Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1999, pages 14-15

Anti-Arab McCarthyism

Gephardt Drops Only Muslim Panel Appointment Under Pressure From Extreme Zionist Groups

By Pat McDonnell Twair

American Muslims have experienced intense mood swings since June 18, when House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt appointed Salam al-Marayati to serve on a federal panel investigating the prevention and punishment of terrorism.

Initially, it was a time of jubilation as Muslims saw one of their own selected to serve on a federal commission examining terrorism, a subject that is sensitive to most Muslims.

Then, on July 8, Muslims were shocked and disappointed when Gephardt officially rescinded his appointment of al-Marayati, 38, who is executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

Gephardt’s excuse for dropping Marayati from the commission was that it would take six months to a year to complete a security clearance on Marayati, who was born in Baghdad.

No one, including the Zionist groups who waged a vicious campaign to unseat al-Marayati, bought Gephardt’s reason. They claimed it was their pressure, not the clearance issue, which forced al-Marayati’s removal from the panel.

During a July 9 press conference at the Islamic Center of Southern California, several prominent progressive Jews decried Gephardt’s decision and publicly asked him to reinstate al-Marayati.

Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman, founding rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple, voiced his outrage. “This assault on Salam al-Marayati by a consortium of Jewish organizations is for me an appalling display of ignorance, mindlessness and arrogance.”

He was referring to demands for al-Marayati’s removal first raised by the Likud-leaning extremist director of the Zionist Organization of America, Morton Klein. As soon as the appointment was announced, Klein cited al-Marayati’s comments that Israeli oppression of Palestinians is a root cause for Palestinian terrorist acts and claimed also that al-Marayati had supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussain.

“Rubbish,” al-Marayati responded. “My family fled from the Iraqi regime’s political persecution. My uncle, who remained there, was killed in prison in 1980.”

At first, Gephardt firmly stated he would not renege on the appointment, despite Klein’s clamor. Klein then took his grievances to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, of which the ZOA is a member, which signed on to his complaints against al-Marayati.

Klein’s coup de grace was to enlist the assistance of seven congressmen who sit in Israel’s amen corner. At the ZOA’s behest, they sent a request to FBI Director Louis J. Freeh asking him personally to conduct a security check on al-Marayati.

Gephardt caved in to the strident Zionist charges on July 8 and withdrew al-Marayati’s nomination.

Stated Southern California liberal Jewish activist Stanley Sheinbaum, who helped blueprint the Madrid peace conference: “The pressure from U.S. Jews [to remove al-Marayati] comes at a time when Israel is opening toward peace. As we enter into the 21st century, relations between Muslims and Israel should be dealt with in a rational way.

“As the major fund-raiser for the House Democratic Campaign Committee, Gephardt, I suspect, is responding to the potential campaign monies of the American Jewish community.”

Because Klein was regarded as a right-wing extremist at the time he took control of the ZOA over bitter opposition, the acceptance of his anti-Arab McCarthyism by more mainstream Zionist organizations created resentment among some Jewish activists.

This was evident in a statement by attorney Douglas E. Mirell, president-elect of the Progressive Jewish Alliance in Los Angeles. Noting that the Conference of Presidents has its axis in New York and Washington, DC, he said “the impetus for this campaign stemmed from the East.”

Added Rabbi Beerman: “There is a possibility that the directors of the groups within the Conference of Presidents did not consult with their presidents [before they signed on to Klein’s crusade against al-Marayati]. I am hoping some of these presidents will indicate displeasure over what their executive directors have done.”

This division is visible in the mainstream Jewish heavyweights who have jumped to al-Marayati’s defense: Rabbi Alfred Wolf of the Skirball Institute, Gene Lichtenstein, editor in chief of the Jewish Journal, and Mirell, whose letter supporting al-Marayati’s nomination was published July 8 in the Los Angeles Times .

Criticism of Klein’s McCarthyite tactics appeared in a stinging commentary in the July 11 Los Angeles Times when Georgetown University Professor Norman Birnbaum wrote:

“Three questions arise. One is whether Americans of Arab descent have the rights of other citizens or are to be treated as guilty unless proved innocent, with the Israel lobby as prosecutor, judge and jury.

“The second is whether we can debate anything and everything in this country except the conduct of the Israeli government and people toward the Palestinians.”

When asked if he was hurt by Gephardt’s withdrawal of his name, al-Marayati said no. If anything, he said, he felt more energized to push for a meaningful dialogue between Muslims and Jews. He then offered a quote from the Qur’an: “With every crisis comes opportunity.”

Dr. Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Southern California Islamic Center, was less forgiving.

“I’m very angry,” declared the Egyptian-born physician. “I’m angrier than Salam. The FBI is examining him because he was born in Iraq and didn’t come here until he was 4 years old. What is the FBI going to do, investigate what Salam did in his diapers in Iraq?

“I came to this country to live in freedom. When something like this happens it is shocking. I don’t take it lightly.”

When a reporter asked Dr. Hathout if he thought al-Marayati’s dismissal was an act of racism, he replied affirmatively: “From head to toe. They claim Salam is justifying terrorism because he said we should study the root causes of terrorism. That is terrorism? This is intimidation.”

The ironic factor in Gephardt’s security clearance excuse is that al-Marayati had received a security clearance to ride on board Air Force II for the peace signing ceremony between Israel and Jordan.

“Our record is open and clear,” al-Marayati stated. “I’ve had security clearances to visit the White House and to speak at the State Department in meetings dealing with religious freedom and Israel and U.S. policy.”

Commented Middle East analyst Kent Morris: “Obviously, al-Marayati has passed a National Agency check, and this is usually sufficient for the granting of a secret security clearance. A top-secret security clearance normally takes time; however, a background investigation could be expedited and an interim clearance could be granted.”

Klein, who prides himself on the success of his intimidation tactics with candidates for elective office, scoffed at Gephardt’s explanation in a Los Angeles Times article.

“I find it troubling and disappointing that Rep. Gephardt would not have made the [real] reason crystal clear,” Klein was quoted.

This is not Klein’s first assault on al-Marayati and California Muslims. When Klein learned that a code of ethics in Jewish-Muslim dialogue was to be issued after leaders from both communities consulted twice on the statement, the ZOA leader succeeded in alarming conservative groups. The ethics statement was killed last November after president Abe Foxman of B’nai B’rith’s Anti-Defamation League went on record with a statement that the ethics code would afford legitimacy to Muslims.

Klein’s next attack was in March. This time, he targeted Salam al-Marayati’s physician wife, Laila, after President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. She remains on that panel.

Who else will be sitting on the commission for which Klein says al-Marayati is not fit?

Former California Congresswoman and Israel supporter Jane Harman, Prof. Richard Kevin Betts of New Jersey, the Wilson Institute’s Maurice Sonnenberg, John F. Lewis of New York, Jay Paul Bremer, a former counter-terrorism specialist with the Treasury and Defense Departments, Fred Ikle, former undersecretary of state for policy and former head of political science at RAND, and Gardner Peckham of Maryland, former CIA director James Woolsey and Wayne A. Downing, a retired Army general who commanded special operations and counter-terrorism forces.

Commented Islamic scholar and Georgetown University Professor John L. Esposito: “Salam would have contributed a crucial perspective to the commission. Salam is mainstream—if he is not acceptable, who is?”

As the only Muslim on a commission that would surely be called upon to seek the causes as well as the cures for terrorism directed against the U.S. originating from the Middle East, Marayati’s contribution would appear to be invaluable.

“When this commission does meet and if there is no legitimate Muslim on it, it will endanger the credibility of the panel,” stated al-Marayati, who added that MPAC will present its own position paper when the panel on anti-terrorism convenes.

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.