Dr. James Zogby

Jim Zogby: I’m Jim Zogby, and welcome to “Viewpoint”.
Tonight, we’ll take an in-depth look at J Street , a new pro-Israel, pro peace organization, we’ll talk to its founder then Celinda Lake is going to be here with her insight into the latest developments in the U.S. Presidential race and the U.S. developments from her Battleground Poll then we’ll introduce you to a fascinating project, Kalima, to translate literature into Arabic.
But first we turn to Lebanon. Yesterday in Doha, rival Lebanese leaders signed an agreement to end 18 months of political conflict. The accord which was reached after six days of Arab-mediated talks, paved the way for the election of a new president. Joining us to discuss this new development is the foreign policy advisor to Lebanese Member of Parliament Saad Hariri, she served as media advisor and foreign affairs advisor to Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Amal Mudallali: Thank you for having me.

JZ: There has been a paralysis in the country, and for a half year no president, largely because the opposition refused to agree, even refused to allow parliament to convene until demands were met, but this all resulted in -- I guess we could say it precipitated the violence that shook Beirut earlier this month. I want to talk about that, and the government's steps that they took to rein in Hezbollah. That has all been undone. Talk to me about the decisions that came out of the government to change the head of security at the airport and to end Hezbollah's -- at least its communications network. It's a burden for the state to deal with a situation where they don't control the state.

AM: Exactly. Exactly the point. The government felt, after they discovered the network of
Hezbollah and –

JZ: Communications network.

AM: Communications network, and I don't know if you have seen, but in some parts it is linked to the network and they found also the camera that is -- controls or oversees who comes in and out from the V.I.P. section of the airport. After they had these two things,
they were faced with the fact that either they would take a decision or they would look very weak, but as Prime Minister Siniora said I don't think they ever imagined that Hezbollah would use weapons and use violence against the state. I don't think they would have done that, they would have found another solution but this was not a sudden moment, there were lots of discussions about it, there was a security cabinet meeting about it and people discussed at the actual cabinet meeting that took that decision at 4:00 in the morning. They did not take it lightly. They thought about it and they thought this would be better for the state to take a decision to show that it really wants to extend its authority –

JZ: The Hezbollah force established -- actually established control over significant parts of west Beirut, and that precipitated, then, this Arab League initiative or renewed initiative
this time headed by cutter and it came -- by Qatar and one part of it was to undo those two government decisions but what else? Talk to me about the main outlines of the agreement that was reached in Doha.

AM: They agreed on five points, and it is based on the Beirut agreement also, the Beirut
points because there was a meeting in Beirut also.

JZ: On the 15th. That was the initial point.

AM: The points spoke about -- the first point is electing a president within 24 hours, and this is going to happen Sunday at 5:00, there will be elections in Lebanon and then there will be an acting new president, but before that I have to mention that the demonstration on these camps, downtown Beirut have been confined in downtown Beirut for the last year, 18 months, they were dismantled and that's an important step for the Beirut economy to start back again on its feet, and then after the election, there will be election of the government, it's going to be formed from the 16th for the majority, 11 for the opposition and three for the president.

JZ: The 11 for the minority is important because according to the way the Lebanese government is structured, if you have more than a third of the cabinet, you can effectively block decisions. That's what Hezbollah had wanted all along.

AM: Yes. The blocking third, and actually, one of the most important objection for us to
give the blocking third the last year and a half was basically the Tribunal.

JZ: The tribunal into the investigation of or the judgment of those guilty of killing Mr. Hariri.

AM: We have to remember -- people have short memories, we have to remember why Hezbollah got out of the government. They got out of the government more than a year ago because of the decision of the tribunal -- the tribunal for Mr. Hariri, so that was a very important element, and then going back to the point of the agreement, and then you have to have elections. You have to have election law based on the 1960 law with some
changes because with the 1960 law, lots of democratic changes happened since then, but the most important elements of the agreement is that they say that no party should resort to weapons and to violence for political ends, to have political gains, and this is very important because the opposition was occupying downtown Beirut for a year. The parliament was closed for more than a year, year and a half. Because they did not accept the results of the elections meant this is a democracy. You had elections and there is a
party, the majority, the minority did not accept the results of the elections.

JZ: There are those who suggest that Hezbollah emerges as the winner. They got the blocking third that they wanted and they didn't have to disarm, but the U.S. has given tentative support for this, as have most of the major political parties. Is it a win-win situation? Or did Hezbollah win?

AM: I don't think there are any losers and any winners in this. I think the winner is Lebanon. When you stop violence, when the Lebanese don't use violence against each other, when the dialogue, and talking, and resorting to the political process takes precedence over arms and over weapons in the streets, I think Lebanon and the Lebanese, both sides are winners.

JZ: It doesn't matter who is the head, now you will have a new president and presumably a prime minister as well but you still have the situation where HAUBS remains a virtual Army -- not a virtual Army, an actual Army more heavily armed than the Lebanese Army, and the state doesn't control it, but at the same time can't continue to function ignoring it. What can happen? Was there any part of Doha that said we should ultimately move forward toward disarming or toward incorporating this under the control of the state?

AM: Actually, it's an important part of the agreement that they'll start the dialogue, electing the president, the new president, Mr. Suleiman will start a dialogue over the organizations in the country spending its authority over the country which is basically this is a codeword for talking about Hezbollah's weapons, talking about other problems in the country like the armed probably Palestinian organizations, all the organizations that are nongovernmental that have arms, and the agreement says very clearly that the only authority that will have -- will have in the country over security and over Lebanon should be the Lebanese state. This is going to come after the electing the president, there is going to be a dialogue and that's going to be an important element –

JZ: What about the general who is the presumptive president, general Suleiman? Do you expect him to be a strong president? Do you expect him to confront opposition? And to assert himself as a unifying figure in the country? The last president ended up basically functionless. He got -- he was there but not able to act. Will this president be able to act?

AM: Mr. Suleiman proved himself during a battle –

JZ: That was the attack -- where the Army attacked the al Qaeda remnants that were –

AM: Fatah Islam group, he played a very important role. The other -- the other thing that - March 14, from him, he played an important and neutral role during the civil revolution because the Army played a very important role. He protected the -- he provided all kinds of technical assistance and waver for people to be -- assistance for people to be there. He is a unifier from what we see. He cares about the state -- about the authority of the state and I think he will be a strong leader, yes, and the Army -- the Army now -- I mean, the Army has held together and played a role of unifier, so I think he can play that role.

JZ: Any expectations about who Prime Minister Candidates will be?

AM: There are lots of names going around but really, it is still early because the consultations have not started yet so it's hard to –

JZ: The tribunal. There are those who suggest Hezbollah wanted a blocking third in order to block a tribunal. Will they be able to block a tribunal? Or is the tribunal that will judge those found guilty of the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri go on without the government interference?

AM: The tribunal is already there. The tribunal is at the United Nations; all the steps the government had to take are taken so there is nothing the Lebanon government is going to be Sat. Asked to take. There is a letter now at the government from the United Nations sent two weeks ago -- a week ago to author investigation for the commission and I
understand the council is going to act on it in a few days, but other than that the government really is not going to be asked for anything. The next step will be for the establishment of the tribunal after the investigation and this is something the secretary
general has to call for the prosecutor to become -- for the investigator to be the prosecutor, and so really the government sent involved anymore. Next year will be a different story because they have to approve a budget, but that's different.

JZ: One last question. We found in polling, after the war in 2006 that despite this
terrible miscalculation and provocation, I guess one could say that Hezbollah created that resulted in the devastation of Lebanon; its stock went up, in Lebanon and also throughout the Arab world.
Yes. There seems to be a turnabout as a result of these most recent actions, but internally in Lebanon, is there any lasting bitterness? Or will this agreement be able to wash over that bitterness, that arms were used domestically in the way that they were used?

AM: You know, Jim, as Mr. Hariri said in his interview after the agreement, the wound is very deep, the Lebanese were shocked that arms were used against them, and especially some of the acts that were taken in Beirut against TV, destroying buildings, killing people and stuff like that, this is not going to go away very quickly, but what's very important now is to build the confidence, and building confidence between both sides is important and the person that builds the violence has more responsibility to allay the fears of the other side that we're not going to use weapons anymore, that that was a mistake and whatever happens is not going to be repeated, that we're going to live together and we're
going to use the constitutional processes to talk to each other -- we're not going to use arms to talk to each other because this is going to take Lebanon into a path that nobody wants to go into.

JZ: Thanks for joining us, Amal Mudallali. Thanks so much.

JZ: I’m Jim Zogby, hot of “Viewpoint.” I have spent three decades discussing issues that affect Arabs and Arab-Americans . Despite some recent positive changes in America's perception of Arab countries, most Americans still do not understand the Arab experience. Now, with our troops in their fifth year in Iraq, the need for that understanding is more urgent than ever. When you support programs like "viewpoint" and "mosaic" you're bringing us closer to this much-needed understanding. Because of places like link TV, these programs can air free and uncensored. But your support is critical to
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Jim Zogby: Welcome back to "Viewpoint." I'm Jim Zogby. My name guest is Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, a new organization that calls itself the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. Jeremy served as deputy domestic policy advisor under president Bill Clinton and as policy director for former presidential candidate Howard Dean. Thanks for joining us, Jeremy.

Jeremy Ben-Ami: Thanks for having me.

JZ: I have to tell you that the news of J Street’s founding -- I was in the Arab world when it was launched, and there were reports everywhere. Rarely do pro-Israel pacts get immediate attention paid in the Arab world, so for our viewers there, and here, talk a little about how you see J Street. What is it? Just a little background.

JB-A: J Street is an attempt to give a voice to a very substantial number of Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who believe that it's actually in the interest of the United States, in the interest of Israel and the interest of the entire middle east for there to be a peaceful resolution to the conflicts that rage between Israel and its neighbors so pro Israel for too long implied that there is an anti, that it's one side yes, the other side no. We believe this is a win-win proposition, that if we can actually come to an end of this conflict it's good for all, so we're trying to redefine what it means to be pro Israel.

JZ: I remember during the Clinton White House one of the most interesting developments was not only for Arab-Americans that he invited us in as often as he did, but on the Jewish side, I remember the whoops and yells, the anger at the fact that when he would invite the Jewish leadership in that he would include the pro-peace elements of the Jewish leadership, and he was respecting them and empowering them in a way, and kind of waiting for a development like this where the alternative voices would come forward, and so they now have come forward. What is the institutional make-up of J Street? I read -- you talk about a family of organizations. What does that mean?

JB-A: Well, we set up two separate legal entities. One of them is what's called a 501-c-4. It's a lobby that is allowed to go up to Capitol Hill. It's unrestrained as to what it can advocate for. The other organization is a political action committee -- a pact -- and it can endorse candidates and fund-raise for those candidates and this is something that people who share –

JZ: Is it unaffiliated?

JB-A: Unconnected, legally unconnected and they operate independently, although co branded, and we've never had this before in the pro-peace movement.

JZ: Do you see it as a competitor to AIPAC?

JB-A: What we have siset of views that there hasn't been an advocate for, and so we're filling a vacuum. We're not anti any organization, we're anti certain views held by a wide range of groups, but we're not taking on one institution and trying to take it on.

JZ: We have worked in the past with Brit Shalom and Americans for Peace Now and Israel Policy Forum. Where do those groups fit into this structure?

JB-A: They are -- and not to get too legal here, but they are what's called 501c3 organizations and they can do public education, there are strict restriction oz their involvement in politics, it's a complete ban on politics, so this is the political arm of that movement. The leaders of all of those groups are on our advisory council. We're working hand in hand together.

JZ: You must have been pleased, then, with the comments that Barack Obama made in Cleveland where he talked about the fact that being pro-Israel doesn't mean being pro-Likhud, it means respecting diverse points of view, et cetera. That's another legitimate –

JB-A: Absolutely, I think that the way he phrased it was "we really need to begin a conversation about what it means to be pro Israel," and much as he's trying to do on the issue of race in this country, to begin that exploration and to have people understand the others, to understand that there are multiple sides to discussions -- I think he's the kind of leader that can help to open up those kinds of conversations.

JZ: Let me have folks out there in the conversation, if you want, to call us from overseas.
There are some who suggest that it's too late. That the culture here in Washington is so inbred, you have Congressmen making judgments, based on instinct that is at best ill informed but just -- what they think is pro Israel, and then they just go and do it, and then you have in Israel itself a culture that has evolved of entitlement among the sort of the extreme settler movement with governments not able to control them -- I mean, the actions that some of the groups have undertaken in Jerusalem just in the last couple of months -- seizing properties, et cetera -- and then that's had an impact in the Arab world where -- especially among the Palestinians -- because of all of this accrual, there is a lack of -- because of all of this accrual, there is a lack of trust. Can it be broken down? Are you late in the game? Can you make change? Not that doing the right thing shouldn't be done if it's late to make change, but do you have optimism that you are going to make some impact here?

JB-A: I do think it's late in the game, I won't try to argue it's not, I think that the situation on the ground is dire, I think that the situation here is very locked in and this is an effort which should have happened 10 or 15 years ago, so I will say that. That said, I am optimistic and there are a few things that make me optimistic. One, the reception we're getting on Capitol Hill, on the internet in terms of the thousands of people that have signed up in just a matter of weeks to join us in this effort, so I think this is something there is a thirst for, and that makes me feel optimistic. The support from Israel, a number of generals, diplomats and politicians who have signed a letter of support and are the voice of the mainstream in Israel and they are thanking us for setting this up here because they are so concerned about the impact of the American political dynamic on their future over there, and so I am optimistic for a number of reasons.

JZ: Vimet members of the Knesset from the peace side in Israel and they say the biggest problem is they get no consistent support from American congressional leadership. They say liberal-progressive democrats who ought to be supporting liberal-progressive Israelis don't. They support whatever government is in power. You won't take that position, then?

JB-A: No, no, because there are things that are right and there are things that are wrong. You can't be consistently right and –

JZ: What are you going to do about politicians who, for lack of a better word, seek the lowest common denominator? I'll never forget Hillary Clinton going to dov hikind in Brooklyn seeking his support and I thought that is one person whose support you should not want, the mistaken assumption is that if you get that person in your camp it neutralizes other opposition but it's a bad thing, isn't it?

JB-A: absolutely, and the thing is our side has been quiet for too long, we haven't put together a political mechanism to say there is meaningful support for you saying the right thing on this -- there is no consequence to doing the wrong thing and no benefit to doing the right thing, we abandoned the playing field in terms of politics and that's why so many peace groups are happy to take part because they recognize the vacuum that's
been created.

JZ: Let's go to Colorado for a caller.
Caller?

Caller: Yes. I would like to know how many endorsements were made at the Senate level in this coming election, and whether or not J Street will be getting involved with the presidential campaign.

JB-A: Terrific. Well, we are going to actually have a very targeted strategy in our first year, because we're uncultured can't come out of the box and play in every race in the country. So we're going to endorse in a handful of races. Colorado's an interesting place. There is a great Senate race out there. We may look at that race. But I would say we would endorse in no more than a couple dozen races around the country. We probably will get involved in the presidential -- not in a financial way but in terms of our support and in terms of advocacy.

JZ: Let's go to Connecticut.
Caller?
Caller: Yes. My question is this. That polls over the last few years have shown a majority of Palestinians and Israelis and Americans and people around the world, including American Jews, who are in favor of a two-state solution with east Jerusalem as part of the Palestinian state. This has also been the resolution that something like 60 U.N. resolutions have called for over the last 50 years or whatever, and I'm wondering -- well, not wondering -- why it hasn't happened.

JZ: Yeah. It seems to me it's either the U.S. public -- public's ignorance –
Let me get to Jeremy on that.

JB-A: Our take on it is the political system, the majority of the public know that the political system is locked up, the policy makers. And that allows them to go there -- a political fix like J Street is we hope going to create the space for the policy makers to go to the right place.

JZ: Rhode Island next.
Caller, your question.
Hello.

Caller: Yeah, I’m here.

JZ: Your question.

Caller: Oh I already have it to them

JZ: No. I got the wrong guy, then. Rhode Island is the next call.
Caller?

Caller: Yes, hello. I—

JZ: Oh, you gave your question to the person who answered the phone. Now you’re on the air. Give me your question again,

Caller: Ok, I got you.
Yes. My question is, do you plan on taking a position when groups like AIPAC support the dismissal, like the dismissal of Norman Finklestein, or when they get behind candidates like the people that -- like -- I can't remember his name now -- that opposed Dennis Kucinich. In –

JZ: Let me turn that question around a little bit, because one of the issues here is that it's not just AIPAC.

JB-A: Right.

JZ: But there has been a campaign of vilification around certain individuals -- I don't want to get into the Norman Finklestein situation, but some members of Congress take that kind of heat, some -- I have taken that kind of heat.

JB-A: Right.

JZ: Are you prepared to deal with some of that? I mean, some of the groups involved in your coalition, if you will be taking that kind of heat. Poor M.J. Rosenberg has gotten beaten up over the years. In an effort to marginalize those voices, are you prepared to take that on, to declare these voices are marginal and say they're mainstream voices?

JB-A: I think the positions that they take, M.J. could be the heart and the soul of this movement, you know, this is not marginal views as one of your viewers said, these are majority opinions. These are the voices of moderation and they don't often get political power, and I think one of the great things that's happening in this country over the last 10 years is the shift in political power that the internet has allowed -- the Howard dean campaign. The Obama campaign. The rise of move on. Large numbers of small donors now have an equivalent voice in the political process and I think we can change the way the dynamics have worked.

JZ: One of the things that struck me about the Obama campaign is exactly that, when you have taken in a million a day from you don't know who, it changes the nature of politics, doesn't it?

JB-A: It changes what you feel you are free to do. There is not 12 people who can call you and stop you from doing something --

JZ: Like when the Clinton supporters then called Nancy Pelosi and said, "if you don't do this, we will withdraw our money," not necessarily that they would but the threat was implied and was taken seriously by some. You can't do that if, in fact, you build that kind of network.

JB-A: Right, and then you have to actually do what you said you were going to do, because that's when you will get held accountable.

JZ: Let’s go to Egypt for a caller.
Hello?

Caller: Hello.

JZ: Your question.
Hello.
Your question.

Caller: My question is for your guest.
Do you think that you have the credibility of having a solution to the Palestinian issue, especially the strong support in the 60's of Israel that are going to support Israel all the time, especially with America or with democrats or republicans?

JZ: Right. Let me stop you there and go to -- you saw the president's trip, the speech that he gave, and some say he gave up on the peace process completely and some say he doesn't have the credibility to push it through and no willpower to push it through. Where are we from j street's perspective? Where are we in this effort and how credible is this administration as a force moving forward on peace?

JB-A: Well, I think it's just a real shame -- I mean, they waited until the 11th hour to pursue anything. They abandoned the process for seven years. I think that they have very little credibility and the president squanders it every time he speaks, really, on this issue, and it's a terrible shame. The hope that we have to keep the process and the talks alive, have enough progress so that a viable handoff can happen to the next administration, and I think that's what we're waiting for.

JZ: Let's go to Montana for our next call.
Caller?

Caller: Hi. This is Montana.

JZ: Yeah.

Caller: I was wondering how we could get C-Span some places like that. It won't allow us to have -- the cable company won't allow us to have free-speech TV or link TV -- that's why I went to the satellite. But when you go on there you will see the heritage foundation and AIPAC and the American enterprise institute -- these guys talk –

JZ: Thank you for the call.
Are you going to do any events that will be C-Span covered?

JB-A: We probably will, but if people want to find out more about it they can go to our web street, jstreet.org.

JZ: The letter j -- jstreet.org.
If you feel inclined, donate and become a member. Up next is democratic strategist and pollster ceLinda Lake with an NLSZ of the U.S. Presidential race and more of your calls.
Don't go away.

Jim Zogby: Welcome back to "Viewpoint."
I'm Jim Zogby.
On Tuesday, presidential candidate Barack Obama won a significant primary victory in Oregon while Hillary Clinton took Kentucky's primary by a wide margin. Here with her analysis of the race is ceLinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners and one of the democratic party's top political strategists, served as pollster and senior advisor to numerous party organizations, committees and candidates and is a leading expert on framing issues about women voters. I want to talk to you -- you do the battleground poll.

Celinda Lake: We do. We just released it today.

JZ: Put up some numbers. I got some of them.

CL: Great

JZ: Just because they sort of highlight an issue.

CL: Yeah.

JZ: Here is the first one. Obama vs. Clinton vs. McCain, he beats him by one but beats him significantly by women, 54-42 and absolutely dominates with African-American voters 96-4, but here is the same match-up with Hillary Clinton. McCain wins.

CL: Right.

JZ: The reason why I do that is because one of the issues -- -- one of the issue that is come up, black voters one way, women voters another way and both says if Barack Obama wins, we're not going to support him.” this poll says that may not be the case.

CL: Right.

JZ: Talk to me about that a little bit. -- Talk to me about that a little bit. What lasting damage has been done, or has there not been any damage done by the anger of this campaign?

CL: I don't think there is very much. I think we were getting to the point where it could have been damaging, they were starting to run adds and the -- to run ads and the heat of the rhetoric, the night of the Oregon primaries they pulled back, he said she was a terrific role model, she said she will campaign for whoever the nominee is, soy I think it TULD back but this data was fascinating because it's contrary to conventional wisdom, and another piece of data you didn't show is 76% of democrats said they were satisfied with the candidates they had and we had only 38% of republicans who said they were satisfied with the candidates they had. So you have a very interested situation where I think McCain will be very consolidating for the democrats and I think it depends on how this transition occurs. Is Hillary Clinton respected? Is she given her shot?
Does she look happy? Are she and bill campaigning for the team, which of course they will do -- and I think democrats will be completely unified.

JZ: I want to put two headlines.

CL: Sure.
JZ: Because these were in “The London Times” today.

CL: Oh.

JZ: I was reading. I just got in a couple hours ago. " He's won, she knows she's
lost. But the battle goes on. "and the next one is "Clinton hopes for an act of God and keeps faith in the long game." the reason I say they though they were interesting to -- I thought they were interesting to me is because listening to her the last couple of days, she follows Obama down to Florida and was really quite inflammatory, I thought.

CL: Yeah.

JZ: Harold Ickes saying today that their position is that he should get no delegates out of Michigan at all. They're going to take this as far as the convention. If he knows he's won and she knows she's lost, they're going to take it to the convention; do you think that is possible? Or do you think this is just bargaining for -- and if it is, bargaining for what?

CL: I think it's just bargaining. I think that -- I think they are going to go to the June 3rd -- June 2nd primaries and I think they are going to play the super delegate process out, in June, though, not in August, and I think this is tough play, and they certainly know how to play hardball to make sure they get what they like, to make sure that the Michigan and Florida decisions, at least split the delegates or something that doesn't dramatically change the results, and so -- you know, like throwing them all out, for example which isn't –

JZ: What would happen if that were the case? If Michigan and Florida were included, turn this upside down, there would, then, be some reverberations within the party.

CL: Oh, I think so, and I think it's impossible to have that happen. There are too many super delegates that are committed. He has the majority of super delegates now, so I think that's impossible to have happen, and the party regulates in their state are already calling for some kind of deal, and the voters want a re-vote. I think to overturn the results is impossible.

JZ: She was noted saying the other day -- actually, it was just two days ago -- that gender and gender discrimination is more significant than race discrimination. She has been treated more unfairly than he. Clearly, that resonates with women. There is a problem here. And I think that regardless of how one feels about her and her candidacy, there have been some rather unseemly things that have occurred in this campaign. How deep is that, that sense of resentment among particular groups of women? Because it's not all women.

CL: That's right, I was going to say, and even when you said he was African-American and nominates women, not all women. Younger women, for whom generation, race, is frankly more appealing than gender have been voting consistently for him, and even before 2008, younger women were not voting for women candidates in the same numbers as in the past but the sexism in the campaign and the feeling with the first woman president is clearly something that appeal it is to baby-boomer and older women and it's something they have been waiting for, for a long time, and I don't know that they feel that sexism is worse than racism, I think they feel that racism has -- there is a vigilance about racism and there is still unacceptability to sexism.
You can still have Letterman jokes about pantsuits every night, you can still have people questioning is she tough enough? Is she qualified?

I also think for a certain group of women or certain period of women, cohort of women, there is a little bit of nostalgia here, a little bit of mourning, because the feeling is, boy, will I really have a woman president in my lifetime? Because if someone as qualified as Hillary Clinton isn't going to be president then who? And if not now, when? And so I think there is a little bit of mourning going on for that as well.

JZ: Let's get folks out there in the conversation, if you're calling from overseas.
I want to put a map up.
Great.
You may have seen it but it was fascinating and brings up the next question. These are the counties that Hillary Clinton won by 65% of the vote.

CL: Exactly.

JZ: It's interesting because this is -- West Virginia and Kentucky weren't there but it is largely -- it starts in the Appalachian region. It comes down the Ohio river valley and it goes out to the Ozarks.

CL: That’s right.

JZ: Speaking about that, in an interesting set of comments, senator Webb –

CL: Yes. I read those.

JZ: Spoke about the scotch-Irish and their resentment and why there is resentment among that particular –

CL: Right.

JZ: Sort of grouping of—

CL: Right.

JZ: White Americans who are a large group of people.

CL: Right,

JZ: How they feel left behind.

CL Right.

JZ: I remember going with Jesse Jackson out to Appalachia.

CL: uh-huh

JZ: I mean, actually, he wasn't the first, it was Bobby Kennedy –

CL: Right.

JZ: Spent a lot of time doing that too. This is a group of forgotten Americans.

CL: Right

JZ: For whom there is a lot of resentment,

CL: Right,

JZ: Is it racism? Or is it something else at work there in their sense of being left behind?

CL: Well, I think there are some racial tensions for sure, and these are groups that have often felt pressure by policies like affirmative action. These are also, by the way, groups that have also felt pressure on sexism and felt that women are advancing but I think there is a class element here, and this is a group of people for whom, for example, when we talk about affirmative action policies with Webb, many people talked about adding class to those policies because of the substantial amount of discrimination.

I think that Barack Obama has had -- he didn't have it in Iowa. In Iowa, he really had a campaign that related to people's sense of economic deprivation. He was quite popular with blue-collar voters and quite popular with voters who felt they had fallen behind economically, but I see him in short spurts that you have in the subsequent states where you have the rallies, you have the ads and they now have had some kitchen-table ads and pension ads but you don't have the long exposure, you don't get as much of a sense -- you tend to see the rock star, the elite qualities, you don't remember that this is a guy raised by a single mother, a guy who got his start community organizing around people laid-off from steel mills and I think that's a part of the narrative that needs to come back for the general election.

JZ: One call from Illinois we're going to take.

CL: Oh, great.

JZ: Caller.

Caller: Yes, hi, first of all I would like to say God bless link TV and “Viewpoint”

JZ: Thank you.

Caller: My question centers around the issue of sex and race. We know that the civil rights gains that were made by blacks were virtually hijacked by the women's rights movement. I think it's a bit of a false argument for Hillary and her supporters to make that we should have a woman president as opposed to a black president because again, regardless of whether it's a woman or a man it will still be a white person, and I think it's time for a black candidate.

JZ: Thank you for the call.

CL: Very good point. Very good sentiment. I think that this comparison of burdens is not a very useful dialogue. I think what we ought to be in a situation is both celebrating as democrats that our two final candidates were a woman and an African-American, totally qualified, very positive, very tough, very good campaigners and I think we ought to appreciate that the press has been pretty tough -- it's hard covering something new. They haven't been great on covering either one of them. That there are racial elements of these campaigns that have hit both of them and they have been tough enough to withstand it, withstand it with class and that part of our struggle and part of our goal as democrats is to make sure that young girls and young boys, white and black, Latino, Asian-American, know that in the future they could be president too.

JZ: Thank you for joining us Celinda Lake.

CL: Thank you for having me.

JZ: When we come back, we're going to introduce you to an ambitious program to revive translation in the Arab world. Stay tuned.

Jim Zogby: Welcome back to "Viewpoint."
I'm Jim Zogby. Kalma is the Arabic word for "word" it's also the name of a nonprofit initiative to revive Arab translation in the world funded by a grant from the Abu Dhabi Authority, the goal to translate and distribute 100 title it is a -- titles a year of high quality contemporary and classic literature from 16 languages into Arabic. Joining me on to discuss the ambitious project is Karim Nabi, whose passion in life is books. Thank you for joining us.

Karim Nabi: Thanks for having me.

JZ: We have a video about Kalima. I want to show it so they can get an idea about what the project is going to do.

Video shown

JZ: A great project.

KN: Thank you.

JZ: But clearly, a need, Arab human development report, in its section on knowledge, focuses on the total absence of translations in the Arab world. The numbers are shocking in terms of the number of books that get translated into Arabic every year. Was it the Arab human development report that sort of spurred you on? Or was it something else?

KN: It was one of the triggers, really, the need for quality translations in the Arab world regardless of the current output of books has been discussed long before the Arab human development report and now it's time that someone does something about it, so Kalima was founded and created by the crown prince to fill in some of the serious gaps in the Arabic library and add hundreds of new books into that library.

JZ: Is it an effort to create a market for books? Or is it just to produce the books and make them available in libraries?

KN: It's an effort to make knowledge available from all over the world, for many language into Arabic and make them available throughout the –

JZ: I have heard from publishers of newspapers where my articles appear and where they've talked to me about different books before, they wanted them to translate and I would say, "Why don't you publish them in a book?" and they would say, "people here don't buy books." they wanted to serialize them in newspapers. Is that right? Or was that a marketing thing on their part they wanted to put it in their newspaper?

KN: There is a lot of time spent on discussing how much Arabs read and you discuss low
readership levels. We were concerned with what Arabs are reading and in the absence of quality books –

JZ: Is this like "field of dreams"? If you build it they will come, if you translate them they will read them?

KN: The numbers speak for themselves, a best seller in the Arab world would be 3,000-5,000 copies, Kalima's books are selling in those numbers and even more.

JZ: I've got some screens of the covers of the books I want to show our viewers a brief -- "A Brief History of Time" is one, and "The Arab Roots of Capitalism" Gene Hecht, a fascinating writer, "Kafka on the Shore" "The Future of Human Nature" and the books are selling.

KN: Very well.

JZ: In addition to those, we also have "The Age of Turbulence" by Alan Greenspan and a fantastic book called "The Clash Within Civilizations" talking about how the old societies are dealing with globalization and changes. What are you doing to market them? Are you marketing authors?

KN: It's a core objective of Kalima to market and publicize the books and introduce the
readers not only to the books but the ideas and themes behind them and we do that with the help of the publishers and directly as well.

JZ: In all the Arab countries? Or focused on a couple?

KN: As much as possible. We have 24 partner publishers in more than eight countries, and we have presence in those countries as well.

JZ: The plans as I saw get ambitious as you go forward.

KN: Right. I think the main issue facing kalima was that of quality and not the number of books. We wanted to make sure that be if it 100 or 200 books that the quality of the translation, the quality of the book is not compromised so we decided to start with 100 books, hopefully increasing that number over time as we grow our translator base as well as build more relationships with --

JZ: Is there an effort to make
this a commercial venture or --

KN: Not at all. I think it's governed and managed as if it is a commercial venture. It is nonprofit, and that's important, to maintain a certain level of objectivity in the selection process and not be driven by commercial motivation.

JZ: How do you select?

KN: The title selection process is very elaborate and transparent. It maintains balances between classic, modern, contemporary, balances between the different genre and then looks at the serious gaps that exist in the Arabic library and focuses on the audience, mainly youth and children.

JZ: Give us an address.

KN: Kalima.ae.

JZ: Thank you. It's a fascinating project and I'm looking forward to seeing it grow.
I want to thank my guests. Jeremy Ben Ami, who spoke about J Street, ceLinda Lake on the presidential campaign and Karim Nagy who talked about Kalima.
It's fascinating the diversity of issues we talked about during the show today and I want to thank my guests and see you all next week on "viewpoint."
Thanks.