By: Ghassan Rubeiz, Ph.D

        EAST MEREDITH, NY – During a historical visit to Jerusalem in 1979, late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt proclaimed that the Arab-Israeli conflict is largely psychological.

        Inherited notions about history and deeply felt convictions about the injustices are so strong that when an Arab-American meets a Jewish-American socially they tend to avoid politics at all cost. Discussing differences might spoil a relationship between an Arab and Jew who may share a neighborhood, a business, a classroom or a workplace.

        However, though the majority swims with the current, there is a significant minority on each side of the Mideast divide, which challenges extremist views and works hard to promote understanding and a justice-based peace. There are people who endeavor to break through the barriers between the communities and engage in an open-minded exchange.

        Examples are easy to find. I have a personal story to tell about our family’s meeting with a creative and peace-loving Jewish family. I am an Arab-American of Lebanese descent, and my wife, Mary, is an American who has lived a few years in Lebanon.

        It started in late May, when Bruce Roter, a Jewish reader expressed appreciation for an article in which I appealed to the Arabs and Jews of America to work together for peace in the Middle East. Responding to my appeal, Bruce Roter said “I hear you”. He added, “I am the composer of a symphonic work… ‘A Camp David Overture (Prayer for Peace)’” and he shared with me the YouTube link.

        Bruce is a professor of music at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. The late Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Mrs. Jihan Sadat (Sadat’s wife) praised his 1996 composition. This work has been performed for the promotion of peace in several US cities over the last 14 years, in the hope, as Bruce puts it “that this music can foster cultural ties among all the people of the region”. When it was played in Washington three years ago, official representatives from Israel, Egypt, France and Canada attended the concert.

        After hearing an excerpt of this inspiring work, I arranged a meeting with Bruce and his family, including his wife Monique, and three children.

        The Roter family has had ample exposure to life in the Middle East. Monique’s parents emigrated from Egypt in the 1950s. Growing up in a Sephardi family, Monique has an inbuilt taste for Middle East food and the Levantine culture.

        On a sunny day, in late July, Bruce and his family shared a meal with ours: “lubie blahmeh” over rice, a green bean stew with beef. We talked about all sorts of Mideast dishes with nostalgia: “Bamie”, “Mulukhia”, “Wara inab”. Over lunch, Monique told us that her parents were expelled from Egypt during the Nasser regime. I saw no anger on Monique’s face. I did not offer my perspective for the departure of so many talented communities from Egypt during the revolutionary period of Nasser; commentary on history to interpret a sensitive personal story may sound callous.

        The meal provided an easygoing setting to share sensitive ideas. The Roters are strong advocates for Israel, but they see this state’s future security strengthened through the creation of a viable Palestinian state.

        Afterwards, we invited a small group of friends to listen to Bruce introduce and play the CD of his “peace overture”. We asked many questions and Bruce was glad to explain his approach to teaching music and creating it. He also talked about his latest work, a children’s peace opera, “The Classroom.” The setting of the opera is a classroom composed of two ethnic groups. The debut will take place this fall in an Albany elementary school, where the Roter children are enrolled. In the premier performance, the two groups will be Palestinian and Israeli children.

        The Rubeiz and Roter families have established a new friendship born out of a common appreciation for coexistence of a secure Israeli state and a future Palestinian state. The two families feel strongly that conflict could either divide or bring people together. People unite when there is a common will to avoid war in solving problems. We hope that this friendship will deepen with time, regardless of how the political situation develops.

        The Mideast has millions of stories – some sad, some happy, some of mixed affect. Yet it is the human element, I find, to be a key to understanding, explaining and solving the conflict in the Middle East.

        * Dr. Ghassan Rubeiz (grubeiz@comcast.net) is an Arab-American commentator on issues of development, peace and justice. He is the former Middle East Secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

By: John-Paul Leonard

        Muslims in the West need to defend themselves, say experts. Imagine you are a public defender trying to acquit an innocent person who’s been framed by the police. How would you feel if your client cops a plea bargain, and confesses to the crime? Pretty frustrated, right? That’s how the 9/11 Truth movement in the US and 7/7 truthers in the UK often feel about their Muslim communities.

        As one who has published several books on 9/11 and 7/7, I wondered why so few Muslims in the US and UK support our effort. In the Middle East, I’m told almost everyone has been convinced the Mossad was behind 9/11. So conformity with the social mainstream must be part of the problem. Muslims may rightly feel that they will simply be scorned as self-serving conspiracy theorists, who see the CIA pulling the strings behind everything.

        But it is a plain fact and not a theory at all, that three World Trade Center Towers were demolished by explosives on 9/11. (No.1 and 2 in the morning and No. 7 in the afternoon, which the media completely hushed up). All three buildings came down at free-fall speed.

        Free fall means there is nothing standing between an object and the ground as it falls. That is as plain a fact of everyday physics as you can find. It is how buildings are demolished. The supporting columns are blown out, and it all falls down.

Only when we ask “who did it” do we have to theorize who the conspirators were. They certainly did not include a handful of alleged Saudi hijackers. On that, we have another set of plain facts.

- There was not a single Arab name on any of the flight manifests.

- A Boeing 757 is about 5,000 times lighter than one of the Twin Towers, making a negligible impact.

- Fuel mixed with air won’t burn hot enough to weaken steel. You couldn’t run a car or a kitchen stove otherwise.

        Case dismissed, right? Not quite. We have to convince the jury. And there we have had to reluctantly accept the evidence of another strange thing: 

        People do not reason from facts to conclusions. It’s the other way around. They start from a world view. They will only accept a conclusion which does not upset that view. They then select facts to fit the conclusion. If there aren’t any, they just refuse to think about it.

        So what world views could get Muslims to buy into the wild-eyed conspiracy theory the Neo-cons sold us about 9/11?

        There are many different types of people among the Muslims, and no one explanation will fit everyone.

        Most Muslims came to the West because they believed in the American Dream. To face the truth would mean giving up the dream.

        Immigrants feel a need to assimilate. Psychologists have found that victims may identify with their oppressors. Some immigrants come from countries where it is not customary to question authority. A few Muslims might the feel the US deserved such an attack, so the government’s theory seems to fit. Many more have been taught that Islam has no political dimension, so they just “won’t go there.” Just like European Americans, many Muslim Americans are afraid to be branded conspiracy theorists. How did this term come to be such a taboo?

        There are strategic goals that a world power can achieve most easily by trickery and covert means. For example, staging a fake attack on your own ships in order to get into a war on a weaker nation; as in the sinking of the USS Maine or the Gulf of Tonkin incident. But a secret can always come out, and tricks only work as long as people don’t see through them. The solution: ridicule the inquisitive as “conspiracy theorists.”

        We can’t be so easily cowed. “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me,” we kids used to say on the playground.

        Some Muslims may be complacent that Allah will take care of them as believers. But Allah requires us to do our part. When Islam was nearly destroyed by the Mongols, it was finally saved not by prayer but by a determined military defense. Lack of unity, using the enemy to settle scores with Muslim rivals, and intimidation had paved the way for the invaders, with some Muslim and Arab states giving in to avoid bloodshed, while others took the lash, all too similar to the picture today.

        So what is the right way for Muslims now? I have researched the Quran and the Hadith on this subject. (See http://www.progressivepress.com/blog , March 24th entry.) The teachings are clear. Muslims should be forthright and stand their ground. They should seek and speak the truth. And they should have no illusions that appeasing or mimicking of those who oppress them is going to bring them around.

        The events of the last nine years, with more and more Muslim and Arab nations coming under the gun, is the best proof that Muslims cannot let their enemies get away with 9/11.

        The following experts contributed to this study. They also participated in a colloquium on it on Pacifica Radio on July 7th, 2010. http://www.progressivepress.com/news/london-tube-bombings .

        Nick Kollerstrom, author of Terror on the Tube, the book that shows the accused Muslims were innocent of the 7/7 bombings because of the physical impossibility of the government story.

        Kevin Barrett, author of Truth Jihad, hosted of colloquium on the air.

        Dave Aossey, author of Instruments of the State, a 9/11 truth novel.

        David Livingstone, author of Terrorism and the Illuminati. His thesis is that Islam today was already deeply subverted and neutralized by the British Empire, which gave the Wahhabi and Salafi schools their start. Muslims are given only two futile choices, extremist jihadism and apolitical pietism.

        Author John-Paul Leonard first began writing about politics with Al-Aqsa Intifada. After a year or so of Internet activism for the Palestinian cause, he turned to the issue of 9/11 as the best way to break through the apathy of Middle America. What could be better for Palestine, he says, than for America to find out that 9/11 was done by the Mossad? These five political observers exchanged views on this topic on Pacifica Radio on July 7th, 2010, archived here. http://www.progressivepress.com/news/london-tube-bombings .

BY MIKE NALLY

Brash, hard working young Vietnamese American businessman and Democratic candidate for the 68th state Assembly seat, Phu Nguyen, held yet another successful fundraiser on Friday, August 13th at Emerald Bay Restaurant in Fountain Valley.

        The Assembly seat, once considered safely Republican, includes the cities of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Westminster, Stanton, Anaheim, and part of Newport Beach.  Phu’s opponent in the contest is Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor. If Nguyen upsets Mansoor in this race, a bit of history will be made.

        And if fundraising is a measure of success, Nguyen is way out front with his hard charging campaign.  According to California government links, total expenditures from 1/1/2010 till 6/30/2010 for Mansoor showed $186,000 with a cash balance of $8,617.81 (Note that Mansoor paid back $60,000 of the $100,000 he loaned himself).  Nguyen on the other hand, for the same time frame, had total contributions of $205.000 with expenditures of $46,272 with ending cash balance of $136,604.

        At the Emerald Bay fundraiser, a pumped up Nguyen took the stage to resounding cheers from friends and supporters.  MC Viet Tran remarked: “Phu is a man born to lead!”  And co-host Lisa Thuy Duong added that Phu is used to overcoming all obstacles, and mentioned how when they were students in Paris, they rented a car to cross the rugged Alps and eventually made it to Rome.

        Nguyen thanked especially his family and in-laws for their support as he works on the campaign.  He singled out his wife, Yen Kanh, a tenured math teacher at Santa Ana College, and the mother of his two smart kids.  For this reason, Phu pledged to fight for struggling families in his district and students too.

        “People often ask me: Why now, why are you running when Sacramento is in disarray and a huge 20 billion deficit in the budget? And when being a Democrat is not popular?”

        Nguyen underscored that now is exactly the time for decisive leadership and promised to promote unity in the community to tackle the tough problems ahead.

        He added: “Tonight you see here not just Vietnamese Americans, but Latinos and Arab American supporters as well (Bill Dalati of Little Gaza was among the crowd and is running for Anaheim City Council).  You see here tonight students, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and small business owners.  Central Orange County has the largest percentage of small business owners, and I want to reach out and help them.”

        Also on hand at the fundraiser was prominent Latino lawmaker, State Sen. Lou Correa, who gave Nguyen a big supportive bear hug.  “Big Lou and Big Phu!” exclaimed Correa, raising their hands together in a victory salute, and smiling broadly.

        Correa told Phu’s supporters that a win is crucial here, and reminded them that “there are just 85 days left to get out the vote — so do it!!”

        Phu’s well-orgainized campaign can be counted on to do just that.  Precinct walks are done every Saturday with Vote Phu T shirts, and phone banking done every day (go to VotePhu.com).

        The Emerald Bay fundraiser was kicked off by Democratic activist Jim Benson singing the national anthem and there was plenty of good Vietnamese entertainment, including some great songs by Kristine Sa, a silly one called “Stupid Cupid” because this was a “fun event” and a sad one about the heartbreak of breaking up.  Hey, Kristine and other singers, if you need an up and coming songwriter/singer check out my nephew Eric Nally (google) or his band Foxy Shazam who have been signed by Warner Brothers to do songs.  Shameless plug, but I have always admired the passion of artists.

BY GAIL ALFAR

According to the online “Globes: Israel’s Business Arena” no reason was given by the Harvard University Management Company as to why all the Israel share holdings that the University had were sold.
This is notable that one of the world’s best known and consistently highest ranked leading academic institution has chosen to eliminate every one of its Israeli based investments.
The article states that shares in “Teva Pharmaceutical” were sold, that were valued at 30.5 million dollars. Teva has been a target of the BDS movement for years, it manufactures many generic drugs such as generic Prilosec (Omeprazole) and generic Allegra (Fexofenadine HCI), to name just a few.
Shares valued at almost 1.7 million were sold in “NICE Systems Ltd.” NICE is a large Israeli firm engaged in wiretapping and surveillance systems for private and government clients, with several contracts in South Africa through Transnet. Orsus was contracted by Transnet to connect three nerve centers in Johannesburg, Richard’s Bay and Cape Town. Their surveillance technology is an example of the type of high-tech ‘security systems’ that are regularly deployed against, and often tested on, Palestinians under occupation.
Harvard University Management Company also sold its shares in Israeli Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., valued at 3.6 million. Check Point’s software is reportedly developed on the basis of knowledge and experience directly acquired from military applications, the company “was founded by veterans of IDF communication, intelligence and computer units.”
Two other companies also lost Harvard’s endorsement: Cellcom Israel Ltd. and Partner Communications Ltd. Harvard University can no longer be accused of funding settlement activity through investments in Cellcom Israel Ltd. TIAA-CREF, the US pension fund giant, divested from Cellcom about one year ago, selling all of its shares for about $257,000. Harvard’s sale of Cellcom was valued at about $1,000,000, a significantly larger amount.
Partner Communications, whose motto is “I am free, I am orange,” took a blow for $1.8 million. Partner Communications claims it supports human rights through employing people from “all the nationalities and congregations of the Israeli society” in its mission statement. A complete neglect of the rights of Palestinian people, who are indigenous to the land, is poignantly obvious.
Is it possible that Harvard University has clauses that bind the university to standards of human rights, international law and democracy? Israel is in clear violation of these three conditions and global parties to investments, agreements and projects with Israel have to be challenged as their relations with Israel are clearly infringing upon their own rules and principles. Could Harvard University have, unofficially, just divested from Israel?
It should be impressed on the signatories of agreements (such as investing) with Israel that all those agreements inherently support the occupation, apartheid and human rights abuses in Palestine.

By: Michael Gillespie

United for Justice and Peace, the largest peace coalition in Greater Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, met at the Friends Center in Cambridge on June 19 to explore responses to Israel’s continuing siege of Gaza in the aftermath of the massacre of peace activists taking part in a Free Gaza flotilla on May 31. About 50 activists attended.
The three-hour meeting featured a panel discussion with Ann Wright (Col. U.S. Army, Ret.), a distinguished U.S. foreign service officer who resigned in protest from the Department of State in March 2003, the day before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and Husam Zomlot, a Palestinian scholar and diplomat. Zomlot served as PLO Representative to the UK from 2003 to 2008 and is currently a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The discussion was moderated by Jeff Klein, a retired machinist, union leader, and activist with Dorchester People for Peace.
“The sequence of events has been quite remarkable in the last two years,” said Wright. “The international community is putting pressure on the Israelis and the Egyptians and the American government to end the siege of Gaza.”
“It’s taking the people of the world, it’s a citizens’ action that is forcing governments to listen to the people. We in the United States have had a particularly bad run of governments listening to us over the last 10 years. The Bush administration didn’t listen to us on anything, and, tragically, the Obama administration is not listening to us much either,” said Wright.
“I’ll tell you what: When the citizens of the world start getting together on these things, well, things happen. What happened with the Gaza Flotilla, where we had six ships that finally started sailing toward Gaza, was tragic. All were attacked in international waters 70 miles off the coast of Gaza in an act of piracy, an act of kidnapping, an act of murder, an act of theft, all crimes by anyone’s estimation.
“That’s what happened on six ships, three of which were passenger ships, two of which were cargo ships. Passengers numbered 600 on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ferry boat that was leased by a huge Turkish international NGO, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH). If you go on their web site, www.IHH.org.tr, you’ll see that in contrast to what the Israeli government talks about this IHH as being a terrorist organization that does nothing but support Hamas, you’ll see that that organization that brought over 400 people from Turkey and over 200 people from other countries in the region, it is an organization that has world-wide reach similar to CARE, Catholic Relief Services, International Rescue Committee, all of those organizations that work internationally, IHH is one of them,” the retired U.S. Army Colonel and foreign service officer told her audience.
“[IHH] does work in Gaza, and, like virtually every organization that works in Gaza, it has to have dealings with the government, and that’s [the basis of the false Israeli charge that] IHH is an international terrorist organization.
“Actually, the U.S. government calls other people terrorists. We have three Congressmen and women now who are calling people like me, who were on the flotilla, and like you, who have been to Gaza, people like you all who support the right of Palestinians to have a life, we are called terrorists by Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Brad Sherman (D-CA-27), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY-14). Sherman demanded that we be arrested and that we be charged with crimes of terrorism for taking part in the Gaza flotilla, so, last Thursday we had a giant protest in his office, but they refused to arrest us!
“It was really good. We had media like you wouldn’t believe. They were there to see what was going to happen when a U.S. Congressman calls for the arrest of American citizens. So we said, ‘OK! Arrest us! Come on!’ We had a press conference in the hallway. The police [that] were there, said ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that,’ and we said ‘We’re going in the Congressman’s office. He wants to arrest us. We’re presenting ourselves!’
“It all goes to show that now we’ve got people on the run. We’ve got an Israeli government that, after that attack—it was a criminal attack—it was an attack that did not have to happen. If the Israeli navy wanted to stop those ships, there were other ways. As a military officer, I know there are other ways to stop ships besides boarding them forcefully and using live ammunition and killing people—killing nine unarmed people!
“There were no weapons on any of those ships. If there had been, we would have seen them. The Israeli military would have been parading them. Instead the only photos are of kitchen knives that were on the ship because they part of kitchens to feed 600 people. There was one ax that was onboard, an ax that every boat is required to carry because in case lines get tangled you have to chop them,” explained Wright.
Wright said there was violence on the Mavi Marmara after fire from the Israeli helicopters killed and wounded unarmed activists on the ship. Three masked Israeli commandos who rappelled onto the upper decks were overpowered and beaten, but the Captain of the ship and the director of IHH put a stop to all physical resistance and ordered that the three Israelis be treated by doctors onboard and promptly returned to Israeli control, said Wright.
“The tragedy on the Mavi Marmara was that the Israeli commandos killed people, shot people. They could have stopped the boat in a variety of other ways but the Israeli government chose to have a major confrontation, a confrontation that has really backfired on them, a confrontation that has governments of the world, to include by some miracle the United States government, finally saying that the blockade, the siege of Gaza is ‘unsustainable’ and that the deaths were ‘regrettable.’
“That’s in contrast to what the White House has been saying about Helen Thomas’s comments that [have been described as] ‘reprehensible.’ You would think that perhaps murdering people would be called ‘reprehensible,’ but no, that’s not quite where the U.S. government has gotten yet,” said Wright in part.
Zomlot began by offering his heartfelt thanks for all the people who have given their lives for the sake of a resolution of the humanitarian crisis in Palestine, and condolences to their families.
“The attacks on the flotilla and what happened with Ann and her group have really broken through to the core of the issue of the blockade of Gaza. These heroic acts of universalism, people coming together as civilians to break the siege, one of the most draconian sieges of modern history, are already bearing fruit. The siege, as we speak, is crumbling,” said the Palestinian scholar and diplomat.
“The moment I heard of what happened on the high seas off of Gaza I knew that it was the end of one of the most illegal, inhumane blockades of modern history. Your message has been heard. While your goods, your humanitarian supplies, your gifts for the Palestinian babies of Gaza, your pencils and tablets for schools, your medicines did not arrive, your message has arrived.
“It is a very loud and clear message. The message is that the agony and the suffering of the Palestinians is not only Palestinian. It is universal,” said the Palestinian diplomat, who noted that he was born in Gaza and lived there for many years.
Zomlot offered a brief overview of Israeli policy in Gaza, which he noted had always had two elements. One has been the effort to stifle Palestine’s economy.
“The Israeli policy has always been to ensure that Palestinians, as a political society, would not have an economy they could rely on. From 1991 onward until today, there was a policy of closure, a policy of individual deprivation and collective deprivation. … All those who wish to leave or enter Gaza, all those who wish to import or export from Gaza, would have to obtain an Israeli permit. And believe you me, that was not easy to get. It was extremely difficult. The last three or four years has only witnessed a heightening of that system of closure,” said Zomlot.
“The second goal of Israeli policy is political and geographical fragmentation. This is a classic policy of divide and rule as we all know. This policy has been in place at least since the Oslo Accords. Unfortunately, with the help of some major international actors, it has borne fruits of Palestinian political and geographic divisions,” said Zomlot, who added that rather than speak about the morality or the legality of Israel’s policies, he would address instead the practicalities.
“What is it you seek by creating a poor, deprived, leaderless, divided neighbor? What is it? Is it really to soften their position to strike a deal with them? It doesn’t work. You can always defeat an army, but you can’t defeat a nation, a society of mothers and teachers and lawyers. And even if you want to soften their position and you want to crush their will and their determination, what is the alternative you are offering? What is it that Palestinians are asked to concede? More than they have done so several years ago, conceding 70 percent of their land? It is very impractical, because we are all witnessing the backlash!” said Zomlot.
The Israeli goal was to isolate Gaza from the West Bank and divide the Palestinian people, said the Palestinian diplomat. “That’s the main policy!”
“I believe that if Israel intends to liquidate the Palestinian polity, the Palestinian society, for the sake of finishing off the job they started in 1948, then [Israeli policy] makes sense, and what is happening now makes a lot of sense. But if Israel intends to really strike a deal with its neighbor and create the two-state solution that Israel has been talking about all these years, then what is happening does not make sense,” said Zomlot.
The Palestinian scholar and diplomat told his audience he fears that Israeli leaders have no intention of striking a deal with Palestinians on any terms, that they have no intention of allowing a viable, peaceful Palestinian state.
Zomlot identified four principles as a way forward. Palestinians, he said, are moving toward national unity. “Everybody realizes that fragmentation of our polity and out land is only playing into the hands of those who do not wish us well.”
As Palestinians move toward national unity, they are adopting a policy of non-violent popular resistance, said Zomlot. “It’s a universal Palestinian conclusion that non-violent resistance that is popular and peaceful—the best example is the flotilla and what happened—is the most effective way of confronting Israel.”
Third, said Zomlot, is national institution building. “The most important thing right now is to try and empower Palestinians to continue living on their land by creating institutions for health, education, etcetera that will enable Palestinians to survive, to be steadfast where they are.”
“And last, and most important in my opinion, is you,’ said Zomlot. “All of you. That is, the International Solidarity Movement, justice groups, peace groups. This new movement, that we see everywhere in Europe, in the U.S., in Australia, in Asia, and in Africa is forming and taking a very solid shape. Believe you me, the more assertive you are, the more vocal you are, the more strong you are, the more united you are, the more Palestinians are reaching into the non-violent side of the story. Because this alliance brings strength to face the violence that Palestinians are suffering,” said Zomlot.
“This movement is growing,” declared moderator Jeff Klein, “not as big and as fast as we would like, but nevertheless it is clear that this movement is growing.”
Klein reminded his audience that it wasn’t so long ago that many activists who recognized the importance of a just resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict were reluctant to speak out and engage on the issue in the larger peace movement and at the big antiwar rallies.
“I’m happy to say I think that’s largely over with. The Palestine issue has become one of the core issues of the activist community on the Left, and that’s a big step forward,” said Klein.
One result of the solidarity movement to break the siege of Gaza its unexpected and powerful effects in the Middle East, noted Klein.
Subsequent events underscore Klein’s remarks and those of Wright and Zomlot. As counterproductive wars and a failed U.S. foreign policy driven by a bloated defense industry and the malignant influence of Tel Aviv and its pro-Israel lobby play havoc with Washington’s legitimate interests in the Middle East, Ankara’s principled policies and diplomatic initiatives are finding favor as Turkey’s influence in the region and beyond increases.
On July 8, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said during a visit to London that Israel would have to lift its blockade and be “held accountable” for its attack on the aid ships of the Gaza flotilla or face gradual stages of disengagement if it did not respond to Turkey’s demands. Ankara has closed Turkish airspace to Israeli military aircraft, withdrawn its ambassador to Israel, and said the envoy will not return until Israel meets Turkish demands.
“Time is running out for a two-state solution. It is in Israel’s interest to make sure that it is still possible,” warned British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Hague described the blockade of Gaza as “unacceptable and unsustainable,” according a report in the Guardian (UK) by Ian Black, Middle East editor.
Wise diplomats and statesmen are now working for the welfare of all humanity, even as they strive to promote the interests of their own national and racial groups. They recognize that selfish political sagacity is ultimately suicidal, destructive of all those enduring qualities that insure planetary group survival.

By: Michael Gillespie

Anthony Manousos of Culver City, CA spoke to a small but keenly interested gathering of Iowa peace and social justice activists in the basement of the Des Moines Valley Friends Meetinghouse on June 28.
Manousos, a former English teacher and editor of Fellowship and Prayer, told his audience that has been interested in other religions for many years. That interest, said the California-based activists, moved him to live and study for nine months in a Zen Buddhist center and later to become involved in a variety of interfaith activities and organizations. He serves on the boards of the South Coast Interfaith Council and Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace in the Los Angeles area and is vice-chair of the executive committee of the Southern California Committee for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. Manousos is also active in the Quaker Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee of the Friends General Conference, a national organization.
Manousos is currently touring the USA speaking about the growing interfaith movement and the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
“After 9/11, I felt led to fast during Ramadan,” said Manousos. “That was my entrée into the Muslim community. I told Muslims I was fasting and they were so excited. They invited me into their homes. I decided to continue fasting during Ramadan and have done so now for 10 years.”
“I study the Koran and I hang out with Muslims,” said Manousos with a smile that is infectious.
“When I heard about the Parliament, I knew I needed to go. The Parliament is kind of like the Olympics of interfaith. It’s held every five years and it attracts major religious leaders and spiritual leaders,” said Manousos.
Australia had not been high on his list of places he wanted to visit, said Manousos, but when he learned that the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, the world’s largest interreligious gathering, would convene in Melbourne, he was intrigued.
“I e-mailed Quakers in Australia and got such a friendly response that I ended up staying for six weeks. I went not only to Melbourne but to Canberra, Sydney, and eventually to Adelaide where I spent a week at a national Quaker conference,” said Manousos.
Using an upside down map of the world as a visual aid, the Quaker peace activist pointed to Australia, featured at the top of the map, and noted that our world is upside down in more ways than one.
The Parliament was taking place in December and January, but that’s during the summer in Australia, said Manousos.
“Upside down meant something to me in a spiritual sense, too,” declared Manousos.
Donald Kraybill wrote a book titled The Upside Down Kingdom in which he argued that Jesus turned upside down all of the worldly values when he talked about the kingdom of Heaven. When he talked about the kingdom of Heaven, what he was talking about was a world where the meek, not the strong, were most important; where the poor, the disempowered, and the disenfranchised were important, not the powerful rich, said Manousos.
“It was turning upside down a whole set of assumptions that we live by in the world, about religion, we get the impression it’s all about sexual scandals, terrorism, suicide bombers, fanaticism. We don’t hear about the religious leaders who are trying to make the world a better place, who are working for peace and justice,” noted Manousos.
At that point, one of his listeners spoke up.
“We did hear about Martin Luther King when he was alive, of course, and Mother Theresa, but they were kind of the exceptions,” noted Sherry Hutchison, clerk of the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting’s Peace and Social Concerns Committee.
“That’s right,” said Manousos. “When I came back from the Parliament I asked people if they’d read about it on the front page of the New York Times. You know: ‘Six thousand religious leaders come together from all over the world to find ways to end poverty and war.’ No, it didn’t get into the New York Times.”
“You know the reason why! No one took a pot shot at the Dali Lama. A bomb did not go off at the convention center. So therefore there was nothing newsworthy that took place,” said Manousos.
“So the Dali Lama was there?” asked long-time Des Moines peace activist Charlie Day.
“Oh yeah,” replied Manousos.
“How many Americans were there?” asked Day.
“I don’t know, but a significant number,” said Manousos adding that he was the only official Quaker representative from the United States.
Manousos quoted the founder of the Quaker faith tradition, George Fox, and his close friend and fellow Quaker William Penn, with regard to the spirit of interfaith conversation and cooperation.
“Walk cheerfully over the earth answering to that of God in everyone.” – George Fox
“The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion, and when death takes off the mask, they will know one another though the diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers.” – William Penn
“That’s pretty radical for the 17th century, when Christians not only weren’t talking to each other, they were killing each other. He was saying that Jews, Muslims, Christians, all of them, were of one religion, but they’d have to wait until they die [to understand that]. That’s where we’re more fortunate than William Penn–we don’t have to wait until we die. Thanks to the interfaith movement, we can see that truth right here in our own time,” said Manousos.
The Quaker peace activist treated his listeners to a brief overview of the history of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which first convened in Chicago in 1893, the largest of several congresses convened in conjunction with an early world’s fair, the World Columbian Exposition. The Parliament of the World’s Religions did not convene again for 100 years. In 1993, the Parliament met again in Chicago, where many religious and spiritual leaders among some 8,000 people who participated endorsed the principles set out in Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration, a paper drafted primarily by Swiss Catholic priest and theologian Hans Küng. The document was instrumental in setting the tone of the Parliament’s discussions.
“Hans Kung was at the 1993 Parliament. He is very committed to interfaith dialog. He came up with what is really, I think, the slogan of the interfaith movement. He said, ‘There can be no peace in the world without peace among the religions. There can be no peace among the religions without dialog, and there can be no dialog without a common ethic.’” said Manousos.
“So, what is a common ethic that all religions share? The Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated,” said Manousos, referring to the ethic of reciprocity.
“We can construct a common ethic. We can’t construct a common theology. There are too many differences in doctrine. So, we try to find areas where we can agree. The goal of the Parliament is not unity of all religions but harmony. And, we can celebrate our differences and find areas of commonality where we can cooperate and work together,” said Manousos.
“The Parliament of 1993 was such a success that it was decided to hold it every five years in a major city. So it was held in Cape Town, South Africa and in Barcelona, Spain. Each time it drew between 7,000 and 9,000 people. Then it was held last December in Melbourne, where it drew about 6,000 people, which was very good given the [distant] location and the economy. A lot of conferences were cancelled, but this one went on because there was a lot of strong feeling, especially since 9/11, very strong feeling that this one needed to go on, a lot of passion,” said Manousos.
The theme of the Melbourne Parliament was “Helping each other, healing the earth,” said Manousos.
The Quaker peace activist, author of a pamphlet published by the Friends Bulletin and titled Islam from a Quaker Perspective and Friends and the Interfaith Movement (Updated 2008), told his Des Moines audience that he had spoken about the Israel/Palestine crisis and his experience in the Holy Land in the context of his presentation about the Listening Project at the 2009 Parliament.
The Parliament features hundreds of lectures, workshops, forums, and panel discussions by people from all the various religions. Manousos mentioned several religious leaders from the USA who attended the Parliament in Melbourne including Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun and internationally renowned author and lecturer on peace and justice, spirituality, and women’s issues, and Michael Lerner, a rabbi, political activist, and editor of Tikkun magazine, a progressive Jewish and interfaith journal.
And we now have a Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions who is a Muslim, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, said Manousos.
Manousos says he is encouraged that so many people from so many different faith traditions are interested in the rapidly expanding interfaith conversation.
“You can’t turn around the whole world overnight, but what we can do is be supportive when people are moving in the right direction,” said Manousos, paraphrasing a comment he had heard at an interfaith event.
Manousos blogs at http://LAQuaker.blogspot.com. He has published a report on his experiences at the Parliament in Melbourne in Universalist Friends, the Journal of the Quaker Universalist Fellowship, which is available on-line at http://www.universalistfriends.org/journals.html.

BY Samir Twair

        The Multi Ethnic Star Orchestra (MESTO) has performed in Cairo and Amman and on May 13, it was featured in Abu Dhabi’s “Rhythms from Arabia” festival in the emirate’s dazzling Abu Dhabi Theater.  The 45-member orchestra was transported from Los Angeles to the Gulf by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

        MESTO appeared on the seventh evening of the 11-day festival and immediately conductor Dr. Nabil Azzam was interviewed by major TV hosts in the Arab media who wanted to know more about his successful efforts to keep classic Arab music alive in the U.S.

        Moroccan singer Karima Skalli joined the Los Angeles orchestra which performed signature pieces of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab and Farid al-Atrash as well as original compositions of Maestro Azzam.

        Dr. Azzam, who is from Nazareth and earned his Ph.D. degree in music at UCLA in 1990, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the works of Abd al-Wahhab whom he studied under in Cairo. A favorite of the audience was his violin solo from Abd al-Wahhab’s Unshudat al-Fann.

        Favorites sung by Skalli included Ya Habibi Ta’ala, LaMush Ana, and Inta ‘Umri. Al-Atrash’s Banadi Alaik was performed along with Abd al-Wahhab’s  “My Beloved Country” and “Eternal River.”

        Critics raved over the sensitive rendering of classic Arab compositions by non-Arab musicians who have been working under the baton of Dr. Azzam for a decade. The Abu Dhabi performance gave Dr. Azzam and his wife, Suheir, the opportunity to visit with their son, Salim, who is an international attorney based in the Emirate.

        MESTO will present its fall concert Oct. 30 in Zipper Hall, Downtown Los Angeles and a winter performance Dec. 3 in Santa Monica’s Broad Theater. Azzam’s new CD, “Full Moon” has just been released and another, entitled “Eclipse,” is slated for August.  For more information, please go to www.mesto.org.

By: Gail Alfar

The fight against Arab discrimination just took a huge step backwards in May 2010 in Austin, Texas. Some of the new changes are designed to strategically target Texas public middle school and high school students with an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim agenda.
The strategy works in this insidious manner:
• The Texas State Board of Education has approved the following curriculum changes, which are not evidence-based:
113.42 section C 13 F – Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict.
113.42 section C 14 – The development of radical Islamic fundamentalism and the subsequent use of terrorism by some of its adherents, Palestinian terrorism, and the growth of al Qaeda.
• Textbook companies will make bids next year in a frantic effort to get school districts to “adopt” their history books. This means that if they can prove that their book “correlates” to all of the new standards, better than their competitor’s books do, then they stand to gain millions of dollars in profits.
• Other companies will need to find outlets for their books that “lost” the bid. Those books are likely to end up in classrooms, even if their states did not adopt the same standards.
• The books will eventually be sold, hence, the racist anti-Arab agenda could easily spread, especially in the southern states close to Texas such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Mr. Ibrahim Ashrawi, representing the Board of the Palestinian American Cultural Center of Houston, talked directly to the Texas State Board of Education Committee at the Full Board Meeting on May 19, 2010:
“Throughout the standards, the only religion linked to ‘terrorism’ and ‘fundamentalism’ is Islam. Any religious group could have members or subgroups that commit terrorist acts. Many religious groups have factions that present a danger to democracy. To name only this religion is contradictory to free thought, good community relations, and economic development.
People live in Palestine, but people join al Qaeda. Throughout the entire proposed standards, the only nationality linked with ‘terrorism’ is Palestinian.
This group should not be singled out for criticism. And the study of this nationality should not be boiled down to ’terrorists.’
Palestine has a rich and beautiful heritage on every level, and deserves deep study. Linking Palestine with al Qaeda is like linking the U.S. with the Ku Klux Klan. The standards imply that all Palestinians are Muslim, furthering the inaccurate notion that the entire reason for an Israeli-Palestinian conflict is religious, which is not the case,” states Mr. Ashrawi. He continues, “We also object to this wording: ‘explain how Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict.’
To boil down the ‘ongoing conflict’ to ‘Arab rejection of the State of Israel’ ignores the complexity of the situation. Thousands of people have lost their lives, their land, and their livelihood due to the undemocratic occupation of Palestinian lands. Several United Nations resolutions talk about the illegal nature of many Israeli acts.
The standards do not promote discussion of European expansionism and imperialism after 1914. To understand conflicts in the Middle East, discussion of 20th and 21st century colonialism, including the occupation of Palestinian territories, is a must.
This does not have to be an ‘either-or’ situation. We should teach our children both sides of every issue and let them decide for themselves. That kind of discussion is what education is all about.
Please remove Don McLeroy’s amendments, or delay the vote until such time as impartial specialists may present a more accurate description of the historical events of Islam and events that took place in historical Palestine. Thank you.” (As a member of the State Board of Education, McLeroy, a Republican, formerly represented District 9 in Anderson, Brazos, Camp, Cherokee, Delta, Falls, Fannin, Franklin, Freestone, Grimes, Henderson, Hopkins, Houston, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Navarro, Rains, Red River, Robertson, Titus, Upshur, Van Zandt, Walker, and Wood counties, as well as parts of Collin County.)
Dana Fisher Ashrawi’s comments to the board are summarized:
The Arab-American groups such as Palestinian American Cultural Center, the Arab American Educational Foundation, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Friends of The Way (Sabeel) are concerned that some of the revisions to the standards will reinforce existing stereotypes and hostilities that foster expressions of bigotry, acts of discrimination, and hate crimes against students of Arab and Muslim heritage in our schools.
Students need not have their heritage so exclusively associated with fundamentalism and terrorism. They need to feel that the curriculum is relevant through its inherent respect of all cultures and faiths in all standards, more in line with standards about the positive influence of Islam on world culture.
A relevant education for a celebrated diverse population creates motivation to learn, leads to success, encourages business investment, and adds up to good economics. If this type of goal is the focus of all the standards, we will build the best possible future for all Texans, honoring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Dana has extensive experience in public school education, a master’s degree in curriculum with 15 years of public school teaching experience and a genetic predisposition to be passionate about democracy and freedom. She is the child of a first generation Polish-American who taught her never to tell ethnic jokes of any kind and an American whose ancestors came to Massachusetts in 1635. She is related to Captain Parker of the Lexington Minute Men, Reverend Theodore Parker, the 19th century anti-slavery minister, and a suffragette. She is the mother of three children.
What can concerned parents do?
Any parent of any background who is concerned about this issue can follow these recommendations:
Be sure to vote, when school board elections come up. Make it a priority; be on email notification lists because typically, only 5% of Texas’ registered voters cast a ballot in school board elections. Read your kids’ history textbooks; be aware of what they are being taught.
Volunteer to be a guest speaker at your local middle/high school. Most teachers welcome the break. You can visit http://sites.google.com/site/lessonplanpalestine/ for ready-made guest speaker lesson plans, select elementary, middle or high school printable lesson plans. It usually only takes 30 minutes but can make a huge difference.
Palestinian people have culture, history and roots in the land Israel forcibly occupies… this is not going to be erased by the Texas State Board of Education.

BY Rashad Al-Dabbagh
“What do Costa Migra Mayor Allan Mansoor and the city of Anaheim have in common? They both do a poor job of recognizing their Arabic heritage!” wrote Gabriel San Roman on the popular Orange Juice blog.

        Mansoor, who is currently running for California State Assembly’s 68^th district, is known for his tough anti-immigration stance as Costa Mesa Mayor.  He also tends to hide his Egyptian heritage. 

        The district – which includes all or parts of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Garden Grove, Stanton, Anaheim and Newport Beach – is home to a large Arab American community, interesting given that Mansoor tends to hide his Egyptian heritage. Though they are not known to be vocal, Arab Americans continue to grow rapidly in the cities that make up the district. Mansoor cannot afford to continue to ignore Arab Americans, let alone be ashamed of his Egyptian heritage as he tries to emphasize his Swedish half.

        So will Arab Americans stand aside or will they take action during November’s elections?

        Many view political newcomer Phu Nguyen, a Little Saigon businessman, as the right candidate to support. “Phu cares about us,” says Fountain Valley resident Alan Abdo. “Not too many candidates pay attention to the needs of the Arab American community, and Phu is one of few who are reaching out to us.”

        During the 2009 “Meet the Professionals” dinner held by the Network of Arab American Professionals of Orange County (NAAP-OC), keynote speaker Gustavo Arellano, known for his witty “Ask a Mexican!” column, expressed his disappointment the lack of Arab American involvement in Orange County politics.  During the 2008 elections, the only Arab American running for political office in Orange County was, sadly, Allan Mansoor, Arellano pointed out.

        The lack of Arab American participation in the Orange County political process will only further alienate the community. “There are perceived misunderstandings of the Arab American community that, in certain times, might lead to intolerance and prejudices,” Nguyen said in an interview with The Independent Monitor.  “The way to overcome these misunderstandings is to participate in politics so that you can have the voice and leverage to better educate people about Arab American issues.”

        It appears that this year, Arab Americans are more enthusiastic about the election, especially in Anaheim, where candidate Bill Dalati, an Arab American, is running for city council with high chances of winning.

        While Mansoor publicly refused to be called an “Egyptian American” on his own blog, Nguyen recognizes the value of cultural diversity. “We have a very diverse district … my opponent has chosen to take extremely anti-immigrant positions,” he said. In July 2005, Mansoor disbanded the 18-year old Costa Mesa Human Relations Committee, a group of volunteers who sought to promote peace and tolerance amongst communities and addresses acts of discrimination.

        Nguyen wants to bring communities together and is in touch with the diverse cultures in the district. He runs a family-owned money transfer business servicing the Vietnamese community in Little Saigon, and he supports NAAP-OC’s initiative to designate Anaheim’s Brookhurst corridor as “Little Arabia.”

        Phu is the breath of fresh air this district needs. If you live in the district, vote for him. If not, donate to his campaign or volunteer. I’m doing both. 

        To donate or volunteer, visit http://www.votephu.com.

BY SAMI BISHARA MASHNEY
Editor-in-Chief, Anaheim, CA
 
  When I immigrated to the United States at age 23, I arrived in Jacksonville, Florida, in the height of the Iranian hostage crises when Americans were being held in Tehran in the aftermath of the Iranian overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
 I have to admit that I was quickly unnerved by the anti-Iranian-and-Muslim frenzy, maliciously whipped by the so-called “mainstream” media whose one of its major objectives is to create animosity and hostility between the American People, and the various peoples of the Middle East—Israel, of course, the “Chosen” State, is exempted as usual.
 Although I’m neither Iranian nor Muslim, as a Palestinian Arab recent immigrant, I looked Middle Eastern enough to be concerned with the high-pitched xenophobia, whose flames were fanned every 15 minutes with an unstoppable barrage of more and more “Breaking News,” etc.
 Being naive and fresh of the boat, I thought then that if I pretended to be Greek, I would face less hostility from an average uninformed Jacksonville redneck, who, after consuming several Budweisers, engages me in an unsolicited and heated political debate at the local discotheque.
 So my name became Sam Mashnikopolous who just emigrated from Greece. Of course, I was secretly loathing the likelihood that some random Greekophile would checkmate me by engaging me in a spontaneous Greek conversation, because, Greek, for lack of a better term, was still Greek to me.
 A few months went by and I regained my self-assurance, dropped the Greek act, and started and continue to audaciously refer to myself as an Arab American.
 To me, being an Arab is congruous with being an American. Both characteristics are compatible without any contradiction or dual loyalty problems, in the same manner as being Italian, Irish, Russian, are compatible with also being an American. As a matter of fact, our law allows naturalized Americans to have dual nationality.
Throughout my life in the USA, I infrequently encountered fellow Arab Americans who vehemently deny their Arab heritage. Some do so on myopic religious grounds, some on mindless regional ones, and some out of shear and unadulterated misguidance.
 When I founded the Network of Arab American Professionals of Orange County (NAAP-OC), I had to do a lot of convincing to persuade a fellow Arab American professional of Arabic Christian extraction that he can be a Christian, an Egyptian, a Lebanese, an Iraqi, an Arab, and an American, all at the same time since none of these designations are mutually exclusive to each other.
 I always use myself as a textbook example of someone who is a Palestinian, an Arab, a lapsed Catholic Christian, an American, and a human citizen of Earth.
While I’m very proud of choosing to be an American,   I am also equally proud of being Palestinian and Arab. When I look around me and see successful immigrant Americans, I can’t help but notice that no community reached its maximum potential by denying its very own existence!
 I once dealt with a government agent investigating my Lebanese Christian client for alleged membership of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Muslim Party of God. When I attempted to explain to the agent that my Christian client cannot be a member of an Islamic party, he laughed at me and said, “Christian, Muslim, Shiite, Sunni, all Arabs are the same!” The funny thing is that my client had no affiliation or affinity whatsoever to Hezbollah and was someone who would have considered Hezbollah a rival!
 So, irrespective of how we feel about our religious and regional differences, when we live in America, we are all perceived as “Arabs,” whether we like or not. So, we might as well positively assert our Arabness as a rallying point instead of apologizing for it and hiding it in the dark ethnic closet.
 This brings me to Allan Mansoor, Mayor of Costa Mesa, CA and candidate for the 68th Assembly District of California. Mansoor descends from an Arab father and a Swedish mother.
Mansoor wrote on his blog: “My father, though born in Egypt and with an Arabic name, was greatly influenced by European culture.” “I am taking exception to being classified as ‘one of three Arab-American candidates in city elections.’”
 I lived in Egypt five years when I went to Pharmacy School at Cairo University. There, I met all sorts of Egyptian People whom I liked and quickly became accustomed to. As an inexperienced 16 year old coming from sleepy Ramallah, I was quickly befriended by many Egyptian friends who quickly made it clear to me that they are Coptic Christians. I later learned that my Christian middle (father’s) name “Bishara” announced my Christianity to them and that’s why they befriended me!
 I got to know these friends very well and they were all proud to be Egyptians, Arabs and Coptic Christians. They did not consider being Christian inimical to being an Arab.
Well, Allan Mansoor, excuse me but I too take exception to your taking a weenie exception to being called an ‘Arab’ American. I am giving my vote to Phu Nguyen, a candidate who is not afraid to refer to himself as a “Vietnamese” American.
 As we say in Arabic, he who forgets his origin has no origin. That is the case of Allan Mansoor, who, in pursuit of success and influence, made the conscious decision to deny his origin, just like Peter and Judas denied Christ. Peter repented and went to heaven. Will Mansoor repent and stop denying his Arabic heritage?!