Press Room

AAI in the News

North Jersey Arab leaders temper hopes for peace

By Herb Jackson
Bergen Record
Posted on Thursday April 24, 2008

Arab-American leaders from North Jersey were hopeful but not overly optimistic about the chances for peace in the Middle East after hearing a speech from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas met with President Bush on Thursday and with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday, in preparation for a trip by both American leaders to the region next month.

He told the audience at the annual humanitarian awards dinner of the Arab American Institute on Wednesday night that Israel needs to stop building settlements in the West Bank.

“The most important obstacle to the peace process and the negotiations is the continuation of settlement activities,” Abbas told the AAI through an interpreter.

He also said he is doing all he can to rein in the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and is responsible for rocket attacks on Israel.

Hesham Mahmoud of Rutherford, a member of the national policy council of AAI, said it was an honor to hear from Abbas even if he did not break any new ground in his speech.

“We all know what the issues are,” Mahmoud said. “The question is, will there be a solution or not?”

Sherine El-Abd, a member of the AAI board of directors from Clifton, said she was pleased to hear Bush would be going to the region.

“To me, that translates into hopefully a commitment on the side of the United States to finally finding a solution to the Palestinian problem,” she said.

She said she believed Americans are taking a greater interest in the region because of the war in Iraq and rising oil prices.

“We used to refer to these issues as Arab-American issues, but the problems in the Middle East have now impacted everybody,” El-Abd said. “The Arab-American issues have now become national issues.”

Samer E. Khalaf of Paramus said he will “always have hope that peace will come back to the homeland,” but wonders whether Americans feel any urgency.

“I have a fear that us Americans have become desensitized to a lot of the stuff that’s going on in the Middle East. That does not just hold for the Palestine-Israeli conflict: We’ve even become desensitized to what’s going on in Iraq, unfortunately, because everything’s now a number. X amount of Iraqis who died, X amount of Palestinians who died, X amount of Israelis died.”

A leader of the state’s Arab-American Democratic Caucus, Khalaf said that for peace to come, there has to be an American president who is “going to become much more engaged than this. It’s going to take an administration that’s going to wrap both hands around it and try to tackle the issues.”

Two North Jersey congressmen were on the annual AAI dinner’s “honorary congressional committee.”

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, left a Ways and Means Committee meeting on farm policy to make an appearance at a pre-dinner reception, then headed back to Capitol Hill for the meeting and late votes. Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, also stopped by, and his chief of staff remained for the dinner.