Focus on Arabs and Islam

"Five years of growth" was the theme for the annual National Convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington, D.C. September 5 to 8. Panel discussions were scheduled on U.S. Middle East policy, media coverage of the Middle East, the Arab image in the media, ethnic participation in the American political process, and intimidation by the Israeli lobby. An unusual feature scheduled was a defense of his views by Mike Evans, president of Lovers of Israel and host of a TV show entitled "Israel: Key to America's Survival." A forum for authors of books on current Middle East topics was also scheduled. In honor of the occasion Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry said he would proclaim "Arab-American Day" for the District of Columbia.

Overshadowing the convention was concern about a bomb planted August 16 at ADC's Boston offices. A caller to the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald attributed the bombing to the Jewish Defense League, claiming that "we planted a bunch of bombs in the Boston area and will continue to do so until the Arab threat ceases to exist." The bomb exploded while two policemen were attempting to defuse it, injuring both of them, one seriously. When, after the policemen were injured, the Boston media called the Jewish Defense League to ask whether it was indeed responsible, the organization's executive director denied responsibility, but refused to condemn acts of violence against opponents of Israel.

The explosion was the latest in a series of acts of violence reported by the ADC against Arab-Americans, mosques, and its own offices in the United States. ADC National Chairman James Abourezk complained last April to the FBI about attempts to intimidate the ADC New York staff during the month of March. ADC Executive Director Omar Kader forwarded new complaints to the FBI and to members of Congress following the latest attacks.

The current issue of the Mideast Monitor, newsletter publication of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates of Belmont, Massachusetts, carries an examination of the Reagan Administration's Middle East policy and international law by Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law at the University of Illinois. Boyle cites U.S. violations of international law through its association with actions of the Menachem Begin government, particularly in conjunction with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath. Until the United States re-dedicates itself to upholding international law, Boyle concludes, there is no possibility of a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute.

Boyle's conclusions echo those of former U.S. Undersecretary of State George Ball in the Spring (Third Anniversary) issue of the quarterly American Arab Affairs, entitled "America's Waning Moral Authority." Ball cites symptoms of U.S. abandonment of principle in international dealings such as increasing U.S. resort to the veto in the United Nations, a practice which used to be a principal American complaint against the Soviet Union. Attributing much of the decline in U.S. moral authority to dislocations caused by U.S. support of Israeli violations of international law, Ball writes: "The 1967 war was, in my view, one of the most tragic events in modern history. Not only did it produce a second Palestinian diaspora, but it inflamed Israel's imperialistic ambitions and left the Israelis holding substantial territories taken by force. It also marked the beginning of America's progressive abandonment of principle in dealing with Israel, and the first stage of our nation's descent to the current low level of cynical and ineffective foreign policy."

—Richard Curtiss

Focus on Israel and Jews

August was a month when American Jews expressed increasing concern about the outbreak of a new "epidemic" in Israel—what has been termed the "dangerous disease" of Kahaneism. Since he was elected to the Knesset a year ago on a platform calling for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, the Brooklyn-born Rabbi Meir Kahane has been gaining support among nearly all sectors of the Israeli Jewish population, especially working-class Sephardic Jews and Israeli youth.

In Israel, the Knesset has tried to delegitimize Kahane by passing a law which would prevent participation in the next election by any party which incites people to racism or negates Israel's democratic character. And in the United States, 12 major Jewish organizations issued a statement which strongly denounced Kahane when he arrived here for a visit on August 15. The statement said Kahane represented neither Israelis nor American Jews, and that his ideas were both ''racist" and a "perversion of Jewish religious, ethical, and traditional values and practices," The groups included the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, B'nai B'rith and the AntiDefamation League of B'nai B'rith, Hadassah, the Jewish War Veterans, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations—which represents Reform Jews—and various Conservative Jewish organizations.

Conspicuously absent from the list of Jewish groups was the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA) According to the Washington Jewish Week, the UOJCA "did not object to the statement per se," but neither did the organization endorse it. An August 29th editorial said the Orthodox community could not avoid "tackling the substance of Kahane's challenge," since Kahane "claims to speak in the name of Orthodox Judaism and he is a product of American Orthodoxy." The Jewish Week compared "The Missing Voice'' of Orthodox Jews on the Kahane question to the "silence" of Washington's mayor Marion Barry and Delegate Walter Fauntroy on the inflammatory anti-Semitic rhetoric of Louis Farrakhan.

Some American Jews have even been making a comparison between Kahane and Adolph Hitler. The Baltimore Jewish Times, for instance, which has one of the largest circulations of any Jewish weekly in the U.S., said that Kahane's "efforts to make Israel Arabrein mirror Germany's efforts—all too successful—to make Europe Judenrein." After observing Kahane's screams of "Arabs Out! Arabs Out!" at a rally in Israel, a correspondent for the same newsmagazine wrote that "Forty years after the destruction of the Third Reich, the message, the tone, the pitch, [of Kahane's words] have a special poignancy."

Steven Silverberg of New Jewish Agenda, an organization Ahich favors self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians, blames Israel's 18-year old military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip for Kahane's rise in popularity. "The occupation is not only bad for Palestinians," he said, "but also for Israelis. It encourages the development of non-democratic values among Jews—the kind on which Kahaneism is able to thrive.''

If the majority of Jews are saying "No" to Kahane, they are also saying "No" to apartheid, Both Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and almost every American Jewish organization has condemned South Africa's White supremacist government in no uncertain terms. Last month, Peres welcomed Zulu Chief Gatsha Buthelezi to Israel. Buthelezi is a "Black moderate" who favors the dismantlement of apartheid by peaceful means. But Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu is reported to have criticized Israel for having any dealings at all with South Africa, According to Transafrica, the Black foreign policy lobby which has been organizing daily demonstrations in front of the South African embassy in Washington, D.C., Israel is a if not the primary conduit for arms to South Africa and, with U.S. assistance, has helped South Africa develop nuclear weapons.

—Andrea Barron

Andrea Barron is a PhD Candidate in International Relations at the American University in Washington, D.C., and writes frequently about the Middle East.