Lobbies and Activists

Focus on Arabs and Islam

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) fired the first shot in its planned newspaper advertising campaign to contrast increasing U.S. aid for Israel with cuts in U.S. domestic spending with full-page advertisements on three consecutive days in the Washington Post. The advertisements highlighted reduced funds for student loans, aid to farmers, and social security while increasing economic and military assistance to Israel is breaking all records. Smaller advertisements were placed in newspapers outside Washington.

After the TWA hijacking, however, ADC attention shifted to reports reaching its Washington headquarters of vandalism at mosques in Texas, Michigan and Maryland, and public threats against Arab Americans in New York, Los Angeles and Boston. ADC President James Abourezk, Executive Director Omar Kader, and other ADC officers appeared on television and radio to discuss those threats as well as to reprove radio talk show hosts who were alleged to have used inflammatory language.

The National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) issued a strongly-worded call for Israel to "put decency ahead of political posturing" and release immediately the more than 700 hostages it took into Israel illegally at the time of its withdrawal from Lebanon. Pointing out that Israel "owes a lot to the U.S.," which this year is giving Israel "almost $5 billion," NAAA President David Saad said, "it's time to start paying back."

The Association of Arab-American University Graduates reported an upsurge of requests from many parts of the United States for talks on Middle East events. Providing talks arranged by the Massachusetts-based group were Dr. Samir Abd-Rabbo of Amana Books, Prof. Ibrahim Abu-Lughod of Northwestern University, Prof. Nasser Aruri of Southeastern Massachusetts University, Prof. Elaine Hagopian of Simmons College, Prof. Fouad Moughrabi of the University of Tennessee, Prof. Majal Nassar of Illinois State University, and AAUG National Director Susan Ziadi. AAUG is also expediting publication of two related books. The first, Amal and the Palestinians: Understanding the Battle of the Camps, will appear in August and includes articles by Nasser Arufi, As'ad Abu Khalil and Elaine Hagopian. The second, Palestine: Dispossession and Its Perception, edited by Glenn Perry, contains articles by Perry and U.S. and Canadian university faculty members Janet Abu Lughod, Michael Suleiman and Ray Cleveland.

Thirteen Midwestern academics are visiting Israeli-occupied territories this month on an academic freedom fact-finding mission. The visit, sponsored by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, is the 13th Middle East study tour conducted since January, 1982 by the Chicago-based group according to PHRC's Executive Director, the Reverend Don Wagner. Previous groups have included evangelical Christian leaders, Baptist clergy and lay leaders, Congressional legislative assistants, women leaders, and Holy Land study tour groups.

Three high school essay-contest winners leave July 22 for a three-week tour of Jordan, the West Bank and Egypt sponsored by the Arab Women's Council of Washington, D.C. Winning essays on "The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Solution" were submitted by Veronica Bleuze of Boulder, Colorado, Mary Green of West Point, New York, and Judy Masuda of Claremont, California. They will be accompanied on the tour by Maha Rabie and Paula Hagar of the Arab Women's Council.

A delegation of American Arab Affairs Council directors visited Baghdad at the invitation of Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon. The group, which included former Undersecretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, now chairman of Sears World Trade, Inc.; the Hon. David Kennedy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; and AAAC President George Naifah, met with Iraqi officials and the Union of Arab Historians and toured development and historic sites. An article summarizing its findings will be published in the summer edition of American Arab Affairs, the Council's quarterly magazine published in Washington.

—Richard Curtiss

Focus on Israel and Jews

The TWA hostage crisis ended on June 30, when 39 American hostages held by Lebanese Shiites were freed with the "understanding" that Israel would release the more than 700 mostly Shiite detainees it still held after its withdrawal from Lebanon. But for 17 days, both Israel and its American supporters were frankly worried about how the crisis could affect U.S.-Israeli relations, since the hijackers were holding Americans to protest an Israeli policy.

Three Washington Post-ABC News polls conducted between June 17 and June 22 especially worried many American Jews. The poll results showed that an increasing number of Americans (42 percent in the third survey) believed "the United States should reduce its ties to Israel in order to lessen the acts of terrorism against us in the Middle East." Forty-one percent disagreed.

In a June 30 survey, however, when 654 people were interviewed following the release of the hostages, there was an upswing of public support for Israel. Forty-six percent of those interviewed agreed that "Israel helped the United States deal with the hostage situation as much as it could." A total of 37 percent disagreed with the statement, and the remaining 17 percent expressed no opinion.

Hyman Bookbinder, Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee, said that "one could hardly imagine a more serious challenge to strong U.S.-Israeli relations than the hostage crisis, but we have overcome it. Even though all the evidence is not yet in, I am satisfied that neither the U.S.-Israel friendship nor American attitudes towards Israel have been adversely affected by the crisis." Bookbinder said that one of his assistants had phoned 20 congressional offices, both Democratic and Republican, asking if they had received any mail hostile to Israel since the TWA jet was hijacked on June 14. Bookbinder said the offices reported a "close to zero reaction," meaning only a few such letters were received.

Marc Pearl from the American Jewish Congress said he understood how the hostage crisis might have produced an emotional reaction in some Americans, causing them to say they thought the U.S. should distance itself from Israel. "But interests, not emotions, are what determine foreign policy, and for both moral and strategic reasons, a close relationship with Israel is beneficial to the U.S.," Pearl said. He added that the hijacking had produced another emotional reaction from the American public which the print media had all but ignored. He said he had been hearing anti-Arab statements from talk show callers—statements such as "All Arabs are terrorists" which he characterized as "gross, unfair generalizations."

With an eye on Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy's planned visit to Amman in late July to meet with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation which may negotiate with Israel sometime in the future, Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace (WAJIPP) began a lobbying effort on Capitol Hill. Members urged congresspersons to support "a dialogue between the U.S. and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, which could include PLO members." Norbert Hornstein, WAJIPP member and Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, said that by meeting with such a delegation, the "U.S. can bolster the more moderate Arabs in the PLO who support a negotiated settlement with Israel. Israel will only be able to lead a normal life when it has peace. And the only path to peace is for it to deal with all the belligerent parties, one of which is the PLO," Hornstein said.

Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace also hosted a three hour dialogue between Palestinian and Jewish activists. The event was organized by WAJIPP member Ami Argaman, an Israeli now residing in Maryland. Argaman said he hoped the evening would "improve communication among American Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians living in the D.C. area, and possibly lead to future cooperation among them." By the close of the session, the majority of participants had agreed, among other things, that two basic premises to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had to be 1) the establishment of a Palestinian state, beside Israel, located in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and 2) negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Andrea Barron is a Ph.D. Candidate in International Relations at American University's School of International Service and writes frequently about the Middle East.