Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1999, pages 64-67

California Chronicle

 

NAAA President Assesses Wye, Announces California Convention

 

By Pat and Samir Twair

“Seven years after Madrid and five years after Oslo, all that the Palestinians have to show for their efforts is three percent of the area of the West Bank.” So said Khalil Jahshan, national president of the National Association of Arab Americans, when he addressed a Nov. 2 general meeting of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter.

In discussing the outcome of the Palestinian-Israeli talks at the Wye Plantation in Maryland, Jahshan said the agreement signed Oct. 23 “figuratively moved the Palestinians from solitary confinement to a normal-size jail cell, i.e., from 3 percent to 18.2 percent of the West Bank.”

Jahshan said the Middle East peace process which began in October 1991 in Madrid was the 76th attempt since 1947 to reach a conclusive peace settlement between Israel and the Arab states. Originally Madrid presented a new element of fairness when then-U.S. President George Bush announced his “twin tests of fairness and security” in a March 6, 1991 address to Congress, Jahshan noted. Bush had emphasized that a comprehensive peace must provide for “security and recognition for all states in the region, including Israel, and for legitimate political rights of the Palestinian people.”

The Madrid process became distorted with the onset of the Oslo accords and, after the May 1996 election of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the peace process was totally undermined. Jahshan admitted the Arab participants failed to negotiate effectively by allowing Israel to divide the Palestinians, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.The American objective in hosting the Wye conference was to resuscitate the comatose peace process but, the NAAA leader stressed, “the longer a coma lasts, the more difficult it is to revive the patient.”

While Americans may believe Palestinians received 13 percent of the land promised to them at Oslo, Jahshan said the facts are more complicated. West Bank lands are broken into three areas:

Area A: comprising 3 percent of West Bank lands where Palestinians have civilian and security control in seven Palestinian towns and most of Hebron.

Area B: 24 percent of the area under joint Israeli-Palestinian security control which contains some 400 Palestinian villages.

Area C: 73 percent of the West Bank under Israeli military control which includes 144 Jewish settlements with 150,000 Israelis, villages containing several thousand Palestinians, Israeli military bases and the territory’s main roads.

The Wye agreement allegedly gives the Palestinians 9+3+1 percent of the West Bank in the sense that 1 percent goes directly from Area C to Area A; 9 percent goes from Area C to Area B, to joint control; and 3 percent would be declared a nature preserve and retained under Area B. In addition, 14.2 percent in Area B would be transferred to Area A, under Palestinian control.

“If Israel were to honor all these commitments, which is doubtful,” Jahshan stated, “the Palestinians will end up with 18.2 percent under their civilian and security control, in addition to approximately 22 percent which would be jointly managed with Israel as Area B.”

“The Israelis went home from Wye with all kinds of gains and concessions from the U.S.,” Jahshan continued, “and submitted a bill for $1 billion to redeploy their troops.”

During an Oct. 28 meeting she hosted at the State Department for American-Arab and American-Jewish leaders, Ms. Albright asked Jahshan why he was so negative about the Wye agreement.

“[Wye] was a positive step in the right direction to nowhere,” he replied.

In response to Jahshan’s complaints of Washington’s bias and insensitivity toward Palestinian needs, Albright lectured for 15 minutes on why Arab states should normalize relations with Israel because Bibi “delivered at Wye.”

Turning to the issue of Iraq, Jahshan told his Los Angeles audience the U.S. policy of dual containment has failed, but for lack of an alternative, Washington is sticking to it. Twenty two million Iraqis are being punished for a policy that is not working and more than one million Iraqis have died because of it, he said.

The one helpful move, he noted, was an Oct. 6 letter signed by 42 members of Congress who expressed to President Clinton their urgent concern about the “serious deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Iraq.” The letter was circulated by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and stated the first step should be to “de-link economic sanctions, which have been a complete failure, from military sanctions, which have had a measured success.”

Jahshan predicted a “tough time” for Arab Americans as presidential elections near and candidates compete to please the Israeli lobby. He warned his audience that this is no time to give up because “this is the closest we’ve come to resolving the conflict, but what is needed is leadership and we do not have it in Washington.”

It was noted that for the first time since 1993 the NAAA will host a national convention in Orange County in September 1999. Traditionally, the annual sessions were working conventions that met mid-week in Washington so members could lobby in their respective representative’s offices in the capitol.

The 1999 convention will celebrate the achievements of Arab Americans during their first century in the U.S. and will present awards to Arab Americans who have excelled in all phases of American society, from medicine and literature to entertainment and space technology. Panels and workshops will be conducted on Palestine, Iraq and other issues of importance to Arab Americans. For more information, please check the NAAA Web page at www.naaa.net.

 

Neve Shalom Salutes Israeli, Palestinian Peace Builders

One of the most controversial and unique ready-to-wear catalogues ever printed is the “Enemies” catalogue by United Colors of Benetton which was distributed this year to more than six million people by Newsweek magazine. Luciano Benetton came up with the idea of having Israeli Jews and Palestinians model his clothes in actual portrayals of their daily contact with each other.

Needless to say, the models are not Jewish settlers nor Hamas militants, but Israelis and Palestinians who have become friends and can envision a peaceful coexistence. Each photo page relates the name, age and profession of the Israelis and Palestinians pictured and how they came to know each other.

Two women seated together in a Benetton sportswear centerfold are Zahira Kamal, who was a leader of the intifada and now leads the Palestinian Democratic Party, and Prof. Naomi Chazan, deputy speaker of the Knesset from the Meretz Party.

The two politicians and Benetton were selected by the Southern California Chapter of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam as recipients of its third annual Peace Builder Awards ceremony Nov. 15 at the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum.

Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is a community of 35 Palestinian and Jewish families who live together and maintain a kindergarten and primary school where children of nearby villages can learn English, Arabic and Hebrew as well as each other’s histories. A junior high school will soon be under construction.

Located midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the community also established the School for Peace in 1979. More than 1,800 people participate each year in intensive workshops to break down hostilities between Palestinians and Israelis.

In presenting the Peace Builder Award to Chazan, Palestinian-American leader Dr. Sabri El Farra noted: “In the bloody conflict of the past 50 years, Palestinians and Israelis have proven one thing: they can hurt each other. It is time now for sane people to say enough.”

The Khan Yunis-born physician said it is time for Israelis to ride a bus and feel secure that they won’t be blown up and for Palestinians to be safe from the fear their homes may be bulldozed before the night is over.

“After the historic handshake and signing at the White House, it seemed we had the right attitude toward peace,” El Farra continued, “but in the past two years, the attitude has become ‘how much land can I get?’ [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is so smart he may end up outsmarting himself,” he concluded.

In accepting her award, Chazan quipped she hopes peace will come faster than a woman becoming mayor of Jerusalem, an allusion to her own unsuccessful mayoral campaign. Chazan said her mother was elected to the Knesset in 1969, but she disliked politics and urged her daughter to “do something serious.”

Chazan recalls asking Golda Meir in 1971 why she didn’t enter into negotiations about the occupied territories. The Israeli prime minister replied the territories were a bargaining chip.

During one such conversation the young Chazan stated: “Golda, Israel will never be free until we learn to liberate ourselves from being occupiers. Jewish history taught us we have the right to be free and individuals must have the right to make their own decisions.”

Meir’s response was: “You are wrong and I don’t enjoy our discussions anymore.”

Chazan studied for a doctorate and began teaching at Hebrew University. In 1992, the head of the dovish Meretz Party told her it was time for her to enter politics. “Professors talk, politicians do,” she was admonished.

“One of the greatest moments in my life was to vote on Oslo,” she recalled. “But in the past two years, I’ve watched the promises of Oslo give way to a reality that still has promise but will be more difficult to achieve.

“The Wye agreements must be implemented by the May 4 deadline,” she said, noting she was leaving for Israel that night so she could cast her approving vote on Wye in the Knesset.

“In a situation so tense that the atmosphere is of a palpable lack of good will, we cannot give up, we must try harder,” she warned.

Turning back to her ill-fated campaign to become Jerusalem’s first woman mayor, Chazan said her mother told her that being a professor was more respectable than being a member of the Knesset, but being a member of the Knesset was 10 times more respectable than being mayor of Jerusalem.

Internationally known hair stylist Vidal Sassoon presented the Peace Builder Award to Zahira Kamal, who spent six months in an Israeli prison in 1979 and was under town arrest in Jerusalem from 1980 to mid-1987. Today she is director of Gender Planning and Development for the Palestine National Authority. This involves establishing women’s roles in the forthcoming Palestinian state. Kamal also oversees activities of a woman’s center that was founded in Jerusalem in 1991 to offer legal aid and services to women.

In accepting her award, Kamal said the Palestinians must establish a state on the land that has been occupied since 1967. She added that in 1988 the PLO announced a peace initiative based on a two-state solution.

“Israel cannot have security without giving security to the Palestinians—we must share the land together and women can make a difference,” she said, noting that in Jerusalem the Jewish Women’s Center and Palestinian Women’s Center work together for peace.

California clothier Fred Segal presented the Peace Builder Award to Cario Tunioli, director of Benetton’s North American Operations.

At the close of the program, the Washington Report asked Kamal if she is losing her optimism for peace in the Middle East. “The opposition [against Likud] is growing,” she replied, “and the polls indicate more than 70 percent of the people believe there will be a Palestinian state and 56 percent of the people say they can live in coexistence. Netanyahu is using the security scare to make the Israelis fearful, but if your American President Clinton continues to be involved as he was at Wye, a just peace is possible.”

Chazan was even more positive, commenting: “There will be a Palestinian state—it is virtually accepted right now. If we were smart we would include it in negotiations now.”

 

Muslim Achievement Awards

Islamic scholar Mohamed Fathi Osman and computer entrepreneur Safi Qureshey were recipients of the American Muslim Achievement Award at the Oct. 26 presentation banquet by the Islamic Center of Southern California. More than 400 guests gathered in the elegant Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel for the sixth annual ICSC recognition of American Muslims who have made outstanding contributions to the betterment of society.

Magdy Eletreby, chairman of ICSC, presented the achievement award to Dr. Osman who was born in Egypt in 1928 and has written extensively on the dynamics of change in Islamic thought and its interaction with different societies at different times. Dr. Osman served for six years as chief editor of Arabia , an Islamic world review. His latest work, The Concepts of the Qur’an: A Topical Reading, draws upon prominent classical commentators in the context of modern realities.

Dr. Osman stated that within an intellectual framework, U.S.-Muslim relations won’t be felt for some time. “But many ideas starting here are beginning to echo in the Islamic world,” he said. From his perspective of living in the U.S., Dr. Osman said the intellectual and cultural thinking of American Muslims is influencing Islamic human rights.

“I am anticipating in the near future to see the beginnings of a strong Islamic movement of Islamists for human rights and interactions with Muslims of America. God did not send prophets just to recognize God or to worship Him, but when they believe in one creator, they believe all people are created equally.”

Karachi-born Qureshey received a bachelor of science degree in physics from the University of Karachi in 1970, earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Arlington in Texas in 1975 and, five years later, started a computer company in a garage. Since then, his AST Research Inc. has become a member of Fortune 500’s list of America’s largest industrial and service companies operating in more than 100 countries. He has contributed generously to Southern California educational and medical institutions and he is a member of President Clinton’s Expert Council, in which he founded the Corporate Council of Africa to promote business between the U.S. and African nations.

“I want to share with young people the lessons I am sill learning,” he stated upon receiving his award. “And I want to thank this wonderful country which has accepted those of us with strange names.

“The individual is strong, but a team is stronger,” he continued. The biggest challenge, he noted, is to balance a career with one’s family. And, he stated candidly, dealing with success is harder than to deal with failure because one must keep one’s feet solidly on the ground.

“Our Muslim community may not have a new message for the U.S., but what we can do is be a reminder of what it is losing. Too much emphasis is placed on secular values and not enough on the family. This could be our message to the U.S.”

 

Focus on Sumerian Beer

“Which Came First, Beer or Bread?” was the title of a program offered Nov. 8 at the Bowers Museum in conjunction with the Royal Tombs of Ur exhibition. Fritz Maytag, CEO of Anchor Steam Beer Co. of San Francisco, traveled to the Santa Ana museum to recount his first-hand experience of brewing a 5,000-year-old beer recipe recorded on Sumerian clay tablets. The recipe has tantalized archaeologists since it was deciphered from a hymn to Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing. Could hunter-gatherers have taken up growing grains to produce beer, not bread? According to the recipe, beer making was based on fermenting a flatbread called bappir .

In 1989, Maytag produced his first batch of Sumerian beer from fermented bappir made of honey and barley. In his second experiment at producing Sumerian beer in 1991, Maytag used dates and a primitive durum wheat, known as emmer, that is native to Iraq.

Cylinder seals depict Sumerians drinking through straw-like devices. Maytag said they probably did so because the tough husk of emmer wheat made for a high-fiber beer.

Inventory lists reveal that at the end of each day, workers received a ration of beer along with their bread. How did their brew taste? Maytag said the beer he produced had a bready taste that was sweetened by the dates. It lacked the effervescence of modern beers and had less than half the alcoholic content of light beers, but was better than no beer at all.

 

CAIR protests “The Siege”

It is amazing to witness the growth and enthusiasm of a new generation of Muslim- and Arab-American activists. A case in point is Beverly Hills, 1985, when we could muster no more than a dozen Arab Americans to protest the premiere of the Israeli Golan/Globus production of “Delta Force.” But in the first week of November 1998, more than 550 young Muslim Americans turned out in front of 60 cinemas in 40 Southern California cities to protest “The Siege,” another Hollywood thriller in which “Muslim terrorists” blow up Brooklyn and the Army rounds up all Arab Americans and contains them behind barbed wire.

On Nov. 4, the first private screening of the controversial film was staged in Westwood where more than 250 demonstrators quietly lined both sides of Wilshire Boulevard and handed out leaflets inviting non-Muslims to attend Nov. 7 open houses at mosques in Garden Grove, Hawthorne, Riverside and Reseda. Contrary to the small protest against “Delta Force” in 1985 on La Cienega Boulevard, motorists honked their approval at professional signs reading: “Fox Puts Muslims under ‘Siege’; “What Does FOX Have Against ISLAM?”; “YES to Freedom of Speech NO to Stereotyopes”; and “Muslims are Human Too.”

According to Hussam Ayloush, director of the Southern California Council on American-Islamic Relations, more than 20,000 leaflets were distributed. What’s more, several non-Muslims followed up on the invitation to visit neighborhood mosques. More than 25 people visited the Islamic Society of Orange County and another 30 visited the Riverside Mosque. In San Diego, a visitor accepted Islam. Protesters at the Irvine Spectrum were surprised when a woman emerged from the movie theater, told the Muslims she thought the film unfairly depicted Muslims and then picked up a sign and joined the demonstration.

 

Why was CAIR protesting “The Siege”?

The reason for Muslim resentment was succinctly summed up in a Nov. 6 page one article in The Washington Post, by Sharon Waxman, who compared the scenario of “The Siege” with other religious groups:

“A nefarious rabbi exhorts his extremist, ultra-Orthodox followers to plant bombs against Arab sympathizers in America. Innocents are killed and maimed. The FBI starts rounding up Orthodox Jews and putting them in camps.

“Or how about this: a Catholic priest has molested an altar boy. The church refuses to hand him and other offenders over to police. The FBI starts rounding up clerics in an attempt to ferret them out.

“These provocative story lines—unlikely, perhaps, but not entirely implausible—would certainly spark an outcry from Jewish and Catholic interest groups. The question is: Would Hollywood choose to portray them in the first place?”

Roger Ebert of the Siskel and Ebert film critic team gave a thumbs down rating for the thriller, but most Americans who go to action films don’t listen to critics but are affected by the message of good guys and bad guys. Unfortunately the Arabs and Muslims almost always are the bad guys in Hollywood flicks. The good news is “The Siege” hasn’t done all that well in ticket sales.

 

Dr. Hassan Jamil Tabbarah Remembered

More than 200 family members, friends and associates of Dr. Hassan Jamil Tabbarah gathered Nov. 6 in the Islamic Center of Southern California for a memorial service honoring the Lebanese-American physician who died days earlier of cardiac arrest at St. Mary’s Hospital in Long Beach.

Born in Beirut in 1933, Dr. Tabbarah completed his residency as a general surgeon at the American University of Beirut Medical School. In 1961, he traveled to the U.S. for a residency as a cardiovascular surgeon carried out in New York, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. He married his wife, Kay, in Los Angeles in 1965 and the couple moved to Beirut, where their daughters, Melissa, Amanda and Reem were born.

Dr. Tabbarah was president of Makassed Hospital in 1976 when the Sixth Fleet evacuated American citizens after the assassination of AUB President Malcolm Kerr. Concerned for the safety of his family, Dr. Tabbarah departed for Los Angeles, where he joined the staff of Harbor/UCLA Hospital in Torrance. He subsequently specialized in oncology and internal medicine.

Kay Tabbarah reminisced on her husband’s remarkable career during the service at which her daughters spoke. The fiancé of Amanda also said a few words; the couple was to have been married Nov. 14. Several physicians who had worked with Dr. Tabbarah at Harbor/UCLA Hospital and members of the Arab American Medical Association also spoke of the vitality and enthusiasm of their colleague who died so unexpectedly. Dr. Jerome Block, who heads the oncology department at Harbor Hospital, commented that 20 years ago, he had no idea what a Lebanese was when Dr. Tabbarah appeared at the hospital. Nor had there been Muslims at the hospital until Dr. Tabbarah arrived, but he rapidly broke any biases that may have existed.

Dr. Sandy Weinstein called Dr. Tabbarah the “consumate teacher.”

“Muslims knew he was Muslim, Christians probably thought he was a Christian, but we Jews were sure he was Jewish,” Dr. Weinstein said in final tribute.

 

Lebanese Envoy Speaks in L.A.

“Heroes and Villains: Victims of the Arab Israeli Saga” was the title of a Nov. 4 address by the Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Mohamad Bahaa Chatah, at a Town Hall meeting in the Beverly Hilton. The theme selected by the ambassador, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, suggested the possibility of specialized insights into the Arab-Israeli problem, but instead offered a generalized overview of Lebanese-Israeli relations for the past 50 years.

During the question-and-answer session, the audience asked a number of pertinent questions of the ambassador, who has served on the International Monetary Fund executive board and has been instrumental in setting Lebanon’s monetary policy since 1993. In response to a query about inflation in Lebanon, he stated that despite the devaluation of the Lebanese pound during the civil war, it has been stabilized since 1992. Ambassador Chatah said this year has been the best in tourism, particularly in terms of tourists from Europe, but Lebanon has yet to enter the market of tourists who take the Egypt-Jordan-Israel package.

Responding to a question as to what Arab Americans can do to compete with the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., the ambassador praised the open political system in the U.S. and stated it is a mistake to take a one-dimensional view of the lobby because not all Jews support the Likud.

Answering a query as to when the Syrians will leave Lebanon, Ambassador Chatah said: “The Syrians were invited to come to Lebanon to restore its authority. Our institutions are growing stronger but the Israeli presence in south Lebanon creates a problem.”

 

ADC Hosts Alex Odeh Memorial

An MTV award-winning rapper might seem to be an unlikely recipient of an American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee tribute, but Adam Youche of the Beastie Boys was the ideal choice in light of his acceptance speech at the Sept. 20 MTV Awards.

A tape of Youche’s speech was aired at the annual Alex Odeh humanitarian awards banquet Oct. 24 at the LAX Marriott Hotel. As 40 million viewers watched the MTV program, Youche criticized Washington for firing missiles at Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzaniya. Moreover, as spectators applauded the rapper’s stand, he called upon the U.S. to seek nonviolent means of resolving conflicts in the Middle East for years.

Other recipients of the 1998 Alex Odeh humanitarian awards were Assemblywoman Denise Moreno Ducheny, musician Dr. Jihad Racy and Aida Nasser of the Birzeit Society. Former Lebanese hostage Thomas Sutherland was keynote speaker.

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Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance writers based in Los Angeles.

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