternative propaganda spin.

This debate over Goldstone’s war crimes report is being handled differently by Arabs and Israelis.

The Arabs are relying on their worthless, emotional leadership and activist spokespeople to scream and yell and make the Arabs feel good. But the Arab response to the report has been insignificant in terms of educating the world to the veracity of the report.

In contrast, Israel’s government has unleashed a sophisticated public relations campaign to counter the truth and make a pre-eminent Jewish legal scholar, Richard Goldstone, into an anti-Semite.

It’s the same kind of immoral conduct that Israel and its legion of blind supporters engaged in responding to former President Jimmy Carter who accurately warned that Israel’s actions in the West bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip against the occupied civilians there amounted to a form of Apartheid.

Since then, Carter has been vilified and the vilification of Carter continues. Carter’s biggest problem is that he continues to associate with the loser leaders and activists in the Palestinian community, especially in the United States, who could argue their way out of a paperbag they are so incompetent.

The fact is Israel is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in public relations and communications dollars to spin the truth into acceptable lies that favor them. But they really don’t need to because the Arab response has been pathetic, filled with emotion rather than facts and logic and actually play in to the Israeli defense strategy.

It is a tragic day in this world when the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity can’t even get a chance to defend themselves and face their accusers in an open court. Palestinian victims are much like the women assaulted by male rapists. The rapists main defense is that the women victims “caused” their own rape by inviting it. They use fear and further shame to force the victims of rape to remain silent.

Goldstone’s report was meticulous and fair. It not only cites instances of war crimes in the murder of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli Defense Forces, it also condemns Hamas with also committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But it’s the fact that the report is balanced and holds not only Hamas but Israel’s government to account that most offends Israel’s supporters who would rather lie to defend Israel than to acknowledge the truth in order to achieve a lasting peace.

END

Americans turn from hatred to education 8 years since Sept. 11
By Ray Hanania – We are finally seeing some real light through the black fog of American anger and hatred that erupted following the terrorist attacks eight years ago this week on Sept. 11. American anger against Arabs and Muslims is fast turning into education and enlightenment, in part because of a president who is resetting the nation’s moral character by washing away the demagoguery that symbolized the response of his predecessor.

American Arabs can see the changes take place at almost every level.

Minutes after President Obama finished his speech on health-care reform to a joint session of the Congress, his opposition in the Republican Party selected an American Arab to present their response, Republican Congressman Charles Boustany of Louisiana.

The Obama speech was historic in many ways. It was only the 15th time since 1952 that an American president has brought together both the House and the Senate in one room to address a major problem, usually addressing wartime concerns. But it was the first time that the two speakers at a joint session had Arab names: Boustany and Hussein.

Yet beyond that subtle event below the American radar screen are many more substantive changes taking place in America.

After Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 hijackers, all Arabs, crashed their planes destroying the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, damaging the Pentagon and crashing into a field in Pennsylvania during a battle with heroic passengers, Arabs and Muslims in America found themselves under violent physical and emotional siege.

Nearly 14 people who “looked” Middle Eastern were murdered by suspects who, either directly or indirectly cited the 9/11 as a cause for their actions. The victims included not only Arabs but non-Arab Muslims, Sikhs, Pakistanis, Indians and other people with dark hair and skin.

The number of American Arab newspapers and magazines dramatically dropped from 135 to 75 as a result of anti-Arab backlash. Today, there are 103 American Arab newspapers and publications, according to a recent study by the National Arab American Journalists Association.

More and more American Arabs are returning to high-profile public positions in society, including in the news media. Among them is journalist Hoda Kotb, the Oklahoma journalism student whose first name means “guidance” in Arabic. An Egyptian-American who speaks fluent Arabic and can recite the Qur’an, Kotb is a high-profile anchor and reporter at NBC.

Anthony Shadid, once an intern from a prominent American Arab activism organization, won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Iraq War and has published several books. He’s a correspondent for the Washington Post. The nation’s first full-time morning radio show hosted by an American Arab has been launched in Chicago. It addresses mainstream and Middle East-focused topics.

That’s not to say that acts of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination have stopped. They haven’t. In communities across the country, Arabs and Muslims continue to face harassment and are the victims of racism. Part of the reason for the turnaround is the increasing American pressure against the demagogues who have led the outcries of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria in America. Media hosts like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Anne Coulter and others are now being confronted more and more by mainstream Americans for their outlandish claims and racist views which have broadened from anti-Arab and anti-Muslim tirade to include the popular President Obama.

It doesn’t mean the battle is over, but it is easier eight years later for American Arabs to raise such sensitive topics, challenging the stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims, silencing the extremists in American society who blame all Arabs and Muslims for terrorism, and questioning in a serious way the failures of the war in Iraq, once touted by President George W. Bush as the frontline against terrorism.

Many Americans today recognize that the Bush war in Iraq was misguided, based on lies and instead of stopping terrorism opened the door in Iraq to increased terrorist activities and violence. American public concern is steadily shifting and rightly with increasing calls for an end to the Iraq War and stepped up focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, non-Arab countries where Al-Qaeda is based.

And American Arabs can openly and publicly explore the important question regarding the relationship between misguided American foreign policies such as in Israel and the West Bank, and angry responses from the Arab and Muslim world. Are Americans also partly responsible for the terrorism this nation faces today?

With attitudes changing and the American public replacing animosity with education and common sense, eight years after the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks, the United States may be starting to win the war on terrorism. Finally.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and Chicago radio talk show host. This column first appeared in the Arab News Newspaper in Saudi Arabia.)

Oktoberfest with First Rock Rap Band in Palestine
Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D. — What more extraordinary event can one imagine in a small ancient village than the collaboration of the Finest in the Middle East with the first rock rap band in Palestine? The Taybeh Oktoberfest, October 3 and 4, 2009 in Taybeh-Ramallah, will have some traditional happenings and certainly some revolutionary happenings.  On Saturday night, 9 pm, is when CultureShoc “will be rocking Taybeh with music styles that go beyond the norm in the Palestinian music scene and following the Holy month of Ramadan releasing songs on radio,” said lead Rapper, Suleiman Harb.

Lead Singer, Amira B. Dibsy, says that CulturShoc creates songs and music arrangements “exclusive to us and an experience like no other… imagine a mix of Arabic-Oriental- Western sounds, blending the essence of Rock, Hip-hop and Rap ….the result is the shock we bring you with each and every song containing an identity of its own and telling a story of its own… beats that will make you sway from side to side or make you want to JUMP!”

This amazing new band includes handsome lead and rhythm guitarist and composer, Ahmad Al Sharif, Apo Sahagian, Amer Yaghmur as bass player and Souheil Abu el Said on drums. The band members admit that fate and luck brought them together in addition to their desire to bring something new to the music scene in Palestine.  They are all Palestinian in blood and up bringing with a few mixed of two cultures but certainly contributing to the very diverse characters reflected in the one very essential denominator they share in music and more music.

CultureShoc launched the first performance in August 2008. The band has gone from seven original songs to a current total of eighteen although the first concerts included performing covers now it’s all about originals and cover, though few, to entertain the crowds’ association with popular songs.

They are thrilled to be the one and only original Rock-Rap Band in Palestine and they  says that CultureShoc songs “talk about Life…real life and the elements of life that we identify with as Human Beings…. we live these stories…you probably do too and we bring these stories to you using diverse effects of lyrics and music.  Since the first concert the band has tried to constantly look for ways to lead songs into deeper dimensions and take them to higher levels by also making it their priority to record an album.

Some original songs include, “Traffic,” “Dungeons-Reloaded,” “No mans Land,” “Silly Boyz,”  “Heyye Yaba Heyye,” and more. The band reflects the opinion that they take one’s music boundaries beyond limits known thereby becoming a shock to traditional culture. They offer fans a new hope, a new horizon and a new level for music “to climb walls and cross borders,” as they specifically believe being song composers, arrangers and performers. Personally, not only do I admire them but I just love them!

Note:  Dr. Maria C. Khoury, graduate of Hellenic College, Harvard University and Boston University organized the 5^th Taybeh Oktoberfest, Oct 3 & 4, 2009 in Taybeh-Ramallah, Palestine.

Gilad Shalit in the Arab media
By Ali Younes – Every time I read and watch how Arab media outlets cover the story of prisoner’s exchange of the Israeli solider Gilad Shalit and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, I come to think how Arab media have fallen victims to Israeli PR machine (propaganda). There are several issues at play here when covering this story. Note that Gilad Shalit is always mentioned by name, I know his name, you do, and maybe my grandmother knows his name too!

Why, because the Israeli government has made sure that the whole world, and even my grandmother knows this soldier name. Every effort to release him ( note its always about him ) was made specifically for him, the Egyptians, the Germans, the Americans, even some Palestinians care more about him than their own.

How many Palestinian prisoners’ names do we know? We know that there are 12000 of them in captivity I might know Marwan Barghouthi, whose only image I know is him in chains and handcuffs waving them off. Maybe few others and that’s about it. The rest I just see them without actually see them in Israeli busses or cages, or jail cells. Or, we might see a crying wife, a saddened son, or an ailing mother clinging to a picture of her imprisoned son. But I don’t know who he is, or how, when and why did the Israeli army arrest him. We don’t even know if those prisoners have children or if they are married even.

Moreover, I watched an Arab media outlet over the weekend looping a report as part of a show on the possibility of prisoner’s exchange, where the Israeli soldier was shown with his “boyish looks” smile around, eating, and joking like any other normal person. But this should be anything but normal.

The Palestinian movements did not capture him out of his bedroom or out of his school yard. He was manning a tank and military position that was laying siege against Palestinians, shooting at the Palestinians and God knows how many Palestinians he/they kill.

Yet Arab media fall into an Israeli trap and present “normal” image of one its soldiers who was trained to kill Palestinian men, women and children.

If imagery is not enough, let’s talk about the words. Almost every time an Israeli official talk about “the Exchange” we notice that Israeli is “in pain” at releasing “Palestinians with bloods on their hands” One Arab TV anchor repeated those words, with the disclaimer that those were an Israeli allegations. This is true, but in the world of media and PR, the disclaimer matters not once you utter the crucial words that Israeli PR machine wants you to say.

Does the Israeli soldier have blood on his hands; no one says anything about it. What we know about Gilad Shalit-note I always mention him by name, whereas I don’t mention any Palestinian by name, because as an Arab consumer of television and news, I have been spoon-fed news reports and imagery about this one Israeli solider and that no one bothered, at least to the best of knowledge to mention that he was a killing machine part of even larger killing machine called the Israeli Army.

Israel has humanized its solider making him a celebrity around the world and in the heart of the Arab world. Hamas, the Palestinians in general obviously for the lack of experience and host of other problems have yet to match the Israeli PR sophistication and prowess.

When was the last time the Haaretz or any Israeli newspaper or television or Fox news, or CNN run a true objective story that humanizes the Palestinian victims? It’s almost never.

The only time Palestinians were dealt with as human beings, really, was that when treating them like “animals” would cause a “hiccup” in the conscious of Israelis. That’s about it.

Ali Younes is a journalist and Middle East analyst in Washington D.C