Isa Khalil Sabbagh

Answer the following riddle, if you will:

One day during World War II, millions of people were gathering expectantly around their radio sets, waiting to hear a familiar voice intone the words: "This is London." The voice they were waiting for did not belong to Edward R. Morrow. Whose voice was it?

For Arab readers who were old enough during the war to have been interested in getting a clear, literate, eloquent and often moving interpretation of what Britain was doing to defeat Hitler, and why, there will be no problem in coming up with the answer: the owner of the voice was, of course, Isa Khalil Sabbagh. Unlike Mr. Morrow, the medium he was using was the BBC (rather than CBS); the audience was in the Arab world (not the United States); and the language which he used was Arabic (the introductory words which he actually spoke were: "Huna London").

Acting As a Bridge

Forty years later, the man who so enthralled his Arab listeners that his name became a household word is alive and well and working in Washington, D.C.—with his skills as a communicator still happily intact. But Mr. Sabbagh is also much more than a communicator. In the four decades since he began to act as a bridge between the Arab East and the West for the BBC, he developed a highly-tuned sixth sense for the problems that can cause the two cultures to misunderstand one another. He put this awareness to good use during his 30 years as a U.S. foreign service officer, and his special perceptions have also been central to the success of his present work as an author, public affairs advisor, and consultant, working through his Sabbagh Management Corporation.

Mr. Sabbagh's most recent project, while wearing his author's hat, was the preparation and publication of a book designed not only as entertainment but as a guide for Westerners on what makes the Arabs tick. It is a slim volume entitled "As the Arabs Say..."—the first of what will eventually be a trilogy—and consists of quotations used by Arabs in their every-day lives, along with insightful and often humorous commentaries by Mr. Sabbagh. In the view of one old Middle East hand: "You can learn more about how to deal with the Arabs from this book than you could from any number of 'orientation lectures.' Every U.S. foreign service officer who goes out there for the first time should be required to read it. For that matter, so should every Secretary of State."

Some of the quotations in the book can throw light on why the U.S. has had so many shortfalls in its Middle East policies, Mr. Sabbagh believes. For example, one of the problems in working out a solution in Lebanon, in his view, is that the Administration ignored Syria for far too long. "Perhaps we were trying to send Syria a message, or 'teach it a lesson,' or whatever," says Mr. Sabbagh. "But doing this to a country with Syria's pride and sensitivity is counter-productive, because it's too offensive. As the Arabs say: 'I'd rather be well received than well fed.' Or, as the Tunisians like to put it: 'Take back your bread but release your frown.'"

Mr. Sabbagh's sensitivity to the nuances between East and West was of particular value to him—and to the country—when he was carrying out his role as interpreter-cum-advisor to several American presidents during their meetings with Arab chiefs of state. "When they spoke, I used to watch them carefully, as well as listen," Mr. Sabbagh says. "For example, I always could tell when King Faisal was displeased. One thing he would do is raise his right eyebrow. Another was to fiddle with a ring on the little finger of his right hand." These were silent mannerisms which he could not interpret for a president on the spot, of course. But they helped him define the King's attitude during the "post-mortem" sessions which followed such meetings.

The Spirit of the Words

Mr. Sabbagh was and still is well known for his abhorrence of literal interpretation ("the idea is to convey the meaning and the spirit of the words from one culture to another," he says sternly), and often had to be instantly creative in carrying out his role. Thus, on one occasion an American president complimented a chief of state on the "beauty" of his wife—something that is simply not done in conservative Muslim societies. What the chief of state heard Mr. Sabbagh say, however, was that the president was charmed by the wife's "graciousness" and "intelligence."

Mr. Sabbagh was brought up in Tulkarm, Palestine, and had his first lessons in eloquence while still on his father's knee. After his graduation from Exeter University, in England, and his service with the BBC (during which he also had a stint as a war correspondent), Mr. Sabbagh was asked by the U.S. State Department to start up the Arabic service of the Voice of America, which he directed for the next seven years. Later, he opened and directed the first U.S. Embassy Public Affairs offices in both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and in 1979—while serving as Counselor of Embassy and Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador in Saudi Arabia—he received the Superior Service Award from the U.S. Department of State.