Back to Top
Blog — Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Friday September 02, 2011
This is like a man wrongly accusing a woman of stealing his wife’s purse, but rather than apologizing upon realizing that the woman was in fact holding her own purse, says instead, “you idiot, you must have stolen your own purse.” Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 10:06 am / / Leave a comment
Wednesday August 10, 2011
If there is one thing Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is known for, besides accommodating the radical right’s colonization of the West Bank, it is his frequent use of platitudes about Israel’s exceptionalism. Bibi recently flaunted Israel’s exceptional stability in a region rocked by mass protests, shortly before Israel itself was hit by large demonstrations. This of course led to a pretty funny and widely popular music video juxtaposing his remarks with scenes of the protests. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 1:59 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday August 03, 2011
It’s more of the same for the TSA – they just can’t seem to get it right. Yesterday the Boston TSA, never far from scandal, began training on an Israeli-style screening process which, the Boston Herald reports, “requires screeners to make quick reads of whether passengers pose a danger or a terror threat based on their reactions to a set of routine questions.” The $1 billion national initiative has been underway for a few years now, and a number of airports throughout the country have adopted the Israeli method called Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques or SPOT. The intent is to implement SPOT within two weeks’ time, by August 15. SPOT uses Behavior Detection Officers or BDOs to monitor passengers and gauge their responses to questions and determine their level of suspicion. See the Department of Homeland Security website to review a more in-depth explanation of screening methodology. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 1:11 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday August 01, 2011
Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, wrote a great piece in Foreign Policy magazine last week in which he concluded that "American policy on Israel-Palestine is now being driven almost exclusively by a desire to prevent any possible U.N. vote" on Palestinian statehood this fall. Read More »
Posted by Samer Araabi at 9:41 am / / Leave a comment
Friday July 22, 2011
Possible redistricting in Michigan may have a profoundly negative affect on Rep. John Conyers’s (D-MI) chances retaining his office, according to a recent POLITICO article. Conyers represents the 14th district of Michigan, which includes parts of Dearborn, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Southgate, Trenton and Allen Park. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 10:50 am / / Leave a comment
Tuesday July 19, 2011
By Ed Gaier
In response to the increasing pressure of boycotts protesting the continued Israeli occupation and settlement expansion in the West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli parliament has passed legislation allowing litigation against groups and individuals calling for the boycott of Israeli economic, cultural and academic establishments. The law also prohibits individuals and organizations involved in boycotts from bidding on state contracts. By passing a bill linking Israel proper with the settlements, which are widely seen as illegal by the international community and the United States, the Netanyahu government has entrenched its position behind a key barrier to a two-state solution. Read More »
Posted by Guest at 2:02 pm / / Leave a comment
Tuesday July 12, 2011
A couple of days ago, the House of Representatives passed H. Res. 268 with a vote of 407-6-13. As previously noted in an AAI action alert, H. Res. 268 is an anti-Palestinian bill that was introduced by Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA), blaming the failure of the peace process entirely on the Palestinians (ignoring Israel’s steps that have rendered productive negotiations impossible), prohibiting assistance to the Palestinian national unity government, and calling for vetoing Palestinian efforts for recognition by the UN. Notwithstanding its distortion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the bill had collected 356 cosponsors by the time it passed. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 12:13 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday July 06, 2011
Between 2000 and 2007, Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement have forced 69 babies to be born at checkpoints, of whom 35 babies and 5 mothers died due to lack of access to medical care. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 2:47 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday June 30, 2011
Just over a year ago, a humanitarian convey of ships (“the flotilla”) headed towards Gaza to break the unlawful blockade and deliver urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the people there. Its journey was disrupted in international waters when Israel attacked it with a commando raid, leaving several Turkish activists killed, including one young American dual-citizen. Despite assiduous efforts on the part of Israel to spin the incident (confiscating all of the activists’ recording equipment and releasing selective footage of activists attacking commandos with bars and sticks), the incident caused a major uproar, and focused attention on the effects of Israel’s unconscionable blockade on Gaza. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 11:03 am / / Leave a comment
Wednesday June 29, 2011
AAI President Jim Zogby responds to Arena Moderator, David Mark's question on Jewish support for Obama.
Mark writes:
POLITICO's Ben Smith reports on President Barack Obama's potential slide in support among Jewish supporters. Many pro-Israel Democrats are reprising doubts about Obama first raised in 2008. This could, on the margins, cost the president votes and money in 2012 - political damage that would not be easy to repair.
Is Obama's support among Jewish voters really in doubt? Ronald Reagan captured an estimated 39% of the Jewish vote in his 1980 romp, a highwater mark for modern Republican candidates. Can the 2012 GOP nominee come within striking distance of that level? Read More »
Posted by AAI at 10:21 am / / Leave a comment
Tuesday June 07, 2011
In an article that examines the impact of President Obama's Mideast policy on Arab American voters, Salon's Justin Elliott takes on an often overlooked concern. Elliott states, "While the media focus has been on Jewish Americans, this community is less than pleased with Obama's Mideast policy." Read More »
Posted by AAI at 11:39 am / / Leave a comment
Tuesday May 31, 2011
Both resolutions are one-sided, blame the failure of the peace process on the Palestinians’ refusal to negotiate; seek to suspend US assistance to the Palestinian national unity government; and call on the Obama Administration to veto efforts to have the United Nations recognize a Palestinian state. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 3:37 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday May 26, 2011
The Mossawa Center is the leading advocacy organization for Arab Citizens in Israel. In light of recent speeches commenting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the center has called upon leaders from both countries to recognize "the unique status of the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel."
"The Palestinian citizens of Israel do not enjoy the basic rights that people in democracies enjoy. The Mossawa Center invites American lawmakers and journalists to come to Israel and see for themselves the situation of the unrecognized villages, and to witness the dual realities that have pervaded here for 63 years." Read More »
Posted by AAI at 1:17 pm / / Leave a comment
Tuesday May 24, 2011
Whether Cantor believes his disgraceful comments or whether he was simply engaging in shameless pandering is not readily clear, but neither looks particularly good for him. While we cannot pretend that hate does not exist, we also shouldn’t pretend that it exists on one side, or that it is the “root” of the conflict rather than its inevitable consequence. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 9:33 am / / Leave a comment
Monday May 23, 2011
In a manner reminiscent of a family “intervention” into a member’s destructive drug habit, all that “you know we’re here for you” talk is really the reassurance given as a prelude to the core point of “but you have a problem that you really need to deal with responsibly.” That moment came a little past the halfway mark in President Obama’s speech, when he said: “I also believe that real friends talk openly and honestly with each other… Here are the facts we all must confront.” Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 1:16 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday May 20, 2011
Arab American Institute President Jim Zogby comments on today's meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Read More »
Posted by Jim Zogby at 3:20 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday May 19, 2011
AAI President, Jim Zogby reflects on President Obama's Middle East speech in an article written in the Guardian. Read More »
Posted by Jim Zogby at 3:06 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday May 18, 2011
I received an email the other day from a community member who is no stranger to Washington politics. Her email reinforced frustration over an issue that has been a topic of discussion here in Washington for the past three months or so: the importance of an Arab American meeting with the President to discuss the Middle East. Now more than ever, Arab Americans are in a unique position to bridge the gap between the often flawed American policy toward Arab countries and U.S. interest in the region. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 3:00 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday May 13, 2011
Even Mitchell’s patience couldn’t wear down Israeli intransigence. This is sad: for Israeli-Palestinian peace, for George Mitchell personally, and for the U.S. Either the President tries to recoup by making a tough and determined stand as to the steps that must be taken to achieve peace Read More »
Posted by AAI at 11:55 am / / Leave a comment
Thursday April 28, 2011
"The Palestinians need this unity and the US and the Israelis need the Palestinians to be unified. Palestinian reconciliation is a precondition to any peace agreement and to stability in that region." Read More »
Posted by Jim Zogby at 10:51 am / / Leave a comment
Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
