Author Archives: Arab America

Katie Miranda imagines the scene at Netanyahu’s speech to Congress tomorrow.

Source: mondoweiss.net

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was received yesterday at the annual AIPAC conference in Washington with all the customary flourishes and respect. Netanyahu’s remarks at the conference, a kind of warm-up for his address to Congress today, received the applause to which he has become accustomed when he comes here. No other Israeli politician knows how to speak to American Jews — and especially to members of the powerful pro-Israel lobby — like Netanyahu.

A few days in Washington makes it clear that Netanyahu’s speech to Congress is the elephant in the room that cannot be ignored or downplayed. Many Israelis and Americans are embarrassed by it. There is clear discomfort over what seems like a rather transparent exercise cooked up by the prime minister, Ambassador Ron Dermer and Republican leaders to circumvent the White House. At the same time, there is some fear of what the speech will do to Israel’s relations with the United States at a time when the awful relations between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama can no longer be chalked up to a mere lack of chemistry.

What is barely discussed is whether the speech will achieve its stated goal of halting the emerging nuclear deal between the world powers and Iran, which Netanyahu continues to describe as bad and dangerous. Will the prime minister, who will certainly mobilize all his rhetorical abilities for this mission, budge the administration an inch from its position? It seems that even from his perspective, the address will at best infuse a fighting spirit in the Republican attacks on the president’s foreign policy as it pertains to Iran and the Middle East in general. But the open crisis in relations with the administration is already endangering Democratic support for a proposal to intensify sanctions and undermining the presumption of a bipartisan, apolitical front in Congress that supports Israel’s arguments against the deal.

Even worse, it’s possible that the public criticism of the administration may push Obama to quickly sign an agreement in principle by the end of March, just to prove that he is not influenced by Israeli intimidation attempts.

Source: www.haaretz.com

Palestinians urging a boycott of Israeli products have begun confiscating goods in the West Bank, a movement leader said Tuesday, after activists dumped a truckload of Israeli milk and yogurt in a main square to the cheers of supporters.

Activists will visit shops and target products from six major Israeli food companies in the coming days, boycott leader Abdullah Kmail said.

“We entered the second phase of the campaign which is confiscating and damaging these goods,” he said, adding that Monday’s stunt was meant to show Palestinians that “the campaign is serious.”

The activists drove a truck carrying Israeli dairy products to a main square in Ramallah, Kmail said. Images in Palestinian media showed a white stream flowing by the crowd of cheering activists.

Activists in the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the boycott plans last month, after Israel halted transfer of vital tax revenues to Abbas’ cash-strapped Palestinian Authority. Israel took that step after the Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court to seek war crimes charges against Israel.

Activists initially urged shop owners to remove the Israeli products from their shelves, warning they would destroy what remained.

The West Bank is an important market for Israeli exports, including an estimated $700 million a year in food products. The current campaign targets the companies Tnuva, Strauss, Elite, Osem, Prigat and Jafora.

Emmanuel Nahshon, a spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, called the campaign “counterproductive.”

“Any strategy of boycott, confiscation, hatred and rejection is absolutely counterproductive and is not conducive to an atmosphere of dialogue and negotiations,” he said.

Rinat Friedman, a spokeswoman for the Israeli dairy company Tnuva, said she was not aware of the dumping incident and declined to comment on the boycott.

Source: www.usnews.com

Palestine’s Ambassador to the United Nations has condemned John Kerry’s criticism of the UN Council for Human Rights. Speaking to Anadolu, Ibrahim Khreisheh said that the US Secretary of State’s comments were flawed and frustrating.

“John Kerry’s position contradicts his speech about the importance of the Council’s role in detecting human rights violations and lifting injustice,” insisted Khreisheh. “Why is it, therefore, that when the UNHCR criticises Israel, Kerry criticises the UNHCR and questions its performance and role?”

The UN body has been monitoring Israeli violations against Palestinians as an occupying power with obligations and responsibilities. “In this,” said Khreisheh, “the council has been fulfilling its mandated role.” It is significant, he suggested, that Kerry’s statement coincides with the Israeli prime minister’s controversial visit to Washington.

“Like all members of the US administration,” the Palestinian envoy pointed out, “Kerry understands that Israel is an occupying power, but they are under pressure from the pro-Israel lobby, which undermines the administration’s credibility and efforts to spread democracy and preserve human rights in the world.”

The US secretary of state had decried UNHRC criticism of Israel, saying that the council was obsessed with it. “No one in this room can deny that there is an unbalanced focus on one democratic country,” he claimed. “The UNHRC’s obsession with Israel actually risks undermining the credibility of the entire organisation.”

Israel is the only country to have been singled out by the council in a special session to discuss its violations against the Palestinian people. The US, Australia, Canada and Britain – all well-known friends of Israel – have been trying to obtain a resolution to remove this item from the UNHCR agenda.

Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com

was a tough message before a tough crowd.

On Monday night, White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice made the case for a diplomatic solution to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon — an argument that rankled many of the 16,000 activists who flooded Washington for the annual confab of the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization in the country.

Rice’s remarks, at the policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, were a direct rebuttal to a series of bills supported by AIPAC over the last year that the White House has threatened to veto for fear the legislation would derail the delicate nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers, the so-called P5+1. One such proposal demanded that any deal prohibit Iran from enriching any uranium on its soil — a high bar, backed by Israel, which Rice called “neither realistic nor achievable.”

“We cannot let a totally unachievable ideal stand in the way of a good deal,” she said. “Even our closest international partners in the P5+1 do not support denying Iran the ability ever to pursue peaceful nuclear energy.”

The remarks exposed the fundamental disagreement between pro-Israel hawks inside and outside Congress and world powers in the P5+1 about what’s attainable in a comprehensive deal with Iran. The current talks involve imposing new restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for giving Tehran economic sanctions relief.

The remarks also sparked the most confrontational moment of the three-day conference.

Source: foreignpolicy.com

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays center stage at the Congress this week to slam the Iran deal-in-the-making, the Saudis are playing a more subtle game.  King Salman bin Abdulaziz has summoned the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to Riyadh. The highly unusual and urgent public invitation is being linked to “strategic cooperation” against Iran in the Pakistani press. Salman visited Islamabad a year ago as crown prince and gave Sharif a $1.5 billion grant to reaffirm Saudi-Pakistani strategic accord.

The speculation in Islamabad is the King wants assurances from Sharif now that, if the Iran negotiations produce either a bad deal or no deal, Pakistan will live up to its longstanding commitment to Saudi security. That is understood in Riyadh and Islamabad to include a nuclear dimension. Salman apparently wants Sharif’s assurance reaffirmed before the end of March.

Sharif also visited the Kingdom in January of this year. He was told that then-King Abdallah was at death’s door, and he came to pay his respects and meet with Salman before the King passed. No other leader was given this advance notice, another sign of the critical importance of the Saudi-Pakistani axis.

Source: www.brookings.edu

Below is the full transcript of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks at the March 2nd, 2015, AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington DC.

“Thank you.  Wow, 16,000 people.  Anyone here from California?  Florida?  New York?

Well, these are the easy ones. How about Colorado?  Indiana?  I think I got it. Montana? Texas?

You’re here in record numbers.  You’re here from coast to coast,from every part of this great land.  And you’re here at a critical time. You’re here to tell the world that reports of the demise of the Israeli-U.S. relations are not only premature, they’re just wrong.

You’re here to tell the world that our alliance is stronger than ever.

And because of you, and millions like you, across this great country, it’s going to get even stronger in the coming years.

Thank you  Bob Cohen, Michael Kassen, Howard Kohr and all the leadership of AIPAC.  Thank youfor your tireless, dedicated work to strengthen the partnership between Israel and the United States.

I want to thank,most especially, Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans.  I deeply appreciate your steadfast support for Israel, year in, year out.  You have our boundless gratitude.

I want to welcome President Zeman of the Czech Republic.Mr. President, Israel never forgets its friends. And the Czech people have always been steadfast friends of Israel, the Jewish people, from the days of Thomas Masaryk at the inception of Zionism.

You know, Mr. President, when I entered the Israeli army in 1967, I received a Czech rifle.That was one of the rifles that was given to us by your people in our time of need in 1948.  So thank you for being here today.

Also here are two great friends of Israel, former Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznarand as of last month, former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird.Thank you both for your unwavering support.  You are true champions of Israel, and you are, too, champions of the truth.

I also want to recognize the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, for your genuine friendship, Dan,and for the great job you’re doing representing the United States and the State of Israel.

And I want to recognize the two Rons.  I want to thank Ambassador Ron Prosor for the exemplary job he’s doing at the U.N. in a very difficult forum.

And I want to recognize the other Ron, a man who knows how to take the heat, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer.Ron, I couldn’t be prouder to have you representing Israel in Washington.

And finally, I want to recognize my wife, Sara, whose courage in the face of adversity is an inspiration to me.Sara divides her time as a child psychologist, as a loving mother, and her public duties as the wife of the prime minister.Sara, I’m so proud to have you here with me today, to have you with me at my side always.

My friends, I bring greetings to you from Jerusalem, our eternal undivided capital.

And I also bring to you news that you may not have heard.  You see, I’ll be speaking in Congress tomorrow.

You know, never has so much been written about a speech that hasn’t been given.And I’m not going to speak today about the content of that speech, but I do want to say a few words about the purpose of that speech.

First, let me clarify what is not the purpose of that speech. My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds. I have great respect for both.

I deeply appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel,security cooperation, intelligence sharing, support at the U.N., and much more, some things that I, as prime minister of Israel, cannot even divulge to you because it remains in the realm of the confidences that are kept between an American president and an Israeli prime minister.I am deeply grateful for this support, and so should you be.

My speech is also not intended to inject Israel into the American partisan debate. An important reason why our alliance has grown stronger decade after decade is that it has been championed by both parties and so it must remain.

Both Democratic and Republican presidents have worked together with friends from both sides of the aisle in Congress to strengthen Israel and our alliance between our two countries, and working together, they have provided Israel with generous military assistance and missile defense spending. We’ve seen how important that is just last summer.

Working together, they’ve made Israel the first free trade partner of America 30 years ago and its first official strategic partner last year.

They’ve backed Israel in defending itself at war and in our efforts to achieve a durable peace with our neighbors.  Working together has made Israel stronger; working together has made our alliance stronger.

And that’s why the last thing that anyone who cares about Israel,the last thing that I would want is for Israel to become a partisan issue.  And I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that.  Israel has always been a bipartisan issue.

Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of my address to Congress tomorrow is to speak up about a potential deal with Iran that could threaten the survival of Israel.  Iran is the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in the world.  Look at that graph.  Look at that map.  And you see on the wall, it shows Iran training, arming,dispatching terrorists on five continents.  Iran envelopes the entire world with its tentacles of terror.  This is what Iran is doing now without nuclear weapons. Imagine what Iran would do with nuclear weapons.

And this same Iran vows to annihilate Israel.  If it develops nuclear weapons, it would have the means to achieve that goal.  We must not let that happen.

And as prime minister of Israel, I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there’s still time to avert them.  For 2000 years, my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless.  We were utterly powerless against our enemies who swore to destroy us.  We suffered relentless persecution and horrific attacks.  We could never speak on our own behalf, and we could not defend ourselves.

Well, no more, no more.

The days when the Jewish people are passive in the face of threats to annihilate us, those days are over.Today in our sovereign state of Israel, we defend ourselves. And being able to defend ourselves, we ally with others, most importantly, the United States of America, to defend our common civilization against common threats.

In our part of the world and increasingly, in every part of the world, no one makes alliances with the weak.  You seek out those who have strength, those who have resolve, those who have the determination to fight for themselves. That’s how alliances are formed.

So we defend ourselves and in so doing, create the basis of a broader alliance.

And today, we are no longer silent; today, we have a voice.And tomorrow, as prime minister of the one and only Jewish state, I plan to use that voice.

I plan to speak about an Iranian regime that is threatening to destroy Israel, that’s devouring country after country in the Middle East, that’s exporting terror throughout the world and that is developing, as we speak, the capacity to make nuclear weapons, lots of them.

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel and the United States agree that Iran should not have nuclear weapons, but we disagree on the best way to prevent Iran from developing those weapons.

Now disagreements among allies are only natural from time to time, even among the closest of allies.  Because they’re important differences between America and Israel.

The United States of America is a large country,one of the largest.  Israel is a small country, one of the smallest.

America lives in one of the world’s safest neighborhoods.  Israel lives in the world’s most dangerous neighborhood. America is the strongest power in the world.  Israel is strong, but it’s much more vulnerable. American leaders worry about the security of their country.  Israeli leaders worry about the survival of their country.

You knowI think that encapsulates the difference.  I’ve been prime minister of Israel for nine years.  There’s not a single day, not one daythat I didn’t think about the survival of my country and the actions that I take to ensure that survival, not one day.

And because of these differences, America and Israel have had some serious disagreements over the course of our nearly 70-year-old friendship.

Now, it started with the beginning.  In 1948, Secretary of State Marshall opposed David Ben-Gurion’s intention to declare statehood.That’s an understatement.  He vehemently opposed it.  But Ben-Gurion,understanding what was at stake, went ahead and declared Israel’s independence.

In 1967, as an Arab noose was tightening around Israel’s neck,the United States warned Prime Minister Levi Eshkol that if Israel acted alone, it would be alone.  But Israel did act — acted alone to defend itself.

In 1981, under the leadership of Prime Minister Menachem Begin,Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor at Osirak.  The United States criticized Israel and suspended arms transfers for three months.  And in 2002, after the worst wave of Palestinian terror attacks in Israel’s history, Prime Minister Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield.  The United States demanded that Israel withdraw its troops immediately, but Sharon continued until the operation was completed.

There’sa reason I mention all these.  I mention them to make a point.  Despite occasional disagreements, the friendship between America and Israel grew stronger and stronger, decade after decade.

And our friendship will weather the current disagreement, as well, to grow even stronger in the future.And I’ll tell you why;  because we share the same dreams.  Because we pray and hope and aspire for that same better world; because the values that unite us are much stronger than the differences that divide usvalues like liberty, equality, justice, tolerance,compassion.

As our region descends into medieval barbarism, Israel is the one that upholds these values common to us and to you.

As Assad drops bell bombs on his own people, Israeli doctors treat his victims in our hospitals right across the fence in the Golan Heights.

As Christians in the Middle East are beheaded and their ancient communities are decimated, Israel’s Christian community is growing and thriving, the only one such community in the Middle East.

As women in the region are repressed, enslaved, and raped, women in Israel serve as chief justices, CEOs, fighter pilots, two women chief justices in a row.Well, not in a row, but in succession. That’s pretty good.

In a dark, and savage, and desperate Middle East, Israel is a beacon of humanity, of light, and of hope.

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel and the United States will continue to stand together because America and Israel are more than friends.  We’re like a family.  We’re practically mishpocha.

Now, disagreements in the family are always uncomfortable, but we must always remember that we are family.

Rooted in a common heritage, upholding common values, sharing a common destiny.  And that’s the message I came to tell you today.  Our alliance is sound.  Our friendship is strong.  And with your efforts it will get even stronger in the years to come.

Thank you, AIPAC.  Thank you, America.  God bless you all.”

Source: www.algemeiner.com

Freezing rain and dangerously icy sidewalks on Sunday afternoon didn’t deter protesters gathered outside the Washington Convention Center, where a sit-in was staged to block one of the entrances to the annual AIPAC conference underway inside.

Demonstrators sat cross-legged, linked arms and held up their hands clad in red gloves, while wearing masks made with cutouts of Netanyahu’s face.

“Stop using our tax money to bomb Palestinians,” one of them shouted, while a hundred or so protesters huddled on the front steps chanted, “Stop the killing, stop the hate.”

They waved Palestinian flags, signs urging an end to policies of Apartheid in Israel, and others calling for diplomacy with Iran, as well as a large banner with a painting of an Israeli flag splattered with blood.

Source: mondoweiss.net

Fresh, wholesome, healthy, rich, aromatic — it’s no wonder that the past decade has seen Middle Eastern cuisine’s global profile skyrocketing. While everyone has their favorite dish, we hit up Lebanese-American food blogger Bethany Kehdy of dirtykitchensecrets.com, who a cookbook on Middle Eastern cuisine due out in 2013, for her take. Her favorite dishes are … Continued

Even before U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress, Democrats, unlike Republicans and Independents, were divided in their opinions about the Israeli leader, holding only slightly favorable views according to a poll conducted in November. But a new poll conducted jointly with the Program for Public Consultations and fielded by the research firm GfK in late February among a nationally representative panel of 710 Americans reveals that the partisan divide on Netanyahu is expanding sharply.

Source: foreignpolicy.com

Dr. George Kikano has been named the new dean of Central Michigan University’s College of Medicine, according to a press release.

Kikano was chosen for the position after previous dean Ernie Yoder announced his resignation in June.

You have something good going on here at CMU,” Kikano said in a statement. “The mission is a core value that should not be changed, should not be altered. Anything we do here, whether it is education, clinical research, basic science research, investing in facilities or investing in programs — that core mission will guide us.”

Kikano earned his medical degree from American University in Lebanon in 1986, is the medical director for Home Care Services with University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, and a professor of family medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

He will start part-time as CMU medical school dean beginning April 1, and full-time June 1. He will be paid annual salary of $500,000.

CMU announced the appointment of Kikano on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

Source: www.mlive.com

There is little argument among Palestinians that they are in the midst of a political turning point. It is clear to all what they are turning away from: the Oslo era in which they were governed by a series of makeshift structures that many vainly hoped would end the Israeli occupation and deliver a Palestinian state. Those hopes—and corresponding Israeli hopes for a negotiated end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—faded long ago for most Palestinians. But many of the governance structures set up in the wake of the 1993 Oslo Accords were kept alive because senior leaders on both sides, as well as critical international actors (chiefly the United States and Europe), still clung to elements of the interim arrangements and showed strong signs of tactical partnership.

Source: carnegieendowment.org