Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1998, Pages 104-107

Northeast News

Boston University Professor Condemns Clinton’s Palestine Policy

By David P. Johnson Jr

Despite both international and domestic pressure, President Clinton continues to avoid a strong role in the Middle East peace process, playing into the hands of Israeli hard-liners and leaving other countries to take the initiative, according to a Boston University professor.

“The United States has played a passive role,” Dr. Augustus Richard Norton said at a Jan. 27 panel discussion held at BU and sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Boston. “I was hearing the death knells of the peace process. The president has essentially conceded the initiative to the belligerents and to the GOP Congress, a very sad legacy of this administration.”

Norton mentioned his article in the January issue of Current History, “Clinton’s Middle East Legacy: A Scuttled Peace?” which urges the U.S. to save the peace process.

At the forum, Norton stated that although polls show 80 to 85 percent of American Jews want peace, an influential and vocal minority does not. “The right wing of the American Jewish community has been very vociferous in promoting the right-wing Likud government and has impact in Congress,” he stated. “This has been deleterious” to peace.

Norton said the administration itself is split on what to do, with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger leading the call for active intervention, while Vice President Al Gore has recommended that the U.S. do nothing.

The other two panelists were split on Norton’s comments. Dr. Malik Mufti, a political science professor at Tufts University and former economist with the Jordanian Ministry of Planning, predicted that the U.S. would not forcefully lead the region toward peace. He also suggested that the Israeli government is con fused about what direction it wishes to follow.

“When Labor was in power, it had an agenda,” Mufti said. “What kind of settlement does it [Likud] have in mind? Based on the behavior of the prime minister, it doesn’t [have a peace plan.]”

The third panelist, Itzhak Levanon, consul general of Israel to New England, said that Israel does want peace. “He [Binyamin Netanyahu] does have a vision. He does have a plan and it is Oslo.”

However, Levanon also praised Clinton’s inaction. “The U.S. has taken a wise approach,” he said, claiming that peace cannot be forced upon the region by outsiders. He said that President Reagan’s peace effort in 1982 failed because it was an imposed solution.

Levanon also cited Israeli security, stating, “Israel is not living in a very hospitable environment.”

Mufti later said, “What are Israel’s security interests? It could move forward and enhance security with territorial withdrawals. It’s not clear to Israel’s neighbors what Israelis want.”

“Palestinians Want Peace”

Asked about the terrorist bombings committed by Hamas, Norton said, “The overwhelming majority of the Israelis and the overwhelming majority of Palestinians want peace.”

He said polls indicate only 20 percent of Palestinians support Hamas, and stated that the bombings did not happen in a vacuum. “You can’t look at these bombings as isolated events,” he said, noting that Israeli efforts to assassinate Hamas leaders and the stalled peace process aggravate the situation. He said that some Israeli promises at Oslo have not been fulfilled, including the failure to open a Gaza airport or create a safe corridor between Gaza and the West Bank.

“None of this is being done,” Norton said. “These are measures that the U.S. can be promoting.” The closing of the border in Gaza has created desperate conditions. “If you want to spend a holiday in hell, visit Gaza,” he said. “People are living in a virtual prison.”

Levanon said the airport could open, but that Israel demands a security guarantee. Asked about the violations of Palestinian human rights and the killings in the Hebron mosque, Levanon denied any official Israeli involvement in terrorism.

“There is not any kind of official support,” he said. We deplore the acts from both sides.” He did not mention the Israeli military force which landed on the beach in Lebanon not long ago, nor the Mossad agents who tried to assassinate Khaled Meshal in Amman, Jordan. (For more information, see: “Mos sad’s Use of Canadian Passports, Two Reports,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Jan./Feb. 1998, pp. 26-27.)

A man in the audience, who identified himself as a former Iranian diplomat, said that Israeli policy is strengthening Iran’s standing in the Middle East, noting that the U.S.-sponsored Doha economic conference, in which Israel participated, was a failure, while the Tehran Islamic conference, to which Israel was not invited, attracted a record 54 participating nations.

“That is not our fault,” Levanon replied, adding that Egypt, a large recipient of U.S. aid, refused to attend Doha.

Mufti also suggested that since some Arab states have recognized Israel, alliances in the region are changing. He predicted the development of an axis of Israel, Jordan and Turkey, while Egypt and Syria appear to be aligning. If the U.S. attacks Iraq but the current regime remains in power, Mufti said, Iraq’s role in the region would not change. If, on the other hand, a pro-Western government were to take power in Iraq, the balance of power throughout the Middle East would be altered.

Jewish Audience Splits Over West Bank Settlements

At a Jan. 22 program at the Boston Synagogue, Israeli Consul General Itzhak Levanon blamed the Palestinians for the faltering peace process and re fused to concede that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are hindering peace.

Levanon told some 75 people gathered to celebrate Israel’s upcoming (May 15) 50th birthday, “We don’t consider the settlements an obstacle. We can deal with settlements later. There are no new settlements. This is an enlargement.” He said the issue could be discussed after a treaty with the Palestinians is signed, not before.

Although the room was festooned with blue and white balloons and a large sign proclaimed “Happy Birthday Israel,” audience members appeared sharply divided over whether or not they should celebrate. The controversial settlements, as well as the question of who is a Jew, evidently disturb many U.S. Jews.

One man said Israel’s intransigence on the settlements “makes Jews like me wonder what the commitment is of the government of Israel to find a peace.” The diplomat repeatedly cited Israel’s hostile neighbors—in particular Iraq, Iran and Syria—and invoked unity in the name of national security.

“We want 100 percent security for the State of Israel,” he said. “We know that we are the only democratic state [in the region]. We know they [Palestinians] don’t like us. They hate us. He [Arafat] has to stop the propaganda against the State of Israel.” Those convicted of burning the Israeli flag or drawing swastikas on it should be jailed, Levanon said.

However, the hostile questions persisted, with one man asking about U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s suggestion that the settlements be frozen as a show of good faith. If the settlements are so small, why can’t they be given up, he wondered.

Levanon said people could have “differences of opinion in international affairs. We live in Israel. The settlements are our problem,” he emphasized.

He also proceeded to contradict himself, implying that the settlements might be temporary, only later to indicate the opposite. “We might be faced with the situation that we might have to move one of the settlements one day,” he said. However, when he remarked that Israel’s original boundary was very narrow in the Jordan Valley, Levanon appeared to suggest that the settlements are in tended to be permanent.

Who Is A Jew?

In the same program, several speakers said they resented the authority of Orthodox rabbis in religious matters.

Levanon said the Israeli government wants a compromise (which subsequently was rejected in February by the Chief Rabbinate, the official body of Orthodox rabbis) to avoid a serious split among world Jews. The compromise would have allowed Reform and Conservative rabbis to sit on the religious courts reviewing cases of conversion to Judaism. “I hope from the bottom of my heart that we can reach this compromise,” Levanon said, adding that unity is essential as Israel faces possible peace with Lebanon and Syria, and the necessity of discussing Jerusalem’s future.

One man in the audience said he was tired of the power of the ultra-Orthodox, “who don’t serve in the [Israeli] military [and] who are telling us we’re not Jews.”

Levanon explained that because of the multi-party system, coalitions are usually necessary to form a governing majority, thus giving the small religious parties disproportionate power. “Most Israelis are not satisfied with the situation,” he said, adding that re form has repeatedly failed. (For more information, see: “Wide-ranging Implications of the Growing Power of Religious Orthodoxy in Israel,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1998, p. 27.)

Although he has supported Israel over the years, “on issue after issue, I find myself increasingly separated from the Israel I grew up with,” said another man. “Nothing I’ve heard tonight brings me back to where I’d like to be.”

The diplomat replied, “Come to Israel and see, and hopefully change your mind. It’s a question of Israel’s survival.”

About half the speakers voiced strong support for the Jewish state. One man compared the Palestinians to the Irish Republican Army and claimed they were trying to destroy the Jewish state through a relentless campaign of terror. Another attendee said the settlement at Har Homa is tiny and therefore should be allowed to stay.

Free Vanunu Campaign Targets Israel

The U.S. should stop aid to Israel because of the aggressive Israeli nuclear program, two peace activists stated during a Feb. 8 Sunday morning speech and slide show at The Community Church of Boston.

“USA, stop money to Israel, that’s the message,” said Hattie Nestel, a full-time peace campaigner who, along with 16 others, spent a week in Israel last fall to publicize the case of Mordechai Vanunu, the nuclear technician kidnapped and jailed for disclosing Israel has nuclear weapons.

Barry Roth, a psychiatrist who also joined the Free Vanunu vigil, said, “The $3 billion that go annually from this [American] government to that [Israeli] government are our responsibility.”

Roth and Nestel said that while Israel denies having nuclear weapons, it also defends the arsenal as a deterrent to attack from its neighbors.

According to Roth, Israel’s large nuclear weapons program not only places it in the tiny world nuclear club, but also puts it in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“We, as a matter of policy, do not do business with rogue states, rogue states of mass destruction, like Iraq,” Roth said. Even though the U.S. knows of Israel’s nuclear capability, it nonetheless continues to provide billions in military and economic aid, plus valuable psychological support, he said. “So we have a proxy there.”

The Israeli government contradicts itself, Roth maintained, by pledging not to use nuclear weapons first and yet stating they are necessary. He questioned the utility of weapons of mass destruction at all. “They [Israelis] can’t use them first, they can’t use them second, because three [nuclear] bombs in a 20-mile radius would destroy the country.”

Roth also feared that Israel’s possession of such weapons will encourage proliferation. “The fact that it [Israel’s nuclear program] is there is provocative, arrogant and invites proliferation,” he said.

The vigil was organized by the peace group Ploughshares and included 16 people from six countries. They picketed and passed out thousands of leaflets outside the notorious Ashkelon prison, where Vanunu has been held since 1986 in solitary confinement in a cell six by nine feet. “He’s in a living hell,” Nestel said, adding that the prisoner is only allowed to see members of his immediate family. He is allowed to watch opera videos and read books about nuclear disarmament. His sentence lasts another six years, but there is a chance he could be released this year, since Israeli law provides a legal review for prisoners who have served two-thirds of their sentence.

In 1986, after Vanunu told the London Times about the nuclear program at Dimona, where he had worked as a technician, a young woman, claiming to be an American student named Cindy, lured him from London to Rome, where he was kidnapped and smuggled back to Israel for a secret trial. (The woman Mossad agent now lives with her husband in Orlando, FL.)

The vigil, which culminated in the largest anti-nuclear demonstration ever held in Israel, about 65 people, took place near Dimona.

Nestel said the vigil participants had been warned about possible violence in Israel, but said that it didn’t materialize. However, Roth said he received a threatening phone call at the home of his host family.

In general, reaction to the activists was positive as they continued their daily vigil. Passersby, taxi drivers and even military guards took their leaflets, with many expressing support. Mordechai’s brother, Meyer, who joined the vigil, was interviewed on the radio and TV, helping publicize a case which the Israeli government has tried to repress.

The vigil members also went to the embassies of every country represented in the group to present letters urging Vanunu’s release. Officials from Britain, Canada and other nations accepted the letter, while the Australian ambassador granted a 15-minute interview, without an appointment, with the activist from that nation. In contrast, the United States Embassy staff refused even to accept the letter.

While they were not searched entering the country, nor molested in Israel, leaving was a different matter. Roth, who has been on similar vigils in Latin America, said, “I was totally unprepared for the kind of search we went through” in Israel.

They were also disappointed in the reaction of some Israeli peace groups, which refused to join them. “The Israeli peace group ran us out of there,” Roth said. “Vanunu is not their issue. Vanunu is a traitor. They are not against nuclear weapons. In Israel Vanunu is a hot word.” Another group, the Women in Black, did let the anti-nuclear protesters stand beside them, but made it clear they were not necessarily endorsing Vanunu’s cause.

The audience of about 30 people, which included many Jews, enthusiastically supported the presentation. Most signed a petition calling for Vanunu’s release. The audience seemed intrigued when Nestel explained that a Minnesota couple have legally adopted Vanunu, so he can immediately come to the U.S. upon his release. The program was also informative, since about one-fifth of the audience indicated they had never heard of Vanunu previously.

Before and after the program, the Artistic Russian Jewish Ensemble, consisting of Victoria Poupko, Slava Samandarov and Zoya Dobina, sang Yiddish, Russian and Ukranian songs.

Institute Promotes Arab/Muslim Culture

Her pink shoes moving rapidly, Wafaa’ Salman rushed along the corridor, obviously not wanting to waste a minute. The 37-year-old Iraq native explained that she had three appointments that evening in far-flung locations in Greater Boston. But it was also clear that Salman tolerated, even enjoyed, the hectic schedule as part of her mission to educate people about the varied cultures of the Middle East.

As founder and director of the Institute of Near Eastern & African Studies, INEAS, in Cambridge, MA, Salman said most Americans are not well-informed about the region. She developed the institute to help rectify the situation.

“I thought of it because I felt that the unknown world has not been presented well, the Arabic and Islamic world,” Salman explained. “I have not established anything new. But what is so unique about this institute is that it does not promote one certain ethnic group or one certain religion.”

She noted that in addition to the North African Arabs of the Mediterranean coast, the nations of Mauritania, Djibouti and Somalia have Arab cultural ties which are often overlooked by many Americans. More over, there also are many non-Arab cultures in the Middle East, including Armenians, Assyrians, Turcomans, Berbers, Chaldeans and Kurds.

Salman said the aim is to educate and to disseminate facts, not to instill any particular political viewpoint. She said she is always pleased to have made a difference in someone’s understanding of the Middle East. For instance, a woman expressed surprise that Assyrians still exist after reading a newsletter report about the Assyrian Convention held in Chicago in 1993. Another reader was interested to learn that women in Arab countries have considerable rights, such as equal pay for equal work and do not change their names after marriage (except, generally speaking, in Lebanon.)

“It is educating those who don’t know about that part of the world,” Salman said.

INEAS offers a variety of talks and cultural presentations at schools and libraries. (An account of an INEAS-sponsored speech on Iranian immigrants, held at the Boston Public Library, appeared in “Northeast News,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Aug./Sept., 1997, p. 66.) The institute also produces a quarterly newsletter and hosts a weekly radio show.

In October 1995, the institute sponsored Iraqi musician and composer Naseer Shema. He is tentatively set to return for another concert April 2 at Northeastern University. Another cultural evening featured poetry by Lamee’a Abbas Amara, also from Iraq.

These and other events sponsored by the institute, as well as educational material, are available on video.

The newsletter contains news, including reports of the situation in Iraq, and covers some local activism. Salman has started a separate newsletter, Al-Waffaa’ News, to cover cultural topics, such as accounts of Arab music and art.

The newsletter, which celebrates its eighth anniversary this year, started as a directory of classes and events regarding the Middle East.

INEAS also sponsors a weekly radio program. The show airs live on WZBC, 90.3 FM, the Boston College radio station, from 3 to 5 p.m., Sundays. Programming includes interviews, special reports and music from the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Salman has also created a theater troupe, named after Zannobiya, the legendary Arabian queen who led an army to defeat the Romans. Zannobiya produces three educational programs for students. “Arabian Stallions” teaches about Arabian horses, which were instrumental in the spread of Arabic culture; presents a list of English words which came from Arabic; and discusses Arabian queens through music, songs and stories.

“Baghdad Cafe” concentrates on Arabic culture and cuisine, while “Thousand and One Nights” emphasizes literature through acting and music.

In addition to Salman, other officers of the INEAS are Sudan native Khalid Kodi, vice president; Souad Bilcaid, from Morocco, treasurer; and secretary Sargon Donabed, who is partly Turkish and partly Assyrian. In the future, Salman said she hopes INEAS can have its own permanent space, or even its own building.

Salman holds a BA in political science and another in engineering from Northeastern University. She works as a civil engineer on the “Big Dig” construction project which is placing Boston’s Central Artery highway underground. In addition, she has founded a company which provides translation and interpretation services. The firm uses freelancers skilled in a variety of languages and various technical, academic and business subjects.

In her free time, Salman tutors students in math and calculus.

For more information on INEAS, call (617) 499-9595, fax (617) 323-5950, or write P.O. Box 809, Cambridge, MA 02142. The E-mail address is INEAS@ aol.com

Arab-American Poets Celebrate Their Growing Voice

Since ancient times, when Bedouins gathered around their desert campfires, poetry has been prominent in Arab society. As Arab culture expanded and diversified, the poet remained popular, ready to delight and instruct with his repertoire of histories and tales.

And although Arabs living in the United States today lead very different lives from their forefathers, their love affair with poetry continues. While the new style of Arab- American poetry may often be presented in English as well as Arabic to reach a wider audience, its mission remains the same: to express feelings, present political views and define one’s identity.

With its large number of Arab students and considerable cultural openness, it is not surprising that Cambridge, MA has become a leading center of Arab-American poetry.

Club Passim, a venerable international music club in Harvard Square, hosts monthly Arabesque evenings, performances of Arabic music and poetry.

On one recent Monday night Palestinian- American Lisa Majaj’s soft voice rang through the packed cafe.“I am not a fanatic. I am not a camel driver,” she said, reading her poem, “The Stereotypes About Arabs That Plague Us.”

A Ph.D. candidate in Arab-American literature from the University of Michigan, Majaj was typical of the other poets who read that evening, all of whom have high educational accomplishments. Damascus native Mona Fayad, a partner in the Daff and Raff Arabic bookstore, which sponsors the event, is also a literature professor. Issam Lakkis from Lebanon, and Alan Shihadeh, a Palestinian American, are both Ph.D. candidates in mechanical engineering at MIT. They belong to that school’s Arabic poetry club. The only non-Arab to read was George Capaccio, a Boston public school teacher who had recently returned from Iraq.

The poems were variously angry, ironic and evocative as the authors recalled childhood vignettes or addressed political themes, such as opposition to bombing Iraq, the Lebanese civil war, or the humiliation of the Israeli occupation.

Majaj remembered the sadness of burying her grandmother in Jerusalem and seeing Israeli soldiers search the body for contraband or weapons; while Fayad spoke of a “lonely woman from rural Egypt” who mused over dreams, hopes and life’s ironies under the “crescent moon.” She also wrote about black-and-white movies and compared the Arabs to American Indians.

Lakkis read sad, bitter poetry about the Lebanese civil war. “Our winter is eternal,” he said. “It rains bullets.” Themes of colonialism and his place in American society dominated Shihadeh’s work, which was heavily political and laced with sarcasm. When living in Houston, he felt that “On Halloween you can go as an Arab, just don’t be one.”

Capaccio concentrated on images of Iraq under the economic embargo, dying children, boys begging and general despair. “How little I know of suffering,” he read.

Both before and after the poetry, Jamal Sinno, Saeed Khuri and Mohammad Karim played Arab music on traditional instruments including the buzuq, oud, qanoun and daff.

For information on the Arabesque evenings, including an upcoming poetry slam which will be conducted partly in Arabic, call (617) 868-5555.