Back to Top
Blog — US-Arab Relations
Wednesday March 14, 2012
AAI has launched a web-based Arab opinion poll section featuring data from the past ten years on a range of issues. Among the polling data released today are numbers showing the Syrian regime is facing increased regional isolation and that Bashar al-Assad's favorable ratings are at an all time low.
Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 3:30 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday March 07, 2012
With exception of Ron Paul, the GOP presidential candidates all spoke at the AIPAC policy conference yesterday. All of the three candidates delivered a similar message on Iran, taking the opportunity to hit out at president Obama's policies. Iran's nuclear program was the clear focus of the conference, overshadowing any other issue, including the peace process, by far. Despite similar messaging on Iran, the candidate speeches each have their own unique takeaways. I've outlined the ones I thought were the most important in this post. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 10:45 am / / Leave a comment
Tuesday February 28, 2012
Anthony Shadid has been widely hailed as the best foreign correspondent of his generation. For Arab Americans, he was much more than that. How many times did we send one of Anthony's dispatches from Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya or Syria to our friends so that they might understand Arabs as mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brother and sisters -- as complex, dynamic people? The humanity of Anthony's writing gave all of us a voice. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 3:59 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday February 27, 2012
DEARBORN, Michigan – February 27, 2012 – Michigan’s Arab American Republican leadership has endorsed Congressman Ron Paul for President today ahead of the State’s Republican Primary election. Congressman Paul will join Arab American community representatives from Southeast Michigan, including Detroit, Dearborn, Southfield, Warren and Ann Arbor to accept the endorsement. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 4:13 pm / / Leave a comment
Tuesday February 21, 2012
Anthony Shadid inspired a generation of Arab American Journalists–journalists who are now some of the most influential and well-respected reporters covering the Arab world. With his tragic passing in Syria last week, many of the friends and fellow journalists touched by Shadid’s life and work paid tribute to his memory by sharing his contributions to both their professional and personal growth. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 12:35 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday February 17, 2012
Unlike so many of his contemporaries, Anthony understood that the story of the region didn't begin the day he got the assignment. His reporting reflected a historian's appreciation for context. More than that, Anthony's work was also distinguished by a poet's sense of texture. He wrote not with an ego, but with an eye for detail and an ear for the voices he heard. Where others "embedded" with troops, he walked the streets of war torn Arab countries "embedded" with people, bringing to life, for the rest of us, what ordinary Iraqis, Lebanese,Syrians, etc were seeing and saying and feeling. Read More »
Posted by Jim Zogby at 11:59 am / / Leave a comment
Thursday February 16, 2012
I feel strange saying this because it seems so self-evident, but the circumstances warrant spelling it out: to be a proponent of free speech is to respect people’s right to self-expression, no matter how distasteful or offensive their views may be. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 4:39 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday February 09, 2012
For the first time in two decades, U.S. opinion toward Egypt is in sharp decline with an overall favorability of 33%, according to a poll released by the Arab American Institute today. In July 2011, AAI polling showed 5% of Egyptians held a favorable view of the U.S. The poll released today was conducted by JZ Analytics for NYU Abu Dhabi in January 2012, and surveyed 997 Americans nationwide. Key findings include: Read More »
Posted by AAI at 3:25 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday February 02, 2012
It is only in the environment created by such headlines that Michele Bachmann can make the utterly ridiculous claim that Iranian leaders have threatened to nuke the United States without immediate public ridicule. While no threat could have been made since Iran denies developing nuclear weapons in the first place, the allegation nevertheless sounds plausible because major information outlets are constantly reinforcing the idea Iran is threatening the United States. Read More »
Posted by Omar Baddar at 4:49 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday January 30, 2012
by Abraham Hassan
Palestinian American Republican Abraham Hassan follows up on his question from the CNN Florida debate on January 26th. Mr. Hassan, a Republican from Jacksonville, FL asked the candidates how they would achieve peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Referring to a controversial statement made by Newt Gingrich weeks earlier where he said Palestinians were an "invented people," Mr. Hassan asserted before the debate audience: "As a Palestinian American Republican, I'm here to tell you we do exist." Read More »
Posted by Guest at 5:51 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday January 30, 2012
Watch a live stream on the situation in Egypt one year after the beginning of the uprising, with author and journalist Ashraf Khalil and AAI president Jim Zogby on Capitol Hill today. Ashraf Khalil is author of the recently-published book Liberation Square: The Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation. Jim Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute and author of the book Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 3:00 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday January 26, 2012
The Arab American Institute is outraged by the targeting of Americans by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt's military government. The December 29 raid and confiscation of materials from the offices of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI), among others, by SCAF was a provocative step taken against non-governmental organizations engaged in important civil society work. The news that six Americans have now been prohibited from leaving Egypt is unacceptable. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 3:29 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday January 11, 2012
Last year, AAI President Jim Zogby's book on the Arab world, Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us and Why It Matters, was released to major acclaim and brisk sales. This month, Arab Voices came out in paperback with a new section on the Arab Spring. The book, and the polling it is based on, have proved invaluable to many analysts and policy makers as they try to better understand the changes taking place in the region. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 2:44 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday December 29, 2011
Americans for Peace Now has a great list of the “Top 10 Wackiest Congressional Actions on the Middle East of 2011,” in a year where they had a pretty wide pool to choose from. We’ve covered a lot of these stories before, but this list does a great job of highlighting just how out of sync Congress can sometimes be when it comes to Middle East issues. Read More »
Posted by Samer Araabi at 1:25 pm / / Leave a comment
Wednesday December 28, 2011
Two new Israeli settlements, Har Homa and Givat Hamatos, will completely alter the two thousand-year-old geography and biblical landscape which connects two of the holiest cities in Christendom: Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Israeli checkpoints at breaks in the wall surrounding Bethlehem on its northern border already constitute a near-impenetrable barrier for Palestinian travelers, but now, beyond ethnic lines, Christians in Bethlehem are scared that at the current rate of Israeli expansion their holy places may soon be completely off-limits to them. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 4:58 pm / / Leave a comment
Tuesday December 20, 2011
Yesterday, the Arab American Institute, in a formal request to the Obama administration, asked for Temporary Protected Status privileges to be extended to Syrian citizens currently residing in the United States. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a procedure by which the Secretary of Homeland Security may provide temporary asylum to individuals who are in America and who cannot safely return to their home countries. Read More »
Posted by Samer Araabi at 1:40 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday December 19, 2011
Today, the Arab American Institute released two polls on Arab public opinion regarding the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and Arab political concerns in a post-Arab Spring Middle East. Among the countries surveyed were Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran. On the U.S. withdrawl from Iraq, respondents were asked (among other things) to weigh in on the state of the country today, and consequences of the war for the future. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 5:18 pm / / Leave a comment
Friday December 16, 2011
One year after the spark of the Arab Spring, we remain inspired by the courageous efforts of ordinary people across the Arab world to rise up and change their countries. In recent months, Arab Americans across the country have engaged in various efforts to change the national narrative on a number of important issues facing our community. In October, a coalition of Arab American organizations launched Yalla Change, a national campaign devoted to bringing about the change we need here at home. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 12:36 pm / / Leave a comment
Monday December 12, 2011
The statement by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich that Palestinians are an "invented people" is perhaps a new low in the campaign rhetoric of presidential hopefuls.
A review of maps going back to the 16th century – and any serious review of history going back centuries earlier – reveals that Palestine and Palestinians were clearly there. They were a part of the Ottoman Empire, to be sure, but so too were the modern nations of Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and even Israel. Read More »
Posted by AAI at 6:27 pm / / Leave a comment
Thursday November 17, 2011
AAI President Jim Zogby and Executive Director Maya Berry, along with a number of Arab American leaders, participated in the “Tunisia Partnerships Forum" earlier this week at the U.S. Department of State. Jim and Maya joined diaspora leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and business people from across the U.S. and Tunisia to discuss efforts to promote democracy and economic development in Tunisia. Read More »
Posted by Omar Tewfik at 3:48 pm / / Leave a comment
Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
