On Arabs and Islam

By Anthony B. Toth

In antique stores, one occasionally comes across toy dolls bearing grotesquely stereotypical features of Blacks. No too long ago, you could buy junior a "mammy" or "pappy" doll, complete with hayseed outfits and bright, smiling faces. Such toys, fortunately, are thing of the past—for Blacks, at least. For Arab-Americans, however, the pain of cultural insensitivity and even antagonism continues.

Earlier this year Coleco Industries, manufacturer of the Rambo doll, made its contribution to history's list of most hurtful toys. With a splashy pre-Christmas advertising campaign, the firm introduced, among other items, an adversary of Rambo called "Nomad." The burnoose-clad toy was described as "an outcast." Playing on a well-worn anti-Palestinian propaganda theme, Coleco added that: "No country will accept this heartless terrorist."

Enter the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) with a sharp attack on Coleco's new toy. In a November 25 press release, ADC expressed its alarm at the firm's efforts to "dehumanize Arabs at a time when Arab-Americans are experiencing a rising tide of discrimination and violence in this country."

Coleco's response was swift and refreshingly positive. The television ads for "Nomad" will cease and production of the doll, "as presently depicted," will be discontinued according to Barbara C. Wruck, a company executive. The good news is that "Nomad" has been defeated by the good guys. The bad new is that no one realized at the beginning how offensive and unfair Coleco's "Nomad" was to Arab-Americans.

Along the same lines, but this time in the record industry, ADC has struck another blow for dignity. Elektra Records had released an album by The Cure whose lead song was called "Killing an Arab." The mind boggles. Again, ADC pointed out to the company that Arab-bashing of this sort is abhorrent beyond words—or lyrics. Elektra agreed to drop the song from future pressings of the album by the British band. An Elektra spokesman understated the matter when he agreed that ADC "had a legitimate grievance...."

On still another front, in what appears to be an unprecedented action, ADC filed a brief on behalf of two civil rights cases to be heard by the Supreme Court—one involving Jewish-Americans, the other involving an Arab-American. At issue is whether an 1866 civil rights law applies to Americans of Jewish and Arab background as well as to Blacks. The cases will be argued in February. Several Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, have also filed "friend of the court" briefs supporting the same cases.

On the same day that this action was announced, ADC's new president, Abdeen Jabara, met with journalists in Washington to discuss his plans for the organization. He pledged to double membership (currently estimated at 15,000) in two years, as well as continue ADC's regular projects. Jabara said the group's slogan will be "Mass action on critical issues in a timely fashion." In the Coleco and Elektra cases, at least, the slogan is bearing fruit.

In the wake of killings of students and children by Israeli forces in early December, ADC issued a condemnation and called on the US government to conduct an investigation in Israel of "this flagrant violation of human rights by the largest recipient of US aid."

The biggest issue on the foreign policy front, however, is Irangate. The National Association of Arab-Americans (NAAA) has been keeping track of some of the key players in the scandal, including Michael Ledeen. The gory details are neatly laid out in an NAAA press release dated November 18.

Ledeen is a founder of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), which hews to a hard Israeli line and calls for strong US-Israel military links. Because of his own strong links with Israeli officials, Ledeen is said to have been involved in selling the Administration on the Israeli-proposed arms shipments to Iran that are causing President Reagan untold sleepless minutes.

A former Executive Director of JINSA is Stephen Bryen, who while he was a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer, was charged by a witness with offering a classified document to Israeli officials. The witness too a lie detector test and passed. Bryen refused to take a similar test. The charges were dropped, nevertheless, and Bryen is now a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. The ties don't stop with Ledeen and Bryen. Their wives are entwined in this campaign to tighten bonds between the US and Israel. Bryen's wife, Shoshana, is executive director of JINSA. Ledeen's wife, Barbara, is a special assistant in Bryen's technology transfer office in the Pentagon.

Elsewhere...

• The National Council of Churches (NCC) passed a resolution in early November condemning anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism and stereotyping. Michael Saba, an Antiochean Orthodox representative to the NCC Governing Board, called the move "a major step in working toward better Christian understanding of Islam and the Arab world."

• National Public Radio reported in early December that a delegation of American Muslims was visiting Beirut and Damascus, attempting to free Americans hostages held in Lebanon. The group included Dr. Mohammad T. Mehdi, an Arab-American activist since the 1960s who heads Arab-American and Islamic Affairs groups in New York City.

• The Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC), based in Chicago, has issued an urgent appeal for support of three Palestinians facing charges in Israeli military courts. One case involves a farmer who has been jailed for opposing the expropriation of his land by Israeli settlers. Another case involves Akram Haniyeh, the editor of Al-Shaab, a Jerusalem daily. Haniyeh was accused of being a PLO organizer and is threatened with deportation. The third case involves Dr. Mohammad Shadid, a professor at Bir Zeit University, threatened with deportation for conducting a poll of Palestinians which showed they supported the PLO.

• The Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) held its 19th annual convention in Boston on November 14-16. In addition to hearing from scholars, journalists and political leaders, attendees adopted a resolution condemning the attempted expulsion of Haniyeh. The group also condemned Israel's decision to prevent two An-Najjah University administrators from taking their posts.

Anthony B. Toth is a Virginia-based free-lance writer specializing in Middle Eastern and East European affairs.

Focus on Jews and Israel

By Andrea Barron

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's weekly newsletter, the Near East Report, denounced the Administration's "arms-for-hostages" deal with Iran, accusing the US of declaring a "unilateral ceasefire in the war against terrorism." In a November 17 editorial, Near East Report said the arms deal makes the US look foolish in the eyes of its West European allies; damages America's credibility in moderate Arab countries which support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war; and does nothing to enhance US-Iranian relations since the so-called Iranian "pragmatists" with whom the Administration dealt with hate the West just as much as do the Ayatollah Khomeini and the "radicals."

Although Near East Report makes no excuses for US involvement in the arms transfer fiasco, Israel's involvement is another story entirely. The newsweekly chose to explain rather than criticize Israel's role as an intermediary in the deal, arguing that Israel needs to protect some 30,000 Jews still in Iran and to keep Iraq occupied on its eastern front. In fact, the Near East Report said, the Jewish State has proven what a good friend it is to America by agreeing to serve as a conduit for US arms to Iran.

Israel has good reason to be worried about the deteriorating status of Iranian Jews. Writing last month for Boston's Jewish Advocate, Edwin Black quoted Menasche Amir, one of Israel's leading experts on Iran, saying that Jews attending classes with Muslims are being forced to shout "Death to Israel" before entering the classroom and must participate in anti-Israel demonstrations. And according to Black's sources in Jerusalem, 200-300 Jewish teenagers were arrested by Revolutionary Guards, "terrorized," and released the next day through the intervention of a Jewish member of the Iranian Parliament.

Few would argue that discrimination against Jews in Iran is pervasive. The question is whether it made sense for Israel to send arms to the mullahs in order to help protect the Jewish community there. The Near East Report condemns the US for providing weapons to the Islamic Republic but does not even mention the quantities of arms that Israel has sent to Iran since 1979.

As the Near East Report applied a double standard to Israeli and American arms sales to Iran, Morris Amitay, former executive director of AIPAC, accused the Washington Post of using a double standard in its reports on Israel. Amitay argued in a recent edition of the Washington Jewish Week that the Post has shown a "consistent anti-Israel bias," especially over the last few years, and he encouraged Washington area Jews to read the capital's other newspaper—the Washington Times.

The Times, according to Amitay, provides "well-balanced coverage" of the Middle East and "if anything, a pro-Israel tilt." Jews should not worry about the fact that the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church owns the Times, Amitay says, because Moon's Church officially states its "unconditional support for the existence and security of Israel."

Two weeks after the Amitay piece appeared, the Jewish Week published a full page of "letters to the editor" concerning the Amitay article. Most were critical of Amitay's position, saying that Jews have no business supporting the Washington Times while Moonies allegedly seek to "convert" Jewish youth.

Rabbi Stuart G. Weinblatt of Bowie, Maryland, asked in his letter whether Jews were "so blinded by their love of Israel" that they were ignoring such factors.

Morris Amitay is not fighting the Washington Post by himself. The Near East Report joined the battle last month, criticizing the newspaper for its report on the 30th anniversary of the Kfar Kassem massacre in which 47 Arabs from Kfar Kassem, a small village in Israel's Triangle area, were gunned down by Israeli soldiers as they returned to their homes in October, 1956, for disobeying a curfew order that they knew nothing about. Why doesn't the Post highlight reports about Jews being massacred by Arabs, AIPAC's newsletter wanted to know.

This is not the first time the Washington Post has been criticized by US supporters of Israel. After the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent Sabra-Shatila massacres of Palestinians, Michael Berenbaum, then executive director of the Jewish Community Council in Washington, and two other Jewish leaders met with Post executive editors and told them they had a "Jewish problem." Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee agreed to allow Berenbaum to observe the newspaper's operations for one week, so long as he did not interfere with editorial policy.

Andrea Barron, a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at American University in Washington, DC, writes frequently about Middle East issues. She is active in Washington Area Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (WAJIPP) and the New Jewish Agenda (NJA).