Author Archives: Arab America

Two thugs affiliated with the Jewish Defence League UK were sentenced Monday to 150 hours of community service each and £1,140 ($1,700) in fines between them.

Roberta Moore and Robert De Jonge assaulted two people at a Palestine literary festival in London in September.

Last month a judge found Moore guilty on two counts of assault, and one count of possession of an offensive weapon. De Jonge was found guilty of assault.

In addition to the unpaid work, the two must pay compensation to their victims: Andy Simons, an organizer of the festival, and Simon Assaf, who had been running a socialist bookstall that day.

The video below was presented as evidence during the two-day trial in February.

Source: electronicintifada.net

It’s no surprise that some of the most celebrated leaders in the business world also happen to be self-promoting narcissists.

New research from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management finds those strong characteristics are not such a bad thing–as long as those leaders temper their narcissism with a little humility now and then.

“Just by practicing and displaying elements of humility, one can help disarm, counterbalance, or buffer the more toxic aspects of narcissism,” said Bradley Owens, assistant professor of business ethics at BYU. “The outcome is that narcissism can possibly be a net positive.”

One of the most prominent examples of this type of leader was Steve Jobs. In fact, the study mentions the former Apple CEO by name: “Although Jobs was still seen as narcissistic, his narcissism appeared to be counterbalanced or tempered with a measure of humility, and it was this tempered narcissist who led Apple to be the most valuable company in the world…”

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, supports the softer portrayal of Jobs that appears in the new biography, “Becoming Steve Jobs” released today. Specifically, the research finds when leaders self-regulate their narcissism with humility, employees are more engaged, perform better and perceive their boss to be more effective.

Narcissistic leaders are typically self-centered, extremely self-confident and believe their ideas are superior to others. They have bold visions and grand plans and often swing for the fences. Owens says these people do not value marginal or incremental changes but want to be involved with paradigm-shifting, industry-shaping, disruptive-technology-types of changes.

Source: jewishbusinessnews.com

A Palestinian family that has lived in Jerusalem’s Old City since 1953 is being forced out of their home by Israeli settlers backed by the state.

Since 9 February the Sub Laban family of eight have been twice subjected to eviction attempts by Israeli settlers and police. The family are expecting a third attempt to come at any time.

Approximately seventy Palestinian, Israeli and international activists demonstrated outside the family’s home on Sunday in a display of solidarity.

The family believe that were it not for a similar action last week, an Israeli district court would not have issued a temporary injunction which gave them enough time to stop the eviction. However, since then the injunction has expired.

Although the family have an appeal hearing before an Israeli district court to challenge the eviction on 31 May, the court has refused to give an order that would prohibit an eviction before that date. The constant fear of invasion and eviction by Israeli settlers, police — or both — has effectively put the family’s lives on hold.

“Right now if we are inside and we hear anything— if someone comes to the door, or if someone passes by outside — we are afraid that it’s going to be the Israeli forces,” Ahmad Sub Laban told The Electronic Intifada.

Source: electronicintifada.net

American universities are enrolling unprecedented numbers of foreign students, prompted by the rise of an affluent class in China and generous scholarships offered by oil-rich Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia.

Cash-strapped public universities also are driving the trend, aggressively recruiting students from abroad, especially undergraduates who pay a premium compared with in-state students.

There are 1.13 million foreign students in the U.S., the vast majority in college-degree programs, according to a report to be released Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security. That represents a 14% increase over last year, nearly 50% more than in 2010 and 85% more than in 2005.

Students from China account for the largest share—331,371 of all international students, or 29%. Nearly 81,000 subjects of the Saudi kingdom are studying in the U.S. this school year, up from about 5,000 in 2000-01. Nearly three-quarters of Saudi students are enrolled in bachelor’s programs or English-language programs that precede starting undergraduate studies here.

Of the top five campuses for international students, two are public universities: Purdue, at No. 2, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, at No. 4. The No. 1 school is the University of Southern California, with 12,480 students, according to the report. Columbia ranks No. 3. and New York University comes in at No. 5.

Source: www.wsj.com

Attempting to display a shred of dignity toward a population that he would otherwise prefer to pretend does not exist, Prime Minister elect Benjamin Netanyahu recently issued an apology to “Israeli Arabs” for his outlandishly racist Election Day remarks that “Arabs voters are going to the polls en masse.”  Not surprisingly and quite typical of any colonial autocrat, Netanyahu orchestrated his apology before a group of truly authentic “natives”; elderly men clad in the archetypical exotic dress of the Orient and who thereby perforce represent the country’s Arab population.

Even aside from the glaring fact that for the average Palestinian citizen of Israel, such garb bears far more resemblance to the multitude of popular Egyptian soap operas than anything found in their daily lives, one can’t help but muse why Netanyahu chose to render his apology to a crowd of elderly men rather than the 12 recently elected Palestinian Arabs (not including Israeli Jew Dov Khenin from Hadash) from the Joint List that actually represent the majority of the country’s Arabic speaking population?  After all, if Netanyahu sincerely sees “…in every Israeli citizen a partner in the building of a flourishing and safe state of Israel for all”, then surely he would have no reservations in convening members of the Joint List together and publicly apologizing to them for his unabashedly discriminatory comments that Palestinian citizens of Israel exercising their civic right and duty somehow constitutes a threat to society and civilization.

Needless to say, regardless of how many local Arab leaders he coopts, Netanyahu has no plans or intentions of initiating any form of dialogue with or incorporating Israel’s Palestinian citizens into the mainstream sociopolitical or economic dynamic, nor will he or his future coalition attempt to engage the Joint List on any meaningful level.  Thus, in offering his perfunctory apology to a cohort of kufiyya and thobe wearing “tribal elders,” Netanyahu’s message to over 20 percent of the country’s population could not resonate clearer: “modern” Arabs seeking genuine representation and influence in the body politic are not welcome.

Source: mondoweiss.net

GENEVA – The wars in Syria and Iraq, as well as armed conflicts, human rights violations and deteriorating security and humanitarian conditions in other countries, pushed the number of asylum applications in industrialized countries to a 22-year high last year, according to a UNHCR report released today. The UNHCR’s Asylum Trends 2014 report puts the … Continued

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughoutthe world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.

Source: www.globalresearch.ca

President Obama said Tuesday that the prospect of Israeli-Palestinian peace “seems very dim” in the wake of pre-election remarks last week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he is evaluating “how we manage Israeli-Palestinian relations over the next several years.”

“What we can’t do is pretend there’s a possibility of something that’s not there,” Obama said during a news conference with visiting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. “For the sake of our own credibility, I guess we have to be honest about this.”

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

5 Little Arabia “Specials” You Must Try (in no particular order) This list in no way suggests they’re the best of the best. However, these “specials” were chosen either because they’re outstanding, unique or because they’re underrated.   Sayadiyeh at Olive Tree Restaurant Many of us can’t wait for Thursdays (or Saturdays) for this fried … Continued

You might think that the creation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition and the sniping between Israel’s government and the White House would be at the forefront of post-election public discussion in Israel today.

But no – across social media, on radio talk shows, on the street and around water-coolers – the conversation has been overwhelmingly about race.

Deep-seated prejudices and resentments, always simmering below the surface, exploded into view during the hard-fought election campaign. And over the week since the polls closed, it has proven impossible to put the racial genie back into the bottle.

Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson, like many overseas pundits, missed the many layers of Israel’s race issue in his post-election analysis. Comparing Netanyahu’s warning that “droves of Arabs” were voting to get out the right-wing vote to racist Republican scare tactics aimed at white voters in the U.S., Meyerson joked that “perhaps Likud and the Republicans can open an Institute for the Prevention of Dark-Skinned People Voting.”

Source: www.haaretz.com

Just one day before the Israeli general election, Binyamin Netanyahu stood in an East Jerusalem settlement and said in a televised interview that he would never agree to a Palestinian state if re-elected and would not halt settlement construction (Report, 17 March). The next day, he and his party were re-elected to power with a decisive majority, giving a mandate to his pre-election commitments – commitments which fly in the face of any “peace process”, freedom and justice for Palestinians, and international law. Netanyahu’s unequivocal words cannot be ignored by the UN, the US, the UK and the EU. Israel’s prime minister has made it explicitly clear that his country will continue to breach international law, and these are not statements that can be retracted. Now is the time for sanctions. Without sanctions on Israel, Palestinians cannot see a future free of occupation, apartheid and, in Gaza, crippling siege. The next UK government must push the EU to impose immediate sanctions on Israel until it abides by international law, ends settlement building, and ends the occupation and the blockade of Gaza.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank have shot at least 30 Palestinian children with live ammunition since the start of the year.

According to DCI-Palestine, the NGO behind the data, the use of live bullets has “left several children in a critical condition”, including a 15-year-old shot in the chest and a 16-year-old shot in the face.

Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at the organisation, claimed that “the high rate of incidents involving live ammunition against children amounts to a de facto policy that permits Israeli forces to use lethal force on civilians.”

“Soldiers operate with the knowledge that their brutal actions will go unchecked whatever the result.”

DCI-Palestine also noted UN figures that show Israeli forces have injured a total of 258 Palestinians over the past 12 weeks in the West Bank. Just in the week March 10-16, the Israeli army shot 18 Palestinians, including nine children, with live ammunition.

Yesterday, DCI-Palestine delivered a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, describing how “repeated Israeli military offensives and prolonged military occupation combined with Israel’s complete disregard for international law has hindered any meaningful efforts toward implementing comprehensive protections for Palestinian children.”

The statement was co-signed by Palestinian human rights organizations Al-Haq, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, and Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com