11-15-09 My candidacy for president of Palestine is a campaign for peace
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. Read more »
CARTOON030109: Israel’s extremist government blocks peace March 3, 2009

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Ray Hanania’s World Comic Strip March 1, 2009
The Israeli electorate’s continued turn to the extremist right undermines peace and reinforces the certainty of continued violence and conflict. Israel’s Prime Minister-to-be Benjamin Netanyahu has a history of fanaticism that has ignited the region into Middle East conflict.
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– Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com
COMIC STRIP: News media ignores real corruption, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 1, 2008
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Ray hanania’s World Comic Strip
August 1, 2008
The mainstream American news media is buzzing about the corruption scandal that has forced Ehud Olmert out of office, but never writes about the moral corruption scandal involving Israel’s government violence against Palestinian civilians and other Arab civilians in the Middle East.
HANANIA: Hate drives much of Israel’s government policies, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 30, 2008
By Ray Hanania – You can never meet an Israeli without hearing them say, either angrily or wistfully hoping for change, that the biggest problem in the Middle East conflict is the “refusal of Arabs to accept Israel’s existence.” The reality is just the opposite. Israelis and Jews as a people refuse to recognize the rights of Palestinians to exist in Palestine.
HANANIA BOOK EXCERPT: The Catastrophe, fighting extremism to build a Palestinian State, For Immediate Release, May 23, 2008
BOOK EXCERPT: The Catastrophe by Ray Hanania — “Not enough just to denounce terrorism and extremism” – The issue of denouncing extremism and the extremists is a far more complex issue than most people think. Americans often ask, “Why don’t Muslims and Arabs denounce the extremists?” Or, “Why don’t Muslims and Arabs denounce extremism and terrorism?” The truth is that the leadership of the Arab American and Muslim American community do denounce the extremists. They have denounced the high profile extremists like Osama Bin Laden. They have denounced the concepts of extremism and terrorism. But, what Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have not done is they have not denounced the extremism in their own midst. They have not denounced the extremist leaders who are below the American public’s radar screen, the real enablers who make it possible for the larger community to unknowingly through frustrations and feelings of being victimized support the extremists, extremist acts and politics and policies that “enable” extremism and terrorism and the high profile extremists and the terrorists. Read more »
HANANIA: Prisoners of the past as the Palestine-Israel conflict hits 60 years, For Immediate Release, April 26, 2008
Prisoners of the past as the Palestine-Israel conflict hits 60 years
By Ray Hanania – Arabs and Jews share one trait: They master the art of selectively remembering the past, especially the tragedies. For Jews, it is the Holocaust. For Palestinians, it is “al-Nakba,” an Arab word for “the catastrophe.” But the biggest problem has always been the manner in which each side has championed their suffering while ignoring their own guilt. Jews mastered the art of public relations and communications, while Arabs mastered emotion, anger and hate. In more than 60 years, little has changed. Read more »
HANANIA: Don’t let violence derail push for peace, For Immediate Release, March 15, 2008
Don’t let violence prevent push for peace
Ray Hanania – If there is one certainty in the Middle East, it is violence. When the Arabs and Israelis have been at war, and when they have been at the peace table, violence takes place. The goal of the violence is to prevent a peaceful compromise because the extremists believe that if they can prevent compromise, they have protected their extremist belief that they can have it all to themselves. Read more »



SAFFIYA SHILLO is a peace activist, communications specialist and community editor for the National Arab American Times Newspaper. Ms. Shillo serves as a Board Member of the Palestinian American Women's Society. Her activism is extensive, having served as the former President of the Palestinian American Congress-Chicago Chapter, as a National Board member of the American Task Force on Palestine, and as Director of the Arab American Institute's Chicago office. Active in Jewish/Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, Ms. Shillo gives presentations to national organizations on strategies and methods to achieve peace through dialogue. Ms. Shillo also served as Director of Ethnic Affairs for the State of Illinois' Office of Lieutenant Governor, and worked as a domestic violence/sexual assault counselor serving Chicago's Arab community. She can be reached at smshillo@yahoo.com
ALADDIN ELAASAR is an award winning Arab American journalist and author of several books including 








